Facts on File World News Digest Yearbook 2007: The Indexed Record of World Events (Facts on File Yearbook)

Facts On File World News Digest With Index

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January 1–4, 2007

Volume 67, No. 3447

Democratic-Controlled U.S. Congress Convenes; Pelosi Elected First Woman Speaker of the House House Votes to Tighten Ethics Rules.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The 110th Congress convened Jan. 4, with Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate for the first time since 1994. The House, by a party-line vote of 233– 202, elected Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) as speaker of the House, making her the first woman to rise to the position. Sen. Harry Reid (D, Nev.) became Senate majority leader. Hours after Pelosi took the speaker’s gavel, the House approved, 430–1, a sweeping reform package of new ethics rules. [See 2006, pp. 951B1, 925C2] In an address to the House, Pelosi hailed her ascension to the speaker’s chair, saying, “This is an historic moment, for Congress, and for the women of this country. It is a moment for which we have waited more than 200 years.” She added, “For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling.” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R, Ohio), who presented the speaker’s gavel to Pelosi, said, “Whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat or an independent, this is a cause for celebration.” The Republicans joined the Democrats in rising to give Pelosi a standing ovation. Former

Speaker Dennis Hastert (R, Ill.), no longer a member of the Republican leadership, looked on from the rear of the chamber. The new Congress included a record number of 71 women in the House and 16 in the Senate. In her address, Pelosi also called on President George W. Bush to change course in the Iraq war by offering “a plan that allows us to responsibly redeploy our troops.” [See p. 3G1] Ethics Reforms Target Lobbyists—

The new House ethics rules barred House members and staff from accepting any gifts, meals or travel paid for by lobbyists or groups that employed lobbyists. The rules also barred lawmakers from using private jets, and required all House employees to undergo ethics training. The reforms were intended as a response to a spate of corruption scandals that had contributed to the Republican defeat in the November 2006 midterm elections. Rep. Dan Burton (R, Ind.) cast the lone vote against the measure, saying he favored full disclosure of gifts and travel rather than a ban. GOP Protests ‘Hundred Hour’ Tactics—

The passage of the ethics reforms led off a series of votes that Pelosi and the House Democrats had scheduled for the first 100 hours of legislative business in the new Congress, drawing Republican accusations of strong-arm tactics. The Democrats had said that in order to expedite their agenda, they would not allow the Republicans to offer amendments to any of the bills. Republicans complained that Democrats had assailed the old Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.), the first female U.S. House speaker, after accepting the speaker’s gavel from House Minority Leader John Boehner (R, Republican House majority for similar excluOhio), at the opening session of the 110th Congress Jan. 4.

sionary tactics, and had promised to give the GOP minority more rights to weigh in on legislation in the new Congress. The Democrats argued that most of the measures in their “100 hour” agenda had already been thoroughly debated before being defeated by the Republicans in previous years, and said they would honor their pledges of greater bipartisanship after passing those bills. The other measures on the “100 hour” agenda included an increase in the minimum wage; more homeland security spending; removing a ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research; allowing the federal government to negotiate Medicare drug prices; cutting the interest rate for student loans; and repeal-

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress convenes; Pelosi elected first woman House speaker; House votes to tighten ethics rules. PAGE 1

Iraqi guards at Hussein execution arrested for unauthorized footage; government orders inquiry. PAGE 3

Former U.S. President Ford receives state funeral.

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PAGE 4

Somali government forces capture Islamist stronghold. PAGE 5

Bulgaria, Romania officially enter European Union. PAGE 5

SPECIAL FEATURE

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A review of the top news stories of 2006. PAGES 6–8 © 2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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LEADERS OF THE 110TH CONGRESS

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Speaker of the House: Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.)

Born: March 26, 1940, Baltimore, Md. Education: Trinity College B.A. 1962 First elected: 1987 Former occupation: State party chairwoman Career: Pelosi was the daughter of former Baltimore Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. (D), who also served five terms in the House. She was elected to the House in 1987 in a special election to fill the seat vacated by the death of Rep. Sala Burton (D, Calif.), widow of Pelosi’s political mentor, Rep. Phil Burton (D, Calif.). She represented a liberal-leaning district that included San Francisco. [See 1987, p. 448B3] In her 20 years in the House, Pelosi built up a consistently liberal voting record. She was a strong supporter of abortion rights and opposed President George W. Bush’s tax cuts. In 2001, she was elected House minority whip when Rep. David Bonior (D, Mich.) resigned to pursue a gubernatorial bid. That was the highest position ever held by a woman in either house of Congress. Pelosi set another record for women in 2002 when she was promoted to minority leader, after Rep. Richard Gephardt (D, Mo.) gave up the post in response to the Democrats’ failure to regain the majority in midterm elections. [See 2002, p. 887D2; 2001, p. 793G1] After the Democrats won control of Congress in the November 2006 midterm elections, Pelosi was elected House speaker, becoming the first “Madam Speaker.” [See p. 1B1]

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House Majority Leader: Steny Hoyer (D, Md.)

Born: June 14, 1939, New York City Education: University of Maryland B.S. 1963; Georgetown University Law Center J.D. 1966 First elected: 1981 Former occupation: State senator Career: Hoyer won a special election to the House in 1981 when Rep. Gladys Spellman (D, Md.) was incapacitated by illness. He served as deputy majority whip from 1987 to 1989, and chaired the House Democratic Caucus from 1989 to 1994. [See 1989, p. 515G1; 1981, p. 342E2] Hoyer, who was seen as a moderate, in 2001 lost his bid to become minority whip when the party chose the more liberal Pelosi instead. He was elected whip in 2002 when she was promoted to House minority leader. [See 2002, p. 887B3; 2001, p. 793F1] The Democratic caucus in November 2006 elected Hoyer as majority leader, despite Pelosi’s support for his rival, Rep. John Murtha (Pa.). [See 2006, p. 876B3]

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House Minority Leader: John Boehner (R, Ohio)

Born: Nov. 17, 1949, Cincinnati, Ohio Education: Xavier University B.S. 1977 First elected: 1990

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ing tax breaks for oil companies in order to fund research into cleaner energy sources. Senate Democrats did not undertake a parallel voting blitz, since their much narrower majority gave the Republicans in that chamber greater ability to block legislation. In many cases the Senate minority could invoke rules requiring 60 votes for a measure to pass. There were 51 senators on the Democratic side, including 2

Former occupation: Businessman, state legislator Career: Boehner rose quickly in the House Republican ranks, becoming conference chairman after the party won control of the chamber in 1994. But he was ousted from the leadership after GOP election losses in 1998. Boehner became chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce in 2001, and helped shepherd Bush’s signature education reform, the No Child Left Behind Act. [See 2001, p. 998A2] In February 2006, after House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R, Texas) finalized his resignation, Boehner won the right to succeed him, defeating Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.), the majority whip and acting leader, and Rep. John Shadegg (Ariz.). [See 2006, p. 69C2] Following the Republican losses in the November 2006 elections, Boehner won the race for minority leader, beating Rep. Mike Pence (R, Ind.). [See 2006, p. 891A3] House Minority Whip: Roy Blunt (R, Mo.)

Born: Jan. 10, 1950, Niangua, Mo. Education: Southwest Baptist University B.A. 1970; Southwest Missouri State University M.A. 1972 First elected: 1996 Former occupation: State and local government official; university president Career: DeLay, then majority whip, named Blunt deputy whip in 1999. Blunt became majority whip in 2003, when DeLay rose to majority leader. Blunt became acting majority leader in September 2005, when DeLay stepped down after being indicted for campaign finance violations. After DeLay made his resignation permanent, Blunt lost a February 2006 election for majority leader to Boehner. [See 2006, p. 69C2; 2005, p. 657A1] After the Democrats won control of Congress in the November 2006 elections, Blunt was elected minority whip. [See 2006, p. 891A3] Senate Majority Leader: Harry Reid (D, Nev.)

Born: Dec. 2, 1939, Searchlight, Nev. Education: Southern Utah State University A.S. 1959; Utah State University B.A. 1961; George Washington University J.D. 1964 First elected: 1986 Former occupations: Capitol police officer 1961–64; Nevada state assembly 1969–70; Nevada lieutenant governor 1970–74; chairman, Nevada Gaming Commission 1977–81; U.S. House 1983–87 Career: Reid became Senate Democratic whip—the second-ranking party post—in 1999. He was elected by the caucus to replace Sen. Tom Daschle (D, S.D.) as Senate minority leader after Daschle lost his seat in a November 2004 election. A Mormon who opposed abortion, Reid was seen as a centrist. [See 2004, p. 910C3] The Democrats elected Reid to serve as majority leader after they won control of the

two allied independents, and 49 Republicans. One Democrat, Sen. Tim Johnson (S.D.), had been hospitalized since suffering a brain hemorrhage in December 2006. Bush Calls for Balanced Budget—Bush in a speech Jan. 3, and in an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal the same day, said his annual budget proposal, due in February, would lay out a plan

Senate in the 2006 midterm elections. [See 2006, p. 876F2] Senate Majority Whip: Richard Durbin (D, Ill.)

Born: Nov. 21, 1944, East St. Louis, Ill. Education: Georgetown University B.S. 1966, J.D. 1969 First elected: 1996 Former occupations: Lawyer, state political aide; U.S. House 1983–97 Career: Durbin became Senate minority whip in November 2004, when Reid moved up to minority leader. He was elected majority whip in November 2006. [See 2006, p. 876F2; 2004, p. 910C3] Senate Minority Leader: Mitch McConnell (R, Ky.)

Born: Feb. 20, 1942, Sheffield, Ala. Education: University of Louisville B.A. 1964; University of Kentucky College of Law J.D. 1967 First elected: 1984 Former occupations: County judge-executive, deputy assistant attorney general Career: McConnell from 1997 to 2001 chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a position he had unsuccessfully sought in 1990 and 1992. He was married to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. [See 1996, p. 909E2; 1992, p. 853A2; 1990, p. 849F3] A long-standing opponent of legislative efforts to restrict campaign contributions, McConnell helped defeat several such bills before one, known as McCain–Feingold, was finally signed into law in 2002. He led a lawsuit against the law, but the Supreme Court upheld the legislation in 2003. [See 2003, p. 973C3; 2002, p. 226A3] McConnell was elected Senate majority whip in 2002. In November 2006, the Senate Republicans elected him minority leader. [See 2006, p. 876A3; 2002, p. 887F3] Senate Minority Whip: Trent Lott (R, Miss.)

Born: Oct. 9, 1941, Grenada, Miss. Education: University of Mississippi B.S. 1963, J.D. 1967 First elected: 1988 Former occupations: Lawyer; congressional aide; U.S. House 1973–88 Career: Lott served as House minority leader from 1982 to 1988, when he won election to the Senate. He became Senate minority whip in 1994, then rose to Senate majority leader in 1996, when his predecessor, Sen. Bob Dole (R, Kan.), stepped down to focus on his presidential campaign. [See 1996, p. 409B1] Lott resigned as majority leader in December 2002, amid a controversy over racially charged remarks that he made at a 100th birthday party for Sen. Strom Thurmond (R, S.C.). Sen. Bill Frist (Tenn.) was elected to replace Lott. [See 2002, p. 980A2] Lott made a comeback in November 2006, when he won election as minority whip. [See 2006, p. 876A3]

to balance the federal budget by 2012. He also urged Congress to crack down on earmarking, which he described as “the secretive process by which Washington insiders are able to get billions of dollars directed to projects.” Critics noted that Bush had never vetoed any of the earmark-laden spending bills sent to him by the Republican-controlled Congress. The budget had posted a deficit in each full fiscal year of Bush’s FACTS ON FILE

MAJOR COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN AND CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP

Following is a list of congressional leaders and House and Senate committee chairmen of the 110th Congress: Committee Chairmen* HOUSE

SENATE

Agriculture—Collin Peterson (Minn.) Appropriations—David Obey (Wis.) Armed Services—Ike Skelton (Mo.) Budget—John Spratt (S.C.) Education and Labor (formerly Education and the Workforce)—George Miller (Calif.) Energy and Commerce—John Dingell (Mich.) Ethics—Stephanie Tubbs Jones (Ohio) Financial Services—Barney Frank (Mass.) Foreign Affairs (formerly International Relations)—Tom Lantos (Calif.) Homeland Security—Bennie Thompson (Miss.) Intelligence—Silvestre Reyes (Texas) Judiciary—John Conyers (Mich.) Natural Resources (formerly Resources)— Nick Rahall (W. Va.) Oversight and Government Reform (formerly Government Reform)—Henry Waxman (Calif.) Rules—Louise Slaughter (N.Y.) Science and Technology (formerly Science)— Bart Gordon (Tenn.) Small Business—Nydia Velazquez (N.Y.) Transportation and Infrastructure—James Oberstar (Minn.) Veterans’ Affairs—Bob Filner (Calif.) Ways and Means—Charles Rangel (N.Y.) *All Democrats, except Lieberman (independent) HOUSE

Congressional Leadership

Speaker—Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) Majority leader—Steny Hoyer (D, Md.) Majority whip—James Clyburn (D, S.C.) Democratic Caucus chairman—Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) Democratic Caucus vice chairman—John Larson (Conn.) Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman—Chris Van Hollen (Md.) Minority leader—John Boehner (R, Ohio) Minority whip—Roy Blunt (R, Mo.) Republican Conference chairman—Adam Putnam (Fla.) Republican Conference vice chairwoman— Kay Granger (Texas) National Republican Congressional Committee chairman—Tom Cole (Okla.)

presidency, after he inherited a surplus from his predecessor, President Bill Clinton. [See 2006, p. 780F3] „

Guards at Hussein Execution Arrested for Unauthorized Footage Government Orders Inquiry. The Iraqi government Jan. 3–4 announced that it had arrested two guards from the justice ministry for making an unauthorized recording of the execution of former President Saddam Hussein, who had been hanged days earlier for crimes against humanity. The government had released official footage of the execution without any audio, but more footage, recorded by camera phone by one January 1–4, 2007

Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry—Tom Harkin (Iowa) Appropriations—Robert Byrd (W. Va.) Armed Services—Carl Levin (Mich.) Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs— Christopher Dodd (Conn.) Budget—Kent Conrad (N.D.) Commerce, Science and Transportation— Daniel Inouye (Hawaii) Energy and Natural Resources—Jeff Bingaman (N.M.) Environment and Public Works—Barbara Boxer (Calif.) Ethics—Tim Johnson (S.D.)** Finance—Max Baucus (Mont.) Foreign Relations—Joseph Biden (Del.) Health, Education, Labor and Pensions— Edward Kennedy (Mass.) Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs—Joseph Lieberman (Conn.) Indian Affairs—Byron Dorgan (N.D.) Intelligence—Jay Rockefeller (W. Va.) Judiciary—Patrick Leahy (Vt.) Rules and Administration—Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) Small Business and Entrepreneurship—John Kerry (Mass.) Special Committee on Aging—Herb Kohl (Wis.) Veterans’ Affairs—Daniel Akaka (Hawaii) **Boxer was named interim chairwoman of the Ethics Committee while Johnson recoverd from a December 2006 brain hemorrhage. SENATE

President Pro Tempore—Robert Byrd (D, W. Va.) Majority leader, Democratic Caucus chairman—Harry Reid (D, Nev.) Majority whip—Richard Durbin (D, Ill.) Democratic Caucus vice chairman, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman—Charles Schumer (N.Y.) Democratic Conference secretary—Patty Murray (Wash.) Minority leader—Mitch McConnell (R, Ky.) Minority whip—Trent Lott (R, Miss.) Republican Conference chairman—John Kyl (Ariz.) Republican Conference vice chairman—John Cornyn (Texas) National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman—John Ensign (Nev.)

of the attendees, had been released on the Internet. The unauthorized footage had contained audio and revealed that Hussein had been taunted by some of those attending his execution. The sectarian nature of the taunts reflected the violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims that had caused thousands of deaths in Iraq over the past year. [See 2006, p. 989A1] Sami al-Askari, a legislator and an aide to Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki, Jan. 1 had announced that the government had decided to investigate the unauthorized footage and the taunts directed at Hussein. Audio of the execution had captured some of those attending chanting “Moqtada”—a reference to the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-

Sadr—and telling Hussein to “go to hell.” Askari Jan. 4 said the two arrested guards had been identified by other guards as having recorded the execution. An adviser to Maliki who attended the execution, Sadiq al-Rikabi, Jan. 3 contended that the chanting of Moqtada’s name was part of a Shiite variant of a Muslim prayer that both Hussein and some of the guards were reciting. Rikabi said the execution had been properly conducted, but was being “mischaracterized for political purposes.” He conceded, however, that the release of the unauthorized footage had been “a mistake,” and said the government had attempted to prevent any such recording. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser, Jan. 2 insisted that, while the execution was not a “sectarian lynching,” some of the conduct during it was “unacceptable.” Munqith al-Faroun, who also attended the execution and was deputy prosecutor for the court that sentenced Hussein, Jan. 2 said he had seen two officials filming the execution, but did not see any guards doing so. Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani Jan. 4 said the investigation was “ongoing.” U.S., U.N. Criticize Execution—U.S. President George W. Bush Jan. 4 said he wished the execution had “been done in a more dignified way,” but added that he had not chastised Maliki for it in a conference they had held by video link earlier that day. An adviser to Maliki, Maryam al-Rayas, Jan. 3 said the U.S. had asked Iraq to postpone the execution, but that Maliki’s government had chosen to go ahead with it. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell 4th, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Jan. 3 asserted that the U.S. “would have done things differently” if it had been in charge of the execution, but said the matter was in the hands of the Iraqi government. U.S. Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.) Jan. 4 said the Iraqi management of Hussein’s hanging “unnecessarily inflames the emotions of the Sunnis.” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour Jan. 3 asked Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to stay the executions of Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti and Awad Hamad al-Bandr al-Saadun, who had been sentenced to death along with Hussein. [See 2006, p. 989E1] Sunnis staged protests of the execution throughout the week. A crowd of Sunnis in Samarra Jan. 1 broke into the Askariya shrine—still shattered from a bombing attack in February 2006—and marched through it, carrying a photo of Hussein and a symbolic coffin. [See 2006, p. 970B3] U.N.’s Ban Defends Execution—U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Jan. 2 provoked controversy on his first day in the post by refusing to criticize the Iraqi government for executing Hussein. Ban’s statement drew criticism from human rights activists and the media for going against the U.N.’s traditional opposition to the death penalty. [See 2006, p. 947G2] When asked whether the Iraqi government should have executed Hussein, Ban said, “The issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to de3

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cide.” He recalled Hussein’s crimes against the Iraqi people, and added, “While I am firmly against impunity, I also hope the members of the international community should pay due regard to all aspects of international humanitarian law.” Ban’s spokeswoman, Michele Montas, said he was not changing U.N. policy on capital punishment, but rather adding his own “nuance.” She also said Ban’s statement was influenced by his “national position.” The death penalty was legal in his native country, South Korea. Many analysts and human rights activists said Ban’s statements stemmed from a desire not to offend U.N. member nations that allowed capital punishment. Some also suggested that he had also not yet adjusted to representing the U.N., rather than the national interests of South Korea, where he had served as foreign minister. Ban Jan. 3 endorsed Arbour’s appeal to stay the executions of Tikriti and Bandr. Ashraf Qazi, the U.N. special representative for Iraq, Jan. 1 had confirmed the U.N.’s opposition to the death penalty, “even in the case of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.” Other News—In other Iraqi news: † U.S. forces Jan. 1 raided a suspected safe house for the terrorist network Al Qaeda in Baghdad, the capital, killing six gunmen. Saleh al-Mutlak, a Sunni member of parliament and a former member of the Baath Party, complained that the raid damaged the offices of his political group, the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, and left two of his bodyguards dead. † The interior ministry Jan. 2 released data claiming that 12,320 civilians had been killed in “terrorist” violence in 2006, half of them in the final four months of the year and 1,930 in the month of December. The tallies were generally lower than those released by other organizations, and were met with skepticism. The report said a total of 13,896 Iraqi security forces, soldiers and police died in 2006. Government officials Jan. 4 said 47 mutilated bodies had been found across Baghdad that day. [See 2006, p. 901A1] † Maliki said in an interview published Jan. 2 in the Wall Street Journal that he had accepted the position of premier only because “I thought it would serve the national interest, and I will not accept it again.” Maliki criticized the U.S. forces in Iraq for being slow in their response to attacks, saying, “What is happening in Iraq is a war of gangs and a terrorist war” that should be met with “a strong force and with fast reaction.” † A Baath Party Web site Jan. 3 said that Izzat Ibrahim, a former aide to Hussein, had been named leader of the party, replacing Hussein. † A video delivered to the Associated Press Jan. 3 showed four Americans and one Austrian kidnapped in November 2006 to be in apparently good health. One of the captives, Jon Cote, said on the video, “I can’t be released until the prisoners from 4

the American jails and the British jails are released.” [See 2006, p. 901G1] † Bush Jan. 4 said he would outline his new strategy for Iraq in the following week. [See 2006, p. 1030F2] † Unidentified U.S. officials had said that Lt. Gen. David Petraeus would replace Army Gen. George Casey as the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, and Adm.William Fallon would replace Gen. John Abizaid as head of the U.S. Central Command, it was reported in the New York Times in a story datelined Jan. 4. [See 2006, p. 971B2] † U.S. police in Webster, Texas, Jan. 4 announced that a 10-year-old boy had accidentally hanged himself and died on New Year’s Eve after seeing a video of Hussein’s execution. „

January Financial Update

(Close of trading Jan. 2 except where indicated*)

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average (Jan. 3) Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index (Jan. 3)

Nasdaq Composite Index (Jan. 3) London Stock Exchange

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100)

12,474.52 1416.63 2423.16 6310.90

Tokyo Stock Exchange

17,225.83

Toronto Stock Exchange

12,923.66

(Nikkei index)

(TSE Composite Index)

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield)

4.66% 5.05%

Currencies (late New York trading) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars)

$0.7962 $1.9732 $0.8593 $1.3279 118.81 10.7724 $0.8243

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.)

$627.10

Silver (per troy oz.)

$13.01

Body Flown to Michigan for Hometown Burial.

Oil (per barrel)

$58.32

Scores of dignitaries Jan. 2 joined friends and family of the late President Gerald R. Ford at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., for a funeral ceremony for Ford, who had died a week earlier at the age of 93. Later that day, Ford’s body was flown to his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich., where he was buried Jan. 3 at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, after a second ceremony. [See 2006, p. 997A1] Episcopal Bishop John Bryson Chane officiated at the funeral in the capital. Delivering eulogies were President George W. Bush, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former President George H.W. Bush and former NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw. Kissinger, Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan were among the honorary pallbearers. Also in attendance were the other two living former U.S. presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, as well as former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. President Bush called Ford “a man whose name was a synonym for integrity.” Referring to the period following the Watergate scandal and resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974, former President Bush said, “few if any of our public leaders could have stepped into the breach and rekindled our national faith as did President Gerald R. Ford.” Several members of Ford’s family spoke at a Jan. 3 ceremony at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, the same church where the late president and his widow, Betty Ford, had been married in 1948. Carter delivered a eulogy in which he recycled words he had used in his own inaugural speech after he defeated Ford for the presidency in 1976: “For myself and for our nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he did to heal our land.” „

Gasoline (per gallon)

$2.24

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel)

$5.19

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

2.0%

Unemployment rate

4.5%

Gross domestic product growth

2.0%

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Former President Ford Receives State Funeral

(N.Y. Comex spot price Jan. 3) (London fixing spot price) (Nymex crude future Jan. 3) (nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released Dec. 17, 2006) (Kansas City market)

(consumer price index 12-month increase through Nov. 2006; see 2006, p. 974E1) (November 2006; see 2006, p. 955B1) (annualized third-quarter rate, final report; see 2006, p. 1004E1)

Prime rate

8.25%

* U.S. markets were closed Jan. 2 in a day of mourning for former President Gerald Ford.

Facts On File

World News Digest With Index (ISSN 0014-6641) Publication #183680

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Marion Farrier DIRECTOR OF INDEX SERVICES: Marjorie B. Bank MANAGING EDITOR (NEWS): Jonathan Taylor MANAGING EDITOR (INDEX): Tamara Fishman ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham SENIOR EDITORS: Mette Bahde, Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Alasdair Denvil, Ben Miller ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Jonathan Leith, Ian McGullam COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Faith Barclay, Jane Carlson FACTS ON FILE is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. General Manager: Ken Park. Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

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FACTS ON FILE

AFRICA

Somalia Government Captures Islamist Stronghold.

Forces of Somalia’s transitional government, backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and fighter jets, Jan. 1 captured the southern Indian Ocean port town of Kismayo from an Islamist militia. The town, about 90 miles (145 km) from the Kenyan border, had been the last stronghold of the Islamists, who had controlled much of southern and central Somalia since June 2006. In late December, the transitional government, which for most of 2006 had been isolated in the town of Baidoa, captured nearly all major cities and towns, including Mogadishu, the capital, with considerable military aid from neighboring Ethiopia. [See 2006, p. 991E2] The remaining Islamists, known as the Council of Islamist Courts, Jan. 1 fled further south, toward the densely forested area around Ras Kamboni, a village near the Kenyan border. As they fled, the Islamists pledged to continue fighting through a guerrilla campaign. Kenya that day increased security along its more than 420mile border with Somalia in an effort to keep the Islamists out. The U.S. alleged that the Islamists were harboring members of the Al Qaeda terrorist network, including three men responsible for 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Kenyan authorities Jan. 2 said they had detained 10 Islamists the previous day who were trying to cross the border disguised as refugees. They said eight of the fighters carried Eritrean passports, two had Canadian passports, and all were transporting briefcases filled with cash. The next day, Kenya announced that it was closing its border with Somalia. Government spokesman Alfred Mutua denied allegations that hundreds of refugees had been turned away. The U.S. had about 1,500 military personnel based in Djibouti, Somalia’s northern neighbor, as part of a regional counterterrorism task force. U.S. Navy warships from the Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, Jan. 1 reportedly had begun patrolling Somalia’s coast to make sure the Islamists did not escape by sea. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack Jan. 3 said, “We would be concerned that no leaders who were members of the Islamic Courts which have ties to terrorist organizations including Al Qaeda are allowed to flee and leave Somalia.” Government and Ethiopian troops Jan. 4 clashed with about 600 Islamist fighters in the southern tip of the country. Premier Calls for Weapons Handover—

Premier Ali Muhammad Gedi Jan. 1 declared that with the capture of Kismayo, “The warlord era in Somalia is now over.” He gave the Islamists and others three days to turn in their weapons, though few people reportedly complied with that order. The country was awash with weapons, and people were reportedly unwilling to relinquish them because they did not yet trust the transitional government to provide security. January 1–4, 2007

Gedi also called for the deployment of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, which would replace the Ethiopian troops propping up his government. That day, he met with Mogadishu’s powerful clan leaders in an effort to build up support for the transitional government. Hussein Farah Aidid, the transitional government’s interior minister, Jan. 2 acknowledged that the outside help was needed. “We have a symbolic government. Ministries we don’t have, a military we don’t have,” he said. (Aidid was the son of late warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid, whose forces had attacked U.S. troops in Mogadishu in 1993, leading to 18 U.S. deaths.) Meles Pledges Swift Withdrawal— Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi Jan. 2 in an address to the Ethiopian parliament said Ethiopian forces would leave Somalia “within a few weeks.” He added, “We don’t have the money to take this burden individually.” Later that day, two Ethiopian soldiers were shot dead in an ambush by an Islamist fighter in Jilib, in southern Somalia. The Islamist was then killed by Ethiopian troops. Many Somalis resented the presence of the Ethiopians, who were their traditional enemies. Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu reportedly remained mainly out of sight, stationed on the outskirts of the city. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Jan. 4 said he would provide about 800 peacekeeping troops. He made the pledge after a meeting with Meles and Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that day said the U.S. would give Somalia $16 million in aid. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

European Union Bulgaria, Romania Officially Join. Bulgar-

ia and Romania Jan. 1 became members of the European Union, bringing the number of countries in the EU to 27. The accession of the two countries continued the EU’s expansion to include formerly communist Eastern European countries, after several former Soviet bloc countries joined in 2004. However, tensions stemming from the admission of relatively poorer Eastern European countries had prompted calls to slow down the pace of EU expansion. The admission of Romania and Bulgaria, the EU’s poorest members, came with numerous conditions, including restrictions on where in the union their citizens could legally work. [See 2006, p. 751E3] Crowds gathered in cities in both countries to celebrate their entry into the EU at the stroke of midnight. Citizens and leaders expressed the hope that integration into the EU would bring increased prosperity and stability. As members, they would qualify for EU economic aid, with Romania scheduled to receive some $2.2 billion and Romania, $873 million, in 2007. However, aid could

be suspended if they did not meet the obligations laid out in the terms for their entry. At least 10 of the EU’s more prosperous western members, including Britain, France, Spain and Germany, had established limits on the number of workers they would grant entry to from the new member nations, after greater-than-expected numbers migrated from the previously admitted Eastern European countries. [See 2006, p. 827G2] With the addition of Romania’s population of about 22 million, and Bulgaria’s 7.7 million residents, the EU’s population grew to about 489 million. Slovenia Adopts Euro—Slovenia Jan. 1 became the 13th member of the eurozone, the group of EU countries that used a common official currency, the euro. Slovenia was the first of the 10 nations that had joined the EU in 2004 to enter the eurozone. The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, in a statement Jan. 1 said that the initial transition had been smooth. [See 2006, p. 475B3] The previous Slovenian currency, the tolar, would remain legal tender during a transition period lasting until Jan. 14. Slovenia had adopted the tolar after declaring independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. [See 1991, p. 763A1] „

A

B

C

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

D

College Basketball Knight Sets NCAA Coaching Wins Mark. Texas Tech University coach Bob Knight Jan. 1 won the 880th game of his career, passing the University of North Carolina’s Dean Smith to become the coach with the most wins in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s basketball history. Texas Tech that day defeated the University of New Mexico, 70–68, in Lubbock, Texas. [See 2006, p. 1038C2] Knight, 66, had accumulated the 880 wins in 41 seasons, at Army, the University of Indiana and Texas Tech. His career record was 880 wins and 354 losses. Smith, who had retired in 1997, won his 879 games in 36 seasons at North Carolina. „

E

O B I T UA R I E S KOLLEK, Teddy (Theodor), 95, Israeli politician who was mayor of West Jerusalem from 1965 to 1967 and then mayor of Jerusalem—unified after the 1967 Six Day War—until 1993, when, at age 82, he lost his bid for a seventh term to Ehud Olmert, who later became Israel’s prime minister; as mayor of Jerusalem, Kollek presided over the expansion of the city’s infrastructure and its transformation into a cultural center; many of his projects were largely financed with foreign contributions to the Jerusalem Foundation, which he founded; born May 27, 1911, in Nagyvazsony, Hungary; died Jan. 2 in Jerusalem; no cause of death was reported. [See 2006, p. 230G1; 1993, pp. 854E2, B3, 477A3; Indexes 1982–91, 1978–80, 1971, 1967– 68, 1965] OLSEN, Tillie (born Tillie Lerner), 94, author of a small, yet highly acclaimed, body of work on feminist and working-class themes; it consisted of a short-story collection, Tell Me A Riddle (1961), a novel, Yonnondio: From the Thirties (1974) and a collection of essays, Silences (1978); born Jan. 14, 1912, in Wahoo, Neb.; died Jan. 1 at a hospital in Oakland, Calif., from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. [See 1980, p. 1003E2; 1974, p. 316E2] „

5

F

G

A Review of the Top News Stories of 2006 A

Violence Grows as Iraq Sets Government, Executes Hussein Sectarian Violence Flares After Attack on Shiite Shrine Sunni-Shiite violence in Iraq reached record levels after the Feb.

22 bombing of one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. The violence plagued the country throughout the year in the form of terrorism and death squads. [See 2006, pp. 970D2, 121A1] Ousted Iraqi President Hussein Executed

B

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was hanged Dec. 30 after being found guilty of crimes against humanity. Hussein had been sentenced to death Nov. 5. [See 2006, pp. 989A1, 862D3]

Maliki Named New Iraqi Premier

Iraqi legislators April 22 named Nouri Kamel al-Maliki premier of Iraq’s first democratically elected, full-term government. [See 2006, p. 317A1] U.S. Study Group Advises War Changes

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group Dec. 6 gave to U.S. President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress its recommendations on how to proceed with the Iraq war. [See 2006, p. 921A1]

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Israel Clashes With Hezbollah, Gaza Militants

Fighting between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah broke out July 12 after a Hezbollah attack on Israel, sparking a monthlong war. The violence added to tensions in the region, already high after Palestinian militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier June 25. [See 2006, pp. 541A1, 503D1]

C

Gunmen Assassinate Lebanese Cabinet Minister

Minister of Industry Pierre Gemayel, an opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon, Nov. 21 was assassinated by gunmen in Beirut, the capital. [See 2006, p. 889A1] Hamas Wins PA Parliamentary Elections

D

The militant group Hamas Jan. 25 won parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories. International donors April 7 cut off aid to the Hamas government, and violence between Fatah and Hamas prompted President Mahmoud Abbas Dec. 16 to call for new elections. [See 2006, pp. 969A1, 288F2, 41A1]

Sudan Rejects U.N. Darfur Force; Peace Deal Signed Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir Sept. 19 reiterated his rejection of a United Nations peacekeeping force for the wartorn western region of Darfur. A peace deal between the government and Darfur rebels, signed May 5, had failed to quell the violence. [See 2006, pp. 1014F1, 363A1]

North Korea Conducts Nuclear Test

E

Middle East Iran Defies U.N. Nuclear Deadline

The U.N. Security Council Dec. 23 placed sanctions on Iran after the country Aug. 31 defied a deadline to halt its nuclear program. [See 2006, pp. 994G1, 692E1] Israeli Prime Minister Comatose After Major Stroke

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Jan. 4 suffered a severe stroke, and was put into a coma by doctors. Sharon was succeeded by his ally Ehud Olmert, who led the centrist Kadima party to victory in March 28 elections. [See 2006, pp. 229A1, 1B1]

Religion

Asia-Pacific

An international controversy over Danish cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad escalated Feb. 1 when several European newspapers republished the caricatures. Violent protests spread across the Muslim world before dying down toward the end of the month. [See 2006, pp. 122F2, 61A1]… Pope Benedict XVI Sept. 17 apologized for a speech in Germany the previous week in which he had quoted a medieval text characterizing Islam as a violent religion, sparking protests by Muslims around the world. [See 2006, p. 726D2]

Europe Ex–Serbian President Milosevic Dies, Ending Genocide Trial

G

The federal union of Serbia and Montenegro broke up after Montenegro June 3 formally declared independence, a move accepted by Serbia two days later. [See 2006, p. 459B1] The French Socialist party Nov. 16 nominated Segolene Royal as its candidate for the 2007 presidential election, making her the first woman nominee of a major French political party. [See 2006, p. 899E1]…British Prime Minister Tony Blair Sept. 7 said he would step down within a year, yielding to pressure from his own Labour Party. [See 2006, p. 700G1] Shamil Basayev, a notorious leader of the separatist movement in Russia’s republic of Chechnya, July 10 was killed in an explosion in the republic of Ingushetia. [See 2006, p. 557C1]…A court in Moscow Aug. 1 ordered the liquidation of Russian oil firm OAO Yukos, capping the government’s legal campaign against Yukos and founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. [See 2006, p. 636B1] Britain Aug. 10 announced that it had foiled a “major terrorist plot” to use liquid explosives to bomb transatlantic passenger flights between Britain and the U.S. [See 2006, p. 625A1]

North Korea Oct. 9 announced that it had conducted a nuclear test. Foreign scientists confirmed a detonation, but said it was unusually small. The U.N. Security Council in response Oct. 14 imposed sanctions on North Korea. [See 2006, pp. 793A1, 777A1] Muslims Protest Prophet Cartoons, Pope’s Speech

F

Other European News

Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic died March 11 in The Hague, the Netherlands, where he was on trial for crimes against humanity in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s. [See 2006, p. 181A1] ETA Cease-fire Broken by Airport Blast Basque militant group Euzkadi ta Askatasuna (ETA) March 22 announced a cease-fire in its three-decade-old terrorist campaign for an independent homeland. But a Dec. 30 bombing at Madrid’s airport, blamed on ETA, jeopardized a peace process begun by Spanish Premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. [See 2006, pp. 1028D1, 205A1]

Prodi Beats Berlusconi in Italian Election

Former Italian Premier Romano Prodi’s center-left coalition ousted Premier Silvio Berlusconi and his conservative government in April 13 parliamentary elections. [See 2006, pp. 396A2, 270C1] 6

Thai Premier Ousted in Military Coup

Thai military leaders Sept. 19 led a coup against Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, declaring martial law. [See 2006, p. 721A1] Other Asia-Pacific News

Japan’s parliament Sept. 26 appointed Shinzo Abe to succeed resigning Premier Junichiro Koizumi. [See 2006, p. 750F3]…An earthquake May 27 hit the Indonesian island of Java, killing more than 6,000 people. [See 2006, p. 434E3] President Sapamurad Niyazov, the authoritarian leader of gasrich Turkmenistan, Dec. 21 died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 66. [See 2006, p. 992E2]

Africa Ethiopian, Government Forces Rout Islamists in Somalia

Troops from the Somali government and Ethiopia Dec. 24–31

drove out Islamists who had taken over much of southern and cen-

tral Somalia since June. [See 2006, p. 991E2] Kabila Elected Congo President

Joseph Kabila Nov. 15 was declared the winner of a run-off

presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[See 2006, p. 1012B1] Other News

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor March 29 was seized in Nigeria and transferred to Sierra Leone, where he faced war crimes charges. Taylor June 20 was transferred to The Hague, the FACTS ON FILE

Netherlands, for his trial. [See 2006, p. 491A3]…Former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma May 8 was acquitted of rape

charges. A court Sept. 20 threw out corruption charges against him. [See 2006, pp. 881A2, 378A1]…The U.S. June 30 restored full diplomatic ties with Libya. [See 2006, p. 387A2]

Attacks on Mumbai Railways Kill 180 People

Eight explosions on Mumbai’s commuter rail system July 11 killed more than 180 people and injured hundreds of others. Indian police Sept. 30 said they had evidence that Pakistan’s intelligence agency was involved. [See 2006, pp. 806E1, 542E1]

A

U.S. Forges Nuclear Agreement With India

Americas Castro Ill; Cedes Power

Citing a gastrointestinal illness, Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz July 31 ceded power to his younger brother, Raul Castro Ruz. [See 2006, pp. 1017A3, 607D3]

Canada’s Conservatives End 13-Year Liberal Rule

Canadian voters Jan. 23 elected Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party prime minister after 13 years of Liberal Party rule. [See 2006, p. 43B1] Other News Mexico’s highest electoral court Sept. 5 named conservative Felipe Calderon Hinojosa the winner of presidential elections held

July 2, dismissing opponent Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s

claims of fraud. [See 2006, pp. 934E3, 534A1]…Former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega Saavedra Nov. 7 won Nicaragua’s presi-

dential election. [See 2006, p. 866C3]…Former Chilean President

Augusto Pinochet Ugarte died Dec. 10. [See 2006, p. 946F1]

South Asia Nepal’s King Toppled; Civil War Ended

Nepal’s autocratic King Gyanendra April 24 bowed to pressure from throngs of demonstrators by vowing to restore parliament. Maoist rebels Nov. 21 signed a peace accord with the government, ending a decade-long civil war. [See 2006, pp. 918D3, 318A3]

U.S. President George W. Bush Dec. 18 signed legislation allowing nuclear cooperation with India. [See 2006, p. 972F3]

United Nations Secretary General Nominee Confirmed

The United Nations General Assembly Oct. 13 confirmed South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon’s appointment as the U.N.’s new secretary general. [See 2006, p. 795F2]

B

Other International News The World Trade Organization’s Doha round of talks July 24 was formally and indefinitely suspended when an accord between member nations on the reduction of commercial trade barriers could not be reached. [See 2006, p. 593A1] The British government Oct. 30 published a report detailing the estimated financial costs of climate change resulting from manmade carbon emissions. [See 2006, p. 834B3] The H5N1 avian influenza virus was discovered in Nigeria Feb. 8, and in Italy and Greece Feb. 11, marking the disease’s spread from Southeast Asia to Africa and European Union countries. [See 2006, pp. 994C2, 102A2] The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Oct. 19 and Dec. 14 cut output after the price of oil fell from a high of $78.40 a barrel in July. [See 2006, pp. 995G3, 811C3]

C

UNITED STATES NEWS Democrats Win Control of Congress The Democratic Party Nov. 7 won control of both the House and Senate for the first time in 12 years. The Democrats won 233 seats in the House, while the Republicans would have 202. The Democrats won a slim majority of 51 seats in the Senate, including two independents who pledged to caucus with them, to the Republicans’ 49 seats. [See 2006, pp. 949B1, 849A1] Sen. Tim Johnson (D, S.D.) Dec. 13 underwent surgery to stop bleeding in his brain, endangering the Democrats’ new Senate majority. [See 2006, p. 999D2] Other Politics News

Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff Jan. 2 pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe public officials, fraud and tax evasion. He admitted giving gifts to members of Congress in exchange for their use of influence on his behalf. [See 2006, p. 2F1]…Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R, Texas) April 4 announced his resignation from the House after two former aides pleaded guilty in the Abramoff scandal. [See 2006, p. 256E1]…Rep. Bob Ney (R, Ohio) Nov. 6 resigned his seat after pleading guilty to corruption linked to Abramoff. [See 2006, p. 864D2]…Rep. Mark Foley (R, Fla.) Sept. 29 resigned as a scandal erupted over sexually suggestive computer messages that he had sent to former House pages. [See 2006, pp. 948C3, 759A2]

Supreme Court Alito Confirmed

The Senate Jan. 31 voted, 58–42, to confirm the nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court, filling a vacancy caused by the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. [See 2006, p. 65A1] Guantanamo Military Tribunals Struck Down

The Supreme Court June 29 ruled, 5–3, that President George W. Bush’s system for trying terrorism detainees at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was unauthorized under both federal law and the Geneva Conventions. [See 2006, p. 501A1]

Defense Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Resigns

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned Nov. 8, a day after Democrats swept to victory in midterm congressional elections. January 1–4, 2007

D

Former Director of Central Intelligence Robert Gates was sworn in Dec. 18, succeeding Rumsfeld. [See 2006, pp. 970A1, 849B1]

Terrorism Basic Detainee Rights Granted, Tribunal Law Passed

In response to a Supreme Court ruling, the Bush administration July 11 confirmed that detainees being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and other facilities would be accorded rights under the Geneva Conventions. [See 2006, p. 544A2]…President Bush Oct. 17 signed a bill, passed in response to the ruling, that instated a tribunal system for trying detained terrorism suspects and defining detainees’ circumscribed interrogation and trial rights. [See 2006, p. 798F1]

E

Overseas Secret Prisons Acknowledged

President Bush Sept. 6 announced that 14 top-ranking terrorist suspects would be transferred from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) custody to the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, the first time he had acknowledged the existence of overseas secret CIA prisons. [See 2006, p. 689A1] Dubai Company Abandons U.S. Ports Deal

Dubai Ports World, which was owned by the government of Dubai, March 9 said it would give up the management of six major U.S. ports it had been in the process of acquiring, after U.S. lawmakers protested that the purchase would undermine U.S. antiterrorism efforts. [See 2006, p. 163A3]

F

Moussaoui Receives Life Sentence

A federal jury May 3 recommended a life sentence for Zacarias Moussaoui, who had pleaded guilty to involvement in Sept. 11, 2001,

terrorist attacks on the U.S. [See 2006, p. 337A1]

Business and Economy Federal prosecutors July 20 filed the first charges related to a wide-ranging investigation of the backdating of stock options awards at hundreds of companies. [See 2006, pp. 1006B3, 630G2] Former Enron Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling Oct. 23 was sentenced to 24 years in prison for massive fraud that led to the company’s 2001 collapse. Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay was also convicted, but July 5 died before he could be sentenced. [See 2006, p. 815D3]

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7

A Review of the Top News Stories of 2006 (continued) A

As of Nov. 27, about 100,000 workers in the U.S. automobile industry had accepted early-retirement or buyout offers from their

floundering employers. [See 2006, pp. 1006C1, 1005F3]

Medicine and Health Bush Vetoes Stem Cell Measure

President Bush July 19 issued his first veto, rejecting a bill that would have ended funding constraints on research related to human embryonic stem cells. [See 2006, p. 571A1]

B

Other News

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Aug. 24 approved the over-the-counter sale of the contraceptive drug Plan B (also known as the “morning-after” pill) to women at least 18 years old. [See 2006, p. 664D1]… A new privately managed Medicare prescription drug program took effect Jan. 1. [See 2006, p. 3D2]

Other U.S. News President Bush Oct. 26 signed a bill that authorized construction of a 700-mile (1,125-km) fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. The

C Sports

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E

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G

Auto Racing—Jimmie Johnson Nov. 19 clinched the NASCAR title. [See 2006, p. 940E1] Baseball—San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds May 28 hit the 715th home run of his career, surpassing Babe Ruth to move into second place on the home run list, behind Hank Aaron (755). [See 2006, p. 439C1]… The St. Louis Cardinals Oct. 27 beat the Detroit Tigers, 4–2, to win the World Series, four games to one. [See 2006, p. 846A3] Basketball—Florida April 3 beat the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), 73–57, to win the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s basketball title. Maryland April 4 beat Duke, 78–75, to win the women’s title. [See 2006, p. 266G1]… The Miami Heat June 20 beat the Dallas Mavericks, 95– 92, to win the National Basketball Association Finals, four games to two. [See 2006, p. 539C1] Cycling—U.S. cyclist Floyd Landis July 23 won the Tour de France. Landis’s team July 27 announced that he had tested positive for impermissibly high levels of testosterone during the race, which had already been overshadowed by the ouster of 13 riders in a doping scandal June 30. The International Cycling Union Aug. 5 said a backup test had confirmed the positive result, though Landis repeatedly asserted his innocence. [See 2006, p. 887F1] Football—Texas Jan. 4 claimed the NCAA Division I-A football title, beating Southern California, 41–38, to win the Rose Bowl. [See 2006, p. 4G1]… The Pittsburgh Steelers Feb. 5 beat the Seattle Seahawks, 21–10, to win Super Bowl XL. [See 2006, p. 100A1] Golf—Tiger Woods of the U.S. July 23 won the British Open. Woods Aug. 20 won the Professional Golfers’ Association Championship. [See 2006, pp. 671F1, 603A2]…Europe Sept. 24 won the Ryder Cup, beating the U.S., 18½ points to 9½ points, in Straffan, Ireland. [See 2006, p. 755D2] Hockey—The Carolina Hurricanes June 19 beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3–1, to win the Stanley Cup finals, four games to three. [See 2006, p. 523F2] Horse Racing—Racehorse Barbaro, with Edgar Prado aboard, May 6 won the Kentucky Derby. However, the colt May 20 suffered a lifethreatening injury to his right hind leg in the Preakness, which was won by Bernardini. Barbaro underwent surgery May 21. [See 2006, p. 903D3] 8

bill had been cleared Sept. 1, after Congress failed to agree on a broader immigration reform bill, passed by the Senate May 25 and supported by Bush, that had been the subject of rallies across the U.S. [See 2006, pp. 837D3, 402E2] A House committee investigating the government response to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina Feb. 15 issued a report calling it “a national failure,” finding serious flaws in the performance of federal, state and local entities. [See 2006, p. 107A2]

The New Jersey Supreme Court Oct. 25 ruled that the state constitution guaranteed same-sex couples the rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex married couples. [See 2006, p. 812A3] A judge June 1 sentenced John Allen Muhammad to six consecutive life terms in prison for his role in a series of 2002 sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area. [See 2006, p. 431F2]… Three white Duke University lacrosse players April 18 and May 16 were charged in connection with an alleged sexual assault of a black exotic dancer at a team party in March. Prosecutors Dec. 22 dropped the rape charges. [See 2006, p. 1010F1]

MISCELLANEOUS

Olympics—The XX Winter Olympic Games

were held Feb. 10–26 in Turin, Italy. Germany won the most medals, 29 (11 golds, 12 silvers and six bronzes). U.S. speed skater Shani Davis Feb. 18 won gold in the 1,000 meters, becoming the first black athlete to win an individual Winter Olympic gold medal. [See 2006, p. 155B2] Soccer—Italy July 9 won soccer’s World Cup in Berlin, Germany, beating France. Italy won, 5– 3, on penalty kicks, after the teams played to a 1– 1 draw in regulation and extra time. France’s Zinedine Zidane was sent off for head-butting Italian defender Marco Materazzi. [See 2006, p. 560F2] Tennis—Switzerland’s Roger Federer Sept. 10 won his third Grand Slam tournament of the year when he claimed the U.S. Open title. Federer Jan. 29 had won the Australian Open, and July 9 took Wimbledon for the fourth straight year. [See 2006, pp. 719A2, 562E3, 81A3] Track & Field—U.S. sprinter Justin Gatlin, coholder of the world record in the 100 meters, July 29 said he had tested positive for abnormally high levels of testosterone, and Aug. 22 was banned for eight years. [See 2006, p. 687D1]

Awards Nobel Prizes: Peace—Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank. Literature—Orhan Pamuk, Turkey. Chemistry— Roger D. Kornberg, U.S. Economics—Edmund S. Phelps, U.S. Physiology or Medicine—Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello, both U.S. Physics—John C. Mather and George F. Smoot, both U.S. [See 2006, p. 807C3] Films—Academy Awards: Best Picture: Crash. Best Actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote. Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line. Best Director: Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain. [See 2006, p. 179A3] …Top Grossing Film: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, $423.3 million. [See 2006, p. 1042D1]

Deaths [For page references, see under DEATHS in the 2006 index.] June Allyson, 88, actress, July 8; Robert Altman, 81, filmmaker, Nov. 20; Red Auerbach, 89, basketball coach, Oct. 28; Joseph Barbera, 95, movie and TV cartoon creator, Dec. 18; Lloyd Bentsen, 85, senator, vice presidential candidate and Treasury secretary, May 23; P.W. Botha, 90, South African apartheid-era leader, Oct. 31; Ed Bradley, 65, TV journalist on “60 Minutes,” Nov. 9; James Brown, 73, singer known as “godfather

of soul,” Dec. 25; Ruth Brown, 78, rhythm-andblues singer, Nov. 17; Susan Butcher, 51, dogsled racer, Aug. 5; Red Buttons, 87, comedian and actor, July 13; Oleg Cassini, 92, fashion designer, March 17; Betty Comden, 89, Broadway lyricist, Nov. 23; Mike Douglas, 81, singer and TV host, Aug. 11; Bulent Ecevit, 81, Turkish politician, Nov. 5; Ahmet Ertegun, 83, record producer, Dec. 14; Oriana Fallaci, 77, Italian journalist, Sept. 15; Freddy Fender, 69, Tex-Mex vocalist, Oct. 14; Gerald Ford, 93, 38th U.S. president, Dec. 26; Glenn Ford, 90, actor, Aug. 30; Betty Friedan, 85, author and feminist leader, Feb. 4; Milton Friedman, 94, economist, Nov. 16; John Kenneth Galbraith, 97, economist, April 29; Steve Irwin, 44, Australian wildlife conservationist, Sept. 4; Coretta Scott King, 78, widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. who strove to preserve his legacy, Jan. 30; Jeane Kirkpatrick, 80, diplomat and foreign policy adviser, Dec. 7; Don Knotts, 81, comedian, Feb. 24; Stanley Kunitz, 100, poet, May 14; Gyorgy Ligeti, 83, Hungarian composer, June 12; Naguib Mahfouz, 94, Nobel Prize–winning Egyptian novelist, Aug. 30; Byron Nelson, 94, golfer, Sept. 26; Anita O’Day, 87, jazz singer, Nov. 23; Buck O’Neil, 94, Major League Baseball’s first black coach, Oct. 6; Buck Owens, 76, country music superstar, March 25; Jack Palance, 87, actor, Nov. 10; Gordon Parks, 93, photographer and film director, March 7; Floyd Patterson, 71, boxer, May 11; Wilson Pickett, 64, soul singer, Jan. 19; Kirby Puckett, 45, baseball player, March 6; Lou Rawls, 72, pop vocalist, Jan. 6; Ann Richards, 73, outspoken Democrat who was Texas governor for four years, Sept. 13; A.M. Rosenthal, 84, New York Times editor, May 10; Louis Rukeyser, 73, TV financial commentator, May 2; Bo Schembechler, college football coach, 77, Nov. 17; Moira Shearer, 80, British ballerina and actress, Jan. 31; Dame Muriel Spark, 88, British author, April 13; Aaron Spelling, 83, TV producer, June 23; Mickey Spillane, 88, crime novelist, July 17; Frank Stanton, 98, CBS broadcasting executive, Dec. 24; Maureen Stapleton, 83, actress, March 13; Alfredo Stroessner, 93, Paraguayan strongman, Aug. 16; Gerry Studds, 69, first openly gay congressman, Oct. 14; William Styron, 81, novelist, Nov. 1; James Van Allen, 91, physicist, Aug. 9; Wendy Wasserstein, 55, playwright, Jan. 30; Caspar Weinberger, 88, Reagan administration defense secretary, March 28; Shelley Winters, 83, actress, Jan. 14; Jane Wyatt, 96, actress, Oct. 20. January 1–4, 2007

U.S. President Bush Sets New Iraq Strategy Calls for Sending 20,000 More U.S. Troops Democrats Vow Opposition. U.S.

President George W. Bush Jan. 10 outlined his new strategy aimed at quelling the violence in Iraq and supporting its fledgling democratic government. In a nationally televised speech from the White House, Bush announced that more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops would be sent to Iraq, and that the Iraqi government would have to meet several benchmarks in order for U.S. aid to continue. Terrorism and sectarian violence had plagued Iraq since a U.S.-led invasion ousted President Saddam Hussein in 2003. [See below, pp. 4A2, 3F2; for excerpts from Bush’s speech, see box, p. 10A1] Bush described the present situation in Iraq as “unacceptable.” He acknowledged that the current strategy was not working, and allowed that “where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me.” He warned that “the consequences of failure” in Iraq “would be a disaster for the United States,” helping to increase the power of radical Islamic extremists in the Middle East and to embolden Iran. “For the safety of our people,” he said, “America must succeed in Iraq.” Bush asserted that bringing security to Iraq—in particular, to its capital, Baghdad—was the top priority, and would require “more than 20,000 additional American troops” in the coming months. Most of the new troops would be deployed in Baghdad in support of several brigades of Iraqi security forces, which would conduct operations to secure the capital. Bush clarified that this effort differed from previous plans to secure Baghdad in that the Iraqi government was committed to its part of the deployment, and restrictive rules of engagement had been eased. The failure of previous attempts to secure the capital had been blamed by many on the Iraqi government’s failure to provide the necessary troops and political restrictions on where and against whom U.S. forces could operate. [See 2006, p. 794F1] Roughly 4,000 U.S. troops would be sent to Anbar province in order to combat Sunni Muslim insurgents and members of the terrorist network Al Qaeda, Bush said. Benchmarks Set for Maliki—Bush in his Jan. 10 address said he had “made it clear to [Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki] and Iraq’s other leaders that America’s commitment is not open-ended,” and that Maliki’s government would be expected to meet certain benchmarks. Among them were sharing oil revenue among all Iraqis; devoting more resources to jobs and reconstruction programs; holding provincial elections later in the year; and reforming de-Baathification rules dictating which members of the former ruling Baath Party could hold government posts. Bush did not establish any timetables regarding the benchmarks or the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, or any specific consequences for Iraq’s government if the benchmarks were not met. The U.S. would also step up its efforts to improve Iraq’s security forces by increasing the number of U.S. military advisers

and coalition brigades partnered with Iraqi units and divisions, Bush said. In addition, he promised to “help the Iraqis build a larger and better-equipped army” and “accelerate the training of Iraqi forces.” Those moves were in line with recommendations offered in December 2006 by the Iraq Study Group, a commission that had been established by the U.S. Congress to give advice on Iraq policy. [See 2006, p. 921A1] On the diplomatic front, Bush pledged to “use America’s full diplomatic resources to rally support for Iraq from nations throughout the Middle East,” but declined to include Iran and Syria in that effort. He accused those two countries of providing aid to “terrorists and insurgents” in Iraq, and said the U.S. would respond by destroying any “networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies.” The Iraq Study Group had recommended opening talks with Iran and Syria. Bush also vowed to improve the manner in which U.S. economic and reconstruction assistance was given to Iraq, in order to ensure better results. Bush expressed a willingness to be responsive to suggestions and changes in circumstances. He also warned that, “Even if our new strategy works exactly as planned, deadly acts of violence will continue, and we must expect more Iraqi and American casualties.” Government Approves of Plan—Ali alDabagh, a spokesman for Maliki, Jan. 11 said Iraq’s government wanted U.S. forces to leave the country eventually, but would not object to a troop increase if it helped bring about security. Dabagh praised the plan insofar as it determined that “responsibility should be transferred from the Americans to the Iraqis.” Maliki Jan. 6 had announced a security operation in which Iraqi forces would attempt to regain control of the capital with the support of U.S. troops. He had also pledged to purge Iraq’s security forces of militia fighters and anyone with sectarian ambitions. Bush’s plan met with significant opposition in the U.S. Congress, however. Rep. James Moran (D, Va.) Jan. 11 said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) had directed members of her party to draft legislation aimed at preventing the surge in troop numbers. Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) had sent a letter to Bush Jan. 5 calling on him to eschew any troop increase in favor of a gradual withdrawal instead. “Adding more combat troops,” the letter said, “will only endanger more Americans and stretch our military to the breaking point for no strategic gain.” Sen. Russell Feingold (D, Wis.) at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jan. 11 called Bush’s new Iraq policy was “quite possibly the greatest foreign policy mistake in the history of our nation.” Some Republicans also expressed misgivings about Bush’s proposal. While questioning Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the committee hearing, Sen.

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Volume 67, No. 3448 January 11, 2007

B Chuck Hagel (Neb.) Jan. 11 described the plan as the “most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam.” Addressing concerns that Maliki would not carry out his part of the new strategy, Rice said the Iraqi premier had resolved to join the effort, and suggested that Maliki “knows that his government is, in a sense, on borrowed time, not just in terms of the American people, but in terms of the Iraqi people.” Fighting Rages in Baghdad—Iraqi forces Jan. 6 attacked Sunni insurgents who had set up a fake checkpoint on Haifa Street just north of the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. Thirty of the insurgents—who had been executing Shiite Muslims and reportedly stringing up the bodies on lampposts—were killed in the assault. Iraqi units also came under fire that day as they tried to recover the bodies of 27 Shiites

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

www.facts.com/FF6

U.S. President Bush sets new Iraq strategy; calls for sending 20,000 more U.S. troops; Democrats vow opposition.

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U.S. launches strikes against Al Qaeda targets in Somalia. PAGE 11

Bush taps intelligence chief Negroponte as State Department deputy. PAGE 13

U.S. House passes first batch of ‘100 hours’ package of bills. PAGES 14–15

California Gov. Schwarzenegger proposes universal health care.

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Indonesia jet disappears, 102 missing. PAGE 19

ETA claims bombing, but backs ceasefire with Spain. PAGE 20

Iranian supreme leader backs nuclear program. PAGE 21

Bangladeshi president declares state of emergency.

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Florida wins college football’s national championship. PAGE 23

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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EXCERPTS FROM PRESIDENT BUSH’S SPEECH ON IRAQ STRATEGY

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Following are excerpts from President George W. Bush’s Jan. 10 speech on the U.S.’s strategy for the Iraq war [See p. 9A1]: …The new strategy I outline tonight will change America’s course in Iraq and help us succeed in the fight against terror.… The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people, and it is unacceptable to me. Our troops in Iraq have fought bravely. They have done everything we have asked them to do. Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me. It is clear that we need to change our strategy in Iraq. So my national security team, military commanders and diplomats conducted a comprehensive review. We consulted members of Congress from both parties, allies abroad, and distinguished outside experts.… The consequences of failure are clear: Radical Islamic extremists would grow in strength and gain new recruits. They would be in a better position to topple moderate governments, create chaos in the region and use oil revenues to fund their ambitions. Iran would be emboldened in its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Our enemies would have a safe haven from which to plan and launch attacks on the American people.… Plan to Secure Baghdad The most urgent priority for success in Iraq is security, especially in Baghdad. Eighty percent of Iraq’s sectarian violence occurs within 30 miles of the capital. This violence is splitting Baghdad into sectarian enclaves and shaking the confidence of all Iraqis. Only the Iraqis can end the sectarian violence and secure their people. And their government has put forward an aggressive plan to do it. Our past efforts to secure Baghdad failed for two principal reasons: There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighborhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents, and there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have. Our military commanders reviewed the new Iraqi plan to ensure that it addressed these mistakes. They report that it does. They also report that this plan can work.… This will require increasing American force levels. So I have committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq. The vast majority of them— five brigades—will be deployed to Baghdad. These troops will work alongside Iraqi units and be embedded in their formations. Our troops will have a well-defined mission: to help Iraqis clear and secure neighborhoods, to help them protect the local population, and to help ensure that the Iraqi forces left behind are capable of providing the security that Baghdad needs.… Difference From Previous Efforts In earlier operations, Iraqi and American forces cleared many neighborhoods of terrorists and insurgents but, when our forces moved on to other targets, the killers returned. This time, we will have the force levels we need to hold the areas that have been cleared. In earlier operations, political and sectarian interference prevented Iraqi and American forces from going into neighborhoods that are home to those fueling the sectarian violence. This time, Iraqi and American forces will have a green light to enter these neighborhoods. And [Iraqi] Prime Minister [Nouri Kamel al-] Maliki has pledged that political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated. I have made it clear to the prime minister and Iraq’s other leaders that America’s commitment is not open-ended. If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support

dumped in the area on Jan. 6. Adnan Dulaimi, a Sunni member of parliament, Jan. 7 accused the Iraqi government of trying to cleanse the neighborhood of Sunnis.

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Fighting along Haifa street continued Jan. 9 as roughly 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. air power battled hundreds of Sunni insurgents. As many as 50 insurgents were killed and more than a dozen detained, including several Syrians. Many U.S. and Iraqi troops sustained inju10

of the American people. And it will lose the support of the Iraqi people. Now is the time to act. The prime minister understands this. Here is what he told his people just last week: The Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of sectarian or political affiliation.… Most of Iraq’s Sunni and Shia want to live together in peace. And reducing the violence in Baghdad will help make reconciliation possible. Benchmarks for Iraq A successful strategy for Iraq goes beyond military operations. Ordinary Iraqi citizens must see that military operations are accompanied by visible improvements in their neighborhoods and communities. So America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced. To establish its authority, the Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq’s provinces by November. To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country’s economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis. To show that it is committed to delivering a better life, the Iraqi government will spend 10 billion dollars of its own money on reconstruction and infrastructure projects that will create new jobs. To empower local leaders, Iraqis plan to hold provincial elections later this year. And to allow more Iraqis to re-enter their nation’s political life, the government will reform de-Baathification laws and establish a fair process for considering amendments to Iraq’s constitution.… Other Assistance In keeping with the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, we will increase the embedding of American advisers in Iraqi Army units and partner a coalition brigade with every Iraqi Army division. We will help the Iraqis build a larger and betterequipped Army, and we will accelerate the training of Iraqi forces, which remains the essential U.S. security mission in Iraq. We will give our commanders and civilians greater flexibility to spend funds for economic assistance. We will double the number of Provincial Reconstruction Teams. These teams bring together military and civilian experts to help local Iraqi communities pursue reconciliation, strengthen moderates and speed the transition to Iraqi self-reliance.… As we make these changes, we will continue to pursue [the] Al Qaeda [terrorist network] and foreign fighters. Al Qaeda is still active in Iraq. Its home base is Anbar province. Al Qaeda has helped make Anbar the most violent area of Iraq outside the capital.… So I have given orders to increase American forces in Anbar province by 4,000 troops. These troops will work with Iraqi and tribal forces to step up the pressure on the terrorists. America’s men and women in uniform took away Al Qaeda’s safe haven in Afghanistan, and we will not allow them to re-establish it in Iraq. Regional Diplomacy Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of the extremist challenge. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.… We will use America’s full diplomatic resources to rally support for Iraq from nations throughout the

Middle East. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf States need to understand that an American defeat in Iraq would create a new sanctuary for extremists and a strategic threat to their survival.… Ideological Struggle The challenge playing out across the broader Middle East is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of our time. On one side are those who believe in freedom and moderation. On the other side are extremists who kill the innocent, and have declared their intention to destroy our way of life. In the long run, the most realistic way to protect the American people is to provide a hopeful alternative to the hateful ideology of the enemy, by advancing liberty across a troubled region. It is in the interests of the United States to stand with the brave men and women who are risking their lives to claim their freedom, and help them as they work to raise up just and hopeful societies across the Middle East. From Afghanistan to Lebanon to the Palestinian Territories, millions of ordinary people are sick of the violence and want a future of peace and opportunity for their children. And they are looking at Iraq. They want to know: Will America withdraw and yield the future of that country to the extremists, or will we stand with the Iraqis who have made the choice for freedom? The changes I have outlined tonight are aimed at ensuring the survival of a young democracy that is fighting for its life in a part of the world of enormous importance to American security.… The question is whether our new strategy will bring us closer to success. I believe that it will. Victory will not look like the ones our fathers and grandfathers achieved. There will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship. But victory in Iraq will bring something new in the Arab world: a functioning democracy that polices its territory, upholds the rule of law, respects fundamental human liberties, and answers to its people. A democratic Iraq will not be perfect. But it will be a country that fights terrorists instead of harboring them, and it will help bring a future of peace and security for our children and grandchildren.… Many are concerned that the Iraqis are becoming too dependent on the United States and, therefore, our policy should focus on protecting Iraq’s borders and hunting down Al Qaeda. Their solution is to scale back America’s efforts in Baghdad or announce the phased withdrawal of our combat forces. We carefully considered these proposals. And we concluded that to step back now would force a collapse of the Iraqi government, tear that country apart, and result in mass killings on an unimaginable scale. Such a scenario would result in our troops being forced to stay in Iraq even longer, and confront an enemy that is even more lethal. If we increase our support at this crucial moment, and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home.… Fellow citizens: The year ahead will demand more patience, sacrifice and resolve. It can be tempting to think that America can put aside the burdens of freedom. Yet times of testing reveal the character of a nation. And, throughout our history, Americans have always defied the pessimists and seen our faith in freedom redeemed. Now America is engaged in a new struggle that will set the course for a new century. We can and we will prevail. We go forward with trust that the author of liberty will guide us through these trying hours. Thank you and good night.

ries, but none were killed. U.S. troops afterward noted that the performance of Iraqi forces had improved from previous operations. Iraqi soldiers were left in charge of the neighborhood after U.S. troops pulled out. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Statistics from Iraq's health ministry stated that 22,950 civilians and police died violently in 2006, 17,310 of them in the second half of the year, according to an uniden-

tified official at the ministry cited in the Washington Post Jan. 8. The tallies were larger than those offered earlier in the month by the interior ministry, and were compiled from morgues and hospitals. The ministry did not, as a matter of policy, release such figures to the public. [See p. 4D1] † At least 32 people, many of them workers from Turkey, were killed Jan. 9 when their plane crashed while trying to land in heavy fog at an airport in Balad, a FACTS ON FILE

U.S. Launches Strikes Against Al Qaeda Targets in Somalia Terrorists Said to Hide Among Islamists.

The U.S. Jan. 7–8 carried out overnight air strikes against suspected members of the Al Qaeda terrorist network in southern Somalia. The U.S. had accused the Council of Islamic Courts, an Islamist militia that had been driven from power in the previous two weeks by troops loyal to Somalia’s transitional government and Ethiopian forces, of sheltering Al Qaeda operatives. Those included the perpetrators of 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. [See below, p. 5A1] The attacks represented the U.S.’s first admitted military foray into Somali territory since March 1994, some five months after 18 U.S. soldiers were killed in a battle in Mogadishu, the capital. Analysts said the strikes represented a shift in U.S. policy in Somalia, to overt action from covert support for efforts against the Islamists, including the Ethiopian campaign. They also said it demonstrated the lengths to which the administration of U.S. President January 11, 2007

©2007 Facts On File News Services

George W. Bush was willing to go to fight its “war on terror.” [See 1994, p. 224F2] After being driven from the southern port town of Kismayo, about 90 miles (145 km) from the Kenyan border, hundreds of Islamist fighters fled south into a densely forested area. They were pursued by government and Ethiopian troops, and, after Kenya closed its border, were effectively cornered in the southern tip of Somalia. Success of Strikes Unknown—The U.S. military Jan. 9 said about a dozen people had been killed in the air strikes. However, it admitted that it was unsure whether the Al Qaeda targets had been hit. Somali officials said the death toll was at least 27. Abdul Rashid Hidig, a member of the transitional parliament, Jan. 9 said the strikes had hit a convoy of Islamists whose trucks had become stuck in the mud as they were trying to flee. Residents said the strikes had hit an area where nomadic herdsmen were traveling, and that both civilians and livestock had been killed. The strikes had been carried out by an AC-130 gunship in the area around the southern Somali towns of Afmadow and Ras Kamboni. The gunship was operated by U.S. Special Forces Command personnel based in Djibouti, Somalia’s northern neighbor. Some 1,500 U.S. troops were stationed there as part of a regional counterterrorism task force. In addition, U.S. warships—including the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower—had been patrolling Somalia’s coast to ensure the suspects did not escape by sea. The strikes were reportedly launched based on information from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. and Ethiopian militaries. U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman Jan. 9 said that intelligence had “led us to believe we had principal Al Qaeda leaders in an area where we could identify them and take action against them.” White House spokesman Tony Snow said the U.S. would “continue to conduct whatever operations we can to go after” those responsible for strikes against American targets. Ethiopian jets and helicopter gunships had reportedly been launching strikes in the same area for days, and continued to do so after the U.S. strikes. Somali officials Jan. 10 said the strikes had killed Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a native of the Comoros who was a suspected Al Qaeda leader and the alleged mastermind of the 1998 bombings. He had also been linked to attacks in 2002 on an Israeli hotel and an Israeli airliner in the Kenyan city of Mombasa. However, U.S. officials later that day cast doubt on that statement, saying they were unsure if Fazul was even in Somalia. The two other main targets of the U.S. strikes reportedly were Abu Talha alSudani, a Sudanese who allegedly financed the embassy bombings, and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan who allegedly built the bomb used on the Israeli hotel. A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, Jan. 11 said a small number of U.S. troops were on the ground

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mainly Shiite city about 50 miles (80 km) north of Baghdad. † The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, Jan. 9 asked nations to donate $60 milllon to aid refugees fleeing violence in Iraq. The agency, based in Geneva, Switzerland, claimed that 40,000–50,000 people were leaving their homes each month, going either to nearby countries such as Syria and Jordan, or to other parts of Iraq. Moreover, a total of 3.7 million people—roughly one in every eight Iraqis—had already left. Guterres warned that many of the displaced women were resorting to prostitution, and that many of the displaced children were not receiving any education. [See 2006, p. 592E2] † A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office released Jan. 9 claimed that U.S. forces were struggling under the burden of repeated deployments, and that the U.S. Defense Department had not allowed Congress to adequately supervise Iraq’s fledgling forces. † A convoy of pilgrims returning from Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, Jan. 10 came under fire while driving through a Sunni area in western Iraq. Twelve pilgrims were killed and 18 were wounded. Sixty bodies were found in Baghdad that day, and another 11 people were killed by bombings in the capital. [See 2006, p. 1031C3] † U.S. troops Jan. 11 detained six Iranians working at a diplomatic office in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil. Kurdish and Iranian officials denounced the move, but the U.S. military said the detainees were suspected of involvement in “activities targeting Iraqi and coalition forces.” Later that day, Kurdish forces surrounded U.S. soldiers who were attempting to pass through a checkpoint, resulting in a twohour standoff that ended without incident. [See 2006, p. 1030F1] „

in Somalia inspecting the sites of the air strikes. The official also confirmed that none of the main targets had been killed in the U.S. strikes. News of the U.S. attacks reportedly stoked anti-American sentiment in Mogadishu. Diplomats at the United Nations, as well as European Union, Arab League and African Union (AU) officials, expressed fears that the U.S. strikes could further destabilize Somalia. Peacekeeping Force Discussed— The International Contact Group on Somalia, composed of African, U.S. and European officials, Jan. 5–6 met in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, to discuss a proposed peacekeeping force for Somalia to replace the Ethiopian forces. The meeting was chaired by Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs. The group called for “immediate support for the stabilization of Somalia.” It said a force was needed to both hold off the Islamists and prevent Somalia from sliding back into the chaos of warlord rule that had dominated the country before the Islamists took control of Mogadishu in June 2006. Frazer Jan. 5 said the U.S. would provide $40 million in aid to Somalia, and the European Union pledged to help finance the peacekeeping force. However, only Uganda had volunteered to send troops, and a force was not expected to be ready to deploy for a few weeks at the earliest, analysts said. The U.S. was not expected to contribute any troops, but it could provide other support. The presence of troops from Ethiopia, whose government was Christian-controlled and considered a traditional enemy of mainly Muslim Somalia, was resented by the population, and there had been smallscale attacks and demonstrations against their presence. Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi had said the troops would remain in Somalia for only a few weeks. [See below] Zawahiri Calls for Insurgency— In an audiotape posted on an Islamist Web site Jan. 5, the voice of a man believed to be Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al11

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Zawahiri urged Somali Islamists to launch an insurgency against the Ethiopians similar to the one waged by Sunni Muslims against U.S. forces in Iraq. [See p. 9A1] The next day, unrest erupted in Mogadishu, with residents staging violent protests against the Ethiopians. Low-level skirmishes were reported Jan. 7–8. Insurgents Jan. 9 fired rocket-propelled grenades at an army barracks in downtown Mogadishu, killing at least two soldiers. On Jan. 10, the insurgents attacked a barracks housing transitional-government troops. In response, government and Ethiopian troops sealed off large areas of the city to search for weapons, sparking clashes with residents. The violence reportedly was limited to areas controlled by the Ayr clan, which had been allied with the Islamists. Meanwhile, neighborhoods controlled by the Darod clan, of which Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was a member, remained calm. Yusuf Jan. 8 had entered Mogadishu for the first time since becoming president in 2004. A planned visit by Frazer to Mogadishu on Jan. 7 was canceled due to the violence. Thousands of Somali refugees fleeing the violence were reportedly stranded at the border with Kenya, which had been sealed the previous week. „

Middle East Abbas Presses for Elections. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas Jan. 7 met with leaders of his Fatah party in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, telling them that he did not believe negotiations could settle the conflict with the rival Hamas party, and that he would therefore call new elections. Abbas had first called for elections in December 2006 after Hamas and Fatah had failed to agree on the formation of a national unity party. Tensions between the two groups had led to violence in recent months. Hamas had won parliamentary elections in January 2006, prompting international donors to cut off aid to the Palestinian territories until Hamas agreed, among other conditions, to recognize Israel’s right to exist. [See 2006, p. 993G1] Gunmen from Fatah and Hamas Jan. 3– 6 clashed in the Gaza Strip, leaving at least a dozen people dead and scores injured. Abbas and PA Premier Ismail Haniya, a leader of Hamas, agreed Jan. 5 to end the fighting, but the truce quickly fell apart. Hamas Force Kills Fatah Commander—

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A Fatah commander, Col. Mohammed Ghayeb, and at least six of his bodyguards Jan. 4 were killed in one of the more spectacular incidents of violence when gunmen from Hamas’s paramilitary police wing, the Executive Force, assaulted his house with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. During the assault, Ghayeb made a telephone call to a live Palestinian television program, and was heard asking for an ambulance to be sent to his home. Ghayeb’s wife and brother were seriously injured in the attack. Hamas earlier that day had blamed Ghayeb for the deaths of two of its fighters. 12

Abbas Jan. 6 declared that the Executive Force was illegal and “will be treated as such if it is not immediately integrated into legal security services as stipulated by basic law.” Abbas also announced that he would reshuffle his security personnel. Khaled Abu Hillal, spokesman for the Hamas-led interior ministry, responded that efforts to disband the police group “will be met with force.” The ministry also announced that it would double the group’s membership to 12,000. Leading Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan at a Fatah rally in Gaza City Jan. 7 said that the response to future attacks by Hamas would be to “hit back twice as hard.” The crowd, numbering in the tens of thousands, jeered at Hamas, chanting “Shiites, Shiites,” a reference to Shiite Muslim Iran, which had given support to Sunni Muslim Hamas. Dahlan chided them, saying Hamas members should instead be described as “criminals.” Two members of Hamas, one of them the deputy mayor of the West Bank city of Nablus, were kidnapped Jan. 6. Raid Tempers Egypt-Israel Summit—Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Jan. 4 met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheik to discuss Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, but a raid in the West Bank by Israeli forces only hours earlier cast a pall over the summit. [See 2006, p. 993F3] Undercover Israeli agents had been attempting to apprehend militants belonging to the Aksa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of Fatah, in the city of Ramallah, but the operation had resulted in a massive fire fight in a crowded marketplace. Reinforcements, including bulldozers and an attack helicopter, had been called in, and the marketplace was left in a shambles, littered with crushed cars and knocked-over vegetable stands. Four Palestinians were killed in the raid. Four militants were seized, but a fifth one escaped despite being wounded. At a news conference with Olmert, Mubarak said Egypt “rejects and is indignant at the military operation,” adding that “Israel’s security cannot be achieved through military force but by serious endeavors toward peace.” Olmert defended the raid, calling it an attempt to capture “terrorists who had killed Israelis.” He added, “If innocent people were hurt, this was not our intention.” Abbas also denounced the raid, saying it was proof that “the Israeli calls for peace and security are fake.” Other News—In other developments: † Palestinian militants who held captive Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit—he had been kidnapped in June 2006—Jan. 10 were reported to have said that Shalit was being handled in conformity with “Islamic standards” and was in “good health.” The militants had demanded that Israel free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for his release. [See 2006, p. 993C2] † The Reuters news service Jan. 5 reported that the U.S. planned to provide $86

million in nonmilitary aid to security forces loyal to Abbas, according to a U.S. government document it had obtained. A senior aide to Abbas, Saeb Erekat, denied any knowledge of the funding, but a Hamas legislator, Mushir al-Masri, denounced it as an attempted “coup” by the U.S. † Citing unidentified Israeli military sources, the Sunday Times, a British newspaper, Jan. 7 claimed that Israeli pilots were training to strike Iranian nuclear sites with low-yield, tactical nuclear weapons in order to end Iran’s nuclear program. Israeli officials denied the claim. [See p. 21G2] † A Peruvian journalist, Jaime Razuri, Jan. 1 was abducted by gunmen in Gaza City. Razuri, a photographer for the news agency Agence France-Presse, was released in front of its Gaza office Jan. 7. No group had taken responsibility for his kidnapping. [See 2006, p. 183E3] „

International Trade EU, U.S. Leaders Push for Doha Revival.

President Jose Manuel Barroso of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, and U.S. President George W. Bush Jan. 8 called for stronger efforts to revive negotiations between members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on a global trade agreement. The so-called Doha round of trade talks, aimed at such an agreement, had collapsed in July 2006 as both the U.S. and the EU balked at making concessions on trade barriers and subsidies. [See 2006, p. 593A1] Barroso, after a meeting with Bush at the White House in Washington, D.C., said, “We gave instructions to negotiators to come up with a solution as soon as

Facts On File

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Marion Farrier DIRECTOR OF INDEX SERVICES: Marjorie B. Bank MANAGING EDITOR (NEWS): Jonathan Taylor MANAGING EDITOR (INDEX): Tamara Fishman ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham SENIOR EDITORS: Mette Bahde, Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Alasdair Denvil, Ben Miller ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Jonathan Leith, Ian McGullam COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Faith Barclay, Jane Carlson FACTS ON FILE is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. General Manager: Ken Park. Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

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possible.” EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said Bush had told him and Susan Schwab, the U.S. trade representative, to “just get it done.” The two trade officials held talks that day and afterward said they had begun to bridge their differences. Trade ministers were scheduled to meet at a World Economic Forum in Switzerland later in the month. Canada Challenges U.S. Subsidies—

Canada Jan. 8 filed a formal complaint with the WTO over U.S. corn subsidies and, more generally, the almost $20 billion in annual government aid to U.S. farms. It was Canada’s first challenge to U.S. agricultural programs through the international trade body, although it had previously tried protesting directly to the U.S. government. The move was seen partly as an effort to discourage the U.S. Congress, newly controlled by Democrats, from yielding to protectionist interests when the next farm bill, containing the subsidies, came up for debate later in the year. „

United Nations Deputy

Secretary

General

Appointed.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Jan. 5 appointed Tanzanian Foreign Minister Asha-Rose Migiro as deputy secretary general. The move fulfilled Ban’s campaign promise to appoint a woman to the U.N.’s second-highest-ranking post, and appeased diplomats from the developing world who had pressed him to choose a candidate from the Southern Hemisphere. Ban said he intended to hand over to her “much of the administrative and manage-

ment work of the Secretariat,” as well as international developmental projects. [See 2005, p. 29B1] Ban the same day announced that he would publicly release his financial records. Michele Montas, his spokeswoman, said that senior U.N. officials were required to disclose their finances but not to make them public, and the move was seen as a demonstration of Ban’s commitment to reform. The previous secretary general, Kofi Annan, had filed financial disclosure forms only after facing media pressure. [See 2006, p. 835A3] Other Appointments Announced— Ban Jan. 3 announced the appointment of Alicia Barcena Ibarra, a senior U.N. diplomat from Mexico, as undersecretary general for management, a position that in the past had typically gone to a U.S. national. Barcena was criticized by some U.N. officials for not having sufficient experience to run the organization. Her appointment was seen by critics as an indication that Ban was not moving forward with his pledges to reform the U.N. bureaucracy. John Holmes, the British ambassador to France and a former aide to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, that day was appointed undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and coordinator of emergency relief. [See 2006, p. 779E1] Margaret Chan Jan. 4 took office as the director general of the World Health Organization. She said in a speech that her priorities would be to improve health in Africa and among women worldwide, and also warned of the need to remain vigilant regarding avian influenza and other possible pandemics. [See 2006, p. 875D1] „

UNITED NATIONS—2007 U.N. Organs

Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)—Ex-

General Assembly—President of the 61st session:

U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF)—Executive Di-

Sheikha Haya Rashed al Khalifa (Bahrain) Security Council—The council consists of 15 member states. Five permanent members have veto power over resolutions. The 10 rotating seats are allocated on a regional basis. Five new members are selected each fall for two-year terms that begin the following January. [See 2006, p. 875D2] Permanent—China (People’s Republic of),

France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States Rotating—Terms end 2008: Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama, South Africa Terms end 2007: Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar, Slovakia Secretariat—U.N. Secretary General: Ban Ki

Moon (South Korea) [for facts on Ban, see 2006, p. 779A1] Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)— President: Ali Hachani (Tunisia) World Court (International Court of Justice)— President: Rosalyn Higgins (U.K.) Major Agencies and Their Heads Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)—Di-

ecutive Director: Dr. Peter Piot (Belgium)

rector: Ann Veneman (U.S.) U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)—Secretary General: Supachai Panitch-

pakdi (Thailand)

U.N. Development Program (UNDP)—Adminis-

trator: Kemal Dervis (Turkey)

U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)—Director General: Koichiro

Matsuura (Japan)

U.N. Environmental Program (UNEP)—Executive

Director: Achim Steiner (Germany)

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights ( UNHCHR)—High Commissioner: Louise Ar-

bour (Canada)

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)—High Commissioner: Antonio Guterres

(Portugal)

U.N. Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)—Director General: Kandeh Yumkella

(Sierra Leone)

U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA)—Executive Di-

rector: Thoraya Ahmed Obaid (Saudi Arabia)

rector General: Jacques Diouf (Senegal)

World Bank Group—President: Paul Wolfowitz

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)— Director General: Mohamed ElBaradei (Egypt)

World Food Program (WFP)—Executive Director:

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)—President: Lennart Bage (Sweden) International Monetary Fund (IMF)—Managing

Director: Rodrigo de Rato y Figaredo (Spain)

January 11, 2007

(U.S.)

Josette Sheeran (U.S.) [See 2006, p. 907E2]

World Health Organization (WHO)—Director

General: Dr. Margaret Chan (China) [See p.

13D2]

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

A

Bush Administration Negroponte Tapped as State Dept. Deputy.

President George W. Bush Jan. 5 announced that he planned to nominate Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Negroponte to serve as deputy secretary of state. Bush said he would nominate retired Navy Adm. John McConnell, former head of the National Security Agency (NSA), as the new DNI. Both nominations required Senate confirmation. [See 2005, p. 280G1] The DNI, a position created 19 months earlier, held responsibility for coordinating the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies and their 100,000 staffers, as well as serving as the president’s intelligence adviser. Negroponte, 67, was the first DNI. Some senators and intelligence experts said it was unfortunate that he was preparing to leave the post after such a short stint, leaving much to be done in the intelligence reform effort undertaken in response to Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. Previously, Negroponte had served under Bush as ambassador to the United Nations from 2001 to 2004, and as ambassador to Iraq from 2004 to 2005. A career diplomat, he had also been ambassador to the Philippines, Mexico and Honduras. The post of deputy secretary of state had stood vacant since Robert Zoellick resigned in July 2006. [See 2006, p. 488C2] McConnell, 63, had headed the NSA, which mainly conducted electronic intelligence gathering, from 1992 to 1996. He had since worked in the private sector as a senior vice president for consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

B

C

D

Khalilzad, Crocker Tapped for U.N., Iraq—

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Jan. 8 said Bush planned to nominate U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad to serve as ambassador to the U.N., and the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Ryan Crocker, to replace Khalilzad in Iraq. At the U.N., Khalilzad would replace John Bolton, who had been unable to win Senate confirmation and whose direct appointment by Bush had expired. [See 2006, p. 924D3; 2005, p. 502A1] Khalilzad, 55, who came from a Sunni Muslim Afghan family, had previously served as ambassador to Afghanistan. Amid rising sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq, he had reportedly faced distrust from top officials in the largely Shiite Iraqi government, who accused him of favoring the Sunnis. Crocker, 57, had been ambassador to Pakistan since 2004. Previously, he had been ambassador to Lebanon, Kuwait and Syria, and had held a top post in the U.S.led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2003. The new changes in Bush’s diplomatic and national security team came in the runup to the president’s Jan. 10 unveiling of his new strategy for the Iraq war. Bush also reportedly planned to replace the top U.S. military commanders for Iraq and the Middle East region. [See pp. 9A1, 4A2] „ 13

E

F

G

Fielding Returns as White House Counsel.

A

B

C

D

President George W. Bush Jan. 9 named Fred Fielding as White House counsel, replacing Harriet Miers, who had resigned as the president’s top lawyer Jan. 4. Fielding had held the same post in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan. [See 2002, p. 962G3; 1986, p. 314A3; 1974, p. 244C2] White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten had reportedly urged Bush to recruit a legal veteran like Fielding as the administration braced for investigations and subpoenas from the new Democraticcontrolled Congress. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney had pushed to expand presidential powers, often citing executive privilege to refuse congressional requests for information. The newly empowered Democrats were expected to challenge that stance. Fielding, 67, had served as Reagan’s counsel from 1981 to 1986. He had also been deputy White House counsel under President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974, during the Watergate scandal, which led to Nixon’s resignation. More recently, he had served on an independent commission that investigated Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. Miers had been Bush’s counsel since 2005, when her predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, became attorney general. She had worked for Bush previously in other White House jobs and when he was governor of Texas. Bush nominated her to the Supreme Court in October 2005, but the choice drew bipartisan opposition from critics who called her unqualified, and she withdrew later that month. [See 2005, p. 745A1] Bush Withdraws Judicial Nominees—

E

F

G

Bush Jan. 9 formally withdrew four of his nominees for federal appeals courts who had previously failed to win Senate confirmation because of opposition by Democrats, and were now even less likely to be confirmed with a Democratic majority in the Senate. But Bush also sent the Senate a list of about 30 other judicial nominees, most of whom had been nominated before without success. [See 2006, p. 1000F1] The four appellate nominees dropped by Bush were U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle of North Carolina, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va.; Defense Department general counsel William Haynes 2nd, also nominated to the 4th Circuit; former Interior Department Solicitor William Myers 3rd, nominated to the 9th Circuit, in San Francisco, Calif.; and Mississippi lawyer Michael Wallace, nominated to the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans, La. Bush had renominated all four men in November 2006. Wallace requested in December that his nomination be withdrawn. Democrats had argued that Boyle and Wallace had shown themselves to be opponents of civil rights for minorities. Myers had drawn criticism from environmentalist groups for his work as a lobbyist for mining and ranching businesses. Haynes had faced questions over his role in approving Defense Department policies on 14

detention and interrogation that critics said condoned torture. Bush also dropped his nomination of Michigan state Judge Janet Neff to be a federal district judge. Sen. Sam Brownback (R, Kan.) had blocked her nomination, citing his concerns over her attendance at a commitment ceremony for a lesbian couple. [See 2006, p. 1000E1] „

Legislation The House Democratic majority Jan. 9–11 advanced its agenda for the first 100 hours of business in the 110th Congress. The Democrats, with some Republican backing, passed bills to raise the minimum wage, boost homeland security measures and allow more federal funding for stem cell research. Earlier, they had passed changes in House ethics and budget rules. The “100 hour” push would continue into the next week, with votes planned on changes to the Medicare prescription drug benefit, student loan interest rates and energy policy. [See pp. 15B1, 14C2, G2, F3] House Passes Minimum Wage Increase.

The House Jan. 10 passed, 315–116, legislation raising the minimum wage by $2.10 an hour, to $7.25, from $5.15. [See p. 1D3; 2006, p. 610B2] The federal minimum wage had not increased since 1997, though several states had minimum wages higher than $5.15. The Republican-led Senate in August 2006 had attempted to attach a minimum wage increase to a repeal of the estate tax, but Democrats blocked the measure. [See 2006, p. 839F1] Eighty-two Republicans voted for the bill, along with all 233 Democrats. Opponents argued that it would result in job losses for low-income workers. Under the legislation, the minimum wage would increase to $5.85 per hour 60 days after the bill was signed. It would rise to $6.55 one year after the first increase, and to $7.25 one year after that. For the first time, the federal minimum wage would apply to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific. The territory had previously been exempt from federal labor laws due to the efforts of GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who in January 2006 had pleaded guilty to three felony counts of conspiracy to bribe public officials, fraud and tax evasion. Abramoff had represented clients who opposed stricter labor standards for the garment industry in the Marianas. [See 2006, p. 796B3] The Senate was expected to combine the minimum wage bill with tax breaks for small businesses—a provision not included in the House bill. President George W. Bush had indicated that he would not sign a minimum wage increase that did not also provide for such tax breaks. „ House Passes 9/11 Commission Bill. The House Jan. 9 passed, 299–128, an antiterrorism bill that would put into place many of the security recommendations made by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (known informally as the Sept. 11 commis-

sion), an independent, bipartisan panel that had investigated September 2001 attacks on the U.S. Republicans and some Democrats criticized the bill for not providing funding for most of the security measures, expected to cost billions of dollars. [See p. 1E2; 2006, p. 798B2; 2005, p. 870A1] The bill required that the government implement a system of scanning all cargo coming into the U.S. for explosives and other hazardous materials. It also required, within three years, the scanning of all cargo that entered on passenger airplanes or ships embarking from major overseas ports, and set a deadline of five years for scanning all cargo from small ports. Republican members of Congress, business groups and some analysts said that scanning all incoming cargo at overseas ports would be impossible without crippling the economy. The Senate, controlled at the time by Republicans, in September 2006 had rejected a Democratic port security measure that would have required such scanning. The House bill would adjust counterterrorism aid distribution formulas in a way that was expected to benefit larger cities thought to be more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, and added grants for intelligence and emergency communications programs. In addition, the bill would form a new intelligence oversight subcommitee; create a position coordinating federal efforts to halt the proliferation of unconventional weapons; and mandate that the government seek agreement with other nations on standards for the detention of terrorism suspects. Cost Scored—Republicans in debate on the bill Jan. 9 said the high cost of the measures required by the bill would require tax or fee hikes. The only funding actually set aside by the bill was $250 million for a checkpoint-screening security fund in 2008. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D, Miss.), the bill’s sponsor, said he would have included more funding measures if the bill’s passage had not been rushed. The Bush administration said it would not support the bill, although it stopped short of threatening a veto. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Jan. 9 criticized it as unrealistic. However, 68 Republicans voted for the bill. „ House Approves Stem Cell Research. The House Jan. 11 voted, 253–174, to augment federal funding of controversial embryonic stem cell research, but the measure failed to garner the two-thirds supermajority needed to overcome an expected veto by President George W. Bush. An identical bill had been passed by the House in 2005 and the Senate in 2006, then vetoed by Bush. A statement issued by the White House said Bush intended to veto the bill again. (The Senate was expected to easily pass the bill in February.) [See 2006, pp. 986D3, 571A1] The legislation, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, would end a research prohibition on embryos from fertility clinics, donated by parents, that would otherFACTS ON FILE

wise be destroyed. It would also establish some of the first ethics rules regarding stem cell research, such as a prohibition on the sale of embryos. Bush in 2001 had limited federal research funds to roughly 21 stem cell lines in existence at the time. The bill passed with the support of 216 Democrats and 37 Republicans, but still needed an additional 37 votes to override a veto. Some opponents of embryonic stem cell research likened it to murder. „ House Passes Offset, Earmark Rules. The House Jan. 5 voted, 280–152, with 48 Republicans joining all 232 Democrats who voted, to approve a set of budget rules that restored “pay-as-you-go” requirements to offset the cost of new spending or tax cuts. The new rules also cracked down on earmarks, the narrowly tailored spending or tax provisions inserted in legislation by individual members. [See p. 1C1] The pay-as-you-go rules, intended to help balance the budget, required spending increases to be offset by an equivalent tax increase, and tax cuts to be offset by equivalent spending cuts. Democrats said they would abide by the rules even on measures passed as part of their agenda for the first 100 hours of their new House majority, such as cutting interest rates on student loans and boosting homeland security spending. However, the rules allowed the pay-as-you-go requirement to be waived in certain cases. The new budget rules for earmarks required the disclosure of such requests and their House sponsors. The rules also required that members who requested earmarks certify that neither they nor their spouses would receive a financial benefit from the measures. The changes were intended to end the secretive earmarking process that had resulted in a string of corruption scandals in 2006. They were also aimed at imposing fiscal discipline on the growth of earmarks, the annual cost of which had tripled to $64 billion over the past decade. „

a failed 1994 campaign to unseat Sen. Edward Kennedy (D, Mass.). The fact that Romney was a practicing Mormon had also raised questions about his candidacy. No Mormon had ever been elected president, and polls showed that as many as a third of American voters would be reluctant to vote for a Mormon candidate. Romney’s late father, George Romney, had served as Michigan governor from 1963 to 1969, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination. [See 1995, p. 564F3] Other News—In related developments: † Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.) Jan. 11 announced that he planned to run for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Dodd revealed his decision in an interview with syndicated radio and cable television talk show host Don Imus. Dodd touted his 32 years of experience in Congress, but acknowledged that he would be a “dark horse” in a race against better-known Democrats. † Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), in an appearance on NBC television’s “Meet the Press,” Jan. 7 said he planned to seek the Democratic nomination. Biden had served in the Senate since 1973 and was now chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He had run for the 1988 Democratic nomination, but dropped out amid a plagiarism scandal. [See 1987, p. 690A2] † The New York Daily News Jan. 2 reported that it had been given a copy of a 140-page Giuliani campaign plan by an unidentified person “sympathetic to one of Giuliani’s rivals for the White House.” The plan called for raising $100 million in 2007. It also warned that opponents would attack the former mayor on matters such as his support for abortion rights, gay rights and gun control as well as his personal life. Giuliani advisers alleged that the document had been stolen. „

2008 Presidential Campaign

Calif. Gov. Proposes Universal Health Care.

Romney Enters Republican Field. Outgoing

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, on his last day in office, Jan. 3 filed papers to set up an exploratory committee in order to consider a run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Romney, 59, was widely viewed as one of the top three Republican contenders, along with Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, though he trailed both men in early polls. [See 2006, p. 999B1] Romney Jan. 8 held a telephone fundraising event in Boston, Mass., raising $6.5 million for his exploratory committee. He had said he hoped to raise a total of $100 million in 2007. Romney in recent weeks had faced questions from conservative critics who raised doubts about the sincerity of his stated opposition to abortion rights and gay marriage. It was noted that he had shifted his positions on both issues to the right since running as a moderate Republican in January 11, 2007

Medicine & Health California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Jan. 8 proposed extending health insurance to all of the state’s 36 million residents. If approved by the state legislature, Schwarzenegger’s plan would make California the fourth state to provide universal health insurance, joining Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts. [See 2006, p. 279E1] Under the plan, benefits available under Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, would be available to all children, regardless of immigration status, living in households earning up to 300% above the federal poverty line, and legal adult residents earning up to 100% above the poverty line. Adult illegal immigrants would not be eligible for Medicaid, but would remain entitled to care provided by state and county hospital systems. Denial of coverage due to age or health status would also be banned under the plan. Hospitals would be required to pay 4% of their revenues, and doctors 2%, in order to defray the costs of payments to health care

providers who treated patients enrolled in Medi-Cal. Businesses employing 10 or more people that did not offer health insurance would be required to contribute an amount equivalent to 4% of wages subject to Social Security taxes to a health insurance fund for those who were employed but lacked health insurance. Schwarzenegger estimated his proposal would cost $12 billion, and said it would be funded by a reallocation of state funds and $5 billion in new federal funding resulting from the reorganization of the state’s health care programs. California had an estimated 6.5 million people without health insurance or who were underinsured. An estimated one million of the uninsured were illegal immigrants. Observers said the state’s sheer size would likely influence health care reform in other states and at the federal level. „ News in Brief. Researchers reported Jan. 7 on the Web site of the journal Nature Biotechnology that stem cells could be derived from cells found in the amniotic fluid surrounding a fetus in the womb. The amniotic fluid-derived stem (AFS) cells had been grown into various muscle, bone, fat and organ cells by the scientists. The scientists said their discovery could eventually allow them to develop an alternative to the current, controversial method of harvesting stem cells, which required the destruction of human embryos. The research had been led by Anthony Atala of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. [See 2006, p. 986D3] Two teams of researchers reported in the Jan. 4 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that pergolide and cabergoline, two drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease, contributed to serious heart valve damage. One study, which examined data gathered on 11,417 Parkinson’s patients, found that those given pergolide were seven times as likely as controls to experience heart valve problems, while those taking cabergoline were five times as likely. The other study, performed in Italy, found that 29% of those administered cabergoline and 23% of patients taking pergolide suffered heart damage, while only 5.6% of control patients had similar problems. Pergolide was marketed under the name Permax and cabergoline as Dostinex. [See 2006, pp. 1008C2, 851E3] „

A

B

C

D

E

F

Economy Trade Deficit Shrank in November 2006.

The Commerce Department Jan. 10 reported that the seasonally adjusted U.S. trade deficit in Trade Deficit goods and servic(in billions) es narrowed for a November 2006 $58.23 third straight Previous Month $58.80 month in Novem- Year Earlier $64.00 ber 2006, to $58.2 billion, from a revised $58.8 billion in October. The new level was the lowest in more than a year. Some economists credited the dollar’s relative weakness against foreign currencies with stimulating demand for U.S. goods abroad. [See 2006, p. 973D3] 15

G

MERCHANDISE TRADE DATA

A Country/ Region China Japan Canada European Union Mexico NICs†

D

E

F

-22.92 -7.90 -5.42 -9.50 -5.44 -0.04

-24.37 -8.25 -5.46 -9.46 -5.18 -1.56

*Bilateral trade figures in billions of dollars unadjusted for seasonal variations. The data—except figures given for Canada—do not include revisions of month-earlier figures. †Newly industrialized countries—Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

B

C

Deficit/Surplus* November October 2006 2006

Exports, at $124.8 billion, were up from October’s revised level of $123.7 billion. Capital goods and private services exports led the growth, along with consumer goods and motor vehicles and parts. Imports also rose in November, but not as quickly. They stood at $183.0 billion in November, up from $182.5 billion in October. Consumer and capital goods imports rose, while imports of industrial supplies and materials fell. Bilateral Trade Figures Reported—The Commerce Department Jan. 10 also reported bilateral trade data for November. The numbers were not seasonally adjusted and contained merchandise-trade data only, with no revisions for the previous month except to those for Canada. The merchandise-trade deficit with China eased to $22.9 billion, from $24.4 billion the previous month. The gap with the European Union stayed essentially the same, at $9.5 billion. The trade deficit with Canada shrank slightly to $5.4 billion, from $5.5 billion in October, revised. The trade gap with Japan narrowed to $7.9 billion, from $8.3 billion. „ Jobless Rate was 4.5% in December 2006.

The unemployment rate in December 2006 was unchanged from the previous month, at 4.5% after seasonal adjustUnemployment December 2006 4.5% ment, the Labor Previous Month 4.5% Department reYear Earlier 4.9% ported Jan. 5. An estimated 167,000 nonfarm jobs were added during the month, many of them in the service sector, while manufacturing shed workers. Along with a solid rise in average wages, the employment rate suggested that the economy was healthy and dashed some investors’ hopes of an interest-rate cut. [See 2006, p. 955B1] Total Employment Was 145.9 Million—

G

According to a household survey, 145.9 million people held jobs in December, the Labor Department reported Jan. 5. The department counted 6.8 million people as unemployed, the same number as in November. For all of 2006, total employment had grown by 3.1 million and the rate of participation in the labor force, at 66.4%, was up from 66% a year earlier. The department counted 274,000 workers in December as “discouraged,” meaning 16

that they were currently not looking for work because they believed that no jobs were available. Those people were not counted as part of the labor force. About 4.2 million people who sought full-time employment were working part-time instead. The average manufacturing workweek held steady at 41.0 hours in December. Factory workers put in an average of 4.3 overtime hours per week, an increase from November’s 40.9 hours. Seasonally adjusted average hourly wages for production workers rose eight cents in December, to $17.04. The unemployment rate among whites nationwide rose in December, to 4.0%, from November’s 3.9%. The jobless rate for blacks fell to 8.4%, from 8.6%. For Hispanics, who could be of any race, unemployment was 4.9%, down from a revised 5.0%. No figures were reported for other racial or ethnic groups. For men aged 20 and over, December unemployment was 4.0%, up from 3.9% the previous month. For women, it was 3.9%, down from 4.0%. The teenage jobless rate stood at 15.2%, up from 15.1%. Description of the Data—Information on the

household survey contained in the government’s unemployment report was prepared by the Census Bureau for the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Some 60,000 households throughout the nation were contacted in the survey. Household members over 16 years of age were classified according to their responses as employed, unemployed or not in the labor force. The employed category included all full- and parttime employees who worked for pay or profit during the survey period, or who were prevented from working because of illness, vacation, industrial disputes or other reasons. Persons without jobs were classified as unemployed if they actively had searched for work in the previous four weeks and were available for work. The total unemployment figure represented not only those who had lost their jobs, but also persons who had quit their jobs, experienced workers looking for work after an absence from the labor force, and new workers looking for their first jobs. The sum of the employed and unemployed constituted the labor force. Persons not in the labor force plus those in the labor force made up the total noninstitutional population 16 years or older. (Persons in prisons, mental hospitals or other institutions were not included.) In addition to the household survey, unemployment reports presented statistics from an establishment survey conducted by the BLS in cooperation with state agencies. That survey drew from payroll records of more than 400,000 places of work, and provided information on employment, hours and earnings. The unemployment data were adjusted to reflect seasonal variations in the employment situation. 䡲

Durable Goods Orders Rose in Nov. 2006.

The Commerce Department Jan. 4 reported that durable goods orders in November 2006 rose $3.3 billion, or 1.6%, to $213.8 billion, from the previous month. They had fallen a revised 8.1% in October from September. [See 2006, p. 908B3] „

Environment California Emissions Cuts Ordered. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Jan. 9 unveiled a new emissions standard for the production and burning of petroleum products and gasoline used in the state, calling for the release of so-called greenhouse gases to be cut by 10% by 2020. (Greenhouse gases were created by the use of fossil

fuels and were thought to contribute to global climate change.) [See 2006, p. 693D3] The plan, announced by Schwarzenegger in his annual State of the State address, would require the California Air Resources Board to establish new fuel standards that would likely result in petroleum refiners’ use of alternative fuels, such as ethanol, natural gas and biodiesel. Fuel producers would also be able to buy pollution credits to offset the carbon content of their products. Analysts said the new rules would likely drive the market for alternative fuels, and encourage research and development in the field. The standards would require fuels to carry a greenhouse-gas rating that would indicate how much carbon would result from its use, and the quantity of carbon emissions generated during the fuel’s production. „

Business Home Depot CEO Ousted Over Pay. The

board of directors of Home Depot Inc. Jan. 2 forced the resignation of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Robert Nardelli, while awarding him a severance package worth $210 million. Large institutional shareholders of Home Depot had been agitating for Nardelli’s removal for months because the company’s stock price had stagnated as he continued to receive what they called an exorbitant pay package. The board had long supported him against those criticisms. [See 2006, pp. 982B2, 648E1, 631B2; 2001, p. 164A2] Nardelli had been paid $64 million in salary in his six years at Home Depot. During the same period, the company’s stock price had declined to little more than $41 per share, from about $50. Meanwhile, Home Depot’s main competitor, Lowe’s Companies Inc., had seen its share price rise substantially as the country experienced a boom in its housing market. Nardelli’s exit package was the second-largest paid to an executive to leave a company, after Hank McKinnell’s $213 million upon leaving pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. in 2006. News of the severance figure drew complaints and criticism from labor unions, investors and others in the business community over the dissociation of executive pay from performance. The chairman-designate of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Barney Frank (D, Mass.), said it was more evidence of a “need to deal with a pattern of CEO pay that appears to be out of control.” Home Depot Jan. 3 named Frank Blake, a former executive at General Electric Co., to replace Nardelli. „

Civil Rights Mass. Same-Sex Marriage Ban Advances.

The Massachusetts legislature Jan. 2 voted, 61–132, to advance a bill that would amend the state constitution to define marriage as the union between a man and a woman. SixFACTS ON FILE

ty-one legislators had voted to advance the amendment, while 132 had voted against it. Under state law, a proposed constitutional amendment needed at least 50 votes in the 200-seat legislature in two consecutive years. If the proposal again received at least 50 votes in the 2007–08 session, it would be placed on a ballot in a public referendum in November 2008. Massachusetts was the only state in which same-sex marriage was legal. [See 2006, p. 1002A2] After the initial vote lawmakers agreed to hold a second one, but achieved a similar result, 62–134. Both advocates and opponents of gay marriage had staged rallies outside the State House. Gay rights advocates characterized the vote as a blow to the same-sex marriage movement. “It’s always wrong to put the rights of a minority up to a popular vote,” Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said. „

Crime Killings Prompt New Orleans Protest.

Thousands of residents of New Orleans, La., Jan. 11 staged a march on City Hall, denouncing what they called inadequate law enforcement, following a recent wave of killings, including six in one 24-hour period Jan. 3–4. The city, its population severely reduced from before 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, was facing a resurgence of its notorious pre-storm crime levels. [See 2006, p. 928C2] A majority of the protesters were white, even though most of the city’s population and its violent crime victims were black. Mayor Ray Nagin (D) said afterward that he vowed to “do everything in my power” to improve the city’s police and criminal justice system, calling the demonstration “moving.” The mayor Jan. 9 had announced new measures to intensify police patrols and concentrate on prosecutions of violent crimes. Among those killed recently were a well-known jazz drummer, Dinerral Shavers, murdered Dec. 28, 2006, and a filmmaker active in the community, Helen Hill, killed Jan. 4. „ News in Brief. A Wisconsin county sheriff Jan. 8 said Cha Vang, 30, an ethnic Hmong hunter found dead Jan. 6 in a wooded area in the northern part of the state, had been murdered after a run-in with a white hunter. Law enforcement officials Jan. 6 had detained James Nichols, 28, after he arrived at a medical center seeking treatment for a gunshot wound. The incident had raised tensions between the Hmong community, many of whom had immigrated to the area from Southeast Asia, and whites. A Hmong hunter in 2004 had shot and killed six white hunters and injured two others, claiming they had referred to him using racial epithets. [See 2004, p. 991E1] Michael Hamlin, who in September 2006 had pleaded guilty to the murder and robbery of retired New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum, Jan. 3 was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Hamlin, 24, had agreed to testify against his cousin and acJanuary 11, 2007

complice, Percey Jordan Jr., in a deal that had allowed him to plead guilty to seconddegree murder, escaping the life sentence he could have received if convicted of firstdegree murder. Rosenbaum had been attacked near his home in Washington, D.C., in January 2006. His subsequent medical treatment had exposed a number of problems in the city’s emergency medical care system. [See 2006, p. 1010F3] „

AFRICA

Sudan U.S. Governor Secures Darfur Truce Pledge.

Bill Richardson, the Democratic governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico, Jan. 10 negotiated a 60-day cease-fire in Sudan’s war-torn western Darfur region. He secured the deal in separate meetings with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and rebel leaders. [See 2006, pp. 1014F1, 785G2] In a statement issued jointly with Richardson, Bashir agreed to halt military action in Darfur, and to allow for increased access for aid workers and journalists. Bashir also pledged to discontinue using warplanes that were painted white, a color traditionally used by aid agencies. However, the Sudanese leader continued to resist a proposed United Nations peacekeeping force for Darfur. Richardson had traveled to Khartoum on behalf of the Save Darfur Coalition, a U.S.-based grassroots movement that sought to end nearly four years of violence in Darfur. More than 200,000 people had been killed and some 2.5 million others had been driven from their homes in the Darfur conflict. Analysts expressed skepticism about whether the cease-fire would hold. However, they noted that Richardson’s efforts highlighted the failure of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to achieve any progress on Darfur. „

African News in Brief Ethiopia: Mengistu Sentenced. A court in Addis Ababa, the capital, Jan. 11 sentenced former Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam to life in prison. Mengistu, whose dictatorial rule had lasted from 1974 to 1991, in December 2006 had been convicted in absentia of genocide and other offenses. Seventy-two members of his regime had been convicted along with Mengistu (14 of whom had died since legal proceedings began in 1992, and 24 of whom were in exile). They were given sentences ranging from 25 years’ to life imprisonment. Mengistu, who lived in exile in Zimbabwe and was considered unlikely to ever be extradited, had faced the death penalty. [See 2006, p. 1015A1] „ Ivory Coast: U.N. Extends Mission. The United Nations Security Council Jan. 10 unanimously approved a six-month extension of the mandate of the about 11,000 U.N. and French peacekeeping troops in Ivory Coast. Many of the troops

patrolled a buffer zone between the government-controlled south and the rebelheld north, which had been in place since the end of a civil war in 2003. The Security Council called on the troops to assist the government of Premier Charles Konan Banny in disarming militias and preparing for presidential and parliamentary elections, to be held later in 2007. [See 2006, p. 1015D1] „

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Rwanda: Ex-First Lady’s Arrest Sought.

The Rwandan government had asked France to arrest Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of late President Juvenal Habyarimana, for complicity in the country’s 1994 genocide, in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists, it was reported Jan. 11. The genocide had been sparked after the plane carrying President Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down in April 1994, allegedly by Tutsi rebels. Agathe Habyarimana’s request for asylum in France had been denied, her attorney said Jan. 10. Habyarimana had argued that she and her relatives were being unfairly blamed for the massacres. [See 2006, p. 1015F1] „

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Canada Harper Reorganizes Cabinet. Prime Minis-

ter Stephen Harper Jan. 4 shuffled the roles of seven ministers and expanded his cabinet to 32, from 27. Harper created five junior level cabinet positions, designated as secretaries of state, who would not have the full powers of ministers. Analysts perceived the shift as a move by Harper toward the political center prior to expected federal elections. [See 2006, p. 244B2] Harper notably stripped Rona Ambrose of the environment portfolio, naming her minister of intergovernmental affairs and minister of Western diversification. Ambrose had been widely criticized for her handling of policy. The ruling Conservative Party in 2005 had been lambasted for proposing a new Clean Air Act governing emissions standards that environmentalists said was woefully inadequate. John Baird, former president of the Treasury Board, was sworn in as environment minister. [See 2006, p. 823B1] Ambrose’s replacement was widely viewed as an acknowledgment by Harper of public displeasure with his administration’s position on man-made carbon emissons. “We’ve clearly determined we need to do more on the environment,” Harper said. Justice Minister Vic Toews, a social conservative, was named president of the Treasury Board, replacing Baird. Robert Nicholson, House of Commons leader, became justice minister and attorney general. Defense Minister Gordon O’Connor, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay (who was also minister for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency) and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who held the four most im17

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portant cabinet positions, all retained their portfolios. „ Liberal MP Khan Defects to Conservatives.

Liberal member of Parliament (MP) Wajid Khan Jan. 5 crossed the floor to join the ruling Conservative Party headed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Khan’s defection made it impossible for the official opposition Liberal Party to topple the Conservative government without the backing of both of the other opposition parties in the House of Commons—the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Quebecois (BQ) party. [See 2006, p. 734E3] Harper in August 2006 had asked Khan to serve as his government’s adviser on Middle East affairs and Afghanistan. Liberal Leader Stephane Dion in a statement released Jan. 5 said he had asked Khan to choose between his membership in the Liberal Party and his role within Harper’s government. After the defection Conservatives held 125 Commons seats, the Liberals 101, the BQ 51 and the NDP 29, with two seats held by independents. Khan’s move renewed calls for new electoral laws requiring that MPs wishing to cross the floor resign from their Commons seats and run in a by-election under their desired party affiliation. Another Liberal MP, David Emerson, in February 2006 had defected to the Conservatives to accept a cabinet position in the newly elected government, provoking outrage among his Liberal constituents. [See 2006, p. 244B2] A spokesman for Harper Jan. 8 said a report on the Middle East being written by Khan would not be released publicly, contradicting earlier claims made by Khan. The announcement prompted criticism from several Liberal MPs, who noted that an 18day trip Khan had made to six Middle Eastern countries in September 2006 had been paid for by the federal government at a cost of roughly C$13,000 (US$11,000). „ SARS Report Blames System Failures. A provincial commission Jan. 9 released its final report on the public health response to the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the Toronto, Ontario, area, blaming system-wide failures in the government’s response to the epidemic for contributing to deaths and illness. The SARS commission had been created in June 2003 to report on the cause and effects of the outbreak, which killed 44 people and sickened about 330 others over a fivemonth period. [See 2003, p. 847E1] The report found that hospitals had never adopted policies intended to bolster preparedness for infection outbreaks, and that the government had failed to enforce such policies. The commission also said the health system had failed to adequately protect nurses and other health care workers from infection during the crisis. “The surprise is not that Ontario’s response to SARS worked so badly, but that it worked at all,” wrote Ontario Superior Court Justice Archie Campbell, who headed the commission. „ Ontario Court Grants 3 People Parent Status.

A three-judge panel for the Ontario Court of Appeal, the province’s highest court, 18

Jan. 2 ruled that a five-year-old boy’s biological mother and father, as well as the mother’s same-sex partner, could all be considered the child’s legal parents. The parties involved in the case could not be identified due to a court order. [See 2006, p. 960A1] The two women had been in a relationship since 1990, and in 1999 decided to conceive a child with the help of a male friend. The biological father had played a role in the child’s upbringing since his birth, and had maintained his legal status as the boy’s parent. The lesbian couple said they had sought parental status for the biological mother’s partner out of fears that, should the biological mother die, her partner would not have any legal standing regarding the child. „

Venezuela Chavez Sets Nationalizations, Inaugurated.

President Hugo Chavez Frias Jan. 8 announced plans to nationalize the country’s largest electricity and telecommunications firms, both of which were majority-owned by U.S. companies. Chavez declared the move during a ceremony in which he swore in his 27-member cabinet. Chavez himself Jan. 10 was sworn in for his third term during a ceremony held in Caracas, the capital, at which he promised to “radicalize this process of ours” and “deepen this revolution.” (Chavez had first won the presidency in 1998, and was reelected in 2000 to a six-year term after a constitutional rewrite extended the president’s term.) [See 2006, pp. 1018D2, 935F1] Chavez in his Jan. 8 speech said, “The nation should recover its ownership of strategic sectors. All that was privatized, let it be nationalized.” He also said he would seek from the National Assembly, which was controlled by his allies, the power to carry out economic reforms by decree for an 18-month period. The two firms to be nationalized were Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV), which was controlled by the U.S.’s Verizon Communications Inc., and Electricidad de Caracas, controlled by the U.S.’s AES Group Inc. Shares of both companies Jan. 8–9 fell heavily after Chavez’s speech, and trading in both was suspended Jan. 9. The Caracas stock exchange’s main index had also dropped 19%, it was reported Jan. 9. Chavez Jan. 8 also said the government would assert complete authority over Venezuela’s Central Bank, and would move to take greater control over foreign-run oil projects in the Orinoco River basin. Chavez did not detail how the nationalizations would occur, and it was unknown how much compensation, if any, shareholders in various affected companies would receive. During his Jan. 10 inauguration, Chavez proclaimed, “Fatherland! Socialism or death, I swear it!” In his three-hour speech Chavez said he was in the process of writing a law that would abolish presidential term limits. He also proposed a constitutional revision that would allow the gov-

ernment to seize control of the country’s national gas industry. Signs of Power Consolidation Seen—

Chavez’s proclamations were viewed as the latest signs that he was attempting to bolster his power to advance what he called “21st century Socialism.” In December 2006 Chavez had announced plans to consolidate the current ruling coalition of more than 20 parties into the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, transforming the country into a one-party state. Chavez the same month had dissolved his Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) party in order to create the new party. He had also decided to revoke the broadcast license of the television channel Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), which served as a platform for his critics. Chavez Jan. 3 had sacked Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel and Interior and Justice Minister Jesse Chacon in a surprise move, citing “failings in internal security and infrastructure” and “violence in the streets” for the dismissals. Finance Minister Nelson Merentes Jan. 4 said he was stepping down. Jorge Rodriguez Jan. 3 was named the new vice president, while Pedro Carreno that day was tapped as the new interior and justice minister and Rodrigo Cabezas Jan. 4 was named the new finance minister. During Chavez’s tenure, the cabinet had grown to 27 members, from 13, and had been stacked largely with staunch Chavez loyalists, according to observers. „ Prison Riot Leaves 22 Dead. Clashes between rival gang members in Uribana prison, in the eastern city of Barquisimento, Jan. 2 left 22 prisoners dead and at least 13 injured. The riot reportedly had begun early that morning, leaving 16 dead. A transfer of prisoners later that day had sparked new fighting in which an additional six prisoners were killed, an interior ministry official said Jan. 3. Roughly 200 members of the National Guard had been sent to the facility, some 175 miles (280 km) west of Caracas, the capital, to quash the fighting and restore peace. [See 2006, p. 912G2] „

Americas News in Brief Brazil: Da Silva Inaugurated. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Jan. 1 was sworn-in for his second four-year term during a ceremony held in Brasilia, the capital. During his speech, da Silva promised to help spur the country’s economy by increasing public spending, encouraging private investment and reducing bureaucracy. Da Silva after the election had pledged that the economy would hit a 5% annual growth rate target. [See 2006, p. 842B1] „ Colombia:

Political

Hostage

Escapes.

Fernando Araujo, a former minister of economic development, Jan. 5 said that on Dec. 31, 2006, he had escaped from a prison camp run by the Marxist guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), after six years of captivity. Araujo, 51, said he was able to escape the camp during an attack by government troops, and wandered the surrounding jungles for five days before arriving at San Agustin, roughFACTS ON FILE

ly 350 miles (560 km) north of Bogota, the capital. He had been kidnapped by FARC forces in December 2000. Araujo said he did not know what had happened to some 60 other political prisoners who had been held at the camp. [See 2006, p. 1017A2] „ Mexico:

Antidrug

Forces

Dispatched.

President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa Jan. 2 said the government would send roughly 3,000 federal police and troops to crimeridden Tijuana, on the U.S. border, to combat drug cartels. (Tijuana served as a major transit point for narcotics trafficking into the U.S.) The federal government the following day ordered the disarmament of the city’s police force, a move reflecting concerns that local police had largely been corrupted by drug organizations. An estimated 300 killings had occurred in Tijuana in 2006. In a continuation of the campaign, Calderon Jan. 11 sent another 1,000 soldiers to the Pacific coast resort town of Acapulco and surrounding areas in Guerrero state. [See 2006, p. 981C2] „ Nicaragua: Ortega Inaugurated. Former Sandinista guerrilla leader Daniel Ortega Saavedra Jan. 10 was sworn in as president in a ceremony held in Managua, the capital. Ortega, 61, was returned to power in a November 2006 election, 16 years after he was voted out of office. The ceremony was attended by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias and Bolivian President Evo Morales Aima, two fellow leftist leaders of Latin American countries. Chavez Jan. 11 outlined a Venezuelan economic aid package for Nicaragua that included energy assistance. [See 2006, pp. 1018D2, 866C3 ] „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

Indonesia Jet Disappearance Leaves 102 Missing.

Indonesian officials Jan. 1 reported that a Boeing 737-400 passenger jet carrying six crew members and 96 passengers had disappeared en route to the city of Manado on Sulawesi island, from Surabaya city on the island of Java. Reports Jan. 2 that rescuers had discovered the crash site and had found 12 survivors were deemed false later that day, and wreckage from the airliner was not found until Jan. 11. The disappearance was the latest in a string of recent transport disasters to strike Indonesia, and inflamed criticism of the nation’s aviation industry. [See 2006, p. 1022E1; 1997, p. 959E3] Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said the 14-year-old aircraft most likely crashed after encountering heavy winds. Police Chief Col. Genot Hariyanto Jan. 2 announced that the crash site had been found in the mountains in western Sulawesi. The head of the National Commission on Transportation Safety, Setyo Raharjo, that day said rescue workers had found 90 bodies and were searching for 12 more passengers; subsequent rumors said that the 12 had been found alive. However, Radjasa later said all of those reports had been incorrect. January 11, 2007

doctors and health officials in connection with an outbreak of HIV, the virus that caused AIDS, in the southern city of Shymkent, it was reported Jan. 9. More than 80 people, most of whom were children, had become infected there since May 2006. Authorities blamed the infections on negligence, including the use of contaminated needles and blood from untested donors for transfusions. [See 2006, p. 1012F3] Premier Daniyal Akhmetov, who had served since June 2003, Jan. 8 resigned. His resignation meant that the entire cabinet was dissolved as well. Parliament Jan. 10 confirmed President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s choice of Karim Masimov, a deputy premier and economist, as Akhmetov’s replacement. In other cabinet moves, Marat Tazhin Jan. 11 was named foreign minister, replacing Kasymzhomart Tokayev, who became chairman of the Senate. The premier had little power in Kazakhstan’s government, which was dominated by Nazarbayev. [See 2003, p. 662C2] „

ship of businesses. The new rules, which needed to be approved by the legislature, stipulated that Thai citizens must hold 51% of a company’s voting rights in order for it to be considered Thai-owned and avoid controls on foreign investment. The move came after the government in December 2006 had first set and then reversed strict capital controls on foreigners. [See 2006, p. 1024F1] Western officials said the move would break a pledge, made by Thailand in 1995 when it joined the World Trade Organization, that it would consider only shareholder structure, not voting rights, in determining ownership. Foreign businesses objected strongly to the new regulations, and the Thai stock index Jan. 9 dropped 2.7% in the wake of the cabinet decision. The draft rules excluded retailers, insurers, banks and brokers. Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula Jan. 9 said they would apply to telecommunications companies, among other other industries. However, the next day he said the telecommunications industry would not be subject to the rules, leaving it unclear which sectors would be affected. (The revision of the law was widely seen as a response to former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s 2006 sale of a majority stake in his telecommunications firm, Shin Corp., to Singapore’s stateowned investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd.) [See 2006, p. 1024E2] „ Thaksin Supporters Blamed for Blasts. Interim Premier Surayud Chulanont Jan. 1 accused supporters of ex-Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, whose government had been overthrown in a bloodless military coup in September 2006, of carrying out December 2006 bombings in Bangkok, the capital. Thaksin denied charges that he had been involved. The attacks had added to rising fears of instability in Thailand, and sparked a steep drop in the Thai stock market index. No one had claimed responsibility for the blasts, which had killed three and wounded 38. [See 2006, p. 1024A3] “From the evidence, there is a slim chance that it is related to the southern insurgency,” Chulanont said, referring to Muslim separatists who had often carried out bombings in the country’s south. But, alluding to Thaksin, he added, “It is likely related to people who lost their political benefits.” The military government Jan. 10 announced that it was revoking Thaksin’s passport. It also ordered the media not to report on the former premier, saying he was attempting to “create confusion by engaging in a media war.” A Bangkok lawyer representing Thaksin, who had not returned to Thailand since the coup, said that Thaksin had no plans to reenter Thai politics. „

Thailand

Asia Pacific News in Brief

Foreign Investment Rules Tightened. The

Fiji: Military Chief Made Prime Minister.

Officials Jan. 11 announced that they had found pieces of wreckage from the jetliner on shore and at sea, including a tail stabilizer that matched the lost plane’s serial number. U.S. and Singaporean navy ships had joined Indonesian vessels in searching for the jetliner. The flight was operated by PT Adam SkyConnection Airlines, one of several low-cost airlines that had sprung up in the wake of Indonesia’s 1999 aviation industry deregulation. An Adam Air flight in February 2006 had been forced to make an emergency landing some 360 miles (580 km) from its original destination after a failure of its navigation equipment caused it to get lost for four hours. The landing gear on another airliner in May 2005 had collapsed on landing in Jakarta, the capital. Survivors From Capsized Ferry Found—

Rescue officials Jan. 8 said 14 more survivors of a ferry sinking in the Java Sea in December 2006 had been rescued by a passing cargo ship after floating on a life raft for nine days, bringing the total number of survivors to about 245. Rescuers Jan. 3 had found 12 survivors on an unmanned oil rig 120 miles from where the ferry had sunk five days earlier. Some 400 ferry passengers were reportedly listed as dead or missing as of Jan. 8, but only 10 bodies had been found. Indonesian President Susilio Bambang Yudhoyono Jan. 5 announced that the search for survivors would continue, saying survivors of a 2004 tsunami had been rescued after three weeks in Indonesia’s tropical waters. [See 2005, pp. 60E2, 2G1] „

Kazakhstan News in Brief. Prosecutors had charged 21

Thai cabinet, recently installed after a military coup, Jan. 9 approved draft rules altering regulations on the foreign owner-

Cmdre. Frank Bainimarama, who in December 2006 had led a bloodless military coup that toppled Fiji’s democratically 19

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elected government, Jan. 5 was sworn in as prime minister by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, who Jan. 4 had been restored to his post. The move was seen as an attempt by Bainimarama to legitimize his position as the country’s leader. The governments of Australia and New Zealand condemned the move, and New Zealand said it would maintain sanctions instituted after the coup. [See 2006, p. 1025A2] „ Japan: Defense Given Ministry Status. Japan’s Defense Agency Jan. 9 was officially upgraded to a full ministry, after decades of lesser status following Japan’s defeat in World War II and the imposition of a pacifist constitution by the U.S. The elevation of the defense ministry, approved by the Diet (parliament) in 2006, was part of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s ongoing efforts to bolster the role of Japan’s military. Ministry status gave military leaders more power over defense policy and spending. China, a consistent critic of perceived Japanese departures from pacifist policy, denounced the move. [See 2006, p. 1022F3] „ Philippines: U.S. Joint Exercises to Resume.

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The U.S. government Jan. 2 announced that it would proceed with joint military exercises it had scheduled with Philippines forces for February. The U.S. in December 2006 had canceled the maneuvers after a Philippine court refused to turn over a U.S. marine who had been convicted of rape; the marine later that month had been transferred to U.S. custody. The reversal of the court’s decision had caused nationalist protests in the Philippines, but President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had defended the move as necessary “in order to forestall the further deterioration in our strategic relationship with the United States.” [See 2006, p. 1023G2] „ South Korea: Roh Calls for New Term Rule.

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South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun in an address Jan. 9 proposed that the country’s constitution, currently limiting presidents to a single five-year term, be amended to make presidential terms four years and allow an incumbent to seek a second term. Roh’s proposal would not apply to him. He said the current system tended to make for “lame duck” presidents near the end of their terms. (Roh himself currently had the lowest approval ratings of any South Korean president.) He said the system “damages presidential responsibility” as chief executives were not subjected to voter evaluation of their performance in a reelection bid. The next presidential election was scheduled for December, and the next legislative elections, which were held every four years, for March 2008. Roh proposed holding the presidential and legislative elections simultaneously. [See 2006, p. 868B2] „

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European Union Energy Plan, Emissions Cuts Proposed.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, Jan. 10 released a new strategy on energy policy. The plan 20

called for reducing the 27-nation group’s carbon dioxide emissions in a bid to reduce greenhouse gases widely blamed for global warming. [See p. 16D2; 2006, p. 960G3] Under the plan, the EU would reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels. (As a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, the EU was already committed to cutting emissions by 8% by 2012.) The plan called for requiring that biofuels, such as ethanol, make up at least 10% of vehicle fuel by 2020, up from the current level of 2%, and for renewable sources to generate 20% of the EU’s energy by 2020. It also urged that all new coalburning power plants be required, by 2020, to incorporate technologies that reduced carbon dioxide emissions. The Commission said it planned to make the goals legally binding if they received approval from EU member nations. It also called on other developed nations to take action on global warming, noting that the EU was responsible for just 14% of annual global carbon dioxide emissions. Business groups had warned against setting binding targets, fearing that it would hurt the competitiveness of the EU economy against rivals such as China and the U.S. that had not agreed to emissions caps. Environmentalists, meanwhile, said the targeted cuts were not big enough. The energy strategy also proposed breaking up energy conglomerates that controlled both supply and distribution networks, such as pipelines and power grids. That proposal faced opposition from France and Germany, whose governments defended the interests of their national electricity companies. The EU was seeking to make its energy market more efficient and independent of foreign supplies. It had grown increasingly concerned about its reliance on Russia for oil and natural gas. Pricing disputes between Russia and its neighbors had caused supply disruptions in the EU, including one in early January involving Belarus. [See p. 21D1] „

Poland Prelate Resigns Over Communist Links.

Stanislaw Wielgus, the newly appointed Roman Catholic archbishop of Warsaw, Poland’s capital, Jan. 7 resigned from the post amid revelations of his cooperation with the country’s secret police, the SB, during the years of communist rule. After initially denying Polish news reports about his activities, and just two days after his appointment, Wielgus, 67, announced his resignation during a mass celebrating his enthronement. Also in attendance at the mass was Cardinal Jozef Glemp, the outgoing archbishop of Warsaw, the country’s most prominent religious post. Glemp was assigned to continue to lead the archdiocese for the time being. [See 2005, p. 275B3] The issue of church figures’ past cooperation with the communist government was particularly sensitive in Poland. The church and its clergy in the overwhelming-

ly Catholic country had been constant targets of police harassment, and the late Pope John Paul II, a Pole, had been seen as a steadfast supporter of the church’s resistance to communism. Poland’s Gazeta Polska newspaper first published accusations against Wielgus on Dec. 20, 2006. In response, Wielgus, since 1999 the bishop of Plock, asserted that his only involvement with the secret police had been routine requests to travel abroad, and that he had resisted efforts to recruit him as an informer. However, another newspaper, Rzeczpospolita, Jan. 4 reported additional details, contending that Wielgus had served as an informer from 1967 until the end of the communist regime in 1989. A special church commission Jan. 5 issued its confirmation of Wielgus’s willing cooperation with the security services. However, it said there was no evidence that his activities had harmed anyone. Wielgus, who officially became archbishop Jan. 5, that day issued a statement acknowledging that he had signed an agreement to cooperate with the SB in 1978. He asserted that he had done so under duress, and also maintained that he had not caused harm. However, reportedly at the behest of the Vatican, the new archbishop Jan. 7 announced his resignation during the mass at Warsaw’s Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, citing his “personal situation.” Many of those in attendance expressed shock and urged him to remain. Glemp, later in the ceremony, derided the evidence against Wielgus and noted that while citizen informers were ostracized, the actual former officials of the onetime secret police largely lived in impunity and on government pensions. A Vatican spokesman Jan. 7 said Wielgus had “gravely compromised his authority” through his security service activity. The Vatican, after the initial allegations came to light, had previously said it was satisfied with its examination of Wielgus’s past. Krakow Rector Resigns—Janusz Bielanski, the rector of Wawel Cathedral in Krakow, Jan. 8 resigned over accusations that he had cooperated with the security services, just a day after Wielgus’s resignation. Amid widespread speculation that the Polish church would continue to be rocked by additional revelations of complicity, Pope Benedict XVI Jan. 10 included a message in Polish in his weekly general audience, urging unity and steadfastness in faith. Polish Premier Jaroslaw Kaczynski Jan. 11 announced a proposed law that would designate the SB a “criminal” organizaition, exclude former agents from government positions and slash their pensions. Kaczynski’s conservative government had pledged to step up efforts to unmask secret police agents and informants. „

Spain ETA Claims Bombing, But Backs Cease-Fire.

Basque nationalist militant group Euzkadi ta Askatasuna (ETA) in a statement sent to FACTS ON FILE

a Basque newspaper Jan. 9 claimed responsibility for a car bombing that had killed two people at Barajas international airport, outside Madrid, the capital, in late December 2006. However, ETA insisted that a cease-fire it had announced in March 2006 remained in place. It said the blast had not been meant to cause casualties, and blamed the Spanish government for failing to act on warnings and clear the airport parking garage before the explosion went off. [See 2006, p. 1028D1] Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba Jan. 2 had said the bombing had ended the government’s plans for a peace process with ETA. “There is no process. It has been broken, it is over, it has been liquidated. ETA ended it with the bomb it set off in Madrid,” he said. Spanish Premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of the Socialist Party had said after the bombing that he would suspend the peace process in response to the bombing. The opposition People’s Party, which had always opposed negotiations with ETA, demanded a harsher reaction to the attack. Zapatero Jan. 4 visited the site of the bombing and said, “It will achieve nothing. It is not going to intimidate anyone.” Police in the Basque region that day found 220 pounds (100 kg) of explosives that had been prepared for use as a bomb. „

Other European News Belarus Backs Down on Russia Oil Duty.

Belarus Jan. 3 announced that it would impose a tariff of $45 per metric ton on crude oil shipped by Russia through pipelines crossing Belarus to other parts of Europe. The move sparked a standoff in which Russia Jan. 8 ended such shipments until Belarus two days later capitulated and rescinded the planned duty. The dispute intensified already-heightened concerns in Europe over Russia’s reliability as a supplier of energy. It was the latest clash over energy prices between the Belarusian government of President Aleksandr Lukashenko and Russia. Belarus’s economy was heavily dependent on Russia’s, and Lukashenko’s government enjoyed little sympathy elsewhere in Europe, where he had been branded a dictator. [See 2006, p. 1028G2] Lukashenko Jan. 3 denounced what he called Russia’s recent “unfriendly steps.” Those included forcing Belarus in December 2006 to accept a steep increase in the price it paid for Russian natural gas, currently heavily subsidized by Russia, and threatening to end duty-free oil exports to Belarus. Russia Jan. 4 said Belarus’s tarriff would violate a bilateral trade agreement. Russia Jan. 8 halted the flow of oil into the Druzhba, or “friendship,” pipeline that crossed Belarus into Germany, Poland and elsewhere in Europe. Russia said it had to do so because Belarus was illegally siphoning off some of the oil as a means of extracting the new levy. A Belarusian delegation that day flew to Moscow, Russia’s capital, for talks on the dispute. Meanwhile, numerous European nations demanded an immediate resumption of shipments, and explanations from both January 11, 2007

countries. European Union Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs called for an “urgent and detailed explanation” from both countries, while offering reassurance that the cutoff posed “no immediate risk” to the EU’s energy supplies. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the current holder of the EU presidency, Jan. 9 said Russia’s failure to give the EU advance notice of the cutoff was “not acceptable,” and noted that “even during the Cold War, Russia was a stable energy supplier.” She hinted that the situation could lead her to reevaluate Germany’s plan to eliminate the production of nuclear power by 2020. Amid Russian threats to impose retaliatory tariffs on Belarus, and after a telephone conversation between Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, Belarus Jan. 10 announced that it was canceling the oil tariff. Belarus’s government news services said that each president had instructed his premier to submit proposals for a permanent settlement of the dispute by Jan. 12. Oil reportedly began flowing later Jan. 10. „

European News in Brief Austria: Parties Reach Coalition Deal.

Austria’s two main political parties, the center-left Social Democratic Party and the center-right People’s Party, Jan. 8 said they had reached an agreement to form a new governing coalition. Alfred Gusenbauer of the Social Democrats Jan. 11 was sworn in as chancellor, replacing Wolfgang Schuessel of the People’s Party. However, the People’s Party retained key posts such as the foreign, finance and interior ministries. The deal came more than three months after the Social Democrats narrowly defeated the People’s Party in parliamentary elections, but failed to win enough seats to govern alone or in a coalition with smaller parties. [See 2006, p. 770D3] „ Germany: 9/11 Plotter Sentenced to 15 Years.

A court in Hamburg Jan. 8 sentenced Mounir al-Motassadeq, a 32-year-old Moroccan man, to 15 years in prison for acting as an accessory to the murder of 246 airline passengers killed in Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. Motassadeq had been a friend of the members of the Al Qaeda network who carried out the attacks, but denied having known about the plot. He had been convicted as an accessory in 2003, but the verdict was overturned. In 2005, he was convicted of membership in a terrorist group and sentenced to seven years in jail. But in November 2006, an appeals court convicted him again on accessory charges and ordered a new sentence. [See 2006, p. 1026D2] „

I DDDLLEE EEAASSTT MMI D

Iran Supreme Leader Backs Nuclear Program.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, in a public speech Jan. 8 said Iran would continue with its nuclear program, despite United Nations sanctions and inter-

national pressure aimed at compelling Iran to halt it. The U.S. and other countries had claimed that Iran’s nuclear program was secretly aimed at developing nuclear weapons, though Iran had insisted that the program was nonmilitary. In December 2006, the U.N. Security Council had placed sanctions on Iran and set a late-February deadline for Iran to cease its nuclear activities. [See 2006, p. 994G1] Khamenei called the nuclear program “a native achievement and…a source of pride for Iran and the Islamic world,” and insisted that the Iranian people had a right to develop nuclear technology. He also warned neighboring Arab countries that it would be “a political blunder” for them to side with the U.S. in the dispute. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Jan. 3 had also pledged to go forward with the program, declaring that Iran had mastered the nuclear fuel cycle and “very soon we will push the button on nuclear fuel production for industrial uses.” He insisted that the “Iranian people will not retreat one iota from their rights,” and that the country would celebrate the program’s accomplishments the following month on the 28th anniversary of the Iranian revolution. Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the vice president in charge of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Jan. 5 announced that Iran had 250 tons of uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6)—the raw material used to create enriched uranium—stored in underground tunnels near a nuclear facility in the city of Isfahan. China Warns on Program—Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief national security official and top nuclear negotiator, Jan. 5 met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing, China’s capital, and discussed the sanctions placed on Iran. According to China’s official New China News Agency, Hu told Larijani that Iran should offer a “serious response” to “the shared concerns of the international community” regarding its nuclear program. Although China had voted in favor of the U.N. sanctions, it had fought, along with Russia, for less onerous sanctions than those initially proposed by the U.S. Speaking at a news conference, Larijani said, “We oppose obtaining nuclear weapons and we will peacefully use nuclear technology under the framework of the [Nuclear] Nonproliferation Treaty,” but added, “If we are threatened, the situation may change.” [See 2006, p. 972F3] U.S. Sanctions Bank Sepah—Stuart Levey, undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, Jan. 9 announced that U.S. banks would no longer be allowed to handle any financial transactions on behalf of Bank Sepah, Iran’s oldest bank and one of its largest. Levey said the bank was “the financial linchpin of Iran’s missile procurement network and has actively assisted Iran’s pursuit of missiles capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction.” In particular, he accused it of dealing with entities mentioned in the Security Council sanctions resolution that were linked to a suspected North Korean missile exporter. The action by the Trea21

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sury meant that U.S. citizens were barred from dealing with the bank, and its assets under U.S. jurisdiction would be frozen. Iran’s economy relied heavily on oil exports, and oil was traded in U.S. dollars. [See 2006, p. 717C1] „ News in Brief. Rumors Jan. 4 spread on the Internet that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, had died, but his public appearance Jan. 8 proved those reports to be false. [See p. 21G2] Mohammed Hadi Haidarzadeh, head of the clean air office in Tehran’s city council, Jan. 10 said that pollution in the capital posed a threat “no less than an earthquake.” Haidarzadeh said pollution was responsible for the deaths of 3,600 people between Oct. 23, 2006, and Nov. 23, 2006. City officials that day announced a variety of measures to reduce pollution and to protect citizens from its effects. „

Iraq More Hussein Execution Footage Released.

A Web site supporting Iraq’s Baath Party Jan. 9 released video of the body of former President Saddam Hussein taken just after his execution more than a week earlier. The footage—which was not authorized by the government and was apparently shot with a camera phone—showed a deep wound on the left side of Hussein’s neck, which was bent to the right at a 90-degree angle. Previously released unauthorized footage had shown Hussein facing sectarian taunts just prior to being executed. [See p. 3G1] Criticism of the sectarian nature of Hussein’s execution continued Jan. 5 throughout and beyond the Sunni Muslim world, with protest rallies held in Lebanon, Morocco and the Palestinian territories. Banners, newspaper editorials and electronically circulated poems excoriated the Muslim Shiite-led Iraqi government, the U.S. and Iran for executing Hussein, and praised the former dictator for facing his death with dignity. In an interview published Jan. 5 in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called the timing of Hussein’s execution—which occurred during the Sunni observance of a holy day—“unthinkable” and the images depicting it “revolting and barbaric.” He said, “No one will ever forget the way in which Saddam was executed,” adding that the spectacle had “turned [Hussein] into a martyr.” British Prime Minister Tony Blair Jan. 9 criticized the sectarian taunting Hussein had faced, but defended the execution itself. “The crimes that Saddam committed do not excuse the manner of his execution,” Blair said, “but the manner of his execution does not excuse the crimes.” Sami al-Askari, a member of Iraq’s parliament and an adviser to Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki, Jan. 7 said the death sentences placed on Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti and Awad Hamad al-Bandr alSaadun would be carried out, though he did not know when. The pair had been sentenced to death along with Hussein. United 22

Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Jan. 8 reiterated a plea to stay their execution. [See p. 3E3] Hussein Audio Played at Trial—The Anfal trial—in which Hussein and six members of his regime were being tried for the deaths of as many as 180,000 ethnic Kurds in a 1988 campaign that employed chemical gas attacks—resumed Jan. 8 with audiotapes being played that documented Hussein’s conversations regarding the use of chemical weapons. The tapes demonstrated Hussein’s knowledge of the effects of such weapons, and revealed him considering their use against the Kurds. [See 2006, p. 989D2] In one conversation with Izzat Ibrahim al Douri, then a vice president and aide to Hussein, Hussein acknowledged that a gas attack would kill “thousands” and “prevent people eating and drinking the local water.” Hussein said that “chemical weapons are not used unless I personally give the orders.” In another recording, Hussein responded to a proposal to drop napalm on Kurdish towns by saying, “Yes, in areas where you have concentrated populations, that would be useful.” Further audio revealed Hussein instructing Iraq’s liaison to U.N. weapons inspectors on how to falsely account for chemical munitions that, having been used against the Kurds, no longer existed. One of the defendants—Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, nicknamed “Chemical Ali”—was heard on tape saying, “I will hit them with chemical weapons. Damn the international community if they say anything. I will strike them all with chemical weapons.” Prosecutors presented graphic video along with the audio of Majid, showing innumerable dead bodies gathered in piles and grief-stricken parents clutching dead children and infants. Majid defended himself to the court, saying the video depicted a massacre carried out by Iranians. Munqith al-Faroun, one of the prosecutors, linked the video to Hussein’s execution, saying, “I ask the whole world to look at these images, especially those who are crying right now [for Hussein].” Majid Jan. 11 admitted to ordering troops to kill anyone who failed to heed a government order to evacuate Kurdish villages. “I gave orders to the troops,” he said, “to catch anyone they find there and execute them after investigating them.” The court on Jan. 8 dismissed all remaining charges against Hussein in light of his death. „

SOUTH ASIA

Bangladesh President Declares State of Emergency.

President Iajuddin Ahmed, acting as head of the country’s caretaker administration, Jan. 11 declared a state of emergency for the entire country and suspended national elections scheduled for Jan. 22. He then stepped down from the caretaker post, but

kept the largely ceremonial role of president. [See 2006, p. 918F2] Bangladesh Jan. 7–9 had been gripped by a general strike, transport blockade and violent protests staged by an alliance of political parties led by the Awami League, one of the country’s two main and bitterly rivalrous parties. The alliance claimed that Iajuddin was essentially a puppet of the other main party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which had governed the country until October, when, as stipulated by the constitution, a caretaker administration stepped in to oversee the run-up to elections. The protesting parties had demanded a new electoral commission and electoral reforms, including the updating of voter registration rolls compiled in 2000, rather than working from more recent rolls, which they claimed had been augmented with millions of fictitious names. At least 40 people had reportedly died as a result of the political agitation since October 2006. Main Party Vows Election Boycott—

Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina Wazed Jan. 3 announced that her party would boycott the Jan. 22 elections because they would not be free and fair. On Jan. 10, she declared before 100,000 supporters in Dhaka that the alliance would disrupt the polls, presumably by violent means, if the elections went ahead as scheduled. The government responded by deploying thousands of troops to stations around the country to keep order leading up to and during the voting. The transport blockade cut off roads, railroads and river passage into Dhaka, the capital. Some 200 protesters were reported injured there over the three days, in clashes with riot police, who used batons, tear gas and rubber bullets to beat back demonstrators throwing stones and in some cases small bombs. Police said at least eight officers were also wounded. Protesters Jan. 10 held a mass rally Opposition activists demonstrated in other cities as well. Operations were suspended in the southern port of Chittagong, leaving tens of thousands of containers waiting to be processed. Iajuddin in a nationally televised address Jan. 11 said he was turning over his interim role to an adviser, Fazlul Haque, who would form a new interim government to oversee elections, although he gave no date. Under the constitution, emergency rule, which put the military in charge of law and order, could last a maximum of 120 days. Iajuddin said it was “not possible” to hold the elections as scheduled. “We need a flawless voter list to ensure that the elections are free, fair and credible.” State media also Jan. 11 announced an overnight curfew in effect indefinitely for more than 60 cities and towns, including Dhaka. The European Union earlier the same day had said it was suspending its observation mission to the scheduled election, saying its “credibility clearly falls short of international standards.” The U.S. had FACTS ON FILE

similarly withdrawn its monitoring mission Jan. 10. The Awami League called the president’s actions “a victory for the people,” and said it had canceled further protests. „

India Ethnic Rebels Target Assam Minorities. Suspected ethnic rebel forces Jan. 5–9 killed at least 70 people in a spate of attacks in Assam state in India’s far northeast. Most of the victims were Hindi-speaking migrant workers from nearby states such as Bihar, and thousands of such people were reported Jan. 9 to have fled Assam in fear for their lives. The government blamed the region’s largest separatist group, the banned United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), for the killings, though the group had not claimed responsibility for them. The ULFA argued that the central government had long overlooked Assam’s welfare while taking advantage of its rich oil and tea production. The group targeted ethnic minorities in an effort to preserve a strong Assamese majority and identity. [See 2006, p. 938F3] Peace talks between the government and ULFA had broken down in September 2006 and a truce had dissolved. The Financial Times Jan. 10 reported that more than 13,000 troops had been deployed to Assam in recent days to counter the insurgency, which operated from bases in neighboring Bangladesh and camps along the borders with that country and with Bhutan. „ News in Brief. The government of northcentral Uttar Pradesh state Jan. 9 promised to release extra water from upstream dams into the Ganges river to placate thousands of Hindu holy men who threatened to commit suicide because the river was too polluted for ritual bathing in during the Ardh Kumbh festival. An estimated 70 million pilgrims were expected to come to wash away their sins in the Ganges during the 42-day festival—held once every six years—which had begun Jan. 3. The river was typically high in toxins and human waste, but the water level and quality in the river was especially low at present because of increased upstream demand, which raised the concentration of pollutants. [See 2001, p. 56B1] NYSE Group Inc., the corporate entity controlling the U.S.-based New York Stock Exchange, had agreed to buy a 5% stake in India’s National Stock Exchange, in Mumbai, for $115 million, it was reported Jan. 11. U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc., private equity firm General Atlantic LLC and SoftBank Asian Infrastructure fund would also each buy 5% of the exchange. Under Indian law, no single investor was allowed to own more than 5% of it. The investments advanced a wave of global consolidation of stock and financial exchanges. [See 2006, p. 816D2] „

Sri Lanka Bus Bombings Kill 17. Bomb

attacks on two buses Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 killed at least six and 11 people, respectively, and injured January 11, 2007

dozens. The military said the first attack, which took place in the town of Nittambuwa, 20 miles (30 km) north of Colombo, the capital, in less-violent western Sri Lanka, was carried out using explosives left under a seat. The second attack, in Meetiyagoda, 60 miles south of the capital, was attributed to a female suicide bomber. The government Jan. 6 released a statement blaming the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the bombings. [See 2006, p. 1033C3] The Sri Lankan air force Jan. 2–4 had bombed what it claimed were LTTE naval facilities in the northwestern part of the country. The LTTE said the government Jan. 2 had instead hit a village, killing 14, including six children. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Florida Wins College Football’s National Championship Gators Trounce Favored Ohio State. The

second-ranked University of Florida Gators Jan. 8 upset the top-ranked Ohio State University Buckeyes, 41–14, to win the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) national title game in Glendale, Ariz. With the win, the Gators, coached by Urban Meyer, claimed their first National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I-A football championship since 1996. [See 2006, pp. 939A3, 4G1; 1997, p. 12B1] Florida, which finished the season with a record of 13 wins and one loss, Jan. 9 was automatically ranked number one in the USA Today final poll of college football coaches, under the rules of the BCS. The Gators were also ranked atop the Associated Press (AP) poll of media members. Ohio State’s record after the game was 12–1, and it was ranked second in both polls. Prior to the game, some analysts had questioned whether Florida even belonged in the national title game. [See below] Ohio State, which was led by quarterback Troy Smith, the 2006 Heisman Trophy winner, took an early lead in the title game, when Ted Ginn Jr. ran the opening kickoff back 93 yards for a touchdown. Florida, led by quarterback Chris Leak, came back to score soon after, and took a 34–14 lead into halftime. Leak finished the game having completed 25 of 36 passes for 212 yards and one touchdown. Meanwhile, Smith was just four of 14 for 35 yards and an interception. [See 2006, p. 966G3] USC Wins Rose Bowl—The University of Southern California (USC) Trojans Jan. 1 defeated the University of Michigan Wolverines, 32–18, in Pasadena, Calif., to win the Rose Bowl. USC quarterback John David Booty threw for 391 yards and four touchdowns, and wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett caught 11 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns. Both teams ended the season with a record of 11–2. The Trojans in 2006 had lost the Rose Bowl—then the national title game—to the University of Texas. [See 2006, p. 939C3]

Other Bowls—In other bowl game re-

sults:

GMAC Bowl, Jan. 7 in Mobile, Ala.: Southern Mississippi 28, Ohio 7. † International Bowl, Jan. 6 in Toronto, Canada: Cincinnati 27, Western Michigan 24. (The game was the first bowl played in Canada and the first since 1937 to be played outside the U.S.) † Sugar Bowl, Jan. 3 in New Orleans, La.: Louisiana State University (LSU) 41, Notre Dame 14. † Orange Bowl, Jan. 2 in Miami, Fla.: Louisville 24, Wake Forest 13. † Outback Bowl, Jan. 1 in Tampa, Fla.: Penn State 20, Tennessee 10. † Capital One Bowl, Jan. 1 in Orlando, Fla.: Wisconsin 17, Arkansas 14. † Cotton Bowl, Jan. 1 in Dallas, Texas: Auburn 17, Nebraska 14. † Gator Bowl, Jan. 1 in Jacksonville, Fla.: West Virginia 38, Georgia Tech 35 (overtime). † Fiesta Bowl, Jan. 1 in Glendale, Ariz.: Boise State 43, Oklahoma 42. Final Polls Released—In the final AP poll, released Jan. 9, Florida was first, followed by Ohio State, LSU (11–2), USC, Boise State (13–0), Louisville (12–1), Wisconsin (12–1), Michigan, Auburn (11–2) and West Virginia (11–2). Florida was also ranked first in the coaches’ poll, released the same day. Rounding out the top 10 were Ohio State, LSU, USC, Wisconsin, Boise State, Louisville, Auburn, Michigan and West Virginia. Saban Takes Alabama Job— Nick Saban, coach of the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins, Jan. 3 accepted an offer from the University of Alabama to become its new head coach. Alabama had fired its previous coach, Mike Shula, in November 2006. [See 2006, p. 967D1; 2004, p. 1089D3] Saban, who had joined the Dolphins from LSU in December 2004, left the team with three years remaining on his $4.5-million-per-year contract. He had a 15–17 record in two seasons in Miami. Saban reportedly signed a deal with Alabama that would pay him more than $30 million over eight years. „

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Baseball Ripken, Gwynn Elected to HOF. Shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. and outfielder Tony Gwynn Jan. 9 were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in balloting by the 10-year members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Both players had retired in 2001, and were appearing on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. [See 2006, p. 774D2] Ripken, 46, was named on 537 of the 545 ballots cast, or 98.5%. (In order to be elected a player needed to be named on at least 75% of the ballots.) That was the highest vote total in history, and the thirdhighest percentage. Ripken, who played his entire 21-year career with the Baltimore 23

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Orioles, was best known for breaking Lou Gehrig’s long-standing consecutive-game streak of 2,130 games in 1995. Ripken’s streak finally ended in 1998, after he played in 2,632 straight games. Ripken had a career batting average of .276, with 3,184 hits, 431 home runs and 1,695 runs batted in (RBI). He won the American League most valuable player award twice, in 1983 and 1991. Ripken played on 19 All-Star teams, and was on one World Series–winning team, in 1983. [See 2001, p. 798G3; 1998, p. 701B2; 1983, p. 807D1] Gwynn, 46, was named on 532, or 97.6%, of the ballots. He played for 20 seasons with the San Diego Padres, and won eight National League (N.L.) batting titles, tying Honus Wagner for the most ever in the N.L. Gwynn posted a .338 career batting average, with 3,141 hits, 135 home runs and 1,138 RBI. He played in 15 AllStar Games, and reached the World Series twice, but never won. [See 1999, p. 620F1; 1998, p. 757C1] HOF Voters Exclude McGwire—Prolific slugger Mark McGwire, who was also appearing on the ballot for the first time, Jan. 9 was named on just 128 of the ballots, or 23.5%, well short of the required 75%. The lack of support for McGwire, who in 1998 had hit 70 home runs, shattering the singleseason record of 61 set by Roger Maris in 1961, was attributed to strong suspicions that he had used performance-enhancing drugs. Although he had largely escaped scrutiny about whether he had taken such drugs while he was still playing, speculation had increased since his 2001 retirement. In March 2005 testimony before Congress, McGwire had refused to answer questions about whether he had taken drugs as a player. [See 2005, p. 199E1; 2001, p. 966E2; 1998, p. 701B1] Among others who missed out on election, relief pitcher Rich (Goose) Gossage was named on 71.2% of the ballots, and outfielder Jim Rice was named on 63.5%. „ Bonds Amphetamine Test Reported. The New York Daily News Jan. 11 reported that San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds had tested positive for amphetamines in the 2006 season. Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2006 had tested for amphetamines for the first time. Bonds, who was 22 home runs away from breaking Hank Aaron’s alltime record, had long been suspected of performance-enhancing drug use. If the Daily News report was true, it would be the first time that Bonds had failed a drug test. [See 2006, pp. 986D1, 941B1, 290E3] MLB had carried out more than 3,000 tests for amphetamines in 2006, but the number of positive tests was not disclosed. After testing positive the first time, players were required to undergo counseling and several follow-up tests, but their names were not released to the public unless they tested positive a second time. The Daily News reported that Bonds, after failing the test, had blamed it on a substance he had taken from the locker of a teammate, first baseman Mark Sweeney. In a Jan. 11 statement, Bonds, 42, did not deny that he had tested positive. How24

ever, he did deny that he had received amphetamines from Sweeney. Bonds and the Giants in December 2006 had agreed to a one-year, $16 million contract, but the deal had yet to be finalized. „

National Football League Four Teams Advance in Playoffs. Four teams

Jan. 6–7 advanced in the wild-card round of the National Football League (NFL) playoffs. In the American Football Conference (AFC), the Indianapolis Colts Jan. 6 defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 23–8, in Indianapolis, Ind. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning threw for 268 yards and one touchdown, and Adam Vinatieri kicked three field goals for the home team. [See 2006, p. 1034F1] In the other AFC match-up, the New England Patriots Jan. 7 beat the New York Jets, 37–16, in Foxboro, Mass. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady passed for 212 yards and two touchdowns, and cornerback Asante Samuel returned an interception for a touchdown at the end of the game to seal New England’s victory. In the National Football Conference (NFC), the Seattle Seahawks Jan. 6 beat the Dallas Cowboys, 21–20, in Seattle, Wash. In a wild finish, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo bobbled the snap on a 19-yard field-goal attempt with one minute and 19 seconds remaining that likely would have won the game for Dallas. Romo then ran with the ball, but was tackled two yards short of the end zone. In the other NFC game, the Philadelphia Eagles Jan. 7 edged the New York Giants, 23–20, in Philadelphia, Pa. Eagles kicker David Akers made a 38-yard field goal as time expired to win the game for Philadelphia. The game marked the last appearance of Giants running back Tiki Barber, who was retiring. Tomlinson Wins MVP— San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson Jan. 4 was voted the league’s most valuable player (MVP) for the 2006 season. Tomlinson had scored a record 31 touchdowns and 186 points in 2006, leading the Chargers to a record of 14 wins and two losses, the best in the NFL. [See 2006, p. 4D3] Tomlinson received 44 votes in the MVP balloting, conducted by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters for the Associated Press (AP). New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was a distant second, with four votes, and Manning was third, with two votes. Other News—In other NFL news: † University of Louisville coach Bobby Petrino Jan. 7 was hired as the new coach of the Atlanta Falcons. He replaced Jim Mora, who had been fired Jan. 1. † Saints coach Sean Payton, who led the team to a 10–6 record one year after going 3–13, Jan. 6 was voted the AP coach of the year. The Saints’ success had helped raise residents’ spirits in New Orleans, La., a city devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. [See 2006, p. 1035F1]

† Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher Jan. 5 resigned, one year after winning the Super Bowl. Cowher had coached the Steelers for the past 15 years, the longest tenure of any active NFL coach. [See 2006, p. 100A1] † Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor Jan. 5 was named the AP defensive player of the year. † The Oakland Raiders Jan. 4 announced that Art Shell would not return as the team’s coach. † Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young Jan. 3 was voted the AP offensive rookie of the year. † Houston Texans linebacker DeMeco Ryans, who led the league in solo tackles with 126, Jan. 3 was named the AP defensive rookie of the year. † The Arizona Cardinals Jan. 1 fired coach Dennis Green. † Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams early Jan. 1 was shot and killed in downtown Denver, Colo. Williams was killed when a sport-utility vehicle pulled up alongside his limousine and fired into the vehicle. Two other people riding with Williams were injured. Williams and his associates had reportedly been involved in a dispute at a nightclub earlier that night. „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

People Daytime television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, 52, Jan. 2 opened the Oprah Win-

frey Leadership Academy for Girls in Henley-on-Klip, South Africa, a small town near Johannesburg. The $40 million facility had an initial enrollment of 152 girls aged 11 and 12, drawn largely from poor black families. The school not only had residence halls and computerized classrooms, but also such amenities as a yoga studio and a beauty salon. The opening was attended by South African statesman Nelson Mandela, 88, and such U.S. celebrities as singers Tina Turner and Mariah Carey, actor Sidney Poitier and filmmaker Spike „ Lee. [See 2006, p. 100A3]

O B I T UA R I E S PONTI, Carlo, 94, Italian film producer; he produced or co-produced films by such leading Italian directors as Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica and Michelangelo Antonioni and was also active in the French film industry as well as in Hollywood; his greatest international success came with David Lean’s Dr. Zhivago (1965), winner of five Academy Awards in 1966; he was also known for his long partnership with actress Sophia Loren, nearly 25 years his junior; they got married in Mexico in 1957, but Italian authorities refused to recognize that marriage, insisting that Ponti was still legally married to his first wife; he and Loren ended up moving to France and marrying there in a 1966 ceremony; he was the executive producer of most of his wife’s films, notably Two Women (1960), the De Sica–directed work for which Loren, in 1961, became the first actress to win a best-actress Academy Award for a foreign-language role; born Dec. 11, 1912, in Magenta, Italy; died the night of Jan. 9 at a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was being treated for a lung ailment. [See 1980, p. 200B2; 1979, p. 79B1; Indexes 1962–73, 1955–60, 1952, 1947] „

January 11, 2007

U.S. Senators Oppose Troop ‘Surge’ in Iraq Introduce Nonbinding Resolution. A bipar-

tisan group of U.S. senators Jan. 17 introduced a nonbinding resolution opposing President George W. Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq. The resolution stated that “it is not in the national interest of the United States to deepen its military involvement in Iraq.” Bush had said the week before that he would send more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq as part of a new strategy to bring about security there, particularly in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad. Terrorism and sectarian violence had run amok in Iraq after a U.S.-led invasion ousted President Saddam Hussein in 2003. If passed by the full Senate, the resolution would not incur any obligation on the president, but it expressed the resistance Bush faced in implementing his plan. [See p. 9A1] Sens. Joseph Biden (D, Del.), Chuck Hagel (R, Neb.) and Carl Levin (D, Mich.) drafted the resolution. It argued that the U.S. military was unable to sustain a troop surge, and that the solution to the violence in Iraq lay in diplomatic and political efforts and a transfer of security duties to the Iraqis. U.S. troops, the resolution asserted, should focus instead on training Iraqi forces and securing Iraq’s borders. The resolution was met with approval by many senators from both parties. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, N.Y.), however, Jan. 17 argued that the measure did not go far enough, and suggested that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq should not be allowed to rise above the number there at the beginning of the year. Bush Defends Troop Surge—Bush Jan. 16 defended his new strategy in a televised interview. He acknowledged that his previous strategy was leading to “a slow failure,” but said that pulling out of Iraq would be an “expedited failure.” He insisted, though, that sending additional troops to Iraq would “more likely be successful” than other courses of action. In another televised interview Jan. 14, Bush had insisted that he had the authority to enact his strategy regardless of congressional actions. Stephen Hadley, U.S. national security adviser, that day said funding for the additional troops was already in place. White House press secretary Tony Snow Jan. 17 said the resolution would send a bad signal to U.S. troops and the Iraqis “in terms of steadfastness.” Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.), speaking prior to the resolution’s official introduction, Jan. 14 called it a “political ploy,” arguing that, if there was serious opposition to the troop surge, “then we should have a motion to cut off funding” for it. Military Officials Defend Surge—Army Gen. George Casey, the outgoing top U.S. military commander in Iraq, Jan. 15 asserted that “with sustained political support and the concentrated efforts on all sides, I believe that this plan can work.” He added that success was “not going to happen overnight,” but that “you’ll see things continue to get better up through summer and fall.” His comments came at a news conference in Baghdad, held with Zalmay Kha-

lilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Khalilzad and Casey insisted that the Iraqis had generated the plan, which had then been refined by both U.S. and Iraqi officials. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, testifying alongside other military officials at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jan. 12 had explained that the move to secure Baghdad would begin in February and that evidence of its success or failure would be observable within months. If successful, U.S. troops could begin withdrawing from Iraq by 2008, he said. Gates added that the new strategy differed from previous ones in that “it really does put the onus on the Iraqis to come through” and adopt security responsibilities for themselves. Iraqi Premier Calls for Training— Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki Jan. 17 declared that “within three to six months our need for the American troops will dramatically go down” if the U.S. would do more to train and equip Iraq’s army. Speaking in an interview with reporters, Maliki rebuked U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s earlier remark that his government was “on borrowed time,” saying such comments provided “morale boosts for the terrorists.” [See p. 9B3] Maliki insisted that no faction would be exempt from the upcoming push to secure Baghdad, noting that his government had recently arrested more than 400 members of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite Muslim militia affiliated with Shiite cleric Moqtada alSadr. Maliki had often been criticized by the U.S. for protecting Shiite militias— which many blamed for engaging in sectarian violence—from any military action. Maliki also pledged to keep Iraq’s security forces free of sectarian sympathies. Abdul Razak al-Nadawi, a spokesman for Sadr, Jan. 17 denied Maliki’s claim regarding the arrests of Mahdi Army members. Unidentified senior Iraqi officials, however, said that dozens of senior members of the Mahdi Army had been arrested in the past several weeks, and that 420 Mahdi Army members had been arrested since October 2006. The New York Times Jan. 18 cited unidentified senior U.S. military officers who said that, contrary to similar arrests made earlier by the Iraqis, none of the recently arrested senior militia leaders had been prematurely released. Iran Demands Officials’ Release— Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Jan. 14 demanded the release of five Iranian officials detained by U.S. forces a week earlier in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. Hosseini said the officials were on a consular mission, and that the U.S. should “release all five persons, prevent possible similar acts and compensate damages” done to the office. [See p. 11D1] Lou Fintor, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Jan. 14 said the officials had been engaging in behavior “not consistent with normal diplomatic or consular functions.” He said the U.S. military had information linking the officials to attacks on

Facts On File

®

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Volume 67, No. 3449* January 18, 2007

B U.S. and Iraqi forces. A statement released by the U.S. military that day said the officials were members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard—an elite force affiliated with Iran’s ruling conservative clerics—which it said was “known for providing funds, weapons, improvised explosive device technology and training to extremist groups attempting to destabilize the government of Iraq and attack coalition forces.” Rice Jan. 12 had said Bush had decided several months earlier to move against Iranian operatives in Iraq, who Rice said were providing militants with sophisticated improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Bush Jan. 14 said the U.S. military would “deal with” any Iranians found “harming U.S. citizens or Iraqi citizens” in Iraq. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Jan. 14 said the Iranian officials were not accredited diplomats, but that the office they were found in did provide consular services and was not “a clandestine operation.” Zebari called for their release, and

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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U.S. Senators oppose troop ‘surge’ in Iraq; introduce nonbinding resolution. PAGE 25

Bush accepts NSA wiretap court oversight. PAGE 27

Sen. Obama joins 2008 Democratic presidential field. PAGE 28

House completes Democrats’ ‘100 hours’ agenda. PAGES 28-29

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ASEAN sets free-trade zone. PAGE 35

French right nominates Sarkozy for president. PAGE 36

Hussein officials hanged in Iraq. PAGE 37

Leader of Israel’s war against Lebanon’s Hezbollah resigns. PAGE 37

Afghan ambush kills scores of insurgents.

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U.S. team signs English soccer star Beckham. PAGE 38 *First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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complained that the raid by U.S. forces was causing countries in the region to question Iraq’s sovereignty. Zebari Jan. 18 announced that Iraq would thoroughly review and perhaps restrict its diplomatic protocols with Iran in order to ensure that Iranian officials were not working with militants. He said a sixth Iranian who had also been detained in the Irbil raid had already been released, and added that two Iranians detained in Baghdad in December 2006 had given an incomplete account regarding their mission in Iraq. The U.S. Jan. 18 announced that an operation “aimed at denying insurgents safe haven” had led it to enter Sudan’s embassy in Baghdad. U.N. Releases Casualty Tallies—The United Nations Jan. 16 reported that 34,452 Iraqi civilians—an average of 94 each day— died as the result of violence in 2006, a number significantly higher than Iraqi government reports. The U.N. report blamed most of the deaths on sectarian violence, whose roots “lie in revenge killings and lack of accountability for past crimes as well as in the growing sense of impunity for ongoing human rights violations,” the report said. [See p. 10G2] The report was compiled by the Human Rights Office of the U.N.’s Assistance Mission to Iraq using tallies from morgues, hospitals and other government sources. It also followed up on kidnappings—a frequent tactic of Shiite militias—that took place in 2006, saying that roughly 70 people kidnapped from a ministry building in Baghdad in November were still unaccounted for, almost all of them Sunni Muslims. [See 2006, p. 901B1] Reuters news agency Jan. 14 reported that the Baghdad morgue had received the unidentified bodies of roughly 16,000 people in 2006, most of them killed in sectarian violence. Other News—In other Iraqi news: Ahmad Chalabi, the head of a committee judging whether former members of the Baath Party should be allowed to regain their government posts, Jan. 17 announced that more than 700 Baathists had been reinstated. [See p. 9F1] †

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† Falah Shanshel, a Shiite legislator, Jan. 17 announced that the political bloc of six cabinet members and 30 legislators affiliated with Sadr would end its boycott of Maliki’s government in the coming days. The bloc, of which Shanshel was a member, had started the boycott in November 2006 in order to protest a meeting between Maliki and Bush. [See 2006, p. 1030D3] † At least two bombs detonated Jan. 16 at the predominantly Shiite Mustansiriya University in Baghdad as students were waiting to board buses. At least 60 people were killed and more than 140 were injured. Maliki said loyalists to Hussein were responsible for the attack. Mohammed alAskari, a spokesman for Iraq’s defense ministry, said insurgents were attempting to explode all the bombs in their inventory 26

prior to the upcoming security push in the capital. [See above] † Insurgents Jan. 17 attacked a convoy carrying members of a U.S.-based nonprofit group promoting democracy. An American member of the group, Andrea Parhamovich, was killed along with three security workers. A Sunni insurgent group with links to the terrorist network Al Qaeda Jan. 18 claimed responsibility for the attack. „

Arms Control Chinese Antisatellite Missile Test Reported.

The U.S. Jan. 18 said that it had joined other countries to lodge a protest with China over its unannounced Jan. 12 launch of a ballistic missile to destroy an aging Chinese satellite, in an apparent test and display of China’s antisatellite capability. China made no immediate acknowledgment of the test, which was the first that any nation had directed against a satellite in more than 20 years. [See 2006, p. 812E1, C2; 1985, p. 690D1] China’s missile launch had first been reported Jan. 17 on the Web site of the magazine Aviation Week and Space Technology. U.S. satellites Jan. 11 (early Jan. 12 in China) had detected the launch of a medium-range ballistic missile that destroyed a weather satellite orbiting 537 miles (865 km) above the Earth, a relatively low orbit but one higher than that used by many U.S. military reconnaissance satellites. The missile destroyed the satellite through the force of the collision, rather than with any explosive warhead. A spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council said China’s “development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area.” However, the U.S. was a staunch opponent of efforts led by China and Russia to reach a global treaty banning antisatellite and other space weaponry. The U.S. in 2006 had issued a space policy statement vowing to preserve its “freedom of action in space” and vowing to “deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests.” The U.S. was also pursuing laser research that critics contended was intended for the development of an antisatellite weapon, although the U.S. denied that that was its goal. While some space and arms control observers expressed concern that China’s test was a harbinger of an incipient space arms race, others suggested that it was intended to prod the U.S. into agreeing to the proposed ban. Canada and Australia were the other countries that had already lodged protests with China over the test, according to the U.S. Space scientists noted that the breakup of the satellite produced an enormous amount of debris that would endanger other satellites, and possibly spacecraft, for years or decades to come.

The U.S. had carried out antisatellite weapons research in the 1980s, shooting down one of its satellites in 1985. The Soviet Union had also conducted such tests between 1968 and 1982. „

Middle East News in Brief. U.S. Secretary of State Con-

doleezza Rice Jan. 15 announced that she would hold a three-way meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas within the next month. Speaking at a news conference in Luxor, Egypt, Rice said the trio would discuss the “road map,” an internationally backed peace plan that envisioned a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel. Rice had met with Olmert earlier that day in Jerusalem, and with Abbas Jan. 14 in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Speaking with Rice to reporters after their meeting, Abbas rejected a key element of the second stage of the “road map,” the creation of an interim Palestinian state. Abbas said a state with “temporary borders” was not “a realistic option.” [See p. 12C2] Khaled Meshal, the exiled leader of the militant Islamist group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), Jan. 10 declared that the existence of Israel was a “reality” and that “there will remain a state called Israel, this is a matter of fact.” Speaking in an interview with the Reuters news service in Damascus, Syria’s capital, Meshal said, “The problem is not that there is an entity called Israel. The problem is that the Palestinian state is nonexistent.” He added that Hamas would not recognize Israel until Israel recognized the existence of a viable Palestinian state along the borders that ex-

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isted prior to the 1967 Six Day War. Meshal’s comments were interpreted by many as a softening of Hamas’s position. The group’s charter called for the elimination of Israel. Hamas had won parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories in 2006, but international donors had cut off aid to the territories after Hamas had refused to recognize Israel. [See p. 12D1] Prominent private citizens from Israel and Syria had held several meetings in Europe from September 2004 to July 2006 in order to craft a peace agreement between the two countries, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported Jan. 16. The talks produced a document calling for Syria to stop backing anti-Israeli groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, for Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria—though the region would be largely demilitarized—and for the two nations to establish normal diplomatic relations. The talks ended after war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, with Hezbollah being supported by Syria. Israeli and Syrian officials Jan. 16 dismissed the agreement as insignificant. [See 2006, p. 993F3; 2003, p. 326D1] „

United Nations Former Oil-for-Food Head Charged. Feder-

al prosecutors in U.S. District Court in New York City Jan. 16 unsealed an indictment charging Benon Sevan, the former executive director of the United Nations oilfor-food program for Iraq, with receiving $160,000 in bribes in exchange for favoring a company seeking oil contracts. Sevan, 69, was a Cypriot who had run the program from 1997 to 2003. The oil-for-food program had been designed to allow then– Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian supplies, but investigations had uncovered massive corruption and bribery. Sevan, who faced charges of bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy, was the third U.N. official to be indicted in connection with the program. [See 2006, p. 1019C3; 2005, p. 535A2] Authorities also charged Efraim Nadler, 79, an Egyptian-born businessman and U.S. national, in connection with the case. U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said he would seek the extradition of Sevan, who was living in Cyprus, and Nadler, whose whereabouts were unknown. Sevan and Nadler faced maximum prison sentences of 50 and 112 years, respectively. Paul Volcker, the head of a U.N. inquiry into oil-for-food corruption, in an August 2005 report had accused Sevan of using his influence with Iraqi officials to channel oil contracts to a small oil-trading company, African Middle East Petroleum Co. In exchange, the company’s owner, Egyptian national Fakhry Abdelnour, allegedly paid Sevan $160,000 in kickbacks from the oil profits, using Nadler as an intermediary. Sevan’s lawyer, Eric Lewis, said the charges were “baseless,” and that his client had fully disclosed the funds, which he described as a “family gift.” „ January 18, 2007

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Intelligence Bush Accepts NSA Wiretap Court Oversight.

The Justice Department Jan. 17 said it would allow a secret federal court to oversee the operation of a wiretapping program previously run by the National Security Agency (NSA), and that it had agreed to seek warrants for wiretaps from the court. The announcement represented a stark reversal of policy by the administration of President George W. Bush, which had previously claimed that the president had inherent authority to run the program under the U.S. Constitution and federal law. [See 2006, p. 781B1] The program, which monitored electronic communications between the U.S. and foreign countries, had been secretly instituted by Bush in October 2001, soon after terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. After the program was uncovered by the New York Times in December 2005, it had engendered fierce criticism from Democrats and some Republicans for bypassing the warrant requirement laid out in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Bush administration had rejected those criticisms, arguing that the program fell within the constitutionally mandated powers of the executive branch, and additionally derived its legitimacy from a congressional resolution authorizing the president to use force to combat terrorists. Administration officials had also argued that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s review process would impede terrorism investigations. Justice Department officials maintained that the program had been operated in accordance with federal law, but said that reforms of the court’s wiretap review process would now allow approvals to be expedited. However, details on the new process were not released by administration officials, who said to do so would compromise intelligence activities. An unidentified judge from the court Jan. 10 had issued orders approving the new program, it was reported Jan. 17. NSA officials Jan. 11 had contacted members of the House and Senate intelligence committees to outline the new program, according to unidentified congressional officials, the New York Times reported Jan. 19. Democrats and other administration critics said the policy reversal had been spurred in part by the pending appeal of a lawsuit against the program to be heard in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio. Justice Department officials said they would file a motion with that court arguing that the lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), was unnecessary under the new policy. (A U.S. District Court judge in Detroit, Mich., in August 2006 had found that the program contravened the Constitution and federal law.) Gonzales

Testifies

Before

Senate—

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee at a Jan. 18 hearing sparred with Attor-

ney General Alberto Gonzales in an effort to get specifics on the new wiretap program rules. In particular, some members asked if the program would allow broad permission for eavesdropping targets, or if wiretaps would be approved on a case-by-case basis. Members of the committee also questioned the rationale behind the administration’s unwillingness to share documents and other information outlining the new program. Committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) during the hearing demanded the release of the Jan. 10 orders outlining the new program. Sen. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.) Jan. 18 said he had been told that the new program relied on “individualized” warrants for eavesdropping, rather than broader orders. However, four other unidentified people who had been briefed on the program said it relied on some combination of broad orders and individual warrants, the Washington Post reported Jan. 19. „ Bush

Claims

Mail-Opening

Authority.

President George W. Bush, in a “signing statement” issued in December 2006, had claimed that a new postal reform law gave federal authorities the power to open mail without a warrant in connection with emergency foreign intelligence gathering, the New York Daily News reported Jan. 4. It was the most recent controversial use by Bush of such statements, in which, when signing new laws, he issued interpretations of them that lawmakers often said were at odds with the legislation as written. [See p. 27A2; 2006, p. 972G3] The Bush administration maintained that the signing statement did not represent a new claim to expanded authority, but was a restatement of the president’s existing powers. But congressional Democrats and civil liberties advocates Jan. 4 expressed outrage, contending that the claim flatly contradicted established law as well as the newly signed bill itself. The controversy followed disclosures that the president had authorized programs to monitor telecommunications between the U.S. and other countries without court approval. „

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Terrorism Detainees Trial Rules Allow Coerced Testimony. The Defense Department Jan. 18 released a 238page manual detailing the rules for the trial by military commission of detained terrorism suspects held at a U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The rules, which hewed closely to legislation signed in October 2006 that established the commissions, barred the use of “evidence obtained by torture” after Dec. 30, 2005, but allowed coerced evidence and hearsay discovered before that date if the judge considered it reliable and relevant. They also blocked terrorism suspects from filing habeas corpus motions to challenge their detention. Military officials said that 60–80 Guantanamo Bay detainees would face the military commissions. [See 2006, p. 951B3] Daniel Dell’Orto, the Defense Department’s chief deputy counsel general, 27

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announced that the military trials would be overseen by Susan Crawford, a senior judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. He said the rules had been constructed to ensure fairness and adherence to the 2006 law. However, human rights activists and some Democratic and Republican members of Congress criticized them for not correcting what they said were serious loopholes in the law with regard to protecting human rights. „ Pentagon Official Blasts Defense Lawyers.

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Charles Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, Jan. 11 criticized attorneys who were representing terrorism suspects held at a U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and suggested that businesses boycott their law firms. The comments, made during an interview with Federal News Radio, a Washington, D.C.–area station aimed at government workers, caused an uproar from lawyers and human rights activists, who said legal representation for the accused was one of the bedrock principles of the nation’s legal system and accused Stimson of trying to intimidate lawyers. [See 2006, p. 1001E2; 2005, p. 168B3] Stimson in the interview listed the names of more than a dozen major law firms he said were representing terrorism suspects and therefore should be boycotted. He added, referring to Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S., “And I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms.” Asked who was paying the law firms, Stimson said, “It’s not clear, is it? Some will maintain that they’re doing it out of the goodness of their hearts—that they’re doing it pro bono, and I suspect they are. Others are receiving monies from who knows where and I’d be curious to have them explain that.” A Defense Department spokesman Jan. 13 said Stimson’s comments “do not represent the views of the Department of Defense or the thinking of its leadership.” Stimson, in a letter published Jan. 17 in the Washington Post, apologized and said his remarks did not represent his “core beliefs.” Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Jan. 16 in an interview with the Associated Press also attacked lawyers representing terrorism suspects, saying they were delaying their clients’ trials with numerous challenges. He later that day told the Post that his assertion was “a statement of reality” rather than a criticism of the attorneys. „ FBI Reports Guantanamo Contractor Abuses. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

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Jan. 2 released reports detailing the abuse of terrorism detainees by civilian contractors and military personnel at a U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The reports resulted from a 2004 internal survey asking FBI employees to relate abuses they had witnessed. The reports were released in connection with an ongoing lawsuit by 28

the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). An FBI spokesman said the reports had been given to the Defense Department’s inspector general. [See 2006, p. 1001B1; 2005, p. 471A1] The documents, which depicted civilian employees directing military personnel in the interrogation and treatment of detainees, suggested that contractors had a greater role and wider authority at the base than was previously thought. A military spokesman denied that was the case, saying, “As contractors cannot issue orders to military personnel, military personnel are not required to obey orders from a contractor.” It was not clear which companies had supplied the civilian employees detailed in the reported incidents, many of which took place in 2002. The reports detailed some two dozen instances of possible mistreatment, including several that had not previously been documented. These included separate October 2002 incidents in which a contractor had wrapped a bearded detainee’s head in duct tape “because he would not stop quoting the Koran,” and a marine had squatted over a Koran to offend a detainee during an interrogation. „

2008 Presidential Campaign Sen. Obama Joins Democratic Field. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) Jan. 16 opened a bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, filing papers to set up an exploratory committee for fund-raising purposes. Just two years into his first term as a senator, Obama, 45, was preparing for a run to become the first black president of the U.S. He said he planned a formal announcement for Feb. 10 in Springfield, the Illinois capital, where he had served as a state senator for eight years. [See p. 15F1; 2006, p. 837E1] Obama had received extensive media coverage over the past few months as he considered launching a presidential campaign. He was widely seen as one of the leading contenders for the Democratic nomination, along with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004. (Clinton had not yet declared herself a candidate, while Edwards had done so in December 2006.) [See 2006, p. 999B1] In a video announcing his move, posted on his Web site and distributed by e-mail, Obama presented himself as a figure who stood apart from ordinary politics. He said, “Today, our leaders in Washington seem incapable of working together in a common-sense way. Politics has become so bitter and partisan, so gummed up by money and influence, that we can’t tackle the big problems that demand solutions.” Taking the stance of a political outsider was seen as a move by Obama to tout his brief Senate experience as an asset rather than a drawback. For instance, in his video message he referred to the Iraq war as a “tragic and costly war that never should have been waged.” He had not yet been a member of the Senate when it passed a

resolution in 2002 that authorized the use of force against Iraq. Both Clinton and Edwards had voted for the resolution, although each had since become highly critical of President George W. Bush’s handling of the war. Rep. Tancredo Enters GOP Field—Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.) Jan. 16 said he planned to form an exploratory committee on a bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Tancredo, 61, was a hard-line opponent of proposals to offer temporary worker status or citizenship to illegal immigrants. [See 2006, p. 188B1] „

Democrats’ ‘100 Hour’ Agenda The House Jan. 18 passed the sixth and final piece of legislation on the Democratic majority’s agenda for the first 100 hours of business in the 110th Congress, doing so with time to spare. The six bills called for repealing tax breaks for oil companies, cutting interest rates on student loans, requiring the government to negotiate lower prices for the Medicare prescription drug benefit, removing limits on federal funding for stem cell research, expanding homeland security measures and raising the minimum wage. [See pp. 29B1, C2, 28E3, 14B2] The bills passed with an average of 62 Republicans joining the Democrats to vote in favor of each one. That was despite protests from the GOP minority against the Democrats’ use of procedural tactics to push the bills through without amendments. The measures still required approval from the more narrowly divided Senate, however, before they could be sent to President George W. Bush, who had threatened to veto at least two of the bills. House Approves Drug Price Negotiations.

The House Jan. 12 passed, 255–170, a bill that would compel the federal government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for the Medicare program. All 231 of the Democrats who were present voted for the measure, and were joined by 24 Republicans. The bill required Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and report his findings after six months. [See p. 14B2, 2006, p. 577G1] Under a provision of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 that established a privately managed, but publicly funded, prescription drug program for Medicare beneficiaries, private insurers were responsible for negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical firms. Proponents of the current system said it encouraged competition between rival insurers that would result in lower prices. Critics of the legislation said it was not feasible for the government to negotiate lower drug prices and also provide Medicare beneficiaries with a wide variety of drug options. Those opposed to the existing provision said it hurt Medicare beneficiaries by prohibiting the government from using its considerable purchasing power to negotiate lower prices. FACTS ON FILE

The measure faced an uncertain future in the Senate, where Democrats held a slim majority. Sens. Ron Wyden (D, Ore.) and Olympia Snowe (R, Maine) Jan. 10 had introduced a separate bill that would require the government to negotiate prices for drugs that had been developed with government funding, or were available from only one producer. President George W. Bush Jan. 11 said he would veto the bill if it reached him. „ House Passes Bill to Repeal Oil Tax Breaks.

The House Jan. 18 voted, 264–163, to pass a bill that would repeal about $14 billion in tax breaks and subsidies for oil and gas companies, and put the savings in a fund for developing alternative energy sources. Votes in favor of the bill included those of 36 members of the Republican minority. [See 2005, p. 516D1] The bill would repeal $7.6 billion in tax breaks for oil drillers enacted in 2004 and 2005. The measure would also require the federal government to recover $4.4 billion in royalties on offshore Gulf of Mexico drilling leases granted in 1998 and 1999. The leases had erroneously left out a requirement for companies to pay royalties when oil prices rose above a threshold of $34 a barrel. The bill would force the companies to either accept revised leases or else pay a special “conservation fee” to remain eligible to bid for leases. [See 2006, p. 276B3] Republicans and the energy industry had warned against a retroactive move to rewrite the leases, saying it would violate the sanctity of contracts. They also argued that repealing tax breaks would prompt oil companies either to take their operations overseas or to pass their added costs on to consumers. But Democrats said booming profits from high oil and gas prices gave companies enough incentive to drill in the U.S. without the lure of tax breaks. Republicans also noted that the bill did not specify how the alternative energy fund would be used. Democrats said that would be addressed in further legislation. The White House Jan. 17 issued a statement saying that it “strongly” opposed the bill. It said the legislation would treat oil companies unfairly by making them ineligible for a tax break enacted in 2004 for “domestic manufacturers.” However, the statement indicated that President George W. Bush was unlikely to veto the bill. [See 2004, p. 797A2] The Interior Department Jan. 9 had announced that it planned to raise the royalty rate for all Gulf of Mexico deepwater drilling leases, to 16.7%, from 12.5%. It also said that Bush was lifting bans on drilling in a pair of five-millionacre (two-million-hectare) areas, one in the Gulf of Mexico and the other in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, in the North Aleutian Basin. A moratorium on drilling in Bristol Bay had remained in place since the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. In December 2006, Congress had authorized Bush to open the Gulf of Mexico sector. [See 2006, pp. 1003A3, 949G2] January 18, 2007

Pelosi Calls for New Bill, Select Panel—

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) Jan. 18 set a deadline of July 4 for House committees to prepare comprehensive energy legislation that would help reduce U.S. reliance on foreign supplies and address climate change. Pelosi said she also planned to create a new select committee on energy independence and global warming, which would require a majority vote by the House. Pelosi said the new committee would not have jurisdiction over legislation. However, her move could provide a means of bypassing, if necessary, Rep. John Dingell (D, Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Dingell, a longtime supporter of the automobile industry, was viewed as a potential opponent of legislation to cut carbon dioxide emissions. As of Jan. 18, four bills addressing climate change had been introduced in Congress since the beginning of the session earlier in the month. „ House Votes to Cut Student Loan Rates.

The House Jan. 17 voted, 356–71, in favor of a bill to cut interest rates paid by recipients of federally subsidized student loans. The measure was passed with the support of 124 Republicans. [See 2006, p. 70E2] The bill would incrementally reduce interest rates from the current level of 6.8% beginning with those disbursed in July 2007 and ending with loans made in July 2011. By then, the rate on new loans would be 3.4%. In January 2012, the rate on new loans would revert to 6.8%. In order to offset the extra $6 billion in costs to the government, the legislation would lower the interest rate the government guaranteed to student loan lenders, raise fees paid by banks and eliminate certain lending incentives. The Bush administration Jan. 17 stated its opposition to the bill, calling for greater aid for poor students to be delivered in the form of grants, instead of lower interest rates. „

Other Legislation Senate Passes Ethics Reform Bill. The Sen-

ate Jan. 18 voted, 96–2, to approve an ethics reform bill that would set new rules for the conduct of senators and their staffs and stiffen legal restrictions on contacts between senators and lobbyists. Sens. Tom Coburn (R, Okla.) and Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) cast the only dissenting votes. [See pp. 15B1, 1C1] The vote came two weeks after the House had approved changes to its own ethics and budget rules. The new Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress had made a priority of addressing corruption scandals that had plagued the Republicans in the previous Congress. Parts of the Senate bill that would change federal law, rather than internal rules, required House approval. Lobbyist Gifts Limited—The Senate bill, like the House rules changes, would ban senators and staffers from accepting meals, gifts and expenses-paid travel from lobbyists. Senators who accepted flights on pri-

vate airplanes would have to reimburse the owners at a charter rate, rather than the less expensive first-class rate that was permitted under current ethics rules. The bill would require lobbyists to file quarterly reports and disclose their campaign contributions, including those that they solicited from other donors and “bundled” together in larger increments that circumvented individual contribution limits. It would also bar lobbyists from continuing their tradition of paying for lavish parties at the national Democratic and Republican conventions. Addressing another potential conflict of interest, the bill would bar the spouse of a senator from working as a lobbyist, unless he or she had been a professional lobbyist at least one year before the senator’s election. It would also require senators to wait at least two years after leaving office before they themselves could become lobbyists. However, senators voted, 71–27, to reject an amendment that called for the appointment of an independent ethics counsel to monitor their conduct. Earmarks Restricted—The Senate bill would also impose restrictions on the use of earmarks, the requests by individual lawmakers for federal funding of specific pet projects, or for tax breaks narrowly tailored for a specific beneficiary. Under current rules, lawmakers could sponsor earmarks anonymously. Sen. Jim DeMint (R, S.C.) proposed an amendment, based on the House measure, that would require public disclosure of earmark requests and their sponsors. It would also broaden the definition of an earmark in order to subject more such provisions to the disclosure rule. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.), who had favored a weaker version of earmark reform with a number of loopholes, Jan. 11 lost a vote that he called in an attempt to kill the DeMint amendment. The Senate Jan. 16 voted, 98–0, to approve the amendment. The Senate bill would also ban earmarks that benefited the sponsoring senator’s immediate family. A related provision of the bill would strip the federal pension benefits of any members of Congress convicted of crimes that involved bribery. But the measure would not apply to convictions that predated the bill’s passage. Former Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham (R, Calif.) in 2005 had pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from defense contractors in exchange for earmarks, in a case that drew attention to abuses of the earmarking practice. [See 2006, p. 814C2]

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The bill was nearly derailed by a dispute over another amendment, offered Jan. 10 by Sen. Judd Gregg (R, N.H.). It would have attached to the bill a measure giving the president the power to reject individual items from a spending bill without vetoing the entire bill. After Sen. Robert Byrd (D, W. Va.) blocked a vote on Gregg’s amendment, Reid Jan. 18 agreed to put it to a vote at a later date, when the Senate took up a bill to raise the minimum wage. 29

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Environment News in Brief. In an unusual move, six

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electricity companies Jan. 17 endorsed a measure before the Senate that would impose additional regulations on the electric utility industry, including a cap on greenhouse gas emissions thought to contribute to global climate change. Such emissions were created through the burning of fossil fuels. The bill had been sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D, Calif.) and Thomas Carper (D, Del.). [See 2006, p. 694A1] A coalition of scientists and evangelical Christian leaders Jan. 18 issued a statement to President George W. Bush, House and Senate leaders and other politicians of note, calling on them to address factors believed to be contributing to climate change. “We believe that the protection of life on Earth is a profound moral imperative,” the statement read. [See 2006, p. 148F1] The National Academy of Sciences Jan. 15 released a report which found that cuts

to the budget of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had im-

periled the government’s ability to assess the dangers posed by future climate change and severe storms. The report said NASA’s Earth science budget had been cut by 30% since 2000, a period in which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had also suffered from substantial delays and cost overruns in its weather and climate mission. The report recommended greater funding for programs investigating the ramifications of changes in the sea level and ice sheets, and dedicated to the “capability to observe natural hazards and environmental changes.” [See p. 16A3; 2006, p. 1003D3] The NOAA Jan. 9 reported that 2006 had been the warmest year on record in the continental U.S., surpassing 1998, the previous warmest year. The agency said that average temperatures in the country were 2.2° Fahrenheit (1.2° Celsius) higher than the 20th century’s mean temperature. In a statement released that day, the NOAA also for the first time acknowledged that manmade “increases in greenhouse gases” were a “contributing factor” to 2006’s warm temperatures. [See 2006, p. 996C2] An expert panel appointed by the National Academy of Sciences Jan. 11 recommended the complete rejection of a proposal by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to standardize the government’s assessment of risks posed by health threats, environmental hazards and safety standards. The panel found that the OMB’s plan was “fundamentally flawed,” and that its recommendations would likely cause confusion in federal regulatory bodies. The report said the OMB had required health risks to be defined 30

by injuries, rather than focusing on the need to prevent damage from occurring in the first place. OMB officials said they would change the plan before finalizing it. [See 2001, p. 813D1] „

Energy Nuclear Weapons Chief Fired Over Breaches.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman Jan. 4 said he had asked Linton Brooks to leave his post as administrator of the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA), which managed the department’s nuclear weapons program. Brooks was dismissed over a series of security problems at its facilities, particularly the Los Alamos National Laboratory. [See 2006, p. 955E2] Bodman said he had told Brooks to depart by the end of the month. Brooks that day in a statement to NNSA employees said he would do so “shortly.” He noted that the NNSA, formed in 2000 to improve security in the nuclear weapons program, had not yet fulfilled that mandate. The department’s inspector general in November 2006 had issued a report on the security breaches, which said that crucial security measures at Los Alamos were “nonexistent, applied inconsistently, or not followed.” Congressional Democrats were planning to hold hearings on the security failures. Rep. Edward Markey (D, Mass.), a vocal critic of nuclear weapons, Jan. 4 said that “it will take more than a new boss to fix the problems.” „

Law Enforcement Federal Prosecutor Firings Draw Scrutiny.

Several U.S. senators Jan. 16 expressed concern at a spate of recent dismissals of U.S. attorneys, calling them unusual and suggesting that they might be politically motivated. The Justice Department in a letter sent that day to Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D, Calif.) and Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) denied that the firings were retaliatory in nature or intended to “inappropriately influence” any investigation or case. Officials said the prosecutors had been fired after a review of performance in implementing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s priorities, particularly with regard to violent crime. Feinstein said she knew of at least seven U.S. attorneys fired without cause; the Justice Department refused to provide a figure. Among those dismissed were Carol Lam of San Diego, Calif., who had led the prosecution of Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham (R, Calif.), forced to resign in 2005 after pleading guilty to bribery; and Kevin Ryan of San Francisco, Calif., who had led high-profile investigations of corporations’ fraudulent backdating of stock options, as well as a sports doping scandal. [See 2006, pp. 1036D1, 814C2] Senators also noted that the Justice Department sought to replace a dismissed Arkansas prosecutor, H.E. Cummins 3rd, with a former Republican National Committee official, J. Timothy Griffin.

Gonzales at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee Jan. 18 said he “would never, ever” replace a U.S. attorney for political reasons. Feinstein expressed concern that President George W. Bush would seek to use a provision in the 2006 reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act antiterrorism law to make interim appointments that would last until the end of his term, without seeking Senate confirmation. Gonzales said that the Justice Department was sending all its replacement appointments to the Senate for confirmation. All of the dismissed U.S. attorneys had themselves been appointed by Bush. „

Supreme Court Ruling Allows Patent Challenge. The Su-

preme Court Jan. 9 ruled, 8–1, that a company could challenge the validity of a patent in court even if it was currently paying royalties to the patent-holder for licensed use of the technology. The court overturned a ruling by the special court that addressed patent matters, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which had required that a party must first break its agreement to pay such royalties in order to have standing to sue over the patent. The case was MedImmune Inc. v. Genentech Inc. [See 2006, p. 761D1] In the case at hand, pharmaceutical company MedImmune Inc. in 1997 had reached a licensing agreement for the use of technology developed by Genentech Inc. in MedImmune’s respiratory-tract medicine Synagis. When Genentech was granted a patent on the technology in 2001, it demanded royalties from MedImmune, which paid them under protest but filed suit to challenge the patent. The appeals court had based its ruling, established in a different case, on wording in Article III of the Constitution, and in patent law, declaring that courts could adjudicate only actual “controversies.” It found that without a breach of a license agreement, there was no material conflict between the parties. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said the dispute between the two companies did constitute a controversy. He noted the great risk that a company would face in violating a licensing agreement and drawing a patent-infringement suit, and said there was no basis for construing the Constitution as requiring such a step. Justice Clarence Thomas was the dissenter in the case. „

Economy Bernanke Warns of Budget Risks. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank, in testimony before the Senate Budget Committee Jan. 18 warned of a projected “debt spiral” that would occur unless rising federal spending on health care and Social Security was curbed. [See p. 15B1; 2006, p. 677F2] According to projections from the Congressional Budget Office, so-called entitleFACTS ON FILE

ment programs—Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—would account for three-quarters of all federal noninterest spending and 19% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050. (Social Security was the government retirement program; Medicare was the federally sponsored health care program for the elderly and disabled; and Medicaid was the government’s healthcare program for the poor.) The spending burden of those programs would contribute to a mounting national debt that by 2030 would reach about 100% of GDP, requiring annual interest payments of 4.6% of GDP, up threefold from the current share, that would deepen the debt in turn. The Fed chairman refrained from offering advice about how to hold down entitlement spending or increase revenue to offset it. Lawmakers of both parties sought to elicit support for their respective positions on taxation, with Democrats urging that tax cuts under President George W. Bush not be extended when they expired in 2010, and Republicans suggesting that tax cuts increased revenue by stimulating the economy. But Bernanke declined to make “specific recommendations on tax policy.” „ Consumer Prices Rose in December 2006.

The Labor Department Jan. 18 reported that its consumer Inflation (CPI) price index (CPI), 2006 0.5% which measured December Previous Month 0.0% prices paid for 12-Month Increase 2.5% consumer goods by all urban consumers, rose 0.5% in December 2006 after seasonal adjustment. It was the first rise in the index in four months, and partly reflected a 4.6% increase in energy prices. “Core” consumer prices, which excluded volatile food and energy prices, climbed 0.2%, after staying flat in November. [See 2006, p. 974E1] Unadjusted for seasonal variation, the CPI for all urban consumers stood at 201.8% of its 1982–84 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982–84 would have cost $201.80 in December. The unadjusted inflation rate for the 2006 calendar year was 2.5%, down from 3.4% for all of 2005 as well as 2004’s 3.3%. The “core” rate was 2.6%, up from 2.2% in 2005. Description of the Index—The Labor Department had significantly revamped the CPI, the nation's most widely followed measure of inflation, in 1978 and 1987, and made other less drastic changes over the years. The changes sought to make the index more accurately reflect a comprehensive picture of consumers’ buying habits. [See 2005, p. 32F3] The CPI was based on the spending patterns of families in 87 metropolitan areas. The spending habits of salaried employees, wage earners, and retired and unemployed persons were surveyed. Urban consumers made up about 87% of the U.S. population. Excluded from that category were people living in rural areas and military personnel, among others. The department also published another CPI, which was based on the spending patterns of urban wage earners and clerical workers. That group represented about 32% of the nation’s population. The Labor Department in 1978 had decided to retain the wage and clerical survey, rather than replace it with the broader index, because of protests from labor organizations. Labor leaders argued that because the incomes of several million blue-collar workers were linked directly to the CPI, the index ought to continue to reflect the prices paid by wage earners.

January 18, 2007

Since 1999, prices within most item categories had been averaged using a geometric mean formula. That method was meant to account for changes that price fluctuations had on consumption, in order to make the index more accurate as a cost-of-living measure. The incomes of about half the population were tied in some way to changes in the CPI. The linkage resulted from escalation clauses in collective-bargaining settlements, alimony and rent payments, and Social Security and other government benefits. The base year of 1967 was retained for both indexes until January 1988, when it was changed to 1982– 84. Also, the methodology for collecting the price data was completely revised. Beginning with the CPI report for January 1983, the Labor Department began substituting an index of rental prices for the previous housing component in its urban price report. The change was made to remove the volatile effect of interest rates on the CPI. (Mortgage payments had previously constituted almost 11% of the index.) A mortgage-rate component was still to be calculated in the urban wage and clerical worker index. „

Producer Prices Climbed in December 2006.

Producer prices in December 2006 increased 0.9% after seasonal adjustment, according to the Labor Department’s Producer Price Index (PPI) of prices charged by manufacturers and producers of finished goods, released Jan. 17. The index had risen 2.0% in November 2006. “Core” producer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food prices, rose a less drastic 0.2% in December, after a 1.3% climb the previous month. Energy prices rose 2.5% in December, after a 6.1% leap in November; food prices were up 1.7%. [See 2006, p. 974G1] The finished goods index, before seasonal adjustment, stood at 160.5% of its 1982 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982 would have cost $160.50 in December. Prices for intermediate—or partially processed—goods rose 0.5%, following a 0.7% gain in November, and prices for crude goods climbed 2.9%, after a 15.7% increase. Description of the Index—The producer price indexes reflected separate price changes at the three stages of the production chain—crude materials, intermediate goods and finished producer goods. [See 2005, p. 33E1] The data used were the selling prices reported by producers for commodities in each of those three stages of processing. (Retail prices paid by consumers were reported in the consumer price index, the Labor Department’s other major measure of inflation.) Instead of issuing a single, combined index of all commodities, the department published three separate categories. Officials believed that this presentation corrected a problem in the previous wholesale price report, used until 1978, which had tended to exaggerate price increases passed along the production chain. The index of producer prices for finished goods was the most widely quoted of the three reports. It measured the prices paid for capital equipment and goods ready for sale to consumers, such as frozen foods, gasoline and refrigerators. The intermediate-goods index reported price changes for products that were only partially processed, such as flour used in bread, steel rods used in automobiles, and diesel fuel. The crude-goods index reported price changes for raw products that had not yet been processed, such as wheat and coal. Also included were other farm products and crude petroleum. In 1982, each of the three indexes was divided into food and nonfood categories. In the calculation of each index, price changes were averaged together with weights that represented the gross shipment values of the goods in a selected base period. Monthly changes in the indexes were adjusted for seasonal fluctuations in price, but the overall indexes themselves, expressed as a percentage of the base year’s price, were not corrected because fluctuations

tended to even out over a longer time span. The Bureau of Labor Statistics prepared the producer price indexes. The bureau collected about 100,000 price quotations every month from producers of all sizes in manufacturing, fishing, mining, agriculture, forestry, gas and electricity, and public utilities. The bureau had also introduced a number of service sector industries into the PPI of late. Beginning in January 1988, the Labor Department substituted 1982 as the new reference year for most PPI series that previously had used 1967 as a base, and recalculated its seasonal-adjustment factors to reflect recent developments. „

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Industrial Output Was Up in December 2006.

The Federal Reserve Jan. 17 reported that its industrial production index rose 0.4% in December 2006. The index had fallen 0.1% in November according to revised data. The overall index now stood at 112.4% of its 2002 base average, up from 112.0% in the previous month, revised. [See 2006, p. 1004F1] Manufacturing and mining output both rose, by 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively. Manufacturing activity was stronger than expected; revised data showed no change in manufacturing output in November, after a previously reported gain. Mining output that month had dropped 0.4%. Utility output fell 2.6% in December, after a slight rise in November. U.S. factories, mines and utilities operated at 81.8% of their total capacity in December, up from a revised 81.6% in November. For all of 2006, the industrial production index rose 3.0%. Manufacturing and mining output grew solidly, while utility production declined. The total production capacity of factories, mines and utilities climbed 2.4% in 2006, and capacity utilization was also 0.5% higher than its level in December 2005. Other News—In other economic news: † The Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development Jan. 18 reported jointly that the rate of housing starts in December 2006, annualized and adjusted for seasonal variation, was 1.64 million units. That was 4.5% higher than the rate for November 2006, which was revised to 1.57 million units. Building permits were issued in December at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.60 million units, up 5.5% from the previous month’s revised rate of 1.51 million, but still 24.3% below the December 2005 rate. [See 2006, p. 974C2] † The Federal Reserve Jan. 17 released its “beige book” survey of economic data covering the period from late November 2006 through early January. The survey was compiled eight times a year on a rotating basis by its 12 regional banks. The latest survey indicated moderate to slowing economic growth across the 12 districts. Residential construction, vehicle sales and mortgage lending were generally sluggish. The districts reported improvements in the service sector, slight to modest retail sales, strong commercial real estate and lending activity, growth in the mining sector and high levels of energy production and exploration. They saw tighter labor markets that produced only moderate wage increases overall but stronger wage rises in particular types of business. Prices were held in 31

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check by diminishing energy and materials costs and by competition. [See 2006, p. 927E1] † The value of business inventories at the end of November 2006 was $1.37 trillion after seasonal adjustment, the Commerce Department reported Jan. 12. That was 0.4% higher than at the end of the previous month. The ratio of inventories to sales—a measure of how long it would take businesses to unload their inventories at the current sales pace, was 1.30, up from 1.27 at the end of November 2005. [See 2006, p. 955A2] † The Commerce Department Jan. 12 reported that retail sales in December 2006, adjusted for seasonal variation, stood at $369.9 billion, up 0.9% from November 2006. The October to November rise in sales was revised to 0.6%, from 1.0%. General estimates of retail performance over the holiday season had been lowered by warm weather across most of the country that reduced demand for winter apparel, and by reports Jan. 4 from some 50 retail chain stores that together showed a 3.1% increase in sales in December 2006 over December 2005. That increase was smaller than the 3.6% growth seen in the same comparison a year earlier. However, the Commerce Department’s sales-growth figure for December 2006 was better than its figure for the previous December. [See 2006, p. 974D2] „

Medicine & Health Pa. Gov. Proposes Universal Health Care.

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Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) Jan. 17 unveiled a proposal to provide health insurance for the states’ estimated 750,000 people without it, joining a growing trend among states. However, unlike plans under consideration in California and Massachusetts, the Pennsylvania plan, known as Cover All Pennsylvanians, would not require residents to purchase insurance. [See p. 15E2] Rendell said the plan would provide businesses with fewer than 50 employees paid less than the state’s average annual wage of $39,000 with the option of purchasing insurance for them at a subsidized rate of about $130 per month. Individuals who met certain criteria could also purchase insurance through the plan at a monthly cost of between $10 and $70. The insurance plan would be paid for in part by a 3% payroll tax levied on employers who did not provide insurance, and a hike in taxes on tobacco products. The increased revenue would also bring with it matched federal funds. The rising cost of health insurance, and its unaffordability for a growing number of people, had become a widely discussed issue in the public and political arenas. An estimated 47 million people nationwide were without health insurance, eight million of whom were children. Coalition Proposes Wider Care—A disparate coalition of businesses, advocacy groups, pharmaceutical firms, doctors and hospitals calling itself the Health Coverage 32

Coalition for the Uninsured Jan. 18 released a plan to provide health care to more than half of the nation’s uninsured. The proposal received the endorsement of 16 groups, including health insurers Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and Kaiser Permanente, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, drug firm Pfizer Inc. and senior advocacy group AARP. The group recommended that Congress provide more funding to the Children’s Health Insurance Plan, a national program that provided insurance for poor children that was managed by individual states, but jointly financed by states and the federal government. The coalition also suggested the government provide tax incentives for those who bought private health insurance for children. In another sign of growing concern over health care costs, an unusual alliance of leaders from the AARP, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Business Roundtable, a business advocacy group, Jan. 16 had issued a statement calling for “affordable quality health care for all.” „ News in Brief. The American Cancer Society (ACS) Jan. 17 reported that cancer deaths had dropped for the second consecutive year in 2004. The number of deaths from cancer was 553,888 in 2004, down from 556,902 in 2003, a drop of 3,014. (The figures were the latest statistics available). In 2003, the ACS had recorded the first drop in overall cancer deaths in more than 70 years. Experts said the announcement gave them hope that the decline was not a statistical aberration, but the beginning of a trend. They attributed the drop to the frequent use of screening measures, a decline in cigarette smoking and improved treatments for the disease. [See 2006, p. 170A2] The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Jan. 8 reported that growth in health care spending had slowed in 2005, largely due to tapering growth in spending on prescription drugs. Spending on health care grew 6.9% in 2005, down from a growth rate of 7.2% in 2004. Health care spending amounted to $1.99 trillion in 2005, or $6,697 per person, and accounted for 16% of the nation’s gross domestic product. Growth in spending on prescription drugs had slowed substantially, to 5.8% in 2005, from 8.6% in 2004. That decline was attributed to efforts by state governments to reduce drug costs and an increase in generic drug use. [See above, 2006, p. 979D1] The Academy for Eating Disorders, a U.S.-based international coalition of physicians, Jan. 9 released guidelines regarding the weight of fashion models. The guidelines had been sparked by the deaths in 2005 of two South American models from the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, and the general trend in the fashion industry towards the use of extremely thin models. The academy recommended that all models be at least 16 years old and have a body mass index (BMI) higher than 18.5 for females 18 or older, and 17.4 for those under 18. (BMI was the ratio of weight to the square of height.)

The Council of Fashion Designers Jan. 5 had introduced its own model guidelines to designers to address health concerns, but it stopped short of requiring models to meet a certain numerical standard such as the BMI. [See 2006, p. 1041C1] A team of physicians Jan. 8 reported on the Web site of the online journal PLoS Medicine that scientific research backed by the food and beverage industry was four to eight times more likely to find beverages healthful than did independently financed research. The researchers found that, out of 24 studies on beverages funded by the industry, 21 were favorable or neutral toward the beverages, while three were unfavorable. Of 52 independently financed studies, 32 were favorable or neutral and 20 were unfavorable. The study was led by David Ludwig of Children’s Hospital Boston in Massachusetts. [See 2006, p. 956E2] „

Business Cendant Executive Gets 12-Year Sentence.

Walter Forbes, the former chairman of Cendant Corp., Jan. 17 was sentenced by a federal judge to 12 years and seven months in prison for a 1990s accounting fraud at CUC International Inc., just before that company merged with another to form Cendant. Discovery of the fraud had led to earnings restatements and massive losses by Cendant. (Cendant had since split into four separate companies with new names.) Forbes’s conviction came after two mistrials in his case. [See 2006, pp. 1005D2, 893D1] Forbes was also ordered to pay $3.28 billion in restitution to Cendant and its auditors, who had paid roughly that sum to settle investor lawsuits. The judge, Alan Nevas of U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Conn., waived a fine because Forbes said he had a negative net worth and would be unable to pay it. He was allowed to go free on $1.2 million bond pending his appeal of an October 2006 conviction on charges of false reporting and conspiracy to commit fraud. Forbes’s sentence was comparable to the 10 years in prison that former Cendant Vice Chairman E. Kirk Shelton had received in 2005 for his role in the fraud. Shelton had also been ordered to pay $3.28 billion. „

Crime State Takes Over Duke Assault Case.

Durham, N.C., District Attorney Michael Nifong, the lead prosecutor in the case against three white Duke University lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a black exotic dancer in March 2006, Jan. 12 asked the North Carolina attorney general’s office to take over the case. The state’s attorney general, Roy Cooper, Jan. 13 said his office would take the case, and promised a “careful and deliberate review.” [See 2006, p. 1010E1] The North Carolina Bar Association in December 2006 had filed an ethics complaint against Nifong, charging that he had made public comments about the case that FACTS ON FILE

were biased against the defendants. The prosecutor had also verified the testimony of a DNA laboratory director who said in court that he and Nifong had withheld potentially exculpatory DNA evidence. Duke President Richard Brodhead Jan. 8 reiterated a call for Nifong to step down. The transfer of the case to the attorney general’s office came one day after the defense Jan. 11 filed papers in court stating that the accuser had said in a December 2006 interview that she had been attacked by two men, not three as she originally claimed. The accuser said one of the three defendants, Reade Seligmann, had been in the room where she was attacked, but did not participate. The revelation came soon after the prosecution dropped rape charges against the three defendants: Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans. They still faced kidnapping and felony sexual-offense charges. Early in the case, Nifong had publicly stated that he was certain a rape had occurred. According to the papers filed Jan. 11, the accuser in her December 2006 statement also gave revised descriptions of her alleged attackers and a different timeline for her attack. Two Defendants Invited to Return—

Duke Jan. 3 said Finnerty and Seligmann could return to school for the upcoming semester, and could also rejoin the lacrosse team. The school had barred the two men from attending classes in the fall of 2006 due to the sexual assault charges. Evans had graduated in May. „

Education SMU Faculty Question Bush Library Deal.

Sixty-eight faculty members at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, in a letter to the university’s president, R. Gerald Turner, Jan. 11 questioned the wisdom of the school’s decision to host a privately funded George W. Bush presidential library and policy center. A site-selection committee for the library in December 2006 had announced that it had chosen SMU as the institution’s future home. [See 2004, p. 927D3] The letter’s authors argued that what they described as Bush’s poor record on civil liberties, the environment and the war in Iraq was at odds with SMU’s Methodist and academic values. They said a politically “neutral” library would be more worthy of their support, but that Bush had shown interest, rather, in creating a “partisan space” that would make portraying his policies in a favorable light part of its mission. Turner Jan. 17 defended the library deal before the faculty, saying it would raise the university’s profile and “be a tremendous asset,” attracting more students and researchers to the university. The Bush family had a history of ties to SMU. First Lady Laura Bush had graduated from the school and sat on the board of trustees. „ January 18, 2007

AFRICA

Somalia Parliament Approves Martial Law. Somalia’s transitional parliament Jan. 13 declared three months of martial law. The move allowed the president to employ “all necessary actions to enforce security in the country.” [See p. 11E1] Violence had been rising in Somalia, especially in the capital, Mogadishu, since transitional government and Ethiopian forces in late December 2006 had driven out an Islamist militia that had controlled much of the country. The transitional government’s defense minister Jan. 12 had said pro-government forces had taken control of the southern town of Ras Kamboni, the last stronghold of the Islamists. Ethiopian jets reportedly had been targeting the remaining Islamists in bomb attacks in the area. The U.S. had conducted overnight air strikes the previous week targeting alleged Al Qaeda terrorist network operatives in southern Somalia, and had sent a small number of Special Operations troops to the area to continue to pursue the suspects. [See below] In Mogadishu Jan. 12, eight men were killed in a gunfight between a warlord’s militia and presidential guards at the gates of the presidential palace. The gunfight occurred as Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was meeting with the city’s most powerful warlords in an effort to convince them to disarm their militias. Government and Ethiopian troops Jan. 13–14 conducted house-to-house searches for weapons in Mogadishu. Media Outlets Briefly Shut—The transitional government Jan. 15 shut down three of the country’s largest radio stations, alleging that they had been broadcasting propaganda that incited violence. The stations were Shabelle Radio, Radio HornAfrik and Voice of the Koran radio. The government also shut the Mogadishu office of Qatar-based satellite television network Al Jazeera. The bans were lifted the next day. Other News—In other Somalia news: † Kenyan authorities Jan. 17 said they had arrested several Islamists who were trying to cross the border into Kenya. Somali officials said the Kenyans might have captured Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a top Islamist leader, but Kenya said it was still trying to figure out their identities. Somalia’s government had said it would grant amnesty to Islamist fighters but asked that its leaders be turned over. † Members of the transitional parliament Jan. 17 voted, 183–9, to remove parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan. Adan in November 2006 had attempted to negotiate a peace deal between the Islamists and the transitional government. He had also called for Ethiopian troops to leave the country. Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said the move would have a “negative impact” on peace efforts in Somalia. [See 2006, p. 881A1]

† Representatives of the African Union (AU) Jan. 13 arrived in Mogadishu to discuss a potential peacekeeping force with the transitional government. † U.S. military officials Jan. 12 said the recent air strikes in southern Somalia, conducted by U.S. Special Operations Command personnel, could serve as a model for future missions against terrorists around the world. The officials also said the use of a proxy force on the ground—in the case of Somalia, the Ethiopian military—could also be used as a blueprint for operations in the future. U.S. Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that day told members of Congress that the air strikes had been conducted under the authority granted by the White House to the Defense Department, in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., to hunt down terrorists around the world. „

Africa News in Brief Angola: Cholera Outbreak Kills 2,764. An-

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gola’s health ministry Jan. 15 said 2,764 people had died in a cholera outbreak that began in February 2006. The ministry said more than 69,000 people had contracted the disease. The epidemic had started in Luanda, the capital, and spread to 17 of the country’s 18 provinces. [See 2006, p. 378B3] „

Burundi: Former President Released.

Former President Domitien Ndayizeye Jan. 16 was released from prison, after being cleared by the High Court of charges that he had plotted to overthrow the government of President Pierre Nkurunziza. Also acquitted were former Vice President Alphonse Kadege and three others. Former rebel leader Alain Mugabaraboba and another man, Tharcisse Ndayishimiye, were convicted, after reportedly having confessed under torture. They received prison sentences of 20 years and 15 years, respectively. Ndayizeye and his supporters had alleged that the plot was invented by the government to undermine the opposition. [See 2006, p. 680E1] „

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Dem. Rep. of the Congo: Warlord Sets Truce.

The Congolese army Jan. 17 said warlord Laurent Nkunda, a dissident former army general based in eastern Congo, had agreed to a peace agreement brokered by Rwanda. Nkunda said he had agreed to integrate his fighters into the Congolese army, as long as the government dropped an international warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges. Nkunda, who denied reports that he would go into exile as part of the deal, had been seen as one of the main obstacles to peace in Congo’s war-torn east. [See 2006, p. 1012E1] „ Morocco: Journalists Convicted. A court in Casablanca Jan. 15 convicted Driss Ksikes, editor of Nichane magazine, and reporter Sanaa al-Aji of defamation for publishing widely known jokes about religion and politics. The two defendants were given threeyear suspended sentences and fined $9,280 each for the offending article, entitled “How Moroccans Laugh at Religion, Sex and Politics.” Nichane was also barred

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from publishing for two months. Ksikes and al-Aji had faced five-year prison sentences and bans on working as journalists. The case was seen as signaling a reversal of a recent trend toward press freedom in Morocco. [See 2003, p. 721B1] „

the “dirty war” against leftists orchestrated by the military dictatorship that ruled the country after Isabel Peron’s ouster. „

Tunisia: Alleged Embassy Attack Thwarted.

Dual-Citizen Bank Accounts Closed. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), the country’s largest bank, had over the previous nine months closed several hundred U.S. dollar checking accounts held by Canadian nationals who held dual citizenship in six countries, Radio-Canada reported Jan. 15. The RBC had also refused to open accounts for such people, according to the report. [See 2006, p. 786E1] RBC officials said the U.S. government had required that they refuse applications for U.S. dollar accounts from Canadian dual citizens of North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Sudan and Myanmar, it was reported Jan. 16. (U.S. dollar accounts were often used to send remittances from Canada to other countries, as the currency was often the only one recognized by international wire-transfer firms.) Gordon Nixon, RBC’s chief executive officer, Jan. 17 said the rule had been intended to apply only to those dual citizens seeking U.S. dollar accounts who did not live in Canada, but had erroneously been applied to some Canadian residents. The revelation provoked outrage among the country’s immigrant community, many of whom characterized the policy as discriminatory. The new rules had been generated by the U.S. Treasury Department as part of efforts to crack down on money laundering schemes and the financing of terrorism. Several Canadian lawmakers Jan. 17 derided the rules as an imposition on Canadian sovereignty that eroded citizens’ rights. „ CanWest Purchase of Alliance Set. Winnipeg, Manitoba–based media firm CanWest Global Communications Corp. Jan. 10 agreed to purchase Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. of Toronto, Ontario, in a complex deal worth C$2.3 billion (US$1.97 billion). Under the terms of the deal, CanWest would put up only C$132 million of the purchase cost, gaining a 17% stake in Alliance-owned broadcast assets. U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was to finance the rest. CanWest said it planned to purchase the remaining 83% stake in Alliance’s broadcast assets from Goldman by 2011. However, the division of the new company’s shares between CanWest and Goldman depended on its performance at that time, and it was possible that Goldman could retain a substantial stake in Alliance’s assets. Analysts said the deal could be halted by Canadian regulators enforcing the country’s complex foreign ownership rules. [See 2006, p. 599G1] „

Interior Minister Rafik Haj Kacem Jan. 13 said Tunisian police had engaged in a gun battle with Islamic extremists Jan. 3 in Soliman, 25 miles (40 km) south of Tunis, the capital, in which 12 of the extremists were killed. Kacem said police after the battle had found “quantities of homemade explosives” and “plans of certain foreign embassies.” He called the extremists “Salafist terrorists,” referring to an Algerian-based radical Islamist movement, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC). [See 2006, p. 1014E3; 2002, p. 884E3] „ Zimbabwe: White Farmers Awarded Leases.

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Government land adviser Sam Moyo was quoted in the Jan. 4 edition of Britain’s Guardian newspaper as saying that 19 white farmers had been awarded 99-year leases on land since November 2006. Moyo also said that as many as 1,000 white farmers could eventually return to their land. The government of President Robert Mugabe in 2000 had begun a land-reform campaign that had driven white farmers off their land and awarded it to landless blacks. That had precipitated an economic crisis in the country, which currently suffered from food shortages and an annual inflation rate of more than 1,000%. Representatives of the white farmers criticized the leases, which could be easily revoked by the government, for failing to restore their property rights. [See 2006, pp. 1014G2, 414F3] „

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Argentina Ex-President Peron Arrested. Former Presi-

dent Maria Estela (Isabel) Martinez de Peron Jan. 12 was arrested in Madrid, Spain’s capital, one day after an Argentine judge had ordered that she be held in connection with the disappearance of a leftist dissident during her rule. Peron, 75, had assumed power after the July 1974 death of her husband, President Juan Domingo Peron. She was ousted by a military coup in March 1976, and had lived in exile in Spain since 1981. [See 2006, pp. 1015G2, 243C1] Another Argentine judge Jan. 16 issued a second arrest warrant for Peron which required that she testify on the activities of a right-wing paramilitary death squad called the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance, or “Triple A.” Peron in 1997 had testified that she had signed decrees allowing military forces to “annihilate” the country’s “subversive elements,” but that she did not recall the details of the orders. Peron’s arrest was part of expanding efforts by the government to crack down on Triple A, which was thought to have orchestrated the deaths of some 1,500 political adversaries during Isabel Peron’s rule. Previous prosecution efforts had focused largely on human rights crimes committed during 34

Canada

Ecuador Correa Assumes Presidency. Leftist former

economics professor Rafael Correa Jan. 15 was sworn in as president of Ecuador in a ceremony held in Quito, the capital, attended by 17 heads of state. In his inauguration speech the 43-year-old Correa pledged to

shift the country’s government leftward and attempt to establish a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution. [See 2006, p. 1019A2] Correa also reiterated a desire to renegotiate the country’s $10.2 billion in foreign debt. He had refused to rule out the possibility that the country could default on debt payments, as it had done three times in the previous 25 years. Uncertainty regarding the country’s debt had resulted in a 20% drop in the value of Ecuador’s bonds since Correa’s election in November 2006, it was reported Jan. 16. The ceremony was notably attended by several heads of state with strained or overtly hostile relations with the U.S. They included Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias, Bolivian President Evo Morales Aima and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra. Several hours after his speech, Correa signed a decree establishing a March 18 national plebiscite allowing the public to either approve or reject a revamping of the country’s constitution in order to limit the power of traditional political parties. However, the rewrite would require the support of Congress, where Correa had few allies. Congress Jan. 18 appointed an attorney general backed by opposition parties, a move viewed by analysts as a sign of impending friction between Correa and lawmakers. „

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China News in Brief. An appeals court in Linyi, in

the northeastern province of Shandong, Jan. 12 upheld the prison sentence imposed in 2006 on grassroots legal activist Chen Guangcheng. The appeals court in October 2006 had overturned his original August conviction by a county court on charges of damaging property and disrupting traffic, and sent it back for a retrial. The county court had reaffirmed its original verdict and sentence, prompting the latest appeal. Chen’s lawyers argued that witnesses against him had been coerced into giving false testimony, and noted that one witness who had been prepared to attest to that fact had been prevented from attending the trial. The appeals court, however, said in its ruling that the evidence against Chen was “irrefutable” and that the proceedings against him had been carried out correctly. [See 2006, p. 935B3] Chinese state media Jan. 10 said the country’s overall trade surplus for 2006 was a record $177.47 billion, up 74% from the 2005 figure of $101.88 billion. China’s exports in 2006 totaled $969.08 billion, according to the report, and its imports amounted to $791.61 billion. China’s enormous and growing trade surplus had become a focus of foreign critics of China’s trade policies, particularly in the U.S. Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of China’s central bank, Jan. 7 in a speech in Basel, Switzerland, said continued growth in the surplus could lead China to allow its currency to FACTS ON FILE

trade more freely. Foreign critics argued that China pegged the yuan at an artificially low level, to make its exports cheaper abroad. [See 2006, p. 982G2] A journalist investigating the Chinese coal-mining industry and its notorious corruption and poor safety practices was severely beaten by a group of attackers Jan. 9 in the northeastern province of Shanxi, and died the following day. The reporter, Lan Chengzhang, worked for China Trade News. Chinese news media, including state-controlled outlets, denounced what they said was an attempt to intimidate journalists seeking to investigate the industry. [See 2006, p. 554E1; 2005, p. 900B3] Shares of China Life Insurance Co., the country’s largest insurer by revenue, more than doubled in value on the Shanghai stock exchange Jan. 9, their first day of trading after an initial public offering (IPO). The day’s closing share price, 38.93 yuan ($4.93), gave China Life a market value of $128 billion, making it the world’s thirdlargest insurer in the world by market capitalization. It was the latest in a series of well-received IPOs of major Chinese companies on mainland stock markets. [See 2006, p. 867D1] Chinese authorities Jan. 8 said police had raided an alleged terrorist training camp in the western autonomous region of Xinjiang, killing 18 people and capturing 17 others. They said the camp was operated by the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement. Xinjiang was predominantly populated by Muslim ethnic Uighurs, and China had cracked down on what it called a violent separatist movement there. Human rights advocates said it also sought to suppress peaceful movements for greater political freedom and manifestations of Uighur culture. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Jan. 9 said the raid had yielded evidence that the group was cooperating with “international terrorist forces.” [See 2006, p. 368A2] Chinese state media Jan. 1 reported that the number of automobiles exported by China had virtually doubled in 2006, to 340,000, from 173,000 the previous year. China’s total automobile production in 2006 had reportedly been some seven million units. That meant China had surpassed Germany as the world’s third-largest producer, after the U.S. and Japan. [See 2006, p. 1021B2] A law banning smoking in most public places in Hong Kong Jan. 1 went into effect. The ban applied to both indoor areas, including workplaces and restaurants, and such outside spaces as sports grounds and parts of public parks. Certain establishments, including bars, nightclubs and bathhouses, would not be subject to the law until July 1, 2009. Hong Kong’s legislature had approved the law in October 2006. Such restrictions on smoking were unusual in Asia, where smoking was an especially widespread habit. [See 2006, p. 804G2] „

Kyrgyzstan Premier’s Renomination Rejected. Kyrgyz-

stan’s parliament Jan. 18 rejected President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s renomination of January 18, 2007

Premier Feliks Kulov. Kulov and his cabinet had resigned on Dec. 19, 2006, amid a continuing dispute over constitutional reforms that Bakiyev had signed in November transferring some of his powers to parliament. Kulov, an ally of Bakiyev, had said he resigned to clear the way for new parliamentary elections. [See 2006, p. 883A3] Bakiyev had implemented the constitutional reforms after a week of protests in the capital, Bishkek. However, after political turmoil that followed Kulov’s resignation, the president Jan. 15 signed into law several amendments that reversed the November 2006 changes. Under those amendments, the president would regain the power to appoint cabinet ministers, regional governors and other officials, and increase his control over law enforcement agencies. Bakiyev Jan. 16 renominated Kulov for the post of premier. However, only 23 members of parliament supported Kulov in the Jan. 18 vote, short of the necessary 38. The president would have two more chances to submit Kulov’s nomination for parliamentary approval. If it was rejected both times, Bakiyev could dissolve the body. „

Myanmar Regime-Critical U.N. Resolution Vetoed.

Russia and China Jan. 12 both vetoed a U.S.-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution criticizing the human rights record of Myanmar’s military junta. Russia and China, permanent members of the Security Council, claimed that Myanmar’s repression of its people was not a matter of international significance, and thus fell outside the jurisdiction of the council. South Africa also voted against the measure as being outside the Security Council’s mandate, and three other rotating council members, Congo, Indonesia and Qatar, abstained from the vote. Myanmar’s official media called the outcome a “victory for people who love truth” and a defeat for “western meddling.” [See 2006, p. 982E3] The resolution, introduced by the U.S. Jan. 9, would have demanded that Myanmar’s regime release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was being held under house arrest, and more than 1,100 other political prisoners. It would also have called upon the nation’s military leaders to expedite democratization and stop widespread attacks by the military on ethnic minorities. The acting U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Alejandro Wolff, Jan. 12 said the the U.S. had forced the vote despite opposition as a message to the people of Myanmar that “we won’t forget you.” He said he was “deeply disappointed” by the vetoes, but added that all of the council members had criticized Myanmar’s human rights record. R. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, dismissed suggestions that the resolution be brought before the U.N. Human Rights Council, saying it was a “discredited institution.”

Dissident Accused of Tax Evasion—The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper Jan. 18 accused Suu Kyi of having family members spend the $1.3 million she had won for her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, as well as money from other prizes, abroad, thus avoiding taxes. It also said the government was “very considerate” to keep her under house arrest rather than imprisoning her. Human rights activists ridiculed the accusations, but suggested that they might presage further attacks against Suu Kyi by the government. Separately, the government Jan. 3 had released 2,831 prisoners, to coincide with Myanmar’s Jan. 4 independence day. However, only 40 were reported to be political prisoners. The government Jan. 11 released five more political activists. [See 2004, p. 972B3] „

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Philippines Abu Sayyaf Top Leader Reported Killed.

Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, the armed forces chief of staff, Jan. 17 reported that Philippine troops the previous day had killed a top leader of the the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf, which was thought to have ties to the Al Qaeda international terrorist network. The slain leader, Jainal Antel Sali Jr. (also known as Abu Sulaiman), was thought to have been involved in a February 2004 ferry bombing, southeast Asia’s secondworst terrorist attack, that killed more than 100 people, and the May 2001 abduction of 20 tourists that resulted in the deaths of two kidnapped U.S. citizens. [See 2006, p. 868D1; 2002, p. 568B3] Abu Sulaiman was reported to have been killed in a firefight after Philippine special forces had surrounded an Abu Sayyaf camp on the southern island of Jolo. His death was considered to be the biggest triumph by U.S.-backed Philippine troops against the terrorist group. A U.S. embassy spokesman described it as “a major success.”

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Bombings Prompt Summit Concerns—

Three bombs Jan. 10 went off within hours of each other in the southern Philippines, prompting security concerns over the upcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, to be held in Cebu City. The first blast, which destroyed a lottery ticket vendor’s stand in General Santos City, killed at least six people. [See p. 35G3] Police said they were investigating Abu Sayyaf and the associated regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah for involvement in the bombings. However, they added that the attacks might have instead been aimed at disrupting government peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, an Islamic separatist group, or were the result of a grudge against the lottery ticket vendor. „

Other Asia-Pacific News ASEAN Members Agree to Free-Trade Zone.

The 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Jan. 13 at the organization’s annual summit signed 35

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an agreement establishing a free-trade zone in the region. It also called for the creation of an organizational charter and took steps toward integrating health and antiterrorism efforts. However, the meeting was not able to come to a consensus on what action to take regarding the dismal human rights record of Myanmar, an ASEAN member. The summit, which took place on the island of Cebu, in the Philippines, was held Jan. 13–15 after being postponed in December 2006. [See p. 35D2; 2006, p. 1025F1] The trade agreement mandated the creation of a free-trade area by 2010, although four newer ASEAN members—Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam—would have until 2015 to come into compliance. The free-trade agreement was also signed by China, which was not an ASEAN member but whose premier, Wen Jiabao, attended the summit. ASEAN members Jan. 13 approved a blueprint of a charter, to be drawn up over 2007, that would institute legally binding enforcement powers. The move was seen as allowing ASEAN to take more concrete actions than it had been able to in the past, and to counteract the rising regional power of India and China. The organization had traditionally acted on a basis of noninterference and consensus-building. The Eminent Persons Group, a body founded in 2005 to create guidelines for the charter, Jan. 12 released a list of 28 recommendations, emphasizing democratic and humanitarian values. The delegates agreed to an antiterrorism convention that strengthened information sharing and joint efforts against unconventional weapons, and also allowed for the tracking and extradition of terrorism suspects. In addition, they settled upon agreements protecting the rights of migrant workers and improving public health programs fighting HIV/AIDS. The summit did not come to a decision on how to encourage reforms in Myanmar, which had been widely condemned for oppressing political dissenters and ethnic minorities. Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram Jan. 13 said ASEAN should work toward giving the issue “a regional focus” rather than “have it internationalized.” China and Russia days earlier had vetoed a U.S.-backed United Nations resolution condemning Myanmar’s human rights abuses. „

Asia-Pacific News in Brief

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Japan: Interest Rate Held Steady. The policy board of Japan’s central bank, the Bank of Japan, Jan. 18 voted to leave its benchmark overnight borrowing rate unchanged at 0.25%. The bank cited signs of continued weakness in the economy. Private economists, interpreting a series of remarks made by bank officials, had considered it likely that the bank would raise the rate for the first time since July 2006. After the bank announced its decision, some of them expressed renewed concern over the bank’s political independence, suggesting that it had caved in to pressure from lawmakers urging it to keep rates low, asserting that the 36

economy’s recovery was not yet strong enough to withstand the effect of a rate hike. Bank Governor Toshihiko Fukui said the decision had been based exclusively on “our careful assessment of the economy and prices.” [See 2006, p. 583B1] „ Uzbekistan:

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Arrested.

Uzbek authorities Jan. 14 arrested human rights activist Gulbahor Turaeva as she returned to the country from Kyrgyzstan. Turaeva, a 44-year-old doctor, had been one of the few people to give Western journalists a first-hand account of a bloody crackdown by the military on an uprising in the eastern city of Andizhan in May 2005, in which hundreds of civilians were believed to have been massacred. Relatives had said she was arrested for allegedly possessing banned opposition publications, it was reported Jan. 18. Uzbek opposition leaders Jan. 17 expressed fears that Turaeva would be mistreated while in custody. [See 2006, p. 937D1] „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

France Right Nominates Sarkozy for President. The Union for a Popular Movement (UMP),

France’s center-right ruling political party, Jan. 14 nominated Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy as its candidate for the upcoming presidential election. Sarkozy’s main opponent was Segolene Royal, the nominee of the opposition Socialist Party, who sought to become France’s first female president. The first round of the election was scheduled for April 22, with a run-off set for May 6 if no candidate won more than 50% of the vote. [See 2006, p. 899D1] Sarkozy, 51, the president of the UMP and the only choice for the nomination on the ballot, received 98% of the votes. About 234,000 people, or 69% of the party’s 340,000 members, cast ballots. Sarkozy delivered an acceptance speech to a crowd of 80,000 supporters at the party convention in Paris. He affirmed his belief in the French right’s values of “fairness, order, merit, work, responsibility.” But he also tried to add a compassionate side to his hard-line image, saying, “I have understood that humanity is a strength, not a weakness. I have changed.” French President Jacques Chirac, 74, the founder of the UMP, did not attend the convention. Chirac, who was deeply unpopular with the public, had not yet declared whether he would seek a third term as an independent. He and Sarkozy, his former protege, had feuded in recent years. Chirac’s top ally, Premier Dominique de Villepin, had also refused to endorse Sarkozy, saying he was waiting for Chirac’s decision. Although he was once considered Sarkozy’s main rival for the nomination, Villepin had been weakened by a series of political setbacks over the past year and abandoned his candidacy. Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who had considered challenging Sarkozy for the nomination, Jan. 12 dropped out of the running and backed Sarkozy. „

Great Britain BP Plans Replacement of CEO Browne. British-based BP PLC, one of the world’s

largest oil and gas companies, Jan. 12 announced that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) John Browne would resign in July, 17 months ahead of schedule. BP named Tony Hayward, 49, its head of exploration and production, as Browne’s replacement. [See 2006, p. 931C1] Browne, 58, had been BP’s CEO since 1995. He had played a central role in building the company into a global energy giant, overseeing its acquisition of U.S. companies Amoco Corp. in 1998 and Atlantic Richfield Co. in 1999. The mergers set off a wave of consolidation in the industry. [See 1999, p. 248F1] Browne became one of Britain’s most prominent business leaders, and was known as Lord Browne after he was made a life peer (a member of the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of the British Parliament) in 2001. However, he had recently faced pressure to step down, as BP’s share price was hit by a string of setbacks and accidents at the company’s U.S. operations over the past two years. They included pipeline leaks in Alaska and a deadly explosion at a refinery in Texas. U.S. federal investigators had also opened probes into alleged market manipulation by BP. Texas Blast Report Cites Safety Lapses—

An independent commission, set up by BP and led by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker 3rd, Jan. 16 issued a report on its investigation into the March 2005 explosion at BP’s refinery in Texas City, Texas, which killed 15 people and injured 170 others. [See 2005, p. 209B2] The panel faulted BP for inadequate safety procedures, finding that the company had failed to “ensure that adequate resources were allocated” for safety. It said that cost cutting by the company was partly to blame, but did not find that BP “purposefully withheld resources.” The report said BP had “a corporate blind spot relating to process safety” and had “not provided effective leadership in making certain its management and U.S. refining workforce understand what is expected of them regarding process safety.” The panel made 10 recommendations for improving safety at BP’s U.S. refineries, such as appointing an outside monitor. BP said it would adopt all of the panel’s suggestions. „

Greece U.S. Embassy in Athens Hit by Grenade.

Suspected leftist militants Jan. 12 fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the facade of the U.S. embassy in Athens, the Greek capital, causing some minor damage to the building but no injuries. The grenade also shattered windows in nearby buildings. The attack took place early in the morning, when the embassy was empty. [See 2006, p. 476E1; 1996, p. 995F2] FACTS ON FILE

The attackers appeared to have aimed at the large U.S. seal on the front of the glassand-concrete embassy building, but missed the symbolic target. The grenade smashed through a window just above the seal and exploded in a bathroom. U.S. Ambassador Charles Ries Jan. 12 said, “We treat it as a very serious attack. There can be no justification for such a senseless act of violence.” Greek security officials said they were probing telephone calls claiming that a leftwing terrorist group, Revolutionary Struggle, had taken responsibility for the attack. The group had become one of the main terrorist threats in Greece since police dismantled its biggest predecessor, November 17, before the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. November 17, also a leftist group, had mounted a similar rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in 1996, and had assassinated four U.S. diplomatic and military officials. [See 2003, p. 1003D3] Revolutionary Struggle had claimed credit for a series of attacks since 2003, including a failed attempt to assassinate a cabinet minister in May 2006. A current of anti-American sentiment had persisted in Greece for decades, going back to the U.S.’s support for a Greek military regime that seized power in a 1967 coup and ruled the country until 1974. [See 1974, p. 592A3; 1967, p. 135E2] „

European News in Brief Russia: Suspect Held in Banker’s Killing.

The office of Russia’s prosecutor general Jan. 11 said authorities had detained a suspect in the September 2006 murder of Andrei Kozlov, a deputy chairman of the country’s central bank. Kozlov had been a prominent campaigner against moneylaundering in Russia’s financial system. A spokeswoman declined to identify the suspect, described only as a Russian citizen and head of a large business. However, news reports identified he suspect as Alexei Frenkel, the chief of a small bank that had had its license withdrawn in 2006 over alleged money-laundering offenses. A court Jan. 15 approved his formal arrest. [See 2006, p. 737B3] „

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Iraq Hussein Officials Hanged. Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti, a half-brother of former President Saddam Hussein, and Awad Hamad al-Bandr al-Saadun, the chief judge of the former ruling Baath Party’s revolutionary court under Hussein, Jan. 15 were hanged in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital. Ibrahim’s head was severed from his body by the force of his body dropping through the trap door of the gallows. Both Ibrahim, who had been the commander of the Mukhabarat intelligence service, and Bandr had been sentenced to death in November 2006 for their involvement in the 1982 deaths of January 18, 2007

148 people in the town of Dujail. [See p. 22G1; 2006, p. 862G3] The executions of Ibrahim and Bandr took place early in the morning, and Iraqi officials took steps to ensure that the event involved none of the sectarian taunting that had occurred during Hussein’s execution. Later that day, reporters were shown silent footage of the execution, which showed Ibrahim being decapitated by the hangman’s noose. The footage was not released publicly, and Iraqi officials said it would not be shown again. Later that day, the bodies were taken to the northern village of Awja for burial. [See p. 22D1; 2006, p. 989D2] Shiite Muslims, who had been brutally victimized by Hussein’s regime, welcomed the news of Ibrahim’s and Bandr’s executions. Celebrations broke out in the streets of predominantly Shiite cities such as Najaf and Basra. Sunni Muslims, who had been favored by Hussein, a fellow Sunni, mourned and expressed outrage on word of the executions. In Sunni regions and on Sunni-dominated media outlets across the Middle East, the U.S. and the Shiite-led government of Iraq were accused of intentionally decapitating Ibrahim out of revenge. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Jan. 15 criticized the handling of the executions, saying she was “disappointed that there was not greater dignity given the accused.” U.S. President George W. Bush Jan. 16 said the Iraqi government had “fumbled” the executions of Hussein and the others. Bush praised the government for having “conducted a trial [that] gave Saddam justice that he didn’t give to others,” but said Hussein’s execution looked like “a revenge killing.” He added that the event “sent a mixed signal to the American people and the people around the world. And it just goes to show that this is a government that has still got some maturation to do.” Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki Jan. 17 dismissed the criticism, noting that Hussein “was not subjected to any act of revenge,” and had faced “a judicial process that ended with him being sentenced to death according to Iraqi law.” „

Israel Leader of War Against Hezbollah Resigns.

Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the military chief of staff, Jan. 16 resigned in the wake of increasing criticism regarding the conduct of Israel’s war against the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. Many Israelis viewed the war as having ended inconclusively, given that it had failed to stop rocket attacks by Hezbollah or to free two Israeli soldiers abducted by the militant group. In light of these failures, there had been frequent calls for Halutz, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz to step down. [See 2006, pp. 965F1, 503E1] Halutz had also faced criticism for relying too much and for too long on air

power during the fighting, and for asking his broker to sell portions of his stock portfolio just prior to the beginning of the war. In his letter of resignation, Halutz said he took responsibility for the war but did not concede any mistakes with respect to its handling. The government was conducting multiple reviews into the conduct of the war. The Winograd Commission, established by Olmert in order to evaluate military and political leadership during the war, was scheduled to release its interim findings in February or March. Halutz was still due to give evidence to the group. „ Olmert Investigated in Bank Sale. The justice ministry Jan. 16 announced that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would be investigated by police for allegedly attempting to influence the sale of Bank Leumi. The bank had been privatized in 2005 when Olmert was finance minister, and he was suspected of having tried to guide its sale toward certain individuals. If the investigation resulted in an indictment by the attorney-general, Olmert would be forced to resign. „

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Afghanistan Ambush Kills Scores of Insurgents. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Afghan forces the night of Jan. 10–11 ambushed roughly 200 insurgents after the rebels crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan, killing between 80 and 150 of them. The insurgents, who were traveling in trucks in the middle of the night, had entered Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province, which bordered the tribal area of Waziristan in Pakistan. NATO and Afghan forces had spotted the insurgents gathering in two large groups in Pakistan, and had then attacked the groups separately about a half a mile inside Afghan territory. [See 2006, p. 1032E1] A spokesman for the Pakistani military, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Jan. 11 said Pakistani artillery had fired at the trucks as they had traveled in Pakistan. NATO reports in the days following the attack put the insurgent death toll at either 130 or 150, whereas Afghan defense officials Jan. 11 put it at 80. No NATO or Afghan casualties were reported. Muhammad Hanif, a spokesman for the rebel Taliban militia, Jan. 11 contacted the Associated Press and called the casualty figures “a complete lie.” He claimed that “only civilians were targeted” in the joint attack. The bodies of two dozen insurgents killed in the attack, including both Pakistanis and Afghans, were returned to Pakistan Jan. 12, reportedly for funerals in North Waziristan. U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, a top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Jan. 13 said an Afghan insurgent leader operating in Pakistan, Jalaluddin Haqqani, had recruited the poorlyequipped, untrained fighters from Pakistan 37

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Nepal Maoists Disarm, Join Parliament. Eighty-

three lawmakers from Maoist former rebel groups Jan. 15 joined a new 330-seat interim parliament. Earlier in the day, the previous temporary legislature had approved a new draft constitution that automatically replaced its two-chambered assembly with the new unicameral one that included the Maoists. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who assumed executive powers under the new constitution, declared the day one of national reconciliation. [See 2006, p. 918C3] The Maoists Jan. 16 began surrendering their weapons to United Nations monitors for sequestration. The former rebels Jan. 18 began dismantling the courts and government units they had set up across the mostly rural parts of the country under their control before they signed a permament peace accord with interim government leaders in 2006. Earlier that year, popular protests had forced the country’s king, Gyanendra, to give up power. Meanwhile, a splinter Maoist rebel group Jan. 12–15 staged a three-day strike in Nepal’s central Terai region, demanding autonomy for the region, populated mostly by ethnic Indians. „

Pakistan Army Strikes Al Qaeda Camps. Pakistan’s

army Jan. 16 used helicopter gunships to strike reputed Al Qaeda compounds in the South Waziristan semi-autonomous tribal region near the Afghan border. The attacks reportedly killed more than 20 people. An army spokesman said they had killed some foreigners, but apparently no “high value target.” [See p. 37D3; 2006, p. 1033G2] The strikes appeared to have voided a 2005 peace deal between the government and tribal militants in the area allied with the Taliban Afghan Islamist militia. Tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud told the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) that “revenge will be taken in the next 10 to 15 days.” Mehsud said the victims of the Jan. 16 air strikes were laborers and children rather than militants. However, he said more than two dozen of his fighters had died in an attack in Afghanistan’s nearby Paktika province earlier in the month by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces acting on Pakistani intelligence. The Pakistani foreign ministry Jan. 9 had said it was considering alternatives to a plan announced the previous month to plant landmines along the porous border with Afghanistan to prevent Taliban elements from crossing back and forth. The plan had met with criticism from Afghanistan and the United Nations. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, during a visit with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, the Afghan capital, Jan. 4 said the two leaders had agreed to a goal of returning the three million Afghan refugees currently in Pakistan. He asserted that the refugee camps were sometimes used as “safe havens” by insurgent “elements who are from Afghanistan.” „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Soccer U.S. Team Signs English Star Beckham.

The Los Angeles Galaxy of the U.S.’s Major League Soccer (MLS) Jan. 11 announced that they had signed star English midfielder David Beckham, who currently played for Spanish club Real Madrid. Beckham’s five-year deal with the Galaxy was reportedly worth a record $250 million in salary and other compensation. Beckham would join the Galaxy after his contract with Madrid expired June 30. [See 2006, p. 655D3; 2003, p. 591A3] Beckham, 31, was by far the highest-profile player to join MLS in the league’s 11-year history. His signing was made possible by the November 2006 “Beckham rule,” under which each MLS club was allowed to exceed the league’s salary cap for one specially designated player. The rule was intended to attract more foreign stars to the fledgling league. Soccer, despite being the most popular sport worldwide, continued to trail sports such as football, basketball and baseball in popularity in the U.S. [See 2006, p. 942F1] Yearly Salary Reportedly $10 Million—

Although the Galaxy did not specify the exact terms of the contract, the Wall Street Journal Jan. 12 reported that the $250 million deal included a salary of about $10 million per year; 40%–50% of team jersey sales; a share of ticket revenue; and endorsements worth $20 million to $25 million per year. (The operating rights to the Galaxy were owned by Anschutz Entertainment Group, which also owned the rights to two other MLS teams.) The average salary in MLS in 2006 was about $100,000. Beckham was paid about $16 million a year by Real Madrid, excluding endorsements. Beckham opted to leave Madrid after starting just five Spanish league games so far in the 2006–07 season under new coach Fabio Capello. Many analysts said he was no Denis Doyle/Getty Images

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and sent them into Afghanistan. Freakley surmised that “some of these men were just either collected in a poor part of a village or perhaps from a madrassa [Islamic school] or perhaps from a refugee camp and told to come fight.” Insurgent Attacks Rose in 2006— U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, commander of the Combined Forces Command, Jan. 16 said attacks by insurgents in Afghanistan had increased significantly in 2006 from the previous year. He revealed that roadside bombings had risen in number to 1,677, from 783; suicide bombings had risen to 139, from 27; rocket and mortar attacks had risen to 1,511, from 599; and direct attacks using small arms had risen to 4,542, from 1,558. An unidentified military intelligence officer Jan. 17 said attacks by insurgents had tripled since September 2006, when Pakistan’s government reached a truce with tribal chiefs in North Waziristan. [See above; 2006, p. 703A1] U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking at a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, Jan. 16 said he was “strongly inclined” to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan in order to tamp down the insurgency. Gates said the matter of insurgents crossing the border “clearly has to be pursued with the Pakistani government.” Eikenberry Jan. 17 warned that attacks by the Taliban would likely increase in the coming spring, particularly in the south of the country. A day earlier, Eikenberry had said insurgents were “using both sides of the border” between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and expressed a desire for more U.S. troops and more aid directed at training Afghan security forces and reconstruction programs. Other News—In other Afghan news: † Hanif Jan. 15 was captured by Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan. The government Jan. 17 released video of an interrogation of Hanif, during which he claimed that Taliban chief Mullah Muhammad Omar was living in Quetta, Pakistan, under the protection of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency. Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao called the claim “totally baseless.” † Hanif Jan. 4 released a written statement from Omar in which he refused to negotiate with the U.S.-backed government and pledged to continue fighting until all foreign troops left Afghanistan. Omar also claimed that he had not seen Osama bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist network Al Qaeda, since December 2001. † Brig. Richard Nugee, the chief spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, Jan. 3 said the organization’s main fault in its Afghan campaign was that it had killed too many innocent civilians. He said the alliance would introduce measures to reduce such casualties, but insisted that greater numbers of innocents were dying at the hands of the Taliban. „

Midfielder David Beckham—who signed with the U.S.’s Los Angeles Galaxy Jan. 11—in action for Real Madrid during a Dec. 3, 2006, match in Madrid, Spain.

FACTS ON FILE

longer among the world’s elite players. Also, he had stepped down as captain of the English national team after a lackluster World Cup campaign in 2006, and had not been named to the squad in subsequent matches. Beckham and his wife, Victoria Beckham, also known as “Posh Spice” of the now-defunct pop group the Spice Girls, had become worldwide celebrities since the mid-1990s. Victoria Beckham’s career aspirations in the music and fashion industries were also seen as factors in the midfielder’s decision to move to Los Angeles. Beckham in a Jan. 11 statement said he was making the move in part out of a wish to raise soccer’s profile in the U.S. The Beckhams in 2005 had opened a soccer academy at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., the Galaxy’s home field. MLS Commissioner Don Garber said, “Having David play in the most commercially robust market in the world clearly is going to present a real opportunity to generate significant income” for both the team and the league. The Galaxy reportedly sold more than 1,000 season tickets in the hours after announcing that Beckham would join the team. Capello Jan. 13 said Beckham would only practice, and not play, with Real Madrid for the rest of the season, because the player’s “decision to go to Los Angeles on such a big contract means we cannot count on him.” However, Capello Jan. 17 backtracked on that statement, saying Beckham might play and calling him a “great professional.” „

National Football League Conference Title Matchups Set. Four teams Jan. 13–14 moved on to the conference championship games in the National Football League (NFL) playoffs. In the American Football Conference (AFC), the Indianapolis Colts Jan. 13 beat the Baltimore Ravens, 15– 6, in Baltimore, Md. All of the game’s scoring came on field goals, with Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri hitting five, including a 51yarder and a 48-yarder. [See p. 24B2] In the other AFC contest, the New England Patriots Jan. 14 pulled off a big comeback against the San Diego Chargers, winning, 24–21, in San Diego, Calif. Trailing by eight points in the fourth quarter, quarterback Tom Brady led the Patriots on a drive that culminated in a touchdown and a twopoint conversion to tie the score at 21. On the Patriots’ next possession, Brady engineered a 72-yard drive that led to a 31-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski. Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson, the 2006 NFL most valuable player, rushed for 123 yards and two touchdowns. [See p. 24E2] In the National Football Conference (NFC), the New Orleans Saints Jan. 13 defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 27–24, in New Orleans, La. Saints running back Deuce McAllister scored two touchdowns in the third quarter. The win was seen as a success not just for the Saints but for the entire city of New Orleans, which had been ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. The Saints had rebounded in 2006 after winning just three games in the 2005 season, when January 18, 2007

they had been forced to play their home games in San Antonio, Texas, and Baton Rouge, La., due to damage to the Louisiana Superdome. The Jan. 13 game was held in the refurbished Superdome. [See p. 24G2] In the other NFC game, the Chicago Bears Jan. 14 beat the Seattle Seahawks, 27–24, in overtime in Chicago, Ill. Bears kicker Robbie Gould made a 41-yard field goal with 4:24 remaining to tie the score at 24, and then hit a 49-yarder in overtime to win the game. That was the longest kick in Bears postseason history. „

Golf Singh Wins Season-Opening PGA Event.

Vijay Singh of Fiji Jan. 7 won the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Kapalua, Hawaii, the first tournament of the season on the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour. Singh shot a 14-under-par 278, and earned $1.1 million in prize money. The event marked the debut of the FedEx Cup, a new points-based system that the PGA Tour was implementing in 2007. [See 2006, pp. 603E2, 40C1] Goydos Takes Sony Open—Paul Goydos of the U.S. Jan. 14 won the Sony Open in Honolulu, Hawaii. He shot a 14-underpar 266 to claim the $936,000 winners’ check and his first PGA Tour victory in 11 years. Amateur Tadd Fujikawa, a native of Hawaii who had turned 16 on Jan. 8, Jan. 12 became the youngest player in 50 years to make the cut in a PGA Tour event. He finished tied for 20th. Michelle Wie of the U.S., 17, again failed to make the cut in her seventh attempt on the men’s PGA Tour. [See 2006, pp. 756D1, 40D1] „

Basketball News in Brief. The Indiana Pacers and the

Golden State Warriors Jan. 17 completed an eight-player trade. The Pacers sent forward-center Al Harrington, guard-forward Stephen Jackson, guard Sarunas Jasikevicius and forward Josh Powell to Golden State in exchange for forwards Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy and Ike Diogu, and guard Keith McLeod. British investment bank Barclays PLC Jan. 18 announced that it had agreed to pay a record $400 million over 20 years for the naming rights to an arena planned for the New Jersey Nets in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The arena was part of the Atlantic Yards development in downtown Brooklyn, being built by Forest City Ratner Cos., and was expected to be completed in 2009. The arena and some of the surrounding buildings would be called the Barclays Center. [See 2005, p. 828D1] The Philadelphia 76ers Jan. 11 waived forward Chris Webber. Webber, a five-time All-Star who became an unrestricted free agent Jan. 15, the next day signed a contract with the Detroit Pistons for the rest of the season. [See 2005, p. 827E3] The 76ers Jan. 6 announced that they had hired former coach Larry Brown as the team’s executive vice president. Brown’s most recent job in the NBA had been a di-

sastrous one-year coaching stint with the New York Knicks. [See 2006, p. 872A1] Miami Heat coach Pat Riley Jan. 3 announced that he would take an indefinite medical leave of absence. Riley, 61, said he would undergo knee and hip-replacement surgery. Assistant Ron Rothstein would coach the Heat in Riley’s absence. [See 2006, p. 539D1] The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Charlotte Sting franchise Jan. 3 folded. The NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats in December 2006 had relinquished control of the team, which had posted poor attendance figures in recent years, and the WNBA had been unable to find a buyer. The demise of the Sting, one of the league’s original eight franchises, left the WNBA with 13 teams. The WNBA Jan. 8 held a dispersal draft for the Sting’s players. [See 2006, p. 1038E2] „

Sports News in Brief Baseball: Yankees Trade Johnson to Arizona.

The New York Yankees Jan. 4 reached a preliminary agreement to return pitcher Randy Johnson to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for reliever Luis Vizcaino and three minor-league players. (Johnson had played for Arizona from 1999 to 2004.) Johnson, 43, Jan. 7 agreed to a two-year, $26 million contract with the Diamondbacks. The Yankees Jan. 4 also signed first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz to a one-year, $1.5 million contract. [See 2005, p. 39B2] „ Boxing: Tyson Indicted. Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson Jan. 12 was indicted in Phoenix, Ariz., on felony drug and paraphernalia possession charges, as well as two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of drugs. The charges stemmed from a December 2006 incident in Scottsdale, Ariz., in which Tyson had been pulled over by police after leaving a nightclub. [See 2006, p. 1038E1] „ Cricket: Australia Sweeps Ashes. Australia’s national cricket team Jan. 4 defeated England in the fifth and final Test in the Ashes series in Sydney, Australia. Australia won by 10 wickets to sweep the Ashes for the first time since 1921. The series marked the final appearance for Australia of legendary bowler Shane Warne, who had announced his retirement from Test cricket in December. Also retiring were Australian stars Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer. [See 2006, p. 1037F2] „ Tennis: Four Elected to HOF. Four people Jan. 17 were elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. The most prominent was the U.S.’s Pete Sampras, who had retired in 2002 after winning a record 14 men’s singles Grand Slam titles. Also elected was Spain’s Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, who won four Grand Slam singles titles in her career; Sven Davidson, who in 1957 became the first Swedish man to win a Grand Slam and was elected in the master player category; and Russ Adams of the U.S., a photographer who was elected in the contributor category. [See 2006, p. 720A1; 2003, p. 722D3; 2002, p. 1070B1; 1957, p. 183G3] „ 39

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ARTS & SCIENCES

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UNITED STATES

Awards Golden Globe Awards. The Hollywood For-

eign Press Association Jan. 15 presented its 64th annual Golden Globe Awards for excellence in film and television. The ceremony was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. [See 2006, p. 40D2] The major award winners in film were:

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Best Drama: Babel Best Musical or Comedy: Dreamgirls Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed Best Actress, Drama: Helen Mirren, The Queen Best Actress, Musical or Comedy: Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada Best Actor, Drama: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland Best Actor, Musical or Comedy: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

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Best Drama Series: “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC) Best Musical or Comedy Series: “Ugly Betty” (ABC) Best Miniseries or Movie: “Elizabeth I” (HBO) Best Actress, Drama Series: Kyra Sedgwick, “The Closer” (TNT) Best Actor, Drama Series: Hugh Laurie, “House” (Fox) Best Actress, Musical or Comedy Series: America Ferrera, “Ugly Betty” (ABC) Best Actor, Musical or Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock” (NBC) Best Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Helen Mirren, “Elizabeth I” (HBO) Best Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Bill Nighy, “Gideon’s Daughter” (BBC America) „ National Society of Film Critics. The Na-

tional Society of Film Critics Jan. 6 announced its annual awards. Best-picture honors went to Pan’s Labyrinth, a Spanishlanguage film set in Spain during World War II and directed by Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. Forest Whitaker won best-actor honors for portraying Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, while Helen Mirren was named best actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen. Best-director honors went to Paul Greengrass for United 93, a docudrama about one of the airliners attacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. [See 2006, pp. 694C3, 40G2] „

People British novelist Ian McEwan, 58, Jan. 17 publicly acknowledged that he had an older brother who had been given up for adoption during World War II, six years before the author was born. McEwan had learned about, and been reunited with, his brother, David Sharp, a bricklayer, some five years earlier, after Sharp, now 64, discovered that McEwan’s mother was his mother too. The two men were full brothers; their father had been their mother’s lover when Sharp was conceived, while her husband was off to war. She gave the baby up in 1942, when he was a month old, right before her husband came home on leave. After he was killed in action, in 1944, she married her lover; McEwan was the product of that marriage. [See 2005, p. 240A1; 2004, p. 316G1] 40

Italian conductor Nicola Luisotti, 45, Jan. 9 was named music director of the San Francisco Opera, effective at the start of the 2009–10 season. He would replace Donald Runnicles, 52, who had held the post since 1992, but would step down after his current contract expired at the end of the 2008–09 season. [See 2005, p. 160B1; 2000, p. 104B2] „

O B I T UA R I E S ANDO, Momofuku, 96, Japanese businessman who in 1958 invented instant ramen noodles; his Nissin Food Products Co. eventually turned into a global enterprise with $3 billion in annual sales; the firm’s signature brand, Cup Noodles—noodles that could be prepared by adding boiling water to the container in which they were sold—was introduced in 1971; born March 5, 1910, in Chiayi, Taiwan, while Taiwan was under Japanese occupation; died Jan. 5 at a hospital in Ikeda, Japan, near Osaka, of heart failure. BO Yibo, 98, last of a group of veteran Chinese Communists known as the “eight immortals”; they all held high-ranking posts after the 1949 Chinese Revolution but were purged during the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong; members of the group regained political power after Deng Xiaoping became China’s leader in 1978; Bo was Communist China’s first finance minister, and was vice premier both before and after the Cultural Revolution; during the Cultural Revolution, he was imprisoned for years, and his wife was reportedly beaten to death in 1967; after regaining power, he strongly supported Deng’s economic reforms of the 1980s, but also defended the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, in which many died; born Feb. 17, 1908, in Dingxiang, China; died Jan. 15 at a Beijing hospital; no cause of death was reported. [See 1997, p. 308F3; 1989, p. 433D1; Indexes 1979–81; indexed as Po Yi-po in 1979] BUCHWALD, Art (Arthur), 81, humorist, newspaper columnist and author of many books, including novels and collections of his columns; after serving with the U.S. Marines during World War II, he lived in Paris for a number of years, and wrote a satirical column about life in Paris that was syndicated by the New York Herald Tribune newspaper; in 1962, he moved to Washington, D.C., and began writing a satirical column largely dealing with politics; his columns began being syndicated by the Los Angeles Times in 1967; in 1982, he won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary; in 1988, he and producer Alan Bernheim sued Paramount Pictures for allegedly stealing their idea for the hit comedy Coming to America, starring Eddie Murphy; the case was finally settled in 1995, with Paramount reportedly agreeing to pay the two men about $1 million; in February 2006, after he experienced diabetes-related kidney failure, he refused dialysis and checked into a hospice, having been told that he had very little time left; however, his kidneys started working again and he checked out of the hospice in July 2006; he continued writing his column, now largely, albeit humorously, focused on death and dying, until shortly before his death; born Oct. 20, 1925, in Mount Vernon, N.Y.; died Jan. 17 at his son’s Washington home, of kidney failure. [See 1995, p. 724F2; 1992, p. 204D2; Indexes 1990, 1988, 1982–83, 1970] COCKFIELD of Dover, Lord

(Francis

Arthur),

90, British civil servant who held several cabinet posts under Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher before serving as vice president of the European Commission (1985–88), in which capacity he was instrumental in the creation of a unified European market; born Sept. 28, 1916, in Horsham, England; died Jan. 8 in Oxford, England. [See 1988, pp. 679B1, 560G1– B2; 1986, p. 12E2; Indexes 1982–84, 1973] COLTRANE, Alice (born Alice McLeod), 69, jazz pianist, harpist, organist, composer and Hindu spiritual leader; she married saxophonist John Coltrane in 1965, and became the pianist in his legendary jazz quartet, maintaining that role until his death in 1967; after he died, she became the manager of his estate and continued for some time to make music along the lines of the experimental jazz of his late period, with such likeminded artists as saxophonists Pharaoh Sanders and Joe Henderson; in the 1970s, she converted to Hinduism, and founded an ashram in San Francisco, Calif.; it soon moved to Southern California, and had been based in Agoura Hills, near Los Angeles, since 1983; the music of her later years was predominantly devotional; born Aug. 27, 1937, in Detroit, Mich.; died Jan. 12 at a hospital in Los Angeles, of respiratory failure. [See 2006, p. 988D3; 1967, p. 320G2]

De CARLO, Yvonne (born Peggy Yvonne Middleton), 84, Canadian-born actress whose career flour-

ished for a number of years in post–World War II Hollywood; one of her best-known film roles was as Sephora, the wife of Moses (played by Charlton Heston), in the Biblical epic The Ten Commandments (1956); television audiences in the 1960s knew her as the vampire-like Lily Munster in the situation comedy “The Munsters” (1964–66); in 1971, she originated a key role in Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical Follies; born Sept. 1, 1922, in Vancouver, British Columbia; died Jan. 8 at a health-care facility in Woodland Hills, Calif., of heart failure. [See 1971, p. 358F3; 1957, p. 256B3; Indexes 1953–56] ERVINE, David Walter, 53, head of Northern Ireland’s Progressive Unionist Party and, in recent years, one of the leading Protestant figures in peace talks aimed at ending sectarian violence in Ulster; born July 21, 1953, in Belfast, Northern Ireland; died Jan. 8 at a Belfast hospital, after a heart attack. [See 2003, p. 149G1; 2002, pp. 541D3, 446C1; Index 1998] KING, Charmion, 81, actress who was a driving force in Canadian repertory theater; she also worked in radio, television and film; married to actor Gordon Pinsent since 1962, she was the mother of actress Leah Pinsent; born July 25, 1925, in Toronto, Ontario; died Jan. 6 in Toronto, from complications of emphysema. LAKWENA, Alice (born Alice Auma), 50, Ugandan woman who, claiming to be possessed by a spirit named Lakwena, became the high priestess of a cult known as the Holy Spirit Movement, and led thousands of her followers in a 1986–87 rebellion aimed at overthrowing the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni; after that rebellion was put down, she fled to Kenya, where she had been living ever since; born in northern Uganda; died Jan. 17 at the Ifo refugee camp in the Garissa district of eastern Kenya, after a brief illness. [See 1996, p. 347E3; 1987, pp. 969G2, 947C2] LEVINSKY, Roland Jacob, 63, British immunologist known for his work on genetic disorders in children; as dean of London’s Institute of Child Health (ICH) during the 1990s, he turned it into one of the world’s major pediatric research centers; born Oct. 16, 1943, in Bloemfontein, South Africa; died Jan. 1 while walking his dog near his home in Wembury, England, after being struck by an 11,000-volt power line brought down during a storm. MAGNUSSON, Magnus, 77, Icelandic-born British television personality; from 1972 to 1997, he hosted the British Broadcasting Co. (BBC) quiz show “Mastermind”; he was also a host of the BBC’s historical show “Chronicle” (1966–80); in addition, he made his mark as a journalist, author and Icelandic-to-English translator; born Oct. 12, 1929, in Reykjavik; died Jan. 7 in Blairskaith, England, of pancreatic cancer. ORCUTT, Maureen, 99, leader amateur golfer in the decades before World War II and a pioneering female sportswriter; her writing appeared in the New York Times from the late 1930s until the early 1970s; born April 1, 1907, in New York City; died Jan. 9 at an assisted-living center in Durham, N.C., of congestive heart failure. [See 1962, p. 436G2] PAEK Nam Sun, 77, North Korea’s foreign minister since 1998; born March 13, 1929, in the northern province of Ryanggang, Korea; died Jan. 2; he reportedly had a kidney ailment. [See 2006, p. 651B3; 2004, p. 718C1, G1; Indexes 2002, 1999–2000] SARDI Jr., Vincent, 91, New York City restaurateur who for decades ran Sardi’s, a legendary restaurant in the city’s Broadway theater district opened by his father in the 1920s; known as the “mayor of Broadway,” he not only fussed over stars but also helped out struggling actors, letting many of them run up sizable tabs; born July 23, 1915, in New York; died Jan. 4 at a hospital in Berlin, Vt., from complications of a urinary tract infection. [See 1969, p. 861E3] TAKAMOTO, Iwao, 81, Japanese-American animator who in the late 1960s created the television cartoon character Scooby-Doo, a canine detective, for the Hanna-Barbera studio; the original Scooby-Doo series, “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?” ran from 1969 to 1972; he also worked on a number of Hanna-Barbera animated films, notably Charlotte’s Webb (1973), which he codirected; born April 29, 1925, in Los Angeles; died Jan. 8 at a Los Angeles hospital, of a heart attack suffered while he was being treated for another condition. [See 2006, p. 988G2; 1973, p. 321G2] VILJOEN, Marais, 91, South African politician who, during the apartheid era of white-minority rule, was his nation’s last nonexecutive state president, from 1979 until 1984, when then–Prime Minister P.W. Botha turned the post into an executive one and then assigned it to himself; born Dec. 2, 1915, in Robertson, South Africa; died Jan. 4 in Pretoria, South Africa. [See 2006, p. 847G3; 1981, p. 94D1; Indexes 1979, 1976, 1973, 1970–71] „

January 18, 2007

U.S. President Bush Delivers State of the Union Address, Urging Unity on Iraq Proposes Health Care, Energy Measures.

President George W. Bush Jan. 23 delivered the annual State of the Union address to Congress and the nation. Bush gave the speech at a new low point in his presidency, weakened by poor public approval ratings and his Republican Party’s loss of control of both houses of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections. But he urged members of both parties to unite behind his new plan to send more than 20,000 additional U.S. soldiers to Iraq, which had already drawn criticism in Congress. [See p. 53F1; 2006, p. 65A3; for a transcript of the speech, see p. 42A1] Bush proposed two big new initiatives in domestic policy, calling for tax deductions to encourage individuals to buy health insurance, and measures to reduce the U.S.’s consumption of gasoline and reliance on foreign energy supplies. Bush began his address by honoring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.), who sat behind him on the rostrum as the first woman ever to occupy the speaker’s chair. He also congratulated the Democrats on their election victories. Call for Bipartisanship—Bush called for a new spirit of bipartisanship, saying, “Our citizens don’t much care which side of the aisle we sit on, as long as we are willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done.” But partisanship was on display in the House chamber during the speech. Pelosi led the Democrats in rising to applaud statements that accorded with their views, and remaining seated while the Republicans cheered other lines reflecting a more conservative agenda. Bush at one point referred to the “Democrat majority,” where the prepared text of the speech said “Democratic.” Democrats said they perceived the use of “Democrat” as an adjective, rather than “Democratic,” as an intentionally insulting shortening of their party name. Bush devoted the first half of his speech to domestic policy, offering a number of proposals that might appeal to Democrats. Aside from his initiatives on energy and health care, he also called again for an immigration bill that included a guest worker program. The Republicancontrolled Congress had rejected such a measure in 2006, but it was backed by most Democrats. Bush turned to Iraq and other foreign policy issues in the second half of the speech. He closed by paying tribute to several guests in the visitors’ gallery over the House floor, who he said reflected “the heroic kindness and courage and selfsacrifice of the American people.” Finally, he made the traditional declaration that “the state of our Union is strong.” Balancing the Budget—Bush began his domestic policy proposals by urging, “First, we must balance the federal budget,” drawing applause from both sides of the chamber. Only the Republicans applauded when he continued, “We can do so

without raising taxes.” But Bush did not call for any major new tax cuts, as he had in the past. [See p. 2G2] He urged Congress to work with him to “take on the challenge of entitlements,” the the three biggest domestic programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Bush warned that failing to act to ensure the solvency of the programs would “leave our children with three bad options: huge tax increases, huge deficits or huge and immediate cuts in benefits.” However, he did not mention his previous push to reform Social Security by introducing private accounts, which had been dropped in 2005 amid bipartisan opposition. [See 2005, p. 304A1] Bush next turned to education, calling on Congress to reauthorize the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which mandated more testing of students to gauge the performance of the public schools. [See 2005, p. 855F3] Health Care Plan—Unveiling his health care plan, Bush called for new tax deductions to help people buy their own health insurance. He proposed deductions of $7,500 for individuals and $15,000 for families that bought health coverage, either on their own or through their employers. Under the plan, health insurance provided by employers would be treated as taxable income for the first time. As a result, people whose insurance exceeded the proposed tax deductions would be subject to a tax increase under Bush’s plan. Currently, more than half of U.S. workers received health insurance coverage provided by their employers, and did not pay taxes on the part of their income they used to pay insurance premiums. People who bought their own insurance did not receive a similar tax break. Bush said the change would “level the playing field for those who do not get health insurance through their job.” Democrats criticized Bush’s plan, saying it would impose a tax hike on the middle class and undermine the employer-based health insurance system. Democratic leaders said his plan was unlikely to be passed, or even considered, by Congress. In a second major health care initiative, Bush proposed redirecting federal funds to assist states in subsidizing individuals’ health insurance purchases. According to the White House, the grant money would be taken from funds that now went to “safety net” hospitals that treated large numbers of poor, uninsured patients. Energy Plan—Bush called for an effort to cut U.S. gasoline consumption by 20% over the next 10 years, saying, “For too long our nation has been dependent on foreign oil.” He added, “This dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes and to terrorists.” He said his plan would reduce U.S. oil imports from the Middle East by 75%. Bush had warned in

Facts On File

®

World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3450* January 25, 2007

B his 2006 State of the Union address that “America is addicted to oil.” His new proposal was his most ambitious response yet to that problem. To achieve the 20% consumption cut, he proposed setting a mandatory federal standard requiring gasoline refiners to add 35 billion gallons of “renewable and alternative fuels” to their products, or five times the current requirement. That would largely involve increasing the use of ethanol, a fuel additive that was derived from corn in the U.S. But it could also include the use of liquid fuels produced from coal, which critics said would result in more carbon dioxide emissions than ethanol blends. Bush also proposed new fuel economy standards for cars, in order to “conserve up to 8.5 billion more gallons of gasoline by 2017.” The White House said his plan would require a 4% increase in fuel economy per year, or about one mile per gallon.

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Continued on p. 44E1 MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

www.facts.com/FF7

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U.S. President Bush delivers State of the Union address, urging unity on Iraq; proposes health care, energy measures. PAGE 41

China confirms antisatellite missile test. PAGE 45

Sen. Clinton enters 2008 Democratic presidential field. PAGE 46

Trial of ex–Cheney aide Libby begins. PAGE 46

Serbian elections lead to pro-EU coalition talks.

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Armenian newspaper editor assassinated in Turkey. PAGE 52

U.S. Senate committee opposes Iraq troop ‘surge.’ PAGE 53

Factional violence erupts in Lebanese capital. PAGE 54

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Israel releases funds to PA President Abbas. PAGE 55

*First of two sections Section Two is the 2006 Annual Index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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TRANSCRIPT OF U.S. PRESIDENT BUSH’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

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Following is a transcript of President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address, delivered Jan. 23 [See p. 41A1]: Thank you very much. And tonight, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of my own, as the first president to begin the State of the Union message with these words: “Madam Speaker.” In his day, the late Congressman Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., from Baltimore, Md., saw Presidents [Franklin] Roosevelt and [Harry] Truman at this rostrum. But nothing could compare with the sight of his only daughter, Nancy, presiding tonight as speaker of the House of Representatives. Congratulations, Madam Speaker. Two members of the House and Senate are not with us tonight, and we pray for the recovery and speedy return of Senator Tim Johnson [D, S.D.] and Congressman Charlie Norwood [R, Ga.]. Madam Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: The rite of custom brings us together at a defining hour, when decisions are hard and courage is needed. We enter the year 2007 with large endeavors under way, and others that are ours to begin. In all of this, much is asked of us. We must have the will to face difficult challenges and determined enemies, and the wisdom to face them together. Some in this chamber are new to the House and the Senate, and I congratulate the Democrat majority. Congress has changed, but not our responsibilities. Each of us is guided by our own convictions, and to these we must stay faithful. Yet we’re all held to the same standards, and called to serve the same good purposes: to extend this nation’s prosperity; to spend the people’s money wisely; to solve problems, not leave them to future generations; to guard America against all evil; and to keep faith with those we have sent forth to defend us. We are not the first to come here with government divided and uncertainty in the air. Like many before us, we can work through our differences and we can achieve big things for the American people. Our citizens don’t much care which side of the aisle we sit on, as long as we are willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done. Our job is to make life better for our fellow Americans, and to help them build a future of hope and opportunity. And this is the business before us tonight. A future of hope and opportunity begins with a growing economy, and that is what we have. We are now in the 41st month of uninterrupted job growth, a recovery that has created 7.2 million new jobs so far. Unemployment is low, inflation is low, wages are rising. This economy is on the move. And our job is to keep it that way—not with more government but with more enterprise. Next week, I will deliver a full report on the state of our economy. Tonight, I want to discuss three economic reforms that deserve to be priorities for this Congress. Balancing the Budget First, we must balance the federal budget. We can do so without raising taxes. What we need is spending discipline in Washington, D.C. We set a goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009 and met that goal three years ahead of schedule. Now let us take the next step. In the coming weeks, I will submit a budget that eliminates the federal deficit within the next five years. I ask you to make the same commitment. Together, we can restrain the spending appetite of the federal government and we can balance the federal budget. Next, there’s the matter of earmarks. These special interest items are often slipped into bills at the last hour, when not even C-SPAN is watching. In 2005 alone, the number of earmarks grew to over 13,000 and totaled nearly $18 billion. Even worse, over 90 percent of the earmarks never make it to the floor of the House and the Senate; they’re dropped into committee reports that are not even part of the bill that arrives on my desk. You didn’t vote them into law. I didn’t sign them into law. Yet they are treated as if they have the force of law. The time has come to end this practice. So let us work together to reform the budget process, expose every earmark to the light of day and to a vote in Congress, and cut the number and cost of earmarks at least in half by the end of this session. And, finally, to keep this economy strong, we must take on the challenge of entitlements. Social Se-

42

curity and Medicare and Medicaid are commitments of conscience, and so it is our duty to keep them permanently sound. Yet we’re failing in that duty. And this failure will one day leave our children with three bad options: huge tax increases, huge deficits, or huge and immediate cuts in benefits. Everyone in this chamber knows this to be true, yet somehow we have not found it in ourselves to act. So let us work together and do it now. With enough good sense and good will, you and I can fix Medicare and Medicaid and save Social Security. Education Spreading opportunity and hope in America also requires public schools that give children the knowledge and character they need in life. Five years ago, we rose above partisan differences to pass the No Child Left Behind Act; preserving local control, raising standards in public schools, and holding those schools accountable for results. And because we acted, students are performing better in reading and math, and minority students are closing the achievement gap. Now the task is to build on this success, without watering down standards, without taking control from local communities, and without backsliding and calling it reform. We can lift student achievement even higher by giving local leaders flexibility to turn around failing schools and by giving families with children stuck in failing schools the right to choose some place better. We must increase funds for students who struggle and make sure these children get the special help they need. And we can make sure our children are prepared for the jobs of the future, and our country is more competitive, by strengthening math and science skills. The No Child Left Behind Act has worked for America’s children, and I ask Congress to reauthorize this good law. Health Insurance A future of hope and opportunity requires that all our citizens have affordable and available health care. When it comes to health care, government has an obligation to care for the elderly, the disabled and poor children. And we will meet those responsibilities. For all other Americans, private health insurance is the best way to meet their needs. But many Americans cannot afford a health insurance policy. And so, tonight, I propose two new initiatives to help more Americans afford their own insurance. First, I propose a standard tax deduction for health insurance that will be like the standard tax deduction for dependents. Families with health insurance will pay no income on payroll taxes—or payroll taxes—on $15,000 of their income. Single Americans with health insurance will pay no income or payroll taxes on $7,500 of their income. With this reform, more than 100 million men, women, and children who are now covered by employer-provided insurance will benefit from lower tax bills. At the same time, this reform will level the playing field for those who do not get health insurance through their job. For Americans who now purchase health insurance on their own, this proposal would mean a substantial tax savings: $4,500 for a family of four making $60,000 a year. And for the millions of other Americans who have no health insurance at all, this deduction would help put a basic private health insurance plan within their reach. Changing the tax code is a vital and necessary step to making health care affordable for more Americans. My second proposal is to help the states that are coming up with innovative ways to cover the uninsured. States that make basic private health insurance available to all their citizens should receive federal funds to help them provide this coverage to the poor and the sick. I have asked the secretary of health and human services to work with Congress to take existing federal funds and use them to create “Affordable Choices” grants. These grants would give our nation's governors more money and more flexibility to get private health insurance to those most in need. There are many other ways that Congress can help. We need to expand health savings accounts. We need to help small businesses through association health plans. We need to reduce costs and medical er-

rors with better information technology. We will encourage price transparency. And to protect good doctors from junk lawsuits, we need to pass medical liability reform. In all we do, we must remember that the best health care decisions are made not by government and insurance companies, but by patients and their doctors. Immigration Extending hope and opportunity in our country requires an immigration system worthy of America, with laws that are fair and borders that are secure. When laws and borders are routinely violated, this harms the interests of our country. To secure our border, we are doubling the size of the Border Patrol, and funding new infrastructure and technology. Yet, even with all these steps, we cannot fully secure the border unless we take pressure off the border. And that requires a temporary worker program. We should establish a legal and orderly path for foreign workers to enter our country to work on a temporary basis. As a result, they won’t have to try to sneak in. And that will leave border agents free to chase down drug smugglers and criminals and terrorists. We will enforce our immigration laws at the worksite, and give employers the tools to verify the legal status of their workers so there is no excuse left for violating the law. We need to uphold the great tradition of the melting pot that welcomes and assimilates new arrivals. We need to resolve the status of the illegal immigrants who are already in our country, without animosity and without amnesty. Convictions run deep in this Capitol when it comes to immigration. Let us have a serious, civil, and conclusive debate so that you can pass —and I can sign—comprehensive immigration reform into law. Energy Independence Extending hope and opportunity depends on a stable supply of energy that keeps America’s economy running and America’s environment clean. For too long, our nation has been dependent on foreign oil. And this dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes and to terrorists who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments and raise the price of oil and do great harm to our economy. It’s in our vital interest to diversify America’s energy supply, and the way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the way America generates electric power by even greater use of cleancoal technology; solar and wind energy; and clean, safe nuclear power. We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles and expand the use of clean-diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel. We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol using everything from wood chips to grasses to agricultural wastes. We made a lot of progress, thanks to good policies here in Washington and the strong response of the market. And now, even more dramatic advances are within reach. Tonight, I ask Congress to join me in pursuing a great goal: Let us build on the work we’ve done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20% in the next 10 years. When we do that, we will have cut our total imports by the equivalent of three-quarters of all the oil we now import from the Middle East. To reach this goal, we must increase the supply of alternative fuels, by setting a mandatory fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017. And that is nearly five times the current target. At the same time, we need to reform and modernize fuel economy standards for cars the way we did for light trucks and conserve up to 8.5 billion more gallons of gasoline by 2017. Achieving these ambitious goals will dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but it’s not going to eliminate it. And so, as we continue to diversify our fuel supply, we must step up domestic oil production in environmentally sensitive ways. And to further protect America against severe disruptions to our oil supply, I ask Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. America’s on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. And these technologies will help us

FACTS ON FILE

become better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change. Judicial Nominations A future of hope and opportunity requires a fair, impartial system of justice. The lives of our citizens across our nation are affected by the outcome of cases pending in our federal courts. And we have a shared obligation to ensure that the federal courts have enough judges to hear those cases and deliver timely rulings. As president, I have a duty to nominate qualified men and women to vacancies on the federal bench. And the United States Senate has a duty as well: to give those nominees a fair hearing and a prompt upor-down vote on the Senate floor. Confronting Terrorism For all of us in this room, there’s no higher responsibility than to protect the people of this country from danger. Five years have come and gone since we saw the scenes and felt the sorrow that the terrorists can cause. We’ve had time to take stock of our situation. We’ve added many critical protections to guard the homeland. We know with certainty that the horrors of that September morning were just a glimpse of what the terrorists intend for us, unless we stop them. With the distance of time, we find ourselves debating the causes of conflict and the course we have followed. Such debates are essential when a great democracy faces great questions. Yet one question has surely been settled: that, to win the war on terror, we must take the fight to the enemy. From the start, America and our allies have protected our people by staying on the offense. The enemy knows that the days of comfortable sanctuary, easy movement, steady financing and free-flowing communications are long over. For the terrorists, life since 9/11 has never been the same. Our success in this war is often measured by the things that did not happen. We cannot know the full extent of the attacks that we and our allies have prevented. But here is some of what we do know. We stopped an Al Qaeda plot to fly a hijacked airplane into the tallest building on the West Coast. We broke up a Southeast Asian terrorist cell grooming operatives for attacks inside the United States. We uncovered an Al Qaeda cell developing anthrax to be used in attacks against America. And, just last August, British authorities uncovered a plot to blow up passenger planes bound for America over the Atlantic Ocean. For each life saved, we owe a debt of gratitude to the brave public servants who devote their lives to finding the terrorists and stopping them. Every success against the terrorists is a reminder of the shoreless ambitions of this enemy. The evil that inspired and rejoiced in 9/11 is still at work in the world. And, so long as that’s the case, America is still a nation at war. In the mind of the terrorists, this war began well before September the 11th, and will not end until their radical vision is fulfilled. And these past five years have given us a much clearer view of the nature of this enemy. Al Qaeda and its followers are Sunni extremists, possessed by hatred and commanded by a harsh and narrow ideology. Take almost any principle of civilization, and their goal is the opposite. They preach with threats, instruct with bullets and bombs, and promise paradise for the murder of the innocent. Our enemies are quite explicit about their intentions. They want to overthrow moderate governments, and establish safe havens from which to plan and carry out new attacks on our country. By killing and terrorizing Americans, they want to force our country to retreat from the world and abandon the cause of liberty. They would then be free to impose their will and spread their totalitarian ideology. Listen to this warning from the late terrorist [Abu Mausab] Zarqawi: “We will sacrifice our blood and bodies to put an end to your dreams, and what is coming is even worse.” [Al Qaeda leader] Osama bin Laden declared: “Death is better than living on this earth with the unbelievers among us.” These men are not given to idle words, and they are just one camp in the Islamist radical movement. In recent times, it has also become clear that we face an escalating danger from Shia extremists who are just as hostile to America, and are also determined to dominate the Middle East. Many are known to take direction from the regime in Iran, which is funding and arming terrorists like Hezbollah, a group second only to Al Qaeda in

January 25, 2007

STATE lives OF THE the American it has UNION taken. ADDRESS The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat. But whatever slogans they chant, when they slaughter the innocent, they have the same wicked purposes: They want to kill Americans, kill democracy in the Middle East and gain the weapons to kill on an even more horrific scale. In the sixth year since our nation was attacked, I wish I could report to you that the dangers have ended. They have not. And so it remains the policy of this government to use every lawful and proper tool of intelligence, diplomacy, law enforcement and military action to do our duty, to find these enemies and to protect the American people. This war is more than a clash of arms. It is a decisive ideological struggle, and the security of our nation is in the balance. To prevail, we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred and drove 19 men to get onto airplanes and to come and kill us. What every terrorist fears most is human freedom—societies where men and women make their own choices, answer to their own conscience and live by their hopes instead of their resentments. Free people are not drawn to violent and malignant ideologies, and most will choose a better way when they’re given a chance. So we advance our own security interests by helping moderates, reformers and brave voices for democracy. Crisis in the Middle East The great question of our day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East to build free societies and share in the rights of all humanity. And I say, for the sake of our own security: We must. In the last two years, we’ve seen the desire for liberty in the broader Middle East, and we have been sobered by the enemy’s fierce reaction. In 2005, the world watched as the citizens of Lebanon raised the banner of the Cedar Revolution and drove out the Syrian occupiers and chose new leaders in free elections. In 2005, the people of Afghanistan defied the terrorists and elected a democratic legislature. And, in 2005, the Iraqi people held three national elections: choosing a transitional government; adopting the most progressive, democratic constitution in the Arab world; and then electing a government under that constitution. Despite endless threats from the killers in their midst, nearly 12 million Iraqi citizens came out to vote in a show of hope and solidarity that we should never forget. A thinking enemy watched all of these scenes, adjusted their tactics and, in 2006, they struck back. In Lebanon, assassins took the life of Pierre Gemayel, a prominent participant in the Cedar Revolution. Hezbollah terrorists, with support from Syria and Iran, sowed conflict in the region and are seeking to undermine Lebanon’s legitimately elected government. In Afghanistan, Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters tried to regain power by regrouping and engaging Afghan and NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] forces. In Iraq, Al Qaeda and other Sunni extremists blew up one of the most sacred places in Shia Islam: the Golden Mosque of Samarra. This atrocity, directed at a Muslim house of prayer, was designed to provoke retaliation from Iraqi Shia. And it succeeded. Radical Shia elements, some of whom receive support from Iran, formed death squads. The result was a tragic escalation of sectarian rage and reprisal that continues to this day. New Strategy in Iraq This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in. Every one of us wishes this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk. Ladies and gentlemen, on this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. Let us find our resolve and turn events toward victory. We’re carrying out a new strategy in Iraq, a plan that demands more from Iraq’s elected government and gives our forces in Iraq the reinforcements they need to complete their mission. Our goal is a democratic Iraq that upholds the rule of law, respects the rights of its people, provides them security and is an ally in the war on terror. In order to make progress toward this goal, the Iraqi government must stop the sectarian violence in its capital. But the Iraqis are not yet ready to do this on their own. So we’re deploying reinforcements of more than

20,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Iraq. The vast majority will go to Baghdad, where they will help Iraqi forces to clear and secure neighborhoods, and serve as advisers embedded in Iraqi army units. With Iraqis in the lead, our forces will help secure the city by chasing down terrorists, insurgents and the roaming death squads. And, in Anbar province—where Al Qaeda terrorists have gathered and local forces have begun showing a willingness to fight them—we are sending an additional 4,000 United States Marines, with orders to find the terrorists and clear them out. We didn’t drive Al Qaida out of their safe haven in Afghanistan only to let them set up a new safe haven in a free Iraq. The people of Iraq want to live in peace. And now it’s time for their government to act. Iraq’s leaders know that our commitment is not open-ended. They have promised to deploy more of their own troops to secure Baghdad, and they must do so. They pledged that they will confront violent radicals of any faction or political party. And they need to follow through and lift needless restrictions on Iraqi and coalition forces, so these troops can achieve their mission of bringing security to all of the people of Baghdad. Iraq’s leaders have committed themselves to a series of benchmarks to achieve reconciliation: to share oil revenues among all of Iraq’s citizens, to put the wealth of Iraq into the rebuilding of Iraq, to allow more Iraqis to re-enter their nation’s civic life, to hold local elections and to take responsibility for security in every Iraqi province. But for all this to happen, Baghdad must be secure. And our plan will help the Iraqi government take back its capital and make good on its commitments. My fellow citizens, our military commanders and I have carefully weighed the options. We discussed every possible approach. In the end, I chose this course of action because it provides the best chance for success. Many in this chamber understand that America must not fail in Iraq, because you understand that the consequences of failure would be grievous and far reaching. If American forces step back before Baghdad is secure, the Iraqi government would be overrun by extremists on all sides. We could expect an epic battle between Shia extremists backed by Iran, and Sunni extremists aided by Al Qaida and supporters of the old regime. A contagion of violence could spill out across the country. And, in time, the entire region could be drawn into the conflict. For America, this is a nightmare scenario. For the enemy, this is the objective. Chaos is the greatest ally—their greatest ally—in this struggle. And out of chaos in Iraq would emerge an emboldened enemy with new safe havens, new recruits, new resources, and an even greater determination to harm America. To allow this to happen would be to ignore the lessons of September the 11th and invite tragedy. Ladies and gentlemen, nothing is more important at this moment in our history than for America to succeed in the Middle East, to succeed in Iraq, and to spare the American people from this danger. This is where matters stand tonight, in the here and now. I’ve spoken with many of you in person. I respect you and the arguments you’ve made. We went into this largely united in our assumptions and in our convictions. And whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure. Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq, and I ask you to give it a chance to work. And I ask you to support our troops in the field and those on their way. The war on terror we fight today is a generational struggle that will continue long after you and I have turned our duties over to others. And that's why it’s important to work together, so our nation can see this great effort through. Both parties and both branches should work in close consultation. That’s why I’ve proposed to establish a special advisory council on the war on terror, made up of leaders in Congress from both political parties. We will share ideas for how to position America to meet every challenge that confronts us. We’ll show our enemies abroad that we’re united in the goal of victory. And one of the first steps we can take together is to add to the ranks of our military, so that the American armed forces are ready for all of the challenges ahead. Tonight I ask the Congress to authorize an in-

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crease in the size of our active Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 in the next five years. A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer civilian reserve corps. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the armed forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them. It would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time. Diplomatic Priorities Americans can have confidence in the outcome of this struggle because we are not in this struggle alone. We have a diplomatic strategy that is rallying the world to join in the fight against extremism. In Iraq, multnational forces are operating under a mandate from the United Nations. We’re are working with Jordan and Saudi Arabia and Egypt and the Gulf States to increase support for Iraq’s government. The United Nations has imposed sanctions on Iran and made it clear that the world will not allow the regime in Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons. With the other members of the quartet—the U.N., the European Union and Russia—we are pursuing diplomacy to help bring peace to the Holy Land and pursuing the establishment of a democratic Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel in peace and security. In Afghanistan, NATO has taken the lead in turning back the Taliban and Al Qaeda offensive—the first time the alliance has deployed forces outside the North Atlantic area. Together with our partners in China and Japan, Russia and South Korea, we are pursuing intensive diplomacy to achieve a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons. We will continue to speak out for the cause of freedom in places like Cuba, Belarus and Burma, and continue to awaken the conscience of the world to save the people of Darfur. American foreign policy is more than a matter of war and diplomacy. Our work in the world is also based on a timeless truth: To whom much is given, much is required. We hear the call to take on the challenges of hunger and poverty and disease. And that is precisely

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Bush called for doubling the size of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, to 1.5 billion barrels, over the next 20 years. The reserve was maintained by the government in case of an emergency. Bush said that imminent “technological breakthroughs” would “help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change.” It was reportedly the first time that Bush had mentioned climate change in a State of the Union speech. But Democrats argued that more immediate steps were needed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for causing global warming. Terrorism, Iraq and the Middle East—

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Bush warned that the U.S. still faced the threat of Islamist terrorism. In addition to Sunni Muslim terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, he said that “we face an escalating danger from Shia extremists who are just as hostile to America, and are also determined to dominate the Middle East.” He added, “Many are known to take direction from the regime in Iran.” Tensions between the U.S. and Iran had sharply increased recently. [See p. 52A3] Bush next repeated the arguments of a speech he had given earlier in January to lay out his new strategy for the Iraq war. 44

what America is doing. We must continue to fight HIV/AIDS, especially on the continent of Africa. Because you funded the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the number of people receiving lifesaving drugs has grown from 50,000 to more than 800,000 in three short years. I ask you to continue funding our efforts to fight HIV/AIDS. And I ask you to provide $1.2 billion over five years so we can combat malaria in 15 African countries. And I ask that you fund the Millennium Challenge Account, so that American aid reaches the people who need it, in nations where democracy is on the rise and corruption is in retreat. And let us continue to support the expanded trade and debt relief that are the best hopes for lifting lives and eliminating poverty. Saluting Heroic Citizens When America serves others in this way, we show the strength and generosity of our country. These deeds reflect the character of our people. The greatest strength we have is the heroic kindness and courage and self-sacrifice of the American people. You see this spirit often if you know where to look. And tonight we need only look above to the gallery. [Basketball star] Dikembe Mutombo grew up in Africa, amid great poverty and disease. He came to Georgetown University on a scholarship to study medicine, but Coach John Thompson took a look at Dikembe and had a different idea. Dikembe became a star in the NBA and a citizen of the United States. But he never forgot the land of his birth or the duty to share his blessings with others. He built a brand-new hospital in his old hometown. A friend has said of this good-hearted man, “Mutombo believes that God has given him this opportunity to do great things.” And we are proud to call this son of the Congo a citizen of the United States of America. After her daughter was born, Julie Aigner-Clark searched for ways to share her love of music and art with her child. So she borrowed some equipment and began filming children's videos in her basement. The Baby Einstein Company was born. And, in just five years, her business grew to more than $20 million in sales. November 2001, Julie sold Baby Einstein to Walt Disney Company and, with her help, Baby Einstein has grown into a $200 million business.

He warned of a “nightmare scenario” that would unfold if the U.S. failed to bring security to Iraq, including the possibility of a regional sectarian conflict spreading across the Middle East. Recognizing that the war in Iraq had evolved into civil strife between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, Bush said, “This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in.” The president told the assembled members of Congress, “Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq, and I ask you to give it a chance to work.” He assured them that he had warned Iraq’s leaders that “our commitment is not open-ended.” Meanwhile, the Senate was preparing to vote on resolutions opposing Bush’s strategy. „ Sen. Webb Gives Democratic Response.

Sen. James Webb (D, Va.) Jan. 23 delivered the official Democratic response to President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address, condemning Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq and the economy. Webb was one of the newly elected Democrats whose victories in the November 2006 midterm elections had given their party control of both houses of Congress. [See p. 41A1; for excerpts from Webb’s response, see box, p. 45A1]

Julie represents the great enterprising spirit of America. And she’s using her success to help others— producing child safety videos with John Walsh of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Julie says of her new project: “I believe it is the most important thing that I have ever done. I believe that children have the right to live in a world that is safe.” And so, tonight, I—we are pleased to welcome this talented business entrepreneur and generous social entrepreneur, Julie Aigner-Clark. Three weeks ago, Wesley Autrey was waiting at a Harlem [New York City] subway station with his two little girls, when he saw a man fall into the path of a train. With seconds to act, Wesley jumped onto the tracks, pulled the man into the space between the rails, and held him as the train passed right above their heads. He insists he’s not a hero. He says: “We’ve got guys and girls overseas dying for us to have our freedoms. We have got to show each other some love.” There is something wonderful about a country that produces a brave and humble man like Wesley Autrey. Tommy Reiman was a teenager pumping gas in Independence, Kentucky, when he enlisted in the United States Army. In December 2003, he was on a reconnaissance mission in Iraq when his team came under heavy enemy fire. From his Humvee, Sergeant Rieman returned fire. He used his body as a shield to protect his gunner. He was shot in the chest and arm and received shrapnel wounds to his legs, yet he refused medical attention and stayed in the fight. He helped to repel a second attack, firing grenades at the enemy’s position. For his exceptional courage, Sergeant Rieman was awarded the Silver Star. And like so many other Americans who have volunteered to defend us, he has earned the respect and the gratitude of our entire country. In such courage and compassion, ladies and gentlemen, we see the spirit and character of America. And these qualities are not in short supply. This is a decent and honorable country—and resilient, too. We have been through a lot together. We have met challenges and faced dangers, and we know that more lie ahead. Yet we can go forward with confidence because the State of our Union is strong, our cause in the world is right, and tonight that cause goes on. God bless.

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There are two areas where our respective parties have largely stood in contradiction, and I want to take a few minutes to address them tonight. The first relates to how we see the health of our economy, how we measure it and how we ensure that its benefits are properly shared among all Americans. The second regards our foreign policy—how we might bring the war in Iraq to a proper conclusion that will also allow us to continue to fight the war against international terrorism and to address other strategic concerns that our country faces around the world. When one looks at the health of our economy, it’s almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say that things have never been better. The stock market is at an all-time high, and so are corporate profits. But these benefits are not being fairly shared.… Wages and salaries for our workers are at all-time lows as a percentage of national wealth even though the productivity of American workers is the highest in the world. Medical costs have skyrocketed. College tuition rates are off the charts. Our manufacturing base is being dismantled and sent overseas. Good American jobs are being sent along with them.… In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy: that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base; not with the numbers that come out of Wall Street, but with the living conditions that exist on Main Street. We must recapture that spirit today. Under the leadership of the new Democratic Congress, we’re

Webb, a Vietnam War veteran and Navy secretary under President Ronald Reagan, noted that his son was a marine serving in Iraq. But he denounced Bush, saying, “The president took us into this war recklessly.” Accusing Bush of ignoring warnings that invading Iraq could lead to chaos, Webb asserted, “We are now as a nation, held hostage to the predictable—and predicted—disarray that has followed.” Webb proposed “a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.” Describing such a plan, he said, “Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong, regionally based diplomacy.” Webb said the Democrats hoped that the Bush administration was “serious about improving education and health care for all Americans and addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans [La.].” Bush in his address had not mentioned the Gulf Coast’s ongoing recovery from the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Arguing that Bush had presided over a period of rising economic inequality, Webb recalled that another Republican, President Theodore Roosevelt, had taken action against corporate “robber barons” in the early 20th century. Webb then praised another Republican, President Dwight Eisenhower, for extracting the U.S. from a “bloody stalemate” in the Korean War after his election in 1952. Democrats were calling on Bush to “take similar action,” Webb said, adding, “If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.” „ January 25, 2007

on our way to doing so. The House just passed the minimum wage increase, the first in 10 years, and the Senate will soon follow.… With respect to foreign policy, this country has patiently endured a mismanaged war for nearly four years. Many, including myself, warned even before the war began that it was unnecessary; that it would take our energy and attention away from the larger war against terrorism; and that invading and occupying Iraq would leave us strategically vulnerable in the most violent and turbulent corner of the world.… The president took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War; the chief of staff of the Army; two former commanding generals of Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq; the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now as a nation held hostage to the predictable—and predicted—disarray that has followed. The war's costs to our nation have been staggering: financially; the damage to our reputation around the world; the lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism; and especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve. The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought. Nor does the majority of our military. Nor does the majority of Congress. We need a new direction. Not one step back from the war against international terrorism, not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong, regionally based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq’s cities and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.

China Confirms Antisatellite Missile Test Disavows Space Arms Race. China Jan. 23 confirmed that it had destroyed one of its own satellites with a ballistic missile in a test conducted Jan. 12. In China’s first official public confirmation of the test, a foreign ministry spokesman contended that it was not intended as a threat to any other country, and that China would not instigate or participate in an “arms race in space.” However, he provided no further details of the test or of the intentions behind it. The U.S. State Department Jan. 22 had said that Chinese officials had confirmed the test to a U.S. envoy visiting China for talks on North Korea’s nuclear program. [See p. 26B2] China’s prolonged silence about the test, details of which had been made public by U.S. officials Jan. 18, had heightened uncertainty over China’s intentions. It was the first time in more than 20 years that a country had demonstrated an ability to destroy an orbiting satellite, and made China only the third country, after the U.S. and the Soviet Union, to do so. The incident raised concerns that China, which was actively expanding and modernizing its military, was triggering a possible arms race in space. The U.S.’s worldwide military power was heavily dependent on satellites for surveillance, navigation and communications. Some of those satellites, particularly those used for reconnaissance, traveled in “low-Earth” orbits similar to or lower than that of the Chinese weather satellite destroyed in the test, about 800 miles (500 km). (The U.S. military’s Global Positioning System of

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navigation satellites orbited at a much higher altitude, between 6,000 miles and 12,000 miles. Communications and missile-launch early-warning satellites with geosynchronous orbits were at altitudes of more than 22,000 miles.) China, along with Russia, had advocated a global treaty to bar weapons from space. The U.S. had resisted those calls, saying a treaty was unnecessary as no nation deployed space-based weapons. Britain Jan. 19 said it had lodged a protest with China two days earlier, joining the U.S., Japan and several other countries that had criticized China for conducting the test and for failing to provide advance notice or an explanation. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, in his Jan. 23 remarks maintained that China had acted “responsibly” in providing information about the test after other countries expressed concern. Chinese officials the preceding weekend had confirmed the test to U.S. envoy Christopher Hill during a visit by Hill to Beijing, China’s capital, for talks on North Korea’s nuclear program. U.S. officials had initially avoided making public remarks about the test while they sought an official response. Some reportedly speculated that China’s foreign ministry had not been aware of the launch when the U.S. inquired about it, while others suggested that China’s silence was typical of its secrecy in military matters and perhaps intended to keep the U.S. and other countries off guard. U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley Jan. 19 suggested that it was possible that even China’s senior leadership had not known that the test was planned. „

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Global Health Drug Resistant Bird Flu Strain Isolated. The World Health Organization (WHO)

Jan. 17 said it had isolated from two Egyptians a strain of the H5N1 avian influenza (bird flu) virus that was resistant to the drug oseltamivir, sold under the brand name Tamiflu. It was not known exactly how the strain had developed in the patients. [See 2006, p. 994D2] The drug was thought by experts to be the best treatment for those who had contracted the disease, and the discovery of the new strain raised already high concerns that the virus could mutate into a form that could spark a worldwide flu pandemic with a high number of fatalities. In recent weeks, the H5N1 virus had been rediscovered in birds in various southeast Asian and European countries. Vietnamese health officials Jan. 3 said they had ordered millions of vaccine doses from China to quash a new outbreak of the virus in domestic fowl. The South Korean government Jan. 21 initiated a cull of hundreds of thousands of birds to halt the resurgence of the disease in the country. And Hungary Jan. 24 reported that domestic fowl had died of a closely related virus over the previous few days, but had not yet confirmed that it was the H5N1 virus. The WHO Jan. 22 said a total of 269 cases of the H5N1 avian influenza had been diagnosed in humans in 10 different countries, with 163 of those cases being fatal. „

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Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi Jan. 16 said he did not think it was necessary to hold a special meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to consider a production cut to halt a slide in the price of oil. Some OPEC members, notably Venezuela and Algeria, had been urging OPEC to convene before its next scheduled session March 15. [See 2006, p. 995G3] Oil prices had plunged since exceeding $77 a barrel in July 2006. A benchmark futures price on the New York Mercantile Exchange Jan. 16 closed at $51.21 a barrel, and Jan. 18 briefly fell below $50 for the first time since May 2005, before closing at $50.48. Saudi Arabia was OPEC’s most influential member. Naimi called the oil market “very healthy” and said that prices would rebound once a previously agreed output cut took effect Feb. 1. Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez continued to insist that a cut was needed, and to assert that OPEC might hold an emergency meeting. [See 2006, p. 1018D2] Separately, Angola Jan. 1 had formally „ become OPEC’s 12th member. 46

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

2008 Presidential Campaign Sen. Clinton Enters Democratic Field. Sen.

Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) Jan. 20 announced that she was entering the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. In a video posted on her campaign Web site and e-mails sent to supporters, she said, “I’m in, and I’m in to win.” Polls showed Clinton, 59, as the front-runner in the Democratic field, making the former first lady a serious contender to become the first woman to be the presidential nominee of a major political party, as well as the first female president of the U.S. [See p. 28D2] Clinton Jan. 21 appeared at a New York City children’s health clinic to propose new legislation intended to expand federal health insurance coverage for children. Asked why she was running for president, she said, “I am worried about the future of our country, and I want to help put it back on the right course, so that we can work together to meet the challenges that confront us at home and abroad in order to secure a better future for all.” Results from an ABC News/Washington Post poll, published in the Post Jan. 21, showed that 41% of Democrats backed Clinton for president. Her nearest rival, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), trailed with 17%, while former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) was third with 11%. Obama had announced that he was joining the race days earlier, and Edwards had done so in December 2006. Clinton’s move to follow suit showed that the presidential campaign had gotten off to an unusually early start, a year before the first primaries. Clinton’s political experience included her time in the White House as first lady from 1993 to 2001, during the two-term presidency of her husband, Bill Clinton. She had survived a number of scandals and investigations, as well as the 1994 collapse of an ambitious health care reform plan that she had spearheaded. Clinton first won election to the Senate in 2000, and was reelected by a landslide in November 2006. She had assembled a seasoned team for a presidential campaign, but had yet to visit Iowa, New Hampshire and the other states that voted early in the primary calendar. In recent months, Clinton had sharpened her opposition to President George W. Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq. She had also distanced herself from her 2002 vote for a congressional resolution that authorized the use of force against Iraq. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, she had visited Iraq earlier in January. [See p. 25D1] In her announcement, Clinton indicated that she would not participate in the public financing system for presidential candidates in either the primaries or the general election. She was the first candidate to completely opt out of the system since it began in 1976. That allowed her to ask for contributions of up to $4,200 each, which

was double the limit for those who accepted public matching funds. Kerry Drops Out—Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, in a speech on the Senate floor Jan. 24 announced that he would not run for the 2008 nomination. He said of his loss to Republican President George W. Bush in 2004, “We came close, certainly close enough to be tempted to try again. There are powerful reasons to want to continue that fight now. But I’ve concluded that this isn’t the time for me to mount a presidential campaign.” Instead, he said he would work in the Senate to end the Iraq war. Kerry had appeared to be planning another run for president, campaigning widely for Democratic candidates in the 2006 elections. But polls had found little support among Democrats for another Kerry run, and he hurt his chances further with a poorly delivered joke about the Iraq war just before the elections in November. [See 2006, p. 836F1] Other News—In related developments: † Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.) Jan. 20 announced that he was running for the Republican presidential nomination at a rally in Topeka, Kan. Staking his claim as the most socially conservative Republican candidate, he said, “The last thing we need in America is to take God out of our public lives and institutions.” Brownback, 50, was an outspoken opponent of abortion, gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research. He had first won election to a House seat in 1994, and then won a Senate seat in 1996. Polls showed him trailing far behind the leading Republican contenders: Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. But he had strong support among social conservatives, who could be decisive in determining the GOP nomination. † New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson Jan. 21 said he was running for the Democratic nomination. Richardson, 59, was a former congressman and had served in the Clinton administration as ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary. He won reelection to a second term as governor in a landslide in November 2006, and continued to act as a diplomatic troubleshooter, recently traveling to Sudan in an effort to broker a cease-fire in the war-torn Darfur region. His mother was Mexican, which would make him the first Hispanic president if elected. [See p. 17B2] † Rep. Duncan Hunter (Calif.), 58, Jan. 25 formally opened his long-shot conservative bid for the Republican nomination at a rally in Spartanburg, S.C. „

CIA Leak Investigation Trial of Ex–Cheney Aide Libby Begins.

Prosecutors Jan. 23 delivered opening arguments in the trial of I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, on five felony counts of perjury and obstruction of justice. Libby was accused of having lied to FACTS ON FILE

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and to a grand jury in an investigation of the leaking of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative Valerie Wilson, also known by her maiden name Valerie Plame, to reporters in 2003. Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson 4th, in July of that year had publicized his findings of his trip to Niger, which discredited a suggestion by the administration of President George W. Bush that Iraq had sought to buy enriched uranium from Niger. Bush’s assertion was used to bolster claims that Iraq had an active illicit weapons program prior to the U.S.-led invasion of that country in 2003. [See 2006, p. 999D3] The trial, in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., started one day late because of an unusually long process of jury selection. Many potential jurors were disqualified for expressing disapproval or distrust of the Bush administration and criticism of the Iraq war. Numerous juror candidates were acquainted with one or more people linked to the case. One who was chosen was a former reporter for the Washington Post who had once worked for Bob Woodward, a Post editor expected to testify in the trial, and was also a former neighbor of NBC newsman Tim Russert, an expected witness for the prosecution. A panel of 12 jurors—nine women and three men—and four alternates was seated Jan. 22. While Washington, D.C.’s populace was predominantly black, the jury included just two blacks and 10 whites. The judge in the case, Reggie Walton, partially sequestered the jury members, allowing them to return home at night but restricting their movements and activity. Opening Arguments—In an opening argument lasting just over one hour, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald Jan. 23 told the courtroom that Libby’s case was simple: He had repeatedly lied to investigators and a grand jury about when and with whom he had first spoken about Plame. Fitzgerald said Libby had done so in an attempt to obscure evidence of an effort within Cheney’s office to discredit Wilson and counter the effect of his findings, which cast doubt on the administration’s rationale for going to war. The prosecutor said a number of journalists and others would offer testimony contradicting Libby’s claim that he had first learned Plame’s name from Russert, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” in a telephone conversation on July 10, 2003. Fitzgerald played for the courtroom an audio tape of Libby recounting for a grand jury his purported conversation with Russert, saying he had been startled by the revelation that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA. The prosecutor told the court that, since he had already learned about Plame, Libby could not have been startled, and had therefore lied. Libby’s lead attorney, Theodore Wells, argued in his two-and-a-half-hour opening statement that Libby, a busy public official with a stressful job, could not have been expected to recall in detail his conversations about Wilson and Plame months later when he was questioned about them, and January 25, 2007

had simply misremembered. He suggested that the memories of the journalists to be called as prosecution witnesses were also “fuzzy” and could not be trusted. In a somewhat unexpected turn, Wells showed the court a copy of a memorandum written by Cheney, reading, “Not going to protect one staffer + sacrifice the guy that was asked to stick his neck into the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others.” Wells explained that Cheney had been responding to Libby’s complaint that Bush’s new press secretary, Scott McClellan, had publicly exonerated Bush political adviser Karl Rove but had not similarly proclaimed Libby’s innocence before reporters. The staffer to be protected was Rove, because of his key role as a Republican strategist, he said. Wells said that in Cheney’s view, the CIA had shown “incompetence” in failing to alert the administration to intelligence doubts about its uranium claim, and Libby had been asked to take on the job of controlling political damage from Wilson’s findings. The significance of the memo for Libby’s defense was unclear. Cheney was expected to take the witness stand later in the trial. Witnesses Contradict Libby’s Account—

The prosecution Jan. 23 called its first witness, former Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, who testified that after Libby in May of 2003 asked him to check into Wilson’s trip to Niger, he had discovered that the CIA employed Wilson’s wife and related that information to Libby. Wells Jan. 24 contended that Grossman’s recollection of events had shifted during the case. He pointed out that the witness was a good friend of Richard Armitage, then–deputy secretary of state, who had criticized Libby and had also acknowledged being the original source of the leak of Plame’s name to columnist Robert Novak. Former CIA Associate Deputy Director Robert Grenier Jan. 24 said on the witness stand that in June 2003 he had discussed with Libby Wilson’s trip to Niger and the fact that Wilson had been nominated for the trip by his wife, a CIA officer. Grenier also said he had felt that the Bush administration tried to embarrass the CIA by insinuating that it neglected to tell the executive branch what it knew. During his cross-examination, defense attorney William Jeffress Jr. sought to cast doubt on Grenier’s memory, noting that in earlier testimony he had been unable to recall whether he had talked to Libby about Wilson’s wife. Cathie Martin, Cheney’s former spokeswoman, Jan. 25 testified that, sometime before July 7, 2003, she had learned from CIA spokesman Bill Harlow that Wilson’s wife worked for the agency, and had informed both Cheney and Libby of it later the same day. She also described how the White House had pressed then–Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet to say that he was “responsible” for the claim in Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address that Iraq had sought uranium in Africa. The jury was shown Martin’s handwritten notes of talking points that Cheney suggested she use with the media to handle the fallout

from Wilson’s revelations, showing that Cheney himself had been at the center of those efforts. Martin testified that Cheney had put Libby in charge of them. Upon cross-examination by Wells, Martin acknowledged that she did not know of any effort by Cheney to make Plame’s name or role in her husband’s trip an issue with the media. „

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Environment CEOs Back Mandatory Emissions Caps. The chief executive officers (CEOs) of 10 of

the largest U.S. corporations Jan. 22 joined environmentalists in encouraging President George W. Bush to adopt mandatory limits on the emissions of so-called greenhouse gases. The emissions resulted from the combustion of fossil fuels and were thought to contribute to global climate change. [See p. 20G1] The statement by the coalition, called the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, was viewed as yet another sign of growing concerns about human influence over the world’s climate, which was thought to have potentially perilous consequences. Bush had previously dismissed emissions regulations as a threat to the nation’s economy. The CEOs, who represented a variety of financial, chemical and energy firms, suggested that the president institute an emissions cap-and-trade system. Such a system would limit the amount of emissions a company could release in a year. Those firms that exceeded their allotted emissions credits had the option of buying unused credits from other companies. The plan called for greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced to between 70% and 90% of their current rates by 2022. James Rogers, CEO of utility Duke Energy Corp., said at a press conference, “The science of global warming is clear. We know enough to act now. We must act now.” White House press secretary Tony Snow said Bush would not back mandatory emissions caps, saying, “The president has always believed, when it comes to climate change, that the best way to achieve reductions is through innovation.” „

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Immigration New Passport Rules Take Effect. New rules took effect Jan. 23 for people entering the U.S. by air from certain countries in the Western Hemisphere. Under the new rules, U.S. citizens would for the first time be required to show their passports to immigration officials when returning to the country from Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean. Previously, only a birth certificate or driver’s license had been necessary. The new rules were part of a 2004 intelligence reform and antiterrorism law, and were intended to simplify the job of customs and immigration inspectors who checked for falsified documents. [See 2005, p. 266G1] The law would also impose new requirements on citizens of Canada and Bermuda traveling to the U.S. by air. They would have to show their passports to enter 47

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the country, rather than just a driver’s license or birth certificate. Mexican citizens entering the U.S. by air were already compelled to present passports and visas. The law also required children of all ages to have passports. The only alternatives to passports would be Nexus air cards, which were issued to some U.S. and Canadian citizens who traveled frequently and had undergone background checks; U.S. Coast Guard merchant marine cards; and green cards, which were used by permanent U.S. residents who were not citizens. Also, active members of the U.S. armed forces were exempt. Since they were announced the new rules had increased demand by U.S. citizens for passports, which had been held by only about a quarter of the population. Similar rules for people entering the U.S. by land and sea were expected to take effect by Jan. 1, 2008. Other News—In other immigration news: † Immigration officials Jan. 24 raided a Smithfield Foods Inc. meat-packing plant in Tar Heel, N.C., and arrested 21 illegal immigrants working there. Union officials Jan. 25 protested the raid, alleging that Smithfield officials had colluded with immigration officials in order to prevent employees from joining unions. Gene Bruskin, an organizer for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which had been trying to organize at the plant for more than 10 years, said he was concerned that Smithfield was “using the immigration issue to manipulate this long fight over workers’ rights.” [See 2006, p. 975E1] † Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials Jan. 23 said 761 illegal immigrants had been arrested in five counties in the Los Angeles area in a sweep that had begun Jan. 17. Of those, more than 450 had already been deported. The operation was part of a nationwide crackdown on illegal immigrants that had begun in May 2006 and resulted in 13,192 arrests. [See 2006, p. 972A1] † The city council of Farmers Branch, Texas, Jan. 22 voted to revise a November 2006 ordinance that would have banned landlords from renting apartments to illegal immigrants. Under the revised ordinance, landlords could rent to a family as long as the head of household, or their spouse, was a citizen or legal resident. A state district court judge in Dallas Jan. 11 had blocked the implementation of the original ordinance, which had been challenged in court. The new ordinance would not take effect until town residents voted on it in May. [See 2006, p. 1007G3] † A report released Jan. 16 by the inspector general of the Homeland Security Department found that ICE officials and contractors had mistreated illegal immigrants held at five of the more than 300 detention centers in the U.S. The report said some illegal immigrants were denied timely health care, and that others were denied access to relatives and lawyers. 48

† A Border Patrol agent Jan. 12 shot and killed a 22-year-old Mexican illegal immigrant, Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, who had been taken into custody along with six others after crossing the border in Cochise County in southeastern Arizona. Dominguez Rivera had apparently scuffled with the agent before he was shot. The incident drew condemnation from Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa in a Jan. 14 news conference. It was being investigated by the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Homeland Security Department. „

Supreme Court California Sentencing Laws Overturned.

The Supreme Court Jan. 22 struck down, 6– 3, a California state law that allowed judges to use their discretion in imposing greater sentences on defendants, arguing that such powers were granted only to juries under the U.S. Constitution. California’s Determinate Sentencing Law instructed judges to sentence convicts to the middle of three prison terms, unless they determined “circumstances in aggravation” warranting the stiffer penalty. [See 2006, p. 144C2] The case at hand was Cunningham v. California, which had been brought by John Cunningham, who in 2003 had been found guilty of molesting his son. The judge in his case had found six separate aggravating circumstances, and had sentenced Cunningham to 16 years in prison, four years more than the middle term. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, writing for the majority, said, “Under the Sixth Amendment, any fact that exposes a dependent to greater potential sentence must be found by the jury, not a judge, and established beyond a reasonable doubt, not merely by a preponderance of the evidence.” She was joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and John Paul Stevens, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote the dissent, which was joined by Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen G. Breyer. Breyer also penned a separate dissent. The decision was the latest in a string made by the high court that had shifted sentencing powers away from judges, beginning with the 2000 decision issued in Apprendi v. New Jersey. That case had required judges to submit prison term increases beyond the “prescribed statutory maximum” to a jury to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. [See 2000, p. 441F1] „ Prisoner Lawsuit Restrictions Relaxed.

The Supreme Court Jan. 22 unanimously overturned a ruling by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, that had limited prisoners’ ability to file federal lawsuits protesting their living conditions. The high court ruled that the lower court had erred in its interpretation of the 1995 Prison Litigation Reform Act, and erroneously required that a prisoner “exhaust” other avenues with the prison’s administration before filing a lawsuit. [See 2000, p. 466B1]

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the Supreme Court, said prisoners were granted the same consideration as any other plaintiff by federal courts, and that the courts should “not depart from the usual practice under the federal rules on the basis of perceived policy concerns.” The decision was made in three consolidated cases, Jones v. Bock, Williams v. Overton and Walton v. Bouchard. Other News—In other Supreme Court news: † The court Jan. 22 refused to hear a case regarding the venue in which defendant Rodrick Keith McDonald’s public corruption case was heard. McDonald, the black son of Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D, Calif.), had argued that his 2004 trial in California’s Orange County, where less than 2% of the jury pool was black, constituted a violation of his due process rights. He had been convicted of extortion charges related to the awarding of government contracts. The case was McDonald v. United States. † The court Jan. 19 agreed to decide the legality of a portion of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as the McCain-Feingold law, that prohibited special interest group–funded “issue advocacy ads” from mentioning a candidate by name in the period before a federal election. The case had been brought by Indiana attorney and Republican National Committee (RNC) member James Bopp Jr. on behalf of the group Wisconsin Right to Life. The organization in 2004 had run ads imploring Wisconsin residents to contact the state’s two senators, Russell Feingold (D) and Herb Kohl (D), and ask them to end a filibuster on judicial nominees of President George W. Bush. The ad mentioned Feingold by name, who at that time was running for reelection. A three-judge panel with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in December 2005 had struck down, 2–1, the ban on such ads if they were legitimately intended to influence policy rather than an election. The consolidated case was McCain v. Wisconsin Right to Life and Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life. [See 2006, p. 999B3] † The court Jan. 16 declined to review a challenge brought against the village of Port Chester, N.Y., over its use of eminent domain to seize private property slated for an urban renewal project. The village government in 2003 had told property owner Bart Didden it would seize a half-acre (0.2 hectare) of land for a redevelopment project after Didden had failed to reach an agreement with the developer overseeing the plan, G&S Port Chester LLC. Lower courts had dismissed Didden’s lawsuit because he had failed to file it within the three-year statute of limitations that had begun in 1999, when the redevelopment plan had been adopted by the village. The case was Didden v. Village of Port Chester. [See 2006, p. 532C3] † The court Jan. 16 refused to hear an appeal of a ruling that required a California utility to assess the potential environmental FACTS ON FILE

impact of a terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant before allowing construction of a spent-fuel storage facility in the same area. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., had required Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to perform the assessment before it could be granted a license by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build the installation near the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo, Calif. The case was Pacific Gas and Electric v. San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace. † The court Jan. 12 agreed to review whether a federal court could overturn a trial judge’s dismissal of a potential juror in a murder case based on the man’s ambiguous statements on the death penalty. The juror in the case said he was willing to impose capital punishment if he was convinced of an accused killer’s guilt, and that the person would kill again. The Washington Supreme Court had agreed with the trial judge’s inclination to dismiss the juror, but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had overturned its decision, ruling that the juror had not indicated he would not impose the death penalty in other circumstances. The case was Uttecht v. Brown. † The court Jan. 12 accepted a challenge over the shift of a lawsuit brought against cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA, a unit of Altria Group Inc., from state courts to federal courts. The plaintiffs in the case argued that a state court was the more appropriate forum for rulings on state laws. The case was Watson v. Philip Morris. [See 2006, p. 953E3] † The court Jan. 8 said it would not hear a challenge of the State Department’s designation of an Iranian group as a terrorist organization, brought by seven Iranian refugees accused of aiding the organization, the Mujaheddin al-Khalq. The 1996 law under which the defendants, who had become U.S. citizens, were charged prohibited them from challenging, as part of their defense, the status of a group labeled a terrorist organization. The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles had dismissed the defendants’ indictment, but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had reinstated it in October 2005. The case was Rahmani v. United States. [See 2006, p. 964G2] † The court Jan. 8 refused to hear a case in which an airline passenger had challenged a Transportation Security Agency (TSA) screening procedure, arguing that a secret rule allowed him to submit to a thorough search process in lieu of providing identification. The case was Gilmore v. Gonzales. [See 2005, p. 871C2] † The court Jan. 5 agreed to hear a lawsuit brought by Stephen Peters, a former employee of BCI Coca-Cola Bottling Co., who alleged he had been fired due to racial bias. The plaintiff argued that his supervisor, alleged to have held the bias, had influenced a human resources manager into firing him. The case was BCI Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Los Angeles v. EEOC. † The court Jan. 5 accepted a case regarding the death sentence imposed on a schizophrenic convict, in order to establish a stanJanuary 25, 2007

dard by which capital punishment would be disallowed for those with a severe mental illness on the grounds that it would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Scott Panetti in 1992 had been convicted in the shooting deaths of his in-laws despite his having been hospitalized with mental disorders, including schizophrenia, 14 times. The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, La., had upheld the sentence. The case was Panetti v. Quarterman. † The court Jan. 5 agreed to resolve regulatory authority differences between the 1972 Clean Water Act and the 1973 Endangered Species Act regarding how much pollution-permit authority could be devolved to state governments from federal agencies. The consolidated case was Home Builders v. Defenders of Wildlife and United States Environmental Protection Agency v. Defenders of Wildlife. „

Insurance State Farm Reaches Hurricane Settlements.

State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. Jan. 23 agreed to settle the claims of 639 Mississippi homeowners who had filed lawsuits against the company after it denied them insurance coverage for damage to their homes sustained in 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. Separately, the company also agreed with state officials to allow tens of thousands of other homeowners whose Katrinarelated claims had been denied and then closed to reopen those claims. [See 2006, p. 928E3] State Farm would pay a total of $80 million to the clients who had sued it, and a minimum of $50 million to cover any reopened claims, although estimates for those eventual payments ranged higher than $600 million. Of the 639 homes involved in current law suits, 300 had been completely destroyed and the settlement would cover their full insured value. Owners of the other 340 homes would receive an average of $124,400 each, depending on their insured value and the severity of the damage. State Farm clients were still free to file separate lawsuits against the company over Katrinarelated claims, but the settlement was expected to satisfy most of them. A judge in 2006 had ruled that State Farm’s policies excluded damage from flooding. However, many homes had suffered damage from both floodwaters and high winds brought by the hurricane, and while the company had argued that it was liable for none of it, some courts had ruled differently, leaving State Farm vulnerable to further litigation. The settlements resolved both a civil lawsuit against and a criminal investigation of State Farm by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood (D). They required approval by Judge L.T. Senter Jr. of U.S. District Court in Gulfport, Miss. Jury Awards $2.5 Million to Miss. Couple—

Senter Jan. 11 ruled that State Farm had to pay for all damage to a Biloxi, Miss., home sustained during Katrina, saying that the burden of distinguishing flood damage from wind damage rested with the insurer,

and that State Farm had failed in that regard. A jury in the same court then slapped State Farm with an additional punitive fine of $2.5 million for having denied the claim of the homeowners, Norman and Genevieve Broussard. The insurance company said it was likely to appeal. „

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Terrorism News in Brief. A three-judge panel of the

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., Jan. 16 vacated the 22year prison sentence of Ahmed Ressam, who in 2001 had been convicted of planning to bomb Los Angeles International Airport over the 2000 New Year’s holiday. The panel ruled that one of the nine charges of which he had been convicted, that of carrying explosives while committing a felony, had been invalid; they said the explosives had not played a role in the the felony, that of making false claims on a customs declaration. The vacated charge had carried a mandatory 10-year sentence. The case was sent back to a lower court for a new sentence. Prosecutors said they would press for a 35-year sentence, which was what they had asked for in the original trial. [See 2005, p. 520G2] Judge Nina Gershon of U.S. District Court in New York City Jan. 8 sentenced Shahawar Matin Siraj, a 24-year-old Pakistani immigrant who in May 2006 had been convicted of plotting to bomb the city’s subway system, to 30 years in prison. Defense lawyers had argued that police fabricated the plot and entrapped Siraj, but prosecutors hailed the sentence as a victory against a nascent terrorist plot. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Jan. 9 detained Siraj’s parents and sister, who had reportedly lived in the U.S. since 1999 and had been seeking asylum since 2003, in order to seek their deportation. [See 2006, p. 446C3] „

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Mergers & Acquisitions News in Brief. General Electric Co. (GE)

Jan. 18 said it would pay $8.1 billion for a portion of the medical testing business of Abbott Laboratories Inc. GE three days earlier had announced that it was buying Britain’s Smiths Aerospace, the cockpit electronics unit of Smiths Group PLC, for $4.8 billion in cash. The two deals were part of GE’s drive to shift its emphasis from lower-end consumer products to high-margin, high-technology businesses. Smiths Group and GE also said they planned to jointly form a business devoted to developing technologies for detecting explosives and chemical and biological agents, to be based in London and called Smiths GE Detection. [See 2006, p. 975C3, D3] A unit of private equity firm Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe was buying surgery-center operator United Surgical Partners International, based in Dallas, Texas, for $1.8 billion, the company said Jan. 8. Welsh was United’s founding shareholder. „ 49

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Somalia Islamist Leader Surrenders in Kenya.

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Western diplomats and Somali officials Jan. 22 said Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the second-in-command of the Council of Islamic Courts had surrendered to Kenyan officials at the Somali-Kenyan border. The council was an Islamist movement that had been ousted in December 2006 after controlling much of Somalia for six months. He was reportedly under the protection of Kenyan authorities at a hotel in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. [See p. 33A2] Ahmed was considered a moderate among the Islamists. Western diplomats urged Somalia’s transitional government, which had retaken control of the country with the help of Ethiopian forces, to negotiate with him in an effort to quell a nascent Islamist insurgency in Somalia. An unidentified Western diplomat Jan. 22 said U.S. officials had guaranteed to Ahmed that he would not be deported to Somalia if he surrendered to Kenyan authorities, but the U.S. embassy in Nairobi denied that claim. U.S. officials were said to playing an increasing role behind the scenes in the Somali conflict. Michael Ranneberger, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Jan. 24 met with Ahmed. The whereabouts of the more radical top leader of the Islamists, Hassan Dahir Aweys, were unknown. Aweys had denied U.S. allegations that he had ties to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Some regional analysts said the U.S., Ethiopia and the transitional government had exaggerated the links to provide justification for ousting the Islamists. Meanwhile, transitional government and Ethiopian troops had been conducting house-to-house searches for Islamists and weapons in Mogadishu, the capital, increasing tension in the already unstable city. Authorities reportedly had targeted the Ayr, a branch of the Hawiye clan that had supported the Islamists and was a traditional enemy of the Darod clan, to which Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed belonged. Clan rivalries had long hampered the establishment of a stable central government in Somalia. The Islamists had managed to overcome clan divisions and bring a measure of peace by uniting Somalis by religion. Nearly all Somalis were Muslim. However, the Islamists’ puritanical laws had been widely unpopular. U.S. Launches Second Air Strike— U.S. officials Jan. 23 acknowledged that a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship had launched a strike the previous day on alleged Al Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia. It was the second such strike by the U.S. in less than two weeks. Although the U.S. did not give specific information about the targets of the strike, it had said in the past that the Islamists were shielding three Al Qaeda members responsible for 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. 50

Ethiopia Begins to Withdraw Troops—

Ethiopian troops Jan. 23 began withdrawing from Somalia, fulfilling Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi’s earlier pledge that they would not stay longer than a few weeks and that their only goal was defeating the Islamists, not occupying the country. About 200 troops left Mogadishu that day. Abdirahman Dinari, a spokesman for the transitional government, said it would likely take several weeks for Ethiopia to withdraw all its forces. He added that a large Ethiopian force would be stationed on the Ethiopian side of the two countries’ border. The African Union (AU) Jan. 19 had approved an 8,000-member peacekeeping force for Somalia, which would fill the void left by the departing Ethiopian troops. The transitional government had few troops of its own, and it was feared that an Islamist insurgency and clan warfare would flare up once the Ethiopian forces left. Only Uganda and Malawi had thus far volunteered to contribute troops to the peacekeeping force. European Union officials Jan. 22 had made $19 million in funding for a peacekeeping force contingent on the Somali government’s moving to negotiate with moderate Islamist leaders, such as Ahmed. Al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a video posted Jan. 24 on an Islamist Web site, vowed that the Islamists would defeat the Ethiopians in Somalia. “The mujahedeen will break their backs with God’s power and help,” Zawahiri said. Meanwhile, sporadic violence continued in Mogadishu. In the highest-profile attack, mortars Jan. 19 hit the presidential palace, sparking a gunfight between government troops and the attackers, who were not identified but were suspected to be Islamist insurgents. There were no reports of casualties. Among other incidents, at least four people were killed Jan. 20 when government and Ethiopian troops fought with gunmen in a crowded market in Mogadishu. Also, gunmen Jan. 24 fired mortars at Mogadishu’s international airport, killing at least two people. Mohamed Dheere, one of the most powerful warlords in Somalia, Jan. 20 agreed to disarm his militia and throw his support behind the transitional government. Dheere that day handed over to the head of the army 23 trucks equipped with heavy weapons and 220 fighters in his stronghold, the city of Jowhar, about 60 miles (95 km) north of Mogadishu. „

AMERICAS

Canada Government Releases Three Energy Plans.

Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn Jan. 17–21 released three federal environmental plans designed to encourage the development of renewable energy sources, lower the pollution created by existing energy production means and increase the use of energy-efficient technologies and practices by industries, businesses and homeowners. [See 2006, p. 415B3]

The plans were viewed by some observers as an attempt by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration to address the public’s growing concern over global climate change issues. Opposition Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion in December 2006 had been elected on a platform that made environmental issues its first priority. [See 2006, p. 934C1] Energy Technology Plan—Lunn Jan. 17 released details of the first plan, called the ecoEnergy Technology Initiative, which called for C$230 million (US$195 million) to be spent over four years on the development of technologies dedicated to reducing pollution created through conventional energy production processes. Lunn said the program would investigate technologies that captured carbon emissions, which were thought to contribute to global climate change. Money would also be allocated for cleaner coal-burning technology and the use of nuclear energy to extract oil from Alberta’s oil sands, which was a highly energy-intensive process. Alternative Energy Plan—Harper Jan. 19 offered details of the second plan, called the ecoEnergy Renewable Initiative. The plan established a 10-year, C$1.5 billion (US$1.3 billion) fund for developing clean, renewable energy sources such as geothermal, wind and solar energy. Another component of the plan provided C$36 million in government aid for the adoption of renewable energy technologies used to heat and cool businesses and homes. Liberal environment critic David McGuinty Jan. 19 said many of the renewable energy proposals were repackaged plans announced while the previous Liberal administration was in power. His complaints were echoed by New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton. The ruling Conservative Party government in 2006 had cut or frozen funding for many environmental programs, saying they required review and analysis to gauge their worthiness. Energy Efficiency Plan—Lunn Jan. 21 released the third plan, dubbed the ecoEnergy Efficiency Initiative, which called for C$300 million to be spent over the next four years to encourage the adoption of more efficient energy practices by homeowners, businesses and industry. „

Mexico Reputed Drug Cartel Leaders Extradited.

Four reputed drug traffickers and several other prisoners Jan. 19 were extradited to the U.S. to face charges there. The extraditions were considered another example of President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa’s efforts to crack down on the country’s illicit drug trade. Among those sent to the U.S. was Osiel Cardenas Guillen, the alleged head of the Gulf drug cartel in Tamaulipas state, who had been charged with distributing drugs in the U.S. and threatening to murder agents working for the U.S.’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). [See p. 19A1] FACTS ON FILE

The Mexican government had traditionally resisted extraditing drug traffickers to the U.S., citing its opposition to the U.S.’s death penalty and a need to first mete out justice domestically. However, U.S. officials had argued that the extradition of drug cartel suspects could impede the suspects’ ability to operate smuggling operations from inside Mexican prisons. The extraditions earned the praise of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who characterized them as “unprecedented in their scope and importance.” Also among those sent to the U.S. were brothers Gilberto and Ismael Higuera Guerrero, alleged to have helped run the Arellano Felix cartel, and Hector (El Guero) Palma Salazar, a reputed leader in the Sinaloa cartel. Calderon Jan. 19 said he had dispatched 7,600 federal troops to Guerrero state, the latest move in a widespread antidrug effort. Earlier in the month, he had sent roughly 1,000 troops to the area. „

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Leaders from the five full member nations of the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc and six other Latin American countries Jan. 18–19 met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for a summit. Mercosur comprised full members Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, and associate members Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, which were exempted from the bloc’s tariff rules and could not vote. [See 2006, p. 635E1] The meeting highlighted several divisions within the organization, including one over the implementation of a U.S.backed Americas free trade zone stretching from Chile to Canada. The division was emblematic of a more general political separation between members that embraced free market economics and those that backed leftist reforms. The meeting also called into question the future of the organization: whether it would focus on trade policies, or on wider political issues. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias, an ardent opponent of U.S. policy, Jan. 18 called for the “reformulation of Mercosur” at the summit. The following day he encouraged Mercosur members to increase the role their governments played in their economies. “I think capitalism is the road to perdition for the planet,” he said. Chavez and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Jan. 18 signed an agreement to construct a pipeline to carry Venezuelan oil through Brazil to other South American countries. Bolivian President Evo Morales Aima Jan. 19 asserted that Brazil had underpaid for his country’s natural gas exports, and derided Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez for accepting U.S. aid intended to eradicate his country’s illegal drug trade. A Brazil-backed effort to expand Bolivia’s role in Mercosur to full-member status Jan. 19 was postponed after meeting opposition from Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. January 25, 2007

In yet another sign of internal tensions, Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez and Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos Jan. 19 complained that the needs of their economies had been ignored by larger members Brazil and Argentina. Trade among the group’s member nations was estimated at $30 billion in 2006, and the organization united nations with an estimated population of 250 million. „

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China Population Policy Affirmed, Gender Gap Seen.

China’s State Council (cabinet) and the ruling Communist Party Jan. 22 issued a joint statement on the country’s population control policies, affirming that China would retain its policy limiting most couples to one child. However, the statement acknowledged that the policy had contributed to a growing gender imbalance in the country’s population, and pledged that China would tighten enforcement of a ban on the use of ultrasound tests to determine the gender of fetuses in order to perform sexselective abortions, and to stiffen penalties against those who abandoned or killed infant girls. [See 2004, p. 389E1] China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission Jan. 11 had released a report finding that in 2005, there had been 118 boys born in China for every 100 girls, an increase in the ratio from 110 to 100 in 2000. The commission predicted that in the year 2020, there would be 30 million more males than females in the “marriageable” age group of 20 to 45, which it said could lead to “social instability.” Zhang Weiqing, the chief of the population commission, at a news conference Jan. 23 said that blame for the gender imbalance lay primarily with “a deep-rooted traditional view that men are worth more than women,” rather than with the government’s family planning policies, but he allowed that they had “exacerbated” it. Zhang also said the government was considering reducing the fine imposed on couples who violated the one-child policy in the case of poorer people. That proposal was intended to address complaints that China maintained a de facto two-tier system in which wealthier couples who could afford the fine often flouted the regulation. The details of China’s so-called onechild policy, instituted in 1973, in fact varied regionally, as did the level of enforcement. Zhang said the policy had resulted in 400 million fewer births over the past three decades. The Jan. 22 report said that China sought to limit the birth rate to its current level, 1.8 children per woman, in order to limit the growth of the population, currently 1.3 billion, to 1.45 billion by 2020. „ GDP Rose 10.7% in 2006. China’s National Bureau of Statistics Jan. 25 said that China’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006 was 20.94 trillion yuan ($2.7 trillion). That

was an increase of 10.7% from 2005, the fastest annual growth since 1995’s pace of 10.9%. The government had set a target of 8% GDP growth for 2006, amid concern that the economy was growing too quickly. The bureau Jan. 23 had revised its report of China’s 2005 GDP growth to 10.4%, from a previous estimate of 10.2%. [See 2006, p. 132C3] „

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Philippines Abu Sayyaf Leader’s Death Confirmed. Philippine officials Jan. 20 said DNA tests

had confirmed that a body found buried on the southern island of Jolo in December 2006 was that of Khadaffy Janjalani, the leader of the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf. Janjalani had reportedly been involved in a battle with Philippine forces in September 2006, and captured Abu Sayyaf members in December led officials to his grave. Philippine police warned of the possibility of retaliatory attacks by the group. [See p. 35C3] Another top Abu Sayyaf figure, Jainal Antel Sali Jr. (also known as Abu Sulaiman), had been killed by Philippines forces days earlier. He and Janjalani had been implicated in a deadly 2004 ferry bombing, as well as the 2001 kidnapping of 20 foreign tourists that resulted in the deaths of two U.S. citizens. The U.S. had posted $5 million bounties on both men. „

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Great Britain Botched London Bombings Trial Opens.

The trial of six men accused of attempting to carry out suicide bombings in London’s transportation system on July 21, 2005, opened Jan. 15 at Woolwich Crown Court in London. The bombs had failed to explode when the would-be bombers tried to blow themselves up in three subway cars and a bus. The attempt took place two weeks after terrorist attacks killed 52 commuters in London. [See 2005, p. 513B3] The six men, all of African origin, were Muktar Said Ibrahim, 28; Ramzi Mohammed, 25; Yassin Omar, 26; Manfu Asiedu, 33; Adel Yahya, 24; and Hussain Osman, 28. They were charged with conspiracy to murder and cause explosions. Prosecutor Nigel Sweeney Jan. 15 said the men had conspired in an “extremist Muslim plot” that had been planned over several months and was not a mere copy of the July 7 attacks. Sweeney said that Ibrahim, Osman, Omar and Mohammed had carried bombs into the transportation system July 21. The detonator of each bomb went off, he said, but the bombs failed to explode because the hydrogen peroxide and flour charges were incorrectly mixed. Sweeney said police had put five of the men under surveillance more than a year before the attempted bombings. Ibrahim’s lawyer Jan. 24 said his client admitted that he had made the bombs. Ibra51

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him had traveled to Pakistan shortly before the attempted attack, “to take part in jihad or train for it,” prosecutors said. Prosecutors Jan. 16 showed the jury video footage from security cameras on one of the targeted subway trains and a bus. Two of the would-be bombers, allegedly Mohammed and Ibrahim, were seen attempting to detonate their explosives, causing panic among other passengers. Prosecutors Jan. 19 showed the jury video footage of Ibrahim and Asiedu buying more than 200 liters (50 gallons) of hydrogen peroxide at a London pharmacy two days before the attempted bombings. Several people who had been in the subway cars and the bus testified Jan. 23 and Jan. 25. The trial was expected to last several more weeks. „

Serbia Elections Lead to Pro-EU Coalition Talks.

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The hard-line nationalist Radical Party won the most seats of any single party in Jan. 21 parliamentary elections in Serbia. However, parties favoring the pursuit of membership in the European Union won a majority of seats, and they were seeking to form a government once they completed coalition negotiations, which were expected to be arduous. It was Serbia’s first parliamentary election since its state union with Montenegro was dissolved in 2006. [See 2006, pp. 962D3, 844F1] The Radical Party won 82 seats in the 250-seat parliament, according to official results released Jan. 25. The strongly proEU Democratic Party (DS) of President Boris Tadic won 64 seats, followed by the moderate nationalist Serbian Democratic Party (DSS) of Premier Vojislav Kostunica, which took 47 seats. The results were seen as pointing toward a pro-EU coalition between the DS and the DSS, perhaps supported by two smaller liberal parties, the G17 Plus party and the Liberal Democratic Party. However, negotiations were expected to be difficult. Tadic said that the DS, with a stronger showing than the DSS, should claim the premiership for its candidate, Bozidar Djelic, but Kostunica, who had been premier since 1994, indicated that he would drive a hard bargain. The EU in May 2006 had frozen membership talks with Serbia over the Kostunica government’s failure to meet its demand that it arrest war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic and turn him over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the Netherlands. EU officials expressed a willingness to restart the process with a pro-EU Serbian government. Djelic Jan. 23/24 indicated that a DS-led government would be willing to extradite Mladic. The new parliament was to take office by Feb. 25, and a new government had to be formed within 90 days after that. The new government would also face the issue of the Serbian province of Kosovo, currently administered by the United Nations after a 1999 conflict between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian rebels. After 52

the election, U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari planned to issue his recommendations for Kosovo’s future status. Ahtisaari was expected to outline a plan for continued international oversight of Kosovo that would likely lead to eventual independence, a status favored by the EU and the U.S. but strongly opposed across the Serbian political spectrum and by Serbia’s ally Russia. „

Turkey Armenian Newspaper Editor Assassinated.

Hrant Dink, editor of Agos, a bilingual Armenian and Turkish newspaper, Jan. 19 was shot dead outside the paper’s office in Istanbul. Dink, 52, was known as a leading voice in Turkey for the rights of the Armenian minority, and for recognizing the Turkish massacre of more than one million Armenians during World War I as an act of genocide. [See 2006, p. 804G1; 2005, p. 917A1] The Turkish government denied that an Armenian genocide had occurred. Several writers, including Dink, had recently faced prosecution for contradicting the official account. Dink had been convicted in 2005 on charges of “insulting Turkishness,” and had received a six-month suspended prison sentence. In his last column for Agos before his murder, Dink had written that he feared for his life after receiving death threats from Turkish nationalists. Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan Jan. 19 condemned Dink’s murder, saying, “A bullet was fired at freedom of thought and democratic life in Turkey.” Police in Samsun, a port on the Black Sea coast in eastern Turkey, Jan. 20 arrested a 17-year-old male suspect in the killing, Ogun Samast. He reportedly had the murder weapon in his possession and confessed to shooting Dink, saying he had been offended by the editor’s opinions. Police arrested several other suspects, including Yasin Hayal, 26, an extreme nationalist who had served 11 months in prison for bombing a McDonald’s restaurant in 2004. Hayal, who was arrested Jan. 24, allegedly had given Samast the gun used to kill Dink. Both Hayal and Samast came from Trabzon, the biggest Turkish city on the Black Sea coast. Thousands Join Funeral March—Tens of thousands of people Jan. 23 marched in a funeral procession for Dink in Istanbul. Armenia’s deputy foreign minister, Arman Kirakossian, attended the funeral at the invitation of the Turkish government. He was the highest-ranking Armenian official to visit Turkey since the two nations suspended diplomatic relations in 1993. Turkey also invited Armenian religious leaders to attend the funeral. The murder threatened to further complicate Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. The EU had repeatedly criticized Turkey’s record on the treatment of minorities and freedom of speech, and had called on Turkey to repeal the law that criminalized “insulting Turkishness,” Article 301 of the penal code.

The EU had partly suspended its membership talks with Turkey in December 2006 in a separate dispute over Cyprus. [See 2006, p. 983A1] „

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Iran U.N. Nuclear Inspectors Barred. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Jan. 22 said 38 of the people on a list of nuclear inspectors compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—the United Nations’s nuclear monitor—were barred from entering the country, though others on the list were eligible for entry. The move was widely viewed as an act of defiance. The U.N. Security Council had placed sanctions on Iran in December 2006 for refusing to suspend its nuclear program, which the U.S. and other countries had claimed was secretly aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran had insisted that the program was entirely peaceful in nature. [See p. 21G2] Mottaki declared that the government would specify “the nationalities Iran opposes” in the coming week. Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of parliament’s foreign affairs and national security commission, however, said that day that nationality was “not the main basis” for barring the inspectors. He also insisted that Iran would continue to cooperate with the IAEA and would remain a member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Melissa Flemming, an IAEA spokeswoman, Jan. 22 said, “There are a sufficient number of inspectors designated for Iran, and the IAEA is able to perform its inspection activities” despite the refusal of entry to the 38 inspectors. Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the IAEA, Jan. 25 warned against any attempts to end Iran’s nuclear program through military strikes on its nuclear facilities. The consequences of such action, he claimed, would be “catastrophic,” and would likely give Iran greater reason to pursue nuclear weapons. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Jan. 21 had blasted the sanctions placed on Iran by the Security Council resolution, while at the same time deriding them as ineffectual. Speaking to reporters in parliament, he pledged that Iran would continue to pursue its nuclear goals. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, an elite force affiliated with the nation’s ruling clergy, Jan. 22 conducted military maneuvers and tested short-range missiles, state radio reported. The exercises, to last three days, were widely interpreted as a show of force in response to a decision by the U.S. and Britain to increase their naval presence in the Persian Gulf. [See 2006, p. 1029F3] Opposition to President Grows— More domestic criticism of Ahmadinejad’s economic and foreign policies was voiced Jan. 19–21 as the president prepared to submit his budget to parliament. Local and clerical elections in December 2006 had handed victory to Ahmadinejad’s political opponents, and public disapproval of the presiFACTS ON FILE

dent had grown more widespread since then. [See below; 2006, p. 984B2] Grand Ayatollah Ali Montazeri—Iran’s most prominent dissident cleric, who had at one time been in line to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader—Jan. 19 ridiculed Ahmadinejad for mismanaging the economy and the international opposition to Iran’s nuclear program. “One has to deal with the enemy with wisdom,” he said, addressing the nuclear issue. “We should not provoke the enemy, otherwise the country will be faced with problems,” he added. He also criticized the president for spending so much time defending Iran’s nuclear rights that the economic rights of Iranians, who faced high unemployment and inflation, went unaddressed. [See 2003, p. 112F3] Ahmadinejad Jan. 21 had presented a budget for the 2007–08 fiscal year to parliament, and Iranian newspapers Jan. 22 reported that many legislators had expressed great scepticism regarding the accuracy of the fiscal numbers provided. The budget, which was also criticized for being less than fully transparent, called for a 20% rise in spending along with significant increases in tax collection and non-oil revenues. Legislators Blast President—A group of 150 members of parliament Jan. 14 signed a letter criticizing Ahmadinejad for failing to improve the nation’s economy and for being late in submitting a budget. A majority of the president’s former fundamentalist allies signed the letter, which also chastised him for his recent tour of Latin America and for not preventing the sanctions leveled by the Security Council. A prominent Iranian newspaper representing moderates, Kargozaran, Jan. 21 warned that Iran’s relationship with the international community was being severely damaged over the nuclear issue. Two other newspapers, including the conservative clerical mouthpiece Jomhuri Islami, in the weeks prior had also published criticisms of Ahmadinejad’s economic and nuclear policies. Such public denunciations were rare in Iran’s restrictive political climate. The legislators’ action was widely viewed as signaling that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, agreed with them. „

Iraq Senate Committee Opposes Troop ‘Surge.’

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jan. 24 approved, 12–9, a nonbinding resolution critical of U.S. President George W. Bush’s decision to implement an increase, or “surge,” in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq in the coming months. Bush had opted for the troop increase as part of a joint plan with the Iraqi government to restore security in the nation, particularly its capital, Baghdad. Terrorism and sectarian violence had become an enormous problem in Iraq after a U.S.-led coalition ousted President Saddam Hussein in 2003. [See below, p. 25A1] All 11 Democratic members of the committee voted in favor of the resolution, as January 25, 2007

well as its Republican cosponsor, Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.), with the other nine Republicans voting against it. Committee chairman Sen. Joseph Biden (D, Del.), also a cosponsor, summarized the resolution as saying, “Mr. President, please don’t go do this.” Despite voting against the resolution, several of Bush’s fellow Republicans on the committee spoke out against the troop increase. Outside of the committee, Sen. John Warner (R, Va.) offered an alternative resolution also critical of the plan, albeit more conciliatory in tone. Biden and Hagel pledged to reconcile the two resolutions in order to win approval from both Democrats and Republicans. Vice President Dick Cheney criticized the resolution in a televised interview. He said there were both “problems” and “enormous successes” in Iraq, and that opposing the president’s plan would “validate the terrorists’ strategy.” Cheney acknowledged that Congress had the right to cut off funding for the troops, but insisted that “the president has made his decision,” and the troop increase would occur as planned in spite of any resolution. Bush Nominee Testifies on Iraq—Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, Bush’s nominee to replace Army Gen. George Casey as the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, Jan. 23 gave testimony on the plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Petraeus acknowledged that the situation in Iraq was “dire” and that the U.S. faced “a determined, adaptable, barbaric enemy…[who] will try to wait us out.” But he expressed confidence that the plan could work as part of an effort to protect Iraqi civilians, even though “the way ahead will be neither quick nor easy.” The general insisted that the additional 21,500 troops were necessary in order to secure Baghdad, and that results of the effort would be seen by the end of the summer. He added that contributions by Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki’s government were also necessary for the plan to succeed, and that the policy could be reversed if the Iraqis failed to make good on their part of the strategy. Facing questions from Sens. John McCain (R, Ariz.) and Joseph Lieberman (I, Conn.), Petraeus asserted that a Senate resolution opposing the troop increase would not improve the morale of U.S. troops, and could even encourage insurgents in Iraq. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.) took issue with him, claiming that the point of such a resolution would be to “send a message to our government and the Iraqi government that they had better change” course in Iraq. Casey, speaking to reporters in Iraq, Jan. 19 said troops involved in the new strategy were just starting to arrive, adding, “We’ve got to wait and see the effect they have on the situation here before we even start thinking about when we might send them home.” He claimed that progress might be evident in two to three months, but that it would probably be “late summer” before

“people in Baghdad feel safe in their neighborhoods.” British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett Jan. 24 said British troops would likely begin leaving their posts in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in the spring. Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, that day said he would prefer that British troop levels remained the same, and said he and the British “are talking about this.” Britain had roughly 7,000 troops in Iraq, second in number only to U.S. forces. [See 2006, p. 906C1] 25 Die in Deadly Day for U.S. Troops—

Twenty-five U.S. soldiers died in Iraq Jan. 20, making it the third-deadliest day for U.S. troops since the invasion. In the worst incident, a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter crashed northeast of Baghdad, killing all 12 soldiers on board. The U.S. military Jan. 21 would not confirm claims that the helicopter had been shot down, and said it was investigating the crash. Five more U.S. soldiers were killed in the southern city of Karbala when they were attacked by gunmen disguised as U.S. troops. The soldiers had been meeting with local officials at the office of the provincial governor to discuss security for the upcoming Shiite Muslim holy day of Ashura. The gunmen—wearing U.S. military uniforms and security badges and driving vehicles typically associated with U.S. officials— were able to pass through several checkpoints and infiltrate the meeting. The gunmen fled north to Babil province after the attack. Iraqi police Jan. 21 claimed to have found abandoned vehicles in Babil matching the ones used in the attack. Some police claimed that one of the vehicles contained four U.S. soldiers— three dead and one critically injured. That was contradicted by other Iraqi police, as well as U.S. military officials, who said no soldiers were missing. The U.S. military Jan. 23 said it had taken four people into custody in connection with the attack.

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Car Bombs Target Baghdad Market—

Two car bombs Jan. 22 exploded in a market crowded with Shiites in central Baghdad, killing at least 79 people and injuring more than 140 others. Iraqi army officials claimed that they had shot and killed an Egyptian man after he was spotted on a rooftop filming the bombings’ aftermath. The officials said the man was in league with Sunni Muslim insurgents. The double bombing came on the beginning of Ashura, and was the worst attack since November 2006, when 200 or more people were killed in Sadr City, a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. [See 2006, p. 905C2] Maliki Jan. 22 blamed the attacks on terrorists who sought to “break the will of the Iraqis and tear their unity and to raise sectarianism.” He pledged to “pursue all those involved in this crime and bring them to justice.” Hasan Suneid, a Shiite legislator, said the attack was an attempt to anger Maliki’s government and get it to begin their new push for security “before finishing all the preparations.” Two more car bombs exploded later that day in a commercial area of Karrada, a 53

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mostly Shiite neighborhood in central Baghdad, killing at least 24 people and wounding about 60 others. A bombing combined with mortar fire Jan. 22 killed at least 12 people and injured nearly 30 others in a market in the mostly Shiite town of Khalis, 40 miles (65 km) north of Baghdad. A car bomb exploded Jan. 25 in Karrada, setting two buses filled with people on fire and killing at least 25 people. Maliki Addresses Parliament— Maliki Jan. 25 addressed a televised meeting of parliament, informing legislators about the new plan to secure the capital, assuring them that it would not be sectarian in nature and requesting their support. “Some people are saying that it targets the Shiites, and others say that it targets Sunnis,” he said, adding, “I say that it targets everyone.” He also insisted that Iraqis would spearhead the effort, with the U.S. military there “to provide backup.” Maliki pledged to help those forced out of their neighborhoods by sectarian militias to return to their homes. [See above] Sheik Abdul Nasser al-Janabi, a legislator who represented a large Sunni bloc, got into a heated exchange with Maliki during his address, declaring that Sunnis could not trust his government and demanding parliamentary oversight of the security plan. Janabi was jeered by several Shiite legislators. Maliki responded by implying that Janabi was linked to kidnappings, and threatening to “turn over the documents.” Speaker of parliament Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, also a Sunni, chastised Maliki before managing to bring order to the meeting, and the parliament voted to approve the security plan. Sadr Aide Arrested—Abdel Hadi alDaraji, a senior media aide to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Jan. 19 was arrested along with two of his guards in a raid in Baghdad. A third guard was killed in the raid, which was carried out by Iraqi forces backed by U.S. troops. The U.S. military accused Daraji of involvement in “kidnapping, torture and murder of Iraqi civilians,” as well as organized crime. Falah Shanshel, a member of the political bloc led by Sadr, Jan. 21 called the raid “inhuman and against human rights.” Sadr’s bloc of six cabinet members and 30 legislators Jan. 21 ended its boycott of Maliki’s government after Mashhadani agreed to set restrictions on the number and activities of U.S. troops in Iraq. [See p. 26F1] Unidentified officials with Maliki’s government, according to an article by the Associated Press Jan. 21, said Maliki’s recent decision to stop protecting Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, came after U.S. intelligence convinced him that the group was involved in killings and other crimes. Rahim al-Daraji, the mayor of Sadr City (no relation to Abdel Hadi al-Daraji), Jan. 17 and Jan. 22 had met with British Gen. Graeme Lamb in order to prevent any military operations from being conducted in the neighborhood, it was reported in the New York Times in a story datelined Jan. 54

24. The mayor spoke on behalf of Sadr City’s political and militant groups at the meetings, and offered to lower the profile of the militants and get guns off the street in return for steps by the Iraqi and coalition forces to improve security. Other News—In other Iraqi news:

† Two or more rockets Jan. 25 hit the U.S. embassy’s compound in the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, injuring six people. „

Ellen Sauerbrey, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, Jan. 16 testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and acknowledged that, since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, only 466 Iraqis had been granted refugee status in the U.S. Senators on the committee criticized the Bush administration for not admitting more Iraqis as refugees. Sauerbrey said several measures were under consideration to increase the number of Iraqi refugees accepted. [See p. 11A1]

committee of Israel’s parliament Jan. 25 narrowly voted to suspend President Moshe Katsav from his presidential duties while he was being investigated regarding allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse of power. The move came days after Attorney General Menachem Mazuz had announced that he intended to indict Katsav. The presidency was a ceremonial position with little power, but sitting presidents were immune from prosecution, and that immunity extended to Katsav even while he was suspended. [See 2006, p. 1031B3] Mazuz Jan. 23 said he had gathered enough evidence to charge Katsav with rape, sexual assault, abuse of power and obstruction of justice. The charges were related to complaints from four women who had worked with Katsav either while he was president or during his term prior to that as minister of tourism. Katsav was alleged to have raped one of the women and sexually harassed the other three. Katsav Jan. 24 held a press conference in which he declared himself innocent, and claimed that he was the victim of a conspiracy and a media “witch hunt.” He said he would resign only if indicted. Katsav that day also submitted a request to parliament for a temporary suspension. Premier Ehud Olmert Jan. 24 called on Katsav to step down, asserting that, given the impending indictment, “the president cannot continue to fulfill his role, and he will have to leave.” Calls for Katsav’s resignation had also come from many other quarters, and many of those who voted against his suspension viewed the action as too lenient. Katsav’s seven-year term as president was due to end in July. „

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† Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-incommand of the terrorist network Al Qaeda, derided the troop surge and dared Bush to “send your entire army to be annihilated at the hands of the holy warriors” in Iraq, according to video released Jan. 22 by a group that gathered statements from the network. “Why send 20,000 only—why not send 50,000 or 100,000?” Zawahiri asked, warning that “the dogs of Iraq are pining for your troops’ dead bodies.” † Khalid al-Sanjari, the Sunni mayor of Baqubah, in Diyala province, Jan. 22 was kidnapped from his office by Sunni insurgents, who also destroyed the office and stole six government vehicles. That day, U.S. Col. David Sutherland held a news conference claiming that joint U.S.-Iraqi operations in recent months against Sunni insurgents in Diyala were making progress. Although the situation there was not “a rosy picture,” he insisted that “the cycle of violence is on the downturn.” † Four U.S. security contractors employed by Blackwater USA died Jan. 23 after the helicopter they were riding in was shot down in central Baghdad. They had been responding to a request for assistance made by a U.S. embassy convoy that had come under attack. A fifth contractor riding with the convoy was also killed. Sunni insurgent groups took responsibility for downing the helicopter. The U.S. military Jan. 24 would not confirm reports that some of the contractors were shot to death after they crashed. † U.S. and Iraqi soldiers, backed by attack helicopters and armored vehicles, Jan. 24 fought insurgents in the area of Haifa Street, just north of the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad. Iraq’s defense ministry claimed that 30 insurgents were killed and 35 others were captured in the operation, which sought to clear Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias out of high-rise buildings there. Ali al-Dabagh, a spokesman for Maliki, said roughly 25 “terrorists” were killed and more than 30 others were arrested, while the Sunni Muslim Scholars Association called the operation “a campaign of genocide.” [See p. 9C3]

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Lebanon Factional Violence Breaks Out in Beirut.

Violence erupted Jan. 23 and Jan. 25 in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, between proand anti-government forces, raising fears that the country would again fall into civil war, as it had in 1975–90. Since December 2006, the Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah and its allies had led peaceful sit-in demonstrations in the streets of Beirut, demanding that the government of Premier Fouad Siniora either give them greater representation, resign or hold new elections. Siniora’s ruling coalition of Sunni Muslims and other religious sects had refused to give in, and a tense but largely nonviolent standoff had gripped the nation for weeks. Lebanon had also become the stage for a proxy war, with Iran and Syria backing Hezbollah, and the U.S., Europe and Sunni Arab nations backing Siniora. [See 2006, p. 1032D1] Hezbollah and its allies Jan. 23 attempted to topple the government by imposing a strike on the nation as a whole. Opposition FACTS ON FILE

supporters set up barricades in Beirut and the rest of the country, blocking roads and even attacking people who attempted to travel. Schools and businesses throughout the country closed either as a result of the blockades or out of sympathy with the opposition. Ports and the airport were also closed. Before long, violent clashes— some of them melees, some involving gunfire—took place between government supporters and opposition members in many parts of the country. Government security forces occasionally entered the fray, sometimes fighting the opposition, sometimes trying to separate the combatants. By the end of the day, three people had been killed and more than 100 had been injured. The opposition called an end to the strike later that day, and began taking down roadblocks and barricades. Siniora appeared on television that night and said he would not step down. He warned, “We are at a dangerous crossroads—either we ar heading to a civil war or heading to dialogue.” People returned to work and to school Jan. 24 as the roads were reopened. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, that day said he would continue to put pressure on Siniora’s government, but would not seek to topple it due to a “desire to preserve civil peace.” University Clashes Spark Street Violence—

A Jan. 25 fight among students at Beirut Arab University quickly spread beyond the campus into the surrounding, mostly Sunni neighborhoods, leading to more battles in the streets of the capital. Hundreds of progovernment and opposition supporters joined the clashes soon after they broke out. The violence again involved melees and occasional gunfire, as well as Molotov cocktails. Lebanese soldiers again tried to disperse the combatants, but were largely ineffective, often standing on the sidelines. Opposition supporters set tires and cars on fire, while pro-government supporters firebombed the office of a Hezbollah-allied party. Later in the day, the army announced that a nighttime curfew would be imposed on the capital, and Nasrallah called on his supporters to cooperate with the army and leave the streets. In the end, four people were killed by gunfire—two on each side—and at least 150 people were wounded. Billions in Aid Pledged—French President Jacques Chirac Jan. 25 hosted a donor conference in Paris, France’s capital, during which roughly $7.6 billion in aid was pledged to Lebanon in the form of grants and low-interest loans. The conference was attended by leaders from 36 countries and 14 international agencies, including the U.S., France, the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. The aid was directed at reconstruction projects in Lebanon, which had been badly damaged by a war between Israel and Hezbollah in summer 2006. It was also aimed at stimulating Lebanon’s economy and reducing its crippling national debt, January 25, 2007

which was roughly $40 billion. Some of the aid was made contingent on the enacting of economic reforms by the Lebanese government, and some was directed specifically at supporting Lebanon’s military. Speaking at the conference, Siniora said he was “really pleased with the level of financial support shown today.” In reference to the violence that day in Beirut, he called upon the people of Lebanon to remain calm and not “fan the flames.” „

West Bank and Gaza Strip Israel Releases Funds to Abbas. Israel Jan.

19 released to the office of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas roughly $100 million in revenue that it had collected on the PA’s behalf. Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert had promised in December 2006 to hand over the funds as a goodwill gesture and an effort to support Abbas. Israel collected roughly $50 million in tax revenues and customs duties each month on behalf of the PA, but had stopped transferring the monies after the militant Islamist group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) won PA parliamentary elections in January 2006. Hamas refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist, and was also a rival to Abbas and his Fatah party. More than $400 million was still being held by Israel. [See p. 26A3; 2006, p. 993A2] Ehud’s office released a statement saying that the funds had been deposited “to a special account to ensure the money does not reach the Hamas government and cannot be used for perpetrating terror against Israel.” Before Hamas’s electoral victory, such funds had typically been given to the PA finance ministry. A legislator and senior member of Fatah, Muhammad Dahlan, denied that there were any restrictions on how the money could be spent. “Israel can say whatever it wants,” he said, adding, “This is our money.” Separately, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz Jan. 19 called for a “freeze in the plans” for the Maskiot settlement in the West Bank, which had been announced in December 2006 and involved building 30 homes for Jewish settlers on a former military base. The proposed settlement had sparked strong criticism from both the U.S. and Palestinians. Under the “road map,” a plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace backed by the international community, Israel was forbidden from creating any new Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories. [See 2006, p. 993A3] Abbas Meets Hamas Leader—Abbas Jan. 21 met with Khaled Meshal, the exiled leader of Hamas, in Damascus, Syria’s capital, to discuss attempts to reconcile Hamas and Fatah. Sporadic violence between the two groups in the months prior to the meeting had killed at least 60 people. International donors had cut off aid to the PA in the wake of Hamas’s electoral victory, leaving it in a financial crisis. Attempts by Hamas and Fatah to create a national unity government acceptable to the donor nations had been unsuccessful, and Abbas had proposed a new round of elections,

which Hamas fiercely opposed. [See p. 12D1] Abbas and Meshal held a joint press conference after their meeting, during which they stated that they had failed to agree on forming a unity government. But they did cite “major progress” toward the goal, and insisted that the violence between the two groups must stop. Speaking after a meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas Jan. 19 had said, “It is very clear how to get a national unity government that can break the siege.” If, however, such a government could not be formed, he again said new elections should be held. „

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Football Colts, Bears Advance to Super Bowl. The Indianapolis Colts Jan. 21 beat the New England Patriots, 38–34, in Indianapolis, Ind., to win the American Football Conference (AFC) championship game. Earlier that day, the Chicago Bears had defeated the New Orleans Saints, 39–14, in Chicago to win the National Football Conference (NFC) title game. The two teams would meet in two weeks’ time in Super Bowl XLI in Miami, Fla. [See p. 39D1] Both the Colts and the Bears were led by black head coaches—Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, respectively. Super Bowl XLI would mark the first time in National Football League (NFL) history that a black head coach reached the Super Bowl. [See 2006, p. 136B2] Colts Come Back to Stun Patriots— In the AFC championship game Jan. 21, the Patriots jumped out to a 21–6 lead in the first half. That included a seven-yard touchdown run by Corey Dillon and a 39yard interception return for a touchdown by cornerback Asante Samuel. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, who had been criticized in the past for his failure to win big playoff games, especially against New England, led Indianapolis’s second-half comeback. In the third quarter, Manning capped a 76-yard drive with a one-yard run for a touchdown. Later in the quarter, Manning connected with Dan Klecko (a defensive tackle who on that play was acting as a receiver) on a one-yard touchdown pass. A two-point conversion tied the game at 21. The Patriots regained the lead on the next drive, sparked by an 80-yard kickoff return by cornerback Ellis Hobbs. Quarterback Tom Brady hit wide receiver Jabar Gaffney on a six-yard touchdown pass to give New England a 28–21 lead. The Colts then tied the score when center Jeff Saturday recovered a fumble by running back Dominic Rhodes in the end zone. The two teams traded field goals, with the Patriots gaining a 34–31 edge with three minutes and 49 seconds left. Then Manning engineered a seven-play, 80-yard drive that culminated in a three-yard touchdown run by running back Joseph Addai. 55

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The Patriots’ chances were ended when Colts cornerback Marlin Jackson intercepted a pass from Brady with 16 seconds remaining. The Colts, who at one point in the first half trailed by 18 points, achieved the biggest comeback in NFL conference championship game history. Bears Trounce Saints—The Bears led 16–0 toward the end of the first half of the NFC championship game Jan. 21, after kicker Robbie Gould hit three field goals and running back Thomas Jones ran the ball into the end zone from two yards out. With 46 seconds left in the half, the Saints got on the board when quarterback Drew Brees hit wide receiver Marques Colston on a 13-yard touchdown pass. The Saints pulled to within two points early in the second half, when Brees connected with running back Reggie Bush for an 88-yard scoring play. However, that would be the last time New Orleans scored. The Bears scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to secure the victory. Quarterback Rex Grossman combined with wide receiver Bernard Berrian on a 33-yard scoring play; running back Cedric Benson ran 12 yards for a touchdown; and Jones had a 15yard touchdown run. Chicago’s vaunted defense caused four turnovers in the game, leading to 13 points. Other News—In other NFL news: † The NFL and NFL Players Association, the players’ union, Jan. 24 said they had reached an agreement on strengthening the league’s drug-testing program. The changes included adding the endurance-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO) to the list of banned substances and testing players more frequently. Also, players would be penalized financially for testing positive, and could be eliminated from consideration for end-of-season awards. [See 2006, p. 1035C3] † Cook Country (Ill.) Judge John Moran Jan. 23 gave Bears defensive tackle Tank Johnson permission to travel to Miami for the Super Bowl. Johnson was awaiting trial on gun possession charges, after being arrested in December 2006, and had not been allowed to leave the state. Moran warned Johnson of “dire consequences” if he broke the law while traveling. [See 2006, p. 1035A3] † Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells Jan. 22 said in a statement that he was retiring. It was the third time in his career that Parcells, 65, had announced his retirement. He had one year remaining on his contract with Dallas. The Cowboys Jan. 25 made Jason Garrett, a former backup quarterback for the team, part of their coaching staff, but did not specify if he would become head coach or offensive coordinator. Team owner Jerry Jones reportedly planned to interview other candidates for the head coaching job. [See 2003, p. 39D2] † The Oakland Raiders Jan. 22 hired University of Southern California (USC) offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin as their new head coach. He replaced Art Shell, who had been fired earlier in January. Kif56

fin, 31, would become the youngest coach in the NFL since the 1930s. [See p. 24A3] † The Pittsburgh Steelers Jan. 22 hired Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin as their new head coach. He replaced Bill Cowher, who had resigned earlier in January. [See p. 24A3] † The Miami Dolphins Jan. 19 hired San Diego Chargers offensive coordinator Cam Cameron as their new head coach. He replaced Nick Saban, who had resigned earlier in January to take the head coaching job at the University of Alabama. [See p. 23D3] † The Arizona Cardinals Jan. 14 hired Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt as their new head coach. He replaced Dennis Green, who had been fired earlier in January. [See p. 24C3] „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Awards Academy Award Nominations. The Academy

of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Jan. 23 announced the nominees for its 79th annual Oscar awards. [See 2006, p. 83A2] The film with the most nominations was Dreamgirls, which got eight, for categories including best supporting actor, best supporting actress and best original song, a category in which it got three nominations. The film was based on a 1981 Broadway musical about the rise to fame of a 1960s black female singing group. It did not get nominated for best picture, reportedly making it the first film in decades to lead in Oscar nominations yet be snubbed in the best-picture category. [See 1981, p. 1003B2] The film with the next-highest number of nominations, seven, was Babel, a polyglot film that explored various intercontinental relationships. It was nominated for best picture, as well as for best director, and two members of its ensemble cast were nominated for best supporting actress. [See below] Two of the best-director nominees, Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood, had previously competed against each other in that category, in 2005, with Eastwood triumphing, for Million Dollar Baby. Scorsese, with six Oscar nominations to date for best director, had yet to win an Oscar. [See below; 2005, p. 139G2–A3] The major nominees were:

Picture

Babel The Departed Letters From Iwo Jima Little Miss Sunshine The Queen Actor

Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson Peter O’Toole, Venus Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland Actress

Penelope Cruz, Volver Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal Helen Mirren, The Queen Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada

Kate Winslet, Little Children Supporting Actor

Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls Mark Wahlberg, The Departed Supporting Actress

Adriana Barraza, Babel Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls Rinko Kikuchi, Babel Director

Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima Stephen Frears, The Queen Paul Greengrass, United 93 Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel Martin Scorsese, The Departed

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People Actress and singer Lindsay Lohan, 20, Jan. 17 announced, through a spokesperson, that she had entered rehabilitation. She reportedly checked into the Wonderland Center, a Los Angeles facility. In December 2006, she had admitted that she had been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for about a year. [See 2006, pp. 944E2, 440D2; 2004, p. 1100E1] „

O B I T UA R I E S BRECKER, Michael Leonard, 57, jazz musician widely regarded as the leading saxophonist since John Coltrane, who died in 1967; he made hundreds of recordings, both as a studio musician and a soloist, and won 11 Grammy Awards; he was the brother of jazz trumpeter Randy Brecker, with whom he formed the Brecker Brothers jazz-fusion group in 1975; the group continued with various line-ups until 1982, and was briefly revived in the early 1990s; since the late 1980s, he had occasionally experimented with the electronic wind instrument (EWI), a saxophone-synthesizer hybrid; born March 29, 1949, in Philadelphia, Pa.; died Jan. 13 at a hospital in New York City, of leukemia; he had been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone-marrow disorder that often led to leukemia, in 2005, and a worldwide search had been conducted for a possible bone-marrow donor; that search, however, failed to yield any suitable matches. [See p. 40F2] HUNT Jr., E(verette) Howard, 88, longtime Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative (1949–70) who engineered the 1972 burglary of Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington, D.C.’s Watergate complex that ultimately led to the 1974 collapse of Richard Nixon’s presidency; he ended up spending 33 months in federal prison for his role in the Watergate scandal, being released in 1978; he was also the author of dozens of spy novels, mostly published under pseudonyms; born Oct. 9, 1918, in Hamburg, N.Y.; died Jan. 23 at a hospital in Miami, Fla., of pneumonia. [See 2005, pp. 369A2, 368B3; 2001, p. 179E2; Indexes 1985, 1983, 1980–81, 1972–78] KAPUSCINSKI, Ryszard, 74, Polish journalist known for his widely translated articles and books on political turmoil in places ranging from Angola to Iran to Central America; one of his best-known books was The Emperor, about the last days of Ethiopian ruler Haile Selassie; published in Polish in the late 1970s, it appeared in English translation in 1983; born March 4, 1932, in Pinsk, a city now in Belarus; died Jan. 23, at a hospital in Warsaw, Poland, after a heart attack; he had been battling cancer. PIERRE, Abbe (Henri-Antoine Groues), 94, Roman Catholic priest who was a much-decorated hero of the French Resistance in World War II and who later founded the Emmaus Society, which grew into a worldwide movement on behalf of the homeless; the group was named after the biblical village where Jesus Christ was supposed to have broken bread with several of his disciples after being resurrected; born Aug. 5, 1912, in Lyon, France; died Jan. 22 at a hospital in Paris, of a lung infection. [See 1954, p. 105C3] „

January 25, 2007

Attack on Iraqi Holy City by Religious Cult Foiled More Than 250 Militants Killed. U.S.

and Iraqi forces Jan. 28–29 fought hundreds of militant cult members near the town of Zarqa, a few miles northeast of the holy city of Najaf, apparently heading off an attack on the city on the eve of the Shiite Muslim holy day of Ashura. Iraq’s defense ministry Jan. 30 said 263 militants had been killed, 210 wounded and 502 arrested. The U.S. had handed control of Najaf province over to Iraqi security forces in December 2006. [See below, p. 53F1; 2006, p. 971A2] Iraqi officials Jan. 30 offered preliminary accounts of the nature of the battle and the events leading up to it, stating that the militants were mostly Iraqi Shiites, but also some foreign fighters, who belonged to the messianic group the “Soldiers of Heaven.” In the months prior to the fighting, the group had been gathering members and weapons at an encampment in Zarqa. They had reportedly planned to enter Najaf just before Ashura, disguised as religious pilgrims and accompanied by the hundreds of women and children living with them. Once inside the city, they planned to either kill or take hostage the leading Shiite clerics there—in particular, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. They would also capture the Imam Ali mosque and declare their leader to be the Mahdi. (The Mahdi was a messianic figure in Islam whose return, it was believed, would usher in an age of universal peace and justice.) Iraqi police Jan. 28 stormed the encampment after learning of the imminent attack, but soon found themselves overwhelmed by the well-organized and better-armed militants. Iraqi reinforcements were called in along with U.S. ground troops and coalition air power, and the fighting ended Jan. 29 with the militant group’s defeat. In the days following the battle, differing reports emerged regarding the leader’s identity, though many of them agreed that he had been killed. Gen. Qais Hamza alMamouri, the chief of police of the province of Babil, Jan. 31 said the leader of the group was known as Ahmad bin al-Hassan al-Basri, but was actually the Sunni Muslim militant Ahmed Ismail Katte, who had been pretending to be a Shiite. Jalal Adin al-Sagheer, a Shiite legislator, that day said the group’s deputy leader—Diyah Abdul Zahraa Khadom, also known as Ahmed Hassan al-Yamani—had been a security officer under the Sunni regime of former President Saddam Hussein, and had also died in the fighting. A U.S. helicopter Jan. 28 crashed during the battle, killing two soldiers aboard. U.S. Suspects Iran in Soldiers’ Deaths—

Unidentified Iraqi and U.S. officials had claimed that Iran was suspected of being involved in the Jan. 20 killings of five U.S. soldiers in Karbala, the New York Times reported in a story datelined Jan. 30. The precision and sophistication of the attack, the article explained, in which roughly a dozen gunmen disguised as U.S. troops had infiltrated a secure compound, had led U.S.

military investigators to believe that the operation required a level of training and logistical support that could not be found in Iraq. [See p. 53C3] The U.S. military Jan. 26 had announced that four of the five soldiers killed in the attack had been abducted prior to their deaths, contradicting earlier reports that they had all been killed at the site of the attack. According to a statement issued by the U.S. military, after killing one soldier, the gunmen forced four others into their vehicles and then drove off. When the soldiers were found later that day in the abandoned vehicles, three of them were dead, and one was fatally wounded President George W. Bush Jan. 26 defended a decision by the Defense Department to kill or capture any Iranian operatives found in Iraq, a policy reported that day in the Washington Post. Bush insisted that the policy was not an attempt to begin a broader military campaign against Iran. Rather, he said, “It makes sense that if somebody’s trying to harm our troops, or stop us from achieving our goal, or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them.” Troop-Level Resolution Drafted in U.S.—

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) Jan. 31 announced that a nonbinding resolution opposing Bush’s proposal to send more troops to Iraq drafted by Sen. John Warner (R, Va.) had supplanted drafts offered by other senators, and that the Senate would likely begin debating it next week. Bush had called for the additional troops, or “surge,” as part of a new push to secure the country in cooperation with Iraq’s government. Leaders of the House that day also decided to adopt language similar to Warner’s in a draft resolution opposing the troop increase. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) suggested that she might call for binding legislation that would mandate troop reductions. Bush Jan. 26 had criticized Congress for opposing his new strategy for Iraq without offering an alternative. Speaking at a news conference, Bush asserted, “I’m the decision maker,” and said he had made his decision regarding Iraq policy and would go ahead with it despite any congressional resolutions. (Bush was speaking at a news conference alongside Lt. Gen. David Petraeus who later that day was unanimously confirmed by the Senate as the top commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq.) Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Jan. 26 said the resolutions might embolden the enemy. “I’m sure that that’s not the intent behind the resolutions,” he said, “but I think it may be the effect.” Sen. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.), speaking at a hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee Jan. 30, rebuked Bush, saying that decisions on Iraq policy were “a joint and shared responsibility” that included Congress. Regarding Bush’s plan, Specter suggested that the number of troops involved was inadequate, saying, “21,500

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3451* February 1, 2007

B additional troops—it’s a snowball in July. It’s not going to work.” Adm. William Fallon, Bush’s nominee to replace Gen. John Abizaid as head of the U.S. Central Command, Jan. 30 testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee at his confirmation hearing. Fallon acknowledged that “time is running out” to fix the situation in Iraq, and that “what we’ve been doing is not working.” Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki Jan. 31 said only a “slight addition” of troops was needed in order to secure Baghdad, Iraq’s capital. Maliki had spoken with Pelosi Jan. 26 during her brief “fact-finding” visit to Iraq, and told her that he would like to see 50,000 U.S. troops leave Iraq by December as the country’s own security forces took over. Iraqi officials Jan. 31 announced that the government had closed down a border crossing shared with Iran and had suspended all flights to and from Syria as part of the new security push.

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Attack on Iraqi holy city by religious cult foiled; more than 250 militants killed. PAGE 57

Palestinian suicide bomber strikes Israel. PAGE 58

U.S. Sen. Biden sets presidential bid; faces Obama racial flap. PAGE 59

House passes belated fiscal 2007 spending package.

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Senate passes minimum-wage hike. PAGE 60

Bush order increases control over regulations. PAGE 60

U.N. agencies warn of Darfur, Sudan, aid collapse. PAGE 65

Venezuela law expands Chavez’s powers.

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Injured racehorse Barbaro euthanized after health setback. PAGE 69 *First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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IRAQ CASUALTIES

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Following are tallies of casualties in Iraq since the beginning of a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, as they stood Jan. 31 [See 2006, p. 1030A2]: U.S. military casualties:

Deaths Wounded

3,076 23,279

Allied military deaths: 253

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Iraqi security forces deaths: 6,014 U.S. civilian contractor deaths: 153 Other civilian contractor deaths: 234

Middle East

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Suicide Bomber Strikes Eilat. A

(Range based on news reports of deaths)

Sources: U.S. and allies, Iraqi security, contractors— U.S. Defense Department, www.icasualties.org. Iraqi civilians—www.iraqbodycount.net.

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† Two suicide bombers Feb. 1 detonated their explosives in Hilla, a Shiite city 60 miles (100 km) south of Baghdad, killing 45 and wounding 150. † Iraq’s foreign ministry Feb. 1 said it would host a security meeting in Baghdad in March, and had invited neighboring countries, including Iran and Syria, to attend. [See p. 9B2] † Iraq’s health ministry Feb. 1 reported that 1,990 civilians died from violence in January, three times more than in January 2006. [See p. 26B1] „

Other News—In other Iraqi news:

U.S. and Iraqi officials Jan. 24 said four U.S. security contractors who a day earlier had been involved in helicopter crashes had been shot in the back of the head. Two helicopters had crashed Jan. 23, and five of the contractors riding in the helicopters had died, one of them a pilot killed by gunfire while flying. Sunni insurgents Jan. 24 claimed responsibility for the deaths. [See p. 54E2] † A bomb Jan. 25 detonated in a pet market in central Baghdad, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 35. † Two coordinated car bombs Jan. 27 killed at least 15 people and wounded at least 55 in a market in Baghdad. † Tens of thousands of antiwar demonstrators Jan. 27 protested in Washington, D.C., denouncing Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq, and calling for the U.S. to pull out of the war-torn country. [See 2006, p. 645A1; 2005, p. 666F3] † A mortar shell Jan. 28 landed in the courtyard of a girls’ school in a mostly Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, killing at least five girls, ages 12 to 16. Thirteen teachers and students were wounded. † Ali Hassan al-Majid, nicknamed “Chemical Ali,” Jan. 28 admitted that he had given orders to destroy several ethnic Kurdish villages in the 1980s. Speaking at the Anfal trial, in which he and other members of the Hussein regime were on trial for killing thousands of Kurds, Majid defended the action, saying that the area had been “full of Iranian agents.” [See p. 22A2] † Attacks on religious pilgrims and ceremonies Jan. 30 marred the holy day of Ashura, killing at least 50 people and wounding scores in separate incidents throughout much of the country. Among the attacks were a suicide bombing in the northern town of Baladruz, which killed at least 17 people, and a bombing in Baqubah that killed at least 15 people. The Iraqi government deployed 11,000 soldiers in and around the holy city if Karbala in order to provide security for religious observances. †

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Palestinian suicide bomber Jan. 29 detonated explosives inside a bakery in Eilat, an Israeli resort town on the coast of the Red Sea, killing himself and three Israelis working at the bakery. It was the first suicide bombing in Israel since April 2006, and the first ever to strike Eilat. Two militant groups, the Aksa Martyrs Brigade and Islamic Jihad, took joint responsibility for the attack. [See p. 55B2, 2006, p. 312B2] A masked spokesman for Islamic Jihad held a news conference in Gaza City, and identified the bomber as Muhammad Faisal al-Siksik, a 21-year-old man from Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. The spokesman described the bombing as both revenge for Israeli raids and an effort to end the recent factional violence among Palestinians by directing their attention to Israel. Tensions between the Palestinian Fatah party and its chief rival, the militant Islamist group Hamas, had frequently led to violence in previous weeks. [See below] Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert vowed to continue the “ongoing and unending struggle against terrorists,” and Defense Minister Amir Peretz described the bombing as an “escalation.” Tony Snow, press secretary to U.S. President George W. Bush, condemned the bombing, as well as “those Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, that condone these barbaric actions.” Fawzi Barhum, a spokesman for Hamas, said the bombing was a “natural response” to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. “So long as there is occupation,” he said, “resistance is legitimate.” Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking from Cairo, Egypt’s capital, after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Jan. 30 condemned the bombing, saying it was “not in the interest of the Palestinian people.” An airstrike by the Israeli military Jan. 30 destroyed a tunnel near a border crossing between Israel and Gaza. The Israeli military claimed that the tunnel was going to be used for an attack by Palestinian militants. Separately, Olmert’s office Jan. 31 said the premier was looking into the possibility of altering the path of the barrier separating Israel and the West Bank in order to encompass two Jewish settlements, further encroaching on Palestinian territory north of Jerusalem. Israel had been building the controversial separation barrier in the

name of preventing Palestinian militants from entering Israeli territory and conducting terror attacks. Palestinians had opposed the barrier, calling it an attempt by Israel to draw borders between the two territories prior to an official peace agreement. [See 2006, p. 405B2] Palestinian Truce Begins—A truce between Fatah and Hamas took effect early Jan. 30 after five days of factional fighting, most of it taking place in the Gaza Strip, that had killed more than 30 Palestinians. The cease-fire, which had been brokered by Egypt, held despite reports of gunfire, explosions and the shooting death of a Hamas leader in southern Gaza that day. Dozens of hostages taken by each side were released. Fatah and Hamas had frequently come into conflict ever since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006, often leading to violence. The two groups continued to be unable to create a national unity government that would be acceptable to international donors, who had cut off aid to the PA after Hamas’s electoral victory. [See p. 55F2] Hamas Jan. 26 had suspended negotiations with Fatah on the formation of a unity government due to the ongoing violence. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Jan. 28 offered to host talks between the two groups in the holy city of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. Hamas and Fatah officials responded positively to the proposal, but no date was set for the meeting. „

Global Economy World Forum Highlights Rising Powers.

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum was held in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 24–28. The forum, an independent in-

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FACTS ON FILE

ternational organization, gathered together 2,400 government, business, academic and social leaders to discuss economic responses to global problems. The meeting’s announced theme was a shift in global influence from the industrialized West to a bevy of developing powerhouses including China, India, Brazil and many smaller countries. [See p. 12C3; 2006, p. 89A3] Accordingly, Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Tan Dung made his first appearance at the forum, and India sent a delegation of 100 participants, while no top U.S. officials attended apart from Trade Representative Susan Schwab. Her attendance reflected the latest meeting’s unofficial function as a proxy convention of ministers involved in stalled negotiations over a global trade agreement through the World Trade Organization (WTO). In her keynote opening address, German Chancellor Angela Merkel Jan. 24 defended the cause of free trade against a mounting protectionist backlash, saying she would use Germany’s 2007 leadership of both the European Union and the Group of Eight (G-8) to push for a final global agreement in the WTO’s so-called Doha round of trade talks. She also listed African poverty and global warming as priorities for Germany’s year at the head of the G-8. She praised U.S. President George W. Bush’s recent proposal to reduce U.S. gasoline use by 20%, but said such patchwork measures would not be enough to address climate change that fossil fuel emissions were believed to contribute to. She called for “a binding commitment, a binding regime that includes all of those who produce emissions.” British economist Nicholas Stern, author of a 2006 report on climate change that drew wide attention, in an address Jan. 24 called for taxes to correct what he called the “biggest market failure ever seen,” the failure to account for the environmental costs of human enterprise. [See 2006, p. 834B3] A number of economists that day also spoke about a need to redistribute wealth and resources in developed countries to the victims of globalization—those who lost jobs or saw their wages reduced—in order to avoid a bigger political backlash against governments that adopted free-trade policies. No Trade Pact Breakthrough—Some 30 ministers at the forum meeting met Jan. 27, and issued instructions to their subordinates to intensify their efforts to make progess on the WTO’s Doha round of talks. However, Pascal Lamy, head of the WTO, said that he would not yet call a full meeting of the organization’s trade ministers to resume the Doha negotiations. The previous weekend, U.S. trade officials the had outlined tentative proposals to restrict farm subsidies, while EU officials had indicated a new willingness to lower barriers to foreign imports, it was reported Jan. 21. The two sides’ agricultural policies had been a principal sticking point in the stalled talks. Driving the push to revive the trade talks was the approaching expiration in June of February 1, 2007

Bush’s authority to approve trade agreements after submitting them to the U.S. Congress only for a yes-or-no vote rather than a lengthy legislative process. The World Social Forum, an alternative to the World Economic Forum, Jan. 20–25 held its seventh annual meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, drawing about 80,000 participants. The forum billed itself as a “global counter-force challenging the assumptions and diktats of imperialism and its associated neoliberal policies.” „

Global Health News in Brief. A group of doctors in the

Jan. 22 issue of the journal PLoS Medicine recommended holding, against their will if necessary, people with a highly fatal drugresistant strain of tuberculosis in order to prevent its spread. The physicians warned that without adequate control measures the spread of the disease “could become a lethal global pandemic.” The government of South Africa was considering such measures, it was reported Jan. 23. In September 2005, a South African woman who had been diagnosed with an extremely drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, known as XDR-TB, had checked herself out of a hospital, potentially spreading the infection. News of her refusal of treatment had spurred public pressure toward mandatory quarantine measures in the country. [See 2006, p. 784E2] The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Jan. 18 reported that a global campaign to eradicate measles had saved the lives of 2.3 million people since 1999, most of whom were located in Africa. The two U.N. agencies found that measles deaths had fallen to 345,000 in 2005, from 873,000 in 1999, a 60% drop. The Measles Initiative, a coalition of international agencies and governments, had initially hoped to reduce measles mortality by 50% by 2005. The agencies set a new goal of reducing measles deaths to 90% of their 1999 levels by 2010. [See 2005, p. 794E3] An international team of scientists reported in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Nature that they had infected monkeys with the strain of influenza virus known as the Spanish flu that was responsible for a 1918–19 pandemic that killed tens of millions of people. The scientists had recreated the flu strain by using DNA fragments of the virus taken years before from three victims of the Spanish flu. The researchers found that there were similarities between the actions of the Spanish flu virus and the H5N1 avian influenza virus thought to present the greatest threat of a new pandemic. They said the monkeys’ own uncontrolled immune response to the virus had contributed to the severity of their illnesses. The team had carried out their research at a Canadian laboratory; the researchers had not been approved to perform their work in the U.S. The work had been led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the U.S.’s University of Wisconsin, and Darwyn Kobasa of the Public Health Agency of Canada. [See p. 46A1; 2006, p. 994D2] „

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2008 Presidential Campaign Biden Sets Bid; Faces Obama Racial Flap.

Sen. Joseph Biden (D, Del.) Jan. 31 held a news conference to announce his presidential candidacy, but instead faced questions over perceptions of racial undertones in comments that he had made about a rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.). [See pp. 28D2, 15C2] In an interview published that day in the New York Observer, a weekly newspaper, Biden said Obama was “the first mainstream African-American” to run for president “who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” At the news conference, Biden was asked to explain the language that he used in the Observer interview. He said that his comments had been taken out of context, and that he had meant to say that Obama was “something brand-new that nobody has seen before,” and had not intended any insult. He said that he had spoken with Obama about it, and that Obama had told him that he took no offense. However, Obama later issued a statement taking issue with Biden’s remarks. He said, “I didn’t take Senator Biden’s comments personally, but obviously they were historically inaccurate.” He added that previous black presidential candidates “gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one would call them inarticulate.” Obama cited Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who ran for the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988; Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D, N.Y.), who ran in 1968; former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D, Ill.), who ran in 2004; and Rev. Al Sharpton, also a Democratic candidate in 2004. [See 2005, p. 5F3; 2004, pp. 178G3, 12A2; 1988, p. 529A1; 1984, p. 513A1] Biden responded by issuing his own statement, saying, “I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone. That was not my intent and I expressed that to Senator Obama.” Although he had been a senator for only two years, Obama was viewed as one of the leading contenders for the Democratic nomination. Biden had been in the Senate since 1973, but he was considered a longshot presidential candidate. Biden had run for the 1988 Democratic nomination, but dropped out in 1987 amid a plagiarism scandal. He was currently chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and had tried to use his news conference to highlight his experience on international issues. He was cosponsor of a resolution opposing President George W. Bush’s plan to send more than 21,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq. [See p. 57D2] Obama’s father was from Kenya, and his mother, a white woman from Kansas, had raised him in Indonesia and Hawaii. „ 59

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Fiscal 2007 Spending Bills House Passes Belated $464 Billion Package.

The House Jan. 31 voted, 286–140, to pass a $463.5 billion spending package for the 2007 fiscal year, which had begun Oct. 1, 2006. The package covered all nine annual appropriations bills that had been left unfinished by the previous, Republicancontrolled Congress. The package still required Senate approval. [See 2006, p. 949C2] The federal agencies covered by the spending package had been operating under a stopgap funding measure enacted in December 2006, and scheduled to expire Feb. 15. The new funding passed by the House was in the form of a yearlong stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution. House Republicans objected to the tactics used by the new Democratic majority to push the bill to a vote without allowing the minority to offer amendments. But 57 Republicans voted in favor of the measure, along with 229 Democrats. The White House Jan. 30 had noted that the package would keep total fiscal 2007 discretionary spending (including the two appropriations bills enacted in 2006, covering defense and homeland security) just under President George W. Bush’s requested cap of $873 billion. The House measure would keep funding for most agencies at fiscal 2006 levels. But it would boost funding for selected Democratic priorities, including increases of $3.6 billion for veterans’ health care, $1.2 billion for military health care, $620 million for the National Institutes of Health and $615 million for Pell higher education grants. Pell grants would rise by up to $260 each, to a maximum of $4,310 per year. The bill would also boost funding for international HIV/AIDS programs by $1.3 billion, to an annual total of $4.5 billion, meeting a request by Bush. Democratic leaders touted their decision to keep the spending measure free of any new earmarks, the funding provisions requested by individual lawmakers for pet projects. But Republicans noted that it did maintain funding for earmarks enacted in previous fiscal years, such as $44 million for an indoor rainforest in Iowa. Both the House and Senate earlier in January had passed rules changes intended to restrict earmarking, in response to corruption scandals and concern about wasteful spending. [See p. 29C3] „

Legislation Senate Passes Minimum-Wage Hike. The

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Senate Feb. 1 passed, 94–3, a bill that would increase the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, from $5.15 an hour, over two years. The bill also provided for tax cuts to small businesses, worth $8.3 billion over 10 years. The minimum wage increase would be the first of its kind since 1997. [See p. 14C2] The House in January had passed its own bill raising the minimum wage, but 60

without the tax cuts. Democratic leaders in the Senate had agreed to add the tax cuts in order to win Republican support for the bill. Also, President George W. Bush favored a bill that included the tax cuts. To offset the cuts, the Senate bill closed tax loopholes used by corporations doing business overseas, increased penalties for tax evasion and put limits on tax-deferred executive compensation. The Senate bill also included an amendment prohibiting companies that hired illegal immigrants from receiving government contracts for up to 10 years. Like the House bill, the Senate bill would apply the minimum wage for the first time to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific Ocean. Many House Democrats, as well as some leading Democratic senators, opposed the tax cuts. Some House members suggested that they would object to the Senate bill on constitutional grounds, since tax measures were supposed to originate in the House. For that reason, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) decided to delay sending the bill back to the House. He planned to negotiate directly with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) rather than immediately send the bill to a conference committee. „

Bush Administration Order Increases Control of Regulations.

President George W. Bush Jan. 18 issued an executive order that extended the White House’s control over the actions of federal regulatory agencies. It required that a political appointee, rather than a career civil service official, supervise each agency’s regulatory policy. [See p. 30G1] Bush’s order would require agencies to determine that a “specific market failure” had occurred before they drew up new regulations. Each agency would also be required to provide yearly estimates of the “combined aggregate costs and benefits of all its regulations.” In addition, the executive order called for more new regulations to be submitted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a division of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), for review and public comment. That rule would apply especially to informal regulatory actions known as guidance documents, which previously had not been subject to as much scrutiny. Agencies used the documents to signal how they planned to interpret and enforce certain laws. Business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce responded favorably to the executive order, saying it would reduce the number and cost of new regulations. But labor, environmentalist and consumer groups criticized Bush’s order, asserting that it would improperly politicize issues of public safety. Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said, “This executive order means the White House will be able to overrule experts on health and safe-

ty issues that matter to millions of Americans.” OMB General Counsel Jeffrey Rosen said the executive order was intended to “make federal agencies more open and accountable.” The order was widely seen as a move by Bush to reassert his authority over a key lever of federal power in response to his Republican Party’s loss of control of both houses of Congress in the November 2006 midterm elections. „

Agriculture USDA Proposes New Farm Bill. Agriculture

Secretary Mike Johanns Jan. 31 released the Bush administration’s proposal for a new so-called farm bill, which would reauthorize myriad subsidy programs for the nation’s farmers. The existing law, passed in 2002, was set to expire Sept. 30. The proposals by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) called for total spending of about $88 billion over five years, about $10 billion less than under the current program. [See p. 12B1; 2002, p. 374E3] The administration’s proposed farm bill would reduce price supports, or subsidies that guaranteed a minimum price to farmers of certain staple crops. It would instead provide more aid to farmers through direct income-supplementing payments. The U.S.’s extensive price-support programs were a point of contention with the European Union, Canada, Brazil and other countries in global trade talks. [See below] The USDA plan would also make farmers whose annual adjusted gross income was more than $200,000 ineligible for subsidy payments. The current income cap was $2.5 million. Total payments would be limited to $360,000 per year per farmer. The department proposed increasing spending on conservation programs, and on payments to growers of fruits and vegetables and other products apart from the crops that currently got most of the subsidies, such as corn, wheat, soybeans and cotton. The USDA expected to be able to expand spending in some areas in part because commodity prices were expected to be higher than they had been under the last farm bill, meaning that the government would have to pay less to farmers. Ahead of what was expected to be intensive lobbying over the new farm bill, some critics of the U.S.’s current subsidy system expressed approval of the proposal’s move to reform it. Anti-hunger group Oxfam America said the bill would shift government aid toward smaller farms that needed it more than larger, richer ones. However, the American Farm Bureau Federation, a farmers’ lobbying group, indicated that it would seek to preserve the current system as much as possible, and to fight the lower income cap and cuts to commodity price subsidies. The income cap enjoyed substantial support in Congress. Nevertheless, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D, Minn.) Feb. 1 predicted that the legislation actually approved in Congress “could look a lot like what we have FACTS ON FILE

now” in the existing system. His Senate counterpart, Tom Harkin (D, Iowa), Jan. 31 said there were “a number of good ideas” in the USDA proposal. Foreign Reaction—Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl of Canada, which in January had filed a challenge to the U.S.’s farm subsidies with the World Trade Organization (WTO), Feb. 1 said the USDA proposals would still leave U.S. payments to farmers too high. EU agriculture spokesman Michael Mann said it was disappointing that the U.S. had not offered “more ambitious cuts.” Johanns had said that he wanted to make the U.S.’s agriculture policies “trade proof,” or immune to challenges. U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab Feb. 1 denied that the course of the current Doha Round of WTO talks would dictate the terms of the new farm bill, but acknowledged that the U.S. sought to indicate “that we care about farm reforms.” „ Cloned Animals’ Meat Ruled Not Organic. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Jan. 31 said meat and milk from animals produced by cloning but raised under organic-farming standards could not be labeled “organic.” The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2006 had ruled that cloned animals’ meat and milk were safe to consume. The USDA had yet to determine whether the naturally conceived descendants of cloned animals could be considered organic. That ruling would have greater practical impact, as clones themselves were less likely to be used for agricultural products than for breeding. [See 2006, p. 1002G3] „

Terrorism Padilla Charge Reinstated. A

three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Miami, Fla., Jan. 30 reinstated a charge that suspected Al Qaeda terrorist network operative Jose Padilla and two codefendants had conspired to “murder, kill and maim” people overseas. The panel overturned U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Cooke’s ruling that the charge duplicated other charges faced by the three men. [See 2006, p. 1000F3] Cooke Jan. 12 had ordered Padilla’s trial delayed for three months so that psychiatric tests could be conducted to determine his mental competence to stand trial. The new trial date was April 16. Separately, Cooke Jan. 24 ruled that one of Padilla’s attorneys had violated a court order by providing transcripts of seven wiretapped conversations to the New York Times. In place of a penalty, Cooke ordered the defense team to sign papers agreeing to respect rules against disclosing certain evidence. The Times Jan. 4 had reported that the transcripts, reportedly of the only recordings on which Padilla’s voice could be heard, did not contain overt references to violence and plotting. Other News—In other terrorism news: † A jury in U.S. District Court in Chicago Feb. 1 acquitted Muhammad Salah and Abdelhaleem Ashqar of funneling money and other aid to the Palestinian militant February 1, 2007

group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) to fund the group’s violent activities during the early 1990s. The two men were convicted of lesser charges, including obstruction of justice and criminal contempt. The men had said the aid had been designated for humanitarian relief, and Salah asserted that a confession he made to Israeli secret police after his 1993 arrest had been given under torture. Defense lawyers said the verdict would set back what they claimed was an effort to adjudicate the Israeli-Palestinian struggle in U.S. courts. [See 2006, p. 799F1] † The Wall Street Journal Jan. 31 reported that the counterterrorism division of the Justice Department the previous week had disclosed a grand jury probe of a Boston, Mass., private equity firm, Overland Capital Group Inc., in U.S. District Court in Boston. The government was also reportedly investigating Dar Al-Maal Al-Islami (DMI), an umbrella group for Islamic financial institutions based in Geneva, Switzerland. The Journal reported that DMI effectively controlled Overland, although there were no acknowledged links. The government said it was investigating acts “that implicate potential violation of the Internal Revenue Code,” and did not specifically mention that it was looking into terrorist activity. However, federal prosecutors in the past had suggested that tax law prosecutions would be an effective way to target terrorist finances, and DMI had reportedly been linked to people involved with Al Qaeda, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Islamist group based in Egypt. [See 2006, p. 786E1; 2005, p. 590F1] † Judge Bruce Einhorn of U.S. Immigration Court in Los Angeles Jan. 30 dismissed the government’s 20-year-old case to deport Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh, who in 1987 had been arrested for raising money and distributing magazines for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine while they were students. Einhorn said the government had not responded appropriately to a string of court orders, most recently in June 2005, to turn over information requested by the two men. Hamide and Shehadeh maintained that they had not broken the law or committed terrorist acts but had been targeted because of their unpopular political beliefs. Civil libertarians had cited the case as an example of government overreach. A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency disapproved of the ruling and was “considering its legal options.” [See 2003, p. 768A2] † The Justice Department Jan. 25 filed papers with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, requesting the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) regarding warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency (NSA). The ACLU had argued that the program was illegal under the U.S. Constitution, and in August 2006 had won a judgment from a U.S. District Court judge. The Justice Department had argued for dismissal based on the imple-

mentation of a new wiretapping program formed under the auspices of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which would issue warrants for surveillance. ACLU officials contended that the NSA’s cessation of the warrantless program did not excuse its prior illegal activities. [See p. 27A2] † The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Jan. 21 unanimously ruled that nuclear power plants did not need to take steps to protect against attacks by terrorists using commercial airplanes, along the lines of Sept. 11, 2001, Al Qaeda attacks on the U.S. The NRC rejected a petition filed in 2004 by the Committee to Bridge the Gap, an environmental nonprofit group. The petition cited security recommendations made by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (known informally as the Sept. 11 commission), an independent, bipartisan panel that had investigated the attacks. The petition claimed that the plants were vulnerable and would irradiate the surrounding areas if hit. The group called for plants to incorporate shields made of steel I-beams and cables or take other measures to defend against plane crashes. However, the NRC maintained that current precautions were sufficient. Several Democratic members of Congress expressed disappointment with the decision, and said it resulted from excessive industry influence. [See 2003, p. 1039D3] „

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Politics Ex-Rep. Ney Sentenced. Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Jan. 19 sentenced former Rep. Bob Ney (R, Ohio) to 30 months in prison. Ney had pleaded guilty to corruption charges in October 2006, and resigned from the House the next month. He admitted that he had accepted gifts and favors from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and improperly used his influence on Abramoff’s behalf. Prosecutors had asked for a 27-month sentence, but the judge chose to impose a longer one, telling Ney, “You have seriously betrayed the public’s trust and abused your powers as a congressman.” [See 2006, p. 864D2] In a related move, the House Jan. 23 voted, 431–0, to pass a bill that would strip the pensions of lawmakers convicted of crimes such as bribery, fraud and perjury. However, the measure would not apply retroactively to those who had been convicted before it took effect, such as Ney or Rep. Randy Cunningham (R, Calif.), who had pleaded guilty in 2005 to accepting bribes from defense contractors. The House bill was similar to a provision of an ethics measure passed by the Senate earlier in January. The two chambers had to agree on a final version. [See p. 29E3] „ FBI Criticized for Inaction in Foley Case.

Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine Jan. 22 released a report concluding that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should have opened a probe into the conduct of then-Rep. Mark Foley 61

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(R, Fla.) when it had first received information on his inappropriate sexual advances toward a former House page. Foley resigned his seat in September 2006 amid news reports that he had sent explicit computer messages to former pages. [See 2006, p. 948B3] An independent watchdog group, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), had notified the FBI in July 2006 that it had received copies of Foley’s messages. Fine found that the FBI failed to pursue the matter and later claimed falsely that CREW had not cooperated. „ News in Brief. Sen. Tim Johnson (D, S.D.) had been moved to a rehabilitation unit, from intensive care, at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C., as he recovered from a brain hemorrhage suffered in December 2006, his doctor said Jan. 11. Neurosurgeon Vivek Deshmukh also said Johnson had begun to speak again. His condition had been upgraded to fair, from critical, two days earlier. In an earlier statement, Johnson’s office Jan. 3 had said his recovery was likely to take several months. [See 2006, p. 999D2] Sen. Wayne Allard (R, Colo.) Jan. 15 announced that he would not run for reelection in 2008, honoring a pledge to serve only two terms. He was the first senator to declare that he would retire rather than run again in 2008, when the Republicans would be defending 21 seats, to the Democrats’ 12. Rep. Mark Udall (D, Colo.) was running for the Democratic nomination for Allard’s seat. There was no Republican candidate yet. [See 2002, p. 845B3] The House Jan. 24 voted, 226–191, to pass a resolution restoring limited voting rights to delegates from Washington, D.C., and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa. The five delegates would be able to cast votes on amendments to bills, but not on final legislation. If their votes ever proved decisive on an amendment, it would be put to another vote without them. The new House Democratic majority backed the change, while Republicans opposed it; the five delegates included four Democrats and one Republican. In 1993, the Democrats, then in the majority, had first given the voting privileges to the delegates. The change was upheld by federal courts, but the Republicans repealed it upon regaining the majority in 1995. [See 1994, p. 911B3] „

Supreme Court FBI Used in Rehnquist Nomination Hearings. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

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Jan. 4 released 1,561 pages from its file on former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. The document detailed use of the agency by President Ronald Reagan’s administration in order to research testimony to be delivered at Rehnquist’s Senate 1986 confirmation hearings after he was nominated as chief justice. [See 2005, pp. 605A1, 602A1] 62

The administration of President Richard M. Nixon had also used the FBI to help Rehnquist in his 1971 nomination as an associate justice on the high court, the documents revealed. The FBI in both cases had researched those expected to testify in opposition to Rehnquist’s confirmation. The documents also detailed Rehnquist’s addiction to a painkiller, Placidyl, and an incident in which withdrawal from the drug had led him to become delusional and attempt to escape from a hospital where he was being treated for back pain. According to the file, Rehnquist had begun taking the drug in 1971, and by 1981 had each night taken triple the starting dose of the narcotic. Doctors, noticing his addiction, gradually reduced his dosage until he was able to completely stop using Placidyl in 1982. The FBI withheld 207 pages of the file and also said it had completely lost a section of it. The document’s release had been prompted by requests made under the Freedom of Information Act by the Associated Press, among other press agencies, and various academic researchers. „

Medicine & Health FDA Sets Drug Review Efforts. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials Jan. 30 announced several changes to the agency’s drug review and monitoring processes that were aimed at stemming dangers posed to patients by FDA-approved drugs. The changes had been announced in response to a report released in September 2006 by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that had harshly criticized the agency’s current practices, and had called for major reforms in the medication review process. [See 2006, p. 748G1] Among the changes the FDA said it would institute was the creation of a program that would assess two or three drugs 12 to 18 months after their approval. A “report card” reviewing the drugs’ side effects and new studies of the drug would be posted on a newly created online newsletter published by the FDA. The newsletter would also be used to report new findings on other drugs that had already reached the market. The FDA’s plans also called for a greater role for agency officials who monitored drug safety. Alta Charo, a member of the panel that had authored the IOM report, said the FDA’s actions were a good initial response, but added that the agency had ignored some of the panel’s recommendations that she considered crucial. However, implementation of many of the IOM’s suggestions required congressional approval. FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach said the agency was hampered in its regulatory function by a dearth of adequate funding. An estimated $400 million of the FDA’s annual $1.9 billion budget was raised through fees assessed on drugmakers. However, an agreement negotiated between the government and the drug industry limited the application of those funds, and prohibited their use in tracking the safety of approved drugs.

The FDA and drug industry officials Jan. 11 had said they had negotiated a new agreement that would increase fees collected from drug companies and allow more of those funds to be dedicated to drug monitoring efforts. The new five-year plan required congressional approval. „ CDC Releases Flu Pandemic Guidelines.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Feb. 1 announced wideranging guidelines to be implemented by state and local governments in the event of an influenza pandemic. Most of the recommendations were designed to maintain as much physical distance as possible between those infected with a pandemic flu virus and healthy people. [See p. 46A1] The plan called for workers to telecommute and for children to be held home from school, with the sick and their immediate family members to remain out of public places for seven to 10 days. It suggested that public events such as sports matches be canceled to mitigate spread of the disease. The CDC guidelines for the first time relied on a category system modeled on that used to classify hurricanes. Under that system the lowest level, Category 1, would result in 90,000 deaths, while a Category 5 event would leave 1.8 million dead. „ News in Brief. A team of researchers reported in the Feb. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that air pollution in the form of small particulate matter increased the risk of heart disease in women between the ages of 50 and 79. The study had examined data on 65,893 women, taking into account the city they lived in and their incidence of heart attack, stroke, coronary disease and clogged arteries. They found that a woman’s chance of experiencing a cardiovascular health problem climbed 24% for each additional 10-microgram exposure to fine particulate pollution matter. The researchers said the “magnitude of health effects” linked to air pollution “may be larger than previously recognized.” The research had been led by Joel Kaufman of the University of Washington in Seattle. [See 2006, p. 800B3] Fast-food restaurant operator McDonald’s Corp. Jan. 29 said it would begin phasing out cooking oils that contained trans fats, or trans fatty acids, which were believed to contribute to heart disease. However, the company did not announce a deadline by which the new trans fat–free oil blend would be in use in all of its 13,700 U.S. restaurants. [See 2006, p. 929D1] Pharmaceutical firm Genentech Inc. Jan. 26 said an eye drug it sold under the brand name Lucentis could contribute to an increased risk of stroke in patients. The company said 1.2% of patients participating in a study who were given the recommended 0.5-milligram dose of the drug experienced a stroke, while only 0.3% of those given a 0.3-milligram dose had a stroke. The drug, ranibizumab, was used to treat age-related macular degeneration, the number one cause of blindness in the elderly. [See 2006, p. 819D3] FACTS ON FILE

Schools serving roughly 20,000 students in the Rhode Island cities of Warwick, West Warwick and Coventry Jan. 8 reopened after fears of a meningitis outbreak were quelled. An area student Jan. 3 had been hospitalized with meningitis, sparking concerns that the case was linked to three cases of encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, discovered in the state in December 2006. Encephalitis was sometimes caused by meningitis. One of the three victims, a college student, died Jan. 3 from meningitis-caused encephalitis. Schools in the three cities Jan. 4–5 were closed while officials investigated the outbreak. [See 2006, p. 956C3] „

Economy Bush Highlights Economy on Mini-Tour.

President George W. Bush, speaking from Federal Hall National Memorial in New York City’s financial district, Jan. 31 touted the health of the U.S. economy and the strength of his economic agenda. Bush also acknowledged for the first time that “income inequality is real—it’s been rising for 25 years.” He attributed that trend to increasing demand for highly educated, highly skilled workers at the expense of low-skilled laborers. [See pp. 63A3, 58D3; 1985, p. 224E3] Bush said that the pay and bonuses awarded to corporate executives should be “based on their success at improving their companies and bringing value to their shareholders.” He admonished business leaders to “pay attention to the executive compensation packages that you approve,” but stopped short of advocating government limits on such compensation. The Democratic-led Congress had recently brought renewed focus to the issue of soaring executive pay, with Senate Democrats attaching to a broader measure a provision restricting executives’ use of tax-deferred accounts to accumulate millions of dollars. Bush urged Congress to extend presidential “fast track” negotiating authority on foreign trade agreements, set to expire July 1. “Walling off America from world trade would be a disaster for our economy,” he said. However, several congressional Democrats at a Jan. 30 hearing reiterated that they were disinclined to renew those negotiating powers. During his Wall Street visit, Bush also made an unscheduled appearance on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where he was the second sitting president to visit, after Ronald Reagan in 1985. A day earlier, Bush had visited a Caterpillar Inc. factory in East Peoria, Ill., where he briefly drove one of Caterpillar’s tractors. In a speech praising the state of the economy and the successes of liberalized foreign trade, he pushed back against recent media and political attention to free trade that had focused on the loss of U.S. jobs, industries and wages to economies with lower costs for labor and materials. Bush cited Caterpillar, which made earth-moving equipment, as an example of the benefits of open trade to U.S. compaFebruary 1, 2007

February Financial Update

(Close of trading Feb. 1 except where indicated)

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index Nasdaq Composite Index London Stock Exchange

12,673.68 1445.94 2468.38 6282.20

Tokyo Stock Exchange

17,519.50

Toronto Stock Exchange

13,144.74

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100) (Nikkei index)

(TSE Composite Index)

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield)

4.83% 5.15%

Currencies (late New York trading) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars)

$0.7738 $1.9669 $0.8483 $1.3020 120.71 10.9685 $0.8039

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.)

$657.40

Silver (per troy oz.)

$13.58

Oil (per barrel)

$57.30

(N.Y. Comex spot price) (London fixing spot price) (Nymex crude future)

Gasoline (per gallon)

$2.18

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel)

$5.30

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

2.5%

Unemployment rate

4.5%

Gross domestic product growth

3.5%

(nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released Jan. 21) (Kansas City market)

(consumer price index 12-month increase through December 2006; see p. 31C1) (December 2006; see p. 16E1)

(annualized fourth-quarter rate, final report; see p. 63A3)

Prime rate

8.25%

nies. Its exports had grown substantially on demand from Chile, Australia and China after the U.S. liberalized trade with those countries. Total U.S. exports were up 13.1% in the first 11 months of 2006 over the first 11 months of 2005, largely due to increased access to foreign markets, especially China. The gain, while substantial, had not been enough to offset rising imports, nor had it resulted in more U.S. manufacturing jobs overall. „ GDP Grew at 3.5% in 4th Quarter of 2006. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a

seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.5% in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to the Commerce Department’s advance estimate released Jan. 31. Fourth-quarter growth was stronger than the third quarter’s 2.0% growth rate. That acceleration was mostly a result of fewer imports and more exports, and increased government and personal spending, the department said. The estimate would be revised twice. [See p. 63B2; 2006, p. 1004E1] The department measured fourth-quarter GDP at $11.54 trillion in so-called 2000 chain-weighted dollars, up from $11.44 trillion in the previous quarter. Growth in GDP for all of 2006 was measured at 3.4%, compared with 3.2% in 2005. „ Fed Keeps Interest Rates Fixed. The Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, Jan.

Dow Jones Industrial Average Trading on the New York Stock Exchange

Jan. 1 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 11 12 15 16 17 18 19 22 23 24 25 26 29 30 31

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Volume (in millions of shares)

Holiday Holiday 12,474.52 12,480.69 12,398.01 12,423.49 12,416.60 12,442.16 12,514.98 12,556.08 Holiday 12,582.59 12,577.15 12,567.93 12,565.53 12,477.16 12,533.80 12,621.77 12,502.56 12,487.02 12,490.78 12,523.31 12,621.69

— — 2,055.0 1,727.4 1,709.2 1,563.1 1,702.4 1,563.3 1,666.9 1,525.1 — 1,504.0 1,524.1 1,611.9 1,635.8 1,487.4 1,667.4 1,582.7 1,753.4 1,504.7 1,539.1 1,526.7 1,717.2

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31 left interest rates unchanged. It was the fifth time in a row that the Federal Open Market Committee, the bank’s policymaking body, had done so. It left the benchmark federal funds rate on overnight loans between banks at 5.25%, and the discount rate on loans to commercial banks at 6.25%. [See 2006, p. 954F3] The committee, in a statement accompanying its unanimous decision, noted signs of “somewhat firmer economic growth,” and predicted moderate expansion overall for several quarters. Core inflation had tapered, it said, but inflation pressures and risks remained. Other News—In other economic news: † The departments of Commerce and of Housing and Urban Development Jan. 26 reported jointly that sales of new singlefamily homes increased by 4.8% in December 2006 over the previous month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.12 million units. The revised November 2006 rate was 1.07 million units. The median price for a new single-family home sold in December was $235,000, up from $232,200 in November. In 2006, the total number of new homes sold was 1.06 million, 17.3% below the number sold in 2005. [See 2006, p. 1004E2] † Sales of existing homes hit their thirdhighest level ever in 2006, the National Association of Realtors reported Jan. 25. In December 2006, existing-home sales decreased by 0.8%, to a rate of 6.22 million units on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, according to the report. That was down from November 2006’s 6.27 million-unit rate. The median sale price for existing homes in December was $222,000, unchanged from December 2005’s price. It was also the median sales price for all of 2006, up from $219,600 for 2005. [See 2006, p. 1004D2] „ 63

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Automobiles News in Brief. Automaker Ford Motor Co. Jan. 23 unveiled a new all-electric car mod-

el, powered by a plug-in lithium ion battery and a hydrogen fuel cell. The car would draw power from the electric grid and would not emit greenhouse gases. General Motors Corp. (GM) Jan. 7 had introduced its own electric car. Both cars were prototypes, and work was still needed to make them affordable and conquer technical difficulties. The initiatives were seen as an attempt to make gains against Japanese car companies, such as Toyota Motor Corp., which had pulled ahead in producing fuelefficient gasoline-electric hybrid cars. GM in the 1990s had produced prototypes of a more primitive electric car, but critics said the company had dropped the project to focus on less efficient models, such as sport utility vehicles. [See p. 41G2; 2006, p. 548B1; 1998, p. 33D1] Consumer Reports magazine Jan. 18 retracted flawed test results showing that 9 out of 12 infant car seats provided “poor protection” from frontal and side crashes. The results had been published weeks earlier, in the magazine’s February 2007 issue. Consumer Reports retracted the article after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that the side impacts might have been tested at 70 miles per hour (113 kmph), rather than the standard 38 mph, as the magazine had reported. Jim Guest, Consumer Reports’ president, said the errors were being investigated, and that the incident was the first of its kind in the magazine’s 71-year history. [See 2004, p. 917E3] „

Education

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News in Brief. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings Jan. 24 laid out proposed changes to the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which would come up for renewal by

Congress in 2007. One proposal would allow local officials to replace underperforming schools with charter schools, even if doing so contravened state limits on charter schools. (Charter schools were freer from regulation than traditional public schools.) Another would allow officials to transfer teachers from one school to another in violation of their contracts. Spellings renewed a call to allow distribution of taxpayer-financed vouchers to students in failing public schools so that they could transfer to private ones. She also proposed establishing a federal merit-pay fund for teachers whose students showed substantial improvement on mandatory exams created under the law. Democratic members of Congress criticized the charter-school and teacher-replacement changes as infringing on states’ rights and ignoring collective bargaining agreements, respectively, and dismissed the voucher proposal as unacceptable. [See p. 41B2] Education Department officials Jan. 19 said they would not attempt to recover $278 million paid to a student loan company in guaranteed interest rates that the department 64

now said were invalid. In September 2006, the department’s inspector general had concluded through an audit that the company, Nelnet Inc., had bilked the government by claiming that $3 billion in loans that were eligible for a 9.5% guaranteed interest rate on subsidized student loans, set by Congress during a period of high interest rates in the 1980s. Most of those loans, however, had in fact been disbursed during a low-interest period in 2003–04. Several other student loan companies were accused of similar exploitation of the guaranteed rate. The government said it would withhold more than $800 million in payments to Nelnet until a further audit determined whether the company was entitled to the money, but would not attempt to collect past overpayments for fear that equitable treatment would put smaller lenders out of business. [See p. 29C2] „

Crime News in Brief. A jury in U.S. District Court

in Houston, Texas, Jan. 18 sentenced truck driver Tyrone Williams, convicted in the

suffocation deaths of 19 illegal immigrants

being smuggled in his truck, to life in prison without parole. Williams had been found guilty of all 58 criminal charges against him in December 2006. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty. [See 2006, p. 973G2] James Nichols, who had been arrested in the shooting and stabbing death of an ethnic Hmong hunter in northern Wisconsin, Jan. 16 was charged with first-degree murder. Nichols, who was white, said he had shot the man, Cha Vang, in self-defense. Prosecutors did not describe Nichols’s alleged motive. The criminal complaint reportedly recorded anti-Hmong sentiments he had expressed to police. The area’s large Hmong population had expressed fear that the killing was intended as retaliation for a 2004 incident in which a Hmong man killed six white hunters. [See p. 17F1] Police searching a St. Louis, Mo.–area apartment for a missing 13-year-old boy Jan. 12 discovered the boy along with a 15year-old boy who had been missing for more than four years, Shawn Hornbeck. The occupant of the apartment, 41-year-old pizzeria manager Michael Devlin, was arrested. Devlin Jan. 18 pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree kidnapping of the 13-year old, William (Ben) Ownby, who had disappeared Jan. 8, and was charged that day in another county with felony kidnapping and felony armed criminal action in Hornbeck’s case. Hornbeck, appearing with his family Jan. 18 on The Oprah Winfrey Show, said he had been too “terrified” to escape captivity even though he said he had been allowed “some freedoms” to communicate and leave the house. Hornbeck’s parents said on the show that they believed he had been sexually abused, although they said they had not asked him explicitly. [See 2006, p. 699E3] Percey Jordan Jr., convicted of first-degree murder in the 2006 killing of a retired New York Times reporter, Jan. 12 was sentenced to 65 years in prison. His convicted

accomplice, Michael Hamlin, had been sentenced earlier in the month. [See p. 17G1] „

Business News in Brief. A panel of the U.S. 10th Cir-

cuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colo., Jan. 6 overturned the 2005 convictions of former Westar Energy Inc. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) David Wittig and Executive Vice President Douglas Lake. The two executives had been convicted of fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and other charges. Wittig and Lake had been sentenced in April 2006 to 18 years and 15 years in jail, respectively, for the crimes, which they allegedly committed in the course of misusing and misdirecting funds for their own enrichment at Westar, a major Kansas utility. The panel threw out the convictions for insufficient evidence and said the accused could not be retried for wire fraud or money laundering. Wittig had been in prison since January 2006 for violation of the terms of release during his appeal of a separate conviction for bank fraud. [See 2005, p. 228D2] William Sorin, the former general counsel of Comverse Technology Inc., Jan. 10 agreed to pay $3.1 million to settle charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that he had helped carry out a backdated stock-options scheme at the company. Another person charged in the scheme, former Comverse CEO Jacob (Kobi) Alexander, continued to fight extradition to the U.S. from Namibia, where he had been arrested but released on bail. [See 2006, p. 879F1] Ford Motor Co. of Dearborn, Mich., Jan. 25 reported a $12.7 billion loss for 2006, the worst result in its 103-year history. It reported a fourth-quarter loss of $5.8 billion. Ford was in the midst of a turnaround plan involving plant closures and large cuts to its labor force and production numbers that was aimed at saving the company $5 billion in costs annually. Ford said it expected to lose money in 2007 also, but not as much. General Motors Corp. the same day disclosed assorted accounting problems and said it would restate results from the third quarter of 2006 back to 2002. [See 2006, p. 1005D3] Motorola Inc. Jan. 19 said it would cut 3,500 jobs, or about 5% of its workforce worldwide, and take other cost-cutting measures to improve its performance after a sharp drop in profit in the fourth quarter of 2006, as well as for the whole year. Motorola, based in Schaumburg, Ill., was the world’s second-largest maker of cellular telephones. „

Accidents and Disasters Winter Storms Kill Dozens. A

series of powerful winter storms Jan. 12–17 blanketed Texas, the Midwest and the Northeast with ice, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power. The storms were blamed for up to 60 weather-related deaths, including at least 23 in Oklahoma. [See 2003, p. 108B3] „ FACTS ON FILE

AFRICA

African Union Little Progress on Darfur, Somalia at Summit.

The African Union (AU) Jan. 29–30 held its annual summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. The main topics of discussion among the leaders of the 53 member states were the conflicts in Sudan’s western Darfur region and in Somalia. Little progress was made on resolving either issue. [See pp. 65F2, 50A1; 2006, p. 63C3] The summit opened with an address by new United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Ban called on AU leaders to press Sudanese President Omar Hassan alBashir on allowing a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur. Ban also met with Bashir on the sidelines of the summit to advocate the force. Separately, AU commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare called on Sudan to “stop the bombardments and massacres” in Darfur. The first day of the summit was consumed with selecting the group’s next chairman. Bashir for the second straight year put forward his name for consideration. However, AU heads of state blocked his candidacy, fearing that it would damage the AU’s credibility, and instead agreed on a compromise candidate, Ghanian President John Kufuor. More than 200,000 people had died and some 2.5 million others had been driven from their homes in Darfur since 2003, amid fighting between local rebel groups and government-backed Arab militias known as the Janjaweed. A 7,000-member AU peacekeeping contingent had been unable to quell the violence. The U.N. in 2006 had approved peacekeepers for Darfur, but Bashir had refused to allow such a force. The U.N. was currently pushing for a hybrid U.N.-AU force to replace the ineffective and underfunded AU force. Somalia Force Discussed—African leaders Jan. 30 discussed a planned 8,000member peacekeeping force for Somalia, which had been approved earlier in January. The force would replace Ethiopian troops currently in Somalia who had helped the weak transitional government oust an Islamist militia from power in late December 2006. Ethiopia had already begun pulling its troops from Somalia, and, unless an AU force could be sent in a timely manner, observers warned that Somalia might face violence from both a rising Islamist insurgency and power struggles among local warlords. Thus far, Uganda, Malawi and Nigeria had offered to contribute a total of about 4,000 troops. The U.S. had pledged $15 million for a Somali force. The European Union had pledged about $19 million, contingent on the transitional government negotiating with moderate Islamists and clan leaders. „

Guinea Conte Gives Up Some Powers Amid Strike.

President Lansana Conte Jan. 27 signed a deal with striking unions in which he pledged to appoint a premier who would February 1, 2007

take over as head of government, bringing an end to a violent, 18-day-long general strike that had resulted in scores of deaths and injuries. The reclusive Conte, who was in his 70s, suffered from diabetes and was believed to have been seriously ill for some time, but had refused to relinquish his nearabsolute power. [See 2006, p. 580G1] Guinea was rich in natural resources—it contained around one-third of the world’s reserves of bauxite, a material used to produce aluminum, as well as diamonds, gold and iron ore. However, unemployment was estimated at 60%; inflation had skyrocketed; and parts of Conakry, the capital, lacked electricity and running water. Also, Guinea had been ranked as Africa’s most corrupt nation in a 2006 survey by the advocacy group Transparency International. Civil unrest had been increasing recently in the impoverished West African nation: at least 10 people had been killed in student protests in June 2006. Conte, who had ruled the country since 1984, in April 2006 had fired Premier Cellou Dalein Diallo, and no replacement had been appointed. The general strike, which had begun Jan. 10, had been called to pressure Conte to step down. It had been sparked by Conte’s decision to free from prison two of his cronies who had been accused of corruption. Conte, in an apparent effort to appease the protesters, Jan. 19 fired close aide Fode Bangoura, the minister in charge of presidential affairs. He had reportedly been running the country’s daily affairs in place of the ailing Conte. Bangoura was replaced by Eugene Camara, the planning minister. [See 2006, p. 621F3] The strike Jan. 19 began to disrupt Guinea’s bauxite industry, as train shipments to the port of Kamsar were halted. The most violent day of the strike was Jan. 22, when security forces opened fire on rock-throwing protesters who were attempting to march from a suburb of Conakry to government buildings in the city center. The health ministry Jan. 25 said 44 people had been killed and 173 injured in the capital that day, while 15 others were killed and 50 more wounded in violence in other parts of the country. Guinea’s Human Rights League advocacy group Jan. 31 said at least 90 people had been killed and 300 others injured throughout the country during the strike. However, the official government death toll was 35 people, with 150 injured. „

Sudan U.N. Agencies Warn of Darfur Aid Collapse.

Fourteen United Nations aid agencies working in Sudan’s war-torn western Darfur region Jan. 17 issued a joint statement warning that their operations could collapse if the security situation did not improve. There were about 14,000 U.N. aid workers in Darfur, affiliated with agencies including the World Food Program (WFP), the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO). [See pp. 65A1, 17B2]

More than 200,000 people had died and some 2.5 million others had been displaced in Darfur since early 2003, amid fighting between local rebel groups and government-backed Arab militias known as the Janjaweed. A 7,000-member African Union (AU) peacekeeping force had been unable to quell the violence. Sudanese President Omar Hassan alBashir in a Jan. 24 interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) confirmed that his forces had recently bombed areas of northern Darfur, despite having agreed to a 60-day truce earlier in January. Rebel groups in the area Jan. 22 had alleged that government planes had bombed three villages. Bashir in the interview asserted that government forces were responding to attacks by the rebels, and added that 80% of the attacks on civilians in Darfur had been perpetrated by rebel forces. In 2006, the U.N. had approved a peacekeeping contingent for Darfur, but Bashir had refused to permit the force to enter Sudan. The U.N. was currently pushing for a hybrid U.N.-AU force to replace the AU force. The agencies in their Jan. 17 statement said, “The U.N. and its humanitarian partners have effectively been holding the line for the survival and protection of millions” in Darfur, but “that line cannot be held much longer.” The statement alleged that civilians in Darfur continued to suffer from “repeated military attacks, shifting frontlines and fragmentation of armed groups.” It added that 250,000 people had been displaced by fighting in the previous six months, and that “malnutrition rates are edging perilously close to the emergency threshold.” Additionally, they reported that “sexual violence against women is occurring at alarming rates.” The agencies said 12 aid workers had been killed in Darfur in the previous six months. That was more than the total for the previous two years combined. Assaults on aid workers and harassment by the government and rebel groups had been rising, raising the possibility that the aid groups would be forced to withdraw. Other News—In other news related to the Darfur conflict: † Zhai Jun, China’s assistant foreign minister, Jan. 24 defended China’s ties with Bashir’s regime, ahead of a planned visit to Sudan by Chinese President Hu Jintao in February. (The Sudan visit would be part of an eight-nation African tour by Hu.) China had been criticized by some for doing business with Sudan, including importing large amounts of Sudanese oil, without publicly pressing Bashir to improve the situation in Darfur. Zhai said China would exert influence in private to try to resolve the Darfur crisis, but maintained that “using pressure and imposing sanctions is not practical and will not settle the issue.” Some observers, including Andrew Natsios, the U.S.’s special envoy to Sudan, had praised China for recently shifting its policy and beginning to exert behind-thescenes pressure on Sudan regarding Darfur. [See 2006, p. 874E1] 65

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† A Sudanese man, Mahamat Abdelatif Mahamat, Jan. 24 hijacked a Sudanese Air West Boeing 747 jetliner traveling from Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, to El Fasher, capital of North Darfur state. Mahamat, wielding knives and a pistol, demanded that the plane be flown to London, but agreed to allow it to land in N’Djamena, the capital of neighboring Chad, after the captain told him there was not enough fuel to make it to London. Mahamat, 24, was arrested when the plane landed in N’Djamena, and the 103 people on board were freed unharmed. After his arrest, Mahamat said he had hijacked the plane in an effort to escape “degrading and humiliating treatment” in his native Darfur. † Activists and politicians had been pressing companies, pension funds and mutual funds to divest from Sudan due to the Darfur conflict, it was reported Jan. 28. Also, six U.S. states had passed laws barring the investment of pension money in companies that did business in Sudan, it was reported Feb. 1. An executive order issued by President Bill Clinton in 1997 barred U.S. companies from doing business in Sudan; however, they were still allowed to own shares in foreign companies that invested in Sudan. German engineering firm Siemens AG Jan. 22 said it would leave Sudan by June 30 for humanitarian reasons. [See 1997, p. 843E3] „

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Bolivia Demonstrators Killed in Cochabamba Protests.

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Thousands of protesters opposing the rule of Cochabamba state Gov. Manfred Reyes Villa Jan. 11 battled both police and Reyes supporters in clashes that left two people dead and at least 70 others injured. The Reyes opponents Jan. 8 had occupied the downtown area of Cochabamba city, about 125 miles (200 km) southeast of La Paz, the capital, in order to demand the governor’s ouster for criticizing President Evo Morales Aima. Thousands of Reyes supporters, some armed with sticks, machetes and guns, Jan. 11 had flooded the occupied area, along with an estimated police force of 1,500, sparking the clashes. [See 2006, p. 981F2] Reyes in December 2006 had aligned himself with four other state governors calling on Morales to increase the autonomy of Bolivia’s state governments. He had also derided Morales’s attempts to rewrite the constitution to grant the country’s native Indian population more equitable treatment by the government. The demonstrations had become emblematic of the larger divide between those who supported Morales’s leftist policy initiatives, and those who backed the state autonomy movement. Morales Jan. 14 met in Cochabamba city with coca farmers from the rural part of the state who had continued their protest in front of the state capitol building, pledging to support calls for Reyes’s dismissal. Morales the previous day, after meeting with members of a coca grower’s union, 66

had said the protesters’ demands had been justified, and accused Reyes of corruption. Morales himself was a former union head, and coca growers were among his most loyal constituents. „

ambassador to Canada, Jan. 24 said it was “presumptuous” for Day to tell the U.S. government whom it should allow within its borders.

Telecom Firm’s Nationalization Mulled.

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) Jan. 18 at a committee hearing assailed Gonzales for the government’s handling of the Arar case. To critics of the U.S.’s prosecution of its “war on terror,” the case had become symbolic of the problems associated with the practice of “extraordinary rendition,” by which U.S. officials covertly transported terrorism suspects to other countries, where they were often tortured. Leahy during the testimony described extraordinary rendition as one that had engendered the “condemnation of some of our closest and best allies.” In a Jan. 22 statement, Leahy called rendition an “abhorrent practice,” and added that he was “puzzled” by the refusal to remove Arar from the watch list. [See 2006, p. 915D2] „ First Pickton Murder Trial Begins. The trial of alleged serial killer Robert Pickton Jan. 22 officially opened in New Westminster, British Columbia. Although Pickton had been charged with 26 murders, the charges had been split up into separate trials to make matters more manageable for the jury, with the first trial focusing only on charges related to six murders. Another trial would deal with the remaining 20 murder charges. Pickton had first been arrested Feb. 22, 2002. [See 2006, p. 981G1] Prosecutors and law enforcement officials alleged that Pickton, a 57-year-old former pig farmer, had over a roughly 10year period taken at least 26 women, mostly drug addicts and prostitutes, from the destitute Downtown Eastside area of Vancouver to his farm outside the city and then murdered them. Investigators said they had found human remains and traces of DNA of several women who had disappeared from Downtown Eastside at Pickton’s farm during an 18-month search of the property conducted between February 2002 and November 2003. Several family members of those believed to have been killed by Pickton reportedly were brought to tears after hearing the prosecution’s Jan. 22 detailed outline of the grisly actions Pickton was accused of, including the dismemberment of his alleged victims. Prosecutors in their opening statement said Pickton had confessed to an undercover police officer planted in his cell that he had killed 49 women and planned to kill another to “make it an even 50.” Prosecutors Jan. 23–24 played videotaped portions of an 11-hour interrogation of Pickton conducted by police after his February 2002 arrest. „

President Evo Morales Aima Jan. 28 said the government was in nationalization negotiations with the majority stakeholder of Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicacions (ENTEL). Italy’s Telecom Italia SPA was a 50% stakeholder in ENTEL, the country’s largest telecommunications firm. Morales said, “We are obliged to take back those companies that were formerly run by the state.” ENTEL had been partially privatized in 1996, though a public retirement fund held a 44% stake. The remaining 6% stake was held by private investors. [See 2006, p. 866E1; 1995, p. 998B2] „

Canada Arar Receives C$11.5 Million Settlement.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper Jan. 26 announced that Syrian-born Canadian national Maher Arar would receive a C$11.5 million (US$9.75 million) settlement as redress for his 2002 deportation by U.S. authorities to Syria, where he was held and tortured for 10 months. Arar, 36, had been detained by U.S. authorities during a layover in New York City based on faulty information, provided by Canadian intelligence officials, alleging that he had ties to the Al Qaeda international terrorist network. A government inquiry report issued in September 2006 had cleared Arar of any links to terrorism. [See 2006, p. 980G3] Harper also formally apologized to Arar and his family for his deportation. “We cannot go back and fix the injustice that occurred to Mr. Arar,” said Harper. He added, “However, we can make changes to lessen the likelihood that something like this will ever happen again.” Arar, however, said there was “no amount of money” that could compensate him for his ordeal. U.S. Continues Travel Prohibition— A letter dated Jan. 16 written by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and publicly released Jan. 22, stated that Arar would remain on a U.S. “watch list” prohibiting him from entering the country. The U.S. officials cited intelligence gained on Arar that was “independent of that provided by Canada.” Despite his exoneration by the Canadian government, U.S. authorities had never admitted any wrongdoing in their handling of the Arar case. The U.S.’s continued watch listing of Arar had served as a source of tension between the governments of the U.S. and Canada. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day Jan. 18 said he had reviewed the U.S.’s intelligence dossier on Arar, which included classified information, and had seen nothing that warranted the U.S.’s position. Day Jan. 23 pressed the U.S. government to remove Arar from the watch list, which would allow him access to the U.S. However, David Wilkins, the U.S.

Leahy Criticizes Rendition Practice—

Mexico Calderon Institutes Corn Price Controls.

President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa Jan. 18 compelled corn producers to agree to price controls on their crops, which had appreciated significantly on the world market during the previous three weeks. Corn tortillas FACTS ON FILE

were a staple of the Mexican diet, and the price increase had sparked unrest in the country, as half the country’s population lived on $4 or less per day. [See 2006, p. 1018B1] Calderon said the agreement would cap corn tortilla prices at roughly 78 cents per kilogram. The nation’s retailers group said it would fix tortilla prices at or below 55 cents per kilo. Also, the country’s 22,000 government stores would carry corn at a price of 32 cents per kilogram under the accord. It was unclear what had caused the spike in corn prices, though some analysts attributed it to an increased U.S. demand for corn feed for use in the production of ethanol, an alternative fuel. However, Calderon said such demand would not explain the price increase in white corn, a main ingredient in tortilla production. He warned that anyone found to be hoarding or otherwise manipulating corn prices would be dealt with harshly under existing laws. „

Venezuela Law Expands Chavez’s Legislative Powers.

The National Assembly by unanimous vote Jan. 31 approved four articles of a measure granting President Hugo Chavez Frias the power to enact laws by decree. The new law allowed Chavez an 18-month period in which to issue decrees relating to 11 vaguely defined categories, which included the economy, energy, and national security and defense. Chavez said his expanded authority would allow him to institute a “maximum revolution,” referring to his plan for a socialist state in Venezuela. [See pp. 67B2, 18C2] Chavez’s new powers allowed him to proceed with nationalization plans for oil and telecommunications firms, and to institute wide-ranging banking and finance reforms. Chavez had previously indicated that he would use decree powers to strengthen the authority of local “communal councils” designed to increase citizens’ control over the local expenditure of federal funds. He had also said he would use his new authority to abolish presidential term limits. Chavez’s opponents derided the measure as one that granted the presidency too much power, with some calling the move a shift toward an authoritarian state. It had received little debate within the legislature, as a 2005 election boycott by opposition lawmakers had resulted in a congress completely filled with Chavez allies. [See 2005, p. 882G3] In recent months, Chavez had announced the nationalization of the country’s largest telecommunications firm, Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV), the revocation of a broadcasting license granted to television channel Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), a former venue for strident criticism of the presidency, and the attempted consolidation of his ruling coalition into a single political party. U.S. Reaction—U.S. President George W. Bush, a critic of Chavez’s administration, Jan. 31 said, in reaction to Chavez’s February 1, 2007

new powers, “I am concerned about the undermining of democratic institutions.” Tension between the two countries had spiked recently, after an edgy Jan. 25 exchange between Chavez and the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield. Chavez threatened to expel Brownfield from the country for remarks he had made earlier that day concerning CANTV’s nationalization. „ CANTV Takeover Ordered Before Payment.

President Hugo Chavez Frias Jan. 21 said the government would assume control of telecommunications firm Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV) before compensating its investors. CANTV, whose nationalization had been declared by Chavez earlier in the month, was majority-owned by the U.S.’s Verizon Communications Inc. Chavez also said the price paid for the firm would be reduced to account for pensions owed to exemployees and other obligations he said the company owed to the state. [See pp. 67C1, 18B2] Analysts said the move might have been precipitated by a decline in the price of oil; the Venezuelan government depended heavily on revenues garnered through the sale of domestically produced oil. Chavez the same day said the state-owned oil firm would reduce a subsidy on gasoline sold at the country’s gas stations. Chavez while attending a meeting of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc Jan. 19 had said CANTV was being used to spy on him, and intimated that the alleged espionage had occurred at the behest of U.S. interests. „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

China News in Brief. Alan Leong, a member of

the pro-democracy opposition in Hong Kong’s legislature, Jan. 31 said he had received the required number of nominations to qualify as a candidate for chief executive of the territory in a March election. Leong, who had announced his candidacy in November 2006, would be the first pro-democracy challenger to face a candidate backed by the Chinese central government. He said he had received 111 nominations from the 796-member electoral committee that chose the chief executive, exceeding the minimum threshold of 100. Incumbent Chief Executive Donald Tsang Jan. 15 had for the first time publicly confirmed that he would seek a new term, and he was widely expected to win easily. Tsang Feb. 1 agreed to participate in a televised debate with Leong. [See 2006, p. 914A1] Government statistics Jan. 23 indicated that gambling revenue in Macao had totaled $6.95 billion in 2006, meaning that Macao had surpassed Las Vegas, Nev., in the U.S., as the world’s largest gambling center. Macao’s revenue increased by 22% in 2006 over the previous year. Although official figures were not currently available, Las Vegas’s 2006 gambling revenue was estimated at about $6.5 billion. Macao,

a former Portuguese colony, was the only part of China where gambling was legal, and had recently attracted an influx of new investment from international gaming companies. [See 2002, p. 159E1] „

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Uzbekistan Opponents Claim President’s Term Expired.

Opponents of President Islam Karimov Jan. 22 asserted that the authoritarian leader’s term in office had officially expired that day. However, the government and state-run media made no mention of the expiration, and Karimov showed no signs of relinquishing power. [See 2002, p. 325G3] Karimov, 68, had come to power in 1989, when he was named head of the Communist Party in Uzbekistan, then a republic of the Soviet Union. He was first elected in 1991, after the Soviet Union broke apart. His first term was extended in a 1995 referendum. He was reelected in 1999, and his second term had begun Jan. 22, 2000. His second term, which originally was supposed to last five years, was extended for two years in a 2002 referendum. Under the constitution, presidents were limited to two terms. Therefore, opponents claimed, Jan. 22 marked the expiration of his rule. The constitution also mandated that elections be held in the December after a president’s term expired, meaning elections should take place in December 2007. In the interim, opposition activists claimed, Karimov’s government would be illegitimate. „

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EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Georgia Uranium-Smuggling Sting Revealed. Georgian authorities in early 2006 had arrested and convicted a Russian man who had offered to sell weapons-grade uranium to Georgian agents posing as representatives of a militant Muslim group, the New York Times reported Jan. 25. Georgia’s interior ministry that day confirmed details of the case, which had proceeded in secret. The Russian man, Oleg Khinsagov, had been arrested Feb. 1, 2006, and later sentenced to eight and a half years in prison in a secret trial. [See 2006, p. 716E1] The case raised concerns about a possible revival of a black market in nuclear materials centered on the former Soviet Union. Such smuggling had abated since the late 1990s, as the U.S. assisted former Soviet republics in establishing stricter security regimes. A U.S. laboratory analysis had concluded that the uranium had likely been produced in Russia, although a Russian report suggested greater uncertainty about its origins. Authorities said Khinsagov had demanded $1 million for 100 grams (3.5 oz) of the uranium, which was enriched to a level of 90% uranium-235, making it weapons-grade. He had said that was a sample of a total cache of two to three kilograms (4.5 to 6.5 lbs). The sting operation 67

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in which he was arrested had been assisted by the U.S.’s Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Energy Department. Khinsagov was a resident of North Ossetia, a Russian region contiguous with Georgia’s South Ossetia, a breakaway republic whose separatist movement was supported by Russia. Georgia contended that South Ossetia permitted rampant smuggling activities, but the republic’s foreign minister, Murat Dzhoyev, had dismissed the notion that “nuclear materials are going through South Ossetia,” the Times reported. However, the paper quoted U.S. ambassador to Georgia John Tefft as saying that the case illustrated that “smuggling and loose border control, associated with Georgia’s separatist conflicts” were a threat to “the international community.” Georgian Interior Minister Ivane (Vano) Merabishvili Jan. 25 said he had made the case public in order to demonstrate the need for cooperation on security matters in the region, contending that Russia had shown little inclination to respond to the case. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Jan. 26 condemned the detention of Khinsagov as unfounded and a “provacation.” Separately, Russia’s ambassador to Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, returned to Georgia Jan. 23. He had been withdrawn by Russia in October 2006 amid a dispute in which Georgia detained and then deported four Russian soldiers accused of spying. He expressed a desire to repair bilateral relations, and met Jan. 30 with Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili. [See 2006, p. 787B1] „

Germany Warrants Issued for Arrest of CIA Agents.

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German prosecutors in Munich Jan. 31 issued warrants for the arrest of 13 U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives suspected of kidnapping and inflicting bodily harm on a German citizen, Khaled el-Masri. Masri, a car salesman of Lebanese origin, claimed to have been kidnapped in Macedonia in December 2003 and flown to Afghanistan, where he said he was detained for five months, and beaten and interrogated about purported terrorist links. He said he was released in Albania in May 2004 after his CIA captors realized that they had confused him with someone else. [See 2006, p. 1001B3] Prosecutors said they were still trying to learn the real identities of the 13 suspects. German state broadcaster NDR Jan. 31 reported what it said were the names of the suspects listed on the warrant, although it said most were cover names. The U.S. State Department and the CIA declined to comment on the warrants. The U.S. was not expected to agree to extradite the suspects, but the warrants could restrict their freedom to travel in Europe. In 2006, Italian prosecutors had issued arrest warrants for 25 suspected CIA agents in the 2003 abduction of a Muslim cleric who claimed to have been flown to Egypt and tortured. 68

The reputed CIA program of seizing terrorism suspects abroad and transferring them for interrogation and detention to third countries, including some known for practicing torture, was called “extraordinary rendition.” It had drawn strong criticism from European politicians and human rights groups, which had also accused European governments of collabo„ rating with the CIA in such activities.

Great Britain Terrorist Plot to Kidnap Soldier Foiled.

Police Jan. 31 carried out early morning raids on homes and businesses in mostly Muslim areas of the city of Birmingham, in central England, arresting nine men suspected of belonging to a terrorist group that had plotted to kidnap, torture and murder a British Muslim soldier. The plotters allegedly intended to behead the soldier and post a video of his execution on the Internet. A court in Coventry Feb. 1 granted a police request to detain the men for seven days for questioning. [See p. 51D3; 2006, p. 884F1] The intended victim was a lance corporal who had recently returned to Britain after serving in Afghanistan, according to news reports that cited unnamed officials. He and members of his family reportedly had been placed under police protection. The suspects were said to be Islamists who designed the plot as a warning to fellow Muslims against serving in the British armed forces. According to the Ministry of Defence, there were about 330 Muslim soldiers in the British armed forces, out of a total of 180,000 troops. Muslims, mostly of South Asian origin, made up about 14% of Birmingham’s population of one million, according to a 2001 census. Some residents of the neighborhoods that the police raided said they were skeptical of the case against the men, citing one instance in 2006 of terrorism suspects being arrested and then released without charge. British police had carried out repeated antiterrorism raids since July 2005 suicide bombings by British-born Muslims killed 52 commuters in London. [See 2006, p. 475G3] „ Blair Questioned Again in Corruption Probe.

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office Feb. 1 disclosed that police had questioned him for a second time in an investigation of allegations that his Labour Party had illegally nominated wealthy supporters to the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of Parliament, in exchange for secret campaign loans. The second interview had taken place Jan. 26, but police had asked that it be kept confidential for several days, according to Blair’s office, which noted that he had been questioned as a witness, not a suspect. [See 2006, p. 983B2] Police Jan. 30 had arrested Lord Levy, Blair’s top fund-raiser and Middle East envoy. Levy had already been arrested once in the corruption probe, in July 2006. He was questioned on suspicion of having attempted to obstruct the investigation, an

offense known in Britain as “conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.” Police Jan. 19 had arrested Ruth Turner, a senior political aide to Blair, on the same suspicion, and in connection with violating a 1925 law barring the sale of state honors. She and Levy were both released on bail after questioning, without being charged. Both denied any wrongdoing. Blair issued a statement of support for Turner after her arrest, calling her “a person of the highest integrity.” David Cameron, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, during a debate in the House of Commons, the lower chamber of Parliament, Jan. 31 called on Blair to resign, saying, “Your authority is draining away. Why don’t you accept what everybody knows—it is now in the national interest for you to go.” In September 2006, Blair had said he would resign within a year’s time, without setting a specific date. „

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Israel News in Brief. U.S.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack Jan. 29 announced that the department that day had notified Congress that Israel might have violated a ban on using cluster bombs in civilian areas during its war with the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah in summer 2006. Israel had agreed to the restriction when it bought the munitions from the U.S., and had used them heavily in the closing days of the war. The notification came in the form of a classified preliminary report sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) and Sen. Joseph Biden (D, Del.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. McCormack noted that during the war Hezbollah militants often “hid themselves among civilian populations,” and that it would be up to Congress to decide how to respond to any Israeli violation of the ban. [See 2006, p. 674F1] Premier Ehud Olmert’s cabinet Jan. 28 approved Raleb Majadele as the new minister of science, culture and sports, making him the first Arab Muslim minister in the history of the Jewish state. Only one member of the cabinet, Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home) party, voted to oppose the appointment. Majadele replaced Ophir Pines-Paz, who had resigned in October 2006 to protest the addition of Yisrael Beiteinu to the ruling coalition. Defense Minister Amir Peretz, leader of Majadele’s Labor Party, called the move “a significant, historic step toward equality and peace in the region.” [See 2006, p. 845A1] Former Justice Minister Haim Ramon Jan. 31 was convicted of sexual misconduct for kissing a female soldier against her will. Ramon was to be sentenced in February, and faced up to three years in prison, though legal commentators deemed it unlikely that he would be given a jail sentence. Ramon said he would appeal the conviction. [See p. 54A3; 2006, p. 806A1] „ FACTS ON FILE

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan U.S. Pledges $10 Billion in Aid. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Jan. 25 announced that President George W. Bush would ask Congress for $10.6 billion in aid to Afghanistan. Speaking to reporters as she flew to Brussels, Belgium’s capital, to attend a meeting of the foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Rice said, “The challenges of the last several months have demonstrated that we want to and we should redouble our efforts” to support Afghanistan. The previous year had witnessed an increase in attacks by Taliban rebels seeking to overthrow Afghanistan’s government. Since ousting the ruling Taliban regime in 2001, the U.S. had given $14.2 billion in security and development aid to the country. [See below, p. 38A1] An unidentified senior U.S. State Department official Jan. 25 said $8.6 billion of the aid would be directed toward Afghanistan’s security forces, both to help train and equip them and to add 82,000 police and 70,000 soldiers. The remainder would be directed toward reconstruction projects, such as building roads, laying power lines and antinarcotics efforts. The U.S. Defense Department Jan. 26 issued a statement announcing that it would extend the tour of duty of a 3,200member brigade already in Afghanistan by up to four months. Together with other troop rotations, that would increase the number of U.S. troops in the country by roughly 2,500. Rice Jan. 26 addressed ministers at the NATO meeting, asking them to increase the amount of monetary aid and the number of troops being contributed to Afghanistan. Rice also touted the increase in aid from the U.S. made the day before, and insisted that “nations that have made pledges of support should follow through and deliver.” Despite the appeal, none of the other nations in attendance committed to any large increases in support. Separately, foreign affairs commissioner Benita Ferrero of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, Jan. 29 said the commission would contribute $775 million to help reform Afghanistan’s justice system. In another development, a meeting of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board—a body created to oversee implementation of the Afghanistan Compact, a five-year plan for improving Afghanistan’s economy—Jan. 31 said only seven of the 12 benchmarks set to be achieved by the end of 2006 had actually been accomplished. The group met in Berlin, Germany’s capital. [See 2006, p. 76A2] Other News—In other Afghan news: † Afghan officials Jan. 25 announced that President Hamid Karzai had decided against spraying illegally cultivated opium poppies with herbicide as part of the country’s antinarcotics effort. Officials said the decision was based on concerns about the February 1, 2007

damage the herbicide might do to people and legitimate crops. † NATO Jan. 26 announced that a coalition airstrike had killed a suspected senior Taliban leader in southern Afghanistan. † Mawlawi Mohammed Islam Mohammedi, a member of the current legislature and a former official under the Taliban regime, Jan. 26 was shot to death in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. The motive for the shooting was not clear. Mohammedi had overseen the 2001 destruction of two gigantic pre-Islamic Buddha statues carved into a cliff face in the region of Bamiyan. [See 2001, p. 199C2] † Karzai Jan. 29 implied that he was willing to hold peace talks with Taliban rebels. Speaking at a religious gathering in Kabul, Karzai said, “While we are fighting for our honor, we still open the door for talks and negotiations with our enemy who is after our annihilation.” [See p. 37D3] „

Pakistan Suicide Bomber Strikes Near Shiite Mosque.

At least 14 people were killed and some 30 others wounded when a suicide bomber Jan. 27 blew himself up in a busy bazaar a few hundred feet from a Shiite Muslim mosque in the northern city of Peshawar. Most of the victims were police and government officials who had been working to clear a route for a Shiite procession that day marking the sect’s Ashura holy day. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, although extremist Sunni Muslim elements were presumed to have been behind it. [See p. 38D2] Meanwhile, a U.S. congressional delegation met with President Pervez Musharraf in the capital, Islamabad, about curbing Islamic militancy. The president denounced the latest “terrorist attack,” and sent paramilitary patrols to guard Peshawar. Two other, smaller attacks on Ashura rituals were reported Jan. 30—one near the Afghan border and one in Bannu in North West Frontier Province. Two policemen were killed and 18 people were injured in the two attacks. Islamabad Hotel Attacked—A hotel guard Jan. 26 was killed trying to stop a suicide bomber from entering the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. The attacker detonated his explosives when it appeared he would not get through the entrance. Seven people were wounded, but none were hotel guests. The hotel was popular with foreigners and government officials, and the U.S. embassy afterward warned Americans to stay away from the area. Musharraf in response repeated Pakistan’s “unwavering commitment” to fighting terrorism and extremism. Four Killed in Military Convoy Attack—

A suicide bomb attack on a military convoy in the North Waziristan tribal region along the border with Afghanistan Jan. 22 killed four people, including a civilian, and injured 23 more, according to witnesses. The bombing threatened to derail a peace agreement signed in 2006 between North Waziristan tribal insurgents sympathetic to

Afghanistan’s Taliban Islamic militia and the government. North Waziristan Taliban forces Jan. 22 issued a statement denying any hand in the attack, saying, “We want to maintain the peace agreement and the government should also do so.” The bombing occurred six days after a commander of militant pro-Taliban tribesmen in neighboring South Waziristan warned the Pakistani military that it would suffer revenge for air strikes targeting alleged militant compounds. The Pakistani military Jan. 22 said it was lodging a “strong protest” with the U.S. over an incident in which a soldier at a North Waziristan border post was killed by a rocket fired by a U.S. helicopter from across the border. Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan in an interview published Jan. 21 in the Washington Post denied reports that a U.S. aircraft had taken part in the South Waziristan air strikes. As Pakistan came under increasing criticism for its failure to quash insurgent activity on its side of the border, David Richards, the outgoing North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commander in Afghanistan, had defended the government’s record, the Post reported Jan. 21. In a recent interview, he had said, “They are determined to bear down on the insurgency. But when they help us, they get no credit for it.” „

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SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Horse Racing Barbaro Euthanized After Serious Setback.

Racehorse Barbaro, winner of the 2006 Kentucky Derby, Jan. 29 was euthanized at the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square. Veterinarians, led by Dr. Dean Richardson, had undertaken a high-profile effort to save Barbaro’s life after he broke his right hind leg in three places during the Preakness Stakes in May 2006. [See 2006, p. 903D3] Horses who suffered injuries as serious as Barbaro’s were often euthanized on the track or soon after, due to the low chances of recovery and the high cost of treatment. However, Barbaro’s owners, Roy Jackson and his wife, Gretchen Jackson, had made it clear from the start that money was not a factor in their decisions regarding Barbaro’s treatment. [See p. 70A2] Efforts to save Barbaro—who had been undefeated prior to the Preakness—had captured the nation’s attention, and gifts and well-wishes poured into the New Bolton Center daily. The colt had been given a bleak prognosis from the beginning, and in July 2006 had suffered a serious setback when he developed laminitis in his left rear hoof. Laminitis, which was usually caused by uneven weight distribution, was a potentially fatal inflammation of the hoof. However, Barbaro had appeared to be on the mend after undergoing an operation in which Richardson removed 80% of the hoof. 69

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suffered a serious injury in the Preakness weeks later, lost out in Horse of the Year voting, receiving 21 votes to Invasor’s 228. Barbaro was euthanized one week after the awards ceremony. [See p. 69D3] Barbaro’s owners, husband and wife team Roy and Gretchen Jackson and their Lael Stables, were named outstanding owners, along with Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s Darley Stables, owner of Preakness Stakes winner Bernardini. Barbaro’s jockey, Edgar Prado, was named top jockey. The Jacksons and the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, where Barbaro was treated, were given a special award for their contribution to the sport of horse racing. Other Winners—Other Eclipse Award winners were:

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Barbaro suffered another setback earlier in January, when he developed an abscess on his right hind foot. He underwent surgery Jan. 27, but, after it appeared that laminitis was developing in his front hooves and Barbaro was showing signs of extreme discomfort, Richardson and the Jacksons made the decision to euthanize him. “That left him with not a good leg to stand on,” Richardson said Jan. 29. “He was just a different horse. You could see he was upset. That was the difference. It was more than we wanted to put him through.” Roy Jackson Jan. 29 said that, after the latest setbacks, “We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain.” The National Thoroughbred Racing Association Feb. 1 established the Barbaro Memorial Fund, which would raise money for research into equine health and safety issues. Observers noted that the experience of treating Barbaro could lead to advances in the treatment of serious equine injuries. „ Invasor Named Horse of the Year. Argentine-bred colt Invasor, winner of the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Classic, Jan. 22 was named Horse of the Year for 2006 at the annual Eclipse Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. Voting for the awards was conducted by representatives of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Equibase, and writers and members of the Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers Association. [See 2006, pp. 903A2, 82D2] Invasor, who had won all four of the races he entered in North America in 2006, was owned by Sheik Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum, a member of the ruling family of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The five-year-old was also named best older male horse. Sentimental favorite Barbaro, who had won the May 2006 Kentucky Derby but 70

Top two-year-old male: Street Sense Top two-year-old female: Dreaming of Anna Top three-year-old male: Bernardini Top three-year-old female: Wait a While Top older female: Fleet Indian Top sprinter: Thor’s Echo Top male turf horse: Miesque’s Approval Top female turf horse: Ouija Board Top steeplechase horse: McDynamo Outstanding breeder: Adena Springs Outstanding trainer: Todd Pletcher Outstanding apprentice jockey: Julien Leparoux „

Tennis Federer, S. Williams Win Australian Open.

Top seed Roger Federer of Switzerland Jan. 28 won the men’s title at the Australian Open, defeating 10th seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, 7–6, 6–4, 6–4, in Melbourne. Unseeded Serena Williams of the U.S. Jan. 27 had trounced top seed Maria Sharapova of Russia, 6–1, 6–2, to win the women’s title at the Australian Open, the first of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments in tennis. [See 2006, p. 81A3] Federer, 25, claimed his third Australian Open and his 10th overall Grand Slam title, moving into a tie for fifth on the career list with Bill Tilden. He also became the first player to win a Grand Slam without dropping a set since Bjorn Borg of Sweden did so at the 1980 French Open. The only time Federer faced a set point was in the first set against Gonzalez. [See 1980, p. 606B3] In the semifinals Jan. 26, Federer had dominated sixth-seeded Andy Roddick of the U.S., 6–4, 6–0, 6–2, and Gonzalez achieved a similarly resounding victory over 12th-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany, 6–1, 6–3, 6–1. Underdog Williams Shocks Sharapova—

The Jan. 27 Australian Open victory by Williams, a former top-ranked player who had fallen to number 81 due to injury layoffs and poor form, surprised many observers. Williams, 25, had not won a Grand Slam title since the 2005 Australian Open. Williams beat six seeded players on her way to becoming the first unseeded woman to win the title since Australia’s Chris O’Neil in 1978. After her victory, Williams jumped to number 14 in the world.

In the semifinals Jan. 25, Williams had defeated 10th-seeded Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic, 7–6, 6–4, and Sharapova beat fourth seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium, 6–4, 6–2. Doubles Results—Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Liezel Huber of South Africa Jan. 26 defeated the Taiwanese pair of Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung, 6– 4, 6–7, 6–1, to win the women’s doubles title. In the men’s doubles final, the U.S. twin-brother team of Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan Jan. 27 beat Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Max Mirnyi of Belarus, 7–5, 7–5, to win the championship. In mixed doubles, Elena Likhovtseva of Russia and Daniel Nestor of Canada Jan. 28 beat Belarus’s Victoria Azarenka and Mirnyi, 6–4, 6–4, to capture the title. „

Hockey West Wins NHL All-Star Game. The Western Conference Jan. 24 defeated the Eastern Conference, 12–9, in the National Hockey League (NHL) All-Star Game in Dallas, Texas. Buffalo Sabres forward Daniel Briere, who had a goal and four assists for the East, was named the game’s most valuable player (MVP). [See 2004, p. 193A3] The NHL had not held an All-Star Game since 2004, due to a lockout that wiped out the entire 2004–05 season, and then due to the February 2006 Winter Olympics, in which NHL stars participated in lieu of an All-Star Game. The West was coached by Randy Carlyle of the Anaheim Ducks, and the East was led by Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. Elected as starters for the West were: forwards Joe Thornton (San Jose Sharks), Joe Sakic (Colorado Avalanche) and Jonathan Cheechoo (San Jose); defensemen Scott Niedermayer (Anaheim) and Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit Red Wings); and goaltender Roberto Luongo (Vancouver Canucks). Elected to start for the East were: forwards Briere, Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins) and Alexander Ovechkin (Washington Capitals); defensemen Brian Campbell (Buffalo) and Sheldon Souray (Montreal Canadiens); and goaltender Ryan Miller (Buffalo). „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Awards ALA Announces Children’s Book Prizes. The American Library Association (ALA)

Jan. 22 announced the winners of the John Newbery Medal and the Randolph Caldecott Medal, the most prestigious honors for children’s literature in the U.S. [See 2006, p. 60F1] The Newbery Medal for the best children’s book published in the U.S. in 2006 went to Susan Patron for The Higher Power of Lucky, a novel about a young girl in a small California town trying to cope with the loss of her mother, who died in a desert storm. Patron, a Los Angeles librarian, had worked on the book for 10 years. The Caldecott Medal for the top picture book for children went to David Wiesner FACTS ON FILE

for Flotsam, a wordless story about a boy who finds a camera on a beach and has magical experiences after developing the film in it. Wiesner had previously won the Caldecott Medal twice, in 2002 and 1992. [See 2002, p. 64B2; 1992, p. 104G2] The Michael L. Printz Award, for the best book written for young adults, went to Gene Luen Yang for American Born Chinese, a graphic novel about what it meant to grow up as a Chinese American. The Printz Award was relatively new, having first been presented in 2000, and Yang reportedly had not even known about it before he won it. [See 2000, p. 40F1] „

Theater Openings Half Life. Prize-winning Canadian drama about two

nursing-home residents who become romantically involved, and then start thinking they actually had an affair decades earlier, during World War II; the woman’s son and the man’s daughter are also drawn to each other. By John Mighton. Directed by Daniel Brooks. With Carolyn Hetherington, Eric Peterson, Laura De Carteret, Diego Matamoros and Randy Hughson. In Toronto, Ontario, at the Bluma Appel Theatre. Jan. 11. High School Musical. World premiere production of a musical based on a Disney Channel made-for-television movie, written by Peter Barsocchini, in which a high-school drama club prepares to stage a musical called Juliet and Romeo. Book by David Simpatico; music adapted, arranged and produced by Bryan Louiselle. Directed by Peter Rothstein; choreographed by Michael Matthew Ferrell. With Benjamin R. Bakken, Katie Allen, Isabella Dawis, Laura Otremba, Brian Skellenger, Steve Sweere and Beth Gilleland. In Minneapolis, Minn., at the Children’s Theater Co.’s Cargill Stage. Jan. 5. [See 2006, p. 540E1] The Scene. A seductive young woman moves from Ohio to New York City, where she disrupts the lives of three locals, a show-business couple and a male friend of theirs. By Theresa Rebeck. Directed by Rebecca Taichman. With Anna Camp, Tony Shalhoub, Patricia Heaton and Christopher Evan Welch. In New York City, at the Second Stage Theater. Jan. 11. There Came a Gypsy Riding. An Irish family reunites on what would have been the 21st birthday of one of its members, who committed suicide at 19. By Frank McGuinness. Directed by Michael Attenborough. With Imelda Staunton, Eileen Atkins, Ian McElhinney, Elaine Cassidy and Aidan McArdle. In London, at the Almeida Theatre. Jan. 18. 13. Musical in which the main character is a Jewish boy who, with his divorced mother, moves from New York City, with its large Jewish population, to Indiana, where Jews are scarce, shortly before his bar mitzvah. Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown; book by Dan Elish. Directed by Todd Graff. With Ricky Ashley, Sara Niemietz, Tyler Mann and Emma Degerstedt. In Los Angeles, at the Mark Taper Forum. Jan. 7. „

People Journalist Dean Baquet, who in November 2006 had quit under pressure as chief editor of the Los Angeles Times after resisting job cuts at the newspaper, had been named Washington, D.C., bureau chief of the New York Times, it was reported Jan. 31. Baquet, 50, one of the US.’s leading black journalists, had been national editor of the New York Times before joining the Los Angeles Times in 2000. He would resume working for the New York Times in March, succeeding its current D.C. bureau chief, Philip Taubman, 58. Taubman would become the newspaper’s associate editor, a title last held by R.W. Apple Jr., who died in October 2006. Taubman would also be doing investigative reporting on national security issues, after being transferred to California. [See 2006, pp. 931A3, D3, 775F2] February 1, 2007

Competing as Miss Oklahoma, Lauren Nelson, a 20-year-old music-theater student

at the University of Central Oklahoma, Jan. 29 was crowned the winner of the 86th Miss America beauty pageant at the Aladdin Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev. It was the pageant’s second year in Las Vegas, and the second year in a row that it was won by a Miss Oklahoma. [See 2006, p. 60B2] Actor Isaiah Washington, 43, who starred in the ABC television network’s popular medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” Jan. 24 announced that he had begun treatment for what one of the show’s producers called “behavioral issues.” Washington had initially drawn heat in October 2006 when he directed a homosexual slur against one of his “Grey’s Anatomy” costars, T.R. Knight. He had ratcheted up the controversy by repeating the slur Jan. 15, at the Golden Globes Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. After the October incident, Knight, 33, had publicly acknowledged being gay. [See p. 40C1; 2006, p. 944A2] The Pittsburgh (Pa.) Symphony Orchestra Jan. 23 announced that it had selected Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck, 48, to succeed the trio of conductors who, in an unusual arrangement, had been named to lead the orchestra after Mariss Jansons gave his final performances in May 2004. The members of the trio—Sir Andrew Davis, Pascal Tortelier and Marek Jankowski—had been signed for three years; Honeck, who had recently ended a six-year stint as director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, would replace them in September 2008. [See 2004, p. 1099E1] British supermodel Naomi Campbell, 36, Jan. 16 in New York City pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in connection with a March 2006 incident at her New York apartment in which a woman, then employed as a maid, had been injured. The woman, Ana Scolavino, had been hit in the back of the head by a cellphone thrown by Campbell during an argument over a pair of jeans; she sustained a gash that required medical attention. In pleading guilty, Campbell read a statement in which she claimed that she “did not intend to hit” Scolavino. After entering her plea, Campbell was sentenced to five days of community service, and was ordered to attend anger-management classes and to pay Scolavino’s $362.32 medical bill. [See 2006, p. 564E1; 2004, p. 468A3] A publicist for country singer Keith Urban Jan. 16 confirmed that Urban, 39, had completed three months of rehabilitation for alcohol abuse at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Urban Jan. 22 posted a message on his Web site in which he said he had expected to stay at the Ford clinic for only 30 days, but had decided to prolong his stay considerably. [See 2006, p. 847G2] „

O B I T UA R I E S BEZZERIDES, A(lbert) I(saac) (Buzz), 98, author whose novel Long Haul (1938) was turned into the Hollywood melodrama They Drive By Night (1940), starring George Raft and Humphrey Bogart; he became a screenwriter himself, and produced the screenplays for such film noir classics as Thieves’ Highway (1949)—based on a novel of his—On Dangerous

Ground (1952) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955); born Aug. 9, 1908, in Samsun, Turkey, then part of the Ottoman Empire; died Jan. 1 at a hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif., after a brief illness. [See 1954, p. 435B1; 1953, p. 438A3; Indexes 1952, 1949]

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DOHERTY, Denny (Dennis Gerrard Stephen),

66, Canadian singer who was one of two male members of the 1960s folk-pop group the Mamas and the Papas, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998; only one of the group’s members, Michelle Phillips, was still alive; after the group broke up, Doherty returned to Canada, where he starred in a popular 1990s children’s television show, “Theodore Tugboat”; born Nov. 29, 1940, in Halifax, Nova Scotia; died Jan. 19 at his home in Mississauga, Ontario; his kidneys had failed after recent surgery for an abdominal aneurysm and he had been put on dialysis. [See 2001, p. 220D3; 1998, p. 24F1; 1974, p. 720A2] DRINAN, Rev. Robert Frederick, 86, first Roman Catholic priest elected to Congress; a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts, he won his first congressional election in 1970 and was reelected four times; in 1973, amid the Watergate scandal, he filed the first impeachment resolution against then-President Richard Nixon, although not in connection with Watergate; what had aroused his ire was the Nixon administration’s secret bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War; in 1980, he decided not to seek a sixth term after Pope John Paul II ordered him to either renounce politics or exit the priesthood; after leaving Congress, he taught law at Georgetown University; he had been dean of Boston College Law School before running for Congress; born Nov. 15, 1920, in Boston, Mass.; died Jan. 28 in Washington, D.C., of pneumonia and congestive heart failure. [See 1998, pp. 886F1, 833E1; 1981, p. 473F2–C3; Indexes 1969–80] HILLIER, James, 91, Canadian-born physicist who in 1940 codeveloped North America’s first commercially successful electronic microscope for RCA Corp.; later, as research director of RCA Laboratories, he oversaw advances in such technologies as color television and liquid crystal displays (LCDs); he won an Albert Lasker Award for basic medical research in 1960 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, in 1980; born Aug. 22, 1915, in Brantford, Ontario; died Jan. 15 at a hospital in Princeton, N.J., of a stroke. [See 1941, p. 111M] IVINS, Molly (Mary Tyler), 62, liberal newspaper columnist known for her witty sallies against politicians, particularly those associated with Texas, her home state; in recent years, she had taken special aim at President George W. Bush, who was governor of Texas before entering the White House in 2001; her nickname for Bush was “Shrub,” and she co-authored two best-selling books about him, Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush (2000) and Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America (2003); her journalism career included a stint as co-editor of the biweekly Texas Observer (1970–76), six years at the New York Times (1976–82) and writing columns for the Dallas Times-Herald (1982–91) and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (1991–2001); she had been a nationally syndicated columnist since 2001; over the years, she also appeared as a commentator on “60 Minutes” and other television shows; born Aug. 30, 1944, in Monterey, Calif.; died Jan. 31 at her home in Austin, Texas, after a seven-year battle with breast cancer. [See 1996, p. 121A1] KENRICK, Rev. Bruce Henderson, 86, Presbyterian minister who in 1966 founded the British housing charity Shelter; born Jan. 18, 1920, in Aintree, England; died Jan. 15 on the Scottish island of Iona. [See 2004, p. 40E3] MENOTTI, Gian Carlo, 95, composer and organizer of music festivals; as a composer, he was mainly known for his operas, which were written in a conservative, romantic idiom; the most frequently performed of these works was Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951), the first opera commissioned especially for television; two of his other operas, The Consul (1950) and The Saint of Bleecker Street (1954), won Pulitzer Prizes; both were originally produced on Broadway, a tribute to his popularity at the time; he wrote most of his own librettos, as well as librettos for two operas by Samuel Barber, with whom he had a long relationship, although they lived apart for some years before Barber’s death in 1981; in 1958, he launched the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, which quickly became a major international showcase for the arts; he was later associated with similar ventures in Melbourne, Australia, and, more conspicuously, in Charleston, S.C.; in 1993, he severed his ties with the Charleston festival, after bitterly clashing with its board of directors; born July 7, 1911, in Cadegliano, Italy; died Feb. 1 at a hospital in Monaco; the cause of his death was not reported. [See 1994, p. 696F2; 1993,

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BEST SELLER LISTS

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Publishers Weekly Jan. 29 listed the following hardback and paperback best sellers [See 2006, p. 1043A1]:

Top-Rated Programs. The following were the most-watched prime-time national television shows Jan. 1–28 as determined by A.C. Nielsen Co. (Series marked with an asterisk * had at least one other episode during the period that outranked some of the other programs listed.) Figures in parentheses are rating points; each point represents 1% of the 110.2 million television households in the U.S. [See 2006, p. 1043A2]:

Fiction Hardback

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1. Plum Lovin’, by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s) 2. For One More Day, by Mitch Albom (Hyperion) 3. Cross, by James Patterson (Little, Brown) 4. You Suck: A Love Story, by Christopher Moore (Morrow) 5. Next, by Michael Crichton (HarperCollins) General Hardback 1. The Best Life Diet, by Bob Greene (Simon & Schuster) 2. You: On A Diet: The Owner’s Manual for Waist Management, by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. (Free Press) 3. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, by Barack Obama (Crown) 4. The Proper Care & Feeding of Marriage, by Laura Schlessinger (HarperCollins) 5. The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, by John Grisham (Doubleday) Mass Market Paperback 1. Honeymoon, by James Patterson and Howard Roughan (Warner) 2. Point Blank, by Catherine Coulter (Jove) 3. Slow Burn, by Julie Garwood (Ballantine) 4. Gone, by Lisa Gardner (Jove) 5. Sun Kissed, by Catherine Anderson (Signet)

Music Best-Selling Singles and Albums. Billboard magazine in its Jan. 27 issue listed

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the five most popular singles (as determined by air play and sales) and the five best-selling record, tape and compact disc albums in the U.S. as the following [See 2006, p. 1043C1]:

Singles 1. “Irreplaceable,” Beyonce (Columbia) 2. “I Wanna Love You,” Akon featuring Snoop Dogg (Konvict/Upfront/ SRC/Universal Motown) 3. “Fergalicious,” Fergie (will.i.am/A&M/Interscope) 4. “Say It Right,” Nelly Furtado (Mosley/Geffen) 5. “Smack That,” Akon featuring Eminem (Konvict/Upfront/SRC/Universal Motown) Albums

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1. Dreamgirls, soundtrack (MusicWorld/Columbia/Sony) 2. Konvicted, Akon (Konvict/Upfront/SRC/Universal Motown/UMRG) 3. Future Sex/LoveSounds, Justin Timberlake (Jive/Zomba) 4. Daughtry, Daughtry (RCA/RMG) 5. Jump In!, soundtrack (Walt Disney) p. 1007G3; Indexes 1990–91, 1986, 1968–69, 1958, 1954–55, 1950–52, 1947] NOYD, Dale Edwin, 73, decorated U.S. Air Force captain and fighter pilot who in the 1960s drew attention as a conscientious objector who opposed one conflict only, the Vietnam War; he was eventually courtmartialed for disobeying orders, and was convicted and sentenced, in March 1968, to a year in prison, and given a dishonorable discharge; born May 1, 1933, in Wenatchee, Wash.; died Jan. 11 in Seattle, Wash., from complications of emphysema. [See 1969, pp. 543E3, 391G2; 1968, p. 132F3; Index 1967] PARSONS, Benny, 65, stock-car racer who in 1998, the year NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Racing) celebrated its 50th anniversary, was honored as one of its 50 greatest drivers; he won the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s top event, in 1975, and was the first stock-car racer to surpass 200 miles per hour in qualifying for a race, going 200.176 mph at the 1982 Winston 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway; in recent years, he had been a stock-car-racing broadcaster; born July 21, 1941, in North Wilkesboro, N.C.; died Jan. 16 at a hospital in Charlotte, N.C., of lung cancer. [See 1987, pp. 855G3, 194D3, 111D3; 1980, p. 1002D1, E1; Indexes 1977–78, 1975, 1973] SALTZMAN, Percy, 91, first meteorologist to work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC); on Sept. 8, 1952, when the CBC launched its English-language TV broadcasts, he was the first person to appear live on the air; born March 11, 1915, in Winnipeg, Manitoba; died

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1. “American Football Conference (AFC) Championship” (CBS), Jan. 21 (26.4) 2. “American Idol,” (Fox), Jan. 16 (20.3)* 3. (tie) “AFC Championship Post-Game” (CBS), Jan. 21 (17.4) “Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship,” (Fox), Jan. 8 (17.4) 5. “National Football Conference Playoff Game: Dallas–Seattle,” (NBC), Jan. 6 (16.4)

Films Top-Grossing Films. The following were the top-grossing films in the U.S. for

the week of Jan. 26–Feb. 1 according to Variety. Figures in parentheses were each film’s cumulative box office total and number of weeks in release to date. Information on cast and director is included when a film first appears on the list. [See 2006, p. 1043B2]:

1. Epic Movie, 20th Century Fox ($21.1 million, 1) Directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. With Kal Penn, Adam Campbell, Jennifer Coolidge, Jayma Mays and Faune Chambers. 2. Smokin’ Aces, Universal ($18.6 million, 1) Directed by Joe Carnahan. With Ben Affleck, Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Andy Garcia and Alicia Keys. 3. Night at the Museum, 20th Century Fox ($218.6 million, 6) [See 2006, p. 1043C2] 4. Catch and Release, Sony ($9.3 million, 1) Directed by Susannah Grant. With Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Sam Jaeger and Fiona Shaw. 5. Stomp the Yard, Sony ($51.8 million, 3) Directed by Sylvain White. With Columbus Short, Brian J. White, NeYo, Meagan Good and Darrin DeWitt Henson. 6. Dreamgirls, Paramount ($88.7 million, 7) [See 2006, p. 1043C2] 7. The Pursuit of Happyness, Sony ($154.3 million, 7) [See 2006, p. 1043C2] 8. Pan’s Labyrinth, Picturehouse ($18.0 million, 5) Directed by Guillermo del Toro. With Maribel Verdu, Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez, Ariadna Gil and Alex Angulo. 9. The Queen, Miramax ($42.8 million, 17) Directed by Stephen Frears. With Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell, Sylvia Syms and Helen McCrory. 10. The Hitcher, Focus Features ($14.4 million, 2) Directed by Dave Meyers. With Sean Bean, Sophia Bush, Zachary Knighton, Kyle Davis and Neal McDonough.

Jan. 15 at his home in Toronto, Ontario, of a stroke that occurred after a brief period of declining health. SHELDON, Sidney (born Sidney Schechtel), 89, best-selling novelist whose books often featured powerful but vulnerable female characters; quite a few of his 18 novels—including Rage of Angels (1980) and Memories of Midnight (1990)—were turned into television movies or miniseries; before becoming a publishing phenomenon in his 50s, he had been been an award-winning screenwriter and playwright and a successful TV writer and producer, associated with such shows as “The Patty Duke Show” (1963–66) and “I Dream of Jeannie” (1965–70); born Feb. 11, 1917, in Chicago; died Jan. 30 at a hospital in Rancho Mirage, Calif., of pneumonia. [See 2001, p. 600B1; 2000, p. 752A1; Indexes 1985–99, 1975–83, 1962, 1959–60, 1956–57, 1948–53] SIMPSON, John Wistar, 92, Westinghouse Electric Corp. engineer who worked closely with Adm. Hyman G. Rickover on the development of the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, launched in 1954; he also was instrumental in developing the U.S.’s first full-scale civilian nuclear-power plant, at Shippingport, Pa,; that facility operated from late 1957 until 1982; born Sept. 25, 1914, in Glenn Springs, S.C.; died Jan. 4 at a hospital on Hilton Head Island, S.C., from complications of pneumonia. [See 1986, p. 516C3; 1982, p. 802G1] SMATHERS, George Armistead, 93, three-term Democratic senator from Florida (1951–69) who was

a prominent anticommunist and opponent of civil rights legislation; he was, however, a strong supporter of the interests of Latin American nations; before joining the Senate, he served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives; born Nov. 13, 1913, in Atlantic City, N.J.; died Jan. 20 in Indian Creek Village, Fla., days after suffering a stroke. [See 1989, p. 408E3; 1973, p. 821D1; Indexes 1967–70, 1952–65, 1950] WASHBURN Jr., (Henry) Bradford, 96, mountaineer, photographer, mapmaker and museum director; he published articles and photos related to his adventures in Life and National Geographic magazines, and led the New England Museum of Natural History, and its much larger successor, the Boston Museum of Science, from 1939 to 1980 (the larger museum opened in 1951); in the 1970s, he mapped Arizona’s Grand Canyon using prisms and lasers to measure depth; born June 7, 1910, in Cambridge, Mass.; died Jan. 10 at his home in Lexington, Mass., of heart disease. [See 1947, p. 243M; 1941, p. 327E] WILSON, Robert Anton, 74, co-author, with Robert J. Shea, of the science-fiction cult classic The Illuminatus! Trilogy, published in 1975; in the trilogy— Eye of the Pyramid, Golden Apple and Leviathan— various conspiracy theories were treated as truths; Shea died in 1994; born Jan. 18, 1932, in New York City; died Jan. 11 at his home in Capitola, Calif.; he had had post-polio syndrome, and had been bedridden for a number of months after a fall. „

February 1, 2007

U.N. Panel Declares Global Warming ‘Unequivocal’

Dale Williams

Human Impact Called ‘Very Likely.’ The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations–sponsored group of hundreds of scientists, Feb. 2 issued a report declaring that it was more than 90% certain that human activities were the main contributing factor to global climate change and a worldwide rise in temperatures since 1950, describing the phenomenon as “unequivocal.” The group expressed increased certainty about the human effects on global temperature increases since it issued its last report in 2001, concluding that it was “very likely” that man-made gas emissions (often called greenhouse gases) were contributing to the phenomenon. The panel had in 2001 had said it was “likely,” meaning between 66% and 90% certain. Greenhouse gases were largely created through the combustion of fossil fuels. [See p. 47B3; 2001, p. 98F2] The “Summary for Policymakers” document released by the IPCC compiled the group’s main conclusions on the causes and effects of climate change; a formal, complete report was to be released in four sections over several months, with the last section published at the end of 2007. The complete report, titled the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, was the group’s fourth climate change report since 1990. Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), said, “Feb. 2 will be remembered as the date when uncertainty was removed as to whether humans had anything to do with climate change on this planet.”

The authors of the report synthesized peer-reviewed science literature up to the middle of 2006 to reach their conclusions. They found that over the next 100 years the average worldwide temperature would rise between 3.2° and 7.8° Fahrenheit (1.8° and 4.3° C) and that sea levels would rise between seven and 23 inches (18 and 58 cm). However, several scientists noted that the IPCC’s projections for sea level rise were likely too conservative, as they did not include recent data indicating an acceleration in the melting rate of glaciers. The report also concluded that the temperature increase would have far-reaching effects on both humans and the environment. “It is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent,” the report stated. Even the conservative and moderate temperature-rise scenarios envisioned in the report as “likely” would endanger agricultural practices around the world, experts said. Observers also noted that the report indicated that the world was undergoing a broad shift from a stable global climate to one that was in continual change. The document noted that precipitation patterns and levels would shift geographically, with some areas receiving substantially more or less precipitation because of climate change, thereby upsetting native ecosystems. The report also warned of more intense natural disasters—including storms, floods, heat waves and droughts— resulting from the changes.

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Volume 67, No. 3452 February 8, 2007

B Though IPCC members stopped short of making specific policy recommendations, they called on the world’s governments, businesses and industries to immediately begin efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. Government Reaction—At least 113 governments, including the U.S., Feb. 12 had endorsed the IPCC’s summary document after three days of discussions of its wording with the scientist authors. Though the U.S. held only 5% of the world’s population, it was responsible for creating roughly 25% of the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. President George W. Bush had rejected calls for mandatory caps on the country’s greenhouse gas emissions created through power generation practices and through the combustion of automobile fuels, arguing that such legislation would hamper the U.S. economy. U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman Feb. 2 reiterated the administration’s refusal to unilaterally institute mandatory

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U.N. panel declares global warming ‘unequivocal’; human impact called ‘very likely.’

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Rival Palestinian factions agree on unity government. PAGE 74

Bush presents $2.9 trillion budget, sees surplus by 2012. PAGE 75

Prosecution rests case in Libby trial. PAGE 80

Congo premier names government.

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U.N. envoy presents plan for Serbian province of Kosovo. PAGE 84

Iran’s uranium enrichment program progresses. ©2007 Facts On File News Services

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Iraqi and U.S. forces begin new Baghdad, Anbar security efforts. PAGE 85

Colts defeat Bears to win Super Bowl XLI. PAGE 87

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caps, calling instead for a “global solution.” Several Democratic lawmakers after the release of the IPCC report renewed calls for legislation instituting mandatory emissions caps. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) Feb. 8 appeared before the House Science and Technology Committee with four IPCC climate scientists. In her remarks Pelosi called for mandatory emissions caps that would halve the U.S.’s current greenhouse gas releases by 2050. [See p. 29A2] Other International Reactions— French President Jacques Chirac Feb. 3 suggested that UNEP be given greater powers to encourage governments to cut their greenhouse gas releases. He also suggested the formulation of a U.N. declaration of environmental rights that would establish rights of access to clean air and water, and lay out environmental responsibilities to be shared by signatories, particularly with regard to emissions. A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Feb. 6 said China would consider participating in international efforts to limit greenhouse gas releases, but placed the onus for controls on developed countries with “long-term historic emissions.” China was the second-largest creator of greenhouse gas emissions, after the U.S. It relied on the highly polluting combustion of coal to generate electricity used to drive its burgeoning economy. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Feb. 6 derided “wealthy countries” for attempting to impose controls on Brazil’s clearing of the Amazon rainforest, arguing that such countries had already denuded their own land. Deforestation was the chief source of greenhouse gas releases in Brazil. Business Group Seeks Rebuttals—The American Enterprise Institute, a U.S.based think tank, had solicited scientific articles from experts that would undermine the IPCC’s conclusions, it was reported Feb. 2 by Britain’s Guardian newspaper. The group, which had received substantial funding from the U.S. oil firm ExxonMobil Corp. and had ties to the Bush administration, had offered $10,000 for any such article. Several climate scientists derided the group’s offer as an at„ tempt to distort the IPCC’s findings.

Rival Palestinian Factions Agree On Unity Government Accord Reached in Mecca. Leaders of the

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Fatah party and the militant Islamist group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) Feb. 8 agreed to form a unity government, apparently bringing a truce to a political rivalry that had turned increasingly violent in recent months. The agreement came at the end of two days of negotiations in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, between Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah, on the one hand, and PA Premier Ismail Haniya and Khaled Meshal, leaders of Hamas, on the other. Saudi King Abdullah had offered to sponsor talks 74

between the leaders in the holy city. [See below, p. 58A3] Hamas had won PA parliamentary elections in January 2006, but afterwards had come under increasing pressure to create a new government after international donors cut off aid to the PA. The donors—in particular, the “quartet” of the U.S., Russia, the United Nations and the European Union—had demanded that the Hamas government recognize Israel’s right to exist, renounce violence and abide by previous agreements with Israel. Hamas, whose charter called for the destruction of Israel, refused to meet the conditions, and instead sought to create a unity government that the quartet would find acceptable. Haniya would remain premier under the agreement, but his cabinet would be reshuffled to allot nine posts to Hamas, six posts to Fatah, and four posts to independents. Fatah at the time held no positions in the cabinet. The post of interior minister— which oversaw the security forces, and was thus sought by both Hamas and Fatah— was to be chosen by Abbas from a list of nominees drawn up by Hamas. In accordance with PA law, Haniya had five weeks to present the new cabinet to Abbas for his approval. The agreement, which came in the form of a letter from Abbas inviting Haniya to assemble the new government, did not expressly declare that Hamas would recognize Israel’s right to exist or meet any of the other conditions set by the quartet. The letter called on Haniya’s government to “respect international resolutions and the agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO],” but did not call for it to abide by or commit to such agreements. That choice of wording, a frequent point of contention in negotiations between Hamas and Fatah, left it unclear whether the new government would fully adopt the Oslo peace accords, in which the PLO had affirmed Israel’s right to exist. Hamas had repeatedly rejected the Oslo accords. [See 1993, p. 677A1] Representatives of the quartet Feb. 2 had met in Washington, D.C., and the group reiterated its demand that Hamas recognize Israel, renounce violence, and abide by previous agreements. Reaction to Deal Mixed—Reaction Feb. 8 to the announcement of the unity government was mixed, with some applauding the development while others expressed doubts about its significance. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where much of the recent violence between Hamas and Fatah had taken place, paraded in the streets amidst cheers and celebratory gunfire. Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert, insisted that Israel would expect the unity government to “respect all three of the international community principles” outlined by the quartet. She made no comment on whether Israel believed that the Mecca accord would fulfill those principles. U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey also declined to say whether the accord would be satisfactory, suggesting that

the U.S. would wait to “see what any final agreement actually looks like” before making any decision about restoring aid to the PA. In a speech after the announcement of the agreement, Abdullah praised Abbas and Meshal. With the two leaders at his side, Abdullah said, “They have proved they are worthy of trust and have proven they can stop the fighting.” Saudi Arabia’s direct and prominent effort to reconcile Hamas and Fatah was widely seen as an attempt to stem the growing influence of Iran in the region, particularly in the PA, where Iran had provided much-needed funding to Hamas. [See p. 12B2; 2006, p. 966A1] Violence Precedes Accord—Violence between Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip Feb. 1–4 left roughly 30 people dead, many of them fighters for the two groups, and about 200 wounded. The worst death toll came Feb. 2, when at least 17 people died. Explosions occurred that day at a university affiliated with Fatah, hours after Fatah gunmen stormed a Hamas-affiliated university and set several buildings on fire. A cease-fire announced late Feb. 2 quickly fell apart. A nephew of Muhammad Dahlan, a senior Fatah security official, Feb. 3 was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen. Another cease-fire agreement reached Feb. 3 and implemented the next day appeared to fare better. Gunmen Feb. 4 began to leave the streets of Gaza, checkpoints were dismantled and several hostages were set free. Nonetheless, mortar shells fell near the offices of a Fatah security force and near the Gaza residence of Abbas, though he was not in Gaza at the time. „

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Marion Farrier DIRECTOR OF INDEX SERVICES: Marjorie B. Bank MANAGING EDITOR (NEWS): Jonathan Taylor MANAGING EDITOR (INDEX): Tamara Fishman ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham SENIOR EDITORS: Mette Bahde, Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Alasdair Denvil, Ben Miller ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Jonathan Leith, Ian McGullam COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Faith Barclay, Jane Carlson FACTS ON FILE is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. General Manager: Ken Park. Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

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U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Bush Presents $2.9 Trillion Budget, Sees Surplus by 2012 Democrats Reject Domestic Spending Cuts.

President George W. Bush Feb. 5 presented a $2.9 trillion budget for the 2008 fiscal year, which would begin Oct. 1. Bush said his plan, without raising taxes, would eliminate the deficit over the next five years, yielding a surplus in 2012. However, leaders of the new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate said Bush’s plan was unrealistic and unfairly squeezed domestic programs. Bush’s budget was seen as the first move in tough negotiations between the White House and Congress. [See p. 60A1; 2006, p. 91F1; for a breakdown of the budget dollar, see p. 76F3; for budget outlays by function, see p. 77A1; for budget authority proposals by appropriations panel, see p. 78A2; for the budget’s economic assumptions, see p. 79A1] Bush proposed holding most domestic programs that were not related to security to an annual increase of 1%, below the rate of inflation. He proposed outright cuts in the budgets of eight agencies, including the Education Department. The budget called for a 4.2% increase in total federal spending in fiscal 2008. (The fiscal 2008 budget numbers compared with estimated, rather than actual, spending for fiscal 2007, because Congress had not yet finished the fiscal 2007 appropriations process. A spending bill covering most domestic agencies had recently passed the House and still required Senate approval. Due to increased spending levels in that bill, the nonsecurity across-the-board increase in the 20008 budget was actually about 0.5%, the White House said.) Bush requested sharp increases in spending on defense and homeland security. His budget included costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those costs had previously been excluded from the budget because Bush had requested the war funding in emergency supplemental spending bills outside the regular budget process. Bush projected only $50 billion in spending for the wars in fiscal 2009, and none at all after that. Bush’s blueprint said the deficit would drop to $239 billion in fiscal 2008, or 1.6% of gross domestic product (GDP), from an estimated $244 billion in fiscal 2007. It projected a $61 billion surplus in 2012, which would be the first surplus since Bush took office in 2001. That scenario relied in part on the assumption that tax revenues would continue to flow in at the high levels that had helped reduce the deficit over the past two years. The budget also assumed that GDP would grow at a rate of 2.7% in 2007, which was slightly higher than independent forecasts. Permanent Tax Cuts Requested—Bush’s budget called for making permanent the major tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003, which were mostly scheduled to expire by the end of 2010. The budget estimated that February 8, 2007

extending those tax cuts, which included lower tax rates for income, dividends and capital gains, would cost $374 billion over five years and $1.62 trillion over 10 years. Democrats generally opposed extending all of Bush’s tax cuts, which they viewed as favoring the rich. Entitlement Cuts Proposed—Bush proposed cuts to the projected growth of spending on the so-called entitlement programs—Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Bush proposed cutting entitlement spending by $96 billion over the next five years, with $66 billion of that total coming from Medicare. The entitlement programs formed one of the biggest and fastest-growing parts of the federal budget. The coming retirement of the post–World War II baby boom generation, starting in 2011, was expected to put a massive strain on the solvency of those programs. Bush included in the budget his plan to reform the Social Security system by introducing private investment accounts. That plan had been dropped in 2005 after it failed to draw support from either party in Congress. Democratic Reaction—House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D, S.C.) Feb. 5 said, “While the president has endorsed the goal of balancing the budget, under realistic assumptions his budget remains in deficit every year.” In testimony before House and Senate committees, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Feb. 6 said Bush’s proposals for slowing entitlement spending were “a starting point for a discussion.” But he resisted efforts by Democrats to draw him out on whether Bush would be willing to accept a budget deal that included some tax increases in exchange for spending cuts. „

Details of the Budget Following are highlights of President Bush’s fiscal 2008 budget by function. Budget authority was legal permission for federal agencies to spend or otherwise obligate money; budget outlays were money that was actually spent in a given year. Budget authority for a given year could result in outlays over several years; outlays for a given year resulted from budget authority for that year and the previous years. “Discretionary” spending represented money that Congress directed in the annual appropriations process, as opposed to “mandatory” expenditures established in other laws. Fiscal 2007 spending levels cited for comparison are only estimates because Congress was still considering legislation to finalize appropriations in most areas for that year. Agriculture. The president’s budget proposed spending $90.9 billion on Department of Agriculture programs, up from an estimated fiscal 2007 level of $87.8 billion. The bulk of the department’s spending was on mandatory programs set by law, such as nutritional assistance services like food stamps. The proposal called for a total of $20.02 billion in discretionary spending. [See 2006, p. 92D3]

Proposed spending on nutrition programs would be $56.4 billion, including $37 billion for the Food Stamp program, $13.9 billion for Child Nutrition Programs and $5.5 billion for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. The budget proposal provided for farm subsidies on the assumption that subsidies would remain the same after the current law authorizing them, known as the farm bill, expired in September. However, the administration in January had laid out an overhaul of the subsidy regime in its proposal for a new farm bill. [See p. 60B3] The president proposed $397 million in spending on biofuels, or renewable energy from agricultural sources. That was a $161 million increase from the previous year. The budget proposal also called for $82 million to prepare for a possible outbreak of avian influenza, up $32 million from the previous year, excluding emergency spending. [See p. 46A1] The president sought $325 million for programs intended to maintain the safety and security of the nation’s food supplies.„ Arts and Humanities. Bush requested $678.4 million for fiscal 2008 for the Smithsonian Institution, the government’s largest cultural organization and the largest cultural recipient of federal funds. The figure included $9.9 million to plan the construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. [See 2006, p. 92G3] The president’s budget proposed spending $128.4 million for the National Endowment for the Arts for fiscal 2008, a bump of $4 million over what he had requested the previous year. Budget authority also totaled $116 million for the National Gallery of Art, and $44.9 million for the National Holocaust Museum. Bush slated funding for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at $39.3 million, including an increase for renovations. „ Commerce. Bush’s fiscal 2008 budget proposal Feb. 5 requested $6.7 billion in budget authority for the Commerce Department. The request was $1.2 billion below the department’s estimated budget authority for fiscal 2007. [See 2006, p. 93B1] Bush requested a 34% increase in budget authority for the Census Bureau, in preparation for the 2010 census. The money was aimed at gathering more accurate demographic and economic statistics. He proposed a small reduction in funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). His budget would direct $594 million toward the National Institute of Standards and Technology for programs related to his American Competitiveness Initiative. They included programs related to nanotechnology, high-technology laboratory construction and expansion, and quantum information science. The requested funding level was 10% higher than Bush had proposed for fiscal year 2007. Small Business Administration—The president’s proposal would direct $481 million in budget authority to the Small Business Administration. That was an increase from the $398 million in its estimated authority 75

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Sholto Ainslie ©2007 Facts On File News Services

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for fiscal 2007, but down sharply from enacted authority for the administration for fiscal 2006. Some of the difference was tied up in authorized but unspent emergency supplemental funds granted in the aftermath of 2005’s Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. That unspent money—$329 million— would be transferred to the federal disaster loan program, funding the program at the level of $1 billion for fiscal 2008. The proposal would reportedly support $28 billion in small-business financing. Export-Import Bank—Under Bush’s budget request, the Export-Import Bank, an independent agency, would receive $1 million for fiscal 2008, which was to go toward the creation of an inspector general's office. The bank would be authorized to spend $147 million, which would come from its own receipts rather than an appropriation. Bush proposed an accounting change that would eliminate the need for Congress to annually appropriate money for the bank, which for years had met its operating costs through fees and other revenue, and actually returned money to the Treasury. The Export-Import Bank financed and insured purchases of U.S. goods by foreign buyers. „ Defense. Bush requested a total of about $626 billion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2008. That included $481.4 billion for the department’s regular budget, an 11% increase from the previous year, and another $141.7 billion in funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for international antiterrorism operations. Bush also used the budget to request an additional $93.4 billion for fiscal 2007 war costs, which would bring the total spending on the wars to $163.4 billion in fiscal 2007. [See 2006, pp. 815D2, 763B2, 93D1] It was the first time that the Bush administration had included an estimate for the cost of the wars in its annual budget. Previously, the administration had used emergency supplemental spending requests to fund the wars outside the regular budget. The Defense Department said the fiscal 2008 request for war and antiterrorism funds would bring total spending on those efforts to $661 billion since 2001. That was 76

more, in current dollars, than the U.S. had spent on the Vietnam War. Defense Department officials cautioned that the estimate for war costs in fiscal 2008 was mostly guesswork and was likely to change with events. The budget projected a sharp drop in war costs in fiscal 2009, to $50 billion, and none thereafter. Budget Called Biggest Since Reagan—

The $481.4 billion proposal for the regular fiscal 2008 defense budget was reportedly the biggest since President Ronald Reagan’s Cold War–era military buildup in the 1980s. Rep. Ike Skelton (D, Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said, “The sums involved in the defense budget requests are staggering.” He pledged to subject the budget to “due diligence and oversight.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the military budget still remained significantly lower as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) than it had been in the 1980s. Military spending under the new budget would be about 4% of GDP, compared with more than 6% during the Reagan buildup. Bush’s request included $101.7 billion for procurement of new weapons, an increase of $20 billion, or 25%, from fiscal 2007. Bush requested another $75.1 billion for research and development. The budget included $12 billion to begin implementing Bush’s plan to add 92,000 troops to the Army and Marine Corps over the next five years. Bush requested $8.9 billion for the missile defense program, down about $500 million, or 5.3%, from fiscal 2007. Bush proposed a 3% pay increase for all military and civilian defense personnel in fiscal 2008, at an estimated cost of $2.1 billion. „ Education. President Bush asked Congress to authorize $62.6 billion for the Department of Education in his 2008 budget proposal, $3.2 billion below the department’s fiscal 2007 estimated budget authority. Of the total, $56 billion was discretionary money, an amount on a par with fiscal year 2007. [See 2006, p. 93D2] The proposal included $300 million for a yet-to-be-created voucher program that

would allow students in failing public schools to attend private ones. It requested the expansion of mandatory testing under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to high schools, and funded it with an increase in budget authority for Title I programs for low-income school districts. Total Title I funding would be $13.9 billion, up $1.2 billion from the estimated fiscal 2007 level. Math and science education programs would receive a $365 million increase in funding under the budget as part of Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative. Under the president’s proposal, the maximum Pell grant for college tuition would rise from $4,050 to $4,600 in fiscal year 2008 and would reach $5,400 by 2012. Those increases were larger than the typical raises in the Pell grant ceiling. They would be paid for in part by cutting subsidies to lenders of student loans and scaling back the Perkins student loan program. In all, the budget request would end 43 “low-priority or non-performing” education-related programs. „ Energy, Environment and the Interior.

Bush’s budget proposal for the Energy Department was $24.3 billion for fiscal 2008, 3% more than the $23.6 billion requested for fiscal 2007. Almost 40% of the requested funds, $9.4 billion, were slated for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintained the country’s nuclear weapons stockpile and ran nuclear nonproliferation programs. The funding request for the Office of Environmental Management was $5.7 billion, a drop of $173 million from the fiscal 2007 request. [See 2006, p. 93C3] Bush requested $917 million in fiscal 2008 for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which oversaw the nation’s commercial nuclear activities. The figure was 24% more than was enacted for fiscal 2006; the additional funds were intended to manage an expected uptick in applications for commercial nuclear reactor licenses. The budget included $179.3 million for research into alternative fuels made from organic materials, a $29.6 million bump over the amount requested the previous year. The department said the increased funding reflected Bush’s goal of cutting THE FEDERAL BUDGET DOLLAR, FISCAL 2008 (Proposed by President Bush)

Where it comes from: Individual income taxes Social Security and other payroll taxes Corporate income taxes Excise taxes Other

47¢ 35¢ 12¢ 3¢ 4¢

Where it goes: Social Security Medicare & Medicaid Nondefense discretionary spending National defense Net interest Other mandatory spending

21¢ 20¢ 18¢ 21¢ 9¢ 11¢

Figures may not add up to $1.00 due to rounding.

FACTS ON FILE

BUDGET AUTHORITY AND OUTLAYS BY FUNCTION, 2006–2008 President Bush’s budget authority and outlays by function for fiscal 2008, which would begin Oct. 1. Dollar figures are in billions. Figures may not add up due to rounding.

National defense International affairs General science, space and technology Energy Natural resources and environment Agriculture Commerce and housing credit Transportation Community and regional development Education, training, employment and social services Health Medicare Income security* Social Security Veterans’ benefits and services Administration of justice General government Net interest Allowances Undistributed offsetting receipts

Total spending

2006 (Actual)

—Authority— 2007 (Estimate)

$617.2 $32.8 $25.1 $0.3 $38.1 $25.6 $14.3 $75.7 $31.2 $125.9 $295.2 $365.4 $351.1 $552.2 $71.0 $42.7 $19.7 $226.6 — -$68.3

$622.4 $34.1 $24.9 $1.2 $29.7 $19.1 $11.1 $77.7 $16.1 $91.2 $242.3 $371.9 $361.0 $589.2 $74.5 $43.8 $18.6 $239.2 $13.1 -$81.8

$2,841.7

$2,799.4

2008 (Proposed)

2006 (Actual)

—Outlays— 2007 (Estimate)

2008 (Proposed)

$647.2 $38.3 $27.5 $1.6 $30.4 $19.9 $10.4 $79.9 $10.4 $85.5 $281.5 $391.6 $376.9 $614.6 $84.4 $46.1 $20.4 $261.3 -$0.3 -$86.3

$521.8 $29.5 $23.6 $0.8 $33.1 $26.0 $6.2 $70.2 $54.5 $118.6 $252.8 $329.9 $352.5 $548.5 $69.8 $41.0 $18.2 $226.6 — -$68.3

$571.9 $35.1 $24.9 $1.8 $35.2 $20.1 $0.2 $74.6 $32.6 $94.0 $268.5 $372.3 $365.4 $586.5 $72.4 $45.3 $18.8 $239.2 $7.4 -$81.8

$606.5 $36.1 $26.6 $1.4 $32.9 $19.9 -$2.0 $79.3 $24.7 $82.7 $280.6 $391.6 $380.8 $612.5 $83.4 $47.0 $20.7 $261.3 $2.1 -$86.3

$2,941.1

$2,655.4 $2,407.3 -$248.2

$2,784.3 $2,540.1 -$244.2

$2,901.9 $2,662.5 -$239.4

Total revenues: Surplus/Deficit:

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*Includes unemployment benefits, food and housing assistance, and federal retirement and disability benefits Source: Office of Management and Budget, Congressional Quarterly

gasoline consumption in the U.S. by 20% of its current level. Research into the capture and storage of gases released during the combustion of coal was also given a boost under the proposed budget, with funding of $385 million, up from a $285 million request in fiscal 2007. Bush also slated $42 million for the development of new battery technology for use in motorized vehicles, intended to help reach his reduced gasoline use goal. However, Bush’s budget requested only $176 million for research into vehicle fuel efficiency items (such as more efficient engines and lighter building materials), a drop of $8 million from the figure requested in fiscal 2007. Environmental Protection Agency—Bush continued a years-long trend of proposing funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), requesting $7.2 billion in his budget, down from a $7.3 billion request the previous year. He again proposed $688 million in funding for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which bankrolled state and local water-quality projects. The budget also set aside $1.2 billion for toxic Superfund sites and $216 million for climate-change and clean-air programs, essentially freezing those figures to values requested the previous year. [See 2006, p. 93E3] Interior Department—The request for the Interior Department was $10.7 billion for fiscal 2008, a jump of $178 million over what was requested for the previous year, but down $250.4 million from the figure enacted for fiscal 2006. However, the budget request was predicated on the notion that the Interior Department would collect $8 billion in revenue over the next five years from selling drilling rights in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a prospect that seemed slim under a Democrat-controlled Congress. [See 2006, p. 93G3] February 8, 2007

The budget request for the National Park Service (NPS) would expand its funding by $266 million—its largest increase ever— for a total of $2.1 billion. The funds were part of Bush’s Centennial Commitment, which required the president to dedicate $100 million annually to the nation’s parks in preparation for the NPS’s centennial in 2016. The Fish and Wildlife Service would receive $1.3 billion under Bush’s proposal, a drop of $4.8 million from his fiscal 2007 request. „ Government Employment. Bush proposed a

3% pay raise for all government workers, including both civilians and the military, in fiscal 2008. It was the second straight year that Bush had requested equal increases for civilian and military personnel, after asking for bigger raises for the military in his previous budgets. He had proposed a 2.2% raise in fiscal 2007. Congress traditionally backed “pay parity” for the armed services and the civilian workforce. [See 2006, p. 94C1] „ Health and Welfare. The Bush administra-

tion proposed funding the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at $699 billion in fiscal 2008, a slight increase over the amount requested the previous year. However, only $69.3 billion of requested funds were discretionary; the balance was mandatory expenditures, largely dedicated to the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The budget called for Medicare’s funding to be cut by $65.6 billion over a five-year period, and reduced Medicaid monies by $25.7 billion over the same period. Overall Bush’s request shifted funds away from some social health programs, instead favoring programs intended to combat the threat of bioterrorism. [See 2006, p. 94D1] The cut 4%, or $228 million, in funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when compared with

funds authorized in fiscal 2006. However, CDC infectious-disease programs would see their funding increased by $100 million, to $1.8 billion, under the request. Bush requested $1.6 billion to fund the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an increase of 12% compared with fiscal 2006 appropriations. The agency would receive $10.6 million for food safety monitoring programs, following several food-borne bacterial outbreaks in 2006. [See 2006, p. 896C1] The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would receive a roughly 2% increase to $28.9 billion, when compared with fiscal 2006 enactments. However, $368 million—the bulk of the increase—would be dedicated to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which handled biological-weapons research. Bush’s plan called for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to receive roughly $5 billion, a 15% boost compared with fiscal 2006 appropriations. However, several critics of the budget request said it fell far short of the funds needed to continue health care coverage to the estimated six million children currently enrolled in the program. Bush included in the budget his proposal, also outlined in his January State of the Union address, to make health insurance provided by an employer taxable while extending tax deductions of up to $15,000 to families with any type of insurance. [See p. 41C2] Medicare—Mandatory spending on Medicare, the federal government’s health care system for the elderly and disabled, would increase to $386.1 billion. Bush’s plan would reduce the amount paid to health care facilities that received Medicare reimbursements by 0.65% beginning in fiscal 2008. The government would also end the practice of reimbursing care facili77

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ties for bills that beneficiaries failed to pay. [See 2006, p. 94E2] The budget also proposed increasing the drug benefit premiums paid by single people with annual incomes in excess of $80,000, or married couples with a combined annual income greater than $160,000. The proposed cuts engendered fierce criticism from senior advocacy groups and medical care lobbyists. HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt Feb. 5 said the budget was designed to slow Medicare’s annual spending growth rate to 5.6%, from 6.5%, over a five-year period as part of broader efforts to balance the federal budget. Medicaid—Under the proposed budget, Medicaid spending would be cut by $13 billion, to $209 billion, while administrative cost-savings would garner an additional $12.7 billion. The efforts would slow annual growth in Medicaid spending to 7.1%, from 7.3%. [See 2006, p. 94C3] Social Security—Bush requested $656 billion for the Social Security Administration, an increase from the $626 billion requested for fiscal 2007. The majority of the funds for the agency were mandatory; the figure included $9.7 billion in discretionary spending. [See 2006, p. 94D3] „ Homeland Security. Bush requested $34.6 billion for the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal 2008, down slightly from the $34.8 billion approved by Congress for fiscal 2007. The budget included $34.5 billion in discretionary spending. The Bush administration said the total sum represented an 8% increase over the previous year’s appropriations, discounting hurricane preparedness, border security and other emergency supplemental funds. [See 2006, pp. 763C3, 94E3] The budget focused on increasing funds for immigration and border control measures, with $8.8 billion appropriated for Customs and Border Protection and $4.8 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Included in the proposal was $778 million to hire 3,000 new Border Patrol agents and pay for 950 new beds to house detained illegal immigrants. In addition, Bush requested $1 billion to construct fencing along the U.S.’s border with Mexico that would integrate physical barriers and electronic infrastructure. Bush requested $2.2 billion for existing grant programs for firefighters, police and other emergency first responders, down from $3.4 billion appropriated in fiscal 2007. He also asked for $1 billion to fund improvements in first responder communications systems. The budget included $462 million to upgrade the screening of travelers entering and leaving the U.S., including $228 million for a more comprehensive fingerprintscanning identification system. It provided a 17% boost to the budget of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, which was established in 2005 to coordinate the detection of nuclear material, bringing the agency’s total funding to $562 million. The budget also would provide $178 million to deploy radiation scanners to key points of cargo entry around the U.S., with 78

the goal of FISCAL 2008 BUDGET AUTHORITY PROPOSALS BY MAJOR AGENCY scanning 98% of cargo by the President Bush’s discretionary budget authority requests for cabinet departments and end of 2007, major agencies for fiscal 2008, which would begin Oct. 1. Dollar amounts figures are in and $30 mil- billions. Figures may not add up due to rounding. lion for imFiscal 2006 Fiscal 2007 Fiscal 2008 proved radiaEnacted Estimated Proposed tion scanning in major cities. Agriculture $21.1 $19.6 $20.2 $6.4 $5.6 $6.6 Rep. David Commerce $410.7 $429.6 $481.4 Price (D, Defense Education $56.5 $56.0 $56.0 N.C.), the Energy $23.6 $22.8 $24.3 chairman of Health & Human Services $69.1 $69.1 $69.3 the Homeland Homeland Security $30.7 $32.0 $34.3 $34.1 $34.7 $35.2 Security appro- Housing & Urban Development $10.8 $10.3 $10.6 priations sub- Interior Justice $21.1 $19.4 $20.2 committee, Labor $11.3 $11.7 $10.6 Feb. 8 criti- State (and other international programs) $30.2 $28.7 $35.0 $14.6 $10.7 $12.1 cized Home- Transportation $11.4 $11.4 $12.1 land Security Treasury Veterans Affairs $32.9 $33.2 $39.4 Secretary Corps of Engineers $5.3 $4.7 $4.9 Michael Chert- Environmental Protection Agency $7.6 $7.5 $7.2 $0.3 $0.3 $0.3 off for what he Executive Office of the President $5.3 $5.3 $6.1 called a “sim- Judicial Branch Branch $3.8 $3.7 $4.4 ply inade- Legislative National Aeronautics & Space Ad$16.3 $16.2 $17.3 quate” budget ministration request. He National Science Foundation $5.6 $5.6 $6.4 $0.5 $0.4 $0.5 said the new Small Business Administration Security Administration $7.4 $7.6 $7.9 funds would Social Other Agencies $6.7 $6.5 $7.5 not be sufficient to address Total* $843.4 $852.8 $929.8 low employee morale, the *Excludes supplemental and emergency spending for Iraq and Afghanistan wars and other purposes. Source: Office of Management and Budget, Congressional Quarterly lack of results after past expenditures and a host of other shortcomings. fiscal 2006, at $3 billion, but the Bush adChertoff defended the appropriations as ministration said it would introduce legis“sound, simple and ample.” „ lation to reform the program’s allocation Housing. Bush’s proposed budget requested formula. The budget requested $151 mil$36.2 billion for the Department of Housing lion less than in fiscal 2006 for housing for and Urban Development (HUD) for fiscal the elderly, at $575 million, and a reduc2008, including $35.2 billion in discretion- tion of $106 million, to $125 million, for „ ary spending. That was an 8% reduction housing for the disabled. from the $38.3 billion requested in the pend- Justice. Bush requested $20.3 billion in ing budget resolution. The budget included fiscal 2008 discretionary spending for the measures to improve the distribution of Justice Department, in addition to $2.7 bilhousing aid to low-income families, and lion in mandatory spending, just shy of a also increased funding for several programs 1% increase in overall fiscal 2006 expendiaimed at increasing minority home owner- tures. The boost in funding, however ship. Congress had not passed a housing ap- slight, came in spite of proposed cuts of propriations bill for fiscal 2007, and HUD over 50% in federal assistance to state and was currently funded through stopgap legis- local law enforcement, a perennial request lation approved in December 2006. [See by the president, and one that was likely to 2006, pp. 949C2, 487D1, 95D1] meet with stiff resistance in the DemocratThe appropriations request set aside $16 ic-controlled Congress. Much of the new billion for tenant-based rental assistance funding would be directed toward agencies voucher programs, which it said would pro- involved in counterterrorism and national vide subsidies to 3.4 million families. It pro- security. [See 2006, p. 95G1] posed reforms to the Section 8 program, The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which provided housing vouchers to more would see its budget go up 10% over fiscal than two million low-income families. The 2007 spending, for a total of $6.4 billion. new policies removed limits on the number Roughly 60% of the FBI’s budget would be of vouchers distributed and linked the ad- directed toward counterterrorism, intelliministrative budgets of local housing agen- gence and counterintelligence programs. An 8% increase from estimated fiscal cies to voucher distribution. Section 8 was set to receive $5.8 billion, and the budget 2007 spending was requested for the Busaid the planned expansion would allow it to reau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), for a total of $1 billion. issue an additional 180,000 aid payments. Bush asked for $1.6 billion for programs The president requested $1.8 billion for the to support the homeless and $300 million Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), for housing aid for low-income HIV/AIDS a 7% increase in spending. patients. Funding requests for the CommuFunds were also requested to augment the nity Development Block Grant Program, capacity of a federal prison in Pollock, La., the department’s primary urban develop- and to finish a new federal penitentiary in ment program, were $1.2 billion lower than Mendota, Calif. Two new items were includFACTS ON FILE

ASSUMPTIONS AND PROJECTIONS BEHIND THE BUSH BUDGET The figures given below represent the economic assumptions underlying President Bush’s fiscal 2008 budget. All figures are projections. —Calendar Year— 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Gross domestic product growth (year over year) Consumer Price Index (year over year) Unemployment rate (yearly average) Interest rate (yearly average, 91-day Treasury bills) Interest rate (yearly average, 10-year Treasury notes)

2.7% 2.1% 4.6% 4.7% 5.0%

3.0% 2.6% 4.8% 4.6% 5.1%

3.1% 2.5% 4.8% 4.4% 5.2%

3.0% 2.4% 4.8% 4.2% 5.3%

3.0% 2.3% 4.8% 4.1% 5.3%

Source: Office of Management and Budget, Congressional Quarterly

ed in the budget: the National Security Division (NSD), which would prosecute crimes involving terrorism and espionage, and the Violent Crime Reduction Partnership Initiative, a grant program designed to help local, state and regional law enforcement agencies address rising rates of violent crime. The NSD was slated to receive $78 million, and the violent crime initiative, $200 million. Bush’s proposed reductions in state and local law enforcement aid were coupled with a proposal to simplify the system of Justice Department grants, cutting their number down to four, from more than 70.„ Labor and Employment. Bush requested $50.4 billion for the Department of Labor for fiscal 2008, an increase of 7.9% from fiscal 2007’s estimate. The president asked for $10.6 billion in discretionary budget authority, down $1.1 billion from estimated fiscal 2007 figures. [See 2006, p. 95D2] The request included $313.5 million for the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), a $35.8 million increase from fiscal 2007. The funding increase would build upon reforms set out in the 2006 Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act, which aimed to increase safety and regulatory enforcement at U.S. coal mines. [See 2006, p. 485E3] Bush requested $490.3 million for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a slight increase from the agency’s funding in fiscal 2007. That included funding for 89,700 health and safety inspections by federal and state officials. The request also included $147.4 million for the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), an increase of $13.9 million. EBSA monitored the administration of pensions and other employee benefits. [See 2006, p. 952C3] „ Space. Bush’s budget proposal requested $17.3 billion in budget authority for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), an increase of 3.1% from his fiscal 2007 request of $16.8 billion. (A spending plan for the remainder of fiscal 2007 passed by the House the previous week would put total spending at $16.2 billion.) The proposal sought $4.01 billion for the space shuttle program, and $2.2 billion for the International Space Station. Spending on programs to develop the proposed new Orion “crew exploration vehicle” for manned space missions, and the Ares rocket that would launch it, would be $3.9 billion under the president’s plan. [See 2006, pp. 927C2, 95A3] Proposed spending on science programs in 2008 would total $5.5 billion, including $1.5 billion for Earth science. „ February 8, 2007

State Department and International Aid.

Bush sought $18.7 billion in funding for the State Department, a 21% increase from actually enacted spending in fiscal 2006, and $18.8 billion for foreign aid, about the same as in fiscal 2006. As in previous years, the top recipients of foreign aid under the proposal would be Israel, with $2.4 billion, and Egypt, receiving $1.7 billion. Those amounts were down 4% from fiscal 2006. The next biggest aid recipients would be Afghanistan, $1.1 billion; Pakistan, $785 million; and Sudan, $673 million. [See 2006, p. 95C3] Bush sought $3 billion for the Millennium Challenge Account, a program that tied foreign aid to democratic governance and free-market economic policies. Bush had sought a similar amount the previous two years, but Congress had appropriated only $1.8 billion in fiscal 2006, and fiscal 2007 spending was estimated at $1.1 billion. Bush requested $4.2 billion for programs worldwide to fight HIV and AIDS, more than double fiscal 2006’s level, and $300 million to fight malaria. The proposed State Department budget would increase spending on security for diplomatic facilities abroad by 9% from fiscal 2006, to $1.6 billion. „ Transportation. The budget request allocated $67.4 billion for the Department of Transportation (DOT), 2.7% more than the budget Congress was expected to approve for fiscal 2007, and included $12.1 billion in discretionary spending. The bill slightly boosted state funding for highways, and also proposed revisions in the method used to finance the air traffic control system. Congress had failed to pass a transportation appropriations bill for fiscal 2007, and the department was currently funded through stopgap legislation approved in December 2006. [See 2006, pp. 949C2, 487D1, 96A1] The request set state highway funding at $39.6 billion, the amount required by a 2005 law funding highways for six years and $500 million more than would be provided by the fiscal 2007 spending bill expected to be passed by Congress. It also called for DOT to receive the authority to reform fuel economy standards for cars, and allocated $175 million for new programs to reduce highway congestion. Bush requested $800 million to fund Amtrak, the nation’s passenger rail service, and an additional $100 million for matching grants to be used by states for intercity rail networks. The Amtrak request was $500 million less than had been granted in fiscal 2006.

According to the budget, the Bush administration was planning to call for reforms in the funding of the air traffic control system, which was currently supported by airline ticket taxes. The new system, which was touted as more closely linked to actual usage of air traffic control services, would instead rely on user fees from airlines and a fuel tax paid by passengers. „ Treasury. Bush requested $525.9 billion for the Treasury Department in fiscal 2008, an increase of 13% from fiscal 2006. Most of the request was to cover the cost of interest payments on the national debt. Apart from that, the request included $12.1 billion in discretionary spending, up 4.7% from Bush’s request for the department in fiscal 2007. The request included $11.1 billion for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with a $440 million increase for enforcement of tax filing and a $131 million boost for taxpayer services. [See 2006, p. 96E1] „ Veterans’ Affairs. The president requested $84.4 billion in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs for fiscal 2008, including $39.4 billion in discretionary spending, an increase of 16%. Most of the department’s budget went to health care and mandatory benefit programs, and the budget’s 19% increase in spending from enacted fiscal 2006 levels largely reflected increasing medical and benefit claims. The proposal sought to revive a proposal included in previous budgets but rejected by Congress—the introduction of a new annual enrollment fee and copayments for prescription drug coverage for nondisabled veterans with higher incomes. [See 2006, p. 96F2] „

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2008 Presidential Campaign Democratic Contenders Divide on Iraq.

Contenders for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination Feb. 2–3 gave speeches at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in Washington, D.C., offering different views on how firmly they should demand an end to the Iraq war. The DNC was the executive body of the national Democratic Party. [See pp. 59A3, 57D2] The three Democratic front-runners in the early going of the race all spoke Feb. 2—Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), the 2004 Democratic vice-presidential nominee. Facing hecklers who accused her of not taking a clear position against the war, Clinton vowed that she would end it if she became president. She said, “If I had been president in October of 2002, I would not have started this war…If we in Congress don’t end this war before January 2009, as president I will.” In October 2002, Clinton and Edwards had been among a majority of senators who voted for a resolution that authorized the use of force against Iraq. Edwards had since said that his vote was a mistake, while Clinton had suggested that she considered her vote justified, given what had been known at the time. 79

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In his speech, Edwards challenged Democrats who were still in Congress to take stronger measures to block President George W. Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq. “It is a betrayal not to stop this president’s plan to escalate the war when we have the responsibility, the power and the ability to stop it,” he said, adding, “We cannot be satisfied with passing nonbinding resolutions that we know this president will ignore.” Clinton defended current efforts by the Senate Democratic leadership to seek bipartisan approval for a nonbinding resolution opposing Bush’s plan. She said the resolution had a more realistic chance of passage in a narrowly divided Senate than would a measure to cut funding for the war. Obama, who had not yet been elected to the Senate in 2002, said, “I was opposed to this invasion—publicly, frequently, before it began. I thought it was a tragic mistake. But whether you were for it or against it then, we all have a responsibility now to put forth a plan that offers the best chance of ending the bloodshed and bringing the troops home.” Obama Jan. 30 had introduced a bill that would set a deadline of March 31, 2008, for the removal of all U.S. combat forces from Iraq. Other contenders who spoke Feb. 2 were Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.), retired Gen. Wesley Clark and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio). The DNC Feb. 3 heard speeches by Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and former Sen. Mike Gravel (Alaska). Richardson and Vilsack both called on Democrats in Congress to take immediate steps to bring an end to the war. Clinton Makes First Iowa Visit—Clinton Jan. 27–28 made her first visit to Iowa since declaring her candidacy earlier in the month. The Iowa caucuses would be a key early test in the primary campaign in January 2008. In Cedar Rapids, Clinton Jan. 27 said, “I know there are people who either say or wonder, ‘Would we ever elect a woman president?’ And I don’t think we’ll know until we try—and I’m going to try, with your help.” Speaking in Davenport about the Iraq war, Clinton Jan. 28 said, “The president has said this is going to be left to his successor. He has said that on more than one occasion.” She declared, “I think it’s the height of irresponsibility and I really resent it. This was his decision to go to war, he went with an ill-conceived plan, an incompetently executed strategy, and we should expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office.” In response, a White House spokesman issued a statement that accused Clinton of making a “partisan attack that sends the wrong message to our troops, our enemies and the Iraqi people.” In Des Moines, Clinton Jan. 27 said, “I am committed to universal health care.” However, she said she was not ready to lay out a specific plan, citing the failure of her effort to win bipartisan support for such a plan in 1993–94, during the first term of her husband, President Bill Clinton. 80

At a Jan. 28 town hall meeting, Clinton replied in an ironic tone to a question about how she would deal with leaders from countries like North Korea and Iran. “What in my background equips me to deal with evil and bad men?” she asked, drawing laughter from the audience. When reporters asked who she was referring to, she said she was only joking. Other News—In related developments: † In a Feb. 1 filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), made public Feb. 7, Obama proposed that the presidential nominees of both major parties should agree to accept public funding for the general election campaign. However, he indicated that he planned to solicit private contributions in excess of the limits that candidates had to abide by to qualify for public funding. Clinton and Edwards had already said they would decline public funds. Obama asked the FEC if he would be able to return some private contributions later and qualify for public funds in the event that he reached an agreement with a Republican opponent. † Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani Feb. 5 filed a “statement of candidacy” with the FEC, moving closer to a formal announcement that he would run for the Republican nomination. However, Giuliani lagged behind his leading rivals for the nomination, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, in building a nationwide campaign organization. That had given rise to questions about his commitment to running. † Edwards Feb. 5 became the first candidate to lay out a plan to provide health insurance for the 47 million people in the U.S. who had none. He said it would cost up to $120 billion a year, and proposed raising most of that money by repealing tax cuts for households with incomes of more than $200,000 a year. It would require that employers either provide health insurance for their workers or contribute 6% of their payrolls to a government fund that would help people buy their own insurance. † Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee Jan. 28 announced that he was forming an exploratory committee to raise funds for a possible bid for the Republican nomination. Huckabee, 51, had been an ordained Baptist minister before entering politics, and was known for losing more than 100 pounds (45 kg) while he was governor. He was expected to vie with another contender, Sen. Sam Brownback (R, Kan.), for the support of social conservatives unsatisfied with the records of McCain, Giuliani and Romney on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. † The DNC Jan. 11 announced that it had selected Denver, Colo., as the host city of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Denver beat out New York City, the other finalist. The convention was scheduled for Aug. 25–28, 2008, in the Pepsi Center arena. It would be the first major party convention in Denver since the Democrats gathered there in 1908. Democrats had re-

cently shown strength in Colorado elections, winning the governorship, control of the state legislature and a 4–3 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation. The party had also made recent gains in other Western states. The Republican National Convention would be held in Minneapolis– St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 1–4, 2008. [See 2006, p. 814F2] „

CIA Leak Investigation Prosecution Rests Case Against Libby.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald Feb. 8 ended his argument in the government’s case against I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby was charged with five felony counts of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying to a federal grand jury and to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about when he first learned of a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative, Valerie Wilson. [See p. 46G3] Wilson’s husband, Joseph Wilson, had embarrassed the administration by authoring an opinion article in the July 6, 2003, New York Times undermining its claim that the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had sought enriched uranium in Niger for use in nuclear weapons. Valerie Wilson was also known by her maiden name, Valerie Plame, which had been made public in a July 14, 2003, syndicated column by conservative commentator Robert Novak. Libby had maintained in his earlier testimony to the FBI and a grand jury that he had learned of her in a conversation with NBC newsman Tim Russert on July 10 or July 11 of that year. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer Jan. 29 told the court that he had learned about Wilson’s wife from Libby on July 7, 2003, when the two men had lunch together for the first and only time before Fleischer left his job a week later. Libby had not identified the information as classified, Fleischer said. After hearing confirmation from White House communications director Dan Bartlett, Fleischer had later suggested to two reporters that they write about the fact that it was Wilson’s wife who had sent him on a 2002 fact-finding mission to Niger, rather than Cheney, as the media had been implying. Fleischer said he had not realized he was outing a covert CIA agent, and had later hired lawyers who negotiated his immunity from prosecution. Jury Hears From Journalists—The first of several journalists to be called as witnesses for the prosecution, former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, Jan. 30 took the stand. Miller had spent 85 days in jail in 2005 for refusing, in testimony to the original grand jury investigating the leak of Plame’s name to the press, to identify which administration official Miller had learned about Plame from. Miller told the court that Libby had told her in the first of three conversations they had, on June 23, 2003, that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA. Libby had been “very irritated and angry” about perceived attempts by the CIA to blame the White FACTS ON FILE

House for faulty intelligence about Iraq seeking uranium from Niger, she said. Defense attorney William Jeffress Jr. later Jan. 30 asked her why she had not mentioned anything about the June 23 meeting when she first testified before the grand jury investigating the leak in 2005. Miller explained that she simply had not remembered it at the time, but months later had discovered a notebook containing her notes from the meeting. During the crossexamination, Fitzgerald, whose queries Miller was jailed for not answering, was put in the curious position of arguing that Miller should not have to name other sources with whom she had discussed Wilson. Jeffress argued that her answers could bolster his efforts to cast doubt on th accuracy of her memory. Jeffress Jan. 31 questioned her about those other sources, and she said she “couldn’t remember” who they were. Former Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper that day testified that he had spoken to Libby about Plame on July 12, 2003, after learning about her the day before from Karl Rove, a top political adviser to President George W. Bush. An FBI agent who had interviewed Libby on two occasions in fall 2003, Deborah Bond, testified Feb. 1. She said Libby had told the FBI that his own notes showed that Cheney had mentioned to him before June 12, 2003, that Plame worked at the CIA and was married to Wilson. But Libby said in the FBI interview that when he heard about it again from Russert in July, it was as if he were hearing it for the first time. Libby’s assertion that he had been effectively unaware of Wilson’s wife’s role before speaking with Russert ran contrary to the testimony of the prosecution witnesses so far. Bond also said Libby had told the FBI that he and Cheney might have discussed on July 12 whether to make Plame’s job public information. Earlier Libby Testimony Tapes Played—

Beginning Feb. 5, the jury heard eight hours of Libby’s audiotaped testimony about the leak case to a grand jury in March 2004. Judge Reggie Walton Feb. 6 approved the release of the tapes to the media over strong objections from the defense. Libby could be heard telling the jury just what Bond had reported: Cheney had first told him about Plame offhandedly, but Libby had forgotten about it until being reminded of it by Russert. His testimony also portrayed top White House officials as having been upset and agitated over Wilson’s discrediting of its claims about Iraq and revealed a concerted effort among them to limit the damage. That could bolster the prosecution’s argument that the project had occupied a good deal of Libby’s attention, making it unlikely that he would forget important aspects of it. Russert Contradicts Libby Account—

Fitzgerald Feb. 7 called Russert to testify. Russert told the court that the alleged July 10 or July 11 conversation with Libby had not taken place. He had not heard of Plame until he read Novak’s column, he said, so it February 8, 2007

would have been “impossible” for him to disclose anything about her to Libby several days before that. Defense attorney Theodore Wells Feb. 7–8 cross examined Russert, trying to cast doubt on the news figure’s integrity by playing excerpts from an Oct. 28, 2005, radio show and the same day’s broadcast of NBC’s “Today” show, in which Russert seemed excited at the prospect of indictments in the case. „

Economy January Unemployment Was 4.6%. The un-

employment rate in January was 4.6% after seasonal adjustUnemployment ment, up slightly 4.6% from 4.5% in De- January 2007 Month 4.5% cember 2006, the Previous Year Earlier 4.7% Labor Department reported Feb. 2. An estimated 111,000 nonfarm jobs were added to the economy in January, many of them in service-providing industries and construction. [See p. 16E1] Total Employment Was 146.0 Million—

According to a household survey, 146.0 million people held jobs in January, the Labor Department reported Feb. 2. The department counted 7.0 million people as unemployed, up from 6.8 million in December. The department counted 442,000 workers in January as “discouraged,” a sharp increase from the previous month. Workers were counted as “discouraged” if they were currently not looking for work because they believed that no jobs were available. They were not counted as part of the labor force. About 4.2 million people who sought full-time employment were working part-time instead. The average manufacturing workweek fell slightly to 40.8 hours in January, from 41 hours in December. Factory workers put in an average of 4.1 overtime hours per week, down by six minutes from the previous month. Seasonally adjusted average hourly wages for production workers rose three cents, to $17.06. The unemployment rate among whites nationwide climbed in January, to 4.1%, from 4.0% in December. The jobless rate for blacks fell to 8.0%, from 8.4%. For Hispanics, who could be of any race, it grew to 5.7%, from a revised 4.9%. No figures were reported for other racial or ethnic groups. For men aged 20 and over, January unemployment was 4.1%, up from 4.0% the previous month. For women, it was 4.0%, up from 3.9%. The teenage jobless rate stood at 15.0%, down from 15.2% in December. „ Consumer Spending Rose in Dec. 2006.

The Commerce Department Feb. 1 reported that consumer spending grew 0.7% in December 2006 over the previous month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $9.49 trillion. That was up from a 0.5% increase in consumer spending in November 2006 over October. Personal pretax income in December rose 0.5%, to an annual rate of $11.15 trillion, following 0.3%

growth the previous month. Disposable, or after-tax, income also climbed 0.5% in December, to an annual rate of $9.75 trillion, after 0.3% growth in November. The December savings rate, as a percentage of disposable income, was -1.2%, a slight decline from the November rate of -1.0%. A negative savings rate meant that total spending exceeded total personal disposable income. [See 2006, p. 1004F2] Other News—In other economic news: † The Commerce Department Feb. 2 reported that the value of durable goods orders in December 2006 rose $6.2 billion, or 2.9%, from the previous month, to $221.3 billion. Orders had grown a revised 2.2% in November 2006 over the previous month. [See p. 16F2] † The Labor Department Feb. 7 reported that seasonally adjusted nonfarm business productivity in the fourth quarter of 2006 grew at an annual rate of 3.0%, according to a preliminary estimate. Output grew faster than hours worked. The department also reported that third-quarter 2006 productivity had fallen 0.1%, according to revised data. Nonfarm business unit labor costs in the fourth quarter rose 1.7% over the preceding quarter, on 4.2% growth in hourly compensation. The department upwardly revised the increase in third-quarter unit labor costs to 3.2%, from 2.3% reported earlier. That revision was based on lower productivity and higher hourly compensation than previously estimated. Productivity for all of 2006 in the nonfarm business sector improved 2.1% over 2005, according to the Labor Department’s report. From 2004 to 2005, growth had been 2.3%. [See 2006, p. 955F1] „

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Crime Astronaut Charged With Attempted Murder.

Astronaut and Navy Cmdr. Lisa Nowak Feb. 6 was charged in Orlando, Fla., with attempted murder, kidnapping and battery, after a confrontation the previous day with a woman Nowak saw as a romantic rival. Nowak, 43, was the first active National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut to be charged with a felony. She was released on $25,550 bail and ordered to wear a monitoring anklet, and she returned to Houston, Texas, Feb. 7. [See 2006, p. 575E1] Nowak, who was married with three children but recently separated, reportedly viewed the woman, Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, 30, as a rival for the affections of a fellow astronaut, Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, 41. Nowak had told police that she and Oefelein had “more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship.” Nowak had made one trip to space, aboard the shuttle Discovery in July 2006. She had been trained with Oefelein, who had piloted a December 2006 Discovery mission. Police said Nowak had driven to Orlando from Houston, a 950-mile (1,500-km) journey, wearing a diaper so that she would not have to make restroom stops. They said Nowak, wearing a trenchcoat and glasses 81

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and disguised with a wig, approached Shipman in the parking lot of Orlando International Airport, where Shipman had arrived on a flight from Houston. She followed Shipman to her car and, after Shipman resisted her entreaties for a conversation, sprayed pepper spray at her through the car window. Nowak was allegedly also carrying a steel mallet, a knife and a BB gun, as well as latex gloves, rubber tubing and garbage bags. NASA to Revisit Screening Procedure— NASA officials Feb. 7 said the agency had

begun a comprehensive review of its procedures for psychological screening of astronaut candidates and for subsequent checkups. Deputy Administrator Shana Dale said NASA would examine Nowak’s history in the astronaut program, and whether there had been any “indicators” of Nowak’s difficulties that “we might have picked up on.” The agency would separately conduct a broader review, aided by outside experts, of its screening and psychological care. However, Dale said, “We think we’re doing things very, very well” and called the Nowak incident “a unique situation.” Nowak was suspended from flight status and placed on leave. She had been scheduled to assist a March shuttle mission as a “capsule communicator,” a ground-based manager of communications between mission control and the orbiting crew. „

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Fierce thunderstorms Feb. 2 spawned tornadoes in central Florida that killed at least 20 people and damaged hundreds of homes, many of them trailers. Gov. Charlie Crist (R) Feb. 2 declared a state of emergency in the four counties affected by the storms. President George W. Bush the next day announced in an address to Democratic members of Congress that “whatever federal response is needed, we will make it quick and sure.” [See 1998, p. 326G2] The storms, which were highly localized, hit in the early morning, decreasing the effectiveness of early warning systems that relied on television and radio messages. Forecasters attributed the tornadoes in part to El Nino, a periodic weather phenomenon that warmed ocean currents in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru. „ News in Brief. An explosion caused by a propane gas leak at a general store in Ghent, W.Va., Jan. 30 killed four volunteer firefighters and other emergency personnel responding to the leak. [See 1996, p. 938C2] A freight train carrying volatile chemicals Jan. 16 derailed in Brooks, Ky., igniting several cars and sending up a plume of toxic smoke that forced the evacuation of homes in the nearby area. The train was operated by CSX Corp. Officials said no injuries were reported. [See 2006, p. 1000G1; 2005, p. 231D2] „ 82

AFRICA

Democratic Republic of the Congo Premier Names Government. Premier An-

tione Gizenga Feb. 5 announced his cabinet. President Joseph Kabila had appointed Gizenga, a veteran opposition leader, in December 2006. [See 2006, p. 1012A1] Among the most prominent appointees was Nzanga Mobutu, son of former ruler Mobutu Sese Seko, who was named agriculture minister. Gizenga and Mobutu— who placed third and fourth, respectively, in 2006 presidential elections—were the only members of the new government who hailed from western Congo, which had voted overwhelmingly for Kabila’s main opponent, Jean-Pierre Bemba, in the presidential election. Kabila drew most of his support from the east. [See below] In other appointments, former rebel leader Mbusa Nyamwisi was named foreign minister, and Denis Kalume retained his post as interior minister. Bemba Wins Senate Seat—Bemba won a senate seat in Jan. 19 balloting by members of Congo’s 11 provincial assemblies, the electoral commission announced Jan. 20. Bemba would be one of eight senators representing Kinshasa, the capital, in the 108-member body. Bemba’s Union for the Nation (UN) party claimed 18 senate seats, compared with 56 for Kabila’s Alliance for the Presidential Majority (AMP). The AMP in Jan. 27 voting by provincial assemblies won six of nine gubernatorial races contested that day, according to results released Jan. 28. Bemba’s allies won only one race, in his home province of Equateur. Scores Killed in Clashes— Nearly 100 people were killed Jan. 31–Feb. 1 in several towns in clashes between security forces and opposition supporters in the western province of Bas-Congo. Congolese soldiers and United Nations peacekeepers Feb. 2 were deployed in the province to quell the violence, the worst in the country since the 2006 presidential elections. The violence reportedly started after police raided the home of Nemuanda Nsemi, the defeated UN party candidate for the vice-governorship, in Matadi, the provincial capital. Nsemi was the leader of Bundu dia Kongo, described as an ethnic-based religious and political movement that opposed Kabila’s government. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the U.N. Security Council Feb. 7 called for an investigation into the clashes. „ Warlord’s ICC Trial Set. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands, Jan. 29 ruled that there was enough evidence to try Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for war crimes. Lubanga’s case would be the first to be heard by the court, which was established in 2002. [See 2006, p. 874C1] The presiding judge, Claude Jorda, said there was sufficient evidence to try Lubanga on the charge of “enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15.” He said the children had been forced to kill in

battles between Lubanga’s ethnic Hema militia, the Union of Congolese Patriots, and ethnic Lendu fighters in Congo’s eastern Ituri region. Many of the child fighters had been regularly drugged, the judge alleged. Lubanga denied the charges. „

Somalia Premier Shuffles Cabinet. Interim Premier Ali Muhammad Gedi Feb. 7 reshuffled his cabinet. In announcing the reshuffle, Gedi alleged that some ministers had been inefficient and had misused government funds. [See pp. 65E1, 50A1] Three ministers were replaced, and Interior Minister Hussein Farah Aidid was demoted to housing minister. Aidid, who was also a deputy premier, was the son of late warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid, whose forces had attacked U.S. troops in Mogadishu in 1993, leading to 18 U.S. deaths. The moves were seen as an effort by Gedi to assert his authority over Somalia’s transitional government. That government had retaken control of the country with the help of Ethiopian forces in late December 2006, ousting an Islamist militia that had controlled much of central and southern Somalia since June of that year. In a related development, Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed Jan. 30 agreed to a national reconciliation conference that would include the political opposition and clan leaders. The international community had also pressured the transitional government to include moderate Islamist leaders in the talks. Islamist Leader Travels to Yemen—

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the Islamists’ second-in-command, who had surrendered to Kenyan authorities in late January, Feb. 8 arrived in Yemen. A Yemeni official said Ahmed, whom the U.S. considered a moderate, was staying in the capital, Sanaa, as a guest of the government. Other News—In other Somalia news: † At least 115 people had died in the previous month in a cholera outbreak in south and central Somalia, it was reported Feb. 7. The outbreak, which had also sickened 724, reportedly was the result of recent floods that had contaminated wells. [See 2006, p. 1014A3] † Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi, in an interview published Feb. 5 in the Financial Times, said top Islamist leaders who allegedly had links to the Al Qaeda terrorist network remained at large, despite recent airstrikes by the U.S. and Ethiopia. He said U.S. officials had been helping with DNA tests to determine the identities of those killed in the strikes. Meles Jan. 27 had said that one-third of the Ethiopian troops in Somalia would withdraw by the next day. The African Union was currently trying to assemble a peacekeeping force for Somalia. † The transitional parliament Jan. 31 elected former warlord and Justice Minister Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur (also known as Sheikh Adan Madobe) as its new speaker. He would replace Sharif Hassan Sheikh FACTS ON FILE

Adan, who had been ousted earlier in January. Nur was reportedly a close ally of Yusuf. [See p. 33G2] „

Africa News in Brief Gambia: Ruling Party Dominates Elections.

The ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) of authoritarian President Yahya Jammeh Jan. 25 won 42 of the 48 seats contested in parliamentary elections, down from 45 in the previous parliament. Jammeh also appointed five members of the 53-seat parliament. The United Democratic Party (UDP), the main opposition party, won four seats. Jammeh, 41, had gained power in a 1994 military coup, and had been reelected for the third time in September 2006. Opposition leaders alleged that some of their candidates had been arrested during the campaign. [See 2006, p. 768A1] „ Liberia: Female Peacekeeping Unit Arrives.

The United Nations’ first all-female peacekeeping unit Jan. 30 arrived in Liberia to join the existing 15,000-member U.N. Mission in Liberia. The unit was comprised of about 100 female police officers from India, and would be based in Monrovia, the capital. Male members of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Liberia—as well as aid workers and teachers—had been accused in 2006 of having sex with girls as young as eight in exchange for food, money or other favors. [See 2006, p. 415G1] „ Madagascar: Bin Laden’s Kin Killed. Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, a brother-in-law of Al Qaeda terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden, had been killed during an apparent burglary attempt, his brother, Malek Khalifa, said Jan. 31. Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, a Saudi national, was married to bin Laden’s sister. He had a house in Madagascar and traded precious stones there. He was wanted in the Philippines for allegedly financing the Abu Sayyaf Islamic militant group, and had also been accused of providing funding to the members of a 1993 plot to blow up the World Trade Center in New York City in the U.S. [See p. 51B3; 2001, p. 785G2] „ Malawi: VP’s Treason Trial Opens. Vice President Cassim Chilumpha Jan. 30 went on trial on treason charges, in connection with an alleged plot to kill President Bingu wa Mutharika. Chilumpha and two other men, politician Rashid Nembo and businessman Yusuf Matumula, had been arrested in April 2006. Prosecutors Jan. 30 dropped the charges against Nembo, citing lack of evidence. Chilumpha denied the charges, and alleged that he was being targeted for refusing to join a new political party founded by Mutharika. [See 2006, p. 377A3] „

AMERICAS

Brazil Da Silva Releases Economic Plan. Pres-

ident Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Jan. 22 released a plan that aimed to increase the nation’s annual economic growth rate to 5% within one year. The plan dedicated $240 billion over four years to the nation’s infraFebruary 8, 2007

structure, funding improvements in the sewage and water systems, highways and the electricity grid. Da Silva also said he would attempt to legislate billions of dollars in tax breaks for businesses in order to spur growth. Government payrolls would be linked to the inflation rate in an effort to reduce debt, da Silva said. Brazil’s economy had grown at an average rate of around 3% over the past 20 years, trailing most other Caribbean and Latin American countries. [See p. 18E3] „

Canada Afghan Detainee Abuse Inquiries Ordered.

Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada’s chief of defense, and Defense Minister Gordon O’Connor Feb. 6 acknowledged the existence of two federal inquiries into allegations that Canadian soldiers deployed in Afghanistan in April 2006 had abused as many as three detainees. Roughly 2,300 Canadian soldiers had been stationed in the country as part of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) peacekeeping force initially deployed in September 2002. [See 2006, pp. 906G1, 769G2] The alleged injuries suffered by the detainees had been brought to light by Amir Attaran, a law professor at the University of Ottawa in Ontario. Attaran had requested from the government military documents detailing abuse suffered by suspects held by military personnel. One military record obtained by Attaran described a prisoner as having “contusions,” “lacerations” and “abrasions” on his face and upper body after undergoing an interrogation. Attaran had submitted his findings to a civilian complaints review agency, the Military Police Complaints Commission, thereby sparking one investigation into the military police’s handling of the incidents. The other investigation was being headed by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, a part of the military that investigated criminal matters. The men had been taken into custody in the town of Dukah, 30 miles (50 km) west of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s capital, on April 7, 2006, it was reported Feb. 6. News of the abuse inquiries evoked comparisons to a 1993 incident in which Canadian troops stationed in Somalia had tortured, then murdered a detained teenager. [See 1994, p. 369G3] „ Harper Speech Outlines Policy Goals.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper Feb. 6 delivered a speech outlining the policy objectives of his government, marking the oneyear anniversary of his administration’s swearing-in. The speech had been promoted as a proxy for the “Speech from the Throne,” in which the government’s policy ambitions were outlined in general terms. However, the Throne Speech was only delivered after the opening of a parliamentary session, the last of which had occurred in early 2006. [See 17C3; 2006, p. 282C1] Harper, in remarks before the Canadian Club of Ottawa, said he would push through legislation requiring the government to cut personal tax rates, using the in-

terest savings generated by national debt payments to fund the reductions. He promised to legislate lower industrial emissions standards, and set a goal of new vehicle fuel standards by the 2011 model year. Harper also said the government would present a report on the status of the country’s participation in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) force in Afghanistan “in upcoming weeks.” The speech outlined five broad policy objectives: reforming the Senate’s appointment process, lowering crime, cutting taxes, addressing the nation’s military presence abroad and examining environmental issues. „

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Indonesia Severe Floods Inundate Jakarta, Killing 44.

Heavy rains in Jakarta, the capital, Feb. 1 triggered the overflow of canals and rivers, causing serious flooding that continued through Feb. 8. The water reached a height of 13 feet (four meters) in some areas, and submerged an estimated 40% to 70% of the city, according to officials. At least 44 people were reported to have died from drowning, electrocution or disease, and some 340,000 had been forced from their homes, it was reported Feb. 7. [See 2006, pp. 1022A2, 582D2] Army helicopters, dinghies and horsedrawn carts were employed to rescue city residents stranded by the rising waters. Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari Feb. 6 warned that rats and a lack of clean water created the potential for outbreaks of serious diseases such as dysentery, cholera, malaria and dengue fever. The director of Jakarta’s water company, Didiet Haryadi, the same day said restoring clean water to the city would take two to three weeks after the floodwaters abated. Many residents criticized the city government for failing to take measures to control the floods. However Jakarta’s governor, Sutiyoso, said it was part of a natural cycle and beyond his control. Jakarta was subject to flooding every year, but the current floods were considered especially severe. „

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Kyrgyzstan Parliament Approves New Premier. Kyrgyzstan’s parliament Jan. 29 approved, in a 57–4 vote, acting Agriculture Minister Azim Isabekov as the country’s new premier. He would replace Feliks Kulov, who had resigned along with his cabinet in December 2006. [See p. 35G1] President Kurmanbek Bakiyev earlier in January had renominated Kulov, but parliament rejected the nomination. Bakiyev Jan. 19 resubmitted Kulov’s nomination, but parliament Jan. 25 rejected it again. Bakiyev Jan. 26 submitted Isabekov as an alternate candidate. Isabekov, a 46year-old economist, was described as a close ally of the president. Both Kulov and Isabekov hailed from northern Kyrgyzstan, while Bakiyev was a native of the south. 83

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There was a marked north-south split in Kyrgyzstan, and Bakiyev’s desire to have a northern premier reportedly reflected an effort to unite the country. However, some observers said Isabekov, a relative political novice, would likely defer to the president on most issues. In a Jan. 29 speech to parliament, the new premier said he would work to stabilize Kyrgyzstan’s economy and to resolve political infighting that had been plaguing the country. New Government Structure Approved—

Parliament Feb. 6 approved most of the proposals submitted Jan. 30 by Isabekov for a new government structure. The new structure included 14 ministries, up from 12, as well as five committees and 12 state agencies. Parliament rejected a proposal to create a third deputy premier post. Some opposition lawmakers also protested that powers awarded to the president under the new structure belonged to the premier under the constitution. Some of the conflict apparently stemmed from confusion over recent amendments to the constitution. After November 2006 protests in Bishkek, the capital, Bakiyev had agreed to amendments that ceded some of his powers to parliament. However, the president in mid-January signed new amendments that reversed those changes. After the new structure was approved, Bakiyev Feb. 6–8 named several new cabinet ministers. Daniyar Usonov and Dosbol Nur-uulu Feb. 6 were selected as deputy premiers. Also that day, Ismail Isakov was named defense minister, Bolotbek Nogoibaev was named interior minister and Marat Kayipov was named justice minister. Akylbek Japarov retained his post as finance minister, and Murat Sutalinov remained head of the National Security Committee. Former Foreign Minister Ednan Karabayev Feb. 8 regained that post. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Great Britain News in Brief. A series of letter bomb attacks Jan. 18–Feb. 7 injured at least six

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people at offices and laboratories across Britain. Police suspected animal rights extremists, who had mounted previous bomb attacks on laboratories, or motorists disgruntled by tolls. Three forensic labs that did work for the police received letter bombs Jan. 18. A company that worked on a contract to implement London’s congestion charge, which imposed fees for driving in the city at peak hours, received a letter bomb Feb. 5. A contractor that installed cameras to monitor highway speeding reported receiving a letter bomb the next day. A letter-bomb explosion at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in Swansea, Wales, Feb. 7 injured four workers. [See 2003, p. 109B3] The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper, Feb. 6 posted on its Web site a video recorded in the cockpit of a U.S. warplane as its pilots mistakenly attacked a British con84

voy in southern Iraq on March 28, 2003. British Lance Cpl. Matty Hull, 25, was killed in the friendly-fire incident. The pilots expressed dismay after realizing their mistake, saying, “I’m going to be sick,” and “We’re in jail, dude.” The U.S. military later Feb. 6 said it would allow the video to be introduced as evidence in a coroner’s court investigating Hull’s death. The military said it had already investigated the two pilots, both members of the Idaho National Guard, and decided not to bring charges against them because they had correctly followed combat rules for selecting targets. The British coroner had suspended the inquest until the U.S. agreed to release the video. [See 2004, p. 592E2] India’s Tata Steel Jan. 31 won a bidding

war for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group PLC. Tata’s £6.7 billion ($11.3 billion)

offer trumped a rival bid by Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional. The deal was the largest foreign acquisition by an Indian company to date, and was widely hailed in India as a sign of the country’s growing clout as an economic power. However, some analysts said Tata had paid too much for Corus. [See 2006, p. 1029E1] „

Serbia U.N. Envoy Presents Kosovo Plan. Special

United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari Feb. 2 presented his plan for a settlement of the status of the Serbian province of Kosovo. The province, whose population was predominantly ethnic Albanian, had been under U.N. administration since 1999, after a conflict between Albanian separatist rebels and Serbian forces. Ahtisaari recommended that Kosovo be given numerous attributes of a sovereign state, but his document did not mention “independence,” and called for the province to remain under international supervision. Ahtisaari’s report was to be the basis for negotiations on a U.N. Security Council resolution that would implement a settlement; Ahtisaari said he would include “a clear definition of Kosovo’s status” in his submission to the Security Council. [See p. 52C1; 2006, p. 962D3] Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland, Jan. 26 had first handed his report to the Contact Group on Kosovo—the U.S., Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy. He presented it Feb. 2 first to Serbian leaders in Belgrade, the capital, and then to Kosovo’s leaders in Pristina, the provincial capital. Serbian President Boris Tadic flatly rejected the plan, saying that it “opens up the possibility of independence,” which he said Serbia would “never accept.” Serbian Premier Vojislav Kostunica refused to attend Ahtisaari’s presentation. He said that the plan was “illegitimate” and a violation of Serbia’s sovereignty. Kosovo’s leaders expressed more support for the plan. Although Premier Agim Ceku said it did not include “all that we hope for,” he said it made the province’s future “very clear and opens the way to Kosovo’s independence.” Kosovo would adopt many attributes of a state, such as a new defense force, constitution, flag and anthem. But Ahtisaari’s

blueprint called for an internationally backed authority, to be led by the European Union, to replace the U.N. in overseeing the governance of Kosovo for the time being, with veto power over the decisions of the provincial government. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) peacekeeping force already deployed in Kosovo would remain. The question of whether and when Kosovo could become independent would depend on its ability to safeguard the rights of its ethnic Serb minority, which numbered about 100,000 people out of the province’s population of two million. Among measures intended to protect the Serbs was the creation of six Serb-controlled municipalities that would be allowed to maintain financial and other ties to Serbia. Also, Serbs would be guaranteed representation in parliament and given powers to influence legislation that would particularly affect them. Russia, Serbia’s traditional ally, had previously vowed to veto any Security Council resolution that was not acceptable to Serbia, arguing that it would set a precedent that would encourage separatist movements elsewhere. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in comments reported Feb. 3, suggested that Russia had not necessarily determined whether it would veto such a resolution. Ahtisaari Feb. 5 said he sought to begin consultations on finalizing the plan to be presented to the Security Council within a week in Vienna, Austria. He said he aimed to deliver a proposal to the council by the end of February, and added that there was no point postponing it, as little could be done to change the two sides’ views. „

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Iran Uranium Enrichment Program Progresses.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—the United Nations nuclear monitor—Jan. 26 announced that Iran would begin installing centrifuges for uranium enrichment in February. Such a move would be in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in December 2006 that had imposed sanctions on Iran and called on it to suspend its nuclear activities. Iran had insisted that its nuclear program was for peaceful use only, but the U.S. and other nations had expressed concern that Iran was secretly developing nuclear weapons. Enriched uranium could be used both as fuel for power plants and to make nuclear bombs. [See p. 52A3] ElBaradei said Iranian officials had told him that Iran would start setting up the centrifuges at an underground facility as part of its plan to begin enriching uranium on an industrial scale. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in November 2006 had pledged to eventually install 54,000 centrifuges, with 3,000 to be in place by the end of March, though it appeared that technical difficulties had made that deadline unrealistic. Iran had two known major nuclear faFACTS ON FILE

cilities: one at Isfahan, where gas was separated from uranium ore, and another at Natanz, where the uranium gas was enriched. [See 2006, p. 885A1] Seeking to end the deadlock with Iran, ElBaradei proposed a “time out” in which Iran would suspend its nuclear program while the U.N. suspended sanctions. ElBaradei said it was time for both sides to “engage” and to stop “flexing muscles” and “calling names.” Ali Larijani, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Jan. 28 expressed a degree for approval for the idea, saying, “Time should be allocated to see if the plan has the capacity to solve the case.” Unidentified IAEA diplomats in Vienna, Austria’s capital, where the agency’s headquarters were located, Feb. 2 claimed that centrifuges were being installed at the Natanz facility, and that hundreds of technicians and laborers there were working at a furious pace. Iran Feb. 3 allowed IAEA representatives from Algeria, Cuba, Egypt and Malaysia and elsewhere, as well as reporters, to tour the Isfahan facility in an attempt to show its nuclear program to be transparent and peaceful in nature. None of the visitors, however, were qualified IAEA nuclear inspectors. Iran had refused to admit any IAEA inspectors from nations supporting the sanctions resolution. Chirac

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Threat—

French President Jacques Chirac Jan. 29 said the prospect of Iran “having one or perhaps a second bomb” was “not very dangerous,” and suggested that Iran would never use a nuclear weapon, even against Israel, because “Tehran would be razed” by nuclear reprisals. Chirac claimed that the real threat was that Iran’s possession of a nuclear weapon would encourage nuclear proliferation throughout the Middle East. Chirac’s comments came during an interview with the New York Times and other newspapers that was supposed to focus on climate change, and were in stark contrast to the official position of France, the U.S. and many of their allies. Chirac Jan. 30 met with the same reporters again in order to retract some of his comments, saying he had believed that any discussion outside of climate change would be “off the record.” Chirac’s office Feb. 1 issued a statement saying that “France, along with the international community, cannot accept the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran.” On Jan. 30 he had also retracted his claim about a nuclear reprisal, instead suggesting that any nuclear weapon fired from Iran would be intercepted and destroyed. Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Feb. 2 dismissed Chirac’s comments, insisting that Iran was not developing a nuclear bomb. Supreme Leader Warns U.S.—Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Feb. 8 responded to speculation that the U.S. or Israel might try to end Iran’s nuclear program by staging military strikes on its nuclear facilities, saying, “Our enemies know very well that any aggression will have a response from all sides by Iranian people on their interests all over the February 8, 2007

world.” Speaking to military commanders, Khamenei said any such strike would be “a blunder,” and reassured the Iranian people that they should not be concerned. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates responded in turn that day, insisting, “We have no intention of attacking Iran.” Ali Fadavi, a senior naval commander for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard—an elite force affiliated with the ruling conservative clerics—Feb. 8 announced the successful testfiring of a land-to-sea missile. The test had taken place during military exercises. Fadavi claimed that the missile had the power to sink large warships “throughout the Persian Gulf.” The U.S. had recently sent a second Navy carrier group to the Persian Gulf as a show of force. [See p. 52F3] Other News—In other Iranian news: † The U.N. General Assembly Jan. 26 adopted by consensus a U.S.-proposed resolution condemning denial of the Holocaust, the genocide of six million European Jews by Nazi Germany in World War II. Iran had held a conference in December 2006 questioning the reality of the Holocaust, and the resolution was widely understood to be a rebuke of Iran. The country’s U.N. representative accused the resolution’s sponsors of “mischevious” intent. The World Holocaust Foundation, an Iranian-sponsored foundation established after the conference, Feb. 6 called on European nations to “hand over the proof” of the Holocaust to the “fact-finding committee affiliated to this foundation.” [See 2006, p. 964E1] † Anglo-Dutch energy company Royal Dutch Shell PLC Jan. 28 announced that it had signed a $10 billion preliminary deal with Iran to develop the South Pars gas field. The U.S. had been pressuring companies not to make such deals with the Iranian government as part of its attempt to put economic pressure on Iran. † U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Feb. 7 testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, claiming that she had been unaware of a 2003 attempt by Iran to discuss a bargain with the U.S. on a variety of issues including sanctions, nuclear safeguards, terrorism and the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. Reports of the proposal had emerged in 2006, and Flynt Leverett, a former staff member of Rice’s, earlier Feb. 7 had claimed that he had seen a fax of the proposal, but that it had been the responsibility of another staffer, Elliott Abrams, to pass it along to Rice. [See 2006, p. 1009C1] „

Iraq New Baghdad, Anbar Security Effort Begins.

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Feb. 7 announced that the new joint U.S.Iraqi push to secure the restive Anbar province and Baghdad, the capital, had begun. The push was the latest attempt to end the rampant terrorism and sectarian violence in Iraq. Caldwell declared that the plan was being “fully implemented as we speak,”

even though “not all aspects are in place at this point.” [See p. 57A1] Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abboud Gambar Feb. 5 had taken charge of the command center in Baghdad that was to oversee the operations in the capital. New checkpoints were also set up that day, and police moved into the Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Sadr City, often a site of violence. The plan divided the vast city into nine security districts to be secured by Iraqi forces supported by U.S. troops. Dozens of security stations were to be set up so that forces would inhabit the neighborhoods they were responsible for, rather than being intermittently deployed in response to violence. Two Iraqi deputies were to report to Gambar, one for each half of the city, which was divided into eastern and western sections by the Tigris River. U.S. President George W. Bush had opted for an increase, or “surge” in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq in order to support the effort, and those troops were to arrive in stages over the coming months. U.S. Army Col. Douglass Heckman, an adviser to an Iraqi army division, Feb. 5 said the push would be “much more than [Baghdad] has ever seen and it’s going to be a rolling surge.” Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki Feb. 6 called upon Iraqi commanders to speed up the implementation of the security push, expressing the concern that delays were allowing insurgents the opportunity to commit more acts of violence, and leading “some people to say that we have already failed.” Maliki urged the commanders to “quickly finish the preparations so that we don’t disappoint people.” [See below] U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Feb. 6 testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying the new security effort was “not the last chance” to secure Iraq. While insisting that the U.S. military was “planning for success” in the latest effort, Gates acknowledged that it would be “irresponsible if I weren’t thinking about what the alternatives might be” if the effort failed. Gates Feb. 2 had said the Iraqi security units arriving for duty in the capital were not at full strength.

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Baghdad Truck Bomb Kills At Least 135—

A truck bomb loaded with roughly a ton of explosives Feb. 3 detonated in a market in Baghdad, killing at least 135 people and wounding more than 300 others, making it the single most deadly bombing since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The bombing took place in a predominantly Shiite area of the city, collapsing three buildings and setting fire to several others. Ali al-Dabagh, a spokesman for Maliki, claimed that a Sunni Muslim insurgent group was the focus of suspicion, and also accused Syria of not doing enough to prevent insurgents from entering Iraq. Many Shiite leaders blamed the deaths on the U.S. and the slow implementation of the security plan. They argued that the plan had forced Shiite militias into hiding and dismantled several militia checkpoints, but had failed to put new government forces in their place quickly enough, thereby leaving an opening for Sunni insurgents to wreak havoc. 85

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Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Feb. 4 sympathized with the Iraqi people, who he said were “hopeful, optimistic that this new surge, this new plan would provide a better life for them.” He warned that the latest round of violence might cause them to “lose hope.” A shower of mortar shells Feb. 4 landed in a Sunni area of eastern Baghdad, apparently in retaliation for the truck bomb, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 56. Government authorities found 35 bodies in various parts of the city that day, many of which bore signs of torture. Bleak Intelligence Report Released—

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U.S. intelligence agencies Feb. 2 issued a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), giving a pessimistic assessment of the situation in Iraq. Four pages of the classified report, which comprised the consensus view of 16 intelligence agencies, were released to the public. The full report was provided to the Bush administration and to Congress. While agreeing that the situation there was desperate, the report said the term “civil war” failed to “adequately capture the complexity of the conflict in Iraq, which includes extensive Shia-on-Shia violence, [terrorist network] al Qa’ida and Sunni insurgent attacks on Coalition forces, and widespread criminally motivated violence.” The report claimed that Al Qaeda and Iran were contributing to the worsening situation, but downplayed their overall influence, describing the violence as “self-sustaining.” Iraq’s leaders and military faced significant obstacles, the report asserted, while also expressing doubt about their ability to face down the sectarian factions engaging in violence. The report warned that any of a number of “triggering events,” such as the assassination of religious or political leaders, or a mass abandonment of the political process by Sunnis, could lead to anarchy, sectarian partition, or a new dictatorship. The report also stated that no amount of U.S. troops would be sufficient to redeem the situation, but that their presence was nonetheless “an essential stabilizing element in Iraq.” Quickly removing U.S. forces from the country, the report asserted, would “almost certainly” result in greater sectarian violence. Gunmen Abduct Iranian Diplomat—

Jalal Sharafi, a second secretary at Iran’s embassy in Iraq, Feb. 4 was kidnapped from his car in Baghdad by armed men wearing Iraqi military uniforms and carrying military identification cards. Iraqi security forces pursued the gunmen immediately after the kidnapping and captured several suspects, but were unable to recover Sharafi. [See p. 25F2] An unidentified official at Iran’s embassy Feb. 6 accused U.S. forces of being involved in the abduction, saying the detained suspects were Iraqis “directly connected” to the U.S. military. A spokesman for the U.S. military, Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, denied the accusation, saying there was no indication that either U.S. or Iraqi forces were involved. 86

Zebari Feb. 7 said investigators were questioning four Iraqi armed forces members detained the day of the abduction. U.S. Transport Helicopter Crashes— A U.S. Marine Corps Sea Knight transport helicopter Feb. 7 crashed in Anbar province, killing all seven people aboard. Witnesses reported that it had been shot down, and a Web site linked to Sunni insurgents claimed responsibility for downing the helicopter. The U.S. military, however, claimed that there was some indication that mechanical failure could be to blame, and said the matter was under investigation. U.S. military officials acknowledged that five helicopters had recently been brought down by enemy fire: a Black Hawk on Jan. 20; two helicopters flown by private security contractors, one on Jan. 23 and another on Jan. 31; and two Apache helicopters, one on Jan. 28 and another on Feb. 2. The officials claimed that the U.S. military was looking into whether new tactics by insurgents were to blame. [See pp. 58C1, 57F1, 53B3] Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Seven car bombs Feb. 3 exploded in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least two people and wounding at least 30 more. Some of the bombs exploded outside the office of one of the leading ethnic Kurdish parties, possibly because many Kurds had been calling for the oil-rich city to be annexed to their territory. The city’s police chief said the loss of a local military brigade, sent to Baghdad as part of the security effort, had left Kirkuk vulnerable to such attacks. [See above; 2006, p. 945D1] † The British military Feb. 5 reported the death of one of its soldiers from a roadside bomb in Basra, the 100th British soldier to die in action. A total of 131 British soldiers had died in Iraq since the invasion in 2003. [See p. 53A3] † The U.S. military Feb. 5 claimed that Iraqi troops in Baqubah had killed a “rogue” militia leader affiliated with Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and believed to be involved in “kidnappings, assassinations and other violence targeting Iraqi civilians and Iraqi police,” as well as coalition forces. An unidentified spokesman for Sadr’s political bloc identified the militia leader as Ali Khazim al-Hamdani. The spokesman claimed that Hamdani had not split from Sadr’s movement, and called his death a “provocation.” An unidentified Sadr spokesman Feb. 5 announced that another leader affiliated with the militia, Khalil alMaliki, had been killed by gunmen the day before in a drive-by shooting. † U.S. and Iraqi officials Feb. 5 announced that a member of Iraq’s parliament, Jamal Jaafar Mohammed, several years prior had been sentenced to death in absentia in Kuwait for assisting in the bombings of the U.S. and French embassies there in 1983. Mohammed, who was also known as Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, was elected to parliament in 2005 as a member of the ruling Shiite coalition. Associates of Mohammed claimed that he

was currently in Iran. The bombings in Kuwait had initiated a series of kidnappings and terrorist acts in the region. Lou Fintor, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Feb. 6 said the U.S. was pursuing the matter with Iraq’s government. [See 1983, p. 943C1] † Bombings, mortar attacks and other violence Feb. 5 killed 38 people. At least 74 people were killed or found dead in Iraq that day, 67 of them in Baghdad. † L. Paul Bremer 3rd, the former U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq, Feb. 6 appeared before the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Democrats on the committee criticized Bremer for failing to keep tabs on the roughly $12 billion in cash sent to Iraq in 2003–04 in order to pay the salaries of Iraqi government workers. Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.) argued that, due to a lack of proper accounting systems, “we have no way of knowing whether the cash…ended up in enemy hands.” Bremer defended himself by claiming that Iraq had lacked the infrastructure for any such accounting, and that any delay in distributing the funds “would have been demoralizing and unfair to the citizens of Iraq.” † U.S. and Iraqi forces Feb. 8 detained Hakim al-Zamili, a deputy minister of health accused of illegally passing government medical funds to a rogue unit of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia affiliated with Sadr. A statement released by the U.S. military, though not mentioning Zamili by name, claimed that the expropriated funds had been used “to support sectarian attacks and violence targeting Iraqi civilians,” and that the official detained was implicated in the deaths of many ministry officials. An unidentified interior ministry official said Zamili was suspected of using government ambulances to transport weapons and militants. Iraqi Health Minister Ali Hussein alShamari denounced the arrest, which took place in a health ministry building in Baghdad. † U.S. air strikes on alleged insurgent safe houses Feb. 8 killed 13 insurgents in Amiriyah, a town roughly 30 miles (48 km) west of Baghdad. Residents in the area claimed that dozens of civilians were killed or wounded in the attack. U.S. military spokesman Garver claimed that U.S. troops investigating the site after the air strike had found no civilian casualties. „

SOUTH ASIA

India Russia’s President Putin Visits. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Jan. 25 met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the first day of a two-day summit visit to India. The two leaders signed a number of new accords, including one giving India access to Russia’s satellite-navigation system and several to start joint defense and aviation projects. Putin promised to build four additional nuclear reactors in India, while India’s state-owned Oil and Natural FACTS ON FILE

Gas Corp. signed an agreement with Russia’s OAO Rosneft to bid on exploration and refinery projects. India Jan. 26 celebrated its Republic Day, at which Putin was the guest of honor. [See 2002, p. 959C3] „

Sri Lanka Army Seen Allowing Child Soldiers. The

U.S.-based activist group Human Rights Watch (HRW) Jan. 24 called on the Sri Lankan government to investigate allegations that a rebel splinter group reportedly now cooperating with the military was using child soldiers in its fight against the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). HRW said the army was assisting the group, known as the Karuna, in conscripting children because it was “eager for an ally against the Tamil Tigers.” The government had often denounced the LTTE’s use of child soldiers as proof of its cruelty, and HRW labeled the army’s alleged complicity as “hypocrisy.” The government denied the charges. [See 2006, p. 1034D1] Other News—In other news: † The military Jan. 31 reported that 11 people had been killed after a police bus was bombed in the eastern district of Batticaloa. They said LTTE rebels might have carried out the attack. [See p. 23G1] † The Sri Lankan army Jan. 19 captured the eastern, LTTE-held, strategic town of Vakarai, after weeks of intense fighting. A United Nations spokeswoman said 6,000– 8,000 civilian refugees had fled the fallen town, and that 25,000 had evacuated in previous weeks. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Colts Defeat Bears to Win Super Bowl XLI Manning, Dungy Lead Team to Victory.

The Indianapolis Colts Feb. 4 defeated the Chicago Bears, 29–17, in Miami, Fla., to win Super Bowl XLI. The Colts won the second Super Bowl in franchise history; the team had first won as the Baltimore Colts in 1971 in Super Bowl V. [See p. 55C3; 1971, p. 59F2] Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, a two-time winner of the National Football League (NFL) most valuable player (MVP) award, was named the Super Bowl’s MVP. Manning completed 25 of 38 passes in the game for 247 yards and one touchdown. He also fumbled and threw an interception. [See 2005, p. 23F2] Indianapolis’s Tony Dungy became the first black head coach to win the Super Bowl. Dungy and Bears coach Lovie Smith, who were close friends, had been the first black coaches to appear in the NL’s title game. Dungy won the championship just over one year after his son, James Dungy, committed suicide. [See 2005, p. 988B3] Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri, who kicked three field goals and two extra points, set a record for the most career points for a kicker in the Super Bowl, with February 8, 2007

34, and the most field goals, with seven. (Vinatieri had previously played on three Super Bowl–winning New England Patriots teams.) [See 2005, p. 91A1] Almost the entire game was played in driving rain, hampering the offenses and leading to mistakes on both sides. It was the first Super Bowl played in such conditions. Bears Score on Opening Kickoff—Chicago took the lead on the first play of Super Bowl XLI Feb. 4, stunning the heavily favored Colts. Rookie cornerback Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown, the first time in Super Bowl history that such a play had occurred. The Colts hit back later in the first quarter, when Manning connected with wide receiver Reggie Wayne on a 53-yard touchdown pass. (The extra point attempt failed due to a botched snap.) The Bears then scored their second touchdown of the game late in the quarter after a Manning fumble. Tailback Thomas Jones broke free for a 52-yard run to the Colts’ four-yard line. Quarterback Rex Grossman then hit wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad with a four-yard touchdown pass. The first quarter featured four turnovers—two by each team—a Super Bowl record. The Colts took the lead in the second quarter on a 29-yard field goal by Vinatieri and a one-yard touchdown run by tailback Dominic Rhodes, who had 113 yards in the game. Indianapolis went into halftime with a 16–14 lead. The Colts increased their lead to 22–14 with two third-quarter field goals by Vinatieri. Chicago remained within striking distance with a 44-yard field goal by Robbie Gould late in the quarter to make the score 22–17. The Bears’ attempt at a fourth-quarter comeback was thwarted by two interceptions thrown by Grossman. The first came early in the quarter, when cornerback Kelvin Hayden picked off a pass intended for Muhammad and ran 56 yards for a touchdown. On Chicago’s next possession, Colts safety Bob Sanders intercepted a Grossman pass to seal the victory for Indianapolis. SCORING SUMMARY First Quarter

14:46 Colts 0, Bears 7—92-yard kickoff return for a TD by Hester (extra point by Gould). 6:50 Colts 6, Bears 7—53-yard TD pass to Wayne from Manning (extra-point attempt failed). Drive: nine plays, 80 yards, 4:30. Key plays: seven-yard pass to Marvin Harrison from Manning on 3rd-andtwo; six-yard pass to Dallas Clark from Manning on 3rd-and-four. 4:34 Colts 6, Bears 14—Four-yard TD pass to Muhammad from Grossman (extra point by Gould). Drive: four plays, 57 yards, 2:00. Key plays: Mark Anderson recovery of Manning fumble on Colts’ 41; 52-yard run by Jones.

Second Quarter

11:17 Colts 9, Bears 14—29-yard field goal by Vinatieri. Drive: eight plays, 47 yards, 3:52. Key plays: 12-yard pass to Joseph Addai from Manning; 15-yard pass to Harrison from Manning. 6:09 Colts 16, Bears 14—One-yard TD run by Rhodes (extra point by Vinatieri). Drive: seven plays, 58 yards, 3:08. Key plays: 12-yard punt return by Terrence Wilkins to Colts’ 42; 22-yard pass

to Harrison from Manning; 17-yard pass to Clark from Manning; three-yard run by Rhodes to Bears’ eight on 3rd-and-two.

Third Quarter

7:26 Colts 19, Bears 14—24-yard field goal by Vinatieri. Drive: 13 plays, 56 yards, 7:34. Key plays: eight-yard pass to Ben Utecht from Manning; 10yard run by Addai; nine-yard pass to Addai from Manning on 3rd-and-five to Bears’ 14. 3:16 Colts 22, Bears 14—20-yard field goal by Vinatieri. Drive: six plays, 62 yards, 2:07. Key plays: 12-yard punt return by Wilkins; 36-yard run by Rhodes; eight-yard run by Rhodes plus 10-yard face mask penalty on Danieal Manning to Bears’ 10. 1:14 Colts 22, Bears 17—44-yard field goal by Gould. Drive: six plays, 14 yards, 2:02. Key play: nine-yard kickoff return by John Gilmore plus 15yard unnecessary roughness penalty on Robert Mathis to Colts’ 40.

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Figure Skating U.S. Championships Held. Kimmie Meiss-

ner Jan. 27 won the women’s title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash. Meissner, the reigning world champion, edged out Emily Hughes, who fell during her free skate. Hughes placed second, followed by Alissa Czisny. [See 2006, pp. 251C3, 40F1] In the men’s competition, Evan Lysacek, 21, landed a quadruple jump in his free skate Jan. 27 to take the title. Ryan Bradley was second, followed by threetime defending champion Johnny Weir. Brooke Castile and Ben Okolski Jan. 26 won the pairs title, after defending champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin each fell during their free skate. They took second place, and Naomi Nari Nam and Themistocles Leftheris were third. Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto Jan. 27 won the ice dancing title for the fourth consecutive year. Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov placed second, followed by Meryl Davis and Charlie White. „

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Archaeology Ancient Village Found Near Stonehenge.

Archaeologists Jan. 30 announced that new excavations less than two miles from Britain’s Stonehenge monument had uncovered the remains of dozens of ancient buildings. The excavators said the structures had most likely been used to house workers who had erected the array of monoliths at Stonehenge. The buildings were dated to between 2600 B.C. and 2700 B.C.; radiocarbon tests had dated the oldest parts of Stonehenge to between 2600 B.C. and 2400 B.C. The structures were found near Durrington Walls, a timber and earthen monument described by Mike Parker Pearson, one of the excavation leaders, as having been “basically a wooden version of Stonehenge.” [See 2000, p. 1056A2] The researchers said they had found evidence of both feasting and religious worship, and added that they thought the site 87

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had housed both workers involved in Stonehenge’s construction and pilgrims who had traveled to conduct religious rites at the two monuments. They said the site was the largest Neolithic settlement found in Britain. The archaeologists concluded that Durrington Walls was built in line with the sunset on the summer solstice and sunrise on the winter solstice; Stonehenge had the reverse orientation, lining up with the rising sun on the summer solstice and the setting sun on the winter solstice. The archaeologists theorized that the two sites might have been used for sun worship. They also said a newly discovered road leading from Durrington Walls to the nearby River Avon might have been used in funerary rituals, similar to a road uncovered earlier extending from Stonehenge. The excavation team was directed by six British universities, and was partially funded by the U.S. National Geographic Society. „

Awards Sundance Film Festival. The annual Sun-

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dance Film Festival Jan. 27 presented its awards for the top films shown at the festival. Sundance, held Jan. 18–28 in Park City, Utah, showcased feature films and documentaries that were produced without backing from major movie studios. [See 2006, p. 83F2] The film Padre Nuestro (Our Father), directed by Christopher Zalla, won the festival’s Grand Jury Prize for best dramatic film. It dealt with a young illegal immigrant from Mexico searching for his father in New York City. The Grand Jury Prize for best documentary was given to Manda Bala (Send a Bullet), in which director Jason Kohn explored crime and political corruption in Brazil. The audience award for best dramtic film, chosen by the public, went to Grace Is Gone, directed by James Strouse. It starred John Cusack as a man with two children mourning the loss of his wife, a U.S. Army sergeant slain in Iraq. The winner of the audience prize for best documentary was Hear and Now, about filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky’s deaf parents, and their decision to have cochlear implant surgery late in life. „ Costa Book Prize. One of Britain’s most prestigious literary prizes, the Costa Book of the Year Award (previously known as the Whitbread), Feb. 7 was presented to Stef Penney for her first novel, The Tenderness of Wolves. The award was sponsored by Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Britain’s Whitbread Group PLC; the award had previously been sponsored by the parent company, which provided a wide range of leisure products and services. [See 2006, p. 60D1] Penney Jan. 9 had been named the finalist in the first-novel category, enabling her to compete against finalists for Book of the Year in four other categories, also named that day. The other shortlisted authors were novelist William Boyd, for Restless, an espionage tale; memoirist Brian Thompson 88

for Keeping Mum, nominated in the biography category; children’s author Linda Newbery for Set in Stone, which dealt with incest; and poet John Haynes for Letter to Patience, a book-length poem set in Nigeria. All five finalists had received £5,000 (US$9,700). For winning the overall award, Penny would receive an additional £25,000. Penney’s book dealt with the harsh lives of Scottish settlers in 19th-century Canada. Penney, 37, had previously worked as a screenwriter and had never been to Canada. She had done historical research at London’s British Library while working on her novel, at a time when she was suffering from agoraphobia. „

People A lengthy court battle between a descendant of 19th-century French author Victor Hugo and the publishers of a sequel to his classic novel Les Miserables (1862) ended Jan. 30 when the Court of Cassation, France’s highest appeals court, ruled in favor of the Plon publishing house. The court found that in publishing the sequel, Cosette ou le temps des illusions (Cosette or the Time of Illusions), by critic and journalist Francois Ceresa, Plon had not breached the “moral rights” of Hugo’s heirs. Goldsmith Pierre Hugo, 59, Victor Hugo’s great-great-grandson, had sued Plon for damages in 2001, after it published Cosette, and had sought the book’s recall. Plon had since published a second sequel by Ceresa, Marius ou le fugitif (Marius or the Fugitive). [See 2006, p. 987D3] Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden, 46, Jan. 31 was named music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, effective for four years beginning in September 2008. The post was currently vacant; it had been occupied by Andrew Litton, 47, who led the Texas ensemble for 12 years before stepping down in June 2006. Before taking up conducting, van Zweden had been a violinist. A violin prodigy, he had been appointed concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, at age 19, and had served in that capacity from 1980 to 1997. „

O B I T UA R I E S KELVEDON, Lord (Henry Paul Guinness Channon), 71, Conservative (Tory) Party member of the

British Parliament from 1959 to 1997, and the last of five members of the Guinness brewing dynasty to represent the Essex, England, constituency of Southend West; widely known as Paul Channon, he held a number of ministerial posts under Tory Prime Ministers Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher; in June 1986, while he was serving as trade and industry secretary under Thatcher, his elder daughter, Olivia Channon, died at Oxford University after a late-night party at which she mixed alcohol with heroin; born Oct. 9, 1935; died Jan. 27 in Kelvedon Hatch, England. [See 1989, pp. 558D2, 425B1, 333D2, 202C3– 203G1, 168F1, 155D3; Indexes 1986–88, 1983, 1972, 1959]

LAINE, Frankie (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio), 93, pop vocalist who sold millions of records

in the pre-rock-and-roll era; his booming voice led to his being dubbed “Old Leather Lungs”; he was long identified with the theme song of the television western “Rawhide,” which ran from 1959 to 1966; he was

married to film and television actress Nan Grey from 1950 until her death in 1993; born March 30, 1913, in Chicago; died Feb. 6 at a hospital in San Diego, Calif., of cardiovascular disease; he had been scheduled to have a hip transplant. [See 1956, p. 115E2; 1950, p. 200P] MUSGRAVE, Richard Abel, 96, political economist whose book The Theory of Public Finance: A Study in Public Economy (1959) was regarded as a definitive analysis of the links between taxation and public welfare; after retiring as a professor at Harvard University in 1981, he became an adjunct professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz; born Dec. 14, 1910, in Königstein, Germany; died Jan. 15 at a Santa Cruz hospital, of natural causes. SMITH, Anna Nicole (born Vickie Lynn Hogan),

39, model and actress; after being named Playboy magazine’s Playmate of the Year in 1993, she married 89-year-old Texas oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall, who died 14 months later, sparking a still-unresolved legal battle over his estate; in 2002–03, she was the subject of a cable-television reality show, “The Anna Nicole Show”; in September 2006, she gave birth to a daughter in the Bahamas, three days before the sudden death of her 20-year-old son; born Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, Texas (she claimed to have been born in Mexia, a small Texas town, but, after her death, her mother revealed that she had been born in Houston); found dead Feb. 8 in her suite at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe and Casino in Hollywood, Fla.; the cause of her death had not been determined as of Feb. 9, and neither had her daughter’s paternity. [See 2006, pp. 1042F2, 524B3, 375C1; 2005, p. 684D3; Indexes 2004, 2000–02, 1996, 1994] TAMBO, Adelaide (born Adelaide Frances Tshukudu), 77, South African freedom fighter;

from 1956 until his death in 1993, she was married to Oliver Tambo, onetime president in exile of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC); she and her husband both went into exile in 1960, with the ANC sending him to Zambia but ordering her to relocate to Britain; thereafter, they were mostly apart for the next 30 years; having been trained as a nurse, she practiced her profession in London, while maintaining a home where her husband and other exiled ANC leaders often found refuge; after her husband’s death, she served for five years (1994–99) in South Africa’s first black-majority parliament; born July 18, 1929, in Top Location, South Africa; died Jan 31 at her home in Johannesburg, South Africa, a day after undergoing a physical that found nothing wrong with her. [See 1995, p. 159A1; 1993, p. 320D3] TETLEY, Glen (Glenford Andrew Tetley Jr.), 80, choreographer who fused elements of modern dance with ballet; he had a distinguished career as a dancer before becoming a choreographer; his breakthrough work as a choreographer was Pierrot Lunaire (1962), set to music by modernist composer Arnold Schoenberg; he worked mostly in Europe from the late 1960s on, becoming known as “Europe’s favorite American choreographer”; he created works for major dance companies in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Denmark, and also enriched the dance scene in both Australia and Canada; born Feb. 3, 1926, in Cleveland, Ohio; died Jan. 26 in West Palm Beach, Fla., of melanoma. [See 1968, p. 596E3] WORSLEY, Gump (Lorne John), 77, Canadian hockey player who was one of the last goaltenders in the National Hockey League to play without a mask; although physically unprepossessing—he was short and pudgy—he helped lead the Montreal Canadiens to four Stanley Cup titles, in 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1969; he played 21 seasons, spending six-plus years with the Canadiens, after 10 seasons with the New York Rangers; he ended his playing career with the Minnesota North Stars, retiring after the 1973–74 season, and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1980; born May 14, 1929, in Montreal, Quebec; died Jan. 27 in Beloeil, Quebec, after a heart attack. [See 1972, p. 80B3; 1958, p. 100E1; Index 1953] YANG, C.K. (Yang Chuan-kwang), 73, track and field athlete who became Taiwan’s first-ever Olympic medalist in 1960, when he won the silver medal in the decathlon at the Rome Olympics; the gold medal went to the U.S’s Rafer Johnson, then a teammate of his at the University of California at Los Angeles; his forte was the pole vault; his prowess in that event enabled him to set a world decathlon record in 1963, before a new scoring system was introduced; born July 10, 1933, in Taitung county, Taiwan; died Jan. 27 at a hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif., after a stroke. [See 1963, pp. 172A2, 64D1; 1960, p. 252A2] „

February 8, 2007

North Korea Agrees to Give Up Nuclear Weapons For Aid Package Step-by-Step ‘Denuclearization’ Seen. North Korea, the U.S. and four other nations Feb. 13 agreed to a deal in which North Korea would shut down its main nuclear facility and readmit international nuclear inspectors, as steps toward fully abandoning its nuclear weapons programs in return for the promise of foreign fuel and economic aid. The agreement was reached in the latest round of six-nation talks on the issue, held Feb. 8–13 in Beijing, China’s capital, involving North Korea, the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. [See 2006, p. 993G3] The highly isolated communist regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had frequently asserted that it needed a nuclear deterrent against what it called the U.S.’s hostile intentions. It had apparently sought to wield that threat in order to secure its demands for recognition and economic benefits. The six-way talks had begun in August 2003, after North Korea ejected international inspectors, restarted its Yongbyon nuclear facility and withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). The parties in September 2005 had reached an agreement in principle, but implementation of it stalled when North Korea objected to U.S. financial sanctions. [See 2005, p. 637A1; 2003, p. 686A2] North Korea, after conducting its first nuclear test in October 2006, later that year agreed to return to the talks after the U.S. said it would hold bilateral discussions of the sanctions issue. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the U.S.’s envoy to the six-way talks, Feb. 13 said that the U.S. had agreed in those separate talks to resolve the sanctions dispute within 30 days. [See 2006, p. 777A1] Yongbyon to Be Sealed in 60 Days—

Under the agreement, North Korea was required within 60 days to close and seal Yongbyon and invite inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear monitor, to verify its compliance. Also in that period, North Korea would compile a complete list of its nuclear programs to be declared. North Korea in return would receive energy aid in the form of 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil. That would be the first installment of about $400 million worth of energy and economic aid, including a total of one million tons of oil. The aid was to be provided by the U.S., South Korea, China and Russia, in stages as North Korea took subsequent steps under the agreement. The agreement left to later talks the steps by which North Korea would permanently disable all of its nuclear facilities and give up the nuclear weapons and fuel it had already produced. North Korea was believed to have produced enough plutonium fuel for several devices. Many observers noted the number of previous agreements with North Korea that had fallen apart or were broken by North Korea, and cautioned that obstacles could well arise when it came to concrete negotiations on definitively dismantling North

Korea’s nuclear capability. Gary Samore, who under U.S. President Bill Clinton had negotiated a 1994 nuclear “freeze” with North Korea that later unraveled, Feb. 13 said, “a North Korean promise to negotiate later is pretty worthless.” North Korea almost immediately raised concerns about its intentions, when its state news agency Feb. 13 referred to the closure of Yongbyon as a “temporary suspension.” U.S., Japan to Pursue Normalized Ties—

The Feb. 13 deal also called for the U.S. and Japan to establish normal diplomatic relations with North Korea. The U.S., in pursuit of that goal, would also begin the process of removing North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, and of lifting its extensive trade sanctions against North Korea. Japan and North Korea, in their normalization talks, would address outstanding questions stemming from the abduction of numerous Japanese citizens by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. Japan declined to contribute to the aid package for North Korea while those issues remained unresolved. [See 2005, p. 638E2] In Japan, opponents of Premier Shinzo Abe criticized his government for holding back from the aid package, saying it was focusing too narrowly on the abduction issue and thereby failing to contribute to resolving a threat to international stability. For its part, North Korea Feb. 14 said that in the bilateral talks with Japan, it would focus on atrocities committed by Japan during its period of colonial rule in Korea, which ended in World War II. U.S. Reaction—U.S. President George W. Bush Feb. 13 praised the agreement as “the best opportunity to use diplomacy to address North Korea’s nuclear programs.” However, the deal drew criticism both from U.S. conservatives who thought that it was too favorable to North Korea, and from Democratic critics of the president’s approach to North Korea. Democrats contended that it was essentially the same deal that the administration could have reached with North Korea years earlier in the process, before its nuclear program had advanced to the point of testing a weapon. Bush administration officials defended the deal, contending that their insistence on negotiating with North Korea in a multilateral setting had yielded an agreement that was stronger because it was signed by all six nations. They rebutted some Democrats’ suggestions that the agreement was little different from the 1994 freeze, noting that unlike that deal, it did not involve supplying North Korea with “light water” nuclear reactors for energy production. (The promised reactors were never built.) John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and an outspoken advocate of a hard-line position against North Korea, Feb. 13 called it “a very bad deal.” He said it “contradicts fundamental premises” of the Bush administration’s prior approach toward North Korea, which had

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3453* February 15, 2007

B insisted on North Korea’s full verifiable disarmament before any aid would be provided. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said of Bolton’s criticisms, “I just think he’s wrong.” Rice reportedly represented a grouping within the administration that favored more diplomatic flexibility toward North Korea, in contrast to others, associated with Vice President Dick Cheney, who took a more hawkish stance that was more oriented toward the goal of causing the North Korean regime to collapse. Some U.S. lawmakers also indicated that they would oppose removing North Korea from the list of terrorism sponsors.

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Talks Nearly Fail Over Fuel Demand—

The Feb. 8–13 talks were originally scheduled to last only three days, but were extended in an effort to overcome an impasse over the amount of energy aid that North Korea would receive.

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North Korea agrees to give up nuclear weapons for aid package; step-by-step ‘denuclearization’ seen. PAGE 89

U.S. accuses Iran of supplying weapons to Iraqi militants. PAGE 90

Violent protests break out in Jerusalem. PAGE 91

U.S. Sen. Obama, Massachusetts Gov. Romney launch presidential bids.

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Fiscal ’07 spending bill signed. PAGE 94

U.S. House examines climate data suppression. PAGE 95

Canadian Commons backs Kyoto compliance measure. PAGE 98

Turkmenistan’s acting President Berdymukhammedov wins election.

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Grammy awards presented. PAGE 103

*First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Groundwork for the negotiations had been laid in meetings between Hill and North Korea’s main negotiator, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan, held Jan. 16–18 in Berlin, Germany, and Hill’s subsequent consultations with Rice, who was passing through Berlin at the same time. According to an unidentified U.S. official cited in the Feb. 15 New York Times, the unusual bilateral meetings with North Korea—a departure from Bush’s insistence on sticking to the multilateral forum—had been crucial to developing the framework of an agreement acceptable to both sides. Hill Jan. 22 also met with Chinese officials in Beijing to discuss the resumption of the six-way talks. Officials of the U.S. Treasury Department Jan. 30–31 held separate talks in Beijing with North Korean officials on the U.S. financial sanctions, which had been leveled against a Macao-based bank that the U.S. said actively abetted counterfeiting and money-laundering by the North Korean government. „

U.S. Accuses Iran of Supplying Weapons to Iraqi Militias Briefing Implicates Iranian Leaders. U.S.

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officials in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, Feb. 11 displayed evidence that they claimed showed that the Iranian government was supplying Iraqi militants with explosives and other munitions. U.S. accusations of Iranian meddling in Iraq had become more and more frequent in previous weeks. Iran, like Iraq, was predominantly Shiite Muslim. [See pp. 86F1, 85F2] Cameras were not allowed into the presentation, none of the officials involved were identified and no transcript of the briefing was provided. These restrictions were introduced to preserve the anonymity of officials involved in the presentation. The officials exhibited grenades, mortar rounds and components of explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), a kind of sophisticated shaped explosive device that was capable of penetrating armored vehicles. It was argued that the machining process required to create the EFP components was not available in Iraq, but was evident in weapons used by the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah. The EFPs, the officials claimed, were not used by Sunni Muslim militants, but only by Shiite militias in Iraq, particularly “rogue” segments of the Mahdi Army, a militia affiliated with Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. EFPs had killed at least 170 U.S. soldiers, with attacks nearly doubling in the 18 months following the summer of 2004. Moreover, it was claimed, Iraqi smugglers detained while crossing into the country from Iran in 2005 had been found to have EFPs in their possession. Link to Iran Circumstantial— The officials conceded that there was no direct link between the munitions and the Iranian government. However, they asserted that such a link could be inferred based on circumstantial evidence, including details of two recent raids by U.S. forces resulting in the 90

capture of Iranian military officials, which they also disclosed. A December 2006 raid in Baghdad had resulted in the capture of Mohsen Chirazi, a high-ranking chief of operations with the Quds Force, a crack unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which was in turn an elite force affiliated with the nation’s ruling clergy. The Quds Force was believed by U.S. intelligence to be closely tied to the top members of the clergy. Documents regarding mortars and sniper rifles were also confiscated during the raid, though Chirazi was eventually released. [See 2006, p. 1030F1] Another raid in January in Irbil had captured five members of the Quds Force, all of them still in custody. The Iranians had had fake identification cards and no passports, and had been disposing of documents and trying to alter their appearance when they were captured. One of them was found to have explosive residue on his hands. [See pp. 25F2, 11D1] Many of the munitions displayed, the officials claimed, had writing and serial numbers on them that were Iranian in nature, and were often found in areas occupied by militias with ties to Iran. Some of them had been confiscated as recently as Jan. 23. Also displayed were false identification cards found in the possession of Iranian agents. Iran Dismisses Accusations— Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Feb. 12 denied that Iran’s government was arming Iraqi militias and said Iran was opposed to “any kind of conflict in Iraq.” His comments came in an interview with U.S. journalist Diane Sawyer aired on the ABC television network. Allowing that weapons were possibly being transferred without Iran’s knowledge, he asked, “Can Americans close their long borders?” He accused the U.S. of looking for “excuses” to stay in Iraq, and reiterated his demand that “there should be no foreigners there.” Once U.S. forces left, he asserted, “you will see that you have peace in Iraq.” Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Feb. 12 called the accusations against Iran “unacceptable.” He added that the U.S. “has a long history of fabricating evidence,” an oblique reference to the discredited intelligence that had been part of the justification for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. [See 2003, p. 418E2] U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D, Conn.) Feb. 11 had voiced concerns shared by many others in the U.S. that the administration of President George W. Bush was making accusations against Iran in an attempt to justify going to war with it. “We’ve seen that in the past that they would like nothing more than to build a case for that,” he said. [See below] U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Feb. 13 agreed that some bomb components had been manufactured in Iran, but said “that does not translate that the Iranian government…is directly involved in doing this.” An unidentified official with the Defense Department, in a New York Times article datelined Feb. 13, dismissed the notion that

the Revolutionary Guard was operating on its own, and insisted that Iran’s government, on some level, had to be aware of the Quds Force’s activities in Iraq. Bush Accuses Iran of Meddling— Bush Feb. 14 held a press conference in which he reiterated the claim that Iran was providing military aid to militias in Iraq. Bush stated that he did not know whether the Quds Force was operating with the approval of the highest levels of the Iranian government, but asked, “What’s worse, them ordering it and it happening, or them not ordering it and its happening?” The president said it was “preposterous” to suggest that he was seeking a pretext for military action against Iran, insisting that he was “trying to protect our troops.” Bush also insisted that Congress—which was still deliberating a resolution to oppose his decision to send more troops to Iraq—should not attempt to set any timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops or withhold funding for the war. [See p. 53F1] Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.) demanded that Bush gain permission from Congress before taking military measures against Iran. Speaking on the floor of the Senate after the president’s news conference, she said, “It would be a mistake of historical proportion if the administration thought that the 2002 resolution authorizing force against Iraq was a blank check for the use of force against Iran.” Car Bombs Kill At Least 67—Three car bombs Feb. 12 detonated in a marketplace in a largely Shiite Muslim area of central Baghdad, killing at least 67 people and wounding more than 120. A seven-story building caught fire as a result of one of the blasts, and firefighters spent hours putting

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out the blaze. Many people in the area at the time blamed the bombings on Sunni insurgents trying to portray the government as weak. A spokesman for Iraq’s interior ministry, Brig. Abdul-Karim al-Khalaf, said an Iraqi and two foreigners had been arrested under suspicion of being involved in the attack. Earlier that day, a suicide bomber detonated explosives in a nearby restaurant, killing six people and wounding 19. The bombings came as Iraqis observed the first anniversary—according to Islam’s lunar calendar—of the bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. Many Iraqis, including Maliki, observed a moment of silence that day, and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani issued a statement calling for peace. [See 2006, p. 121A1] Thirteen people died Feb. 12 in violence in and around Baqubah, in Diyala province. Gunmen shot six people in the head in a public garden in Baqubah, and another group of gunmen beheaded a policeman just north of the city, with residents being forced to watch in both incidents. Six people died near the city while assembling a car bomb, which detonated. An unidentified interior ministry official said the bodies of 28 people had been found that day in Baghdad. Police reports claimed that 139 people were killed in violence throughout the nation that day. Iraqi General Outlines Plan, Powers—

Lt. Gen. Abboud Gambar, the commander in charge of the new security effort in Baghdad, Feb. 13 gave a televised speech announcing a series of security measures to be implemented. Gambar said all convoys, even government ones, would be stopped for inspection, and that the nightly curfew would begin one hour earlier. He added that the borders with Iran and Syria would be closed for 72 hours, though he did not say when that period would begin. Gambar also said broadened detention powers and various methods of domestic surveillance would be used in order to stop “all the people who have done terrorist operations or major crimes like killing, stealing, rape, kidnapping, bombing public or private buildings and who have bought, sold or made weapons or bullets.” A criminal court would hold emergency trials for those detained. The possession of weapons would be restricted to U.S. and Iraqi forces, and to some private security forces. The general directed those occupying homes illegally to vacate them within 15 days or face trial, declaring that people would be expected to document that they owned the residence they inhabited. The demographics of Baghdad had been significantly altered by sectarian cleansing, with many people, particularly Sunnis, being forced out of their homes, which were then occupied by families of a different sect. Many formerly mixed neighborhoods had been homogenized. Eastern Baghdad had become almost monolithically Shiite, while the sectarian make-up of western Baghdad was still violently in flux. Gambar said the government would establish February 15, 2007

committees to address disputes in the ownership of homes. [See 2006, p. 946C1] Gambar made it known that he was accountable only to Maliki, and that both the defense and interior ministries were under his command. [See 2006, p. 922E3] Maliki Feb. 11 had said the deployment of security forces and the implementation of the security plan would be accelerated. “It will not start in one area,” he said, “but in all areas at the same time.” A U.S. official Feb. 13 claimed that Sadr was in Iran, having left Iraq in order to avoid the security push, though an unidentified Sadr aide denied the claim. Shiite leaders Feb. 15 confirmed that Sadr had left for Iran, but said it was not necessarily due to the security effort, noting that Sadr frequently visited Iran. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani claimed that Sadr had told his deputies to leave Iraq before the security push. [See p. 54F1] Marine Chopper Shot Down—A Sunni insurgent group Feb. 9 released video that it said proved that they had shot down a U.S. Marine Sea Knight helicopter that had crashed two days earlier. U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell 4th Feb. 14 confirmed that the helicopter had been shot down by “some sophisticated piece of weaponry.” [See p. 86A2] U.S. Army Maj. Gen. James Simmons, the deputy commander for U.S. forces in Iraq, Feb. 11 had revealed that a Black Hawk helicopter had been shot down Jan. 25, though no casualties had resulted in that previously unreported incident. Simmons claimed that insurgents were employing greater efforts aimed at downing U.S. helicopters, as well as new tactics. He stated that U.S. helicopters had come under fire an average of 100 times per month since December 2004, with 17 per month being hit. Simmons added that helicopters had seen increased flight time in 2006 compared to 2005, and would see still more in 2007. [See p. 86B2] Other News—In other Iraqi news: † An attack by a U.S. military helicopter Feb. 9 killed eight members of a U.S.-allied Kurdish militia in Mosul, Kurdish officials reported. Six more members were wounded. According to a statement released by the U.S military, the militia members had been mistaken for insurgents after they displayed “hostile” behavior, and only five members were killed. † U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus Feb. 10 formally succeeded Army Gen. George Casey as the top U.S. military commander in Iraq. Speaking at a ceremony at a base near Baghdad to U.S. and Iraqi military and political leaders, Petraeus said the responsibilities associated with his new position were “too heavy for any one person to bear,” but that if everyone would “share the burdens and move forward together,” then “the prospects for success are good.” He insisted that “this mission is doable.” Petraeus’s new posting was accompanied by a promotion to four-star general. The Senate Feb. 8 had confirmed Casey as Army Chief of Staff, succeeding Gen. Peter Schoomaker. [See 4A2]

† A suicide truck bombing Feb. 11 killed nine police officers and wounded 10 others. The bombing took place in front of a police station and across the street from a school in a largely Sunni Muslim area near Tikrit. Several children at the school were wounded. † Data obtained from the health ministry and local morgues Feb. 12 showed that 321 unidentified corpses were found in January in Baghdad, less than the high of 416 found in November 2006. Twenty-seven bodies, many of them showing signs of torture, had been found in Baghdad Feb. 11. [See p. 58B2] † A suicide bomber Feb. 13 detonated explosives near food warehouses in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in western Baghdad, killing 17 people and wounding another 40. † Abdul Kareem al-Kinnany, an interior ministry spokesman, Feb. 15 claimed that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of the Sunni terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq, had been wounded in a firefight with Iraqi police near Balad, and that one of his aides, Abu Abdullah al-Mujamie, had been killed. A member of the group confirmed the death of Mujamie, but none of the reports regarding Masri. The U.S. military refused to comment on any of the reports. „

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Violent Protests Break Out in Jerusalem.

Hundreds of Israeli police Feb. 9 stormed the religious compound containing the alAksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem’s Old City, breaking up a Palestinian protest against reconstruction work at the site. The compound was the third-holiest site in Islam, and was known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Centuries earlier, it had been the site of the First and then the Second Temple of Judaism, and Jews referred to the area as the Temple Mount. The site was administered by an Islamic trust, even after the 1967 War, when Israel seized control of the Old City. [See 2000, p. 731A1; 1996, p. 697A1] Israel Feb. 6 had begun excavating around a walkway that led up to the compound. The ramp had been damaged years earlier and declared unsafe, and planning was underway to replace it. Palestinians that day began protesting the excavation, some claiming that the work might damage the holy site, others accusing Israel of seeking to undermine it in order to make way for a new Jewish temple. Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert Feb. 8 issued a statement claiming that the work was being done for safety reasons and posed no danger to the compound itself. On the day of Friday prayers Feb. 9, thousands of Israeli police were deployed in order to forestall any violence. Palestinian men younger than 45 were not permitted to enter the compound, though many managed to gain access. The religious leader delivering the day’s sermon told those in attendance, “Those who de91

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molish the house of the Muslims are the enemies of God.” Once the prayers were finished, people leaving the mosque began protesting the excavation and throwing stones, bottles and shoes. The police then entered the compound, firing tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd. Protests soon broke out in other areas of the West Bank. The demonstrations slowly dissolved before the day’s end, but not before 17 Palestinians and at least 15 police were injured. Seventeen more Palestinians were also arrested. Condemnation of both the excavation and Israel’s incursion into the compound was leveled by leaders throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Israel Approves Cameras, Oversight—

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Ehud’s cabinet Feb. 11 gave its approval for the project to continue, but Jerusalem’s mayor later that day called for a public review of the construction work, potentially delaying the new walkway for years. The body in charge of the digging, however, said the excavation, which was scheduled to take eight months, would continue. The Israeli government Feb. 15 installed live Internet cameras at the site in order to allay fears that the project posed any danger to the compound. Olmert that day accepted an offer from Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan to send experts to the site in order to evaluate the danger. Other News—In other Middle East news: † The Palestinian Authority (PA) government led by the militant Islamist group Hamas Feb. 15 resigned in order to make way for a national unity government. Hamas and its chief rival, Fatah, the previous week had reached an agreement in principle to create a new government. Both parties sought to end the frequent violence between them, which had killed roughly 100 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since December 2006. They were also attempting to restore international funding to the PA, which had ended after the Hamas-led government had refused to recognize Israel. Premier Ismail Haniya had five weeks to form the new government. [See p. 74F1] † Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter Feb. 8 claimed that Egypt was “not doing enough” to prevent weapons from being smuggled across its border along the Gaza Strip and into the hands of Hamas. Though he stopped short of accusing the Egyptian government itself of smuggling, he claimed that it was capable of ending the weapons transfers. Egypt’s ambassador to the U.S., Nabil Fahmy, denied the accusation. † Israel’s cabinet Feb. 4 approved Gabi Ashkenazi as the new army chief of staff. He replaced Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, who had resigned in the wake of Israel’s poor performance during its summer 2006 war against the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah. [See p. 37F2] „ 92

Secret-Prison Accord Signed Nations Meet At Paris Summit. Delegates

from 57 countries Feb. 6 signed a treaty barring them from secretly detaining prisoners. The United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2006 had endorsed a draft of the treaty, and the U.N. General Assembly in December 2006 adopted it by consensus. The signing came at the end of a two-day summit held in Paris, and the French government had been a major backer of the treaty. Human rights groups and relatives of detention victims had lobbied for an international agreement on the issue since the 1970s. [See 2006, p. 915D2] The accord prohibited states from arresting, detaining or kidnapping individuals and subsequently denying their detention or refusing to disclose the location where they were held. It would enter into force as soon as 20 countries ratified it. The U.S. refused to sign the treaty, along with some of its European allies such as Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack Feb. 6 said the U.S. had been involved in drafting the treaty but the final version “did not meet our expectations.” However, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Louise Arbour noted that the U.S. often supported UNHCHR initiatives while declining to sign treaties. The U.S. had been criticized for its detention policies for terrorism suspects, which included holding them in secret overseas prisons operated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and turning them over to foreign allies that allegedly used torture in interrogations. Nations Pledge Not to Use Child Soldiers—

At a separate meeting in Paris organized by the French foreign ministry and the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), representatives of 58 countries Feb. 6 signed an accord banning the use of children under 18 as soldiers. It said recruitment of children for fighting should be immediately abolished, children currently serving in the military should be immediately released, and programs to help them reintegrate into society should be expanded. The agreement was nonbinding, but French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said it would have “a great political value” in persuading national armies and other armed groups to give up the use of child soldiers. [See p. 87A1; 1999, p. 543B3] The U.S. did not sign the accord, citing problems with its wording. However, it said it would continue to honor existing treaty obligations regarding child soldiers. Among the signatories were 10 of the 12 countries where the U.N. said child soldiers were used: Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Congo, Ivory Coast, Nepal, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda. UNICEF said the other two countries, Myanmar and the Philippines, had not taken part in the summit. The U.N. and human rights groups estimated that up to 300,000 children under 18 were currently serving as soldiers or servants for soldiers. „

Chinese President Hu Tours Africa Economic Ties Focus of Eight-Nation Tour.

Chinese President Hu Jintao Jan. 30–Feb. 10 visited eight African nations. On the tour, Hu agreed to billions of dollars worth of investment deals, loans and debt cancellations. China in November 2006 had hosted a summit of African leaders that was billed as a forum to strengthen growing Sino-African political and economic ties. Trade between China and Africa was $55.5 billion in 2006, up from about $3 billion in 1995. Currently, Africa supplied about one-third of the oil imported by China for its fast-growing economy. [See below; 2006, p. 874E1] Just prior to the start of the tour, China Jan. 29 had announced that it would give African nations $3 billion in preferential loans, and double aid and interest-free loans, over the next three years. China’s commerce ministry said, “The preferential loans provided by China carry no political conditions.” That reflected China’s general policy of doling out economic incentives regardless of a regime’s record on political freedom and human rights. In contrast, the U.S. and other Western nations often linked aid and investment with good governance and respect for human rights. China had been criticized for doing business with oppressive regimes in nations such as Sudan and Zimbabwe. [See p. 65F3] China had also been accused by some in Africa of exploiting African resources while hindering the development of African industries by flooding markets with cheap Chinese goods and labor. That reportedly had caused a backlash among citizens of some African nations. Tour Begins in Cameroon—Hu Jan. 30 arrived in Yaounde, Cameroon, to begin the tour. The next day, he met with President Paul Biya and signed off on about $100 million in grants and preferential loans. Hu Feb. 1 arrived in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, where he met with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and signed several aid and investment accords. Among the accords was a deal canceling $10 billion of Liberia’s debt to China. Privately Presses Sudan on Darfur—Hu Feb. 2 traveled to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, for a two-day visit to the country, the first by a Chinese leader. Hu that day met with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. An unidentified Sudanese official said Hu had raised with Bashir during private talks the issue of Sudan’s war-torn western Darfur region, where the government was accused of supporting militias that committed numerous human right abuses. China, which bought two-thirds of Sudan’s oil exports, had previously advocated a strategy of working behind the scenes to convince Bashir to take steps to halt the Darfur violence. [See pp. 65A1, F2] Hu that day also signed several economic accords, including a $70 million loan for infrastructure projects and an interest-free FACTS ON FILE

loan to build a new presidential palace. The Chinese leader also canceled $70 million of Sudan’s debt to China. Hu later visited a Chinese-built oil refinery about 50 miles (80 km) north of Khartoum. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack Feb. 5 said China was sending “mixed signals” on Sudan. Meets Tensions in Zambia—Hu Feb. 3– 4 visited Zambia, where China’s substantial investment in the copper industry and an influx of Chinese goods, labor and merchants had sparked some resentment among the population. Michael Sata, the losing opposition candidate in October 2006 presidential elections, had drummed up popular support by threatening to expel Chinese investors. Also, anger had grown after 49 miners were killed in 2005 in an explosion at a Chinese-owned mine, and five others were shot dead during a riot at the mine in 2006. [See 2006, p. 768F2, F3] Hu and Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa Feb. 3 announced new investment deals worth $800 million. They also said a special economic zone would be created in Zambia’s copper region, where Chinese corporations would be granted tax exemptions. Hu canceled plans to visit a copper mine due to threats of protests. Hu Feb. 5 traveled to Namibia. He met with President Hifikepunye Pohamba in Windhoek, the capital, and announced new development aid. Meets Mbeki in South Africa—Hu Feb. 6–7 stopped in South Africa, and met with South African President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria. Mbeki in a December 2006 speech had warned that the relationship between China and Africa threatened to turn into “a replication of [the] colonial relationship” between Europe and Africa. However, the South African leader Feb. 6 proclaimed that the links were “of mutual benefit both to China and our continent.” Hu in a Feb. 7 speech in Pretoria said, “China takes seriously the concerns about the imbalance in the structure in China-Africa trade.” He pledged that China would “not do anything harmful to the interests of Africa and its people.” Hu and Mbeki Feb. 6 had signed economic and technical cooperation agreements, and also a deal to export South African fruit to China. Hu Feb. 8 arrived in neighboring Mozambique. He held talks with President Armando Guebuza in Maputo, the capital, and signed several trade and investment agreements. The Chinese leader Feb. 9–10 concluded his African tour in the Seychelles. Hu met with President James Michel and agreed to an aid deal worth $12 million and a preferential loan of $39 million. „

Global Health Bird Flu Found on British Turkey Farm.

The British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Feb. 3 confirmed that it had detected an H5N1 avian influenza (bird flu) virus outbreak on a commercial February 15, 2007

turkey farm in Holton, in eastern England. Since Feb. 1, the disease had killed at least 2,500 turkeys at the farm, which was operated by Bernard Matthews Ltd., it was reported Feb. 3. British government officials Feb. 13 said the virus was virtually identical to a strain previously discovered in Hungary, but did not know how the virus had been transmitted to Britain. [See p. 46A1] Bird deaths had initially been discovered at the farm Jan. 30, but were not reported to government officials until Feb. 1. Health experts said they were concerned that the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form easily transmissible among humans and spark a highly fatal pandemic. Government officials said they had established controls on poultry populations within six miles of the Bernard Matthews farm. Officials Feb. 4–5 culled the entire population of birds at the facility, estimated at 160,000, as a precautionary measure against the spread of the disease. Several countries, including Russia, Ireland, Japan and Macedonia, Feb. 5 banned the importation of British poultry and poultry products. Bernard Matthews officials Feb. 8 admitted that partially processed bird meat had been sent to England from facilities it operated in Hungary, after previously denying any links between its operations in the two countries. Several members of Parliament the following day excoriated company officials for misleading the government in its earlier statements. Nigeria Reports First Human Death—

The World Health Organization (WHO) Feb. 3 confirmed that a 22-year-old woman had died in Nigeria from the H5N1 virus, marking the first human death from the disease in sub-Saharan Africa. The WHO Feb. 15 reported that the H5N1 virus had been detected in 273 humans in 11 countries, with 166 of the cases resulting in death. Indonesia Halts Sample Sharing— The Indonesian government had stopped sharing samples of the H5N1 flu virus taken from human victims with international health experts, it was reported Feb. 6 by Britain’s Financial Times newspaper. A WHO official Feb. 7 said the Indonesian government had halted the samples because it was in negotiations to sell them to Baxter International Inc., a U.S. vaccine company. Experts said the move would hamper efforts to study the virus and develop a treatment or vaccine for it. Flu vaccines were formulated based on hundreds of virus samples sent in from across the globe. However, poorer countries that supplied the virus samples were often unable to afford the resulting vaccines. An Indonesian health ministry spokeswoman Feb. 6 said that the country could no longer “share samples for free.” Siti Fadilah Supari, the health minister, Feb. 7 claimed that the WHO had sent samples on to private pharmaceutical companies that then used them to formulate expensive vaccines.

Indonesia had suffered the highest mortality rate from the H5N1 virus, with 63 of 81 infected people dying from the disease. „

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United Nations El Paso Settles Oil-for-Food Case. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Feb. 7 announced that El Paso Corp., the U.S.’s largest natural gas pipeline company, had agreed to settle bribery charges with the U.S. government regarding its involvement in the United Nations oil-forfood program. The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1997 to 2003, was set up to allow then–Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime to trade oil for humanitarian goods, but investigations had uncovered massive corruption and bribery. [See p. 27C1; 2005, p. 774G3] Government filings had accused El Paso of paying Iraqi officials $5.48 million in illegal surcharges to purchase as much as 21.4 million barrels of oil in 2001–02. It had reportedly started to buy Iraqi oil after it purchased Coastal Corp., which had previously participated in the program, in January 2001. A company spokesman said El Paso had bought the oil only through third parties, and had put into place policies to attempt to stop the kickbacks. El Paso agreed to forfeit $5.48 million, and U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said that amount would be transferred to the Development Fund for Iraq. The company would also pay a civil penalty of $2.25 million, in a separate deal with the SEC. Garcia said El Paso would not be prosecuted, except potentially for criminal tax violations, because it had quit the oil-for-food program in 2002 over legality concerns, cooperated with the government and assured prosecutors that implicated employees no longer worked at the company. „ News in Brief. UNICEF Feb. 14 released a report surveying child welfare in 21 economically advanced countries. The report ranked the U.S. at 20th and Britain at 21st, while the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland finished in the lead. The agency attributed the poor performance of the U.S. and Britain to higher levels of economic inequality and lower investment in social services than in the higher-ranked countries, despite their greater overall wealth. The study assessed factors including the health, education, state of family and social relationships, the prevalence of risky behaviors, and youths’ subjective accounts of well-being. [See 2002, p. 357E1] Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Feb. 9 appointed B. Lynn Pascoe, the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, to the post of undersecretary general for political affairs, which was charged with overseeing negotiations in global conflict areas. He also said he had accepted 17 of the 55 resignations of assistant secretaries and undersecretaries general that he had requested in January. Ban had been widely criticized by U.N. delegates for the slow pace of his senior appointments and what they said was secretive and unclear decision-making. [See p. 13C1] „ 93

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2008 Presidential Campaign Obama Launches Bid at Illinois Capitol.

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Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) Feb. 10 announced his presidential candidacy in a speech at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. Obama, one of the early frontrunners for the 2008 Democratic nomination, addressed several thousand supporters who gathered for the outdoor event despite frigid winter weather. [See p. 79D3] Obama, 45, would be the first black president if he was elected. He was just two years into his first term in the Senate, where he was the only black member. Previously, he had served for eight years as a state senator. In his speech, he framed his relatively brief political experience as an advantage, in contrast to the long record of his leading Democratic rival, former first lady and second-term Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), 59. He said, “I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness in this—a certain audacity—to this announcement. I know I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.” He addressed the Iraq war, saying, “America, it’s time to start bringing our troops home. It’s time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else’s civil war.” Obama recalled that Abraham Lincoln had given a famous antislavery speech at the Illinois capitol in 1858, in which he warned that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” Lincoln had served just four terms in the state legislature and a single term in Congress when he won the 1860 presidential election. Visits Iowa, New Hampshire—Obama Feb. 11 visited Iowa, then traveled to New Hampshire the next day. The two states were scheduled to hold the first contests in the primary campaign in January 2008. In a speech at Iowa State University, he said, “We ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged—and to which we have now spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted.” Obama later that day and the next day said he regretted saying the troops’ lives had been “wasted.” He said he meant that their “sacrifices have not been honored by the same attention to strategy and diplomacy needed to be successful in Iraq.” Clashes With Australian PM on Iraq—

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Australian Prime Minister John Howard in a television interview Feb. 11 criticized Obama’s proposal to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by March 31, 2008. Howard said, “If I were running Al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama but also for the Democrats.” 94

Obama Feb. 11 responded by noting that only 1,400 Australian troops were in Iraq, compared with 140,000 U.S. troops. He said of Howard, “If he is ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of empty rhetoric.” „ Romney Announces Bid in Michigan.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney Feb. 13 formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination in a speech at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich. Romney used the setting to argue that his own record as a successful business leader gave him unique credentials that rival candidates lacked. He vowed to introduce “innovation and transformation in Washington.” [See p. 15E1] Portraying himself as a political outsider, Romney said, “I don’t believe Washington can get transformed by someone from the inside, by someone who’s been a part of politics through their entire life.” Romney, 59, was considered one of the top Republican contenders, along with Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. His father, George Romney, had been governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination. Mitt Romney was raised in Michigan. He worked as a business consultant at Bain & Co. in Boston, Mass., then helped found Bain Capital, a private equity firm. After making an unsuccessful 1994 bid to unseat Sen. Edward Kennedy (D, Mass.), Romney served as president of the organizing committee for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, and then won the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election. Although Romney had just stepped down as governor in January, he made little mention of Massachusetts in his speech. That was seen as part of an effort to distance himself from the state’s image as a liberal bastion as he wooed conservative Republican primary voters. Romney used his speech to signal his commitment to conservative social values on issues such as abortion and gay marriage, despite his record of taking more liberal positions on those issues when he ran for office in Massachusetts. “I believe family is the foundation of America—and that it needs to be protected and strengthened,” he said, adding, “I believe in the sanctity of human life.” Romney’s choice of the Henry Ford Museum for a backdrop sparked a protest by the National Jewish Democratic Council, which noted that the Ford Motor Co. founder had been a prominent anti-Semite in the decades prior to World War II. Romney’s campaign dismissed the criticism, saying the Ford museum represented “technological innovation.” Romney himself was a Mormon, and sought to become the first president of that faith. Polls had shown that large numbers of voters still said they would be reluctant to vote for a Mormon. „

Fiscal 2007 Spending Bills $464 Billion Package Cleared, Signed. The Senate Feb. 14 voted, 81–15, to clear a belated $463.5 billion spending bill for fiscal year 2007, which had begun Oct. 1, 2006. President George W. Bush Feb. 15 signed the measure. That completed the fiscal 2007 appropriations process, in which nine of the annual spending bills had been left unfinished by the previous, Republicancontrolled Congress. [See p. 60A1] The spending measure covered most federal agencies, except for the Defense and Homeland Security departments. Congress had allocated funds for both departments in 2006. Since the start of fiscal 2007, all other agencies had been funded at fiscal 2006 levels by a temporary stopgap resolution that expired Feb. 15. The new measure covered the rest of the fiscal year. It was completed just in time to avert a government shutdown. The measure would keep funding for most agencies at fiscal 2006 levels, but added funding for certain priorities of the new Democratic leadership in both houses of Congress. Those included an increase in higher education Pell grants to $4,310 per year, up $260. Funding increases also went to the National Institutes of Health, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, veterans’ health care, and foreign aid to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Most of the money for those increases came from deferring the cost of a round of military base closures. Senate Republicans complained that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) used procedural moves to bar them from offering amendments to the bill. But most voted for it anyway, rather than risk a government shutdown.

Fiscal 2007 Appropriations The $463.5 billion spending package signed by President George W. Bush Feb. 15 provided funding through the end of fiscal year 2007 for federal agencies covered by nine annual spending bills that Congress had failed to complete in 2006. The annual bills for the Defense and Homeland Security departments were the only ones that had been enacted on time. Following is the fiscal 2007 discretionary spending corresponding to each of the 11 spending bills, in millions of dollars of budget authority*: Agriculture Commerce–Justice–State Defense Energy–Water Homeland Security Interior-Environment Labor–Heath and Human Services– Education Legislative Branch Military Construction–Veterans Affairs Foreign Operations Transportation–Treasury–Housing

17,727 59,805 447,357 30,265 33,734 26,324 144,414 3,754 91,855 21,730 66,797

*Totals for each bill include emergency spending. Discretionary spending was money that Congress directed in the annual appropriations process, as opposed to “mandatory” expenditures determined by other laws. Budget authority was legal permission for federal agencies to spend or otherwise obligate money. Sources: Congressional Budget Office, Congressional Quarterly

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When he signed the bill, Bush praised it for not exceeding the spending cap that he had proposed. But he criticized Congress for moving funds “needed for our armed forces to unrequested domestic programs.” „

Environment House Examines Climate Data Suppression.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Jan. 30 held hearings concerning allegations that the Bush administration had intentionally impeded the work of government scientists in order to play down the human impact on global climate change. [See 2006, p. 302D2] Francesca Grifo of the advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), Jan. 29 testified on a report released by the UCS and another private organization, the Government Accountability Project. The report cited the results of a survey of federal climate scientists which found that 46% had felt pressure to remove the phrases “climate change” and “global warming” from their writings. Other witnesses included federal scientists who relayed anecdotes of changes or delays to government documents, moves that they said were intended to minimize wider understanding of climate change issues among the public and in Congress. Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.), chairman of the committee, and Rep. Thomas Davis 3rd (R, Va.) Jan. 30 sent a letter to the White House demanding the release of documents from the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which played a role in setting domestic climate change policy. The lawmakers said the documents would aid them in determining if political appointees had influenced scientific climate reports. Climate Committee Accord Reached—

Rep. John Dingell (D, Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Feb. 6 released details of an agreement he had reached with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) regarding the formation of a special committee to address climate change issues. [See p. 29A2] Under the agreement, a temporary committee to be chaired by Rep. Edward Markey (D, Mass.) would be convened to hold hearings and recommend legislation regarding the issue of climate change. However, the new committee would lack the power to approve new laws, and was set to be dissolved at the end of the legislative session. Pelosi had previously announced her intention to form a select committee to address climate change issues. Dingell had reportedly viewed the select committee as an infringement on the powers of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Environmentalists had expressed concern that Dingell’s strong ties to the automobile industry would impede any meaningful legislative reform regarding vehicle emissions. Dingell’s committee Feb. 13 held the first of twice-weekly climate change hearings, which were expected to last until April. „ EPA Issues New Gasoline Toxins Rule.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Feb. 9 issued new rules regarding the February 15, 2007

levels of toxic pollutants allowed in gasoline that were released into the atmosphere during the fuel’s use and storage. Chief among the toxic pollutants reduced under the new rule, known as the Mobile Source Air Toxics rule, was benzene, a known carcinogen. [See 2006, p. 214B3] The rule capped the amount of benzene allowed in any fuel product at 1.3%, and cut annual benzene releases to 108,000 tons (98,000 metric tons), from the 1990 level of 250,000 tons, which was the most recent figure available. Overall, the rule would result in an 80% cut from 1999 toxic emissions levels by 2030. Environmentalists applauded the new rule, which had resulted from a 2004 lawsuit lodged by the U.S. Public Interest Group and the Sierra Club. However, they criticized a provision of the new regulations that would allow refiners to trade credits, allowing them to release certain levels of emissions. „ N.Y. Attorney General Sets Oil Spill Lawsuit.

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Feb. 8 sent notices of an impending lawsuit to Exxon Mobil Corp. and two other oil firms regarding a 50-year-old underground oil spill of an estimated 17 million gallons (65 million liters) in the New York City borough of Brooklyn that remained uncleaned. [See 2006, p. 1003A3] The spill had occurred in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn in the 1950s, but had remained undiscovered until 1978. Exxon in 1990 had entered into an agreement with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to clean up the site, but that accord had set no deadline for the efforts. An estimated eight million gallons of oil remained spread out over 55 acres (22 hectares) in the area. In the notices, Cuomo said nearly 100 pollutants, many of which were toxic, had leeched into the waters and sediment of a nearby creek. Toxic vapors from the spill had also been found in buildings above the spill. Also named in the notices were oil firms Chevron Corp. and BP PLC. Utility company Keyspan Corp. and mining firm Phelps Dodge Corp. were also named in the documents for contributing to pollution in the creek. „

Education Harvard Names Its First Female President.

Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 11 named Drew Gilpin Faust president. It was the first time in its 371-year history that Harvard had chosen a woman to lead the school. She would replace acting president Derek Bok, who had been filling the position since the forced resignation of Lawrence Summers in 2006. [See 2006, p. 1009C2] Faust, 59, held an undergraduate degree in history from Bryn Mawr College, historically an elite women’s school, and a doctorate in American civilization from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where she had taught for many years. She was a leading Civil War scholar and had published several books on the subject of the Civil War–era South.

She came to Harvard in 2001 as dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the successor institution to Harvard’s once all-female Radcliffe College. Apart from her scholarship, she was known for her collegiality and administrative acumen, and was respected by the scientific community for her scientific literacy. Summers had earned votes of no confidence from Harvard’s faculty for an abrasive management style and for public remarks considered detrimental to the school, including claims that innate cognitive differences between men and women might explain a general shortage of top-tier women scientists and mathematicians. „

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Terrorism Ad Campaign Gone Awry Paralyzes Boston.

A guerrilla advertising campaign for a television show Jan. 31 disrupted traffic throughout Boston, Mass., after police and members of the public saw devices sprouting wires and batteries and placed on bridges, highways and buildings and mistook them for bombs. Authorities shut down much of the city’s commercial district in order to remove, and in some cases detonate, the devices. They were later revealed to be lit-up circuit boards, emblazoned with images of characters from the Cartoon Network animated show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” [See 2005, p. 69C3] Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (D) Jan. 31 said, “It is outrageous, in a post-9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme.” Menino and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) said they might take legal action against Turner Broadcasting System Inc., the parent company of Cartoon Network. Police Jan. 31 arrested Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, for causing panic by placing the devices. Both pleaded not guilty the next day. Berdovsky and Stevens had been hired for $300 each by Interference Inc., a New York City-based advertising agency, to hang 38 of the devices around Boston. Supporters of the two men accused authorities of overreacting. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley Feb. 5 said Turner Broadcasting and Interference had agreed to pay $1 million to compensate local, state and federal authorities for money spent on responding to the incident. An additional $1 million in “goodwill funds” would be used to fund emergency first responder programs. The two companies also apologized for their actions, and said they were reviewing their other marketing campaigns. „

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Economy Bernanke Reports to Congress. Federal

Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Feb. 14–15 made his semiannual report to Congress, testifying before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and House Financial Services Committee. He told Congress that the nation seemed to be headed for continued moderate, “sustainable” economic 95

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growth, which should make it possible to leave interest rates fixed at their present level over the months to come. [See pp. 63E2, 30F3] However, he noted some concerns over tightening labor markets and strong consumer demand that he said made the risks of higher inflation somewhat greater than the risk of an economic downturn. Overall, he said, inflation pressures seemed to be diminishing. He identified as the greatest single threat to economic growth a weak housing market that might continue to decline, hurting consumer spending and investment. The Fed’s policy-setting Open Market Committee, in a report presented by Bernanke, forecast core inflation, which excluded food and energy prices, as remaining between 2% and 2.25% by the end of 2007 and falling a quarter percentage-point in 2008. Bernanke reported a revised growth forecast for 2007, to between 2.5% and 3.0%, down from 3.0% to 3.25% growth previously projected for the year. The committee also judged that the link between the unemployment level and inflation was not as firm as traditionally assumed. It forecast that unemployment would remain well below 5% in 2007 without pushing up inflation, making an interest-rate hike less likely. Members of Congress from both parties praised Bernanke’s stewardship of monetary policy in his year as chairman. Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) told Bernanke that he was “getting good grades from everyone.” Stock markets shot up on the Fed chief’s testimony and on weak economic data suggesting that interest rates would not soon rise. The Dow Jones Industrial Average on the New York Stock Exchange Feb. 15 closed up 87.01 points, at 12,741.86, a new high. „ Trade Deficit Hit Fifth Straight Record in ’06.

The Commerce Department Feb. 13 reported that the seasonally adjusted U.S. trade deficit in goods and services for the 2006 calendar year was $763.6 billion, up from $716.7 billion in 2005. It was the country’s fifth consecutive record-setting annual deficit. The U.S. ran a surplus of $72.5 billion in services trade, up from $66.0 billion in 2005. Its goods deficit, however, rose by $53.3 billion over the previous year, to $836.1 billion. As a percentage of gross domestic product, the overall deficit stayed level at 5.8%. [See p. 15F3; 2006, p. 110F2] For all of 2006, the U.S. trade deficit with China was $232.5 billion, a record high. With the European Union it was $116.6 billion; with Canada, $72.8 billion; and with Japan, $88.4 billion. Democratic congressional leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Feb. 13 wrote to President George W. Bush demanding that he prepare a plan within 90 days to reduce the trade deficit. They called for eliminating barriers to U.S. exports and for stronger efforts to protect those exports from piracy and counterfeiting. They also called for more help for 96

MERCHANDISE TRADE DATA Country/ Region China Japan Canada European Union Mexico NICs†

Deficit/Surplus* December November 2006 2006 -19.00 -7.46 -5.57 -8.97 -5.01 1.10

-22.92 -7.90 -5.17 -9.50 -5.44 -0.42

*Bilateral trade figures in billions of dollars unadjusted for seasonal variations. The data—except figures given for Canada—do not include revisions of month-earlier figures. †Newly industrialized countries—Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

American workers who lost jobs or income because of rising imports. Deficit Grew in December ‘06—The Commerce Department Feb. 13 reported that the seasonally adjustTrade Deficit ed U.S. trade defi(in billions) cit in goods and December 2006 $61.18 services widened Previous Month $58.12 in December Year Earlier $64.17 2006, to $61.2 billion, from a revised $58.1 billion the previous month. Exports grew minimally, while imports grew substantially. Exports, at $125.5 billion, were up from November’s revised level of $124.8 billion. Exports of motor vehicles and parts and some private services climbed. Imports rose to $186.7 billion, from $182.9 billion in November 2006. Imports of industrial supplies and materials, motor vehicle parts and engines and consumer goods grew notably over the month. December Bilateral Trade Gaps— The Commerce Department Feb. 13 also reported bilateral trade data for December 2006. The numbers were not seasonally adjusted and contained merchandise-trade data only, with no revisions for the previous month except to those for Canada. The December merchandise-trade deficit with China eased to $19.0 billion, from $22.9 billion the previous month. The gap with the EU also narrowed, to $9.0 billion, from $9.5 billion in November 2006. The trade deficit with Canada grew to $5.6 billion, from $5.2 billion in November, revised. The trade gap with Japan fell to $7.5 billion, from $7.9 billion. „ Industrial Production Fell in January. The Federal Reserve Feb. 15 reported that its industrial production index declined 0.5% in January. The index had risen at the same rate in December 2006. The overall index now stood at 111.9% of its 2002 base average, down from its revised level of 112.5% the previous month. [See p. 31B3] Mining output fell by 1.2%, after a 1.4% increase the previous month. Manufacturing also fell, by 0.7%, after gaining 0.8% in December 2006. That decline was due largely to a 6% drop in production of motor vehicles and parts. Activity at utilities was up 2.3%, after a 2.7% decline in December. U.S. factories, mines and utilities operated at 81.2% of their total capacity in January, down from a revised 81.8% in December.

Other News—In other economic news:

The Commerce Department Feb. 14 reported that the value of U.S. retail sales, adjusted for seasonal variation, was essentially unchanged in January, at $370.4 billion. The figure for December 2006 was revised upward to the same level. [See 32B1] † The value of business inventories at the end of December 2006 was $1.37 trillion after seasonal adjustment, the Commerce Department reported Feb. 14. That was unchanged from the end of the previous month. The ratio of inventories to sales—a measure of how long it would take businesses to unload their inventories at the current sales pace—was 1.28. [See p. 32A1] „ †

Mergers & Acquisitions Blackstone Wins Fight For Equity Office.

The private equity Blackstone Group Feb. 7 won a bidding war for Equity Office Properties Trust (EOP), the largest landlord in the U.S., after its rival for the purchase, Vornado Realty Trust, dropped out of the contest. Blackstone would pay $23 billion in cash for the company and assume $16 billion in debt. The $39 billion total price tag made the deal the largest-ever leveraged buyout. [See 2006, pp. 1005B2, 893F2] Blackstone in November 2006 had bid $48.50 per share for EOP. Vornado, which had been eyeing the real estate firm for months, Jan. 17 offered $38 billion—40% of it in stock and 60% of it in cash—plus assumed debt. In response, Blackstone Jan. 25 raised its offer to $38.3 billion, or $54 per share, demanding a $500 million break-up fee that Vornado would have to pay to the private equity group if it succeeded in buying EOP. Vornado Feb. 1 sweetened its bid to $56 per share, 45% of it in stock. Blackstone Feb. 6 made its final, $55.50-a-share offer. While not quite as high as Vornado’s offer, it was considered less risky for investors because there was no stock component. Blackstone’s final bid stipulated a break-up fee of $720 million. Vornado Feb. 7 said it would not raise its offer, and EOP shareholders approved the Blackstone deal the same day. The deal closed Feb. 9, with Blackstone paying $3 billion more than it originally offered. The contest involved some of the country’s biggest financiers: Stephen Schwarzman, head of Blackstone, which had rapidly ascended to the top of the private-equity ladder with aggressive fund raising and acquisitions; and Steven Roth of Vornado, a New Jersey strip-mall mogul. Blackstone’s real estate group was led by Jonathan Gray. Equity Office Properties was based in Chicago. Samuel Zell was its chairman and chief executive officer. The very day it concluded its purchase of EOP, Blackstone Feb. 9 began shedding its new assets, selling eight of EOP’s office buildings in New York City to private developer Harry Macklowe for $7 billion. Buyers were also reportedly lined up for EOP properties in Seattle, Wash., WashingFACTS ON FILE

ton, D.C., San Francisco, Calif., Reston, Va. and Portland, Ore. Blackstone Also Buys Cardinal Drugs—

Medicine distributor Cardinal Health Inc. Jan. 25 said it was selling its drug-manufacturing unit, Pharmaceutical Technologies and Services, to Blackstone for $3.3 billion. Cardinal was based in Dublin, Ohio. „ CNL Hotel Investment Trust Sold. Orlando, Fla.–based CNL Hotel and Resorts Inc. Jan. 19 said it would be sold in two pieces to the real estate division of New York City investment bank Morgan Stanley, and Ashford Hospitality Trust of Dallas, Texas, for $3.13 billion and $2.4 billion, respectively. The sale to Morgan Stanley, which included eight luxury properties in such vacation locales as Maui, Hawaii, and Orlando, Fla., would include the additional assumption of more than $3 billion in debt. It was subject to CNL shareholder approval. Ashford would acquire 51 of CNL’s properties. „ Mills Accepts Takeover Bid. Chevy Chase, Md.–based real estate company Mills Corp.’s board of directors Jan. 17 accepted a $1.35 billion bid by Canadian investment firm Brookfield Asset Management Inc. Under the terms of the deal, Brookfield offered $21 for each Mills share, a 18% premium over its Jan. 16 closing price of $17.77 per share. Mills was currently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for possible accounting errors and management misconduct. Shortly after the announcement, Israeli company Gazit-Globe Ltd. issued a new bid that, when accounting for a $1.1 billion infusion of new capital into Mills, was valued at $22 per share. „

Business Apple, Beatles’ Apple Reach Trademark Pact.

British record company Apple Corps Ltd., representing the legendary popular music band the Beatles, and Apple Inc., the U.S. computer maker, Feb. 5 announced that they had settled a long-running trademark dispute between them. Apple Corps in 2003 had sued Apple Inc. over its use of an apple logo and trademarks on its iTunes music store; the computer company had previously agreed to refrain from using Apple trademarks in the field of music. In May 2005, Britain’s High Court had thrown out the record company’s lawsuit. The settlement, financial details of which were not disclosed, prevented Apple Corps from appealing. It transferred Apple Corps’ trademarks to Apple Inc., which, under the terms of the agreement, would license some of them back to the record company. [See 2003, p. 773G1] The Beatles were the highest-profile recording artists to withhold their music from iTunes, a Web-based inventory of songs available for consumers to download for $0.99 each. The battle over the trademark had reportedly stymied Apple Inc.’s efforts to win a licensing arrangement to sell Beatles music files. A spokeswoman for the band, however, said the settlement should not be construed as any sort of music-licensing agreement. „ February 15, 2007

Viacom Pulls Video Clips From YouTube.

Viacom Inc., owner of 130 cable television networks including some of the world’s most popular, Feb. 2 demanded that Google Inc. remove all Viacom-owned content from its YouTube video file-sharing Web site. Viacom and Google had been in talks to arrange authorization of Viacom content on YouTube in exchange for a share of the advertising revenues generated by the site, but the talks had collapsed, the Financial Times reported Feb. 3. Viacom accused Google of refusing to extend “fair compensation to the people who have expended all the effort and cost to create [Viacom’s content].” [See 2003, p. 781F2] Viacom said YouTube carried more than 100,000 unauthorized Viacom video clips, watched by viewers over some 1.2 billion video streams. YouTube said it would pull the content as requested. YouTube had previously agreed to have a content-monitoring system in place by the beginning of 2007, but it had not yet been implemented. New NBC Universal Chief Executive Officer Jeff Zucker Feb. 6 said YouTube had not made a good-faith effort to fulfill that promise. „

Medicine & Health News in Brief. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Feb. 13 warned that 28 children treated with a vaccine used to prevent early-childhood diarrhea had experienced a

potentially fatal intestinal condition. The vaccine, RotaTeq, had been developed by drug firm Merck & Co. to prevent infections with rotavirus, which caused diarrhea. The FDA, which had approved the vaccine in early 2006, said it had not linked use of the vaccine and cases of the intestinal disorder, known as intussusception. Another rotavirus vaccine in 1999 had been withdrawn from the market after being linked to cases of intussusception. [See 2006, p. 971G2] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Feb. 8 released a study which found that roughly one in 150 children in 14 states had developed autism or a related disorder by the age of eight. Estimates made in the 1980s had put the figure at around one in 200. CDC official Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsop said the new data made the disorder a “major public health concern.” The figures did not necessarily suggest a rise in the disease but reflected a new, standardized criteria used to define the disorder, which was characterized by a child’s inability to communicate or relate to others. Autism’s cause was still unknown. The study was the latest in a series to report a higher incidence of autism among U.S. children. [See 2006, p. 412D2] Pfizer Inc. chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Jeffrey Kindler Jan. 22 announced that the company would eliminate 7,800 jobs over two years, in addition to the 2,200 layoffs it had announced in December 2006. The eliminations represented 10% of the company’s worldwide work force. Pfizer also planned to close or sell at least three of its research centers and three manufacturing sites. The moves were ex-

pected to save the company between $1.5 billion and $2 billion by 2008. Pfizer had faced reduced earnings largely because the patents on several of the company’s most lucrative drugs had recently expired, or were set to do so in the next few years. [See 2006, p. 929G1] „

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Computers Apple Calls for Sharable Music Downloads.

Steven Jobs, the chief executive of computer maker Apple Inc., Feb. 6 called for music companies to consider allowing Apple’s widely used iTunes service and other companies that sold music downloads to provide files without digital rights management (DRM) software, allowing them to be freely shared. The statement was posted on the Apple Web site in an essay entitled “Thoughts on Music.” Critics instead pressed Apple to allow the company’s popular iPod digital music player to use music files bought from services other than iTunes, and also to let iTunes files operate on other brands of digital music players. [See 2006, pp. 1026F1, 627D3] Jobs said selling DRM-free music files was “clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.” He claimed that Apple sold copy-restricted files only at the insistence of major music companies. Jobs added that restrictions were not effective at eliminating piracy, as only 10% of music sold in 2006 had been purchased as downloads, and music on compact discs could easily be transferred to music players without restrictions. Jobs discussed a proposal to license Apple’s FairPlay DRM technology to other companies, allowing interoperability between files and players sold by Apple and other companies. However, Jobs in his statement immediately dismissed the idea, saying it would complicate DRM enforcement. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Feb. 6 released a statement saying that licensing FairPlay would be “a welcome breakthrough.” The RIAA did not address Jobs’s other proposals. Several music executives reportedly claimed that Jobs’s statement was a public relations move. They said its real purpose was to deflect attention from investigations by several European governments pressing for interoperability. „

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F Accidents and Disasters West Virginia Coal Mine Collapses. The roof of a coal mine in McDowell County, W.Va., Jan. 13 collapsed, killing two miners. Ron Wooten, the director of the state Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training, said the miners had been caught under a falling pillar, and that the incident was being investigated. The mine was owned by Brooks Run Mining Co. LLC, a subsidiary of Alpha Natural Resources LLC. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration said the incident brought to three the number of mine deaths in the U.S. in 2007, after a miner was killed Jan. 6 in a Colorado mine. [See 2006, p. 1011A1] „ 97

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bo Mbeki in his annual state of the nation speech Feb. 9 pledged to step up government efforts to fight crime. The speech marked a contrast with statements made by Mbeki in January, in which he had asserted that crime was not a serious problem in South Africa. [See 2006, p. 933A3] The Jan. 26 murder of renowned historian David Rattray, 48, at his lodge in KwaZulu-Natal province in an apparent botched robbery had focused attention on the country’s crime problem. The killing of Rattray, an expert on the 1879 Anglo-Zulu war, had been the latest in a series of crimes against high-profile victims, including the robbery of Nobel literature laureate Nadine Gordimer in her home in October 2006. [See 2006, p. 847F2] South Africa’s high violent crime rate reportedly was one of the top concerns of its citizens. More than 18,000 murders were committed in the country each year, one of the highest rates in the world. Some analysts expressed fears that the crime problem was scaring away tourists and could jeopardize the successful staging of soccer’s World Cup in 2010. Business leaders had voiced concerns that the crime rate was hampering investment. [See 2004, p. 376E2] Mbeki in his speech said, “We must continue and further intensify the struggle against crime,” and acknowledged that abuse of “women and children continues at an unacceptable level.” He said he would increase the police force to 180,000 officers, from 152,000, within three years. He also called for increased community policing and improved intelligence gathering. Land Reform to Quicken—The president in his Feb. 9 speech also vowed to speed up a land reform program under which the government was seeking to redistribute white-owned land to the country’s black majority. About 90% of the land in South Africa was still owned by the white minority, more than 10 years after the end of apartheid. Government officials Feb. 13 said they had ordered the sale of a 600,000acre (250,000-hectare) farm in Northern Cape province, with the land to be divided among poor local families. The farm was owned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church. [See 2006, p. 697A3] In addition, Mbeki pledged public works projects to help alleviate unemployment, more programs to combat HIV/AIDS, a new system of social security payments, and improved access to clean water, electricity and affordable housing. „

Zimbabwe Finance Minister Sacked. President Robert

Mugabe Feb. 7 replaced Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa. The move reportedly had been prompted by Murerwa’s criticism of a decision by Gideon Gono, the central bank chief, not to devalue the Zimbabwean dollar, despite an annual inflation rate that 98

reached 1,594% Feb. 12. [See 2006, p. 1014G2] The move came amid increasing economic problems in the once prosperous country. A central bank document reported by Reuters news service Feb. 6 showed that prices for consumer goods had risen by 223% in less than one week, in response to Gono’s Jan. 31 presentation of a new monetary policy, under which he called for a price and wage freeze to tame the “inflation monster.” The official exchange rate for the Zimbabwean dollar was 250 to one U.S. dollar. However, the black market rate was reportedly as high as Z$5,000 to US$1. Among other signs of the deteriorating economy, Britain’s Guardian Feb. 8 reported that unemployment was running at more than 70% and an estimated 80% of the country’s 12 million people lived in poverty. Zimbabwe also suffered from worsening food, fuel, water and power shortages. Murerwa was replaced with a former indigenization minister, Samuel Mumbengegwi. Also, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the former deputy education minister, was named information minister, and former Economic Development Minister Rugare Gumbo was named agriculture minister, replacing Joseph Made. Call for End to Doctors’ Strike—Zimbabwe’s health minister, David Parirenyatwa, Jan. 11 called on the country’s doctors to end a strike they had begun Dec. 21, 2006, to protest low pay in public hospitals. Junior doctors, who originated the strike, had been joined by senior doctors and most nurses, virtually paralyzing Zimbabwe’s health care system. They had demanded salary increases of 8,000%. The strike continued as of Feb. 15. Thousands of schoolteachers Feb. 5 also went on strike. Police Feb. 14 arrested teachers’ union leader Raymond Majongwe on charges of inciting the strike. „

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Argentina Lavagna Presidency Bid Set. Roberto La-

vagna, a former finance minister, Jan. 5 declared his candidacy for presidential elections scheduled for October. Lavagna, who had served as a cabinet member from 2002 to 2005, was credited by many for overseeing the country’s economic resurgence after its 2001 collapse. President Nestor Kirchner, who had not yet indicated if he would seek reelection, had fired Lavagna in November 2005 after he had criticized the government, alleging that the country was moving toward authoritarianism. However, Kirchner’s approval ratings, which had recently polled above 70%, made him the early favorite in the race. [See 2005, p. 898A1] „

Canada Kyoto Compliance Measure Approved.

The House of Commons Feb. 14 adopted, 161–113, a bill that compelled the govern-

ment to produce within 60 days a plan that would bring it into compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty establishing strict emissions limits on socalled greenhouse gases. Such gases resulted partly from the combustion of fossil fuels, and were thought to contribute to global climate change and its attending problems. [See 2006, p. 897F1] The legislation, which had been introduced by a Liberal member of Parliament, also required the government to outline penalties for companies that failed to reduce emissions as required. Members of the three opposition parties—the Liberal Party, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc Quebecois (BQ) party—had joined together to outvote the ruling minority Conservative Party on the measure. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, had previously rejected the Kyoto targets, characterizing them as impossible to achieve and a detriment to the country’s economy if enforced. The Kyoto Protocol, to which Canada was a signatory, called for the country to cut emissions by 6% from their 1990 levels by a 2012 deadline. Harper Feb. 15 said he would adhere to the legislation, which still required approval from the Liberal-dominated Senate. The prime minister Feb. 12 had announced the creation of a C$1.5 billion (US$1.3 billion) fund to be used to aid greenhouse gas reductions within provinces. However, dispersal of the funds required that Parliament approve the Conservative Party’s budget, which was due before the legislature in March. Commissioner’s Sacking Questioned—

Auditor General Sheila Fraser Jan. 31 came under fire from members of the Commons environment committee for her abrupt replacement of Environment Commissioner Johanne Gelinas the previous day. Members of Parliament (MPs) who had been privately briefed by Fraser on the dismissal said she had expressed concerns that Gelinas had overstepped the authority of an auditor in order to promote policy initiatives, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported Jan. 31. Gelinas in September 2006 had released an audit on government climate change programs that was critical of the sitting Conservative government. Fraser Jan. 31 denied that she had come under political pressure to replace Gelinas. However, several Liberal and NDP MPs called for the position of environment commissioner to be made independent of the office of auditor general. „ Former Conservative MP Joins Liberal Party.

Former Conservative Party member of Parliament (MP) Garth Turner Feb. 6 announced that he had joined the opposition Liberal Party. Turner had been well-known for openly criticizing the Conservative Party’s leadership while still a member of its ranks. In October 2006 he had been suspended from the Conservative Party caucus for violating confidentiality, though it was widely believed his ouster had resulted from his criticisms of Conservative policy. In November 2006 he resigned from the FACTS ON FILE

party and sat in the House of Commons as an independent. [See p. 18A1; 2006, p. 823D1] Turner had previously criticized other MPs for crossing the floor, and in 2006 had introduced a measure that would require MPs who changed their party affiliation to resign and run in a by-election. Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion said he had held “very frank” discussions with Turner over the MP’s outspokenness, but said he had been assured that Turner would preserve the “solidarity of the party” and “the secrecy of the caucus.” The shift left the 308-seat Commons with 125 Conservatives, 101 Liberals, 51 members of the Bloc Quebecois (BQ) party, 29 members of the New Democratic Party (NDP), one independent and one vacancy. „

Ecuador Defense Minister Killed in Helicopter Crash.

Defense Minister Guadalupe Larriva, 50, Jan. 24 was killed when the helicopter she was riding in collided with another over a military base near Manta, 150 miles (240 km) southeast of Quito, the capital. Larriva’s daughter and five military officers were also killed in the collision. [See 2006, p. 1019A2] The two helicopters were reportedly in the midst of flight tests when their blades struck each other’s. President Rafael Correa Jan. 26 said he would seek to replace Larriva, who had taken office just nine days before her death, with another woman. Larriva had been the first female defense minister, and the first person with no military experience to serve in that cabinet position. Larriva’s death spawned rumors that the accident had been orchestrated to prevent her from assuming control of the country’s military. However, government officials Jan. 25 said initial data indicated that pilot error had caused the crash. Correa Feb. 2 fired the head of the army, Gen. Pedro Machado, citing failures on the part of the army for causing the fatal collision. „ Constitutional Referendum Approved. Ecuador’s 100-seat National Congress Feb. 13 approved, 57–1, leftist President Rafael Correa’s request to hold a referendum on a plan to create a constitutional assembly charged with rewriting the country’s constitution. Opposition legislators refused to participate in the vote. The referendum plan still required the approval of electoral authorities. Local press outlets reported that officials had set a date of April 15 for the referendum. [See p. 34G2] The legislature limited the assembly’s powers, making it unable to dissolve Congress. However, Correa Feb. 14 asserted that the constitutional assembly would have the power to dismiss the country’s president, Supreme Court or Congress if it so desired. Correa had previously said a reworking of the constitution would make lawmakers from the country’s traditional political parties more accountable to citizens. February 15, 2007

Thousands of Correa supporters wielding stones and sticks Jan. 30 had overrun the congressional building, demanding the approval of the referendum plan. The demonstrators clashed with police forces, who fought them off using tear gas. Debt

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Deputy Economy Minister Fausto Ortiz Feb. 12 said Correa would make use of a 30-day grace period for a foreign debt interest payment of $135 million scheduled for Feb. 15, citing a lack of available funds. However, Economy Minister Ricardo Patino Feb. 14 reversed that position, saying that the country had accrued enough tax revenues to make the payment deadline. Patino Feb. 15 said the payment had been made on time. The announcements fueled greater uncertainty over Ecuador’s markets, particularly with respect to its government-issued bonds. Correa had previously said he would consider defaulting on the country’s debts in order to allocate money for social programs. „

Haiti U.N. Peacekeepers Battle Slum Gangs. A 700-member armed United Nations peacekeeping force Feb. 9 stormed the Cite Soleil slum area of Port-au-Prince, the capital, engaging in fierce gun battles with gangs that controlled the area. At least two U.N. peacekeepers and six gang members were injured during the clashes, which ended the same day with U.N. forces in control of a substantial swath of Cite Soleil. [See 2006, p. 882B3] The U.N. had reportedly raided the area in an effort to capture a notorious gang leader called “Evans,” also known as “Little Knife,” who managed to evade capture. The gangs had operated in slum areas with relative autonomy, as the government lacked the necessary military and police forces needed to control such districts. U.N. troops and police in the country numbered about 8,500 and constituted much of Haiti’s law enforcement. President Rene Preval, after attempting to negotiate with gang leaders in the fall of 2006, in December of that year had backed plans to use U.N. forces to oust criminals from slum areas. U.N. forces Jan. 25 had assumed control of a schoolhouse being used as a gang hideaway located just outside Cite Soleil after fighting gang members there. Four gang members were reported killed during those clashes. Abductions Finance Gangs—A Haitianborn U.S. missionary, Nathan Jean-Dieudonne, Feb. 9 was released from captivity, after being abducted Feb. 4 by armed men while driving home from church. U.N. officials reportedly believed that gang leaders financed their operations largely through ransoms collected on kidnapping victims. Gangs often used their ill-gotten revenues to pay for food and services for the city’s indigent population, which helped them to raise their popularity among residents.

Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, Feb. 1 had said the U.S. government would provide $20 million in aid to help create employment for the residents of Cite Soleil. Burns also called on the U.N. to extend its peacekeeping mandate for another year. „

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South Korea Hyundai Chairman Convicted, Sentenced.

A court in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, Feb. 5 found Chung Mong-koo, chairman of automobile maker Hyundai Motor Co., guilty of embezzlement and fraud in connection with a slush fund that the company maintained for political payoffs and other illegitimate purposes. Chung was sentenced to three years in prison, but remained free pending his appeal. He would also remain in control of Hyundai, South Korea’s largest car maker and the sixthlargest in the world, for the time being. [See 2006, p. 635B3] Chung’s sentence was less than the six years sought by prosecutors. The presiding judge, in imposing the lighter sentence, said that Chung, son of Hyundai founder Chung Ju Yung, had made substantial “contributions to the development of the country’s economy.” The threeyear term was nevertheless more severe than the light or suspended sentences often imposed in previous corporate corruption cases, possibly signaling reduced tolerance of abuses of South Korean conglomerates’ traditionally extensive influence. The conviction of Chung added to Hyundai’s current difficulties, which included labor unrest and an increase in the value of South Korea’s currency, the won, which hindered export sales. The company’s unionized workers beginning on Dec. 28, 2006, had refused to work overtime in protest of a reduction in their year-end bonus, and conducted a daylong strike Jan. 16. Hyundai Jan. 8 had sued the union over losses from the work stoppages. [See 2006, p. 1024A1] „

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Turkmenistan Berdymukhammedov Elected President.

Turkmenistan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) Feb. 14 declared Acting President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov the winner of a presidential election held Feb. 11. Berdymukhammedov was sworn in as president of the gas-rich Central Asian nation later Feb. 14. [See 2006, p. 992E2; for facts on Berdymukhammedov, see box, p. 100A1] Berdymukhammedov, 49, had taken over as acting president after the sudden death in December 2006 of the country’s eccentric, authoritarian president for life, Saparmurad Niyazov. Niyazov, who first took power in 1985 and then won the 1992 election—the last presidential election in the country—had been proclaimed the country’s lifetime leader in 1999. 99

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Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov was born in 1957 in Babarab, a village in Ahal province in what was then the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic. He graduated from the dentistry school at the Turkmen State Medical Institute in 1979, and later earned a Ph.D. in medical sciences in Russia in 1990. Berdymukhammedov worked as a dentist from 1980 to 1995, when he became head of the Turkmen Ministry of Health’s dentistry center, as well as an associate professor and dean of the dentistry faculty at the Turkmen State Medical Institute. In December 1997, Berdymukhammedov was appointed minister of health, and in April 2001, he was named deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers. After Turkmenistan’s president for life, Saparmurad Niyazov, died in December 2006, Berdymukhammedov assumed the position of acting president. [See 2006, p. 992E2] Berdymukhammedov defeated five other candidates in a Feb. 11 presidential election that he had been widely expected to win. He was sworn in as Turkmenistan’s president Feb. 14. [See p. 99E3]

The CEC said Berdymukhammedov, a former health minister and deputy premier, had won 89% of the vote, and that 99% of voters had turned out. Five candidates opposed Berdymukhammedov, including four regional officials and a deputy oil minister. All six represented the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, the only registered party in the country. Berdymukhammedov, a longtime ally of Niyazov who had survived numerous purges, had been widely expected to win the election. Turkmenistan’s large gas reserves made developments in the wake of Niyazov’s death closely watched by Western nations, Russia and China. The West, though critical of Turkmenistan’s limited political freedom, reportedly was seeking a policy of engagement with the new regime, in hopes of promoting gradual change. Berdymukhammedov’s inauguration in Ashgabat, the capital, was attended by Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian Premier Mikhail Y. Fradkov and Aleksei Miller, chief executive of Russia’s state-owned OAO Gazprom. Among others in attendance at the session, which was held before the Halk Maslakhaty (People’s Council), the top legislative body in Turkmenistan, were the heads of state of Ukraine, Georgia and Iran. In his inaugural speech, Berdymukhammedov pledged to follow “the way traced by Saparmurad Turkmenbashi [Niyazov].” OSCE Says Vote Neither Free Nor Fair—

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Jose Soares, a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) delegation that had monitored the election as unofficial observers, Feb. 11 said the vote was “absolutely not free and fair.” Nurmukhammed Khanomov, the exiled leader of the opposition Republican Party of Turkmenistan, Feb. 9 had called for the election to be postponed, saying it would 100

be a “spectacle” and that the result was predetermined. Another exiled opposition leader, Khudaiberdy Orazov, Feb. 11 disputed the high turnout figure, saying “maybe 10 or 12%” of eligible voters participated. (Orazov, who lived in Sweden, had been chosen as the candidate of a coalition of exiled opposition groups, but was not allowed to enter the country.) The official turnout figures were also disputed by journalists covering the election for U.S. government–funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Changes Pledged— Berdymukhammedov Jan. 4 in a speech in Ashgabat proposed some changes to Niyazov’s isolationist and repressive policies. Among the changes were reforms to the education and pension systems, and allowing all citizens access to the Internet. (Niyazov had banned Internet access, as well as foreign newspapers and television channels.) He also said he would improve the health care system. As health minister, Berdymukhammedov in 2005 had been responsible for overseeing one of Niyazov’s most controversial policies—closing all hospitals outside Ashgabat and replacing health workers with army conscripts. The new president had pledged to honor all gas contracts signed by Niyazov, easing fears of officials in Russia, which purchased most of Turkmenistan’s gas through Gazprom, and in Europe, which was dependent on Turkmen gas supplies. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

France Socialist Candidate Royal Unveils Manifesto.

Segolene Royal, the French Socialist Party’s presidential nominee, Feb. 11 unveiled a 100-point manifesto for her campaign in the run-up to the first round of the election in April. After a recent series of gaffes, Royal had slipped in the polls and fallen behind her conservative rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the nominee of the Union for a Popular Majority (UMP). [See p. 36C2] Royal presented her manifesto in a twohour, nationally televised speech before 15,000 supporters in the Paris suburb of Villepinte. She said she had shaped her proposals based on discussions with ordinary citizens who took part in thousands of public meetings and Internet forums organized by her campaign. Among other things, she called for increasing the minimum wage, as well as unemployment and retirement benefits; giving residents of public housing an opportunity to buy their homes; and offering free birth control to women under 25. Royal said she would cut unemployment and the national debt. She also included some controversial proposals that she had first floated months earlier, such as sending juvenile delinquents to militarystyle bootcamps. Critics said Royal had failed to provide any estimate of how much her proposals

would cost or clearly explain how she would finance them. Gaffes Undercut Campaign— Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande, Royal’s longtime companion with whom she had four children, Jan. 10 called for raising taxes on people who earned more than 4,000 euros a month ($5,000). Royal quickly distanced herself from the proposal, saying, “I’m not interested in raising taxes.” Royal Jan. 18 suspended her spokesman, Arnauld Montebourg, after he quipped that Hollande was her only weakness. Royal had also drawn criticism and mockery for perceived gaffes during a series of trips abroad that she had made to reinforce her foreign policy credentials. In one such incident, during a Jan. 23 visit to Canada’s French-speaking province of Quebec, she met leaders of the separatist Parti Quebecois and said she backed “sovereignty” for Quebec. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper responded by warning that foreign leaders should not “interfere in the democratic affairs of another country.” „

Great Britain Four Soldiers Cleared in Iraq Abuse Case.

A judge at a court-martial in Wiltshire, England, Feb. 14 cleared a British colonel and three lower-ranking soldiers who faced charges of abusing civilians in Iraq in 2003. Judge Stuart McKinnon ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict the soldiers in the case, in which nine Iraqis were allegedly beaten and one died at a British base in Basra, southern Iraq. [See 2006, p. 737B1] Col. Jorge Mendonca, 43, was found not guilty of negligence. Sgt. Kelvin Stacey, 30, was acquitted of assault; Lance Cpl. Wayne Crowcroft, 22, and Pvt. Darren Fallon, 23, were acquitted of inhumane treatment. Cpl. Donald Payne, 35, who had pleaded guilty in September 2006 to a war crime charge of inhumane treatment, was cleared on two additional charges of manslaughter and perverting the course of justice. McKinnon upheld negligence charges against two other soldiers, Maj. Michael Peebles, 35, and Warrant Officer Mark Davies, 37. Their court-martial would continue. „

Portugal Low Turnout Nullifies Abortion Referendum.

Supporters of easing Portugal’s restrictive abortion law in a referendum Feb. 11 cast a majority of votes, but overall voter turnout failed to reach the 50% threshold needed to make the result legally binding. The results showed that 59.25% voted in favor of changing the law, and 40.75% voted against doing so, with turnout at less than 44% of the country’s 8.8 million eligible voters. [See 2002, p. 79A3] The ballot asked voters whether they approved of making abortion legal in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy and making services available from the national health care system. FACTS ON FILE

Portugal’s current law had been enacted in 1984. It allowed abortions only in cases involving a severe health risk for a woman, a severely deformed fetus or rape. Women who had illegal abortions faced up to three years in prison, but those who had been convicted had mostly received suspended sentences. Doctors and nurses convicted of providing illegal abortions faced sentences of up to eight years, and some had in fact been sent to prison. A 1998 referendum on amending the law had also failed due to low turnout. Ireland, Poland and Malta were the only other nations in the 27-member European Union with such restrictive laws. Premier Vows to Change Law— In response to the results, Premier Jose Socrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa Feb. 11 said he would move to change the law in parliament, where his Socialist Party held a solid majority. “The people spoke with a clear voice,” Socrates said in a televised speech. He urged lawmakers, “We have to produce a law that respects the result of the referendum.” Socrates had campaigned for a vote of approval in the referendum, arguing that liberalizing the law would cut the number of dangerous clandestine abortions, which had been estimated at about 20,000 per year. He also said approving the change would signal that Portugal was a modern nation. The Roman Catholic Church led the campaign for a vote against the change, warning that it would encourage more abortions. About 90% of Portuguese citizens were Catholics. „

Russia New Charges Brought Against Khodorkovsky.

Russian prosecutors Feb. 5 filed new charges of embezzlement and money-laundering against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former chief of oil company OAO Yukos, and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, who was also in prison. They were accused of diverting some $20 billion of Yukos’s revenue, but further details of the allegations were sealed. Khodorkovsky’s lawyers called the charges “insane” and said they were intended to prevent the men from being paroled and playing a role in politics as elections approached later in the year and in 2008. [See 2006, p. 1027C3] Khodorkovsky and Lebedev had been arrested in 2003 and convicted in 2005 of tax evasion and fraud. They were sentenced to eight years in prison, in what their supporters said was a politically motivated prosecution. Before his arrest, Khodorkovsky had been a powerful tycoon who funded opposition political activity. Critics, however, portrayed him as having corruptly bought political influence while reaping profits at the public’s expense through the privatizations that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev Feb. 5 pleaded not guilty to the new charges at a court in the Siberian city of Chita, to which they had been moved in 2006. They would February 15, 2007

have been eligible for parole in October, but the new charges rendered their release virtually impossible. Their lawyers contended that the charges were also intended to assist the continuing takeover of Yukos assets by the Russian state. The company had been forced into bankruptcy and liquidation, with its most valuable operations acquired by stateowned companies. Khodorkovsky, in a statement posted on the Internet Feb. 7, called the new charges “ungrounded” and “absurd,” but said he was likely to be convicted. He denounced “the giant corruption machine that has paralyzed Russia.” „ Putin Promotes Possible Successor. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Feb. 15 announced the promotion of Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov to the post of first deputy premier, with broader responsibilities for the economy. He would share that title with current First Deputy Premier Dmitri Medvedev. The announcement fueled speculation over which of the two deputies Putin would anoint as his preferred successor before a presidential election to be held in 2008. [See 2005, p. 839A1] Putin announced the promotion at one of his regular televised cabinet meetings. He said that Ivanov, while continuing to oversee, at a higher level, the “militaryindustrial complex,” would be responsible for “part of the civil sector of the economy.” Putin said that “given the expansion of his powers, he will no longer be able to keep the post of defense minister.” He appointed Anatoly Serdyukov, currently chief of the Federal Tax Service, to that post. Both Ivanov, 54, and Medvedev, 41, were longtime close associates of the president. Medvedev was also chairman of OAO Gazprom, the state energy giant. Ivanov Feb. 11 had said of the speculation over a successor to Putin, “We won’t have any successors or crown princes.” However, in view of Putin’s overwhelming popularity and the concentration of influence in the president’s hands during his tenure, his endorsement was likely to determine the outcome of the election. Ivanov in 2006 had been embroiled in a scandal over vicious hazing in the Russian military. His promotion would distance him somewhat from association with such chronic problems in the military. [See 2006, p. 829B3] Replaces Chechnya President— Putin Feb. 15 also announced the resignation of Alu Alkhanov as president of the rebellious republic of Chechnya, replacing him with Chechen Premier Ramzan Kadyrov. The expected move ratified Kadyrov’s effective control over Chechnya, and indicated Putin’s backing for him despite international accusations of human rights abuses. Kadyrov, 30, was the son of Akhmad Kadyrov, a former Chechen premier who had been assassinated in 2004. [See 2006, p. 829B3] Alkhanov, amid reported pressure to resign in favor of Kadyrov, Feb. 12 had announced that he had no plans to do so,

warning against a “cult of personality and deification of one man,” apparently referring to Kadyrov. Ivanov Feb. 11 had declared that Russia had “solved” the conflict in Chechnya, which had revived in 1999. Russian forces had gained the upper hand in recent years, killing numerous rebel leaders which resulted in a sharp drop in major rebel attacks. „ Putin Blasts U.S. Policies. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, speaking in Germany at the Munich Conference on Security Policy, Feb. 10 issued a sharp and wide-ranging critique of U.S. foreign policy, accusing it of destabilizing international relations through reckless unilateral actions and an excessive use of force. Putin said the U.S. had “overstepped its national borders in every way,” becoming the world’s “one master, one sovereign.” [See 2006, p. 828E1] Among the many examples Putin offered, he said the U.S. was provoking a renewed nuclear arms race. He expressed suspicion that it sought to evade agreed limits on nuclear warhead stockpiles, and said that the U.S.’s plans to locate components of its antimissile defense system in Eastern Europe would upset the “balance” of nuclear deterrence. [See below] Putin also questioned the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to include Baltic nations, asking, “Against whom is this expansion directed?” [See 2004, p. 239B1] He criticized U.S. military actions as “unilateral” and “illegitimate,” and noted that Russia was providing air defense technology to Iran, amid speculation about whether the U.S. might take military action against Iran. The U.S. accused Iran of an illicit program to develop nuclear weapons, and of fomenting violence in Iraq. [See pp. 90C1, 84E3] However, Putin also called U.S. President George W. Bush “a decent man” and affirmed his belief that “Russia and the United States will never be enemies.” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Feb. 11 in his address at the Munich conference declined to match Putin’s rhetoric, noting, “One Cold War is enough.” He took issue with certain points, suggesting that Russia had no reason to “fear lawbased democracies on its borders” in the form of NATO members. Several U.S. lawmakers expressed outrage at Putin’s speech. Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.), a U.S. presidential candidate, denounced what he called Russia’s “autocratic turn,” its antidemocratic foreign policy and its “energy policy used as a tool of intimidation.” Missile Shield Plan Attacked— Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, visiting a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Seville, Spain, Feb. 9 criticized the U.S.’s missile-shield plans for Eastern Europe. He suggested that proposed antimissile installations in the Czech Republic and Poland were evidently aimed at Russia’s missile capability rather than at other potential threats in the Middle East such as Iran, which he said were too far away. At the same time, he contended that “this will not 101

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harm the Russian deterrent” and that Russia would be able to “surpass any missile system.” Gates that day said, “We have made quite clear to them [Russia] that it’s not directed at them.” The U.S. Jan. 22 had confirmed that it planned to hold talks with Poland and the Czech Republic on establishing missiledefense sites in those countries. The plans called for missile silos in Poland, and an early-warning radar center in the Czech Republic. The U.S. insisted that it was intended, and would be able to function, only as a defense against missiles launched at the U.S. from the Middle East. Russian officials Feb. 15 suggested that Russia might withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a Cold War-era treaty aimed at reducing nuclear arms, if the U.S. proceeded with its plans. „

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Hundreds of thousands of people Feb. 14 gathered in central Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, to commemorate the second anniversary of the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri and to support the government of current Premier Fouad Siniora. Antigovernment demonstrators, led by the Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies, had been occupying much of central Beirut since December 2006 in an effort to oust Siniora. The two demonstrations took place yards from each other, with a line of soldiers and barricades separating them. [See p. 54E3] Protesters at the pro-government Hariri rally denounced Hezbollah, Syria, and their respective leaders, President Bashar al-Assad and Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. They also called for the establishment of an international tribunal to investigate the killing of Hariri, which was widely suspected to have been perpetrated by Syria. The United Nations Feb. 6 had reached an agreement with Siniora’s cabinet to create the tribunal, and recognized that the cabinet’s decision superseded objections by pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. However, the tribunal still required the approval of the full parliament, and, therefore, the support of the pro-Syrian speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri. The Feb. 14 demonstrations were largely free of violence, though three people had died and roughly 20 were wounded Feb. 13 when bombs detonated inside two minibuses in a Christian area just north of Beirut. It was not clear who was responsible for the bombings, but the area was a stronghold for the pro-government Phalange party. Christians had split into separate factions in the current dispute, some favoring the largely pro-government, Sunni Muslim parties, and others supporting the antigovernment, Shiite Muslim parties. 102

Other News—In other Lebanese news:

Customs officials Feb. 8 seized a truck containing a hidden cargo of rockets and other weapons in a suburb in Beirut. Hezbollah Feb. 9 acknowledged ownership of the munitions, claiming that they were being transported from the east of the country to the southern border, where they were to arm fighters facing off against Israel. Defense Minister Elias Murr rejected Hezbollah’s demand that the munitions be returned, declaring that the army would keep them and use them against Israel itself if necessary. † Gunfire Feb. 7 broke out between Lebanese and Israeli troops across their shared border. Lebanese officials claimed that an Israeli bulldozer had crossed the border, prompting their troops to open fire. Israeli officials insisted that the bulldozer had been operating entirely on Israel’s side of the border, and had been clearing mines planted by Hezbollah militants. The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Feb. 8 sent troops and armored vehicles to police the area. [See 2006, p. 641A1] † The Israeli military Feb. 5 claimed that it had found and destroyed bombs disguised to look like rocks and recently planted by Hezbollah on the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon. Hezbollah replied that the bombs had been planted prior to its summer 2006 war with Israel. „ †

SOUTH ASIA

Bangladesh Police Jail Thousands in Graft Crackdown.

Eight former government ministers Feb. 5 were placed in police custody after they were rounded up the previous day along with other politicians in a corruption crackdown by the interim government. The ministers came from both of Bangladesh’s two main political parties. A ninth former minister was arrested the following day. The former officials were to be held by police for one month. [See p. 22G2] Police, aided by army and paramilitary forces, had arrested 33,000 people, many of them politicians and people with political ties, since Jan. 11, when President Iajuddin Ahmed declared emergency rule and announced that elections set for late January would be postponed indefinitely. Also among those rounded up were scores of slum-dwellers in the capital, Dhaka. The government Jan. 27 reminded the public of strict curbs on the media and a ban on all political activity. The measures had been instituted automatically under emergency rule, but the press had quickly resumed news and political coverage, in defiance of the law, just days after it was imposed. New Interim Government Head Sworn—

The president Jan. 12 swore in Fakhruddin Ahmed, a former World Bank official and governor of the country’s central bank, as the new head of the interim administration, a post that the president had held previously. Fakhruddin Ahmed had reportedly been

chosen by the country’s military generals, and was widely perceived to be cooperating with them on a plan to clean up national politics and improve governance. Fakhruddin Ahmed Jan. 21 declared a campaign to reduce graft. The administration Feb. 4 appointed a new chief electoral commissioner and deputy commissioner. The former election commissioner Jan. 21 had resigned to satisfy the opposition Awami League’s demands that the commission be purged of its alleged bias. The remaining members resigned Jan. 31. Amid concerns that the military would seek to consolidate its power and rule for an extended period, Lt. Gen. Moeen U Ahmed, the army chief, had announced that the military was simply backing the interim government and would not seek to usurp its authority, the British Broadcast„ ing Corp. (BBC) reported Feb. 9.

Nepal Premier Promises Ethnic Representation.

Premier Girija Prasad Koirala Feb. 7 pledged to boost representation for the southern Terai plains region in a new constitution-drafting assembly, after weeks of strikes and sometimes violent protests by the region’s ethnic Madhesi people. At least 21 people had been killed in clashes between Madhesis and police during three weeks of agitation over electoral redistricting. One police officer was hacked to death Jan. 31. Also, three former ministers in the fallen royalist government Jan. 30 had been arrested for inciting violence. [See p. 38A2] The Madhesis, who made up roughly one-third of the country’s populace, were descendants of Indian migrant laborers. Historically they had been given almost no role in government, and many had been barred from Nepalese citizenship because they could not produce evidence of their nationality. Madhesi leader Upendra Yadav Feb. 8 suspended strikes and blockades for 10 days, by which time he demanded the dismissal of the home minister and an investigation of the protest deaths. In addition to greater political representation, his group was calling for the creation of a Madhesi autonomous region and an end to discrimination against Madhesis by the government. The Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities, an umbrella organization representing 56 ethnic groups, Feb. 15 staged a general strike in Katmandu, the capital, and throughout the surrounding Katmandu Valley. They demanded that a draft constitution already endorsed by the interim parliament be amended to establish a proportional-representation electoral system, which would give indigenous groups a larger share of the seats. Elections to a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution were to take place in June, but no date had yet been set. Koirala’s doctor Feb. 14 had said the premier, 85, suffered from hepatitis. „ FACTS ON FILE

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

BALCO Investigation Source of Leaks Comes Forward. A Colorado lawyer, Troy Ellerman, Feb. 15 pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Calif., to obstructing justice for leaking grand jury documents to two San Francisco Chronicle reporters who were investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) scandal. A judge in September 2006 had ordered the jailing of the two reporters, Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, after they refused to reveal the source of the leak. That ruling had been stayed pending an appeal, and as a result of the plea, the Justice Department withdrew the subpoena issued to them. [See 2006, p. 941C2] BALCO was a Burlingame, Calif., nutritional supplement company that had supplied top athletes with performance-enhancing drugs. Williams and FainaruWada had used the information obtained in the leak to write a series of Chronicle articles on the BALCO probe, as well as a book. Ellerman had represented BALCO founder Victor Conte Jr. and James Valente, BALCO’s vice president, both of whom had been charged in the case. In court papers filed Feb. 14, Ellerman, 44, admitted that he had shown the reporters transcripts of the secret grand jury testimony of Major League Baseball stars Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield and sprinter Tim Montgomery. [See p. 24E1] Ellerman faced a maximum two-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $250,000. He was scheduled to be sentenced in June. In a related development, San Francisco U.S. attorney Kevin Ryan, who was overseeing the case, Feb. 15 announced that his tenure was ending. [See p. 30F2] „

Soccer Italy Cancels Matches After Officer’s Death.

Italian soccer authorities late Feb. 2 canceled all professional soccer matches in the country scheduled for Feb. 3–4 after a police officer was killed earlier that day in fan violence at a contest between Catania and Palermo in Catania, Sicily. An exhibition match between Italy and Romania scheduled for Feb. 7 was also canceled. [See 2006, pp. 986G2, 655F2; 2004, p. 1093B1] The officer, Filippo Raciti, 38, died after being struck with a blunt instrument outside Catania’s Angelo Massimino stadium during the second half of the match. In an effort to subdue the fans, police fired tear gas, which blew into the stadium and forced a temporary halt to the match. Hundreds of fans were trapped inside the stadium as the violence continued after the game. More than 70 people, including 61 police officers, were injured, according to Italy’s ANSA news agency. Twenty-nine people were arrested. Raciti’s death was the latest and most serious of a string of violent incidents in February 15, 2007

Italian soccer. Most of the violence was perpetrated by “ultras,” organized groups of diehard, extremist fans who often targeted police. Many teams reportedly maintained informal links with the ultras, including giving them free tickets. Italian soccer in 2006 had been rocked by a match-fixing scandal that involved top clubs. Also, the national team had won the World Cup. Italian government and soccer officials met Feb. 5 and Feb. 7 to discuss the situation. The Italian cabinet Feb. 7 decreed that stadiums that did not meet certain security requirements—such as closed-circuit surveillance cameras and electronic turnstiles to control crowd movements—would not be allowed to admit fans. The cabinet also prohibited clubs from selling blocks of tickets to visiting fans, and permitted clubs to bar from stadiums fans suspected of socalled hooliganism. Italian soccer officials Feb. 7 said matches could resume the weekend of Feb. 10–11. However, the government the next day said stadiums that did not meet the security requirements would not be allowed to admit spectators. The only stadiums in Serie A, the top league, that met the requirements were those in Rome, Palermo, Siena, Cagliari and Turin. The measures had been mandated in legislation passed in 2005, but few clubs had implemented them. Thousands of people Feb. 5 had turned out in Catania to mourn Raciti, whose funeral was broadcast live on national television. Some 38 people had been arrested in connection with his death, it was reported Feb. 9. Matches Resume—Milan’s San Siro stadium, home to two of the most prominent clubs, AC Milan (which was owned by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi) and Internazionale Milan, Feb. 11 was allowed to admit season-ticket holders for a match between AC Milan and Livorno, after some security improvements were made. Four games that day were played in empty stadiums, in Florence, Bergamo, Verona and the Sicilian city of Messina. Catania Punished—Sports judge Gianpaolo Tosel Feb. 14 ruled that Catania would have to play the rest of the season’s home games at empty neutral venues, shuttering its home ground. Tosel also fined the club $65,000. Catania fans had a history of violence; in September 2006, the club had been ordered to play two home matches in empty stadiums after violence by fans. „ U.S. Tycoons Buy England’s Liverpool.

U.S. businessmen George Gillett Jr. and Tom Hicks Feb. 6 completed a deal to acquire Liverpool Football Club of the English Premier League for $340 million. [See 2006, p. 986F2] An expected purchase of the club by United Arab Emirates–based Dubai International Capital (DIC), which had been in the works for several months, Jan. 31 had collapsed. DIC reportedly withdrew its offer after Liverpool’s board delayed a decision in order to further consider a counteroffer from Gillett and Hicks.

The total value of the final deal, including the assumption of debt, would be $429 million. Hicks and Gillett said they would build a new, 60,000-seat stadium for Liverpool, to replace the team’s current home, Anfield, which opened in 1884. Gillett owned the Montreal Canadiens of North America’s National Hockey League (NHL), and Hicks owned the NHL’s Dallas Stars as well as Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers. (Hicks had gained notoriety in 2000 for signing baseball star Alex Rodriguez to a record 10-year, $252 million contract.) The deal made Liverpool the third Premier League team to be owned by Americans, after Manchester United, which was bought by Malcolm Glazer in 2005, and Aston Villa, which was acquired by Randy Lerner in 2006. [See 2006, p. 986A3; 2005, p. 991E2; 2001, p. 824D2; 2000, p. 1051A2] Current Liverpool Chief Executive Rick Parry would remain in that position, while Chairman David Moores would become an honorary life president. Other News—In other soccer news: † Brazilian star striker Ronaldo Jan. 30 transferred to Italian club AC Milan, from Real Madrid of Spain. Milan reportedly paid a $9.73 million transfer fee for the three-time world player of the year, who then signed an 18-month contract. [See 2006, p. 522E2] † Former French star Michel Platini Jan. 26 was elected president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the governing body of European soccer. He won a four-year term, beating Lennart Johansson of Sweden, who had led the organization since 1990, in a 27–23 vote. [See 2002, p. 426C3; 1988, p. 848B2] † Former U.S. national team captain Claudio Reyna, who had retired from international competition after the 2006 World Cup, Jan. 24 agreed to join the New York Red Bulls of North America’s Major League Soccer (MLS). Reyna, 33, had played for Manchester City of the Premier League. [See 2006, p. 523A1] † Expansion club Toronto FC Jan. 12 selected University of Maryland midfielder Maurice Edu with the first pick in the MLS draft. [See 2006, p. 942B2] † A group led by real estate developer Victor MacFarlane Jan. 5 agreed to purchase the operating rights to the MLS’s D.C. United from Anschutz Entertainment Group for a reported $33 million. The group also included former Duke University basketball player Brian Davis and John Hendricks, founder of the Discovery Channel. The deal was formally announced Jan. 8. [See 2006, p. 314F2] „

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Awards Grammy Awards. The 49th annual Gram-

my Awards were presented Feb. 11 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in a ceremony at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. [See 2006, p. 120A1] 103

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The top winner at the Grammys was the the country music trio the Dixie Chicks, which captured five awards, winning in every category in which it had been nominated: record of the year, album of the year, song of the year (an award shared with Dan Wilson), country album and country vocal by a duo or group. The first three of those awards were deemed the top Grammys, and the Dixie Chicks’ sweep of them was the first since 1993, when singer and guitarist Eric Clapton achieved it while winning six Grammys. [See 1993, p. 132A1] The Dixie Chicks’ Grammys were all related to their album Taking the Long Way, and to its signature song, “Not Ready to Make Nice.” That song was a response to the furor set off in 2003, when the group’s lead singer, Natalie Maines, had told a concert audience in London, shortly before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq during President George W. Bush’s first term in office, that she was “ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.” That remark had been widely publicized, and the Dixie Chicks had subsequently been shunned by the country music establishment. Maines, a lifelong Texan, had moved to Los Angeles, where she and her partners, sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire, recorded Taking the Long Way. [See 2003, p. 227E2] The artist with the most Grammy nominations, eight, was rhythm-and-blues singer Mary J. Blige. She ended up winning Grammys in three R&B categories, including a songwriting award she shared for her hit song “Be Without You.” [See 2006, p. 268D1] Four Grammys were won by the veteran Los Angeles–based rock group the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Their double album Stadium Arcadium, their first recording to reach number one on the charts, was named best rock album of the year, as well as best boxed or special limited edition package. They also won a Grammy for a song from that album, “Dani California,” and for their performance of it. [See 2006, p. 440D1] The Grammys telecast opened with the rock trio the Police reuniting to perform their first hit song, “Roxanne.” The group—Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers—had broken up in 1984, after the release of their most successful album, Synchronicity. Their Feb. 11 performance was only their second public performance since then; the first had been when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. The trio Feb. 12 announced details of a forthcoming North American tour, set to begin May 28 in Vancouver, Canada. [See 2003, p. 227E1] The major winners were: Record of the Year: “Not Ready to Make Nice,”

Dixie Chicks

Song of the Year: “Not Ready to Make Nice,” Dixie

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Chicks and Dan Wilson, songwriters (sung by Dixie Chicks) Album of the Year: Taking the Long Way, Dixie Chicks New Artist: Carrie Underwood Female Pop Vocal: “Ain’t No Other Man,” Christina Aguilera Male Pop Vocal: “Waiting on the World to 104

Change,” John Mayer Pop Duo or Group Vocal: “My Humps,” Black

Eyed Peas

Pop Vocal Album: Continuum, John Mayer Traditional Pop Vocal Album: Duets: An American

Classic, Tony Bennett

Contemporary Folk Album: Modern Times, Bob

Dylan

Rock Album: Stadium Arcadium, Red Hot Chili

Peppers

Rock Song: “Dani California,” Red Hot Chili Pep-

pers (songwriters and performers)

Solo Rock Vocal: “Someday Baby,” Bob Dylan Rock Duo or Group Performance: “Dani Califor-

nia,” Red Hot Chili Peppers

Rhythm and Blues Song: “Be Without You,”

Johnta Austin, Mary J. Blige, Bryan-Michael Cox and Jason Perry, songwriters (sung by Blige) Female Rhythm and Blues Vocal: “Be Without You,” Mary J. Blige Male Rhythm and Blues Vocal: “Heaven,” John Legend Rhythm and Blues Duo or Group Performance:

“Family Affair,” John Legend, Joss Stone and Van Hunt Rap Solo Performance: “What You Know,” T. I. Rap Duo or Group Performance: “Ridin’,” Chamillionaire featuring Krayzie Bone Rap Album: Release Therapy, Ludacris Hard Rock Performance: “Woman,” Wolfmother Metal Performance: “Eyes of the Insane,” Slayer Female Country Vocal: “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” Carrie Underwood Male Country Vocal: “The Reason Why,” Vince Gill Country Vocal Duo or Group Performance: “Not Ready to Make Nice,” Dixie Chicks Country Song: “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” Brett James, Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson, songwriters (sung by Carrie Underwood) Country Album: Taking the Long Way, Dixie Chicks „

People The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City Feb. 14 made public a group of letters written by Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, in 1941 to various friends and government agencies in the U.S. in a futile effort to get his family out of the Netherlands, which by then had already been occupied by Nazi Germany. The Franks in 1933 had moved from Germany to Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, to escape the Nazi persecution of Jews already under way in Germany. In 1942, having failed to get out of Amsterdam, the Franks went into hiding in a secret annex behind the factory where Otto Frank had worked. It was there that Anne Frank wrote the diary whose posthumous publication in 1947 made her world famous. Otto Frank, the only member of the Frank family to survive World War II, had died in Switzerland in 1980. [See 1998, p. 604A2; 1980, p. 676D1] Rhythm-and-blues singer Gerald Levert, whose death in November 2006 at age 40 had been attributed to a heart attack, had actually died from a lethal combination of over-the-counter and prescription painkillers, antidepressants and antihistamines, according to a report issued Feb. 9 by the coroner’s office in Geauga County, Ohio. His death was officially ruled an accident. [See 2006, p. 943D3] „

O B I T UA R I E S BALLIETT, Whitney Lyon, 80, jazz critic and columnist, mainly for the New Yorker magazine from 1957 to 1998; his writing was known for its poetic, impressionistic quality and avoidance of technical terms; his essays were collected in a series of books, beginning with The Sound of Surprise (1959); with fellow jazz critic Nat Hentoff, he created the 1957 television program “The Sound of Jazz,” which introduced such jazz greats as Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk and Count Basie to millions of Americans; born April 17, 1926, in New York City; died Feb. 1 at his New York home, of liver cancer. De TOLEDANO, Ralph, 90, journalist and author who began as a leftist intellectual but turned increasingly rightward as his anti-Communist sentiments hardened; with Victor Lasky, he wrote a book on the Alger Hiss espionage case of the 1940s, Seeds of Treason (1950), that became a best-seller; he was an early political supporter of California Republican Richard Nixon, and published a book about him, Nixon (1956), while Nixon was vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower; born Aug. 14, 1916, in Tangier, Morocco; died Feb. 3 at a hospital in Bethesda, Md., of cancer. [See 1990, p. 148E3; 1973, p. 715A3; Indexes 1963, 1954, 1950] HUNTER, Joe (Joseph Edward), 79, jazz and blues pianist who, from 1958 to 1963 in Detroit, Mich., was the first leader of Motown Records’ studio musicians, known as the Funk Brothers; during that period, they created the backup sound for such early Motown hits as Barrett Strong’s “Money” (1960), the Contours’ “Do You Love Me?” (1962) and Martha and the Vandellas’ “Heatwave” (1963); born Nov. 19, 1927, in Jackson, Tenn.; found dead Feb. 2 in his Detroit apartment; a diabetic, he had apparently been trying to take medication when he died. JONES, Fiona Elizabeth Ann, 49, Labour Party member of the British Parliament for all but a month between May 1997 and June 2001; she was stripped of her seat in March 1999 after being convicted of understating her 1997 campaign expenses, but her conviction was reversed on appeal, and she returned to the House of Commons, where she remained until losing a bid for reelection in May 2001; born Feb. 27, 1957, in Liverpool, England; found dead Jan. 28 at her home in Saxilby, England, surrounded by empty vodka bottles; her death was attributed to “alcoholic liver disease.” [See 1999, p. 270B3] MACKLIN Jr., Gordon Stanley, 78, stockbroker who was president of the National Association of Securities Dealers from 1970 to 1987; in that capacity, he oversaw the 1971 launch of the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation system, or Nasdaq, which revolutionized stock trading by making it electronic; he followed in the footsteps of his father, a onetime president of the Cleveland (Ohio) Stock Exchange; more recently, he had been one of 11 directors of telecommunications giant WorldCom Inc. who, in 2005, put up more than $20 million of their own money to settle a lawsuit seeking reparations for losses sustained by WorldCom shareholders after the company went bankrupt; born May 13, 1928, in Cleveland; died Jan. 30 at a country club in Delray Beach, Fla., after a stroke. [See 2005, p. 190D2; 1987, p. 203D2; Indexes 1982, 1949] NORWOOD Jr., Charles Whitlow, 65, Republican congressman from Georgia since 1995; before winning his congressional seat, as part of the 1994 GOP sweep of Congress, he had been a dentist; although generally identified with the conservative wing of his party, he was perhaps best known as a champion of patients’ rights; born July 27, 1941, in Valdosta, Ga.; died Feb. 13 at his home in Augusta, Ga.; he had been battling chronic lung disease, and had contracted lung, and then liver, cancer after undergoing a lung transplant in 2004. [See p. 42B1; 2006, pp. 855B4, 572G2; Indexes 2004, 1998–2002, 1996, 1994] OLITSKI, Jules (born Jevel Demikovsky), 84, artist who in the 1960s was a leading exponent of Color Field painting, an outgrowth of Abstract Expressionism in vogue for part of that decade, until Pop and conceptual art came to the fore; it involved the appplication to canvases of large swaths of solid color; he began making such paintings by applying paint with spray guns, but later also used mops, rollers and squeegees; a prolific artist, he also created silkscreens and large sculptures; born March 27, 1922, in Snovsk, in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Shchors, Ukraine); died Feb. 4 at a hospital in New York City, of cancer. [See 1961, p. 423C2] „

February 15, 2007

Iran Defies U.N. Deadline, Expands Nuclear Program Hundreds of Uranium Centrifuges Added.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—the United Nations nuclear monitor—Feb. 22 issued a report stating that Iran had failed to obey a U.N. Security Council directive to suspend its nuclear program, and had instead increased its nuclear activities. The council had levied sanctions on Iran in December 2006 after Iran refused to halt the program, and given it 60 days to do so. Many nations, including the U.S., had said Iran was covertly developing nuclear weapons, though Iran insisted that its nuclear program was peaceful in nature. [See p. 84E3; 2006, p. 994G1] The report revealed that Iran had roughly 1,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment ready or nearly ready to operate at its facility at Natanz. That fell significantly short of predictions made by Iranian officials in previous months, but it was beyond what many nuclear experts had believed Iran was capable of achieving. The report claimed that Iran planned to have 3,000 centrifuges up and running by May. Three thousand centrifuges running for a year could enrich enough uranium to build a nuclear bomb. The centrifuges running in Natanz had enriched only enough uranium for experimental purposes, the report declared. But, it went on to say, Iran had failed to answer questions regarding its research on high explosives and missile warhead designs, and had also significantly curtailed the access of inspectors to nuclear sites. The report warned that the lack of “cooperation and transparency” on Iran’s part would prevent the IAEA from supporting Iran’s claim that its nuclear program was “exclusively peaceful.” The IAEA Feb. 9 had announced that it was suspending almost half of its nuclear technical aid programs with Iran, in view of its behavior. U.S. Demands Halt Before Talks— U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Feb. 22 warned Iran that further sanctions could be levied if it did not halt the enrichment of uranium, but she also called on Iran to come back to the bargaining table in order to settle the matter. “We could begin negotiations on whatever [Iran] would like to talk about,” she said, so long as Iran first halted the enrichment of uranium. Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, agreed that negotiations were the “best way to resolve this international issue.” However, he refused to suspend enrichment, insisting that Iran had a right to civilian nuclear energy programs under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Feb. 20 had offered to suspend uranium enrichment, but only if Western powers did the same. White House press secretary Tony Snow Feb. 21 dismissed the offer, saying, “The international community has said to the Iranians, ‘You can have nuclear power, but we don’t want you to have the ability to build nuclear weapons.’ And that is an offer we continue to make.”

EU Doubts Program Can Be Halted—

The Financial Times Feb. 13 reported that the European Union’s foreign policy department had concluded that Iran would likely acquire the capability to create weapons-grade uranium, despite all diplomatic efforts to prevent it. The newspaper claimed that the admission was contained in an internal EU document that had been circulated to the EU’s 27 member states. The biggest obstacles Iran had faced and would face with respect to its nuclear ambitions, the document stated, were technical ones, not ones deriving from international diplomatic pressure. The staff of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana had created the document, dated Feb. 7, which did not recommend military action against Iran, the article said. It instead said the EU should continue to offer incentives and disincentives to Iran in order to coax it away from its nuclear activities. The document also reportedly contained an appraisal of Iran’s economy and human rights record. It claimed that Iran’s economy suffered greatly from mismanagement, a lack of foreign investment, inflation and a dependence on oil revenue. Efforts by the EU to get Iran to improve its human rights record had been unsuccessful, the document noted. Pay Dispute Could Delay Reactor—

Russian officials Feb. 19 said Iran had failed to make scheduled payments on a $1 billion nuclear reactor that Russia was helping Iran build at Bushehr, and that the failure could result in delays. They claimed that Iran was trying to make the payments in euros rather U.S. dollars, which was causing difficulty, and that equipment from third countries was not arriving on time. Saeedi denied that Iran had been delinquent, insisting that it had made “all the payments so far based on the contract.” He admitted that there was a “financial problem” on the part of the Russian contractor, but insisted that it was “not the problem of the Iranian side.” „

Britain Sets Iraqi Withdrawal One-Quarter of Force to Leave in 2007.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair Feb. 21 announced that Britain would begin withdrawing hundreds of its troops from Iraq in the coming months, a significant reduction in the military presence of the U.S.’s most prominent ally in the Iraqi conflict. Britain had been a part of the U.S.-led coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003. The war had become increasingly unpopular in Britain, and Blair was frequently criticized for involving his country in the conflict. The U.S., at the time, was sending more troops to Iraq in order to secure Baghdad, the capital, and the restive Anbar province. [See pp. 90C1, 86D2, 53A3; 2006, p. 442A3; 2004, p. 294D3] Although Blair did not set a definitive timetable, he said roughly 1,600 soldiers would be sent home in the coming months,

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B with perhaps another 500 soldiers to follow by late summer. The rest of the contingent, he said, would stay there “into 2008 or as long as [they] are wanted and have a job to do.” The troop reduction was smaller than had been requested by British military officials. Britain currently had about 7,100 troops in Iraq, making up half of the roughly 14,000 non-U.S. soldiers in the country. The bulk of Britain’s forces were stationed in the south, particularly in and around the city of Basra. That area had experienced comparatively little of the violence that had riven other parts of the country, due in part to its population being almost entirely Shiite Muslim. Speaking to Parliament, Blair acknowledged that Britain had not achieved everything he had hoped to accomplish in Iraq, saying the situation in Basra was not “how

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Iran defies U.N. deadline, expands nuclear program; hundreds of uranium centrifuges added. PAGE 105

Britain sets Iraqi withdrawal; one-quarter of force to leave in 2007.

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U.S. appeals court upholds ban on challenges by terrorism detainees. PAGE 108

Guinea unions resume strike, protest new premier. PAGE 110

Italian Premier Prodi resigns after foreign policy defeat. PAGE 112

Indian train bound for Pakistan attacked; 68 killed.

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Rebels overrun southern Afghan town. PAGE 114

Harvick wins Daytona 500. PAGE 115

SPECIAL FEATURE World heads of state and government leaders listed. PAGES 116–120

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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IRAQ CASUALTIES

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we want it to be.” But he praised the work done by British troops, calling them “brave beyond belief.” And he said that the security conditions in the south were better than the “orgy of terrorism” afflicting many other areas of Iraq. He said Britain’s withdrawal meant that “the next chapter in Basra’s history can be written by Iraqis.” Reaction to Withdrawal Mixed—The response to Blair’s Feb. 21 announcement was mixed, with some hailing it as a mark of progress in getting Iraq’s own government to adopt security responsibilities, and others calling it a tacit admission of the inability of foreign troops to improve the situation in Iraq. Sir Menzies Campbell, the leader of Britain’s opposition Liberal Democrats, said that the U.S. and Britain had failed to make Iraq a “beacon of democracy” as had been promised, and that Britain would instead leave behind “a country on the brink of civil war.” Sami al-Askari, a member of Iraq’s parliament and an adviser to Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki, expressed satisfaction with Britain’s withdrawal, saying the Iraqi government was “very comfortable about the southern provinces and especially Basra; we have good security forces there.” Askari said British troops would withdraw altogether by August 2008. Naseer al-Ani, a Sunni Muslim legislator, said the withdrawal would leave “a big security gap” that Iraqi forces were not ready to fill, but that the move would be for the best in the long run. “Wherever [U.S. or British forces] stay for a long time,” he said, “the situation keeps getting worse and worse.” In the U.S., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) said Britain’s withdrawal “confirms the doubts in the minds of the American people about [President George W. Bush’s] decision to increase the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) echoed the criticism, saying Britain “has acknowledged a reality that President Bush still stubbornly refuses to accept.” [See below] U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the propriety of the withdrawal, describing it as part of a general policy to “transfer security responsibility 106

to the Iraqis as the situation permits.” She insisted that the move was not a sign that the U.S.-led coalition was falling apart. “The coalition remains intact,” she said, noting that Britain still had “thousands of troops deployed in Iraq.” Denmark, Slovakia to Withdraw—Slovakia Feb. 2 and Denmark Feb. 21 announced that they were withdrawing troops from Iraq. Danish Premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Denmark would bring its roughly 460 troops home from Iraq by August. The troops were under British command in southern Iraq, and Rasmussen said the decision had been made in consultation with both the British and Iraqi governments. Rasmussen added that Denmark would contribute civilian advisers and surveillance helicopters to Iraq after the withdrawal. Slovakia’s premier, Robert Fico, Feb. 2 had announced that all of its troops had been withdrawn from Iraq, calling the war “unjust and wrong.” The country had had 110 army engineers in Iraq, and Fico had promised in his 2006 election campaign to pull them out. [See 2006, p. 496G1] Ruta Apeikyte, a spokeswoman for Lithuania’s defense ministry, Feb. 21 said Lithuania’s government was “seriously considering” a withdrawal of its entire 53troop contingent in Iraq, which served alongside Danish troops near Basra. Separately, British Defense Secretary Des Browne Feb. 22 released a statement declaring that Prince Harry, the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales, would serve a six-month tour in southern Iraq as commander of a mechanized squadron. U.S. House Opposes Troop Increase—

The U.S. House of Representatives Feb. 16 voted, 246–182, in favor of a resolution expressing disapproval of Bush’s decision to send additional troops to Iraq. The vote fell largely along party lines, with only 17 of Bush’s fellow Republicans voting in favor of the measure and two Democrats voting against it. The Senate Feb. 17 failed to garner enough votes to open debate on an identical resolution, and Reid said the resolution would not be brought up for a vote again. Sen. Carl Levin (D, Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Feb. 18 said he would consider altering the 2002 authorization permitting Bush to invade Iraq “in order to limit the mission of American troops to a support mission instead of a combat mission.” [See p. 90B3; 2002, p. 778F1] Iraqi Forces Accused of Rape— A 20year-old Sunni woman from Baghdad Feb. 19 appeared on the satellite television station Al Jazeera, claiming that she had been raped by three Iraqi policemen the day before, and that one of the officers had videotaped the incident. The woman was identified by name in Iraqi media, but many U.S. media outlets maintained their practice of not releasing the name of alleged rape victims. In many Middle Eastern countries, sexual assaults were believed to bring shame to the family of the victim. Consequently, victims were often reluctant to admit to having been assaulted, and were some-

times even subjected to “honor killings,” in which they were murdered in order to preserve the family’s good name. Convictions for rape were also difficult to come by. Maliki Feb. 20 issued a statement declaring that a medical examination conducted by U.S. doctors had shown that the woman “had not been subjected to any sexual attack whatsoever.” The statement went on to say that the woman had a criminal record and should be sued for making false allegations, and that the police officers should be “honored.” Maliki Feb. 21 fired a Sunni official, Ahmed Abdul-Ghafour al-Samaraie, who was in charge of caring for Sunni mosques and shrines and who had criticized the government’s handling of the case. Samaraie questioned Maliki’s authority to dismiss him. Maliki that day also released what he said was the medical report issued by the U.S. doctors who had examined the woman. The report noted that, while there were no vaginal injuries, she did have other bruises consistent with an attack. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell 4th, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, commented that the report released by Maliki was of unclear origin, since the only copy of the report had been given to the woman. Sheik Abdul Nasser al-Janabi, a Sunni legislator and political leader, Feb. 21 spoke at a press conference alongside many other Sunni leaders, claiming that many rapes were being committed against Sunnis but that Maliki’s Shiite-led government was covering them up. The leaders also expressed concern that the new security plan being implemented in Baghdad was focusing on Sunnis while passing over Shiite militants. [See p. 54B1] A 50-year-old Sunni Turkomen woman from the northern city of Tal Afar Feb. 22

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FACTS ON FILE

leveled another rape accusation, claiming that earlier in the month she had been assaulted by an Iraqi military officer and three Iraqi soldiers who had also tried to rape her two daughters. There had been a security sweep in Tal Afar on Feb. 8. Gen. Najem Abdullah, an official with the police in Tal Afar, Feb. 22 announced that four members of the military had admitted to the attack, as well as to filming it with a camera cellular phone. The Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group, Feb. 20 said it would step up attacks on Iraqi security forces, which were predominantly Shiite, and Feb. 22 claimed that hundreds of Sunnis had volunteered to commit suicide attacks to avenge the Baghdad rape. Maliki Extols New Security Effort—

Maliki Feb. 16 spoke with Bush by video link, telling him that the new security plan for Baghdad “has achieved fabulous success.” Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi, an official Iraq spokesman for the plan, Feb. 17 said violence in the capital had fallen by 80%. However, despite the crackdown, violence continued. Two car bombs Feb. 18 exploded in a mostly Shiite commercial area of Baghdad, killing at least 63 people. More car bombs Feb. 20 killed at least 11 people, and a suicide car bomber Feb. 21 killed at least 11 people and wounded 34 others in an attack in Najaf. Caldwell Feb. 21 said the security effort in Baghdad had caused an increase in insurgent attacks in the areas surrounding the capital. He also claimed that, while the number of attacks in Baghdad had fallen, the death tally had not changed significantly. He insisted that the effects of the security push would be seen “over the course of months” rather than days or weeks. Insurgents Use Chemical Attacks— Insurgents Feb. 20–21 employed crude chemical weapons in what appeared to be a new tactic aimed at increasing civilian casualties. A tanker carrying chlorine Feb. 20 exploded just north of Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding at least 148 others. More than 100 people were sent to the hospital complaining of breathing problems. A truck bomb carrying chlorine Feb. 21 exploded in Baghdad, killing at least two people and wounding at least 32 others, many of whom also complained of respiratory difficulties. A dump truck containing explosives and a chlorine tank Jan. 28 had exploded in Ramadi, killing 16 people. U.S. troops Feb. 20 raided a car bomb factory in the town of Karma, near Fallujah, where they found stores of both chlorine and propane gas. Caldwell Feb. 21 claimed that the use of chemical attacks was causing an increase in the number of tips by informants to U.S. and Iraqi forces. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † A spokesman for the U.S. military, Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, Feb. 16 denied that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, leader of the Sunni terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq, had been wounded in combat, as Iraq’s interior February 22, 2007

ministry had reported the day before. [See p. 91C3] † Insurgents Feb. 19 attacked a U.S. military facility just north of Baghdad, killing at least two U.S. soldiers and wounding at least 17 others. The attack employed suicide bombers followed up by gunmen. † Witnesses Feb. 19 claimed that a family of 13 was killed by Sunni insurgents on a road between Baghdad and Fallujah. The family members, including two young boys and an elderly woman, belonged to a tribe that opposed Al Qaeda in Iraq. † U.S. Army Maj. Gen. James Simmons, the deputy U.S. commander in Iraq, Feb. 20 asserted that a Marine Sea Knight helicopter that crashed Feb. 7 had probably been shot down by Sunni insurgents using a shoulder-fired, antiaircraft missile of Russian origin. Separately, a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter Feb. 21 was forced down by fire from militants in Diyala province, just north of Baghdad. All eight occupants were rescued without incident, and a Sunni insurgent group claimed credit for the attack. [See p. 91C2] † Fighting between U.S. forces and Sunni insurgents in Ramadi Feb. 22 killed at least 27 Iraqis, including women and children, a hospital official in the city said. The U.S. military rejected the claim, reporting that only 12 insurgents had been killed. „

ly kept undervalued. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. had said, rather, that the yen’s value was market-determined, it was reported Feb. 12. It was currently trading near a 20-year low compared with European currencies. Low Japanese interest rates had reportedly made the yen an attractive currency for borrowing at high risk in order to finance higher-yielding investments in other countries. European officials had warned the public against the risks of such “one-way bets.” Also, the G7’s final statement called on China to improve the flexibility of its currency, the yuan. [See p. 112B1; 2006, p. 981G3] At Paulson’s urging, the communique also said the ministers “agreed to explore…free trade in securities based on mutual recognition of regulatory regimes.” The U.S. secretary had argued that adhering to the multiple sets of similar but nonidentical securities regulations among the G-7 countries was a waste of business resources. Participants also furthered negotiations on a framework global trade agreement under the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the G-7’s final statement renewed calls to reach one. Ministers and central bankers from Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa Feb. 9 attended the meeting to discuss such a trade agreement. „

Global Economy

U.S. Files WTO Complaint Against China.

G-7 Addresses Hedge Funds, Bond Markets.

Finance ministers and central bank governors Feb. 9–10 gathered in Essen, Germany, for a meeting of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations (G-7). Germany, which held the rotating presidency of the European Union, set the agenda, focusing special attention on hedge funds and efforts to boost the capital markets of poor and middle-income countries. [See 2006, pp. 976F1, 726F1] The ministers Feb. 10 issued a statement pledging scrutiny of the potential risks of hedge funds, largely secretive pools of investment money subject to few regulations. The popularity and clout of such funds had grown enormously in recent years. However, they were considered relatively volatile, and some authorities were concerned that a big hedge fund failure could endanger global financial systems by hurting major lenders to such funds, which were usually large international investment banks. The G-7’s communique called for the reassembly of an organization composed of regulators, bankers and financial industries named the Financial Stability Forum to update a report it had made in 2000 on risks posed by hedge funds. The ministers did not call for any new regulations or mandatory monitoring practices. Absent from the communique was any direct mention of the value of the Japanese currency, the yen, which was reportedly a subject of discussion in the talks. European governments argued that it was deliberate-

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The U.S. Feb. 2 filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over subsidies and tax breaks that the Chinese government provided to an array of Chinese industries. The complaint said that China “uses its basic tax laws and other tools to encourage exports and to discriminate against imports of a variety of American manufactured goods.” [See 2006, pp. 981G3, 380A1] The trade body’s procedures called for a series of steps that would begin with a 60day period for the two sides to try to resolve the dispute before a WTO panel would adjudicate it. U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that the complaint involved subsidies “across the spectrum” of Chinese industry, including steel, wood products and “information technology.” Schwab said the case had been filed after “our efforts at dialogue failed.” She said the U.S. would nevertheless maintain its current emphasis on dialogue in addressing trade issues with China. That approach was favored by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr., but some members of the U.S. Congress expressed impatience with it. U.S. House Ways and Means trade subcommittee Chairman Sander Levin (D, Mich.) called the WTO complaint “a step in the right direction” but urged the administration to adopt “a much more aggressive program to take actions against violations of WTO obligations.” Chinese state news media Feb. 4 said that China’s commerce department expressed “regret” over the U.S.’s action. „ 107

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U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Terrorism Detainees Court Upholds Ban on Detention Challenges.

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A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington, D.C., Feb. 20 ruled, 2–1, that terrorism detainees held in a U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, did not have the right to challenge their detentions with habeas corpus filings. The decision upheld a major component of the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA), a law that established military tribunals to try suspects and limited their avenues of appeal, and invalidated hundreds of challenges filed by Guantanamo Bay detainees. Lawyers representing the detainees said they would appeal the ruling. [See 2006, p. 1001F2] Judge A. Raymond Randolph in the majority opinion said the MCA did not violate the Constitution, which permitted the suspension of habeas corpus only “in case of rebellion or invasion.” He said the court did not have jurisdiction in the case to overrule the law, and to do so would “defy the will of Congress.” Randolph also said historical precedent indicated that the government was not obliged to grant habeas corpus rights to foreign nationals not on U.S. soil, a position held by the administration of President George W. Bush. Randolph maintained that the Cuban government held sovereignty over Guantanamo Bay. Randolph noted that the law was meant to overturn a June 2006 Supreme Court decision, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, that struck down a tribunal system proposed by the Bush administration. He said the MCA applied to all detainee challenges “without exception.” Lawyers for those being held had argued that the MCA did not retroactively apply to detainees who had been held at Guantanamo Bay and had filed challenges before its passage. Judge Judith Rogers, in her dissent, claimed that Congress had overstepped its authority and had not followed proper procedure in revoking habeas corpus rights. She also argued that foreign citizens were entitled to such rights. Detention Challenge Bill Introduced—A group of Senate Democrats led by Christopher Dodd (Conn.) Feb. 13 introduced a bill allowing detainees to challenge their imprisonment in federal court. It would also limit the designation of prisoners as “enemy combatants,” a category that afforded detainees fewer rights. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) and the committee’s ranking Republican, Arlen Specter (Pa.), in December 2006 had reintroduced legislation that would restore habeas corpus rights to detainees. [See 2006, p. 951B3] „

Supreme Court Justices Overturn Punitive Tobacco Award.

The Supreme Court Feb. 20 ruled, 5–4, that a $79.5 million punitive damages verdict imposed against tobacco company Philip Morris USA, a unit of Altria Group Inc., 108

was unconstitutional, and ordered the Oregon Supreme Court to reconsider the award. The case centered on the lungcancer death of one man, Jesse Williams. [See 2006, p. 449D1] Justice Steven G. Breyer wrote the majority decision, which was narrowly focused on the issue of whether the Oregon jury might have used the damages award to punish Philip Morris for its role in the tobacco-related deaths of many other people besides Williams. His widow, Mayola Williams, was the sole plaintiff in the case. According to recent Supreme Court precedent, juries were permitted to consider harm to people who were not parties to the case in order to determine the degree of “reprehensibility” of a defendant’s behavior. However, Breyer wrote, “The due process clause [of the 14th Amendment] prohibits a state’s inflicting punishment for harm caused [to] strangers to the litigation.” Mayola Williams’s lawyer had asked the Oregon jury to reflect on how many other Oregonians had died from smoking. Philip Morris had asked the trial judge to caution the jury about linking punishment to that issue, but had been rebuffed. While viewed as a victory for business interests, the ruling did not endorse setting caps on punitive damages, as Philip Morris had argued it should. Instead, the Oregon Supreme Court could decide among options ranging from ordering a new trial to adjusting or reinstating the damages. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, in which she argued for giving the Oregon jury the benefit of the doubt in its effort to adhere to “our changing, less than crystalline precedent.” Justice John Paul Stevens, in a separate dissent, questioned the distinction between using harm to third parties to determine reprehensibility but not punishment. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined the majority opinion. The case was Philip Morris USA v. Williams. Other News—In other Supreme Court news: † The high court Feb. 20 unanimously overturned a $79 million penalty against lumber producer Weyerhaeuser Co. in an antitrust case. Weyerhaeuser had been accused of illegal efforts to drive competitors out of business by bidding up the price of supplies. A number of major companies had filed briefs siding with Weyerhaeuser, including Dow Chemical Co., Coca-Cola Co. and Microsoft Inc. The case was Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Ross-Simmons Hardwood Lumber Co. Inc. [See 2006, p. 509B2] † In a 5–4 decision, the court Feb. 20 ruled that Florida death row inmate Gary Lawrence had missed a one-year filing deadline to appeal his murder conviction. Lawrence had filed a habeas corpus petition for federal court review of his case nearly four months after the one-year dead-

line. Lawrence’s current lawyer argued that his previous attorney had miscalculated the deadline and that Lawrence should still be entitled to another chance. The high court majority disagreed in an opinion written by Thomas and joined by Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy and Alito, saying, “Attorney miscalculation is simply not sufficient” as a reason for extending the deadline. Ginsburg wrote a dissent joined by Stevens, Souter and Breyer. The case was Lawrence v. Florida. † The court Feb. 20 agreed to review New York State’s process for nominating candidates for elections to its own supreme courts. The mostly uncompetitive nominating process was controlled by the state political parties and had been declared unconstitutional by two lower federal courts. The case was New York Board of Elections v. Torres. „

2008 Presidential Campaign Clinton, Obama Camps Clash Over Geffen.

The campaigns of two leading rivals for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.), Feb. 21 exchanged sharp words over comments made by David Geffen, an entertainment mogul and top Democratic fund-raiser. [See p. 94A1] Geffen, a onetime supporter of Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, Feb. 20 had cohosted a fund-raising event for Obama in Los Angeles, along with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Geffen’s partners in the movie studio DreamWorks SKG. Geffen made critical remarks about both of the Clintons in an interview with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd published Feb. 21. “Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling,” he said. Geffen called Sen. Clinton a “polarizing figure” who was seen by Republicans as the “easiest to beat” of the Democratic candidates. He said of her 2002 vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq, “It’s not a big thing to say ‘I made a mistake on the war,’ and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t.” Geffen also called Bill Clinton “a reckless guy,” apparently alluding to personal behavior such as the extramarital affair that led to his impeachment. Howard Wolfson, a Clinton spokesman, Feb. 21 responded by sending an e-mail to reporters demanding that Obama repudiate Geffen’s remarks, saying, “His campaign’s finance chair was viciously and personally attacking Sen. Clinton and her husband.” (Geffen said he had no official role in the Obama campaign.) Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs replied that “the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen” when he was “raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln Bedroom” at the White House. Obama, asked about the matter while campaigning in Iowa, Feb. 21 said, “It’s not clear to me why I would be apologizing for someone else’s remarks. My sense is FACTS ON FILE

that Mr. Geffen may have differences with the Clintons, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with our campaign.” Geffen’s ties with Bill Clinton had been strained since Clinton refused Geffen’s entreaties to pardon Leonard Peltier, an American Indian activist serving a life term in prison for the 1975 murder of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. [See 2001, p. 46A1] Clinton Responds at Forum—At a Feb. 21 forum for Democratic presidential candidates in Carson City, Nev., Sen. Clinton said, “I want to run a very positive campaign, and I sure don’t want Democrats or the supporters of Democrats engaging in the politics of personal destruction.” Obama did not attend the forum. Asked about the 2002 Iraq vote, Clinton said, “My vote was a sincere vote based on the facts and assurances that I had at the time. And I have taken responsibility for my votes and I believe that none of us should get a free pass.” Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), also considered a top contender, issued an indirect challenge to Clinton over the Iraq vote, saying, “We need a leader who will be open and honest with you and with the American people. Who will tell the truth when they’ve made a mistake, who will take responsibility when they’ve made a mistake.” Asked if Clinton’s explanation of her vote was sufficient, Edwards said, “Whether it’s good enough is between her and her conscience. It’s not for me to judge.” Edwards had also voted for the 2002 resolution, but now said that had been a mistake. The candidates’ forum, hosted by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) labor union, also featured New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Sens. Christopher Dodd (Conn.) and Joseph Biden (Del.), and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio). Cheney, McCain At Odds on Rumsfeld—

Vice President Dick Cheney Feb. 21 made a cutting reply to criticism that Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), a front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, had directed at former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a longtime friend of Cheney. Speaking to ABC News, Cheney said, “John said some nasty things about me the other day, and then the next time he saw me, ran over and apologized. Maybe he’ll apologize to Rumsfeld.” McCain said he stood by his remarks on Rumsfeld. McCain Feb. 19 had said that Rumsfeld “will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history.” In an interview published Jan. 24 by the Politico, a newspaper and Web site, McCain had said that President George W. Bush “listened too much to the vice president” and was “very badly served by both the vice president and, most of all, by the secretary of defense.” Bloggers Resign From Edwards Camp—

Two bloggers (writers of Web logs, or blogs) Feb. 12–13 resigned from the Edwards campaign after a conservative group, the Catholic League for Religious February 22, 2007

and Civil Rights, accused them of using intemperate and anti-Catholic language in their independent blogging, particularly in writings on feminist issues. Amanda Marcotte resigned Feb. 12, followed the next day by Melissa McEwan. Edwards Feb. 6 had issued a statement saying that “the tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte’s and Melissa McEwan’s posts personally offended me,” but that he would give them a “fair shake” and let them stay on his team. „

Bush Administration Negroponte, McConnell Confirmed, Sworn.

The Senate in a voice vote Feb. 12 confirmed John Negroponte as deputy secretary of state. The Senate in another voice vote Feb. 7 had confirmed retired Vice Adm. John (Mike) McConnell as director of national intelligence, filling the post vacated by Negroponte. Negroponte was sworn in to his new post Feb. 13. McConnell was sworn in Feb. 20. [See p. 13A3] „

Civil Rights Wal-Mart Suit Class-Action Status Affirmed.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., in a 2–1 decision Feb. 6 granted class-action status to a sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that could apply to as many as two million current and former female employees of the retail giant. The legal action was the largest employment lawsuit in U.S. history. [See 2004, p. 612E2] The plaintiffs in the lawsuit alleged that the company had paid female workers less than their male counterparts, and had granted them fewer promotions. Legal analysts said the lawsuit’s class-action status would increase pressure on Wal-Mart to reach a settlement with plaintiffs. Wal-Mart had argued that local stores were given a large amount of autonomy in deciding how promotions were awarded, and claimed that it had not applied discriminatory wage scales to women. The lawsuit had originally been filed in April 2003; its lead plaintiff was Betty Dukes, an employee at a Wal-Mart retail store outside San Francisco. The company said it would appeal the decision to a larger panel of the appeals court, and, if necessary, the Supreme Court. „ N.J. Civil Union Law Takes Effect. A law allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions Feb. 19 took effect in New Jersey, making it the third state, after Connecticut and Vermont, to allow such unions. The law granted couples forming civil unions the same rights and benefits as married couples within the state, but did not pronounce such relationships “marriages.” Benefits conferred by the law to same-sex partners were not recognized by most other states, or by the federal government. [See 2006, p. 812A3] The law permitted same-sex couples to submit an application for a civil union as early as Feb. 19, but imposed a 72-hour

waiting period before any licenses could be issued or union ceremonies performed. Several same-sex couples early Feb. 22 held the state’s first civil-union ceremonies. Other News—In other gay rights news: † The New Jersey Supreme Court Feb. 21 unanimously ruled that students bullied because of their sexual orientation were protected under the state’s antidiscrimination laws. Chief Justice James Zazzali wrote that in the court’s opinion students were “entitled to no less protection from the unlawful discrimination and harassment than their adult counterparts in the workplace.” [See 2006, p. 977G2] † Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch (D) in an opinion released Feb. 21 said same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts, the only state where they had been legalized, should be recognized by Rhode Island. The sevenpage opinion had been sought by the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education, which had sought clarification on whether to extend benefits to the same-sex spouses of employees married in Massachusetts. In an interview, Lynch said there was “no constitutional provision, and in my estimation, no right to allow the denial of basic human rights,” but also acknowledged that his opinion lacked the force of law. [See 2006, p. 813B1] † A three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals Feb. 1 ruled that a 2004 amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage also prohibited the extension of health benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of employees of local or state governments and public universities. The panel wrote in its opinion that the extension of health benefits to same-sex partners would “run directly afoul of the plain language of the amendment.” [See 2005, p. 738F3] „

Crime News in Brief. An 18-year-old resident of

Salt Lake City, Utah, Sulejman Talovic, Feb. 12 fatally shot five people at the Trolley Square mall in Salt Lake City, and seriously wounded four others, before being killed in a gunfight with police in the middle of the mall. Talovic, who gunned down his victims with a shotgun, was from a family of Bosnian war refugees, many of whom had settled in the Salt Lake City area since the early 1990s. There was no apparent motive for the shootings, which seemed to be random. Five of the victims were shot at a crowded greeting-card shop, where people were shopping for Valentine’s Day cards two days before that holiday. Vincent Dortch, 44, of Newark, Del., Feb. 12 shot to death three executives of a Philadelphia, Pa., investment firm that he believed had defrauded him before fatally shooting himself in the head after being confronted by police. Dortch had lured the victims to a meeting at the offices of the firm, Watson International, in a renovated office complex on the grounds of the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. A fourth man who attended the meeting was critically wounded, while two others were 109

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not harmed. All the victims were bound with duct tape before Dortch shot them with a semiautomatic pistol. „

Medicine & Health News in Brief. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Feb. 16 recommended that

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consumers dispose of all Peter Pan brand peanut butter bought since May 2006, after a salmonella bacterium outbreak linked to the food had sickened at least 290 people in 39 states since August 2006. ConAgra Foods Inc., which produced the peanut butter, Feb. 14 had agreed to a request by the FDA to recall all peanut butter made at its plant in Sylvester, Ga., which was sold under the brand names Peter Pan and Great Value. The company recommended that consumers discard all such branded peanut butter. [See 2006, p. 956C3] The FDA Feb. 12 restricted the uses for which the antibiotic Ketek could be prescribed, and said the drug would receive a new warning label. The drug was manufactured by France’s Sanofi-Aventis SA. The agency had followed the recommendations of an advisory panel that in December 2005 had said the potential risks posed by the drug outweighed its benefits in treating bronchitis or sinusitis. However, the drug retained its approval as a treatment for a certain type of pneumonia. A former employee of a Sanofi-Aventis contractor Feb. 13 testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the company had known of potential safety problems with the drug before the FDA approved it in April 2004. [See 2006, p. 978F3] Consumer health care firm Johnson & Johnson Feb. 12 said it had admitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Justice Department that subsidiaries had made “improper payments” in two unnamed foreign countries to promote the sale of medical devices. It was also announced that Michael Dormer, the firm’s worldwide chairman for medical devices and diagnostics, had retired as a result of the revelation. The company’s statement said the payments might have contravened the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibited U.S. firms from bribing foreign officials to secure business. [See 2006, p. 56B2] Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) Feb. 2 signed an executive order mandating that all girls entering the sixth grade receive a vaccina-

tion for certain types of the human papillomavirus (HPV) that caused the majority of

cervical cancer cases, making Texas the first state requiring the shot. However, the order allowed parents and guardians to refuse the vaccine for their girls for “reasons of conscience.” The requirement was set to take effect in September 2008. Perry’s move led to fierce criticism from opponents, who argued that the administration of the vaccine, Gardasil, would encourage premarital sex (HPV was a sexually transmitted disease). Merck & Co., which produced the vaccine, Feb. 20 said the controversy surrounding the vaccine had prompted it to halt efforts to lobby states to make Gardasil mandatory. [See 2006, p. 957C1] „ 110

AFRICA

Guinea Unions Resume Strike, Protest New Premier.

Guinean President Lansana Conte Feb. 9 appointed Eugene Camara as the country’s new premier, as part of a deal reached in late January with striking unions to relinquish some of his near-absolute power. The premier’s post had been vacant since April 2006. However, the unions objected to Camara, a close ally of the authoritarian president, and Feb. 10 said they would resume a general strike. Violent street protests were reported that day. [See p. 65G1] The unions were calling for the resignation of Conte, who had ruled since 1984. Conte, who was in his 70s, had been in poor health for several years and often traveled abroad for medical treatment. Union and opposition leaders asserted that he was unfit to govern, and popular anger had been mounting over government corruption and rising poverty. Ibrahima Fofana, secretary general of the Guinea Workers’ Union, Feb. 12 said the union did not recognize Camara and that anyway, “We are asking for the departure, pure and simple, of President Lansana Conte.” Protesters Feb. 10–11 set up burning barricades and erected roadblocks, attacked government offices, torched the homes of government and military officials, and clashed with security forces. News reports cited instances of the police and armed forces shooting unarmed protesters in Conakry, the capital, and other towns across the country. Conte Feb. 12 declared martial law, imposing a 20-hour curfew and banning all demonstrations and meetings. Hundreds of people reportedly were arrested. U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch Feb. 15 reported that security forces had used the declaration of martial law as an excuse to break into houses in Conakry’s suburbs, abuse their inhabitants and loot their belongings. The authorities Feb. 18 eased the curfew, allowing citizens to move freely from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Reuters news service Feb. 21 reported that more than 120 people had been killed across the country since the beginning of the year in connection with the civil strife. Analysts expressed fears that the unrest in Guinea could destabilize its West African neighbors, including Liberia and Sierra Leone, both of which were emerging from years of conflict. Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah Feb. 20 traveled to Guinea for talks with Conte on quelling the unrest. The strikes also disrupted Guinea’s bauxite industry. Guinea was one of the world’s largest exporters of bauxite, an aluminum ore. The Wall Street Journal Feb. 16 reported that some of the world’s biggest aluminum producers had been forced to shut down operations due to the

unrest. Those included Alcoa Inc. of the U.S. and Alcan Inc. of Canada, which owned a joint bauxite venture with the Guinean government. Little Progress in Talks—Union leaders and government officials Feb. 20 met in a bid to negotiate an end to the strike. Union leaders Feb. 21 rejected a proposal by Camara to give his government a three-month trial period, demanding that the premier resign. The unions reiterated that, under the deal reached in January to end the initial round of strikes, a consensus premier should have been named. „

Africa News in Brief Algeria: Six Die in Bomb Attacks. At least

six people were killed and dozens of others were wounded Feb. 13 in seven coordinated bomb attacks on towns in the Kabylia region, east of Algiers, the capital. The Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (formerly known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat) claimed responsibility for the attacks, which targeted police stations. The group had increased its activity in recent months, launching deadly attacks against the police and foreign oil companies in Algeria. Fifteen people had been killed in clashes between Islamic militants and security forces in the eastern Batna region, it was reported Jan. 30. The Financial Times Feb. 9 reported that the U.S. believed that the group was operating training camps in northern Mali for Islamic militants from North Africa. [See 2006, p. 1014E3] „

Burundi: Second Vice President Replaced.

President Pierre Nkurunziza Feb. 8 fired Second Vice President Marine Barampama for “insubordination and irresponsibility,” and replaced her with Gabriel Ntisezerana, the central bank governor. Barampama had been appointed in September 2006. She reportedly was fired after she objected to the Feb. 7 removal of Hussein Radjabu as chairman of the ruling Force for the Defense of Democracy (FDD) party. Radjabu was replaced with former ambassador to Kenya Jeremy Ngendakumana, after being accused of abuse of power. [See 2006, p. 713C2] „ Ivory Coast: Toxic Waste Pact Agreed.

Dutch commodities company Trafigura Beheer BV Feb. 13 said it had agreed to pay Ivory Coast’s government about $200 million to settle claims that it had illegally dumped toxic waste in Abidjan, the nation’s largest city and the commercial capital, in August 2006. The waste, dumped by the tanker Probo Koala, had killed at least 10 people and sickened thousands. Trafigura did not admit guilt under the settlement. The company said the money would go toward a new waste disposal plant, a new hospital and a probe of the dumping incident. Trafigura also said three of its employees who had been jailed in Ivory Coast since September 2006 had been released. A British law firm Feb. 14 said it would not drop a class action lawsuit it had filed against the company on behalf of the victims. [See 2006, p. 958A3] „ FACTS ON FILE

AMERICAS

Canada Tax Official Charged in Leak Case. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Feb. 15 charged Serge Nadeau, a government tax policy analyst, with “criminal breach of trust” for allegedly leaking details on the federal government’s plan to allow a type of business known as an income trust to remain untaxed and reduce the corporate dividend tax, prior to a November 2005 public announcement detailing the decision. The RCMP alleged that Nadeau “used confidential Government of Canada information for the purchase of securities which gave him a personal benefit.” [See 2006, p. 882A1] Analysts and opposition politicians had noted that the prices of many dividendpaying stocks and income trust shares had jumped in the hours before then–Finance Minister Ralph Goodale of the ruling Liberal Party announced the plan, with some alleging that the information had been divulged early. In December 2005, in the midst of a federal election campaign, the RCMP had announced that it was investigating a possible leak of the information. Several analysts concluded that news of the possible scandal had helped the Conservative Party, led by current Prime Minister Stephen Harper, defeat the Liberals in January 2006 elections. (The Conservative government later in 2006 announced plans to tax income trusts like corporations.) The RCMP Feb. 15 said it had concluded its 14-month investigation, meaning that no Liberal politician or staffer would face charges related to the alleged leak. Nadeau, if found guilty, faced a maximum prison sentence of five years. „

Colombia Foreign Minister Resigns Amid Scandal.

Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo Feb. 19 resigned from the cabinet, days after her brother, Sen. Alvaro Araujo, was arrested for alleged links to violent rightwing paramilitary organizations involved in drug trafficking and the deaths of thousands of people. Alvaro Araujo and four other federal legislators Feb. 15 had been arrested as part of a widening investigation into politicians’ ties to paramilitary groups. The revelations of government and military ties to those organizations had embroiled the administration of President Alvaro Uribe Velez in a deepening scandal. [See 2006, p. 934G2] Uribe Feb. 19 named Fernando Araujo, who was unrelated to Maria Consuelo Araujo, the new foreign minister. Fernando Araujo in December 2006 had escaped froma prison camp run by the Marxist guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) after six years of captivity. He had served as the foreign minister of economic development in 2000 when he was abducted. [See p. 18F3] Uribe Feb. 16 had expressed support for Maria Consuelo Araujo, but had been February 22, 2007

forced to retreat from that position after it became clear that the scandal was threatening a pending $3.9 billion U.S. military and antidrug aid package, as well as the approval of a free trade agreement with the U.S.

then ran through the facility’s front gate. One injury was reported at the site, located in Doncello, 220 miles (350 km) south of Bogota. [See 2006, p. 1017A2; 2003, p. 753D3] „

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Former Intelligence Head Arrested—

Jose Noguera, the former head of the country’s intelligence agency, the Department of Administrative Security (DAS), Feb. 22 was arrested on charges of conspiring with paramilitary leaders to murder labor leaders and academics, among other charges. A close friend of Uribe, Noguera had served as DAS head from 2002 to October 2005. He resigned after allegations of the agency’s ties to paramilitary groups surfaced. The Supreme Court, which was examining congressional ties to paramilitary groups, Feb. 16 had suggested that prosecutors also investigate Maria Consuelo Araujo’s father, Alvaro Araujo Noguera, a former cabinet member and state governor. The high court was in the process of interviewing at least 60 regional and federal politicians for paramilitary ties, it was reported Feb. 19. Law enforcement officials had arrested eight lawmakers as of Feb. 22, all of whom were closely allied with Uribe, in connection with the investigations. The daily newspaper El Tiempo Jan. 19 had published a document describing a pact formed by right-wing paramilitary leaders and 11 federal legislators, two governors and five mayors. The document outlined an agreement by which signatories would create “a new social contract” to shield property-owner’s rights. Militia Leader Continues Testimony—

Salvatore Mancuso, a former leader of the right-wing paramilitary group United SelfDefense Forces of Colombia (AUC), had testified that he participated in the murder and kidnapping of hundreds of people, including labor leaders and local politicians, over a 15-year period, it was reported Jan. 18. Mancuso Jan. 16 testified that death squads under his authority had compelled voters to cast their ballots for Uribe in the 2002 presidential election. Uribe Jan. 17 refuted those claims. [See 2006, p. 981C3] „ News in Brief. At least 32 miners Feb. 3 were killed in an explosion in a makeshift coal mine located in a remote area of the country in San Roque, 255 miles (410 km) northeast of Bogota, the capital. State officials said the blast resulted from the ignition of methane gas that had built up in the mine. The workers were some 1,300 feet (395 m) below ground. Another eight coal miners were killed Feb. 6 under similar circumstances in a mine in Gameza, 110 miles north of Bogota. Makeshift mines with few safety measures were commonplace in Colombia, where coal constituted the second-largest legal export, after oil. [See 2006, p. 963B3] A dairy plant owned by Swiss food company Nestle SA was destroyed Jan. 17 by a pickup truck laden with several hundred pounds of explosives in an attack police the following day attributed to the Marxist rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Police said a man had slipped past security and parked the truck,

Mexico Gunmen Attack State Offices, Kill Seven.

Two groups of armed men Feb. 6 staged simultaneous attacks on two separate offices of the Guerrero state attorney general in the resort town of Acapulco, killing seven people. Government officials said each group had been composed of roughly eight gunmen bearing assault weapons and dressed in military uniforms. [See p. 50F3] Three police investigators and one secretary were killed at one office, while two investigators and one secretary were killed at the other. Witnesses said the attacks had been videotaped by the assailants. Investigators said they were examining whether the assaults were the latest salvo in a continuing war between the rival Gulf and Sinaloa drug cartels, who were battling over drug trafficking routes to the U.S. for Colombian-produced cocaine. An estimated 190 drug-related murders had occurred in Mexico in January, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported Feb. 10.

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Calderon Pledges Continued Battle—

President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa Feb. 10 said military actions against drug cartels would continue in the face of such attacks. “We are not going to surrender, neither from provocation nor attacks on the safety of Mexicans,” Calderon said. Since assuming the presidency in December 2006, Calderon had dispatched an estimated 24,000 federal police and soldiers to areas of the country ravaged by drug violence. However, analysts noted that endemic corruption in local and state governments made Calderon’s task a difficult one. Calderon had largely relied on federal troops to combat drug traffickers, eschewing state and local police forces generally considered to be more easily corrupted. However, he said Jan. 22 that the federal government would need to work more closely with local officials in fighting smugglers. Local police in Tijuana, on the U.S. border, Jan. 27 were given back their service weapons, after federal forces had taken them earlier that month. State Prosecutor Arrested—The federal attorney general’s office Feb. 19 announced that Hugo Armando Resendiz Martinez, the Durango assistant state prosecutor, had been arrested for colluding with drug traffickers by informing them of planned police raids. Resendiz Martinez was also being investigated in the death of Jaime Meraz Martinez, a leader of the Durango state Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), who had been killed Jan. 14. Drug Bill Revised—Members of the Senate Feb. 12 said they would introduce a new version of a 2006 drug bill that had been condemned by the U.S. for effectively allowing the possession of small amounts of certain narcotics, including marijuana. The bill had been vetoed in May 2006 by 111

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then-President Vicente Fox Quesada. The new Senate version of the measure was designed to allow native Indians to use hallucinogens as part of traditional religious ceremonies, as well as provide some leniency for drug addicts and first-time offenders. [See 2006, p. 379G1] „

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Asia-Pacific News in Brief

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Japan: Interest Rate Raised. The policy

board of Japan’s central bank, the Bank of Japan, Feb. 21 voted to raise its benchmark interest rate by 0.25%, to 0.5%. The bank, in doubling the overnight borrowing rate, cited signs that the economy’s “moderate expansion” was sustainable. The government Feb. 15 had reported that Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP) had grown by 1.2% in the fourth quarter of 2006 over the previous quarter, and at a 4.8% annual rate, the fastest in three years. Japan’s low interest rates had contributed to a tumble in the value of the currency, the yen, as investors borrowed yen and invested it in countries offering higher returns, a practice known as the “carry trade.” The rate increase did not immediately reverse the trend: the yen fell in value Feb. 21, as analysts noted that Japan’s rates were still extremely low. [See pp. 107G2, 36F1] „ Taiwan: Opposition Leader Indicted. Ma Ying-jeou, the leader of Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), Feb. 13 was indicted on corruption charges. The charges related to his alleged misuse, when he was mayor of Taipei, the capital, of more than $330,000 from a special municipal government fund. Ma in November 2006 had said that the money had been improperly accounted for due to clerical error, and not due to corruption on his part. The charges threatened Ma’s campaign for the presidency, which had sought to capitalize on a series of corruption scandals involving aides and relatives to President Chen Shui-bian. Ma stepped down as Nationalist leader, but proclaimed his innocence. [See 2006, p. 914C3] „

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Left-wing Terrorist Granted Parole. A court

in Stuttgart, Germany, Feb. 12 granted parole to Brigitte Mohnhaupt, who had served 24 years in prison for her actions as a leader in the late 1970s and early 1980s of the Red Army Faction, a leftist terrorist group also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang. Mohnhaupt, 57, was scheduled for release March 27. She had been arrested in 1982, and sentenced in 1985 to five life terms plus 15 years for her role in a wave of high-profile kidnappings and murders in 1977, as well as a failed 1981 assassination attempt on U.S. Gen. Frederick Kroesen, commander of the U.S. Army in Europe. [See 1985, p. 486F3] The Red Army Faction carried out many bank robberies, bombings and assassina112

tions in the 1970s and 1980s. It was blamed for causing a total of 34 deaths, including those of 10 police officers. It had finally disbanded in 1998. The German police union and families of the group’s victims criticized the decision to release Mohnhaupt, who had never expressed remorse for her crimes. The court stressed that it was not granting a pardon, but rather had concluded that she no longer posed a security risk. Meanwhile, German President Horst Koehler reportedly was considering a request for a pardon from Christian Klar, another former leader of the group who had received the same sentence as Mohnhaupt in 1985. „

Italy Prodi Resigns After Foreign Policy Defeat.

Italian Premier Romano Prodi Feb. 21 submitted his resignation after the upper house of parliament, the Senate, voted narrowly to reject the foreign policy of his fractious center-left coalition government, which was just nine months old. Two senators from communist parties that belonged to Prodi’s coalition had abstained from the vote, saying they opposed Prodi’s calls to keep Italian troops in Afghanistan and allow the U.S. military to expand a base in Vicenza, in northern Italy. That left the government two votes short of the 160 it needed to pass a motion approving its foreign policy. [See 2006, pp. 536F2, 396A2] President Giorgio Napolitano Feb. 21 asked Prodi and his government to remain in office in a caretaker role until an agreement on forming a new government, or calling new elections, could be reached. Napolitano Feb. 22 began a round of consultations that was expected to last two days. Prodi’s spokesman late that day said the members of his coalition had pledged their full support for a 12-point agenda, including maintaining the commitment of troops in Afghanistan, should he form a new government. Prodi and his coalition had won a solid majority in the lower house of parliament in April 2006 elections, ousting the centerright government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi. But Prodi’s coalition had a majority of just one seat in the Senate. Its position was made even more tenuous by the conflicting views of the nine parties in the coalition, ranging from communists to centrist Christian Democrats. Prodi’s abrupt resignation marked the return of political instability to Italy, which had had 61 governments since World War II. Berlusconi had been the only premier to survive in office for a full five-year term. Berlusconi Feb. 21 accused Prodi of leading an “incompetent government” that had inflicted “a grave international humiliation” on Italy. He called for new elections. While left-wing coalition members challenged Prodi’s foreign policy, Roman Catholic parties on the coalition’s right wing had opposed a Feb. 8 cabinet decision to back proposed legislation that would legalize civil unions for homosexual and unmarried heterosexual couples. The co-

alition had also fought internally over the 2007 budget. Thousands Protest Base Expansion—

At least 70,000 people Feb. 17 demonstrated in Vicenza against the expansion of the U.S. military base. The U.S. planned to expand the 50-year-old base so that it could accommodate a full brigade with about 4,500 personnel, up from 2,750. In a speech before the Senate vote, Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema warned that canceling the base expansion would be “a hostile act” toward the U.S. After taking office, Prodi had carried out a campaign pledge to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq. However, he had argued that Italy should maintain its role in Afghanistan, where about 1,900 Italian troops were serving as part of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) force that had been approved by the United Nations. The U.S. had recently called on fellow NATO members to send more troops to Afghanistan to counter a resurgence of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban militia. [See p. 114D2] Meanwhile, Prodi had also angered Italian critics of U.S. foreign policy by not asking the U.S. to extradite Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives accused of abducting a Muslim cleric in Milan in 2003. [See p. 112D3] „ CIA Agents Indicted in ’03 Abduction. An Italian judge Feb. 16 approved indictments against 25 U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives, a U.S. Air Force officer and five Italian intelligence officials accused of abducting an Egyptian Muslim cleric in Milan in 2003. The radical cleric, Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr, 44, had been flown to Egypt, where he claimed to have been tortured. An Egyptian court Feb. 11 had ordered his release after four years of imprisonment. [See p. 68D1; 2006, p. 916E3] The incident was believed to be part of a CIA program, known as extraordinary rendition, for seizing terrorism suspects abroad and transferring them to third countries for detention and interrogation. In January, a court in Germany had issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents allegedly involved in another such case. The Italian judge scheduled the trial to open June 8. Prosecutors said the CIA defendants would likely be tried in absentia, since the U.S. was not expected to hand them over. They included Jeff Castelli, chief of the CIA’s Rome station in 2003, and Robert Seldon Lady, chief of the CIA’s station in Milan at that time. Nasr was not expected to return to Italy to testify either, since he faced terrorism charges there. One of the indicted Italians was Nicolo Pollari, who was head of Italy’s military intelligence agency, known as Sismi, at the time of Nasr’s abduction. U.S. Marine Faces Trial in Iraq Case—

An Italian judge Feb. 7 ordered a U.S. marine, Spec. Mario Lozano, to stand trial for the 2005 shooting death of an Italian intelligence agent, Nicola Calipari, in Iraq. Calipari had been killed when U.S. troops at a checkpoint in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, fired on his vehicle after he secured the reFACTS ON FILE

lease of an Italian journalist who had been kidnapped by insurgents. The U.S. was not expected to hand over Lozano for trial. [See 2005, p. 312B2] „

Netherlands New Government Sworn In. Queen Beatrix

Feb. 22 swore in Premier Jan Peter Balkenende and his new center-left coalition government. The coalition deal had been reached in three months of negotiations following November 2006 elections. Balkenende Feb. 7 had laid out an agenda for the new government that was more liberal than the policies of his previous administrations, with spending increases for education, health care and child care, and the environment. [See 2006, p. 900C1] Among notable cabinet appointments, Wouter Bos, leader of the center-left Labor Party, took over as finance minister. The Labor Party had finished second in the elections, behind Balkenende’s Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA). Maxime Verhagen, who had served as the CDA’s leader in parliament, was appointed as foreign minister. Andre Rouvoet, leader of the third and smallest party in the coalition, the Christian Union, became minister for youth and family affairs. Balkenende named two immigrant Muslim politicians to junior ministerial posts. One of them, Ahmed Aboutaleb, a Moroccan native, became state secretary for social affairs, although he had been expected to receive a full cabinet post. The other, Nebahat Albayrak, who was from Turkey, took over as state secretary for justice. It was the first time that Muslims had received such high-level government appointments in the Netherlands. The country had focused on the integration of Muslim immigrants since the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an extremist from a Moroccan family in 2004. „

Russia Putin Pitches Gas Cartel, Tours Middle East.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in a news conference Feb. 1 said he was considering the idea of joining Iran to form a cooperative of natural gas–producing countries, along the lines of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), to manage the supply of gas on the world market. Putin called it “an interesting idea.” Russia had the world’s largest gas reserves, followed by Iran. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Jan. 29 during a visit by Russian officials had suggested that an OPEC-like body be established by the two countries. Foreign countries, particularly in Europe, had expressed concern over Russia’s reliability as a key energy supplier, and over its use of its energy exports as a tool of foreign policy. [See p. 21D1] Putin Feb. 12 visited Qatar, which was the world’s third-largest gas producer by reserves, as part of a Middle Eastern tour. In Qatar, he discussed cooperating with reFebruary 22, 2007

spect to the gas market with Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, but the two leaders said notions of a cartel were preliminary. Putin Feb. 11–12 had opened his tour with the first visit to Saudi Arabia by a Russian leader. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal Feb. 14 said the two countries were prepared to cooperate fully on military issues and on nuclear power. Putin Feb. 13 visited Jordan, the last country on his Middle East trip. „

Turkey Seven Get Life Terms for Istanbul Bombings.

A Turkish court Feb. 16 handed down sentences of life in prison to seven men convicted of plotting bombings of Jewish and British targets in Istanbul in November 2003. The suicide bombings had killed 58 people at two synagogues, the British consulate and the local headquarters of British bank HSBC Holdings PLC. [See 2003, p. 1075D2] The judge sentenced 41 other defendants to prison terms that ranged from three to 18 years, and acquitted 26 others. One of the seven who received life terms was Louai al-Sakka, a Syrian convicted of planning and financing the attacks. He was believed to be a member of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda. He had been arrested in 2005 while allegedly planning attacks on Israeli cruise ships. Another of those sentenced to life, Harun Ilhan, declared himself a member of Al Qaeda and boasted that he had masterminded the Istanbul bombings. Prosecutors alleged that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had personally approved the plot at a meeting in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2001. „

Ukraine Parliament Curbs Presidential Powers.

Ukraine’s parliament Jan. 12 approved a law that removed the president’s powers to appoint the defense and foreign ministers, and to override parliament’s nomination of a premier. The legislation came amid an ongoing power struggle between President Viktor Yushchenko and his political rival Premier Viktor Yanukovich. Allies of the premier backed the bill, while Yushchenko’s supporters denounced it as unconstitutional. [See 2006, p. 963A1] Parliament in December 2006 had passed a resolution to fire Boris Tarasyuk, whom Yushchenko had appointed foreign minister. Tarasyuk shared the president’s goals of aligning Ukraine more closely with the European Union and the U.S., as opposed to Yanukovich’s pro-Russian orientation. Tarasyuk had remained in office by presidential decree as the clash over powers continued, but he resigned Jan. 30. Yushchenko named another ally, First Deputy Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko, acting foreign minister, and Feb. 5 nominated him to permanently replace

Tarasyuk. The parliament Feb. 22 rejected the nomination. Other News—In other Ukrainian political news: † A spokeswoman for Yushchenko Jan. 30 said tests showed that two years after he had been mysteriously poisoned with dioxin as a presidential candidate, the amount of the poison in his body had significantly decreased, and that he was in good health. [See 2005, p. 212E2] † Yevhen Kushnaryov, a close associate of Yanukovich and deputy leader of the Party of Regions, died Jan. 17 after being shot in an apparent hunting accident the day before. „

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European News in Brief Czech Republic: New Cabinet Named.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus Jan. 9 appointed a cabinet led by Premier Mirek Topolanek, whose center-right Civic Democratic Party would govern in coalition with the Green Party and the Christian Democratic Union. After June 2006 elections left the parliament evenly split between left and right blocs, Topolanek in September had formed a government, but it resigned after losing a confidence vote in October. Klaus reappointed him premier in November, giving him the task of assembling a new coalition and cabinet. The new cabinet Jan. 19 survived a vote of confidence, but only through the defection of two opposition lawmakers. [See 2006, p. 1025A3] „ Poland: Ministers Resign. Polish Defense Minister Radoslaw Sikorski Feb. 5 resigned, followed two days later by Interior Minister Ludwik Dorn. Both ministers reportedly resigned over disputes arising from efforts by the premier, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and the president, his twin brother Lech Kaczynski, to consolidate their power. Sikorski resigned after unsuccessfully seeking to block the appointment of a military counterintelligence chief, Antoni Macierewicz, who was close to the premier. Dorn, previously known as a close ally of the Kaczynskis, said he had resigned due to an unspecified difference of opinion over ministry affairs. President Kaczynski Feb. 7 named one of his top aides, Aleksander Szczyglo, as defense minister, and the following day named prosecutor Janusz Kaczmarek as interior minister. [See 2006, p. 827F3] „

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Iran Bomb Kills Elite Guard Troops. A car bomb Feb. 14 detonated in the city of Zahedan, near Iran’s border with Pakistan, destroying a bus and killing 11 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard—an elite force affiliated with the ruling conservative clerics. Dozens of people were wounded in the bombing. A Sunni Muslim militant group with a history of attacks on Iranian troops, God’s Brigade, took credit for the 113

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bombing. The group was allegedly linked to the terrorist network Al Qaeda. Iranian officials said the attack was carried out “by a group that gets support from America.” [See 2006, pp. 81B2, 21B1] Iran was predominantly Shiite Muslim, though the border area was largely populated by members of the ethnic Baluchi minority, who were Sunnis. Iranian officials Feb. 14 said at least four people had been arrested in connection with the attack. Another explosion near a school in Zahedan Feb. 16 caused no casualties, but was followed by clashes between police and armed insurgents. Several suspects in that blast were arrested Feb. 17. Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Feb. 18 said Pakistan had been used by the insurgents as a base of operations to plan the bombing that had killed the guard members, and that the Pakistani ambassador had been summoned “to explain what happened.” A security official declared that 65 people had been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the two bombings. Iranian news agencies cited sources claiming that bomb material and other evidence seized from the suspects were of U.S. and British origin, and reported that a confession by one suspect, Nasrollah Shanbe Zehi, had been broadcast on a state-run news channel. Zehi was convicted of the deadly bombing Feb. 18 and hanged in Zahedan Feb. 19. „

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tries were running particularly high. Due to security concerns about the service, the train cars had been locked and some of their windows barred, trapping passengers inside as they burned. Many of the dead were burned beyond recognition, necessitating DNA tests to determine their identities. India Feb. 20 released the names of 22 Pakistani nationals who had been on board the so-called friendship train. Authorities said they were treating the incident as a terrorist attack on the people of both countries. Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian foreign minister, Feb. 20 said the two sides had to “show determination” by going ahead with scheduled peace talks. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Feb. 19 said of the attack, “We will not allow elements which want to sabotage the ongoing peace process to succeed in their nefarious designs.” Pact to Reduce Nuclear Risk Signed—

Mukherjee and Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri Feb. 20–23 opened a new round of peace talks in New Delhi. Kasuri called the attack a “horrendous tragedy.” The two Feb. 21 signed a deal to cut the risk of accidental nuclear warfare between the sides. Details were not disclosed. The Financial Times Feb. 20 reported that the parties were growing closer to an historic accord on a territorial dispute over Kashmir. The deal would make current territorial boundaries permanent; make the territorial border “soft,” allowing right-ofpassage by individuals; and grant the entire region greater autonomy and eventually demilitarize it. „

Indian Train Bound for Pakistan Attacked; 68 Killed

Afghanistan

Intent to Disrupt Peace Talks Seen. Two

of Taliban rebels Feb. 1–2 took over the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province, seizing weapons from police, destroying government offices and raising the flag of the Taliban over the town. Residents claimed that a Taliban commander, Mullah Abdel Gafoor, had led the attack in response to the death of his brother days earlier in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air strike. British forces had left the town in the hands of a tribal council in October 2006 as part of an experimental deal with the Taliban, who had promised to also withdraw and cease attacks. [See 2006, p. 966B2] Residents soon began leaving Musa Qala, and a NATO air strike Feb. 4 killed Gafoor. NATO later that day dropped leaflets on the town, ordering the rebels to leave. A NATO air strike in Musa Qala district Feb. 14 killed Mullah Abdul Manan, a senior Taliban commander responsible for all operations in Helmand province. At least 10 other people were also killed. Members of the Taliban claimed that civilians were among the dead, but a statement issued by NATO denied the claim. British and Afghan forces Feb. 17–18 raided three Taliban compounds in Garmser, in Helmand province. Tunnels linking the compounds were also destroyed.

bombs Feb. 19 exploded on a train in India bound for the Pakistan border, killing 68 people and wounding several more. While no one claimed responsibility for the attack, Indian officials quickly pinned blame on Muslim militants who they said were seeking to disrupt an ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan, historically enemies. The blasts came one day before a new round of high-level peace talks between the foreign ministers of both countries was set to begin. [See p. 115B1; 2006, pp. 939F1, 938F3] The bombings occurred about 50 miles (80 km) north of New Delhi, the Indian capital. Police later found at least two suitcases packed with unexploded bombs in unaffected train cars. Two cars were set ablaze. After the fire was put out, those cars were detached and surviving passengers reboarded, and the train continued on its route. Police Feb. 20 released sketches of two men who had reportedly jumped off the train just before the bombs went off. Cooperative rail service taking passengers up to the border on Indian trains and then into Pakistan on Pakistani trains had been revived in 2004 after a two-year hiatus while tensions between the two coun114

Rebels Overrun Southern Town. Hundreds

Taliban rebels Feb. 19 took control of Baqwa district in Farah province, which bordered Helmand. Afghan police in the district withdrew in the face of the attack by the Taliban, who outnumbered them. Afghan and NATO forces Feb. 20 took back the district. Bush Pledges More Troops—U.S. President George W. Bush Feb. 15 said in a speech that he had slated a temporary troop increase for Afghanistan and that the troops would remain in place “for the foreseeable future.” Bush called on the U.S.’s allies in NATO to allocate more troops to the effort and to “lift restrictions on the forces” they already had in the country. He added that NATO would not wait for the Taliban to launch an offensive in the spring, but would instead “go on the offense” itself. [See pp. 69D1, 38D1] There were currently more than 35,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, roughly 26,000 from the U.S. Many of the remaining troops were militarily ineffective, however, due to being deployed away from areas of conflict, the size of their units or rules of engagement imposed by their home country. Bush also urged the U.S. Congress to provide him with the funds he had requested to aid Afghanistan in reconstruction and equipping its military. [See 69A1] Parliament Bill Grants Amnesty— Afghanistan’s lower house of parliament Jan. 31 voted to grant immunity from prosecution to “all people involved in the conflict” of the past 25 years, including current rebels, provided that they participated in national reconciliation efforts. Many Afghans, human rights groups and activists condemned the bill, insisting that the victims of war crimes over the past several years deserved that the perpetrators be brought to justice. Proponents of the bill said it would help to promote unity, reconciliation and peace. The amnesty bill still required approval by the upper house of parliament. Other News—In other Afghan news: † British Gen. David Richards Feb. 4 handed command of all NATO forces in Afghanistan over to U.S. Army Gen. Dan McNeill. Richards had supported the Musa Qala deal, which had been very unpopular among U.S. military officials. [See above] † Taliban rebels Feb. 9 ambushed Afghan police officers in Kandahar province, killing four of them and wounding two others. † A suicide car bomber Feb. 10 attacked a NATO convoy in Kandahar, but failed to injure anyone beside himself. A Feb. 4 attack on a military convoy had taken place at the same spot. † Two rockets Feb. 11 hit Kandahar’s airfield, injuring a NATO soldier. † A U.S. military helicopter Feb. 18 crashed in southeastern Afghanistan, killing eight of the 22 soldiers aboard. The other 14 occupants were all injured. The Chinook helicopter crashed after a “sudden, unexplained loss of power,” military spokesman Lt. Col. David Accetta said. FACTS ON FILE

Other U.S. officials denied claims by a Taliban commander that the helicopter had been shot down. [See p. 107B2] † A suicide bomber Feb. 20 wounded six U.S. soldiers during the opening of an American-built hospital in Khost province. The bomber had disguised himself as a doctor. „

Pakistan Courthouse Bombing Kills 15. A suicide bomber Feb. 17 killed himself and 15 people in a courtroom in Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province in southwest Pakistan. Dozens more were wounded by the blast. No one had claimed responsibility for the attack as of Feb. 22. It was the deadliest in a string of suicide bombings over the past two months, but it was unclear whether it was linked to those carried out by tribal militants to the north who were sympathetic to Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime, or to a separatist insurgency within Baluchistan. Police had detained three dozen people—most of them Afghan refugees— for questioning, it was reported Feb. 19. [See pp. 114D1, 69C2] Police in the area of the capital, Islamabad, and in the southern cities of Karachi and Sukkur Feb. 16–17 said they had arrested a total of eight people, thwarting planned suicide missions against Shiite Muslims and foreigners. In North-West Frontier province, a roadside bomb Feb. 16 killed a doctor who was leading a polio vaccination campaign. A rumor had circulated among the region’s conservative Muslims that the campaign was a U.S. plot to sterilize Muslim children, leading parents to refuse the treatment for 24,000 children. Nonetheless, about 95% of the children there had been inoculated in January, it was reported Feb. 16. Separately, the government had ordered the offices of two Islamic charities—Al Akhtar Trust and Al Rashid Trust—to be closed and their bank accounts frozen after the United Nations warned Pakistan that it would slap sanctions on the country otherwise, it was reported Feb. 20. The U.N. and the U.S. listed the two groups as financial sponsors of terrorism. „

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UNITED STATES

Auto Racing Harvick Wins Daytona 500. Kevin Harvick

Feb. 18 won the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. The race, the first of the season, was the premier event on the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit. However, the run-up to the race had been marred by a cheating scandal involving several teams. [See below; 2006, p. 179A1] Harvick, driving a Chevrolet, edged veteran Mark Martin at the finish line, winning by just 0.02 of a second. Meanwhile, there was a multiple-car crash just behind the leaders, with one car—that of Clint February 22, 2007

Bowyer—skidding over the finish line on its hood. There was some controversy because Martin was leading when the crash occurred, but Harvick managed to pull ahead just before officials raised the yellow caution flag, which occurred in the case of a crashed car on the track and froze the running order. Some argued that NASCAR officials should have brought out the yellow flag earlier, which would have given Martin the victory. Teams Penalized for Cheating— NASCAR Feb. 13–15 penalized a total of

seven team members representing six drivers after six cars failed inspection prior to the Daytona 500. The number 55 Toyota race team of two-time winner Michael Waltrip was hit the hardest, after officials Feb. 11 discovered that an unidentified substance had been added to the engine’s fuel line in an effort to illegally improve the car’s performance. NASCAR Feb. 14 fined Waltrip’s crew chief, David Hyder, $100,000, and suspended Hyder and Bobby Kennedy, the team’s vice president for competition, indefinitely. Also, Waltrip was penalized 100 points in the drivers’ standings and his team was penalized 100 points in the owners’ standings. Waltrip, who owned the team, Feb. 14 said the addition of the illegal substance was “an independent act done without consent or authorization from me.” The incident was seen as an embarrassment for Toyota, which was making its NASCAR debut in 2007. Waltrip went on to qualify in a backup car, and finished 30th in the race. NASCAR Feb. 13 had penalized four crew chiefs for illegal alterations that made their cars more aerodynamic. NASCAR suspended Robbie Reiser, the crew chief for Matt Kenseth, and Kenny Francis, crew chief for Kasey Kahne, for four races, fined them $50,000 each, and docked each 50 points in both the drivers’ and the owners’ standings. Josh Browne, Elliott Sadler’s crew chief, and Rodney Childers, Scott Riggs’s crew chief, were suspended for two races, fined $25,000 each, and docked 25 drivers’ points and 25 owners’ points. Three-time winner Jeff Gordon Feb. 15 was penalized because his car was about an inch too low, but officials deemed it to be an inadvertent violation. He was forced to start the Daytona 500 from the 42nd position. Earnhardt Sr.’s Widow, Son Feud—

Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., son of Dale Earnhardt Sr., who had been killed in a crash during the 2001 Daytona 500, Feb. 8 said he was seeking majority ownership of Dale Earnhardt Inc., a racing team founded by the elder Earnhardt and his wife, Teresa Earnhardt. Teresa Earnhardt, Earnhardt Jr.’s stepmother, had taken over as chief executive of the company after her husband’s death. Earnhardt Jr., one of NASCAR’s most popular drivers, reportedly had threatened to leave the team after his current contract expired at the end of the 2007 season if he did not gain ownership. [See 2003, p. 1101B2] „

ARTS & SCIENCES

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People British pop music star Robbie Williams, who turned 33 Feb. 13, announced that day that he had entered a clinic in the U.S. for treatment for an addiction to prescription drugs. Williams, who rose to fame as a member of the boy band Take That, had undergone treatment for drug and alcohol dependency after the group broke up in the mid-1990s and he began performing solo. He had been living in Los Angeles in recent years. [See 2002, p. 1075A2] „

B

O B I T UA R I E S BAUER, Hank (Henry Albert), 84, All-Star outfielder for Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees from 1948 to 1959, an era when the Yankees appeared in nine World Series, winning seven of them; from 1956 to 1958, he hit safely in 17 consecutive World Series games, a record that remained unbroken to date; he later managed the Kansas City Athletics (1961–62), the Baltimore Orioles (1964–68, leading them to a World Series title in 1966) and the Athletics again in 1969, after the franchise relocated to Oakland, Calif.; born July 31, 1922, in East St. Louis, Ill.; died Feb. 9 in Shawnee Mission, Kan., of cancer. [See 2000, p. 834D1; 1999, p. 787A3; Indexes 1972, 1966– 69, 1964, 1961–62, 1956–59, 1953, 1951] BURDETTE, Lew (Selva Lewis Burdette Jr.), 80, right-handed starting pitcher known for one of the most dominant performances in Major League Baseball postseason history; it came in the 1957 World Series, when he pitched three complete games for the Milwaukee Braves against the New York Yankees, beating them all three times, twice on shutouts; he was named the most valuable player of that Series; he had a career record of 203–144 in 18 seasons with the Braves and a number of other franchises; born Nov. 22, 1926, in Nitro, W. Va.; died Feb. 6 in Winter Garden, Fla., of lung cancer. [See 1960, p. 292F1; 1958, pp. 336B1–F1, 115F2; Indexes 1956–57] MacDIARMID, Alan Graham, 79, one of three scientists awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000 for their discovery of plastics that conducted electricity almost as well as metals; he and cowinner Alan Heeger did their Nobel-winning work at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught for decades; born April 14, 1927, in Masterton, New Zealand; pronounced dead Feb. 7 at a hospital in Drexel Hill, Pa., after a fall earlier that day at his Drexel Hill home; dying from myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood disorder resembling leukemia, he had fallen down a flight of stairs. [See 2000, p. 795D3; 1978, p. 654D1] McNAIR, Barbara, 72, singer, actress and television personality; she began as a cabaret singer before appearing on Broadway in the late 1950s and early 1960s; later, she made a number of movies and had her own TV show, “The Barbara McNair Show,” from 1969 to 1971, making her one of the first black entertainers to host a TV show; born March 4, 1934, in Chicago; died Feb. 4 in Los Angeles, of throat cancer. [See 1970, pp. 986F2, 99A3; 1958, p. 42C3] OLLARD, Richard Laurence, 83, British book editor whose authors included such literary lights as Michael Frayn, Patrick O’Brian and Penelope Fitzgerald; he was also a writer himself, focusing on 17thcentury English history and the history of the British Navy; born Nov. 9, 1923, in Bainton, England; died Jan. 21 in Dorchester, England. PAPON, Maurice Arthur Jean, 96, French bureaucrat who in 1998 was convicted of crimes against humanity for ordering the deportation of hundreds pf Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II as an official of German-occupied France’s Vichy regime; he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was released in 2002 for medical reasons; his conviction came after years of legal maneuvering; he was linked to crimes against humanity as far back as 1981; before then, he rose through the political ranks in postwar France, serving in such posts as Paris police chief (1958–67) and budget minister (1978– 81); born Sept. 3, 1910, in Gretz-Armainvilliers, France; died Feb. 17 at a clinic in Pontault-Combault, France, days after undergoing cardiac pacemaker surgery. [See 2003, p. 148F3–149A1; 2002, p. 1037B1; Indexes 2001, 1996–99, 1991, 1988, 1983, 1966, 1961, 1958] „

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World Heads of State and Government Leaders The following were the heads of state, government leaders and selected cabinet members for the countries listed, as of Feb. 1 unless otherwise noted. For changes after Feb. 22, consult the Index. Spellings are based on various schemes of transliteration and may occasionally vary from earlier or subsequent versions contained in news accounts. Adapted from information provided by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. [See 2006, p. 620A1] Afghanistan—President: Karzai, Hamid; Vice Presidents: Masood, Ahmad Zia; Khalili, Abdul Karim; Min. of Defense: Wardak, Abdul Rahim; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Spanta, Rangeen Dadfar; Min. of Interior: Zarar, Ahmad Moqbel Albania, Republic of—President: Moisiu, Alfred; Premier: Berisha, Sali; Min. of Defense: Mediu, Fatmir; Min. of Finance: Bode, Ridvan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mustafaj, Besnik Algeria, Democratic and Popular Republic of— President, Min. of National Defense: Bouteflika, Abdelaziz; Premier: Belkhadem, Abdelaziz; Min. of Finance: Medelci, Mourad; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Bedjaoui, Mohamed; Min. of Industry: Khoudri, Mahmoud; Min. of Interior: Zerhouni, Nourredine Yazid; Min. of Justice: Belaiz, Tayeb Andorra, Principality of*—Premier: Pintat, Albert; Min. of Finance: Mirapeix, Ferran; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Minoves, Juli *Andorra is under the formal sovereignty of the president of France and the Roman Catholic bishop of Seo de Urgel, Spain. Angola, Republic of—President: dos Santos, Eduardo; Premier: dos Santos, Fernando da Piedade Dias; Min. of Defense: Paihama, Kundi; Min. of External Relations: de Miranda, Joao Bernardo; Min. of Finance: de Morais, Jose Pedro; Min. of Petroleum: da Costa, Desiderio Antigua and Barbuda—Governor General: Carlisle, James B.; Prime Minister, Min. of Barbuda Affairs, Min. of Defense, Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Trade: Spencer, Baldwin; Min. of Finance & the Economy: Cort, Eroll; Min. of Tourism, Culture & Civil Aviation: Lovell, Harold Argentina (Argentine Republic)—President: Kirchner, Nestor Carlos; Min. of Defense: Garre, Nilda; Min. of Economy & Production: Miceli, Felisa; Min. of Foreign Relations, International Trade & Worship: Taiana, Jorge; Min. of Interior: Fernandez, Anibal; Min. of Justice, Security & Human Rights: Iribarne, Alberto; Min. of Labor, Employment & Social Security: Tomada, Carlos; President, Central Bank: Redrado, Martin Armenia, Republic of—President: Kocharyan, Robert; Premier: Markaryan, Andranik; Min. of Defense: Sarkisyan, Serzhik; Min. of Finance: Khachatryan, Vartan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Oskanyan, Vartan Australia, Commonwealth of—Governor General: Jeffery, Maj. Gen. Michael (ret.); Prime Minister: Howard, John; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. for Transport & Regional Services: Vaile, Mark; Treasurer: Costello, Peter; Attorney General: Ruddock, Philip; Min. for Defense: Nelson, Brendan; Min. for Education, Science & Training: Bishop, Julie; Min. for Foreign Affairs: Downer, Alexander; Min. for Health & Aging: Abbott, Anthony; Min. for Immigration & Citizenship: Andrews, Kevin; Min. for Trade: Truss, Warren Austria, Republic of—President: Fischer, Heinz; Chancellor: Gusenbauer, Alfred; Vice Chancellor, Min. of Finance: Molterer, Wilhelm; Min. of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment & Water Management: Proell, Josef; Min. of Defense: Darabos, Norbert; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Plassnik, Ursula; Min. of Justice: Berger, Maria; President, Austrian National Bank: Liebscher, Klaus Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani Republic)—President: Aliyev, Ilham; Premier: Rasizade, Artur; Min. of Defense: Abiyev, Col. Gen. Safar; Min. of Finance: Sharifov, Samir; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mammadyarov, Elmar; Min. of Internal Affairs: Usubov, Ramil Bahamas, Commonwealth of the—Governor General: Dumont, Dame Ivy; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Christie, Perry; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Min. of Public Service: Mitchell, Fred; Min. of Health: Nottage, B.J.; Min. of Tourism: Wilchcombe, Obie Bahrain, Kingdom of—King: Khalifa, Hamad bin

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Isa al-; Premier: Khalifa, Khalifa bin Salman al-; Min. of Defense: Khalifa, Maj. Gen. Khalifa bin Ahmad al-; Min. of Finance & Economy: Khalifa, Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Hamad bin Abdallah al-; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Khalifa, Khalid bin Ahmad alBangladesh, People’s Republic of*—President: Ahmed, Iajuddin; Honorable Chief Adviser: Ahmed, Fakhruddin; Army Chief: Lt. Gen. Moeen U Ahmed *President Iajuddin Ahmed Jan. 11 declared emergency rule and stepped down as chief adviser to a caretaker authority and postponed parliamentary elections indefinitely. Fakhruddin Jan. 12 succeeded him as chief adviser. [See p. 102D2] Barbados—Governor General: Husbands, Sir Clifford; Prime Minister, Min. of Defense & Security, Min. of Finance, Min. of Information: Arthur, Owen; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Economic Affairs & Development: Mottley, Mia; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade: Miller, Billie; Min. of Home Affairs, Attorney General: Marshall, Dale; Min. of Tourism & International Transport: Lynch, Noel Anderson Belarus, Republic of—President: Lukashenko, Aleksandr; Premier: Sidorsky, Sergei; Min. of Defense: Maltsev, Leonid; Min. of Finance: Korbut, Nikolay; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Martynov, Sergei Belgium, Kingdom of—King: Albert II; Premier: Verhofstadt, Guy; Dep. Premier, Min. of Budget: Van Den Bossche, Freya; Deputy Premier, Min. of Finance: Reynders, Didier; Deputy Premier, Min. of the Interior: Dewael, Patrick; Dep. Premier, Min. of Justice: Onkelinx, Laurette; Min. of Foreign Affairs: De Gucht, Karel; Min. of Defense: Flahaut, Andre; Min. of Economy, Energy, Foreign Trade & Science: Verwilghen, Marc Belize—Governor General: Young, Sir Colville; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Musa, Said; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Natural Resources & the Environment: Briceno, John; Min. of Defense, Min. of Housing, Min. of Youth & Sports: Hyde, Cordel; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Min. Foreign Trade: Courtenay, Eamon Benin, Republic of—President: Boni, Thomas Yayi; Min. of Development, Finance & Economy: Koukpaki, Pascal; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Diallo, Mariam Alaji; Min. of National Defense: N’Douro, Issifou Kogui Bhutan, Kingdom of—King: Wangchuck, Jigme Khesar Namgyel; Premier, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Wangchuck, Khandu; Min. of Agriculture: Ngedup, Sangay; Min. of Finance: Norbu, Wangdi; Min. of Education: Gyamtsho, Thinley; Min. of Home & Cultural Affairs: Thinley, Jigme Bolivia, Republic of—President: Morales Aima, Juan Evo; Vice President, Garcia Linera, Alvaro; Min. of Defense: San Miguel Rodriguez, Walker; Min. of Finance: Arce Catacora, Luis Alberto; Min. of Foreign Relations & Worship: Choquehuanca Cespedes, David; Min. of Government: Rada Velez, Alfredo; Min. of Hydrocarbons: Villegas Quiroga, Carlos; Min. of the Presidency: Quintana Taborga, Juan Ramon; Min. Without Portfolio for Water: Mamani Marca, Abel Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of—Chairman, Collective Presidency: Silajdzic, Haris (Muslim); Members, Collective Presidency: Komsic, Zeljko (Croat); Radmanovic, Nebojsa (Serb); Chairman, Council of Ministers: Terzic, Adnan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Ivanic, Mladen; President, Muslim–Croat federation: Lozancic, Niko; President, Bosnian Serb Republic (Republika Srpska): Cavic, Dragan Botswana, Republic of—President: Mogae, Festus Gontebanye; Min. of Finance & Development Planning: Gaolathe, Jacob; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation: Merafhe, Lt. Gen. Mompati (ret.); Min. of Health: Tlou, Sheila; Min. of Trade & Industry: Moroka, Daniel Neo Brazil, Federative Republic of—President: Da Silva, Luiz Inacio Lula; Vice President: Alencar, Jose; Min. of Defense: Pires, Waldir; Min. of Development, Industry & Trade: Furlan, Luiz Fernando; Min. of Finance: Mantega, Guido; Min. of Foreign Relations: Amorim, Celso; Min. of Justice: Bastos, Marcio Thomaz; Min. of Sports: Silva, Orlando; President, Central Bank: Meirelles, Henrique de Campos Brunei (Negara Brunei Darussalam)—Sultan, Prime Minister, Min. of Defense, Min. of Finance: Hassanal Bolkiah, Sir; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Min. of Trade: Mohamed Bolkiah Bulgaria, Republic of—President: Parvanov, Georgi; Premier: Stanishev, Sergei; Min. of Defense:

Bliznakov, Vesselin; Min. of Finance: Oresharski, Plamen; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kalfin, Ivailo; Min. of Interior: Petkov, Rumen; Min. of Labor & Social Policy: Maslarova, Emilia Burkina Faso —President: Compaore, Capt. Blaise; Premier: Yonli, Paramango Ernest; Min. of Defense: Lougue, Kouame; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Ouedraogo, Youssouf Burma, Union of—See Myanmar, Union of Burundi , Republic of—President: Nkurunziza, Pierre; First Vice President: Nduwimana, Martin; Min. of External Relations & Cooperation: Batumubwira, Antionette; Min. of Finance: Sinankwa, Denise; Min. of National Defense & Former Fighters: Niyoyankana, Maj. Gen. Germain Cambodia, Kingdom of—King: Norodom Sihamoni; Premier: Hun Sen; President of the National Assembly: Heng Samrin; Min. of Economy & Finance: Keat Chhon; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation: Hor Namhong; Min. of Justice: Ang Vong Vattana; Min. of National Defense: Gen. Tea Banh Cameroon, Republic of—President: Biya, Paul; Prime Minister: Inoni, Ephraim; Min. of Economy & Finance: Abah Abah, Polycarpe; Min. of External Relations: Mebara, Jean-Marie Antagana Canada—Governor General: Jean, Michaelle; Prime Minister: Harper, Stephen; Min. of Agriculture & Agri-Food, Min. for the Canadian Wheat Board: Strahl, Chuck; Min. Canadian Heritage & Status of Women: Oda, Bev; Min. of Citizenship & Immigration: Finley, Diane; Min. for Democratic Reform, House Leader: Van Loan, Peter; Min. of the Environment: Baird, John; Min. of Finance: Flaherty, Jim; Min. of Fisheries & Oceans: Hearn, Loyola; Min. of Foreign Affairs: MacKay, Peter; Min. of Health: Clement, Tony; Min. of Human Resources & Social Development: Solberg, Monte; Min. of Indian Affairs & Northern Development: Prentice, Jim; Min. of Industry: Bernier, Maxime; Min. of Intergovernmental Affairs, Privy Council President, Min. of Western Economic Diversification: Ambrose, Rona; Min. of International Cooperation: Verner, Josee; Min. of International Trade: Emerson, David; Min. of Justice, Attorney General: Nicholson, Rob; Min. of Labor: Blackburn, JeanPierre; Min. of National Defense: O’Connor, Gordon; Min. of Natural Resources: Lunn, Gary; Min. of National Revenue: Skelton, Carol; Min. of Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness: Day, Stockwell; Min. of Public Works & Government Services: Fortier, Michael; Min. of Transport, Infrastructure & Communities: Cannon, Lawrence; Min. of Veterans Affairs: Thompson, Greg; President of the Treasury Board: Toews, Vic; Governor, Bank of Canada: Dodge, David Cape Verde, Republic of—President: Pires, Pedro; Premier: Neves, Jose Maria Pereira; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation & Communities: Borges, Victor; Min. of Justice & Local Administration: Andrade, Jose Manuel Central African Republic—President, Min of Defense: Bozize, Francois; Premier, Min. of Finance & Budget: Dote, Elie; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration & Francophonie Affairs: Zoumara, Come Chad, Republic of—President: Deby, Idriss; Premier: Yoadimnadji, Pascal; Min. of Economy, Planning & Cooperation: Hassan, Mahmat Ali; Min. of Finance: Tolli, Mahmat; Min. of Foreign Affairs & African Integration: Allam-mi, Ahmad; Min. of National Defense: Djadallah, Bichara Issa Chile, Republic of—President: Bachelet Jeria, Michelle; Min. of Defense: Blanlot Soza, Vivianne; Min. of Economy: Ferreiro, Alejandro; Min. of Finance: Velasco Branes, Andres; Min. of Foreign Relations: Foxley Rioseco, Alejandro; Min. of Interior: Velasco, Belisario; Min. of Justice: Solis Palma, Isidro; Min. of Mining: Poniachik, Karen; President, Central Bank: Corbo, Vittorio China, People’s Republic of—President, Chairman, Central Military Commission: Hu Jintao; Vice President: Zeng Qinghong; Premier: Wen Jiabao; Executive Vice Premier: Huang Ju; Vice Premiers: Wu Yi, Zeng Peiyan, Hui Liangyu; Min. of Commerce: Bo Xilai; Min. of Finance: Jin Renqing; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Li Zhaoxing; State Councilor, Min. of National Defense: Cao Gangchuan; Governor, People’s Bank of China: Zhou Xiaochuan Hong Kong Special Administrative Region—Chief Executive: Donald Tsang; Chief Secretary for Administration: Hui, Rafael; Secy. for Finance: Tang, Henry;

FACTS ON FILE

Secy. for Justice: Wong Yan Lung Macao Special Administrative Region—Chief Executive: Edmund Ho China, Republic of (Taiwan)—President: Chen Shui-bian; Vice President: Lu, Annette; Premier: Hsieh, Frank; Min. of Economic Affairs: Hwang, Morgan; Min. of Finance: Lin Chuan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Chen, Mark; Min. of Justice: Shih Maolin; Min. of National Defense: Lee Chieh; Governor, Central Bank of China: Perng Fai-nan Colombia, Republic of*—President: Uribe Velez, Alvaro; Vice President: Santos Calderon, Francisco; Min. of Commerce, Industry & Tourism: Plata, Luis Guillermo; Min. of Finance & Public Credit: Carrasquilla Barrera, Alberto; Min. of Foreign Relations: Araujo, Fernando; Min. of Interior & Justice: Holguin Sardi, Carlos; Min. of National Defense: Santos Calderon, Juan Manuel; President, Central Bank: Uribe Escobar, Jose Dario; Prosecutor General: Iguaran Arana, Mario German *Fernando Araujo was appointed Feb. 19, replacing Maria Consuelo Araujo Castro. [See p. 111E1] Comoros, Union of the—President of the Union: Sambi, Ahmed Abdallah; Vice Presidents: Dhoinine, Ikililou; Nadhoim, Idi; President of Anjouan: Bacar, Mohamed; President of Grand Comore: Bak, Abdou Soule el-; President of Moheli: Fazul, Mohamed Said; Min. of Foreign Relations: Jaffar, Ahmed Ben Sa’id Congo, Democratic Republic of the*—President: Kabila, Joseph; Premier: Gizenga, Antoine; Min. of Agriculture: Mobutu, Nzanga; Min. of Defense & Veterans Affairs: Diemu, Chikez; Min. of Finance: Matenda Kyelu, Athanase; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Nyamwisi, Mbusa; Min. of Interior: Kalume, Denis; Min. of Mines: Kabwelulu Labilo, Martin *Gizenga named his cabinet Feb. 5. [See p. 82A2] Congo, Republic of the—President: Sassou-Nguesso, Denis; Min. of Economy, Finance & Budget: Andely, Roger Rigobert; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Adada, Rodolphe; Min. of Security & the Police: Oba, Brig. Gen. Pierre Costa Rica, Republic of—President: Arias Sanchez, Oscar; First Vice President, Min. of Justice: Chinchilla, Laura; Min. of Finance: Zuniga, Guillermo; Min. of Foreign Relations: Stagno Ugarte, Bruno; Min. of Foreign Trade: Ruiz, Marco Vinicio; Min. of Labor & Social Security: Morales, Francisco Cote d’Ivoire, Republic of—President: Gbagbo, Laurent; Premier, Min. of Finance: Banny, Charles Konan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Bakayoko, Youssouf; Min. of Justice: Kone, Amadou; Min. of Mines & Energy: Monnet, Emanuel Leon Croatia, Republic of—President: Mesic, Stipe; Premier: Sanader, Ivo; Min. of Defense: Roncevic, Berislav; Min. of Finance: Suker, Ivan; Min. of Foreign Affairs & European Integration: Kitarovic, Kolinda Grabar; Min. of Internal Affairs: Mlinaric, Marijan Cuba, Republic of*—President of the Council of State and of the Council of Ministers: Castro Ruz, Fidel; First Vice President of the Council of State and of the Council of Ministers, Min. of the Revolutionary Armed Forces: Castro Ruz, Gen. Raul; Vice Presidents of the Council of State: Almeida Bosque, Juan; Colome Ibarra, Gen. Abelardo (also Min. of Interior); Lage Davila, Carlos; Lazo Hernandez, Esteban; Machado Ventura, Jose Ramon; Min. of Economy & Planning: Rodriguez Garcia, Jose Luis; Min. of Foreign Relations: Perez Roque, Felipe *Raul Castro had assumed effective power in 2006 after Fidel Castro was incapacitated by illness. [See 2006, p. 607D3] Cyprus, Republic of*—President: Papadopoulos, Tassos; Min. of Defense: Symeonides, Nikos; Min. of Finance: Sarris, Michaelis; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Lillikas, Yiorgos; Governor, Central Bank: Christodoulou, Christodoulos *A separate entity known since 1983 as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus came into existence after Turkey invaded the island in 1974. Turkey was the only foreign country that formally recognized the enclave. Mehmet Ali Talat had been president since 2005. Czech Republic—President: Klaus, Vaclav; Premier: Topolanek, Mirek; Min. of Defense: Parkanova, Vlasta; Min. of Finance: Kalousek, Miroslav; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Schwarzenberg, Karel; Min. of Interior: Langer, Ivan; Min. of Justice: Poposil, Jiri Denmark, Kingdom of—Queen: Margrethe II; Premier: Rasmussen, Anders Fogh; Min. of Defense: Gade, Soren; Min. of Economic Affairs, Business &

February 22, 2007

Trade: Bendtsen, Bendt; Min. of Environment & Nordic Affairs: Hedegaard, Connie; Min. of Finance: Pedersen, Thor; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Moller, Per Stig Djibouti, Republic of—President: Guelleh, Ismail Omar; Premier: Dileita, Mohamed Dileita; Min. of Defense: Ahmed, Ougoureh Kifleh; Min. of Economy, Finance & Privatization: Bouh, Yacin Elmi; Min. of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation & Parliamentary Relations: Youssouf, Mahamoud Ali Dominica, Commonwealth of—President: Liverpool, Nicholas J.O.; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance, Planning, National Security & Overseas Nationals: Skerrit, Roosevelt; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Trade, Labor & Public Service: Savarin, Charles; Min. of Tourism, Industry & Private Sector Relations: Bannis-Roberts, Loreen Dominican Republic—President: Fernandez Reyna, Leonel; Vice President: Alburquerqe de Castro, Rafael; Secy. of State for Finance: Bengoa Albizu, Vicente; Secy. of State for Foreign Relations: Morales Troncoso, Carlos; Secy. of State for Interior & Police: Almeida Rancier, Franklin; Secy. of State for Tourism: Jimenez Jimenez, Felix East Timor—See Timor Leste, Democratic Republic of Ecuador, Republic of*—President: Correa Delgado, Rafael; Min. of Economy & Finance: Patino, Ricardo; Min. of Energy & Mines: Acosta, Alberto; Min. of Foreign Relations: Espinosa, Maria Fernanda; Min. of Industry & Competitiveness: Sagasti, Raul *Defense Minister Guadalupe Larriva was killed Jan. 24, and was replaced Feb. 2 by Lorena Escudero. [See p. 99C1] Egypt, Arab Republic of—President: Mubarak, Mohammed Hosni; Prime Minister: Nazif, Ahmed Mohamed; Min. of Agriculture & Land Reclamation: Abaza, Amin; Min. of Defense: Tantawi, Fd. Mar. Mohamed Hussein; Min. of Finance: Boutros-Ghali, Yousef; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Aboul Gheit, Ahmed Ali; Min. of Interior: Adli, Habib alEl Salvador, Republic of—President: Saca Gonzalez, Elias Antonio; Vice President: De Escobar, Ana Vilma; Min. of Defense: Romero Orellana, Alejandro (Otto); Min. of Economy: Gavidia, Yolanda Mayora de; Min. of Finance: Handal, William; Min. of Foreign Relations: Lainez Rivas, Francisco Esteban; Min. of Government: Aguilar, Silvia Equatorial Guinea, Republic of—President: Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Brig. Gen. Teodoro (ret.); Premier: Mangue Obama Nfube, Ricardo; Min. of Economy, Commerce & Promotion: Ndong, Jaime Ela; Min. of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation & Francophone Affairs: Bile, Micha Ondo; Min. of National Defense: Mba Nguema, Gen. Antonio Eritrea, State of—President: Issaias Afwerki; Min. of Defense: Sebhat Ephrem; Min. of Finance: Berhane Abrehe; Min. of National Development: Woldai Futur Estonia, Republic of—President: Ilves, Toomas; Premier: Ansip, Andrus; Min. of Defense: Ligi, Jurgen; Min. of Finance: Soerd, Aivar; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Paet, Urmas Ethiopia, Federal Democratic Republic of—President: Girma Woldegiorgis; Premier: Meles Zenawi; Min. of Defense: Kuma Demeksa; Min. of Finance & Economic Development: Sufian Ahmed; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Seyoum Mesfin; Min. of Trade & Industry: Girma Birru Fiji, Republic of*—President: Iloilo, Josefa; Prime Minister, Min. for Home Affairs & Immigration, Min. for Information: Bainimarama, Cmdre. Frank; Min. for Finance & National Planning: Chaudhry, Mahendra Pal; Min. for Foreign Affairs & External Trade: Nailatikau, Ratu Epeli *A military coup led by Bainimarama in December 2006 had overthrown the democratically elected civilian government. Bainimarama in January had restored Iloilo to the presidency and had himself sworn in as interim prime minister; the other cabinet positions were also held on an interim basis. [See p. 19G3] Finland, Republic of—President: Halonen, Tarja; Premier: Vanhanen, Matti Taneli; Deputy Premier, Min. of Finance: Heinaluoma, Eero; Min. of Defense: Kaariainen, Seppo; Min. of Environment & Nordic Cooperation: Wallin, Stefan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Tuomioja, Erkki; Min. of Interior: Rajamaki, Kari; Min. of Justice: Luhtanen, Leena; Min. of Trade & Industry: Pekkarinen, Mauri; Governor, Bank of Finland: Liikanen, Erkki

France (French Republic)—President: Chirac, Jacques; Premier: de Villepin, Dominique; Min. of Agriculture & Fisheries: Bussereau, Dominique; Min. of Culture & Communication: Donnedieu de Vabres, Renaud; Min. of Defense: Alliot-Marie, Michele; Min. of Economy, Finance & Industry: Breton, Thierry; Min. of Labor, Social Cohesion & Housing: Borloo, Jean-Louis; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Douste-Blazy, Philippe; Min. for Health & Solidarity: Bertrand, Xavier; Min. of the Interior & Regional Development: Sarkozy, Nicolas; Min. of Justice: Clement, Pascal; Min. of National Education, Higher Education & Research: de Robien, Gilles; Min. of Transport, Tourism & Maritime Affairs: Perben, Dominique; Governor, Bank of France: Noyer, Christian Gabon (Gabonese Republic)—President: Bongo Odimba, El Hadj Omar; Premier: Ntoutoume-Emane, Jean-Francois; Min. of Defense: Bongo, Ali-Ben; Min. of State for Economy, Finance, Budget & Privatization: Toungui, Paul; Min. of State for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation & Francophonie Affairs: Ping, Jean Gambia, Republic of the—Head of State: Jammeh, Yahya; Vice President: Njie-Saidy, Isatou; Secy. of State for Finance & Economic Affairs: Bala-Gaye, Mousa; Secy. of State for Foreign Affairs: Jahumpa, Bala Garba Georgia, Republic of—President: Saakashvili, Mikheil; Premier: Nogaideli, Zurab; Min. of Defense: Kezerashvili, Davit; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Bezhuashvili, Gela; Min. of Internal Affairs: Merabishvili, Vano; Min. of Justice: Kavtaradze, Gia

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Germany (Federal Republic of Germany)—Presi-

dent: Koehler, Horst; Chancellor: Merkel, Angela; Vice Chancellor, Min. for Labor & Social Security: Muentefering, Franz; Min. of Defense: Jung, Franz Josef; Min. for Environment & Nuclear Safety: Gabriel, Sigmar; Min. for Family, Seniors, Women & Youth: Von der Leyen, Ursula; Min. of Finance: Steinbrueck, Peer; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Steinmeier, Frank-Walter; Min. of the Interior: Schaeuble, Wolfgang; Min. of Justice: Zypries, Brigitte; Min. for Transportation, Construction & Housing: Tiefensee, Wolfgang; President, German Federal Bank: Weber, Axel Ghana, Republic of—President: Kufuor, John Agyekum; Min. of Defense: Addo-Kufuor, Kwame; Min. of Finance & Economic Planning: Wiredu, Baah-Kwadjo; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration: Akufo-Addo, Nana Great Britain—See United Kingdom Greece (Hellenic Republic)—President: Papoulias, Karolos; Premier: Karamanlis, Costas; Min. of Defense: Meimarakis, Evangelos-Vassilios; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Bakoyianni, Thedora; Min. of Justice: Papaligouras, Anastasios; Min. of National Economy & Finance: Alogoskoufis, Georgios; Governor, Bank of Greece: Garganas, Nikos Grenada—Governor General: Williams, Daniel; Prime Minister: Mitchell, Keith; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Min. of International Trade, Min. of Labor, Min. of Legal Affairs, Min. of Local Government, Attorney General: Nimrod, Elvin; Min. of Finance, Trade & Planning: Boatswain, Anthony; Min. of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Women’s Affairs, Social Security & Culture: Hood, Brenda Guatemala, Republic of—President: Berger Perdomo, Oscar; Vice President: Stein, Eduardo; Min. of Defense: Leiva Rodriguez, Maj. Gen. Cecilio; Min. of Economy: Cuevas Posadas, Marcio; Min. of External Relations: Rosenthal Koenigsberger, Gert Guinea, Republic of*—President: Conte, Gen. Lansana; Min. of Economy & Finance: Camara, Madikaba; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Conde, Mamady *Conte Feb. 9 named Eugene Camara premier, the first time the post had been filled since April 2006. However, labor unions and oppositon politicians objected to Camara, and he was expected to soon be replaced. [See p. 110A2] Guinea-Bissau, Republic of—President: Vieira, Joao Bernardo; Premier: Gomes, Aristides; Min. of Finance: Mandinga, Victor; Min. of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation & Communities: Monteiro, Antonio Isaac Guyana, Cooperative Republic of—President: Jagdeo, Bharrat; Prime Minister, Min. of Public Works: Hinds, Samuel; Min. of Finance: Singh, Ashni; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Insanally, Rudolph; Min. of Health: Ramsammy, Leslie Haiti—President: Preval, Rene Garcia; Premier: Alexis, Jacques-Edouard; Min. of the Economy & Fi-

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nance: Dorsainvil, Daniel; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Worship: Clerisme, Jean Reynald; Min. of Interior & Territorial Collectivities: Bien-Aime, Paul Antoine; Min. of Justice & Public Security: Magloire, Rene Honduras, Republic of—President: Zelaya Rosales, Manuel; Min. of Defense: Mejia, Aristides; Min. of Finance: Santos, Rebeca; Min. of Foreign Relations: Jimenez Puerto, Milton; Min. of Industry & Commerce: Azcona, Lizzi; Min. of Government & Justice: Reina, Jorge Arturo Hungary, Republic of—President: Solyom, Laszlo; Premier: Gyurcsany, Ferenc; Min. of Defense: Szekeres, Imre; Min. of Finance: Veres, Janos; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Goncz, Kinga; President, Hungarian National Bank: Jarai, Zsigmond Iceland, Republic of—President: Grimsson, Olafur Ragnar; Premier: Haarde, Geir; Min. of Agriculture: Agustsson, Gudni; Min. of Environment & Nordic Cooperation: Bjartmarz, Jonina; Min. of Finance: Mathiesen, Arni; Min. of Fisheries: Gudfinnsson, Einar; Min. of Foreign Affairs & External Trade: Sverrisdottir, Valgerdur India, Republic of—President: Kalam, A.P.J. Abdul; Prime Minister: Singh, Manmohan; Min. of Commerce & Industry: Nath, Kamal; Min. of Defense: Antony, A.K.; Min. of External Affairs: Mukherjee, Pranab; Min. of Finance: Chidambaram, Palaniappan; Min. of Health & Family Welfare: Ramadoss, Anbumani; Min. of Home Affairs: Patil, Shivraj; Governor, Central Bank: Reddy, Y. Venugopal Indonesia, Republic of—President: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono; Vice President: Kalla, Jusuf; Coordinating Min. for Political, Legal & Security Affairs: Widodo A.S.; Coordinating Min. for Economic Affairs: Boediono; Min. of Defense: Juwono Sudarsono; Min. of Finance: Sri Mulyani Indrawati; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Noer Hassan Wirajuda; Min. for State-Owned Enterprises: Sugiarto; Attorney General: Abdurrahman Saleh Iran, Islamic Republic of—Supreme Leader: Khamenei, Ayatollah Mohammed Ali Hoseini; President: Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud; Min. of Defense & Armed Forces Logistics: Najjar, Mostafa Mohammad; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mottaki, Manouchehr; Min. of Interior: Pour-Mohammadi, Mostafa; Min. of Petroleum: Vaziri-Hamaneh, Kazem Iraq—President: Talabani, Jalal; Premier: Maliki, Nouri Kamel al-; Vice Presidents: Mahdi, Adel Abdul; Hashimi, Tariq al-; Deputy Premiers: Saleh, Barham; Zubaie, Salam Zikam Ali al-; Min. of Defense: Jasim, Gen. Abdul Qadir Muhammed; Min. of Finance: Jabr, Bayan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Zebari, Hoshyar; Min. of Interior: Bolani, Jawad al-; Min. of Oil: Shahristani, Hussain alIreland, Republic of (Eire)—President: McAleese, Mary; Prime Minister: Ahern, Bertie; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. for Justice, Equality & Law Reform: McDowell, Michael; Min. for Health: Harney, Mary; Min. for Agriculture & Food: Mary Coughlan; Min. for Defense: O’Dea, Willie; Min. for Enterprise, Trade & Employment: Martin, Micheal; Min. for Finance: Cowen, Brian; Min. for Foreign Affairs: Ahern, Dermot; Governor, Central Bank of Ireland: Hurley, John Israel, State of*—President: Katsav, Moshe; Prime Minister: Olmert, Ehud; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Livni, Tzipora (Tzipi); Min. of Defense: Peretz, Amir; Min. of Finance: Hirchson, Abraham; Min. of Health: Ben-Yizri, Yacov; Min. of Industry, Trade and Labor: Yishai, Eliyahu (Eli); Min. of Interior: Bar-On, Roni; Min. of Justice: Friedmann, Daniel; Min. of Pensioners’ Affairs: Eitan, Rafael (Rafi) *Katsav Jan. 25 was temporarily suspended from office, and Knesset (parliament) Speaker Dalia Itzik became acting president; Friedmann was sworn in Feb. 7. [See p. 54A3] Italy (Italian Republic)*—President: Napolitano, Giorgio; Premier: Prodi, Romano; Deputy Premier, Min. of Foreign Affairs: D’Alema, Massimo; Deputy Premier, Min. of Culture: Rutelli, Francesco; Min. of Defense: Parisi, Arturo; Min. of Environment: Pecoraro Scanio, Alfonso; Min. of Economy & Finance: Padoa-Schioppa, Tomasso; Min. of Health: Turco, Livia; Min. of Interior: Amato, Giuliano; Min. of Justice: Mastella, Clemente; Min. of Labor: Damiano, Cesare; Min. for Production: Bersani, Perluigi; Governor, Bank of Italy: Draghi, Mario *Prodi resigned Feb. 21 after losing a parliamentary vote on foreign policy. Napolitano asked Prodi and his ministers to remain in office in a caretaker role until the political crisis was resolved. [See p. 112B2] Ivory Coast—See Cote d’Ivoire, Republic of

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Jamaica—Governor General: Hall, Kenneth; Prime Minister, Min. of Defense: Simpson-Miller, Portia; Min. of Agriculture & Land: Clarke, Roger; Min. of Finance & Planning: Davies, Omar; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade: Hylton, Anthony; Min. of Health: Dalley, Horace; Min. of Industry, Science & Technology (with Energy): Paulwell, Phillip; Min. of Local Government & Environment: Peart, Dean; Min of National Security: Phillips, Peter Japan—Emperor: Akihito; Premier: Abe, Shinzo; Chief Cabinet Secretary: Shiozaki, Yasuhisa; Min. of Economy, Trade & Industry: Amari, Akira; Min. of Defense: Kyuma, Fumio; Min. of Finance: Omi, Koji; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Aso, Taro; Min. of Internal Affairs & Communications; State Min., Postal Service Privatization: Suga, Yoshihide; Min. of Justice: Nagase, Jinen; Min. of Land, Infrastructure & Transport: Fuyushiba, Tetsuzo; State Min., Regulatory & Administrative Reform: Watanabe, Yoshimi; State Min., Economic & Fiscal Policy: Ota, Hiroko; Governor, Bank of Japan: Fukui, Toshihiko Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of—King: Abdullah II; Prime Minister, Min. of Defense: Bakhit, Marouf al-; Min. of Finance: Fareez, Ziad; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Khatib, Abdul Ilaah al-; Min. of Interior: Fayez, Eid alKazakhstan, Republic of—President: Nazarbayev, Nursultan; Premier: Masimov, Karim; Min. of Defense: Akhmetov, Daniyal; Min. of Finance: Korzhova, Natalya; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Tazhin, Marat Kenya, Republic of—President: Kibaki, Mwai; Vice President: Awori, Moody; Min. for Finance: Kimunya, Amos; Min. for Foreign Affairs: Tuju, Raphael; Min. for Health: Ngilu, Charity Kaluki; Min. for Trade & Industry: Kituyi, Mukhisa Kiribati, Republic of—President, Min. for Foreign Affairs: Tong, Anote; Min. for Environment, Lands & Agricultural Development: Tofinga, Martin; Min. for Finance & Economic Development: Mwemwenikarawa, Nabuti Korea, North (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)—General Secretary, Korean Workers’ Party; Chairman, National Defense Commission: Kim Jong Il; President, Supreme People’s Assembly Presidium: Kim Yong Nam; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Paek Nam Sun Korea, South (Republic of Korea)—President: Roh Moo Hyun; Premier: Han Myeong Sook; Min. of National Defense: Kim Jang Soo; Min. of Finance & Economy: Kwon O Kyu; Min. of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Song Min Soon; Governor, Bank of Korea: Lee Seong Tae Kuwait, State of—Emir: Sabah, Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jabir al-; Premier: Sabah, Nasser Mohammed alAhmed al-; First Deputy Premier, Min. of Defense, Min. of Interior: Sabah, Jabir Mubarak al-; Deputy Premier, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Sabah, Muhammad al-Sabah al-Salim al-; Min. of Finance: Humaydi, Badr Mishari al-; Min. of Energy & Oil: Sabah, Ali alJarrah alKyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic)—President: Bakiyev, Kurmanbek; Premier: Isabekov, Azim; Min. of Defense: Isakov, Ismail; Min. of Finance: Japarov, Akylbek; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Karabayev, Ednan Laos (Lao People’s Democratic Republic)—President: Choummali Saignason, Lt. Gen.; Vice President: Boungnang Volachit; Premier: Bouasone Bouphavanh; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Thongloun Sisoulit; Min. of National Defense: Douangchai Phichit, Maj. Gen. Latvia, Republic of—President: Vike-Freiberga, Vaira; Premier: Kalvitis, Aigars; Min. of Defense: Slakteris, Atis; Min. of Economy: Strods, Jurijs; Min. of Finance: Spurdzins, Oskars; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Pabriks, Artis Lebanon, Republic of—President: Lahoud, Emile; Premier: Siniora, Fouad; Deputy Premier, Min. of Defense: Murr, Elias; Min. of Economy & Trade: Haddad, Sami; Min. of Finance: Azour, Jihad; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Salloukh, Fawzi; Min. of Interior & Municipalities: Sabaa, Hassan Lesotho, Kingdom of—King: Letsie III; Prime Minister, Min. of Defense: Mosisili, Pakalitha Bethuel; Min. of Finance & Development Planning: Thahane, Timothy; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Moleleki, Monyane Liberia, Republic of—President: Johnson-Sirleaf, Ellen; Min. of Finance: Sayeh, Antoinette; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Wallace, George; Min. of National Defense: Samukai, Brownie Libya (Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya)—Leader: Qaddafi, Col. Muammer el-; Secy., General People’s Congress: Zanati, Mohammed al-; Secy., General People’s Committee (Premier): Mah-

mudi, Baghdadi; Secy. of the General People’s Committee for Foreign Liaison & International Cooperation: Shalgam, Abd al-Rahman Liechtenstein, Principality of—Head of State: Prince Hans Adam II; Premier: Hasler, Otmar; Chairman, Liechtenstein State Bank: Fehr, Josef Lithuania, Republic of—President: Adamkus, Valdas; Premier: Kirkilas, Gediminas; Min. of Defense: Olekas, Juozas; Min. of Finance: Balcytis, Zigmantas; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Vaitiekunas, Petras Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of—Grand Duke: Henri; Premier, Min. of Finance: Juncker, JeanClaude; Vice Premier, Min. of Foreign Affairs and Immigration: Asselborn, Jean; Min. of Economy & Foreign Trade: Krecke, Jeannot; Chairman, Luxemburg Central Bank: Mersch, Yves Macedonia, Republic of*—President: Crvenkovski, Branko; Premier: Gruevski, Nikola; Min. of Defense: Elenovski, Lazar; Min. of Finance: Slaveski, Trajko; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Milososki, Antonio; Min of the Interior: Jankulovska, Gordana *The country was known internationally as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, but the U.S. in 2004 had recognized its constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia. Greece, which had a region called Macedonia, objected to that name. Parliamentary elections were held July 5, but no new government had formed to date. [See p. 616F3; 2004, p. 901A1] Madagascar, Republic of—President: Ravalomanana, Marc; Premier: Rabemananjara, Gen. Charles; Min. of Defense: Behajaina, Gen. Petera; Min. of Economy, Commerce, Planning & Private Sector: Radnriarimanana, Harrison; Min. of Finance: Radavidson, Benjamin Andriamparany; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Ranjeva, Gen. Marcel Malawi, Republic of—President, Min. of Agriculture & Food Security: Mutharika, Bingu wa; Vice President: Chilumpha, Cassim; Min. of Finance: Gondwe, Goodall; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation: Banda, Joyce Malaysia—Paramount Ruler (King): Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Mahmud AlMuktafi Billah Shah; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Defense: Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Syed Hamid bin Syed Jaafar Albar; Governor, Central Bank: Zeti Akhtar Aziz Maldives, Republic of—President: Gayoom, Maumoon Abdul; Min. of Defense & National Security: Shafeev, Ismail; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Shaheed, Ahmed Mali, Republic of—President: Toure, Amadou Toumani; Premier: Maiga, Ousmane Issoufi; Min. of Economy & Finance: Traore, Abou-Bakar; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Ouane, Moctar; Min. of Internal Security & Civil Protection: Gassama, Col. Sadio Malta, Republic of—President: Fenech Adami, Eddie; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Gonzi, Lawrence; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Justice & Home Affairs: Borg, Tonio; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Frendo, Michael Marshall Islands, Republic of the—President: Note, Kessai; Min. of Finance: Konelios, Michael; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Trade: Zackios, Gerald Mauritania, Islamic Republic of—Chairman, Military Council for Democracy & Justice; Min. of Defense: Vall, Col. Ely Ould Mohamed; Premier: Boubakar, Sidi Mohamed Ould; Min. of Finance: Sidiya, Abdellahi Ould Cheikh; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation: Nahah, Mohamed Moctar Ould Mauritius, Republic of—President: Jugnauth, Sir Anerood; Prime Minister, Min. of Civil Service & Administrative Reforms, Min. of Defense & Home Affairs: Ramgoolam, Navinchandra; Min. of Finance & Economic Development: Sithanen, Rama Kirshna; Min. of Foreign Affairs, International Trade & Cooperation: Dulloo, Murlidhar Madun Mexico (United Mexican States)—President: Calderon Hinojosa, Felipe de Jesus; Attorney General: Medina Mora Icaza, Eduardo; Secy. of Economy: Sojo Garza Aldape, Eduardo; Secy. of Energy: Kessel, Martinez, Georgina; Secy. of Finance & Public Credit: Carstens Carstens, Agustin; Secy. of Foreign Relations: Espinosa Cantellano, Patricia; Secy. of Government: Ramirez Acuna, Francisco Javier; Secy. of Labor & Social Welfare: Lozano Alarcon, Javier; Secy. of National Defense: Galvan Galvan, Guillermo; Secy. of Public Education: Vazquez Mota, Josefina; Secy. of Tourism: Elizondo Torres, Rodolfo; Governor, Bank of Mexico: Ortiz Martinez, Guillermo Micronesia, Federated States of—President: Urusemal, Joseph; Vice President: Killion, Redley; Secy.

FACTS ON FILE

of Foreign Affairs: Anefal, Sebastain Moldova, Republic of—President: Voronin, Vladimir; Premier: Tarlev, Vasile; Min. of Defense: Plesca, Valeriu; Min. of Finance: Pop, Mihai; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Stratan, Andrei; Min. of Internal Affairs: Papuc, Gheorghe Monaco, Principality of—Chief of State: Prince Albert II; Min. of State: Proust, Jean-Paul Mongolia—President: Enkhbayar, Nambariin; Premier: Enkhbold, Mieagombyn Montenegro, Republic of—President: Vujanovic, Filip; Premier: Sturanovic, Zeljko; Deputy Premier for Economic Policy: Lazovic, Vujica; Deputy Premier for European Integration: Djurovic, Gordana; Min. of Finance: Luksic, Igor; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Rocen, Milan Morocco, Kingdom of—King: Mohammed VI; Premier: Jettou, Driss; Min. of Finance & Privatization: Oualalou, Fathallah; Min. for Foreign Affairs & Cooperation: Benaissa, Mohamed; Min. of Interior: Ben Moussa, Chakib; Min. of Justice: Bouzoubaa, Mohamed; Min. Delegate to the Premier in Charge of the Administration of National Defense: Sbai, Abderrahmane Mozambique, Republic of—President: Guebuza, Armando; Premier: Diogo, Luisa Dias; Min. of Finance: Chang, Manuel; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation: Abreu, Alcinda; Min. of National Defense: Dai, Tobias Myanmar, Union of—Premier: Soe Win, Gen.; Chairman, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC); Min. of Defense: Than Shwe, Sr. Gen.; Vice Chairman, SPDC: Maung Aye, Vice Sr. Gen.; First Secy., SPDC: Thein Sein, Lt. Gen.; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Nyan Win, Maj. Gen. Namibia, Republic of—President: Pohamba, Hifikepunye; Prime Minister: Angula, Nahas; Min. of Defense: Namoloh, Maj. Gen. Charles; Min. of Finance: Kuugongel Wa-amadhila, Saara; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Hausiku, Marco Nauru, Republic of—President: Scotty, Ludwig; Min. for Finance, Min. for Foreign Affairs: Adeang, David; Min. for Health: Keke, Dr. Kieren; Min. for Justice: Thoma, Godfrey Nepal, Kingdom of—King: Gyanendra Bir Bik-

ram Shah; Premier, Min. of Defense, Min. of Royal Palace Affairs: Koirala, Girija Prasad; Dep. Premier, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Oli, K.P.; Min. of Finance: Mahat, Ram Sharan; Min. of Home: Sitaula, Krishna; Min. of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs: Namwang, Narendra Bikram Netherlands, Kingdom of the*—Queen: Beatrix; Premier: Balkenende, Jan Peter; Deputy Premier, Min. of Finance: Bos, Wouter; Deputy Premier, Min. of Youth & Family Affairs: Rouvoet, Andre; Min. of Defense: van Middelkoop, Eimert; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Verhagen, Maxime; Min. of Integration & Public Housing: Vogelaar, Ella; Min. of Justice: Ballin, Ernst Hirsch; Min. of Social Affairs & Employment: Donner, Piet Hein; President, the Netherlands Central Bank: Wellink, Nout *Balkenende’s new government, his fourth, was sworn in Feb. 22 by Queen Beatrix. [See p. 113A1] New Zealand, Dominion of—Governor General: Cartwright, Dame Silvia; Prime Minister, Min. of Arts, Culture & Heritage: Clark, Helen; Deputy Prime Minister, Attorney General, Min. of Finance: Cullen, Michael; Min. of Defense, Min. of Trade: Goff, Philip; Min. of Education: Benson-Pope, David; Min. of State Services: King, Annette; Min. of Justice, Min. in Charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations: Burton, Mark; Min. of Maori Affairs: Horomia, Parekura Nicaragua, Republic of—President: Ortega Saavedra, Daniel; Vice President: Morales Carazo, Jaime; Min. of Environment & Natural Resources: Lorio Arana, Amanda; Min. of Finance & Public Credit: Guevara Obregon, Alberto Jose; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Santos Lopez, Samuel; Min. of Labor: Chavez, Jeaneth Niger, Republic of the—President: Tandja, Mamadou; Premier: Amadou, Hama; Min. of Commerce, Industry & Promotion of the Private Sector: Salissou, Habi Mahamadou; Min. of Defense: Souley, Hassane; Min. of Economy & Finance: Lamine, Ali Zeine; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation & African Integration: Mindaoudou, Aichatou Nigeria, Federal Republic of—President: Obasanjo, Olusegun; Vice President: Abubakar, Atiku; Min. of Defense: Aguyi-Ironsi, Thomas; Min. of Energy: Daukoru, Edmund; Min. of Finance: Usman, Nenadi; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Ogwu, Joy

February 22, 2007

Norway, Kingdom of—King: Harald V; Premier: Stoltenberg, Jens; Min. of Defense: Strom-Erichsen, Anne-Grete; Min. of Environment: Bjornoy, Helen; Min. of Finance: Halvorsen, Kristin; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Store, Jonas Gahr; Min. of Petroleum & Energy: Enoksen, Odd Roger; Min. of Trade & Industry: Andersen, Dag Terje; Governor, Bank of Norway: Gjedrem, Svein Oman, Sultanate of—Sultan, Prime Minister, Min. of Defense, Min. of Finance: Said, Qaboos bin Said al-; Min. of Oil & Gas: Rumhi, Muhammad bin Hamad bin Sayf alPakistan, Islamic Republic of—President: Musharraf, Gen. Pervez; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Aziz, Shaukat; Min. of Defense: Iqbal, Rao Sikandar; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kasuri, Mian Khursheed Mehmood; Min. of Information & Broadcasting: Durrani, Mohammad Ali; Min. of Interior: Sherpao, Aftab Ahmed Khan; Min. for Law, Justice & Human Rights: Zafar, Muhammad Wasi; Min. for Kashmir Affairs & Northern Areas: Iqbal, Tahir Palau, Republic of—President: Remengesau, Tommy; Vice President: Chin, Elias Panama, Republic of—President: Torrijos Espino, Martin; First Vice President, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Lewis Navarro, Samuel; Min. of Commerce & Industries: Ferrer, Alejandro; Min. of Economy & Finances: Vasquez, Ricaurte; Min. of Government & Justice: Golcher, Olga; Min. of Presidency: Real, Ubaldino; Min. of Public Works: Colamarco, Benjamin Papua New Guinea, Independent State of—Governor General: Matane, Sir Paulius; Prime Minister: Somare, Sir Michael; Min. for Defense: Gubag, Mathew; Min. for Finance: Hickey, John; Min. for Foreign Affairs & Immigration: Namaliu, Sir Rabbie; Min. for Treasury: Namaliu, Sir Rabbie Paraguay, Republic of—President: Duarte Frutos, Nicanor; Min. of Finance: Bergen, Ernst; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Ramirez Lezcano, Ruben; Min. of Interior: Benitez, Rogelio; Min. of Justice & Labor: Cespedes, Derlis; Min. of National Defense: Gonzales, Roberto Peru—President: Garcia Perez, Alan; Premier: Del Castillo Galvez, Jorge; Min. of Defense: Wagner Tizon, Allan; Min. of Economy & Finance: Carranza Ugarte, Luis; Min. of Energy & Mines: Valdivia Romero, Juan; Min. of Foreign Relations: Garcia Belaunde, Jose Antonio; Min. of Interior: Mazzetti Soler, Pilar Philippines, Republic of the—President: Macapagal-Arroyo, Gloria; Vice President: De Castro, Noli; Executive Secretary: Ermita, Eduardo; Secy. of Finance: Teves, Margarito Gary; Secy. of Foreign Affairs: Romulo, Alberto; Secy. of Interior & Local Government: Puno, Ronaldo; Secy. of National Defense: Ebdane, Hermogenes Jr.; Secy. of Trade & Industry: Favila, Peter Poland, Republic of*—President: Kaczynski, Lech; Premier: Kaczynski, Jaroslaw; Min. of Finance: Glowska, Zyta; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Fotyga, Anna; Min. of Internal Affairs & Administration: Dorn, Ludwik; Min. of Justice: Ziobro, Zbigniew; Min. of National Defense: Sikorksi, Radoslaw; President, Polish National Bank: Balcerowicz, Leszek *President Kaczynski Feb. 7 named Aleksander Szczyglo defense minister, and Feb. 8 appointed Janusz Kaczmarek interior minister. [See p. 113D3] Portugal (Portuguese Republic)—President: Cavaco Silva, Anibal Antonio; Premier: Socrates Carvalho Sousa de Pinto, Jose; Min. of Agriculture, Rural Development & Fisheries: Silva, Jaime; Min. for the Economy & Innovation: Pinho, Manuel; Min. of Finance: Teixeira dos Santos, Fernando; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Amado, Luis; Min. for Internal Administration: Costa, Antonio; Min. of Justice: Costa, Alberto; Min. for National Defense: Severiano Teixeira, Nuno; Governor, Bank of Portugal: Constancio, Victor Qatar, State of—Emir, Min. of Defense: Thani, Hamad bin Khalifa al-; Premier: Thani, Abdallah bin Khalifa al-; Min. of Energy & Industry, Min. of Water & Electricity: Attiyah, Abdallah bin Hamad al-; Min. of Finance: Kamal, Yusuf Husayn al-; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Thani, Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabir alRomania—President: Basescu, Traian; Premier: Tariceanu, Calin Popescu; Min. of Defense: Frunzaverde, Sorin; Min. of Finance: Vladescu, Sebastian; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Ungureanu, Mihai Razvan Russia (Russian Federation)*—President: Putin, Vladimir V.; Premier: Fradkov, Mikhail Y.; First Deputy Premier: Medvedev, Dmitri A.; Deputy Premier, Min. of Defense: Ivanov, Sergei B.; Deputy Premier: Zhukov, Aleksandr D.; Min. of Agriculture: Gordeyev, Aleksei V.; Min. of Finance: Kudrin,

Aleksei L.; Min. of Industry & Energy: Khristenko, Viktor B.; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Lavrov, Sergei V.; Min. of Justice: Ustinov, Vladimir V.; Min. of Natural Resources: Trutnev, Yuri P. *Putin Feb. 15 named Ivanov first deputy premier alongside Medvedev, and appointed Anatoly Serdyukov as defense minister. [See p. 101B2] Rwanda (Rwandese Republic)—President: Kagame, Paul; Premier: Makuza, Bernard; Min. of Defense & National Security: Gatsinzi, Maj. Gen. Marcel; Min. of Finance & Economic Planning: Musoni, James; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation: Murigande, Charles; Min. of Justice: Karugarama, Tharcisse St. Christopher (St. Kitts) and Nevis, Federation of—Governor General: Sebastian, Cuthbert Montraville; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance, Min. of Sustainable Development, Min. of Technology, Min. of Tourism & Culture: Douglas, Denzil; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Education, Min. of Youth, Social & Community Development: Condor, Sam; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Trade, Min. of Industry & Commerce: Harris, Timothy; Min. of Immigration & Labor, Min. of Justice, Min. of National Security: Astaphan, GeraldAnthony Dwyer St. Lucia—Governor General: Louisy, Dame Pearlette; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance, International Financial Services, Economic Affairs & Information: Anthony, Kenny Davis; Min. of Commerce, Tourism, Investment & Consumer Affairs: Pierre, Philip; Min. of External Affairs, International Trade & Civil Aviation: Compton, Petrus St. Vincent and the Grenadines—Governor General: Ballantyne, Sir Frederick Nathaniel; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance, Min. of Grenadine Affairs & Legal Affairs, Min. of Information, Min. of Labor, Min. of Planning & Economic Development: Gonsalves, Ralph; Dep. Prime Minister, Min. of Foreign Affairs, Commerce & Trade: Straker, Louis; Min. of Tourism, Youth & Sports: Beache, Glen; Min. of Transportation & Works: Burgin, Clayton Samoa, Independent State of—Head of State: His Highness Malietoa Tanumafili II; Prime Minister, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Tuila’epa Sailele Malielegaoi; Deputy Prime Minister: Misa Telefoni Retzlaff San Marino, Republic of—Secy. of State for Foreign & Political Affairs & Economic Planning: Stolfi, Fiorenzo; Secy. of Budget & Finance: Macina, Stefano; Secy. of Interior & Civil Protection: Ciavatta, Valeria Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of—President: de Menezes, Fradique; Premier, Min. of Social Communication & Regional Integration: Vera Cruz, Tome Soares da; Dep. Prime Minister, Min. of Planning & Finance: Tebus, Maria; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation: Gustavo, Carlos Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of—King, Prime Minister: Saud, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-; Crown Prince, First Deputy Prime Minister: Saud, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-; Min. of Finance: Asaf, Ibrahim Abdul Aziz al-; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Saud, Saud al-Faisal al-; Min. of Interior: Saud, Nayif bin Abdul Aziz al-; Min. of Justice: Sheikh, Abdallah Mohammed al-; Min. of Petroleum & Mineral Resources: Naimi, Ali Ibrahim al-; Min. of Pilgrimage Affairs & Religious Trusts: Farsi, Abd al-Salam Muhammad alSenegal, Republic of—President: Wade, Abdoulaye; Premier: Sall, Macky; Min. of Armed Forces: Diop, Becaye; Min. of Economy & Finance: Diop, Abdoulaye; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Gadio, Cheikh Tidiane Serbia, Republic of—President: Tadic, Boris; Premier: Kostunica, Vojislav; Min. of Defense: Stankovic, Zoran; Min. of Finance: Dinkic, Mladjan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Draskovic, Vuk; Min. of Interior: Jocic, Dragan Seychelles, Republic of—President, Min. of Internal Affairs, Defense & Legal Affairs: Michel, James Alix; Vice President: Belmont, Joseph; Min. of Finance: Faure, Danny; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation: Pillay, Patrick Georges Sierra Leone, Republic of—President, Min. of Defense: Kabbah, Ahmad Tejan; Vice President: Berewa, Solomon; Min. of Finance: Benjamin, John; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation: Koroma, Momodu; Min. of Internal Affairs: Egbenda, Pascal; Min. of Mineral Resources: Deen, Mohamed Swarray Singapore, Republic of—President: Nathan, S. R.; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Lee Hsien Loong; Senior Minister; Chairman, Monetary Authority of Singapore: Goh Chok Tong: Min. of Foreign Affairs: Yeo, George; Minister Mentor: Lee Kuan Yew Slovakia (Slovak Republic)—President: Gasparovic, Ivan; Premier: Fico, Robert; Deputy Premier,

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Min. of Interior: Kalinak, Robert; Min. of Defense: Kasicky, Frantisek; Min. of Finance: Pociatek, Jan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kubis, Jan Slovenia, Republic of—President: Drnovsek, Janez; Premier: Jansa, Janez; Min. of Defense: Erjavec, Karl; Min. of Finance: Bajuk, Andrej; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Rupel, Dimitrij Solomon Islands—Governor General: Waena, Nathaniel; Prime Minister: Kemakesa, Sir Allan; Deputy Prime Minister: Rini, Snyder; Min. of Finance & Treasury: Boyers, Peter; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Chan, Laurie Somalia, Republic of*—Interim President: Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed; Interim Premier: Ali Muhammad Gedi *Somalia had been without a permanent functioning central government since 1991. [See p. 82B3] South Africa, Republic of—President: Mbeki, Thabo; Deputy President: Mlambo-Ngcuka, Phumzile; Min. of Agriculture & Land Affairs: Didiza, Angela Thoko; Min. of Defense: Lekota, Mosiuoa; Min. of Finance: Manuel, Trevor; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Dlamini-Zuma, Nkosazana; Min. of Health: Tshabalala-Msimang, Manto; Min. of Justice & Constitutional Affairs: Mabandla, Brigitte Spain, Kingdom of—King: Juan Carlos I; Premier: Rodriguez Zapatero, Jose Luis; Min. of Defense: Alonso, Jose Antonio; Min. of Economy & Finance: Solbes, Pedro; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation: Moratinos, Miguel Angel; Min. of Interior: Rubalcaba, Alfredo Perez; Min. of Justice: Lopez Aguilar, Juan Fernando; Governor, Bank of Spain: Fernandez Ordonez, Miguel Angel Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of— President, Min. of Defense, Min. of Finance: Rajapakse, Mahinda; Prime Minister: Wickremanayake, Ratnasiri; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Samaraweera, Mangala; Governor, Central Bank: Cabraal, Ajith Nivard Sudan, Republic of the—President: Bashir, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed al-; First Vice President, President of Southern Sudan: Kiir Mayardit, Salva; Vice President: Taha, Ali Osman; Senior Assistant to the President: Minnawi, Minni; Min. of Defense: Hussein, Abdel Rahim Mohammed; Min. of Energy & Mining: Jaz, Awad Ahmad al-; Min. of Finance & Planning: Hassan, Zubeir Mohammed; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Lam Akol Ajawin Suriname, Republic of—President: Venetiaan, Ronald; Vice President: Ajodhia, Jules Rattankoemar; Min. of Defense: Fernald, Ivan; Min. of Finance: Hildenberg, Humphrey; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kraag-Keteldijk, Lygia; Min. of Justice & Police: Santhoki, Chandrikapersad; Min. of Natural Resources: Rusland, Gregory Swaziland, Kingdom of—King: Mswati III; Prime Minister: Dlamini, Absalom Themba; Min. for Agriculture: Fakudze, Mtiti; Min. for Finance: Sithole, Majozi; Min. for Foreign Affairs & Trade: Dlamini, Moses Mathedele Sweden, Kingdom of—King: Carl XVI Gustaf; Premier: Reinfeldt, Fredrik; Deputy Premier, Min. of Enterprise & Energy: Olofsson, Maud; Min. of Agriculture, Food & Fisheries: Erlandsson, Eskil; Min. of Defense: Odenberg, Mikael; Min. of Environment: Carlgren, Andreas; Min. of Finance: Borg, Anders; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Bildt, Carl; Governor, Swedish Central Bank: Ingves, Stefan Switzerland (Swiss Confederation)—President; Chief, Dept. of Foreign Affairs: Calmy-Rey, Micheline; Vice President, Chief, Dept. of Home Affairs: Couchepin, Pascal; Chief, Dept. of Transportation, Communications & Energy: Leuenberger, Moritz; Chief, Dept. of Defense, Civil Protection & Sports: Schmid, Samuel; Chief, Dept. of Economic Affairs: Leuthard, Doris; Chief, Dept. of Finance: Merz, Hans-Rudolf; Chief, Dept. of Justice & Police: Blocher, Christoph; Chairman, Swiss National Bank: Roth, Jean-Pierre Syria (Syrian Arab Republic)—President: Assad, Bashar al-; Premier: Utri, Muhammad Naji al-; Min. of Defense: Turkmani, Lt. Gen. Hassan; Min. of Finance: Husayn, Muhammad al-; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mouallem, Walid; Min. of Interior: Majid, Gen. Bassam Abdel Taiwan—See China, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of—President: Rakhmanov, Imamali; Premier: Oqilov, Oqil; Min. of Defense: Khayrulloyev, Col. Gen. Sherali; Min. of Finance: Najmuddinov, Safarali; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Zaripov, Hamrohon

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Tanzania, United Republic of—President: Kikwete, Jakaya Mrisho; Prime Minister: Lowassa, Edward; President of Zanzibar: Karume, Amani Abeid; Min. of Defense & National Services: Kapuya, Juma; Min. of Finance: Meghji, Zakia; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation: Membe, Bernard Kamillius Thailand, Kingdom of*—King: Bhumibol Adulyadej; Premier: Surayut; Deputy Premier: Khosit Panpiamrat; Deputy Premier, Min. of Finance: Pridiyathon Thewakun; Min. of Defense: Bunrot Somthat, Gen.; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Nit Phibunsongkram; Governor, Central Bank: Tharisa Watthanaket *A military coup led by Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratglin in September 2006 had overthrown the democratically elected civilian government, and the government officials in October 2006 were appointed on an interim basis. [See 2006, p. 721A1] Timor Leste, Democratic Republic of—President: Gusmao, Jose Alexandre (Xanana); Premier, Min. for Defense: Ramos-Horta, Jose; Min. for Justice: Sarmento, Domingos Maria; Min. for Planning and Finance: Boavid Maria; Min. for Foreign Affairs: Guterres, Jose Luis; Min. for Energy and Mineral Resources: Teixeira, Jose Togo, Republic of—President: Gnassingbe, Faure; Premier: Agboyibo, Yawovi; Min. of Economy, Finance & Privatization: Boukpessi, Payadowa; Min. of Foreign Affairs & African Integration: Ayeva, Zarifou; Min. of Security: Laokpessi, Col. Pitalouna-Ani Tonga, Kingdom of—King: Tupou V, Siaosi; Prime Minister: Sevele, Feleti (Fred); Deputy Prime Minister: Tangi, Viliami; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Tupou, Sonatane Tua Taumoepeau Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of—President: Richards, George Maxwell; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Manning, Patrick; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Piggot, Arnold Tunisia, Republic of—President: Ben Ali, Zine el-Abidine; Premier: Ghannouchi, Mohamed; Min. of Finance: Kechiche, Mohamed Rachid; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Abdallah, Abdelwaheb; Min. of Justice & Human Rights: Tekkari, Bechir; Min. of National Defense: Morjane, Kamel Turkey, Republic of—President: Sezer, Ahmet Necdet; Premier: Erdogan, Recep Tayyip; Deputy Premier, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Gul, Abdullah; Deputy Premiers, Ministers of State: Sener, Abdullatif; Sahin, Mehmet Ali; Min. of Finance: Unakitan, Kemal; Min. of Interior: Aksu, Abdulkadir; Min. of Justice: Cicek, Cemil; Min. of National Defense: Gonul, Vecdi; Governor, Central Bank: Yilmaz, Durmus Turkmenistan, Republic of*—President: Berdymukhammedov, Gurbanguly; First Deputy Premier, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Meredov, Rashid; Min. of Defense: Mammetgeldyev, Agageldy; Min. of Internal Affairs: Rahmanov, Ahmammet; Min. of National Security: Ashirmukhammedov, Geldymukhammed *Berdymukhammedov was elected president Feb. 11, after the death of longtime President Saparmurad Niyazov in December 2006. [See p. 99F3] Tuvalu—Governor General: Telito, Filiomea; Prime Minister: Toafa, Maatia (Nanumea Island); Deputy Prime Minister: Sopoanga, Saufatu (Nukufetau Island); Min. of Finance, Economic Planning & Industries: Paeniu, Bikenibeu (Nukulaelae Island) Uganda, Republic of—President: Museveni, Yoweri Kaguta; Prime Minister: Nsibambi, Apollo; Min. of Defense: Kiyonga, Crispus; Min. of Finance: Suruma, Ezra; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kutesa, Sam; Min. of Justice & Constitutional Affairs: Makubuya, Kiddu Ukraine, Republic of*—President: Yushchenko, Viktor; Premier: Yanukovich, Viktor; Min. of Defense: Hrytsenko, Anatoly; Min. of Finance: Azarov, Mykola; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Tarasyuk, Boris; Min. of Internal Affairs: Tsushko, Vasyl *Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyuk resigned Jan. 30. Volodymyr Ohryzko became acting foreign minister, but parliament Feb. 22 rejected his nomination to assume the post permanently. [See p. 113] United Arab Emirates—President: Nuhayyan, Khalifa bin Zayed al-; Vice President, Prime Minister, Min. of Defense: Maktoum, Mohammed bin Rashid alUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland—Queen: Elizabeth II; Prime Minister & First Lord of the Treasury: Blair, Tony; Deputy Prime Minister: Prescott, John; Chancellor of the Exchequer: Brown, Gordon; Secy. of State for Community & Local Government: Kelly, Ruth; Secy. of State for Defense: Browne, Des; Secy. of State for Education & Skills: Johnson, Alan; Secy. of State for Environment, Food & Rural Af-

fairs: Miliband, David; Secy. of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs: Beckett, Margaret; Secy. of State for Health: Hewitt, Patricia; Secy. of State for the Home Office: Reid, John; Secy. of State for International Development: Benn, Hilary; Secy. of State for Northern Ireland, Secy. of State for Wales: Hain, Peter; Secy. of State for Scotland, Secy. of State for Transport: Alexander, Douglas; Secy. of State for Trade & Industry: Darling, Alistair; Secy. of State for Work & Pensions: Hutton, John; Lord Chancellor: Lord Falconer; Lord Privy Seal & Leader of the House of Commons: Straw, Jack; Leader of the House of Lords & President of the Council: Baroness Amos; Minister Without Portfolio and Labour Party Chairman: Blears, Hazel; Governor, Bank of England: King, Mervyn; Scottish First Minister: McConnell, Jack; Welsh First Minister: Morgan, Rhodri United States of America—President: Bush, George Walker; Vice President: Cheney, Richard Bruce Cabinet—Secy. of Agriculture: Johanns, Mike; Attorney General: Gonzales, Alberto; Secy. of Commerce: Gutierrez, Carlos; Secy. of Defense: Gates, Robert; Secy. of Education: Spellings, Margaret; Secy. of Energy: Bodman, Samuel; Secy. of Health & Human Services: Leavitt, Michael; Secy. of Homeland Security: Chertoff, Michael; Secy. of Housing & Urban Development: Jackson, Alphonso; Secy. of the Interior: Kempthorne, Dirk; Secy. of Labor: Chao, Elaine L.; Secy. of State: Rice, Condoleezza; Secy. of Transportation: Peters, Mary E.; Secy. of the Treasury: Paulson Jr., Henry (Hank); Secy. of Veterans’ Affairs: Nicholson, Jim Congress—President pro Tempore, Senate: Byrd, Robert; Majority Leader, Senate: Reid, Harry; Minority Leader, Senate: McConnell, Mitch; Speaker, House of Representatives: Pelosi, Nancy; Majority Leader, House: Hoyer, Steny; Minority Leader, House: Boehner, John Supreme Court—Chief Justice of the U.S.: Roberts Jr., John. G.; Associate Justices, Supreme Court: Stevens, John Paul; Scalia, Antonin; Kennedy, Anthony M.; Souter, David H.; Thomas, Clarence; Ginsburg, Ruth Bader; Breyer, Stephen G.; Alito Jr., Samuel A. Uruguay, Oriental Republic of—President: Vazquez, Tabare; Vice President: Nin Novoa, Rodolfo; Min. of Agriculture, Livestock & Fishing: Mujica, Jose; Min. of Economy & Finance: Astori, Danilo; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Gargano, Reinaldo; Min. of Interior, Energy & Mines: Lepra, Jorge; Min. of Labor & Social Welfare: Bonomi, Eduardo; Min. of National Defense: Berrutti, Azucena Uzbekistan, Republic of—President: Karimov, Islam; Premier: Mirziyayev, Shavkat; Min. of Defense: Mirzayev, Ruslan; Min. of Finance: Azimov, Rustam; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Norov, Vladimir; Min. of Interior: Matlyubov, Bakhodir Vanuatu, Republic of—President: Kelekele, Kalkot Matas; Prime Minister: Lini, Ham; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kilman, Sato; Min. of Finance & Economic Development: Carcasses, Moana Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of—President: Chavez Frias, Hugo; Vice President: Rodriguez Gomez, Jorge; Min. of Defense: Baduel, Gen. Raul Isaias; Min. of Energy & Petroleum: Ramirez Carreno, Rafael Dario; Min. of Finance: Cabezas Morales, Rodrigo Eduardo; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Maduro Moros, Nicolas; Min. of Health & Social Development: Rodriguez Mierez, Erick Josue; Min. of Interior & Justice: Carrreno Escobar, Pedro Miguel Vietnam, Socialist Republic of—President: Nguyen Minh Triet, Gen.; Premier: Nguyen Tan Dung; Secy. General, Communist Party: Nong Duc Manh; Min. of Finance: Vu Van Ninh; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Pham Gia Khiem; Min. of National Defense: Phung Quang Thanh; Min. of Trade: Truong Dihn Tuyen Yemen, Republic of—President: Saleh, Ali Abdullah; Premier: Ba Jamel, Abd al-Qadir al-; Min. of Defense: Ali, Brig. Gen. Muhammad Nasir Ahmad; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Qirbi, Abu Bakr al-; Min. of Interior: Alimi, Rashid Muhammad al-; Min. of Oil & Minerals: Bahah, Khalid Mahfuz Zambia, Republic of—President: Mwanawasa, Levy; Min. of Defense: Mpombo, George; Min. of Finance & National Planning: Magande, Ngandu Peter; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Sikatana, Mundia; Min. of Mines & Mineral Development: Mwansa, Kalombo Zimbabwe, Republic of—President: Mugabe, Robert; Vice Presidents: Msika, Joseph; Mujuru, Joyce; Min. of Agriculture: Gumbo, Rugare; Min. of Defense: Sekeramayi, Sydney; Min. of Finance: Mumbengegwi, Samuel; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mumbengegwi, Simbarashe; Min. of Home Affairs: Mohadi, Kembo; Min. of Legal & Parliamentary Affairs: Chinamasa, Patrick; Min. of Local Government: Chombo, Ignatius; Governor, Reserve Bank: Gono, Gideon

February 22, 2007

U.S. Agrees to Meet Iran, Syria on Iraq’s Security Bush

Administration

Reverses

Policy.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Feb. 27 announced that the U.S. would attend two conferences in the coming months focused on addressing the security situation in Iraq, and that Iran and Syria would also be in attendance. The administration of President George W. Bush had repeatedly refused to hold talks with the two countries, and had been widely criticized for that stance. Bush had accused Iran and Syria of contributing to the instability in Iraq, and argued that the two countries would use talks to extort concessions from the U.S. in return for renouncing violence. [See pp. 105F2, 85E2, 58A2] Speaking before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Rice said Iraq had organized the regional meetings and had invited “all of its neighbors, including Syria and Iran, to attend.” Administration officials said the first meeting would take place in early March in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, and would also include members of the United Nations Security Council. The second meeting, which Rice herself would attend, would take place in early April somewhere outside of Iraq, and would also include representatives of the Group of Eight (G-8) leading industrialized nations. The meetings would focus exclusively on the security situation in Iraq, and White House press secretary Tony Snow Feb. 28 said there would be no bilateral talks between the U.S. and Iran or Syria at the conferences. Issues such as Iran’s controversial nuclear program, and support given by Iran and Syria to the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah, were not on the agenda. [See pp. 132C2, 102C1] Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki Feb. 28 announced that the Baghdad meeting would take place March 10. U.S. Again Accuses Iran—U.S. military officials had offered further evidence that Iran was supplying Shiite militias with weapons, the New York Times reported in an article datelined Feb. 25. Reporters from the paper had been briefed by the officials the previous week. The officials disclosed details regarding a raid by U.S. forces Feb. 17 in Hilla, a mostly Shiite city 60 miles (100 km) south of Baghdad, in which components for explosively formed projectiles (EFPs)—including concave copper disks and various electronic sensors and triggering devices—had been confiscated. The disks, which became projectile slugs when the explosive behind them was detonated, were difficult to manufacture, the officials said, implying that they were made outside of Iraq. [See p. 90C1] U.S. Army Maj. Marty Weber, an explosives expert, told the paper that only Iranian-backed militias in Lebanon and Iraq had used the weapons design found in the EFPs. The article also cited other experts who expressed skepticism about the link to Iran, claiming that skilled Middle Eastern or Iraqi technicians could copy the design. The U.S. military Feb. 26 displayed to reporters mortar shells, rocket-propelled grenades and components for 150 EFPs that

had been confiscated two days earlier in a raid in Jedidah, a town near Baqubah. Markings on the items indicated that some of them had originated in Iran and the United Arab Emirates, but also in the Iraqi town of Haditha. U.S. Army Capt. Clayton Combs, who had led the raid, Feb. 27 was reported as saying that the unassembled components suggested that insurgents might be building EFPs from materials acquired from both inside and outside Iraq.

Facts On File

®

World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3455* March 1, 2007

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Progress Seen in Baghdad Security Plan—

U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the second-ranking U.S. military commander in Iraq, Feb. 27 said violence was down in Baghdad, but he warned that it was too soon to declare that the new security plan being implemented there was a success. U.S. and Iraqi forces had begun deploying throughout the city, as well as in the western province of Anbar, in recent weeks in order to stamp out the terrorism and sectarian violence that pervaded the nation. [See p. 107A1] Speaking to reporters about the level of violence in Baghdad, Odierno said, “We have seen a decrease in the past three weeks—a pretty radical decrease.” But he added that it was too short a time period upon which to draw any final conclusions. “We have had short periods of time before when there’s been some success,” he said, “and then it changes.” The Associated Press (AP) the same day released numbers it had compiled from police reports that also showed a decline in violence. As of Feb. 26, according to the AP, 494 bodies had been found in Baghdad in the month of February, nearly 50% fewer than the 954 bodies that had been found in January, and almost 60% fewer than the 1,222 bodies found in December 2006. Between Feb. 14, when the plan was officially implemented, and Feb. 26, a total of 164 bodies had been found, fewer than half the 390 bodies that were found during the same period in January. The bodies of people who had been killed—often shot execution-style, and showing signs of torture—were discovered every day in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq. Blame for the killings was typically attributed to sectarian death squads—Shiite militants killing Sunni Muslims, or Sunni militants killing Shiites—or occasionally to other criminal activity. City officials Feb. 26 found the bodies of 25 people in Baghdad. Odierno also announced that the 21,500 additional U.S. troops that had been committed as part of the security plan would all be in Iraq by May. Only one bombing occurred in the capital March 1. The bomb exploded on a minibus carrying government employees in eastern Baghdad, killing one person and injuring four others. Shiite Cleric Reins in Militia— Separate reports issued Feb. 25–26 indicated that Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and leading members of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia affiliated with Sadr, were actively avoiding any conflict with the security efforts.

An article in the Feb. 25 New York Times cited various sources claiming that Sadr had suspended or dismissed some of the more unruly members of the Mahdi Army, and had perhaps designated some of them for arrest. He had also ordered many others to go into hiding, and even to withdraw to Iran, the article said. Sources reportedly claimed that it was an attempt by Sadr to rein in the militia, and to demonstrate his control over it.

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The U.S. military Feb. 26 released a statement claiming that leaders of the Mahdi Army had adopted a policy of “noninterference” with respect to the security plan, waiting to see what its results were. U.S. and Iraqi forces Feb. 27 detained at least 16 leaders of “rogue” elements of the Mahdi Army in a series of raids in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. Those detained were accused of involvement in acts of murder, torture and kidnapping; some were reportedly police officers.

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U.S. agrees to meet Iran, Syria on Iraq’s security; Bush administration reverses policy.

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PAGE 121

China stock plunge reverberates globally. PAGE 123

ICC accuses two Sudanese of Darfur war crimes. PAGE 123

U.S. Army general fired over care for wounded at Walter Reed hospital. PAGE 124

Sen. McCain declares presidential candidacy.

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U.N. authorizes AU peacekeepers for Somalia. PAGE 128

Canadian high court rejects terrorism detentions. PAGE 129

World Court clears Serbia of genocide in Bosnian war. PAGE 130

Suicide blast hits U.S. base in Afganistan during Cheney visit. PAGE 133 *First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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U.S. troops Feb. 23 detained and then released the eldest son of the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the largest Shiite Muslim bloc in parliament. Amar Abdul Aziz al-Hakim had just crossed into Iraq from Iran when he was detained, allegedly for having an invalid passport. Upon his release, Hakim disputed the allegation, and claimed that the soldiers had treated him and his guards very roughly. News of the detention, which was denounced by many as an insult to a prominent political figure, spurred protests by SCIRI members in Basra and Najaf. Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said he was “sorry” for the incident. Lou Fintor, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy, said Hakim “was not singled out” by U.S troops, and that they were “following standard procedure.” The U.S. military Feb. 24 issued a statement claiming that Hakim’s entourage had not cooperated with the coalition forces inspecting them, and that it was Iraqi, not U.S., forces who had held Hakim. A compound belonging to Hakim’s father, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, had been raided in December 2006, resulting in the capture of a senior Iranian military official. [See p. 90A2; 2006, p. 1030G1] Separately, a car bomb Feb. 24 exploded near a compound belonging to the elder Hakim, killing at least three people and wounding nine others. Acts of Terrorism Continue— Violence continued in Baghdad and many other parts of the country Feb. 25–26, particularly in the form of terrorist bombings, despite the apparent short-term success of the security plan. Notably, a female suicide bomber Feb. 25 killed at least 40 people and wounded dozens more in an attack at the predominantly Shiite Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. Also, a car bomb that exploded near the Iranian embassy killed one person. [See p. 26G1] Sadr Feb. 25 released a statement after the university bombing criticizing the security plan, saying it was “controlled and ruled by our enemies, the occupiers”— meaning the U.S.—and that “bombs continue to explode” in spite of it. A spokesman for Sadr’s political bloc Feb. 26 elaborated on Sadr’s comments, explaining that the cleric did not oppose the plan, but believed that Iraqis should be administering it, not the U.S. In another notable attack, a bomb planted inside the building housing the ministry of public works Feb. 26 exploded, killing at least five people and wounding Adel Abdul Mahdi, the Shiite vice president of Iraq. The vice president returned to work later that day after being released from the hospital. The minister of public works, Riyad Gharib, was seriously injured in the blast. Mahdi was about to give a speech when the bomb went off. The room had undergone a security sweep by U.S. soldiers earlier that day. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Senior officials in the U.S. State and Defense departments had said an agree122

ment had been worked out between the two on how to fill reconstruction jobs in Iraq, according to a story in the New York Times datelined Feb. 19. As part of his new strategy for Iraq, Bush had called for the creation of provincial reconstruction teams, but the State Department had found itself at a loss to find candidates for the 350 posts. In January, it asked the Defense Department to offer personnel for one-third of the positions, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates accepted the request in mid-February. [See pp. 10D2, 9C2] † Insurgents Feb. 24 attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint just south of Baghdad International Airport, killing at least eight officers. Two insurgents were killed. † A truck bomb Feb. 24 exploded in Habbaniyah, a mostly Sunni town in Anbar province between Fallujah and Ramadi, killing at least 36 people, including women and children, and injuring at least 62 others. The bomb detonated at a mosque near a school and a police station. The day before, the mosque’s imam had led a sermon in which he denounced Al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group, calling it “a bunch of corrupted individuals.” † President Jalal Talabani Feb. 25 was flown to Amman, Jordan’s capital, for medical treatment after collapsing. It was determined that exhaustion and infections in his sinuses and lungs were the cause of his illness. Talabani March 1 spoke with reporters, saying he would soon return to Iraq and resume working for a “free, democratic, federal and united” country. † Iraq’s cabinet Feb. 26 approved draft legislation regarding the distribution of the nation’s oil revenues and foreign investment in its oil industry. The bill would portion out revenues to the nation’s various regions based on their population, but would give those regions significant autonomy with respect to signing exploration and development contracts with foreign companies. Iraq had among the world’s largest oil reserves, and Bush had demanded that the country share oil revenues among all Iraqis. [See pp. 10B2, 9F1] † An ambulance packed with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber Feb. 26 blew up near a police station in Ramadi. The blast killed 14 people, some of them women and children. † An ABC News/Washington Post poll, published in the Post Feb. 27, showed that 67% of Americans disapproved of Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq, with only 31% expressing approval. Moreover, 67% disapproved of Bush’s decision to send more troops to Iraq, 53% believed that a deadline should be set for U.S. troops to be withdrawn, and 56% believed that U.S. troops should be redeployed, even if doing so would worsen the sectarian violence in Iraq. † Conflicting reports Feb. 27 emerged regarding a possible car bombing in Ramadi. Local officials claimed that a car bomb had detonated near a soccer field that day, killing 16 children and one or more women, though some claimed the bombing had occurred a day earlier. U.S. officials said

they had no information about any such attack, but said U.S. troops had destroyed a cache of weapons in Ramadi Feb. 27. The operation caused a large explosion that had accidentally injured dozens of people, including some children, though none of the wounds were fatal. † A car bomb Feb. 28 exploded in a commercial district in western Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding roughly 20 more. † Two soldiers March 1 were injured when their OH-58 Kiowa helicopter made a “hard landing” near the city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, according to a statement issued by the U.S. military. The cause of the incident was “mechanical and not hostile fire,” the statement said. [See p. 107B2] † The U.S. military March 1 announced that U.S. troops had conducted several raids in Diyala province over the previous three days, killing 10 militants and seizing six caches of weapons. Among the items found were bomb-making materials and a fire truck that had been stolen and was being rigged with explosives. † A spokesman for the interior ministry, Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, March 1 said at least 80 Sunni militants, some of them foreigners, had been killed and 50 more had been captured the day before by Iraqi troops and Sunni tribal forces near Fallujah in Anbar province. “The tribes in this area refused to join Al Qaeda,” Khalaf said, and were cooperating with the government’s security efforts. [See 2006, p. 754B3] † A car bomb targeting the wedding party of a police officer March 1 killed at least five people and wounded at least six more in Fallujah. The bride and groom were both unharmed. „

Facts On File

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jonathan Taylor ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Marjorie B. Bank MANAGING EDITOR (NEWS): Jennifer Dunham MANAGING EDITOR (INDEX): Tamara Fishman COPY DIRECTOR: Marion Farrier SENIOR EDITORS: Mette Bahde, Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Alasdair Denvil, Jonathan Leith, Ben Miller ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ian McGullam COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Faith Barclay, Jane Carlson FACTS ON FILE is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. General Manager: Ken Park. Vice President and Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

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World Financial Markets China Plunge Reverberates Globally. World

stock markets Feb. 27 dropped steeply, led by China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange, whose composite index fell 8.8% during regular trading hours, its biggest one-day loss in a decade. Markets elsewhere in Asia also declined, followed by those in Europe, where the Dow Jones STOXX 50 index (tracking major stocks inside and outside the euro currency zone) lost 2.6%. Later that day, the pattern hit U.S. markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) fell 416.02 points, or 3.3%, by closing time—its worst performance in four years. Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index shed 3.5%. [See p. 2006, p. 994B3] The following day the Shanghai index climbed back 3.9%; the Dow gained 0.4%, but lost 0.3% March 1. Many other markets, especially in Asia, continued to slide, however, and some eastern markets that had been stable Feb. 27 dropped on news of the slides in Europe and the U.S, included markets in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Indonesia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which had lost 1.8% on Feb. 27, fell 2.5% Feb. 28 and 1.6% March 1. Tokyo, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped a further 2.9% Feb. 28 after falling 0.5% the previous day. Economists and news reports offered various explanations for what had contributed to the steep slides. Chinese officials had recently warned banks against making loans that borrowers would use to speculate in the stock market, which had been rising rapidly all year long. There were also rumors in China that the government would impose a capital gains tax on stocks. In the U.S., a weaker than expected report on durable goods orders and a continuing decline in the housing market reportedly fed investor jitters. [See pp. 126D1, B2] Former U.S. Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan Feb. 27 gave a speech by satellite to a business conference in Hong Kong in which he said he could not rule out the possibility that the U.S. was headed for a recession. Although he did not predict such a recession, media outlets over the next couple of days reported that investors might have interpreted his remarks as a bad sign of the country’s economic health and reacted by selling stocks. The current chairman of the Fed, the nation’s central bank, Ben Bernanke, had recently suggested that inflation was a greater present concern among policy-makers than an economic slowdown. In the wake of the sell-off, Bernanke sought to reassure investors, telling the U.S. House Budget Committee Feb. 28 that the markets were “working well, normally.” Greenspan March 1 told a Tokyo audience that a U.S. recession was not “probable.” Many analysts noted that the sequence of stock slides underscored how great an influence the Chinese economy now had on global economic affairs. „ March 1, 2007

ICC Accuses Two Sudanese Of Darfur War Crimes Militia Leader, Government Official Named.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC), Feb. 27 accused two Sudanese men of 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region. The two men were Ahmad Muhammad Harun, Sudan’s state minister for humanitarian affairs, and Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman (also known as Ali Kushayb), a leader of government-backed Arab militias known as the Janjaweed. They were the first people to be named by the ICC in connection with the Darfur conflict. It was the first step in a process that could lead to their indictment by the ICC. [See p. 65A1, F2; 2006, p. 472F1] More than 200,000 people had died and some 2.5 million others had been driven from their homes in Darfur since 2003, amid fighting between local rebel groups and the Janjaweed. The Janjaweed had been accused of terrorizing the population of Darfur, attacking, looting and razing villages, killing civilians and raping women. A 7,000-member African Union (AU) peacekeeping force had been unable to quell the violence. The United Nations in 2006 had approved peacekeepers for Darfur, but Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had thus far resisted international pressure to allow such a force. Moreno-Ocampo released a 94-page document detailing the crimes allegedly committed by the two suspects, as well as about 100 pages of evidence. He alleged that the government had recruited the Janjaweed to target civilians in Darfur after rebels attacked the airport at El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, in April 2003. At that time, Harun had been the minister of state for the interior and was responsible for Darfur’s security. He allegedly gave out money, weapons and ammunition to militias in Darfur, and incited an attack on the town of Mukjar in August 2003. The ICC alleged that Rahman had led that attack, as well as attacks on three other villages between August 2003 and March 2004. Rahman allegedly “issued orders to militia/Janjaweed and armed forces to victimize the civilian populations through mass rape and other sexual offenses, killings, torture, inhumane acts, pillaging and looting of residences and market places,” Moreno-Ocampo said in the document. Sudan’s justice minister, Mohammed Ali al-Mardi, Feb. 27 called the evidence offered by Moreno-Ocampo “lies.” He said Sudan did not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction, and that the Sudanese government would try those alleged to have committed abuses. Rahman had been arrested in Sudan in November 2006. The ICC was prevented from charging people who were already being prosecuted for the same crimes in another jurisdiction. Moreno-Ocampo said the accusations he was making against Rahman were for different crimes than those he was accused of in Sudan. As the next step in the case, ICC

judges would determine whether to issue summonses or arrest warrants to Harun and Rahman. The ICC’s move was welcomed by human rights organizations. However, some international aid groups expressed fear that it could hamper relief efforts, as well as further complicate negotiations to bring a U.N. peacekeeping force into the region.

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Ban Calls for Central Africa Force—

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Feb. 21 called for an 11,000-member peacekeeping force to be sent to eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic. Both countries abutted Darfur, and violence there had spilled over the borders. Chad and the Central African Republic had accused Sudan of allowing rebels to launch attacks from Darfur. Ban made the recommendation in a report to the U.N. Security Council. The proposed force was seen as an alternative to sending U.N. troops to Darfur. [See 2006, pp. 1011B3, 979A2] Chad’s deputy foreign minister, Djidda Moussa Outman, Feb. 28 said Chad would not allow an international military force in the east, “but rather a civil force made up of gendarmes and police officers.” Bashir Feb. 15 had met with Chadian President Idriss Deby and Central African Republic President Francois Bozize in Cannes, France, on the sidelines of a FrenchAfrican summit. At the meeting, which was also attended by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Ghanaian President John Kufour, chairman of the AU, the three central African leaders agreed not to support rebels from each other’s countries. However, similar agreements in the past had failed to stop rebel attacks. [See 2006, p. 841C1] U.N. Team Visits Sudan—Jan Eliasson, Ban’s special envoy for Darfur, and Salim Ahmed Salim, an AU envoy, Feb. 12 began a visit to Sudan in an effort to persuade rebel factions that had refused to sign a May 2006 peace accord to return to peace talks. Eliasson and Salim Feb. 14 met with Jar el-Neby, leader of one of the Darfur rebel factions. Neby the next day said his group would respect a cease-fire and return to peace negotiations. Bashir Feb. 20–21 met in Tripoli, Libya’s capital, for talks with other rebel factions hosted by Libyan leader Muammer el-Qaddafi. However, little progress was reported. Meanwhile, Ban Feb. 15 had said Bashir reneged on a promise to allow a U.N. human rights team to visit Darfur. Bashir the next day alleged that some members of the team were “not impartial.” „

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North Korean Nuclear Dispute IAEA Chief Invited. North Korea Feb. 23 invited Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear monitor, to hold talks in March on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program. The invitation followed an international agreement earlier in the month under which North Korea would abandon its nuclear weapons programs in return for foreign en123

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ergy and economic aid and diplomatic recognition. North Korea in 2002 had reopened its sealed Yongbyon nuclear facility and expelled IAEA inspectors overseeing the country’s compliance with its commitments not to develop nuclear weapons. [See p. 89A1] ElBaradei Feb. 23 said his priorities in talks with North Korea would be “a plan to freeze the Yongbyon facilities” and to have North Korea “come back as a fully fledged member of the agency.” United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon expressed confidence that ElBaradei’s trip to North Korea would be a step toward implementation of the agreement. Kim Yong Nam, North Korea’s secondranking leader, March 1 affirmed the country’s intent to bring about “the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” which he called “the dying wish” of longtime ruler Kim Il Sung, father of current supreme leader Kim Jong Il. Kim Yong Nam made his remarks in a meeting with South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae Joung in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital. The two countries Feb. 27 had reopened bilateral talks for the first time since North Korea conducted a nuclear test in October 2006. Return of Frozen Funds Seen—In other signs of progress on the dispute, U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of the Treasury Daniel Glaser Feb. 28 said the U.S. was close to reaching an agreement that would allow North Korea to regain some funds frozen at a Macao bank, Bank Delta Asia SRL, in 2005. The funds had been frozen by U.S. financial sanctions targeting the bank’s alleged role in illicit North Korean financial activities. Glaser said the U.S., the bank, China and North Korea had worked together to identify funds that were related to legitimate dealings and could be returned to North Korea. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the envoy to the talks that yielded the nuclear agreement, Feb. 28 said at a hearing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee that the financial sanctions had been instrumental in forcing North Korea to return to the nuclear negotiations. He said that any return of funds would not mean the U.S. was “turning a blind eye” to criminal activity by North Korea. U.S. Scales Back Uranium Claims—

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Joseph DeTrani, the U.S.’s chief official for intelligence on North Korea, Feb. 27 said at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. had only partial confidence in the assertion that North Korea had developed a secret, uranium-based nuclear program in addition to the known plutonium program that for years had been the focus of international talks on North Korea’s nuclear activities. The Bush administration in 2002 had expressed certainty in that assertion, and cited it as a basis for terminating a 1994 deal intended to freeze North Korea’s nuclear weapons, a step soon followed by North Korea’s announcement that it was reviving its plutonium programs. Unidentified Bush administration officials had confirmed that the U.S. was much 124

less confident that North Korea had made substantial progress on a uranium program, the New York Times reported March 1. Some officials reportedly acknowledged that, if the administration in 2002 had viewed the evidence of North Korea’s uranium programs with the same uncertainty it did now, it might have adopted a different approach to North Korea, as a result of which North Korea might not have progressed to conducting a nuclear test. Sen. John (Jack) Reed (D, R.I.) Feb. 28 said, “The administration appears to have made a very costly decision that has resulted in a fourfold increase in the nuclear weapons of North Korea.” DeTrani said at the hearing that the U.S. had “high confidence” that North Korea had acquired equipment—centrifuges— that could be used to enrich uranium to weapons grade from Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan. But he characterized the supposition that the program was still “in existence” as being “at the mid-confidence level.” In U.S. intelligence parlance, that referred to information that could be interpreted in various ways, or was plausible but uncorroborated. U.S. officials in 2002 had contended that North Korea had admitted in talks to secretly running the uranium program, but North Korea denied making such an admission. The disclosure echoed findings in recent years that intelligence about weapons programs cited by the Bush administration in justifying its 2003 invasion of Iraq had been faulty. It came as the U.S. was arguing that Iran was conducting an illicit uranium-enrichment program intended to develop nuclear weapons. [See p. 132F2] „

Religion Anglicans Meet, Clash Over Gay Rights.

Leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion Feb. 19 issued a statement giving the U.S. Episcopal Church a deadline of Sept. 30 to stop blessing same-sex unions and consecrating homosexual bishops. The statement came during a Feb. 14–19 meeting in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. If the U.S. church did not comply, the statement warned that “the relationship between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole remains damaged at best, and this has consequences for the full participation of the Church in the life of the Communion.” [See 2006, p. 1002B3] Seven conservative archbishops at the meeting Feb. 16 refused to take communion with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the U.S. church. The rift between the 2.3-millionmember Episcopal Church and the 77million-member, 38-nation Communion had deepened since the 2003 consecration of the openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Conservative bishops from developing nations in Africa and other regions had called for the expulsion of the U.S. church from the Communion. Several conservative U.S. dioceses had left the Episcopal Church over the issue. „

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Armed Forces General Fired Over Care at Walter Reed.

The Army March 1 relieved Maj. Gen. George Weightman of command of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., following reports that soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan had been housed in unclean quarters and subjected to bureaucratic delays as they awaited reactivation or discharge from the military. The Washington Post had exposed the squalid conditions and neglect in a series of articles published Feb. 17–19. [See 2005, p. 586A3] A statement announcing the move to replace Weightman said that “senior Army leadership had lost trust and confidence in the commander’s leadership abilities to address needed solutions for soldier-outpatient care.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates issued a statement saying, “The care and welfare of our wounded men and women in uniform demand the highest standard of excellence and commitment that we can muster as a government. When this standard is not met, I will insist on swift and direct corrective action and, where appropriate, accountability up the chain of command.” Gates Feb. 23 had toured Walter Reed and formed a commission of retired military officers and former members of Congress to investigate the situation. White House press secretary Tony Snow Feb. 20 told reporters that President George W. Bush, who had visited soldiers at Walter Reed on many occasions, had said to him, “Find out what the problem is and fix it.” Repairs at the outpatient building cited by the Post began that day. Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley March 1 was named to take over as temporary head of Walter Reed until a new chief could be chosen. Kiley, the Army’s chief medical officer, had been commander of Walter Reed until 2004. (Weightman had been commander at Walter Reed since August 2006.) The Post March 1 reported that Kiley had been accused of turning a deaf ear to complaints about outpatient conditions. Kiley Feb. 22 had held a news conference to rebut the Post articles, which he called “one-sided.” „

2008 Presidential Campaign McCain Declares Candidacy on ‘Late Show.’

Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.) Feb. 28 declared that he was running for president during an appearance on CBS television’s “Late Show With David Letterman.” McCain said, “I am announcing that I will be a candidate for president of the United States.” He added that he planned a more “formal announcement” for April. [See p. 109E1; 2006, p. 877F1] McCain, 70, had already been openly campaigning for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, and was viewed as one of the front-runners, along with FACTS ON FILE

former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. In November 2006, McCain had formed an exploratory committee to raise funds for campaign preparations. McCain had finished as the runner-up to then–Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the 2000 Republican presidential primaries. A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Feb. 27 showed that Giuliani had opened a big lead in the Republican field, with support from 44% of party members, trailed by McCain with 21%. Giuliani too had not made a formal announcement so far, although he also had been campaigning across the country. His most explicit statement so far had come during a Feb. 14 appearance on the “Larry King Live” show on the Cable News Network (CNN), when he said, “Yes, I’m running.” McCain Apologizes for Iraq War Remark—

McCain March 1 apologized for remarking on the “Late Show” that the lives of U.S. troops had been “wasted” in Iraq. “I should have used the word ‘sacrificed,’ as I have in the past,” he said, adding, “No one appreciates and honors more than I do the selfless patriotism of American servicemen and women in Iraq.” He had been a prisoner of war for more than five years during the Vietnam War. On the “Late Show,” McCain had said, “Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be. We’ve wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives, over there.” The Democratic National Committee Feb. 28 demanded that McCain apologize for his “callous comments,” saying he “stubbornly supports the president’s plan to escalate the war in Iraq and put more American lives in harm’s way.” (McCain was one of the leading supporters of the “surge,” Bush’s decision to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq.) Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, had recently made a similar apology after he also said, during a campaign swing in Iowa, that soldiers’ lives had been “wasted” in Iraq. „ Vilsack Withdraws From Democratic Field.

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack Feb. 23 announced his withdrawal from the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. At a news conference in Des Moines, the Iowa capital, Vilsack said he had decided that he could not raise enough money to remain competitive in a nationwide campaign against his better-known rivals, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.). “It is money and only money that is the reason we are leaving today,” he said. [See p. 108C3; 2006, p. 908D1] Vilsack, 56, had been the first Democrat to enter the race, at the end of November 2006. In January 2008, the Iowa caucuses would be the first contest in the primary campaign. Vilsack, a long-shot for the nomination, had pinned his hopes on a victory in his home state. Wth his departure March 1, 2007

from the race, the remaining candidates fought to win his endorsement, staff and supporters as they jockeyed for an edge in Iowa. Vilsack’s withdrawal left New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as the only current or former governor among the Democratic presidential candidates. Four of the last five presidents had been governors, while no serving Democratic senator had been elected president since John F. Kennedy in 1960. „

Terrorism Detainees Padilla Ruled Fit for Trial. Judge

Marcia Cooke in U.S. District Court in Miami, Fla., Feb. 28 ruled that Jose Padilla, who was accused of being an operative of the Al Qaeda international terrorist network, was competent to stand trial. Padilla did not testify during the proceedings. His trial was set to begin in mid-April. [See p. 61D1] Cooke found that Padilla was a “knowing participant” in the trial and was able to assist his defense team, qualifying him to be tried. She cited his generally attentive behavior in court, and his signing of a statement claiming that he had been tortured. Cooke said a decision on whether he had been mistreated “is for another day,” referring to a pending motion for dismissal because of government abuse. Defense lawyers had argued that Padilla’s three-and-a-half-year imprisonment in a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., had caused him severe psychological damage, rendering him unable to assist them in preparing a defense. The defense had argued that he should instead be committed to a psychiatric hospital to be “healed” of post–traumatic stress disorder. During testimony Feb. 22, defense mental health experts described Padilla’s alleged psychiatric disorders, which they said were caused by his long confinement under harsh conditions. Patricia Zapf, a forensic psychologist, described him as “immobilized by his anxiety” and distrustful of his attorneys. Forensic psychiatrist Angela Hegarty said the defendant was “very, very anxious about quote-unquote appearing crazy,” and had resisted suggestions that he suffered from mental disorders. Rodolfo Buigas, a Bureau of Prisons psychologist who had examined Padilla at Cooke’s request, in a report introduced Feb. 26 said the defendant had mild anxiety and personality disorders but was competent to stand trial. Defense lawyers had contested his status as a neutral examiner. Prison Officials Testify—Sanford Seymour, the brig’s technical director, Feb. 27 told the court that he had not witnessed any psychological abuse of Padilla. He said Padilla, a Muslim, had occasionally been deprived of his Koran and beddings, and that the windows of his cell were blackened. However, he asserted that Padilla’s other claims, such as one that he had been injected with the hallucinogenic drug LSD, were not true. Craig Noble, a brig psychologist, the same day said he had initially examined Padilla in June 2002 and had again talked with him in 2004. On both occasions, he

said, the defendant appeared to be psychologically sound. Two codefendants of Padilla’s had filed to be tried separately from him, the New York Times reported Feb. 23. Lawyers for the men, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, claimed that the government had conducted a years-long “campaign of public vilification” against Padilla aimed at labeling him a “brazen terrorist.” They argued that a fair trial would be impossible because of “spillover prejudice.” „

A

B

Economy 4th Qtr. ’06 GDP Growth Revised Lower.

The Commerce Department Feb. 28 reported a downward revision in its estimate of the country’s gross domestic product growth during the fourth quarter of 2006, to an annual rate of 2.2%, from the 3.5% reported earlier. The new figure was preliminary and would be revised once more. The downward revision primarily reflected lower private inventory investment and consumer spending on goods, and higher goods imports than were previously reported. [See pp. 126E1, 63E2] „

C

Consumer Prices Grew 0.2% in January.

The Labor Department Feb. 21 reported that its consumer price index (CPI), which measured prices paid for consumer goods by all urban consumers, climbed 0.2% in

D

March Financial Update

(Close of trading March 1 except where indicated)

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index Nasdaq Composite Index London Stock Exchange

12,234.34 1,403.17 2,404.21 6,116.00

Tokyo Stock Exchange

17,453.51

Toronto Stock Exchange

12,981.13

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100) (Nikkei index)

(TSE Composite Index)

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield)

4.55% 5.09%

Currencies (late New York trading) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars)

$0.7851 $1.9589 $0.8528 $1.3186 117.59 11.1545 $0.8183

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.)

$664.45

Silver (per troy oz.)

$14.29

Oil (per barrel)

$62.00

(N.Y. Comex spot price) (London fixing spot price) (Nymex crude future)

Gasoline (per gallon)

$2.35

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel)

$5.43

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

3.7%

Unemployment rate

4.6%

Gross domestic product growth

2.2%

(nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released Feb. 25) (Kansas City market)

(consumer price index 12-month increase through January; see p. 126E1) (January 2007; see p. 81B2)

(annualized fourth-quarter 2006 rate, preliminary report; see p. 125B3)

Prime rate

8.25%

125

E

F

G

A

B

January, adjusted for seasonal variation. The index had risen 0.4% in December 2006. “Core” consumer prices, which excluded volatile Inflation (CPI) food and energy January 2007 0.2% prices, advanced Previous Month 0.2% 0.3% in January, 12-Month Increase 2.1% their biggest one-month rise since June 2006, having risen just 0.1% in December. [See p. 31C1] Unadjusted for seasonal variation, the CPI for all urban consumers stood at 202.4% of its 1982–84 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982–84 would have cost $202.40 in January. „ Producer Prices Fell 0.6% in January.

C

D

E

Producer prices in January dropped by 0.6% after seasonal adjustment, according to the Labor Department’s Producer Price Index (PPI) of prices charged by manufacturers and producers of finished goods, released Feb. 16. The index had risen 0.9% in December 2006. “Core” producer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food prices, rose 0.2% for the second month in a row. Energy prices fell 4.6% in January, while food prices were up 1.1%. [See p. 31B2] The finished goods index, before seasonal adjustment, stood at 160.2% of its 1982 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982 would have cost $160.20 in January. Prices for intermediate—or partially processed—goods dropped 0.7%, following a 0.5% rise in December. Prices for crude goods declined by 6.3%, after a 2.8% gain the previous month. Other News—In other economic news: † The Commerce Department Feb. 27 reported that the value of durable goods orders in January fell by $17.1 billion, or 7.8%, from the previous month, to $203.9 billion. It was the steepest monthly drop since October 2006, and was seen by some to have contributed to a plunge in U.S.

Dow Jones Industrial Average Trading on the New York Stock Exchange

F

Feb. 1 2 5 6 7 8 9 12 13 14 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 26 27 28

G

126

Closing

Volume (in millions of shares)

12,673.68 12,653.49 12,661.74 12,666.31 12,666.87 12,637.63 12,580.83 12,552.55 12,654.85 12,741.86 12,765.01 12,767.57 Holiday 12,786.64 12,738.41 12,686.02 12,647.48 12,632.26 12,216.24 12,268.63

1,686.9 1,427.7 1,408.3 1,473.2 1,475.5 1,600.4 1,631.1 1,319.8 1,451.5 1,516.4 1,376.9 1,355.3 — 1,324.9 1.427.6 1,468.1 1,447,7 1,553.9 2,329.1 2,193.3

stock markets the same day. Orders had grown a revised 2.8% in December 2006 over the previous month, the department reported. [See p. 16F2] † The Departments of Commerce and of Housing and Urban Development Feb. 28 reported jointly that sales of new singlefamily homes dropped by 16.6% in January over December 2006. The new seasonally adjusted annual rate was 937,000 units, down from the revised December rate of 1.23 million units. The median price for a new single-family home sold in January was $239,800, up slightly from $239,400 in December, as revised. [See p. 63E3] † The Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development Feb. 16 reported jointly that the rate of housing starts in January was 1.41 million units, annualized and adjusted for seasonal variation. That was 14.3% below the revised rate for December 2006 of 1.64 million units. Building permits were issued in January at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.57 million units, down 2.8% from December’s revised rate of 1.61 million. [See p. 31D3] „

Supreme Court Wash. Primary Challenge Accepted. The

Supreme Court Feb. 26 accepted a case concerning the constitutionality of Washington State’s primary election system. The system sent the top two finishers to the general election regardless of their party affiliation, and allowed candidates to declare a party affiliation on the ballot without party consent. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had rejected the system on the grounds that it infringed on parties’ right to free association under the Constitution’s First Amendment. The case consolidated two appeals, Washington v. Washington Republican Party and Washington State Grange v. Washington Republican Party. [See p. 48B3] Other News—In other Supreme Court news: † The court Feb. 26 declined to review the case of an Arizona man, Morton Berger, who argued that his 200-year prison sentence for possession of child pornography was unconstitutionally excessive. The case was Berger v. Arizona. † The court the same day agreed to review the case of a man who received an unloaded gun from a police informer in exchange for a supply of the banned drug OxyContin. It was a federal crime to use a firearm in relation to a drug offense; in accepting the case, Watson v. United States, the court decided to rule on whether accepting a gun constituted use. „

Environment Western States Agree to Emissions Plan.

The governors of five Western states Feb. 26 announced plans to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions and institute a “cap-and-trade” program, which would assign limits on the amount of pollution businesses could release, but allowed those sub-

ject to them to sell emissions credits to other companies. Greenhouse gases largely resulted from the burning of fossil fuels, and were thought to contribute to global climate change by warming the atmosphere. [See pp. 73A1, 16G2; 2006, p. 345C1] The states entering into the agreement, called the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative, were Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, California and Arizona. Under the plan, the states would develop a regional greenhouse gas emissions target within the next six months, but set no specific goals or timeline for implementation of the reductions. The group set an 18month deadline for setting up the cap-andtrade system. „

Medicine & Health Governors Seek Children’s Insurance Funds.

Republican and Democratic governors Feb. 26 appealed to President George W. Bush to increase federal funding for the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) during a private meeting. The plea was lodged during the annual winter meeting of the National Governors Association, held Feb. 24– 27 in Washington, D.C. [See p. 77E3] CHIP provided health care to an estimated six million people, largely children, who earned too much to qualify for Medicaid, but could not afford to purchase private health insurance. (An estimated 639,000 adults received health benefits through CHIP.) The program was jointly funded by states and the federal government, but was administered by individual states. Thirteen governors Feb. 24 issued a letter stating that their CHIP programs would exhaust federal funds before the end of the current fiscal year. Those governors asked Bush and Congress for immediate shortterm funding to shore up financial shorfalls. They warned that they would be forced to reduce coverage, increase premiums or restrict enrollment eligibility if the funds were not forthcoming. The federal government provided $5 billion annually to CHIP. However, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the states would fall $700 million short of the funds necessary to continue providing coverage at its current level during the fiscal year. The governors were reportedly offered little support from Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt during their meetings at the governors’ conference. „ Bush Promotes Health Plan Proposal.

President George W. Bush Feb. 21 participated in a roundtable-style discussion in Chattanooga, Tenn., intended to promote his proposed health care tax deduction plan. The plan called for families who purchased health care coverage to receive a $15,000 annual tax deduction, while individuals with insurance would qualify for a $7,500 deduction. [See p. 77F3] Bush argued that the plan would encourage those people not offered health insurance plans through their employer to seek coverage on their own. However, the proposal had received a mixed response from FACTS ON FILE

leading Democrats in Congress, making it unlikely the plan would be enacted in its current form during Bush’s presidency. „ Higher HPV Infection Rate Found. Scientists with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in the Feb. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that the prevalence of the human papillomavirus (HPV), strains of which were responsible for 70% of the world’s cervical cancer cases, was much higher than previously thought. [See p. 110F1] The CDC study found that 26.8% of women aged 14 to 59 had tested positive for HPV, and that 33.8% of women in the 14 to 24 category were found to be infected. When applied to the entire population of U.S. women in that category, the latter percentage would indicate that about 7.5 million females were infected with HPV. Previous estimates of the infection rate in the 14 to 24 age group had placed the number at around 4.6 million. Women aged 20 to 24 had the highest infection rate, 44.8%. Eileen Dunne, a doctor and epidemiologist with the CDC who led the research, said the data did not indicate a rise in HPV infection rates, but reflected more accurate data collection. A vaccine that prevented HPV infection had recently been brought to market by its producer, Merck & Co. Some 20 states were in the process of mandating administration of the vaccine to middle school girls. Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) in early February had ordered all girls entering the sixth grade to receive the shot. The trend had elicited fierce criticism from some parents and social conservatives who argued that the vaccine, Gardasil, would encourage sexual activity. „ Former FDA Head Fined, Given Probation.

Lester Crawford, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Feb. 27 was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and fined roughly $90,000 for failing to disclose stock ownership in companies regulated by the agency. He was also required to perform 50 hours of community service. Crawford in September 2005 had abruptly and mysteriously resigned as head of the FDA. In October 2006 he pleaded guilty to charges of conflict of interest and failure to report financial information. [See 2006, p. 797C3] „

State & Local Politics Chicago Mayor Daley Reelected. Chicago

Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Feb. 27 easily won reelection to a sixth term in office, despite an ongoing federal corruption investigation into his administration. If Daley, 64, served the full four-year term, he would break the record set by his father, the late Richard J. Daley, for the longest-serving Chicago mayor. The elder Daley had held office for 21 years, from 1955 to 1976. The son had been mayor for the past 18 years. [See 2006, p. 576C2; 2003, p. 170A1] Daley, who was white, won 71% of the vote in the nonpartisan election. He beat two black challengers: Dorothy Brown, March 1, 2007

clerk of Cook County Circuit Court, who won 20% of the vote; and William (Dock) Walls 3rd, an aide to former Mayor Harold Washington, who took 9%. Only about a third of the city’s 1.4 million registered voters turned out to vote. Results in other elections suggested that Daley might lose some of his dominance over the city council. Labor unions, angered by the mayor’s 2006 veto of a minimum-wage ordinance for large retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., had backed challengers to aldermen allied to Daley. Several incumbents either lost or were forced into runoffs. [See 2006, p. 732G2] „

Aviation JetBlue Delays Lead to Customer Outcry.

An ice storm Feb. 14 stranded nine airliners operated by JetBlue Airways Corp. on the runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, leaving hundreds of passengers trapped for up to 10 hours without food as airline employees refused to let them off the planes. JetBlue canceled 279 of its 503 flights later that day, and cancellations continued into the following weekend, with over 1,100 flights called off through Feb. 19. JetBlue was founded in 1999 as a low-fare airline, and had consistently led the aviation industry in consumer satisfaction surveys. [See 2004, p. 694B1; 2003, p. 1057E3] The ordeal infuriated many airline passengers, and federal legislators renewed calls for a passengers’ bill of rights. However, the aviation industry dismissed such proposals as onerous, saying individual companies were better suited to deal with such delays and compensate customers. The Feb. 14 incident was one of the worst in recent years. A Northwest Airlines flight in January 1999 had arrived in Detroit, Mich., 22 hours late and sat on the ground for an additional eight hours. A flight operated by AMR Corp.’s American Airlines in December 2006 had been stranded on an Austin, Texas, runway for eight hours due to bad weather. Both airlines said they subsequently put into place standard procedures for dealing with such situations. [See 1999, p. 690G2] Department of Transportation statistics showed that nearly two JetBlue flights per 1,000 had been stuck on the runway for more than two hours in 2006, the secondworst showing out of 20 airlines surveyed. JetBlue Vows Reforms—David Neelemann, the founder and chief executive of JetBlue, in an interview with the New York Times Feb. 18 said he was “humiliated and mortified” by the incident, and vowed an overhaul of the company’s managerial, administrative and communications operations. He said several key systems, such as weather forecasting and the allocation of pilots and flight attendants, had failed to keep up with JetBlue’s rapid growth. JetBlue, unlike other airlines, had not initially canceled flights on Feb. 14 due to the inclement weather, reportedly because it thought the storm would break. It subse-

quently experienced difficulties locating enough personnel to alleviate delays. JetBlue Feb. 19 said it would henceforth pay compensation to passengers stranded on delayed flights, and would apply the policy retroactively to the previous week’s delays. Payments would range from $25 discounts on future flights to a voucher for a free flight of equal length, depending on how long passengers were stranded. It also said it would review the aggressive anticancellation policy it applied during bad weather. „

A

B

Mergers & Aquisitions TXU Sold for Record to Private Equity Firms.

The board of directors of Dallas, Texas– based TXU Corp., Texas’s largest power company, Feb. 25 approved its sale to a consortium of private equity groups in a deal worth about $44 billion, the largest private equity buyout on record. The buyers were led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group. The agreed-upon price was $32 billion, or almost $70 per share, plus assumption of more than $12 billion in debt. [See p. 96B3; 2006, p. 1005B2] The deal closely followed several other near-record-setting private equity purchases. It was seen as a test of the willingness of state and federal regulators to approve private ownership of companies in highly regulated industries such as energy. Texas’s own energy market was almost entirely deregulated—more so than that of any other state in the country. In order to bolster the deal’s chance for approval and preempt potential legal challenges, the buyers’ consortium worked ahead of the announcement to secure the support of environmentalist groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council. It promised to abandon a $10 billion TXU expansion plan, under which the utility would have built 11 new coalfired power plants, doubling its carbon dioxide emissions. Instead, it would build three new plants and refurbish some existing ones. The buyers also committed to cutting TXU’s emissions of carbon dioxide back to their 1990 levels by the year 2020, and to joining the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a business alliance lobbying for mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions, blamed for causing global warming. Congress, the state legislature or regulators could still try to block the deal if they deemed that it threatened to drive up consumer prices, or was otherwise not in the public interest. The $32 billion offer represented a 17% premium over TXU’s Feb. 23 closing share price on the New York Stock Exchange. The company operated both coal- and nuclear-fueled plants, and was Texas’s biggest electricity retailer, with 2.4 million customers. Other participants in the purchase included investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Inc., as „ well as some of TXU’s management. 127

C

D

E

F

G

AFRICA

A

Nigeria Antigraft Body Lists Corrupt Candidates.

B

C

D

E

F

G

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria’s antigraft agency, Feb. 7 released a list of 135 candidates set to run in April presidential, legislative and gubernatorial elections who it alleged had been implicated in corruption. It also sent letters to all the major political parties warning that the candidates would be charged with corruption, though it did not have the power to prevent any candidate from running. [See 2006, p. 1013G1, E2] Watchdog group Transparency International had ranked Nigeria as one of the world’s most corrupt countries. President Olusegun Obasanjo had focused on stamping out graft during his eight-year rule, but some alleged that he had selectively targeted those who opposed him. The list included Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who in 2006 had defected from the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and become the presidential candidate for the Action Congress (AC), a coalition of opposition parties. Abubakar had faced corruption charges in 2006, but alleged that they were politically motivated because he had opposed Obasanjo’s bid to change the constitution to allow him to run for a third straight term. In response to the list, Abubakar’s campaign released a statement calling it “a piece of cheap blackmail.” [See below] According to the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), the EFCC’s list named 53 PDP candidates, including five running for state governorships; 39 candidates from the other main opposition party, the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP); and 26 others from the AC. The PDP responded to the list by saying it would drop all candidates who were named. The ANPP, like the AC, rejected the list. Neither the PDP’s presidential candidate, Umaru Yar’Adua, nor the ANPP’s candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, were named by the EFCC. Court Rules Against VP’s Ouster— An appeals court in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, Feb. 20 ruled that Obasanjo could not declare the vice president’s post vacant, as he had sought to do in December 2006 after Abubakar defected to the AC. Had Abubakar lost the case, he could have been stripped of the immunity from prosecution that he held due to his position. Abubakar was also facing another court battle over a 2006 report that had implicated him in a corruption scheme involving U.S. Rep. William Jefferson (D, La.), who was accused of using his position to bribe African officials on behalf of a U.S. firm. [See 2006, p. 949F1] „

Somalia U.N. Authorizes AU Peacekeepers. The United Nations Security Council Feb. 20 unanimously voted to authorize an 8,000-member African Union (AU) peacekeeping 128

force for Somalia. The resolution authorized the AU force for six months, after which it was envisioned that a U.N. force would take over. It called for African nations to contribute troops and other nations to provide financial support. [See p. 83A] Somalia’s transitional government, backed by Ethiopian forces, in December 2006 had retaken power from an Islamist militia that controlled much of central and southern Somalia since June of that year. But violence had increased in Mogadishu, the capital, and other parts of the country since the beginning of 2007 as the Islamists—many of whom were connected to powerful clans—regrouped as an insurgent movement and launched attacks on government and Ethiopian troops. Also, the country’s powerful warlords, who had been suppressed by the Islamists, were reasserting control, contributing to the upsurge in violence. [See below] Ethiopia had begun pulling out its troops in January, and a foreign peacekeeping force was seen as necessary for the weak transitional government to maintain power and stability. Islamic insurgents claiming to belong to a newly formed group, the Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations, Feb. 21–22 warned that they would carry out attacks on any foreign peacekeepers in Somalia. Hundreds of Mogadishu residents Feb. 9 had demonstrated against the peacekeepers. The AU as of March 1 had received commitments for only about half of the 8,000 troops. Uganda had pledged the most, with 1,500. Burundi, Nigeria, Malawi and Ghana had also offered to send troops. An advance team of military officers from Uganda March 1 arrived in Baidoa, the base of the interim government located about 155 miles (250 km) northwest of Mogadishu, the capital. The exact date of the troops’ deployment was being kept secret, officials said, due to the threat of attacks from the Islamists. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at a sendoff ceremony said Ugandan troops would not attempt to disarm Somali militias. The AU Feb. 28 appealed for funding for the mission from the international community. Violence Increases in Capital— Fifteen people, mainly civilians, were killed and 45 others were injured Feb. 20 as they were caught in the cross-fire of a battle between Islamists and pro-government forces in Mogadishu. The Islamists had reportedly sparked the fighting by shelling the presidential palace and the city’s port. The violence was seen as a symptom of the growing unrest in the capital. Several other outbursts of violence, including gun battles, mortar attacks and car bombings, had also resulted in civilian casualties. Hundreds of families had reportedly fled the city due to the increased violence, and hospitals were reportedly having trouble coping with the large numbers of wounded. The International Committee of the Red Cross Feb. 24 said more than 430 people,

primarily civilians, had been admitted to hospitals in Mogadishu since January. Other News—In other Somalia news: † The New York Times Feb. 23 reported that the U.S. military had secretly used an airstrip in eastern Ethiopia to launch air strikes against alleged Al Qaeda terrorist network members hiding among the fleeing Islamists in southern Somalia in January. The Times also reported that the U.S. had given Ethiopia information on the Islamists’ movements that was obtained from spy satellites. The U.S. had failed to kill or capture any of the intended Al Qaeda targets in the strikes. Bereket Simon, a close adviser to Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi, Feb. 23 denied the Times report, saying the newspaper “fabricated” the story. † At least 112 Somali and Ethiopian migrants died when a boat bound for Yemen that was smuggling people sank Feb. 12 in the Gulf of Aden, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Feb. 16. The UNHCR said the operators of a second smugglers’ boat, which had arrived to assist the sinking vessel, pushed the migrants it was carrying overboard in order to make room for fellow smugglers from the first boat. „

AMERICAS

Brazil Violence Precedes Carnival Celebrations.

Carnival celebrations Feb. 17 began in Rio de Janeiro, after the city had been plagued by several violent deaths and a fatal police shootout with drug traffickers. Hundreds of federal police officers in December 2006 and January had been dispatched to Rio in an effort to quell gang violence that had plagued the city. An additional 30,000 city police were deployed during the Carnival celebrations. Reports indicated a brief lull in violence during the festival, which ended Feb. 21. [See 2006, p. 1016B1; 2003, p. 150A1] Paramilitary elements composed of former police officers, military officials and firemen in recent weeks had begun expelling drug gangs from the city’s slums, known as favelas. Much of the recent violence reportedly had resulted from clashes between gangs and paramilitary groups. With eight million residents, Rio was one of the largest cities in the world, and had an exceptionally high murder rate of roughly 50 per 100,000 residents. A six-year-old boy Feb. 7 was killed during a carjacking in a poor section of Rio. The boy reportedly had become entangled in a seat belt and was dragged for four miles (six kilometers) to a gruesome death, according to police. In another high-profile incident, Guaracy Paes Falcao, a leader of one of the city’s most famous samba-band groups, and his wife Feb. 13 were fatally shot in their car while leaving the group’s headquarters. Also, more than 100 specially trained federal police officers Feb. 14 raided favelas in the Complexo de Alemo neighborhood in a drug raid, killing six people. FACTS ON FILE

Nine people Feb. 11 had been killed after battles between a drug gang, a paramilitary militia and police. Five members of the gang reportedly had attempted to enter the Rio favela of Kelsons, but encountered resistance from militia elements that controlled the area. Three bystanders were killed during the resulting clash. The gang fled to a nearby highway, where they encountered and killed one police officer. Police forces then shot and killed the five gang members. „

Canada High Court Rejects Terrorism Detentions.

The Supreme Court of Canada Feb. 23 struck down, 9–0, a law used to issue socalled security certificates, documents that had been used to detain foreign-born terrorism suspects without charge for an indefinite period of time. The certificates could also be used to initiate deportation proceedings. The high court found that secret hearings held under the law violated fundamental aspects of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a bill of rights included in the country’s constitution. [See 2006, pp. 897B2, 842A2] The Supreme Court’s ruling required that the federal government inform detainees of the charges against them and allow them to mount a defense. Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin wrote in the court’s opinion that “before the state can detain people for significant periods of time, it must accord them a fair judicial process.” However, the high court delayed the implementation of its judgment for one year to allow the government to formulate a new security certificate issuance process that protected detainee rights guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The law had been challenged by three foreign-born Canadian residents—Adil Charkaoui, Hassan Almrei and Mohamed Harkat—each of whom had been held by the government for several years under security certificates, but denied having any links to terrorist organizations. Two other men, Mahmoud Jaballah and Mohammad Mahjoub, had also been held under security certificates on allegations of terrorist ties and activities. Of the five men, Harkat and Charkaoui were free on bail. Civil rights advocates had long declared the security certificates a gross violation of suspects’ rights. [See 2003, p. 680E2,G2] Security certificates had been created by a 1978 immigration law, and required that the ministers of public safety and immigration both deem a suspect a threat to national security. The documents had historically been used to detain and deport those suspected of espionage within Canada, but after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. had applied to those suspected of having terrorist ties. Commons Ends Terrorism Measures—

The House of Commons Feb. 27 voted, 159–124, to allow two controversial parts of the 2001 Antiterrorism Act to expire, reflecting a trend toward safeguarding civil liberties in the face of terrorist threats. One March 1, 2007

of the measures had allowed police to arrest terrorist suspects without a warrant and hold them for up to three days without charges. The other measure had granted judges the power to compel secret testimony from witnesses, who faced the threat of jail if they failed to cooperate. [See 2001, p. 941D3] The rules had been passed by the Commons and Senate in December 2001, during the rule of the Liberal Party, but had never been used by the government. The Feb. 27 vote split largely along party lines, with all voting members of the ruling Conservative Party endorsing extending the measures, while members of the three opposition parties—the Liberal Party, the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Quebecois (BQ)—largely voting against an extension. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, condemned the expiration of the measures and the Liberals who had endorsed it. He said, “The Liberals chose internal caucus politics over the national security of Canada.” Liberal Party Leader Stephane Dion had been able to overcome deep divisions within his party to form a united front against the measures. He had said Feb. 19 that party members would be compelled to vote for expiration of the two provisions in a practice known as a “whipped vote.” Members of Parliament who broke with the party line in such a vote were generally subject to punitive measures, including suspension from the party caucus. „ Railway

Company

Employees

Strike.

Roughly 2,800 Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) yard workers and conductors represented by the United Transportation Union (UTU) early Feb. 10 began a strike after failing to negotiate a new contract with the company. The UTU’s previous three-year contract had expired at the end of 2006, and the union had sought increased wages and longer break times during the negotiations. [See 2006, p. 220G2; 2004, p. 233B1] Members of the UTU and CN management Feb. 24 reached a tentative deal that would end the strike. UTU leadership said they had recommended that members return to work, but noted that the strike would officially continue until the agreement was ratified in a vote scheduled for March 26. The one-year agreement set a 3% wage increase for union members in the current year, along with a C$1,000 (US$860) signing bonus. The strike sent wide-ranging ripples through Canada’s economy, as several companies that relied on CN to ship cargo needed to operate their businesses began experiencing disruptions resulting from the strike, which had slowed the flow of goods and materials across the country. Lumber firm Canfor Corp. said it had lowered production at three of its mills due to market forces and the strike, while Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. shuttered an automobile assembly plant, citing a lack of needed supplies, it was reported Feb. 16. Industry analysts estimated that CN was operating at half of its normal capacity during the strike. „

Guatemala Three Salvadoran Politicians Found Dead.

Police Feb. 19 discovered the charred, bullet-ridden remains of three Salvadoran politicians visiting the country for a meeting of the Central American Parliament, which was headquartered in Guatemala City, the capital. The legislators’ remains, and those of their driver, were found in a rural area near the town of El Jocotillo, roughly 20 miles (30 km) southeast of Guatemala City. [See 2006, p. 912C3] Among those killed was Eduardo D’Aubuisson, the 32-year-old son of the late rightist politician Roberto D’Aubuisson, who had founded El Salvador’s ruling party, the National Republican Alliance (Arena). The elder D’Aubuisson had been linked by human rights groups to the disappearance and murder of tens of thousands of people during El Salvador’s 1980–92 civil war. Also killed were lawmakers William Pichinte and Jose Ramon Gonzalez. [See 1993, p. 995B2] Investigators said they had determined that two of the men had died from bullet wounds to the head, but that the other bodies had been so badly burned that a cause of death could not be determined.

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Police Officials Arrested, Slain in Jail—

Four police officials, including Luis Arturo Herrera, head of the country’s national organized crime police unit, Feb. 22 were arrested in the deaths and faced murder charges. Officials said they had not yet determined a motive in the killings, but some officials speculated that the deaths were either linked to the area’s powerful crime syndicates, or politically motivated. A group of armed men Feb. 25 raided the prison where the four arrested police officials were being held, killing all of them. Guatemalan President Oscar Berger Feb. 26 said the attack had been orchestrated by “organized crime gangs” intent on stifling the investigation into the slayings of the Salvadoran lawmakers. It was unclear how the assailants had gained access to the prisoners, as they were able to navigate past eight locked doors at the facility in Cuilapa, 40 miles east of Guatemala City. The prison raid set off 12 hours of rioting in the facility, which housed many members of the violent Mara Salvatrucha gang. Inmates took five people, including the prison director, hostage during the rebellion, but released them unharmed early Feb. 26. „ News in Brief. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu, 48, Feb. 21 announced her candidacy for the presidency, which was set to be determined in elections scheduled for September. Menchu said she had reached an agreement to run as a candidate for the Encounter for Guatemala Party, though that party had yet to officially ratify her standing as a candidate. Menchu, a native Maya Indian, had won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to achieve social justice for the country’s indigenous population. Guatemala had never had a woman or indigenous person serve as president. [See 2004, p. 37B2] 129

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A sinkhole in Guatemala City, the capital, Feb. 23 engulfed about a dozen homes, killing at least three people. Roughly 1,000 residents of the area were evacuated from their homes as a precautionary measure. The sinkhole, which was estimated to be 330 feet (100 m) deep, was attributed to heavy rains and a nearby ruptured sewage line. The bodies of two people killed after the sinkhole opened up were found Feb. 23; a third body was found the following day by emergency workers. „

Venezuela Orinoco Oil Operations Takeover Decreed.

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President Hugo Chavez Frias Feb. 26 ordered by decree the takeover of foreign oil operations in the country’s Orinoco River area. Under the decree, state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) would assume at least a 60% stake in operations run by U.S. firms Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips Co., Britain’s BP PLC, Norway’s Statoil ASA and Total SA of France. [See p. 67C1] The move was the latest in a string of nationalization efforts undertaken by Chavez through his newly acquired decree authority, which had been unanimously approved by the National Assembly in late January. Under the terms of the decree, the foreign companies were given a deadline of May 1 to negotiate PDVSA’s assumption of a majority stake in four operations that produced an estimated 600,000 barrels of oil per day. However, details of the remuneration the foreign companies would receive were not released. Power

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U.S. power firm AES Corp. Feb. 8 agreed to sell its 82.15% stake in Electricidad de Caracas, the country’s largest electricity company, to the Venezuelan government for $739.3 million. Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said minority shareholders could either retain shares in the new state-run entity, or sell their stakes to the government. He added that the government would assume full control of the utility by April 30. The price was comparable to the value of the company’s shares as traded on Venezuela’s stock exchange, and AES representatives characterized the deal as “fair.” The agreement assuaged some concerns that Chavez intended to seize the assets of foreign-run companies without paying fair compensation. Ramirez Feb. 13 signed an agreement that would allow PDVSA to acquire a 70% stake in power supplier Sistema Electrico de Nueva Esparta C.A. (SENECA), owned by the U.S.’s CMS Energy Corp. PDVSA would pay $105 million for the shares. CANTV Stake Purchased—Telecommunications Minister Jesse Chacon Feb. 12 signed a preliminary agreement with the U.S.’s Verizon Communications Inc. to purchase the firm’s 28.5% stake in Venezuela’s largest telecommunications firm, Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV), for $572 million, a price deemed fair by market analysts. Chacon said the 130

agreement “begins the process of nationalization of one of the most strategic companies for the country’s development.” „

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Cheney Visits Japan, Australia Support for Iraq War Praised. U.S. Vice

President Richard Cheney Feb. 20–25 visited Japan and Australia, in a tour billed as an acknowledgment of the two countries’ support of the U.S.’s military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The trip was marred by vocal opposition to the Iraq war in both countries. After leaving Australia, Cheney continued on to Oman, after a brief stop for minor airplane repairs in Singapore. He then went on to make unnanounced stops in Pakistan and Afghanistan. [See p. 133B1; 2006, pp. 890A2, 497F2; 2005, p. 126A3] Cheney Feb. 21 in a speech in Tokyo, Japan, said that “the American people will not support a policy of retreat in Iraq,” adding that the U.S. wanted to finish its mission in the nation and “return with honor.” He warned, “We know that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength, they are invited by the perception of weakness.” The U.S. vice president in talks with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki Feb. 21 thanked the nation for the role that Japanese troops had played in Iraq. The two officials also expressed support for a multilateral “denuclearization” agreement reached earlier in February with North Korea. [See p. 89A1] Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma Jan. 24 had set off a diplomatic controversy when he told reporters that the U.S.’s 2003 invasion of Iraq had been “wrong.” He had criticized the U.S. Jan. 27 for what he said was arrogance in its handling of the Japanese island of Okinawa, which held the majority of U.S. troops stationed in Japan. Foreign Minister Taro Aso Feb. 3 had added to the dispute, saying the U.S. actions in Iraq were “very naive” and that Iraq “is in trouble.” The Japanese Kyodo News agency Feb. 12 reported that Cheney had requested not to meet with Kyuma over the remark. However, a U.S. official Feb. 16 said that they would not meet due to scheduling difficulties, and Kyuma Feb. 20 attributed it to differences in diplomatic rank. Cheney Feb. 21 held a meeting with Aso. Japan in July 2006 had withdrawn its military contingent from Iraq. However, the Japanese government had expressed support for the U.S.’s so-called surge in troop levels, and some 200 Japanese air force personnel based in Kuwait continued to participate in supply operations. Howard Government Lauded— Cheney Feb. 22 arrived in Sydney, Australia, where he was greeted with occasionally violent protests aimed against the Iraq war. He praised the administration of Australian Prime Minister John Howard Feb. 23 for its strong commitment to the Iraq war. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer Feb. 21 had described a pullout of British troops announced earlier in the month as “good sense,” but Howard said

that characterization did not conflict with his government’s decision to leave Australia’s 550-strong contingent in Iraq. [See p. 94F1] Cheney later Feb. 23 warned China that the country’s extensive military expansion and January antisatellite missile tests were “not consistent with China’s stated goal of a ‘peaceful rise.’” However, he praised China for its role in the multilateral agreement with North Korea, and raised questions over whether North Korea would follow through on the terms of the deal. Cheney’s statements about China raised speculation that he was at odds with the policy of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, which had showed an increased tendency to work with that nation. [See p. 45D2] A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Feb. 27 rejected Cheney’s criticisms, saying that China was committed to peaceful development and exerted a stabilizing influence on the world. Cheney Feb. 23 in an interview with ABC News continued an ongoing war of words with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) over U.S. policy in Iraq. Cheney asserted that the Al Qaeda international terrorism network, which he said was the U.S.’s chief enemy in Iraq, was trying to break the U.S.’s will. According to Cheney, pulling troops out of Iraq, as Pelosi advocated, would “validate the strategy of Al Qaeda.” He added, “I didn’t question her patriotism. I questioned her judgment.” [See p. 106F1] Cheney during the interview also expressed optimism over the course of events in Iraq. He said the security of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, was the key to success, and that the government of Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki was “off to a pretty good start.” The statements were seen as a contrast to the position taken by others in the Bush administration who had recently taken a more cautious approach and expressed a less positive view of the situation. [See p. 25D1] Cheney Feb. 25 arrived in Oman for regional security meetings that reportedly included Iran’s nuclear program on their agenda, before heading on to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Oman, which was located on the southeastern tip of the Arabian peninsula, was closely allied with the U.S. and allowed it the use of several air force bases.„

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World Court Clears Serbia of Genocide in Bosnian War Failure to Avert Crimes Cited. The International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands, known also as the World Court, Feb. 26 ruled that Serbia had not committed the crime of genocide in the 1992–95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the disintegration of Yugoslavia. However, the court condemned Serbia’s failure to prevent the 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, in Bosnia, which was carried out by Bosnian Serb forces with ties to Serbia, and FACTS ON FILE

to bring chief suspects in the killings to justice. The case, brought to the court by Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993, was the first in which the court ruled on whether a state was responsible for genocide. An international panel of 15 judges, led by Rosalyn Higgins of Britain, had begun hearings in the case in February 2006. [See 2006, p. 183G1] The court found that the Srebrenica massacre did constitute an act of genocide, but that Serbia, then a republic of Yugoslavia, did not maintain sufficient control over the Bosnian Serb forces to be considered directly culpable. However, it found that Serbia, although it was aware of “a serious risk” of mass murder at Srebrenica, had not taken “any action to avert the atrocities” by exercising its “known influence” over the Bosnian Serb military, which it financed and supplied with arms. That, the court said, constituted a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It also declared that Serbia’s failure to apprehend and hand over the Bosnian Serb commander indicted in connection with the killings, Ratko Mladic, was a violation of those obligations, and ordered Serbia to remedy it. However, since it was exonerated of direct complicity in the genocide, Serbia was not made liable for financial reparations to Bosnia under the ruling. The World Court adjudicated disputes between states. Other legal actions against former Serbian leaders and commanders were pending in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Reaction—A spokesman for Bosnia’s attorneys in the case, Alain Pellet, called the ruling a “moral victory” while acknowledging it as “less of a legal victory.” Haris Silajdzic, who had been premier of Bosnia during the war and was now a member of its collective presidency, expressed satisfaction that the verdict found Serbia in violation of genocide conventions, but called it incomplete for not finding direct guilt or complicity. While some Bosnian Serb leaders hailed the ruling as a victory, the government of the Bosnian Serb republic, known as the Republika Srpska, Feb. 28 issued a statement expressing its “deepest regret for the crimes committed against non-Serbs and condemns all persons who took part in these crimes.” The Croat representative in Bosnia’s presidency, Zeljko Komsic, said, “We must respect the court’s ruling, but I know what I will teach my children.” (Serbs had fought against Croats in the war.) Groups representing victims of the Srebrenica massacre expressed astonishment and outrage, contending that evidence of Serbian complicity in the crime was plentiful. Serbian President Boris Tadic Feb. 26 welcomed the verdict as a vindication for Serbia. However, he lamented that the country remained associated with “war crimes and genocide.” Tadic, who favored the pursuit of closer relations with Western Europe and the U.S., urged his country’s parliament to unequivocally condemn the March 1, 2007

Srebrenica massacre. He warned that Serbia must cooperate on apprehending Mladic or “face dramatic political and economic consequences.” Javier Solana, foreign policy chief for the European Union, said the ruling should be “welcomed” for avoiding the imposition of “collective punishment,” and said it would “contribute to close the page of history.” Other News—In other news related to the 1990s Bosnia conflict: † The European Union Feb. 28 said it would reduce its peacekeeping forces in Bosnia to about 2,500 personnel by June, from the current 6,800. The EU had concluded that Bosnia’s security situation had improved, but said it would be prepared to reverse the move if tensions revived. Britain March 1 confirmed that it would withdraw its entire 600-soldier contingent of the peacekeeping force. The reduced force in Bosnia would reportedly be led by Italy. † The multinational council that oversaw the implementation of the 1995 Dayton accords that ended the Bosnian war Feb. 27 announced that it had extended the mandate of its international high representative’s office by one year. The post had been slated to close in June, but current International High Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling, in an article published in a Bosnian newspaper March 1, said that Bosnia’s leaders had failed to make sufficient progress to govern on their own. Schwarz-Schilling’s term was still to end June 30 after Western governments, reportedly dissatisfied with his performance, rejected his bid for a second term. [See 2006, p. 652G1] † Gojko Jankovic, a former Bosnian Serb paramilitary leader, Feb. 16 was convicted of crimes against humanity in connection with atrocities committed against Bosnian Muslims in the town of Foca in 1992. He was sentenced to 34 years in prison for the crimes, which included murders, rapes and expulsions of Muslim civilians. Jankovic, 52, had been transferred to the international tribunal in 2005, but a number of lower-profile cases, including his, had been moved back to the Bosnian State Court. Jankovic’s was the severest sentence yet imposed by that court in a war crimes case. [See 2005, p. 192E2] † Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the U.N. criminal tribunal, Jan. 30 said she would not seek to renew her mandate after its scheduled expiration in September. She said a successor would seek to finish the court’s agenda by 2010. „

Great Britain Court Approves Deporting Cleric to Jordan.

Britain’s Special Immigration Appeals Court Feb. 26 rejected an appeal by extremist Muslim cleric Abu Qatada against the government’s plan to deport him to Jordan. Prosecutors alleged that he had raised money and recruited members for terrorist groups. Qatada, backed by human rights groups, had argued that he could face torture in Jordan, where he had been con-

victed in absentia on terrorism charges. He was expected to appeal the ruling. [See 2005, p. 556E3] The British government had signed memorandums of understanding with Jordan, Libya and Lebanon, stating that any terrorism suspects extradited by Britain would not be subjected to torture. Human rights groups said the agreements did not provide reliable guarantees. Qatada was one of about 30 suspected extremists of Algerian, Libyan and Jordanian origin who had been detained since August 2005 with deportation proceedings pending against them. Britain had adopted the deportation policy following July 2005 terrorist attacks in London. „

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Italy Prodi Wins Confidence Vote to Keep Office.

Italian Premier Romano Prodi and his center-left government Feb. 28 won a vote of confidence, 162–157, in the Senate, the upper house of parliament. Prodi had submitted his resignation a week earlier after narrowly losing a vote in the Senate on a motion of support for his foreign policy. But President Giorgio Napolitano Feb. 24 refused to accept Prodi’s resignation, and asked him instead to remain in office and put his nine-month-old government to confidence votes in both chambers of parliament. If Prodi lost either vote, he would have to step down. [See p. 112B2] Prodi’s nine-party coalition held a solid majority in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, which was scheduled to vote March 2. The coalition had a one-seat majority of 158–157 in the Senate. There were also seven senators for life. Prodi had lost the previous week’s vote on his foreign policy by two votes. Two senators who belonged to communist parties on the left wing of the coalition had refused to back Prodi’s foreign policy. In particular they objected to his decisions to keep 1,800 Italian troops in Afghanistan and allow the U.S. to expand its military base in Vicenza, in northern Italy. In a speech to the Senate Feb. 28, Prodi called for reform of Italy’s electoral law, which he blamed for creating political instability. The law had last been revised by the previous government, led by Premier Silvio Berlusconi, shortly before the 2006 parliamentary elections. In a move seen as intended to shore up support from Roman Catholic parties on the right wing of his coalition, Prodi had dropped from his agenda a piece of legislation that would have legalized civil unions for homosexual and unmarried heterosexual couples. Three senators for life had abstained from the previous week’s vote, which some commentators said reflected their disapproval of the civil unions measure rather than foreign policy differences. „

Serbia Two Killed in Kosovo Protests. Two people were killed in Pristina, the capital of the Serbian province of Kosovo, during clash131

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es between police and protesters at a Feb. 10 demonstration in favor of independence for Kosovo. The protesters had gathered to voice opposition to a plan to settle the province’s status offered earlier in the month by United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari, because it did not explicitly call for independence. The predominantly ethnicAlbanian Kosovo had been administered by the U.N. since a 1999 conflict between separatist rebels and Serbian forces, which ended after a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombing campaign against Serbia. [See p. 84C2] The two demonstrators were killed by rubber-coated bullets fired by U.N. police seeking to repel protesters who were trying to break through barricades and advance on the parliament building. Kosovo’s interior minister, Fatmir Rexhepi, resigned Feb. 12 over the deaths, and the commander of the U.N. police in Kosovo, Stephen Curtis of Britain, resigned two days later. Also in Pristina, three U.N. vehicles Feb. 19 were damaged in an explosion. A pro-independence group claimed responsibility. Vienna Talks Open—Ahtisaari Feb. 21 began talks on his proposal in Vienna, Austria, with representatives of Serbia and Kosovo. Those meetings, which were expected to last until March 2, were intended to reach agreement on a final proposal that Ahtisaari would make to the U.N. Security Council. Serbia’s parliament Feb. 14 had voted, 255–15, to reject Ahtisaari’s proposal. „

Spain Madrid Bombings Trial Opens. The trial of

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29 suspects accused of taking part in March 2004 bombings of commuter trains in Madrid that killed 191 people, and injured more than 1,700, opened Feb. 15 in a high-security Madrid court. Twenty of the defendants were Arabs, mostly from North Africa, and nine were Spaniards, including one woman. The trial was expected to last several months, with more than 600 witnesses scheduled to testify. The trial was to be broadcast on television and the Internet. [See 2006, pp. 870C2, 286A3] Prosecutors Feb. 15 called one of the three suspected ringleaders of the attacks, 35-year-old Egyptian Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, to testify. The evidence against him included telephone recordings in which he boasted of masterminding the plot. He was charged with 191 counts of murder, as well as membership in a terrorist group, and faced a maximum prison term of 40 years. Ahmed refused to answer any questions from the prosecutors. Questioned by his lawyer, he denied any involvement in the attacks and said he had no “ties with Al Qaeda or any other Islamic group.” He said, “Obviously, I condemn these attacks emphatically and completely.” Ahmed had been convicted on terrorism charges in Italy in November 2006 and received a 10-year prison sentence. He was then extradited to Spain. 132

The two other accused organizers of the Madrid bombings were Moroccans Youssef Belhadj, 30, and Hassan el-Haski, 43. Other suspected leaders of the group had blown themselves up in a standoff with police three weeks after the attacks. The suspects allegedly belonged to a cell of Islamic militants inspired by Al Qaeda. However, some Spanish conservatives continued to claim that the Basque separatist militant group Euzkadi ta Askatasuna (ETA) had been involved in the bombings. [See p. 20G3] In 2004, the conservative Popular Party (PP) government had initially blamed the attacks on ETA, but lost parliamentary elections days after the bombings to the Socialist Party, which accused the PP of trying to mislead the public. „

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Iran Suborbital Research Rocket Launched.

Iranian news agencies Feb. 25 reported that Iran had launched a research rocket that had attained suborbital altitude, an act that put Iran a step closer to being able to launch its own satellites and possibly develop ballistic missiles. The United Nations Security Council had placed sanctions on Iran in 2006 for failing to halt its nuclear program, and the restrictions included a ban on trade involving Iran’s missile programs. The U.S. and many European nations accused Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons, though Iran had repeatedly denied doing so. [See p. 105A1] Initial reports had claimed that the rocket had actually reached outer space, but Ali Akbar Golrou, an official with Iran’s aerospace research department, later clarified that it had only risen 94 miles (150 km) before parachuting back down to Earth. Golrou also said the rocket was carrying equipment designed to perform tests on the atmosphere. Iran had previously launched a satellite on a Russian rocket in 2005, but had stated a desire to launch more satellites in order to increase the Iranian people’s access to cell phones and the Internet. An Iranian newspaper, Etemad-e-Melli, Feb. 25 quoted Iran’s defense minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, as saying that his ministry’s plans included “building satellites, launchers…entering the space club [and] creating missile test centers.” President Pushes Nuclear Program—

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Feb. 25 insisted that his country’s nuclear program would continue despite international opposition. “Iran has obtained the technology to produce nuclear fuel,” he said, “and Iran’s move is like a train that has no brakes and no reverse gear.” He dismissed concerns among Western nations regarding Iran’s recent addition of centrifuges for uranium enrichment, saying they were really just concerned “about the collapse of their hegemony and hollow power.”

Meanwhile, Manouchehr Mohammadi, a deputy foreign minister, addressed the notion that military force might be used against Iran. “We have prepared ourselves for any situation,” he said, “even for war.” Several prominent Iranians Feb. 26 criticized Ahmadinejad for his comments on Iran’s nuclear program, accusing him of making a diplomatic solution to the issue more difficult. Mohammad Atrianfar, a political commentator and confidant of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani—a moderate conservative who was elected to the Assembly of Experts in December 2006—said Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric “is not suitable for a president and has no place in diplomatic circles.” [See 2006, p. 984B2] Representatives from Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey Feb. 25 had issued a statement on the nuclear dispute, saying it was “vital that all issues must be resolved through diplomacy” rather than the “use of force.” The representatives had met in Pakistan to discuss a wide range of current conflicts in the Middle East. Representatives from Germany and the five permanent members of the Security Council Feb. 26 met in London to discuss Iran’s refusal to halt its nuclear activities. The U.S. and Britain were pressing for a new U.N. resolution imposing more sanctions on Iran. In particular, they sought to restrict the travel of officials in Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, and for nations to halt financial transactions involving Iranian banks and officials with links to such programs. The British official presiding over the meeting, John Sawers, said afterward that the group was “committed to seeking a negotiated solution.” Other News—In other Iranian news: † Britain’s Guardian newspaper Feb. 24 reported that several members of Iran’s parliament had demanded that Ahmadinejad apologize for a government examination that used questions that were viewed as “insulting” to the Prophet Muhammad. The exam had been administered to teachers seeking promotion, and employed multiple-choice questions regarding Muhammad’s eating and sleeping habits, hair color and personal appearance. Referring to satiric cartoons that had circulated in European media in 2006, Emad Afrough, the head of the parliament’s cultural committee, was reported to have said, “What is the difference between these questions and the caricatures drawn in Denmark against the prophet?” [See 2006, p. 61A1] † The state-run IRNA news agency Feb. 26 reported that, in accordance with Islamic law, four fingers had been amputated from a person convicted of multiple robberies. Although constitutional, such sentences were rarely implemented in Iran. † Gunmen in the southeastern SistanBaluchestan province Feb. 27 killed four police officers and kidnapped at least one more, fleeing with him across the border into Pakistan. One officer left behind was wounded. Iranian officials complained that Pakistan was not doing enough to police FACTS ON FILE

the border, but Pakistani officials dismissed the allegation. Separately, an Iranian news agency reported that another group of militants crossing over the border from Pakistan that day in the same area were driven back by Iran’s security forces. [See p. 113F3] † Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guard, Feb. 28 claimed that security forces had killed 30 ethnic Kurdish rebels in the last few days in the northwest of the country near the border with Turkey. Safavi said Iran reserved the right to cross the border into Iraq, where he said the militants were hiding out, in order to “neutralize” them. [See 2006, p. 685D3] „

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Suicide Blast Hits U.S. Base in Afghanistan During Cheney Visit Vice President Unharmed; 23 People Killed.

A suicide bomber Feb. 27 detonated explosives outside the gate of the U.S.’s Bagram Air Base, where U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney was staying. The blast killed roughly 23 people, though Cheney, who was a mile away at the time, was unharmed. Another 23 people were wounded. Taliban rebels claimed credit for the attack, saying it was targeted at Cheney. However, Lt. Col. David Accetta, a spokesman for the U.S. military, said it would be “absurd” to view the attack as a direct attempt to assassinate Cheney, since the bomber did not try to enter the base, but instead detonated his explosives amidst people waiting outside. The bomber did, however, manage to make it through a checkpoint manned by Afghan police. [See p. 114D2] The U.S. vice president was in the country to discuss security matters with Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai. Speaking to reporters later that day, Cheney said, “At 10 a.m. I heard a loud boom,” after which Secret Service agents came to his room and “told me there had been an attack on the main gate” and escorted him to a bomb shelter for safety. Cheney said the attack was probably an attempt to “question the authority of the central government,” but added that “it shouldn’t affect our behavior at all.” Cheney flew to Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, later that day for a meeting with Karzai. A U.S. soldier and a U.S. contractor were among the dead, as well as a South Korean soldier. Almost all of the other casualties were truck drivers and laborers waiting to enter the base. U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann Feb. 28 pointed out that Cheney had not been scheduled to be in Bagram Feb. 27, but had stayed an extra day due to a storm that prevented him from traveling to Kabul. Cheney Feb. 26 had met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, and had urged him to do more to stop members of the Taliban and the terrorist network Al Qaeda from using March 1, 2007

Pakistan, and particularly the tribal areas of Waziristan, as a base of operations in order to stage attacks on Afghanistan. [See pp. 133B3, 37D3] Other News—In other Afghan news: † Tribal elders from Musa Qala, which had been overrun by Taliban fighters earlier in the month, had traveled to Kabul to ask the government and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to retake the town, according to an article in the New York Times Feb. 26. The elders claimed that the rebels were incensed at inaccurate air strikes by NATO forces that had killed two of their leaders in Musa Qala, and were harassing residents and accusing them of being informants. Many people were fleeing the town or going into hiding, they added. [See p. 114D2] † British Defense Secretary Des Browne Feb. 26 told Britain’s Parliament that 1,400 more troops would be sent to Afghanistan in the coming months, saying the need for additional British forces was “unequivocal.” Four additional helicopters and four more Harrier jets would be included in the increase. Britain already had roughly 6,000 soldiers in Afghanistan. [See p. 105E2] † Canadian troops Feb. 18 accidentally shot to death a police officer and a homeless man in Kandahar while returning fire at insurgents attacking their military convoy. It was the eighth time in six months that Canadian troops had mistakenly shot innocent people in and around the city. Canadian troops Feb. 27 shot a man to death in Kandahar after he failed to stop at a military roadblock, though no bombs were found inside his vehicle. The city’s residents had complained that such incidents increased whenever a new rotation of foreign troops was deployed. † The U.S. State Department March 1 released its annual report on international antinarcotic efforts, claiming that Afghanistan had produced a record 5,644 tons of opium in 2006. The report said the Taliban insurgency, and weakness and corruption in government institutions were contributing to the increase. Opium, an ingredient in heroin, was a very lucrative crop for Afghanistan’s destitute farmers, and the country was responsible for over 90% of the world’s opium production. [See p. 69G1] „

India News in Brief. Telecommunications firm Vodafone Group PLC of Britain Feb. 11 won a bidding war for India’s fourth-largest cellular telephone operator, Hutchison Essar, in a deal that valued the company

at $18.8 billion. Vodafone beat out Indian rivals Reliance Communications Ltd., the Hinduja Group and the Essar Group, which already owned one-third of Hutchison Essar. Vodafone would buy the other 67% of the Indian phone company from Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. for $11.1 billion in cash and would assume about $2 billion in

debt. Vodafone invited Essar to be its corporate partner. The Central Statistical Organization Feb. 7 estimated gross domestic product growth for the year ending March 31 at 9.2%, higher than the 9.0% it had experienced the previous year, and the fastest annual growth in India in 18 years. The rate would bring India closer to China as the world’s fastest-growing economy. Inflation in January had reached a two-year high of 6.6%, well above the target ceiling of 5.5%. The central bank Jan. 31 had lifted its overnight lending rate to 7.50%, from 7.25%, and Feb. 13 raised the fraction of deposits that must be held in cash by banks to 6%, from 5.5%. India Feb. 14 forbade the export of wheat to rein in prices for domestic buyers. India was the world’s second-largest wheat producer. [See 2006, pp. 966D3, 939A1] „

Pakistan Top Taliban Commander Arrested in Quetta.

Pakistani authorities Feb. 27 had arrested Mullah Obaidullah, a former defense minister in neighboring Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban government, Pakistani officials said March 1. Obaidullah was reportedly the most significant captured Taliban figure since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the regime. Obaidullah’s arrest came on the same day that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney stopped in Pakistan for an unannounced four-hour-long visit during which he met with President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad, the capital. [See pp. 133B2, 115B2] Obaidullah was arrested in the southern city of Quetta, which, contrary to the claims of Pakistan’s government, was said to be the Taliban’s new headquarters, centered around its leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar. Obaidullah had been described as one of the four senior figures on the Quetta Council, a group of Taliban leaders close to Omar. Al Qaeda Resurgence Seen— U.S. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell Feb. 27 told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that Al Qaeda, the global terrorist network, had succeeded in building a new base of operations in northwestern Pakistan and was regaining power, training new recruits and planning terrorist attacks. The New York Times Feb. 18 reported that U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials speaking on condition of anonymity had described how previously unknown Al Qaeda compounds had been discovered there, where militants were receiving orders from Ayman al-Zawahri, the network’s second-ranking leader. The U.S. government had reported that Zawahri and top Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden were no longer in operational control of the terrorist group. Arguments by lawyers for the Pakistani government in an ongoing trial of two men for a March 2006 bombing in Karachi that killed a U.S. diplomat had 133

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posited strong links between militant camps in North-West Frontier province and Al Qaeda–linked terrorist activity within Pakistan. The camps had previously been seen to serve primarily Taliban elements from across the border in Afghanistan. „ Women Stage Armed Madrassa Sit-In.

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Hundreds of female students at the Jamia Hafsa madrassa in Islamabad, the capital, had staged a continuing three-week armed sit-in at a nearby children’s library to prevent the government from demolishing the school, it was reported Feb. 17. Home to 7,000 students, the madrassa, or Islamic school, had been built without government permission on public land. [See 2006, p. 846C1] The protesters, aged seven to 30, were veiled and covered from head to toe. Several had threatened to become suicide bombers if their demands were not met, and at least one woman carried a Kalashnikov rifle. In addition to calling off the demolition, they insisted that 10 other illegal mosques that had been slated for destruction be allowed to stand, along with 71 other unauthorized mosques in the city, and that the government rebuild six that it had already destroyed. Male students at the neighboring Lal Mosque were also holding protests, armed with batons and cane sticks. The two institutions were led by Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid Ghazi, brothers who had reportedly met Al Qaeda terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden. Their sermons included calls for Muslims to engage in a holy war against the West. The government had reportedly prepared a plan to remove the protesters involving thousands of police and army rangers, but had not yet carried it out. It had also begun reconstructing a mosque it had destroyed on Jan. 21. „

Sri Lanka Foreign Ambassadors Hurt in Mortar Attack.

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Rebels Feb. 27 launched a mortar attack on three government helicopters landing in the eastern city of Batticaloa, slightly injuring the U.S. and Italian ambassadors to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake and Pio Mariani. Seven Sri Lankan security personnel were also injured. Other foreign envoys, including ambassadors from Germany, France, the European Union and Japan, and United Nations officials, were traveling in the helicopters, but were unhurt. The foreign representatives were in the area to review development in the region. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) alleged that the military was using such projects to facilitate strikes on Tamil areas. [See p. 87A1] The government Feb. 27 blamed the attack on the LTTE, saying it was deliberately targeted at the foreign officials. The rebel group admitted responsibility, but said it had not known the envoys were on the helicopters and criticized the government for putting them in harm’s way. „ 134

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UNITED STATES

Football AFC Wins Pro Bowl. The American Football Conference (AFC) Feb. 10 defeated the National Football Conference (NFC), 31– 28, to win the Pro Bowl, the annual all-star game of the National Football League (NFL), in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was the AFC’s fifth win in the last seven Pro Bowls. [See 2006, p. 136G1] The NFC scored two touchdowns in the final three minutes to tie the score at 29. Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer then led the AFC on a last-minute drive that culminated in a 21-yard field goal by San Diego Chargers kicker Nate Keading to win the game. Palmer, who passed for 190 yards and two touchdowns, was named the game’s most valuable player (MVP). Other News—In other NFL news: † Two former players, Bernie Parrish and Herb Adderley, Feb. 14 filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Calif., against Players Inc., the licensing arm of the NFL Players Association. The suit alleged that Players Inc. had failed to properly distribute “tens of millions of dollars” in licensing fees from video-game and apparel manufacturers to more than 3,000 former players. The suit was filed on behalf of a group called Retired Professional Football Players for Justice, which represented about 3,500 former players. Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw Feb. 14 denied the accusations, maintaining that the union had paid the former players all the royalties they were due and that some players had not been paid because they had not generated any income. † Four retired players—Lem Barney, Joe DeLamielleure, Mike Ditka and Jerry Kramer—Feb. 1 held a press conference to raise awareness about what they claimed were inadequate pension benefits for former players. (Pensions were paid by the Players Association.) The four men represented a group called the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, which had organized an Internet memorabilia auction that lasted from Feb. 1–13 to raise money for former players. Upshaw, himself a former player, later that day defended the pension benefit levels. † The Chargers Feb. 12 fired head coach Marty Schottenheimer, who had led the team to the best record in the NFL in 2006, with 14 wins and two losses. Team president Dean Spanos cited a “dysfunctional” relationship between the coach and general manager A.J. Smith as the reason for the move. Schottenheimer Feb. 19 was replaced with Norv Turner, a former head coach of the Washington Redskins and Oakland Raiders. [See p. 39E1] † The Dallas Cowboys Feb. 7 hired Chargers defensive coordinator Wade Phillips as their new head coach. Phillips replaced Bill Parcells, who had announced his retirement in January. [See p. 56F1]

† Former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber, who had retired after the 2006 season at the age of 31, Feb. 13 signed a deal to become a football analyst with the NBC television network. [See p. 24D2] „ Six Elected to Hall of Fame. The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, Feb. 2 elected six new members. The class of 2007 comprised guard Gene Hickerson, wide receiver Michael Irvin, offensive lineman Bruce Matthews, tight end Charlie Sanders, running back Thurman Thomas and cornerback Roger Wehrli. A candidate had to be named on at least 80% of ballots cast by 40 professional football writers and broadcasters in order to be elected. [See 2006, p. 136A1] Irvin retired in 2000 after 12 seasons, all with the Dallas Cowboys. The prolific receiver posted seven 1,000-yard seasons, and was selected to five Pro Bowls. He finished his career with 750 total receptions for 11,904 yards and 65 touchdowns. Irvin played on three Super Bowl–winning teams. [See 2000, p. 682G3; 1996, p. 58B2, B3] Thomas, who retired in 2000 after 12 seasons with the Buffalo Bills and one with the Miami Dolphins, won the National Football League’s most valuable player award in 1991. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards in eight straight seasons, and played on the Bills teams that reached four straight Super Bowls between 1991 and 1994. [See 2000, p. 142D2; 1994, p. 74D2] Matthews, who retired in 2001, played for 19 years for the Houston Oilers and then the Tennessee Titans (the franchise moved to Tennessee from Houston in 1998). He played in 296 games, the most ever for a positional player in league history. He was selected for 14 consecutive Pro Bowls, tying the record. [See 1983, p. 339F2] Sanders played from 1968 to 1977 for the Detroit Lions. He was elected to seven Pro Bowls, and had 30 or more receptions in seven seasons. Hickerson played for the Cleveland Browns from 1958 to 1973. He was the lead blocker for three Hall of Fame running backs: Jim Brown, Bobby Mitchell and Leroy Kelly. Hickerson was selected to six straight Pro Bowls. Wehrli played for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1969 to 1982. He recorded 40 interceptions in his career, and recovered 19 fumbles. Wehrli was named to seven Pro Bowls. „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Awards Academy Awards. The Academy of Mo-

tion Picture Arts and Sciences Feb. 25 presented its 79th annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. Comedian Ellen DeGeneres hosted the ceremony for the first time. It was televised by the ABC network. [See p. 56C2; 2006, p. 179A3] FACTS ON FILE

As in 2006, no one film dominated the Oscars. But in contrast to that year, the Oscar for best picture went to the film that also won the Oscar for best director: The Departed, a gangster film directed by Martin Scorsese and set in Boston, Mass. The film gave Scorsese his first directorial Oscar in his six nominations for the honor. The film, which had been nominated for Oscars in five categories, won four altogether, with no other film winning more than three. The Departed’s other Oscars were for editing—longtime Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker won in that category for the third time—and for best adapted screenplay—with the award going for the first time to William Monahan. His screenplay was based on a 2002 crime movie made in Hong Kong, Infernal Affairs. In the acting categories, Forest Whitaker won for best actor and Dame Helen Mirren took the best actress award. Whitaker won for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, while Mirren won for portraying Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen. Both actors had already won a number of other major awards. [See pp. 135E2, 40B1, E1] (Whitaker Feb. 17 had attended the official Ugandan premiere of The Last King of Scotland in Kampala, the country’s capital, accompanied by Uganda’s current president, Yoweri Museveni. The film had been shot on location in Uganda, ruled brutally by Amin from 1971 to 1979. Amin had died in exile in Saudi Arabia in 2003.) [See 2003, p. 663G2] The best supporting actress award went to the front-runner in that category, Jennifer Hudson, for her role as an aspiring singer in Dreamgirls, her film debut. One of her costars, actor and comedian Eddie Murphy, who had been favored to win the Oscar for best supporting actor for his work in Dreamgirls, was, however, beaten out by Alan Arkin, for his portrayal of a heroin-snorting grandfather in the family road movie Little Miss Sunshine. That film won two Oscars; its screenwriter, Michael Arndt, who waited seven years for his script to be produced, picked up the award for best original screenplay. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, the 2000 Democratic presidential nominee, was the narrator of a documentary about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, that won the Oscar for best documentary feature. Gore appeared with the filmmakers to accept the award. A song from that documentary, “I Need to Wake Up,” written by Melissa Etheridge, became the first song from a documentary ever to win the Oscar for best original song. Three of the four songs that it triumphed over were from Dreamgirls, which won only two Oscars, despite receiving eight nominations. [See 2006, p. 767C1] (A Nashville, Tenn.–based think tank, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, Feb. 26 on its Web site claimed that Gore in 2006 had used 20 times as much energy at his Nashville home as the average U.S. household. A spokeswoman for Gore Feb. 27 countered that all the energy consumed March 1, 2007

in Gore’s home was supplied by a program that drew on renewable sources.) Another film with multiple Oscar nominations, Babel, which had seven, won only one Oscar, for best original score. That Oscar went to Argentine composer Gustavo Santaolalla, the winner in that category in 2006 as well, for Brokeback Mountain. An honorary Oscar was presented to legendary Italian film-score composer Ennio Morricone, 78. Morricone received his award from director and actor Clint Eastwood, 76, whose roles in several 1960s “spaghetti westerns” scored by Morricone, including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), had made him an international star. [See 1989, p. 328C3] The winners in the major awards categories were: Best Picture: The Departed Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of

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Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, Little Miss

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League team, the Montreal Canadiens. Richard, who died in 2000, was portrayed by Roy Dupuis, who won the best actor Genie. Other major Genies the film captured were those for best actress—Julie LeBreton— best director—Charles Biname—and best supporting actor—Stephen McHattie. The only acting award that eluded it was for best supporting actress. That honor went to Carrie-Anne Moss, for portraying a sexually adventurous small-town resident in Snow Cake, a British-Canadian coproduction. [See 2000, p. 394F1] Although the Richard movie dominated the awards, it failed to land the Genie for best picture. That award went to Bon Cop, Bad Cop, a comic action film about two bilingual police officers probing a hockeyrelated murder on the Quebec-Ontario border. That film picked up only one other Genie, for overall sound. It was however, the top-grossing Canadian film domestically in 2006, and one of the top-grossing of all time, despite its relatively limited appeal outside Quebec. „

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Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson,

Dreamgirls

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Police in Montgomery Township, N.J., Feb. 17 arrested a suspect in an attack on Nobel Peace Prize–winning author Elie Wiesel, 78, a Holocaust survivor. The attack took place Feb. 1 at a San Francisco, Calif., hotel where Wiesel was attending a peace forum. The suspect, Eric Hunt, 22, who was accused of dragging Wiesel from an elevator and roughing him up, was arrested at a behavioral health clinic. He had reportedly claimed credit for attacking Wiesel on an anti-Semitic Web site. [See 2006, p. 59D3] Prosecutors in New York City Feb. 16 dropped extortion charges filed in December 2006 against artist and musician Yoko Ono’s ex-driver, Koral Karsan, after Karsan pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted grand larceny in the third degree. He was then sentenced to the 60 days he had already spent in jail and was immediately released into the custody of U.S. immigration officials, for possible deportation to his native Turkey. His lawyer, however, said he hoped Karsan would be allowed to leave the U.S. voluntarily. [See 2006, p. 1042E2] „

Best Original Screenplay: Michael Arndt, Little Best Adapted Screenplay: William Monahan, The

Departed

Best Foreign-Language Film: The Lives of Others

(Germany)

Best Animated Feature: Happy Feet Best Documentary Feature: An Inconvenient

Truth

Best Documentary Short Subject: The Blood of

Yingzhou District „ British Academy Awards. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)

Feb. 11 presented its annual motion picture awards. The ceremony was held in London, at the Royal Opera House. [See 2006, p. 159F2] Named best picture of the year was The Queen, directed by Stephen Frears, about the impact on Britain’s royal family of the 1997 car-crash death of Diana, Princess of Wales. For her role as Elizabeth II in that film, Dame Helen Mirren was named best actress. Forest Whitaker was named best actor for his role as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Best director honors went to Paul Greengrass for United 93, a dramatic recreation of the events aboard one of the U.S. airliners hijacked in Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. Alan Arkin was named best supporting actor for Little Miss Sunshine, while Jennifer Hudson was named best supporting actress for Dreamgirls. All four BAFTA acting-award winners Feb. 25 would go on to win U.S. Academy Awards (Oscars). [See p. 135B1, D1] „ Canadian Film Awards. The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Feb. 13 presented its 27th annual Genie Awards during a ceremony at the Carlu theater in Toronto. [See 2006, p. 563D3] The film that dominated the Genies, winning in nine of the 13 categories in which it had been nominated, was Maurice Richard/The Rocket, a French-language film about legendary hockey player Maurice Richard, nicknamed the “Rocket,” who played for only one National Hockey

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EVANS, Ray(mond Bernard), 92, lyricist who with his longtime creative partner, composer and lyricist Jay Livingston, wrote songs for dozens of Hollywood films; seven of their songs were nominated for Academy Awards, and three of them—“Buttons and Bows” (1948), “Mona Lisa” (1950) and “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” (1956)—won Oscars; they also wrote the Christmas standard “Silver Bells” (1951); Evans was less than two months older than Livingston, who died in 2001; born Feb. 4, 1915, in Salamanca, N.Y.; died Feb. 15 at a hospital in Los Angeles, of an apparent heart attack. [See 2001, p. 872G1; 1958, p. 60E2; Indexes 1957, 1949] KIELY, Benedict, 87, Irish short-story writer, novelist, biographer, essayist, literary critic and radio broadcaster; a native of Northern Ireland, he spent most of his life in Dublin, the Irish capital; in the 1960s, he taught creative writing at several U.S. universities; born Aug. 15, 1919, in the town of Drumskinney, in County Tyrone; died Feb. 9 in Dublin; the casue of death was not reported. [See 1951, p. 239B]

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BEST SELLER LISTS

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Publishers Weekly Feb. 26 listed the following hardback and paperback best sellers [See p. 72A1]:

Top-Rated Programs. The following were the most-watched prime-time national television shows Jan. 29–Feb. 25 as determined by A.C. Nielsen Co. (Series marked with an asterisk * had at least one other episode during the period that outranked some of the other programs listed.) Figures in parentheses are rating points; each point represents 1% of the 110.2 million television households in the U.S. [See p. 72A2]:

Fiction Hardback

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1. Step on a Crack, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown) 2. Sisters, by Danielle Steel (Delacorte) 3. The Double Bind, by Chris Bohjalian (Crown/Shaye Areheart) 4. Plum Lovin’, by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s) 5. For One More Day, by Mitch Albom (Hyperion) General Hardback 1. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne (Atria/Beyond Words) 2. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, by Barack Obama (Crown) 3. You: On A Diet: The Owner’s Manual for Waist Management, by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. (Free Press) 4. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) 5. The Best Life Diet, by Bob Greene (Simon & Schuster) Mass Market Paperback 1. Irish Dreams, by Nora Roberts (Silhouette) 2. The Dream-Hunter, by Sherrilyn Kenyon (St. Martin’s) 3. The House, by Danielle Steel (Dell) 4. The Divide, by Nicholas Evans (Signet) 5. The Templar Legacy, by Steve Berry (Ballantine)

Music Best-Selling Singles and Albums. Billboard magazine in its Feb. 24 issue list-

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ed the five most popular singles (as determined by air play and sales) and the five best-selling record, tape and compact disc albums in the U.S. as the following [See p. 72C1]:

Singles 1. “Say It Right,” Nelly Furtado (Mosley/Geffen) 2. “Irreplaceable,” Beyonce (Columbia) 3. “The Sweet Escape,” Gwen Stefani featuring Akon (Interscope) 4. “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race,” Fall Out Boy (Fueled by Ramen/ Island/IDJMG) 5. “Runaway Love,” Ludacris featuring Mary J. Blige (DTP/Def Jam/IDJMG) Albums

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1. Infinity on High, Fall Out Boy (Fueled by Ramen/Island/IDJMG) 2. Not Too Late, Norah Jones (Blue Note/BLG) 3. Daughtry, Daughtry (RCA/RMG) 4. Konvicted, Akon (Konvict/Upfront/SRC/Universal Motown/UMRG) 5. Headstrong, Ashley Tisdale (Warner Bros.) RICHARDSON, Ian William, 72, British stage, screen and television actor; a founding member (1960) of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-uponAvon, England, he remained with it for 15 years, winning acclaim for his portrayals of such Shakespearean characters as Richard II and Richard III; he acted in a number of mostly British films, but his best-known role was as a conniving politician, Francis Urquhart, in the British Broadcasting Corp. TV series “House of Cards” (1990) and two sequels; born April 7, 1934, in Edinburgh, Scotland; died in his sleep Feb. 9 at his home in London. [See 2006, p. 968B1; 1997, p. 252D2; Index 1967] SCHLESINGER Jr., Arthur Meier (born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger), 89, historian, activist for liber-

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al causes, public official, and longtime confidant of the Kennedy political clan; he won two Pulitzer Prizes, with the first, for history, coming in 1946 for The Age of Jackson, a study of early 19th century U.S. politics that focused on the presidency of Andrew Jackson; he later published a comparable, three-volume study of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal policies, The Age of Roosevelt (1957–60); in 1947, he and a number of other liberal Democrats founded the liberal advocacy group Americans for Democratic Action; after the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, to whom he had been a special adviser—on leave from a professorship at Harvard University, where his father, also a historian, had once chaired the history department—he published a survey of Kennedy’s presidency, A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House

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1. “Super Bowl XLI” (CBS), Feb. 4 (42.6) 2. “Super Bowl Post-Game” (CBS), Feb. 4 (28.1) 3. “Academy Awards” (ABC), Feb. 25 (23.6) 4. “American Idol,” (Fox), Jan. 30 (18.6)* 5. “Grey’s Anatomy,” (ABC), Feb. 22 (16.9)

Films Top-Grossing Films. The following were the top-grossing films in the U.S. for

the week of Feb. 16–22 according to Variety. Figures in parentheses were each film’s cumulative box office total and number of weeks in release to date. Information on cast and director is included when a film first appears on the list. [See p. 72B2]:

1. Ghost Rider, Sony ($59.0 million, 1) Directed by Mark Steven Johnson. With Nicolas Cage, Wes Bentley, Eva Mendes, Matthew Long and Peter Fonda. 2. Bridge to Terabithia, Buena Vista ($32.6 million, 1) Directed by Gabor Csupo. With AnnaSophia Robb, Josh Hutcherson, Zooey Deschanel, Lauren Clinton and Bailee Madison. 3. Norbit, Paramount ($64.9 million, 2) Directed by Brian Robbins. With Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Cuba Gooding Jr., Eddie Griffin and Terry Crews. 4. Music and Lyrics, Warner Bros. ($24.1 million, 1) Directed by Marc D. Lawrence. With Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore, Kristen Johnston, Jason Antoon and Billy Griffith. 5. Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls, Lionsgate ($20.3 million, 1) Directed by Tyler Perry. With Gabrielle Union, Avant, Louis Gossett Jr., Idris Elba and Tracee Ellis Ross. 6. Breach, Universal ($14.3 million, 1) Directed by Billy Ray. With Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Laura Linney, Dennis Haysbert and Bruce Davison. 7. Hannibal Rising, MGM Studios ($24.2 million, 2) Directed by Peter Webber. With Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li, Rhys Ifans and Dominic West. 8. Because I Said So, Universal ($35.5 million, 3) Directed by Michael Lehmann. With Diane Keaton, Mandy Moore, Gabriel Macht, Tom Everett Scott and Lauren Graham. 9. Night at the Museum, 20th Century Fox ($239.5 million, 9) [See p. 72C1] 10. The Messengers, Sony ($31.8 million, 3) Directed by Oxide Pang and Danny Pang. With Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller, John Corbett and Dustin Milligan.

(1965) for which he won his second Pulitzer, for biography or autobiography, in 1966; that year, he became a special professor in the humanities at the City University of New York, a post he held until the mid-1990s; he was also president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters from 1981 to 1984, and the group’s chancellor from 1985 to 1988; born Oct. 15, 1917, in Columbus, Ohio; died Feb. 28 at a New York City hospital, after suffering a heart attack at a restaurant. [See 2001, p. 234E1; 1998, pp. 883D1, 833F1, 832G3; Indexes 1991– 92, 1982, 1979–80, 1971–74, 1959–69, 1957, 1952, 1949, 1947] SKOVMAND, Bent, 62, Danish plant scientist, trained in the U.S. at the University of Minnesota, who had been leading a Scandinavian effort, endorsed by about 100 countries, to protect crop diversity in the event of a nuclear war or some other such catastrophe; under his guidance, scientists had been collecting millions of crop seeds for storage in a vault built into the side of a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen in the Arctic Ocean; born Jan. 25, 1945, in Frederiksberg; died Feb. 6 in Kavlinge, Sweden, of brain tumor complications. WHITE, Willye, 67, track-and-field athlete who dominated the women’s long jump in the 1950s and 1960s; she was the silver medalist in that event at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, and was the only five-time U.S. track-and-field Olympian, competing in every Summer Games from 1956 through 1972; born Dec. 31, 1939, in Money, Miss.;

died Feb. 6 at a hospital in Chicago, of pancreatic cancer. [See 2004, p. 616A1; 1963, p. 64F1] WOHLSTETTER, Roberta Morgan, 94, strategic analyst and military historian who, while working for the Rand Corp. think tank, published Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision (1962), an acclaimed analysis of U.S. intelligence failures leading up to the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that pushed the U.S. into World War II; from 1939 until his death in 1997, she was married to Albert Wohlstetter, also a national security expert; they were 1985 recipients of the Medal of Freedom, awarded to them by then-President Ronald Reagan; born Aug. 22, 1912, in Duluth, Minn.; died Jan. 6 at a hospital in New York City, of pneumonia. [See 1997, p. 56G3] WOODS, HARRIETT (born Ruth Harriett Friedman), 79, Missouri Democrat whose narrow defeat by

Republican John Danforth in a 1982 U.S. Senate race led to the creation of the fund-raising group for female political candidates known as EMILY’s List; two years later, she was elected lieutenant governor of Missouri, becoming the first woman elected to statewide office in Missouri; in 1986, she ran for the Senate again, this time narrowly losing to Republican Christopher Bond; after her term as lieutenant governor expired, she served as president of the National Women’s Political Caucus; born June 2, 1927, in Cleveland, Ohio; died Feb. 8 at her home in University City, Mo., of leukemia. [See 1986, pp. 832E2, 583G2, 78B1; 1984, p. 42B1; Index 1982] „

March 1, 2007

Jury Convicts Libby, Ex-Aide to U.S. Vice President Cheney, of Perjury, Obstruction Guilty of Lying in CIA Leak Investigation.

A U.S. federal jury of 11 people March 6 convicted I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, on two felony counts of perjury, one of obstruction of justice and one of making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during a federal probe of the leak of a covert intelligence operative’s identity to the press in 2003. The jury acquitted him on one count of making false statements. Libby became the highest-ranking White House official convicted of a felony in a government scandal since the Iran-contra scandal of the 1980s. [See p. 80B3] The identity of U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative Valerie Wilson, who also went by her maiden name—Valerie Plame—had been made public in July 2003 in a syndicated column by Robert Novak. Shortly before that, Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson 4th, had publicly contradicted the administration of President George W. Bush over its assertion that the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had tried to acquire enriched uranium from Niger. Libby was accused by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald of lying to investigators and a grand jury about his conversations with reporters concerning Plame’s identity and status. In his defense, he claimed that he had merely remembered those details incorrectly. Libby’s sentencing was scheduled for June 5. The presiding judge, Reggie Walton of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., had wide latitude under no-longermandatory federal sentencing guidelines. A prison term of 20 to 27 months was considered probable, according to outside lawyers familiar with the case, the New York Times reported March 7. Libby’s lead attorney, Theodore Wells Jr., said he would ask for a new trial and launch an appeal if his request was not granted. The jury’s verdict came on its 10th day of deliberations, after closing arguments were heard Feb. 20. After the verdict, Fitzgerald said he did not expect to file any more charges in the leak case and described his investigation as inactive. Debate Over Possible Pardon Erupts—

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) March 6 called on Bush to pledge that he would not pardon Libby. A number of conservative media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the next day called for an immediate presidential pardon. Bush March 7 said he would “respect that conviction” and decline to involve himself in the matter until the case was closed in the courts, but added, “On a personal note, I was sad.” White House press secretary Tony Snow said the process for requesting a presidential pardon was “available to anybody.” In 1992, President George H.W. Bush had pardoned six members of President Ronald Reagan’s administration in the Iran-contra affair, including former De-

fense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. [See 1992, p. 972C2] Cheney in a brief statement March 6 said he was “very disappointed with the verdict” and “saddened for Scooter and his family.” Evidence revealed at the trial had generated new questions about Cheney’s role in the Plame affair and in the administration’s use of intelligence leading up to its invasion of Iraq in 2003. Jurors Question Judge—Jurors during their deliberations March 2 sent Judge Walton a note asking for clarification of the standard of “reasonable doubt” beyond which they could find Libby guilty. “Specifically, is it necessary for the government to present evidence that it is not humanly possible for someone not to recall an event in order to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt?” the note read. It was unclear whether it originated with one or more individual jurors or with the panel as a whole. Walton referred the jury to his original instructions, which stated that the government was not required to prove guilt “beyond all doubt or to a mathematical certainty or to a scientific certainty.” In another note to the judge, the jury Feb. 27 had inquired about one of the charges of making false statements leveled against Libby. It reportedly stemmed from a discrepancy between Libby’s testimony to the FBI about a conversation he had had with then–Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in 2003 and Cooper’s account of that conversation before the court. However, the jurors Feb. 28 withdrew the question, saying they understood their task. They eventually found Libby not guilty on that count. Walton Feb. 26 had dismissed one juror because she encountered information about the case outside the courtroom. He said her mistake seemed to have been unintentional, and over objections from the prosecution he ordered the remaining 11 jurors to proceed with their deliberations, already two and a half days old, even though two alternates were available. Libby ‘Forgetfulness’ Ruled Inadmissible—

Defense attorneys Feb. 14 finished their three-day presentation of evidence, having suffered a significant setback when Walton ruled that day that they could not argue that Libby might have forgotten his conversations about Plame with reporters because he was extremely busy with more important concerns than the Plame-Wilson affair. The judge’s decision came after it emerged that Libby himself would not be called to testify, despite hints from his defense throughout the proceedings that he would. Walton complained that Libby’s lawyers were “playing games with the process,” and refused to let them present a government statement to the effect that Libby had been preoccupied with matters of national security during the period in question. He also refused to let them call CIA witnesses to testify about their brief-

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B ings of Libby on terrorist threats and other matters in 2003 and 2004. The defense team also did not call Cheney to testify, contrary to its earlier suggestions. Cheney would have become the first sitting vice president to take the witness stand in a criminal trial. The team Feb. 12 had begun its defense by calling a procession of journalists to the stand, each of whom confirmed that in his own conversations with Libby in the summer of 2003, the defendant had not spoken about Plame. The witnesses were Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler, all of the Washington Post, David Sanger of the New York Times, Evan Thomas of Newsweek magazine and Novak. Pincus, testifying first, said he had first learned of Wilson’s wife’s role from then– White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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Jury convicts Libby, ex-aide to U.S. Vice President Cheney, of perjury, obstruction; guilty of lying in CIA leak probe. PAGE 137

Democrats set deadline for U.S. troop pullout from Iraq; funding bill to include withdrawal date.

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U.S. missile-shield plan for Eastern Europe draws Russian threat. PAGE 141

Army secretary Harvey ousted over poor care at Walter Reed medical center. PAGE 142

Fired federal prosecutors allege political pressure. PAGE 142

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Senegalese President Wade reelected. PAGE 145

Venezuela’s Chavez sets plan to rein in inflation. PAGE 147

Indonesia earthquakes kill 42. PAGE 148

Japanese premier denies World War II forced prostitution. PAGE 148

Filmmakers claim to find Jesus’s tomb. PAGE 150

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Earlier in the trial, Fleischer had testified that he spoke to only two reporters about Plame, neither of them Pincus. The court that day heard a recording of an interview that Deputy Defense Secretary Richard Armitage had had with Woodward in 2003 in which he revealed that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA as an analyst of weapons of mass destruction. Armitage in 2006 had admitted being the primary source for Novak’s 2003 column. A former aide to Libby, John Hannah, Feb. 13 testified that Libby had “an awful memory” on “certain things.” Closing Arguments—Prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg in closing statements Feb. 20 argued that Libby’s motive to lie was clear, and that he had made up a “ludicrous” story about how he learned about Plame. Zeidenberg cited testimony from nine witnesses about conversations Libby had had with them concerning Plame and asked, “Is it conceivable that all those nine witnesses make the same error in their memory?” Lead defense attorney Wells followed by summarizing the case as one pitting Libby’s credibility against that of NBC newsman Tim Russert, who during testimony had admitted to misremembering certain details. “Do not convict Scooter Libby on the word of someone who is suffering public memory lapses,” Wells pleaded emotionally in his closing statement. In his rebuttal to the defense’s closing arguments, Fitzgerald Feb. 20 said, “There is a cloud over the vice president,” which he said “remains because this defendant obstructed justice” and prevented the leak investigation from reaching “the truth.” Juror Grants Interview—Former Washington Post reporter Denis Collins, a member of the Libby trial jury, March 6 spoke by telephone to the New York Times after the verdict was announced. He explained that while the jury was sympathetic toward Libby, the strength and consistency of testimony from witnesses for the prosecution had compelled them to convict. “It was just the arithmetic of it became obvious,” he said. Collins also addressed a notion presented by the defense, that Libby had been made a scapegoat by White House political strategist Karl Rove. He asked, “What are we doing with this guy here? Where’s Rove? Where are these other guys?” Collins said. “I'm not saying we didn’t think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of. It seemed like he was, as Mr. Wells put it, he was the fall guy.” Impact on Press Methods Seen— The Libby trial and the investigation leading up to it were viewed as likely to leave a lasting impact on journalism, especially the principle of confidentiality between reporters and their sources. Judith Miller, a reporter for the Times, had been jailed for 85 days for refusing to answer questions about her conversations with Libby. However, she eventually became a witness for the prosecution, along with several other journalists Libby had spoken to. In 2006, the Supreme Court had denied the Times’s request to stay an appeals court decision allowing 138

prosecutors to review the phone records of Miller and another reporter. Fitzgerald March 6 told the media that prosecutors should regard questioning reporters as “a last resort in unusual circumstances.” He argued that Libby’s case was different from cases involving whistleblowers who contacted reporters to expose government wrongdoing. „

Democrats to Set Deadline for U.S. Troop Pullout From Iraq Funding Bill to Include Withdrawal Date.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.), speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, March 8 said legislation aimed at funding U.S. military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan would include a deadline of September 2008 for the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. The war in Iraq had become increasingly unpopular in the U.S., and various factions of the Democratic Party had been engaging in intense negotiations with each other and with Republicans, in order to craft legislation that would bring about an end to the conflict. Many Democrats were fiercely critical of President George W. Bush’s decision to implement an increase, or “surge,” in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq as part of a joint U.S.Iraqi effort to secure Baghdad, Iraq’s capital. [See pp. 121A1, 114C3, 107F1] Speaking to reporters, Pelosi said the funding measure would include a “date certain” for the troop pullout, contingent on whether Iraq’s government met certain performance benchmarks. If the benchmarks were met—an evaluation Bush would be required to make on July 1 and Oct. 1—U.S. troops would redeploy beginning March 1, 2008, and exit Iraq entirely by September 2008. If the benchmarks were not met on either of those evaluation dates, the legislation would require that U.S. troops redeploy immediately in preparation for withdrawal. Pelosi said the bill would “hold the Iraqi government accountable” for its role in defeating terrorism and sectarian violence in the country. It would also allow the U.S. to “refocus our military efforts on Afghanistan,” she said, describing the conflict there as an “unfinished and nearly forgotten war.” [See p. 149F1] Details of the measure, released by Democratic aides, spelled out the benchmarks that the Iraqi government would be expected to meet. They included the passage of legislation distributing oil revenues to Iraq’s citizens, improvements in the procedures regarding amendments to Iraq’s constitution, and progress in fighting terrorism, sectarian violence and other security concerns. [See p. 122D2] Bush had requested roughly $100 billion from Congress earlier in 2007 in order to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Democratic members of the Senate met behind closed doors March 8 to discuss a measure calling for U.S. troops to be pulled out of Iraq by March 2008. Bush Aides Reject Proposal—Dan Bartlett, a senior adviser to Bush, March 8

blasted the withdrawal deadline outlined by Pelosi, declaring that Bush would veto any legislation including it. Speaking to reporters on Bush’s plane as it flew to Brazil, Bartlett described the proposal as an “artificial, precipitous withdrawal” based on “politics in Washington, [D.C.,] not conditions on the ground in Baghdad.” Bartlett said the deadline would “unnecessarily handcuff our generals.” White House spokesman Tony Snow also criticized the proposal, saying it was designed to “get Democrats happy,” rather than to give U.S. commanders in Iraq the “funding and flexibility” needed to bring about security there. Bush Sees ‘Encouraging Signs’—Bush March 6 declared that, while it was “too early to judge the success” of the new security push in Iraq, “even at this early hour, there are some encouraging signs.” Speaking to military veterans at an American Legion conference, he said Iraqi and U.S. forces were “making gradual but important progress almost every day.” Bush also criticized members of Congress who had been calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, accusing them of wanting to “have it all.” It was not realistic, Bush argued, to think that the U.S. could “find [the terrorist network] Al Qaeda, pursue national reconciliation, initiate aggressive diplomacy and deter Iran’s ambition in Iraq…while withdrawing from Baghdad and reducing our force levels.” [See p. 121E1] U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the second-ranking U.S. military commander in Iraq, had recommended that the additional troops sent to Iraq as part of the new security effort stay on until February 2008, according to unidentified military

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officials cited in a New York Times article datelined March 7. The officials reportedly said Odierno had made the recommendation to Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, but added that Petraeus had yet to make a final decision. U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England March 6 had claimed that anywhere from 4,000 to “as many as 7,000” support troops would be required in order to sustain the 21,500 additional combat troops being sent to Iraq. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Feb. 6 had predicted that roughly 3,000 more troops would be required. Insurgents Target Shiite Pilgrims—Insurgents March 4–7 killed and wounded hundreds of Shiite Muslim pilgrims traveling to the holy city of Karbala. The pilgrims were observing the end of a 40-day mourning period commemorating the death of Imam Hussein in the seventh century. Sunni Muslim insurgents claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, the latest incidents of sectarian violence and terrorism to shake the country. [See below] In one incident, a bombing in Hilla March 4 killed three women and one child, and eight more pilgrims were found in the western half of Baghdad, shot in the head and handcuffed. Several attacks by gunmen March 5 killed at least seven pilgrims in Baghdad, and five more pilgrims were killed in Diyala province. The worst attack came March 6, when two suicide bombers detonated explosives in Hilla, killing at least 77 pilgrims and wounding at least 125 more. Many of the casualties were women and children. The first bomber had attracted a crowd by handing out cakes before detonating his explosives. The second bomber detonated his explosives when people came to tend to the wounded. Several other bombing and shooting attacks on pilgrims that day killed at least 32 people. Abdul Rahman al-Ghrairy, a spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group, claimed credit for the March 6 suicide attacks, saying they were revenge for the alleged rape of a Sunni woman by government security forces, which were predominantly Shiite, in February. Ghrairy said the twin attacks in Hilla had been carried out by two volunteers from Saudi Arabia. [See p. 106D2] Other attacks on traveling pilgrims March 7 killed nearly 40 people and wounded at least 58 more. Security Forces Enter Sadr City—More than 1,100 Iraqi and U.S. soldiers March 4 entered Baghdad’s Sadr City and began conducting security sweeps of the Shiite neighborhood. Sadr City was considered a stronghold for supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, as well as the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia affiliated with him. The Mahdi Army had been providing security for Sadr City, but Sadr had ordered it to stand down as the joint Iraqi-U.S. security push began. Prior to the new push, U.S. forces had rarely entered the neighborhood, since armed clashes were the usual result. [See p. 121B2, G2; 2006, p. 809D2] March 8, 2007

Upon entering Sadr City March 4, the U.S. and Iraqi forces began patrolling the streets, establishing checkpoints and conducting door-to-door searches for weapons and militants. They did not encounter any resistance from members of the Mahdi Army, and there were no reports of significant clashes. U.S. military officials said a joint security station would be set up in Sadr City, and that security sweeps of the neighborhood would continue. Some residents expressed concern that the militia would attack the U.S. troops. Mahdi Army gunmen, however, reportedly had said in interviews that Sadr had commanded the militia not to do so. Rahim al-Daraji, the mayor of Sadr City, said the presence of U.S. troops posed no problem “as long as there is an Iraqi leadership.” He said Sadr City residents “were very cooperative and were very happy because these forces are coming to protect them.” Abdul Razak al-Nadawi, a spokesman for Sadr, March 6 criticized the government for failing to prevent the attacks on Shiite pilgrims, and claimed that fewer pilgrims were killed in 2006 when the Mahdi Army had secured the main pilgrimage routes. He condemned the attacks, but insisted, “We are still committed and comply with the words of our leader, Moqtada Sadr, which call for calm and self-restraint.” [See above] A car bomb March 2 had killed 10 people and wounded 17 more in Sadr City. Maliki to Rearrange Cabinet Posts—

Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki March 4 announced that he would reshuffle his cabinet within two weeks, prompting speculation that members of the political bloc loyal to Sadr would be replaced. The Sadr bloc held several posts in the cabinet, but it had recently staged a boycott of Maliki’s government. The boycott ended in January. [See p. 54E1; 2006, p. 885B1] Aides to Maliki and other Shiite leaders claiming to have knowledge of Maliki’s intentions said the premier would reduce those members loyal to Sadr. In particular, a new legislator would be named for the health ministry, which was deemed to be rife with corruption. Falah Shanshel, a member of Sadr’s political bloc, said any attempts to reduce its presence in the cabinet would be resisted. “We won’t give [the health ministry post] to anyone else,” he said. Shanshel added that his group had sent a list of its own potential candidates to Maliki. Fadhila, a Shiite party with 15 of the 275 seats in parliament, March 7 announced that it was pulling out of the ruling Shiite coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA). Nadim al-Jabiri, a senior member of the party, said the move was “the first step” in an attempt to “dismantle this bloc” and to prevent “the formation of any sectarian blocs in the future.” Another party leader, Bassim Sharif, said the party would try to “build a new politics that is not sectarian.” With the withdrawal of Fadhila, the UIA held 113 seats in parliament.

Raid Uncovers Abused Prisoners—

British and Iraqi forces March 3 raided the offices of a government intelligence agency in Basra, where they found 30 or more prisoners, some of whom had evidently been tortured there. The prisoners, all of whom fled the building after the raid, reportedly included a woman and two children. [See 2006, p. 1030B1; 2005, p. 813A1] Maliki March 4 released a statement condemning the raid, calling it “illegal and irresponsible” and declaring that the government had not sanctioned it. He said the raid would be investigated, and those responsible for conducting it would be punished. The statement did not make any reference to the prisoners found in the raid or the allegations of torture. The British military March 5 released a statement disclosing the intelligence that had led them to raid the building. A terrorist who had been captured by Iraqi forces, the statement said, had told them that the leader of a death squad was in the building.

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Officials Fired for Abuse at Secret Jail—

The interior ministry had dismissed or transferred more than 10,000 of its own employees following an internal investigation into the abuse of prisoners at a secret site, USA Today reported March 5. Jassim Hanoon, a deputy spokesman for the ministry, was quoted as saying that the employees affected were either taking bribes, arresting innocent people, participating in the torture of prisoners or deemed to have links to militias. The last charge applied to more than half of them, according to the report. Hanoon said some of the employees were senior police officials, and some had criminal records. The presence of militia members in the ministry was a “disease,” Hanoon said, which the ministry recognized and was working to fix. “Maybe we aren’t 100% cured,” Hanoon acknowledged. “But,” he added, “we’re getting better day by day.” The investigation had been spurred, at least in part, by the May 30, 2006, discovery by U.S. and Iraqi officials of a secret, ministry-run prison known as “Site 4” in eastern Baghdad. More than 1,400 prisoners— including at least 37 children and teenagers—were jailed there. A report covering the months of May and June 2006, released by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), had stated that the prisoners suffered “systematic physical and psychological abuse” at the hands of ministry officials and were being held in “overcrowded, unsafe, and unhealthy conditions.” The USA Today article also said Akeel Saeed, the interior ministry’s inspector general, had announced that a report containing information about the internal investigation would soon be released. Saeed also said four national police officers, who were accused of suspending prisoners from the ceiling at Site 4 and then beating them with sticks, had been placed under arrest and faced criminal charges. “I do feel we’re having an impact,” Saeed said, “but it takes time, step by step.” 139

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The interior ministry Nov. 6, 2006, had announced that, after nearly three months of investigation into torture and abuse at ministry-run prisons, it had charged 57 of its employees with human rights violations. Those charged included senior officers. Jawad al-Bolani, the interior minister, had declared during the announcement that “whoever abuses power and authority will be held accountable, regardless of their position or background.” Another jail, with conditions similar to Site 4, was found in Baghdad in November 2006. Sunnis had repeatedly claimed to have suffered abuse at the hands of the interior ministry, whose leadership and staff was overwhelmingly Shiite. The U.S. had frequently warned the Iraqi government to prevent such abuse, and had pointed out that the U.S. was legally prohibited from providing financial support to foreign security forces involved in gross human rights violations. Policemen Kidnapped, Bodies Found—

The Islamic State of Iraq March 2 declared on a Web site that it had kidnapped 18 members of the interior ministry in retaliation for the alleged rape in February. The statement also said the group had told Maliki to hand over the suspects in the rape and release all women in government jails within 24 hours. The Web site displayed photographs showing several men in blindfolds with their hands tied behind them. Some of the men were wearing camouflage uniforms. The bodies of 14 or more policemen were found in Diyala province that day, many of them shot in the head, and many of them showing signs of torture. Four of the bodies were beheaded, two others were partially disemboweled, and the skin had been removed from the face of one body. Iraqi officials said the men had been kidnapped March 1 after leaving their base in Baqubah, the province’s capital, after work. Abdul Kareem al-Kinani, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said the bodies found that day did not resemble the men shown in the pictures on the insurgent Web site. “We do not recognize the men in these photos,” he said, adding that “they could be fake pictures.” The Islamic State of Iraq March 3 posted video on the Internet showing the execution of the 18 men shown in photos the day before. A statement read on the video claimed that a court run by the insurgents had condemned the men to death because Maliki had not fulfilled their demands. The insurgent group, which was affiliated with Al Qaeda, had proclaimed an Islamic state in Iraq in October 2006. Roughly 50% of Diyala’s population was Sunni, with Shiites and ethnic Kurds making up most of the remainder. Shiites, however, held most of the political power there. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † A suicide bomber March 7 killed at least 25 people when he detonated his explosives at a cafe in Diyala. 140

† A car bomb March 7 detonated near a checkpoint in southern Baghdad, killing 12 police officers and 10 civilians. † Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki March 7 said Iran would send representatives to a conference discussing security in Iraq to be held March 10 in Baghdad. Iraq had invited its neighbors, as well as the U.S., to attend. Bush had previously refused to meet with Iran and Syria. Mottaki March 5 had expressed reservations about Iran attending the conference. [See p. 121A1] † Nine U.S. soldiers March 6 were killed in two separate roadside bombings, making it one of the deadliest days for U.S. forces in recent weeks. Six soldiers were killed in a huge roadside bombing in Salahuddin province, and three more were killed in a roadside bombing in Diyala. A roadside bomb northwest of Baghdad March 7 killed three U.S. soldiers. [See pp. 106A1, 53B3] † Gunmen led by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, March 6 overran a jail in Mosul, releasing 140 or more prisoners. Some reports claimed that as many as 300 gunmen accompanied Baghdadi. Suspected Sunni insurgents were among the prisoners set free. † A car bomb March 5 exploded near a store in Baghdad, killing at least 26 people and injuring dozens more in an area known for its book and stationery shops. Many cars and buildings nearby caught fire due to the blast. † A U.S. air strike in southern Baghdad March 3 destroyed a car bomb factory. The strike also killed seven members of an Al Qaeda cell said to be involved in car bombings. † A car bomb March 3 exploded in Ramadi at a police checkpoint near a university. Twelve people were killed—at least two of them police officers—and at least 15 more were wounded. † A U.S. air strike in the town of Taji March 2 killed several members of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq and obliterated trucks that had antiaircraft guns affixed to them. U.S. military officials claimed that the group was behind recent attacks on U.S. helicopters. [See p. 122B3] † Gunmen in Ramadi March 1 killed two soccer players in front of their teammates. Prior to shooting them, the gunmen accused the two players of collaborating with the Anbar Salvation Council, a group of 25 Sunni Arab tribes in Anbar province created in September 2006 to fight the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq. [See p. 122C3] „

Middle East Israeli Forces Raid Nablus, Set Curfew. Is-

raeli troops Feb. 24–27 entered Nablus, the West Bank’s largest city, blocking all the entrances to parts of the city and imposing a round-the-clock curfew affecting tens of thousands of people. The troops

conducted house-to-house searches, looking for seven fugitive militants. It was the largest such operation in the West Bank since July 2006. [See p. 91D3; 2006, p. 526G1] Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator for the PA, Feb. 25 both criticized the military action, saying it threatened to disrupt Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts and a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants. PA Premier Ismail Haniya Feb. 26 also condemned the raid, calling it a “criminal Israeli assault.” Israeli troops Feb. 26 shot dead a Palestinian man who they said was seen climbing onto a roof. The man’s son was wounded in the incident. Israeli troops Feb. 27 withdrew from Nablus, after having uncovered three bomb-making facilities and making five arrests during the three-day incursion. Israeli officials said most of the suicide bombers attempting to enter Israel from the West Bank came from Nablus. They added that the facilities they had found were making bomb belts for suicide bombers, and that one contained a studio in which bombers could record their final statements prior to carrying out their mission. Israeli troops Feb. 28 returned to Nablus, reinstituting the curfew and conducting further searches, though no new arrests were announced. Israeli Troops Raid PA Offices— Israeli forces March 7 raided the Ramallah headquarters of the PA military intelligence agency in the West Bank, arresting 18 suspected militants. Roughly 50 more Palestinians at the site of the raid were also held for questioning, though many of them were released by the end of the day. Erekat warned that the raid could have “grave consequences.” Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, justified the raid by claiming that the PA was not doing enough to stop Palestinian militants. She also dismissed the idea of expanding a Gaza Strip cease-fire to the West Bank. The Gaza cease-fire was “one-sided,” she said, given that “Israel is restraining itself, and [Palestinian militants] continue to do whatever they want.” Israel had frequently complained that militants continued to fire rockets at Israel from Gaza and to smuggle weapons into Gaza, both violations of the truce. [See below] Ephraim Sneh, Israel’s deputy defense minister, March 7 claimed that the arrested militants were guilty of attacking Israeli civilians, and were receiving funds from Iran funneled through the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah. Islamic Jihad Militants Killed— Undercover Israeli forces Feb. 28 killed three members of the militant group Islamic Jihad in the West Bank town of Jenin. The Israeli military said the men had helped plan a suicide bombing targeting the Israeli city of Tel Aviv the previous week. Israeli police had uncovered the bombing FACTS ON FILE

before it was carried out. Ashraf Saadi, a senior commander and spokesman for the group, was among those killed in the attack. [See below] Islamic Jihad Feb. 28 fired five rockets into Israel from Gaza, in retaliation for the death of three members. The rockets did not injure anyone. Other News—In other Israeli-Palestinian news: † Israeli police Feb. 26 said two Palestinians had confessed to stabbing an Israeli settler to death the night before in the West Bank. † At least four Palestinian men Feb. 23–24 died in fighting between rival clans in Khan Yunis, a town in southern Gaza. Forty more people were wounded. The two clans had differing political affiliations, one supporting the militant Islamist group Hamas, the other supporting its more secular rival, Fatah. [See p. 92D1] † Egyptian police Feb. 21 caught a Palestinian man with a bomb belt as he entered the country from Gaza through a secret tunnel. Two accomplices were arrested later that day. Following the arrests, Egyptian police Feb. 21–23 scoured the area near the Gaza border and arrested more than 50 additional Egyptian and Palestinian militant suspects. The police expressed concern that the suspects were planning to carry out attacks on Israeli tourists in Sinai. Egyptian officials claimed that three of the militants confessed to plans to enter Israel via Gaza in order to carry out suicide bombings. Egyptian police Feb. 23 found about a ton of explosives hidden underground near Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip. † Israeli police Feb. 20 arrested a Palestinian man in a suburb of Tel Aviv after receiving information that he was planning to carry out a suicide bombing in the city. Once in custody, the man led police to a cache of hidden explosives. Several suspected accomplices were arrested later that day. [See above, p. 58B2] „

Other International News U.S. Missile Shield Draws Russian Threat.

The premiers of Poland and the Czech Republic, meeting Feb. 19 in Warsaw, the Polish capital, said they were both likely to approve the U.S.’s request to base elements of its missile defense system in their countries. The same day, Russia intensified its protests against that plan, which it said it regarded as a threat to Russia. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of Russia’s Strategic Missile Force, said that “if the governments of Poland, the Czech Republic and other countries make this decision,” Russia “will be able to target those facilities.” He suggested that Russia could revive the production of medium-range missiles it had abandoned under a 1987 treaty. [See p. 101F3] Czech Premier Miroslav Topolanek and his Polish counterpart, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Feb. 19 rejected Russian suggestions that the U.S. system was intended to March 8, 2007

neutralize Russia’s deterrent capability. They and the U.S. insisted that the Eastern European sites were intended only to intercept missiles launched from the Middle East, particularly Iran. The proposed locations would render the sites incapable of countering Russia’s missile arsenal, they said, because the installations would be too close to Russia to be able to react in time to a Russian missile launch. Kaczynski Feb. 20 called Solovtsov’s remarks a clear “attempt to intimidate.” Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg called it “blackmail,” adding that “the Czechs will now think the shield is even more necessary.” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Feb. 21 said the proposed missile system would not “diminish Russia’s deterrent of thousands of warheads,” and contended that “there needs to be ways to deal with” what she called “a growing Iranian missile threat.” But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that day insisted that the proposed U.S. installations were “fully suitable to intercept missiles fired from Russian territory.” Rice said the U.S. had had numerous “formal contacts” with Russia about the program. That was in response to remarks by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier Feb. 19 claiming that the U.S. had not consulted Russia enough about it. German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung that day suggested that the U.S.’s missile shield activities could run counter to “our security interests.” [See below] Britain Seeks to Host Missiles—British officials Feb. 23 said the government had asked the U.S. to consider installing some of the missile silos in the shield system in Britain. However, British defense officials Feb. 27 reportedly said that it was quite unlikely that the U.S. would do so. An existing British radar installation, at the Fylingdales Royal Air Force base, was already slated to be a part of the system. U.S. Lt. Gen. Henry (Trey) Obering 3rd, the head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, had said that missiles stationed in Britain, as opposed to Poland, would be in a position to intercept Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles, and could therefore be a legitimate object of Russian concern, Britain’s Financial Times reported March 7. U.S. Plans Caucasus Sites— Obering March 1 said at the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium, that the U.S. would also seek to locate missile defense radar facilities in a country in the Caucasus region. Since the region was to Russia’s immediate southwest and Russia continued to exert its influence there, that plan was expected to intensify tensions between the U.S. and Russia over the missile shield. Obering also said that while the U.S. sought to promote a consensus with its NATO allies over the system, it did not consider their approval necessary. Jung March 2 called for NATO talks on the issue. „

Global Environment Ship Fire Ends Japanese Whale Hunt Early.

Officials with the Japanese Fisheries Agency Feb. 28 said they were ending their annual whale hunt early, after the main vessel in their six-ship fleet was damaged by an onboard fire in which one crew member died. The hunt, which had been scheduled to last from November 2006 until late March, was a highly controversial practice frequently targeted by environmental activists whose aim was to stop the killing of whales. [See 2006, p. 835D1] Although the practice of commercial whaling had been banned by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1986, the Japanese hunt was sanctioned by Japan as a research effort. Japanese officials said their hunt was conducted for scientific purposes, and was limited to killing 850 minke and 10 fin whales in the current expedition. Officials Feb. 28 reported that the current hunt had yielded 505 minkes and 3 fins. Japanese whalers and environmental activists from the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society had clashed several times during the hunt. Activists and whalers Feb. 12 both claimed that their ships had been rammed by the other side’s. Japanese officials Feb. 27 had released videos of Sea Shepherd activists throwing chemicals and smoke canisters at whaling ships, and dropping nets and ropes in efforts to entangle propellers. Japanese officials Feb. 28 said they did not believe that the fire, which had crippled the Nisshin Maru ship, had been caused by the activists. The blaze had left the vessel adrift in Antarctic waters for several days before whalers were able to restart the engines. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark Feb. 26 had called the fire a “disaster,” and said some 343,000 gallons (1.3 million liters) of fuel oil carried by the Nisshin Maru posed an environmental threat to Antarctica. „

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Ivory Trade Threatens Elephant Populations.

A group of researchers Feb. 26 reported on the Web site of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that efforts to halt the illegal slaughter of African elephants for their ivory tusks had largely collapsed. The scientists estimated that some 23,000 African elephants had been killed in 2006 for their tusks, despite a 1989 ban on international trade in elephant ivory. [See 2006, p. 1025B1; 2002, p. 903D2] The scientists had used DNA analysis to trace a shipment of tusks seized in Singapore in 2002 to elephants native to the African savannah. They said the new technique could be used to trace such confiscated shipments to poaching sites and help identify smuggling routes. The researchers also found that most smuggled ivory was sent to Japan and China, where ivory was considered a status symbol. Samuel Wasser, lead author of the report and a conservation biologist at the University of Washington in the U.S., said the elephant population was in greater danger of extinction than it had been before the 1989 ivory trade ban. „ 141

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Army Secretary Ousted Over Poor Care at Walter Reed Gates Displeased by Response to Scandal.

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Defense Secretary Robert Gates March 2 forced Army Secretary Francis Harvey to resign for mishandling reports that soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan had received poor treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The hospital had long been known as the flagship of the military’s hospital system. [See p. 124A3] Harvey, the Army’s top civilian, became the highest-ranking official to lose his post in the scandal over poor conditions at Walter Reed, which had been exposed by the Washington Post in a series of articles two weeks earlier. Harvey resigned a day after Maj. Gen. George Weightman was relieved of command of the hospital. The Army March 2 named Maj. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, brother of Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, as the new commander of Walter Reed. Harvey the previous day had tapped Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, who had headed Walter Reed from 2002 to 2004, to return as temporary chief. But Gates rejected Kiley’s appointment, after reports that Kiley, now the Army surgeon general, had ignored complaints about outpatient conditions at the hospital. In announcing Harvey’s resignation, Gates said, “I am disappointed that some in the Army have not adequately appreciated the seriousness of the situation pertaining to outpatient care at Walter Reed.” Bush Appoints Commission—President George W. Bush March 6 announced in a speech to the American Legion veterans group that he had named former Sen. Bob Dole (R, Kan.) and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to chair a bipartisan commission that would review the entire military health care system. It had a June 30 deadline to report its findings. (Gates had named another panel to probe the Walter Reed situation and report back in 45 days.) Dole, 83, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, was a World War II veteran and had lost the use of an arm due to a combat wound. Shalala, 66, president of the University of Miami (Fla.), had served in the cabinet of Democratic President Bill Clinton for eight years. Bush March 6 said, “We have a moral obligation to provide the best possible care and treatment to the men and women who have served our country.” He met with Dole and Shalala at the White House the next day. Vice President Dick Cheney March 5 had addressed another group, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, vowing, “There will be no excuses, only action” in order to “fix the problems at Walter Reed.” House Panel Holds Hearing—The House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs March 5 held a special hearing at 142

Walter Reed so that two wounded soldiers and the wife of another could testify. Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon testified that he had lost an eye and suffered a severe brain injury when he was hit by a bullet during combat near Ramadi, Iraq, in November 2004. Within a week of being shot, he was sent for outpatient treatment on the Walter Reed campus, where he was given a map and told to find his own way around. He had remained there ever since, awaiting plastic surgery and word on whether he would be reactivated or given a medical discharge and benefits. Spec. Jeremy Duncan, who lost an ear in a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq, described as “unforgivable” the filthy state of the room that he was assigned to in Walter Reed’s outpatient building. Annette McLeod, whose husband had suffered a head injury in Iraq, spoke of the difficulty she had encountered in dealing with the bureaucracy at the hospital. Generals Grilled—Kiley and Weightman both faced questions from lawmakers at the March 5 subcommittee hearing. Both apologized for the shortcomings at the hospital. However, when asked why he had not known of the squalid conditions at the Walter Reed outpatient building, including mold and rats, even though his official residence was just across the street, Kiley said, “I don’t do barracks inspections at Walter Reed.” He said he had relied on his staff to take care of any problems. The House subcommittee March 2 had released an internal Army memorandum, dating from September 2006, in which a colonel warned that patient care services at Walter Reed were “at risk of mission failure” because of staff shortages. The Senate Armed Services Committee March 6 held its own hearing on Walter Reed. The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee both held hearings March 7 on military health care, while the House Appropriations defense subcommittee held a hearing on Walter Reed. At the Senate Armed Services hearing, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I, Conn.) March 6 urged a “second look” at a 2005 decision to close down Walter Reed by 2011. Some Army officials had blamed that decision for causing problems in hiring and keeping civilian personnel at the hospital. The 2005 plan called for merging Walter Reed’s operations into the nearby National Navy Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Members of the Senate committee suggested to Kiley, who testified again at the hearing, that he should consider resigning. Gen. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, said he had ordered a team to visit military health care centers across the country to check if the problems found at Walter Reed were present elsewhere in the system. Meanwhile, Democratic Senate leaders March 6 held a news conference, charging that the Walter Reed revelations showed that the Bush administration had failed to plan, ahead of the Iraq war, for the increased strain that combat casualties would put on the military health care system. „

Fired Federal Prosecutors Allege Political Pressure Testify Against Lawmakers, Justice Dept.

Six former U.S. attorneys, whose removal from their posts in December 2006 had ignited a political controversy, March 6 testified before the House and Senate Judiciary committees. The ousted prosecutors, all Republican appointees, asserted that Republican members of Congress and senior Justice Department officials had exerted improper pressure on them and fired them without cause. [See p. 30D2] The department claimed that the dismissals had been based on performance issues and were not politically motivated. However, the prosecutors had all reportedly received favorable performance reviews. Democrats described the dismissals as a political purge that violated the traditional independence of the U.S. attorneys. The House Judiciary Committee March 1 had issued subpoenas to force the dismissed prosecutors to testify at its hearing. Democrats said the hearings showed the power of their new majorities in the House and Senate to challenge the actions of President George W. Bush’s Republican administration. Domenici,

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David Iglesias, former U.S. attorney in New Mexico, testified March 6 that he had received telephone calls from Sen. Pete Domenici (R, N.M.) and Rep. Heather Wilson (R, N.M.) in October 2006, asking him about the pace of an investigation into alleged corruption involving state Democrats. Congressional ethics rules prohibited lawmakers from contacting federal prosecutors about active investigations. Iglesias said Domenici had asked him if indictments would be “filed before November,” which he took as a reference to Election Day. Iglesias said he had replied in the negative, to which Domenici said, “I’m sorry to hear that,” and hung up. Iglesias said the call gave him “a sick feeling” and made him feel “leaned on” and “pressured to get these matters moving.” He said Wilson had called him to ask if sealed indictments had been filed in the same case, and she became angry when he avoided answering her question. Domenici and Wilson March 6 both issued statements saying they had not intended to exert any pressure on Iglesias. But Domenici had acknowledged that he had repeatedly pressed the Justice Department to fire Iglesias after that incident. An aide to Domenici March 7 said the senator had hired a noted defense lawyer, Lee Blalack 2nd, to represent him in an investigation into the matter by the Senate Ethics Committee. Other Incidents Alleged—John McKay, former U.S. attorney in Seattle, Wash., March 6 said Ed Cassidy, then chief of staff to Rep. Doc Hastings (R, Wash.), had called him in 2004 to ask about an investigation into alleged vote fraud in Washington State’s gubernatorial election. Democrat FACTS ON FILE

Christine Gregoire narrowly won the election after a recount. [See 2005, p. 388C2] McKay said he ended the call quickly and “was concerned and disconcerted” by it. Cassidy, now on the staff of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R, Ohio), and Hastings both denied any improper meddling. McKay also said that then–White House counsel Harriet Miers had asked him why he “mishandled” the election case when he was interviewed at her office in September 2006 for a federal judgeship. He was not nominated for the post. H.E. (Bud) Cummins 3rd, former U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., testified that he had sent an e-mail to the other fired prosecutors in February, warning that he had been told not to make public complaints about his dismissal by Michael Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty. Cummins said Elston had warned him that the Justice Department would respond with “public criticisms” and “retaliation” to such complaints. In a letter to Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.), a member of the Senate committee, Elston denied that he had intended to threaten Cummins. The Justice Department had said that it had removed Cummins in order to give his job to Timothy Griffin, an assistant to Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove. Griffin Feb. 16 said he was withdrawing his nomination for a permanent posting because Democratic senators would block his confirmation. He had received an interim appointment in December. The other former U.S. attorneys who testified were Carol Lam of San Diego, Calif.; Daniel Bogden of Las Vegas, Nev.; and Paul Charlton of Phoenix, Ariz. Lam had investigated Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham (R, Calif.), who pleaded guilty to taking bribes and resigned his House seat in 2005. Bogden had probed allegations that Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) had accepted improper gifts when he was a member of Congress. Charlton had investigated allegations of misconduct by then-Rep. Jim Kolbe (R, Ariz.) and Rep. Rick Renzi (R, Ariz.). Justice Official Resigns—Michael Battle, the Justice Department official who had notified the prosecutors of their dismissals, resigned March 5 as director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. Battle and the department asserted that his resignation was unrelated to the disclosures about the prosecutors’ dismissals. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) March 7 sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, requesting that Gonzales allow Battle, Elston and other officials involved in the firings to meet with the committee voluntarily. The committee had prepared subpoenas to compel their testimony if necessary. Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D, Md.) March 6 said he would press the department to explain the 2005 dismissal of the U.S. attorney in Maryland, Thomas DiBiagio. DiBiagio March 5 had claimed that he had been ousted at the behest of then–Maryland March 8, 2007

Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) because he had probed alleged corruption involving Ehrlich’s associates. „

2008 Presidential Campaign Giuliani Addresses Conservatives. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, who had opened a lead in national polls in the race for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, March 2 addressed the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. The event was an early test of Giuliani’s appeal to the conservative activists who would play a key role in choosing the Republican nominee. [See p. 124F3] The former mayor, 62, had faced doubts among conservatives because of his record of taking relatively liberal stands on flashpoint issues such as abortion, gay rights and gun control. But his reputation for decisive leadership, built in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York, had helped him overcome those doubts so far. In his speech to the conference, Giuliani stressed his conservative principles and record on matters such as cutting taxes, fighting crime and reforming welfare. He repeatedly invoked former President Ronald Reagan, a conservative icon, as his political hero. He did not refer directly to his views on social issues, but told his audience, “You and I have a lot of common beliefs that are the same, and we have some that are different.” Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.), who had been considered the GOP front-runner until Giuliani’s recent surge in the polls, skipped the conference. Another top contender, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, addressed the meeting March 2. As with Giuliani, social conservatives had expressed doubts about the records of both McCain and Romney. Romney said he had “stood at the center of the battlefield on every major social issue” and “fought to preserve our traditional values” as governor. He did not note the fact that he taken more moderate positions on those issues in the past, including firm declarations of support for abortion rights and gay rights. In a March 3 presidential straw poll at the conference, Romney came in first with 21% of the vote, trailed by Giuliani with 17% and Sen. Sam Brownback (R, Kan.) with 15%. Pundit’s Use of Slur Condemned—

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, known for her use of provocative language, in a speech to the conference March 2 used an antihomosexual slur to refer to former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. McCain, Giuliani and Romney all condemned her remark. Giuliani

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Giuliani March 5 sold his investmentbanking firm, Giuliani Capital Advisors LLC, to Macquarie Group, an Australian financial services company, for an undisclosed price. Giuliani aides said the move

demonstrated his increasing focus on his presidential campaign. Giuliani had acquired the firm in 2004 from accounting giant Ernst & Young LLP for $9.8 million. It had mainly handled restructuring work for companies under bankruptcy protection, such as Delta Air Lines Inc. and US Airlines Group Inc. The firm was a unit of Giuliani Partners LLC, which also included a consulting firm, Giuliani Safety and Security. The former mayor was also a partner in Houston, Texas–based law firm Bracewell & Giuliani. Speaks on Family Situation— Giuliani March 5 addressed questions from the media about a March 2 New York Times interview in which his son, Andrew Giuliani, 21, said their relationship had been strained by his father’s third marriage. Giuliani had divorced Andrew’s mother, Donna Hanover, in highly public proceedings while he was mayor. He married Judith Nathan in 2003. [See 2003, p. 416E2] Giuliani said, “I believe that these problems with blended families, you know, are challenges.…The more privacy I can have for my family, the better we are going to be able to deal with all these difficulties.” Giuliani’s first marriage, to his second cousin, had been annulled after a year. „

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Legislation House Passes Bill Easing Union Organizing.

The House March 1 passed, 241–185, the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for unions to organize workers. The bill had received strong support from labor unions, especially the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest union federation, but had been opposed by business groups. [See 2006, p. 974F2] The bill sought to legalize the “card check” system, which allowed employees to unionize if a simple majority signed cards in support of joining a union. Currently, employees decided whether to unionize by voting in secret-ballot elections. Unions argued that the secret-ballot system enabled employers to block unionization by intimidating or firing pro-union workers in the period before a vote. Unions also said the House measure would help stem declining union membership. Opponents of the bill argued that the card check system would allow unions to intimidate employees into unionizing. [See 2006, p. 819A1] The bill would also strengthen penalties for labor-law violations committed by employers during union organizing drives. Additionally, it provided for mandatory arbitration if a company and a union failed to agree on a first contract. Labor unions had strongly supported Democrats in the November 2006 elections, in which they regained control of both houses of Congress, and Republicans alleged that the bill simply amounted to payback for that support. In the House, the vote was largely along party lines, with 13 Republicans crossing over to vote for the bill and two Democrats voting against it. However, the bill faced 143

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Accidents & Disasters Tornadoes Kill 20 in Southeast, Midwest.

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A storm system stretching from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico March 1 spawned at least 31 tornadoes throughout the Midwest and Southeast, killing 10 people in Alabama, nine in Georgia and one in Missouri. Eight of the victims were students, killed when their high school in Enterprise, Ala., was destroyed by a tornado. [See p. 82D1] President George W. Bush March 3 visited Enterprise and Americus, Ga., which had lost two residents to tornadoes. He announced that Coffee County, which encompassed Enterprise, would be designated a federal disaster area, allowing residents to qualify for federal aid. R. David Paulison, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the same day trumpeted his agency’s prompt consultations with local officials and deliveries of aid, labeling it “the new FEMA.” FEMA had come to be seen as emblematic of the slow and anemic government relief efforts following the 2005 devastation of the Gulf Coast by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. [See 2006, p. 925E1] „ Georgia Bus Crash Kills Seven. A bus carrying the baseball team of Bluffton University, of Bluffton, Ohio, March 2 crashed in Atlanta, Ga., killing five team members and the bus’s two drivers. According to the Atlanta police department, the bus plunged off an overpass after the driver misjudged a turn in the predawn darkness. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it would investigate the accident. [See 2004, p. 1059E3] „

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Australian Detainee Charged. Susan Crawford, the head of military tribunals set up under the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA), March 2 charged Australian citizen David Hicks with two counts of providing material support for terrorism. Hicks, who had been captured alongside the forces of the ousted Taliban regime in Afghanistan in December 2001 and was being held at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was the first Guantanamo detainee to be charged under the MCA. [See p. 108A1; 2005, p. 893C1] Hicks had been one of 10 Guantanamo detainees charged under a previous tribunal system that in June 2006 was struck down by the Supreme Court. He had been charged with conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks, attempted murder and aiding the enemy. The government had said Hicks would face a new trial for material support and attempted murder. It did not give a reason for removing the attempted murder charge. Critics assailed the relatively minor remaining charges as an indication of the gov144

ernment’s weak case. Maj. Michael Mori, Hicks’s military-appointed lawyer, said, “The U.S. had no justification to hold David for five years on those made-up offenses.” Australian Prime Minister John Howard March 5 said he was “very angry” at delays in the case and would insist on an expedited trial. Lawyer’s Australia Trips Questioned—

Col. Morris Davis, the chief prosecutor for the commissions, had criticized Mori for making public appearances in uniform in Australia on behalf of his client, the Australian reported March 3. The article also said Davis had threatened to charge Mori with breaching a provision of the military code prohibiting service members from criticizing the president, vice president or defense secretary. However, Davis March 6 told the newspaper that he had never threatened Mori with a court-martial. Mori March 5 had said he might have to resign over the allegations. Davis dismissed the suggestion as a ploy to delay the trial. „

Crime Astronaut Attempted-Murder Charge Dropped.

Prosecutors in Orlando, Fla., March 2 said they had filed a charge of attempted kidnapping with intent to commit bodily harm against Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut. Nowak was accused of attacking a perceived romantic rival, Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, in February. The prosecutors did not charge Nowak, 43, with attempted murder, one of the charges initially recommended by police in the case. Nowak’s lawyer said she denied the reduced charge. [See p. 81E3] NASA March 7 said it had terminated Nowak’s detail as an astronaut, effective the following day, and that she would begin a new assignment from the Navy March 21. It was reportedly the first instance in which the space agency had returned an astronaut to the military. Court filings showed that Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein said he had told Nowak in January that he was involved with another woman. In response to Freedom of Information Act requests by news outlets, NASA March 5 released affectionate emails exchanged between Oefelein and Shipman, including some sent while Oefelein was on a shuttle mission in 2006. ABC television news March 6 reported that Nowak had gained entry to Oefelein’s home and found the messages on his computer. „

Civil Rights NAACP President Sets Resignation. Bruce Gordon, president of the NAACP, March 4

said he would resign his position with the group, the U.S’s largest civil rights organization, after a tenure of 19 months. Gordon attributed his departure to disputes between himself and the NAACP’s 64-member board of directors over the organization’s mission. [See 2005, p. 541B2]

Gordon said his vision of the organization and that of the board were not “aligned.” Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, said of the organization and Gordon, “We want it to be a social justice organization. He wanted it to be more of a social service organization.” Gordon, 61, was a former executive with telecommunications firm Verizon Communications Inc., and had not been well-known in civil rights advocacy circles when he was named NAACP president in June 2005. He was credited with easing tensions between the organization and the administration of President George W. Bush. Dennis Hayes, general counsel for the NAACP, would assume the duties of interim president. Gordon said his resignation would be effective by the end of March. [See 2006, p. 574B1] „

Environment EPA Proposes Diesel Pollution Standards. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Administrator Stephen Johnson March 2 proposed stricter pollution standards for diesel engines on boats and trains. The EPA said the new rules, to be phased in over several decades, would reduce the amount of fine particulate matter, or soot, by 90% and cut the amount of nitrogen oxide, a contributor to smog, by 80% by 2030. [See 2005, p. 523D2] The agency estimated that the new rules would save $12 billion in health care costs by 2030, as well as prevent 1,500 premature deaths and 1,100 hospitalizations caused by diesel engine pollution. The move was praised by many environmentalists. „

Colorado River Basin Drought Pattern Seen.

A panel of the National Research Council, part of the National Academy of Sciences, Feb. 21 released a report warning that the Colorado River Basin area in the southwest U.S. was likely to experience harsher, more frequent droughts as more water was used to meet growing residential, industrial and agricultural needs. [See 2005, p. 570A3] The panel noted that water shortage problems might be worse than anticipated, because the area had received an unusually high amount of rainfall in the early 20th century, creating an unrealistic view of normal conditions. “Drought episodes are a recurrent and integral feature of the region’s climate,” the panel said. The group also said computer models predicted that global warming would reduce the amount of precipitation the area would receive, aggravating the problem. The report recommended that federal, state and local government agencies work together to develop an “action-oriented” study of water usage. Specifically, it recommended examining the shift of water resources away from agricultural needs, which consumed the largest portion of the resource, and toward use in urban areas. The river basin covered 240,000 square miles (620,000 sq km) in parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, ColFACTS ON FILE

orado, Utah and Wyoming, and also in neighboring Mexico. Water from the basin irrigated millions of acres of farmland, and was used by an estimated 25 million people. „

Mergers & Aquisitions Satellite Radio Networks Merge. Satellite

radio rivals Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. Feb. 19 announced plans to merge. The two were the only satellite radio networks in the U.S., with rapidly growing subscriber rolls of 14 million combined. Both had sustained large losses, however, and neither had yet turned a profit. [See 2006, p. 490A2] The deal was worth a reported $13 billion. It involved a swap of common stock in which XM shareholders would get 4.6 Sirius shares for each of their own. Each company’s shareholders would own roughly half of the new company. XM Chairman Gary Parsons and Sirius Chief Executive Officer Mel Karmazin would hold the same offices in the merged company. The merger faced a high regulatory hurdle, since the new company would become the industry’s sole player. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin Jan. 17 had warned that current regulations barred a Sirius-XM merger. Kamazin Feb. 28 went before a new antitrust task force of the House Judiciary Committee to argue that current regulations should be changed or waived. He said XM and Sirius faced competition not just from each other but from several alternative media forms, including digital music players, cellular telephones that could download music files, and Internet radio. Sirius Rewards ‘Shock Jock’ Stern—

Sirius had awarded a stock bonus worth $82.9 million to its main attraction, radio personality Howard Stern, for his role in dramatically increasing the number of its subscribers, to about six million as of the end of 2006, it was reported Jan. 10. Stern, dubbed a “shock jock” for his brand of bawdy, politically incorrect humor, had left traditional radio for Sirius a year earlier, for a base compensation package worth about $500 million. [See 2006, p. 480E2] „

Bush Administration Blood Clot Found in Cheney’s Leg. Vice President Dick Cheney’s office March 5 said that his doctor had found a blood clot in a vein in his left leg. He would be treated with blood-thinning medication for “several months,” according to a spokeswoman. She said Cheney had undergone tests after feeling discomfort in his calf following his return from a nine-day overseas trip that included 65 hours of air travel. Long periods of sitting, as on extended airplane or car trips, increased the risk of developing such clots, known as deep venous thrombosis. Cheney, 66, had a lengthy history of heart and circulation problems. [See pp. 133B1, 130A2; 2006, p. 546A2] „ March 8, 2007

ian Premier Pascal Yoadimnadji Feb. 23 died from a brain hemorrhage in Paris, two days after being flown there from Chad for treatment for a heart attack. Yoadimnadji, 56, had served as premier since February 2005. President Idriss Deby Feb. 26 appointed Nouradine Delwa Kassire Coumakoye, head of the National Rally for Development and Progress (RNDP) party, as Chad’s new premier. Coumakoye, minister of state for territorial administration, had come in a distant second behind Deby in May 2006 presidential elections. [See 2006, pp. 897A1, 415D1] In a related development, Chad’s parliament Feb. 26 approved an amnesty for former members of the United Front for Democratic Change (FUC) rebel faction, which had signed a peace deal in December 2006. [See 2006, p. 1011B3] Coumakoye March 4 named Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim, the FUC leader, as the country’s new defense minister. Eight other new ministers were also appointed that day. „

March 6 said the country needed some $71 million to fund relief efforts in response to flooding and a cyclone in February. About 45 people had been killed and more than 170,000 displaced in the two disasters. [See 2001, p. 177F1] The central Zambezi River valley had been flooded starting in early February, as rains from neighboring countries caused the Cahora Bassa dam to overflow. Tens of thousands of people were forced into refugee camps. The flooding, which also destroyed about 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres) of cropland, was described as the worst in Mozambique since 2001. As many as 285,000 people had been affected by the floods, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported Feb. 19. Premier Luisa Diogo Feb. 13 ordered forced evacuations, after some farmers in threatened areas refused to abandon their livestock. Cyclone Favio Feb. 22 hit central Mozambique, exacerbating the damage caused by the flooding. The United Nations World Food Program had been distributing food to the refugees, and South Africa and the European Union had pledged additional aid, Reuters news agency reported Feb. 26. „

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Chad Premier Dies, Replacement Named. Chad-

New Premier Named; Strikes End. President Lansana Conte Feb. 25 agreed to name a new premier, bowing to demands of unions that had been staging strikes and demonstrations for weeks. Conte Feb. 26 named Lansana Kouyate as the country’s new premier, and the Guineans returned to work the next day. [See p. 110A2] Guinea’s parliament Feb. 23 had refused Conte’s request to extend a period of martial law that had been declared 11 days earlier. The refusal was seen as a rare challenge to Conte’s authority. Conte, who had ruled the country since 1984, was in his 70s and had been in poor health for several years. However, prior to the strikes he had refused to relax his authoritarian rule. Kouyate, who was picked from a list approved by union leaders, replaced Eugene Camara, a close ally of Conte who had been appointed just over two weeks earlier. The unions, which had been agitating since January for Conte to give up some of his near-absolute power to a consensus premier, had opposed Camara because he was seen as too close an ally of the president. Kouyate was a former ambassador to the United Nations, and had also served as secretary general of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional trade group. More than 120 people, mainly civilians, had died in civil unrest since the beginning of 2007. The strikes had also hit the country’s lucrative bauxite industry. „

Mozambique Government Appeals for Flood Relief Funds.

Paulo Zucula, director of Mozambique’s Institute of National Disaster Management,

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President Wade Reelected. Senegalese Pres-

ident Abdoulaye Wade March 1 was declared the winner of a Feb. 25 presidential election. The Independent National Electoral Commission said Wade had won 55.9% of the vote, surpassing the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff. [See 2000, p. 203E2] Senegal, a mainly Muslim country, had been seen as one of the few stable democracies in West Africa, having never experienced the military coups or large-scale civil conflicts that had plagued other nations in the region. However, scattered incidents of preelection violence between candidates’ supporters were reported, and the atmosphere surrounding the election was described as tenser than in previous years. Wade, who was believed to be 81 years old, represented the Sopi (meaning “change” in Wolof, a language spoken by most Senegalese) Coalition 2007. He had first been elected to a seven-year term in 2000. His second term would last only five years, under a 2001 constitution referendum that shortened presidential terms. Former Premier Idrissa Seck of the And Ligeey Sengaal (Building Senegal Together) coalition came in a distant second among 14 challengers, with about 14.9% of the vote. Socialist Party candidate Ousmane Tanor Dieng was third, with 13.6%. Turnout was estimated at 70.5%. Key issues in the campaign included unemployment and the economy. Wade’s opponents alleged that he had not done enough to create jobs in his first term, and that Senegal’s poor had not benefited from economic growth. In the past year, an increasing number of young men had been undertaking dangerous journeys to migrate 145

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from Senegal to Europe in search of jobs. [See 2006, p. 1015A2] Socialist Opposition Challenges Results—

The Socialist Party March 5 filed an appeal of the result with the constitutional court. It called for the results to be set aside, citing voting irregularities. However, observers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional trade group, had declared the election free and fair, it was reported Feb. 27. International press watchdog group Reporters Without Borders in a Feb. 26 report said the state media had been biased toward Wade during the campaign. „

Africa News in Brief Ghana: 50 Years of Independence Marked.

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Ghanaians March 6 celebrated the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain. Ghana had been the first European colony in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence, an event that was seen as the catalyst for a wave of independence movements throughout the continent. A ceremony marking the anniversary was held in Accra, the capital. It was attended by several African leaders, including South African President Thabo Mbeki and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, and also by Britain’s Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent. The anniversary also prompted reflection on the struggles many African nations had faced since independence. [See 1992, p. 867B2; 1957, p. 71D3] „ Lesotho: Ruling Party Wins Elections. The ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) party Feb. 20 was declared the winner of parliamentary elections held Feb. 17 in the tiny, impoverished southern African mountain kingdom. According to the Independent Electoral Commission, the LCD took 61 of the 80 seats contested in the election, while the opposition All Basotho Convention (ABC) party won 17 seats. Another 40 seats in the 120-member parliament were filled by candidates selected by the parties, in proportion to how many votes each party had received on separate ballots on which voters indicated their preferred political party. Of those seats, the LCD gained 21 through its alliance with the National Independent Party, and the ABC added 10 through its ties to the Lesotho Workers Party, the government said on its Web site Feb. 21. [See 2002, p. 449G1] „ Liberia: Ex-Leader Charged With Corruption.

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President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Feb. 26 said Gyude Bryant, who had led Liberia’s transitional government from 2003 to early 2006, had been charged with stealing $1.3 million from the government while he was in office. An audit by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional trade group, had reportedly implicated Bryant. Separately, Willis Knuckles, Johnson-Sirleaf’s minister of state for presidential affairs, Feb. 26 resigned after a newspaper printed photographs of him having sex with two women. [See 2006, p. 1012A3; 2005, p. 742B3] „ 146

Morocco: Eight Sentenced for Terrorism.

An appeals court in Sale, outside Rabat, the capital, March 2 sentenced eight Islamic militants convicted of plotting terrorist attacks in France, Italy and Morocco. Among those sentenced was Muhammad Benhedi Msahel, a Tunisian who prosecutors alleged was the leader of an Islamist cell in Italy with ties to the Algerian-based radical Islamist movement formerly known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC). He received a 15-year sentence. (The GSPC had changed its name to the Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb in January.) Counterterrorism officials reportedly believed that the group had been recruiting Islamic militants from across North Africa. [See pp. 110B3, 34A1; 2006, p. 802C2] „ Sierra Leone: Top War Crimes Suspect Dies.

Former Internal Affairs Minister Sam Hinga Norman, who had been charged in 2004 with war crimes in connection with Sierra Leone’s 1991–2002 civil war, Feb. 22 died of heart failure at a hospital in Senegal. Norman, 67, had been charged by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a joint war crimes tribunal operated by the United Nations and Sierra Leone, with responsibility for crimes committed by pro-government militias, including murder and recruitment of child soldiers. The verdict in his trial had been pending. [See 2004, p. 533G3] „

South Africa: Ailing Health Minister Replaced.

President Thabo Mbeki Feb. 26 named Transport Minister Jeff Radebe acting health minister, replacing Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who had been hospitalized since Feb. 20 with a lung condition. Tshabalala-Msimang, 66, had sparked controversy for her advocacy of garlic, beetroot and other folk remedies instead of scientifically proven drug treatments to fight HIV/AIDS. Mbeki in September 2006 had placed Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in charge of South Africa’s AIDS policy, after an international outcry over Tshabalala-Msimang’s policies. [See 2006, p. 1013G3] „

AMERICAS

Argentina Peron Extradition Request Issued. The foreign ministry Feb. 13 said it had sent an official request to the Spanish government asking for the extradition of former President Maria Estela (Isabel) Martinez de Peron to face charges related to the disappearance of leftist dissidents during her 1974– 76 rule. The extradition request had been lodged by Federal Judge Raul Acosta, who in January had asked that Peron be held for questioning in Spain, where she had lived since 1981. [See p. 34E1] Prosecutors alleged that, during her presidency, Peron had ordered military forces to “annihilate” the country’s “subversive elements.” A right-wing paramilitary group known as the Argentine AntiCommunist Alliance, or “Triple A,” was thought to have killed as many as 2,000 people during Peron’s rule. Kirchner Backs Human Rights Trials—

President Nestor Kirchner Jan. 26 decreed that former and current government offi-

cials testifying in human rights trials could divulge state secrets. The announcement bolstered investigations into human rights abuses alleged to have occurred during the 1976–83 military dictatorship that had followed Peron’s ouster. An estimated 30,000 leftist dissidents had been killed during the country’s so-called dirty war waged by the ruling military junta of the era. An estimated 1,500 protesters Jan. 18 had marched in Buenos Aires, the capital, in a show of support for dirty war human rights abuse trials. Several judges, prosecutors and witnesses involved in such trials had received death threats, and one witness, Jorge Julio Lopez, had disappeared in September 2006 after testifying about a former police chief’s use of torture. Other witnesses had been kidnapped and beaten, but later released. „

Canada Charest Calls Quebec Provincial Election.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest Feb. 21 dissolved the province’s parliament and called for elections to be held March 26. Charest, leader of the Quebec provincial branch of the Liberal Party, had come to power in 2003, defeating the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ). The Liberal Party controlled 72 seats in the province’s 125-seat National Assembly; the PQ, 45; and the Action Democratique du Quebec (ADQ) party, five, with one independent and two vacancies. [See 2006, p. 911A3; 2005, p. 840A1] Support for the Liberal Party was concentrated largely in metropolitan and anglophone areas, while the PQ had relied on support in francophone areas. However, the rightist ADQ had made significant inroads into French-speaking regions since the previous election in 2003, eating away at the PQ’s historic base. Party critics, including pro-sovereignty activists, had recently accused PQ leader Andre Boisclair of neglecting traditional party supporters, such as rural Roman Catholics and labor unions. [See 2003, p. 294A1] A Leger Marketing poll published Feb. 26 in the French-language newspaper Le Devoir found the Liberals leading with support from 37% of voters, the PQ with 28%, and the ADQ closing in on the PQ with 24%. „ Alleged Abuse Victims’ Location Unknown.

An official with the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service (NIS) said the location of three Afghan men alleged to have been abused by Canadian troops was unknown, it was reported by the Globe and Mail March 2. Details of the abuse allegations had surfaced in early February, with multiple investigations into the claims ordered by military officials and a civilian agency, the Military Police Complaints Commission (MPCC), which oversaw military police forces. [See p. 83B2] The Globe and Mail reported that Maj. Robert Bell, a senior operations officer with NIS, said the three men had been transferred to the custody of Afghan National Police on April 8, 2006. Since the abuse alFACTS ON FILE

legations had surfaced the NIS had been unable to locate the men, frustrating a criminal investigation into the claims. Poor record-keeping and rampant corruption by Afghan authorities meant that the men could be in custody in an unknown location, or could have been released with no record made of it. They could also have become victims of abuse or murder, which human rights advocates said were dangers of the country’s prison system. The MPCC Feb. 9 officially launched a “public-interest investigation” into the abuse claims to determine if any military police personnel had failed to investigate mistreatment allegations. Human rights group Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Union Feb. 20 alleged that the Canadian military’s practice of turning over suspects to Afghan security forces contravened international law and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a bill of rights enshrined in the country’s constitution. „ Judicial Selection Process Questioned.

The government committees that selected candidates for federal judgeships were largely composed of political and social conservatives, Toronto’s Globe and Mail reported Feb. 12. The newspaper had analyzed 12 so-called judicial advisory committee members, and reported that a minimum of 16 of 32 members selected by former Justice Minister Vic Toews, and confirmed by his successor, Rob Nicholson, both of the Conservative Party, had been former officeholders in the party or worked for Conservative politicians or campaigns. [See 2006, p. 149D2] The judicial advisory committees had been created in 1988 to shield the appointment of judges from political partisanship. Committee members proposed candidates for vacant federal superior court seats; the justice minister then appointed judges from among the recommended candidates. Although committee members were prohibited from questioning candidates on their political affiliations, their positions and beliefs were often a matter of public record. Members of the three main opposition parties Feb. 12 attacked the Conservative Party’s method of selecting committee members during a question period in the House of Commons. Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion said, “Canadians want our judges to continue being selected without political or ideological interference.” Nicholson Feb. 12 rebutted those claims, saying that committee appointees were “people who have the best interests of the judiciary at heart.” The Canadian Justice Council, which represented the nation’s federally appointed judges, Feb. 20 questioned the independence of the judicial advisory committees under the ruling Conservative government. Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin, who also headed the council, said the committee appointment process imperiled “the concept of an independent body that advises the government on who is best qualified to be a judge.” „ March 8, 2007

Cuba Castro Footage Released. Video footage

of President Fidel Castro Ruz meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias was aired Jan. 30 on state-run television. The 10-minute video constituted the first images of Castro released in three months. State-run media reported that the unannounced meeting between the two leaders had occurred Jan. 29. Castro in July 2006 had ceded power to his younger brother, Raul Castro Ruz, when he underwent intestinal surgery. However, little was known about Fidel Castro’s health, as it had been deemed a “state secret” by the government. [See 2006, p. 1017A3] Castro, 80, appeared to have gained weight in the video, but also showed some signs of continuing weakness, according to press reports. Castro suffered from an infection of the colon and stomach, and had undergone three surgeries to treat the ailments, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported Jan. 15. The paper’s report, which cited two unidentified sources at a Spanish hospital where a doctor who had examined Castro worked, could not be corroborated. „ Foreign Journalists Ordered to Leave. The Cuban government had denied visas to at least three foreign journalists who needed them to continue working and living in Cuba, it was reported Feb. 23. They included reporters for the U.S.’s Chicago Tribune, Mexican newspaper El Universal and the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC). All three reporters had been informed by the government that their credentials were not being renewed. [See 2006, p. 840E2] The Chicago Tribune said its correspondent, Gary Marx, had been told by the Cuban government that his coverage was too negative. Cuban authorities reportedly said the work of El Universal correspondent Cesar Gonzalez-Calero was “not the most convenient for the Cuban government.” Several foreign correspondents said the government had enacted stricter press controls since President Fidel Castro Ruz had become severely ill and ceded his authority to his younger brother, Raul Castro Ruz, in July 2006. [See p. 147B2; 2006, p. 607D3] Also, the government had begun a crackdown on illegal satellite dishes used by Cubans to receive foreign television programming, it was reported Feb. 10 by the Miami Herald. The dishes could be used to pick up programming by TV Marti, a U.S. government-funded station. U.S. officials estimated that between 10,000 and 30,000 illegal satellite dishes cobbled together from smuggled parts were in operation in Cuba. „

Venezuela Chavez Sets Plan to Rein in Inflation.

President Hugo Chavez Frias Feb. 15 announced a series of measures he said were intended to halt the country’s rapidly rising inflation rate, which had reached an annual

rate of 18.4% in January. The government had set an inflation cap goal of 12% for the current year. The spiraling inflation rate was attributed to various factors, including an economy awash in revenue from oil, a surge in government spending and investment restrictions that limited most capital to domestic ventures. [See p. 67C1] Chavez’s inflation plan called for three zeros to be dropped from the exchange rate of the country’s currency, the bolivar, by February 2008. He also planned to reduce the country’s value-added tax (similar to a sales tax) by a total of five percentage points in two steps, with the first reduction of three percentage points instituted March 1, and a second reduction of two percentage points set for July. The value-added tax had peaked at a level of 14% prior to the March 1 reduction. Economic analysts said the moves would do little to address the underlying causes of inflation. Food Shortages Seen—The rising inflation rate had led to severe food shortages on some staples in the country, as food producers, no longer able to turn a profit due to government-instituted price controls, had stopped supplying retail outlets. It was common for goods to be shunted to black markets, where they could fetch higher prices. Chavez Feb. 14 had threatened to seize control of privately owned food storage facilities and supermarkets found to be hoarding goods or selling them at prices exceeding the government caps. Although the government had pegged the bolivar’s exchange rate at 2,150 per U.S. dollar, its value on the black market had already dropped 14% in 2007. The plunge had been accelerated by the government’s purchase of foreign stakes in several companies as part of a wider nationalization scheme instituted by Chavez. „

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A S I A - PA C I F I C

East Timor Emergency Declared After Mass Protests.

President Xanana Gusmao March 5 invoked emergency powers in order to quell widespread protests in the capital, Dili, in support of rebel leader Alfredo Reinado. Gusmao said the government would employ “all legal means, including force,” to calm the unrest, and authorized police and international peacekeeping troops to disperse public gatherings and make arrests and searches without warrants. Reinado March 4 had escaped a raid on a hideout led by Australian troops. [See below; 2006, p. 616A1] Public opinion had been inflamed against the Australian-led International Security Force (ISF) after Australian soldiers Feb. 23 shot three Timorese youths; one of them was killed immediately, and a second died of his injuries the next day. Australian authorities said the youths had been firing steel arrows at the soldiers. ISF and United Nations forces had been the target of a number of attacks while attempting to stem rising inter-gang warfare since Feb. 21. 147

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Attack Misses Rebel Leader—Australian forces, including armored vehicles and helicopters, March 4 launched a strike on the the mountain town of Same, a stronghold for Reinado’s rebels. Reinado escaped, but four rebels were killed. Reinado, a former army major, in August 2006 had escaped from prison and led a force of heavily armed dissident soldiers. His group had been implicated in a number of attacks on police posts carried out in February that had captured weapons and supplies. Following the strike, an aide of Reinado warned that the rebels would launch a campaign against the Gusmao government. Hundreds of Reinado supporters March 4– 5 protested against the foreign presence in East Timor, clashing with police and setting up roadblocks in Dili. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer March 5 said Australia planned to evacuate nonessential embassy personnel. The U.S. also issued a travel warning. Former Minister Convicted In 2006 Riots—

Former East Timorese Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato March 7 was convicted of improperly distributing weapons to civilians during civil unrest in May–June 2006 that had eventually toppled the government of Premier Mari Alkatiri. He was also found criminally negligent in the murders of nine policemen during that period. A three-judge panel sentenced him to seven and a half years in prison, saying that he was guilty of inflaming the violence. The U.N. that day boosted its presence in the capital to prevent further riots. „

Indonesia Sumatra Temblors Kill 52. Two powerful

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earthquakes March 6 shook the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing dozens of people and destroying hundreds of buildings. The temblors, which were separated by about two hours, measured 6.3 and 6.1 on the open-ended Richter scale of ground motion, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi March 7 put the death toll at 52, down from an estimate of 70 given by officials the previous day, according to the Associated Press. Silalahi said the discrepancy arose from some deaths being reported more than once. [See 2006, p. 582D2] The earthquakes raised fears of tsunamis similar to those that had devastated parts of Indonesia in December 2004 and May 2006, and some Sumatrans reportedly fled to higher ground to escape the expected waves. Volcanic activity also increased in the wake of the tremors. Indonesian officials said dozens of people were killed in unrelated mudslides on the southern Flores island, caused by torrential monsoon rains, it was reported March 3. They said the rains had made many roads inaccessible, hampering rescue efforts. [See 2006, p. 1022A2] „ Jet Crash Kills 22. A Boeing 737-400 jetliner March 7 crashed off the end of a runway and burst into flames in the city of Yogyakarta on the Indonesian island of Java, killing at least 22 people. The plane was 148

operated by state-owned Garuda Airlines, and was carrying 140 passengers and crew members, according to Garuda officials. The air force commander at the airport reported that the plane had been going too fast upon landing, while other experts speculated that it had suffered a landinggear failure. [See p. 19E1] „

Japan Premier Denies WWII Forced Prostitution.

Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe March 1 asserted that Japan had not forced foreign women to serve in brothels established for its military forces during World War II, contradicting a 1993 statement by Japan’s own government acknowledging the sexual slavery. Abe’s comments came as members of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were seeking to revise the 1993 statement, provoking renewed accusations from such countries as South Korea and China that Japan was unwilling to own up fully to atrocities it had committed in the war, and in its preceding years of colonial rule over parts of Asia. The U.S. House was also considering a resolution demanding that Japan apologize for the sexual enslavement of women. [See 2006, p. 751A2; 2001, p. 257G1; 1993, p. 618C2] Abe was known for his hawkish stance against critics of Japanese nationalism. However, since becoming premier in 2006, he had sought to improve relations with China and South Korea, which had been damaged by such controversies, and he had previously affirmed the 1993 declaration. Amid international criticism of his latest remarks, he said March 5 that he stood by the 1993 statement, which included some acknowledgment that women had been forced into sexual slavery. [See below] Abe March 1 said, “There is no evidence to prove there was coercion” employed against women to become prostitutes for Japanese soldiers. Earlier that day, a group of about 120 LDP legislators seeking to revise the government’s official position also contended that while such brothels existed, women had worked in them voluntarily. The group’s leader, Nariaki Nakayama, said, “Where there’s demand, business crops up.” The 1993 statement had been issued after a historian compiled documentation of the military’s role in setting up brothels. Critics, including surviving victims, said that it did not amount to a complete, official apology because it was issued by then– Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono rather than approved by parliament. They also criticized Japan for establishing only a private fund to compensate women, and not contributing government money. (The fund was due to expire March 31.) South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min Soon March 2 demanded that anyone expressing doubt about Japan’s responsibility for forcing women into prostitution “face the truth.” Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing March 6 also said that Japan should “take responsibility” for what he called “historical fact.” However, he em-

phasized China’s continued desire to pursue “lasting friendship” with Japan. Abe Acknowledges ‘Coercion’— Abe March 5 said he still supported the Kono statement, and said, “In the broad sense, there was coercion.” However, he called “a complete fabrication” Feb. 15 testimony by survivors before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Asia subcommittee that Japanese forces had conducted a deliberate “hunt for comfort women,” a common Japanese euphemism for the forced prostitutes. He said that Japan would not issue any new apology if the House resolution passed. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte March 2 called Japanese sexual atrocities “most deplorable,” but maintained that a “resolution of this issue” should be “dealt with between Japan and the countries that were affected.” „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Denmark Youths Riot in Copenhagen. Local authorities March 5 demolished an abandoned youth center in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, after four days of violent street riots. Police had raided the building March 1 to carry out the eviction of 35 squatters living there without the owner’s permission. Young anarchists had squatted in the building and used it as a cultural center since 1982. More than 650 people were arrested in the riots, including 140 foreign activists. The riots were called the worst in Denmark since 1993. [See 1993, p. 372E3] „

Estonia Premier’s Party Places First in Election.

The center-right Estonian Reform Party of Premier Andrus Ansip placed first in parliamentary elections held March 4. With 98% of the vote tallied, the Reform Party received 27.7% of the vote, followed closely by its coalition partner, the Estonian Center Party, which was to the left of Reform and drew 26.2%. However, it remained uncertain whether the two parties would renew their coalition, or whether each might seek to lead a coalition with another junior party. Reform’s current partner, the Estonian People’s Union party, won 7.3% of the vote, while the opposition Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica— formed in 2006 by the merger of two conservative parties—received 17.8%. Ansip March 4 said coalition talks “could last for a month.” [See 2006, p. 804A1; 2005, p. 288F3] „

Other European News Airbus Sets Restructuring, 10,000 Job Cuts.

European aircraft maker Airbus Feb. 28 announced a restructuring plan that aimed to increase productivity and cut costs. It called for cutting 10,000 jobs, and selling off three factories—two in Germany and one in France. Airbus was a unit of the European Aeronautic Defence & Space FACTS ON FILE

Co. (EADS), a French-German consortium. [See 2006, p. 789A3] The plan called for 4,300 job cuts in France, 3,700 in Germany, 1,600 in Britain and 400 in Spain. Of those affected, 5,000 would be regular Airbus workers, or about 9% of the company’s European workforce. The other 5,000 would be contract or temporary workers. The unveiling of the restructuring plan, originally scheduled for Feb. 19, had been delayed as government officials in France, Germany and Britain reportedly clashed over the distribution of job cuts and plant sell-offs between their countries. Airbus had been in turmoil since it revealed delays in the production of its flagship A-380 “superjumbo” jetliner in June 2006. Airbus also blamed the weakness of the U.S. dollar for hurting its profits. Most international aircraft sales were transacted in dollars, but most of Airbus’s costs were in euros, so the relative strength of the euro had hurt the company’s profits. Workers at four Airbus plants in France responded to the announcement by immediately walking out to stage protests. Labor unions in France and Germany denounced the restructuring plan and threatened further protests. Thousands of French Airbus workers March 6 held a one-day strike. A crowd of about 10,000 people demonstrated in Toulouse, France. French Politicians Urge Intervention—

French presidential candidates Segolene Royal, of the Socialist Party, and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement, March 5 both called for the government to intervene with financial aid for EADS. French Premier Dominique de Villepin also said he backed injecting state funds into the company if necessary. Airbus Chief Executive Officer Louis Gallois had warned politicians against interfering in the company’s affairs. The German government also frowned on state intervention in EADS and Airbus. The French government owned 15% of EADS. The German federal government was not a shareholder, but German automaker DaimlerChrysler AG held a 22.5% stake. Royal called for several French regions to buy stakes in the company. Royal March 6 met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, the German capital. Afterward, Royal said she realized that “in France and Germany, these questions are a bit different.” „

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan NATO Forces Attack Insurgents in South.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Afghan forces March 6 began an offensive against Taliban fighters and other insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the largest such attack to date in the southern region of the country. NATO officials said the action, which would eventually involve some 4,500 NATO troops and 1,000 Afghan soldiers, was centered in Helmand March 8, 2007

province, a center of opium poppy production. [See p. 133B1] The governor of Helmand said an estimated 700 fighters allied with Abdullah Mehsud, a Taliban leader with links to the Al Qaeda terrorist network, had infiltrated the province from the Waziristan region of Pakistan. Helmand was considered a stronghold of, and training ground for, insurgent forces. NATO forces involved in the attack, called Operation Achilles, comprised troops from the U.S., Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. NATO officials said the immediate goal of the offensive was to secure a highway leading to a dam project on the Helmand River. One British soldier and four insurgents March 6 were reported killed during initial fighting. U.S. Forces Kill at Least 8 Civilians—

U.S. forces early March 4 killed at least eight Afghan civilians and wounded 35 more in the eastern city of Jalalabad after their convoy was attacked by a suicide car bomber on a busy highway. U.S. officials said the civilians had been trapped in the cross fire between U.S. forces and insurgents, but several Afghan witnesses said U.S. soldiers had fired indiscriminately into crowds gathered where the attack occurred. The civilian deaths had sparked protests among locals, who barricaded the highway linking Jalalabad to Pakistan, in the east, and clashed with police. Initial accounts of the incident had reported more deaths, but the U.S. military later released a revised statement with a lower casualty count. In a separate incident, the deputy governor of Kapisa province March 5 said a U.S. air strike targeting two Taliban insurgents had killed nine Afghan civilians the previous day. U.S. officials said the two insurgents March 4 had attacked a U.S. military base in Kapisa with rocket fire, and were observed entering a five-building compound. U.S. soldiers then called in an air strike, which delivered two 2,000-pound (900-kg) bombs to the area. U.S. officials said the incident was being investigated. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Basketball West Wins NBA All-Star Game. The Western Conference Feb. 18 defeated the Eastern Conference, 153–132, to win the National Basketball Association (NBA) AllStar Game in Las Vegas, Nev. It was the first time that a city that was not home to an NBA team hosted the All-Star Game. [See 2006, p. 179F1] Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who scored 31 points and had six assists and six steals, was named the game’s most valuable player (MVP). Former Player Reveals Homosexuality—

John Amaechi, who played for five nonconsecutive seasons in the NBA between 1995 and 2003, Feb. 6 became the first NBA player to publicly acknowledge that he was gay. Amaechi revealed his sexuality to the Web

site Outsports.com, in advance of a book he had written entitled Man in the Middle, which was released Feb. 14. [See 2006, p. 1038E3; 2005, p. 812D2] Amaechi, 36, became the sixth male professional athlete to come out after the end of his career. A few female athletes, such as basketball star Sheryl Swoopes and golfer Rosie Jones, had come out while still playing. In his book, Amaechi wrote about the “homoerotic components of what [athletes] prefer to think of as simply male bonding,” and of the “tremendous fear that the behavior might be labeled as [homosexual].” The NBA, like other male professional sports leagues, was still considered too hostile an environment for an active player to reveal his homosexuality. NBA Commissioner David Stern Feb. 7 said he oversaw a “diverse” league where the only thing that mattered was a player’s talent. Former NBA guard Tim Hardaway, who had retired in 2003, Feb. 14 said on a Miami, Fla., radio show, “I hate gay people,” in response to a question about potentially having a gay teammate. Hardaway apologized for his comments later that day. Nevertheless, Stern Feb. 15 ordered Hardaway not to take part in activities related to the All-Star Game; Hardaway had been in Las Vegas making appearances on behalf of the league. Stern said, “It is inappropriate for him to be representing us given the disparity between his views and ours.” [See 2003, p. 336F1] „

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Golf Stenson Wins World Match Play. Henrik Stenson of Sweden Feb. 25 won the Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana, Ariz., beating defending champion Geoff Ogilvy of Australia, two and one, in the 36hole final. Stenson collected $1.35 million for the victory, his first in a U.S. Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour event. [See 2006, p. 198G1] Woods’s Tour Win Streak Ends— Tiger Woods of the U.S., the world’s top-ranked player, Feb. 23 lost to Nick O’Hern of Australia in the third round of the Match Play Championship, ending his streak of seven straight wins in PGA Tour tournaments he had entered. Byron Nelson had set the record of 11 straight PGA Tour victories in 1945. [See below; 2006, pp. 903B1, 756C3] During his PGA Tour streak, which had begun in July 2006 with the British Open, Woods had failed to win non–PGA Tour events in England, China, Japan and Dubai. Other News—In other golf news: † Mark Wilson of the U.S. March 5 won the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Wilson beat Jose Coceres of Argentina on the third playoff hole. Four players— Wilson, Coceres, Camilo Villegas of Colombia and Boo Weekley of the U.S.— March 4 had finished regulation play tied at 275, five under par. Weekley and Villegas were eliminated on the second playoff 149

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hole. Wilson collected $990,000 for the victory, his first on the PGA Tour. [See 2006, p. 198A2] † Charles Howell 3rd of the U.S. Feb. 18 defeated Phil Mickelson of the U.S. on the third playoff hole to win the Nissan Open in Los Angeles. Both players had finished regulation at 268, 16 under par. Howell earned $936,000 for the victory. [See 2006, p. 198E2] † Mickelson Feb. 11 won the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in Pebble Beach, Calif. He shot a 20-under-par 268, and collected a $990,000 winner’s check. [See 2006, p. 198E2] † Stenson Feb. 4 won the Dubai Desert Classic, a European PGA Tour event, in the United Arab Emirates. He shot a 269, 19 under par, beating Ernie Els of South Africa by one stroke and Woods and Sweden’s Niclas Fasth by two strokes. [See 2006, p. 198F2] † Aaron Baddeley of Australia Feb. 4 won the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Ariz. He shot a 21-under-par 263, and earned $1.08 million in prize money. [See 2006, p. 198G2] † Woods Jan. 28 won the Buick Invitational in San Diego, Calif., for the third straight year. He shot a 15-under-par 273 and earned $936,000 for the win, his seventh straight on the PGA Tour. [See 2006, p. 198A3] † Charley Hoffman of the U.S. Jan. 21 won the 90-hole Bob Hope Classic in Palm Desert, Calif., defeating the U.S.’s John Rollins on the first playoff hole. Both players shot a 17-under-par 343. Hoffman earned $900,000 in prize money for the win, his first on the PGA Tour. [See 2006, p. 198B3] „

Sports News in Brief Baseball: No Veterans Elected to HOF.

The veterans committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame Feb. 27 failed to elect any new members for the third time in a row. A former player needed to be named on 75% of the ballots in order to win election. The third straight failure to elect new members prompted speculation that changes in the voting procedure could be implemented before the next vote, in 2009. Currently, all living members of the Hall of Fame were eligible to vote. [See p. 23F3; 2003, p. 254G1] „ College Sports: Illinois Retires Mascot.

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The University of Illinois Feb. 21 retired “Chief Illiniwek,” the school’s mascot for 81 years, after the final men’s home basketball game of the season. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in April 2006 had rejected an appeal of a 2005 ban that had outlawed nicknames, mascots or logos deemed hostile or abusive, especially toward Native Americans. [See 2006, p. 1038A3] „ Dog Show: Springer Spaniel Wins Westminster.

Ch. Felicity’s Diamond Jim, an English springer spaniel, Feb. 13 was named bestin-show at the 131st Westminster Kennel 150

Club Dog Show in New York City. It was the sixth time an English springer spaniel had won the top prize in the show, which was held Feb. 12–13 at Madison Square Garden. The winning dog, a six-year-old nicknamed James, was handled by Kellie Fitzgerald. James beat six other dogs in the final round, including a Dandie Dinmont terrier named Harry that was co-owned by actor Bill Cosby. [See 2006, p. 227E3] „ Horse Racing: Barbaro Endowment Set.

Roy Jackson and his wife, Gretchen Jackson, owners of racehorse Barbaro, who had been euthanized in January, had started a $3 million endowment at George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, it was reported Feb. 14. Veterinarians at the New Bolton Center, led by Dr. Dean Richardson, had treated Barbaro after he sustained a serious injury to his right hind leg in the Preakness in May 2006. The Jacksons named the endowment, which would study equine diseases, after Richardson. [See p. 69D3] „ Rugby: Ireland Debuts at Croke Park. The Irish national rugby team Feb. 11 played its first game ever at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland’s capital. Croke Park had been the site of a 1920 massacre of Irish civilians by British troops that had come to be known as “Bloody Sunday.” The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), which owned the park, had reserved the 82,000-seat stadium for traditional Irish sports such as Gaelic football and hurling, and banned sports seen as British imports, such as rugby and soccer. However, the GAA in 2005 agreed to allow Ireland’s national rugby and soccer teams to play at Croke Park while their home stadium, Dublin’s Lansdowne Road, was being renovated. Ireland Feb. 11 lost in the last minute to France, 20–17, but Feb. 24 defeated England, 43–13, in its next game at Croke Park. It was Ireland’s largest margin of victory ever over England. „ Soccer:

Chelsea

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Cup.

Chelsea Feb. 25 won the English League Cup, also known as the Carling Cup, at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, defeating Arsenal, 2–1. Both teams played in England’s Premier League. The English Football Association (FA) Feb. 28–March 1 suspended Arsenal’s Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue for three games each in connection with a brawl at the end of the match, as well as for other violent incidents during the match. The FA also charged both clubs for failure to control their players. [See 2006, p. 159G1] „ Tennis: Wimbledon Levels Prize Money.

The All England Club, which organized Wimbledon, one of tennis’s four annual Grand Slam tournaments, Feb. 22 said male and female winners would receive equal prize money starting in 2007. The tournament had been the last of the four Grand Slams not to offer equal prize money to its champions, arguing that men should receive more because they played a maximum of five sets in their matches, compared with the three-set maximum that women played. [See 2001, p. 542A2] „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Archaeology Filmmakers Claim to Find Jesus’s Tomb.

Documentary filmmakers at a press conference held at the headquarters of the New York City Public Library Feb. 26 claimed that they had uncovered the buried remains of Jesus Christ, as well as other individuals who they said were his wife and child and other members of his family. The announcement attracted widespread criticism from scientists, who disputed the scholarly integrity of the filmmakers’ claims, and condemnation from some Christians, who said it was an attack on their faith. [See 2006, p. 423A2; 2003, p. 927E3] The documentary, which was called “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” and was directed by Simcha Jacobovici and produced by feature-film director James Cameron, aired March 4 on cable television’s Discovery Channel. A companion book by Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino, The Jesus Family Tomb, was also released. The documentary said that inscriptions on six ossuaries, or stone boxes that housed human bones, indicated that they belonged to Jesus and members of his family. The inscriptions supposedly read Yeshua bar Yosef (Jesus son of Joseph), Maria (Mary), Yose (Joseph), Matia (Matthew), Mariamene e Mara (Maria, known as the master) and Yehuda bar Yeshua (Judah son of Jesus). The ossuaries were part of a group of 10 such receptacles found in 1980 in a suburb of Jerusalem, Israel, by construction workers. The filmmakers claimed that Mariamene was actually Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’s disciples. They said that mitochondrial DNA sampling carried out on material from the boxes indicated that she and “Yeshua” were not blood relations. The filmmakers concluded that the explanation for their being buried together was that they were married. Yehuda, they said, was Jesus and Mary Magdalene’s child. They said Maria was Jesus’s mother, while Yose and Matia were his brothers. The documentary cited University of Toronto mathematician Andrey Feuerverger as saying that the odds of that combination of six names belonging to a different family was 600 to 1; another estimate, by James Tabor, chairman of the department of religious studies at the University of North Carolina in the U.S., put the odds at 42 million to 1. Archaeologists Reject Conclusions—

Archaeologists Feb. 26 immediately decried the documentary’s claims and its methodology. Several pointed out that the names on the ossuaries were extremely common in the first century, and questioned the documentary’s statistical conclusions. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill archaeologist Jodi Magness said a family of Jesus’s background would not have used ossuaries to bury its dead. She also attacked the filmmakers for releasing their findings at a news conference without having submitted a paper to a sciFACTS ON FILE

entific journal for peer review, giving the false impression that it was a legitimate part of an academic debate. Many Christians criticized the documentary’s findings for contradicting core tenets of their faith, in suggesting that Jesus had married and had a child and had not been bodily resurrected. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said, “Not a Lenten season goes by without some author or TV program seeking to cast doubt on the divinity of Jesus and/or the resurrection.” He blasted the Discovery Channel for what he called its “sensationalism” and lack of ethics. „

Awards PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Novelist

Philip Roth Feb. 26 was named the winner of the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his novel Everyman, about the physical decline and eventual death of a retired advertising executive. Roth, 73, became the first three-time winner of the award. He had previously won it in 1994 for Operation Shylock and in 2001 for The Human Stain. [See 2006, p. 159B3; 2001, p. 324A2; 1994, p. 372F1] The $15,000 prize would be presented to Roth May 12 at Washington, D.C.’s Folger Shakespeare Library. „ Bollingen Poetry Prize. Frank Bidart Feb. 22 was named the winner of the 2007 Bollingen Prize in American Poetry. The prize, awarded biennially for the best book published during the previous two years or for lifetime achievement, was administered by the Yale University Library and carried a $100,000 cash award, up from $75,000 in 2005. [See 2005, p. 159F2] Born in 1939, Bidart, a longtime faculty member at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, was honored for the body of his work. It included such volumes as Desire (1997) and Star Dust (2005). His poetry was noted for its unconventional punctuation and typography, and its use of dramatic monologues to explore troubled psychological states. He had previously won the Wallace Stevens Award in 2000. [See 2000, p. 1057E2] „ Polk Awards. Long Island (N.Y.) University Feb. 20 announced the 2006 winners of the annual George Polk Awards for excellence in journalism. [See 2006, p. 228E2] The award for national reporting went to Jeff Kosseff, Bryan Denson and Les Zaitz of the Portland, Ore., newspaper the Oregonian. The three were honored for articles exposing the failure of a multibillion-dollar federal program meant to help severely disabled people find jobs. The reporters found that many disabled people were placed in below-minimum-wage jobs, while quite a few corporate executives profited handsomely from the program. The foreign reporting award went to Lydia Polgreen of the New York Times for her coverage of ongoing warfare in Sudan’s western Darfur region. Polgreen was cited for reports that “gave voice to the victims of the conflict—terrified villagers and disMarch 8, 2007

placed survivors—alerting the world to their suffering.” [See p. 92F3] Filmmaker Spike Lee, along with a colleague, won the Polk Award for documentary television, for a two-part, four-hour documentary about New Orleans, La., in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Lee had made the documentary, “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,” for the HBO cable network, which broadcast it. The project’s producer and supervising editor, Sam Pollard, was also honored. [See 2006, p. 228G2] „ Olivier Awards. The Society of London Theatre’s 31st annual Laurence Olivier Awards for outstanding achievements in the London theater were presented Feb. 18 at London’s Grosvenor House hotel. [See 2006, p. 228A2] A revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical Sunday in the Park With George, inspired by a painting by French artist Georges Seurat, was named London’s best musical production, with the show’s male and female leads, Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell, winning top acting honors for performances in a musical. The revival was the show’s first London production since it opened there in 1990, six years after its U.S. premiere. That 1990 production had won the Olivier Award for best new musical in 1991. The latest honors in that category went to another U.S. musical import, Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s Caroline, or Change, which explored race relations. [See 2003, p. 1103B3; 1991, p. 292C2; 1984, p. 364D2] The award for best actress went to Tamsin Greig for her performance in a production of William Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing. Best-actor honors went to Rufus Sewell for his role in Tom Stoppard’s Rock ’n’ Roll, about Cold War–era tensions in the playwright’s native Czechoslovakia. [See 2006, p. 588C2] Named best new play was David Harrower’s Blackbird, which explored sexual abuse. A revival of Arthur Miller’s historial drama The Crucible, which recreated the Salem witch trials in colonial Massachusetts, was named best revival, and its director, Dominic Cooke, won the award for best director. [See 2006, p. 588G1; 2005, p. 92C3] „

People Model and actress Anna Nicole Smith, who in early February had been found dead in a Florida hotel, was buried March 2 in Nassau, the Bahamas, next to the body of her son, Daniel Smith, who died in the Bahamas in 2006, three days after she gave birth there to a baby girl. Her burial had been delayed pending the outcome of a court battle involving her mother, Virgie Arthur, 55. Arthur attended the funeral, but had sought to have her daughter buried in her home state of Texas. A Florida appeals court Feb. 28 had upheld a lower-court ruling giving control of her body to the court-appointed lawyer for her baby girl. The lawyer had favored burial in the Bahamas. [See p. 88B3] Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, the 59year-old wife of Britain’s Prince Charles,

the Prince of Wales, March 5 had a hysterectomy at King Edward VII Hospital in London. The surgical procedure, the removal of the womb, was said not to have been cancer-related; no further details were released. [See 2006, p. 846D2] Television journalist Bob Woodruff, who in January 2006 had been seriously wounded while on assignment in Iraq, recounted his ordeal in a TV special, “To Iraq and Back,” broadcast Feb. 27 on the ABC network. On the show, Woodruff, 45, criticized the military for its treatment of veterans wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan. He claimed that local Veterans Administration facilities were often ill-equipped to deal with traumatic brain injuries, and that military officials were not being forthright about the extent of such injuries among Iraq veterans. The program was aired just as poor-quality treatment for wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., had emerged as a politically charged issue. [See p. 142A1; 2006, p. 79B2] Research into the ancestry of civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, had revealed that Sharpton, 52, was descended from a slave once owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond (R, S.C.), a segregationist presidential candidate in 1948, the New York Daily News reported Feb. 25. Researchers with the genealogical Web site Ancestry.com had established that Sharpton’s paternal great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, had belonged to a woman whose grandfather was Thurmond’s great-greatgrandfather. After Thurmond died in 2003 at age 100, his family had admitted that a retired schoolteacher, Essie-Mae Washington Williams, was his mixed-race daughter. [See p. 59D3; 2003, p. 1008D2] Singer Britney Spears, 25, Feb. 22 entered a rehabilitation center in Malibu, Calif., reportedly 24 hours after checking out of the same facility a day after she arrived there for the first time. Spears, who in 2006 had filed for divorce from dancer and rapper Kevin Federline soon after the birth of their second child, Feb. 16 was reported to have cut short her stay at a rehab facility on the Caribbean island of Antigua. That day, she also caused quite a stir by shaving off her hair at a Los Angeles hair salon, after the shop’s owner refused to do it for her. [See 2006, p. 740C3] Faced with the imminent departure of its music director, Christoph Eschenbach, the Philadelphia Orchestra Feb. 23 announced that it had decided to buy time in its search for a replacement by naming Charles Dutoit to the post of chief conductor, a job with lesser duties, for a four-year term, starting with the 2008–09 season. Eschenbach, 67, had announced in late 2006 that he would be stepping down in the summer of 2008 after five years on the job, the briefest tenure of any Philadelphia music director in roughly a century. Dutoit, 70, had abruptly resigned as music director of Canada’s Montreal Symphony Orchestra in 2002, after leading that ensemble for 25 years. [See 2002, p. 308E2; 2001, p. 24B2] „ 151

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ADLER, Robert, 93, Austrian-born applied physicist who, as research director of Zenith Electronics Corp. in the mid-1950s, invented (with colleague Eugene Polley) and launched the first commercially successful wireless television remote control; the device, which used ultrasound, remained the TV industry standard until the early 1980s, when infrared technology was introduced; he held nearly 200 U.S. patents; he also came up with ways to improve TV reception and sound quality and was a pioneer in touch-screen technology; born Dec. 4, 1913, in Vienna; died Feb. 15 in Boise, Idaho, of heart failure. ANDERSON, William Robert, 85, naval officer who commanded the Nautilus, the world’s first atomic-powered submarine, on its historic undersea crossing of the North Pole in August 1958; after retiring from the Navy in 1962, he unsuccessfully ran for governor of Tennessee as an independent before being elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1964 in Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District; initially a Vietnam War hawk, he became an increasingly vocal opponent of the war during his eight years in Congress; he was narrowly defeated in his 1972 bid for a fifth term; born June 17, 1921, in Bakerville, Tenn.; died Feb. 25 in Leesburg, Va., of kidney failure. [See 1975, p. 44A1; 1972, pp. 886E3, 883D3, 92E2; Indexes 1970–71, 1964, 1957–58] BERGGRUEN, Heinz, 93, German-born leading collector of and dealer in 20th-century art, who amassed one of the world’s greatest private collections of works by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso; in 1996, he moved his Picassos and paintings by other modern masters from Paris, his home for decades, to Berlin, Germany, which he, as a Jew, had fled during the Nazi era; in 2000, as a gesture of reconciliation, he sold his collection to the German government at far below market value; born Jan. 5, 1914, in Berlin; died Feb. 23 at a hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, just west of Paris, of undisclosed causes. [See 2000, p. 1056G3] BRIX, Herman, 100, athlete turned actor who starred as jungle hero Tarzan in The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935), before adopting the stage name Bruce Bennett and appearing in such films as Mildred Pierce (1945), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and Love Me Tender (1956), in which singer Elvis Presley made his film debut; before turning to acting, he was one of the world’s top shot-putters, winning a silver medal at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics; born May 19, 1906, in Tacoma, Wash.; died Feb. 24 at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., from complications of a broken hip. [See 1956, p. 407E1; 1955, p. 151G2; Index 1950; indexed as Bennett] CHANES de Armas, Mario, 80, Cuban-born close ally of Fidel Castro Ruz in the 1950s Cuban revolution who, after challenging Castro’s embrace of communism, was accused of plotting to assassinate him and imprisoned in 1961; he was released in 1991, one day before the completion of his 30-year sentence, and was later permitted to move to the U.S.; born Oct. 25, 1926, in Havana, Cuba; died Feb. 24 at a hospital in Hialeah, Fla., of a heart attack; he had been battling Alzheimer’s disease. [See 1991, pp. 569F1, 409G1; 1989, p. 990E2] EAGLETON, Thomas Francis, 77, Missouri politician who in 1972 was briefly the Democratic vice presidential candidate; he was serving his first term in the U.S. Senate, to which he had been elected in 1968, when 1972 Democratic presidential nominee Sen. George McGovern (S.D.) chose him as his running mate; he had to quit the ticket 18 days later, though, after it emerged that he had been hospitalized for depression in the 1960s, and been given electroshock treatments; (McGovern replaced him with R. Sargent Shriver, the first head of the Peace Corps, but was trounced in November by incumbent President Richard Nixon [R]); back in the Senate, he spearheaded legislation to halt the U.S. bombing of Cambodia in 1973; he was reelected to the Senate in 1974, and again in 1980, and retired in 1987 at the end of his third term; before entering the Senate, he was both attorney general and lieutenant governor of Missouri; born Sept. 4, 1929, in St. Louis, Mo.; died March 4 at a hospital in Richmond Heights, Mo., of a combination of heart, respiratory and other ailments. [See 2004, p. 49D1; 1993, p. 24E3; Indexes 1992, 1989, 1986–87, 1967– 83] FAIRCHILD, Thomas Edward, 94, Wisconsin lawyer who in 1952, running as a Democrat, tried and failed to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R,Wis.), the leading anticommunist crusader of that era, in what turned out to be McCarthy’s only reelection campaign before his death in 1957; later, as a federal judge, he was part of a three-judge panel that in 1972

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overturned the convictions of five defendants in the “Chicago 7” trial; the defendants, all antiwar figures during the Vietnam War, had been charged with crossing state lines to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago; born Dec. 25, 1912, in Milwaukee, Wis.; died Feb. 12 in Madison, Wis. [See 1982, p. 910G3; 1972, p. 930F1; Indexes 1952, 1950] FORTE, Lord (Charles) (Baron Forte of Ripley),

98, British entrepreneur who, beginning in 1934 with one London cafe (or “milk bar”), built up the Forte PLC hotel, restaurant and catering empire; its holdings included the Travelodge hotel chain and such major British roadside dining chains as Little Chef and Happy Eater; knighted in 1970, he was made a life peer in 1981 by then–Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; in 1996, four years after his son succeeded him as chief executive of the Forte group, it was dissolved, after its assets were acquired by the Granada PLC leisure and media group in a hostile takeover; born Nov. 26, 1908, in Mortale, Italy (later renamed Monforte); died in his sleep Feb. 28 at his London home. [See 1996, p. 39G3] FRANCA, Celia (born Celia Franks), 85, Britishborn dancer and choreographer who was founding director (1951) of the National Ballet of Canada, based in Toronto, Ontario; she led the company until 1974, sharing its directorship with David Haber for the 1973– 74 season; she returned as interm artistic director after Haber was dismissed in 1975, and stayed on until Alexander Grant took over in 1976; she then moved to Ottawa, Ontario, where she continued her involvement in dance education; born June 25, 1921, in London; died Feb. 19 at an Ottawa hospital, after a series of falls that had left her bedridden. [See 2006, p. 1041A1] GHOUSSOUB, Mai, 54, Lebanese-born writer, publisher, sculptor and performance artist; after moving to London in the late 1970s, she became a central figure in avant-garde Arab culture, embracing feminism and radical politics, and addressing such previously taboo subjects as homosexuality and transsexuality; she wrote in English and French as well as Arabic, and her books included a 1998 memoir, Leaving Beirut: Women and the Wars Within; born Nov. 2, 1952, in Beit Shabab, a mountain town near Beirut; died Feb. 17 in London, a day after being hospitalized with severe flu-like symptoms. GILBERT, Peggy (born Margaret Fern Knechtges), 102, jazz saxophonist who in the 1920s formed

the Melody Girls, a pioneering all-female band, and the first of a string of such groups she would lead for much of the rest of her life; the most recent of these ensembles, the Dixie Belles, was active from 1974 through 1998; born Jan. 17, 1905, in Sioux City, Iowa; died Feb. 12 at a hospital in Burbank, Calif., from complications of hip surgery. GITTINGS, Barbara, 74, gay rights activist; she not only played a key role in getting the American Psychiatric Association to agree to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1973, but also prompted the American Library Association to make materials with gay and lesbian content widely available to readers; born July 31, 1932, in Vienna, Austria; died Feb. 18 at a retirement community in Kennett Square, Pa., after a long battle with breast cancer. JOHNSON, Dennis Wayne, 52, five-time All-Star National Basketball Association (NBA) guard who propelled the Seattle SuperSonics to their only championship in 1979; he also played on Boston Celtics teams that won titles in 1984 and 1986; in the last few years, he was the head coach of two NBA Development League teams, the Florida Flame and the Austin Toros; born Sept. 18, 1954, in San Pedro, Calif.; died Feb. 22 in Austin, Texas, after suffering a heart attack outside the Austin Convention Center, where the Toros had just finished practicing. [See 2003, pp. 611B3, 336E2; 1987, p. 455F2, F3; Indexes 1984–86, 1981, 1978–79] KENNEDY, Ken, 61, computer scientist who did pioeneering work on software programs known as parallelizing compilers, which enabled supercomputers to perform the high-speed calculations needed for such complex tasks as weather forecasting; he founded Rice University’s computer science department in 1984, and turned the Houston, Texas, institution into a mecca for graduate students in computational engineering; born Aug. 12, 1945, in Washington, D.C.; died Feb. 7 in Houston, of pancreatic cancer. METZGER, Bruce Manning, 93, New Testament scholar who supervised the preparation of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, published in the U.S. in 1990; the work was hailed for the simplicity and modernity of its language; an ordained Presbyterian minister, he taught at Princeton (N.J.) Theological Seminary for many years; born Feb. 9, 1914, in Middletown, Pa.; died Feb. 13 at a Princeton hospital, of respiratory failure. [See 1983, p. 847D1]

MORLEY, Sheridan Robert, 65, British drama critic, broadcaster, biographer of show business personalities and occasional theater director; his father was actor Robert Morley, who died in 1992, and his godfather was playwright Noel Coward, who died in 1973; both were subjects of biographies by him; born Dec. 5, 1941, in Ascot, England; died in his sleep Feb. 16 at his London home. [See 1999, p. 998E3; 1992, p. 420F3; 1973, p. 410G2; Index 1969] MOSER, Hugo Wolfgang, 82, neurologist who taught at Baltimore, Md.’s Johns Hopkins University for decades and was deemed the world’s leading authority on adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), an inherited metabolic disorder that affected only boys and was ultimately fatal; he was portrayed by actor Peter Ustinov in Lorenzo’s Oil, a 1992 film about an ALD patient treated by his parents with an edible oil that seemed to biochemically stabilize his condition; in 2005, he published a study indicating that the oil might delay the onset of symptoms in boys diagnosed with ALD at an early age, through a blood test developed by him in the 1980s; born Oct. 4, 1924, in Bern, Switzerland; died Jan. 20 at a Baltimore hospital, several months after undergoing surgery for pancreatic cancer. MUSE, (Marion) Lamar, 86, first president (1971– 78) of Southwest Airlines Inc., a pioneering low-fare Texas carrier; he left Southwest after a boardroom battle and in 1981 founded a rival carrier, Muse Air, which he ended up selling to Southwest in 1985; born June 4, 1920, in Houston, Texas; died Feb. 5 at a retirement home in Dallas, Texas, of lung cancer. OSTERBROCK, Donald Edward, 82, astrophysicist who mapped out the star-forming regions of the Milky Way galaxy and, in so doing, showed that it was shaped like a spiral; he was director of California’s Lick Observatory from 1973 to 1981, and a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, from 1973 to 1992; born July 13, 1924, in Cincinnati, Ohio; died Jan. 11 on the Santa Cruz campus, of a heart attack suffered while taking a walk. PIMLOTT, Steven Charles, 53, British theater and opera director who in recent years had been artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre in southern England; in the U.S., he was best known for directing a 1993 Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; born April 18, 1953, in Stockport, England; died Feb. 14 at his home in Colchester, England, of lung cancer. [See 2004, p. 415C2; 1998, p. 678F3; Index 1995] POLSBY, Nelson Woolf, 72, political scientist, long associated with the University of California at Berkeley, who was the author of such influential books as Political Innovation in America (1984) and How Congress Evolves (2004); born Oct. 25, 1934, in Norwich, Conn.; died Feb. 6 at his Berkeley home, of congestive heart failure. SNOWDEN Jr., Frank Martin, 95, longtime classics professor at Washington, D.C.’s Howard University who did pioneering research on racial issues in ancient cultures; his books, which argued that ancient Greece and Rome were relatively free of the racism endemic to later Western civilization, included Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks (1983); he was the recipient of a National Humanities Medal in 2003; born July 17, 1911, in rural York County, Va.; died Feb. 18 at an assisted living home in Washington, of congestive heart failure. [See 2003, p. 948F1] STEVENSON, Ian Pretyman, 88, Canadian-born psychiatrist, long affiliated with the University of Virginia, who for decades traveled all over the world investigating cases of small children who seemed to recall details of previous lives; he published his many case histories in a series of technical works, notably Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects (1997); born Oct. 31, 1918, in Montreal, Quebec; died Feb. 8 at a retirement community in Charlottesville, Va., of pneumonia. Von SCHMIDT, Eric, 75, guiding spirit of the Cambridge, Mass., folk music scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s; he mentored and inspired two musicians who were to become much more famous than he was, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, and provided more modest asssistance to others, including James Taylor; born May 28, 1931, in Westport, Conn.; died Feb. 2 in Fairfield, Conn.; he had suffered a stroke in 2006 and had battled throat cancer. WALGREEN Jr., Charles, 100, president of Walgreen Co., a drugstore chain founded by his father, from 1939, the year his father died, until 1963, and the company’s chairman from 1963 until his 1976 retirement; he pioneered self-service merchandising in the retail drug industry and helped turn Walgreens into the largest U.S. drugstore chain in terms of revenue; born March 4, 1906, in Chicago; died Feb. 10 at his home in Northfield, Ill. [See 2006, p. 894C2] „

March 8, 2007

U.S. Military Releases Confession of Suspected Leader of 9/11 Attacks Claims Responsibility for 31 Attacks, Plots.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, whom the U.S. government had accused of masterminding Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. by the Al Qaeda international terrorist network, March 10 confessed to having planned those and other terrorist attacks and plots, according to transcripts released March 14 by the Defense Department. The confession was made through a military official acting as Mohammed’s personal representative during a military hearing held at a U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was expected that the confession would be used against Mohammed if he were brought before a military tribunal for trial. [See p. 144E1; 2006, p. 1001B2; for excerpts from the transcript, see box below] The hearing, which began March 9, examined the government’s “enemy combatant” designation of Mohammed and 13 other “high-value terrorist detainees,” who had been transferred to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006. In addition to introducing Mohammed’s confession, the proceedings laid out government evidence against him. His request to call two defense witnesses was denied. [See 2006, p. 689A1] Mohammed refused to speak under oath, citing religious reasons. However, he insisted that he was telling the truth. In the confession, Mohammed indicated that previous statements made to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been obtained through torture. However, he said, his current confession had not been coerced. He also spoke out on behalf of other detainees, many of whom he said were innocent. “I’m asking you again to be fair with many detainees which are not enemy com-

batant,” he said, “because many of them have been unjustly arrested.” The Pentagon March 14 also released transcripts of hearings for two of the other terrorist suspects, Abu Faraj al-Libbi and Ramzi bin al-Shibh. According to the transcript, Libbi had not attended his hearing because he was not permitted to have a lawyer present or call witnesses in his defense.

®

World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3457 March 15, 2007

Offers Military Analogies for Attacks—

According to the transcript, Mohammed said through his representative, “I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z.” Then, speaking for himself in broken English, he characterized the attacks as part of a military campaign, saying, “I’m not happy that 3,000 been killed in America. I feel sorry even. I don’t like to kill children and the kids.…The language of war is victims.” “If America they want to invade Iraq they will not send for [former Iraqi President] Saddam [Hussein] roses or kisses, they send for a bombardment,” he continued. “I consider myself for what you are doing, a religious thing as you consider us fundamentalist. So, we derive from religious leading that we consider we and George Washington doing the same thing.” Mohammed compared his actions to those of other revolutionaries, and said the British would have treated Washington as an enemy combatant if they had captured him during the Revolutionary War. Other Attacks Claimed—In addition to the 2001 attacks, Mohammed said he was wholly or partially responsible for 30 other attacks and plots, many of which had not been carried out. He called himself Al Qaeda’s military operational commander for “all foreign operations around the world.”

EXCERPTS FROM KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED’S CONFESSION

Following are excerpts from the U.S. military’s transcript of the confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, released March 14 (with his broken English uncorrected) [See p. 153A1]: Many Muslims, that Al Qaeda or Taliban they are doing. They have been oppressed by America. This is the feeling of the prophet. So when we say we are enemy combatant, that right. We are. But I am asking you again to be fair with many detainees which are not enemy combatant. Because many of them have been unjustly arrested. Many, not one or two or three. Cause the definition you which wrote even from my view it is not fair.… They don’t know what it means Al Qaeda or [its leader] Osama bin Laden or Taliban. They don’t care about these things. They heard they were enemy in Afghanistan they just arrived. As they heard first time Russian invade Afghanistan. They arrive they fought when back than they came. They don’t know what’s going on and Taliban they been head of government. Because war, for sure, there will be victims. When I said I’m not happy that 3,000 been killed in America. I feel sorry even. I don’t like to kill children and the kids. Never Islam are, give me green light to kill peoples. Killing, as in the Christianity, Jews, and Islam, are prohibited. But there are exception of rule when you are killing people in Iraq.

Facts On File

You said we have to do it. We don’t like [former Iraqi President] Saddam [Hussein]. But this the way to deal with Saddam. Same thing you are saying. Same language you use, I use. When you are invading two-thirds of Mexican, you call your war manifest destiny. It up to you to call it what you want. But other side are calling you oppressors. If now George Washington. If now we were living in the Revolutionary War and George Washington he being arrested through Britain. For sure he, they would consider him enemy combatant. But American they consider him as hero.… Sometime I want to make great awakening between American to stop foreign policy in our land. I know American people are torturing us from seventies.… I know they talking about human rights. And I know it is against American Constitution, against American laws. But they said every law, they have exceptions, this is your bad luck you been part of the exception of our laws.… The American have human right. So, enemy combatant itself, it flexible word. So I think God knows that many who been arrested, they been unjustly arrested. Otherwise, military throughout history know very well. They don’t war will never stop. War start from Adam when Cain he killed Abel until now. It’s never gonna stop killing of people.

B He also said he had directed the organization’s biological weapons development program. The attacks he listed included the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City; the 2001 attempt by convicted terrorist Richard Reid to bomb a transatlantic flight; 2002 nightclub bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali; the 2002 killing of a U.S. marine in Kuwait; the bombing in 2002 of a Mombasa, Kenya, hotel popular with Israelis; the attempted destruction of a U.S. oil company in Indonesia “owned by the Jewish former [U.S.] secretary of state, Henry Kissinger”; and spying missions in Israel and on nuclear power plants in the U.S. Mohammed said he was responsible for planning assassination attempts on former U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and Pakistani President Pervez

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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U.S. military releases confession of suspected leader of 9/11 attacks; claims responsibility for 31 attacks, plots. PAGE 153

U.S. and Iran meet at Iraq security conference.

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U.S. President Bush tours Latin America. PAGE 156

White House role in ouster of U.S. attorneys disclosed. PAGE 157

Report details FBI misuses of Patriot Act. PAGE 157

Ivory Coast rebels, government reach peace deal.

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Zimbabwe opposition leaders arrested, beaten. PAGE 162

EU summit reaches pact to cut emissions. PAGE 164

British House of Commons votes for fully elected Lords. PAGE 165

Nations agree on further Iran sanctions. PAGE 165

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Musharraf. He added that he had shared culpability for a 1994 attempt on the life of the late Pope John Paul II in the Philippines. Mohammed took responsibility for a number of planned attacks that never took place. He said their targets included New York City landmarks such as the Empire State Building, the New York Stock Exchange and suspension bridges; London landmarks such as the Big Ben clock tower of the Houses of Parliament; office buildings throughout the U.S.; buildings in Eilat, Israel; airliners worldwide; U.S. military vessels and oil tankers; and U.S. and Israeli embassies in various countries around the world. The legitimacy of Mohammed’s claims was not clear. A commission set up to investigate the 2001 attacks in 2005 had noted that Mohammed had far-reaching ambitions and attempted to cast himself as “the superterrorist.” The Pentagon March 15 released a revised transcript of the confession that included portions that had previously been redacted. In the new section, Mohammed confessed to beheading U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 in Pakistan. Mohammed in the initial transcript had made reference to Pearl’s death but had not admitted complicity. A Defense Department spokesperson said the information had been held back in order to first deliver the news to Pearl’s family. [See 2005, p. 882D1] „

U.S. and Iran Meet at Iraq Security Conference Two Nations Trade Accusations. Represen-

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tatives of more than a dozen nations March 10 met at a security conference in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, providing a venue for brief diplomatic contact between the U.S. and Iran, nations frequently at odds over the cause of and remedy for the violence in Iraq. Iraq’s government had organized the conference in order to enlist aid toward ending the terrorism and sectarian bloodshed within its borders. U.S. President George W. Bush had repeatedly refused to hold talks with either Iran or Syria, which he accused of meddling in Iraq. [See pp. 138B2, 121A1] The conference received delegations from all six of Iraq’s neighbors, as well as all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and three international organizations also sent delegations. Two mortar shells struck not far from the conference as it was being held, but failed to cause any injuries. The U.S. delegation was led by Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and the Iranian delegation was led by Abbas Araghchi, a deputy foreign minister. The U.S. and Iranian delegations did speak with one another, but did not hold sustained, one-on-one talks. Although some accounts claimed that interactions between them were cordial, reports emerged that the two delegations had traded harsh accusations. 154

In particular, the U.S. had reportedly accused Iran of supporting militias and destabilizing Iraq. Iran had reportedly denied the claim, and demanded that the U.S. set a timetable for withdrawing its troops from Iraq and release Iranian diplomats in its custody. News reports said the U.S. insisted that it did not have any Iranian diplomats in detention. [See pp. 121E1, 90G1] After the conference, Khalilzad described his exchanges with the Iranian delegation as “frank and sometimes even jovial,” insisting that “nobody was pounding the table.” He said he had had the opportunity to air U.S. concerns to Iran, adding that the U.S. would wait and see “what happens on the ground in terms of weapons coming across the border, support for groups, support for militias.” During the meeting, Araghchi reportedly had said the U.S. was “unfortunately suffering from intelligence failure” in response to accusations of meddling in Iraq. “They have made so many mistakes and policies in Iraq because of the false information and intelligence they had at the beginning,” he said. After the meeting, Araghchi sounded a similar note to Khalilzad, saying, “The meeting in general was constructive, taking place in a very good environment.” Maliki Requests Help Against Terrorism—

Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki addressed delegates at the conference March 10, calling on Iraq’s neighbors to help his country fight terrorism and to stop any form of support they might be providing to terrorists. That effort, he said, “requires ceasing any form of financial and media support and religious cover, as well as logistical support and provision of arms and men that would turn out to be explosive tools killing our children, women and elders and bombing our mosques and churches.” Maliki also declared that Iraq should not serve as a battleground for countries at odds with one another. “We will not accept that our lands, cities and streets serve as an arena for interregional or regional-international disputes,” he said. He also insisted that Iraq would not be “a theater for influence of any state.” At the end of the conference, Iraq’s neighbors agreed to establish three separate working groups in order to collaborate on issues such as border security, refugees, fuel and energy supplies, and imports. All the delegations agreed to attend another security conference in April, perhaps at the ministerial level. Statistics Show Drop in Violence—Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the Iraqi military, March 14 released statistics showing that violence in the capital had greatly decreased since the launch of a new joint U.S.-Iraqi security push, named Operation Enforcing the Law. The statistics compared the levels of violence in Baghdad in the four weeks prior to the operation’s launch with the levels of violence in the four weeks following. [See p. 121B2]

The statistics showed that the number of civilians killed in the capital was down by more than 80%, the number of kidnappings was down by almost 90%, and the number of assassination incidents was down by 95%. Moreover, mortar attacks were down by nearly one-half, and there were more than a third fewer roadside bombings and car bombings. In addition, almost five times as many terrorists were killed in the four weeks after the operation’s launch than in the four weeks prior to it. Other Sources Cite Less Progress—

Several additional reports released March 14–15 also attested to a decline in violence, though not as precipitous a drop as Moussawi had claimed. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell 4th, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, March 14 confirmed that violence in Baghdad had fallen, claiming that “murders and executions have come down by over 50%” since the security push started. He warned against declaring victory too soon, but asserted that “the indicators are all very positive right now.” He also pointed out that, by the fourth week in previous security pushes, violence had returned to its usual level after a brief dip. Caldwell said violence had not gone back up during the current push. The reductions in violence came in spite of an increase in “high-profile” car bombings the previous week, Caldwell said, adding that the number of car bombings had reached “an all-time high” in February. Such attacks were of great concern, Caldwell explained, because they had the potential to “start that whole cycle of violence again.” Caldwell said Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr—whose Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army, had been blamed for much of the sectarian violence—was still

Facts On File

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in Iran. “We do continue to track his whereabouts,” Caldwell said. Sadr and many members of the Mahdi Army had dropped out of sight just prior to the start of the security push. [See p. 121G2] Caldwell also announced that, of the five U.S. brigades being sent to the capital as part of the security effort, two were in place and a third was on the way. He added that the security push was expected to make a “discernible difference” by autumn. Separately, the Associated Press (AP) March 14 reported that, according to statistics it had compiled from police reports, dozens of bodies were being found each day in Baghdad in the months prior to the new security push, sometimes as many as 200 or 300 a week. Following the security push, however, roughly 80 bodies had been found each week, the AP claimed. The AP also said there were 30% fewer deaths by bombings in the month after the push began than the month prior to it. An article in the New York Times March 15 called Moussawi’s numbers into question, asserting that—based on numbers compiled from hospital officials and reports from Iraq’s interior ministry—450 people had died in the month prior to the security push, rather than 265. The Times article also pointed out that Iraqi government casualty tallies were frequently far lower than similar tallies published by the United Nations and other independent organizations. Maliki , U.S. Gen. Petraeus Visit Ramadi—

Maliki and U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, March 13 visited Ramadi, the capital of the restive Anbar province. The populations of both Ramadi and Anbar were overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, and had strongly resisted both the U.S. and the Shiite-led government of Maliki. Recently, however, some leaders in the province had turned against Sunni insurgents. The two flew into Ramadi together by helicopter, arriving at a U.S. base in the city. Maliki never left the base, but met there with local officials and tribal leaders. Maliki heard many grievances from the local leaders, including complaints about a lack of money for schools and hospitals and the delay in holding provincial elections. The premier pledged to send funds in order to rebuild local infrastructure and to compensate residents for property damaged by fighting. Petraeus, meanwhile, left the base for a tour of the city and to meet with U.S. troops. Iraq Misses U.S. Political Targets— The Times March 15 reported that Maliki’s government had failed to achieve several goals for political reform set by the Bush administration in October 2006 and shared with Congress the following January. Unidentified administration officials cited in the article said Iraq’s government had been expected to enact the reforms by March, but that the administration had conceded that such a timetable was now unrealistic. Instead, it was looking toward the end of March 15, 2007

2007 for at least some of the goals to be met. The goals included: the passing of oil legislation, which the administration expected would occur in the coming weeks; the reentry of former Baath officials into the government workforce, a goal delayed by the illness of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani; the holding of provincial elections, expected by the end of the year; and constitutional reform, for which the administration had not set a timetable. [See below, p. 138F2] The officials said securing Iraq from violence was necessary for the reforms to take place, and that U.S. troops being sent to Baghdad for that purpose would not be fully deployed until June. The U.S. Defense Department March 14 had submitted to Congress a quarterly report on Iraq that assessed Iraq’s progress regarding governmental reform in 2006. The report said Maliki had failed altogether to enact reforms, although it noted that some progress had been made in 2007 on the oil bill. The report also characterized some, but not all, of the violence in Iraq in 2006 as “civil war,” adding that the end of that year was the most violent three-month period since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. The report cited problems with Iraq’s security forces, asserting that only about three-fifths of the roughly 329,000 soldiers and police were present for duty. Prisons, it said, suffered from poor management and infiltration by militias. Iraq’s economy was slowly improving, the report stated, though inflation, unemployment and low incomes were a major concern. Electricity and crude oil output were falling below expectations, the report said. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Talabani March 14 arrived in the northern ethnic Kurdish region of Iraq, having spent more than two weeks in a hospital in Jordan after collapsing. An aide to the president said Talabani would soon travel to Baghdad to resume his duties. [See above, p. 122C2] † The bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein—sons of former President Saddam Hussein who had been killed by U.S. forces in 2003—March 13 were exhumed from their graves in Awja and reburied nearby next to their father’s grave. Hussein had been buried in Awja after being executed in December 2006. The body of one of Hussein’s grandsons, Mustafa, who had been killed along with his father and uncle, was also transferred. Members of Hussein’s tribe were responsible for the move. [See 2006, p. 989A1; 2003, p. 569A1] † Video posted on the Internet March 10 showed a German woman claiming that she and her son had been kidnapped in Iraq in February. She said her kidnappers were threatening to kill them unless Germany withdrew all of its forces from Afghanistan. A young man also appeared in the video. Germany’s foreign ministry, which had earlier confirmed the disappearance of two of its citizens in February, March 11 said it was investigating the matter. [See 2006, p. 906E2]

Violence Reported—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq: † Gunmen March 15 attacked the convoy of Rahim al-Daraji—the mayor of Sadr City, the massive Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad—seriously wounding him and killing two of his bodyguards. The attack took place in a mostly Shiite section of eastern Baghdad. † A suicide car bomber March 15 detonated his explosives near a convoy carrying Sabir al-Issawi, the head of Baghdad’s city council. Issawi was uninjured, but the blast killed at least eight people and wounded several more. The attack took place in Karrada, a mostly Shiite neighborhood in central Baghdad. † A suicide car bomber March 14 detonated his explosives near a police checkpoint in a Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four more. † A bomb March 14 exploded in a market in Tuz Khormato, a predominantly ethnic Turkomen town roughly 130 miles (210 km) north of Baghdad, killing at least four people and wounding at least 10 more. † Gunmen March 14 killed two police officers and wounded a third in Diwaniya, the capital of Qadisiya province. † Seven hundred U.S. soldiers March 13 moved to secure the highway running from Baghdad north to Diyala province, where violence had spiked since the start of the security push. Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, March 9 had requested that more troops be deployed in Diyala. † Authorities March 13 found at least 14 bodies dumped in various parts of Baghdad. † Gunmen March 13 killed at least five people in a Sunni mosque in southwest Baghdad. A spokesman for a Sunni political leader claimed that the perpetrators were members of the Mahdi Army. † A car bomb March 11 exploded near a Sunni mosque in Karrada, killing 11 people and wounding four more. A Katyusha rocket March 13 killed four people and wounded four more in Karrada. † A bomb March 11 detonated next to a truck carrying Shiite pilgrims on their return from Karbala. At least 19 pilgrims were killed. Police in Hilla March 11 said four men believed to have been involved in recent attacks on pilgrims had been arrested. [See p. 139B1] † Insurgents March 10 overran Muqdadiya, a mixed, though predominantly Shiite, village in Diyala province. They threatened residents at gunpoint, demanding that they join the Islamic State of Iraq, a state proclaimed by Sunni insurgents, and torched the homes of those they accused of working with Iraq’s security forces. Reports claimed that anywhere from six to 100 homes were burned, affecting both Shiites and Sunnis. The insurgents raised the Islamic State of Iraq’s flag over Muqdadiya, and many families fled the village. 155

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Iraqi security forces March 11 entered the village without incident. A spokesman for the insurgent group March 12 said the 20 people it had killed in Muqdadiya belonged to either Iraq’s army or the Mahdi Army. † A bomb exploded near Sadr City March 10, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens more. Some of the dead were members of Iraq’s security forces. A suicide bomber March 11 detonated his explosives on a minibus near Sadr City, killing at least seven people and wounding eight more. † An Iraqi woman March 9 claimed that U.S. soldiers had opened fire on her family’s car in Sadr City, killing her husband and their two daughters, and wounding their son. Iraqi authorities confirmed the accusation. Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a spokesman for the U.S. military, called it a “serious allegation” that would be investigated. Garver said the U.S. military would also investigate an allegation that U.S. forces had killed three Iraqi soldiers traveling in a military vehicle that did not halt as ordered. „

U.S. President Bush Tours Latin America Effort to Counter Chavez Influence Seen.

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U.S. President George W. Bush March 8– 14 toured five Latin American countries in an effort aimed at bolstering U.S. ties in the region. Bush visited Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico during the trip, and met with leaders from both ends of the political spectrum. Analysts said Bush’s efforts were geared toward reestablishing a waning U.S. influence in Latin America, where Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias had emerged as the leader of a staunchly anti-American movement. Bush-backed free trade policies were widely reviled among the poor in Latin America, and were considered a contributing factor to his growing unpopularity in the region. [See 2006, pp. 890A2, 482F2, 261D3] Chavez’s efforts had been grounded in populist far-left policies, which included a nationalization movement and heavy state spending on social programs. He had also used revenues generated by the country’s oil industry to provide financial and social aid to several Latin American countries, thereby building his influence and establishing allies in the region. [See p. 67C1] Bush’s tour was met by protesters in all of the countries he visited. Chavez himself led anti-U.S. protests in several other countries as part of his own tour intended to counter Bush’s visit. Chavez’s tour included stops in Argentina, Bolivia and Haiti. In a pre-trip speech delivered March 5 to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Bush pledged hundreds of millions of dollars for programs intended to aid Latin America’s poor. The plans included $385 million for families in Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Central America to help underwrite mortgages. He also said a U.S. Navy hospital ship would be dispatched to 12 coun156

tries in Latin America and the Caribbean to provide medical treatment to 85,000 people. The aid programs indicated a shift in U.S. policy initiatives in Latin America, which historically had focused on free trade issues and antidrug efforts. Ethanol Pact Finalized With Brazil—

Bush March 8 arrived in Sao Paulo for meetings with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. An estimated 6,000 protesters, some of whom clashed with police, gathered in Sao Paulo for an anti-Bush demonstration, with other protests reported across the country. Da Silva and Bush March 9 finalized a cooperation agreement intended to increase the development of ethanol, a biofuel created from renewable energy sources, in Latin American and Caribbean nations. Brazil, a leader in ethanol production and technologies, had replaced 40% of nondiesel engine vehicle fuel with ethanol, which was cheaper than gasoline in the country. Bush had previously stated a goal of reducing the U.S.’s reliance on gasoline by 20% over the next 10 years. However, Bush during meetings refused to discuss a 54% tariff imposed by the U.S. on Brazilian sugarcane-based ethanol that was intended to protect the U.S. corn-based ethanol industry. [See p. 41G2] Chavez March 9 delivered a speech lasting more than two hours during a protest staged at a soccer stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital. He reportedly described Bush as a “political cadaver,” and led the crowd in chants of “Gringo, go home!” Bush March 9 arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, which earlier that day had been beset by protesters, some of whom attacked a restaurant in the city. Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez met with Bush March 10 at his presidential retreat, Estancia Anchorena, but no new agreements between the two countries were announced. Bush Expresses Support for Uribe—

Bush March 11 arrived in Bogota, the Colombian capital, for a brief meeting with President Alvaro Uribe Velez, who was viewed as Bush’s strongest Latin American ally. However, his seven-hour visit was overshadowed by a government scandal that had connected several Uribe-allied legislators to right-wing paramilitary groups linked to drug trafficking and human rights abuses. [See p. 111E1] During the visit, Bush expressed support for Uribe during the paramilitary scandal. “I appreciate the president’s determination to bring human rights violators to justice,” Bush said. Bush aides said the visit had been motivated in part as a demonstration of security improvements in Colombia under Uribe’s rule. No U.S. president had visited Bogota since 1982, largely because it was considered too dangerous. Although the visit was carried out without incident, an estimated 2,000 protesters launched rocks, bricks and metal barricades at police, who fought back with water cannons and teargas.

Immigration Reform Discussed— Bush March 11 continued on to Guatemala for meetings with President Oscar Berger Perdomo. It was Bush’s first visit to Guatemala during his presidency. Bush March 12 defended the recent deportation of dozens of Guatemalans working illegally in the U.S. that had angered many in the country, but acknowledged that U.S. immigration laws warranted an overhaul. “The system needs to be fixed,” Bush said, calling on the U.S. Senate to pass reform legislation by August, although he declined to describe that time frame as a deadline. [See p. 47F3] Bush March 12 arrived in Merida, Mexico, for two days of meetings, where he again faced criticism over U.S. immigration and free-trade policies that were generally resented in the country. Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa after meetings with Bush March 13 derided a U.S. plan to build 700 miles (1,100 km) of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. Calderon also called on Bush to make Mexican foreign policy a priority of his administration and “direct our relationship toward a path of mutual prosperity.” [See p. 50F3] Bush March 14 renewed his call to Congress to finish comprehensive immigration law reform by August. The issue was a highly politicized one in Mexico; an estimated 400,000 Mexicans illegally migrated to the U.S. each year. However, he left Mexico without reaching accord with Calderon on several other issues, including drug trafficking countermeasures and price controls on U.S.-grown corn and beans. [See p. 163F3] In a sign of Bush’s unpopularity in the country, a group of 2,000 anti-Bush protesters March 13 had attempted to storm the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, the capital. The protesters had reportedly been chanting, “Get out, Bush the assassin!” „

Global Health Effectiveness of New HIV Drugs Found.

Scientists at the 14th Annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Los Angeles Feb. 27 said two new drugs created to treat HIV had been effective and safe in large studies. The two drugs, raltegravir and maraviroc, fought the virus through new mechanisms, and if approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would constitute two new classes of HIV/AIDS drugs. [See 2006, p. 947B3] Four classes of HIV/AIDS drugs were already approved for use in the U.S., but in many AIDS patients the virus had grown resistant to one or more of those classes of drugs. The last time a new HIV/AIDS drug class was approved by the FDA was in 2003. Scott Hammer, chief of infectious diseases at the U.S.’s Columbia University Medical Center, said the new drugs “will provide extended years of meaningful survival to patients.” In two studies involving a total of 700 patients, 60% of participants given a drug cocktail including raltegravir were found to have virus levels below 50 particles per FACTS ON FILE

milliliter of blood, the threshold for considering the virus undetectable. Raltegravir interfered with an enzyme produced by the HIV virus that aided its reproduction process. The drug was produced by Merck & Co. In two maraviroc studies involving 1,049 patients, the virus was undetectable in more than 40% of participants given the drug after the 24-week mark, halfway through the study. Maraviroc worked by blocking HIV’s access to a protein in the human immune system used to infect human cells. The drug was produced by Pfizer Inc. Both companies said they would seek approval for the two drugs in 2007. „ Topical Microbicide Studies Halted. Researchers running two trials of a topical microbicide, cellulose sulfate, which was intended to kill the HIV virus, Jan. 31 said they had halted the studies out of safety concerns. An independent scientific committee had found that in a study with 1,333 participants run in India, Benin, Uganda and South Africa, subjects who were given cellulose sulfate, also called Ushercell, were at greater risk of contracting HIV than those given a placebo. The scientists ended a separate study involving 1,700 people in Nigeria, even though participants given the microbicide in that study had not shown an increased risk of HIV infection.[See 2004, p. 582D3] Public health officials and others fighting the AIDS epidemic had stressed the importance of the development of microbicides, which could be used by women to protect themselves from infection if male sexual partners refused to use condoms. Vaccine Funds Set— The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a U.S. philanthropic organization, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Feb. 20 pledged $119 million toward the creation of an AIDS vaccine to be developed at a Canadian research center within 10 years. Microsoft Corp. cofounder and Chairman Bill Gates said his foundation would contribute $24 million toward the effort. [See 2006, p. 627F2] „

Global Environment Beluga Caviar Export Ban Lifted. The Unit-

ed Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Feb. 5 said it had lifted a prohibition on the trade among its member nations of wild beluga caviar harvested in the Caspian Sea. CITES Jan. 2 had ended a trade ban, instituted in January 2006, on several other types of Caspian caviar. [See 2006, p. 11E2] A new rule allowed five Caspian nations—Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan—to export 3.7 tons (3.4 metric tons) of caviar in 2007, a drop of 29% from 2005 levels. Marine scientists questioned the move, with some arguing that the population of wild sturgeon, the fish whose eggs were processed into caviar, was threatened by overfishing in the Caspian Sea. „ March 15, 2007

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

White House Role in Ouster of U.S. Attorneys Disclosed Gonzales Admits ‘Mistakes Were Made.’

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at a news conference March 13 acknowledged that “mistakes were made” in explaining the firing of seven federal prosecutors in December 2006 and an eighth earlier that year. Gonzales and other top Justice Department officials had maintained in testimony to Congress that the firings were based on performance issues, not politics. However, the White House and the Justice Department March 13 released documents and e-mails showing that the plan to fire the U.S. attorneys had first been suggested by top White House advisers in 2005. [See p. 142A3] President George W. Bush during a visit to Mexico March 14 said that the dismissal of the prosecutors was “appropriate” and a “customary practice.” He denied that it had been politically motivated. “What was mishandled was the explanation of the cases to Congress,” he said. Bush acknowledged that he had relayed complaints about some prosecutors from Republican members of Congress to Gonzales. “But I never brought up a specific case nor gave him specific instructions,” Bush said. Rejecting calls for Gonzales to resign, Bush said, “I do have confidence in Attorney General Al Gonzales.” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino March 12 said that Bush had told Gonzales in October 2006 that Republican lawmakers had complained that some U.S. attorneys had not aggressively investigated allegations of voter fraud in elections. Sen. Pete Domenici (R, N.M.) was said to be one of the lawmakers. Republicans regularly accused Democrats of encouraging voter fraud to gain an advantage in elections, while Democrats claimed that Republicans used the issue to suppress voter turnout by minorities. In testimony before the House and Senate Judiciary committees earlier in March, some of the ousted prosecutors had asserted that they had been improperly pressured by Republican lawmakers to pursue corruption cases against local Democrats. Democrats and other critics said the controversy showed that Gonzales was too loyal to Bush to protect the Justice Department’s independence. Gonzales had served as White House counsel, or Bush’s top lawyer, from 2001 to 2005. He had served in a similar role when Bush was governor of Texas. Sen. John Sununu (N.H.) March 14 became the first Republican to join calls by Democrats for Gonzales to resign over the controversy. Sens. John Ensign (R, Nev.) and John Cornyn (R, Texas) had criticized Gonzales’s handling of the dismissals. Gonzales’s Chief of Staff Resigns—

Gonzales’s chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, resigned March 12. The documents released the next day showed that Sampson

had coordinated the firings of the U.S. attorneys with then–White House counsel Harriet Miers. Senior Justice Department officials said he had not informed them of those contacts. Gonzales at his news conference March 13 said he had not been informed of Sampson’s activities relating to the matter. “I was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on,” he said. E-mails between Miers and Sampson showed that Miers in February 2005, just after Gonzales became attorney general, had proposed replacing all 93 U.S. attorneys serving in districts across the country. (Bush, like his Democratic predecessor, President Bill Clinton, had already replaced all the U.S. attorneys at the beginning of his first term in 2001.) Sampson advised Miers that a mass ouster would not be practical. Instead, he proposed firing a smaller group. In order to select the group, he ranked the prosecutors by criteria that included their loyalty to the Bush administration. In another e-mail, Sampson proposed installing a new U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., under a provision added to the USA Patriot Act, a 2001 antiterrorism law, in its 2006 reauthorization by Congress. The provision gave the attorney general the power to directly appoint interim U.S. attorneys for unlimited periods, without the normal Senate confirmation process. Sampson suggested using the provision to install Timothy Griffin, an aide to Karl Rove, Bush’s top political adviser. The U.S. attorney in Little Rock, H.E. (Bud) Cummins 3rd, was ousted and Griffin put in his place. “Getting him appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc.,” Sampson said in a December 2006 e-mail. The current White House counsel, Fred Fielding, March 14 met with lawmakers to discuss whether they could receive access to more documents and an opportunity to question Rove, Miers and others. Miers had resigned in January. [See p. 14A1] „

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Terrorism Report Details FBI Misuse of Patriot Act.

The Justice Department’s inspector general March 9 issued a report alleging improper use of the USA Patriot Act antiterrorism law by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to secure information on tens of thousands of U.S. residents and foreign nationals. The audit was mandated under the 2006 reauthorization of the Patriot Act. [See p. 27A2; 2006, p. 165G3] Details of the report, prepared by Inspector General Glenn Fine, had emerged March 8, as the Justice Department was in the midst of a controversy over the ousting of several U.S. attorneys for allegedly political reasons. Legislators from both the Democratic and Republican parties criticized the use of so-called national security letters in obtaining the information, and some called for revisions to the Patriot Act and the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. [See p. 157A2] 157

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The report accused the FBI of disregarding and misunderstanding rules on the use of national security letters, which were used to collect telephone records, e-mail addresses and other personal information on people connected to terrorism and espionage cases. It also noted that companies ordered to turn over records often released more information than was necessary, or information on the wrong people. The audit determined that the FBI had “significantly understated” the use of national security letters to Congress. It said 22% more letters had been found in case files than were recorded at the agency’s central legal office, according to a study of a sample of 77 case files at four field offices. This and slowness in gathering and reporting data had allegedly produced the discrepancy in reporting. The report noted a rise in the use of national security letters after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. It found 39,000 requests for information in 2003, followed by 56,000 in 2004 and 47,000 in 2005. National security letters were used on 24,937 U.S. citizens and permanent residents and 27,262 foreign nationals living in the U.S. The report said that although few terrorism charges had resulted from the letters, FBI agents increasingly described them as vital to their operations. The inspector general’s office also criticized the use of “exigent letters,” which were used to obtain urgent information by promising that subpoenas would later be issued. However, the report said, the letters were often used in “non-emergency situations,” and subpoenas often never arrived. FBI Director Robert Mueller 3rd March 9 said the FBI had stopped using exigent letters in May 2006. However, the Washington Post March 10 reported that an FBI official had clarified that the letters were still used, but were now backed with the promise of a national security letter. FBI Chief Promises Reforms— Mueller March 9 accepted responsibility for the agency’s failures and promised to take action to prevent future lapses. “How could this happen?” Mueller said in a briefing. “Who is to be held accountable? And the answer to that is I am to be held accountable.” Mueller added that the lapses resulted from procedural mistakes rather than malicious or criminal intent, and that no one had been harmed by the errors. He said the FBI had “already taken steps to correct these deficiencies,” and that national security letters were crucial to antiterrorism operations. The revelations March 9 prompted bipartisan protests. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) called for “meaningful checks” on the usage of national security letters. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would hold hearings on the issue. Several key Republican senators and staff members said Gonzales had assured them that he would correct the abuses, in an apparent bid to shore up support, the Post reported March 10. President George W. Bush March 10 at a news briefing in Uruguay, where he was in the midst of a trip through Latin Ameri158

ca, said he had been appraised of the reports. He acknowledged “FBI shortfallings” and called on the Justice Department to fix them, but he also expressed support for Gonzales and Mueller and said that national security letters were a vital counterterrorism tool. [See p. 156C1] Gonzales Resignation Demanded—Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) March 11 during an interview on the CBS News program “Face the Nation” called on Gonzales to resign over the national security letters and the scandal over the firings of federal prosecutors, saying he had politicized his office. Schumer said Gonzales was “even more political” than his controversial predecessor, John Ashcroft, and that “he either doesn’t accept or doesn’t understand that he is no longer just the president’s lawyer but has a higher obligation to the rule of law and the Constitution, even when the president should not want it to be so.” Sen. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.), also on the program, responded that more facts were needed, and that the final decision was up to Gonzales and Bush. „

Armed Forces Army Surgeon General Ousted in Scandal.

Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, the Army’s surgeon general, March 11 submitted a request for retirement after facing heavy criticism for his role in a scandal over shoddy treatment that soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan had received at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The Army disclosed Kiley’s request in a March 12 announcement. [See p. 142A1] Kiley had served as commander of Walter Reed from 2002 to 2004, before becoming surgeon general, the Army’s top medical officer. He had been accused of ignoring complaints from soldiers about poor conditions in an outpatient building and frustrating bureaucratic delays at Walter Reed. Kiley became the third high-ranking Army official to lose his job over the scandal, following Army Secretary Francis Harvey and Major Gen. George Weightman, his successor as Walter Reed chief. The Army named Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, Kiley’s deputy, to take over as acting surgeon general until a permanent replacement was chosen. The office of the Army inspector general March 12 reported that a yearlong study had found shortcomings in care for wounded soldiers. It said that “training for personnel assisting soldiers is not standardized” and that the Army’s database system was “inadequate” for tracking soldiers’ medical information and determining the disability benefits they were entitled to. The report said the system had been overloaded by the thousands of wounded troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigators March 13 testified before the House Veterans Affairs Committee that they had uncovered delays in the Veterans Affairs Department’s processing of disability claims. „

2008 Presidential Campaign Clinton, Obama Vie for Minority Support.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.), the early front-runners for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, March 4 attended commemorations in Selma, Ala., of the 42nd anniversary of a landmark civil rights march that had ended with police beating demonstrators. Clinton was joined by her husband, former President Bill Clinton. It was their first public appearance together since she started her presidential campaign in January. [See p. 143A2; 2000, p. 675B3] The appearances by Obama and Clinton were viewed as part of their intensifying competition for the support of black voters. Sen. Clinton had been expected to benefit from Bill Clinton’s popularity among blacks. But recent polls had shown her losing black voter support to Obama, the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas. In a speech, Obama said the civil rights movement had made his parents’ marriage possible. He also acknowledged that his mother’s ancestors had owned slaves in Kentucky, saying, “that’s part of our tortured, tangled history.” The genealogical finding had been reported March 2 by the Baltimore Sun. [See p. 151C3] In her speech, Clinton hailed the 1965 Voting Rights Act, whose enactment had been spurred by outrage over the violence at Selma. “Today it is giving Sen. Obama the chance to run for president. And by its logic and spirit, it is giving the same chance to Gov. Bill Richardson (D, N.M.) to run as a Hispanic. And yes, it is giving me that chance,” Clinton said. Clinton and Obama March 13 both campaigned for Jewish support, giving speeches at a conference held by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington, D.C. Clinton gave a staunchly pro-Israel speech, while Obama’s address, which called for a balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was less warmly received. Both candidates called Iran’s nuclear ambitions a threat to the U.S. and Israel. „

Legislation Senate Passes 9/11 Commission Bill. The

Senate March 13 passed, 60–38, a Democratic-backed antiterrorism bill enacting many of the security recommendations made by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (known informally as the Sept. 11 commission), an independent, bipartisan panel that had investigated September 2001 attacks on the U.S. Ten Republicans crossed party lines to vote for the bill, while no Democrats opposed it. However, it faced a veto from President George W. Bush over a provision that expanded union rights for airport screeners. The House in January had passed a version of the bill as part of the Democrats’ “100 hours” agenda. [See p. 14G2] FACTS ON FILE

The legislation authorized $3.1 billion a year for the next three years in security grants to states. The House bill had set the allocation formula so that states with higher populations would receive more funding, as they were thought to be under greater threat of terrorist attack. However, the Senate version would distribute funds more equally by state. Additional grants in the Senate legislation included $3.3 billion for emergency communications systems and $4.1 billion for rail and transit security. Both the Senate and the House bills required all cargo being transported into the U.S. by passenger plane to be scanned. However, the Senate version did not mandate radiation scanning at overseas ports for all U.S-bound cargo, as the House bill did. The Senate bill also bolstered a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) privacy board, and mandated declassifying the nation’s total spending on intelligence. Collective Bargaining Rights Granted—

The controversial labor measure in the March 13 legislation would allow airport screeners collective bargaining rights, which they had campaigned for since a 2001 aviation security law federalized the screening force. Backers said it would increase morale and decrease attrition. The new bill would not allow screeners to strike. The House bill had included a similar labor provision. [See 2003, p. 29B1; 2001, p. 918A2] White House officials Feb. 27 had said Bush would veto the bill if it included the measure, claiming that it would deprive the DHS of the flexibility it needed to combat terrorism. Sen. Jim DeMint (R, S.C.) and 35 other Republican senators the same day sent a letter to the White House vowing to sustain a veto if necessary. The Senate March 6 rejected, 51–46, an amendment by DeMint to remove the union rights provision from the bill. „

Gun Control Appeals Court Strikes Down D.C. Ban. A

panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit March 9 ruled, 2–1, that a law barring residents from keeping handguns in their homes violated the Constitution’s Second Amendment. The ruling was significant because in holding that the Second Amendment protected the right of individuals to bear arms, it departed from rulings by nine other federal appeals courts, and was therefore likely to send the issue to the Supreme Court to be resolved. Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) immediately vowed an appeal, saying the decision could lead to increased gun violence. [See 2006, p. 598A1; 2005, p. 853F2] The case, Parker v. the District of Columbia, was brought by six D.C. residents who challenged three laws. One banned all handguns not registered before its enactment in 1976. The second banned transporting handguns without a permit, even within the owner’s home. The third required registered shotgun and rifle owners March 15, 2007

to store them disassembled or with trigger locks in their homes. The Second Amendment read, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” Legal scholars and the public had long debated whether the first clause qualified the second and so limited the right to bear arms to state militia. The Supreme Court had not ruled on the issue since 1939, in a decision that both sides of the present case cited in their argument. The narrow direct effect of the decision would be to require the District of Columbia to allow handgun possession in private homes. It did not address provisions that forbade people from carrying unregistered guns outside the home. The reasoning, however, was broader. Judge Laurence Silberman, writing for the majority, said it was unlikely that the framers of the Constitution would have used the second clause at all if their only intent had been to protect state militia from disarmament. The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, La., had likewise affirmed the right of individuals to bear arms, but did so in an aside in a case that did not turn directly on that issue. The plaintiffs in the present case had been backed by some states and by the National Rifle Association (NRA), which greeted the ruling enthusiastically. Other states and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence joined with the District of Columbia. „

Medicare & Medicaid Drug Benefit Slows Spending Growth.

Economists and actuaries with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported Feb. 21 on the Web site of the journal Health Affairs that the Medicare prescription drug benefit program, also known as Part D, had slowed national growth in spending on prescription medications. However, the CMS also reported that overall health care spending growth would continue to climb, with those costs constituting 19.6% of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by 2016. Analysts estimated that in 2006 health care spending had accounted for 16% of the nation’s economy. [See 2006, p. 957F1] CMS officials Jan. 30 reported that an estimated 24 million people were enrolled in a Part D plan; such plans were managed by private insurers, but paid for largely by the federal government. The decrease in prescription drug spending growth was attributed to insurers who had negotiated lower drug prices with pharmaceutical firms. Part D Cost Estimates Reduced— Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Jan. 25 said Part D’s 10year cost would be $265 billion less than had been estimated by the CBO in August 2006. Orszag attributed the drop to a reduced number of Medicare beneficiaries expected to sign up for coverage, and lower-than-expected bids made by insurers providing the plans. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt Jan. 6

had also released a separate reduced 10year cost estimate for the plan of $964 billion, down from a July 2006 estimate of $1.077 trillion. „

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Financial Markets Insider Trading Network Broken. Federal

authorities in New York City March 1 announced that they had accused 13 people of involvement in an insider trading network on Wall Street described as among the most serious such operations since the 1980s. Law enforcement officials said they had arrested nine people and elicited guilty pleas from four others on criminal charges including securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and bribery. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), filed civil charges against 10 of the 13 and against one other trader, as well as against two hedge funds and a trading company. [See 2006, p. 976F1] Two Sources Gave Tips—The investigation revealed two information sources for the network: Mitchel Guttenberg, a stock-research executive at the U.S. unit of Swiss bank UBS AG, and Randi Collata, a lawyer for investment house Morgan Stanley. Guttenberg in 2001 had repaid a personal loan to Erik Franklin, then manager of the Bear Stearns Cos. hedge fund Lyford Cay, with information about changes in analysts’ stock ratings, and then took a portion of the Lyford fund’s profits gained through use of the information. The two men had sent text messages to each other via disposable cell phones in efforts to cover up their communication. After Franklin left Lyford Cay in 2002, he resumed trading on Guttenberg’s tips at another hedge fund, Chelsey Capital Partners. Franklin and Guttenberg brought friends and coworkers in on the scheme. Robert Babcock, then a representative at Bear Stearns who entered some of Franklin’s Lyford trades, recognized the use of nonpublic information in Franklin’s trades and began mimicking them using his own accounts. Babcock in turn passed to Franklin insider information on impending mergers originating with Collata. Collata and her husband, Christopher Collata, another Morgan Stanley lawyer, peddled their information through another representative at the company, Marc Jurman. Others tied up in the ring included Ken Okada and Andrew Srebnik, both formerly of Bear Stearns, Mark Lenowitz of Chelsey Capital, Paul Risoli of Bank of America Corp., David Glass of Jasper Capital LLC, Samuel Childs Jr. and Laurence McKeever of trading firm Assent LLC, and David Tavdy, a trader at both Assent and Jasper. Franklin, Babcock, Jurman and Glass had all pleaded guilty to criminal charges, it was reported March 2. Guttenberg, the Collatas, Okada, Lenowitz, Risoli, McKeever and Childs all pleaded not guilty. Srebnik faced only civil charges. The firms charged by the SEC were hedge fund Q Capital Investment Partners LP, Jasper and DSJ International Resources 159

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Ltd., which did business under the name Chelsea Capital. Altogether, federal authorities said, those involved in the ring made about $15 million using the insider information from UBS and Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley March 1 issued a statement expressing “outrage” at its employees’ conduct and pledged continued cooperation with the investigation. UBS described itself as a victim of the fraud, and Bear Stearns denounced the ring-members’ behavior and said it was cooperating with the probe. „ Advisory Group Rejects Hedge Fund Rules.

President George W. Bush’s Working Group on Financial Markets Feb. 22 unanimously rejected the idea of placing hedge funds under stricter regulations. Calls had been growing for greater oversight of hedge funds—largely unregulated investment pools of private capital. The funds now accounted for more than $1 trillion in assets, and were becoming more and more popular investments for institutional pools of money, such as pension funds, often belonging to individuals of modest means. [See p. 107D2] Instead, the working group advised creditors of hedge funds—often large multinational banks—to perform “effective due diligence” before offering credit, and perform “rigorous stress testing” to see how “adverse market events” could affect their finances. The working group consisted of the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) called the new guidelines “vague” and “unenforceable,” and said states would have to assume responsibility for mitigating hedge fund risks. „

Economy February Jobless Rate Fell to 4.5%. The un-

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employment rate in February dropped to 4.5% after Unemployment seasonal adjust2007 4.5% ment, from 4.6% February Month 4.6% in January, the Previous Year Earlier 5.1% Labor Department reported March 9. An estimated 97,000 nonfarm jobs were added to the economy during the month, a two-year low. [See p. 81B2] 145.9 Million Held Jobs—According to a household survey, 145.9 million people held jobs in February, the Labor Department reported March 9. The department counted 6.9 million people as unemployed, down from 7.0 million the previous month. The department counted 375,000 workers as “discouraged” in February. Those workers were not looking for work because they believed that no jobs were available. They were not counted as part of the labor force. About 4.2 million people who sought full-time employment were working part-time instead. The average manufacturing workweek held steady at 40.8 hours in February, 160

while factory workers put in an average of 4.2 overtime hours per week, up by six minutes from the previous month. Average hourly wages for production workers rose six cents, to $17.16. The unemployment rate among whites nationwide slipped to 4.0% in February, from 4.1% in January. The jobless rate for blacks edged down to 7.9%, from 8.0%. For Hispanics, who could be of any race, it fell to 5.2%, from 5.7%. For men aged 20 and over, February unemployment was level with January, at 4.1%. For adult women, it dropped to 3.8%, from 4.0%. The teenage jobless rate was 14.9%, down from 15.0% in January; among black teenagers, it was 29.0%, down from 29.1%. „ Trade Gap Shrank in January to $59 Billion.

The Commerce Department March 9 reported that the Trade Deficit seasonally ad(in billions) justed U.S. January 2007 $59.12 trade deficit in Previous Month $61.45 goods and serYear Earlier $66.47 vices for January was $59.1 billion, down from a revised $61.5 billion in December 2006. [See p. 96E1] Exports rose $1.4 billion, to $126.7 billion, from December 2006. Exports of capital and consumer goods climbed, while exports of motor vehicle parts and engines fell. Imports fell $1.0 billion from December, to $185.8 billion. Imports of motor vehicle parts and engines and consumer goods decreased, offsetting increased imports of capital goods and industrial supplies and materials. Bilateral Trade Data Reported—The Commerce Department March 9 also reported bilateral trade data for January. The numbers were not seasonally adjusted and contained merchandise-trade data only, with no revisions for the previous month except to the data for Canada. The January merchandise-trade deficit with China rebounded to $21.3 billion, after falling to $19.0 billion the previous month. The gap with Canada grew to $6.9 billion, from a revised $5.6 billion in December 2006. The deficit with the European Union shrank substantially, to $6.5 billion, from $9.0 billion. The trade deficit with Japan also narrowed, to $6.5 billion, from $7.5 billion. „ MERCHANDISE TRADE DATA Country/ Region China Japan Canada European Union Mexico NICs†

Deficit/Surplus* January December 2006 2007 -21.27 -6.50 -6.87 -6.50 -4.58 -1.45

-19.00 -7.46 -5.57 -8.97 -5.01 1.01

*Bilateral trade figures in billions of dollars unadjusted for seasonal variations. The data—except figures given for Canada—do not include revisions of month-earlier figures. †Newly industrialized countries—Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

Consumer Spending Grew 0.5% in January.

The Commerce Department March 1 reported that consumer spending increased 0.5% in January over the previous month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $9.53 trillion. That followed a 0.7% increase in consumer spending in December 2006. [See p. 81G2] Personal pretax income in January rose 1.0%, to an annual rate of $11.23 trillion, following 0.5% growth the previous month. Disposable, or after-tax, income climbed 0.8% in January, to an annual rate of $9.79 trillion, after 0.5% growth in December. The January savings rate, as a percentage of disposable income, was -1.2%, a slight improvement from the revised December rate of -1.4%. A negative savings rate meant that total spending exceeded total personal disposable income. „ Fed’s Beige Book Shows Mixed Growth.

The Federal Reserve March 7 issued its “beige book” survey of economic data covering the period from early January to late February. The survey was compiled eight times a year on a rotating basis by the Fed’s 12 regional banks. The latest survey indicated mostly modest growth mixed with slowing in some of the districts. [See p. 31F3] The residential housing market, residential construction and automobile production were weak in many districts, while commercial real estate and manufacturing sectors such as steel and aircraft showed strength. Retail sales, tourism and the service and agricultural sectors also strengthened. Residential mortgage lending continued to cool, but demand for commercial loans grew. Districts continued to report that the supply of skilled and professional workers was not meeting the demand for them, pushing wages up slightly in some districts. „ ’06 4th 1/4 Productivity Estimate Lowered.

The Labor Department March 6 reported that seasonally adjusted nonfarm business productivity in the fourth quarter of 2006 grew at a revised annual rate of 1.6%. That was down from a previous estimate of 3.0% growth for the same quarter. The revision reflected a lowered estimate of output for the quarter. Nonfarm business unit labor costs in the fourth quarter rose a revised 6.6% over the preceding quarter, and hourly compensation rose a revised 8.2%. [See p. 81C3] Productivity for all of 2006 in the nonfarm business sector improved 1.6% over 2005, according to the Labor Department’s revision. That was less than the previous estimate of 2.1% growth for the calendar year, and was the slowest annual pace since 1997. Unit labor costs rose a revised 3.2% in 2006. „ Leading Indicators Inched Up in January.

The Conference Board Feb. 21 reported that its composite index of leading indicators, a gauge of future economic activity, inched up 0.1% in January, to 138.5. The index had risen a revised 0.6% in December 2006. Its base level of 100 reflected conditions in 1996. Four of the 10 indicators were “positive” contributors in January, led by real money supply and consumer confidence. The remaining, “negative” FACTS ON FILE

contributors were led by manufacturing hours, building permits and new orders for nondefense capital goods. [See 2006, p. 1004A3] Index Climbed in December 2006— The board Jan. 23 initially reported that the index for December 2006 had risen 0.3%, to 138.0, and that it had been unchanged in November 2006 according to revised data. The six “positive” contributors for December were led by building permits, new unemployment claims (inverted) and real money supply. Interest rate spread and consumer confidence were the “negative” contributors, while manufacturing hours and new orders for consumer goods and materials were neutral. Other News—In other economic news: † The Conference Board business research organization Feb. 27 reported that its index of consumer confidence had risen to 112.5 in February, from a revised level of 110.2 at the end of January. The Conference Board Jan. 30 had reported that the index stood at 110.3, up from 110.0 in December 2006. The index’s base level of 100 reflected consumer confidence in 1985. [See 2006, p. 1004E2] † Sales of existing homes rose 3.0% in January, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.46 million units, the National Association of Realtors reported Feb 27. In December 2006, the rate was a revised 6.27 million units. The median sale price for existing homes in January was $210,600, down from $217,400 one year earlier. [See p. 63F3] „

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Roughly 76% of members of the Cherokee Nation, the second-largest American Indian tribe in the U.S., March 3 voted to exclude the black descendants of slaves once owned by Cherokees. The Freedmen, as the black descendants were known, had been emancipated during the U.S. Civil War, and then granted Cherokee Nation citizenship under a treaty negotiated with the U.S. government in 1866. An estimated 2,800 Freedmen would be affected by the vote; the Cherokee Nation had roughly 250,000 members. [See 1999, p. 604G1] The March 3 ballot question amended the Cherokee Nation’s constitution to include as citizens only those people who could show that they were “Cherokee by blood” using census documents created in 1906. However, the ballot question had elicited charges of racism, as Freedmen leaders noted that many blacks of mixed Cherokee heritage had been left off the census documents, known as the Dawes Rolls of 1906. Those who had advocated the expulsion of Freedmen said the move was necessary to protect the tribe’s resources, which included millions of dollars in federal government grant money. Members of the Cherokee Nation were entitled to many federal and tribal services, including medical care and scholarships. „ March 15, 2007

AFRICA

Ivory Coast Rebels, Government Reach Peace Deal.

Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and Guillaume Soro, leader of the New Forces rebel movement, March 4 signed an accord in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, designed to end a three-year-long dispute that had divided Ivory Coast. [See p. 17G2] Ivory Coast had been split between the government-controlled south and the rebel-held north since a brief civil war in late 2002 and early 2003. About 11,000 United Nations and French peacekeeping troops patrolled a buffer zone between the two sides. The conflict was rooted in longstanding tensions between northerners, most of whom were Muslim and descendants of immigrants from neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali, and mainly Christian and animist southerners, who claimed to be true Ivorians. Previous accords aimed at resolving the stalemate had broken down amid disagreements over voter registration and the disarmament of fighters on both sides. Under the March 4 accord, brokered by Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, the two sides agreed to compromise on those two issues. Fighters from both sides would join the national army, and the process for registering for elections was clarified. The agreement set a timetable for implementing the provisions, which also included a plan for the buffer zone to be dismantled and the foreign peacekeepers to withdraw. A new power-sharing government would be formed within five weeks, and presidential elections would be held by the end of the year. There was widespread speculation that Soro would become premier in the new government. The latest talks, unlike previous negotiations, did not involve players such as the U.N., France (Ivory Coast’s former colonial ruler) or the Ivorian political opposition. „

Mauritania Presidential Vote Heads to Runoff. Mauritanians March 11 voted in a presidential election that was seen as the final step in the country’s transition to multiparty democracy. None of the 19 candidates won more than 50% of the vote, meaning the top two vote-getters would contest a runoff election March 25. Mauritania, a poor, Muslim country in West Africa, had gained independence from France in 1960, and its history since then had been marred by dictatorships, coups and political instability. [See 2006, p. 932A2] The election was held in the wake of a bloodless military coup in August 2005 that had ended 21 years of dictatorial rule by President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya. The ruling military junta, the Military Council for Justice and Democracy, had made good on its pledge to bring democracy to the country, holding a constitu-

tional referendum, as well as parliamentary and municipal elections, in 2006. Junta members had been barred from standing in any of the elections. The junta’s leader, Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, March 11 said after the presidential vote, “We’ve fulfilled our commitment and now it’s time to go.” The top two finishers in the March 11 poll were Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdellahi, a 68-year-old former minister in Taya’s government, and veteran opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah, 64. Both reportedly received about 20% of the vote. About 70% of the country’s 1.1 million registered voters participated in the election. International observers called the poll free and fair. „

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Nigeria Presidential Candidate in Health Scare.

Umaru Yar’Adua, the candidate of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in April 21 presidential elections, March 6 was flown to Germany for medical treatment. Yar’Adua’s spokesman, Ndu Ughamadu, March 7 said the candidate, 56, who was known to have a kidney condition, was suffering from stress and had traveled to Germany for “a specialized medical checkup” at the insistence of his doctors. However, Ughamadu maintained that Yar’Adua was in “fine health.” [See 2006, p. 1013G1] The incident increased already heightened tensions surrounding the elections, in which Nigeria would attempt for the first time to transition from one civilian government to another. (The country had previously been dominated by military dictatorships.) There had recently been controversy over attempts to bar current Vice President Atiku Abubakar from running due to corruption allegations. Abubakar, a former PDP member, had defected to the opposition after falling out with President Olusegun Obasanjo. There had also been a rise in violence in the volatile, oil-rich Niger Delta region in the south. [See below, pp. 162D1, 128A1] Some analysts viewed Yar’Adua, the Muslim governor of northern Katsina state, as a puppet of Obasanjo. His abrupt departure for Germany, combined with a delayed official statement on his condition, sparked wild rumors about his condition, including that he had died. That speculation was calmed after the candidate gave interviews from the hospital in Germany. Yar’Adua March 7 told the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) that he had suffered breathing difficulties while campaigning, but would return to Nigeria soon. It was reported March 10 that he had returned to Nigeria. Battle Over VP’s Candidacy Continues—

A judge in Abuja, the capital, March 7 ruled in favor of Abubakar in a lawsuit he had filed against the Independent National Election Commission (INEC). The INEC Feb. 12 had said that Abubakar, the candidate of the opposition Action Congress (AC), could not run in the presidential elec161

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tion while he was facing corruption allegations. The judge ruled that the electoral body did not have the power to disqualify Abubakar or any other candidate. The INEC in turn argued that the vice president was disqualified not by the body, but by the constitution. The dispute would move to Nigeria’s highest court, it was reported March 8. Despite the ruling, the INEC March 15 omitted Abubakar from its official list of presidential candidates, released that day. INEC Chairman Maurice Iwu denied that the omission was personal, saying, “Commissioners have no choice but to apply the constitution.…Once you have been indicted, INEC cannot do anything about it.” AC spokesman Lai Mohammed, meanwhile, argued that the “INEC has no powers under the constitution or the Electoral Act to disqualify any candidate.” He added, “I am sure the courts will compel INEC to put [Abubakar] on the ballot.” In a related development, a Nigerian senate committee report Feb. 27 accused the vice president of diverting $145 million from the accounts of the government’s Petroleum Technology Development Fund, which Abubakar used to oversee, toward private companies. „

Militant Leader’s Trial Delayed—The trial of regional militant leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who had been arrested on treason charges in 2005, Feb. 5 was adjourned after the defendant caused a disturbance in the courtroom. Dokubo-Asari, in a 15-minute diatribe at the High Court in Abuja, the capital, alleged that he had been mistreated in prison, and criticized Nigeria’s “evil regime.” Prosecutors filed a motion requesting that he be barred from the courtroom for the remainder of the trial. [See 2006, p. 171A2] MEND and other Niger Delta militants had made Dokubo-Asari’s release a main demand in negotiations to end the attacks and abductions. Ethnic Ijaw elders in the region had been holding talks with government leaders to resolve the situation. However, the judge overseeing the trial March 13 adjourned the militant leader’s case until May 22. He also said he would not rule on a bail application until June 8, meaning Dokubo-Asari would not be freed before the April elections. The elders expressed disappointment at the ruling, saying they had believed they reached a deal with government officials for Dokubo-Asari’s release. „

European Hostages Rescued in Oil Region.

Zimbabwe

The Nigerian army March 12 rescued three foreign oil workers—two Croatians and one Montenegrin—who had been abducted by unidentified gunmen Feb. 18 in Port Harcourt, the main city in the restive, oilrich Niger Delta region in the south. The men had been working for HydroDive (Nigeria) Ltd., one of several foreign oil companies that operated in the region. [See 2006, p. 1013E3] The kidnappings had been among a series of attacks by militants in the region in advance of April presidential, legislative and gubernatorial elections. The abducted workers were usually freed unharmed, after a ransom was paid. [See p. 161C3] Separately, German shipping firm BacoLiner GmbH Feb. 13 said 24 Filipino workers who were kidnapped Jan. 20 had been released. The kidnappers reportedly said the men had been released “on humanitarian grounds,” and that no ransom was paid. Most of the kidnappings and other violence had been blamed on the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a militant group that had emerged in early 2006 to fight for a greater share of oil wealth for local ethnic Ijaw residents. However, MEND denied responsibility for kidnapping the Filipinos, and some analysts said criminal gangs had perpetrated many of the recent abductions. [See below] The U.S. consulate in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, Feb. 16 had warned U.S. citizens working in the country that the militant campaign could spread beyond the Niger Delta. Violence by MEND and other armed groups in the region had reduced Nigeria’s total oil output by one-fifth since early 2006. Nigeria was the world’s eighth-largest oil exporter.

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Hundreds of heavily armed riot police March 11 cracked down on what they said was an illegal rally led by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Highfield, a poor neighborhood of Harare, the capital. At least 50 opposition members, including MDC head Morgan Tsvangirai and other leading figures, were arrested. Opposition lawyers March 12 alleged that Tsvangirai and others had been brutally beaten by police during the rally and while they were in detention. [See p. 98G1] The rally was called a “prayer meeting,” as political rallies had been banned in Zimbabwe Feb. 21. It was organized to protest the authoritarian, repressive regime of President Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party. The country’s economy had been deteriorating, and political repression rising, since 2000. The annual inflation rate had reached 1,730% March 9, and many citizens were unable to afford basic supplies. The increasingly desperate state of the economy had led to growing unrest in recent months, including strikes by health workers and teachers. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena March 11 defended the police’s actions, saying officers at the scene had been attacked by MDC “thugs,” and that opposition leaders had “instigated people to come out and commit acts of violence.” Bvudzijena said one opposition supporter, who had been at the head of a crowd throwing stones at the police, had been shot dead. The detained opposition leaders were reportedly denied access to their lawyers, until a High Court ruling March 12 ordered the police to allow such access.

Police maintained a heavy, visible presence throughout Harare March 12. Prior to the crackdown, the MDC and Tsvangirai had been criticized for mounting ineffective campaigns against Mugabe’s rule. The party’s cause had been further damaged when it split into two factions in 2005. However, the two factions and other anti-Mugabe groups had united for the March 11 rally, launching a “Save Zimbabwe Campaign.” The brutality of the crackdown appeared to backfire, lending new credibility and momentum to the antigovernment movement. Battered Tsvangirai Brought to Court—

Tsvangirai March 13 appeared in court in Harare, his first public appearance since his arrest. He reportedly appeared unsteady, and television images showed that his head and face were bruised and swollen, with a sutured gash visible on his head. Also appearing in court were Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a rival faction of the MDC, and Lovemore Madhuku, head of the National Constitutional Assembly, a civic group that opposed Mugabe’s rule. After the hearing, which was closed to the public, Tsvangirai and Madhuku were taken to a Harare hospital. Tsvangirai was admitted to the intensive-care unit, and underwent a scan for a possible skull fracture. He had also suffered a broken arm and unspecified internal injuries. Madhuku, who was also in intensive care, had a broken arm, head wounds and bruises on his back, his organization said. MDC lawmaker Nelson Chamisa March 14 described Tsvangirai’s treatment at the hands of police during the rally. He said the opposition leader was attacked by more than 20 officers as soon as he arrived at the scene, and that the attack lasted about 20 minutes, causing him to lose consciousness three times. Tsvangirai, 55, remained hospitalized as of March 15. Meanwhile, the government March 14 freed 50 protesters without charge. Crackdown Condemned—The violent crackdown March 12–15 prompted international condemnation. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a March 13 statement called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of the opposition leaders, and said, “We hold President Mugabe responsible for the safety and well-being of those in custody.” She added, “The world community again has been shown that the regime of Robert Mugabe is ruthless and repressive and creates only suffering for the people of Zimbabwe.” South Africa, Zimbabwe’s southern neighbor, which had been criticized in the past for failing to use its influence to advocate for change in Zimbabwe, March 13 issued a softer rebuke to Mugabe’s government. Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad in a statement called on Zimbabwe’s government “to ensure that the rule of law, including respect for the rights of all Zimbabweans and leaders of the various political parties, is respected.” He added that the two sides should “work towards a climate that is conducive to finding a lastFACTS ON FILE

ing solution to the current challenges faced by the people of Zimbabwe.” South Africa’s powerful trade unions criticized their government’s response to the latest violence as “shamefully weak” and “disgraceful.” United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon March 12 had called for the release of the opposition leaders, and the British Foreign Office and the European Union that day condemned the attack. However, it was unclear what action the international community could take against Zimbabwe. Limited economic and other sanctions were already in place, and U.N. and EU officials March 15 said additional sanctions would likely hurt the people of Zimbabwe more than the government. The U.S. the previous day had said it was examining measures that would affect only the government. Mugabe March 15 reacted defiantly to the international criticism, saying, “It’s the West as usual.…When they criticize the government trying to prevent violence and punish the perpetrators of that violence, we take the position that they can go hang.” Mugabe to Seek Reelection— Mugabe, who had turned 83 Feb. 21, indicated in an interview published March 11 that he would seek another six-year term in the next presidential election, set for 2008. An effort to postpone that election until 2010 had been blocked by some members of the ZANU-PF in December 2006. [See 2006, p. 1014C2] Mugabe’s intention to run again reportedly angered some members of his party, who were upset over the government’s handling of the economy, and were angling to replace the aging president. However, analysts said divisions among anti-Mugabe factions of the ZANU-PF might make it difficult for them to mount a strong campaign against him. „

AMERICAS

Bolivia Morales Calls Flooding a National Disaster.

President Evo Morales Aima Feb. 28 declared the months-long flooding of substantial portions of the country a national disaster. Morales committed $50 million in disaster relief for those affected by the flooding, which had killed at least 40 people as of March 7 and displaced tens of thousands of residents. The deluge had also destroyed some 494,000 acres (200,000 hectares) of farmland and killed an estimated 22,500 head of cattle. [See p. 83B3] The higher-than-normal rainfall causing the floods was attributed to the El Nino weather phenomenon that periodically warmed ocean currents in the Pacific Ocean, off the eastern coast of South America. The low-lying eastern states of Beni and Santa Cruz were hit particularly hard by the flooding, which had stretched along a floodplain from the Amazon River basin in the north to the Bolivian Andes. Morales reportedly had been reluctant to officially declare a national disaster, as March 15, 2007

such a decree could potentially limit landreform plans that called for redistribution to peasant farmers. [See 2006, p. 933F3] Other South American nations had also been affected by the increased rains. In Paraguay, officials cited flooding as a contributing cause to an outbreak of dengue fever, a virus largely spread by mosquitoes, which bred in standing water. Officials there reported 16,877 cases of the disease on March 7. „ Tin Smelting Operation Nationalized. President Evo Morales Aima Feb. 9 signed a decree nationalizing the country’s only tin smelting plant, owned by Swiss mining firm Glencore International AG. Some 200 soldiers had occupied the facility, located 100 miles (180 km) southeast of La Paz, the capital, in the town of Vinto, just prior to the announcement. [See 2006, pp. 1015G3, 829D2] The decree was the first step in Morales’s stated goal of nationalizing Bolivia’s mineral resources, as well as the facilities used to refine them. Morales Feb. 22 said the government would not pay Glencore for the smelting facility, arguing that the plant had been illegally purchased and subsequently neglected by Glencore. The Swiss company in 2004 had acquired the smelting operation for $14 million. Glencore Feb. 13 said it would seek compensation for the facility through international arbitration. The company cited a 1991 treaty between Bolivia and Switzerland stipulating that any Swiss assets seized by the Bolivian government be paid for. „

Brazil Legislator Charged With Corruption in U.S.

U.S. prosecutors in New York City March 8 announced the indictment of Paulo Maluf, a member of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies and leader of the rightist Progressive Party, on charges that he had stolen $11.6 million in public funds for use in a construction kickback scheme, then sent it through a New York bank to an offshore account. Four others, including Maluf’s son, were also charged with counts of criminal possession of stolen property and conspiracy. [See 2006, p. 750A1; 2000, p. 874F1] According to the indictment, Maluf, 75, had arranged for contractors building a highway in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s capital, to overbill the government during its construction. The contractors then provided Maluf and his alleged accomplices with kickbacks. Robert Morgenthau, the district attorney for the New York City borough of Manhattan, said investigators had uncovered the transfer of $140 million through a bank account in New York linked to Maluf. The charges had related only to the $11.6 million for which prosecutors had evidence of theft. Maluf had previously faced charges of corruption in Brazil, and in 2005 was imprisoned for a short period of time on charges including witness coercion and

money laundering. A former Sao Paulo city mayor and governor of Sao Paulo state, he had been elected to the Chamber of Deputies in October 2006. Morgenthau said the absence of an extradition treaty with Brazil made it unlikely that Maluf would ever be brought to trial in the U.S. Maluf’s lawyer rebutted claims that the politician had ever had a bank account in New York, adding that the “false accusations” were the “fruit of political persecution.” „ Da Silva Allies Win Control of Chamber.

Arlindo Chinaglia of the leftist Workers’ Party (PT), President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s party, Feb. 1 was declared president of the Chamber of Deputies, the country’s lower legislative body, after a runoff election held that day. Chinaglia defeated incumbent Aldo Rebelo of the Brazilian Communist Party, 261–243, for control of the 513-seat chamber. Another Da Silva ally, Renan Calheiros, also won reelection as leader of the Senate, 51–28. The victories would likely make it easier for da Silva to see his legislative agenda enacted. [See p. 83G1] „

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Evangelicals Held for Currency Smuggling.

Two leaders of one of Brazil’s largest evangelical organizations, the Reborn in Christ Church, Jan. 8 were arrested at Miami International Airport in the U.S. after customs officials discovered $56,467 in cash in their luggage. The leaders, Estevam HernandesFilho and his wife, Sonia Moraes Hernades, had reportedly been under scrutiny by Brazilian organized crime investigators for money laundering and tax evasion. [See 2006, p. 209B1; 1995, p. 999B1] The couple Jan. 16 were released after each paid a bond, but were immediately taken into custody by U.S. immigration and customs officials, and were later placed under house arrest. The Hernandeses had overseen more than 1,000 churches in Brazil, as well as a television network, several radio stations and a record company. Government raids on properties owned by the couple revealed that they possessed numerous luxury goods. Evangelical churches had experienced a rapid growth in membership over the past 20 years in Brazil, where Roman Catholicism had historically been the dominant faith. The 2000 census estimated that 26.5 million people, roughly 15% of the population, belonged to an evangelical church. Such churches had also come under increasing scrutiny by government officials. Unlike in the U.S., many religious organizations were structured without a board of trustees to manage finances, with the money instead largely controlled by a few individuals. „

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Mexico Demonstrators Protest Corn Prices. Tens

of thousands of protesters Jan. 31 convened in the central square of Mexico City, the capital, to protest the rising price of food staples. Most of those attending the event were members of leftist political parties, peasants and union members. The price of corn, used to make tortillas, a sta163

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ple in the diet of Mexico’s poor, had continued to spiral despite a price-cap plan instituted by President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa earlier in January. [See p. 66G3] However, the price-control agreement had been joined by fewer than 10% of tortilla producers, who were not bound by law to adhere to the price caps. As a result, the price of corn had continued to appreciate to levels well over the caps. Analysts attributed the climb to an increased demand for corn in the U.S. for use in ethanol production. Mexican farmers, who had historically been forced to compete with plentiful subsidized corn grown in the U.S., had benefitted tremendously from the climbing price of corn. Farmers had begun to plant more of the crop in anticipation of a potential explosion in demand spurred by ethanol production. „ PRI Elects New President. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which had controlled the country’s politics for 71 years, until 2000, Feb. 18 elected Beatriz Paredes as its party president. Paredes, 53, had previously served as the governor of Tlaxcala state and had lost a bid for PRI leadership in 2002. She said she would attempt to guide the party to the centerleft. Paredes assumed the PRI’s presidency March 4, becoming its first female leader. [See 2006, p. 824C1; 2000, p. 458C2] The party’s power and influence had declined significantly over the past decade amid charges of corruption and governmental mismanagement. PRI presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo had placed a distant third in 2006 presidential elections, behind President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary „ Party (PRD). [See 2006, p. 534A1] Cantarell OIl Production Decline Expected.

Jesus Reyes Heroles, director general of state-run oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Feb. 7 said output at its Cantarell oil field was expected to fall by 15% in 2007. The anticipated drop would continue a trend in a production decline at Cantarell, where output had dropped 13.1% in 2006. The oil field was Pemex’s largest and had once accounted for 60% of Mexico’s oil production. [See 2006, p. 913A2] Reyes Heroles said the company needed to invest an additional $8 billion to $10 billion annually in order to sustain production levels and modernize the firm’s infrastructure. However, federal law prohibited Pemex from receiving private investment, a stipulation that analysts said had crippled the company’s ability to modernize facilities and fully exploit proven oil reserves, which were also in decline. Analysts also said the company had been hampered by rampant corruption. Although Pemex had generated revenues of around $100 billion in 2006, it had paid $79 billion in taxes to the federal government, which was heavily reliant on such income. Roughly 40% of the federal budget was drawn from Pemex earnings. „ 164

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European Union Summit Reaches Pact to Cut Emissions.

Leaders of the 27 member nations of the European Union, attending a March 8–9 summit at EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 9 reached an agreement to respond to climate change by cutting emissions of greenhouse gases and boosting the use of renewable energy sources. [See pp. 73A1, 20G1] The agreement called for a 20% cut in EU emissions of greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane) by the year 2020, starting from 1990 levels. The pact also required the EU to draw 20% of its energy from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, by the same 2020 deadline. It further required 10% of all vehicle fuel in the EU to be made from biofuels derived from plants by 2020. The EU plan exceeded the international Kyoto Protocol, under which 35 industrialized countries, out of its 169 signatory nations, had pledged to cut emissions by an average of 5% below 1990 levels by 2012. The EU leaders also said they would raise their goal for the emissions cut to 30% by 2020, if other leading economic powers and polluters, such as the U.S., China and India, agreed to match it. The EU targets would be legally binding. However, the agreement did not specify how they would be enforced. The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, would draft proposals and send them to the legislature, the European Parliament, for approval. The targets would apply to the EU as a whole, allowing different targets for individual member nations and “burden sharing” between them. Several relatively poor Eastern European nations that had joined the EU in 2004, and lagged in the development of renewable energy, had argued that they could not meet the targets without such flexibility. France, a heavy user of nuclear power, successfully lobbied for a reference to it in the plan as an acceptable renewable energy source, despite opposition from some antinuclear EU members, including Austria, Denmark and Ireland. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who chaired the summit because Germany held the rotating EU presidency, said the agreement put the EU in a “vanguard role” in fighting climate change. European business groups warned that the costs of implementing the plan were unknown. They said that moving faster to cut emissions than the rest of the world could hurt the EU’s economic competitiveness. Britain Unveils Draft Bill— The British government March 13 unveiled draft legislation that would impose a binding target on Britain of a 60% cut in carbon dioxide emissions, from 1990 levels, by 2050. It was the first time that any national government had proposed such a unilateral measure. Prime Minister Tony Blair said, “It sets an example to the rest of the

world.” The bill was not expected to become law until at least 2008. „ European Central Bank Hikes Interest Rate. The European Central Bank (ECB) March 8

raised its key interest rate to 3.75%, from 3.5%, and signaled that a further increase was possible. The rate hike was the seventh by the ECB since December 2005. The ECB governed monetary policy for the eurozone, consisting of 13 member nations of the European Union that used the euro currency. (Slovenia, the newest member, had joined the eurozone in January.) [See p. 5B3; 2006, p. 1025D3] ’06 GDP Growth, Trade Deficit Reported—

Eurostat, the EU statistics agency, Feb. 13 reported that eurozone gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.9% in the fourth quarter of 2006, compared with the previous quarter, or 3.6% on an annualized basis. In all of 2006, eurozone GDP grew at a rate of 2.7%, the highest rate in six years and nearly double the 1.4% growth rate in 2005. A report released Feb. 16 showed that the eurozone had recorded a trade deficit of 8.2 billion euros ($10.8 billion) with the rest of the world in 2006, compared with a surplus of 16.2 billion in 2005. „

France Chirac Rules Out Reelection Bid. French President Jacques Chirac March 11 announced in a televised speech that he would not run for a third term in the upcoming election. “I will not ask for your support for a new mandate,” he said. Chirac, 74, had been president since 1995. The first round of the election would be held April 22, with a runoff between the two top vote-getters May 6. [See p. 100D2] Chirac, a former French premier and mayor of Paris, had won reelection in 2002 in a runoff against Jean-Marie Le Pen of the far-right National Front. In 2003, Chirac was a leading opponent of the U.S. decision to invade Iraq, a stand that helped him briefly regain popularity in France. But he suffered a major defeat in a 2005 referendum, when French voters rejected a new constitution for the European Union that he had campaigned for. Economic stagnation, street protests and youth riots across France had further undermined Chirac’s authority. He suffered an apparent minor stroke in 2005. Chirac had long faced corruption allegations linked to his time as Paris mayor. He would lose immunity from prosecution when he left office. Chirac did not use his speech to give his endorsement to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the president and presidential nominee of the Union for a Popular Majority, the center-right ruling party Movement by Chirac. Sarkozy and Chirac, once close, had feuded in recent years. Premier Dominique de Villepin, another Chirac protege, March 12 endorsed Sarkozy. Villepin had once been seen as Sarkozy’s rival for the UMP nomination, but quit the race after a series of setbacks. FACTS ON FILE

Centrist Candidate Bayrou Surges— A poll published March 11 in the newspaper Journal du Dimanche showed that Francois Bayrou, the candidate of the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF), had surged to catch up with the two frontrunners who had been expected to meet in the runoff, Sarkozy and Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party. The poll showed Bayrou and Royal tied, each backed by 23% of voters. Sarkozy led with 28%. Several recent polls had shown that Bayrou would beat either Sarkozy or Royal in a runoff. Bayrou, 55, owned a farm in the Pyrenees where he bred racehorses. He had served as education minister under Chirac from 1993 to 1997, and finished fourth in the 2002 presidential election, with 6.8% of the vote in the first round. He now called for a cross-party coalition government to bridge what he described as the counterproductive division of left and right in French politics. „

Great Britain Commons Votes for Fully Elected Lords.

The House of Commons, the lower chamber of the British Parliament, March 7 voted, 337–224, in favor of requiring elections for all members of the House of Lords, the upper chamber, whose members, known as peers, were either appointed by the government or inherited their seats. The Commons also voted, 391– 111, to remove the last 92 hereditary peers. However, the votes were not binding. The government had said it would use the result as a possible basis for legislation. [See p. 68F2; 2003, p. 88C1] In an unusual move, Jack Straw, the leader of the Commons, had asked members to vote their preferences on a slate of options for reforming the Lords. The options ranged from leaving the upper chamber wholly unelected to abolishing it, with other choices including several different proportions of elected to unelected members. Along with the 100% elected option, he Commons also voted, 305–267, to approve an 80% elected to 20% appointed split. The lawmakers rejected all the other options. Prime Minister Tony Blair voted for a 50– 50 split. The wide margin in favor of the wholly elected option was viewed as partly resulting from tactical voting by opponents of reform, who calculated that the most radical plan was most likely to fail to become law. In the most recent major reform of the Lords, about 600 hereditary peers had been ousted in 1999. In 2003, the Commons rejected a variety of proposals for introducing a partly elected Lords. Critics called the upper chamber an undemocratic relic that lent itself to political cronyism. That argument had gained force from an ongoing investigation into charges that Blair had nominated wealthy supporters of his Labour Party to the Lords in exchange for campaign loans. Lords Vote to Stay Fully Appointed—

The Lords March 14 voted, 361–121, to keep their chamber fully appointed. They rejected making the chamber fully elected March 15, 2007

by a vote of 326–122. They also rejected all other options for introducing a proportion of elected members. In two days of debate preceding the vote, opponents of reform warned against changing a centuries-old institution. They argued that the upper chamber functioned effectively as a check on the Commons. „

report asserting that the police had colluded with a Protestant paramilitary gang, part of the Ulster Volunteer Force, in at least 10 murders in the 1990s, as well as other crimes. The report said the police, in exchange for tips from informers, allowed them to commit crimes with impunity, usually against Catholics. „

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Northern Ireland Assembly Elections Held.

Voters in Northern Ireland March 8 went to the polls for elections to the provincial assembly, the first step in a British plan to restore self-rule to the province. Results announced March 9 showed that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the largest Protestant, unionist (pro–British rule) political party in Northern Ireland, and Sinn Fein, the biggest Roman Catholic, nationalist party, both gained seats in the elections. [See 2006, p. 916F2; 2003, p. 962A1] The DUP won 36 seats in the 108-seat assembly. Sinn Fein won 28 seats. Among smaller parties, the Ulster Unionist Party won 18 seats and the moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party won 16 seats. In a joint statement, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern March 9 called on the DUP and Sinn Fein to meet a March 26 deadline for agreeing to a deal for a power-sharing local government. The two prime ministers warned the rival parties not to miss a “historic opportunity.” Britain had said it would reimpose direct rule, with the Irish government taking new administrative responsibilities, if a power-sharing deal did not emerge by the March 26 deadline. However, the DUP had signaled that it would not agree to a deal until Sinn Fein provided new assurances that it backed the province’s police and justice system. [See below] The DUP also said it wanted Britain to lay out proposals for financial aid to Northern Ireland. Rev. Ian Paisley, the 80year-old, hard-line DUP leader, March 9 said, “The hard negotiations are now going to start,” and urged Sinn Fein to “repent and turn from their evil way.” Britain had dissolved the local assembly and resumed direct rule over Northern Ireland in 2002, claiming to have discovered an espionage ring run by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), the militant group linked to Sinn Fein. The last elections, in 2003, produced an assembly that never convened. But the IRA’s disarmament in 2005 gave a new push to the peace process begun under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Sinn Fein Endorses Police— Sinn Fein at a party conference in Dublin, the Irish capital, Jan. 28 voted to endorse and cooperate with the police in Northern Ireland, in a concession designed to satisfy the DUP’s demands. Catholics had long distrusted and boycotted the police force, viewing it as a biased enforcer of British rule. The Northern Ireland police ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, Jan. 22 had issued a

European News in Brief Cyprus: Greek Cypriots Dismantle Wall.

The Greek Cypriot government March 8 began dismantling a wall that divided the capital, Nicosia, between Greek Cyprus and Turkish Cyprus. The concrete barrier had stood for more than 40 years along the Green Line, a buffer zone designated by the United Nations. Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said no civilian crossings would be permitted until Turkey removed its troops from the zone. Turkey, the only nation that recognized Turkish Cyprus, had invaded the island in 1974 and maintained a military presence there ever since. [See 2006, p. 983A1] „

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Portugal: Abortion Legalization Approved.

The Portuguese parliament March 9 voted to remove all restrictions on abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The passage of the measure took place after a February referendum in which Portuguese voters backed liberalizing the abortion law, one of the most restrictive in Western Europe. Low turnout made the result of the referendum nonbinding, but the Socialist government moved ahead with legislation to reform the law. The revision required the signature of President Anibal Cavaco Silva in order to take effect. [See p. 100F3] „

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Switzerland: Turk Guilty of Genocide Denial.

A Swiss court March 9 convicted a leading Turkish politician, Dogu Perincek, of violating Switzerland’s laws against racism by denying that Turkey had committed genocide against its Armenian population during World War I. The case against Perincek, leader of the Turkish Workers Party, dealt with remarks he had made during a 2005 visit to Switzerland. He attended the trial, mounting a vehement defense and vowing to appeal the verdict. The Turkish foreign ministry criticized the ruling. Turkey officially denied that the massacre of more than a million Armenians during World War I constituted genocide, and had prosecuted writers and journalists who broke that taboo. [See p. 52B2] „

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Iran Nations Agree on Further Sanctions. Rep-

resentatives of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—Britain, China, France, the U.S. and Russia—and Germany March 15 agreed on a package of further sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt its nuclear program. The draft resolution, which was to be considered by the full Council for approval in the coming week, was the result of less than a month of negotiations following Iran’s 165

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failure to meet a February U.N. deadline on the matter. [See p. 132C2] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced the agreement, calling the Security Council an “illegitimate” institution and declaring that the sanctions would not deter Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The Western nations, he said, “will not be able to stop the Iranian nation.” Gholam Hossein Elham, a spokesman for Iran’s government, March 11 had announced that Ahmadinejad planned to personally attend a meeting of the Security Council in order to “defend the rights of the Iranian nation to use peaceful nuclear energy.” [See p. 132F2] The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—the U.N. nuclear monitor— March 8 had cut back or suspended its assistance to Iran on nearly two dozen technical aid projects, in light of Iran’s defiance. [See p. 132D3] Russians Delay Nuclear Fuel Delivery—

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Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear regulatory agency, March 12 announced that a shipment of nuclear fuel scheduled to be sent to Iran’s reactor at Bushehr in March would be delayed because Iran had failed to pay the Russian contractor building the reactor. Atomstroiexport, the state-owned Russian contractor, said the postponement in the arrival of nuclear fuel would delay the reactor’s launch date by two months. The reactor had been slated to begin running in September. [See p. 105D2] Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization March 13 insisted that Iran had met all its financial obligations to Atomstroiexport. Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, denounced the delay, accusing Russia of failing to live up to its promises. Vladimir Pavlov, a spokesman for Atomstroiexport, that day said negotiations with Iranian officials on the dispute were “fairly constructive,” but added that Iran’s delinquency would lead to “irreversible consequences.” Many observers speculated that Russia was withholding the nuclear fuel as a means of punishing Iran for failing to rein in its nuclear program per U.N. demands. President Meets With Saudi King—

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Ahmadinejad March 3–4 met in Saudi Arabia with Saudi King Abdullah to discuss a variety of Middle East issues, in an effort to ease tensions between their nations. Saudi Arabia was a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, and was widely regarded as a leader among Sunni Arab countries. Iran was predominantly Shiite Muslim, and its growing influence in the area was a concern for many Sunnis. Iran and Saudi Arabia were on opposite sides of conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. The meeting had been proposed by Iran. [See pp. 154D1, 140G2, 102C1] The president March 4 left Saudi Arabia to return to Iran, after the meeting concluded without any agreement on specific conflicts. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said the two leaders had, however, “agreed to stop any attempt aimed at spreading sectarian strife in the region.” 166

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Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Expediency Council, had criticized Ahmadinejad for his failure to address Iran’s economic woes, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported March 7. Rafsanjani said the president’s “trial period is over,” and faulted him for failing to reduce unemployment, inflation and the country’s dependence on oil revenues. Rafsanjani also reportedly vowed to use his position on the council—which advised the nation’s supreme leader and mediated disputes between government bodies—to alter Iran’s economic course. [See p. 52G3] Separately, Iran’s parliament March 7 voted to begin rationing and reducing subsidies on gasoline in order to counter increased gasoline consumption. The price for consumers would increase 25%, and details on rationing would be decided later in the year. Some commentators expressed concern that the pullback in subsidies would add to Iran’s already high inflation. [See 2006, p. 1029D3] In another development, the Guardian March 10 reported that government authorities had arrested six union leaders March 7 ahead of a protest by teachers. The union leaders were freed after questioning. Despite the arrests, 7,000 teachers March 8 protested outside parliament, demanding that their salaries be made commensurate with those of other state workers. „ Women’s Rights Protesters Arrested. Thirty-three women March 3 were arrested during a protest outside a revolutionary court in Tehran, Iran’s capital, where several women were on trial for their participation in a women’s rights rally. Four women had appeared at the court that day in regard to charges that had been brought against them for organizing the rally, held in June 2006 in Tehran. Iranian authorities had arrested 70 people at the rally, and the four women—plus a fifth, who did not appear in court—had been charged with endangering national security, agitating against the government and taking part in illegal gatherings. [See 2006, p. 790G1] The four rally organizers were among the women arrested March 3, but were not kept in police custody after their arrest. Demonstrators had gathered outside the court to protest the charges against the rally organizers. An Iranian newspaper, Etemad-e-Melli, March 4 said all 33 had been taken to Evin prison, a jail that housed many political prisoners and was infamous for allegations of detainee abuse. An attorney for one of the 33 women March 8 said only three of them were still in custody. U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch March 8 reported that the three still in custody were in solitary confinement, and had been on a hunger strike since March 6. [See 2005, p. 977E3] Iran’s legal system treated women differently from men in several respects. The testimony of a woman in court was accorded less weight than the testimony of a man, and laws regarding divorce and inheritance favored men. Many Iranian women had begun calling for equal treatment under the law. „

Top Intelligence Official Missing in Turkey.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki March 5 said Iran was sending a consular mission to Turkey in order to investigate the disappearance of a former deputy defense minister who had been visiting the country. Mottaki said Ali Reza Asghari— who had also served as a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, an elite military force affiliated with the nation’s ruling clergy—had gone missing while in Istanbul, Turkey’s capital. “Iran is demanding explanations from the Turkish authorities,” Mottaki said. [See p. 133A1] Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghaddam, the head of Iran’s police force, March 6 had said it was “likely” that Asghari had been abducted by “Western intelligence services,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported. Turkey’s interior ministry that day announced that it was investigating Asghari’s disappearance. Several news outlets March 6–8 stated that Asghari had gone missing Feb. 7, soon after arriving from Syria, and that his family had left Iran prior to his trip. News reports cited Iranian claims that Asghari had been abducted by U.S. or Israeli intelligence agents. The reports also cited claims made by officials, often unidentified, in Turkey, Iran and Israel that Asghari had defected to the U.S. or some other Western country, and was willingly divulging Iranian secrets, particularly regarding Iran’s ties to the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah. [See p. 102C1] The spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry, Mark Regev, March 7 had insisted that “Israel is not involved in any way in this disappearance.” German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung March 13 declined to answer questions on the subject during a visit to Ankara, the Turkish capital. An unidentified former senior Iranian intelligence official had claimed that Asghari’s family was still in Iran, the Financial Times reported March 12. The newspaper also cited an unidentified senior U.S. intelligence official as saying there was “no basis” to the claim that Asghari was providing intelligence to the U.S. Ziba Ahmadi, one of Asghari’s two wives, March 12 held a press conference in Tehran, Iran’s capital, along with his brother and three of his children. She claimed that Asghari had gone missing in Turkey on Dec. 9, 2006, and that she had alerted Iranian authorities after his telephone was shut off. Ahmadi insisted that Asghari “had no problems in Iran” and would not have defected. “Some evidence shows that my husband was abducted,” she said, “but it is not clear by whom.” „

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newly reconstituted Anti-Corruption Commission, aided by military personnel, March 7 arrested Tarique Rahman, whose mother, Khaleda Zia, had been prime minister until October 2006. He was charged FACTS ON FILE

with extortion later that day and was to be held in custody for a month. [See p. 102D2] Rahman’s arrest was part of an intense crackdown on political corruption by the commission that had resulted in the detention of at least 45 high-profile members of the two main political parties, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported March 12. The commission operated under the military-backed caretaker administration. In recent days the commission’s efforts had exposed some 2,300 self-described lawyers as lacking required qualifications and degrees. They had also rounded up from the garden of one of Zia’s main advisers peacocks, deer and other exotic pets they said had been kept illegally. Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, had written in the Feb. 12 Daily Star an open letter to the people of Bangladesh expressing his interest in forming a new political party and asking the public for advice. Public reaction was reportedly mixed, with some saying Yunus should work for Bangladesh’s welfare from outside government. The caretaker administration had promised to eradicate “black money” from politics and issue voter identification cards—a process requiring roughly a year—before democratic elections would be held, the New York Times reported March 14. „

India Government Offers Populist Budget. Fi-

nance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram Feb. 28 presented to parliament the Congress party–led coalition government’s budget proposal for the 2007–08 fiscal year. Under the $153 billion plan, income tax and other indirect tax rates would generally stay at their current levels, while spending would rise by about 21%. The budget assumed that robust economic growth would increase tax collections by about 25%. [See p. 133A3; 2006, p. 966G2, B3, D3] Almost one-third of outlays under the proposal would be directed toward the agricultural sector, for programs such as better access to farm credit and subsidies for water and fertilizer. Taxes on commodities would be slashed to combat inflation. In a new initiative, the government would grant death and disability insurance to landless rural families. It also expanded its National Rural Employment Guarantee to cover more than half of the country’s geographical area. Educational spending would rise by more than 34%, aimed at building more classrooms and hiring more teachers, improving primary education and keeping older children in school. Health care spending would increase by almost 22%, and spending on core infrastructure, such as ports, roads and power, would rise by 40%. „ Congress Party Loses Two States. The Election Commission of India Feb. 27 announced that the Congress party, which led the country’s governing coalition, had lost March 15, 2007

state elections in two northern states it had governed, Punjab and Uttarkhand (formerly Uttaranchal), to the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or its allies. In populous agricultural Punjab, Congress won 44 of 116 seats. The BJP won 19, but its coalition partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal Party, won 48. In Uttararkhand, the BJP won 34 of 70 seats, while Congress won 21. Congress won 30 seats in the 60-seat Manipur state legislature, which enabled it to keep its coalition government there. [See 2006, p. 399A2] „

Pakistan Chief Justice’s Removal Ignites Protests.

President Pervez Musharraf March 9 removed the country’s chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and put him under effective house arrest in Islamabad, the capital. The government said he had abused his office, but the removal sparked intense protests around the country from those who saw it as an illegal attempt to intimidate the judiciary ahead of elections later in the year. [See 2006, p. 985C2] Chaudhry, who had ruled against the government’s position in several cases, refused to resign, and Musharraf’s opponents said the president did not have the constitutional authority to remove a sitting chief justice. Chaudhry had recently demanded an investigation into hundreds of disappearances of people after they were taken into police custody. A supreme judicial council of the Supreme Court March 13 began hearing Chaudhry’s case. Hundreds of lawyers assembled outside the court building in the capital in support of the chief justice and called for Musharraf’s resignation, but police kept them from entering. Throughout the country, lawyers a day earlier had shut down the courts by refusing to go to work. Lawyers demonstrated in Lahore, where they were met by police wielding batons and responded by throwing stones. A similar protest occurred in Karachi, where lawyers burned photographs of Musharraf. Two national groups of newspaper editors and the leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party also criticized the president’s move. Musharraf had appointed Chaudhry as chief justice in 2005. The justice was not particularly popular, and had been publicly criticized for his style and conduct. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Cricket World Cup Opens in Caribbean. The opening ceremony for the ninth Cricket World Cup March 11 was held in Trelawny, on the north coast of Jamaica. The World Cup, which involved 16 teams, would be played March 13–April 28 in nine Caribbean nations. [See 2003, p. 254C2] The field of 16 represented an increase of two teams from the last World Cup, which was held in 2003 and won by Australia. The current field, which included

world powers such as Australia, South Africa, England, India, Pakistan and the West Indies (which represented several Caribbean nations), as well as less prominent cricketing nations like Canada and the Netherlands, was the largest in the event’s history. Several stadiums were newly constructed or refurbished for the event. The cost of staging the tournament was estimated at $870 million. In an effort to ease the burden on the region’s airline and hotel industries, some governments and groups of foreign fans booked cruise ships for accommodation and travel during the tournament. The Caribbean Community (Caricom) in 2006 had decided to issue a special visa to fans, allowing them to travel freely among the nine nations for the duration of the tournament. The New York Times reported March 2 that authorities would check the passports of all visitors to the Caribbean for the event against an international database of lost or stolen documents. [See 2006, p. 582F1] „

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Hockey Islanders’ Simon Suspended for 25 Games. The National Hockey League (NHL) March

11 suspended New York Islanders forward Chris Simon for at least 25 games for hitting New York Rangers center Ryan Hollweg in the face with his stick during a game March 8 in Uniondale, N.Y. The suspension was the longest in league history, and the harshest since the NHL banned Marty McSorley for the remainder of the season (which amounted to 23 games) in 2000. In a similar high-profile incident, Todd Bertuzzi was suspended for the rest of the season (13 games) for an on-ice attack in 2004. [See 2004, p. 218A2] Simon’s hit—apparently in retaliation for a hard check he received from Hollweg moments earlier—sent the Rangers player sprawling to the ice, and sparked a brawl between the two teams. Hollweg sustained a gash to his chin, but was not otherwise seriously injured. Game officials gave Simon a match penalty for intent to injure, ejecting him from the game. The NHL March 9 suspended Simon indefinitely. Colin Campbell, the league’s director of hockey operations, March 10 held a disciplinary hearing for Simon. Campbell, in announcing Simon’s punishment March 11, said he would be suspended for the Islanders’ remaining 15 regular-season games, as well as for all of the playoffs, if the team qualified. If the Islanders did not make the playoffs, or if they played fewer than 10 postseason games, Simon would serve the rest of his suspension at the beginning of the following season. Simon March 10 issued an apology on the Islanders’ Web site. He said team doctors had determined that he suffered a concussion from Hollweg’s hit, and that he did not remember much of what occurred afterward. Simon had been suspended six other times in his career. [See 1997, p. 1012C3] The office of the Nassau County (N.Y.) district attorney March 9 had said it was looking into charging Simon with assault.„ 167

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philosopher, political scientist and legal theorist Charles Taylor March 14 was named the winner of the 2007 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities. [See 2006, p. 252E1] Taylor, 75, had long taught at Montreal’s McGill University and was currently a professor at the U.S.’s Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. His writings were known for emphasizing the need for humanists and social scientists to take spiritual factors into account in trying to explain human violence. One of his key works was Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (1989). Among the world’s richest prizes, the Templeton Prize was worth £800,000 (US$1.5 million). Taylor, its first Canadian winner, would receive the prize May 2 in a private ceremony at London’s Buckingham Palace. „ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The 22nd annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held March 12 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. [See 2006, p. 252G1] Four groups and one solo artist were inducted. The groups were the alternative rock band R.E.M., formed in 1980 on the Athens, Ga., campus of the University of Georgia; the three-member 1960s girl group the Ronettes; the hard-rock band Van Halen; and the pioneering hip-hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the first hip-hop group to be inducted into the hall. Five members of Van Halen were inducted that night: brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar. Only Anthony and Hagar attended the ceremony, however. Eddie Van Halen, the group’s guitarist, was unavailable, having entered rehabilitation on March 8, according to a statement posted on the group’s Web site. His brother and Roth both chose not to attend. The solo artist inducted was poetturned-punk-rocker Patti Smith, 60. The ceremony was broadcast live for the first time, on the VH1 Classic cable channel. „ Grawemeyer Music Award. The University of Louisville, the Kentucky institution that administered the $200,000 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, March 8 presented the prize to composer Sebastian Currier, 47, during a special concert at New York City’s Carnegie Hall marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the university’s music school. In previous years, the name of the winner of the annual prize had been announced late in the year; however, no winner had been named in 2006, so that the latest award could be presented at Carnegie Hall. The prize had last been awarded in November 2005, to Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag. Currier was its 21st recipient. [See 2005, p. 904E1] 168

Currier, who taught at New York City’s Columbia University, won the prize for a six-movement chamber work called Static. According to the composer, the title of the piece, which was scored for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano and lasted about 30 minutes, could refer either to the notion of stasis, or immobility, or to the noises sometimes interfering with radio reception. „ National Book Critics Circle. The National Book Critics Circle March 8 presented awards for the best books published during the past year. The awards did not include a cash prize. [See 2006, p. 180A1] Kiran Desai won the fiction award for The Inheritance of Loss, her second novel, set partly in India and partly in New York City. Desai in October 2006 had won Britain’s coveted Man Booker Prize for the novel. [See 2006, p. 792C2] The general nonfiction award went to Simon Schama for Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution, about slaves who fought on the British side during the Revolutionary War. Schama was a British-born professor of history and art history at Columbia University in New York. The other winners were Daniel Mendelsohn in the memoir/autobiography category, for The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, a Holocaust memoir; Julie Phillips in the biography category, for James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, about a female science fiction writer who wrote under a male pseudonym; Lawrence Weschler in the criticism category, for Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences; and in poetry, Troy Jollimore, for Tom Thomson in Purgatory, his first book of poems. „

People British actress Kate Winslet, who in January had been nominated for an Academy Award for the fifth time for the film Little Children, March 9 in London was awarded undisclosed but “substantial” libel damages from Grazia, a weekly British women’s magazine. Winslet, 31, had challenged a claim in a recent issue of the magazine that she had consulted a California-based Chinese herbalist about losing weight. The actress, who was known as a critic of excessive dieting, said she had actually gone to the herbalist for treatment of a neck injury. She said she would donate the settlement to an eating-disorder charity. [See p. 56A3] Expatriate American author Jonathan Littell, a resident of Barcelona, Spain, had been granted French citizenship, it was reported March 9. Littell, 39, in November 2006 had become the first American to win France’s most prestigious literary honor, the Goncourt Prize. After being turned down twice because he did not live in France at least six months a year, he was granted citizenship on his third try based on an obscure clause in France’s nationality code that allowed citizenship to be conferred on French-speaking foreigners whose “meritorious actions contribute to the glory of France.” [See 2006, p. 872B2]

HarperCollins Publishers Inc. March 6 announced that it had bought the world rights to a book by Jenna Bush, 25, one of U.S. President George W. Bush’s twin daughters. The nonfiction book, called Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope, was aimed at teenagers and young adults and would be released in the fall. It was based on the author’s experiences as an unpaid United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) intern in Panama, and would focus on someone she had met there, a 17-year-old single mother living with HIV, the virus that caused AIDS. [See 2004, p. 666D3] The world’s most prized baseball card, a 1909 Honus Wagner card known as the T206, which in 2000 had fetched $1.27 million, Feb. 27 was sold for a new record price, $2.35 million. The seller of the card, which depicted a legendary shortstop who had been one of the first five players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, was Las Vegas, Nev.–based collector Brian Seigel, 46, who had purchased it in 2000. The card’s new owner, a Californian, insisted on remaining anonymous. [See 2000, p. 580E2] „

O B I T UA R I E S GALLO, Ernest, 97, cofounder, with his brother Julio Gallo, of California’s E.&J. Gallo Winery; they began their business soon after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933; he supervised the business end of the operation as it grew into one of the world’s largest winemakers; in 2006, the company sold an estimated 70 million of the 300 million cases of wine sold in the U.S.; born March 18, 1909, in Jackson, Calif.; died March 6 at his home in Modesto, Calif.; no cause of death was reported; Julio Gallo died in a 1993 car accident; the third and youngest of the Gallo brothers, Joseph Edward Gallo, born Sept. 11, 1919, in Antioch, Calif., became one of California’s leading cheese makers; he died Feb. 17 in Livingston, Calif., at age 87, after a series of strokes. [See 1993, p. 344C3] HUTTON, Betty (born Elizabeth June Thorn-

burg), 86, actress and singer who starred in such 1940s and 1950s Hollywood films as The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944), Annie Get Your Gun (1950)—an adaptation of the stage musical in which she played sharpshooter Annie Oakley—and The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), a circus epic directed by Cecil B. DeMille; soon after making the DeMille film, she walked out on her contract with Paramount studios, which led to the demise of her film career; the last of her films was Spring Reunion (1957); she later became addicted to alcohol and sleeping pills, and in 1974 was found to be working as a housekeeper in the rectory of a Rhode Island Roman Catholic church; she later earned a master’s degree in psychology and taught for a while at the college level; born Feb. 26, 1921, in Battle Creek, Mich.; died the night of March 11 at her home in Palm Springs, Calif., from complications of colon cancer. [See 1995, p. 644C3; 1962, p. 509E2; Indexes 1957, 1950–55, 1945–47] INMAN, John, 71, British actor best known for his role as Mr. Humphries, an effeminate menswear shop assistant, in the 1970s and 1980s British Broadcasting Corp. television series “Are You Being Served?”; the show achieved cult status when it was broadcast in the U.S. in the 1990s; born June 28, 1935, in Preston, England; died March 8 at a hospital in London; he had had hepatitis A. JELLICOE of Southampton, Baron (George Patrick John Rushworth Jellicoe), 88, lord privy seal and

leader of Britain’s House of Lords, 1970–73; he was forced to step down in May 1973 after being implicated in a call-girl scandal that also led to the resignation of another government official, junior defense minister Lord Lambton; unlike Lambton, who soon afterward moved to Italy, where he would remain until his death in late 2006, he held his ground in Britain, where he became a pillar of the business establishment, serving as chairman of several companies; he was made a life peer in 1999; born April 4, 1918, in Hatfield, England; died Feb. 22 in Tidcombe, England. [See 2006, p. 1044C1; 1973, pp. 629G3, 565D3, 453F1; Indexes 1970, 1968, 1961–62] „

March 15, 2007

Fourth Anniversary of Start of Iraq War Marked Bush Calls for ‘Courage’ in Conflict.

U.S. President George W. Bush March 19 marked the fourth anniversary of the U.S.led invasion of Iraq with a brief televised speech from the White House asking Americans to have the “courage and resolve” to be victorious in the Iraqi conflict. The anniversary came amidst attempts by the Democratic-led Congress to steer a new course for the war, in which more than 3,200 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians had died, and for which more than $300 billion had been spent. [See pp. 154D1, 138A2] Bush credited the recent joint U.S.-Iraqi security push in Anbar province and Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, with some success, but cautioned that it would take “months, not days or weeks” for the operation to truly make a difference. Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki was also optimistic about the security push, Bush reported, saying he had spoken with the premier by video link just prior to his speech. The president had opted for a ‘surge,’ or increase, in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq as part of the new plan. Those forces had been arriving over the previous several weeks, and were scheduled to be fully deployed by late spring. Bush acknowledged that the difficulty of the Iraqi conflict made it “tempting” to withdraw U.S. troops from the region, but he cautioned that the consequences of such a move wouldbe“devastating.”HewarnedCongress not to include any such timetables for withdrawal in a funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan currently under consideration. “They have a responsibility to get this bill to my desk without strings and without delay,” he said. [See below] The U.S. Army March 16 had announced an acceleration in the deployment of troops participating in the U.S.-Iraqi security push. Bush had initially requested 21,500 additional combat troops, but the need for further support troops put the surge at roughly 28,700 U.S. soldiers altogether. [See p. 139A1] Democratic Leaders Blast Bush— Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) March 19 strongly criticized Bush for his IRAQ CASUALTIES

Following are tallies of casualties in Iraq since the beginning of a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, as they stood Mar. 22 [See p. 106A1]: U.S. military casualties:

Deaths Wounded

3,225 24,187

Allied military deaths: 258 Iraqi security forces deaths: 6,316 U.S. civilian contractor deaths: 155 Other civilian contractor deaths: 234 Iraqi civilian deaths: 59,408–65,246

(Range based on news reports of deaths) Sources: U.S. and allies, Iraqi security, contractors— U.S. Defense Department, www.icasualties.org. Iraqi civilians—www.iraqbodycount.net.

policies regarding Iraq, saying the president was “committing more U.S. troops to an open-ended civil war” with the “blessing” of Republicans in Congress. “After four years of failure in Iraq, the president’s only answer is to do more of the same,” Reid said. “It’s a flawed policy, proven wrong by events on the ground,” he declared. “We must have a new direction.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) also blasted the president, saying, “The American people have lost confidence in President Bush’s plan for a war without end in Iraq.” Pelosi pledged to include timetables for withdrawal in the upcoming war funding bill. Bush’s approach, she said, “has been rejected by the voters in our nation, and it will be rejected by the Congress.” The House March 22 began debate on the war funding bill, and a vote on it was scheduled to take place the next day. The Senate Appropriations Committee March 22 approved a similar bill for consideration by the full Senate. Bush and several officials in his administration had repeatedly stated that the president would veto any bill including timetables for U.S. troop withdrawal. Rice Defends War, Protesters Rally—

The war’s anniversary March 19 prompted further debate about its legitimacy and the way in which it had been conducted. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared on several morning news shows to defend the invasion of Iraq, though she allowed that there had been errors. Rice said that more troops should have been sent to Iraq, and that the U.S. had underestimated how difficult the military effort there would be. But she stood by the invasion itself, saying the U.S. had been right to go to war and to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Demonstrations were held all across the U.S. March 17–19, some in protest of the war in Iraq, some in remembrance of the U.S. and Iraqi lives lost in the conflict, and others in support of the troops and Bush’s policies. Antiwar activists expressed support for withdrawing troops, cutting off military funding and impeaching Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. One antiwar protest near the Pentagon March 17 also marked the 40th anniversary of demonstrations in opposition to the Vietnam War. Polls Show Despair Among Iraqis—

Two opinion polls of Iraqis released March 18–19 testified to the desperate situation in Iraq, with many Iraqis saying their situation had deteriorated in the past year, even that it was worse than before the U.S.-led invasion. An ABC News poll released March 19 showed that more than 60% of Iraqis said their lives were going badly, twice the number as in a November 2005 poll. Fortytwo percent said things were better than before the 2003 invasion, down from 51% in 2005 and 56% in a February 2004 poll. Thirty-six percent said things were worse than before the invasion, up from 29% in 2005. The numbers were particularly poor in Baghdad, where 78% of respondents said their lives were going badly (up from 27% in 2005), and 84% said they did not

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3458* March 22, 2007

B feel safe where they lived (up from 7% in 2005). Forty-two percent of Iraqis said their nation was in a state of civil war, while 56% said it was not. [See p. 86C1] Iraqis expressed skepticism about the recent troop surge, with 49% saying additional U.S. troops would make the security situation worse. Twenty-nine percent said it would improve the situation, and 22% said it would make no difference. But Iraqi opinion was mixed on the presence of the U.S. as a whole. Although 69% said the U.S. presence made security worse in Iraq, only 35% said the U.S. should leave immediately. Moreover, while 52% said the U.S. was wrong to invade Iraq, 48% said it was the right thing to do. A majority of Iraqis agreed that Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia were “actively engaged in encouraging sectarian violence within Iraq.” A slim majority of Iraqis, 51%, said attacks by “other people” on U.S. and coalition forces were “acceptable,” up from 17% in 2004.

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Fourth anniversary of start of Iraq war marked; Bush calls for ‘courage.’

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Hamas, Fatah form Palestinian unity government. PAGE 171

Bush, Democrats clash over testimony on fired prosecutors; House, Senate panels authorize subpoenas. PAGE 173

Former Sen. Edwards stays in Democratic presidential campaign despite wife’s cancer. PAGE 173

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Zimbabwe crackdown on opposition intensifies. PAGE 178

Ecuador court ousts opposition congressmen. PAGE 180

China’s parliament adopts property law. PAGE 181

Pro-Putin party dominates Russian regional elecitions. PAGE 183 *First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Forty-three percent approved of Maliki’s job performance, while 57% disapproved, though Iraqis were split almost evenly, 49%-51%, on the question of whether they had confidence in Maliki’s government. Fifty-nine percent said the U.S. controlled Iraq (up from 24% in 2005). Shiite Muslims and ethnic Kurds were far more likely to express optimism about their situation and confidence in the government than Sunni Muslims. The ABC poll questioned roughly 2,200 people in late February through early March. A less extensive poll, conducted by Opinion Research Business of Britain, had been released March 18. It had polled roughly 5,000 Iraqis in mid-February. In that poll, 49% said their situation was better than under Hussein, while 26% said it was worse. Only 27% said Iraq was in the midst of a civil war, with another 22% saying it was close to civil war. Suspects in Karbala Attack Arrested—

The U.S. military March 22 said it had recently captured two Shiite militants—Qais Khazali and his brother Laith Khazali— who belonged to a group responsible for a well-planned attack in Karbala in January that killed five U.S. soldiers. Qais Khazali had been an aide and spokesman for Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in 2004. An unidentified U.S. official claimed that the Khazali brothers were part of a militant group that was employing explosively formed penetrators (EFPs)—a kind of sophisticated shaped explosive device that was capable of penetrating armored vehicles. In the attack, gunmen disguised as U.S. troops had infiltrated a meeting between the U.S. soldiers and Iraqi officials. [See pp. 90C1, 53C1] In a related development, senior commanders of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia affiliated with Sadr, as well as U.S. and Iraqi officials, had claimed that the militia was starting to break apart into defector groups, the Associated Press (AP) reported March 21. The militia leaders also claimed that one of the offshoots was sending hundreds of fighters for training by the Quds Force in Iran, a crack unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which was in turn an elite force affiliated with Iran’s ruling clergy. That offshoot, they said, was led by Qais Khazali. The commanders added that the splinter group was to blame for recent attacks on U.S. soldiers and Iraqi officials such as Rahim al-Daraji, the mayor of Sadr City. They also claimed that the group’s fighters were receiving funds from Iran. [See p. 155A3] An unidentified official with the U.S. Defense Department also agreed that the militia was splintering, but could not confirm Iran’s involvement with any of its offshoots. Separately, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a spokesman for the U.S. military, said there had been a “dramatic” decrease in attacks on U.S. forces employing EFPs, CBS News reported March 21. “In February,” Garver said, “we noticed a 77 percent decrease in explosively formed 170

penetrators being detonated against our troops, a 74 percent decrease in the number of troops wounded and a 64 percent decrease in the number of troops killed.” [See p. 121E1] A roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad March 15 had killed four U.S. soldiers and wounded two more when it exploded near their vehicles. The U.S. military said the bomb was an EFP. Sadr Supporters Protest U.S. Presence—

Thousands of supporters of Sadr March 16 protested in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City and other parts of Iraq, denouncing the presence of U.S. troops in their country. Sadr had released a statement that day calling on his followers to “resist” the U.S., and to take to the streets shouting “No America, no Israel, no, no Satan.” In particular, Sadr objected to the creation of joint U.S.-Iraqi security stations in neighborhoods throughout Baghdad. [See 139A2] U.S. soldiers March 17 set up a mobile clinic in Sadr City, and began providing rudimentary medical care to residents there. Amar Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a leading member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the largest Shiite bloc in parliament, March 17 said the U.S. military presence compromised Iraq’s sovereignty. SCIRI was a rival to Sadr’s political organization. Hakim made the comments at a rally in Najaf. U.S. Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil Jr., the commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, March 15 had said 77 security outposts had been set up in the capital, and that 100 would be operational in the coming month. Separately, Ahmed Shibani, a senior aide to Sadr who had spent more than two years in U.S. custody, March 21 was released. He met with Maliki later that day. The U.S. had held Shibani out of concern that he was a security threat.

Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone. A joint press conference held by Ban and Maliki was briefly interrupted by explosions in the Green Zone. No injuries were reported. † Former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan March 20 was hanged in Baghdad for his role in the 1982 deaths of 148 people in the town of Dujail. U.S. forces flew his body to Tikrit, where it was then taken to the nearby town of Awja and buried near Hussein. Ramadan’s death sentence had been upheld by an appeals court March 15. [See p. 155E2; 2006, p. 98922] † Saadoun Hammadi, a former premier, speaker of parliament and senior member of Hussein’s regime, March 16 died in a hospital in Germany. Hammadi, the highest-ranked Shiite in Hussein’s largely Sunni government, had been arrested and released by U.S. forces after the invasion of Iraq, and had subsequently left Iraq. [See 1991, p. 686C2] Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq: † The U.S. military March 22 said it had arrested a former member of Al Qaeda in Iraq who was also the head of a car bombing network responsible for recent attacks in mostly Shiite eastern Baghdad. The militant had been arrested March 21, and other members of the network were arrested a day later. † Bahaa al-Araji, a Shiite legislator affiliated with Sadr, March 21 said U.S. forces had raided his office and confiscated computer equipment. † Fighters belonging to Al Qaeda in Iraq March 20–21 battled near Fallujah against Iraqi police and Sunni Arab tribal forces backed by U.S. troops and air power. Local police officials claimed that at least 32 in-

Government Pursues Reconciliation—

Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi March 21 said the Iraqi government should hold talks with insurgent groups, insisting that they “should be invited, should be called to sit down around the table to discuss their fears, their reservations.” Hashimi said the offer should not be extended to the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, which he said was “not very much willing in fact to talk to anybody.” Separately, Saad Yousif al-Muttalibi, an official with Iraq’s ministry of national dialogue and reconciliation, March 21 said the government had been holding talks with insurgent groups over the previous three months, and would continue to do so. Muttalibi said the insurgents were demanding that a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops be set before they would cease hostilities, but that the government insisted that security be reestablished prior to any such decree. The talks had been requested by the insurgents, Muttalibi said, though he added that they did not include former Baath Party members or members of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon March 22 met with Maliki in

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surgents, 10 tribe members and eight police officers were killed in the fighting. The tribal forces were affiliated with the Anbar Salvation Council, a group formed in 2006 to oppose Sunni insurgents. † U.S. Maj. Gen. Michael Barbero, deputy director for regional operations at the Joint Staff, March 20 claimed that insurgents March 18 had used two children as decoys in order to get their car bomb past a security checkpoint, and then detonated it with the children still inside. Barbaro said U.S. soldiers had waved the car through a checkpoint in Baghdad after seeing that children were in it. In addition to the children, the bomb killed three other people and injured seven more. Children had reportedly been used by insurgents as decoys before, but this was the first instance in which they were known to have been killed. † Shiite leaders March 19 denounced the raiding of a mosque earlier that day in northwestern Baghdad, saying U.S. forces had killed guards and opened fire on worshippers. The U.S. military March 20 disputed the allegations, insisting that U.S. forces never entered the mosque, but merely backed Iraqi forces conducting the raid and returned fire after an attack by gunmen outside the mosque. † Gunmen affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group, March 19 surrounded two police stations in Duluiyah, a Sunni town almost 50 miles (80 km) north of Baghdad. The insurgents forced police officers to pledge allegiance to their self-proclaimed Islamic state and then destroyed the stations. A local police official claimed that three other police stations had been destroyed by insurgents in the previous two weeks. † A suicide bomber March 19 detonated his explosives at the entrance to a mosque in Baghdad, killing at least four people and injuring at least 30 more. The attack took place near the site of a February truck bombing that had killed more than 130 people. [See p. 85E3] † A roadside bomb March 18 killed three police officers and wounded four more in Kirkuk. Three bombs March 19 exploded one after the other in Kirkuk, killing at least 16 people and wounding at least 38 more. Local police blamed Al Qaeda in Iraq for the attack. † Insurgents disguised as mechanics March 18 used explosives to destroy a hotel in Anbar province that was being used by the Iraqi military as an observation post. Two soldiers were killed and 12 more were wounded. The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on the Internet. † Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the Iraqi military, March 18 said Iraqi forces had raided the offices of Dhafir al-Ani, a Sunni legislator, on March 8, resulting in the seizure of a large cache of weapons. Speaking at a news conference, Moussawi said six of the seven men detained had been released soon afterward. One man in possession of a sniper rifle remained in custody. Ani denounced the raid March 22, 2007

as politically motivated, and accused the Iraqi army of torturing his bodyguards during their detention, the New York Times reported March 19. Ani was not present during the raid, which also resulted in the seizure of four cars with traces of explosives found on them. † The beheaded and tortured bodies of nine police officers March 18 were found by Iraqi security forces in a building east of Ramadi. The forces had been searching the area for members of Al Qaeda in Iraq. [See p. 140C1] † Abu Qutada al-Palestinei, deputy to the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, March 17 was captured by Iraqi security forces in Baghdad. † Three suicide truck bombs carrying chlorine gas March 16 exploded in Anbar province, killing as many as eight people— some of them police officers—and causing hundreds more to become sick from the fumes. The first truck exploded near Ramadi, and the other two detonated south of Fallujah. Local officials and tribal leaders accused Al Qaeda in Iraq of carrying out the attacks, saying the insurgent group was retaliating against those who stood up to it. [See p. 107E1] „

Middle East Hamas, Fatah Form Unity Government.

The Palestinian parliament March 17 ratified the creation of a unity government that included members of the militant Islamist group Hamas and its chief rival, Fatah. A 25-member cabinet was sworn in later that day. Premier Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, retained his position in the new government, which was the result of his negotiations with President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, the previous month. [See p. 92D1] After Hamas won elections in 2006, factional violence with Fatah had killed roughly 130 Palestinians, and international donors had cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The donors had demanded that the PA government recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by previous agreements, including those made with Israel. Fatah accepted those conditions, but Hamas rejected them. Speaking after the legislative vote, Abbas expressed hope that donors would end their boycott of the PA, and that peace efforts with Israel could get back on track. Palestinians, he said, were opposed to “all forms of violence,” and the unity government was “calling for peace and equality” with Israel. Haniya also spoke after the creation of the unity government, but struck a different chord. He said the new government supported the notion that “resistance in all its forms, including popular resistance to occupation, is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people.” At the same time, he said he would work to expand a Gaza Strip truce between Israel and Palestinian militants to cover the West Bank. [See p. 140G2] Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Abbas and the chief negotiator for the Palestinians, expressed disappointment at the partisan

nature of Haniya’s speech. “As prime minister of all Palestinians,” Erekat said, Haniya should “renounce violence and accept the two-state solution,” according to which a Palestinian state would be created alongside Israel. Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the refusal of Hamas and the new PA government to unequivocally recognize Israel’s right to exist would prohibit any significant contact with Israel. “Israel will not recognize or deal with such a government,” she said. Not only did Haniya reject the donor conditions, she said, he “calls openly for Palestinian resistance…for Palestinians to commit terror against Israel.” Israel’s cabinet March 18 unanimously voted to boycott the new PA government. Caution Greets New Government— Donor nations March 17–18 provided a mixed response to the formation of the unity government, allowing for contact with it, while noting that it fell short of their conditions. Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, a spokeswoman for the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, March 18 said the U.S. would continue to avoid contact with “terrorist organizations, of which Hamas is one.” She added, however, that the U.S. would be open to “contact with certain individuals with whom we have had contact before,” such as Abbas. The New York Times March 18 reported that France and Britain were both allowing for diplomatic contact with at least some of the ministers in the new PA cabinet, and that the European Union would consider funneling aid through the office of the new finance minister, Salam Fayyad. Hamas had relinquished control of the finance, foreign and interior ministries in the new unity government. Norway’s deputy foreign minister, Raymond Johansen, March 19 met with Haniya in Gaza, and Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema pledged his country’s support to Haniya by telephone. Johansen March 20 said Israel had canceled several meetings he was scheduled to have with them in response to Norway’s recognition of the new PA government. Jacob Walles, the U.S. consul in Jerusalem and the de facto ambassador to the PA, March 20 met with Fayyad in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

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Aid Rose in 2006 Despite Boycott—

United Nations and PA officials March 21 declared that roughly $1.2 billion in international aid was given to the PA in 2006, significantly more than the $1 billion given in 2005. Because of the donor boycott of the Hamas-led government, they said, the money was seldom given to the PA treasury, and was instead often directed toward personal bank accounts or independent agencies. The officials said that circumventing the treasury in this way made the aid less effective. [See 2006, p. 966A1] Olmert Open to Saudi Peace Deal—

Olmert March 11 said he would be willing to engage in peace talks based on a proposal offered by Saudi Arabia in 2002. The proposal called for Israel to relinquish land seized in the 1967 Six-Day War, allow the 171

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establishment of a Palestinian state and settle the issue of refugees in return for full and peaceful relations with Arab countries. Olmert described the initiative, due to be discussed at a meeting of the Arab League later that month, as having many “positive aspects.” Olmert also held talks with Abbas that day, although they failed to yield any significant agreement. Mahmoud Zahar, a senior member of Hamas, March 17 said Hamas would not accept the Saudi proposal without changes. [See 2002, p. 117A1] Other News—In other Israeli-Palestinian news: † Militants affiliated with Hamas March 19 shot and wounded an Israeli electric utility employee working on Israel’s side of the Gaza border. Eisin said Israel’s patience was “running out” with regard to violations of the Gaza truce. † Abbas March 18 appointed Muhammad Dahlan, a legislator and senior Fatah security official, as national security adviser to the president. Salah Bardawil, a senior member of Hamas, said Dahlan was a “provocative personality” who was responsible for much of the recent factional violence in Gaza. [See p. 12B2] † Peace Now, an advocacy group in Israel, March 13 claimed that government records showed that almost a third of the land constituting Jewish settlements in the West Bank was privately owned. The records, the group added, demonstrated that the Israeli government was illegally seizing land from Palestinians. Israel’s government had frequently insisted that land seizures in the West Bank were either legal or merely temporary security measures. [See p. 55E2] † The Israeli military March 9 said it was investigating claims that its soldiers were using Palestinian civilians as human shields during searches for militants, despite various prohibitions against the activity. A week earlier, video footage had surfaced of Israeli soldiers Feb. 25 walking behind a Palestinian man as they searched several homes during a security sweep in the West Bank. [See p. 140G2; 2005, p. 704C3] † Yuval Diskin, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service, March 5 accused Hamas of sending dozens of men to Iran for military training. An adviser to Haniya, Ahmed Yussef, dismissed the allegation as “propaganda.” Separately, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad March 6 met with Khaled Meshal, the leader of Hamas, in Iran and encouraged him to continue fighting Israel. [See p. 140F3] „

Human Rights U.S. State Dept. Releases Yearly Report.

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The U.S. State Department March 6 released its annual report on human rights abuses, which detailed civil, political and religious rights abuses around the world. The current report placed increased emphasis on the suppression of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and Internet freedom. The review, which had been re172

leased annually since 1977, catalogued only abuses committed by foreign countries. However, State Department officials acknowledged that it was being released at a time when the U.S. was coming under increased criticism for its own alleged rights violations. [See 2006, p. 231D3] The report singled out Sudan and the conflict in its Darfur region—which it labeled a genocide—as the most serious human rights catastrophe. It cited eight other countries as among the “most systematic” rights violators: North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, China and Eritrea. New to that list was Eritrea, which the review criticized for extrajudicial killings, mass arrests and torture of national service evaders and their relatives, the suppression of religious freedom and the disruption of relief operations by international NGOs. [See p. 123A2, F3; 2004, p. 1088E2] It criticized the governments of Russia, China, Venezuela, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Burundi and Rwanda for imposing onerous restrictions on NGOs and human rights activists. It also drew attention to increased efforts by China and other countries to censor and restrict access to the Internet. [See 2006, pp. 917A2, 898B2] The review cited worsening human rights trends in several countries with close relations with the U.S., most notably Iraq. “On one side, predominantly Sunni Arab groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq, irreconcilable remnants of the Baathist regime, and insurgents waging guerrilla warfare violently opposed the government and targeted Shi’a communities,” it said, referring to intensifying sectarian conflicts in that nation. Meanwhile, “predominantly Shi’a militias with some ties to the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) targeted Sunnis in large-scale death squad and kidnapping activities,' the report said. [See p. 169A1] The report lauded Liberia for taking steps to correct past abuses since the 2006 democratic election of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. It also noted reforms enacted in Morocco, a reduction in killings by Indonesia’s armed forces, and significant elections held in Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ukraine. However, it said, major steps still needed to be taken in all of those countries. [See pp. 146F1, 82A2; 2006, p. 1022B3] Criticisms of U.S. Acknowledged—

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in releasing the report March 6 acknowledged criticisms of alleged U.S. abuses, saying, “Our democratic system of governance is accountable, but it is not infallible.” Barry Lowenkron, the assistant secretary of state for the democracy, human rights and labor bureau, added that the State Department was releasing the review “at a time when our own record, and actions we have taken to respond to terrorist attacks against us, have been questioned.” [See pp. 157E3, 153D1] The Chinese government March 8 issued a rebuttal to the U.S. report, as it had done every year since 1999. It highlighted what it said were the U.S.’s many rights violations, including alleged abuses of foreign prisoners held in Iraq, Afghanistan

and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; inequities suffered in the U.S. by minorities, women and children; and a supposedly increasing tendency to spy on its own citizens. China called on the U.S. to “stop interfering in other countries’ internal affairs under the pretext of human rights.” Russia that day criticized the U.S. over its supposed “double standards” on human rights issues. Human rights groups also called upon the U.S. to take responsibility for and cease its own abuses. „

Other International News U.S.-EU ‘Open Skies’ Deal Approved. Euro-

pean Union transportation ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, March 22 unanimously approved an “open skies” aviation deal liberalizing transatlantic air service. U.S. and EU negotiators had drawn up a draft of the agreement March 2, but it had been opposed by the British government, which argued that the U.S. should have loosened its foreign ownership laws. The deal would replace a host of bilateral agreements between the U.S. and EU member nations that critics said obstructed airline competition. [See 2006, p. 948C1] The open skies agreement would drop restrictions on flights between the U.S. and the EU. The deal would also require Britain to allow all transatlantic airlines access to London’s Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest airport. Heathrow was currently open to transatlantic airliners flown only by Britain’s Virgin Atlantic (PLC) and British Airways PLC (BA) and U.S.-owned United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp., and American Airlines, of AMR Corp. The deal left in place a ban on European airlines carrying passengers between cities in the U.S., though it would allow U.S. airlines to operate routes within the EU. The U.S. also did not alter regulations setting a 25% cap on ownership of voting shares in U.S. airlines by foreign investors. Efforts by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to change the ownership rules had been abandoned in December 2006. Britain Sets Conditions—The agreement had originally been scheduled to go into effect Oct. 28, but a compromise forced by the British government pushed the starting date back to March 31, 2008. Britain also won support for a provision suspending the deal if the U.S. did not reform its foreign ownership laws by 2010. Britain had threatened to veto the deal, saying the U.S. should agree to concessions in its ownership rules. However, EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot had lent his strong support to the deal, as did other EU members such as Germany, France and Ireland, whose national airlines had signaled that it would benefit them. The U.S. Congress had to approve the agreement before it could take effect. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters March 22 released a statement saying the “historic decision…will bring new and valuable benefits to air travelers and communities on both sides of the Atlantic.” „ FACTS ON FILE

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Bush, Democrats Clash Over Testimony on Fired Prosecutors House, Senate Panels Authorize Subpoenas.

President George W. Bush in a March 20 news conference warned congressional Democrats not to issue subpoenas to force his chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and other White House aides to testify before Congress on their roles in the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors in 2006, which had set off a political furor. Bush called on the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate to accept his offer to make Rove and others available for private interviews, without their being placed under oath or having their words recorded in a transcript. [See p. 157A2] The House Judiciary subcommittee on administrative and commercial law in a voice vote March 21 approved subpoenas to compel Rove and others to give public testimony under oath. The panel also voted to use subpoenas to obtain internal White House communications about the ouster of the U.S. attorneys. The Senate Judiciary Committee March 22 approved subpoenas by voice vote. However, neither the House nor the Senate panel voted to issue the subpoenas. If the subpoenas were issued and White House officials refused to comply with them, the officials could be cited for contempt of Congress and face indictment by a federal grand jury. White House counsel Fred Fielding March 20 had sent a letter to Democratic congressional leaders outlining the offer for unsworn, off-the-record interviews with Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and two lower-ranking aides, William Kelley and Scott Jennings. Bush Threatens Court Battle—Bush at his March 20 news conference said he was “absolutely” willing to take the matter to court to resist congressional subpoenas. He said subpoenas would violate the constitutional separation of powers between the branches of the federal government. “It will be regrettable if they choose to head down the partisan road of issuing subpoenas and demanding show trials when I have agreed to make key White House officials and documents available,” Bush said. He declared, “We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition.” Referring to the firings of the prosecutors, he said, “There is no indication that anybody did anything improper.” Democrats promptly rejected Bush’s offer. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, “It is not constructive and it is not helpful to be telling the Senate how to do our investigation or to prejudge the outcome.” Leahy accused the Bush administration of “erasing large portions” of the documents it had already released. He called on Bush to “freely and fully” provide documents, and said, “Testimony should be on the record, and under oath.” March 22, 2007

Democrats cited instances during the administration of Democratic President Bill Clinton when White House chiefs of staff and counsels had testified under oath before Congress. Bush Backs Gonzales—Bush March 20 reiterated that he had confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, despite growing speculation that Gonzales would be forced to step down by the scandal. “He’s got support from me,” Bush said. He had telephoned Gonzales that morning to give him that message. Gonzales had come under fire after the release of White House and Justice Department e-mails suggesting that Rove and Miers had helped plan the ouster of the U.S. attorneys. Previously, Gonzales and other top Justice Department officials had denied that there had been White House involvement in the firings, contending that the dismissals had been based on performance, not political reasons. Gonzales faced calls from some Republican lawmakers, as well as Democrats, for his resignation. Rep. Adam Putnam (Fla.), the third-ranking member of the House Republican leadership, March 20 said Gonzales’s “ability to effectively serve the president and lead the Justice Department is greatly compromised.” Putnam added, “I think he himself should evaluate his ability to serve as an effective attorney general.” Sen. Gordon Smith (Ore.) March 15 had become the second Republican senator to call for Gonzales’s resignation, following Sen. John Sununu (N.H.). Senate Votes to Repeal Hiring Power—

The Senate March 20 voted, 94–2, to strip the attorney general of a new power to directly appoint U.S. attorneys for indefinite periods, without going through the normal Senate confirmation process. Congress had granted the power as part of the 2006 reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, a 2001 antiterrorism law. Sens. Christopher Bond (R, Mo.) and Chuck Hagel (R, Neb.) cast the only two votes against repealing the appointment power. More Documents Released—The Justice Department March 15 and March 19 released thousands of pages of internal records to Congress. The documents reportedly provided no clear explanation for the decision to fire the U.S. attorneys. Democrats said they suspected that documents had been withheld because there were very few provided from the three weeks leading up to the December 2006 firings. The Justice Department said that the gap simply reflected a “lull in communications.” E-mails released March 15 showed that Rove had discussed the possibility of dismissing all 93 U.S. attorneys in January 2005, and that Gonzales had discussed the matter in December 2004, when he was still White House counsel. The White House had said that it was Miers who had first proposed dismissing the U.S. attorneys, in early 2005. In response to the e-mail describing Rove’s interest in the matter, Kyle Samp-

son, an aide to Gonzales, suggested firing “15–20 percent” of the U.S. attorneys found to be “underperforming.” Sampson had resigned as Gonzales’s chief of staff earlier in March. A Justice Department spokeswoman March 15 said Gonzales had “no recollection of any plan or discussion to replace U.S. attorneys while he was still White House counsel.” In one e-mail released March 19, and dated Feb. 7, an aide said Gonzales was “extremely upset” by news reports on Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty’s testimony before Congress. The e-mail said Gonzales thought some of McNulty’s testimony was “inaccurate.” McNulty Feb. 6 had testified that the U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., had been removed in order to install Timothy Griffin, an aide to Rove, in that position. Gonzales believed that the U.S. attorney, H.E. (Bud) Cummins, had been removed for poor performance, the e-mail said. „

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2008 Presidential Campaign Edwards Stays In Despite Wife’s Cancer.

Former Sen. John Edwards March 22 held a news conference in Chapel Hill, N.C., to announce that his wife had been diagnosed with a return of breast cancer, but that he would stay in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Appearing with his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, at their home, he said, “The campaign goes on.” But he added, “Anytime, anyplace I need to be there for Elizabeth, I will be there— period.” [See 2006, p. 999B1; 2004, p. 904B3] Edwards said a biopsy showed that his wife’s breast cancer had returned and spread to a rib. It was diagnosed as treatable but incurable, he said. His wife said she was “incredibly optimistic.” She said she would receive “a less debilitating chemotherapy…for the rest of my life.” Elizabeth Edwards, 57, had first undergone treatment for breast cancer in November 2004, days after Sen. John Kerry (D, Mass.) lost the presidential election to President George W. Bush. John Edwards had been the Democratic vice presidential nominee on the losing ticket. Edwards was running third in national polls for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, trailing Sens. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.). Other News—In related developments: † Former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) March 11 said he was “giving some thought” to running for the Republican nomination. Thompson, 64, had served in the Senate from 1994 to 2003. He had since returned to his other profession, acting. He played a role on the NBC television series “Law and Order.” [See 2002, p. 740D2] † Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R, Ga.) March 8 admitted that he had been involved in an extramarital affair while leading the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton over Clinton’s affair with a White House intern. Gingrich ranked third in national polls on the Re173

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publican presidential field, but had said that he would wait until September to decide whether to join the race. He acknowledged his affair in an interview with Christian conservative activist James Dobson, chairman of the group Focus on the Family. Gingrich, 63, had divorced his second wife in 1999 and married a member of his staff in 2000. [See 2000, p. 640D2] † Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) March 12 held a news conference to announce that he had decided not to join the Republican field at that time, but left open the option of doing so later. For now, he said, he would devote himself to working in the Senate on key issues, especially the Iraq war. Hagel had emerged as a leading Republican critic of President George W. Bush’s handling of the war. [See p. 53A2] „ California Moves Up Primary to February.

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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) March 15 signed legislation to move his state’s presidential primary election up to Feb. 5, 2008. Several other big states, including New York, Texas, Florida and Illinois, also were considering moving their primaries up to Feb. 5, the first Tuesday in February, in order to claim a more influential spot at the front end of the nominating calendar. The trend could shorten the primary campaign, observers said. [See 2006, p. 665A2] Schwarzenegger, signing the measure in Sacramento, the state capital, said, “Moving our presidential primary means California will have the influence it deserves when it comes to choosing the next presidential candidates.” California had previously held its primary in June. Iowa and New Hampshire had long enjoyed clout in presidential campaigns because of their traditional spots at the opening of the primary season in January. In July 2006, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) had voted to move up the Nevada and South Carolina contests to January. A Feb. 5 Super Tuesday of primaries with delegates from more than 20 states at stake was seen as likely to favor wellknown, well-funded candidates with the ability to buy television advertising time in multiple big, expensive markets. „

Environment Gore Testifies on Greenhouse Gases. Former Vice President Al Gore March 21 testified before committees in both the House and Senate on the topic of global climate change attributed to the release of so-called greenhouse gases. Such gases resulted largely from the combustion of fossil fuels. The appearance was Gore’s first on Capitol Hill since his failed 2000 bid for the presidency as the Democratic nominee, and was viewed as a homecoming of sorts by his supporters. [See pp. 135E1, 73A1] Gore in the morning testified before a joint session of the House Science Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He challenged the members of Congress to work to reduce 174

greenhouse gas emissions generated by vehicles and smokestacks. In his testimony, Gore outlined a 10point plan designed to reduce carbon emissions which recommended that new coal plant pollution technologies be instituted and that incandescent light bulbs be banned in favor of fluorescent bulbs that used less power. He also called on lawmakers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 90% of their current levels by 2050 in order to avert catastrophe. Gore was largely well-received by congressional panel members, with both Republican and Democratic legislators questioning him on policy details. However, several Republicans challenged his environmental claims as dubious or unduly alarming. After Rep. Joe Barton (R, Texas) criticized his testimony, Gore employed a metaphor to describe his beliefs regarding climate change. “The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor,” Gore said. He added, “If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don’t say ‘I read a science fiction novel that says it’s not a problem.’ You take action.” In the afternoon Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, Sen. James Inhofe (R, Okla.), who had described global warming as a “hoax,” expressed his disapproval. “It is my perspective that your global warming alarmist pronouncements are now and have always been filled with inaccuracies and misleading statements,” he said. Since losing the 2000 presidential contest Gore had become a passionate proponent of greenhouse gas emission controls. He had served as the narrator of the Academy Award–winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which featured his presentation on the causes and potential ramifications of a systematic warming of the Earth’s climate. „ House Examines Climate Report Changes.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform March 19 questioned several former members of the administration of President George W. Bush regarding allegations that governmental climate science had been influenced by politics. House Democrats argued that 181 documented changes in three climate reports reflected interference by political appointees in climate research. A memorandum circulated by Democrats on the committee said the changes appeared to “portray a systematic White House effort to minimize the significance of climate change.” [See pp. 95A1, 73A1; 2006, p. 111C3; 2005, p. 402F2] The New York Times in June 2005 had reported that then–White House Council on Environmental Quality Chief of Staff for Philip Cooney had changed climate documents to focus on scientific uncertainty regarding the human role in climate change. Also, James Hansen, the top National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) climate scientist, in February 2006 had asserted that a NASA public affairs official, George Deutsch, had attempted to control the content of his interviews

with the press. Cooney, Deutsch and Hansen all testified before the committee during hearings characterized by sharp exchanges between Democrats and Republicans. Cooney, who had worked as an oil industry lobbyist prior to his administration job, in his testimony before the House panel defended his editorial decisions as part of the normal review protocol practiced by the White House. He also said his changes had brought reports into line with findings reached in 2001 by the National Academy of Sciences. Shortly after the allegations against Cooney surfaced, he left the White House to take a job with oil firm Exxon Mobil Corp. Deutsch in his testimony said he had been relaying press interview instructions to Hansen from higher NASA officials, and that the instructions reflected his superiors’ “level of frustration.” Hansen said White House officials had repeatedly attempted to control his comments to the press. “Interference with communications of science to the public has been greater during the current administration than at any time in my career,” Hansen said. Hansen had contributed to former Vice President Al Gore’s popular documentary on climate change, “An Inconvenient Truth.” „

Armed Forces Joint Chiefs Chairman Calls Gays Immoral.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, March 12 said he favored retaining the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays serving openly in the military because he believed that homosexual acts were immoral. His remarks, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune published March 13, drew sharp criticism from gay rights groups. Pace March 13 issued a statement saying that he should not have offered his personal opinion on the matter. [See 2006, p. 839C3] Pace in the Tribune article said, “I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts.” He said he viewed adultery the same way, remarking, “We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior” in the military. In his statement the next day, Pace said, “In expressing my support for the current policy, I also offered some personal opinions about moral conduct. I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views.” He observed, “People have a wide range of opinions on this sensitive subject.” The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993, allowed gays to serve in the military only if they did not publicly reveal their sexual orientation. The Washington Post March 14 reported that more than 10,870 military personnel had been discharged under the policy since 1993. However, the Post said just 612 personnel were discharged in fiscal year 2006, ending Sept. 30, 2006, according to preliminary data. That was in line with a drop in FACTS ON FILE

such discharges since the start of the wars in Afghanistan, in 2001, and Iraq, in 2003. Some lawmakers and retired generals supported repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, arguing that the loss of qualified personnel was hurting the military. Reaction—Sen. John Warner (Va.), the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, March 13 rebuffed Pace, saying, “I respectfully but strongly disagree with the chairman’s view that homosexuality is immoral.” Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.), the front-runners in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, March 15 both issued statements declaring that they did not agree with Pace that homosexuality was immoral. Both senators had previously drawn criticism from gay rights groups for not responding directly to Pace’s remarks. [See p. 158A3] „

Legislation House Passes Open-Government Bills.

The House March 14 passed three bills intended to help the public gain access to government records and protect federal employees who reported on government wrongdoing. President George W. Bush immediately issued a threat to veto two of the bills if they received Senate approval and reached his desk. [See 2003, p. 245D2; 2001, p. 906E2; 1989, p. 264F2] One of the bills, approved by a vote of 333–93, would repeal a 2001 executive order by Bush that gave former presidents and vice presidents the right to decide which of their records could be released. (Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush, had been both vice president and president.) The House bill would restore control over the records to the national archivist. Another House bill, passed by a vote of 308–117, would require federal agencies to answer requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) within 20 days. It would create a tracking system for such requests that could be used by the public, and establish an ombudsman to act on complaints about agencies that did not respond to requests. The third bill, passed by a vote of 331– 94, extended legal protections to federal national security employees, scientists and contractors who reported fraud, waste or other abuses. In his statement threatening vetoes, Bush asserted that the presidential records bill would violate the president’s constitutional authority. He said that the whistleblower bill was also unconstitutional and could “compromise national security.” Bush warned that the FOIA bill would result in burdensome new costs, but did not say he would veto it. „

Financial Markets Subprime Mortgage Lending Woes Worsen.

A survey released March 13 by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed increasing numbers of mortgage delinquencies and March 22, 2007

foreclosures in the fourth quarter of 2006, especially among so-called subprime borrowers, or those with credit histories too poor to have qualified them for traditional home loans. Subprime mortgages were often adjustable-rate loans or interest-only loans at initially moderate interest rates that rose to unmanageable levels for many who held them. The survey release coincided with revelations of accounting, credit and revenue problems at a number of mortgage lenders. [See below; 2006, p. 1006F1] The survey data showed that mortgage delinquencies nationwide were almost 5% in the final three months of 2006, a fouryear high. New foreclosures during the same quarter reached 0.54%, a level not seen since the 37-year-old survey began. Subprime foreclosure rates were worst in Ohio (11%), Michigan (9.5%), Indiana (9.3%) and Iowa (8.9%). They were also high in Mississippi (7.3%) and Louisiana (6.6%), two states whose housing markets had been thrown into chaos by devastating hurricanes in 2005. The Dow Jones Industrial Average on the New York Stock Exchange and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index March 13 each fell by 2%, reportedly to a large extent on concerns about the mortgage market. Major European and Asian stock markets March 14 saw prices fall up to 2.9% in response.

cause of damage to its finances from its portfolio of U.S. subprime mortgages, it was reported March 6. † Fremont General Corp., a major mortgage lender, March 2 said it would stop issuing subprime loans and instead try to sell off its subprime loan business. † Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage financer, Feb. 27 had said it would stop purchasing subprime loans in order to prod lenders to shun them.

New Century Unable to Pay Creditors—

Federal prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Chicago March 20 delivered opening arguments in the fraud and racketeering trial of former media tycoon Conrad Black and three former executives at the Chicagobased newspaper publisher Hollinger International Inc., of which Black had been chairman and chief executive officer. [See 2006, p. 882B2] The four defendants had been charged in 2005 with defrauding Hollinger of nearly $84 million. Much of the amount was gained through noncompete payments arranged by the defendants with the buyers of Hollinger’s papers. The government maintained that those payments should have gone to Hollinger’s shareholders. Black, 62, was charged with 17 criminal counts of fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, racketeering and two tax crimes, and faced up to 40 years in prison. The other executives—former Chief Financial Officer John Boultbee, former Executive Vice President Peter Atkinson, and former Vice President and legal counsel Mark Kipnis—were each charged with several counts of fraud and tax evasion, and faced similarly lengthy prison terms if convicted. All had pleaded not guilty. Black’s lawyer, Edward Genson, March 19 said the buyers of Hollinger’s papers wanted noncompete agreements with the defendants personally, while prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer compared the men to bank robbers. Expected to testify against the four men was former Hollinger President F. David Radler, who in 2006 had pleaded guilty to one charge of fraud in the case. Radler March 16 agreed to pay $29 million to settle his portion of a civil suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against him and the four criminal de-

Irvine, Calif.–based mortgage lender New Century Financial Corp. March 12 said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it did not have enough money to pay its creditors. The creditors were major banks including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., all of which had halted new financing for the company. New Century was the nation’s second-largest subprime lender. The New York Stock Exchange that day halted trading in New Century shares, which had fallen 90% since the start of 2007. Under repurchase agreements with its creditors, New Century could be liable for up to $8.4 billion in mortgages it had issued that the banks which had bought them could not sell. New Century March 2 had disclosed that federal authorities including the SEC were investigating the company for improper stock trading and accounting errors. It had halted all new loans March 8. The company had reported Feb. 7 that it would have to restate earnings for the first three quarters of 2006. Among other lenders reporting difficulties with subprime loans: † Accredited Home Lenders March 19 said it had been threatened with delisting from the Nasdaq Stock Market after failing to file its annual financial report. † Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage lender, March 12 said foreclosures in February had reached 0.70%, a five-year high. † HSBC Holdings PLC, one of the world’s largest banks, had said it would abandon all its U.S. acquisition plans be-

Federal Regulators Urge Loan Caution—

A five-party team of federal regulators March 2 proposed that lenders should make subprime loan grants subject to borrowers’ ability to pay them off in full. The five agencies were the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, the Federal Reserve, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the National Credit Union Administration. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D, Conn.) March 14 said he would push for a solution to the deepening problem, while Democratic leaders in the House were working on legislation to limit subprime lending practices. „

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fendants. The SEC banned him from holding any office or acting as a director at any public company that reported to the commission. The government’s lead prosecutor in the case was Patrick Fitzgerald, who had recently won his perjury and obstruction case case against I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. [See p. 137A1] „ Charges Dropped Against H-P’s Dunn. A judge in Santa Clara (Calif.) County Superior Court March 14 dismissed felony charges brought by the state of California against former Hewlett Packard Co. (H-P) Chairwoman Patricia Dunn for her role in an internal H-P board investigation that involved spying on directors and journalists. The case had embarrassed H-P, and spurred passage of a federal law that made it a federal crime to impersonate someone in order to obtain that person’s telephone or other utility records. [See 2006, p. 953G3] The judge agreed to reduced to misdemeanors a singly felony charge against each of three other people involved in the investigation: former H-P attorney Kevin Hunsaker, and Ronald DeLia and Matthew DePante, both private investigators. The defendants were offered dismissal of the misdemeanor charges provided they performed 96 hours of community service each. Dunn was spared the requirement of community service because she was battling cancer. At H-P’s annual shareholder meeting March 14, investors voted to reelect all eight current board members, and defeated, by a three-fifths majority, a proposal to allow shareholders to nominate two members of the board. Shareholder nominating power was one instrument that federal regulators were considering to improve corporate governance overall in the U.S., but it was opposed by many business groups. „ Chrysler Announces Restructuring. The Detroit, Mich.–based Chrysler Group, owned by DaimlerChrysler AG of Germany, Feb. 14 announced a restructuring plan under which it would shed 13,000 North American jobs, or 16% of its workforce in the region, close its Newark, Del., assembly plant and reduce shifts at its plants in Warren, Mich., and St. Louis, Mo. The same day, it announced a 2006 net loss of $1.45 billion. In 2005, it had turned a $2 billion profit. The restructuring was designed to return the company to profitability by 2008. [See 2006, p. 892C2] DaimlerChrysler Chairman Dieter Zetsche Feb. 14 said the company was considering a range of options for Chrysler, including selling the entire group. Daimler Feb. 15 named Detroit based General Motors Corp. (GM) as a possible suitor, saying the two companies had held talks on a potential merger. The Wall Street Journal March 8 reported that according to GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner, a consolidation within the U.S. automobile industry soon was unlikely. However, the paper reported that Wagoner had not dispelled rumors of merger talks between his company and Chrysler. 176

DaimlerChrysler shareholders were expected to consider any serious offers for Chrysler at their annual meeting April 4. One of the potential bids was expected from a pair of private equity firms, Blackstone Group and Centerbridge Partners LP, and a Canadian auto parts supplier, Magna International Inc. Those companies had been in talks with Chrysler’s employee unions, which had vowed to fight the sale, in both the U.S. and Germany. Buyouts, Early Retirement Offered—

Chrysler Feb. 27 said it would gradually offer all U.S. hourly employees either $100,000 lump-sum buyouts or $70,000 lump-sum early retirement packages over the next two years, beginning in March. The buyouts also came with six months of health insurance coverage, while the retirement deals included any health care and pension benefits the worker was entitled to based on age and years of employment. The offers, made with the agreement of the United Auto Workers Union, were much like offers that GM and Ford Motor Co. had recently made to their employees, but were a bit less generous. Along with similar offers to Chrysler’s Canadian employees, they were aimed at shedding 11,000 hourly-wage jobs—9,000 of them in the U.S. and 2,000 of them in Canada. DaimlerChrysler the same day said it would form a limited partnership with China’s Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. to sell small Chery-built cars in North America and Western Europe under Chrysler brands. Chrysler Recalls Announced—Chrysler March 9 said it was recalling 328,424 Dodge Durango sport utility vehicles, 149,605 Jeep Liberty and 11,000 Dodge Avenger vehicles to correct a variety of mechanical and electrical problems. The problems had not resulted in any reported crashes or injuries, but the company had received a number of reports of related fires. Ford Sells Aston Martin Brand— Dearborn, Mich.–based Ford March 12 announced the pending sale of the luxury British sports car brand Aston Martin to a group of investors led by former British race car driver David Richards. The price was about $850 million, and Ford would retain a small stake in the brand. [See p. 64D3] In its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ford Feb. 28 had reported that its efforts to restructure would cost $11.2 billion. It revised its 2006 companywide loss to $12.6 billion, from the $12.7 billion previously reported. In response to complaints about earlier plans to pay top managers large bonuses even while it eliminated jobs, Ford March 8 said it would reward all its employees with “modest” bonuses instead. Toyota Picks Mississippi Plant Site—

Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. Feb. 27 said it would build a new $1.3 billion assembly plant in Blue Springs, Miss. The plant would be Toyota’s eighth in North America, and would employ some 2,000 workers.

While the Detroit-based automobilie industry had been cutting jobs and production in efforts to recover from declining sales and large operating losses, Toyota had positioned itself to take over the title of world’s largest auto maker from GM in 2007. Its production plants in the U.S. employed a mostly nonunionized workforce. [See 2006, p. 678D1] „

Economy Consumer Prices Rose 0.4% in February.

The Labor Department March 16 reported that its consumer Inflation (CPI) price index (CPI), February 2007 0.4% which tracked Previous Month 0.2% prices paid for 12-Month Increase 2.4% consumer goods by all urban consumers, climbed 0.4% in February, adjusted for seasonal variation. That was up from a 0.2% rise in the index in January. “Core” consumer prices, which excluded volatile food and energy prices, climbed 0.2% in February, after having risen 0.3% in January. [See p. 125C3] Unadjusted for seasonal variation, the CPI for all urban consumers stood at 203.5% of its 1982–84 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982–84 would have cost $203.50 in February. The index was up 2.4% from its February 2006 level. „

Agriculture Rulings Curb Genetically Modified Crops.

A judge in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Calif., March 12 issued an injunction halting the sale and planting of a genetically modified variety of alfalfa produced by Monsanto Co. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed against the Department of Agriculture (USDA) accusing it of approving the crop without carrying out required studies of its environmental impact. The judge in the case, Charles Breyer, had ruled Feb. 13 that the USDA had failed to do so. The March 12 injunction was preliminary, and Breyer was to decide by the end of April whether to make it permanent. [See 2006, p. 929E2] The Monsanto alfalfa variety was genetically modified to be resistant to the company’s Roundup weed killer. The lawsuit was brought by a group of environmental and other advocacy groups, as well as other sellers of alfalfa seeds. Court Orders Better Scrutiny—A judge in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in a ruling made public Feb. 6 criticized the USDA for insufficiently scrutinizing applications to sow plots with genetically modified crops for experimental purposes. The judge, Henry Kennedy Jr., said the department had failed to adequately review the potential environmental impact of an application to plant a modified grass strain in Oregon whose pollen had spread and crossed with conventional plants nearby. Rice Seed Sale Halted—The USDA March 5 ordered a halt to the sale and use of a certain long-grain rice seed after it was found to contain an unapproved genetic modification. The seed, Clearfield CL131, was a FACTS ON FILE

conventionally developed strain that had become contaminated with a genetically engineered trait not approved for commercial use. „

Supreme Court Bankruptcy Right Curbed in Fraud Case.

The high court Feb. 21 ruled, 5–4, against businessman Robert Marrama, who had tried to convert his bankruptcy case from Chapter 7 liquidation to Chapter 13, which would have allowed him to keep his property. Ordinarily, debtors could convert their cases from one chapter to another without difficulty. However, in his original bankruptcy papers, Marrama had concealed the value of some of his property, and wanted to switch chapters only after his bankruptcy trustee discovered the true value of the property and moved to transfer it to Marrama’s creditors. Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority, ruled that courts could refuse bankruptcy conversion rights for “fraudulent conduct.” He was joined by Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Steven G. Breyer. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in a dissent joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, said the debtor’s right was broader. The case was Marrama v. Citizens Bank of Massachusetts. Other News—In other court news: † The Supreme Court March 19 declined to review an appeal by savings and loan company Old Stone Corp. of Providence, R.I., asking the court to reinstate $118 million in damages against the government for breach of contract. The case, Old Stone Corp. v. United States, related to Old Stone’s 1980s takeover of failing thrift banks on false assurances from the government that it would not suffer financial harm. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2006 had reduced a $192.5 million award to Old Stone to just $74.5 million. [See 1988, p. 640F1] † The court March 5 turned down an appeal of the fraud and conspiracy convictions of Bernard Ebbers, the former chief executive officer of WorldCom Inc. Ebbers was currently serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison. The case was Ebbers, Bernard J. v. United States. [See 2006, p. 782C2] „

Medicare & Medicaid Rules Cut Citizens’ Medicaid Benefits.

Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens had been unable to receive Medicaid benefits due to new rules intended to prevent illegal immigrants from accessing health care through the program, the New York Times reported March 12. The regulation, part of the 2006 Deficit Reduction Act, required those seeking Medicaid benefits to provide “satisfactory documentary evidence of citizenship.” [See 2006, p. 577C1] Health care officials in several states had attributed a decline in the number of March 22, 2007

Medicaid enrollees to the new rule, which had taken effect in July 2006. Prior to the regulation’s implementation, individual states had set the guidelines through which those seeking Medicaid benefits established their citizenship. „

Medicine & Health Majority Supports Universal Health Care. A New York Times/CBS poll, published

March 2 in the Times, found that 64% of respondents said it was the government’s responsibility to guarantee health care to all Americans. Eighty-four percent of those responding to the poll said they supported the expansion of the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a jointly financed state and federal program that largely provided coverage to children whose families earned too much to qualify for Medicaid but could not afford to purchase private health insurance. The poll of 1,281 adults had been conducted Feb. 23– 27. [See pp. 126B3, 32D1] The poll also indicated that health insurance had emerged as the most important domestic issue among respondents. Fiftyfive percent of respondents said it was the most important policy issue that the president and Congress should be addressing, eclipsing reducing taxes (11%), immigration issues (19%) and traditional values (13%) Participants had also indicated a greater willingness to shoulder increased tax burdens or postpone tax cuts in order to provide health care for all. Democrats Back Expanded CHIP Funds—

Rep. John Dingell (D, Mich.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.) March 13 introduced into the House and Senate a bill that would expand CHIP federal funding by a minimum of $50 billion over the next five years. The program had been given $5 billion in federal funds for the current fiscal year, and President George W. Bush in his fiscal 2007 budget had proposed funding the program at $4.8 billion. However, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Feb. 23 had estimated that the program would require an additional $13 billion to $15 billion over five years to maintain the current level of services. Sen. Max Baucus (D, Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, March 6 said he and Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the ranking Republican on the committee, were working to address a CHIP funding shortfall faced by 14 states for the current fiscal year. Although the funding was expected to be approved, it remained unclear where the money would come from and how long approval would take. Congressional members of both parties had expressed support for the program, which provided benefits to roughly six million children and some 639,000 adults. However, Democrats had largely called for expanding the program, while Republicans said they wanted to limit benefits to those most in need. „ Hospitals Propose Universal Health Plan.

The Federation for American Hospitals, a hospital lobbying organization, Feb. 21 re-

leased on its Web site a plan to provide health care coverage to the estimated 47 million uninsured Americans. The plan would automatically enroll those who qualified for Medicaid and the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) based on data gathered by the government, such as tax information. Government subsidies would be provided to workers who could not afford to purchase health care through an employer plan or who purchased coverage on their own. [See p. 32D1] The plan would cost federal and state governments an additional $115.2 billion each year, the federation estimated, on top of the $900 billion currently spent on health care. However, the plan did not specify where the additional required funding would come from. Charles Kahn 4th, president of the Federation of American Hospitals, said the plan was intended to spur debate among legislators regarding health care. (Hospitals often shouldered the health care costs incurred by patients who did not have health insurance and could not otherwise pay their bills.) „

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Illinois Governor Proposes Universal Care.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) March 4 released a plan to provide health care to the state’s estimated 1.4 million uninsured residents. Blagojevich said the new program, called “Illinois Covered,” would cost the state $2.1 billion each year by 2010. It would provide coverage to 500,000 residents by extending Medicaid coverage to childless adults, and provide health care subsidies to as many as one million people lacking insurance. The plan also required health care insurance providers to offer a broad, low-cost policy to all those without health insurance. [See p. 32D1; 2005, p. 958C2] Blagojevich during his State of the State address March 7 announced a series of new corporate taxes estimated to generate $7 billion that would be used in part to fund Illinois Covered. „ FDA Issues Guidelines for Produce. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) March 12 issued voluntary draft guidelines designed to reduce the risk of food-borne illness in the country’s fresh-cut produce. The FDA guidelines recommended greater oversight of food plant operations, and better documentation of produce processing and distribution, to aid tracing efforts in the event of an outbreak. The guidelines also included instruction on sanitation practices at processing plants. Fresh-cut produce was at greater risk of bacterial contamination because of its processing, according to the FDA. [See 2006, p. 956C3] Outbreaks of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and salmonella bacterial attributed to fresh produce had sickened several hundred people in 2006. The FDA had catalogued 72 bacterial outbreaks originating with freshcut produce in the past 10 years. „ FDA Sets Sleeping Aid Drug Warnings. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

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to create patient fliers explaining their safe use. The new information would warn users about potential allergic reactions to the medications, as well as the risks posed by taking them with alcohol or other substances that suppressed the nervous system. [See 2006, p. 390D1] Researchers had documented rare cases of “complex sleep-related behaviors” associated with patients taking the sleeping aids, including instances in which they had eaten or driven cars while asleep. The warnings would be included on the class of drugs known as sedative-hypnotics, the most popular of which were sold under the brand names Ambien and Lunesta. „

Postal Service Rate Increase, ‘Forever’ Stamp Approved.

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The U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors March 19 approved a postage-rate increase that would take effect May 14. The most recent rate hike had come in January 2006. The cost of first-class stamps would rise to 41 cents, from 39 cents, for letters up to one ounce. The cost of each extra ounce would drop to 17 cents, from 24 cents. The Postal Regulatory Commission had recommended the changes Feb. 26. [See 2005, p. 959F3] The Postal Service would also introduce a so-called forever stamp, which would cost 41 cents but would not have a price printed on it and would not have to be supplemented even if the price of postage went up. „

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New York City House Fire Kills 10. A fire March 8 raced through a three-story house in New York City’s Bronx borough, killing eight children and an adult. The victims were all members of two extended families of immigrants from Mali, the Soumares and the Magassas. A representative of the Soumare family March 10 said a ninth child had died from complications due to smoke inhalation. The blaze was the city’s deadliest since a 1990 arson fire at the Happy Land social club, also in the Bronx, that killed 87 people. [See 1992, p. 354C1] The house was owned by Moussa Magassa, who lost five children in the fire. It possessed only one staircase and no fire escapes or sprinklers, but reportedly did not violate building-code regulations for twofamily houses. Smoke detectors in the house reportedly were missing their batteries. Fire department investigators said the fire had most likely been caused by a malfunctioning space heater or overloaded power strip. Immigration officials March 14 cleared Mamadou Soumare, who lost his wife and four children in the fire, to travel to Mali with the bodies of his family members for burial. There had been concerns that Soumare would not be able to gain reentry into the U.S. due to past immigration violations, but Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) and other local legislators had intervened on his behalf. „ 178

AFRICA

Democratic Republic of the Congo Top Atomic Energy Official Arrested. For-

tunat Lumu, the head of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s atomic energy commission, and an aide March 6 were arrested in connection with allegations that they had illegally sold enriched uranium. The arrests came after large amounts of the material were found to be missing from a nuclear reactor plant in Kinshasa, the capital. [See p. 2003, p. 570A1 ] Tshimanga Mukeba, Congo’s state prosecutor, March 8 said the two men were accused of “orchestrating illicit contracts to produce and sell uranium,” though he did not specify the buyers or the amount allegedly sold. Security at the plant was described as lax, and it was said to be falling into disrepair, prompting concern from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear monitor. News reports in recent years had suggested that both Iran and the regime of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had attempted to obtain uranium from the facility. [See p. 165F3] Most of Congo’s uranium was mined in the southern province of Katanga, which had been the source for the uranium used in the atomic bombs that the U.S. dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. The U.S. in return helped found the Kinshasa facility in 1958. Scientific Research Minister Sylvanus Mushi March 12 said the two men had been released from custody two days earlier. „ Party Splits Over ‘Phantom Minister.’ Honorius Kisimba Ngoy, leader of the Union Nationale de Federalistes en Congo (UNAFEC) party, March 3 was fired after allegedly submitting the name of a fake candidate for the position of trade minister. (UNAFEC, based in the southern province of Katanga, was allied with President Joseph Kabila.) Kisimba submitted the fake name, Andre Kasongo Ilunga, as well as his own to Premier Antoine Gizenga, apparently hoping to improve his chances of being selected. However, Gizenga, in selecting his cabinet Feb. 5, surprisingly chose Ilunga. [See p. 82A2] After Ilunga failed to show up for his job, the local press began probing the situation. Kisimba reportedly claimed that Ilunga had resigned from the party and the trade ministry post, but Gizenga called for him to resign in person. Kisimba continued to maintain that Ilunga existed, but to date he had failed to appear in public. Some UNAFEC members March 3 voted to remove Kisimba—who had previously served as a spokesman for former President Mobutu Sese Seko—from his position as party leader. Other members continued to support Kisimba, and the party reportedly split over the issue. Gizenga reportedly had opened an investigation into the matter, and said that Ilunga would remain trade minister until he resigned in person. „

Ethiopia Europeans Kidnapped in Far North.

Five Europeans associated with Britain’s embassy in Ethiopia, along with eight Ethiopians, March 1 were kidnapped while sightseeing in the remote, sparsely populated Araf region in Ethiopia’s far north, on the Eritrean border. The five Europeans were released March 13 in Eritrea. [See 2006, p. 1014C3; 1977, p. 998A2] According to witnesses, the group was kidnapped at gunpoint in the town of Hamedela, about 15 miles (25 km) from the Eritrean border, by unidentified militants. British investigators and special forces troops March 4–5 arrived at the site, where they found the group’s abandoned vehicles. It was widely believed that separatist militants in the Afar region, which spanned northern Ethiopia as well as parts of Eritrea and Djibouti, were responsible. [See below] The top government official in the Afar region, Ismail Ali Sero, March 3 alleged that Eritrea, Ethiopia’s longtime enemy, was responsible. Eritrea March 4 denied that charge. The first indications that the hostages were safe came March 9, when a local militia leader said they were “safe and secure” and being held in a village in Eritrea. After days of intense negotiations between British diplomats and Ethiopian and Eritrean officials, the five European captives—four British citizens and a French citizen—March 13 were released in Eritrea. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said they had been freed “with the help of the Eritrean government,” and that they were in good health. She also thanked Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi and Eritrean President Issaias Afwerki for their assistance in the negotiations. The hostages, two women and three men, arrived at the British embassy in Asmara, Eritrea’s capital, later March 13. Tekeda Alemu, Ethiopia’s minister of state for foreign affairs, March 19 appealed to Western diplomats for help in securing the release of the eight Ethiopians still being held hostage. The Ethiopians had been acting as guides, drivers and cooks for the touring party. He also criticized the media for turning its attention away from the story after the Europeans had been freed. Afar Rebels Claim Responsibility—The rebel Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF), which had been fighting for greater autonomy for the Afar region for more than 10 years, had claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, Eritrean state television reported March 20. The group said it had kidnapped the Europeans to dispel claims by the Ethiopian government that it was no longer active. „

Zimbabwe Crackdown on Opposition Intensifies. The

Zimbabwean government March 17–22 stepped up its crackdown on opposition activists, including preventing them from leaving the country. The crackdown had FACTS ON FILE

begun March 11 when police arrested and beat opposition members who were attempting to hold a rally in Harare, the capital. [See p. 162D2] The crackdown, along with images of the battered opposition activists during court appearances and in the hospital, had drawn strong condemnation of the government of President Robert Mugabe from the West, but more muted criticism from other African nations. It also served to energize the previously weak and fractured opposition. In addition, support for Mugabe within the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party was said to be eroding. [See below] The government March 17 stopped two opposition activists at Harare International Airport as they sought to travel to neighboring South Africa for medical treatment. The activists, Grace Kwinje and Sekai Holland, had been seriously wounded in the March 11 protest. They were reportedly brought back to Harare’s Avenues clinic, where they were placed under armed guard. Also, Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was arrested at the airport March 17 as he tried to leave for South Africa. The next day, a gang of attackers beat and seriously injured Nelson Chamisa, an MDC spokesman, as he tried to leave the country for a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, with European Union officials. An opposition official said Chamisa had been beaten with iron bars and suffered a fractured skull and a crushed eye socket. The official alleged that the Central Intelligence Organization, the country’s main intelligence agency, was responsible. A police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena, March 19 said the opposition activists would not be allowed to leave Zimbabwe until they appeared in court to face charges related to the March 11 rally. However, a high court judge March 22 ruled that Holland and Kwinje could travel to South Africa for medical treatment, and the two women left the country later that day. In another indication that the government was stepping up its crackdown, a local civic group in the capital, the Combined Harare Residents Association, March 19 said its members had been beaten and arrested in recent days. Separately, opposition lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said she had been warned that human rights lawyers would be targeted. Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the MDC’s main faction, March 16 had left a hospital in Harare where he had been treated for injuries sustained during the March 11 rally. Tsvangirai March 18 told the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) that “things are bad, but I think this crisis has reached a tipping point, and we could be seeing the beginning of the end of this dictatorship.” Analysts said the population of Zimbabwe was becoming increasingly angry with with Mugabe’s authoritarian regime as the economic situation continued to worsen. Inflation topped 1,700%, the highest in the world, and unemployment was estimated at 80%. An estimated three million people, March 22, 2007

out of a population of 12 million, had fled the country. Government

Threatens

Diplomats—

Zimbabwe’s foreign minister, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, March 19 told a group of foreign diplomats that they would be expelled from the country if they lent support to the opposition. Some Western embassy officials had reportedly offered food and water to jailed opposition members the previous week. Mumbengegwi said such aid was a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Dell, a longtime critic of Mugabe, reportedly walked out of the meeting. [See 2006, p. 414D3] Also that day, the U.S. State Department released a statement saying, “President Mugabe clearly fears a free and open political debate in his country and is therefore willing to use violence to suppress all those who oppose him.” Dell March 20 said opposition to Mugabe’s regime was increasing, and that “people…are losing their fear. They believe they have nothing to lose.” He also said some members of the military and security forces were beginning to turn against Mugabe. Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu March 22 called on African nations to support Mugabe. “African countries must not allow themselves to be divided by imperialism,” he said. A common tactic of Mugabe, who had led Zimbabwe to independence from Britain in 1980, and his supporters was to respond to Western criticism with allegations of imperialism. Mugabe’s history as an independence leader had made other African nations, especially South Africa, reluctant to speak out against him. However, some African nations recently had been voicing stronger criticisms of the Zimbabwean regime. The African Union (AU) March 17 expressed “great concern” about recent developments in Zimbabwe. A South African government spokesman March 20 said, “The beating and violence against any citizens of Zimbabwe is obviously unacceptable to us as a government.” Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa March 21 compared Zimbabwe to a “sinking Titanic.” British Prime Minister Tony Blair March 21 said Britain would pressure the EU to “widen the political sanctions that were introduced in 2002” against Zimbabwe. Those sanctions included a freeze on government assets and a travel ban. „

AMERICAS

4.6% over the 2006–07 fiscal year. The plan was characterized by larger transfers of federal funds to provinces, a wide range of tax relief measures aimed at the middle class and increased spending on environmental programs. [See 2006, pp. 1016C2, 346B3] Flaherty’s budget dedicated C$39.4 billion over seven years to address the socalled fiscal imbalance between the federal government and the governments of provinces and territories. Quebec was set to receive roughly C$698 million of C$1.5 billion in new fiscal imbalance funds set for the 2007–08 fiscal year, which some observers took as a sign that the Conservative Party was courting votes in the province, which was scheduled to hold provincial elections March 26. Tax relief measures included in the budget totaled C$2.4 billion, among them a credit of up to C$310 for each child under 18 and a tax credit for low-income families capped at C$500 for individuals and C$1,000 for families. The budget also called for the corporate tax rate to be reduced to 18.5%, from 21%, by 2011. However, the budget failed to eliminate the capital gains tax on profits that were reinvested, which Harper had promised to do during the election campaign. Also included in the budget was C$4.5 billion in additional funding for environmental programs. The budget called for up to C$2,000 worth of rebates and incentives for those purchasing a fuel-efficient “hybrid” vehicle, and the imposition of a tax of up to C$4,000 on vehicles with poor fuel economy. Reaction—Stephane Dion, leader of the Liberal Party, and Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), March 19 said they would not support the budget. Dion called the plan a “bad budget,” and said it contained insufficient spending on health care, child care and education. He said that increases in those areas were merely replacing funds that had been previously slashed by the Conservatives. However, Gilles Duceppe, leader of the third opposition party Bloc Quebecois, March 20 said he was likely to support the plan. Because Harper led a minority government, he needed the support of at least one opposition party to pass his budget. Failure to do so would automatically trigger federal elections. Several financial analysts raised concerns that the increased spending outlined in the budget would force the country’s central bank, the Bank of Canada, to raise interest rates in order to contain inflation. „

Canada

Colombia

Conservatives Release Federal Budget.

Chiquita Executives’ Extraditions Sought.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty March 19 presented the second federal budget of the minority Conservative Party government led by Prime Minster Stephen Harper. The budget projected spending for the 2007–08 fiscal year at C$233.4 billion (US$198 billion), with an estimated surplus of C$3.3 billion. The budget increased spending by

Mario Iguaran, Colombia’s chief federal prosecutor, March 20 said he would seek the extradition of eight executives from U.S.-based banana producer Chiquita Brands International on charges that they had made illegal payments to right-wing paramilitary groups and leftist guerrillas. Iguaran did not release the names of the ex179

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ecutives. [See 2006, p. 981C3; 1998, p. 525D2] Chiquita had claimed that payments to the right-wing paramilitary group the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) were made to ensure the safety of its employees in the country, a claim rebutted by Iguaran. Colombian prosecutors were also investigating claims that Chiquita’s Colombian subsidiary, Banadex, had facilitated the smuggling of weapons in November 2001, Iguaran said. Chiquita March 19 had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to one count of doing business with a terrorist organization and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Prosecutors with the U.S. Justice Department alleged that Chiquita between 1997 and 2004 had paid roughly $1.7 million to the AUC. The group had been linked to drug trafficking practices and human rights abuses in the country. Prosecutors also alleged that the company had made payments to leftist guerrilla groups the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Both the AUC and FARC were considered terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. „ Bomb Kills Four Police Officers. Four police officers and one civilian March 3 were killed when police attempted to move a roadside bomb in Neiva, the capital of the southern state of Huila. The device had been discovered in a water meter by police, who were transporting it in a vehicle through downtown Neiva when it exploded. Four officers in the vehicle and a woman in her nearby home died in the blast. [See p. 111G2] Police said they believed that the bomb had been planted by leftist guerrillas with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in an attempt to kill Neiva’s pro-government mayor, Cielo Gonzalez. A separate Neiva bombing, also thought to be an attempt on Gonzalez’s life, March 1 injured eight people. „ FARC Leader Rojas Convicted in U.S. A jury in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Feb. 20 convicted former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla leader Nayibe (Omaira) Rojas Valderama on drug trafficking charges. Rojas became the highest-ranking FARC member to be convicted by a U.S. federal court of drug-running. Prosecutors alleged that Rojas had facilitated the smuggling of more than 220 tons (200 metric tons) of cocaine to Europe and the U.S., netting millions of dollars for the Marxist FARC. [See 2006, p. 1017A2; 2005, p. 974E2] Rojas, 39, had risen from a peasant background to become FARC’s financial chief. Also known by her nom de guerre “Sonia” and as Omaira Rojas Cabrera, Rojas had been captured in southern Colombia in 2004 and extradited to the U.S. in 2005 to face the charges. Two other men were also convicted on similar charges by the jury, but they had not been linked to FARC activities. Rojas faced a minimum sentence of 10 years. „ 180

Ecuador Court Ousts Opposition Congressmen. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE)

March 7 voted, 4–3, to dismiss 57 members of the 100-seat National Congress opposed to plans to rewrite the country’s constitution, thereby halting legislative activity in the country. It remained unclear if the TSE held the power to dismiss the lawmakers. The ouster had resulted from a dispute between the opposition-dominated legislature and leftist President Rafael Correa, who had pledged to reform government to curtail the power of traditional political parties. [See p. 99E1] Congress in February had approved plans to hold a public referendum on a constitutional rewrite plan devised by Correa. However, the legislature-approved version of the plan did not grant the constituent assembly charged with rewriting the constitution the power to dissolve Congress, as Correa’s would. The TSE March 1 backed Correa’s version of the plan. Opposition legislators March 6 responded with a failed attempt to replace the TSE president, Jorge Acosta, and the court countered March 7 by dismissing the 57 legislators who had voted to oust Acosta. A higher court, the Constitutional Tribunal, March 16 backed the TSE, rejecting an injunction sought by the expelled lawmakers to halt their dismissal. Correa March 8 dispatched police forces to the National Congress building in Quito, the capital, to bar entry to the dismissed lawmakers. A group of roughly 20 sacked legislators March 13 clashed with police and demonstrators while attempting to gain access to the Congress building. Twenty-one alternate lawmakers, elected as potential stand-ins at the same time as the rest of the body, March 20 were secretly brought into Congress and sworn in. The additional lawmakers, who were allied with three major opposition parties, allowed Congress to convene a quorum, which required a minimum of 51 people. However, many measures required a twothirds majority, or 67 votes, to pass. „

Guatemala Four Arrested for Murder of Salvadorans.

Interior Minister Carlos Vielman March 20 said four people had been arrested on suspicion of murdering three Salvadoran politicians and their driver in February. The bullet-ridden and burned bodies of those killed had been found near a rural road outside Guatemala City, the capital. [See p. 129A3] Officials gave conflicting reports on the motives behind the killings, deepening the mystery surrounding the deaths. Four national police officers arrested in February in connection with the killings had themselves been murdered in their prison cells under unclear circumstances. One account claimed that the officers had been killed by a group of armed men who had navigated through several normally locked

doors. A conflicting version of events said the officers had been killed by fellow prisoners during a riot. The deaths had raised suspicions of corruption within the government’s law enforcement agencies. Two other police officers had been linked to the slayings, with one in custody and the other being sought. Vielman said the suspects arrested March 20 had been ordered by their drugtrafficker employers to search the Salvadorans’ vehicle for drugs. He said three of the suspects had operated a gas station 60 miles (100 km) southeast of Guatemala City used as a front for a cocaine-smuggling operation. However, Alvaro Matus, the prosecutor leading the investigation of the deaths, said it appeared that the attack against the Salvadorans had been a mistake. Matus said the suspects had been tied to a gang, but not to drug traffickers. President Oscar Berger Perdomo March 6 ordered the National Civil Police to eliminate corrupt officers from its ranks and improve training. Vielman and two other senior security officials March 7 submitted letters of resignation to Berger, who said he would examine the documents but had not accepted the resignations. The other two officials were Erwin Sperisen, chief of the national police, and Victor Rosales, head of the prison system. „

Haiti U.N. Forces Seize Control of Capital Slum.

Authorities with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) Feb. 28 said its 9,000-member police force had completely seized control of the Cite Soleil slum of Port-au-Prince, the capital, for the first time. U.N. forces in December 2006 had been granted wider authority by President Rene Preval to battle criminal slum gangs responsible for robberies, murders and kidnappings, which had become common in Port-auPrince. [See p. 99C2] A U.N. police spokesman March 13 said the Haitian gang leader Evens (Tikouto) Jeunes had been arrested during a raid on the southern city of Les Cayes. Jeunes was a notorious leader of a gang based in Cite Soleil. Eleven other suspects were also captured during the March 13 raid, officials said. „ Shipwreck Leaves Dozens Dead, Missing.

The U.S. Coast Guard March 2 ended a search for nearly 50 missing Haitian migrants who had been aboard a homemade vessel that caught fire and sank in the Atlantic Ocean roughly 20 miles (32 km) off the coast of the Dominican Republic. An estimated 56 passengers had reportedly embarked from the Haitian town of CapHaitien and were attempting to reach the Turks and Caicos Islands. It was not known when the boat caught fire. Two survivors Feb. 27 were found by an American couple aboard a sailboat. Five bodies March 1 were found by a merchant marine ship. [See 2006, p. 1022E1] „ FACTS ON FILE

A S I A - PA C I F I C

Australia Incandescent Bulb Phase-Out Announced.

Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull Feb. 20 announced that Australia would phase out the use of traditional incandescent light bulbs by 2009 or 2010, in favor of more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. The government plan would institute minimum energy performance standards for light bulbs, which would eventually make it impossible to buy incandescent bulbs. Turnbull said the switch could reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to four million tons per year, 0.7% of the 2004 total of 565 million tons. Fluorescent bulbs were more expensive than incandescents but used a fraction of the energy, and advocates said they would be more economical to operate in the long run. [See p. 126G2; 2006, p. 1020D2] Australia, which had among the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in the world, would be the first country to eliminate incandescent bulbs. The plan drew widespread political support, and analysts noted that Prime Minister John Howard’s center-right Liberal Party faced voters increasingly concerned about global warming in upcoming general elections. However, environmentalists warned that the majority of Australia’s emissions came from industry, such as coal power plants. „

China Parliament Approves Property Law. Chi-

na’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, March 5–16 held its annual session in Beijing, the capital, where it gave formal approval to decisions already taken by the ruling Communist Party. Prominent on the session’s legislative agenda were measures relating to China’s private sector, including a long-planned law codifying private property rights. Another new law subjected foreign and domestic corporations to equal income taxes, ending preferential treatment that had been extended to foreign companies. [See 2006, pp. 194G2, 195B1] The property law officially ratified China’s transformation into a predominantly market economy, albeit a communist-ruled one. However, Premier Wen Jiabao in his opening address to the session March 5 reiterated the leadership’s stated goal of moderating the country’s exceedingly rapid economic growth, and mitigating attendant social ills. He focused particularly on environmental degradation and growing inequality between China’s prosperous urban areas and the poorer rural population. Wen urged the country to “bring pollution under control” and reduce energy consumption. He noted that China had failed to meet previously set goals in those areas, which he blamed in part on local governments that were not following national environmental regulations. The premier laid out new measures to aid the rural poor, building on his campaign, unveiled in the previous year’s congress, of building a “new socialist countryMarch 22, 2007

side.” The new measures included the elimination of schooling fees for rural students, a new welfare program to aid poor households in meeting basic expenses and a new rural health care system. Wen said that China had set a target for growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007 at 8%. However, such annual targets had been routinely outstripped in recent years; in 2006, GDP, also targeted for an 8% rise, had grown by 10.7%. Property Law Passed After Delay—The National People’s Congress March 16 approved the new property law, which for the first time gave private property the same enforceable legal recognition as state property. (China had enshrined property rights in its largely symbolic constitution in 2004.) [See 2004, p. 216B1] The measure had originally been slated for passage in the 2006 parliament, but had been postponed amid reported opposition to it from some party officials who said it would fundamentally violate China’s nominally socialist system. Opponents also contended that the law would entrench economic inequality, and that many of the private holdings it would give new protection to were in fact state property gained illicitly through official corruption. The government, however, in preparing to shepherd the law through the current session, had reportedly sought to stifle debate over it by limiting the circulation of the draft, and by restricting news reporting on it. Despite being widely considered a landmark development, it was not mentioned in Wen’s opening speech. The law’s backers said it was needed to give a clear legal framework for the buying and selling of private property, which was already common. The property law would primarily benefit the country’s urban middle class, protecting their homes and businesses from being seized by the state for development projects. However, as all land itself remained state property, it would not substantially affect peasant farmers, who would continue to have no ability to buy or sell land. The congress March 16 also passed the new corporate tax law. Finance Minster Jin Renqing at the measure’s introduction March 8 had said that eliminating the discrepancy between foreign and domestic firms would aid in “the establishment of a unified market with standard and fair competition.” Military Budget Increase Announced—

A spokesman for the National People’s Congress March 4, on the eve of the session’s opening, announced details of China’s 2007 defense spending, which along with the rest of the national budget was due to be approved by the parliament. The budget called for an increase in military spending of 17.8%, to 350.9 billion yuan ($44.94 billion), although foreign experts estimated that China’s actual defense spending was much higher than the amount officially announced every year; the U.S. Defense Department had estimated it to be as much as three times as high. [See 2006, p. 457E3] U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who was in Beijing at the time,

March 4 said at a news conference that the U.S. wanted China to be more forthcoming about the “plans and intentions” behind its increasing military spending. The congress spokesman, Jiang Enzhu, called the increase “modest” and “in step with China’s economic development.” He said China’s military spending remained a small fraction of the U.S.’s. (The U.S.’s proposed military budget for fiscal 2008 was some $625 billion.) He said the increased funding would go toward better pay and living conditions for soldiers, as well as increased benefits for retired troops, and modernizing military technology. In the premier’s customary news conference on the closing day of the parliament, Wen March 16 was faced with questions about China’s military as well as economic expansion. He said that his highest priorities had to do with addressing China’s internal stability rather than its global influence. Wen was also asked about China’s recent testing of an antisatellite missile. He reiterated China’s stated position that it was not intended to threaten any particular country, and that China continued to call for the “peaceful utilization of outer space” and a treaty banning weapons in space. [See p. 26B2] Wen, asked about the prospects for China becoming a democracy, answered by maintaining that China was a “socialist democracy” still in the early stages of development. The premier had expanded on a similar theme in an article disseminated in state media Feb. 27, saying that China needed to focus on economic development, and would “follow its own path” in achieving democracy “under socialist conditions.” „

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New Investments Set for Foreign Reserves.

Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing March 9 announced that China would establish a new state investment company that would manage part of the more than $1 trillion in foreign currency reserves that it held. The Chinese government had amassed large foreign reserves, currently growing by about $20 billion a month, primarily through its trade surpluses. As part of China’s policy of keeping the value of its currency, the yuan, from appreciating against the dollar, the central bank, the People’s Bank of China, currently bought and held most of the dollars entering the country. The central bank currently kept most of the reserves in the form of secure but lowyielding U.S. government bonds and other U.S.-dollar assets. Jin said some reserves would continue to be managed much as they were already, while an unspecified portion would be invested with an eye toward greater profit. China’s vast foreign reserve holdings had given it a central role in international financial markets. Its purchases of U.S. bonds had helped keep U.S. interest rates low, aiding the U.S. in financing its budget deficits. Premier Wen Jiabao March 16 called China’s U.S.-dollar investments “mutually benficial” and said its plans would not harm the U.S. economy. „ 181

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sury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. March 7– 8 visited Beijing and Shanghai, two of China’s largest cities, where he urged Chinese leaders to accelerate the liberalization of its economy and financial markets. It was Paulson’s third visit to China since becoming Treasury secretary in July 2006. In an address at the Shanghai Futures Exchange March 8, Paulson detailed a series of proposals that he suggested would remedy the Chinese economy’s “increasingly unbalanced” development. [See 2006, p. 981G3] Paulson emphasized the benefits to China of further economic reform, rather than the U.S. complaints about China’s trade practices and surplus that regularly dominated bilateral discussions. Paulson March 7 had met with Vice Premier Wu Yi, his counterpart in a “strategic economic dialogue” between the countries established since he assumed his post. „

Thailand Government Seizes Independent TV Station.

The military-installed government March 6 took control of Thailand’s sole independent television station, iTV PCL, after the station Feb. 27 had said it would be unable to pay a fine of 97.8 billion Thai baht (US$2.9 billion). The station in January 2006 had been acquired as part of a takeover of its parent company, Shin Corp., by Singapore’s state-run investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. Shin had been owned by former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s family. The government takeover prompted renewed concerns about foreign investment prospects in Thailand, and was seen by critics as an attack on Thaksin. [See p. 19G2; 2006, p. 1024E2] Army chief Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, leader of the military-installed government, Feb. 16 had indicated that he wanted to reverse the purchase of Shin by Temasek, saying it was his duty to “salvage the country and its assets.” He had expressed concerns that Shin owned Thailand’s sole telecommunications satellites, and had accused Singapore of using them to spy on the Thai army. Singapore’s foreign minister, George Yeo, Feb. 26 said his nation would not oppose the sale of Temasek’s Shin stake. Relations between Thailand and Singapore had steadily declined since Thailand’s September 2006 coup, which had ousted Thaksin. Thailand Jan. 16 had withdrawn an invitation for Yeo to visit after Thaksin met with Singapore’s deputy premier, Shunmugam Jayakumar. „ Abbott Pulls Drugs in Patent Row. U.S. pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories Inc. in a letter to the Thai food and drug administration had announced that it would not release any new drugs in Thailand, it was reported March 13. The announcement came after the Thai government Jan. 25 had said it would issue compulsory licenses, allowed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in emergency situations, for two drugs allowing patients to purchase cheaper generic equivalents. Abbott demanded that the government reverse its de182

cision before it would begin marketing new drugs in Thailand. [See 2006, p. 937A1] The drugs affected by the government’s January decision were Abbott’s AIDS medication Kaletra, and Plavix, an anti–blood clotting drug developed by France’s Sanofi-Aventis SA and co-marketed in several countries by U.S.-based BristolMyers Squibb Co. Abbott subsequently withdrew applications to sell seven drugs, including a heat-stable version of Kaletra; it said that a previous version, which was equally effective but less convenient to take, would remain on the Thai market. Advocates for expanded access to medication said the government’s move would save the lives of many poor Thais who would otherwise not be able to afford needed drugs, and criticized Abbott’s response as heartless. However, Abbott contended that the Thai government had forced its hand, and by ignoring its patents was not supporting medical innovation. „

Asia-Pacific News in Brief Japan: Internet Entrepreneur Sentenced.

Takafumi Horie, founder and former chief executive of Japanese Internet company Livedoor Co., March 16 was convicted of violations of securities laws, and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Horie’s sentence was unusually harsh for a whitecollar crime case in Japan. He was accused of conspiring with other Livedoor executives to manipulate the company’s profits. Horie, 34, proclaimed his innocence, contending that he was being targeted for challenging Japan’s conservative business culture, which he called “a club of old men.” The judge in the case, while noting that the amount of the fraud “was not great,” cited Horie’s lack of “remorse.” [See 2006, p. 827C1] „ South Korea: U.S. to Cede War Command.

The U.S. and South Korea Feb. 23 reached an agreement under which South Korea would take over wartime command of its armed forces from the U.S., beginning in 2012. The U.S. had sought to make the handover in 2009, but South Korean leaders, concerned about the country’s readiness to protect itself from North Korea, had pressed for a later date. The U.S. had maintained control over South Korean forces since the 1950–53 Korean War until 1994, when South Korea assumed peacetime command. The U.S. was also reducing the number of troops it had stationed in South Korea. The number had fallen to about 29,000, from 40,000 in 2001, and was scheduled to be reduced to 25,000 in 2008. [See 2006, p. 669A3] „ Taiwan: VP Lu Sets Presidential Bid.

Taiwanese Vice President Annette Lu March 6 announced that she was seeking to become the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate for the 2008 presidential election. There were already three other DPP candidates: Premier Su Tsengchang, former Premier Frank Hsieh and party Chairman Yu Shyi-kun. Lu was known as an outspoken advocate for Taiwanese independence, a stance that had

drawn sharp condemnation from China. She said in her announcement speech that she sought to make Taiwan a “normal nation” separate from China. [See p. 112D1; 2005, p. 157A2] „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Finland Conservatives Gain in Legislative Elections.

Voters in Finland March 18 went to the polls for parliamentary elections that saw Premier Matti Vanhanen’s Center Party narrowly win the most seats, while the opposition center-right National Coalition Party (NCP) came in second. Vanhanen was expected to form a new coalition government. The NCP said it had earned the right to be included in the new government. [See 2003, p. 500F2] The Center Party won 23.1% of the vote and 51 seats in the 200-member parliament, for a net loss of four seats. The NCP won 22.3% of the vote and 50 seats, for a net gain of 10 seats. The center-left Social Democratic Party, the partner of the Center Party in the existing government, suffered a major setback. It won 21.4% of the vote and 45 seats, for an overall loss of eight seats. Voter turnout registered at 67.8%, the lowest turnout for a general election in Finland in the post–World War II period. „

France Chirac Endorses Sarkozy as Successor.

French President Jacques Chirac March 21 endorsed Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy in the upcoming presidential election. However, observers said Chirac’s brief and matter-of-fact televised statement, without Sarkozy, hinted that tensions remained between the two men. They had once been close, but had feuded since Sarkozy endorsed Chirac’s rival, Edouard Balladur, in the 1995 presidential election. [See p. 164C3] Sarkozy, 52, was the presidential nominee of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), a center-right party founded by Chirac in 2002. Chirac, 74, had announced the previous week that he would not seek reelection, without endorsing Sarkozy. In his March 21 statement, Chirac said the UMP “chose to support the candidacy of Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential election because of his qualities. So it is very natural that I will bring him my vote and my support.” Chirac said Sarkozy would step down as interior minister March 26 in order to campaign full-time before the first round of the election on April 22. Francois Baroin, the minister for French overseas territories, was tapped to replace him. In response to Chirac’s endorsement, Sarkozy said, “I am very touched by this decision. It is important for me politically and also personally.” Sarkozy led the presidential race in most opinion polls, trailed by Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party and Francois Bayrou of the centrist Union for French Democracy FACTS ON FILE

(UDF). However, Bayrou had surged in recent weeks, and polls showed him beating either Sarkozy or Royal in a possible May 6 runoff, which would be triggered if no candidate won more than 50% of the vote in the first round. The Constitutional Council, the French election authority, March 19 announced that 12 candidates had qualified for the presidential election by each submitting 500 endorsements from local elected officials. Along with Sarkozy, Royal and Bayrou, they included Jean Marie Le Pen of the far-right National Front and several leftwing candidates, including farmer and antiglobalization activist Jose Bove. Le Pen had shocked France by finishing second in the 16-candidate first round of the 2002 election. Chirac defeated him in the runoff, winning 82% of the vote. „

Great Britain Blair Wins Vote to Renew Nuclear Force.

The House of Commons, the lower chamber of the British Parliament, March 14 voted, 409–161, to approve Prime Minister Tony Blair’s £20 billion ($40 billion) plan to renew the submarine-based Trident nuclear weapons system. The Commons voted, 413–167, to reject a motion to defer the decision. [See 2006, p. 961D2] Blair needed the votes of the opposition Conservative Party to pass his plan to begin building new nuclear submarines and overhaul the missile system. Eighty-five members of his Labour Party rebelled to vote against renewing Trident, while 95 voted to defer the decision. It was one of the biggest Labour revolts during Blair’s nearly 10 years in power. Three Labour government officials resigned from lowranking posts to protest Blair’s plan, joining Deputy Leader of the Commons Nigel Griffiths, who had quit March 12. Blair argued that Britain needed to maintain an independent nuclear arsenal as a deterrent against potential threats, despite the absence of a present danger such as the Soviet Union had posed during the Cold War. “Although it is impossible to predict the future, the one thing that is certain is the uncertainty of it,” he said. Opponents of renewing Trident argued that Britain no longer faced a real nuclear threat and should unilaterally disarm to set an example for the rest of the world. „

Poland Law Targets Former Secret Police. A law

enacted March 15 required public employees as well as academics and journalists to attest to whether they had been informers for the country’s communist-era secret police. Those who had would be excluded from such positions, and the law also provided for stiff penalties for making a false declaration. The governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party had made a priority of purging from public service those who had collaborated with the secret police. [See p. 20E2] March 22, 2007

The new law superseded an earlier one that had applied only to senior public officials. It established a special body to investigate the statements and carry out prosecutions. Those found to be lying about their past activities could be barred from public service for up to 10 years. It also allowed for the release of the communist security services’ records to the public. Critics of the new law said it would unfairly punish people who had been forced to cooperate with the secret police. Some journalists and academics vowed not to cooperate, saying that the new program itself resembled the oaths of loyalty compelled under communism. Archbishop Replaced—Pope Benedict XVI March 3 named a new archbishop for Warsaw to replace Stanislaw Wielgus, who had resigned in January soon after his appointment after admitting his links to the communist security apparatus. The pope named Kazimierz Nycz, bishop of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg, to the Warsaw post, the most prominent religious position in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country. Wielgus Feb. 13 had filed a request with a special court for the vetting of Poles’ pasts for an opportunity to clear his name. He contended that he had been forced into cooperating with the secret police. The Polish church Jan. 12 had said it would establish a commission to investigate the pasts of all of its bishops. A Polish Catholic priest, Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, had published a book naming 30 priests—bishops among them—as having been active collaborators, it was reported Feb. 27. (Separately, Slovakia’s Roman Catholic hierarchy Feb. 13 said it would establish a special council to examine the church’s role there under fascist and later communist rule. Slovakian media had reported allegations linking Jan Sokol, the archbishop of Bratislava, the capital, to Slovakia’s communist-era secret police. Sokol Jan. 4 had stirred criticism for praising the country’s period of rule by a Catholic priest supported by Nazi Germany, Jozef Tiso.) „

Russia

tions scheduled for December, which would be followed by a presidential election in 2008. The March 11 vote was conducted under new electoral procedures enacted in 2006, in which only parties, and no individual independent candidates, appeared on the ballots; parties selected their own rosters to serve in the seats they won. Turnout for the voting was about 39%. United Russia won 46% of the total vote, and 60% of the seats contested March 11, followed by the Communist Party of Russia with a 16% share of votes and 12.5% of seats, and Just Russia with 12% of both. Among smaller parties, the right-wing nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, garnered 9% of the vote. One of the two most prominent liberal parties, the Union of Right Forces, received 6.8%. Another, Yabloko, had been denied a place on the ballot in its principal center of support, St. Petersburg, and its showing was therefore negligible. The Union of Right Forces was also barred in some regions, and Kremlin critics said the exclusions were a calculated move by the government to limit the liberal parties’ representation in the period leading up to the national parliamentary and presidential elections. Those parties said they were also denied access to “administrative resources,” such as plentiful media exposure, enjoyed by the two government-favored parties. Vladislav Surkov, a political aide to Putin, March 12 said the elections demonstrated that Russia was moving toward a stable, limited array of political parties, which he said characterized a “healthy, democratic political system.” However, Yabloko politician Sergei Ivanyenko denounced them as a sham in which “the authorities hand out votes and determine which parties and candidates are convenient for them.” Election Chief Ousted— Putin March 13 excluded the chief of Russia’s election commission, Aleksandr Veshnyakov, from his nominations for the body’s next term, which would start in April. No reason was stated for the move. Veshnyakov had criticized the new election rules instituted in 2006, saying they limited the range of voters’ choices and could lend themselves to the arbitrary exclusion of candidates. „

Pro-Putin Party Dominates Regional Polls.

The United Russia party, which staunchly supported President Vladimir V. Putin and dominated Russian politics, came in first in 13 out of 14 regional legislative elections held March 11. The remaining region, Stavropol, was won by Just Russia, a party newly formed in 2006. Just Russia proclaimed itself an “opposition” party and fiercely criticized United Russia, but nevertheless also backed Putin. Leaders of smaller opposition parties contended that the new party was a Kremlin-backed creation devised to give the false appearance of open political competition in the country. [See p. 101B2; 2005, p. 876C3] The regions voting March 11 accounted for nearly a third of the country’s electorate. The elections were the last major contests before national parliamentary elec-

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India 55 Killed in Maoist Raid on Police Station.

Some 400 Maoist Naxalite rebels March 15 attacked a police station in Chhattisgarh state in central India using guns, grenades and gasoline bombs. They killed 16 police officers and 39 members of a state militia. They then set the station on fire and escaped into the jungle with their weapons seized from the police station. The incident occurred in the southern part of the state. [See 2006, p. 399E3] Attacks by Naxalites had been on the rise in much of India in the past two years. The station raid was among the deadliest of them. Naxalite rebels March 1 had killed 183

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six police officers in Chhattisgarh, and March 4 had murdered a member of parliament, Sunil Kumar Mahato, in a village in the eastern state of Jharkhand. The rebels had reportedly been building up their armaments, and, in contrast to their Maoist neighbors in Nepal, were uninterested in any kind of political negotiation with the central government. The military’s response so far had been to recruit local militias to protect villages from the Naxalites. The rebels typically operated in heavily forested rural areas, augmenting their numbers with rural youth affected by the government’s practice of displacing local inhabitants in order to exploit their areas’ forest and mineral resources. The militias were largely composed of very young, poorly trained men and women. „ 14 Die in Economic Zone Protests. Police in West Bengal state March 14 fired bullets and tear gas at thousands of armed farmers and activists protesting the government’s seizure of agricultural land for a petrochemical plant and other industrial development. Fourteen protesters were killed and dozens more were injured. West Bengal’s government March 17 said it was scrapping plans for the project. [See p. 167D1; 2006, p. 831B1] The land in question, southwest of the state capital, Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), in an area called Nandigram, was to be made into a 10,000-acre (4,000hectare) special economic zone (SEZ). Such zones featured large tax breaks for businesses in order to attract new investment, and were a key feature of the government’s economic development program. They typically involved conversion of farmland, which was relatively unprofitable, into industrial sites. In the current case the chemical plant was to have been owned by Indonesia’s Salim Group. The zones had generated wide criticism, from farmers as well as economists who contended that they were anticompetitive and would significantly reduce the government’s tax revenue. At least six people had died in protests against the Nandigram zone in January, prompting the state’s Communist chief minister, Buddhadev Bhattacharya, to suspend land seizures and the Congress party–led central government Jan. 22 to halt all new SEZs. Similar protests had occurred over the creation of a 1,000-acre zone in the West Bengal area of Singur, the New York Times reported March 15. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Winter Sports Svindal, Hosp Win World Cup Skiing Titles.

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Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal and Austria’s Nicole Hosp March 18 clinched the men’s and women’s overall World Cup skiing titles in the final races of the season in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. [See 2006, p. 251E2] Svindal, who had placed second overall in 2006, edged out Benjamin Raich of Austria by finishing 15th in the slalom March 18. The Norwegian ended the season with 1,268 184

points in the overall standings, compared with 1,255 for Raich, the 2006 champion. Didier Cuche of Switzerland was third, with 1,098 points. Svindal also won the season’s giant slalom and combined titles. Hosp March 18 won the final giant slalom race of the season to clinch the overall title with 1,572 points. Countrywoman Marlies Schild was second in the standings, with 1,482 points, and Julia Mancuso of the U.S. was third, with 1,356 points. Hosp also claimed the season title in the giant slalom. „ Mackey Wins Iditarod Sled Dog Race.

Lance Mackey March 13 won the 35th annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. Mackey, 36, finished the 1,100-mile (1,770-km) course in nine days, five hours and eight minutes to win the Iditarod for the first time. He won the race after triumphing—using many of the same dogs—in the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race in Alaska and Canada Feb. 20, the first time the same musher took both races in the same year. [See 2006, p. 251B3] Mackey won $69,000 and a pickup truck for the Iditarod victory. His father, Dick Mackey, had won the Iditarod in 1978, and his brother, Rick Mackey, won in 1983. The Iditarod was held to honor the sled dogs and mushers who had delivered lifesaving diphtheria serum to Nome in 1925. Eighty-two mushers had started the race March 4. Race officials March 18 said one musher, two-time runner-up Ramy Brooks, had been disqualified for abusing his dogs by hitting them with a trail marking lathe, described as similar to a surveyor’s stake.„

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

People Actress Angelina Jolie and her newly adopted three-year-son, Pax Thien Jolie, flew out of Vietnam March 21 en route to the U.S. Jolie, 31, March 19 in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, had obtained documents essentially finalizing the adoption; the child she adopted had been living in a Vietnamese orphanage since birth. She already had two adopted children, one from Cambodia and the other from Ethiopia, as well as a daughter born to her and actor Brad Pitt in 2006. [See 2006, p. 480D1] The New York City Opera Feb. 27 announced that Gerard Mortier, 63, currently the director general of France’s Paris National Opera, would become its general manager and artistic director in 2009. Mortier’s Paris post had a mandatory retirement age of 65, but a special decree had been issued in late 2006 to allow him to stay on for some months after he turned 65. Once Mortier’s Paris contract ended, he would replace Paul Kellogg at the City Opera. Kellogg, 70, who had held the post since 1996, would be retiring in June. Until Mortier officially took over, he would be contributing to the City Opera by spending at least one week each month in New York. [See 2006, p. 988C2] „

O B I T UA R I E S AMAYA, Rufina, 64, survivor of a 1981 massacre by Salvadoran troops of hundreds of men, women and children in and around the village of El Mozote; she became a lay pastor and devoted the rest of her life to describing the massacre, in which her husband and four of her children were among the victims; her testimony, which at the time was challenged by both the Salvadoran and U.S. governments, was eventually backed up by forensic evidence drawn from remains exhumed in the El Mozote area in 1992; died March 6 in San Miguel, El Salvador, of a stroke; she was reportedly 64, but news media did not report her birthdate or birthplace. [See 1992, p. 999A2] AUBRAC, Lucie (born Lucie Bernard), 94, French schoolteacher who became a hero of the French Resistance in World War II; her daring exploits were depicted in several films, most recently Claude Berri’s Lucie Aubrac (1997); in 1943, according to the British newspaper the Independent, in a successful effort to free her husband, Resistance leader Raymond Samuel, from the Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s political police, she led the only armed attack ever carried out against the Gestapo in the streets of France; after the war, the couple officially adopted Aubrac, one of her husband’s Resistance aliases, as their surname; in 1998, she and her husband won a highly publicized libel suit against a French historian who had raised doubts about their wartime heroism; born June 29, 1912, in Macon, France; died the night of March 14 at a hospital in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, a suburb of Paris; French President Jacques Chirac led tributes to her March 21. BAUDRILLARD, Jean, 77, French philosopher and social theorist; he argued that, in a world dominated by the media, all reality had in effect become “virtual reality,” and that there was no real culture anymore, only consumer culture; his writings could be obscure, but were leavened with aphorisms and black humor; one of his best-known books was Simulacra and Simulation (published in French in 1981 and in English in 1994); in recent years, he achieved recognition as a photographer; born July 29, 1929, in Reims, France; died March 6 at his home in Paris, after a long illness. HATTOY, Bob (Robert Keith), 56, environmentalist and political consultant who in 1992 made headlines by identifying himself as a gay man with AIDS in a prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention in New York City, which nominated Bill Clinton for president; during Clinton’s presidency, he served for five years (1994–99) as White House liaison to the Interior Department, but often criticized Clinton, especially on the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays openly serving in the military; born Nov. 1, 1950, in Providence, R.I.; died March 4 at a hospital in Sacramento, Calif., of AIDS complications. [See 1992, p. 524D2] KUHN, Bowie Kent, 80, lawyer named the fifth commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1969; he served until 1984, the second-longest tenure of any of MLB ’s nine commissioners to date; during his watch, baseball underwent many changes; they included players winning the right to free agency, the expansion of the major leagues into Canada, the realignment of the two leagues into divisions, and—starting in 1971—World Series games played at night to boost television revenue; there were also player strikes and confrontations with team owners such as the New York Yankees’ George Steinbrenner, whom Kuhn suspended in 1974 after he pleaded guilty to making illegal political contributions; after his bid for a third term as commissioner failed, he resumed practicing law; born Oct. 28, 1926, in Takoma Park, Md.; died March 15 at a hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., of complications from pneumonia; he had undergone heart surgery in 2004. [See 1989, p. 973E1; 1985, p. 231D2; Indexes 1973–84, 1969–71] TROYAT, Henri (born Lev Aslanovich Tarassov),

95, Russian-born French writer; after the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, his family fled Russia, settling in France in 1920; he published his first novel in 1935, and in 1938 was awarded the prestigious Goncourt Prize for his fifth novel, L’Araigne (The Spider); over the years, he produced more than 100 books, including stand-alone novels, novel cycles, short story collections, and biographies of major figures in Russian history and literature as well as of major French writers; elected to the Academie Francaise (French Academy) in 1959, he was its longest-standing member at the time of his death; born Nov. 1, 1911, in Moscow; died March 2 in Paris; no cause of death was reported. [See 1967, p. 580E2; 1959, p. 170B2; Indexes 1956–57, 1953] „

March 22, 2007

U.S. House, Senate Pass Iraq Funding Bills Setting Troop Withdrawal Dates U.S. President Bush Vows Veto. The U.S. House March 23 narrowly passed, 218– 212, a measure authorizing $124.3 billion in emergency funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that also set a Sept. 1, 2008, deadline for the withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq. The U.S. Senate March 29 passed, 51–47, a separate measure authorizing $121.7 billion in funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that required U.S. President George W. Bush to begin pulling out troops from Iraq within 120 days of final passage. The Senate version set a nonbinding date of March 31, 2008, for the complete withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq. Both bills authorized funding levels that significantly exceeded Bush’s requests for military operations in the two countries. [See pp. 169A1, 138B2] Bush March 29 renewed a vow he had made several times in the preceding weeks to veto any spending measure that dictated a timetable for troop withdrawals. The votes for both measures were cast largely along party lines: Two Republicans favored the House bill while 14 Democrats voted against it; two Republicans and one independent (Bernard Sanders [Vt.]) supported the Senate version, while one independent (Joseph Lieberman [Conn.]) opposed it. Neither chamber was likely to muster the two-thirds majority vote needed to overcome a presidential veto. Democrats Coalesce Behind BIll— The March 23 House vote was viewed as a victory for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.), who managed to unify most Democrats behind the measure. The Democratic caucus was characterized by internal divisions over the best policy course for the U.S. in Iraq. The 14 Democrats who opposed the bill represented two groups on opposite ends of the party caucus: conservatives who argued that the bill’s language would constrain Bush to ill effect, and liberals who said the withdrawal time-frame needed to be shorter. Republican Reps. Wayne Gilchrest (Md.) and Walter Jones (N.C.) broke with their party to vote in favor of the measure. Lawmakers from both parties delivered a series of passionate one-minute speeches during debate on the bill, which was punctuated by applause and interrupted by antiwar activists. Pelosi, bringing the debate to a close, said, “The American people see the reality of the war; the president does not.” Along with allocating war funds, the measure set a series of benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet regarding security, military deployment and oil-revenue sharing. Failure to meet them would result in an earlier withdrawal of U.S. troops, under the House plan. The measure also set rigid new deployment, training and equipment standards for U.S. combat troops. The bill included $24 billion in domestic funds, including $900 million on medical care for veterans and $1.7 million for other health care programs. Bush criticized the bill for including funding for such re-

cipients as spinach growers and shrimp fishermen. Bush March 23 lambasted the House vote as “an act of political theater,” vowing to veto the measure if it reached his desk. He added, “The Democrats in the House voted to substitute their judgment for that of our military commanders on the ground in Iraq.” Senate Backs Withdrawal Dates— The Senate March 27 voted, 50–48, to include troop withdrawal date guidelines in the military spending bill, in an unforeseen move. Supporters overcame a Republican effort to strip the language from the funding measure. Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel (Neb.), an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, and Gordon Smith (Ore.) broke ranks to endorse inclusion of the military pull-out dates, while Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor (Ark.) defied his party to oppose the deadlines. Lieberman also voted against inclusion of a withdrawal time frame. The Senate’s endorsement increased the likelihood that a finalized version of the funding bill would contain some form of requirement to pull out troops. During debate preceding the March 27 vote, several Republican senators decried the establishment of a withdrawal date as a harmful military tactic. Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.) said, “A second-year cadet at West Point could tell you that if you announce when the end will be, it’s a recipe for defeat.” In the March 29 Senate vote on the funding measure, Hagel and Smith again crossed party lines to endorse the Democratic-penned bill, while Lieberman sided once more with the Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) March 26 had said Republicans would forgo maneuvering tactics aimed at blocking the bill, in the interests of avoiding a delay in funding for the war. He said Republicans would instead rely on Bush’s veto power to halt the measure. Bush Refuses Timetable Negotiations—

Bush March 28 said he would not enter discussions with Democrats regarding a withdrawal time frame, and criticized them for attempting to “score political points.” The statements were considered opening salvos in an expected political blame game to be played out between Democrats and Republicans over funding for the war. Bush said, “Funding for our forces in Iraq will begin to run out in mid-April. Members of Congress need to stop making political statements and start providing vital funds for our troops.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) rebutted that claim, saying defense officials had recently estimated that the funds would not be exhausted until weeks later. Several Democratic House and Senate leaders indicated a willingness to negotiate with Bush over the withdrawal of troops, but complained that the White House had not shown any interest in doing so. Pelosi

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3459 March 29, 2007

B and Reid March 28 sent a letter to Bush asking to discuss their differences. “This is the time to sit down and work together on behalf of the American people and our troops,” the letter read. At a news conference held the same day, Pelosi told Bush to “calm down with all the threats.” „

British Navy Crew Seized by Iran 15 Accused of Entering Iranian Waters.

Fifteen British military personnel—eight sailors and seven marines—March 23 were seized in the Persian Gulf by naval forces belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, an elite corps affiliated with Iran’s ruling clergy. The detention took place just a day before the United Nations Security Council voted to sanction Iran for its nuclear activities, and initiated a tense standoff between Britain and Iran at a time when Iran was being accused

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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U.S. House, Senate pass Iraq funding bills setting troop withdrawal dates; U.S. President Bush vows veto. PAGE 185

British Navy crew seized by Iran; 15 accused of entering Iranian waters.

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U.N. Security Council imposes sanctions on Iran. PAGE 187

North Korean nuclear talks falter over bank issue. PAGE 188

Attorney General Gonzales’s ex–chief of staff testifies on prosecutor firings. PAGE 189

Australian detainee at Guantanamo Bay prison camp pleads guilty.

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Ex-minister wins Mauritania presidential runoff. PAGE 194

Hong Kong chief reelected. PAGE 195

Japanese premier apologizes over WWII sex slaves. PAGE 195

Iraq’s deputy premier wounded in bombing. PAGE 197

Pakistan’s cricket coach murdered at World Cup. PAGE 199 REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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of supporting militias in Iraq. [See pp. 187A3, 90C1; 2004, p. 466G3] The Britons served aboard the frigate HMS Cornwall, which had both Iraqi and U.N. approval to secure Iraqi waters against smugglers and terrorists. They had left the ship earlier that day on two rigid inflatable boats in order to inspect a merchant vessel near the Shatt al-Arab waterway, a tidal river that ran along the IranIraq border and emptied into the Persian Gulf. Iran and Iraq had frequently disputed the location of their borders in the waterway and the nearby coastal waters. After inspecting the Indian-flagged merchant vessel and its cargo, the Britons disembarked and returned to their inflatable boats, when six Iranian patrol boats surrounded them. British defense officials said the Iranians took the Britons and their boats into Iranian waters. There was reportedly no gunfire or other hostilities, and no one was harmed. A British Royal Navy surveillance helicopter assigned to the Cornwall witnessed the Britons being taken away. The Cornwall was 3.5 nautical miles (four miles) away at the time, and the waters near the merchant vessel were too shallow for it to intervene. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett March 23 demanded that the captives and their boats be released immediately, and that Iran provide an explanation for the incident. She said the service personnel had been in Iraqi waters when detained, and were on a mission “in support of the government in Iraq.” Iran’s ambassador to Britain, Rasoul Movahedian, was summoned to the British Foreign Office over the matter. Iran’s state-run television reported that Britain’s charge d’affaires had likewise been summoned by Iran’s foreign ministry in order to account for the “blatant aggression” manifested by the Britons’ “illegal” entry into Iranian waters. Iran Refuses to Release Britons— Gen. Ali Reza Afshar, a spokesman for Iran’s military, March 24 said the Britons had been arrested in Iranian waters and would not be released. Moreover, Afshar said they

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were “facing prosecution,” and had been taken to Tehran, Iran’s capital. He added that they were “being interrogated and have confessed to aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran waters.” He said the Britons were in “good health,” and that their confessions would be released. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini released a statement saying the Britons had been engaged in “illegal and suspicious” behavior, and claimed that there would be “further investigation” of the matter. The “illegal and interventionist entry by the British forces into the Iranian waters,” Hosseini said, “is a dubious act which contradicts international laws.” Officials from the U.S., the European Union and Germany joined Britain in calling for the release of the captives. Blair Calls Act ‘Unjustified and Wrong’—

British Prime Minister Tony Blair March 25 called the seizure “unjustified and wrong,” saying he hoped that Iran understood “how fundamental an issue this is for us.” Blair called for the unconditional release of the Britons, insisting that there was “no doubt at all that these people were taken from a boat in Iraqi waters.” Blair March 27 warned that the standoff would enter a “different phase” if the Britons were not released. It was widely speculated that Iran might have taken the Britons in order to exchange them for several Iranian military officials who had been seized by the U.S. in Iraq in January. David Triesman, the minister for the Foreign Office, however, March 25 said Iran had told him no such exchange was in the works. [See p. 11D1] Mehzi Mostafavi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, March 26 reportedly said Iran had “enough evidence to prove that the British forces personnel were detained in Iranian waters,” but that investigations on whether their presence there had been “intentional or unintentional” were still under way. “After that is clarified,” Mostafavi said, “the necessary decision will be made.” He also claimed that no prisoner exchange was being sought. Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s foreign minister, March 26 said Iraq would use “whatever influence, goodwill, we have to ensure that these sailors are released as soon as possible.” It was reported that day that Zebari had spoken with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, and had told him that the Britons were in Iraqi waters at the time of their detention. Hosseini March 27 said the Britons were being given “humane, Islamic and respectful” treatment, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency. The U.S. March 27 began two days of previously scheduled naval exercises in the Persian Gulf involv-

ing more than a dozen warships, including two aircraft carriers. Iran’s navy March 22 had begun military exercises of its own scheduled to last a full week. [See p. 85B2] Britain Releases GPS Data—The British Royal Navy March 28 released its account of the detention, including Global Positioning System (GPS) data showing that the merchant vessel was 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when the Britons were seized. The briefing, led by Vice Adm. Charles Style, also revealed that Iran on March 24 had given Britain its account of where the merchant vessel was located. Britain March 25 had indicated to Iran that the coordinates provided—while not the same as Britain’s—were nonetheless within Iraqi waters. Iran March 26 provided another set of coordinates for the vessel’s location, this time in Iranian waters, and two nautical miles from Britain’s reckoning. Style said it was “hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of coordinates.” He also disclosed that British forces had recently boarded many other boats in the area. He said that the merchant vessel was still anchored in the same place as it had been at the time of the incident, and was still within Iraqi waters. Mottaki March 28 denied that the vessel had been in Iraqi waters. He reportedly also claimed that Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the sole female among the 15 Britons, would soon be set free. “Today or tomorrow, the lady will be released,” he said. Later that day, however, he said Turney would be released “as soon as possible,” adding that he was “probably misquoted” with regard to Turney’s release being imminent. The foreign minister also said British officials would be given access to the cap-

Facts On File

World News Digest With Index (ISSN 0014-6641) Publication #183680

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Blair declared that Iran was in “total isolation” on the matter. Britain that day froze all contact with Iran, with the exception of negotiations on the captive soldiers. Dana Perino, a spokeswoman for the U.S. government, said President George W. Bush “fully” backed Britain’s position. Blair Refuses to Negotiate—

Blair March 29 declared that, although his chief aim was to bring the soldiers home “safe and sound,” Britain would not “end up negotiating over hostages.” Speaking in a televiAn image from Iran’s Arabic-language broadcaster Al-Alam shows British servicewoman Faye Turney (right) eating with comrades seized sion interview, Blair said, “What you have to do when March 23 by Iran in northern Persian Gulf waters. you are engaged with people tives, as Britain had repeatedly requested. like the Iranian regime, you have to keep Further, Mottaki declared that the issue as explaining to them, very patiently, what it a whole could be resolved if Britain would is necessary to do and at the same time admit that the soldiers had mistakenly en- make them fully aware there are further tered Iranian waters. An unidentified measures that will be taken if they’re not spokesman for Blair’s office March 29 re- prepared to be reasonable.” jected the proposal. Britain that day submitted a statement to Afshar March 29 said Turney’s release the U.N. Security Council, asking it to conhad been delayed because of Britain’s “in- demn Iran’s actions. The statement said correct attitude.” He added that Iran had their personnel had been operating in Iraqi proof that British forces had entered Irani- waters with the approval of the council, dean waters several times prior to the current plored their “continuing detention” by Iran incident. An unidentified Iranian official, and demanded that they be freed immedicited March 29 in the Washington Post, ately. claimed that the detention of the captives Later that day, the council approved a was an attempt to put a stop to British in- revised version of Britain’s draft. It excursions into Iranian waters. pressed “grave concern” at the capture and In 2004, eight British servicemen and detention of the Britons, but remained sitheir boats had been seized in the same lent on the matter of whether they had been area. Released three days later, they said in Iranian waters. Diplomats said Russia they had been subjected to mistreatment had pressed for the changes. including mock executions. [See 2004, p. Meanwhile, Iranian television broadcast 466G3] more footage of the Britons in an Iranian Video Shows Captives— Iranian state boat, with Iranian troops nearby firing into television March 28 broadcast video of the air. Also broadcast was a briefing by an Iramany of the British captives, showing them eating together, seemingly healthy and un- nian coast guard official, identified only as harmed. The broadcast included footage of Col. Setareh, who indicated points on a Turney wearing a tunic and head scarf in map where the seizure and previous British accordance with Islamic dress for women, incursions had allegedly taken place. No and asserting that she and her comrades coordinates could be determined from the “obviously” had “trespassed” into Iranian video. Setareh displayed the Britons’ GPS territory. Turney also said the Iranians devices, which he said proved they had were “very friendly and very hospitable, entered Iranian waters several times. In addition, a new letter attributed to very thoughtful, nice people,” adding that they had “explained to us why we’ve been Turney was released that day. The letter arrested, there was no harm, no aggres- called for British troops to leave Iraq, and sion.” Further video showed the Britons in for Britain to explain why its forces were an Iranian military boat, apparently soon violating Iranian territory. after their capture. German Released From Iranian Jail— A handwritten letter, attributed to Tur- Donald Klein, a German citizen, March ney and addressed to her family, was also 12 was released from Iran’s Evin prison publicized that day. In it, she said she had after 15 months in jail for illegally enter“apparently” crossed into Iranian waters, ing Iran’s waters. Klein and Stephane and that she had written another letter “to Lherbier, a French citizen, had been arthe Iranian people to apologize.” The letter rested in November 2005 while on a fishalso asked her family not to worry, saying, ing trip in the Persian Gulf. Despite their “Hopefully it won’t be long until I am claims to have been misled by their maps, home to get ready for [her three-year-old both men had been sentenced to 18 daughter] Molly’s birthday party with a months in jail. Lherbier had been released present from the Iranian people.” Feb. 28. Beckett blasted the release of the video Klein March 14 arrived in Germany. In an and letter, saying she was “very concerned interview, he said that the Iranians “did not about these pictures and any indication of take good care of me.” He claimed that he had pressure on or coercion of our personnel.” lost 44 pounds (20 kg) while in prison. „ March 29, 2007

U.N. Security Council Imposes Sanctions on Iran

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Gives 60 Days to Halt Nuclear Program.

The United Nations Security Council March 24 voted unanimously to impose further sanctions on Iran for continuing to enrich uranium and engaging in other nuclear activities in violation of previous U.N. resolutions. The new resolution included a threat of more sanctions if Iran did not halt its nuclear program within 60 days. The resolution also called on Iran to demonstrate that it was not making weaponsgrade uranium, and to prove its claim that its nuclear program was for peaceful, energy-producing purposes. [See p. 105A1] The new set of sanctions was less severe than those initially advocated by the U.S. and several European nations. The resolution mandated a freeze on the assets of 15 officials and 13 organizations affiliated with either Iran’s nuclear program or its military. Included in the asset freeze were the state-run Bank Sepah and Brig. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, which lent military support to Islamic militant groups in other countries. The resolution also prohibited Iran from selling or supplying weapons or other military equipment to other nations, while at the same time calling on other nations to “exercise vigilance and restraint” in selling or supplying weapons and materiel to Iran. [See below, pp. 90A2, 21F3] Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, speaking to the council after the vote, called the sanctions “unlawful, unnecessary and unjustified,” and insisted that his nation would not give in to “pressure and intimidation.” He said Iran’s right to nuclear power was “inalienable,” and that the resolution was “a gross violation” of the U.N.’s charter. At the same time, he said the sanctions would have little effect on Iran. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, said the sanctions were “more than we thought we were going to get.” He added that the sanctions targeted Iran’s nuclear program, but also served to “limit the ability of Iran to be a disruptive and violent factor in Middle East politics.”

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President Defends Nuclear Program—

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad March 25 issued a statement declaring that the sanctions were “not legal,” and insisting that Iran’s nuclear program was purely for the sake of energy production. “We are not after an atomic bomb,” the statement said, “because it is not useful and our religion does not allow us to have it.” Ahmadinejad had planned to travel to the U.S. to defend Iran’s nuclear program personally before the council at its headquarters in New York City. However, Iran March 23 had canceled the trip, claiming that the U.S. had not granted the president a travel visa in time. The U.S. denied the claim. Mottaki went to New York in Ahmadinejad’s place. [See p. 166A1] Gholam Hossein Elham, a spokesman for Iran’s government, March 25 an187

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nounced that Iran was suspending some aspects of its cooperation with the U.N.’s nuclear monitor—the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—in response to the sanctions. The suspension would continue, he said, “until Iran’s nuclear case is referred back” to the IAEA. Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, the same day announced that he would seek an audience with Ali Larijani, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, to discuss a diplomatic resolution to the conflict. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon also lent his support to diplomatic efforts, and he called for Iran to “urgently take the necessary steps to restore the international community’s trust that its nuclear program is peaceful in nature.” Financial Sanctions Said to Hurt Iran—

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Efforts by the U.S. Treasury Department since September 2006 to get international banks and financial institutions to reduce or cut ties to Iran had met with significant success, the Washington Post reported March 26. The Post cited Treasury and State Department officials who said many organizations in Asia and Europe had heeded the call, particularly after being informed of Iran’s use of dummy corporations to hide illicit financial transactions. As a result, they said, Iran was finding it difficult to fund oil projects and imports, and to finance militants outside the country. [See 2006, p. 1029D3] Stuart Levey, the Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, was quoted in the article as saying the organizations contacted by the Treasury were “reducing significantly their exposure to Iranian business.” Levey also said the Revolutionary Guard was gaining more and more control over Iran’s economy under Ahmadinejad. The Revolutionary Guard was an elite military force affiliated with Iran’s clergy. It was separate from Iran’s conventional military and included the Quds Force. „

North Korean Nuclear Dispute Talks Falter Over Bank Issue. Representa-

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tives of six nations March 19 opened a new round of talks in Beijing, China’s capital, on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. However, the talks disbanded March 22 after North Korea refused to address the nuclear issue until the U.S. allowed the release of frozen North Korean funds. The U.S. Treasury Department March 19 had announced that the U.S. and North Korea had reached an agreement under which the funds would be returned to North Korea, but technical issues had delayed the actual transfer of the money. [See below, p. 123F3] The talks were intended to follow up on a Feb. 13 agreement in which North Korea had said it would take steps toward freezing and abandoning its nuclear program in exchange for foreign aid and recognition. The deal called for the U.S. to “resolve” the financial dispute within 30 days. The U.S. envoy to the talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, March 22 contended that the process would nevertheless be 188

able to reach the subsequent goal, the shutdown of North Korea’s main Yongbyon nuclear facility within 60 days of the original agreement. The U.S. Treasury in 2005 had imposed financial sanctions on a Macao-based bank, Banco Delta Asia SARL, that it accused of facilitating North Korean moneylaundering and other illicit activities. That action had frozen $25 million in about 50 accounts held by North Korean state companies. The Treasury March 14 had announced the formal end of its investigation of Banco Delta Asia, barring U.S. banks from dealings with it. In fact, all U.S. banks had voluntarily cut links to the bank after the initial action, leading to its collapse and takeover by the government of Macao, a Chinese territory. The conclusion of the Treasury action would allow the disposition of the frozen funds. The Treasury official handling the matter, Daniel Glaser, March 19 said the U.S. had agreed to release all the money after North Korea “pledged, within the framework of the six-party talks, that these funds will be used solely for the betterment of the North Korean people, including for humanitarian and educational purposes.” U.S. officials had previously insisted that the financial matter was unconnected to the nuclear issue, and had recently suggested that they were seeking to return only that portion of the money that they could determine was derived from legitimate sources. In the U.S., some conservative critics said that by deciding to release all the money, the U.S. was agreeing to reward North Korea for illicit activities as a price for its cooperation on the nuclear issue. Banking Issues Stymie Funds’ Release—

Chinese and U.S. officials March 22 indicated that numerous issues had prevented the actual transfer of the funds to a North Korean account, including institutions’ lingering uncertainty over the propriety of handling the money. China’s representative at the six-nation talks, Wu Dawei, said the Bank of China had outstanding “concerns.” The bank’s president that day denied that it had been asked to be involved. The holders of the 50 accounts, according to some news reports, would have to agree to the transfer, and it was unclear whether they would readily do so. Daedong Credit Bank, a majority foreign– owned bank based in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, was the holder of $7 million of the frozen funds, and had threatened legal action if the funds were transferred as the U.S. Treasury had agreed, the New York Times reported in an article datelined March 26. Glaser March 25 arrived in Beijing for discussions intended to resolve the problem. IAEA Chief ElBaradei Visits— Mohammed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), March 13–14 visited Pyongyang for talks with North Korean officials on implementing the February agreement. He said March 14 that he had invited North Korea to rejoin the IAEA as a member state, and that it had agreed to consider doing so. (North Korea

had left the organization amid a prior dispute over its weapons programs in 1994, and expelled IAEA inspectors monitoring its compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty shortly before withdrawing from the treaty in 2003.) [See 2003, p. 9A1; 1994, p. 438C3] ElBaradei called his visit a “door-opener” and said that resolving the issue would not happen “overnight.” U.S. Holds Talks, Seeks Uranium Answer—

Hill and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan March 5–6 met at the United Nations in New York City, in the first set of bilateral talks following from the February agreement. In addition to addressing the implementation of the nuclear deal, the talks were intended to launch discussions on normalizing diplomatic relations between the two countries. That would require the U.S. to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, and to lift its extensive economic sanctions against the country. Hill March 4 had said that he would demand from North Korea “disclosure of all their nuclear programs, including highly enriched uranium.” The U.S. had accused North Korea of developing a secret, uranium-based nuclear weapons program in addition to the plutonium program, centered at Yongbyon, that had been the main focus of international negotiations. U.S. officials had recently suggested, however, that the evidence that North Korea had proceeded with a uranium program was less certain than previously claimed. [See p. 124F1] Nevertheless, Hill March 6 said that the U.S. was “owed a pretty clear answer” about why North Korea had acquired technology for enriching uranium from Pakistan. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte that day said, “I have no doubt that North Korea has had a highly enriched uranium program,” maintaining that that “continues to be” the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion. Japan Talks Stall Over Abductions—

Envoys from North Korea and Japan March 7–8 met in Hanoi, Vietnam, for talks on normalizing their relations, but the meetings ended with no progress made on the countries’ disagreements. Japan demanded a complete resolution of cases of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. The North Korean delegation reportedly responded angrily, demanding that Japan first lift economic sanctions and agree to pay reparations for its colonial rule over Korea from 1910 to 1945. [See p. 89C2] The deadlock between the two countries arose again March 19 at the Beijing talks. Talks With South Korea Revived—

North Korea and South Korea Feb. 27– March 2 in Pyongyang held their first cabinet-level contacts since North Korea performed a nuclear test in October 2006. The two countries agreed to resume reunions of families separated by their border since the 1950–53 Korean War. They also said they would seek to expand economic and transportation links, including conducting a test FACTS ON FILE

run of a cross-border railway link. [See 2006, pp. 777A1, 494D1] South Korea did not accede to North Korea’s demand that it resume sending food and fertilizer aid it had suspended after a North Korean missile test in July 2006. South Korea said it would not do so until North Korea, which was suffering from a long-standing food shortage, shut down Yonbgyon. However, South Korea March 27 resumed shipments of fertilizer, saying it would refrain from sending food aid until it saw that North Korea closed the facility by an April 13 deadline. [See 2006, p. 525A1] U.N. Agency Halts N. Korea Operations—

The U.N. Development Program (UNDP) March 5 issued a statement saying it would suspend its operations in North Korea because the country refused to accede to conditions intended to ensure that aid from the agency was not diverted from its intended purposes by the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, as the U.S. alleged. The UNDP Jan. 25 had said it would stop making payments in North Korea in hard currency, and would no longer hire employees through a list of candidates supplied by the government. After North Korea refused to cooperate under those conditions by a March 1 deadline, the UNDP said it would be unable to continue its work there. „

Global Health U.S. FDA Panel Approves Bird Flu Vaccine.

An advisory panel of the U.S.’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Feb. 27 endorsed an experimental avian influenza vaccine for approval by the agency. The vaccine, produced by Sanofi-Aventis SA of France, had shown limited effectiveness against the H5N1 bird flu type. In a clinical trial only 45% of those inoculated hit a target immune response rate, the FDA had reported Feb. 26. [See p. 93G1] FDA officials and panel members described the experimental vaccine as a stopgap measure while more effective vaccines were developed to combat bird flu. The panel voted unanimously to endorse the vaccine for use during a pandemic, but one member abstained out of concerns regarding the vaccine’s safety. The FDA Feb. 26 had posted documents on its Web site indicating that the vaccine appeared to be safe. However, it remained unclear how effective the treatment would be if the virus mutated. Indonesia Agrees to Share Samples—

Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari March 27 said her country would resume providing samples of the H5N1 virus to scientists with the World Health Organization (WHO). Indonesia in mid-January had stopped providing virus samples to Western scientists, citing concerns that Indonesians would gain no benefit from sharing samples with scientists who developed drugs sold at great cost in the relatively poor country. Supari March 14 had said the sharing would resume only after rules regarding the commercial use of samples was set in a legal framework. March 29, 2007

Indonesia was considered an important node of data collection, as the country had suffered from the highest rate of human infections. Experts said a mutation in the virus that would spark a highly fatal pandemic in humans was likely to occur in Indonesia. The WHO March 29 reported that the H5N1 virus had been detected in 285 humans in 12 countries, with 170 of the cases resulting in death. Other News—In other bird flu news: † The Japanese health and welfare ministry had instructed doctors to stop prescribing the flu medication Tamiflu to those aged between 10 and 20, Japanese media reported March 20. The decision had resulted from an investigation into the suicides of two teenagers taking the drug. However, Japanese, U.S. and European regulators all said they had not established a causal link between Tamiflu and neuropsychiatric behavior. Tamiflu was considered the best treatment for avian influenza, and had been stockpiled by governments around the world as preparation for a possible pandemic. [See 2006, p. 27A3] † Russian health authorities Feb. 18 confirmed that the H5N1 bird virus had been discovered on at least six farms within 30 miles (50 km) of Moscow, the capital. In response, Russian officials shut down a number of bird markets and farms in the area, and said they were observing residents for signs of infection. Experts said the discovery indicated that the virus was traveling toward the west along migratory bird paths. „ Circumcision Found to Reduce HIV Risk.

Scientists studying the effect of male circumcision on HIV infection reported in the Feb. 24 issue of the British journal Lancet that it reduced a man’s risk of HIV transmission by as much as 65%. Two clinical trials being run in Uganda and Kenya had been halted in December 2006 after scientists had found substantial transmission risk reduction in circumcised men. The article reported the final data from the halted studies; it showed risk reduction resulting from circumcision had exceeded the levels that were initially reported. [See 2006, p. 971C2] The World Health Organization (WHO) March 28 followed up on the studies by making an official recommendation that males undertake circumcision as a means of reducing the risk of transmitting the AIDS virus. Dr. Kevin De Cock, a director in the WHO’s HIV-AIDS department, said no countries had yet signed up for a circumcision program, but added, “I hope this recommendation will lead some to do so.” International lenders such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria had already indicated that they would provide funds for the operation to those countries that requested the money and could perform the surgery safely. According to Dr. Daniel Halperin of the Harvard School of Public Health in the U.S., countries such as Botswana, South Africa and Swaziland would be good candidates for male circumcision because they provided relatively good health care, AIDS was prevalent and few men were already circumcised. „

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Gonzales’s Former Chief of Staff Testifies on Prosecutor Firings

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ney General Alberto Gonzales’s former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, testified at a March 29 hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate the Justice Department’s controversial dismissal of eight federal prosecutors in 2006. Sampson, who had resigned in early March, disputed Gonzales’s claims of not having been involved in the firings. [See p. 173A1] President George W. Bush the previous week had rejected demands from congressional Democrats for top White House advisers to testify on the matter under oath. Several Republicans had joined Democrats in calling for Gonzales to resign. In his testimony, Sampson said, “I don’t think the attorney general’s statement that he was not involved in any discussions about U.S. attorney removals was accurate. The attorney general was aware of this process from the beginning in early 2005.” Sampson asserted, “The decision makers in this case were the attorney general and the counsel to the president.” Harriet Miers had been White House counsel during the period in question. Sampson said he had discussed the matter with Gonzales at least five times. He also said that “others in the department knew what I knew about the origins and timing of this enterprise.” Gonzales had blamed Sampson for not informing senior Justice Department officials about the plan, causing them to give conflicting explanations to Congress. In his opening statement, Sampson said the U.S. attorneys had been “asked to resign because they were not sufficiently carrying out the president’s and the attorney general’s priorities.” He defended that as a legitimate reason for the ousters, saying, “The distinction between ‘political’ and ‘performancerelated’ reasons for removing a United States attorney is, in my view, largely artificial.” Sampson rebuffed suggestions that the firings might have been connected with “influencing cases for political benefit.” He said, “To my knowledge, nothing of the sort happened here.” Sampson said the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, David Iglesias, was added to the list to be fired after Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, said Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Pete Domenici (N.M.), had complained that Iglesias was not following up on allegations of voter fraud. Sampson denied that Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney in San Diego, Calif., was removed because she had led corruption investigations of Republicans. Sampson said, “The real problem at that time was her office’s prosecution of immigration cases.” Sampson said that in 2006 he had suggested adding the U.S. attorney in Chicago, Patrick Fitzgerald, to the list, but Miers and other White House aides “looked at me as if I had said something totally inappropriate,” and he immediately withdrew the 189

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idea. He said he did not remember that Rove had ever proposed firing Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald had led the prosecution of Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, for perjury and other charges linked to the leak of the name of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative. Libby was convicted earlier in March. [See p. 137A1] Records Show Gonzales Held Meeting—

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Documents released March 23 by the Justice Department showed that Gonzales had held a meeting with aides in November 2006 to plan the dismissals. The meeting was held on Nov. 27, 2006, 10 days before the department ousted seven of the U.S. attorneys. (The eighth had been fired earlier in 2006.) Gonzales March 26 appeared in a television interview on NBC News. He still denied that he had been “involved in the deliberations as to whether or not a particular United States attorney should or should not be asked to resign.” But he acknowledged that he had approved a final list of prosecutors to be forced out. The Justice Department March 23 had said its inspector general, Glenn Fine, and its Office of Professional Responsibility would open a joint investigation into the handling of the firings by department officials. Bush in his weekly radio address March 24 reiterated his support for Gonzales. He also called on Congress to accept his offer of private interviews, off the record and not under oath, with his top political adviser, Karl Rove, Miers and two other aides. The Senate and House judiciary committees had approved subpoenas to compel the four to testify on their roles in the ouster of the prosecutors. The Justice Department March 28 issued an apology for inaccuracies in a Feb. 23 letter to Congress that it said was drafted by Sampson. The letter had said that the department was not aware of Rove “playing any role” in a move to replace one of the ousted prosecutors, in Little Rock, Ark., with his former aide Timothy Griffin. Acting Assistant Attorney General Richard Hertling March 28 conceded that previously released e-mails contradicted that claim. Gonzales Aide Refuses to Testify—Monica Goodling, Gonzales’s counsel and White House liaison, March 26 said in a sworn statement that she would refuse to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, invoking her Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. Goodling had taken an indefinite leave of absence from the department. In an affidavit sent to the committee, Goodling said she had decided not to testify because public remarks by Democrats on the panel suggested that they had already “drawn conclusions” on the matter. House Votes to Repeal Hiring Power—

The House March 26 voted, 329–78, to approve a bill that would repeal a provision of the USA Patriot Act that gave the attorney general the power to appoint interim U.S. attorneys for indefinite periods, without going through the normal Senate confirmation process. The Senate had voted 190

for the repeal the previous week. Bush had signaled that he would sign the measure. Congress acted after documents released by the Justice Department showed that Sampson had proposed using it to install Rove’s aide as the U.S. attorney in Little Rock. Outside Republican E-Mails Sought—

Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, March 26 sent letters to the chairmen of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the 2004 Bush reelection campaign, warning them to preserve copies of messages that White House officials had sent or received using the email systems of those groups. “The e-mails of White House officials maintained on RNC e-mail accounts may be relevant to multiple congressional investigations,” including the probe of the prosecutor firings, Waxman wrote to RNC Chairman Mike Duncan. He cited evidence that White House officials used RNC or campaign email accounts “specifically to avoid creating a record of communications” that could be traced in the White House e-mail system. Ex-Prosecutors Speak Out—One of the fired U.S. attorneys, John McKay of Washington State, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” March 25 reiterated that he believed that he had been ousted for political reasons. McKay said Miers had asked him in 2006 “why Republicans in the state of Washington would be angry with me.” He said he believed she was referring to his decision not to pursue election fraud charges that could have tipped the 2004 gubernatorial election to the Republicans. Margaret Chiara, who had served as U.S. attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich., until her ouster, said in an interview with the New York Times, published March 23 that a senior Justice Department official had told her that she was being removed to clear a place for “an individual they wanted to advance.” She rejected the department’s assertion that she had been fired for poor performance. „

Terrorism Detainees Australian Detainee Pleads Guilty. Australian citizen David Hicks March 26 pleaded guilty to providing support for the Al Qaeda international terrorism network at a military tribunal held at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hicks, who had been captured alongside the forces of the ousted Taliban regime in Afghanistan in December 2001, was the first detainee to be tried under the 2006 Military Commissions Act, which established the tribunals. The chief prosecutor, Air Force Col. Morris Davis, said he would not seek the maximum life sentence. [See p. 144E1] Hicks, 31, pleaded guilty to training in kidnapping and urban warfare techniques at an Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, one of the two material support charges he faced. The prosecution had conceded that he had never taken offensive action against U.S. or allied forces. The presiding judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, earlier that day had barred two of Hicks’s three lawyers from participating

in the trial for noncompliance with tribunal rules; Joshua Dratel, the senior civilian attorney, was disqualified after he refused to assent to all tribunal rules, arguing that they had not yet been set by the Defense Department. Kohlmann dismissed claims by the defense that he was acting in a biased and arbitrary manner. Hicks in pleading guilty said he had not been influenced by the dispute over his representation. Defense lawyers and his family members said he entered the plea in order to avoid a trial by military commission, which human rights groups had criticized as unfair, and to escape indefinite confinement at the Guantanamo Bay camp. U.S and Australian officials indicated that Hicks would be allowed to return to Australia to serve his prison sentence. There had been intense political pressure on the Australian government to secure Hicks’s return, and many Australians reportedly felt that he had been denied due process. The New York Times March 19 reported that Hicks in an affidavit filed in December 2006 had claimed that he had been tortured by U.S. interrogators and had witnessed the abuse of other detainees before his 2002 transfer to Guantanamo Bay. He said that while he had not been abused at Guantanamo Bay, he had seen other detainees mistreated and had been given regular injections that “would make my head feel strange.” „ Gates Supports Closing Guantanamo. Defense Secretary Robert Gates March 29 testified before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee that he would be willing to close a U.S. prison camp used to house terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He said the U.S. might need to pass legislation that would “address the concerns about some of these people who really need to be incarcerated forever, but that doesn’t get them involved in a judicial system where there is the potential of them being released.” Gates added that many countries were not willing to accept detainees released from the camp, and that some prisoners had said they would attack the U.S. again if freed. [See p. 190E2; 2006, pp. 924A2, 482B3] Gates beginning in January had repeatedly pushed for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay camp, the New York Times reported March 22. He reportedly had been joined by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in arguing that widespread international criticism of the allegedly abusive conditions at the camp would irreparably tarnish military trials of detainees held there, and that the trials should be transferred to the U.S. However, the article said, Gates dropped his protests under pressure from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other government lawyers, as well as the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. Gates after his November 2006 appointment had moved toward reversing many of the policies of his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld. He told the Senate Appropriations Committee Feb. 27 that he had scaled back a planned $100 million detention and trial facility to be built at Guantanamo Bay to a more modest $10 million compound, saying the more expensive facility would imply a long-term U.S. presence at the site. FACTS ON FILE

White House spokesman Tony Snow March 23 said it was doubtful that the Guantanamo Bay camp would close before President George W. Bush left office in January 2009. “It’s highly unlikely that you can dispense with all those cases between now and the end of the administration,” he said. Bush in the past had expressed a desire to close the camp once arrangements could be made to house inmates elsewhere. „

Bush Administration Press Secretary Snow’s Cancer Returns.

White House press secretary Tony Snow had suffered a recurrence of colon cancer, and it had spread to his liver, his deputy, Dana Perino, announced March 27. She gave no details on his prognosis or when he might be able to return to work. Snow, 51, had been declared free of cancer in 2005 after his colon was removed and he underwent chemotherapy. He was tapped to join the White House in April 2006. Snow was a former television, radio and newspaper journalist. [See p. 173C3; 2006, p. 322B3] Snow March 23 had said that he was about to have surgery to remove what doctors believed to be a benign growth in his lower abdomen. Earlier that week, he had praised the example set by Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, after the couple announced that her breast cancer had returned and was now incurable, but that his campaign would continue. John Edwards March 27 issued a statement saying, “Elizabeth and I were saddened to hear the news that Tony Snow is once again battling cancer. Tony has been an incredible example for people living with cancer and cancer survivors—he lives every day to the fullest and faces every challenge with courage and determination.” President George W. Bush, who had spoken to Snow by telephone that morning, said his spokesman’s attitude was that he was “not going to let this whip him, and he’s upbeat,” adding, “We need to pray for him and his family.” „

Politics Ex–Interior Deputy Lied on Abramoff Ties.

Former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles March 23 pleaded guilty to lying to the Senate to cover up his ties with corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Griles, 59, who served in the Interior Department from 2001 to 2004, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. [See p. 61D3] In exchange for Griles’s plea, federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a light sentence of five months in prison and five more in a halfway house or under home detention. He faced up to five years in prison for his felony offense. Judge Ellen Huvelle set sentencing for June 26. Prosecutors alleged that Griles, a former lobbyist for mining and energy interests, had used his position to improperly intervene on behalf of American Indian tribes represented by Abramoff. In an e-mail March 29, 2007

message, Abramoff had referred to Griles as “our guy at the Interior Department.” Griles’s girlfriend at the time, Italia Federici, who was referred to as “Person A” in court papers, allegedly acted as a go-between for him and Abramoff. Federici was head of a lobbying group, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy. Abramoff and his tribal clients contributed $500,000 to the group between 2001 and 2003. Griles was not accused of accepting any bribes or other benefits for his assistance to Abramoff. He pleaded guilty to lying during his testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in November 2005, when he denied any “special relationship” with Abramoff. [See 2005, p. 836D2] „

State & Local Politics Louisiana Governor Rules Out Reelection.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) March 20 announced that she would not seek reelection to a second term in November. Blanco’s standing had been damaged by widespread criticism of her performance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast in 2005. She had been blamed for failing to organize an effective recovery effort. [See 2006, p. 928C2; 2003, p. 917C3] Former Sen. John Breaux (D, La.) March 23 said he would run for governor, if the state attorney general ruled that he was still a citizen of the state. Breaux had stayed in Washington, D.C., working as a lobbyist, since retiring from the Senate in 2005 after 32 years in Congress. The state Republican Party, anticipating his entry into the race, had run advertisements questioning his residency status. Rep. Bobby Jindal (R), who lost to Blanco in a 2003 runoff, had already declared that he was running for governor again, and had opened a wide lead over Blanco in the polls. The first round of the election, an open primary for candidates from all parties, was scheduled for Oct. 20, followed by a runoff between the top two finishers if no candidate won more than 50% of the vote in the first round. „

Supreme Court Whistleblower Rewards Limited. The Supreme Court March 27 ruled, 6–2, that whistleblower James Stone was not entitled to share in the federal government’s award in a lawsuit against his former employer, Rockwell International Corp., now owned by Boeing Co. The case was Rockwell International Corp. v. United States. [See 2006, p. 214F3] Stone, a retired Rockwell engineer, had sued the company under the False Claims Act on behalf of the government for lying about the health and safety of its operations at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility in Colorado. His suit was later joined by the government, and they eventually won, but the outcome of the case had hinged on information not provided by Stone. The

court ruled that the False Claims Act’s requirement that a whistleblower be the “original source” for revealing wrongdoing disqualified him from sharing in the $4.2 million award. Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were the only dissenters. Justice Stephen Breyer did not participate in the decision. Other News—In other Supreme Court activity: † The court March 26 said it would hear the government’s appeal of a decision by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturning a 2003 law against child pornography known as the PROTECT Act. At issue in the case, United States v. Michael Williams, was a wide-ranging section of the act that criminalized the promotion, distribution, solicitation or advertisement of material that appeared to depict minors “engaged in sexually explicit conduct.” The appeals court had found that the law, as worded, was an infringement of free speech rights guaranteed under the First Amendment. [See 2004, p. 479E1; 2003, p. 768B3] † The justices March 26 refused to hear widower Shane Fausey’s appeal of Pennsylvania state court rulings giving his child’s maternal grandmother visitation rights over his objections. The high court had never before ruled on grandparents’ visitation rights. The case was Fausey v. Hiller. † Blackfeet Indian Elouise Cobell March 26 lost a bid to have the high court review the removal of Judge Royce Lamberth of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., from her case, Cobell v. Kempthorne. In her case, Cobell had alleged U.S. Interior Department mismanagement of millions of dollars of Indian trust fund royalties. The court also declined to review a lower court’s reversal of Lamberth’s order that the department disconnect its computers from the Internet. [See 2006, p. 646F3] „

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Economy Fed Holds Interest Rate at 5.25%. The Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, March 21 declined to raise or lower interest rates for the sixth time in a row. The Open Market Committee, the Fed’s policy-making body, voted unanimously to leave the benchmark federal funds rate on overnight loans between banks at 5.25%, and the discount rate on loans to commercial banks at 6.25%. [See p. 63G2] The committee, in a statement accompanying its decision, called recent indicators of economic performance “mixed,” but said the economy would probably keep expanding moderately. It explained that its first concern was inflation pressures, but made no suggestion that it might raise interest rates soon. „ Producer Prices Rose 1.3% in February.

Producer prices in February gained 1.3% after seasonal adjustment, according to the Labor Department’s Producer Price Index (PPI) of prices charged by manufacturers and producers of finished goods, released March 15. The index had fallen 0.6% in January. “Core” producer prices, which ex191

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cluded volatile energy and food prices, rose 0.4% in February—their fourth consecutive monthly gain. Energy prices rose 3.5% in February, while food prices were up 1.9%. [See p. 126B1] The finished goods index, before seasonal adjustment, stood at 162.0% of its 1982 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982 would have cost $162.00 in February. Prices for intermediate—or partially processed—goods gained 1.1%, following a 0.7% decline in January. Prices for crude goods jumped by 8.9%, having fallen 6.3% the previous month. „ Current Account Deficit Hit Record in ’06.

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The U.S. current account balance, the broadest measure of the nation’s international trade, rose to a record $856.7 billion in 2006, from $791.5 billion in 2005, the Commerce Department reported March 14. The 2006 deficit was a record 6.5% of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) for the same year, up from 6.4% in 2005. The current account balance measured trade in goods, services, receipts and payments of income, and net “unilateral current transfers,” such as gifts. [See 2006, p. 974C1] In 2006, the U.S. deficit on trade in goods widened, as did its surplus on trade in services. Its balance on income payments showed a deficit of $7.3 billion, having shown an $11.3 billion surplus in 2005. The net outflow of unilateral transfers declined slightly in 2006. For the fourth quarter of 2006, the deficit improved to $195.8 billion, from a revised $229.4 billion gap in the third, according to revised data. The fourth-quarter deficit equaled 5.8% of U.S. gross domestic product for the same quarter, down from 6.9% in the third quarter. „ Leading Indicators Declined in February.

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The Conference Board March 22 reported that its composite index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of future economic activity, fell by 0.5% in February, to 137.3. It had slipped a revised 0.3% in January, the board reported. The index’s base level of 100 reflected conditions in 1996. Four of the 10 indicators in February were “positive” contributors, led by new orders for nondefense capital goods and stock prices. Five contributors were “negative,” led by new unemployment claims (inverted) and consumer expectations. One indicator, average weekly manufacturing hours, was unchanged from January. [See p. 160F3] Other News—In other economic news: † The Departments of Commerce and of Housing and Urban Development March 26 reported jointly that sales of new singlefamily homes dropped by 3.9% in February over the previous month. The new seasonally adjusted annual rate was 848,000 units, down from the revised January rate of 882,000 units. The median price for a new single-family home sold in February was $250,000, up from the revised January level of $243,200. [See p. 126A2] † Sales of existing homes rose 3.9% in February, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.69 million units, the National As192

sociation of Realtors reported March 23. The news defied a generally weak housing market. The rate for January was revised downward to 6.44 million units. The median sale price for existing homes in February was $212,800, down from $215,700 one year earlier. [See pp. 175G1, 161C1] † The Commerce Department March 13 reported that the value of U.S. retail sales, adjusted for seasonal variation, rose 0.1% in February, to $370.5 billion. [See p. 96A3] † The value of business inventories at the end of January was $1.370 trillion after seasonal adjustment, the Commerce Department reported March 13. That was up 0.2% from their revised value at the end of December 2006, $1.367 trillion. The ratio of inventories to sales—a measure of how long it would take businesses to unload their inventories at the current sales pace— was 1.30. [See p. 96A3] „

Business Blackstone Sets Public Offering. Private eq-

uity firm Blackstone Group March 22 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering aimed at raising $4 billion. Blackstone would become the largest private equity firm to sell shares in itself to the public. The move was expected to lead to revelations about the inner workings of private equity firms, such as the fees they charged to investors in their funds and compensation earned by executives. [See p. 96B3] The offering of 10% of the company would value Blackstone as a whole at $40 billion, a market capitalization on a par with the largest Wall Street firms. Blackstone, however, had just 770 employees and was founded only 22 years earlier. Under the stewardship of its founder, Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone had made wide profits by buying up public companies and then selling them or reoffering them to the public at higher prices, taking a 20% cut of the difference for itself and awarding the rest to its fund investors. Its private equity funds controlled companies whose combined annual revenue reached $83 billion. „

GM Posts ’06 Loss, Fourth-Quarter Profit.

General Motors Corp. (GM) March 14 reported a net profit of $950 million in the last quarter of 2006 and a loss of $1.98 billion for the full year, an improvement over its $10 billion loss in 2005. The fourthquarter success for Detroit, Mich.–based GM was due largely to the sale of its financing unit, General Motors Acceptance Corp. (GMAC). In its annual filing with federal regulators, made six weeks late, the company March 15 warned that it continued to suffer from serious accounting problems. [See p. 64A1] „

Accidents & Disasters BP Cuts Faulted in 2005 Texas Refinery Blast.

The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) March 20 released a re-

port blaming a March 2005 explosion at a refinery in Texas City, Texas, operated by British energy firm BP PLC on lax safety standards. BP in a statement “accepted responsibility” for the incident and apologized to the victims. It said it would consider the report carefully, but noted its “strong disagreement with some of the contents.” [See p. 36A3] The CSB said cost-cutting at the refinery ordered before and after a 1999 merger between BP and U.S.-based Amoco Corp., the previous operator, had led to “ hief Executive Officer John Browne, whose resignation had been announced in January, and the company’s board of directors for not exercising “effective safety oversight” and ignoring years of warnings. According to the report, employees and managers involved in overfilling a tower with liquid hydrocarbons, which caused the explosion, had been working for weeks without time off. The report said, “Evidence suggests that the operators’ fatigue degraded their judgment and problemsolving skills, hindering their ability to determine that the tower was overfilling.” It also said poor maintenance of measurement equipment had caused workers to take incorrect readings. The safety board in the report called on the U.S. petroleum industry and unions to set limits on the number of hours and consecutive days of work by refinery laborers. It recommended that BP take steps to improve safety and provide a mechanism for employees to report violations. The CSB also criticized the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for failing to follow up on previous accidents at the refinery, and for not sharing information with the board. OSHA Assistant Secretary of Labor Edwin Foulke Jr. March 20 released a statement saying the agency had fined BP $21 million in the aftermath of the disaster and was putting in place a program to monitor refineries, although he did not specifically address the CSB criticisms. The Financial Times March 27 reported that an internal BP report on the accident, dating from February, faulted John Manzon, BP’s chief executive of refining, for not thoroughly investigation the refinery after previous warnings. It said tensions between him and Mike Hoffman, the former group vice president for refining and marketing, had obstructed investigations, and recommended Hoffman and three other executives for dismissal. „ 2006 W.Va. Mine Collapse Blamed on Sparks.

The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) March 15 released a report saying the most likely cause of a January 2006 explosion that resulted in the deaths of 12 miners at the Sago Mine in West Virginia was sparks resulting from friction between falling rocks, or rocks and metal supports. It blamed the deaths on delays in implementing mine safety measures by mine operator International Coal Group (ICG) Inc. Bennett Hatfield, ICG’s chief executive, in a statement dismissed the UMW findings as “political grandstanding.” [See 2006, p. 1011A1] FACTS ON FILE

Previous investigations conducted by state agencies and the ICG had determined that a lightning strike had most likely caused the explosion. However, UMW President Cecil Roberts March 14 in an interview with the New York Times said, “They still can’t prove how lightning got into the mine.” He claimed that ICG supported the lightning explanation because it would lend itself to an “act of God” defense. ICG March 21 announced that it had temporarily closed the Sago mine due to weak prices and high production costs. „

Civil Rights Old Racial Killings Probed. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller 3rd Feb. 27 said the Justice Department had revived roughly 12 investigations into racially motivated killings during the civil rights era, some dating back more than 40 years, that had largely occurred in the South. [See 2006, p. 515E3] Gonzales and Mueller said they were coordinating their efforts with three civil rights organizations: the NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Urban League. Mueller and Gonzales said the so-called cold case files had been revived because formerly silent witnesses had begun to come forward and investigative technologies had improved. Although investigations into several high-profile killings had been revived in recent years, civil rights groups said there were dozens, if not hundreds, more racial killings that had gone unsolved. „ Little Rock School Supervision Ends.

Judge William Wilson Jr. of U.S. District Court in Little Rock, Ark., Feb. 23 ended the federal government’s supervision of the Little Rock School District. In his order, Wilson found that the 27,000-student district had met obligations set out in a 1998 desegregation plan intended to ensure that all students received equal educational opportunities, regardless of race. Under Wilson’s order, the local school board would “operate the school district as it sees fit, answerable to no one.” [See 2006, p. 1009B2; 1997, p. 730D2] In 1957, Gov. Orval Faubus (D) had instructed armed members of the Arkansas National Guard to bar the entrance of nine black students to the all-white Central High School in the Little Rock School District, in defiance of a federal court order. In response, President Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) federalized some members of the Arkansas National Guard and dispatched the army to enforce the court order. The event was considered a seminal moment in the civil rights movement. „ Va., Md. Legislatures ‘Regret’ Slavery. The legislatures of Virginia Feb. 24 and Maryland March 26 both voted to express “regret” for the states’ past participation in the slave trade. In Virginia, both houses of the General Assembly Feb. 24 voted unanimously to endorse a resolution expressing March 29, 2007

“profound regret” for the state’s role in slavery. The resolution did not require the signature of Gov. Timothy Kaine (D). Supporters of the Virginia resolution said they believed it was the first time a state had apologized for slavery. Additionally, the statement expressed regret for “the exploitation of Native Americans.” [See 2005, p. 419D2] The Maryland House of Delegates March 26 approved, 130–6, a similar measure expressing “profound regret” that the state had “trafficked in human flesh.” The state Senate in February had passed a similar resolution. Other News—In related news: † The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science in Tallahassee, Fla., March 16 refused a request from the Sons of Confederate Veterans to remove an art exhibit the group said was disrespectful to the Confederate flag. The exhibit, by artist John Sims, showed a Confederate battle flag being hanged on a 13-foot-high gallows. It was titled, “The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag.” [See 2003, p. 582A1] † The Georgia state Senate Rules Committee March 15 unanimously endorsed a plan to create a Confederate heritage month in the state. According to its sponsor, Sen. Jeff Mullis (R), the bill would honor those “who contributed in sundry and myriad ways to the cause of Southern Independence.” [See 2004, p. 160D1] „ Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Observed.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Jan. 15 was observed in various locations across the country for the first time since the death of Coretta Scott King, the wife of the slain civil rights leader. Coretta Scott King had died in late January 2006. Observers gathered at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., to attend a service, listen to speeches and visit the couple’s tombs. [See 2006, p. 895C1] An exhibit of more than 10,000 of King’s papers and documents the same day was put on display for the first time at the Atlanta History Center. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin (D) in 2006 had helped negotiate the purchase of the papers on behalf of Morehouse College in Atlanta, King’s alma mater. „

Medicine & Health Higher Death Rate Linked to Antioxidants.

A team of Danish researchers reported in the Feb. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that people taking popular antioxidant dietary supplements were at a 5% higher risk of dying than those not taking them. The researchers had analyzed data gathered in 47 separate studies involving 180,938 subjects; their work was considered the most comprehensive study of such supplements to date. [See 2004, p. 327C1; 2000, p. 320F3] Antioxidants examined in the study included vitamins A, C and E, and the nutrients beta-carotene and selenium, all of which naturally occurred in vegetables,

fruits and other foods. Dietary supplements, many of which contained antioxidents, were widely taken in the U.S. for their assumed healthful properties, with an estimated 150 million people regularly using them. The report found that the death risk among those taking vitamin A supplements increased the most, by 16%, while the risk for those taking beta-carotene supplements increased by 7% and the risk for those taking vitamin E increased by 4%. The report found no additional risk from taking vitamin C or selenium supplements. Several other researchers and members of the supplement industry questioned the report’s results, with some noting that the study had included people who were ill in their data. The research was led by Christian Gluud of the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. „ FDA Sets Warning for Anemia Drug. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) March 9 announced that it would require a “black box” warning—its strongest—for a class of drugs called erythropoietins used to treat anemia. The FDA warned that physicians had been prescribing erythropoietins at higher-than-recommended doses in order to reverse anemia in kidney failure and cancer patients. Anemia was a blood disorder in which oxygen-carrying hemoglobin levels fell below normal. [See 2002, p. 558D1] The FDA warning stemmed from six recent studies which had found that overuse of erythropoietins could contribute to the growth of tumors, and an increase in the risk of heart problems and death in cancer patients. The agency recommended that the drugs be used only to prevent the need for a blood transfusion in patients, and not to completely reverse anemia. The drugs were sold under the brand names Aranesp, Epogen and Procrit in the U.S. Erythropoietins were used to treat an estimated one million patients in the U.S., and worldwide sales of the drug had totaled an estimated $10 billion in 2006. Erythropoietin drugs also constituted the largest drug expenditure in the Medicare program, with Epogen alone costing an estimated $2 billion for patients needing kidney dialysis in 2005. „

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Numerous beekeepers beginning in late 2006 had reported the mysterious disappearance of a large proportion of their bee colonies, the Associated Press reported Feb. 11. The resulting shortage of bees had the potential to damage the numerous crops whose production depended on pollination by bees, particularly fruits and almonds. [See 2006, p. 904D1] Researchers said they were unsure of the cause of the mass bee deaths. They suggested that it could be an outbreak of harmful viruses or mites, or a weakening of bees’ immunity due to pressures caused by beekeepers’ efforts to maximize their productivity. „ 193

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Mauritania Ex-Minister Wins Presidential Runoff. Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdellahi, a 68year-old former cabinet minister, March 26 was declared the winner of Mauritania’s runoff presidential election, held the previous day. Abdellahi defeated veteran opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah, 53%– 47%. The election marked the first time that power would change hands in Mauritania via an election since its independence from France in 1960. [See p. 161E2] The election capped Mauritania’s transition to democracy after a bloodless military coup in August 2005 that had ended 21 years of dictatorial rule by President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya. The ruling military junta had pledged to restore democracy, and none of its members had been allowed to run in the presidential poll or in parliamentary and municipal elections held in 2006. Abdellahi, an economist, had served as a minister under Taya in the 1970s, but was later put under house arrest. He was reportedly supported by Taya loyalists and the army, as well as the third- and fourth-place candidates in the first round of voting. Abdellahi was also supported by Mauritania’s leading antislavery advocate. Slavery, though illegal, was said to be a persistent problem in the country. Daddah, 65, was the half-brother of Mauritania’s first post-independence president, Mokhtar Ould Daddah. He had lost presidential elections to Taya in 1992 and 2003. [See 2003, p. 860C2] Both candidates were members of the light-skinned Moorish elite that had traditionally controlled Mauritania, which had a mixed population of white and black Moors and black Africans. Turnout was 67% of the country’s 1.1 million eligible voters, according to the interior ministry. The head of the European Union’s observer mission, Marie-Anne Isler Beguin, March 25 praised the vote. „ Crew, Passengers Foil Hijacker. A man carrying two handguns Feb. 15 hijacked an Air Mauritania Boeing 737 airliner carrying 71 passengers and eight crew members en route from Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital, to Las Palmas on Gran Canaria, one of Spain’s Canary Islands. The hijacker ordered the pilot to fly to France, where he reportedly wanted to seek political asylum. However, the pilot told the man that the plane did not have enough fuel to reach France, and continued on to Gran Canaria. [See 2006, p. 907A1, E1] The pilot, Ahmedou Mohamed Lemine, who had realized that the hijacker did not speak French, during the flight told passengers and crew members over an intercom in French that he planned to break hard upon landing and then accelerate, in an attempt to make the hijacker lose his balance. The ploy worked, and, after the man fell down, the crew poured boiling water on him and several passengers tackled him. The hijacker, Mohamed Abderra194

man, was arrested by Spanish authorities at Gando military base near Las Palmas, where the plane landed. „

Somalia Fighting Flares in Capital. Dozens of civil-

ians were killed March 19–23 in a flare-up of fighting in Mogadishu, the capital, between Islamic insurgents and transitional government forces backed by Ethiopian troops. A truce was implemented March 23, but at least 11 people were killed March 29 in renewed fighting. [See p. 128G1] Somalia’s transitional government, backed by Ethiopia, in December 2006 had retaken power from an Islamist militia that controlled much of central and southern Somalia. However, violence had increased in some parts of the country, especially Mogadishu, since the beginning of 2007, as the Islamists launched an insurgency. Fighters loyal to clans that opposed the transitional government had reportedly joined the insurgents. Ethiopia had started pulling out its troops in January, and an 8,000-member African Union (AU) peacekeeping force was approved by the United Nations in February in an effort to prop up the weak transitional government. However, the roughly 1,200 Ugandan peacekeepers already in Somalia did not get involved in the latest fighting. [See below] In one of the highest-profile incidents in the recent wave of violence, at least 16 people were killed and dozens more were wounded March 21 in fighting between pro-government forces and insurgents. The fighting began when government forces raided a neighborhood in the south of the city controlled by a clan loyal to the insurgents. Masked insurgents, as well as some civilians, dragged the bodies of two government soldiers and two Ethiopian soldiers through the streets of the capital, in a scene reminiscent of an incident that brought an abrupt end to a U.S. mission in Mogadishu in 1993. In that incident, 18 U.S. soldiers were killed after a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter was shot down, and some of their bodies were dragged through the streets. [See 1993, p. 743B2] In another incident, a Belarusian-owned cargo plane March 23 crashed in Mogadishu, killing 11 Belarusian crew members. The plane, owned by Transaviaexport Airlines, reportedly crashed on the city’s Indian Ocean shoreline. The Belarus government March 24 claimed that the plane, which had been assisting the AU peacekeepers, had been shot down by a missile, but Somali authorities said the crash appeared to have been an accident. The government and leaders of the powerful Hawiye clan, which supported the Islamists, March 23 implemented an uneasy truce. However, government and Ethiopian forces March 29 launched an assault against the insurgents. Ethiopian helicopter gunships fired missiles at Islamist positions in Mogadishu, and the insurgents responded with rocket launchers and machine guns. At least 11 people, mainly

civilians, were killed, and 50 others were reported injured. Meanwhile, civilians were fleeing Mogadishu in droves. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) March 28 estimated that 57,000 people had fled the city since the beginning of February, including more than 10,000 in the previous week. The UNHCR said it had compiled the figures “based on information provided by non-governmental organizations in Somalia.” It also said there were an estimated 400,000 internally displaced people in Somalia. [See below] Peacekeepers Attacked Upon Arrival—

The insurgents March 6 fired mortars at Mogadishu’s international airport as the first members of the AU peacekeeping force arrived in Somalia. Hundreds of Ugandan peacekeepers began arriving that day; none were injured in the attack. Insurgents continued their attacks on the peacekeepers the next day, firing rockets at a convoy that was driving through Mogadishu. Nine civilians were killed in that attack, and two peacekeepers were wounded. The AU as yet had received pledges for only about half of the 8,000 troops needed for the force, from Uganda, Burundi, Ghana, Malawi and Nigeria. Other News—In other news related to the Somali conflict: † The UNHCR March 26 said at least 29 Somali and Ethiopian migrants were killed and some 90 others remained missing after smugglers forced them overboard into shark-infested waters March 22 as their boats were pursued by authorities off the coast of Yemen, in the Gulf of Aden. A total of about 450 migrants were forced off four wooden boats in which they were being smuggled to Yemen from the Horn of Africa. The UNHCR said at least 30,000 people had fled to Yemen from the region since January 2006. The agency also said 262 people had died or gone missing while making the crossing since the beginning of 2007. [See p. 128B3] † Insurgents March 13 fired mortars at the Mogadishu residence of Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. A 12-yearold boy was killed in the attack, but the president was unharmed. † The transitional government March 12 voted to move to Mogadishu. It had previously been based in Baidoa, about 155 miles (250 km) northwest of the capital, due to security concerns. „

AMERICAS

Canada Liberals Form Minority in Quebec Vote.

The Quebec wing of the Liberal Party March 26 narrowly defeated the conservative populist party Action Democratique de Quebec (ADQ) and the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) to form a minority government in the province, though the Liberals suffered significant losses in the elections. It was the first minority government in the province in more than 125 years. The LibFACTS ON FILE

erals were expected to rule with the support of the opposition ADQ. [See p. 146C3] The Liberals, led by Jean Charest, captured 48 seats, with 33% of the popular vote, in the province’s 125-seat National Assembly. However, the ADQ, led by Mario Dumont, had exceeded analysts’ expectations by surging in polls to win 41 seats and 31% of the total ballots. The PQ, which had been ousted by the Liberals in 2003 elections, finished with 36 seats and 28% of the popular vote. At dissolution of the legislature in February, the Liberals had held 72 seats; the PQ, 45; and the ADQ, five, with one independent and two vacancies. The ADQ’s showing signified a political sea change in the province, where the issue of separatism had long dominated political debate. Analysts said the election results reflected the public’s growing exhaustion with the sovereignty issue. Dumont during the campaign had backed a vague plan for Quebec’s “autonomy” that called for greater provincial powers, but stopped short of seeking sovereignty. He had also argued that the provincial government had done too much to placate religious minorities, a stance that had reverberated with heavily Roman Catholic rural voters. The PQ, led by Andre Boisclair since November 2005, had twice brought sovereignty referendums before the public. The first sovereignty vote in 1980 was defeated, 60%–40%, and the second narrowly lost, 51%–49%, in 1995. „ Defense Min. Apologizes in Abuse Scandal.

Defense Minister Gordon O’Connor March 19 apologized to the House of Commons for “providing inaccurate information” on the treatment of Taliban suspects held in Afghanistan by Canadian military forces. O’Connor in May 2006 had said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had agreed to monitor the treatment of suspects turned over to Afghan authorities by the Canadian military. O’Connor had also claimed that the ICRC would inform the Canadian government of any detainee abuse at the hands of Afghan officials. He had subsequently reiterated those claims for roughly one year. [See p. 146F3] However, an ICRC spokesman March 7 said the organization had never entered into an agreement to monitor detainees held by Canadian or Afghan authorities in Afghanistan. The ICRC also said informing the Canadian government of detainee abuses suffered by Afghan officials would contravene the group’s own policies. O’Connor in a March 8 statement acknowledged that he had been mistaken in his claims that the ICRC would inform Canada in the event of detainee abuse. He explained March 19 that his beliefs had stemmed from a misunderstanding of the ICRC’s role. However, human rights advocates and opposition politicians had regularly challenged O’Connor’s claims, noting that the ICRC had always refrained from revealing its findings to any party other than the government running the monitored detention facility. Several opposition politicians March 19 called for O’Connor’s resignation after he March 29, 2007

issued his apology, arguing that the minister had either grossly failed in his duties or had intentionally misled Parliament regarding the treatment of detainees. Canada in 2002 had begun deployment of some 2,300 military personnel as part of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. „

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China Hong Kong Chief Reelected. A 795-member electoral committee in Hong Kong March 25 voted overwhelmingly to reelect Donald Tsang as the territory’s chief executive. The outcome had been widely expected, as the committee was largely composed of business leaders and other local elites who adhered to the wishes of China’s central government. The vote was nevertheless the first since Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 in which a challenger from the pro-democracy opposition ran. [See p. 67E2] Tsang, 62, won 649 votes, to 123 for Alan Leong, representing the Democratic and Civic parties. The remaining committee members failed to cast a valid vote. Tsang had taken over as chief executive after the resignation of his predecessor, Tung Chee-hwa in 2005, serving the remainder of Tung’s term. He was elected to a full five-year term that would be his last under limits imposed by Hong Kong’s Basic Law. Tsang and Leong participated in unprecedented televised debates March 1 and March 15. Leong, 49, in the debates called for Hong Kong to institute universal suffrage by 2012, the year of the next chief executive election. China and Britain, in the agreement returning Hong Kong to China, had stipulated that the territory would be democratized, but did not spell out when. The electoral committee itself was elected by a group of 200,000 voters, a small fraction of Hong Kong’s population of nearly seven million. Tsang, who called pro-democracy groups’ demands unrealistic, pledged to “solve” the question of introducing direct elections during a second term. He was expected to unveil a proposal later in the year. The incumbent also described Leong as illqualified to handle the territory’s financial policy. About 3,000 pro-democracy demonstrators March 18 gathered for a march in central Hong Kong, voicing the demand for universal suffrage by the 2012 election. Another issue in the race was Hong Kong’s severe and worsening air pollution. Leong accused Tsang of failing to address the problem, while Tsang maintained that much of the pollution actually originated in mainland China. However, a report released by a nonprofit advocacy group March 21 found that more than half of the high-pollution days in the territory’s center were brought about by local emissions. [See 2006, p. 914E1] „

AIDS Activist Freed to Travel. Chinese AIDS

activist Gao Yaojie, 80, March 14 received an award from U.S. women’s advocacy group Vital Voices Global Partnership in Washington, D.C. Chinese authorities Feb. 1 had placed Gao under house arrest, apparently to prevent her from traveling to receive the award and potentially embarrassing the Chinese government, but had relented Feb. 16. Gao, a retired obstetrician, had helped show that a blood-selling scheme operated by officials in Henan province had caused an outbreak of infections of HIV, the virus that caused AIDS. Gao in 2001 had been prevented from leaving China to receive another award in the U.S. [See 2001, p. 484B1] „ Religious Belief Surveyed. Researchers at East China Normal University in Shanghai Feb. 7 released results of a survey suggesting that some 300 million of China’s 1.3 billion people were religious believers, many more than the government’s official estimate of 100 million. More than 30% of the 4,500 people surveyed had described themselves as religious. The lead author of the study, Liu Zhongyu, suggested that as the country’s communist society was transforming into a competitive capitalist one, some Chinese felt “unstable” and “rootless.” He also noted that while China’s ruling Communist Party was officially atheist, and religious practices were restricted by the government, the scope of permitted religious activity had grown in recent decades. [See 2006, p. 895A1] „

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Inquiry Ordered Into Journalist’s Killing.

Chinese news media Jan. 24 reported that President Hu Jintao had ordered a speedy investigation into the January beating death of a journalist, Lan Chengzhang, who had been investigating corruption and safety shortcomings at a coal mine in Datong in Shanxi province. Chinese news media had highlighted the killing as apparently intended to intimidate journalists. Mine owner Hou Zhenrun, who was accused of ordering the beating, Jan. 19 had turned himself in to police. Datong officials suggested that Lan had actually sought to blackmail Hou by demanding payment in return for not publishing his article, a practice that was reportedly becoming increasingly common in China. [See p. 35A1] „

Japan Premier Apologizes Over WWII Sex Slaves.

Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe, speaking in the Diet (parliament) March 26, offered an apology to Asian women forced to become prostitutes for the Japanese military during World War II. However, he continued to stand by his remarks earlier in the month denying that there was evidence that the military was directly responsible for coercing the women. [See p. 148B2] Abe’s latest statements came in response to questions from an opposition lawmaker challenging his stance. He said, “I express my sympathy toward the comfort women,” using a common Japanese euphemism for the forced prostitutes, “and apologize for the situation they found 195

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Thailand Finance Minister Resigns. Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula Feb. 28 resigned in a surprise move, claiming that he had not received the full support of the military-appointed government. Pridiyathorn, who also held the deputy premier post, said he would not “work under the influence of some people whose behavior is not entirely transparent … especially some ministers.” The government March 7 appointed Chalongphob Sussangkarn as the new finance minister. He was a former World Bank economist who had been a sharp critic of capital controls introduced under Pridiyathorn in December 2006 that had roiled Thailand’s economy. [See p. 19G2] Somkid Jatusripitak, who had been appointed government economic adviser Feb. 15, resigned Feb. 21. Somkid had served as finance minister and deputy premier under former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and had spearheaded Thaksin’s populist economic programs. His appointment had been seen as an attempt to calm leery foreign investors and reach out to Thaksin supporters. However, many opponents of the former premier, including Pridiyathorn, had objected to what they said 196

was reluctance on the part of the government to punish the alleged corruption of the former regime. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

European Union Group’s 50th Anniversary Celebrated. The European Union March 25 celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding with events in Berlin, the German capital, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The EU, which now had 27 member nations, had evolved from the 1957 Treaty of Rome. The treaty, between six countries in Western Europe, had formed a common market then known as the European Economic Community. [See pp. 164A2, 5E2; 1957, p. 94C1] The leaders of the 27 member nations gathered in Berlin to mark the occasion. (Germany held the rotating EU presidency.) Merkel and EU officials signed a Berlin Declaration that hailed the EU’s achievement of bringing peace and reconciliation to a continent ravaged by two world wars. It also noted that nations in Central and Eastern Europe had recently joined the EU, ending the “unnatural division” imposed by the Cold War. Merkel said the reunification of Berlin and of Germany, divided into democratic west and communist east until 1990, symbolized those changes. She recalled her own life as an East Berliner, cut off from the West by the Berlin Wall. Merkel used the EU’s anniversary to push for a commitment to agree on a new EU constitution by the end of the year and ratify it by 2009. “Not to do so would be an historic failure,” she warned. The EU had shelved the constitution after voters in France and the Netherlands rejected it in 2005 referendums. Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Czech President Vaclav Klaus expressed skepticism about Merkel’s timeline and the necessity for a constitution. [See 2005, p. 413A1] „

Great Britain Northern Ireland Foes Agree to Share Rule.

Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the biggest nationalist party. [See p. 165A2] “We must not allow our justified loathing of the horrors and tragedies of the past to become a barrier to creating a better and more stable future,” Paisley said. Adams expressed similar hopes, saying, “We are very conscious of the many people who have suffered. We owe it to them to build the best possible future.” More than 3,500 people had been killed in three decades of violence in Northern Ireland. The violence had mostly ended after an Irish Republican Army (IRA) cease-fire in 1997 led to the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. In 2005, another milestone came when the IRA, a militant group linked to Sinn Fein, announced that it was disarming. Britain had set a March 26 deadline for the two sides to reach an agreement. It had warned that if they failed to do so, it would extend its direct rule over the province, with Ireland playing an administrative role. Britain had suspended local rule in 2002 over allegations of IRA espionage. Paisley, 80, for decades had rejected the idea of sharing local rule with nationalists like Sinn Fein. Now he was expected to head the new government as first minister, with Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein as his deputy. Jim Allister, a DUP member of the European Parliament, March 27 quit the party in protest of Paisley’s decision to form a government with Sinn Fein. „ Brown

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British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown March 21 presented a budget most notable for cuts in income tax and corporate taxes, in contrast to his previous 10 budgets. The tax cuts were seen as a bid by Brown to shore up his popularity as he prepared for his likely succession to Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was expected to step down within months. However, Brown offset the cost of his tax cuts by raising other taxes, prompting critics to accuse him of attempting to deceive the public. [See 2006, p. 983A3] Brown proposed cutting the basic rate of income tax to 20%, from 22%, starting in April 2008. He left the top rate of 40% unchanged. Brown proposed covering the cost of his income tax cut by abolishing a 10% starting rate that now applied to the first £2,150 ($4,200) of income, and raising na-

The leading parties on each side of the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland, between mostly Roman Catholic nationalists and the largely Protestant unionists who backed continued British rule, March 26 said they had agreed to form a power-sharing local government by May 8. The deal emerged at an unprecedented meeting in Belfast, Northern Ireland’s capital, between longtime foes Rev. Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian Paisley (left) and Sinn Fein chief Gerry Unionist Party Adams (right) at a press conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland, March 26, when they (DUP), and Gerry reached agreement on forming a power-sharing provincial government.

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themselves in.” He added, “I apologize here and now as premier.” Abe said he supported a 1993 statement by Japan’s government acknowledging the military brothels. But the opposition lawmaker, Haruko Yoshikawa of the Communist Party, said that Abe’s refusal to admit the Japanese military’s responsibility contradicted the 1993 statement, which acknowledged coercion of the women. The government March 16 had issued a statement, backed by Abe’s cabinet, contending that a historical inquiry had not found evidence showing “that the military or authorities so-called forcibly led away” women into prostitution. Advocates for the surviving victims contended that the 1993 statement fell short of a full official apology, and demanded compensation from the Japanese government. Meanwhile, some members of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) had been pressing for a renunciation or revision of the statement. Abe March 8 had announced that the LDP would open a new inquiry into Japanese forces’ role in the establishment of the wartime brothels, and that the government would cooperate with it. The U.S. State Department March 26 called on Japan to deal with the issue “in a forthright and responsible manner that acknowledges the gravity of the crimes that were committed.” Former Premier Yasuhiro Nakasone March 23 had denied allegations that a recreation facility he had established while he was in the navy during World War II was a military brothel. He said it had been a kind of chess club for civilian engineers. Nakasone, also of the LDP, had been premier from 1982 to 1987. „

tional insurance contributions (equivalent to Social Security taxes in the U.S.). Sir Menzies Campbell, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, charged that scrapping the 10% starting rate to cut the basic rate to 20% meant that “this is an income tax cut for the wealthy dressed up as a tax cut for the poor.” Brown insisted that the poor would end up better off than before, as a result of increased tax credits. Brown called for cutting the corporate tax rate to 28%, from 30%. He proposed covering the cost of that cut by eliminating a variety of tax breaks for businesses. He also called for holding government spending increases to 2% a year for the next three years, in contrast to the heavy outlays on public services in his previous budgets. „ Three London Bombing Suspects Held.

British police March 22 arrested three men suspected of involvement in July 2005 terrorist suicide bombings that killed 52 victims, as well as the four bombers. Police arrested two of the men at the airport in Manchester as they prepared to board a flight to Pakistan. The third suspect was arrested in the city of Leeds, in northern England. The arrests were the first major development in the investigation of the suicide attacks, which had been carried out by British Muslim men, three of Pakistani origin and a fourth of Jamaican background. [See p. 51D3; 2006, p. 555B3] Authorities did not identify the three suspects, but the two arrested in Manchester were reported to be Mohammed Shakil, 30, and Shipon Ullah, 23, both residents of Leeds. The third man, arrested in Leeds, was reportedly Sadeer Saleem, 26. „

Italy Prodi Wins Afghanistan Vote. Italian Pre-

mier Romano Prodi March 27 won a key vote in the Senate, the upper chamber of parliament, backing his government’s policy of maintaining a deployment of Italian troops in Afghanistan. The Senate voted, 180–2, with 132 abstentions, for a measure to fund overseas military deployments. The lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, had approved the measure March 8. Prodi March 2 had won a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies, 342–298, to keep his government in office, after a crisis caused by the opposition of some parties in his coalition to the Afghanistan mission. [See p. 131B3] Journalist Held By Taliban Ransomed—

Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan March 19 released an Italian reporter, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who was taken hostage March 5. The Afghan government March 20 confirmed that it had swapped five Taliban prisoners as a ransom. Mastrogiacomo, 52, who worked for the newspaper La Repubblica, said he had been forced to watch the execution of his Afghan driver and did not know the fate of his interpreter. The U.S., Britain and the Netherlands, which all had troops in Afghanistan, criticized Italy for arranging the deal, saying it could encourage more hostagetaking. In Italy, the conservative opposition and press denounced the deal. „ March 29, 2007

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European News in Brief Armenia: Premier Dies. Armenian Premier

Andranik Margaryan, 55, died of a sudden heart attack March 25 in Yerevan, the capital. Margaryan, who was chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia, which President Robert Kocharyan also belonged to, had been premier since 2000. Kocharyan March 26 accepted the cabinet’s resignation, constitutionally required in the case of a vacancy in the premiership, but immediately reassigned its members to their posts on an interim basis. The party said it would nominate a new premier within days. Margaryan had been born in Yerevan in 1951, when Armenia was part of the Soviet Union. He been a dissident under Soviet rule, and was imprisoned for two years in 1974 for “nationalist activities.” [See 2003, p. 431A2] „ France: Editor Cleared in Cartoons Case.

A court in France March 22 acquitted a satirical weekly newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, and its editor, Philippe Val, on charges of “publicly abusing” Muslims by publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Charlie Hebdo, along with several other European newspapers, had published the caricatures in February 2006, after their initial publication by a Danish newspaper in 2005 sparked worldwide Muslim protests. Muslim groups in France had brought the complaint against Charlie Hebdo, which had faced a fine of $29,000, and Val, who faced up to six months in prison. The court said it found no “deliberate intention of directly and gratuitously offending the Muslim community.” [See 2006, p. 870E2] „ Hungary: Opposition Rally Turns Violent.

Tens of thousands of people March 15 rallied in Budapest, the capital, demanding the resignation of Socialist Premier Ferenc Gyurcsany. The demonstration was held on Hungary’s National Day commemorating the 1848 revolt against the Austrian Habsburg monarchy. It was the latest in a series of protests by the conservative opposition against Gyurcsany. They had begun in September 2006 in response to the revelation that he had misled the public about the country’s finances before an election earlier that year. Later March 15, a much smaller group of far-right-wing protesters clashed with police after the arrest of a nationalist leader, Gyorgy Budahazy, wanted in connection with riots in September 2006. [See 2006, p. 963E2] „ Russia: Coal Mine Explosion Kills 108. A methane gas explosion at a coal mine in the Siberian town of Novokuznetsk, in southcentral Russia, March 19 killed 108 people. It was one of the deadliest mining accidents in Russia since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Federal authorities March 26 said they had discovered violations of safety regulations at the Ulyanovskaya mine, where the explosion occurred. Inspections were under way at other mines in the region, which had been the site of several deadly mining accidents in recent years. [See 2005, p. 966D3; 1997, p. 931G3] „

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Iraq Deputy Premier Wounded in Bombing.

Twin bombings in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, March 23 seriously wounded Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie, the Sunni Muslim deputy premier. The bombs struck Zubaie’s home as he and others were engaged in prayer, killing eight people and wounding more than a dozen others. Zubaie was in stable condition after surgery at a U.S. facility in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. [See p. 169A1] A Sunni insurgent group, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on the Internet. The statement called Zubaie a “betrayer vagabond who sold his religion” by allying himself with the Shiite Muslim–led government of Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki. “We say to all betrayers of the infidel alMaliki government,” the statement said, “wait for what will hurt you.” Zubaie belonged to a tribe that in 2006 had helped to form the Anbar Salvation Council, a group of Sunni tribes dedicated to eliminating the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, which was affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq. Separately, Harith Dhaher al-Dhari—a commander of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, an insurgent group which had taken credit for attacks on U.S. forces—March 27 died when two car bombs exploded near his home in Abu Ghraib just west of Baghdad. Dhari's father blamed Al Qaeda in Iraq for the attack, and vowed revenge. Dhari and other Sunni leaders had criticized the group, which had recently been lashing out at many Sunni opponents. Dhari belonged to the same clan as Zubaie, and his uncle, Sheikh Harith al-Dhari, was head of the Sunni Muslim Scholars Association. Sectarian Violence Rocks Tal Afar— A series of attacks March 24–28 killed more than 110 people and wounded at least 200 more in the northern city of Tal Afar. The city was populated by ethnic Turkomen and was mostly Sunni but had a sizable Shiite minority. U.S. President George W. Bush had cited progress in the city in 2006 as a source of hope for Iraq as a whole. The violence in Tal Afar began March 24 when a suicide bomber killed 10 people in a commercial area of the city. [See 2006, p. 206B3] A double truck bombing the night of March 27 killed scores of people—estimates ran from 55 to 150—and wounded at least 180 more. The attacks took place in a Shiite area of the city. Gunmen reportedly ambushed ambulances trying to serve the wounded. The first bomber had reportedly lured people toward him by claiming that he was dispensing flour. Following the attacks, Shiite gunmen March 27–28 stormed through Sunni areas of the city, dragging residents out of their homes and firing at pedestrians. At least 45 people were killed, many of them shot in the back of the head while their hands were tied behind their backs. Women and children were reportedly among those killed. 197

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Dozens more people were injured or kidnapped. Witnesses claimed that many of the gunmen were members of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia, and that some were police officers. Most police officers in Tal Afar were Shiites. Eventually, an Iraqi army unit arrived in the city, detained many of the gunmen, including some police officers, and imposed a curfew on the city. Many of the officers, however, were reportedly released following demonstrations. Maliki March 28 ordered several investigations into the violence, particularly into the question of whether police officers had taken part in the reprisal killings. A spokesman for the interior ministry, Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, March 29 suggested that the violence was due to recent joint Iraqi-U.S. efforts to secure Baghdad. Those efforts, he claimed, might be pushing insurgents to target civilians outside the capital. Iran Threatens Conference Boycott—

An unidentified Iranian official March 28 said Iran would consider not attending an upcoming conference on Iraqi security if the U.S. did not release Iranians held in its custody. At issue were five members of the Quds Force—an elite group affiliated with Iran’s ruling clergy, apprehended in Irbil in January—and Jalal Sharafi, an official with Iran’s embassy, who was abducted by gunmen in February. [See pp. 186C2, 154D1, 86F1, 11D1] Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq: † A double suicide bombing March 29 killed at least 60 people and injured at least 25 more in a Shiite market in Baghdad. † A triple bombing March 29 in Khalis, a Shiite town 50 miles (80 km) north of Baghdad, killed at least 40 people and wonded 80 more. † U.S. military and embassy officials March 28 acknowledged that the Green Zone was increasingly coming under attack by insurgents. Mortars and rockets had hit the area, which housed many U.S. and Iraqi officials and administrative agencies, on six of the previous seven days, and 10 times in the previous month. A rocket attack March 27 had killed a U.S. soldier and a U.S. contractor. [See p. 170G2] † Gunmen March 27 stormed the home of two elderly Chaldean Catholic nuns in Kirkuk, stabbing and shooting them to death as they slept. † A car bomb in Ramadi March 27 killed at least 10 people and injured 25 more. † Roadside bombs March 25 killed five U.S. soldiers, four of them in one blast in Diyala province. † Rooftop gunmen March 25 fired at Iraqi soldiers in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Fadhil. Fighting between the soldiers and the gunmen killed at least two civilians and wounded four more. † A truck bomb March 24 exploded outside a Shiite mosque in a town south of Baghdad, killing 11 people and wounding 198

45 more. The mosque was destroyed. Shiites March 25 attacked three Sunni mosques south of Baghdad after gunmen fired on a funeral procession for Shiite victims of the previous day’s attack. † Three suicide car bombs March 24 struck Iraqi army and police forces in the northern town of Qaim near the border with Syria. At least six police officers were killed. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attacks. † A suicide truck bombing March 24 killed 20 people outside a police station in the mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood of Dora in southern Baghdad. Fourteen police officers and three prisoners were among the dead. Another 26 people were wounded. † Iraqi police March 23 arrested a man driving a truck rigged with explosives and chlorine gas near a police station in Ramadi. Two suicide truck bombs carrying chlorine March 27 detonated outside a government building in or around Falluja, wounding 15 U.S. and Iraqi troops. Many other people were sickened by the fumes. Security forces had identified the threat and fired on the trucks prior to their detonation. Chlorine bombs had been used in several attacks in recent weeks. [See p. 171B2] † A car bomb March 23 killed five people and wounded 19 more in Sadr City, a massive Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. „

SOUTH ASIA

Pakistan Tribesmen Fight Resident Foreign Militants.

Heavy fighting between Pashtun tribesmen and foreign militants allied with Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime March 19–22 killed about 130 people, according to Pakistani government reports. The battle took place near Wana, in the semiautonomous region of South Waziristan along the Afghan border. There were conflicting reports about what sparked the fighting. According to one account, it began after Uzbek militants attempted to assassinate a local tribal leader who favored cooperation with Pakistan’s central government. [See pp. 149A2, 69G2] Since the Taliban’s overthrow in 2001, foreign miliants had found refuge among the area’s tribes, which for the most part rejected government interference in their affairs. The clashes marked a new division between the two groups that Pakistani authorities, who played no role in the latest fighting, said they hoped would broaden. Many of the victims of the battle reportedly belonged to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, whose leader, Tohir Yuldashev, was reportedly linked to Osama bin Laden, head of the Al Qaeda global terrorist organization. Others were Chechen and Arab fighters. A number of Pashtun fighters were also killed, as were about 10 civilian bystanders. Leaders of the Taliban had reportedly tried to broker a cease-fire in the midst of the conflict, but that effort failed.

In a previous clash between the same two groups March 6, 19 people, both Uzbeks and Pashtuns, had been killed. Pakistan’s interior minister, Aftab Sherpao, in an interview reported in the Washington Post March 23, said the conflict marked the first time Waziri tribesmen had fought the foreign militant presence in their region. He argued that it signaled the success of Pakistan’s policy of withdrawing troops from South Waziristan in exchange for tribal promises not to harbor suspected terrorists. Until 2005, tens of thousands of Pakistani soldiers had occupied the region, falling into bloody conflict with the tribes but failing to discourage militant activity by foreigners. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz March 27 told the Financial Times that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should follow Pakistan’s lead and reach similar deals with tribal leaders inside Afghanistan to curb Taliban attacks. It was reported the same day that Pakistan had entered into a similar understanding with tribal leaders in the Bajaur semiautonomous region, which bordered South Waziristan. Pakistan did not promise to withdraw troops from the area, however. „ Protests Build Over Chief Justice Removal.

Peaceful public demonstrations March 26 were held nationwide in several cities to protest President Pervez Musharraf’s suspension two weeks earlier of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry on suspicion of abuse of his office. Daily demonstrations by lawyers had occurred since then, and it was widely reported in the media that public sentiment in favor of Musharraf’s resignation had reached a new height. [See p. 167B2] Police March 25–26 had preemptively detained hundreds and perhaps thousands of members of opposition parties ahead of the national protests. Exiled former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif March 21 had announced from London that their respective parties were banding together to reject the president’s move. Opposition party representatives March 26 said as many as 2,000 of their members had been arrested. Police called the figure exaggerated. Chaudhry March 28 spoke publicly for the first time following his suspension and effective house arrest, to the bar association of Rawalpindi. He did not speak directly about the charges against him, but said, “A civilized society is unthinkable in the absence of a free, fair and impartial system of administration of justice.” The Supreme Judicial Council was set to hear arguments in his case April 3. Musharraf at a rally March 27 had defended Chaudhry’s removal and claimed that the protesters had “no public support.” At least six senior judges March 19 had resigned in response to the removal, and one of the country’s three deputy attorney generals quit March 20. Musharraf had promised not to attempt to influence Chaudhry’s trial, it was reported March 16. Also that day, he had apologized to Geo, a private television station, for a raid on its offices earlier in the day by FACTS ON FILE

police, who had beaten up employees and smashed company equipment. Geo had been covering the Chaudhry story. The U.S. State Department, which viewed Musharraf as a solid ally, March 16 appealed for “restraint” over the chief justice’s ouster. In a show of support for the president, the U.S. government March 15 had informed Pakistan that it stood to receive $750 million over five years for development of areas along the border with Afghanistan. „

Sri Lanka Rebels Bomb Air Force Base. A small airplane belonging to the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) March 26 bombed a government air force base adjoining the nation’s international airport 23 miles (40 km) north of Colombo, the capital, killing two officers and wounding 17, an air force spokesman said. The incident was the first in which the LTTE had launched a bombing attack using an aircraft. The government said the attack had been aimed at the military base and had not damaged civilian airport facilities. The LTTE acknowledged responsibility for the attack. [See p. 134E1] Two suicide bombers thought to be LTTE members March 27 blew up a tractor loaded with explosives attempting to enter an army camp in the eastern district of Batticaloa. Seven soldiers were killed, in addition to the bombers. New Attacks Launched in East—The military March 9–10 launched a new offensive against LTTE-held territory in Batticaloa. The government March 9 said 18,000 civilians had fled the fighting, putting the total number of refugees in eastern Sri Lanka at more than 100,000. Each side blamed the other for sparking the renewed bloodshed. The military March 22–23 opened up a new front against the rebel group in the northwestern Mannar district, where heavy fighting killed 20 LTTE fighters and three government soldiers, according to a government spokesman. Hostilities had previously been concentrated in the country’s north and east. The LTTE March 5 warned that there would be a “bloodbath” if the international community did not halt government advances into Tamil areas. The Nordic-led Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission Feb. 23 reported that almost 4,000 people had died during the previous 15 months of conflict. Fewer than 130 had died during the first three years following a 2002 cease-fire, according to the international monitors. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Cricket Pakistan’s Coach Murdered at World Cup.

Bob Woolmer, the coach of the Pakistani national cricket team, March 18 was found unconscious in his room at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica, by a maid. Woolmer was pronounced dead at a local hospital about an hour later, one day after his team’s March 29, 2007

stunning upset by Ireland. The loss had assured that Pakistan would not advance to the second round of the World Cup, which was being held in nine Caribbean nations. Jamaican police March 22 announced that a pathologist’s report had revealed that Woolmer died as a result of “manual strangulation,” and they opened a murder investigation. [See p. 167F2] Woolmer, a 58-year-old Briton, had played for England’s national team in the 1970s and 1980s, but his career was cut short by injury. He went on to coach South Africa and, since 2004, Pakistan. Woolmer also coached in English county cricket for Warwickshire, and worked for the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s governing body. He was described as one of the most popular and highly respected figures in the sport, and his death, especially in such high-profile and mysterious circumstances, shocked the cricket world. Prior to the release of the autopsy results, it was speculated that Woolmer’s death might have been caused by the stress of coaching the Pakistani team, which had undergone a turbulent seven months. (Woolmer suffered from health problems including type two diabetes.) Pakistan, the 1992 World Cup winner, was considered one of the top sides in the world, and the sport drew a high level of public interest in the country. In August 2006, Pakistan became the first team in the history of Test cricket to forfeit a match, after the players protested a ball-tampering ruling by Australian umpire Darrell Hair. Then, in October, fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone and were suspended, though the suspensions were later overturned. [See 2006, pp. 941F2, 792E1] Then came the team’s elimination from the World Cup, after opening-round losses to the host West Indies and Ireland, which was seeded 13th out of 16 teams in the tournament. (Pakistan was seeded fourth.) After the loss to Ireland, fans in Pakistan reportedly burned effigies of Woolmer and captain Inzamam-ul-Haq. The ICC March 23 rejected calls by some in the cricketing world that the rest of the World Cup be canceled in light of Woolmer’s murder. Clues, Suspects Sought—The Pakistani team was allowed to leave Jamaica March 25, after the players and team officials were interrogated and had their fingerprints and DNA collected. The players returned to Pakistan March 28 after a stopover in London. Some players were jeered by fans in Karachi after they landed at the airport. The investigation into Woolmer’s death was led by Mark Shields, Jamaica’s deputy police commissioner, who had formerly served as chief superintendent of the London Metropolitan Police. Shields March 22 said there were no signs of forced entry into Woolmer’s hotel room and no evidence of a struggle, leading him to speculate that the coach knew his killer. Investigators also suggested that Woolmer could have been killed by more than one person, since he was a large man. As of March 29, investigators were awaiting results of toxi-

cology tests to determine if Woolmer had been drugged. Police were also examining closed-caption television images from cameras in the hotel, and records of key-card access to Woolmer’s room and to the hotel’s elevators, in an effort to solve the crime. The police March 28 said they would take fingerprints and DNA samples from all guests at the Pegasus Hotel at the time of Woolmer’s murder. They were also reportedly studying Woolmer’s laptop computer and mobile phone for clues. Speculation Over Motive Intensifies—

The March 22 revelation that Woolmer had been murdered sparked rumors that the coach had been targeted due to his knowledge of illegal betting and match fixing in cricket. In 2000, it had been revealed that then–South African captain Hansie Cronje and other players had accepted money from bookmakers to fix matches in the 1990s. (Cronje was banned from the sport for life in October 2000, and died in a plane crash in 2002.) Woolmer, who coached South Africa from 1994 to 1999, in 2000 had denied any knowledge of the match fixing. It was subsequently revealed that players from South Africa, India, Pakistan and other nations had been involved in match fixing. [See 2002, p. 428G2] Woolmer had been writing two books, one about his life and one about coaching, when he died. Some observers speculated that he had been planning to make revelations about match fixing in one of the books, but his widow, Gill Woolmer, and coauthor Tim Noakes March 21–23 denied that match fixing was mentioned in either manuscript. However, team spokesman Pervez Mir March 23 said parts of the manuscripts had gone missing prior to Woolmer’s death. Some observers therefore speculated that Woolmer’s murder was linked to international gambling syndicates and organized crime outfits, especially those based in the Indian subcontinent. Gambling was illegal in Pakistan, and illicit betting was said to be a lucrative industry there. Along with betting on the outcome of matches, it was possible to bet on a myriad of other aspects of the game, such as point spreads or a batsman’s score. Those aspects could more easily be manipulated by a few players, rather than necessitating the involvement of an entire team. Detectives in the case March 23 said they were working with members of the ICC’s anticorruption unit. Shields March 27 indicated that investigators were considering the match-fixing angle, calling it a “clear line of inquiry.” There were also reports of a struggle for control of the team between Woolmer and Inzamam, and Woolmer reportedly had argued with some players after the loss to Ireland. That prompted speculation that a disgruntled player had killed him. Another theory circulating was that an angry fan could have killed Woolmer. Inzamam March 18 said he was retiring from international cricket, hours after Woolmer’s death was announced. In further fallout from Pakistan’s humiliating exit from the World Cup, Naseem Ashraf, 199

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chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, and the three-member national team selection committee March 20 resigned. Pakistan won its final World Cup match March 21 against Zimbabwe. World Cup Second Round Set—The first round, or group stage, of the World Cup ended March 25. The top two teams from each of the four groups advanced to the next round, called the Super Eight. The teams that advanced were defending champion Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, New Zealand, England, the West Indies and Ireland. India, a top team, was surprisingly eliminated in the first round after losing to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. „

ARTS & SCIENCES

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Pritzker Architecture Prize. British architect Richard Rogers, 73, March 28 was named the winner of the 2007 Pritzker Prize, deemed the most prestigious award in the field of architecture and worth $100,000. Lord Rogers (he had been knighted in 1991 and made a life peer, as Lord Rogers of Riverside, in 1996) was the fourth British architect to win the award since it was created in 1979, and the first since Iraqi-born Zaha Hadid, the 2004 winner. [See 2006, p. 315G2; 2004, p. 219E3] Rogers first gained wide recognition as coarchitect, with Italy’s Renzo Piano, of the Pompidou Center in Paris, a revolutionary building in which generally concealed structural elements, such as pipes and stairways, were exposed to public view. Piano, Rogers’s partner for most of the 1970s, won the Pritzker Prize in 1998. The following year, the award went to a British architect with whom Rogers had been partners in the 1960s, Sir Norman Foster. [See 1999, p. 320C1; 1998, p. 280C2] In naming Rogers the winner of the latest prize, the Pritzker jury cited the Pompidou Center as well as a second design, his Lloyd’s of London tower, completed in 1986 and standing in the heart of London’s financial district. The jury referred to that London building as the “most important embodiment of the high-tech movement.” In recent years, Rogers had emerged as a leading figure in the sustainable architecture movement, which championed environmentally friendly “green” building techniques. His Welsh Assembly building in Cardiff, Wales, opened in 2006, had reportedly halved the Welsh parliament’s energy load. In September of that year, Rogers had been chosen to design one of three towers that would flank the Freedom Tower being built on New York City’s World Trade Center site. [See 2006, p. 958A1] Rogers was also known for his leftist political leanings. At his London architectural firm, the salary structure dictated that no architect earned more than six times as much as any other. After being named the Pritzker winner, Rogers March 28 said the $100,000 prize money would go to his firm, which he expected would decide to donate it to charity. „ 200

Theater Openings 1001. Series of episodes, set in both ancient and mod-

ern times, and loosely based on the Arabian Nights, tales reputedly told for 1,001 nights in a row by a legendary Persian maiden named Scheherezade, to prevent a king from deflowering her and then having her beheaded. By Jason Grote. Directed by Ethan McSweeny. With Lanna Joffrey, Josh Philip Weinstein, John Livingstone Rolle, Drew Cortese, Daoud Heidami and Jeanine Serralles. In Denver, Colo., at the Denver Center Theater Co.’s Space Theater. Jan. 26. Boeing Boeing. Revival of an early 1960s French farce about a Parisian architect juggling affairs with air hostesses working for three different airlines. By Marc Camoletti; translated by Beverley Cross. Directed by Matthew Warchus. With Roger Allam, Frances de la Tour, Mark Rylance, Tamzin Outhwaite, Daisy Beaumont and Michelle Gomez. In London, at the Comedy Theatre. Feb. 15. The Coast of Utopia: Salvage. Broadway presentation of the final part of Tom Stoppard’s 2002 trilogy about 19th-century Russian revolutionaries; its first two parts were mounted on Broadway in late 2006. Directed by Jack O’Brien. With Ethan Hawke, Brian F. O’Byrne, Richard Easton, Jennifer Ehle, Martha Plimpton, Josh Hamilton and Jason Butler Harner. In New York City, at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater. Feb. 18. [See 2006, p. 1041G3] Equus. Revival of a 1973 drama about a psychiatrist treating a stableboy who blinded six horses. By Peter Shaffer. Directed by Thea Sharrock. With Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe. In London, at the Gielgud Theatre. Feb. 27. (Radcliffe, who played the disturbed stableboy in the production, a role that called for some nudity, was best known for portraying boy wizard Harry Potter in film adaptations of J.K. Rowling’s best-selling books.) [See 2005, p. 864C2; 2000, p. 659E1; 1975, p. 816C3] In the Heights. Musical set in a vibrant Latino neighborhood of New York City facing gentrification. Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda; book by Quiara Alegria Hudes; conceived by Miranda. Directed by Thomas Kail; choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler. With Miranda, Karen Olivo, Mandy Gonzalez, Andrea Burns and Christopher Jackson. In New York City, at the 37 Arts Theater. Feb. 8. John Gabriel Borkman. Revival of an 1897 drama by Henrik Ibsen, in a new version by David Eldridge, about a tormented household whose paterfamilias, the play’s title character, is a convicted embezzler who spent five years in prison. Directed by Michael Grandage. With Ian McDiarmid, Penelope Wilton, Deborah Findlay and Rafe Spall. In London, at the Donmar Warehouse. Feb. 20. [See 1980, p. 1003C3] Journey’s End. Revival of a drama about British soldiers in a World War I dugout; an earlier version of this Broadway production was mounted in London in 2004. By R. C. Sherriff. Directed by David Grindley. With Hugh Dancy, Stark Sands, Boyd Gaines, Jefferson Mays and John Ahlin. In New York City, at the Belasco Theater. Feb. 22. [See 2004, p. 196C2] The Man of Mode. Modern-dress production of a Restoration comedy that satirized the romantic foibles of its day. By Sir George Etherege. Directed by Nicholas Hytner. With Rory Kinnear, Tom Hardy, Nancy Carroll, Hayley Atwell and Bertie Carvel. In London, at the Royal National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre. Feb. 6. The Seagull. Revival of Anton Chekhov’s classic drama about a group of self-absorbed characters on a Russian country estate in the late 19th century. Adapted by Christopher Hampton; directed by Ian Rickson. With Kristin Scott Thomas, Peter Wight, Mackenzie Crook, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Katherine Parkinson, Carey Mulligan and Art Malik. In London, at the Royal Court Theatre. Jan. 25. Translations. Broadway revival of a drama, last seen on Broadway in a short-lived 1995 run, about British cultural imperialism in 19th-century Ireland. By Brian Friel. Directed by Garry Hynes. With Dermot Crowley, Susan Lynch, Chandler Williams and Niall Buggy. In New York City, at the Biltmore Theater. Jan. 25. (This production was coproduced by New York’s Manhattan Theater Club and Princeton, N.J.’s McCarter Theater Center.) [See 1995, p. 439C3] „

People Coffee chain Starbucks Corp. March 21 announced that it had signed a deal with Sir Paul McCartney to release the legendary British rocker’s next album. Starbucks March 11 had said it was launching a new

record label called Hear Records with Los Angeles–based Concord Music Group. McCartney, 64, was the new label’s first signing; Starbucks had already been selling music by other artists, but released by established labels. The deal with McCartney was for one album; the ex-Beatle would retain ownership of the master recording. The album would be sold in Starbucks coffee shops, but also through traditional music retailers. [See 2006, pp. 604F1, 400F2] Singer Britney Spears had completed her inpatient treatment at a Malibu, Calif., rehabilitation facility, according to a statement issued by her record label, Jive Records, late March 20. She had cut short several rehab stints before beginning the latest round of therapy Feb. 22. [See p. 151D3] „

O B I T UA R I E S BACKUS, John Warner, 82, leader of the IBM (International Business Machines Corp.) team that in the 1950s created Fortran (short for Formula Translation), the first computer language that, because it intuitively combined English shorthand with algebra, could be readily used by scientists and engineers without much training in computer programming; later, with Danish computer scientist Peter Naur, he developed Backus-Naur form, a means for notation of the “grammar” of programming languages; born Dec. 3, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pa.; died March 17 in Ashland, Ore. [See 2001, p. 1012D3] DeFOREST, Calvert G., 85, onetime file clerk who gained cult status as an oddball regular on latenight television talk-show host David Letterman’s shows on the NBC network in the 1980s, and on CBS from 1993 on, after Letterman switched networks; when Letterman’s show was on NBC, he appeared as Larry (Bud) Melman, but after the switch to CBS, he used his real name, DeForest, because NBC had claimed ownership of the Melman name; his last appearance on the Letterman show was in 2002, in honor of his 81st birthday; born July 23, 1921, in New York City; died March 19 in Babylon, N.Y., after a long illnesss. [See 1993, p. 660E2] GHOSANANDA, Preah Maha, 78, Buddhist monk who led the revival of religion in his native Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge era, during which Buddhism was uprooted by the communist government; he was Cambodian Buddhism’s Supreme Patriarch from 1988; in the 1990s, he led annual “truth walks,” or peace marches, through the country; born in 1929 in Takeo province, Cambodia, then part of French Indochina (Britain’s Guardian newspaper claimed, though, that he was probably born in 1924); died March 12 at a hospital in Northampton, Mass.; he had been associated with a Buddhist order in Leverett, Mass., since the late 1980s. [See 1997, p. 555B1] HAEFLIGER, Ernst, 87, Swiss tenor who performed widely and made many recordings; he excelled in performances of choral works by Johann Sebastian Bach, operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and lieder, or art songs, by Franz Schubert and others; he was also fond of modern music, and performed in the world premieres of works by such composers as Carl Orff and Frank Martin; born July 6, 1919, in Davos, Switzerland; died there March 17, of acute heart failure. HARRELSON, Charles Voyde, 69, career criminal who had been serving a life sentence for the 1979 murder of a federal judge, John Wood Jr.; he was the father of actor Woody Harrelson, but abandoned his family when the latter was seven; born July 23, 1938, in Huntsville, Texas; found dead March 15 in his cell at the maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colo.; an autopsy showed that he had had severe coronary artery disease, and apparently suffered a fatal heart attack in his sleep. [See 1983, pp. 219E2, 120E2; 1982, pp. 939B3, 446E1; Index 1981] HOWELL, F(rancis) Clark, 81, anthropologist who pioneered a multidisciplinary approach to the study of human origins, drawing upon the resources of fields such as geology, evolutionary biology, primatology and ethnography; he taught at the University of Chicago from 1955 to 1970, and at the University of California at Berkeley from 1970 until his 1991 retirement; born Nov. 27, 1925, in Kansas City, Mo.; died March 10 at his Berkeley home; he had been diagnosed with cancer in 2006. [See 1969, p. 566C3] „

March 29, 2007

Iran Frees Captive British Navy Crew He also denounced Britain for employing Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the sole female captive and the mother of a threeyear-old, in the military. “How can you justify seeing a mother away from her home, her children?” he asked. “Why don’t they respect family values in the West?” Soon afterward, Ahmadinejad was shown on television meeting with the British crew members at the presidential palace. The sailors—dressed in suits, except for Turney, who wore pants, a jacket and head scarf in accordance with Islamic dress codes—smiled and shook hands with the president. One of them was heard to say to Ahmadinejad, “Myself and my whole team are very grateful for your forgiveness. I’d like to thank yourself and the Iranian people,” to which Ahmadinejad responded, “You are welcome,” in Farsi. Blair Hails News of Release—Blair April 4 welcomed Ahmadinejad’s announcement, saying he was “glad that our 15 service personnel have been released and I know their release will come as a relief not just to them but to their families.” Speaking outside his official residence at 10 Downing Street in London, Blair said their release was the result of Britain’s “measured approach, firm but calm, not negotiating but not confronting, either.” The prime minister also addressed the Iranian people directly, saying, “We bear you no ill will.” On the contrary, he insisted, Britain viewed Iran as “a nation with a proud and dignified history” and held great respect for it. “The disagreements that we have with your government we wish to resolve peacefully through dialogue. I hope, as I have always hoped, that in the future we are able to do so,” he added. The Britons April 5 arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport, and were shown on television wearing military uniforms once again and carrying gifts presented to them by Ahmadinejad. Just prior to their arrival, Blair had held another news conference in which he insisted that Britain had achieved the release of the captives “without any deal, without any negotiation, without any side agreement of any nature whatsoever.” There had been rampant speculation that Iran might demand the release of agents in the custody of the U.S. in Iraq in exchange for the captives. [See p. 204A3] Blair said the episode had opened “new channels of communication” between Britain and Iran, which he said should be taken advantage of. “But there cannot be any misunderstanding of the basis upon which that comtakes British Navy Able Seamen Arthur Batchelor (left) and Andrew Henderson (cen- munication ter), among 15 Navy personnel captured March 23 by Iranian forces, meet with place,” he added, deIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (right, in light suit) in Tehran, Iran’s claring that Britain President Announces Pardon, Release.

STR/AFP/Getty Images

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad April 4 announced that 15 British sailors and marines, captured and detained nearly two weeks earlier in the Persian Gulf, would be set free immediately. The announcement brought an end to an intense standoff between Iran and Britain. Iran accused the seized personnel of entering Iranian territorial waters, while Britain insisted that they had been conducting a United Nations–authorized patrol entirely within Iraqi waters. Tensions rose as Iran issued written and videotaped confessions of wrongdoing by the Britons, which Britain condemned as abusing them for propaganda purposes. The 15 Britons—14 men and one woman—April 5 left Iran by plane, arriving later that day in Britain. [See p. 185C3] Ahmadinejad’s surprise announcement came at a press conference originally scheduled to take place a day earlier. He began the conference with a lengthy speech denouncing Western nations and their policies regarding the Middle East. He then went on to praise the Iranian personnel who had captured the British sailors and marines, thanking them for their bravery and decorating their commander. The president then declared that, while Iran had a right to put the detainees on trial, he was granting “amnesty and pardon” to them and allowing them to return to Britain. “This pardon is a gift to the British people,” he said. He also asked that British Prime Minister Tony Blair “not put these 15 personnel on trial because they admitted they came to Iranian territorial water.” Britain had repeatedly denied that its crew had entered Iranian waters, and had expressed skepticism at confessions of wrongdoing made by the captives and broadcast by Iranian media. [See below] Ahmadinejad also criticized the British government, saying it “was not even brave enough to tell their people the truth, that it made a mistake” by trespassing into Iranian waters. He added that Britain had given the Iranian government a letter stating that the incursions “would not happen again.”

capital, upon their release April 4.

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B would continue to denounce “support from any aspect of the Iranian regime for terrorism.” He hinted at possible Iranian involvement in an attack earlier that day that killed four British soldiers in Iraq. [See p. 205A1] Iranian Infighting Seen—The announcement of the captives’ release April 4 came after several contradictory statements by Iranian officials, leading to speculation that various factions of Iran’s government were in disagreement on how to handle the crisis. Britain March 30 had acknowledged that it had received a “formal note” from Iran, but officials would not discuss its content. Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, that day called the detention of the Britons a “big mistake” on Iran’s part, and denounced it along with other EU foreign ministers. U.S. President George W. Bush March 31 described the captives as “hostages,” and insisted that Iran release them. British Foreign

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Iran frees captive British navy crew; president announces pardon, release.

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U.S. House Speaker Pelosi leads delegation to Syria. PAGE 202

U.S. Supreme Court sides with states on greenhouse gas regulation. PAGE 205

Guantanamo court sentences Australian detainee to nine months. PAGE 207

Clinton, Obama, Romney set ’08 presidential campaign funding pace.

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African nations, Zimbabwean ruling party back Mugabe. PAGE 210

Ukraine’s president sparks standoff.

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election, PAGE 212

Egypt vote approves constitutional amendments. PAGE 212

Florida, Tennessee win NCAA basketball titles. PAGE 214 *First of two sections Section Two is a first quarter index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Secretary Margaret Beckett, meanwhile, said Britain was looking for “a way out” of a situation that “everyone regrets.” That same day, Ahmadinejad called Britain arrogant for seeking condemnation of Iran by the United Nations and the EU. Iran’s ambassador to Russia, Gholamreza Ansari, declared that the captives might be put on trial, but he later backed down from the claim. British Defense Secretary Des Browne April 1 announced that Britain was holding direct talks with Iran on the matter. That day, hundreds of Iranians protested outside Britain’s embassy in Tehran, Iran’s capital, chanting “death to Britain,” throwing stones at the embassy and calling for the captives to be put on trial. Demonstrations rarely occurred in Iran without government consent, and the protest was broken up by police only after the demonstrators set off firecrackers. Iranian officials April 2 claimed that there had been an improvement in Britain’s attitude regarding the standoff, while Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief national security official, announced that there would be no need for a trial and that the two countries would be able to arrive at a solution. Larijani and Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Blair’s chief foreign policy adviser, April 3 discussed the matter, and the next day Ahmadinejad granted the captives’ release. At no point did Britain agree with Iranian claims that its personnel had entered Iranian waters. Iranian officials had earlier asserted that an admission of wrongdoing by Britain might be necessary to end the standoff. More Video, Confessions Released—

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Iranian media March 30–April 3 broadcast further video of the captives, along with confessions of trespass, just as it had the previous week. The broadcasts were widely criticized abroad as an indignity to the captives, and the confessions were widely suspected to have been issued under duress or coercion. Some commentators expressed concern that the captives had not been sufficiently trained in responding to the stresses and coercion that military prisoners often faced. Iran March 30 released a third letter, handwritten and again attributed to Turney, addressed “to British people.” In the letter, Turney said she had been “sacrificed due to the intervening policies of the Bush and Blair governments,” and said Britain should pull its troops out of Iraq “and leave the people of Iraq to start rebuilding their lives.” In addition, the letter claimed that, in contrast to the abuse faced by prisoners in the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Turney had “received total respect and faced no harm” from her Iranian captors. [See p. 203E3; 2006, p. 1031D2] The language and content of the letter were similar to official Iranian statements on such topics. Many observers suggested that the letter had probably been dictated to her. Video of another captive, Royal Marine Nathan Thomas Summers, was also televised that day. Summers was shown admitting that he and the other crew members 202

had “trespassed without permission” into Iranian waters, and saying he was “deeply” apologetic for the act. Blair condemned the letter and broadcast, saying that “all it does is heighten people’s sense of disgust.” He added, “Captured personnel being paraded and manipulated in this way, it doesn’t fool anyone.” State-run Iranian television April 1 broadcast footage of two more captives, appearing separately, standing in front of a map of the area in which they were detained and admitting that they had entered Iranian waters. One of the two, addressing the people of Iran, said, “I can understand why you are so angry about our intrusion into your waters.” Iranian officials April 2 announced that all the captives had confessed to wrongfully entering Iranian waters. Although silent footage of them was broadcast, the officials declared that no more footage would be aired. Photographs of the captives were released April 3, showing them all together, smiling and appearing relaxed. „

Middle East Pelosi Leads House Delegation to Syria.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi April 3–4 led a bipartisan delegation from the chamber to Damascus, the Syrian capital, for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The visit was part of the delegation’s larger weeklong tour of the Middle East, which included stops in Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Pelosi was the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Syria since 1994. After the assassination of Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri in 2005, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush had cut off high-level diplomatic relations with Syria and pursued a policy of isolating its government. [See p. 169A1; 2006, p. 921A1] The delegation April 4 met first with Foreign Minister Walid Moallem and Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa. Following further talks with Assad at his palace, the group was hosted at lunch by Assad in Damascus’s Old City. After their meeting, Pelosi told reporters that Assad had assured her that he was “ready to resume the peace process” with Israel. She said she had relayed a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that Israel, too, was ready to negotiate. However, Israeli officials corrected her later that day, saying that negotiations could only begin if Syria abandoned its support for the militant groups Hamas, in the Palestinian territories, and Hezbollah, in Lebanon, both of which Israel regarded as terrorist organizations. Syria had long demanded the return of the Golan Heights from Israel in exchange for peace. Pelosi said the U.S. delegation had pressed Assad over Syrian support for both groups, as well as on the flow of insurgents across Syria into Iraq and Syria’s growing alliance with Iran, she said. The U.S. group was reportedly warmly received by Syrian officials and by the

Middle East press generally as marking a shift in the U.S.’s approach to the region. Pelosi April 4 told reporters, “We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace.” She cautioned, however, that “there is no division on policy between us and President Bush, be it on Israel, Palestine or Syria.” The other members of the House delegation were Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (Calif.), Henry Waxman (Calif.), Louis Slaughter (N.Y.), Nick Rahall 2nd (W. Va.) and Keith Ellison (Minn.), all Democrats, and Republican David Hobson (Ohio). Bush, Cheney Object to Trip—The visit by U.S. legislators drew criticism from the White House when it was announced March 30. Bush at a news conference April 3 said of the several delegations that had gone to Syria in recent years, “It’s just simply been counterproductive.” U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on ABC News radio April 4 said the visit served only to reward Assad’s “bad behavior.” Some commentators in the U.S. and independent Syrian press dismissed the trip as more of a domestic political stunt by the Democrats than a genuine diplomatic effort. Democrats countered that the 2006 Iraq Study Group report, led by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, had advised reopening talks with Syria, and that a group of Republican legislators had lately visited Syria without drawing complaint. Stops in Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia—

The U.S. delegation’s Middle East tour began April 1 in Israel. Pelosi addressed the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, at a dinner given for the Americans. She declared the creation of Israel among the “greatest

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FACTS ON FILE

achievements of the 20th century, and demanded the disarmament of Hezbollah and promised to press Syria for the return of three Israeli soldiers held hostage by the group. The U.S. legislators also that day met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Traveling to Lebanon April 2, the group met with political figures both allied with and opposed to Syria, which wielded strong influence in Lebanon. Those leaders included Premier Fouad Siniora and Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri. The group also paid a visit to Hariri’s tomb. En route to Syria, they stopped in Jordan for meetings with Jordanian leaders. Upon leaving Syria April 4, the group. traveled to Saudi Arabia, where they were hosted at King Abdullah’s ranch near Riyadh, the capital, and reportedly discussed women’s rights and Saudi Arabia’s role in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The next day, they visited the empty chamber of the king’s all-male appointed advisory Shura Council while the council was not in session. Pelosi sat in the speaker’s chair and remarked, “It’s a nice view from here.” Women in Saudi Arabia were not permitted to vote or run for office. „ Arab Nations Endorse Saudi Peace Initiative.

The Arab League March 28–29 held a summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, at which it endorsed a 2002 Saudi-backed Arab-Israeli peace initiative and urged Israel to do the same. Delegations from 21 member countries discussed many regional issues at the summit, but the peace initiative, especially its Israeli-Palestinian components, was at the forefront. One member, Libya, did not send a delegation to the summit, due to strained relations with Saudi Arabia. [See p. 171G3; 2004, p. 1083B1] The summit March 29 issued a closing statement claiming that a “just and comprehensive peace” with Israel could be reached “based on the principles and resolutions of international legitimacy and the land-for-peace formula.” Under the proposed formula, Arab nations would normalize relations with Israel, while Israel would relinquish land taken in the 1967 Six-Day War. The proposal also called for a “just” solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees in line with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, according to which Israel would either allow the refugees to return to their homes or give them compensation. Israel had repeatedly refused to acknowledge a right of return for refugees, claiming that an influx of refugees would undermine the Jewish identity of the state of Israel. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud alFaisal March 29 said Arab countries would “immediately establish relations” with Israel once Israel resolved disputes with its neighbors, including Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians. An unidentified former Saudi official reportedly clarified the minister’s remarks, saying that should Israel “accept the principle of land for peace, that it’s the basis for future negotiations, then we can work out the details” of a final peace deal. Faisal March 28 had warned that “if Israel refuses [the initiative] that April 5, 2007

means it doesn’t want peace,” thereby sending the conflict “back into the hands of the lords of war.” Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas March 29 spoke at the summit in favor of the initiative, and proclaimed “the sincerity of the Palestinian will in extending the hand of peace to the Israeli people.” But he also warned that, if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not resolved soon, “The entire region will be under renewed threats of war, explosions and regional and international confrontations.” Amr Moussa, the league’s secretary general, insisted that Israel could not achieve normalized relations with Arab countries without making significant compromises. “Nothing is for free,” Moussa said. “If Israel wants normalization, what will it give for it?” Olmert Proposes Arab-Israeli Meeting—

Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert April 1 responded to the summit development, offering to meet Arab leaders in order to discuss proposals on ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I invite for a meeting all the heads of Arab states—including, of course, the king of Saudi Arabia, who I see as a very important leader—to hold talks with us,” he said. Olmert stated, however, that he would not be willing to relinquish large Israeli settlements in the West Bank as part of any peace deal. In interviews with the Israeli press published March 30, Olmert had praised what he described as a “revolutionary change” in the attitude of many Arab leaders. “A bloc of states is emerging that understands that they may have been wrong to think that Israel is the world’s greatest problem,” he said, adding that “in the next five years it is possible [for Israel] to arrive at a comprehensive peace agreement with the Arab states and the Palestinians.” In the interviews, however, Olmert also stated that “I do not agree with every detail” of the 2002 Saudi peace proposal, and would reject the entry of “any number” of Palestinian refugees whatsoever. The refugee problem, he argued, had been caused by an Arab invasion in 1948. “I don’t think we should accept any kind of responsibility for the creation of this problem,” he said. Olmert and Abbas to Meet Regularly—

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice March 27 announced that Abbas and Olmert had agreed to hold meetings twice each month in order to address day-to-day issues between Israel and the PA and to discuss the “political horizon.” The meetings, she said, would aim at developing confidence and trust between the two groups, but would not amount to “final-status negotiations” on a peace deal. The agreement was the result of three days of shuttle diplomacy by Rice. Israel Fires On Gaza Militants— Israeli forces March 28 fired artillery rounds at Palestinian militants in Gaza, the first such attack since the beginning of a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza militants in November 2006. The Israeli military claimed that the militants were about to fire rockets into Israel. Despite the cease-fire, several

rocket attacks had taken place in recent months. Israel had repeatedly warned that its patience for such violations was wearing thin, and that it would consider “pinpoint” strikes against rocket fire from Gaza to be consistent with the cease-fire. [See 2006, p. 993E3] Israel Says Hamas Rearming—The New York Times April 1 reported several Israeli officials as claiming that the militant Islamist group Hamas, which led the PA government, was using the Gaza cease-fire as an opportunity to rearm in preparation for future conflicts. The officials claimed that Hamas was receiving sophisticated weaponry and adopting training and tactics similar to those of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Both Hezbollah and Hamas had received arms and training from Iran. Some Israeli officials advocated striking Hamas in the near future, before it became too strong. Other News—In other Arab-Israeli news: † Amos Yadlin, the chief of Israeli military intelligence, April 1 told the Israeli cabinet that there was evidence that Iran, Syria and Hezbollah were preparing for a possible attack by the U.S. Olmert later that day denied that Israel had plans to participate in a joint attack with the U.S. on any of the three, calling such claims “baseless.” † Israeli police March 28 evicted hundreds of Jewish settlers from the former West Bank settlement of Homesh. Some settlers had to be carried off, though others left willingly. The settlement had been disbanded in 2005, but roughly 2,000 activist settlers March 26 had converged there to rebuild it. „

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Iraq Conflict Bush Blasts Democrats Over Funding.

U.S. President George W. Bush April 3 denounced attempts by congressional Democrats to include a withdrawal date for U.S. troops from Iraq in a supplemental funding bill. Speaking at a press conference at the White House, Bush said the provision would “undercut the troops” in Iraq, and called on the Democrats to pass a “clean” bill instead. He reiterated his threat to veto any bill that included a withdrawal date. [See p. 185A1] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) released a statement later that day responding to Bush’s comments. Democrats, he said, “represent the American people’s views on this failed war.” He added that Bush’s choice to send more forces to Iraq “endangers our troops and hurts our national security. Neither our troops nor the American people can afford this strategy any longer.” Bush and Democratic congressional leaders had, in recent days, released different estimates of how long the military could continue to function in Iraq and Afghanistan without the supplemental funding. Democrats March 30 made public an assessment by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service estimating that current funding would last through July. Bush had contended it would run out in mid-April. 203

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Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, April 4 suggested that a deadline for troop withdrawal would embolden insurgents. “I’m not sure that hard and fast deadlines are useful in the sense of providing the enemies out here just a time to which they have to hang tough, and then know that we would be going,” he said. Death Tally Raised for Truck Bombing—

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Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a spokesman for the Iraqi interior ministry, March 31 said a March 27 truck bombing in Tal Afar had killed 152 people and wounded 347 more. If those numbers were accurate, the bombing would be the single most deadly attack since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. Khalaf added that 18 people were in custody for their participation in reprisal killings. Iraqi forces in Nineveh province March 30 had arrested 18 police officers for involvement in execution-style killings against Sunni Muslims following the bomb attack. [See p. 197F3] The U.S. military March 31 stated that only 82 people were killed in the bomb attack. Iraqi forces in Nineveh province April 3 arrested two people suspected of involvement in the bombing. Results of Security Push Disappoint—

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U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell 4th, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, April 4 credited the recent U.S.-Iraqi security push with a 26% drop in sectarian violence from February to March. However, he added that there had not been the “great reduction that we had wanted to see thus far” in violence nationwide. Speaking at a press conference with Caldwell, Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki, said insurgents had taken over parts of Mosul, and that the government would therefore extend its security crackdown to that city. [See p. 154F2] Separately, Petraeus April 4 said the new security push was yielding some positive results in Baghdad, the capital, but had failed to put a stop to “sensational attacks” in other parts of the country by Sunni insurgent groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq. The Iraqi government April 3 had announced that the curfew on Baghdad would be shortened by two hours in the evening due to improved security. In a related development, morgue and police statistics, published April 4 in the Washington Post, showed a 4% decrease in deaths of civilians and police officers in Baghdad, to 2,762 in March, from 2,864 in February. The number of unidentified bodies found throughout the capital had increased in the most recent three-week period, however. Statistics from the interior ministry, also published in the Post, showed that deaths of police officers nationwide had nearly doubled from February to March. Khalilzad Steps Down From Post—

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Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, March 26 stepped down from his post in order to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. That day, Khalilzad held a farewell interview during which he admonished Iraq’s leaders for not moving quickly enough to bring about national reconciliation, and warned them that the patience of the American people “is running 204

out.” Khalilzad March 25 had confirmed claims that the U.S. and Iraq had held talks with some “reconcilable” Sunni insurgent groups in an unsuccessful effort to bring them into the political process. [See pp. 210C1, 13D3] Khalilzad added that, despite obstacles, much had been accomplished and there were reasons for optimism regarding Iraq’s future. Ryan Crocker March 29 was sworn in as the new ambassador after leaving his post as ambassador to Pakistan March 28. [See p. 13D3] U.S. Adm. William Fallon March 16 had replaced Gen. John Abizaid as head of the U.S. Central Command, which covered the Middle East as well as portions of Africa and Asia. De-Baathification Bill Proposed—Iraq’s two highest government officials, President Jalal Talabani and Maliki, March 26 proposed legislation that would loosen the prohibitions on former members of the Baath Party holding government jobs. The bill, which Khalilzad supported, would allow former party members not wanted for or charged with criminal activity to hold posts in the government or military. They would also be allowed to collect government pensions, and a three-month deadline would be implemented for victims to pursue lawsuits against them. Many groups who had been victimized by former President Saddam Hussein’s mostly Sunni Baath Party regime, including Shiite Muslims and ethnic Kurds, opposed loosening the restrictions. Maliki, however, was a Shiite, and Talabani was a Kurd, and the legislation was hailed by many as an attempt to bring about national reconciliation. Conflicting reports April 2–3 emerged on whether Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and other leading Shiite clerics approved of the legislation. Salim Abdullah, a Sunni legislator, April 2 derided the notion that their approval should be sought. Kirkuk Arabs’ Relocation Set—The government March 31 announced that the cabinet had approved a plan that would relocate thousands of ethnic Arabs from Kirkuk to regions in the south. Under Hussein, tens of thousands of Kurds had been forced out of the oil-rich city, and replaced with Arabs from further south. After Hussein’s ouster in 2003, thousands of Kurds had returned to the city, and disputes had arisen regarding the ownership of many homes. Under the plan, Sunni Arabs who left Kirkuk and moved south to their former hometowns would be given $15,000 and land there by the government. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari March 31 said thousands had already accepted the offer. Kurdish legislators had reportedly threatened to pull out of Maliki’s coalition government, thereby collapsing it, if the plan was not enacted. The plan was opposed by other ethnic groups in the area, including Arabs and Turkmen. Iranian Diplomat Freed by Captors—

Jalal Sharafi, an Iranian diplomat who had been abducted by gunmen in February, April 3 was released by his captors. Zebari

said he had urged Sharafi’s captors to release him, and that the event was unrelated to attempts to free 15 British sailors and marines detained by Iran in March. Zebari said it was unclear who was responsible for Sharafi’s abduction. [See pp. 201A1, 198C1] In a related development, Caldwell April 4 said Iran had requested that an envoy be allowed to visit five Iranians in U.S. custody, and that the U.S. was considering the request. The Iranians had been detained in January, and there had been speculation that they might be exchanged in return for the captive Britons. Caldwell did not mention any connection between the potential release of the two groups of detainees. The U.S. military April 4 said that the International Committee of the Red Cross had met with the detained Iranians. Saudi King Blasts U.S. ‘Occupation’—

Saudi King Abdullah March 28 denounced the U.S. presence in Iraq, saying Iraq was suffering under “an illegal foreign occupation and detestable sectarianism.” Speaking at a meeting of the Arab League, Abdullah also criticized Arab nations, saying that “our ongoing differences, our refusal to walk the path of unity” had caused Iraq to “lose its confidence in us.” Saudi Arabia was an ally of the U.S., but Abdullah’s comments underscored a significant disagreement between the two countries on how to resolve the Iraqi conflict. [See p. 203C1] Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Saleh al-Ajili, a member of parliament affiliated with Shiite cleric Moqtada alSadr, April 4 claimed that Sadr had removed two legislators—Salam al-Maliki and Qusay Abdul Wahab—from his political bloc after they had met with U.S. officials. Salam al-Maliki and Wahab denied both the meeting and their expulsion. † Justice Minister Hashim al-Shebli, a Sunni, March 31 resigned from his position. Dabbagh said the move was planned as part of Premier Maliki’s cabinet reshuffle. [See p. 139D2] † A statement from Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr March 30 denounced the U.S. as an “occupier” and called on his followers to “rise up” in resistance. The statement was read at several Shiite mosques throughout the country during Friday prayers. Nearly four years after the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces, Sadr said, Iraq was “still without water, electricity, fuel, security or peace.” Sadr also ordered that peaceful demonstrations opposing the U.S. be held on the upcoming anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq: † The U.S. military April 5 reported that four soldiers had died in two separate bombings the day before. † A U.S. Army helicopter April 5 crashed near the town of Latifayah, south of Baghdad. The U.S. military did not comment on the cause of the crash, but said all nine soldiers aboard survived, though four were injured. Iraqi officials and witnesses reported that the helicopter had come under FACTS ON FILE

fire from insurgents. Since the beginning of the year, nine U.S. helicopters had crashed in Iraq. [See p. 122B3] † Four British soldiers April 5 were killed in western Basra province. A roadside bomb detonated near their vehicles, and was followed by gunfire from insurgents. A civilian interpreter was also killed in the attack, and another British soldier was wounded. Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, 140 British soldiers had died in Iraq, 109 of them in combat. [See pp. 201B3, 86D2] † Dozens of gunmen April 5 attacked a checkpoint near Mosul, killing 10 police officers. † A car bomb April 5 detonated near a television station, and gunmen opened fire on it immediately after the blast. One person at the station was killed, and a dozen more were wounded. The station was affiliated with Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab political bloc. † Police in Baqubah April 5 reported that they had found the bodies of 20 men kidnapped by gunmen the day before. All of the men had been shot to death. † Insurgents wearing police uniforms April 4 abducted 22 shepherds and their flock west of Baghdad. † Insurgents April 4 attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi security station in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad. The attack, involving a suicide bomber and mortar fire, was thwarted. Only two policemen and two civilians were wounded, with no U.S. casualties. † Insurgents April 4 killed at least five power station employees near Kirkuk. † A roadside bomb near Baqubah April 2 killed 10 people and wounded 31 more. † A suicide truck bomb in a Kurdish area of Kirkuk April 2 detonated near a police station and a school, killing 15 people. Among the dead were a U.S. soldier, a newborn baby and several schoolchildren. As many as 200 people were injured, many of them police officers and schoolchildren. † A car bombing April 1 killed five people near a hospital in Sadr City. „

International Trade U.S., South Korea Reach Pact. The U.S. and South Korea late April 1 in Seoul, South Korea (early April 2 in the U.S.), reached a free-trade agreement that would eliminate most tariffs on each other’s goods. The deal would be the U.S.’s largest, measured in terms of the current value of bilateral trade, since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trade between the U.S., the world’s largest economy, and South Korea, the 10th-largest, totaled more than $75 billion annually, and analysts suggested that the agreement could increase that by some $20 billion. However, the deal faced stiff opposition in each country’s legislature. [See 2006, p. 1023E3] The agreement followed 10 months of negotiations that extended to within minApril 5, 2007

utes of an April 1 U.S. deadline. The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush sought to produce an agreement by that day, so that it could be submitted to Congress under current rules granting the president enhanced authority to negotiate trade agreements. That “fast track” authority was set to expire June 30, and was unlikely to be renewed by the Democraticcontrolled Congress; Bush was required to give Congress 90 days’ notice of his plan to submit a trade pact. Numerous rounds of talks had yielded slow progress on contentious issues, such as each country’s insistence on more access for its automobile exports and U.S. demands that South Korea open up its strongly protected agricultural sector to foreign competition. The final agreement would eliminate tariffs imposed by the two countries on more than 90% of the goods they traded. South Korea would end its 8% tariff on foreign cars for U.S. imports, and change its vehicle tax system and other regulations that favored owners of smaller domestic cars. The U.S. would lift its 2.5% duty on South Korean cars with engines smaller than 3,000 cubic centimeters, and phase out those applying to larger cars and trucks over 10 years. Among agricultural products, the agreement completely excluded rice, preserving South Korea’s barriers against imports that would compete with those of its politically vocal rice farmers. Another sticking point in the trade talks, although it was negotiated in a separate set of talks, had been South Korea’s ban on U.S. beef. The ban was imposed in 2003 after the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, among U.S. cattle. South Korea in 2006 had agreed to allow imports of boneless U.S. beef, but had reimposed the full ban after discovering bone parts in subsequent shipments. [See 2006, p. 834A3] The final trade agreement did not include a provision on the beef ban, but the U.S. negotiators said that South Korea was aware that the deal would not gain U.S. approval without a lifting of the ban. The U.S. also agreed to remove tariffs from 61% of textile imports from South Korea. South Korea agreed to ease restrictions on U.S. investors and businesses in South Korea. North Korea Zone Issue Deferred—

Trade officials of the two countries April 2 offered contrasting interpretations of a clause in the deal establishing a committee to address the issue of South Korea’s Kaesong industrial park, known as an “outward processing zone,” within North Korea. The U.S. maintained that the two countries had merely agreed to discuss the development of the zone, and that the U.S., which imposed strict sanctions on North Korea, did not agree to consider allowing the import of products made at Kaesong. However, South Korean officials said that the provision represented an agreement to discuss the inclusion of Kaesong products in the free trade agreement.

Reaction— Several U.S. lawmakers April 2 expressed strong opposition to the agreement, voicing accusations by U.S. farmers and car makers that it did not do enough for their interests. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D, Mich.) said, “I will do everything in my power to defeat this agreement.” Sen. Max Baucus (D, Mont.) called the conclusion of the agreement without finalizing a lifting of South Korea’s beef ban “completely unacceptable.” Baucus was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversaw trade deals. The U.S.’s Ford Motor Co. April 2 urged Congress to reject the agreement, saying that it failed to open South Korea’s market enough to U.S. exports. About 5,000 U.S. cars had been sold in South Korea in 2006, compared with about 800,000 South Korean cars sold in the U.S. Separately, congressional Democrats March 27 unveiled a proposal that would require the U.S.’s trade deals to incoporate certain minimum labor and environmental standards, and would allow poorer countries to produce generic versions of certain patented medicines. U.S. trade officials suggested that it would be feasible to adapt the South Korea deal to such standards, if necessary. The deal was the latest in a series of bilateral agreements being negotiated by countries in the absence of momentum in talks on reaching a new global free-trade agreement. Japanese Chief Cabinet Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki April 3 said Japan sought to revive talks on a bilateral free trade agreement with South Korea, which had collapsed in 2004. Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe also urged consideration of such a pact with the U.S. [See p. 12C3] Japan April 3 concluded a free-trade pact with Thailand. „

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Human Rights Report Shows Rise in Journalist Killings.

The International News Safety Institute, a Brussels, Belgium–based coalition of international news organizations and human rights groups, March 6 released a report showing that killings of journalists on the job throughout the world had escalated in recent years. According to the report, more than 1,000 journalists were slain between 1996 and June 2006; the report counted support personnel, such as drivers and office staff, as well as reporters and camera crews. The number of journalists killed reached new peaks each year in 2004–06, with 167 dying in 2006. [See 2006, pp. 828F1, 638B1] Between 1996 and 2006, Iraq had the most victims, with 138 dead, followed by Russia, with 88, and Colombia, with 72. The victims, overwhelmingly men, were largely killed in their own countries and “in circumstances other than war.” “The figures show that killing a journalist is virtually risk-free,” said Richard Sambrook, chairman of the investigation and global news director of the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC). “Nine out of 10 murderers in the past decade have never been prosecuted.” „ 205

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UNITED STATES U N I T E D S TAT E S

Supreme Court Sides With States on Greenhouse Gas Regulation Decision Forces EPA to Reconsider. The Supreme Court April 2 ruled, 5–4, that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had the power to regulate the emission of socalled greenhouse gases by motor vehicles, and that the agency would have to provide a rationale grounded in science not to do so. Several states and cities had sued the EPA for its refusal to regulate those emissions, and the ruling was viewed as a rebuke of the position of the Bush administration. The case was Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency. [See pp. 174F1, 16G2; 2006, p. 761C1; for excerpts from the ruling, see box below] The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had sided with the Bush administration in its arguments that the federal Clean Air Act did not authorize the EPA to regulate such gases, widely agreed by scientists to contribute to global warming. It had also accepted the EPA’s contention that, even if it had such regulatory authority, all use of it was discretionary. The agency also argued that neither Massachusetts nor the eight states that joined in its appeal to the Supreme Court had proper standing to bring the case, because they suffered no direct, distinct harm as a result of the EPA’s refusal to act.

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EXCERPTS FROM THE COURT’S DECISION IN ‘MASSACHUSETTS v. EPA’

Following are excerpts from the Supreme Court’s April 2 decision on the authority and duty of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate emissions of so-called greenhouse gases from automobiles [See p. 206A1]:

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The court found fault with all three arguments. In the majority opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the Clean Air Act gave the EPA clear authority to treat greenhouse gases as air pollutants, and said the agency could not choose to ignore the statutory mandate without “reasoned explanation.” So far, the agency had produced only a “laundry list” of reasons not to regulate, none of which were based on science, Stevens wrote. The agency did not have “a roving license to ignore the statutory text,” he wrote. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer joined the opinion. The decision would force the agency to reevaluate its position on regulating “tailpipe” emissions. It was expected to have wider repercussions on related cases that had been stayed in federal courts pending the ruling, including one regarding EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Two dissenting opinions were issued, each joined by all four justices in the minority: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. One, written by Roberts, supported the government’s

From the Opinion by Justice Stevens Massachusetts has a special position and interest here. It is a sovereign State and not […] a private individual, and it actually owns a great deal of the territory alleged to be affected. Because congress has ordered EPA to protect Massachusetts (among others) by prescribing applicable standards, and has given Massachusetts a concomitant procedural right to challenge the rejection of its rulemaking petition as arbitrary and capricious, petitioners’ submissions as they pertain to Massachusetts have satisfied the most demanding standards of the adversarial process. EPA’s steadfast refusal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions presents a risk of harm to Massachusetts that is both“actual” and “imminent.”… The harms associated with climate change are serious and well recognized. The Government’s own objective assessment of the relevant science and a strong consensus among qualified experts indicate that global warming threatens, inter alia, a precipitate rise in sea levels, severe and irreversible changes to natural ecosystems, a significant reduction in winter snowpack with direct and important economic consequences, and increases in the spread of disease and the ferocity of weather events. That these changes are widely shareddoes not minimize Massachusetts’ interest in the outcome of this litigation.… Because greenhouse gases fit well within the [Clean Air] Act’s capacious definition of “air pollutant,” EPA has statutory authority to regulate emission of such gases from new motor vehicles. That definition—which includes “any air pollution agent…, including any physical, chemical,… substance…emitted into…the ambient air…,” (emphasis added)—embraces all airborne compounds of whatever stripe. Moreover, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are undoubtedly “physical [and] chemical…substance[s].” While the statute conditions EPA action on its formation of a “judgment,” that judgment must re-

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late to whether an air pollutant “cause[s], or contribute[s] to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.” Under the Act’s clear terms, EPA can avoid promulgating regulations only if it determines that greenhouse gases do not contribute to climate change or if it provides some reasonable explanation as to why it cannot or will not exercise its discretion to determine whether they do. It has refused to do so, offering instead a laundry list of reasons not to regulate, including the existence of voluntary Executive Branch programs providing a response to global warming and impairment of the President’s ability to negotiate with developing nations to reduce emissions. These policy judgments have nothing to do with whether greenhouse gas emissions contribute to climate change and do not amount to a reasoned justification for declining to form a scientific judgment. On remand, EPA must ground its reasons for action or inaction in the statute. From the Dissent By Chief Justice Roberts Apparently dissatisfied with the pace of progress on this issue in the elected branches, petitioners have come to the courts claiming broad-ranging injury, and attempting to tie that injury to the Government’s alleged failure to comply with a rather narrow statutory provision. I would reject these challenges as nonjusticiable. Such a conclusion involves no judgment on whether global warming exists, what causes it, or the extent of the problem. Nor does it render petitioners without recourse. This Court’s standing jurisprudence simply recognizes that redress ofgrievances of the sort at issue here “is the function of Congress and the Chief Executive,” not the federal courts. From the Dissent By Justice Scalia The Court, however, with no basis in text or precedent, rejects all of EPA’s stated “policy judgments” as not “amount[ing] to a reasoned justification,” effectively narrowing the universe of potential reasonable bases to a single one: Judgment can be delayed only if the Administrator concludes that “the scientific uncertainty is [too] profound.” The Administrator is precluded from concluding for other reasons “that it would… be better not to regulate at this time.” Such other reasons—perfectly valid reasons—were set forth in the agency’s statement.

view that the plaintiffs had no standing, so the court should not have accepted the case. “Such a conclusion involves no judgment on whether global warming exists, what causes it, or the extent of the problem,” Roberts wrote. The other, penned by Scalia, concluded that the EPA had carried out its duties under the Clean Air Act, which he called “malleable.” He said the court had “no business” second-guessing the agency’s policy. The Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group that had backed the states’ position, April 2 issued a statement saying that the court decision “repudiates the Bush administration’s do-nothing policy on global warming.” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D, Mich.) that day said the ruling made enacting federal legislation on climate change all the more important, although he acknowledged his disagreement with the Supreme Court’s majority over the intent behind the Clean Air Act. EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Wood called the Bush administration’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gases “unparalleled,” and said the agency would review the court decision. „ Plant Upgrades Require Pollution Controls.

The Supreme Court April 2 ruled unanimously that power plants upgrading their facilities were required to install new pollution-reduction technologies under a provision of the Clean Air Act known as the New Source Review. The case had been brought by environmental groups protesting utility Duke Energy Corp.’s refusal to install pollution control equipment in its upgraded plants. It was the second major case that the court decided for environmentalists that day. [See p. 206A1; 2006, p. 411D1] The provision stipulated that old coalfired power plants had to install state-of-theart equipment to trap conventional air pollutants such as mercury and sulfur dioxide whenever they modernized or expanded. The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., had concluded that because Duke’s modifications had not increased its plants’ hourly rates of harmful emissions, new pollution controls were not required. The Bush administration had responded by moving toward new EPA enforcement standards reflecting the appeals court’s ruling, but environmental groups, joined by several states, had fought to retain the old ones. The high court cooperated, concluding that the New Source Review provision applied whenever a power plant’s total annual output of pollutants rose. EPA enforcement actions were pending against dozens of coal-burning plants under the provision. The case was Environmental Defense v. Duke Energy Corp. „

Other Supreme Court News Guantanamo Detainees’ Appeals Rejected.

The Supreme Court April 2 declined to hear two expedited challenges to a provision of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 brought by 45 detainees at a U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The proviFACTS ON FILE

sion had stripped federal judges of the authority to hear challenges brought on habeas corpus grounds by designated foreign “enemy combatants” to their indefinite confinement at the camp. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in February had upheld the provision. The justices’ dismissal did not affirm the lower court’s decision, but signaled that the court would not rule on the matter until the detainees had exhausted all other appeals procedures available to them. [See pp. 207D1, 144E1] The plaintiffs had all been held at Guantanamo Bay for more than five years without being charged with any crime. Their lawyers argued that the military tribunals under which the detainees were to be tried were unconstitutional, as were restrictions on any appeals of the tribunals’ determinations. In an unusual development indicating maneuvers by some justices to affect the final outcomes of the cases, two written opinions accompanied the order dismissing the appeals. Justices Stephen G. Breyer, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg signed an opinion stating their belief that the court should review the cases promptly. Justices John Paul Stevens and Anthony M. Kennedy said separately that the court should not take up the cases until all other avenues of appeal were exhausted. Stevens’s assent to that position reportedly signaled his calculation that the plaintiffs might stand a better chance of winning their cases in the high court at a later juncture. The cases were Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. United States. „

Terrorism Detainees Australian Sentenced to Nine Months. A military tribunal at a U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, March 30 unsealed the terms of a plea deal stipulating that David Hicks, an Australian detainee being held at the camp, would remain in prison for nine more months. It also directed the U.S. to release Hicks into Australian custody within 60 days, where he would serve out the remainder of his sentence. Hicks was the first prisoner to be tried under the 2006 Military Commissions Act, which established the tribunals set up to try detainees. Earlier in the week he had pleaded guilty to aiding the Al Qaeda international terrorism network. [See p. 190E2] A panel of eight military officers March 30 recommended that the court impose the maximum seven-year prison sentence. However, a plea deal reached March 26 with Hicks and his attorneys had limited his time to be served to nine months. The panel reportedly had not known about the deal before making its ruling. The plea agreement required Hicks “not to communicate in any way with the media” for a year. It also included a statement by Hicks that he “has never been illegally treated” while in U.S. custody, and barred him from pursuing lawsuits over any such abusive treatment. Hicks in the past had claimed that he had been abused by U.S. interrogators before being transferred to Guantanamo. Human rights groups criticized the provisions in the plea silencing Hicks, saying April 5, 2007

that it showed the coercive quality of the military trials. In addition, Hicks’s father, Terry, and some Australian opposition politicians reportedly pointed out that Hicks’s prison sentence and gag order would extend beyond the expected date of Australian federal elections. They claimed that it had been arranged by Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s government to blunt criticism of its handling of the affair. Howard denied that his government had interfered with the plea deal. Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock April 3 said the gag order might not be valid in Australia. However, Hicks’s Australian lawyer, David McLeod, said he would probably abide by the terms. „ Status Hearing Transcripts Released. The Defense Department March 19–30 continued to release transcripts of court hearings for terrorism suspects connected with the Al Qaeda international terrorist network, held earlier in the month at a U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The closed hearings, before Combatant Status Review Tribunals, were being held to determine whether 14 “high-value terrorist detainees” transferred to Guantanamo in September 2006 should be classified as enemy combatants. Those who were faced possible trial by military tribunal under the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA). [See pp. 206G3, 153A1] Several passages were redacted from the transcripts. Analysts said the detainees’ claims were impossible to verify, and that detainees might take responsibility for attacks in order to protect other Al Qaeda members who had not been captured. It was also not disclosed if they had undergone coercive interrogations. Cole Bombing Role Admitted—The Pentagon March 19 released the transcript of a March 12 hearing of Walid bin Attash, a Yemeni national said to be a chief Al Qaeda operative. Bin Attash admitted to helping to plan the deadly 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, a U.S. Navy destroyer, in the Yemeni port of Aden. “I participated in the buying or purchasing of the explosives. I put together the plan for the operation a year and a half prior to the operation. Buying the boat and recruiting the members that did the operation,” bin Attash said through an interpreter. He said he had been meeting with Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Kandahar, Afghanistan, at the time of the attack. [See 2006, p. 691C2; 2003, p. 358B3] Bin Attash also confessed to a key role in planning 1999 bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. “I was in Karachi [Pakistan] meeting the operator, the guy that basically did the operation a few hours before the operation took place,” he said. He added that he had acted as a liaison between bin Laden and the chief of Al Qaeda’s Nairobi cell. Ignorance Claimed in Embassy Plot—

The transcript of a March 17 hearing of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian who had allegedly run Al Qaeda’s documentforging office, was released March 23. The government accused him of purchasing the explosive TNT and a vehicle for use in the 1999 embassy bombings, scouting the site

and communicating with the team that carried out the attack. [See 2006, p. 691A2] Speaking in English, Ghailani admitted that he had purchased the TNT for a friend, but said he had thought it was “soap for washing horses.” The friend later told him that the explosives were for a diamond mining operation. Ghailani said he had not known about the bomb plot, and apologized to the U.S. government and the victims. The government March 23 also released the transcript of a hearing of Mohamed Farik bin Amin Zubair, a Malaysian who was accused of helping to finance a 2003 hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia. Zubair did not speak during his hearing. [See 2006, p. 691C1]

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Financier Denies Detailed 9/11 Awareness—

The Defense Department March 29 released the transcript of a March 21 hearing of Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a Saudi accused of being a key financier of Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. by Al Qaeda. He admitted to contacting and receiving money transfers from four of the Al Qaeda operatives who carried out the attacks and talking with Mohammed Atta, who had piloted one of the hijacked planes used in the attacks. Hawsawi said, “On September 11, I knew there was an operation.” However, he claimed that he had been unaware of the specifics of the plot. [See p. 691B2] Hawsawi denied that he was an Al Qaeda member or had sworn allegiance to bin Laden, whom he said he had met several times. However, he added, “I help all jihadists.” Torture Alleged—The Pentagon March 30 released the transcript of a March 14 hearing of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi of Yemeni descent accused of involvement in the embassy and USS Cole bombings. Nashiri said he had been coerced into confessing to roles in those and other terrorist plots while in Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) custody. “From the time I was arrested five years ago, they have been torturing me,” Nashiri said through an interpreter. “It happened during interviews. One time they tortured me one way, and another time they tortured me in a different way.” He said he had made false statements, including that bin Laden had obtained a nuclear weapon, in order to “make people happy” during the interrogations. Nashiri acknowledged meeting bin Laden several times and contacting the USS Cole bombers, but said he was not aware of the attack plans. He denied membership in Al Qaeda and said he was not an enemy of the U.S. However, he said, “If you think that anybody who wants Americans to get out of the Gulf as your enemy, then you will catch about 10 million peoples in Saudi Arabia.”

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Senators Attended Mohammed Hearing—

The Washington Post March 16 reported that Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D, Mich.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R, S.C.), a committee member, had secretly attended a hearing earlier in March of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who had confessed to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks and other terrorist plots. The sena207

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tors, who had helped to write the MCA, March 16 released a statement calling for the investigation of allegations by Mohammed that he had been tortured while in CIA custody. However, they expressed confidence that his claims of responsibility for various terrorist attacks and plots were accurate and praised “the professionalism and demeanor of the trial.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates March 16 said that Gordon England, the deputy defense secretary, had also attended the hearing. “There was no doubt in [England’s] mind that this guy meant every word,” Gates said. “It really was a fresh reminder of the kind of threat that we’re facing.” „

2008 Presidential Campaign Clinton, Obama, Romney Set Funding Pace.

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Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) April 4 reported that his campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination had raised $25 million in the first three months of 2007. That nearly matched the record $26 million reported April 1 by his top rival for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.). Among the Republican presidential candidates, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney April 2 reported that he had raised $21 million, leading the field by a wide margin. [See pp. 173C3, 158A3] Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani April 2 reported raising the second-most among Republicans, $15 million, trailed by Sen. John McCain with $12.5 million. However, Giuliani led the Republican field in most polls, with McCain in second place and Romney trailing in the single digits. Among other Republican hopefuls, Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.) and Rep. Tom Tancredo raised about $1.5 million each, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee raised just $500,000. Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) placed third among the Democrats, reporting April 1 that he had raised $14 million, or double his total in the same period of his bid for the 2004 nomination. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson placed fourth, with $6 million, trailed by Sens. Christopher Dodd (Conn.) with $4 million and Joseph Biden with $2 million. Democratic Field Outpaces GOP— The Democratic candidates reported raising a combined total of nearly $80 million, compared with the total of little more than $50 million raised by the Republicans. That marked the first Democratic edge in fundraising for presidential elections since full records began to be kept in the 1970s. In addition to her $26 million total, Clinton reported transferring $10 million to her presidential campaign from her senatorial reelection account. Dodd shifted another $5 million to his campaign, while Biden shifted nearly $2 million. Clinton’s total smashed the record for the same period in previous presidential campaigns, $8.9 million, set by then–Vice President Al Gore in 1999. However, her figure did not come as a big surprise, given her advantages of longestablished national standing, a formidable 208

campaign machine and the help of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who had already hosted several fund-raising events on her behalf. By contrast, Obama’s success reflected his rapid rise to nationwide fame after just two years in the Senate. Obama reported that his total of $25 million included $23.5 million that could be used for the primary campaign. Clinton did not report how much of her total was for the primaries and how much for the general election. Under federal law, candidates could raise a total of $4,600 from each donor—$2,300 for the primaries and $2,300 for the general election. Obama said his total included contributions from more than 100,000 people, twice as many as Clinton, and $6.9 million raised via the Internet, compared with $4.2 million for Clinton. Romney’s unexpected haul shook up the Republican race. He drew donations from fellow Mormons, as well as contacts from his previous career in business as a founder of Bain Capital, a private equity firm based in Boston, Mass. Romney also loaned $2.35 million of his own money to his campaign. Meanwhile, McCain’s camp admitted disappointment with its fund-raising report and said April 3 that it planned to overhaul its finance operation. The third-place finish in the money chase dealt a new blow to McCain, who had already slipped from front-runner status as Giuliani surged ahead in the polls. Other News—In related developments: † McCain April 1 visited Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, with other Republican lawmakers. The group, joined by Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, visited the central Shorja market under heavy protection from U.S. forces, including helicopters and more than 100 soldiers in armored vehicles. McCain said the visit showed that security in the city was improving due to President George W. Bush’s decision to send more troops to Iraq, which McCain strongly backed. He also chided journalists for not reporting more good news from Iraq. However, local merchants April 2 told reporters that the market, last bombed in February, was still dangerous. They said that McCain and his colleagues had received a false impression of safety. [See p. 203D3] † Giuliani March 31 said he “should have done a better job of investigating” Bernard Kerik, whom he had named as New York City police commissioner and later made a partner in his consulting firm. The New York Times March 30 had reported that Giuliani in April 2006 had told a grand jury that he had been briefed in 2000, before naming Kerik police commissioner, about Kerik’s dealings with a company suspected of organized crime links. Kerik was now under federal investigation for tax evasion and illegal wiretapping. He also faced possible charges for lying in a background check after Bush nominated him as homeland security secretary, on Giuliani’s recommendation, in 2004. The nomination was withdrawn after a week as damaging

reports emerged about Kerik’s activities. [See 2004, p. 982A1] † In an interview with Barbara Walters of ABC News, Giuliani March 29 said he would be “very comfortable” with his wife, Judith, attending cabinet meetings and advising him on policy if he became president. The New York Post March 22 reported that Judith Giuliani had a previously undisclosed marriage in the 1970s, making the present marriage the third one for both wife and husband. [See p. 143B3] † Billionaire magazine publisher Steve Forbes, an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination in 1996 and 2000, March 28 endorsed Giuliani and agreed to take a senior role in his campaign. At a joint appearance in New York, Giuliani said he liked Forbes’s signature flat tax proposal, but cautioned that it might be impractical to replace the existing tax system. (The flat tax would be a single income tax rate for all taxpayers.) [See 2000, p. 80G2] † Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988, March 29 endorsed Obama, who was bidding to become the first black president. [See p. 59A3] † The National Organization for Women (NOW) March 28 endorsed Clinton, who sought to become the first female president. † Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D), who had abandoned his own presidential bid in February, March 26 endorsed Clinton for the Democratic nomination. New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) April 2 also endorsed Clinton. [See p. 125F1] † Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who had served in Bush’s cabinet as Health and Human Services secretary, April 1 announced that he was joining the race for the Republican nomination. † Tancredo April 2 formally announced his candidacy on an Iowa talk radio show. He was a leading foe of illegal immigration and of Bush’s proposal to create a guestworker program that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants. „

Economy Income Disparity Grew in 2005. Newly analyzed data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had shown that the disparity in income between the richest and poorest Americans had widened in 2005, the New York Times reported March 29. Economists from the University of California at Berkeley and the Paris School of Economics had found, based on the IRS data, that while income had risen about 9% overall in 2005, the share of the country’s total income going to the top 1% of earners had reached its highest level since 1928, as had the share going to the top 10%. [See p. 63B1; 2006, p. 168E1] The top 10%, those earning more than $100,000 in 2005, took in 48.5% of the country’s total income that year, up from FACTS ON FILE

April Financial Update

(Close of trading April 2 except where indicated)

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index Nasdaq Composite Index London Stock Exchange

12,382.30 1424.55 2422.26 6315.5

Tokyo Stock Exchange

17,028.41

Toronto Stock Exchange

13,265.80

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100) (Nikkei index)

(TSE Composite Index)

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield)

4.64% 5.12%

Currencies (late New York trading) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars)

$0.8170 $1.9773 $0.8651 $1.3367 117.87 11.0120 $0.8228

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.)

$664.00

Silver (per troy oz.)

$13.34

Oil (per barrel)

$65.94

(N.Y. Comex spot price) (London fixing spot price) (Nymex crude future)

Gasoline (per gallon)

$2.60

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel)

$5.00

(nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released Mar. 26) (Kansas City market)

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

2.4%

Unemployment rate

4.5%

Gross domestic product growth

2.5%

(consumer price index 12-month increase through February; see p. 176B3) (January; see p. 160E1)

(annualized fourth-quarter 2006 rate, final report; see p. 209C2)

Prime rate

8.25%

roughly 33% in the late 1970s. The top 1%, or those earning more than $348,000, took 21.8% of the total, more than double the share for that group in 1980. In 1928, the peak year on record for income shares of both groups, people in the top 10% got 49.3% of the total income, and those in the top 1% took in 23.9%. Income gains in 2005 were most pronounced for the very richest few, who reported increases of about 5% in one year. The top 0.01% had an average income of $25.7 million in 2005. In the same year, the average income for all but the top 10% of income earners declined by 0.6%, while the average income for those in the top 1% grew by 14%. The Bush administration maintained that its tax policies addressed the widening income disparity. Treasury Department spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin told the Times, “The share of income taxes paid by lower-income taxpayers will be lower than it would have been without the tax relief, while the share of income taxes for higher-income taxpayers will be higher.” In a break from his past treatment of the issue, Bush in recent speeches had made several references to the growing income gap, casting it as the natural result of an economy that increasingly rewarded highly skilled workers. „ April 5, 2007

Dow Jones Industrial Average Trading on the New York Stock Exchange

March 1 2 5 6 7 8 9 12 13 14 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 26 27 28 29 30

Closing

Volume (in millions of shares)

12,234.34 12,114.10 12,050.41 12,207.59 12,192.45 12,260.70 12,276.32 12,318.62 12,075.96 12,133.40 12,159.68 12,110.41 12,226.17 12,288.10 12,447.52 12,461.14 12,481.01 12,469.07 12,397.29 12,300.36 12,348.75 12,354.35

2,220.2 1,858.3 1,985.2 1,833.4 1,710.8 1,653.6 1,434.6 1,467.5 1,958.3 2,066.8 1,507.2 2,048.8 1,434.4 1,448.2 1.625.6 1,616.0 1,397.4 1,467.8 1,381.3 1,468.3 1,507.7 1,534.5

4th Quarter 2006 GDP Grew Revised 2.5%.

The Commerce Department March 29 reported that, according to its third and final estimate, gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter of 2006 had grown 2.5%. That was better than its most recent prior estimate of 2.2%, but still below the original estimate of 3.5%. The improvement was due to inventory growth that was higher than previously reported, the department said. GDP for all of 2006 grew 3.3% based on the revised figure for the quarter, up from 3.2% in 2005. [See p. 125B3] „

Federal Budget Senate, House Pass Democratic Blueprints.

The Senate March 23 voted, 52–47, to pass a budget resolution for fiscal year 2008, which would begin Oct. 1. The blueprint, drawn up by the Democratic majority, passed on a largely party-line vote. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine were the only Republicans to vote for the measure, joining Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I, Conn.). [See pp. 94A3, 75A1] The House March 29 voted, 216–210, to pass its own version of the Democrats’ blueprint. No Republicans voted for the resolution, while 12 Democrats voted against it. [See below] House and Senate negotiators would try to reconcile the two chambers’ versions. Budget resolutions set tax and spending guidelines for Congress to follow for the fiscal year, but did not take effect as actual legislation. Following President George W. Bush’s fiscal 2008 budget proposal, presented in February, the Senate resolution called for about $2.9 trillion in spending. However, it provided an increase in spending on domestic programs of $18 billion, or 4%, above Bush’s request to Congress. The Senate resolution did not adopt Bush’s proposal to cut the growth in

spending on Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly and disabled, by more than $200 billion over the next 10 years. Instead, the Democratic plan would raise spending by $50 billion over five years, or 200%, for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which gave assistance to low-income families. The blueprint would restore pay-as-yougo rules, requiring spending cuts to cover the cost of any new tax cuts, or tax hikes to cover the cost of new mandatory spending on so-called entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. The Senate blueprint projected a balanced budget by fiscal 2012. It based that forecast partly on the assumption that Congress would allow the expiration of some major tax cuts that had been enacted at Bush’s behest in 2001 and 2003, and were scheduled to be phased out by 2010. However, the Senate March 23 voted, 97–1, to approve an amendment offered by Sen. Max Baucus (D, Mont.) that would extend some of Bush’s tax cuts for two years. Those included a bigger child credit, a tax break for married couples and an expanded 10% income tax bracket. The current lowered estate tax would be made permanent. But the Democrats voted down Republican amendments to extend Bush’s tax cuts for capital gains and dividends. The Senate voted, 59–40, to approve an amendment offered by Sen. Gordon Smith (R, Ore.) to authorize an increase in the federal cigarette tax of up to $1 a pack, up from 39 cents. The revenue from the tax hike would go toward the boost in spending on children’s health programs. House Version—The budget blueprint passed by the House March 29 differed most sharply with the Senate version in projecting a $153 billion surplus by fiscal 2012, as opposed to the Senate’s more modest aim of balancing the budget by then. To reach the surplus, the House blueprint did not plan for the extension of any of Bush’s tax cuts set to expire in 2010. House Republicans contended that allowing the tax cuts to expire would amount to a $400 billion tax increase. Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), the senior Republican on the House Budget Committee, March 29 said that “the Democratic budget” included “the largest tax increase in American history.” „

Business Ex–Budget Director Charged With Fraud.

Former U.S. representative and budget chief David Stockman March 26 was indicted by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in New York City on federal fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges for his activities as chairman and chief executive of automobile parts maker Collins & Aikman Inc. Stockman had been director of the White House Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, and had done much of the work of winning congressional passage of Reagan’s tax cuts. [See 1986, p. 977B3] Collins & Aikman, based in Southfield, Mich., was under bankruptcy protection and was in the process of being sold off 209

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piecemeal. Stockman was accused of lying to investment bank Credit Suisse about Collins’s finances in order to secure a new loan about one month before the company filed for bankruptcy in May 2005. He was forced to resign from the board when the loan ran out and Collins’s credit lines were exhausted. As head of the company, the indictment said, Stockman had also persuaded its suppliers to misreport rebates to Collins as owed for past business deals when in fact they related to future transactions promised by Collins. Stockman had allegedly tried to cover up the fraud by leading an internal investigation of Collins’s accounting. He was charged along with three other Collins executives: Chief Financial Officer J. Michael Stepp, Controller David Cosgrove and purchasing director Paul Barnaba. All four men March 26 pleaded not guilty. U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia that day described Stockman as the key figure in the fraud. Stockman’s lawyer, Elkan Abramowitz, said the charges were exaggerated and Stockman, in a statement on Abramowitz’s Web site, cast himself as a deeply committed executive who went to great personal sacrifice in order to keep his company afloat. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also that day filed a civil complaint against him. Stockman and Reagan had a falling out after a 1981 article in the Atlantic Monthly magazine that quoted the aide as saying of the budgetary process, “None of us really understands what’s going on with all those numbers.” He later expressed disillusionment with Reagan-era economics, saying the tax cuts had driven up the deficit. „

Medicine & Health FDA Proposes Panelist Financial Rules. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

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March 21 proposed new draft guidelines intended to reduce potential conflicts of interest among outside medical experts tapped to serve on its advisory panels. Experts serving on advisory panels that evaluated and made recommendations on drugs and medical devices often had financial ties to the companies producing the products. The FDA often followed the panels’ regulatory recommendations regarding the approval of drugs and other safety issues. [See p. 62C2] The proposed guidelines would restrict experts from participating in panels if they had $50,000 or more in financial ties, such as consulting fees or stocks, to a company whose product was being reviewed. Panelists who had less than $50,000 in financial ties would be allowed to participate in the panel, but would be barred from voting. The FDA’s acting deputy commissioner, Randall Lutter, said a “significant number” of current panelists would be affected by the draft guidelines. The FDA had drawn growing criticism from Congress and patient advocates over perceived conflicts of interest at the agency. However, some experts said excessive regulation of qualified panelists would prevent them from participating in the panels. The guidelines were open to a 60-day comment period before being adopted. „ 210

AFRICA

Ivory Coast Rebel Leader Named Premier. Rebel leaders and foreign mediators March 27 said the government had agreed to appoint Guillaume Soro, leader of the New Forces, Ivory Coast’s main rebel group, as the country’s new premier. The appointment came as part of a peace plan signed by Soro and President Laurent Gbagbo in Burkina Faso earlier in March. Soro took office April 4. [See p. 161A2] Ivory Coast had been split between the government-controlled south and the rebel-held north since a brief civil war in late 2002 and early 2003. About 11,000 United Nations and French peacekeeping troops patrolled a buffer zone between the two sides. Previous peace accords had been agreed to but never fully implemented. The recent deal was seen as having a better chance at success than past accords, because it was the first to be agreed to by both Gbagbo and Soro. Soro would replace Charles Konan Banny, who had been appointed premier on an interim basis under a U.N.-backed peace plan in December 2005. Under the peace plan, a new government, which would be installed within two weeks, would work to disarm fighters on both sides and to register voters for longdelayed national elections. Also, the buffer zone would eventually be dismantled and the U.N. and French troops would pull out. Gbagbo March 16 had signed a decree establishing a joint military command, the Integrated Command Center, in the first step toward demobilizing militia fighters on both sides and integrating them into the armed forces. „

Somalia Truce Eases Worst Fighting in 15 Years. A truce April 2 began to ease heavy fighting in Mogadishu, the capital, pitting Somali transitional government troops and Ethiopian forces against Islamist insurgents allied with militias belonging to local clans. Four days of fighting through April 1 had left at least 400 people dead and hundreds more wounded, with reports indicating that most casualties were civilians. The International Committee of the Red Cross called the clashes the worst in the city in 15 years. [See p. 194A2] The fighting had begun when government and Ethiopian forces launched a new offensive March 29. The Ethiopians used helicopters and artillery to attack targets in residential areas. An Ethiopian helicopter was shot down March 30. Local clan leaders and Ethiopian commanders reached the cease-fire deal April 1, but most fighting did not stop until the next day. The two sides met again April 3 and agreed to extend the truce to allow the removal and burial of the dead. They said they would resume talks April 5. Most of Mogadishu appeared to remain calm through April 5, although a brief but

fierce exchange of artillery and small arms fire reportedly had occurred the previous night, near a soccer stadium where Ethiopian forces and insurgents remained entrenched at a short distance from each other. A Ugandan peacekeeper March 31 was killed by artillery fire during the clashes. He was the first of a 1,200-member Ugandan contingent in Somalia to be killed. Uganda was the only country so far to have deployed peacekeepers for an 8,000member force that several African Union nations had pledged in January. Thousands of residents April 2 used the halt in the fighting to flee the city. The United Nations that day estimated that nearly 100,000 refugees had fled Mogadishu since February, including 47,000 in the previous 10 days. The Islamists had controlled much of Somalia for several months, until being routed in December 2006 by an invasion of Ethiopian forces supporting the transitional government. „

Zimbabwe African Nations, Ruling Party Back Mugabe.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), a grouping of 14 nations in southern Africa, March 29 at a summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, signaled its support for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who had drawn international condemnation in recent weeks for a violent crackdown on opposition activists in his country. In a related development, Zimbabwe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party March 30 endorsed Mugabe as its candidate for 2008 presidential elections. [See below, p. 178G3] Mugabe, 83, had ruled Zimbabwe since he led the country to independence from Britain in 1980. His regime had grown increasingly authoritarian and repressive, and, since 2000, the economic situation had become increasingly dire. Discontent was rising among many facets of society, due to an inflation rate that had topped 1,700% and an estimated unemployment rate of 80%. Thousands of people were fleeing to neighboring countries, especially South Africa, each month. Earlier in March, the government had begun a violent crackdown on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and other Mugabe opponents. There were also reports of growing opposition to Mugabe within the ZANU-PF. SADC Summit Addresses Crisis—

The emergency summit of SADC government leaders was held March 29 to address the growing crisis in Zimbabwe, sparking hopes among the opposition and the international community that Zimbabwe’s neighbors would use their influence to press Mugabe to step down. The SADC, which included regional leader South Africa, had been seen as the body with the most influence over Mugabe. However, in keeping with South Africa’s policy of quiet diplomacy toward Zimbabwe, the African leaders emerged from FACTS ON FILE

the meeting with messages of support for Mugabe. They called on the West to lift economic sanctions against Zimbabwe, which Mugabe blamed for his country’s current economic problems. They also called for Britain to honor past commitments to fund land reform programs in Zimbabwe. The SADC named South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate between the Zimbabwean regime and the MDC. Mugabe was still seen by many as a hero of the independence movement, making African leaders reluctant to publicly criticize him. Furthermore, the Zimbabwean leader typically responded to criticism from the West, particularly Britain, with charges of neocolonialism. Tendai Biti, the MDC’s secretary general, criticized the SADC’s actions as “stupid.” He said the African leaders had been “outfoxed” by Mugabe. “Once you mention Britain and land and sanctions you are playing into Robert Mugabe’s hands that the problems are about imperial history and the economic crisis is about sanctions,” he added. Rather, he said, “the issue is human rights, legitimacy and democracy.” Mbeki, in an interview with the Financial Times published April 3, said forcing regime change in Zimbabwe was “not an option for us.” In a joint editorial in the March 29 Washington Post, South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had called on members of the SADC to “raise their voices, for they have the most influence…it is never inappropriate to speak on behalf of justice.” Prior to the SADC summit, MDC leaders March 23 had met with South African officials. Also meeting with South African officials was Joyce Mujuru, one of Zimbabwe’s two vice presidents, who was said to be a leader of a dissident faction of the ZANU-PF with presidential aspirations of her own. The Guardian March 31 reported that Mujuru and her husband, Solomon Mujuru, an influential former army chief, had held talks with the MDC about possible power-sharing in a post-Mugabe era. ZANU-PF Backs President— The central committee of the ZANU-PF March 30 endorsed Mugabe as the party’s candidate in the next presidential election, in 2008. However, the party rejected an attempt by Mugabe to move the elections to 2010, which would have extended his current term in office. In a speech to supporters that day, Mugabe asserted that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who had been hospitalized after being beaten by police as the opposition attempted to hold a rally March 11 in the capital, Harare, “deserved to be assaulted.” Mugabe accused the MDC of seeking to violently overthrow his government. He also reiterated previous comments that MDC members were “stooges of the West.” Tsvangirai, at an April 2 news conference in the South African city of Johannesburg, said he would be willing to hold talks with Mugabe, despite the recent violent crackdown. He praised the appointment of April 5, 2007

Mbeki as mediator as “a positive step.” The opposition leader was in Johannesburg to receive medical treatment for injuries suffered when he was beaten by police during and after the March 11 rally. Strike Fails to Draw Support—The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) called a nationwide strike for April 3–4 to demand an increase in the minimum monthly wage and stage a general protest against Mugabe’s regime. However, few heeded the strike call, either out of fear of government repression or the need to earn income. Opposition Leader Detained— Tsvangirai March 28 was detained by police along with other opposition supporters in a raid on MDC headquarters in Harare. The raid came just prior to a scheduled press conference by Tsvangirai about the recent increase in repression and violence against opposition activists by the police as well as by gangs of armed Mugabe loyalists. Police said they had seized weapons and explosives in the raid on MDC headquarters and in raids on the homes of party officials. Also, state-run news media had reported that the MDC had perpetrated firebomb attacks on police stations, trains and stores. The MDC denied those allegations. Tsvangirai was released after being detained for a few hours, the MDC said March 29. Opposition supporters March 28 said hundreds of activists had been abducted by Mugabe’s henchmen in the previous week, as part of a campaign of intimidation. Many were assaulted or tortured, and suffered serious injuries. Biti called the extrajudicial abductions a “terror tactic,” adding, “The vigilante violence is increasing because the use of formal repressive units like the police is problematic,” the Guardian reported March 31. „

AMERICAS

Colombia CIA Links General to Paramilitary Groups. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

had written an intelligence report linking Colombia’s army chief, Gen. Mario Montoya, to right-wing paramilitary groups in the country, the Los Angeles Times reported March 25. Such right-wing groups had ties to drug traffickers and were linked to thousands of murders, kidnappings and human rights abuses. Many of the groups were considered terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. [See pp. 179G3, 111E1] The intelligence report detailed a 2002 military operation, planned by Montoya in coordination with a paramilitary group, to eliminate Marxist guerrillas in the slums of Medellin, a northwestern city that was a center of the illegal narcotics trade. The effort, called Operation Orion, dispatched 3,000 federal soldiers and police to Medellin. The CIA intelligence report stated that police, troops and paramilitary forces had signed an agreement outlining the operation. At least 14 people had died in the offensive, and opponents of President Alvaro Uribe Velez said dozens more had disappeared.

The CIA publicly neither confirmed nor denied the substance of the Times report. Montoya, 57, was an important figure in a U.S.-funded antidrug effort called Plan Colombia which provided the country with $700 million in annual aid. Observers said ongoing revelations into ties between Uribe’s government and right-wing paramilitary groups had imperiled the U.S.’s approval of a pending $3.9 billion, multiyear aid package. Eight legislators had been arrested in connection with the investigations, and Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo, had resigned in February because of the scandal. If the allegations were confirmed, Montoya would be the highest-ranking Colombia official to be linked to paramilitary groups. Uribe March 25 said his government “rejects the accusations made by foreign intelligence agencies” against Montoya. Montoya March 26 also denied the allegations, telling various Colombian media outlets that his “conscience is clear.” Several Politicians Arrested— Federal prosecutors March 2 ordered the arrest of Araujo’s father, Alvaro Araujo Noguera. Alvaro Araujo, a powerful regional political leader, was wanted in connection with the kidnapping of a rival political leader. Chief federal prosecutor Mario Iguaran March 12 ordered the arrest of Trino Luna, the governor of the northern province of Magdalena, on suspicion of having links to right-wing paramilitary groups. Luna surrendered to law enforcement officials the following day. „

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Poland Damages Awarded in Abortion Denial. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, March 20 found that Poland had not adequately guaranteed its own law granting a woman’s right to an abortion on medical grounds. The court, an organ of the Council of Europe, awarded damages of 25,000 euros ($33,000) to a woman who had been denied an abortion even though it was determined that her pregnancy threatened her sight. She suffered a retinal hemorrhage, making her nearly blind, as a result of the childbirth. Polish law banned abortion except in cases of rape, incest and medical danger to the mother. [See p. 100F3; 2003, p. 1021C3] Some 4,000 people March 28 demonstrated in Warsaw, the capital, in support of pending proposals to amend the constitution to ban abortion in all cases. Nongovernmental organizations estimated that some 200,000 illegal abortions were carried out in Poland annually. „

Serbia U.N. Envoy Backs Kosovo Independence.

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between separatist rebels and Serbian forces, which ended after North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) strikes against Serbia in 1999. The envoy, Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, said he had concluded that “independence is the only viable option” for political and economic stability in the province. He recommended that an independent Kosovo remain supervised for an unspecified period of time by the European Union, with security assistance from NATO and other European forces. [See p. 131G3] The Security Council, having received Ahtisaari’s proposals, was to decide on Kosovo’s status. The envoy’s report set up a likely confrontation on the council between the U.S. and Britain, which supported it, and Russia, which had threatened to veto any proposal to grant Kosovo independence. Skender Hyseni, Kosovo’s leading negotiator in the discussions, March 27 said he sought to “convince the Russians to join the group of countries which has already accepted the plan.” However, Serbian Premier Vojislav Kostunica that day hailed the prospect of a Russian veto, which he said would lead to “a new negotiation process with a new mediator.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov March 17 had suggested that more talks be held under the direction of a new U.N. envoy. However, he declined to categorically declare that Russia would veto any proposal that was not agreed to by Serbia, as Russia had previously suggested it would do. Russia had expressed concern that granting Kosovo independence would set a precedent that would encourage separatist demands elsewhere in the world, including in rebellious regions of Russia. Kosovo’s parliament April 5 voted, 100–1, to approve the plan. Talks Found No Common Ground—Ahtisaari said in his March 26 report that he had been unable, after more than a year of negotiations, to facilitate any substantial agreement between Serbian and Kosovar leaders on a plan for Kosovo. “Both parties have reaffirmed their categorical, diametrically opposed positions.” The most recent round of talks had concluded March 10 in Vienna, Austria. Ahtisaari in his report called the path toward Kosovo independence “irreversible,” as Kosovo’s Albanian majority would not accept rule by Serbia again. Serbian leaders, however, said the proposal would violate the U.N. Charter by redrawing their country’s borders without its consent. Ahtisaari in his report suggested that Kosovo’s Serb minority be given “a high degree of control” over matters affecting them. Some Serbian commentators urged that Kosovo be partitioned, with its Serb enclave remaining in Serbia and the remainder becoming independent. Other News—In other Kosovo news: † About 4,000 ethnic Albanians March 3 demonstrated in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, against an earlier version of the plan presented by Ahtisaari, in which he refrained from referring to independence. Similar protests had taken place in Febru212

ary. However, Kosovo’s leaders continued to express confidence that Ahtisaari’s recommendations would inevitably lead to statehood for Kosovo. [See p. 84C2] † Ramush Haradinaj, a former Kosovo premier who in the 1998–99 conflict had been a commander of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrilla force, March 14 pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, rape and torture at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the Netherlands. Haradinaj and codefendant Idriz Balaj were charged in connection with alleged atrocities against Serbs and against ethnic Albanians suspected of collaborating with the Serbs, during the conflict. [See 2005, pp. 967B2, 153B3] „

Ukraine President Calls Election, Sparks Standoff.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko April 2 announced the dissolution of the Rada, or parliament, effective the following day, and called a parliamentary election for May 27. Yushchenko’s move came amid a growing political confrontation with Premier Viktor Yanukovich and the parliamentary majority led by his Party of Regions. The party had defied the president’s order to disband, contending that the president did not have the authority to dissolve parliament. [See p. 113E2] Supporters of Yanukovich beginning April 2 mounted ongoing demonstrations near the parliament building in Kiev, the capital, in protest of the order, as well as in the eastern city of Donetsk, a center of support for the premier’s bloc. Counterdemonstrators supporting the president also gathered in Kiev, joined by Yuliya Tymoskenko, who had been Yushchenko’s premier until a dispute with him in 2005, but now supported his move. The standoff threatened to become the biggest political crisis in Ukraine since the 2004 presidential election. The declaration of Yanukovich as the victor of that contest had prompted accusations of fraud and popular demonstrations that led to Yushchenko’s installation. The country remained sharply divided politically, between Yushchenko’s drive for closer ties with the West and the proRussian stance of Yanukovich, who had a base of support in Russian-speaking eastern areas. Yanukovich became premier after March 2006 parliamentary elections, in which the president’s Our Ukraine bloc failed to achieve a majority. [See 2006, pp. 636C2, 248F2] The president March 29 had accused the premier’s coalition of illegally enlarging its majority through defections by lawmakers. (Ukraine’s constitution, he contended, did not permit individual lawmakers to switch parties.) A group of 11 lawmakers, including Yushchenko’s former national security adviser Anatoly Kinakh, had joined Yanukovich’s bloc in recent days, bringing it to 260 of the Rada’s 450 seats. The coalition said it was progressing toward gaining enough converts to attain 300 seats, the two-

thirds majority required to override presidential vetoes. Yanukovich’s coalition April 2 convened the Rada and denounced the president’s decree as a move towards a “coup d’etat.” It moved to block a new election by resolving not to provide funding for it. The premier April 3 called Yushchenko’s move a “contract hit on the constitutional order.” He accused him of being the one seeking to “usurp power.” He said that if Yushchenko did not “cancel his decree,” then “not only parliamentary but also presidential elections will be inevitable.” The two men that day held talks without result. The parliamentary majority sought a ruling from the Constitutional Court on the legality of the president’s decree, and the court said it would decide within 15 days whether to consider the request. Yushchenko April 5 said that if parliament failed to “fulfill” his decree by disbanding, “criminal charges” could follow. Premier Seeks Outside Mediation—

Yanukovich April 5 said he had asked Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, as the leader of a “neutral country,” to mediate the dispute, along with “well-known European legal experts.” Yushchenko April 3 met with ambassadors from the Group of Eight major industrialized nations. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana April 5 spoke with both Yushchenko and Yanukovich, urging them to come to a resolution. Germany, currently holding the EU’s rotating presidency, April 3 had urged a solution according to Ukraine’s “Constitution and democratic rules.” „

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Egypt Vote Approves Constitutional Amendments.

Egyptians March 26 voted on a raft of 34 constitutional amendments in a controversial referendum, and the government March 27 announced that the final results were 76%–24% in favor of the changes. President Hosni Mubarak and other supporters of the amendments described them as political reforms that would enhance and modernize democracy in the country and help it to fight terrorism. Opponents argued that they were setbacks for democracy that would curtail political participation and solidify Mubarak’s authoritarian powers. Many opposition parties boycotted the referendum, and turnout for the vote was very low. [See below; 2006, p. 1032B1] The amendments included a ban on political parties having a religious foundation, which was widely interpreted as directed at the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition group in parliament. The group was already officially banned from political activity, but many members in parliament, registered as independents, were nonetheless affiliated with the group. Another amendment required that parliamentary candidates appear on recognized party lists, effectively banishing the group altogether. FACTS ON FILE

Other amendments ended the requirement that judges supervise polling stations; greatly expanded the ability of police to monitor, search and arrest citizens; introduced a quota on women’s representation in parliament; and gave the president the power to dissolve parliament without a public referendum and to suspend civil liberties in response to terrorism. Parliament had approved the amendments March 19 after months of debate. It had also moved the referendum date up from April, leading to complaints that there was not enough time for opposition groups to muster an effective campaign against the amendments. The full text of the amendments was not made available to the public by the time of the referendum, and summaries only began appearing two days prior to the vote. Mubarak, whose National Democratic Party had ushered the amendments through parliament, March 26 said, “The people are the real winners in this referendum.” But he added that more reforms were in the works. “What has been achieved does not represent the end of the road,” he said. Many Suspicious of Low Vote Turnout—

Anas el-Fiqqi, the information minister, March 26 said turnout for the vote was roughly 23–27% of voters, and the justice ministry March 27 put it at 27%. However, many Egyptians and media observers said they thought the turnout was much smaller, even as low as 5%. Although there was no minimum turnout required in order for the vote to be legally valid, the government March 25 had said a turnout of about 25% was needed for the referendum to be viewed as legitimate. Mohammed Habib, deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, which led the boycott, March 27 reportedly called the referendum results “100% forged.” The group had planned to stage protests the day of the vote, but called them off, fearing government repression. Since the beginning of 2007, the government had cracked down on the group, arresting more than 100 people, including some senior leaders, as well as freezing the assets of dozens of members. [See 2006, p. 984F1] Media outlets the day of the vote reported that many polling stations were empty, and that the government had brought public-sector employees in by bus to pack other stations. Many Egyptians the day of the vote said they knew little about the content of the amendments, and others privately expressed the opinion that, since their ballots would not be counted, they saw no point in voting. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking at a press conference after a meeting with Mubarak in Aswan, March 25 had said she had “made my concerns known” to the president regarding the pace and direction of democratic reform in Egypt. The U.S. had been pushing for more democracy in Egypt, but had recently eased its rhetoric on the matter in order to gain the country’s support for the U.S.’s Middle East policy. „ April 5, 2007

Blogger Gets Four Years in Jail. A court in

Alexandria Feb. 22 sentenced the author of an Internet Web log, or blog, to three years in jail for inciting sectarian strife and for insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammed. The blogger, Abdel Kareem Nabil, 22, received an additional year in prison for insulting President Hosni Mubarak. Nabil’s blog espoused secularism, and was critical of both the government and religious conservatives. He was the first blogger to be prosecuted in Egypt, and had faced a nine-year sentence. Nabil had been in police custody since November 2006, and an appeals court March 12 upheld his sentence. The trial, which began Jan. 18, was described by many as a threat to freedom of speech, and was condemned by other countries and by human rights groups. [See 2006, p. 870A3] „

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan Elite U.S. Marine Unit Ordered to Leave.

U.S. Army Col. Lou Leto, a military spokesman, March 23 said an elite Marine Corps unit had been ordered to leave Afghanistan after its involvement in a shooting incident that left at least eight civilians dead. The incident had taken place earlier in the month on a highway near the city of Jalalabad. Leto said that Army Maj. Gen. Francis Kearney 3rd—commander of Special Operations forces in the Middle East and Central Asia—had judged that the unit’s relationship with the local population was irreparably damaged and that it would not be able to operate productively. He had therefore ordered it to leave, Leto said. [See p. 149B2] Leto also announced that Kearney had ordered an investigation into the incident, and said those members of the unit involved in the incident would remain in Afghanistan until the investigation’s conclusion. Separately, officials with the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush March 10 announced that the president had ordered a brigade of 3,500 troops to be sent to Afghanistan. The brigade was a training unit whose mission would be to instruct local forces. Bush at the same time ordered that an additional 4,700 troops be sent to Iraq. „ Parliament Approves Amnesty Bill. The lower house of parliament March 10 voted in favor of a bill that would give amnesty to groups that had committed war crimes over the past three decades but would also allow victims of such crimes to seek justice by pursuing individual wrongdoers. President Hamid Karzai earlier that day had lauded the bill as promoting reconciliation and as providing for “victims’ rights and punishment of an individual who committed crimes against an individual.” [See p. 114C3] One legislator, Shukria Barakzai, expressed concern regarding the clarity and efficacy of the bill if it were to become law. “I myself am confused,” she said. “On the

one hand, I, as an individual, have the right to seek justice, but I can’t do so if [the injustice had been] committed by a group.” The bill differed from an earlier attempt at amnesty legislation in its mention of victims’ rights. Tens of thousands of supporters of former warlords had rallied in Kabul, the capital, in February to express their support for the earlier bill, which had offered near-complete amnesty. A number of former warlords had seats in parliament. Other News—In other Afghan news: † Government officials April 1 announced that 88 people had died in floods affecting more than half the nation’s provinces. † Afghan soldiers in Kandahar province March 6 captured Mullah Mahmood, a senior rebel commander, at a checkpoint. When captured, Mahmood was disguised in a burqa, a garment for Muslim women that covered the entire body and the face. † The director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, March 5 predicted that Afghanistan’s 2007 opium poppy harvest could exceed the record harvest in 2006. Costa said ample precipitation, the involvement of insurgents and the lack of security were contributing to the harvest boom, particularly in the southern part of the country. [See p. 133E2] Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Afghanistan March 9–April 1: † Five children and four adults April 1 died when a suicide bomber attacked an army convoy in Laghman province. Two soldiers were among the dead. † Taliban rebels April 1 hanged three men after accusing them of being informants for British forces. † A suicide bomber in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, March 27 detonated his explosives at a police headquarters. Four police officers were killed. † Five Afghan police officers March 15 were killed in Helmand province. The interior ministry March 16 claimed that the police officers had been attacked by Taliban rebels, but were also the victims of friendly fire by U.S. forces. The ministry later backed away from the friendly fire accusation, after the U.S. military asserted that its forces were not involved in the firefight. † A suicide bomber in Khost March 14 detonated his explosives near police in a crowded market. The blast killed four officers and a civilian, and wounded nine more officers and two children. † Two suicide bombers in Lashkar Gah March 13 detonated their explosives within minutes of each other, killing themselves and one civilian. Another civilian and an Afghan army commander were wounded. † A roadside bomb in western Afghanistan March 12 exploded near a police convoy, killing nine officers. † A roadside bomb outside the city of Kandahar March 9 exploded near a vehicle carrying Mullah Naqib and members of his 213

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family. No one was killed, though Naqib and five other people were wounded. Naqib was a tribal leader and an ally of Karzai. „ Tillman Death Probe Results Released.

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Thomas Gimble, the acting inspector general for the U.S. Defense Department, March 26 announced the results of his criminal investigation into false reports regarding the death of Army Ranger Cpl. Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. Tillman’s death in 2004 had initially been attributed to hostile fire, but it was later revealed that he had been killed by friendly fire. Gimble said there had been no criminal conduct in the affair, nor any attempt to hide the circumstances surrounding Tillman’s death. However, Gimble said that nine officers had made “critical errors” in handling the matter—including making false and misleading statements, and failing to promptly notify Tillman’s family about new information—and should therefore be considered for “corrective action.” Four generals were among the officers faulted. [See 2006, p. 178F2] The investigation also concluded that there were grounds to review the awarding of a Silver Star decoration to Tillman. The Army clarified that the award would not be rescinded, but that its accompanying citation would be reworded. Tillman’s family March 26 released a statement criticizing the Army’s conduct regarding Tillman’s death and for refusing to give them “access to the original investigation, and the sworn statements from that investigation.” The statement criticized the inspector general’s report, describing it as an “attempt to impose closure by slapping the wrists of a few officers.”„

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Brewer, who had 13 points and eight rebounds in the title game, was named the most outstanding player of the men’s Final Four. Florida’s football team had also defeated Ohio State in January to win the NCAA Division I-A football title. It was the first time that the same school held both titles. [See p. 23C2] In the women’s tournament, Tennessee won its seventh championship, and its first since 1998. Coach Pat Summitt, 54, claimed her seventh NCAA title; only legendary University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) coach John Wooden had won more (10). [See 1998, p. 225A3] Tennessee forward Candace Parker, who had 17 points and seven rebounds in the title game, was named the most outstanding player of the women’s Final Four. Florida Dominates Men’s Title Game—

The Gators, led by Horford, who had 18 points and 12 rebounds, and Green, who had 16 points, dominated the April 2 men’s title game. Florida led, 40–29, at halftime. The Buckeyes reduced the deficit to six points late in the second half, but could not get any closer. Ohio State star freshman center Greg Oden led all scorers with 25 points, and added 12 rebounds. But the teamwork displayed by the Gators helped them overcome Oden’s powerful individual performance. In the semifinals, Florida March 31 had defeated the UCLA Bruins, 76–66. Ohio State that day beat the Georgetown University Hoyas, 67–60.

2007 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championshiop: The Final 16*

1 Florida (31–5) 5 Butler (29–6)

7 UNLV (30–6)

Gators Claim 2nd Straight Championship.

1 Kansas (32–4)

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Florida, 65–57 Florida, 85–77

3 Oregon (28–7)

Florida, Tennessee Win NCAA Basketball Titles The University of Florida Gators April 2 defeated the Ohio State University Buckeyes, 84–75, in Atlanta, Ga., to win the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s basketball tournament. The University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers April 3 beat the Rutgers University Scarlet Knights, 59–46, in Cleveland, Ohio, to win the women’s title. [See below; 2006, p. 266G1; for the final 16 men’s and women’s brackets, see pp. 214D2, 215A1] The Gators, coached by Billy Donovan, became the first team to win consecutive men’s titles since the Duke University Blue Devils in 1991 and 1992. Florida was the first team to do so with the same five starting players—forward-centers Joakim Noah and Al Horford, forward Corey Brewer, and guards Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey. Noah, Brewer and Horford delayed moving on to the National Basketball Association (NBA) to help Florida pursue another title. [See 1992, p. 258A3]

Parker Leads Lady Vols to Victory—

Led by a standout performance by Parker, the Lady Vols jumped out to a 29–18 lead at halftime in the April 3 women’s title game. Tennessee dominated defensively, with center Nicky Anosike grabbing a game-high 16 rebounds. Guard Shannon Bobbitt contributed 13 points, including four three-pointers. Center Kia Vaughn led Rutgers with 20 points, but was the only member of her team to score in double digits. In the semifinals April 1, Tennessee had defeated the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, 56–50. Rutgers that day routed the Louisiana State University (LSU) Lady Tigers, 59–35, setting a Final Four record for the fewest points allowed in a game. (The previous mark had been set by Tennessee in 1987, when it held Louisiana Tech to just 44 points in the title game.) [See below; 1987, p. 235F2] Men’s, Women’s NIT Results—The University of West Virginia Mountaineers March 29 beat the Clemson University Tigers, 78–73, in New York City to win the men’s National Invitation Tournament (NIT). West Virginia forward Frank Young, who scored 24 points in the title game—including six three-pointers—was named the most outstanding player of the tournament. The University of Wyoming Cowgirls March 31 won the women’s NIT, defeating the University of Wisconsin Badgers, 72– 56. Wyoming forward Hanna Zavecz, who scored 12 points in the game, was named

4 So. Illinois (29–6)

Oregon, 76–72

1 N. Carolina (30–6) 5 USC (25–11) 6

11)

UCLA, 68–55 UCLA, 64–55

1 Ohio St. (32–3) 5 Tennessee (24–

NCAA Championship Game April 2 in Atlanta, Ga.

Georgetown, 96–84 EAST REGION WINNER

Winner: Florida, 84–75 over

Ohio St.

Georgetown, 66–65

Ohio St., 85–84

10)

Ohio St., 67–60 Ohio St., 92–76

3 Texas A&M (27–6) 2 Memphis (32–3)

WEST REGION WINNER

N. Carolina, 74–64

Vanderbilt (22–

2 Georgetown (28–6)

Florida, 76–66

Kansas, 61–58

3 Pittsburgh (29–7) 2 UCLA (28–5)

MIDWEST REGION WINNER

Memphis, 65–64

SOUTH REGION WINNER

*Team records in first column include two early-round tournament victories.

FACTS ON FILE

2007 Women’s Basketball Championship: The Final 16* 1 N. Carolina (32–3) 5 George Wash. (28–

N. Carolina, 70–56

3)

3 Georgia (27–6) 2 Purdue (30–5) 1 Tennessee (30–3) 13 Marist (29–5) 3 Oklahoma (28–4) 7 Mississippi (23–10) 1 Connecticut (31–3) 4 N.C. State (25–9) 3 LSU (28–7) 10 Florida St. (24–9) 1 Duke (32–1) 4 Rutgers (24–8) 3 Arizona St. (30–4) 7 Bowl. Green (31–3)

N. Carolina, 84–72 Purdue, 78–65

DALLAS REGION WINNER

Tennessee, 56–50

Tennessee, 65–46 Tennessee, 98–62 Mississippi, 90–82

DAYTON REGION WINNER

April 3 in Cleveland, Ohio

Connecticut, 78–71 LSU, 73–50 LSU, 55–43

FRESNO REGION WINNER

Winner: Tennessee, 59–46 over

Rutgers

Rutgers, 53–52 Rutgers, 64–45 Arizona St., 67–49

NCAA Championship Game

Rutgers, 59–35

GREENSBORO REGION WINNER

*Team records in first column include two early-round tournament victories.

most outstanding player of the women’s NIT. Top Players, Coaches Named—The Associated Press (AP) March 30 named University of Texas freshman swingman Kevin Durant the men’s player of the year. He became the first freshman to win the award. Tony Bennett of Washington State University was named AP men’s coach of the year. University of Oklahoma sophomore center Courtney Paris March 31 was named the AP women’s player of the year, the first time a sophomore had taken the honor. Duke’s Gail Goestenkors that day was named AP women’s coach of the year. Goestenkors April 3 resigned as Duke coach to take over at Texas. Texas’s coach, Hall of Famer Jody Conradt, March 12 had announced her resignation after 38 seasons of coaching. She retired with a career record of 900 wins and 306 losses, the second-most wins in women’s basketball history. Summitt had the most, with 947. [See 2003, p. 199F3] Final Regular-Season Polls Released—

Ohio State March 12 was ranked number one in both the AP NCAA Division I final regular-season men’s basketball poll of media members and the USA Today/ESPN poll of college basketball coaches. In the AP poll, Kansas was ranked second, followed by Florida, North Carolina, Memphis, Wisconsin, UCLA, Georgetown, Texas A&M and Oregon. Kansas was also second in the coaches’ poll, followed by Florida, North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA, April 5, 2007

Wisconsin, Georgetown, Texas A&M and Pittsburgh. Duke March 12 topped both the AP final regular-season women’s poll and the coaches’ poll. In the AP poll, Connecticut was second, followed by North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio State, Stanford, Maryland, Arizona State, Vanderbilt and LSU. In the coaches’ poll, North Carolina was second, followed by Connecticut, Tennessee, Stanford, Maryland, Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Arizona State and Oklahoma. LSU Women’s Coach Resigns— Pokey Chapman, the head coach of LSU’s women’s team, March 7 announced that she would resign after the NCAA tournament. The next day, however, she said her resignation would be effective immediately. An LSU official March 8 said Chapman, who had led the team to the Final Four in the previous three seasons, had left the team due to unspecified inappropriate conduct involving at least one former player. Assistant coach Bob Starkey took over as interim head coach. LSU March 15 said assistant coach Carla Berry had brought the alleged improper conduct, which was reported to be of a sexual nature, to the attention of LSU officials. „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

People

Washington, D.C.’s Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum complex, March 26 announced that it had accepted

the resignation of its top official, Secretary Lawrence W. Small, 65, a former banker. It had replaced him, on an interim basis, with biologist Cristian Samper, 41, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History since 2003 and, before that, a leading environmentalist in Colombia. Small, who had led the Smithsonian since January 2000, had been intensely scrutinized since the Washington Post in February began publishing details of an internal audit at the institution, conducted in January. That audit had found, among other things, that he had billed the institution hundreds of thousands of dollars for such extravagances as chauffeured cars, private jets, luxury hotels and catered meals. Public exposure of his spending habits had been a key factor behind a March 22 vote by the Senate to freeze a $17 million increase in the Smithsonian’s proposed 2008 budget. [See p. 75C3; 2004, p. 300D2; 1999, p. 676A2] Thirty-nine-year old model and actress Anna Nicole Smith, who in early February had been found dead in a Hollywood, Fla., hotel room, had died mainly from an accidental overdose of a powerful sleeping medication, chloral hydrate, in combination with four other sedatives also found in her system, according to a report issued March 26 by the Broward County, Fla., medical examiner’s office. An intestinal flu, and a bacterial infection possibly caused by an injection with a contaminated needle, were also cited as contributing factors. No illegal drugs were found in her system. [See p. 151F2] British supermodel Naomi Campbell March 23 in New York City wrapped up five days of community service as a cleaner at a Sanitation Department garage, one of the terms of her January sentence after she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault for flinging a cellphone that injured her maid. She had been assigned to the same facility as British singer and songwriter Boy George, who did five days of community service in 2006 after police found cocaine in his New York apartment. Unlike Boy George, though, she worked indoors the whole time, wearing glamorous outfits to and from the garage, but regulation Sanitation Department gear while working there. [See p. 71D2; 2006, p. 688B2] „

O B I T UA R I E S

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ATKINS, Orin Ellsworth, 82, chief executive for

16 years (1965–81) of Ashland Oil Inc., a Kentuckybased company that, under his leadership, evolved from a regional refiner into a multinational energy conglomerate; however, during his tenure, the company was also tainted by charges of having made illegal political payments of various kinds; in 1989, eight years after his retirement, he pleaded guilty to criminal charges, filed in 1988, of trying to sell stolen Ashland documents to National Iranian Oil Co., which had sued Ashland over oil shipments, worth $283 million, made to Ashland in 1979 but never paid for; in 1990, he was sentenced to two years’ probation and 600 hours of community service, and agreed to repay Ashland $2.25 million; born June 6, 1924, in Pittsburgh, Pa.; died March 23 at a hospital in Dallas, Texas, from complications of pneumonia. [See 1988, p. 840B2; 1987, p. 225A2; Indexes 1980–81, 1973– 75] COHEN, Paul Joseph, 72, mathematician and logician long associated with Stanford University; in the

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BEST SELLER LISTS

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Books

Television

Publishers Weekly April 2 listed the following hardback and paperback best sellers [See p. 136A1]:

Top-Rated Programs. The following were the most-watched prime-time national television shows Feb. 26–April 1 as determined by A.C. Nielsen Co. (Series marked with an asterisk * had at least one other episode during the period that outranked some of the other programs listed.) Figures in parentheses are rating points; each point represents 1% of the 110.2 million television households in the U.S. [See p. 136A2]:

Fiction Hardback

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1. Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult (Atria) 2. For a Few Demons More, by Kim Harrison (Eos) 3. Whitethorn Woods, by Maeve Binchy (Knopf) 4. Step on a Crack, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown) 5. Daddy’s Girl, by Lisa Scottoline (HarperCollins) General Hardback 1. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne (Atria/Beyond Words) 2. Grace (Eventually), Thoughts on Faith, by Anne Lamott (Riverhead) 3. Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny, by Suze Orman (Spiegel & Grau) 4. In an Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing, by Lee Woodruff and Bob Woodruff (Random House) 5. You: On A Diet: The Owner’s Manual for Waist Management, by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. (Free Press)

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Mass Market Paperback 1. Two Little Girls in Blue, by Mary Higgins Clark (Pocket) 2. Prior Bad Acts, by Tami Hoag (Bantam) 3. A Wicked Gentleman, by Jane Feather (Pocket Star) 4. Judge & Jury, by James Patterson and Andrew Gross (Warner) 5. True Believer, by Nicholas Sparks (Warner)

Music Best-Selling Singles and Albums. Billboard magazine in its March 31 issue

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listed the five most popular singles (as determined by air play and sales) and the five best-selling record, tape and compact disc albums in the U.S. as the following [See p. 136C1]:

Singles 1. “Glamorous,” Fergie featuring Ludacris (will.i.am/A&M/Interscope) 2. “This Is Why I’m Hot,” Mims (Capitol) 3. “Don’t Matter,” Akon (Konvict/Upfront/SRC/Universal Motown) 4. “Cupid’s Chokehold,” Gym Class Heroes featuring Patrick Stump (Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen/Atlantic/Lava) 5. “The Sweet Escape,” Gwen Stefani featuring Akon (Interscope) Albums

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1. Luvanmusiq, Musiq Soulchild (Atlantic/AG) 2. Street Love, Lloyd (The Inc./Universal Motown/UMRG) 3. Rich Boy, Rich Boy (Zone 4/Interscope) 4. Daughtry, Daughtry (RCA/RMG) 5. Konvicted, Akon (Konvict/Upfront/SRC/Universal Motown/UMRG) early 1960s, he stunned the mathematics community by demonstrating that the continuum hypothesis, one of the foundations of set theory, could not be proved using set theory’s own axioms; his work, together with logician Kurt Goedel’s 1938 proof that the continuum hypothesis could not be disproved, showed definitively that it could be neither proved nor disproved, and led to his being awarded the coveted Fields Medal for mathematical research in 1966; he also did prize-winning work in the field of analysis; born April 2, 1934, in Long Branch, N.J.; died March 23 in Stanford, Calif., of a rare lung disease. [See 2006, p. 740D1; 1978, p. 196A3] FRANCIS, Freddie (Frederick William), 89, British cinematographer who won two Academy Awards, for Sons and Lovers in 1961 and for Glory in 1990; in between, he worked for more than two decades as a director of horror films, including Tales From the Crypt (1972); born Dec. 22, 1917, in London; died March 17 in Isleworth, England, three months after suffering a stroke. [See 1985, p. 767F3] LAUTERBUR, Paul Christian, 77, Nobel Prize– winning physical chemist; he shared the 2003 medicine prize with Britain’s Sir Peter Mansfield for their pioneering research on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a technique for scanning the body’s tissues without using harmful radiation; he did his MRI research while at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, but had taught at the University of Illinois since 1985; born May 6, 1929, in Sidney, Ohio;

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1. “American Idol,” (Fox), Feb. 28 (17.5)* 2. “Grey’s Anatomy,” (ABC), March 15 (14.8)* 3. “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” (Fox), Feb. 27 (14.6) 4. “House” (Fox), March 6 (14.1) 5. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS), March 29 (14.0)

Films Top-Grossing Films. The following were the top-grossing films in the U.S. for

the week of March 23–29 according to Variety. Figures in parentheses were each film’s cumulative box office total and number of weeks in release to date. Information on cast and director is included when a film first appears on the list. [See p. 136B2]:

1. TMNT, Warner Bros. ($29.3 million, 1) Directed by Kevin Munroe. With the voices of Patrick Stewart, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ziyi Zhang and Chris Evans. 2. 300, Warner Bros. ($168.5 million, 3) Directed by Zack Snyder. With Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Michael Fassbender, Vincent Regan and Dominic West. 3. Shooter, Paramount ($19.2 million, 1) Directed by Antoine Fuqua. With Mark Wahlberg, Kate Mara, Michael Pena, Rhona Mitra and Danny Glover. 4. Wild Hogs, Buena Vista ($127.0 million, 4) Directed by Walt Becker. With John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, William H. Macy and Tichina Arnold. 5. The Last Mimzy, New Line ($12.2 million, 1) Directed by Robert Shaye. With Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, Rainn Wilson, Joely Richardson, Megan McKinnon and Marc Thomas Musso. 6. Premonition, Sony ($34.2 million, 2) Directed by Mennan Yapo. With Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Mark Famiglietti, Kate Nelligan and Nia Long. 7. The Hills Have Eyes 2, 20th Century Fox ($11.9 million, 1) Directed by Martin Weisz. With Jessica Stroup, Reshad Strik, Michael McMillian, Daniella Alonso and Lee Thompson Young. 8. Reign Over Me, Sony ($9.6 million, 1) Directed by Mike Binder. With Don Cheadle, Adam Sandler, Saffron Burrows, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Liv Tyler. 9. Dead Silence, Universal ($14.1 million, 2) Directed by James Wan. With Amber Valletta, Ryan Kwanten, Donnie Wahlberg, Michael Eugene Fairman and Joan Heney. 10. Pride, Lionsgate ($4.3 million, 1) Directed by Sunu Gonera. With Terrence Howard, Bernie Mac, Kevin Phillips, Evan Ross and Nate Parker.

died March 27 at his home in Urbana, Ill., of kidney disease. [See 2003, p. 819D2–F2, B3] LORINGHOVEN, Baron Bernd Freytag von, 93, staff officer in the Wehrmacht, Nazi Germany’s regular army, who was one of a several Wehrmacht officers present in Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler’s Berlin bunker in the hours leading up to Hitler’s suicide in April 1945, near the end of World War II; having left the bunker shortly before the suicide occurred, he was captured by U.S. forces and detained for several years, until he was able to prove that he himself had not been a Nazi; after being released in January 1948, he eventually rejoined the military, serving in various West German army posts before retiring as a lieutenant general; born Feb. 6, 1914, at his aristocratic family’s ancestral home on the Estonian island of Osel (now Saaremaa); died Feb. 27 in Munich, Germany. [See 2002, p. 140G2] MAO Anqing, 84, last-known surviving son of longtime Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, who died in 1976; his older brother, Mao Anying, was reportedly killed during the Korean War; fluent in Russian, he worked as a translator but was believed to have often been hospitalized for mental problems; born Nov. 2, 1923; died March 23 in Beijing; no cause of death was reported. [See 1976, p. 658B2; 1969, p. 643C3; 1958, p. 370D2] MYERS, Ransom Aldrich, 54, marine biologist who led a team that published a landmark 2003 study concluding that global ocean stocks of large predato-

ry fish species had dropped precipitously over the previous half century; he studied physics and mathematics in the U.S. before earning a doctorate in biology in Canada, at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which eventually created a special chair in ocean studies for him; born June 13, 1952, in Lula, Miss.; died March 27 at a Halifax hospital, some months after being diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a type of brain cancer. [See 2003, p. 406E3] ORTIZ Mena, Antonio, 99, Mexican finance minister from 1958 to 1970, who presided over an era of unprecedented economic growth; after leaving that post, he served as president of the Inter-American Development Bank, part of the World Bank, for nearly two decades; born April 16, 1907, in Parral, Mexico; died March 12 at a hospital in Mexico City, while recuperating from a fall at his home. [See 1993, p. 257C3; 1985, pp. 259F3, 236C3; Indexes 1984, 1980, 1974–77, 1970–72, 1964, 1961–62, 1958] REINHART, Tanya, 63, Israeli linguist best known as a fiery left-wing critic of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians, going so far as to support a call for an academic boycott of Israel; after being ousted from a professorship at Tel Aviv University in 2006, she decided to leave Israel, and had recently begun teaching at the U.S.’s New York University; she was married to Israeli poet and translator Aharon Shabtai; born July 23, 1943, in Kiryat Haim, in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine; died March 17, apparently in her sleep, while vacationing in Montauk, N.Y.; she was reported to have suffered a stroke. „

April 5, 2007

Al Qaeda–Linked Bombings in Algerian Capital Kill at Least 33

FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images

Premier’s Office, Police Station Hit. A suicide car bomber April 11 struck the building that housed the office of Premier Abdelaziz Belkhadem in Algiers, the Algerian capital. A second suicide car bomber minutes later hit a police station in a suburb east of Algiers, on the road to the international airport. The two attacks killed at least 33 people and injured more than 220 others. The bombings were described as the deadliest in Algiers since the 1990s, when the country was in the midst of a bloody civil war. [See p. 110B3; 2006, p. 433A3] A radical North African Islamic group called the Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attacks in a telephone call to a bureau of Qatari satellite television channel Al Jazeera in Rabat, the Moroccan capital. The group also posted pictures of the bombers and specifics of the attacks on an Islamist Web site. [See below] The explosion at the six-story Governmental Palace, where Belkhadem’s office and the interior ministry were located, occurred when a suicide car bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle through a gate outside the building. The explosion ripped open the front of the structure and shattered windows in nearby buildings that housed other government ministries. The premier was not in his office at the time of the attack. The second bombing targeted a police station in the eastern suburb of Bab Ezzouar, destroying the building. Later April 11, the police defused a bomb in a car parked near the Algiers home of Ali Tounsi, the director of the national police, apparently averting a third attack. The bomb had reportedly been designed to be detonated remotely. The attacks came one day after four suspected Islamist bombers and a policeman died in the Moroccan city of Casablanca. Analysts said the attacks could indicate that the Al Qaeda international terrorist network was opening up a new front in its jihad, or holy war. Others cau-

tioned that the perpetrators could have been home-grown terrorists using the Al Qaeda name to raise their profile. [See p. 227B3] Radical Islamic Group Gaining Strength—

The Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb in January had changed its name from the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), in an apparent effort to highlight its links with the international Al Qaeda network. (Maghreb, in Arabic, was the word for the area of North Africa from Mauritania in the west to Libya in the east.) The GSPC, which had been formed in 1998, had its roots in a radical Islamist movement that had taken up arms against the Algerian government in 1992 after secular military and civilian officials canceled elections that the radical Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) seemed certain to win. At least 150,000 people were killed and some 7,000 others disappeared in the ensuing civil war, which was characterized by large-scale massacres by both sides. [See 1998, p. 950A3] The violence had subsided in recent years, after two amnesty offers by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and an offensive against remaining insurgents depleted the ranks of the Islamists. However, hard-core members of the group rejected the amnesty, and had launched scattered attacks in Algeria and other North African countries. In September 2006, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s second-in-command, had said on a videotape that his organization had struck a partnership with the GSPC. [See 2006, pp. 707B2, 171A3] The group was believed to have at least 500 members, in both North Africa and Europe. It was reportedly divided by geographic zone into nine factions. Morocco and Tunisia had suffered bombings and fighting between police and Islamists linked to the group since the beginning of 2007. [See p. 34A1] One significant aspect of the April 11 attacks was that they were the first suicide attacks in Algeria. That tactic had not been used by Islamists during the civil war, but was a trademark of Al Qaeda. In the April 11 phone call to Al Jazeera, the caller said, “We won’t rest until every inch of Islamic land is liberated from foreign forces.” Belkhadem April 11 called the attacks a “betrayal” of the government’s amnesty program. “At a time when the Algerian people are asking for national reconciliation and extend their hands, these criminal The Government Palace in Algiers, the Algerian capital, after it was destroyed by a suicide car bomber April 11, one of two deadly suicide bombings in and acts are taking place,” he said. around the city that day.

Facts On File

®

World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3461 April 12, 2007

B Observers noted that the date of the attacks, April 11, could have significance. Two of Al Qaeda’s largest attacks had been carried out on the 11th day of the month: Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.; and March 11, 2004, attacks in Madrid, Spain. [See 2004, p. 173A1; 2001, p. 697A1] „

Iran Claims Uranium Expansion, Defying International Pressure

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President Insists Program Is Peaceful.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad April 9 announced that Iran was capable of industrial-scale production of uranium, and he insisted that his nation would continue with its nuclear program despite opposition from Western countries and the United Nations. The president’s announce-

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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Al Qaeda–linked bombings in Algerian capital kill at least 33. PAGE 217

Iran claims uranium expansion, defying international pressure.

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Freed British Navy crew alleges mistreatment by Iranians. PAGE 218

U.N. report surveys effects of climate change. PAGE 219

House panel subpoenas Gonzales records on fired federal prosecutors. PAGE 221

Senate clears stem cell funding bill.

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Talk-show host Imus fired for racist remark. PAGE 222

Duke assault suspects declared innocent. PAGE 224

Pet food recalled after cat, dog deaths. PAGE 226

Explosion in Iraqi parliament building kills eight. PAGE 231

Zach Johnson wins Masters golf tournament. PAGE 233

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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ment, in which he said Iran was now “among the countries of the world that produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale,” came during a speech at Iran’s nuclear facility at Natanz, where uranium enrichment activities were conducted. Many officials, reporters and diplomats were in attendance, although none of them were allowed to see the equipment installed there. [See p. 187A3] “This nuclear fuel is definitely for the development of Iran and expansion of peace in the world,” Ahmadinejad said, rebutting allegations that Iran’s nuclear program was secretly aimed at developing nuclear weapons. “Despite the cooperation of our country and its transparency, despite the fact that our measures are legal,” he said, “we have witnessed controversy created by some powers who benefit from the nuclear fuel cycle themselves.” Ahmadinejad also declared that Iran would “reconsider its treatment” of the U.N. Security Council if the council maintained its opposition to Iran’s nuclear program. He insisted that Iran’s progress on nuclear technology was “irreversible.” Ali Larijani, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, that day clarified Iran’s accomplishments, claiming that 3,000 centrifuges had been installed at Natanz and were enriching uranium gas. Prior to that declaration, only two cascades of 164 centrifuges each were believed to be in operation. “With the nuclear fuel cycle complete, we are ready to begin real negotiations” with nations opposed to Iran’s nuclear program, Larijani said. But he warned that prolonged opposition would prompt Iran to reconsider its relationship with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—the U.N.’s nuclear monitor—and its membership in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, March 21 had denounced the sanctions imposed by the U.N. In a nationally broadcast address, he pledged that Iran would continue with its nuclear program even in the face of further sanctions and threats of force from countries opposed to it. “If they take illegal actions, we too can take illegal actions and will do so,” he warned. As of April 12, Iran had yet to respond to the IAEA’s request to permit camera surveillance of the Natanz facility, although inspectors were due to visit the facility in the near future. Classified correspondence between Iran and the IAEA was made public March 30 by the Associated Press. In the correspondence, Iran claimed that it had withheld information from the IAEA out of fear that it would be leaked to the U.S. or Israel, which would then use it to attack Iran. U.S. Condemns Announcement— U.S. officials April 9 condemned Iran’s decision to forge ahead with its nuclear activities. Gordon Johndroe, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said the U.S. was “very concerned” about the development, adding that it would be “unacceptable” for Iran to further restrict its cooperation with the IAEA. State 218

Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Iran’s professions regarding the peaceful nature of its nuclear program were not credible. Many diplomats and nuclear experts April 9–10 expressed skepticism at Iran’s claim to have brought so many centrifuges on line so quickly. Some of them suggested that Iran was trying to give the impression that its nuclear status was already a fact in order to strengthen its position in negotiations with the U.S. and U.N. Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the vice president in charge of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, April 10 declared that Iran would eventually install 50,000 centrifuges at Natanz. Other News—In other Iranian news: † U.S.-based oil services provider Halliburton Co. April 9 announced that it had fulfilled its contractual obligations to Iran, and was no longer doing any business with the country. The company had faced heavy criticism for working in Iran despite U.S. prohibitions on U.S. businesses operating there. [See 2006, p. 1029D3; 2005, p. 142F2] † The Bank of Italy, Italy’s central bank, March 30 announced that four days earlier it had taken over a branch of Iran’s Bank Sepah, in accordance with U.N. sanctions. The branch was located in Rome. Italy and Iran’s significant business ties were being lessened by financial sanctions. [See p. 188B1] „

Freed British Navy Crew Alleges Mistreatment by Iranians Sale of Stories to Media Sparks Controversy.

A group of 15 British sailors and marines, who had been held in Iran for nearly two weeks until their release the previous day, April 6 held a news conference, alleging that their captors had subjected them to psychological pressure and other mistreatment. Iran rejected those claims as propaganda, insisting that it had treated the British crew well. Sparking criticism, the British government April 8 said it had allowed the freed crew to sell accounts of their ordeal to the media. Britain’s Ministry of Defence reversed the decision the next day, but by then two of the sailors had given paid television and newspaper interviews, revealing new details of their experience. [See below, pp. 219B2, 201A1] At the news conference, held at a military base in Chivenor, in the southwest of England, the crew members defended their decision to surrender to Iranian forces and to behave compliantly and cooperate in Iranian propaganda under captivity. The crew had been patrolling in the northern Persian Gulf when they were captured March 23. After boarding an Indianflagged vessel to search for contraband, they had been suddenly surrounded by heavily armed Iranian speedboats. Royal Marine Capt. Chris Air, 25, and Royal Navy Lt. Felix Carman, 26, read a prepared statement about their capture. Carman said, “I can clearly state that we

were 1.7 nautical miles from Iranian waters.” Iran had said it had detained the British crew for trespassing in its waters. Britain insisted that its crew had been seized in Iraqi waters. Iran had aired videos in which some of the Britons appeared to admit that they had been caught in Iranian waters. Capture, Intimidation Described— Air April 6 said of the ambush, “Some of the Iranian sailors were becoming deliberately aggressive and unstable. They rammed our boat and trained their heavy machine guns, RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] and weapons on us. Another six boats were closing in on us. We realized that our efforts to reason with these people were not making any headway. Nor were we able to calm some of the individuals down.” Air continued, “It was at this point that we realized that had we resisted there would have been a major fight, one we could not have won, with consequences that would have had major strategic impact. We made a conscious decision to not engage the Iranians and do as they asked.” Air said, “From the outset it was very apparent that fighting back was simply not an option. Had we chosen to do so then many of us would not be standing here today.” Once in captivity, Carman said, the Britons were stripped of their uniforms, and blindfolded. They were transferred to a prison in Tehran, the Iranian capital, where they were held in isolation from each other and underwent aggressive and repeated interrogations. Carman said, “We were interrogated most nights and presented with two options: If we admitted we’d strayed, we’d be on a

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FACTS ON FILE

plane back to the U.K. soon. If we didn’t, we faced up to seven years in prison.” Marine Joe Tindall, 21, said that once the Britons were transferred to Tehran, their captors “changed from the military dress to all black, their faces covered. We had a blindfold and plastic cuffs, hands behind our backs, heads against the wall. Basically there were weapons cocking.” He continued, “Someone, I’m not sure who, someone said, I quote, ‘Lads, lads, I think we’re going to get executed.’ After that comment, someone was sick and, as far as I was concerned, he had just had his throat cut.” The crew members said that the sole woman among them, Leading Seaman Faye Turney, 25, was deceived by the Iranians, who told her that the rest of the crew had already been sent home. Carman said he had urged the crew members not to do anything to jeopardize their release when they were taken to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before being sent home. Paid Interviews Given—The British Ministry of Defense April 8 said it had granted permission to the crew members to sell their stories to the news media. The ministry said it had lifted its normal ban on such deals due to “special circumstances.” In a statement, the ministry said, “It is a fact that the media have been making direct contact with the families and offering them significant sums of money.” It added, “It was clear that the stories they had to tell were likely to have emerged via family and friends.” Some British politicians, retired military officers and families of British soldiers who had been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan condemned the decision. They said it was unseemly to allow members of the armed forces to profit in such a way. The Sun, Britain’s best-selling tabloid newspaper, April 9 published an interview with Turney. She also appeared in an interview on the ITV television network. Turney said she would use part of her earnings from the interviews to help crew members and their families from her ship, the frigate HMS Cornwall. In the Sun interview, Turney said her captors had measured her “from head to toe,” then set to work outside her cell with loud sawing and hammering. “I was convinced they were making my coffin,” she said. Turney said she agreed to make a false confession that the crew had strayed into Iranian waters, in videos and letters to her family, only after the Iranians warned her that otherwise she would be tried and jailed for espionage. The Daily Mirror, another leading tabloid, April 9 published an interview with sailor Arthur Batchelor, 20, the youngest crew member. He said the Iranians had mocked him, flicking his neck with their fingers and telling him that he resembled Mr. Bean, a clownish television and film character played by British comedian Rowan Atkinson. “I cried and cried like a baby,” Batchelor admitted. April 12, 2007

Turney reportedly received about £100,000 ($200,000) for her interviews, while Batchelor earned a smaller sum. Interview Ban Imposed—British Defence Secretary Des Browne April 9 reversed the decision to allow paid interviews with the crew members. Browne said all such interviews with members of the armed forces would be banned pending a review of the guidelines. British Prime Minister Tony Blair April 11 said that “with hindsight,” he agreed that allowing the crew members to sell their stories was not a good idea. He said he had not been informed of the decision until after it was made. Criticism of President Increases—Britain’s Observer newspaper April 8 reported that many political factions in Iran were voicing criticism of Ahmadinejad’s handling of the release of the British captives. Conservative and reformist politicians were quoted as blasting Ahmadinejad for making a public show of sending the Britons back home with gifts, even after he had publicly condemned them for allegedly invading Iran’s territorial waters. [See p. 166A2] „ Captive Diplomat Accuses CIA of Torture.

Jalal Sharafi, a diplomat who had served in Iran’s embassy in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, April 7 charged that he had been tortured and interrogated “day and night” by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Appearing on Iranian television, Sharafi claimed that he had been apprehended by gunmen carrying credentials from Iraq’s defense ministry and driving U.S. military vehicles. He said he was questioned in Arabic and English about Iran’s support for the Iraqi government and various groups there. U.S. officials denied any involvement in Sharafi’s abduction. [See p. 204G2] State-run television April 11 broadcast footage of Sharafi being examined in a hospital and showing various injuries to his body. Sharafi had been released one day prior to Iran’s release of 15 British sailors and marines detained in the Persian Gulf. The timing of his release led to speculation that the two events were part of a secretly negotiated exchange, a suggestion denied by Iran and Britain. [See p. 218D2] U.S. Requests Help Finding Citizen—

The U.S. State Department April 2 asked Iran for information about the disappearance of a U.S. citizen in Iran. Because the U.S. and Iran did not have formal diplomatic relations, the request was passed along by Switzerland, the usual intermediary between the two. The man was identified in the press as Robert Levinson, a former agent for both the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He had gone missing March 11 while on private business on the resort island of Kish in the Persian Gulf. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini April 8 said Iran was investigating Levinson’s disappearance. „

U.N. Report Surveys Effects of Climate Change Poorer Nations Called Most Vulnerable. The United Nations–sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) April 6 released the second section of a multipart climate change report that detailed the environmental impact of the buildup of greenhouse gases on various areas of the world. In the first part of the report, released in February, the IPCC had stated in its strongest language to date that human activities had significantly contributed to global warming. [See pp. 174F1, 164A2, 73A1] The findings of the latest section, titled “Climate Change 2007: Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability,” had been compiled by hundreds of scientists, and were endorsed by more than 120 governments. Scientists and government officials had gathered for a four-day negotiation session in Brussels, Belgium, to agree on the final language of a 21-page Summary for Policymakers. The document concluded that manmade emissions had “over the last three decades” caused “a discernible influence on many physical and biological systems.” It said that, if continued at current levels, greenhouse gas emissions would lead to the continued rise of sea levels and temperatures worldwide, altering weather patterns, inundating islands and coastal areas, and disrupting agriculture. The document also found that poorer populations would face the greatest danger and hardship from the resulting environmental hazards. “It’s the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit,” Rajendra Pachauri, one of the report’s lead authors, said. The conclusion highlighted the growing divide between the prosperous, industrialized countries responsible for generating the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions, and poorer countries that would largely face the brunt of the ill effects of global warming and were also the least equipped to adapt to them. The IPCC predicted that dry regions, such as the Middle East, the American Southwest and southern Europe, would experience worsening droughts. Meanwhile, high-altitude and tropical areas would experience more rainfall. Also, low-lying coastal areas would suffer more frequent and intense flooding. Hunger and disease would become more widespread as a result of climate changes. The scientists concluded that a warming of the Earth’s climate by between 2.7° and 4.5° Fahrenheit (1.5° and 2.5° Celsius) would cause the extinction of between 20% and 30% of the world’s species. The report noted that some nations at cooler latitudes farther from the equator would reap benefits from warmer temperatures, such as increased agricultural yields and fewer transportation disruptions from ice and snow. The scientists recommended that governments begin preparing for the effects of climate change, warning that as many as 50 million environmental refugees could be 219

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FORESEEN IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

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Following are some trends in climatic phenomena considered likely to develop in the 21st century, and their expected impacts, according to an April 6 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [See p. 219A3]: Phenomena Stemming from Climate Change

Effects on Conditions of Human Populations Agriculture, Forestry and Ecosystems

Water Resources

Health

Society and Economy

Warmer days and nights in most land areas (considered virtually certain)

Higher yields in cooler areas; lower yields in warmer areas; more insect outbreaks

Diminished water resources replenished by snowmelt; increased evaporation

Fewer deaths from exposure to cold

Lower energy demand for heating; higher demands for cooling; lower urban air quality; fewer transportation disruptions due to wintry weather conditions

Increasing heat waves in most land areas (very likely)

Reduction of yields due to heat stress; greater wildfire risk

Higher water demand; water quality problems

Higher risk of death from heat-related causes, especially for the very young or old or the chronically ill

Lower quality of life for those in warmer regions without appropriate housing; dangers to the elderly, the very young, and the poor

More frequent heavy precipitation (very likely)

Crop damage; eroded or waterlogged soil

Damage to quality of water supplies; expanded water supply in some areas

Higher risk of injury or death; spread of infectious disease

Disruption of settlements, commerce and transportation from flooding; pressure on infrastructure

Wider drought (likely)

Land degradation; lower yields; crop failure; livestock deaths; greater wildfire risk

Wider “water stress”

Food and water shortages; malnutrition; higher risk of water- and foodborne disease

Shortages of water for industrial and residential use; reduced hydroelectric generation; population migration

Increased intense tropical storm activity (likely)

Crop damage; uprooting of trees; damage to coral reefs

Power outages affecting public water supplies

Higher risk of injury, death, and water- and food-borne disease

Social disruptions from floods and high winds; population migrations

More frequent high sea level, excluding tsunamis (likely)

Salinization of fresh water sources

Reduced fresh water supplies

Higher risk of drowning deaths; migration-related health effects

Costs of either protecting coastlines or broad relocation; population migrations

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created by 2010. They suggested increasing aid to developing countries that would be hardest hit by more severe storms and droughts and by rising sea levels. Nations Demand Changes to Draft—

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Several scientists who participated in the creation of the report described efforts by various governments at the Brussels talks to alter conclusions stated in the Summary for Policymakers. The U.S. representative successfully sought the removal of a section of the summary that called for “mitigation measures,” referring to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the Washington Post reported April 7. China objected to a summary conclusion that there was “very high confidence that many natural systems...are being affected by regional climate changes,” the Post reported, eventually leading the authors to avoid mentioning the level of “confidence.” The U.S. and China were the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. Other countries, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, both major energy exporters, reportedly won changes to wording concerning tropical storms and damage to coral reefs. Stephane Hallegatte, a French scientist who helped author the report, said the final summary was “much less quantified and much vaguer and much less striking than it could have been.” „

Other Global Environment News Ramifications of Sharks’ Decline Seen. A

team of U.S. and Canadian researchers reported in the March 30 issue of the journal Science that the overfishing of large preda220

tory sharks in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean had resulted in a boom in populations of fish species that the sharks preyed upon. The scientists said the resulting population growth in so-called mid-level predators—skates, rays and smaller sharks— had, in turn, resulted in the decimation along the Eastern seaboard of shellfish species on which they fed. [See 2006, p. 996A3] The researchers found that from 1970 to 2005 the populations of 12 of 14 studied mid-level predator species had grown. During the same time period the populations of larger predatory tiger and scalloped hammerhead sharks had fallen an estimated 97%, and the smooth hammerhead shark population had declined more than 99%. Populations of migrating rays that larger sharks fed upon were found to have eaten most adult scallops off the coast of North Carolina in the U.S. The state in 2004 had been forced to close its scallop fishery. The fishing of larger sharks had been driven largely by the market for shark-fin soup in China, where the dish was considered a delicacy. The authors of the report said the data demonstrated the wide-ranging effect that the overfishing of sharks could have on their ecosystems. The research had been led by Ransom Myers of Canada’s Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Separately, the World Conservation Union Feb. 22 had added several species of sharks to its “Red List,” which catalogued species that were endangered, threatened or vulnerable to extinction. „

Branson Sets $25 Million Climate Challenge.

Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Richard Branson of Britain Feb. 9 set a $25 million prize for anyone able to devise a way to reduce the amount of so-called greenhouse gases from the Earth’s atmosphere by one billion tons (900 million metric tons) per year. Greenhouse gases resulted partly from the burning of fossil fuels, and were thought to contribute to global warming resulting in significant climate change. [See 2006, p. 742C2] Branson, founder and chairman of the Virgin Group Ltd. business empire, made the announcement with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who himself had become a well-known advocate of greenhouse gas controls. Branson said the competition, called the Virgin Earth Challenge, was founded to spur research into the removal of existing atmospheric carbon. Most anti–greenhouse gas efforts were focused on limiting new emissions. Gore, Branson and four other environmentalists and scientists would serve as the judges in the challenge. The person or group deemed to have met the challenge would be paid an initial sum of $5 million, with the balance paid after the program had been successfully run for 10 years. „

International Trade U.S. Targets China Policies. The U.S. April

10 filed two complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over China’s trade practices with regard to books, music recordings and videos. One complaint accused China of taking inadequate steps to FACTS ON FILE

prosecute trafficking in pirated products. The other said that China’s requirement that media products be imported only through a state distributor slowed down the shipment of legitimate goods, enhancing demand for pirated material. [See p. 107D3] The WTO actions, along with two other recent trade actions against China, signaled that the U.S. was intensifying pressure over its long-standing complaints about Chinese trade practices. The U.S. in February had filed a WTO complaint about Chinese subsidies for domestic manufacturers, and March 30 had imposed new tariffs on certain Chinese paper products and likely opened the way for more U.S. manufacturers to seek similar duties. [See below] However, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, announcing the forthcoming WTO complaints April 9, emphasized that they “should not be viewed as hostile” and were part of the customary mechanisms by which “mature trading partners” handled disputes. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. had initiated an economic dialogue with senior Chinese officials intended to pursue cooperative resolutions of bilateral trade issues. [See p. 182A1] U.S. companies had long complained about the virtually unchecked trade in a wide range of counterfeit goods in China. The WTO complaints did not apply to two other kinds of products that were also widely pirated there, pharmaceuticals and computer software. U.S. companies in those sectors had been less aggressive in pushing for litigation against China. China’s Supreme People’s Court in an April 5 ruling lowered the threshold for the criminal prosecution of counterfeiting with the threat of a prison sentence, as opposed to fines. The ruling provided for criminal prosecution of offenders caught possessing at least 500 pirated items, down from a threshold of 1,000. Schwab acknowledged the ruling as progress, but said that even the lower thresholds gave counterfeiters a way to evade legal jeopardy, and called for their elimination. Members of the U.S. Congress who had long called for action by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, including Sens. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) and Charles Grassley (R, Iowa), welcomed the April 10 WTO cases, while urging more pressure on China. However, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D, Ohio) voiced suspicions that the administration’s moves were intended primarily to appeal to Congress as Bush was seeking its approval of a series of trade deals. [See p. 205E1] Antisubsidy Duties Set, Reversing Policy—

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez March 30 announced that the U.S. would impose tariffs on two Chinese manufacturers of glossy papers accused of benefiting from illegal government subsidies. The U.S. since the 1980s had refrained as a matter of policy from imposing such antisubsidy tariffs on China, regarding it as a “nonmarket” communist economy in which it was impossible to determine what constituted a subsidy. Gutierrez said that the extensive developApril 12, 2007

ment of China’s increasingly marketdominated economy had rendered that policy obsolete. With that reversal, U.S. manufacturers of a wide array of other products were expected to seek similar retaliatory tariffs. Congressional critics of Chinese policy praised the policy change, as did the U.S. lobbying group the National Association of Manufacturers. However, a U.S. marketer of Chinese paper exports said that U.S. paper purchasers would suffer from higher prices. Although the tariffs took effect immediately, the Commerce Department entered a new phase of investigating the issue, and would make a “final determination” later in the year. China also indicated that it would challenge the decision, which could entail actions both in U.S. courts and at the WTO. China had brought a case at the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York, seeking to prevent the Commerce Department from imposing the tariffs. China argued that the department did not have the legal or regulatory power to do so. The court March 29 said it did not have the jurisdiction to make such a ruling, paving the way for the announcement of the tariffs the following day. China’s commerce department April 1 objected to the action as running counter to efforts to “resolve disputes through dialogue,” and demanded that it be withdrawn. „

Global Health Cheap New Malaria Drug Released. The

nonprofit organization Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDI) and French drug firm Sanofi-Aventis SA March 1 introduced a new combination drug treatment for malaria that was not patented. The new drug, ASAQ, was a combination of the two malaria drugs artemisinin and amodiaquine, and was expected to cost about 50 cents per children’s dose, and $1 per adult dose. The lack of a patent on the new formulation allowed generic manufacturers to produce the medication at a low cost. [See 2006, p. 875G1] ASAQ was expected to be significantly helpful in treating children. The older method of administering the drugs required that adult-dose pills be cut into smaller doses—an inexact process—before being administered to children. Experts also said ASAQ’s combination of two drugs in a single dose would make it less likely that a strain of malaria resistant to it would develop. Drug-resistant strains arose when patients did not take their full course of medications, a more common occurrence with complicated drug regimens. The drug’s release marked the first major launch by a public-private partnership. DNDI had been founded by the French medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in 2003; it had partnered with Sanofi on the malaria drug effort in 2005. Sanofi said it would market a for-profit version of the drug in more affluent areas of the world. „

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

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Fired Federal Prosecutors House Panel Subpoenas Gonzales Records.

The House Judiciary Committee April 10 issued a subpoena to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, demanding all records pertaining to the Justice Department’s dismissal of eight federal prosecutors in 2006. It was the first subpoena issued by the Democratic-led Congress as it investigated the Bush administration’s reasons for firing the U.S. attorneys. Democrats had said they suspected the prosecutors were fired for political reasons, noting that some had investigated Republican officeholders for corruption and others had resisted pressure to investigate Republican allegations of voter fraud. [See p. 189A3] The subpoena requested the documents by April 16. Gonzales was scheduled to testify April 17 before the Senate Judiciary Committee. His testimony was expected to be critical to his ability to hold onto his job in the face of bipartisan calls for his resignation. Democratic leaders April 1 had rejected a request from Gonzales to reschedule the hearing for an earlier date. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) April 8 joined the ranks of the attorney general’s Republican critics, whose complaints had mainly focused on Gonzales’s competence. In a television interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Gingrich said, “This is the most mishandled, artificial, self-created mess that I can remember.” Asked if Gonzales should step down, he said, “I cannot imagine how he is going to be effective for the rest of this administration.” Gonzales Aide Resigns—Monica Goodling, a senior aide to Gonzales, resigned April 6. Goodling, 33, counsel to the attorney general and liaison to the White House, had previously said she would refuse to testify before Congress on the fired prosecutors, citing her Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. Goodling April 4 had rejected a request from House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D, Mich.) for a private interview. She became the third high-ranking Justice Department official to resign in the controversy. Gonzales’s former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, had stepped down in early March. He later testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, contradicting Gonzales’s claims not to have been involved in the firings. The third official, Michael Battle, former director of the Executive Department for U.S. Attorneys, had resigned in March. „

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Legislation Senate Clears Stem Cell Funding Bill. The Senate April 11 voted, 63–34, for a measure to curtail restrictions on the federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to overcome a promised veto of the bill by President George W. Bush. The House had passed the measure, known 221

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as the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, in January, also falling short of the votes needed to override a veto. The measure would allow federal funds to be applied to research on donated embryos from in-vitro fertilization clinics that would otherwise destroy them. [See p. 14F3] Bush in August 2001 had limited the use of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research to roughly 21 lines of stem cells in existence at that time. Proponents of embryonic stem cell research, who said it had the potential to treat and even cure a wide range of diseases and other medical problems, said Bush’s restrictions had left little room for useful study. However, the research faced opposition from social conservatives who said the process of creating embryonic stem cell lines, which required the destruction of human embryos, amounted to taking human lives. Bush, after the bill was passed, said, “This bill crosses a moral line that I and many others find troubling. If it advances all the way through Congress to my desk, I will veto it.” Bush in 2006 had used the only veto of his administration to date to reject legislation authorizing embryonic stem cell funding. [See 2006, p. 571A1] Public sentiment in the U.S. had shifted strongly in favor of embryonic stem cell research, according to polls, and the bill had generated two days of intense debate on the Senate floor. The director of the National Institutes of Health, Elias Zerhouni, March 19 had told a Senate panel that it was “in the best interest of our scientists, our science and our country” for the government to begin funding embryonic stem cell research. The Senate the same day passed, 70–28, a separate, compromise bill that would authorize federal funds for research on “naturally dead” embryos. The bill attracted more GOP support, and Bush said it would meet his criteria for “ethically appropriate research.” However, numerous scientists said that that bill would authorize little funding in practice because of the vague way the bill defined a “naturally dead” embryo. States Fill Funding Vacuum— California’s stem cell agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), Feb. 16 announced it would distribute $45 million in funds for stem cell research to various academic and nonprofit institutes in the state. CIRM March 16 announced an additional $75 million in grants. They were the first major grants issued by the institute, whose creation was approved by voters in 2004. California was one of several states that had opted to allocate money for embryonic stem cell research in the absence of federal funds. [See 2006, p. 596A1] Stem Cell Patent Claims Rejected—The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office April 2 posted on its Web site a preliminary rejection of three patent claims made on embryonic stem cells by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the patent licensing arm of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The Patent Office had found that the 222

university’s claims, based on the research of faculty member James Thompson, had been made in older patent claims and previously published scientific literature. [See 2006, p. 987D1] „

2008 Presidential Campaign McCain Gives Speech Backing Iraq War.

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), one of the leading candidates for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, April 11 gave a speech to cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va., calling for a renewed U.S. commitment to the war in Iraq. McCain criticized Democratic presidential candidates and congressional leaders for backing an early withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. [See pp. 231F2, 208D2] McCain said, “I understand the frustration caused by our mistakes in this war. I sympathize with the fatigue of the American people. But I also know the toll a lost war takes on an Army and a country. It is the right road. It is necessary and just.” McCain blasted Democratic lawmakers for passing a timetable for withdrawal as part of an emergency spending bill for the war effort. “Democratic leaders smiled and cheered as the last votes were counted. What were they celebrating? Defeat? Surrender?” he asked. President George W. Bush had vowed to veto the measure once it reached his desk. Warning of the consequences of withdrawal, McCain said, “America has a vital interest in preventing the emergence of Iraq as a Wild West for terrorists, similar to Afghanistan before 9/11,” referring to Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. by the international terrorist network Al Qaeda. McCain’s firm support for Bush’s January decision to send more troops to Iraq had become central to his presidential campaign. His stance reflected the pro-war views of a majority of Republican voters. But, it could hurt him in a general election in which the votes of independents, many of whom had turned against the war, could be crucial. McCain had slipped from front-runner status and now trailed well behind former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani in most national polls on the Republican presidential race. McCain had also posted disappointing results in fundraising for the first three months of 2007, trailing Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Giuliani and Romney had also declared their support for Bush’s war policy, but were not as closely identified with it as McCain, a Vietnam War veteran and former prisoner of war. Earlier in April, McCain had visited Iraq with a congressional delegation, touring a market in Baghdad, the capital, while under heavy protection from U.S. forces. McCain’s claims that the tour proved that the city had gotten safer were challenged by reporters and local merchants. McCain conceded in a television interview broadcast April 8 on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he had misspoken about his visit to the market.

Other News—In related developments:

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R, Tenn.), who had said he was considering a presidential bid, April 11 revealed that he had been diagnosed with cancer more than two years earlier. Thompson, 64, said he had lymphoma, or cancer of the lymphoid tissue, which was in remission after treatment with radiation and the drug rituximab. “I have had no illness from it, or even any symptoms. My life expectancy should not be affected,” he said. Although he had yet to declare himself a candidate, polls had shown Thompson running third in the Republican field, behind Giuliani and McCain and ahead of Romney. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg News poll released April 12 showed Thompson in second place, ahead of McCain. (McCain and Giuliani had both battled cancer.) [See p. 173C3, F3] † Giuliani, addressing the Alabama state legislature, April 10 said he believed that it should be left to states to decide whether to fly the Confederate flag. In his “60 Minutes” interview aired April 8, McCain said he regretted having initially taken a “states’ rights” position on the Confederate flag during his 2000 presidential campaign. He described the flag as “a very offensive symbol to many, many Americans.” [See p. 193B2] † During a visit to the state capitol in Charleston, S.C., Giuliani April 5 reaffirmed his support for abortion rights. He said, “Ultimately I believe it’s an individual right and a woman should make that choice.” He said he would not try to change federal law to bar public funding for abortion if he became president. He also said he accepted that his stance could cost him the votes of antiabortion Republicans. [See p. 143A2] † Romney drew media scrutiny after he said April 3, in response to a question about his position on gun control, “I’ve been a hunter pretty much all my life.” However, his campaign April 4 said that Romney had only been hunting twice: once when he was 15, and once in 2006. Romney April 7 issued a statement saying, “The report that I only hunted twice is incorrect. I’ve hunted small game numerous times, as a young man and as an adult.” He said he had hunted game that did not require a license, after the Associated Press (AP) reported that the four states that he had lived in had no records of issuing him any hunting licenses. The AP also reported that he did not own a gun, although he had claimed that he did. Romney joined the National Rifle Association in 2006. „ †

Media Talk-Show Host Fired for Racist Remark.

Talk-show host Don Imus April 12 was fired by CBS Radio amid a furor over his on-air reference to the members of the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, who were mostly black, as “nappy-headed hos.” The MSNBC cable television network had dropped his show April 11. Imus made the remark, widely condemned as sexist as well as racist, on April 4, a day after the FACTS ON FILE

Rutgers team, the Scarlet Knights, was defeated by the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers in the title game of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I women’s basketball tournament. [See p. 214F1, A3] After the remark created a furor, both CBS and NBC News, which owned MSNBC, announced April 9 that Imus’s show, “Imus in the Morning,” would be suspended for two weeks, starting April 16. The suspension was meant to be delayed for a week to allow Imus to conduct a previously scheduled, onair fund-raising event for several charities, including one run by him that brought children with cancer to his New Mexico ranch. Imus pointed to his charitable activities as evidence that he was a good person. Imus was dropped from the airwaves after a number of major advertisers—including Sprint Nextel Corp., General Motors Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co.— April 10–11 announced that they had decided to stop running ads on his show, at least until the latest controversy died down. Imus, 66, was no stranger to controversy. In 1996, for example, he had caused an uproar in Washington, D.C., by skewering then–President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton at a banquet attended by the Clintons. He also had a lengthy record of making offensive remarks about people based on their race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation. [See 1996, p. 244D1] Among those calling upon both CBS and MSNBC to drop Imus’s show had been civil rights activists Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton. The latter did not change his mind after Imus April 9 appeared as a guest on his syndicated radio show and repeatedly apologized for his “repugnant, repulsive and horrible” remark. Imus Meets With Team—CBS’s April 12 firing of Imus did not keep him from traveling later that day to Princeton, N.J., for a previously scheduled meeting with the Scarlet Knights and their coach, C. Vivian Stringer, at the New Jersey governor’s mansion in Princeton. The meeting reportedly lasted about three hours, and took place despite the absence of Gov. Jon Corzine (D), who was supposed to have moderated it. Corzine had been critically injured in a car crash on his way to the meeting. [See p. 224F1] The Rutgers women’s basketball team April 10 had weighed in on the Imus controversy at a news conference in Piscataway, N.J. Stringer held back tears as she talked about the personal hardships she had endured as a black woman, adding, “For 25 years I wanted to come to a championship game happy, and now this.” Team captain Essence Carson said, “At first we thought to let it slide, but when we read the transcript, we decided it was unacceptable.” “Imus in the Morning” had been on the radio continuously since 1979. It was produced at New York City radio station WFAN, which was owned by CBS. MSNBC had simulcast the show since 1996. Over the years, despite Imus’s reputation as a “shock jock,” many well-known politicians, journalists and authors had appeared April 12, 2007

on his show. U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D, Conn.) in early January had declared his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination on Imus’s show. Amid the latest Imus controversy, some of those former guests said they deplored what Imus had said, but believed that he was genuinely contrite and would not rule out appearing on his show in the future. However, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), a leading Democratic presidential candidate, April 11 vowed not to appear on the show again. (He said he had made one appearance more than two years earlier.) Obama, who was black, said of Imus, “He didn’t just cross the line. He fed into some of the worst sterotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America.” [See pp. 208B1, 15B2] „ Zell Wins Bidding War for Tribune Co.

Real estate magnate Samuel Zell April 2 won a bidding contest for Tribune Co. of Chicago, offering $8.2 billion, or $34 per share, in a deal to take the company into private ownership with its employees. Tribune, a publicly traded company, owned 16 newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, as well as 26 radio and television stations and the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team. The agreement ended a bitter auction process that had begun almost a year earlier. (Tribune April 2 said it would sell the Cubs to help pay off debt. The franchise was valued at about $500 million.) [See 2006, p. 931F1] Under Zell’s plan, approved by Tribune’s board April 2, the company would go private through an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) created for that purpose. Zell, who would become the new chairman, would pay $315 million in cash in exchange for a 15-year warrant granting him the right to acquire a 40% stake in Tribune for $500 million. Tribune’s 20,000 employees would own the remainder of the company. The rest of the deal would be financed by about $8 billion in debt that would come on top of Tribune’s existing debt of $5 billion. The ESOP structure would allow the company to avoid corporate taxes by making Tribune an “S”-type corporation under the federal tax code. That could save it roughly $300 million annually. The ESOP would also serve to rid Tribune of the Chandler family, its current largest holder of outstanding shares. The family, which had founded the Los Angeles Times, had instigated the auction by demanding a breakup or sale of the entire company. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dennis FitzSimons would keep his executive post under the deal. The purchase price valued Tribune at roughly eight times its annual earnings, which had been stagnant or slightly declining for several years. That was well below the price-to-earnings ratio of some major newspaper acquisitions of recent years, reflecting a pronounced industrywide slump in newspaper advertising revenue in 2006. Zell’s bid beat out rival one by California billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle,

who could still try to trump Zell’s offer. Zell’s agreement set a modest breakup fee of $25 million, unlikely to discourage any higher offers from other parties. David Geffen, an entertainment mogul who had made an offer for the Los Angeles Times alone, said he was still interested. Zell, 65, in February had sold his main business, Equity Office Properties Trust, for a record-breaking $39 billion. He had no experience in the newspaper business, and had said that he was interested in newspapers only as a business proposition, not from an editorial standpoint. „

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Armed Forces Bush Apologizes at Army Hospital. Presi-

dent George W. Bush March 30 visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for the first time since a scandal erupted over poor conditions at the hospital. Bush visited with soldiers recuperating there after being wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said, “I was disturbed by their accounts of what went wrong” at the hospital, adding, “I apologize for what they went through, and we’re going to fix the problem.” Some wounded soldiers and relatives expressed appreciation for Bush’s visit, while others said they saw it primarily as a staged gesture. [See p. 158C2] In another response to the Walter Reed controversy, the House March 28 had passed, 426–0, the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act, a bill that would provide for additional caseworkers, counselors and other staff to improve the treatment of soldiers in the military medical system. It also sought to streamline the process by which soldiers were transferred from the military’s medical system to the separate Department of Veterans Affairs system, a process that had hampered some soldiers’ continuing treatment. Also, a Defense Department commission April 11 issued a preliminary report on the failings that led to the poor conditions at Walter Reed. The panel, appointed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates after the furor erupted in February, detailed what it called the “horrors” of the medical review board process for evaluating soldiers’ disabilities. It said that a decision to privatize much of the workforce at the hospital, and an unexpected increase in casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan, had combined to create the “breakdown in health services,” and criticized hospital leadership for failing to fully comprehend the situation. The panel, led by former Army Secretaries Togo West Jr. and John Marsh Jr., called Walter Reed’s facilities “obsolete,” and recommended that it be closed sooner than 2011, the date its operations were currently scheduled to be moved to a new medical center in Bethesda, Md. „

Bush Administration ‘Swift Boat’ Donor Appointed as Envoy.

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appointments to three nominees who had been blocked by the Democratic majority in the Senate. The most controversial appointee was Sam Fox, a St. Louis, Mo., real estate developer and top Republican donor, who was installed as ambassador to Belgium. Democrats had rejected his nomination, citing his contribution of $50,000 during the 2004 presidential campaign to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that disparaged the Vietnam War record of Bush’s opponent, Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), the Democratic nominee. [See 2006, p. 999A3; 2004, p. 638A1] Kerry issued a statement responding to the recess appointment, saying, “It’s sad but not surprising that this White House would abuse the power of the presidency to reward a donor over the objections of the Senate.” Kerry had grilled Fox about the Swift Boat contribution at a Feb. 27 confirmation hearing. The White House had withdrawn his nomination March 28. Bush April 4 also installed George Mason University scholar Susan Dudley as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a unit of the White House Office of Management and Budget that oversaw federal regulatory policy. Democrats had opposed Dudley, citing her positions in favor of rolling back worker and consumer safety regulations. Bush’s third recess appointment was Andrew Biggs as deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Democrats had blocked Biggs’s nomination due to his advocacy for privatizing Social Security in his work for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Presidents had the right to use recess appointments to circumvent the Senate confirmation process. All three of the new appointees could stay in office without Senate confirmation until the end of Bush’s term in January 2009. Khalilzad Confirmed as U.N. Envoy—

The Senate in a voice vote March 29 confirmed the nomination of Zalmay Khalilzad as ambassador to the United Nations. Khalilzad March 26 had finished a twoyear stint as ambassador to Iraq. [See p. 204F1] „

State and Local Government

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N.J. Gov. Corzine Badly Injured in Crash.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) April 12 suffered extensive injuries in a highway car crash. He was reportedly in critical but stable condition after undergoing surgery at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J. Corzine had been on his way to the governor’s mansion in Princeton to hold a meeting between the Rutgers University women’s basketball team and talk show host Don Imus, who sought to apologize for slurs he had used to describe the team. [See p. 222G3] The accident occurred when a pickup truck swerved in front of Corzine’s sport utility vehicle to avoid another pickup truck. Corzine, riding in the car as a passenger, broke several bones, including a leg femur, sternum, collarbone, 12 ribs and 224

a vertebrae. He also suffered lung injuries and blood loss. State Senate President Richard Codey (D) took over as acting governor pending Corzine’s return. „

Crime Duke Assault Suspects Declared Innocent.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper April 11 announced at a news conference that three former Duke University lacrosse players were innocent of sexually assaulting an exotic dancer at a team party in March 2006, and he dropped the kidnapping and felony sexual-offense charges against them. Cooper criticized Durham County District Attorney Michael Nifong—who had been the lead prosecutor until turning the case over to the state to defend himself against ethics charges—as “unchecked” and “overreaching.” Nifong the next day apologized to the three men for his mistaken judgments. [See p. 32F3] The case had attracted national attention and sparked racial and class tension. The exonerated defendants—Collin Finnerty, 20, Reade Seligmann, 21, and David Evans, 24—were white and came from affluent families. The accuser was a poor, black single mother working as an exotic dancer and attending predominantly-black North Carolina Central University in Durham. “We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations,” Cooper said. “There were many points in this case where caution would have served justice better than bravado.” He described Nifong as a “rogue prosecutor,” and said he could face criminal charges. Cooper said he had decided against prosecuting the accuser for bringing false charges. He said her testimony had been “faulty and unreliable” and that there was no reliable evidence implicating the accused. He said investigators had told him that she “may actually believe the many different stories that she has been telling.” He commented that he had also seen sealed court records of the accuser’s mental health history. The accuser reportedly wanted to continue with the case. The exonerated defendants expressed relief that the trial had ended, and Evans’s attorney did not rule out the possibility of taking legal action against Nifong. Evans said, “I hope these allegations don’t come to define me. I hope that the way I could be remembered is for sticking up for my name, my family and my team against impossible odds—the entire country against us.” New Ethics Violations Alleged—The North Carolina State Bar Jan. 24 filed a slate of additional ethics charges accusing Nifong of “systematic abuse of prosecutorial discretion,” after first alleging ethics violations in December 2006. The complaint alleged that after receiving the results of DNA tests run by a private laboratory, Nifong had not reported, as required by law, that material from several men—none of them Duke lacrosse team members—had been discovered in the accuser’s vagina and un-

derwear. Instead, it said, he reported only the discovery of other DNA from the accused, and later told a judge that he was unaware of the full test results. Nifong’s lawyer, David Freedman, denied that there had been “any sort of intentional unethical conduct.” Nifong Feb. 28 filed a response saying he had turned over the complete DNA test results to defense attorneys. He was scheduled to appear before an administrative panel April 13, and faced disbarment. „

Financial Markets Major Mortgage Lender Files for Bankruptcy.

New Century Financial Corp., the U.S.’s second-largest lender of “subprime” home mortgages, April 2 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The move was expected, as the lender had already said it could not pay its creditors. New Century, based in Irvine, Calif., said it would shed 3,200 jobs, or half its staff, and auction off its businesses over several months. New Century was the largest of about 50 mortgage lenders that had gone bankrupt since defaults and foreclosures on subprime and other types of mortgages began to climb in 2006. [See p. 175G1] Subprime mortgages were those issued to borrowers with credit histories too poor to qualify for traditional home loans. They typically carried a higher interest rate, or began at a low “teaser” interest rate that climbed much higher after a few years. A smaller subprime lender, SouthStar Funding of Atlanta, Ga., April 2 closed down after its funding was cut off because of its loan defaults. Data from research firm First American Corp. had shown that the rate of subprime loans with payments at least 60 days overdue rose to 14.3% in January, up from 8.4% a year earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported April 4. However, the Journal March 22 reported that the rate of new foreclosures on subprime loans at the end of 2006 was well below the corresponding rate in 2002– 2003. Congress Takes Up Subprime Issue—

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D, Conn.) March 22 held a hearing on the subprime market. Dodd blamed the Federal Reserve and its former chairman, Alan Greenspan, for lax regulation of the mortgages. Dodd, a declared candidate for president in the 2008 election, urged regulators to take swift action against predatory mortgage lending. Current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke March 28 told Congress’s Joint Economic Committee that the subprime turbulence was unlikely to harm the overall economy. He blamed it on “loose lending.” He also said it was “worth looking at” whether the Fed needed expanded regulatory powers. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chairwoman Sheila Bair March 27 told a House Financial Services subcommittee that Congress should pass legislation to rein in lenders and protect borrowers. She also said that any new rules should apply to FACTS ON FILE

lenders who were supervised by state rather than federal regulators. Some 52% of new subprime mortgages in 2005 had been issued by companies that did not fall under federal supervision, such as mortgage brokers and finance companies that were not part of banks, the Wall Street Journal reported March 22, citing data provided by the Federal Reserve. According to an April 8 New York Times article, the nationwide slowdown in the housing market was eating into states’ tax revenue. That was due mainly to reduced revenue from real estate transfer taxes, as well as lower sales tax revenues. Higher mortgage payments and decreased access to home equity had led to lower consumer spending in some states. The Ohio Housing Finance Agency planned to issue $100 million in municipal bonds in order to finance 1,000 loans at a fixed 6.75% interest rate that would help cash-strapped homeowners refinance their mortgages, it was reported March 24. Ohio had the highest rate of home foreclosures of any state, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. At a meeting in Washington, D.C., several civil rights groups April 4 called for a six-month moratorium on foreclosures resulting from unpaid subprime loans. Atlanta Home Builder Subpoenaed—

Atlanta-based home builder Beazer Homes USA March 29 said in a regulatory filing that it had received a subpoena from the office of the U.S. attorney in Charlotte, N.C., requesting documents from its mortgage-lending business. The Federal Bureau of Investigation March 28 had said it was probing “potential fraud” at the company, after allegations of abusive subprime lending. „

Economy

Average hourly wages for production workers rose six cents, to $17.22. The unemployment rate among whites nationwide dropped to 3.8% in March, from 4.0% in February after seasonal adjustment. The jobless rate for blacks climbed to 8.3%, from 7.9%. For Hispanics, who could be of any race, it dipped to 5.1%, from 5.2%. For men aged 20 and over, March unemployment was down one-tenth of a percentage point, to 4.0%. For adult women, it stayed at 3.8%. The teenage jobless rate was 14.5%, down from 14.9% in February, while for black teenagers the rate fell to 25.0%, from 29.0%. „ Consumer Spending Grew 0.6% in February.

The Commerce Department April 1 reported that consumer spending rose 0.6% in February over January, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $9.58 trillion. That followed a 0.5% increase in consumer spending in January. [See p. 160A3] Personal pretax income in February also climbed 0.6%, to an annual rate of $11.29 trillion, following 1.0% growth the previous month. Disposable, or after-tax, income climbed 0.5% in February, to an annual rate of $9.85 trillion, after 0.8% growth in January. The February savings rate, as a percentage of disposable income, was -1.2%, as in January. A negative savings rate meant that total spending exceeded total personal disposable income. „ March Consumer Confidence Falls. The Conference Board business research organization March 27 reported that its index of consumer confidence had dropped to 107.2 in March, from a revised level of 111.2 in February. The index’s base level of 100 reflected consumer confidence in 1985. The board cited rising gasoline prices and a volatile stock market as causes of the decline. [See p. 161B1] „

Unemployment Was 4.4% in March. The un-

employment rate in March inched down to 4.4% after seaUnemployment sonal adjust4.4% ment, from 4.5% March 2007 Month 4.5% in February, the Previous Year Earlier 4.7% Labor Department reported April 6. An estimated 180,000 nonfarm jobs were added to the economy during March. [See p. 160E1] 146.3 Million Held Jobs in March— According to a household survey, 146.3 million people held jobs in March, the Labor Department reported April 6. The department counted 6.7 million people as unemployed, down from 6.9 million the previous month. The department counted 381,000 workers as “discouraged” in March. Those workers were not looking for work because they believed that no jobs were available. They were not counted as part of the labor force. About 4.3 million people who sought full-time employment were working part-time instead. The average manufacturing workweek lengthened by 12 minutes to 41.1 hours in March, while factory workers put in an average of six minutes more overtime per week, bringing their overtime to 4.3 hours. April 12, 2007

Education Student Lender–College Ties Examined.

The office of New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo April 4–9 said financial aid officials at six schools had accepted payments from or otherwise had financial ties to Student Loan Xpress (SLX), a unit of New York City’s CIT Group Inc. and the country’s eighth-largest student lender. The schools the officials represented had all placed SLX on their lists of “preferred” or “suggested” student lenders, directing students to use its services. The news was the latest in a string of revelations about inappropriate ties between colleges and universities and the companies making loans to their students. [See p. 64G1] Cuomo’s office April 2 had announced that Citibank, of Citigroup Inc., would pay $2 million to resolve allegations that it made kickbacks to certain school financial aid offices in exchange for the extra business attracted through placement on the schools’ “preferred” lender lists. The money would go into a fund to educate those taking out student loans. The attorney general’s office also that day said five schools would pay a com-

bined $3.2 million to students who had taken out Citibank education loans, the same amount the schools had received in kickbacks from the company. The five schools were New York University, St. John’s University and Fordham University, all in New York City; Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y.; and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa. The five schools, and several others that Cuomo’s office suspected of similar practices, had agreed, along with Citibank, to a code of conduct governing the selection of preferred lenders. Investigators from Cuomo’s office April 9 said the financial services director at John’s Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., Ellen Frishberg, had received some $65,000 from SLX between 2002 and 2005. Some of that was reimbursement for tuition fees for her doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania, while the rest was paid to her for “consulting” services to the company and travel expenses, Cuomo’s office alleged. SLX had appeared on Johns Hopkins’s suggested lenders list in 2003. Johns Hopkins April 9 said it had placed Frishberg on administrative leave while it examined the issue. SLX had also paid $80,000 to a company run by the dean of financial aid at Widener University in Chester, Pa., and more than $12,000 in consulting fees to the director of financial aid for the for-profit online school Capella University, owned by Capella Education Co. of Minneapolis, Minn., according to Cuomo. In addition, Cuomo’s office April 4 said some college financial aid officials had bought stock in SLX’s then–parent company, Education Lending Group, at the company’s invitation, or been awarded stock options that they later sold or cashed in at a profit. The officials named who had purchased stock or received stock options were David Charlow of Columbia University in New York City, Lawrence Burt of the University of Texas at Austin and Catherine Thomas of the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. Charlow’s sale of his interest in SLX’s parent had netted him more than $100,000. SLX was a preferred lender at all those schools. Charlow and Burt were placed on administrative leave April 4, as was Thomas the following day. CIT Group April 9 said it had suspended SLX President Fabrizio Balestri, Chief Executive Officer Mike Shaut and Vice Chairman Robert deRose over the accusations. The U.S. Department of Education April 6 had suspended Matteo Fontana, a Federal Student Aid officer who had also owned shares of SLX’s parent in 2003. A company prospectus from that year showed that Fontana had planned to sell shares worth about $100,000. „

Mergers & Acquisitions Rival Bid Launched for Chicago Exchange.

Atlanta, Ga.–based Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) March 15 made an unsolicited $9.9 billion all-stock bid for CBOT 225

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Holdings, Inc., the operator of the Chicago Board of Trade. The offer was aimed at blocking the planned merger of CBOT, the country’s second-largest derivatives exchange, with its larger competitor, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). [See 2006, p. 816D2] ICE’s offer was 10.5% higher than CME’s and would result in CBOT shareholders owning more than 51% of the combined company, compared to about 31% if it combined with CME as planned. A merged ICE-CBOT would control some 33% of the U.S. futures market, while the CME deal would create an exchange that controlled about 85% of that market. An ICE-CBOT merger would also result in an exchange of a size and market capitalization to rival the CME. The CME-CBOT deal faced antitrust scrutiny from the Justice Department, and was reportedly opposed by big Wall Street investment houses out of concern that it would create a virtual monopoly on the trade in some derivatives. The two bidders had launched aggressive lobbying campaigns for their offers. „ News in Brief. Shareholders of Caremark Rx Inc., a pharmacy-benefits manager, March 16 approved a nearly $27 billion takeover bid from drugstore chain CVS Corp. CVS shareholders had backed the takeover plan March 15. The bid had been sweetened three times from an original $21 billion bid, following competing offers from another benefits manager, Express Scripts Inc. In the latest round, Express March 7 had raised its bid to $26.1 billion but said its proposal probably faced further antitrust scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). CVS the next day nearly matched the offer and sweetened its cash dividend to shareholders to $7.50, from $6.00. [See 2006, p. 1005G1] Shareholders of mining companies Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. and Phelps Dodge Corp. March 14 approved the $25.9 billion merger of the two to create the world’s largest public copper company. Freeport was based in New Orleans, La., and Phelps Dodge had its headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz. The deal was completed March 19. [See 2006, p. 893C3] Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. March 12 bid $7.3 billion for Goodlettsville, Tenn.–based discount retailer Dollar General Corp. The offer included assumption of about $380 million in debt, and at $22 per share, was nearly one-third higher than Dollar’s closing share price on the market March 9, the previous trading day. Shares in Dollar and other discount chains climbed on the news. [See p. 127C3] Two hospital chains March 19 announced a planned merger that would create the largest publicly-traded hospital chain in the country. The buyer, Community Health Systems Inc. of Nashville, Tenn., would pay $5.1 billion for Triad Hospitals Inc. of Plano, Texas. The price was a 9.4% premium over Triad’s March 16 closing market share price. [See 2006, p. 596A3]„ 226

Consumer Affairs Pet Food Recalled After Cat, Dog Deaths.

Canadian pet food manufacturer Menu Foods Ltd., which was largely owned by Menu Foods Income Fund, March 17 recalled more than 60 million cans and pouches of dog and cat food from stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, after it said the food had been linked to the deaths of 10 animals, including at least seven animals used in tests by the company. A spokeswoman for the Mississauga, Ontario–based company said the contamination occurred at the time that the company started using an Emporia, Kan., plant to supply wheat gluten, a source of protein in pet food. The tainted food reportedly caused kidney failure in animals, and was more deadly in cats than in dogs. [See 2003, p. 414E2] Menu Foods confirmed 16 pet deaths as of March 28, but a spokesman said the number was likely to rise. Paul Pion, the cofounder of the Veterinary Information Network, a veterinarians’ Web site, said its members had reported “well over 500 illnesses and 104 deaths,” it was reported March 31. Menu Foods reportedly faced several lawsuits brought by owners of pets that had died. Menu Foods supplied most major pet food companies, including Procter & Gamble Co.’s Iams and Eukanuba, Nestle Purina PetCare Co. and Hills Pet Nutrition Inc., the unit of Colgate-Palmolive Co. that made the Science Diet brand, as well as many store house brands. The initial recall affected “cuts and gravy” style wet pet food produced between Dec. 3, 2006, and March 6 and sold under 88 brands. Menu Foods March 23 widened the recall to include all of its wet food. Hills March 30 announced that it was recalling a brand of dry cat food. Del Monte Pet Products, a unit of Del Monte Foods Co., April 1 said it was also recalling food suspected of wheat gluten contamination. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) April 5 added 22 brands of dog biscuits to the recall. Menu Foods the same day recalled 20 additional types of food, and extended the recall date to cover food manufactured after Nov. 8, 2006. Menu Foods Chief Financial Officer Mark Wiens Feb. 26–27 had sold 14,000 shares of the company for $90,000, three weeks before the recall caused Menu Foods stock prices to plummet, it was reported April 11. Wiens said he had not known of any problems with the pet food at the time, and denied any wrongdoing. Members of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, rural development, food and drug administration and related agencies at an April 12 hearing criticized the FDA for inadequately responding to the pet food contamination and called for tighter regulations. FDA officials testified that tainted pet food was still being sold in stores. Tests Produce Conflicting Results—

The New York State Food Laboratory March 23 announced that it had found aminopterin, a rat poison that in the past had

been used to treat cancer and induce abortions and was not approved for use in the U.S. or Canada, in samples of the recalled pet food. However, the FDA and researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., March 30 said they had not detected signs of the poison in samples, but instead had discovered melamine, a chemical used in plastic products and as a fertilizer in Asia. The FDA said the melamine-tainted samples contained wheat gluten imported from China, and April 2 blocked gluten imports from Wangdien, China–based Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd. Chinese officials April 6 announced an inquiry into the contamination claims. „

Medicine & Health MRI Breast Cancer Screening Urged. The American Cancer Society (ACS) March 28

issued new guidelines recommending that women with breast cancer or a high risk of developing it receive annual magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams. The ACS said the recommendation would add between one million and two million women to those advised to receive MRI screenings. [See 2006, p. 979A1] The recommendation was the most significant change to the ACS’s screening guidelines since it had urged women to receive yearly mammograms, X-rays of the breast. MRIs were not used to screen women with an average risk of developing breast cancer, as the process was expensive relative to mammograms. MRIs also often delivered false-positive readings that required additional scans and that biopsies be performed, and could create anxiety in patients. The new guidelines recommended MRIs for women whose risk of developing cancer was at least 20% higher than normal. The category included women who had genetic mutations known to elevate the chance of cancer developing, as well as those whose sisters, daughters or mothers had developed the disease. Some breast cancer experts and patient advocates questioned the new guideline, noting that early detection of breast cancer did not necessarily help patients live longer or better lives. Separately, researchers published in the March 29 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine a study reporting that in women diagnosed with a tumor in one breast, cancer was more easily detected in the other breast by MRI, rather than a mammogram. The study examined 969 patients at 25 facilities located across the U.S. It found that MRIs had discovered cancerous tissue in the opposite breast of 3.1% of women recently diagnosed with cancer. The tumors had been missed by mammogram screenings. „ Drugs Found as Effective as Heart Stents.

A team of researchers March 26 reported on the Web site of the New England Journal of Medicine that treatment of heart disease using stents, small devices used in surgical procedures to open clogged arterFACTS ON FILE

ies, did not prevent heart attacks or death in patients any more than did treatment relying solely on drugs that increased blood flow. [See 2006, p. 955A3] The study was considered the most thorough and well-designed to examine the effectiveness of angioplasty , a procedure to widen an obstructed blood vessel in order to reduce the risk of heart attack. An estimated one million Americans received stents each year after having had an angioplasty. The stent industry was estimated to generate some $3 billion in revenue annually, and was dominated by two U.S. firms, Boston Scientific Corp. and Johnson & Johnson. The scientists from 1999 to 2004 had studied 2,287 patients with heart disease who had not suffered a heart attack and were not considered to be at a high risk of having one. The patients had been divided into two groups, both of which were instructed in healthful lifestyles and treated with drug therapies. One group additionally received angioplasty to clear a clogged artery and a stent to prevent it from closing. The researchers found that after five years, there was no significant statistical difference in the number of deaths or heart attacks experienced by patients in the two groups. However, the researchers stressed that stent use had proven beneficial for patients experiencing a heart attack or at a very high risk of experiencing one. The research had been led by William Boden of the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Buffalo, N.Y. Experts said the study would likely result in a wide reevaluation of the treatment of heart disease. Treatment with bypass surgery had waned as angioplasty and stents gained favor among cardiologists. Drug-Coated Stent Safety Unclear—

Five studies examining the safety of newer, drug-coated stents as compared with those without drugs Feb. 12 were published on the Web site of the New England Journal of Medicine. The drug-coated devices had been linked to a greater risk of life-threatening blood clots in previous studies, but the new research did not make any clear conclusions regarding their safety. An editorial accompanying the studies recommended that patients receiving drug-coated stents also be administered anticlotting medications for at least one year. The studies did find that, when used in healthier patients, drug-coated stents halved the need for repeat procedures when compared with regular stents. However, the studies found that little was known about the safety of the devices for “off-label” uses in patients significantly sicker than those treated in clinical trials of the devices. Off-label uses were uses that had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, in a Feb. 28 letter requested data on drug-coated stents from Boston Corp. and Johnson & Johnson as part of an investigation into the off-label use of the devices. „ April 12, 2007

AFRICA

Democratic Republic of the Congo Security Forces, Militia Clash in Capital.

Congolese security forces and members of a militia loyal to opposition politician and former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba March 22–23 clashed in the streets of Kinshasa, the capital. European Union diplomats in the city March 27 said between 200 and 600 people had been killed in the fighting. Bemba, a former vice president, had lost to incumbent President Joseph Kabila in a 2006 presidential election, but he had won a senate seat in January. The fighting was the heaviest in the capital since the presidential election. [See p. 82C2] The battles in Kinshasa had been sparked when members of Bemba’s private army refused an order to disarm. Most of the fighting took place in an affluent district on the shores of the Congo River that housed businesses and embassies. There were reports of looting of restaurants and of the Zimbabwean embassy. Kinshasa, and the rest of Lingalaspeaking western Congo, had overwhelmingly supported Bemba in the presidential elections. Kabila had drawn most of his support from his native Swahili-speaking east, reflecting an ethnic divide in the vast nation. After battles raged for two days, army commander Lt. Gen. Sungilanga Kisempia March 23 said government forces had regained control of the city and members of Bemba’s militia had fled. However, sporadic gunfire was reported later that day. Kisempia called on Bemba’s fighters to turn themselves in at the headquarters of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) in Kinshasa. An MONUC official March 23 said more than 90 fighters had done so. (The U.N. currently had 17,000 peacekeeping troops stationed across the country.) Congo’s chief prosecutor, Tshimanga Mukeba, March 23 issued an arrest warrant for Bemba, on charges of high treason. Bemba and his family the previous day had taken refuge in South Africa’s embassy in Kinshasa. The governor of Kinshasa, Andre Kimbuta, March 23 said the army had seized two of Bemba’s three residences in the city. However, Mukeba, in an apparent reversal, April 3 said an arrest warrant for Bemba could not be issued because, as a senator, he enjoyed immunity from prosecution. The prosecutor April 12 said he had asked the Senate to lift that immunity. Bemba Flies to Portugal—Bemba, who had remained at the South African embassy, April 11 flew to Portugal in his private jet for medical treatment for a months-old leg fracture, after receiving permission from the Senate to leave the country for 60 days. Bemba, who owned a house in Portugal, was escorted to Kinshasa’s airport from the embassy by MONUC troops.

Portugal March 30 had said it had agreed to admit Bemba as a tourist, but that he would not seek to remain in exile there. Bemba reportedly promised the Portuguese authorities that he would not engage in political activity while he was there. „

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Morocco Four Casablanca Bombing Suspects Killed.

Four suspected Islamic militants accused of involvement in plotting suicide bombings in the city of Casablanca were killed April 10 as police raided an apartment building they were living in. A police officer was also killed in the operation. [See p. 146A2] The April 10 raid occurred in the working-class Hay Farah district of Casablanca. The suspects were reportedly wanted in connection with May 2003 suicide bombings that had killed 45 people, as well as a March 11 suicide attack. (The 2003 attacks had prompted a widespread crackdown on Islamic militants in Morocco.) One of the suspects was shot dead by police as he attempted to detonate explosives that were strapped to his body. The other three blew themselves up, with one explosion causing the death of the policeman. In the March 11 attack, the suicide bomber, identified as Abdelfattah Raydi, had detonated explosives in an Internet cafe, killing himself and injuring four others. One of the suspects killed April 10, Ayyoub Raydi, was the brother of the March 11 bomber. The other three were identified as Mohamed Mantala, Mohamed Rachidi and Said Belouad. All five men were suspected of links to the Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, an Algerian-based radical Islamist movement formerly known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), although some officials maintained that the men did not have international connections. The GSPC April 11 took credit for two bombing in Algiers, the Algerian capital, that killed at least 33 people. In recent months, it had been stepping up training and attacks across North Africa. [See pp. 217A1, 34A1] Moroccan Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa April 11 said that while there was no evidence of links between the Casablanca and Algiers incidents, “We don’t rule it out.” Police April 12 arrested a fifth member of the cell. „

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AMERICAS

Brazil Government Agrees to Bolivian Gas Hike.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Feb. 15 signed an agreement with Bolivian President Evo Morales Aima to raise the price paid by Brazil for Bolivian natural gas. Tension between the countries over the issue had been spurred by Morales’s May 2006 decision to nationalize Bolivia’s natural gas industry, on which Brazil was dependent for 50% of its supply. Also, the 227

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Brazilian state-run firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) held large natural gas operations in Bolivia. In response to the nationalization scheme, Petrobras officials had said they would freeze investment in their Bolivia operations. [See 2006, p. 866E1] The agreement outlined a complex formula that required Brazil to pay international market prices for the liquid component of natural gas, which included propane, butane and other elements. Such products occurred naturally with methane, which was the largest component of natural gas, and were not separated out in Brazil. The price of the methane in the natural gas would remain at its previously negotiated price of $4.20 per one million British thermal units (BTUs). Estimates of the additional annual cost to Brazil ranged from $50 million to $150 million. Petrobras Chief Executive Officer Sergio Gabrielli March 13 said Brazil intended to reduce the amount of natural gas bought from Bolivia to 30% of its total imports. „ Rio Governor Requests Federal Troops.

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Rio de Janeiro state Gov. Sergio Cabral Filho April 11 formally requested that Brazillian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva dispatch army troops to combat a wave of violence that had hit Rio de Janeiro city in recent months. Almost 40 police officers had been killed in the city since the beginning of the year. Cabral Jan. 1 had replaced Rosinha Matheus as governor; Matheus had opposed the presence of federal troops in the city unless they were under her control. [See p. 128D3] Cabral April 9 had announced his intention to make the request, one day after his personal bodyguard was killed in what was believed to have been a botched robbery attempt. Cabral April 9 said, “The military and civil police are extremely overworked. I think that all law enforcement agencies can help in this struggle.” An estimated 400 federal troops had been sent to Rio city in January, but that number was set to rise to 6,000 by July in preparation for the Pan American Games, which were to be hosted by the city. Clashes in the city’s slums, or favelas, between police and drug traffickers had been complicated by the emergence of local armed militias, many of which reportedly had ties to local police and politicians. Local militias had ousted long-entrenched drug gangs from at least 100 of the city’s 600 favelas, but government-tabulated statistics had not shown that militia-controlled favelas experienced less violence than others. „

Canada Sponsorship Scandal Executive Arrested.

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Former advertising executive Jean Lafleur April 5 was arrested in Montreal on 35 counts of fraud related to his role in a graft scandal in which members of the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party had funneled millions of dollars in Canadian federal government money into their campaign funds in the late 1990s. Lafleur was ar228

rested upon arriving in Montreal on a flight from Belize, and pleaded not guilty to the charges later that day. [See 2006, p. 492E2] Lafleur was the former president of Lafleur Communication Marketing Inc., an advertising company that had received C$65 million (US$57 million) worth of federal contracts between 1995 and 2003, during the so-called sponsorship scandal. A 2005 inquiry report on the scandal found that several advertising agencies had received millions of dollars in government contracts for doing little or no work, and that several Liberal politicians had received kickbacks from those companies. Investigators alleged that Lafleur’s fraudulent activities had occurred between 1996 and 2001, and totaled C$1.6 million. An arrest warrant had been issued for Lafleur April 2, but his whereabouts where not known at that time. Lafleur reportedly had spent the previous two years living in Costa Rica and Belize. „

Ecuador High Court Ousts Provincial Judge. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Ecuador’s highest electoral court, March 28 fired a lower court judge who had attempted to reinstate 57 legislators dismissed by the TSE the previous day, deepening a constitutional crisis in the country. The lower court judge, Juan Ramirez of Guayas province, March 27 had issued an injunction blocking the dismissal of the lawmakers, ruling that the action was illegal. However, TSE President Jorge Acosta March 28 said Ramirez lacked the power to issue the injunction. [See p. 180A2] The political crisis had begun after lawmakers in February approved a plan to hold a referendum on whether to convene an assembly to rewrite the country’s constitution, which prohibited dissolution of the National Congress. The TSE March 1 approved a similar plan devised by President Rafael Correa that allowed closure of the legislature. The high court several days later voted to fire 57 opposition lawmakers in the 100-seat Congress. Although 21 of the ousted lawmakers had been replaced by alternates, Jorge Cevallos, the congressional president, March 28 said he would respect Ramirez’s injunction and refused to convene a session of Congress. Cevallos was then escorted to his office under police guard. In response, Correa organized a protest outside the congressional building in Quito, the capital. “These deputies and their corrupt judges have already been dismissed by the law, by the constitution and above all by the people,” Correa said. Correa had campaigned on a platform to reduce the power of the country’s traditional political parties. However, his party had not fielded any congressional candidates in the November 2006 elections that had brought him to power. The constitutional assembly referendum was scheduled to take place April 15. „

Other Americas News War Crime Suspects Arrested in U.S. The

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency April 3 announced that it had arrested three South American former military officers accused of war crimes. The three men had been arrested for violations of U.S. immigration law and would face deportation to their home countries to face charges there, ICE officials said. The agency said the arrests reflected a renewed effort to capture fugitives accused of human rights abuses who lived in the U.S. [See p. 146E2; 2006, p. 1018F1] The first arrest was that of Peruvian Juan Manuel Rivera-Rodon, who was detained March 23 in Baltimore, Md., on immigration charges. He had been accused of participating in a 1985 military attack against Maoist Senderoso Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas in Accomarca in which 69 villagers were killed. Some of them were also raped and tortured. Former Peruvian army commander Telmo Ricardo Hurtado March 30 was arrested in Miami, Fla., on charges of visa fraud. He had been convicted in Peru of charges relating to the Accomorca massacre. Ernesto Guillermo Barreiro, a former major in Argentina’s army, was arrested April 1 in The Plains, Va., for visa fraud. Argentine officials had accused Barreiro of leading the torture and interrogation of several people during the country’s socalled dirty war waged against dissidents during the 1976–83 rule of a military junta. The interrogations reportedly had been carried out in a secret facility known as La Perla. „

Americas News in Brief Argentina: Falklands War Remembered.

Argentine Vice President Daniel Scioli April 2 marked the 25th anniversary of the brief 1982 war between Argentina and Britain over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) by claiming the island group as Argentine land. Some 900 people were killed during the conflict, which ended with Argentina’s June 14, 1982, surrender. The two countries had restored diplomatic ties in 1990, but their relationship had remained strained over the issue of the British-controlled archipelago. Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana March 27 had said Argentina had scuttled a plan to jointly explore with Britain for oil and natural gas deposits around the Falklands, citing unresolved sovereignty issues. [See 2003, p. 659D3] „ Guatemala: Minister Resigns Over Killings.

Guatemalan Interior Minister Carlos Vielman March 26 resigned as a result of a scandal linking police investigators to the February murder of three Salvadoran politicians on a rural road near Guatemala City, the capital. The foreign politicians had been visiting the country to attend a meeting of the Central American Parliament. A subsequent investigation had linked seven police officials to the killings; four of those officers were killed under mysterious cirFACTS ON FILE

cumstances. Adela Camacho de Torrebiarte, 57, March 27 was named as Vielman’s replacement, becoming the first woman to serve as the country’s interior minister. [See p. 180E2] „ Venezuela: Easter Alcohol Sales Restricted.

Restrictions on the sale of alcohol March 30 took effect nationwide, and lasted through April 8, Easter Sunday. The measure was an attempt by President Hugo Chavez Frias to reduce the number of drunken driving deaths that occurred around the Easter holiday. The sale of alcohol was permitted only from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through April 4, and sales were completely banned on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Alcohol sales were limited to a 10 a.m.–3 p.m. time period on April 7 (Saturday). Several bar and restaurant proprietors reacted to the limits with disdain, and many openly flaunted the edict. Venezuela’s annual per capita consumption of beer was the highest in Latin America, at 83.3 liters (22 gallons) in 2005. „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

Solomon Islands Western Region Struck by Quake, Tsunami.

An earthquake measuring 8.1 on the open-ended Richter scale of ground motion April 2 struck in the Pacific Ocean about 25 miles (40 km) off Gizo, an island in the Solomon Islands archipelago. The quake, which occurred at 7:39 a.m. local time, sparked a tsunami that caused widespread destruction in seaside towns on Gizo, in Western Province, and nearby islands. Forty people were confirmed to have died and 24 others remained missing as of April 12. [See 2006, pp. 907D2, 582D2] Gizo town, the main population center on Gizo island, was the worst hit by the tsunami. A wall of water measuring up to 16 feet (five meters) in height reportedly swept away or damaged houses, shops, schools and a hospital there, and severed communications. Other nearby seaside villages were also hit, with some reportedly being washed away entirely. Aftershocks measuring 6.7 and 6.4 in magnitude were felt within an hour and a half of the first quake. Many people fled to the hills, in fear of another tsunami. A tsunami warning was issued throughout the larger Pacific Rim region in the aftermath of the earthquake. However, the deadly waves did not reach beyond the Solomon Islands. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manesseh Sogavare April 2 declared a state of emergency in the affected regions. Residents were reportedly suffering from shortages of food and clean water. The first deliveries of international aid reached some of the survivors April 3. However, it took aid workers several days to reach the most remote villages. The International Committee of the Red Cross April 9 said as many as 7,000 people had been left homeless by the disaster. „ April 12, 2007

Thailand Emergency Rejected Despite Protests.

Premier Surayud Chulanont in a live televised broadcast March 29 said that he would not declare a state of emergency in the face of mounting protests by supporters of former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra and pro-democracy groups. Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who had led a 2006 coup that had toppled Thaksin and installed Surayud, March 28 had requested the declaration of an emergency, which would allow the government to impose curfews, ban public gatherings and censor news reports, in an effort to quell the demonstrations. Surayud in his speech warned that the government would use the “full power of the law” to disperse any violent protests. [See p. 196E1; 2006, p. 936D3] Surayud also announced that a referendum on a new constitution being drafted would be held by September. Elections, he said, would be held on Dec. 16 or Dec. 23. (Sonthi had said in January that elections would be held by the end of the year.) [See 2006, p. 721F2] „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

France Train Station Riot Fuels Presidential Race.

Clashes between youths and police broke out March 28 at one of Paris’s main train stations, the Gare du Nord. The incident, recalling nationwide youth riots in late 2005, added fuel to a heated debate between France’s presidential candidates on subjects such as crime, immigration and national identity. The first round of the election was scheduled for April 22. [See p. 182D3; 2006, p. 869B3] The violence at the Gare du Nord began when police arrested an illegal immigrant from Congo after he jumped a turnstile and assaulted a ticket agent who tried to stop him. According to police, as many as 300 youths then rampaged through the station for several hours, clashing with police and smashing windows in an underground shopping concourse. The police used tear gas and clubs against the rioters and arrested 13 people. Nicolas Sarkozy, the front-running candidate of the center-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), denounced the rioters, saying, “I’m with all those who no longer accept this.” Sarkozy March 26 had resigned as interior minister, the cabinet post responsible for law and order, in order to devote himself to the campaign. Segolene Royal, the candidate of the center-left Socialist Party, said the incident showed that Sarkozy’s anticrime policies had failed, causing a “worrying breakdown of trust between the security services and our citizens.” Sarkozy Proposes Immigration Ministry—

Sarkozy March 8 proposed the creation of a new “ministry of immigration and national identity” to address the problem of integrating newcomers into French society.

Some critics said the proposal bore an unfortunate resemblance to a bureau of Jewish affairs set up by the French Vichy regime under German occupation during World War II. Royal March 26 weighed in on the issue of national identity, urging people to display the French flag on national holidays and to sing the national anthem, La Marseillaise. She said she wanted a “reconquest of the symbols of the nation,” to prove that right-wing nationalists did not have a monopoly on patriotism. Jean-Marie Le Pen, the candidate of the far-right National Front, said such proposals showed that Sarkozy and Royal were stealing his ideas. However, Le Pen April 7 visited the northern Paris suburb of Argenteuil, making an unexpected appeal for votes from the suburb’s large immigrant community. Le Pen, who had long been accused of xenophobia and racism, cited a 2005 speech by Sarkozy in which the interior minister had described local youths as racaille (“scum” or “rabble”). Le Pen said, “We want to help you get out of these ghettos of the suburbs where French politicians have parked you.” Residents of the suburbs, or banlieues, where poor Arab and African immigrants clustered in public housing projects, had registered to vote in the election in sharply increased numbers. Both Royal and Francois Bayrou of the centrist Union for French Democracy had made recent campaign trips to the suburbs. As Le Pen noted during his visit, Sarkozy had avoided such appearances, fearing the protests he was likely to face for his harsh rhetoric during the 2005 riots. Sarkozy Holds Poll Lead—A poll published April 6 showed Sarkozy holding his lead in the presidential field with 26% of voter support, trailed by Royal, at 23.5%; Bayrou at 21%; and Le Pen, in his fifth bid for the presidency, with 16%. Analysts said previous elections suggested that polls tended to underestimate Le Pen’s support, possibly because many people did not admit that they planned to vote for him. In the 2002 election, Le Pen had stunned the nation by making it into a runoff against incumbent President Jacques Chirac, only to lose to Chirac in a landslide. [See 2002, p. 285A1] Another unpredictable factor was a large percentage of undecided voters. A poll published April 8 found that a record 42% of voters were still undecided, two weeks before the first round. „

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Georgia Missile Attacks Blamed on Russia. A series

of missile strikes March 11 hit three villages in the Kodori Gorge near the breakaway republic of Abkhazia. Georgia’s government contended that Russian air force helicopters had carried out the strikes, which caused no deaths or injuries. Both Russia, which backed Abkhazia’s separatist aspirations, and the rebellious republic itself denied responsibility. A United Nations team March 13 opened an investigation, saying 229

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there was evidence of possible Russian involvement. [See p. 67E3; 2006, p. 652C3] Separately, Abkhazia March 4 held parliamentary elections that Georgia denounced as illegal. Runoff votes for 17 of the body’s 35 seats were held March 18. All 35 elected candidates supported independence. Abkhazian officials said that turnout in the initial round was 48%, exceeding the minimum of 25% for the vote to be valid. „

Germany Retailer Pays Family for Nazi Land Grab.

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KarstadtQuelle AG, Germany’s largest retailer, March 30 agreed to pay 88 million euros ($117 million) in restitution to the heirs of a Jewish family whose property in the heart of Berlin, the German capital, had been seized by the Nazis. The land, in Potsdamer Platz, had belonged to the Wertheim family, whose department-store chain was expropriated under anti-Semitic Nazi laws in 1938 and eventually acquired by KarstadtQuelle in 1994. [See 2005, p. 250E2] KarstadtQuelle agreed to make the payment to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, a U.S.based group that pursued restitution cases. The group would keep a portion of the payment to provide aid to Holocaust survivors, and distribute the rest to the Wertheim heirs, led by Barbara Principe, 74, of New Jersey. Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl reportedly helped to mediate the resolution to the long-running dispute. „ Judge Cites Koran on Beating. A court in Frankfurt, Germany, March 22 replaced a judge who had ruled against a Muslim woman’s request for an expedited divorce and had asserted that the domestic violence suffered by the woman was permitted by the Koran. In her January ruling, Judge Christa Datz-Winter had cited a verse in the Muslim holy book to back her argument. She also ruled that since it was common for men to beat their wives in the immigrant “Moroccan cultural environment” that the couple lived in, it was not a special reason to grant a divorce. Datz-Winter was replaced in the case by another judge after her ruling drew heavy criticism for appearing to put the Koran above German law. [See 2006, p. 984A1] „

Great Britain Three Charged With London Bombings Role.

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British prosecutors April 5 charged three men with taking part in the conspiracy that led to suicide bombings in London on July 7, 2005, which killed 52 commuters in the city’s transportation system. The charges were the first to be brought in the 21month-long investigation of the attacks. The three suspects had been arrested two weeks earlier. They were Mohammed Shakil, 30; Sadeer Saleem, 26; and Waheed Ali (previously known as Shipon Ullah), 23. They were accused of carrying out reconnaissance and planning for the four 230

Islamist suicide bombers ahead of the attacks, between Nov. 1, 2004, and June 29, 2005. [See p. 197B1] The three accused suspects April 7 appeared in court in London. Magistrates ordered them to be held in custody. Like the four bombers, the three accused accomplices were British Muslims. All three were from Beeston, a district of the city of Leeds in northern England. Beeston had also been home to three of the bombers. Peter Clarke, head of the counterterrorism unit of the London Metropolitan Police, April 5 appealed to others from Beeston to share with the authorities any information they might have about the bomb plot. He alleged that potential witnesses faced intimidation to keep them from coming forward. Minister Targets Muslim Extremism—

Communities and Local Government Secretary Ruth Kelly April 5 announced a new initiative to counter extremism among Britain’s more than 1.6 million Muslims. She said the plan aimed to isolate “a tiny minority who spread hatred and intolerance.” The government would require morerigorous training, including English language skills, for clerics who worked in state prisons, schools and hospitals. The plan also called for stressing British citizenship and its compatibility with being a Muslim. „

Russia State Energy Firms Gain in Yukos Auctions. Russian state-owned oil company OAO

Rosneft March 27 won an auction for a 9.4% share of its own stock held by oil firm OAO Yukos, as part of the dismantling of Yukos after a tax prosecution drove it into bankruptcy. Rosneft’s winning bid for the stake was 198.7 billion rubles ($7.6 billion), representing a share price 10% below the previous day’s closing price on the London Stock Exchange. Rosneft won the auction after a Russian joint venture of BP PLC of Britain, TNK-BP, withdrew from the bidding after four minutes. [See p. 101D1] TNK-BP, the only other bidder in the auction, had announced its participation March 23 as BP Chairman John Browne and his planned successor, Tony Hayward, met in Moscow, the capital, with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. TNK-BP and Rosneft denied widespread suggestions that TNK-BP had participated primarily to win favor with the Russian government by giving the appearance that the auction was open to international competition, when in fact Russia sought to ensure that Yukos’s key assets remained in state-controlled hands. TNK-BP was currently involved in talks with the government over its continued control of an important natural gas field in Siberia, Kovytka. Tim Osborne, a director of Yukos’s majority shareholder, Group Menatep, called the Rosneft auction a “sham.” Yukos’s former management contended that the tax prosecution of the company and its executives had been politically motivated.

In the next of several planned auctions, a joint venture of two Italian energy giants April 4 won a group of Yukos holdings. But the Italian companies, Eni SpA and Enel SpA, had previously reached an agreement with Russia’s main state natural gas company, OAO Gazprom, giving Gazprom the option of acquiring control of those assets in coming years. The Eni-Enel venture, EniNeftegaz, agreed to pay $5.83 billion for assets including 20% of Gazprom’s oil subsidiary, Gazprom Neft, and several oil and gas fields. Gazprom was expected to buy controlling shares or the entirety of those properties within two years. Nevertheless, Eni said in a statement that the deal would make the company “a major player” in Russia and advance its goal of “securing reserves in the world’s leading hydrocarbon producing countries.” Lawyers for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed founder of Yukos, denounced the EniNeftgaz sales as merely a mechanism intended to allow Gazprom, which did not take part in the auction, to acquire Yukos assets while being protected from any legal action by Yukos shareholders. [See below] U.S. Investor Questions Bid Plans—

The comptroller of the U.S. state of California in a March 22 letter warned the California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers), a major investor in BP and U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp., about the possible legal risks associated with bidding for Yukos assets. Chevron had not announced any planned bids, but had reportedly notified Russian officials of a possible intention to participate. The comptroller, John Chiang, said in the letter that Chevron could expose itself to “allegations of complicity in illegal and unethical activities by the Russian government” with regard to the disposition of Yukos assets. Former Yukos Officials Convicted— A court in Moscow March 1 convicted two former officials of Yukos of embezzling some $13 billion from the company. The defendants were Vladimir Malakhovsky, the former chief of Yukos unit Ratibor, and Vladimir Pereverzin, former deputy director of Yukos’s external-debt operation. Malakhovsky March 5 was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and Pereverzin to 11 years. A third codefendant, dual RussianSpanish citizen Antonio Valdez Garcia, had escaped from house arrest in January and his whereabouts were unknown. That trial was seen as a prelude to new proceedings against Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev, also serving a prison sentence, on similar money-laundering and embezzlement charges brought against them in February. Prosecutors Feb. 16 had released additional details about those charges. They alleged that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev had bought oil through Yukos at artificially low prices and sold it on at higher prices, and had also illegally obtained shares in another company. They were accused of misappropriating a total of $34.3 billion from the company between 1998 and 2003. Separately, prosecutors March 9 raided the Moscow offices of U.S. accounting FACTS ON FILE

firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in a probe of charges that it approved false audits of Yukos’s accounts. The firm also faced claims for unpaid taxes of its own.„ Police Suppress Anti-Putin Rallies. Police in Nizhny Novgorod March 24 broke up a gathering of demonstrators protesting against the government of President Vladimir V. Putin, reportedly arresting more than 100 people and preventing hundreds of others from reaching the planned protest site, Gorky Square. Police in St. Petersburg March 3 had clashed with protesters attending a similar event in St. Petersburg, Putin’s hometown. [See p. 183F2; 2006, p. 568F3] The demonstrations, called “dissenters’ marches,” were organized by the Other Russia opposition coalition. Such gatherings of Putin opponents were unusual, as they were divided among an array of small parties, marginalized by the president’s concerted efforts to consolidate political power. Organizers planned a series of events to rally the opposition ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for December and a presidential election in 2008. March organizers in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s third-largest city, said that police had detained some activists and confiscated copies of an opposition newspaper in the days prior to the demonstration. Police March 24 established roadblocks and checkpoints that largely prevented wouldbe demonstrators from reaching the square, where authorities had denied a permit for the rally to be held. Some who got through shouted “Fascists!” at police making arrests. In St. Petersburg, thousands of protesters marched down the central Nevsky Prospekt street and gathered in Vosstaniya Square, despite having been granted a permit only to hold their event in a remote location. Two prominent Other Russia leaders addressed the crowd, former international chess champion Garry Kasparov, who headed the United Civil Front, and former Premier Mikhail Kasyanov, leader of the Popular Democratic Union. Police beat and arrested some demonstrators, provoking scattered scuffles. Moscow Curbs Demonstrations— The city council of Moscow, the capital, April 4 approved a law imposing new restrictions on public gatherings, which opposition leaders said were clearly aimed at hobbling their ability to hold protests. The law limited the density of gatherings to two people per square meter (10 square feet), and barred demonstrations near historic monuments, putting much of the capital’s center off-limits. It also required that indoor events have no more attendees than available chairs. Court Dissolves Opposition Party—

Russia’s Supreme Court March 23 ordered the dissolution of the Republican Party, a small opposition party, after determining that it had not proven that it had the legal minimum number of members to remain legally registered. An electoral law approved in 2006 had imposed more stringent conditions on parties’ ability to operate, including a requirement that they have at April 12, 2007

least 50,000 enrolled members, with at least 45 regional branches that had more than 500 members each. The Republican Party claimed to have 60,000 members, but the court said that it had proven the registration of only 40,000. Prosecutors March 22 had moved against the National Bolshevik party, a radical nationalist opposition group that also belonged to Other Russia and had had its registration revoked in 2005. The prosecutors sought a complete ban on the group’s activities on the grounds that it was “extremist.” [See 2005, p. 966D2] Putin Ally Suggests New Term—Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, March 30 proposed that the country’s constitution be amended to allow Putin to seek a third term in 2008, and to extend the term of the presidency to as many as seven years, from the current four. A government spokesman reiterated Putin’s position, already stated in response to similar previous proposals, rejecting a change to the term limit, and saying he did not wish to seek another term. [See 2005, p. 839D1] Mironov headed the Just Russia party, a self-styled opposition party that in fact strongly supported Putin. The proposal appeared to reflect uncertainty over who would succeed Putin and whether any successor would be able retain his notable dominance of the political landscape. Some observers suggested that the proposal benefited Putin by heightening that uncertainty, preventing any emerging successor from accumulating power while he remained in office. Separately, Russia’s election commission March 27 named Vladimir Churov, a lawmaker in parliament’s lower house, as its new chairman. Putin in March had declined to renominate the previous chief, Aleksandr Veshnyakov. Churov had been a colleague of Putin’s when they both worked in the St. Petersburg mayor’s office. „

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Explosion in Iraqi Parliament Building Kills Eight Legislators Killed, Al Qaeda Suspected. A suicide bomber April 12 detonated his explosives inside a cafeteria attached to Iraq’s parliament, killing as many as eight people, including at least one lawmaker, according to initial reports. Estimates of the number of wounded ran into the dozens, and also included legislators. The attack on Iraqi officials in a government building was particularly remarkable given that the parliament was located inside the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital. The zone, regarded as one of the most secure locations in the country, was the site of many government institutions and embassies, and housed many U.S. and Iraqi troops. The attack was one of the worst to ever take place there. [See p. 198E1] Initial reports suggested that at least one and as many as three lawmakers had been

killed. U.S. embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said no U.S. citizens were harmed by the blast. After the attack, two additional bundles of explosives were found in the building, but were disposed of without causing any injury. Mohammed Abu Bakr, chief of media relations for parliament, reportedly said a security scanner at the building had not been working that morning, though other measures, such as hand searches, had still been in place. The U.S. military April 1 had reported that two suicide vests had been found in the Green Zone. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell 4th, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, April 12 said he was not certain who was responsible for the attack, but noted that suicide vests were a hallmark of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Initial reports from the scene claimed that the bomber was a bodyguard to a Sunni legislator. A statement posted April 12 on a Web site affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq—a Sunni insurgent group associated with Al Qaeda in Iraq—said the attack was intended to send a “message” to those who collaborated with “the occupier and its agents,” meaning the U.S. and the Iraqi government. Sunni insurgents often targeted government institutions, seeking to spark sectarian violence and thwart government attempts at reconciliation. They had recently been focusing their attacks on Sunnis who either worked with the government or fought against Sunni insurgents. The attacks were seen as retaliation against Sunni tribal and political groups that had started to turn against the insurgents. [See pp. 204B2, 197A3] Maliki, Others Denounce Attack—Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki April 12 denounced the attack, calling it a “criminal cowardly act.” He said it would not achieve the goal of weakening the Iraqi government. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, parliament’s speaker, reportedly called for a session to be convened the next day in order to demonstrate the resolve of the legislators. Deputy Premier Barham Saleh, visiting the wounded in the hospital, said, “Sunnis, Shias, Kurds have been injured and this should be a reminder that all Iraqis are targets.” Khalaf al-Ilyan, one of the leaders of a Sunni political bloc, said the attack proved that a recent U.S.-Iraqi joint security push to secure Baghdad had failed. “It's a complete flop,” he said, adding, “The explosion means that instability and lack of security has reached the Green Zone, which the government boasts is heavily fortified.” U.S. President George W. Bush denounced the attack, calling it a reminder that “there is an enemy willing to bomb innocent people in a symbol of democracy.” He pledged that the U.S. would stand with Iraq as it took “the steps necessary to not only reconcile politically but also to put a security force in place that is able to deal with these kinds of people.” British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said the attack revealed “the twisted minds of those who are seeking to disrupt the democratic process in Iraq.” She added, 231

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“Those who carry out these outrageous attacks offer nothing to the Iraqi people except more murder and destruction.” Bomb Destroys Baghdad Bridge—A suicide truck bomb April 12, the same day as the parliament bombing, detonated on the al-Sarafiya bridge over the Tigris River in Baghdad, destroying the bridge and sending cars plummeting into the river. At least 10 people died as a result, and 26 more were injured. Helicopters, boats and divers cooperated in pulling victims from the water. Some reports claimed that two bombs were involved. The bridge had been built by Britain in the early 20th century, and was one of nine that connected the eastern and western halves of the capital. Thousands Protest U.S. Presence—Tens of thousands of supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr April 9 marched from the city of Kufa to the city of Najaf, commemorating the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces and calling for U.S. and other foreign troops to leave Iraq. A statement by Sadr, who had ordered the protest, was read over loudspeakers to the crowd. Sadr had not appeared publicly since the beginning of the security push, and it was often suggested that he had fled to Iran. [See below, p. 204E3] Since the fall of Baghdad, the statement said, “we have gotten nothing but more killing, destruction and degradation.” Sadr also accused the U.S. of attempting to “stoke sectarian strife.” Sadr April 8 had issued a statement calling on his militia, the Mahdi Army, to resist U.S. forces in Diwaniyah, where fighting had taken place. The statement had also called for Iraq’s security forces to join in fighting the “archenemy,” the U.S. [See below] Members of Sadr’s bloc in parliament April 11 threatened to pull out of Maliki’s government unless he set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Maliki April 10 had rejected the call for such a timetable, which had also been proposed by Democrats in the U.S. Congress, saying the departure of U.S. forces should be governed by “achievements on the ground.” Speaking in Japan, Maliki said, “We see no need for a withdrawal timetable. We are working as fast as we can” to provide security in Iraq. [See below, p. 203D3] U.S. Says Iran Aids Sunni Militants—

Caldwell April 11 asserted that Iran, a predominantly Shiite country, was providing aid to Sunni insurgents in Iraq. “We have, in fact, found some cases recently where Iranian intelligence services have provided to some Sunni insurgent groups some support,” he said, citing intelligence acquired from detainees. Caldwell also claimed that Iraqi militants were being trained in Iran to use Iranian weapons, including explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), shaped explosive devices that were able to penetrate armored vehicles. He added that a cache of recently manufactured Iranian weapons had been found in the past two days in Baghdad. Caldwell also revealed that two 232

men recently brought into custody had admitted to receiving training in Syria. Caldwell clarified that, as far as he knew, only Shiite militants were training inside Iran, not Sunnis. [See p. 90C1] Regarding the progress of the recent security push, Caldwell cited statistics showing a 26% drop in the number of civilian deaths in the first quarter of 2007, from the last quarter of 2006. However, such deaths had risen 10% from February to March. “We still have a lot of work to do,” Caldwell acknowledged. U.S. Extends Army Tours—U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates April 11 announced that, effective immediately, the standard tour of duty for Army soldiers would be extended to 15 months, up from one year. More than 100,000 troops would be affected by the extension, which reflected the difficulty the U.S. was having in maintaining troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Our forces are stretched,” Gates said, “there’s no question about that.” [See pp. 169D1, 114A3] Senator Carl Levin (D, Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the announcement a symptom of Bush’s “unstable and open-ended strategy.” Several military experts expressed concern that the Army would not be able to bear the strain of the extended deployments. As part of the U.S.-Iraqi security push, Bush had decided to implement a “surge,” or increase, in the number of troops in Iraq. Extending troop deployments was a means of bringing about this increase in troop levels. Report Blasts Prewar Intelligence—Levin April 5 released a declassified version of a report on prewar intelligence which claimed that there was no evidence of direct cooperation between the terrorist network Al Qaeda and the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The U.S. had invaded Iraq in 2003, in part, on the rationale that Hussein’s regime and Al Qaeda were allies. The report had been prepared by the U.S. Defense Department’s acting inspector general, Thomas Gimble. [See 2006, p. 709C2] The report claimed that Douglas Feith—who had been a defense undersecretary during the time that a case was being made for invading Iraq—had asserted a robust connection between Al Qaeda and Hussein’s regime, in marked contrast to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) assessments. The CIA had reported only limited contact between the two, and the report charged that that intelligence had been “undercut” by Feith’s office. Documents and other evidence gathered in Iraq since the invasion confirmed the conclusion that there was not a substantial link between Hussein and Al Qaeda, according to the new report. Vice President Dick Cheney April 5 appeared on conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, and once again affirmed his belief that Al Qaeda had been in Iraq “before we ever launched” the invasion that ousted Hussein.

Levin released a statement that day accusing Feith’s office of advancing claims about the relationship between Hussein and Al Qaeda that were “contrary to the consensus view of the intelligence community.” Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Pierre Krahenbuehl, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), April 11 said conditions in Iraq were “ever worsening” despite the joint U.S.-Iraqi security push. “We’re certainly not seeing an immediate effect in terms of stabilization for civilians currently,” Krahenbuehl said, though he acknowledged that security had improved in some areas, and that the effort “may have an effect in the medium term.” Speaking in Geneva, Switzerland, Krahenbuehl said many Iraqi medical professionals had fled Iraq, adding to the country’s woes. † Maliki April 8–11 visited Japan, where he received reconstruction loans worth more than $1.3 billion from the country. Maliki’s arrival in Japan had been delayed when Iran April 8 had refused to allow his plane to pass through Iranian air space. Iranian officials claimed that a flight plan had not been filed beforehand. † The U.S. military April 7 said U.S. and Iraqi forces had confiscated a large store of weapons and detained more than a dozen people in an April 3 raid on the home of a Sunni legislator. Bomb-making materials and pictures of coffins draped with American flags were also found. News reports April 7 claimed that the home belonged to Khalaf al-Ilyan, though he himself was out of the country at the time of the raid. The U.S. military added that another raid, on the home of Sunni legislator Muhammad al-Daim April 6, had also resulted in the seizure of weapons and the arrest of five guards. [See p. 171F1] † Maliki April 6 called upon U.S. coalition forces to apologize for raiding a government intelligence ministry building in Basra in March. British and Iraqi forces had found dozens of tortured prisoners there. Maliki called the raid a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty. [See p. 139A3] Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq: † The U.S. military April 8 announced that 10 U.S. soldiers had died April 7–8 in five attacks. † A female suicide bomber in Muqdadiya April 10 detonated her explosives amid a crowd of police recruits, killing at least 16 of them and wounding 33 more. The bomber reportedly wore an abaya, a head-to-toe covering worn by many Muslim women. † U.S. and Iraqi forces April 10 fought gunmen in the predominantly Sunni central Baghdad neighborhoods of Fadhil and Sheik Omar. At least six people, one or more of them belonging to Iraqi security forces, were killed in the fighting. At least 20 more people were wounded, including 16 U.S. troops. The fighting reportedly began after Iraqi forces killed two men during FACTS ON FILE

a raid at a Sunni mosque. Residents claimed that dozens of people were killed. † A car bomb April 10 detonated near Baghdad University, killing at least five people and wounding 11 more. [See pp. 140D2, 122D1] † A suicide truck bomb rigged with chlorine gas April 6 exploded in the city of Ramadi, killing 27 people, many of them reportedly children. Dozens of people were either wounded or afflicted with respiratory problems or burns. It was the seventh attack employing chlorine gas since the beginning of 2007. [See p. 198B2] † U.S. and Iraqi forces April 6 fought members of the Mahdi Army during houseto-house searches in the city of Diwaniyah, killing at least three people and arresting 27 more. Several weapons, including EFPs, were confiscated. Sadr affiliates denounced the raids. U.S. jets April 7 launched air strikes on the militants as the fighting continued. Members of the Mahdi Army had reportedly fled to Diwaniyah after leaving Baghdad in order to avoid the U.S.-Iraqi security push there. „

Israel News in Brief. Israel’s largest labor federation March 21 staged a general strike, shut-

ting down government and financial institutions and transportation services throughout the country. Hundreds of thousands of workers participated. The work stoppage was launched on behalf of thousands of municipal workers whose salaries had not been paid in months. The strike ended later that day, after the union reached a deal with the finance ministry resolving the pay dispute. [See 1999, p. 314A2] Moshe Karadi, Israel’s police commander, Feb. 18 resigned after a government commission judged that he had ignored ties between senior police officers and members of organized crime. Karadi rejected the accusation, saying he was stepping down to spare the police department from further negative publicity. [See p. 68G3] „

West Bank and Gaza Strip Armed Groups to Reorganize. Maher Mek-

dad, a spokesman for the Fatah party, April 1 said Fatah was uniting its various armed groups under a single command structure in order to prevent the rise of rogue or splinter groups. The unified force would not be part of the government’s armed forces, Mekdad said. Another Fatah spokesman, Abdul Hakim Awad, said 5,000 fighters would comprise the new force. Israel’s Haaretz newspaper April 1 reported that Fatah had recruited 1,400 fighters in order to create a new force with the task of facing off against gunmen from Fatah’s rival, the militant Islamist group Hamas. [See pp. 171C2, 12F1] „ Sewage Flood Kills Four People. Part of a reservoir filled with sewage March 27 collapsed in the northern Gaza town of Umm Naser, causing a deluge that killed at least April 12, 2007

four people and forced most of the village’s 3,000 residents to leave. The reservoir was known to be poorly constructed, but efforts to shore it up had been delayed by fighting in the area between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants. The reservoir was less than 300 yards (275 m) from the Israeli border. „ BBC Reporter Kidnapped in Gaza. Alan Johnston, the Gaza correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), March 12 was abducted by gunmen in the Gaza Strip as he returned home. Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the government, which was run by the militant Islamist group Hamas, March 13 said that Hamas possessed “definite information regarding the parties behind this kidnapping,” and expressed hope that Johnston would soon be released. [See p. 12B3; 2006, p. 686A1] Hundreds of foreign and local journalists April 2 demonstrated in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, demanding Johnston’s release and increased government efforts toward that goal. A local journalists’ union also announced a three-day boycott of government news in protest. Another demonstration had been held March 26. Johnston had lived in Gaza for three years, and was the only Western correspondent residing in Gaza full-time. He had been held captive longer than any other journalist abducted in Gaza. „ Government Rescinds Book Ban. Palestinian Authority (PA) Education Minister Nasser al-Shaer March 10 said an anthology of Palestinian folk stories would not be banned from Palestinian schools, as previously announced. The ministry had circulated a letter in February calling for the book to be pulled from the shelves. Shaer, a member of the militant Islamist group Hamas, which led the PA government, March 6 had explained that the ban was due to sexual content, but denied reports that copies of the book had been burned. The attempt to blacklist the book had met with widespread opposition, culminating in a protest outside the education ministry March 10. Shaer March 10 reportedly claimed that he had not been informed about the ban. „

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan Captive Journalist Killed by Rebels. Tali-

ban rebels April 8 killed Ajmal Naqshbandi, an Afghan journalist and interpreter. Naqshbandi had been seized in March along with an Italian reporter, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, and their driver, Sayed Agha. The rebels had beheaded Agha March 16, but later released Mastrogiacomo in exchange for the Afghan government’s release of five Taliban prisoners. [See p. 197F1] Journalists in Kabul, the capital, April 9 protested Naqshbandi’s execution. President Hamid Karzai that day released a statement asserting that Naqshbandi was supposed to have been released as part of the swap that freed Mastrogiacomo, but

said the rebels had not upheld their side of the bargain. The statement also said that, after freeing Mastrogiacomo, the rebels had not set any preconditions for Naqshbandi’s release. Karzai April 6 had said the swap for Mastrogiacomo was necessary because Italy’s government was in danger of collapsing over its military presence in Afghanistan. He added that no further exchanges would take place. Italy was among the largest contributors of troops to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) effort to secure Afghanistan. Shahabuddin Aatil, a Taliban spokesman, April 9 reportedly claimed that the Taliban had demanded the release of two commanders in exchange for Naqshbandi. Aatil added that the Afghan government, unlike in its efforts for Mastrogiacomo, had refused the offer. The Afghan government “is working only for foreigners, not for Afghans,” Aatil said. Naqshbandi April 11 was buried in Kabul amid criticism from his family that Karzai had not done enough to save him. Agha’s family members March 20 had protested in the southern province of Helmand against the government’s failure to save Agha. Italy Airs Footage of Beheading—An Italian television station April 10 broadcast graphic footage of Agha’s beheading. The footage also showed Naqshbandi and Mastrogiacomo, the latter pleading for the Italian government to act in order to save his life. Naqshbandi March 30 had made a telephone call to a Pakistani journalist, during which he had pleaded for Karzai to intervene in order to save him. Romano Prodi, Italy’s premier, April 9 had condemned the execution of Naqshbandi. Italian opposition parties that day denounced Prodi for securing the release of Mastrogiacomo but not Naqshbandi as well, and for allegedly paying $2 million to free another captive Italian journalist in 2006. [See 2006, pp. 902E2, 845G2] Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema April 12 defended Italy’s role in freeing Mastrogiacomo, insisting that safeguarding the lives of hostages was a “constant criterion” of Prodi’s and previous governments. He also called for the international community to create “common codes of behavior” with respect to hostages held in combat zones. Many countries criticized the swap that had led to Mastrogiacomo’s release, claiming that it encouraged further kidnappings. Aid, Medical Workers Kidnapped—Taliban rebels in the southern province of Kandahar March 27 seized a medical team of five Afghans. Aatil April 9 was reported as saying the captives would be killed unless the government released the two Taliban commanders. Taliban rebels in the southwestern Nimruz province April 3 had seized two French aid workers and their three Afghan associates. An Afghan official April 10 said security forces were working to free the hostages. The French workers belonged to Terre 233

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d’Enfance (A World for our Children), a group whose programs benefited children. ‘Operation Achilles’ Continues— The NATO-led Operation Achilles April 6–11 continued to strike rebels in Helmand, particularly in the north of the province. [See p. 149G1] NATO April 6 announced that it had reclaimed the strategic town of Sangin from Taliban rebels, who had held it for months. The town was located on a road leading to the Kajaki dam, which provided electricity to much of southern Afghanistan. U.S.-led coalition forces were attempting to renovate the dam in order to increase its powerproducing capacity, but the effort was being hindered by the presence of rebels nearby. Four militants April 9 died when they attacked U.S. and Afghan forces in Helmand’s Sangin district. A NATO air strike in Helmand province April 11 killed 13 militants who had been fighting Afghan and coalition troops. Government Held Talks With Taliban—

Karzai April 6 admitted that his government had held talks with Taliban rebels in an effort to reach a peace agreement. Although he provided few details, it was the first time Karzai had acknowledged such contacts. Speaking at a news conference, Karzai said native Taliban rebels “are welcome” to reconcile with the government. He refused, however, to extend the same offer to foreign fighters, or to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Taliban. [See p. 213F2] Zabiullah Mujaheed, a Taliban spokesman, denied that any such talks had been held with Karzai’s government, which he denounced as being a puppet of the U.S. Six Canadians Killed in Blast—A roadside bomb west of the city of Kandahar April 8 killed six Canadian soldiers and wounded two more. It was the deadliest incident for Canadian troops since the Korean War. Canada had lost more than 50 soldiers in Afghanistan. A bomb in southern Afghanistan April 11 killed two Canadian soldiers and wounded three more. Australia to Send More Troops— Australian Prime Minister John Howard April 10 announced that his country would nearly double the number of its troops participating in NATO’s mission in Afghanistan. Australia had 550 soldiers there at the time. Howard said 300 elite troops would deploy in the coming months in the southern Uruzgan province, and that a total of 1,000 Australian soldiers would be deployed in the country in 2008. To date, only one Australian soldier had died in Afghanistan. Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Afghanistan: † Militants in the southern Zabul province April 12 fought Afghan forces and were then hit by coalition air strikes. Thirty-five militants were killed. † Militants in Zabul April 9 attacked a military convoy, killing four Afghan soldiers. 234

† An air strike by coalition forces in Zabul April 7 killed five militants and destroyed a cache of weapons. † Militants in western Farah province April 7 ambushed employees of a de-mining company, killing six of them and one bystander. At least four more people were wounded. † A suicide car bomber in Kabul April 6 killed at least four people, including one police officer. Four more people were wounded. „

Nepal Maoists Sworn In as Ministers. Five former Maoist guerrillas April 1 were sworn in as ministers and one became a junior minister in the 22-member multiparty cabinet of Nepal’s interim government. The Maoists in November 2006 had signed a peace deal with the government ending a decade of war that left 13,000 people dead. Their top leader, Prachanda, declared the event the “beginning of a new Nepal,” and promised free and fair elections. [See p. 102C3] Maoists, Ethnic Group Clash, Killing 27—

At least 27 people March 21 died and some 40 others were injured in clashes in the southern town of Gaur between formerrebel Maoist youth and ethnic Madhesi rights activists. The two groups had reportedly planned separate rallies at the same time in the same area. Gaur was a center of anti-Maoist sentiment, and the Madhesi group far outnumbered the Maoists. Each side accused the other of having attacked first, and leaders from both sides claimed most of the dead as their own. Mourners from both groups March 23 attended a memorial service for 25 of the victims. The Maoists were supposed to have locked up their weapons under a United Nations–backed disarmament program. However, Maoist elements had been involved in several recent episodes of violence around Nepal. Fifty people March 17 had been hurt in clashes between Madhesis and Maoists as well as members of established political parties in two towns in the south. In eastern Nepal March 15–16, Maoists and other student party members attacked pro-royalist demonstrators, injuring five of them. An open-ended general strike in protest of continuing Maoist violence and intimidation of businesspeople was called in Katmandu, the capital, March 19. Federalist System Enshrined— Nepal’s interim parliament March 9 voted overwhelmingly to alter the constitution to make the country a federal, rather than unitary, state. The change, prompted by the Madhesi agitation, would guarantee proportional representation at all levels of government for ethnic minorities as well as women and those belonging to low castes. Premier Girija Prasad Koirala March 13 declared that Nepal would become a republic, doing away with a ceremonial role for its monarch, King Gyanendra. “The king and crown prince are persons of ill repute,” he had said the day before, urging Gyanen-

dra to abdicate. Gyanendra had reportedly irked Koirala on Nepal’s Democracy Day holiday Feb. 19 with defensive statements declaring his 2005 assumption of absolute rule to have been “in accordance with the people’s aspirations,” and criticizing government figures for efforts to diminish the monarchy. Gyanendra’s motorcade Feb. 16 had been stoned by onlookers as it made its way to a religious festival. „

Pakistan Vigilante

Islamic

Courts

Established.

Maulana Abdul Aziz, the radical leader of the Lal Mosque in Islamabad, the capital, in a speech to thousands of his followers April 6 declared that he was setting up unauthorised courts to enforce sharia, or Islamic law, in the capital. He gave the government one month to rid Islamabad of brothels, video stores and other “vulgar activity.” If the government attempted to curtail the courts or ongoing radical activities of students at two nearby Islamic schools he led, “our last resort will be suicide attacks,” he warned. [See p. 134A1] Female students at one of his madrassas, or Islamic schools, had occupied a public children’s library since January and a week earlier had kidnapped an alleged brothel owner and held her captive until she disavowed prostitution. The government so far had not heeded calls from the public to end the library siege and clamp down on the women’s madrassa, and its brother-institution. Minister of State for Information Tariq Azeem Khan, in remarks to the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reported April 7, described Aziz’s speech as unlawful and un-Islamic and promised “action” against the students if they did not peaceably vacate the children’s library. Aziz April 8 issued a fatwa, or religious decree, against Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar after pictures appeared in local newspapers of her hugging a man after she had just completed a parachute-jump for charity. The episode had taken place in France in March. Aziz described the behavior depicted in the photo as obscene and called for her to be fired. Bakhtiar April 9 said the man had merely been congratulating her for her jump and that she was “very proud of what I did.” She and other Pakistani officials said the fatwa was irrelevant. „ Sectarian Bloodshed Erupts in Northwest.

Two days of sectarian gun violence in North-West Frontier Province April 6–7 claimed at least 40 lives. Anti-Shiite Muslim rhetoric April 6 had allegedly prompted anti-Sunni Muslim protests that precipitated shooting by unidentified, presumably Sunni attackers and reprisals by Shiites, who reportedly burned some 400 Sunni homes and businesses. In response, the government imposed a curfew and the next day gave police authority to shoot any violators on sight. The clashes took place in Parachinar, some 150 miles (250 km) southwest of Peshawar, the provincial capital. [See 2006, p. 69C2] „ FACTS ON FILE

Baseball

use in the sport, led by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D, Maine). [See below, p. 235E2] Bonds’s former personal trainer, Greg Anderson, had been in jail since November 2006 for refusing to testify before the BALCO grand jury about Bonds. [See 2006, p. 941F1] Other News—In other MLB news: † Mitchell, in a March 28 letter to Michael Weiner, the general counsel to the MLB Players Association (MLBPA), asked for permission to interview active players as part of his investigation. Mitchell, who did not have the power to compel witnesses to testify, Jan. 18 had warned MLB owners that Congress could step in if players and clubs did not cooperate with his probe. † The Texas Rangers March 15 said they would add slugger Sammy Sosa, 38, to their 40-man roster, and he was on the 25-man roster for the Rangers’ opening game April 2. Sosa, who was attempting a comeback after not playing in the 2006 season, Jan. 29 had agreed to a minorleague contact with the Rangers. [See 2005, p. 256D1] † Pete Rose, MLB’s career hits leader, March 14 admitted in an ESPN Radio interview that he had “bet on my team every night” while managing the Cincinnati Reds from 1985 to 1987. Rose, who was banned from the sport in 1989 for betting on the Reds, had previously admitted to betting on his team four times a week. [See 2004, p. 23A2] † Liberty Media Corp. Feb. 12 finalized a deal to acquire the Atlanta Braves from Time Warner Inc. Under the complex deal, the Braves were valued at about $460 million. The deal required the approval of 75% „ of MLB owners.

Major League Baseball Season Opens. The Major League Baseball (MLB) season

Drugs in Sports

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Zach Johnson Wins Masters Golf Tournament Ties Mark for Highest Winning Score.

Zach Johnson of the U.S. April 8 won the 71st Masters tournament, the first major of the year in men’s golf, at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga. On an unusually cold, dry and windy weekend that made the greens particularly fast, Johnson posted a score of 289, one over par, tying the record for the highest winning score in Masters history. (Sam Snead, in 1954, and Jack Burke Jr., in 1956, had also claimed victory at one over.) [See 2006, p. 313A3] Johnson, 31, shot a three-under-par 69 on the final day to hold off the favorite, four-time Masters winner Tiger Woods of the U.S. Woods shot an even-par 72 in the final round, finishing with a three-over-par 291 for the tournament. That left him tied for second place with South Africans Retief Goosen and Rory Sabbatini, both of whom shot 69 on the final day. The final round began with Australia’s Stuart Appleby in the lead at two over, and Woods tied for second at three over. Over the course of the round, five different players held or shared the lead. Johnson, playing two groups behind Appleby and Woods, became the first Masters winner since Nick Faldo in 1990 not to play in the final group in the last round. Johnson, 31, claimed his first victory in a major, and just the second victory of his career on the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour. He earned $1.305 million in prize money. „

opened April 1, with the New York Mets defeating the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, 6–1, in St. Louis, Mo. The rest of the league opened the season over the next two days. [See 2006, p. 846A3] Bonds Chases Home Run Record—The beginning of the season brought renewed focus on San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds. Bonds, 42, needed just 22 home runs to break Hank Aaron’s all-time career record of 755, considered one of the most prestigious records in sports. However, Bonds in recent years had been dogged by accusations of steroid use, and some fans and baseball officials had expressed unease at the prospect that he could break the record in the 2007 season. [See p. 103A1] A federal grand jury in San Francisco, Calif., was currently investigating Bonds’s involvement in a scandal surrounding the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), a Northern California nutritional supplement company that had provided performance-enhancing drugs to top athletes. Bonds was reportedly being investigated for perjury and tax evasion in connection with the case. Also, MLB was conducting a separate probe into steroid April 12, 2007

Internet Pharmacy Raided for Steroids. A

federal task force along with Florida state law enforcement officials Feb. 27 raided two locations of the Signature Pharmacy in the Orlando, Fla., area as part of a nationwide investigation into the illegal dissemination of steroids and human growth hormones over the Internet. The investigation had been led by P. David Soares, the district attorney in Albany County, N.Y., who said its focus was to “shut down distribution channels.” Soares added that professional athletes had been tied to his investigation, but declined to identify any. [See p. 103A1] Among those arrested in the Feb. 27 raid were Signature Pharmacy owners Robert (Stan) Loomis and Naomi Loomis, a married couple and both registered pharmacists. Robert Loomis’s brother, pharmacist Kenneth Loomis, and Kirk Calvert, the pharmacy’s marketing director, were also arrested during the raid. All four were charged with criminal diversion of prescription medications and prescriptions, criminal sale of a controlled substance and insurance fraud. In the days following the raid, several more doctors, pharmacists and others from

Florida, Texas and New York were arrested in connection with the investigation. A total of 20 defendants had been arraigned in Albany County Court on charges related to the scandal as of March 15.

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Athletes’ Ties Reported by Media—

Though Soares had declined to publicly identify former and current professional athletes linked to the scandal, several names were mentioned in the media, among them current and former Major League Baseball (MLB) players Gary Matthews Jr., Jose Canseco and John Rocker, boxer Evander Holyfield, and Olympic wrestling gold medalist Kurt Angle. [See p. 235G1, B2] Soares March 7 met with MLB and National Football League (NFL) officials regarding the names of athletes linked to the investigation. He said March 20 that he would provide the MLB and NFL with lists of names if the leagues would agree to help compel the athletes to serve as witnesses in the criminal case. The Times Union newspaper of Albany, N.Y., Feb. 28 reported that the names of Matthews, Canseco and Holyfield had been found on customer lists held by Applied Pharmacy Services, a Mobile, Ala., business whose owners had been indicted by an Albany County grand jury in connection with the investigation. Matthews, who played outfield for the Los Angeles Angels, Feb. 28 read a statement to the media in which he said of the scandal, “Until we get more information, I just can’t comment on it.” After public urging from Angels owner Arte Moreno and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, Matthews March 14 said in a statement released to the press that he had never taken human growth hormone. He added, “Nobody has accused me of doing so, and no law enforcement authority has said I am a target of any investigation for doing so.” Also, Richard Rydze, a physician and member of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers’ medical team, Feb. 27 said he had been questioned in December 2006 by federal agents regarding his purchase of $100,000 worth of human growth hormone from Signature Pharmacy. Rydze denied ever prescribing hormones to Steelers players. „

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Medical Research Stem Cells Used to Treat Diabetes. A team

of scientists reported in the April 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that 14 Brazilians suffering from Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes who had been treated with stem cells had not required insulin injections for at least several months after their treatment, and even years in some cases. Type 1 diabetes caused the body’s immune system to attack pancreatic cells that created insulin, a hormone that regulated blood sugar levels. [See p. 15C3; 2006, p. 956A2] The 15 patients in the study, who had ranged in age from 14 to 31, were treated with drugs that destroyed their bone marrow, halting their bodies’ immune system 235

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response. They also received doses of stem cells culled from their own blood. (The research had not used more-controversial embryonic stem cells.) The stem-cell transplant appeared to restore the immune system, allowing insulinproducing cells to regenerate in the pancreases of 14 of the patients. However, one of the 14 relapsed and had to resume insulin use after a year. „

Paleontology Study Revises Theory on Rise of Mammals.

An international team of scientists reported in the March 29 issue of the journal Nature that the ascent of modern mammals had not been spurred by the mass extinction of dinosaurs and other life forms 65 million years ago, as had been commonly thought. Rather, the study said, the ancestral branches of most mammal species experienced an initial burst of growth 100 million to 85 million years ago, and another burst 55 million to 35 million years ago. The researchers said some mammals had thrived in the wake of the dinosaur’s extinction, but had subsequently gone extinct themselves and were not closely linked to contemporary species. [See 2006, p. 228C1] The research team assembled a “tree of life” tracing the evolution of all mammal species that had existed on Earth, using molecular and fossil data on 4,510 of the 4,554 known mammal species alive today. The team, which was led by Olaf BinindaEmonds of the Technical University of Munich, in Germany, and Andy Purvis of London’s Imperial College, included paleontologists, mammalogists, evolutionary biologists and other scientists from the U.S., Canada and Australia. „

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Abel Prize. The Norwegian Academy of

Science and Letters March 22 named Indian-born U.S. mathematician Srinivasa Varadhan, 67, as the recipient of the 2007 Abel Prize for mathematical research. The prize was worth six million Norwegian kroner (US$975,000). [See 2006, p. 315D3] Varadhan, who had taught at New York University (NYU) since 1966, was honored for his work in probability theory, especially “for creating a unified theory of large deviations,” or a systematic approach to calculating the probability of rare events, such as a flipped coin turning up heads 1,000 times in a row. Varadhan’s work made it easier to deal with improbable events, particularly with the aid of computers, in fields ranging from quantum physics to econometrics to traffic engineering. Varadhan was the second mathematician affiliated with NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences to win the Abel Prize, first awarded in 2003; retired NYU mathematician Peter Lax had won it in 2005. [See 2005, p. 200A2] „ PEN/Bellow Award. Novelist Philip Roth, 74, April 2 was named the winner of the inaugural PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, a life236

time achievement award. The prize was administered by the PEN American Center, an association of writers, editors and translators, and was named after U.S. novelist Saul Bellow (1915–2005), the recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize for literature. The new, $40,000 prize would be awarded biennially. Roth in February had won the PEN/ Faulkner Award for Fiction for an unprecedented third time. [See p. 151B1; 2005, p. 239E1] „

People The Los Angeles Philharmonic, which under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen had come to be known as one of the most adventurous orchestras in the U.S., if not the world, April 9 confirmed that Salonen, 48, had decided to step down as its music director at the end of the 2008–09 season. The Finnish-born conductor, who had held the post since 1992, was also a composer, and he had decided that he needed more time to compose. A successor to Salonen was immediately named: Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, 26, who in 2005 had made a strong impression in his U.S. debut with the Philharmonic, at the Hollywood Bowl, its summer home. Dudamel was a product of Venezuela’s elaborate music education network, founded in the 1970s to benefit poor children. [See 2003, p. 1104A3] Irish rock singer Bono, 46, the lead singer of the group U2, March 29 at the Dublin, Ireland, home of Britain’s ambassador to Ireland was awarded an honorary British knighthood, in recognition of his humanitarian efforts as well as his contributions to music. Bono in recent years had become a champion of debt relief for poor countries, especially in Africa. [See 2005, p. 997F3] The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, Mass., April 2 unsealed a group of 30 letters from U.S. novelist Ernest Hemingway to German film star and singer Marlene Dietrich. The library had received the letters in 2003 from Dietrich’s daughter, Maria Riva. Despite their flirtatious quality, the letters contained no new evidence that the decades-long friendship between the two celebrities had been anything but platonic. [See 2003, p. 319D3] The plagiarism lawsuit filed against Random House UK, the British publisher of Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code, by historians Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh was dismissed on appeal March 28 by London’s Court of Appeal. The court upheld the April 2006 verdict by a High Court judge that Random House had not been guilty of copyright infringment. [See 2006, p. 292D2] Austrian-born celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, 57, and the Humane Society of the United States March 22 jointly announced that Puck would henceforth use only eggs and meat from animals raised under rigorous humane standards. Puck would also stop serving foie gras, a delicacy made from the fattened livers of force-fed ducks and geese. Puck’s culinary empire included 14 upscale restaurants, mostly on the West Coast; his flagship eatery was Spago in Los Angeles. [See 2006, p. 840E3]

Women’s soccer legend Mia Hamm, 35, March 27 gave birth to twin girls in the Los Angeles area. Their father was Major League Baseball’s Nomar Garciaparra, 33, whom Hamm had married in 2003, when Garciaparra was the star shortstop of the Boston Red Sox. He now played first base for the Los Angeles Dodgers. [See 2006, p. 774A1; 2003, p. 992A3] „

O B I T UA R I E S AUSTRIAN, Robert, 90, physician instrumental in the development of vaccines capable of preventing forms of pneumonia, meningitis and other conditions caused by pneumococcal bacteria; he taught and did clinical research at the University of Pennsylvania for many years; born April 12, 1916, in Baltimore, Md.; died March 25 at a hospital in Philadelphia, Pa., three days after suffering a stroke. [See 1977, p. 907B1] COURTIN-Clarins, Jacques (born Jacques Courtin), 85, founder (1954) and longtime chairman of

Clarins, a French manufacturer of skin-care products sold worldwide since the 1970s; working as a masseur after World War II, he formulated his own body-treatment oil, which became the basis for his cosmetics empire; born Aug. 6, 1921; died the night of March 22 at his home in Paris; no cause of death was reported. DIBDIN, Michael John, 60, British crime novelist known for his literary flair; his best-known books featured an Italian detective named Aurelio Zen, whose investigations took him to different parts of Italy from book to book, enabling the author to present a rich tapestry of modern Italian life; he published 10 Zen novels in his lifetime, beginning with Ratking (1988); an 11th, End Games, was due to be published in the fall; born March 21, 1947, in Wolverhampton, England; died March 30 in Seattle, Wash., after a short illness; he had been living in Seattle, the hometown of his third wife, crime writer Kathrine Beck (known mainly by her pen name, K. K. Beck), since the mid-1990s. HAYGOOD, Amelia S. (born Amelia Da Costa Stone), 87, onetime clinical psychologist who in 1973

founded Delos Records (later called Delos International Inc.), an independent record label mostly devoted to classical music that was the first independent classical label to sell compact discs (CDs) in the U.S.; it also introduced digital recording techniques before CDs had even established themselves as the preferred medium for digital music; born July 15, 1919, in Gainesville, Fla.; died March 19 at her home in Santa Monica, Calif., after a long battle with breast cancer. PETERSEN, Robert Einar, 80, California publisher who parlayed his love of fast cars into a media empire, based on the success of his first two magazines, Hot Rod, launched in 1948, and Motor Trend, launched in 1949; he sold his publishing business for nearly half a billion dollars in the mid-1990s, around the time he founded Los Angeles’s Petersen Automotive Museum, a four-story building flanked by 10 huge steel fins; born Sept. 10, 1926, in East Los Angeles; died March 23 at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., from complications of neuroendocrine cancer. VONNEGUT Jr., Kurt, 84, author of the classic antiwar novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969); the satirical novel—whose full title was Slaughterhouse-Five: Or, the Children’s Crusade, A Duty-Dance With Death— was inspired by his experience of the Allied firebombing of Dresden, Germany, near the end of World War II, which he witnessed firsthand as a prisoner of war; an oft-repeated phrase in that book, “So it goes,” became a catchphrase of the antiwar movement during the waning years of the Vietnam War; other wellknown novels of his included Cat’s Cradle (1963) and Breakfast of Champions (1973); before Slaughterhouse-five appeared, he was thought of primarily as a writer of science fiction, and conventions of that genre such as time travel remained part of his later work; another feature of his books was whimsical drawings, often only loosely linked to the plot; besides novels, he wrote essays, short stories and plays; a film version of Slaughterhouse-Five, directed by George Roy Hill, was released in 1972, and four of his other novels were also made into films; born Nov. 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Ind.; died April 11 at a hospital in New York City, of brain injuries sustained in a fall several weeks earlier; since 1979, he had been married to photographer Jill Krementz. [See 2002, p. 1076E2; 2001, p. 577G1; Indexes 2000, 1991, 1989, 1985, 1982, 1978–80, 1976, 1972–74, 1969–70] „

April 12, 2007

Virginia Tech Student Kills 32, Self in Campus Shooting Deadliest Gun Rampage in U.S. History. A

student at Virginia Tech university in Blacksburg, Va., April 16 went on a shooting rampage, killing 32 people before fatally shooting himself in the face as police were closing in on him. It was believed to be the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, surpassing the death toll of 24 (including the gunman) in a 1991 rampage at a cafeteria in Killeen, Texas. It was also by far the worst college-campus shooting in U.S. history, claiming nearly twice as many lives as were lost in a 1966 rampage at the University of Texas in Austin, in which a student opened fire from atop a campus tower, fatally shooting 13 people before being slain by the police. And it came nearly eight years to the day after the April 20, 1999, massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., perpetrated by two teenagers who killed 13 people before killing themselves. [See 1999, p. 286A1; 1991, p. 778A2; 1966, p. 326E1] The perpetrator of the attack at Virginia Tech—officially known as Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University— April 17 was identified as Seung-Hui Cho, 23. Cho had been a senior at the school, majoring in English. A native—and citizen—of South Korea, he had been living in the U.S. as a legal permanent resident since entering the country with his family in 1992, at the age of eight. He had grown up in Centreville, Va., a Washington, D.C., suburb where his parents ran a dry cleaning business. He had one sibling in New Jersey, an older sister who reportedly worked for the U.S. State Department as a contractor and was a graduate of Princeton University in New Jersey. The Virginia Tech massacre took place at two campus locations, within a span of nearly three hours. The shootings began around 7:15 a.m. at a college dormitory, West Ambler Johnston Hall. There, Cho killed two people: Emily Jane Hilscher, 19, a freshman, and Ryan Clark, 22, a senior who had been Hilscher’s resident adviser. Some reports suggested that Cho had cultivated an obsession with Hilscher, although friends of Hilscher said they did not believe she had known him at all. A student at another

school whom Hilscher had dated was questioned by police in the interval between the two sets of shootings but was never arrested. All the other shootings took place at Norris Hall, a classroom building at the other end of the sprawling, 2,600-acre (1,050-hectare) campus. There, at around 9:45 a.m., Cho resumed his rampage, killing 30 people—25 students and five faculty members—and wounding some 30 others, in four classrooms and a hallway on the second floor of that building, before killing himself just before 10:00 a.m. He was armed with two semiautomatic weapons, a 9mm Glock handgun and a Walther .22-caliber pistol. Ballistics tests later showed that the Glock had been used in the dormitory shootings and that both weapons had been used in the Norris Hall shootings. Since more than two hours elapsed between the first and second set of shootings, questions immediately arose as to whether the university could have done more to prevent the Norris Hall massacre. The school’s administration had initially sent out an e-mail alert at 9:26 a.m., notifying students and faculty that a shooting had occurred at Ambler Johnston Hall and urging the university community “to be cautious.” But no immediate attempt was made to cancel classes or evacuate the campus. The school’s president, Charles W. Steger, and the chief of its private police force, Wendell Flinchum, later April 16 said they had based their approach on the assumption that the dormitory attack had been linked to domestic violence and that the shooter had likely fled the campus. Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), who had cut short a trade mission to Japan to fly back to Virginia after he learned of the shootings, April 17 ordered an independent review of Virginia Tech’s handling of the massacre. By then, it had been reported that Cho had shown signs of being mentally unbalanced for quite some time before the shootings, and Kaine said that matter would also be probed. [See below] President Bush Attends Memorial—

U.S. President George W. Bush April 17 attended an afternoon memorial service at

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Volume 67, No. 3462* April 19, 2007

B the university’s basketball arena, Cassell Coliseum. (Classes at Virginia Tech by then had been canceled for the rest of the week and it had been announced that Norris Hall would remain closed for the rest of the semester.) Bush was accompanied to the event by First Lady Laura Bush, as well as by Kaine and his wife. Addressing the convocation, he said it was “hard to imagine that a time will come when life at Virginia Tech will return to normal. But such a day will come.” Afterwards, Bush met with a number of relatives of the massacre victims. Later that day, in a television interview, he deflected questions about gun control that the latest massacre, like earlier such tragedies, had raised. He asserted that people had to be helped “get over their grieving” before guncontrol issues were addressed. [See below] Gunman’s Mental Health Questioned—

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On April 17, the day Cho was identified as the gunman, faculty members and other MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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Virginia Tech student kills 32 people, self in campus shooting; deadliest gun rampage in U.S. history.

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Violence rocks Iraqi capital in one of deadliest days since U.S.-led invasion. PAGE 239

AP Photo/The Roanoke Times, Alan Kim

Supreme Court upholds ban on abortion method in 5–4 vote. PAGE 242

Senate panel hears Gonzales testimony on ouster of prosecutors. PAGE 243

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Fraud, violence mar Nigerian state elections. PAGE 246

Runoff set in East Timor presidential election. PAGE 247

North Korean funds freed; nuclear shutdown deadline passes. PAGE 248

Iran plans more nuclear reactors. PAGE 250

Golfer Pressel is youngest women’s major winner. PAGE 251 Police and security officers April 16 carry injured occupants out of Norris Hall at Virginia Tech university in Blacksburg, Va. A gunman killed 32 students and faculty members on the campus before commiting suicide.

*First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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students at Virginia Tech began portraying him as a highly withdrawn individual who had written bizarre plays and poetry filled with violent imagery. Poet Nikki Giovanni, a Virginia Tech faculty member—and one of the speakers at the April 17 memorial service—said in an interview that day that, in the fall of 2005, when Cho was her student in a creative writing class, his gruesome writings had frightened many of his fellow students into not showing up for class. She had later referred him to the chairman of the school’s English department, Lucinda Roy, for private classes, during which Cho wore sunglasses the whole time and hardly ever spoke. Apprised of Cho’s disturbing qualities, Virginia Tech officials had offered to provide protection for Roy during those sessions, but she had declined that offer. After the shootings, Virginia Tech authorities found two three-page notes in Cho’s dormitory room. Law enforcement officials described them, not as suicide notes, but as expletive-laden tirades against the rich and privileged, with some people mentioned by name as having contributed to his unhappiness. Reports also emerged of Cho having harassed several female students and having photographed female students under their desks. It was reported April 19 that he had been referred to an off-campus mental-health facility for evaluation in December 2005, and that he had subsequently been briefly hospitalized for observation at a psychiatric facility, where a doctor had concluded that he was mentally ill, but presented no imminent threat to himself or others. That evaluation led a judge to decide not to have him involuntarily committed but instead to order him to seek outpatient treatment. Campus officials, however, reportedly did not know if he had done so.

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Package Mailed to NBC, Images Aired— NBC News on April 18 televised parts of a

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video contained in a package that Cho had mailed from Blacksburg to the network’s New York City headquarters. The package was marked as having been mailed at 9:01

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Seung-Hui Cho, a 23-year-old senior at Virginia Tech, who shot and killed 32 people on the school’s campus April 16 before killing himself.

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DEADLIEST U.S. SHOOTING SPREES

Following are some of the deadliest shooting rampages in recent U.S. history, prior to the April 16 killings at Virginia Tech [See p. 237A1]: Aug. 1, 1966—A student at the University of

Texas at Austin kills his mother and his wife before shooting 45 people from atop a campus tower, killing 13 (including one pregnant woman). [See 1966, p. 326E1] July 18, 1984—A man opens fire and kills 21 people at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif. [See 1984, p. 548D1] Aug. 20, 1986—A postal worker in Edmond, Okla., kills 14 people at his post office and himself. [See 1986, p. 622D1] Oct. 16, 1991—A man drives a truck into a cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, then shoots 23

a.m. April 16, which meant that it had been sent between the two sets of attacks. The network turned over the original documents to law-enforcement authorities. Among them was a letter that authorities said resembled the notes found in his room after his suicide and images of Cho brandishing weapons. In the video, Cho said, “You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today.…You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option….Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.” He also referred to the two Columbine killers as martyrs and compared himself to Jesus Christ, saying that his death, like Christ’s, would “inspire generations of the weak and defenseless people.” NBC said it had deliberated intensively about whether to broadcast the materials, which were also widely broadcast and printed elsewhere. However, Virginia State Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty April 19 said he “regretted” the network’s decision, and some news outlets said they would stop reproducing the materials.

people to death and kills himself. [See 1991, p. 778A2] April 20, 1999—Two teenage boys kill 13 people and themselves in a rampage at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colo. [See 1999, p. 286A1] Nov. 2, 1999—A Xerox Corp. employee kills seven coworkers in Honolulu, Hawaii. [See 1999, p. 799C2] Dec. 26, 2000—A technology company employee in Wakefield, Mass., kills seven coworkers. [See 2000, p. 1015B1] March 21, 2005—A teenager on an Indian reservation in Red Lake, Minn., kills nine people, including his grandfather, and then himself. [See 2005, p. 191D2]

Virginia Tech itself, however, had a long-standing policy banning guns of any kind from the campus. Some gun-control opponents contended that, had the school not had such a policy, Cho might have been shot by someone in self-defense before he could kill so many people. Holocaust Survivor Among Victims—

Among the 30 people killed by Cho in Norris Hall was Liviu Librescu, 76, a professor of engineering with an international reputation in the field of aeronautical engineering, and a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust in his native Romania. Librescu was fatally shot after physically blocking the door to his classroom long enough to allow nearly all his students to escape by jumping out the window. He died one day after Holocaust Memorial Day was marked in the U.S. and on the day of its observance in Israel. After a funeral service was held for him April 18 in New York City, his body was flown to Israel for burial. „

Cho Passed Gun Background Check—

Virginia authorities April 17 asserted that the two guns used by Cho and recovered in Norris Hall after he killed himself had both been bought legally. Cho, they said, had picked up the Walther Feb. 9 at a Blacksburg pawn shop, whose proprietor had received it from another vendor, from whom Cho had apparently bought it online. Having already been paid for, the gun was turned over to Cho as soon as he showed proper identification, filled out required paperwork and passed an instant background check that showed he had no criminal record. Cho bought the Glock March 13 from a Roanoke, Va., gun dealer after passing another background check. Compared to other states, Virginia had relatively lax gun laws. There was no waiting period for gun purchases, nor did the state require weapons to be registered. It did limit gun purchases to one a month, but Cho’s purchases had met that criterion. Law enforcement officials said the Glock used by Cho had a 15-round magazine that had been illegal under the federal weapons ban that expired in 2004, but was no longer illegal. [See 2004, p. 710G2]

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jonathan Taylor MANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham COPY DIRECTOR: Marion Farrier SENIOR EDITORS: Mette Bahde, Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Alasdair Denvil ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ian McGullam DATABASE COORDINATOR: Ben MIller INDEX EDITOR: Jonathan Leith COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Jane Carlson, Nikki Conti-Brown FACTS ON FILE World News Digest is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. Vice President & Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Associate Publisher: Marjorie B. Bank. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

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Violence Rocks Iraqi Capital Among the Deadliest Days Since Invasion.

A rash of bombings and other violence April 18 rocked Iraq—and Baghdad, the capital, in particular—with 233 people being killed or found dead nationwide. It was among the deadliest days since the U.S. invasion in 2003, and the worst since a joint U.S.-Iraqi security push was initiated in Baghdad nine weeks earlier. Most of the attacks took place in areas with largely Shiite Muslim populations. [See p. 231E2] The single worst attack occurred in central Baghdad, where a car bomb exploded at an intersection near the entrance to the walled-off Sadriyah market. At least 127 people were killed and 148 more were wounded. The explosion set fire to many cars nearby, burning the occupants, and left a crater six feet (two meters) deep. A sniper opened fire in the aftermath of the bombing, killing one person and injuring two more. The bombing appeared to be timed to catch workers—who were renovating the largely Shiite market after a February bombing there that killed 137 people—as they left for the day. [See p. 85E3] In other attacks April 18, a suicide car bomb exploded at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Sadr City, a massive Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 30 people and wounding at least 45 more. The blast set many cars on fire, and many passengers were burned alive. Five Iraqi security troops were among the dead. A car bomb exploded near a hospital in central Baghdad’s mainly Shiite neighborhood of Karrada, killing 11 people and wounding 13 more. A bomb exploded on a minibus in the Rusafi neighborhood, roughly a mile from the Sadriyah market, killing four people and wounding six more. Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki issued a statement denouncing the bombing and calling for the arrest of the army official in charge of security in the area encompassing the Sadriyah market. Nasar al-Rubaie, a legislator allied to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, blasted the security plan as a failure. Terrorist attacks, he said, “target everything that has life in Iraq: universities, schools, neighborhood centers, markets, gas stations and bus stations.” He added that “the occupation forces and the government stand still, doing nothing, and let the terrorists play.” Gates Says Violence Anticipated—U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates April 18 asserted that the upswing in violence had been anticipated by military strategists. He said it was expected that, as the effort to secure Baghdad developed, “the terrorists, [the Sunni Muslim insurgent group] Al Qaeda [in Iraq], the insurgency and others would attempt to increase the violence in order to make the plan a failure or to make the people of Iraq believe the plan is a failure.” He added that he hoped Iraq’s Shiites would “have the confidence in their government and in the coalition that we’ll go after the people that perpetrated this horror.” April 19, 2007

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell 4th, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said Al Qaeda in Iraq was the chief suspect behind the bombings. “We’ve always said securing Baghdad would not be easy,” he added. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, another spokesman for the U.S. military, said getting rid of car bomb factories was a “high-priority mission” of the security push. He noted that only 60% of the 28,000 U.S. troops being added for the effort had arrived, and that two more brigades would be deployed in June. Twenty-five bodies April 17 had been found in Baghdad, higher than the usual daily number in recent weeks, but lower than the number typically found each day prior to the security push. Iraqi Forces Take Over Province— The Iraqi government and its forces April 18 took full control over security duties from British forces for the southeastern Maysan province. It was the fourth province to be transferred to Iraqi control. Mowaffak alRubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser, attended a handover ceremony in the provincial capital, Amarah, in place of Maliki, who had canceled his attendance. Rubaie read a speech that Maliki had prepared for the ceremony. The speech declared that Iraq would be ready to assume security responsibilities for all 18 provinces by the end of 2007. The speech also ruled out a timetable for the departure of U.S. and coalition forces, insisting that Iraq’s security forces must first be prepared to adopt security responsibilities. [See below] Sadr Ministers Quit Cabinet—Six ministers affiliated with Sadr April 16 resigned from Maliki’s cabinet, faulting the premier for not setting a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq. Senior members of the political bloc held a press conference that day to announce the resignations, and to demand that the ministers be replaced with “independent technocrats” with no sectarian affiliation. Nasar al-Rubaie, speaking at the press conference, read a statement from Sadr, which accused Maliki of “ignoring the will of the people” and called for an “independent, devoted government that will be like a candle in the middle of the darkness, away from occupation.” Despite the resignations, Sadr’s bloc did not pull out of Maliki’s ruling coalition. Falah Shanshel, a legislator and the leader of Sadr’s parliamentary bloc, said the resignations were due in part to Maliki’s refusal to accept Sadr’s suggested candidates for Maliki’s proposed cabinet reshuffle. Maliki that day released a statement welcoming the opportunity to fill the posts affiliated with “his eminence Moqtada al-Sadr,” but refusing to set a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces. [See p. 139D2] Sadr’s bloc had staged a boycott of Maliki’s government in November 2006, but had returned two months later. The health, tourism and antiquities, transportation, provincial affairs, civil society and agriculture ministries had been run by Sadr’s bloc,

and had been imbued with sectarianism in the eyes of many observers. The health ministry was regarded as being riven with corruption, and many Sunnis were wary of the ministry as a whole, and reluctant to visit its hospitals and morgues. [See 2006, p. 905G1] Gates April 17 suggested that the resignations might be a “positive development,” depending on whom Maliki chose to replace the ministers.

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Parliament Bomb Death Tally Revised—

The death tally of a suicide bombing in parliament April 13 was drastically revised, with only the bomber and one victim, Sunni legislator Mohammed Awad, being declared dead. Officials said 22 people were injured in the attack, which took place in a cafeteria attached to parliament in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, shocking many observers. Originally, at least eight deaths had been reported. Police April 13 detained for questioning three employees of the catering company that serviced the cafeteria. Media reports claimed that there had been several complaints about the catering company, which was staffed entirely by Sunnis, and had recently replaced a mostly Shiite catering company. An extraordinary Friday session of parliament was held April 13, during which legislators expressed defiance against those who had planned the bombing. A bouquet of flowers rested on Awad’s seat during the session. The Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq, that day claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement released on the Internet. Insurgents Execute Iraqi Troops— The Islamic State of Iraq April 14 announced that it had captured 20 members of Iraq’s security forces, and vowed to kill them unless the government gave them custody of police suspected in the rape of a Sunni woman and released all women held in prison. Video posted on a Web site affiliated with the insurgent group April 19 showed two rows of kneeling captives being shot in the back of the head, one by one, by a masked gunman. Two other militants were shown carrying the Islamic State of Iraq’s banner. [See pp. 139E1, 140C1] Sunni Insurgent Leader Speaks—A Web site affiliated with Sunni insurgents April 17 posted an audio recording of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State in Iraq. In the recording, Baghdadi said Iraq had become a “university of terrorism” producing highly trained soldiers, and declared that his group was manufacturing missiles comparable to those of “world powers.” Baghdadi also addressed fellow Sunni insurgent groups, insisting that he would do whatever it took to avoid violence with them. “Our friendship is deep,” he said, adding that “ties between us are stronger than some believe.” Rumors had recently surfaced alleging that some Sunni insurgent groups were at odds with one another, particularly regarding a supposed attempt 239

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by Al Qaeda in Iraq to assume a leadership role. Ibrahim al-Shemmari, the spokesman for the Islamic Army in Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group, told Qatari-based satellite television station Al Jazeera that he welcomed Baghdadi’s pledge. “We want to point our weapons at our enemies’ chests and not at each other,” he said. Protests

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Thousands of demonstrators April 17–19 gathered in tents in front of the office of the governor of Basra province, complaining of a lack of water, electricity and jobs and demanding that he resign. Many of the demonstrators were supporters of Sadr. The governor of Basra, Mohammed alWaeli, was a member of the Shiite Fadhila party, which had withdrawn from Maliki’s government in March and was a rival to Sadr’s political bloc. Waeli and his party were frequently criticized for corruption related to Iraq’s oil industry, which funneled its exports through Basra. Fadhila party members said the demonstrators were merely upset about Fadhila’s withdrawal from the government, and dismissed their complaints. [See p. 139F2] Saudi Arabia Cancels Billions in Debt—

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Iraqi and Saudi Arabian officials April 17 announced that the Saudi government had decided to forgive 80% of the roughly $15 billion owed by Iraq. Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabr said 52 nations had written off between 80% and 100% of the debts owed to them by Iraq, but that Iraq still owed about $140 billion. Iraq also owed roughly $200 billion in compensation for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the resulting 1991 Gulf War. [See 2006, p. 22C1] Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq: † A suicide car bomber in Karrada April 19 killed at least 11 people and wounded 28 more. The bomb detonated near a fuel tanker. Two Iraqi soldiers were among the dead. † Iraqi security forces in Diyala province April 15 clashed with Al Qaeda in Iraq, killing 19 insurgents. Two police officers were killed. † U.S. forces near Fallujah April 18 killed five suspected insurgents and captured 30 more. † Seventeen decomposing bodies April 17 were found in Ramadi in two schoolyards in an area previously controlled by Al Qaeda in Iraq. † Gunmen near Mosul April 16 attacked an army checkpoint, killing 13 soldiers and wounding four more. † Four bombings in Baghdad April 15 killed at least 37 people. Most of the deaths occurred in a double bombing at a Shiite market. † A bomb in Karbala April 14 exploded near a bus station, killing at least 47 people. The bus station was near one of the most revered Shiite shrines. † Two British helicopters ferrying special forces troops April 15 collided near Baghdad, crashing and killing two service 240

members. The British military that day asserted that the collision was due to darkness during a night mission, and not hostilities. † British forces in southern Iraq April 13 killed eight gunmen who were laying land mines. The incident took place near the location where four British soldiers had been killed by a roadside bomb earlier in the month. [See p. 205A1] „

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Olmert, Abbas Begin Regular Meetings.

Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas April 15 held their first in a planned series of biweekly meetings. They discussed Israeli restrictions on Palestinian travel and trade, as well as security matters. According to aides and deputies to the respective leaders, Olmert and Abbas also discussed possible solutions to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, including some details regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state. It was said to be the first time since 2001 that Israeli and Palestinian leaders had discussed the issue of statehood. [See p. 203D1, D2] Separately, Olmert April 18 reportedly rejected a list of prisoners that Palestinian militants demanded that Israel free in exchange for the release of an Israeli soldier. Olmert’s remarks were made to a closed parliamentary committee meeting, and quoted later that day by an unidentified participant. Olmert reportedly said the list was “disappointing and creates expectations that we have no chance of meeting.” The Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, had been abducted by Palestinian militants in 2006. [See p. 12F2] The list, sent to Israeli officials earlier in April via Egypt by members of Hamas, the Islamist group that had kidnapped Shalit, had not been released to the public. News reports said that it named anywhere from 350 to 1,400 people, including Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah party leader and militia commander serving five life sentences for murder. Israel held about 10,000 Palestinians prisoners. Egypt was mediating negotiations on Shalit’s release. PA Minister Requests Aid—PA Finance Minister Salam Fayyad April 11 said the PA required $1.3 billion in international aid in order to prevent “devastating” humanitarian problems. Fayyad made the appeal while speaking to European Union officials in Brussels, Belgium. Many donors had withheld aid from the Hamas-led government, insisting that the group renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist. Benita FerreroWaldner, the EU’s external relations commissioner, said the EU would consider Fayyad’s request. [See p. 171F3] Fayyad April 18 met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington, D.C., to discuss financial aid, along with other issues related to Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, April 10 had an-

nounced that $59 million in aid to PA security forces had been approved by Congress and would soon be dispensed. Most of the funds were intended for forces affiliated with Abbas’s Fatah party, and would not benefit forces loyal to Hamas. Hamas April 11 denounced the aid as “dirty,” complaining that the funds should instead be deposited into the PA treasury. Other News—In other Israeli-Palestinian news: † Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service April 10 reported that recent arrests of Hamas militants in the West Bank had disrupted a number of terrorist attacks planned for the weeklong Passover holiday, which ended April 9. In a rare public statement, Shin Bet said 19 militants had been arrested in the city of Qalqilya in March, and had revealed the plots under interrogation. In one plot, a suicide truck bomb had been driven to Tel Aviv, but for unknown reasons was not used for an attack. Hamas refused to comment on the allegations. † The Israeli military April 6 said its helicopters had fired on Palestinian militants that day as they attempted to plant a bomb near the Israeli border in the northern Gaza Strip. One militant was reportedly killed. An unidentified military spokesman said militants had been placing bombs near the border where Israeli soldiers patrolled. Israeli forces April 4 had killed another militant in northern Gaza as he attempted to plant a bomb near the border fence. Although the Israeli military had reached a cease-fire with Palestinian militants in Gaza, some militants continued to fire rockets into southern Israel, and Israeli forces had launched operations against them. [See p. 203G2] „

International Finance Wolfowitz Under Fire Over Partner’s Transfer.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz April 12 apologized for having arranged the transfer of his romantic partner, Shaha Ali Riza, from her job at the bank to a higher-paying post at the U.S. State Department when he took over as president in 2005. The apology was posted on the bank’s Web site. [See 2006, p. 725C3 ] The bank’s staff association had complained about the transfer of Riza, then a communications officer for the bank, to the State Department, because the bank was still paying her salary and, upon her departure, had given her an initial raise that was double what was permitted under the bank’s rules, plus subsequent raises larger than they would have been for other employees. Riza was currently the highestpaid employee of the State Department, earning $193,500, compared to $183,500 for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. World Bank rules barred the spouses or partners of other World Bank employees from working under one another. When he was made president, Wolfowitz had proposed to the bank’s board of directors that he recuse himself from all personnel decisions regarding Riza, who could retain her FACTS ON FILE

bank job. The board had rejected that idea. Instead, its ethics committee told Wolfowitz to find Riza a reassignment “beyond (potential) supervising influence by the president,” and said she should be given a promotion within her post at the time to make up for the fact that she would have to withdraw her application for a higher position with the bank when she was reassigned. According to documents released April 13 by the bank’s board, Wolfowitz had then arranged for Riza’s transfer to the State Department, set the terms, and directed a human resources official at the bank to agree to those terms, which included her future raises in her new post and which far exceeded normal raises for bank workers. Wolfowitz had overruled the official’s opposition to the dictated promotion schedule. The arrangements regarding Riza’s reassignment were never approved by the bank’s ethics committee or legal counsel. The ethics committee in early 2006 had received an anonymous complaint about the arrangement from a staff member, but had dismissed it. The bank president in his statement April 12 called his involvement in the transfer a mistake and said he would “accept any remedies” the bank’s board members proposed. The staff association, which already had a testy relationship with Wolfowitz, called for his resignation. The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, April 13 expressed “full confidence” in Wolfowitz. Bush had nominated him to lead the bank. Oversight Body Expresses Concern—

The bank’s Development Committee, a powerful oversight body composed of finance ministers from bank member nations and leaders of other international bodies, April 15 released a statement expressing “great concern” and prodding the separate executive board to expedite its review of the “circumstances” surrounding Riza’s reassignment. “We have to ensure that the Bank can effectively carry out its mandate and maintain its credibility and reputation as well as the motivation of its staff,” it said, continuing, “We expect the bank to adhere to a high standard of internal governance.” The wording reportedly conveyed the gravity of the situation from the committee’s point of view and a tacit encouragement of Wolfowitz to resign. Wolfowitz that day declared, “The Bank has important work to do and I will continue to do it.” „

Global Environment Security Council Debates Climate Change.

The United Nations Security Council April 17 debated the issue of global climate change for the first time, over the objections of several countries. The council was the U.N.’s most powerful body, and was dedicated to issues of international security and peace. Fifty-two nations participated in the session of the 15-member council. [See p. 219A3] April 19, 2007

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett raised the debate before the council, arguing that the effects of climate change and global warming posed a threat to the security of nations. “An unstable climate will exacerbate some of the core drivers of conflict, such as migratory pressures and competition for resources,” Beckett said. Britain held the council’s rotating presidency, and was supported in proposing the debate by most of the industrialized countries at the debate, although not by the U.S., the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases. The U.S. said there were a number of more appropriate forums for addressing climate change. China’s representative on the council, Deputy Ambassador Liu Zhenmin, also argued at the session that the council was the wrong arena in which to debate the issue, contending that the body lacked the required “professional competence.” China, also a major emitter of greenhouse gases, was backed in its position by countries including Russia, Indonesia, Pakistan and South Africa. Some countries argued that the Security Council was not broadly representative enough to make decisions on tackling climate change. U.N. Secretary Ban Ki Moon, who supported holding the council debate, in an interview with the Financial Times published April 11 said the U.N. was considering adding a “high-level meeting” on the issue of climate change to a meeting of the General Assembly scheduled for September. Ban said he was concerned that a call for a higher-level “summit meeting” on the issue would be rejected by some countries opposed to mandatory greenhouse gas emissions controls, such as the U.S. Separately, a group of 11 retired U.S. generals with the federally funded Center for Naval Analyses think tank April 16 issued a report warning that climate change posed “significant national security challenges” to the U.S. The generals warned that the U.S.’s military would be increasingly forced to intervene to settle disputes over natural resources such as water. The report urged U.S. President George W. Bush to take action to curb greenhouse gas emissions. „

Global Health Modified Mosquito Resists Malaria. A team

of researchers at the U.S.’s Johns Hopkins University reported March 19 on the Web site of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they had created a genetically modified mosquito that did not transmit the parasite that caused malaria. The scientists had introduced 1,200 genetically engineered mosquitoes into a cage holding 1,200 normal mosquitoes and a number of malaria-infected mice. They found that after nine generations of breeding, the engineered mosquitoes composed 70% of the total number of insects in the cage. The scientists said the research had “important implications for devising malaria control strategies.” The research had been led by Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena. [See p. 221D2] „

Other International News Chinese Premier Visits Japan. Chinese Pre-

mier Wen Jiabao April 11–13 visited Japan, the first such trip by a Chinese premier since 2000, and one intended by both countries to improve their deteriorating relations. Tensions had increased between China and Japan, historic rivals, in recent years over an array of issues including disputes concerning historic conflicts, competing claims to oil and gas reserves in the East China Sea and perceptions of each other’s military and geopolitical ambitions. Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe, although long known for supporting nationalist stances often criticized by China, after his election in 2006 had traveled to China in an effort to improve ties. [See 2006, p. 779G1; 2000, p. 1043G2] Wen April 11 met with Abe in Tokyo, and the two leaders issued a joint statement pledging closer cooperation on a range of issues, and to meet more frequently. However, they did not make concrete progress on the dispute over the East China Sea energy reserves, merely agreeing to intensify talks. With regard to their disputes over historical matters, they agreed to “look at history frankly,” but the statement did not address specific issues of contention. Wen April 4 had repeated China’s call for Abe and other Japanese leaders to refrain from visiting the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, where convicted World War II war criminals were among the war dead honored. Abe before becoming premier had defended such visits by Premier Junichiro Koizumi, but had declined to say whether he would conduct them himself. Wen reportedly did not bring up the issue in the April 11 meeting. On Japan’s desire for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, which had provoked opposition in China, Wen reportedly agreed to discuss the matter in the future. The two countries issued separate joint statements on environmental and energy issues, including climate change. China also agreed to lift a ban, imposed in 2003, on imports of Japanese rice. Addresses Parliament—Wen April 12 delivered a speech to Japan’s Diet (parliament) in which he addressed the historical disputes. Wen acknowledged that Japan and its leaders had more than once “expressed their deep regret and remorse” to countries it had invaded, occupied and subjected to military atrocities during World War II and the preceding period of Japanese colonial rule in Asia. However, he called on Japan to “show in concrete ways their expressed attitudes and promises.” [See p. 195F3] Wen also blamed past Japanese aggression on a small militarist elite, and called the Japanese populace “victims” of the war as well as Chinese and others. Among a series of events intended to project a friendly image, Wen April 12 also joined residents’ tai chi exercises in a Tokyo park, and the next day practiced baseball with university students. „ 241

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UNITED STATES U N I T E D S TAT E S

Supreme Court, 5–4, Upholds Ban on Abortion Method Decision Seen as Threat to ‘Roe v. Wade.’

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The Supreme Court April 18 voted, 5–4, to uphold a 2003 federal law prohibiting an abortion procedure, intact dilation and extraction, the first time the high court had supported a ban on a specific type of abortion. The procedure, labeled “partial-birth” abortion by its opponents, was used under rare circumstances, usually late in the pregnancy term. It was also the first time the high court had upheld a law restricting abortions without an exception for the mother’s health since the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which had established a woman’s right to an abortion. However, the ruling did not overturn Roe v. Wade. The combined cases were Gonzales v. Carhart et al. and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America. [See 2006, pp. 1008D1, 126C2; 2004, p. 731F3; for excerpts from the ruling, see box, p. 242D1; for the court’s major rulings on abortion, see box, p. 243A1] During the abortion procedure in question, the fetus was delivered feet first until only its head remained inside the mother. The fetus’s skull was then punctured and its contents removed before it was completely withdrawn. The 2003 law, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, stipulated prison sentences of up to two years for doctors who performed the procedure, though women who received such abortions would not face any penalties. It contained an exception in cas-

es in which the procedure was deemed necessary to save a pregnant woman’s life, but the exception did not extend to procedures performed for the woman’s health. Congress included in the law a declaration that the procedure was “never medically indicated to preserve the health of the mother.” Although the law directly affected only a small number of abortions, the Supreme Court’s decision was expected to encourage abortion opponents in their efforts to challenge abortion under wider circumstances in a piecemeal fashion, eventually targeting Roe v. Wade itself. The ruling was also expected to make abortion a more prominent issue in the 2008 presidential race. [See below] The high court’s vote reflected its new composition, with two justices appointed by President George W. Bush, and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the ruling’s author, emerging as a swing vote. In the 2000 ruling in Stenberg v. Carhart, the Supreme Court, then composed of different members, had struck down a Nebraska law banning the same procedure because it was too vague and placed an “undue burden” on women because it could be construed to apply to other abortion methods. Kennedy had written the main dissent in that case. [See 2000, p. 461A1] Kennedy Cites Protection of ‘Fetal Life’—

Kennedy wrote in the ruling that Congress had used its “regulatory authority to show profound respect for the life within the

woman.” He also said the government “has a legitimate and substantial interest in preserving and promoting fetal life.” Kennedy added that the law was worded to clearly indicate which abortions were legal, and said the law would be applied only when it was “deliberately and intentionally” violated by doctors. He was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.—Bush’s appointees to the court—as well as Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Scalia and Thomas also filed a short concurring opinion expressing their desire to overturn the Supreme Court’s other abortion precedents, but were not joined by any other justices. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg read a summary of her dissenting opinion from the bench, an unusual practice that signaled the gravity of her disagreement. In her opinion, Ginsburg objected strongly to Kennedy’s claim that a woman would later regret her decision to have the abortion procedure performed. Ginsburg wrote, “This way of thinking reflects ancient notions of women’s place in the family and under the Constitution—ideas that have long since been discredited.” She added that the high court’s decision “cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this court.” Ginsburg was joined by Justices Stephen G. Breyer, David H. Souter and John Paul Stevens. Reaction—President George W. Bush had strongly supported the law, signing the bill after his predecessor, President Bill

EXCERPTS FROM THE COURT DECISION IN ‘GONZALES v. CARHART’

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Following are excerpts from the Supreme Court’s April 18 decision to uphold a law banning a type of abortion [See p. 242A1]: From the Opinion by Justice Kennedy These cases require us to consider the validity of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, a federal statute regulating abortion procedures. In recitations preceding its operative provisions the Act refers to the Court’s opinion in Stenberg v. Carhart, which also addressed the subject of abortion procedures used in the later stages of pregnancy. Compared to the state statute at issue in Stenberg, the Act is more specific concerning the instances to which it applies and in this respect more precise in its coverage. We conclude the Act should be sustained against the objections lodged by the broad, facial attack brought against it.… Respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in the bond of love the mother has for her child. The Act recognizes this reality as well. Whether to have an abortion requires a difficult and painful moral decision. While we find no reliable data to measure the phenomenon, it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained. Severe depression and loss of esteem can follow. In a decision so fraught with emotional consequence some doctors may prefer not to disclose precise details of the means that will be used, confining themselves to the required statement of risks the procedure entails. From one standpoint this ought not to be surprising. Any number of patients facing imminent surgical procedures would prefer not to hear all details, lest the usual anxiety preceding invasive medical procedures become the more intense. This is likely the case with the abortion procedures here in issue. It is, however, precisely this lack of information

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concerning the way in which the fetus will be killed that is of legitimate concern to the State. The State has an interest in ensuring so grave a choice is well informed. It is self-evident that a mother who comes to regret her choice to abort must struggle with grief more anguished and sorrow more profound when she learns, only after the event, what she once did not know: that she allowed a doctor to pierce the skull and vacuum the fast-developing brain of her unborn child, a child assuming the human form. It is a reasonable inference that a necessary effect of the regulation and the knowledge it conveys will be to encourage some women to carry the infant to full term, thus reducing the absolute number of lateterm abortions. The medical profession, furthermore, may find different and less shocking methods to abort the fetus in the second trimester, thereby accommodating legislative demand. The State’s interest in respect for life is advanced by the dialogue that better informs the political and legal systems, the medical profession, expectant mothers, and society as a whole of the consequences that follow from a decision to elect a late-term abortion.… Medical uncertainty does not foreclose the exercise of legislative power in the abortion context any more than it does in other contexts. The medical uncertainty over whether the Act’s prohibition creates significant health risks provides a sufficient basis to conclude in this facial attack that the Act does not impose an undue burden. The conclusion that the Act does not impose an undue burden is supported by other considerations. Alternatives are available to the prohibited procedure. As we have noted, the Act does not proscribe D&E (dilation and evacuation). One District Court found D&E to have extremely low rates of medical complications. Another indicated D&E was “generally the safest method of abortion during the second trimester.” In addition the Act’s prohibition only ap-

plies to the delivery of “a living fetus.” If the intact D&E procedure is truly necessary in some circumstances, it appears likely an injection tha1t kills the fetus is an alternative under the Act that allows the doctor to perform the procedure. … Respondents have not demonstrated that the Act, as a facial matter, is void for vagueness, or that it imposes an undue burden on a woman’s right to abortion based on its overbreadth or lack of a health exemption. From the Dissent by Justice Ginsburg Today’s decision is alarming. It refuses to take Casey and Stenberg seriously. It tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). It blurs the line, firmly drawn in Casey, between previability and postviability abortions. And, for the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception safeguarding a woman’s health.… Revealing in this regard, the Court invokes an antiabortion shibboleth for which it concededly has no reliable evidence: Women who have abortions come to regret their choices, and consequently suffer from “[s]evere depression and loss of esteem.” Because of women’s fragile emotional state and because of the “bond of love the mother has for her child,” the Court worries, doctors may withhold information about the nature of the intact D&E procedure. The solution the Court approves, then, is not to require doctors to inform women, accurately and adequately, of the different procedures and their attendant risks. Instead, the Court deprives women of the right to make an autonomous choice, even at the expense of their safety. This way of thinking reflects ancient notions about women’s place in the family and under the Constitution—ideas that have long since been

FACTS ON FILE

MAJOR SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON ABORTION

Following are major rulings by the Supreme Court on abortion from 1973 to 2007 [See p. 242A1]: Jan. 22, 1973—Roe v. Wade: The court voted, 7–2, that women had the constitutionally guaranteed right to seek an abortion during the first six months of pregnancy. [See 1973, p. 58B3] July 3, 1989—Webster v. Reproductive Health Services: The court voted, 5–4, to uphold a Missouri law prohibiting state employees from performing abortions, and limiting the use of public facilities for abortions. [See 1989, p. 493G3] June 29, 1992—Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey: The court voted, 5–4, to reaffirm Roe v. Wade, but the decision also granted states some

Clinton had twice vetoed similar measures. Bush said the Supreme Court’s ruling was “an affirmation of the progress we have made over the past six years in protecting human dignity and upholding the sanctity of life.” Candidates in the 2008 presidential race were split on the Supreme Court’s decision along party lines, with all Democratic candidates issuing statements opposing the ruling. They included Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.), Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), the three candidates considered to be the frontrunners in the eary stages of the race. They were joined by several other Democratic lawmakers. Republican candidates Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, and Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, both released statements supporting the decision. Giuliani, long known as a supporter of abortion rights, said the Supreme Court had “reached the correct conclusion.” Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.) also endorsed the decision. „

Senate Panel Hears Gonzales Testify on Ouster of Prosecutors Republicans Criticize Attorney General.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales April 19 testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Justice Department’s dismissal of eight federal prosecutors in 2006. Gonzales’s claim to have had “limited involvement” in the controversial ousters drew skeptical responses from both Democratic and Republican senators. Members of both parties warned Gonzales that his credibility had been damaged by shifting explanations and that he had to restore it in order to remain in his post. [See p. 221A3] Sen. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.) told Gonzales, “We have to evaluate whether you are really being forthright when the reality of your characterization of your participation is significantly, if not totally, at variance with the facts.” He cited statements by former Justice Department aides who claimed that Gonzales had been more closely involved in the plan than he acknowledged. April 19, 2007

power to restrict abortions. [See 1992, p. 481A1] June 28, 2000—Stenberg v. Carhart: The court ruled, 5–4, that a Nebraska law banning a rarely used abortion procedure was vaguely worded and placed an “undue burden” on women seeking abortions. [See 2000, p. 462F2] Jan. 18, 2006—Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England: The court ruled, 9–0, that a law requiring parents of minors seeking an abortion to be informed must include a waiver in the case of medical emergencies. [See 2006, p. 28A3] April 18, 2007—Gonzales v. Carhart: The court ruled, 5–4, that a federal law banning the abortion method targeted in the Nebraska law was constitutional. [See p. 242A1]

Specter asked Gonzales why he had claimed at a March news conference that he had not been involved in any discussions about the ouster plan, only to admit now that he had taken part in some talks. Gonzales replied, “Senator, I’ve already said that I misspoke.” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R, Ala.), a former U.S. attorney, said Gonzales “should have said no” to the proposal to fire the prosecutors, which had come from the White House. Sen. Tom Coburn (R, Okla.) told Gonzales, “The best way to put this behind us is your resignation.” Gonzales replied that he did not believe that his stepping down would quell the controversy. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) said, “The Department of Justice is experiencing a crisis of leadership perhaps unrivaled during its 137-year history.” He warned that the department “should never be reduced to another political arm of the White House.” He asserted that “the apparent reason for these terminations had a lot more to do with politics than performance.” Gonzales Denies Impropriety— In his opening statement, Gonzales said “nothing improper occurred” in the dismissals, denying that the prosecutors had been removed for political reasons, as Democrats had suggested. However, he conceded that his prior explanations of the firings had not been clear. “I never sought to mislead or deceive the Congress or the American people,” he said. “The moment I believe I can no longer be effective I will resign as attorney general,” he vowed. Gonzales acknowledged under questioning that he had discussed the plan to fire the U.S. attorneys with President George W. Bush and Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove. He said their talks focused on Republican calls for more investigations into voter fraud allegations in three of the prosecutors’ jurisdictions. Gonzales repeatedly said he could not recall meetings at which the plan to fire the prosecutors was discussed, including an October 2006 meeting with Bush and a Justice Department meeting the next month to finalize the plan. Gonzales acknowledged that he had not checked the targeted prosecutors’ perfor-

mance evaluations before approving their dismissal. He said he was not aware at the time why two of them were on the list. Asked about the reasons for each dismissal, Gonzales cited complaints he had received directly from Sen. Pete Domenici (R, N.M.) about David Iglesias, the U.S. attorney in New Mexico. Domenici was unsatisfied with Iglesias’s prosecutions of public corruption cases, he said. Gonzales said other prosecutors were fired for reasons including management problems; insufficient prosecutions of immigration and gun crime cases; and differences over the death penalty. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R, S.C.) said he thought such reasons were “a stretch.” He suggested that “some of these people just had personality conflicts with people in your office or at the White House and, you know, we made up reasons to fire them.” Gonzales had originally been scheduled to testify April 17, but the date was pushed back after a mass killing at Virginia Tech university April 16. [See p. 237A1]

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RNC Warned Not to Hand Over E-Mails—

White House lawyers April 17 warned the Republican National Committee (RNC), the executive body of the national Republican Party, not to comply with demands from congressional committees to turn over emails sent by White House officials using RNC e-mail accounts. Instead, the RNC was told to first hand over all such e-mails to the White House lawyers for review. White House counsel Fred Fielding April 12 had informed Democratic leaders that they could receive access to the emails only if they agreed to his proposal to give them private, off-the-record interviews with Rove. Democrats stuck to their demand for Rove and others to testify under oath on their roles in the plan to fire the prosecutors. Rove and 21 other members of Bush’s political staff used RNC e-mail accounts. The White House said they had done so to comply with the Hatch Act, a federal law that barred the use of government equipment for political campaigns. However, it had also said April 11 that staffers might have improperly used the RNC accounts to conduct some official business. Democrats said the use of RNC e-mail accounts raised suspicions that Rove and others had tried to circumvent requirements for preserving communications. The 1978 Presidential Records Act required each administration to preserve its internal records.

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Rove E-Mails Said to Be Missing—

Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in a letter to Gonzales April 12 said an RNC lawyer had told him that the RNC did not have any of Rove’s emails from before 2005. Waxman said the RNC had told him that it had deleted all of its e-mail after 30 days until mid-2004, when it began preserving the e-mails of White House officials. The RNC said Waxman had misrepresented some of the facts, but acknowledged that it had started a new policy in January 2006, preventing Rove from deleting his e243

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mails. Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, April 13 said Rove had assumed that his e-mails on the RNC account were being archived. Meanwhile, the White House April 13 said it was looking into a report that it might have deleted as many as five million e-mails from its own system. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, an independent watchdog group, had issued the report. Leahy April 12 said, “You can’t erase emails, not today. They’ve gone through too many servers. They can’t say they’ve been lost. That’s like saying the dog ate my homework.” Ex-Aide Suggested Replacements—An e-mail released by the Justice Department April 13, and sent to the White House in January 2006 by Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’s then–chief of staff, named possible candidates to replace five U.S. attorneys targeted for dismissal. The candidates were all Bush administration officials. Both the Justice Department and Sampson, who had resigned in early March, had previously claimed that there was no list of replacements before the firings. The Justice Department April 13 said Sampson’s e-mail reflected only his personal ideas, not an official plan. Another e-mail released April 13, dated Feb. 12, 2007, included a chart that listed the personal involvement of U.S. attorneys in Republican politics. The spreadsheet noted whether the prosecutors had worked on campaigns, served as convention delegates or belonged to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) April 15 said another former Justice Department aide, Michael Battle, had told House and Senate investigators that a memo on the ouster plan was handed out at a meeting that Gonzales attended on Nov. 27, 2006, days before seven prosecutors were fired. Gonzales had claimed that he had never seen any documents or taken part in talks related to the plan. Battle, as director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, had carried out the dismissals. „

through a ventilator, at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J. He had undergone three operations on his left leg. State Senate President Richard Codey (D) had stepped in as acting governor. Codey had previously served as acting governor for 14 months after Gov. James McGreevey (D) resigned in 2004, following revelations of an extramarital affair with a male aide. [See 2005, p. 797D2] „

State & Local Politics

Sallie Mae Sold for $25 Billion. The U.S.’s largest student lender, Sallie Mae (SLM Corp.), had agreed to be purchased by a group of banks and private investment funds for $25 billion, or about $60 per share, it was reported April 16. The pershare price was nearly 50% above Sallie Mae’s market price April 12, before rumors of the bidding drove up the price. The deal was announced just days after Sallie Mae agreed to a $2 million settlement with New York State authorities to close a deceptive-lending case. [See p. 244C3] Under the deal reported, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. would each take 24.9% stakes in Sallie Mae, while private buyout groups J.C. Flowers & Co. and Friedman Fleischer & Lowe LLC would together hold the remaining 50.2%. (J.C. Flowers would control all but 0.1% of that stake.) The deal would be financed with $16.5 billion in debt and $8.5 billion in equity. J.P. Morgan would

Corzine Sped at 91 MPH, Wore No Seat Belt.

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New Jersey state police April 17 said that a data recorder taken from the vehicle of Gov. Jon Corzine (D) showed that it had been speeding at 91 miles per hour (145 kmph) when it crashed on April 12, leaving him with serious injuries. The speed limit at the site of the crash, on the Garden State Parkway, was 65 mph. A spokesman for Corzine April 13 had said the governor was apparently not wearing a seat belt. Corzine was riding in the front seat of his official sport utility vehicle, driven by a state trooper, when it was struck by a pickup truck and hit a guardrail on the side of the highway. [See p. 224F1] New Jersey law required all front-seat vehicle occupants to wear seat belts. Corzine suffered multiple broken bones and other injuries in the accident. He remained in critical condition, breathing 244

Politics Ex–Campaign Aide Dowd Criticizes Bush.

Matthew Dowd, the chief strategist for President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign, openly criticized Bush in a New York Times interview published April 1. Dowd described a gradual process of disillusionment with Bush, saying he felt that the president had “missed a real opportunity to call the country to a shared sense of sacrifice” after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. [See 2006, p. 814G1; 2004, p. 857A1] Dowd said he regretted organizing harsh attacks on Bush’s opponent, Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), the Democratic candidate in 2004. “I think we should design campaigns that appeal not to 51% of the people, but bring the country together as a whole,” he said. Dowd, whose oldest son was in the Army, said he now supported Kerry’s calls for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. “If the American public says they’re done with something, our leaders have to understand what they want,” he said. “They’re saying, ‘Get out of Iraq,’” he added. At an April 3 news conference, Bush was asked about Dowd’s remarks. “I understand his anguish over war; I understand this is an emotional issue for Matthew, as it is for a lot of other people in our country,” Bush said. He commented, “Matthew’s case, as I understand it, is obviously intensified because his son is deployable,” or eligible for service in Iraq. „

Mergers & Acquisitions

keep its own student loan operation as a separate competitor of Sallie Mae. The deal would be the biggest debtfinanced leveraged buyout of a financial services company to date. Sallie Mae had 10 million customers and managed $142 billion in student loans, or about 27% of all U.S. student loans. Most of its loans were subsidized and guaranteed by the federal government. About 15% of Sallie Mae’s loans were private loans. Since those loans were not subsidized by the government, the company could charge higher interest rates for them. The market for private loans was growing quickly. Sallie Mae controlled about 40% of that market. Sallie Mae had been created by Congress in 1972 to buy up banks’ existing loans to students. In 1997, it had become independent from the government, which allowed it to lend to the public directly. „

Education Sallie Mae Settles Probe Into Practices.

Reston, Va.–based student-loan provider Sallie Mae April 11 agreed to pay $2 million to settle a probe into its lending practices by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D). Cuomo had been investigating Sallie Mae as part of a larger probe of allegedly improper ties between lenders and schools. [See pp. 244E2, 225E2] Sallie Mae pledged to limit its ties with financial aid officials and shut down call centers set up to address students’ financial aid questions or concerns. The campus call centers were staffed by Sallie Mae employees who did not identify themselves as such, giving students the impression that they were speaking to impartial advisers provided by their schools. Sallie Mae agreed to pay $2 million into a fund to educate student borrowers and their parents about financial aid. The company denied any wrongdoing. It also adopted a code of conduct for interactions between lenders and student aid officers. Several schools, as well as Citibank, of Citigroup Inc., had agreed to abide by the code of conduct. The code barred lenders from linking payments to schools with the volume of loans the schools generated—a practice known as revenue sharing. It also barred schools’ financial aid officers from accepting gifts or perks such as travel and entertainment from lenders. Education Finance Partners, a San Francisco, Calif.–based student loan company, April 16 agreed to pay $2.5 million and adopt the same code of conduct to end Cuomo’s investigation of its practices. Cuomo and New York state legislators April 16 introduced a bill that would ban lenders from offering revenue-sharing deals, gifts or other incentives to school officials. His office said it had sent subpoenas to 13 other banks and loan companies seeking evidence of improper financial relations with schools. Spellings Orders Internal Ethics Check—

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings April 12 ordered an internal ethics reFACTS ON FILE

view after it emerged that a financial aid official in the Education Department had held stock in a student loan company. The official, Matteo Fontana, had disclosed to the department in 2004 that he had sold more than $100,000 in stock in the company, Student Loan Xpress. The Wall Street Journal April 13 reported that at least eight current or former Bush administration officials at the Education Department had either come from the student loan industry or left the department for jobs in the industry. Among the eight was Fontana, who had been employed by Sallie Mae before taking a government job. Senior officials had been alerted by the department’s inspector general about private lenders’ suspect methods of winning business from colleges and universities, but the department had taken no action, the Journal reported. Student Database Misused—The Washington Post April 15 reported that a government database of personal information about student borrowers had been misused by lenders. The database, called the National Student Loan Data System, contained Social Security numbers, loan balances, contact information and birth dates. The database was accessible by 29,000 school financial aid administrators and 7,500 loan company employees. They were authorized to use it only if they had express permission or a financial relationship with a student. However, lenders and other companies had been misusing it to gather data for marketing. The department said it had spent $650,000 to secure the database since 2003. Spellings April 17 announced that access to the database by parties outside the department had been blocked temporarily. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D, Mass.) April 15 had called for a shutdown to protect students’ privacy. Lenders Undercut Federal Program—

The New York Times April 15 reported that private lenders had successfully used aggressive tactics to compete with the federal direct loan program, initiated in 1994 under President Bill Clinton as a cheaper alternative for both students and the government. One of the lenders’ tactics was to offer millions of dollars in pools of extra loan money to schools that opted out of the government program. The lenders’ efforts had helped to drive down the share of student loans provided by the federal program. In its latest budget proposal, the Bush administration had reported that the direct loan program cost taxpayers $3.85 for every $100 lent to students, while every $100 distributed by private lenders through federally guaranteed and subsidized loans cost taxpayers $13.81. „

Business Citigroup to Lay Off 17,000, Move 9,500.

Citigroup Inc., one of the world’s largest financial services companies, April 11 announced plans to eliminate 17,000 jobs, about 5% of its workforce, and move 9,500 April 19, 2007

more in order to cut its costs and streamline its operations. The changes would affect all of Citigroup’s main businesses and would occur in its operations around the world. The first round of the layoffs had already been carried out. [See 2006, p. 1007F1; 2005, p. 523B1] The layoffs would bring charges against earnings of $1.38 billion in the current quarter and smaller amounts after that, in severance and other related costs, but were expected to save a net $650 million in 2007 and $4.76 billion by 2009, the company said. Citigroup said about 57% of the layoffs would occur outside the U.S. In New York City, where the company was the largest private employer, roughly 1,600 net jobs would be lost, with more jobs moving within the region. Of the 9,500 jobs to be shifted, most would move from high-cost centers of Citigroup business, such as New York, Tokyo and London, to cheaper, more remote alternatives like Buffalo, N.Y., the Japanese island of Okinawa and Poland, respectively. India was expected to win many of the company’s back-office jobs. „

Economy Consumer Prices Rose 0.6% in March.

The Labor Department April 17 reported that its consumInflation (CPI) er price index March 2007 0.6% which (CPI), Previous Month 0.4% tracked prices 12-Month Increase 2.8% paid for consumer goods by all urban consumers, climbed 0.6% in March, after adjustment for seasonal variation. That was up from a 0.4% rise in the index in February. The increase was driven mainly by higher gasoline prices. “Core” consumer prices, which excluded volatile food and energy prices, increased by just 0.1% in March, after 0.2% growth in February. [See p. 176B3] Unadjusted for seasonal variation, the CPI for all urban consumers stood at 205.352% of its 1982–84 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982–84 would have cost $205.35 in March. The index was up 2.8% from its March 2006 level. Other News—In other economic news: † The Commerce Department April 16 reported that the value of U.S. retail sales, adjusted for seasonal variation, rose 0.7% in March, to $371.6 billion. Much of the increase was due to an increase in the price of gasoline. [See p. 192A2] „ Producer Prices Climbed 1.0% in March.

Producer prices in March rose 1.0% after seasonal adjustment, according to the Labor Department’s Producer Price Index (PPI), released April 13. The index tracked prices charged by manufacturers and producers of finished goods. It had risen 1.3% in February. “Core” producer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food prices, did not change in March, having risen in each of the four preceding months. Energy prices rose 3.6% in March, on top of a 3.5% rise in February, and food prices were up 1.4%, after a 1.9% gain the previous month. [See p. 191G3]

The finished goods index, before seasonal adjustment, stood at 164.2% of its 1982 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982 would have cost $164.20 in March. Prices for intermediate—or partially processed—goods gained 1.0%, after a 1.1% increase in February. Prices for crude goods rose 3.2%, following an 8.9% jump the previous month. „

Environment Forest Management Rules Struck Down.

Judge Phyllis Hamilton of U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Calif., March 30 overturned several national forest management policies instituted in 2005 by the Bush administration. Hamilton found that the U.S. Forest Service policies were illegal as they had not been reviewed to assess their environmental impact, and had not been submitted for public comments. Federally managed national forests and grasslands constituted 192 million acres (78 million hectares) of land in the U.S. [See 2005, p. 523B3] The overturned rules had granted the managers of the 155 national forests the power to allow land to be used as the location of cellphone towers as well as for mining and logging operations. The policy changes had also ended a requirement that forest managers prevent wildlife or fish species located in national forest lands from becoming endangered. Hamilton ordered the Agriculture Department, the parent department of the U.S. Forest Service, to revamp the rules to ensure that they were in compliance with several federal laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit against the management policies had been filed by several environmental groups, among them Earthjustice, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club. Environmentalists hailed the decision as a victory for forest protection efforts. „

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Interior Appointee Altered Science Reports.

The Interior Department’s inspector general had released a report finding that political appointee Julie MacDonald, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, had released nonpublic federal information and altered scientific reports to limit protections to vulnerable wildlife species, the New York Times reported March 29. The report had been sparked by an anonymous complaint alleging that MacDonald, who oversaw the Fish and Wildlife Service, had aggressively pressured agency scientists to alter their evidence and conclusions for policy reasons. [See p. 174E2] Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney concluded that MacDonald several times had shaped policy efforts to limit their impact on landowners. The report found that MacDonald, who had a background in civil engineering and no experience in the natural sciences, often ordered agency scientists to alter recommen245

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dations on designating “critical habitats” for threatened and endangered species. The report also found that MacDonald had shared nonpublic federal information with “private sector sources,” including the California Farm Bureau Federation and the Pacific Legal Foundation, two groups that opposed endangered species protections. Rep. Nick Rahall 2nd (D, W.Va.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, March 28 said he would hold May hearings that would provide “a sweeping review on whether politics is infiltrating decisions” regarding endangered species. Rahall had provided the Times with a copy of the report. Endangered Species Changes Mulled—

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A leaked draft of changes to the Endangered Species Act that would weaken federal enforcement powers March 27 was published by environmental groups and the online magazine Salon.com. The proposed changes suggested granting states more responsibility in developing plans aimed at helping threatened or endangered species recover, and would grant governors the power to prohibit the reintroduction of species to their native habitats. [See 2005, p. 707G2] Environmentalists said the proposed changes would significantly weaken protections afforded to endangered and threatened species under the law. “Fewer species would be protected, the standards intended to help them survive and recover would be fundamentally weakened, and very likely more species will go extinct,” said Jan Hasselman, a lawyer with environmental group Earthjustice. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall, who was responsible for administering the law, said the drafts reflected an attempt to “update” the “implementation of the existing law.” „ Yellowstone Grizzly Population Rebounds.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall March 22 said grizzly bears in the Yellowstone National Park area, which comprised parts of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, would be removed from the endangered species list on April 28. There had been an estimated 300 or fewer grizzlies in Yellowstone in 1975, the year the species was added to the endangered list. Since that time, the park’s grizzly population had rebounded to at least 500. Grizzlies living outside the Yellowstone area and Alaska would remain under federal protection. [See 2005, p. 856E3] „

Medicine & Health Child Day Care Linked to Behavior Problems.

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Researchers March 25 reported that preschoolers who spent at least 10 hours per week in day care for one year or longer were more likely to experience behavior problems through the sixth grade. The researchers also concluded that children who received high-quality care obtained higher vocabulary scores through the fifth grade than those in low-quality care. (The study defined child care as care provided 246

by anyone other than the child’s mother, and quality of care was determined according to criteria such as the engagement and responsiveness of the care givers.) The research was conducted as part of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study that was following 1,364 children from birth, and was first reported in the MarchApril issue of the journal Child Development. [See 2001, p. 357E1] The researchers said the behavior problems exhibited by children in day care, including disobedience and aggression, were slight and fell within the parameters of normal behavior for children. However, they noted that the phenomenon had occurred regardless of the quality of day care, the income level of families or the gender of the child. „ Parkinson’s Drug Pulled From Market. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

March 29 said it had requested that the Parkinson’s disease drug pergolide, sold under the brand name Permax, be pulled from the market. Pergolide and another Parkinson’s drug, cabergoline, in January had been linked to heart valve damage. The FDA estimated that only 12,000 to 25,000 people were still taking the drug, which was manufactured by Valient Pharmaceuticals International and marketed by Eli Lilly & Co. U.S. sales of pergolide in 2006 had totaled about $2 million. [See p. 15D3] „ Bowel Drug Removed From Market. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) March 29 requested that Swiss drug firm Novartis AG remove the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) drug tegaserod maleate from the market after several studies linked it to heart problems and strokes. The company the following day agreed to do so. Out of a total of 11,614 patients participating in 29 studies of the drug, 13 had experienced heart problems, and one had died. The FDA said the risks posed to patients outweighed any potential benefit of the drug, which was sold under the brand name Zelnorm. An estimated 500,000 people took the drug to treat IBS, which was characterized by constipation, cramps, diarrhea and abdominal pain. It had garnered $561 million in sales in the U.S. in 2006. [See p. 62C2] „ Naps Linked to Reduced Heart Disease. A group of scientists reported in the Feb. 12 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine that adults who took a midday nap were less likely to suffer from heart disease than those who did not. The researchers had studied a group of 23,681 Greek men and women between the ages of 20 and 86 for five years. They found that those who frequently took naps were 34% less likely to die from heart disease than those who worked through the day. Working men who napped had a 64% lower risk of dying from heart disease, according to the study, while too few of the study’s women in the study died of heart disease to reach a similar conclusion about them. The scientists theorized that the benefits of napping could result from a reduction in stress level, or from a person’s natural need for sleep at that time. [See p. 62C3] „

AFRICA

Nigeria Fraud, Violence Mar State Elections. Nige-

rians April 14 voted in gubernatorial and legislative elections in the country’s 36 states. The balloting for the highly powerful state positions was marred by violence, vote-rigging and other irregularities. The state elections were seen as a test for the conduct of presidential and national legislative elections set for April 21, in which voters would elect a successor to President Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo, of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had been elected in 1999 and reelected in 2003, but could not run again due to term limits. [See below, p. 161C3] Nigeria was the most populous country in Africa and the continent’s largest oil exporter, and both elections were drawing worldwide scrutiny. The country had a history of election-related violence, fraud and military coups, and the presidency had never before changed hands through democratic means. There were long-standing tensions between the Islamic north of the country and the mainly Christian and animist south. Roughly half of the country’s 140 million people were Muslim. The three main presidential candidates were northern Muslims, reflecting an unwritten understanding that the presidency would go to a northerner after the tenure of Obasanjo, a southern Christian. Additionally, there had been continuous violence in the southern Niger Delta oil-producing region, where ethnic militants were fighting for a greater share of the oil wealth and, along with criminal gangs, often targeted foreign oil interests. [See below] The state elections were fiercely contested, as much of the country’s oil revenue went to state governments, and state posts had become lucrative sources of patronage and corruption. Several governors in recent years had been ousted for corruption, although some observers saw those moves as merely a way for Obasanjo to get rid of political opponents. [See 2006, p. 1013C3] Security forces April 13 were deployed throughout the country in an effort to prevent electoral violence, and Obasanjo in a televised address warned, “The federal government will leave no stone unturned in vigorously checking…acts of violence and thuggery.” Vote-Rigging, Intimidation Detailed—

Despite the government’s security measures, scores of people were killed in election-related violence. At least 50 people had been killed as of April 19, according to Nigerian media reports. In one incident, militants in the Niger Delta early April 14 attacked police stations, setting fire to at least two. In southwestern Ekiti state, where the ruling PDP governor had been impeached in October 2006 for corruption and a state of emergency had been declared, widespread intimidation and vote-rigging was reported. The New York Times April 15 deFACTS ON FILE

scribed one incident in which youth gangs and armed soldiers arrived at a polling station with stacks of ballot papers premarked for the PDP candidate; another in which ruling party officials carried away ballot boxes; and a third in which election officials apparently removed full ballot boxes early in the day, before most voters had cast their ballots. [See 2006, p. 801G2] There were also several reports of polling stations opening late or not at all, as well as a lack of ballot papers and other materials, preventing many of Nigeria’s 60 million registered voters from casting their ballots and providing more opportunities for fraud. Such incidents were symptomatic of the electoral fraud that occurred in some areas of the country. However, other areas reported little violence or obvious vote-rigging. Ruling Party Takes Lead—Reuters news service April 19 reported that the PDP had won gubernatorial races in 27 of 36 states. Prior to the vote, the PDP had controlled 28 governorships. Opposition parties criticized the results, and pledged to challenge some in court. Violent protests erupted in some states after the results were announced. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) April 16 annulled the results in Enugu and Imo states due to voting irregularities, and said they would be rerun. After the chaotic conduct of the state elections, opposition parties April 17 threatened to boycott the presidential elections if they were not delayed. In a statement, a coalition of opposition parties said, “It is clear that no credible elections can be conducted under the current dispensation and unless a fundamental change in structure occurs there must be no further elections.” They called for the boycott to ensure a “level playing field for all.” However, the government April 18 maintained that the vote would go ahead as scheduled. Delegations of international observers April 18 met to discuss suspicions that the INEC was manipulating the elections in favor of the ruling party. An unidentified Western observer April 18 told the Times, “My overriding impression is that INEC has gone from just being a bumbling institution with low capacity for being an active instrument to being an active instrument with PDP and local police to make sure that PDP rides into dominance as a single party.” The two main opposition presidential candidates, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari of the opposition All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Action Congress (AC) party, April 19 rescinded their boycott threat. The PDP’s candidate, handpicked by Obasanjo, was Umaru Yar’Adua, the Muslim governor of northern Katsina state. [See below] Earlier, it had been announced that the ANPP and the AC agreed to choose a single candidate in an effort to defeat the PDP, but that deal apparently fell through. VP Cleared to Run for President—Nigeria’s Supreme Court April 16 cleared Abubakar to run in the presidential elecApril 19, 2007

tions. The INEC had sought to bar Abubakar from the ballot due to corruption allegations, resulting in a long legal battle. The court ruled that the INEC did not have the power to keep Abubakar off the ballot. [See p. 161G3] Abubakar’s legal troubles had started in 2006, after he opposed Obasanjo’s bid to change the constitution and run for a third term. Many other Obasanjo opponents had reportedly been barred from running in elections at all levels of government after being accused of corruption by the government’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Economist reported April 19. However, the EFCC reportedly overlooked corrupt allies of the president. [See p. 128A1] The Supreme Court April 16 also ruled that the INEC did not have the right to bar several gubernatorial candidates who had been forced to sit out the April 14 vote, opening the way for legal challenges in many of the state elections. The court’s decision on Abubakar presented potential logistical problems, as more than 60 million ballot papers without Abubakar’s name had already been printed. The INEC April 17 refused to comment on how that issue would be remedied in time for the April 21 vote. Militants, Government Clash in North—

Nigerian police and soldiers April 17–18 clashed with Islamic militants in the northern city of Kano. A group of militants April 17 attacked a police station and then ambushed officers who responded to the incident, killing at least 12. After an overnight standoff in which security forces surrounded the building, at least 25 militants were killed in a day long battle April 18. Some soldiers were also reportedly killed in that battle. It was unclear whether the attacks were related to the elections, but they served to increase already heightened tensions in the country. The militants were believed to belong to an Islamic fundamentalist group that called itself “the Taliban” (after the Afghan fundamentalist militia that had ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001) and had previously raided police stations in the north. Delta Militants Free Foreigners— Militants in the Niger Delta April 4 freed four foreign oil workers who were being held hostage. The four men—two Lebanese, one Briton and a Dutchman—were reportedly the last remaining Western hostages in the region. An estimated 70 foreigners had been kidnapped since the beginning of 2007. [See p. 162D1] „

AMERICAS

Brazil Controller Strike Snarls Air Traffic. Brazilian air traffic controllers March 30–31 held a six-hour labor strike in protest of pay and working conditions. The strike stranded thousands of air travelers across the country. The controllers also demanded that the military-operated air traffic control system

end plans to relocate workers to other cities, and begin to allow the system to be overseen by civilians. A hunger strike March 30 had been started by controllers in Brasilia, the capital, then spread to the rest of the country, eventually shutting down takeoffs at the country’s 67 commercial airports. [See 2006, p. 822D3] Air force officials initially described the action as a mutiny, but withdrew from confrontation with the controllers after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ordered them to negotiate over strikers’ demands. The government March 31 agreed to provide bonuses and pay raises, make changes in the system of promotions and convert the military-run system into a civilian agency. Planning Minister Paulo Bernardo, who had been negotiating with controllers, April 3 said the government was preparing legislation that would hand over control to civilians. Air travel had been in a state of near-crisis in the country since a September 2006 collision between two planes caused one of them, Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA Flight 1907, to crash, killing all 154 people on board. Military officials investigating the crash had said that controllers might have held some responsibility for the accident. Controllers argued that they were understaffed and forced to work with faulty equipment. They had staged several work slowdowns in protest of the claims. Gol Announces Varig Acquisition—Gol March 29 announced that it would acquire rival airline Viacao Aerea Rio-Grandense SA (Varig) for $275 million in stock and cash, and would also assume $48.5 million in debt. Varig, the former flagship airline of Brazil, would continue to operate under that name. The new company would have a combined market share of 45%, and serve an estimated 20 million passengers annually. [See 2006, p. 599A1] „

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East Timor Runoff Set in Presidential Election. East Ti-

mor’s Electoral Commission April 19 announced that a second round of elections would be held for the largely ceremonial post of president, after none of the eight candidates attained the necessary 50% of votes in April 9 polling. Francisco (Lu Olo) Guteres, a former guerrilla fighter who led the ruling Fretilin party and who received 28% of the vote, would face Premier Jose Ramos Horta, who won 22% of the vote, in a May 9 runoff ballot. A United Nations spokeswoman April 19 hailed the election as free and fair, although many candidates and voters had complained of irregularities and intimidation. [See p. 147E3; 2002, p. 382A3] Incumbent President Xanana Gusmao, elected in 2002 as East Timor prepared to go from United Nations supervision to full sovereignty, reportedly planned to seek the premiership in upcoming parliamentary elections, which the Electoral Commission April 19 set for June 30. „ 247

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North Korea Funds Freed; Shutdown Deadline Passes.

U.S. and Chinese officials April 10 announced the release, effective the following day, of $25 million in North Korean bank accounts held in a Macao bank that had been frozen as a result of U.S. Treasury Department sanctions. North Korea in February had agreed to suspend its nuclear programs pending a resolution to the dispute over the funds. However, a 60-day deadline by which North Korea was to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear facility passed April 13 without any apparent action by North Korea. [See p. 188E1] The U.S. March 19 had agreed to allow the money to be unfrozen, after missing a March 13 deadline for resolving the dispute set in the February deal; complex technical details had further delayed the actual transfer of the funds. North Korea had refused to carry out the Yongbyon shutdown, its first major obligation under the February agreement, until it had taken possession of the $25 million. Bill Richardson, the governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico and leader of a U.S. delegation that visited North Korea April 8–11, said April 11 that North Korean officials had told him they would begin planning the closure of Yongbyon within a day of receiving the funds. Richardson’s delegation had gone to collect the remains of six U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950–53 Korean War as well as to discuss the nuclear issue. He said North Korean officials would invite the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear monitor, to discuss the shutdown of Yongbyon. However, he said it would take an “extraordinary effort” for them to meet the April 13 deadline, adding that it could take at least 30 days before shutdown operations could begin. [See 2005, p. 973B3] However, North Korea had apparently not initiated the process by the deadline. U.S. officials urged North Korea to act promptly, but indicated that they did not yet consider the process to have broken down. South Korean news media April 17 reported that intelligence agencies had detected signs of unusual activity at Yongbyon, perhaps indicating preparations to shut it down. Some conservative U.S. critics of the February nuclear deal and the U.S.’s consent to returning the $25 million suggested that they were vindicated in their view that it was pointless to try to deal with North Korea. They continued to argue that the agreement to release the money, which the U.S. had said was linked to North Korean financial crimes, merely rewarded North Korea for its illicit activities. The North Korean entities that owned the unfrozen accounts had reportedly not accessed the money as of April 13. Macao, a Chinese territory, and the U.S. had announced that the money would be made available at the penalized Macao bank, Banco Delta Asia SRL, after obstacles 248

arose to a plan to transfer the money through the Bank of China. Banco Delta Asia remained barred from transactions with the U.S. financial system under a March U.S. Treasury Department ruling. The bank April 16 filed a statement challenging the ruling as “politically motivated,” and not backed up by evidence. U.S. Said to Allow Arms Sale to Ethiopia—

The U.S. had declined to prevent Ethiopia from receiving a shipment of military equipment from North Korea that violated U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on North Korea in 2006, the New York Times reported in its April 8 edition, citing unidentified U.S. officials. The U.S.’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) knew of the shipment, which reportedly included tank parts, but the U.S. reportedly permitted it to be delivered because it supported Ethiopia’s military campaign at the time against Islamic militias in Somalia. [See p. 194A2] The Security Council had adopted stringent new sanctions against North Korea in October 2006, in response to its first nuclear test. U.S. officials cited in the article said that after the sanctions were approved Ethiopia had informed the U.S. embassy of the pending shipment, saying it would try to find other suppliers but could not be expected to do so immediately. [See 2006, p. 793A1] Ethiopia’s foreign ministry April 13 issued a statement maintaining that the shipment did not contain tank parts or other proscribed military equipment, and therefore did not violate the sanctions. Ethiopia had made arms purchases of an estimated $20 million from North Korea in 2001, and had reportedly continued buying at a comparable rate since then. „

Thailand Charges of Insulting King Dropped. Serm-

kiat Woradit, Thailand’s director of criminal prosecution, April 10 announced that former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra would not be charged with lese-majeste, or demeaning the royal family. Newspapers March 21 had reported that prosecutors were considering charging Thaksin for statements made to supporters, a group of taxi drivers and in a national radio address; each charge carried a prison sentence of three to 15 years. The decision not to press charges was seen as a blow to the military government, which had cited Thaksin’s supposed disrespect for King Bhumibol Adulyadej as one of the reasons for ousting him in a September 2006 coup. Thailand was one of few countries that seriously enforced laws against defaming its monarch. [See 2006, p. 751C3] The government April 4 blocked access to Google Inc.’s popular YouTube video file-sharing Web site, after the company refused to remove a video showing an image of the king defaced by electronic graffiti. The video clip’s creator later removed it, but the ban continued after site users uploaded two more clips that the government claimed were defamatory to the king. Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom April 6 said YouTube and Goo-

gle had offered to help block access to offensive videos, but the entire site remained unavailable in Thailand as of April 19. [See p. 97A2] The government had also shut down access to the political discussion forum of a popular Thai Web site, Pantitp.com, because it contained postings that supposedly defamed the king, it was reported April 9. The forum had often carried discussions critical of the military government and its leaders. Swiss Man Pleads Guilty, Pardoned—

A court in Chiang Mai March 29 sentenced Oliver Jufer, a Swiss national who lived in Thailand, to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to five counts of lesemajeste. Jufer had faced a 75-year sentence for spray-painting over several portraits of the king and Queen Sirikit while drunk on Dec. 5, 2006, the king’s 79th birthday and a national holiday. Officials April 12 said Bhumibol had pardoned Jufer, but that he would be deported that day. „

Asia-Pacific News in Brief Japan: LDP Wins Latest Local Elections. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)

April 8 made a strong showing in gubernatorial elections held in 13 prefectures (provinces). The results gave a political boost to Premier Shinzo Abe, whose poll ratings had been in a slump in recent months. Incumbent LDP governors won elections in Tokyo, the capital, as well as Hokkaido and Fukuoka; new candidates standing for the party won in three other races. The LDP had come close to losing the governorship of Aichi prefecture in elections held Feb. 4, amid an uproar over Jan. 27 comments by Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa referring to women as “birthgiving machines.” The LDP candidate that day did lose the race for mayor of the southwestern town of Kitakyushu, a loss widely attributed to Yanagisawa’s gaffe. [See 2006, p. 750F3] „ Taiwan: Opposition Chooses New Chief.

Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) April 7 elected Wu Pohhsiung as its new chairman, replacing Ma Ying-jeou. Ma had stepped down as party leader in February after being indicted on corruption charges, but was still seeking the presidency in an election scheduled for 2008. His trial opened April 3, and he pleaded not guilty that day. He was accused of misappropriating money from a special municipal fund as mayor of Taipei, the capital. He acknowledged receiving the funds but argued that his actions had not been improper, and were in line with long-standing practices among government officials. However, the charges threatened Ma’s reputation as a particularly clean politician, and his ability to make a campaign issue out of corruption allegations against President Chen Shui-bian. [See p. 112D1] „ Vietnam: Dissident Priest Jailed. A court in the central province of Thua Thien Hue March 30 sentenced Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a Roman Catholic priest and promFACTS ON FILE

inent pro-democracy activist, to eight years in prison for “conducting propaganda against the state.” Ly had served 15 years in prison for his previous pro-democracy activities; in September 2006 he had founded the Vietnam Progression political party, which was subsequently banned by the communist government. Four other party members were also convicted of antistate activities. International human rights groups decried the prosecutions as part of an increased crackdown on dissidents spurred by Vietnam’s rapidly growing economy. [See 2006, p. 894F3; 2001, p. 1073D1] „

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UNITED STATES

France Railroad Wins Nazi Deportation Appeal.

A French administrative appeals court March 27 overturned a 2006 ruling by a lower court that had ordered the national railroad, SNCF, to compensate a Jewish family whose members had been transported by rail to a concentration camp during Nazi Germany’s occupation of France in World War II. The appeals court accepted SNCF’s argument that it had been coerced by the Nazis into providing trains for the deportations, and had not been a willing collaborator. [See 2006, p. 475C3] The appeals court also ruled that the administrative courts, which dealt with claims against government agencies, did not have jurisdiction over the case because SNCF operated independently. The plaintiffs had brought the case in administrative court rather than civil court because French civil courts had a 30-year statute of limitations. The 2006 ruling had led more than 1,000 other families to file lawsuits against SNCF. „ Train Breaks Speed Record. A modified French TGV passenger train April 3 set a new world speed record for trains running on conventional rails, hurtling at 357 mph (575 kmph) along a new track between Paris and the eastern city of Strasbourg. The 25,000-horsepower train eclipsed the previous record of 320 mph, also set by a TGV, which stood for train a grande vitesse, or high-speed train. French conglomerate Alstom SA made the TGV. [See 1990, p. 644G3] The TGV narrowly missed the speed mark for all trains, 361 mph, set in 2003 by a Japanese maglev (magnetically levitated) train. Maglev technology used magnetic force to lift trains above the track and propel them with electric currents. The TGV’s new eastern service was scheduled to begin in June, with an average speed of 200 mph. It would cut rail travel time from Paris to Frankfurt, Germany, to three hours and 45 minutes, from six hours and 15 minutes. „

Great Britain Anniversary of Slave Trade Abolition Marked.

Prime Minister Tony Blair March 25 issued a statement to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Britain’s abolition of April 19, 2007

the slave trade, which had brought millions of African slaves to the Americas. Blair expressed “deep sorrow and regret for our nation’s role in the slave trade,” which he called one of the most “shameful enterprises” in history. He also called for international efforts to stop modern forms of slavery. Critics, including John Sentamu, the Anglican archbishop of York, lamented that Blair’s statement stopped short of a formal apology for past British slave trading. [See 2002, p. 236E2] Blair and Queen Elizabeth II March 28 attended an abolition commemoration at Westminister Abbey in London. A protester, Toyin Agbetu, 39, disrupted the event, shouting demands for an apology at the queen and prime minister. „

Russia More Anti-Putin Rallies Draw Crackdown.

Police April 14 disrupted efforts by opponents of President Vladimir V. Putin to hold a march and rally in Moscow, and cracked down on a similar event in St. Petersburg the following day. The events were among a series of rallies planned by the Other Russia opposition coalition, intended to raise its profile in the months leading up to parliamentary elections scheduled for December, and a presidential election to be held in 2008. [See p. 231A1] Opponents accused Putin of stifling democracy and setting the stage for manipulated elections. Authorities, in turn, appeared to be intensifying their efforts to crack down on the events. Observers said the government feared a reprise of the socalled color revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, where massive popular demonstrations had led to changes of government since 2004. [See 2005, pp. 177A1, 51A3; 2004, p. 4C3] In Moscow, organizers had been denied a permit for their plans to rally in Pushkin Square, and police clubbed and detained demonstrators who gathered there. Among those arrested was Garry Kasparov, a former international chess champion and a leader of Other Russia; he was released later that day after being given a fine. Moscow officials said about 9,000 riot police had been deployed, and that 170 people had been arrested, although organizers said that more than that number had been detained. Also detained briefly were a number of journalists. Hundreds more protesters gathered at the site that was approved for the event by city authorities, where former Premier Mikhail Kasyanov, another opposition leader, addressed the crowd. Police arrested Kasyanov’s bodyguards and handled him roughly as he approached the rally, but he was not arrested. Kasparov and Kasyanov denounced the government for what they called harassment of legitimate political expression. Kasparov said, “Today the regime showed its true colors.” Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov insisted that the city had permitted a range of political events representing a full range of views. He said organizers had deliberately

sought out a confrontation with the authorities by trying to march in the unauthorized location. In St. Petersburg April 15, some 3,000 demonstrators held a permitted rally, but club-wielding police blocked efforts to follow it with an unauthorized march, detaining some 200 people. A police spokesman said some people had been arrested for “chanting anticonstitutional and antigovernment slogans” and that “pamphlets” calling for an “unauthorized march” had been seized. The U.S. April 16 criticized Russia for the government’s response to the rallies. Dana Perino, a spokeswoman for U.S. President George W. Bush, said the U.S. was “disturbed” by “an emerging pattern of use of excessive force.” Also that day, Germany made a formal protest over the arrests of two German journalists in the crackdowns. A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “assaults on the media” were “unacceptable.” A Russian government spokesman defended its response as an appropriate move to maintain “order” against “illegal activities of ultraradicals.” However, a Kremlin spokesman April 17 called some police tactics an “overreaction,” but also blamed the foreign media for “exaggeration” of them.

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Exile Berezovsky Calls for Revolt—

Boris Berezovsky, an expatriate Russian tycoon and inveterate critic of Putin, called for the overthrow of the Russian president in an interview published in Britain’s Guardian newspaper April 13. Berezovsky, who lived in Britain, said, “We need to use force to change this regime. It isn’t possible to change this regime through democratic means.” Berezovsky said he was giving advice and financial support to members of the “political elite” plotting to oust Putin, but provided no further details, suggesting that doing so would put his contacts in danger of being killed. [See 2006, p. 196G3] Russian government officials April 13 said they considered Berezovsky’s statements an illegal incitement to violent revolt against the constitutional order, and urged Britain to reconsider his status as a political refugee. Berezovsky in January 2006 had been accused by Russia of plotting a violent coup. The British Foreign Office April 13 issued a statement deploring “any call for the violent overthrow of a sovereign state,” and pledging to “look carefully at these and any future statements by Mr. Berezovsky.” The tycoon April 13 issued a statement disavowing any support of violent means to remove Putin. He said he was referring only to “bloodless” methods of “direct action,” pointing to the recent examples of nonviolent revolt in Georgia and Ukraine. The British Home Office April 18 opened a probe into Berezovsky’s remarks after receiving a copy of a warrant for his arrest from Russian authorities. Berezovsky Questioned in Poison Case—

Berezovsky March 31 said he had been interviewed the previous day by British and Russian police investigating the November

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2006 poisoning death in London of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy and Berezovsky associate who had also settled in Britain and become a strident Putin critic. Berezovsky and Litvinenko himself had accused Putin of ordering the poisoning, an allegation that Russia dismissed. [See 2006, p. 1028E3] The March 30 interview was reportedly the first time a Russian investigator had questioned someone in Britain. Berezovsky said that the Russian had expressed interest principally in his and Litvinenko’s financial assets and relationships. British police Jan. 31 had reported their findings in the case to the Crown Prosecution Service, which would decide whether to charge any suspects. Separately, a Moscow hospital March 6 said that a Russian-born U.S. doctor and her daughter were being treated there after being poisoned with thallium, the same radioactive substance used to kill Litvinenko, during a visit to the country. They were expected to recover, and March 7 returned the U.S., where their treatment was to continue. Authorities said they were retracing the women’s contacts while they were in Russia, but said they knew of no apparent motive for a deliberate attack on them, or of any connection between the victims and intelligence circles. „

Turkey General Threatens Attack on Kurds in Iraq.

Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, chief of staff of the Turkish military, April 12 said Turkey should launch a cross-border offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. He said that the semiautonomous Kurdish region in Iraq had created a safe haven for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which had waged a separatist insurgency in southeastern Turkey since the 1980s, leaving nearly 40,000 people dead. [See 2006, pp. 865D3, 684F2] At a news conference in Ankara, the Turkish capital, Buyukanit said, “Should there be an operation into northern Iraq? If I look at it from an exclusively military point of view, yes, there should be.” However, he noted, “For a cross-border operation, there has to be a political decision” by the Turkish government. Turkey had repeatedly called on both the Iraqi government and the U.S. to act against the PKK. Both Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds were key regional U.S. allies. Fighting between Turkish troops and Kurdish guerrillas had erupted April 7 in southeastern Turkey. The fighting, described as the worst to date in 2007, reportedly left nearly 20 people dead through April 10. Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan April 9 warned Iraqi Kurds against meddling in Turkey. He spoke in response to remarks by Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish regional government in Iraq, who had said in an interview April 7 that Iraqi Kurds might “interfere” in Kurdish areas of Turkey in retaliation for any Turkish interference in Kurdish Iraq. 250

Erdogan Cleared of Praising PKK Chief—

Prosecutors had decided not to charge Erdogan for allegedly using a term of respect for the imprisoned PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan, a Turkish news agency reported April 5. Turkey’s main opposition party had pushed for charges, claiming that Erdogan had used the honorific sayin to refer to Ocalan in an interview seven years earlier. Turkish law barred expressions of respect for criminals. Erdogan denied making the comment. The calls to prosecute him were seen as a preemptive strike against his possible presidential candidacy. [See p. 250B2] „ Huge Crowd Protests Islamist Premier. A crowd of demonstrators, estimated at up to 300,000, April 14 rallied in the streets of Ankara, the Turkish capital, protesting what they viewed as the dangerous Islamist views of Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). The protesters opposed Erdogan’s possible presidential candidacy, viewing him and his party as a threat to Turkey’s secular constitutional order. [See 2006, p. 396F3] The presidency would become vacant on May 16. The parliament would select a replacement for retiring President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Erdogan had not yet declared whether he would be a candidate. Sezer in a speech to the military April 13 had warned that the secular order faced its gravest challenge since the modern Turkish nation was founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Since taking office as premier in 2003, Erdogan had called for repealing laws that barred women from wearing Islamic headscarves in public places, and had made a failed effort to criminalize adultery. As mayor of Istanbul, he had been convicted of inciting hatred with a militant Islamist speech and served four months in prison. [See 1998, p. 984A2] „

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Iran More Nuclear Reactors Planned. Ahmad

Fayyazbakhsh, the deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, April 15 announced that Iran was soliciting international bids for the construction of two more light-water nuclear reactors at Bushehr, the site of a nuclear power plant nearing completion. Fayyazbakhsh said the new reactors were to generate 1,000–1,600 megawatts of electricity apiece for Iran. He added that each reactor would cost up to $1.7 billion and take about a decade to build. Iran’s nuclear program had met with international criticism due to concerns that the country was secretly developing nuclear weapons. Light-water reactors, however, were regarded as being less suitable for producing material for nuclear weapons. [See p. 217C3] A Russian-built light-water reactor with a 1,000 megawatt capacity was already nearing completion at Bushehr. However, Russia and Iran had recently argued about

payments for the work, resulting in a delay in bringing the reactor online. [See p. 166C1] President Derides Military Sanctions—

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad April 18 declared that sanctions placed on Iran’s military were not having any appreciable effect. The sanctions had been imposed by the United Nations Security Council after Iran refused to halt its nuclear program. “Some bullying powers imagined that by implementing sanctions they would weaken our army,” Ahmadinejad said, claiming that the attempt would fail because Iran’s armed forces were “self-sufficient.” He also warned that Iran would “counter any invader and cut off its hand.” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates that day insisted that diplomatic efforts addressing Iran’s nuclear program were “working,” and should continue. In a related development, European Union diplomats April 16 had announced that they would soon enact a measure freezing the assets of several Iranian officials affiliated with Iran’s nuclear and missile programs. Oil Company Faces U.S. Sanctions—

Total SA, the French oil company, April 11 warned in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that its business ties with Iran could cause it to face U.S. sanctions. Total was in talks with Iran regarding a $10 billion deal to develop the South Pars gas field. U.S. law allowed for sanctions to be placed on companies that invested in Iran’s oil industry. [See pp. 188B1, 85D2] „

Lebanon U.N. Extends Hariri Tribunal. The United Nations Security Council March 27 extended for another year, to June 2008, the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. A draft of an agreement to set up a U.N. tribunal to try suspects in Hariri’s death had yet to be approved by Lebanon’s parliament, due to opposition by antigovernment, pro-Syrian political factions. Syria was widely suspected of being involved in Hariri’s death, though it denied the accusation. [See p. 102C1] Seventy pro-government legislators in a letter to the U.N. April 3 requested that the tribunal be established without parliamentary approval, but U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon April 4 demurred, insisting that the Lebanese factions needed to “work things out among themselves.” Mohammad Raad, a legislator and member of the militant group Hezbollah, which led the antigovernment parties, April 18 denounced attempts to establish the tribunal without parliamentary approval. To do so, he said, “threatens Lebanon’s security, stability and unity, and hinders the possibility of unveiling the truth.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Sultanov April 17–19 met with political leaders in Lebanon and Syria to try to broker a compromise regarding the tribuFACTS ON FILE

nal. Sultanov April 19 met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Ban Visits Israeli Border—Italian Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, the commander of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), March 31 told Ban that peacekeeping forces had the border area firmly under control and that the cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel was holding. Ban was in Lebanon that day to inspect the peacekeeping effort. There were currently about 12,000 peacekeeping troops from roughly 30 countries in southern Lebanon. A total of 14,400 troops were slated to be there by June. The troops were enforcing a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah after their 33-day war in 2006. The war had started after a cross-border attack on northern Israel by Hezbollah militants in which three Israeli soldiers were killed and two were kidnapped. [See p. 102B2] Milos Strugar, a senior adviser to UNIFIL, said the only recurring border infractions were those of Israeli military and reconnaissance planes, which continued to fly over the area. Israel insisted that the overflights would continue so long as arms were being smuggled across the border and its two soldiers remained in captivity. Ban March 30 had met with Lebanese Premier Fouad Siniora, and had insisted that more needed to be done to prevent weapons from being smuggled into Lebanon. Siniora that day said the Lebanese army would not disarm Hezbollah, declaring that the matter would be addressed through dialogue. One of the conditions of the cease-fire was that Hezbollah militants had to disarm. Suspects in Bombings Arrested—Lebanese officials March 13 announced the arrest of four suspects in the bombing of two minibuses in February, adding that two more suspects were being sought. All the suspects were members of Fatah al-Islam, a Palestinian Islamic militant group that operated in Lebanon. [See p. 102F1] The Lebanese army March 17 set up a security perimeter around a Palestinian refugee camp where leaders of Fatah al-Islam were believed to reside. Members of the media and Lebanese citizens were prevented by the army from entering the camp, which was near the city of Tripoli. Separately, police March 22 found a small bomb on the campus of the American University of Beirut. The bomb was defused, and no one was harmed. Hezbollah Accuses U.S. of Covert War—

Sheikh Naim Kassem, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general, in an interview published April 11 in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, accused the U.S. of waging a covert war against Hezbollah. “There is now an American program that is using Lebanon to further its goals in the region,” Kassem said. He also charged that Lebanon’s security forces “have not succeeded in playing a balanced role,” and were displaying a bias against Hezbollah. The U.S. had recently pledged $60 million in aid to Lebanon’s security forces. Media reports had also emerged claiming that—in an effort to thwart Iran, which April 19, 2007

backed Hezbollah—U.S. intelligence agencies were providing aid to Lebanese groups opposed to Hezbollah. [See p. 55F1] „

Saudi Arabia

ran province, south of Saada, near where government security forces were in conflict with Shiite rebels. The religious affiliation of the mosque was not reported, though the province was predominantly Shiite. Police April 7 arrested three suspects in the attack. „

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French Citizens Killed. Gunmen in north-

western Saudi Arabia Feb. 26 attacked a group of about eight French citizens visiting tourist sites in the area. The three gunmen separated the four adult males out of the group and then shot them with machine guns in front of the women and children. Two of the men died at the scene, and another died later that day in the hospital. The fourth male, a 17-year-old, died at a hospital the next day. At least two of the victims were Muslims, and three of them were reportedly employed in Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah Feb. 27 spoke with French President Jacques Chirac, and promised to find and punish the attackers. Saudi officials March 6 said several suspects had been arrested, but that two more were still being sought. Saudi officials declined to comment on whether the attack had been perpetrated by Islamic militants. [See 2004, p. 973C3] „ Partygoers Receive Jail Terms. A progovernment newspaper Feb. 4 reported that 20 foreign citizens had been sentenced to three to four months in prison and an unspecified number of lashes for attending a party in Jiddah that involved alcohol and dancing between men and women. Saudi Arabia’s strict Islamic government prohibited alcohol, as well as the mingling of women and men who were unmarried or unrelated. The foreign nationals were among 433 foreigners, at least 240 of them women, who had reportedly been arrested by the country’s religious police for attending the party. The sentences were subject to appeal. The remainder of the detained foreigners had yet to be tried. The date of the party was not reported. „

Yemen Shiite Rebels, Government Forces Clash.

The government April 9 claimed that 25 soldiers and 20 rebels had died in five days of recent fighting. Shiite Muslim rebels in the northern Saada province, led by Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi, had risen up in January. Since then, fighting had killed a total of 157 soldiers and 315 rebels, and tribal leaders claimed that tens of thousands of people had been displaced. Sunni Muslims dominated the government, though the country had a large Shiite minority. The rebels accused the government of aggression, corruption and overly friendly ties to Western nations. The government accused the rebels of attempting to install a Shiite theocracy, and of being funded by Iran and Libya. [See 2003, p. 610C2] Mosque Attack Wounds 33—At least 33 people were wounded April 6 when assailants set fire to their mosque after dousing them with gasoline and locking them inside. The incident occurred in the Am-

Middle East News in Brief Kuwait: New Cabinet Sworn In. A new 16member cabinet April 2 was sworn in, replacing the previous government, which had resigned in March. Many of the key posts remained unchanged, though a second female—Education Minister Nouriya al-Subaih—was included. Several Islamist members of parliament protested Subaih’s swearing-in because she refused to wear a veil during the ceremony, in accordance with Islamic law. The previous cabinet had resigned March 4 after parliament scheduled a no-confidence vote on then–Health Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, a member of Kuwait’s ruling family, due to alleged financial and administrative violations. Although the resignation staved off the vote, Sabah was not included in the new cabinet. The new cabinet was appointed March 25 by Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah. [See 2006, p. 538C1] „

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Golf Pressel is Youngest Women’s Major Winner.

Morgan Pressel of the U.S. April 1 won the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first major of the year in women’s golf, at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. At age 18, Pressel—who was in her second year on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour—became the youngest woman ever to win a major tournament. Previously, the youngest winner of a women’s major had been Sandra Post, who claimed the 1968 LPGA Championship at age 20. [See 2006, p. 314A1; 1968, p. 340F2] Pressel, who as a 17-year-old amateur had placed second in the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open, shot a three-under-par 69 in the final round, to finish the tournament at 285, three under par. She made a 10-foot putt for birdie on the final hole. Suzann Pettersen of Norway had held a three-shot lead with four holes remaining, but proceeded to play those holes in four over par. Pettersen ended up tied for second, at two under, along with Catriona Matthew of Scotland and Brittany Lincicome of the U.S. Pressel collected $300,000 in prize money for the win. Other News—In other golf news: † Boo Weekley of the U.S. April 16 won the Verizon Heritage in Hilton Head Island, S.C., his first victory on the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour. Weekley shot a 14-under-par 270 for the tournament, and earned $972,000. [See 2006, p. 313F3] 251

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Lincicome April 15 won the LPGA Ginn Open in Reunion, Fla. She shot a 10under-par 278, and collected $390,000 for the victory. † Adam Scott of Australia April 1 won the Houston Open in Humble, Texas. He finished with a 17-under-par 271, and earned $990,000. [See 2006, p. 464C2] † Tiger Woods of the U.S. March 25 won the World Golf Championships–CA Championship (formerly the American Express Championship) in Miami, Fla., for the third year in a row and the sixth time in his career. He shot a 10-under-par 278, and earned $1.35 million in prize money. [See 2006, p. 903B1] † Lorena Ochoa of Mexico March 25 won the LPGA Safeway International in Superstition Mountain, Ariz. She shot an 18under-par 270, and earned $225,000. † The LPGA Tour March 21 released a list of banned substances that it would test for beginning in 2008. Those substances included 33 anabolic steroids, 29 stimulants and 20 beta-blockers. [See 2006, p. 903F1] † Vijay Singh of Fiji March 18 won the Arnold Palmer Invitational (formerly the Bay Hill Invitational) in Orlando, Fla. He shot an eight-under-par 272, and collected $990,000 in prize money. [See 2006, p. 252C1] † Mark Calcavecchia of the U.S. March 11 won the PODS Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla. He shot a 10-under-par 274, and took home $954,000. „ †

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2007 PULITZER PRIZES ARTS AND LETTERS Fiction: Cormac McCarthy for The Road. History: Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff

for The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation. Biography: Debby Applegate for The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher. Poetry: Natasha Trethewey for Native Guard. General Nonfiction: Lawrence Wright for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Music: Ornette Coleman for Sound Grammar. Drama: David Lindsay-Abaire for Rabbit Hole. JOURNALISM Public Service: The

Wall Street Journal for stories exposing the backdating of corporate executives’ stock options. Breaking News Reporting: The staff of Portland, Ore.’s Oregonian for coverage of the disappearance of a family in the Oregon mountains during a blizzard. Investigative Reporting: Brett Blackledge of the Birmingham (Ala.) News for uncovering corruption in Alabama’s system of two-year colleges and training schools. Explanatory Reporting: Los Angeles Times reporters Kenneth R. Weiss, Usha Lee McFarling and Rick Loomis for a series of articles about the adverse impact of industrialization on the world’s oceans. Local Reporting: Debbie Cenziper of the Miami Herald for articles about Miami, Fla., developers awarded millions of dollars for housing projects that were never built. (The local reporting category replaced one that had been called “beat reporting.”)

National Reporting: Charlie

Savage of the Boston Globe for highlighting President George W. Bush’s frequent use of “signing statements” to bypass provisions in laws enacted during his tenure. [See 2006, p. 390B1] Feature Writing: Andrea Elliott of the New York Times for articles profiling the life and work of a Muslim cleric in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. International Reporting: The staff of the Wall Street Journal for a series of articles about the rapid evolution of capitalism in China. Commentary: Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for columns on minority voting-rights issues, among other subjects. Criticism: Jonathan Gold of LA Weekly, an alternative Los Angeles newspaper, for his “erudite” and “zestful” restaurant reviews. Editorial Cartooning: Walt Handelsman of Long Island, N.Y.’s Newsday, largely for a series of animated cartoons created for the paper’s Web site. Breaking News Photography: Oded Balilty of the Associated Press for a photo of a woman resisting Israeli security forces tasked with removing Jewish settlers from the West Bank. Feature Photography: Renee C. Byer of the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee for photographs accompanying a series of articles about a single mother and her young son during his yearlong, ultimately losing battle with cancer. Editorial Writing: Arthur Browne, Heidi Evans and Beverly Weintraub of the New York Daily News for editorials about the health problems of workers at Ground Zero in New York City, where the World Trade Center stood until it was destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. [See 2006, p. 694C1]

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Pulitzer Prizes. Columbia University, acting on the recommendation of its Pulitzer Prize advisory panel, April 16 in New York City announced the winners of its 91st annual Pulitzer Prizes. Each winner received a $10,000 award except in the category of public service, where the winning newspaper received a gold medal. [See 2006, p. 314F3] The 2007 public service award went to the Wall Street Journal, for a series of articles exposing the extensive backdating of corporate executives’ stock options to maximize their profits from the options. The stories, for which the Journal picked up its first-ever Pulitzer for public service, led to federal probes being launched against more than 140 companies. [See 2006, pp. 451F2–F3, 452A1, C1] The Journal also won the Pulitzer for international reporting, for stories about the strains attendant upon the rapid evolution of capitalism in China. The Journal was the only newspaper to win more than one Pulitzer in 2007. The current year was the first in which the Pulitzer board took into account a wide range of online material in deciding whom to honor in most of its journalism categories. Thus, for example, editorial cartoonist Walt Handelsman won his second Pulitzer 252

(his first came in 1997) largely for a series of brief animated cartoons posted on the Web site of the newspaper he worked for, Long Island, N.Y.’s Newsday. [See 1997, p. 268C2] Novelist Cormac McCarthy, 73, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his 10th novel, The Road, about a father and son wandering across a devastated landscape after a catastrophe of an unspecified nature. The book March 28 had been selected by daytime television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey for her on-air book club. [See 2006, p. 59E2] Jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, 77, won the Pulitzer Prize for music for Sound Grammar, a work for jazz quartet recorded in 2005. Coleman, a pioneer of free style jazz, was the first Pulitzer recipient honored for a recorded work rather than one premiered live within the time frame of the award. He was also only the second musician with jazz, rather than classical music, roots to win the prize; the first had been Wynton Marsalis, in 1997. [See 1997, p. 268B1] The Pulitzer board awarded two special arts and letters citations: to science fiction master Ray Bradbury, 87, and, posthumously, to jazz saxophonist and composer

John Coltrane, who died in 1967. [See p. 40F2; 2004, p. 936F1] „

O B I T UA R I E S CLARK, Bob (born Benjamin Clark), 67, film director who early on made a number of horror movies and thrillers before hitting the jackpot with Porky’s (1982), a raunchy, coming-of-age comedy that spawned a slew of such films, including his own Porky’s II: The Next Day, a sequel released in 1983; that year also saw the release of perhaps his most highly regarded film, A Christmas Story, about a young boy obsessed with getting an air rifle for Christmas; born Aug. 5, 1939, in New Orleans, La.; died April 4 in a car crash on the Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles; his son was also killed in the crash, a head-on collision in which the driver of the other vehicle was later charged with two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. [See 1999, p. 240D2; 1990, p. 232G2; Indexes 1987, 1982–85, 1979–80] ROBINSON, Eddie Gay, 88, football coach at Louisiana’s Grambling State University who won 408 games between 1941 (when the school was still known as the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute) and 1997, when he retired; more than 200 of his players went to the National Football League (NFL), including Paul Younger, the NFL’s first player from a historically black school (he joined the Los Angeles Rams in 1949) and Doug Williams, the first black quarterback to play in a Super Bowl (in 1988, when he led the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII); Williams was his immediate successor as Grambling’s head coach; born Feb. 13, 1919, in Jackson, La.; died April 3 in Ruston, La., after battling Alzheimer’s disease. [See 2003, p. 1099A1; 2001, p. 991D1; Indexes 1997, 1995, 1985, 1982] „

April 19, 2007

Congress Passes Timetable for U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Iraq Funding Bill Faces Presidential Veto. The

U.S. House of Representatives April 25 and the U.S. Senate April 26 cleared a funding bill for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan mandating the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by spring 2008. The votes set the bill to be presented to U.S. President George W. Bush, who had repeatedly vowed to veto any measure containing timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Since winning midterm elections in 2006, Democrats had been putting increased pressure on the Bush administration to end U.S. involvement in the Iraqi conflict. [See pp. 239A1, 203D3] The chambers had passed separate, differing versions of the measure earlier in the year. The final $124.2 billion funding bill provided $95 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of the 2007 fiscal year Sept. 30. That was more money than Bush had requested, but the bill also contained billions of dollars in unrelated spending. Most importantly, it established a variety of benchmarks for the Iraqi government to fulfill, and set dates for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq depending upon Iraq’s success in meeting those benchmarks. If the benchmarks were met—a judgment Bush would have to make July 1, according to the measure—the withdrawal would begin Oct. 1 at the latest, and would complete their exit by April 2008. If the benchmarks were not met, however, the withdrawal would take place sooner: starting July 1, and ending Dec. 31, 2007. The withdrawal guidelines did not apply to U.S. forces involved in training and equipping Iraqi forces, conducting operations against terrorist groups or protecting U.S. facilities and personnel. The benchmarks the bill required the Iraqi government to meet involved disarming militias and restoring security; legislating the distribution of oil revenues equally among Iraqi citizens; and allowing members of the former ruling Baath Party to more easily return to government posts. IRAQ CASUALTIES

Following are tallies of casualties in Iraq since the beginning of a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, as they stood April 26 [See p. 169E1]: U.S. military casualties:

Deaths Wounded

3,327 24,912

Allied military deaths: 270 Iraqi security forces deaths: 6,530 U.S. civilian contractor deaths: 156 Other civilian contractor deaths: 237 Iraqi civilian deaths: 62,417–68,428

(Range based on news reports of deaths)

Sources: U.S. and allies, Iraqi security, contractors— U.S. Defense Department, www.icasualties.org. Iraqi civilians—www.iraqbodycount.net.

Legislative measures on these matters had languished in Iraq’s divided parliament for months, making little or no progress. Bush in January had called upon Iraq’s government to meet similar benchmarks, but had not set specific dates or penalties for failing to do so. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates April 20 had met with Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki, and afterwards held a press conference during which he insisted that Iraq’s parliament pass legislation on oil revenues, the reintegration of Baath Party members and provincial elections by the end of the summer. “Our commitment to Iraq is long term, but it is not a commitment to have our young men and women patrolling Iraq’s streets open-endedly,” he said. [See p. 9E1] Funding Votes Fall Along Party Lines—

The votes in both houses of Congress April 25–26 were highly partisan, with Democrats overwhelmingly voting in favor of the funding bill and Republicans largely opposing it. The votes, however, fell far short of the two-thirds majority needed in order to override Bush’s expected veto. The House April 25 passed the measure 218–208, with two Republicans voting in favor and 13 Democrats voting against. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) lauded the bill, saying Americans had expressed a desire for “a new direction in Iraq” in the 2006 midterm elections. “They made it clear that our troops must be given all they need to do their jobs, but that our troops must be brought home responsibly, safely, and soon,” she said. Rep. Harold Rogers (R, Ky.) denounced the bill, saying it was “nothing short of a cut and run in the fight against [terrorist network] Al Qaeda.” Rep. John Murtha (D, Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, anticipating a presidential veto, suggested that a future bill might also set benchmarks, but not include withdrawal timetables. The Senate April 26 passed the measure 51–46, with two Republicans—Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Gordon Smith (Ore.)—voting in favor of it, and Joseph Lieberman (I, Conn.) voting against it. Three senators— John McCain (R, Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R, S.C.) and Tim Johnson (D, S.D.)—did not vote on the measure. [See p. 62B1] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) said the vote “sets us on a new course, away from a civil war with no end in sight toward a responsible phased redeployment that holds Iraqis accountable. This is a responsible plan for redeployment, not a precipitous withdrawal.” Reid had sparked a heated debate about the war’s progress April 19 when he had claimed that Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice both realized that “this war [in Iraq] is lost.” Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, Mass.) April 26 said a withdrawal deadline was “the only realistic way to encourage the Iraqis to take responsibility for their future.” Sen. Joseph Biden, (D, Del.), said it would be a “tragic mistake” for Bush to veto the bill.

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B Lieberman dismissed the usefulness of the timetable, saying it was blind to “military realities” in Iraq. “In my opinion, Iraq is not yet lost,” he said, “But if we follow the plan in this legislation, it will be lost and so, I fear, will much of our hope for stability in the Mideast.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, Ky.), also anticipating a presidential veto, said the next funding bill should “take out the surrender date, take out the pork, and get the funds to our troops.” Bill Threatened With Veto—Dana Perino, a spokeswoman for the White House, April 26 reiterated the president’s promise to veto the bill, blasting its contents. “The Senate has now joined the House in passing defeatist legislation that insists on a date for surrender, micromanages our commanders and generals in combat zones

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Congress passes timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq; funding bill faces presidential veto. PAGE 253

Ruling party candidate declared winner of Nigerian presidential vote; opposition, observers challenge results.

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Yeltsin, first post-Soviet Russian president, dies. PAGE 256

Bush reaffirms support for Gonzales. PAGE 258

McCain formally declares candidacy for 2008 GOP presidential nomination. PAGE 260

Somali premier declares victory over insurgents.

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Mexico City legalizes abortion. PAGE 266

Sarkozy, Royal advance to French presidential runoff. PAGE 267

Kyrgyz premier replaced; protests mount. PAGE 267

Serbian court sentences four in 1995 Bosnia killings. PAGE 268

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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from 6,000 miles away, and adds billions of dollars in unrelated spending,” she said. Iraqi officials also responded with displeasure to the Senate vote. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari called the timetable “premature” and “not realistic.” He said the “politicking” involved in Congress’s approval of the bill “has been damaging in fact to the security and political development, not only in Iraq, but in the entire region.” Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for Maliki, warned that the measure “sends wrong signals to some sides that might think of alternatives to the political process,” and could encourage insurgents. He added that withdrawing coalition forces before Iraq’s own forces were ready to adopt security responsibilities would amount to “a loss of four years of sacrifices” by the coalition. Petraeus Warns on War’s Progress—

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Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, April 26 held a news conference at the Pentagon to discuss progress in the Iraqi conflict. He described the conflict as “the most complex and challenging I have ever seen,” and warned that “this effort may get harder before it gets easier.” He said the war “clearly is going to require enormous commitment and commitment over time,” but would not clarify what time frame he envisioned, implying that the conflict could continue for years. Petraeus said U.S. efforts were being hampered by “exceedingly unhelpful activities by Iran and Syria, especially those by Iran,” as well as failures by the Iraqi government to enact political measures aimed at reconciliation. But he also insisted that progress was being made, particularly in Anbar province, which he said had been “assessed as lost six months ago.” However, he conceded that these achievements were “often eclipsed by sensational attacks.” He also claimed that Iraq was the “central front of Al Qaeda’s global campaign.” Petraeus April 25 had briefed members of Congress prior to the House vote, declaring that more time would be required in order to judge the effectiveness of the joint U.S.-Iraqi security push that had begun in February. Afterward, he held a press conference, during which he claimed that sectarian executions in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, had dropped by a third since January. Baghdad Wall Sparks Controversy—

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Controversy erupted April 20 over plans to build a massive concrete barrier, three miles (five kilometers) long and 12 feet (3.5 m) high, separating Baghdad’s Sunni Muslim neighborhood of Adhamiya from nearby Shiite Muslim neighborhoods. Adhamiya was the biggest Sunni neighborhood remaining in eastern Baghdad, many Sunnis having left that half of the capital due to sectarian violence. The neighborhood was in the north of the city along the Tigris River. [See p. 91F1] The U.S. military April 10 had begun nighttime efforts to build the barrier. U.S. and Iraqi officials had previously agreed to build the barrier as part of a plan to cordon off Baghdad’s most violent neighborhoods and prevent the movement of militants and their weaponry. The plan sought to limit the number of entry points to the neighborhoods, and even to begin tracking entrants 254

using biometric technology in order to hunt militants. A similar cordon had been set up earlier in the year around southern Ghazaliyah, a Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad that had seen frequent sectarian violence. U.S. soldiers in Ghazaliyah had cited a decrease in violence and an increase in intelligence tips from residents since the building of the cordon, but had also noted complaints regarding interruptions in commerce and daily life. U.S. military officials April 20 asked local officials in Adhamiya to formally endorse the barrier, but they demurred. Many residents viewed the barrier as an inconvenient obstacle, and expressed concern that it would reinforce sectarian divisions. Some residents compared it to the separation barrier being built by Israel in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, which was very unpopular in the Muslim world. Maliki April 22, speaking in Cairo, Egypt’s capital, said he opposed the barrier and would order its construction halted. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a spokesman for the U.S. military, insisted that the barrier was intended to safeguard Iraqi lives, and said discussions would be held with residents on how best to achieve that goal. Another spokesman, Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell 4th, said the use of such barriers was limited to certain neighborhoods, and would not be used throughout the city. Meanwhile, several Sunni and Shiite leaders criticized the barrier, saying it was a step toward partitioning Iraq into sectarian blocs. Residents Demonstrate Against Wall—

Hundreds of Adhamiya’s residents April 23 demonstrated against the barrier, complaining that it would effectively turn the neighborhood into a prison and incite sectarianism by imposing segregation. They also praised Maliki, a Shiite, for opposing it. Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, defended the wall, reiterating that its purpose was to prevent sectarian violence, but also promising to “respect the wishes of the government.” Iraqi officials, meanwhile, gave unclear and inconsistent accounts of the government’s stance. Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, a military spokesman, said, “We will continue to construct the security barriers in the Adhamiya neighborhood.” He added that the structures were not permanent, and “can be removed.” Dabbagh, however, said the barrier had “political and psychological dimensions” that could be worse than the violence it was supposed to forestall. “Medicine has side effects that sometimes can be more harmful than the pain itself,” he said, though he did not clearly state that the barrier would be demolished. A statement released April 25 by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called the barrier an expression of “the evil will” of the U.S., and described it as a “sectarian, racist and unjust wall that seeks to divide.” A Sunni political group also denounced the barrier as part of a plan to purge Sunnis from the capital. Members of Religious Sect Massacred—

Sunni gunmen April 22 stopped a bus near Mosul, separated out passengers who be-

longed to the religious Yazidi sect, and then abducted and killed 23 Yazidis. Some Yazidis expressed outrage at the attack, vowing revenge against Muslims. The massacre occurred amidst tensions between Muslims and Yazidis in and around Mosul regarding intermarriage between the respective religions’ members. In one incident earlier in the month, a Yazidi woman had eloped with a Muslim man and converted to Islam, only to be abducted by Yazidis and stoned to death. The Yazidi sect combined Islamic and ancient Persian religious teachings, and had a very small membership. U.S. Military Police Officer Charged—

The U.S. military April 26 announced that Army Lt. Col. William Steele was facing nine charges for misconduct during his command of a military police unit at the Camp Cropper detention facility in Baghdad. The charges included providing aid to the enemy by giving a cellular phone to a detainee, fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee, improper handling of classified information and failing to obey an order. The military did not elaborate on the charges, but said Steele was being held in military custody pending an investigation of the accusations. Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was among the detainees who had been held at Camp Cropper. Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq: † A double suicide truck bombing April 23 killed nine U.S. soldiers and wounded 20 more at a military outpost near Baqubah in Diyala province. It was the deadliest single attack against U.S. soldiers in more than a year. The Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group, April 24 released a statement on the Internet taking credit for the attack.

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jonathan Taylor MANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham COPY DIRECTOR: Marion Farrier SENIOR EDITORS: Mette Bahde, Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Alasdair Denvil ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ian McGullam DATABASE COORDINATOR: Ben MIller INDEX EDITOR: Jonathan Leith COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Jane Carlson, Nikki Conti-Brown FACTS ON FILE World News Digest is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. Vice President & Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Associate Publisher: Marjorie B. Bank. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

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April 26, 2007

Ruling Party Candidate Declared Winner of Nigerian Election Opposition, Observers Challenge Results.

he planned to begin talks with the militants after taking office. [See p. 247F2] Reuters news service April 27 reported preliminary, incomplete results showing that the PDP had won 159 seats in the 360member House of Representatives and 53 seats in the 109-member Senate. The ANPP won 65 seats in the House and 12 in the Senate, and the AC claimed 19 in the House and three in the Senate. The INEC reportedly had rescheduled elections in more than 12 states where voting did not occur on April 21. Coalition Seeks Annulment— The Transition Monitoring Group, the main independent domestic election-observing organization, April 22 demanded that the results be annulled and the election rerun, citing widespread violence and intimidation and reports of systematic vote-rigging by local party officials. Buhari April 23 called the election “blatantly rigged,” and urged parliament to impeach Obasanjo. The head of the European Union’s mission observing the election, Max van den Berg, April 23 said it had “fallen far short of basic international and regional standards” and was not “credible.” EU observers said they had witnessed the stuffing and theft of ballot boxes, as well as ballot shortages and failures to ensure a secret ballot. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the election “flawed.” Obasanjo in a nationally televised address April 23 acknowledged that the vote “could not have been said to have been perfect,” but urged “aggrieved” Nigerians to “avail themselves of the laid-down constitutional procedure,” which provided for special electoral tribunals. Yar’Adua rejected international observers’ criticisms of the elections, and called on Nigerians to unite for “the greater food of moving our dear nation ahead.” The national assembly initially planned to convene April 24 to discuss the elections, but Senate President Ken Nnamani that day said the debate would begin May 2. Government officials April 22 had accused critics, including Nnamani, of trying to discredit the elections in order to seize power with the aid of the military. Election Day Marked by Chaos—Opposition parties complained about alleged fraud

Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) April 23 declared Umaru Yar’Adua, the candidate of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the winner of a presidential election held April 21. Voters had gone to the polls that day to select a new president in what would be the first transfer of power from one elected leader to another in the oil-rich country— Africa’s most populous—where a civilian government had been established in 1999 after decades of military rule. However, opposition candidates and independent groups challenged the credibility of the election, which was marred by violence and widespread instances of apparent fraud. [See p. 246A3] As the opposition called for the vote to be annulled, some members of the ruling party denounced such demands as calls for a coup d’etat, leaving uncertainty over whether a peaceful transition would be effected when current President Olusegun Obasanjo stepped down May 29. Yar’Adua, 56, was governor of the northern state of Katsina. Although descended from a politically prominent family, he had been a relatively obscure figure before his selection as Obasanjo’s favored successor. Under an unwritten understanding that the country’s presidency should alternate between the predominantly Muslim north and the heavily Christian and animist south, the PDP chose Yar’Adua, a Muslim, to follow Obasanjo, an ethnic Yoruba Christian. The election commission said that Yar’Adua had received 24.6 million votes, or about 70% of the total, compared with about 6.6 million for Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and about 2.6 million for Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Action Congress (AC). Abubakar’s candidacy was reinstated by the Supreme Court only days before the election, after the INEC had attempted to bar him. Buhari had been a military ruler of the country in 1984–85, and had lost the last presidential election, in 2003, to Obasanjo. Yar’Adua’s running mate was Goodluck Jonathan, governor of Bayelsa state, located in the southern, oil-producing Niger Delta region. The impoverished region had been plagued by violence in recent years, as militants seeking a greater share of the oil wealth for local residents had targeted foreign oil workers. The election of Jonathan as vice president sparked hopes among some residents that the federal government would take greater action in addressing poverty and violence in the region. Voters confront an election commission official at a polling station in Nago, Yar’Adua April 26 said Nigeria, during the country’s presidential election April 21. 255

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The statement said the attack had killed 30 U.S. soldiers, and had used “new methods of explosions.” [See 2005, p. 866D2] † A suicide car bomber April 23 killed at least 10 people and wounded 20 more in an attack in a village near Mosul. The bomb exploded near the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Gunmen killed another member of the party that day in Mosul. A double suicide bombing in the town of Zumar, west of Mosul, April 26 killed three guards protecting the offices of the party. Five more people were wounded. Massoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, was a member of the party. † A suicide car bomb April 26 struck an Iraqi army checkpoint in the city of Khalis, killing 10 soldiers and wounding 10 more soldiers, as well as five civilians. † U.S. forces April 26 killed four suspected insurgents in fighting near the town of Taji, north of Baghdad. The U.S. military said two women and two children were also killed in the action. † A car bomb April 26 killed six people and wounded 18 more when it exploded near Baghdad University. † A roadside bomb in Baghdad April 26 killed four people and wounded nine more, though it failed to injure members of a nearby police patrol. † A suicide bomber April 25 killed four police officers and wounded 11 more in the city of Balad Ruz in Diyala province. Five civilians were also injured. † A suicide truck bomb April 24 exploded in Ramadi, killing at least nine people and wounding 25 more. † A car bomb at a checkpoint in Baqubah April 23 killed seven police officers and wounded 13 more. The checkpoint protected a provincial council building, where officials were holding a budget meeting. † Multiple car bombs near Ramadi April 23 killed at least 19 people and wounded 35 more. † A suicide bomber in Baghdad April 23 killed at least six people and wounded 14 more in a restaurant. † Gunmen in Fallujah April 21 killed Sami al-Jumaili, the chairman of the city’s council and a critic of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Jumaili, a Sunni, had taken the post in March, and was the fourth chairman of the city’s council to be assassinated since February 2006. Al Qaeda in Iraq frequently attacked anyone it believed was cooperating with either the Shiite-led government or the U.S. military. † Two suicide car bombs in western Baghdad April 22 exploded outside a police station, killing at least 18 people and collapsing several buildings. † The U.S. military April 22 said an air strike on a meeting of Al Qaeda in Iraq members that day killed 15 suspected insurgents. „

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Hastened Fall of Soviet Union in 1991. The

Russian government April 23 announced that former Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, the first democratically elected leader of the country and its first president after the collapse of the Soviet Union, had died that day in Moscow, Russia’s capital. Yeltsin, 76, reportedly died of heart and other organ failures, after years of heart ailments; he had reportedly been hospitalized in Moscow several days earlier. As president of the Soviet Russian republic, he played a key role in the dissolution of the Soviet

Union in 1991. After two terms during which the country made the tumultuous transition to a market economy and democracy, he resigned in 1999, handing power to his designated successor, Vladimir V. Putin, still Russia’s president at the time of Yeltsin’s death. [See p. 272G3; 2004, p. 705G1; 2001, p. 214A1; 1999, p. 953A1; for key events in Yeltsin’s career, see box below] Putin April 23 issued a statement paying tribute to Yeltsin, and declared April 25, the day of his state funeral, a national President Boris Yeltsin greets a crowd in Moscow on Aug. day of mourning. [See below] Russian 22, 1991, after leading the resistance to a coup d’etat attempt by Yeltsin’s body April 24 was Communist hard-liners against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. laid in state in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ the Savior in ers in not being interred in the Kremlin after Moscow, where long lines of mourners his death in 1971. [See 1974, p. 822E2] filed past the casket. (Christ the Savior was Reaction—Putin in his April 23 statea church rebuilt in the 1990s after the orig- ment said that thanks to Yeltsin, “a new inal was destroyed by the Soviets in 1931.) democratic Russia was born, a free state Yeltsin’s state funeral April 25 was held open to the world, a state in which power at the cathedral. Among those in atten- truly belongs to the people.” However, dance were Putin; Mikhail Gorbachev, the some observers noted that Putin’s tenure last Soviet leader, and thus Yeltsin’s oppo- had been marked by pointed departures site number in the defining events of the from Yeltsin’s. Those included political reunraveling of the union; and the two forms and restrictions on political activity former U.S. presidents whose terms coin- and the media that had consolidated power cided with Yeltsin’s time in office, George in the presidency. He also reversed aspects H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. [See below] of Yeltsin’s privatizations and other freeIt was the first religious state funeral for market reforms, which had created a class a Russian leader since the death in 1894 of of wealthy “oligarchs” whose power Putin Czar Alexander III. The patriarch of the had moved to curb. Russian church, Aleksii II, said that “the Gorbachev April 23 said that Yeltsin destiny of Boris Nikolayevich reflected the had had “a tragic fate,” as both the figure whole dramatic history of the 20th centu- credited with bringing Russia out of the ry,” in a statement read by one of the offi- Soviet era, and the focus of the populace’s ciants of the ceremony. disappointments in the difficult times that Yeltsin April 25 was buried in Moscow’s followed. Gorbachev expressed “deepest Novodevichy Cemetery, the resting place of condolences to the family of the deceased, numerous well-known Russian cultural fig- on whose shoulders lie many achievements ures. Also buried there was Nikita Krush- in the service of the country, and serious chev, who differed from other Soviet lead- mistakes.” KEY EVENTS IN BORIS YELTSIN’S CAREER

Following are key events in the political career of Boris Yeltsin [See p. 256D1]: Feb. 1, 1931—Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin is

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born in Butka, Russia, near Yekaterinburg (then known as Sverdlovsk). Dec. 24, 1985—Yeltsin is named first secretary of the Moscow city Communist Party. [See 1985, p. 998A1] Nov. 11, 1987—The party dismisses Yeltsin from his Moscow post following clashes with conservatives. [See 1987, p. 846E3] March 26, 1989—In unprecedented multiparty Soviet parliamentary elections, Yeltsin is elected to the Congress of People’s Deputies. [See 1989, p. 209A1] May 29, 1990—Yeltsin, who had won election to the parliament of the Russian republic March 9, is elected chairman of the body. [See 1990, p. 406D3] June 12, 1991—Yeltsin becomes the first elected president of the Russian Republic. [See 1991, p. 429A1] Aug. 19–21, 1991—Yeltsin leads hundreds of thousands of pro-democratic Soviets to quell an attempted coup d’etat by hard-liners. [See 1991, p. 621A1] 256

Nov. 1, 1991—Parliament grants Yeltsin

sweeping powers to implement a broad economic reform plan. [See 1991, p. 842E3] Dec. 8, 1991—The Commonwealth of Independent States is formed, leading to the disbanding of the Soviet Union, and the resignation of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Dec. 25. [See 1991, p. 969A1] Dec. 14, 1992—Yeltsin names Viktor S. Chernomyrdin premier. Economic reformer and acting Premier Yegor T. Gaidar resigns. [See 1992, p. 949A1] Dec. 11, 1994—Russian army forces invade the breakaway republic of Chechnya. [See 1994, p. 945A3] July 3, 1996—Yeltsin is reelected, reversing recent political gains by the Communist Party. [See 1996, p. 457A1] Nov. 5, 1996—Yeltsin undergoes multiplebypass heart surgery. [See 1996, p. 831B2] May 12, 1997—Yeltsin signs a peace treaty with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. The treaty puts in formal terms an accord signed in 1996. [See 1997, p. 364E1] March 23, 1998—Yeltsin dismisses his cabinet and names Sergei Kiriyenko acting premier. As the country’s economic crisis

worsens, Yeltsin Aug. 23 reinstates Chernomyrdin as premier. Parliament rejects Chernomyrdin, paving the way for compromise candidate Yevgeny Primakov to assume the post Sept. 11. [See 1998, pp. 649B3, 589A1, 181A1] Oct. 20, 1998—Yeltsin announces that he will not seek reelection in 2000. [See 1998, p. 820B2] May 12, 1999—Yeltsin fires Primakov and nominates Sergei Stepashin as premier. Yeltsin Aug. 9 fires Stepashin and replaces him with Vladimir V. Putin. [See 1999, pp. 573A1, 342B3] May 15, 1999—Parliament votes not to launch impeachment proceedings against Yeltsin. [See 1999, p. 359E1] Sept. 23, 1999—After bombing attacks attributed to Chechen guerillas ravage Russia, the Russian military resumes its campaign against Chechnya. [See 1999, p. 713B3] Dec. 31, 1999—Citing recent gains by progovernment parties in parliamentary elections, Yeltsin resigns and names Putin acting president. [See 1999, p. 953A1] April 23, 2007—Yeltsin dies of multiple organ failure in Moscow. [See p. 256D1] FACTS ON FILE

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and irregularities even before the voting began April 21, alleging April 20 that a truck full of ballots completed for Yar’Adua had been found. Election officials dismissed the accusation as impossible, noting that new ballots taking Abubakar’s restored candidacy into account, printed abroad at the last minute, were only just being sent out. Obasanjo that day in a nationwide address acknowledged problems in state elections held the previous week, but described claims of systematic fraud as “exaggerated.” The revised ballots themselves were the focus of opposition criticism, because they displayed only party emblems, rather than names or images of the specific candidates, and did not have serial numbers that would help prevent vote manipulation. Delays in delivering ballots were among numerous irregularities reported April 21, which also included erratic opening hours at polling stations, open ballot-box stuffing and violence that killed at least 16 people. In Abuja, the capital, an attempt to blow up the election commission headquarters with a truck laden with fuel on election day failed. Information Minister Frank Nweke April 22 suggested that the incident was part of an opposition plot to disrupt the election. „

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momentum for further political and economic reforms were halting. Yeltsin in 1999 named Putin as the latest of his oftenreplaced premiers, and at the end of that year resigned abruptly, naming Putin acting president. He largely withdrew from public life after his resignation. [See 1999, p. 573B1; 1996, p. 457A1] „

Middle East Israeli-Palestinian Cease-Fire Jeopardized.

Former Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin in 2003

U.S. President George W. Bush issued a statement praising Yeltsin as “an historic figure who served his country during a time of momentous change,” and expressed gratitude for his work “to build a strong relationship between Russia and the United States.” Reactions among ordinary Russians cited in news reports ranged from gratitude for bringing new political freedoms to the country, to bitterness over its economic troubles, the decay of social services and a decline in Russian power in the world. Boris Berezovsky, one of the most prominent of the oligarchs who rose to great wealth under Yeltsin, and who now lived in London, April 23 said, “Russia has lost the greatest reformer in all its history.” [See p. 249C3, G3] Resisted Coup Against Gorbachev—

Yeltsin had gathered power in the Soviet Union’s Russian republic in the late 1980s, while Gorbachev was trying to reform the Communist system. Yeltsin became the chairman of the Russian parliament in 1990, then in 1991 won Russia’s first direct popular election for the presidency. Later the same year he rallied the popular resistance that thwarted an attempted coup against Gorbachev by Communist hard-liners, famously addressing Muscovites from atop an army tank outside the Russian parliament. The dissolution of the Soviet Union later in the year spelled Gorbachev’s downfall and left Yeltsin the leader of post-Soviet Russia. [See 1991, p. 621A1; 1990, p. 406D3] As president of an independent Russia, Yeltsin swiftly implemented drastic freemarket reforms and built a constitutional order based on free elections, presiding over the rocky transition with a populist swagger. The economic reforms provoked intensifying opposition from parliament, culminating in his ordering a military assault on the legislature in 1993. Yeltsin in 1994 launched a military offensive in the rebellious republic of Chechnya, a conflict that was still ongoing under Putin. [See p. 101F2; 1994, p. 945A3; 1993, p. 741A1] Yeltsin in 1996 defeated a Communist challenger to win a second term. However, he was in failing health—an often-cited cause, along with a reputation for bouts of heavy drinking, of his sometimes erratic public behavior—and his efforts to regain April 26, 2007

Violence between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants escalated April 21– 24, threatening to end a cease-fire between the two sides that had been in place since November 2006. According to the truce’s terms, Israel was to halt its military operations in the Gaza Strip while Palestinian militants were to cease firing rockets from Gaza into southern Israel. Some militants, however, had refused to abide by the truce and staged rocket attacks with some reportedly outraged at Israel’s continued operations in the West Bank. Israel had responded to the rocket attacks by conducting operations in Gaza, specifically targeting the attackers. [See p. 240B3] Israeli forces April 21 killed at least six Palestinians. Three gunmen died near the West Bank city of Jenin when they clashed with Israeli forces. Another armed man was also killed near Jenin, though some witnesses claimed that he was a police officer. One militant was killed by an air strike in the Gaza Strip. Israel claimed that the militant had been firing rockets into Israel. At least three rockets were launched at Israel from Gaza that day. Palestinian medical workers said Israeli forces also killed a 17-year-old girl near Jenin. Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus April 22 killed two militants while trying to apprehend them. Israeli troops also fired on dozens of Palestinians in a West Bank village near Ramallah, killing one teenager in the group. The Israeli military claimed that the troops had been confronted by a Palestinian mob wielding knives and firebombs. Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the militant Islamist group Hamas, which led the Palestinian government, called on Palestinian militants to “be united in the trench of resistance and to use all possible means of resistance to respond to the massacres.” Hamas militants in Gaza April 24 fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells into Israel. Hamas boasted openly of the attack, making it the first such strike acknowledged by the group since it agreed to the cease-fire. No casualties or significant damage restulted from the barrage. Hamas Declares Cease-Fire ‘Over’—

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, April 24 declared that “the cease-fire has been over for a long time, and Israel is responsible for that.” He warned Israel that Hamas was “ready to kidnap more and more, and kill more and more of your soldiers.” Hamas was still holding captive Cpl. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier abducted in June 2006. [See p. 240C2] Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas April 24 said the Hamas

attack was “a truce violation,” but added that it was “an exceptional act which will not last.” He called on Israel to “exercise the necessary self-control” and keep the cease-fire intact. Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for PA premier and senior Hamas official Ismail Haniya, blamed Israel for the recent violence, but said the PA government “affirms the importance of maintaining the truce and protecting it.” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert April 25 held an emergency meeting with security officials to discuss the situation. He decided to maintain the current policy of “pinpoint” attacks against militants firing rockets, refraining from a large-scale ground incursion into Gaza. In other recent violence, Israeli troops April 18 had shot and killed a gunman near Jenin, while Palestinian militants had fired at Israelis near a West Bank settlement, wounding four of them. „

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International Finance World Bank, IMF Hold Spring Meetings.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) April 14–15 held their semiannual meetings in Washington, D.C. Five economies—the U.S., China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the eurozone (comprising European Union countries using the euro as their official currency)—agreed at the IMF meeting to general terms aimed at reducing global trade imbalances in order to prolong economic growth worldwide. The U.S. agreed to encourage its citizens to save more; China said it would gradually allow the value of its currency to rise against others to bring down its huge trade surplus; the eurozone and Japan pledged economic reforms intended to promote growth; and Saudi Arabia agreed to direct more of its proceeds from oil sales into investment in its economy. The pledges were voluntary and informal, involving no timetable or enforcement mechanisms. [See p. 240E3; 2006, p. 725C3] The IMF board also agreed on the principles of a new surveillance scheme for a fund designed to take account of the international implications of a given country’s economic problems. Furthermore, it agreed to general principles for a new quota system that would shift some voting power at the fund to developing countries whose economies were overtaking those of some of the IMF’s traditional leaders. Britain and France, which had the most to lose from such a realignment of voting power according to economic size, said they supported the idea in principle, but privately opposed a specific plan, backed by the U.S., that could give China the right to appoint its own IMF director, at the expense of one of their directors. In its semiannual World Economic Outlook released April 11, the fund had said global economic growth was at its highest sustained rate since the early 1970s. It forecast a fifth consecutive year of global economic expansion in 2007, predicting aggregate worldwide total gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 4.9% in both 2007 257

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and 2008, down from 5.4% growth in 2006. Current turmoil in the U.S. mortgage market was unlikely to affect the global economy in any significant way, the fund reported. [See p. 224B3] The fund attributed the growth largely to productivity gains, and cautioned that the rate of those gains might be slowing, making continued economic expansion more difficult. Development Sought in ‘Fragile’ Nations—

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World Bank chief economist Francois Bourguignon April 13 told the Financial Times that the bank had a new commitment to address development in countries torn by war or with very unstable governments. He said the bank had tended to ignore these “fragile” states, instead devoting aid to places where donors had better assurances that it would be put to good use. The bank March 5 had announced a new fund for emergency responses to natural disasters or the aftermath of conflict. The fund would provide applicant countries with up to $5 million immediately, with few strings attached. The bank would also expedite delivery of long-term aid. The World Bank’s directors March 20 had agreed to a revised version of the controversial anticorruption strategy pursued by its president, Paul Wolfowitz, since he took office in 2005. In the revision, Wolfowitz was forced to promise that the bank would not abandon countries where corruption remained rampant, and that it would engage corrupt national governments themselves over issues of sound governance. World Bank financing to a number of countries including India, Chad, Kenya, Congo Republic, Ethiopia and Bangladesh had been severed during Wolfowitz’s tenure because of persistent corruption problems in those places. The World Bank’s meetings April 14– 15 were somewhat overshadowed by a scandal concerning Wolfowitz’s arrangement of pay raises and promotions for his girlfriend. At a meeting in Washington of members of the Group of Seven (G-7) leading industrialized countries, finance ministers and other participants April 13 met with representatives of the hedge fund industry to work out ways to make the ever more powerful industry more transparent. As in previous years, China was invited to attend the G-7 meeting, but declined, citing the need to devote its efforts to domestic affairs. [See p. 220G3] Chinese, Indian Growth Cuts Poverty—

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The World Bank April 15 reported that the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide in 2004 was 986 million in 2004, or about 18% of the global population, down 80 million from 2002–03. Extreme poverty was defined by the bank as having less than $1 per day to live on. The improvement had been geographically uneven, however. Rapid economic growth in China had lifted 300 million people out of extreme poverty in the two years, and a dramatic reduction also took place in India. Meanwhile, sub-Saharan Africa experienced a 60-million-person rise in extreme poverty during the same period. „ 258

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Politics Bush Reaffirms Support for Gonzales.

President George W. Bush April 23 said that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, to explain the Justice Department’s controversial dismissal of eight federal prosecutors in 2006, had “increased my confidence in his ability to do the job.” Gonzales had faced harsh criticism and calls for his resignation from both Democrats and Republicans at the hearing the previous week, as he repeatedly said he could not recall details of his role in the firings. [See p. 243E1] Bush said, “The attorney general went up and gave a very candid assessment and answered every question he could possibly answer…Some senators didn’t like his explanation, but he answered as honestly as he could.” Bush defended the ouster of the prosecutors, saying, “U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. In other words, we have named them, and I have the right to replace them with somebody else.…The attorney general broke no law, did no wrongdoing.” Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, April 23 said keeping Gonzales in his post would be “harmful to the Justice Department because he has lost his credibility.” The Senate Judiciary Committee April 25 authorized, but did not issue, a subpoena that would compel Sara Taylor, deputy to Bush’s chief political adviser, Karl Rove, to appear for questioning on the ouster of the prosecutors. The House Judiciary Committee April 25 voted to grant limited immunity from prosecution to Monica Goodling, who had resigned recently as a top aide to Gonzales. The House panel also authorized a subpoena to force her to appear, but did not issue it. Goodling had refused to answer questions about the firings, invoking her Fifth Amendment right to avoid selfincrimination. The grant of immunity would shield her from being prosecuted for anything she testified about truthfully. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee April 25 issued two subpoenas to the Republican National Committee (RNC), the executive body of the national Republican Party, and its chairman, Robert Duncan. The subpoenas demanded testimony and documents related to the use of RNC e-mail accounts by Rove and other White House officials. Election Briefings at Agencies Probed—

The subpoenas for the RNC also sought information about presentations on Republican election strategy that White House officials had given at federal agencies both before and after the 2006 midterm elections. The White House April 25 acknowledged that the briefings had taken place in at least 15 agencies. The Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency, April 24 had said it

was widening an investigation into the briefings to determine if they amounted to “illegal political activity” in violation of the Hatch Act, which barred federal employees from engaging in electioneering in their official capacities. The office had started a probe after Rep. Henry Waxman (d, Calif.), chairman of the oversight panel, March 6 said that Rove deputy Scott Jennings had held a Jan. 26 videoconference to brief officials at the General Services Administration (GSA), the main federal procurement agency, on the 2008 elections. GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan had asked Jennings what agency workers could do to help the Republican candidates, according to employees who said they thought her remarks were improper. Waxman March 6 also released records that he said showed other misconduct by Doan, such as awarding a no-bid contract to a former business associate. „ Two House Republicans Targeted by FBI.

Reps. John Doolittle (R, Calif.) and Rick Renzi (R, Ariz.) April 19–20 stepped down from their House committees, confirming reports that their properties had been raided in corruption probes by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). [See below, pp. 258A2, 191E1; 2006, p. 814C2] Doolittle April 18 said the FBI had raided his home in northern Virginia, and the following day announced his temporary resignation from the House Appropriations Committee. He said that the FBI had searched his house for records of a company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions Inc., run by his wife, Debbie Doolittle. She had acted as his fund-raising consultant, taking a 15% commission on most contributions made to his political campaigns. The Justice Department reportedly was investigating payments made by corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff to Debbie Doolittle and the spouses of other members of Congress. Abramoff had pleaded guilty to influence-peddling charges in 2006. Doolittle had also secured federal contracts for military contractor Brent Wilkes, who had made large contributions to Doolittle’s campaigns. Any arrangement making a direct link between legislative favors and campaign contributions would be illegal. In 2005, former Rep. Randy Cunningham (R, Calif.) had pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Wilkes in exchange for steering contracts to him. Federal investigators reportedly were probing the role of a third California Republican, Rep. Jerry Lewis, former chairman of the Appropriations Committee, in obtaining federal contracts for Wilkes. A federal grand jury Feb. 13 had indicted Wilkes for bribing Cunningham. The grand jury also indicted former highranking Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official Kyle (Dusty) Foggo for steering CIA contracts to Wilkes in exchange for gifts and favors. Renzi Land Deal Reported—The Wall Street Journal April 21 reported that Resolution Copper Co., a joint venture of minFACTS ON FILE

ing giants Rio Tinto PLC and BHP Billiton Ltd., had asked Renzi to back a federal land exchange that it needed to acquire the site of a major Arizona copper lode. Renzi reportedly demanded that the companies buy a separate property owned by his former business partner. They refused. Renzi later received a $200,000 cash payment from the former business partner, James Sandlin, after the property, an alfalfa field near Sierra Vista, Ariz., was finally sold to another group of buyers. Renzi’s lawyer said the payment was to settle a debt, not a kickback for his influence. Renzi April 19 said the FBI had raided a business run by his family in Arizona in connection with the land deal. He said he was taking a leave of absence from the Intelligence Committee. Renzi April 24 quit his seats on two other House panels, saying he was “the subject of leaked stories, conjecture and false attacks.” Firing of Prosecutor Linked to Renzi—

Renzi’s chief of staff, Brian Murray, April 25 confirmed that in September 2006, he had called Paul Charlton, then the U.S. attorney in Phoenix, Ariz., to ask about the investigation into Renzi. Charlton reportedly had told congressional investigators that after receiving the call from Murray, he reported it to the Justice Department as a possibly improper attempt to interfere in a federal probe. The Justice Department had fired Charlton in December, along with six other U.S. attorneys across the nation. The dismissals of the prosecutors had ignited a controversy, with members of both parties calling for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) April 25 sent a letter to Gonzales, saying that the developments in the Renzi case posed “new and serious questions about whether improper political motivations were involved” in the decision to fire Charlton. Schumer cited reports that the Justice Department might have deliberately slowed the Renzi probe in order to help Renzi win reelection in November. A Justice Department spokesman responded by saying that Gonzales had never interfered in criminal cases “for partisan political reasons.” „

Virginia Tech Massacre Classes Resume, Norris Hall Shut. Class-

es resumed at Virginia Tech April 23, exactly one week after the Blacksburg, Va., campus was the scene of the worst shooting rampage in U.S. history, perpetrated by a student, Seung-Hui Cho, 23. Cho had slain 32 people before killing himself. [See p. 237A1] Norris Hall, the classroom building where Cho had killed all but two of his victims, had been cordoned off by police. The facility, which housed classes that had been attended by several hundred students, would be closed until the end of the semester, less than two weeks away. University officials estimated that day that roughly three-quarters of the school’s April 26, 2007

26,000 students had returned to finish the semester. Students had been told they could take the rest of the semester off if they wished. The campus paused momentarily at 9:45 a.m. on the Drill Field, at the heart of the campus. Then, after a one-minute pause, a bell rang 32 more times, and a white balloon was released with every ring. Three days earlier, on April 20, residents of 39 states and the U.S. territory of Guam had observed an official day of mourning for the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. April 20 was also when engineering professor Liviu Librescu, one of five slain faculty members, was buried in Ra’anana, Israel. Librescu, a Holocaust survivor who had been hailed as a hero for enabling most of his students to excape the gunman, had lived in Israel for eight years before coming to the U.S. He had two sons who lived in Ra’anana. [See p. 238C3] Senate Hearing Held—The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland and Governmental Affairs, chaired by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I, Conn.), April 23 held a hastily convened hearing on the Virginia Tech massacre. The Senate was trying to come up with ways to prevent such incidents from happening again. Russ Federman, director of counseling and psychological services at the University of Virginia, in testimony at the hearing cited a recent survey of college students in which nearly 50% of the respondents had reported feelings of depression severe enough to hamper their functioning. He said that 9% of students had reported seriously considering suicide and 1.3% said they had actually attempted it. Cho, the Virginia Tech gunman, had been briefly hospitalized in late 1995 after showing signs of possibly being suicidal. [See p. 238D1] Separately, Virginia and federal officials April 20 suggested that under federal law, Cho’s court-mandated mental treatment should have made him ineligible to legally obtain guns. A state commission examining Virginia’s mental health laws was planning to investigate the precise circumstances of Cho’s case. Sister Issues Apology—Cho’s older sister, Sun-Kyung Cho, 25, April 20 broke her family’s silence by releasing a statement to the Associated Press, through an attorney. In it, she mentioned all the Virginia Tech victims by name and said they had all been in her family’s prayers “[e]very day since April 16,” the day they died. Referring to her brother, she said, “This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn’t know this person,” adding, “We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence.” Saying that her family would “continue to cooperate fully” with authorities probing the massacre, she concluded, “Our family is so very sorry for my brother’s unspeakable actions. It is a terrible tragedy for all of us.” „

Legislation House Passes D.C. Representation Bill.

The House April 19 voted, 241–177, to pass a bill that would grant the residents of Washington, D.C., a representative in Congress with full voting rights for the first time. The passage of the bill was the biggest step toward representation for the capital since 1978. In that year, Congress approved a constitutional amendment to give Washington two senators and at least one member of the House, but it subsequently failed to win ratification by the necessary 38 states and died in 1985. [See p. 62D1; 2000, p. 1009E1; 1985, p. 623F2] The new measure would grant largely Republican Utah a fourth seat in the House, in a political compromise meant to balance the addition of a member from heavily Democratic Washington. However, President George W. Bush had threatened to veto the bill if it reached his desk, calling it unconstitutional. Republican opposition also made the prospects for Senate passage uncertain. In a debate before the House vote, Republicans asserted that the Constitution restricted congressional representation to the states. They cited Article I, Section 2, which said that the members of the House must be chosen “by the people of the several states.” They argued that only a constitutional amendment could give the capital district the same representation as the states. The Constitution specified that the nation’s capital be a separate federal district so that it would not fall under the domination of a particular state. An 1801 law, the Organic Act, had removed the voting rights of District of Columbia residents. Washington’s nonvoting delegate to the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), led the arguments for the bill, saying, “I ask the House today finally to give residents of the District of Columbia the vote they have fought for for 206 years.” Twenty-two Republicans, led by Rep. Thomas Davis 3rd (Va.), who cosponsored the bill with Norton, joined Democrats to vote for the bill. The House also voted, 216–203, to pass a companion bill that would provide funding for the new House seats by imposing a slight tax increase on people with income of more than $5 million a year. Under existing law, the delegates from D.C. and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam and the Virgin Islands could only participate in committee votes. The House, newly under Democratic rule, Jan. 24 had voted, 226–191, to restore previous rules that allowed the delegates to vote when the House sat as the Committee of the Whole to consider legislative amendments. The change did not give the delegates the right to vote on final legislation. It also prevented them from casting the decisive vote on any amendment. „ Senate Blocks Drug Price Negotiation Bill.

The Senate April 18 blocked a measure allowing the government to negotiate prescription drug prices for the Medicare health 259

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care program. A motion to limit debate on the bill and move it forward fell short of the 60 votes needed, in a 55–42 vote. The legislation had served as one of the six major elements of the Democrats’ “100 Hours” agenda, and had been promoted as a means of reducing the cost of drugs to senior citizens. The House in January had passed a similar measure. [See p. 28E3] The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 had established a government-funded, but privately managed, prescription drug benefit for Medicare, also known as Part D. The law forbade the government from negotiating drug prices on behalf of insurers administering the drug plans. The largely Republican authors of the bill had argued that a government negotiation ban would encourage private insurers to negotiate the lowest possible prices for drugs, thereby reducing the government’s costs. However, Democrats had argued that the government should wield its substantial purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices. The failed bill had also included a provision requiring insurers running the plans to provide Congress with data on their drug costs and prices. The information would ostensibly be used to bolster the case for the establishment of government negotiation powers. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) said the bill had been stopped by conservative Republicans and an intense lobbying effort by pharmaceutical firms and the health care industry. Six Republicans had voted in favor of advancing the bill. „ House Passes Water Projects Bill. The House April 19 passed, 394–25, a bill that would authorize spending estimated at about $15 billion for hundreds of Army Corps of Engineers water resources projects. The measure still required Senate approval. Congress had not enacted a water resources authorization bill since 2000. [See p. 262G1; 2006, p. 611F2] The bill, the Water Resources Development Act, authorized about $3 billion for reconstruction programs in areas of the Gulf Coast ravaged by hurricanes in 2005, and $3.6 billion for locks, dams and environmental restoration projects on the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Money was also authorized for more than 700 other projects, many of which were requested by individual legislators. They included several projects aimed at restoring the Florida Everglades. The bill required an independent panel of experts to review all projects costing $50 million or more, but allowed the Corps to exempt certain projects. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) put the cost of the version approved March 15 by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at $13.2 billion. However, committee aides said that amendments added by voice vote boosted the cost by about $1.5 billion. The legislation was criticized by the Bush administration and some fiscally conservative Republicans, who objected to its cost and said the total sum authorized would top $15 billion. „ 260

House Passes Disaster Loan Reforms. The House April 18 approved, 267–158, a bill reforming the disaster loan program of the Small Business Administration (SBA). The Democratic-backed legislation came in response to delays and miscommunications in the agency’s response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita after they devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005. It mandated that the SBA create a disaster response plan and maintain a 1,000-member disaster response team. [See p. 262C1; 2006, p. 326A1] Under the bill, the SBA would increase its loan limit to $3 million, from $1.5 million, and increase the types of businesses eligible for loans. It would also allow the agency to defer loan repayment for victims of the 2005 hurricanes; remove the requirement that borrowers of less than $100,000 put up their houses as collateral; require the creation of a centralized loan application tracking system; and set requirements for the coordination of relief efforts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). [See p. 262A1] The Bush administration opposed the bill, arguing that it would cost taxpayers too much and duplicate benefits already provided by other agencies. Rep. Steve Chabot (Ohio), the ranking Republican on the Small Business Committee, unsuccessfully introduced amendments to remove language that would allow certain victims of the 2005 hurricanes to claim duplicate benefits from multiple sources and let affected businesses that had been rejected for disaster loans receive SBA grants. „ House Extends Gulf Coast Tax Breaks.

The House March 27 approved by voice vote a bill extending the deadline of the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act, which authorized tax credits to spur reconstruction on the Gulf Coast after the 2005 devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The bill, which required Senate passage, would extend the deadline by two years, to Dec. 31, 2010. The existing law required developers building low-income housing projects to complete them by the deadline in order to claim the tax breaks. [See p. 262C1; 2005, p. 935C2] House Ways and Means Committee members had clashed over a measure that offset the $237 million in tax credits by changing certain Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employment tax proceedings. The change, supported by ranking Republican Rep. Jim McCrery (La.), would allow the IRS to seize assets, without first holding a hearing, from businesses that withheld taxes from employees but did not pay them to the IRS. The Treasury Department said that such companies often went bankrupt before hearings were complete, keeping the IRS from collecting owed taxes. However, other Republicans on the committee protested that such a move would unfairly penalize small businesses that made honest mistakes. A compromise was approved, allowing companies the right to one hearing every two years. „

Gulf Coast Housing Measure Approved.

The House March 21 passed, 302–125, a bill requiring the government to replace on a one-to-one basis all public housing projects that were demolished due to damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The bill, which required Senate approval, would also grant displaced Gulf Coast public housing tenants the right to return to public housing. [See p. 262A1, C1; 2006, p. 470F2] Democrats defeated several Republican attempts to introduce amendments deleting language that expanded housing voucher programs. The legislation included provisions that would allow eligible families receiving temporary disaster vouchers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to switch to the permanent income-regulated Section 8 housing program. It also extended the HUD disaster voucher program to January 2008. Republicans pushed through an amendment barring people convicted of drug dealing, sex offenses, domestic violence and other crimes from public housing restored in New Orleans, La. „

2008 Presidential Campaign McCain

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Candidacy.

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) April 25 formally declared his candidacy for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination with a speech in Portsmouth, N.H. It was McCain’s second run for president. He had been the runner-up for the Republican nomination in 2000, losing to then–Texas Gov. George W. Bush. [See p. 222A2] McCain had been actively campaigning and raising money for months before his announcement. Once expected to be the Republican front-runner, he was now trying to rejuvenate his bid after being passed by former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani in the polls. In his Portsmouth speech, McCain, 70, said, “I’m not the youngest candidate. But I am the most experienced.” If he won, he would be the oldest man elected president. After emerging in the past weeks as a leading supporter of President Bush’s decision to send more troops to Iraq, McCain used his speech to distance himself from the Bush administration on other matters. He criticized the administration’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and cited recent revelations about poor treatment received by wounded veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. He also said there had been “many mistakes” made in the Iraq war. As he ticked off a list of such problems, he repeated the refrain, “That’s not good enough for America. And when I’m president, it won’t be good enough for me.” Calls for Gonzales to Resign— McCain April 25 became the most prominent Republican member of Congress to call on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign. In an interview with CNN’s Larry King, he said, “I think that out of loyalty to FACTS ON FILE

the president…that would probably be the best thing that he could do.” Gonzales was under fire for dismissing eight federal prosecutors in 2006. Lawmakers from both parties had criticized Gonzales for failing to provide a credible explanation for the dismissals or disprove suggestions that improper political motives drove the decision. [See p. 258A2] Other News—In related developments: † McCain April 24 replaced his campaign finance director after trailing Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) in fund-raising for the first three months of 2007. He named former Bush fund-raiser Mary Kate Johnson to take over from Carla Eudy. [See p. 261D1] † Leading Democratic presidential candidates April 25 sharply rebuked Giuliani after he said that the U.S. would be more vulnerable to terrorism if a Democrat won the election. At a Republican dinner in New Hampshire, Giuliani April 24 said Democrats “do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us” and would “put us back on defense,” leading to a longer war with more “losses.” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.), Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D, N.C.) all issued statements denouncing Giuliani’s remarks as a divisive attempt to exploit fears of terrorism for political gain. „ Clinton Leads in Cash on Hand. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.) led all candidates for the 2008 presidential election in campaign money in the bank, according to fund-raising and spending reports for the first three months of 2007, filed April 15 with the Federal Election Commission. Clinton reported spending a relatively frugal $5.1 million of the $36.1 million she raised (including general election funds and $10 million transferred from her Senate account), leaving her with $31 million in cash on hand. [See p. 208B1] Her leading rival, Sen. Barack Obama, reported spending $6.6 million of the $25.8 million he raised, giving him $19.2 million in the bank. The new reports showed that Obama had raised more funds designated for the primary campaign than Clinton, with $24.8 million to her $19.1 million. Sen. John Edwards (D, N.C.) had raised $14 million and spent $3.3 million, leaving him $10.7 million on hand. Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.) April 14 revealed further problems with his finances. After reporting earlier in the month that he had raised the least of the three top Republican contenders in the race—$13.1 million—his new report showed that he had spent $8.4 million. That left him with less in the bank—$5.2 million—than his rivals, former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Giuliani April 13 reported spending $5.7 million and raising $16.6 million. He had $11.9 million on hand. Romney, who led the Republican field in fund-raising for the quarter, with $23.4 million, April 13 reported spending $11.6 million. He also had $11.9 million in the bank. „ April 26, 2007

Agriculture Corn Planting Soars Amid Fuel Demand. The Department of Agriculture (USDA)

March 30 reported that U.S. farmers planned to sow 90.5 million acres (36.7 million hectares) of land with corn in the current year, which would be a 15% increase from 2006 and the most since 1944. Farmers were expanding their corn plantings in response to a recent spike in the price of the grain, attributed in part to increased demand for biofuels derived from it. Although the news of a larger planned crop caused the corn price to decrease, U.S. and international officials still said that the ongoing demand for corn for fuel uses was likely to drive up the cost of food. [See below, p. 156A2] (The actual size of the 2007 corn crop would depend on whether farmers followed through on their initial forecasts, as well as on the growing season’s weather.) Corn prices had been hovering around $4.00 per bushel for most of the year, after largely remaining between $2.00 and $3.00 for several years. Demand for ethanol and other biofuels was identified as one factor contributing to the increase, along with unfavorable weather and greater food consumption in rapidly developing countries like China and India. A USDA economist said that about 3.2 billion bushels of the forthcoming corn crop would be used in the production of ethanol, up from 2.15 billion bushels the previous year. The department predicted that total consumption of the crop would be 12.3 billion bushels. The Renewable Fuels Association trade group said there were 114 ethanol plants in the U.S., and another 80 under construction. When those plants were all operating, they would consume about 4.3 billion bushels of corn a year. Food Price Increases Foreseen— The price of corn had a pronounced impact on overall food costs, because it was a principal feed grain for livestock and poultry, and corn derivatives were widely used in industrially produced foods. The USDA had predicted the increase in overall U.S. food prices for the whole year to be 2.5% to 3.5%, the Wall Street Journal reported April 16. The department April 10 had said that the increased price of corn would lead to a decline in U.S. meat and poultry production in 2007. Also, the International Monetary Fund, in its annual report on global economic conditions, released April 11, said that “recent high price levels” for food “are likely to be sustained.” [See p. 257G3] Bill Calls for More Biofuel Use—Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D, N.M.) and Sen. Pete Domenici (N.M.), the panel’s senior Republican, March 27 introduced a bill that would set a target for increasing the U.S.’s use of biofuels to 8.5 billion gallons in 2008 and 36 billion by 2022, up from 4.9 billion gallons in 2006. Although environmental groups generally promoted the increased use of biofuels as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels, the National Resources Defense Council strongly criticized the bill for failing to

address environmental side effects of a dramatic increase in biofuel production. President George W. Bush in his February State of the Union address had called for the use of renewable fuels such as ethanol to be increased to 35 billion gallons a year by 2017. [See p. 41B3] „

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Gulf Coast Hurricane Disaster Millions of Stockpiled FEMA Meals Spoiled.

The Washington Post April 13 reported that up to six million prepared meals stockpiled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the southeastern U.S. for the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season had spoiled due to storage problems. The meals were estimated to be worth $43 million. FEMA officials later April 13 revised the estimated number of spoiled meals to 13.4 million, worth $70 million. They also said the lost meals were box lunches, rather than commercial versions of military Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) designed for use in extreme conditions as had originally been reported. [See pp. 263B1, 262C1, G1, F2, 49C2; 2006, p. 612C2] Officials said the spoilage stemmed from FEMA stockpiling excessive amounts of food for what turned out to a relatively mild hurricane season. The agency had been criticized for its inability to quickly deliver supplies in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which had devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005. “We were so concerned over the failure of Katrina that we…probably bought more commodities and had on hand more than what otherwise might be the most prudent business choice,” said Coast Guard Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson, FEMA’s deputy director, adding, “We didn’t want to run any chance of running out.” Officials said FEMA would upgrade its shipping technology and rely more on military cold-storage facilities to preserve emergency meals for the 2007 hurricane season, rather than sending them to state facilities. Waste Found in Trailer Contracts— The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office had released a report exposing FEMA’s wasteful disbursement of $3.6 billion worth of trailer contracts intended for the Gulf Coast reconstruction effort, it was reported April 23. The report stated that the agency had followed improper bidding procedures and had not ensured that the companies were small, locally operated and financially viable. [See 2006, p. 676B3] FEMA had advised Congress that it would not meet a June 1 deadline to create a new national response plan for emergencies, it was reported April 17. A new target date was not given. A spokesman said the agency was “still shooting for a June deadline,” but that the current plan would remain in effect until a new one was unveiled. [See 2006, p. 470C3] The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee April 17 disclosed an agreement stipulating that FEMA would replace the American Red Cross in 261

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coordinating disaster response efforts. Under the agreement, which was meant to resolve reported infighting between the two groups during the Katrina reconstruction, the Red Cross would still be involved in direct relief efforts. Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I, Conn.) questioned whether FEMA was capable of taking on the additional role. [See 2006, p. 932D1] Victims’ Housing Aid Extended—FEMA

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Jan. 19 extended by six months rental-assistance payments to victims of Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which hit the Gulf Coast weeks after Katrina. The housing aid, which was originally set to expire at the end of February, paid for trailers, mobile homes and apartments for 130,000 families. Housing advocates and state officials in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas had pressed for the extension, saying that much of the area affected by the storms was still in ruins. [See 2006, p. 928B3] „ New Orleans Development Plan Unveiled.

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New Orleans, La., Mayor C. Ray Nagin (D) and the city’s recovery chief, Edward Blakely, March 29 unveiled a new $1.1 billion reconstruction proposal that would target 17 areas for special efforts. Much of the city was still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The latest plan was relatively modest in scope and cost, and many planners said it was more realistic than past proposals; the previous plan, released Jan. 30, had called for $14 billion of investment throughout the city. The new investment proposal, which would include both loans and incentives for private developers and investment in public works, would be “driven by incentives and a marketdriven approach,” according to Nagin. [See pp. 263B1, 262G1, F2, 261A3, 49C2; 2006, p. 675A3, C3] President George W. Bush March 1 visited New Orleans, as well as Long Beach and Biloxi, Miss., to inspect new houses built after Katrina and Rita, in his 14th trip to the stricken areas since the hurricanes hit. Bush noted concerns about the speed of reconstruction efforts but praised their progress, and stressed the need to transfer recovery funds to homeowners. [See 2006, p. 675A2] Nagin Suggests Plot Against Blacks—

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Nagin at a March 15 dinner held by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a newspaper trade group targeting blacks, suggested that a plot to change the racial and political makeup of New Orleans was one of the reasons for its slow recovery, which had kept many black former residents from returning. “Ladies and gentlemen, what happened in New Orleans could happen anywhere,” said Nagin, who was black. “They are studying this model of natural disasters, dispersing the community and changing the electoral process in that community.” Nagin Jan. 29 had told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that he doubted the political will to rebuild New Orleans. “I think it’s more class than anything, but there’s racial issues associated with it also,” he said. „ Corps Faulted for Levee Failure. A Louisiana state report released March 21 blamed the failure of New Orleans’s levee system 262

during Hurricane Katrina in 2005—and the resulting storm surge that devastated the city—on incompetence and neglect by the Army Corps of Engineers. It said agency officials in 1972 and 1979 had ignored increases in the projected strength of severe hurricanes, thus violating a 1965 congressional directive to protect New Orleans against the strongest hurricane expected. In addition, the corps in 1985 had reportedly disregarded a measured drop in the elevation of land they were building on and constructed levees that were too low. [See pp. 263A1, 262C1, F2, 261A3, 49C2; 2006, p. 470D3] Corps engineers had allegedly also overlooked errors committed by subcontractors and had failed to adequately maintain the flood control system, while the agency supposedly had claimed that New Orleans could withstand a storm far more severe than was the case. The report was compiled by an investigative team—dubbed Team Louisiana— made up of 10 Louisiana State University and private sector engineers and storm researchers. The corps March 21 released a statement denying sole responsibility for the failure and asserting that flood control was a joint effort between local, state and federal agencies. The Associated Press March 13 reported that the corps had installed 34 defective pumps at three major drainage canals in a rush to complete hurricane preparations before the 2006 season. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) March 14 criticized the work and called for a congressional investigation. Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the commanding general of the corps, March 15 said vibration problems in the pumps would be fixed by the end of April. The city of New Orleans March 1 had filed a $77 billion damage claim against the corps for failing to properly maintain the city’s flood-control infrastructure. Mayor C. Ray Nagin (R) said only $1 billion of the lawsuit was for actual damages inflicted by flooding, while the rest was for damage to New Orleans’s image and tourism losses. The claim joined thousands filed by city residents after a Feb. 2 ruling by Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. of U.S. District Court in New Orleans. Duval ruled that at least one source of flooding, the corps-built Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, was a navigation channel, potentially circumventing the government’s immunity to lawsuits over the failure of flood-control projects. [See 2005, p. 750B3] „ Judge Rules Against Evacuee Lawsuit.

Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon of U.S. District Court in New Orleans, La., in a decision made public April 3 ruled that police had not violated a couple’s constitutional right to travel by preventing them from crossing the Mississippi River Bridge into the New Orleans suburb of Gretna. Tracy and Dorothy Dickerson had been seeking to escape the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005. Lemmon wrote, “Although the right to interstate travel is clearly established by our jurisprudence, the United States Supreme Court has not decided the question of

whether the Constitution protects a right to intrastate travel.” [See pp. 263B1, 262C1, G1, F2, 261A3, 49C2; 2006, p. 259A2] A trial on the remaining portions of the lawsuit filed by the Dickersons, which included allegations that the police had used excessive force and had violated the couple’s rights to freedom of assembly and equal protection, was scheduled for 2008. Danziger Shooting Officers Surrender—

Seven police officers Jan. 2 turned themselves in to New Orleans authorities, after having been indicted in December 2006 on murder and attempted murder charges related to September 2005 shootings on New Orleans’s Danziger Bridge that left two people dead and four injured. Prosecutors said the victims had been innocent evacuees fleeing Katrina’s aftermath. However, defense lawyers argued that the policemen had come under fire from the victims. Class Status for Insurance Suits Rejected—

Judge L.T. Senter Jr. of U.S. District Court in Gulfport, Miss., March 22 denied classaction status to lawsuits filed against insurer State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. by owners of homes leveled by Katrina. State Farm had argued that their policies did not cover flood damage, while policyholders claimed that their houses had been leveled by high winds and asked that State Farm pay the full amount of their policies. Senter’s ruling was seen as supporting a plan proposed March 19 by State Farm to reexamine the claims of 35,000–36,000 policyholders under the supervision of state regulators and pay out portions of their claims, for a total of at least $50 million. Robert Trippel, State Farm’s senior executive for Mississippi, Feb. 14 had said the company would stop selling home and small business policies in the state. He said existing policies would be renewed, but hinted that they might be dropped in the future because legal and business conditions “are becoming untenable.” Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood Feb. 16 proposed legislation that would force State Farm to continue selling new policies in the state. State Farm was Mississippi’s largest insurer. Lawsuit Rulings—Among other rulings in Katrina-related lawsuits: † A jury in U.S. District Court in New Orleans April 16 ordered insurer Allstate Corp. to pay Robert Weiss, a Louisiana policyholder whose home was destroyed in Katrina, $2.81 million. The sum included a $1.5 million penalty for failing to pay the claim on time. An Allstate spokesman said the payout would not affect future lawsuits. † State Farm March 6 settled a lawsuit brought against the insurance company in U.S. District Court in Gulfport by Michael and Michelle Williams. The Williamses had disputed State Farm’s denial of a claim on their Ocean Springs, Miss., property, which they said had been destroyed by winds in Katrina rather than by flooding. † Louisiana’s state-run insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., agreed to a mass settlement that would pay $6.6 million to 167 policyholders whose houses had been damaged by Rita, an attorney for the policyholders said March 8. It reportedly was FACTS ON FILE

the first mass settlement of hurricane lawsuits in Louisiana. † A couple who had filed a lawsuit against Allstate over wind damage to their Marrero, La., home caused by Katrina Feb. 16 dropped their suit. The plaintiffs, Lawrence and Elizabeth Tomlinson, did not give a reason, but Allstate during the case had argued that they had misrepresented claims for living expenses. „ ‘Active’ 2007 Hurricane Season Forecast.

Top weather forecaster William Gray, of the Tropical Meteorology Project at Colorado State University, April 3 predicted that the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season would be “very active” and would include nine hurricanes. Gray forecast 17 named storms—including five severe hurricanes with winds of at least 111 miles per hour (178 kilometers per hour)—during the June–November season. He said there was a 74% chance of a severe hurricane hitting the continental U.S., compared with the 52% average over the previous century. [See pp. 262C1, G1, F2, 261A3, 49C2; 2006, p. 677A1] The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Feb. 27 had warned that the La Nina weather phenomenon, which caused shifts in weather patterns by cooling water currents in the Pacific Ocean, could cause more Atlantic hurricanes. „

Medicare & Social Security Funds’ Insolvency Dates Pushed Back.

The trustees of the Medicare and Social Security systems April 23 issued a report predicting that the Medicare hospital insurance trust fund would be exhausted by 2019, one year later than they had predicted in 2006. The report estimated that the Social Security trust fund would be depleted by 2041, also one year later than predicted in 2006. The report also said that Social Security payments would begin exceeding tax receipts in 2017. [See p. 177F1; 2006, p. 374A3] The trustees said the rising cost of health care and the approaching retirement of the baby boomer generation of roughly 78 million people were the two major contributing factors to the Medicare trust fund’s looming fiscal problems. The report said the government would either need to increase taxes or reduce benefits to make up for the approaching funding shortfall. The trustees noted that spiraling health care costs put the Medicare fund in a much worse position than the Social Security fund. “Without change, rising costs will drive government spending to unprecedented levels, consume nearly all projected federal revenues and threaten America’s future prosperity,” said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr., who also served as a trustee of the two funds. The report also projected that at least 45% of the Medicare program’s total spending would come from general government revenue for two consecutive years, beginning in 2012. (The Medicare program was also funded through premiums and payroll taxes.) That projection triggered a provision in the Medicare PreApril 26, 2007

scription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 requiring President George W. Bush to propose legislation in 2008 to address the problem in his 2009 budget proposal. The trustee report estimated that Social Security payroll taxes would need to be raised to a total of 14.35%, from the current total of 12.4%, for the fund to remain solvent for 75 years. (Workers currently paid a Social Security tax of 6.2% on their wages that was matched by their employer.) „

Terrorism U.S. Citizen Admits to Training in Somalia.

Daniel Maldonado, also known as Daniel Aljughaifi, April 19 pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Houston, Texas, to receiving military training from the Al Qaeda international terrorist network in Somalia. Prosecutors Feb. 13 had charged Maldonado with conspiring to use an unconventional weapon as well as the training count, but dropped the other charge under the plea agreement. Government officials said Maldonado, a U.S. citizen who converted to Islam in 2000, had volunteered to be a suicide bomber, and had also guarded a man suspected of spying against Al Qaeda who was later killed. He was scheduled to be sentenced June 29, and faced a 10-year prison sentence and $250,000 in fines. [See p. 264E3] Maldonado, 28, had been captured Jan. 21 in Kenya as he was fleeing an assault by Ethiopian and Somali government forces on Islamist fighters operating in Somalia with alleged ties to Al Qaeda. He was the first U.S. national to be prosecuted for aiding the Somali insurgents. „ Ohio Man Charged With Planning Attacks.

A federal grand jury in Columbus, Ohio, April 12 indicted Christopher Paul, a Columbus resident, on charges of plotting to attack targets in the U.S. and Europe and training Al Qaeda international terrorist network operatives. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had arrested Paul the previous day after a four-year investigation. Paul, 43, April 13 pleaded not guilty to charges of providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide support to terrorists and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. [See below] Prosecutors claimed that Paul in 1990– 91 had received military training at an Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and subsequently joined the group. During the 1990s, he had allegedly obtained equipment for forging documents and recruited and trained Islamic extremists in Germany. The government said Paul had met with Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s personal pilot in Peshawar, Pakistan. A law enforcement officer also said he had lived with Iyman Faris, who in 2003 had pleaded guilty to involvement in bomb plots against Washington, D.C., and the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. [See 2006, p. 1000G2] The weapon of mass destruction charge, which carried a life sentence, stemmed from allegations that Paul during a time period ending in January 2000 had plotted to

stage attacks on resorts in Europe frequented by U.S. tourists, and on U.S. government facilities and military bases. „

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Ex-Sailor Charged for Terrorism Support.

Hassan Abujihaad, an ex-Navy sailor, April 4 pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in New Haven, Conn., to charges of providing material support to terrorists and disclosing classified information related to national defense. Abujihaad, who had previously been known as Paul Hall, had been arrested March 7 in Phoenix, Ariz., and indicted March 21 in New Haven. [See p. 207E2] Prosecutors charged that Abujihaad, 31, had sent e-mails to a terrorist Web site about the movements of a Navy battle group through the Strait of Hormuz in April 2001, while he was stationed aboard the USS Benfold, a Navy destroyer. Abujihaad had allegedly encouraged terrorists to launch suicide attacks on the Navy ships, similar to the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. Also charged in the case was Babar Ahmad, a British citizen who allegedly ran the Web site and was appealing against extradition from Britain to the U.S. [See 2006, p. 1026D3] Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in charging documents described Abujihaad’s behavior after his January 2002 honorable discharge from the Navy as suspicious. They said he had lived with Derrick Shareef, who was later charged with planning attacks on an Illinois shopping mall. FBI agents also said Shareef had introduced Abujihaad to a man from whom he had tried to purchase two assault rifles. [See 2006, p. 1000D2] „

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D.C. Man Admits Pakistani Terrorist Training.

Mahmud Faruq Brent, a Washington, D.C., taxicab driver and paramedic, April 2 pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in New York City to a charge of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist group, and admitted to training at a camp run by Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-eTaiba. Brent, 32, also known as Mahmud Al Mutazzim, had been arrested in a 2005 sting operation after being identified by Tarik Ibn Osman Shah, who had pleaded not guilty in the same case. Brent’s lawyer said he would not testify against Shah or two other codefendants. Officials said Brent had connections with Seifullah Chapman, who in 2004 had been convicted of belonging to a Virginia terrorist cell. [See 2005, pp. 520G3, 389D1] „ Two Men Sentenced in FBI Sting Case.

Judge Thomas McAvoy in U.S. District Court in Albany, N.Y., March 8 sentenced Yassin Muhiddin Aref, 52, an Iraqi refugee and the imam of an Albany mosque, and Mohammed Hossain, 52, a Bangladeshi immigrant, to 15 years in prison for their roles in a faked money laundering plot. The men had been arrested in a 2004 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sting, and in October 2006 had been convicted of agreeing to launder money from the proposed sale of a missile that would supposedly be used to kill a Pakistani diplomat. Both men professed their innocence, saying they had not believed talk of the assassination attempt. [See 2005, p. 934B3] „ 263

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Cousins Arrested for Plotting Iraq Attacks.

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Zubair Ahmed, 27, and Khaleel Ahmed, who were Chicago residents and cousins, Feb. 21 were arrested and charged with plotting an Islamic holy war on U.S. soldiers in Iraq and U.S. nationals elsewhere abroad. Khaleel Ahmed, 26, March 21 pleaded not guilty to the charges. The charges were added to an indictment against Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman el-Hindi and Wassim Mazloum, who in February 2006 were charged with planning attacks on U.S. troops. Further terrorism charges against Amawi and Hindi were also added to the indictment. [See 2006, p. 169E1] „ Dutch Citizen Denies Role in Iraq Bombings.

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Wasem Delaema, an Iraqi-born Dutch citizen, Jan. 29 pleaded not guilty in U.S District Court in Washington, D.C., to conspiracy and other terrorism charges relating to his alleged involvement with a terrorist group called Mujaheddin from Fallujah. The group had conducted roadside bombings against U.S. troops in Iraq. Delaema had been arrested in May 2005 by Dutch police after the discovery of a videotape showing him making and discussing explosives, and was extradited to the U.S. Jan. 27, after two years of negotiations with the Dutch government. The extradition agreement specified that Delaema be tried in criminal court rather than by a military tribunal, and would allow him to serve any prison sentence in the Netherlands. Dalaema was the first alleged Iraqi insurgent to be tried in the U.S. judicial system, rather than by Iraqi or U.S. military courts. [See 2005, p. 886E1] „

State & Local Politics Breaux Declines Louisiana Governor Bid.

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Former Sen. John Breaux (D, La.) April 13 said he had decided not to run for governor of Louisiana, after state Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. refused to make a ruling on whether Breaux was still a citizen of the state. Breaux, who had worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., since retiring from Congress in 2005, had asked for the ruling in order to head off Republican legal challenges to his candidacy. [See p. 191B2] Another prominent Louisiana Democrat, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu (D), April 16 said he would seek reelection rather than run for the governorship. Landrieu had unsuccessfully challenged New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, a fellow Democrat, in the 2006 mayoral election. [See 2006, p. 408F1] Incumbent Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) had announced in March that she would not run for reelection. Rep. Bobby Jindal was the main Republican candidate in the nonpartisan November election. The best-known Democrat in the race so far was Foster Campbell, a member of the state Public Service Commission. „

Medicine & Health Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea Rates Climb.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) April 12 said the 264

rates of drug-resistant gonorrhea infections in the U.S. had climbed significantly over a five-year period, and recommended that doctors treat the sexually transmitted disease with a different class of antibiotics. [See p. 59B2; 2000, p. 765G1] The CDC said among heterosexual men, the percentage of drug-resistant gonorrhea cases had climbed to 6.7% in 2006, from 0.6% in 2001. The standard treatment of gonorrhea during the past 14 years had been with a class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones. The CDC recommended an immediate halt to treatment of gonorrhea, a bacterial infection, with fluoroquinolones. The agency instead recommended a class of drugs known as cephalosporins, the last class to which the disease had not shown resistance. An estimated 700,000 people were newly infected with gonorrhea in the U.S. each year, making it the second-most-common sexually transmitted disease, after chlamydia. „

Telecommunications Vonage Allowed to Continue Operations.

Judge Claude Hilton in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., April 6 ruled that Internet telephone company Vonage Holdings Corp. could continue to provide Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services to its 2.2 million existing customers, but would not be allowed to sign up new customers due to a patent dispute with Verizon Communications Inc. A jury in Hilton’s court March 8 had determined that Vonage had to pay Verizon $58 million in damages, as well as 5.5% of its future revenues as a royalty for continuing patent infringement. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., later April 6 granted Vonage a temporary stay, allowing it to continue to add customers. The appeals court April 24 extended the stay, pending a June hearing. [See 2006, p. 490B3] Hilton March 23 had issued a permanent injunction against Vonage’s use of Verizon patents, but had stayed it for two weeks in order to allow an appeal. The jury had found that Vonage had violated three of Verizon’s Internet calling patents, involving technology used to connect calls to standard telephone lines, utilize wireless Internet networks and implement features such as call forwarding. Verizon had claimed that five of its patents had been violated in a lawsuit against Vonage brought in June 2006. Hilton said he had blocked Vonage from accepting new customers because the financial penalty alone “does not prevent continued erosion of the client base and customer base” of Verizon. Vonage argued that the ruling would be a fatal blow to the company, which relied on new users to offset constant customer defections in the highly competitive telephone service market. Vonage Chief Executive Michael Snyder April 12 resigned, and was replaced on an interim basis by the company’s founder, Jeffrey Citron. „

AFRICA

Morocco Suicide Bombers Target U.S. Interests.

Two suicide bombers April 14 detonated their explosives minutes apart near the U.S. consulate and a privately run U.S. cultural center in Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city. The two buildings were located several blocks away from each other on the same street in the center of the city. The bombers were killed in the attacks, and one bystander was injured. The bombings came four days after three suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up and another was shot by police in the city. [See p. 227B3] The bombings also came three days after 33 people were killed in suicide bombings in Algiers, the capital of neighboring Algeria. [See below, p. 217A1] The two bombers, brothers Mohamed Maha, 32, and Omar Maha, 23, were reportedly connected with the bombers who had been killed the previous week, as well as to the perpetrator of a March attack on an Internet cafe in the city. Police later that day arrested three suspected accomplices in the same area of the city. MAP, Morocco’s state-run news agency, April 14 reported that the leader of the alleged Casablanca cell had also been arrested. The recent spate of bombings in North Africa had been linked to Islamic militant groups. The link prompted fears that a group affiliated with the Al Qaeda international terrorist network, the Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, was launching a campaign of violence in the region. The U.S. consulate in Casablanca April 15 said it would close until further notice. The previous day, it had warned its employees to remain at home because Americans could be targeted. U.S. Warns of More Algeria Attacks—

The U.S. embassy in Algiers April 14 issued a warning about possible attacks on the central post office and Algerian state television headquarters in the city. Algerian officials April 15 called the warning irresponsible. „

Somalia Premier Claims Victory Over Insurgents.

Somali Interim Premier Ali Muhammad Gedi April 26 said transitional government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, had defeated Islamic insurgents allied with local clans in the capital, Mogadishu. The two sides had been engaging in intense clashes for the previous nine days, killing hundreds of civilians. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees April 25 had said about 340,000 people had fled the city since February, out of a population estimated at between one and two million. [See below, p. 210E2] The Islamists were remnants of a militia that had taken control of Mogadishu and much of southern and central Somalia in mid-2006. The militia, known as the Council of Islamic Courts, had brought a brief period of peace and order to the lawless FACTS ON FILE

capital city. However, chaos and insecurity had returned after the militia was ousted by transitional government and Ethiopian troops in late 2006 and its members began an insurgency against the government. Gedi April 26 declared, “We have won the fighting against the insurgents.” He added, “The rest of the fighting will be over soon. We have captured the stronghold of the terrorists.” Gedi had portrayed the conflict as a battle between “terrorists linked to [the international terrorist network] Al Qaeda and the government supported by Ethiopian and AU [African Union] troops,” it was reported April 23. However, analysts said the reality was more complex. The most powerful clan in Mogadishu, the Hawiye, had been shut out of the transitional government and thrown its support behind the Islamists. (Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was a member of the rival Darod clan, based in the north of the country.) The insurgents were also said to be supported by local businessmen who had benefited for years from Somalia’s lack of a functioning central government. Eritrea, Ethiopia’s longtime enemy, was also suspected of aiding the insurgents. Truce Broken—Renewed fighting between the two sides erupted April 18, breaking a truce brokered earlier in the month. An estimated 1,000 people had died in similar fighting between the two sides in late March and early April. Sir John Holmes, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, addressing the U.N. Security Council April 24 cited both sides for “blatant violation of international humanitarian law.” He said, “Indiscriminate artillery fire and shelling of heavily populated residential areas” had caused widespread damage and casualties. Hospitals in Mogadishu had become overwhelmed, it was reported April 24, with shortages of medicines and beds to treat the hundreds of people injured by gunfire, mortar shells and other weaponry. Many of the civilians who had fled Mogadishu were living in squalid camps outside the city, and the heavy fighting had made it difficult for relief agencies to reach them. Ban Calls for Intervention—U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in a report to the Security Council made public April 20 called for the international community to intervene to stop the bloodshed in Somalia. The report said that if negotiations failed and the violence did not ease, “an operation, mandated by the United Nations, mounted by and composed of a coalition of the willing with the appropriate capabilities to deal with the high paramilitary threat” could be effective. The more than 1,200 AU troops already in Somalia had not been a factor in the recent fighting. A more traditional U.N. peacekeeping force should not enter Somalia until “hostilities have ceased and all or most armed groups and communities have signed up to an agreement,” the report said. U.S. Official Visits—Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African April 26, 2007

affairs, April 7 visited Baidoa, the former seat of the transitional government located about 155 miles (250 km) northwest of the capital. Frazer met with Gedi, Yusuf and clan elders and other Somali leaders, in what was seen as a display of support for the transitional government. The U.S. had supported the campaign by the transitional government and Ethiopia to oust the Islamists from power, alleging that they were supporting Al Qaeda members who had attacked U.S. interests in Africa. Frazer singled out Eritrea for allegedly supporting the insurgents, calling it “the country of greatest concern.” Frazer was the highest-ranking U.S. official to set foot in Somalia since 1994. „

AMERICAS

Bolivia Demonstrators Seize Natural Gas Fields.

More than 1,000 demonstrators April 17 stormed and occupied a natural gas pumping station in the city of Yacuiba, in southeastern Tarija department. The protesters were ousted by military forces later that day in clashes that killed at least one person and injured 11 others. The occupation was sparked by a dispute between rival factions from two provinces within the department, O’Connor and Gran Chaco. Each group demanded a greater share of tax revenues generated by the area’s lucrative gas fields. [See p. 227F3] Protesters April 18 again seized control of the facility, which was operated by Transredes SA, a subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch firm Royal Dutch Shell PLC. The demonstrators reportedly took some 70 police officers hostage, but their release was negotiated by the government the following day. Interior Minister Alfredo Rada late April 20 said government forces had peacefully assumed control of the facility. Defense Minister Walker San Miguel the same day said military forces had been sent to secure the energy infrastructure throughout Bolivia. The seized station fed one of the main gas pipelines used to export fuel to Brazil and Argentina. Sebastian Daroca, chief executive of state-run oil firm Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YFPB) April 20 said the disturbances had curbed the San Antonio gas field’s production to 3.4 million cubic meters (120 million cubic ft) per day, from its normal output of 10 million cubic meters per day. „

Canada RCMP Pension Investigations Launched.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day March 29 announced that he would appoint an independent investigator to examine allegations of corruption and fraud by officials overseeing the pension and insurance funds of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee later the same day voted unanimously to expand its own offi-

cial probe of the RCMP pension scandal. [See 2006, p. 960F1] Allegations of impropriety regarding the funds had first surfaced in May 2003, and had been investigated by the RCMP and the Ottawa police. Neither of the agencies had brought criminal or disciplinary charges as a result of their investigations. The alleged fund abuses had taken place between 2000 and 2005, Day said. Several RCMP officials March 28 in testimony before the House committee alleged that millions of dollars in pension funds had been misallocated, and that officers who had raised concerns about the spending were ignored or punished. The committee had convened the hearings to review a November 2006 report by the country’s auditor general that found the RCMP had improperly charged C$3.1 million (US$2.8 million) to the fund, which was later repaid. The report had also found rampant cronyism and nepotism at work in the distribution of pension funds. Day April 14 named former Ontario Securities Commission head David Brown to lead the independent investigation. Day said Brown would decide whether to call for a full public inquiry into the matter, and was given a June 15 deadline to produce a report. Former RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli in testimony before the Commons committee April 16 called allegations that he had attempted to obscure pension fund abuses “completely baseless.” However, in an interview after the hearing, Zaccardelli said he had canceled a criminal investigation into such abuses in 2003, saying “it was inappropriate at that time.” Zaccardelli had resigned in December 2006 after admitting he had provided incorrect testimony to a parliamentary committee in an unrelated scandal. [See 2006, p. 934C2] „ Belinda Stronach Leaves Politics. Liberal member of Parliament (MP) Belinda Stronach April 11 announced that she was leaving her seat to rejoin Magna International Inc., the auto-parts company run by her father, as an executive. Stronach, 40, said she had decided to quit politics to spend more time with her family. She denied rumors that she had become bored with life as a public servant, and said she would retain her seat until the next federal election. [See 2006, p. 823C2] Stronach, first elected to the House of Commons in 2004 as a Conservative, had attracted widespread attention for defecting to the then-ruling Liberal Party in May 2005. She became a cabinet member in Prime Minster Paul Martin’s government and gave it the vote needed to overcome a no-confidence motion. [See 2005, p. 346A2] Separately, Liberal MP Joe Comuzzi March 21 was ousted from the Liberal caucus by party leader Stephane Dion for endorsing the Conservative Party’s proposed federal budget. „

Chile Bachelet Shuffles Cabinet Amid Scandals.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet Jeria March 26 shuffled her cabinet, firing 265

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Transportation Minister Sergio Espejo, who was replaced by Rene Cortazar. Also, Defense Minister Viviane Blanlot was replaced by Jose Goni, and Justice Minister Isidro Solis was replaced by Carlos Maldonado. Bachelet also replaced her chief of staff, Paulina Veloso, with Jose Antonio Viera-Gallo, an experienced political operative. [See 2006, p. 599G2] Bachelet the same day delivered a televised speech in which she apologized for a problem-plagued plan to overhaul the public transportation system of Santiago, Chile’s capital. The Transantiago transit plan had been plagued by inefficient bus routes and an overcrowded subway, angering city residents and leaving many without public transportation. The president had also been dogged by a corruption scandal in which some $800,000 in government funds intended for sports programs had instead been funneled into the campaigns of members of the ruling coalition. The so-called Chiledeportes sports funding scandal had first emerged in September 2006. Although both the sports scandal and implementation of the Transantiago plan had occurred during the administration of Bachelet’s predecessor, Ricardo Lagos Escobar, her public support had suffered. Intermittent and sometimes violent student protests had also damaged her popularity. A poll published by newspaper El Mercurio March 11, the one-year anniversary of her presidency, showed her approval rating at 48%, dropping from the 65% rating she had held during her inauguration. [See below] Students Clash With Police—High school students and police March 29–30 clashed during protests in which 819 people were detained and at least 32 police officers were injured, the government reported March 30. Hundreds of high school students in cities across the country, including Santiago, had taken to the streets in remembrance of the 1985 killing by police of two young brothers protesting the rule of then-President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. Hundreds of students in Santiago April 4 battled police again, during protests aimed at the city’s public transportation failures. [See 2006, p. 882F2] „

Colombia Lawmaker Alleges Uribe Paramilitary Ties.

Gustavo Petro, a Colombian senator belonging to the leftist opposition party Polo Democratico Alternativo (Alternative Democratic Pole), April 17 alleged that President Alvaro Uribe Velez in the 1990s had aided right-wing paramilitary groups accused of human rights abuses. The claims were the latest linking Uribe and lawmakers allied with him to paramilitary groups. Eight politicians and the former chief of secret police had been arrested in connection with the scandal, and at least 20 more were under investigation. Paramilitary organizations had been responsible for torture, murder and other human rights abuses during decades of fighting with left266

ist rebels, and were linked to drug trafficking. [See p. 211E2] Petro made his allegations during congressional hearings held on the so-called para-politics scandal, bolstering his claims with government intelligence reports and testimony from mid-level military officers. He said paramilitary groups had used properties owned by Uribe and his brother, Santiago Uribe, to stage deadly attacks on their opponents. Alvaro Uribe from 1995 to 1997 had served as the governor of northwestern Antioquia state. During that time he had helped found government-backed vigilante groups, known as Convivirs, that were organized by landowners. Petro said paramilitary warlords had taken over the groups with the tacit approval of local politicians. The Supreme Court was investigating several other lawmakers from Antioquia state for links with paramilitary groups. Uribe April 19 denied the allegations at a nationally televised news conference. “We have not received or looked for the political help of paramilitaries,” he said. Senator Blocks U.S. Military Aid— The office of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on state and foreign operations, April 19 said Leahy had halted the transfer of $55 million in U.S. aid to Colombia’s military, citing concerns over the para-politics scandal. The U.S. State Department April 10 had authorized the release of the funds after concluding that the Colombian government was making progress on human rights. However, Leahy’s office said he wanted a review of the new allegations. Colombia was one of the largest recipients of U.S. military aid, receiving some $220 million in 2006. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore April 20 canceled an appearance at an environmental conference in Miami, Fla., due to Uribe’s attendance. A spokesman for Gore said the allegations against Uribe were “deeply troubling.” „

Ecuador Correa Blocks Return of Ousted Lawmakers.

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa April 24 ordered police forces to stop dismissed opposition lawmakers from attempting to return to Congress. Fifty-two members of the 100-seat legislature the same day voted to dismiss all nine members of the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal, saying their terms had expired in January. The moves granted Correa effective control over the country’s courts and legislature. [See p. 228C2] The Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the country’s highest electoral court, in March had fired 57 legislators, accusing them of illegally impeding a referendum effort to rewrite the country’s constitution. Correa later replaced 21 of the fired politicians with his own alternates. The Constitutional Tribunal April 23 had reinstated 50 lawmakers who had signed a petition requesting they be returned to power. Several contradictory

court rulings on the firings had left Congress’s status unclear, and the dismissed politicians had established a separate legislature that met outside the official government building. A state prosecutor had accused 24 of the ousted lawmakers of sedition, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reported April 25. In response, at least 11 of them had fled to Colombia seeking political asylum, according to the BBC report. Reform Plan Approved in Referendum—

Jorge Acosta, president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Ecuador’s highest electoral court, April 20 reported that 81.7% of voters had approved a plan by Correa to convene a constituent assembly to rewrite the country’s constitution. More than 70% of the country’s 9.2 million eligible voters had participated in the April 15 referendum. Exit polls reported late April 15 had quickly established that a vast majority of voters had endorsed Correa’s plan, and Correa had claimed victory in the vote the same day. “This is a victory for the people, for democracy and for our country,” he said. Under the approved plan, elections would be held later in the year to select the assembly’s 130 members. The assembly would have 180 days to draft a new constitution. Correa, who had won the presidency in November 2006, had campaigned on a platform to reform the government, which had long been controlled by entrenched political parties in Congress. However, Correa’s critics had alleged that he planned to use the constituent assembly to consolidate his power. „

Mexico Mexico City Legalizes Abortion. The leftist-dominated legislative assembly of Mexico City, Mexico’s capital, April 24 voted, 46–19, to legalize abortion during the first three months of a pregnancy within the federal capital district. Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebard had previously said he would sign the bill into law. The measure was highly unusual in Latin America, where abortions generally faced heavy restrictions. [See 2006, p. 842G2] The bill would make first trimester abortions easily accessible to an estimated 10 million women in and near the capital. Public debate over the bill had consumed the country, which was overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, for weeks preceding the vote. Thousands of demonstrators had protested passage of the law, and the Roman Catholic Church had launched a lobbying effort to defeat the measure. Abortion rights supporters said the law would allow abortion legalization efforts to move forward in other areas of the country. They had also criticized the existing system, in which they said illegal abortions were readily available in private clinics to those who could afford them, while poorer women often assumed serious health risks to get an illegal abortion under more dangerous circumstances. FACTS ON FILE

Opponents of the law said they would appeal it to the Supreme Court, using a stipulation in the constitution outlawing capital punishment as the basis for their argument. Current law allowed abortions only in the case of rape, or if the woman’s life was in danger. „

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Kyrgyzstan Premier Replaced; Protests Mount. Kyr-

gyz Premier Azim Isabekov—who had taken office in late January—quit March 29, and President Kurmanbek Bakiyev replaced him with Almaz Atambayev, the leader of the moderate opposition Social Democratic Party. The change appeared to galvanize Bakiyev’s critics, and supporters of more radical oppositon groups took to the streets of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital, April 11–19 to demand constitutional reforms and the president’s resignation. [See below, p. 83F3] Isabekov quit after Bakiyev March 28 thwarted his efforts to dismiss several cabinet ministers whom the opposition had objected to. The appointment of Atambayev, who became the country’s first premier from an opposition party, was seen as an effort by Bakiyev to mollify his critics, who alleged that he had allowed corruption to flourish and failed to make good on promises to transfer more power to the legislative branch. (Bakiyev had assumed office in 2005, after street protests led to the ouster of President Askar Akayev.) Kyrgyzstan’s parliament March 30 confirmed Atambayev’s appointment in a 48– 3 vote. Bakiyev April 10 proposed to parliament a series of constitutional amendments that would reduce his power somewhat, in a further attempt to placate opponents’ demands for reform. Thousands Protest in Capital—An estimated 10,000 people April 11 gathered in Bishkek’s main square, beginning nine days of protests. The demonstrations were led by former Premier Feliks Kulov, previously a Bakiyev ally, who had resigned in December 2006. Kulov Feb. 14 had joined a new opposition coalition, the United Front for a Worthy Future for Kyrgyzstan. A separate opposition bloc called For a United Kyrgyzstan, led by Atambayev and former Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva, was also calling for constitutional reforms, but supported Bakiyev remaining in office until his term expired in 2010. Thousands of people turned out daily for the protests, in the central square and other areas of Bishkek, including outside Bakiyev’s office and the parliament building. Some people built a tent city in which they camped out overnight. The previously peaceful demonstrations turned violent April 14, as fighting broke out between protesters and people said to be pro-government agitators. There was more violence late April 19, when demonstrators clashed with police. Police used tear gas and flares to disperse April 26, 2007

demonstrators, who were throwing rocks and other objects. There were also reports of looting in the area. The authorities overnight April 19–20 cleared the square of protesters and removed the tent camp. At least 34 people were arrested. Police April 19–20 raided the offices of Kulov’s party, Ar-Namys, as well as the offices of the United Front. Kulov April 21 was questioned by the National Security Committee about the April 19 violence, which the opposition alleged had been started by government agitators. Kulov April 23 said two of his colleagues had been detained. The political turmoil in Kyrgyzstan had sparked international concern because both the U.S. and Russia had military bases in the country. Also, authoritarian regimes in the country’s Central Asian neighbors, such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, reportedly feared the events in Kyrgyzstan could influence opposition movements in their own countries. [See pp. 67A3, 19F2; 2006, p. 736C2] „

North Korea Foreign Food Aid Requested. An official

of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) March 26 said that North Korea had made an unusual acknowledgment of the extent of its food shortages, and had requested additional international aid. The WFP official, Asia regional director Tony Banbury, spoke during a March 22–27 trip to North Korea. He said that North Korea had put its grain shortfall at one million tons, after years of officially asserting that it had regained self-sufficiency after a severe shortage in the mid-1990s. North Korea in 2005 had ordered foreign aid workers out of the country but in 2006 had agreed to allow the WFP to resume a reduced presence. [See 2006, p. 285D1] Banbury appealed for donor nations to contribute food to North Korea; donations to the agency’s North Korea operations had plummeted to 312,000 tons in 2006, from 1.2 million tons in 2005. „ New Premier Announced. North Korea’s state news agency April 12 reported that Land and Transport Minister Kim Yong Il would become premier, replacing Pak Pong Ju, who had held the post since September 2003. The official announcement of a change in the senior ranks of the country’s leadership was unusual, but foreign observers noted that the country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Il, retained complete control over the government. [See 1998, p. 638E1] „

Asia-Pacific News in Brief South Korea: New Premier Approved.

South Korea’s parliament April 2 voted to approve the nomination of former Finance Minister Han Duck Soo as premier. President Roh Moo Hyun March 9 had nominated Han to succeed Han Myeong Sook, who had resigned March 7. Han Myeong Sook had stepped down in order to help lead the ruling Uri party’s campaign for a presiden-

tial election scheduled for December. Roh Feb. 22 had resigned from the Uri party so that his sagging popularity would not harm it in the campaign, a common practice among South Korean presidents in their final years in office. [See 2006, p. 309A1]„

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Sarkozy, Royal Advance to French Presidential Runoff Traditional Clash of Right and Left Looms.

Nicolas Sarkozy of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party April 22 finished first and second in the first round of France’s presidential election, advancing to a May 6 runoff. The result set up a traditional battle between the candidates of the country’s two major parties, with Sarkozy on the right and Royal on the left of the political spectrum. The winner would succeed President Jacques Chirac, who was retiring after serving two terms and 12 years in office. [See p. 229C2] Francois Bayrou of the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF) and JeanMarie Le Pen of the far-right National Front, who had each been viewed as capable of surging into the runoff, finished in third and fourth place, respectively. (Le Pen was the runner-up to Chirac in the 2002 election.) A runoff was automatic when no candidate won more than 50% of the vote. Sarkozy led the field with 31.2% of the vote. Royal trailed him with 25.9%. Bayrou garnered 18.6%, while Le Pen drew a less-than-expected 10.4%. Eight minor candidates shared the remaining 14% of the vote, led by Olivier Besancenot of the Revolutionary Communist League with 4.1%. Voter turnout was high, at 84.6%, just short of the record of 84.74% set in the first round of the 1965 presidential election. The runoff would mark the emergence of a new generation of French political leaders born after World War II, as Sarkozy, 52, and Royal, 53, both promised a departure from the past represented by Chirac, 74. Sarkozy’s father was a Hungarian immigrant, while Royal, a mother of four and former cabinet minister, aimed to become France’s first woman president. Rivals Vie for Centrist Voters—Both Royal and Sarkozy April 22 immediately began courting the centrist voters who had backed Bayrou in the first round. Sarkozy tried to soften the authoritarian image that he had developed first while serving as interior minister, and then campaigning with hardline policies on crime and immigration. That image had helped him draw blue-collar and older voters away from Le Pen, but also alienated many voters in the center. In a speech to supporters celebrating the results of the first round, he said, “I want to tell all the French who are scared, who are scared of the future, who feel fragile, vulnerable, who find life harder and harder, I want to tell them that I want to protect them.” 267

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In her speech, Royal alluded to Sarkozy’s tough image, saying she wanted the votes of “all those who believe that France can be reformed without brutality,” and promising “social harmony.” Royal April 23 said she was making an “overture” to Bayrou to discuss forming a coalition. However, Bayrou April 25 held a news conference to announce that he would not endorse either candidate, and harshly criticized both of them. He said Sarkozy, “through his proximity to business circles and media powers, through his taste for intimidation and threats, will concentrate power as it has never been concentrated before,” and “risks aggravating the tears in the social fabric.” He derided Royal’s economic plan for perpetuating “the illusion that it’s up to the state to do everything,” saying her program was “exactly the opposite of what we need.” Economic Policies Differ—Sarkozy and Royal both touted their economic policies as the best remedy for the weak growth that had plagued France during most of the Chirac years. The country continued to struggle with high unemployment. Joblessness among youths from immigrant Arab and African families had exploded into nationwide riots in late 2005. Sarkozy, who had served briefly as finance minister, called for more of a freemarket approach and urged the French to embrace a stronger work ethic. He criticized France’s limit of a 35-hour workweek—imposed by a Socialist government in 2000—as a drag on productivity and employment. He proposed removing penalties for companies that gave workers the option of working overtime. [See 2005, p. 211E2] He also called for large tax cuts and reductions in the government workforce and pensions. However, he agreed with Royal in supporting a protectionist trade policy and government intervention to prop up French companies in industries deemed to have strategic importance. [See 2006, p. 247F1] Royal campaigned on a traditional Socialist economic platform of state intervention in the economy to protect workers’ interests. She called for raising the minimum wage and subsidizing jobs for unemployed youths. However, she had also questioned the utility of the 35-hour workweek. Royal had also proposed political reforms that would rein in what she called the “monarchic drift” of Chirac’s presidency toward unchecked spending, and transfer more power to the parliament. In foreign policy, Sarkozy was known for his pro-U.S. views. By contrast, Royal in her last campaign speech before the first round April 19 had vowed, “We will not genuflect before George Bush,” and called for “the emergence of a multipolar world” without a lone superpower. „

Greece Cruise Ship Runs Aground, Sinks. A cruise ship, the Sea Diamond, April 5 ran aground on a volcanic reef off the Greek island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea, forcing the 268

evacuation of nearly 1,200 passengers, including about 700 Americans, and 300 crew members. The ship sank April 6. Two missing passengers, a 45-year-old Frenchman and his daughter, 16, were presumed to have drowned. [See 1994, p. 937A1; 1992, p. 628G3] A magistrate on the Greek island of Naxos April 7 charged the ship’s captain and five other officers with causing a shipwreck through negligence, violating international shipping safety regulations and polluting the environment. Each faced up to five years in prison. They were released on bail. It was reported April 8 that the captain, in a deposition, had blamed strong sea currents for the crash, which took place in fair weather. The reef was clearly marked on charts. Greek Merchant Marine Minister Manolis Kefaloyiannis April 10 said human error was clearly at play. The Sea Diamond was operated by Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines of Cyprus. „

Serbia Four Sentenced in 1995 Bosnia Killings. A war crimes court in Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, April 10 convicted four former members of a Serbian paramilitary unit of war crimes in connection with the killing of six Bosnian Muslim men in July 1995, near the end of the 1992–95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The court sentenced the men to prison terms ranging from five to 20 years, while a fifth defendant was acquitted. The case had been brought after a videotape of the killings, conducted execution-style in the town of Trnovo, Bosnia, was made public in 2005. [See p. 130F3; 2005, p. 961F3] The killings had taken place the same week as the notorious massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, some 90 miles (150 km) away from Trnovo. However, the judge in the case, Gordana Bozilovic-Petrovic, contended that there was no evidence that the Trnovo incident was related to the Srebrenica massacre. When the tape emerged, Serbian human rights activists had said that it proved Serbia’s own forces were involved in the Srebrenica atrocity, not only those of the separate Bosnian Serb government. Slobodan Medic, the commander of the paramilitary unit, called the Scorpions, and his deputy were sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison. Only one of the defendants, Pera Petrasavic, pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 13 years, while a fourth defendant who was found guilty received a five-year sentence. No other cases linked to the Srebrenica massacre were pending before Serbia’s war crimes court. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the Netherlands, had previously handed down several convictions in the Srebrenica massacre. Separately, the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in February had ruled that Serbia had not committed genocide in the Bosnian conflict, but condemned it for failing to present the Srebrenica killings.

The New York Times in its April 9 edition reported that the World Court in that case had not had full access to archived Serbian government documents from the war period. Serbia had reportedly been allowed to designate portions of such material as sensitive and confidential when it supplied them to the criminal tribunal for use in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. The World Court had relied on those redacted versions, and some legal experts suggested that if it had obtained the complete documents, it might have ruled differently. Other News—In other news stemming from the Bosnian conflict: † The Hague tribunal April 4 sentenced Dragan Zelenovic, a former Bosnian Serb paramilitary commander who had pleaded guilty Jan. 17 to charges of raping and torturing Bosnian Muslim women, to 14 years in prison. The crimes had occurred after Bosnian Serb forces captured the town of Foca in 1992. [See 2006, p. 963C2] † Bosnia April 11 said it had withdrawn citizenship granted to 367 foreign Muslims who had gone there to join Bosnian Muslims in fighting Serbs and Croats. The U.S. had demanded that Bosnia deport the foreign volunteers, expressing concern that they were spreading Islamic extremism in Bosnia and represented a potential terrorist threat. Justice Minister Barisa Colak said there was no evidence that the people affected by the order had any extremist ties, but that their citizenship had been granted illegally. [See 2006, p. 249E1; 2005, p. 962E2] „

Turkey Three Killed at Bible Publishing House.

Three employees at a publishing house that printed Bibles in southeastern Turkey— two Turkish men and one German citizen—were found murdered April 18, bound to chairs with their throats cut. All three reportedly were evangelical Protestants. Police detained five suspects for questioning. The attack took place in the city of Malatya, which was known as a hotbed of Turkish nationalism. [See p. 52B2; 2006, p. 1028E2] There had been several such attacks on Turkey’s small Christian minority in recent months. Hrant Dink, a prominent Armenian newspaper editor, was shot dead in January, and an Italian Roman Catholic priest had been killed in his Istanbul church in 2006. „

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Israel Arab Member of Parliament Resigns.

Azmi Bishara, an Arab member of Israel’s parliament and the leader of Balad, an Arab nationalist party, April 22 resigned from parliament. Bishara was in Egypt at the time, and submitted his resignation to Israel’s embassy in Cairo. Bishara had left Israel in March amidst speculation that he was under investigation for undermining FACTS ON FILE

Israel’s security. Members of parliament were immune from prosecution. [See 2003, p. 37B3] Speaking on Qatari satellite television channel Al Jazeera, Bishara April 22 explained his resignation, saying there was “no point now in clinging to parliamentary status and immunity,” and calling Israel’s government a “right-wing, fascist, racist orchestra.” He denied the allegations against him, but did not say if or when he would return to Israel. Israeli police April 25 announced that Bishara was under investigation for various crimes, including contacting and aiding Israel’s enemies. Police said they had questioned Bishara, but claimed that he had broken promises to remain available for further questioning. Bishara had repeatedly spoken against Israel’s 2006 war with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. He had often traveled to Syria and Lebanon and met with government and Hezbollah leaders, even during the war. Syria was a supporter of Hezbollah, and a foe of Israel. Bishara was also frequently critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and Arab Israelis, and had often called for Israel to renounce its Jewish identity and grant citizenship to the more than three million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Arabs constituted 20% of Israel’s roughly seven million people, and, like the Palestinians, were mostly Muslim or Christian. Bishara was himself a Christian. Balad held three seats in parliament, counting Bishara’s. Finance Minister Steps Down— Israeli Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson April 22 announced that he would step down from his post for three months while police investigated allegations that he had embezzled money from a nonprofit labor federation. Hirchson denied the accusations. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took control of the ministry in Hirchson’s absence. Other members of Olmert’s government, including the prime minister himself, had come under investigation regarding allegations of financial or sexual misconduct. [See pp. 68G3, 37B3] „ Iranian Spy Plot Alleged. Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service April 17 released intelligence documents claiming that Iran was attempting to enlist Israeli citizens as spies. An unidentified Shin Bet official, speaking on Israeli radio, asserted that 10 such attempts had been made in the previous two years. Israel and Iran had hostile relations, but 25,000 Jews lived in Iran, and many Israelis had emigrated from Iran and still had relatives there. [See p. 166C3] „

West Bank and Gaza Strip Premier Rejects Minister’s Resignation.

Interior Minister Hani al-Qawasmi April 23 submitted his resignation to Palestinian Authority (PA) Premier Ismail Haniya, but agreed to remain in his position after the premier rejected his resignation. The interior ministry was responsible for the PA’s security forces. The militant Islamist group April 26, 2007

Hamas and the Fatah party, rivals who had often clashed violently, each sought control over the ministry, but had agreed in March to give the post to Qawasmi, an independent, as part of a unity government. Qawasmi had subsequently proposed a plan to establish law and order in the territories, particularly in the Gaza Strip. [See p. 171D2] It was not clear what prompted Qawasmi’s attempted resignation, but he was reportedly frustrated at a lack of cooperation from the leaders of security forces affiliated with Fatah. Forces allied to Fatah and Hamas were often reluctant to bring themselves under the command of the government. Fighting between Palestinians April 22 had killed three people in Gaza. Militants Bomb U.S. School in Gaza—

Masked militants April 21 detonated several bombs inside the American International School in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, setting it on fire and causing significant damage. No casualties were reported, however. It was not clear what, if any, group the militants belonged to, though one of the militants reportedly told a security guard at the university that they were members of “Al Qaeda in Palestine.” „ Islamist Group Says It Killed BBC Reporter.

A group calling itself the Brigades of Tawheed and Jihad April 15 claimed to have killed British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) correspondent Alan Johnston in order to draw attention to thousands of “prisoners of war,” apparently a reference to Palestinians held by Israel. The group did not provide any evidence to support its claim. Johnston had disappeared in Gaza in March, and no one had publicly taken responsibility for his abduction. [See p. 233A2] Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas April 19 said PA intelligence services had received information indicating that Johnston was still alive. He also claimed that he knew which group was holding Johnston, but he did not divulge its identity. Since Johnston’s abduction, journalists had held several demonstrations worldwide, particularly in Gaza, calling for him to be set free. Representatives of the British government and the BBC had also met on several occasions with PA officials in order to press for information on Johnston’s condition and for his release. „

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan Probe Finds Marines Killed Civilians. U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Francis Kearney 3rd— head of Special Operations Command Central—April 14 said the preliminary results of an investigation into a shooting incident in Afghanistan involving an elite Marine Corps unit showed that the unit had killed 10 civilians and wounded 33 more. Kearney added that, contrary to claims by the marines involved, there was no evi-

dence that the marines were under fire at the time of the incident. [See p. 213C2] The incident under investigation had occurred in March 4. After a suicide car bomber struck their convoy on a highway east of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, the marines had opened fire on several people and vehicles while fleeing the scene. Kearney said evidence indicated that the marines had continued firing as far as three miles (five kilometers) from the site of the suicide bombing. U.S. Army Colonel Lou Leto, a military spokesman, April 11 had announced that criminal charges were being considered against the marines involved. A report released by an Afghan human rights commission April 14 claimed that the marines continued firing 10 miles from the bombing site. The report claimed that three elderly men, a young child and an infant were among the dead, and called the marines’ actions “a serious violation of international humanitarian standards.” The human rights report also criticized Taliban rebels for their attacks on civilians. Nader Nadery, a member of the commission, April 12 had said, “The civilians in Afghanistan are paying the price from this continuous war, and they are mostly affected by the Taliban operations.” Taliban Accused of War Crimes— U.S.based advocacy group Human Rights Watch April 16 issued a report claiming that violence was taking an increasing toll on Afghan civilians. The report said that 669 civilians had died in 2006 as a result of insurgent attacks, while 230 had died from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) coalition operations. The group argued that some of the Taliban attacks had directly targeted civilians, and were therefore war crimes. The group also faulted the coalition for not always acting to prevent civilians from being harmed in their operations. Several statistics cited in the report indicated a significant increase in violence in Afghanistan, as well as a change in rebel tactics: the number of suicide bombings rose to 136 in 2006, from 21 in 2005; the number of bomb and arson attacks on schools doubled in 2006. Of the 4,000 people killed in 2006, most were militants. The report particularly condemned the rebels’ tactic of “perfidy,” in which suicide bombers disguised themselves as civilians in order to infiltrate secure areas. Rebel Offensive Predicted—U.S. Army General Dan McNeill, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, April 17 warned that, while no large spring Taliban offensive had yet emerged, 2007 could still see levels of violence comparable to those in 2006. In an interview, McNeill said more militants would be freed up after the poppy harvest took place in late spring, adding that the Taliban would likely alter their tactics to include more suicide bombings. [See p. 37A1] McNeill expressed optimism regarding NATO’s mission, but he said that a major obstacle to counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan was the existence of rebel safe havens outside the country. He did not 269

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name any particular country, but Pakistan had been frequently criticized for allowing Taliban rebels to operate inside its borders, and to cross over into Afghanistan unhindered. [See below] Afghan, Pakistani Troops Clash—Afghan defense officials April 19 said Afghan and Pakistani troops had exchanged fire across the border in Afghanistan’s Paktika province. The officials claimed that the Afghan forces were attempting to remove a disputed Pakistani-erected fence along the border. Pakistani officials confirmed the exchange of fire, but insisted that Afghan forces had crossed over into Pakistan, and that no portion of the border fence had been removed. Neither side reported any casualties. Pakistan had erected a fence along its border in order to prevent militants from crossing over into Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai had criticized the structure as inadequate for the purpose. Tribal communities with members on both sides of the border complained that the fence divided families. [See 2005, p. 639F3] Hundreds of Taliban Surrounded—

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Afghan officials April 23 reported that Afghan forces had surrounded as many as 200 Taliban rebels in the southern village of Keshay in Uruzgan province two days earlier as the rebels converged there for a meeting. The officials said the village was still surrounded, and efforts were being made to convince the rebels to surrender peacefully. Mullah Dadullah, an aide to Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, was reportedly among the surrounded Taliban. Defense Officials Discuss Afghan Aid—

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U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates April 11–12 met with defense officials from Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands and Romania in Canada to discuss military efforts in Afghanistan. The group April 12 agreed to deploy an additional 3,400 training personnel in order to improve Afghanistan’s army and police units. In a related development, U.S. Army Gen. Robert Durbin, commander of the U.S. unit in charge of training and equipping Afghan forces, April 16 said funding for his unit’s mission was being increased, and that Afghan forces would have 100 helicopters and at least 2,000 armored Humvees by late 2008. Durbin called his unit’s efforts “sound and effective,” adding that Afghan forces would have fixed-wing military aircraft and larger artillery at their disposal in the near future. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher April 18 met with European members of NATO, and asked them to allocate more troops for use in the south and east of Afghanistan, where Taliban rebels were most active. Iran Accused of Supplying Rebels—

U.S. Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, April 17 reported that coalition forces in Kandahar province had in the past month seized a shipment of Iranian-made weapons sent to the 270

Taliban. Pace said it was unclear whether the Iranian government was involved in the shipment. Boucher April 18 also accused Iran of engaging in “unhealthy” behavior in Afghanistan, such as sending supplies to the Taliban. The U.S. had repeatedly accused Iran of aiding militants in Iraq. [See p. 232E1] Britain’s Guardian newspaper April 19 quoted Afghan Brig. Gen. Mohiyadeen Ghori as saying troops under his command had seized Iranian-made weapons from rebels in Farah province. Ghori further alleged that Iran was sending money to rebels in the Garmser district of Helmand province. British forces operated in Garmser, and a town there had been taken over by Taliban rebels in 2006. [See 2006, p. 618C2] The Guardian also quoted Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Mohammad Reza Bahrami, as denying accusations of aiding rebels in Afghanistan. Photos, Footage of Hostages Released—

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) April 14 broadcast still photos obtained from video footage ostensibly showing two French aid workers and their three Afghan associates, all abducted earlier that month by Taliban rebels. The CBC reported that, in the video footage, the French citizens expressed fear for their lives. Al Arabiya, a United Arab Emirates-based satellite television network, April 15 broadcast the video footage, but without any clear audio of the French aid workers. [See p. 233G3] Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta April 15 insisted that the government would not make any deals to secure the release of the aid workers, as it had for Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo in March. “If we do it once or twice, it will become a procedure. It won’t have an end,” Spanta said. “Criminals should not be rewarded, they should be punished, and the Taliban are a criminal group,” he added. The Mastrogiacomo exchange had been widely criticized as likely to encourage abductions. [See p. 233A3] A Taliban spokesman April 21 announced the rebel group’s conditions for the release of the two French aid workers and their three Afghan associates, demanding that France withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan, and that all Taliban prisoners be released by the Afghan government. Boy Beheads ‘American Spy’—Al Arabiya April 22 broadcast footage of a boy, estimated as being roughly 12 years old, beheading a captive of Taliban rebels. The Taliban accused the captive—Ghulam Nabi, a Pakistani militant—of being a U.S. spy. They said Nabi had provided coalition forces with intelligence resulting in the death of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, a top Taliban leader who had been killed in an air strike in 2006. [See 2006, p. 1032E1] Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Afghanistan: † A bomb April 23 detonated near a vehicle belonging to the Afghan intelligence

service, killing six members and wounding three more in Laghman province. † Afghan officials April 23 reported that an Afghan intelligence employee had been kidnapped and beheaded in Ghazni province, allegedly by Taliban rebels. † Afghan intelligence officers April 23 found a car rigged with explosives in a densely populated area of Kabul. The car bomb was removed without incident. † A suicide bomber in the town of Khost April 22 killed at least six people and wounded 40 more in a crowded market. † Afghan and coalition forces April 19 killed 24 Taliban rebels in fighting in Helmand province. † A roadside bomb in the city of Kandahar April 18 killed five contractors working for a United Nations aid agency. † A suicide bomber in Kunduz province April 16 killed nine police officers and wounded 25 more. A Taliban spokesman credited the attack to rebels. † A suicide bomber near the town of Khost April 14 killed nine people at the gate of a border police station, eight of them police officers. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Hockey National Hockey League Season Ends. The 89th National Hockey League (NHL)

season ended April 8. The top eight teams from both the Eastern and the Western conferences advanced to the Stanley Cup playoffs. [See 2006, p. 807G1] The Eastern Conference’s Buffalo Sabres claimed the President’s Trophy as the team with the best regular-season record. The Sabres posted a record of 53 wins, 22 losses and seven overtime or shootout losses (worth one point), for 113 total points. It was the first time the team had earned the league’s best record. The Detroit Red Wings (50–19–13) had the best record in the Western Conference. Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby won the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading scorer. Crosby scored 36 goals and added 84 assists, for 120 points. At age 19, he became the youngest player to ever win the NHL’s scoring title. Previously, the youngest winner had been the legendary Wayne Gretzky, who claimed the scoring title in 1981 at age 20. Crosby, who was in his second NHL season, had often been compared with Gretzky. [See 2005, p. 722B3; 1981, p. 262B3] Devils’ Brodeur Sets Goalie Win Mark—

New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, 34, April 5 won his 48th game of the season, breaking the record for most wins in one season set by Bernie Parent in 1973–74. However, the season had been shorter in Parent’s time, and shootouts did not exist then. [See 2004, p. 702B2; 1974, p. 466A3] Other News—In other NHL news: † The Columbus Blue Jackets April 19 said Doug MacLean, the team’s president FACTS ON FILE

and general manager, had been fired. Mike Priest was named the new president, and assistant general manager Jim Clark was named interim general manager. [See 2004, p. 194D3] † The Phoenix Coyotes April 11 fired general manager Mike Bennett, after the team posted its worst record (31–46–5) since moving from Winnipeg in 1996. Gretzky retained his position as head coach. † Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello April 2 fired head coach Claude Julien and took the coaching reins himself, with three games remaining in the season and the team in first place in the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division. [See 2006, p. 672G1] † Nassau County (N.Y.) District Attorney Kathleen Rice March 19 said New York Islanders forward Chris Simon would not face criminal charges for hitting New York Rangers center Ryan Hollweg in the face with his stick during a March 8 game in Uniondale, N.Y. Simon had been suspended for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs for the hit. [See p. 167C3] † The Penguins March 13 reached a deal with Pennsylvania state officials to

NHL 2006–07 Final Standings EASTERN CONFERENCE

*New Jersey *Pittsburgh *NY Rangers *NY Islanders Philadelphia

Atlantic Division W L OT** Pts

49 47 42 40 22

24 24 30 30 48

9 11 10 12 12

107 105 94 92 56

Northeast Division

*Buffalo *Ottawa Toronto Montreal Boston

53 48 40 42 35

*Atlanta *Tampa Bay Carolina Florida Washington

22 25 31 34 41

7 9 11 6 6

113 105 91 90 76

Southeast Division

43 44 40 35 28

28 33 34 31 40

11 5 8 16 14

97 93 88 86 70

GF

GA

216 277 242 248 214

201 246 216 240 303

308 288 258 245 219

242 222 269 256 289

246 253 241 247 235

245 261 253 257 286

GF

GA

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Central Division *Detroit *Nashville St. Louis Columbus Chicago *Vancouver *Minnesota *Calgary Colorado Edmonton *Anaheim *San Jose *Dallas Los Angeles Phoenix

W

50 51 34 33 31

L OT** Pts

19 23 35 42 42

13 8 13 7 9

113 110 81 73 71

254 272 214 201 201

199 212 254 249 258

105 104 96 95 71

222 235 258 272 195

201 191 226 251 248

110 107 107 68 67

258 258 226 227 216

208 199 197 283 284

Northwest Division

49 48 43 44 32

26 26 29 31 43

7 8 10 7 7

Pacific Division

48 51 50 27 31

20 26 25 41 46

14 5 7 14 5

*In playoffs **Overtime loss. Teams get one point for a loss in overtime or a shootout.

April 26, 2007

remain in the city of Pittsburgh. The deal included an agreement to build a new $290 million arena to replace the team’s current home, Mellon Arena, which was 46 years old. Under the deal, the team would pay $4.2 million per year toward the arena, which was expected to be completed during the 2009–10 season. The Penguins said on their Web site that the deal would keep the team in Pittsburgh for the next 30 years. The team had threatened to move from the city after a deal to sell it fell through in December 2006. [See 2006, p. 1037E1] † The 30 player representatives of the NHL Players’ Association (NHLPA) March 11 voted to place Executive Director Ted Saskin and Senior Director Ken Kim on paid leave amid accusations that the two executives had been monitoring players’ private e-mail accounts. [See 2005, p. 991A1] † The Edmonton Oilers Feb. 27 traded forward Ryan Smyth to the Islanders for two prospects and a first-round draft pick. † The Florida Panthers Feb. 27 traded forward Todd Bertuzzi to the Red Wings for forward Shawn Mathis and two conditional draft picks. † The St. Louis Blues Feb. 27 traded forward Bill Guerin to the San Jose Sharks for forward Ville Nieminen, the rights to college player Jay Barriball and a firstround draft pick. † The Washington Capitals Feb. 26 traded forward Richard Zednik to the Islanders for a second-round draft pick. † The Blues Feb. 25 traded forward Keith Tkachuk to the Atlanta Thrashers for forward Glen Metropolit, a first-round draft pick and two other draft selections. † The Philadelphia Flyers Feb. 15 traded center Peter Forsberg to the Nashville Predators for forward Scottie Upshall, defenseman Ryan Parent and two draft picks. † Former Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman, who had retired in 2006, Jan. 30 was named general manager of Canada’s national team for the 2007 World Championships. The Red Wings Jan. 2 had retired his number 19 jersey. [See 2006, p. 672B1] „ Michigan State Wins NCAA Title. The Michigan State University Spartans April 7 defeated the Boston College Eagles, 3–1, in St. Louis, Mo., to win the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s hockey championship. It was the Spartans’ third title, and their first since 1986. Boston College lost in the final for the second straight year. [See 2006, p. 335B3] The score was tied at 1–1 with 18.9 seconds remaining when Michigan State forward Justin Abdelkader scored the winning goal. Forward Chris Mueller added an empty-net goal with 1.7 seconds left to seal the victory. In the semifinals April 5, Michigan State had defeated the University of Maine Black Bears, 4–2, and Boston College beat

2006–07 NHL Statistical Leaders* SCORING Crosby, Pittsburgh Thornton, San Jose Lecavalier, Tampa Bay Heatley, Ottawa St. Louis, Tampa Bay

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+/-

79 82 82 82 82

36 22 52 50 43

84 92 56 55 59

120 114 108 105 102

10 24 2 31 7

GOALS—Lecavalier, 52; Heatley, 50; Selanne, Anaheim, 48; Ovechkin, Washington, 46; Hossa, Atlanta, 43; St. Louis, 43; Vanek, Buffalo, 43. ASSISTS—Thornton, 92; Crosby, 84; Savard, Boston, 74; Sedin, Vancouver, 71; Jagr, NY Rangers, 66. POWER-PLAY GOALS—Selanne, 25; Souray, Montreal, 19; Kovalchuk, Atlanta, 18; Heatley, 17; Hossa, 17; Semin, Washington, 17; Drury, Buffalo, 17; Ryder, Montreal, 17. SHORT-HANDED GOALS—Staal, Pittsburgh, 7; Lecavalier, 5; St. Louis, 5; Draper, Detroit, 5. GAME-WINNING GOALS—Heatley, 10; Selanne, 10; Zetterberg, Detroit, 10; Drury, 9; Marleau, San Jose, 9; Michalek, San Jose, 9. PLUS/MINUS—Vanek, 47; Alfredsson, Ottawa, 42; Lidstrom, Detroit, 40; Preissing, Ottawa, 40; Roy, Buffalo, 37; Volchenkov, Ottawa, 37. PENALTY MINUTES—Eager, Philadelphia, 233; Gratton, Phoenix, 188; Neil, Ottawa, 177; O’Brien, Tampa Bay/Anaheim, 176; Avery, Los Angeles/NY Rangers, 174.

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GOALTENDING

WINS—Brodeur, New Jersey, 48; Luongo, Van-

couver, 47; Kiprusoff, Calgary, 40; Fleury, Pittsburgh, 40; Miller, Buffalo, 40. SHUTOUTS—Brodeur, 12; Hasek, Detroit, 8; Kiprusoff, 7; Nabokov, San Jose, 7; Turco, Dallas, 6. †GOALS-AGAINST AVERAGE—Backstrom, Minnesota, 1.97; Hasek, 2.05; Brodeur, 2.18; Turco, 2.23; Giguere, Anaheim, 2.26. †SAVE PERCENTAGE—Backstrom, .929; Mason, Nashville, .925; Brodeur, .922; Luongo, .921; Vokoun, Nashville, .920.

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*The complete names of the players are found in the index. †Minimum 27 games played.

the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux, 6–4.

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Wisconsin Repeats as Women’s Champ—

The University of Wisconsin Badgers March 18 defeated the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, 4–1, in Lake Placid, N.Y., to win the women’s NCAA hockey title. The Badgers had also won the title in 2006. [See 2006, p. 335D3] Duncan Wins Hobey Baker Award—

North Dakota sophomore forward Ryan Duncan April 6 won the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as the top player in U.S. college hockey. Duncan had 31 goals and 26 assists in the 2006–07 season. „ Canada Wins Women’s World Title. Canada April 11 defeated the U.S., 5–1, to win the women’s hockey World Championships in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Canadian captain Hayley Wickenheiser was the tournament’s leading scorer, with eight goals and 14 points, and was named its most valuable player (MVP). Canada, which had won the Olympic title in 2006, claimed its ninth world title. Canada and the U.S. had met in all 10 finals in the tournament’s history. [See 2006, p. 157G3; 2005, p. 315G3] „ 271

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UNITED STATES

People

A lakeside mansion in Hendersonville, Tenn., where country music stars Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash had lived for decades, April 10 burned to the ground, apparently after a spark ignited a wood preservative being applied to its interior. The house was being renovated in preparation for occupancy by its new owner, Australian pop singer Barry Gibb, 60, formerly of the Bee Gees. Gibb had bought the house in early 2006. [See 2006, p. 24A3] A well-known song by singer-songwriter John Denver, who died in a 1997 plane crash, March 12 gained official status as Colorado’s second state song, after a resolution to that effect easily passed both houses of the state’s General Assembly. The song was “Rocky Mountain High” (1972), which included the lyric, “friends around the campfire and everybody’s high.” Lawmakers who voted against the resolution did so because they felt the reference was to illegal drug use; Denver, however, had repeatedly claimed that he was referring to the natural “high” induced by being in the mountains. Colorado’s original state song, adopted in 1915, was “Where the Columbines Grow.” [See 1997, p. 756C3] „

O B I T UA R I E S ADAMEC, Ladislav, 80, Czechoslovakia’s penultimate Communist-era premier; he held the post only from October 1988 to December 1989; the country’s last Communist premier was Marian Calfa, who presided over the transition to democracy ushered in by the country’s Velvet Revolution in late 1989; Adamec stayed on as a Communist member of parliament until the 1992 elections, just before Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia; born Sept. 10, 1926, in Frenstat pod Radhostem, Czechoslovakia; died April 14 at his home in Prague, the Czech capital; the cause of his death was not reported. [See 1990, p. 88F2; Indexes 1988–89, 1969] BONDY, Egon (born Zbynek Fiser), 77, dissident Czech novelist, philosopher and poet; some of his verse was set to music by the Plastic People of the Universe, a subversive rock group whose members’ arrest at a 1976 rally helped spark the creation of the human rights group Charter 77, which played a key role in the eventual overthrow of Czechoslovakia’s Communist regime; born Jan. 20, 1930, in Prague; died April 9 in Bratislava, Slovakia; no cause of death was reported. [See 2001, p. 24E3; 1976, p. 851F3–G3] BROWNE, Roscoe Lee, 81, character actor in many films and television shows and a force in New York City theater, both on and off Broadway; he was one of a number of upcoming black actors in the original cast of an off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s play The Blacks that ran for more than 1,400 performances beginning in 1961; known for his mellifluous baritone voice, he was the narrator of the 1995 hit film Babe and its sequel Babe: Pig in the City (1998); he was also famed for his live readings of modern and classical poetry; born May 2, 1925, in Woodbury, N.J.; died April 11 at a hospital in Los Angeles, of cancer. [See 1995, p. 644E1; 1992, p. 436B2; Indexes 1970, 1962–63, 1960] CARLISLE Hart, Kitty (born Catherine Conn),

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96, actress and singer whose varied show-business career spanned seven decades; she often appeared on Broadway, sang at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, played the lead female role in the Marx Brothers’ film comedy A Night at the Opera (1935), and in her 90s was still performing in a one-woman show; in the 1950s and 1960s, she was a ubiquitous presence on TV game shows, including “What’s My Line?” and “To Tell the Truth”; she also chaired the New York State Council on the Arts from 1976 to 1996; from 1946 until his death in 1961, she was married to playwright and director Moss Hart; born Sept. 3, 1910, in New Or-

272

leans, La.; died April 17 at her New York City home, of heart failure while battling pneumonia. [See 1961, p. 500C1; 1956, p. 171F2; Indexes 1954, 1948, 1946] COMENCINI, Luigi, 90, Italian film director known for his pioneering neo-realist comedies, notably Pane, Amore e Fantasia (Bread, Love and Dreams) (1953), which propelled actress Gina Lollobrigida to stardom; he was also known for films revolving around childhood and adolescence, including Incompreso (Misunderstood) (1967); born June 8, 1916, in Salo, Italy; died April 6 in Rome; he had had Parkinson’s disease for three decades. [See 1979, p. 820E3; 1961, p. 367C2; Indexes 1953–55] DELP, Brad(ley E.), 55, lead singer of the rock group Boston, whose first, self-titled album, released in 1976, went on to sell more than 17 million copies; the best-known song on it was “More Than a Feeling”; born June 12, 1951, in Danvers, Mass.; found dead March 9 at his home in Atkinson, N.H.; his family announced March 14 that it had been determined that he committed suicide by locking himself in a bathroom with two charcoal grills and exposing himself to deadly carbon monoxide fumes. [See 1986, pp. 896E1, 824E2; 1978, p. 800F3] GRAHAM, Colin, 75, artistic director since 1985 of the Opera Theater of St. Louis (Mo.); from the start of his operatic career in his native Britain, he was drawn to new works; over the years, he directed many world premieres of works by composers ranging from Benjamin Britten to Thea Musgrave to John Corigliano to Andre Previn; he was also the librettist for several of those works, born Sept. 22, 1931, in Hove, England; died April 6 in St. Louis, of respiratory and cardiac arrest. HALBERSTAM, David, 73, journalist and author; as a reporter for the New York Times, he shared a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his critical reporting from Vietnam, before the U.S. became fully engaged in the war there; he left the Times in 1967 to devote himself to writing books; the best-known of his more than 20 books was The Best and the Brightest (1972), a devastating analysis of Vietnam War–era blunders by U.S. policy makers; his other books dealt with subjects as varied as civil rights, baseball, basketball and the automobile industry, and many of them became best-sellers; born April 10, 1934, in New York City; died April 23 in a car crash in Menlo Park, Calif., while being driven to an interview with Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle for a planned book on football. [See 1994, p. 647A1; 1993, p. 511A3; Indexes 1989, 1979–80, 1971–73, 1968–69, 1962–65] HALPERIN, Israel, 96, Canadian mathematician who did major work in the field of operator algebras; after World War II, he was wrongfully accused of having spied for the Soviet Union; the charges against him were dismissed in 1947, but he was still nearly fired by Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, which had hired him in 1939; he finished his academic career at the University of Toronto; he was also a human rights activist, organizing letter-writing campaigns aimed at securing the release of political prisoners in countries ranging from Uruguay and Chile to the Soviet Union; born Jan. 5, 1911, in Toronto, Ontario; died March 8 in Toronto, of organ failure. [See 1947, p. 74E; 1946, pp. 134F, 98P] HART, Johnny (John Lewis), 76, cartoonist whose comic strip “B.C.,” launched in 1958, eventually appeared in more than 1,000 newspapers, with a combined readership of 100 million; set in the Stone Age, “B.C.” teemed with cavemen and dinosaurs; with Brant Parker, he created another hugely successful comic strip, “The Wizard of Id,” launched in 1964; set in a medieval kingdom ruled by a tiny tyrant, “The Wizard of Id” was drawn by Parker until 1997—when his son took over—and was written by Hart; the two men died eight days apart; Hart, who was born Feb. 18, 1931, in Endicott, N.Y., died April 7 at his home in Nineveh, N.Y., after a stroke; he had been treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; Parker, born Aug. 26, 1920, in Los Angeles, died April 15 at his home in Lynchburg, Va.; he had been battling Alzheimer’s disease and suffered a stroke in 2006. HO, Don (born Donald Tay Lai Ho), 76, Hawaiian singer best known for his signature song, “Tiny Bubbles,” which he recorded in 1966; for decades, Hawaiian vacationers flocked to his nightclub act in Waikiki Beach; he was a familiar figure on U.S. television in the 1960s and 1970s, and had his own variety show, “The Don Ho Show,” on the ABC network from 1976 to 1977; born Aug. 13, 1930, in Honolulu, Hawaii; died April 14 in Honolulu, of heart failure; he had been suffering from a heart condition called nonischemic cardiopathy, a muscular impairment distinct from coronary artery disease. LeWITT, Sol(omon), 78, painter and sculptor who was a pioneer of both minimalism and conceptualism; his works included wall paintings and drawings that

were executed by his assistants on the basis of verbal “recipes” provided by him, and were meant to eventually be painted over; he favored basic geometric forms, notably cubes, and bright primary colors; one of his seminal works, created in 1968 and buried in a Dutch garden, was called Buried Cube Containing an Object of Importance but Little Value; born Sept. 9, 1928, in Hartford, Conn.; died April 8 in New York City, from complications of cancer. MILLENDER-McDonald, Juanita, 68, liberal California Democrat who had served in the U.S. House of Representatives since winning a special election in March 1996; hers was a largely black, but increasingly Latino, Southern California district covering Carson, Compton, much of Long Beach and parts of South Los Angeles; born Sept. 7, 1938, in Birmingham, Ala.; died April 22 at her Carson home, of colon cancer that had metastasized to her liver. [See p. 48B3; 2006, p. 855D2; Indexes 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1996] NEEDHAM, James Joseph, 80, certified public accountant who, after serving on the Securities and Exchange Commission for three years, became the first full-time, salaried chairman of the New York Stock Exchange in 1972; he held the post unitl 1976; born Aug. 18, 1926, in New York City; died April 6 at his home in Southampton, N.Y., from complications of myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone marrow disorder. [See 1976, pp. 347E3–348F1; 1975, p. 777E2; Indexes 1972–74, 1969] NELSON, Barry (born Robert Haakon Nielsen),

89, stage, screen and television actor; he began making films in the 1940s, had a long theater career with many Broadway appearances, and was the first actor to play British secret agent James Bond (Americanized as Jimmy Bond), in a TV show based on the Ian Fleming novel Casino Royale that aired live in October 1954, eight years before Sean Connery played Bond in the first Bond movie, Dr. No; born April 16, 1916, in San Francisco, Calif.; died April 7 at a hotel in Bucks County, Pa.; no cause of death could immediately be determined. [See 1975, p. 203G2; 1970, pp. 984C2, 436B2; Indexes 1967–69, 1965, 1963, 1956, 1951, 1949] SCOTT, Tony (born Anthony Joseph Sciacca),

85, jazz clarinetist and composer; he was one of just a few clarinetists to master the tricky jazz idiom of bebop that emerged in the 1940s; later, he branched out into the genres that came to be known as world music and New Age music, being particularly inspired by the music of Japan; his best-known composition was a piece called Blues for Charlie Parker (1957); he also wrote the arrangement for Harry Belafonte’s calypso hit, “The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)”; born June 17, 1921, in Morristown, N.J.; died March 28 at his longtime home in Rome, Italy. WALTON, Helen Robson, 87, widow of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which grew into the world’s largest retailer; their marriage lasted from 1943 until his death in 1992; one of the world’s richest women, she was a notable philanthropist and was the first woman to chair the Presbyterian Church (USA) Foundation; born Dec. 3, 1919, in Claremore, Okla.; died April 19 at her home in Bentonville, Ark., of natural causes. [See 2005, p. 176B2; 2004, p. 167C2; Indexes 2003, 2001, 1992–93] WANG, Nina (born Nina Kung Yu-sum), 69, reputedly Asia’s richest woman; she had been married to Hong Kong real estate tycoon Teddy Wang, who was declared legally dead in 1999, nine years after being kidnapped and vanishing without a trace; she then fought her father-in-law in court for control of her husband’s fortune, finally prevailing in 2005 in Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal; born Sept. 29, 1937, in Shanghai, China; died April 3 in Hong Kong; she had recently been reported to have been suffering from ovarian cancer. [See 2001, p. 1074D2] WEXLER, Milton, 98, lay psychoanalyst whose clients included many Hollywood celebrities; he developed free-association techniques for group therapy that he later applied to barnstorming sessions for scientists seeking to unlock the mysteries of Huntington’s disease, the rare genetic disorder that had killed his former wife, as well as her father and three brothers; scientists affiliated with the foundation he set up to support such research found the genetic marker for Huntington’s in 1983 and, in 1993, located the gene itself; born Aug. 24, 1908, in San Francisco, Calif.; died March 16 at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., from complications of pneumonia. [See 1993, p. 561D1] YELTSIN, Boris Nikolayevich, 76, first freely elected leader of Russia in the post-Soviet era; he held the presidency from 1991 to 1999, before handing over the reins to his protege, Vladimir V. Putin; born Feb. 1, 1931, in Butka, a village in the Smerdlovsk region about 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Moscow; died April 23 in a Moscow hospital, of multiple organ failure. [See p. 256C1; 2006, pp. 916E2, 558F1; Indexes 1985–2005] „

April 26, 2007

U.S. President Bush Vetoes Iraq Funding Bill With Withdrawal Timetable House Falls Short in Vote to Override.

U.S. President George W. Bush May 1 vetoed a funding bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan that included a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. The timetable was contingent on the Iraqi government achieving certain performance benchmarks. Congress had passed the bill the previous week, despite Bush’s repeated pledges to veto any bill including timetables for withdrawal. It was only the second time Bush had vetoed congressional legislation. In a televised speech following his veto, Bush said setting a date for the pullout of U.S. troops would be “irresponsible” and a “prescription for chaos and confusion.” [See p. 253A1] Democratic leaders in Congress May 1 denounced the veto. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said the president was asking for a “blank check” on Iraq, but insisted that “Congress is not going to give it to him.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) said Democrats would continue to push for the removal of U.S. troops, and for the Iraqi government to make moves to improve the security situation in the country. “If the president thinks that by vetoing this bill he will stop us from trying to change the direction of this war, he is mistaken,” Reid said. The House May 2 voted, 222–203, to override Bush’s veto, but fell far short of the two-thirds majority required to do so. Pelosi and Reid that day met with Bush to discuss the prospects for negotiating a new funding bill that would win enactment, and administration officials began talks with Congress the following day. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice May 2 had met with Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki and urged him to do more to quell sectarian strife in Iraq, particularly with respect to passing legislation on oil revenues and allowing some former ruling Baath Party members back into their government posts. Egypt Forum Opens; U.S., Syria Meet—

Representatives of Iraq, the United Nations, the U.S. and several other nations May 3 met in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the beginning of a two-day conference on Iraq. Sixty nations altogether attended. The first day was scheduled to focus on providing aid to the country, and the second would focus on security. [See pp. 240C1, 154D1] As with a similar conference on Iraq held in March, the event provided a possible opportunity for the U.S. to hold discussions with Iran and Syria, two nations that the U.S. blamed for fomenting violence in Iraq, and which the Bush administration had largely refrained from direct contact with. Rice on the sidelines of the meeting May 3 met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem, in the two countries’ first such high-level contact since 2005. Rice May 2 had said she was “prepared to at least address” certain issues with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Rice and Mottaki May 3 were seated at the same table during a diplomatic dinner,

but Mottaki left the event early on, claiming that one of the female entertainers was dressed inappropriately. The conference came at a time of great tension between Iraq and other Middle Eastern nations, many of which sent representatives to the event. Some nations, such as Iran and Syria, were pressuring for U.S. forces to leave Iraq, though the weak Iraqi government, along with many Arab states, expressed concern that doing so would result in anarchy. Many Sunni Muslim countries, meanwhile, expressed frustration that Maliki’s Shiite Muslim government was not doing enough to protect Iraq’s Sunnis, and were wary of Iran’s increasing influence in Iraq and the wider region. The Washington Post April 29 reported that Saudi King Abdullah had recently refused to meet with Maliki, on the grounds that he had failed to promote reconciliation efforts between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq. The representatives May 3 met to consider a deal under which Iraq would have most of its debt canceled and receive significant financial aid, but only on the condition that it enacted certain reforms, including political reconciliation. Maliki, speaking at the conference, pleaded for countries to cancel Iraq’s debts and to assist in the creation of a “united, democratic and federal Iraq.” U.N. Report Lacks Government Data—

The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) April 25 released its quarterly human rights report on Iraq, declaring little or no improvement in the situation there and criticizing the government for not releasing data on civilian casualties. The report took stock of the period from January to March. It asserted that the “breakdown in law and order” due to continuing sectarian violence was causing a “rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis.” [See below, p. 26B1] Significantly, unlike previous reports, it did not cite official statistics from morgues, hospitals and the health ministry regarding civilian casualties of the sectarian violence. It instead claimed that the government had refused to share the data with the U.N. Ivana Vuco, a UNAMI official, elaborated on the omission, saying, “We were told the government was becoming increasingly concerned about the figures being used to portray the situation as very grim.” Government officials had complained that the prior UNAMI report had exaggerated the severity of the situation in Iraq. The April report did cite less precise evidence suggesting that high levels of violence still held sway in Iraq, despite a brief dip in February, when the U.S. and Iraq initiated a joint security push. The report blasted both Iraq and the U.S. on detainees, claiming that they were often held in overcrowded conditions without legal counsel or prompt due process. Moreover, the report said detainees in Iraqi custody faced the prospect of abuse and torture. It said more than 37,000 detainees were being held by Iraq and the U.S., 3,000 of them brought in since the recent joint

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B U.S.-Iraqi security push. The report also criticized the regional government in the relatively peaceful Kurdish region of Iraq for similar failures with respect to detainees, as well as the harassment of journalists. Among other claims made by the report: 12,000 doctors had left the country since 2003; 54% of the population survived on less than $1 per day; and the unemployment rate had reached 69%. Maliki’s office April 25 dismissed the report, calling it “inaccurate” and “unbalanced.” Officials with the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, also questioned the report’s veracity. A World Health Organization (WHO) report released April 17 had found that the overwhelming majority of Iraqis lacked regular access to clean water and adequate sanitation. The report said 21% of Iraqi children were malnourished, and that, due to a lack of medical resources and person-

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Bush vetoes Iraq funding bill with withdrawal timetable; House falls short in vote to override.

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Israeli report on Hezbollah war blasts Olmert; prime minister called on to resign. PAGE 275

Russia threatens to suspend arms pact over U.S. missile plan. PAGE 275

U.S. Democratic presidential candidates hold first debate.

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Murdoch makes offer for Dow Jones. PAGE 278

Livestock given tainted pet food. PAGE 280

U.S. first-quarter GDP growth slowest in four years. PAGE 281

Venezuela takes control of foreignheld oil fields. PAGE 283

British court finds five guilty in terrorist plot. PAGE 285 *First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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nel, critically injured patients in hospitals had a 70% death rate. Baghdad Civilian Deaths Down in April—

The Associated Press (AP) May 1 said that its own tallies of bodies recovered in the capital indicated that April had seen a continuation of a general decrease in civilians dying from sectarian violence in Baghdad since December 2006. At least 447 bodies had been found in the capital, the AP said; down from 1,222 in December, 954 in January, 505 in February and 564 in March. The interior ministry May 1 released its own figures, stating that 1,501 civilians had been killed in Iraq in April, a decline from the 1,872 killed in March and the 1,646 killed in February. The ministry’s statistics also stated that 2,334 civilians had been wounded in April, down from 2,708 in March. The AP May 1 reported that 104 U.S. soldiers had died in Iraq in April, the most in any month so far in 2007. The Washington Post April 30 had reported that April was the sixth-deadliest month since the U.S. invasion in 2003. At least 12 British soldiers had died in Iraq in April, the most since 27 died in March 2003. Sunni Bloc Threatens Cabinet Exit—

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The largest Arab Sunni bloc in parliament April 30 threatened to withdraw its five ministers from the government due to alleged failures to safeguard the interests of Iraq’s Sunni community. In a statement, the bloc expressed frustration with Maliki’s government and its alleged neglect of Sunnis, saying it had “lost hope in rectifying the situation.” Sunnis routinely complained that the government did not provide adequate resources to them in terms of food, medicine and other services, and that the Shiite-dominated security forces were often hostile to them. Bush that day spoke by telephone with Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, Iraq’s highest-ranked Sunni official, and argued against the move. The bloc May 3 reiterated its allegations against Maliki’s government, and again threatened to withdraw its ministers. Ministers loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had pulled out of the cabinet two weeks earlier, and had yet to be replaced by Maliki. [See p. 239D2] Officers Purged From Iraqi Forces—

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U.S. and Iraqi officials had accused an advisory group in Maliki’s government of purging Iraq’s security forces of senior officers who energetically fought against Shiite militias, the Washington Post reported April 30. The officials, many of whom requested anonymity, alleged that the Office of the Commander in Chief—a 24member group tasked with advising Maliki on military matters—had acted to remove 16 senior officers since February, many of whom were Sunnis or had combated Shiite militias effectively. The Post reported that the U.S. was attempting to liaise with the office in order to learn more about it. Iraqi officials close to Maliki denied the accusations. Maliki had repeatedly insisted that Iraq’s security forces should be devoid of sectarian influence. 274

Also citing Iraqi and U.S. officials, the U.S.’s Cable News Network (CNN) May 1 reported similar findings. The officials claimed that the purged officers were being replaced by officers who had previously been removed for overlooking the criminal activities of Shiite militias. Al Qaeda Leader Reportedly Killed—Iraqi officials May 1 asserted that they had received information that the leader of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, had been killed April 30 near the town of Taji north of Baghdad. The account claimed that Masri died while fighting Sunni forces—tribal or insurgent, perhaps both—opposed to Al Qaeda in Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group with ties to Al Qaeda in Iraq, May 1 denied that Masri had been killed. U.S. and Iraqi officials May 2 said the account could not be confirmed, as no body had yet been recovered from the volatile area. [See p. 107G1] Iraqi officials May 3 claimed that Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, had been killed the day before by Iraqi forces north of Baghdad, and released photographs of a body said to be his. Later that day, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell 4th, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, announced that a senior member of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri, had been killed near Taji two days earlier by U.S.-led forces. Caldwell said Jubouri might have been mistaken for Masri and Baghdadi, leading to the unconfirmed reports of their deaths. Jubouri was Al Qaeda in Iraq’s senior information officer, and had reportedly been involved in the 2006 abductions of journalist Jill Carroll and peace worker Tom Fox. Carroll was freed, but Fox was later found dead. [See 2006, pp. 253B2, 184A3] Other News—In other Iraqi news: † The U.S. military May 2 announced that the fourth of five divisions involved in the recent joint U.S.-Iraqi security push in Baghdad had arrived in Iraq, and would soon be deployed in the capital. As part of the push, Bush had called for a “surge,” or increase, in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, amounting to roughly 20,000 combat soldiers and 8,000 support troops. U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox, commenting on the push, said 57 joint security stations had been established in and around Baghdad. He added that kidnappings and murders were down since the start of the push, although car bomb attacks had increased. † Iraqi officials May 2 declared that cars would no longer be allowed to park on Baghdad’s bridges, and that many of the bridges would be off-limits to large trucks. A car bomb April 10 had detonated on the Jadriya bridge in central Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 15 more, but leaving the bridge intact. A bomb two days earlier had collapsed another bridge in Baghdad. Eleven major bridges crossed the Tigris River, connecting eastern and western Baghdad. [See p. 232A1] † Ali Larijani, Iran’s top national security official, May 1 met with Iraq’s top Shiite

cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, in Najaf. At a press conference after the meeting, Larijani said the continuing strife in Iraq was the result of “wrong conduct” on the part of the U.S. He said the U.S., by negotiating with Sunni insurgents, had encouraged violence. He insisted that, contrary to U.S. allegations, Iran “always condemns terrorism.” † Sadr April 28 released a statement to parliament chastising Bush and calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Sadr noted that Bush had heard calls by both Iraqis and Americans to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq, but had remained “obstinate” and refused to comply. “Now the Democrats are calling on you to withdraw or even to draft a timetable, but you are stubborn,” the statement said. Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq: † A car bomb in Karbala April 28 exploded not far from one of the city’s two main Shiite shrines, killing at least 56 people and wounding 169 more. The blast did not harm the shrine, but destroyed many shops and set several people on fire. A police spokesman said the local police were understaffed and underequipped, and that requests to the interior ministry for more resources had gone unanswered. A similar attack two weeks earlier had killed 36 people. [See p. 240F1] † A rocket attack on Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone May 2 killed four foreign contractors. It was the third day in a row that the usually secure area had come under rocket or mortar fire. [See p. 231E2] † A suicide car bomber in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City May 2 killed at least nine people near a checkpoint, some of them police officers.

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jonathan Taylor MANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham COPY DIRECTOR: Marion Farrier SENIOR EDITOR: Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Alasdair Denvil ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ian McGullam DATABASE COORDINATOR: Ben MIller INDEX EDITOR: Jonathan Leith COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Jane Carlson, Nikki Conti-Brown FACTS ON FILE World News Digest is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. Vice President & Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Associate Publisher: Marjorie B. Bank. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

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† Gunmen in the south of Baghdad May 1 opened fire on the occupants of a minibus, killing at least 10 people. † A car bomb April 30 exploded at a funeral in the town of Khalis, killing at least 16 people and wounding at least 27 more. † A car bomb in Ramadi April 30 exploded at a police checkpoint, killing four police and injuring six more. † A car bomb in the Jihad neighborhood of western Baghdad April 30 killed four people and wounded seven more. † A roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad April 29 killed three U.S. soldiers and their interpreter. „

Israeli Report on Hezbollah War Criticizes Olmert Prime Minister Called On to Step Down.

A government commission April 30 issued a report excoriating Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for leadership failures during Israel’s summer 2006 war with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, spurring calls for his resignation. Israel had launched the war after Hezbollah had killed eight Israeli soldiers and abducted two more on Israel’s side of the Lebanese border. Hezbollah had then retaliated by firing thousands of rockets into Israel. The war ended in August 2006, with 119 Israeli soldiers and 41 Israeli civilians dead, along with about 1,000 Lebanese civilians and hundreds of Hezbollah militants. International peacekeepers were deployed in southern Lebanon to stop the rocket fire, but the abducted soldiers had not been not recovered. [See p. 37F2] Olmert had appointed the five-member commission in August 2006 to investigate the war’s conduct. It was chaired by Eliyahu Winograd, a retired judge. The report released April 30 dealt with the six years and the several days leading up to the war, as well as the first five days after the soldiers’ abduction, up to the time of Olmert’s declaration that Israel was at war. The second and final part of the report, due to be released in July, was to deal with the remainder of the war. The report from the Winograd commission laid the blame for the war’s failure to achieve its main goals—the liberation of the two soldiers and the cessation of Hezbollah rocket fire—on Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, who had resigned in January. It said the three had committed “very severe failures” with respect to “exercising judgment, responsibility and prudence.” The commission claimed that Olmert had rushed into the war without setting achievable goals and demanding that Halutz set out a detailed and plausible means of accomplishing them. The report described Olmert as being led into the war by Halutz without questioning Halutz’s estimations of Israeli capabilities. In particular, the commission noted the absence of an exit strategy, and the delay in deciding to begin a ground assault out of fear that milMay 3, 2007

itary casualties would create political opposition on the home front. Halutz was accused of relying too heavily on air power, and only resorting to ground forces in the waning days of the war when a truce seemed imminent and the war’s goals were still unmet. The report also blamed him for not offering Olmert alternatives, stifling dissent, underestimating Hezbollah and its rockets and failing to note that the armed forces were “not ready for this war.” Peretz was accused of lacking the experience to manage the defense portfolio, while failing to seek the counsel of those who did, an inadequacy that Halutz, the report said, took advantage of. The report said any of the three could have acted to avert the war’s failures, but insisted that Olmert was chiefly to blame. Previous governments, it said, also shared some responsibility for allowing Hezbollah to gain power in southern Lebanon and for not maintaining the army’s readiness. Olmert Refuses Calls for Resignation—

Olmert April 30 addressed Israel in a televised speech, refusing to step down, despite calls from many different political factions for his resignation, even from within his own party. “It would not be correct to resign,” he said, since doing so would likely result in general elections during a period of turmoil. Olmert acknowledged that his government had made mistakes with respect to the war, but he pledged to remain in office in order to fix them. Eitan Cabel, a minister in Olmert’s cabinet with no assigned portfolio, May 1 announced his resignation from the cabinet. “I will see to it that my resignation will lead other coalition partners to realize that it is everyone’s duty to work towards Olmert’s resignation,” he said. Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tzipi Livni, a member of Olmert’s Kadima party, May 2 met with Olmert and said he should resign. Speaking at a press conference later that day, Livni said she had told Olmert that “resignation would be the right thing for him to do.” She offered herself as a candidate for prime minister should Olmert step down. She did not offer her own resignation, however, and she insisted that she would not try to unseat Olmert, preferring the coalition ruled by Kadima to remain in power. “Israel needs stability,” she said. Some members of Kadima called for Olmert to fire Livni in response, but he refused to do so. Avigdor Itzhaki, the chairman of Kadima’s parliamentary group, May 2 resigned after calling for Olmert to quit. Olmert that day met with legislators from Kadima, and Shimon Peres, another deputy prime minister, insisted afterward that Olmert had Kadima’s “unprecedented support.” More than 100,000 Israelis May 3 gathered in Tel Aviv calling for Olmert to resign. Due to the war’s failures and several scandals involving the prime minister and other cabinet members, Olmert was immensely unpopular, with some polls putting his approval rating in the single dig-

its. However, the Israeli economy was performing well, and some Israelis feared that, if Olmert resigned and Kadima could not form another government, the resulting general elections could lead to a victory by the right-wing Likud party led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Peretz had earlier stated that he would step down later in May when a primary for his Labor Party was due to be held.

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Lebanese Premier Fouad Siniora May 2 blasted the Winograd commission’s report for failing to mention the deaths of Lebanese civilians and the damage done to his country caused by the “unjust” war. The report, he said, “did not make a single mention of the massive material, human losses and destruction Israel inflicted on Lebanon.” He also warned Lebanon that Israel might be seeking to wage war on the country again. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, May 2 said the report had “finally and officially decided the issue of victory and defeat” in Hezbollah’s favor. He uncharacteristically offered Israel praise, saying it was “worthy of respect that an investigative commission appointed by Olmert condemns him,” and that “the political forces and the Israeli public act quickly to save their state, entity, army and their existence from the crisis.” „

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President Vladimir V. Putin April 26 declared a “moratorium” on Russia’s compliance with a 1990 treaty limiting conventional armed forces in Europe, in response to the U.S.’s plans to locate elements of an antimissile system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Putin made the announcement during his annual address to Russia’s parliament in Moscow. Russia in recent months had expressed increasingly strident opposition to the U.S. plan, which Russia contended was aimed at undermining its missile deterrent. The U.S. insisted that it was intended to shield Europe from missile threats emanating from the Middle East, particularly Iran. The U.S. said the system, in its size and geographic arrangement, would be incapable of threatening Russia’s military power. [See p. 141E1; 1990, p. 861A1] At the end of the Cold War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Soviet-era Warsaw Pact nations had drastically reduced their conventional deployments in Europe under the 1990 pact, the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, widely known as CFE. A 1999 renegotiation of the CFE remained unratified by most NATO signatories, including the U.S., which accused Russia of violating the new provisions by keeping forces in Georgia and Moldova. Russia had ratified the 1999 pact. [See 2004, p. 958A1; 1999, p. 849A1] NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer April 26 expressed dismay at Pu275

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tin’s announcement, calling the treaty “one of the cornerstones of European security.” Putin and other senior Russian officials did not precisely spell out what they meant by a moratorium on observance of the treaty. Putin said the moratorium would last until all NATO members ratified the treaty. He suggested that Russia would consider permanently “ceasing our commitments under the CFE treaty” if they did not do so. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, reacting to Putin’s declaration, April 26 said that “the idea that somehow 10 interceptors and a few radars” posed a threat to Russia was “purely ludicrous,” and called on Russia to observe its “treaty obligations.” U.S. President George W. Bush April 30 said he was determined to persuade Putin that the missile shield was in Russia’s own interests, and that the U.S. was “not an antagonistic force.” Putin in his address also aired Russia’s long-standing grievances over the expansion of NATO, which was building up “systems of military bases near our borders,” he said. He also accused Western countries of interfering in Russia’s domestic affairs. Putin had frequently alleged that foreign-funded nongovernmental organizations were tools for outside manipulation of Russian politics. [See 2006, p. 917A2] Putin said the next year’s address would be given by “a different head of state,” confirming his rejection of suggestions that Russia’s constitution might be altered to allow him to seek a third term. [See p. 231B2] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier April 26 had met with NATO officials in Oslo, Norway, and presented Russia’s complaints about NATO expansion and the missile defense plan. U.S.’s Gates Visits, Urges Cooperation—

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates April 23 visited Moscow and met with Putin and Russian Defense Minster Anatoly Serdyukov, for talks intended to reassure Russia about the purposes of the U.S. missile system. Gates reportedly proposed that the two countries cooperate on the issue, possibly even coordinating their respective missile defenses in a single system. Gates described the talks as productive. He said Russia acknowledged that the “current design” and scope of the U.S.’s plans did not pose a threat to Russia, but expressed concern about whether it could develop into one in the future. He suggested that the U.S. would be open to extensive information-sharing with Russia to address those concerns. However, Serdyukov issued a statement saying that “the Russian position with respect to this issue remains unchanged,” and calling the U.S.’s plan “a destabilizing factor.” But the two countries did agree to establish a working group that would address Russia’s objections. Gates April 24 visited Warsaw, Poland’s capital, for talks on the U.S.’s plans to locate 10 interceptor-missile silos as part 276

of the system. Polish Defense Minster Aleksander Szczyglo said that such a deployment “should first and foremost serve to increase the level of security in Europe, and in this case, specifically in Poland,” a reference to Poland’s desire for new security guarantees from the U.S. as part of an agreement to participate. Gates rejected suggestions that locating the missile silos in Poland would expose Poland to new military threats from Russia. However, Poland was reportedly planning to demand that the U.S. provide it with Patriot surface-to-air missiles as a defense against Russia’s short- and medium-range missiles. Separately, the Czech Republic, where the U.S. wanted to locate radars as part of the missile shield, March 28 had formally agreed to open negotiations with the U.S. on the matter. Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg in an interview published April 2 in Britain’s Financial Times said that his country too would seek explicit “security assurances” from the U.S. U.S. officials April 19 had made a presentation on the missile shield plans to NATO members in Brussels, Belgium. The plans had raised concerns in some European quarters that it was needlessly increasing tensions with Russia. However, the meeting reportedly yielded broad agreement that the system could comple„ ment a future NATO missile shield.

Middle East Gates Reassures Israel on Weapons Sale.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates April 19 met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Tel Aviv, Israel, and insisted that a planned sale of U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries would not jeopardize Israel’s security. Speaking with reporters after their meeting, Gates said the sale was intended to counter Iran’s growing military strength, adding that Iran posed a greater danger to Israel than Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf states did. [See p. 166E1] Israeli officials in recent months had expressed their objections to the sale to U.S. officials, arguing that it would erode Israel’s military advantage over its Arab neighbors. The arms involved in the sale were not revealed, but reportedly included advanced weapons such as satellite-guided bombs and missiles. The sale still required the approval of Congress. Saudi Arabia, an influential Sunni Muslim Arab nation, had recently won approval from other Arab nations for its proposal of a peace initiative with Israel, although Israel had expressed its reservations about the plan. The Saudis were wary of the rising influence of Shiite Muslim Iran in the region. Saudi Arabia had joined other Arab nations in deploying forces against Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the 1967 Six Day War. Israel single-handedly won both of those wars. [See p. 203C1; 1967, p. 194E1; 1948, p. 149A] „

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

2008 Presidential Campaign Democratic Candidates Hold First Debate.

Eight candidates for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination April 26 held their first debate, at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg. The candidates all agreed on their opposition to the Iraq war, and the two front-runners, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.), avoided direct confrontations. However, after the debate, the Clinton camp highlighted her response to a question on what a president should do in the event of a terrorist attack on the U.S., suggesting that she had proven herself more decisive than Obama. [See p. 261B1] Debate moderator Brian Williams of NBC News asked Obama what military steps he would take if the international terrorist network Al Qaeda simultaneously attacked two U.S. cities. Obama replied that his first concern would be to ensure an effective emergency relief effort and avoid a repetition of the slow federal aid response to Gulf Coast victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He continued, “The second thing is to make sure we’ve got good intelligence” to counter other threats and “take potentially some action to dismantle that network” responsible for the attacks. He added that it would be essential to avoid taking action “based on faulty intelligence, based on bluster and bombast” that risked alienating allied nations. In contrast, Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), who was running third in most polls, both said they would order a military retaliation. Edwards said, “The first thing I would do is be certain I knew who was responsible, and I would act swiftly and strongly to hold them responsible.” Clinton said, “I think a president must move as swiftly as is prudent to retaliate.” New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said, “I would respond militarily, aggressively.” Later in the debate, Obama toughened his language, saying, “We have genuine enemies out there that have to be hunted down.” Edwards Questions Clinton, Obama—

Edwards challenged both Clinton and Obama during the debate. Noting that he had apologized for voting for a 2002 congressional resolution that authorized the use of force against Iraq, Edwards said others who had voted for the measure but had yet to apologize, like Clinton, should “search themselves and decide whether they believe they’ve voted the right way.” Edwards also suggested that Obama was basing his campaign on inspirational rhetoric rather than concrete policy proposals. “Highfalutin language is not enough,” he said. Edwards faced a tough question from Williams, who asked him about two $400 haircuts that he had gotten from a Beverly Hills, Calif., stylist and charged to his campaign. Edwards replied, “That was a mistake, which we remedied.” He added that he had not forgotten his humble roots deFACTS ON FILE

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Candidates at the April 26 Democratic presidential debate, from left to right: former Sen. Mike Gravel (Alaska); Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.); Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.); former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.); Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio); Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.); Gov. Bill Richardson (N.M.); Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.)

spite the “privileged and blessed lifestyle” that he now enjoyed as a millionaire former trial lawyer. [See 1993, p. 388C1] Other Highlights—Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.) drew laughs from the crowd when asked if he would be able to keep his wellknown verbosity in check if he became president and had to represent the U.S. on the world stage. Biden replied with one word, “Yes.” Former Sen. Mike Gravel (Alaska) drew some attention with a relatively unrestrained performance, calling for Congress to pass “a law making it a felony” for U.S. forces to remain in Iraq. He remarked that some of the other candidates frightened him, and asked Obama, “Who do you want to nuke?” Obama replied, “I’m not planning to nuke anyone right now, Mike, I promise you.” Gravel, 77, had served in the Senate from 1969 to 1981. Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) also took part in the debate. „

Bush Administration Tenet Memoir Blasts Administration on Iraq. Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

Director George Tenet in a memoir published April 30 alleged that various members of the Bush administration had used him as a scapegoat for intelligence failures in the lead-up to the war in Iraq. Also, Tenet blamed Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials for failing to engage in “serious debate” during the months preceding the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Central allegations in the memoir, At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA, were first reported by the New York Times April 27. [See p. 232E2; 2004, pp. 423A1, 287C1] The CBS news program “60 Minutes” April 26 released excerpts of an interview with Tenet regarding the book, although the full interview was not broadcast until April 29. Tenet had served as CIA director in the run-up to the invasion, and he had often been portrayed as having told President George W. Bush that there was no doubt that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He had been famously and repeatedly quoted by Cheney and other administration officials as referring to intelligence gathered on Iraq’s purported May 3, 2007

WMD program as a “slam dunk” during a December 2002 meeting. After the invasion, Iraq’s WMD stockpiles and related programs were found to be negligible or nonexistent. Tenet had left his position as intelligence chief in June 2004, citing family issues. In his book, Tenet claimed that his “slam dunk” comment referred to his confidence in the ability to make a public case for invasion, and not to his assessment of Iraq’s weapons programs. Tenet in the book also said he had been taken aback by an August 2002 public speech in which Cheney claimed that Iraq could develop a nuclear weapon “perhaps within a year,” but that he chose not to challenge Cheney on his assessment. Tenet’s memoir claimed that “there was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraq threat” with respect to WMDs. It also claimed that the administration put little thought into a postinvasion strategy. Tenet said Bush had already decided to invade Iraq prior to the meeting in which he had made the “slam dunk” comment, and that Cheney had supported an invasion prior to Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Regarding alleged links between the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the terrorist network Al Qaeda—which carried out the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.—Tenet claimed that CIA analysts often felt pressure from the administration to craft intelligence according to the administration’s policies, and to assert such links. In the “60 Minutes” interview, he said then–national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, currently the secretary of state, dismissed his July 2001 warnings that an attack by Al Qaeda was imminent. Tenet in his memoirs insisted that Al Qaeda was still a threat, and that it sought to carry out an attack with a nuclear weapon. “They understand that bombings by cars, trucks, trains and planes will get them some headlines, to be sure,” Tenet wrote. “But if they manage to set off a mushroom cloud, they will make history.” Tenet’s Statements Rebutted—Criticism of Tenet’s claims April 27–30 emerged from several quarters, including both supporters and opponents of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Rice April 29 insisted that it was clear to everyone who heard Tenet’s “slam dunk” comment that he was speaking about

Iraq’s WMD. She also said many of Tenet’s claims contradicted his 2004 testimony to the commission investigating the September 2001 attacks. The State Department April 29 released a statement containing excerpts of Tenet’s testimony to the commission, in which Tenet stated that 2001 intelligence regarding an attack by Al Qaeda was “short on actionable details.” The statement affirmed the seriousness with which the Bush administration treated the terrorist network prior to the attacks. Douglas Feith, who was undersecretary of defense for policy during the run-up to the war, and had been criticized for asserting a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, April 27 had also sought to rebut Tenet. Feith cited a letter Tenet sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee in October 2002 asserting that there was “solid reporting of senior level contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda going back a decade.” Six former CIA analysts, all critics of the invasion, April 30 blasted Tenet for not going public with his appraisal of the Bush administration’s actions sooner. They demanded that he return the Presidential Medal of Freedom he received from Bush in 2004, and donate proceeds from his book to families of soldiers killed in Iraq.

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Rice Subpoenaed Over Prewar Claims—

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform April 25 issued a subpoena for Rice to testify regarding prewar intelligence reports that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium from Niger in order to make nuclear weapons. Rice had been national security adviser at the time the intelligence reports had been used to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq. [See p. 137A1] Speaking in Oslo, Norway’s capital, Rice April 26 said she would not comply with the subpoena. She argued that national security advisers were not legally required to testify before Congress, and that she had already answered questions on the matter during her confirmation hearing to head the State Department. „

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Foreign Aid Chief Quits in Escorts Scandal.

Randall Tobias, a deputy secretary of state in charge of U.S. foreign aid programs, April 27 resigned after ABC News questioned him on whether he had been a customer of an escort service. ABC reported that Tobias had acknowledged April 26 that he had used the service, but had said he only did so to “have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage.” He insisted that “no sex” was involved. [See 2006, p. 30E3] The proprietor of the escort service, Deborah Jeane Palfrey (dubbed the “D.C. Madam” in the media), April 30 appeared in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to request a change in her court-appointed lawyer. A federal grand jury March 1 had indicted her on charges of money laundering in connection with the case. She was charged with employing women “for the purpose of engaging in prostitution activity... in exchange for money.” She pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors accused Palfrey, 50, of running a prostitution ring from 1993 to 2006, 277

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netting about $2 million. Her Californiabased firm was known as Pamela Martin and Associates. She claimed that it was a “legal high-end erotic fantasy service.” In 1992, she had pleaded guilty to charges of attempted felony pimping in California and served 18 months in a state prison. Palfrey had given ABC a list of telephone numbers belonging to thousands of her clients, saying she hoped it would encourage some of them to testify on her behalf and prove that her activities were legal. Palfrey April 13 had disclosed in a court filing that another customer was military strategist and Defense Department adviser Harlan Ullman. He was known for developing the “shock and awe” theory of overwhelming bombardment, put into practice in the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Ullman April 30 declined to answer questions about Palfrey’s service. [See 2003, p. 202F1] Tobias, 65, was a former chairman and chief executive of both telephone company AT&T International and drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. In 2003, President George W. Bush had named Tobias to lead his international program to fight AIDS. Bush named Tobias chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development in January 2006, giving him the rank of deputy secretary of state. Bush administration AIDS policies required nations that received U.S. assistance to promote abstinence and condemn prostitution. „ Press Secretary Snow Returns to Work.

White House press secretary Tony Snow April 30 returned to work, after taking a five-week leave of absence to recover from surgery following a recurrence of colon cancer. Snow April 29 had said he would undergo intensive chemotherapy for the next four months, while staying on the job full-time. He said he did not want any pity from White House correspondents in the briefing room, remarking, “I expect people to be every bit as tough as they were before.” [See p. 191B1] „

Armed Forces Hearings Held on Tillman, Lynch Cases.

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The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform April 24 held hearings into false reports regarding the 2004 death of Army Ranger Cpl. Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the 2003 capture and liberation of Pfc. Jessica Lynch in Iraq. The truth about Tillman’s death by friendly fire had been withheld by the military for weeks, while initial reports of Lynch’s heroic resistance against Iraqi soldiers were later proven to be false. [See p. 214A1; 2003, pp. 238D2, 234C2] Tillman’s brother, Kevin Tillman—who was also an Army Ranger, and had been in the same convoy as his brother at the time of his death, though not near the fire fight that killed him—testified at the hearing. He accused the military of telling his family “deliberate and calculated lies” in order to hide the circumstances of his brother’s death. “A terrible tragedy that might have further undermined support for the war in 278

Iraq,” Tillman said, “was transformed into an inspirational message that served instead to support the nation’s foreign policy wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Pat Tillman before his death had already been celebrated as a professional football player who had left the game to join the Rangers. Kevin Tillman called for a thorough investigation into “who was responsible for [Pat Tillman’s] death, who lied and covered it up, and who instigated those lies and benefited from them.” He asked the committee to look into how it came to be that his brother’s Silver Star decoration falsely claimed that he had been fighting the enemy at the time of his death, and into when former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld learned the truth about the incident. Rumsfeld, on the day of his departure from office in December 2006, had issued a letter claiming that he did not know that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire until shortly before Tillman’s family was told. Spec. Bryan O’Neal, who had belonged to Pat Tillman’s unit and had come under fire with him the day of his death, also spoke at the hearing. “I was 100% positive it was friendly fire” that killed Tillman, he said, adding that he shared this with the military immediately. He claimed that the military told him not to divulge the information, or else he “would get in trouble.” Lynch, also testified about the false media reports regarding her own ordeal in Iraq, in which she and several of her comrades had been ambushed and then taken captive, though she was freed days later. She restated that reports that she “went down fighting” against Iraqi soldiers were false. “I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary,” she said. Chairman Henry Waxman (D, Calif.) stated that, while he would await the results of the Army’s probe into the Tillman affair, he would still press ahead with congressional investigations. “We still don’t know how far up this went,” he said. „

Politics Ex–House Aide Guilty in Abramoff Case.

Mark Zachares, a former congressional aide, April 24 pleaded guilty to using his influence to secure favors for corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for bribes. Zachares, 49, had been a lawyer on the staff of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, a job Abramoff helped him get. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to deprive the public of honest service in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. [See p. 191E1] Zachares admitted that he had accepted more than $30,000 worth of tickets to sports events, $10,000 in cash and a luxury golf vacation in Scotland from Abramoff and his associates. He said that between 2002 and 2004, he provided Abramoff with inside information and steered potential lobbying clients to him. The Abramoff probe had so far resulted in 11 guilty pleas and convictions. „

Mergers & Acquisitions Murdoch Makes Offer for Dow Jones. Ru-

pert Murdoch, the chief of the News Corp. international media conglomerate, had made an unsolicited offer of $5 billion to acquire business news company Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, the CNBC cable business news channel reported May 1. A trustee for the Bancroft family, which controlled the company, said that members with a voting majority of its shares were opposed to the deal as offered, and the Dow Jones board May 2 announced that it would therefore “take no action” on the proposal. However, that was considered highly unlikely to deter Murdoch from further pressing his bid, and observers noted that his move might spur rival offers from other bidders. [See 2006, p. 1005C1] Murdoch offered $60 per share in cash or a combination of cash and stock in an April 17 letter to incoming Dow Jones Chairman Peter McPherson, who assumed that post April 18. That would be an enormous premium over its closing price April 30 of $36.33. News of the offer May 1 sent the stock’s price up 55%, to $56.20. Murdoch, whose News Corp. was worth some $70 billion, had reportedly long desired to acquire Dow Jones and the Journal to expand his company’s provision of news in both print and electronic media. Murdoch’s holdings included the Fox television network and news channel, the New York Post, and newspapers in Britain and his native Australia. The Journal had had the second-largest circulation of any U.S. newspaper. Some members of the Bancroft family, which had owned the Journal for more than 100 years, reportedly expressed concern for the Journal’s editorial traditions, in view of Murdoch’s penchant for personally imposing a blend of sensationalism and conservative politics throughout his news outlets. Although the Journal’s editorial page espoused political views sympathetic to Murdoch’s, its news pages were known for their independence from it. Murdoch in interviews May 1 expressed respect for the Journal’s “quality and traditions,” and his offer letter had reportedly indicated a willingness to institute structures to preserve its independence. The union representing the Journal’s newsroom employees May 1 stated its unqualified opposition to the Murdoch bid. Observers noted that the high price of the offer would demand serious consideration from the Bancrofts, given that Dow Jones’s share price had languished for several years. The family owned 24.7% of the company’s stock, but controlled 64.2% of its votes, through shares with enhanced voting rights. „

Immigration May Day Rallies Smaller Than 2006. Tens of thousands of people May 1 turned out for a series of rallies across the U.S. in support of immigrants’ rights. The rallies were FACTS ON FILE

a repeat of similar gatherings in 2006, but attracted much smaller crowds. [See p. 48C1; 2006, p. 339A3] In 2006, more than one million people had attended the rallies, calling for Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill that included a path to legal status for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country. However, that bill had died in Congress, and the momentum for reform among legislators had waned. An immigration bill eventually passed by Congress in late 2006 focused solely on border security, and did not deal with the status of the nation’s illegal immigrants. [See 2006, p. 837D3] The May 1 rallies were held in the midst of a nationwide crackdown on illegal immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, including a series of raids and deportations that separated illegal immigrants from their U.S.-born children and other family members. Demonstrators called for an end to such raids, as well as for a renewed push to pass immigration reform legislation. [See below] In the largest of the May 1 rallies, an estimated 150,000 people gathered in Chicago. More than 20,000 attended a rally in Los Angeles; 10,000 gathered in Denver, Colo.; and 5,000 demonstrated in New York City. Observers said some illegal immigrants might have been deterred from attending the rallies for fear of getting caught up in the crackdown. Police and demonstrators clashed at the Los Angeles rally, with police using rubber bullets and batons to disperse a crowd gathered in the city’s MacArthur Park. Some members of the crowd had reportedly thrown rocks and bottles at the officers. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) May 2 called for an investigation of the incident. Bush Promotes Reform Plan—President George W. Bush April 9 launched a renewed push for Congress to pass immigration reform legislation. He called for a bipartisan effort to pass a bill that would strengthen border security, create a guestworker program and provide many illegal immigrants with the opportunity to gain citizenship. Speaking at the opening of a new border patrol station in Yuma, Ariz., Bush pressed Democrats and Republicans “to find a practical answer that falls between granting automatic citizenship to every illegal immigrant and deporting every illegal immigrant.” Regarding the guest worker proposal, Bush added, “If you’ve got people coming here to do jobs that Americans aren’t doing we need to find a way for them to do so on a legal basis for a temporary period of time.” Bush also touted recent measures that had apparently decreased the influx of illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. The White House March 29 had circulated a plan among legislators that called for creating special visas, called Z-visas, allowing illegal immigrants already in the country to work in the U.S. However, the visas would have to be renewed every three years, and holders would have to pay fines May 3, 2007

and fees that totaled $3,500. In order to apply for permanent legal residency, Z-visa holders would have to return to their country of origin and apply through a U.S. embassy or consulate. They would also have to pay fines totaling $10,000. In an April 28 speech at Miami Dade College in Kendall, Fla.—where many of the students were Hispanics born outside the U.S.—Bush again called for immigration reform, urging support of a plan that would “resolve the status of those who are already here without amnesty, and without animosity.” Many of the Hispanic students at Miami Dade were Cuban Americans, who were generally supporters of Bush and the Republican Party. House Bill Introduced— A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House March 22 introduced a bill that included a guestworker program and path for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship. The bill was sponsored by Reps. Jeff Flake (R, Ariz.) and Luis Gutierrez (D, Ill.). However, analysts said it could be difficult to pass any immigration reform legislation in the current session, as many conservative Democrats had won November 2006 elections on promises not to grant an “amnesty” to illegal immigrants. Also, Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.), who had sponsored an immigration reform bill in 2006 along with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D, Mass.), appeared to have shifted toward a more conservative stance on the issue in light of his bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. [See p. 260D3] 360 Arrested in Massachusetts Raid— ICE agents March 6 raided a leather goods

factory owned by Michael Bianco Inc. in New Bedford, Mass., arresting at least 360 illegal immigrant workers. The factory manufactured goods for the U.S. military. The arrests separated the immigrant workers from their U.S.-born children, some of whom were left stranded at schools or daycare facilities. Some of the immigrants were quickly moved to detention centers in Texas. Lawyers for the immigrants March 21 appeared before Judge Richard Stearns of U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass., alleging that the government had acted in bad faith in moving the immigrants to Texas and denying them access to lawyers and their families. Stearns April 6 temporarily halted deportations of 110 of the workers, after their lawyers argued that their clients had been coerced to waive appeals of their deportation orders or had done so without competent translators. Similar operations had been carried out across the country since May 2006. The New York Times reported May 1 that ICE officials had deported 221,664 illegal immigrants over the past year, a 20% increase over the previous year. „

Supreme Court Texas

Death

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Overturned.

The Supreme Court April 25 voted, 5–4, to overturn three death sentences imposed by Texas courts. The high court ruled that the

sentences should be overturned because instructions given to the juries on whether to impose sentences of death or life in prison were faulty, as they did not allow jurors to give enough weight to mitigating circumstances. The instructions had been changed in 1991, and all three death sentences had been imposed in or prior to 1991. The cases were Smith v. Texas, Abdul-Kabir v. Quarterman and Brewer v. Quarterman. [See 2006, p. 815B2] The justices voted the same in all three cases, with Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter and John Paul Stevens forming the majority. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented. In the case of convicted murderer LaRoyce Smith, the Supreme Court had voted, 7–2, in 2004 to send it back to a Texas court in light of the change in the state law on jury instructions. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals subsequently ruled that the error in the instructions had been “harmless,” and reinstated Smith’s death sentence. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said the state court had erred in reinstating the death sentence. Alito wrote the dissent. In the cases of convicted murderers Brent Brewer and Jalil Abdul-Kabir, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, La., had refused to grant habeas corpus petitions. Such petitions claimed that a prisoner’s conviction or sentence was unconstitutional. Stevens, in his majority opinion in the two cases, wrote that previous Supreme Court rulings on the problematic jury instructions had meant that the petitions should have been granted. Roberts authored the dissent. As the jury instructions in question had been reformed in 1991, the ruling was expected to apply only to a handful of cases that were decided prior to the change. Court Accepts Mexican’s Appeal— The Supreme Court April 30 agreed to hear an appeal brought by Jose Ernesto Medellin, a Mexican citizen who had been convicted of rape and murder in 1993 and was currently on death row in Texas. In 2004, the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, had found that U.S. authorities had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by failing to allow about 50 Mexican citizens on death row in eight states, including Medellin, contact with their country’s consulate. [See 2006, p. 1010B1] In early 2005, the Bush administration had called on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reconsider Medellin’s case in light of the World Court ruling. The Supreme Court at that time sent the case back to the Texas court. However, the Texas court in November of that year refused to order a new hearing. The Bush administration was supporting Medellin’s current appeal, and Solicitor General Paul Clement in a brief had argued that if the Texas decision was not overturned, the U.S. would be “in breach of 279

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its international law obligation.” The case was Medellin v. Texas. „ Use of Force in Police Chase Backed. The Supreme Court April 30 ruled, 8–1, that a Georgia policeman did not violate a speeding driver’s constitutional rights by ramming him off the highway, leaving the driver paralyzed. It said Coweta County Deputy Sheriff Timothy Scott was justified in using deadly force against the driver, Victor Harris, because Harris’s reckless driving posed a grave threat to other drivers and pedestrians. The case was Scott v. Harris. [See 2006, p. 864E1] Harris, then 19, in 2001 had fled after police tried to pull him over for driving at 73 miles per hour (117 kmph) in a 55-mph zone. Harris had led officers on a sixminute, nine-mile chase, at speeds exceeding 90 mph, over dark, wet and winding highways. Scott rammed Harris’s car in the rear, causing it to slide off an embankment and flip over. Harris sued Scott, claiming that his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizure had been violated. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, Ga., ruled that the case should go to a jury, denying Scott’s claim of immunity from lawsuits as a police officer. The Feb. 26 Supreme Court hearing of the case was dominated by a 15-minute video, captured by an automatic camera mounted in Scott’s car. In his majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia said it showed “a Hollywood-style car chase of the most frightening sort, placing police officers and innocent bystanders alike at great risk of serious injury.” Scalia said the video contradicted the lower courts’ depiction of Harris as a “cautious and controlled driver.” In an unprecedented move, the justices posted the video on the public Supreme Court Web site. “A police officer’s attempt to terminate a dangerous high-speed car chase that threatens the lives of innocent bystanders does not violate the Fourth Amendment, even when it places the fleeing motorist at risk of serious injury or death,” Scalia wrote. He rejected arguments from Harris’s lawyers that the case was covered by a 1985 Supreme Court ruling barring the use of deadly force against a suspect fleeing on foot, saying that the danger posed by Harris’s erratic driving made the comparison invalid. Justice John Paul Stevens, the only dissenting judge, said the court “had usurped the jury’s factfinding function” in evaluating the video as evidence. Stevens also questioned why the police, since they had Harris’s license plate number, did not call off the chase. However, Scalia said that would have created a “perverse incentive” for speeders to drive erratically in order to avoid a ticket. „ Patent Claim Threshold Raised. The Supreme Court April 30 ruled, 9–0, in favor of making obtaining new patents and protecting existing ones more difficult, in one of the most far-reaching patent rulings in the past several decades. The high court found that lower courts had extended to 280

patent holders excessive protections that risked stifling innovation. The case was KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc. [See 2006, p. 761E1] At issue in the case was whether a patent held by Teleflex on a gas pedal equipped with an electronic sensor was a novel innovation, which would afford it patent protection, or simply an obvious combination of preexisting elements, a finding that would not guarantee protection. The high court found that KSR, in creating its own electronic sensor–equipped gas pedal, had not infringed on Teleflex’s patent rights. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in the Supreme Court’s opinion that new products that simply combined parts of existing products to “yield predictable results” did not deserve patent protection. “Granting patent protection to advances that would occur in the ordinary course without real innovation retards progress,” Kennedy wrote. Experts said the ruling would allow patent examiners greater power to reject questionable patent claims, and grant judges increased discretion in dismissing lawsuits, likely leading to fewer jury trials of patent cases. The case was also significant in that it signaled the high court’s renewed interest in the rulings of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which had exclusive domain over patent appeals. „ State Mortgage Regulation Claims Rejected.

The Supreme Court April 17 ruled, 5–3, that the mortgage lending subsidiaries of national banks did not fall under the regulatory powers of states. The banks had argued that meeting the various regulatory rules of individual states was an undue burden, and that federal law left regulation of the industry to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The case was Watters v. Wachovia Bank. [See p. 224B3] The states had argued that their regulators protected consumers from predatory lending practices. Consumer advocates criticized the ruling. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion, saying, “We have repeatedly made clear that federal control shields national banking from unduly burdensome and duplicative state regulation.” She was joined by Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Anthony M. Kennedy and David H. Souter. Justice John Paul Stevens penned the dissent, arguing that the ruling threatened the dual state-federal system of banking regulation and gave federal regulators too much power to overturn state rules. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Antonin Scalia joined Stevens. Justice Clarence Thomas had recused himself from the case. In 2003, Wachovia Mortgage Corp. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Wachovia Bank and informed Michigan regulators that it would no longer be subject to their rules. (Banks needed a charter from either a state or the OCC.) Michigan regulators, in response, had told Wachovia that it could no longer operate in the state, prompting the bank to file a lawsuit. „

Court Upholds Waste ‘Flow-Control’ Law.

The Supreme Court April 30 ruled, 6–3, that local governments were constitutionally allowed to mandate the disposal of solid waste generated within their borders in government-run landfills and recycling facilities. A trade organization of trash haulers had sued the waste-management agency of Oneida and Herkimer counties in New York State over such a mandate. The haulers argued that “flow-control” laws barring shipment of waste to other sites that charged lower fees amounted to unconstitutional interference with interstate commerce. The case was United Haulers Association v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority. [See 2006, p. 761F2] Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, distinguished the current case from a 1994 Supreme Court ruling overturning a law that funneled waste into a privately owned facility built at the government’s urging. He said that ruling did not apply because the Oneida-Herkimer facilities were publicly built. Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., John Paul Stevens and Anthony M. Kennedy dissented, with Alito calling the distinction “both illusory and without precedent.” Flow-control plans were often used to encourage recycling, by funneling money back to local governments to recoup the cost of constructing recycling facilities. Roberts argued that taxpayers had willingly chosen to pay the higher fees by voting for the flow-control plan. Other Rulings—In other Supreme Court rulings: † The Supreme Court April 30 declined to hear two appeals challenging the legality of trial by military commissions for terrorism detainees. The appeals were brought by Salim Ahmed Hamdan and Omar Khadr, who were being held at a U.S. prison camp for terrorism detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and faced trial by commission. They had sued Defense Secretary Robert Gates and President George W. Bush, respectively. The Supreme Court in 2006 had ruled in favor of a lawsuit by Hamdan challenging the Bush administration’s previous tribunal system. However, Congress had passed a new law in 2006 authorizing the commissions. The court earlier in April had refused to hear challenges by other detainees. The latest cases were Hamdan v. Gates and Khadr v. Bush. [See p. 206G3; 2006, p. 1001G2; 2005, p. 918E2] † The Supreme Court March 5 ruled unanimously that a group of plaintiffs had no right to sue to reverse a congressional district map that had been proposed by Colorado Democrats and approved by a state judge in 2002. The plaintiffs had argued that congressional redistricting powers lay solely with legislators, and not the judiciary. The case was Lance v. Dennis. [See 2006, p. 505A2] „

Consumer Affairs Livestock Given Tainted Pet Food. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) April 24 said chickens and hogs in several states had FACTS ON FILE

been fed reconstituted pet food containing the chemical melamine, adding that it was investigating if any of the animals had entered the human food supply. Officials said pet food that did not meet quality standards was often reformulated into livestock feed. Foods for human consumption were not permitted to contain melamine, although experts said the relatively small amount that humans would be exposed to by consuming tainted meat products was not likely to cause serious adverse health effects. [See p. 226A2] The FDA in March had attributed the death or illness of an unknown number of pets to melamine-contaminated wheat gluten imported from China that had been used in the manufacture of pet food. Thousands of types of pet food and treats had been recalled as a result of the discovery. Estimates of the number of pet deaths ranged from dozens to hundreds, but the actual tally was not known. It remained unknown how melamine had specifically contributed to the pet deaths. It was believed that melamine was often added to products because doing so could cause falsely high results in tests of foods’ protein content. The FDA April 26 said 6,000 hogs from seven states that might have been given melamine-contaminated feed had been identified. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said the hogs would not receive a stamp needed to sell the meat. Eight hog farmers in Utah, Oklahoma, Kansas, New York, South Carolina, North Carolina and California had purchased tainted feed. The FDA May 1 reported that an Indiana chicken producer had sold 2.5 million broiler chickens intended for human consumption that had been given melaminecontaminated feed. The agency said hundreds of other chicken producers could also have fed their animals similarly contaminated feed. Melamine Found in Other Products—

The FDA April 18 said it had also found melamine in rice protein, another ingredient used to make pet food, imported from China. Agency officials said they were trying to determine if the chemical had been added to falsely boost the results of protein-content tests. The FDA April 24 said it would begin testing six imported ingredients used to make food additives, livestock feed and pet food for melamine. The ingredients were wheat gluten, rice protein, corn gluten, corn meal, soy protein and rice bran. Government Reaction—Canadian pet food manufacturer Menu Foods Ltd. April 27 said an Emporia, Kan., plant it operated had been searched by FDA officials. ChemNutra Inc., a pet food ingredient supplier, the same day said agency officials had searched its business offices in Las Vegas, Nev. as part of a federal investigation into the tainted pet food scandal. The scandal had brought to light regulatory problems associated with the import of processed food products from areas of the world where regulation was generally May 3, 2007

slack. FDA food inspectors in 2006 had tested only 20,662 imported food shipments out of more than 8.9 million. Critics of the agency’s response said the FDA’s budget had not kept pace with the increasing need for food inspectors. The food scare was yet another blow to the FDA, which in February had ordered a wide-ranging recall of peanut butter potentially contaminated with the salmonella bacterium. The agency in late 2006 had also struggled to identify the source of fresh spinach contaminated by the Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacterium. [See p. 110A1; 2006, p. 800D2] FDA Commissioner Andrew Von Eschenbach May 1 announced the creation of a U.S. “food safety czar” post and named David Acheson to the post. Chinese Investigation— The Chinese government April 23 allowed investigators from the FDA to enter the country, after blocking their previous efforts. A Chinese company alleged to have sold much of the contaminated wheat gluten had not reported containers that held food products to Chinese regulatory authorities, thus avoiding inspection, the New York Times reported May 3. Chinese authorities had detained the manager of the company, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co., the Times reported May 4. Chinese agricultural workers said melamine had been routinely added to animal feed for years in order to raise proteincontent levels in tests, the Times reported April 30. „

Economy GDP Growth Slowest in Four Years. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.3% in the first quarter of 2007, the Commerce Department reported April 27 in its advance estimate. That was down from the 2.5% growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2006, and the slowest rate in four years. The department said the sharp deceleration was attributable in part to a steep drop in new housing construction, fewer exports, lower consumer spending on nondurable goods and reduced federal spending. The estimate would be revised twice. GDP was a measure of the output of goods and services produced within a nation’s borders. [See pp. 281F2, 209C2] The department measured first-quarter GDP at $11.55 trillion in so-called 2000 chain-weighted dollars, up from $11.51 trillion in the previous quarter. „ Existing Home Sales Dropped in March.

Sales of existing homes fell 8.4% in March, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.12 million units, the National Association of Realtors reported April 24. The news of the drop, the biggest since 1989, revived concerns about weakness in the U.S. housing market. The rate for February was revised slightly downward to 6.68 million units. The median sale price for existing homes in February was $217,000,

May Financial Update

A

(Close of trading May 1 except where indicated)

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average

13,136.14

(see box, p. 281E3)

Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index Nasdaq Composite Index London Stock Exchange

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100)

1486.30 2531.53 6419.6

Tokyo Stock Exchange

17,274.98

Toronto Stock Exchange

13,406.33

(Nikkei index)

(TSE Composite Index)

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield)

4.64% 5.03%

Currencies (late New York trading) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars)

$0.8282 $1.9990 $0.9005 $1.3612 119.77 10.9349 $0.8236

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.)

$674.40

Silver (per troy oz.)

$13.45

Oil (per barrel)

$64.40

(N.Y. Comex spot price) (London fixing spot price) (Nymex crude future)

Gasoline (per gallon)

(nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released April 22)

$4.85

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

2.8%

Unemployment rate

4.4%

Gross domestic product growth

1.3%

(consumer price index 12-month increase through March; see p. 245C2) (March; see p. 225E1)

(annualized first-quarter rate, advance report; see p. 281D2)

Prime rate

C

$2.8737

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel) (Kansas City market)

B

D

8.25%

down from $217,600 one year earlier. [See p. 192G1] New Home Sales Fell in April—The Departments of Commerce and of Housing and Urban Development April 25 reported jointly that sales of new single-family homes dropped by 2.6% in March from the

E

Dow Jones Industrial Average Trading on the New York Stock Exchange

April 2 3 4 5 6 9 10 11 12 13 16 17 18 19 20 23 24 25 26 27 30

Closing

Volume (in millions of shares)

12,382.30 12,510.30 12,530.05 12,560.20 Holiday 12,569.14 12,573.85 12,484.62 12,552.96 12,612.13 12,720.46 12,773.04 12,803.84 12,808.63 12,961.98 12,919.40 12,953.94 13,089.89 13,105.50 13,120.94 13,062.91

1,499.5 1,552.4 1,398.6 1,246.1 — 1,260.1 1,329.3 1,567.9 1,489.7 1,410.0 1,551.1 1,571.8 1,609.4 1,634.9 1,948.4 1,438.2 1,649.0 1,677.6 1,697.9 1,497.8 1,704.5

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281

A

previous month. The new seasonally adjusted annual rate was 858,000 units, down from the revised February rate of 836,000 units. The median price for a new singlefamily home sold in March was $254,000, up from the revised February level of $251,800. [See p. 192F1] „

Terrorism Bin Laden Aide Imprisonment Reported.

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Defense Department officials April 27 announced that Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, an alleged top commander of the Al Qaeda international terrorist network and key aide to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, had been captured in late 2006 and held in a secret prison operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in an unidentified foreign country. The Defense Department said Iraqi that week had been transferred to a U.S. prison camp for terrorism detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Iraqi was the first prisoner known to have been held in secret CIA custody since President George W. Bush in September 2006 acknowledged the program’s existence. [See p. 207D3; 2006, p. 689A1; 2002, p. 2F2] Officials said al-Iraqi, an Iraqi Kurd who had reportedly joined Al Qaeda in the late 1990s, was captured while traveling to Iraq. He allegedly was slated to assume a leadership position there in the Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia insurgent group and coordinate efforts with Al Qaeda’s worldwide organization. He was also said to have coordinated insurgency operations with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and to have plotted to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and unidentified United Nations officials. Defense Department officials would not say where Iraqi had been captured, but said it was not in Iran or Pakistan, where he was said to have operated. Intelligence officials said he had given up valuable information under interrogation about Al Qaeda’s structure and operations. The CIA’s director, Gen. Michael Hayden, in an April 27 e-mail to agency employees said the CIA had played “a key role in efforts to locate” Iraqi. Britain’s Observer newspaper April 29 reported that factions within the Iranian government might have given the U.S. information leading to his arrest. „ Chemical Plant Safety Rules Announced.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) April 2 announced a new slate of rules governing chemical plant safety, in what officials said was the first “acrossthe-board” effort to require chemical companies to secure their facilities against terrorist attacks and theft. The rules did not mandate specific safety measures or set timetables, but the DHS was expected to require 300–400 of the most vulnerable plants to produce detailed security plans. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff April 1 had sent legislators a letter saying that the new regulations would not supersede stricter rules enacted by some states. Democratic legislators and environment groups nevertheless protested that the changes 282

would overrule the state rules and hamper further safety reforms. [See 2006, p. 1000G1] „

Tobacco Philip Morris Makes $3.5 Billion Payment.

Richmond, Va.–based cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA, a unit of Altria Group Inc., March 30 said it had made its entire $3.5 billion annual payment to 46 states under a 1998 settlement agreement. Philip Morris, the largest cigarette manufacturer in the U.S., said it would attempt to recoup $400 million of the payment that it said it did not owe. The payment was the result of an accord known as the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement in which tobacco companies agreed to pay states for healthcare costs related to smoking. The companies were to pay states a total of $246 billion over 20 years. [See 2006, p. 329D2]„ ‘Light’ Marketing Term Banned Worldwide.

Judge Gladys Kessler of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., March 16 ruled that U.S.-based tobacco companies were prohibited from using marketing terms such as “light” and “low-tar” in foreign countries. Kessler in August 2006 had ordered companies to stop using similar terms in the U.S., but the companies had requested that the ban not extend to overseas markets. Kessler ruled that there was no rationale for allowing “fraudulent representations” in other countries. [See 2006, p. 732C2] „

Telecommunications FCC Sets Customer Data-Sharing Rules.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) April 2 announced a slate of new telephone privacy regulations designed to restrict the sharing of customer information between telephone companies and third parties. Under the new rules, companies would have to obtain the consent of customers before sharing information, which companies said would impede the outsourcing of marketing and customer services to other firms. The rules were aimed in part at curbing the practice— known as pretexting—of impersonating someone else to gain access to the person’s telephone records without his or her permission. [See p. 176B1; 2006, p. 952E2]„

Legislation House Passes ‘Spoofing’ Ban. The House March 21 passed, 413–1, a bill banning the practice of “spoofing,” in which information shown on telephone caller-identification screens was falsified in order to defraud people. Spoofers impersonated bank or credit card companies, in order to get people to reveal personal information such as Social Security numbers. Under the bill, which still required Senate approval, violators could receive a fine and a prison sentence of up to five years. Rep. Ron Paul (R, Texas) cast the lone “no” vote. [See p. 282E2; 2003, p. 538C3] „

AFRICA

Liberia U.N. Lifts Diamond-Trading Ban. The Unit-

ed Nations Security Council April 27 voted unanimously to lift a six-year ban on the export of diamonds from Liberia. The council deemed that Liberia had made “sufficient progress” toward meeting the standards of the Kimberley Process, an industry-led program to halt the trade in socalled blood diamonds. The Kimberley Process required exporters to certify the origin of gems being traded on the international market. [See 2006, p. 1012C3] The ban had been imposed in 2001, when diamonds from Liberia and other West African nations were being used to fund civil conflicts across the region. At that time, Liberia was led by President Charles Taylor, who had been held responsible for fomenting conflict in Liberia and neighboring countries such as Sierra Leone. Taylor went into exile in 2003, and in 2006 was arrested on war crimes charges by the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. [See 2006, p. 491A3] Meanwhile, the government of Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who took office in January 2006, had been lobbying for the lifting of the ban as part of an effort to help the country recover from decades of conflict. Liberia May 1 resumed its diamond trade. Ten offices reportedly had been opened across the country to ensure compliance with the Kimberley Process. The Security Council would review its decision to lift the ban in 90 days. „

Uganda Government, Rebels Resume Talks. The Ugandan government and representatives of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) April 26 resumed peace negotiations, meeting in Juba, the capital of the autonomous region of south Sudan. The talks were mediated by Riek Machar, vice president of south Sudan, and former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano, who had been appointed the United Nations’ special envoy in November 2006. [See 2006, p. 1015D2] The negotiations were the latest effort to end more than 20 years of civil war in northern Uganda, in which tens of thousands of people had been killed and some two million others displaced. The talks had stalled after the LRA Jan. 19 said it would no longer participate in negotiations in south Sudan, and demanded a new venue. The rebels had been angered by a statement by Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in which he pledged to “get rid of the LRA from Sudan,” it was reported Jan. 19. Chissano March 11 met with the LRA’s reclusive leader, Joseph Kony, in his hideout in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, in a bid to convince him to restart the talks. Kony and Ugandan Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda April FACTS ON FILE

14 signed a new two-month-long truce in Ri-Kwangba, Sudan, and Chissano witnessed the signing. The previous truce had expired March 1. Representatives of South Africa, Kenya, Congo, Tanzania and Zambia were present at the April 26 talks, as was Salva Kiir, the president of south Sudan. That was seen as a sign of international support for the talks. However, Kony and three other top LRA leaders refused to attend the Juba talks. They had been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands, in October 2005 for war crimes, and had refused to appear at the talks until the ICC dropped the charges. Despite having originally requested that the ICC launch a probe of the LRA, the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was urging the court to drop the charges in exchange for a peace deal. „

AMERICAS

Cuba Castro Fails to Appear at May Day Rally.

Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz May 1 failed to appear at festivities held in Havana, Cuba’s capital, to celebrate the labor holiday International Workers’ Day, dashing rumors that he was set to return to power. Castro had not appeared in public since July 2006, when he announced that he would undergo gastrointestinal surgery and hand his governing duties over to his younger brother, Raul Castro Ruz. The elder Castro had often delivered hours-long speeches as part of celebrations held on the holiday, also known as May Day, and had missed it only twice before. [See p. 147A2] Cuban analysts and observers had speculated that Castro was on the cusp of returning to power after he had hosted visits from foreign dignitaries and resumed writing editorials for the state-run newspaper Granma. Recent pictures and video of Castro released by state-run media outlets had reportedly shown him stronger than he had appeared soon after the surgery. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias, an ally of Castro, April 29 had said Castro was “in charge” again. Bolivian media the previous day had reported that Bolivian President Evo Morales Aima, another Castro ally, had said he was convinced that Castro would reappear before the public during the May 1 festivities. Chavez April 13 had said Castro was “almost totally recovered” from his infirmity, and had “resumed a good part of his duties.” Analysts said the country seemed to be pulling back from attempts at reform led by Raul Castro, in another sign the elder Castro was regaining his influence, the Miami Herald reported on its Web site April 30. „ Dissidents Sentenced in Crackdown. Cuban human rights lawyer Rolando Jiminez Posada April 6 was tried in secret on several charges, among them “disrespecting” Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz, and was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison the same day, the Miami Herald reported on its Web site April 24. Jiminez had been May 3, 2007

arrested in 2003 and held without trial since then. He reportedly was not allowed to hire a defense lawyer, and his family was not notified of the trial. [See 2005, p. 974E3] Separately, opposition journalist Oscar Sanchez Madan April 13 was arrested, tried in secret, convicted and sentenced to a four-year prison term on charges of being a “precriminal social danger.” Sanchez reportedly was also denied access to a lawyer. Sanchez became the 26th journalist currently imprisoned in Cuba, making the country second only to China’s 31. Observers said the secret trials were signs of an increasing crackdown on political dissent in Cuba. Political prisoner Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, also known as “Atunez,” April 22 was released from prison after serving 17 years for calling for political reform in a public plaza. He was the longest-serving political prisoner in Cuba, and had founded a political prisoner movement while in jail. Human rights groups estimated that Cuba held some 280 political prisoners. A coalition of several Cuban human rights groups April 16 released an open letter affirming their unity in the goal of peaceful political change in the country. “We know that the people of Cuba as well as all those in the world support democracy for Cuba,” the statement read. Other News—In related news: † Forty wives and other female relatives of 75 political prisoners March 17 held a march and 12-hour vigil in Havana, calling for their relatives’ release. The political prisoners had been arrested in March 2003 and found guilty of working as U.S.backed “mercenaries” striving to undermine Castro. They were serving sentences of up to 27 years in prison. † The Cuban government Feb. 26 announced that five dissidents arrested in July 2005 had been sentenced to two-year prison sentences. Those sentenced had been arrested while attending a memorial protest to honor 41 people killed in 1994 while trying to flee Cuba. „

Mexico Calderon Pledges Continued Drug Fight.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa March 10 said he would continue a widespread military assault on the country’s various drug trafficking cartels, and called on the U.S. to improve efforts to control the use and flow of drugs within its borders. Calderon in December 2006 had begun dispatching more than 20,000 federal troops and police to areas of Mexico in an effort to combat drug cartels where they had largely ruled with impunity. [See p. 111A3] Although Calderon argued that the efforts had yielded some success in several cities and states, various federal officials and drug experts shad said drug trafficking organizations had remained intact and operational, the Houston Chronicle reported Feb. 24. The drug cartel–style violence, once localized to areas bordering the U.S., had also spread to the interior states of

Aguascalientes, Oaxaca and Campeche, despite the arrest of several hundred traffickers and the seizure of tons of narcotics, the Chronicle reported. An attorney general office report indicated that two of the country’s most powerful cartels, the Sinaloa and Juarez organizations, had forged a powerful alliance, the Mexican Spanishlanguage newspaper El Universal reported in 2006. Drug organizations had increasingly embraced the Internet as a means of posting violent execution and torture videos, issuing threats to rival cartels and recruiting new members. The ability of the criminals to post such videos underscored the widening technology gap between the crime syndicates and law enforcement officials, who seemed incapable of stopping crimes referenced on Web sites before they happened.

A

B

Calderon Announces New Initiatives—

Calderon March 7 acknowledged that the government faced a “hard and difficult battle” against drug enterprises, He also announced the implementation of new hightechnology anticrime equipment for use by police forces. Calderon March 9 announced a plan to reform the country’s corrupted justice system. Proposed changes included a reformation of the criminal trial system, and an easier method to dismiss corrupt law enforcement officials. The plan would also unify the nation’s criminal codes and establish a witness protection program. Other News—In related news: † Federal police March 16 said they had seized $206 million in U.S. dollars from a drug-smuggling enterprise in Mexico City, Mexico’s capital. The cash was discovered in a house in a wealthy neighborhood. Police arrested seven people during their operation. † The top security official in Tabasco state, retired Gen. Francisco Fernandez Solis, March 6 was wounded in an ambush and his driver killed. Three senior Tabasco state police officers and a former police chief March 18 were held for questioning in the failed assassination attempt. Federal forces March 17 had disarmed local police forces out of corruption concerns. † Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., March 22 criticized the U.S. for failing to adequately contribute to Mexico’s antidrug efforts. Sarukhan called on the U.S. to contribute greater intelligence and monetary aid to his government’s offensive. „

C

D

E

F

Venezuela State Takes Control of Orinoco Oil Fields. The

state-run oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) May 1 gained control of the last four privately held oil projects in the country, located in the oil-rich Orinoco River basin. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias in February had set a May 1 deadline for PDVSA to assume at least a 60% stake in foreign-owned operations, as part of the populist leader’s effort to seize 283

G

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greater control over the country’s resources from foreign companies. [See p. 130B1] Five of the six foreign oil firms with holdings in Orinoco fields April 25 agreed to cede control of their operations to the Venezuelan government, ahead of the May 1 deadline. They were U.S. firms ExxonMobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., Britain’s BP PLC, Norway’s Statoil ASA and Total SA of France. ConocoPhillips Co. had not signed an agreement, but May 1 said it would cooperate with Chavez’s decree. Analysts said PDVSA lacked the expertise to refine the type of crude oil obtained from the Orinoco fields into a marketable form of oil, and would remain reliant on the foreign companies. Chavez set a June 26 deadline for the foreign firms to negotiate terms of the new joint agreements. The foreign companies had spent an estimated $17 billion to develop the Orinoco fields, and their current worth was estimated at $30 billion. Together, the fields produced an estimated 600,000 barrels of oil per day. „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

China Foreign Minister Replaced in Shuffle. Chi-

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na April 27 announced several new cabinet appointments, most notably that of Vice Foreign Minster Yang Jiechi to become foreign minister, replacing Li Zhaoxing. Li, at 66, was a year older than the customary ministerial retirement age, and had been previously expected to step down sometime after a major congress of the ruling Communist Party later in the year. Yang was a former ambassador to the U.S. and had played a key role in maintaining China’s relations with the U.S. However, the change was not widely expected to herald a shift in foreign policy, which was largely determined by party leaders. [See 2003, p. 198D2] Among the other cabinet changes, Wan Gang was named science minister, replacing Xu Guanhua. Wan, currently president of Tongji University in Shanghai, was the first cabinet minister who was not a member of the Communist Party since the 1950s. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

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Estonia Removal of Soviet Memorial Draws Protests.

Estonian authorities April 27 removed a memorial to the Soviet Union’s World War II dead in Tallinn, the capital, after dispersing a violent protest against the planned removal by more than 1,000 people. The government’s plans to remove the memorial, featuring a statue called the Bronze Soldier, had prompted months of fierce debate within Estonia, a former Soviet republic with a sizable ethnic Russian minority, as well as sharp criticism from Russia itself. [See 2005, p. 317A1] Backers of removing the statue, erected in 1947, said it was a relic of Soviet domination of the country. Their opponents, including many Russian Estonians and the 284

Russian government itself, said it should be retained as a rightful tribute to the Soviet forces who drove out Nazi Germany’s forces in 1944. The Soviet Union had first occupied Estonia in 1940, when it reached a pact with the Nazis dividing control of Eastern Europe, before Germany invaded the Soviet Union the following year. [See 1944, p. 374G; 1941, pp. 325E, 85M] The government April 28 began exhuming the bodies of several Soviet soldiers interred at the memorial, for reburial in an Estonian military cemetery. The defense ministry April 30 said the Bronze Soldier had been re-erected in the cemetery. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov April 27 called the removal “blasphemous.” Russia’s parliament passed a measure calling on Russian President Vladimir V. Putin to cut off diplomatic relations with Estonia and to impose sanctions on the country. In a Russian newspaper interview in March, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves had said that Russia was “unable to face squarely the history of the Soviet Union,” the Washington Post reported April 28. One person was killed and at least 12 police officers and 44 others were injured in rioting that erupted amid the protests April 26–27, which were broken up with tear gas and water cannons. Ilves April 27 said the demonstrations had “nothing to do with… keeping alive the memory of men fallen in World War II” but only with “the desire to riot, vandalize and plunder.” As tensions between Estonia and Russia continued to intensify, a delegation of Russian lawmakers April 30 visited Estonia in hopes of conciliatory dialogue. However, protests by Russians at Estonia’s embassy in Moscow intensified in the days after the statue’s removal, culminating May 2 in the disruption of a planned news conference by the Estonian ambassador, Marina Kaljurand, after security guards had to use pepper spray to repel a group of attackers. „

European Union Ministers Back Hate Crimes Law. Justice and

interior ministers from the 27 member nations of the European Union April 19 reached agreement on a proposed law to crack down on a variety of racist and xenophobic crimes and speech. The agreement in Luxembourg concluded six years of negotiations. The law still required ratification by the national governments of the EU members. [See pp. 284F1, 165D3; 2006, pp. 983F3, 964E1] The law would criminalize incitement to violence based on race, religion, ethnicity or national origin. It would also criminalize denying, belittling or condoning genocides or crimes against humanity, such as the Holocaust, in cases where such speech could incite violence. Offenses would be punished by up to three years in prison. Some EU members, such as France, Germany and Austria, already had harsher laws in effect against Holocaust denial and other hate crimes.

In a compromise reportedly designed to placate Turkey, the provisions on genocide denial applied only to the Holocaust and other genocides that had been recognized as such by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands. That list did not include the massacre of more than one million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, which Turkey officially denied to have been an act of genocide. Turkey was in the process of applying for EU membership. Also, the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania failed in a bid with other Eastern European member nations to add references to crimes against humanity committed by the Soviet Union, especially during the rule of Joseph Stalin from 1924 to 1953. „

France Presidential Runoff Candidates Debate.

French presidential candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal May 2 met in their first and only debate before the May 6 runoff election. Sarkozy, of the centerright Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), held a lead in the polls after receiving the most votes in the April 22 first round of the election. Royal, of the centerleft Socialist Party, went on the offensive in the two-and-a-half-hour debate, seeking a last-minute lift. Sarkozy, who had been accused of having a volatile temperament, tried to display calmness, and taunted Royal for losing her cool. [See p. 267A3] In the most heated moment of the nationally televised debate, Royal accused Sarkozy of “political immorality,” blaming him for what she called the current government’s backtracking on the right to education for disabled children. Sarkozy had served as interior minister until resigning in April. Sarkozy urged Royal to “calm down.” She replied, “No, I will not calm down. I am very angry. Even when I’m president I will get angry.” Sarkozy retorted, “You’re getting upset very easily and you lose your cool very easily. As president of the republic, the president has to assume very heavy responsibilities.” Royal denied that she had lost her cool. Throughout the debate, Royal pointed to Sarkozy’s role in the unpopular government led by President Jacques Chirac. She said Sarkozy bore responsibility for rising fears of crime in France, and had failed to follow through on his tough law-and-order talk as interior minister. The candidates also clashed on the subject of the economy. Sarkozy called the nation’s 35-hour workweek limit, imposed by a Socialist government in 2000, “a catastrophic decision for the French economy.” He said he planned to make overtime pay tax-exempt to encourage a better work ethic and make the French economy more competitive. “We need to respect work. We need to reward work,” he said. Royal defended the 35-hour week as a “social improvement,” but said it could be FACTS ON FILE

reviewed and revised jointly by business and organized labor. Royal Debates Eliminated Centrist—

Royal April 28 held a debate with Francois Bayrou, the losing presidential candidate of the centrist Union for French Democracy, who had been eliminated when he finished third in the first round. Royal and Sarkozy had both moved toward the political center since the first round, trying to appeal to the 18.6% of voters who had backed Bayrou. Sarkozy April 29 promised top government jobs for Bayrou supporters. Bayrou said during his debate with Royal that he intended to stick by his previous pledge not to endorse either candidate in the runoff. While the debate was cordial, he renewed his criticism of Royal’s economic plan, saying he opposed her support for government intervention. No major television channel aired the debate, prompting charges from Bayrou and Royal that Sarkozy had used his connections with top media executives to squelch their right to free speech. Sarkozy denied any such dirty tricks. Meanwhile, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front, who finished fourth in the first round, May 1 called on his supporters to abstain from voting in the runoff. Le Pen had won 10.5% of the vote in the first round, and was the runner-up to Chirac in the 2002 election. „

Great Britain 5 Guilty in Terror Plot; Linked to ’05 Bombers.

A jury in London April 30 found five British Muslim men guilty of plotting terrorist bombings at a London nightclub, a shopping center in Kent, southeast England, and other civilian targets in Britain. The judge, Sir Michael Astill, sentenced all five to life in prison, with no chance of parole for at least 17 and a half years. After the verdict, reached after a record 27 days of deliberations, the media was allowed to report for the first time that the yearlong trial had established links between the five plotters and the four suicide bombers who killed 52 commuters in London in July 2005. The court had ordered the testimony withheld from the public to ensure a fair trial. [See p. 230F1; 2004, p. 232E1] Officials testified during the trial that Britain’s MI5 domestic security agency had monitored several meetings in 2004 between the leader of the plotters, Omar Khyam, 25, and two of the July 2005 suicide bombers: ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer. Investigators said they had decided to continue surveillance of Khyam’s group, but not of Khan and Tanweer. MI5 said it had concluded that Khan and Tanweer were only “petty fraudsters in loose contact with the plot,” and did not identify either man as a threat. That disclosure brought heavy criticism from survivors of the London bombings, the families of victims and opposition politicians. They accused the security services of deadly incompetence, and renewed calls May 3, 2007

for an independent inquiry into the bombings. They noted that the government had claimed after the 2005 attack that the suicide bombers were previously unknown to the police and intelligence agencies. Prime Minister Tony Blair May 2 ruled out an independent probe, saying a parliamentary committee had already investigated the London bombings. Police had arrested Khyam and his group in March 2004. Four of those convicted were of Pakistani origin, as were three of the four London suicide bombers. Khyam’s group had been put under surveillance after a farm supply clerk reported to the police that they had bought a half-ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer at his store. They planned to use it to make a bomb. Along with Khyam, the plotters convicted April 30 were Salahuddin Amin, 32; Waheed Mahmood, 35; Jawad Akbar, 23; and Algerian-born Anthony Garcia, 24. Two defendants were acquitted: Shujah Mahmood, 20, who was Khyam’s brother; and Nabeel Hussain, 22. Plotters Trained in Pakistan— Khyam and three other plotters had traveled to Pakistan to attend terrorist training camps, evidence given during the trial revealed. Khyam claimed that the camps were run by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Agency. Amin claimed that Pakistani agents had held him prisoner for 10 months and tortured him. He also said he had met Khan briefly in Pakistan. Mohammad Junaid Babar, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin who had pleaded guilty to terrorism charges, testified for the prosecution. He said he had attended a training camp in Pakistan with the defendants and Khan. He said Khan had told him that he and the other Britons reported to Abd alHadi al-Iraqi, a high-ranking leader of the Al Qaeda international terrorist network. The U.S. April 27 had disclosed that it had captured al-Iraqi in 2006 and was holding him at its prison camp for terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. [See p. 282A1] „

Ireland Ahern Calls General Election. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern April 29 called a general election to be held May 24. Ahern, the leader of the centrist Fianna Fail party, would try for a third term in office. He had been prime minister since 1997. His tenure had seen robust economic growth and progress toward peace in Northern Ireland, but polls showed falling public support for Fianna Fail. Irish law required parliamentary elections to be held at least every five years. [See p. 196E2; 2006, p. 787C3] „

Turkey High Court Annuls Presidential Vote.

Turkey’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, May 1 overturned a vote by the nation’s parliament to elect Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a leading Islamist politician, as Turkish president. The court ruled that a boycott by secular opposition parties had

prevented enough lawmakers from being present to form a quorum of two-thirds of the 550-seat chamber, nullifying the result of the April 27 election. Gul had received 357 votes in the election, 10 short of the two-thirds threshold. The main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, appealed the election to the court. [See p. 250B2] Tensions had risen further when the secularist-led military April 27 threatened to intervene in the election to block overreaching by Islamists. [See below] Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of Gul’s moderately Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), May 1 responded to the court ruling by calling for early parliamentary elections. In a May 2 speech, he denounced the court ruling as “a bullet for democracy.” But he called for unity, saying, “Even if our views and lifestyles are different, there is only one nation and only one Turkey.” Early Parliamentary Elections Set—

Lawmakers May 2 approved Erdogan’s call to move up the parliamentary elections to July 22, four months ahead of schedule. The AKP also introduced measures that would provide for presidential elections in the future to be conducted by popular vote, rather than parliamentary vote, another move that Erdogan had proposed the previous day. The current presidential election had been prompted by the retirement of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a secularist who had used his powers to act as a check on the Erdogan government. The presidency was a powerful position, in charge of the military and wielding a veto over legislation. Generals Threaten to Act—The general staff of the Turkish military, a secularist stronghold, shortly after the boycotted election April 27 warned that it was “watching this situation with concern,” adding, “It should not be forgotten that the Turkish armed forces are one of the parties to this debate and are the absolute defenders of secularism.” It condemned what it described as an “Islamic reactionary mentality” that sought to “disturb the fundamental values of the Republic of Turkey.” The statement was widely seen as a threat that the military might use force to intervene in the election if it felt that the Islamists had become too aggressive. The military had ousted four civilian governments since 1960, most recently in 1997 when it pushed out a government led by an Islamist party. [See 1997, p. 426B3] A government spokesman April 28 responded by saying that military intervention was “inconceivable” in Turkey because it was a democratic nation in which the military took orders from the elected government, not the other way around. Erdogan in a televised speech April 30 called for calm, saying, “We must be careful not to harm the climate of stability we have reached.” Secularists Hold Mass Protest— About 700,000 people April 29 joined a secular demonstration in Istanbul against the prospect of Gul winning the presidency. 285

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The political turmoil caused a plunge in the Turkish stock market, until a slight recovery May 2. Meanwhile, police May 1 clashed with leftist demonstrators in Istanbul, arresting 700 people, on the 30th anniversary of a May Day riot that had left 34 people dead. [See 1977, p. 350G3] Turkey was overwhelmingly Muslim, but its government was officially secular. The military and others on the secular side called themselves the protectors of the constitutional order laid down by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder and first president of modern Turkey, in 1923. Secularists opposed any role for religion in politics, and suspected that the AKP had a hidden agenda of imposing Islamic law. The AKP and its supporters saw themselves as the champions of a rising new middle class with conservative Muslim values. It viewed the secularists as part of an elite establishment class trying to protect its own privileges. Since winning power in the 2002 elections, the AKP had focused its energies on political and economic reforms aimed at meeting the standards for membership in the European Union. It had overseen a period of strong economic growth. A failed attempt to criminalize adultery in 2004 was one of its few overtly religious initiatives. [See 2004, p. 761G1] Erdogan had been expected to be chosen as the AKP’s presidential candidate, but he stepped aside in favor of Gul, who was considered a compromise nominee, somewhat more acceptable to secularists. However, Gul had been a leader in the rise of the AKP as a force of political Islam, and his wife wore an Islamic head scarf in public, a custom opposed by secularists. „

I DDDLLEE EEAASSTT MMI D

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Saudi Arabia 172 Terrorist Network Suspects Arrested.

Saudi Arabian officials April 27 announced that 172 members of a terrorist network had been arrested for plotting a wide range of attacks against the Saudi government. They said the network was the same one that had staged attacks in 2003–04, which was affiliated with the international terrorist network Al Qaeda. The officials said the arrests had taken place over several weeks, resulting from an investigation lasting more than six months and involving U.S. and British cooperation. [See 2006, p. 1031E3; 2004, p. 410E3; 2003, p. 361A1] Lt. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said the terrorist plots “had reached an advanced stage of readiness, and what remained only was to set the zero hour for their attacks.” The officials said the network was plotting attacks on public officials and members of the royal family, prisons holding fellow militants, security forces and oil infrastructure. At least some of the plots were said to be suicide attacks. The officials said some of those arrested had sought pilot training, suggesting that they might have been plan286

ning to hijack planes and crash them into buildings, as was done in Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. [See 2001, p. 697A1] Most of the people arrested were Saudi citizens, although several were immigrant workers from Mauritania, Nigeria, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa. The officials claimed that some of them had trained in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. Several caches of weapons and more than $5 million were seized along with the detainees. News of the arrests prompted discussion of Saudi Arabia’s antiterrorism efforts. Analysts commended Saudi security forces for foiling the attacks, but also warned that violence in neighboring Iraq was beginning to flow into Saudi Arabia. The effectiveness of the country’s program of reeducating captured terrorists and attempting to rehabilitate them was also questioned. „

Syria Ruling Party Wins Parliamentary Elections.

Government officials April 26 announced the results of Syria’s parliamentary elections, held April 22–23, stating that the ruling coalition had won 172 of the body’s 250 seats, up from 167 in the 2003 poll. Interior Minister Bassam Abdel-Majid April 26 said 56% of eligible voters participated in the election, claiming that it was held in a “climate of freedom, democracy, transparency and fairness.” Many foreign and domestic observers disputed the fairness of the elections, however, and claimed that turnout had actually been far lower. Several opposition groups had chosen to boycott the election, saying victory for President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling Baath Party was a foregone conclusion. [See 2003, p. 188E3] In accord with Syria’s constitution, twothirds of every list of candidates eligible for voters to pick from were members of the ruling party, ensuring it an overwhelming legislative majority. The remaining seats were allotted to governmentapproved independents. Dana Perino, a spokeswoman for the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, April 24 said the Syrian government was guilty of “manipulating” the election. Assad was expected to be the sole candidate in presidential elections slated for July. Human Rights Advocate Jailed—A Syrian court April 24 sentenced Anwar alBunni—a human rights lawyer who advocated democratic reform—to five years in prison for several crimes, including spreading defamatory information about the Syrian government. Bunni, along with several other people, had been arrested in May 2006 after signing a petition that called for Syria to recognize the independence of Lebanon and stop attempting to dominate its neighbor. Among the other charges Bunni was convicted of was discrediting state institutions and affiliating with an unlicensed political association. [See 2006, p. 398F1]

Responding in court to the sentence, Bunni insisted that he would not be silenced, saying, “I didn’t commit any crime. This sentence is to shut me up and to stop the effort to expose human rights violations in Syria.” Bunni had often spoken out against the use of torture in Syrian prisons, and had also established a human rights training center in Syria with funds from the European Union. His punishment was viewed as a mark of Syria’s increased intolerance of dissent, and was condemned by many nations and human rights groups. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Basketball NBA Season Ends. The National Basketball Association (NBA) season ended April 18, with 16 of the league’s 30 teams advancing to the playoffs. The top eight teams in the Eastern and Western conferences would compete in the postseason. [See 2006, p. 871E3] The Western Conference’s Dallas Mavericks posted the best record in the NBA, with 67 wins and 15 losses. Other top teams in the West were the Phoenix Suns (61–21), the San Antonio Spurs (58–24) and the Utah Jazz (51–31). The Detroit Pistons (53–29) had the best record in the Eastern Conference, and other top contenders included the Cleveland Cavaliers (50–32) and the Toronto Raptors (47–35), who topped the Atlantic Division to claim their first division title. The same three players led the major scoring categories for the second year in a row. Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant led the NBA in scoring, averaging 31.6 points per game. Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett led the league in rebounding, with an average of 12.8 per game. Suns guard Steve Nash led the NBA in assists per game, averaging 11.6. Other News—In other NBA news: † Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy May 2 was honored as the NBA’s rookie of the year. Roy led all rookies by averaging 16.8 points, four assists and 35.4 minutes per game. [See 2006, p. 400C2] † Denver Nuggets center Marcus Camby April 27 won the defensive player of the year award. Camby led the NBA with 3.3 blocked shots per game, and also averaged 11.2 points and 11.7 rebounds. [See 2006, p. 400D2] † Golden State Warriors guard Monta Ellis April 26 was voted the NBA’s most improved player in the 2006–07 season. † The Indiana Pacers April 25 fired coach Rick Carlisle. † Sam Mitchell of the Raptors April 24 was named NBA coach of the year. [See 2006, p. 357G2] † The Seattle SuperSonics April 24 fired coach Bob Hill and general manager Rick Sund, after the team posted one of the worst records in franchise history (31–51). FACTS ON FILE

2006–07 NBA Statistical Leaders*

NBA 2006–07 Final Standings EASTERN CONFERENCE

*Toronto *New Jersey Philadelphia New York Boston *Detroit *Cleveland *Chicago Indiana Milwaukee *Miami *Washington *Orlando Charlotte Atlanta

Atlantic Division W L Pct.

47 41 35 33 24

35 41 47 49 58

Central Division

53 50 49 35 28

GB

— 6 12 14 23

.646 .610 .598 .427 .341

— 3 4 18 25

Southeast Division W L Pct.

GB

44 41 40 33 30

29 32 33 47 54

.573 .500 .427 .402 .293

SCORING

38 41 42 49 52

.537 .500 .488 .402 .366

— 3 4 11 14

WESTERN CONFERENCE

*Dallas *San Antonio *Houston New Orleans Memphis *Utah *Denver Minnesota Portland Seattle *Phoenix *Golden State *L.A. Lakers L.A. Clippers Sacramento

Southwest Division W L Pct.

67 58 52 39 22

15 24 30 43 60

.817 .707 .634 .476 .268

Northwest Division W L Pct.

51 45 32 32 31

31 37 50 50 51

Pacific Division

61 42 42 40 33

21 40 40 42 49

.622 .549 .390 .390 .378

.744 .512 .512 .488 .402

GB

— 9 15 28 45

GB

— 6 19 19 20

— 19 19 21 28

*In playoffs

† Suns guard Leandro Barbosa April 23 won the sixth man award as the best player off the bench in the 2006–07 season. [See 2006, p. 357E2] † The Sacramento Kings April 20 fired coach Eric Musselman. † NBA Commissioner David Stern April 17 indefinitely suspended Jerry Crawford, one of the league’s top referees, for his actions toward Spurs forward Tim Duncan during an April 15 game. Crawford ejected Duncan from the game after calling two technical fouls on the player, with the second coming while Duncan was sitting on the bench. Duncan drew the second technical for laughing after a teammate was called for a foul, and April 17 was fined $25,000 for muttering an obscenity at Crawford as he left the court. Duncan alleged that Crawford had challenged him to a fight during the incident. † The New Orleans Hornets April 13 played their final home game in Oklahoma City, Okla. The team had played the majority of its home games there after Hurricane Katrina damaged Louisiana’s New Orleans Arena in August 2005. The team would return to New Orleans for the 2007–08 season. [See 2006, p. 462A3] † The Milwaukee Bucks March 14 fired coach Terry Stotts. The Bucks March 15 May 3, 2007

G

Bryant, L.A. Lakers Anthony, Denver Arenas, Washington James, Cleveland Redd, Milwaukee Allen, Seattle Iverson, Denver Carter, New Jersey J. Johnson, Atlanta McGrady, Houston Nowitzki, Dallas

77 65 74 78 53 55 65 82 57 71 78

FG

813 691 647 772 477 505 581 726 536 638 673

REBOUNDING

Garnett, Minnesota Chandler, New Orleans Howard, Orlando Boozer, Utah Camby, Denver

G

76 73 82 74 70

Off.

183 320 283 235 164

ASSISTS G

FT

Pts.

Avg.

667 459 606 489 345 279 485 462 235 345 498

2430 1881 2105 2132 1416 1454 1709 2070 1426 1747 1916

31.6 28.9 28.4 27.3 26.7 26.4 26.3 25.2 25.0 24.6 24.6

Def.

Tot.

Avg.

792 975 12.8 584 904 12.4 725 1008 12.3 632 867 11.7 652 816 11.7 No.

Avg.

Nash, Phoenix 76 884 11.6 Williams, Utah 80 745 9.3 Kidd, New Jersey 80 736 9.2 Paul, New Orleans 64 569 8.9 Davis, Golden State 63 509 8.1 *The complete names of the players are found in the index.

named Larry Krystkowiak their new head coach. † Michael Jordan, a part-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, March 13 said coach Bernie Bickerstaff would not return for the 2007–08 season. † James Dolan, the chairman of Cablevision Systems Corp.’s Madison Square Garden, which owned the New York Knicks, March 12 awarded team coach and president Isiah Thomas with a multiyear contract extension. When Thomas was handed the coaching reins in June 2006, Dolan had given him one season to turn the struggling team around. Dolan March 12 said the team had “clearly improved” since the beginning of the season. However, the Knicks April 18 ended the season with a 33–49 record, their sixth straight losing season. [See 2006, p. 872A1] † Pistons guard Lindsey Hunter March 7 was suspended for 10 games without pay for testing positive for the banned substance phentermine, which was mainly used for weight loss. Hunter claimed that the pills had been prescribed to his wife and that he took them by mistake. † Miami Heat coach Pat Riley Feb. 19 returned to work, after taking an indefinite medical leave of absence in early January. [See p. 39A3] † The Minnesota Timberwolves Jan. 23 fired coach Dwane Casey, and assistant Randy Wittman took over as interim coach. „

Marathons Lel, Zhou Win in London. Martin Lel of Kenya April 22 won the men’s race in the London Marathon, finishing in two hours, seven minutes and 41 seconds. Lel beat Abderrahim Goumri of Morocco by three seconds after a sprint to the finish line. Felix Limo of Kenya, the 2006 winner, was a close third, with a time of 2:07:47. [See 2006, p. 358F3]

Zhou Chunxiu of China won the women’s race in 2:20:38, becoming the first Chinese woman to win the London Marathon. Gete Wami of Ethiopia was second, with a time of 2:21:45, and Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania was third, finishing in 2:23:55. „

A

Cheruiyot, Grigoryeva Win Boston Race.

Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya April 16 won the men’s race in the 111th Boston Marathon for the second year in a row and the third time in his career. Cheruiyot finished in two hours, 14 minutes and 13 seconds on a cold, wet and windy day in Boston, Mass. It was the slowest winning time in 30 years. Kenyans swept the top three positions, with James Kwambai placing second in 2:14:33 and Stephen Kiogora finishing third in 2:14:47. [See 2006, p. 358D3] Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia won the women’s race, finishing in 2:29:18. Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia was second, with a time of 2:29:59, and Madai Perez of Mexico placed third in 2:30:16. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Sunita Williams, currently aboard the International Space Station, ran the marathon on a treadmill from space, 210 miles (340 km) above the Earth. Williams, 41, finished with an unofficial time of 4:23. [See 2006, p. 995C2] „

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ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

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People Entertainment photographer Larry Birkhead, 34, who had once dated model and actress Anna Nicole Smith, April 10 was ruled the biological father of the daughter that Smith, who died in February, had given birth to in the Bahamas in September 2006. The ruling was made by a Bahamian judge, based on DNA test results. Others, notably Howard K. Stern, Smith’s longtime personal lawyer, had also claimed to have possibly fathered the child. The judge’s ruling led Stern to immediately quit the custody battle for the child. However, Smith’s mother, Virgie Arthur, kept fighting for custody until April 27, when a three-member Bahamian appeals court affirmed Birkhead’s right to leave the Bahamas with the baby, Dannielynn, whose surname had by then been legally changed from Stern to Birkhead. The father and daughter May 1 left the Bahamas for Louisville, Ky. [See p. 151F2; 2006, p. 1042G2] After more than four years together, Britain’s Prince William, 24, had broken up with his girlfriend, Kate Middleton, 25, it was revealed April 15. The prince, who was second in line to the British throne, had met Middleton while both were students at St. Andrews University in Scotland. [See 2001, p. 824B3] Marilee Jones, 55, April 26 resigned as dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) after it was established that she had lied about her academic credentials when she first applied for a job at the prestigious Cambridge school 28 years earlier. She had become dean in 1997, but her resume was never corrected. As dean, 287

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she became an outspoken critic of young people inflating their credentials to get into top universities. Initial reports of her resignation indicated that she did not have a bachelor’s degree from any college, but it was reported May 2 that she had in fact graduated from the College of Saint Rose, a small school in Albany, N.Y., her hometown, which was not among the schools she had claimed to have received degrees from. „

O B I T UA R I E S HILL, Andrew, 75, jazz pianist and composer; he wrote dense, polyrhythmic music for small ensembles; prestigious Blue Note Records released much of his music, on such albums as Black Fire (1963), Point of Departure (1964) and Time Lines (2006); born June 30, 1931, in Chicago; died April 20 at his home in Jersey City, N.J., of lung cancer. O’BRIEN, Parry (William Parry O’Brien Jr.), 75, two-time Olympic gold medalist in the shot put (1952, 1956); after devising a new technique that involved turning 180 degrees before releasing the 16-lb. (7.2kg) metal ball, he broke the world shot-put record 17

times between 1953 and 1959, exceeding 60 ft. (18.3 m) for the first time in 1954; born Jan. 19, 1932, in Santa Monica, Calif.; died April 21 in Santa Clarita, Calif., after suffering a heart attack during a masters swimming race. [See 1986, p. 647F2; 1961, p. 32G2; Indexes 1959, 1952–56] RACAN, Ivica, 63, premier of Croatia, 2000–03, and president of its Social Democratic Party from 1991 until shortly before his death; he won parliamentary elections in January 2000 as head of a coalition of center-left opposition parties; before 1991, when Croatia declared its independence from the Yugoslav Federation, he was leader of its Communist Party; born Feb. 24, 1944, in a labor camp in Ebersbach, Germany, where his mother was a political prisoner; died April 29 at a clinic in Zagreb, the Croatian capital, of recently diagnosed kidney cancer. [See 2003, p. 456B3; 2002, p. 1033E1; Indexes 2000–01] ROSTROPOVICH, Mstislav Leopoldovich, 80, cello virtuoso whose vast repertoire included works written for him by such leading 20th-century composers as Dmitri Shostakovich (his mentor), Sergei Prokofiev and Benjamin Britten; in the 1960s, he became an outspoken defender of artistic freedom in his native Soviet Union, which expelled him and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, in 1974, four years before revoking their citizenship; while living in exile, he became a prominent conductor, leading Washington, D.C.’s National Symphony Orchestra for 17 years

(1977–94); he was also an accomplished pianist, often accompanying his wife in recitals; after retiring from the National Symphony, he divided his time between the U.S., Western Europe and Russia, guest-conducted major orchestras around the world and continued to give cello recitals; over the years, he made hundreds of recordings, as both cellist and conductor; born March 27, 1927, in Baku, in what was then the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic; died April 27 at a hospital in Moscow, he was thought to have been suffering from intestinal cancer. [See 2000, p. 364F3; 1994, p. 268A3; Indexes 1989–91, 1984, 1981, 1978, 1974, 1970–72, 1964] VALENTI, Jack Joseph, 85, decorated World War II bomber pilot who later became a special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson (D) before serving for nearly four decades (1966–2004) as president of the Motion Picture Association of America, making him Hollywood’s chief lobbyist; soon after assuming the post, he helped draw up the “G” to “X” (later “NC17”) movie-rating system; over the years, he wrote a number of books, including a forthcoming memoir, This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood; born Sept. 5, 1921, in Houston, Texas; died April 26 at his home in Washington, D.C., from complications of a recent stroke. [See 2004, pp. 536D2, 220F1, 69C2; 2003, p. 899G1–E2; Indexes 2000, 1996, 1993, 1990, 1988, 1983–84, 1980–81, 1978, 1973, 1968–71, 1965–66] „

C BEST SELLER LISTS

Books

Television

Publishers Weekly April 30 listed the following hardback and paperback best sellers [See p. 216A1]:

Top-Rated Programs. The following were the most-watched prime-time national television shows April 2–29 as determined by A.C. Nielsen Co. (Series marked with an asterisk * had at least one other episode during the period that outranked some of the other programs listed.) Figures in parentheses are rating points; each point represents 1% of the 110.2 million television households in the U.S. [See p. 216A2]:

Fiction Hardback

D

1. The Children of Hurin, by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin) 2. The Woods, by Harlan Cohen (Dutton) 3. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon) 4. Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult (Atria) 5. I Heard That Song Before, by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon & Schuster) General Hardback

E

1. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne (Atria/Beyond Words) 2. Einstein: His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster) 3. The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About, by Kevin Trudeau (Alliance Publishing) 4. Paula Deen: It Ain’t All About the Cookin’, by Paula Deen with Sherry Suib Cohen (Simon & Schuster) 5. The Cardio-Free Diet, by Jim Karas (Simon Spotlight Entertainment) Mass Market Paperback 1. Hot Stuff, by Janet Evanovich and Leanne Banks (St. Martin’s) 2. Two Little Girls in Blue, by Mary Higgins Clark (Pocket) 3. At Risk, by Patricia Cornwell (Berkley) 4. Captive of My Desires, by Johanna Lindsey (Pocket) 5. The Perils of Pursuing a Prince, by Julia London (Pocket Star)

Music

F

Best-Selling Singles and Albums. Billboard magazine in its April 28 issue listed the five most popular singles (as determined by air play and sales) and the five bestselling record, tape and compact disc albums in the U.S. as the following [See p. 216C1]:

Singles 1. “Give It to Me,” Timbaland featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake (Mosley/Blackground/Interscope) 2. “Don’t Matter,” Akon (Konvict/Upfront/SRC/Universal Motown) 3. “Girlfriend,” Avril Lavigne (RCA/RMG) 4. “Glamorous,” Fergie featuring Ludacris (will.i.am/A&M/Interscope) 5. “The Sweet Escape,” Gwen Stefani featuring Akon (Interscope)

G

Albums 1. Now 24, Various Artists (EMI/Sony BMG/Universal/Zomba/Capitol) 2. Let It Go, Tim McGraw (Curb) 3. Konvicted, Akon (Konvict/Upfront/SRC/Universal Motown/UMRG) 4. Cassadaga, Bright Eyes (Saddle Creek) 5. Timbaland Presents Shock Value, Timbaland (Mosley/Blackground/Interscope)

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1. “American Idol,” (Fox), April 18 (17.2)* 2. “Grey’s Anatomy,” (ABC), April 19 (13.7)* 3. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS), April 12 (13.5)* 4. “House” (Fox), April 17 (13.4)* 5. “Dancing With the Stars,” (ABC), April 23 (12.5)

Films Top-Grossing Films. The following were the top-grossing films in the U.S. for

the week of April 20–26 according to Variety. Figures in parentheses were each film’s cumulative box office total and number of weeks in release to date. Information on cast and director is included when a film first appears on the list. [See p. 216B2]:

1. Disturbia, Paramount ($43.1 million, 2) Directed by D.J. Caruso. With Shia LaBeouf, Carrie-Anne Moss, David Morse, Sarah Roemer and Aaron Yoo. 2. Fracture, New Line ($14.3 million, 1) Directed by Gregory Hoblit. With Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn, Rosamund Pike and Embeth Davidtz. 3. Vacancy, Sony ($9.7 million, 1) Directed by Nimrod Antal. With Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry and Scott G. Anderson. 4. Blades of Glory, Paramount ($102.9 million, 4) Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon. With Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler and Jenna Fischer. 5. Meet the Robinsons, Buena Vista ($83.5 million, 4) Directed by Stephen J. Anderson. With the voices of Angela Bassett, Jordan Fry, Tom Kenny, Harland Williams and Adam West. 6. Hot Fuzz, Focus Features ($7.7 million, 1) Directed by Edgar Wright. With Jim Broadbent, Nick Frost, Timothy Dalton, Edward Woodward and Simon Pegg. 7. Are We Done Yet?, Sony ($40.4 million, 3) Directed by Steve Carr. With Earvin Johnson, Ice Cube, Nia Long, Aleisha Allen and Philip Bolden. 8. In the Land of Women, Warner Bros. ($5.9 million, 1) Directed by Jonathan Kasdan. With Adam Brody, Meg Ryan, Kristen Stewart, Olympia Dukakis and Elena Anaya. 9. Perfect Stranger, Sony ($19.4 million, 2) Directed by James Foley. With Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Giovanni Ribisi, Gary Dourdan and Nicki Lynn Aycox. 10. Wild Hogs, Buena Vista ($156.9 million, 8) [See p. 216C2]

May 3, 2007

Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy Wins French Presidential Election Defeats Socialist Segolene Royal in Runoff.

to nearly $100 billion over the next 10 years. France’s powerful labor unions had warned that they would fight another of his proposals, which would bar public sector workers from completely shutting down the transportation system when they went on strike. The unions had frequently resorted to crippling transit strikes to gain leverage over the government. To enact his agenda, Sarkozy first needed to win a fresh parliamentary majority in elections scheduled for June. In the outgoing parliament, the UMP held a 62% majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, the lower chamber. Sarkozy was expected to name Francois Fillon as premier of the new government. Fillon, a French senator, was Sarkozy’s chief campaign adviser and had previously served as education minister and labor minister. Outlines Foreign Policy—Sarkozy also used his victory speech to declare that France was “back in Europe,” pledging a decisive foreign policy. But he urged France’s partners in the European Union “to hear the voices of those who want to be protected” from the shocks of competition in the global economy. French voters had rejected a new EU constitution in a 2005 referendum. [See 2005, p. 365A1] Known for his pro-U.S. views, Sarkozy addressed his “American friends” during his victory speech, saying, “I want to tell them that France will always be by their side when they need her, but that friendship is also accepting the fact that friends can think differently.” He added, “A great nation like the United States has the duty not to oppose the fight against global warming, but to lead that battle, because what is at stake is the destiny of mankind.” [See p. 292E2] Sarkozy’s election was expected to improve ties between the U.S. and France, which had soured after Chirac opposed

Sarkozy: DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images; Royal: ERIC FEFFERBERG/AFP/Getty Images

Nicolas Sarkozy, the candidate of the centerright Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), May 6 won France’s presidential election in a runoff against Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party, who lost her bid to become France’s first woman president. Sarkozy had promised bold free-market reforms to revive the lackluster French economy, while Royal pledged to defend the country’s traditional system of generous welfare benefits and job protections. Sarkozy won 53.1% of the vote, to Royal’s 46.9%. Voter turnout was high, at 85%. [See p. 284B3; 2002, p. 285A1; for facts on Sarkozy, see p. 290A1] Sarkozy, 52, was to take office for a fiveyear term on May 16, succeeding President Jacques Chirac, 74, who had served for the past 12 years. Sarkozy would be the first French president born after World War II. He had served as interior minister and finance minister under Chirac, but presented himself as a more energetic leader who would succeed where Chirac failed had in bringing reform. As interior minister, he had taken hard-line stands on law and order and immigration. Claims Mandate for Change—In his victory speech, Sarkozy May 6 said the election result showed that voters had given a mandate to his reform agenda. He said they had “chosen to break with the habits and behavior of the past,” backing his conservative calls “to give greater value to work, to authority, to respect, to merit.” However, he also called for unity. In a message to Royal’s supporters, he said, “I want to tell them that above the political fight, above divergences of opinion, there is for me only one France.” Calling for a stronger work ethic to make the French economy more competitive, Sarkozy had pledged to loosen the 35hour workweek limit by making overtime pay exempt from taxes. He had also said he would make other labor market rules more flexible, and called for tax cuts amounting

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Volume 67, No. 3465 May 10, 2007

B U.S. President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003. Riots Break Out—Scattered riots broke out May 6 in Paris and other cities after Sarkozy’s victory. Police reported that 730 cars were burned and 592 people were arrested that night. After more rioting the next night, Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande May 8 called for an end to the unrest. Royal had warned May 4 that Sarkozy was a “dangerous” candidate whose election could spark “violence and brutality.” Sarkozy dismissed her warning, saying it showed that she had become desperate after failing to catch up to him in the preelection polls. Sarkozy was reviled among immigrant Arab and African youths who had risen up in nationwide rioting in late 2005, after he vowed to cleanse their mostly Muslim

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy wins French presidential election; defeats Socialist Segolene Royal in runoff. PAGE 289

U.N. report assesses cost of halting climate change.

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U.S. Republican presidential candidates hold first debate. PAGE 292

Tornado destroys Kansas town. PAGE 294

ICC issues warrants for two Sudanese over Darfur crimes. PAGE 297

British Prime Minister Blair sets June 27 exit from office.

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Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government sworn in. PAGE 300

Bush offers compromise on benchmarks in war funding bill.

Iraq

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Afghan civilians reported killed by U.S. strikes. PAGE 303

Street Sense wins Kentucky Derby. PAGE 304

Nicolas Sarkozy, of France’s Union for a Popular Movement, in Paris May 6 after the announcement of results showing his presidential election victory.

Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal speaks to supporters in Paris after learning of her defeat from early election results.

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Nicolas Paul Stephane Sarkozy de NagyBocsa was born in Paris on Jan. 28, 1955. His father was a Hungarian immigrant from a minor aristocratic family. His maternal grandfather, a doctor, was also an immigrant, a Greek Jew who converted to Roman Catholicism. Sarkozy grew up in that grandfather’s home after his parents separated when he was five. Sarkozy earned a law degree from a public university. He did not graduate from one of the elite schools that traditionally groomed France’s future political leaders. He entered politics early, winning a seat on the town council of Neuilly-sur-Seine, a Paris suburb, at 22. He also led the youth wing of a conservative party headed by thenPremier Jacques Chirac, who became his mentor. Sarkozy ran successfully for mayor of Neuilly in 1983. At 28, he was the youngest mayor in France. In 1988, he won election to the National Assembly, the lower chamber of the French parliament. In 1993, he rose to national attention by negotiating the release of children held hostage by a man who threatened to blow up a nursery school. Sarkozy served as French budget minister from 1993 to 1995 under Premier Edouard Balladur. In 1995, he endorsed Balladur for the presidency against Chirac, who won the election. Relations between Chirac and Sarkozy were strained from then on. However, Chirac named Sarkozy interior minister

communities of troublemakers he described as “scum.” However, most of those who rioted after Sarkozy’s election reportedly were white, not minorities. Sarkozy May 7 departed for a three-day Mediterranean cruise off Malta. Some Socialists criticized him for using a luxury yacht belonging to French industrialist Vincent Bollore, a personal friend. Meanwhile, recriminations broke out among the Socialists after their third straight defeat in a presidential election. Royal drew some blame for gaffes during the campaign that raised questions about her grasp of the issues. Critics also said she had failed to unify the fractious party behind her, or modernize its traditional leftwing ideology to make it more palatable to voters in the political center. „

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Cost of Halting Climate Change Assessed.

The United Nations–sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) May 4 released the third and final portion of a multipart report that estimated the cost of reversing the emissions of greenhouse gases thought to cause global warming. The panel’s first report, released in January, had linked human activities to global warming. The panel’s second report, released in April, had detailed the environmental impact of unchecked climate change due to human emissions. [See p. 219A3] The latest report estimated that stabilizing the world’s output of greenhouse gases by 2030 would add $100 to the cost of one ton of emitted carbon. The IPCC estimated that the costs would equal 0.12% of the 290

in 2002, then in a cabinet reshuffle in 2004 tapped him as finance minister. Later in 2004, Sarkozy won the presidency of Chirac’s center-right party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Chirac forced him to resign from the government, saying he could not be party leader and a minister at the same time, only to bring him back as interior minister in May 2005. [See 2005, p. 390D2; 2004, p. 970E2] Sarkozy’s second stint as interior minister was marred by nationwide riots that swept the nation for three weeks in late 2005. Most of the rioters were youths from immigrant Arab and African Muslim families, angered by poverty, unemployment and discrimination. The riots began after Sarkozy ordered a crackdown on crime in immigrant communities, denouncing young troublemakers as “scum.” [See 2005, p. 823A1] The UMP nominated Sarkozy for president in January 2007, and he stepped down as interior minister in March. He campaigned on a platform of economic reform and conservative social values, urging respect for work and authority. He finished first in the opening round of the election April 22, winning 30% of the vote and advancing to a runoff against Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party. Sarkozy May 6 won the runoff with 53.1% of the vote, to Royal’s 46.9%. [See p. 289A1] Sarkozy divorced his first wife in 1996; they had two children. He had a son with his second wife, Cecilia.

world’s annual gross domestic product, and would reduce the projected growth in the world’s economic output by less than 3% as of 2030. The formula would ostensibly allow strong growth in the world’s economy while limiting the effects of climate change. However, some experts involved in creating the report said the costs could exceed those estimates. The report called for countries to encourage lifestyle changes intended to reduce emissions and invest strongly in research and technology, including renewable energy sources and nuclear power. Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC conference chairman, said controlling the release of greenhouse gas emissions would require “market forces present to attach a price to carbon,” which would translate into higher prices for fuel and electricity. Pachauri said such market forces could include taxes or a “cap-andtrade” system where costs were attached to emissions units, which could be traded among polluters. As with the previously released portions of the report, several countries reportedly sought to soften the language in parts of the third section. The most strenuous objections had come from the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases. China had reportedly lobbied unsuccessfully to have the report specifically blame industrialized nations, and not developing ones, for global climate change. [See below] James Connaughton, chairman of the U.S.’s White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the suggested costs outlined in the report would “cause global recession.” However, the U.S. endorsed

elements of the report calling for the adoption of emissions-reducing technology. China Emissions Growth Reported—

Faith Birol, chief economist with the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) said China was set to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases sometime in late 2007, three years earlier than its previous estimate of 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported April 24. The IEA attributed the speed-up to China’s rapid economic growth in 2006–07. China relied on power generated almost exclusively through coal-burning, a heavily polluting process, to fuel its economic growth. Birol also said that, if unchecked, China’s emissions within 25 years would be twice those created by all member nations of the 30-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which included the U.S., Europe, Canada, Japan and South Korea. The news was likely to increase political pressure on China to institute emissions controls, although China disputed Birol’s projection. The Chinese government April 24 delayed the release of a national “action plan” on climate change without giving a reason or new deadline. Over the past year there had been growing concern over the effects of climate change in China, including the threat of food shortages and flooding in river deltas. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao April 11 had said the country would participate in the next international agreement intended to fight climate change. China in 1998 had signed the current Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty designed to limit emissions. However, under the terms of the treaty, China, as a developing country, was

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not required to limit its gas output. The Kyoto Protocol was set to expire in 2012. Other News—In related news: † Scientists May 8 reported on the Web site of the journal Public Library of Science Biology a six-year study linking the severity of a disease killing coral reefs in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to an increase in ocean temperature resulting from global warming. The researchers had found that the disease, white syndrome, was more likely to be found in areas with above-average temperatures. Coral reefs played an integral role in large underwater ecosystems. An estimated 25% of the world’s coral reefs had already been destroyed, and another 30% were at risk of destruction within the next 30 years, scientists said. [See 2006, p. 433F1] † The World Bank May 2 said the global market in carbon trading had grown to $30 billion in 2006, from $10 billion in 2005. An estimated $25 billion of the market was composed of the European Union’s carbon trading scheme. The remaining $5 billion was from carbon offset programs instituted as part of the Kyoto Protocol. Analysts said the growth was a reflection of the maturing of the newly created market. [See p. 20G1] † A team of researchers May 1 reported on the Web site of the journal Geophysical Research Letters that the Arctic ice cap was melting much faster than previously estimated. The scientists said the Arctic Ocean could be completely free of ice during the summer months by 2020. An IPCC estimate released in February had said the ocean could become ice-free in the summer sometime between 2050 and the early decades of the 22nd century. [See 2006, p. 795F3] „

International Terrorism U.S. Report Shows Rise in 2006 Attacks.

The U.S. State Department April 30 released its annual Country Reports on Terrorism, which noted a 29% increase in terrorist attacks worldwide from 2005 to 2006. The report listed an increase in terrorist attacks on nonmilitary targets to 14,338 in 2006, from 11,153 in 2005, and an increase in deaths to 20,498, from 14,618. The increase was attributed largely to increased terrorist activity in Iraq; excluding activity in Iraq and Afghanistan, worldwide terrorist attacks dropped 3%. The report was the second released since the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, which compiled the statistics, in 2005 had adjusted its calculating methods to count more attacks. [See pp. 303D1, 301F2; 2006, p. 388D2] Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. troops were engaged in combat operations, saw the most extreme rise in attacks. Terrorist attacks in Iraq rose 91%, to 6,630, in 2006, from 3,468 in 2005. Attacks in Afghanistan also rose by 53%, to 749, from 491. The report said the U.S.’s 2003 invasion of Iraq “has been used by terrorists as a rallying cry for radicalization and extremist activity that has contributed to instability in neighMay 10, 2007

boring countries,” although it added that the overthrow of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had brought “measurable benefits” to the Iraqi people. Frank Urbancic Jr., the U.S. State Department’s acting coordinator for counterterrorism, in a news briefing at the report’s release emphasized that the U.S. government considered Iraq a primary front in the war on terrorism. “The terrorists, there’s no question, are intelligent people, and they learned from each other,” Urbancic said. “The people in Afghanistan are watching the people in Iraq, the people in Iraq are watching the people elsewhere, and there’s a snowball effect.” The report listed five “state sponsors of terror”: Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba and North Korea. Libya was dropped from the list, and the report included a note that the U.S. in February had agreed to “begin the process of removing” North Korea from that category. [See p. 188B3; 2006, p. 387A2] The report said the Al Qaeda international terrorist network was transitioning from a focus on “expeditionary” plots—involving agents carrying out attacks in foreign countries—to “guerrilla” operations using recruits from the local population. Urbancic said a tactical shift toward building trust with local organizations, businesses and people, in addition to killing and capturing terrorists, was necessary to combat extremism. „

Space Station Crew Exchanged, Tourist Visits. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying new crew members for the International Space Station, as well as a U.S. space “tourist,” April 7 was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The tourist, billionaire software developer Charles Simonyi, returned to Earth April 21 in a Soyuz vessel with two members of the station’s previous three-person crew. [See 2006, pp. 995A2, 744D2] Traveling to the station with Simonyi were Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, who were due to remain in orbit for six months. Returning with him were cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. astronaut Navy Capt. Michael Lopez-Alegria, who had been aboard the station since September 2006. Navy Cmdr. Sunita Williams, who had traveled to the station in December 2006, remained on board the station; her sojourn was scheduled to end in June. The Hungarian-born Simonyi, 58, had paid a reported $25 million to Russia’s space agency to become the fifth such paying passenger. He took along a gourmet meal for his fellow space travelers to eat on April 12, Russia’s Cosmonaut’s Day, with dishes selected by U.S. lifestyle entrepreneur Martha Stewart, a good friend, and prepared by French star chef Alain Ducasse. Space Walk Records Set— Lopez-Alegria Feb. 8, conducting a space walk with Williams, broke the record for the cumulative time spent in space walks by a U.S. astronaut, 58 hours and 32 minutes, set in 2002 by Jerry Ross. [See 2002, p. 296F2]

Williams in a space walk with LopezAlegria Feb. 4 set a new total spacewalking time record for a woman, 22 hours and 27 minutes, surpassing American Kathryn Thornton’s record of just over 21 hours, set in 1993. [See 1993, p. 933C3] Russia’s Anatoly Solovyov held the overall spacewalking time record, more than 72 hours. „

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Avian Influenza FDA Approves Vaccine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) April 17 approved the first vaccine intended to prevent the H5N1 avian influenza virus in humans. Some 6.5 million doses of the vaccine had been stockpiled by the U.S. government, but the FDA’s approval allowed it to be disseminated in the event of a human bird flu pandemic. However, the vaccine was not available for general sale to the public. [See p. 189D1] The vaccine, which was produced by French drug firm Sanofi Aventis SA, had shown only a 45% effectiveness rate in activating an immune response to the virus in humans, and required two separate shots administered at least 28 days apart. However, it was considered the best method currently available of slowing a fastspreading bird flu outbreak. More effective bird flu vaccines were reportedly under development. Swiss drug company Roche Holding AG April 26 said it was scaling back production of its flu drug Tamiflu, widely considered to be the best first-line treatment for human cases of bird flu. Roche had expanded its production capacity to handle requests from governments in the face of a pandemic, but said that its current production had exceeded demand for Tamiflu. The highly fatal H5N1 bird flu virus was first discovered in Southeast Asia in the late 1990s. Since that time, the disease had infected birds and people in the Middle East, Europe and northern Africa. Experts said a mutation in the virus that made it more easily passed between humans could spark a major pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) April 11 had reported that 291 people in 12 countries had been diagnosed with the virus; 172 of them had died. „

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International Business Alcoa Sets $26.9 Billion Bid for Alcan.

Pittsburgh, Pa.–based Alcoa Inc., the world’s largest aluminum firm, May 7 made a $26.9 billion unsolicited cashand-stock bid for Montreal, Canada– based Alcan Inc. If completed, the combination of the two companies would create an entity employing 188,000 people with an estimated annual revenue of $54 billion. According to figures reported in 2006, the new company would produce an estimated 7.78 million metric tons (8.58 million tons) of aluminum annually, and would operate 12 mines, 13 refineries and 46 smelters located on six continents. [See 2006, p. 829D2] 291

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Queen Elizabeth II of Britain May 3–8 visited the U.S. with her husband, Prince Philip. It was her fourth state visit to the U.S., and her first since 1991. The queen began her latest tour by visiting Virginia’s state Capitol in Richmond, Va. She traveled May 4 to Jamestown, Va., the first permanent English settlement in America, to help mark its 400th anniversary. [See 1991, p. 381C1] Known as a horse racing fan, the queen attended the Kentucky Derby May 5 in Louisville, Ky. [See p. 304E2] U.S. President George W. Bush May 7 hosted a state dinner in her honor at the White House in Washington, D.C. Bush committed a gaffe in his welcoming remarks before about 7,000 guests. He said the queen, 81, had dined with 10 U.S. presidents and “helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17…” before realizing his error and correcting it by saying “1976.” He exchanged glances with the queen, then said, “She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child.” The queen May 8 visited the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. „ European Union, Bush Discuss Climate.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel April 30 led a delegation of European Union leaders on a visit to the U.S. for a meeting with President George W. Bush at the White House that focused on climate change. Germany held the rotating EU presidency. Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, also took part in the meeting. [See p. 164A2] The EU leaders reportedly pressed Bush to take stronger measures to address global warming. Speaking to the press, Bush said, “We recognize we have a problem with greenhouse gases. We recognize we have a problem with dependence on oil.” But he defended his policy of addressing those concerns by promoting technologies such as alternative fuels, rather than mandating emissions cuts or tax hikes on gasoline. The meeting produced an agreement to form a permanent Transatlantic Economic Council that would promote trade between the U.S. and the EU and coordinate or reduce regulations that hampered trade. „ 292

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2008 Presidential Campaign Republican Candidates Hold First Debate.

Ten candidates for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination May 3 met for their first debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. The candidates mostly expressed support for President George W. Bush’s current handling of the war in Iraq, but divided on social issues including abortion and belief in the theory of evolution. Cable television network MSNBC co-hosted the debate with the Politico, a Washington, D.C.–based newspaper and Web site. [See p. 276A3] The candidates repeatedly invoked Reagan as a conservative hero and model president, while offering relatively little praise for Bush, who was mired in low public approval ratings. Reagan’s widow, Nancy Reagan, attended the debate. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, leading the field in most national polls, was questioned on his longstanding support for abortion rights, which could prove a drawback for GOP voters. Asked if he would support a Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, the court’s 1973 ruling that established the right to abortion, Giuliani gave a mixed reply, saying, “It would be O.K. to repeal. Or it would be also if a strict constructionist judge viewed it as a precedent, and I think a judge has to make that decision.” (“Strict constructionist” was a term used by conservatives to approve of judges who favored a narrow interpretation of the Constitution and the rights it afforded.) Giuliani later said he personally hated abortion, but acknowledged that he had supported government funding to provide abortions to poor women in New York. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney defended his own shifting position on abortion rights, which he now said he opposed after previously being a supporter. “I took the same course that Ronald Reagan and [former President] George Herbert Walker Bush and [former Rep.] Henry Hyde [R, Ill.] took, and said I was wrong and said I was pro-life. And I’m proud of that, and I won’t apologize for becoming pro-life.” Giuliani and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who was running second in national polls, broke with most of their rivals in saying

that they supported more federal funding for stem cell research. Bush had vetoed such a bill in 2006. [See p. 221G3] Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.) and Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.) were the only candidates to raise their hands when asked if they did not believe in evolution. Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who had served as U.S. health and human services secretary under Bush, said he believed that employers who disapproved of homosexuality should be able to fire gay workers at will. However, he backtracked the next day, saying he had misheard the question. Bush’s Handling of War Criticized—

While the candidates mostly backed Bush’s recent decision to send more troops to Iraq, some of them criticized him for mistakes in handling the war since it began with the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Huckabee said, “Clearly there was a real error in judgment, and that primarily had to do with listening to a lot of folks who were civilians in suits and silk ties, and not listening enough to the generals with mud and blood on their boots and medals on their chest.” However, Giuliani praised Bush for going on the offensive against Islamist extremists after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. McCain vowed to bring Osama bin Laden, leader of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda, to justice for the Sept. 11 attacks. “I’ll follow him to the gates of hell,” he declared. The other candidates at the debate were former Virginia Gov. James Gilmore 3rd, Rep. Duncan Hunter (Calif.) and Rep. Ron Paul (Texas). Paul, a libertarian who had opposed the Iraq war all along, called it “a war we didn’t need to be in.” Other News—In related developments: † Former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.), a television actor who had said he was considering joining the Republican field, May 3 skipped the debate but the following day delivered a wide-ranging political speech to the Lincoln Club of Orange County, a Republican group in Newport Beach, Calif. Thompson was already running third in some polls. [See p. 222A3] † The Secret Service May 3 said it had put Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), a leading Democratic presidential candidate, under its protection as of that day. It was the GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images

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Under the terms of the deal, Alcoa would offer $58.60 and 0.4108 of an Alcoa share for each Alcan share. The combined value of the offer represented $73.25 per Alcan share, a 20% premium over Alcan’s May 4 closing price of $61.03. Alcoa Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Alain J.P. Belda said the bid had been motivated by a desire to protect Alcoa from takeover bids from rival Chinese and Russian aluminum firms. Belda had reportedly been in talks with Alcan executives over a merger on and off since 2005. Alcan shares rose $21.08, or almost 35%, to close May 7 at $82.11 on the New York Stock Exchange. „

Candidates at the May 3 Republican presidential debate, from left to right: Rep. Duncan Hunter (Calif.); former Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.); former Gov. James Gilmore 3rd (Va.); former Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.); Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.); Rep. Ron Paul (Texas); Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.); former Gov. Tommy Thompson (Wis.); former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; Sen. John McCain (Ariz.)

FACTS ON FILE

earliest point in a campaign that a candidate had been assigned a Secret Service detail, although Obama’s top rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), already had her own detail as a former first lady of the U.S. The agency declined to say if there were any threats against Obama, who aspired to be the first black president. † The Florida legislature May 3 voted to move up the state’s primary elections to Jan. 29, 2008, joining a trend of states both big and small that were scheduling their nominating contests early in the primary season. Already, 23 states, including California and New York, had moved up their primaries to Feb. 5. Florida’s move put it ahead of all but three states—Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. The Democratic and Republican parties had both threatened to penalize states that jumped ahead of Feb. 5, warning that they would cut the number of delegates the states could send to the national conventions. [See p. 174B1] „

Legislation Senate Passes FDA Drug Regulation Reform.

The Senate May 9 voted, 93–1, to pass a measure that would strengthen and widen the oversight powers of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate drug companies. It would also renew the agency’s authority to collect so-called user fees from the companies it regulated. The bill was widely considered a substantial attempt at FDA reform. The House had not yet taken up its version of the bill, but was expected to approve it. [See p. 62C2] The performance of the FDA in regulating drugs had come under increasing scrutiny since the painkiller Vioxx was withdrawn from the market in 2004 after its use was tied to an increase in heart attacks and strokes. A panel named by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a federal advisory group, had issued a report in September 2006 that was strongly critical of the FDA’s management, structure and drug regulation practices. In April 2006, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had issued a report reaching similar conclusions. [See 2006, pp. 748G1, 327A1; 2005, p. 114A1] The Senate bill, the Food and Drug Administration Revitalization Act, called for the agency to institute a system to track the safety of drugs both before and after it approved them. The FDA had drawn criticism for lax monitoring of drugs once they reached the market. Companies that did not cooperate with the new monitoring policy could face fines of up to $2 million. The measure would give the FDA expanded powers to compel drug manufacturers to change drug labels and conduct expanded or new clinical trials and studies for drugs that had already been approved for sale. The agency would be able to require drug companies to publicly disclose data from such studies, in order to prevent them from hiding safety concerns. The FDA would also be able to fine drug companies that used misleading or false advertising. The bill was considered “must-pass” legislation due to the user-fee renewal proMay 10, 2007

vision. User fees, paid to the FDA by drugmakers and medical device manufacturers, constituted an estimated $320 million of its $1.5 billion annual budget. The bill would allow the FDA to increase user fees. Some critics had urged Congress to end the user-fee system, arguing that it was a conflict of interest for the FDA to raise funds from the industry it regulated. Drug Imports Rejected—The Senate May 7 effectively blocked approval of the importation of cheaper drugs for sale in the U.S. The Senate by voice vote earlier that day had approved an amendment proposed by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D, N.D.) allowing imports of cheaper drugs from several European countries, as well as Canada, Japan and Australia. However, the Senate later May 7 voted, 49–40, to approve a separate amendment that would only permit imports of drugs certified by the U.S. secretary of health and human services to “pose no additional risk to the public’s health and safety.” Dorgan said that stipulation made the drug imports highly unlikely. Sen. Thad Cochran (R, Miss.) proposed the second amendment. Dorgan’s amendment had threatened to scuttle the entire bill, because President George W. Bush had said he would veto any bill that allowed drug imports. „ House Backs Hate-Crime Law Expansions.

The House May 3 voted, 237–180, to expand federal hate-crime protections to those attacked because of their sexuality, and increasing the sentences those convicted of such crimes would face. The bill would extend the hate-crime designation to those victimized due to their gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. The hate-crime designation already applied to those attacked because of their race, national origin, religion or color. Similar legislation had been introduced in the Senate, but had not yet been voted on. [See 2006, p. 298A1; 2005, p. 708D1] The White House the same day released a statement recommending that President George W. Bush veto the measure. The statement argued that the bill was “inconsistent with the proper allocation of criminal enforcement responsibilities between the different levels of government.” Proponents of the hate-crime category expansion had worked to get both houses of Congress to pass the legislation without success since 1998. „

The proposed rules would allow detainees a single meeting with lawyers to authorize them to handle their cases. Defense lawyers protested that the limits would not allow enough time to gain the confidence of often-distrustful prisoners or to represent them effectively. The proposal also would allow military officials to open mail sent to a detainee by his lawyer, and authorize government officials to unilaterally deny lawyers access to secret evidence used by panels to adjudicate detainees’ enemy combatant status. The Justice Department said lawyer visits to the prison camp and correspondence with detainees by mail had caused “intractable problems and threats to security at Guantanamo.” The filing accused lawyers of working to “cause unrest on the base” by fomenting hunger strikes, protests and disobedience, and of improperly leaking information to the media. [See below] The president of the New York City Bar, Barry Kamins, April 29 sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales claiming that defense lawyers were being unfairly blamed for the government’s difficulties at Guantanamo Bay. Seventy-five lawyers representing detainees May 1 also lobbied legislators to reverse sections of the 2006 Military Commissions Act that limited detainees’ access to the courts. Separately, Charles Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, Feb. 2 resigned from his post. In January, he had set off a wave of criticism when he accused detainee lawyers of accepting payment from dubious sources and encouraged companies to boycott their law firms. Hunger Strike Intensifies—Defense Department officials and detainee lawyers April 9 reported that a long-running hunger strike among Guantanamo Bay detainees had recently intensified. They said 13 inmates were currently on strike—defined by the military as having refused nine consecutive meals—and were being force-fed. [See 2006, p. 466C3] The strike had reportedly gained more adherents after some 160 of the roughly 385 detainees at the prison camp had been transferred to a newly built maximum security facility since December 2006. Detainees and their lawyers said the new prison cut off detainees held there from contact with fellow prisoners, and they warned that it endangered their mental health. „

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Terrorism Detainees Limits on Guantanamo Lawyer Visits Urged.

The Justice Department had submitted a filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia seeking to restrict lawyer visits to detainees held at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the New York Times reported April 26. The government sought to limit attorneys to three visits, instead of the current unlimited number. The filing came in a case before the court in which eight detainees were challenging their classification as enemy combatants [See pp. 280D3, 28B1]

The Defense Department April 24 charged Omar Khadr, 20, a Canadian being held at the U.S. prison camp for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with murdering a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002 and committing other terrorism offenses. He was the second detainee to be charged under a tribunal system set up by the 2006 Military Commissions Act; the first, Australian David Hicks, in March had pleaded guilty to material support of terrorism. If convicted, Khadr faced life in prison. [See pp. 280D3, 207D1; 2005, p. 918E2] The government accused Khadr of killing U.S. Sgt. Christopher Speers and 293

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wounding another soldier with a grenade during a July 2002 firefight in Afghanistan, during which he was captured by U.S. troops. Khadr was also alleged to have trained with the Al Qaeda terrorism network, set land mines and fired shots, thrown grenades and spied on U.S. and Afghan troops. The charges facing Khadr were murder and attempted murder in violation of the law of war, conspiracy, spying and providing material support for terrorism. Khadr in 2005 had previously been charged with murder, attempted murder and “aiding the enemy” under the Bush administration’s initial military tribunal system. However, a 2006 Supreme Court ruling had shut down the tribunal and quashed those charges. [See 2006, p. 501A1] „

Accidents & Disasters Powerful Tornado Destroys Kansas Town.

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A devastating tornado May 4 leveled the southwestern Kansas town of Greensburg, killing at least 11 people. The tornado rated Category F-5 enhanced on the Fujita scale—the most destructive category— with winds measured at up to 205 miles per hour (330 kph). It was the most powerful tornado to hit the U.S. since 1999. [See pp. 294F1, 261A3, 144A1; 1999, p. 325A1] Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) May 6 declared a state of emergency in Kiowa County, where Greensburg was located. President George W. Bush declared parts of Kansas a federal disaster area. Sebelius May 7 said the emergency response had been hampered by the deployment of Kansas National Guard units in Iraq and Afghanistan, depriving the relief efforts of needed personnel and equipment. Sebelius and other governors had previously warned that the use of the Guard overseas was hurting readiness for emergencies in the U.S. [See 2006, p. 385D2] White House spokesman Tony Snow May 8 disputed Sebelius’s claims, saying she had failed to promptly request federal aid. He insisted that sufficient Guard units and equipment were available for use in disaster areas. Bush May 9 visited Greensburg, touring the town by helicopter and on foot, and meeting with residents. He said the federal government would work with local and state officials to provide aid. Sebelius accompanied Bush during his tour and backed off her previous criticism, praising the federal response as “prompt and good.” But she continued to question federal preparedness for future natural disasters. „ Tornadoes on Texas-Mexico Border Kill 10.

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Tornadoes April 24 destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes in Eagle Pass, Texas, and the neighboring city of Piedras Negras, across the Rio Grande in Mexico. At least seven people were killed in Eagle Pass, and three more were reported killed in Piedras Negras; another person was killed in Shreveport, La., by lightning in the same weather system. Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) April 25 declared Maverick County, which 294

contained Eagle Pass, a disaster area. [See pp. 294B1, 144A1] Separately, a storm system March 28 spawned 65 tornadoes across the Midwest, killing two people in Elmwood, Okla., and one each in Holly, Colo., and Amarillo, Texas. „

State & Local Politics N.J. Gov. Corzine Leaves Hospital. New Jer-

sey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) April 30 left Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J., 18 days after suffering serious injuries in a highway car crash. Sitting in a wheelchair, Corzine delivered a statement outside the hospital. He apologized for not wearing a seat belt and being driven at 91 miles per hour (145 kmph) when the accident occurred. “I set a very bad example,” he said, adding, “I hope the state will forgive me.” [See p. 244E1] Corzine returned to the governor’s mansion in Princeton, N.J., where he planned to recuperate. He reportedly was outfitting the mansion with rehabilitation equipment at his own expense. He was also paying his own medical bills, forgoing state insurance coverage for the accident. Corzine, 60, a former chairman of investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc., had estimated his net worth at up to $261 million. Corzine May 1 paid a $46 fine, issued at his own request, for not wearing a seat belt. He resumed his official duties May 7, saying he would work at a slower pace than before while he continued his recovery. „

Economy Unemployment Edged Up in April. The un-

employment rate remained “essentially unchanged” in April after seasonal adUnemployment 4.5% justment, the La- April 2007 bor Department Previous Month 4.4% 4.7% reported May 4, Year Earlier edging up to 4.5%, from 4.4% in March. An estimated 88,000 nonfarm jobs were added to the economy during April. That was a marked decline from the previous month’s pace of 177,000 new jobs, reflecting the economy’s slower growth. [See pp. 281D2, 225E1] 145.8 Million Held Jobs in March— According to a household survey, 145.8 million people held jobs in April, the Labor Department reported May 4. The department counted 6.8 million people as unemployed, up from 6.7 million the previous month. The department counted 399,000 workers as “discouraged” in April. Those workers were not looking for work because they believed that no jobs were available. They were not counted as part of the labor force. About 4.4 million people who sought full-time employment were working part-time instead. The average manufacturing workweek was 41.1 hours in April, down from 41.2 hours in March, while factory workers’ overtime per week, also declined by 0.1 hour, to 4.2. Average hourly wages for production workers rose four cents, to $17.25.

The unemployment rate among whites nationwide rose to 3.9% in April, from 3.8% in March after seasonal adjustment. The jobless rate for blacks eased to 8.2%, from 8.3%. For Hispanics, who could be of any race, it rose to 5.4%, from 5.1%. For men aged 20 and over, April unemployment was steady at 4.0%. For adult women, it stayed at 3.8%. The teenage jobless rate was 15.3%, up from 14.5% in March, while for black teenagers the rate spiked to 30.6%, from 25.0%. „ Consumer Spending Growth Slows to 0.3%.

The Commerce Department April 30 reported that consumer spending rose 0.3% in March over February, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $10.01 trillion. That was slower than the revised 0.7% pace of growth for February. [See p. 225B2] Personal pretax income in March climbed 0.7%, to an annual rate of $11.39 trillion, following revised 0.7% growth the previous month. Disposable, or after-tax, income climbed 0.7% in March, to an annual rate of $9.93 trillion, after 0.6% growth in January, revised. The March savings rate, as a percentage of disposable income, was -0.8%, up from -1.2% in February. A negative savings rate meant that total spending exceeded total personal disposable income. „ Durable Goods Value Dropped in March.

The Commerce Department April 25 reported that the value of durable goods orders in March rose by 3.4% from the previous month, to $214.9 billion. Orders had grown 2.4% in February over the previous month, the department reported, a revision of the original rate of 2.5% reported March 28. [See p. 126D1] Other News—In other economic news: † The Federal Reserve April 25 released its “beige book” survey of economic data covering the period from late February through mid-April. The survey was compiled eight times a year on a rotating basis by its 12 regional banks. The latest survey indicated “modest to moderate” economic growth in most districts, something of an improvement from the previous report, with particular strength in the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast. Residential real estate remained generally weak. The districts reported increases in wages in many areas, and “generally stable” consumer prices, but noted the possibility of increases in energy and commodity prices. [See p. 160C3] † The Conference Board business research organization April 24 reported that its index of consumer confidence had dropped to 104.0 in April, from a revised level of 108.2 in March. The index’s base level of 100 reflected consumer confidence in 1985. The board cited rising gasoline prices as a continuing main cause of the decline. [See p. 225D2] „

Environment Global Warming Concerns Public. A majority of Americans viewed global warming and climate change as a problem warranting immediate action, regardless of FACTS ON FILE

their political affiliation, according to a poll published April 27 in the New York Times. The poll found that 60% of Republican respondents, 90% of Democrats and 80% of independents thought prompt action to deal with global warming was required, while 19% of Americans thought such action was not needed. [See pp. 290F1, 241F1] The poll also found that 92% of respondents supported requiring car manufacturers to develop more energy-efficient vehicles, and that 75% were willing to pay more for energy derived from renewable sources, such as wind or solar power. However, 58% opposed a federal fuel-tax increase aimed at reducing fuel consumption, while 38% supported the idea. The poll had been conducted April 20– 24 by the Times and CBS News. A separate poll reported April 20 in the Washington Post found that 33% of people agreed that global warming was the “single biggest environmental problem the world faces today,” up from 16% in April 2006. Also, 70% of respondents said they thought the federal government should be doing more to address global warming. The poll had been conducted April 5–10 by the Post, ABC News and Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. Other News—In related news: † Auditors at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) April 19 released a report warning that the federal insurance programs for floods and crops had not accounted for increased storms and flooding resulting from climate change. The report found that the government’s liability from claims resulting from the increased flooding and storms could total billions of dollars. † The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) April 16 released a report detailing the specific effects of climate change in North America. The report’s authors concluded with 90% certainty that “hot temperatures and extreme weather are likely to cause increased adverse health impacts from heatrelated mortality, pollution, storm-related fatalities and injuries, and infectious diseases.” The report also suggested that winter tourist industries reliant on snowfall would be harmed, and an increase in wildfires and insect infestations resulting from warmer temperatures would cost the timber industry between $1 billion and $2 billion by 2100. [See p. 219A3] † An estimated 1,400 rallies and other events April 14 were held nationwide as part of a campaign to draw attention to global warming. The campaign, called “Step It Up,” had been organized to encourage Congress to mandate an 80% reduction of carbon emissions by 2050. „

Civil Rights N.H. Same-Sex Civil Union Bill Passed.

New Hampshire’s Democratic-controlled state Senate April 26 voted, 14–10, along party lines to approve a bill allowing sameMay 10, 2007

sex couples to enter into civil unions, becoming the fourth state to pass such legislation. The state House of Representatives April 4 had approved the measure, 243– 129, and Gov. John Lynch (D) April 26 repeated his support for the bill, saying he would sign it into law. [See p. 109F2] The measure would grant same-sex couples almost all of the same rights as married heterosexual couples in the state, including inheritance rights and hospital visitation rights. It also recognized samesex marriages performed in other places as civil unions. V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop to be consecrated by the U.S.’s Episcopal Church and leader of the New Hampshire diocese, April 27 said he and his partner wanted to be among the first couples to be united under a civil union. [See 2004, p. 210B2] Same-sex civil unions had been approved in Vermont, New Jersey and Connecticut, and Massachusetts in 2004 passed a law offering same-sex marriage. Other News—In related news: † A spokeswoman for New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) April 20 said Spitzer within the next several weeks would introduce legislation to legalize same-sex marriage in the state. Spitzer, who had taken office in January, during his election campaign had promised to introduce such legislation. A same-sex marriage bill was likely to face opposition in the state’s Senate and General Assembly. † Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) March 30 ordered the state Department of Public Health to recognize 26 marriages of same-sex couples from other states who had wed in Massachusetts soon after same-sex marriage was legalized in the state in May 2004. Then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R) had ordered clerks not to wed same-sex couples who claimed residency in another state, but some had defied the order. Patrick’s order did not affect the marital status of the couples, and was considered to be largely symbolic. [See 2006, p. 278D2] „

Medicine Hormone Therapy Linked to Cancer Drop.

Researchers reported in the April 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that a sharp decline in breast cancer cases had coincided with warnings issued in July 2002 regarding the safety of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) given to postmenopausal women. The scientists said it was the strongest evidence to date that HRT, which often had been used to treat some of the symptoms of menopause, was linked to breast cancer incidence in the U.S. [See p. 226B3; 2006, p. 979A1; 2002, p. 557B3] Research performed as part of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a study run by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in 2002 had linked HRT to several increased health risks, leading many women to abandon the treatment. The study found that breast cancer rates had dropped almost 15% between July

2002 and December 2003. In both 2003 and 2004 the number of breast cancer cases was 10% lower than expected, translating roughly into 14,000 fewer cases in 2003. Prior to 2003, the incidence of breast cancer had risen steadily since the 1980s. The scientists said the 2004 data indicated that the initial drop was less likely to be an anomaly. They also noted that the decline was sharpest in women between the ages of 50 and 69, the group most likely to use HRT. The research had been led by Donald Berry of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. HRT Heart Risks Increase With Age—A group of researchers reported in the April 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that older postmenopausal women taking HRT had a higher risk of suffering a heart attack, while younger women taking HRT benefited from a lower heart attack risk. The new report consisted of an analysis of WHI data. The scientists found that women beginning HRT within 10 years of menopause had an 11% lower risk of heart attacks, while women beginning treatment 10 to 19 years after menopause had a 22% higher risk, and women starting HRT after 20 years had a 71% higher risk. The study did not address other potential risk factors associated with HRT, such as breast cancer or osteoporosis. The scientists said the new findings indicated a complex relationship between a woman’s age and her risk for heart attacks while on HRT. They said there was potentially a window in which younger postmenopausal women could safely take hormone treatments. The research had been led by Jacques Rossouw, chief of the WHI branch of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. „ Computerized Mammograms Faulted. Scientists reported in the April 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that socalled computer-aided detection (CAD) mammograms were less likely to find tumors, and returned a higher number of false positives, than did standard mammograms. The systems were designed to improve the detection abilities of mammograms, and relied on computer software to analyze breast X-rays and identify areas that needed closer examination by a radiologist. [See p. 226B3] Researchers had examined 429,345 mammograms of 222,135 patients taken between 1998 and 2000. CAD mammograms were accurate in discovering the presence or absence of a breast tumor 87.2% of the time, compared with a 90.2% accuracy rate for standard mammograms. Experts said the increased number of false positive results for breast cancer exposed patients to anxiety and additional unnecessary testing, some of which was invasive and painful. An estimated 30% of mammography centers had invested in CAD technology, which was more expensive than ordinary mammography equipment and production. 295

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The American College of Physicians (ACP) April 3 issued new guidelines recommending that women in their 40s first consult with their doctor before getting a mammogram. The new guidelines challenged recommendations established by other organizations, including the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society, that urged women in their 40s to receive routine mammograms. The ACP said its recommendation was based on analysis showing that the benefits of mammograms to women in their 40s were unclear. It said the procedure could result in additional unneeded tests and treatment. „ More Than 1,000 Texas Vioxx Suits Halted.

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Judge Randy Wilson of Texas state District Court in Harris County April 20 effectively halted roughly 1,000 lawsuits filed over dangers posed to patients taking the painkiller Vioxx. Whitehouse, N.J.–based Merck & Co., which produced the drug, in 2004 had withdrawn Vioxx from the market after clinical trials had linked it to heart attacks and strokes. Merck said it faced some 27,250 state and federal personal injury lawsuits over the drug. [See p. 293D1; 2006, p. 1008C3] Wilson in his ruling found that plaintiff Rudy Ledbetter, who had suffered a heart attack after taking Vioxx, could not claim that Merck had not provided adequate warning of the drug’s dangers. Merck lawyers had cited a 2003 state law exempting drug companies from liability for failing to provide health warnings concerning their products in cases where the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved warnings that had been included on the drug’s label. Lawyers on both sides of the case said Wilson had told them he would suspend all Vioxx lawsuits until an appeals court reviewed his ruling in the Ledbetter case. (Wilson oversaw all Vioxx lawsuits in Texas.) Merck had said it would not settle any of the federal or state cases against the company, instead opting to argue each in court. Other News—In related news: † An FDA advisory panel April 12 voted, 20–1, to recommend that the agency reject a Merck request to approve the pain reliever Arcoxia, citing concerns that the drug could cause heart attacks. The FDA April 27 denied approval for the drug. Studies had shown that the drug was as effective as another painkiller, naproxen, in treating pain, but patients using Arcoxia experienced three times as many strokes, heart attacks and deaths. Several panel members strongly criticized Merck’s attempt to get Arcoxia approved. The ruling raised the possibility that no more drugs from the Cox-2 inhibitor class, which included Vioxx and Arcoxia, would be approved by the FDA. [See 2005, p. 114A3] † A jury in Illinois’s Madison County Circuit Court March 27 found that Merck was not responsible for the 2003 death of a woman taking Vioxx. The jury ruled that the drug was not a “proximate cause” of 296

Patricia Schwaller’s death, citing instead her other risk factors for cardiovascular problems, including diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. † A jury in New Jersey Superior Court in Atlantic City March 12 awarded an Idaho man, Frederick Humeston, and his wife $47.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages, finding that Vioxx had contributed to the man’s 2001 heart attack. The jury’s finding reversed a 2005 verdict in the case, when a jury had found that Merck was not liable for Humeston’s heart attack. [See 2005, p. 804G2] † Judge Victoria Chaney of California Superior Court in Los Angeles Jan. 18 declared a mistrial in two Vioxx cases. Chaney issued the order after a 12-person jury hearing the two cases was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, as required by state law. „

Tobacco Ex-Justice Lawyer Alleges Interference in Suit.

Sharon Eubanks, a former Justice Department lawyer who had led a 2005 lawsuit against tobacco companies, had said she had been ordered by superiors to weaken her case, the Washington Post reported March 22. Eubanks said several political appointees from the office of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had begun interfering with the lawsuit during its final weeks. In the case, the federal government had alleged that tobacco companies conspired to deceive smokers about the health risks of cigarettes. [See 2005, p. 458D3] Witnesses for the government in the case said they had been asked to change their testimony, and government lawyers had reduced the amount of damages sought in the case to $10 billion, from $130 billion. “The political people were pushing the buttons and ordering us to say what we said. And because of that we failed to zealously represent the interests of the American public,” Eubanks said. She named then–Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum, then–Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler and Dan Meron, then Keisler’s deputy, as those responsible for the changes. Eubanks, who had worked at the Justice Department for 22 years until retiring in December 2005, said she had been motivated to come forward because of the scandal regarding the controversial firing of eight U.S. attorneys. She cited concerns about the “overwhelming politicization” of the Justice Department under Gonzales. [See p. 258A2] Rep. Henry Waxman, (D, Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, March 22 requested records of the lawsuit from Gonzales’s office. „ Cigarette Nicotine Level Increase Found.

Researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Mass., Jan. 18 announced that their analysis showed that cigarette manufacturers had intentionally increased the amount of nicotine in cigarettes between 1998 and 2005. The study

also concluded that manufacturers had altered the design of cigarettes to yield a higher number of puffs per cigarette. Nicotine was a highly addictive chemical that could be added to cigarettes. [See 2006, p. 732C2] The scientists had independently analyzed data provided to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health by cigarette producers. They found that the smoke nicotine yield, the amount of the chemical present in cigarette smoke, had climbed 11% between 1998 and 2005, an average annual hike of 1.6%. Gregory Connolly, a Harvard professor and one of the leaders of the study, said, “We know from our data that there are intentional design changes that result in more nicotine in smoke that increases the capacity for the cigarette to cause and maintain addiction.” „ Lawmakers Seek Regulation. A bipartisan group of senators Feb. 14 reintroduced a bill that would increase the regulatory powers of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to include oversight of the tobacco industry. The legislation would allow the FDA to regulate the content of tobacco products. It would also regulate the marketing of tobacco products to ensure that children were not targeted and that no dubious health claims were made. In 2000, the Supreme Court had rejected an attempt by the FDA to regulate tobacco products, ruling that it needed congressional approval to do so. Since then Congress had tried several times to pass the same legislation introduced Feb. 14, without success. [See 2000, p. 189D2] „

Internet ‘Adult’ Domain Suffix Bid Defeated. The

board of the U.S.-based nonprofit organization that governed Internet addresses March 30 rejected for the third time, 9–5, a proposal to adopt a voluntary domain for pornographic Web sites—using the suffix .xxx. The governing body, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), said it would not consider the bid again. The vote, at ICANN’s annual International Public Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, was held at the request of ICM Registry Inc., which had also applied to manage the domain. [See 2006, p. 413A1] Members of the board who voted against the proposal voiced concerns that approving the domain would lead to ICANN taking a role in regulating Web site content. Paul Twomey, ICANN’s chief executive, abstained from voting on the bid, which he had called “clearly controversial, clearly polarizing.” Proponents of the bid argued that it would make it easier for filtering software to detect sexually explicit Web sites. However, the domain had been opposed both by the adult entertainment industry, which expressed fears that a standardized suffix could lead to the isolation of such Web sites, and by socially conservative and religious groups, which said such a proposal would legitimize pornography. „ FACTS ON FILE

AFRICA

Ethiopia Rebels Raid Chinese Oil Field; 74 Killed.

More than 200 gunmen from the separatist rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) April 24 raided a Chinese-run oil field in Abole, in the eastern Ogaden region on the Somali border. Seventy-four people—65 Ethiopian and nine Chinese workers—were killed, and seven Chinese and two African workers were kidnapped. [See 2006, p. 991D3; 1996, p. 1010C1] Ethiopia and Somalia had fought wars in 1964 and 1977 over the Ogaden, a Muslim, Somali-speaking region of eastern Ethiopia. Both conflicts were won by Ethiopia. The ONLF had formed in 1984, seeking self-determination for the region. However, the April 24 raid was its first largescale attack in years. Ethiopia currently had thousands of troops in Somalia to assist that country’s transitional government in a fight against Islamists. Members of the ONLF had allegedly joined the Islamists, who were currently waging an insurgency against government and Ethiopian forces after being ousted from power in Somalia in December 2006. [See p. 264F3] The April 24 attack was the deadliest on a Chinese-run installation in Africa. China had recently been increasing its investment in the continent, in an effort to gain resources to feed its fast-growing economy. The Abole field—an exploratory drilling site—was owned by China’s Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, a subsidiary of state-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec). Sinopec April 25 said the attack would not deter its investment drive in Africa. [See p. 92A3] The ONLF, in an April 24 e-mail claiming responsibility for the attack, stated, “We will not allow the mineral resources of our people to be exploited by this regime or any firm that it enters into an illegal contract [with].” A spokesman for the group, Abderaman Mahdi, that day said in a telephone interview that the Chinese “are turning into colonists.” The group had previously warned foreign companies to leave the region. Also, the ONLF April 29 accused the Ethiopian government of a recent crackdown on its supporters. The ONLF April 29 released the nine captives, handing them over to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Ethiopian government alleged that the country’s longtime enemy, neighboring Eritrea, was responsible for the attack, as well as other attacks in Ethiopia. Eritrea was also accused of backing Somalia’s Islamist insurgents. Ethiopia’s parliament May 10 voted, 300–83, to request that the United Nations take “necessary measures” against Eritrea. „

Mali President Toure Reelected. Mali’s presi-

dent, Amadou Toumani Toure, May 3 was declared the winner of April 29 presidenMay 10, 2007

tial elections. Toure, 58, had first taken power in a 1991 military coup, but turned control of the government over to a democratically elected president the following year. Toure then won a 2002 presidential election. [See 2002, p. 425A3] Toure, who collected 70.9% of the vote, triumphed over seven challengers. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the president of the National Assembly and a former premier, took second place, with 19.1% of the vote. A candidate had to win at least 50% of the vote in order to avoid a runoff election. An estimated 36% of Mali’s 6.8 million eligible voters participated in the election. Opposition candidates May 1 pledged to challenge the results in the constitutional court, alleging fraud. However, international observers said the vote was generally free and fair. „

Sudan ICC Issues Warrants for Darfur Suspects. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in

The Hague, the Netherlands, May 2 said its judges had issued arrest warrants for two Sudanese men on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region. The men were Ahmad Muhammad Harun, Sudan’s state minister for humanitarian affairs, and Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman (also known as Ali Kushayb), a leader of government-backed Arab militias known as the Janjaweed. They were charged with 50 and 41 counts each, respectively. [See below, p. 123A2] More than 200,000 people had died and some 2.5 million others had been driven from their homes in Darfur since 2003, amid fighting between local rebel groups and the Janjaweed. The Janjaweed had been accused of terrorizing civilians in Darfur. A 7,000-member African Union (AU) peacekeeping force had been largely ineffective in quelling the violence. In the previous year, the Darfur conflict had spread to neighboring Chad and Central African Republic, causing civilian casualties and instability in both countries. [See p. 123B3] Harun and Rahman were charged with murder, rape and torture in connection with attacks on four villages in west Darfur in 2003 and 2004. However, they were seen as merely midlevel players in the Darfur conflict, and it was widely believed that high-ranking members of the government of Sudanese President Omar Hassan alBashir were responsible for the campaign of violence against civilians. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor for the ICC, in February had accused the two men of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the first step in the ICC’s prosecution process. Sudan had responded by saying March 6 that it would try Rahman and two others on unspecified charges relating to attacks in west Darfur. However, Rahman’s trial reportedly was delayed March 8 after he lodged an appeal. Sudan had repeatedly said it would not cooperate with the court. Rahman’s

Sudanese trial was seen as an effort to undermine the ICC, which was unable to charge people who were already being prosecuted for the same crimes in another jurisdiction. The ICC had no power to enforce the arrest warrants, and relied on countries that recognized it to carry out the arrests. Moreno-Ocampo May 2 said, “Sudan has the legal obligation and means to execute the warrant and deliver the men.” He added that the ICC had an agreement with international police agency Interpol to arrest the two men if they were “spotted outside Sudan.” In response to the warrants, Bashir May 2 asserted that the court did not have jurisdiction. Justice Minister Mohamed Ali alMardi said, “Our position is very, very clear. The ICC cannot assume any jurisdiction to judge any Sudanese outside the country.”

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Bashir Relents on U.N. Assistance—

Sudan April 16 agreed to allow the United Nations to provide substantial assistance to the AU peacekeeping force in Darfur. A 21,000-member U.N.-AU hybrid force had been approved by the Security Council in August 2006, but Bashir had previously objected to such a force, saying it amounted to a foreign invasion. However, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, Sudan’s ambassador to the U.N., said in a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the 15 Security Council members that his country would accept a “heavy support package” that had been offered by the U.N. as an intermediate step in sending a fullfledged force to the region. The “support package” consisted of 3,000 heavily armed military police officers, six attack helicopters, and other air and logistical support. The Economist reported May 10 that Egypt would contribute 750 personnel to the force. Sudan’s shift on the issue of U.N. involvement in Darfur was attributed in part to behind-the-scenes pressure from China. China bought two-thirds of Sudan’s oil exports, and had previously been criticized for not using its influence to press Bashir on the Darfur situation. Zhai Jun, China’s assistant foreign minister, April 6–9 had visited Sudan, meeting with Bashir and also touring refugee camps in Darfur. [See p. 92F3] After his visit, Zhai April 11 said, “We suggest the Sudan side show flexibility and accept this plan,” referring to the U.N. peacekeeping plan. He also advocated China’s tactics of applying private pressure, rather than public threats, to achieve progress on Darfur. “The international community should pay attention to the way of having consultations with the Sudan government in order to achieve better results,” he said. The U.S., Britain and the European Union had previously threatened sanctions against Sudan if it did not allow U.N. peacekeepers. Zhai said China would not support sanctions. China’s shift was seen as motivated in part by efforts by international activists, including celebrities, to link China to the 297

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Darfur crisis in advance of the 2008 Summer Olympics, which would be held in Beijing, China’s capital. Some even suggested an Olympic boycott if China did not take action. China May 8 said it would contribute a military engineering unit to the Darfur contingent, and May 10 named a special envoy for Darfur. The envoy would be Liu Guijin, a former ambassador to Zimbabwe and South Africa. The Sudanese government had also been pressured to accept the U.N. force at a meeting of the Arab League March 29 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Other News—In other news related to the Darfur conflict:

Around 32 people were arrested during and after the rioting, including two members of parliament. Environmentalists had opposed the expansion of the plantation, arguing that it would threaten endangered species. The Mehta family, which owned the Mehta Group, had been among the tens of thousands of Asians expelled from Uganda by Amin in 1972. Along with thousands of other Asians, they had returned in the 1990s, after President Yoweri Museveni restored stability to the country. [See 1982, p. 989G2] „

† Human rights group Amnesty International May 8 released a report alleging that China and Russia were supplying weapons to the Sudanese government that were being used in the Darfur conflict, in violation of a U.N. arms embargo. Sudan, China and Russia all denied that they had violated the embargo. The New York Times April 18 had reported that a confidential U.N. study had found that the Sudanese government was painting military planes used to transport military equipment to Darfur white, in an apparent effort to camouflage them as U.N. or AU aircraft.

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British engine maker Rolls-Royce PLC April 19 bowed to international pressure and announced that it would stop doing business in Sudan, citing “increasing political and humanitarian concerns.” Human rights activists had been campaigning for corporations to divest from Sudan. [See p. 66B1] „ †

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ple were killed April 12 during a violent protest in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, against a government plan to sell land in a protected rainforest to a sugar company owned by Ugandans of Indian origin. Several businesses owned by Ugandans of South Asian descent were looted, in scenes similar to a 1972 campaign against Uganda’s Asians led by then–military ruler Idi Amin. The April 12 riot was described as a rare display of anger toward the country’s prosperous Asian community in recent years. [See 2003, p. 663A3] The protest was sparked by the government’s decision to permit the Sugar Corporation of Uganda (SCOUL) to clear about 17,000 acres (7,100 hectares) of the Mabira Forest Reserve to enlarge a sugar plantation. SCOUL was a sugar firm owned by the Mehta Group, which was run by Ugandans of Indian descent. Demonstrators stoned to death an Asian man, attacked several other Asians and vandalized a Hindu temple in Kampala where some Asians had sought refuge. Police responded to the riot with live ammunition. The other two deaths occurred when police shot a suspected looter and a bystander was caught in the crossfire. 298

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Army Deserters Attempt Plane Hijacking.

Cuba’s Interior Ministry May 3 said two draftees in the Cuban army that day had attempted to hijack a plane to the U.S., killing an army officer in the process. The ministry did not make clear how the hijacking attempt, at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba’s capital, was stopped, although area residents reported hearing a gun battle at the airport around 4:00 a.m. local time. [See 2004, p. 1076C3] Three draftees, including the two would-be hijackers, April 29 reportedly had shot their way out of their base in Managua, 15 miles (25 km) southeast of the airport, killing one soldier and wounding another in the process. One of the deserters was caught prior to the hijacking. The remaining two deserters May 3 reportedly commandeered a city bus and directed it to the airport, taking hostage its eight passengers. The interior ministry said the hijackers had boarded the plane with their hostages, then killed the army officer. The interior ministry in a statement blamed the incident on U.S. policies encouraging illegal immigration by Cubans. The three deserters were identified by the government as Leandro Cerezo Sirut, Alain Forbus Lameru and Yoan Torres Martinez, although it was not clear which two had made the hijacking attempt. Observers said the men were likely to face the death penalty, which was carried out by firing squad in Cuba. „

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East Timor Ramos-Horta Wins Presidential Election.

East Timorese voters May 9 overwhelmingly elected Premier Jose Ramos-Horta to the largely ceremonial post of president in a run-off ballot, according to preliminary results. Election commission spokeswoman Maria Angelina Sarmento May 10 said Ramos-Horta, a cowinner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, had won 73% of the votes, with 90% of the ballots counted. The elections went smoothly, with few reports of irregularities. Official results were expected

May 11. [See p. 247E3; for facts on Ramos-Horta, see below] Ramos-Horta beat Francisco (Lu Olo) Guterres, a former guerrilla fighter who led the ruling Fretilin party. The two men had advanced to the run-off after neither one had taken 50% of the votes in an April first-round election. Ramos-Horta had been supported by five of the candidates who had lost in the first round. A Fretilin spokesman said the party would accept the election commission’s results. RamosHorta would replace outgoing President Xanana Gusmao, who intended to run for the premiership in June elections. Ramos-Horta, 57, pledged to increase economic development and antipoverty measures, and to lure foreign investors to East Timor. He also promised to resolve the country’s ongoing refugee crisis; 30,000 people remained in refugee camps after massive riots had engulfed the capital, Dili, in May and June 2006. „ FACTS ON RAMOS-HORTA

Jose Ramos-Horta was born in Dili, East Timor’s capital, on Dec. 26, 1949. His father was a Portuguese national who had been exiled to East Timor for revolutionary activities (Portugal ruled East Timor at the time), and his mother was Timorese. He received a master’s degree in peace studies at Antioch College in the U.S. in 1984, and also studied law and foreign policy at The Hague Academy of International Law in the Netherlands, the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and Columbia University in New York City. He was divorced from Anna Pessoa Pinto, East Timor’s minister for state and internal administration, and had a son. Ramos-Horta was involved in the independence movement against the Portuguese, which led to his exile in 1970–71 to Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique). He returned to East Timor in 1972 and sided with the pro-independence Fretilin faction. He was made foreign minister in 1975 after Fretilin took over the government and declared independence. He left the country days later to plead the country’s case before the United Nations Security Council. Indonesia invaded East Timor shortly thereafter, and Ramos-Horta remained in exile, acting from 1977 to 1985 as Fretilin’s representative to the U.N. He resigned from Fretilin in 1988. [See 1975, p. 942C3] Ramos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Belo in 1996 were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for working toward a peaceful settlement in East Timor. Ramos-Horta in 1999 returned to East Timor following the establishment of the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor. [See 1996, p. 767D1] Ramos-Horta in 2000 was appointed East Timor’s foreign minister, and continued on in the position after East Timor gained full independence in 2002. In June 2006, he added the post of interim defense minister after the previous minister resigned. Later that month he resigned both his positions to protest the government of Premier Mari Alkatiri. However, following Alkatiri’s resignation in June 2006, Ramos-Horta was appointed acting premier. [See 2006, p. 616A1; 2002, p. 382B3] Ramos-Horta May 9 was elected president of East Timor. [See p. 298F2] FACTS ON FILE

Indonesia Newmont Cleared in Mining Pollution Case.

A court in Manado, Indonesia, April 24 acquitted the Indonesian subsidiary of U.S.based Newmont Mining Corp. and its president of all criminal charges in a high-profile pollution case. Prosecutors had alleged that the subsidiary, Newmont Minhasa Raya, had dumped toxic mine tailings from a now-closed gold mine on northern Sulawesi island into nearby Buyat Bay, causing illness among the local people. However, 11 studies conducted by domestic and foreign institutions had found that Newmont had not polluted the bay, and the original complainant had withdrawn his accusations. [See 2006, p. 246E2] The case was seen as an important test of Indonesia’s attitudes toward environmental protection and foreign investment in the country’s mining sector. Newmont said the court ruling would influence its decision on whether to expand an existing mine at Batu Hijau on Sumbawa island. Judge Ridwan Damanik said the pollution charges against Newmont and the subsidiary’s president, Richard Ness, could not be proven. Furthermore, he said, “since the primary charges cannot be proven, other charges cannot be considered.” Damanik also said investigators had not followed proper procedures and that the prosecution’s arguments, which were based on water samples collected from Buyat Bay by the police, were “weak.” „ Playboy Editor Cleared of Indecency. A three-judge panel in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, April 5 acquitted the editor in chief of the Indonesian edition of the adult magazine Playboy, Erwin Arnada, of charges of publishing indecent material, saying images in the magazine could not be characterized as pornography. The Indonesian Playboy contained no nudity, but religious groups had protested against pictures of scantily clad models in the magazine. Arnada hailed the ruling as a victory for freedom of the press in Indonesia. [See 2006, p. 1022C2] „ Ferry Fire Kills at Least 42. A fire Feb. 22 gutted a ferry in the Java Sea hours after it had left Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta; officials Feb. 25 said the death toll was at least 42 people. The ferry was reportedly carrying at least 330 people to the northwestern island of Bangka. The burned-out ferry Feb. 25 capsized with several accident investigators and journalists on board after it had been towed near Jakarta; a photographer was killed, and three more people went missing. [See p. 19B2] „

Japan Premier Abe Visits U.S. Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe April 26–27 made his first visit to the U.S. as premier. He met April 26 with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House in Washington, D.C., and the following day at Bush’s retreat in Camp David, Md. In a joint appearance at Camp David, they expressed strong agreement in warning North Korea to follow through on a February agreement to suspend its nucleMay 10, 2007

ar activities. North Korea had missed an April 13 deadline to shut down its principal nuclear plant, after delays in the resolution of a financial dispute with the U.S. that was a precondition for the plant shutdown. [See p. 248A1; 2006, p. 536D1] Bush said of the matter, “Our patience is not unlimited,” and threatened the possibility of imposing additional sanctions on the country. Abe said he saw “eye to eye” with Bush on the issue, warning of a “tougher response from our side” if North Korea failed to carry out the suspension. Bush added that the U.S. was seeking to “clarify” the issues preventing North Korea from accessing funds which the U.S. had recently unfrozen to resolve the financial dispute, so that it would have “no excuse” for not fulfilling its nuclear obligations. Bush also said he supported Japan in its demands that North Korea fully account for numerous Japanese citizens it had abducted in the 1970s. Abe on his visit faced questions about his recent statements denying that the Japanese military during World War II had forced Asian women into prostitution in countries it occupied, notably China and Korea. The statements had aroused condemnation in the U.S. Congress, and Abe April 26 discussed the issue in a meeting with members of Congress. According to an unidentified Japanese official, he expressed sympathy with the victims of such sexual slavery. He had expressed similar sentiments in an apology in the Japanese parliament after the furor caused by his initial remarks, and in an April 3 telephone conversation with Bush. [See p. 299E2] Bush April 27 said he was satisfied with Abe’s apology. After his U.S. visit, Abe went on to a tour of Middle Eastern countries April 28– May 2 that included Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt. The trip reflected Japan’s reliance on oil and gas imports and its need to secure reliable energy supplies. „ Court Rejects Chinese WWII Claims. Japan’s Supreme Court, the country’s highest court, April 27 rejected two claims by Chinese nationals seeking compensation for forced labor and prostitution during World War II. One lawsuit was filed by former forced laborers and relatives of others who claimed a Japanese construction company had forced them to work under cruel conditions. In the other, two women sought compensation from the Japanese government for being abducted and forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers. The latter issue had attracted renewed attention lately when Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe contended that there was no evidence that Japanese forces had forced women into wartime prostitution. [See pp. 299C2, 241A3; 2004, p. 1079G1] In both cases, the court acknowledged the suffering of the plaintiffs and the responsibility of the defendants, but found that the victims lacked the legal standing to claim compensation. It said that China, in a 1972 joint statement with Japan, had renounced the right of Chinese individuals to pursue such claims against China.

China April 27 criticized the ruling, and its interpretation of the 1972 communique, as “invalid.” The decision in the forced labor suit reversed a lower-court ruling ordering the company, Nishimatsu Construction, to pay the plaintiffs—two former laborers and the families of three who had died—27.5 million yen ($231,000). Historians Back Prostitution Claims—A group of Japanese historians April 17 said that reports prepared for war crimes trials after World War II supported the contention that Japanese forces had been directly involved in establishing military brothels and forcing women into working in them. The documents, based partly on interrogations of Japanese service personnel, described instances of coercion in detail.

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Textbooks Delete Okinawa Incident—

The government March 31 said it had ordered history textbook publishers to alter descriptions of an incident in which civilians on the island of Okinawa committed mass suicides at the behest of the army as U.S.-led Allied forces were poised to take the island near the end of the war. Publishers were ordered not to print that the military had “forced” the civilians to kill themselves. China, South Korea and other Asian countries had often accused Japan of downplaying wartime atrocities committed by its forces in its officially approved textbooks. [See 2005, p. 274C3] Separately, it was disclosed May 8 that Abe had made a donation to Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni shrine in April, but had not visited it. Past premiers’ visits to the shrine had stirred controversy, as convicted war criminals were among the military dead commemorated. „ Toyota Production Beats GM. Toyota Motor Co. of Japan sold 2.35 million cars worldwide in the first quarter of 2007, according to figures released April 24, meaning that the company surpassed General Motors Corp. of the U.S. for the first time as the world’s largest automaker. GM, which sold 2.26 million cars in the same period, had dominated world sales figures since 1931, falling out of the top spot only during labor strife in the 1970s and 1980s. GM retained a lead within the U.S. market, with a 23% share, to Toyota’s 16%. [See pp. 176G2, 64A1] Toyota’s rise to number-one ranking capped half a century of growth for it and other Japanese car makers, which often had an edge over U.S. models in fuel efficiency, and in recent years had frequently enjoyed superior quality ratings. They had gone from exporting a limited range of inexpensive cars markedly smaller than U.S. models, to competing with a wider spectrum of vehicles. Japanese companies also noted that an increasing share of their cars sold in the U.S. were manufactured in U.S. plants. „ Nagasaki Mayor Assassinated. The mayor of the southern Japanese city of Nagasaki, Kazunaga (Itcho) Ito, April 17 was gunned down on a sidewalk, and died early the following morning. Police said the perpetrator was Tetsuya Shiroo, a member of a local 299

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affiliate of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s biggest organized crime group. Authorities said they were not sure of Shiroo’s motive. The bold shooting was unusual in Japan, which had low levels of violent crime, but a persistent organized-crime underworld. Ito, 61, had been expected to win a fourth term in an election April 22. Former city official Tomihisa Taue April 22 defeated Ito’s son-in-law, Makoto Yokoo, for the mayorship. [See p. 1997, p. 1004D1] „

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Britain’s Blair Sets June 27 Exit Prime Minister To Step Down After 10 Years.

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British Prime Minister Tony Blair May 10 announced that he planned to step down on June 27, after more than 10 years in office. In the interim, his Labour Party would elect a new leader, who, because of the party’s parliamentary majority, would succeed him as prime minister. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown was heavily favored to be that successor. Blair had said in September 2006 that he would step down within a year’s time. [See 2006, p. 700G1] Blair, 54, revealed his planned departure date in a speech at a Labour clubhouse in Sedgefield, the district in northern England that he represented in the House of Commons, the lower chamber of Parliament. He used the occasion to mount a fresh defense of his decision to have British forces join the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The Iraq war had since cost him much of his popularity at home. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., “I decided we should stand shoulder to shoulder with our oldest ally, and I did so out of belief,” Blair said. He continued, “I may have been wrong. That’s your call. But believe one thing if nothing else, I did what I thought was right for our country.” Blair also touted his domestic record as one of unparalleled achievement in post– World War II Britain. He said, “There is only one government since 1945 that can say all of the following: more jobs, fewer unemployed, better health and education results, lower crime and economic growth in every quarter. Only one government, this one.” Responding for the opposition Conservative (Tory) Party, William Hague, its foreign policy spokesman, said Blair had been a formidable campaigner, winning three straight general elections. But he said Blair had been a “disappointment” in government and had lost credibility because of his heavy use of public relations “spin.” Hague asserted, “The word of government is less believed than at any other time.” Labour Loses Scottish, Local Elections—

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Labour suffered heavy losses in May 3 regional elections for the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and English local councils. In Scotland, a traditional Labour stronghold, the party lost its parliamentary plurality to the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), which advocated Scottish independence. The SNP won 47 seats in the 129-seat parliament, to Labour’s 46. The 300

defeat was a blow for Brown, who was Scottish. Labor also lost control of the Welsh assembly. In England, the Tories racked up big gains in elections to 312 councils, adding more than 800 seats to their total, as well as control of 30 councils. Tory leader David Cameron hailed the results as a sign that the party was in a strong position for the next general election, due by 2010 at the latest. Blair said midterm election losses were normal for the governing party, and insisted that Labour was still well prepared to win a fourth straight general election. „

Power-Sharing Northern Ireland Government Sworn In Hard-line Protestant Paisley Heads Team.

The leaders of hard-line parties on each side of the Protestant-Catholic sectarian divide in Northern Ireland May 8 took office in a power-sharing government, as Britain restored local rule to the province. Rev. Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)—the biggest party of the mostly Protestant unionist side, which wanted to remain part of Britain—was sworn in as first minister, or head of the government. Martin McGuinness, deputy leader of Sinn Fein, the biggest party of the mostly Catholic nationalist side, became second minister, Paisley’s deputy. [See p. 196E2] The DUP and Sinn Fein were longtime bitter foes. Paisley, dubbed “Dr. No” for repeatedly rejecting past peace proposals, had accused McGuinness of being a “terrorist” commander of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the militant group linked to Sinn Fein. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern attended the swearing-in ceremony in Belfast, the provincial capital, along with U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D, Mass.) and other dignitaries. In his speech, Paisley, 80, lamented “all the innocent victims of all the Troubles,” but declared, “I believe we are starting on a road to bring us back to peace and prosperity.” McGuinness said, “Today we will witness not hype but history.” The 1998 Good Friday Agreement had brought peace to Northern Ireland after three decades of violence, known as the Troubles, that left more than 3,600 people dead. The agreement provided for a powersharing provincial government. But Britain resumed direct rule in late 2002, alleging that the IRA was running an espionage ring at the provincial assembly building in Belfast. Efforts to restore local rule gained momentum in 2005, when the IRA announced that it was renouncing violence and disarming. In March, after local elections, the DUP and Sinn Fein reached a powersharing deal under heavy pressure from the British and Irish governments. Unionist Militia Pledges to Disarm—

The Ulster Volunteer Force, the oldest and biggest unionist paramilitary group, May 3 issued a statement announcing that it was giving up violence and putting its weapons

“beyond reach.” The group was blamed for the deaths of more than 500 people. The British government said it would reserve judgment on the statement until it was backed up with action. An international commission that had confirmed the IRA’s disarmament offered to meet with the UVF and monitor the disposal of its arsenal. „

Romania Parliament Suspends President. Romania’s parliament April 19 voted, 322–108, to suspend President Traian Basescu, who had long been at loggerheads on numerous issues with Premier Calin Tariceanu. The suspension motion was offered by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), and supported by the premier’s ruling Liberal Party (PNL). They accused Basescu of violations of the constitution and abuses of power, allegations that the country’s Constitutional Court April 5 had ruled were without merit. [See 2004, p. 1070E2] However, the court April 20 confirmed the validity of the suspension vote, which required a popular referendum to be held within 30 days on whether to impeach Basescu. As the president enjoyed wide popularity, it was considered unlikely that a majority of voters would back impeachment. Senate leader and former Premier Nicolae Vacaroiu became interim president upon the court’s ratification of the suspension. Separately, Tariceanu April 1 ended the Liberals’ governing partnership with the PSD, leaving it in coalition with junior partner the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), an ethnic-Hungarian party. The premier announced his new cabinet the following day. The Social Democrats did not belong to the coalition, but backed the government in parliament. The instability threatened the government’s ability to make progress on reforms it had committed to upon joining the European Union at the beginning of the year. [See p. 5E2] Tariceanu in his new cabinet appointed Adrian Cioroianu as foreign minister, to replace Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, who had announced his resignation Feb. 4. The premier had demanded Ungureanu’s resignation over his failure to promptly inform him about the arrest in October 2006 of two Romanian workers by U.S. forces in Iraq. The Romanians were released Feb. 2. The premier had originally nominated Cioroianu Feb. 19, but Basescu had refused to approve the choice, calling him inexperienced. The president confirmed Cioroianu’s appointment April 4. „

Russia Helicopter Crash Kills 18 Troops in Chechnya.

A Russian MI-8 military helicopter April 27 crashed in Chechnya, killing all 18 service personnel aboard. It was the deadliest incident for Russian forces battling separatist rebels in the republic since 2005. The helicopter had been carrying troops to a battle in southern Chechnya’s Shatoi area. Authorities said the cause of the crash was FACTS ON FILE

unclear, although some reports cited Russian officials as saying the helicopter had been hit by ground fire. [See p. 101F2] Other News—In other news in the Chechnya conflict: † Ramzan Kadyrov April 5 was sworn in as the president of Chechnya, after Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in February had named him to the post and the republic’s parliament voted its expected approval March 2. Human rights groups accused security forces loyal to Kadyrov of abuses, including the abduction and torture of civilians thought to have links to the rebels. † The European Union’s top human rights official, Thomas Hammarberg, at a conference in Grozny, Chechnya’s capital, March 1 accused the government of “serious ill treatment and many cases of torture” of arrestees. The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture March 13 issued a report accusing Chechen authorities of illegal detentions and torture. Kadyrov March 16 suggested that Russian federal forces, rather than those under his own command, were to blame. [See 2006, p. 917B1] † Russia Jan. 15 brought to a close an amnesty program begun in 2006 in which it claimed that some 500 militant rebels had turned themselves in, contributing to the weakening of the separatist movement. Rebels disputed that account, saying that the people Russia cited as participating in the program were prisoners, kidnapped relatives of rebels and others forced to masquerade as former militants. † A court in Moscow March 14 postponed the opening of the retrial of two Chechen men in the 2004 murder of U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov, as the whereabouts of one of the defendants, Kazbek Dukuzov, were unknown. A previous hearing Feb. 15 had also been adjourned due to the absence of both Dukuzov and codefendant Musa Vakhayev. They had been acquitted in a 2006 trial, but Russia’s Supreme Court later that year overturned that verdict and ordered a new trial, leaving both men free in the meantime. [See 2006, p. 917B2] † Regularly scheduled passenger airline service from Russia to Grozny March 8 resumed for the first time since 1999. „

Turkey Islamist Presidential Candidate Withdraws.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul May 6 withdrew his presidential candidacy after the national parliament failed for a second time to reach a quorum needed to make his election official, due to a boycott by secular opposition parties. Gul’s candidacy had set off a clash between supporters of his Islamic-based Justice and Development Party (AKP) and secular opponents who accused the party of pursuing a hidden agenda to institute religious rule. [See p. 285G2] Turkey’s military the previous week had threatened to intervene to block Gul’s election. The nation’s highest court had annulled the first vote for him in parliament, May 10, 2007

ruling that two-thirds of the 550 lawmakers had to be present to make it official. In response to the standoff, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the AKP had moved up the next parliamentary elections to July 22. Also, the parliament in a 370–55 vote May 10 gave final approval to a constitutional amendment that would require future presidential elections to be held by popular vote. The amendment required the president’s signature to take effect. Outgoing President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a leading secularist, had signaled that he might veto it. His term was scheduled to end May 16. „

Ukraine President, Premier Agree on Elections.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Premier Viktor Yanukovich May 4 reached an agreement on holding early parliamentary elections. Yushchenko, amid an ongoing political confrontation with Yanukovich, in April had ordered the dissolution of the Rada, or parliament, and new elections. But the Yanukovich-led majority coalition in the legislature had refused to disband, claiming that the president had overstepped his authority. Yushchenko accused the premier’s coalition of illegally recruiting lawmakers defecting from among his own supporters. [See p. 212B2] The May 4 agreement did not set a date for the elections, but would assign a committee of lawmakers to determine it. That panel would also resolve other legal details, such as a commonly accepted understanding of the occasion for the parliament’s dissolution. Yanukovich and his supporters still maintained that Yushchenko’s order had been unconstitutional. The panel’s findings would require approval by the full Rada. The country’s Constitutional Court April 17 had opened hearings on Yanukovich’s challenge to the presidential decree. Yushchenko April 30 and May 1 removed two of the court’s 18 judges, both of whom favored Yanukovich, for allegedly violating their oaths of office, leaving the premier less likely to prevail in the court. „

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Iraq Bush Offers Compromise on Benchmarks.

U.S. President George W. Bush May 10 expressed a willingness to include benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet in a funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that was before the U.S. Congress. Bush also promised to veto a House bill approved that day, 221–205, that would provide funding through the end of July. That bill would require another congressional vote—following a report from the president on the Iraqi government’s progress—for funding through September. Bush a week earlier had vetoed a bill providing funding through September because it had included timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, a require-

ment that he had consistently opposed. Accepting congressional benchmarks for Iraq’s performance would be an easing of the president’s earlier position. [See p. 273A1] In a related development, 11 moderate congressional Republicans May 8 had met with Bush at the White House, and had told him that, if no significant progress was made in Iraq by fall, Republican support for the war would be in danger of collapsing. The congressional delegation included House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio), Reps. Tom Davis (Va.), Charles Dent (Pa.) and Ray LaHood (Ill.). Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Bush’s chief political adviser, Karl Rove, also attended. Bush May 7 had spoken with Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki, and had urged him to make progress on reconciling the Shiite Muslim community, whose representatives led the government, with minority Sunni Muslims. Iraqi legislators May 3 had said they might cancel a twomonth recess scheduled for summer in order to work on reform legislation; the proposed recess had drawn criticism in the U.S. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser, May 8 met with members of Congress in Washington, D.C., in order to urge them not to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq. Among others, he spoke with Sen. Carl Levin (D, Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Rep. John Murtha (D, Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I, Conn.). In an interview May 9 with the Washington Post, Rubaie insisted that Iraq “will need coalition forces for the foreseeable future.” He said Iraq needed an air force and a navy to defend itself, but that building its own such forces would take “decades.” Rubaie argued that progress was being made in Iraq, citing a drop in sectarian executions and talks being held with several insurgent groups in the hopes of bringing them into the political process. In Baghdad, the capital, however, Iraqi legislators May 10 gave their support to a draft bill prohibiting further increases in coalition troops and calling for a timetable to be established for the withdrawal of all foreign forces.

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Cheney Meets Leaders in Baghdad—

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney May 9 arrived in Baghdad for meetings with government officials, political leaders and U.S. military commanders. In particular, Cheney met with Maliki and Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq. Speaking to reporters after his meetings with Iraqi leaders, Cheney May 9 said they had discussed political reforms aimed at reconciliation, such as amending the constitution to prevent Iraq’s partition into sectarian enclaves and distributing oil revenues among its citizens. Cheney said he believed that Iraq’s leaders “recognize it’s in their interests as well as ours to make progress on the political front,” and that they would “resolve these issues in a timely fashion.” 301

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A large explosion occurred in or near Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone during Cheney’s visit, but no one was reported injured. U.S. officials said the vice president was nowhere near the blast. Roughly 200 supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr took to the streets of Najaf to protest Cheney’s visit, and to demand that U.S. and other foreign troops leave Iraq immediately. Cheney May 10 spoke to U.S. troops at a base near Tikrit, praising them for their work in Iraq and expressing sympathy for their prolonged deployment. Cheney said extended tours of duty, announced in April, were “vital to the mission” of restoring security to Iraq. [See p. 232B2] Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for the U.S. military, May 8 had said roughly 35,000 soldiers in 10 combat brigades would start to be deployed in Iraq later in 2007 in order to maintain the increase, or “surge,” in troop levels there as part of the new U.S.-Iraqi joint security push. Whitman added that, depending on the security situation in Iraq, a decrease in troop levels was also possible by the end of the year. Nations Pledge to Assist Iraq— Nations attending a conference in Egypt on Iraq May 4 agreed to support the fledgling democracy by working to stop the flow of militants and weapons into Iraq and aiding the country’s security forces. Iraq, in turn, vowed that it would speed up efforts to enact various reforms, particularly those aimed at reconciliation and the disarmament of “all militias and illegally armed groups without exception.” Speaking at a news conference at the event, Rice said Maliki’s government should “urgently” work on the reforms. [See p. 273E1] U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, also attending the conference, May 3 had said Iraq’s creditors had agreed to cancel roughly $30 billion in debt. Iraq’s debt was estimated to be between $50 billion and $60 billion, much of it incurred by President Saddam Hussein during the 1980–88 Iran-Iraq war. Iraq’s main creditors were Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Russia. Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and another U.S. State Department official, David Satterfield, May 4 spoke briefly on the sidelines of the conference with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. There had been rampant speculation that the conference would set the stage for high-level talks between the two nations, which were longtime foes, but the only reported contacts were brief. Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s foreign minister, May 6 said there would be a follow-up meeting between Iranian and U.S. officials “soon,” but did not give details. [See p. 273G1] General Predicts Higher Casualties—

Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a commander of U.S. forces in southern Iraq, May 6 said U.S. casualties would likely increase in the coming three months as the joint U.S.-Iraqi security push unfolded in earnest. “We are taking the fight to the enemy,” he said, which would probably result in a higher 302

death toll. Lynch said the joint security push would have “a decisive effect on enemy formations” by August or September. He acknowledged, however, that successful counterinsurgencies typically took several years, implying that military efforts in Iraq could continue well into the future. Lynch also said explosively formed penetrators (EFPs)—a sophisticated and deadly form of roadside bomb—were being used more frequently, and were coming into the possession of Sunni insurgents. The U.S. had repeatedly alleged that predominantly Shiite Iran was providing Shiite militias in Iraq with EFPs, a charge Iran denied. [See p. 90C1] Nine U.S. soldiers May 6 died in Iraq, six of them in Diyala province from a roadside bomb that also claimed the life of a Russian news photographer, Dmitry Chebotayev. The Committee to Protect Journalists said Chebotayev was at least the 101st journalist to die in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The Islamic State of Iraq May 7 took credit for the attack. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a spokesman for the U.S. military, May 4 had said there had been 69 EFP attacks on U.S. troops in April, more than in any previous month. Roadside bombs killed more U.S. soldiers than any other form of attack, and were usually employed in the eastern, mostly Shiite half of Baghdad. Parliament Outraged by Al Jazeera—

Parliament May 9 voted to take legal action against Qatari satellite television channel Al Jazeera, on the grounds that it had insulted Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Hundreds of people May 4 had protested in Basra and Najaf after one of the channel’s hosts had questioned Sistani’s leadership and suggested that he did not write his own religious edicts. Iran’s parliament, similarly outraged, May 6 had banned the channel’s reporters from Iran’s parliament building. Iraq’s Shiites often complained that Al Jazeera’s news coverage incited sectarian violence against them by Sunni insurgent groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq. Iraq’s government had banned Al Jazeera in 2004, accusing it of supporting Sunni insurgents and Hussein’s former regime. [See 2004, p. 602A2] Militants Execute Iraqi Officers— The Sunni insurgent group the Islamic State of Iraq May 10 released video showing members of the group executing five army officers and four police officers. The group May 8 had released a video announcing the officers’ abduction and vowing to kill them unless the government released all Sunni women from prison and handed over suspects in the February rape of a woman in Tal Afar. One of the captives in the May 8 video called on Iraqis to quit the armed forces and “return to their religion.” [See pp. 239D3, 106F2] Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq May 3–9: † A suicide truck bomb in the mostly ethnic Kurdish city of Irbil May 9 killed 14 people and wounded dozens more at an interior ministry building. A Kurdish legislator, Mahmoud Othman, blamed the attack

on Ansar al-Sunnah, a Sunni Arab insurgent group that was affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq. Othman said insurgents captured a week earlier had admitted to planning a terrorist attack and to training in Iran. † A suicide car bomber in the southern city of Kufa May 8 killed at least 16 people, including women and children, and wounded more than 70 others. The bomb detonated near a busy restaurant, not far from a prominent Shiite mosque. † Two suicide car bombers in Ramadi May 7 killed 25 people and wounded more than 50 others. Several police officers were among the dead. † Gunmen in Diyala May 7 killed 12 people in their homes. † Authorities in Baghdad May 7 found the bodies of 30 victims of sectarian executions, 17 in the western Sunni neighborhood of Amil. † A bomb in the city of Samarra May 6 exploded near a police headquarters, killing 12 police officers, including the police chief. Eleven more people were wounded. Fighting in Samarra that day between security forces and Al Qaeda in Iraq resulted in the deaths of at least five insurgents. The Islamic State of Iraq May 7 took credit for the bomb attack. † A suicide truck bomb in the western Baghdad area of Bayaa May 6 killed more than 35 people at a busy food market. The blast set many cars on fire, and at least 67 people were injured. The Shiite neighborhood had often been targeted by insurgents. A mortar attack there May 7 killed a family of five. † U.S. forces searching for a militant in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City May 5 discovered a home with a torture room, bomb-making materials and a cache of weapons. Eight militants were killed in a firefight during the search. The troops destroyed the house, rather than risk trying to remove the explosives from it. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell 4th, a spokesman for the U.S. military, said the building was a haven for a “secret cell” of Shiite militants involved in kidnapping and smuggling EFPs. † A suicide bomber in the Sunni town of Abu Ghraib May 5 killed at least 15 people in a recruiting center for Iraqi security forces. Ten of the dead were recruits, five were soldiers. Roughly 22 people were wounded. † U.S. forces May 4 raided a house in Sadr City, detaining 16 people suspected of running a weapons smuggling ring. Garver said the ring was bringing EFPs and other arms into Iraq from Iran. † Caldwell, in an interview on the Cable News Network (CNN), May 3 said U.S. soldiers April 28 had discovered that a girls’ school under construction in a predominantly Shiite town north of Baghdad had been rigged with explosives. Artillery shells were found in the floors and ceilings, and two propane tanks, one filled with explosives, were also found hidden in the building. Caldwell said the workmanship FACTS ON FILE

suggested involvement by Al Qaeda in Iraq. He said the building contractors were under investigation. „

Israel Olmert Survives No-Confidence Votes. Is-

rael’s parliament May 7 held three no-confidence votes against the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, but each of them failed by a wide margin. At least 16 members of Olmert’s coalition, however, did not vote in his favor. A government report on Israel’s summer 2006 war with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah had harshly criticized Olmert’s government for leadership failures, prompting many politicians to call for his resignation. Olmert had refused, however, leading to the no-confidence votes. [See p. 275B1] Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the opposition Likud party, called for new elections to be held. “You are not the solution. You are the problem,” he said to Olmert’s cabinet, which had pledged to amend its errors in the war with Hezbollah. „

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan U.S. Reportedly Kills Dozens of Civilians.

Tensions between the U.S. and Afghanistan increased after reports emerged April 29 that U.S. operations had accidentally killed dozens of innocent Afghan civilians. The U.S. military April 30 stated that U.S. special forces and air strikes in Shindand district in western Herat province had killed 136 Taliban rebels in two days of fighting April 27 and April 29. One U.S. soldier was killed in the fighting April 27. Residents, however, April 29 complained that civilians, including women and children, had been killed by the U.S. military operations there. Protests in Shindand against the operations turned into riots April 30–May 1, during which government buildings were looted and set on fire. [See below, p. 269F2] A group of Afghan officials sent to investigate casualties from the U.S. operation in Shindand May 2 reported that it had killed at least 42 civilians, including women and children, and wounded 50 more. The delegation said bodies were still being retrieved from collapsed houses, and that many people had drowned in a river while trying to flee the bombardment. They claimed that three villages were bombed, 100 houses were destroyed and more than 1,000 people were left homeless. U.S. Army Gen. Dan McNeill, commander of all North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in Afghanistan, May 4 said the U.S. military would investigate claims that civilians were killed, but insisted that only combatants had been targeted in the operation. In a related development, the U.S. military April 29 had stated that a raid by U.S. forces on a suspected bomb-making compound in Jalalabad earlier that day resulted in the death of four militants. The military May 10, 2007

said two female civilians, an adult and a teenager, were killed in the cross-fire, which also wounded two young girls. Afghan officials, however, said all the casualties were civilians. Hundreds of outraged protesters demonstrated on a highway connecting Kabul, the capital, to Pakistan, closing the road down and chanting “Death to Bush!” and “Death to America!” It was the same highway on which a group of U.S. marines, fleeing after an attack by a suicide bomber, had fired on civilians in March, killing at least 10 of them. [See below] Afghan President Hamid Karzai May 2 denounced U.S. and NATO forces for not taking enough precautions to avoid civilian casualties. Speaking in a press conference after meeting coalition military leaders and diplomats, he said his country could “no longer accept the civilian casualties the way they are occurring.” He said he had made several efforts to coordinate military operations with coalition forces in order to prevent such deaths, but to no avail. “It is very difficult for us to continue accepting civilian casualties,” he said. “It is becoming heavy for us; it is not understandable anymore.” The upper house of Afghanistan’s parliament May 8 approved legislation prohibiting all coalition military operations, except for those having government cooperation and authorization. More Civilians Said Killed in Fighting—

Afghan officials May 9 said a number of civilians had been killed the day before by U.S. air strikes in Sangin district in Helmand. Taliban rebels, fighting U.S. and Afghan forces there, had reportedly taken cover in the civilians’ homes. Coalition officials denied any knowledge of civilian casualties. Roughly 3,000 NATO troops April 30 had launched military efforts against Taliban rebels in Sangin valley as part of Operation Silicon. The valley was at the center of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. Coalition officials April 29 had said its forces in the Sangin valley had killed 150 militants in the previous three weeks. NATO forces May 8 battled Taliban rebels in Kandahar province. One civilian reportedly died in the cross-fire, and another was wounded. U.S. Colonel ‘Ashamed’ of Shooting—

U.S. Col. John Nicholson, commander of a brigade deployed in eastern Afghanistan, May 8 expressed remorse for the killing of several innocent Afghan civilians by marines in March. Reading to reporters a statement he had made personally to families of the victims earlier that day, Nicholson said he was “deeply, deeply ashamed” of what the marines had done. He said that such actions severely harmed U.S. attempts to gain the trust of the Afghan people, and asked for forgiveness. Nicholson also said the U.S. had paid $2,000 to the victims’ families for each of the deceased. He put the death toll at 19, significantly higher than earlier reports by Afghan officials, which had put it at 10 or 12. Nicholson explained that the U.S. military had “defaulted to the higher number” in light of varying accounts of how many

had died. Nicholson said 50 people were wounded in the incident. Military officials April 26 had said their investigation of the incident was ongoing, but added that charges were likely to be brought against at least five marines. Eight marines were recalled to their base in the U.S. April 27.

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Taliban Rebels Free French Hostage—

Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban, April 28 announced that a female French aid worker taken hostage earlier in the month had been released in order “to make good relations with the French government.” Ahmadi demanded that the French government end any assistance to the Afghan government, and extended the deadline for doing so by a week. The woman, identified only as Celine, arrived in Kabul later that day. She thanked the Taliban for releasing her and asked them to also release her four colleagues, a French national known only as Eric and three Afghans. [See p. 270C2] The Taliban May 5 further extended the deadline until after the May 6 French presidential election. [See p. 289A1]

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Karzai, Musharraf Reach Agreement—

Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf April 30 met in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, and agreed to share intelligence regarding Taliban rebels, and to act to prevent them from securing financing, training or sanctuary in either country. Karzai had repeatedly claimed that the rebels received support in Pakistan and crossed the border into Afghanistan to carry out attacks. Musharraf had consistently denied the accusations. [See p. 270A1]

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Afghan Soldier Kills Two U.S. Troops—

An Afghan soldier at a prison facility east of Kabul May 6 shot two U.S. soldiers to death, and wounded two more. The attacker was then gunned down by Afghan forces. The Afghan military May 7 dismissed claims by the Taliban that the incident was a rebel attack. It said the attacker had twice been hospitalized for mental problems, but had nonetheless been approved to serve in the military. The prison was a newly inaugurated facility designed to house former detainees from a U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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NATO Drops Radio Campaign—NATO

April 25 announced that it would no longer broadcast radio advertisements in Helmand province declaring that its forces were not involved in the eradication of poppy crops. Many farmers relied on the crops to earn a living, even though cultivation of poppies—used to make narcotics such as heroin—was illegal. British officials had broadcast the ads on local radio stations in order to parry Taliban claims that NATO forces there were going to destroy the farmers’ livelihoods. Officials with the Afghan government, which conducted poppy eradication efforts, had complained that the ads implicitly condoned the cultivation of poppies, and sent farmers a mixed message. [See p. 213C3] Other News—In other Afghan news: † Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar April 29 said insurgents opposed to 303

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any education apart from religious study had killed 85 students and teachers in 2006. Speaking in Kabul during a ceremony celebrating education, Atmar said the number of children enrolled in school since the days of Taliban rule had increased to 5.4 million, up from fewer than one million. Atmar said resources for students were still lacking, however, adding that the government planned to build more than 1,000 additional schools. † Health Minister Muhammad Amin Fatimi April 26 announced that the infant mortality rate was 18% lower in 2006 than it was in 2001, when the Taliban ruled the country. The statistics came from a survey conducted by Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. The improvement was credited to increased access to health care in rural areas of the country, and a more widespread use of vaccinations. Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Afghanistan April 18–May 5: † A suicide bomber in Helmand province May 5 killed two police officers at a checkpoint. † Taliban rebels in Farah province May 5 attacked a police convoy, killing eight police officers. † A roadside bomb in Kabul May 3 exploded near an Afghan army bus, killing the driver and wounding 14 people. † Gunmen in Kabul May 2 killed a member of parliament, Abdul Saboor Farid. Farid had served briefly as premier in 1992. † Afghan and coalition forces April 28 killed 21 rebels in fighting in the east and south of the country. † Taliban rebels April 26 took over the Giro district in southern Ghazni province, killing several police officers. Hundreds of Afghan security troops April 27 arrived and retook the district. † Taliban rebels April 18 took over a highway in Tagab district of Kapisa province, 70 kilometers from Kabul, an area that had been largely free of rebel activity. Afghan security troops April 19 arrived and brought the road back under government control. „

Bangladesh

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Ex-PM, Others Charged With Murder. Police in Bangladesh April 11 filed murder charges against 56 political figures, including former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, in connection with deaths that resulted from riots in October 2006. The charges came as part of an assault on the power of the country’s main political parties by a military-backed caretaker government, which in January had indefinitely postponed elections scheduled for that month. The interim government said it was cracking down on widespread corruption in the political establishment, prior to new elections. The interim government’s leader, Fakhruddin Ahmed, April 12 said elections would be held before the end of 2008. [See p. 166G3; 2006, p. 845B3] 304

Hasina, who had been prime minister from 1996 to 2001, and members of allied parties were accused of responsibility for the killings of several members of the Jamaat-eIslami Bangladesh party in the October rioting. Ten leaders of that party, in turn, were charged in the death of a Hasina supporter. Officials of Hasina’s Awami League dismissed the charges as baseless, as did Jamaat-e-Islami. Hasina was in the U.S. at the time the charges were announced, and was reportedly preparing to return to Bangladesh to answer a separate charge of extortion, filed April 9 in a Bangladeshi court. However, the government April 18 said that it would not permit her to return to the country, asserting that her presence would provoke violence, and she was prevented from boarding a flight from London to Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, April 22. However, the government lifted the ban April 25, and said it would also lift travel restrictions imposed on another former prime minister, Khaleda Zia, who was Hasina’s bitter rival. Hasina returned to Bangladesh May 7. One of Zia’s sons, Tarique Rahman, had been under arrest on corruption charges since March, and a second son, Arafat Rahman, was arrested April 16. He was released the following day, amid reports that the government was trying to reach a deal in which Zia, who led the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, would go into exile in return for the release of her sons. The October violence had erupted at the end of Zia’s five-year term in office. Separately, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus May 3 said he had decided not to follow through on his 2006 announcement that he would form a political party. Yunus said he had not received the support he had expected. [See p. 167B1] „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Horse Racing Street Sense Wins Kentucky Derby. Street Sense, a two-year-old ridden by Calvin Borel, May 5 won the 133rd running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Ky. The Kentucky Derby was the first of the three annual U.S. Triple Crown races for thoroughbred horses. [See 2006, p. 384A2] The race was run in wake of the death in January of Barbaro, the 2006 champion, who was euthanized after failing to recover from a serious injury suffered in the Preakness Stakes in May 2006. [See p. 69D3] Street Sense, trained by Carl Nafzger, had won the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile in November 2006, and in January claimed the Eclipse Award as top two-year-old. On March 17, he triumphed in the Tampa Bay Derby in Florida. Street Sense became the first winner of the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile to go on to win the Kentucky Derby, and the first two-yearold to win the prestigious race since Spectacular Bid in 1979. [See p. 70B2; 2006, p. 903B3; 1979, p. 448A2] Street Sense, the 9–2 favorite, started toward the back of the 20-horse pack. Hard

Spun, ridden by Mario Pino, took the early lead and established a fast pace. Borel began his move toward the lead on the backstretch, staying close to the rail and passing several horses. Street Sense chased down Hard Spun on the homestretch, passing him easily. Street Sense won by 2¼ lengths, posting a time of two minutes, 2.17 seconds. Hard Spun was second, and Curlin, with Robby Albarado aboard, was third. Street Sense paid $11.80 on a $2 bet, and won owner James Tafel $1.45 million. „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

People Television personality Rosie O’Donnell, who since September 2006 had cohosted ABC’s daytime program “The View,” April 25 announced on the show that she would be leaving it at the end of June, after failing to agree to a contract extension. She claimed the network wanted to give her a three-year extension, while she sought only one year. During her brief stint on the show, the outspoken O’Donnell had made disparaging remarks about a number of celebrities, notably real estate mogul Donald Trump. In an April 25 telephone interview with the New York Times, Trump claimed to have had a hand in O’Donnell’s departure from the show. [See 2006, pp. 640E2, 359G2] „

O B I T UA R I E S AVIS, Warren Edward, 91, founder (1946) of the car-rental company bearing his name, which grew into the U.S.’s second-largest such business, after Hertz Global Holdings Inc.; his company, which he sold in 1954, pioneered car rentals at airports; born Aug. 4, 1915, in Bay City, Mich.; died April 24 at his home in Ann Arbor, Mich., of natural causes. SCHIRRA Jr., Walter Marty, 84, one of seven original U.S. astronauts, known collectively as the Mercury Seven; he was the fifth American in space and the third to orbit the Earth when he flew aboard a Mercury craft in October 1962; later, he flew in the Gemini and Apollo space programs, making him the only astronaut to fly in all three programs; on his final mission, in October 1968, he commanded Apollo 7; he retired from both the U.S. Navy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1969, the year Apollo 11 reached the moon, and went into business; born March 12, 1923, in Hackensack, N.J.; died May 3 at a hospital in La Jolla, Calif., of a heart attack; he had had cancer; his death left only two Mercury Seven survivors, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter. [See 2004, p. 808B2; 1972, p. 335E3; Indexes 1968, 1962–66, 1959] TOMASI KULIMOETOKE II, King, 88, ruler since 1959 of Wallis and Futuna, a French territory in the South Pacific with some 14,000 residents; in 2005, with the aid of French paramilitary police, he withstood an attempted coup; born July 26, 1918, in MataUtu, Wallis; died May 7 at his Mata-Utu residence, after years of declining health. [See 2005, p. 931B2–E2] WEIZSAECKER, Carl Friedrich von, 94, German physicist and philosopher; he reportedly was the last survivor of the Nazi German scientific team that tried unsuccessfully to develop the atom bomb during World War II; after the war, he became a philosophy professor and a leader of West Germany’s antinuclear movement; much concerned with the relationship between science and religion, he was one of two winners of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1989; in 1979, he was nearly nominated for the post of president of West Germany; that post was later held by his brother, Richard von Weizsaecker, who was also the first president of reunified Germany (1990–94); born June 28, 1912, in Kiel, Germany; died April 28 in Söcking, Germany, after a long illness. [See 1994, p. 384F1; 1989, p. 192A2; 1979, p. 410A3; 1957, p. 123D3] „

May 10, 2007

U.S. Patrol Ambushed in Iraq, Three Soldiers Abducted Massive Search Launched South of Baghdad.

Insurgents May 12 ambushed a U.S. military patrol 12 miles (19 km) west of Mahmudiya, in western Iraq, killing four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi army interpreter, and abducting three other U.S. soldiers. The early morning attack left two Humvees destroyed, and sparked an enormous search for the abductees involving thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops and many U.S. aircraft, as violence continued throughout the country. [See p. 301F2] The area in which the ambush and much of the searching took place was known as the “triangle of death,” between Baghdad, the capital, and Karbala. The area encompassed the towns of Yusufiya, Iskandriya, Mahmudiya and Latifiya. The area had a large concentration of Sunni Muslims who had served in former President Saddam Hussein’s government. Several insurgent groups were active in the region. Two U.S. soldiers had been abducted, tortured and killed there in 2006. [See 2006, p. 497B2] The Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group, May 13 released a statement on a Web site claiming that it had abducted the “crusaders” in a “blessed operation.” The 2006 abduction had been conducted by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, a precursor to the Islamic State of Iraq. Another Web statement released by the Islamic State of Iraq May 14 declared that attempts to find the abducted troops would be “in vain,” adding, “If you desire their safety do not look for them.” It said the abductions were revenge for the recent death of Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri, a senior member of an affiliated Sunni insurgent group, Al Qaeda in Iraq, and for the rape and murder of a local teenage girl by U.S. soldiers in 2006. [See p. 274A3; 2006, p. 537F1] Meanwhile, the U.S. military revealed details of the ambush, saying the eight soldiers were part of a larger unit, and were on foot checking for roadside bombs at the time of the attack. U.S. forces trying to help the ambushed troops, it was explained, were delayed by the discovery of roadside bombs, and took almost an hour to arrive at the scene. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell 4th, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, May 14 conceded that the abducted troops were likely in the hands of Al Qaeda in Iraq or a like-minded group. Iraqi military officials that day said two gunmen had been killed and four more had been wounded in fighting that broke out during searches in Yusufiya. U.S. aircraft May 15 dropped leaflets in the search area asking for information about the captives. The U.S. military May 16 offered a reward of $200,000 for information leading to the abductees’ discovery. Caldwell that day said 11 people had been detained and 600 more had been interviewed during the search. He added that there was no information suggesting the abducted soldiers had been killed. The U.S. military May 17 announced that the ambush had employed rocket-propelled

grenades and small arms fire, and that some of the dead soldiers’ dog tags had been taken, causing delays in their identification. Iran and U.S. Set Meeting in Iraq—Iranian and Iraqi officials May 17 announced that Iran, Iraq and the U.S. would hold three-way ambassador-level talks May 28 in Baghdad addressing the security situation in Iraq. Diplomats on all sides had been working over the previous weeks to put together the meeting. The U.S. had previously shunned direct talks with Iran on any subject. All sides agreed that the upcoming talks would focus only on Iraq, and would not address other points of contention between the U.S. and Iran, such as Iran’s nuclear program. [See pp. 307E3, 302F1] U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker May 17 said he was ready for the talks, though he added that he was unaware that any specific date had been set. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, May 16 had expressed approval of the proposed meeting, but insisted that Iran’s role would be to convince the U.S. to correct its policies, not to offer changes in Iran’s course of action. Speaking to a group of clerics, Khamenei said Iran would instead present the U.S. with an “ultimatum,” but did not elaborate. “How it is possible to negotiate with the arrogant, bullying, expansionist and colonialist government of the U.S.?” he asked. U.S. and Iranian officials May 13 had announced their agreement to hold the talks. Iran that day had sent a diplomatic note to the U.S., through Swiss intermediaries, calling for talks in order “to lessen the suffering of the Iraqi people.” In a related development, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney May 14 said he had received pledges from Arab leaders to help stabilize Iraq during his recent trip to the Middle East, but did not reveal specifics regarding what they planned to do. Cheney had visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan during his May 11–14 trip, which had followed a surprise visit to Iraq. [See pp. 308E1, 301E3] Report Says Attacks Up, Oil Missing—

The U.S. Government Accountability Office May 15 released a Defense Department report on progress in Iraq stating that the number of attacks on troops and civilians was near all-time highs, and that millions of dollars’ worth of Iraq’s oil was unaccounted for each day. The Defense Department data showed that the number of daily attacks had been on the whole increasing since May 2003, and had decreased only slightly since a three-monthold Iraqi-U.S. security push. According to the data, there had been an average of 71 attacks each day in January 2006; 176 in October 2006, a record high; 164 in February 2007; and 157 and 149 in March and April, respectively. The report said the lack of security in Iraq was having a devastating impact on reconstruction efforts there. The report also said that between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels of Iraqi oil went unaccounted for every day, amount-

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B ing to a daily loss of between $5 million and $15 million in revenue. The missing oil, the report said, was likely a result of smuggling, sabotage or faulty accounting. Many U.S. Troops Approve of Torture—

The U.S. military May 4 released the results of a mental health survey showing that many U.S. troops in Iraq approved of the use of torture and the mistreatment of civilians. The survey had polled 1,767 combat troops in the fall of 2006. More than a third of the troops said torture should be allowed in order to gain crucial information on insurgents, and more than 40% said it should be allowed in order to save the life of a fellow soldier. Slightly more than half of the troops, but only two in five marines, said they would report a comrade for killing or injuring noncombatants. Forty-seven percent of the troops, and 38% of marines, said noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect, while almost 10% of the troops ad-

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U.S. patrol ambushed in Iraq, three soldiers abducted; massive search launched south of Baghdad.

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World Bank President Wolfowitz agrees to resign in ethics furor. PAGE 306

Private equity firm Cerberus to buy U.S. automaker Chrysler. PAGE 309

Giuliani seizes stage at second Republican presidential debate. PAGE 309

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Evangelical leader Jerry Falwell dies. PAGE 310

Bush selects Lt. Gen. Lute as ‘war czar.’ PAGE 310

Deputy Attorney General McNulty resigns amid fired-prosecutors probe. PAGE 311

Factional, Israeli-Palestinian violence erupts in Gaza. PAGE 319

Senior Taliban commander killed in Afghanistan. PAGE 321 *First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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mitted to mistreating a civilian, either physically or by harming their property. More than two in five soldiers reported low morale in their unit, and 20%—15% for marines—showed symptoms of anxiety, depression or acute stress. The report said such health problems increased among soldiers with longer or more frequent deployments, and suggested that the interval between deployments be doubled to three years to aid their recovery. [See p. 232B2] Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, May 10 released a statement urging U.S. troops to reject torture and respect the rights of Iraqis, even suspected militants. “This fight depends on securing the population, which must understand that we—not our enemies—occupy the moral high ground,” he said. He added that torture was “neither useful nor necessary” as an interrogation method. He also expressed sympathy for soldiers coping with extended deployments away from home. More U.S. Troops Requested for Diyala—

Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the commander of U.S. forces north of Baghdad, May 11 stated that he needed more troops in order to fight insurgents in Diyala province. Speaking in Tikrit to Pentagon reporters by video link, Mixon said he had asked his superiors for reinforcements. He accused Iraq’s government of being corrupt, sectarian and “non-functional.” Diyala had seen increasing levels of violence since the recent security push, which focused on Baghdad and Anbar province. More than three times as many U.S. soldiers had been killed in Diyala so far in 2007 than in all of 2006. Shiite Bloc Drops Iranian as Leader—

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The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the most powerful Shiite Muslim bloc in the Iraqi parliament, May 12 announced that it would no longer maintain Iranian supreme leader Khamenei as its spiritual leader. Instead, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, would be its spiritual authority, and the party would drop the word “revolution” from its name and be known as the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC). The changes were described by party officials as reflecting political realities in Iraq, which, since the overthrow of Hussein, had a new constitution and no longer required a revolution. Violence Reports—In other news about violence in Iraq May 11–17: † Roughly 200 residents of the Shiite neighborhood of Shaab in northern Baghdad May 17 protested against the presence of U.S. forward operating bases and searches of their homes by U.S. troops. Such bases, located throughout Baghdad, were a key element of the recent security push, though many Iraqis complained that they attracted attacks by insurgents. † Roughly 200 Sunni Arab insurgents May 16 attacked several targets in and around Mosul, killing four police officers and wounding 14 more. Sixteen civilians were also wounded in the attacks, which employed suicide car bombers, rocket-propelled grenades, small arms and other explosive devices. The targets included a jail and the homes of provincial officials and po306

litical leaders. Two car bombs destroyed a bridge near the city that day, prompting a citywide curfew and a blockade of Mosul’s bridges. [See p. 274F2] † Iraqi security forces May 16 battled as many as 200 members of the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada alSadr, in Diwaniya while implementing a security sweep. Four civilians were killed. † Gunmen in eastern Diyala May 16 kidnapped 21 adult male passengers from a bus and took them to an area of western Baquba where Al Qaeda in Iraq was known to operate. The bus had entered the province from the ethnic Kurdish region of Iraq. † A suicide bomber in Falluja May 16 killed seven people at a checkpoint. The attack occurred in an area inhabited by a tribe that had openly fought against Al Qaeda in Iraq. † Police in the southern Shiite city of Nasiriyah May 15–16 arrested two militia members suspected of firing mortars, prompting a battle against Mahdi gunmen. One police officer, two militants and six civilians were killed. Seventy-five more people were wounded. † Nine people were wounded May 15 when a rocket hit Baghdad’s Green Zone, the heavily fortified hub of U.S. operations. Two Iraqis May 16 were killed when a barrage of rockets and mortar rounds hit the Green Zone. Ten more people were injured. No Americans were harmed in either attack. [See p. 274D3] † Iraqi police May 15 enacted a new policy banning journalists from broadcasting photographs or video footage of the carnage resulting from bombing attacks. A spokesman for the interior ministry said the policy was put in place to keep evidence at the bomb sites from being disturbed, prevent terrorists from studying the results of their handiwork and preserve the privacy of the victims. † A car bomb in a Shiite village in Diyala province May 15 killed at least 32 people and wounded at least 50 more in a marketplace. Hospital officials said the bomb had employed chlorine gas, but U.S. and provincial officials disputed the claim. The village’s residents had killed 12 members of Al Qaeda in Iraq in April. The group had used chlorine gas in attacks 10 times since the beginning of 2007. [See p. 233A1] † A roadside bomb near Basra May 14 killed a Danish soldier and wounded five more. A total of seven Danish soldiers had died in Iraq since the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of the country. † A suicide truck bomb in the town of Makhmur in northern Iraq May 13 killed at least 50 people and wounded at least 70 more, including the town’s mayor. Among the dead were the town’s police chief. In addition to destroying several buildings and cars, the attack damaged the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which had been repeatedly targeted by bombings in recent months. A local referendum due later in 2007 was to determine whether lands including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk would

become part of the semiautonomous Kurdish region, a prospect that outraged many Arab Sunni Muslims. [See p. 302G2] † A bomb in Baghdad’s Sadriyah market May 13 killed a dozen or more people and wounded 40 others. Two deadly bombings at the market in February and April had killed a total of more than 250 people. [See p. 239B1] † Two truck bombs May 11 detonated separately on two different bridges in southeastern Baghdad, damaging both of them, killing at least 23 people and wounding at least 57 more. Eleven police officers were among the dead. Another truck bomb detonated on a third bridge north of Baghdad, but caused no casualties. Another bridge in the area was bombed May 17, killing two people and wounding five more. [See above] „

World Bank President Wolfowitz Agrees to Resign in Ethics Furor Negotiates Exit Deal. World Bank President

Paul Wolfowitz of the U.S. May 17 announced his resignation effective June 30, ending a standoff with the bank’s governing board over an ethics controversy. Wolfowitz’s resignation came after an ad hoc bank panel May 14 had found him in violation of the bank’s code of conduct, staff rules and the terms of his contract when, in 2005, he arranged a salary and promotion package for his romantic partner, Shaha Ali Riza, then a bank employee. The controversy had paralyzed the bank’s functions and brought to light underlying tensions between the bank’s staff and its president. [See p. 240E3] Wolfowitz’s resignation was the result of several days of negotiations with the

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board. It averted a board vote to either ask for his resignation or to force his ouster. While U.S. President George W. Bush had expressed support for Wolfowitz, whom he selected as bank president in 2005, the board, whose members represented the bank’s wealthiest donor countries, had been seen as likely to accede to worldwide—and especially European—pressure to reprimand him. A vote was widely seen as an event that would have destabilized the bank as well as transatlantic relations. In exchange for Wolfowitz’s resignation, the board in a written statement May 17 said that “a number of mistakes were made by a number of individuals in handling the matter under consideration.” The board effectively accepted some of the blame for the controversy surrounding Riza’s promotion and pay raise, and partly exonerated Wolfowitz, a demand made by Wolfowitz and his attorney Robert Bennett, who May 16 had insisted he would not agree to resign “under a cloud.” It added that Wolfowitz “assured us that he acted ethically and in good faith in what he believed were the best interests of the institution, and we accept that.” Wolfowitz issued a concurrent statement, saying it was “in the best interests of those whom this institution serves for that mission to be carried forward under new leadership.” The bank’s staff association, which represented most of its 7,000 employees in Washington, D.C., issued a statement expressing its frustration with the board’s concessions, saying they undermined “the principles of good governance and the principles that the staff fight to uphold.” Tony Fratto, a spokesman for the White House, said, “We would have preferred that he stay at the bank, but the president reluctantly accepts his decision.” Fratto added that Bush would soon announce Wolfowitz’s successor. The U.S. traditionally selected the head of the World Bank, while European nations chose the leader of its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz May 17. Wolfowitz announced his resignation later that day.

May 17, 2007

Resignation Ends Whirlwind Scandal—

The World Bank’s board April 6 formed an ad hoc panel to investigate the circumstances of Riza’s promotion and salary increase. Wolfowitz April 12 publicly apologized for arranging Riza’s salary package. Wolfowitz April 18 met with bank officials and acknowledged ways in which his style of management was deficient, promising to make changes. It was widely reported that bank employees, including staffers, department heads and board members, were unhappy with Wolfowitz’s leadership. Particularly, senior officials with long careers in economic development work had bristled at taking direction from aides whom Wolfowitz had worked with when he was U.S. deputy secretary of defense. Wolfowitz had made it a priority of his tenure to fight corruption in developing countries, unilaterally cutting off aid to some of them. Many of the bank’s staffers and officials said that hurt the poor in those nations and ran against the bank’s mission. Additionally, some suggested that Wolfowitz’s position on increasing aid to Iraq, which many bank officials considered too oil-rich to be eligible for funding, showed that Wolfowitz, previously one of the chief architects of the U.S.’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, was using his position as bank president to further his own ideological goals. At the April 18 meeting, New Zealander Graeme Wheeler, who had been appointed managing director of the bank by Wolfowitz, urged him to resign. The board April 20 expanded the ad hoc panel’s mandate to include any “conflict of interest, ethical, reputational, and other relevant standards” in Wolfowitz’s performance. The European Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Union, April 25 called on him to resign so as not to weaken the bank’s mission to eliminate corruption in developing countries. Wolfowitz April 30 said in a statement in front of the ad hoc panel that the board had conducted a “smear campaign” against him, and vowed that he would “not give in to such tactics” and resign. Bush, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. had all voiced support for Wolfowitz. Details of the Panel’s Report— The ad hoc panel’s May 14 report stated that Wolfowitz had ignored the bank’s ethics and governing policies when he increased Riza’s salary far greater than the bank’s rules allowed, and continued to pay her salary from the bank’s payroll even after she had been transferred to the U.S. State Deparment. The bank prohibited spouses and partners of bank employees from working under one another, necessitating a transfer for Riza, then a communications officer at the bank. Under the transfer’s terms, Riza became the highest-paid employee at the State Department. The report said Wolfowitz “did not accept the bank’s policy on conflict of interest, so he sought to negotiate for himself a resolution different from that which would be applied to the staff he was selected to

head,” adding: “It evidences questionable judgement and a preoccupation with selfinterest over institutional best interest.” The report also charged Wolfowitz with hiding Riza’s salary package from the bank’s top legal and ethics officials. It said, “these actions effectively deprived the institution of any acceptable legal safeguard” and were “inconsistent with the principle of good governance and concern for the interests of the bank.” The report stopped short of calling for Wolfowitz’s resignation, but concluded there was a “crisis of leadership in the bank.” It urged the board to consider whether Wolfowitz, if he stayed on, could “ensure the bank continues to operate to the fullest extent possible in achieving its mandate.” Wolfowitz May 11 delivered a written defense to the board, after the panel’s conclusions were made known to him. He argued that ethics officials had ordered him to arrange for Riza’s transfer after he had attempted to recuse himself from all decisions surrounding her reassignment. He said the situation had been a unique one with no precedent and no policy to guide his actions. He added that Riza herself had demanded an increase in salary instead of a lump-sum payment to compensate for the disruption to her career. He said he had expected the terms of the deal to be made public to bank officials after they had been put in place, admitting he had kept them hidden during the negotiation period. The report conceded that the instructions given to Wolfowitz by the bank’s officials contained “the possibility for misinterpretation.” But it said Wolfowitz had “taken the position that there were no rules that applied to the situation,” and rewarded Riza with compensation beyond what had been recommended by the board. „

Iranian Nuclear Dispute IAEA Says Uranium Enrichment Mastered.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—the United Nations’ nuclear monitor—May 13 had observed Iran’s nuclear activities in the Natanz nuclear facility and judged that it had made great strides in the technique of enriching uranium, the New York Times reported May 15. The report raised concerns that Iran had developed enough of an understanding of the enrichment process to make attempts to halt its nuclear program irrelevant. [See p. 250E2] Iran claimed that its program was aimed at developing nuclear reactors for energy production, but the U.S. and many other nations accused Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons. The U.N. had recently placed sanctions on Iran for its nuclear activities, and had set a deadline for it to halt the program. The deadline was to expire the coming week. According to the Times article, the IAEA had made an unannounced inspection of the facility May 13, and had found more than 1,300 centrifuges enriching uranium to a level suitable for nuclear reactors. Iran had been installing centrifuges at Natanz for months, but had reportedly been having 307

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trouble mastering the enrichment process. The IAEA inspection suggested that Iran had overcome those problems. Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the IAEA, was quoted in the Times article as saying Iran had essentially mastered the enrichment process. “We believe they pretty much have the knowledge about how to enrich,” he said. “From now on, it is simply a question of perfecting that knowledge.” ElBaradei also questioned the tactic, championed by the U.S., of calling for Iran to suspend its enrichment activities prior to any negotiations. “The fact of the matter is that one of the purposes of suspension— keeping [Iran] from getting the knowledge [of how to enrich uranium]—has been overtaken by events,” he said. “The focus now should be to stop them from going to industrial-scale production, to allow us to do a full-court-press inspection and to be sure they remain inside the [Nuclear Nonproliferation (NPT)] treaty.” The NPT allowed nations to enrich uranium so long as they did not enrich it to higher levels suitable for nuclear weapons. Many observers had expressed concern that antagonizing Iran would prompt it to pull out of the treaty. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, was quoted in the Times article as saying Iran’s recent success in enriching uranium would not alter U.S. policy. Moreover, if Iran failed to comply with U.N. demands that it halt its nuclear program, Burns said, “we will move ahead toward a third set of sanctions.” Among other concerns expressed by the IAEA was that Iran had failed over the past year to account for how and why it had come to possess information on how to gather uranium into a sphere, a technique useful only for building nuclear bombs. IAEA Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen April 18 had sent a letter to Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, noting that eight cascades of 164 centrifuges each were operational at Natanz. The letter also complained that Iran was not complying with IAEA efforts to inspect Iran’s facilities at Natanz and Arak, where a heavy-water reactor was being built. Cheney, Ahmadinejad Spar in Gulf—

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U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney May 11 issued a stern warning to Iran regarding its nuclear program, insisting that it would not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. That prompted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the days following to call for the U.S. to exit the region. Cheney’s comments came during a speech to U.S. service personnel made on the deck of the USS John C. Stennis, an aircraft carrier off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and across the Persian Gulf from Iran. He pledged that the U.S. would prevent Iran from “gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region.” [See p. 85B2] Cheney added that the U.S. would also act against Iran if it attempted to interfere with the Persian Gulf’s sea lanes, through which much of the world’s oil was transported. Cheney was in the Middle East to meet with regional leaders in order to gain their support for stabilizing Iraq. He met 308

that day with top United Arab Emirates officials. [See p. 305D2] Ahmadinejad May 13 visited the United Arab Emirates in order to strengthen Iran’s ties with the country. He also attended an anti-American rally held that day in a soccer stadium in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates’s capital. Ahmadinejad May 14 held a press conference there, during which he called on U.S. forces to “pack their bags” and leave the Persian Gulf, claiming that they were responsible for causing insecurity in the area. “What are these others doing in our region?” he asked. Ahmadinejad also said Iran’s relations with the Emirates. had taken a “quantum leap” forward, and that the connection between the two countries “can be a model for all the countries of the region.” He proposed that Persian Gulf countries allied to the U.S. join Iran in a regional security alliance. The U.S. had a military presence in all Persian Gulf countries except for Iran and Saudi Arabia. Regarding Iran’s nuclear program, Ahmadinejad said any attempt to dismantle it by military means would be met with a “severe” response. He insisted that “Iran is capable of defending itself,” and that the U.S. “cannot strike us.” But he also said Iran was “ready and prepared” for recently scheduled talks with the U.S. regarding the security situation in Iraq, which he said Iran was joining in order to “support the Iraqi people.” [See p. 305A2] Other Nuclear Developments—In other news concerning Iran’s nuclear program: † An NPT meeting comprising 130 nations in Vienna, Austria’s capital, April 30–May 11 took up the matter of Iran’s nuclear program, but failed to reach any resolution. † Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, April 25 met with Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief national security official, in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, to discuss the conflict over Iran’s nuclear program. The talks ended April 26 without any agreement. † The EU April 23 announced that it would sanction eight companies for their involvement in Iran’s nuclear and missile development programs. The sanctions, which went further than those mandated by U.N. resolutions, involved a travel ban and asset freeze on many individuals involved with those programs, as well as a complete arms embargo. „

Religion Pope Benedict Visits Brazil. Pope Benedict XVI made a five-day visit to Brazil May 9– 13, on his first trip outside Europe since becoming pope in 2005. Brazil had the largest Roman Catholic population of any nation in the world, about 125 million. Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, had visited Brazil four times. [See 2006, p. 923B3; 2002, p. 591E1; 1997, p. 752G2] The number of Brazilian Catholics had fallen sharply in recent years, as Pentecostal sects drew millions of new believers into the evangelical Protestant movement.

The percentage of Catholics in Brazil’s total population had dropped to 74% in the 2000 census, from 89% in 1980. A new survey by a Brazilian newspaper said that percentage had dropped further since 2000, to 64%. Benedict’s visit was seen as an effort to halt that trend. However, some Brazilian Catholics said they feared that the 80-yearold pope’s traditionalist views would clash with efforts to appeal to more people. About half of Brazilian Catholics now attended “charismatic” services, with ecstatic singing, dancing and other emotional elements that resembled Pentecostal worship. Brazilian Catholics were also generally more liberal than the pope on the issues of abortion and contraception. Benedict held a news conference for reporters aboard his airplane en route to Brazil. He suggested that Catholic lawmakers in Mexico City who voted in April to legalize abortion had excommunicated themselves from the church. [See p. 266D3] His spokesman later issued a statement clarifying that “legislative action in favor of abortion is incompatible with participation in the Eucharist” and lawmakers who voted for such measures “exclude themselves from communion.” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva May 9 greeted the pope at the airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city. In a May 7 radio interview, da Silva had said he was personally opposed to abortion, but viewed it as a “public health question.” Brazilian law barred abortion in most cases, but there was a high rate of illegal abortions. Speaking Portuguese, the German pope May 10 addressed about 30,000 young people in a Sao Paulo stadium. Benedict May 11 canonized the first Brazilian-born saint, Friar Antonio Sant’Anna Galvao, at an outdoor mass in Sao Paulo that drew 800,000 people, according to police. The friar, who lived from 1739 to 1822, was known for handing out prayers written on slips of paper that his followers ate, calling them “Friar Galvao’s pills.” The tradition continued to the present day. Addresses Bishops—Benedict May 13 addressed Latin American bishops on the opening day of a conference in Aparecida, a shrine to the Virgin Mary. He denounced both Marxism and capitalism as materialist systems that “falsify the notion of reality” by ignoring God. He also condemned abortion and contraception. The pope criticized liberation theology, a Catholic antipoverty movement that had emerged in Latin America in the 1960s and became widely popular. Benedict said Catholics should concentrate on faith, not politics. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, he had cracked down on liberation theology in the 1980s. The pope also denied that the conversion of native people to Catholicism, during the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of Latin America, was the coercive “imposition of a foreign culture.” He said the Indians had been “silently longing” to be converted. „ FACTS ON FILE

United Nations Zimbabwe to Head Environmental Body.

The 53-member United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), the U.N.’s main intergovernmental environmental agency, May 11 elected Zimbabwe’s environment and tourism minister, Francis Nheme, as chairman. The move provoked harsh criticism from Western nations, which had repeatedly blasted Zimbabwe for its mismanaged economy and dismal human rights record. The post rotated yearly among regions of the world, and Africa had nominated Zimbabwe to replace the outgoing Qatar. In a secret ballot of member nations, Nheme won, 26–21, with three abstentions, according to CSD Vice Chairman Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado. [See pp. 315A2, 290F1] Zimbabwe currently had the highest inflation in the world, with regular shortages of food, fuel, medicine and other basic goods. Observers said food shortages had been exacerbated by a coercive land redistribution program, begun in 2000 by President Robert Mugabe’s government. Among the beneficiaries of the program was Nheme, who owned a 2,500-acre (1,000-hectare) farm. Members of the European Union led the opposition to Nheme’s election, saying that it would damage the CSD’s credibility. German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, whose country held the EU’s rotating presidency, said EU travel restrictions against Mugabe administration members would apply to Nheme. EU members also criticized the CSD’s May 1–12 session for not deciding on common environmental goals. The EU blocked adoption of a consensus document at the end of the session on the grounds that it did not specify real steps to be taken. „

International Business Cerberus to Buy Chrysler Group. DaimlerChrysler AG of Germany May 14 announced that it would sell 80.1% of its U.S.-based Chrysler Group division to New York City–based Cerberus Capital Management LP, a private equity firm, for $7.4 billion. It was the first time a privately held company had bought one of the “Big Three” U.S. automobile companies, all based in the Detroit, Mich., area. The sale was expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2007. [See p. 176E1] DaimlerChrysler had been formed in 1998 when Daimler-Benz AG acquired Chrysler Corp. for $36 billion. At the time, it was the largest industrial takeover in history. Daimler had produced trucks, buses and Mercedes luxury cars; Chrysler had been the third-largest automaker in the U.S., behind General Motors Corp. (GM) and Ford Motor Co., and specialized in pickup trucks, minivans and sport utility vehicles priced for middle-income buyers. DaimlerChrysler Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dieter Zetsche, referring to the 1998 deal, May 14 said, “We obviously overesMay 17, 2007

timated the potential of synergies,” adding that American consumers did not generally pay a premium price for Chrysler cars equipped with Mercedes technology. [See 1998, p. 299F1] Chrysler had posted a $1.45 billion net loss in 2006, falling to fourth place in the U.S. market behind GM, Ford and Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. Chrysler expected losses to continue in 2007 due to rising gasoline prices and increased competition. Chrysler in February had announced a restructuring program that would terminate 13,000 jobs in North America. Cerberus in the past had invested in financially troubled companies, using costcutting techniques to quickly generate profits. Its portfolio included Air Canada, Formica Corp. and a controlling interest in General Motors Acceptance Corp. (GMAC), the finance unit of GM. [See 2006, p. 1006D1] The sale was Cerberus’s latest foray into the auto industry. Besides GMAC, it owned U.S. car-rental companies National Car Rental System Inc. and Alamo Rent-A-Car LLC, and had attempted in 2006 to bring Delphi Corp., the U.S. auto-parts maker, out of bankruptcy. [See 2006, p. 1006B1] Details of the Deal— DaimlerChrysler May 14 said Cerberus would invest $6.05 billion in Chrysler—$5 billion for industrial operations and $1.05 billion for financial services—and pay DaimlerChrysler $1.35 billion. Cerberus would also inherit the $18 billion burden of Chrysler’s pension and health-care liabilities. DaimlerChrysler, which would change its name to Daimler AG, would retain 19.9% of Chrysler stock. Additionally, it would lend the new company, to be called Chrysler Holding LLC, $400 million and absorb more than $1.6 billion in costs to subsidize the ongoing restructuring program. DaimlerChrysler said the deal would result in an overall net cash outflow of about $678 million. DaimlerChrysler executives said they were pleased with the deal, as it would make a stand-alone Daimler financially stronger and allow them to focus on the company’s trucks, buses, and luxury cars, which were among the most profitable sectors in the auto industry. The price of DaimlerChrysler stock rose as much as 7.8% May 14 on Germany’s Frankfurt Xetra DAX, before closing up nearly 2%. Union Leader

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United Auto Workers (UAW) President Ron Gettelfinger May 14 endorsed the deal, saying, “We’re confident that we’ve found the solution that will create the greatest overall value—both for Daimler and Chrysler.” Chrysler Group CEO Tom LaSorda, who would head the new company, May 14 said no new layoffs were planned. However, Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union, which represented 11,000 Chrysler workers in that country, May 15 said he had “enormous concerns” about the deal, pointing to private-equity firms’ history of cutting jobs to cut costs. „

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2008 Presidential Campaign Giuliani Seizes Stage at Republican Debate.

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani May 15 seized the spotlight at the second debate between 10 contenders for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, held at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Giuliani was the Republican front-runner in national polls. He moved to reinforce his stature as a leader against terrorism by rebuking a little-known rival, Rep. Ron Paul (Texas), after Paul suggested that decades of U.S. meddling in the Middle East had provoked anger that led to Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. Giuliani had been mayor when those attacks destroyed New York’s World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people. [See p. 292A2] Interrupting Paul’s remarks, Giuliani said, “That is really an extraordinary statement. That is an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack… I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11.” The crowd of about 2,500 people erupted in loud and lengthy applause. Giuliani continued, “And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he really didn’t mean that.” Instead, Paul stood by his views, contending, “They come and they attack us because we’re over there,” as the other candidates clamored to get in their own shots at his unpopular position. The exchange was widely seen as the key moment of the debate, with Giuliani grabbing an opportunity to highlight his strongest suit, his antiterrorism bona fides. Earlier in the debate, Giuliani had faced questions about his weakest point with conservative voters, his support for abortion rights. He argued that Republicans needed to show tolerance on social issues if they wanted to win the election, and should focus instead on national security and the economy. He also argued that his abortion stance was based on conservative principles, saying, “You want to keep government out of people’s lives.” Giuliani had made the same points in a speech in Houston, Texas, May 11, after his ambiguous reply to a question about abortion at the first debate earlier that month brought fresh pressure to clarify his position. Romney, McCain Duel—The other two candidates considered to be in the top tier with Giuliani so far, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, clashed at another point in the May 15 debate. Romney criticized McCain’s work with Democratic Sens. Russell Feingold (Wis.), on campaign finance reform, and Edward Kennedy (Mass.), on immigration reform. He said, “My fear is that McCain-Kennedy would do to immigration what McCain-Feingold has done to money in politics, and that’s bad.” 309

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McCain hit back, alluding to Romney’s recent shifts to more conservative positions on abortion and other issues. He said, “I take and kept a consistent position on campaign finance reform…I have kept a consistent position on right to life. And I haven’t changed my position on even-numbered years or have changed because of the different offices that I may be running for.” ‘Enhanced Interrogation’ Scenario—Toward the end of the May 15 debate, the candidates were asked to imagine a scenario in which terrorist attacks had taken place and suspects with knowledge of plans for more attacks had been arrested: As president, would they approve “enhanced interrogation techniques” to force the suspects to reveal that information? McCain, who had led congressional efforts to curb such methods, cited his experience of torture as a prisoner of war for several years during the Vietnam War. He warned that using torture would only damage the U.S.’s reputation. [See 2006, p. 798F1] Giuliani took a harder line, saying the interrogators should use “every method they could think of,” short of torture. Most of the other candidates gave similar replies. Romney said he wanted to double the size of the U.S. prison camp for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. „

Religion Evangelical Leader Rev. Jerry Falwell Dies.

Rev. Jerry Falwell, a leading figure in the emergence of the Christian conservative movement as a powerful force in U.S. politics, died May 15 after collapsing in his office at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., an evangelical school that he founded in 1971. He was 73. [See pp. 324B3, 309A3] After rising to fame as a Baptist minister and broadcaster, Falwell founded a political organization, the Moral Majority, in 1979. Its aim was to bring his views on moral values, particularly his opposition to abortion and homosexuality, to the forefront of the national political debate. The group set to work mobilizing Christian conservative voters for the Republican Party, and helped Ronald Reagan win the presidency in 1980. Falwell shut down the Moral Majority in 1989, declaring, “Our mission is accomplished.” But the Christian conservative movement continued to solidify its new role as the core constituency of the Republican Party, carrying George W. Bush to the presidency in 2000, and to reelection in 2004. Republican candidates for the 2008 presidential election, meeting for a debate in South Carolina, May 15 paid tribute to Falwell upon the news of his death. One of the leading candidates, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), during his failed primary campaign against Bush in 2000 had denounced Falwell and his fellow evangelist Pat Robertson as “agents of intolerance.” But McCain reconciled with Falwell for his second presidential bid, giving a commencement address at Liberty in May 2006. 310

McCain May 15 issued a statement calling Falwell “a man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country.” While Falwell had kept a lower profile in recent years, he regularly returned to the public eye with controversial remarks. Shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he said they were God’s punishment of the U.S. for “the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians,” as well as liberal groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union. He apologized, and did so again in 2002 after angering Muslims by calling Islam’s prophet Muhammad a “terrorist.” [See 2002, p. 884C2; 2001, p. 724C3] „

Armed Forces Bush Selects Lt. Gen. Lute as ‘War Czar.’

President George W. Bush May 15 selected Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute to coordinate all aspects of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, after a long search to fill the so-called war czar position. The Bush administration said Lute, who was now director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would be able to cut through bureaucracy in order to integrate military, political and economic policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. troops had been stationed since 2003 and 2001, respectively. Lute had to be approved by the Senate because he was an activeduty officer. [See pp. 321B1, 305A1] If confirmed, Lute would report directly to Bush, and would hold the rank of assistant to the president, equivalent to that of national security adviser Stephen Hadley. He would also have the title of deputy national security adviser. Lute’s job would be to give Bush daily briefings on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to meet with officials from other government agencies regarding policy issues. Lute would retain his active military status. Prior to the creation of the war czar post, the highest-ranking White House official concentrating exclusively on Iraq and Afghanistan was deputy national security adviser Meghan O’Sullivan, who reported to Hadley and could not issue orders to agencies. Lute had previously expressed skepticism in private about Bush’s increase in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, or “surge,” arguing that such a short-term increase would do little good without an emphasis on political and economic programs, according to officials. He reportedly had also criticized increasing strains on the U.S. military and a perceived lack of response to instability in Iraq among civilian agencies. [See p. 302B1] “He had the same skepticism a lot of us had,” Hadley said. “In some sense, he’s part of the cure for the problems he was concerned about.” The war czar post had proved controversial, and the Bush administration had not officially announced the search until Lute was picked. At least five retired four-star generals had reportedly rebuffed overtures to be considered for the position. Some critics had also claimed that the creation of the position represented an abdication of

Hadley’s responsibilities, and warned against putting a military officer into what had previously been a civilian role. „

Iraq War Funding Senate Rejects 2008 Cutoff Date. The U.S.

Senate May 16 voted down, 67–29, a proposal to cut off funding for U.S. military efforts in Iraq by April 2008. Nineteen Democrats and 47 Republicans voted against the proposal, which was sponsored by antiwar Democrats. All four of the Senate’s Democratic 2008 candidates for U.S. president voted in favor of the proposal. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.), a cosponsor of the proposal with Sen. Russell Feingold (D, Wis.), said negotiations would continue on crafting a funding bill acceptable to both Congress and President George W. Bush. [See p. 301F2] Iraqi President Jalal Talabani May 11 opposed calls to withdraw U.S. and other foreign troops from Iraq, saying they should stay in order to give the country time to build up its own security forces. “I think within one or two years, we will be able to recruit our forces and prepare our armed forces and tell goodbye to our friends,” he said, while at the same time insisting that Iraq’s government was doing all it could on several benchmark issues raised by the U.S. Congress. Talabani also asserted that Iraqis were safer since having gotten rid of Hussein’s government, and that many areas of the country were safe for “normal” life. [See p. 301F2] Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.), top contenders for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, May 15 had each announced their intention to vote in favor of the bill, after a rival presidential candidate, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D, Conn.), ran advertisements claiming he was the only one to get behind it. „

NSA Surveillance Programs White House–Justice Dept. Battle Recounted.

Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey May 15 described a dramatic 2004 episode in which he had staved off an effort by the White House to reauthorize a secret surveillance program that the Justice Department had concluded was illegal. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Comey recounted racing to a Washington, D.C., hospital to prevent then–White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andrew Card Jr. from reaching Attorney General John Ashcroft and persuading him to overrule Comey and sign off on the reauthorization. Comey at the time was acting attorney general, while Ashcroft recovered from surgery. [See pp. 311F2, 27A2] Comey revealed that the standoff led to a threat of mass resignations by himself, Ashcroft, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller 3rd and others until President George W. Bush agreed to modify the surveillance program. Aspects of the struggle over renewing the surveillance program between the JusFACTS ON FILE

tice Department and the White House had been previously reported, but Comey’s description provided new details. The testimony came in a hearing addressing the role of Gonzales, now attorney general, in the firings of several U.S. attorneys for what Democrats said were improper political reasons. However, Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) asked Comey about Gonzales’s role in the dispute over the program, as pertinent to Gonzales’s fitness to continue in his position. Several senators, including some Republicans, had already urged Gonzales to resign over the attorney firings. Comey’s testimony prompted another Republican, Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.), to join them. Comey testified a day after Gonzales’s deputy attorney general, Paul McNulty, resigned. Comey in the hearing referred only to an unspecified “classified program,” which, however, was widely understood to be a National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program authorized by Bush shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. It allowed surveillance of communications between people with suspected terrorist links in the U.S. and other countries, without obtaining warrants normally required from a special intelligence court. The program had operated in secret until it was revealed in news reports in 2005, prompting critics to label it an illegal circumvention of judicial oversight. The Bush administration in January 2007 had agreed to a form of court review of the program. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in an early 2004 review of the program had concluded that changes to it were necessary in order to put it in compliance with the law. Those changes reportedly resulted from intensified scrutiny of certain White House legal positions by Jack Goldsmith, who had become head of the Office of Legal Counsel in 2003. However, Comey said, Vice President Dick Cheney and his legal adviser, David Addington, opposed the revisions. Rush to Hospital to Stop White House—

Comey May 15 testified that, as acting attorney general, on March 10, 2004, he refused to give the department’s consent for reauthorizing the program, which was done every 45 days. He testified that on that evening, he was notified that Gonzales and Card were on their way to see Ashcroft in the hospital. Suspicious “that there might be an effort to ask him to overrule me,” he alerted Mueller, and the two raced to the hospital to get to Ashcroft first. He said Card and Gonzales soon arrived, and that Ashcroft “lifted his head off the pillow and in very strong terms” stated his opposition to reauthorizing the program as it stood. Comey said he was “angry” at what he called “an effort to take advantage of a very sick man.” He demanded that Solicitor General Theodore Olson be present as a witness at a White House meeting that Card summoned him to later that night. The White House by executive order renewed the program the following day, leading Comey to prepare a resignation letMay 17, 2007

ter. He said that Mueller and Ashcroft’s chief of staff David Ayres, among others, were also willing to resign over the issue, and that Ayres asked him to wait until the attorney general had recuperated and would be able to quit at the same time as well. However, Comey said, Bush March 12 agreed to the changes to the program sought by the Justice Department. Comey, having refused to identify the “classified program,” did not explain the changes. He said he signed a reauthorization letter “two or three weeks” later; the program had apparently continued operating in the meantime without the reauthorization order. Bush had appointed Comey U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in 2002, and he was named deputy attorney general in 2003, resigning in August 2005. News reports cited colleagues describing him as a committed Republican who became personally troubled by what he saw as increasing White House interference in the Justice Department, but remained reluctant to air those grievances openly. Gonzales

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Schumer and other panel Democrats in a May 16 letter to Gonzales demanded that he account for a seeming discrepancy between Comey’s account and February 2006 sworn congressional testimony by Gonzales that there was no “serious disagreement” within the Bush administration about the NSA program. The Justice Department, which May 15 had declined to comment on Comey’s statements, the following day said there was no grounds to retract or revise Gonzales’s testimony. [See 2006, p. 90A2] In his 2006 testimony, Gonzales had said that “the program that we are talking about today”—the NSA surveillance of communication between the U.S. and overseas—had not raised “reservations.” White House spokesman Tony Snow May 15 would not respond in detail to Comey’s account, but reiterated the administration’s defense of the surveillance program as “vital” and carrying “strong protections” for rights. Representatives of Ashcroft and Mueller also declined to comment. Bush at a news conference May 17 refused to answer questions about whether he had personally sent Gonzales and Card on their errand to Ashcroft’s hospital room. „

Fired Federal Prosecutors Deputy Attorney General McNulty Resigns.

Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty May 14 announced his resignation, saying that he would leave office in late summer. McNulty, 49, had held his post for 18 months. He notified Attorney General Alberto Gonzales of his decision in a onepage letter. McNulty made his move as Gonzales continued to face calls for his own resignation over his role in the firing of at least eight federal prosecutors in 2006. [See p. 258A2] In February, McNulty had testified on the dismissals before the Senate Judiciary

Committee. He said that the U.S. attorneys had been fired for “performance-related” reasons. That led the fired prosecutors to mount public defenses of their reputations, intensifying the controversy. McNulty also had testified that White House officials were not central to the planning of the firings. Documents released later contradicted that assertion, showing that President George W. Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, had played a key role. Gonzales May 15 tried to put part of the blame for the plan on McNulty. “The deputy attorney general is the direct supervisor of the United States attorneys,” he said at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “The deputy attorney general would know best about the qualifications and experiences of the United States attorneys community, and he signed off on the names.” Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, May 15 said at a committee hearing that McNulty’s resignation showed that “it’s embarrassing for a professional to work for the Department of Justice today.” He added that the department “cannot function with the continued leadership or lack of leadership of Attorney General Gonzales.” At the Senate hearing, another former deputy attorney general, James Comey, testified that Gonzales, in his previous role as White House counsel, had improperly tried to bypass the Justice Department in a 2004 standoff over the legality of a surveillance program. [See p. 310E3] McNulty became the fourth and most senior high-ranking Justice Department official to resign in the uproar ensuing from the firing of the U.S. attorneys. Gonzales’s chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, had resigned in March; the department’s White House liaison, Monica Goodling, had quit in April; and Michael Battle, head of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, quit in March.

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Gonzales Testifies Before House Panel—

Gonzales May 10 testified before the House Judiciary Committee. He stood by his previous assertions that he had left the planning of the dismissals to his aides, and that he believed there were no improper political motives at play. Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D, Mich.) said to Gonzales, “Tell us, just tell us how the U.S. attorney termination list came to be, and who suggested putting most of these U.S. attorneys on the list and why.” After Gonzales replied that the list reflected “the consensus recommendation of the senior leadership,” Conyers remarked, “O.K., in other words, you don’t know.” Gonzales also denied that the dismissal of a ninth U.S. attorney, in January 2006, was linked to the eight firings later that year. The ninth fired prosecutor, as reported May 10, was Todd Graves, the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo. Graves said he had been asked to leave in order to “give another person a chance” in his post. 311

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Republicans on the panel came to the attorney general’s aid at the hearing, unlike Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who had joined Democrats in criticizing him or even calling for his resignation when he testified before them in April. The senior Republican on the House panel, Rep. Lamar Smith (Texas), said, “As we have gone forward, the list of accusations has grown, but the evidence of genuine wrongdoing has not. If there are no fish in this lake, we should reel in our lines of questions, dock our empty boat and turn to more pressing issues.” Ex-Deputy Defends Fired Prosecutors—

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Comey May 3 testified before the House Judiciary Committee, praising most of the fired prosecutors for their work and saying he felt that they should not have lost their jobs. Comey had been the numbertwo Justice Department official from 2003 to August 2005. He said that of the eight prosecutors ousted in the 2006 purge, only Kevin Ryan, then the U.S. attorney in San Francisco, Calif., deserved to be replaced. Asked about allegations that under Gonzales, the Justice Department had hired assistant U.S. attorneys based on their loyalty to the Republican Party, Comey said, “If that was going on, that strikes at the core of what the Department of Justice is. You just cannot do that.” He said doing so would undermine trust in the department. Comey said he had not been informed by Gonzales and his aides that they were planning the purge. Department Starts Internal Probe—The Justice Department May 2 disclosed that its inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility had opened a probe into allegations that Goodling had improperly politicized the hiring process for career prosecutors. If proven, the allegations could represent a violation of federal civil service laws. Judge Thomas Hogan of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., May 11 granted Goodling limited immunity from prosecution if she testified before the House Judiciary Committee. She had previously said she would decline to testify, citing her Fifth Amendment right to avoid selfincrimination. Conyers offered her an immunity deal if she relented. Hogan’s order would prevent prosecutors from using her congressional testimony against her in court. Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee May 2 issued a subpoena to Gonzales, demanding any of Rove’s e-mail messages related to the firing plan that were in the department’s possession. „

Terrorism Six Arrested in Plot Against N.J. Army Base.

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Federal authorities May 8 announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had arrested six Muslim men who were plotting to attack Fort Dix Army Base in New Jersey and kill U.S. soldiers there. The defendants later that day were charged in U.S. District Court in Camden, N.J. Officials said the men had been arrested May 312

7 after they had attempted to purchase automatic weapons from FBI informants. [See 2006, pp. 545A3, 529D3] Officials described the men as “Islamic militants” who had no formal link to Al Qaeda, an international terrorist network, but were inspired by its ideology, and who were seeking “to kill as many soldiers as possible.” FBI Director Robert Mueller 3rd May 9 said the plot was part of a rise in the number of such “homegrown” terrorist groups that used the Internet to organize and had no formal links to foreign terrorist organizations. According to the officials, the group possessed various weapons, including automatic rifles, and had attempted to obtain rocket-propelled grenades. Over the course of an investigation starting in January 2006, FBI informants reportedly taped the group trained with weapons at a shooting range in Gouldsboro, Pa., attempting to purchase weapons, and watching videotapes of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. However, according to the indictment, it was not clear when the attack was to be launched. The group had allegedly considered attacking several other military facilities in the Northeast. Fort Dix was reportedly chosen in part because one of the suspects had delivered pizza there from a nearby pizza parlor, owned by the father of three of the defendants, and claimed that he knew its layout. Mohamad Shnewer, 22, of Cherry Hill, N.J., a U.S. citizen born in Jordan, was described as the plot’s coordinator. He allegedly had organized the Pennsylvania training sessions and had been behind the weapons purchase attempts. “My intent is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers,” Shnewer allegedly said in a recorded conversation. “You hit four, five or six Humvees and light the whole place up and retreat completely without any losses.” The other defendants were brothers Dritan Duka, 28, Eljvir Duka, 23, and Shain Duka, 26—brothers-in-law of Shnewer— who lived in Cherry Hill, N.J., and were ethnic Albanians born in the former Yugoslavia; Serdar Tatar, 23, of Philadelphia, Pa., a legal U.S. resident born in Turkey; and Agron Abdullahu, 24, of Buena Vista Township, N.J., an ethnic Albanian who was a legal U.S. resident. The Duka brothers were reportedly in the U.S. illegally. Observers expressed surprise that several of the suspects were Albanians, who were generally thought to be among the most pro-U.S. Muslim groups, due to the U.S.’s 1999 military intervention in Kosovo to prevent genocide against Albanian Muslims there. Officials said Abdullahu had been a sniper during the Kosovo war. The Duka brothers, Shnewer and Tatar were charged with conspiring to kill U.S. service personnel, which carried a possible life sentence. The Duka brothers were also charged with breaking a law prohibiting illegal aliens from possessing weapons. Abdullahu was charged with aiding and abetting an illegal weapons purchase, and faced up to 10 years in prison. „

Charges Dropped in Boston Scare. Prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass., May 11 dropped criminal charges of planting a hoax device and disorderly conduct against two men who in January had planted electronic devices around the city, as part of an advertising campaign for a Cartoon Network show. The appearance of the devices caused a bomb scare. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said it would have been difficult to prove that the defendants had intended to cause a panic by planting the devices, which had paralyzed much of Boston as authorities worked to remove them. [See p. 95B3] The men, Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, had apologized for their actions and performed community service at a hospital as part of a deal with prosecutors. Turner Broadcasting System Inc., the parent company of the Cartoon Network, and Interference Inc., the New York City– based advertising agency that had hired the men, in February had also paid $2 million in “goodwill funds” and to reimburse law enforcement agencies for their time. „ Imams Sue US Airways Over Removal. Six Muslim religious leaders March 12 filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, Minn., against US Airways Group Inc. and Minneapolis–St. Paul Metropolitan Airports, over their November 2006 expulsion from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport. The men, all imams, argued that their removal had been motivated by anti-Muslim bias and had humiliated them. They also listed as codefendants in the suit unspecified passengers who reported their supposedly suspicious behavior. [See 2006, p. 1000F2] Several lawyers offered to defend the unidentified passengers free of charge. Some commentators warned that the lawsuit might discourage bystanders from reporting possible terrorist activities for fear of legal action. „ Justice Dept. Statistics Flaws Found. An audit released Feb. 20 by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine found significant flaws in 24 of 26 sets of statistics on domestic counterterrorism operations assembled by the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) between 2001 and 2005. It described the compilation and reporting of terrorism statistics as “decentralized and haphazard,” but said the mistakes appeared to be unintentional. The most significant errors appeared in statistics complied by the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, which had counted hundreds of minor crimes as terrorism cases. [See 2001, p. 1027G2] „

Fiscal 2008 Spending Bills House Passes DHS Authorization Bill. The House May 9 passed, 296–126, a bill authorizing $39.9 billion for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in fiscal 2008, $2.1 billion more than the Bush administration had requested. A controversial measure included in the bill would repeal a provision in the 2002 law establishing the DHS which created a personnel system different from FACTS ON FILE

the rest of the government’s. The Bush administration released a statement threatening to veto the bill over the personnel measure. [See p. 78C1; 2006, p. 763C3] The DHS personnel system under the 2002 law exempted department employees from many of the civil service protections afforded to other federal workers. However, a June 2006 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had struck down several provisions of the system. [See 2005, p. 556A2] The administration statement said President George W. Bush’s senior advisers would advise him to veto the bill if it passed. “The administration believes that DHS personnel management must strike a careful balance between the flexibility needed to defend against a ruthless enemy and the fairness needed to ensure employee rights,” it said. “This legislation threatens that balance.” Real ID Grants Funded—The bill included $300 million for fiscal 2008–10 to fund a grant program helping states to comply with the 2005 Real ID Act, which required them to distribute secure driver’s licenses and identification cards. The program had encountered heavy resistance from both privacy advocates and states that complained about the cost. Legislation or resolutions opposing the license regulations had been passed by one or both houses of the state legislatures of Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Utah and Washington. Legislation was also pending in the House and Senate to repeal the 2005 law. [See 2005, p. 735E2] The DHS May 8 confirmed that it would go ahead with draft Real ID regulations unveiled March 1. The rules required applicants to prove their address, birthdate and legal residency status with government-issued documents, whose accuracy would have to be electronically confirmed. They also allowed states to postpone the program’s May 2008 start by up to 19 months, although it still would have to be fully operational by 2013. The DHS said the data would not be encrypted. Some privacy groups had demanded encryption as a protection against identity theft. „ House Approves Transit Security Bill. The House March 27 passed, 299–124, a bill authorizing $7.3 billion for rail and mass transit security measures over the next four years. The authorizations included $2.5 billion for rail programs, $3.4 billion for urban mass transit and $87 million for buses. The Bush administration threatened a veto over measures strengthening whistleblower protections, objecting that they weakened safeguards on sensitive and classified data. The bill would have to be reconciled with Senate legislation passed earlier in March enacting many of the security recommendations made by a commission set up to investigate Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. [See pp. 312F3, 175C1, 159A1] The legislation contained a compromise amendment, crafted by Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D, Miss.) and Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D, Minn.). It reMay 17, 2007

solved differences between drafts prepared by both committees over whether the Homeland Security or the Transportation Department would administer the security grants. Under the final legislation, the Transportation Department would be authorized to hand out funds, but the Homeland Security Department would officially set the criteria for the grants. „

Legislation House Passes Genetic Discrimination Ban.

The House April 25 voted, 420–3, to prohibit discrimination against people by insurers and employers based on their genetic information. The measure would ban insurers from using a person’s genetic predisposition to disease as grounds for denying them coverage or setting their insurance premiums. Also, employers would not be allowed to hire or fire employees based on their genetic information. [See 2005, pp. 712B3, 131E3] The Senate had yet to vote on its companion measure, but had previously passed similar legislation several times that never made it past the House. The White House released a statement indicating that President George W. Bush would sign the bill into law if it was cleared by Congress. „

Consumer Affairs Wheat Flour Identified as Tainted Ingredient.

David Acheson, the assistant commissioner for food protection at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), May 8 said tests had revealed that the melamine-contaminated food product tied to a rash of pet illnesses and deaths was wheat flour. The agency had previously identified the tainted food products as wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate. [See p. 280G3] The FDA said the Chinese companies exporting the wheat flour to the U.S. had mislabeled it as both wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate, processed products that could be sold at higher prices. The FDA said melamine had been added to the flour to falsely raise its protein-content levels in tests, a move that also boosted its value. The pet deaths and illnesses in March had been tied to food products imported from China used to make pet food. It remained unknown how the contaminated feed had contributed to the pet illnesses and deaths. [See below] Federal officials later found that some of the melamine-contaminated pet food had been reconstituted into livestock feed, and given to hogs and chickens that entered the human food supply. However, health officials said melamine’s low toxicity presented a minimal health threat to humans. The discovery had exposed a gap in the FDA’s regulatory regime, as foreign-produced food products were increasingly imported into the U.S. with little inspection, testing or other scrutiny. Several lawmakers had criticized the FDA’s lack of funding for such food inspections, with some calling for a substantial reorganization in the way the country checked imported food products.

Acheson May 8 said melamine-contaminated feed had also been given to fish bred on aquaculture farms for human consumption, but added that the risk of eating fish fed contaminated feed was low. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and FDA May 7 said tests of chickens fed melamine-contaminated feed showed that the birds were safe for human consumption, as the level of the chemical in the meat was well below safety thresholds. Some 20 million chickens had been withheld from sale, but were now set to enter the food supply after they were ruled safe to eat.

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Chemical Pairing Eyed in Pet Deaths—

Scientists at Canada’s University of Guelph May 1 said they had found that melamine and cyanuric acid, another chemical detected in the tainted ingredients that was not considered significantly toxic on its own, reacted in laboratory tests to form crystals that impeded kidney function. The scientists said the discovery could explain the pet illnesses and deaths. Chinese chemical manufacturers had said that Chinese feed producers often purchased cyanuric acid to falsely boost the level of protein in their products, the New York Times reported May 9. „ News in Brief. ConAgra Foods Inc. April 5 attributed the cause of salmonella-tainted peanut butter it had produced to a leaky roof and defective sprinkler system at its plant in Sylvester, Ga. The company said moisture from the roof and sprinkler had allowed dormant salmonella in the plant to grow. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in February had issued a recall for several brands of contaminated peanut butter, which had sickened an estimated 400 people across the country. [See p. 110A1] The FDA and the California Health Services Department March 23 said they were not able to pinpoint the source of the Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacterium that in 2006 had contaminated packaged spinach, killing three people and sickening at least 200 people in 26 states. The agencies said they had found E. coli in several locations on a ranch near Salinas, Calif., but had not determined how it entered the food supply. [See 2006, p. 800D2] „

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Space Lawmakers Urge NASA Inspector Dismissal.

Two members of Congress April 2 in a letter to President George W. Bush called for the dismissal of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Inspector General Robert Cobb, saying he had created a hostile work environment in his office. Rep. Brad Miller (D, N.C.) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D, Fla.) wrote the letter after reviewing a report on allegations against Cobb from a panel of the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency. They said that Cobb, who had been a White House ethics adviser before becoming NASA inspector general in 2002, should not remain entrusted with overseeing the safety of the space programs. [See 2006, p. 147F2] Miller was chairman of the House Science and Technology investigations and 313

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oversight subcommittee, and Nelson headed the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee on space. The lawmakers did not address specific charges that Cobb had hindered investigations of safety concerns and punished whistle-blowers, but said his management style fell short of the “standard of conduct expected of senior executives,” and that he had failed to maintain the proper “appearance of independence” from former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe. A spokesman for current Administrator Michael Griffin said he had recommended actions in response to the report, but that dismissing Cobb was not among them. Miller April 26 said Griffin had ordered the destruction of videotapes of a meeting he had held with Cobb April 10. Miller demanded an explanation for what he called the “destruction of evidence” about an improper meeting. A spokesman said there had been nothing improper about the meeting or the decision to destroy the recordings. „ March Shuttle Mission Delayed. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Feb. 27 said a hailstorm the previous day had damaged the exterior of the external fuel tank of the space shuttle Atlantis, requiring the orbiter’s mid-March launch to be delayed until at least April. The agency April 10 said the earliest possible launch date would be June 8. [See 2006, p. 995A2] „

Environment NYC Mayor Proposes Congestion Pricing.

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) April 22 outlined a 25-year “blueprint” for the city’s future that included a proposal to charge a fee to those driving vehicles into the city’s congested business districts in the borough of Manhattan. A similar plan had been implemented in London in 2003. [See 2003, p. 109B3] The plan called for an $8 fee on cars entering the congestion district during weekdays, while commercial trucks would pay $21. Those making trips within the congestion district would pay $4. The fees would be enforced through a system of automated toll booths and video cameras, and would be used to fund other transit initiatives. Other elements of the plan included a goal of reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030, greater funding of public transportation efforts and the creation of new high-density residential areas in the city. „

National Politics

had sold his HCA shares to “eliminate the appearance of a conflict of interest,” not to profit on inside information. [See 2006, p. 907E3; 2005, p. 666E1] The federal probe had dogged Frist since it was first reported in September 2005. He did not run for reelection in 2006 and announced late that year that he had decided not to run for president. „ Sen. Johnson Released From Hospital.

Sen. Tim Johnson (D, S.D.) April 27 had been released from the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C., and returned to his home in northern Virginia, his office said April 30. Johnson had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in December 2006. He was currently undergoing both physical therapy and speech therapy, according to his office. His doctors reportedly had not yet estimated when he might be able to return to work. [See p. 62B1] „

State & Local Politics Ex–Tenn. Lawmaker Convicted of Bribery.

A jury in U.S. District Court in Memphis, Tenn., April 27 convicted former Tennessee state Sen. John Ford (D) of accepting $55,000 in bribes from an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. The agent had posed as an executive of a computer recycling company, in a sting operation probing corruption in state politics. Ford was acquitted of three counts of witness intimidation, and a mistrial was declared on the most serious charge, extortion. Ford had resigned from the legislature days after his arrest in May 2005. He had served in the Senate since the 1970s and was a member of a prominent Tennessee political family. His sentencing was set for July 31. [See 2005, p. 403F2] „ Vermont Senate Urges Bush Impeachment.

The Vermont state Senate April 20 voted, 16–9, to approve a resolution calling on Congress to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The resolution said the actions of Bush and Cheney in connection with both the Iraq war and domestic civil liberties “raise serious questions of constitutionality…and abuse of the public trust.” All six Republicans present voted against the resolution, joined by three Democrats, while Democrats cast all of the votes for the measure. The Vermont legislature was the first in any state to vote in support of impeaching either Bush or Cheney. On Feb. 13, it had also become the first in the nation to pass a resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. „

Frist Cleared of Insider Trading. Federal

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prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had decided not to charge former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R, Tenn.) with insider trading in shares of HCA Inc., a for-profit hospital company founded by his family, it was reported April 27. Frist issued a statement after it was disclosed that the investigation into his transactions had been dropped, reiterating that he had “acted properly” and 314

Schwerner and James Chaney in Philadelphia, Miss. [See 2005, p. 418A3] Killen’s lawyers had argued that the evidence presented during his case would not have been enough to convict him by a jury of his peers in the 1960s. Judge Jess Dickinson wrote in the court’s opinion that the argument had “no merit.” „ Transsexual City Manager FIred. The Largo City Commission in Florida March 23 voted, 5–2, to fire 14-year city manager Steve Stanton after his plans to undergo sex-reassignment surgery became public. The St. Petersburg Times Feb. 21 had first reported on its Web site that Stanton was receiving hormone treatments prior to the surgery. The report had elicited a storm of controversy in Largo, where many residents opposed Stanton’s continued service as city manager. Stanton had also received the support of some politicians and residents. He planned to change his name to Susan Stanton. [See 2005, p. 541F3] „ N.C. Legislature Apologizes for Slavery.

The North Carolina House of Representatives April 11 passed, 117–0, a resolution apologizing for “the injustice, cruelty and brutality of slavery.” The state Senate April 5 had unanimously approved a similar measure, along with an apology for a statesanctioned system of discrimination and segregation that had lasted until the 1960s. [See p. 193G1] „

Telecommunications Three Firms Chosen for Federal Upgrade.

The General Services Administration (GSA) March 29 finalized a list of companies to be awarded major contracts to provide telecommunications upgrades for 135 out of 184 federal agencies over the next 10 years. The companies were AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. The deal, dubbed Networx Universal, was estimated to be worth $20 billion but could rise to $48 billion, and the three companies would compete with each other for individual contracts within the program. A second major government deal, Networx Enterprise, was due to be awarded later in May. [See 1988, p. 934E2] Sprint Nextel Corp., which had traditionally been a major telecommunications supplier to the government, was excluded from bidding for the contract. It was considered a major blow for the company, whose commercial business had been declining. „

Accidents & Disasters Inexperience Blamed in ’06 NYC Crash.

Civil Rights Klansman’s Convictions Upheld. The Mis-

sissippi Supreme Court April 12 affirmed the June 2005 conviction of former Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers. Killen, 82, was sentenced to three consecutive 20-year prison terms for his role in the slaying of Andrew Goodman, Michael

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) May 1 blamed the pilots’ “inadequate planning, judgment and airmanship” for the 2006 airplane crash that killed Major League Baseball pitcher Cory Lidle and a flight instructor. The single-engine Cirrus SR20 airplane carrying Lidle and his instructor, Tyler Stanger, had hit an apartment building in the New York City borough of Manhattan after it unsuccessfully FACTS ON FILE

attempted a U-turn while flying along the East River. The NTSB said it could not determine who was flying the airplane, although it was licensed in Lidle’s name and the board Feb. 5 had released information indicating that Lidle was at the controls. [See 2006, p. 784A1] NTSB officials said the men could have made the turn safely if they had either turned at a more consistently steep angle, or had planned their flight so that they could have made a wider turn or turned away from Manhattan instead of toward it, which would have helped to deal with a 15-mileper-hour (24-kmph) wind. The airplane also could have abandoned the turn and flown into restricted Manhattan airspace. Officials criticized Lidle and Stanger for their lack of an adequate flight plan. They rejected arguments from a lawyer representing the men’s families that a flight control malfunction had caused the crash. „ Explosion Destroys California Overpass.

A tanker truck carrying 8,600 gallons (32,600 liters) of gasoline April 29 exploded when the the driver lost control on a heavily used freeway overpass in Oakland, Calif., causing a 170-foot (52-m) section to collapse onto a highway below. Will Kempton, the director of state transportation agency CalTrans, said the fireball resulting from the explosion had melted the steel girders and bolts supporting the overpass. James Mosqueda, the truck’s driver, was hospitalized with second-degree burns. [See 1989, p. 877D1] The accident crippled a dense network of highways on the approach to the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge that Kempton said carried an average of 160,000 vehicles per day. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) April 29 authorized funds to allow commuters to use public transport at no cost the next day, in an attempt to alleviate expected congestion on that day’s commute. „ Blue Angels Plane Crashes, Killing Pilot.

A fighter jet belonging to the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels precision flying team April 21 crashed during an air show at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, in South Carolina, killing the pilot. The military April 22 identified the pilot as Lt. Cmdr. Kevin J. Davis, 32. Witnesses said the crashed F/A-18A Hornet jet fighter hit homes and trailers, but no one on the ground was injured. The accident marked the 26th fatality since the team was formed in 1946, and the first fatal accident since 1999. [See 1999, p. 863F1] „ Maryland Mine Collapse Kills Two. A 125foot- (38-m-) high wall of an open pit coal mine near Barton, Md., April 17 collapsed, burying two miners. The men’s bodies were uncovered April 20. The mine, which was operated by TriStar Mining Inc., had not had any fatal accidents since 1995, and had not been cited for any safety violations in a March inspection. Bob Cornett, the acting regional director for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, April 19 said the cause of the collapse was being investigated, but that it might have been linked to recent heavy rain and freezing and thawing of the ground. [See p. 97F3] „ May 17, 2007

AFRICA

Zimbabwe Inflation Tops 3,700%. Zimbabwe’s staterun Herald newspaper May 17 reported that the annual inflation rate had risen to a record 3,714% in April, according to the Central Statistical Office (CSO), a 36-fold increase over April 2006. Inflation had reached 2,200% in March, it was reported April 26. The rising prices of food, fuel, commuter transportation and electricity were blamed for the unprecedented 100.7% increase from March to April. [See pp. 309A1, 210C3] The Herald also reported that President Robert Mugabe May 14 had signed a bill, the National Incomes and Pricing Commission Act, that would establish a commission to enforce wage and price controls. The goal was to reduce price increases to the single digits. However, analysts said it had little chance of success given that prices were higher in the country’s booming black market. Zimbabweans were currently experiencing 80% unemployment and shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency. The government May 16 warned of bread and flour shortages, as farmers had thus far planted only 10% of the expected winter wheat crop. The government May 9 had announced power cuts of 20 hours per day for households, in order to provide wheat farmers with enough power to irrigate their crops. Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the central bank, April 26 had announced several exchange-rate subsidies that analysts claimed amounted to a devaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar by more than 90%. The collapse of Zimbabwe’s onceprosperous economy was widely blamed on government mismanagement, including the forced expropriation of white-owned farms, which had produced much of the country’s food and exports, beginning in 2000. Much of that farmland now went uncultivated. Crackdown on Opposition Continues—

U.S.-based watchdog group Human Rights Watch May 2 released a report saying that hundreds of opposition activists in Zimbabwe had been subject to arrest, abduction and torture in recent months. A government crackdown on supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and other critics had begun in March, when security forces brutally suppressed a rally in Harare, the capital. The report, based on interviews with people inside the country, said even lawyers, journalists and others who were not politically active had also been targeted. It said the security forces were “randomly beating passers-by in the streets, shopping malls and people in bars and beer halls” in Harare suburbs believed to be strongholds of the opposition. The MDC had said more than 600 of its members had been arrested or abducted, 300 had been hospitalized due to beatings and three had been killed, according to the Human Rights Watch report. One of those killed was freelance cameraman Edward Chikomba, who had been found dead March

31. Chikomba was said to have been responsible for making and disseminating video clips of battered opposition leaders being taken to court days after the March rally. The clips were broadcast internationally. Mugabe, in an address marking Zimbabwe’s independence day, April 18 showed no sign of letting up on the crackdown. He pledged to “deal firmly with those elements who are bent on fomenting anarchy and criminal activities.” He went on to blame the country’s economic crisis on foreign sanctions, drought, “saboteurs” and “unbridled greed” by businesses.

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Bishops Call for Mugabe to Resign—

Zimbabwe’s Roman Catholic bishops in an Easter message April 8 called on Mugabe to resign or face “open revolt” from the Zimbabwean people. The message, posted in churches throughout the country, was entitled “God Hears the Cries of the Oppressed.” It warned that the “suffering population” was becoming “more insistent,” adding that “oppression is a sin and cannot be compromised with.” Mugabe had responded by saying the bishops had taken “a dangerous path,” it was reported May 5. „

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AMERICAS

Bahamas Ruling Party Ousted in Elections. Voters in the Bahamas May 2 elected a new Parliament, bringing former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham’s Free National Movement (FNM) to power with 23 seats in the 41-seat House of Assembly. Outgoing Prime Minister Perry Christie’s Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) won the remaining 18 legislative seats. Ingraham May 4 was sworn in as prime minister by Bahamian Governor General Arthur Hanna. [See 1992, p. 652A3] Ingraham, 59, had previously served two five-year terms as prime minister, beginning in 1992, before being ousted by Christie in 2002. He was widely credited with reviving the country’s economy during his first tenure as prime minister. The FNM during the election campaign had seized on a controversy regarding allegations that Immigration Minister Shane Gibson had given special treatment to the late celebrity model Anna Nicole Smith, who had sought residency in the country in 2006. Gibson Feb. 18 had resigned from the cabinet after pictures of him hugging Smith appeared in local media outlets. [See p. 88B3] Ingraham also criticized Perry’s government for allowing foreigners to purchase Bahamian land, intimating that the policy presented a threat to the country’s tourism revenues, though the FNM had previously shown support for foreign investment. „

Venezuela Chavez Threatens Bank, Steel Takeovers.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias in a May 3 speech warned that he was considering nationalizing the country’s banks due to their failure to provide financing for domestic industries. Chavez also threat315

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ened to nationalize Venezuela’s largest steel producer, Siderurgica del Orinoco (Sidor), controlled by Luxembourg-based firm Ternium SA. [See p. 283F3] “Private banks have to give priority to financing the industrial sectors of Venezuela at low cost,” Chavez said. He added, “If banks don’t agree with this, it’s better that they go, that they turn over the banks to me, that we nationalize them.” Chavez also called on Sidor to increase steel supplies to domestic companies at “low prices,” or else face nationalization. The main stock index in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, May 4 fell 2.74% on news of Chavez’s threats. Since his reelection in December 2006, Chavez had nationalized several utility companies and the telecommunications firm Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV). The government May 1 had also assumed controlling stakes in the last foreign-operated oil projects in the country. [See below] However, analysts viewed Chavez’s latest speech as a threat intended to compel companies to cooperate with his requests, as opposed to decrees that nationalization was imminent. Venezuela had relied on burgeoning revenues generated by its lucrative domestic oil industry to fund wideranging social programs. The increased spending had contributed to a 19.4% annual inflation rate, Latin America’s highest. That, coupled with domestic price controls, had contributed to a shortage in several food staples, angering many citizens. Some analysts said the nationalization threats were the result of Chavez’s frustration with the effects of the sharp inflation rate. Oil Firm Compensation Unclear—Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez May 3 said the six foreign firms from which the government had seized control of oil projects would not receive cash compensation for their assets. The companies were: the U.S.’s Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips Co.; Britain’s BP PLC; Norway’s Statoil ASA; and Total SA of France. Ramirez also said ConocoPhillips, the only company not to sign a nationalization agreement, faced expulsion from the country if it did not cooperate. Ramirez May 14 said the state-run oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) would take over 18 foreign-owned oil rigs. He did not name the companies that owned the rigs. „ Chavez Severs World Bank, IMF Ties. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias April 30 said he would end Venezuela’s ties to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Chavez said the two international lending institutions, both based in Washington, D.C., had impeded the country’s “economic sovereignty.” The announcement was largely symbolic since Venezuela had already repaid its debts to both institutions. [See p. 240E3; 1996, p. 307B2] Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas April 14 had told state-run media that the country had repaid its debt to the World Bank eight years ahead of schedule, saving $8 million in interest payments. The country’s IMF debts had been completely paid off in 1999. „ 316

Other Americas News ‘Alternative’ Trade Pact Meeting Held. The

leaders of several Latin American countries April 28–29 met in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, for the inaugural summit of the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA), a trade agreement intended to counter the long-delayed U.S.-backed Free Trade of the Americas (FTAA) pact. [See p. 51C1; 2006, p. 553E2] The summit’s participants were Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias, Bolivian President Evo Morales Aima, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra, and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage. Haitian President Rene Preval and Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa attended the meeting as observers. Most attendees represented states with tenuous or antagonistic relationships with the U.S. Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz in 2004 had founded ALBA, although little progress on establishing the organization had been made since then. Analysts said the goal of the agreement was to foster cooperation between Latin American countries in order to counter U.S influence in the region. Morales, Ortega, Chavez and Lage reportedly signed agreements establishing three joint cooperation councils within ALBA. Chavez also pledged to provide ALBA members with oil at a reduced rate of 50% paid up front, with the balance due more than 25 years later at minimal interest rates. Attendees also agreed to establish a financial cooperation fund, with Venezuela pledging $250 million toward the reserve.„

A S I A - PA C I F I C

East Timor Ramos-Horta Presidential Win Confirmed.

East Timor’s election commission May 11 officially declared Premier Jose RamosHorta the winner of the country’s presidential runoff election, held earlier that week. Ramos-Horta won 69% of the vote, according to a provisional count released that day. His opponent, Francisco (Lu Olo) Guterres, a former guerrilla fighter who led the ruling Fretilin party, won 31% of the ballots. Ramos-Horta would replace outgoing president Xanana Gusmao, who intended to run for the premiership in June. Observers said the election demonstrated Fretilin’s waning political power, and predicted the growth of a multiparty democratic system in East Timor. [See p. 298F2] „

Philippines U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer Found Slain.

Philippine authorities April 18 found the body of a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer buried in a shallow grave near the village of Batad in Ifugao province, about 160 miles (260 km) north of Manila, the capital. The volunteer, Julia Campbell, 40, who had also worked as a journalist for several U.S. newspapers, had disappeared April 8 while

hiking in the area. A local woodcarver being sought in the case, Juan Duntugan, April 27 surrendered to the police and confessed to the crime on television. Officials April 30 said the police had filed a murder complaint against Duntugan. [See 1990, p. 600E2] Duntugan confessed to beating Campbell to death on April 8 with a rock and a wooden stick after she had bumped into him, saying he had been angry over a feud with a neighbor and the incident set him off. However, he denied attempting to rob or rape her, as had earlier been suggested. Jose de Venecia, the speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives, April 27 announced that Campbell would receive the legislature’s highest decoration, the Philippine Congressional Medal of Achievement, as a “martyred volunteer.” „

Uzbekistan Rights Activist Freed After Confession.

An appeals court in Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital, May 8 reduced a seven-year prison sentence against journalist and human rights activist Umida Niyazova, which had been handed down one week earlier, to a three-year suspended sentence. Niyazova May 1 had received the seven-year sentence after being convicted of illegal border crossing, smuggling and distributing material that threatened public order. The sentence reduction came after she confessed in court to charges she had previously denied. However, human rights groups alleged that her confession had been coerced. [See below, p. 36A2] Niyazova, 32, had worked for Uzbek human rights group Veritas, as well as for the U.S.-based groups Human Rights Watch and Freedom House. She had been briefly detained, and her laptop computer seized, in December 2006 while returning to Uzbekistan from a trip to neighboring Kyrgyzstan. She reportedly had traveled to Kyrgyzstan to interview witnesses to a bloody crackdown by the Uzbek military on an uprising in the eastern city of Andizhan in May 2005. The government’s official death toll was 187, and it said most of the dead were either Islamic terrorists or members of the security forces. However, human rights groups alleged that as many as 1,000 civilians had been massacred. The European Union had imposed sanctions on Uzbekistan after the incident. [See below] (Uzbek exile groups in several countries May 13 marked the two-year anniversary of the uprising.) The Los Angeles Times Jan. 30 had quoted Niyazova’s lawyer, Abror Yusupov, as saying that she had fled to Kyrgyzstan without her passport after her December 2006 run-in with authorities. She reportedly was arrested Jan. 22 while attempting to reenter Uzbekistan, and was charged with illegal border crossing. Also, the government reportedly had alleged that it found extremist Islamic propaganda on her computer. At her two-day trial, which took place April 19 and April 30, Niyazova had adFACTS ON FILE

mitted to crossing the border illegally but denied the other two charges, according to U.S. government–funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). After her May 1 conviction, Human Rights Watch, for which Niyazova worked as a translator and which had an office in Tashkent, said the charges against Niyazova were politically motivated, as the government sought to suppress independent reporting on the Andizhan uprising. Confession Repudiates Rights Group—

Niyazova in her May 8 confession admitted to disseminating antigovernment publications. She said, “I sincerely regret the crimes I have committed unintentionally. I’m deeply disappointed in some people and international organizations I’ve worked with.” Niyazova then reportedly pointed to Andrea Berg, the head of Human Rights Watch’s office in Uzbekistan, who was sitting in the courtroom, and said, “And our work, Andrea, was biased and harmed my people.” Holly Cartner, Human Rights Watch’s Central Asia program director, May 9 told RFE/RL that Niyazova’s statement was “clearly something that she had to do as a condition of having the sentence commuted.” Activist Doctor’s Sentence Doubled—A court in Andizhan had sentenced doctor and human rights activist Gulbahor Turaeva to 12 years in prison, Human Rights Watch said May 10. Turaeva had been arrested in January, and April 24 was given a six-year sentence for anticonstitutional activities and slander. Human Rights Watch, citing Turaeva’s husband, said the most recent sentence, which came after a trial May 2–7, was for new slander charges. Turaeva had been one of the few people to give Western journalists a firsthand account of the Andizhan uprising, and claimed that she had seen 500 dead bodies, including those of women and children. EU Relaxes Sanctions—EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, Belgium, May 14 removed the names of four Uzbek government officials from a list of 12 who had been barred from entering the EU. The EU had imposed the travel ban, as well as an arms embargo, in October 2005, after Uzbek President Islam Karimov refused to allow an independent investigation into the Andizhan uprising. Germany, which currently held the EU’s rotating presidency, had urged a greater easing of the sanctions. The final agreement reportedly represented a compromise with member states that backed sanctions, led by Great Britain and Sweden. [See 2006, p. 937D1] In a May 14 statement, the EU expressed “great concern” about the cases of Niyazova and Turaeva. However, it also said that if the Uzbek government “engages constructively” in human rights reforms, the EU “stands ready to consider the lifting of restrictions.” Germany reportedly sought greater engagement with Uzbekistan and other Central Asian nations becuse of their abundant energy resources. „ May 17, 2007

EUROPE

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UNITED STATES

Armenia Government Wins Parliamentary Elections.

Premier Serge Sargsyan’s Republican Party of Armenia and allied parties won a large majority in May 12 parliamentary elections. It was the country’s fourth election since it became independent in 1991, and international monitors said it was substantially more free and fair than previous ones. However, some opposition parties pressed accusations of fraud and vote-buying, allegations that President Robert Kocharyan May 14 vowed would be investigated. [See p. 197A2] Preliminary results released May 13 showed that the Republican Party received about 40% of the vote, while two other parties that backed the government together drew some 35%. Two opposition parties surpassed the 5% threshold required to win seats in the 131-member parliament. Opposition groups May 13 demonstrated in Yerevan, the capital, protesting irregularities in the voting. An observer mission led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) May 13 said the election was “largely in accordance with international standards,” but noted instances of “fraud schemes.” Sargsyan, formerly defense minister, had become premier April 4 following the death of Premier Andranik Margaryan. The election solidified his standing as the favorite to succeed Kocharyan in presidential elections scheduled for 2008. „

France Sarkozy Takes Office as President. Nicolas Sarkozy May 16 took office as French president at a swearing-in ceremony at the Elysee Palace, the presidential residence and headquarters in Paris. The ceremony also marked the departure of Jacques Chirac, 74, who had been president for the past 12 years. Sarkozy, 52, of Chirac’s centerright Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), had won a runoff election May 6, defeating Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party. [See p. 289A1] In a 10-minute speech, Sarkozy reiterated his campaign promises to bring a new vigor and urgency to the leadership of France. He said, “There is a demand for change. Never have the risks of inertia been so great for France as they are now in this world in flux where everyone across the world is trying to change quicker than the others, where any delay can be fatal.” Following the ceremony, Sarkozy flew immediately to Berlin, the capital of Germany, where he met German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Both leaders said Sarkozy’s decision to hold the meeting on his first day as president showed the importance and closeness of relations between their countries. Sarkozy presented Merkel with his proposals for a scaled-down European Union treaty that would replace a constitution re-

Francois Fillon was born in Le Mans, France, on March 4, 1954. After earning degrees in law and political science, he became mayor of Sable-sur-Sarthe in the Loire region. He was first elected to the National Assembly, the lower chamber of the French parliament, in 1981. Fillon served as education minister in 1993, then as minister for the post office, telecommunications and space from 1995 to 1997. He became labor minister in 2002, then minister for social affairs from 2002 to 2004, pushing through a controversial pension reform plan. He then served as education minister, before leaving the government in 2005 and winning election to the Senate, the upper chamber of the French parliament. He was known as a leader of the moderate wing of the ruling center-right party, the Union for a Popular Movement. Fillon became the chief adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy during Sarkozy’s presidential campaign. After Sarkozy’s victory and inauguration, he named Fillon to head his government as premier. Fillon took office May 17, replacing Dominique de Villepin, who had held the post since May 2005. [See p. 317E3] Fillon and his wife Penelope, a native of Wales, had five children.

jected by French and Dutch voters in referendums in 2005. With Germany currently holding the rotating EU presidency, Merkel had called for a renewed effort to enact some version of the constitution that would include key reforms aimed at making the 27-member group run more smoothly. Sarkozy said he saw a need to stir the EU from its “paralysis.” British Prime Minister Tony Blair May 11 had visited Paris to meet Sarkozy. Blair had announced the previous day that he planned to step down at the end of June. The two discussed upcoming summits that would take place earlier in June, between member nations of the EU and the Group of Eight major economic powers. [See p. 300B1] Fillon Takes Over as Premier—Francois Fillon, 53, Sarkozy’s selection as premier, took office May 17, replacing Dominique de Villepin. Under the French system, the president, as head of state, held broad powers, including the right to both name and dismiss the premier and the rest of the cabinet. The premier, as head of government, had responsibility for implementing the president’s policies. Sarkozy reportedly would name the rest of his cabinet May 18. [For facts on Fillon, see box above] „

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Germany Army Trainer Fired for Racist ‘Bronx’ Video.

The German defense ministry April 17 dismissed an army instructor who had been caught on video telling a soldier at a firing range to visualize his machine gun targets as black men in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. The instructor, a lance corporal, lost his rank and pay. [See 2006, p. 843D3] 317

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Bronx Borough President Adolpho Carrion Jr. April 16 had demanded an apology for the video, which was reportedly made in July 2006 by another soldier using a cellular telephone and then posted on the Internet. Carrion had recently visited Germany to promote the Bronx as a destination for tourists. „

Romania Priest Sentenced in Exorcism Death. A Ro-

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manian court Feb. 19 sentenced an Orthodox priest, Daniel Petre Corogeanu, to 14 years in prison for the June 2005 death of a nun during an exorcism ritual led by the priest. The court, in the northeastern town of Vaslui, also convicted four nuns in the case, and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from five to eight years. In the exorcism, the nun, who authorities believed to be suffering from schizophrenia, had been chained to a cross for days without food or water at a convent in the remote northeastern village of Tanacu. The case had shocked the country, and prompted the church to institute reforms in its monasteries. „

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Calmer Rhetoric Agreed in Rice Visit. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice May 14–15 visited Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and other senior officials on an array of issues of contention between the two countries. Although the talks did not result in substantial new progress on those issues, Rice and Russian officials May 15 said they agreed on the importance of moderating the increasingly caustic rhetoric with which their differences had recently been expressed. [See p. 275D3] Rice May 14 emphatically rejected comparisons of current U.S.-Russia relations to the Cold War era, and highlighted areas of cooperation between the two countries. The following day she said that recent Russian “rhetoric is not helpful,” while acknowledging that certain issues would “hit an old nerve,” such as the U.S.’s plans to install elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. She repeated her frequent insistence that the missile shield did not pose a threat to Russia, as it claimed, and added that the U.S. would not allow a foreign country to wield “a veto on American security interests.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov May 15 said Putin agreed that “rhetoric in public exchanges should be toned down and we should focus on concrete issues.” He noted, however, that Russia had merely “confirmed its stance” on the missile issue during Rice’s visit. Russian and U.S. officials had clashed verbally over the missile defense issue, as well as a U.S.-backed United Nations proposal to make Kosovo, a province of Russian ally Serbia, independent. [See p. 319C1] Putin May 9 in anniversary celebrations of the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II had alluded to “new threats” in the world that he said exhibited the same “contempt for human life and the same 318

claims of exceptionality and diktat in the world” as the Nazis. The remarks, delivered before a military parade in Moscow’s Red Square, were widely taken as intended to refer indirectly to the U.S., which Putin frequently criticized for what he called excessive unilateral use of force. Rice said she did not discuss those comments in her meetings because she had accepted an explanation from Russia that they had been intended to refer not to the U.S. but to violent extremist movements. Putin in the same May 9 address also condemned “those who are trying to belittle this invaluable experience,” the World War II victory, and who “desecrate monuments to the heroes of the war.” That was an apparent reference to Estonia’s recent displacement of a memorial statue to the Soviet Union’s World War II dead. [See p. 284F1] Tensions between Estonia and Russia continued to simmer over the memorial. Estonia May 8 had held an official wreathlaying ceremony at the memorial’s new location, but Russian diplomats refused to attend. Russia’s national railway that day canceled train service from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Tallinn, the Estonian capital, and Russia May 10 banned heavy trucks from a bridge linking the two countries. Estonia May 17 said an array of government and private Internet sites in that county had been subjected to a coordinated attack using more than one million computers worldwide, and suggested Russian government complicity. Russia denied any involvement. „ Auctions of Yukos Completed. Bankruptcy receivers May 11 auctioned off the last assets of dismantled Russian oil company OAO Yukos, completing the liquidation of the company. The government had forced the selloff by accusing Yukos’s leadership of tax fraud. In the final auction, a company unfamiliar to most analysts, called Prana, paid an unexpectedly high price, 100.1 billion rubles ($3.87 billion), for Yukos’s Moscow headquarters building and various other assets. OAO Rosneft, the state-controlled oil giant that had acquired most of Yukos’s key assets in the series of auctions, May 10 had won the last Yukos production operations to be auctioned, for $6.43 billion, in a 10minute auction. [See p. 230D2] Overall, the auctions had raised $31.5 billion, far more than the value of $17.7 billion estimated by the bankruptcy receiver. Yukos’s shareholders said that proved that the bankruptcy had been rigged as part of a campaign against founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an active foe of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, now imprisoned. They contended that Rosneft won the operations auctioned May 10 at a price below their true value, as part of a predetermined plan to hand them over to Rosneft. The May 11 auction for the lot including the building fetched almost five times the opening price, prompting expressions of puzzlement about why Prana had valued the assets so highly. In some cases Rosneft had bought parts of Yukos after they were first acquired by another firm, leading to speculation that a similar situation was unfolding again.

Rosneft, with financing from Western banks, had paid $21 billion for an array of Yukos assets. However, as a Yukos creditor, it was due to receive about $10 billion when debts were paid out from the proceeds of the auction. „ Journalist Falls to His Death. A journalist covering military affairs for Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, Ivan Safranov, March 2 died in a fall from his fifth-floor apartment. Authorities investigating the death of Safranov, 51, said he might have committed suicide, but associates expressed disbelief at that notion, and some in the news media speculated that he had been murdered in connection with his critical reporting. Numerous journalists had been murdered in Russia in recent years, a phenomenon that gained renewed attention with the 2006 killing of Anna Politkovskaya, a reporter and outspoken critic of the government. [See p. 249G3; 2006, p. 828B3] Before becoming a journalist and joining Kommersant in 1997, Safranov was an army colonel working in Russia’s nuclear missile forces. He had angered defense officials with a 2006 report revealing the third consecutive test-launch failure of a new intercontinental ballistic missile. Kommersant March 6 reported that at the time of his death he had been preparing an article on sensitive sales of Russian weaponry to Syria and Iran. U.S. Putin Critic Wounded—A U.S. critic of the government of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, Paul Joyal, March 1 was shot and wounded near his home in Adelphi, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C. The incident initially aroused speculation that it was related to his allegations that the Russian government was responsible for the 2006 poisoning death of Putin foe Alexander Litvinenko in London. However, police March 5 said Joyal had been robbed, lending credence to the notion that the shooting had been part of a mugging rather than politically motivated. „

Serbia Deal Reached on New Government. Serbi-

an President Boris Tadic and caretaker Premier Vojislav Kostunica May 11 reached an agreement on forming a coalition government that favored pursuing membership in the European Union and other ties with the West. Tadic’s Democratic Party and Kostunica’s Serbian Democratic Party (DSS) had both finished behind the extreme nationalist Radical Party in January parliamentary elections, but they had been expected to form a pro-Western majority alliance. [See p. 52C1] The Serbian parliament May 15 voted, 133–106, to approve the new government. The vote came minutes before a deadline for a new government to be formed; if it had been missed, new elections would have been required. EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn May 11 said the EU would be willing to reopen membership talks with the coalition once it was installed. The EU had suspended talks with Serbia in 2006 over the FACTS ON FILE

failure of Kostunica’s government to apprehend Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic and turn him over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the Netherlands. Under the coalition agreement reached May 11, Kostunica would remain premier. His party would retain control of the interior ministry, and therefore of Serbia’s police forces, leaving uncertainty as to whether the government would pursue Mladic and other figures indicted over the 1992–95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The DS would receive the defense ministry, and Tadic would head the national security council. Also included in the new coalition were the smaller New Serbia and G-17 parties. Kostunica also consented to the removal of Tomislav Nikolic, acting leader of the Radicals, as parliamentary speaker. Nikolic had been elected speaker with the DSS’s backing May 8, sparking international concern over Kostunica’s commitment to a pro-Western government. Nikolic stepped down May 13. In addition to pursuing EU membership, the new government would face international negotiations on the future status of Kosovo, a largely ethnic-Albanian province of Serbia under United Nations administration. The U.S. and Western European countries May 11 began circulating a draft United Nations Security Council resolution made earlier in the year by a U.N. envoy embodying recommendations for Kosovo’s supervised transition to functional independence. All Serbian parties rejected the separation of Kosovo from Serbia, and its main ally on the issue, Russia, May 12 called the draft unacceptable. [See p. 211G3] „

European Business News BP Chief Browne Resigns in Sex Scandal.

John Browne May 1 resigned abruptly as chief executive officer (CEO) of British oil and gas giant BP PLC after losing a court battle to prevent publication of details of his relationship with a younger man. Lord Browne, 59, had reportedly met the man, Jeff Chevalier, 27, through an escort service’s Web site. Chevalier claimed that Browne had ordered BP staff to help him set up his own business, but an internal probe by BP had found no wrongdoing. [See p. 36A3] Browne acknowledged that he had made a false statement to the court about how he met Chevalier. He had given the statement when he filed for an injunction to block a London tabloid newspaper, the Mail on Sunday, from publishing the revelations. Tony Hayward, Browne’s designated successor, stepped in as CEO. In January, BP had announced that Hayward would replace Browne in July. Browne, a major figure in the British business world, had suffered damage to his reputation from problems in BP’s U.S. operations, including a Texas refinery explosion and pipeline leaks in Alaska. „ May 17, 2007

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Factional, Israeli-Palestinian Violence Erupts in Gaza Hamas Threatens More Suicide Attacks.

Rival Palestinian factions from the Fatah party and the Islamist militant group Hamas May 6–17 fought each other in the Gaza Strip in the area’s worst violence since February. The violence threatened the Palestinian unity government formed in March to end violence between the groups. Also, Palestinian militants May 15–17 launched dozens of rockets into southern Israel from Gaza. Israel responded with air strikes targeting militant leaders. Those clashes imperiled a cease-fire agreement between the militants and the Israeli military. [See below, pp. 257A2, 171C2] A clash between protesters and a Fatah legislator’s bodyguards May 6 resulted in the death of one of the guards. The clash took place in the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip just outside a school run by the United Nations, where the legislator was attending a ceremony. Two children were injured in the violence. Islamic extremists had reportedly threatened an attack if the ceremony was not canceled. The violence prompted Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and PA Premier Ismail Haniya to meet in the days following in order to agree on a plan to end the lawlessness in Gaza. Roughly 3,000 members of Fatah security forces May 9 took to the streets of Gaza City in order to help restore order. However, their deployment was not authorized by Interior Minister Hani al-Qawasmi, an independent appointed by Hamas and Fatah to govern PA security forces. The move by Fatah caused friction with both Qawasmi and Hamas. Violence erupted again May 13 after a senior Fatah security official was killed along with his bodyguard in Gaza. Fatah blamed Hamas for the act, and fighters from both sides took to the streets of Gaza City and elsewhere in Gaza, staging gun battles and kidnapping rivals. At least four people were killed, including a pro-Hamas journalist who was forced from his car and shot. Fighting and kidnappings continued in Gaza May 14, with at least four people killed and dozens more wounded, in spite of a truce agreed to the day before. Interior Minister Resigns—Qawasmi May 14 resigned, claiming that neither Hamas nor Fatah forces adequately recognized his position as head of security forces. Speaking at a news conference, he said he had “faced obstacles that robbed the ministry of its powers and made my position empty without authority,” and therefore was unable to bring about law and order in Gaza. “I told all parties I cannot accept being a minister without authority,” he said. Haniya, a member of Hamas, said he would take over the post on a temporary basis. Hamas fighters May 15 attacked Fatah members stationed near the Karni border

crossing to Israel, killing at least eight of them. Hamas attributed the attack in part to a commemoration of Naqba, or catastrophe, the day on which Palestinians marked Israel’s founding in 1948. Gunmen again took to the streets of Gaza City, and many shops and schools were closed. Roughly a dozen people died in violence in Gaza that day. Another truce was announced later that day.

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Gaza Sees More Factional Violence—

More than 20 additional Palestinians May 16 died in factional violence, as masked gunmen again took over the mostly empty streets of Gaza City. Hamas fighters raided the residence of Gen. Rashid Abu Shbak, a senior Fatah security official, killing at least four of his guards and setting his home on fire. Neither Shbak nor his family were there. Fatah fighters, in turn, killed four members of the Executive Force. Scores of Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza City briefly to protest the violence, but gunfire forced them to disperse, and wounded some of the protesters. An Egyptian mediator was also wounded by gunfire while examining the progress of an attempted truce. Hamas mistakenly attacked a truck carrying five detained Hamas fighters, killing all of them as well as two Fatah security officers. Violence May 17 continued between Palestinians in Gaza, though at a much-reduced level. Gunfire erupted at a funeral for Hamas fighters, killing at least two people and wounding a dozen more. Abbas postponed a meeting with Haniya on ending the violence scheduled for that day. Some 50 Palestinians reportedly had been killed, and more than 100 wounded during the May 13–17 violence. Hamas Fires Rockets Into Israel— Hamas militants May 15 fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel near the town of Sderot, in violation of a cease-fire between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants. Two Israelis were injured by the rockets. Although other militants, including members of Islamic Jihad, had violated the cease-fire previously, it was the first time Hamas had openly done so. Israel’s cabinet May 16 decided to resume the policy of targeted assassinations of militant leaders in Gaza. The cabinet also issued a statement promising a “severe and harsh” response for the rocket attacks. Israel’s military that day retaliated with air strikes in Gaza. A vehicle suspected of carrying a rocket squad was hit, killing three people. Also, a command center for Hamas’s Executive Force—a paramilitary police wing established to compete with Fatah’s forces—was also hit, killing at least four people and wounding at least 18 more. Another strike in northern Gaza killed at least one person. Hamas fired roughly a dozen rockets into Israel that day, wounding one Israeli. Israel Strikes Again, Hamas Threatens—

The Israeli military May 17 hit several more Gaza targets from the air, while Ha319

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mas threatened to resume suicide attacks against Israelis. Retaliating for the rocket attacks on Sderot in southern Israel, Israel hit a Hamas compound in Gaza City, destroying an administrative building belonging to the Executive Force. One person was killed, and dozens more were injured. Survivors of the attack had to be dug out of the rubble. Another strike hit a car carrying two senior Hamas commanders, killing at least one of them. A third strike hit a trailer in Gaza City that housed a Hamas official and several security guards, killing three people and wounding scores. Israeli tanks, meanwhile, moved across the border and into the margins of Gaza in the north. Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, blasted the Israeli actions. “This is an open war launched against Hamas,” he said. “All options are open, including martyrdom operations.” At least six rockets hit Sderot May 17. One struck a school, wounding two people. Many observers and analysts speculated that Hamas, by attacking Israel, was attempting to draw Israel into a battle that would serve to unite Palestinians and put an end to the factional fighting. At the same time, it was speculated that Israel, while keen to retaliate and end the rocket attacks, did not want to repeat the mistakes of its 2006 confrontation with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Israel had failed to achieve its objectives in that war, and Hezbollah had emerged from it scathed, but with enhanced regional respect. [See p. 275B1] U.S. Offers Peace Proposals—Media reports May 4 revealed that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to seek agreement on a set of proposals offered by the U.S. in order to help ease the IsraeliPalestinian conflict and pave the way toward a final peace settlement. The proposals involved, among other things, a removal by Israel of restrictions on the movement of people and goods between Palestinian territories, and an increase in military support of Palestinian forces loyal to Abbas in order to stop the firing of rockets into Israel from Gaza. Israeli officials expressed reservations about the proposal, on the grounds that militants with bomb- and rocket-making skills might be able to travel between Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas officials May 5 blasted the proposals. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, rejected them as “a terrorist plan…legalizing the occupation of Palestinian territory.” However, Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Abbas, praised the U.S. effort. Children’s Program Causes Outrage—

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Media reports May 8 revealed that a Hamas-affiliated Gaza television station was broadcasting a children’s show espousing armed resistance against Israel and the U.S. as well as worldwide Islamic domination. The show was entitled “Tomorrow’s Pioneers,” and clips and translations of it appeared on the Internet in the days follow320

ing. In the show, a mouse—bearing a strong similarity to the Walt Disney cartoon character Mickey Mouse—told children they were “laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists,” and called on them to liberate Jerusalem, Iraq and “all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers.” The show received worldwide condemnation, and PA Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti May 9 said it would be pulled off the air and revised. Officials with the private television channel, AlAqsa TV, however, May 11 broadcast the show again. Human Rights Report Blasts Israel—An Israeli human rights group May 6 said Palestinian detainees frequently faced torture and other forms of mistreatment while in Israeli custody. The report alleged that “the detainees often suffered beatings, sleep deprivation, lengthy interrogations and confinement without access to legal representation.” Israel’s justice ministry dismissed the allegations, saying the report was “fraught with mistakes and groundless claims.” Other News—In other Israeli-Palestinian news: † An Israeli air strike May 7 destroyed a car in the northern Gaza Strip that military officials said was carrying rockets to be fired at Israel. The officials said 14 such rockets had been fired since May 4. † Undercover Israeli agents near the West Bank city of Jenin May 4 killed three Palestinians, at least two of them identified as militants. „

Iran U.S.-Iranian Scholar Arrested. Haleh Esfandiari, a 67-year-old Iranian-American academic, May 8 was arrested by Iranian authorities and taken to the notorious Evin prison. News of her arrest came from her husband, Shaul Bakhash, and former U.S. Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton, president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where Esfandiari was director of Middle East programs. Esfandiari had been born in Iran, but emigrated to the U.S. in 1980. She held citizenship in both countries. Esfandiari visited Iran regularly in order to see her mother. On Dec. 30, 2006, as she set out to return to the U.S., armed men wearing masks stole her luggage and both her passports. She was sent to the intelligence ministry when she went to replace her passport, and was prevented from leaving. Over the course of the following four months, Esfandiari was repeatedly interrogated by Iranian officials, and—according to Bakhash and Hamilton—pressured to admit to fomenting revolution against Iran’s clerical regime through her activities at the Wilson Center. She reportedly refused to make any such admission. As part of her work at the center, Esfandiari had often brought analysts and scholars from Iran to speak at conferences.

Iran’s foreign ministry May 13 confirmed that Esfandiari had been arrested— although it did not say what she was charged with—and insisted that she would be treated in the same way as any other Iranian citizen. An Iranian newspaper May 12 had accused Esfandiari of being a spy for the U.S. and Israel and of attempting to undermine the ruling regime. Bakhash May 14 defended his wife against the allegations, calling them “sinister and also absurd and fantastical.” Esfandiari’s arrest sparked speculation that Iran was retaliating for the U.S. detention of five Iranian military officials in Irbil, Iraq, in January, and for the recent disappearance of a senior military official, Ali Reza Asghari, while he was in Turkey. The U.S. denied any knowledge of Asghari’s whereabouts, and claimed that the officials in Irbil were engaged in illegal activity. Esfandiari’s plight as a “soft hostage” mirrored that of other Iranians with dual citizenship. [See below, pp. 166A3, 11D1] Analysts also speculated that Iran was attempting to thwart what it saw as U.S. attempts to overthrow Iran’s clerics through a $75 million program inaugurated in 2006 and aimed at promoting democracy in Iran. Most of the program’s funding went to Persian-language media such as Radio Farda and Voice of America. Esfandiari was also a friend of a daughter of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former Iranian president and current head of a prominent clerical body, and some observers suggested that her arrest was part of a feud between Rafsanjani and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Financial Times April 26 had reported friends and family of Asghari as claiming that he had defected to the West, angered over being jailed for 18 months on charges of corruption. Iran Arrests Other Dual Citizens— Parnaz Azima, an Iranian-American correspondent for Radio Farda, May 15 appeared before a court in Iran. Azima’s passport had been confiscated in January while she was visiting her mother in Iran. She, too, had been repeatedly questioned by the interior ministry, and her attorney had been told she would have to stay in Iran for at least two more years. [See 2003, p. 625C1] In another case, the Financial Times May 9 reported that a prominent Canadian Iranian philosopher, Ramin Jahanbegloo, had been released from Evin prison in August 2006 after four months’ detention there, but only after confessing that speeches he made at various conferences might have been exploited by Iran’s enemies. The U.S. State Department May 9 had called for both Azima and Esfandiari to be allowed to leave Iran immediately. No Information on Missing U.S. Citizen—

Iranian officials, communicating through Swiss intermediaries, April 19 told the U.S. that they had no information regarding U.S. citizen Robert Levinson, who had disappeared in March while in Iran. FACTS ON FILE

The Financial Times April 13–14 reported that Dawud Salahuddin, a fugitive from the U.S. accused of murdering an Iranian opposition figure in the U.S. in 1980, had met with Levinson March 8. Salahuddin, also known as Hassan Abdulrahman, claimed that Iranian authorities had arrested and released Levinson that day. Salahuddin said he had not seen him since their meeting and insisted that Levinson was innocent of wrongdoing. The Financial Times articles also cited speculation that Levinson was in Iran to research a film project. „

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Afghanistan Senior Taliban Commander Killed. Mullah

Dadullah, the Taliban’s top field commander in the south and southeast of the country, May 12 was killed by U.S.-led forces in Helmand province. Afghan and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officials May 13 announced his death. Dadullah’s body, exhibiting several gunshot wounds, was shown to the media that day in the governor’s palace of Kandahar province. Reports said that he was killed while traveling from Pakistan, where he allegedly had frequently stayed for sanctuary. [See p. 303C1] Qari Mohammad Yousef Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban, May 14 released a statement from Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar confirming Dadullah’s death. Dadullah, the statement said, “was the commander of all the fighting groups. Now all of the mujahadeen will carry on his same type of jihad. They will carry out attacks just as Mullah Dadullah did in his life.” Dadullah was a close associate of Omar, and was one of the Taliban’s most prominent commanders. He had fought against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, and alongside the Sunni Muslim Taliban during the civil war in the 1990s. He was allegedly responsible for the massacre of members of the Shiite Muslim Hazara ethnic group in Bamiyan province in 1999. Dadullah lost part of his left leg during his military adventures. Like many members of the Taliban, he was an ethnic Pashtun. He had escaped capture during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and since then had taken charge of many of the Taliban’s day-to-day operations. He regularly gave interviews—a rarity among Taliban leaders—and often released propaganda videos, some of which depicted the beheading of captives. Dadullah was believed to be behind the Taliban’s most brutal tactics, including kidnappings, assassinations and suicide bombings. In April, he had appeared in a television interview and claimed that Osama bin Laden, head of the Al Qaeda global terrorist organization, was alive and had planned a February suicide bombing on a U.S. base in Afghanistan where Vice President Dick Cheney was staying. [See p. 133B1] May 17, 2007

Many officials and analysts asserted that, although he would be replaced, Dadullah’s death was a significant loss for the Taliban. After the capture of Mullah Obaidullah in February in Pakistan, and the death of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani in Afghanistan in December 2006, Dadullah was the third senior commander lost to the Taliban in six months. [See p. 133C3; 2006, p. 1032E1] U.S. Admits Civilian Deaths in Sangin—

U.S. Army Gen. Dan McNeill, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, May 10 acknowledged that fighting in the Sangin district of Helmand two days earlier had resulted in civilian casualties, but he added that it was not clear which side had caused those casualties. The U.S. military May 8 had employed air strikes amidst fighting in the area by U.S. and Afghan forces against Taliban rebels. Reports had emerged that many civilians had been killed. Afghan officials May 9 claimed that Taliban rebels in the Sangin village of Sarwan Qala had hidden in homes during the fighting. They said roughly 21 civilians had been killed by U.S. air strikes on those homes, including women, children and the elderly. Sangin villagers May 10 gave varying estimates of the civilian death toll, from as few as 50 to as many as 80. The U.S. military conceded that at least one child had been killed, and said it would investigate the claims of further civilian deaths. Afghan officials May 10 said Sangin villagers had chased down and killed the Taliban commander who sparked the battle with coalition forces. NATO May 11 reported that villagers in the area, prompted by anger at the rebels and fear of retaliation by them, had detained several Taliban fighters that day. Second French Aid Worker Released—

Eric Damfreville, a French aid worker abducted by the Taliban five weeks earlier, May 11 was released by his captors. Ahmadi said statements made in April by incoming French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he would eventually pull French troops out of Afghanistan had contributed to Damfreville’s release. Ahmadi gave no information about the three Afghans abducted along with Damfreville. Celine Cordelier, another French aid worker abducted with Damfreville, had been released two weeks earlier. France had roughly 1,100 troops in Afghanistan. [See p. 303B3; 2006, p. 1032D2] Parliament Ousts Foreign Minister—

Afghanistan’s lower house of parliament May 12 voted to remove Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta from office on the grounds that he had failed to prevent Iran from expelling 50,000 Afghans since April 21. The same body May 10 had removed the minister for repatriation and refugee affairs, Mohammad Akbar Akbar, over the expulsions. President Hamid Karzai May 12 said he would challenge Spanta’s removal in Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, during which time Spanta would remain in office. Roughly two mil-

lion Afghans were living in Iran, most of them either in the country illegally or registered as refugees. Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Afghanistan May 10–12: † The Afghan military May 12 said Afghan and coalition forces had driven Taliban rebels out of the Nahri Sarraj district in the northeast of Helmand. Fighting in the area that week had killed 77 rebels, including five commanders. † A roadside bomb near the city of Kandahar May 12 killed at least eight police officers. † Afghan officials May 11 said 17 police from Zabul province were missing after Taliban rebels attacked police checkpoints on a highway connecting Kabul, the capital, to the city of Kandahar. † Taliban fighters May 10 ambushed coalition and Afghan forces near Sangin in Helmand. Coalition forces called in air support during the gun battle, and at least six rebels were killed in the fighting. „

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Pakistan Karachi Political Rally Erupts Into Violence.

At least 39 people were killed and more than 100 injured May 12–13 in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, after armed street battles raged between opposing political factions. It was the latest and bloodiest development in a two-month-long controversy surrounding President Pervez Musharraf’s suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in March for alleged abuse of his office. [See below, p. 198C3] As chief justice, Chaudhry had investigated the disappearances of people taken into custody by intelligence agencies. His suspension had sparked a political crisis, and the public outcry over the matter was widely seen as one of the greatest challenges Musharraf had confronted since taking power. (Musharraf came to power in 1999 through a bloodless coup.) Critics of the government had characterized the judge’s ouster as an attempt to intimidate a judiciary that could have challenged the constitutionality of Musharraf’s status as both president and army chief in a year when presidential and parliamentary elections were planned. Gunfire was exchanged May 12 between armed groups from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the pro-Musharraf governing party of Karachi, and opposition political parties attending a rally in support of Chaudhry. Chaudhry had arrived at the Karachi airport earlier in the day but was detained by government officials and sent back to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, later that evening. He had been scheduled to speak at the rally, which was organized by lawyers to urge Musharraf to repeal the suspension and resign. Musharraf, addressing a state-organized rally in Islamabad, May 12 said he would not proclaim a state of emergency, and that 321

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elections would still take place at the end of the year. He placed responsibility for the violence on “elements who tried to create turmoil by politicizing” the judge’s suspension. Opposition parties blamed the MQM for provoking the incident. Government officials said 15,000 troops had been deployed to Karachi, but many local news reports claimed the security forces had not attempted to quell the violence. Sporadic clashes between the groups and subsequent casualties occurred May 13. Opposition parties May 14 called for a workers’ strike in Karachi, an economically important port city, in protest. Shops were closed, streets were blocked and public transportation was halted. Local authorities prohibited public meetings of more than five people, and federal paramilitary troops were deployed and given license to “shoot and kill” anyone involved in street violence. Strikes took place in other cities as well, including Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city. Supreme Court Official Shot Dead—

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Syed Hammad Raza, a registrar of the Supreme Court, May 14 was killed at his home in Islamabad by an unidentified gunman. Lawyers for Chaudhry said Raza had been an important witness in their petition to challenge the judge’s suspension. Islamabad police officials said the killing might have been related to an attempted robbery. In a related development, at least 15 bullets May 10 were fired at the house of Munir A. Malik, a lawyer for Chaudhry, in Karachi. Malik was in the house at the time with his family, but no one was hurt. Malik said he was the victim of intimidation tactics. „ Suicide Blast Rocks Frontier Town. A suicide bomber May 15 killed at least 22 people and wounded more than 30 others in a hotel restaurant in Peshawar, a town in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province on the Afghan border. It was the latest in a recent series of suicide attacks in the region. [See p. 69C2] No one claimed responsibility for the attack, though it was widely believed that the bomber was a supporter of Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents. Investigators found a note attached to the remains of the bomber’s legs that read, “Those who spy for America will face this same fate.” The Washington Post May 16 reported that the owner of the hotel, an Afghan, had notified Pakistani intelligence agencies about suspected Afghan insurgents residing at the hotel. [See p. 321B1] The North-West Frontier Province had been the site of another suicide attack April 28 in the town of Charsadda, which killed 28 people and slightly injured Pakistan’s interior minister. The region had recently been awash with violent activity as the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan tipped over into Pakistan. It was seen as a reaction to President Pervez Musharraf’s continued military support of U.S.-led efforts to quell the insurgency. „ 322

U.S. Soldier Killed Near Afghan Border.

A U.S. soldier May 14 was shot dead near Teri Mangal, a town close to the border with Afghanistan, after a meeting held between North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Pakistani and Afghan officials, NATO officials said in a statement that day. The soldier had been part of a convoy leading the officials back to Afghanistan that was attacked by “unknown assailants.” The officials added that one Pakistani soldier had been killed and four Americans and four Pakistanis had been injured. [See p. 269F2] The meeting had been arranged to resolve tensions that had flared between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent weeks over border clashes. Fighting between the two sides May 12–13 had killed 13 Afghans and wounded 28 more, according to Afghan officials. Seven children were among the dead, and three Afghan border police were among the wounded. [See pp. 303C3, 270A1] Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s defense ministry, May 13 said fighting had broken out after border police attempted to intercept Pakistani troops, who had come a mile (1.6 km) or more into Afghan territory. Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, a spokesman for Pakistan’s military, May 13 said Afghan forces had provoked a battle by firing on Pakistani border posts. Afghanistan had recently accused Pakistan of failing to prevent Islamic militants from launching attacks on NATO and Afghan forces from the Pakistani side of the porous border. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Football Raiders Pick QB Russell First in NFL Draft.

The Oakland Raiders April 28 selected Louisiana State University (LSU) quarterback JaMarcus Russell with the first pick in the National Football League (NFL) draft. The seven-round draft, in which a total of 255 players were chosen, was held April 28–29 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. [See 2006, p. 356C2; for a complete list of the first-round picks, see box below] Georgia Tech wide receiver Calvin Johnson was taken second by the Detroit Lions. Rounding out the top five were Wisconsin offensive tackle Joe Thomas (Cleveland Browns); Clemson defensive end Gaines Adams (Tampa Bay Buccaneers); and Penn State offensive tackle Levi Brown (Arizona Cardinals). Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn, who had been expected to be picked in the top 10, did not get drafted until the Browns chose him 22nd. Patriots Trade for Moss—The New England Patriots April 29 acquired star wide receiver Randy Moss from the Raiders in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick (the 110th overall). Moss, 30, had joined the Raiders in 2005 after seven seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. [See 2005, p. 655E3] In other recent personnel moves, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Drew Bledsoe, the top pick in the 1993 draft, April 11 announced his retirement. Also, the Houston Texans March 23 waived quarterback Dav-

2007 NFL DRAFT: FIRST ROUND

The teams selecting in the first round of the April 28–29 National Football League (NFL) collegiate draft, the projected professional positions of the players, and the players’ colleges were [See p. 322A3]: 1. Oakland: JaMarcus Russell, quarterback, Louisiana State University (LSU) 2. Detroit: Calvin Johnson, wide receiver,

17. Denver (from Jacksonville): Jarvis Moss,

3. Cleveland: Joe Thomas, offensive tackle,

19. Tennesee:

Georgia Tech.

Wisconsin

4. Tampa Bay: Gaines Adams, defensive end,

Clemson

5. Arizona: Levi Brown, offensive tackle, Penn

State

6. Washington: LaRon Landry, defensive back, LSU 7. Minnesota: Adrian Peterson, running back,

Oklahoma

8. Atlanta (from Houston): Jamaal Anderson,

defensive end, Arkansas

9. Miami: Ted Ginn Jr., wide receiver, Ohio

State

10. Houston (from Atlanta): Amobi Okoye, de-

fensive tackle, Louisville

11. San Francisco: Patrick Willis, linebacker,

Mississippi

12. Buffalo: Marshawn Lynch, running back,

California

13. St. Louis: Adam Carriker, defensive end,

Nebraska

14. N.Y. Jets (from Carolina): Darrelle Revis, de-

fensive back, Pittsburgh

15. Pittsburgh: Lawrence Timmons, linebacker,

Florida State 16. Green Bay: Justin Harrell, defensive tackle, Tennessee

defensive end, Florida

18. Cincinnati: Leon Hall, defensive back,

Michigan

Michael Griffin, defensive back, Texas 20. N.Y. Giants: Aaron Ross, defensive back, Texas 21. Jacksonville (from Denver): Reggie Nelson, defensive back, Florida 22. Cleveland (from Dallas): Brady Quinn, quarterback, Notre Dame 23. Kansas City: Dwayne Bowe, wide receiver, LSU 24. New England (from Seattle): Brandon Meriweather, defensive back, Miami 25. Carolina (from N.Y. Jets): Jon Beason, linebacker, Miami 26. Dallas (from Philadelphia): Anthony Spencer, linebacker, Purdue 27. New Orleans: Robert Meachem, wide receiver, Tennessee 28. San Francisco (from New England): Joe Staley, offensive tackle, Central Michigan 29. Baltimore: Ben Grubbs, guard, Auburn 30. San Diego: Craig Davis, wide receiver, LSU 31. Chicago: Greg Olsen, tight end, Miami 32. Indianapolis: Anthony Gonzalez, wide re-

ceiver, Ohio State

FACTS ON FILE

id Carr, the top pick in the 2002 draft. Carr April 6 signed with the Carolina Panthers. [See 2005, p. 655F3; 2002, p. 307C1] NFL Strengthens Conduct Policy—The NFL April 10 announced that it was strengthening its policy on criminal conduct by players, after at least 35 players had been arrested in the previous year. The new policy gave Commissioner Roger Goodell increased power to suspend players for offthe-field misconduct, and expanded educational and support programs for players. The strengthening of the policy had the support of players’ union head Gene Upshaw. [See p. 24B3; 2006, p. 1035A3] Also that day, Goodell suspended Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam (Pacman) Jones without pay for all of the 2007 season, and Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry for the first half of the season. Both players had been arrested multiple times in the previous two years; Jones’s charges included assault, vandalism and marijuana possession, while Henry had been arrested on gun, drug and drunk-driving charges. Jones May 11 met with Goodell in an effort to reduce the suspension. Separately, Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tank Johnson March 15 was sentenced in Cook County, Ill., to four months in prison for violating his probation resulting from a 2005 gun possession conviction. Police had raided his home near Chicago in December 2006 and discovered unregistered handguns, rifles and ammunition. Johnson was released May 13, two months early. He met with Goodell May 16, but the commissioner had yet to rule on whether he would suspend Johnson. [See p. 56E1] In a related development, Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams, who had been suspended for the entire 2006 season for violating the NFL’s substanceabuse policy for the fourth time, had tested positive for marijuana, it was reported May 12. Williams, who had played in the Canadian Football League in 2006, had applied for reinstatement to the NFL, it was reported April 7. [See 2006, p. 1036A1] „

Cricket Australia Wins Third Straight World Cup.

Australia April 29 defeated Sri Lanka in Bridgetown, Barbados, to win their third consecutive Cricket World Cup title. Australia beat Sri Lanka by 53 runs in a match reduced to 36 overs due to rain. Australia’s Adam Gilchrist led his team to victory by scoring 149 off 104 balls. [See p. 199G1; 2003, p. 254C2] With three overs remaining, the two teams left the field due to bad light, and Australia began to celebrate its victory. However, the umpires insisted—wrongly, it was later determined—that the two teams would have to return the next day to complete the final three overs. The two captains, Australia’s Ricky Ponting and Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene, agreed instead to play the three overs in near-darkness, leading to what was widely described as a farcical ending to the World Cup. May 17, 2007

In the semifinals, Australia April 25 had defeated South Africa, and Sri Lanka April 24 beat New Zealand. The World Cup, which had begun in Jamaica in early March, had been marred by the murder of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer one week into the tournament. It had also been plagued by low attendance and a widespread perception that the six-week event was too long. [See below] West Indies Captain Lara Retires—

West Indies captain Brian Lara April 21 played his final international match when his team lost to England in the Super Eights, or second round, in Bridgetown. Lara, a 37-year-old native of Trinidad and Tobago, had announced his retirement April 19. He ended his 17-year career holding the records for the highest score in Test cricket (11,953 in 131 Tests) and in a Test innings (400 not out), and the highest score in first-class cricket (501 not out, playing for Warwickshire in England). [See 2004, p. 1094B1; 1994, p. 1011B3] BBC Alleges Woolmer Poisoned— The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) April 30 on its “Panorama” newsmagazine show reported that preliminary toxicology tests had shown that Woolmer had been incapacitated by poison before being strangled in his hotel room. However, Mark Shields, who was leading the Jamaican investigation of Woolmer’s death, said there was no evidence to prove that claim. A laboratory in Britain, the government-owned Forensic Science Service, May 1 said it was analyzing toxicology tests done on Woolmer but had yet to reach a firm conclusion. Authorities in Jamaica April 20 had postponed indefinitely an inquest into Woolmer’s death, citing unspecified “significant developments” in the case. The inquest had been scheduled to begin April 23. Woolmer’s body April 29 was returned to his family in South Africa for burial. „ Australian PM Bars Zimbabwe Tour. Australian Prime Minister John Howard May 13 said he would prohibit the Australian cricket team from traveling to Zimbabwe for a scheduled tour in September. Howard said he made the decision on political grounds, calling Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe a “grubby dictator” and asserting that “for the tour to go ahead there would be an enormous propaganda boost to the Zimbabwe regime.” Australia, which had won the World Cup in late April, had been due to play three one-day internationals in Zimbabwe. [See pp. 323F1, 315A2, 309A1; 2006, p. 314C3] The political and economic situation in Zimbabwe had been deteriorating for several years, and recently reached a crisis point with the arrest and beating of opposition leaders. That had prompted pressure from within Australia for the team to cancel the tour. The move by the Australian government meant that Cricket Australia, the sport’s governing body in the country, would not have to pay a A$2.4 million (US$2 million) fine that would have been levied by the International Cricket Coun-

cil (ICC) if the body had canceled the tour on its own. Howard, in announcing the government’s decision, said he would take away the players’ passports if necessary to prevent them from traveling. Some players reportedly had been contemplating personal boycotts if the tour had gone ahead. Howard also criticized the ICC, saying, “The government has previously called on the ICC to change its rules to allow teams to forfeit tours to countries where serious human rights abuses are occurring. Regrettably, the ICC has declined to do so.” The ICC, for its part, praised the Australian government’s decision. “A government has prohibited their team from going. That’s the clarity we’ve been seeking,” said ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed. “We don’t like governments expressing opinions but then leaving the political decisions to cricket administrators,” he added. England’s cricket team had been put in such a position in 2004. [See 2004, p. 1093E3] Cricket Australia had proposed playing the matches in a neutral venue, such as South Africa, but the Zimbabwe Cricket Union refused, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reported May 15. The BBC also reported that the Australian government had pledged A$18 million in aid to human rights groups in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Calls Boycott ‘Racist’—Zimbabwean Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga May 14 in an interview with Zimbabwe’s state-owned Herald newspaper said, “This is also a racist ploy to kill our local cricket since our cricket team is now dominated by black players as we slowly transform cricket from being an elite sport.” Howard called the racism charge “ludicrous” and “absurd.” Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), May 14 expressed support for Australia’s actions. „

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ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Awards Lilly Poetry Prize. Lucille Clifton May 7 was named winner of the 2007 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. The award, administered by the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation, which published Poetry magazine, was for lifetime achievement by a U.S. poet, It was worth $100,000. [See 2006, p. 499B3] Clifton, 70, a former poet laureate of Maryland and a resident of Columbia, Md., was the first black woman to win the award since it was established in 1986. Her work could be humorous, but also addressed such grim subjects as the lynching of her great-great grandmother for shooting a man who raped her. She also talked about her various health problems. In her poem “Donor,” she ironically presented herself as the recipient of a kidney transplant from a daughter she had once tried to abort. The author of 11 books of poetry, Clifton had won a National Book Award in 2000 for 323

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Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems. [See 2000, p. 880A2] „

Theater Openings Curtains. Broadway production of a musical comedy

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about a murder committed during a musical-comedy tryout; the show was first mounted in Los Angeles in 2006. Book by Rupert Holmes; music by John Kander; lyrics by Fred Ebb; orginal book and concept by Peter Stone; additional lyrics by Kander and Holmes. Directed by Scott Ellis; choreographed by Rob Ashford. With David Hyde Pierce, Debra Monk, Karen Ziemba, Edward Hibbert, Jason Danieley and Jill Paice. In New York City, at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. March 22. [See 2006, p. 740D2] Dying City. Drama, first mounted in London in 2006, in which an Iraq war widow is visited by the twin brother of her slain husband. By Christopher Shinn. Directed by James Macdonald. With Rebecca Brooksher and Pablo Schreiber. In New York City, at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. March 4. [See 2006, p. 588A2] Dying for It. Play based on a long-suppressed Sovietera comedy about an unemployed man whose decision to commit suicide is exploited by others. By Moira Buffini, adapted from Nikolai Erdman’s The Suicide (1928). Directed by Anna Mackmin. With Tom Brooke, Ronan Vibert, Tony Rohr and Sophie Stanton. In London, at the Almeida Theatre. March 15. The Entertainer. Revival of John Osborne’s 1957 drama about a seedy English music-hall entertainer reduced to working in a sleazy rock-and-roll club. Directed by Sean Holmes. With Robert Lindsay, Pam Ferris, Emma Cunniffe and John Normington. In London, at the Old Vic Theatre. March 7. [See 1983, p. 155G3; 1960, p. 396G1] Jack Goes Boating. Romantic comedy whose title character is a limousine driver trying to hit it off with a woman to whom he has been introduced by a fellow limo driver and his wife. By Bob Glaudini. Directed by Peter DuBois. With Philip Seymour Hoffman, Beth Cole, John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega. In New York City, at the Joseph Papp Public Theater’s Martinson Hall. March 18. Meet John Doe. Musical based on a 1941 Frank Capra film about a down-and-out former baseball player transformed into a national hero through the power of the press. Book by Andrew Gerle and Eddie Sugarman; music by Gerle; lyrics by Sugarman. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. With James Moye, Heidi Blickenstaff and Patrick Ryan Sullivan. In Washington, D.C., at Ford’s Theater. March 24. [See 1991, p. 668E2] My Trip to Al-Qaeda. Solo piece featuring journalist Lawrence Wright, based on his Pulitzer Prize–winning best-selling book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Written and performed by Wright. Directed by Gregory Mosher. In New York City, at the Culture Project. March 5. [See p. 252B2] Prelude to a Kiss. Broadway revival of a romantic comedy about a fateful kiss that leads to a transmigration of souls; it ran for a year on Broadway in the early 1990s. By Craig Lucas. Directed by Daniel Sullivan. With John Mahoney, Annie Parisse and Alan Tudyk. In New York City, at the American Airlines Theater. March 8. [See 1990, p. 1003C1] Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell. Celebration of the life and work of monologist Spalding Gray, based on writings he left behind when he apparently committed suicide in 2004. Text by Gray. Conceived by Kathleen Russo (Gray’s widow) and Lucy Sexton. Directed by Sexton. With Kathleen Chalfant, Hazelle Goodman, Ain Gordon, Frank Wood and Fisher Stevens. In New York City, at the Minetta Lane Theater. March 6. [See 2004, p. 167G1] Talk Radio. Broadway revival of a drama centering on an obnoxious radio talk show host. By Eric Bogosian. Directed by Robert Falls. With Liev Schreiber. In New York City, at the Longacre Theater. March 11. [See 1988, p. 1008E1; 1987, p. 1012G2] „

People

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Rapper Snoop Dogg, 35, April 26 was denied entry into Australia, where he was to have hosted MTV’s Australian Music Awards. The rapper, whose real name was Calvin Broadus, was described by Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews as “not the sort of bloke we want in this country.” He had a criminal record, and 324

had previously been barred from entering Britain twice, most recently on March 27. Two weeks later, on April 11 in Pasadena, Calif., he pleaded no contest to felony gun and drug charges and was sentenced to five years’ probation and 800 hours of community service. Those charges stemmed from an October 2006 arrest at the Burbank, Calif., airport on suspicion of transporting marijuana. [See p. 72D1; 1997, p. 100D1] Singer Marc Anthony, 38, had agreed to pay some $2.5 million in back taxes, interest and penalties, for his failure to file tax returns for the years 2000 through 2004, the New York County district attorney’s office announced April 11. No tax charges were filed against him, however, because he reportedly seemed to have been under the impression that the taxes had been paid by his accountant. Singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, 37, Anthony’s wife since 2004, was not involved in the matter; she and Anthony filed separate returns. [See 2004, p. 432B3] „

O B I T UA R I E S BALL, Alan James, 61, diminutive soccer midfielder who at age 21 was the youngest member of England’s 1966 World Cup–winning team, the only English team ever to win the cup; over the years, he played for top English teams Blackpool, Everton, Arsenal and Southampton, and, near the end of his career, for two North American Soccer League teams; after his playing days ended in the early 1980s, he continued as a manager through the 1990s; born May 12, 1945, in Farnworth, England; died April 25 in Warsash, England, of an apparent heart attack suffered while trying to put out a compost-heap fire in the garden of his home. [See 1979, p. 775B3, D3; 1966, p. 384B1] BLANCH, Lesley, 102, globe-trotting British author whose best-known book was her first, The Wilder Shores of Love (1954); it dealt with four adventurous 19th-century Western women who found romance in the Islamic world; from 1945 to 1962, she was married to French author and diplomat Romain Gary, who later married, and divorced, actress Jean Seberg; born June 6, 1904, in London; died May 7 in Menton, France, her home for many years. [See 1980, p. 1004G1; 1979, p. 704G3; 1954, p. 319E2] BLOW, Isabella (born Isabella Delves Broughton), 48, eccentric, aristocratic British fashion jour-

nalist credited with discovering, and launching the careers of, such figures as designer Alexander McQueen, model Stella Tennant and milliner Philip Treacy; she was known for wearing flamboyant hats, designed by Treacy, along with other unusual articles of clothing; born Nov. 19, 1958, in London; died May 7 at a hospital in Gloucester, England; The Times of London May 10 reported on its Web site that Blow, who had been battling cancer and depression, told doctors before she died that she had drunk paraquat, a weedkiller; tests for it later proved positive. CALLWOOD, June Rose, 82, Canadian journalist, author, television personality and social activist; she wrote hundreds of columns for Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper, hundreds of magazine articles, and many books, including ghostwritten works for such celebrities as Barbara Walters and Otto Preminger; she also hosted at least two TV shows, “In Touch” and “National Treasures,” and helped create a number of social-service organizations, whose beneficiaries included battered women and people with AIDS; born June 2, 1924, in Chatham, Ontario; died April 14 at a hospital in Toronto, Ontario, of cancer. CHANDLER Jr., Alfred DuPont, 88, pioneering business historian who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for his book The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business; while teaching at Johns Hopkins University in the 1960s, he edited the papers of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower; those papers were published in 1970, a year after Eisenhower’s death; he joined the faculty of Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Mass., in 1970, and taught there until 1989; born Sept. 15, 1918, in Guyencourt, Del.; died May 9 at a Cambridge hospital, of

cardiac arrest. [See 1978, p. 315C1; 1970, pp. 987G1, 348B3] DAVIS Sr., James Bodie, 90, founding member, as a schoolboy in 1928, of the venerable gospel group the Dixie Hummingbirds and the group’s leader until his 1984 retirement; the group originated in Greenville, S.C., but had been based in Philadelphia, Pa., since 1942; born June 6, 1916, in Greenville; died April 17 at a Philadelphia hospital, of heart failure. [See 1974, p. 280B2] ERDMAN, Paul Emil, 74, Canadian-born economist and banker who wrote best-selling novels about financial intrigue, beginning with The Billion Dollar Sure Thing (1973); he began working on the book while jailed in Switzerland, awaiting trial for bank fraud; he was later convicted in absentia, but never returned to Switzerland to serve his sentence; born May 19, 1932, in Stratford, Ontario; died April 23 at his ranch in Healdsburg, Calif., of cancer. [See 1978, pp. 619G3, 24F3; 1977, p. 1021A3; Indexes 1970– 71] FALWELL, Rev. Jerry Lamon, 73, Southern Baptist preacher whose Moral Majority organization, founded in 1979, hastened a rightward shift in U.S. politics that strongly favored the Republican Party; the coalition was dissolved in 1989, not long after he failed in his bid to rescue the PTL (Praise the Lord) ministry, whose founder, Rev. Jim Bakker, had been convicted of fraud; he also brought a highly publicized libel suit against Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, over a Hustler parody of him; the case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1988 unanimously ruled that, by virtue of being a public figure, he was not entitled to damages; born Aug. 11, 1933, in Lynchburg, Va.; died May 15 at a Lynchburg hospital, of congestive heart failure, after being found unconscious in his office on the Lynchburg campus of Liberty University, which he founded in 1971. [See p. 310D1; 2006, p. 789F1; Indexes 1996–2002, 1992–94, 1980–89] MALIETOA Tanumafili II, King, 94, occupier of the Samoan throne since 1939 and sole head of state of the Pacific island nation of Samoa since 1963; he had been made a joint head of state in 1962, when Samoa gained its independence from New Zealand; born Jan. 4, 1913; died May 11 at a hospital in Moto’otua, Samoa, where he had been admitted about a week earlier for treatment of pneumonia. [See 1962, p. 15E1] POSTON, Tom (Thomas Gordon), 85, comical stage, screen and television actor best known for his work on TV, which included playing the confused “man in the street” on “The Steve Allen Show” (1956–61) and bumbling handyman George Utley in “Newhart” (1982–90); in 2001, he married actress Suzanne Pleshette, his third wife; born Oct. 17, 1921, in Columbus, Ohio; died April 30 at his home in Los Angeles, after a brief illness. [See 2000, p. 836B2; 1969, p. 246F3; Indexes 1963, 1958–59, 1955–56] SCOTT, Gordon (born Gordon Merrill Werschkul),

80, actor who starred as jungle hero Tarzan in six films released between 1955 and 1960, including Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957), the first Tarzan film in color; he later appeared in Italian-made westerns and gladiator films; born Aug. 3, 1926, in Portland, Ore.; died April 30 at a hospital in Baltimore, Md., of heartsurgery complications. [See p. 152D1] WEATHERILL, Lord (Bruce Bernard), 86, British Conservative Party member who served in the House of Commons from 1964 to 1992 and presided over that body as its speaker from 1983 to 1992; he was elevated to the House of Lords in 1992; born Nov. 25, 1920, in Guildford, England; died May 6 at a hospice in Caterham, England, after a brief illness. [See 1992, pp. 453B3, 316C2, 263G1; 1987, p. 519F3] WILSON, Bertha, 83, Canadian jurist who in 1982 became the first woman appointed to the Canadian Supreme Court ; before that, she had been the first woman justice on the Ontario Court of Appeal; she retired from the Supreme Court in January 1991, eight years before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75; born Sept. 18, 1923, in Kirkcaldy, Scotland; died April 28 at a retirement home in Ottawa, Ontario, of Alzheimer’s disease. [See 1990, p. 987F1; 1988, p. 55D2; Indexes 1987, 1982] YAHWEH ben Yahweh (born Hulon Mitchell Jr.), 71, founder and leader of the Nation of Yahweh,

a black religious sect that flourished in Miami, Fla., in the 1980s before being linked to various acts of violence; convicted in 1992 of conspiracy charges related to 14 murders, he spent nearly a decade in prison before being paroled in 2001; born Oct. 27, 1935, in Kingfisher, Okla.; died in his sleep May 7 at his home in Opa-Locka, Fla., of prostate cancer. [See 1992, pp. 860E1, 428B1; 1991, p. 268C1; Index 1990] „

May 17, 2007

Lebanese Army Battles Palestinian Militants Bombs Explode in Beirut, Killing One. Violent clashes between Lebanon’s military and a militant Palestinian group erupted May 20–24, raising fears that the country could again fall into civil war as it had in 1975–90. The clashes, described by many as the worst since the civil war, came as three bombs exploded in and around Beirut, the capital, and the United Nations Security Council met to discuss an international tribunal regarding the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. [See below, p. 250D3] There were roughly 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, largely from the 1948 war following the establishment of Israel. Many of the refugees lived in one of a dozen camps throughout the country, and had little in the way of recognized rights or economic opportunities. Under an agreement reached with Arab nations in 1969, Lebanon had pledged not to enter the camps, which as a result were not policed by the government. The camps were often a haven for militant Islamists. Many Lebanese held Palestinians responsible for igniting the country’s civil war. Lebanese security forces May 20 raided a building north of the city of Tripoli, in search of suspects in a bank robbery in the area the previous day. The soldiers found themselves engaged in a gun battle with well-equipped militants belonging to Fatah al-Islam, a Palestinian Islamist militant group that operated out of the Nahr alBared refugee camp nine miles (16 km) north of the city. The group had an estimated 100–300 fighters, including Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians and citizens of other countries in the region. The group had formed within the previous two years and was led by Shaker alAbssi, a militant who had arrived in the camp in 2006 from Syria. Some reports suggested that he had been held there on charges of planning attacks on Western tourists. Abssi was an associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the deceased leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Both men in 2004 had been convicted in absentia in Jordan for the murder of a U.S. diplomat there in 2002. Since arriving in Lebanon, Abssi had declared that he was a follower of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda, and that he wanted to institute sharia, or Islamic law, in the refugee camps prior to training militants to attack Israel. Lebanon accused Syria of supporting Fatah alIslam, although Syria denied the charge. [See 2004, p. 390C1] Violence Erupts Around Tripoli— More clashes May 20 erupted south of the city— where a military patrol was ambushed— and at the Nahr al-Bared camp soon after the raid. Both the military and the militant group quickly rallied reinforcements. The camp had been surrounded by Lebanese forces in March after the government charged Fatah al-Islam members with carrying out two bombings in a Christian area just north of Beirut in February. The camp

held an estimated 30,000–40,000 refugees. [See p. 251D1] Government forces began shelling the camp that day, but did not attempt to enter it. Electricity and water to the camp were cut off, and militants inside fired back at their besiegers. A nearby village, where militants were believed to be hiding out, was also shelled. At least 22 soldiers and 15 militants were killed that day, with a senior commander of the militant group reportedly among the dead. Pakistanis and Bangladeshis were allegedly among the militants killed. The civilian death toll was difficult to establish, but the government claimed that 15 civilians had died. Other reports claimed that at least two people in the camp had been killed, and dozens more were injured, including women and children. Lebanon’s cabinet expressed support for the military’s actions, while several members of the government blamed Syria for the violence. Ahmad Fatfat, the minister of youth and sports, and Marwan Hamade, the telecommunications minister, both accused Syria of instigating the violence in order to derail the creation of a U.N. tribunal to investigate the death of Hariri. Syria that day responded to the violence by closing two of its five border crossings with Lebanon. [See below] Many Lebanese openly praised the military for its actions at the Palestinian refugee camp, and troops received applause as they traveled through the country to the site of the violence. Fighting Continues—Fighting continued May 21 at the refugee camp, as the Lebanese army continued to shell militant positions there. The Red Cross was able to evacuate 16 injured civilians from the camp during a brief cease-fire, although supplies of food, water and medicine had difficulty getting through. U.N. officials said some aid workers had been wounded while trying to get into the camp. The Lebanese military reported that they had not taken any casualties that day. Abu Salim, a spokesman for Fatah al-Islam, warned that the violence would extend outside the refugee camp if the military did not stop the shelling. Ghazi Aridi, Lebanon’s information minister, said the cabinet that day had pledged to “end the terrorist phenomenon that is alien to the values and nature of the Palestinian people.” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem insisted that his country did not support Fatah al-Islam, and was in fact working to have any of its leaders in Syria arrested. Reports emerged May 21 that four militants had been arrested in the raid by Lebanese forces the previous day, and that 10 militants had been killed. The bodies of two of the militants reportedly were found to have explosives strapped to them. Fighting at the camp May 22 went on for a third day, though at a lesser level and

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Volume 67, No. 3467 May 24, 2007

B with sporadic interruptions as Fatah al-Islam declared a unilateral cease-fire. A U.N. aid convoy became caught in the cross fire as it attempted to deliver supplies, and several U.N. aid workers were trapped in the camp. Reports said that tires were being burned at refugee camps in southern Lebanon in protest against the shelling of Nahr al-Bared. Further fighting took place in Tripoli between government forces and a Fatah alIslam militant who reportedly blew himself up after several hours of fighting. As of May 22, reports said that 65 people had been killed, including 29 soldiers and 20 militants. Many nations voiced support for Lebanon’s actions against Fatah alIslam, including the U.S., which said it would consider boosting aid to Lebanon’s poorly equipped military. The Lebanese

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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Lebanese army battles Palestinian militants; bombs explode in Beirut. PAGE 325

Bush to seek expanded sanctions on Iran.

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U.S. Congress approves Iraq funding without timetables; wage hike attached; Bush to sign bill. PAGE 327

Senators reach deal on immigration reform bill. PAGE 327

Democrats, White House reach deal on trade pact conditions. PAGE 328

Algerian ruling party wins parliamentary elections.

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British Chancellor Brown wins Labour Party leadership. PAGE 336

Russian’s extradition sought in spy’s poisoning in London. PAGE 336

Palestinian factional violence eases as Israel strikes Gaza. PAGE 337

Curlin wins horse racing’s Preakness. PAGE 339

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah, despite opposing the government of Premier Fouad Siniora on other matters, also backed the military action. Fatah al-Islam and other Sunni Muslim groups associated with Al Qaeda—which had killed many Shiites in Iraq—were viewed with extreme hostility by many Shiites. Thousands of refugees fled the camp May 22–24, although several thousand remained behind. Many of the departing refugees claimed that many civilians in the camp had been killed. Military Issues Ultimatum—Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr May 23 demanded that Fatah al-Islam militants surrender, or else face “decisive military action.” Murr said Lebanon’s army “will not negotiate with a group of terrorists and criminals” and was preparing to “end the matter.” He added that 30 soldiers had been killed in the fighting that week, along with as many as 60 militants, some of them from Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Militants responded to the ultimatum with defiance, vowing to fight any attempts by the military to arrest or expel them. Little fighting took place that day, although the military brought in further reinforcements to the periphery of the camp. Brief episodes of gunfire May 24 occurred at the camp, becoming heavier later in the day, but no casualties were reported. A group of militants attempted to escape the camp in two boats in the Mediterranean Sea, but the Lebanese navy sank both the vessels, killing as many as a dozen people. Senior U.S. officials announced that a shipment of ammunition would be sent to resupply the Lebanese army. Meanwhile, Fatah al-Islam released a statement threatening to “blow up several crusaders’ universities and schools tomorrow in the event the Lebanese army does not surrender.” Three Bombs Hit Beirut Area— Three bombs May 20–23 exploded in the Beirut area, adding another dimension to the week’s violence. A car bomb May 20 exploded in a parking lot near a market in a Christian area of Beirut. One person was killed, and at least nine more were wounded. A bomb May 21 exploded in a mostly Sunni shopping area of Beirut, wounding at least six people. Another bomb May 23 exploded in a majority Druze mountain resort town near Beirut, injuring at least five people. As opposed to Shiites, Sunnis and Druze largely supported Siniora’s government, as did many Christians. No one claimed responsibility for any of the bombings. Many Lebanese blamed either Syria or Fatah al-Islam for the bombs, although both denied any involvement. Several people, including Hariri, had been killed by bombs in Lebanon in recent years, and Syria was often viewed as the culprit. Premier Asks U.N. to Create Tribunal—

Siniora May 14 sent a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon asking that the U.N. establish a tribunal to try suspects in the death of Hariri. An ongoing U.N. investigation into Hariri’s death had implicated Syria. The U.N. had previously insisted that Lebanon’s parliament ratify the tribu326

nal, but speaker Nabih Berri, a supporter of Syria, refused to bring the matter to a vote. Members of Hezbollah and other antigovernment, pro-Syrian groups had been demonstrating in Beirut against Siniora’s government since 2006, calling for greater representation in the government and a tight rein on the mandate of any tribunal. Ban May 16 told the council that attempts to win the blessing of Lebanon’s parliament had failed, and he urged the council to establish the tribunal. Lebanon’s pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, that day also sent a letter to Ban, warning that bypassing Lebanon’s parliament could result in further instability and violence in the nation. The council May 18 began considering a draft resolution on the tribunal. Two Sunni Muslims Found Executed—

The bodies of two Sunnis, 25-year-old Ziad Qabalan and 12-year-old Ziad Ghandour, April 26 were found south of Beirut. Each had three gunshots to the head. The two had been abducted three days earlier, and belonged to families that supported the government. Many Lebanese speculated that they had been killed in retaliation for the death of Adnan Shamas, a supporter of Hezbollah, during factional violence in January. Many of those attending a funeral for Qabalan and Ghandour April 27 denounced Hezbollah’s leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. [See p. 54E3] „

Iranian Nuclear Dispute Bush to Seek Expanded Sanctions. U.S.

President George W. Bush May 24 said he would seek more stringent sanctions against Iran for its attempts to continue a uranium-enrichment program in defiance of United Nations demands. Bush said at a news conference that he would seek to persuade Russia and China—two countries that had previously opposed strong sanctions on Iran—as well as European countries to “strengthen our sanction regime.” His announcement came a day after the United Nations nuclear monitor, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), released a report detailing Iran’s continued enrichment of uranium. [See p. 307E3] The May 23 report came at the expiration of a 60-day deadline the U.N. Security Council had set for Iran to suspend enrichment when it intensified sanctions against the country in March. Iran claimed that its enrichment program was designed to facilitate nuclear power generation in the country, while the U.S. and several other nations argued it existed to create weapons. Bush administration officials May 23 said that the U.S. and Britain would seek new Security Council sanctions banning travel by Iranian officials linked to the nuclear program. They would also seek, outside the council, to curtail European export credits and any arms sales to Iran. The IAEA report concluded that Iran had made substantial advances in its enrichment program over the past several months. The report also stated that “Iran has not agreed to any of the required transparency measures, which are essential for

the clarification of certain aspects of the scope and nature of its nuclear program.” According to the report, IAEA inspectors during a surprise visit earlier in May had discovered 1,312 centrifuges used to enrich uranium hexafluoride gas in operation at an underground facility near the town of Natanz. However, the report found that the levels of enrichment were far lower than those required to produce a nuclear weapon. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei May 24 estimated that Iran was somewhere between three and eight years from creating a nuclear bomb. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad May 24 signaled continued defiance of the U.N. demands and sanctions. “The enemies want us to surrender so that Iran won’t have anything to say in the world,” he said. In a move underscoring the tension between the U.S, and Iran, nine U.S. naval warships bearing 17,000 troops May 23 had been sent to the Persian Gulf to conduct exercises that the U.S. said had been long planned. „

Korean Peninsula Railway Link Inaugurated. Two trains May 17 crossed the demilitarized zone dividing North Korea and South Korea, one in each direction, in the first railway connection between the two countries since 1951. A train departed from Munsan, in northwestern South Korea, and traveled to Kaesong, North Korea, and back. On the eastern side of the peninsula, a train made a round-trip journey from North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort to Jejin, South Korea. The short, ceremonial runs did not yet inaugurate regular rail service, but officials hailed them as a step forward in relations between

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jonathan Taylor MANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham COPY DIRECTOR: Marion Farrier SENIOR EDITOR: Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Alasdair Denvil, Ryu Spaeth ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ian McGullam DATABASE COORDINATOR: Ben MIller INDEX EDITOR: Jonathan Leith COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Jane Carlson, Nikki Conti-Brown FACTS ON FILE World News Digest is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. Vice President & Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Associate Publisher: Marjorie B. Bank. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

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the bitterly divided countries. [See p. 188G3; 2003, p. 687F2] The two countries had agreed on the project, which was largely financed by South Korea, in 2000. Tracks from the two sides were linked in 2003, but an actual crossing had been delayed amid revived tensions. The western line was intended to eventually provide a new link between South Korea and a South Korean–operated industrial park at Kaesong. The eastern route would transport visitors to Mount Kumgang, already a tourist destination open to South Koreans. The last train to cross the border had done so in 1951, carrying wounded soldiers and refugees south during the 1950– 53 Korean War. „

International Business Thomson to Buy Reuters in News Merger.

Thomson Corp. of Canada, the world’s third-largest financial news provider, May 15 said it had reached an agreement to buy the second-largest, Reuters Group PLC of Britain, for about £8.7 billion ($17.2 billion) in cash and stock. If approved by antitrust regulators in the U.S. and the European Union, the deal would catapult the new combined company past Bloomberg LP of the U.S. as the leader in the financial news market, with 34% of the market, to Bloomberg’s 33%. But the deal was expected to face lengthy antitrust reviews of as long as a year. [See 2000, p. 724A2] Under the terms of the deal, Reuters Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tom Glocer, 47, would retain that post in the combined company, to be called ThomsonReuters. Thomson CEO Richard Harrington, 60, would retire, while Thomson Chairman David Thomson, 49, whose family would hold a 53% stake in the new company, would serve as its chairman. It would have 60,000 employees in 196 countries. Glocer and Harrington said they expected the merger to result in annual cost savings of $500 million, but they said they were not planning major layoffs. However, unions representing Reuters staff May 14 said they had “deep concerns” about potential job cuts. Raising cash for the acquisition, Thomson May 11 sold its educational publishing unit, Thomson Learning, for $7.75 billion to London-based private equity firm Apax Partners Worldwide and Canadian pension „ fund OMERS Capital Partners Inc.

Global Environment Carbon Dioxide Release to Rise 59% by 2030.

The U.S.’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) May 21 reported that the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide would increase by 59% between 2004 and 2030, due to increased energy consumption. The EIA predicted that the world’s total annual production of carbon dioxide would rise to 42.9 billion metric tons (47.3 billion tons) by 2030. [See p. 206A1] „ May 24, 2007

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Congress Approves Iraq Funding Without Timetables Wage Hike Attached; Bush to Sign Bill. The

Senate May 24 voted, 80–14, to approve a bill funding military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of September. The vote came after the House earlier that day approved the measure’s two parts separately, voting 280–142 in favor of the war funding, and 348–73 in favor of an array of separate domestic provisions, including an increase in the federal minimum wage. The separate parts were combined before being voted on by the Senate. President George W. Bush, who earlier in May had vetoed a funding bill that had included timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, said he would sign the new bill, which omitted those timetables. [See p. 310A1] The $120 billion bill provided $94.7 billion to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill required Bush to provide Congress with assessments of progress in Iraq twice, in July and September. It also called for independent reports regarding the development of Iraq’s security forces and the progress of the Iraqi government toward 18 different benchmarks. Failure to meet those benchmarks would entail a loss of reconstruction aid from the U.S., unless the president chose to waive the penalty. The earlier bill had made the benchmarks— which included progress on matters relating to national reconciliation, among other things—mandatory, and had set a date for the withdrawal of U.S. troops regardless of whether they were met. If requested to do so by the Iraqi government, the bill stated, the U.S. would pull troops out of Iraq. The war funding passed through the House with significant Republican support, but had sharply split House Democrats. Only 86 House Democrats voted in favor of it, with 140 voting against. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) voted against the war funding, complaining that the waivable benchmarks fell short of what most antiwar advocates desired. Of the four Democratic 2008 presidential candidates in the Senate, Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Christopher Dodd (Conn.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) voted against the bill, while Joseph Biden (Del.) voted in favor of it. Domestic Provisions—The bill included several domestic provisions unrelated to war funding, including a $2.10 per hour increase in the federal minimum wage, to $7.25 per hour, to be implemented in 70cent increases over the next two years. The increase would be the first since 1997. Several small-business tax breaks were included in order to ease the impact of the wage increase on employers. [See p. 60F1] Also on the domestic side, $6.4 billion was provided in hurricane relief for Gulf Coast states, along with roughly $3 billion in disaster aid for farmers. The bill also contained provisions for airline pension re-

lief, and veterans’ and children’s health care. Bush Praises Measure—Speaking prior to the passage of the bill, Bush May 24 called for Congress to vote in favor of it. At a press conference at the White House, Bush said, “By voting for this bill, members of both parties can show our troops and the Iraqis and the enemy that our country will support our service men and women in harm’s way.” Bush warned, however, that operations in Iraq would be challenging for both the military and the country as a whole. “We expect heavy fighting in the [coming] weeks and months” and more U.S. and Iraqi casualties, he said. He noted that the last component of the U.S. troop increase, or “surge,” intended to secure Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, would be in place in midJune. Bush declared that the coming summer would be critical for the security push. Congressional Democrats May 22 had dropped their calls for a timetable for withdrawal, conceding that funding for the troops had to be passed, and that they did not have the votes to override Bush’s veto. Sen. Russell Feingold (D, Wis.) lamented the decision, saying, “the desire for political comfort won out over real action.” Antiwar advocates May 23 blasted Democrats for the move, calling their offices and demanding that the timetables be included in any funding bill. „

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Immigration Senators Reach Deal on Reform Bill. A bipartisan group of senators May 17 reached a deal on comprehensive immigration reform legislation. The deal came after months of negotiations between the White House and congressional Democrats and Republicans. The bill included measures that would provide a path to citizenship for the majority of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., while also providing for a guestworker program and tighter border security. If enacted, it would be the most substantial reform of U.S. immigration law in decades. [See below, p. 278G3] President George W. Bush, who had called for such legislation to be passed before he left office, hailed the compromise as “historic,” saying it would “help enforce our borders, but equally importantly, it will treat people with respect.” Sen. Edward Kennedy (Mass.), a liberal Democrat who was one of the bill’s primary authors, said it was “the best possible chance we will have in years to secure our borders and bring millions of people out of the shadows.” However, the concessions made by the two sides in order to reach the compromise opened up the bill to criticism from both ends of the political spectrum. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who also had been involved in the negotiations, responded to the criticisms by saying, “The question is, ‘Do you want to solve the problem, or do you want to complain about it?’…This is about solving it.” 327

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Details of the Compromise—The group of senators who worked out the May 17 compromise was led by Kennedy and conservative Republican Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.). Others supporting the compromise included Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.), a leading candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination; and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R, S.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D, Calif.). Among the main provisions of the bill: † Illegal immigrants who had arrived in the U.S. prior to Jan. 1, 2007, would be given one year to apply for a newly created “Z visa” starting six months after the bill was enacted. They would have to pay a $1,500 application fee and undergo a background check. After eight years, they could apply for permanent legal resident status, but would have to return to their home countries to do so. They would also have to pay a $5,000 fine. In total, it would take at least 13 years to become a U.S. citizen. † A temporary-worker program would be created to admit 400,000 to 600,000 foreign workers each year. The workers would be granted two-year visas, which could be renewed three times. Workers would have to return to their home countries for a year before reapplying. † The current system for earning a permanent resident visa, or green card, which favored family ties to the U.S., would be replaced by a complicated points system that emphasized a worker’s skill and education levels and English-language proficiency. It would also take family ties into consideration, but to a lesser extent. † An additional 18,000 Border Patrol officers would be hired. Also, 200 miles (320 km) of vehicle barriers, 370 miles of fencing and 70 ground-based camera and radar towers would be built along the border. † Employers would have 18 months to verify a new worker’s immigration status, and three years to check a current worker’s status, under an electronic identification system being set up by the Homeland Security Department. Implementation of the visa and guestworker provisions was contingent on the border-security and worker status–verification provisions being successfully carried out. Bill Criticized From Right and Left—

Conservative Republicans blasted the May 17 deal as too lenient on illegal immigrants. Many said it amounted to an amnesty for millions who had broken the law. Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.), a vocal critic of illegal immigration and a longshot Republican presidential candidate, May 17 said the bill’s authors “seem to think that they can dupe the American public into accepting a blanket amnesty if they just call it ‘comprehensive’ or ‘earned legalization’ or ‘regularization.’” The compromise’s authors insisted that the bill did not amount to an amnesty because illegal immigrants would be required to pay fees and fines, and submit to background checks. 328

Meanwhile, liberal Democrats criticized the bill for reducing the importance of family ties in the granting of visas, and making the visa and guest-worker provisions contingent on the enforcement provisions. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D, Calif.) May 17 said the temporary-worker program would create “a permanent underclass of imported workers to fill American jobs.” Labor unions, including the AFL-CIO umbrella group, also opposed that provision, arguing that it would depress wages for all workers. Additionally, business owners argued that the visa and temporary-worker provisions would hinder their ability to employ high-skilled workers. Becerra also faulted the shift to “an employment-based visa system as opposed to a family system,” saying, “You will continue to have close family members separated from their loved ones because of this policy.” His criticisms were echoed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.), who said, “I have serious concerns about some aspects of this proposal, including the structure of its temporary-worker program and undue limitations on family immigration. We need to improve the bill as it moves through the legislative process.” Advocates for illegal immigrants cited the fines and the provisions requiring immigrants to return to their home countries as overly burdensome. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, currently the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, in the past had supported immigration reform. However, his communications director said in a May 18 statement that Giuliani’s “top priority and main objective is to ensure our borders are secure and to stop potential terrorists and criminals from coming in.” [See p. 309A3] Another leading GOP candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, May 17 launched a scathing attack on the proposed bill, saying it was “unfair to the millions of people who have applied to legally immigrate to the U.S.” Among the leading Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) May 23 criticized the points-based visa system, saying that it did “not reflect how much Americans value the family ties that bind people.” Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) May 17 called the guestworker program “poorly conceived.” [See p. 329G2] Senate Debate Moves Forward—The Senate May 21 voted, 69–23, to begin debate on the bill. Reid that day said that, in light of the controversy surrounding the bill, the Senate would not attempt to hold a final vote on it until after the Memorial Day recess, which would last from May 25 to June 4. The first provision to come under attack was the one regarding guest workers. The Senate May 23 passed, 74–24, an amendment, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D, N.M.), reducing the annual quota of guest workers to 200,000. The previous day, the Senate had voted, 64–31, against an amendment sponsored by Sens. Barbara

Boxer (D, Calif.) and Byron Dorgan (D, N.D.) that would have removed the guestworker provision from the bill completely. Both amendments were opposed by employers, who, fearing labor shortages, objected to any cut in the number of guest workers. The Senate May 24 voted, 66–29, to retain the provision that established a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Sen. David Vitter (R, La.) had proposed an amendment to eliminate the program, calling it “amnesty, pure and simple,” and arguing that it would encourage illegal immigration. Also that day, the Senate narrowly defeated, 49–48, an amendment that would have imposed a five-year limit on the guest-worker program, after Sen. Daniel Akaka (D, Hawaii) switched his vote. The House was not expected to take up the legislation until July. „

Foreign Trade Democrats, White House Reach Deal. The White House and Democrats in Congress May 10 reached an agreement on trade policy, allowing the Democrats to attach labor and environmental regulations to all future international trade agreements. The negotiations were led by Susan Schwab, the U.S. trade representative, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. for the Bush administration. Rep. Charles Rangel (N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, represented the Democrats. [See p. 205F1] The deal would guarantee workers in countries that signed trade pacts with the U.S. the right to form unions and bargain collectively, and would prohibit forced labor, child labor and workplace discrimination. It would also require trading partners to abide by environmental laws already agreed to as well as other international environmental accords. Additionally, partners would be permitted to sell generic versions of patent-protected U.S. drugs during public health crises; the U.S. retained the right to stop foreign companies from operating U.S. ports; and U.S. workers who had lost their jobs because of lowered trade barriers were promised increased job training and financial assistance. In return, the Bush administration received tentative bipartisan support for four bilateral trade pacts, with Panama, Peru, Colombia and South Korea. The deal, Schwab said, showed that “the U.S. is not turning protectionist,” bolstering the administration’s efforts to revive discussions between members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on a global trade agreement, the so-called Doha round of talks. [See p. 12C3] Additionally, the compromise offered a model for future negotiations between the Democratic majority in Congress and the administration, allowing the possibility for an extension of Bush’s trade promotion authority. The “fast track” authority had enabled Bush to negotiate bilateral trade pacts with other countries and submit them to Congress for approval with no opportuFACTS ON FILE

nity for amendment; it was due to expire June 30. The Bush administration had also been under pressure to reduce the trade deficit, which had spiked to $63.9 billion in March, its highest level in six months. [See p. 160B2] Pacts

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With the new regulations in place, pending agreements with Panama and Peru, if approved by their respective governments, were expected to clear Congress. However, the future of the South Korea and Colombia pacts was not as certain. The South Korea agreement had faced opposition from lawmakers who demanded more access to its markets for U.S. beef and automobiles than what was granted in the current form of the deal. South Korea had banned all imports of U.S. beef in 2003, after an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in U.S. cattle. [See 2003, p. 1035G1] Lawmakers had also questioned aspects of the Colombia agreement, citing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez’s alleged ties to right-wing paramilitary groups accused of human rights abuses and drug trafficking, and an increasing number of killings of trade union members in the country. The Colombia pact was seen as of utmost importance to the Bush administration, which had viewed a strong economic relationship with the country as a way to counterbalance the growing influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias, who had been at the forefront of a movement against U.S. influence in the region. [See pp. 334B1, 156C1] John Sweeney, president of the AFLCIO, the nation’s largest union federation, May 11 said the union would “vigorously oppose” the bilateral trade agreements with South Korea and Colombia. Pharmaceutical companies also criticized the deal, particularly the provision that gave partner countries easier access to generic drugs. Manufacturers argued that the labor and environmental protections would be too difficult to police, and called for more regulations on currency manipulation and intellectual property theft. Manufacturing groups said the deal did not go far enough in compensating domestic workers, and claimed that U.S. workers would continue to lose jobs due to the availability of cheaper labor forces in developing countries. „

2008 Presidential Campaign Candidates Disclose Personal Finances.

Candidates for the Republican and Democratic 2008 presidential nominations filed reports disclosing their personal finances by a May 15 deadline set by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The reports, released May 16, showed that the candidates were a mostly wealthy group, including at least 10 millionaires. [See p. 208B1] The richest candidate was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a top Republican candidate, but he received a 45-day extension of the deadline from the FEC, as May 24, 2007

did his rival, Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.), and the Democratic front-runner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.). Romney’s campaign May 11 said he expected to report assets worth between $260 million and $350 million, including trusts for his children and grandchildren. Romney had accumulated his fortune as a founder of Bain Capital, a major private equity firm. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, the Republican frontrunner in national polls, reported assets worth more than $30 million. He valued his stake in a holding company for his consulting businesses, Giuliani & Co. LLC, at $5 million to $25 million. He also said he had earned about $11.4 million by giving paid speeches in 2006 alone. Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), a leading Democratic candidate, reported assets worth between $14.3 million and $44.7 million in 2004. Edwards had made most of his fortune as a trial lawyer before entering politics. Edwards’s report disclosed that he had earned $479,512 in 2006 by serving as an adviser to Fortress Investment Group LLC, a hedge fund. It also said he held investments in Fortress worth between $11.2 million and $24.7 million. Edwards in a May 10 interview with the Washington Post had said that he took the advisory role with Fortress because he wanted to learn more about finance. He said he did not think that the job with a hedge fund conflicted with his populist, antipoverty campaign message. (Hedge funds were lightly regulated investment pools open only to the wealthy and to institutional investors.) Fortress incorporated its funds in the Cayman Islands. Edwards had criticized such “offshore tax havens.” Among other Democratic candidates, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson reported assets of $3.5 million to $10.1 million; Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.), $1.5 million to $3.5 million; Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), $500,000 to $1.1 million; and Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), $62,000 to $428,000. Among other Republicans, Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.) reported assets of $3.3 million to $8.7 million; Rep. Duncan Hunter (Calif.), $1 million to $2.4 million; Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.), $545,000 to $1.2 million; and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, $350,000 to $900,000. Other News—In other campaign news: † Richardson May 21 officially kicked off his campaign for the Democratic nomination with a speech in Los Angeles. Speaking partly in Spanish, he highlighted his Hispanic background. His mother was Mexican and he had spent his childhood in Mexico City, although, as he noted, he was born in California. If elected, Richardson, 59, would be the first Hispanic president. He also stressed his broad experience in public service as a governor, congressman, U.S. energy secretary and ambassador to the United Nations. [See p. 46E3] † McCain May 21 mocked Romney, after Romney criticized a newly unveiled immigration reform bill that McCain

supported. Speaking to reporters, McCain said of Romney’s position on the bill, “In the case of Governor Romney, you now, maybe I should wait a couple of weeks and see if it changes, because it’s changed in less than a year from his position before. And maybe his solution will be to get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his lawn.” He was referring both to a 2006 report that a gardening firm hired by Romney had employed Guatemalans who were in the U.S. illegally, and to Romney’s April claim to have been a lifelong “rodent and rabbit hunter…small varmints, if you will.” McCain and Romney had also clashed at a May 15 Republican debate. [See pp. 327D3, 309F3, 222E3] „

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Monica Goodling, a former senior aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, May 23 testified before the House Judiciary Committee on a 2006 purge of at least eight federal prosecutors, as well as political bias in the Justice Department’s hiring practices. Goodling testified under an agreement that gave her immunity from prosecution based on any information she provided truthfully. [See p. 311F2] Goodling said she had played only a small role in the planning of the ouster of the U.S. attorneys. But she admitted that she had “crossed the line” by improperly considering political loyalties when vetting applicants for Justice Department career positions, in possible violation of civil service laws. The department had opened two internal probes into her actions. She said, “I do acknowledge that I may have gone too far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions and may have taken inappropriate political considerations into account on some occasions. I regret those mistakes.” She said she had rejected applicants who she decided were Democrats or liberals. Goodling alleged that Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty had spoken falsely when he said in his February testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that she had not briefed him about the firing plan. “I believe the deputy was not fully candid,” she said. McNulty, who had announced his resignation a week earlier, issued a statement responding that “Ms. Goodling’s characterization of my testimony is wrong.” Goodling said that Gonzales had engaged her in a conversation in March that made her “a little uncomfortable.” Asked by Rep. Artur Davis (D, Ala.) if she thought the attorney general was “trying to shape your recollection” of the planning for the prosecutor purge, Goodling replied, “I just did not know if it was a conversation we should be having, and so I just didn’t say anything.” A Justice Department spokesman said in response, “The attorney general has never attempted to influence or shape the testimony or public statements of any witness.” Goodling, 33, had been both senior counsel to Gonzales and the department’s 329

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liaison to the White House. But she denied that she had ever discussed the plan to fire the prosecutors with Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s top political adviser, or Harriet Miers, who served as White House counsel until January. Goodling was a graduate of the law school at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., founded by evangelical leader Rev. Pat Robertson. She had worked for the Republican National Committee, the executive body of the national Republican Party, before joining the Justice Department. She was given authority to oversee the department’s hiring decisions despite the fact that she had only six months’ experience as a prosecutor. Democrats Urge No-Confidence Vote—

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Sens. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (D, Calif.) May 17 called for a vote of no confidence in Gonzales. The resolution would be nonbinding but would increase the pressure on Gonzales to resign. Reps. Adam Schiff (D, Calif.) and Davis May 21 introduced a parallel resolution in the House. Bush May 21 dismissed the proposed votes as “pure political theater” and reaffirmed his confidence in Gonzales. Meanwhile, the House May 22 voted, 306–114, to clear a bill, already passed by the Senate, that would remove the president’s power to directly appoint interim U.S. attorneys for indefinite periods. The measure would repeal part of a 2006 reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, which had given the president the new power. Democrats said Bush had misused it to install Republican loyalists, circumventing the Senate confirmation process. „

Federal Budget Congress Adopts Democratic Blueprint.

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The House and Senate May 17 both gave final approval to a $2.9 trillion budget resolution for fiscal year 2008, which would begin Oct. 1. The House voted, 214–209, to adopt the Democratic blueprint, while the Senate passed it by a vote of 52–40. No Republicans voted for the measure in the House, and only two voted for it in the Senate. The budget resolution was nonbinding and did not become law, but set guidelines for tax and spending legislation. [See p. 209E2] The plan aimed to balance the budget in five years, mainly by allowing most of the tax cuts enacted during President George W. Bush’s first term to expire. Total discretionary spending (funds allocated annually by Congress) in fiscal 2008 would be $954.1 billion, excluding spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The plan envisioned spending increases in 2008 for health care, education and other social programs, exceeding by more than $20 billion the domestic spending limit that Bush had called for in his February budget proposal. The White House May 11 had warned that Bush would veto any appropriations bills that exceeded his budget requests. Congressional Republicans called the Democratic plan irresponsible, saying it 330

would effectively raise taxes by about $220 billion over five years in order to fund outof-control spending. Republicans criticized the blueprint for not curbing the growth of spending on the biggest federal “entitlement” programs: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. However, the plan did provide for $180 billion in tax cuts, including extensions of some Bush tax cuts set to expire at the end of 2010: the 10% income tax bracket, the child tax credit, and relief from the socalled marriage penalty, which had made some married couples’ taxes higher than they would be if each spouse were single. The plan also allowed for a one-year “patch” that would shield 23 million taxpayers from the alternative minimum tax. That tax had been designed in the 1960s to apply only to the rich, but had increasingly affected the middle class because it was not indexed for inflation. The resolution required any other tax cuts to be offset by equivalent spending cuts, which was considered an unlikely prospect. It assumed that Bush’s tax cuts for upper income brackets, dividends and capital gains would expire as scheduled at the end of 2010. Also, under House rules, the adoption of the budget resolution automatically gave House approval to an $850 billion increase in the statutory limit on the national debt. That increase would bring the ceiling to $9.815 trillion if the Senate approved the measure separately and Bush signed it. „

Legislation House Passes Defense Authorization. The House May 17 passed, 397–27, a $648.6 billion Defense Department authorization bill for fiscal 2008, which was set to begin Oct. 1. The bill included $141.6 billion for military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as $503.8 billion in discretionary spending. The total amount authorized surpassed President George W. Bush’s requested amount by more than $20 billion, and was the largest defense authorization in real dollars since World War II. The Bush administration warned, however, that it faced a presidential veto on several counts. [See p. 76E1] One provision in the bill required the Defense Department to develop a plan to relocate the roughly 400 terrorism detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, either by releasing them or transferring them to another facility. The Bush administration May 16 had threatened to veto any bill that “would micromanage the detention of enemy combatants.” [See p. 280D3] Also prompting threats of a veto were provisions requiring the Pentagon to buy certain items from U.S. suppliers rather than foreign ones, and granting Pentagon employees collective bargaining and other labor rights. Notably, the bill cut $764 million in funding for missile defense, while allowing the Pentagon to shift $205 million of its budget to collaborate on missile defense with Israel. [See p. 275D3] The bill also included a 3.5% pay raise for service personnel, and authorized only

$2.8 billion for the Army’s Future Combat Systems, nearly $1 billion less than Bush requested. „

National Politics Carter Attacks Bush’s Record. Former Pres-

ident Jimmy Carter May 19 assailed President George W. Bush’s foreign policy record as “the worst in history,” in an unusually harsh criticism of a sitting president by a former one. In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Carter said, “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history. The overt reversal of America’s basic values as expressed by previous administrations…has been the most disturbing to me.” [See 2002, p. 798A2] He said that Bush’s use of preemptive war, in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, marked a “radical departure from all previous administration policies.” In the same interview, Carter criticized Bush’s creation of a White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives to help religious charities obtain federal funds. “As a traditional Baptist, I’ve always believed in separation of church and state and honored that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one.” Carter May 19 also disparaged British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in an interview with the British Broadcasting Co. (BBC). Asked about Blair’s close relations with Bush, Carter said, “Abominable. Loyal. Blind. Apparently subservient. And I think the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq has been a major tragedy for the world.” White House spokesman Tony Fratto May 20 responded to Carter’s remarks, saying, “I think it’s sad that President Carter’s reckless personal criticism is out there. I think it’s unfortunate, and I think he is proving to be increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments.” Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, Carter May 21 said his comments about Bush having the worst foreign policy record were either “careless or misinterpreted.” He said he had only meant to compare Bush unfavorably to President Richard Nixon. „

Terrorism Detainees Padilla Trial Begins. The trial of Jose Pa-

dilla, who was accused of being an operative of the Al Qaeda international terrorist network, May 14 began in U.S. District Court in Miami, Fla. Padilla and his two codefendants, Adham Wael Hassoun and Kifah Amin Jayyousi, were accused of conspiring to “murder, kidnap and maim” people overseas and providing material support to Al Qaeda. The trial was expected to last until August. [See p. 125B2] Padilla had been detained without charges by the military in 2002 and accused of involvement in an Al Qaeda plot to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb” in FACTS ON FILE

the U.S. However, federal authorities in 2005 had transferred him to civilian custody, and he was not facing charges relating to the dirty bomb allegation. Jury selection, which began April 16, had reportedly been slowed by widespread knowledge among potential jurors of government accusations against Padilla. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke March 23 had ruled that Padilla’s threeyear, eight-month detention in a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., had not violated his constitutional right to a speedy trial, quashing a bid to dismiss the charges against him. Cooke April 11 also overturned a dismissal motion on the grounds that Padilla had been tortured while in military custody. However, she specified that the ruling was on procedural grounds and that she was not passing judgment on Padilla’s torture claims. Al Qaeda Links Stressed—In his opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier May 14 repeatedly emphasized prosecutors’ allegations that Padilla and the two other defendants had formed a “south Florida support cell” of Al Qaeda. Padilla was described as “one of the recruits” and “an Al Qaeda terrorist trainee.” Hassoun, Frazier said, “indoctrinated people and converted them to become Al Qaeda fighters,” while Jayyousi was “the money man” who funneled funds and supplies to overseas terrorist groups. Frazier detailed Al Qaeda’s intervention in religious and ethnic conflicts in Lebanon, Somalia, the Serbian province of Kosovo and the rebellious Russian republic of Chechnya. He said Padilla’s cell “fit right into this pattern of training, equipping and deploying Islamic fighters all over the world.” Frazier said the prosecution would present as evidence a “mujaheddin data form,” allegedly completed by Padilla at an Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in July 2000. The form was allegedly an application to the camp filled out by Padilla in Arabic using a pseudonym. Prosecutors said it contained Padilla’s personal information and bore his fingerprints. Frazier also said jurors would hear telephone calls by the defendants recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) between 1993 and 2000. Defense lawyers presented the government’s case as misguided and lacking in credible evidence. One of Padilla’s attorneys, Anthony Natale, said, “In this case, you will see how in the absence of hard evidence, a suspicion can be fueled by fear, nourished by prejudice and directed by politics into a criminal prosecution.” Defense lawyers threw doubt onto the legitimacy of the data form, and said the defendants were only trying to help Muslims. Convicted Terrorist Testifies— Yahya Goba, who in April 2003 had pleaded guilty to involvement in an Al Qaeda “sleeper cell” in Lackawanna, N.Y., May 18 testified that he had filled out an identical data form using an alias when he had attended Al Qaeda’s Al Farooq training camp in Afghanistan. The prosecution had May 24, 2007

described Goba as “critical” to proving Padilla’s attendance at the camp. [See 2003, p. 304A3] However, Goba under defense questioning said that the camp was a military training camp where he was learning to defend Muslims—a similar motivation to that claimed by the defendants—rather than a terrorist training facility. He also said that attendees at the camp could choose not to go through with the training after signing the form, implying that Padilla might have done that. FBI agent Kent Hukill May 22 testified that the FBI had intercepted more than 300,000 calls during its investigation of the alleged cell, of which 14,000 were calls made by Hassoun and Jayyousi that were considered “pertinent.” Prosecutors were submitting only 123 calls as evidence, and defense lawyers challenged Hukill over why those calls were chosen for inclusion in the trial. According to court documents, Padilla’s voice could be heard on seven of the calls, and his name was mentioned in about two dozen others. „

Terrorism Cuban Airline Bombing Suspect Freed.

Judge Kathleen Cardone of U.S. District Court in El Paso, Texas, May 9 dismissed immigration fraud charges against a 79year-old Cuban militant exile, whom Cuba’s communist government had accused of involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Airlines flight off the coast of Barbados. The exile, Luis Posada Carriles, April 19 had been released on bail from a New Mexico jail, under an April 6 order by Cardone. The rulings were opposed by the Cuban and Venezuelan governments and relatives of the 73 people killed in the bombing. [See 2006, p. 1008B1] Posada in May 2005 had been arrested in Florida by immigration officials, and Jan. 11 was charged with lying about his illegal entry into the U.S. from Mexico while applying to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Cardone Feb. 15 had set a May 11 trial date. Cardone in dismissing the charges said the government had used “fraud, deceit and trickery” to obtain evidence during Posada’s naturalization hearing. Cuba Blasts Release—Cuba’s top diplomat in the U.S., Dagoberto Rodriguez Barrera, May 9 issued a statement saying the U.S. Bush administration had “done all it can to protect the bin Laden of this hemisphere,” likening Posada to Al Qaeda international terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden. The Cuban government had repeatedly denounced Posada’s release as hypocritical given the U.S.’s strong rhetorical stance against terrorism. It criticized the U.S. government for not charging him with more serious offenses relating to the 1976 bombing, as well as a 1997 series of nightclub bombings in Havana, Cuba’s capital, it accused him of plotting. In a letter distributed by Cuban foreign ministry officials after Cardone’s April 11 refusal to reverse her decision to allow bail, Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz wrote,

“The government of the U.S. and its most representative institutions have decided the liberation of the monster beforehand.” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro May 9 also demanded that the U.S. bring terrorism charges against Posada or turn him over to Venezuela for trial. Venezuelan officials had accused Posada of plotting the airline bombing while in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. A U.S. Justice Department spokesman said the Bush administration was reviewing the court decisions. The Justice Department had previously argued against releasing Posada on bail, saying he posed a flight risk due to his 1985 escape from a Venezuelan prison. In court papers, it had described Posada as “an unrepentant criminal and admitted mastermind of terrorist plots.” „

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Supreme Court Death Sentence Upheld; Hearing Denied.

The Supreme Court May 14 ruled, 5–4, that a death row inmate did not deserve an evidentiary hearing based on his claims that his lawyer had failed to present evidence that would have altered the jury’s decision to sentence him to death. It said the U.S. District Court in Phoenix, Ariz., was “well within its discretion” to deny Jeffrey Landrigan the hearing because he had prohibited his lawyer from using any mitigating evidence at his sentencing hearing, refusing to allow his mother and ex-wife to testify. The case was Schriro v. Landrigan. [See p. 279G2] Landrigan, convicted in Arizona of a 1989 murder and given the death penalty, had filed a habeas corpus petition in 1995 claiming that his Sixth Amendment right to a guarantee of effective legal representation had been violated. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., in 2006 ruled that the district court’s refusal to hold a hearing for the petition was an “abuse of discretion” and ordered it to conduct the hearing. Arizona appealed the case to the Supreme Court. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, stressed that Landrigan himself had curbed his counsel’s efforts to save his life, effectively waiving his right to submit mitigating evidence. Thomas noted that when asked by the sentencing judge whether he had anything to say in his defense, Landrigan responded, “I think if you want to give me the death penalty, just bring it on.” Thomas added that based on Landrigan’s initial refusal to submit mitigating evidence, Landrigan would not have been able to prove that his lawyer’s performance was a factor in his sentencing, thus dispelling the need for a hearing on the habeas corpus petition. Thomas was joined in the majority by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Anthony M. Kennedy. In a dissenting opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens argued that the court had given “a parsimonious appraisal of a capital defendant’s constitutional right to have the sentencing decision reflect meaningful consideration of all relevant mitigating evidence.” Stevens cited the fact that Landrigan had lat331

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er been diagnosed with brain damage and mental illness as an example of mitigating evidence the sentencing jury had not heard, and added that Landrigan was “at least entitled to an evidentiary hearing.” Stevens was joined by Justices David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. The case was the fourth capital punishment case in a row to be decided by a 5–4 vote, revealing an ideological split on the court concerning the status of capital defendants. In all the cases, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito had voted in favor of the state imposing the death penalty; Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer in favor of the defendant’s assertion that his rights had been violated. Kennedy had been the deciding vote in each case, voting with the liberal bloc in the three previous decisions. „ Phone Antitrust Lawsuit Thrown Out. The Supreme Court May 21 ruled, 7–2, that an allegation that Verizon Communications Inc., Qwest Communications International Inc. and AT&T Inc. had colluded to not compete with one another so that each could benefit was not enough grounds to proceed with an antitrust lawsuit. It said the plaintiffs, in a class-action lawsuit representing customers, had to provide some evidence indicating that an agreement between the companies had been made. The case was Bell Atlantic v. Twombly. [See p. 108F2] In the majority opinion, Justice David H. Souter said that while the companies might have profited from noncompetition, without “factual context” the court could equally infer that the companies were acting out of independent self-interest and not by mutual agreement. Souter said the plaintiffs had “not nudged their claims across the line from conceivable to plausible.” He added that innocent antitrust defendants would be prone to overbearing litigation costs if an allegation was all that was required to conduct an antitrust lawsuit. Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, with Stevens arguing that the court had not settled the case according to law but by a “transparent policy concern” to shield antitrust defendants. „ Families of Disabled Students Can Sue.

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The Supreme Court May 21 ruled, 7–2, that parents of disabled children had the right to sue public school districts without the counsel of a lawyer when challenging a district’s educational plan for their children. The case was Winkelman v. Parma City School District. [See 2006, p. 864A2] The court said in cases filed under the Indviduals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which guaranteed disabled children a “free appropriate public education,” parents had the right to represent their children when conflicts arose between them and a school district over what educational program best suited the child. By federal law, adults were allowed to represent themselves in court; however, when parents like Jeff and Sandee Winkelman, who brought the case to the court, attempted to represent their disabled child, they were charged with the unauthorized practice of law. The court said the U.S. District Court 332

in Cleveland, Ohio, and the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, had been wrong to assert that the Winkelmans could not sue the Parma, Ohio, school district without counsel. In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy concluded that the IDEA statute gave rights not only to disabled children but also to their parents. Kennedy said the interests of parents and children in regard to the child’s education were one and the same, and thus parents who acted on behalf of their children in court were also acting in their own interest. He said the rights guaranteed in the statute were “fully in accord with our social and legal traditions.” In his dissenting opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia said, “The parents of a disabled child no doubt have an interest in seeing their child receive a proper education. But there is a difference between an interest and a statutory right.” Scalia was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. Other News—In other Supreme Court news: † The Supreme Court April 30 ruled, 7– 1, in favor of Microsoft Corp., saying U.S. patent law did not hold sway over software exported to foreign countries. It rejected AT&T Corp.’s claim that Microsoft should be held liable for computers built outside the U.S. that used technology that encroached on AT&T’s digital speech coder system, which translated human speech into computer code. The court’s ruling had the potential to influence other such lawsuits against Microsoft. The case was Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp. [See p. 280G1] † The Supreme Court May 21 dismissed without a decision the case Roper v. Weaver. An unsigned opinion said that in light of procedural problems during the hearing of the case, dismissal was the proper course of action. In the case, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, Mo., had been accused of incorrectly granting a habeas corpus hearing to a death row inmate. Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented. Scalia described it as “a rare manifestation of judicial clemency unrestrained by law.” † The Supreme Court May 21 overturned a lower court’s judgment that police officers could be held liable for entering the room of a white couple, who were naked and ordered to stand motionless for minutes, while carrying out a legitimate search warrant for black suspects. The court, which did not hear arguments in the case, said in an unsigned opinion that the presence of the naked couple did not rule out the possibility that the suspects were in the house as well. The case was Los Angeles County v. Rettele. † The Supreme Court May 21 accepted Department of Revenue of Kentucky v. Davis, in which the court would have to decide whether states could continue to exempt interest on bonds issued by their own municipalities from taxation, while taxing interest on bonds issued by other states. The practice had allowed issuers to borrow

money at a lower interest rate because investors were compensated by not having to pay taxes on the interest return. The Kentucky Court of Appeals in 2006 had deemed the practice “facially unconstitutional,” saying it hindered interstate commerce by discouraging people to invest in bonds from other states. „

Economy Trade Gap Rose in March to $64 Billion.

The Commerce Department May 10 reported that the Trade Deficit seasonally ad(in billions) justed U.S. trade March 2007 $63.89 deficit in goods Previous Month $57.89 and services for Year Earlier $62.27 March was $63.9 billion, up from a revised $57.9 billion in February. [See p. 160B2] Exports rose $2.2 billion to $126.2 billion in March. Exports of industrial supplies and materials climbed, as did those of motor vehicles, parts and engines. Imports increased $8.2 billion in March, to $190.1 billion, most notably in the areas of industrial supplies and materials, motor vehicles, parts and engines, and consumer goods. Trade Gap Shrank Slightly in February—

The Commerce Department April 13 reported that the seasonally adjusted U.S. trade deficit in goods and services for February was $58.4 billion, down from a revised $58.9 billion in January. Exports fell $2.8 billion from January’s level to $124.0 billion. Imports fell $3.2 billion from January’s level, to $182.4 billion. Exports and imports of all goods decreased in most areas. Bilateral Trade Data—The Commerce Department May 10 also reported bilateral trade data for March. The numbers were not seasonally adjusted and contained merchandise-trade data only, with no revisions for the previous month except to the data for Canada. The March merchandise-trade deficit with China lowered to $17.2 billion, from $18.4 billion in February, as reported April 13. The deficit with Canada grew to $5.7 billion, from a revised $4.7 billion in February. The gap with the European Union rose for the second month in a row, to $7.7 billion in March, from $6.4 billion. The MERCHANDISE TRADE DATA Country/ Region China Japan Canada European Union Mexico NICs†

Deficit/Surplus* March February 2007 2007 -17.25 -7.05 -5.75 -7.72 -6.71 -.10

-18.43 -7.06 -4.72 -6.36 -5.08 -.47

*Bilateral trade figures in billions of dollars unadjusted for seasonal variations. The data—except figures given for Canada—do not include revisions of month-earlier figures. †Newly industrialized countries—Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

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gap with Japan stayed at the $7.1 billion February level. „ Consumer Prices Rose 0.4% in April.

The Labor Department May 15 (CPI) reported that its April Inflation 2007 0.4% consumer price Previous Month 0.6% index (CPI), 12-Month Increase 2.6% which tracked prices paid for consumer goods by all urban consumers, grew 0.4% in April, after adjustment for seasonal variation. That was down from a 0.6% rise in the index in March. The decrease was driven in part by stable rent prices. “Core” consumer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food costs, increased by 0.2% in April, up from a 0.1% rise in March. For the 12-month period through April, the overall unadjusted inflation rate was 2.6%. [See p. 245C2] Unadjusted for seasonal variation, the CPI for all urban consumers stood at 206.686% of its 1982–84 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982–84 would have cost $206.686 in April. „

Mergers & Acquisitions Microsoft Buys Online Ad Firm. Software

giant Microsoft Corp., based in Redmond, Wash., May 18 announced the $6 billion purchase of aQuantive Inc., an online advertising company based in Seattle, Wash. The deal was the largest purchase in the software company’s history. [See 2005, p. 713D2] Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft would offer aQuantive $66.50 a share, an 85% premium over aQuantive’s closing price May 17. AQuantive stock May 18 climbed 78%, to $63.79, on the Nasdaq Stock Market. AQuantive was the most recent online ad firm to be acquired by a major Internet company or traditional advertising agency in the past month. Google Inc. April 13 had bought DoubleClick Inc. for $3.1 billion. Since then, Google’s rivals had followed suit. Yahoo Inc. April 30 acquired the 80% of Right Media Inc. that it did not already own for $680 million. WPP Group PLC, a long-established advertising company wary of Internet companies’ abrupt intrusion into the advertising market, May 17 announced the $649 million acquisition of 24/7 Real Media Inc. [See 2006, p. 781F2] The deals demonstrated a significant and sudden spike in the value of online advertising companies. Internet ad revenues had nearly tripled since 2002, and accounted for 7% of all ads in the U.S., up from 3%. It was estimated that the overall money spent on online ads would nearly double by 2010. It was widely viewed that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft wanted to reap more of the online advertising industry’s growing profits and become the new middlemen between advertisers and Internet users. Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platforms and services division, May 18 said, “We believe that there are tens of billions of dollars in economic valMay 24, 2007

ue that can be generated in this industry, and we are committed to getting a bigger share of it.” Online ad firms were especially coveted for their ability to target a product’s intended demographic with much more accuracy than traditional advertising mediums like television, print and radio. Ad servers like DoubleClick and Atlas, a division of aQuantive, matched certain ads with certain Web sites based on technology that tracked Internet users’ surfing habits, using them as indicators of their tastes. In addition to Atlas, aQuantive was composed of DRIVEpm, a network that purchased ad space from Web sites and sold it to advertisers, and Avenue A/Razorfish, a service that helped companies plan their online ad campaigns, generate ads themselves and place those ads on the Internet. Microsoft said the deal would undergo an antitrust review. Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, too, would be subject to such a review. „ News in Brief. Little Rock, Ark.–based wireless telephone company Alltel Corp. May 20 announced that it would be acquired by a consortium of private equity firms, led by Texas Pacific Group and the private equity branch of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., for $27.5 billion. According to the terms of the deal, the consortium would pay Alltel $71.50 a share, a 10% premium over Alltel’s closing price May 18 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The purchase of Alltel, the U.S.’s fifth-largest wireless carrier, was the largest private buyout in the telecommunications industry’s history. [See p. 127B3] First Data Corp., a credit and debit card

processing company based in Greenwood Village, Colo., April 2 said it was being acquired by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for $29 billion. It was the second-largest leveraged buyout in history. Under the agreement, Kohlberg Kravis would pay $34 a share, a 26% premium over First Data’s closing price „ March 30 on the NYSE.

Accidents & Disasters Pilots Faulted in 2004 Missouri Crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Jan. 9 reported that two pilots’ “unprofessional behavior, deviation from standard operating procedures and poor airmanship” had been responsible for the October 2004 crash of Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701. The men, Jesse Rhodes and Peter Cesarz, were transporting the Bombardier CRJ-200 to Minneapolis, Minn., from Little Rock, Ark., when it crashed near Jefferson City, Mo. They were the only people killed in the accident. [See 2006, p. 678D3] The NTSB said the men had violated Pinnacle Airlines Inc. safety rules and took the airplane on a joyride, flying the jet to its maximum altitude of 41,000 feet (12,500 m), where both engines lost power. However, the board added that a problem with the jet engines had contributed to the crash. In addition, it said Pinnacle had not provided adequate safety training to its pilots. „

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Algeria Ruling Party Wins Parliamentary Elections.

Algeria’s governing National Liberation Front (FLN) retained its majority in May 17 parliamentary elections, according to results released the next day. However, a combination of voter apathy and fears of terrorist attacks kept turnout to a record-low 35.6%. [See p. 217A1; 2002, p. 465D3] The vote took place some five weeks after two suicide bombings in Algiers, the capital, had killed 33 people. The radical Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attacks. The group had its roots in a radical Islamist movement that had taken up arms against the Algerian government in 1992 after secular military and civilian officials canceled elections that the radical Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win. At least 150,000 people were killed and some 7,000 others disappeared in the ensuing civil war. The violence had subsided after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika took office in 1999. However, the FIS remained banned from politics, and the recent activity by the Al Qaeda group sparked concerns of a resurgence of the violence. In the May 17 elections, the FLN took 136 seats in the 389-member National People’s Assembly, or lower house. It had previously held 203 seats. Two FLN allies, the Islamist Movement of Society for Peace and the Rally for National Democracy, won 113 total seats, giving the ruling alliance 249 seats. The main opposition Socialist Force Front (FFS) boycotted the vote. The radical Workers’ Party emerged as the top opposition party, gaining 26 seats. Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb leader Abou Moussab Abdelaouadoud, in a statement broadcast on Qatari satellite television channel Al Jazeera, May 14 called for a boycott of the elections. Bomb in Constantine Kills One— One person was killed and five people were injured May 16 when a bomb exploded near a police roadblock in Constantine, Algeria’s third-largest city, located about 200 miles (320 km) east of Algiers. The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) May 14 had reported that dozens of people had been killed across Algeria in the previous three days in clashes between security forces and Islamic fighters. „

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Canada Afghan Detainee Torture Reported. Thirty

Afghans captured by Canadian military forces operating in Afghanistan, then turned over to Afghan forces, said they had been tortured while in the custody of the Afghan intelligence service, the Globe and Mail reported April 23. The allegations followed the revelation in February that the 333

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Canadian government was investigating claims that Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan had abused Afghans they had captured there. Canadian military forces had operated in Afghanistan beginning in 2002 as part of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military forces battling Taliban forces in the country. [See p. 83B2] The Globe and Mail reported that Afghans detained by Canadian soldiers were usually interrogated by Canadians for the first few days in captivity, then handed over to Afghanistan’s intelligence police force, the National Directorate of Security (NDS). As part of an agreement signed in December 2005 by Canadian Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, Afghans detained by Canadian forces were turned over to the Afghan government with no further monitoring of their status. Those detainees interviewed by the Globe said they had been beaten, starved, frozen and administered electric shocks during their interrogation sessions with the NDS. Some said they had been beaten with electrical cables, while others said they had been stripped naked and left outside in extremely cold weather. Although the detainees never implicated Canadian forces as participants in the abuse, some alleged that Canadian soldiers had been aware of their treatment but had done nothing to aid them. Prime Minister Stephen Harper April 23 said Canadian forces would continue to transfer detainees to Afghan authorities, even in light of the Globe’s report. The report the same day sparked calls by the opposition Liberal Party, Bloc Quebecois (BQ) party and New Democratic Party (NDP) for the resignation of Defense Minister Gordon O’Connor. In the weeks following the Globe report various members of Harper’s government issued conflicting and unclear statements on Canada’s detainee policy in Afghanistan, further clouding the issue amid mounting political pressure from opposition parties. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and Government House Leader Peter Van Loan May 3 announced that Canada had signed a new detainee agreement with the Afghan government that would grant Canadians “full and unrestricted access” to anyone they captured and handed over to Afghanistan. The deal also required Afghanistan to inform Canada of any impending detainee trials, and limited the number of prisons that detainees could be held in so that they could be more easily monitored. Troop Withdrawal Bill Defeated—Canada’s House of Commons April 24 voted, 150–134, to defeat a measure that would require all Canadian troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by a February 2009 deadline. Harper’s ruling Conservative Party had formed an unusual alliance with the NDP to defeat the bill. NDP leader Jack Layton said his party had opposed the bill because it desired an immediate pullout of troops. An estimated 2,500 Canadian troops were serving in Afghanistan. Fifty-four soldiers had been killed there as of May 24. Public support for the troop deployment had declined as the number of Canadian casualties had mounted. „ 334

Colombia Uribe Visits U.S. to Lobby for Aid, Trade.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez May 2–4 visited the U.S., meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush, members of Congress and human rights advocates in efforts to free halted U.S. aid for his country, and gain approval for a bilateral free trade agreement. [See p. 256F1] Uribe had come under increasing scrutiny in the U.S. after a deepening scandal had linked elements of his government to right-wing paramilitary groups responsible for the torture, kidnapping and murder of thousands of Colombians, and to drug traffickers. U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the State Department and foreign operations, in April had frozen $55 million in U.S. aid for Colombia, citing unresolved concerns related to Uribe’s role in the socalled para-politics scandal. Colombia was one of the largest recipients of U.S. aid, receiving more than $5 billion since 2000. Human rights advocates had criticized Uribe’s administration for the increasing number of trade unionist killings in Colombia, which had risen to 58 in 2006, from 40 in 2005. Groups had also linked Colombia’s military to human rights violations. Both the para-politics scandal and the human rights concerns were viewed as impediments to the congressional ratification of the bilateral free trade agreement, which had been approved by Uribe’s government and the Bush administration in November 2006. [See p. 329A1] Uribe and Bush May 2 met at the White House in Washington, D.C., and Bush during a post-meeting news conference urged Congress to approve the trade deal. “It is very important for us to stand with democracies that protect human rights and human dignity, democracies based on the rule of law,” Bush said. Uribe May 2 also spoke before a friendly crowd at the Council of the Americas, a business group that promoted commerce, and briefly spoke with protesters gathered on a city sidewalk who were opposed to his administration. Uribe May 3 met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) and other members of Congress. Pelosi later released a short statement saying the lawmakers had “expressed growing concerns about the serious allegations” made in the para-politics scandal. The statement also said, “It is essential that the Colombian government investigate and prosecute” connected officials. Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos May 8 said in the wake of a failure by Congress to approve the trade deal, Colombia “might need to reevaluate its relationship with the United States.” The comments were made during a visit by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to Colombia. More Legislator Arrests Ordered— The Colombian Supreme Court May 14 or-

dered the arrest of five additional lawmakers allied with Uribe as part of its para-politics investigation, raising the total number of congressmen detained to 14. The office of Attorney General Mario Iguaran the same day ordered the arrest of six former legislators for alleged ties to right-wing paramilitary groups. Salvadore Mancuso, former leader of a paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), May 15 testified that Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos had coordinated with paramilitary leaders in the mid-1990s in a plot to oust then-President Ernesto Samper. He also tied Vice President Francisco Santos to paramilitary groups, further implicating the Uribe administration in the scandal. Mancuso had provided his testimony as part of an amnesty deal struck by the government with paramilitary groups in an effort to disarm them. [See p. 111D2] Wiretapping Scandal Emerges— Uribe May 14 forced the national police chief, Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro, and 11 other police generals to resign after allegations surfaced that opposition politicians, journalists and jailed paramilitary members had been wiretapped by a special police unit over the past two years. The new scandal had emerged after the country’s leading newsmagazine, Semana, May 13 published transcripts of phone calls made by imprisoned paramilitary members. Defense Minister Santos May 14 said neither he nor Uribe had been aware of the “illegal program,” and suggested that rogue officers were behind it. „ Hostage Escapes Guerrilla Prison Camp.

Jhon Frank Pinchao, a police officer held hostage by the leftist guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), May 16 was found by a police patrol in the Amazon jungle, days after escaping from a rebel prison camp. Pinchao, who had been held by FARC for eight years, had escaped the prison April 28, then wandered the jungle for 17 days before being discovered. [See 2006, p. 1017A2] Pinchao reportedly told family members of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who had been kidnapped by FARC in 2002, that she was alive but routinely chained by her neck in captivity. Pinchao also related news of three U.S. Northrop Grumman Corp. contractors held at his camp who had been captured in 2003 after their plane crashed in the Amazon jungle. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez May 18 said the government would redouble its efforts to free the hostages. „ 10 Soliders Killed in Bombing. A roadside bomb early May 10 killed 10 Colombian soldiers and wounded an additional 13 in the southwestern town of Tulua, in Valle del Cauca province. The soldiers had been on patrol in search of drug traffickers, leftists guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary members. An army official blamed the attack on the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group. A separate attack carried out a day FACTS ON FILE

earlier in central Santander province had killed nine other soldiers, and had also been attributed to FARC. [See p. 180C1]„ Bodies Unearthed at Mass Graves. Colombian Attorney General Mario Iguaran at a May 5 press conference said forensic teams had over the past 10 months recovered 211 bodies from dozens of mass graves located around the town of La Hormiga, in Putumayo province. Iguaran said most of the bodies had been dismembered before burial. Putumayo was an area where the cultivation of coca, the raw ingredient used to produce cocaine, was common. Authorities said they believed the killings had resulted from clashes between leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups. [See 2006, p. 735D1] „

Panama Deadly Chemical Found in Toothpaste.

Panamanian customs officials May 18 said that some 6,000 seized tubes of toothpaste contaminated with the poisonous chemical diethylene glycol seemed to have originated in China, though there was still a possibility it came from another country. Health officials said they did not believe anyone had died or become ill from the tainted toothpaste. Health officials May 15 had first confirmed that the toothpaste contained diethylene glycol. [See p. 313C2; 2006, p. 824D2] Officials also said some of the poisoned toothpaste, sold under the brand names Excel and Mr. Cool, had been reexported to the Dominican Republic. Dominican officials May 22 said they had banned the sale of the two brands of toothpaste, and had over the past week seized some 90,000 tubes of the possibly tainted product marketed for children. The revelations were the latest to call into question the safety and quality controls on Chinese food and drug exports. The U.S.’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier in May had found that Chinese manufacturers had exported wheat flour tainted with the chemical melamine to the U.S. for use in pet food products. The tainted flour had contributed to the death or illness of an unknown number of pets, and had also been fed to animals raised for human consumption. The tainted toothpaste had been reported to the Panamanian government by consumers who noticed the chemical on the list of ingredients of products in stores. Diethylene glycol was often used as a cheaper substitute for harmless glycerin to thicken or sweeten products such as cough syrup. At least 100 people in Panama had died in 2006 after taking cough syrup that had been combined with diethylene glycol. A May 6 article in the New York Times had traced a shipment of diethylene glycol used in the tainted Panamanian cough syrup to its point of manufacture in China. The Times report found that the diethylene glycol had been intentionally mislabeled as 99.5% pure glycerin. May 24, 2007

China’s food safety regulator, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, May 23 said on its Web site that it was investigating the toothpaste contamination reports. The toothpaste’s manufacturer, Danyang Chengshi Household Chemical Co., the previous day had contended that diethylene glycol was safe, and legal for use in China, in small quantities. „

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Japan Vote on Constitution Changes Approved.

Japan’s Diet (parliament) May 14 approved a bill establishing procedures for holding a referendum on constitutional amendments. Premier Shinzo Abe and his governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) favored revising the 1947 constitution to lift its severe strictures on the country’s military activity, imposed by the U.S. after the defeat of Japan in World War II. The new law provided for amendments to be put to a national referendum as early as 2010, if they first gained a two-thirds majority in the Diet. [See p. 20B1] The two-thirds majority requirement would mean that the LDP would need substantial support from lawmakers in opposition parties, many of which opposed easing the constitution’s pacifist provisions. Some 10,000 people had demonstrated in Tokyo, the capital, against those plans May 3, the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the constitution. The government’s plan to change the pacifist constitution was one of an array of issues related to Japan’s imperial past that had ruffled relations with neighboring Asian countries, particularly China and South Korea. Article 9 of Japan’s constitution prohibited the maintenance of “land, sea and air forces.” In practice, Japan did maintain military forces that were strictly limited to self-defense activities. However, the government in recent years had expanded the scope of permitted military operations to allow noncombat forces to be deployed in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of that country. It was also pursuing a joint missile-defense system with the U.S., which would raise constitutional questions if Japan were called on to take military action in retaliation for an attack on another country. [See 2006, p. 497F2; 2003, p. 1011C3] Separately, Japan March 30 had begun deploying U.S.-made Patriot missiles north of Tokyo to complement sea-to-air missiles as a defense against North Korea’s missile arsenal. [See 2006, p. 525A1] „

Philippines Elections Marred by Violence. Philippine

voters May 14 went to the polls in elections for the House of Representatives, half the Senate and local posts. Ballots were counted by hand, and complete official results were not expected for weeks. However, an

official partial count encompassing about 80% of precincts May 22 showed eight opposition candidates, two allies of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s administration and two independents leading their respective senate races, while administration candidates were expected to lead in the House. [See 2006, p. 868F1; 2004, p. 492C1] Arroyo’s administration was attempting to maintain control of the House and Senate in order to push through economic reforms and stave off impeachment efforts over charges of corruption in 2004 elections. The election and the political campaigning that preceded it had been marked by heavy violence. Police May 15 said 126 people, including several candidates, had died and 148 others had been injured in shootings, grenade attacks and other incidents since the Jan. 14 beginning of the campaign. However, the deputy director of the national police, Avelino Razon Jr., May 14 described the election as “generally peaceful.” The previous election, in 2004, had seen 189 people killed. Opposition parties and independent monitoring organizations leveled accusations of fraud at the administration, saying it had stuffed ballot boxes and engaged in vote-buying. The electoral commission May 22 stopped ballot counting in the southern province of Maguindanao to investigate the allegations. An Arroyo administration spokesman that day released a statement blasting the decision, saying it was based on an unverified complaint and disenfranchised the province’s voters. „

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France Sarkozy Names Cabinet. French President

Nicolas Sarkozy, on his third day in office, May 18 named the members of his cabinet, who would serve under Premier Francois Fillon. Sarkozy had chosen Fillon as premier May 17. Sarkozy reduced the cabinet to half its size under his predecessor, Jacques Chirac. The 15-member cabinet included seven women, fulfilling a pledge by Sarkozy to name a balanced number of men and women as ministers. Sarkozy also named prominent human rights activist Bernard Kouchner as foreign minister. [See p. 317D2] One of the women named to the cabinet, Rachida Dati, 41, as justice minister, became the first cabinet member of North African origin. Her parents were immigrants from former French colonies Algeria and Morocco. Another of the women, former Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, took over Sarkozy’s old post as interior minister, in charge of counterterrorism and law and order. Former Employment Minister JeanLouis Borloo took over a new ministry of the economy, finance and employment. He said his mission was to cut the jobless rate, which officially stood at 8.3% in April, to 5% by the end of Sarkozy’s five-year term. 335

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Former Premier Alain Juppe became minister of the environment, sustainable development and energy. The appointment was a return from disgrace for Juppe. In 2004, he had been convicted of illegal fund-raising in the Paris city government when Chirac was mayor in the 1980s and 1990s, and banned from politics from one year. [See 2004, p. 970D3] Herve Morin, a leader of the centrist Union for French Democracy Party (UDF), became defense minister. Brice Hortefeux, a longtime Sarkozy associate, took over a controversial new ministry of immigration, integration and national identity. Kouchner Tapped as Foreign Minister—

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The highest-profile individual appointment was Kouchner as foreign minister. Kouchner, 67, was a former health minister and founder of the French nongovernmental aid groups Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) and Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World). He also served from 1999 to 2001 as United Nations administrator of the Serbian province of Kosovo, after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened in Kosovo in 1999 to stop ethnic cleansing by Serbian forces. [See 1999, p. 522A1] Kouchner was a proponent of such military interventions for humanitarian reasons. He had defied mainstream French opinion by supporting the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, saying it was justified by the removal of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein because he was a brutal dictator. [See p. 327A2] Kouchner was also a longtime member of the Socialist Party. Sarkozy, as the candidate of the conservative Union for a Popular Majority (UMP), had defeated Socialist Segolene Royal in the presidential runoff. The Socialist Party said it would expel Kouchner for joining Sarkozy’s cabinet. „

Brown had opened his leadership campaign May 11 with a London event at which he acknowledged that “mistakes have been made” in the Iraq war. The war had cost Blair much of his popularity in Britain. About 7,000 British troops remained in Iraq. Brown said that “over the next few months the emphasis will shift” in Iraq, with Britain focusing less on military action and more on political and economic assistance. [See p. 336C2] At home, Brown promised a “more open and accountable” government, with Parliament exercising more sway “in decisions about peace and war, in public appointments and in a new ministerial code of conduct.” Blair May 11 openly endorsed Brown as his successor for the first time. He said, “I am absolutely delighted to give my full support to Gordon as the next leader of the Labour Party and as prime minister, and to endorse him fully.” The two men had long had tense relations during their 10 years in government, with Brown widely seen as impatient to replace Blair. „ Blair Pays Farewell Visit to Bush. British Prime Minister May 16–17 made what was likely to be his last visit to U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House in Washington, D.C., including his first sleepover there. Blair had announced earlier in May that he would leave office June 27. [See p. 336E1; 2006, p. 426D3] At a May 17 news conference, Blair and Bush faced questions about how much their close cooperation on the Iraq war had damaged Blair’s popularity at home. Blair said of Bush, “I’ve admired him as a president, and I regard him as a friend. I have taken the view that Britain should stand shoulder to shoulder with America after September the 11th [2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.]. I have never deviated from that view. I do not regret that view.” Bush reciprocated with praise, calling Blair a “courageous man.” „

Great Britain Brown Wins Labour Party Leadership.

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British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown May 17 won the leadership of the ruling center-left Labour Party by default, after his lone challenger failed to win enough nominating votes to force a runoff. Brown won the votes of 313 of the 353 Labour members of Parliament, preventing his left-wing opponent, John McDonnell, from garnering the 45 votes he needed to trigger a formal contest. [See p. 300B1] The result officially put Brown in line to succeed Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had announced earlier in May that he would step down June 27. The six-week transition period was unusual in Britain, where handovers of power normally took place immediately after an election. In a speech to Labour supporters, Brown said, “I will strive to earn your trust. To earn your trust not just in foreign policy but earn your trust in our schools, in our hospitals, in our public services and to respond to your concerns.” 336

Romania President Survives Impeachment Vote.

Romanians May 19 voted against impeaching President Traian Basescu, who had been suspended by parliament in April amid an ongoing political struggle with Premier Calin Tariceanu. Parties supporting Tariceanu’s government had backed the suspension, which triggered the nationwide referendum. Basescu enjoyed wide popularity, however, and final results showed that 75% of voters rejected his ouster. Authorities said turnout was 44%. [See p. 300A3] Basescu accused Tariceanu’s government of hindering his efforts to root out corruption and enact the reforms mandated by the country’s membership in the European Union, which it had entered in January along with neighboring Bulgaria. Jose Manuel Barroso, head of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, May 20 issued a statement congratulating Basescu and calling for Romania to press

ahead with “judicial reform and the fight against corruption.” The EU was scheduled to assess Romania’s and Bulgaria’s progress in taking required steps against corruption in June, and to determine in July whether to invoke penalties for failure to comply. „

Other European News Russian’s Extradition Sought in Poisoning.

Britain’s top prosecutor May 22 said that there was sufficient evidence to charge Andrei Lugovoy, a former agent of the Soviet KGB security service, with the November 2006 poisoning murder of Alexander Litvinenko, another former Russian spy. Sir Ken Macdonald, Britain’s director of public prosecutions, said he had ordered a formal request for Lugovoy’s extradition from Russia so he could be charged in Britain with the “extraordinarily grave crime.” However, Russian officials swiftly rejected the notion that Lugovoy would be handed over to Britain. They said the country’s constitution forbade extraditions, and that a Russian accused of committing a crime abroad should be tried in Russia. [See p. 249G3] Lugovoy May 22 denied the charge, calling it “politically motivated,” and pledging to issue a statement within a week that would make “sensational” revelations about “events in which Litvinenko and myself were involved last year.” Lugovoy and another Russian man, Dimitri Kovtun, had met with Litvinenko in London on Nov. 1, 2006, the day he fell ill from poisoning by the radioactive element polonium 210. British police had detected traces of the substance at numerous other sites Lugovoy and Kovtun were known to have visited. Both men, who had been treated for contamination with the substance, contended that they had been innocently exposed to it through their contacts with Litvinenko. Macdonald gave no details of the evidence against Lugovoy, and made no mention of Kovtun in announcing the recommended charges. The demand for Lugovoy’s extradition threatened to heighten tensions between Britain and Russia over the case. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett May 22 said Britain expected “full cooperation” from Russia. In response to Russia’s statements ruling out extradition, British officials noted that Russia in 2001 had signed onto a 1957 European convention on extraditions. Russia currently sought the extradition from Britain of numerous expatriate figures whom it accused of corruption and other crimes. Many of those sought were vociferous critics of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. The most prominent was Boris Berezovsky, who had employed both Litvinenko and Lugovoy at various junctures, and who accused Putin of ordering Litvinenko’s death. Alexander Goldfarb, a spokesman for Litvinenko’s family, said it was “obvious” that Lugovoy could not have been acting alone in carrying out a killing with the FACTS ON FILE

hard-to-obtain polonium 210. He said that someone “very high up” in “the Russian state” was behind the killing. Russian officials rejected such accusations, and some had suggested that Berezovsky or other Putin foes had masterminded the poisoning in order to cast suspicion on Putin’s government. „ EU, Putin Clash at Summit. European Union leaders May 18 met with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin at a summit in Samara, Russia. The meeting yielded no progress toward the goal of concluding a new agreement on a “strategic partnership,” amid an array of disputes between Russia and former Eastern bloc members of the EU. Meanwhile, Putin and EU officials traded tart remarks over the detention of Russian opposition figures prevented from reaching Samara to hold a protest rally. [See p. 249B1; 2006, p. 915A1] The summit highlighted a general recent deterioration in relations between Russia and the West, as well as division within the EU between the newer Eastern European members and Western European nations eager to improve relations with Russia. However, Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, at the summit emphasized the EU’s unity behind individual member countries. He mentioned in particular Poland, whose meat exports Russia had banned in 2006; Lithuania, which joined Poland in opposing strategic partnership talks until Russia reopened an oil pipeline, shut down in 2006, that supplied a Lithuanian power plant; and Estonia, which Russia had bitterly criticized for displacing a Soviet war memorial recently. [See p. 318B2 ] Putin asked whether “there are any limits to solidarity?” and said that Russia could be expected to defend its own interests as vigorously as did the EU. Opposition Figures Kept Away— Garry Kasparov, a leader of the opposition United Civil Front, other opposition figures and some foreign journalists May 18 were barred from boarding a flight from Moscow to Samara, preventing them from attending a planned anti-Putin demonstration. Other activists had been detained over previous days, in a repetition of police moves to thwart other such rallies in recent months. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, current holder of the rotating EU presidency, at the summit expressed concern that Russian authorities were improperly hampering legitimate political expression. Putin retorted by questioning whether Western countries represented “pure democracy,” and called Kasparov and his allies “marginals.” „

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Palestinian Factional Violence Eases as Israel Strikes Gaza More Than 40 Palestinians Killed. Israeli air strikes and other military actions May 18– 24 continued in the Gaza Strip, even as May 24, 2007

fighting between Palestinian factions died down and Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders attempted to restore a cease-fire with Israel. A six-month-old cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants, covering the Gaza Strip, had fallen apart the previous week amid continuing rocket fire at Israel from the militants and Israeli retaliation. [See p. 319A2] An Israeli air strike in Gaza May 18 targeted fighters from the militant Islamist group Hamas near the Karni crossing with Israel. Five Palestinians were killed and six more were injured. Air strikes also hit a van carrying militants, killing two of them, and a rocket squad, killing one person and wounding another. A building belonging to Hamas was also hit, but no casualties were reported. A dozen or more rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza that day, wounding at least three people in the town of Sderot. Further air strikes in Gaza May 19 killed four Palestinians near the town of Beit Hanoun. Israeli officials said three of them were hit as they launched rockets at Israel. Locals said the men were shepherds. An air strike May 20 hit the Gaza home of Hamas legislator Khalil al-Haya, killing eight people, seven of them members of his family, though Haya himself was not there at the time. More than a dozen more people were injured. Israel said a Hamas fighter, and not Haya, was the intended target. Other air strikes that day hit vehicles carrying Hamas militants and equipment as well as weapons factories, killing four people. Six children in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya were wounded when a tank shell hit their house, according to Palestinian officials. PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Fatah party, Hamas’s rival, May 20 appealed to the international community to pressure Israel to end its military actions in Gaza. Roughly a dozen rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel that day, though no one was injured. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared Sderot a “front-line” area, making residents eligible for special funds and other measures to secure their safety. Meanwhile, Israel’s cabinet approved further strikes in Gaza, but did not endorse large-scale ground operations there. Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home) party, in an interview that day threatened to quit Olmert’s government if it did not take action to crush Hamas. He said either Hamas or the Israeli government needed to be taken apart. Rocket Kills Israeli Woman in Sderot—

A Palestinian rocket attack May 21 killed an Israeli woman in Sderot and wounded two more people. The woman was the first Israeli to die in a rocket attack since November 2006. At least 18 rockets were fired at Israel that day. More than 150 had been fired over the previous week. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni May 21 said the continued rocket attacks were “intolerable,” and that it was Israel’s “obligation to harm the rocket launchers and our obligation is to continue to harm

Hamas.” Avi Dichter, minister for public security, said Khaled Meshal, the leader of Hamas, who was exiled in Syria, was a potential target of Israeli reprisals. “Khaled Meshal isn’t immune, not in [the Syrian capital] Damascus and not anywhere else.” Israeli air strikes May 21 killed five Palestinians in Gaza, four of them members of Islamic Jihad. Other strikes hit a suspected munitions factory. Collateral damage resulted in the loss of electricity for 50,000 Gaza residents. Abbas called on militants to refrain from firing rockets at Israel, “so as not to give the Israelis the excuse they use to justify their attacks that have killed innocent victims.” Hamas leaders, meanwhile, were lying low to evade possible Israeli strikes. Hamas leader and PA Premier Ismail Haniya, speaking at a funeral for Haya’s family members, insisted Hamas would “keep to the same path until we win one of two goals: victory or martyrdom.” Norway May 21 announced that it would provide $10 million in aid to the PA, which had been boycotted by international donors since Hamas took control in early 2006. Norway said its envoys had urged PA leaders to put a stop to attacks on Israel. Israel Threatens Hamas Leaders—Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh May 22 called Hamas’s political leaders “terrorists in suits,” and warned that they, including Haniya, were potential targets. “We don’t care if he’s a ringleader, a perpetrator of rocket launching or if he is one of the political leaders,” Sneh said. “No one has immunity.” A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, warned of harsh reprisals if Hamas leaders were killed. A senior aide to Haniya, Ahmed Youssef, said a cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants was possible, but only if Israel first stopped its “mad attacks.” Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz insisted that Israeli strikes would continue until the rocket fire from Gaza halted. Israeli air strikes in Gaza that day hit several targets, including arms caches and two Hamas bases. A helicopter also strafed an area of Beit Hanoun used as a base for rocket-launching. Nine rockets were fired at Israel May 22, and two Israelis were wounded. About 1,000 people left Sderot that day. Roughly half the town’s 24,000 residents had left in the previous week, many of them accusing Olmert of not adequately protecting them from the rocket attacks. Abbas and Haniya May 23 met in Gaza to discuss a new cease-fire with Israel covering both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials, however, expressed skepticism that any such proposal would be workable, noting that Palestinian militants had repeatedly violated the previous ceasefire covering the Gaza Strip. Air strikes and other Israeli attacks May 23 hit arms caches and weapons workshops in Gaza, injuring at least six Palestinians. Israel also hit businesses that it accused of funneling money from Lebanon, Syria and Iran to Hamas militants. Israeli troops pressed deeper into Gaza to search houses 337

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and detain suspects. Only one rocket was fired at Israel that day. Israel’s military actions in the previous weeks had killed more than 40 Palestinians, most of them militants. Israel Arrests PA Legislators— The Israeli military May 24 announced that it had arrested 33 senior members of Hamas in the West Bank—including PA Education Minister Nasser al-Shaer, two mayors and several members of parliament—and was holding them for questioning. PA Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti denounced the arrests as “a massacre to Palestinian democracy and civil society.” Forty other PA legislators arrested by Israel in 2006 were still in custody. There were 132 seats in the PA parliament. Meanwhile, a Palestinian was killed by tank fire near Beit Lahiya, and 20 members of Islamic Jihad were reported arrested in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Hamas-Fatah Violence in Gaza Eases—

Violence between Hamas and Fatah fighters in Gaza died down May 19 as an Egyptian-brokered truce took hold, but gunfire aimed at a Fatah official was blamed on Hamas. Schools and businesses in Gaza reopened May 20. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum credited Israeli actions for the truce’s success. “No one would condone fighting one another while the Israelis are shelling Gaza,” he said. Hamas May 21 blamed Fatah for the wounding of two of its members that day, but the truce remained intact. The factional violence had killed roughly 50 Palestinians in all. In the days leading up to the truce, Hamas had made bitter accusations about Fatah, questioning its allegiance to Palestinians. Muhammad Dahlan, a legislator and senior Fatah security official, May 15 had led a brigade of about 400–500 Fatah fighters into Gaza from Egypt, where they had received U.S.-supported training. Israel had allowed them to pass through the Rafah border crossing. Hamas officials, citing the brigade’s arrival and the accuracy of Israeli air strikes, May 18 had accused Fatah of treasonously collaborating with the U.S. and Israel, and acting to thwart Palestinian “resistance.” Scattered fighting between Hamas and Fatah May 18 had killed at least three people and wounded roughly a dozen more. Two civilian Fatah officials were kidnapped, and fighting broke out at the Hamas-affiliated Islamic University in Gaza City. „

Iraq One Missing U.S. Soldier Found Dead.

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U.S. officials May 24 confirmed that the body of a U.S. soldier that Iraqi police had found floating in the Euphrates River south of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, the day before was one of three soldiers abducted nearly two weeks earlier by Sunni Muslim insurgents. The massive U.S.-Iraqi search for the two remaining abductees May 24 continued south of Baghdad as it had throughout the week, even as violence raged in Iraq. [See p. 305A1] 338

U.S. officials May 24 identified the dead soldier as Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. Anzack’s body had reportedly been found still wearing the remnants of his military uniform, and bearing gunshot wounds and signs of torture, such as whip marks to the back. His body had been found roughly 45 miles (70 km) south of Baghdad, some 20 miles from the site of the attack. Militant Linked to Karbala Raid Killed—

U.S. special forces May 17 killed Sheikh Azhar al-Dulaimi during a raid north of the Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad. Official reports of the incident May 19–20 said Dulaimi’s fingerprints indicated that he had helped to organize a January raid on U.S. troops in Karbala that had killed five soldiers, with four of them killed after being briefly abducted. Dulaimi, the reports also alleged, had received training from Iranian intelligence services and from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The reports said he had recently arrived in Iraq and had hidden out in Iran after the Karbala raid, although they did not implicate the Iranian government in the raid. The reports did, however, link Dulaimi to the disappearance of Ahmed Kousay al-Taie, an Iraqi-born U.S. soldier and translator, in October 2006, and a mass kidnapping at a building for Iraq’s education ministry in November 2006. [See p. 53C3; 2006, p. 885B2, G2] Maliki Marks One Year in Office— Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki May 22 marked his first full year in office with a televised address to the people of Iraq. In his speech, he declared that the government’s fight against insurgents would continue, saying, “Our battle against terrorism is open-ended and long and no one should think that this battle will end today or tomorrow.” Maliki admonished other countries for helping to stoke the violence in Iraq, although he did not mention any by name. “The security challenges facing Iraq are very grave and what is making them worse is foreign meddling and the response and submission of some political powers to the influence of several nations,” he said. Iraq often accused Syria of aiding Iraqi militants, and the U.S. made similar accusations about Iran. Maliki also advocated the creation of more “salvation councils” modeled on the Anbar Salvation Council, which had brought together several Sunni tribes in Anbar province to fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq and other terrorist and insurgent groups. Brig. Gen. John Allen, the deputy commander of U.S. forces in Anbar, that day noted significant progress in the security situation there. Al Qaeda in Iraq, he said, “has been expelled out of the population centers” in Anbar. Allen added that more still needed to be done before the province could be considered secure. Talabani Heads to U.S.—President Jalal Talabani May 20 left for the U.S., saying he would spend almost three weeks there resting and trying to lose weight, but denying that he was sick. Talabani, an ethnic Kurd,

was 73 years old, and in February had gone to Jordan for medical treatment after collapsing. He had been diagnosed as suffering from exhaustion, and sinus and lung infections. [See p. 155D2] Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), the largest Shiite bloc in parliament, May 21 issued a statement disclosing that a recent medical checkup in the U.S. had discovered “limited inflammations and a limited tumor.” He said the condition “can be easily controlled and treated,” and that he would receive treatment in Iran. Hakim was a former smoker, and officials close to him divulged that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Hakim May 16 had flown to the U.S. for the checkup, and from there had gone on to Iran May 20. Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq May 19–24: † A car bomb in Falluja May 24 struck a funeral procession, killing at least 26 people. The funeral was being held for a vocal opponent of Al Qaeda in Iraq who had been killed earlier that day. † Gunmen near Baghdad’s city limits May 24 ambushed a minibus, killing 11 passengers. Four police officers investigating the incident were wounded when a bomb, planted on the minibus by the gunmen, detonated. † A roadside bomb south of Kirkuk May 24 killed six police officers. † A suicide bomber in the town of Mandali in Diyala province May 23 detonated his explosives in a cafe, killing at least 20 people and wounding 35 more. Uniformed gunmen May 19 had assaulted the Shiite Kurdish village of Hamid Shifi just south of Mandili, setting fire to houses, separating out women from men and killing 15 of the men. The incidents occurred in an area that was slated for possible incorporation into the northern Kurdish region of Iraq, a contentious issue among Kurds and Arabs. [See p. 306G2] † A U.S. diplomatic convoy May 23 came under attack in Baghdad, prompting U.S. forces to come to their rescue. No U.S. casualties were reported. † One hundred and four Iraqis were reported killed or found dead throughout the country May 23. † Gunfire at central Baghdad’s Shorja market May 23 killed at least five people and wounded 17 more. † The U.S. military May 23 announced that bomb-making materials and a large amount of Iranian currency had been found during a raid in Sadr City. † Nine U.S. service personnel May 22 were killed in five separate incidents in Iraq. † A suicide bomber near Ramadi May 22 killed 10 people, all of them members of the same family. Many women and children were among the dead. A second suicide bomber attacked police responding to the incident, injuring six of them. FACTS ON FILE

† A suicide truck bomb May 22 struck a market in the Shiite neighborhood of Amil in southwestern Baghdad, killing 25 people and wounding more than 100. The blast left a huge crater, destroying many houses and setting buildings on fire. Several girls from a nearby school were among the injured. The bodies of 12 Sunnis were found in the neighborhood later that day, apparently victims of reprisals for the bombing. † Uniformed gunmen manning a checkpoint in northern Baghdad May 22 killed eight college students after stopping the bus they were traveling in. † U.S. forces conducting a raid in Anbar province May 21 freed five captives—four men and a boy—who had been beaten using chains and tortured with electrical shocks applied to their tongues. † Iraqi forces May 20 killed 14 militants in a gun battle in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora. The battle began after the militants were spotted digging trenches. † A truck bomb rigged with chlorine gas May 20 exploded near a police checkpoint in Ramadi, killing 11 people, including six police officers. Twenty-two people were injured, and 30 more suffered respiratory difficulties due to the gas. † A roadside bomb in western Baghdad May 19 killed six U.S. soldiers and their interpreter. „

SOUTH ASIA

India Landslide State Victory for Low-Caste Party. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) May 11

won an outright majority in state elections in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest and most populous state. It was the first time a party had done so in the state since 1991. The BSP traditionally represented the dalit caste, the lowest caste, known as “untouchables.” [See 2003, p. 838D1] The BSP was led by Mayawati, who only used one name. She had served as Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister three times previously under coalition state governments. Mayawati’s triumph was credited to her alliance with the state’s Brahmin caste, which sat atop the caste hierarchy. The BSP’s campaign also had highlighted the many charges of corruption brought against its rivals, and in particular, the incumbent, Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party. The Congress party, the governing party of the country, made a lackluster showing in the election, garnering only 22 seats to BSP’s 206, out of a possible 403. Analysts said the results demonstrated a shifting of public opinion that could affect national elections in 2009. The Congress party campaign had been led in the last month by Rahul Gandhi, son of Sonia Gandhi, the party leader. [See 2004, p. 389B2] „ Blast at Mosque Kills 11. A bomb blast May 18 killed 11 people and injured 35 May 24, 2007

others at the Mecca Masjid mosque in Hyderabad, a city in southern India. No one claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack drew comparisons to bombings in 2006 at the Jama Masjid mosque in New Delhi, India’s capital, and a mosque in Malegaon, a city in western India. [See 2006, pp. 772A3, 439A1] Police officers May 19 killed five Muslim protesters after a crowd threw stones at the police, claiming the city’s law enforcement had not done enough to protect its Muslim population. Protests continued May 20. „

Pakistan Bhutto, Sharif Barred From Returning.

President Pervez Musharraf during a television interview May 18 said Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, two exiled former prime ministers and political opponents of the president, would not be allowed to return to Pakistan before national elections scheduled for later in the year. The statement came in the wake of political violence earlier in May in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, that killed at least 39 people. [See p. 321C3] Musharraf’s statement quashed speculation that Bhutto and Musharraf were negotiating a deal that would forge a powersharing alliance between Musharraf and Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and allow her to return from exile. Bhutto herself May 18 dismissed the possibility of a deal after 15 PPP workers were killed by pro-Musharraf supporters during the violence in Karachi. However, spokesmen for both Bhutto and Sharif May 18 promised that the exiles would ignore Musharraf’s statement and be in Pakistan in time for the elections. [See 2000, p. 977A3; 1999, p. 294G2] Musharraf’s decision was seen as a blow to the possibility for fair and open national elections. He confirmed during the interview that he would continue to seek a vote from the current parliament, dominated by his own coalition of supporters, before its term expired shortly after Musharraf’s. He said he would later seek another mandate from the newly elected parliament. Opposition parties had protested against the proposition, calling it unconstitutional. No dates had been confirmed for either election. Musharraf had recently come under fire for the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry from the Supreme Court for an alleged abuse of his office. The court was due to hear challenges to the constitutionality of the proposed election process this year. „ Clerics Free Mosque Hostages. Radical Islamic clerics at the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, May 24 released two police officers they had held hostage for nearly a week. The officers’ release ended a standoff between the clerics and city police, which began May 18 when four officers were taken hostage. Two had been released May 19; since then, thousands of police had surrounded

the mosque. One of the mosque’s leaders, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, May 24 said the officers had been released on humanitarian grounds. [See p. 234B3] The incident was the latest confrontation between the mosque, Islamabad’s oldest, and the government of President Pervez Musharraf. The mosque’s leader, Maulana Abdul Aziz, in early April had declared he was setting up courts to enforce sharia, or Islamic law. Approximately 100,000 people had protested April 15 against the mosque in Karachi; the rally was organized by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a pro-Musharraf party. Musharraf had ruled out an attack against the mosque May 22 in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), saying a raid could lead to suicide attacks by the mosque’s members. Opponents of the government criticized it for bowing to the radical clerics. „

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UNITED STATES

Horse Racing Curlin Edges Street Sense to Win Preakness.

Curlin, ridden by Robby Albarado, May 19 won the 132nd running of the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of U.S. thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown, before a record crowd of 121,263 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md. Curlin beat Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, the favorite, by a head to thwart Street Sense’s chances of winning the Triple Crown. [See p. 304E2; 2006, p. 421F1] Curlin, trained by Steve Asmussen, stumbled slightly coming out of the gate in the nine-horse race. Both Street Sense, with Calvin Borel aboard, and Curlin surged past several horses in the final turn, with Street Sense emerging to take the lead on the homestretch, as he had done in the Kentucky Derby. But Curlin continued to challenge Street Sense, and the two horses ran side by side for about 40 yards. Curlin pushed ahead just as they crossed the finish line to win by a head. Hard Spun, ridden by Mario Pino, was third, four lengths behind Street Sense. Curlin ran the one-and-three-sixteenthsmile course in one minute, 53.46 seconds, tying the Preakness record. The mark had been set by Tank’s Prospect in 1985, and equaled by Louis Quatorze in 1996. Curlin paid $8.80 on a $2 bet and earned $650,000 in prize money for his owners, a syndicate of Stonestreet Stables, Padua Stables and money manager George Bolton. [See 1996, p. 388D2] Chelokee

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Chelokee, ridden by Ramon Dominguez, May 19 won the inaugural running of the Barbaro Stakes at Pimlico. The race, held before the Preakness, had been named for Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner who had been euthanized in January after sustaining a serious injury in the 2006 Preakness. Chelokee was trained by Michael Matz, who also trained Barbaro. [See p. 69D3] 339

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Other News—In other horse racing news: † Ireland’s Finsceal Beo, the 5–4 favorite with Kevin Manning aboard, May 6 won the one-mile 1,000 Guineas for threeyear-old fillies in Newmarket, England. Arch Swing was second, followed by Simply Perfect. [See 2006, p. 384E2] † Cockney Rebel, a 25–1 shot ridden by Olivier Peslier, May 5 won the one-mile 2,000 Guineas for three-year-old colts in Newmarket. Vital Equine was second, followed by Dutch Art. [See 2006, p. 384F2] † Irish horse Silver Birch, a 33–1 shot with Robert Power aboard, April 14 won the 160th running of the Grand National Steeplechase at Aintree racecourse in Liverpool, England. McKelvey was second, followed by Slim Pickings. [See 2006, p. 384G2] † Argentine-bred colt Invasor, the 2006 Horse of the Year, March 31 won the Dubai World Cup, the world’s richest horse race with a $6 million purse, in the United Arab Emirates. Invasor, ridden by Fernando Jara and trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, was owned by Sheik Hamdan bin Rashid alMaktoum, a member of Dubai’s ruling family. Previously undefeated Discreet Cat, owned by Hamdan’s brother, Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid alMaktoum, was one of the favorites, but was not a factor in the race. [See p. 70F1; 2006, p. 336A1] † Staff at the Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong March 21 discovered a mechanism buried in the turf under the starting gate that could fire small, liquidfilled darts into horses’ stomachs as they stood in the gate. The remote-controlled mechanism was found before it went off. Police and a bomb squad were called to the racecourse. The incident sparked concern because Hong Kong’s Sha Tin Racecourse was scheduled to host several equestrian events in the 2008 Summer Olympics. Both tracks were managed by the Hong Kong Jockey Club. (Most of the Olympic events would be held in Beijing, China’s capital, on the mainland.) Hong Kong police March 27 offered a $128,000 reward for information on who was responsible for planting the device. „

Swimming Records Fall at World Championships.

Fourteen world records were broken March 25–April 1 at the 12th International Swimming Federation (FINA) World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. The U.S. team led the way, claiming 11 world records, 20 gold medals and 36 total medals. [See 2004, p. 679B2] Twenty-one-year-old Michael Phelps of the U.S. won seven of his country’s gold medals, and set five world records: in the 200-meter freestyle (one minute, 43.86 seconds; March 27); the 200-meter butterfly (1:52.09; March 28); the 200-meter individual medley (1:54.98; March 29); the 400-meter individual medley (4:06.22; April 1); and, with his teammates, in the 340

4x200-meter freestyle relay (7:03.24; March 30). Phelps’s gold-medal haul matched the number won by countryman Mark Spitz at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. [See 1972, p. 729B3] Host nation Australia, though known for its strong swim team, won only nine golds and 21 total medals. China, which would host the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, also had a disappointing showing. Report Implicates Thorpe in Doping—

French sports magazine L’Equipe March 30 reported on its Web site that Australian star Ian Thorpe, who had retired from swimming in November 2006, had been found to have “abnormal levels” of two banned substances in his system in tests conducted in May of that year. The article said Thorpe’s sample had contained an abnormal ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone, and also elevated levels of luteinizing hormone, which facilitated the production of testosterone. [See 2006, p. 967D2] According to L’Equipe, Australia’s antidoping authorities had deemed the evidence against Thorpe inconclusive, and dismissed the findings. However, FINA had filed an appeal of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority’s decision with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). FINA March 31 confirmed that it had filed an appeal with CAS, but refused to name Thorpe as the subject of the appeal. Thorpe at an April 1 news conference said he was “in complete shock” at the news of the abnormal test results, and he maintained that he was a “clean” athlete. He said Australian officials had taken pains “to reassure me that I have not failed a drug test,” and that there could be “innocent explanations” for the irregularities. Thorpe also lamented the fact that the test result had been “leaked to the press before I was informed of it,” and that “my reputation probably is tarnished now.” „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

People Thirty-eight-year-old Mary Cheney, the openly lesbian younger daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, May 23 at a hospital in Washington, D.C., gave birth to her first child, a son, Samuel David Cheney. Her pregnancy had first been reported in December 2006. She and her longtime partner, Heather Poe, 46, a former park ranger, would raise the child together. [See 2006, p. 988D1] Actor Sylvester Stallone, 60, the star of the “Rocky” and “Rambo” films, May 21 in Sydney, Australia, was fined by a New South Wales state court for bringing vials of restricted bodybuilding substances into Australia in February. Forty-eight vials of Jintropin, a human growth hormone product, and four vials of testosterone had been found in his possession Feb. 16 during a routine airport baggage search. Stallone May 15 had pleaded guilty in absentia to two charges of bringing banned substances into Australia; the court May 21 fined him A$2,975 (US$2,440) and ordered him to

pay A$10,000 in court costs. [See 2005, p. 175F3] A veteran sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times, Mike Penner, April 26 revealed in his newspaper column that he was a transsexual. Penner, 49, who had covered a wide range of sports for the Times for more than two decades, told his readers that after a break of several weeks he would resume writing for the Times under the byline Christine Daniels. „

O B I T UA R I E S ALEXANDER, Lloyd Chudley, 83, author best known for his fantasy novels for young adults, notably the five-volume work collectively entitled The Prydain Chronicles; set in a kingdom inspired by Welsh mythology, the books appeared between 1964 and 1968; the second of them, The Black Cauldron (1965), became an animated adventure film released in 1985; born Jan. 30, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pa.; died May 17 at his home in Drexel Hill, Pa., of cancer. [See 1985, p. 616C2; 1982, p. 334A2; Indexes 1971, 1969] De GENNES, Pierre-Gilles, 74, French physicist who was the winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Physics; he was honored for explaining how molecules in liquid crystals behaved; his research led to the development of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) technology; born Oct. 24, 1932, in Paris; died May 18 in Orsay, a Paris suburb; the cause of his death was not reported. [See 1991, p. 792F1] DOUGLAS, Dame Mary (born Margaret Mary

Tew), 86, British social anthropologist; she did fieldwork in Africa in the late 1940s and early 1950s and wrote about one African society, the matrilineal Lele people, but was best known for work in which she applied insights gleaned from studies of “primitive” peoples to “modern” westerners; perhaps the most renowned of her more than 15 books was Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (1966); in it, she argued that societies built taboos around things that did not neatly fit into the classification schemes upon which those societies were based; born March 25, 1921, in San Remo, Italy; died May 16 in London, of cancer, eight days after having been made a dame commander of the British Empire. HARRINGTON, Curtis, 80, onetime experimental filmmaker who moved into the Hollywood mainstream as a director of psychological thrillers such as Games (1967) and genre-bending horror movies such as What’s The Matter With Helen? (1971); born Sept. 17, 1926, in Los Angeles; died May 6 at his Los Angeles home; he had never fully recovered from a stroke he had in 2005. [See 1971, p. 724B1; 1963, p. 491D2] KING, Yolanda Denise, 51, eldest of the four children of civil rights leaders Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King; she became a social activist in her own right, as well as a motivational speaker and actress; born Nov. 17, 1955, in Montgomery, Ala.; died May 15 in Santa Monica, Calif., reportedly after collapsing in the doorway of the home of one her two brothers, Dexter King; her family believed her sudden death might have been related to cardiopulmonary problems. [See 2006, p. 97D2; 1968, p. 140G1] MAIMAN, Theodore Harold, 79, physicist who developed the first workable laser at a Hughes Aircraft Co. research facility in California; he demonstrated the light-amplifying device, which exploited the physical properties of artificial rubies, in July 1960; soon thereafter, he founded his own laser-development company, Korad Corp.; he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1984; in recent years he had been a permanent resident of Canada; born July 11, 1927, in Los Angeles; died May 5 at a hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, of systemic mastocytosis, a rare genetic disorder. [See 1966, p. 232C1; 1960, p. 484G1] WEBB, Kate (Catherine Merrial Webb), 64, one of only a handful of female war correspondents during the Vietnam War; in 1971, after being becoming United Press International (UPI) bureau chief in Cambodia, she was captured in the Cambodian jungle and held captive for 23 days; during her captivity she was erroneously reported to have been killed; she kept working as a war correspondent in Asia until 2001, for UPI, as a freelancer and for Agence France-Presse; born March 24, 1943, in Christchurch, New Zealand; died May 13 at a hospital in Sydney, Australia, of bowel cancer. [See 1971, p. 326F1] „

May 24, 2007

U.S., Iranian Officials Discuss Iraq Security No Breakthroughs at Baghdad Meeting.

U.S. and Iranian officials May 28 met in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, to discuss the security situation in Iraq and how to improve it. The meeting, which was facilitated by Iraqi officials, was the first formal diplomatic encounter between the two countries since the U.S. ended relations with Iran in 1980, soon after the 1979 revolution that brought Islamic clerics to power there. In recent years, the U.S. and Iran had clashed on a number of issues, including Iran’s controversial nuclear program, the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Iran’s alleged support for militants there. The U.S. and Iran were each holding citizens from the other country, creating further friction. Like Iraq, Iran was predominantly Shiite Muslim. [See pp. 338F1, 326D2, 320D2] Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki, who had pressed for the two nations to meet, May 28 welcomed U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi into his offices for the event. Maliki was not present for the meeting, which was instead overseen by Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie. The meeting’s agenda was entirely focused on Iraq’s security situation, and no other points of contention between Iran and the U.S. were discussed. Crocker and Qomi held separate press conferences afterward, during which they described the meeting and their evaluation of its significance. Both ambassadors expressed a degree of satisfaction with the event, though no breakthrough agreements resulted from it. Crocker said he was encouraged by some aspects of the dialogue, citing several points of agreement with his Iranian counterparts. “There was pretty good congruence right down the line: support for a secure, stable, democratic, federal Iraq, in control of its own security, at peace with its neighbors,” he said. Crocker added, however, that he had reiterated U.S. complaints about Iran’s support for Iraqi militants, and emphasized that Iran had to end such actions. Qomi, in his press conference, agreed that the “views of both sides were unified IRAQ CASUALTIES

Following are tallies of casualties in Iraq since the beginning of a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, as they stood May 31 [See p. 253E1]: U.S. military casualties:

Deaths Wounded

3,461 25,681

Allied military deaths: 276 Iraqi security forces deaths: 6,880 U.S. civilian contractor deaths: 156 Other civilian contractor deaths: 242 Iraqi civilian deaths: 64,664–70,815

(Range based on news reports of deaths) Sources: U.S. and allies, Iraqi security, contractors— U.S. Defense Department, www.icasualties.org. Iraqi civilians—www.iraqbodycount.net.

and identical on the question of the security issue,” but he denied the accusations of supporting militants. During the meeting, Qomi restated Iran’s call for the U.S. to leave Iraq. He also said U.S. efforts to train and equip Iraq’s security forces were inadequate, and offered Iran’s help in the bid. The Iranian team also proposed that the U.S. and Iran set a date for another meeting, as well as the creation of a three-way, U.S.-Iraq-Iran commission to discuss security matters. Crocker said both proposals would be considered, although he insisted that the U.S. would have to take into account “whether we start to see indications of a change in Iranian behavior” regarding its support for militants. Sadr Makes Public Appearance in Iraq—

Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr May 25 gave a speech to roughly 6,000 worshippers at a prominent mosque in Kufa, his first public appearance in months. Since a joint U.S.Iraqi security push in Baghdad that began in February, Sadr had disappeared from public view, only releasing statements read by his followers. His militia, the Mahdi Army, had also taken a low profile, apparently to avoid conflict with U.S. forces. U.S. officials claimed that Sadr had gone into hiding in Iran, though Sadr’s followers denied the claim. [See p. 85F2] In his speech, Sadr demanded that U.S. and other foreign forces leave Iraq immediately, saying the Iraqi government “should not extend the occupation even for a single day.” However, he also insisted that his followers refrain from violent clashes with both foreign and Iraqi forces, and that peaceful demonstrations should be the chief mode of protest. Sadr also made an appeal to Sunni Muslims and Christians in Iraq, saying he was “ready to cooperate with them in all fields,” and declaring that his supporters should not attack them. “May God hail our brothers, the Sunnis and Christians, and I am ready to defend them, to save them from evil,” he said, blaming the sectarian violence in Iraq on the U.S. “invader.” Sadr also blasted Maliki’s government for failing to deliver basic services like electricity and water to the Iraqi people. Sadr’s speech, and rumors of his return in the days leading up to it, caused speculation that he was trying to regain control of the Mahdi Army. The militia had been the frequent target of raids during the security push. Several reports claimed that it had split into different factions, including a “noble” one loyal to Sadr, which was maintaining a low profile, and “rogue” or “criminal” factions that continued to field death squads and engage in corruption. After a dip in the early weeks of the security push, the number of dead bodies found in Baghdad had recently increased. [See below] Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the largest Shiite bloc in parliament and a rival of Sadr’s, like Sadr was also presenting a more inclusively nationalistic, less sectarian profile to the Iraqi people. [See p. 338A3] Sadr May 29 blasted Iran for meeting with the U.S., asserting that talking “with

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3468 May 31, 2007

B the occupier and claiming it is for the benefit of Iraqi people and their stability” was hypocritical. [See above] Five Britons Abducted by Gunmen—

Dozens of uniformed gunmen May 29 kidnapped five British civilians from a building in north-central Baghdad run by the finance ministry. One of the abductees was a business consultant, and the other four were his bodyguards. The gunmen, driving vehicles and wearing uniforms associated with the police, met no resistance and did not fire their weapons. Iraqi and U.S. forces May 29–30 staged raids in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City in search of the Britons. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari May 30 said the scale and ease of the abduction suggested that it had been facilitated by militants infiltrating Iraq’s security forces. “The number of people who

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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U.S., Iranian officials discuss Iraq security; no breakthroughs at Baghdad meeting. PAGE 341

Bush sets new Sudan sanctions over Darfur crisis; cites ongoing ‘genocide.’

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Bush taps Zoellick to lead World Bank. PAGE 344

U.S. hosts ‘strategic’ trade talks with China. PAGE 344

Supreme Court rebuffs pay discrimination claim. PAGE 346

House passes lobbying reform bill.

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Yar’Adua sworn in as Nigeria’s president. PAGE 350

12 convicted in Serbian premier’s assassination. PAGE 352

Turkish president vetoes direct presidential election bill. PAGE 353

U.N. creates tribunal on former Lebanese Premier Hariri’s assassination. PAGE 353

1996 Tour de France winner Riis admits doping. PAGE 354 REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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were involved in the operation—to seal off the building, to set roadblocks, to get into the building with such confidence,” he said, indicated that the gunmen “must have some connection” to the finance ministry. The search for the Britons continued May 31, as well as the search for two U.S. soldiers abducted earlier in the month. [See 338F1] Many observers blamed the Mahdi Army for the abduction of the Britons. The militia was frequently accused of having infiltrated the government, including the interior ministry, which ran the nation’s police force. It was often accused of involvement in abductions. Both the finance and interior ministries were run by Shiites. In particular, some observers suggested that the Britons’ abduction was in retaliation for the death of a Mahdi Army leader, Wissam al-Waili, days earlier. Waili, also known as Abu Qadir, was the leader of the militia’s forces in Basra. He had been killed there May 25 as British and Iraqi forces tried to arrest him. The British military accused Waili of involvement in weapons smuggling, assassinations, roadside bombings and other attacks on coalition forces. As many as 200 people had been abducted at one time from an education ministry building in November 2006. That abduction was also blamed on the Mahdi Army, and many of the victims had yet to be found. [See 2006, p. 885B2] Bush Signs War Funding Bill—U.S. President George W. Bush May 25 signed a bill allocating funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress had passed the bill the previous day. Unlike a previous measure that he had threatened to veto, the funding bill did not contain any timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Bush opposed any such timetables. [See p. 330D2] House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D, Md.) May 25 declared that Democrats would “continue to insist that the administration and Iraqi government be accountable for making progress in the weeks ahead.” Democrats had succumbed to the threats of a presidential veto in crafting the bill, and had not included withdrawal timetables in it. Despite that, they were reportedly considering a measure that would rescind a 2002 authorization allowing the president to use U.S. military force in Iraq. In a related development, Cindy Sheehan, a leading antiwar activist whose son had been killed in Iraq, May 28 released a statement on the Internet announcing that she was ending her protest efforts. Sheehan said she was “finished working in, or outside [the political] system.” She had been pressuring Democrats to push for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. [See 2006, p. 645A1] U.S. Poll Shows Little Support for War—

A New York Times/CBS poll released May 24 found that Americans had a very pessimistic view of the conflict in Iraq. Sixtyone percent of those polled said the U.S. should not have invaded Iraq, with 35% saying the U.S. was right to invade. Seven342

ty-six percent of respondents said things were going badly in Iraq, 47% of whom said they were going very badly. Three in four said the recent “surge,” or increase, in U.S. troops had not improved the situation there. Sixty-three percent of those polled favored withdrawing U.S. troops in 2008, though a majority also supported continued financing for the war. Only 13% said they wanted all funding for the war cut, though 69% said they wanted funding to be contingent on the Iraqi government meeting certain benchmarks. A slim majority said they trusted Democrats more than Republicans to make the right decisions regarding Iraq. Bush Officials Consider Withdrawal—

The Bush administration was mulling the idea of pulling half of the U.S.’s combat troops out of Iraq in 2008, the New York Times reported in an article published May 26. Citing unidentified administration aides, the article said there was support among several senior officials—including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates—for the withdrawal, and for altering the U.S. mission in Iraq from counterinsurgency to training Iraqi forces and hunting members of the terrorist network Al Qaeda. The withdrawal, the article stated, could bring the total number of troops in Iraq down to 100,000 from the current 146,000. The plan envisioned a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq, though smaller and confined to three or four bases. In an interview published in the New York Times May 26, Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the second-ranking U.S. military commander in Iraq, was cited as insisting in an interview May 24 that any U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would be gradual. “I call this thinning the lines. We’ll do it extremely slowly. We won’t take everybody out at once,” he was quoted as saying. Bush spokesman Tony Snow May 30 said the president envisioned that a substantial number of U.S. troops would remain based in Iraq for a “long and enduring” period even if they were no longer on the front lines, likening such an arrangement to the U.S.’s decades-long troop presence in South Korea. It was the first public indication that the administration planned to base forces in Iraq indefinitely. It prompted debate over the aptness of the analogy between Iraq, which was engulfed in a civil conflict, and South Korea, where U.S. troops had served as a bulwark against an external threat, North Korea. [See 2006, p. 475C1] 10 U.S. Soldiers Die in One Day— Ten U.S. soldiers were killed May 28, eight of them in a series of attacks in Diyala province, making it one of the single deadliest days in 2007 for U.S. troops. Two of the deaths occurred when a U.S. helicopter crashed in the province, though it was not clear whether their deaths were due to the crash or an insurgent attack afterwards. U.S. troops attempting to rescue the soldiers were hit with roadside bombs, killing six more. Another two soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. The U.S. military May 31 said small-arms fire apparently caused the helicopter to crash. At least 120 U.S. soldiers were killed in May,

making it the deadliest month in 2007, and one of the deadliest since the U.S. invaded in 2003. Bush May 28 gave a traditional presidential Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, D.C. Declaring that Americans would remember those lost in Iraq, Bush acknowledged the grief of their families, some of whom were in the audience. “Nothing said today will ease your pain,” he said, “but each of you need to know that your country thanks you, and we embrace you, and we will never forget the terrible loss you have suffered.” Iraq Intelligence Warnings Revealed—

The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence May 25 released a report detailing prewar intelligence on Iraq, which included several warnings regarding the dangers of invading the country that later proved correct. Among the warnings were predictions that support for Islamist and terrorist groups in the Middle East might increase and that Iran would take advantage of chaos in Iraq to assert itself regionally. The intelligence, dating from January 2003, also warned of “a long, difficult and probably turbulent challenge” regarding attempts to democratize Iraq. In a statement released along with the report, Sen. John Rockefeller (D, W.Va.), the chairman of the committee, and other Democrats on the committee blasted the Bush administration for failing to share the prewar assessments with the American public prior to the invasion. Republicans on the panel defended the president, asserting that the intelligence assessments were incorrect in other respects and were not specific enough to be acted on.

Facts On File

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jonathan Taylor MANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham COPY DIRECTOR: Marion Farrier SENIOR EDITOR: Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Alasdair Denvil, Ryu Spaeth ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ian McGullam DATABASE COORDINATOR: Ben MIller INDEX EDITOR: Jonathan Leith COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Jane Carlson, Nikki Conti-Brown FACTS ON FILE World News Digest is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. Vice President & Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Associate Publisher: Marjorie B. Bank. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

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FACTS ON FILE

Sunni Leader Breaks With Al Qaeda—

Sheikh Harith al-Dhari, Iraq’s most prominent Sunni cleric, had accused the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq of going “too far” in its attacks and said he would no longer support the group, Time magazine reported in an interview published on the Internet May 14. In the interview, Dhari said Al Qaeda in Iraq’s targeting of civilians was “unacceptable,” and he rejected its goal of establishing an Islamic state. Dhari had previously praised the group. Dhari said other Sunni insurgent groups fighting foreign forces in Iraq had also turned against Al Qaeda in Iraq, which had attempted to adopt a leadership role among them. Dhari insisted that he still sought the removal of foreign forces from Iraq, and still did not trust the Shiite-led Iraqi government, which he accused of mistreating Sunnis. The death of Dhari’s nephew in March had been blamed on Al Qaeda in Iraq. [See p. 197C3] Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq May 27–31: † A suicide bomber in Falluja May 31 detonated his explosives at a police recruitment center. Some casualty estimates stated that as many as 25 people had been killed and 50 wounded, though U.S. military reports said the toll was far lower. † Odierno May 31 said the U.S. was discussing cease-fires and other measures with insurgents in order to reduce the violence in Iraq. “We are talking about ceasefires, and maybe signing some things that say they won’t conduct operations against the government of Iraq or against coalition forces,” he said, adding that the Iraqi government was aware of and involved in the talks. † U.S. forces May 31 battled insurgents in Baghdad’s Sunni neighborhood of Amariyah. Local officials said residents had asked the U.S. for help after members of Al Qaeda in Iraq had engaged in random shootings and prevented students from going to their exams. The officials said a local Al Qaeda in Iraq leader was killed in the fighting, and 45 militants were detained. † Mortar fire in Falluja May 30 killed nine people and wounded 15. The rounds were apparently intended to hit a nearby U.S. military base, but instead hit a courthouse in a residential area. † U.S.-led coalition forces operating in Sadr City May 30 arrested five members of a terrorist cell suspected of smuggling explosive devices and other munitions into Iraq. † Iraqi security forces May 30 took over security responsibilities in the predominantly ethnic Kurdish northeastern provinces of Dahuk, Irbil and Sulaimaniya. With the addition of these three to the southern provinces of Maysan, Najaf, Muthanna and Dhi Qar, Iraqi forces controlled seven of the country’s 18 provinces. The other 11 remained under coalition control. † A car bomb in central Baghdad May 29 killed at least 12 people and wounded at least 20. The explosion hit an area where May 31, 2007

many Shiites were waiting for buses. Soon after, a suicide car bomb in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amil destroyed a Shiite mosque, killing at least 20 people and wounding at least 23. The neighborhood was predominantly Sunni. † Authorities May 29 found at least 30 bodies in Baghdad, all shot and showing signs of torture. Roughly 695 bodies had been found in the city during the month, a high since January. † A suicide truck bomb May 28 struck a prominent Sunni mosque in central Baghdad, killing at least 19 people and wounding 68. It was not clear who committed the attack, though some suggested that it was aimed at Sufi Muslims, who were viewed as apostates by fundamentalist Sunnis. The attack prompted fears of further sectarian violence, as had occurred after the bombing of a prominent Shiite mosque in February 2006. Maliki ordered that the Sunni mosque be reconstructed. [See 2006, p. 121A1] † A roadside bomb in Baghdad May 28 killed nine people and wounded 20. † Insurgents in central Baghdad May 28 ambushed a police patrol, killing seven officers and wounding three. † Gunmen who had set up fake checkpoints abducted 40 or more people in Samarra May 27, including soldiers and police officers. Several of the victims belonged to local tribes that had taken a stand against insurgents. † U.S. forces north of Baghdad in Diyala May 27 raided a prison run by Al Qaeda in Iraq, freeing 42 people, all victims of torture. Some of the captives had been held for up to four months. Iraqi officials said residents of Diyala were beginning to turn against Sunni insurgents by providing tips on their activities. „

Bush Sets New Sudan Sanctions Over Darfur Crisis Cites Ongoing ‘Genocide.’ U.S. President George W. Bush May 29 announced that the U.S. Treasury Department was imposing new sanctions targeting the government of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, intended to pressure it to halt ongoing violence in the western Darfur region of Sudan. Bush said that the U.S. would not “avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world,” repeating the U.S.’s judgment that it constituted “genocide.” [See p. 297C2] He also said that the U.S. would seek to tighten existing United Nations Security Council sanctions. However, council members Russia and China that day expressed opposition, contending that Bush’s moves would interfere with diplomatic efforts to persuade Sudan to admit a bolstered U.N.–African Union peacekeeping force to Darfur. The new sanctions barred 30 companies linked to the Sudanese government from transactions with the U.S. financial system, adding them to an existing list of more than 100 blacklisted firms, including Sudan’s

largest oil producer. They also targeted two senior government officials—State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Ahmad Muhammad Harun and military intelligence chief Awad ibn Auf—and one leader of a Darfur rebel group fighting the government, Khalil Ibrahim of the Justice and Equality Movement. Harun earlier in the year had been accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court. Many observers suggested that the sanctions would have little practical effect on Sudan, whose oil exports had been increasing despite U.S. sanctions in place since 1997. U.S. envoy Andrew Natsios said their primary goal was “to send a message to the Sudanese government.” In his announcement, Bush said that recent weeks had shown Bashir to be “promising cooperation while finding new methods for obstruction.” The Bush administration had reportedly been mulling the intensified sanctions for months, but had held back amid efforts to make diplomatic progress. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon May 29 pleaded for more time for negotiations over the peacekeeping force. In a May 25 letter to Bashir he had laid out demands for Sudan to admit the peacekeepers, disarm the government-backed Arab Janjaweed militia accused of terrorizing Darfur’s populace, adhere to a cease-fire and allow international aid agencies safe access to Darfur. Sudan May 29 called the new U.S. sanctions “unfair and untimely,” and said they would only serve to harm ordinary Sudanese. U.N. Teams Accuse Government—A mission of the U.N. Human Rights Council March 12 issued a report saying that the Sudanese government “itself orchestrated and participated” in “large-scale international crimes” in Darfur. The six-person mission, led by U.S. Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams, was denied access to Darfur, and based its report on interviews conducted elsewhere with refugees, aid workers, rebels and others. Sudan rejected the findings, calling the mission biased. [See 2006, p. 932E3; 1997, p. 778A1] The council, some of whose members had opposed the formation of the mission, March 30 adopted a statement of concern about the situation in Darfur that noted the findings of the mission’s report. It called for the establishment of a new group to work for the implementation of U.N. resolutions and recommendations regarding Darfur. The council had been formed in 2006 to replace the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which had been widely criticized as ineffective and compromised by the inclusion of rights violators as members. Critics suggested that the new council’s approach to Darfur would be a test of whether it would be more effective. The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in a May 18 report said that Sudanese government security forces had participated in attacks on Darfur villages in the first three months of the year. 343

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Robert Bruce Zoellick was born in Evergreen Park, Ill., on July 25, 1953. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1975, and received a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a master of public policy degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in 1981. From 1985 to 1988, Zoellick served at the Department of the Treasury in different positions, including as counselor to Treasury Secretary James Baker 3rd during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. During the 1989–93 administration of President George H.W. Bush, Zoellick continued to worked under Baker, serving as undersecretary of state for economic and agricultural affairs and counselor to the State Department. He was the senior U.S. official at 1990 talks on post–Cold War German unification. He was appointed White House deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president in 1992. [See 1992, p. 585G3; 1990, p. 679A1] Zoellick in 1993 became executive vice president of Fannie Mae, the governmentsponsored mortgage financer. Southern Sudan Plans to Host Talks—

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International Finance Bush Taps Zoellick to Head World Bank.

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U.S. President George W. Bush May 30 nominated Robert Zoellick, an executive at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and former deputy secretary of state, to become the next World Bank president. The current president, Paul Wolfowitz, had announced his resignation earlier in May amid accusations of favoritism toward his romantic partner, Shaha Ali Riza, a former bank employee. Wolfowitz was due to step down June 30. [See p. 306C3; for facts on Zoellick, see box, p. 344A1] Bush May 30 in his speech announcing Zoellick’s nomination said, “He has earned the trust and support of leaders from every region of the world.” Zoellick’s nomination was seen as a way for the Bush administration to heal a schism in the bank caused by Wolfowitz, whose tenure had been marred by accusations of inexperience in development economics, poor management and an agenda at odds with the bank’s mission. The World Bank was a global institution that provided approximately $23 billion a year in financing to developing countries in the form of low-interest loans and grants. [See 2005, p. 163E2] Zoellick, 53, had served in foreign and economic policy positions under U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and the current president. He was U.S. trade representative from 2001 to 2005. As 344

Zoellick returned to government service in February 2001, as U.S. trade representative in the administration of President George W. Bush until February 2005. His tenure saw the completion of China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in November 2001, and the adoption in 2004 of a new framework for the so-called Doha round of WTO talks. [See 2004, p. 580F3; 2001, pp. 916G3, 82E1] Zoellick served as U.S. deputy secretary of state to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from February 2005 to July 2006. He dealt frequently with issues pertaining to China, and helped negotiate a May 2006 temporary peace deal between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army. [See 2006, p. 364A2; 2005, p. 166A3] Zoellick worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as vice chairman for international affairs from July 2006 to May 2007. Bush nominated him May 30 to become the next World Bank president, after the resignation of Paul Wolfowitz earlier in the month. [See p. 344D1]

deputy secretary of state from February 2005 to July 2006, he had dealt frequently with China affairs, and brokered a shortlived peace deal between the Sudanese government and a Darfur rebel group in May 2006. [See 2006, p. 363A1] As vice chairman for international affairs at Goldman Sachs since 2006, he had concentrated on bolstering the growth of capital markets in Asia. With the announcement of Zoellick’s nomination, Bush continued the tradition whereby the president of the U.S., the bank’s largest donor, appointed a U.S. citizen as the bank leader, and European leaders named a European as head of the International Monetary Fund. Since Wolfowitz’s ouster, many governments, aid organizations and bank representatives had called for an overhaul of the presidential selection process so that it would be more transparent and open to nominees of other nationalities. However, while many European governments had criticized Wolfowitz’s performance, officials of both France and Germany May 30 endorsed Zoellick’s nomination. According to bank bylaws, the bank’s governing board, whose 24 members represented the bank’s richest donor countries, would still have to approve the selection. The board said May 30 that it would make its decision by June 30. The board had never rejected a U.S. nominee. „

International Trade U.S. Hosts ‘Strategic’ Talks With China.

China and the U.S. May 22–23 held a round of cabinet-level economic talks in Washington, D.C., the second installment of a “Strategic Economic Dialogue” initiated in 2006 by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi. The talks resulted in little overall progress on the two countries’ ongoing trade tensions, which stemmed from the U.S.’s enormous trade deficit with Chi-

na. However, agreements were concluded on specific areas, particularly aviation and financial services. [See pp. 220G3, 182A1] China gave no new ground on the U.S.’s complaints that it kept the value of its currency, the yuan, artificially low, making Chinese products cheaper abroad. Paulson cited a May 18 announcement by China that it would allow the yuan to fluctuate within a wider band as progress on the issue, but urged China to “move more quickly.” Although many economists suggested that a change in the value of the yuan would have only a small impact on China’s trade surplus with the U.S., the demand enjoyed broad support among both manufacturers and labor unions, and among Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress. Those lawmakers revived their threat to pass a bill that would impose stiff tariffs on China’s exports if it failed to let the yuan appreciate. Wu met May 23 with members of the U.S. House, who reportedly spoke pointedly on the issue, and with senators the following day. President George W. Bush, meeting Wu May 24, also urged the Chinese to “appreciate their currency,” but declined to back retaliatory legislation. However, Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) May 23 suggested that a bill could pass Congress with a “veto-proof” majority. In the first day of the talks, Paulson had said that they needed to yield concrete “action,” describing Americans as “impatient.” Wu, however, said that efforts to pressure China “can only make the situation more complex.” She criticized U.S. retaliatory trade actions, which she called the “politicizing” of trade issues, apparently referring to recent U.S. tariffs and World Trade Organization complaints against China. She advised, “We should not easily blame the other side for our own domestic problems.” Financial Sector Agreements—The May 22–23 talks also failed to reach an agreement on a major goal of Paulson’s for U.S. financial services companies—a rise in China’s cap on the percentage stake that foreign companies could own in Chinese banks. However, China did agree to grant some new access to foreign companies, allowing U.S. banks to issue credit and debit card accounts denominated in yuan and offer wider stock-trading services. China also agreed to raise the current limit on aggregate foreign ownership of Chinese stocks to $30 billion, from $10 billion. U.S. Carriers to Increase Flights— The two sides May 23 reached a new aviation agreement under which U.S. airlines would operate 23 daily flights to China by 2012, up from 10 currently. The U.S. and China would eliminate most restrictions on cargo flights in 2011, and begin talks in 2010 on a similar “open skies” regime for passenger flights. [See p. 345B3] Other Issues—The two sides in the talks also reached agreements to expand Chinese imports of U.S. environmental technology, including equipment for cleanerburning energy plants. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Health and Human Services FACTS ON FILE

Secretary Michael Leavitt reportedly raised concerns during the talks over China’s regulation of the safety of food and medicine products, in the wake of a series of revelations about contaminated Chinese exports. [See pp. 351G3, 348E1] „

AIDS Bush Requests $30 Billion for Global Fight.

U.S. President George W. Bush May 30 requested that Congress almost double the funding for his global plan to combat AIDS to $30 billion over five years, beginning in 2008. Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address had requested $15 billion over five years for the plan, called the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Congress had since approved $18 billion for the plan, which provided prevention measures, treatment and care for AIDS patients in the developing world. [See 2006, p. 971C2] The increased funding would allow 2.5 million people to receive treatment in 15 countries, up from the 1.1 million currently receiving care under PEPFAR. Aid organizations praised Bush’s request, but some said that even greater funding was required to adequately address the global AIDS pandemic. An estimated 40 million people worldwide were infected with HIV, the virus that caused AIDS. Critics of PEPFAR objected to a part of the plan that focused on teaching abstinence, which they said was largely ineffectual in combating AIDS. A panel with the Institute of Medicine, a federal health policy advisory group, March 30 had recommended policy changes to better serve AIDS-devastated countries. It called for removing the requirement that 33% of PEPFAR prevention funds be spent teaching abstinence and monogamy. The panel criticized PEPFAR’s requirement that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve the AIDS drugs distributed by the program, and its ban on funding for clean needles for drug users. The panel also recommended that PEPFAR shift its focus to a broader long-term approach to combating AIDS. Other News—In related news: † The World Health Organization (WHO) May 30 recommended that health workers test every patient for HIV in countries where the infection rate exceeded 1% of the population. The WHO had previously recommended offering testing where treatment was available, but not to every patient. The WHO said nearly 80% of HIVinfected people in the developing world did not know they carried the virus, including 20 million people in Africa. † Former U.S. President Bill Clinton May 8 said his nonprofit William J. Clinton Foundation had negotiated significantly lower prices for “second-line” generic drugs needed to treat AIDS in the developing world. The new rates would reduce costs for some developing Latin American countries by 50%, and reduce the cost of the drugs by 25% in poorer countries that were already paying reMay 31, 2007

duced prices. Second-line drugs were used to treat patients for whom first-line treatments no longer worked, and cost 10 times as much as first-line drugs. Clinton also said his foundation had reached a deal to provide a combination first-line pill for less than $1 a day. † The WHO and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) April 17 reported that two million people worldwide were receiving AIDS drugs, an increase of 700,000 over the past year. However the figure was still short of the WHO’s goal of having three million people on AIDS drugs by the end of 2005. The report also said only 28% of 7.1 million people with advanced AIDS in poor- and middleincome countries were receiving drug therapies they needed. [See 2006, p. 947B3] „

Other International News Russia Sets Gas Pipeline From Central Asia.

Presidents Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov of Turkmenistan and Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan May 12 agreed to build a pipeline that would carry natural gas exports from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan through Russia to the Black Sea, solidifying Russia’s control over the flow of natural gas from Central Asia. The agreement, struck at a meeting in Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan, was a setback for the U.S. and its European allies’ goal of a pipeline that would carry natural gas from the region under the Caspian Sea and ultimately to Turkey, bypassing Russia. The U.S. and Europe had been increasingly vocal in their concern over Russia’s control of energy transit routes, and its reliability as a supplier. [See p. 113E1] Russia itself was a large producer and exporter of natural gas, but its state gas company, OAO Gazprom, additionally profited from selling Central Asian gas to other countries for more than twice the price it paid. Putin said the pipeline’s annual capacity would exceed 20 billion cubic meters by 2012. Russia in 2006 had bought 42 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan for resale. Berdymukhammedov at the May 12 meeting suggested that he was still open to a Caspian Sea pipeline project as envisioned by the U.S. The three presidents agreed to conclude a formal agreement Sept. 1. Construction on the pipeline was planned to begin in 2008. The presidents did not announce the expected cost, but Russian news media reported that a 2003 estimate for such a project was about $1 billion. Russia to Build Bulgaria-Greece Oil Line—

Putin March 15 signed an agreement in Athens, the Greek capital, with Greece and Bulgaria to construct a 175-mile (280-km) oil pipeline from Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast to the Greek port of Alexandroupolis. The pipeline was intended to bypass the Bosporus, a narrow strait that was the outlet of the Black Sea and that currently constrained the pace of Russian oil shipments from its ports on that sea. The pipeline

would carry more than 600,000 barrels of oil per day. The pipeline, which Greek officials said would be finished no earlier than 2010, was expected to increase the EU’s reliance on Russian oil. Russian state-controlled companies would hold 51% of the pipeline venture, with the remainder split evenly between Greece and Bulgaria, both European Union members. An oil pipeline running from Azerbaijan’s Caspian coast to a Turkish Mediterranean port, backed by the U.S. as a route independent of Russia, had opened in 2005. [See 2005, p. 353E1] „ U.S.-EU ‘Open Skies’ Deal Signed. U.S. and European Union officials April 30 in Washington, D.C., signed an “open skies” aviation deal liberalizing transatlantic air service. The deal would allow European and U.S. carriers to fly between any city in Europe and any city in the U.S. It did not require approval from the U.S. Congress. The deal would take effect at the end of March 2008. [See p. 172B3] U.S. House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D, Minn.) that day released a statement pledging to monitor compliance with U.S. foreign ownership rules. The U.S. had defeated efforts by the EU to allow greater foreign ownership of U.S. airlines. [See p. 350G1] U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff May 12 urged EU interior ministers to agree to share airline passenger data with U.S. intelligence agencies. Chertoff argued that the data on citizens of 15 EU nations—who could enter the U.S. on short visits without applying for visas—was needed to screen for links to terrorism. The U.S. had expressed special interest in data on British citizens, after July 2005 London terrorist attacks in which three of four suicide bombers turned out to be British citizens of Pakistani origin. However, some European governments and privacy activists had criticized the deal for exposing passengers to potential racial and religious profiling and data-mining. An interim data-sharing deal was set to expire July 31. [See 2006, p. 779A3] „

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Haitian Migrant Boat Sinks, Killing at Least 61.

A boat bearing an estimated 160 migrants attempting to flee Haiti May 4 capsized in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the British territory of Turks and Caicos, killing at least 61 people. Authorities said they had rescued 78 people, but some 40 other passengers remained missing. [See p. 180F3] Several survivors from the boat May 10 said a Turks and Caicos patrol boat had rammed their vessel, then towed it into deeper water where it sank. They also said those migrants who attempted to board the Turks and Caicos boat were beaten back with sticks. The survivors said some 15 minutes after their boat sank, a smaller Turks and Caicos vessel arrived and aided those left in the water. Initial reports had indicated that the Haitian vessel was being towed by a Turks and Caicos boat when it flipped over, although Turks and Caicos officials had denied that version of events. „ 345

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preme Court May 29 ruled, 5–4, that a woman could not sue her employer for pay discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The court concluded that Title VII required the woman, Lilly Ledbetter, to have filed her claim within 180 days of when the initial alleged discrimination occurred, and that she had failed to do so. The case was Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. [See 2006, p. 506E1] Ledbetter had been a supervisor at the Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Ala., and had worked there for 19 years. In March 1998 she submitted a questionnaire to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging gender discrimination by the company. She made a formal charge in July 1998. She claimed she received a lower salary because of her sex, and that by the time she retired in November 1998 she was paid less than any of the other workers, who were all men, at her management level. A jury in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala., sided with Ledbetter, granting her more than $3 million in back pay and punitive damages. Goodyear appealed, and the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Ga., overturned the verdict, arguing that Ledbetter could not prove that the alleged discriminatory act occurred within the 180 days before she submitted the original March 1998 questionnaire to the EEOC. The Supreme Court upheld the appellate court’s decision. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. rejected a common interpretation of Title VII, that each paycheck Ledbetter received was a new violation of the guarantees made available by the statute. Alito said, “We apply the statute as written.” He asserted that Ledbetter had been unable to point to a “discrete act” of discrimination that occurred in the 180 days before she submitted her charge. Alito also ruled irrelevant Ledbetter’s claims that earlier instances of pay discrimination had compounded over the years and resulted in smaller raises and a significantly lower salary than her male counterparts. He said, “Current effects alone cannot breathe life into prior, uncharged discrimination.” Alito was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony M. Kennedy. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg read the dissenting opinion from the bench, a practice intended to signal the seriousness of a justice’s disagreement. She said, “Title VII was meant to govern real-world employment practices, and that world is what the court today ignores.” Ginsburg argued that the majority opinion did not account for “common characteristics of pay discrimination,” saying many employees could be unaware of payment discrimination early on due to the private nature of colleagues’ salaries. She also argued that the disparity in Ledbetter’s pay could only have been 346

discovered over time. Ginsburg called on Congress to change the wording of the statute. Ginsburg was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer. The court’s decision was hailed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country’s largest business lobbying group. In a statement released later that day, it said the ruling eliminated “a potential windfall against employers by employees trying to dredge up stale pay claims.” Analysts said the ruling could affect other claims filed under Title VII, including those charging pay discrimination based on race or national origin. „

September 11 Attacks Aftermath World Trade Center Insurers Settle Claims.

New York State Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) and state Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo May 23 announced that insurers had settled all claims on New York City’s World Trade Center, which had been destroyed in Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Seven insurance companies had agreed to pay $2 billion, in a deal that would halt litigation that had been ongoing since 2001. Spitzer and developers involved in the construction of the iconic Freedom Tower and other buildings on the site said the settlement would ensure completion of the reconstruction on schedule by 2012. Insurers said the deal was the largest single insurance settlement ever undertaken. [See 2006, pp. 1002C1, 958B1] Of the $2 billion, $870 million would go to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owned the World Trade Center site and was building the Freedom Tower. The remaining $1.13 billion would be paid to developer Larry Silverstein, who had held the lease on the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks and was building three other office towers on the site. Silverstein and the Port Authority in return dropped claims that the insurance companies owed them more than $500 million in interest. The insurers also abandoned their assertion that they did not owe any money until construction was completed. The insurers involved in the settlement were Allianz Global Risks U.S. Insurance Co., Travelers Cos., Zurich American Insurance Co., Swiss Reinsurance Co., Employers Insurance Co. of Wausau, Industrial Risk Insurers and Royal Indemnity Co. Other companies that had insured the World Trade Center had previously paid $2.55 billion. „ NYC Links Death to World Trade Center Dust.

Charles Hirsch, New York City’s chief medical examiner, in a letter made public May 23 directly linked a death to toxic dust produced by the destruction of the World Trade Center in Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It was the first death officially attributed to the environmental hazards caused by the attacks. Observers said the ruling would affect thousands of federal lawsuits filed against New York City by workers who said they had been injured by hazard-

ous materials during the 10-month-long cleanup in the attack’s aftermath. [See 2006, pp. 1002D1, 694C1] Hirsch said he was certain “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the dust had aggravated the preexisting sarcoidosis, a lung disease often linked to exposure to environmental hazards, of Felicia Dunn-Jones, contributing to her February 2005 death. However, he said, the dust by itself most likely had not caused the condition in Dunn-Jones, a lawyer who had worked near the World Trade Center and had been exposed to the dust while fleeing the attacks. Hirsch said Dunn-Jones’s death certificate would be amended to note the finding, and that she would be added to the official list of attack victims and the official death toll, which was increased to 2,750. Officer Involved in Reconstruction Dies—

Cesar Borja, a former New York City police officer who had participated in cleanup work at the World Trade Center site, Jan. 23 died of pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease. Borja’s ailment had never formally been linked to exposure to dust from the attack, but he had come to be seen as emblematic of the hazards faced by workers at the site. His son, Ceasar Borja, in January had attended the State of the Union address in Washington, D.C., with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.) and Jan. 31 had met with President George W. Bush to urge federal financing for treatment for ailing cleanup workers. The New York Times Feb. 13 reported that Cesar Borja’s involvement in the cleanup had been less extensive than had previously been reported. „

2008 Presidential Campaign Obama Offers Health Care Plan. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), one of the top candidates for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, May 29 unveiled a plan to extend health insurance coverage to the 45 million uninsured people in the U.S., and lower health care costs for all. Speaking in Iowa City, Iowa, Obama said, “It’s time to bring together businesses, the medical community and members of both parties around a comprehensive solution to this crisis, and it’s time to let the drug and insurance industries know that while they’ll get a seat at the table, they don’t get to buy every chair.” Polls showed that health care ranked as voters’ top domestic concern. [See pp. 276A3, 177A2, 80D2] Under Obama’s plan, the federal government would require employers to either provide health insurance to their employees or pay a tax to fund government insurance plans. To keep costs down, he would also have the government reimburse employers for costs incurred when their workers suffered catastrophic illnesses. Obama said he would pay for his plan by allowing the expiration in 2010 of incometax cuts for people who earned more than $250,000 a year. He said a family of four would save $2,500 per year under his plan. Obama said he would mandate that all children have insurance, but not all adults. The rival campaigns of Sen. Hillary RodFACTS ON FILE

ham Clinton (N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) faulted Obama’s plan for not making health insurance a universal requirement. Edwards had introduced his own health care plan in February. Obama’s resembled it in many respects. The health care plan was Obama’s biggest domestic policy proposal so far. He had faced criticism in recent weeks for speaking in broad terms about the need for optimism and hope, but not offering specific policies. Clinton Outlines Cost-Cutting Plan—

Clinton, known as the architect of a failed 1994 health care overhaul proposed by her husband, President Bill Clinton, May 24 outlined a plan for cutting health care costs by $120 billion, in a speech at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She said she would present a plan for covering the uninsured later in the year. To cut costs, Clinton called for more focus on preventive health care to cut increasing rates of diabetes, heart disease and asthma. She said she would bar insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums for people in poor health. She also proposed allowing imports of foreign drugs and requiring Medicare, the federal insurance program for the elderly and disabled, to negotiate lower prices with drugmakers. She criticized the drug industry for promoting expensive new drugs that she said were often no more effective than cheaper generic versions. [See pp. 293B2, 259G3] Other News—In other campaign news: † Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) May 30 announced that he was giving his coveted presidential endorsement to Clinton. Villaraigosa was a key Democrat in California, which had taken on a new importance in the nomination process by moving its primary up to Feb. 5, 2008. He was also one of the leading Hispanic politicians in the U.S. Hispanics were a large Democratic voting bloc. [See p. 174B1; 2005, p. 340F3] † Both the Washington Post and the New York Times May 26 reported that the Clintons had accepted $900,000 in travel over the past four years from InfoUSA, a major marketing database firm, according to a lawsuit filed by two hedge funds that held shares in InfoUSA. The lawsuit, filed in February, alleged that InfoUSA founder Vinod Gupta had wasted money on the Clintons’ travel and more than $3.3 million paid to Bill Clinton for consulting services. Gupta was a longtime fund-raiser for both Clintons. Sen. Clinton had partly reimbursed the company for her travel under rules requiring senators and presidential candidates to pay for trips on private airplanes at a first-class commercial rate. That was still a large discount from the cost of chartering a private plane. [See 2002, p. 394D2] † The Clinton camp May 23 said it had rejected a suggestion by deputy campaign manager Mike Henry to skip the Jan. 14 Iowa caucuses, the first contest on the 2008 primary calendar. The Associated Press had first reported the content of Henry’s leaked internal memo that day. In it, Henry May 31, 2007

warned that Iowa could cost the campaign too much time and money, and said it would make more sense to focus on the Feb. 5 contests in more than 20 states, which he called a “national primary.” Recent polls showed Edwards and Obama ahead of Clinton in Iowa. [See p. 293A1] † In a speech on foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, Edwards May 23 rejected the phrase “war on terror,” drawing criticism from President George W. Bush and Republican presidential candidates. Edwards said, “The war on terror is a slogan designed only for politics—it is not a strategy to make America safe. It is a bumper sticker, not a plan. It has damaged our alliances and weakened our standing in the world.” At a May 24 news conference, Bush responded, “This notion about how this isn’t a war on terror, in my view, is naive.” Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, both leading Republican candidates, also criticized Edwards’s remarks. „

Legislation House Passes Lobbying Reform Bill. The

House May 24 voted, 396–22, to pass a bill imposing new restraints on the ties between members of Congress and lobbyists. The measure would require the disclosure of more information about campaign contributions from lobbyists. The House also voted, 382–37, to pass a separate bill that would require lobbyists to disclose their “bundling” of multiple contributions that they solicited on behalf of lawmakers. The two bills were then combined into one. [See p. 29E2] The bundling measure was called especially important, since lawmakers often relied on lobbyists to raise campaign funds for them. Current campaign finance law required only the names of individual donors to be disclosed, not the bundlers who collected the money. The new measure would still not cover all bundlers, since many were not registered lobbyists. The House bill would impose new penalties on those who broke the disclosure rules, setting prison terms of up to five years and doubling the fine to $100,000. The bill had faced resistance from many members of the Democratic majority until shortly before it came to a vote, even though the Democrats had touted lobbying reform as one of their top goals when they campaigned for the 2006 elections by denouncing Republican corruption. Republicans succeeded in passing some amendments they said would strengthen the bill. One would compel lobbyists to disclose any earmarks—funding for specific projects—that they pressed lawmakers to include in spending bills. The House had watered down its bill when the House Judiciary Committee May 17 approved the measure but voted to strip a provision that would have extended to two years, from one, the period that a former member of Congress or senior staffer had to wait before becoming a lobbyist.

The Senate had passed a similar lobbying reform bill in January, but the two chambers now had to agree on a final version. The main difference was that the Senate bill would impose a two-year lobbying ban on former lawmakers. Also in January, the House had voted to change its own rules to ban its members from accepting gifts, meals or travel from lobbyists. „

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House, Senate Pass Math, Science Bills.

The House and Senate April 24–May 21 passed a slate of bills aimed at increasing funding for math and science education and research, in an effort to increase the U.S.’s technological competitiveness. The House and Senate legislation would have to be reconciled in committee. The legislation was seen in part as a response to President George W. Bush’s call to strengthen math and science skills, and enjoyed strong bipartisan support. However, the Bush administration had criticized the bills over their cost, although it had not directly threatened vetoes. [See pp. 76A3, 42C2; 2006, p. 801D1] The Senate April 25 passed a bill, 88–8, authorizing about $59.9 billion for math and science programs for fiscal 2008–11. It increased the budget of the National Science Foundation (NSF), a major provider of federal grants for basic scientific research, to $11.2 billion by fiscal 2011, from $5.6 billion in fiscal 2006. In addition, the legislation upped the budget of the Energy Department’s Office of Science to $5.2 billion by fiscal 2011, from $3.6 billion in fiscal 2006, and provided additional funds for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other science-based agencies. [See pp. 79F1, 75F3; 2006, p. 598C1] The House April 24 had passed, 389– 22, legislation authorizing $1.5 billion for fiscal 2008–12 to increase the number of math and science teachers by 10,000 per year. It included $664 million in scholarships for college students majoring in math and science who agreed to teach in “highneed” areas, and also contained funding for new master’s degree programs in math, science and engineering. The House the same day passed, 397– 20, a bill providing research grants in fiscal 2008–12 for early-career scientists, engineers and mathematicians through the NSF and the Department of Energy. The legislation would also establish a federal office to coordinate government scientific research programs. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the bill’s cost at about $921 million. The House May 2 approved, 399–17, legislation reauthorizing the NSF. The bill authorized $21 billion for the foundation in fiscal 2008–10. The bill would allow for increased spending on NSF facilities, equipment, scholarships and grant programs, including extensions of professional training grants for math and science teachers. It directed the foundation to give “special consideration” to collaborations among academic and industrial scientists and businesses, especially those that would boost the nation’s competitiveness. 347

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The House May 3 passed, 385–23, a bill fully reauthorizing the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST), which conducted technology research, for the first time since 1992. The bill authorized about $2.5 billion for the agency for fiscal 2008–10. The legislation would pay for improvements in the agency’s laboratory facilities and boost programs funding the development of new technologies by private companies. The House May 21 passed by voice vote an omnibus bill including the text of the previously passed science bill. (It also included the text of a bill passed March 12 by voice vote that set new research priorities for the National High-Performance Computing Program.) The House omnibus bill was seen as a step toward reconciling the measure’s with the Senate’s. „

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Consumer Safety Nominee Withdraws.

Michael Baroody, President George W. Bush’s nominee to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission, May 23 withdrew his nomination. Democrats had criticized Baroody over a $150,000 severance payment that he was due to receive from the National Association of Manufacturers, which had employed him as a lobbyist since 1990. [See 2001, p. 955B1] Democrats also raised questions about Baroody’s record as a lobbyist, noting that he had frequently lobbied the consumer safety board to weaken its rules for manufacturers on defective products and other matters. Baroody had previously served as assistant labor secretary under President Ronald Reagan. He reportedly decided to withdraw after it became clear that the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee would vote to reject his nomination. The three-member safety commission had lacked a chairman since Harold Stratton resigned in July 2006. With just two members in place, it had not been able to function since January. „

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Chinese Toothpaste Imports Blocked. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) May

23 said it would suspend all imports of Chinese toothpaste pending the results of tests for the poisonous chemical diethylene glycol. The announcement came after the chemical was discovered in Chinese-manufactured toothpaste on sale in Panama, the Dominican Republic and Australia earlier in the month. Diethylene glycol was thought to have been used as a cheaper alternative for the sweetener and thickener glycerin. No known deaths or illnesses had resulted from use of the tainted toothpaste. [See p. 335C1] Costa Rica May 25 said more than 350 tubes of diethylene glycol–tainted toothpaste from China had been seized from two cities in the country. Nicaraguan authorities May 27 said they had seized 6,000 348

tubes of Chinese-produced toothpaste in their country as a precautionary measure. Food product imports from China had come under greater scrutiny in the U.S. after it was discovered in April that some Chinese wheat flour used in the manufacture of pet food and animal feed sold in the U.S. improperly contained the chemical melamine. Chinese Response—The Chinese government May 9 released a resolution adopted April 27 for reforming the country’s food safety practices. The resolution promised a “crackdown on the illegal production, sale and use” of unapproved pesticides, feed additives, fertilizers and veterinary medicines. Also, the Chinese government May 29 announced that it would establish a new system for recalling tainted foods by the end of the year, and crack down on the evasion of inspections of food exports. [See p. 351G3] FDA investigators in China May 10 said two Chinese production facilities it had intended to observe had been closed. The investigators also said company officials in charge of the wheat flour production had been detained by the Chinese government and were not made available to the U.S. investigators for questioning. Other News—In related news: † FDA officials May 30 said Tembec BTLSR Inc., a Canadian company with a plant in Toledo, Ohio, had used melamine in the production of feed for livestock and farmed fish and shrimp. The levels of melamine in the feed were reportedly much lower than those found in the Chineselinked products, and officials said the levels were too low to constitute a threat to human health. † FDA officials May 17 said farm-raised fish from two farms that had used melamine-contaminated feed did not return positive test results for the chemical, and would be cleared for human consumption. The agency the same day said the FDA had impounded 46 shipments of “vegetable protein concentrate” from China since April 27 in order to test them for melamine. † David Acheson, the FDA’s assistant commissioner for food protection, May 15 said 56,000 hogs fed melamine-contaminated feed were safe for human consumption and would be released from quarantine for slaughter and sale. „

National Politics McDermott Loses Appeal in Wiretap Case.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit May 1 upheld a lower court verdict against Rep. Jim McDermott (D, Wash.) in a case involving his leak to the press of an illegally taped telephone call between Republicans in 1996. The appeals court ruled that McDermott had to pay $60,000 in damages, and legal costs that could exceed $500,000, to House Minority Leader John Boehner (R, Ohio). Boehner had been one of the participants in the illegally taped conference call, in which House Republican leaders discussed

ethics allegations against then–House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R, Ga.). [See 2006, p. 340E3] In its 5–4 ruling, the court majority rejected McDermott’s argument that his actions were protected by his First Amendment right to free speech. Noting that he had been subject to confidentiality rules as a senior member of the House Ethics Committee at the time, it found that he had no right to publicly disclose information that he received through the committee, such as the disputed tape. „

State & Local Politics Kentucky Gov. Fletcher Wins GOP Primary.

Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher May 22 won the Republican primary in his bid for reelection. Fletcher won 50% of the vote, fending off challenges from former Rep. Anne Northrup, who took 37%, and businessman Billy Harper, who garnered 13%. Northrup had questioned Fletcher’s ethics, citing his indictment by state prosecutors in 2006. In August, he had settled charges that he had abused his office by rewarding political supporters with patronage jobs. [See 2006, p. 679G1] Former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear won the Democratic primary and would face Fletcher in the November general election. Beshear won 41% of the vote, trailed by businessman Bruce Lunsford, with 21%; former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry, with 18%; and state House Speaker Jody Richards, with 13%. „ Nutter Wins Philadelphia Mayoral Primary.

Former City Councilman Michael Nutter May 15 won the Democratic mayoral primary in Philadelphia, Pa., effectively winning the race to succeed Mayor John Street (D) in the heavily Democratic city. Nutter won 37% of the vote in the seven-way contest, trailed by businessman Tom Knox, with 25%. Reps. Robert Brady and Chaka Fattah took 15% each. Street, whose tenure had been checkered by corruption scandals in his administration, was barred by term limits from seeking a third term. Nutter had pledged to crack down on corruption and gun violence. [See 2003, p. 864C1] „

Economy 1st Quarter GDP Growth Revised Lower.

The Commerce Department May 30 reported a downward revision of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth during the first quarter of 2007, to 0.6%, from the 1.3% advance estimate reported in April. It was the slowest rate in four years. The new figure was preliminary and would be revised once more. The downward revision primarily reflected the growing trade deficit, businesses investing less in inventoried goods and a drop in new housing construction. [See pp. 332B3, 281E2] „ Producer Prices Rose 0.7% in April. Producer prices in April grew 0.7% after seasonal adjustment, according to the Labor Department’s Producer Price Index (PPI), released May 11. The index tracked prices charged by manufacturers and producers of finished FACTS ON FILE

goods. It had risen 1.0% in March. “Core” producer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food prices, remained unchanged for the second month in a row. Energy prices rose 3.4% in April, a decrease from the 3.6% rise in March, and food prices were up 0.4%, after a 1.4% gain the previous month. [See p. 245F2] The finished goods index, before seasonal adjustment, stood at 165.8% of its 1982 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982 would have cost $165.80 in April. Prices for intermediate—or partially processed—goods increased 0.9% in April, after a 1.0% gain in March. Prices for crude goods fell 1.5%, after a 3.2% rise the previous month. „

Manufacturing rose 0.7% in March, up from a 0.4% increase in February, led by an increased production of durable goods. The output of utilities dropped 7.0%, reversing the February climb of 7.6%. Mining output moved up 0.1% in March, the same as in February. U.S. factories, mines and utilities operated at 81.4% of their total capacity in March. The Federal Reserve had originally reported March 16 that output of utilities grew 6.7% and that U.S. factories, mines and utilities operated at 82.0% of their capacity in February. The Federal Reserve also reported March 16 that the revised overall index of industrial production for January was 112.1%, up from its initial projection of 111.9%. „

Leading Indicators Declined 0.5% in April.

New Home Sales Rose 16.2% in April.

The Conference Board business research organization May 17 reported that its composite index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of future economic activity, fell by 0.5% in April, to 137.3. It had increased a revised 0.6% in March, the board reported. The index’s base level of 100 reflected conditions in 1996. Two of the 10 indicators in April—stock prices and real money supply—were “positive” contributors. Seven indicators were “negative,” led by building permits and new unemployment claims (inverted). One indicator, manufacturers’ new orders for consumer goods and materials, was unchanged from March. [See p. 192D1] Indicators Jumped in March—The Conference Board April 19 reported that the index rose by 0.1% in March, to 137.4. It had decreased a revised 0.6% in February, the board reported. Six of the 10 indicators in March were “positive” contributors, led by new unemployment claims (inverted) and average weekly manufacturing hours. Four contributors were “negative,” led by stock prices and the index of consumer expectations. „ Industrial Production Rose 0.7% in April. The Federal Reserve May 16 reported that its industrial production index grew 0.7% in April, following a 0.3% decrease in March. The overall index now stood at 113.0% of its 2002 base average, up from its revised level of 112.2% the previous month. [See p. 96F2] Manufacturing rose 0.5% in April, due largely to increases in production of motor vehicles and parts and of high-technology goods. The output of utilities was up 3.5%, and mining output fell 0.3%. U.S. factories, mines and utilities operated at 81.6% of their total capacity. Figures for March, February Reported—

The Federal Reserve April 17 reported that the industrial production index decreased 0.2% in March, following an increase of 0.8% in February. The overall index stood at 112.5% of its 2002 base average, down from its revised level of 112.7% the previous month. The Federal Reserve had originally reported March 16 that the index had increased 1.0% in February and had stood at 113.1% of its 2002 base average. May 31, 2007

The Departments of Commerce and of Housing and Urban Development May 24 reported jointly that sales of new singlefamily homes rose 16.2% in April from the previous month. The new seasonally adjusted annual rate was 981,000 units, up from the revised March rate of 844,000 units. The median price for a single-family home sold in April was $229,100. [See p. 281D3] Existing Home Sales Fell 2.6%— Sales of existing homes dropped 2.6% in April, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.99 million units, the National Association of Realtors reported May 25. The rate for March was revised slightly upward to 6.15 million. The median sale price for existing homes in April was $220,900, down from $222,600 a year earlier. [See p. 281G2] Housing Starts Grew 2.5%—The Departments of Commerce and of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) May 16 reported jointly that the rate of housing starts in April was 1.53 million units, annualized and adjusted for seasonal variation. That was 2.5% above the revised rate for March of 1.49 million units. Building permits were issued in April at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.43 million units, 8.9% below March’s revised rate of 1.57 million. [See p. 126B2] Housing Starts in March, Feb. Reported—

The Commerce Department and HUD April 17 reported that the rate of housing starts in March was 1.52 million units, annualized and adjusted for seasonal variation. That was 0.8% above the revised February rate of 1.51 million. Building permits were issued in March at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.54 million units, 0.8% above the revised February rate of 1.53 million. According to the departments’ March 20 report, the rate of housing starts in February was 1.53 million units, annualized and adjusted for seasonal variation. That was 9.0% above the revised January rate of 1.40 million. Building permits were issued in February at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.53 million units, 2.5% below the revised January rate of 1.57 million. Other News—In other economic news: † The Commerce Department May 11 reported that the value of U.S. retail sales,

adjusted for seasonal variation, fell 0.2% in April, to $372.0 billion. [See p. 245E2] † The Commerce Department May 24 reported that the value of durable goods orders in April grew by 0.6% from the previous month, to $217.9 billion. [See p. 294D3] † The Commerce Department May 11 reported that the value of business inventories at the end of March was $1.37 trillion after seasonal adjustment, down 0.1% from the revised value at the end of February. The ratio of inventories to sales—a measure of how long it would take businesses to unload their inventories at the current sales pace—was 1.27. The department had reported April 16 that the value of business inventories at the end of February was $1.37 trillion after seasonal adjustment, up 0.3% from the revised value at the end of January. The ratio of inventories to sales was 1.29. [See p. 192B2] † The Conference Board May 29 reported that its index of consumer confidence rose to 108.0 in May, from a revised level of 106.3 in April. The index’s base level of 100 reflected consumer confidence in 1985. [See p. 294F3] „

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Religion Muslim Attitudes Surveyed. The Pew Re-

search Center May 22 issued the findings of a survey of Muslim attitudes in the U.S. It was reportedly the first major nationwide survey of the U.S.’s Muslim population, which numbered about 2.35 million, or 0.6% of the overall population, according to Pew. [See 2006, p. 504F1] The Pew report, titled “Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream,” said Muslims living in the U.S. were on the whole much more assimilated into society than their counterparts in European countries. It said 71% agreed with the view that “you can get ahead with hard work” in the U.S. That compared with 64% of the overall U.S. population. The survey found that a minority of U.S. Muslims held extremist views. While 78% said suicide bombing was never justified to defend Islam, 13% said it was justified at least rarely, and 9% declined to answer. The percentages rose among Muslims under 30, of whom 26% said suicide bombings were justified at least rarely. Among all U.S. Muslims, 58% said they had a very unfavorable view of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda; 10%, somewhat unfavorable; 4%, somewhat favorable; and 1%, very favorable. Another 27% declined to answer. Support for extremism was found to be more prevalent among native-born black Muslims than it was among Muslim immigrants. Only 36% of black native-born Muslims expressed a “very unfavorable” attitude toward Al Qaeda. Also, fewer black Muslims agreed that there was a link between hard work and success. Of the total Muslim population, 65% was foreignborn and 35% was native-born. Slightly more than half of those surveyed said their lives had become harder 349

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Medicine & Health OxyContin Manufacturer Pleads Guilty.

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Purdue Frederick Co., the manufacturer of the prescription painkiller sold under the brand name OxyContin, May 10 pleaded guilty to charges that it had intentionally misbranded the drug to hide its addictive effects and potential for abuse from the public. As part of its plea deal the company agreed to pay $634.5 million, one of the largest U.S. drug company criminal settlements in history. [See 2002, p. 502F2] Three company executives—Chief Executive Officer Michael Friedman, former Chief Medical Officer Paul Goldenheim and General Counsel Howard Udell—also pleaded guilty to charges of misbranding OxyContin. They faced fines totaling $34.5 million. Under the terms of their deals they would not serve prison time. OxyContin, known generically as oxycodone, had been brought to market in 1996 as a less dangerous alternative to morphine for treatment of pain. However, abusers of the drug found they could circumvent its time-release design by crushing the pills and snorting or injecting the powder. A 2002 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report linked OxyContin abuse to 142 deadly overdoses and 318 other deaths. U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia John Brownlee said abuse of the drug had contributed to widespread crime, addiction and deaths. „ Period-Halting Birth Control Approved. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

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May 22 approved a form of birth control medication, marketed under the name Lybrel, that also halted a woman’s monthly periods. The drug, manufactured by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, had been designed to eliminate menstruation for those women who found it painful or inconvenient. Menstruation was often accompanied by cramps, tender breasts, nausea and mood swings. [See 2006, p. 664D1] Older methods of birth control worked by providing 21 daily doses of the hormones progestin and estrogen, followed by seven days of dummy pills that allowed menstruation to occur. Lybrel worked by administering lower continual doses of the hormones. However, in studies the drug had stopped bleeding in only 59% of those who took it for a year, and 18% of study participants had dropped out due to continued bleeding. Some doctors raised concerns that halting the menstruation cycle might have long-term health effects. „

Aviation Virgin America Approved. The Department of Transportation May 18 approved lowcost startup airline Virgin America Inc. for operations within the U.S., ending a tumul350

tuous 17-month review period. Burlingame, Calif.–based Virgin America had been founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, the founder and chairman of the Virgin Group Ltd. business empire, which included transatlantic carrier Virgin Atlantic (PLC). However, Virgin America was forced by U.S. foreign ownership laws to downgrade its connections with Branson and Virgin Group. Virgin America was scheduled to start flights between San Francisco, Calif., and New York City in the summer, with additional routes planned to serve Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; San Diego, Calif.; and Las Vegas, Nev. [See pp. 345C3, 172D3] The department had rejected a request by Virgin America that it be allowed to retain its chief executive, Frederick Reid. Ruling that Reid was “beholden” to foreign interests because he had been personally appointed by Branson, the government mandated that he resign within six months. Virgin America also agreed to reduce the number of Virgin Group representatives on its board, remove Virgin Group’s veto power over important financial decisions and advise the government of any foreign loans or financing. „ Delta Leaves Bankruptcy. Atlanta, Ga.– based Delta Air Lines Inc. April 30 emerged from bankruptcy after cutting $3 billion in annual costs and 6,000 jobs, 19 months after it had filed for Chapter 11 protection. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Adlai Hardin in New York City had approved the exit plan April 25, after Delta April 16 reported that more than 95% of its creditors had voted for the reorganization. Delta in December 2006 had fought off an $8 billion uninvited takeover bid by US Airways Group Inc. [See 2006, p. 975C2] The reorganization plan valued Delta at $9.4b billion–$12 billion. However, Delta’s stock price on the New York Stock Exchange May 3 opened at $21.75 on its first day of trading, valuing the company at $8.7 billion. The price of Delta’s stock had fallen to $20.72 by the end of the day, dropping Delta’s value to $8.3 billion. Delta’s chief executive throughout the bankruptcy, Gerald Grinstein, was expected to resign after his successor was chosen. Delta March 19 had announced that Grinstein would not receive any compensation when the company exited bankruptcy. However, Delta employees received an equity stake in the company and a lump-sum cash payment based on their salaries. „

AFRICA

Nigeria Yar’Adua Sworn In as President. Umaru Yar’Adua of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) May 29 was sworn in as Nigeria’s new president in a ceremony in Abuja, the capital. Yar’Adua had won a presidential election in April that had been marred by violence and allegations of widespread fraud. [See p. 255A2; for facts on Yar’Adua, see box p. 351A1] Yar’Adua, a Muslim former governor of northern Katsina state, succeeded Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian southerner who had ruled Nigeria since 1999. The inauguration marked the first time in the history of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and its largest oil producer, that the presidency was handed over from one elected civilian leader to another. However, the main opposition parties had filed court challenges to the official election results, which gave Yar’Adua an overwhelming victory. One of the defeated presidential candidates, outgoing Vice President Atiku Abubakar, refused to attend the inauguration, and May 27 had released a statement saying, “Democracy is in the throes of death in Nigeria and evil forces have laid siege to our country.” Trade unions called a two-day strike for May 28–29, but it went largely unheeded. In his inaugural speech, Yar’Adua, 56, acknowledged the “lapses and shortcomings” in the recent elections. He also addressed the ongoing conflict in the oil-rich southern Niger Delta region, pledging to “move quickly in securing lives and property and making investments safe. In the meantime I urge all aggrieved communities, groups and individuals to immediately suspend all violent activities and respect the law. Let us allow the dialogue to take place in a conducive atmosphere.” [See below] Some analysts said Yar’Adua, often described as soft-spoken and reclusive, could have difficulty establishing his leadership credentials independently of Obasanjo. Yar’Adua had been a little-known state governor until the outgoing president handpicked him as his successor in December 2006. PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images

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after Al Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. Nearly a third of those who traveled by air in the past year said they had been subjected to extra security screening. „

Mergers & Acquisitions AstraZeneca Buys MedImmune. AstraZeneca PLC, a London-based pharmaceutical

company, April 23 announced that it had acquired MedImmune Inc., a biotechnology firm based in Gaithersburg, Md., for $15.6 billion. AstraZeneca’s offer of $58 per share was a 53% premium on MedImmune’s closing price April 11 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, the day before it said it was open to buyout offers. The deal was widely seen as a way for AstraZeneca to establish a presence in the areas of biotechnology and vaccine creation. „

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua after his swearing-in May 29 in Abuja, the capital.

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FACTS ON YAR’ADUA

Umaru Yar’Adua was born in 1951 in Katsina town, in the northern state of Katsina. He was born into an elite Muslim family, and his father served as a minister in Nigeria’s first postcolonial administration. His brother, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, had served as Nigeria’s deputy leader to Olusegun Obasanjo when he was military ruler from 1976 to 1979. [See 1997, p. 938C3] Yar’Adua earned a bachelor’s degree in education/chemistry in 1975 from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria, and obtained a master’s degree in analytical chemistry in 1980 from the same school. He later worked as a chemistry teacher. Yar’Adua, a devout Muslim, was elected governor of Katsina state in 1999, and was reelected in 2003. During his tenure, he was credited with improving the state’s infrastructure, though the state remained one of Nigeria’s poorest. He gained a reputation as a soft-spoken, generally honest politician. Yar’Adua in December 2006 was nominated as the candidate for the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in a 2007 presidential election. His candidacy was backed by Obasanjo, who had served as president since 1999 but was forced to step down due to term limits. [See 2006, p. 1013G1] Yar’Adua April 23 was declared the winner of the April 21 presidential election, although the vote was marred by violence and charges of fraud. He was sworn in May 29. [See p. 350A3]

Goodluck Jonathan, the former governor of Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta, was sworn in as vice president in the May 29 ceremony. Jonathan was expected to play a leading role in negotiations with militants in the region. However, unidentified attackers May 16 had bombed Jonathan’s country home in Otu-Eke, a village in Bayelsa, killing two police officers. Also May 29, governors elected in April took the oath of office in all 36 states. Obasanjo Gives Farewell Address—

Obasanjo, 70, May 28 in a nationally televised farewell address claimed that, after his tenure, Nigerians were “no longer divided along ethnic, tribal, religious lines or northsouth divide. We have become simply Nigerians interested in the development and progress of our country.” Obasanjo was credited with overseeing the transfer from military to civilian rule, as well as reducing the national debt by billions of dollars. However, corruption and poverty remained rampant in Nigeria, the infrastructure was in urgent need of repair and violence in the Niger Delta region had increased. Obasanjo in 2006 had sought to amend the constitution to run for a third four-year term, but the amendment was rejected by the Senate. He remained head of the PDP, and was expected to continue to wield considerable influence in national politics. Just before leaving office, Obasanjo engineered a controversial sale of several state assets to cronies in the private sector. In one of those deals, the government May 11 auctioned off 18 oil-exploration contracts. Workers at the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. and petroleum ministry employees May 24–25 went on strike to protest the sale, which they alleged was not in the best interest of workers. May 31, 2007

Delta Militants Vow to Continue Attacks—

A spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) regional militant group said in a May 29 e-mail to the Washington Post that it would continue its attacks. The message read, “We want more than words to halt our attacks on installations” belonging to foreign oil companies, in response for Yar’Adua’s inaugural call for peace in the region. The spokesman used the pseudonym Jomo Gbomo. MEND was fighting to obtain a greater share of the region’s oil wealth for its people, and often targeted oil installations operated by foreign-based companies. Violence in the region had increased since the April elections. [See p. 247F2] Some 100 foreign workers had been kidnapped since the beginning of 2007, compared with about 90 in all of 2006, though many had been taken not by MEND but by criminal gangs seeking ransom money. The violence in the region had caused a reduction in output of 700,000 barrels of oil a day, or about a quarter of normal production. U.S. oil firm Chevron Corp. May 1 had scaled back production and pulled hundreds of workers from the region after militants earlier that day attacked an offshore oil field, killing one Nigerian sailor and abducting at least four workers. Separately, four Americans working as subcontractors for Chevron May 8 were abducted from an offshore construction vessel; they were released May 30. Chevron May 23 had said normal production had been restored. MEND May 8 destroyed three pipelines in the region’s Brass export terminal belonging to Italian oil company ENI SpA. Gbomo in an e-mail to the Washington Post said, “We want them to realize the futility of military means as a solution to the unrest in the delta.” Protesters May 10 began occupying an oil pipeline center belonging to AngloDutch firm Royal Dutch Shell PLC, causing production cuts of 170,000 barrels per day. The protesters were activists belonging to the region’s Ongoni tribe. „

AMERICAS

Canada Boisclair Quits PQ Leadership. Andre Bois-

clair, the leader of the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) in the province of Quebec, May 8 announced his resignation, six weeks after the party finished third in Quebec provincial elections. Boisclair, 41, said of his decision, “The current conditions don’t allow me to do this anymore.” He had won leadership of the PQ in November 2005, after a campaign in which he had been dogged by his admitted use of cocaine while a provincial cabinet member. [See p. 194F3] Giles Duceppe, 59, the leader of the federal Quebec separatist party, the Bloc Quebecois (BQ), May 11 announced his candidacy for the PQ leadership. Former PQ Deputy Premier Pauline Marois, 57, moments later also declared her candidacy. However, Duceppe May 12 withdrew from the race, making Marois the favored candidate. Analysts attributed Duceppe’s with-

drawal to a failure by his campaign to gauge Marois’s support among PQ members. Duceppe May 14 returned to the BQ as its leader, though his political clout was said to have been weakened by his aborted PQ leadership attempt. „

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Venezuela TV Station Shutdown Spurs Riots. Thousands of demonstrators May 27 clashed with police in the streets of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, to protest the government’s closing of the country’s oldest and most popular television network, Radio Caracas Television (RCTV). Eleven police officers were reported injured during the fighting. The station, which often aired programing strongly critical of President Hugo Chavez Frias, went off the air at 12:00 a.m. local time May 28. The protests May 28–29 continued in Caracas and several other cities, with four students in Valencia reportedly suffering gunshot wounds May 29. [See p. 18A3] Chavez in December 2006 had announced that he would not renew the station’s broadcasting license, citing its support for a short-lived coup d’etat that ousted him for 48 hours in 2002. However, several other television stations that had also supported the coup were still in operation, having tempered their disapproval of the president. Critics of the shutdown said RCTV had been singled out by Chavez for its continued criticism of his administration. Public opinion polls showed that most Venezuelans were opposed to RCTV’s shutdown. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) found that the RCTV shutdown was a “predetermined and politically motivated effort to silence critical coverage.” Since the 2002 coup attempt, the government had increased funding for the state-run television station, Venezolana de Television (VTV), and founded three other television stations. However, officials denied that the moves were an attempt to control the media, noting that several independently owned newspapers that were openly critical of Chavez continued to publish without government interference. „ CANTV Nationalization Completed. President Hugo Chavez Frias’ administration May 21 completed the nationalization of the country’s largest telecommunications firm, Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV), by appointing its new board of directors. The government May 9 said it had raised its stake in the company to 86.2%, from 6.6%, by investing $1.3 billion. Chavez in recent months had nationalized several Venezuelan industries as part of his plans to institute a “new socialist state.” [See p. 315G3] „

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China Ex–Food and Drug Chief Sentenced to Death.

The former head of China’s State Food and Drug Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, May 29 was convicted in a Beijing court for accepting bribes in exchange for medicine 351

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approvals, and sentenced to death. The death sentence was unusually harsh, although not unprecedented, for a corruption case in which the government sought to make a stern example. In Zheng’s case, it was seen as intended to signal the government’s concern over failures in ensuring the safety of food and drug products, following the recent discovery of a variety of contaminated foods and other products exported from China. [See p. 348E1] Zheng, 62, had been chief of the food and drug agency from 1998 until he was removed in 2005. He was found guilty of taking bribes totaling nearly $850,000. Among the medicines he approved in return was an intravenous antibiotic linked to the deaths of at least six people in China. „

people had been arrested for inciting unrest, but also that authorities sought to address complaints of official abuses. „ Ousted Shanghai Chief Replaced. Chinese state media March 24 reported that the ruling Communist Party had named Xi Jinping as the party secretary for Shanghai, the top leadership post in the city. The previous Shanghai party chief, Chen Liangyu, had been removed in 2006 amid a wideranging crackdown on alleged corruption. Xi, 53, since 2002 had been the party chief of nearby Zhejiang province, which, like Shanghai, was a major center for the country’s burgeoning private-sector economy. His father, Xi Zhongxun, was a veteran of China’s communist revolution. [See 2006, p. 750C2; 1981, p. 449A2] „

New Official Disclosure Rules Adopted.

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The government April 24 announced new regulations requiring expanded disclosure of official government information. The change would take effect May 1, 2008. The new rules mandated open access to information about government revenue and spending, and to areas of official action that had recently provoked discontent: authorities’ responses to emergencies; the terms under which land was seized from farmers for development; and local governments’ enforcement of policies limiting family size. [See pp. 352D1, 181D1, 51B2; 2006, p. 1021C1; 2005, p. 973B1] However, the new rules stipulated that “state secrets” and other sensitive information affecting security and the economy would remain restricted. Those categories were often applied widely by Chinese authorities. „ Birth Control Crackdown Prompts Revolt.

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Residents of a rural county in China’s southern autonomous region of Guangxi had revolted against the extraction of stiff fines for violations of restrictions on family size, it was reported May 21. News reports cited local witnesses who described unrest that had erupted May 17 and reached a peak two days later when rioters attacked local government offices in the township of Shapi, in Bobai county. [See pp. 352B1, 34D3; 2006, p. 1021C1] Residents described a recent crackdown in which Bobai authorities imposed enormous fines for violations of the so-called one-child policy going back to 1980. Villagers said that those who did not pay the fines had their homes ransacked and property, ranging from livestock to home furnishings, seized. They said they suspected that the fines and seizures were primarily intended to benefit officials personally. The reported clashes, in which rioters set fire to government offices and vehicles, followed a pattern of similar uprisings by rural residents against perceived abuses by local authorities in their handling of such issues as land seizures and pollution. A prominent grass-roots legal activist in 2006 had been prosecuted after helping residents of Shandong province bring legal action against authorities for abuses in enforcement of family planning policies. Chinese state media first reported on the Guangxi incidents May 23, saying that 28 352

East Timor Ramos-Horta Sworn In as President. Jose

Ramos-Horta May 20 took the presidential oath of office in Dili, East Timor’s capital. Ramos-Horta, who had previously been the country’s premier, had overwhelmingly beaten the ruling Fretilin party’s candidate in elections for the largely ceremonial post of president earlier in May. He succeeded President Xanana Gusmao, who had declared that he would run for the premiership in June. [See p. 316E2] In a speech he delivered upon taking office, which he gave in Tetum—East Timor’s national language—English, Portuguese and Indonesian, Ramos-Horta promised to bring stability to the country. He also called on street gangs to cease their incessant fighting “because it just destroys the nation.” Gangs later that day clashed in the streets of Dili, killing one person. Violence had also broken out in the wake of the election, with Fretilin saying its members had been attacked by Ramos-Horta supporters. „

Asia-Pacific News in Brief Japan: Minister’s Suicide. Japanese Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, 62, May 28 hanged himself in his Tokyo apartment, hours before he was scheduled to be questioned by a parliamentary committee about a bid-rigging scandal. He died after being taken to a hospital, becoming the first Japanese cabinet member to commit suicide in the post–World War II era. Corruption accusations against Matsuoka, including alleged overstatements of office expenses, were seen as tarnishing Premier Shinzo Abe, who had resolutely defended him. A company executive linked to the bid-rigging scandal May 29 jumped to his death from his apartment in Yokohama. [See p. 248C3; 2006, p. 1023B1] „

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UNITED STATES

Ireland Ahern’s Party Finishes First in Elections.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern’s party, Fianna Fail, placed first in May 24 parliamentary elections, putting it within reach of a third straight term in government,

according to final results reported May 26. Fianna Fail won 78 seats, just short of the 84 needed for a majority in the 166-seat Dail, or parliament. Fianna Fail, a centrist party, was expected to try to form a coalition with smaller parties or independent lawmakers. [See p. 285E2] The main opposition party, Fine Gael, won 51 seats, while its ally, the Labour Party, garnered 20. The Progressive Democrats, Fianna Fail’s previous coalition partner, won just two seats, down from eight. The Greens won six seats, and independent candidates took five. Sinn Fein, which had recently joined a power-sharing local government in the British province of Northern Ireland, and called for reuniting it with independent Ireland, won just four seats in a disappointing showing. [See p. 300B2] Ahern, 55, faced persistent questions during the campaign about payments he had received from businessmen in the 1990s. [See 2006, p. 787C3] „

Serbia 12 Convicted in Premier’s Assassination.

A Serbian court in Belgrade, the capital, May 23 convicted the two top leaders of a paramilitary unit that had served under President Slobodan Milosevic of organizing the 2003 assassination of Premier Zoran Djindjic. The two men, Red Berets commander Milorad Ulemek and his deputy, Zvezdan Jovanovic, were each sentenced to 40 years in prison. Djindjic, founder of the country’s Democratic Party, had been a leader of the movement to overthrow Milosevic in 2000, and the following year became premier. Ten others were also convicted of involvement in his killing, and were sentenced to prison terms ranging from eight to 35 years. [See 2004, p. 547A3] The chief judge in the case, Natasa Mesarovic, said in delivering the verdict, “It was all prepared by Ulemek. Jovanovic fired the shots.” She called it “a political murder with an aim to destabilize the state,” return Milosevic loyalists to power and prevent the extradition of Serbian war crimes suspects to an international tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands. Ulemek, 39, in 2005 had been sentenced to 40 years in prison in connection with the 2000 murder of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic and an attempt the same year on the life of opposition politician Vuk Draskovic. He was sometimes known by the nickname Legija, referring to his service in the French Foreign Legion. The trial of the Djindjic case had begun in December 2003, and had been interrupted by the resignation of a previous chief judge in September 2006, and the killing of two prosecution witnesses. Serbian President Boris Tadic, leader of the Democratic Party, May 23 expressed satisfaction with the verdict. However, some Djindjic allies and other observers said they believed that the 12 convicted men had acted on orders from political figures who had not been prosecuted. FACTS ON FILE

Relatives of Djindjic had suggested that current nationalist Premier Vojislav Kostunica had been involved in the plot. The court had rejected their demands that he and others be subpoenaed. „

Turkey President Vetoes Direct Election Bill. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer May 25 vetoed a bill that would have amended the Turkish constitution in order to hold presidential elections by popular vote, replacing the existing system in which the parliament elected the president. Sezer said that having a popularly elected president could lead to political instability. [See p. 301F1] The parliament May 28 voted, 367–1, to approve the measure a second time. It gave the amendment final approval in a May 31 vote, 37–21. Sezer would now have the choice of either signing the bill or calling a national referendum. Fistfights broke out in the parliament earlier May 28 between supporters of Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamicbased Justice and Development Party (AKP) and members of the secular opposition, led by Sezer. Erdogan had proposed changing the presidential election process after secularist protests forced Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, also of the AKP, to withdraw his nomination for president as the successor to Sezer. „ Suicide Bombing in Capital Kills Six. A suicide bombing at a shopping center in Ankara, the Turkish capital, May 22 killed six people and wounded dozens. Police reportedly said they had found plastic explosives at the scene, of a type often used by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish militant group that had waged a violent separatist campaign since the 1980s, including many bombings. [See p. 250D1] Ankara’s governor, Kemal Onal, May 23 identified the bomber as Guven Akkus, a man from the heavily Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey. Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan May 23 warned that the Turkish military would take action, if necessary, against Kurdish militants based across the border in northern Iraq. He called on the U.S. to use its forces in Iraq to crack down on the Kurdish bases. „

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Lebanon U.N. Establishes Hariri Tribunal. The United Nations Security Council May 30 voted to create an international tribunal to try suspects in the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. U.N. investigators and others had suggested that Syria was involved in the car bombing that killed Hariri along with 22 other people in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, though Syria denied the accusation. Current Lebanese Premier Fouad Siniora earlier in May had requested that the U.N. establish the tribunal without the assent of the Lebanese parliament, after Speaker Nabih Berri reMay 31, 2007

fused to bring the matter to a vote. [See p. 326F1] The council May 30 approved the tribunal’s creation 10–0, with five nations— China, Indonesia, Qatar, Russia and South Africa—abstaining. Those five nations expressed concern that the vote was bypassing Lebanon’s constitution on a domestic matter, and thus constituted outside interference. They also objected that the tribunal was created under Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, which provided for the U.N. to enforce measures it took to address threats to international peace. Britain’s ambassador to the U.N., Emyr Jones Parry, dismissed the complaints, saying, “This is not a capricious interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state. It is a considered response to a request from the government of Lebanon for action to overcome a continued impasse in Lebanon’s internal procedures.” The council’s resolution did leave room for Lebanon’s parliament to act on the matter, however, declaring that the tribunal would only “enter in force” on June 10 if the parliament failed to act by that date. The tribunal was modeled on U.N. criminal courts previously established for Cambodia and Sierra Leone. However, the tribunal would try suspects according to Lebanese law, precluding any charges of international war crimes or crimes against humanity. The tribunal would meet outside Lebanon—though no specific location had yet been set—and would receive both Lebanese and international funding. It would have both Lebanese and international judges, though the latter would be in the majority, and have an international prosecutor. Beyond the Hariri assassination, its jurisdiction would include at least 14 other attacks against opponents of Syrian influence in Lebanon since October 2004. Serge Brammertz, who led the ongoing U.N. investigation of Hariri’s death, claimed that all 15 attacks might be part of a single conspiracy against those opponents. Eight people were in custody for Hariri’s assassination: four of them were proSyrian Lebanese generals, and the other four were members of a pro-Syrian Sunni Muslim group. Reaction—The creation of the tribunal May 30 prompted praise from several quarters. Lebanese Culture Minister Tarek Mitri, addressing the council, called the establishment of the tribunal “the path of the salvation of Lebanon.” Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., acknowledged concerns that supporters of Syria might try to derail the tribunal by fomenting civil strife in Lebanon, but insisted that “the risks of not moving forward are greater.” He added, “People who have committed political assassination need to be brought to justice.” Saad Hariri, the son of Rafik Hariri and the leader of the governing coalition, said the tribunal should not be interpreted as a provocation against Syria. “We are asking for justice, and nothing more,” he said. Syria that day reiterated that it would not cooperate with the tribunal, and called

the court a threat to Lebanon’s sovereignty and stability. However, the Lebanese pro-Syrian group Hezbollah, which had opposed the tribunal in parliament, denounced the resolution as “illegitimate.” The Lebanese government imposed a curfew in Beirut that day in order for forestall any potential violence. Many Lebanese citizens gathered in public to celebrate the tribunal’s creation. „

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Syria Assad Wins Second Term as President.

Government officials May 29 announced the results of Syria’s presidential referendum, held May 27, stating that incumbent President Bashar al-Assad had won 97% of the vote. Turnout was 95% of the country’s nearly 12 million voters. Assad was the sole presidential candidate in the referendum, which gave voters the option of voting “yes” or “no” to giving Assad another seven years in office. Interior Minister Bassam Abdul-Majid said more than 2% of the ballots were invalid, and that fewer than 20,000 people voted “no” to Assad’s reelection. [See p. 286C2] Abdul-Majid cited the election as “proof of our people’s political maturity and an expression of their willingness to go on with the process of construction and modernization, as well as a confirmation of the principal values Syria has adopted under [Assad’s] wise leadership.” Several opposition groups, however, criticized the elections as unfair and questioned the legitimacy of the results. Since replacing his father, Hafez al-Assad, in 2000, Bashar al-Assad had consolidated his power over Syria in the face of several crises, including the U.S. invasion of neighboring Iraq and continuing IsraeliPalestinian conflict. In recent years, Syria had removed its forces from Lebanon after Syria was implicated in the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. Assad continued to oppose the creation of an international tribunal with a mandate to try suspects in the assassination of Hariri and other Lebanese political figures. The United Nations Security Council May 30 voted to form the tribunal. [See p. 353F1] Syria’s recently elected parliament May 10 had unanimously nominated Assad for a second term and set the date of the referendum. Democratic Activist Jailed—Kamal Labwani, a Syrian dissident, May 10 was sentenced to 12 years in prison for “communicating with a foreign country and inciting it to initiate aggression against Syria.” Labwani had met in Washington, D.C., with U.S. officials in the administration of President George W. Bush in 2005, and was arrested upon his return to Syria. Labwani, who raised his fist in defiance after hearing the sentence, was spared a term of life in prison with hard labor. Labwani was the founder of a group advocating democratic reform. The U.S. had called for his release. Four more opposition figures May 13 were sentenced to jail in Syrian courts, in353

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cluding Michel Kilo, a writer, who received three years in jail for “spreading false news, weakening national feeling and inciting sectarian sentiments.” Kilo had been arrested in 2006 after signing a petition calling for Syria to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty. [See 2006, p. 398F1] Another of the four, Mahmoud Issa, a translator, was also sentenced to three years in jail, and Suleiman Shummar and Khalil Hussein, dissidents living in exile, were each sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail, all on charges similar to those faced by Kilo. Including the April sentencing of human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni, Syria had imprisoned six government critics in the previous month. [See p. 286F2] The U.S. State Department May 14 criticized Syria for imprisoning the activists. Spokesman Tom Casey called the sentences “evidence of the Syrian regime’s continued contempt for human rights. We call on President al-Assad to unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience.” „

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Cycling ’96 Tour de France Winner Admits Doping.

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Danish cyclist Bjarne Riis May 25 admitted that he had used performance-enhancing drugs when he won the 1996 Tour de France, cycling’s premier event. Riis made the admission amid a widespread doping scandal in the sport that had ensnared some of its biggest stars. [See below; 2006, p. 887E1; 1996, p. 547G1] The admission came two days after the end of a U.S. arbitration hearing in the case of U.S. cyclist Floyd Landis, who had failed a drug test after winning the Tour de France in July 2006. [See p. 354B3] Also, there was a continuing scandal related to a Spanish case known as Operation Puerto. That case had resulted in nine riders being barred from the 2006 Tour de France, including top Italian cyclist Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich of Germany, the 1997 winner. [See p. 355C1] Observers noted that Riis and others who had admitted to doping had repeatedly denied taking drugs in the past. Riis Admits EPO Use— Riis, who had retired from cycling in 2000, at a May 25 news conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, said he had used the banned endurance-boosting substance erythropoietin (EPO) from 1993 to 1998, including during the 1996 Tour de France. Riis, who had raced for the Telekom team (since renamed T-Mobile), also admitted to using humangrowth hormone and cortisone, a painkiller, but did not specify when he took them. “I have made errors and would like to apologize,” he said. He also indicated that he would be willing to give up his title. Riis, who currently managed the Danish cycling team CSC, became the first Tour de France winner to admit using performance enhancers. However, others, including Landis, Ullrich and 1998 winner Marco Pantani of Italy, had also been linked to 354

doping. Lance Armstrong of the U.S., who won the race a record seven straight years from 1999 to 2005, had often been accused of drug use, but those allegations had never been proven. [See 2006, p. 887B3; 2004, p. 656F1; 1997, p. 551A3] Riis’s admission meant that the three top finishers in the 1996 Tour de France had all been implicated in doping. Ullrich had placed second and Richard Virenque of France was third. Virenque had been linked to doping in 1998, when his Festina team was kicked out of the Tour de France after drugs were found in a team car. [See 2000, p. 1055F3] Cycling authorities did not have the power to strip Riis of his title, because under the sport’s rules a rider could only be penalized for a doping violation within eight years of a race. However, the International Cycling Union (UCI), cycling’s world governing body, May 25 called on Riis to “return his yellow jersey, the symbol of his victory.” Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour de France, that day said, “Bjarne Riis said himself that he did not deserve to have won the Tour in 1996 because he cheated. I think the same thing, because he has soiled the yellow jersey.” Prudhomme May 30 said Riis would not be welcome at the start of the 2007 Tour de France in July, even though the CSC team was competing. Former Teammates Confess—Riis’s confession came one day after two of his former teammates on the Telekom team, Erik Zabel and Rolf Aldag, May 24 admitted that they had used EPO during the 1996 Tour. Aldag had also been a support rider for Ullrich when he won in 1997. Zabel had won the title of the Tour de France’s top sprinter for six straight years, from 1996 to 2001. [See 1998, p. 550C1] Observers said the confessions by Riis, Zabel and Aldag could have been prompted by the April 30 publication in German magazine Der Spiegel of excerpts from a book by Jef d’Hont, a former support provider for the Telekom team. In the book, d’Hont claimed that an organized system of doping had been in place at Telekom in the 1990s. D’Hont in an interview published May 27 in German newspaper Bild said he had injected Ullrich with EPO. Another former Telekom member, Bert Dietz, May 21 had alleged that team doctors had provided him with EPO. A fifth team member, Christian Henn, May 22 admitted using EPO. Two team doctors, Andreas Schmid and Lothar Heinrich, May 23 confessed that they had given performance enhancers to Telekom members throughout the 1990s. All of the riders who confessed were retired except for Zabel. Other News—In related news: † The International Olympic Committee (IOC), prompted by the Telekom team’s confessions, May 30 opened an investigation into “possible antidoping violations at previous Olympic Games.” Ullrich had won two medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Georg Huber, a doctor for the German Olympic team,

May 26 had admitting giving testosterone, another performance enhancer, to riders in the 1980s. [See 2000, p. 747E3–F3] † The UCI March 9 announced a new program to crack down on doping in the sport. The program included random testing both during and outside of competitions, and would focus on “riders we think might be up to something,” according to „ the UCI. Landis Doping Arbitration Hearing Ends.

An arbitration panel hearing charges that 2006 Tour de France champion cyclist Floyd Landis had artificially increased his testosterone levels was held May 14–23 in Malibu, Calif., featuring nine days of testimony. The hearing was overshadowed by the revelation that Landis’s business manager, Will Geoghegan, had attempted to blackmail U.S. cyclist and three-time Tour winner Greg LeMond to prevent him from testifying at the hearing. The three-member arbitration panel was not expected to reach a decision in the case for several weeks. [See pp. 355C1, 354C1; 2006, p. 887E1] LeMond Outlines Blackmail Attempt—

LeMond, in an unexpected revelation, May 17 testified that Geoghegan the previous day had called him, pretending to be the perpetrator of secret sexual abuse he had experienced as a child. LeMond said he viewed the call as an effort to threaten him with disclosure of the abuse if he testified at the hearing. LeMond said he had shared the secret with Landis, soon after news of Landis’s positive doping result was made public. He said he had done so to persuade Landis that it would feel better to come clean if he had used illegal performance enhancers. Shortly after LeMond’s testimony concluded, Geoghegan reportedly admitted that he had made the phone call, and was fired as Landis’s manager. During his own testimony May 19, Landis acknowledged that he was in the room with Geoghegan when the call to LeMond was made, but claimed that he did not believe Geoghegan was actually on the phone with LeMond. The revelation had sharply contrasted with the hearing’s previous testimony, which had largely revolved around the scientific intricacies of the doping tests. Landis May 19 also said under oath that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs. “It wouldn’t serve any purpose to cheat to win the Tour because I wouldn’t be proud of it,” he said. During May 22 cross-examinations, Landis faced tough questioning from U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) lawyers concerning his role in the call to LeMond. USADA lawyers implied that Landis had participated in the call to humiliate and scare LeMond. During the hearing, Landis’s lawyers had assailed the credibility of the French laboratory technicians who had tested Landis’ Tour de France urine samples and alleged that they had found synthetic testosterone. Maurice Suh, Landis’s lead lawyer, May 23 said the technicians had committed “errors in identification” and “errors in quality control.” FACTS ON FILE

USADA lawyers during their arguments had supported the work of the Paris laboratory technicians. They also assailed Landis’s character by stressing LeMond’s testimony. Other News—In related news: † The French sports newspaper L’Equipe April 23 reported on its Web site that tests of seven backup urine samples taken from Landis during the 2006 Tour de France had also tested positive for traces of synthetic testosterone. The USADA had requested the new round of tests, which were more sophisticated than earlier ones returning a positive result. Landis the same day claimed that the French lab might have maliciously doctored the results. He also said the USADA had stopped an observer there on his behalf from attending the tests. † A spokesman for Landis Feb. 8 announced that the rider had agreed not to compete in the 2007 Tour de France, which would begin July 7, or any other race in France in 2007. In return, France’s antidoping agency agreed to delay its case against Landis until the U.S. case was resolved. „ Spanish Judge Throws Out Doping Charges.

A Spanish judge March 12 dismissed all charges against five defendants in a case linked to the Operation Puerto doping scandal, which had implicated dozens of international cyclists. Eufemiano Fuentes, a Spanish doctor, and four other people had been charged after raids in May 2006 revealed a suspected blood-doping network. Judge Antonio Serrano, however, ruled that there was a lack of evidence against the defendants, and that the charges were inapplicable given that Spain’s antidoping laws, enacted in November 2006, were not in force at the time of the defendants’ arrests. [See pp. 354C1, B3; 2006, p. 888E1] The ruling had enormous implications for cycling, potentially allowing 50 or more cyclists to go unpunished for suspected cheating. Prosecutors March 14 appealed the decision. Officials with the Tour de France April 20 called for cyclists implicated in Operation Puerto to be judged prior to their participation in the 2007 race, which was to take place in July. Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union (UCI) April 23 called upon the Spanish government to identify the cyclists involved in the scandal, or to at least provide partial blood samples so that their identity could be determined. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), an independent agency charged with combating the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports worldwide, May 13 released a statement declaring that the organization had been given access to Spanish documents regarding Operation Puerto, and would “review the documents for elements which may be used for sports disciplinary purposes.” Basso Again Implicated in Scandal—

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) April 24 summoned cyclist Ivan Basso— May 31, 2007

the winner of the 2006 Giro d’Italia—for a second set of hearings May 2 into allegations that he was implicated in Operation Puerto. CONI had cleared Basso of involvement in the scandal in October 2006 due to lack of evidence. However, new evidence had reportedly emerged, including blood samples and text messages between Basso and Fuentes. Basso’s cycling team, the Discovery Channel team, April 24 barred Basso from racing, thereby preventing him from competing in the 2007 Giro d’Italia, which was to start May 12. The team April 30 released him from his contract at his request. Following the second set of hearings, Basso May 7 admitted to CONI that he had been involved in the Operation Puerto scandal. Basso May 8 held a press conference in which he admitted that he had intended to engage in blood doping and had provided Fuentes with blood samples. However, he maintained that he never went through with the plan. “I have never taken banned substances and I have never employed blood doping,” he said. “All my wins have been achieved in a proper and clean manner,” he said, vowing to return to “the job I love once I have paid the penalty” for attempted doping. (The World AntiDoping code penalized attempted doping the same as actual doping.) Michele Scarponi, another Italian rider implicated in the scandal, May 8 also admitted his involvement to CONI. The Italian Cycling Federation May 15 suspended both Basso and Scarponi. Meanwhile, Ettore Torri, CONI’s antidoping prosecutor, accused Basso of failing to provide a full account of his involvement in the Operation Puerto scandal. CONI May 25 said Basso faced a 21month ban for his actions, and Torri that day sent his case to the cycling federation’s disciplinary committee. DNA Links Ullrich to Doping Scandal—

German prosecutors April 3 announced that DNA from blood seized in the Spanish raids matched DNA from German cyclist Jan Ullrich, and said they would consider charging him once their investigation into his conduct wrapped up later in the year. Ullrich Feb. 26 had announced that he was retiring from cycling, while at the same time maintaining his innocence in the Operation Puerto scandal. The 33-year-old Ullrich had been barred from the 2006 Tour de France after being linked to the scandal. Other News—In other news related to the doping scandal: † The Astana team May 30 was granted a spot to compete in the 2007 Tour de France. The team had been barred the previous year due to several riders being implicated in Operation Puerto. † Cycling team Tinkoff Credit Systems May 9 suspended American rider Tyler Hamilton and German rider Joerg Jaksche. Both had been implicated in Operation Puerto. The suspension prevented Hamilton and Jaksche from competing in the 2007 Giro d’Italia. „

Auto Racing Franchitti Wins Indianapolis 500. Scottish driver Dario Franchitti May 27 won the 91st running of the Indianapolis 500 auto race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana. Rain forced officials to stop the race after 166 laps, with 34 still to go. An earlier rain delay had stopped the race for three hours after 113 laps. [See 2006, p. 439D2] Franchitti averaged 151.774 miles per hour (242.838 kmph). He won at the end by staying on the track instead of heading for a pit stop, gambling that an approaching thunderstorm would halt the race before he ran out of fuel. The race ended soon after Marco Andretti’s car knocked into the car of the 2005 champion, Dan Wheldon, and flipped. Andretti’s car landed upright, and he was unhurt in the spectacular crash. Franchitti, 34, who had never finished higher than sixth in his four previous starts at Indianapolis, won a purse of $1,645,233. He was married to U.S. actress Ashley Judd. A record number of three of the 33 drivers in the race were women: Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher of the U.S. and Milka Duno of Venezuela. Patrick did the best of the three with an eighth-place finish, after challenging for the lead several times.

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Casey Mears May 27 won the NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. Mears averaged 130.222 mph and won a purse of $367,425. [See 2006, p. 439G2] Other News—In other auto racing news: † Dale Earnhardt Jr., holder of NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver award, May 10 said he would become a free agent, leaving his team, Dale Earnhardt Inc., after the end of the 2007 season. He had failed to secure a controlling interest in the team in negotiations with his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt. The team’s founder was Earnhardt’s father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., who had died in a crash in the 2001 Daytona 500. [See p. 115F2] † NASCAR May 15 docked 100 points from Earnhardt, and his crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., was fined $100,000 and suspended for six races, after an illegal part was discovered in Earnhardt’s car during an inspection. † NASCAR May 22 announced that it would use only its new Car of Tomorrow in the 2008 season, a year earlier than planned. NASCAR had begun designing the new car to improve safety after Earnhardt’s fatal 2001 crash. Drivers had complained about the new car’s handling. It had been used in five races so far in 2007. „

Boxing Mayweather Beats De La Hoya for WBC Belt.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. May 5 defeated Oscar De La Hoya in a 12-round split decision to take De La Hoya’s World Boxing Council (WBC) super welterweight title in a bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nev. It was the fifth weight division in which May-

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weather—who some considered the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter—had claimed a title. The fight was called one of the most eagerly anticipated boxing matches in recent years. [See 2006, pp. 1038G1, 1037E3] The 34-year-old De La Hoya, who began the bout aggressively, appeared to win the early rounds. But the 30-year-old Mayweather, in his first bout as a super welterweight, gained strength in the later rounds. Mayweather came out on top on two of the judges’ scorecards, 115–113 and 116–112, while De La Hoya was scored the winner by the third judge, 115–113. Mayweather improved his record to 38 wins and no losses, and De La Hoya’s record fell to 38–5. De La Hoya, who was considered the bigger draw, received a guaranteed purse of about $25 million for the fight, plus a multimillion-dollar promotion fee, while Mayweather earned a $10 million purse. Mayweather prior to the bout had declared that he would retire regardless of the outcome. His father, Floyd Mayweather Sr., had been De La Hoya’s trainer until the bout with Mayweather. The fight drew 16,700 fans—most of whom were pro–De La Hoya—taking in a Las Vegas record of more than $19 million in gate receipts. It also set a record for payper-view audience, with 2.15 million buyers. The previous record had been 1.99 million purchases, for a heavyweight bout between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson in 1997. Other News—In other boxing news: † Diego (Chico) Corrales, a former WBC lightweight champion, May 7 was killed in a motorcycle crash in Las Vegas. Corrales, 29, in 2005 had been involved in what had been called one of the most exciting bouts in recent history, when he knocked out Jose Luis Castillo in the 10th round to win the WBC title. [See 2005, p. 993B1] † Ruslan Chagaev of Uzbekistan April 14 defeated Nikolai Valuev of Russia in Stuttgart, Germany, to take Valuev’s World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight title. The 28-year-old Chagaev, who was 11 inches (0.28 m) shorter than the sevenfoot-tall Valuev, won on two judges’ scorecards, while the third judge scored the bout a tie. The 35-year-old Russian’s record fell to 46–1, with one no-decision. Chagaev’s record improved to 23–0–1. [See 2006, p. 1038F1] † Shane Mosley Feb. 10 won a unanimous decision over Luis Collazo to claim the WBC welterweight title in a bout in Los Vegas. Mosley’s record improved to 44–4, while Collazo’s fell to 27–3. [See 2004, p. 1094A2] „

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Awards Cannes Film Festival. The 60th annual Cannes International Film Festival in France May 27 awarded the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm), its top prize, to Romanian 356

director Cristian Mungiu, 39, for his film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. The film dealt with the difficulties of obtaining an abortion in Communist Romania in the latter half of the 1980s, not long before the 1989 collapse of the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu. [See 2006, p. 479B2; 1989, p. 958A1] Japanese director Naomi Kawase won the festival’s second prize, the Grand Prix, for The Mourning Forest. Suffused with nature imagery, the film depicted a woman working in a retirement home after the death of her son, and focused on her relationship with one of her charges, an old man with dementia. The festival’s best-director honors went to U.S. painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel for his French-language film Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). The film was based on a best-selling memoir by a French journalist, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a massive stroke, after which he could not move more than one eyelid. Bauby died in 1997, at age 44, soon after his book appeared. [See 1997, p. 292E2] The festival’s best-actor award went to Konstantin Lavronenko for his starring role as a troubled husband in Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev’s The Banishment. Capturing best-actress honors was Jeon Do-yeon for her portrayal of a grieving widow in Secret Sunshine, a South Korean film directed by Lee Chang-dong. „

People Actress Elizabeth Taylor, 75, would be allowed to keep a painting by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh that she acquired for $260,000 at a 1963 auction, under a ruling handed down May 18 by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif. The ruling upheld the dismissal, by a lower court, of a lawsuit filed by four heirs of Margarete Mauthner, a Jewish woman who fled Nazi Germany in 1939. The heirs claimed that Mauthner had sold the painting, View of the Asylum and Chapel at Saint-Remy (1889), under duress, after the Nazis enacted laws permitting art owned by Jews to be confiscated. The appeals court dismissed the lawsuit on several grounds, one of them being that the lawsuit was filed too late to be valid under California law, which set a three-year deadline for suing to recover misappropriated property. The painting was now thought to be worth between $10 million and $15 million. [See 2004, p. 1095A3; 2002, pp. 1072A2, 956A1] Radio “shock jocks” Greg (Opie) Hughes and Anthony Cumia, whose “Opie & Anthony Show” was carried on XM Satellite Radio, May 15 became the first satellite radio personalities to be taken off the air. XM that day suspended them for 30 days, six days after they were drawn into a discussion of the sexual fantasies of a character called Homeless Charlie; these concerned, among other things, having rough sex with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. XM suspended them even though federal rules restricting raunchy content did not apply to satellite radio. XM had hired the duo in 2004, two years

after Infinity Broadcasting Corp. dropped them for supposedly broadcasting a live sex act from New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral. [See 2002, p. 680F1] Harvard University economist Susan Athey, 38, April 20 was named the winner of the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded biennially by the American Economic Association to the most promising academic economist in the U.S. under the age of 40. Athey became the first woman to win the prize in its 80-year history. „

O B I T UA R I E S FROEHLICH, Harold Edward, 84, leader of the team of engineers that designed the Alvin, a deep-diving exploratory submarine that in 1966, two years after it was launched, was used to recover a hydrogen bomb that had fallen into the Mediterranean Sea; the craft was designed for the U.S. Navy at a Minneapolis, Minn., research facility operated by General Mills Inc., best known as a cereal manufacturer; born July 13, 1922, in Minneapolis; died May 19 at a hospital in Maplewood, Minn.; he had had multiple myeloma. [See 1966, p. 125E1–G1] MITCHELL, Parren James, 85, Maryland Democrat who served eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1971–87); a founding member and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, he was the first black elected to Congress from Maryland, and the first since 1898 from any state south of the MasonDixon line; as the first black to chair the House Small Business Committee, he pushed legislation to aid minority-owned businesses; he was a decorated World War II veteran; born April 29, 1922, in Baltimore, Md.; died May 28 at a Baltimore hospital, from complications of pneumonia. [See 1988, p. 571B1; 1987, p. 348A3; Indexes 1982–86, 1980, 1976–78, 1970–74, 1968] REILLY, Charles Nelson, 76, comic actor who made a name for himself on the Broadway stage before becoming a fixture on the U.S. television gameand talk-show circuit in the 1970s and 1980s; known for his off-color humor, especially as a panelist on “Match Game,” he was one of America’s first TV personalities to project a distinctly gay image; in the 1990s, he returned to Broadway as a director; born Jan. 13, 1931, in New York City; died May 25 in Los Angeles, from complications of pneumonia. [See 1997, p. 424B1; 1989, p. 1001A1; Indexes 1980, 1964–65, 1962] RIKHYE, Indar Jit, 86, Indian army officer who, from 1957 to 1967, commanded United Nations’ peacekeeping forces around the world in his capacity as military adviser to U.N. Secretaries General Dag Hammarskjold and U Thant; after leaving the U.N. in 1969, he cofounded the International Peace Academy, a New York City–based peacekeeper-training institute, and served as its president for 20 years (1970– 90); born July 30, 1920, in Lahore, India (now part of Pakistan); died May 21 at a hospital in Charlottesville, Va., of respiratory failure. [See 1968, p. 572B2; 1967, pp. 267F2, C3, 196E–G1, B2, B3; Indexes 1965, 1960–62] WEBER, Eugen Joseph, 82, historian of modern Europe who specialized in French history; he had been associated with the University of California at Los Angeles since 1956; his books included A Modern History of Europe: Men, Cultures, and Societies from the Renaissance to the Present (1971), a best-selling textbook; he also hosted a 1989 documentary series, “The Western Tradition,” carried on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television stations; born April 24, 1925, in Bucharest, Romania; died May 17 at his Los Angeles home, of pancreatic cancer. WYLER, Gretchen (born Gretchen Patricia Wienecke), 75, actress best known for her early work on

Broadway, notably in Cole Porter’s musical Silk Stockings (1955), in which she originated the role of Janice Dayton, a cinematic swimming star; she appeared in only a few movies, but frequently on television; long a fierce campaigner for animal rights, she became, in the 1970s, the first woman to serve on the board of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; born Feb. 16, 1932, in Oklahoma City, Okla.; died May 27 at her home in Camarillo, Calif., of breast cancer complications. [See 1968, p. 400A3; 1957, p. 366F3; Indexes 1955–56] „

May 31, 2007

G-8 Adopts Climate Change Compromise U.S., Russia Discuss Missile Dispute Germany Hosts Summit. The leaders of the

Group of Eight (G-8) leading industrialized nations June 6 convened in the Baltic Sea resort town of Heiligendamm, Germany, for their annual summit meeting, as thousands of protesters gathered in a bid to disrupt the summit. Although host nation Germany had advertised the summit’s “key focuses” as globalization and development in Africa, on the main day of scheduled meetings June 7 the dominant negotiations centered around finding an agreement on climate change and easing an escalating standoff between the U.S. and Russia over a U.S. plan to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. The G-8 consisted of the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Italy, and Russia. [See pp. 318C1; 292E1; 2006, p. 567E3] The G-8 leaders were scheduled June 8 to meet with many heads of state from around the world to discuss security, economic growth and public health in Africa, as well as climate change and the global economy. U.S. to ‘Consider’ Emissions Goal—

The G-8 leaders June 7 issued a joint statement agreeing to “seriously consider” a proposal put forth by the European Union, Canada and Japan that called for cutting global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. The agreement also incorporated part of a U.S. proposal for slowing global warming, unveiled by President George W. Bush May 31, which suggested that all major emissions-producing nations, including developing countries like China and India, should gather for a series of future meetings that would establish long-term climate-change goals by the end of 2008. [See below] The G-8 agreement did not officially bind any nation to halve emissions by 2050, a provision that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had pushed for in the days leading up to the summit, but that the U.S. opposed. Merkel’s government had been the initial author of an EU climate change plan that called for a 50% reduction of the 1990 level of emissions by 2050 and a limit in global temperature increases to 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. However, she called the compromise agreement a “huge success.” The G-8 members, including the U.S., also agreed that future negotiations on a successor climate change agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which would expire in 2012, should be conducted under the aegis of the United Nations, another provision initially proposed by the EU. Bush’s recent proposal called for a separate framework from the U.N. Bush had withdrawn the U.S. from the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, arguing that it would put the U.S. at an economic disadvantage with respect to developing countries exempted from the treaty’s strictures. Bush Calls for Parallel Climate Talks—

Bush May 31 outlined his proposal to create a coalition to establish a “long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” Bush’s proposal called for the

15 countries that created 80%–85% of the world’s carbon emissions to participate in talks to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Under Bush’s plan, participating countries would begin meeting in the fall with the goal of setting their own emissions-reduction targets to be achieved over the next 10 to 20 years. The countries would also work to establish long-term emissions goals. However, James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, described the emissions targets as “aspirational,” meaning that they would not be subject to international enforcement. Bush’s announcement marked a shift in his administration’s stance on the issue of greenhouse gas emissions, as it had previously rejected any need for a global framework on greenhouse gas controls. Bush in his announcement said new scientific research had “deepened” the world’s knowledge of climate change and precipitated his development of the plan. The plan met with a mixed response, earning restrained praise from some for its tacit acknowledgment of the global warming problem. However, several European and U.S. politicians and environmentalist critics said the announcement was designed to preempt U.N.-led talks. British Prime Minister Tony Blair June 3 reiterated three goals he said he hoped to achieve at the G-8 summit: the establishment of a global carbon market, targets for carbon emission reductions and a commitment from attending nations to adhere to the Kyoto process. Russia Offers U.S. Missile Alternative—

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin at the summit June 7 suggested that the U.S. should use a system of existing radar stations in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, instead of building new radar installations for its proposed missile defense system in the Czech Republic. Bush said Putin’s offer was “interesting,” adding that the two leaders would discuss the issue further at a meeting at Bush’s parents’ vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine, in July. [See below] Putin’s proposal was seen as a small breakthrough in a stalemate that had grown more hostile in recent days. Bush had roused the ire of Putin when he announced U.S. plans to locate radar defenses in the Czech Republic and missile interceptors in Poland, as a means to defend against threats from Iran and North Korea. Putin viewed the plan as a threat to Russia’s security despite insistences to the contrary by U.S. officials. The level of antagonistic rhetoric from both sides had increased in the days leading up to the summit. Putin’s offer suggested that he was at least willing to talk with Bush about the endeavor. Russia operated a radar defense system in Gabala, Azerbaijan, under lease from the Azerbaijani government. Putin said he had discussed the matter with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and secured his tenta-

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Volume 67, No. 3469* June 7, 2007

B tive support. Putin said moving the site of the radar system to Azerbaijan would remove the threat to Russian national security that he said the Czech site posed. The U.S. had said that the Czech location was ideal because it was far enough from the Middle East to have time to respond to the launch of a missile from there. Putin at the same time reiterated his opposition to the proposed missile interceptors in Poland. The two leaders agreed to form a “working group” made up of military and diplomatic experts to discuss the issue. At a stop in Prague, the Czech capital, en route to the summit, Bush June 5 had defended the U.S.’s plans, vowing to tell “Vladimir” [Putin] that “it is a purely defensive measure, aimed not at Russia, but at true threats.” He reiterated a suggestion that the U.S. would welcome Russia’s joint participation in the system in order to allay its concerns. [See below] Russia May 28 had requested an emergency meeting in June of the signatories to

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G-8 adopts climate change compromise; U.S., Russia discuss missile dispute.

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Ex–Liberian President Charles Taylor’s trial opens in The Hague. PAGE 358

Man with rare TB quarantined after trip. PAGE 359

Ex–Cheney aide Libby sentenced to 30 months. PAGE 360

Charges dismissed in two Guantanamo trials. PAGE 360

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Rep. Jefferson indicted for corruption. PAGE 362

Myanmar junta extends dissident’s detention. PAGE 366

Thai court dissolves ex-premier’s party. PAGE 366

Iraq insurgents say kidnapped soldiers dead. PAGE 368

Anaheim defeats Ottawa to win hockey’s Stanley Cup. PAGE 371 *First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty. Russia had threatened in April to suspend its participation in the treaty over the missile issue. The U.S. and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, unlike Russia, had not ratified a 1999 renegotiation of the treaty. [See p. 275D3] Putin Threatens to Retarget Europe—

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Putin, in a presummit interview with Western journalists, June 1 said that if the U.S. went ahead with its plans to locate missile defense bases in Eastern Europe, Russia would reorient ballistic, cruise and other missiles to target sites in Europe. Because missiles could be easily retargeted, such a move would be primarily symbolic. Russia was understood to have ended the Soviet targeting of Europe by its missiles after the end of the Cold War. In the interview, made public June 4, Putin said Russia had scaled back its military deployment, only to “see that Eastern Europe is being filled with new equipment” by the U.S. and NATO. U.S. and NATO officials June 4 called Putin’s remarks about missile targeting “unhelpful.” Also in the June 1 interview, Putin hit back at other criticisms from the U.S. and its European allies on the state of democracy and human rights in Russia. He cited critiques of the U.S.’s own human rights practices, and playfully suggested that those failings left him alone in the world as a “pure and absolute democrat.” [See below] Putin said that he supported lengthening the term of the Russian presidency to five or seven years, from four. However, he did not change his stated position that he did not seek a change in the law to remain in office beyond the end of his current term in 2008. [See p. 101B2] Putin denied suggestions that he planned to further increase state control of key industries in Russia, saying Russia was in a transitional stage toward expanding “liberal market values.” Bush Says Russian Reforms ‘Derailed’—

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Bush June 5 at a conference in Prague on promoting democracy said that in Russia, “reforms that were once promised to empower citizens have been derailed, with troubling implications for democratic development.” His remarks, which paired Russia with China as countries with which the U.S. had both “mutual interests” and “disagreements,” echoed statements by other U.S. officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, but were unusually direct for Bush himself. [See 2006, p. 366A1] In his Prague speech, Bush said he reaffirmed the “freedom agenda” that he had outlined in his second inaugural address in 2005, when he “pledged America to the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.” [See 2005, p. 25A1] U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs David Kramer May 31 gave a speech in Baltimore, Md., sharply criticizing Russia. He referred to “negative trends on human rights and democracy,” including “suppression of genuine opposition, 358

abridgement of the right to protest, constriction of civil society and the decline of media freedom.” Kramer added that the U.S.’s Russia policy amounted to “cooperate wherever we can; push back whenever we have to.” Bush May 30 had invited Putin to visit him in early July in Kennebunkport. Bush had not asked any other foreign leader to the family compound, and his invitation, which Putin accepted, was viewed as a special gesture to ease escalating tensions. At a meeting of G-8 foreign ministers May 30–31 in Potsdam, Germany, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had laid out anew their countries’ differences on numerous topics, including missile defense and the future of the Serbian province of Kosovo. [See p. 318E3] Protesters and Police Clash—Thousands of protesters June 6 descended on Heiligendamm in an effort to disrupt the G-8 summit. Riot police officers employed tear gas and water cannons to break up demonstrations that were obstructing roads and railways to the town. As many as 137 people were arrested, though no injuries were reported. The G-8 leaders were unaffected by the protests and transportation blockage, as they were flown in to Heiligendamm via helicopter. Additionally, the German government had constructed a $17 million, seven-mile-long fence around the resort that hosted the summit. Roughly 16,000 police officers had been called in to protect the summit, the largest such deployment in Germany since the end of World War II. Protesters and police had also clashed June 2 in Rostock, a nearby town. Approximately 2,000 protesters, known as the “black bloc” for their dark clothes and supposedly violent tendencies, set a car on fire, vandalized shop windows, and threw bottles, sticks and stones at police officers, who responded with a barrage of tear gas and water cannon fire. More than 500 police officers were reported wounded, as were 500 protesters. The protesters at the summit represented various interests. Some declared broad opposition to globalization, capitalism or economic inequality; others represented Greenpeace and other environmentalactivist groups; and others advocated that more money should be spent fighting pov„ erty or AIDS.

Trial of Ex–Liberian President Taylor Opens in The Hague Defendant Boycotts First Day. The trial of

former Liberian President Charles Taylor opened June 4 in The Hague, the Netherlands. Taylor faced 11 charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and other violations of international law before the United Nations–backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. The charges were related to Sierra Leone’s 1991–2002 civil war. Taylor was the first African leader to face an international court on such charges. [See 2006, p. 491A3]

In June 2006, Taylor’s trial had been moved to a courtroom in the facilities of the International Criminal Court (ICC), from Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, due to concerns that his presence in Sierra Leone could jeopardize the fragile peace in the region. Taylor had been imprisoned in the Netherlands while awaiting trial. The Special Court for Sierra Leone would still oversee the trial, which was expected to last up to a year and a half. Taylor, 59, had been a warlord before he was elected Liberia’s president in 1997. He was accused of backing Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, giving them weapons in exchange for illegally mined diamonds. The RUF was notorious for mutilating its civilian victims and kidnapping children for use as fighters or sex slaves. The Special Court was also trying leaders of the RUF and pro-government militias for war crimes; those trials were being conducted in Sierra Leone. [See p. 146B2] Lawyer Reads Letter From Taylor—In a dramatic opening to the trial, Taylor’s lawyer, Karim Khan of Britain, June 4 told the four-judge panel hearing the case that Taylor refused to attend the trial. Khan read a letter from Taylor saying he would not “be a fig leaf of legitimacy for this court.” Khan also said Taylor had fired him and wanted to represent himself. He then walked out of the courtroom, ignoring presiding judge Julia Sebutinde’s order to stay. Khan told reporters outside the courtroom that Taylor did not believe he could receive a fair trial. Taylor also objected to the fact that he had only one lawyer, as opposed to the much larger prosecution team. He had claimed he was indigent, so the court was paying his legal fees. However, he was

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widely believed to have amassed a large personal fortune. After Khan left the courtroom, the trial proceeded with a three-hour opening statement from the prosecution. Chief prosecutor Stephen Rapp of the U.S. described Sierra Leone’s civil war as one of the “ugliest in living memory—the very worst of what human beings are capable to do to one another.” (Rapp had been the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which prosecuted accused perpetrators of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.) The 11 charges Taylor faced related specifically to murder, sexual violence, terrorizing the civilian population, physical violence (referring to the RUF practice of cutting off limbs), using child soldiers, enslavement and looting. He denied all the charges, saying he was not responsible for the RUF’s actions and had no influence over the group. Analysts said it could be difficult for the prosecution to prove that Taylor ordered, supported or approved of the RUF’s activities. Rapp reportedly planned to present about 32,000 pages of evidence and call 139 victims as witnesses. The trial was scheduled to resume June 25, when the prosecution would begin calling witnesses. If convicted, Taylor would be imprisoned in Britain. „

Global Health Man With Rare TB Quarantined After Trip.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) May 29 said it had placed a man with a rare and dangerous form of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDRTB) in quarantine in Atlanta, Ga. Officials said the man, identified May 31 as Atlanta resident Andrew Speaker, had taken two commercial transatlantic flights from North America to Europe and back in May after learning of his condition. The last time the government had issued a quarantine order was in 1963, for a patient who had contracted smallpox, the CDC said. It remained unclear when and where Speaker had become infected. [See p. 59B2] Speaker’s actions raised concerns that he had exposed several people on both transatlantic flights to XDR-TB. It also exposed gaps in the ability of U.S. government agencies to control a potential outbreak of a deadly infectious disease, as well as to monitor the U.S.’s borders for other types of threats. XDR -TB was a type of the tuberculosis bacterium resistant to at least two classes of first-line drugs and two classes of second-line drugs. The immune response of a person infected with tuberculosis often controlled the bacterium, making it “latent” or inactive. Cases of active infection of XDR-TB were extremely difficult to cure and had a high mortality rate. Tuberculosis was spread through airborne bacteria, usually resulting from coughs or sneezing. It usually took prolonged exposure of several hours or days to someone infected with tuberculosis for the infection to spread. June 7, 2007

Patient Travels Despite Diagnosis—

Speaker May 10 had been diagnosed with a multidrug-resistant strain of tuberculosis considered dangerous, but not as worrisome as XDR-TB. Health officials in Fulton County, Ga., said they instructed Speaker not to travel after the diagnosis in order to protect others from infection, but Speaker disputed that claim, saying he was never explicitly told not to travel. Fulton County health officials lacked the legal authority to prevent Speaker from traveling. Speaker May 12 took a flight from Atlanta to Paris, and over the course of the next 12 days took at least five shorter flights within Europe, on a trip that included his wedding in Greece. CDC officials May 22 diagnosed Speaker with XDR-TB, but were unable to contact him until the following day. CDC officials said they instructed Speaker, then in Italy, to turn himself in to Italian health authorities so the U.S. government could develop a treatment and travel plan that would limit his exposure to other people. However, Speaker ignored the CDC’s instructions and May 24 took a flight from Prague, the Czech Republic, to Montreal, Canada, in an attempt to evade a U.S. nofly list. Speaker the same day rented a car and drove into the U.S., where he turned himself in to health authorities, who sequestered him May 25 in a New York City hospital under an “order of isolation.” Speaker May 28 was flown to Atlanta by the government for further treatment, and May 31 was relocated to a medical center in Denver, Colo. The CDC May 29 said it was attempting to track down several hundred U.S. citizens or residents who had been passengers on the two transatlantic flights to test them for XDR-TB. Border Security Failure Reported— Officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) May 31 said a customs agent at the border crossing with Canada in Plattsburgh, N.Y., had allowed Speaker to enter the country despite knowing that he was being sought by health authorities. Instructions issued to border agents reportedly told them to “isolate, detain and contact the Public Health Service” if they encountered Speaker. DHS officials said they were investigating why Speaker had been allowed to enter the U.S. Although the CDC May 22 had notified the DHS that Speaker presented a health threat, his name was not placed on a no-fly list until May 24, after he had already reentered the U.S., it was reported June 5. Italian, Greek and Canadian health authorities said they were not notified by U.S. officials of the health threat Speaker presented until he had left their countries, adding that they would have taken steps to help quarantine, treat and transport the patient. Officials with the World Health Organization (WHO) June 5 also criticized U.S. health authorities’ response to the XDR-TB discovery. WHO officials the same day said XDR-TB presented a significant global health threat, and would require annual

funding of $1 billion during the next two years to adequately diagnose and treat the disease.

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Patient Related to TB Researcher— Speaker was the son-in-law of a CDC tuber-

culosis researcher, it was reported June 1. The researcher, Robert Cooksey, issued a statement in which he said he had never tested positive for the disease, and asserted that Speaker’s tuberculosis did not originate from CDC laboratories. Congressional Hearings Held—Speaker and CDC Director Julie Gerberding June 6 testified before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on labor, health and human services, over the U.S.’s handling of the incident. The House Homeland Security Committee held similar hearings the same day. Gerberding in her testimony said the CDC’s failed protocols were based on the premise that patients would cooperate with instructions. She admitted that the agency should have notified Italian health officials and the WHO of Speaker’s illness earlier. Speaker, who testified by telephone from his hospital room in Denver, again disputed claims that health officials May 10 had told him not to travel. He said he was told that he was not contagious, and that he did not present a health threat to others. Speaker’s father, Ted Speaker, the evening of June 6 on the Cable News Network (CNN) program “Larry King Live” played portions of a secret tape made at the May 10 meeting between his son and Fulton County health officials. County health official Eric Benning was heard on the tape telling Speaker that he was “actually not contagious” and that “there’s no reason for you to be sequestered.” Meanwhile at the House hearing, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) Commissioner W. Ralph Basham said his agency’s failure to stop Speaker was “inexcusable.” Basham said the CPB would reexamine database-sweep procedures used twice daily to identify terrorists. The system had failed to spot Speaker’s return to the country until hours after he drove across the Canadian border. „

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Other International News North Korea Fires Short-Range Missiles.

North Korea May 25 test-fired an unspecified number of short-range missiles off its shores. Premier Shinzo Abe of Japan, which was within range of North Korea’s longer-range missiles, called the firings “regrettable” but not a “grave issue.” [See p. 248A1; 2006, p. 567C2] South Korean and U.S. officials said the launches appeared to be part of routine annual military drills, and were unlikely to derail efforts to implement a February agreement that would halt North Korea’s nuclear program. Also May 25, South Korea launched a KDX-III destroyer ship, its first equipped with the U.S.’s sophisticated Aegis missile-guidance system. „ 359

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Libby Sentenced to 30 Months Ex–Cheney Aide Faces Prison for Perjury.

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Judge Reggie Walton of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., June 5 sentenced I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby Jr., former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, to 30 months in prison for lying to federal investigators. Walton, who said the evidence against Libby was “overwhelming,” also fined him $250,000. Libby, 56, had been convicted in March of four felony counts, including perjury, lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and obstruction of justice during a probe of the leak of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer’s name by Bush administration officials. [See p. 137A1] The stiff sentence brought demands from Libby’s supporters for President George W. Bush to grant him an immediate pardon. Walton added to the pressure by saying that he saw little reason to allow Libby to remain free on bail pending an appeal of his conviction, suggesting that he might order Libby to prison within weeks. However, he said he would allow defense lawyers to file briefs outlining their arguments for a delay. Libby’s lawyers had asked Walton to consider Libby’s years of public service and sentence him to probation instead of prison. They cited letters sent to the judge by many of Libby’s supporters, including former Bush administration officials such as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who had resigned as World Bank president the previous week in a favoritism scandal. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger also wrote on Libby’s behalf. [See p. 344D1] Libby himself briefly addressed the judge before sentencing, asking him to “consider, along with the jury verdict, my whole life.” Patrick Fitzgerald, the Justice Department’s special prosecutor in the case, urged a harsh sentence, saying that it would “send the message that truth matters.” Fitzgerald had asked for a sentence of 30 to 37 months, noting that Libby had not expressed contrition for his acts. White House Declines Pardon Decision—

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino June 5 said Bush’s reaction to the Libby sentence was that he “felt terrible for the family.” But she said, “The president has not intervened so far in this or any other criminal matter, and so he is going to decline to do so now as well.” Cheney issued a statement saying, “The defense has indicated it plans to appeal the conviction in the case. Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man.” The question of a pardon was highly charged politically, since the CIA leak case dealt with the Bush administration’s claims that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium in Africa to build nuclear weapons. Those 360

claims were part of Bush’s discredited original rationale for the 2003 invasion of the country—that Iraq had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction and had to be disarmed. Libby and other administration officials had leaked the name of the CIA officer, Valerie Plame, to the media, after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson 4th, wrote a New York Times op-ed article saying that he had led a U.S. mission to Niger to check the uranium claims and found no evidence for them. Conservatives calling for a pardon said it was unfair that Fitzgerald had prosecuted Libby even though he never charged anyone with the actual leak. Bush had pardoned just 113 people since taking office in 2001, one of the lowest rates of any modern president. Unmasked Agent Testifies in House—

Plame, also known as Valerie Wilson, March 16 testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. She said, “My name and identity were recklessly abused by senior government officials in both the White House and State Department.” She asserted that the leak “jeopardized and even destroyed entire networks of foreign agents, who in turn risk their own lives and those of their families to provide the United States with needed intelligence.” Plame insisted that her CIA status had still been covert when her name was leaked, because she had recently “traveled to foreign countries on secret missions.” She denied that she had influenced the decision to send her husband on the mission to Niger, as his critics had suggested. “There was no nepotism involved,” she said. Plame May 31 filed a lawsuit against the CIA in U.S. District Court in New York City, accusing the agency of illegally blocking her from publishing the dates of her service in a forthcoming memoir. „

Terrorism Detainees Charges Dismissed in Two Guantanamo Trials.

Military judges at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, June 4 dismissed war crimes charges in separate cases against two detainees who were set to face trials by military tribunal. The judges said military panels had not properly found Omar Khadr, 20, and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, 37, to be “unlawful enemy combatants,” and thus they could not be tried under the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA). The rulings did not touch on the defendants’ guilt or innocence, and government officials said the two men would remain in military custody. Lawyers said the rulings could affect the government’s plans to try about 80 other Guantanamo Bay detainees using military tribunals. [See pp. 293F3, 280D3] One of the judges, Army Col. Peter Brownback 3rd, ruled that a combatant status review tribunal had determined that Khadr was an enemy combatant, but had not established that his activities were “un-

lawful.” Thus, he said, the court had no jurisdiction in the case. Under the international law of war, unlawful combatants included those who fought without uniforms and concealed their weapons. The government had charged Khadr, a Canadian who was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002, with killing a U.S. soldier, supporting the Al Qaeda international terrorist network, spying on U.S. troops and other terrorist offenses. Another judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, later that day issued a similar ruling for Hamdan. Hamdan, a Yemeni, had been captured in Afghanistan in 2001, and had admitted to being a bodyguard and driver for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The Defense Department May 10 had charged Hamdan with conspiracy and providing support for terrorism. It accused him of involvement in Al Qaeda attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998; the USS Cole bombing in Yemen in 2000; and Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. It also said Hamdan had transported weapons for Al Qaeda and attended terrorist training camps. In 2006, Hamdan had won a Supreme Court case that forced the government to scrap its original system for military trials. [See 2006, p. 501A1] Appeal Mulled—Pentagon officials June 4 said they were considering appealing the rulings. A spokeswoman for the Pentagon’s Office of Military Commissions said the decisions did not signal the end of the tribunals. The ruling allowed the government 72 hours to appeal. However, the chief defense counsel for the tribunals, Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan, said a court authorized to hear tribunal appeals had not yet been created. White House spokesman Tony Fratto June 5 said, “We don’t agree with the ruling.” He added, “In no way does this decision affect the appropriateness of the military commission system.” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) that day called on the Bush administration to work with Congress to create a new tribunal system that included the right to file habeas corpus petitions in U.S. federal courts, which was denied to detainees under the MCA. [See 2006, p. 951B3] Human rights groups hailed the court decisions, and called on the government to drop the tribunal system and instead try detainees in U.S. federal courts or military courts-martial, where they would have more rights. „ Guantanamo Inmate Dies in Apparent Suicide.

Military officials May 30 said a detainee at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had been found dead in his cell in an apparent suicide. Officials initially released few details, identifying the man only as a Saudi who was found “unresponsive and not breathing in his cell by guards” earlier that day, and saying efforts to revive him had failed. The Defense Department and Saudi officials the next day identified the detainee as Abdul Rahman FACTS ON FILE

Ma’ath Thafir al-Amri, a 34-year-old former member of the Saudi armed forces who had been held in a high security area because of his noncompliance with guards and persistent participation in hunger strikes. [See p. 293D3; 2006, p. 466F2] Amri was the fourth detainee suicide at Guantanamo, after three inmates hanged themselves in June 2006. Human rights activists and defense lawyers renewed protests that detainees lived in abusive conditions which, combined with uncertain prospects for release, had caused the deaths and made more suicides inevitable. The Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York City–based legal group that represented many detainees, said Amri had not seen a lawyer since his detention in February 2002. The Pentagon did not say how Amri had died or why suicide was suspected, adding that an autopsy would be performed. The three detainees who had previously killed themselves had used nooses made out of clothes and bedsheets, while others had unsuccessfully attempted suicide by overdosing on hoarded medicine or trying to slash their arteries. Amri in 2001 had surrendered to Pakistani police after fighting U.S. forces in Tora Bora, Afghanistan. The U.S. government alleged that he had been a midlevel operative of the Al Qaeda international terrorist organization. However, according to military hearing records, Amri had trained with U.S. forces while in the Saudi military, and had gone to Afghanistan to participate in jihad, but not to fight against the U.S. specifically. „

Terrorism Four Charged in NYC Airport Bomb Plot.

Police in the U.S. and Trinidad and Tobago June 1 arrested three men accused of plotting to blow up aviation fuel tanks and pipelines at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Authorities the next day brought charges against the three men, as well as a fourth who was still at large; that suspect June 5 surrendered in Trinidad. The men faced possible life sentences if convicted. Authorities said the men were in the beginning stages of planning the attack, and did not pose any immediate threat to the airport. [See p. 312G1] Mark Mershon, the head of the New York City Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) field office, said the men held “fundamentalist Islamic beliefs of a violent nature,” but seemed to be acting alone and had no known links to the Al Qaeda international terrorism network. Former JFK Worker Alleged Ringleader—

Russell Defreitas, 63, a Guyanese-born U.S. citizen and the reputed ringleader of the plot, June 1 was arrested in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Defreitas had worked as a cargo handler at Kennedy Airport in the early 1990s. According to the criminal complaint against the suspects, the anti-American sentiments of Defreitas increased while he was working at the airport, as “he saw military parts being June 7, 2007

shipped to Israel, including missiles, that would be used to kill Muslims.” Defreitas had allegedly said he “wanted to do something,” and that the attack would disrupt the U.S. economy and cause massive loss of life. He also cited the iconic value of choosing a target named after President John F. Kennedy, saying, “If you hit that, this whole country will be in mourning. It’s like you kill the man twice.” Also arrested June 1 was Abdul Kadir, 55, a Guyanese imam and former member of Parliament and town mayor in Guyana, who was detained in Port of Spain, Trinidad, after boarding a flight to Caracas, Venezuela. Kadir allegedly had helped Defreitas advance the plan and obtain funding. Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim, 61, was also arrested June 1 in Trinidad. Abdel Nur, 57, a Guyanese citizen of Pakistani descent sought for his ties to the plot, June 5 surrendered to authorities in Port of Spain, but he maintained that he was innocent. The U.S. was reportedly seeking the three men’s extradition. Informant Provides Key Evidence—According to the criminal complaint, prosecutors obtained much of their evidence from a police informant who had infiltrated the cell beginning in July 2006, after the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) first detected its activities in South America and the Caribbean. The informant allegedly accompanied Defreitas on a series of trips to Guyana to meet with coconspirators. Defreitas and the informant also allegedly repeatedly visited Kennedy Airport in January to conduct surveillance and shoot video footage of fuel tanks, areas with low security and escape routes. Defreitas allegedly hoped to set off bombs that would ignite the airport’s network of fuel lines and tanks. However, some officials and experts said built-in safeguards would have prevented initial blasts from spreading. Defreitas and the informant May 20–26 allegedly traveled to Trinidad, where Nur set up meetings with Jamaat al-Muslimeen, an extremist black Muslim group that in 1990 led a failed coup attempt in the country. Defreitas allegedly approached the group for financing but, according to the informant, Ibrahim opposed showing them plans for the attack and urged Defreitas to instead seek the support of other overseas contacts. [See 1990, p. 578D3] „

2008 Presidential Campaign Immigration Bill Draws Fire at GOP Debate.

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) June 5 stood almost alone at a Republican presidential debate at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, N.H., in defending an immigration compromise bill pending in the Senate. President George W. Bush was also a supporter of the bill, but it was unpopular among conservatives, who were likely to decide the 2008 Republican nomination. [See pp. 327D3, 309A3] McCain, a cosponsor of the bill, said, “For us to do nothing is silent and de facto amnesty” for the estimated 12 million illegal

immigrants in the U.S., who would be given a path to legal status under the bill. Conservative opponents charged that the bill would provide an amnesty for law-breakers. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, the front-runner in national polls, said, “The problem with this immigration plan is it has no unifying purpose. It’s a typical Washington mess. It’s everybody compromises—four or five compromises.…And when you look at these compromises, it is quite possible it will make things worse.” Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, another top contender, also blasted the bill. He said, “Every illegal alien, every one, under this bill, gets to stay here. That’s not fair to the millions and millions of people around the world that would love to come here, join with family members, bring skill and education that we need.” McCain June 4 had given a speech on the issue in Coral Gables, Fla., that was viewed as a thinly veiled attack on Romney, who had said in the past that he backed legislation similar to the current bill. McCain said he hoped other candidates “wouldn’t play politics for their own interests if the cost of their ambition was to make this problem even harder to solve.” He said doing so would be “pandering for votes.” Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.) was the only other candidate to join McCain in defending the bill at the debate. Other Highlights—At another point in the debate, Giuliani was asked about a Roman Catholic bishop in Rhode Island who had denounced him for supporting abortion rights. Lightning struck the building as Giuliani began to answer, disrupting the sound system. He joked, “For someone who went to parochial schools all his life, this is a very frightening thing that’s happening right now.” Romney faced a question on whether voters would recoil from his Mormon faith. He said, “There are some pundits out there that are hoping that I’ll distance myself from my church so that’ll help me politically. And that’s not going to happen.” Several of the candidates criticized Bush, whose low public approval ratings had made him a liability for his party in general elections even though he remained popular among Republicans. Asked whether, as president, he would give a role to Bush in his administration, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson said, “I certainly would not send him to the United Nations,” an apparent shot at Bush’s diplomatic skills. Thompson had served in Bush’s cabinet as health and human services secretary. On the subject of the Iraq war, McCain said it had been “very badly mismanaged for a long time.” Romney said, “I think we were underprepared and underplanned for what came after we knocked down Saddam Hussein,” the late Iraqi president, in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Asked what role he might give Bush in his administration, Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.) said Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, had told him that “because of my criticism of the president, I should 361

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never darken the doorstep of the White House.” Saying he was disappointed by what he regarded as Bush’s straying from conservative principles, Tancredo vowed to tell him “exactly the same thing Karl Rove told me.” The candidates were also asked whether they would pardon I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, who had been sentenced that day to 30 months in prison for perjury. Giuliani called the sentence “grossly excessive” and said it “argues in favor of a pardon.” [See p. 360A1] Reps. Duncan Hunter (Calif.) and Ron Paul (Texas), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Virginia Gov. James Gilmore 3rd also took part in the debate. Fred Thompson Prepares to Join Race—

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Former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) June 1 took a step toward joining the Republican field, filing papers to set up a campaign fund-raising committee. Thompson, 64, had left the Senate in 2003 to return to an acting career on television. He reportedly gave notice May 31 that he would not return for the fall season of NBC’s series “Law & Order,” in which he played the role of District Attorney Arthur Branch. Thompson addressed a June 2 Virginia Republican Party fund-raising event in Richmond, but he did not appear at the June 5 debate in New Hampshire. The prospect of Thompson entering the race had galvanized conservative Republicans. Many were still unsatisfied with their presidential choices, viewing the top three as ideologically suspect. Giuliani’s support for abortion rights and McCain’s positions on immigration and campaign-finance reform were unpopular among conservatives, while Romney’s recent shifts to more conservative positions on abortion, gay rights and gun control had raised doubts about his consistency. Giuliani, McCain Snub Iowa Straw Poll—

Giuliani’s campaign June 6 said he would skip the Iowa straw poll in August, a traditional test of organizing strength for presidential candidates in the state. McCain’s camp followed suit later that day, saying Giuliani’s absence would render the straw poll pointless. But both camps said their candidates would still run in the Iowa caucuses in January 2008, the opening contest in the primary season. Romney’s camp said he would still participate in the straw poll, which he had been expected to win. The McCain and Giuliani camps cited the expense of the straw poll, in which campaigns bought blocks of tickets for their supporters, saying it could cost up to $3 million. Giuliani campaign manager Michael DuHaime said he needed to conserve resources for bigger states like Florida and California that had moved their primaries up in the 2008 calendar, reshaping the race. [See p. 347G1] „ Democrats Debate Iraq War. Eight candidates for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination met June 3 at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, N.H., for a televised debate hosted by the CNN television network. 362

While the contenders agreed in their opposition to the Iraq war, they clashed over what steps should be taken to end it. [See pp. 346D3, 276A3] Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), who was running third in most national polls on the Democratic field, accused the frontrunner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), and Barack Obama (Ill.), running second, of failing to provide leadership in the recent confrontation between congressional Democrats and President George W. Bush over a war funding bill. [See p. 327A2] Edwards praised another contender, Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.), for speaking “very loudly and clearly” in opposition to the final compromise, which dropped Democrats’ demands for a timetable to withdraw U.S. forces. Plainly referring to Clinton and Obama, Edwards added, “Others did not. Others were quiet. They went quietly to the floor of the Senate, cast the right vote. But there is a difference between leadership and legislating.” Obama hit back, noting that Edwards had voted for the 2002 authorization for the use of force against Iraq. “The fact is, is that I opposed this war from the start. So you’re about four and a half years late on leadership on this issue,” he said to Edwards. Clinton tried to stay above the fray, saying, “The differences among us are minor. The differences between us and Republicans are major, and we don’t want anybody in America to be confused.” However, she chastised Edwards for saying that the “war on terror” was just a “bumper sticker” slogan used by Bush to justify policies that had hurt the U.S.’s standing in the world. Citing Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., she said, “I am a senator from New York. I have lived with the aftermath of 9/11, and I have seen firsthand the terrible damage that can be inflicted on our country by a small band of terrorists.” She also said, “I believe we are safer than we were. We are not yet safe enough, and I have proposed over the last year a number of policies that I think we should be following.” The Obama campaign later criticized her for that remark, insisting that Bush’s policies had made the U.S. less safe. Asked about the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military, the Democrats all said they supported changing it to allow gay soldiers to serve openly. At a June 5 Republican debate at the same venue, the candidates all opposed such a change. [See pp. 361F2, 174D3] Dodd, Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former Sen. Mike Gravel (Alaska) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) also took part in the debate. In contrast to the first Democratic debate in April, where the candidates received equal time to speak, most of the questions at the New Hampshire debate went to the top three of Clinton, Obama and Edwards, who were also placed at center stage.

Top Three Discuss Religion— Clinton, Obama and Edwards June 4 discussed their religion at a forum at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., hosted by Sojourners, a liberal evangelical Christian group, and televised by CNN. The event was viewed as part of a renewed effort by Democrats to appeal to religious voters, especially after the 2004 presidential election. Republican President George W. Bush won reelection that year with about 80% of the evangelical vote. Edwards drew applause when, asked to cite the biggest sin he had ever committed, he replied, “If I’ve had a day in my 54 years that I haven’t sinned multiple times I’d be amazed. We all fall short, which is why we have to ask for forgiveness from the Lord.” Edwards had been raised as a Southern Baptist. Clinton, asked if she had turned to religion in the late 1990s during the impeachment scandal surrounding an extramarital affair by her husband, President Bill Clinton, said, “I’m not sure I would have gotten through it without my faith.” She had been raised as a Methodist. Obama frequently invoked the biblical phrase “I am my brother’s keeper” to discuss his moral beliefs and their relation to his political views. He belonged to a mostly black Chicago church, the Trinity United Church of Christ, but had recently distanced himself from its controversial pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. Critics had accused Wright of preaching radical black separatist views. „

Politics Rep. Jefferson Indicted for Corruption. A federal grand jury June 4 indicted Rep. William Jefferson (D, La.) on 16 felony counts including bribery, racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice. The indictment alleged that Jefferson had misused his official influence in 11 bribery and fraud schemes linked to business deals in West African countries. The charges bore a maximum penalty of 235 years in prison. [See 2006, pp. 949A1, 546D3] The case had first come to light in August 2005, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided Jefferson’s homes. In May 2006, the FBI said its agents, in a sting operation, had videotaped Jefferson taking $100,000 in bribes, and later found $90,000 of that cash in his freezer. According to the indictment, he had said he planned to use that money to bribe an unidentified high-ranking Nigerian official, believed to be Atiku Abubakar, who was vice president at the time. (Abubakar lost Nigeria’s presidential election in April.) [See p. 255A2] The indictment said Jefferson had demanded millions of dollars in bribes, but might have received less than $400,000. According to the indictment, Jefferson had led congressional trips to Africa to promote business ventures that he or his family held financial stakes in. The indictment charged him with violating the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, making him FACTS ON FILE

the first sitting member of Congress to be charged under that antibribery law. Reaction—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) June 4 said the charges against Jefferson were “extremely serious.” She said, “If these charges are proven true, they constitute an egregious and unacceptable abuse of public trust and power.” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R, Ohio) said Republicans would seek a vote to have the case referred to the House Ethics Committee as a first step toward expelling Jefferson from the House. Ethics Committee Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D, Ohio) June 5 said the panel would reopen an inquiry into the allegations against Jefferson. Later that day the House passed a motion, sponsored by Boehner, to call on the panel to begin such a probe and recommend whether Jefferson should be expelled. The House also passed a motion, sponsored by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D, Md.), requiring the ethics panel to begin such probes within 30 days of a member’s being indicted or else explain why it had not done so. Jefferson stepped down June 5 from his seat on the House Small Business Committee. That had been his last remaining committee assignment after Democratic leaders forced him to resign from the Ways and Means Committee in 2006. Jefferson, 60, had won reelection to a ninth term in November 2006 despite the ongoing probe. In a letter to Pelosi, he said he was giving up his committee seat “in light of recent developments in a legal matter.” But he said his move should not be taken as “an admission of guilt or culpability.” No House member had ever been expelled before being convicted of a crime. In 2006, with the House under Republican control, Rep. Bob Ney (R, Ohio) had kept his seat for several weeks after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges. Rep. Tom DeLay (R, Texas) had resigned earlier that year, after stepping down as majority leader in 2005 when he was indicted by a state jury in Texas for campaign finance violations. [See p. 61D3; 2006, p. 256E1] „

Legislation House Again Clears Stem Cell Research Bill.

The House June 7 voted, 247–176, to pass a final version of a measure that would end a 2001 prohibition on federal funding for the creation of new embryonic stem cells for research. The Senate in April had passed the bill, called the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, and the House in January had passed an earlier version of the bill as part of the majority Democrats’ “100 hour” agenda. [See pp. 371D3, 221G3] However, the vote fell short of the twothirds majority needed to overcome a veto of the bill pledged by President George W. Bush, who had also vetoed a similar bill in 2006. Bush had argued that such research was immoral because it required the destruction of a human embryo. Proponents June 7, 2007

of the research said its funding would significantly advance a wide variety of medical treatments. The bill would permit federal funding for research as long as the embryos were donated from in-vitro fertilization clinics and had been marked for disposal. „

Supreme Court Juror Exclusion in Capital Case Upheld.

The Supreme Court June 4 upheld, 5–4, a trial judge’s decision to exclude a potential juror from a murder trial for an apparent unwillingness to consider imposing the death penalty. The case, Uttecht v. Brown, turned on whether a trial judge had a more accurate sense of the juror’s views on the death penalty than an appellate judge who ordered a new sentencing hearing for the defendant, Cal Brown, who had been convicted in his trial and sentenced to death. [See p. 331C3] A judge for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that the trial judge had erred in dismissing the juror, Richard Deal. According to court precedent, a juror could be dismissed from hearing a capital case if he or she was incapable, in all circumstances, of considering the death penalty even though the law demanded its consideration. The appellate judge ruled that Deal had made it evident that while he was generally opposed to capital punishment he would consider the death penalty in certain situations. The Supreme Court overturned the appellate judge’s ruling. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said the trial judge had been in a “superior position to determine the demeanor and qualifications of a potential juror.” He added that the trial judge had made a “reasonable inference” about Deal’s views, citing the fact that Deal said one scenario in which he would consider the death penalty appropriate, was if there was a chance a convicted murderer could be released from jail and murder again. As the trial was held in Washington State, whose sentencing options for convicted murderers were limited to death or life in prison without parole, Kennedy said it was reasonable to think Deal’s views would have made him incapable of considering a death penalty sentence in the case at hand. Brown had been convicted of robbing, raping and killing a woman in 1991. Kennedy was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter and Steven G. Breyer were in the minority. Stevens read part of the dissenting opinion from the bench to signal the seriousness of his disagreement. He argued that the court was blurring the difference between a principled opposition to the death penalty and an inability to carry out the duties legally required of a juror. He added that Deal had said he would consider the death penalty notwithstanding that the other option was life in prison without parole.

June Financial Update

A

(Close of trading June 1 except where indicated)

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average (see box, p. 430A3) Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index Nasdaq Composite Index London Stock Exchange

13,668.11

Tokyo Stock Exchange

17,958.88

Toronto Stock Exchange

14,119.37

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100) (Nikkei index)

(TSE Composite Index)

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield) Currencies (late New York trading) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars)

1536.34 2613.92 6676.7

4.95% 4.97% $0.8324 $1.9825 $0.9423 $1.3447 122.04 10.7135 $0.8131

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.)

$671.20

Silver (per troy oz.)

$13.5300

(N.Y. Comex spot price) (London fixing spot price)

Oil (per barrel)

(Nymex crude future)

Gasoline (per gallon)

(nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released May 20)

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel) (Kansas City market)

$3.18 $5.075

2.6%

Unemployment rate

4.5%

Gross domestic product growth

0.6%

(April; see p. 294D2)

(annualized first-quarter rate, preliminary report; see p. 348F3)

Prime rate

C

$65.08

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

(consumer price index 12-month increase through April; see p. 333A1)

B

D

8.25%

Stevens also said the ruling would set a new precedent encouraging courts and prosecutors to seat supporters of the death penalty on juries, instead of merely allowing the exclusion of jurors who would never consider imposing the death penalty under any circumstance. „

E

Education Stricter Rules Proposed for Student Lenders.

The Department of Education June 1 proposed new regulations to prohibit student loan companies from offering payments and other inducements to financial aid officers at colleges and universities in return for an increase in student loan business. The department had been criticized in recent months for failing to clamp down on a practice in which a loan company could buy its way on to a list of lenders “preferred” by the school, which was then distributed to students. The sharpest criticisms came from Congress and New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who were both conducting ongoing investigations into the student loan industry, which lent $85 billion in the 2005–06 academic year. [See pp. 244C3; 225E2] The department said the targeted practices limited a borrower’s right to choose between lenders and undercut “a student financial aid administrator’s role as an im363

F

G

Dow Jones Industrial Average Trading on the New York Stock Exchange

A

May 1

2

3 4 7 8 9 10 11 14 15 16 17 18 21 22 23 24 25 28 29 30 31

B

C

D

E

F

G

Closing

Volume (in millions of shares)

13,136.14 13,211.88 13,241.38 13,264.62 13,212.97 13,309.07 13,362.87 13,215.13 13,326.22 13,346.78 13,383.84 13,487.53 13,476.72 13,556.53 13,452.88 13,539.95 13,525.65 13,441.13 13,507.28 Holiday 13,521.34 13,633.08 13,627.24

1,775.2 1,677.9 1,591.4 1,531.2 1,320.7 1,501.6 1,557.6 1,536.6 1,412.2 1,392.4 1,643.7 1,506.0 1,455.5 1,645.4 1,507.9 1,478.2 1,604.0 1,770.1 1,225.8 — 1,413.4 1,558.8 1,809.2

partial informed resource for students and parents.” The department’s rules would bar most of the gifts that had passed between lenders and financial aid officers, including money, stock incentives, travel and entertainment costs and marketing-related services. Additionally, loan companies would not be able to gain students’ favor with inducements to alumni associations and other school-affiliated groups. Under the rules, schools that disseminated a preferred-lender list to students would have to recommend at least three loan companies, as opposed to a common practice of listing only one. Schools would also have to explain why those particular companies had been chosen, and guarantee that every student who received the list was eligible for the companies’ benefits. The proposed rules would cover only those loans guaranteed against default by the federal government. Private loans were beyond the department’s jurisdiction. The new rules were submitted to the Federal Register for comment and approval, but were expected to be accepted. They would take effect in July 2008 at the earliest. Shakeups at Financial Aid Offices—

Columbia University in New York City May 21 fired David Charlow, its financial aid director, after it was revealed that he had a financial stake in Student Loan Xpress (SLX), a unit of financial services company CIT Group Inc. Cuomo’s office in April had released documents showing that Charlow held more than $100,000 worth of stock in Education Lending Group in 2005, when it was the parent company of SLX. After receiving a subpoena, Columbia provided e-mail exchanges between Charlow and Fabrizio Balestri, then the president of SLX, which revealed that Charlow had accepted tickets to sporting events and concerts from Balestri. Colum364

bia also turned over multiple letters from Charlow to parents of Columbia students endorsing SLX and its affiliates. Separately, Ellen Frishberg, the financial aid director at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., resigned May 18 after the school determined that she had broken ethics policies by accepting payments from SLX and other loan companies. Documents provided by Cuomo’s office showed that Frishberg during her career had accepted $65,000 from SLX in the form of consulting fees and tuition payment for her graduate school degree. Other documents obtained by a separate investigation led by the Senate Education Committee showed that she had accepted at least an additional $67,000 from other loan companies, the Washington Post reported May 31. SLX had appeared on Johns Hopkins’s preferred-lender lists to students. The University of Texas at Austin May 14 had fired its financial aid director, Lawrence Burt, after Cuomo had accused him in April of owning stock in Education Lending Group. The university that day also provided a report detailing other conflict-of-interest violations, including how Burt’s office kept records on the amount of inducements, dubbed “lender treats,” that it had been offered. The report stated that Burt had placed SLX on the school’s list of recommended lenders during the time he owned stock in its parent company. He had bought most of his shares at an insiders’ price made available by an SLX executive. Cuomo announced May 31 that Columbia had reached a settlement with his office, agreeing to pay $1.1 million to a fund to teach students and their parents about loans, and to have state officials oversee its financial aid office for five years. Cuomo had reached settlements with 25 universities and colleges. The first were announced April 2. Many of the settlements required schools to reinvest the money they had accrued from lenders into funds that would help students with loans. Cuomo also that day announced that the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, composed of 10,000 members, had agreed to be supervised by his office for five years. Additionally, the group would sign a code of conduct stopping its members from receiving gifts of over $10 from loan companies. Head of Federal Loan Office Resigns—

Theresa Shaw, the chief operating officer of the Federal Student Aid office, May 8 announced her resignation. Her office had come into the spotlight after heavy criticism from Cuomo, and investigations by Congress and the department’s inspector general, John Higgins. The investigations concerned the office’s lax oversight of the relationship between lenders and school financial aid offices; possible conflicts of interest arising from relationships between Shaw, members of her staff, and loan companies; and failure to prevent hundreds of millions of dollars in government subsidies from flowing to a private loan firm through an accounting loophole. Officials at the Education Department said Shaw’s resignation was unrelated to

the probes. Many officials in the department had formerly worked for loan companies, including Shaw, who had worked at Sallie Mae, the country’s largest student loan company. At least 20 former employees of Sallie Mae had been hired by the department since the beginning of the administration of President George W. Bush. The Education Department June 1 named Lawrence Warder acting chief of the student loan office. Justice Department to Investigate—

Rep. George Miller (D, Calif.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, May 10 announced at a hearing on the department’s activities that the Justice Department had opened an investigation into a department audit that allowed Nelnet Inc., a lending company based in Lincoln, Neb., to keep $278 million in excessive government subsidies. Through a loophole in the federal aid program which was designed to help loan companies during the 1980s when the economy was weaker, Nelnet and other companies in recent years had been able to receive a higher rate of return from the government on student loans. The department’s inspector general in a September 2006 report had recommended that officials should retrieve approximately $278 million in “overpayments” from Nelnet. However, Nelnet was allowed to keep the money. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings at the hearing defended the decision, saying Nelnet would have had a likely chance of retaining the money if it had decided to file a lawsuit against the department. Nelnet had already agreed April 20 to pay $1 million to an education fund for students and their families after it disclosed to the attorney general of Nebraska that it had unlawfully given inducements to financial aid officers. In all, 40 attorneys general around the country had followed Cuomo’s lead and opened up investigations into student loan practices in their states. Lenders Sign Code of Conduct— Cuomo May 10 announced that CIT Group had agreed to sign a code of conduct developed by Cuomo that would bar the company from giving inducements to financial aid officers. Additionally, CIT Group agreed to pay $3 million to a lending education fund. It was the largest amount of money pledged by any company or school to settle a probe in Cuomo’s ongoing investigation. CIT Group June 4 said Balestri had left the company. He was the third executive to leave SLX as a result of the loan scandal. Wells Fargo & Co., one of the largest student loan companies in the country, May 29 had agreed to sign a code of conduct developed by Cuomo. With the Wells Fargo agreement, the five biggest student loan companies had consented to follow Cuomo’s code. House Passes Loan Legislation— The House May 9 voted, 414–3, in favor of the Student Loan Sunshine Act, which would prohibit student loan companies from giving inducements to university financial aid officers. Under the bill, schools would have to reveal their financial relationships FACTS ON FILE

with loan companies and defend their choices for preferred lenders. Schools could be fined up to $25,000 for any violations of the bill, and lenders could be cut off from the federal aid program. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D, Mass.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said later that day that the bill had bipartisan support in the Senate. It was expected to become a part of the Higher Education Act, which authorized federal student aid programs and was due for renewal in 2007. „

Defense Anti-Missile System Test Halted. The U.S.

Missile Defense Agency May 25 aborted a test of an interceptor missile after a dummy target rocket failed to launch correctly. The interceptor itself was not launched after the mishap, and thus the agency said that the test had not actually begun. The interceptor was to have been fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California; the target rocket had been launched from Kodiak, Alaska. [See pp. 357A1, 330G2; 2006, p. 730E1] The results of the test, if completed, would have come amid congressional debate on funding the program. A defense authorization bill recently passed by the House had cut funding for basing elements of the system in the Czech Republic and Poland, a Bush administration plan that was generating tension with Russia. „

Civil Rights N.H. Same-Sex Civil Union Bill Signed.

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch (D) May 31 signed into law a bill establishing samesex civil unions in the state, making it the fourth in the U.S. to legalize such unions. Vermont, New Jersey and Connecticut had already established provisions for samesex civil unions, while Massachusetts had legalized same-sex marriage. The law was set to take effect in January 2008. [See p. 295G1] Other News—In related news: † Oregon Gov. Theodore Kulongoski (D) May 9 signed into law a bill creating “domestic partnerships” for same-sex couples in the state. The bill gave same-sex couples the same benefits as married couples, including those related to insurance, taxes, health care, hospital visitation, child custody and inheritance rights. Kulongoski also signed a separate bill prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. Both laws were set to take effect in January 2008. [See 2005, p. 265B2] † Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire (D) April 21 signed into law a measure establishing domestic partnerships in the state. The law allowed same-sex couples rights related to hospital visitations, inheritance and organ donation decisions. The law also allowed unmarried heterosexual couples the same benefits if one of the partners was 62 or older. The law was set to take effect July 22. [See 2003, p. 747F2] „ June 7, 2007

AFRICA

AMERICAS

A

News in Brief

Argentina

Algeria: Government Resigns. Algerian Premier Abdelaziz Belkhadem June 1 submitted the resignation of his government to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The resignation came in the wake of midMay parliamentary elections in which the governing National Liberation Front (FLN) party had won a reduced majority amid a record-low turnout. Bouteflika June 4 reappointed the majority of the cabinet, including Belkhadem as premier and Chakib Khelil as energy and mines minister. Former Finance Minister Mourad Medelci was named foreign minister, and Karim Djoudi took over the finance portfolio. [See p. 333A3] „ Niger: Government Dissolved. Niger’s parliament May 31 passed a no-confidence motion against the government of Premier Hama Amadou over a corruption scandal, effectively forcing the government to resign. The government of Amadou, who had held the premiership since 2000, was accused of involvement in a scandal over the embezzlement of international aid funds intended for Niger’s schools. (Niger was one of the world’s poorest countries.) Two former education ministers had been arrested in 2006 in connection with the scandal. President Mamadou Tandja June 3 named economist Seyni Oumarou, a minister in Amadou’s government, as the country’s new premier. However, the main opposition Niger Party for Democracy and Socialism June 4 rejected the new premier. [See 2005, p. 528G1; 2000, p. 90G2] „

Officials Fired in Pipeline Graft Scandal. Argentine President Nestor Kirchner May 16 fired the president of the country’s natural gas regulator and an official with the staterun Banco de la Nacion after they were linked to a kickback scandal related to the construction of a government-funded natural gas pipeline. Analysts said the emerging scandal represented the first threat to Kirchner’s administration prior to a presidential election scheduled for Oct. 28. [See p. 98E2] The Swedish firm Skanska AB in 2005 had won a contract to work on the expansion of the Gasoducto del Norte pipeline to carry natural gas to Argentina from Bolivia. Skanska in 2006 had fired seven of its Argentine executives after an internal probe revealed that the company had made $4.5 million in “irregular payments,” though it did not say who had received the payments. Opposition politicians had alleged that the payments were bribes used to win the pipeline contract. The seven fired Skanska executives May 8 were arrested in Argentina on charges of tax evasion. According to court documents, Skanska was ordered by the government agency overseeing the pipeline project to make payments to Infiniti, a company with no employees, and never received any services for its payments. A federal judge May 21 expanded the inquiry to include 12 other construction firms involved in public works projects. Kirchner May 16 fired Fulvio Madaro, president of natural gas regulator Ente Nacional Regulador del Gas (ENARGAS), and Banco de la Nacion financial manager Nestor Alberto Ulloa after a prosecutor said their names had appeared in Skanska’s internal audit. Public Works Undersecretary Raul Rodriguez May 22 resigned in connection with the scandal, several days after acknowledging that “errors” had been made in the construction of an aqueduct. However, he denied any knowledge of bribery. „

Senegal: Opposition Boycotts Elections.

A coalition of 17 opposition parties June 3 boycotted legislative elections. Voters chose representatives to an expanded 150member national assembly; in the previous, 120-seat body, the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) of President Abdoulaye Wade had held 90 seats. The opposition was protesting Wade’s refusal to meet with them to discuss alleged irregularities in the February presidential vote, in which Wade was reelected. The boycott resulted in a low turnout of about 38%, the interior ministry said June 4. Provisional results released June 7 gave the PDS 131 seats. [See p. 145D3] „ South Africa: Zille Elected Opposition Leader.

Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille May 6 was elected head of the Democratic Alliance (DA), South Africa’s main opposition party. She would succeed Tony Leon, who had announced in November 2006 that he planned to step down after 13 years as party leader. The white-dominated DA had won just 12% of the vote in the last general election, in 2004, and had had trouble attracting the support of the black majority, who were largely loyal to the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Zille said she would work to overcome the perception of the DA as a whites-only party and would seek to woo black voters. [See 2006, pp. 1014D1, 881A3] „

B

C

D

E

Brazil Indictments Sought in Plane Collision. A

Brazilian prosecutor May 25 asked a federal judge to issue indictments against two U.S. pilots and four Brazilian air traffic controllers for their roles in a September 2006 collision between two planes that killed 154 people. [See p. 247G2] The U.S. pilots, Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino, had been flying a small executive jet that collided with Gol Linhas Aereas Intelligentes SA Flight 1907. The passenger plane crashed into a remote area of the Amazon rain forest; the executive jet was able to land safely. The prosecutor asked for charges of involuntary manslaughter and exposing an aircraft to danger to be brought against Lepore and Paladino. If convicted, the pair 365

F

G

A

B

C

would face sentences of up to three years. The two pilots had been held for more than two months in Brazil after the accident, and had been accused by Brazilian authorities of violating various flight protocols. The U.S.’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) May 2 had blamed a faulty cockpit warning system in the executive jet for contributing to the accident. Brazilian investigators Jan. 22 had said for the first time that Brazilian air traffic controllers had also played a role in the accident. „ Rancher Found Guilty in U.S. Nun Slaying.

A Brazil jury May 15 found rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura guilty of ordering the murder of 73-year-old U.S. Roman Catholic nun Dorothy Stang in 2005. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Stang, an environmentalist and rights advocate for poor farmers, allegedly had been killed over her opposition to a plan to cut a patch of the Amazon rain forest for use as pasture. Her murder had drawn international attention to the plight of poor peasants in the largely lawless Amazon region. [See 2005, p. 971F1] Two gunmen in 2005 had been convicted of killing Stang, but Moura was the first of the two alleged masterminds of the killing to stand trial in the case. The other, Regivaldo Pereira Galvao, awaited trial. „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

D China

E

F

G

Climate Plan Lacks Emissions Caps. Ma Kai, head of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, June 4 released a 62-page plan aimed at addressing climate change that stopped short of setting mandatory emissions limits. The document set a series of environmental goals to be reached by 2010, but did not include much in the way of policy initiatives. The plan called for a 20% improvement in the country’s energy efficiency by 2010. It also called for the development of alternative and renewable energy resources, such as wind, solar and nuclear power. [See p. 357A1] The plan’s release came ahead of a June 6–8 summit of the Group of Eight (G-8) leading economic powers at which climate change was high on the agenda. China was the second-largest producer of greenhouse gases, and was anticipated to pass the U.S. to become the largest carbon emitter between 2007 and 2010. Ma also called on the U.S. to produce a plan complementing the Kyoto Protocol global climate change pact, but not replacing it, underscoring tensions between the two countries over the issue. (As a developing country, China was exempt from the Kyoto Protocol’s mandatory emissions caps.) “People are not putting the blame on those countries with large historical emissions, high per capita emissions…to say that these countries are the major threat to global environmental security,” Ma said. Electricity to fuel China’s economic growth had been provided largely by coal 366

power plants, which produced significant carbon emissions. „

Myanmar Junta Extends Dissident Leader’s Detention.

Myanmar’s military government May 25 extended for another year the house arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been held prisoner for more than 11 of the past 17 years. Her previous one-year detention order was due to expire May 27. The government did not officially announce the extension, but it was confirmed by government and security officials. The U.S. government, the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations renewed their protests of Suu Kyi’s imprisonment, and called for her release and that of other political prisoners. However, China declined to join the protest, saying Suu Kyi’s detention was an internal matter. [See p. 35C2; 2006, p. 494B3] Other News—In other Myanmar news: † The leader of the military regime, Gen. Than Shwe, March 27 made a rare public appearance in Naypyidaw, which had become Myanmar’s capital in 2005. The 74-year-old Than Shwe, who reportedly had been suffering from an undisclosed illness, gave a speech in an Armed Forces Day ceremony warning about interference from “powerful countries.” The government in the past had warned that Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was trying to undermine the military with backing from Western nations. † About 15 people Feb. 21 staged a rare protest in Yangon, the former capital, calling for lower prices on consumer goods and improvements in health and education services. At least one protester was arrested during the demonstration, and a protester March 7 said he and seven other participants the previous day had been arrested in their homes. Protests had previously been aimed at the military regime’s legitimacy, rather than its performance. „ Russia Agrees to Build Nuclear Reactor.

Myanmar and Russia May 15 signed an agreement in Moscow that called for Russia to build a nuclear research reactor for Myanmar. Russia’s federal atomic energy agency said Myanmar had a right to peaceful nuclear technology. It maintained that the reactor, which reportedly would produce medical isotopes and a small amount of electricity, could not be used for military purposes. The reactor would be under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) control. [See pp. 250G2, 35C2] The U.S. State Department May 16 protested that Myanmar did not have the regulatory infrastructure to prevent accidents, proliferation or environmental damage. The U.S. had previously pressured Russia to promote reforms in Myanmar. It had also criticized Russia for helping Iran to build a nuclear reactor. „

Thailand Court Ruling Dissolves Ex-Premier’s Party.

The Constitutional Tribunal of Thailand May 30 ordered that former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party, the country’s largest political party, be dissolved for violating election rules in April 2006 voting. The court banned Thaksin and 110 top party officials from politics for five years. Thaksin’s government in September 2006 had been overthrown in a bloodless coup. Thaksin lived in exile in London, but Thai Rak Thai remained popular with rural voters. Analysts said the decision might undermine the credibility of parliamentary elections the military government had promised for December. [See pp. 248E2, 229A2] The military government–appointed court also found that two top Thai Rak Thai leaders, former Defense Minister Thammarak Issaragura and former Transport Minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisal, had violated the law by paying small parties to enter elections in districts where Thai Rak Thai candidates were running unopposed, allowing them to fulfill voter turnout requirements. Judge Vichai Chuenchompoonuj said Thai Rak Thai had “used parliamentary elections only as a means to achieve totalitarian power.” Thai Rak Thai leader Chaturon Chaisaeng said the party would not dispute the ruling, which could not be appealed. However, he vowed to reregister the party under a different name. About 1,000 Thai Rak Thai supporters May 31 protested against the court decision in Bangkok, the capital. The Constitutional Tribunal earlier May 30 had dismissed election fraud charges against the Democrat Party, the secondlargest political party. The Democrats were cleared of framing Thai Rak Thai for election payoffs and using smaller parties to bypass election laws. The government June 5 lifted a ban on political party activity that had been in place since the September 2006 coup. However, a ban on forming new parties remained in place, blocking potential Thai Rak Thai moves to reregister. „

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Poland EU Censures Anti-Gay Statements. The European Parliament April 26 approved a resolution urging Poland to act against “declarations by public leaders” of “hatred based on sexual orientation.” Poland’s education ministry, led by Roman Giertych of the conservative League of Polish Families party, March 13 had announced the introduction of legislation in Poland’s parliament to bar “the promotion of homosexuality and other deviance” in schools. Human rights activists said that the proposed law would promote intolerance and result in the suppression of important education about HIV and AIDS. [See 2006, p. 715G2] FACTS ON FILE

In response to the EU resolution, Premier Jaroslaw Kaczynski April 26 defended the notion of barring “homosexual propaganda,” suggesting that “it’s not in the interests of any society to increase the number of homosexuals.” However, he denied that “gay rights” were endangered in Poland. The government’s children’s-rights monitor, Ewa Sowinska, in an interview made public May 29, expressed concern at the “homosexual undertone” of the “Teletubbies” British children’s television series. The Teletubbies, particularly the character Tinky Winky, had drawn a similar interpretation from U.S. Christian conservative leader Jerry Falwell in 1999. [See 1999, p. 196A2] Sowinska May 30 said she had been reassured about Tinky Winky’s propriety by “the opinion of a leading sexologist.” „ Abortion Ban Amendments Fail. Poland’s parliament April 13 rejected an array of constitutional amendments affirming or tightening the country’s strict abortion laws. One measure, backed by the Law and Justice party of Premier Jaroslaw Kaczynski, would have written the country’s existing law into the constitution. That law banned abortion except for cases of rape, danger to the mother’s health or the prospect of a severely handicapped baby. Kaczynski’s more conservative junior coalition party, the League of Polish Families, backed an amendment that would have banned abortion completely. [See p. 211D3] With centrist and leftist opposition parties voting against the measures, and divisions within the governing bloc over the two approaches, none of the proposals received the required two-thirds majority. „

Russia Long-Range Missile Tested. Russia May 29

test-launched a new model of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), called the RS-24. Russian First Deputy Premier Sergei Ivanov touted the missile as “capable of overcoming any existing or future missiledefense systems,” referring to tensions with the U.S. over its plans to base elements of a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe. Russia said it considered the missile shield a potential threat to its deterrent, but the U.S. insisted that it was not designed to be capable of undermining Russia’s substantial nuclear arsenal. [See pp. 357A1, 318C1] Russia’s military said the RS-24 missile was launched from a mobile platform in western Russia, and hit a target some 3,400 miles (5,500 km) away on the Kamchatka Peninsula, in the country’s far east. U.S. officials downplayed the test, saying that Russia’s development of the missile was well known, and in compliance with arms treaties. „ Gay Rights March Disrupted. Riot police in Moscow May 27 broke up a gathering of gay-rights activists, detaining at least 30 of them. Amid the clash between the activists and police, Russian Orthodox Christian June 7, 2007

and ultranationalist counterdemonstrators jeered and attacked the protesters, who included Western European lawmakers and other activists. The gay-rights protesters had sought to deliver a petition to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, demanding that he end his refusal to permit a gay pride parade. Police had broken up a similar demonstration a year earlier. [See 2006, p. 584F3] „

Spain Basque Militant Group ETA Ends Cease-fire.

Basque separatist militant group Euzkadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA), June 5 announced that it was ending a 15-month-old “permanent cease-fire.” In a message sent to Basque newspapers, ETA said it was prepared to “take action on all fronts to defend the Basque Country.” It explained its decision by charging that the Spanish government had responded to its truce with “arrests, tortures and every type of persecution.” [See pp. 367F2, 20G3] ETA had already broken the cease-fire with a December 2006 car bombing at Barajas international airport in Madrid, the Spanish capital. The bombing had killed two people, although ETA said it had not intended to hurt anyone with the blast. Spanish Premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who had drawn criticism from conservatives for starting peace talks with ETA earlier in 2006, said, “ETA’s decision is absolutely the opposite of what Basque and Spanish society want: the road to peace.” He declared, “I am convinced that the Spanish people will secure peace definitively. I will work to ensure this is reached as soon as possible.” He vowed that the “future of the Basques” would “never be determined by terrorist violence.” ETA had denounced him personally in its communique, saying, “Zapatero’s goodwill has turned to fascism.” ETA had killed more than 800 people in its four decades of violence in pursuit of its goal of an independent Basque nation in northern Spain and southwestern France. But police crackdowns in both countries had weakened the group, and it had not killed anyone in the three years before the airport bombing. „ Rightists Edge Socialists in Local Elections.

Spanish Premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s Socialist Party May 28 narrowly lost to the opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) in regional and local elections. The PP won 35.6% of the vote, compared with 34.9% for the Socialists. The narrow margin set the stage for the 2008 general election. [See p. 20G3; 2004, p. 175B1] The PP won a resounding victory in Madrid, the Spanish capital, and the surrounding region. The party had campaigned on its opposition to Zapatero’s policy of opening peace negotiations with the Basque separatist militant group Euzkadi ta Askatasuna (ETA). ETA June 5 announced that it was ending its 15-monthold cease-fire, in the latest setback for the peace overture. [See p. 367B2] „

Turkey Reports of Military Incursion in Iraq Denied.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul June 6 denied news reports that thousands of Turkish troops had crossed the border into Iraq to attack Kurdish militants. U.S. and Iraqi officials also denied the reports, which had cited unidentified Turkish security officials as confirming the incursion. Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said such an incursion would require parliamentary approval. [See p. 353D1] The Turkish military that day declared areas near the Iraqi border as “temporary security zones” until September, but did not specify what that meant. Turkey had built up its forces in the border region in the past weeks. Turkish military and government officials had recently warned that they were prepared to order strikes against bases in Iraq used by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist group that had waged a violent campaign in Turkey over the past two decades. A PKK attack in eastern Turkey June 4 had reportedly killed at least eight troops, prompting Gul to say that Turkey had “every right to take measures against terrorist activities directed at us from northern Iraq.” Tensions had risen after a suicide bombing in Ankara, the Turkish capital, in late May. Turkish authorities had said they suspected Kurdish militants were to blame, but the PKK had denied responsibility. Doctors June 7 said that another victim of the blast had died, bringing the death toll to eight. „

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Ukraine New Elections Set Following Standoff.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko June 5 issued a decree setting parliamentary elections for Sept. 30, ending a political showdown with Premier Viktor Yanukovich. Yushchenko in April had ordered the dissolution of the parliament and called new elections, but the body, controlled by Yanukovich’s coalition, disputed the legality of the president’s order and refused to disband. [See p. 301B2] The president and premier in early May had reached an agreement in principle on new elections, but the pact broke down amid differences over the date. Tensions escalated again May 24, when Yushchenko fired Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun, contending that it was illegal for him to occupy that post while still a member of parliament. Piskun belonged to Yanukovich’s Party of Regions. The following day Yushchenko said he was placing interior ministry forces, who had resisted the enforcement of Piskun’s dismissal, under his direct command, in order to prevent their use by “certain political forces that present a threat to the national security of Ukraine.” Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko also belonged to the Party of Regions. The president May 26 ordered troops to Kiev, the capital. 367

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Yanukovich May 25 called the president’s order a “putsch,” and the dispute prompted rival demonstrations by each leader’s supporters in Kiev. However, the two sides reached a new deal May 27, agreeing on the Sept. 30 date for the election. Parliament missed a series of deadlines to pass laws that would formalize the early election, making its implementation uncertain, but the laws were finally enacted June 1. „

Other European News

In another scenario, Lugovoy suggested that the killing could have been ordered by Russian organized crime figures, because, he said, Litvinenko had provided Spanish police with information about the Russian mafia in Spain. Lugovoy was joined at his news conference by Dmitri Kovtun, who together with Lugovoy had met with Litvinenko in London on the day he fell ill. Although investigators said they had found traces of polonium matching Kovtun’s movements as well, British prosecutors had not charged him. „

Russian Spy Poison Suspect Accuses Britain.

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Andrei Lugovoy, a former Soviet intelligence agent accused by British prosecutors of the 2006 poisoning murder in London of another former Russian spy, May 31 suggested that British intelligence services were responsible for the killing. In a news conference in Moscow, he said that the poisoning victim, Alexander Litvinenko, had been an agent of the British foreign intelligence service, MI6, and that the agency had “eliminated” him because he was “out of control.” [See p. 336A3] Lugovoy denied any role in the killing. He contended that British agents had deliberately framed him by planting traces of the radioactive substance used in the poisoning, polonium-210, on planes carrying him between Moscow and London and at locations he had stopped at in London. Lugovoy asserted that he possessed evidence for his accusations, but he did not produce any at the news conference. British prosecutors earlier in the month had announced that they had sufficient evidence to charge Lugovoy with the killing. Britain May 28 formally requested his extradition from Russia, which had not officially responded, but had publicly dismissed the notion of handing any Russian over for prosecution in the case. The British government did not address Lugovoy’s claims. An unidentified British intelligence official cited in news reports May 31 called the case “a criminal, not an intelligence, matter.” Lugovoy said that expatriate Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, a close associate of Litvinenko’s, also worked for MI6, and that the agency had tried unsuccessfully to recruit him through Litvinenko. He suggested that MI6 decided to “eliminate” Litvinenko over that failure, and because, Lugovoy claimed, he had been indiscreet about his links to British intelligence. Lugovoy also offered alternative explanations, including a suggestion that Berezovsky had ordered the killing. He said Litvinenko had been blackmailing Berezovsky with information that could threaten the billionaire’s status as a political refugee. Berezovsky, an ardent opponent of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, had accused Putin’s government of masterminding Litvinenko’s death. Berezovsky May 31 dismissed Lugovoy’s statements, saying he was merely “acting on Kremlin instruction.” 368

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Iraq Insurgents Say Kidnapped Soldiers Dead.

The Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni Muslim insurgent group, June 4 released a video on the Internet declaring that three U.S. soldiers kidnapped in May had all been killed. The soldiers had been abducted in an attack by insurgents south of Baghdad, the capital, prompting U.S. and Iraqi forces to launch an enormous search of the area. The body of one of the abducted soldiers had been found in the Euphrates River nearly two weeks after the attack. The claim of the killings came during a week of further violence throughout much of Iraq. [See pp. 342A1, 341A1] The video released June 4 showed two identity cards supposedly belonging to the two missing soldiers, as well as footage purporting to show the attack and the planning for it. A voice on the video said, “After the three soldiers were alive as prisoners they became dead bodies.” However, it did not offer any proof of the soldiers’ deaths. It claimed that the insurgents had decided to report the soldiers’ deaths in order to end the search operations, which it said might harm “our Muslim brothers, children, women and old men.” U.S. officials said the search for the soldiers would continue. Search for Britons Continues— More news emerged June 3–7 regarding five Britons kidnapped a week earlier from a government building in Baghdad, as the search for them went on. Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper June 3 reported that the Mahdi Army—a Shiite Muslim militia widely believed to have committed the abduction—had told the Iraqi government that the Britons were safe and was negotiating a deal to release them. The militia was reportedly demanding that the government end attacks on the militia’s leaders, halt British patrols in the city of Basra and secure the release of militia leaders held by the U.S. and Britain. [See p. 341C3] Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, June 4 said the kidnapping was probably perpetrated by a group that had broken off from the Mahdi Army. He said the offshoot was affiliated with Sheikh Azhar al-Dulaimi, and that the kidnapping might have been retaliation for Dulaimi’s death at the hands of

U.S. forces in May. Petraeus asserted that Dulaimi had led a January raid on U.S. troops in Karbala, killing five of them. [See p. 338A2] Dominic Asquith, Britain’s ambassador to Iraq, June 7 appealed for the Britons’ release, and expressed a willingness to negotiate for their freedom. June Off to Deadly Start—The U.S. military June 3 said a total of 127 U.S. troops had died in Iraq in May, making it the third-deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq, behind the death tolls of 137 in November 2004 and 135 in April 2004. The Washington Post June 3 published Defense Department data showing that, in May, fewer than five U.S. soldiers were wounded for every one that was killed. That was a significant change from the eight-to-one ratio that had been the average since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and indicated that attacks on U.S. troops were becoming much deadlier. The Post article quoted Army Maj. Gen. James Simmons, the deputy U.S. commander in Iraq, as saying that most of the deaths were due to large improvised explosive devices (IEDs), often planted underground. The article also cited data from media reports showing that nearly 70% of U.S. deaths in March, April and May resulted from roadside bombs, up from roughly 40% in January and February. An article in the New York Times June 4 said 192 U.S. soldiers had died in Baghdad in the first five months of 2007, more than double the 81 who had died during the same period in the capital in 2006. The article also said 78 U.S. soldiers had died in Diyala province so far in 2007, while only 20 had died there in all of 2006. [See below] Petraeus June 5 said sectarian killings in Baghdad had dropped by two-thirds from January to April, but had returned to half of their January level in May, indicating that “the cycle of violence resumed in some areas.” He said the “surge” in U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad had not truly begun, as some U.S. troops were still arriving. He said that he would wait until September to offer his full assessment of the security push’s progress. The U.S. military June 7 said 22 soldiers had been killed June 1–6, almost double the rate of deaths in June 2006, when an average of two soldiers died each day. Only One-Third of Baghdad Secure—

An internal U.S. military assessment of the U.S.-Iraqi security push, first reported June 4 by the New York Times, said that U.S. and Iraqi forces were able to protect residents in only 146 of Baghdad’s 457 neighborhoods. The assessment, completed in late May and based on reports from U.S. military commanders in the capital, said Iraqi forces were taking the lead in maintaining safety in 18 neighborhoods, while U.S. and Iraqi forces were doing so in 128 neighborhoods. U.S. and Iraqi forces were in the process of clearing 155 neighborhoods of fighters and weapons in block-to-block operations, while the remaining 156 neighFACTS ON FILE

borhoods were still awaiting clearing operations. Officers said progress in the capital was taking longer than expected, and cited problems with Iraqi forces as a major cause of the delay. Iraqi units were said to be at less than full strength, hampered by short 90-day tours in the capital, and infiltrated by fighters loyal to Shiite militias. The diversion of U.S. forces to violent areas outside Baghdad, including Diyala, was also cited as an obstacle. [See below] Fighting Rages in Diyala—Fighting continued through June 6 in Diyala province, where violence had risen sharply since the start of the security push in Baghdad. A car bomb outside Baquba, the provincial capital, exploded June 3 near a U.S. base. Troops complained of respiratory and eye irritation, but no other injuries and no fatalities occurred. The bomb might have been rigged with chlorine gas. [See p. 339C1] A suicide car bomber that day struck a marketplace in Balad Ruz, a town in Diyala, killing at least nine people and wounding at least 25. U.S. and Iraqi forces June 5 fought insurgents north of the town of Khalis, killing seven. Two Iraqi soldiers and two police officers were also killed. According to local officials, 81 police officers had been killed in Diyala in April and May, and 275 had been wounded. Gunmen manning a fake checkpoint in Khalis kidnapped at least 12 students from a minibus. In another incident, gunmen manning a fake checkpoint in the town attempted to abduct 13 people but were chased by local residents and forced to release them. Sunni Insurgents Battle in Baghdad—

Residents of the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Amiriyah in western Baghdad June 1 stayed in their homes as members of Al Qaeda in Iraq continued to battle members of a rival insurgent group, the Islamic Army of Iraq. The rival group was dominated by members of the ousted Baath party regime. It was more secular than Al Qaeda, and did not include many foreign fighters. A dozen or more people had been killed in fighting between the two groups there the previous week, reportedly prompted by anger at Al Qaeda’s brutal tactics and strict religious rules. Some residents had reportedly joined the fight against Al Qaeda. [See p. 343D1] The Islamic Army June 6 announced that it had agreed to a cease-fire with Al Qaeda. Under the agreement, a judicial committee would resolve any future disputes between the two groups. An Al Qaeda suicide bomber June 1 had detonated his explosives near Baqubah at a safe house for another rival Sunni insurgent group, the 1920 Revolution Brigades. The latter group was also made up of former members of the Baath regime, and had allied itself with security forces in the area in order to fight Al Qaeda. Two members of the group were killed in the blast, and four more were wounded. June 7, 2007

More Iranian Weapons Seen in Iraq—

U.S. and European officials had said more Iranian weapons were arriving in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported June 3. The officials claimed that Iranian rockets with a range of 30 miles (50 km) had recently been used against U.S. and British forces in Basra and Baghdad—including in the heavily fortified Green Zone. Fragments of the rockets reportedly bore markings from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard—an elite military force affiliated with Iran’s ruling clerics—as well as dates from 2007. The rockets were the same as ones used by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which received military support from Iran. The officials suggested that Iran wanted to prevent Iraq from reaching a state of stability that might be interpreted as a U.S. victory. [See 302B2] U.S. and Iraqi forces June 7 detained 16 suspected members of a terrorist cell during a raid in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad. The cell was accused of smuggling weapons, including roadside bombs, from Iran to Iraq. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † The Iraqi parliament June 5 passed a resolution requiring the government to get parliamentary approval before asking the United Nations to extend the mandate for the presence of foreign troops in Iraq. The current mandate was set to expire at the end of 2007. Legislators allied to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr pushed the measure through. † The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees June 5 said that more than 4.2 million Iraqis had been displaced by violence, 2.2 million of them driven to other countries and two million to other parts of Iraq. The U.N. said 1.4 million Iraqis were in Syria—which took in 30,000 refugees each month—up to 750,000 in Jordan, 80,000 in Egypt and 200,000 in countries in the Persian Gulf region. Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq June 1–7: † A suicide truck bomb in Rabia, near the Syrian border, June 7 exploded near a police station, killing nine people, including four police officers. Another 22 people were wounded, and the station was destroyed. † A car bomb in Sadr City June 7 exploded near a restaurant, killing at least three people and wounding eight more. † A Catholic priest and five boys were kidnapped June 6 while going to a seminary in northeast Baghdad. Three days earlier, a Catholic priest and three of his assistants had been killed by gunmen in Mosul. † Twin car bombs in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiyah June 6 exploded not far from a prominent Shiite shrine. Casualty reports varied, saying that the blasts had killed up to seven people and wounded as many as 27. † The Iraqi interior ministry June 6 said 167 bodies of victims of sectarian attacks had been found in Baghdad since the start

of June, an increase from the previous months of the U.S.-Iraqi troop surge. † Iraqi police in eastern Baghdad June 5 fired on a woman wearing an explosive belt as she moved toward a line of police recruits. The explosives detonated, killing the woman and wounding three policemen. † A suicide truck bomb in a commercial district south of Fallujah June 5 killed at least 15 people and wounded at least 13. † An aide to Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, June 5 was killed in a drive-by shooting near Najaf. † Iraqi forces June 4 killed a senior leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq in the mostly Sunni Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiya. † A bomb in southeastern Baghdad June 4 struck a minibus, killing three people and wounding eight more. † Iraqi security forces conducting raids in the city of Diwaniyah south of Baghdad June 3 clashed with the Mahdi Army. Three people were killed, including one soldier, and 24 wounded. The clash broke a two-week truce between the militia and Iraqi forces. † A bombing roughly 100 miles north of Baghdad June 2 severely damaged a bridge along a road linking the capital to the city of Kirkuk. [See above] † Mortar fire in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Fadhil June 2 killed eight people and wounded 25. Fadhil was a Sunni area in the eastern half of the capital, which was mostly Shiite. † A shell fired by a U.S. tank June 1 killed three children near Fallujah. The U.S. military said the tank had aimed at insurgents setting roadside bombs, and was being investigated. † Mortar fire in western Baghdad June 1 killed 10 people and wounded 30 more. „

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Israel Peretz Dropped as Labor Party Leader.

Members of the Labor Party May 28 voted in a primary for the party’s leadership, and results released May 29 showed that the current leader and defense minister, Amir Peretz, had been soundly rejected. No clear victor emerged from the vote, but Peretz came in third, with roughly 22% of the vote, behind former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, at roughly 36%, and Ami Ayalon, the former head of the domestic security service Shin Bet, at roughly 31%. With all candidates receiving less than 40% of the vote, Barak and Ayalon were slated for a runoff June 12. [See p. 275B1] Labor held 19 seats in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s 78-member ruling coalition. Both Olmert, a member of Kadima, and Peretz had been strongly rebuked in an April report on Israel’s summer 2006 war with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and had faced calls for their resignation. Barring a collapse of the ruling coalition, the next general elections were slated for 2010. The next leader of the Labor Par369

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Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres May 30 stated that he would compete in Israel’s presidential election. The Israeli parliament was set to select a new president by secret ballot on June 13. Reuven Rivlin of Likud and Colette Avital of Labor were also competing for the largely ceremonial post. Peres, a member of Olmert’s Kadima party, had lost the previous presidential election in 2000 to Moshe Katsav. Katsav, whose seven-year term was set to expire in July, had recently been suspended from office, facing charges of sexual misconduct and abuse of power. [See p. 54A3] „

West Bank and Gaza Strip 20 Killed in Israeli-Palestinian Violence.

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Violence between Israel and Palestinian militants May 25–June 6 continued in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, killing roughly 20 people. Palestinian leaders attempted to reinstate a cease-fire with Israel that had collapsed earlier in May, even as the region commemorated the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War that brought the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights—along with millions of Palestinians—under Israeli control. [See p. 337G1] Israeli air strikes in Gaza May 24–25 hit several posts and buildings run by the Islamist militant group Hamas. A strike also hit a Hamas rocket launching squad May 25, killing three militants. A rocket launched earlier in the day from Gaza at the southern Israeli town of Sderot wounded three civilians. Several Palestinian militant groups met that day to discuss whether and how to initiate a new cease-fire with Israel. More air strikes May 26 hit Hamas’s infrastructure, including one strike near Gaza City that killed five militants and wounded several more. Meanwhile, Palestinian gunmen fought Israeli border police in East Jerusalem. Two gunmen, along with one Palestinian bystander, were killed in the battle, and four Israeli police were wounded. A dozen or more rockets were fired at Israel, with one destroying a room in an apartment, though no one was injured. Israeli troops May 26 arrested Wasfi Kabha—the minister of state for the Palestinian Authority (PA) and a member of Hamas—in the West Bank city of Jenin. Israeli officials said they had evidence linking Kabha to terrorism. Another cabinet member, along with several legislators, had been arrested two days earlier. [See p. 338A1] More rockets fired May 27 killed an Israeli man in Sderot, and wounded two more people. Hamas claimed responsibility for the deadly attack. The Israeli military May 28 hit several more Hamas posts in Gaza, while another Israeli was wounded by rocket fire. Israeli forces in the West Bank arrested several members of Fatah, Hamas’s chief political rival. 370

Israeli operations continued May 29, with Israeli forces arresting Fatah legislator Jamal Tirawi in Nablus along with three other men. The Israeli military accused Tirawi of involvement in terrorism. Another raid in the West Bank city of Ramallah led to the death of a member of the militant Aksa Martyrs Brigade. Four more Palestinians were wounded. A militant affiliated with Fatah was killed in an operation near Jenin, and three members of the militant group Islamic Jihad died in an explosion in Gaza City while making a bomb. Two Hamas fighters were killed in Gaza during a raid, and a Hamas training base was hit by an air strike. Israel Rejects Cease-fire— The Israeli government May 30 rejected the notion of a cease-fire with Palestinian militants. A statement released by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert noted that there had been a “relative decrease in Qassam rocket launchings” from Gaza in recent days, which it credited to Israeli military efforts. The statement asserted that the operations would continue despite the decrease. An air strike in northern Gaza that day killed two men Israel said were Hamas fighters. Several more rockets May 31 hit southern Israel, and aides to Olmert and PA President Mahmoud Abbas stated that the two leaders would meet in the coming week, perhaps in Palestinian territory. Olmert and Abbas had agreed in April to meet on a biweekly basis, but only one meeting had taken place to date. [See p. 240B2] An air strike June 1 in southern Gaza killed a commander belonging to Islamic Jihad, as several more rockets were fired at Israel. Israeli forces that day killed two Palestinian boys near the Gaza border. The Israeli military said the boys, 12 and 13 years of age, did not heed warnings to leave the area and appeared to be planting a bomb. A 16-year-old Palestinian boy was wounded and taken to an Israeli hospital. Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus June 2 killed a Palestinian who they claimed was armed. Further rockets were fired at Sderot, though no injuries resulted. Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy political chief for Hamas, asserted that Hamas would consider a one-year cease-fire with Israel, but insisted that the truce would have to include the West Bank, and not just Gaza. Israeli ground forces June 3 moved deeper into the margins of Gaza, and detained several Palestinians. Israeli troops in Jenin killed a Palestinian after gunmen opened fire on them. Hamas fighters fired several mortar shells at Gaza’s Erez border crossing, wounding four Israeli soldiers. No rockets were fired from Gaza that day. The New York Times June 4 reported that an unidentified individual familiar with Hamas’s military wing claimed that Hamas had altered its military strategy. Instead of firing rockets into civilian areas of Israel, the individual said, Hamas had decided to target military posts along the Gaza border.

40th Anniversary of 1967 War Observed—

Protesters in the West Bank and Israel June 5 denounced Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, on the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Six Day War, in which Israel defeated larger Arab forces and took over the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights. The victory had also initiated a long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians over the occupation of those lands, and the introduction of Jewish settlers into them. [See 1967, p. 201A1] Hundreds of Palestinians protested at checkpoints in Ramallah and Nablus. Many Israelis protested in Tel Aviv, and hundreds of Israeli antisettlement demonstrators protested in the West Bank town of Hebron. Israeli police blocked a planned Palestinian conference in East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, fighting between members of Hamas and Fatah erupted again in Gaza near the Karni border crossing that day, resulting in several injuries. Fatah was responsible for running the crossing, through which most of Gaza’s trade passed. Factional violence had almost halted completely since Hamas and Fatah had arrived at a truce nearly three weeks earlier. [See p. 338C1] In recognition of the anniversary of the war, widely viewed by Palestinians as a catastrophe, Abbas gave a speech calling the start of the war a “black day.” He added that the memory of it could be “erased by ending the occupation of Arab and Palestinian territory and by establishing our independent state.” He also warned Palestinians against reigniting factional strife, and said they should realize that, “equal to the danger of occupation, or even more, is the danger of infighting.” In accord with the Hebrew calendar, Israel had commemorated the anniversary in May. The violence resumed the next day, when an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza June 6 killed a Hamas militant. A Palestinian family in Hebron resisted an Israeli raid of their home that day, prompting the Israeli troops to open fire. One Palestinian man was killed, and seven other Palestinians were wounded. Air strikes in Gaza had killed more than 60 Palestinians since the collapse of the cease-fire, most of them militants. During the same period, as many as 300 rockets had been fired at Israel from Gaza. Abbas Cancels Meeting with Olmert—

Abbas June 6 called off his planned meeting with Olmert, slated for the following day in the West Bank city of Jericho. Palestinian officials blamed the cancellation on disagreements with Israel regarding the institution of a new cease-fire including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the restart of peace talks and the release of tax revenues collected by Israel to the PA. An Israeli official in Olmert’s office insisted that Olmert was ready to meet Abbas “at any time.” PA Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr said Abbas and Olmert had been invited by the “quartet”—the U.S., Russia, the United Nations and the European Union—for talks later that month in Cairo, Egypt’s FACTS ON FILE

capital. Israeli officials did not confirm the invitation, however. Meanwhile, op-ed pieces by Olmert and PA Premier Ismail Haniya appeared in Britain’s Guardian newspaper June 6. In his article, Olmert said he was willing to discuss a 2002 Saudi Arabian peace proposal “in an open and sincere manner,” provided that the talks were “a discussion, not an ultimatum.” Haniya, in his article, said Israel had underestimated “the resolve of the Palestinians,” and said relations between the two groups were “catastrophic.” He insisted that Western nations “engage” the PA government as a first step toward resolving the conflict. Many Western nations had refused to provide aid to the PA and had limited their contact with it until the Hamas-led government agreed to renounce violence and recognize Israel. The cut in aid had resulted in enormous economic difficulties in the Palestinian territories. [See p. 203C1] „ Abducted Reporter Appears in Video. Video footage of Alan Johnston, a British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) correspondent who had been abducted in the Gaza Strip in March, June 1 appeared on a Web site used by militant Islamist groups. In the video, Johnston, appearing unharmed, said his captors “have fed me well, there has been no violence towards me at all, and I’m in good health.” Johnston, apparently reading from a script, denounced Britain, Israel and the U.S. for their Middle East policies, and insisted that “the huge suffering of the Palestinian people” was “unacceptable.” A masked man in the video demanded that Britain “free our prisoners.” [See p. 269C2] A group calling itself the Army of Islam May 9 had posted an audio recording on the Internet, along with a picture of Johnston’s identity card. The audio statement had called for the release of Abu Qatada, a Palestinian Muslim cleric linked to the terrorist network Al Qaeda who was under house arrest in Britain. Qatada also went by the name Omar Uthman Abu Omar. The audio posting also called for the release of other Muslim prisoners in “infidel” countries. [See p. 131F2] Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority (PA) Premier Ismail Haniya, May 27 said he had met with Johnston’s kidnappers and asserted that the reporter was “well and healthy.” Hamad said the kidnappers were refusing to heed demands by PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Haniya to release Johnston. The Army of Islam was known to have ties to a clan responsible for the kidnapping and release of two foreign journalists in Gaza in August 2006. [See 2006, p. 686A1] Female Broadcasters Threatened— An Islamic group June 1 vowed to behead female television broadcasters unless they wore veils in accordance with Islamic dress standards. In a statement sent by e-mail to news organizations, the group, called the Swords of Truth, threatened to “cut throats from vein to vein” unless their demand was obeyed. The group had claimed responsibility for the nonfatal bombings of roughly June 7, 2007

three dozen Internet cafes, music stores and pool halls since its formation in 2006. Dozens of employees of the broadcasting corporation run by the PA June 3 protested in Gaza City, demanding that Abbas protect them. The broadcasting corporation was funded by Abbas and was seen as supportive of his Fatah party, drawing complaints from its rival, the Islamist group Hamas. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Anaheim Defeats Ottawa to Win Stanley Cup Franchise Claims First NHL Title. The Anaheim Ducks June 6 defeated the Ottawa Senators, 6–2, in Anaheim, Calif., to win the Stanley Cup, the championship of the National Hockey League (NHL). Anaheim won the best-of-seven series, four games to one. It was the first Stanley Cup victory in the 14-year history of the Anaheim franchise. [See p. 270D3; 2006, p. 523F2] Anaheim defenseman Scott Niedermayer, the team captain, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Niedermayer, 33, had won the Stanley Cup three previous times, when he played for the New Jersey Devils. His younger brother, center Rob Niedermayer, also played for the Ducks. Anaheim became the first West Coast– based team to win the Stanley Cup since 1925, when it was won by Victoria of the Western Canada Hockey League. It was the first appearance in the Stanley Cup finals for Ottawa, coached by Bryan Murray. No Canadian team had won the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. [See 1993, p. 454E1] Ducks Take Early Lead— The Ducks, coached by Randy Carlyle, May 28 won the first game of the series, 3–2, in Anaheim. Ottawa led, 2–1, after two periods. Center Ryan Getzlaf scored the tying goal five minutes and 44 seconds into the third period, and forward Travis Moen scored the game-winner with just under three minutes remaining. Anaheim May 30 took the second game, 1–0, in Anaheim. Center Samuel Pahlsson scored the game’s only goal with 5:44 left in the third period, and goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped all 16 Ottawa shots. Ottawa June 2 won its only game of the series, beating Anaheim, 5–3, in Ottawa, Ontario. The go-ahead goal deflected off Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger and past Giguere in the second period. The NHL June 3 suspended Pronger for the fourth game of the series for a forearm hit to the head of Senators forward Dean McAmmond in the third period of game three. Pronger had also been suspended for one game May 16 for a hit on Detroit Red Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom in the Western Conference finals. Anaheim June 4 defeated the Senators, 3–2, in Ottawa in the fourth game to take a three-games-to-one series lead. Center Andy McDonald scored two goals and as-

sisted on the game-winner, which was scored by forward Dustin Penner some four minutes into the third period. In the decisive fifth game, the Senators offense stalled, while goaltender Ray Emery allowed six goals on 18 shots. Anaheim got goals from McDonald, Rob Niedermayer, Moen (two goals), defenseman Francois Beauchemin and forward Corey Perry. Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson scored both of Ottawa’s goals. Conference Finals Results—The Ducks May 22 defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 4– 3, in Anaheim to win the Western Conference finals, four games to two. The Senators May 19 beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3–2, in overtime in Buffalo, N.Y., to win the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one. Earlier Rounds—Anaheim May 3 beat the Vancouver Canucks, 2–1, in double overtime in Anaheim to win the Western Conference semifinals, four games to one. The Ducks April 19 had defeated the Minnesota Wild, 4–1, in Anaheim to win their first-round playoff series, four games to one. The Senators May 5 defeated the Devils, 3–2, in East Rutherford, N.J., to win the Eastern Conference semifinals, four games to one. Ottawa April 19 had defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3–0, in Ottawa to win its first-round series, four games to one. „

A

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ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

D

Medical Research Stem Cells Created From Skin Cells.

Three teams of researchers—two in the U.S. and one in Japan—June 6 announced that they had created the equivalent of embryonic stem cells from ordinary skin cells in mice. If the work could be reproduced in humans, it would allow scientists to sidestep the controversial practice of creating stem cells from human embryos that resulted in the destruction of the embryos. [See pp. 363E1, 235F3] Embryonic stem cells could be coaxed into developing into a variety of types of cells. Stem cell research was believed to have the potential to treat a myriad of ailments, but a 2001 prohibition by U.S. President George W. Bush on federal funding for the creation of new stem-cell lines for research had stymied progress in the field in the U.S. The researchers warned that their research would not necessarily be quickly duplicated in humans, and encouraged Congress to overturn Bush’s prohibition. The U.S. House June 7 voted to clear a bill that would do so. Bush had already vetoed such a bill in 2006. Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in 2006 had published research showing how his team had reprogrammed a mature mouse cell by introducing four genes that caused it to enter an embryonic-like state. In his recent research, Yamanaka was able to refine the technique by using a genetically engineered virus to deliver the four genes to mouse skin cells. One in 10,000 of the infected skin cells then became an “induced pluripotent stem” 371

E

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G

BEST SELLER LISTS

A

Books

Television

Publishers Weekly June 4 listed the following hardback and paperback best sellers [See p. 288C1]:

Top-Rated Programs. The following were the most-watched prime-time national television shows April 30–June 3 as determined by A.C. Nielsen Co. (Series marked with an asterisk * had at least one other episode during the period that outranked some of the other programs listed.) Figures in parentheses are rating points; each point represents 1% of the 110.2 million television households in the U.S. [See p. 288C2]:

Fiction Hardback 1. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) 2. The Overlook, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown) 3. The 6th Target, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown) 4. Invisible Prey, by John Sandford (Putnam) 5. Bad Luck and Trouble, by Lee Child (Delacorte)

B

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General Hardback 1. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne (Atria/Beyond Words) 2. The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore (Penguin Press) 3. The Reagan Diaries, by Ronald Reagan (HarperCollins) [See p. 372F1] 4. The Dangerous Book for Boys, by Conn and Hal Iggulden (Collins) 5. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve) Mass Market Paperback 1. The Husband, by Dean Koontz (Bantam) 2. Dead Watch, by John Sandford (Berkley) 3. Susannah’s Garden, by Debbie Macomber (Mira) 4. Two Little Girls in Blue, by Mary Higgins Clark (Pocket) 5. The Cold Moon, by Jeffery Deaver (Pocket Star)

Music Best-Selling Singles and Albums. Billboard magazine in its June 2 issue listed the five most popular singles (as determined by air play and sales) and the five bestselling albums in the U.S. as the following [See p. 288F1]:

Singles

D

1. “Makes Me Wonder,” Maroon 5 (A&M/Octone/Interscope) 2. “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’),” T-Pain featuring Yung Joc (Konvict/Nappy Boy/Jive/Zomba) 3. “Girlfriend,” Avril Lavigne (RCA/RMG) 4. “Give It to Me,” Timbaland featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake (Mosley/Blackground/Interscope) 5. “Home,” Daughtry (RCA/RMG) Albums 1. Minutes to Midnight, Linkin Park (Machine Shop/Warner Bros.) 2. Sex Love & Pain, Tank (Blackground/Universal Motown/UMRG) 3. Call Me Irresponsible, Michael Buble (Reprise/Warner Bros.) 4. Sky Blue Sky, Wilco (Nonesuch/Warner Bros.) 5. One of the Boys, Gretchen Wilson (Columbia-Nashville/SBN)

E

F

cell, or iPS cell, with the characteristics of an embryonic stem cell. One U.S. research team led by Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Massachusetts, and another led by Konrad Hochedlinger of Massachusetts General Hospital and Kathrin Plath of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), had achieved results similar to Yamanaka’s. The journal Nature June 7 published Yamanaka’s and Jaenisch’s work, and another journal, Cell Stem Cell, that day published Hochedlinger and Plath’s research. „

People

G

Visitors to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., May 21 lined up to be the first to buy copies of The Reagan Diaries, a book put out by HarperCollins Publishers Inc. and edited by historian Douglas Brinkley. The book was drawn from five volumes of diaries kept by Reagan during his two-term presidency (1981–89). The book quickly became a best-seller. [See pp. 372B1, 292A1] 372

1. “American Idol,” (Fox), May 23 (17.8)* 2. “Dancing With the Stars,” (ABC), May 22 (15.0)* 3. “Grey’s Anatomy,” (ABC), May 17 (14.5)* 4. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS), May 17 (12.6) 5. “House” (Fox), May 1 and 8 (12.5)

Films Top-Grossing Films. The following were the top-grossing films in the U.S. for

the week of May 25–31 according to Variety. Figures in parentheses were each film’s cumulative box office total and number of weeks in release to date. Information on cast and director is included when a film first appears on the list. [See p. 288D2]:

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Buena Vista ($173.3 million, 1) Directed by Gore Verbinski. With Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley. 2. Shrek the Third, Paramount ($227.9 million, 2) Directed by Chris Miller and Raman Hui. With the voices of Antonio Banderas, Rupert Everett, Amy Sedaris, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph. 3. Spider-Man 3, Sony ($310.8 million, 4) Directed by Sam Raimi. With Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace and James Franco. 4. Waitress, Fox Searchlight ($7.4 million, 4) Directed by Adrienne Shelly. With Keri Russell, Jeremy Sisto, Cheryl Hines, Nathan Fillion and Andy Griffith. 5. Bug, Lionsgate ($4.9 million, 1) Directed by William Friedkin. With Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, Brian O’Byrne and Lynn Collins. 6. 28 Weeks Later, 20th Century Fox ($25.4 million, 3) Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. With Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau Jr., Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne and Catherine McCormack. 7. Georgia Rule, Universal ($17.5 million, 3) Directed by Garry Marshall. With Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan, Felicity Huffman, Dermot Mulroney and Garrett Hedlund. 8. Disturbia, Paramount ($75.6 million, 7) [See p. 288E2] 9. Fracture, New Line ($37.6 million, 6) [See 288E2] 10. Wild Hogs, Buena Vista ($163.6 million, 13) [See p. 288G2]

Assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, 79, a former pathologist who in 1999

had been sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison for his murder conviction in the euthanasia death of a terminally ill man, June 1 was paroled from a medium-security state prison in Coldwater, Mich., designed for elderly inmates. In an interview with CBS newsman Mike Wallace aired June 3 on the network’s “60 Minutes” news program, Kevorkian called the U.S. government a “tyrant” for banning assisted suicides, but said he would no longer take part in them. He had been granted parole, for good behavior, only after promising not to. Kevorkian had videotaped the death of the man he was convicted of killing; that videotape had aired on “60 Minutes” in 1998. [See 2002, p. 767G1; 1999, p. 264F1] Actress Lindsay Lohan, 20, May 28 checked into a Malibu, Calif., rehabilitation facility, two days after being arrested in Beverly Hills, Calif., for drunk driving after crashing her vehicle into a tree. Lohan, who starred as a troubled young woman in the recently released film Georgia Rule, was tentatively scheduled for arraignment in late August. [See p. 372D2] „

O B I T UA R I E S FRANCE Jr., Bill (William Clifton France), 74, sports executive who transformed NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), founded by his father, Bill France Sr., in 1948, from a small, Southern-based sport into a far-flung, multibillion-dollar enterprise; he took over control of NASCAR from his father in 1972 and remained its chairman until 2003; born April 4, 1933, in Washington, D.C.; died June 4 at his home in Daytona Beach, Fla.; he had been in poor health since 1997, when he suffered a heart attack; two years later, he was diagnosed with cancer, and in 2002 he underwent surgery for a broken hip as well as triple bypass heart surgery. [See 2003, p. 1101C2; 2000, p. 1054A2; Index 1999] THOMAS, Craig Lyle, 74, Wyoming Republican who had served in the U.S. Senate since 1995; he came to the Senate from the U.S. House of Representatives, which he entered in 1989 by winning a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of then-Rep. Dick Cheney (R) to become secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush; he was a typical Western conservative, reliably supporting energy, mining and farming interests, and firmly opposing gun control; born Feb. 17, 1933, on a ranch near Cody, Wyo.; died June 4 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., of acute myeloid leukemia, a blood and bone-marrow cancer. [See 2006, pp. 852F3, 741F1, 571G1; 2005, p. 305E2; Indexes 1999–2000, 1994, 1992, 1989– 90] „

June 7, 2007

Abbas Dissolves Hamas-Led Palestinian ‘Unity’ Government Declares Emergency as Hamas Seizes Gaza Factional Fighting Kills More than 100.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas June 14 announced the dissolution of a unity government that his Fatah faction had formed with Islamist militant group Hamas in March, and the dismissal of the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya. Abbas made the announcement after days of intensifying fighting between the two factions’ security forces in the Gaza Strip, in which more than 100 people had been killed since June 7. Hamas had gained control over most of Gaza, capturing the headquarters of Fatah’s Preventive Security forces in Gaza City June 14. [See p. 370B1] Abbas declared a state of emergency, and would govern by decree until he named a new prime minister. However, a Hamas spokesman rejected Abbas’s order, saying, “Haniya remains the head of the government even if it was dissolved by the president.” Abbas was currently in Ramallah in the West Bank, where Fatah was stronger. The violence had prompted fears of a full-blown civil war in the Palestinian territories, and the latest developments raised the specter of rival Palestinian administrations in Hamas-ruled Gaza and Fatah-led West Bank. An aide to Abbas in Ramallah read his order, which cited “the criminal war in the Gaza Strip, the taking over of the security services of the Palestinian Authority, the military coup and the armed rebellion by outlaws.” Each side had blamed the other for provoking the recent fighting, and they traded accusations of mounting a “coup” against the legitimate forces of the unity government. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice June 14 backed Abbas’s decision, saying, “President Abbas has exercised his lawful authority.” The U.S. had sought to bolster Fatah against Hamas, which it considered a terrorist organization, since Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006. Hamas Takes Fatah Force’s Base— A Hamas spokesman June 14 said the takeover of the headquarters of Preventive Security, an elite Fatah force, completed “the second liberation of the Gaza Strip,” following the 2005 withdrawal of Israeli military forces and settlers. Hamas held much of Gaza City, and had surrounded Al Suraya, the headquarters of the Palestinian armed forces, the National Security Forces, giving those inside a deadline of June 15 to surrender. [See 2005, p. 549A1] The Hamas fighters, after taking the Preventive Security building, marched Fatah officers into the street and, according to the accounts of nearby residents, executed some of them. A Hamas spokesman said that “Preventive Security has a special meaning,” saying that “our fighters were tortured and killed inside” during a Fatah crackdown on the group in the 1990s.

The renewed fighting had first flared up in the southern town of Rafah June 7, after a two-week cease-fire that had followed a previous spate of clashes. As the fighting intensified, two men June 10 were thrown to their deaths from tall buildings in Gaza City. One was a member of Fatah’s Presidential Guard, and the other belonged to Hamas’s Executive Force. The following day, an Egyptian effort to broker a cease-fire quickly broke down, and Haniya’s offices came under gunfire during a cabinet meeting; no one was injured. Also June 11, in the northern Gaza Strip, gunfighting erupted around a hospital in Beit Hanoun, and Hamas fighters in Beit Lahiya killed Jamal Abu al-Jediyan, the leader for northern Gaza of the Aksa Martyrs Brigade, a Fatah affiliate known for terrorist attacks on Israel. Haniya’s home and Abbas’s Gaza compound June 12 each came under attack, although both men were elsewhere at the time. In Gaza City June 13, Hamas took over an apartment building that was home to numerous Fatah figures, and captured the city’s police station, which also had been Fatah-controlled. In southern Khan Younis, Hamas militants that day blew up a Preventive Security station and took control of the town. Fatah June 12 suspended its participation in the unity government. Abbas spoke the next day with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshal. Abbas called the events “madness,” and urged a halt to the fighting, as did Haniya. A Fatah spokesman June 12 contended that Hamas was mounting a “coup against the Palestinian Authority.” A Hamas spokesman the following day made the same accusation against Fatah, saying Fatah was failing to bring its forces under the control of the unity government, and collaborating with Israel and the U.S. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, which had refused contact with Hamas, June 13 said that a takeover of Gaza by Hamas would have dangerous “regional consequences.” Hamas, unlike Fatah, refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Attempt to Kidnap Israeli Repelled— A group of four Palestinian militants June 9 broke through Gaza’s border with Israel in a failed operation intended to kidnap an Israeli soldier. The militant group Islamic Jihad said it had organized the raid in conjunction with the Aksa Martyrs Brigade. The gunmen had smashed through a border crossing in a truck that, according to Israeli officials, was marked as a press vehicle. Israeli forces halted their incursion, but three of the Palestinians escaped to Gaza; the fourth was eventually shot and killed. An Islamic Jihad spokesman June 10 denied that the truck had borne press markings, a practice that the Palestinian Journalists’ Union condemned that day. Israeli aircraft June 10 bombed sites in Gaza in response to the raid. Israel said one

Facts On File

®

World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3470 June 14, 2007

B was an Islamic Jihad building and another an Aksa weapons-making facility. Palestinian officials described the bombed buildings as Islamic Jihad educational and charitable institutions and a private blacksmith’s shop, and said that seven civilians had been injured. Separately, Israeli forces June 10 entered the Gaza Strip near Rafah, in a bid to uncover weapons-smuggling operations, amid an ongoing series of rocket attacks launched from Gaza into southern Israel.

C

Israel Approaches Syria on Talks—

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz June 10 confirmed news reports that Israel had sent messages to Syria through indirect channels on the possibility of reopening peace talks. Mofaz said there had not yet been an official response from Syria. [See p. 27B1] „

D

MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

www.facts.com/FF7

Abbas dissolves Hamas-led Palestinian ‘unity’ government; declares emergency as Hamas seizes Gaza. PAGE 373

Shiite shrine, focus of Iraqi sectarian tensions, bombed again.

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Immigration bill withdrawn after failing key procedural vote; senators agree to reintroduce measure. PAGE 377

Joint Chiefs Chairman Pace to be replaced. PAGE 378

Gonzales ‘no confidence’ vote fails in Senate. PAGE 378

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Court rules against ‘combatant’ detention. PAGE 379

U.S. warship attacks Somali Islamists. PAGE 382

Irish Prime Minister Ahern reelected. PAGE 386

Iran accused of supplying Afghanistan’s Taliban. PAGE 387

Nadal, Henin win tennis’s French Open. PAGE 390

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Shiite Shrine, Focus of Iraqi Sectarian Tensions, Bombed Again Minarets Felled at Samarra Mosque. Explosions at the Askariya shrine in Samarra, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, June 13 destroyed the twin golden minarets at the site, the only tall structures to remain intact after a February 2006 bombing destroyed the mosque’s golden dome. The attack came as violence continued to claim the lives of soldiers and civilians in many parts of the country. [See p. 368B2; 2006, p. 121A1] The morning attack on the shrine did not cause any casualties. U.S. and Iraqi officials immediately blamed the blasts on Al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni Muslim insurgent group blamed for many terrorist attacks, including the 2006 attack on the shrine. The officials said the destruction of the minarets was an attempt by the group to further inflame sectarian violence, which had steadily escalated ever since the destruction of the shrine’s dome in 2006. In the weeks leading up to the June 13 attack, bombings had occurred near other Shiite shrines elsewhere in Iraq. [See pp. 274B3, 240G1] The government of Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki immediately imposed curfews on Samarra; Baghdad, the capital; and many other areas of the country. Government officials announced that all members of the security force tasked with protecting the shrine had been detained, as well as several suspected terrorists. U.S. forces were rushed to Samarra to forestall further violence. Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, condemned the destruction of the minarets but called for Shiites to “exercise self-restraint and avoid any vengeful act that would target innocent people or the holy places of others.” Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on his supporters to recognize a three-day period of mourning and stage peaceful demonstrations in protest of the attack. He blamed the government for failing to protect the shrine, and said the attack was a “cursed American-Israeli scenario that aims to spread the turmoil and plant the hatred among the Muslim brethren.” Thirty legislators affiliated with Sadr announced that they would boycott parliament until Maliki made credible moves to have the shrine rebuilt. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iraq’s predominantly Shiite neighbor Iran, blasted the U.S. for failing to protect the shrine, and said Iran would reconsider cooperating with the U.S. in efforts to bring security to Iraq. [See p. 341A1] Several reports June 13–14 emerged describing retaliatory attacks on Sunni mosques, as well as further attacks on Shiite holy places. A Sunni mosque in Iskandariyah June 13 was destroyed by explosives. Nearly 140 people had been killed in the immediate aftermath of the 2006 bombing of the Askariya shrine. Many of the deaths 374

were blamed on the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia affiliated with Sadr. Pentagon Releases Quarterly Report—

The U.S. Defense Department June 13 released its eighth congressionally-mandated quarterly report on progress with respect to security and government reform in Iraq. The report covered the three months from mid-February to mid-May. It stated that the roughly four-month-old joint security push by U.S. and Iraqi forces had displaced violence from Baghdad and Anbar province to other places, including Diyala and Nineveh provinces and areas surrounding the capital. [See p. 155B2] Although the report said it was “too early to assess the impact” of the push, it noted that attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops and on civilians increased 2%, and that Al Qaeda– style terrorist attacks were killing more people than sectarian death squads. The report said 58 suicide attacks had occurred in March, up from 26 in January, and that the March level of such attacks carried over into April and May. The report also stated that attacks on U.S. forces employing explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) reached a record high in April. Evidence was cited regarding attacks on Sunnis by the government’s mostly Shiite security forces. It was stated that attacks in Anbar, where Sunni tribes were turning against Al Qaeda, were down by one-third. On the political front, the report said the government had made “little progress” with respect to reforms involving the sharing of oil revenues, reconciliation and other matters. It also said military operations continued to suffer from political interference, contrary to pledges from Maliki that no such interference would be tolerated. In a related development, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) June 13 sent a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush declaring that the security push “has failed to produce the intended results” of “curbing the violence or fostering political reconciliation.” The letter said Democrats in Congress would introduce legislation to “limit the U.S. mission in Iraq, begin the phased redeployment of U.S. forces, and bring the war to a responsible end.” Reid June 12 had said withdrawal deadlines would be added to an upcoming defense authorization bill. In another related development, the United Nations June 11 had released its own assessment of the previous threemonth period in Iraq, claiming that civilian casualties were continuing to mount, even though casualties in Baghdad had decreased. The report stated that progress by U.S. security initiatives was slow, and that violence had spread to Diyala, Salahuddin and Tamim provinces. The report said attacks on Iraqi civilians had not decreased, and that casualties among Iraqi and foreign forces had increased. The report also stated that the Iraqi government was withholding data on casualties, but had agreed to allow U.N. officials to visit government detention facilities later in the month. [See pp. 139C3, 26B1]

U.S. Presses Maliki on Reforms— U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte June 12 met with Maliki in Baghdad, and urged him to move more quickly on political reforms. Maliki said he would, but insisted that his top priority was to defeat the insurgents wreaking havoc in the country. The New York Times that day reported that U.S. Adm. William Fallon, head of the U.S. Central Command, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, had met with Maliki June 10 and had insisted that Iraq make progress on oil revenue legislation by July. Fallon warned that, without significant progress on the part of Iraq’s government in the near future, congressional opposition to the U.S. military presence in Iraq would grow. U.S. Aids Sunni Militants— U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a commander of U.S. forces in southern Iraq, June 10 described efforts by the U.S. to provide Sunni militants with military aid. Lynch said field officers were allowed to judge whether to provide arms, equipment and cash to Sunni militants disaffected by Al Qaeda, provided that they used them to fight the terrorist group. “We’ve got to reach out to them,” he said, adding that no support was being given to anyone who had attacked U.S. forces. Lynch said the move was an attempt to replicate recent successes achieved in Anbar province and in other areas of the country, such as Diyala, Salahuddin and Baghdad’s Amiriyah neighborhood. The tactic sparked concerns among many observers, including Iraqi and U.S. officials, that the arms might later be used against civilians, the Iraqi government or U.S. forces. Lynch tried to assuage the concern, stating that the U.S. military was recording the serial numbers of the munitions

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being offered and using biometric data such as fingerprints and retinal scans to identify those fighters who received the weapons. In a related development, the U.S. military June 10 announced that 130 tribal leaders in Salahuddin province had agreed to create a police force to fight Al Qaeda. General Testifies on Obstacles— U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the departing commander in charge of training Iraqi security forces, June 12 testified before a House Armed Services subcommittee on investigations on efforts to create an Iraqi army and police force capable of defending the country, saying he was “cautiously optimistic” about Iraqi improvements, but noting many challenges. [See 2006, p. 970D3] Dempsey stated that, of the 188,000 troops trained in the previous 18 months, 8,000–10,000 had been killed, 6,000– 8,000 had been wounded and were unable to serve, 5,000 had deserted and another 7,000–8,000 were unaccounted for. Dempsey also said roughly 25% of Iraqi forces were on leave at any one time, in part because they had to return home to deliver their salaries to their families, given that the country had no electronic banking system. He stated that many army units involved in the recent security push were only at 50% strength, and that police units in Baghdad and Diyala were largely ineffective. He said Iraqi forces still suffered from sectarian influences. Dempsey said 195,000 police were needed in order to stabilize the country, and that the number of police and soldiers to be trained in 2007 would be increased from the current 50,000. He conceded that the security situation in Iraq had caused some Iraqis to express nostalgia for the rule of former President Saddam Hussein. Dempsey June 13 held a press conference at the Pentagon, during which he asserted that the attrition rate among Iraqi forces was comparable to that of government forces in other conflicts. He said 20,000 additional soldiers would be trained in 2007, and that another increase in training would be set for 2008. Three Bridges Targeted in Bombings—

Three key bridges and roadways June 10– 12 were hit in bomb attacks, in what appeared to be a concerted effort by Al Qaeda or related groups to destroy Iraq’s transportation infrastructure. In the first attack, a suicide car bomber June 10 destroyed part of a highway overpass south of Baghdad, killing three U.S. soldiers. Six more soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were wounded. Next, a truck bomb in Diyala June 11 destroyed a bridge linking Baqubah to Baghdad. Although no casualties were caused, the loss of the bridge required travelers to detour through an area occupied by Al Qaeda. In the third attack, a bomb June 12 badly damaged a bridge on a north-south highway leading to Baghdad. June 14, 2007

British Forces to Draw Down in July—

British Defence Secretary Des Browne June 12 announced that British troops would likely hand over control of another base to Iraqi forces in July, leaving them with only one base remaining in Iraq and a force of 5,000 troops. “I do not believe we will have 5,000 troops in Iraq and 7,000 troops in Afghanistan in five years,” Browne said. Britain’s forces were stationed in the south of Iraq, in and around Basra. [See p. 105E2] Gordon Brown, Britain’s finance minister and incoming prime minister, June 11 had visited Iraq on a one-day “fact-finding” mission. During his visit, Brown met with Maliki, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Parliament Ousts Speaker—Iraq’s parliament June 11 voted to replace its Sunni Arab speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, after claims that his bodyguards had assaulted a Shiite legislator the day before. The Iraqi Consensus Front, the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, was given a week to name a replacement. Mashhadani June 12 insisted that he would not give up his post. Mashhadani was a controversial figure, and was frequently charged with abusing and threatening other legislators. In one incident in May, he had slapped a legislator and called him “scum.” Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq June 8–14: † The U.S. military June 14 said it had detained 25 Al Qaeda suspects in the previous two days, one of them allegedly close to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group affiliated with Al Qaeda. † A bomb June 14 stuck a police station in Diyala near the border with Iran, killing three police officers and wounding five others. † Coalition forces in Mosul June 12 killed Al Qaeda’s suspected senior commander for the city. † Iraqi and coalition forces June 12 fought insurgents in Baqubah, killing six and arresting at least 15 more. † U.S. and Iraqi forces June 12 raided a candy factory in Mosul where bombs were being made. Explosives were discovered hidden in candy boxes, as well as components for larger bombs, including two tons of fertilizer. All the explosives were safely destroyed. † A suicide car bomber June 12 struck a checkpoint west of Ramadi, killing four people. † Iraqi security forces June 11 intercepted a car rigged with explosives in Najaf. The car, and the man transporting it, had apparently entered from Syria. † A suicide truck bomber June 10 struck a police station in Salahuddin province, killing at least eight people, wounding at least 20 more and destroying the building. Many people were pulled out of the rubble.

† Insurgents June 9 fired a volley of rockets at Camp Bucca, a U.S. detention facility in southern Iraq. No U.S. troops were injured, but six detainees were killed and another 56 were wounded. An Iraqi correctional officer was also injured. † A local official in Basra June 9 said eight barbers had been killed as a result of a recent religious decree prohibiting the shaving of beards and the use of modern hair-cutting equipment. † A suicide truck bomb June 9 hit an Iraqi checkpoint near a military headquarters in Iskandariyah, killing 12 soldiers and wounding 30 people. † Dozens of insurgents in Diyala June 8 attacked the home of Baqubah’s police chief, killing four members of his family, abducting at least two people and killing at least 10 guards. The police chief, who had taken the position earlier in the year, was not home at the time. Witnesses said the attackers were members of Al Qaeda. † Two explosives-laden vehicles June 8 exploded in Basra, killing at least 15 people and wounding at least 30 more. A local police official said the explosives were being transported to Baghdad, and that the blast was sparked by the summer heat. Other reports described the incident as a terrorist attack. † Two suicide bombers June 8 struck a Shiite mosque near Kirkuk, killing at least 19 people and wounding at least 20 more.„

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Global Economy G-8 Leaders Pledge to Battle Diseases.

The leaders of the Group of Eight (G-8) leading industrialized nations June 8 ended their annual summit at Heiligendamm, Germany, by agreeing to invest a combined $60 billion to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries worldwide. The agreement made no mention of a deadline for when the money would be delivered. The U.S. would contribute approximately half of the money, while the other members would account for the rest. The G-8 consisted of the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Italy and Russia. [See pp. 357A1, 345A1; 2005, p. 468D3] The G-8 also stressed that day its commitment to fulfilling pledges made during the 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. At that time, the countries had promised to increase economic aid to poorer countries to $50 billion a year by 2010, half of which would be given to Africa. No new joint pledges were made at the 2007 summit. Many international health groups derided the AIDS plan, saying the amount of money pledged was not enough to combat the diseases effectively. Critics also said the omission of a firm timeline betrayed a lack of real commitment from the G-8 countries. Additionally, aid agencies charged that the G-8 had fallen far behind in the aid plans outlined at the Gleneagles summit. Irish rock star and activist Bono, who had met with the G-8 leaders June 7, said, “We are looking for accountable language and 375

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accountable numbers. We didn’t get them today.” Rising Economies Join Talks—The G-8 leaders met June 8 with the leaders of China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa. In a joint statement, the G-8 and the “plus five” countries, as those came to be known at the summit, agreed to engage in formal discussions covering an array of issues over the next two years. The agreement was a way for the G-8 to recognize the rising economic stature of the five countries. German Chancellor Angela Merkel June 7 said it was an “answer to those who ask whether the G-8 was still an organization that fits with modern times.” Under the agreement, ministers from G8 countries would meet with plus-five ministers to encourage international investment, defend intellectual property rights, combat global warming, cooperate on energy issues and promote economic development around the world, especially in Africa. The countries would assess the benefits of the relationship at the G-8 summit in 2009. The G-8 leaders had already agreed June 7 to meet in Bali, Indonesia, in December to begin negotiating an accord on climate change that would replace the Kyoto Protocol after it expired in 2012. They were expected to discuss how the “plus five” countries could contribute to reducing global warming. Both Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Chinese President Hu Jintao June 8 called for the G8 to take into account the harmful effect that environmental strictures could have on their growing economies. Hedge Fund Proposal Stalls—The G-8 leaders at the Heiligendamm summit failed to agree on strengthening regulations on international hedge funds, an issue that had been central to a G-8 meeting of finance ministers held May 18–19 in Potsdam, Germany. Merkel and German Finance Minster Peer Steinbrueck had hoped for a resolution that would call for hedge funds to adopt a code of conduct regulating their actions. [See p. 258E1] Hedge funds were investment pools that had little oversight from regulatory bodies for risk management. Unlike mutual funds or other investment offerings, they were limited to wealthy individuals or institutional investors. Merkel and Steinbrueck had argued that the lack of regulation could lead to extraordinary losses and prompt massive financial instability affecting numerous countries’ economies. [See 1998, p. 691F1] Steinbrueck was unable to garner support from two main opponents of the plan, the U.S. and Britain, which expressed concern about the burden of regulation on hedge funds’ operations. He said May 19 that the countries would endorse a code of conduct only if the hedge funds adopted them “voluntarily” and “spontaneously.” Sarkozy Kosovo Proposal Rejected—

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin June 8 dismissed a proposal by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that offered a “middle way” to determine the future of Kosovo, a 376

province in Serbia that had been under United Nations administration since a 1999 war there. At issue was a U.N. Security Council resolution recommending Kosovo’s independence that Russia, Serbia’s ally, had threatened to veto. Sarkozy said a Russian veto could lead to a declaration of independence from Kosovo without full U.N. support, which would result in a divided international community and a possible return to violence between Serbs and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians. [See pp. 318C1, 211G3] Sarkozy called for giving leaders of Serbia and Kosovo six months to reach a mutually satisfactory deal. He said if no agreement was reached by that time, Kosovo would automatically become independent. He added that his plan would “give Putin some time” to reconsider Russia’s position regarding the Security Council resolution. Both the U.S. and Britain publicly supported independence for Kosovo. „

Other International News Bush Wraps Up European Tour. U.S. Pres-

ident Bush June 8–11 visited Poland, Italy, Albania and Bulgaria, completing a trip to Europe in which he had previously visited the Czech Republic and Germany, the site of a summit of the Group of Eight (G-8) leading industrialized nations. In Italy, where Bush met Pope Benedict XVI for the first time, his presence drew tens of thousands of protesters. In contrast, he was warmly greeted by throngs in Albania, which he was the first U.S. president to visit. [See p. 375D3] Bush June 8 left Germany and stopped in Poland, where he met with President Lech Kaczynski. Poland was the U.S.’s intended site of new interceptor missile silos that would form part of an antimissile defense system; Russia’s strong objections to that plan had been a prominent item of discussion between Bush and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin at the G-8 summit. Bush in Poland expressed gratitude for that country’s willingness to participate, and repeated the U.S.’s insistence that the plan “is not directed at Russia.” Putin the same day expanded on a suggestion he had made at the summit, that the U.S. locate a missile defense radar in Azerbaijan instead of the Czech Republic. He called for an international forum to assess new missile threats. Also that day, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer indicated that the proposed Azerbaijan site was not suitable for the U.S. system’s goal of intercepting a missile launch from Iran. Bush later June 8 traveled to Rome, and met there the following day with Italian Premier Romano Prodi. Protesters in the city decried U.S. policies, particularly the war in Iraq and the treatment of terrorism suspects. Bush’s arrival came on the day of the opening in Milan of a trial of more than two dozen U.S. intelligence and military personnel, in absentia, on charges of kidnapping a Muslim cleric and taking him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured. [See p. 386D3]

After meeting the pope, Bush said that Benedict had expressed concern that Iraq’s Christian minority was being persecuted, but that they did not otherwise discuss the war, which the Vatican had criticized. In Albania June 10, Premier Sali Berisha praised Bush as “the greatest and most distinguished guest we have ever had in all times.” Cheering crowds also welcomed Bush. The greeting reflected Albanians’ gratitude toward the U.S. for its participation in 1999 NATO air strikes against Serbia that halted a Serbian campaign against ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo. [See p. 376G1] Bush expressed vocal support for independence for Kosovo, which had been under United Nations administration since that conflict. He also reiterated the U.S.’s support for Albania joining NATO. Russia opposed independence for Kosovo. [See 2006, p. 906C2] Bush June 11 visited Bulgaria, where President Georgi Parvanov said his country sought the protection that the U.S. intended its missile defense system to provide for Europe. Bush said that the Polish and Czech installations were designed to defend against longer-range missiles than those that would threaten Bulgaria. But he said systems defending against intermediate-range missiles would protect Bulgaria. Bush also vowed support for efforts to free five Bulgarian nurses who had been held in Libya for eight years on charges of intentionally infecting infants with HIV. [See 2006, p. 1012F3] „ Guatemala Ratifies Adoption Treaty. Guatemalan lawmakers May 22 ratified an international treaty on adoption that would allow the government to regulate adoptions to reduce the number of children stolen or sold to foreigners. The treaty, called the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, would require the Guatemalan government to pass legislation regulating the baby adoption industry, in part to ensure that no children had been stolen or bought. The government had not yet approved a law to implement the provisions required in the treaty. In recent months the U.S. had increased diplomatic pressure on Guatemala’s adoption process, which was largely unregulated and controlled by private lawyers who earned substantial profits from the practice. The U.S. State Department March 16 had stopped recommending that U.S. residents adopt from Guatemala, citing widespread extortion and fraud. The State Department said Guatemalan adoptions would receive stronger scrutiny, but did not ban them outright. An estimated 4,943 Guatemalan children had been adopted by foreigners in 2006, with 4,135 going to families in the U.S. That made Guatemala the secondlargest source of foreign-adopted children in the U.S., behind China. It was common for Americans adopting Guatemalan children to pay between $20,000 and $30,000 in processing fees and plane fares. Young Guatemalan women reportedly were often paid to get pregnant, and threats to mothers from baby brokers were not uncommon. „ FACTS ON FILE

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Immigration Bill Withdrawn After Failing Key Procedural Vote Senators Agree to Reintroduce Measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) June 7 pulled from the Senate floor a comprehensive immigration reform measure after a vote to end debate on the bill and bring it to a final vote failed that day, 45–50. The 45 votes in favor fell well short of the 60 votes required to end debate and bring it to the final vote that Reid had scheduled. [See p. 327D3] Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, Ky.) June 14 said they had reached an agreement on reintroducing the bill before the July 4 holiday recess. However, the prospects for the bill’s passage remained uncertain. The derailed measure would have brought about the most substantial changes to U.S. immigration law in more than two decades. It called for a path to legal status for most of the roughly 12 million undocumented immigrant workers in the U.S.; a program to legally admit hundreds of thousands of temporary guest workers into the country each year; and measures to tighten border security and toughen enforcement of immigration and employment rules. Eleven Democrats, all but seven of the 45 voting Republicans and one independent voted against closing debate. The reform bill had support from some key members of the minority Republicans including 2008 presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). But many conservative senators, if they supported it at all, insisted on more time to tighten its border-security provisions and modify the plan to legalize undocumented workers. Grassroots opposition to what critics called an amnesty plan had reportedly intensified as the bill drew nearer to a final vote, pressuring senators to vote against it. Liberals opposed features of the bill that could have delayed or denied reunification of close relatives. Labor unions opposed the guest-worker program, arguing that it would depress wages and leave U.S. citizens out of work. Early June 7, four Republicans had switched positions to support an amendment offered by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D, N.D.) to end the temporary guest-worker program after five years. The amendment had been defeated twice already but it passed, 49–48, when Dorgan was given a third chance to bring it to a vote. Republican Sens. Jim Bunning (Ky.), Jim DeMint (S.C.), Elizabeth Dole (N.C.) and Mike Enzi (Wyo.) switched over to back the provision. Bunning admitted afterward that he had done so only in order to make the overall measure unpalatable to more legislators and hurt its chances for survival. Reid after the vote June 7 declared his desire to see the bill succeed, saying President George W. Bush should have done more to rally his party behind it. “The headlines are going to be, ‘The President Fails Again.’ It’s his bill,” Reid said. June 14, 2007

Republicans charged that Reid had never really supported the package, and said he should have given the Republican leaders a chance to corral more votes for the bill by allowing more amendments. Bush had made immigration reform the legislative centerpiece of his final months in office. He had upset some members of his own party May 29 by saying that critics of the bill “don’t want to do what’s right for America.” Returning from a trip to Europe, Bush June 12 met with Republican senators in Washington, D.C., and tried to assure them that the main thrust of the reform bill was better border security to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the country. Bush July 14 announced plans to spend an additional $4.4 billion on border security, a move apparently intended to assuage immigration hard-liners amid efforts to bring the bill up for Senate consideration again. [See p. 376C2] A spokesman for Reid June 10 said the majority leader would revisit immigration reform as soon as Republicans agreed to limit both the debating period and the number of amendments. Under the June 14 agreement, 22 amendments would be considered, 11 from each party. Amendments—By the time of the June 7 vote, the bill had already been debated for more than two weeks and had been heavily amended, upsetting the carefully brokered balance of interests in the original version. Some early supporters of the bill complained that it had been transformed by Senate conservatives. Conservatives June 6 had pushed through, 57–39, an amendment to give law enforcement agencies access to immigrants’ personal information that they were to report in their applications for legal status under the proposed legalization program, if their applications were denied. The amendment was proposed by Sen. John Cornyn (R, Texas). Senators also approved, 57–40, an amendment offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R, Ala.) to bar temporary guest workers from receiving the earned income tax credit, granted to low-income workers. In a 53–44 vote, the Senate fell seven votes short of the 60-vote threshold to pass an amendment, offered by Sen. Robert Menendez (D, N.J.) and Chuck Hagel (R, Neb.), to grant permanent residency to the close family members of current U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. Another Cornyn amendment, which would have made ineligible for legal status any illegal immigrants who had ignored deportation orders or made fraudulent use of identity documents, was similarly voted down, 51–46. Other Views—Steve Ballmer, the chief executive of software giant Microsoft Inc., June 6 appealed to Sen. Jon Kyl (R, Ariz.) to raise the number of H1-B visas—employer-sponsored visas for workers with special, needed skills—under the bill’s proposed system for admitting immigrants. Microsoft’s director of federal affairs, E. John Krumholtz, May 26 had said the pro-

posal would be “worse than the status quo” for businesses trying to hire skilled foreign professionals. An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted May 29–June 1 found that 52% of respondents favored granting legal status to illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. who met unspecified requirements and paid fines for breaking the law, while 44% disapproved of the idea. A similar proportion—53%—supported an expanded temporary guest-worker program, while 43% opposed it. Almost equal numbers of respondents said that immigration applicants with desirable skills and education should get entrance priority over people without them who had close relatives residing legally in the U.S. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) June 6 reported its conclusion that the increase in tax payments from immigrants newly legalized under the bill would more than compensate for the costs of changes to law enforcement, border controls and federal benefits required by the measure. However, the CBO said the guest-worker program could aggravate the problem of immigrants outstaying their visas. It estimated that the rate of illegal immigration into the country would drop by 25%. Several thousand people June 2 held a rally at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., in support of immigration reform and legalization for undocumented workers. Organizers warned that the legalization process and guest worker program envisioned by the reform bill were severely flawed. „

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Other Legislation House Passes Gun-Buyer Database Law.

The House June 13 passed by voice vote a bill that would expand the national database used to check the backgrounds of gun buyers. The legislation, which resulted from negotiations between senior Democratic lawmakers and the National Rifle Association (NRA), came in the wake of an April mass shooting at Virginia Tech university by a student who had previously been ordered by a judge to undergo treatment for mental illness. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said President George W. Bush was “broadly supportive” of the bill, although he took issue with its financing provisions. If approved by the Senate, the bill would be the first guncontrol measure passed by Congress since 1996. [See p. 259F1; 2005, p. 957C2; 1996, p. 737F2] The bill would close a loophole in a federal law that required states to submit information to the national database on people prohibited from buying guns. The federal ban included convicted criminals, people who had been involuntarily committed to mental institutions and people determined by the courts to be a danger to themselves or others. However, confusion over which records were covered by privacy regulations had resulted in states often not submitting data on gun owners to the national database. The federal ban should have covered the Virginia Tech shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, but records of his court or377

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der were never forwarded to the database by Virginia state authorities. The new bill, whose sponsors included legislators from both sides of the guncontrol debate, would provide states with grants in order to perform an audit of backlogged data and keep the database updated. If states did not maintain compliance, they would face increasingly severe cuts in federal law enforcement aid. The NRA won several concessions from Democratic legislators. The bill included measures allowing people with minor offenses and veterans with alleged mental health issues to appeal their inclusion in the database. It would bar the government from charging a fee for the background check. It also required the government to remove faulty records from the database. NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre warned that the organization would withdraw its support if the bill was amended with “a gun-control wish list” in the Senate. Virginia Tech Report Released—The federal Health and Human Services, Justice and Education departments June 13, treleased a report ordered by Bush on the Virginia Tech shootings. The report detailed the confusion over data sharing and privacy rules, and called for federal guidelines to clarify the matter. It also found that many states and communities had not put into effect sufficient emergency-preparedness and violence-prevention plans in schools. It said the Department of Homeland Security should provide grants for joint state, local and campus law enforcement exercises. Virginia officials June 11 released a report on the state’s mental health services, calling them underfunded and inadequate to the task of determining whether patients were a danger to themselves or others. „

Armed Forces Joint Chiefs Chairman to Be Replaced.

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Defense Secretary Robert Gates June 8 announced that he would not renominate Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for a second term, and that Pace would step down in September. Gates said that after consulting both Democratic and Republican senators, he had decided that renominating Pace would lead to divisive Senate confirmation hearings over the Iraq war, which “would not be in the best interests of the country.” Gates said he would instead recommend that President George W. Bush nominate Adm. Michael Mullen, 60, chief of naval operations since July 2005, to replace Pace. [See p. 310B2; 2005, p. 853E1] In a statement issued that day, Bush said he would accept Gates’s recommendation. He also praised Pace, saying, “I have relied on his unvarnished military judgment, and I value his candor, his integrity and his friendship.” Pace, 61, had served as chairman since September 2005. He had been vice chairman for the four years before that. His tenure as chairman would be the shortest since 378

Gen. Maxwell Taylor’s 1962–64 term. [See 1987, p. 300D3] Some high-ranking officers had criticized Pace for being too deferential to Gates’s predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, who had resigned just after the November 2006 elections. [See 2006, p. 849A1] Pace had also stirred controversy in March when he said that he favored retaining the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays serving openly in the military because he believed that “homosexual acts” were immoral. [See p. 174D3] Gates said he would propose that Bush nominate Marine Gen. James Cartwright as vice chairman, replacing Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, since the chairman and vice chairman had to be from different branches of the armed services. Cartwright was head of the Strategic Command, which oversaw the U.S.’s nuclear forces. Reid Blasts Pace—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) June 14 criticized Pace’s performance, saying, “Unfortunately, he was never as candid as he should have been about the conduct and progress of the war.” Reid had reportedly called Pace “incompetent” in a telephone call with liberal bloggers (writers of Web logs, or blogs) earlier that week, and also criticized Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. Republicans said Reid’s comments were inappropriate. White House press secretary Tony Snow said that “in a time of war,” it was “outrageous to be issuing slanders toward the chairman of the Joint Chiefs” and Petraeus. „

Fired Federal Prosecutors Gonzales No-Confidence Vote Fails in Senate.

Senate Republicans June 11 blocked a bid by the Democratic majority to pass a motion of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. In a vote of 53–38, the backers of the motion fell seven votes short of the 60 they needed to cut off debate and advance to a final vote. [See p. 329B3] Gonzales had faced criticism and calls for his resignation from members of both parties in the past several months, fueled by a controversy over the dismissal of several federal prosecutors in 2006 and accusations of political bias in Justice Department hiring. But he had defied the pressure to step down, buoyed by continued support from President George W. Bush. Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.), the main sponsor of the motion, said the result was still a symbolic blow against Gonzales because a majority of the Senate, including seven Republicans, had voted for it. No Democrats voted against the motion. In debate before the vote, Republicans said little to defend Gonzales, but derided the motion as a political stunt. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, Ky.) accused the Democrats of “spending our time on a meaningless resolution.” The second-ranking Republican, Minority Whip Trent Lott (Miss.), said votes of confidence were alien to the U.S.’s form of government. “This is not the British Parlia-

ment, and I hope it never will become the British Parliament,” he declared. Associate Senate historian Donald Ritchie said the vote of confidence on a cabinet officer was unprecedented. Bush, asked about the Senate’s action during a visit to Bulgaria, said, “They can have their votes of no confidence, but it’s not going to make the determination about who serves in my government.” Ex–Bush Aides Subpoenaed to Testify—

The House and Senate Judiciary committees June 13 issued subpoenas to former White House counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor to compel them to testify in July on their roles in the purge of the U.S. attorneys. The panels also subpoenaed White House records. The subpoenas were the first to be served directly on the White House in the scandal. The White House had previously said it would not agree to allow its officials to testify on the U.S. attorneys matter publicly and under oath, offering instead to arrange private interviews with lawmakers. However, Miers had resigned in January. Taylor left her post May 30. The committee chairmen, Rep. John Conyers (D, Mich.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), June 12 released White House e-mail messages showing that Miers and Taylor took part in internal discussions earlier in the year about how to deal with the emerging controversy. Previously released e-mails had shown that Miers was involved in the planning for the purge early in 2005. Justice Dept. Internal Probe Widens—

Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine and Office of Professional Responsibility head H. Marshall Jarrett May 30 told the House and Senate judiciary committees that they had widened an internal probe into the prosecutor purge to cover hiring practices in the department. A former aide to Gonzales, Monica Goodling, had said she had engaged in improper politicized hiring, in testimony before the House panel the previous week. Fine and Jarrett June 14 confirmed that their investigation would also cover a conversation between Gonzales and Goodling shortly before she resigned in March. She had suggested that Gonzales might have tried to influence her testimony. Bradley Schlozman, a senior department official who served as acting chief of the department’s civil rights division in 2005, June 5 testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He acknowledged that he had made a point of hiring lawyers with conservative backgrounds, but denied violating civil service laws that barred political hiring bias. Schlozman also faced questions about his tenure as interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., replacing one of the ousted prosecutors, Todd Graves. Democratic senators focused on Schlozman’s decision to file an election-fraud case against members of a liberal voter-registration group just a week before the November 2006 elections. “I did not think it was going to influence the election at all,” he said. „ FACTS ON FILE

Terrorism Detainees Court Rules Against ‘Combatant’ Detention.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., June 11 ruled that the federal government could not indefinitely hold U.S. residents as “enemy combatants.” The ruling, in a lawsuit challenging the detention of Ali Saleh Kahlah alMarri, a Qatari citizen currently in military custody, said the government could charge Marri, deport him or hold him as a material witness, but that it would be unconstitutional to continue holding him in a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. The ruling struck at the broad executive powers that the Bush administration had claimed in its fight against terrorism. [See p. 360E2; 2005, p. 538E1] In December 2001, Marri had been arrested in Peoria, Ill., where he was attending graduate school. He was initially held as a material witness in the investigation of Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. He was declared an enemy combatant and transferred to military custody in 2003, shortly before he was to go on trial for several minor offenses. The government said Marri had been a member of a sleeper cell of the Al Qaeda international terrorist network, sent to the U.S. to prepare a second wave of attacks. Marri was the only prisoner currently known to be held in the U.S. as an enemy combatant. He remained in the military prison after the ruling. The ruling did not directly apply to terrorism detainees held at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But it came days after a military tribunal there had dismissed charges against two defendants accused of being unlawful enemy combatants. Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, in her June 11 majority opinion, said the detention of a person who had entered the U.S. lawfully and established ties there violated the Constitution. “The President cannot eliminate constitutional protections with the stroke of a pen by proclaiming a civilian, even a criminal civilian, an enemy combatant subject to indefinite military detention,” she wrote. Motz called Marri’s transfer to the military brig “puzzling at best,” because he was already under arrest and could not rejoin Al Qaeda operations, the usual rationale for enemy combatant detentions. The Justice Department released a statement saying it would ask the full 4th Circuit court to rehear the case. It said the government considered Marri a terrorist threat, and added that President George W. Bush would “use all available tools at his disposal to protect Americans from further Al Qaeda attack, including the capture and detention of Al Qaeda agents who enter our borders.” The 4th Circuit was known as one of the most conservative appeals courts. However, Motz and the judge who joined her in the 2–1 verdict had both been appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton. „ Powell Calls for Closing Guantanamo Prison.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell June 10 called for the closure of a U.S. prison camp for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “Essentially, we June 14, 2007

have shaken the belief that the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like a military commission,” Powell warned. He was referring to the Bush administration’s use of military tribunals to try the suspects outside the U.S. court system. [See p. 190D3; 2006, p. 970E1] Powell said he favored moving detainees into the federal courts, and supported giving them the right to habeas corpus and their own lawyers. Powell had been the only member of the cabinet during President George W. Bush’s first term to oppose the administration’s detainee policies, which at that time said that the U.S. did not have to treat enemy combatants in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. Powell made the comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press” television program. During the interview, Powell discussed U.S. policy failures in Iraq. He also said he had no favorite candidate in the 2008 presidential race, but acknowledged reports that he had met twice with a Democratic candidate, Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill)., to discuss foreign policy. Rights Groups List Alleged Prisoners—

Six human rights organizations June 6 released a report naming 39 people they said the U.S. government had secretly imprisoned. The groups called on the Bush administration to stop the practice, which they compared to the “disappearances” of political opponents in Latin American dictatorships. The names, which were compiled from news reports, interviews and official documents, included both detainees the government acknowledged holding and listings based on less solid evidence. Three of the groups—Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Human Rights Clinic at New York University—June 7 filed a lawsuit against several government agencies seeking information on detainees under the Freedom of Information Act. Other News—In other news on terrorism detainees: † A Defense Department spokesman June 8 said the department would appeal two court rulings earlier that week that had halted the military trials of two Guantanamo detainees. Military judges had ruled that Omar Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan could not be tried by military commission because they had not properly been declared “unlawful enemy combatants.” The Defense Department, which said the issue was largely one of terminology and could be quickly settled, planned to apply to the same judges for reconsideration of the case. [See p. 360E2] † Defense Department officials June 6 announced that Abdullahi Sudi Arale, a Somali terrorism suspect, had been captured recently in East Africa and transferred to Guantanamo Bay that week. The Pentagon officials said he had acted as a courier between terrorist groups in East Africa and operatives of the Al Qaeda international terrorism network in Pakistan. The Pentagon said about 385 detainees remained at Guantanamo. [See p. 282A1]

† British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett March 29 announced that Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi resident of Britain who was being held at Guantanamo Bay, would be returned to Britain and released. Rawi had been captured in Gambia in 2002. Documents showed that he had previously worked as an informant for Britain’s MI5 domestic security service, and had been arrested after he refused to give further information to MI5 and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The Observer, a British newspaper, March 18 reported that two other British residents held at Guantanamo Bay had been cleared for release, but faced indefinite detention because the British government had not agreed to their return. [See 2006, p. 405C1] † A Defense Department spokesman March 26 said a man who had allegedly been involved in terrorist attacks in East Africa had been captured there and transferred to Guantanamo Bay. The man, Abdul Malik, had reportedly confessed to a role in a 2002 hotel bombing in Mombasa, Kenya, and an attempted attack on an Israeli jetliner near Mombasa. His nationality was not disclosed. [See p. 153C3] † The Saudi government Feb. 21 announced that seven Saudis held at Guantanamo Bay had been released and transferred to Saudi custody. An analysis of government case files by lawyers for Guantanamo detainees, published March 18 in the Washington Post, showed that many detainees repatriated to Saudi Arabia were released within weeks of their arrival, including some accused of belonging to Al Qaeda. [See 2006, p. 1001C2] „

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Australian Repatriated for Jail Sentence.

David Hicks, an Australian who in March pleaded guilty to providing support for the Al Qaeda international terrorist network, May 20 arrived in Australia to serve out the remainder of his prison sentence. Under the terms of the plea, Hicks, the first prisoner to be tried under the 2006 Military Commissions Act establishing tribunals to try detainees, was sentenced to nine more months in prison; he had already been held for five years. Hicks’s detention had sparked outrage in Australia, and Prime Minister John Howard’s government had been pressured to secure his transfer to Australia. Hicks would serve out his time in the maximum-security Yatala Labour Prison, near Adelaide, South Australia, his hometown. [See pp. 379E2, 207D1] „

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Politics Rep. Jefferson Pleads Not Guilty to Bribery.

Rep. William Jefferson (D, La.) June 8 pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of bribery and other corruption charges in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. He had been indicted by a federal grand jury earlier that week. [See p. 362D3] Judge T.S. Ellis 3rd released Jefferson on a $100,000 bond but ordered him to hand over his passport to his lawyer until his trial, scheduled for January 2008. He would need the court’s permission to travel anywhere other than in Louisiana or the

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area of Washington, D.C. Ellis had frozen Jefferson’s assets the previous day by issuing a restraining order on his bank accounts and stock portfolio. After his arraignment, Jefferson, 60, read a prepared statement to reporters outside the courthouse. “I am absolutely innocent of the charges that have been leveled against me and I’m going to fight my heart out to clear my name,” he said. Claiming that “all the allegations are untrue,” Jefferson dismissed the fact that he had taken $100,000 in cash during a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sting operation, and that $90,000 of it was found in his freezer. “The $90,000 was the FBI’s money,” he said, adding, “The FBI gave it to me as part of their plan that I would give it to the Nigerian vice president. But I did not do that,” he insisted. „

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White House Counselor Bartlett to Depart.

Dan Bartlett, one of President George W. Bush’s closest and longest-serving aides, June 1 announced that he planned to resign as counselor to the president in early July. Bartlett, 36, said he wanted to spend more time with his wife and three young children. His departure would continue to shrink Bush’s original inner circle as he entered the last year and a half of his second term. [See 2006, p. 234D3; 2002, p. 291F2] Bartlett had worked for Bush continuously since 1993, when he joined Bush’s first campaign for governor of Texas. Previously, in his first job out of college, Bartlett had worked for a political consulting firm run by Karl Rove, who became Bush’s chief political adviser. In the White House, Bartlett had initially overseen Bush’s communications team and later took on a wider role that also dealt with policy making. Gillespie Named Successor—Bush June 13 named Ed Gillespie, a prominent lobbyist and former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), as Bartlett’s replacement. “He is a seasoned hand who has got excellent judgment,” Bush said at an Oval Office announcement. Gillespie, 45, had chaired the RNC, the executive body of the national Republican Party, during Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign, and acted as a spokesman for Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign. He was currently chairman of the Virginia Republican Party. He had founded Quinn Gillespie & Associates, a major lobbying firm, with Jack Quinn, a former White House counsel, or chief lawyer, to President Bill Clinton. „

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Bush Alleges Iraqi Threat to U.S. President George W. Bush May 23 in a commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., outlined previously classified evidence that the Al Qaeda international terrorist network had planned to launch attacks on the U.S. from Iraq. Intelligence declassified May 22 as380

serted that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in January 2005 had personally directed the former head of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to set up a cell in Iraq to conduct terrorist attacks outside the country, focusing on the U.S. [See p. 325E1] Bush claimed that Al Qaeda was trying to create a “terrorist sanctuary” in Iraq, from which it could strike at the rest of the world. Stressing the need to continue military operations, Bush made a rare comparison between Iraq and the Vietnam War. “The enemy in Vietnam had neither the intent nor the capability to strike our homeland,” he said. “The enemy in Iraq does.” The intelligence in the report was reportedly similar to a March 2005 classified Department of Homeland Security report. Bush administration officials said the information had been declassified because Zarqawi and an Al Qaeda deputy directed to brief Zarqawi on operations against the U.S., Hamza Rabia, had both been killed and another deputy involved in the operation, Abu Faraj al-Libi, had been captured, and intelligence sources involved could no longer be compromised. However, critics and outside intelligence and terrorism experts said Bush was releasing the information in a self-serving attempt to shore up support for the war in Iraq. „

Economy Trade Gap Shrank in April to $58.5 Billion.

The Commerce Department June 8 reported that the seasonally adjusted U.S. Trade Deficit (in billions) trade deficit in April 2007 goods and services Previous Month $58.50 $62.39 for April was Year Earlier $62.34 $58.5 billion, down from a revised $62.4 billion in March. [See p. 332A3] Exports rose $0.2 billion to $129.5 billion in April. Exports of industrial supplies and materials rose, while those of capital goods and automotive vehicles, parts and engines declined. Imports fell $3.6 billion to $188 billion in April, most notably in the areas of consumer goods and automotive vehicles, parts and engines. Bilateral Trade Data Reported—The Commerce Department June 8 also reported biMERCHANDISE TRADE DATA Country/ Region China Japan Canada European Union Mexico NICs†

Deficit/Surplus* April March 2007 2007 -19.37 -7.37 -5.81 -9.04

-17.25 -7.05 -5.41 -7.72

-5.22 -.36

-6.71 -.10

*Bilateral trade figures in billions of dollars unadjusted for seasonal variations. The data—except figures given for Canada—do not include revisions of month-earlier figures. †Newly industrialized countries—Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

lateral trade data for April. The numbers were not seasonally adjusted and contained merchandise-trade data only, with no revisions for the previous month except to the data for Canada. The April merchandise-trade deficit with China rose to $19.4 billion, from $17.3 billion the previous month. The deficit with Canada grew to $5.8 billion, from a revised $5.4 billion in March. The gap with the European Union rose for the third month in a row, to $9.0 billion in April, from $7.7 billion the previous month. The gap with Japan grew slightly to $7.4 billion, from $7.1 billion in March. „ Unemployment Remained at 4.5% in May.

The unemployment rate remained at 4.5% in May after seaUnemployment sonal adjustment, 2007 4.5% the Labor Depart- May Previous Month 4.5% ment reported Year Earlier 4.6% June 1. However, an estimated 157,000 nonfarm jobs were created in May, a significant increase from the 80,000 added in April. [See p. 294D2] 145.9 Million Jobs Held in May—According to a household survey, 145.9 million people held jobs in May, the Labor Department reported June 1. The department counted 6.8 million people as unemployed, the same number of people as were unemployed the previous month. The department counted 368,000 workers as “discouraged” in May. Those workers were not looking for work because they believed that no jobs were available. They were not counted as part of the labor force. About 4.5 million people who sought fulltime employment were working part-time instead. The average manufacturing workweek was 41.0 hours in May, down from 41.1 hours in April, while factory workers’ overtime per week also declined, to 4.1 hours, from 4.0. Average hourly wages for production workers rose six cents, to $17.30. The unemployment rate among whites remained the same in May, at 3.9%. The jobless rate for blacks rose slightly to 8.5%, from 8.2% in April. For Hispanics, who could be of any race, it rose in May to 5.8%, from 5.4%. For men aged 20 and over, May unemployment was steady at 4.0%. For adult women, it stayed at 3.8%. The teenage jobless rate in May was 15.7%, up from 15.3% in April, while for black teenagers it was down slightly, to 29.4% in May, from 29.8% in April. „

Civil Rights Massachusetts Gay Marriage Ban Defeated.

The Massachusetts legislature June 14 voted, 151–45, to defeat a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The legislature in January had voted to advance the amendment, which would effectively end same-sex marriage in the state. Massachusetts had become the only U.S. state to approve same-sex marriage in 2004, although five other states had approved civil unions and domestic partnerships granting some FACTS ON FILE

rights afforded to heterosexual married couples to gay and lesbian couples. [See p. 16G3; 2004, p. 367A3] In Massachusetts a proposed constitutional amendment required that at least 50 lawmakers in the 200-seat bicameral legislature vote in favor of it in two consecutive years. After securing the legislative votes, the amendment would then be placed on the ballot for a public referendum. The amendment’s defeat meant that any new attempt to ban same-sex marriage could reach the referendum stage no earlier than 2012, effectively guaranteeing same-sex marriage in the state for the next five years. The change in the legislature’s vote since January was attributed in part to the lobbying efforts of Gov. Deval Patrick (D), a staunch supporter of gay marriage who was elected in November 2006. Deval’s predecessor, Mitt Romney (R), now a presidential candidate, strongly opposed samesex marriage. Some lawmakers who changed their positions said they had become convinced over time that the reality of gay marriages in the state had not proved socially disruptive. Civil rights groups lauded the amendment’s defeat, though proponents of the ban said they would continue their efforts. An estimated 8,500 same-sex couples had wed in Massachusetts since May 2004. „ Overnight Visits Allowed for Gay Inmates.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had reversed a policy banning gay and lesbian inmates from receiving overnight visits from their partners, it was reported June 2. The agency issued the new policy after gay and civil rights groups threatened to sue the state for failing to adhere to a 2003 state law establishing equal rights for domestic partners. [See 2003, p. 747F2] „ GE Executive Files Discrimination Suit.

Lorene Schaefer, a high-ranking legal executive for General Electric Co. (GE), May 31 filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that it systematically discriminated against women. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Conn., sought $500 million in damages on behalf of an estimated 1,500 female GE executives, as well as an unknown number of female attorneys at the firm. [See p. 109C2] Schaefer alleged that she had been paid less than her male counterparts, and that she was denied a promotion because of her gender. She was seeking class action certification for the suit. A GE spokesman said the company would fight the lawsuit. Other News—In related news: † Judge John Lungstrum of U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., May 31 granted preliminary approval to a class-action age bias lawsuit against telecommunications firm Sprint Nextel Corp. The lawsuit, originally filed in 2003, alleged that the company had reassigned employees 40 or older to positions that were then terminated. The settlement, announced May 18, awarded 1,697 plaintiffs and their lawyers $57 million. [See 2004, p. 504D2] June 14, 2007

† Five black current and former employees of Bank of America Corp. May 17 filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass., alleging that the company had engaged in racial discrimination. The plaintiffs in their complaint alleged that managers at the company, based in Charlotte, N.C., had assigned black employees in its investment division to work in “sales territories which are largely minority and/or low net worth.” The lawsuit also alleged that black bankers were usually assigned to work with other blacks. [See 2005, p. 344F2] „ Indictment Issued for 1965 Protest Killing.

A grand jury in Marion, Ala., May 9 returned an indictment against James Bernard Fowler, a former state trooper charged with the Feb. 18, 1965, shooting death of black civil rights protester Jimmie Lee Jackson. Fowler turned himself in to authorities May 10 and was freed on bond. Fowler maintained that he had shot Jackson in self-defense after a civil rights protest turned into a violent confrontation between police and demonstrators. [See p. 314G2] Jackson’s death had spurred protesters to march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery, Alabama’s capital, later that year. A resulting clash between civil rights protesters and police in Montgomery had helped spur the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In recent years several unsolved or unprosecuted murders that took place in the South during the civil rights movement had been reopened after several decades. „

Medicine & Health Diabetes Drug Avandia Linked to Heart Risk.

Researchers reported May 21 on the Web site of the New England Journal of Medicine that a popular type 2 diabetes drug, sold under the brand name Avandia, had been linked to a 43% increased risk of heart attacks. The research had also showed that those taking Avandia had a 64% elevated risk of death from a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke, though that data was considered to be of borderline statistical significance. [See pp. 296B1, 293C1; 2006, p. 956A2] The research had consisted of an analysis of data on roughly 28,000 patients in 42 different clinical studies of the drug, which had the generic name rosiglitazone and was produced by the British firm GlaxoSmithKline PLC. The Journal said it had released the research early because of its public health implications. An estimated one million people in the U.S. took Avandia. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) May 21 acknowledged that it had been alerted to Avandia’s possible dangers in August 2006 by Glaxo, which had produced its own analysis of the drug’s safety. The FDA said it had not informed patients or doctors of the finding because the data had not been confirmed, and had been contradicted by other studies. However, the agency May 21 issued a safety alert about the drug, but did not recommend changing its label or taking it off the market.

The study’s results drew comparisons to the painkiller Vioxx, which had been removed from the market in 2004 after being linked to a higher risk of heart attacks. U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. faced more than 27,000 state and federal personal injury lawsuits over Vioxx. A Journal editorial accompanying the study criticized the FDA’s drug approval and monitoring efforts, and said that reform legislation recently passed by the Senate did not fully address the agency’s problems. The authors of the editorial wrote that because of the new data “the rationale for prescribing rosiglitazone at this time is unclear.” Several lawmakers reacted to the news by questioning the FDA’s ability to adequately monitor and approve the country’s drugs, and renewed calls for legislative reform of the agency. [See below] The study had been led by Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Nissen had reportedly uncovered the Avandia data from a public database created as a stipulation of a lawsuit settlement against Glaxo. That suit had accused the company of hiding the dangers of another drug, the antidepressant Paxil. House Hearing Held—The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee June 6 held hearings on the handling of Avandia by the FDA and Glaxo, amid a continuing congressional investigation into the agency’s handling of the drug. FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach in his testimony said the FDA May 23 had asked Glaxo and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., the manufacturer of Actos, a similar diabetes drug, to add the agency’s highest “black box” warnings to the two drugs. John Buse, an endocrinologist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, testified that he had come under pressure in 1999 from officials with SmithKline Beecham (one of the companies that merged to form Glaxo in 2000) after he publicly raised health concerns about Avandia. Buse, the president-elect of the American Diabetes Association, said company officials had implied that he was a liar and had threatened him with a lawsuit for imperiling the company’s stock valuation. Buse in 2000 had written a letter to the FDA outlining the heart risks presented by Avandia, it was reported May 24. In the letter, Buse wrote that data on the drug presented “a worrisome trend in cardiovascular deaths and severe adverse events.” Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D, Calif.) at the hearing criticized both Glaxo and the FDA, saying the agency had “dropped the ball.” However, several Republican members of the committee alleged that the Democratic-led hearings had been motivated by political concerns. Separate Avandia Study Released—

The Journal June 5 published on its Web site the preliminary findings of a separate, ongoing Avandia study that found no link between the drug and an increased risk of 381

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death. The researchers conducting the study said they had released part of their data early in order to encourage participants to remain in the study. However, the preliminary findings were accompanied by three editorials by influential doctors who questioned the latest research, arguing that it had not proved that Avandia was safe. „ Contact-Lens Solution Tied to Infections.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) May 25 said a solution used to clean and store contact lenses had been linked to a rare eye infection that had the potential to cause blindness. The solution was AMO Complete MoisturePlus MultiPurpose Solution, manufactured by Advanced Medical Optics Inc. The CDC said it had confirmed 138 cases of the infection, Acanthamoeba keratitis, since January 2005. [See 2006, p. 430E3] Those who had used AMO Complete were seven times more likely to have contracted the infection, according to a note the CDC sent to the manufacturer May 25, after a preliminary analysis. The amoeba that caused the infection was naturally present in soil and water, but rarely infected eyes and was extremely difficult to treat. Advanced Medical Optics May 25 initiated a voluntary recall of the solution. However, the company said there was no evidence that the solution had been contaminated or otherwise caused the infections, adding that it recalled the solution as a precautionary measure. Health officials remained unsure what exactly had caused the infections, but recommended that those who had used the recalled solution discard it and dispose of their contact lenses and storage cases. „

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Northwest Exits Bankruptcy. Northwest Air-

lines Corp. May 31 left Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, 20 months after it had entered bankruptcy. The Eagan, Minn.– based Northwest was the last of the major U.S. carriers to exit protection, after a wave of bankruptcies hit the aviation industry following Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. Northwest had cut $4.2 billion in debt and $1.4 billion in labor costs, and also dropped some unprofitable routes. It also cut $400 million in its fleet costs, and committed to upgrading its aging jetliners over the next two years. [See p. 350C2; 2006, pp. 975G2, 393G1] Northwest shares started trading May 31 at $25.25, valuing the carrier at $7 billion. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Allan Gropper in New York City May 18 had approved Northwest’s exit plan, after the airline May 9 reported that almost 97% of its creditors voted for it. Northwest Jan. 12 had filed its reorganization plan with the court, and followed up Feb. 15 with a disclosure plan projecting its equity value at between $6.45 billion and $7.55 billion, and setting out its business plan in more detail. Northwest Chief Executive Douglas Steenland May 31 said the airline would 382

focus on improving customer service and employee relations. Unions representing Northwest’s pilots and flight attendants May 30 had held a rally in Minneapolis, Minn., protesting the decision to award almost 5% of the carrier’s equity to its executives over the next four years. Northwest Feb. 6 had reported a pretax profit of $301 million in 2006, its first annual profit in six years. Attendants Approve Contract— Northwest’s 8,100 flight attendants May 29 approved a new contract that included $195 million in annual pay and benefit cuts, with 51% of the Northwest members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA voting for the agreement. The contract allowed attendants to file a bankruptcy claim for lost compensation estimated at $182 million, about $15,000 for each employee. [See 2006, p. 678G1] Northwest in July 2006 had voided its labor contract and imposed similar pay cuts on its flight attendants with court permision. The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City March 29 upheld an August 2006 U.S. District Court ruling that the attendants did not have a right to strike. „

Atlantic Hurricanes Active Hurricane Season Predicted. The

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) May 22 issued its forecasts for the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, which lasted from June 1 to Nov. 30. The agency said the season would be an active one, with 13 to 17 named tropical storms. Of those, seven to 10 were expected to become hurricanes, with three to five of those becoming so-called major hurricanes, or Categories 3 to 5 on the five-tier Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity. Category 3 storms had winds at a minimum of 111 miles per hour (180 kmph). [See p. 263B1; 2006, p. 407F1] Forecasters in 2006 had also predicted an active season, after a 2005 season in which hurricanes had devastated the Gulf Coast. However, it turned out to be relatively mild, with no hurricanes making landfall in the U.S. [See 2006, p. 928C2] The 2007 forecast was attributed in part to the La Nina weather phenomenon, which caused shifts in weather patterns by cooling water currents in the Pacific Ocean. It was also in keeping with a cyclical pattern that had featured a boost in the annual number of hurricanes since 1995 and was likely to last for a few decades. NOAA officials said the agency was using a new mathematical modeling system to better predict storm tracks. It would also equip planes with an improved device for measuring wind speed on the ocean’s surface and launch several weather-tracking buoys off Puerto Rico. The agency also said it would increase monitoring flights if the season was active. However, Bill Proenza, who in January had been made head of the National Hurricane Center, had recently criticized the NOAA for not devoting enough resources to collecting meteorological data. „

AFRICA

Somalia U.S. Warship Attacks Islamists in North. A U.S. Navy destroyer June 1 attacked a suspected Islamic militant hideout near the coast of northeast Somalia, in the semiautonomous Puntland region. The attack, near the village of Bargal, came after dozens of foreign and Somali militants arrived by boat from southern Somalia, Somali security forces said. The bombardment was the third known attack by the U.S. in Somalia since January. [See pp. 264E3, 128A3] The militants were believed to be affiliated with a group that had taken control of the capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern and central Somalia in mid-2006. The militia was ousted by transitional government and Ethiopian troops in late 2006, after which its members began an insurgency against the government. The U.S., which alleged that members of the Al Qaeda international terrorist network were among the Islamists, earlier in 2007 had targeted them in southern Somalia. Hassan Dahir, the vice president of Puntland, June 2 said eight militants, including one U.S. citizen, had been killed in the attack. He also said three U.S. Special Operations personnel were operating in the region. Dahir said the U.S. attack had come after the militants clashed with Somali forces, who then alerted U.S. military personnel stationed in neighboring Djibouti. The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) June 3 reported that as many as 12 militants, including fighters from Britain, Sweden, Yemen and Pakistan, had been killed. The U.S. refused to officially comment on the operation. Premier Survives Assassination Try—

A suicide car bomber June 3 attacked the Mogadishu home of Interim Premier Ali Muhammad Gedi, killing at least five people. Gedi was not injured. A government official blamed the attack on “terrorists linked to Al Qaeda.” Gedi May 17 had survived another assassination attempt, when a bomber attacked his convoy on the way to Mogadishu’s airport. Other News—In other Somali news: † A reconciliation conference intended to establish a stable political order was postponed June 13 for the third time, and scheduled for July 15. [See p. 82D3] † Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi June 5 made a surprise visit to Mogadishu for the first time since Ethiopian troops helped the transitional government oust the Islamists. Meles met with Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. Thousands of Ethiopian troops remained in Somalia, despite Meles’s previous pledges to withdraw them. † Four Ugandan soldiers, members of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, were killed May 16 when their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb. † Sir John Holmes, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of FACTS ON FILE

Humanitarian Affairs, May 12 visited Mogadishu. He was the highest-ranking U.N. official to visit Somalia in more than 10 years. Holmes, who was in the country to investigate allegations of war crimes against the government, also visited with residents of the war-torn city. A roadside bomb May 12 exploded near the U.N. compound in Mogadishu where Holmes was meeting with Somali officials. † Former warlord Mohamed Dheere, who had agreed in January to disarm his militia and support the transitional government, had been named mayor of Mogadishu, it was reported May 5. [See p. 50E2] † At least 365,000 people had fled their homes in Mogadishu since the beginning of 2007 due to continued fighting between pro-government troops and Islamist militants, the U.N. said April 27. However, aid workers had been able to reach only about 40% of the refugees, it was reported May 15. „

AMERICAS

Brazil Mines and Energy Minister Resigns. Bra-

zilian Mines and Energy Minister Silas Rondeau May 22 resigned after being linked to a construction kickback scandal. Rondeau said he had not acted improperly, but that he was stepping down to avoid interfering with the government’s plan to provide energy to the country’s poor. Rondeau had overseen President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s “Lights for Everyone” plan aimed at providing electricity to poor, rural communities. [See p. 163D2] Brazilian media had reported that Rondeau had accepted $50,000 from the Gautama construction company in return for awarding it public project contracts. Federal police forces had also said a yearlong investigation had documented a wideranging scheme in which Gautama paid bribes to government officials in return for government funding for fraudulent construction projects. The federal police force May 17 had arrested at least 46 people in connection with the Gautama scandal, which had cost the government an estimated $51 million annually. Among those arrested was a Rondeau aide; two state governors were also implicated in the scandal by police. The news magazine Veja May 25 reported that Senate President Renan Calheiros had received more than $8,000 a month in bribes from the Mendes Junior construction company to secure public works contracts. Calheiros, a close ally of da Silva’s, May 29 said he would not resign over the allegations. Da Silva’s administration in recent months had been buffeted by a wave of corruption scandals. „

Canada Liberals Win Control of Prince Edward Island.

Prince Edward Island May 28 voted the Liberal Party into power in provincial June 14, 2007

elections, ending 11 years of rule by the Progressive Conservative Party. In a landslide victory, the Liberals, led by 33-yearold Robert Ghiz, won 52.9% of the popular vote and control of 23 of the province’s 27 districts. The Pat Binns–led Progressive Conservative Party won the remaining four seats; at dissolution of the provincial parliament, Liberals had held only four seats to the Progressive Conservatives’ 23. [See p. 194F3; 1996, p. 885D1] Ghiz during the campaign had promised each resident of the province access to a family doctor by 2011. He also pledged to increase government spending on doctorrecruitment efforts, reduce a provincial gasoline tax and increase education spending. Ghiz June 12 announced his cabinet and was sworn in as premier. „ New Democratic Party Holds Manitoba.

Voters in Manitoba May 22 reelected the New Democratic Party (NDP) to a majority in provincial elections. NDP Leader Gary Doer, 59, secured an unprecedented third consecutive term for his party, with NDP candidates winning 36 seats in the 57-seat legislature. The Progressive Conservative Party, led by 39-year-old Hugh McFadyen, finished with 19 seats. Jon Gerrard’s Liberal Party held steady, retaining its two seats. [See p. 194F3; 2003, p. 478F1] Doer during the campaign had accused Conservatives of making ill-conceived promises of tax cuts and spending increases. McFadyen had notably promised to return a National Hockey League (NHL) franchise to the province. (The NHL’s Winnipeg Jets in 1996 had left Manitoba for Phoenix, Ariz.) „ 1985 Bombing Warning Alleged in Inquiry.

Ontario Lt. Gov. James Bartleman May 3 testified that in June 1985 he had seen a classified intelligence report indicating that an Air-India flight leaving Canada was a bombing target, days before Air-India Flight 182 exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 329 people aboard. Bartleman, who at the time of the bombing served as Canada’s director of security and intelligence for the Foreign Affairs Ministry, delivered his testimony at a public inquiry into the bombing begun in September 2006. Canadian officials had attributed the attack to Sikh extremists. [See 2006, p. 785A3] Bartleman’s revelation contradicted the government’s long-standing claim that it never had advance warning of the bombing, and provoked a storm of controversy. Bartleman said he had brought the information to the attention of a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) prior to the bombing, and had not raised the issue again, assuming the RCMP already knew about it. Officials involved with the inquiry said no government agency had been able to locate the intelligence report that Bartleman claimed to have seen. Gordon Smith, who had supervised Bartleman at the time of the bombing, May 7 testified at the inquiry that he thought Bartleman had been mistaken in

his testimony. “It is possible…that he has conflated several events and run them together,” he said. „

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Mexico Calderon Expands Drug Cartel Fight.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa May 11 sent federal troops to Veracruz state in an effort to quash heavily armed drug cartels responsible for a wave of increasingly gruesome violence across the country. Calderon announced the deployment after four bodyguards of the children of the Veracruz state governor were killed earlier that day. [See p. 283E2] The severed head of an automobile mechanic May 12 was found near a Veracruz military base with a note that read, “We are going to continue, even if federal forces are here.” The mechanic had been abducted four days earlier. Since December 2006, Calderon had sent some 24,000 troops to eight states in the crackdown. Authorities said the effort had resulted in the capture of 1,000 gunmen and the destruction of millions of dollars worth of marijuana. At least 15 drug cartel leaders had been extradited to the U.S. since Calderon took office in December 2006. However, Mexican media in mid-May estimated that the number of drug-related deaths resulting from shootouts, executions and decapitations was around 1,000, putting the country on pace to exceed the 2,000 drug-related violent deaths recorded in 2006. Violence was spreading to areas it had never plagued before, and police, army and other government officials were increasingly being killed by cartel gunmen in brazen fashion. Although Calderon continued to receive high approval ratings, his response to the drug problem had resulted in accusations of human rights abuses by police forces and federal troops. Difficulties were compounded by the increasing recruitment of corrupt, poorly paid Mexican police by drug cartels. Mexican media outlets and journalists had also increasingly become targets of drug violence and abductions. Although various journalism watchdog groups had reported different numbers of murdered journalists, all agreed that the number had increased in 2006. The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders in a December 2006 report entitled “Press Freedom Roundup 2006” said nine Mexican journalists were killed in 2006, placing Mexico behind only Iraq, where 40 journalists were killed in the year.

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More Drug-Related Violence Reported—

Among major incidents of drug-related violence in May: † Twenty-two people, at least five of whom were policemen, May 16 were killed during fighting between police and drug cartel members in Sonora state, just south of the U.S. border. Fifteen drug gang members were killed in the clash, as were two civilians. The killings had resulted from a police raid on a ranch at which several po383

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lice and civilian hostages were being held by drug gangs. † Luis Manuel Cordova, a Chiapas state police commander, May 5 was killed in an ambush in the city of Tapachula. Police did not provide a motive for the killing. † Five soldiers on an antidrug patrol in Michoachan state May 1 were ambushed and killed. An attacker was also reported to have been killed during the shootout. „

Venezuela Protests Over TV Shutdown Continue.

University students opposed to a shutdown of an opposition television station by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias May 30–June 14 continued across the country. Chavez had allowed the broadcast license of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) to lapse on May 28, sparking days of demonstrations by protesters who condemned the action as an assault on free speech liberties. [See p. 351B3] Analysts said the continued protests and polls showing widespread public opposition to RCTV’s shutdown reflected a growing unease among Venezuelans with Chavez’s decision and his response to the student protesters. Chavez had argued that the station had attempted to foment political instability, citing its support of a brief, failed 2002 coup d’etat attempt against him. The student protesters had distanced themselves from opposition political parties, instead framing their demonstrations as expressions in support of freedom and pluralism. Students and professors had reportedly expressed concerns that Chavez would attempt to expand his policies of “social revolution” to the university setting by implementing a rigid form of socialiststyle education. Since being reelected in December 2006, Chavez had further consolidated his power and nationalized several foreign-owned businesses in the energy and telecommunications sectors. [See p. 351E3] Although instances of violence between police and protesters were reported, students had largely avoided confronting police forces. The poor and working-class background of many students had also undermined Chavez’s often-used tactic of characterizing political opponents as “oligarchs” controlled by the U.S., which he said was set on overthrowing him. Student protesters June 6 walked out of a session in the National Assembly, saying that they did not want to participate in a staged political drama. Chavez June 7 responded in an hours-long speech that derided the protesters as “pawns of imperialism.” Governments, Groups Condemn Move—

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Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice June 4 sparred over the RCTV shutdown at an annual meeting of the Organization of the American States in Panama City, Panama’s capital. [See p. 384C2] Officials from the U.S., Chile, Spain, and the European Parliament, the legisla384

tive arm of the European Union, had also expressed concern over RCTV’s shutdown. Brazil’s Senate May 30 passed a resolution calling on Chavez to return the station’s license, provoking a strained exchange between officials from the two countries. Legislators from two of Brazil’s largest opposition parties June 5 said they would attempt to block ratification of Venezuela’s status as a voting member of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) customs union. [See 2006, p. 635E1] Globovision

Investigation

Ordered—

Venezuelan Communications Minister Willian Lara May 29 asked investigators to open a case against the 24-hour cable news channel Globovision for airing footage of a 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II that was accompanied by a popular song titled “This Does Not Stop Here.” Chavez said the channel had attempted to incite assassination attempts against him, and called the channel an “enemy of the motherland.” „

Other Americas News Press Concerns Overshadow OAS Summit.

The 34 member nations of the Organization of American States (OAS) June 3–5 met in Panama City, Panama’s capital, for the group’s 37th annual general assembly. Although the summit’s agenda was supposed to focus on energy issues, the meeting was dominated by diplomatic sparring over Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias’s decision to allow the lapse of a broadcast license for a television station critical of his administration. The station, Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), had gone off the air May 28, giving rise to a protest movement based mainly among Venezuelan college students. [See p. 384B2; 2006, p. 1019G1] U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice June 4 implored OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza to travel to Venezuela to investigate RCTV’s shutdown, but her proposal was not supported by any other OAS member. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro responded to Rice’s entreaty by describing the shutdown as “democratic, legal, just and constitutional.” He called on the OAS to investigate alleged human rights violations at a U.S. prison camp for terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Insulza June 5 said he lacked the authority to carry out a RCTV investigation, citing a portion of the OAS charter which stipulated that Venezuela grant permission for such an inquiry. Venezuela that day had rejected Rice’s proposal. OAS member nations June 5 voted to grant Venezuelan candidate Luz Patricia Mejia one of seven seats on the group’s Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in what was viewed as a diplomatic victory for Venezuela. The U.S. had objected to Mejia’s placement on the commission, which investigated human rights abuses in the Americas, citing Venezuela’s questionable rights record.

OAS members June 5 adopted a final resolution titled, “Declaration of Panama: Energy for Sustainable Development.” The document called for increased cooperation on energy issues, but failed to unify all OAS members over differences on biofuels. „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

China Food and Drug Safety Plan Issued. China’s State Council, or cabinet, June 5 announced a plan for improving the safety of food and medicines over the next five years. The plan came amid a rash of revelations about Chinese-made exports tainted with dangerous chemicals, as well as rising domestic concerns over the issue. The plan, which the announcement said had been approved April 17, set out a series of goals, including increasing the proportion of medicines inspected to 80%, from 30%, and achieving a 100% response rate to “significant food safety accidents.” However, it contained few details on how the plan would be carried out. [See p. 348B2] China in May had announced plans for a “crackdown” on the production of unapproved food, pharmaceutical and other products, and plans for a food recall system. Also June 5, China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine issued a statement noting the recent “series of export food problems” and their potential implications for “the national image” and China’s foreign relations. „ U.S. Assesses Military Expansion. The U.S. Defense Department May 25 issued its annual report to the U.S. Congress on China’s military power. As in the previous year’s report, the Pentagon highlighted what it described as China’s long-term efforts to increase the geographical range of its military forces, citing the development of new long-range nuclear missiles, submarines and aircraft. [See 2006, p. 457E3] In particular, the report found that China had made quicker progress than expected on a new kind of submarine, called Jinclass, that would carry nuclear missiles with a range of 5,000 miles (8,000 km). It said China was deploying more DF-31 mobile land-based missiles, which had a similar range, and was developing an updated, longer-range version, the DF-31A, that could reach the U.S. Those developments prompted speculation in the report as to whether China was modifying its long-standing policy of maintaining only the minimal nuclear arsenal deemed necessary for deterrent effect. Regarding China’s most immediate military concern—a potential conflict over Taiwan—the report estimated that China had about 900 short-range missiles arrayed along the Taiwan Strait, up from the 2006 estimate of between 710 and 790. Also repeating a theme from previous assessments, the report criticized what it called China’s lack of openness about its FACTS ON FILE

military expansion and the goals behind it. It estimated China’s real defense spending for the year to be between $85 billion and $125 billion, rather than its officially announced figure of $45 billion. [See p. 181F2] The report took note of a new development since the previous one, a Chinese test-launch in which a missile targeted an orbiting satellite. The Pentagon said the move “puts at risk the assets of all spacefaring nations.” [See p. 45D2] An article in the May 27 edition of the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, dismissed the U.S. report as misleading and exaggerated. U.S. Navy Commander Visits Beijing—

U.S. Navy Adm. Timothy Keating, the new head of the U.S. Pacific Command, May 12 met with Chinese military leaders in Beijing, China’s capital. Keating, who had taken over the Pacific Command March 26, said he sought to expand joint exercises and other links between the two countries’ militaries. He met with Guo Boxing, the highest-ranking Chinese general, who was vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates June 2 said at a meeting of Pacific nations’ defense ministers in Singapore that he was “optimistic about the U.S.-China relationship” and that the two countries could “build trust over time.” His predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, in 2005 had used the same forum to sharply question China’s military activities. [See 2005, p. 493E3] „ Union Challenges U.S. Fast-Food Chains.

Officials in the southern province of Guangdong April 10 cleared U.S. fast-food companies McDonald’s Corp. and Yum Brands Inc. of allegations that they were violating Chinese labor laws by underpaying part-time student employees. The accusations had been raised in local news media in the city of Guangzhou, and backed by the government-sponsored All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). Guangdong said that the U.S. companies were in compliance with the law, but urged that government and employers both work to improve labor standards in the country. [See 2006, p. 683F1] The charges exemplified new activism on behalf of employees of foreign firms by government unions, which ordinarily had genial relations with employers. McDonald’s in a statement April 9 said it had already been cooperating with the ACFTU since late 2006 to establish union branches in more of its restaurants in Guangzhou. U.S. Union Officials Visit—A delegation of U.S. labor union officials May 18–27 visited China for talks on closer cooperation with the ACFTU. Members of the delegation included International Brotherhood of Teamsters President James P. Hoffa and Anna Burger, chairwoman of the Change to Win union coalition. They noted the increasingly close links between the two countries’ economies, and the fact that many U.S. employers also had large workforces in China. They expressed interest in signs that the June 14, 2007

ACFTU was becoming more active in improving labor standards. „ Real Estate Standoff Ends. A couple who since 2004 had refused to give up their house on the site of a planned shopping center in Chonqing, China, April 2 agreed to move, ending a standoff in which the couple had come to symbolize the demand for fair compensation from officially backed developers. The house, which stood atop an island amid the excavated building site, was demolished the next day. [See p. 181D1] Stubborn holdouts against developers like the couple, Wu Ping and her husband, Yang Wu, were popularly known as “nails” in China. Wu and Yang in the April 2 agreement reportedly received significantly more compensation than initially offered, along with a new residence and site for the restaurant they operated. „

Indonesia Jemaah Islamiah Leader Captured. Indo-

nesian police June 13 announced that Abu Dujana, the alleged leader of the military wing of Southeast Asian regional Islamic terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiah, had been arrested. Dujana had reportedly been captured June 9 along with seven other alleged Jemaah Islamiah members in a series of raids on the main island of Java, but it had taken several days to ascertain Dujana’s identity using DNA tests and fingerprints. [See p. 35F3; 2005, p. 977D2] Analysts said the arrest would be a serious blow to Jemaah Islamiah, which had lost several leaders and some 200 members to prosecutions and deaths in police operations since 2002. They also said Dujana could possibly provide the police with detailed information on Jemaah Islamiah’s internal structure and operations. Dujana was accused of involvement in 2002 nightclub bombings on the island of Bali, the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, and other attacks. Police said he was a skilled bombmaker who had trained in Afghanistan with the Al Qaeda international terrorism network—with which Jemaah Islamiah had connections—and had met with Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. [See 2006, p. 1021G3; 2005, p. 825G2] „

Asia-Pacific News in Brief Kyrgyzstan: Premier Claims Poisoning. A report by government doctors released May 29 confirmed claims by Kyrgyz Premier Almaz Atambayev that he had been poisoned. The report said Atambayev had suffered from “acute toxic hepatitis” after “toxins of unknown origin entered the patient’s body.” Atambayev, who had been appointed by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in March, had first disclosed the poisoning May 22. He said the poison had been placed in a glass of water handed to him in his office May 11, and that afterward he was unconscious for two days. He said he had received death threats over a

plan to nationalize a semiconductor plant in Jalabad province, in the south. [See p. 267B1] „

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UNITED STATES

Belgium Premier Verhofstadt Quits After Elections.

Belgian Premier Guy Verhofstadt June 11 resigned after voters dealt his center-right Liberal Party a heavy defeat in parliamentary elections the previous day. Verhoftsadt, 54, had been in power for the past eight years, in a coalition with the Socialist Party. He would stay as head of a caretaker government until a new ruling coalition could be formed. [See 2003, p. 560A1] The Christian Democrats, led by Yves Leterme, placed first in the elections, winning nearly 30% of the vote in Flanders, the country’s Dutch-speaking region, and 30 seats in the 150-seat parliament. The Liberals fell to fourth place with 18 seats, behind two parties from Wallonia, the poorer French-speaking region. Leterme, 46, was expected to become the next premier if he could put together a coalition with other parties. In the Belgian political system, there were separate parties from Flanders and Wallonia. Leterme was currently the Flemish regional premier, and had called for Flanders to be granted more autonomy to govern its own affairs. He had recently sparked controversy by criticizing Walloons for not learning Dutch. „

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Bosnia and Herzegovina War Crimes Suspect Tolimir Arrested.

Zdravko Tolimir, a former Bosnian Serb general wanted on war crimes charges, May 31 was arrested as he tried to make a clandestine crossing into Serbia from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was transported to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the Netherlands, the following day. Tolimir had been a senior adviser to Bosnian Serb military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic. He was charged with four counts of crimes against humanity, including genocide, and one count of violating the laws or customs of war in connection with atrocities committed in the 1992–95 war in Bosnia, including a 1995 massacre of some 8,000 men and boys at Srebrenica. [See p. 268C2] Tolimir, 58, was considered the thirdmost-wanted of six suspects who were indicted by the tribunal and still at large, after Mladic and former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic. He was apprehended in a joint operation by Bosnian Serb and Serbian police. At his arraignment in court June 4, Tolimir said that his rights as a Serbian citizen had been violated, contending that he was arrested in Serbia and sent to Bosnia without being allowed access to a lawyer. The extradition of war crimes suspects was a key condition set by the European Union for moving ahead with preliminary talks on Serbia’s joining the EU. As a re385

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sult of Tolimir’s arrest, the EU reopened the talks June 13, but the union’s enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn, said the arrests of Mladic and Karadzic remained a precondition for concluding the talks, which were aimed at reaching a so-called stabilization and association agreement. [See p. 318E3] Defendant Wins Appeal—An appeals panel of the tribunal in The Hague May 9 overturned the 2005 conviction of Vidoje Blagojevic on charges of complicity in genocide in connection with the Srebrenica killings. The court, which upheld his convictions on separate, related charges, reduced his prison sentence to 15 years, from 18. [See 2005, p. 52E3] Separately, Radovan Stankovic, who had been convicted in a 1992 mass rape in the Bosnian town of Foca and was serving a 16-year sentence there, May 25 escaped while being transported to a hospital for medical treatment. He was freed by accomplices whose vehicle cut off the car in which he was being transported. [See 2006, p. 963C2] „

Great Britain Blair Calls News Media ‘Feral Beast.’ Brit-

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ish Prime Minister Tony Blair June 12 sharply criticized the British news media, in one of his last speeches before his scheduled resignation later in the month. Speaking at the headquarters of the Reuters news agency in London, he likened the press to a “feral beast,” driven to sensationalize its coverage of politics by intensified competition from the Internet and cable television. He warned that such degraded standards sapped the country’s “self-confidence and self-belief” and made it harder for political leaders to “make the right decisions.” [See p. 336E1] “The fear of missing out means today’s media, more than ever before, hunts in a pack. In these modes it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits,” Blair said. However, he admitted that he and his Labour Party government had “paid inordinate attention” to “courting, assuaging and persuading the media” after coming to power in 1997. „

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Ahern Reelected Prime Minister. The Irish Dail, or parliament, June 14 reelected Bertie Ahern to a third consecutive term as taoiseach, or prime minister. After his centrist Fianna Fail party placed first in parliamentary elections earlier in June, Ahern had sealed his reelection by negotiating a deal to bring the environmentalist Green Party into his coalition, which also included the conservative Progressive Democrats. In a concession to the Greens, the new coalition agreed on a policy program with new measures to combat global warming, including a carbon tax on greenhouse gas emissions. [See p. 352G2] Ahern had presided over a period of unprecedented economic growth in Ireland. He became just the second prime minister 386

to win at least three straight elections, after Eamon de Valera, the founder of Fianna Fail, who won seven elections between 1932 and 1957. „

Italy UniCredit to Buy Capitalia in Bank Merger.

Italy’s UniCredit SpA May 20 announced that it had agreed to acquire a smaller Italian bank, Capitalia SpA, for 22 billion euros ($29.7 billion). The merger would create the world’s fifth-largest bank by market value, and the second-largest in Europe, behind HSBC PLC of Britain. The deal continued a recent trend of consolidation in the Italian banking sector. [See 2006, p. 899G3] „

Russia Siberia Coal Mine Explosion Kills 38. A methane gas explosion in the Yubileinaya coal mine in Novokuznetzk, in south-central Russia, May 24 killed 38 people. A similar explosion had killed 110 miners at a nearby mine in March, in Russia’s worst such accident in years. An investigation of the March accident had resulted in the May 22 firings of five safety officials, after it was found that the mine management had intentionally turned off a methane detection system. [See p. 197F2] The mines involved in both accidents were owned by Yuzhkuzbassugol, which was part owned by steelmaker Evraz SA. Prosecutors May 24 opened a criminal investigation into that day’s accident, and regulatory officials said they would look into possible negligence by the company. Regulators said they had sought to shut down the Yubileinaya mine for safety violations earlier in the year, but the order had been reversed by a court. Critics said that the company maintained a bonus-pay system that encouraged workers to increase production at the expense of observing safety regulations. Other News—In other accidents and disasters in Russia: † A fire in a home for the elderly in the village of Kamyshevatskaya, in southwestern Russia, March 20 killed at least 62 residents and employees. Many residents were reportedly confined to their beds and unable to escape the fire, which occurred in the middle of the night. Some officials suggested that the disaster was made worse by fire-safety violations at the home. [See 2006, p. 1027A3] † A Russian passenger airliner March 17 crashed upon attempting to land in Samara, in south-central Russia, killing seven of the 57 people aboard and injuring at least 20 others. The plane, a UTAir Tupolev 134 jet, was arriving in Samara en route from Surgut, in Siberia. [See 2006, p. 670F2] „

Other European News New Report Issued on Alleged CIA Prisons.

The Council of Europe, a human rights body with 47 member nations, June 8

issued a report asserting that it had new evidence that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had operated secret prisons for terrorism suspects in Poland and Romania between 2003 and 2005. [See 2006, pp. 915D2, 689A1] The Council’s chief investigator, Dick Marty of Switzerland, said he had based the new report on evidence including interviews with U.S. and European intelligence agents. He accused European governments of colluding with the CIA and refusing to cooperate with his probe. “We have sufficient grounds to declare that the highest state authorities were aware of the CIA’s illegal activities on their territories,” the report said. It asserted that the prisons were used as part of the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program, in which “large numbers of people have been abducted from various locations across the world and transferred to countries where they have been persecuted and where it is known that torture is common practice.” U.S. President George W. Bush in September 2006 had acknowledged the use of such prisons, although he did not say where they had been located. But the Polish and Romanian governments denied hosting CIA prisons on their territory. CIA Abduction Trial Opens in Italy— A trial of Italian intelligence officers and 26 U.S. citizens, including 25 CIA agents, accused of abducting a terrorist suspect in 2003, opened June 8 in Milan. The case dealt with the alleged kidnapping in Milan of a radical Islamic cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (also known as Abu Omar), who claimed that the CIA had flown him to Egypt, where he suffered imprisonment and torture for four years. [See p. 112D3] The trial was adjourned for 10 days while the judge considered defense lawyers’ request to suspend the proceedings until Italy’s Constitutional Court decided whether prosecutors had broken state secrecy laws by filing the charges. A ruling on that issue was not expected for months. The U.S. defendants did not appear in court. The U.S. had said it would not extradite them and the Italian government had not requested their extradition. „

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Israel Shimon Peres Wins Presidential Election.

Members of Israel’s Knesset (parliament) June 13 in a secret-ballot vote overwhelmingly elected Shimon Peres for the nation’s largely ceremonial presidency. Peres, a former prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, in 2000 had made a failed bid for the presidency under the Labor party’s banner. Now a member of the ruling Kadima (Forward) party, he would replace Moshe Katsav of the Likud party, who in January had been suspended from his duties over allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse of power. [See p. 54A3; 2005, 847B1] The Polish-born Peres, 83, had first been elected to the Knesset in 1959, and FACTS ON FILE

obtained his first cabinet post in 1969. He had served as prime minister three times– first ascending to the post in 1977 after his political rival, Yitzhak Rabin, was forced to resign amid a financial scandal. From 1984 to 1986 he rotated as prime minister with Likud’s Yitzhak Shamir in an unprecedented agreement brokered after general elections failed to produce a clear winner. Peres was elected prime minister in 1995 after the assassination of Rabin, but had to step down less than a year later when Labor lost a general election. Peres in 2005 was defeated in a leadership race within the Labor Party, and subsequently joined the newly formed Kadima, founded by then–Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He served as a deputy prime minister under Sharon, and under Sharon’s successor, Kadima’s Ehud Olmert. Peres was to be sworn in July 15 for a seven-year term. Barak

Secures

Leadership

Race—

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak June 12 was elected leader of Labor with 53% of the vote in a runoff election, defeating Ami Ayalon, former chief of the Shin Bet domestic security service, who took 47%. Barak, 65, had made an unlikely political comeback after losing office in 2001 when Likud, led by Sharon, defeated Labor in a landslide. He had spent the intervening years in the private sector. [See 2001, p. 97A1] Barak had threatened to withdraw Labor from the ruling coalition unless Olmert stepped down in response to an April report that harshly criticized his handling of Israel’s war in summer 2006 against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. However, Barak said he would keep Labor in the coalition at least until August, when a final report on the war was set for release. Analysts said Olmert might offer Barak the post of defense minister to appease him. [See p. 275B1] Barak, a former army chief, had become prime minister in 1999. An uprising by Palestinians in 2000 had damaged his popularity and ended his bid for an IsraeliPalestinian peace agreement. „

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan Iran Accused of Supplying Taliban. The

U.S. and other countries May 31–June 13 repeated allegations that Iran was supplying weapons and other forms of support to Taliban rebels in Afghanistan. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, was most explicit in linking the Iranian goverment with the arms supplies, saying in a June 13 interview with the U.S.’s Cable News Network (CNN) that the U.S. had “irrefutable evidence” of weapons transfers that were “coming from the government of Iran.” The accusations came as rebels continued to clash with government and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) coalition forces. Taliban rebels were Sunni Muslims, while Iran was ruled and mostly populated by Shiite MusJune 14, 2007

lims. Iran had openly supported Afghanistan’s fledgling democracy. [See pp. 321B1, 270G1] British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in an article published May 31 in the Economist, said the Taliban were “receiving support, including arms” from “elements of the Iranian regime.” The Washington Post reported June 3 that British forces in Afghanistan had intercepted two shipments of weapons from Iran since April, and that the contents were found to be identical to shipments of weapons sent to militants in Iraq. U.S. and European officials cited in the Post article claimed that more Iranian weapons were arriving in both Afghanistan and Iraq. [See p. 369A2] U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, June 3 said explosively formed penetrators (EFPs)—a sophisticated and deadly form of roadside bomb often used by Shiite militants in Iraq—had been found in Afghanistan. Pace said the find indicated that Taliban rebels were “adapting and learning” in their fight against coalition forces. Afghan and NATO officials June 11 stated that two EFPs had been found in Afghanistan since April. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a press conference held with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, June 4 said Iranian weapons were being smuggled to Taliban rebels in Afghanistan, though he said it was not clear whether the Iranian government was complicit. Karzai refused to join in the accusation, however, insisting that “Iran and Afghanistan have never been as friendly as they are today.” However, U.S. Army General Dan McNeill, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, June 11 said the Iranian government was supporting both Karzai’s government and the rebels in order to “be aligned with whoever comes out on top.” McNeill said munitions recently found in the Taliban’s possession were made in Iran, and that the rebels were exhibiting better tactics and training in clashes with U.S. special forces. He also praised Afghanistan’s forces, saying the Afghan army had made “tremendous strides,” and that 2,000 new recruits were joining every month in 2007, up from only 600 each month in 2006. Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Mohammad Reza Bahrami, June 11 denied the accusations against Iran, saying the U.S. and Britain were using the allegations to “justify their failures” in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Burns June 12 repeated the accusations. Iran, he said, was “trying to flex its muscles, but in a way that’s injurious to the interests of just about everybody else in the world.” Burns called Iran’s actions “a major miscalculation.” Shortages Cause Civilian Deaths—U.S. Army Gen. Bantz Craddock, NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe, May 18 said shortages of troops and helicopters among coalition forces were contributing to civilian casualties. Craddock explained that the shortages forced coalition forces to call in air strikes while engaging Taliban rebels, strikes that often claimed the lives of innocent civilians. He insisted that coa-

lition forces were not violating accepted rules of engagement. [See p. 321B2] U.S. President George W. Bush May 21 said in a press conference that he would ask NATO countries to contribute more to the effort in Afghanistan, particularly in terms of troops, equipment and reconstruction aid. He made his statement after meeting May 20–21 with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Both Bush and de Hoop Scheffer expressed regret at the casualties among the civilian population and said they would work to reduce the toll. However they blamed the Taliban for hiding their fighters among the civilians. Richard Bennett, the chief United Nations human rights officer in Afghanistan, May 28 said as many as 380 civilians had been killed by insurgent-related violence in the first four months of 2007. He called on coalition forces and Taliban rebels to avoid harming civilians. Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, in a statement released on the Internet, May 29 expressed concern about civilian casualties, and he called for independent investigators to be allowed to look into alleged incidents. The interior ministry May 30 dismissed Omar’s proposal, saying most civilian deaths resulted from suicide attacks and other Taliban bombings. The Associated Press June 10 said roughly 2,200 people had died in violence involving insurgents in 2007, but the agency did not say how many were civilians. Blast Kills Three German Soldiers—A suicide bomber in northern Afghanistan May 19 struck a crowded market, killing three German soldiers and six civilians. Two more soldiers were wounded. Taliban rebels claimed responsibility. It was the worst attack on German troops in four years. Germany had roughly 3,200 troops on peacekeeping detail in Afghanistan. [See 2003, p. 458A2] Germany’s opposition Left Party May 20 called for the country’s troops to be pulled out of Afghanistan, claiming that they were not equipped for the dangerous mission. German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, however, insisted that they would remain in place. A bomb in Faryab province in northern Afghanistan May 23 killed a Finnish soldier. Roadside bombs near the city of Kandahar May 25 and June 11 each killed one Canadian soldier. As of June 11, at least 56 Canadian soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan since 2002. At least 78 foreign troops had been killed in Afghanistan that year, at least 39 of them U.S. soldiers. The U.S. Defense Department June 9 stated that 397 U.S. soldiers had been killed in and around Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom since it began in 2001, and 1,319 soldiers had been wounded. Taliban Frees Afghan Hostages— The governor of Nimruz province May 27 announced that the Taliban had released three Afghans abducted in April, saying they were healthy and that no ransom had been 387

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paid. The Afghans had been working alongside French aid workers in the province when they were kidnapped. The two French aid workers had already been released. [See pp. 321E2, 233G3] Britain’s Observer newspaper May 27 said three Taliban rebels who had been freed from government custody in exchange for the release of kidnapped Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo had been killed. The rebels had died along with Mullah Dadullah, a senior Taliban commander killed by U.S. forces earlier in the month. [See pp. 321B1, 197F1] Karzai’s government June 4 announced that it had agreed to hand over Dadullah’s body to Taliban rebels in exchange for the release of five Afghan health workers kidnapped in March in Kandahar province. [See p. 233F3] Mansoor Dadullah, Dadullah’s brother and the replacement for the militant leader, June 5 said the rebels had beheaded one of the five workers because of the government’s failure to promptly hand over his brother’s body as agreed. No confirmation of the death was given, however. Mansoor Dadullah alleged that his brother’s body had been flown to the U.S., and also claimed that Osama bin Laden, the leader of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda, had written him a letter congratulating him on his new leadership position. The Taliban June 7 released four of the captive medical workers: a doctor, two nurses and a driver. The fifth, a pharmacist, had reportedly been beheaded. The Taliban May 19 had announced that they had captured a spy who they said had revealed Dadullah’s location to coalition forces, leading to the commander’s death. Female Reporter Shot Dead— Shokiba Sanga Amaaj, a female reporter and news anchor, June 1 was shot to death in her home in Kabul by male relatives. The motive was not clear, but many conservative Muslims in Afghanistan were opposed to women holding such jobs and appearing on television. Zakia Zaki, a female owner of a radio station and an advocate of women’s rights, June 6 was shot to death while sleeping with her baby in her home in Parwan province, north of Kabul. The baby was unharmed. Police said four suspects in the shooting had been detained. Parliament Ousts Women’s Advocate—

The lower house of parliament May 21 suspended Malalai Joya, a female member of parliament from Farah province and a staunch women’s rights advocate, for violating a parliamentary rule prohibiting legislators from criticizing one another. The action came in response to comments she had made in a televised interview in which she said members of parliament were worse than stable animals, which could at least be put to use. The decision was referred to the courts to judge its validity. Roughly 300 of Joya’s supporters May 30 protested in Kabul against her removal, chanting, “Down with fundamentalists, 388

down with criminals who are in parliament.” Joya was a frequent critic of many members of parliament. She accused them of being criminals and warlords, and said they had committed atrocities in the country’s bloody civil war in 1992–96. Iran Expels Thousands of Refugees—

The United Nations May 21 said Iran had expelled more than 70,000 Afghans from its territory in the past month. Roughly one million Afghans were living in Iran illegally. Afghanistan had protested that it was unable to reabsorb them so quickly. [See p. 321F2] Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Afghanistan May 17–June 12: † Gunmen in Logar province June 12 fired on children leaving an all-girls school, killing two girls and wounding six more. † U.S. forces in Nangarhar province June 12 mistakenly fired on a police checkpoint, killing seven police officers and wounding four more. U.S. and Afghan officials said the incident was accidental, and followed an ambush of U.S. forces by rebels. † A suicide car bomb June 11 exploded in Khost province, setting several people on fire. Eleven people were wounded, three of them police officers. † Coalition forces at a checkpoint in Kunar province June 11 opened fire on a car, killing three civilians and wounding two more. The driver reportedly did not heed warnings to halt. † Several rockets June 10 landed near an area where Karzai was giving a speech. The incident occurred in Andar district in Ghazni province, south of Kabul. The rockets struck 100 yards or more away from the gathering, and no one was injured. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The government June 11 said seven suspects in the attack had been arrested. † Afghan officials June 10 said 157 Taliban rebels had been killed in four offensives conducted by NATO and Afghan forces in the previous 10 days in Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand, Ghazni and Logar provinces. Another 23 rebels were captured, and six Afghan troops were killed in the fighting. † NATO and Afghan troops, backed by air strikes, June 10 killed 27 Taliban rebels in Zabul province. † A roadside bomb in Kandahar province June 8 killed three police officers and wounded four more. Another roadside bomb in Kandahar that day killed two police officers and wounded three more. † Thirty suspected Taliban rebels June 7 were left dead or wounded after clashes involving air strikes in the Garmser district of Helmand province. † Rebels in Zabul province June 7 attacked a government compound, killing

one police officer and wounding three more. † Rebels in Uruzgan province June 5 attacked coalition and Afghan forces. Two rebels were killed, and nine more were detained. † NATO helicopters June 5 fired on a boat carrying Taliban rebels as they fled across the Helmand River from Sangin to Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan. Roughly 20–30 rebels were killed in the attack. In a similar incident, a boat carrying Taliban rebels as they fled across the Helmand River June 1 sank, killing all of the roughly 60 people aboard. It was not clear how many of the dead were rebels, and how many were civilians. † NATO and Afghan forces June 4–5 fought rebels in Kandahar province. The fighting involved coalition air strikes, and an estimated 20–40 rebels were killed. Two Afghan soldiers were also killed. NATO and Afghan troops June 1 had killed 20 rebels in Kandahar. † Taliban rebels in eastern Afghanistan June 1 attacked police. The officers repelled the attack, killing six rebels. † Rebels May 31 ambushed a police convoy as it traveled on a road between Kabul and the city of Kandahar, killing 16 police officers and wounding six more. Ten militants were reportedly killed. † Rebels in Farah province May 30–31 battled police. Ten rebels were killed, and 15 more were injured. † A U.S. military helicopter May 30 crashed west of the city of Kandahar, killing five U.S. soldiers, one British soldier and one Canadian soldier. The Chinook transport helicopter had just dropped off dozens of troops not far from the Kajaki dam before crashing. The Taliban claimed to have caused the crash. [See p. 114G3] † Afghan and coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan May 30 killed six rebels. † A roadside bomb in Uruzgan province May 30 killed four police officers. † Dutch Maj. Gen. Ton van Loon, who until earlier in the month had commanded NATO forces in the south of the country, May 29 said Taliban rebels had been pushed out of Kandahar city and many other parts of Helmand province. Van Loon said the rebels could control only “small pockets” of the province, and not the vast areas that they previously controlled. “They will still be a force but they don’t have the initiative we have,” van Loon said. † Police in northern Jowzjan province May 28 clashed with supporters of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum. At least seven people were killed, and 34 more were wounded. Dostum’s supporters had been protesting the arrest of six people charged with attempting to kill a legislator who opposed Dostum. † A roadside bomb in southeastern Afghanistan May 27 killed six police officers. † Taliban rebels in Helmand’s Sangin district May 20 ambushed a convoy of Afghan and coalition forces. Air strikes hit FACTS ON FILE

the attackers, and at least 25 rebels were killed. Three coalition troops were wounded, and a truck driver was killed. † NATO and Afghan forces May 20 clashed with rebels in Ghazni province. Thirty rebels were reportedly killed. † A suicide bomber in the city of Gardez in Paktia province May 20 killed 14 people and wounded 31 more in a busy market. † NATO May 20 announced that air strikes in southern Afghanistan had killed several Taliban leaders. † Coalition and Afghan forces in Paktia province May 19 reported killing 67 rebels. † Taliban rebels in Kapisa province May 19 ambushed coalition forces, who called in air strikes on the attackers. Dozens of militants were reportedly killed. † Two roadside bombs in Kandahar city May 17 killed three police officers and four private security guards. Many civilians were also wounded. A suicide car bomber in the city that day attacked a convoy carrying the governor of Kandahar province, killing three people. Four people were injured, including Information Minister Karim Khoran. The governor was unharmed. „

Bhutan Mock Vote Held to Prepare for Democracy.

Bhutan April 21 staged a practice election in preparation for the country’s transition from an absolute monarchy to a multiparty democracy, with parliamentary elections scheduled for 2008. About 125,000 people, out of the country’s total population of 635,000, turned out for the exercise, in which voters were asked to choose from among four fictional parties, each denoted by the national symbol, a druk or dragon, in a different color. [See 2006, p. 985E3] The trial run reflected the widespread unfamiliarity with democracy among the largely poor citizenry of Bhutan, a Buddhist kingdom in the Himalaya mountain range. The royal family was leading a modernization drive after decades in which Bhutan remained largely cut off from the outside world. King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in December 2006 had abdicated in favor of his son, 26-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who toured the country urging voters to turn out for the election. A proposed constitution would retain the monarchy but strip the king of authority as head of government. Many participants expressed lingering loyalty to the king and wariness over political turmoil and corruption in nearby democracies. However, the royal family’s course was reportedly influenced by events in neighboring Nepal, whose monarchy faced abolition after a tumultuous confrontation with a pro-democracy movement. [See p. 234B2] Bhutan May 28 held a runoff vote between the top vote-getting “parties” in the April voting: yellow, which stood for preserving Bhutan’s “rich cultural heritage” and was a color traditionally associated with the monarchy, followed by red, which represented the promotion of industrializaJune 14, 2007

tion. Yellow came in first in the runoff voting. Two small political parties had begun to form in preparation for the 2008 elections. „

India Caste Riots Leave 25 Dead. Clashes May 29 between police and protesters from the Gujjar caste led to 14 deaths, including that of a policeman, in Rajasthan state in northwestern India. Police fired on thousands of Gujjars who had blocked a highway between Jaipur, the state capital, and Agra, demanding that their caste status be lowered so they could take advantage of government-awarded economic and employment benefits. The death toll as of June 1 was reported at 25 people; dozens more were injured. [See p. 339D1] The protesting Gujjars, who set fire to buses and threw stones at passing automobiles in the May 29 riot, referred to a 2003 campaign promise by Vasundhara Raje Scindia, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and chief minister of Rajasthan, to change their caste status to that of a “Scheduled Tribe.” The Gujjar were currently grouped by the central government under the “Other Backward Classes” classification. Scheduled Tribes occupied a lower rung on the federal caste ladder than “Other Backward Classes,” but were offered more job opportunities via an affirmative action program. Gujjars were already considered a Scheduled Tribe in Jammu and Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh states. According to India’s constitution, 7.5% of public sector jobs and spots at government universities were reserved for scheduled tribes; 15% were reserved for Dalits, formerly known as “untouchables”; and 27% were reserved for “Other Backward Classes.” The Gujjars had to compete with other groups in their particular classification, including the Jats, who were generally richer and had obtained government positions at the expense of the Gujjars, who traditionally were nomadic farmers and shepherds. Members of the Meena community, who were classified as a Scheduled Tribe and occupied many of the government positions reserved for that classification in Rajasthan, June 1 mobilized 50,000 protesters to Dausa, a town in eastern Rajasthan, and called for caste warfare if the Gujjars’ demands were met. Raje June 4 appointed a government commission to assess the Gujjars’ petition and make recommendations to the federal government. A change in caste status required parliamentary approval. „

Pakistan Musharraf Ends Media Restrictions. Presi-

dent Pervez Musharraf June 9 rescinded an emergency ordinance for new governmental controls over the media after it caused a large public uproar. The ordinance, originally issued June 4, had given the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority

(PEMRA) the power to make new rules, close offices of television stations that violated federal regulations, confiscate broadcast equipment and revoke broadcasters’ licenses. It was the latest effort by Musharraf to stem the influence of a growing democracy movement centered around Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who had been suspended by Musharraf in March for an alleged abuse of office. [See pp. 339B2; 167B2] Musharraf June 1 had effectively banned public gatherings in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, dictating that meetings of more than five people required government permission. Later that day Musharraf, who was also the army chief of staff, attended a meeting with top army commanders, who afterward issued a rare public statement of support for the president. They described the public demonstrations calling for a return to civilian government and the concomitant media coverage as a “malicious campaign against Institutions of State, launched by vested interests and opportunists.” Musharraf added that “nobody will be allowed to bring instability in the country.” PEMRA June 2 told all television channels that live coverage of events relating to the judicial crisis was prohibited. As a result, a rally planned that day for Chaudhry in Abbottabad, a city just north of Islamabad, received little coverage on many networks. The three largest independent television channels in Pakistan—GEO Television Network, AAJ Television and ARY One World—June 1–3 said their broadcasts across the country had been blocked or interrupted. [See below] Thousands of protesters around the country—including lawyers supporting Chaudhry, journalists and people from opposition political parties—June 7 called for an end to the restrictions. Since June 4, more than 300 leaders and workers of opposition political parties had been arrested in the province of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province. Officials said the arrests were conducted in the interest of maintaining public order, though observers said they were meant to temper the effects of the planned rallies. Musharraf also angered members of his own party in Parliament, as he issued the ordinance during a three-week recess of the body, preventing any discussion. According to a June 7 report in the News, a Pakistani daily, Musharraf was quoted as chastising members of his party, the Pakistan Muslim League, for their lack of support in the political fallout over Chaudhry’s suspension. He added, “I feel disturbed for the first time.” Musharraf had grown increasingly critical of independent television networks since political violence at a rally organized for Chaudhry early in May that led to at least 40 deaths was broadcast across the country. The government had accused television channels of irresponsibly exploiting the controversy over Chaudhry’s suspension and the ensuing political demonstrations to increase ratings. 389

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The proposed regulations on media were seen as a dramatic reversal in policy, as Musharraf had made it a theme of his presidency to free media traditionally held under state control. Under his watch, more than 45 independent television channels had been started. Musharraf came to power in 1999 through a bloodless coup.

man for Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said in a speech, “There is no other option left for Musharraf except to hold free and fair elections.” He added, “These are not rent-a-crowds. These are people who have come out on their own to demonstrate and to demand an end to military rule.” „

Chief Justice Pressured to Resign—

Two Held in U.S. Journalist Pearl’s Slaying.

Chaudhry May 29 submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court that described how Musharraf and senior government officials March 9 tried to force him to resign as chief justice. The affidavit was part of Chaudhry’s appeal against his suspension on charges of misusing the privileges of his office. In the affidavit, Chaudhry claimed he was summoned to Army House in Rawalpindi, one of Musharraf’s residences, and then detained there for more than five hours. He said Musharraf urged him to resign over charges of using his position to interfere in courts outside his jurisdiction, accrue assets above his regular income and secure his son a government job. He said Musharraf offered to “accomodate” him if he resigned. He said Musharraf left the room when he maintained his innocence, and then for hours was pressed to resign by senior intelligence officials. He identified them as Lt. Gen. Ashfaq Pervaiz Kiyani, director general of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency; Maj. Gen. Nadeem Ijaz, director general of Military Intelligence; Aijaz Shah, director general of the Intelligence Bureau; and Hamid Javed, Musharraf’s chief of staff. He said no evidence of his alleged wrongdoing was shown to him. Javed, Ijaz and Shah June 7 submitted their own affidavits of the incident to the Supreme Court, contradicting some of Chaudhry’s claims. They all said Chaudhry had requested the meeting and was not summoned to Army House. Additionally, Ijaz claimed Chaudhry had political ambitions of his own, and had once asked Musharraf to dissolve Parliament supposedly because it had become a “nuisance.” Ijaz also said the officials “did nothing discourteous and there was no demand” for Chaudhry to step down. Chaudhry’s lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, June 7 said, “The statements are absurd.” Thousands Support Judge at Rally—

Chaudhry in the early hours June 3 delivered a speech to hundreds of lawyers in Abbottabad, calling for an independent judiciary. He said, “You are waging an immortal struggle for the independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of law and the Constitution.” Chaudhry had set out from Islamabad during the day June 2, with an entourage of more than 100 cars. He was hailed by tens of thousands of supporters along the 75mile (120-km) journey. At a stop at Haripur, the largest town between Islamabad and Abbottabad, supporters called for Musharraf’s ouster. Members of opposition parties led by exiled Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were also present. Farhatullah Babar, a spokes390

Pakistani officials June 5 said two men were arrested in the town of Kashmor June 4 on suspicion of being involved in the kidnapping and murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. Police said the men were members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Sunni Muslim militant organization. [See p. 154C1; 2006, p. 618G2] The Wall Street Journal June 13 reported that the two men, Naeem Bukhari and Faisal Bhatti, had actually been in police custody since 2002. Citing unidentified investigators close to the case, the report said authorities had kept hidden the two men’s incarceration because the men could contradict evidence used to convict four men of Pearl’s murder in 2002. Officials eventually announced their detention because a human rights group May 29 had filed a missing-persons petition for the two men with the Supreme Court. [See 2002, p. 545C2] „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Tennis Nadal, Henin Extend French Open Reigns.

Spain’s Rafael Nadal June 10 retained his French Open title for a third straight year in Paris by beating Roger Federer of Switzerland, the top seed and top-ranked player in the world, 6–3, 4–6, 6–3, 6–4. Justine Henin, the number-one seed, June 9 had won her third consecutive French Open championship and the fourth of her career, beating seventh-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, 6– 1, 6–2. (Henin had changed her name from Henin-Hardenne after divorcing her husband). [See p. 70D2; 2006, p. 499A1] The men’s match-up was a repeat of the 2006 French Open final, and Nadal’s performance cemented his status as both the “King of Clay” and a reliable nemesis on that surface to the otherwise unstoppable Federer. Nadal, 21, had also eliminated Federer in the tournament’s 2005 semifinals, denying the Swiss player the one major championship he lacked. As in 2006, Federer had hoped to capture the French Open title to hold all four major titles at once. Instead Nadal became just the second man since 1914 to win the tournament three times in a row. Federer, 25, managed to reach 10 break points in the first set of the final but failed to convert any of them. It took him five set points to win the second set, and Nadal quickly regained the lead by breaking serve at 1–0 in the third. Federer’s usually dangerous forehand let him down on a number of key points. He committed 59 unforced errors in the match, 29 of them on the forehand side. Nadal, meanwhile, played a clean and commanding game, making just 27 unforced errors.

Nadal June 8 had routed sixth-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia, 7–5, 6–4, 6–2 in their semifinal match. Federer that day climbed out of deficits in each set to defeat the fourth seed, Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko, 7–5, 7–6 (7–5), 7–6 (9–7), and reach his eighth consecutive Grand Slam final. That finals streak broke a record that had lasted since 1934. Henin Runs Away With Women’s Match—

In the women’s final June 9, Ivanovic, appearing in her first major championship match at age 19, broke Henin’s serve in the opening game and was up 40–0 in the second. But Henin abruptly turned the game around, and from then on Ivanovic succumbed to Henin’s masterful play. The 25-year-old Belgian won her sixth major title and dedicated it to her family, with whom she had recently reconciled after a long period of estrangement. She became only the second woman in the Open era to win three consecutive French Open titles, after Monica Seles in 1990– 1992. In the semifinal round Henin June 7 had defeated Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, the fourth seed, 6–2, 6–2. Ivanovic that day had exhibited steady talent in eliminating the number two seed, Maria Sharapova of Russia, 6–2, 6–1. French Open Doubles Results— Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and Daniel Nestor of Canada June 9 captured the men’s doubles title, beating Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner of the Czech Republic, 26, 6-3, 6-4. Alicia Molik of Australia and Italian Mara Santangelo June 8 had won the women’s doubles tournament, defeating Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and Ai Sugiyama of Japan, 7–6 (7–5), 6–4. In mixed doubles, Nathalie Dechy of France and Andy Ram of Israel June 7 had defeated defending champions Srebotnik and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia, 7–5, 6–3. The French Tennis Federation March 16 had announced that the French Open would offer total prize-money parity between the men’s and women’s games, beginning with the 2007 tournament. The French Open had been the last of the four Grand Slam tournaments to give bigger prizes to the men. [See p. 150F2] Other News—In other tennis news: † Federer May 20 defeated Nadal, 2–6, 6–2, 6–0 in the final of the Hamburg Masters in Hamburg, Germany. The victory ended Nadal’s 81-match winning streak on clay—an all-time record for victories on one surface. Nadal April 22 had bested Federer, 6–4, 6–4, to win the clay-court Monte Carlo Masters in Monaco. † Jankovic May 20 won the clay-court Italian Open in Rome, defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, 7–5, 6–1. † Nadal May 13 won the Rome Masters for the third straight time by defeating Fernando Gonzales of Chile, 6–2, 6–2. † Ivanovic May 13 beat Kuznetsova, 3– 6, 6–4, 7–6, to win the German Open in Berlin. FACTS ON FILE

† Former world-number-one player Kim Clijsters, 23, May 6 announced her immediate retirement from professional tennis, citing chronic injuries and the desire to start “a new life.” With 34 professional singles titles, the Belgian Clijsters was ranked fifth in the world at the time and was still in fine form. She was the second-highest-ranking player ever to retire from the women’s tour. † Nadal April 29 won his third consecutive Open Seat Godo championship in Barcelona, Spain. He defeated Guillermo Canas of Argentina, 6–3, 6–4, in the claycourt tournament. † Nineteen-year-old Novak Djokovic of Serbia April 1 defeated Canas 6–3, 6–2, in the men’s finals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla. A day earlier, Serena Williams of the U.S. had won the women’s tournament, defeating Henin, 0–6, 7–5, 6–3. † Nadal March 18 beat Djokovic, 6–2, 7–5, to win the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, Calif. [See 2006, p. 314G1] † Federer March 3 won the Dubai Open in the United Arab Emirates for the fourth time in five years, beating Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, 6–4, 6–3. It was his 41st consecutive victory. „

Hockey Canada Wins World Championship. Cana-

da May 13 defeated Finland, 4–2, in Moscow, Russia, to win the ice hockey World Championship. Forward Rick Nash scored two goals in the final. The victory gave Canada its 24th world title and its third in five years. Russia had defeated defending champion Sweden, 3–1, earlier May 13 to claim the bronze medal. [See 2006, p. 524C1] Russia Rejects Transfer Deal— Russia May 12 refused to sign a player transfer agreement with the U.S.’s National Hockey League (NHL) and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Under the deal, which had been signed by other European hockey nations, the NHL would pay a player’s European club about $200,000 to sign with an NHL team. Russian hockey officials argued that the amount for each player should be negotiated individually, as some players were worth more than $200,000. Due to Russia’s continued rejection of the deal, which was first proposed two years earlier, Russian clubs received no compensation when players left for the NHL. About 30% of the NHL’s players were European. [See 2006, p. 1037A2] „

Soccer MLS Season Opens. The Major League Soccer (MLS) season opened April 7, with five games that day. The defending champion Houston Dynamo in its opener April 8 played to a scoreless tie with the Los Angeles Galaxy in Houston, Texas. Expansion club FC Toronto April 7 lost its debut, 2–0, to Chivas USA in Carson, Calif. [See 2006, p. 941E3] English star midfielder David Beckham, who had signed a record deal with the Galaxy in January, was expected to make his June 14, 2007

debut in late July. Beckham had agreed to remain with his current team, Spain’s Real Madrid, until its season ended in June. Beckham May 26 was recalled to the English national team for the first time since the 2006 World Cup, and played a key role in England’s 1–1 draw in a June 1 friendly match against Brazil. The Galaxy, however, May 27 said it might not release Beckham to play for England in friendlies after he joined the team. The June 1 match saw the first goals scored in the new Wembley Stadium in London. [See p. 38A3] „

Lacrosse Johns Hopkins Wins Men’s Title. The Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays May 28 defeated the Duke University Blue Devils, 12–11, in Baltimore, Md., to win the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s lacrosse championship. Johns Hopkins won its ninth title; its most recent win had come in 2005. [See p. 224A2; 2006, p. 656C1] Duke’s appearance in the final came after North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper in April had dropped sexual assault charges against three of the team’s former players. The charges stemmed from allegations by an exotic dancer that she had been assaulted at a team party in March 2006. The allegations had caused a widespread scandal and prompted Duke President Richard Brodhead to cancel the rest of the 2006 season. The NCAA May 30 approved a request by Duke to grant 33 of its players an extra year of eligibility to play in NCAA competitions. The extra year was intended to compensate for time missed due to the cancellation of the remainder of the 2006 season. Northwestern Takes Women’s Title—

The Northwestern University Wildcats May 27 won the NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse title for the third straight year, beating the University of Virginia Cavaliers, 15–13, in Philadelphia, Pa. „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Awards Tony Awards. The League of American

Theaters and Producers and the American Theater Wing June 10 presented their 61st annual Antoinette Perry (Tony) Awards in a ceremony at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. For the second year in a row, the ceremony featured a number of presenters rather than a single host. Among them were playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein, actress Felicity Huffman, and singer and actor Usher. [See 2006, p. 479E2] Named best new play was The Coast of Utopia, Tom Stoppard’s epic trilogy about 19th-century Russian intellectuals. It picked up seven Tonys altogether, making it the most honored play in Tony history. (Two plays had previously won six awards: Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, in 2006, and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, in 1949.) Its director, Jack O’Brien, was named best director of a play, and two of its

cast members, Billy Crudup and Jennifer Ehle, won acting awards. The play also won three design awards. [See below, p. 200B2; 2006, p. 479B3; 1949, p. 151M] The most highly honored new musical was Spring Awakening, which won eight Tonys. A rock musical based on an 1891 play by Frank Wedekind dealing with adolescent sexuality in provincial Germany, it had had a successful off-Broadway run from May to August 2006, before transferring to Broadway in December 2006. One of the show’s creators, lyricist Steven Sater, won the Tony for best book of a musical, and shared the award for best original score with composer Duncan Sheik, who also won the award for orchestration. The show’s director—Michael Mayer— and its choreographer—Bill T. Jones—also won Tonys, as did one of its cast members, John Gallagher Jr., for best featured actor in a musical. The show’s eighth Tony was for lighting design. [See 2006, p. 604E2] Top honors for performances in a play went to Frank Langella, for his portrayal of disgraced former U.S. President Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon, and to Julie White, for her portrayal of a Hollywood talent agent in The Little Dog Laughed. Top honors for performances in a musical were captured by David Hyde Pierce, for his role as a detective trying to solve a backstage murder in Curtains, and Christine Ebersole for portraying both fallen socialite Edith (Edie) Bouvier Beale and her emotionally crippled daughter (also named Edie) in Grey Gardens. That show, like Spring Awakening, had transferred to Broadway in late 2006 after a triumphant off-Broadway debut. [See pp. 392E1, 324A1; 2006, pp. 359C1, 159E3] The Tony for best play revival went to a production of British playwright R.C. Sherriff’s Journey’s End, a World War I drama first seen on Broadway in 1929. The award was announced just hours after the show closed, after nearly four months of poor ticket sales despite glowing reviews. [See p. 200D2] Set designer Bob Crowley, previously a three-time Tony winner, raised his total to five by winning a Tony for his set for the musical Mary Poppins and sharing one— with Scott Pask—for the set for The Coast of Utopia. [See 2006, p. 987E3] The major winners were: Best Play: The Coast of Utopia Best Musical: Spring Awakening Best Play Revival: Journey’s End Best Musical Revival: Company Best Actress, Play: Julie White, The Little Dog

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Best Actor, Play: Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon Best Actress, Musical: Christine Ebersole,

Grey Gardens

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tains

Best Featured Actress, Play: Jennifer Ehle,

The Coast of Utopia

Best Featured Actor, Play: Billy Crudup, The

Coast of Utopia

Best Featured Actress, Musical: Mary Louise

Wilson, Grey Gardens

Best Featured Actor, Musical: John Gallagher

Jr., Spring Awakening

Best Direction, Play: Jack O’Brien, The Coast

of Utopia

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Spring Awakening

Michael Mayer,

Best Original Score: Spring Awakening, Dun-

can Sheik and Steven Sater

Best Book of a Musical: Spring Awakening,

Steven Sater

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Theater Broadway

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Broadway box-office revenue for the 2006–07 season, which ended May 27 and saw 35 new productions, hit a record $938.5 million, up 8.9% from the previous season’s figure, according to data reported May 30 by the League of American Theaters and Producers. Also, paid attendace, which had topped 12 million for the the first time ever in 2005–06, when 39 new productions opened, hit a record 12.3 million. Of those ticket sales, 10.8 million were for musicals. [See 2006, p. 479G3]„

Theater Openings 110 in the Shade. Broadway revival of a 1963 musical about a spinster who falls for a con artist promising to bring rain to a drought-stricken town. Book by N. Richard Nash; music by Harvey Schmidt, lyrics by Tom Jones, based on Nash’s 1954 play The Rainmaker. Directed by Lonny Price; choreographed by Dan Knechtges. With Audra McDonald, Steve Kazee and John Cullum. In New York City, at the Roundabout Theater’s Studio 54. May 9. [See 2003, p. 255B3] Coram Boy. Broadway transfer, from London’s Royal National Theatre, of a melodrama about orphans trying to surmount hardships in 18th-century London. Adapted by Helen Edmundson from a children’s novel by Jamila Gavin. Directed by Melly Still; music by Adrian Sutton. With Xanthe Elbrick, Charlotte Parry, Brad Fleischer, Ivy Vahanian and Jan Maxwell. In New York City, at the Imperial Theater. May 2. [See 2005, p. 997E1] Deuce. Comedy revolving around two elderly women, once championship-tennis doubles partners, who are reunited to receive an honor at the U.S. Open. By Terrence McNally. Directed by Michael Blakemore. With Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes. In New York City, at the Music Box Theater. May 6. Frost/Nixon. Broadway transfer, from London’s West End, of a play based on former U.S. President Richard Nixon’s revealing 1977 interviews with British television talk-show host David Frost. By Peter Morgan. Directed by Michael Grandage. With Frank Langella and Michael Sheen. In New York City, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater. April 22. [See 2006, p. 740E2] Inherit the Wind. Broadway revival of a 1955 drama based on the so-called Scopes monkey trial of 1925, which pitted evolutionism against creationism. By Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. Directed by Doug Hughes. With Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy. In New York City, at the Lyceum Theater. April 12. [See 2004, p. 167F2] Legally Blonde. Musical about a seemingly shallow California girl’s quest to be taken seriously as a Harvard Law School student. Music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Neil Benjamin; book by Heather Hach, based on a 2001 film of the same name, in turn based on a novel by Amanda Brown. Directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. With Laura Bell Bundy, Christian Borle, Orfeh, Kate Shindle and Richard H. Blake. In New York City, at the Palace Theater. April 29. [See 2003, p. 628D2; 2001, p. 600C2] LoveMusik. Musical about the personal and professional relationship of German-born composer Kurt Weill and his actress wife, Lotte Lenya; the show is built around 27 Weill songs. Book by Alfred Uhry, suggested by the letters of Weill and Lenya; music by Weill; lyrics by Weill, Maxwell Anderson, Bertolt Brecht, Howard Dietz, Roger Fernay, Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein 2nd, Langston Hughes, Alan Jay Lerner, Maurice Magre, Ogden Nash and Elmer Rice. Directed by Harold Prince. With Michael Cerveris, Donna Murphy, David Pittu and John Scherer. In New York City, at the Biltmore Theater. May 3. [See 1981, p. 904D2; 1950, p. 112E] A Moon for the Misbegotten. Broadway transfer of a 2006 London production of Eugene O’Neill’s last play, set on a Connecticut farm and involving an unconsummated love affair between the farm’s alcoholic

392

owner and the daughter of one of his tenants. Directed by Howard Davies. With Kevin Spacey and Eve Best. In New York City, at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. April 9. [See 2006, p. 968E1] The Pirate Queen. Musical pitting Grace (Grania) O’Malley, a seafaring heroine of Irish history, against England’s Queen Elizabeth I. Book by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schoenberg and Richard Maltby Jr., based on the novel Grania—She King of the Irish Seas by Morgan Llywelyn; music by Schoenberg, lyrics by Boublil, Maltby and John Dempsey. Directed by Frank Galati; musical staging by Graciela Daniele; Celtic dance sequences choreographed by Carol Leavy Joyce. With Stephanie J. Block, Linda Balgord and Hadley Fraser. In New York City, at the Hilton Theater. April 5. Radio Golf. Broadway premiere of the final play in August Wilson’s 10-part cycle of plays about the black experience in 20th-century America; it was first performed in New Haven, Conn., in 2005, not long before Wilson’s death. Directed by Kenny Leon. With Harry Lennix, Tonya Pinkins, Anthony Chisholm, John Earl Jelks and James A. Williams. In New York City, at the Cort Theater. May 8. [See 2005, pp. 695F3, 379D2] The Year of Magical Thinking. Solo show based on author Joan Didion’s 2005 memoir about having to cope with both the sudden death of her husband and the protracted illness and death of the couple’s adopted daughter. By Didion. Directed by David Hare. With Vanessa Redgrave. In New York City, at the Booth Theater. March 29. [See 2005, p. 844A2] „

People British pop singer George Michael, who in October 2006 had been been arrested in London for driving while impaired by a combination of legal and illegal drugs, June 8 in London was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and was banned from driving for two years. He would also have to pay court costs of £2,325 (US$4,600). Michael, 43, had entered a guilty plea on May 8. [See 1995, p. 548A2] British conductor Robert King, 46, whose King’s Consort instrumental and choral group had made many acclaimed recordings of Baroque music, released on the Hyperion label, June 4 in London was sentenced to nearly four years in prison after being convicted on 14 counts of indecent assault. His victims had all been teenage male musicians under his tutelage; the assaults were reported to have occurred between 1982 and 1993. King had founded the King’s Consort in 1980, as an undergraduate at Cambridge University. „

O B I T UA R I E S BECK, James, 77, Columbia University art historian who besides being a leading authority on Italian Renaissance painting and sculpture was an outspoken critic of art restoration and conservation techniques that he viewed as potentially damaging; with a British colleague, Michael Daley, he founded an art-restoration watchdog group, ArtWatch International, in 1992; born May 14, 1930, in New Rochelle, N.Y.; died May 26 in New York City, of cancer. [See 2002, p. 139F1] CLARK, Jim (James Gardner Clark Jr.), 84, notorious segregationist sheriff of Dallas County, Ala., from 1955 to 1966; he played a key role in a March 7, 1965, attack on 600 voting-rights protesters that came to be known as “Bloody Sunday”; the protesters were attacked at the start of a march from Selma, Ala., the seat of Dallas County, to Montgomery, Ala., the state capital; nationally televised footage of the violence did much to mobilize congressional support for federal voting rights legislation, signed in August 1965; in 1966, with the addition of many black voters to the Dallas County rolls, he was defeated in his bid for reelection as sheriff; in the late 1970s, he was convicted of conspiring to smuggle marijuana and served nine months in prison; born Sept. 17, 1922, in Elba, Ala.; died June 4 at an Elba nursing home; he had suffered strokes in recent years, and had undergone heart surgery. [See 1985, p. 187B1; 1965, p. 86C1–B2]

HARRIS, Mark (born Mark Harris Finkelstein),

84, author whose works included four acclaimed baseball novels narrated by a fictitious left-handed pitcher; the best known of these was Bang the Drum Slowly (1956), which he adapted for a 1973 film starring Michael Moriarty and Robert De Niro as a terminally ill, second-string catcher; born Nov. 19, 1922, in Mount Vernon, N.Y.; died May 30 at a hospital in Santa Barbara, Calif., from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. [See 1973, p. 1024C2; 1962, p. 507A1; Indexes 1961, 1959, 1956, 1952–53] KONING, Hans (born Hans Koningsberger), 85, Dutch-born journalist, novelist, travel writer and leftleaning political activist; from 1951 on, he lived mostly in the U.S., and his books were written in English; he was a frequent contributor to the New Yorker magazine; his book Love and Hate in China (1966), one of the first accounts of China’s Cultural Revolution by a Westerner, originated in that magazine; his nonfiction also included a controversial biography of Christopher Columbus, Columbus: His Enterprise—Exploding the Myth (1976), which portrayed the explorer as cruel and exploitative; four of his novels were made into films, including A Walk With Love and Death (1961) and The Revolutionary (1967), both written under his birth name, Koningsberger; their film versions appeared in 1969 and 1970, respectively; born July 12, 1921, in Amsterdam; died April 13 at his home in Easton, Conn.; the cause of death was not released. [See 1970, p. 986A2; 1969, p. 816G3] MARTIN, Preston, 83, economist and bank regulator who served as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1982 to 1986, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan; from 1967 to 1969, during Reagan’s governorship of California, he was California’s top savings and loan (S&L) regulator; from 1969 to 1972, under President Richard Nixon, he was chairman of the agency that regulated S&Ls nationwide, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board; born Dec. 5, 1923, in Los Angeles; died May 30 at his home in San Francisco, Calif., of cancer. [See 1986, pp. 723A2, 352D1, 188D3, E3, 162F1, 80G1; 1985, pp. 924G1, 345F3; Indexes 1982–84, 1969–73] MEREDITH, William Morris, 88, poet whose work was rigorous yet emotionally expressive; one of his best-known poems, “The Wreck of the Thresher,” was an elegy for 129 sailors who drowned in the 1963 wreck of a U.S. submarine; he was poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (the post that preceded that of U.S. poet laureate) from 1978 to 1980, and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and a National Book Award in 1997; he won the latter for Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems, a collection of poems dealing in part with his struggle to regain his language skills after a 1983 stroke; born Jan. 9, 1919, in New York City; died May 30 at a hospital in New London, Conn., of heart and respiratory failure. [See 1997, p. 895E1; 1988, p. 271F3; Indexes 1968, 1966] RORTY, Richard, 75, philosopher who early in his career spurned the rigors of mainstream analytic philosophy in favor of the pragmatic approach developed by such late 19th- and early 20th-century U.S. thinkers as William James and John Dewey; rejecting the notion that there was an absolute “truth” apart from language, he became prominently associated with postmodernism; a number of his books, notably Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), were widely read; later, he became interested in politics, as evidenced by such books as Achieving Our Country (1998); he taught at a number of U.S. universities, most recently at Stanford, where he had belonged to the comparative literature department; born Oct. 4, 1931, in New York City; died June 8 at his home in Palo Alto, Calif., of pancreatic cancer. WALDHEIM, Kurt Josef, 88, Austrian diplomat who served two full terms as United Nations secretary general (1972–82); before becoming U.N. secretary general, he had been foreign minister of Austria (1968–70); after leaving the U.N., he taught at the U.S’s Georgetown University for two years; in 1985, he launched a bid for the presidency of Austria, a mostly ceremonial post; before the election, held in 1986, it came to light that during World War II he had been an officer in a Nazi German army unit known to have committed atrocities in the Balkans; he was elected president anyway, but during his six years in the post, as more and more details emerged about his tainted past, he was largely shunned by the international community; in 1992, he decided not to run for a second term; born Dec. 21, 1918, in St. AndräWörden, Austria; died June 14 at his home in Vienna, Austria, of heart failure; he had recently been hospitalized with an infection, but had gone home before he died. [See 2005, pp. 857G3, 219E1; 2004, p. 512F3; Indexes 1998, 1996, 1994, 1986–92, 1983, 1968–81, 1965] „

June 14, 2007

Abbas Appoints Emergency Palestinian Cabinet Hamas Retains Control of Gaza. Palestinian

Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas June 15 named Salam Fayyad prime minister of an emergency government, following his dissolution the previous day of a unity government led by Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of the Islamist militant group Hamas. Abbas had announced the dismissal of the government after days of factional fighting between the rival security forces of Hamas and Abbas’s secular nationalist Fatah faction that left about 100 people dead. [See p. 373A1] Hamas had seized control over the Gaza Strip in the fighting, while Fatah retained power in the West Bank, leading to divided rule over the Palestinian territories. The U.S. and Israel, which had backed Fatah in its struggle with Hamas, pledged continued support to Abbas. After he appointed his emergency government, they lifted restrictions on financial aid to the PA imposed since March 2006 over the inclusion of Hamas in the previous government. Fayyad, 55, was a former World Bank and International Monetary Fund official who had been PA finance minister twice since 2002. Politically independent of the two clashing factions, he had been approached by Hamas to become prime minister after the group’s 2006 victory in parliamentary elections, but he declined when Hamas rejected his demand that it agree to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Abbas June 17 swore in the Fayyad-led cabinet, and officially outlawed Hamas’s armed wings, saying they had launched a “military coup against the Palestinian legitimacy and its government.” Hamas rejected the new government, turning the accusation of a “coup” against Abbas, and declaring that Haniya remained the legitimate head of government. Meanwhile, each faction consolidated its rule in the territory it controlled. In the days following the June 14 climax of Hamas’s seizure of Gaza, violence largely subsided. Hamas forces ransacked the homes and offices of Abbas and Fatah officials who had fled Gaza, notably former Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan, who had led a crackdown on Hamas in the 1990s. However, after having arrested numerous Fatah figures during the past week, summarily executing some, Hamas June 15 proclaimed an “amnesty” for Fatah figures who it said had not collaborated with Israel and the U.S. In the West Bank, Fatah forces June 14– 15 arrested some Hamas members, and shot and killed a Hamas leader in Nablus. Following Abbas’s decree forming the new government, Fatah forces June 16 seized control of West Bank government buildings that had been used by the unity government. In an interview reported in the June 21 New York Times, former PA Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas member, warned that Hamas would take on Fatah in the West Bank as well if it continued to crack down on Hamas there. Zahar called

for new political negotiations between Hamas and Fatah, but Abbas in a televised speech that day rejected the idea of “dialogue with those murderous terrorists.” Abbas also accused Hamas of plotting to assassinate him. Hamas called his speech “disgusting.” Meanwhile, Israeli forces June 20 clashed with Palestinian militants in Gaza for the first time since Hamas’s takeover. Israeli helicopters also attacked a site in Gaza that had been the base of a rocket attack on Israel earlier that day. U.S. Lifts Embargo—U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice June 18 said the U.S. would “resume full assistance to the Palestinian government and normal government-to-government contacts” with the new Abbas-appointed administration. She said that the Bush administration would work with the U.S. Congress to redirect $86 million that had been designated for aiding Abbas’s security forces toward general essential needs. The European Union that day said that it planned to resume direct aid to the PA soon. Israel said it would release to the new Palestinian government tax and customs revenue it had withheld. Bush June 18 spoke to Abbas by telephone, and the following day made a strong public statement of support for the PA president, calling him “a reasonable voice among the extremists.” Bush spoke as he met in Washington, D.C., with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who also expressed willingness to cooperate with Abbas, calling him the “president of all the Palestinians.” The U.S., in an effort to revive IsraeliPalestinian negotiations, was seeking to persuade outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair to become a special envoy representing the so-called quartet of powers— the U.S., the EU, the United Nations and Russia—it was reported June 21. The role proposed for Blair would reportedly focus on internal Palestinian government and economic development issues, leaving Rice in charge of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak June 21 invited Abbas, Olmert and Jordan’s King Abdullah II to a summit at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, to be held June 25. All the leaders agreed to attend. Under the divided rule emerging in the Palestinian territories, the resumption of Western aid would primarily benefit the West Bank. Because Israel controlled Gaza’s border crossings, and refused to deal with Hamas, the border remained sealed, prompting concern over a potential humanitarian catastrophe. Israel June 19 began to allow shipments of food and medicine to cross into Gaza, where residents had reportedly begun hoarding food and other supplies. Israel June 20 allowed some Palestinians requiring medical treatment to leave Gaza for hospitals in Israel. Hundreds of

Facts On File

®

World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3471* June 21, 2007

B other Palestinians trying to leave Gaza remained held up at the crossing. Rice June 18 said that the U.S. would pledge $40 million to U.N. aid programs in Gaza, saying the U.S. did not intend to leave its residents “at the mercy of terrorist organizations,” a reference to the U.S.’s classification of Hamas. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East June 18 said it was resuming aid operations suspended during the recent factional violence.

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Hamas Demands Reporter’s Release—

Hamas June 15 said that it was seeking to secure the release of British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reporter Alan Johnston. The reporter had been kidnapped in March by a group called the Army of Islam, linked to the Dogmush local organized-crime clan, which had a history of shifting alliances and feuds with Hamas and other political groups. The Army of Islam June 17 con-

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Abbas appoints emergency Palestinian cabinet; Hamas retains control of Gaza.

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U.S. forces push into insurgent havens outside Iraqi capital. PAGE 394

Novelist Salman Rushdie knighted; Iran, Pakistan protest. PAGE 396

Bloomberg leaves Republican Party, stirs talk of independent presidential run.

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Bush again vetoes stem cell bill. PAGE 397

Deal reached on Darfur peacekeeping force; African Union, U.N. to contribute troops. PAGE 401

Lebanese member of parliament assassinated by car bomb; Syrian government accused, denies involvement. PAGE 405

San Antonio Spurs sweep Cleveland Cavaliers to take NBA title. PAGE 406 *First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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firmed that there had been contacts with Hamas about Johnston, but denied that his release was imminent. It threatened to kill him if its demands were not met, including the release of prisoners such as radical Muslim cleric Abu Qutada, who was in jail in Britain. [See p. 371C1] „

U.S. Forces Push Into Insurgent Havens Outside Iraqi Capital Shrine Blast Draws Sectarian Reprisals.

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U.S. forces June 15–21 struck militant strongholds north and south of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, as part of a new security push to stabilize the country. The soldiers were reinforced by the completion of a buildup, or surge, of roughly 30,000 troops that began in January, yielding a total of about 155,000–160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The military effort around the capital came during a week that saw continued sectarian retaliation following the destruction by Sunni Muslim insurgents of a Shiite Muslim shrine’s minarets the week before. [See p. 374A1] U.S. Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a spokesman for the U.S. military, June 15 said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) that the buildup was complete, and that counterinsurgency efforts under Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, would soon begin. “Most of the car bombs are made out on the rural areas and brought into the city, so we have to be out looking for those bomb factories and take them out,” he said. Garver said the fifth and final U.S. brigade would still require a month or two to become fully operational. U.S. forces June 15–16 began to move into areas on the southeastern edge of the capital, including Jabour and Salman Pak, conducting precision air strikes and maneuvering 1,200 troops in order to block the entrances to the capital. Petraeus June 16 announced the coming offensive during a press conference in Baghdad with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Petraeus, asked whether he believed that he had enough troops for the effort, said military commanders always wanted more troops, but “we have all that our country is going to provide us in terms of combat forces.” He said the offensive would hit havens and strongholds for the Sunni terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Gates said evaluating the success of the operation would have to wait until September. “The full impact of the surge is just beginning to be felt,” he said. Petraeus Praises Troop Surge—Petraeus June 17 said the added troops were “enabling us now to launch operations into sanctuaries, areas in which we have had very little coalition force presence, other than raids, in recent years.” Speaking on the Fox News cable television network, he conceded that the security situation would probably not improve enough to begin withdrawing troops by the end of the year. He noted that other counterinsurgencies “have gone at least nine or 10 years.” 394

Petraeus also responded to recent criticisms made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.), insisting that his formal evaluation of the security situation, due in September, would be “a forthright assessment of what we’ve achieved and what we haven’t achieved.” Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the second-ranking U.S. military commander in Iraq, June 17 stated that only about 40% of Baghdad was under control and “really very safe on a routine basis.” Roughly 30% of the capital was not under control, he said, and another 30% was comprised of “hot spots” experiencing “a high level of violence.” Odierno added, however, that the additional forces would allow the U.S. to enter several more regions in and around Baghdad, particularly neighborhoods in the southeast and villages to the south. U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. John Allen, the deputy commander for U.S. forces west of Baghdad, June 21 forecast that Al Qaeda militants would be pushed out of Fallujah and Karmah by August. Allen said the troop surge and cooperation from Sunni tribes were responsible for recent successes there. U.S. Troops Battle Insurgents in Diyala—

U.S. forces June 16–20 struck insurgents in Diyala province, in what was called Operation Arrowhead Ripper, focusing on Baqubah, the provincial capital. U.S. helicopters near Muqdadiyah June 16 killed six insurgents as they were planting a roadside bomb. Roughly 10,000 U.S. troops June 19 pushed into Baqubah and Diyala province, bolstered by roughly 3,000 or more Iraqi troops. The joint forces were aided by fighters from two Sunni insurgent groups—the 1920 Revolution Brigades and the Islamic Army in Iraq, both operating under the umbrella group, the United Jihad Factions Council—that had turned against Al Qaeda. The push used helicopters and armored vehicles, and targeted western Baqubah, an area where Al Qaeda forces had taken root and implemented strict Islamic law, and were allegedly building car and truck bombs. The U.S. said at least 22 insurgents were killed, and detained fighters were tested for explosives residue and had their biometric data, including fingerprints and retina scans, recorded. Safe houses were uncovered, some of them containing torture devices, according to Iraqi commanders. Heavy fighting June 20–21 continued in Baqubah. The U.S. military June 20 announced that 41 insurgents and one U.S. soldier had died in the fighting so far, and that tips from residents had helped them uncover several roadside bombs and bomb-rigged houses. Car and roadside bomb factories and an insurgent medical aid station were also found. Coalition Fights Militia South of Capital—

Iraqi, U.S. and British forces June 18–21 fought with members of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia affiliated with radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, south of Baghdad. Reports of casualties varied widely. Iraqi forces June 18–19 battled the Mahdi Army in Nasiriyah, 200 miles (320 km)

southeast of Baghdad, with reports emerging of as many as 30 people being killed, and 150 more being wounded. Police said several Iranian-made rockets were seized from the militants. Fighting in Nasiriyah June 20 mostly died down. The U.S. military said it had entered into the two-day battle by hitting the Mahdi Army with air strikes. The military said three militants had been killed, including a Mahdi Army leader, and 45 more were wounded. It added that there were 30 casualties among the Iraq forces, but did not specify how many were deaths. The Washington Post June 21 quoted a spokesman for Sadr as stating that 11 Mahdi Army members and 40 police had been killed in the fighting. Coalition forces, perhaps in conjunction with Iraqi forces, June 18 had fought Shiite militants in two towns just north of Basra in Maysan province, allegedly safe havens for operatives working on behalf of Iran. The fighting resulted from raids, authorized by Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki, against a network believed to be transporting roadside bombs and other munitions into the country from Iran. Air strikes were called in, and at least 20 people were killed, though Iraqi sources claimed the dead were civilians. Several militants were detained. Five Iraqi soldiers June 20 were killed by a roadside bomb just south of the capital. Iraqi forces that day battled the Mahdi Army in the town of Numaniyah, about 75 miles southeast of Baghdad. Four Iraqi soldiers were killed in the fight. The U.S. military June 21 said operations south of the capital had resulted in the arrest of 60 people and the destruction of 17 boats believed to have been used by Sunni insurgents to travel the Tigris River.

Facts On File

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FACTS ON FILE

Sunni Mosques Destroyed Near Basra—

Two Sunni mosques June 15–16 were destroyed in and around the city of Basra, apparently in reprisal for the destruction of the minarets at the Shiite Askariya shrine in Samarra days earlier. [See p. 374A1] The first mosque was destroyed by explosives June 15 south of Basra. Witnesses gave conflicting reports of uniformed men or men posing as video journalists entering the mosque prior to a large explosion. The government imposed a curfew on the city in response, and the security detail at the mosque was placed under arrest. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of predominantly Shiite Iran, June 15 said the Askariya bombing had been planned by the U.S. and carried out by Sunni militants in an attempt to provoke a civil war in Iraq between Shiites and Sunnis. The second Sunni mosque was destroyed by explosives June 16 in Basra. Witnesses claimed that security forces left upon the arrival of several gunmen, allowing them to plant the explosives, and that the bombers left Shiite graffiti behind. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr June 16 called on his supporters to engage in a pilgrimage march to Samarra, which he set for July, saying it was a “duty” for them to protect Shiite shrines. The march, if carried out, would likely be a target of Sunni militants, and would pose a massive security challenge for the government. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari June 17 said sectarian unity and government efforts, and curfews in particular, had prevented widespread reprisals. He acknowledged, however, “some breaches” in security in Samarra. Traffic and commerce returned to Baghdad that day as the curfew was lifted. The U.S. military June 18 said Iraqi forces had arrested four suspects in the Askariya bombing, and seized a large cache of weapons. Although several mosques were reportedly destroyed or damaged in the wake of the Askariya bombing, sectarian violence was less intense than after the February 2006 Askariya bombing, which shattered the shrine’s golden dome. Truck Bomb Kills 87 in Baghdad—A suicide truck bomb in central Baghdad June 19 targeted a Shiite mosque next to a market square, killing at least 87 people and wounding at least 200 more. The bomber struck as worshippers left a prayer service. The blast set cars on fire and destroyed several storefronts. The mosque’s sanctuary was largely undamaged, though some rooms and walls associated with the mosque were destroyed. It was the deadliets bombing since an April car bombing killed at least 127 people. [See p. 239A1] Maliki denounced the attack, calling it an attempt by members of former President Saddam Hussein’s regime and takfiris— extremist Sunnis who viewed Shiites as heretics—to “stir sectarian strife.” Maliki that day also fired Basra’s police chief for failing to prevent the destruction of the Sunni mosques. Insurgents June 19–20 bombed three Sunni mosques north of Hilla, destroying June 21, 2007

at least two of them. No one was killed or injured in the blasts. Gates Puts Pressure on Maliki— Gates June 15 arrived in Baghdad in order to meet with Maliki and urge him to step up efforts on constitutional reforms and political reconciliation. Speaking to reporters on his arrival, Gates said he intended to tell Maliki “that our troops are buying them time to pursue reconciliation, that frankly we are disappointed by the progress so far.” Maliki was a Shiite, as were most of his supporters, and many Shiites refused to engage in political dialogue with Sunnis until the violence ended. Gates also spoke in support of recent U.S. efforts to arm Sunni militants who had turned against Al Qaeda. “Perhaps we have gotten too focused on the central government, and not enough on the provinces, and on the tribes and what is happening in those areas,” he said. [See p. 374B3] Gates and Maliki met June 16, and the premier’s aides reported afterward that Gates had pressed for the completion of legislative reforms by September, while Maliki had objected to U.S. efforts to arm Sunnis. U.S. President George W. Bush June 18 spoke with Maliki by telephone. Without giving details, a Bush spokesman said the president was “reassured” by the conversation. Maliki Blasts U.S. for Arming Sunnis—

Newsweek magazine June 16 published an interview with Maliki on the Internet, in which the premier said Sunni militants should only be armed “on the condition that we should be well aware of [their] tribe’s background and sure that it is not connected with terror.” Maliki also complained that the U.S. was “dictating” what the Iraqi government should do. He added that draft bills on several reform and reconciliation items—including the sharing of oil revenues, allowing members of Hussein’s Baath party to hold government posts and provincial elections—were “all ready and will be submitted to the parliament next week.” The Washington Post June 18 quoted several Shiite and ethnic Kurdish lawmakers as opposing the practice of arming Sunni militants. Ali al-Adeeb, a Shiite legislator, said the U.S. was making the mistake of “trusting people who have previously attacked American forces and innocent people. They are trusting people who are loyal to the regime of Saddam Hussein.” Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator, said the Sunni fighters might accept arms and money, but that “in the future they will be a problem. Politically, they are still against the Americans and the Iraqi government.” A Sunni legislator, Mithal Alusi, defended the practice as necessary to deal with Al Qaeda. “We are very thankful for the American process and the American point of view,” he said. Allen June 21 insisted that, despite Maliki’s concerns, the Sunni fighters were being trained and integrated in a way that “tied them to the central government and coalition forces.”

The Washington Post June 21 reported that Adel Abdul Mahdi, the Shiite vice president, had submitted his resignation to Maliki after the destruction of the minarets at Askariya, citing dissatisfaction with the government’s job in bringing security to Iraq. His resignation, however, had yet to be recognized by the government. “The two minarets were as important to us as September 11,” he was quoted as saying, referring to the 2001 destruction of New York City’s World Trade Center in terrorist attacks, “and we should be accountable to the people.” He added, “We should be doing more to move in a positive direction—on corruption, accountability and defending the important sites.” The article cited disenchantment with Maliki in many quarters. Humam Hamoudi, a senior member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), the largest Shiite bloc in parliament, said the next two months would help determine whether Maliki remained, “or whether we go into the crisis of looking for another prime minister.” Petraeus Gives Details on Britons—The Times newspaper of Britain June 21 published an interview with Petraeus, during which he said a “secret cell” of the Mahdi Army was responsible for the May abduction of five Britons. He said the cell was trained, equipped, advised and funded by Iran. “They are not rank-and-file Jaish alMahdi,” he said, using the Arabic name for the militia. “The Iranian involvement here we have found to be much, much more significant than we thought before,” he added. [See p. 368B2] In a related development, the U.S. military June 16 had said the identity cards of two missing soldiers had been found June 9 during a raid on an Al Qaeda safe house near Samarra. However, no information about the whereabouts or condition of the two soldiers, Spec. Alex Jimenez and Pvt. Byron Fouty, was found. The two had been kidnapped south of Baghdad in May. The safe house contained video equipment, computers and various weapons. [See p. 368B2] In another related development, the bodies of at least 13 members of Iraq’s 15member Olympic tae kwon do team June 16 were found in Anbar province, all of them shot and severely decomposed. They were found by members of the Anbar Salvation Council—a group of Sunni tribal fighters challenging Al Qaeda—after an Al Qaeda captive revealed their location. The bodies were taken for DNA testing. The team had been kidnapped in May 2006, and a ransom had been demanded. [See 2006, p. 397D3]

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Two Dozen Boys Found Starved—CBS

News June 18 reported that U.S. troops in Baghdad had recently found 24 emaciated, naked boys in a government-run orphanage serving children with special needs. The children, discovered June 10, were either lying in the sun in 120° F (49° C) heat or left in unlit rooms with no windows. Many of them were covered in their own feces and urine, or tied to their beds. They had apparently been left in squalor for more than a month. The troops found 395

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ample supplies of food and clothing at the site, though it was thought that the staffers might have been selling the supplies on the black market. The head of the orphanage and two staff members vanished soon after the discovery, though two guards were placed in government custody. U.S. forces provided immediate medical attention to the children, while the Iraqi army and local residents and officials took over caring for them in the longer term. The U.S. military June 20 clarified that Iraqi soldiers had played a role in the discovery of the children, ages three to 15. Labor and Social Affairs Minister Mahmoud Mohammed al-Radhi that day dismissed the accounts of the incident. “We totally reject the tricks they used to manipulate and distort facts and show the Americans as the humanitarian party,” he said. Radhi said the children had been abandoned by their families and would have died if not for the orphanage. Maliki June 20 reportedly ordered an investigation into the facility. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Japan’s parliament June 20 voted to extend its mission in Iraq by another two years. Japan’s government provided air transportation for United Nations and coalition personnel and supplies from Kuwait to Iraq. † The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) June 19 said 1.5 million Iraqis made up the second-largest group of refugees managed by the agency, second only to the 2.1 million Afghan refugees. (The 4.3 million Palestinian refugees were managed by a different agency.) † Iran June 15 said three of its diplomats had been detained, first by Iraqi forces, and then by U.S. forces, while traveling back to Iran that day. The officials said the U.S. had interrogated the diplomats after the Iraqis handed them over. Iraqi officials insisted that the diplomats had been released by Iraq, and subsequently rearrested by the U.S. The diplomats were released back to Iran’s embassy that day. [See p. 11D1] Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq June 15–21: † The U.S. military June 21 reported that 14 soldiers had been killed in the previous two days. Five of them died June 21 in a roadside bombing in northeastern Baghdad that also killed an Iraqi interpreter and three civilians. Four more soldiers had been killed June 20 by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad. † A suicide truck bomb June 21 struck a municipal building roughly 50 miles south of Kirkuk, killing at least 13 people and wounding at least 70 more. † Eight Christian students traveling in Mosul June 20 were kidnapped along with their professor. † Barrages of mortars and rockets June 19 and June 21 hit Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, though no casualties were reported in either attack. U.S. officials June 20 acknowledged “an increasing pattern of 396

attacks” on the Green Zone, where many government, military and diplomatic offices were located. [See pp. 369A2, 306C2] † Rev. Hani Abdel Ahad, a Chaldean Catholic priest kidnapped earlier in the month in northeast Baghdad, June 17 was released. Four youths kidnapped along with him had already been set free. [See p. 369F2] † Twin car bombs in southern Baghdad June 18 struck a line of people waiting to buy gasoline, killing at least seven and wounding at least 25 more. † The U.S. military June 17 said weekend operations in Baghdad, Mosul, Anbar province and elsewhere in the country had resulted in the deaths of 10 suspected insurgents and the detention of 20 more, as well as the seizing of bomb-making materials. † A car bomb June 17 exploded near a market in Fallujah, killing at least three people and wounding at least 10 more. † Iraqi and coalition forces June 16 killed one militant and detained 10 suspected terrorists in a raid in Sadr City, a huge Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. The leader of a terrorist cell was reportedly among those arrested. † The U.S. military June 15 said one of its war planes, an F-16 fighter jet, crashed that day roughly 45 miles north of Baghdad while “on a close-air-support mission.” The condition of the pilot, the sole occupant, was not given. The cause of the crash was under investigation. „

Other International News Rushdie Knighted; Iran, Pakistan Protest.

Queen Elizabeth II of Britain June 15 conferred a knighthood on novelist Salman Rushdie, among 20 others so recognized on the queen’s annual birthday honors list. Rushdie’s knighthood sparked protests in Iran and Pakistan, where government officials denounced the honor as a deliberate British insult against Muslims. In 1989, Iran had condemned Rushdie to death for allegedly committing blasphemy against the prophet Muhammad in his novel The Satanic Verses. [See 2006, p. 209A1; 1989, p. 106D1] Rushdie, 60, had been born in India to a Muslim family. He had become a British citizen, and one of the most prominent living English-language novelists. He had been forced to go into hiding for a decade after Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa, or religious edict, against him. A spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry June 17 warned that “honoring and commending an apostate and hated figure” would put Britain into “confrontation with Islamic societies.” Pakistan’s minister for religious affairs, Ejaz ul-Haq, June 18 was reported to have said in a speech to the national assembly that suicide bombing would be a justified response to Rushdie’s knighthood. “If someone exploded a bomb on his body he would be right to do so unless the British

government apologizes and withdraws the ‘sir’ title,” ul-Haq said, according to the Reuters news agency. However, ul-Haq later that day said his remarks had been misreported. “I said the root cause [of terrorism] is that Muslims will see this knighthood going to someone committing blasphemy. There is a danger of people considering suicide attacks,” he said. Pakistan June 19 summoned Britain’s ambassador, Robert Brinkley, to hear a formal protest of the knighthood. The British Foreign Office said Brinkley had raised concerns about ul-Haq’s reported remarks. An Iranian state news agency June 20 said Iran’s foreign ministry had summoned British ambassador Geoffrey Adams and told him that it viewed the honor for Rushdie as a “provocative act.” At a June 20 meeting in London with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett said, “Obviously, we are sorry if there are people who have taken very much to heart this honor, which is after all for a lifelong body of literary work.” But she argued that Rushdie’s Muslim heritage showed that “people who are part of the Muslim faith are very much part of our whole wider community.” Zebari said the knighthood was “untimely” and would be “used by many quarters to exploit this issue outside its context.” Meanwhile, the protests spread to Malaysia, as about 30 members of a hardline Islamic party June 20 demonstrated outside the British embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the capital. „ Holocaust Mass Grave Found in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Jewish leaders June 5 said that workmen laying an underground pipeline in southern Ukraine had discovered a mass grave containing the remains of thousands of Jews killed by occupying Nazi German forces in 1941–42. The grave was discovered near the village of Gvozdavka-1, close to the site of a concentration camp formed in 1941 where some 4,000 people were believed to have died. [See 2001, p. 508G1] Ukraine’s Jewish population, put at up to three million before World War II, had been mostly wiped out by killings and deportations during the war. It was now estimated at about 250,000. Polish Girl’s Diary Published— Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum June 4 published the diary kept by a 14-year-old Jewish girl in Bedzin, Poland, chronicling the Nazi occupation there in 1943. The diary, which drew comparisons to the famed diary of Anne Frank, was published in Hebrew and English under the title Rutka’s Notebook. It had been discovered after World War II by the owner of the house where the author, Rutka Laskier, and her family had lived before being taken to the Auschwitz death camp later in 1943. She was believed to have been killed soon after arriving at Auschwitz. [See p. 104E2] „ FACTS ON FILE

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

2008 Presidential Campaign Bloomberg Leaves GOP, Stirs Talk of Run.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg June 19 announced that he had left the Republican Party and re-registered with no political affiliation. The move renewed speculation that the billionaire mayor was mulling an independent 2008 presidential run. But Bloomberg, 65, continued to be vague about his intentions. He had frequently denied that he was running for president, but had also refused to rule out the possibility. [See pp. 362G1, 361F2; 2005, p. 798C2] In a statement explaining his departure from the GOP, he said, “Although my plans for the future haven’t changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our city.” He added, “Any successful elected executive knows that real results are more important than partisan battles, and that good ideas should take precedence over rigid adherence to any particular political ideology.” At a June 20 news conference in New York, Bloomberg said it was his “intention” to complete his mayoral term, which ran through 2009. His June 19 announcement came while he was on a tour of California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said during a joint appearance in Los Angeles that Bloomberg would be “a great candidate.” At that event, a conference on nonpartisanship, Bloomberg said, “We do not have to accept the tired debate between the left and right, between Democrats and Republicans, between Congress and the White House.” Bloomberg June 18 had given a speech at the Mountain View, Calif., headquarters of Internet company Google Inc., where he said, “I think the country is in trouble.” Citing the war in Iraq, he said, “Our reputation has been hurt very badly in the last few years.” He also criticized Congress for inaction on immigration reform and other issues. [See p. 377A1] Polls suggested that the time might be ripe for an independent candidacy, with President George W. Bush and his Republican Party registering dismal public approval ratings, while the Democratic majorities in Congress fared just as poorly. However, no independent had won the presidency in the past century. There were already two prominent New York candidates in the race, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton leading the Democratic field in national polls and Bloomberg’s predecessor as mayor, Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, atop the Republican field. Bloomberg, a lifelong Democrat, had switched parties for his first mayoral campaign in 2001, a maneuver widely seen as a tactical ploy to avoid a crowded Democratic primary. He won reelection as a Republican in 2005. However, he took liberal stands on most issues, backing gun control, abortion rights and gay marriage, putting him at odds with many Republicans. June 21, 2007

Skeptics said Bloomberg was just flirting with a presidential bid because the national attention it brought would help him avoid lame-duck status in the final years of his mayoralty. Bloomberg had said he intended to devote himself to philanthropy after leaving the mayor’s office. Self-Financing Ability Gives Clout—

Bloomberg’s potential candidacy was taken seriously because of his ability to fund his own campaign. Some observers said his deep pockets allowed him to defer a decision on entering the race until early in 2008. As the founder of financial news company Bloomberg LP, his fortune was estimated at more than $5 billion. That would likely allow him to spend more on a self-financed campaign than either majorparty candidate could raise from contributors. He had spent more than $150 million of his own money on his two mayoral campaigns. The last self-financed third-party candidate to have a big impact in a presidential election was Texas billionaire businessman and Reform Party founder Ross Perot. Perot won about 19% of the vote in the 1992 election, but slipped to 8.4% in 1996. [See 1997, p. 338E1; 1992, p. 829A1] „

CIA Leak Investigation Libby Ordered to Prison During Appeal.

Judge Reggie Walton of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., June 14 rejected a request by I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, to remain free while he appealed his conviction on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Walton ordered Libby to report to a federal prison within six to eight weeks. Walton earlier in June had sentenced Libby to 30 months in prison. [See p. 360A1] Walton said that he did not consider Libby likely to prevail on appeal, and that he should be subject to the same standard as would be applied to any ordinary defendant. Walton during the hearing also noted for the record that he had received letters threatening him and his family over the sentence he had handed down in the case. He also expressed annoyance with a brief submitted in support of Libby’s bid to remain free by a group of legal scholars, mostly conservatives, including onetime Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and well-known Harvard University professor Alan Dershowitz. Walton said it was “not persuasive,” adding that it was “not something I would expect from a first-year law student.” Libby June 19 appealed Walton’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. „

Legislation Bush Again Vetoes Stem Cell Bill. President George W. Bush June 20 vetoed for the second time a bill that would provide federal funding for new embryonic stem cell research. Bush in August 2001 had is-

sued an executive order prohibiting federal funding of any new embryonic stem cell lines for research, citing moral concerns that to do so would endorse the destruction of human embryos. Stem cell research was believed by experts to hold the potential for yielding treatments and cures for a variety of illnesses. [See p. 363F1] “Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical,” Bush said at a June 20 veto ceremony. He added that the U.S. was “a nation founded on the principle that all human life is sacred.” The Senate had passed the bill in April, and the House June 7 had passed a final version of the measure. However, both the Senate and House votes had lacked the two-thirds supermajority needed to override a veto. Bush June 20 also signed an executive order encouraging scientists to engage in forms of stem cell research that did not require the destruction of embryos. However, the order did not provide any additional funding, and skeptics called it a diversion from the veto, noting that nonembryonic stem cell research was already being performed by scientists. Federally funded stem cell research was supported by a majority of Americans in polls, and members of Bush’s own Republican Party had increasingly come to back it. Supporters of the research argued that it was needed to advance medical treatment, and that it relied on embryos that were slated for destruction anyway. Bush’s veto was expected to make embryonic stem cell research a leading issue in the 2008 presidential election. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.), the two Democratic frontrunners, June 20 both issued statements supporting federal funds for embryonic stem cell research. Two top Republican contenders, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, had also backed stem cell research. However, another prominent Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, now opposed it, having reversed his previous position. „

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Fiscal 2008 Spending Bills House Reaches Deal on Earmark Process.

Democratic and Republican leaders in the House June 14 announced a deal to bring greater scrutiny to earmarks, or funding provisions for individual pet projects attached to larger spending bills. Members of the Republican minority had blocked the 12 annual appropriations bills, demanding that the Democrats agree to add earmarks to the bills before they came to an initial vote, not afterwards during House–Senate conference committee sessions. The Democrats finally agreed to a compromise. [See pp. 398C1, 15B1] Under the deal, the first two spending bills, for homeland security and for military construction and veterans’ affairs, advanced to a vote without earmarks. The earmarks would be added later, in conference committees with the Senate. 397

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The energy and water bill, which traditionally included a large number of earmarks, would also go to a floor vote without earmarks. But the House would vote separately on a package of earmarks that would be added to the bill before it was sent to the Senate. The other nine spending bills would include earmarks when they went to the House floor for a vote, allowing lawmakers to debate the merits of the individual funding requests and try to strip some of them from the bills. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D, Wis.) had proposed waiting until the House–Senate conference committees to add earmarks, and promised to issue a list of proposed earmarks before those panels met. He argued that staff members needed more time to review the thousands of funding requests. But Republicans objected that closed-door conference committees would keep the earmarking process shrouded in secrecy. In January, the House had passed a new rule that required members to attach their names to their earmarks for the first time, in order to make the practice more open. Earmarking had come under heightened scrutiny after a series of scandals in the past two years while Congress was still under Republican control. In 2005, Rep. Randy Cunningham (R, Calif.) had resigned his seat and pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from military contractors in exchange for earmarks. „ House Passes Homeland Security Bill.

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The House June 15 voted, 268–150, to pass an appropriations bill that would provide $37.4 billion in funding to the Department of Homeland Security in fiscal year 2008, which would start Oct. 1. President George W. Bush had threatened to veto the bill because it exceeded his budget proposal by about $2.1 billion, and also because it included other provisions he was opposed to, such as a requirement for department contractors to pay wages equal to the prevailing local rate. The Senate had not yet voted on its version of the bill. [See pp. 397E3, 312G3] The bill would provide $8.8 billion for customs and border enforcement; $8.4 billion for the Coast Guard; and $3.8 billion for the Transportation Security Administration, or $6.6 billion including fees. It would give $7.1 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), or 41% more than Bush had requested and 20% more than it received in fiscal 2007. The bill would also allocate $950 million in state and local grants, or triple Bush’s request, and $800 million for port and rail security, doubling Bush’s request. The House voted, 379–45, to approve an amendment that would prevent the department from spending any funds on the implementation of new passport rules before June 2009. The department had set a deadline of Jan. 1, 2008, for U.S. citizens traveling by land or sea to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean to carry passports. The House amendment, offered by Rep. Steven LaTourette (R, Ohio), would effectively delay that change. The passport rule had al398

ready taken effect in January for air travel. [See p. 47F3] „ House Passes Military Building–Veterans Bill.

The House June 15 voted, 409–2, to pass a fiscal 2008 appropriations bill with $109.2 billion in funding for military construction and veterans affairs. The bill included $87.7 billion for Department of Veterans Affairs benefits and medical programs. That was $3.8 billion more than President George W. Bush had requested, and a $9.9 billion increase from fiscal 2007. [See pp. 397E3, 94E3] Bush had criticized the extra spending, but did not issue a veto threat, since the money for veterans had strong bipartisan support at a time when U.S. troops were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would also allocate $21.6 billion to the Defense Department for military construction, family housing and baseclosing expenses. „

Bush Administration Budget Chief Portman Quits; Nussle Tapped.

White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Rob Portman June 19 said he was resigning, and President George W. Bush announced that he was nominating former Rep. Jim Nussle (R, Iowa) to fill the post. [See 2006, p. 295A2] Portman, 51, had served as budget director since May 2006. He had been U.S. trade representative for a year before that, and previously had served in the House for six terms. He said he was considering a run for governor in Ohio in 2010. Nussle, 46, had been chairman of the House Budget Committee for six years, before giving up his House seat in an unsuccessful run for governor of Iowa. Unlike Portman, who was known for a bipartisan approach, Nussle was known for a more confrontational style that had rankled Democrats. [See 2006, p. 861C1] The personnel change came as the White House prepared for a showdown over spending with the Democratic-controlled Congress. Bush had threatened to veto any annual appropriations bills that exceeded the spending limits he had laid out in his February budget proposal. [See p. 330D1] „

Supreme Court Home-Care Worker Denied Overtime Pay.

The Supreme Court June 11 unanimously ruled that Evelyn Coke, a home health-care worker, was not entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay guarantees provided by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court said the language of the law did not establish clearly that home-care workers were to be included under its protection. It said it would have to bow to the Labor Department’s interpretation, which denied homecare workers employed by third parties the federal guarantees. The case was Long Island Care at Home Ltd. v. Coke. [See p. 363A2; 2004, p. 370A2] Coke in 2002 had sued Long Island Care at Home, a home-care aide agency in West-

bury, N.Y., under the Fair Labor Standards Act for not paying her overtime during her more than 20-year career. She cited her long hours and the occasional overnight assistance she gave to clients. Home-care workers provided assistance to the elderly, sick, and disabled in their own homes so they would not have to live in assistedliving facilities or nursing homes. A federal district court dismissed the suit, but Coke won on appeal in 2004. Coke’s lawyers argued that the Supreme Court should uphold the verdict of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City, which had ruled that the exemption of home-care workers did not jibe with farreaching amendments to the law made in 1974, when Congress was increasing the scope of who qualified for the minimum wage and overtime pay. The Supreme Court overturned the appellate decision. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing the opinion of the court, said the law did not show a clear intent by Congress to include home-care workers under the law’s protections. He said Congress had given the Labor Department discretionary powers regarding the application of the law, and thus the court had to defer to the department’s interpretation as long as the law itself was “reasonable.” Labor unions and women’s rights groups criticized the decision, saying it perpetuated unfair job conditions for the nation’s 1.4 million home-care workers, most of whom were women, and discouraged people from taking home-care jobs. However, home-care agencies and government officials hailed the decision, because it would stop costs from spiking and keep the home-care system commercially viable. The office of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) had filed an amicus brief to the court, saying if the appellate court’s verdict was upheld, the city would have to pay $250 million more a year through Medicaid. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D, Mass.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said later in the day that he would try to amend the law so that home-care workers would receive “the dignity and respect they deserve.” „ Tobacco Company’s Claim Rejected. The Supreme Court June 11 ruled unanimously that cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris could not move the venue of a class-action against it from a state court to a federal court. The case was Watson v. Philip Morris Cos. [See p. 282A2] Philip Morris, a part of Altria Group Inc., had claimed that since it was a federally regulated company it should be tried in a federal court. The company’s lawyers cited an 1812 statute that gave protection from the interference of state courts to those acting under an officer of the government. Since 1999, Altria had managed to move several pending lawsuits from state courts to federal courts. Federal courts were widely viewed by companies to be more sympathetic to their interests, and some cases against Philip Morris had been thrown out by federal courts. FACTS ON FILE

Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing the court’s opinion, said Philip Morris did not meet the requirements of the statute merely by being a regulated company, and ordered the case to be heard by a state court in Little Rock, Ark. The plaintiffs, Lisa Watson and Loretta Lawson, had charged Philip Morris under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act for tricking federal regulators and customers into believing their “light” cigarettes contained less tar and nicotine than they actually did. Other News—In other Supreme Court decisions June 11: † The court ruled unanimously in United States v. Atlantic Research Corp. that if a company voluntarily cleaned up hazardous material it could sue to collect compensation from the government under the Superfund law. Atlantic Research Corp. had cleaned rocket propellant contamination that had leached into the soil and groundwater at an industrial site in Camden, Ark., after it had been contracted by the government to retrofit rocket motors. † The court ruled unanimously in Beck v. PACE International Union that a papermill company did not have to consider an offer to combine its benefit pension plan with that of a union pension fund. The company was going bankrupt and could terminate the plan if it so chose. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said the proposed merger was unlawful. † The court accepted Kimbrough v. United States, in which the court would have to decide whether a judge had erred by giving a convicted drug dealer a sentence below the minimum suggested by federal guidelines. The judge, Raymond Jackson of U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va., had given the defendant, Derrick Kimbrough, 15 years in jail as opposed to the 19 to 22 recommended in the guidelines for dealing crack cocaine. „ Banks Protected From IPO Antitrust Suits.

The Supreme Court June 18 ruled, 7–1, that a private antitrust suit could not be brought against a group of investment banks accused of collaborating to inflate companies’ initial public offering (IPO) prices. At issue was whether underwriters, banks in charge of selling a company’s newly issued stock to investors, could be tried under federal antitrust laws if the alleged offenses were already subject to punishment by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The case was Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC v. Billing. [See pp. 332B1, 108E2] A group of 60 investors had filed a class-action antitrust lawsuit in 2002 against 10 investment banks—including Credit Suisse Group, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley—for driving up prices on stocks of technology companies during the so-called dot-com bubble of the 1990s, leading to losses for the investors when the stocks’ value fell. The investors accused the banks of colluding to sell highly desirable IPO shares to investors only under certain conditions. An investor had to buy more shares of the June 21, 2007

company at a later date when prices had risen, which pumped up prices further; pay increased commissions to the banks on future stock purchases; and buy other, less sought-after stocks from the banks. Some of the banks had already settled with the SEC regarding similar charges. However, the banks would have faced three times the damages if convicted in a federal antitrust suit. The initial suit was dismissed by a district court, but the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City reinstated it in 2005. The Supreme Court overturned the appellate court’s decision. [See 2005, p. 228C1; 2002, 189F3] Justice Stephen G. Breyer, in his majority opinion joined by five other justices, said the SEC alone had jurisdiction over legal questions surrounding underwriting practices. He said antitrust lawsuits could result in “unusually serious mistakes,” because securities markets involved highly complex transactions, and layman juries were not as informed as experts employed by the SEC. He said those mistakes could cause antitrust statutes and SEC laws to conflict, which would hinder the healthy workings of the securities market. Breyer was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter and Samuel A. Alito Jr. Justice John Paul Stevens agreed with the verdict, but opposed its rationale. In a separate opinion, he said the main issue was simply that the banks had not committed an antitrust violation. He said that because investors could freely choose between newly issued stocks and countless other available investment vehicles, trade could not be restricted by the banks’ practices. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, saying securities law allowed plaintiffs to pursue other avenues for claims, including antitrust suits. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy did not participate in the decision. „ Dismissal of Inmate’s Appeal Upheld. The Supreme Court June 14 upheld, 5–4, an appellate court’s decision to deny an appeal to an inmate because he filed his notice two days late. The inmate, Keith Bowles, had argued that his case should fall under the “unique circumstances” doctrine, because a federal district judge mistakenly told him he had 17 days to file his notice of appeal instead of 14, which was what the law actually stated. Bowles filed his notice of appeal a day before the 17-day deadline the judge gave him was up. The case was Bowles v. Russell. [See p. 346A1] Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, acknowledged that the “unique circumstances” doctrine had precedent in Supreme Court rulings. The court used it to relax jurisdictional rules when unusual circumstances prevented someone from abiding by those rules. However, Thomas said its use had to be considered “illegitimate.” He said only Congress had the authority to grant such exceptions. Thomas was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

In dissent were Justices David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens and Stephen G. Breyer. Souter, writing for the minority, said, “It is intolerable for the judicial system to treat people this way.” He added that the ruling went against Supreme Court precedents that took a more lenient approach to jurisdictional requirements. He said, “The majority leaves the court incoherent.” „

Law Enforcement Duke Case Prosecutor Disbarred. The bar association of North Carolina June 16 disbarred Durham County District Attorney Michael Nifong, who in 2006 had brought charges against three Duke University lacrosse players for alleged sexual assault. The association concluded that Nifong had pursued the case despite a lack of evidence, had made prejudicial statements, and had misled defense lawyers and a judge about the results of DNA tests conducted as part of his investigation. Nifong in January was removed from the case, and the charges were later dropped and the students pronounced innocent. (One of the acquitted players, Reade Seligmann, testified at the bar hearing.) [See p. 224A2] Nifong June 15 had already submitted his resignation, effective July 13, and apologized to the three players. After the panel’s verdict June 16, he surrendered his law license. North Carolina Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson Jr. June 18 announced that he was immediately suspending Nifong as district attorney, with pay. Duke June 18 announced a financial settlement with the exonerated students that would shield the school from legal claims stemming from the lacrosse team scandal. The terms were not disclosed. „

Medicare & Medicaid Providers Halt Marketing of Private Plans.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) June 15 said that seven private insurers would temporarily halt marketing private “Medicare Advantage” plans to seniors, due to complaints that salespeople had used unethical or illegal sales tactics. Insurance agents for Medicare Advantage plans in 39 states had enrolled mentally incompetent seniors, posed as Medicare officials and misled enrollees about aspects of the plans, the Washington Post had reported May 16. [See p. 159D2] Medicare Advantage plans, including “fee-for-service” plans, offered enrollees fewer restrictions on benefits, but were often more expensive for beneficiaries than government-provided Medicare. Some were not accepted by health care providers. Several Medicare Advantage plans required enrollees to pay premiums to both the federal government and the private insurer. Medicare Advantage plans had grown in popularity in recent years to enroll roughly 20% of Medicare beneficiaries. According to the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee, the Medicare Advantage 399

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plans cost the federal government an average of 19% more than the traditional Medicare program. A Senate investigation had found that illegal or misleading tactics used by insurance agents selling Medicare Advantage plans had led to several criminal and civil cases, the Post reported. Agents had enrolled dead people in their plans, forged signatures on policies and lied to clients, according to the report. Some agents had also reportedly deceived seniors into purchasing Medicare Advantage plans that they could not afford. The agents sometimes received incentives, including cash bonuses and vacations, for enrolling Medicare beneficiaries in the private programs. Oklahoma’s insurance commissioner, Kim Holland, May 14 said several instances of misconduct had been documented in an investigation into the Medicare Advantage marketing practices of Humana Inc., one of the biggest plan providers. Holland said that 68 agents lacked licenses to sell insurance in Oklahoma, and that agents had enrolled seniors in plans “they did not understand and did not want.” The companies that agreed June 15 to halt their marketing efforts were Humana, UnitedHealth Group Inc., WellCare Health Plans Inc., Universal American Financial Corp., Coventry Health Care Inc., Sterling Life Insurance Co. and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Inc. Other News—In other Medicare and Medicaid news: † Senior citizens’ advocacy and lobbying group AARP April 16 said it would form a health maintenance organization (HMO) to serve Medicare enrollees and people between the ages of 50 and 64 who lacked health insurance. The plan, set to begin in 2008, would make AARP the largest private health insurance provider for Medicare beneficiaries. AARP already provided supplemental Medicare policies and prescription drug insurance to Medicare recipients. The new HMO products would be marketed in coordination with UnitedHealth Group. The other products, targeted toward the uninsured, would be marketed with Aetna Inc. Some Medicare advocates said AARP’s plans would create several potential conflicts of interest between its business and its lobbying efforts. [See 2006, p. 549A2] † The Bush administration March 20 said infants born to illegal immigrants in the U.S. would automatically be eligible for one year of Medicaid benefits, the same level of benefits available to children of U.S. citizens. However, adults and children over the age of one would still be required to have proof of citizenship in order to receive Medicaid benefits. CMS in July 2006 had adopted a new rule requiring parents of babies receiving emergency Medicaid coverage to show proof of their identity and citizenship. The new rule had been criticized as too burdensome, and had reportedly resulted in denial of coverage to children entitled to health care under the law. Some opposed to the new rule had noted that chil400

dren born in the U.S. were guaranteed access to Medicaid by the U.S. Constitution as citizens, if they qualified for it. [See p. 177F1] „

Consumer Affairs Poisoned Chinese Toothpaste Found in U.S. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

June 1 recommended that consumers dispose of all Chinese-produced toothpaste as a precautionary measure after the poisonous chemical diethylene glycol was discovered in Chinese toothpaste shipments in the U.S. Separately, RC2 Corp. June 14 voluntarily recalled Chinese-manufactured toys produced under its Thomas & Friends brand because they were coated with lead paint. [See below, p. 348F1] The announcements were the latest in a series of revelations regarding the safety of numerous products produced in China for export. U.S. health officials in April had discovered that Chinese-produced wheat flour used in pet food and animal feed sold in the U.S. had contained the chemical melamine. Several Latin American countries and Australia in May had seized shipments of toothpaste containing diethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze and brake fluid that had been used as a cheaper substitute for the harmless thickener glycerin. FDA officials June 1 said they had found 10 different brands of Chinese-made toothpaste containing diethylene glycol in Miami, Fla., Los Angeles, and Puerto Rico. The FDA said it had not received any reports of illness or death from the use of the poisoned toothpaste, but said the tainted products had a “low but meaningful risk of toxicity and injury” to people with liver and kidney disease, as well as children. Chinese-produced toothpaste constituted a minor portion of the U.S. market, and was generally sold in low-cost retail outlets. Colgate-Palmolive Co. June 14 said counterfeit versions of its Colgate brand toothpaste sold in four states contained diethylene glycol and should be recalled. The company said the counterfeit toothpaste tubes bore labels indicating that it was “Manufactured in South Africa,” but said it did not import toothpaste from that country. FDA officials had targeted the toothpaste for testing after noticing several misspellings on its label. Lead Paint Sparks Toy Train Recall—

Oak Brook, Ill.–based RC2 initiated its June 14 recall of more than 1.5 million toys after learning that red and yellow paint used to decorate them contained high levels of lead, which could cause neurological problems in children if ingested. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that Chinese-made product recalls had reached an annual record of 467 in 2006, it was reported June 19. China Rejects U.S. Safety Criticisms—

Li Yuanping, director general of China’s Import and Export Food Safety Bureau, May 30 defended the country’s food and product export safety protocols, saying 99% of Chinese shipments had been ap-

proved by U.S. inspectors over the past three years. Li also said China had been forced to turn away several imports of U.S. foods out of safety concerns. Wei Chuanzhong, a vice minister in China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the same day blamed a Panamanian import company for selling diethylene glycol as pure glycerin that ended up in cough syrup that killed at least several dozen people. Wei said the diethylene glycol had been produced in China and labeled as “TD glycerin,” a glycerin substitute. Wei said the chemical had been sold to a Spanish company, then resold to a Panamanian company, which had relabeled it as pure glycerin. However, Wei failed to explain why the Chinese companies that produced the chemical had listed it as 99.5% glycerin. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine June 9 posted on its Web site a statement calling the FDA’s warning on Chinese-produced toothpaste “unscientific, irresponsible and contradictory.” Chinese authorities said a small amount of diethylene glycol in toothpaste did not present a health hazard, a claim that U.S. officials rejected. Chinese officials June 8 said they had rejected or destroyed several U.S food products out of safety concerns. It remained unclear if the food products had presented a real health threat, or if China’s actions were political retribution. „

Business Former Qwest CEO Nacchio Found Guilty.

A jury in U.S. District Court in Denver, Colo., April 19 convicted former Qwest Communications International Inc. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Joseph Nacchio on 19 counts of insider trading. The jury found that Nacchio in 2001 had sold $52 million worth of Qwest stock knowing that the company would not reach its financial goals, while keeping that information from shareholders and analysts. The jury acquitted him of 23 other charges of insider trading. [See 2006, p. 406A2; 2005, p. 945B2] Each count carried a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of $1 million. Additionally, Nacchio faced a forfeiture of the $52 million worth of assets he gained illegally. Judge Edward Nottingham scheduled Nacchio’s sentencing for July 27. Nacchio’s conviction was the most recent in a spate of victories for the government in corporate crime prosecutions since 2002, when revelations of widespread corruption in the corporate world caused a public outcry. The Justice Department in 2006 said it had obtained more than 1,000 convictions or guilty pleas of corporate wrongdoing since that time, which included cases against high-profile executives at Enron Corp., Adelphia Communications Corp., Tyco International Ltd. and WorldCom Inc. [See 2002, p. 517A2] FACTS ON FILE

Prosecution Case—In closing arguments April 10, prosecutor Colleen Conry cited e-mails from Qwest executives to Nacchio that described his financial projections for the company as “unrealistic” and a “huge stretch.” Conry said the e-mails, along with testimony from former employees, were evidence that Nacchio was fully aware that the telecommunications company was faring poorly in 2001. She described his sale of more than $100 million worth of Qwest stock between January and May of 2001 as an attempt to salvage his own assets before the stock price crashed. During the trial, which began March 19, the prosecution had also called witnesses to establish that Nacchio had hidden Qwest’s downward slide from investors and analysts. Robin Szeliga, former Qwest chief financial officer, March 26 testified that Nacchio reduced the company’s 2001 expected revenue by $1 billion only after he told analysts that the company was on track for the initial projection. Szeliga also testified that she had told Nacchio repeatedly that the financial projections they were publicizing were too high. Szeliga had pleaded guilty to charges of insider trading in 2005. [See 2005, p. 439C2] Additionally, the prosecution attempted to convince the jury that Nacchio was involved in accounting practices that would artificially boost the amount of revenue Qwest was slated to receive. Lee Wolfe, a former executive, March 21 testified that Nacchio increased projected company growth by treating one-time sales of fiberoptic capacity as if they would keep generating revenue in the long term. Wolfe said Nacchio did not disclose this technique to investors and analysts. Defense Arguments—In closing arguments for the defense April 11, Herbert Stern argued that Nacchio sold his stock because the options on them were soon to expire, rather than because Qwest executives had told him the company was doing badly. He added that if Nacchio had been solely intent on averting a personal financial loss, he would have sold even more of his stock. Stern also rebutted the prosecution’s claim that Nacchio had known the company’s projections were off. He said Nacchio based those projections on advice from outside financial consultants who were in charge of analyzing the 1999 merger between Qwest and US West Inc. He conceded that Nacchio could have been mistaken about the projections, but argued that Nacchio did not have any solid information that said otherwise. The defense also said it would have been impossible for Nacchio to predict that the telecommunications market would founder so dramatically. [See 1999, p. 530A1] Philip Anschutz, the founder of Qwest, April 5 testified that Nacchio had wanted to resign from Qwest in early 2001 after learning that his son had attempted to commit suicide. The defense argued that Nacchio was under extreme pressure and too consumed with his son’s welfare to plot an insider trade. The defense also called an expert in stock trading who testified that Nacchio’s June 21, 2007

trading patterns were not unusually high in comparison with his past activities. The defense only called one other witness, a Catholic abbot presented as a character witness. In rebuttals the prosecution provided evidence that Nacchio was conducting business during his son’s hospitalization and that he had received a significant raise from Qwest to keep working during that time. The prosecution also challenged the analysis of Nacchio’s trading patterns, contending that they actually showed a pronounced spike of activity in the first quarter of 2001. In finding him guilty on 19 counts out of 42, the jury found that only $52 million of Nacchio’s stock sales from January to May 2001 were based on insider knowledge, not $100 million as the prosecution claimed. Nacchio also faced charges of fraud brought against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2005. [See 2005, p. 225C2] Nacchio Cites Government Contracts—

Nacchio had filed a motion under seal to the court objecting to Nottingham’s refusal to admit classified evidence that could have been used in his defense, the Washington Post reported April 11. Before his trial began in March, Nacchio had said one of his main pillars of defense was that he thought Qwest was on the verge of securing government contracts that would help Qwest reach its financial projections. Nacchio claimed no one else in the company knew of the contracts except him. In his motion, he wrote that the exclusion of the evidence violated his “constitutional right to mount a defense.” Lawyers for both the defense and prosecution had met with unidentified government agencies in closed hearings to discuss what classified evidence could be used in Nacchio’s defense. After Nottingham’s ruling, the jury heard little or none of it. The Wall Street Journal reported April 20 that the evidence was expected to be a part of Nacchio’s appeal. „

State & Local Politics Republican Leppert Elected Dallas Mayor.

Tom Leppert, a former chairman and chief executive of Turner Corp., one of the U.S.’s largest construction firms, June 17 won the mayoral election in Dallas, Texas, in a runoff. Leppert, a Republican and political newcomer, won 58% of the vote, beating City Councilman Ed Oakley (D), who took 42%. Had he won, Oakley would have been the first openly gay candidate to be elected mayor of a major U.S. city. [See 2002, p. 155E2] Leppert, 53, and Oakley, 55, had advanced to the runoff from a May 12 first round with nine other candidates. The race was the most expensive in Dallas history, with Leppert spending more than $2 million and Oakley about $1.8 million. Leppert would succeed outgoing Mayor Laura Miller, who had held office since 2002 and did not seek reelection. „

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Deal Reached on Darfur Peacekeeping Force African Union, U.N. to Contribute Troops.

Sudanese negotiators in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, June 12 agreed to allow an international peacekeeping force of about 20,000 troops into Sudan’s Darfur region to halt ongoing violence against civilians that had left more than 200,000 people dead since 2003. The accord was reached with representatives of the United Nations and the African Union (AU), which would jointly supply the force. [See p. 343E2] An AU force of some 7,000 troops had been operating in Darfur since 2004, but had failed to protect civilians from an Arab militia, the Janjaweed, and was suffering increasing casualties and poor morale due to months of unpaid salaries. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had blocked U.N. peacekeepers from Darfur. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Zalmay Khalilzad, June 12 said the agreement appeared to stipulate that no non-African troops would be allowed into Darfur—a condition he called “unacceptable.” He said the U.S. was still weighing options for new sanctions against Sudan. Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, Sudan’s U.N. ambassador, denied any new conditions in the agreement. AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit said at a news conference in Addis Ababa, “We agreed that priority should be given to finding troops from Africa. If there are not enough contributions from Africa, then troops can be brought in from elsewhere.” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon praised the agreement. AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni called it a “breakthrough moment.” Sudanese officials, at a June 17 meeting with a delegation from the U.N. Security Council in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, reportedly dropped their conditions for the agreement, including the insistence on African troops. The accord would allow the U.N. to command the force while an African general took over its daily operations. Command of the force had been another point of contention with Sudan. The U.N. had not wanted to fund a peacekeeping mission that it did not have control over. Satellite Monitoring Launched—Human rights advocacy group Amnesty International and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) June 6 launched a Web site, www.eyesondarfur.org, devoted to high-resolution satellite monitoring of threatened populations in the region. The project aimed to detect evidence of violence in places otherwise difficult to access. The technology used for the project had previously produced evidence of government destruction of a settlement in Zimbabwe in 2005. [See 2005, p. 479C1] American actress Mia Farrow June 13 launched a public relations campaign to pressure China to use its economic clout 401

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with the Sudanese government to demand a halt to the Darfur conflict. The campaign linked Chinese actions in Darfur to China’s preparations to host the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the capital. China was a major investor in Sudan, but it was also concerned with using the Olympics to make a favorable impression on the world. Another Darfur advocacy movement, the Save Darfur Coalition, had come under criticism from relief agencies working in Darfur for endorsing actions, such as the imposition of a no-fly zone over Darfur, that they said could put aid workers at risk, the New York Times reported June 2. However, the coalition was widely credited with putting the conflict on the agendas of world leaders and pushing U.S. President George W. Bush’s recent decision to impose economic sanctions on Sudan. „

Africa News in Brief

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Cameroon: Plane Crash Kills 114. A Kenya Airways plane carrying 114 passengers and crew members May 5 crashed soon after taking off from the airport in Douala, Cameroon. The plane was bound for Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. It crashed into a swamp in southern Cameroon 12 miles (19 km) southeast of the airport, after taking off during a rainstorm. The six-month-old Boeing 737-800 jetliner went down in dense rain forest, and rescue workers did not locate the wreckage until some 40 hours after the crash. Investigators speculated that the plane’s two engines might have failed due to the rainstorm. [See 2006, p. 841B3; 2000, p. 68G3] „ Central African Republic: ICC Opens Probe.

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Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the lead prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands, May 22 said he would probe human rights abuses allegedly committed by the government of Central African Republic’s then-president, Ange-Felix Patasse, in the aftermath of a 2002 coup attempt led by Gen. Francois Bozize. Moreno-Ocampo said the probe would focus on at least 600 rapes, as well as murders, beatings and other violations, in a five-month period in late 2002 and early 2003. The probe was considered unique in that it focused on sexual violence, a prevalent but often overlooked war crime. Moreno-Ocampo said the ICC would seek to prosecute those who ran what he called an organized campaign of sexual violence. Bozize eventually succeeded in overthrowing Patasse in 2003. The country’s supreme court had referred the matter to the ICC in 2005, saying it did not have the means to prosecute the case itself. [See 2006, p. 785A2] „ Dem. Rep. of the Congo: Senate Head Elected.

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Leon Kengo wa Dondo, who had served as premier under former President Mobutu Sese Seko, May 11 was elected president of Congo’s Senate. Kengo, 71, defeated Leonard She Okitundu, the candidate of President Joseph Kabila’s Alliance for the Presidential Majority coaltion, 55–49, in a ballot in the 108-member body. Kengo had served under Mobutu from 1994 to 1997, 402

when he was forced to resign due to charges of stealing millions of dollars in government funds. He fled the country in April 1997, just before Mobutu was overthrown by Kabila’s father, Laurent Kabila. He returned to Congo in 2006, and supported losing candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba in an October 2006 runoff presidential election. His election as Senate president was seen as a blow to Kabila. [See p. 227A2; 1997, p. 265F3] „ Kenya: Police Battle Sect Members. Kenyan police June 4–5 killed at least 22 members of the outlawed Mungiki sect in Nairobi, the capital. The politically militant sect, which had been linked to extortion and murder, was believed to have been responsible for the beheadings of at least six people in central Kenya in May. The sect reportedly was comprised mainly of members of the Kikuyu ethnic group and took inspiration from the Mau Mau independence movement that was formed in opposition to British colonial rule in the 1950s. The police June 6 stepped up their efforts to crack down on the sect, raiding houses and making arrests in Nairobi’s Mathare slum. [See 2006, p. 822D2] „ Madagascar: Presidential Powers Expanded.

Voters in Madagascar April 4 cast ballots in a referendum on increasing the powers of the president and making English an official language, along with French and Malagasy. According to official results released April 11, more than 75% of voters supported the measure. Among the expanded presidential powers would be the ability to rule by decree in emergency situations. Voter turnout was low, at about 44%. [See 2006, p. 979E2] „ Mozambique: Blast in Capital Kills 103. An explosion at a military munitions depot in a densely populated neighborhood on the outskirts of Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, March 22 killed 103 people and wounded 515 others. The explosion also spewed unexploded munitions across the city and its suburbs. The Malhazine depot was filled with leftover munitions from the country’s civil war, which had ended in 1994. The government pledged to destroy old weapons and move arms depots away from populated areas. The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) April 12 reported that an investigation had attributed the blast to human error. [See 1994, p. 886B3] „ Rwanda:

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Released.

Former President Pasteur Bizimungu April 6 was released from prison after serving just under three years of a 15-year sentence for forming a militia that threatened national security, inciting ethnic violence and embezzling state funds. President Paul Kagame granted Bizimungu, his predecessor, a pardon on the 13th anniversary of the beginning of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, in which extremist Hutus had slaughtered more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Bizimungu, a Hutu, had become president after Tutsi rebels led by Kagame put an end to the genocide in June 1994. [See 2004, p. 448A2] „ Sierra Leone: Helicopter Crash Kills 22. A passenger helicopter June 3 exploded and

crashed at Lungi International Airport near Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, killing 22 people. Among those killed was Togo’s sports minister, Richard Attipoe, who was one of 18 followers of that country’s soccer team traveling in the helicopter. The team earlier that day had defeated Sierra Leone, 1–0, in an African Nations Cup qualifying match in Freetown. Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah June 5 issued a decree saying that Prince Harding, the country’s transport and communications minister, had been suspended as a result of the crash. The helicopter, which was shuttling the Togolese from the match to the airport, had reportedly been grounded for failing safety inspections. [See 2006, p. 523B1] „ Zambia: Ex-President Ordered to Repay Funds.

London’s High Court May 4 ruled that former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, who ruled form 1991 to 2002, had stolen millions of dollars from Zambian government coffers while in office. Ruling in a lawsuit brought by the Zambian government, the court ordered Chiluba and 19 associates to repay it at least $46 million. It was the first such civil corruption verdict of its kind against a current or former African head of state. An attempt to prosecute Chiluba in Zambia had stalled in 2004. The government had then sought justice in British courts based on evidence that Chiluba had laundered the money through two British law firms. The case was heard entirely in private sessions. Chiluba still faced corruption charges in Zambia. [See 2004, p. 1087D1] „

AMERICAS

Canada BCE Confirms Private Buyout Talks. BCE

Inc., Canada’s largest telecommunications firm, April 17 said it was holding talks with a group that included several Canadian pension funds and the U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) regarding a buyout to privatize the company. Pension funds in the group were the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and the federal Public Sector Pension Investment Board. [See p. 226E1; 2006, p. 1016B3] KKR was limited to minority partnership in the consortium in order to adhere to a Canadian law limiting foreign ownership of telecommunications firms to 46.67%. BCE May 23 announced that U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP was part of another consortium engaged in discussions to take BCE private. The Cerberus group included several Canadian investors that BCE did not identify. However, executives with the Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan May 24 and Canadian private equity firm Pacific Century Group May 31 acknowledged that they were part of the Cerberus consortium. [See p. 309E1] BCE June 5 said it had entered buyout discussions with a third group, led by the FACTS ON FILE

private investment wing of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which was already BCE’s largest shareholder with a 5.3% stake in the company. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan the same day said it had increased its BCE holdings to 6.3%. [See 2005, p. 878C2] A buyout of BCE was expected to exceed C$32 billion (US$30 billion), making it one of the largest in Canada’s history. „ Alcan Rejects Alcoa Bid. The directors of Montreal-based metals firm Alcan Inc. May 22 recommended that shareholders reject a US$27.4 billion (C$29.1 billion) unsolicited bid by rival U.S. firm Alcoa Inc., describing it as “inadequate in multiple respects.” Alcoa had made the cashand-stock offer two weeks earlier. If completed, it would create the world’s largest aluminum producer. [See p. 291F3] Alcan officials said they would consider acquisition offers from other companies. Analysts said Alcoa had been motivated in its bid to acquire Alcan to prevent itself from becoming a takeover target. „

Colombia Uribe Sets Release of Rebel Commander.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez June 4 said he would unconditionally release from prison the highest captive Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla leader, Rodrigo Granda, and more than 180 other rebels in an effort to secure the release of 56 civilian hostages held by the leftist FARC forces. [See 334D3] Uribe May 25 had announced plans to release between 200 and 300 FARC members held by the government on four conditions: that they pledge not to return to combat; that they work toward peace; that they demobilize; and that they accept the supervision of either the Roman Catholic Church or a foreign government. Uribe that day set a June 7 deadline for the prisoner release, for “reasons of state” that he did not specify. Uribe June 7 was due in the U.S. to discuss a free trade agreement, which had been held up over labor and human rights issues. [See p. 403E2] Analysts said Uribe might have released the FARC soldiers in an effort to draw attention away from the so-called para-politics scandal, which had linked his administration to the illegal activities of right-wing paramilitary forces. Uribe May 22 had said he was considering the release to house arrest of 14 congressmen and several state and local politicians arrested for their ties to the paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), pending their admission of guilt. Uribe was under pressure to secure the release of three U.S. contractors who had been captured by FARC in Colombia in 2003. Also, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had reportedly petitioned Uribe for the prisoner release in an effort to get FARC to free the French-Colombian dual citizen Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate who had been held by FARC since 2002. Sarkozy met with Betancourt’s children June 5, and pledged June 21, 2007

to raise the issue of Betancourt’s captivity at a June 8 meeting of the Group of Eight (G-8) leading industrial nations in Germany. After the meeting the G-8 issued a statement welcoming the release of the rebels as a positive step. [See p. 375D3] Previous attempts to negotiate a prisoner exchange had been stalled by Uribe’s refusal to accede to a FARC demand to demilitarize two towns in which discussions on a prisoner swap could take place. Granda after his release June 5 reiterated the FARC’s demilitarized zone demand as a necessary condition for negotiations to move forward. The government was also holding talks on a possible cease-fire with the secondlargest rebel group in Colombia, the National Liberation Army (ELN). The sixth round of talks began April 17 in Havana, Cuba’s capital. The group May 22 said it would agree to a cease-fire if the government froze the privatization of state companies and abandoned the free trade pact with the U.S. [See 2006, p. 823C3] „ Congress Approves Gay Rights Measure.

Colombia’s Chamber of Representatives, the lower house of Congress, June 14 voted, 62–43, to approve a measure that would grant same-sex couples many of the same rights guaranteed heterosexual married couples, including health insurance, social security and inheritance benefits. The Senate in April had passed a similar measure. The two bills would need to be reconciled before being sent to President Alvaro Uribe Velez, who had said he would sign it into law. [See p. 380F3; 2006, p. 883B1] Although several states and cities in Latin America had passed similar laws, Colombia would be the first country in the region to do so on a nationwide level. Canada was the only other country in the Americas to have approved a similar law. The Roman Catholic Church, which remained heavily influential in many Latin American countries, opposed the measure. „ Uribe Makes Second U.S. Lobbying Trip.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez June 6–9 made his second trip to the U.S. in a five-week period to lobby U.S. lawmakers to authorize billions of dollars in aid to his country and ratify a bilateral free trade agreement. Both the aid and the trade agreement had been held up by U.S. lawmakers concerned about a Colombian scandal, known as the para-politics affair, linking politicians allied with Uribe to right-wing paramilitary groups responsible for murders, kidnappings and drug trafficking. Colombia was one of the U.S.’s largest recipients of foreign aid, receiving some $700 million annually. [See below, pp. 403C1, 334A2] Also, several U.S. legislators opposed to the trade deal said Colombia had failed to adequately investigate hundreds of unsolved murders of Colombian trade unionists. The watchdog organization Justice for Colombia March 20 had reported that 84 trade unionists had been killed in 2006. Most of the 400 trade unionist killings that had occurred since Uribe took office in 2003 had remained unsolved. Colombia’s intelligence service, the Administrative Se-

curity Department (DAS), had also been alleged to have helped paramilitary groups murder union members and other political opponents. Uribe June 6 met with Reps. Charles Rangel (D, N.Y.) and Sander Levin (D, Mich.) to discuss trade policy. Uribe June 8 also appeared at an award ceremony hosted by Colombian officials in New York City to honor former U.S. President Bill Clinton, a move viewed as an attempt to increase his standing with congressional Democrats. ‘Plan Colombia’ Questioned— During Uribe’s June 6–9 visit, several U.S. lawmakers questioned the efficacy of Plan Colombia, a U.S. aid package designed to destroy Colombian fields of coca, the raw ingredient used to produce cocaine. The White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) had reported that the amount of coca, the raw ingredient used to make cocaine, produced in Colombia had remained steady between 2005 and 2006. The ONDCP also found that the purity of Colombian-produced cocaine had increased while its price had decreased, it was reported March 12. Critics of Plan Colombia said farmers had not been provided with incentives to plant crops other than coca. Some U.S. legislators suggested that Colombian aid be redirected from Plan Colombia to improving the country’s judicial system and economic development efforts. Colombia Ratifies Trade Deal— Colombia’s lower congressional house, the Chamber of Representatives, June 6 voted, 85–10, to approve the bilateral free trade pact with the U.S. Colombia’s Senate June 14 approved the same agreement, 55–3. Although the agreement had been signed by Uribe and the White House in November 2006, it had required the ratification of both countries’ legislatures. The agreement would eliminate most tariffs on the estimated $14 billion in annual trade between the two countries. „

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China Vice Premier Dies. Chinese Vice Premier Huang Ju, 68, June 2 died in Beijing, the capital, reportedly of pancreatic cancer. Huang was one of the nine members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the ruling Communist Party, and his death opened a position on that key body for President Hu Jintao to fill with an ally prior to a major five-year party congress scheduled for later in the year. Huang, who oversaw financial matters on the Standing Committee, had previously been mayor and party chief of Shanghai, the power base of Hu’s predecessor, Jiang Zemin. [See 2006, p. 195E1] „ Tiananmen Commemorated in Hong Kong.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators June 4 gathered in Hong Kong to mark the 18th anniversary of the Chinese government’s violent 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 403

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Beijing, China’s capital. Public commemoration of the event, in which hundreds or possibly thousands of people were killed, was allowed in the autonomous Hong Kong territory, but not in mainland China. [See 2006, p. 518A1; 2004, p. 447B1] By both organizers’ and police estimates, the protest drew several thousand more people than in recent years. The increase was seen as fueled by outrage at May 15 comments by Ma Lik, chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, a political party aligned with the Chinese central government. Ma challenged the notion that the Tiananmen crackdown had been a “massacre,” and suggested that the belief among Hong Kong residents that it had been one indicated that the territory was not ready for democracy. The U.S. State Department June 1 chided China for failing to fully account for “those killed, detained or missing” in the crackdown, including “thousands” who it said were “arrested and sentenced without trial.” „

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June 16 said it had invited inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear monitor, to visit the country and oversee the closure of its nuclear plant at Yongbyon, which was the main focus of six-nation efforts to halt North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. The announcement came as the long-delayed transfer of some $25 million in frozen North Korean funds back to North Korea appeared imminent. [See p. 248A1] North Korea had refused to carry out a February pledge to close Yangbyon until it received the money, which had been frozen in a Macao bank, Banco Delta Asia SRL, due to U.S. Treasury sanctions placed on the bank. The U.S. in March had agreed to the funds’ release, but the transfer had been stymied by technical obstacles, largely because other banks remained reluctant to facilitate the transfer of funds that the Treasury had originally labeled proceeds of illicit activities. U.S. officials June 11 said they had reached an agreement with Russia on the transfer of the money to North Korea. The funds would go through the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in New York City and Russia’s central bank, to a Russian commercial bank near the North Korean border. The process was initiated June 14, and North Korea in its June 16 statement said that the transfer was in its “final phase.” The IAEA delegation would discuss with North Korea procedures for verifying that Yongbyon was shut and remained sealed. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the U.S. envoy to the international talks on North Korea, June 18 said the shutdown would likely come in “a matter of weeks.” Hill June 21 arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, on a previously unannounced visit to discuss reviving the sixway talks. 404

U.S. Alleges Misuse of U.N. Aid— The U.S. State Department had presented the U.N. with evidence that North Korea had misused U.N. Development Program (UNDP) aid funds, using them to obtain equipment with military uses as well as property in Europe and North America, the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune reported June 9. The UNDP had suspended its operations in North Korea in March, after the country refused to consent to conditions intended to ensure that aid money was not diverted. [See p. 189B1] A UNDP spokesman said the agency would investigate the U.S. charges. The UNDP June 1 had released the results of an audit showing that the agency had violated U.N. rules by paying North Korean employees and vendors in hard currency without sufficient safeguards against its diversion, and by allowing the North Korean government to dictate its local hiring. „

Asia-Pacific News in Brief Tajikistan: President Outlaws Slavic Names.

Tajikistan’s president, Emomali Rakhmon March 26 decreed that parents remove the Slavic endings, such as “-ov” or “-ev,” from their newborn babies’ surnames. Also that day, the official state media began referring to the president as Rakhmon, from Imomali Rakhmonov, after he had announced March 20 that he wanted to revert to the traditional version of his name. Most citizens of Tajikistan had added the Slavic endings to their surnames after it became a Soviet Republic in the 1920s. [See 2006, p. 868F3] „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

France Sarkozy’s Party Holds Majority in Elections.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling conservative party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), June 17 won enough seats in parliamentary elections to retain its majority, but failed to achieve the landslide victory that had been widely predicted. Sarkozy had won the presidential election in early May. [See p. 335D3] The UMP won 314 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, the lower chamber of the French parliament. That was 45 seats fewer than the previous UMP total. The main opposition Socialist Party won 185 seats, an increase of 36 over its previous total. In the biggest individual result, former Premier Alain Juppe lost his seat in Bordeaux and was forced to resign as the number-two leader of the government appointed by Sarkozy weeks earlier. Sarkozy had named Juppe to head a new ministry of the environment, sustainable development and energy. The parliamentary elections were held in two rounds. After a dominant performance in the first round, held June 10, the UMP was thought to be on track for an overwhelming majority of more than 400 seats. However, an untimely leak of the government’s plans to increase the value-

added tax (VAT), a kind of sales tax, helped reverse the UMP’s momentum. Also, the Socialists had warned voters not to give Sarkozy the unchecked power of having a huge parliamentary majority ready to do his bidding. Sarkozy June 19 reshuffled his cabinet, switching Christine Lagarde to finance minister, from agriculture minister. Lagarde, a former trade minister, replaced Jean-Louis Borloo, who had disclosed the plans for a tax hike and was blamed by many in the UMP for the disappointing election results. Borloo took over the role vacated by Juppe. Former Foreign Minister Michel Barnier joined the cabinet as agriculture minister. Socialist Couple’s Split Revealed—Segolene Royal, the Socialist presidential candidate who lost to Sarkozy, had separated from her longtime companion, Francois Hollande, the leader of the Socialist Party, it was reported June 17. Royal had disclosed the breakup in interviews for a forthcoming book, Les Coulisses d’une Defaite (Behind the Scenes of a Defeat), by journalists Christine Courcol and Thierry Masure. [See p. 289A1] In excerpts from the book released just after the polls closed June 17, Royal hinted that Hollande was having an affair. “I have asked Francois Hollande to leave our home, to pursue his love interest, which is now laid bare in books and newspapers, and I wish him happiness,” she said. Speaking on the radio June 17, Royal confirmed the split. Hollande issued a statement confirming the disclosure, but warned that he would fight any invasions of his privacy. Royal, 53, and Hollande, 52, had been together for more than 25 years and had four children between the ages of 14 and 22, but had never married. Rumors about an estrangement had circulated during the presidential campaign, but Royal had denied them. Adding to the tensions between them, Royal June 18 said she intended to seek the party leadership. Hollande said he planned to keep the post until October 2008. The French media traditionally had not probed deeply into the private lives of politicians, but that had begun to change. Sarkozy’s wife, Cecilia, had caused a stir by leaving him briefly in 2006, when she was spotted with another man in New York City. „

Great Britain Seven Sentenced in Al Qaeda Bomb Plot.

A British judge June 15 sentenced seven men convicted of taking part in a plot by Al Qaeda, the international terrorist network, to bomb targets in the U.S. (including the New York Stock Exchange) and Britain. The plotters had envisioned using a radioactive “dirty bomb.” [See 2006, p. 870B1] Six of the seven accomplices pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause deadly explosions, and received prison sentences that ranged from 15 to 26 years. One man, Qaisar Shaffi, pleaded not guilty. He went FACTS ON FILE

to trial and was convicted of conspiracy to murder. He was sentenced to 15 years. The mastermind, Dhiren Barot, a British convert to Islam, had been arrested in 2004 and was sentenced in November 2006 to serve a minimum of 40 years in prison after he pleaded guilty. His sentence was later reduced to 30 years because he had not tried to execute the plot. „

Spain Basque Political Leader Held in Crackdown.

Spanish police June 8 arrested Arnaldo Otegi, the leader of Batasuna, a banned Basque political party affiliated with separatist militant group Euzkadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA). The arrest was part of a government crackdown on ETA in response to the group’s announcement days earlier that it was ending a 15-month-old cease-fire. [See p. 367B2] Otegi had been convicted in 2006 of inciting terrorism but had remained free pending his appeal of the verdict. Police June 6 had returned to prison an ETA leader, Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos. Convicted of killing 25 people in the 1980s, de Juana in March had been granted a shift to house arrest and was moved to a hospital after staging a hunger strike. His release prompted mass protests by ETA opponents who accused the Socialist government of coddling the group in hopes of reaching a peace agreement. „

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Lebanese Member of Parliament Assassinated by Car Bomb Syria Accused, Denies Involvement. A pow-

erful car bomb June 13 exploded on a seaside road near Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, killing Walid Eido, a member of parliament and a vocal opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon. Eido was a member of the anti-Syrian ruling coalition led by Premier Fouad Siniora, and was the seventh prominent anti-Syrian figure to be killed since the February 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. Suspicion immediately fell on Syria for Eido’s death. The United Nations Security Council earlier in May had moved to create an international tribunal to charge suspects in Hariri’s death—which was also widely suspected to be Syria’s doing—and the tribunal had come into effect on June 10. Syria denied involvement in both Eido and Hariri’s deaths. [See p. 353F1] The explosion June 13 killed 10 people altogether, including Eido’s eldest son, Khaled, 35, two bodyguards and six passersby. At least 11 more people were wounded, and the facades of several shops were destroyed. Investigators estimated that the bomb used roughly 200 pounds (90 kg) of explosives, making it much larger than other bombs that had recently struck the country. [See below] Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade blamed Syria for the assassinaJune 21, 2007

tion. “The serial killer, the Syrian regime, is continuing to assassinate members of parliament in order to abolish our parliamentary majority, but we will not let this happen,” he said. Eido was the third member of parliament belonging to Siniora’s government to be assassinated, and it was speculated that the assassins might be attempting to eliminate the coalition’s slim majority in the legislature. After Eido’s death, the ruling coalition had 68 members in the 128-member parliament. [See 2006, p. 889A1] Siniora declared that June 14 should be a period of mourning. Opponents of Syrian influence demonstrated in front of Eido’s house the night of June 13. The Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah—Siniora’s political opposition—also condemned the bombing. Eido, like Siniora, was a Sunni Muslim. Previous targets of assassination had all been Christian. Mourners Denounce President, Syria—

Roughly 3,000 mourners June 14 attended Eido’s funeral, during which they called for revenge against Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Lahoud was a supporter of Syria, and had refused to allow elections to be held in order to replace previously assassinated legislators. Mourners blasted Hezbollah, which was also pro-Syria, as well. Syria’s foreign ministry that day denied any involvement in Eido’s death, and denounced the bombing that claimed his life. The U.N. Security Council June 18 voted to add Eido’s death to the other assassinations being investigated by the U.N., as requested by the Lebanese government. Apart from Hariri’s death, the U.N. team was aiding the Lebanese government in looking into 16 other assassinations that had occurred since October 2004. Bombs Hit Christian Areas Near Beirut—

A bomb June 4 struck a Christian area east of Beirut, injuring 10 people but not resulting in any deaths. Another bomb June 7 killed one person in a Christian town north of Beirut. Four more people were wounded in the blast. It was the fifth bombing in four weeks. No one took responsibility for the attacks, though it was speculated that the Palestinian militant group Fatah al-Islam, Syria or related groups might have been behind them. The blasts, however, were considerably smaller than those that targeted the prominent anti-Syrian figures. [See above, pp. 405F2, 326E1] „ Militants, Army Clash at Refugee Camp.

Fighting between Lebanese forces and militants at a Palestinian refugee camp May 25–June 19 continued despite attempts to bring the standoff to a peaceful resolution. The fighting began earlier in May after a search for bank robbers brought Lebanon’s police and army into conflict with Fatah alIslam, a Palestinian Islamist militant group, resulting in a siege of the Nahr alBared refugee camp where the group was based. The camp was nine miles (16 km) north of Tripoli. [See p. 325A1] The camp and its surrounding area May 25 were largely quiet due to a cease-fire

agreed to the day before. However, Premier Fouad Siniora’s government issued a stern warning that the militants had to surrender, or else the camp would be invaded. An official close to Siniora, Ahmad Fatfat—minister of youth and sports, and a former interior minister—said the government would allow Palestinian leaders to try to negotiate a peaceful end to the siege. But he added that the Lebanese military had been given “carte blanche to go in and finish Fatah al-Islam,” and that any settlement would have to be reached soon. Under an agreement made with Arab governments in 1969, the Lebanese government was not allowed to enter Palestinian refugee camps in its territory. [See below] Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah, May 25 spoke about the siege in a televised address. Nasrallah warned the government not to invade the camp, saying such a move would be “a mistake,” and was a “red line” that should not be crossed. Meanwhile, an unknown group claiming to act on behalf of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria threatened to bomb Christians and tourists in Lebanon if the government did not end its siege of the camp. [See p. 405D2] Siniora May 26 defended his government’s acceptance of military aid from the U.S. and other countries. Hezbollah, among others, had been critical of the aid. Lebanon had received eight arms shipments from the U.S., Jordan and the United Arab Emirates since May 24, and Egypt and France had also pledged military aid. Lebanon’s army of 40,000 soldiers was poorly equipped, and deployed at several zones of conflict throughout the country. Roughly 15,000 troops were in the south, preventing Hezbollah from attacking Israel, and another 8,000 patrolled the border with Syria, attempting to intercept weapons and militants. Shaker al-Abssi, Fatah’s leader, May 27 appeared in a video broadcast by Qatari satellite television channel Al Jazeera, saying he would fight the Lebanese army if necessary and was willing “to die for the sake of God.” Abssi referred to his opponents as “Zionist Americans,” and said Siniora’s government was part of an “American project” designed to shape the Middle East. Despite the cease-fire, militants and soldiers May 27 and May 29 clashed at the camp, even as Palestinian mediators met with militants inside. The Lebanese military May 30 indicted 20 members of Fatah already in custody on terrorism charges, which carried a potential death penalty. Army Invades Refugee Camp—The Lebanese army June 1 launched an assault on the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp. Efforts to negotiate an end to the standoff had come to nothing, with the militants vowing to fight to the death rather than surrender. The invasion, though in violation of the 1969 prohibition on entering refugee camps, reportedly had the approval of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). 405

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The army used tanks and heavy artillery to shell the camp. Reports emerged that many civilians were hit, but the reports could not be confirmed, as the army had banned journalists from the area. Another unconfirmed report claimed that Abssi had been killed or seriously wounded. The military said militants were using camp residents as human shields, adding that 16 people in the camp, as well as two soldiers, had been killed. Fatah that day threatened to order terrorist cells it had planted throughout Lebanon to retaliate. Al Qaeda released a statement on the Internet calling for Muslims to fight alongside “your brothers in Nahr al-Bared. This is your religious duty.” Many members of Fatah were believed to be veterans of the insurgency in Iraq. [See p. 394A1] Militants in the southern refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh, the largest in the country, June 3–4 clashed with army forces nearby, resulting in the deaths of two soldiers and one militant. The fight began when members of the Islamist group Jund al-Sham attacked army positions outside the camp— apparently in response to the death of a fellow militant in Nahr al-Bared—prompting the army to retaliate. The clash sparked fears that the conflict would spread to other camps and engulf the entire country. Jund al-Sham, or Soldiers of the Levant, had been formed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the deceased leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq, in 1999. The Red Cross June 4 escorted 33 residents out of Nahr al-Bared, and 12 more the following day. Many of the camp’s roughly 30,000–40,000 residents had fled to other camps, leaving only about 5,000 still inside. Seven Fatah militants June 5 surrendered, as shelling and gunfire continued for a fifth day, though at a reduced intensity. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas that day accused Fatah al-Islam of “abusing” the refugee camps and “endangering the lives of Palestinians.” Lebanese officials June 5 said portions of the camp were under the control of the army, while other parts were either under control of Fatah or residents resisting the militants. The officials said some buildings had been rigged with explosives. As of June 5, 45 soldiers and at least 20 civilians had been killed in just over two weeks. Military Siege Intensifies—Lebanon’s military June 9 increased its efforts to stamp out the militants with more shelling, while also sending armored troop carriers and special forces into the camp. Militants, in response, fired back with mortars and took up sniper positions. Six soldiers died, and another five succumbed to their wounds the following day. Forty soldiers were wounded in the push. Red Cross and Red Crescent workers June 10 helped another 50 residents escape the camp. A mortar shell fired from the camp June 11 hit a Red Cross vehicle, killing two workers and wounding a third. Several soldiers were also reportedly wounded. The Lebanese military that day claimed that 406

Abssi’s home had been found and destroyed. The Financial Times June 14 reported that Terje Roed-Larsen, the U.N.’s envoy on Syrian-Lebanese issues, earlier in the month had told the council that two Palestinian militant groups in Lebanon had received fighters and arms from across the Syrian border in late May and early June. Such aid was in violation of U.N. resolutions. The two groups were Fatah Intifada—of which Fatah al-Islam was a rogue offshoot—and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC). Both groups were based in Damascus, Syria’s capital. Syria denied the allegations. Gen. Michel Suleiman, the commander of Lebanon’s army, June 18 said the decision to destroy Fatah al-Islam was “final and irreversible,” as shelling continued, destroying a Fatah headquarters and starting fires in the camp. Fighting continued June 19, bringing the total number of soldiers killed to 73 since the start of the conflict on May 20. The number of militant deaths was unknown, but was thought to be at least 60, possibly many more. Several parts of the camp had been destroyed by the fighting. Defense Minister Declares Victory—

Fighting continued at the camp June 20–21, and Defense Minister Elias Murr June 21 announced on television that the army had “crushed” the terrorists, and that the “military operation is over.” He said a “large number” of militants had been killed, that Fatah’s leaders—Abssi and his deputy, Abu Hureira—were in hiding in the camp, and that only “cleanup” operations remained. Murr also stated that the month-long battle began May 20 after 30 soldiers died from “treachery,” a claim consistent with reports from other officials that 13 soldiers had been killed in their sleep. A newspaper June 21 quoted Murr as saying there was no hard evidence linking Fatah to Syria. He said the government had received no “official confession” on the matter, and “we have to wait” in order to discover the truth. Rockets Fired Into Israel—Two rockets June 17 were fired from Lebanon into the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona. It was the first such rocket attack since Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah. The rockets caused no injuries, and Hezbollah disclaimed responsibility. [See 2006, p. 541A1] „

Israel Barak Appointed Defense Minister. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak June 19 replaced Amir Peretz as defense minister. Barak had been elected leader of the Labor Party June 12, after the party ousted Peretz from the post. Peretz had fallen out of public favor since an April report blasted his performance during the 2006 war with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Barak, a former military chief of staff, was the most decorated soldier in Israel’s history. [See p. 387B1] „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Basketball Spurs Sweep Cavaliers to Take NBA Title.

The San Antonio Spurs June 14 defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, 83–82, in Cleveland, Ohio, to win the National Basketball Association (NBA) title for the fourth time in nine years. They swept the Cavaliers, who made their first-ever appearance in the NBA finals, in four games in the best-ofseven series. [See p. 286B3] Spurs point guard Tony Parker was named the most valuable player (MVP) of the finals, averaging 24.5 points and five rebounds per game during the series. Parker, a native of Belgium raised in France, bested his teammate and three-time finals MVP Tim Duncan for the award and became the first European player to win it. Cavaliers forward LeBron James, 22, who had led the team to the finals, was partly shut down by the Spurs defense, which held him to an average of 22 points per game. Spurs Overwhelm Cavaliers—The Cavaliers June 7 were quickly overwhelmed by the more experienced Spurs in the first game of the series, at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. The Spurs won the game 85–76. Despite a fourth quarter rally by James and the Cavaliers, the Spurs June 10 took the second game easily, 103–92. The series June 12 moved to the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, for the third game, which the Spurs won, 75–72, in one of the lowest-scoring finals games in NBA history. Spurs guard Manu Ginobili June 14 caught fire in the fourth quarter of the fourth game to fend off a late charge by the Cavaliers and clinch the championship. Western Conference Playoffs—The Spurs in San Antonio May 30 defeated the Utah Jazz, 109–84, to capture the Western Conference title, four games to one. The Spurs May 18 had defeated the Phoenix Suns, 114–106, to win their second-round playoff series, four games to two. They had eliminated the Denver Nuggets May 2 in the fifth game of their firstround series, 93–78. Eastern Conference Playoffs—The Cavaliers June 2 defeated the Detroit Pistons, 98–82, in Cleveland to win the Eastern Conference finals, four games to two, overcoming a 2–0 series deficit. In the fifth game, played May 31 in Detroit, James had almost single-handedly beaten the Pistons, scoring 48 points, 25 of them consecutively near the end of the game. The Cavaliers May 18 had defeated the New Jersey Nets, 88–72, to clinch their second-round series in six games. They had swept their first-round series against the Washington Wizards, winning the fourth game 97–90, on April 30. Nowitzki Wins Season MVP Award—

Dirk Nowitzki, a forward for the Dallas Mavericks, May 15 won the NBA’s MVP award for the 2006–07 regular season. Nowitzki averaged 24.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists in the season, leadFACTS ON FILE

ing the Mavericks to 67 victories. The Mavericks collapsed in the playoffs, however, losing in the first round to the Golden State Warriors in six games. Nowitzki, a German, received 83 firstplace votes and 1,138 total points in balloting by a panel of 129 U.S. and Canadian sportswriters and broadcasters. He was the first European to win the award. Point guard Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns was second, with 44 first-place votes and 1,013 points, and Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was third, with 521 points. Other News—In other NBA news: † University of Florida Gators basketball coach Billy Donovan May 31 signed a five-year, $27.5 million contract to coach the Orlando Magic. However, the Magic June 6 freed Donovan from the agreement after he changed his mind about leaving the Gators, who had won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) title in each of the last two years. † The Indiana Pacers May 31 hired former Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics coach Jim O’Brien as head coach for the 2007–08 season. † The Charlotte Bobcats May 25 named former Mavericks Assistant Coach Sam Vincent to replace Bernie Bickerstaff as head coach for the 2007–08 season. The Bobcats May 31 hired Warriors general manager Rod Higgins to the same post for the Bobcats. † Houston Rockets head coach Jeff Van Gundy May 18 was fired, two weeks after his team lost to the Utah Jazz, four games to three, in the first round of the playoffs. „

Golf Argentine Cabrera Wins U.S. Open. Angel Cabrera of Argentina June 17 won the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. Cabrera shot 285 for the tournament, five over par and one stroke ahead of Americans Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods. It was the second year in a row that the Open was won with a score over par. [See 2006, p. 498C2] Oakmont vied for the title of most difficult golf course in the world, with slick and fast greens, awkward bunkering, two very different cuts of rough, and, for the tournament, the longest par-three and par-five holes in U.S. Open history. Cabrera had won the second round June 15 but began the last day June 17 four shots behind the leader, Australian Aaron Baddeley. In the final round, he moved up to even with the leaders and then picked up a three-stroke lead with birdies at the 11th and 12th holes. Furyk matched him by the 16th hole, but drove long and bogeyed the 17th to fall a stroke behind. Cabrera bogeyed two of the last three holes but finished the round at 69, one under par, while Furyk shot 70. Cabrera was the only player to break par in two rounds, despite hitting just four of 14 fairways in the last. Woods, aiming for his 13th major title, had fallen behind the leaders by double-boJune 21, 2007

geying the third hole, but he birdied the fourth and made par on the last eight, shooting 72 to tie with Furyk for second place, with a 286, six over par. Cabrera, 37, had been ranked 41st in the world before the tournament—his first win on the PGA Tour. He became the first Argentine to win the Open, collecting $1.26 million. Mickelson Misses Cut—Phil Mickelson, ranked second in the world, June 15 missed the cut by one shot with a second-round score of 77 and cumulative finish at 11 over par. He had injured his wrist while chipping from the rough during a practice round at Oakmont in May, and received cortisone shots for the pain during the qualifying rounds. [See p. 407C2] Defending champion Geoff Ogilvy finished the tournament at 299, seven shots from last place. Woods’s wife, Elin Woods, June 18 gave birth to the couple’s first child, a girl. „ Mickelson Wins Players Championship.

Phil Mickelson of the U.S. May 13 won the Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. The event was considered the most prestigious in men’s golf after the four major tournaments. [See 2006, p. 252A1] Mickelson April 23 had said he would hire Butch Harmon as his new swing coach, replacing longtime coach Rick Smith. Mickelson made the change after driving woes cost him the 2006 U.S. Open title, and he tied for 24th in the Masters in early April. Harmon had previously coached Tiger Woods of the U.S., the world’s top-ranked player, as well as Australia’s Greg Norman. [See 2006, p. 498A3] Mickelson trailed Sean O’Hair of the U.S. by one stroke going into the final round May 13, and the two were paired in the final group. By the time they reached the treacherous par-three 17th hole, which had an island green, Mickelson was leading by two strokes. Mickelson hit his tee shot safely on the green. O’Hair then lost any chance of winning the tournament by hitting his tee shot in the water, and then hitting his first shot from the drop zone in the water as well. He ended up with a quadruple-bogey seven on the hole. Mickelson bogeyed the 18th to post a 69, giving him a four-round total of 277, 11 under par. He finished two strokes ahead of Sergio Garcia of Spain, and three strokes ahead of Stewart Cink of the U.S. and Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain. O’Hair finished at five under par, tied for 11th place. Mickelson collected $1.62 million for the win. Other News—In other golf news: † Woody Austin of the U.S. June 10 won the PGA’s Stanford St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tenn., by five strokes. He shot a 13-under-par 267 for the tournament and collected $1.08 million. † K.J. Choi of South Korea June 3 won the Memorial tournament in Dublin, Ohio. He shot a 17-under-par 271, and earned $1.08 million for the victory. [See 2006, p. 464B1]

† Denis Watson of Zimbabwe May 27 won the Senior Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championship, the first major tournament of the season on the Champions Tour, in Kiawah Island, S.C. Watson finished with a nine-under-par 279, two strokes ahead of Eduardo Romero of Argentina and three strokes ahead of fellow Zimbabwean Nick Price. Watson collected $360,000 for the victory. [See 2006, p. 463E3] † Rory Sabbatini of South Africa May 27 won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at the Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas, on the first playoff hole. Sabbatini, Jim Furyk of the U.S. and Bernhard Langer of Germany were tied at the end of regulation play at 266, 14 under par. Sabbatini won by making birdie on the first playoff hole. He collected $1.08 million for the victory. [See 2006, p. 464C1] † Zach Johnson of the U.S. May 20 won the AT&T Classic (formerly the Bell South Classic) in Duluth, Ga. He beat Ryuji Imada of Japan on the first playoff hole, after the two players finished regulation play tied at 273, 15 under par. Johnson earned $972,000 for the win. [See 2006, p. 313G3] † Woods May 6 won the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte, N.C. He shot a 13-under-par 275, and earned $1.134 million for the victory, his third of the year on the PGA Tour. [See 2006, p. 464F1] † Scott Verplank of the U.S. April 29 won the Byron Nelson Championship in Irving, Texas. He shot a 13-under-par 267 and collected $1.13 million for the victory. The tournament, named after golfing legend Byron Nelson, was the first since his death in September 2006. [See 2006, pp. 756C3, 464D1] † Nick Watney of the U.S. April 22 won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in Avondale, La., for his first victory on the PGA Tour. He shot a 273, 15 under par, and earned $1.098 million for the win. [See 2006, p. 464B2] „

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Horse Racing Filly Rags to Riches Wins Belmont Stakes.

Rags to Riches, with jockey John Velaquez aboard, June 9 won the 139th running of the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y. She was the only filly in the field of seven horses and the first filly since 1905 to triumph at the Belmont—the third and final leg of U.S. thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown—and just the 10th filly to win any Triple Crown race. [See 2006, p. 478B3] After stumbling out of the gate, threeyear-old Rags to Riches recovered to edge out the favorite, Preakness Stakes winner Curlin, in a neck-and-neck battle down the final quarter-mile stretch of the 1.5-mile (2.4-km) race. The filly’s time was 2:28.74, with Curlin, a colt ridden by Robby Albarado, finishing a head behind. Tiago, with Mike Smith aboard, placed third. 407

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Rags to Riches paid $10.60 on a $2 bet and earned $600,000 for her owners, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith. She was trained by Todd Pletcher. Authorized Wins English Derby— Authorized, ridden by Frankie Dettori, June 2 won the one-mile Derby at Epsom Downs racetrack in England. The winning colt finished five lengths ahead of its nearest competitor in the field of 17 horses, Eagle Mountain. Agaleem placed third. „

Cricket Police Say Pakistan Coach Was Not Slain.

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Jamaica’s police commissioner, Lucius Thomas, June 12 announced that Bob Woolmer, coach of the Pakistani cricket team, had died of natural causes, not strangulation as previously reported. Woolmer had been found unconscious one day after his team was eliminated from cricket’s World Cup tournament in Kingston, the Jamaican capital, in March. [See p. 323C2] Thomas in March had declared that a postmortem by a Jamaican government pathologist had determined that Woolmer had been strangled to death. An international murder investigation ensued, involving interviews of almost 400 people and the DNA testing of the entire Pakistan cricket squad, as well as other players. There was much speculation in the media that Woolmer had been targeted because he planned to publish a tell-all book about widespread match-fixing in cricket. However, toxicology tests and autopsy reviews by independent pathologists from Britain, Canada and South Africa had determined that there was no evidence of strangulation or poisoning, and the investigation was now closed, the police said June 12. There was no consensus about the true cause of Woolmer’s death. „

College Softball Arizona Wins NCAA Title. The University of Arizona Wildcats June 6 won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Women’s College World Series of fast-pitch softball in Oklahoma City, Okla. The Wildcats defeated the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers, 5–0, to win their second straight title and the eighth in the school’s history. Arizona won the bestof-three series, two games to one. Arizona was led by pitcher Taryne Mowatt, who pitched every inning of the NCAA tournament. [See 2006, p. 656A2] „

ARTS & SCIENCES

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People

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After five decades on network television, Bob Barker, 83, June 15 retired from the medium by making his final appearance as host of CBS’s daytime game show “The Price Is Right,” a job he had held for 35 years. Barker had also hosted another longrunning TV game show, “Truth or Consequences,” for 18 years, and the “Miss USA” beauty pageant for two decades, until 1988. 408

CBS later June 15 reran Barker’s final “Price Is Right” show during prime time, before broadcasting the 34th annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards, at which Barker picked up his 18th and 19th trophies. [See 1988, p. 175E3] Savannah Brinson, girlfriend of Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James, 22, of the National Basketball Association, early June 12 gave birth to the couple’s second child, Bryce Maximus James. [See p. 406C3] „

O B I T UA R I E S BRIALY, Jean-Claude, 74, versatile French actor strongly linked to French cinema’s Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) movement of the 1950s and 1960s; he was prominently featured in films by such key New Wave directors as Claude Chabrol, Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Eric Rohmer; he also directed a number of films himself, made many radio and television appearances, and owned a popular Paris theater for a number of years; he was reported to have been one of French cinema’s few openly gay leading actors; born March 30, 1933, in Aumale, Algeria; died May 30 in Paris, of cancer. [See 1974, p. 1104A2; 1971, p. 357E3; Indexes 1964–68, 1959] ESPIN Guillois de Castro, Vilma, 77, leading figure in the 1950s Cuban revolution that led to the overthrow of the government of Fulgencio Batista and the installation of the communist regime headed by Fidel Castro Ruz; she married Castro’s brother, Raul Castro, in January 1959 and since then had been Cuba’s de facto first lady, as Fidel Castro, by then divorced from his first wife, kept the later women in his life out of public view; she founded the Federation of Cuban Women in 1960, and had been its president ever since; in 1986, she became the first woman elected a full member of the Cuban Communist Party’s Politburo, Cuba’s top policy-making group; since July 2006, when Fidel Castro underwent abdominal surgery, her husband had been acting president of Cuba; born April 7, 1930, in Santiago, Cuba; died June 18 in Havana, Cuba, after a long illness, reportedly linked to poor circulation. [See 2006, p. 607D3; 1991, p. 828E2; Indexes 1986, 1962, 1959] FERRE, Gianfranco, 62, Italian fashion designer who, having been trained as an architect, designed clothes with a strong emphasis on seams and other structural elements; in 1989, he was named artistic director of the Christian Dior fashion house in Paris, an appointment that stirred controversy because French couture had until then been dominated by native-born talent; he remained at Dior for seven years, while continuing his signature lines in Milan, Italy; born Aug. 15, 1944, in Legnano, Italy, near Milan; died June 17 at a Milan hospital, after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage. [See 1996, p. 359A2; 1994, p. 1000F1] GRAHAM, Ruth McCue Bell, 87, wife of evangelist Billy Graham since 1943 and a major behind-thescenes influence on his globe-trotting Christian ministry; she was the author or co-author of 14 books, including poetry collections; along with her husband, she received a Congressional Gold Medal in 1996; born June 10, 1920, in Jiangsu province in China, where her father was a Presbyterian missionary and surgeon; died June 14 at her home near Montreat, N.C.; she had been bedridden for two years with degenerative osteoarthritis and in recent days had suffered pneumonia complications and had been in a coma; she was buried June 17 in a private ceremony at the recently dedicated Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C. [See 2005, p. 489F3] HAMBURGER, Michael Peter Leopold, 83, German-born British poet (his Jewish family fled Nazi Germany for Britain in 1933) and translator of major German-language poetry into English, including the work of Friedrich Hoelderlin (1770–1843) and Paul Celan (1920–70); born March 22, 1924, in Berlin; died June 7 in Middleton, England. [See 1967, p. 580A2] HERBERT, Don(ald Jeffry), 89, actor who popularized science for children as the host of the weekly television show “Watch Mr. Wizard,” which ran on the NBC network from 1951 to 1965 and was revived for a season in the early 1970s; in the 1980s, he hosted a similar show, “Mr. Wizard’s World,” on the Nickelodeon cable network; born July 10, 1917, in Waconia, Minn.; died June 12 at his home in Los Angeles, after a long battle with multiple myeloma.

HERBERT, Sir Wally (Walter William), 72, British polar explorer; he led a four-man expedition that made the first surface crossing of the frozen Arctic Ocean in 1968–69; near the end of their journey, in April 1969, they reached the North Pole on foot, a feat previously credited to only one other person, Rear Adm. Robert E. Peary in 1909; Peary’s claim was later challenged on a number of grounds, and Herbert concluded, in a 1988 paper, that Peary had missed the pole by 30–60 miles (50–100 km); he was knighted in 2000; born Oct. 24, 1934, in York, Enlgand; died June 12 at a hospital in Inverness, Scotland, of diabetes. [See 1989, p. 152D2; 1988, p. 636G1; Index 1969] IMMENDORFF, Joerg, 61, provocative German painter whose large-scale “Cafe Deutschland” paintings, begun in the late 1970s, took satirical aim at a country then still divided into communist East Germany and capitalist West Germany; Germany officially honored him in 2005 with a retrospective of his work in Berlin, opened by then German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. a friend of his; born June 14, 1945, in Bleckede, West Germany; died May 28 in Düsseldorf, from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. MACQUARRIE, Rev. John, 87, British theologian who examined traditional Christian concepts from the existentialist perspective of such philosophers as Germany’s Martin Heidegger; he was an early translator of Heidegger into English; his and Edward Robinson’s English translation of Heidegger’s magnum opus, Being and Time (1927), appeared in 1962; perhaps the most highly acclaimed of his own books was Principles of Christian Theology (1966); born June 27, 1919, in Renfrew, Scotland; died May 28 in Oxford, England, of stomach cancer. [See 1976, p. 404G1–A2] MILLER, Stanley Lloyd, 77, biochemist who, in 1953, was the first to demonstrate that amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, could be produced from simple chemicals thought to have been present on Earth soon after the birth of the planet; he made the discovery as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, working in the laboratory of Nobel Prize winner Harold Urey; for decades thereafter, as a researcher at the University of California at San Diego, he tried in vain to create an actual living organism in a test tube, something yet to be achieved by any scientist; born March 7, 1930, in Oakland, Calif.; died May 20 at a hospital in National City, Calif., of a heart ailment; he had suffered a series of strokes since 1999. [See 1981, p. 80C3] OSMAN, Aden Abdulle, 98 or 99, Somalia’s first president after the African nation gained its independence from Britain and Italy in 1960; he was chairman of the nationalist Somali Youth League (1954–56, 1958–59) and named chairman of the Legislative Assembly in 1956; he was instrumental in the talks that brought about independence; defeated for reelection in 1967, he was reportedly the first African leader to hand over power to a democratically elected successor; born in 1908 in Belet Weyne, in what was then Italian Somaliland; died June 8, 1907, in Nairobi, Kenya, after months of illness. [See 1973, p. 344E3; 1969, p. 673B1; Indexes 1964, 1959–61] ROTHSCHILD, Baron Guy Edouard Alphonse

Paul de, 98, leader, for decades, of the French branch of Europe’s Rothschild banking dynasty; after World War II, he rebuilt and expanded the family’s Paris bank, which, as Jewish property, had been seized durthe war, after the Nazi German occupation of France; outside the business world, he was celebrated as an owner of vineyards and racehorses; born May 21, 1909, in Paris; died June 12 in Paris; no cause of death was disclosed. [See 1975, p. 578F2; 1964, p. 224G1; 1962, p. 495C2; Index 1953] SEMBENE, Ousmane, 84, Senegalese filmmaker; the first of his 10 feature films, Black Girl, released in 1965, was the first African film to draw notice in the West; originally a novelist, he turned to cinema out of a desire to reach as wide an audience as possible; in his work, he explored the threat to African traditions imposed by modern civilization, as well as the tensions between newly independent African nations and their former colonial rulers; he was a founder, in 1969, of FESPACO, a film festival held biennially in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso; born Jan. 1, 1923, in Ziguinchor, Senegal, then part of French West Africa; died June 9 at his home in Dakar, Senegal, after a long illness. [See 1978, p. 618G3; 1970, p. 436B3] YOST, Ed (Paul Edward), 87, aeronautical engineer considered the father of hot-air ballooning; the sport originated in October 1960, when he flew three miles (five kilometers) at an altitude of 500 feet (150 m) for 25 minutes in a balloon that used a propane burner; born June 30, 1919, in Bristow, Iowa; died May 27 at his home in Taos, N.M., after a heart attack. [See 1976, p. 892E2] „

June 21, 2007

U.S. Supreme Court Limits Use of Race in School Placement Court Splits on Ideological Viewpoints.

The U.S. Supreme Court June 28 ruled, 5– 4, that two school districts could not use race as a factor in school placement programs designed to encourage diversity. The ruling sided with groups of parents who claimed that the practice violated the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law. The cases were Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No.1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education. (The decision officially had only one name— that of the Seattle case—but resolved both cases.) [See 2006, p. 448F3; for excerpts from the decision, see box, p. 410A1] Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said while the intent of the districts was to foster integration between races, they could not use “racial classifications in making school assignments.” Both districts—in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, Wash.—had attempted to have each school’s racial makeup reflect the racial composition of the region as a whole so as to prevent a particular race from disproportionately dominating a particular school. As a result, the districts sometimes denied students their choice of schools in favor of those who fulfilled racial quotas. That integration model was similar to programs used by hundreds of school districts around the country. In his opinion, Roberts cited the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed segregation in public schools. He said, “Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin. The school districts in these cases have not carried the heavy burden of demonstrating that we should allow this once again—even for very different reasons.” Roberts said, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” He added, “When it comes to using race to assign children to schools, history will be heard.” Roberts was joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas. Kennedy, the key ideological swing vote on the court since the 2006 departure of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, concurred with the judgment and much of Roberts’s opinion. He wrote a separate opinion saying Roberts went too far in eliminating race as a factor that districts could consider in their attempts to diversify schools. He said, “The plurality opinion is too dismissive of the legitimate interest government has in ensuring all people have equal opportunity regardless of their race.” Kennedy added that the plurality opinion implied an “all-too-unyielding insistence that race cannot be a factor in instances when, in my view, it may be taken into account.” Kennedy offered various scenarios for when “narrow tailoring” of the consideration of race by school districts was appropriate for promoting integration

and not intrusive on the guarantees of the 14th Amendment. Kennedy’s qualification prevented a majority holding that would have completely outlawed school districts from considering a child’s race for school placement. Thomas wrote a concurring opinion for the majority that dealt specifically with the dissent’s arguments. He said the dissenters disfavored a “color-blind” view of the Constitution and in doing so held more in common with those who advocated segregation at the time Brown was decided. He said school integration programs were based on social theories that were unreliably subjective and “faddish,” adding, “If our history has taught us anything, it has taught us to beware of elites bearing racial theories.” Liberals Offer Strong Dissent—The liberal side of the court delivered a strongly worded dissent that was twice as long as Roberts’s opinion. Justice Stephen G. Breyer read the dissenting opinion from the bench, a practice used to signal the seriousness of a justice’s disagreement. He said the plurality opinion was a “cruel distortion” of Brown, and argued that the school districts’ programs were local efforts at fulfilling the promise of racially integrated schools made by Brown. Breyer said the majority’s adherence to the Constitution was too literal and that the majority had misread the context of the case. “The lesson of history is not that efforts to continue racial segregation are constitutionally indistinguishable from efforts to achieve racial integration.” Breyer added that the decision would hinder school district efforts to “deal effectively with the growing resegregation of public schools” and thus could not be justified by the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. He concluded, “This is a decision that the court and the nation will come to regret.” Breyer was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter and John Paul Stevens. Stevens wrote a concurring opinion to emphasize how far he felt the court under Roberts had strayed from the spirit of the Brown decision. He said, “The chief justice rewrites the history of one of this court’s most important decisions.” He added, “It is my firm conviction that no member of the court that I joined in 1975 would have agreed with today’s decision.” The decision was seen as a change in direction for the court attributable to Alito’s joining the bench in 2006. The case was the most significant regarding education and race since a 5–4 ruling in 2003, which upheld a college’s right to consider the race of an applicant in the name of diversifying the student body. In the 2003 case, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Alito’s predecessor, had joined the majority upholding the school’s rights. [See 2003, p. 490A1] Reaction to the Ruling—Sharon Browne, a lawyer for Pacific Legal Foundation, a group that supported the parents suing the school districts, June 28 said, “The high

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3472 June 28, 2007

B court has decided correctly that children must not be stereotyped by the color of their skin, but rather treated as individuals.” Browne said Pacific Legal had identified districts in other areas of the country whose programs could be challenged. Defenders of the school districts’ policies pointed out that Kennedy’s opinion allowed for the use of race in efforts to promote school diversification. Theodore Shaw, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, said June 28 of the decision and Kennedy’s qualification, “It’s not as bad as it could have been, but it’s bad.” Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a group of the largest urban public school systems, said most school districts would stop any integration programs based on

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

www.facts.com/FF7

U.S. Supreme Court limits use of race in school placement. PAGE 409

Britain’s Blair appointed ‘Quartet’s’ Middle East envoy.

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Republican senators criticize Bush on Iraq war. PAGE 411

Senate vote halts immigration reform legislation. PAGE 413

Supreme Court ends term. PAGE 413

Supreme Court strikes down part of campaign finance law.

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Senate subpoenas administration records on NSA surveillance program. PAGE 417

Bush rejects congressional subpoenas on fired federal prosecutors. PAGE 418

Gordon Brown succeeds Blair as British prime minister. PAGE 421

European Union leaders agree on treaty at summit. PAGE 422

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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EXCERPTS FROM THE SUPREME COURT’S RULING ON USE OF RACE IN SCHOOL PLACEMENT

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Following are excerpts from the Supreme Court’s June 28 ruling in the cases of Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No.1 and Meredith v. Jefferson Country School Board [See p. 409A1]: From the Decision by Chief Justice Roberts The parties and their amici debate which side is more faithful to the heritage of Brown, but the position of the plaintiffs in Brown was spelled out in their brief and could not have been clearer: “[T]he Fourteenth Amendment prevents states from according differential treatment to American children on the basis of their color or race.” What do the racial classifications at issue here do, if not accord differential treatment on the basis of race? As counsel who appeared before this court for the plaintiffs in Brown put it: “We have one fundamental contention which we will seek to develop in the course of this argument, and that contention is that no state has any authority under the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to use race as a factor in affording educational opportunities among its citizens.”… Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the

race classification and that Kennedy’s suggestions had “limited viability.” Stephen Imhoff, a board member who oversaw the Louisville schools at question in the case, said the district was considering race-neutral options for racial diversification, including using socioeconomic classifications. „

Britain’s Blair Appointed ‘Quartet’s’ Middle East Envoy Assumes Post at End of Premiership.

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Tony Blair, hours after leaving office as British prime minister, June 27 was formally appointed special envoy by the so-called Quartet for Middle East peace—the United Nations, the European Union, the U.S. and Russia. Blair’s job would involve efforts to improve economic conditions and governance for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while the task of advancing the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) was left mainly to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. [See pp. 421D2, 373A1] Blair had reportedly been suggested for the envoy post by U.S. President George W. Bush. The position had been left vacant after the previous special envoy, James Wolfensohn, resigned in April 2006. In a statement announcing Blair’s appointment, the Quartet said Blair would “work with the parties and others to help create viable and lasting government institutions representing all Palestinians, a robust economy and a climate of law and order for the Palestinian people.” Blair’s appointment came at a time of deepening complications for the Middle East peace process. The Quartet was negotiating with the Fatah-led emergency government installed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, after the Islamist militant group Hamas had taken control of the Gaza Strip. PA leaders welcomed Blair’s appointment. Hamas denounced it, saying Blair was loyal to Israel and the U.S. Israel Releases Palestinian Funds—The Israeli Knesset, or parliament, June 24 ap410

color of their skin. The school districts in these cases have not carried the heavy burden of demonstrating that we should allow this once again—even for very different reasons. For schools that never segregated on the basis of race, such as Seattle, or that have removed the vestiges of past segregation, such as Jefferson County, the way “to achieve a system of determining admission to the public schools on a nonracial basis,” is to stop assigning students on a racial basis. The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. From the Concurring Opinon by Justice Kennedy Parts of the opinion by the Chief Justice imply an all-too-unyielding insistence that race cannot be a factor in instances when, in my view, it may be taken into account. The plurality opinion is too dismissive of the legitimate interest government has in ensuring all people have equal opportunity regardless of their race. The plurality’s postulate that “[t]he way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” is not sufficient to decide these cases. Fifty years of experience since Brown v. Board of Education should teach us that the problem before us defies so easy a solution. School districts can seek to reach Brown’s objective of equal

educational opportunity. The plurality opinion is at least open to the interpretation that the Constitution requires school districts to ignore the problem of de facto resegregation in schooling. I cannot endorse that conclusion. To the extent the plurality opinion suggests the Constitution mandates that state and local school authorities must accept the status quo of racial isolation in schools, it is, in my view, profoundly mistaken. From the Dissent by Justice Breyer What of the hope and promise of Brown? For much of this nation’s history, the races remained divided. It was not long ago that people of different races drank from separate fountains, rode on separate buses and studied in separate schools. In this court’s finest hour, Brown v. Board of Education challenged this history and helped to change it. For Brown held out a promise. It was a promise embodied in three amendments designed to make citizens of slaves. It was the promise of true racial equality—not as a matter of fine words on paper, but as a matter of everyday life in the nation’s cities and schools. It was about the nature of a democracy that must work for all Americans. It sought one law, one nation, one people, not simply as a matter of legal principle but in terms of how we actually live.

proved the release of about half of some $700 million in tax revenue owed to the PA that it had frozen when Hamas won legislative elections in 2006. The PA had not been able to pay its employees’ full salaries for more than a year. Israel made Abbas’s progress in disarming Palestinian militias a condition for gradually releasing the remainder of the money. At a June 25 summit meeting between the leaders of Israel, the PA, Egypt and Jordan, hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh resort, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that he would release 250 of the roughly 10,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Olmert specified that all those released would be from Fatah rather than Hamas, and would have to pledge not to engage in terrorist activities. The Israeli concessions were made as good will gestures to boost Abbas after Fatah forces’ swift loss to Hamas in Gaza. However, they were widely viewed as insufficient to restore Abbas’s stature. The PA had asked for a resumption of fullfledged peace talks on a set timetable, as well as a reduction in security checkpoints in the West Bank. The deposed PA premier, Ismail Haniya of Hamas, June 25 called the Egypt summit a “mirage” and the release of funds for the PA, “blackmail.” Abbas June 26 ordered all armed militias, including those associated with Fatah, to disband.

Israel June 23 had arrested Salah Arurui, the founder of Hamas’s military wing in the West Bank. Al Qaeda Urges Support for Hamas—In an audio recording posted on the Internet June 25, the deputy leader of the global terrorist network Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, urged the world’s Muslims to send money, weapons and other support to Hamas. Leaders of Hamas appeared to distance their group from the message. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said his group wanted “good relations with all Arab and Muslim powers.”

Israel Kills 13 Palestinians in Gaza—

Israeli troops and tanks June 27 raided two cities in Gaza, killing 13 Palestinians, including several militants and a young boy. At least 40 more people were wounded in the raids, which occurred in Gaza City and Khan Yunis. Both Hamas and Fatah gunmen fought against the Israeli forces. Also that day, several rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel. The militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. Abbas denounced the Israeli incursion, adding, “We are also against launching rockets.”

British, Israeli Captives Plea for Help—

Hamas breakaway group Army of Islam June 25 released video footage of British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) correspondent

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Alan Johnston, who had been abducted in the Gaza Strip in March. In the video, Johnston appeared wearing a harness of explosives around his waist and said, “As you can see, I have been dressed in an explosive belt, which the kidnappers say will be detonated if there is any attempt to storm this area.” [See p. 371C1] The Web site of Hamas’s military wing June 25 hosted an audio recording apparently featuring the voice of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier abducted by Hamas exactly one year earlier. Shalit, 20, could be heard saying that he needed hospitalization and pleading with the Israeli government to accede to his captors’ demand for a mass prisoner-swap with the Palestinians. He said he regretted Israel’s “lack of interest” in his predicament. [See p. 257G2] „

Iraq War U.S. GOP Senators Criticize Bush’s Policy.

Two Republican U.S. senators June 25–26 expressed their disapproval of U.S. President George W. Bush’s Iraq policy, in a sign that domestic political support for U.S. efforts there was further eroding. The criticism came during a week that saw further violence in and around Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, as U.S. and Iraqi forces fought to establish security in the country. [See p. 394B1] Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, June 25 gave a speech in the Senate in which he said Bush should change policy on Iraq “very soon.” Lugar said current policy was proving detrimental to the U.S.’s military strength as well as to its stature in the international community, and that the Iraqi government was failing to make progress on reform and reconciliation. While he opposed a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, he advocated a “downsizing and redeployment” of U.S. troops in order for them to adopt a “sustainable” role in support of Iraqi forces. Sen. George Voinovich (R, Ohio) June 26 sent a letter and strategy paper to Bush, in which he advocated a path similar to the one described by Lugar. “We must begin a transition where the Iraqi government and IRAQ CASUALTIES

Following are tallies of casualties in Iraq since the beginning of a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, as they stood June 28 [See p. 341E1]: U.S. military casualties:

Deaths Wounded

3,566 26,350

Allied military deaths: 284 Iraqi security forces deaths: 7,082 U.S. civilian contractor deaths: 157 Other civilian contractor deaths: 246 Iraqi civilian deaths: 66,602–72,910

(Range based on news reports of deaths)

Sources: U.S. and allies, Iraqi security, contractors— U.S. Defense Department, www.icasualties.org. Iraqi civilians—www.iraqbodycount.net.

June 28, 2007

its neighbors play a larger role in stabilizing Iraq,” Voinovich said. “It is absolutely critical that we avoid being drawn into a precipitous withdrawal,” he said, instead calling for a “responsible military disengagement.” White House press secretary Tony Snow acknowledged the criticism, but said the administration hoped that “members of the House and Senate will give the Baghdad security plan a chance to unfold.” In a related development, a Cable News Network (CNN) poll released June 26 showed further deterioration in support for the war. The poll stated that 69% of respondents said things were “going badly” in Iraq, while only 17% said things were improving. Moreover, two-thirds opposed the war, and a record-low 30% supported it. The poll said 38% of Republicans also opposed the war. In another related development, Daniel Speckhard, the second-ranking U.S. diplomat in Iraq, June 27 forecast that the Iraqi parliament would make significant progress on reform and reconciliation efforts by fall. “My expectations are still that they’ll rise to the challenge of producing some key legislation by September,” he said. Hassan al-Suneid, an aide to Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki, that day announced that two major Shiite Muslim parties had agreed to form a new cabinet that would allot posts according to merit rather than sectarian affiliation. Suneid said two ethnic Kurdish parties were also in line to sign on, though no Sunni Muslim parties had yet agreed to do so. [See p. 139D2] Clashes in Diyala Continue—U.S. forces June 22–25 continued to fight insurgents in Diyala province, focusing on clearing them out of the provincial capital, Baqubah. U.S. helicopters June 22 killed 17 fighters outside Khalis suspected of belonging to the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Their deaths brought to 68 the number of insurgents killed in the Diyala push, dubbed Operation Arrowhead Ripper. The operation was part of a larger offensive in and around Baghdad dubbed Operation Phantom Thunder. [See p. 394C2] Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, the commander of the Diyala offensive, June 22 said members of Al Qaeda were opting to fight to the death rather than leave or be captured. U.S. officials that day said the majority of Al Qaeda’s leadership in Baqubah had apparently known about the offensive and fled beforehand, adding that fighters had been spotted digging ditches and planting bombs before U.S. troops arrived. Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the second-ranking U.S. military commander in Iraq, June 21 had said most Al Qaeda leaders had escaped Baqubah. “We believe 80% of the upper level leaders fled,” he said, adding that “80% of the lower level leaders” were still in the city. U.S. and Iraqi forces June 23 captured two senior Al Qaeda leaders in Diyala. Iraqi officials that day said 53 Al Qaeda fighters had been killed in Baqubah and another 60 had been detained, while 30 hostages had been freed from an insurgent prison.

The U.S. military June 25 said between 60 and 100 Al Qaeda fighters had been killed in the offensive, but that another 50 to 100 fighters remained in the city. Bednarek said U.S. troops had cleared at least 60% of western Baqubah, previously an Al Qaeda stronghold. He warned that Iraqi forces were “not quite up to the job yet” of holding areas cleared by the U.S., saying they lacked equipment. Bednarek added that it would take weeks for the city to be completely cleared, and several months for Iraqis to be able to take over security in Diyala. [See p. 375A1] U.S. Army Col. Steve Townsend, a brigade commander in Baqubah, June 25 said the western half of the city was under the control of U.S. and Iraqi forces, though he added that roughly 100 fighters had escaped and 100 more were likely in hiding there. He said food and water were being handed out to residents, and concrete security walls were being erected. As of June 25, one U.S. soldier had been killed and 18 more had been wounded in the offensive.

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U.S. Forces Fight Militants in South—

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of U.S. forces in southern Iraq, June 26 revealed details of the progress of the U.S. offensive south of Baghdad, dubbed Operation Marne Torch, which was also a part of Operation Phantom Thunder. Lynch said the offensive was succeeding in removing militants from the area and preventing them from moving to other areas or using the Tigris River for transportation. He said more Iraqi forces would be needed, however, in order to hold the cleared areas. “There needs to be three or four times more Iraqi security forces than are currently present to provide for sustained security. That’s the critical piece in all of this,” he said. Two Iraqi army battalions were currently in that area. [See p. 394G2] U.S. Col. Wayne Grigsby, Jr., a brigade commander south of the capital, said the offensive had destroyed 21 boats, some of which had been used to store explosives and munitions. He said the offensive had also yielded intelligence regarding the smuggling of munitions into Iraq from Iran. [See below] U.S. forces June 26 fought members of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia, in Diwaniyah 100 miles south of Baghdad. One U.S. soldier was killed, along with three civilians. The Mahdi Army also fought another Shiite militia in the area, the Badr Brigades, resulting in the deaths of seven people. Iraqi officials June 28 said 20 beheaded bodies had been found on the banks of the Tigris River southeast of Baghdad not far from Salman Pak. All of the dead were males, 20–40 years old, bound at the hands and feet. Officials at Maliki’s office, however, said they had not received any reports of beheaded bodies. Iraqi commandos had been fighting insurgents in the area for several days. U.S. Gen. Says Iraqi Forces Not Ready—

U.S. Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, who led the effort to train Iraqi forces, June 25 held a press conference from Iraq with Defense Department reporters by video link, during which he said it would be “a couple of 411

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years” before Iraqi forces could “fully take control” of security in Iraq. Pittard praised the Iraqi army, but faulted Iraq’s police forces for being too sectarian. He said more U.S. teams were needed to advise and train Iraqi police forces, and warned against quickly pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq. [See p. 375A1] U.S. Alleges Iran Aid Increase to Militants—

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Odierno June 22 said Iran had increased its support to Iraqi militants in order to counter the recent U.S.-Iraqi security push, which involved an increase, or surge, of roughly 30,000 U.S. troops. “I think maybe Iran decided to surge more money, conduct a bit more training and surge a few more weapons into Iraq at the same time,” he said. Odierno claimed progress on several fronts, however, citing the lowest level of attacks in Ramadi since 2005, success by Iraqi forces in preventing large-scale truck bombs, and a fruitful alliance with tribal leaders and former insurgents who had turned against Al Qaeda. The British tabloid the Sun June 26 quoted officials at Britain’s Defense Ministry as saying helicopters belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard—an elite force tasked with protecting Iran’s ruling clergy—had been spotted crossing into Iraqi territory by British radar. The officials also reiterated charges that explosive devices used against coalition troops had originated in Iran. Suicide Bomber Hits Tribal Sheiks— A suicide bomber June 25 detonated his explosives in the lobby of a hotel in central Baghdad, killing as many as six tribal sheiks who were meeting there. The blast killed 13 people in all, three of them bodyguards, and wounded 27 more. Some of the sheiks in attendance belonged to the Anbar Salvation Council—a group of Sunni tribal leaders who had recently banded together and allied with U.S. forces in order to fight Al Qaeda—who were reportedly meeting with Shiite leaders to discuss reconciliation. The bomber, whose attack sprayed the lobby with ball bearings, had somehow managed to pass through or avoid several checkpoints. Maliki denounced the attack, and pledged his support for the council, some of whose leaders he had recently met in order to discuss incorporating their fighters into Iraq’s security forces. The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group for several terrorist elements, including Al Qaeda, June 26 claimed credit for the attack, saying it was retaliation for the rape of a Sunni woman by Anbar police. Gunmen in southwestern Baghdad June 26 killed another Sunni tribal sheikh. Sunni Minister Charged in Murder Plot—

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Iraqi forces in central Baghdad June 26 raided the home of Culture Minister Asad Kamal al-Hashimi, attempting to arrest him on the charge of ordering the assassination of a rival politician. Hashimi—a Sunni who did not hold a seat in parliament—was not at home at the time, and went into hiding after the raid. Roughly 40 412

guards at his residence were detained. Although many other high-level officials had been charged with criminal activity, Hashimi was the first sitting minister to be charged with such a serious crime. The murder plot had targeted Mithal alAlusi, a secular Sunni and currently a legislator, who on Feb. 5, 2005, had escaped an ambush that killed two of his sons and a bodyguard. Iraqi officials June 26 said two men charged with carrying out the attack on Alusi had identified Hashimi as having ordered it. Alusi was a vocal critic of both Syria and Iran, and had sparked outrage by attending a counterterrorism conference in Israel in 2004. [See 2004, p. 768A2] Hashimi June 26 appeared on Qatarbased satellite television network Al Jazeera after the raid, denouncing it as an attempt by Maliki’s government to push Sunnis out of politics. The Iraqi Consensus Front, the political group to which Hashimi belonged, June 27 also denounced the raid, and said Hashimi would resign and leave the country. Alusi June 28 accused the U.S. of sheltering Hashimi in its embassy in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone. He said the U.S. had also aided former Electricity Minister Ayham al-Samarrai in his December 2006 escape from Iraqi custody. The U.S. denied aiding Hashimi. [See 2006, p. 971E1] Sunni Bloc Backs Speaker— The Iraqi Consensus Front, the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, June 24 demanded that Mahmoud al-Mashhadani be reinstated as speaker, boycotting the legislative body that day with another Sunni group in a show of force. Mashhadani had been ousted by parliament earlier in the month for abusive behavior, and the bloc had promised to find a replacement for him. However, Mashhadani had refused to relinquish the post, and the bloc June 23 had conceded that it could not find another candidate who would be agreeable to parliament’s various factions. [See p. 375B2] Legislators affiliated with Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr were also boycotting parliament in outrage at the government’s failure to protect holy sites from terrorist bombings. The boycotts were preventing parliament from making progress on various pieces of legislation. [See p. 374E1] Parliament June 23 voted to delay and shorten by one month its scheduled twomonth summer recess in order to focus on legislation. The recess would instead begin in late July.

bers of all religious and ethnic groups. He said residents of the mostly Sunni city would not be pushed out by the marchers, who would return home at the conclusion of the event. Sadr said the marchers would be protected by gunmen. Violence Reports—Among major incidents of violence across Iraq June 23–28:

Sunnis Ask Shiites to Cancel March—

† U.S. air strikes June 23 killed seven suspected insurgents near Tikrit.

The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni group, June 25 called for the cancellation of a Shiite march to Samarra planned for July 5. The group said the march risked prompting further sectarian violence. Sadr had called for the march after a shrine in Samarra had been bombed earlier in the month. The government had warned Sadr that marchers would likely be targeted by insurgents. [See p. 395C1] Sadr June 28 said the march would go ahead as planned, insisting that its goal was to unite Iraqis and that it was open to mem-

† A car bomb in southwestern Baghdad June 28 struck a bus station, killing 22 people and wounding at least 50 more. Several vehicles at the station were set on fire. The blast occurred in Bayaa, a mostly Shiite neighborhood. Mortar fire that day killed three people in the Shorja market in central Baghdad, and two more people in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Amin. † Roughly 60 people June 27 were killed or found dead in Iraq. † A roadside bomb southeast of Basra June 27 killed three British soldiers. At least 154 British soldiers had died in Iraq since the U.S-led invasion in 2003. An Associated Press report that day listed the cumulative death tolls for foreign forces in Iraq as 33 dead for Italy; 20 for Poland; 18 for Ukraine; 13 for Bulgaria; 11 for Spain; and fewer than 10 dead for each of a dozen other nations. † A car bomb June 27 struck near a prominent Shiite shrine in the Baghdad neighborhood of Kadhimiyah, killing at least 10 people and wounding 22 more. † A suicide car bomb June 25 struck a checkpoint in Hilla, killing at least eight people and wounding at least 25 more. Three of the dead and four of the wounded were police. A bomb June 23 had killed two police officers north of Hilla. Another bomb exploded in Hilla in a garage at a maternity hospital, wounding four people. † Two suicide car bombers backed by at least 30 insurgents June 25 hit a joint U.S.Iraqi checkpoint nine miles west of Baiji in northern Iraq. Thirteen Iraqi police officers were killed, along with nine other people. Twenty-six people were wounded, including five U.S. soldiers. † U.S. forces operating in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City June 23 detained three militants suspected of colluding with Iran. † Iraqi officials June 23 stated that government forces had killed 90 Al Qaeda fighters in the previous five days.

† Eleven U.S. soldiers June 23 were killed in Iraq, bringing the four-day toll to at least 26 soldiers dead, and the June toll to 81 soldiers dead. At least 60 of those killed that month died from roadside bombs. Four soldiers June 23 were killed by a roadside bomb in a Sunni area northwest of Baghdad. † An official in Babil province June 23 said 65 police officers had been fired for conspiring with militants. „ FACTS ON FILE

UNITED STATES U N I T E D S TAT E S

Senate Vote Halts Immigration Reform Legislation Reform Unlikely to Be Enacted Before ’09.

The Senate June 28 voted, 53–46, in a failed attempt to end debate on a controversial immigration reform bill, falling short of the 60 votes needed to bring the measure to a final vote on the floor. The vote increased the likelihood that comprehensive immigration reform would remain stalled until after the 2008 presidential election at the earliest, as politicians would be reluctant to address the controversial issue. Also, House leaders had indicated that they were unwilling to debate the bill before the Senate did. [See p. 377A1] The measure would have provided many of the U.S.’s some 12 million illegal immigrants a means of gaining legal status and eventual citizenship through a new visa system, while also creating a controversial temporary worker program. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) earlier in June had withdrawn the bill after it suffered a similar defeat in a procedural vote. However, the Senate June 26 had voted, 64–35, to renew debate on the bill in order to consider 27 amendments that had been attached to the reintroduced measure, including a provision that would have added $4.4 billion to fund border security. The June 28 vote was viewed as a significant blow to President George W. Bush, who had backed the reform plan, which was considered the most significant proposed revamp of immigration law since 1986. The bill’s defeat reflected Bush’s dwindling political fortunes as he approached the end of his term, as Republican lawmakers appeared unwilling to side with the president in backing a measure deeply unpopular with conservatives.

Bush had lobbied heavily for the bill’s passage, calling senators early June 28 and dispatching both Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to the Senate floor in an effort to corral votes prior to the roll call. However, he faced stern opposition to the bill from within his own party. Thirtyseven Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), split with Bush to vote against ending debate. In an unusual move signaling the deepseated opposition to the measure, House Republicans June 26 had voted, 114–23, to oppose the Senate bill before it was voted on by senators. Republican opponents of the measure said it provided “amnesty” for the country’s illegal immigrants, a highly unpopular idea among conservatives. Talk show hosts and grassroots groups rallied conservative voters against the bill, flooding senators with calls and e-mail messages. Some Republican senators who backed the bill reported receiving threats. The bill also faced opposition from Democrats and immigrants’ advocates who said it limited the ability of close relatives to reunite. Labor unions had also opposed the guest worker provisions on the grounds that they would lower wages and reduce employment for U.S. workers. Amendments—The Senate June 27 voted on the 27 amendments, defeating most that would have substantially altered the measure. An amendment sponsored by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R, Texas) that would have required all adult illegal aliens to return to their home countries in order to qualify for a newly created visa was defeat-

ed, 53–45. The new visa category, known as the “Z visa,” was created as a probationary step for illegal aliens seeking permanent legal status. Senators also defeated, 79–18, an amendment introduced by Sen. Jim Webb (D, Va.) that would have granted legal status to illegal immigrants only if they could show four years of “continuous physical presence” in the U.S. (The original measure had extended legal status to illegal immigrants who had been in the U.S. as of Jan. 1, 2007.) The Senate voted, 56–41, against an amendment sponsored by Christopher Bond (R, Mo.) that would have denied green cards and citizenship to all illegal aliens. „

Education

drug-related message that the student had made, and suspended him from school for 10 days. The case was Morse v. Frederick. [See p. 415E2]

Campaign Finance

The court May 29 ruled, 5–4, that a woman could not sue her employer for pay discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, concluding that Title VII required the woman to have filed her claim within 180 days of when the initial alleged discrimination occurred, and that she had failed to do so. The case was Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. [See p. 346A1]

The Supreme Court June 28 ruled, 5–4, that two school districts could not use race as a factor in school placement programs designed to encourage diversity, because the practice violated the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law. The cases were Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No.1 and Meredith v. Jefferson Country Board of Education. [See p. 409A1] The court June 25 ruled, 5–4, that a provision in the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act violated organizations’ First Amendment rights to free speech. The provision was enacted to protect candidates from late-campaign attack ads paid for by corporations and unions seeking to influence the outcome of an election. The consolidated case was McCain v. Wisconsin Right to Life Inc. and Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life Inc. [See p. 414F1] Student Rights

The court June 25 ruled, 6–3, that a high school principal had not violated the First Amendment free speech rights of a student when she pulled down a 14-foot banner with a June 28, 2007

Workplace Discrimination

Capital Punishment

The court April 25 voted, 5–4, to overturn three death sentences imposed by Texas courts, because instructions given to the juries on whether to impose sentences of death or life in prison were faulty, as they did not allow jurors to give enough weight to mitigating circumstances. The cases were Smith v. Texas, Abdul-Kabir v. Quarterman and Brewer v. Quarterman. [See p. 279G2] Abortion

The court April 18 voted, 5–4, to uphold a 2003 federal law prohibiting an abortion procedure, intact dilation and extraction, the first time the high court had supported a ban on a specific type of abortion. The ruling did not

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Supreme Court Ends Term Court Moves Right, Kennedy is Swing Vote.

The Supreme Court June 28 formally ended its 2006–07 term, delivering a significant ruling on the use of race in school placement programs, a practice that they deemed unconstitutional. The 2006–07 term was the first complete term that included both of President George W. Bush’s conservative appointments to the court, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy cemented his role as the moderate swing vote between the definitively liberal and conservative sides of the court, a role he assumed after Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired in 2006. [See p. 409A1; 2006, pp. 760A3, 505A1; for a review of the major cases of the court’s 2006–07 term, see p. 413E1] Legal analysts said the court made a distinct shift to the right in a series of 5–4 victories for the conservative camp of the

KEY RULINGS FROM THE SUPREME COURT’S 2006–07 TERM

Following are some of the major cases from the Supreme Court’s 2006–07 term, which ended June 28 [See p. 413C3]:

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overturn the landmark 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade. The combined cases were Gonzales v. Carhart et al. and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America. [See p. 242A1]

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Environment

The court April 2 ruled, 5–4, that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had the power to regulate the emission of so-called greenhouse gases by motor vehicles, and that the agency would have to provide a rationale grounded in science not to do so. The case was Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency. [See p. 206A1]

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Tobacco Suits

The court Feb. 20 ruled, 5–4, that a $79.5 million punitive damages verdict imposed against tobacco company Philip Morris USA was unconstitutional, because the jury had considered injuries the company had allegedly caused to many other people not listed as plaintiffs. The case was Philip Morris USA v. Williams. [See p. 108G1] Sentencing

The court Jan. 22 struck down, 6–3, a California state law that allowed judges to use their discretion in imposing greater sentences on defendants, arguing that such powers were granted only to juries. The case was Cunningham v. California. [See p. 48B2]

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EXCERPTS FROM THE SUPREME COURT’S RULING ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAW

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Following are excerpts from the Supreme Court’s June 25 ruling in McCain v. Wisconsin Right to Life Inc. and Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life Inc. [See p. 414F1]: From the Decision by Chief Justice Roberts [A] court should find that an ad is the functional equivalent of express advocacy only if the ad is susceptible of no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate. Under this test, [Wisconsin Right to Life]’s three ads are plainly not the functional equivalent of express advocacy. First, their content is consistent with that of a genuine issue ad: The ads focus on a legislative issue, take a position on the issue, exhort the public to adopt that position, and urge the public to contact public officials with respect to the matter. Second, their content lacks indicia of express advocacy: The ads do not mention an election, candidacy, political party, or challenger; and they do not take a position on a candidate’s character, qualifications, or fitness for office.… Discussion of issues cannot be suppressed simply because the issues may also be pertinent in an election. Where the First Amendment is implicated, the tie goes to the speaker, not the censor.… Because [Wisconsin Right to Life]’s ads may reasonably be interpreted as something other than as an

bench, which included Roberts, Alito and Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia. Conservative observers hailed decisions that reflected conservative viewpoints on antitrust lawsuits, workers’ rights, death penalty inmates’ rights, student speech, public school integration programs and abortion. While the court only overturned three court precedents, it brought itself close to overturning several more, including important precedents on campaign finance restrictions and the ability of taxpayers to sue the government in cases where it was accused of dissolving the separation between church and state. [See pp. 415D3, 414F1] The court decided 72 cases, 68 of which carried signed opinions, and 24 of which were decided on a split vote of 5–4. The percentage of 5–4 decisions was 33%, up from 13% in the first term presided over by Roberts the previous year, according to an analysis posted June 28 on SCOTUSblog, a Web log funded by law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Field LLP. Analysts said the number of narrowly split votes was an indication of the increasing polarization between the two ideological sides of the court. Kennedy was in the majority in all 24 of the 5–4 decisions. Kennedy sided with the more conservative judges 13 times. He sided with the more liberal judges, Justices David H. Souter, John Paul Stevens, Stephen G. Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, six times. In the five other 5–4 decisions, the court did not divide along ideological lines. „ Part of Campaign Finance Law Struck Down.

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The Supreme Court June 25 ruled, 5–4, that a provision in the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as the McCain-Feingold law, violated organizations’ First Amendment rights to free speech. The ruling found that portions of the law—those that restricted interest groups from paying for and airing advertisements that mentioned a federal candidate’s name 30 days before a primary elec414

appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate, we hold they are not the functional equivalent of express advocacy, and therefore fall outside the scope of McConnell’s holding. From the Opinion by Justice Scalia [T]he First Amendment was not designed to facilitate legislation, even wise legislation. Indeed, the assessment of former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, a proponent of campaign-finance reform, may well be correct. He said that “[w]hat we have is two important values in direct conflict: freedom of speech and our desire for healthy campaigns in a healthy democracy,” and “[y]ou can’t have both.” (He was referring, presumably, to incumbents’ notions of healthy campaigns.) If he was wrong, however, and the two values can coexist, it is pretty clear which side of the equation this institution is primarily responsible for. It is perhaps our most important constitutional task to assure freedom of political speech. And when a statute creates a regime as unworkable and unconstitutional as today’s effort at as-applied review proves [section] 203 [of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act] to be, it is our responsibility to decline enforcement. From the Dissent by Justice Souter [I]t goes without saying that nothing has changed about the facts. In Justice Frankfurter’s words, they demonstrate a threat to “the integrity of our electoral process,” which for a century now Congress has re-

peatedly found to be imperiled by corporate, and later union, money: witness the Tillman Act, Taft-Hartley, [the Federal Employee’s Compensation Act], and [the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act]. McConnell was our latest decision vindicating clear and reasonable boundaries that Congress has drawn to limit “‘the corrosive and distorting effects of immense aggregations of wealth,’” and the decision could claim the justification of ongoing fact as well as decisional history in recognizing Congress’s authority to protect the integrity of elections from the distortion of corporate and union funds. After today, the ban on contributions by corporations and unions and the limitation on their corrosive spending when they enter the political arena are open to easy circumvention, and the possibilities for regulating corporate and union campaign money are unclear. The ban on contributions will mean nothing much, now that companies and unions can save candidates the expense of advertising directly, simply by running “issue ads” without express advocacy, or by funneling the money through an independent corporation like [Wisconsin Right to Life]. But the understanding of the voters and the Congress that this kind of corporate and union spending seriously jeopardizes the integrity of democratic government will remain. The facts are too powerful to be ignored, and further efforts at campaign finance reform will come.

tion or 60 days before a general election— were unconstitutional. The consolidated case was McCain v. Wisconsin Right to Life Inc. and Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life Inc. [See p. 48C3; 2003, p. 973G2; for excerpts from the ruling, see box, p. 414A1] Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing the opinion for the court, concluded that McCain-Feingold’s restrictions on interestgroups’ issue-related ads censored political speech by groups ranging from corporations and labor unions to advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Rifle Association (NRA). He said, “Discussion of issues cannot be suppressed simply because the issues may also be pertinent in an election. Where the First Amendment is implicated, the tie goes to the speaker, not the censor.” However, Roberts ruled that a narrow aspect of the provision should be maintained to mark a distinction between ads that promoted issues and those that strictly endorsed or attacked certain candidates. He said the only ads to which the law applied were those “susceptible of no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate.” Roberts was joined in the decision by Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. However, only Alito signed Roberts’s opinion. In a separate opinion, Scalia urged the court to declare that the entire provision in question was unconstitutional and to overturn a 2003 court decision, McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, that upheld the law. Scalia said Roberts’s qualification of the law was “impermissibly vague.” Thomas and Kennedy signed his opinion. The more liberal members of the bench—Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and David H. Souter—dissented. In writing their opinion, Souter said the court had indeed effectively overturned the 2003 pre-

cedent, putting the court’s earlier decision “on its head.” He argued that the ruling would enable organizations to circumvent the law and affect the outcome of elections with their “corrosive spending.” The ruling upheld a 2006 decision by U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., which said an ad paid for by Wisconsin Right to Life, an antiabortion group, was permissible under the First Amendment. Wisconsin Right to Life in 2004 had been prevented from airing three ads that urged voters to contact the state’s two senators, Russ Feingold (D) and Herb Kohl (D), and ask them to halt a filibuster on judicial nominees of President George W. Bush. Feingold at the time was seeking reelection to the Senate and the ads would have aired within the circumscribed 30-day period before the primary. Feingold and Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.), the sponsors of the original bill, had included the provision to protect candidates from late-campaign attack ads paid for by corporations and unions seeking to influence the outcome of an election. Reaction—Interest groups across the political spectrum June 25 hailed the ruling, with both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group, and the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor union federation, praising it. Michael Toner, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), later that day said the ruling would expose the 2008 presidential race to greater influence from corporations and unions. The FEC was the government body in charge of enforcing campaign finance law. Legal analysts said the ruling opened the door for more “soft money” to enter political campaigns. “Soft money” donations were contributions from special interest groups that were used to advocate for certain candidates but did not go directly to their political campaigns, thereby avoiding federal limits on campaign contributions. The McCain-Feingold act was designed to FACTS ON FILE

reduce the amount of soft money that had flooded elections in the 1990s. McCain June 25 called the decision “regrettable.” However, he highlighted the fact that one of the law’s central reforms, its barring of politicians soliciting soft money, was still intact. The decision was also widely seen as a product of the court’s more conservative bent since Alito had been confirmed by the Senate in 2006. In the 2003 ruling upholding the law, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Alito’s predecessor, had joined Stevens, Breyer, Souter and Ginsburg. „ Execution for Mentally Ill Inmate Deferred.

The Supreme Court June 28 ruled, 5–4, that a schizophrenic inmate on death row had not been given sufficient opportunity by lower courts to prove a degree of mental instability that could have overturned his death sentence. The decision overruled a dismissal of the inmate’s appeal by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, La., and sent the case down to the Texas state court level to be reviewed. The case was Panetti v. Quarterman. [See pp. 279G2, 48F2] The case hinged on two factors. The court determined that the Texas state courts and the 5th circuit court did not have procedures in place that could properly assess the mental condition of Scott Louis Panetti, who murdered his wife’s parents in 1992. Panetti had appealed his execution on the grounds that he was insane. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said the state court’s existing procedures were “so deficient that they cannot be reconciled with any reasonable interpretation of the ‘Ford rule.’” He said the circuit court’s standard for evaluating insanity was too restrictive. The Ford rule was a precedent established in the 1986 case Ford v. Wainwright, which, citing the Eighth Amendment, affirmed that a prisoner could not be executed if he was insane. The Ford definition of insanity was vague and the court did not attempt to clarify the precedent, an aspect of the decision that rankled the dissenting justices. [See 1986, p. 526C3] Kennedy also ruled that Panetti was not required to file his insanity appeal under the deadline for constitutional appeals. He said a prisoner’s illness might not be apparent until after the deadline had passed. Kennedy was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter, Stephen G. Breyer and John Paul Stevens. The dissenters were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. In the dissenting opinion, Thomas wrote in reference to the deadline issue: “The court bends over backwards” to allow Panetti his appeal without proving that his condition had worsened in the years since his original sentence. Additionally, Thomas described Kennedy’s argument concerning the lower courts’ procedural guidelines as “a halfbaked holding that leaves the details of the insanity standard for the District Court to work out.” „ June 28, 2007

1911 Antitrust Precedent Overturned. The

Supreme Court June 28 ruled, 5–4, that a leather goods manufacturer had the right to set a minimum retail price on its products, overturning a 96-year-old antitrust precedent that banned the practice. The ruling overturned a decision by U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, La., which had held that the retailer could offer discounts on the manufacturer’s products. The case was Leegin Creative Leather Products Inc. v. PSKS Inc. [See pp. 399E1, 332C1] Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the precedent no longer prevented anticompetitive practices, and in fact perpetuated them. He ruled that it was a “flawed antitrust doctrine” that had no place in a changing marketplace in which price agreements between manufacturers and retailers could benefit competition. Kennedy was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. In the 1911 case, Dr. Miles Medical Co. v. John D. Park & Sons Co., the high court ruled that it was automatically illegal for a manufacturer to fix a price with a retailer. It stemmed from a case in which a manufacturer refused to sell products to retailers unless the retailers agreed to sell them at predetermined prices. Kennedy concluded that lower courts should consider price-agreement disputes on a case-by-case basis, ruling in favor of those that encouraged competition and ruling unlawful those that did not. Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer dissented. Breyer read part of the dissenting opinion from the bench, a practice that signaled the seriousness of a judge’s disagreement. He argued that the majority had not offered enough evidence to suggest that a ban on price agreements hurt economic competition. He said he could not see the justification for overturning nearly a century’s worth of rulings that affirmed the 1911 precedent. He added that the ruling would likely boost retail prices at the expense of the consumer, and cause confusion in lower courts that had to “separate the beneficial sheep from the antitrust goats.” „

Principal Backed in Student Speech Case.

The Supreme Court June 25 ruled, 6–3, that a high school principal had not violated the First Amendment free speech rights of a student when she pulled down a 14foot banner with a drug-related message that the student had made, and suspended him from school for 10 days. The ruling overturned a decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., that held the principal, Deborah Morse, liable for damages to the student, Joseph Frederick. The case was Morse v. Frederick. [See 2006, p. 953C3] Frederick had displayed the banner, which read, “Bong Hits 4 Jesus,” in 2002 during a school-sponsored event for students to watch the passing of the Olympic torch through Juneau, Alaska. Frederick claimed that the banner was meant to catch the attention of television cameras cover-

ing the event, and that its message was an absurdist declaration that did not encourage drug use, as Morse claimed. Bongs were water pipes used to smoke marijuana. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the court, said a principal’s duty was to protect students from the dangers of drug abuse. He said, “The First Amendment does not require schools to tolerate at school events student expression that contributes to those dangers.” He concluded that while the message may have been “gibberish,” the principal had little time to make a decision and that failing to remove the banner would have sent an ambiguous message to students concerning the school’s stance on illegal drugs. Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony M. Kennedy and Samuel A. Alito Jr. signed Roberts’s opinion. Thomas wrote a concurring opinion that said the court should overturn Tinker v. Des Moines, a 1969 court precedent that secured for students freedom of speech within school walls. He argued that the First Amendment did not encompass “a student’s right to speak in public schools.” He said the court’s rulings since Tinker had restricted student speech, and added, “I am afraid that our jurisprudence now says that students have a right to speak in schools except when they don’t.” Alito also wrote a concurring opinion in which he was joined by Kennedy. Alito said the ruling only pertained to speech encouraging drug use. He said it could not be used to restrict speech that expressed an opinion on any “political or social issue,” including “the wisdom of the war on drugs” or legalizing medicinal marijuana. Alito also emphasized that the court had not sided with a broader argument made by the Bush administration in support of the principal’s case, which said school officials could censor any speech that they perceived disrupted the school’s “educational mission.” Justice Stephen G. Breyer concurred that Morse was not liable but dissented in part. Breyer wrote a separate opinion saying the court should have avoided turning the case into a First Amendment debate, as the drug references in Frederick’s banner forced the court to concern itself with only one aspect of student speech in schools. He said Morse, as principal of a school, was only partially responsible for her decision and hence not personally liable, and he argued that the court should have dismissed Frederick’s claim on that basis. Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented. In his opinion, Stevens described the banner’s contents as “nonsense” and incapable of convincing students to use drugs. He added that “carving out pro-drug speech for uniquely harsh treatment finds no support in our case law and is inimical to the values protected by the First Amendment.” „ Suit Over ‘Faith-Based’ Office Dismissed.

The Supreme Court June 25 ruled, 5–4, that a group of taxpayers could not sue the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, a program created by the administration of President George 415

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W. Bush. The group had accused the administration of violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which required the separation of church and state. The case was Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation Inc. [See 2006, 953B3] The decision centered on whether the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation could sue the government based on the 1968 court precedent Flast v. Cohen. Taxpayers did not have legal standing to sue over government spending, but Flast made an exception for when the government was seen to use taxpayers’ money to promote religious causes. Freedom From Religion had claimed that the administration had favored religious groups over secular ones when its faith-based office sponsored conferences that taught religious groups how to request federal grants. The ruling overturned a 2006 decision by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, in favor of the foundation. However, the justices split over how or whether Flast applied to the case and no opinion prevailed for the court. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote an opinion in which he was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. Alito said a correct interpretation of Flast showed that taxpayers could sue the government only if Congress had passed the law that broke with the Establishment Clause. He said the faith-based office was not specifically funded by Congress, but was created by the administration and paid for by the executive branch’s general appropriations. He concluded that Flast was irrelevant to the case. Alito said, “We do not extend Flast, but we also do not overrule it.” Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas agreed with the judgment, but signed an opinion written by Scalia. Scalia argued that the court had to decide whether to overrule Flast or to apply it to all branches of government that could be accused of spending taxpayer money in an unconstitutional manner. He said Alito’s opinion made the law inconsistent and was a “meaningless distinction.” He concluded that Flast should be overturned. Kennedy wrote a separate concurring opinion that argued to keep Flast as a precedent even if its use should be limited. He said the precedent expressed “the Constitution’s special concern that freedom of conscience not be compromised by government taxing and spending in support of religion.” Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer dissented. Souter, writing for the minority, argued that Alito’s distinction between which branches of government were held responsible under Flast eroded the power of the First Amendment. He said, “If the executive could accomplish through exercise of discretion exactly what Congress cannot do through legislation, Establishment Clause protection would melt away.” „ Use Restricted for Union Fees. The Supreme Court June 14 in Davenport v. Washington Education Association unanimously over416

turned a Washington State Supreme Court decision that allowed unions to spend nonmembers’ fees on political causes. The Washington court in 2006 had ruled that any stricture on a union’s ability to use fees for electioneering was a violation of the union’s First Amendment right to free speech. [See 2006, p. 761G1] The Washington court’s decision overturned a state ballot initiative, approved in 1992, that barred unions from spending nonmembers’ fees on political causes if the nonmembers objected to it. Nonmembers were workers who did not belong to a union, but were required to pay a union fee because the union represented them in collective bargaining. Scalia, writing for the court, said, “The notion that this modest limitation upon an extraordinary benefit violates the First Amendment is, to say the least, counterintuitive.” „ Stricter Standard Set on Shareholder Suit.

The Supreme Court June 21 ruled, 8–1, that a lower court had employed too low a bar when it accepted a suit brought by shareholders against Tellabs Inc., a telecommunications company based in Naperville, Ill. The shareholders in 2002 had filed a securities fraud complaint that accused Tellabs and its executives of intentionally exaggerating the company’s projected revenues. The case was Tellabs Inc. v. Makor Issues and Rights Ltd. [See pp. 399E1, 332B1] The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, in 2006 had ruled that the case could go forward, saying that the shareholders had fulfilled the requirements of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The act demanded that plaintiffs in a securities fraud case present facts from which a “strong inference” could be made that the company intended to commit fraud. The appellate court said the “strong inference” standard was met if “a reasonable person could infer that the defendant had acted with the required intent.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the court, concluded that the plaintiffs had not met the requirements of the act. She said a strong inference “must be more than merely ‘reasonable’ or ‘permissible’—it must be cogent and compelling.” She said the inference of intent had to be at least as persuasive as an explanation of the defendants’ innocence. Ginsburg sent the case back to the appellate court and ordered it to use the new standard. The ruling was hailed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country’s largest business lobbying group. Robin Conrad, an executive vice president in the chamber’s legal division, June 21 said the verdict would give the financial industry greater security and would lower the number of “blackmail settlements,” cases in which companies that denied wrongdoing nevertheless settled with plaintiffs before going to court in order to avoid the high costs of litigation. Justice John Paul Stevens dissented. He said civil cases should be accepted or denied based on whether probable cause could be established, the same standard ap-

plied in making an indictment in a criminal case. „ Challenge to Sentencing Dismissed. The Supreme Court June 21 in Rita v. United States dismissed, 8–1, a defendant’s challenge to his 33-month sentence for a perjury conviction. The ruling upheld a 2006 decision by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., which stated that since the sentence for Victor Rita, the defendant, fell within the advisory guidelines created by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, it was “reasonable” to presume that the sentence was fair. [See 2005, p. 14A2] The verdict was the Supreme Court’s latest refinement of a 2005 precedent, United States v. Booker, which deemed that federal sentencing guidelines violated a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury. The court had found that federal guidelines allowed judges to change a sentence by accounting for factors that the jury was not privy to. It ruled that sentencing could be based only on proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” as determined by a jury and not on a judge’s “preponderance of evidence.” However, instead of abolishing the guidelines, the court ruled to make them advisory instead of mandatory. The rules were initially created in 1987 to ensure that crimes were punished in a consistent manner across the country. However, since Booker, lower courts had struggled with the relevance and application of the guidelines. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing an opinion in which Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel A. Alito Jr., John Paul Stevens and Anthony M. Kennedy joined, said the decision “simply recognizes the real-world circumstance” that if a judge agreed with the federal guidelines, the sentence was probably reasonable. He added that the presumption of reasonableness was “not binding,” and that judges could veer from the guidelines if they explained the rationale behind their decisions. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas agreed with the outcome, but did not sign Breyer’s opinion, saying the court had reinstated judicial eminence in sentencing practices. Justice David H. Souter dissented, saying that a presumption of reasonableness on the part of judges went against the Sixth Amendment rights the court had tried to defend in Booker. The court was scheduled to hear cases in the next term in which judges had actually departed from the sentencing guidelines . [See p. 399D1] „ Car Passengers Given Search Protections.

The Supreme Court June 18 ruled unanimously that a passenger in a car could, like the driver, challenge the legality of being stopped by police. The court said passengers were protected under the Fourth Amendment, which guaranteed against unreasonable searches and seizures. The case was Brendlin v. California. [See p. 280A1] FACTS ON FILE

The ruling overturned the California Supreme Court’s 2006 verdict, which held that Bruce Brendlin, charged in 2001 for drug possession after police stopped the car he was in, could not claim that he was seized improperly. The California court found that the police had lacked probable cause to stop the car in the first place, which was grounds for making a case of unconstitutional seizure once police discovered that Brendlin was carrying drugs. However, the state court said Brendlin was not technically seized by the police during the stop, as he was only a passenger and could have walked away from the car if he chose, and hence could not seek protection under the Fourth Amendment. The court disagreed. Souter, writing for the court, said, “Any reasonable passenger would have understood the police officers to be exercising control to the point that no one in the car was free to depart without police permission.” He added that the state court’s ruling would have allowed police to stop cars with passengers without probable cause. The justices sent back the case to the California Supreme Court for reconsideration in light of their ruling. „ City Given Jurisdiction to Hear Tax Case.

The Supreme Court June 14 ruled, 7–2, that a U.S. District Court in New York City had jurisdiction to hear a tax lien case involving buildings owned by the governments of India and Mongolia. The city had accused the two countries of withholding a combined $25 million in unpaid property taxes and interest for buildings used to house employees from their United Nations missions. The case was Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations v. City of New York. [See 2002, p. 339B3] The city placed tax liens on the buildings when the two countries refused to pay the property taxes, and in 2003 the city went to court to establish the validity of the liens. New York State law exempted from taxation diplomatic offices and senior officials’ residences owned by foreign governments, but not residences occupied by employees of a lower rank. India and Mongolia used parts of their mission buildings to house such employees. The missions had argued that under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, their governments were protected from lawsuits brought against them. The city argued that the legal status of the missions fell under an exception in the immunity law, which said foreign governments were subject to litigation if “rights in immovable property situated in the United States are in issue.” Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, ruled that a lawsuit seeking to establish the validity of a tax lien was inherently connected to the issue of rights in immovable property because it prevented the sale of property. Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen G. Breyer dissented. Stevens’s opinion said the majority interpeted the “immovable property” exception too widely, arguing that if Congress had intended such an June 28, 2007

application of it, it would have done so explicitly. „

Legislation Senate Energy Bill Raises Fuel Economy.

The Senate June 21 passed, 65–27, energy legislation that would require new cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) to achieve fleetwide average fuel economy of 35 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2020, up from the current level of about 25 mpg. That would be the first comprehensive mandatory fuel economy increase for those automobile classes since 1975. [See p. 29B1] The Senate Republican minority defeated two Democratic-backed amendments. The chamber failed to cut off debate on a proposal to raise taxes on oil companies and devote the resulting $32 billion in revenue to promoting renewable fuels, 57–38, falling three votes short of the required 60vote majority. The measure would have ended domestic oil companies’ eligibility for a tax credit and imposed a new tax on oil firms drilling in the Gulf of Mexico under royalty-free leases. Oil companies and their supporters argued that the provisions would lead to higher gasoline prices and increase U.S. dependence on foreign oil. The Senate’s Democratic leadership vowed to bring back the tax package later in the legislative process. Republicans also succeeded in blocking a proposal to mandate that electrical utilities generate at least 15% of their power from renewable resources. Instead, the Senate approved language to require the nationwide use of 36 billion gallons (136 billion liters) of alternative biofuels, such as ethanol, by 2022. The provision included a mandate to increase use of “advanced” biofuels, such as ethanol derived from cellulose, by three billion gallons each year beginning in 2016. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers for months had been fighting the fuel economy increase, calling instead for a smaller one for light trucks and sport utility vehicles—to 30 mpg—by 2025. To pass the higher standard, which erased the current distinction between cars and light trucks, senators removed language that would have required additional 4% annual increases until 2030. The approved fuel economy standards would cut U.S. oil consumption by 1.2 million barrels per day and would effect a drop in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 30 million cars from U.S. roads, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit group. Other provisions of the bill would raise efficiency standards for household appliances and federal buildings, make fuel price gouging a federal crime during states of emergency declared by the president, and subject the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to U.S. antitrust laws. President George W. Bush had threatened to veto the last two measures. The House was expected to vote on its own energy bill in July. „

NSA Surveillance Program Senate Subpoenas Administration Records.

The Senate Judiciary Committee June 27 issued subpoenas to the White House, including the offices of Vice President Dick Cheney and national security adviser Stephen Hadley, as well as to the Justice Department, for documents related to a secret warrantless wiretapping program that had been run by the National Security Agency (NSA). [See p. 310E3] The subpoenas came amid a separate battle between the Bush administration and Congress over subpoenas for documents relating to the firing of several federal prosecutors in 2006. [See p. 418D1] The wiretapping program had monitored electronic communications, including telephone calls and e-mails, between terrorism suspects in the U.S. and foreign countries. It had been secretly instituted by President George W. Bush in October 2001, in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. The program was made public by the New York Times in December 2005, and had drawn criticism from Democrats and some Republicans for bypassing the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which required warrants for domestic surveillance. The administration had argued that the program fell within the constitutionally mandated powers of the executive branch. It also claimed that its legality was based in a 2001 congressional resolution authorizing the president to use force to fight terrorists. However, the Justice Department in January had agreed to allow a secret federal court oversee the operation of the program, and also agreed to seek warrants for wiretaps from the court. In May, James Comey, a former deputy attorney general, had testified before the committee about a dramatic March 2004 confrontation between the administration and the Justice Department, then led by Attorney General John Ashcroft, over the legality of the program. (Comey had been called to testify about the fired federal prosecutors.) That testimony had reportedly opened the door for the Democratic-led committee to probe charges that the administration had knowingly attempted to evade the law. The Judiciary Committee reportedly had requested the documents after Comey’s testimony, but had not received a response from the administration. The documents were internal communications about the program’s legality, as well as agreements with telecommunications companies that had collaborated with the NSA in the program. The committee June 21 voted, 13–3, to approve the subpoenas, with three senior Republicans—Sens. Orrin Hatch (Utah), Arlen Specter (Pa.) and Charles Grassley (Iowa)—siding with all 10 Democrats. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), the Judiciary Committee chairman, in a June 27 news conference said the committee had decided to issue the subpoenas in response to a “consistent pattern of evasion and mis417

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direction” by the Bush administration. He described the administration’s response to the panel’s probe as “stonewalling of the worst kind.” Neither the White House, Cheney’s office nor the Justice Department responded to questions on how they planned to reply to the subpoenas. Tony Fratto, the White House deputy press secretary, said, “It’s unfortunate that congressional Democrats continue to choose the route of confrontation.” The committee set a July 18 deadline for turning over the documents. Other News—In other news related to the NSA wiretapping program: † Judge Royce Lamberth, who had headed the FISA court from 1995 to 2002, June 23 criticized the warrantless surveillance program, in remarks to the American Library Association’s annual convention. Lamberth, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C., asserted that judges were needed to oversee surveillance programs that concerned national security because the executive branch could not be trusted to protect civil liberties in such cases. Lamberth had been appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan. † Ashcroft June 21 testified before a closed session of the House Intelligence Committee, which was considering rewriting FISA. According to Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D, Texas), the committee chairman, Ashcroft in his testimony had described “enormous debate in the administration about the legal basis” for the warrantless surveillance program. „

Fired Federal Prosecutors Bush Rejects Congressional Subpoenas.

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President George W. Bush June 28 invoked executive privilege to declare that the White House would not comply with congressional subpoenas demanding documents on a purge of federal prosecutors in 2006. Democrats had alleged that the purge reflected improper political hiring bias in the Justice Department. [See p. 378D2] White House counsel Fred Fielding sent a letter announcing the decision to the Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees, who had issued the subpoenas two weeks earlier. He wrote, “With respect, it is with much regret that we are forced down this unfortunate path which we sought to avoid by finding grounds for mutual accommodation.” The White House also indicated that it would not allow two ex–staff members— Harriet Miers, Fielding’s predecessor as counsel, and Sara Taylor, former political director—to testify before Congress on the matter. Fielding referred to an offer by Bush to allow private, unrecorded interviews with Miers, Taylor and his chief political adviser, Karl Rove, instead of sworn public testimony. He also noted about 8,500 pages of documents already released by the White House and testimony given before the judiciary committees by Attorney 418

General Alberto Gonzales and other senior Justice Department officials. Fielding said Bush was defending his “bedrock presidential prerogative” to receive “candid and unfettered advice” on a confidential basis. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) said in response, “Increasingly, the president and vice president feel they are above the law.” Gonzales Deputy Testifies—Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty June 21 testified before the House Judiciary commercial and administrative law subcommittee. McNulty, who had previously said he would resign during the summer, denied that he had intentionally misled lawmakers in February when he first testified on the prosecutor purge. He had said then that the White House did not play a major role in planning the purge. That claim had been contradicted since then by the testimony of other officials and the release of documents, including e-mail messages, which showed the involvement of Miers, Rove and Taylor. McNulty said he had not been informed of the planning for the purge, and therefore his “knowledge at the time I testified about the replacement of the U.S. attorneys was in some respects incomplete.” But he insisted that “at all times I have sought to provide Congress with the truth.” Other News—In related developments: † The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee June 18 issued a report asserting that Rove and other White House officials had frequently used Republican National Committee (RNC) e-mail accounts for official business, and that many of the e-mails were missing. The committee chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.), said the use of the RNC accounts might have violated the Presidential Records Act, which required all official White House communications to be preserved. White House press secretary Tony Snow said the accounts had been used to avoid violating another law, the Hatch Act, which barred the use of federal resources for partisan political purposes. The use of the outside accounts had come to light in the probe of the prosecutor purge. † Michael Elston, McNulty’s chief of staff, June 15 announced that he was resigning, becoming the latest in a series of top Justice Department officials to step down in the controversy over the purge. Several of the dismissed U.S. attorneys had claimed that Elston had threatened that the department would retaliate against them if they spoke out about the matter. He denied having made such threats. „

Bush Administration Cheney Ignored Classified Data Rules.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, June 21 released documents showing that Vice President Dick Cheney since 2003 had refused to comply with rules for handling classified material. The rules were set out in an executive order

first issued by President Bill Clinton in 1995 and revised by President George W. Bush in 2003. [See pp. 418D1, 417G2] Cheney’s office had filed annual reports with the unit of the National Archives that was responsible for enforcing the rules, the Information Security Oversight Office, in 2001 and 2002, but had not filed any reports since then. It had also blocked the unit from conducting an on-site inspection. Cheney’s office had reportedly attempted to have the unit shut down earlier in 2007. Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington, reportedly had told J. William Leonard, the director of the agency, that the vice president’s office was not subject to the executive order because it was not an “entity within the executive branch.” Addington based that claim on the fact that the vice president was also a constitutional officer of the legislative branch, as president of the Senate. In January, Leonard had sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, asking him to resolve the dispute. Gonzales had not replied, but the Justice Department said it was reviewing the matter. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino June 22 said Bush had decided that Cheney was not required to comply with the executive order. “The president gets to decide whether or not he should be treated separately, and he’s decided that he should,” she said. She also said that Bush did not believe that the National Archives agency should be abolished, adding, “I don’t think that anyone has suggested that.” Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), the third-ranking House Democrat, June 26 said he would sponsor a measure to cut the funding that Cheney’s office received as part of the executive, since Cheney apparently claimed to be part of the legislative branch instead. Cheney spokeswoman Megan McGinn dismissed the threat as “partisan politics.” In a letter sent June 26 to Sen. John Kerry (D, Mass.), Addington said the executive order in question provided the vice president with the same exemption as the president from its rules, which he said applied only to agencies of the executive branch. He did not bring up the argument that the vice president was not part of the executive branch. Kerry criticized it as a “legalistic answer.” Cheney’s insistence on secrecy had prompted previous clashes, starting with his refusal to disclose the names of business executives who met with an energy policy task force that he led in 2001. [See 2005, p. 324F2] More recently, in a May 25 court filing, the Justice Department disclosed that a lawyer for Cheney had asked the Secret Service to destroy records on the visitors to the vice president’s official residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. The Justice Department filed a copy of the Sept. 13, 2006, letter from Cheney’s counsel, Shannen Coffin, in a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Coffin had written to the Secret Service after the Washington Post filed a separate lawsuit seeking the visitor records under FACTS ON FILE

the Freedom of Information Act. The Secret Service reportedly was now retaining information on Cheney’s visitors pending the resolution of the lawsuits. „

Terrorism Detainees White House Mulls Guantanamo Closure.

The Bush administration June 22 acknowledged an active discussion among top officials over whether to close the U.S. prison camp for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and move inmates to military prisons in the U.S., after the Associated Press (AP) the previous day had reported a growing consensus within the administration supporting the camp’s closure. The AP reported that a high-level meeting on the issue had been scheduled for June 22, but officials said the Bush administration had taken it off the agenda after the AP article was published. Officials said they thought a final decision on the matter could take weeks or months. [See p. 379G1] Criticism over alleged abusive practices and the indefinite detention of inmates at Guantanamo Bay had been ongoing since the first inmates were transferred to the prison in 2002. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in recent months had urged that the camp be shut down, arguing that it hurt the U.S.’s international image. President George W. Bush had expressed a desire to close Guantanamo, but said it was logistically unfeasible at the present time. The prison’s closure reportedly was opposed by Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. They had reportedly expressed concerns that transferring prisoners to the U.S. would let them file habeas corpus petitions against their detention, and argued against allowing dangerous terrorists to be held on U.S. soil. However, their weakening political clout, and the departure from the administration of other Guantanamo proponents like former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, had shifted the debate toward closing the base. Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council (NSC), in a statement after the AP article appeared, said, “The president has long expressed a desire to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and to do so in a responsible way. A number of steps need to take place before that can happen, such as setting up military commissions and the repatriation to their home countries of detainees who have been cleared for release. These and other steps have not been completed. No decisions on the future of Guantanamo Bay are imminent and there will not be a White House meeting tomorrow.” „

National Politics New Wyoming Senator Named. Wyoming

Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) June 22 appointed Republican state Sen. John Barrasso (R) to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Craig Thomas (R) June 28, 2007

earlier in the month. Barrasso was sworn in June 25 by Vice President Dick Cheney. He would serve the remaining 17 months of Thomas’s term. [See p. 372F3] Barrasso, 54, was an orthopedic surgeon who was first elected to the state Senate in 2002. He had described himself as a conservative in his application for the vacant seat, saying, “I believe in limited government, lower taxes, less spending, traditional family values, local control and a strong national defense.” Under Wyoming law, when a Senate seat became vacant, the governor, whatever his own party affiliation was, had to choose from a slate of three nominees decided by the party of the previous senator. As a result, the Senate remained narrowly under Democratic control, 51–49, including two independents aligned with the Democrats. Sen. Johnson Still Recovering—Sen. Tim Johnson (D, S.D.) was still absent from the Senate while recovering from a brain hemorrhage in December 2006. One of Johnson’s doctors June 11 said his ability to walk and speak were improving and “I am confident that he will be able to resume his duties,” although he did not say when. Johnson had yet to say if he would seek reelection in 2008. [See p. 314B2] Primary Held for California Seat— State Assemblywoman Laura Richardson June 26 won a Democratic primary for the Long Beach, Calif., House seat vacated by the death of Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D) in April. Richardson was expected to easily win the Aug. 21 special general election for the seat in the heavily Democratic district. [See p. 272A3] „

Immigration Passport Rules Delayed for N. American Travel.

The government June 8 temporarily waived a passport requirement for U.S. travelers trying to enter the country on flights from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. The passport rule had gone into effect in January, but a huge resulting backlog of passport applications had angered many citizens with travel plans. Under the waiver, which extended through September, U.S. travelers entering by air from those countries would have to provide only government-issued identification and proof that they had applied for a passport. [See p. 47F3] Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff June 20 announced that the new passport rules for U.S. travelers entering by land from Canada or Mexico, or by sea from those countries and the Caribbean and Bermuda, would be delayed until at least the summer of 2008. In the interim, U.S. citizens age 16 and older would have to present government-issued photo identification and a birth certificate. Children under 16 could present a certified copy of a birth certificate. The change also applied to Canadians entering the U.S. They would have to show the equivalent Canadian papers at the border.

The House June 15 had voted to delay until June 2009 the passport rules for land or sea travel. [See p. 398F1] The State Department June 19 said it was boosting its operations to meet the growth in passport applications. „

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Medicine & Health FDA Panel Rejects Obesity Drug. A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory

panel June 13 voted, 14–0, to recommend that the agency reject approval of a drug developed to treat obesity, citing its potential links to suicidal thoughts and behavior and other psychiatric side effects. Altough the FDA was not required to follow the advice, it was rare for the agency to break with an advisory panel’s recommendation. [See 2004, p. 1036D1] The drug, rimonabant, was manufactured by the French drug company Sanofi Aventis SA, and was already being marketed in 37 countries. Sanofi had intended to sell it under the brand name Zimulti in the U.S. However, studies had linked it to several psychiatric side effects, including aggression, psychosis, depression, anxiety and sleep disorders. The panel also expressed concern that the drug could cause seizures. Four patients had committed suicide while taking the drug during studies. Rimonabant worked by suppressing brain receptors that modulated a person’s sense of hunger. It had been shown to decrease a patient’s weight by about 5%. However, the same brain system also was associated with anxiety, phobias and depression. Other News—In other FDA regulation news: † The FDA June 22 issued a rule requiring that the manufacturers of dietary supplements such as vitamins and herbal pills test the ingredients in their products to ensure that they were free of contamination. The FDA in the past had discovered that some supplements contained undisclosed ingredients used in erectile dysfunction drugs, or failed to match the vitamin content indicated on their labels. However, supplements still did not have to be shown as safe and effective, as medicines did. Several critics of the policy said it did not do enough to ensure the safety of people taking supplements. The rule was set to begin taking effect Aug. 24, though it would not be completely phased in until 2010. [See p. 193F2] † The FDA Feb. 7 approved the weightloss drug Alli for over-the-counter sale, making it the first weight-loss drug available to consumers without a prescription. Alli, which was manufactured by Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline PLC, was known by the generic name orlistat and had been available by prescription under the brand name Xenical. The over-the-counter version of the drug would be available in a lower dose. The drug worked by blocking the absorption of fat in the digestive system, but could result in diarrhea, excessive gas and the loss of bowel control. [See 2006, p. 52B1] „ 419

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Bristol-Myers Pleads Guilty in Plavix Case.

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New York City–based pharmaceutical firm Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. June 11 pleaded guilty in U.S District Court in Washington, D.C., to two counts of making false statements to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The charges resulted from a Justice Department investigation into allegations that Bristol-Myers had conspired to delay the release of a generic version of its bloodthinning medication Plavix, one of the world’s most popular drugs. Judge Ricardo Urbina fined Bristol-Myers $1 million under the terms of the deal. Plavix had been comarketed with French drug firm Sanofi Aventis SA. [See 2006, p. 696D2] Bristol-Myers and Sanofi in March 2006 had reportedly paid Canadian drug manufacturer Apotex Inc. to delay its release of a generic version of Plavix until 2011. Federal investigators had alleged that Bristol-Myers had broken the law by promising Apotex that it would not produce its own “authorized generic” version of Plavix. Plavix’s generic name was clopidogrel bisulphate. Bristol-Myers May 10 had announced the terms of the plea deal, which effectively ended a Department of Justice antitrust investigation begun in July 2006. That investigation had the potential to yield more serious criminal and civil charges. After the guilty plea, Bristol-Myers officials maintained that the company had never entered into a “side agreement” with Apotex, and blamed statements made by former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Dolan for suggesting that such a deal existed. Bristol-Myers had fired Dolan in September 2006. [See 2006, p. 731F2] Plavix Patent Upheld—In a separate but related court case, Judge Sidney Stein of U.S. District Court in New York City June 19 upheld Bristol-Myers’s and Sanofi’s Plavix patent. The ruling meant that Apotex could not produce a generic version of Plavix until 2011, when its patent was set to expire. The ruling also raised the possibility that Apotex would have to pay damages for briefly selling a generic version of the drug in 2006. Analysts said the ruling would remove the largest hurdle to companies interested in taking over Bristol-Myers, considered one of the more lucrative takeover targets among drug companies. „ FDA Panel Questions Anemia Drug Safety. A Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

advisory panel May 10 recommended that the agency gather more data on the safety of the high-selling class of drugs known as erythropoietins, which were used to treat anemia. Observers said the panel’s recommendations signaled growing concerns over the potential health risks of erythropoietins, which were sold under the brand names Epogen and Aranesp by Amgen Inc., and Procrit by Johnson & Johnson (J&J). The drugs were considered blockbusters for the companies, and had yielded an estimated $10 billion in combined sales in 2006. [See p. 193C3] The FDA in 1988 had approved the use of erythropoietin as a treatment for patients 420

with kidney failure. The agency in 1993 expanded its use to include the treatment of anemia resulting from chemotherapy, as the drug had been shown to reduce the need for a blood transfusion. However, erythropoietin had been linked to tumor growth and heart damage in some patients, and the FDA in March had added a new warning to its label after concluding that some doctors were overprescribing it. Marketing Practices Investigated— The House Committee on Energy and Commerce had sent letters to Amgen and J&J requesting information on their erythropoietin marketing practices, it was reported by the New York Times March 22. The letters, dated March 20, also asked the companies to halt advertising for the drugs until the FDA finished examining their safety. The Times May 9 also reported that Amgen and J&J had paid doctors hundreds of millions of dollars to prescribe their anemia medicines. Although federal law prohibited companies from paying doctors to prescribe drugs dispensed in pill form and obtained from a pharmacy, companies were able to provide doctors with rebates for drugs used in the office as part of treatment. Richard Pazdur, director of the FDA’s Office of Oncology Drug Products, May 10 said the agency would investigate advertisements for Procrit that suggested the drug would make seniors with cancer more active and improve their quality of life. The drug had never been approved for such uses, Pazdur said. Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG May 18 said the FDA had delayed approval of its new anemia drug, but did not disclose why. However, the company reported that the agency had issued an approval letter, meaning that its drug could still receive approval if the company answered the agency’s questions and met certain conditions. „

Economy Consumer Prices Gained 0.7% in May. The Labor Department June 15 reported that its consumer price index (CPI), which tracked prices paid for Inflation (CPI) consumer goods May 2007 0.7% by all urban conPrevious Month 0.4% sumers, grew 12-Month Increase 2.7% 0.7% in May after adjustment for seasonal variation. It was the biggest month-to-month increase in the index in nearly two years, up from a 0.4% rise in the index in April. The decrease was driven in part by stable rent prices. “Core” consumer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food costs, increased by 0.1% in May, after a 0.2% rise in April. For the 12-month period through May, the overall unadjusted inflation rate was 2.7%. [See p. 333A1] Unadjusted for seasonal variation, the CPI for all urban consumers stood at 207.949% of its 1982–84 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982–84 would have cost $207.95 in May. „

AFRICA

Nigeria General Strike Held Over Fuel, Tax Changes.

Nigerian labor unions June 20–23 staged a nationwide general strike in protest of recent tax hikes, cuts to gasoline price subsidies and the sales of two state-owned oil refineries. The unions June 23 accepted the government’s offer to cap fuel prices at 70 naira ($0.55) per liter for one year, backing down from their demand for a return to the per-liter price of 65 naira. [See pp. 351G1, 350A3] The strike shut down factories, schools, banks and stores. It began despite concessions from the new president, Umaru Yar’Adua, who had offered to cut the fuelprice hike in half, reverse a value-added tax rate increase of five percentage points and reconsider the privatization plans. Militants Attack in Niger Delta— Armed militants June 17 had stormed two oilfield stations in the volatile southern Niger Delta region, one owned by Italy’s Eni SA and the other by Chevron Corp. of the U.S. The assailants quickly left the Chevron station but 27 people, including 11 soldiers, were taken hostage at the Eni facility. The action was reportedly in retaliation for the deaths of eight militants at the Eni station at the hands of government troops the previous week. [See p. 351A2] The military June 21 forcibly removed the hostage-takers from the station, killing 12 of them in the process. The episode forced the Eni plant to shut down and disrupted the oil supply from the Delta region, pushing fuel prices higher. The general strike had further disabled Nigerian oil operations. The country was Africa’s largest oil producer. Four foreign oil workers who had been held hostage since June 1 were released to Nigerian security officials June 23. The four men, from Britain, France, Pakistan and the Netherlands, were employees of Schlumberger Ltd., a French and U.S. oil services company. It was unclear if a ransom had secured their release. In a related development, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, a prominent militant in detention since 2005 for leading an insurgency in the Niger Delta, June 14 was released on bail. He had been charged with treason. A group of his supporters had targeted Nigeria’s oil industry for attacks and demanded Dokubo-Asari’s release before they would stop them. [See p. 162A2] „

AMERICAS

Peru Prosecutor Advises Fujimori Extradition.

Monica Maldonado, the prosecutor for Chile’s Supreme Court, June 7 recommended that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori be extradited to Peru to face charges of corruption and human rights abuses there. Maldonado accepted eight corruption charges and two human rights FACTS ON FILE

Venezuela Exxon, ConocoPhillips Exit Oil Deal. U.S. oil firms ConocoPhillips Co. and Exxon Mobil Corp. June 26 declined to enter into agreements with the Venezuelan government to cede control of their oil production ventures in the country. Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said the companies had failed to meet a deadline to negotiate the transfer of control of some $4.3 billion worth of investments owned by the two firms. Venezuela and six large foreign oil companies had been negotiating the transfer for several months. [See p. 283F3] Four other companies, the U.S.’s Chevron Corp, France’s Total SA, Norway’s Statoil ASA and BP PLC of Britain, the same day had reportedly signed agreements giving the government 60% to 83% stakes in their Venezuelan operations. Conoco said it would pull out of its Venezuelan oil ventures, which were valued at $3.5 billion. Exxon officials said they hoped to continue discussions over their estimated $800 million in Venezuelan oil investments. Conoco maintained the option of seeking remuneration through an international arbitration process, though it might take years for the company to receive any financial redress. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias in February had decreed the takeover of foreign-owned oil operations in the country’s Orinoco River area. The staterun oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) in May assumed control of the foreign-owned oil operations in the OriJune 28, 2007

noco area. The oil takeovers were part of Chavez’s larger plan to nationalize several major industries in Venezuela, such as telecommunications firms and utilities. State Oil Firm’s Profits, Exports Decline— PDVSA’s net profit had dropped to $4.77 bil-

lion in 2006, from $6.48 billion in 2005, it was reported March 28, in what analysts said signaled increasing problems for the firm. Chavez had used the profits generated by record-high crude oil profits to subsidize many of his social programs, but at the cost of reinvesting the company’s profits in oil production infrastructure and upkeep. PDVSA had not publicly released audited financial results in either 2005 or 2006. However, the Venezuelan economic institute CIECA estimated that the company had turned over 70% of its gross revenue to the government to fund social programs. PDVSA revenue had also reportedly been used to fund the takeover of national power companies and the Orinoco River area oil facilities. The U.S. Energy Information Administration Feb. 16 had reported that Venezuelan oil imports had fallen to 1.1139 million barrels per day in 2006, down 8.2% from 1.241 million barrels per day in 2005. The level represented a 12-year low. Venezuela had fallen to seventh-largest oil exporter in the world, from fourth place 10 years earlier, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, it was reported May 12. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Gordon Brown Succeeds Blair As British Prime Minister

him as a less electable leader. But public opinion polls showed a modest bounce in support for Labour coinciding with the handover of power. Brown had until 2010 at the latest to call a general election. Blair Bows Out—Before stepping down, Blair June 27 went to the House of Commons, the lower chamber of Parliament, for his last weekly Question Time, when the prime minister answered questions from other members and sparred with the leaders of the opposition. In contrast with the usually sharp tone of their encounters, Blair and David Cameron, leader of the largest opposition party, the Conservative (Tory) Party, exchanged good wishes. Cameron paid tribute to Blair’s “considerable achievements,” including peace in Northern Ireland, where Blair had overseen the 1998 Good Friday accord, ending three decades of sectarian violence. [See p. 300B2] Blair made a final defense of his decision to commit British forces to fight alongside the U.S. in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The war in Iraq, in particular, had eroded Blair’s popularity in Britain. He said, “I am truly sorry about the dangers that they face today in Iraq and Afghanistan. I know some may think that they face these dangers in vain; I don’t and I never will. I believe they are fighting for the security of this country and the wider world against people who would destroy our way of life.” Concluding his last speech to the Commons, Blair said, “I wish everyone—friend or foe—well. And that is that. The end.” He received a two-minute standing ovation from members of all parties.

Blair Steps Down After 10 Years in Power.

Gordon Brown June 27 became Britain’s prime minister, as Tony Blair resigned after more than 10 years in power. Brown, 56, had been chancellor of the exchequer, in charge of the British Treasury, during Blair’s premiership. In May, Brown had won the race to succeed Blair as leader of the ruling center-left Labour Party, which had won a third straight general election in 2005. Earlier in May, Blair, 54, had announced the date of his resignation. [See p. 336E1; for facts on Brown, see p. 422A1] In accordance with Britain’s political tradition, Blair visited Queen Elizabeth II, the head of state, at Buckingham Palace in London to deliver his resignation. Half an hour later, Brown arrived at the palace. The queen asked him to form a new government and serve as prime minister. Brown became the 11th prime minister since the beginning of her reign in 1952. In his first speech as prime minister, delivered to the press while standing in front of the official headquarters and residence of the prime minister at 10 Downing Street in London, Brown said, “This will be a new government with new priorities and I have been privileged to have been granted the great opportunity to serve my country.” Brown was known for an often dour manner, in contrast to the charismatic Blair, and that had led commentators to see

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abuse charges filed against Fujimori, 68, by the Peruvian government. However, a final ruling on the issue by Chile’s Supreme Court was not expected for several more months. [See 2006, p. 22G2] Maldonado in her 55-page report said the evidence linking Fujimori to embezzlement and the deaths or disappearances of more than 20 people was “devastating.” Maldonado also found a reasonable basis for allegations that Fujimori had engaged in illegal telephone wiretaps and bribery to secure the backing of the media for his reelection in 2000. [See 2000, p. 894E2] Fujimori, who was Peruvian-born but of Japanese descent, had ruled Peru from 1990 to 2000, before fleeing to Japan in the midst of a political scandal linking him to corruption charges and abuses by the Peruvian intelligence agency. Japan, which recognized Fujimori as a citizen, had refused to extradite him. However, Fujimori had relocated to Chile in November 2005. He had been held under house arrest for six months, then released pending a final decision on the extradition request. A Chilean judge June 8 ordered Fujimori placed under house arrest again after Peru cited him as a flight risk. Meanwhile, Japanese media June 19 reported that a small Japanese political party, the People’s New Party, had asked Fujimori to run in elections for the upper house of Japan’s legislature. Fujimori June 27 confirmed that he had accepted the offer. „

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New British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, with wife Sarah Brown, arriving at 10 Downing Street in London June 27.

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James Gordon Brown was born Feb. 20, 1951, in Griffnock, near Glasgow, Scotland. His father was a minister in the Church of Scotland. The family lived in Glasgow until Brown was three, and then moved to Kirkaldy. He was sent to Kirkaldy High School at the age of 10 as part of an experiment in accelerated education for gifted students. At 16, he went to Edinburgh University. Soon after arriving, he was diagnosed with a detached retina, believed to be the result of a rugby injury. He became blind in one eye; his other eye was also injured. At 20, after graduation, Brown won election to a three-year term as rector of the university, the head of its governing body. He also became a lecturer on politics at the university and at Glasgow Technological College. He earned a doctorate in 1982. In 1979, he made his first run for a seat in Parliament, in Edinburgh, but lost. After working as a television journalist, he won a safe Labour Party seat representing Dunfermline East in Scotland in the 1983 general election, at the age of 32. At the House of Commons in London, he shared an office with another new Labour member, Tony Blair, who was then 30. The pair soon became rising stars in the party.

Later that day, Blair traveled to his constituency, Sedgefield, in northern England, to resign as its member of Parliament after representing the district for 24 years. Also June 27, Blair was named special envoy to the Palestinian territories for the so-called Quartet of the U.S., the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. [See p. 410C1] Brown Names Cabinet—Brown June 28 named his cabinet. One of the most notable appointees was the new foreign secretary, David Miliband. At 41, Miliband was the youngest person to hold the post since the 1970s. He had served as environment secretary for the past year, and as minister for local government and communities for a year before that. As a rising star in the government, he had been urged to challenge Brown in the leadership election in May, but chose not to. Jacqi Smith became the first woman to be named home secretary, in charge of law and order. She was a former Labour chief whip in the Commons, responsible for party discipline. Brown tapped Alistair Darling, the trade and industry secretary in the prior cabinet, to succeed him as chancellor. Brown named former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw as justice secretary and lord chancellor, administrator of the judiciary. Besides Blair and his deputy, John Prescott, nine members of the previous cabinet were not named to Brown’s new one. Brown replaced the Department for Trade and Industry with a new Department of Business and Enterprise, and created two departments out of the Department for Education and Skills. Other News—In related developments: † Brown June 24 formally took over from Blair as Labour Party leader at a party conference in Manchester. Harriet Harman won an election for deputy party leader. † Pope Benedict XVI June 23 granted Blair an audience at the Vatican, prompt422

In 1994, Labour leader John Smith died of a heart attack, and Blair and Brown emerged as rivals to succeed him. The two were believed to have struck a deal under which Brown made way for Blair, with the understanding that Brown would play a major role in government if they brought Labour back to power. [See 1994, p. 448E2] After shedding its traditional left-wing ideology and moving to the political center, Labour won the 1997 general election, ending 18 years in opposition. Brown became chancellor of the exchequer, chief of the Treasury. On his first day in office, Brown gave the Bank of England independent control over interest rates. [See 1997, p. 309A1] Brown became one of the most powerful chancellors of modern times, extending control over most of domestic policy. He also blocked Blair’s plan to have Britain give up the pound and adopt the euro, the currency introduced in several European Union member nations in 2002. As the longest continuously-serving chancellor in 200 years, he presided over an unbroken period of economic growth and poured money into public services. [See p. 197B1; 2003, p. 455A2]

Although Labour won the 2001 and 2005 general elections, the rivalry between Blair and Brown became a constant theme in the British press, with Brown often said to be plotting to oust Blair. Finally, in September 2006, under mounting pressure within the party to set a timetable for his departure, Blair announced at Labour’s annual conference that he would step down within a year’s time. [See 2006, p. 700G1] Blair May 10 said he would step down on June 27. That triggered an election for the next Labour leader, who would take over from Blair as prime minister in a midterm succession. (The resignation of a prime minister did not require a general election to be called.) Brown won by default after his lone challenger failed to win enough votes from Labour members of Parliament to force a formal contest. [See pp. 421D2, 336E1] Brown married public relations executive Sarah Macaulay in 2000. She gave birth to a daughter in 2001, but the baby was born prematurely and died 10 days later. The couple had a son, John, in 2003. A second son, James, was born in 2006. He was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis four months later.

ing speculation that Blair was preparing to become a Roman Catholic. Blair belonged to the Anglican Church, but his wife and children were Catholics. † A senior Tory member of Parliament, Quentin Davies, June 26 announced that he was defecting from his party to join Labour. „

ing that the population should have been about 66 million. Poland finally settled for a compromise under which the new voting system would not take effect until at least 2014, instead of the previous goal of 2009. Other Concessions—British Prime Minister Tony Blair, at his last EU summit before stepping down the next week, won several concessions. Under the deal, Britain would be able to opt out of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Blair had expressed concern that the charter’s rights for workers might be enforced by British courts. He also won an exemption that would allow Britain to opt out of EUwide initiatives in law enforcement matters. The leaders also agreed that an EU foreign policy chief with expanded powers under the treaty would not be known as a foreign minister. That was a concession to Blair’s concerns about British perceptions of the EU as a bureaucratic superstate that threatened to usurp national sovereignty. Sarkozy won a concession on the language of the treaty over the objections of Britain and other members, removing a phrase that pledged “free and undistorted” competition in the EU. Sarkozy said he hoped the change would “give a little more humanity to Europe,” remarking, “Competition is a means, not a goal in itself.” Sarkozy had been seen as more open to free market economics than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, but his stance at the summit showed that he also retained a traditional French protectionist streak. Both Blair and Sarkozy were seen as insisting on concessions that might help neutralize demands at home for the treaty to be put to a referendum. Most of the leaders preferred to take the safer course of a parliamentary vote. „

European Union Leaders Agree on Treaty at Summit. Leaders of the 27 member nations of the European Union early June 23 reached agreement on a treaty that was a pared-down version of a draft EU constitution rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005. The treaty was designed to streamline EU decision making and set rules for admitting new members. The leaders set a goal of having every member nation ratify the treaty by 2009. [See p. 196A2] The deal came after lengthy negotiations that stretched the summit beyond its June 21–22 schedule. German Chancellor Angela Merkel presided over the summit, since Germany held the rotating EU presidency until July, when it would switch to Portugal. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, at his first EU summit since taking office in May, reportedly played a key role in helping to broker the deal. Polish President Lech Kaczynski made strong objections to the treaty’s proposed changes to the EU voting system. The changes would give more voting weight to member nations with larger populations, such as Germany, while reducing Poland’s clout. Kaczynski brought up dark historical associations, arguing that the Polish population would have been much bigger if Nazi Germany had not invaded Poland in 1939. “It is a fact that had there not been the war, Poland would not have 38 million people but many more,” he said, suggest-

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Iraq Sentences Handed Down in Anfal Trial.

The tribunal trying defendants in the Anfal campaign—in which up to 180,000 ethnic Kurds were killed by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party regime in 1988—June 24 convicted Ali Hassan alMajid of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death. Two others were also sentenced to death. Majid, 61, had been the head of the party’s northern bureau during the campaign, and was accused of ordering the use of mustard gas and nerve agents against innocents, earning him the nickname “Chemical Ali.” He was a cousin of Hussein, who was executed in 2006 for a massacre of Shiites in 1982. [See pp. 58E1, 22D2; 2006, p. 989A1] Chief Judge Mohammed al-Oreibi alKhalifah presided over the nationally televised hearing, which also handed down rulings on five other defendants. Majid was led away from the court after hearing that he had been given five death sentences, saying, “Thanks be to God, now I’m leaving.” Two other defendants—former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai and former armed forces deputy chief of operations Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti—were convicted of the same charges as Majid, and each received three death sentences. In 1991, Ahmad had led the Iraqi delegation that met with U.S. generals in order to sign a cease-fire ending the Persian Gulf War. [See 1991, p. 149F2] Sabir Abdul al-Douri, the former director of military intelligence under Hussein, and Farhan Jabouri, the former military intelligence commander for northern Iraq, were found guilty of involvement in the campaign, and each received life in prison. Taher Tawfiq al-Ani, the former governor of Mosul, was acquitted due to lack of evidence. All the defendants maintained their innocence, and claimed that they were following orders at a time when Kurds were backing Iran in the 1980–88 Iran-Iraq War. Oreibi said investigations into another 423 officials suspected of involvement in the campaign would continue. The rulings brought to a close a trial that had begun in August 2006. Many Kurds expressed satisfaction at the convictions and sentences as well as regret that Hussein had been executed prior to the trial’s conclusion. The sentences came during a time of increasing tension in northern Iraq, as Kurds were seeking to have the city of Kirkuk included in the autonomous Kurdish zone. Kurds saw the move as a reversal of Hussein’s attempts to fill the oil-rich region with Arabs from the south. Many other Iraqis, however, were wary of any action that would potentially allow Kurds to secede from the nation, taking oil resources with them. [See p. 306G2] All the death sentences were to be carried out by means of hanging, pending an automatic appeal to another court which would decide whether to uphold the senJune 28, 2007

tences. Iraqi officials June 26 said Majid, Ahmad and Tikriti would likely be executed in the Kurdish area of Iraq. „

Lebanon Bomb Kills Six Peacekeepers in South.

A bomb June 24 killed six soldiers—three Spanish and three Colombian-born—from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) when it hit their armored personnel carrier on a road just north of the border with Israel. Two more Spanish soldiers were wounded in the blast. No one took responsibility for the attack, but the Lebanese government placed the blame on Syria. UNIFIL forces were tasked with keeping southern Lebanon secure and preventing border skirmishes between Lebanese militants and Israel. Spain contributed about 1,100 soldiers to the roughly 13,000strong peacekeeping force. [See pp. 405D1, 406E2, 251A1] Lebanon’s cabinet issued a statement blaming Syria for the blast, saying it was “an attack on Lebanon’s security and stability and posed a challenge to the international community, which is standing on Lebanon’s side.” Syria denied responsibility for the bombing, and also condemned it. Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah—both pro-Syrian opponents of Lebanon’s ruling government—joined in the condemnation. The Lebanese government June 25 requested help from the international community in order to maintain security throughout the country. Lebanon had been riven over the past year by clashes with Israel and Palestinian militants, assassinations of anti-Syrian figures and an ongoing political dispute between the ruling government and the opposition, led by Hezbollah. [See below] U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon June 25 condemned the attack on the peacekeepers, and called for an investigation. Fighting at Refugee Camp Continues—

The Lebanese army June 22–28 continued to fight militants belonging to the Islamist group Fatah al-Islam at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp. Many parts of the camp had been taken over by the army, though militants still remained holed up in some areas. The Lebanese military had declared victory over the militants days earlier. [See p. 405F2] Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr June 26 said Lebanese forces had killed or wounded roughly 300 Fatah militants, and captured 40 others of different nationalities. Murr said the remaining few dozen Fatah militants were in hiding in a small portion of Nahr al-Bared, 80% of which was now under the army’s control. Murr said the militants were using “human shields” to protect themselves. He said 84 soldiers had been killed and 150 wounded in the clashes with Fatah militants. The Lebanese army June 27 said the remaining Fatah militants were taking humanitarian aid for themselves. Several

thousand camp residents were reportedly still in Nahr al-Bared. Ten Die During Raid in Tripoli— Lebanese troops June 23–24 raided an apartment complex in Tripoli, resulting in a firefight that killed six gunmen, one soldier and three residents. The gunmen—three of them Saudis, two of them Lebanese with European citizenship, and the last an ethnic Chechen—had been guarding a large weapons cache. They took hostages when the soldiers entered the complex, killing a police officer who lived at the complex, his 10-year-old daughter and another relative. The military said the gunmen had no apparent links to Fatah al-Islam or to the international terrorist network Al Qaeda. Lebanese troops June 28 clashed with Fatah militants south of Tripoli, killing at least six of them. Several militants reportedly hid in a nearby forest, and the army conducted a search for them. Security officials said three of the dead militants were Saudis, and that the other three might have been Syrian or Iraqi.

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A group of experts with the U.N. June 26 submitted a report to the U.N. Security Council asserting that the Lebanese army was unable to stop the flow of weapons being smuggled into Lebanon from Syria, and called for Lebanese forces to be upgraded. The group had been stationed along the border with Syria for three weeks that ended June 15, and stated that no arms seizures had been made during that period. Lebanese Premier Fouad Siniora June 27 accused Syria of sending weapons to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and vowed to take the issue up with the Arab League. „

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Sri Lanka Supreme Court Halts Evictions of Tamils.

Sri Lanka’s highest court June 8 ordered police to stop forced evictions of ethnic Tamils from Colombo, the capital, to northern and eastern regions of the country, areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebel group. The court order came after the Center for Policy Alternatives, a nongovernmental research and advocacy organization based in Colombo, filed a petition that day to stop the practice. [See p. 199B1] Colombo police, with army support, June 7 had corralled nearly 400 ethnic Tamils staying in cheap hotels in Colombo and put them on buses to return them to the north and the east, which were the frontlines of heavy fighting between the LTTE and government forces. A statement from the government released that day said the initiative was a security precaution meant to stop LTTE insurgents from infiltrating the capital and adding to its violence. It said investigations had revealed insurgents used the hotels to plan attacks against the Colombo population. 423

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Human rights group and lawmakers opposed the evictions, accusing the government of discrimination and increasing the animosity between Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil minority and Sinhalese majority. Nearly 40% of Colombo’s 600,000 residents were of Tamil ethnicity. Many Tamils had moved to Colombo from the north and east to escape civil strife. The U.S. government also condemned the evictions June 8 in a statement, saying the Sri Lankan government’s actions were not helping to end the 24-year-old conflict between the separatist LTTE and the government. A cease-fire brokered in 2002 had fallen apart in the wake of renewed fighting that had resulted in more than 5,000 deaths since December 2005. [See 2002, p. 134C2] Human Rights Commission Faulted—

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An international panel in a statement June 10 criticized a human rights commission created in November 2006 by President Mahinda Rajapakse for failing to investigate alleged human rights violations by government forces. The international panel also found the commission’s mission had been compromised, because its legal counsel was the government’s attorney general’s office. The panel said the relationship posed a conflict of interest, as the commission was ostensibly designed to investigate crimes by government officials and forces. [See 2006, p. 806F2] The panel, known as the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons, was also created by Rajapakse. Its creation was seen as a way for Rajapakse to prevent independent human rights inspectors from entering Sri Lanka. The panel’s mission was limited to observing the commission’s work. The attorney general’s office rebuked the panel, saying it had stepped outside its purview. The commission itself denied that its independence had been compromised. It said the government would soon approve a witness protection program that would allow witnesses to testify about human rights abuses without fear of reprimands from government forces. The commission had yet to begin its first investigation, which was to focus on the alleged murders by government troops in August 2006 of 17 workers for the French aid group Action Against Hunger, in Muttur, a town in the east of the country. Other News—In other Sri Lankan news: † Richard Boucher, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, June 11 announced that the U.S. had suspended some of its aid to the Sri Lankan government. Britain had also suspended $3 million of debt relief to the country in June. Both countries said concerns over human rights abuses, in the forms of killings and abductions by the government and the LTTE, were factors in their decisions. More than 1,000 people had been reported missing since 2006. [See p. 87A1] † The LTTE May 24 attacked a government naval base in Delft, a village in the north of the country, using a squadron of 424

small warships. The army reported that four sailors had been killed, as well 18 rebels. A rebel spokesman said 35 sailors had been killed, and four rebels. † Two small LTTE airplanes April 29 bombed fuel storage depots north of Colombo, leading to a temporary blackout of the city and a shutdown of the airport. No one was killed or injured. The government’s air force said it bombed LTTE targets in the north in response. † A roadside bomb May 29 killed seven people and wounded 36 others in Colombo. The bomb was similar to one that went off May 24 also in Colombo, which killed one soldier and wounded six civilians, and several more detonated in April that had targeted civilians using the motorways. † Two ethnic-Tamil Red Cross workers were found June 2 shot dead in Ratnapura district after having gone missing the day before. The Red Cross May 23 had announced it was pulling back workers from checkpoints between areas held by the government and those held by the LTTE, due to safety concerns. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Golf Pettersen Wins LPGA Championship. Suzann Pettersen of Norway June 10 won the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Championship at Bulle Rock Golf Course in Havre de Grace, Md. It was the first major title for Pettersen, 26, who had won her first professional tournament less than a month earlier. Pettersen shot a 14under-par 274 for the tournament, one stroke ahead of Australia’s Karrie Webb. Both players shot 67 in the final round. South Korean rookie Na On Min, 18, finished at 276 to claim third place. Pettersen took home a $300,000 paycheck for her win. [See p. 251F3; 2006, p. 524D1] Ochoa Takes Over Top Ranking—Lorena Ochoa of Mexico April 23 took over the top world ranking in women’s golf. Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam had held the number-one ranking since the system was first introduced in early 2006, but she had missed several tournaments in recent months due to a back injury. Ochoa May 20 won the Sybase Classic in Clifton, N.J., for her first victory as the world’s top player. She shot an 18-under-par 270, and earned $210,000 in prize money. [See 2006, pp. 903C1, 198B2] „

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Awards Man Booker International Prize. Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, 76, June 13 was named the second winner of the Man Booker International Prize for fiction. The biennial award, a lifetime achievement prize worth £60,000 ($120,000), had been first presented in 2005. Its first winner had been Albanian author Ismail Kadare. [See 2005, p. 427G3]

Often referred to as the father of modern African literature, Achebe, who wrote mostly in English, had been one of 15 contenders for the prize. Others on the shortlist, announced April 12, included Philip Roth and Don DeLillo of the U.S., Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan of Britain, Canada’s Margaret Atwood and Mexico’s Carlos Fuentes. Achebe was the most widely translated African author to date; his first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), had been translated into 50 languages. It dealt with the impact of British colonialization on the Igbo community of southern Nigeria. Having lectured at universities around the world, Achebe was currently a professor of languages and literature in the U.S., at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. A 1990 car accident had left him paralyzed from the waist down. „

People Hotel heiress, socialite and actress Paris Hilton, 26, June 26 was freed from the Los Angeles County women’s jail in Lynwood, Calif. She had been admitted there late June 3 to serve a 23-day sentence (reduced from 45 days) for violating the terms of her probation in a 2006 alcohol-related reckless driving case, by driving with a suspended driver’s license. She had been caught doing so twice, on Jan. 15 and Feb. 27. [See 2005, pp. 380D2, 209F1] Citing an unspecified medical condition, the Sheriff’s Department June 7 had released her into house arrest after fitting her with an electronic bracelet, but, amid a public outcry, a judge June 8 had ordered her back to prison. After spending nearly a week in a medical ward at a downtown Los Angeles jail, she was returned to the Lynwood facility June 13, where, for the duration of her sentence, she was confined to a solitary cell in a special needs unit. After being freed, she discussed her experiences in jail for the first time in a taped, unpaid interview aired June 27 on the CNN cable television show “Larry King Live.” Two major networks, ABC and NBC, had reportedly entered into a bidding war to be the first to interview her, but those efforts had collapsed amid reports that her family had been asking for as much as $1 million for such an interview. „

O B I T UA R I E S CLAIBORNE, Liz (Anne Elisabeth Jane), 78, clothes designer who built a fashion empire by addressing the needs of working women; her moderately priced clothing line featured an assortment of colorful separates designed to be mixed and matched to create a variety of outfits; she cofounded her company, Liz Claiborne Inc., in 1976 with her husband, textiles executive Arthur Ortenberg, and several others; it went public in 1981, and in the mid-1980s became the first company founded by a woman to enter Fortune magazine’s list of the top 500 U.S. companies; in 2006, its sales reached nearly $5 billion; retired from active management of the business since 1989, she and her husband had become increasingly devoted to environmental causes; born March 31, 1929, in Brussels, Belgium; died June 26 at a hospital in New York City, from complications of a rare form of abdominal cancer, diagnosed in 1997. [See 1989, p. 695E1] „

June 28, 2007

Foreign Doctors Arrested After Failed Terrorist Car-Bomb Attacks in Britain Central London, Glasgow Airport Targeted.

British police June 30–July 1 arrested six men and one woman in connection with failed terrorist car bombings in central London June 29 and at Glasgow Airport in Glasgow, Scotland, June 30. All but one of the male suspects reportedly were foreign doctors of Middle Eastern or Indian origin who worked for Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), while the woman was a laboratory technician. Police in Brisbane, Australia, July 2 arrested an eighth suspect, a male doctor of Indian citizenship. [See pp. 404F3, 285D1] In the first incident, police early June 29 discovered a Mercedes sedan rigged with an explosive device made from gasoline, propane gas canisters and nails, and parked outside a nightclub on Haymarket, a street in the heart of London’s West End entertainment district. Ambulance workers on a separate call noticed smoke coming from inside the car and alerted police. A second Mercedes that had been parked nearby was later found to be rigged with a similar explosive device. That car had been impounded for illegal parking and towed by traffic police to an underground garage, where attendants noticed that it smelled strongly of gasoline. Police said the two car bombs could have killed or injured hundreds of people, although experts said the bombs were unsophisticated. Glasgow Airport Attacked— Two men June 30 crashed their sport utility vehicle into the main terminal at Glasgow Airport in an apparent attempt at a suicide bombing. The vehicle, a Jeep Cherokee, got stuck in the entrance and burst into flames. No bystanders were seriously injured. The airport, Scotland’s busiest, shut down after the attack, stranding thousands of passengers. Both the driver and his passenger were arrested after travelers helped police subdue the pair. Witnesses said the driver had emerged from the car and poured gasoline over himself, then set himself on fire. Police said he was later found to be wearing a “suspicious device” while undergoing treatment at a hospital. The driver was later identified as Kafeel Ahmed, 28, an Indian engineer. The passenger was identified as Bilal Abdullah, 27, who had trained as a doctor in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, and worked at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Scotland, near Glasgow Airport. In a televised speech late June 30, after the attack in Glasgow, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, “I want all British people to be vigilant and I want them to support the police and all the authorities in the difficult decisions they have to make.” He added, “I know that the British people will stand together, united, resolute and strong.” Suspects Arrested—Besides the airport attackers, three other suspects were arrest-

ed June 30: Sabeel Ahmed, 26; Mohammad Asha, 26; and Asha’s wife, Marwa, 27. Ahmed, reportedly an Indian citizen, was arrested in Liverpool, England. He was said to work at the Halton Hospital in Runcorn, outside Liverpool. The Ashas were arrested on the M6 motorway north of Stoke on Trent, where the husband worked at North Staffordshire Hospital. He was a Jordanian citizen of Palestinian origin; she was a Jordanian lab technician. Two more men were arrested July 1 in Paisley at the Royal Alexandra Hospital’s dormitory for medical personnel. They were not named, but were said to be a doctor and a medical student, both in their 20s and of Middle Eastern origin. Police at the airport in Brisbane July 2 arrested Mohammed Haneef, 27, as he tried to board a flight out of Australia. He was a doctor who had previously worked at Halton Hospital in Runcorn. He and Ahmed reportedly were relatives and had attended medical school together in Bangalore, India. Police had reportedly relied on evidence taken from the three vehicles, as well as closed-circuit television (CCTV) recordings to quickly advance their investigation. Threat Level Lowered—Home Secretary Jacqui Smith July 4 said the government had lowered its official terrorism threat level to “severe,” after raising it to “critical,” the highest level, on June 30. She said there was “no intelligence to suggest that an attack is expected imminently,” but added that “there remains a serious and real threat against the United Kingdom.” She called on the public to remain vigilant. Brown, speaking in Parliament July 4, said the government would require more stringent background checks for foreign doctors who applied for visas to practice in Britain. He announced a review of the NHS’s procedures for recruiting foreign doctors. The NHS had conducted a foreign recruitment drive from 2001 to 2006 to address a shortage of doctors. Out of Britain’s 240,000 registered physicians, 38%, or about 90,000, had medical degrees from overseas, according to the General Medical Council. However, in 2006, the government had imposed a new work visa requirement, making it harder for foreign doctors to get NHS jobs. Brown July 4 said Britain would expand its international watchlist of terrorism suspects to cooperate with other countries. He had said the previous day that he planned to create a U.S.-style national security council to monitor international threats. Brown had taken over as prime minister, replacing Tony Blair, just a week earlier. [See p. 421D2] In a television interview July 1, Brown said of the suspects, “We are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associ-

Facts On File

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B ated with Al Qaeda,” the international terrorist network. However, police had not disclosed any evidence that the attacks were directly ordered by Al Qaeda. In the same interview, Brown said, “We will not yield, we will not be intimidated and we will not allow anyone to undermine our British way of life.” Other Developments—A British Anglican cleric in Iraq, Canon Andrew White, July 4 said a Sunni Muslim cleric had made threats against Britain, possibly linked to the failed plot, at a gathering of religious leaders in Jordan earlier in the year. White said the man, whom he declined to identify, had warned him, “Those who cure you will kill you.” Police July 3 evacuated parts of London’s Heathrow Airport due to a suspicious package, forcing the cancellation of 108 European flights. Also that day, police seized a suspicious car in the parking lot of

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Foreign doctors arrested after failed terrorist car-bomb attacks in Britain; central London, Glasgow airport targeted.

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U.S. implicates Iran in deadly January Iraq raid. PAGE 426

Putin visits Bush home in Maine; expands on missile shield proposal. PAGE 428

Bush commutes ex-Cheney aide Libby’s prison term. PAGE 429

Supreme Court accepts Guantanamo case.

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Indonesia captures Jemaah Islamiah head. PAGE 436

Israeli President Katsav resigns over rape scandal. PAGE 437

Kidnapped BBC reporter released in Gaza. PAGE 437

Violence erupts at Pakistan mosque. PAGE 438

*First of two sections Section Two is the Semiannual Index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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a Glasgow mosque. They set off a controlled explosion inside the car. Police tightened security at two major London events: the Wimbledon tennis tournament, which began June 22, and a July 1 concert in honor of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. [See p. 440F1] In light of the developments in Britain, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff also ordered heightened security at U.S. airports and other transportation links for the July 4 Independence Day holiday. Raising fears of an anti-immigrant backlash following the failed attacks, vandals July 2 drove a car into a Muslimowned grocery store in Glasgow, then set it on fire. Police July 5 reported a total of 38 racist incidents in the Glasgow area since the June 30 airport attack. „

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Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a U.S. military spokesman, July 2 accused Iran of playing a role in a January raid in the Iraqi city of Karbala by insurgents that resulted in the deaths of five U.S. soldiers. Bergner said U.S. forces in the southern city of Basra March 20 had captured a senior agent of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which he claimed was being used as a “proxy” in Iraq by the Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. He claimed that the Quds force was supplying Iraqi militants with armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) and up to $3 million a month, and was training fighters at three camps near Tehran, Iran’s capital. The Iranian foreign ministry denied the allegations, and a spokesman for Hezbollah would not comment. [See pp. 412A1, 368A3] Bergner identified the captured Hezbollah agent as Ali Musa Daqduq, a Lebanese citizen who allegedly had been sent to Iraq in 2005 in order to work with the Quds Force in training “Iraqi extremists.” Bergner said that before his capture, Daqduq had made four trips into Iraq over the past year to organize underground militia cells and report on their training, and had also helped to train Iraqi fighters in camps in Iran. U.S. intelligence officials said Daqduq had initially pretended to be deaf and mute after his capture, but later admitted that he could hear and speak. They denied that he had been subjected to torture. Bergner said a former aide and spokesman of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had admitted to authorizing the January Karbala attack. The aide, Quais Khazali, in March had been captured along with Daqduq in connection with the Karbala raid. The Mahdi Army, a militia affiliated with Sadr, denied that it had received aid from Hezbollah, although it said it shared some of the group’s ideology. [See p. 170C1] GOP Senator Criticizes Bush Strategy—

U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici (R, N.M.) July 5 called for immediate changes in the Bush administration’s strategy in Iraq, the latest 426

in a string of defections by senior Republican legislators. Domenici said he did not support Democratic calls for an immediate withdrawal, but rather backed strategic shifts that could bring U.S. troops home by spring 2008. He also lent his support to proposed legislation that would enact policy recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. [See p. 411C1] Domenici’s move dealt a blow to U.S. President George W. Bush’s efforts to hold together a united Republican front on Iraq, in the face of an anticipated Democratic push on the issue in the coming week. The Defense Department was required by Congress to produce by July 15 a preliminary report on the progress of a buildup, or surge, of roughly 30,000 troops in Iraq that began in January. Bush July 4 in a speech on the U.S. Independence Day holiday compared the war in Iraq with the American Revolution. Speaking in front of a friendly audience at an Air National Guard maintenance hangar in Martinsburg, W.Va., Bush said that the first Independence Day celebration, in 1777, occurred in the midst of “a bloody and difficult struggle that would not end for six more years before America finally secured her freedom.” He likened U.S. service members to “early patriots…pledging your lives and honor to defend our freedom and way of life.” Bush warned that pulling out of Iraq early would allow the Al Qaeda international terrorist organization to establish a base from which to plot attacks against the U.S. [See p. 380G1] Bush June 28 had defended the progress of the surge in Anbar province as an example that could be replicated in other parts of Iraq, in a speech at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. He emphasized the value of political reconciliation, especially among ordinary Iraqis. He also hailed the formation of “neighborhood watch groups” by residents of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, as an encouraging sign, although he did not say how such groups were distinguished from armed militias, which the U.S. had demanded should disband. Cabinet Approves Oil Bill— The Iraqi cabinet July 3 unanimously approved and sent to parliament a proposed measure that set out a framework for sharing Iraq’s oil wealth. The law affirmed that the country’s oil belonged to all its citizens. It would create a new federal oil and gas council that would control policy and review exploration and development contracts with oil companies. The measure also dealt with relations between the new council and regional oil control systems in Kurdistan in the north and the Shiite south. [See pp. 395E2, 122D2] Sunni legislators expressed reservations about the draft law, and were expected to slow its progress in parliament. Predominantly Sunni areas in central Iraq did not have the proven oil resources of Kurdish or Shiite majority areas. The Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars July 4 issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, forbidding the passage of the law, saying it was “harming the interests of Muslim Iraqis.”

An equitable solution to sharing profits from Iraq’s vast proven oil reserves—estimated at 15 billion barrels, the third-largest in the world—was widely considered to be an important step toward a united, peaceful Iraq. The U.S. Congress had mandated the passage of such a law before it authorized further funds for the Iraq war. Elections Promised by End of Year—

Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki July 1 said he wanted to hold provincial elections by the end of the year. The move was seen as a conciliatory gesture toward Iraq’s Sunni population, which had turned out in low numbers in the last election in 2005 and was underrepresented in the government. [See 2005, p. 885A1] Members of the leading Sunni political coalition, the Iraqi Accordance Front, June 29 had announced that six ministers belonging to the bloc were boycotting cabinet meetings. The boycott came in protest of charges that one of the six, Culture Minister Asad Kamal al-Hashimi, was behind a failed assassination attempt against a rival politician, Mithal al-Alusi. The Sunni coalition also demanded reforms to Iraq’s detention system, in which thousands of people were being held for extended periods of time without charge. The boycott was seen as a further blow to Maliki’s already shaky government. [See p. 412C2, F1] Civilian Deaths Drop in June—Iraqi and U.S. official figures July 1 showed a decrease in the civilian death toll in June. Iraqi officials reported that there had been 1,227 violent civilian deaths in June, down 36% from May’s total of 1,949. A U.S. military spokesman said there had been “a slight decrease” in June and that it was “a potential downward trend.” The

Facts On File

World News Digest With Index (ISSN 0014-6641) Publication #183680

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jonathan Taylor MANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham COPY DIRECTOR: Marion Farrier SENIOR EDITOR: Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Alasdair Denvil, Ryu Spaeth ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ian McGullam DATABASE COORDINATOR: Ben MIller INDEX EDITOR: Jonathan Leith COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Jane Carlson, Nikki Conti-Brown FACTS ON FILE World News Digest is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. Vice President & Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Associate Publisher: Marjorie B. Bank. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

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FACTS ON FILE

U.S. did not release specific figures. [See pp. 411F1–G1, 374F2] The number of dead bodies found in Baghdad, considered a gauge of sectarian violence, was 540, according to an interior ministry official. That count was down from May’s 726, but still higher than the April count of 411. The Washington Post July 4 reported that unofficial health ministry statistics put June civilian deaths at 2,097, significantly higher than the figures previously reported. Those statistics also put the number of bodies found in Baghdad at 453. There were 101 U.S. troops reported killed in Iraq in June. Combined with the 126 killed in May and 104 in April, it made for the deadliest three-month period since the Iraq war started in 2003. [See p. 382G1] Reuters July 3 reported that more than 1,000 civilian contractors had been killed and 13,000 had been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to U.S. Labor Department statistics obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. [See p. 274D3] U.S. Soldiers Charged in Iraqi Murders—

U.S. military prosecutors June 30 charged two soldiers with the premeditated murder of three Iraqis in separate incidents between April and June, after other soldiers had reported the two men’s involvement. One of those charged, Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley, faced three charges of premeditated murder, obstruction of justice and planting weapons on the Iraqis’ bodies, The other, Spec. Jorge Sandoval, faced one charge of premeditated murder and one of planting weapons. The military July 2 reported that a third soldier, Sgt. Evan Vela, was charged with one count of premeditated murder as well as planting weapons, obstructing justice and making a false statement. The alleged murders occurred near Iskandariya, a Sunni insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad. [See 2006, p. 1031A1] Also June 30, a court-martial convicted Command Sgt. Maj. Edward Ramsell of having an inappropriate relationship with a soldier in his unit, mistreating a soldier, and possessing “large amounts” of alcohol and pornography in violation of military rules. Ramsell was sentenced to four months in prison and demoted. U.S. Justice Department attorneys in court filings July 3 said they would seek the death penalty against former U.S. Pfc. Steven Green, who was accused of raping an Iraqi girl and killing her and her family in 2006. Green had been discharged from the Army before the allegations against him surfaced, and was thus being tried in civilian court in Louisville, Ky. Green’s lawyers argued that the stress of combat had heavily affected him, and that the Army should have intervened. Green’s prosecution was the first capital case related to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. [See 2006, p. 1031G1] U.N. Iraqi Arms Search Office Shut—

The United Nations Security Council June 29 voted, 14–0, to shutter the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection ComJuly 5, 2007

mission, which had searched for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons thought to have been stockpiled by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said the 2004 findings of a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) inspection team had proven that no significant caches of weapons of mass destruction remained in Iraq. [See 2005, p. 221D2] The U.S. and British–backed resolution ordered about $63 million in Iraqi oil profits, which had been diverted to fund the inspection program, to be returned to the Iraqi government. It also called on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to safeguard proliferation information compiled by the commission. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s second-in-command, in a videotape released July 5 called for Muslims in Iraq and around the world to unite with Al Qaeda in Iraq against coalition forces. In the recording, which was later translated by the Washington, D.C.-based SITE Institute, Zawahiri, acknowledged divisions between Al Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni militant groups. [See p. 54C2] † U.S. diplomats in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone May 29 had sent a dispatch to the U.S. State Department warning that the ongoing construction of the U.S. embassy there was encountering increasingly serious problems, the Washington Post reported July 5. The $592 million project would be the largest U.S. embassy in the world and was slated to be completed by the end of the year. The cable highlighted wiring and other malfunctions that rendered a newly constructed building meant to house the security guards uninhabitable. The main builder, Kuwaiti General Trade and Contracting Co., was already being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department for alleged labor violations. [See 2005, p. 165A1] † A spokesman for Sadr June 29 said a planned march to Samarra, in protest of the June bombing of a shrine there, would be canceled due to fears of attacks by Sunni militants. Maliki had said the march route was not safe, and that the government needed more time to secure it. [See p. 412F2] † Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul June 29 threatened to take military action against bases in Iraq used by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Turkish separatist militant group, unless U.S. or Iraqi forces ousted the Kurdish guerrillas. Gul said Turkey had prepared plans for the invasion of northern Iraq, and, in separate remarks, added that it was also considering air strikes against the bases, which would not need parliamentary approval. Turkey’s military had deployed 20,000–30,000 troops on the Iraqi border, and was reportedly pressuring the civilian government to authorize an incursion. [See p. 367A3] Violence Reports—Among the major incidents of violence across Iraq June 29– July 5:

† A bomb hidden in a produce truck July 5 exploded near a wedding party in Baghdad, killing at least nine people, including three policemen. The attack took place in a Shiite area of a predominantly Sunni neighborhood. † Two U.S. soldiers July 5 were killed in Baghdad when their patrol was hit by an EFP. † Four Christians, including a priest, July 5 were kidnapped near the northern city of Kirkuk. [See p. 396G1] † One U.S. soldier July 4 was killed when a helicopter crashed in Nineveh after hitting electrical wires, and another was killed during separate combat in Baghdad. † U.S. forces July 4 killed 10 militants in a raid on a suspected headquarters of Sunni terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq in western Anbar province. † A car bomb July 4 exploded north of Tikrit, killing seven people, including two policemen. † A car bomb July 4 exploded at a police checkpoint on the highway between Baghdad and the Syrian and Jordanian border, killing 15 people, including seven policemen. † Two Iraqi reporters working for a Baghdad television station sponsored by the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party were killed July 4 in separate incidents. † A car bomb July 3 exploded in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad, killing at least 18 people and setting several stores on fire. † U.S. fighter jets July 2 bombed buildings in Diwaniya in response to mortar and rocket attacks on a coalition base. Iraqi officials said 10 civilians were killed, and a protester and two security guards were killed in a subsequent protest march. † A truck bomb July 1 exploded in Ramadi, killing five people. The attack struck a police checkpoint manned by a Sunni tribe working with U.S. forces against insurgents linked to Al Qaeda. Another truck bomb damaged a bridge over the Euphrates River, the latest in a series of attacks on bridges around Iraq. [See p. 375F1] † A U.S. military spokesman June 30 said U.S. forces had raided a militia cell in Sadr City, in Baghdad, that was smuggling weapons and money to Iraqi militants from Iran. He said 26 fighters had been killed. Iraqi officials and civilians, however, said that the death toll had been much lower, and that none of those killed had been militia members. † A U.S. military spokesman June 30 said that U.S. forces had killed a senior Al Qaeda figure, Abu Abdel Rahman al-Masri, in a raid east of Fallujah. † U.S. commanders June 30 said coalition forces the day before had discovered a mass grave containing 35–40 bound bodies with gunshot wounds in Ferris, south of Fallujah. „ 427

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Putin Visits Bush Home in Maine Expands on Missile Shield Proposal. Rus-

sian President Vladimir V. Putin July 2 expanded on his offer to jointly develop with the U.S. a regional European missile defense system, suggesting a possible installation on Russian territory. He made the offer during a two-day visit with U.S. President George W. Bush at the Bush family vacation compound in Kennebunkport in the U.S. state of Maine. [See p. 376C2] Russia had strongly opposed U.S. plans to build antimissile facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic. The issue had recently heightened tensions between Russia and the U.S. In June, Putin had made a counterproposal of a shared system that would make use of an existing Soviet-era facility in Azerbaijan. Under Putin’s latest proposal, the system would be developed jointly by the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)–Russia Council. Either the Azerbaijan radar system would be modernized or a new radar facility would be built in southern Russia. Putin said the plan eliminated the need for any new installations in Europe, and that cooperation on the project would raise U.S.–Russia ties “to an entirely new level.” Bush called the plan “very constructive and bold,” but suggested that the U.S. would go ahead with its plans in Eastern Europe. During the visit, the two leaders also discussed the future of the breakaway Serbian republic of Kosovo and Iran’s nuclear program. No major developments on those matters were reported. Bush’s father, former President George H.W. Bush, hosted the visit and took Putin and Bush on a fishing expedition off the Maine coast. [See pp. 376B3, 341A1] U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meeting in Washington, D.C., July 3 issued a joint statement expressing the intent of both sides to reduce U.S. and Russian stockpiles of long-range nuclear weapons “to the lowest possible level consistent with their national security requirements and alliance commitments.” The statement was designed to extend the spirit of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which was set to expire in 2009. Russia had argued for a replacement treaty, while the Bush administration opposed one. Rice and Lavrov said the U.S. and Russia would work to involve other countries in preventing nuclear proliferation. The two sides had also been scheduled to sign a bilateral accord for cooperation on civilian nuclear energy projects at their meeting in Washington, but they did not, and no explanation was offered. The pact had been initialed June 29 in Moscow. (In a related antiproliferation development, the U.S. May 31 said that the two countries had agreed to cooperate on installing radiation sensors at all of Russia’s border crossings by 2011, six years sooner than previously planned.) 428

Sergei Ivanov, Russia’s first deputy premier, July 4 warned that Russia would base missiles in Kaliningrad, a Russian republic isolated between Lithuania and Poland, if the U.S. deployed its missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. „

Global Economy World Bank Confirms Zoellick as President.

The 24-member governing board of the World Bank June 25 unanimously approved the U.S.’s nomination of Robert Zoellick to become its next president. He officially began his five-year term July 1. U.S. President George W. Bush had nominated Zoellick after the current president, Paul Wolfowitz, agreed to step down June 30 amid an ethics scandal. The board in a statement said Zoellick would bring “strong leadership and managerial qualities as well as a proven track record in international affairs.” Zoellick, a former U.S. deputy secretary of state, was most recently an executive at investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. [See p. 344D1] The U.S. customarily named the president of the World Bank, while European countries named the chief of the International Monetary Fund. There were no other nominees, and Zoellick’s confirmation by the bank’s board of governors had therefore been widely expected. „

International Trade FDA Halts Imports of Some Chinese Seafood.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) June 28 said it was putting a hold on the importation of five kinds of Chinese farm-raised seafood after repeatedly discovering the presence of drugs and food additives unapproved for use in the U.S. The types of seafood named in the FDA “import alert” were eel, shrimp, catfish, basa and dace. [See p. 400A2] FDA Assistant Commissioner for Food Protection David Acheson said the levels of banned chemicals found in the seafood were not high enough to pose an immediate health threat to consumers, but he added that they “could cause health problems if consumed over a long period of time.” The FDA said it had found the drugs in 15% of tested seafood shipments, and that it had warned Chinese fish producers about the chemicals for years. Margaret Glavin, the FDA’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, called the drugs’ presence “a deliberate event.” Agency officials said that between October 2006 and May, tests of Chinese-imported seafood had repeatedly shown the presence of the antibiotics fluoroquinolone and nitrofuran, as well as antifungals gentian violet and malachite green. The FDA had blocked the use of fluoroquinolones in seafood in order to prevent bacteria from developing resistance to the drug. Nitrofuran and the two antifungals had been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals after long-term exposure. China was the world’s largest producer of farm-raised fish, and also the largest

supplier of all seafood to the U.S., providing 22% of all imports. China’s seafood imports to the U.S. had grown 193% between 2001 and 2006, and were valued at $1.9 billion in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The seafood import block was yet another blow to Chinese producers, who beginning in March had been linked to exports of tainted wheat flour used to produce pet food; poisoned toothpaste; toys containing lead paint; and defective tires. The rash of product bans, safety warnings and recalls had sparked a potentially serious trade dispute between the U.S. and China. Several U.S. lawmakers said the discoveries of unsafe products had illuminated weaknesses in the country’s import regulation practices. [See below] Reaction—Officials with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which regulated China’s food, in a June 29 statement acknowledged that some safety problems with Chinese seafood exports existed, but countered that there had been similar problems in U.S. food exports. However, the agency said it would work with U.S. regulators to ensure the safety of Chinese products. [See p. 384B3] However, the European Union had stepped up its inspections of Chinese imports after product dangers were brought to light, it was reported July 3. Several U.S. and European imports recently had been seized by China in what was considered retaliation for bans on Chinese products. Several U.S. legislators had called for stricter regulation of Chinese imports. Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) July 1 called for the establishment of an “import czar” to oversee the safety inspections of products imported into the U.S., as well as consumer product recalls. Schumer suggested that the position be established within the U.S. Commerce Department. Chinese Safety Crackdown Reported—

Chinese food regulators June 26 said they had recently shut down 180 food plants in China, and found more than 23,000 food safety violations, according to state-run media. Chinese officials said the government had begun to scrutinize food manufacturers in December 2006 and discovered that many smaller producers had used illegal and dangerous additives, such as formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid, in food products including seafood and candy. The announcement was China’s most open acknowledgment of the country’s food safety problems. “These are not isolated problems,” said Han Yi, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. Analysts said small-scale Chinese food producers were largely motivated to use cheaper, often dangerous chemicals in their production methods to increase profits. They also said bribery and corruption were endemic to Chinese food production and substantially weakened the government’s regulatory authority. FACTS ON FILE

Chinese Tire Recall Ordered— Officials at the U.S.’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had ordered Union, N.J.–based tire importer Foreign Tire Sales Inc. to recall at least 450,000 Chinese-produced radial tires, it was reported June 26. A number of the tires had failed to include a safety mechanism that prevented separation, which could cause serious crashes. [See 2003, p. 1058B2] The company had reportedly first suspected problems with the tires in October 2005 after a spike in customer complaints. The Chinese manufacturer, Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co., in September 2006 had acknowledged that it had intentionally omitted from its production process a gum strip designed to prevent tire separation, but said it had resumed using the strips in January 2006. However, Foreign Tire Sales had not alerted the NHTSA to the problem until June 11, according to a lawyer for the company. Hangzhou Zhongce officials June 26 disputed claims that their tires were defective, and suggested that politically motivated trade protectionism had led to the recall. More Tainted Toothpaste Discovered—

Chinese-produced toothpaste tainted with the poisonous chemical diethylene glycol had been dispersed more widely in the U.S. than was initially thought, the New York Times reported June 28. The Times reported that at least 900,000 tubes of the toothpaste had been distributed to prisons, hospitals and juvenile detention centers in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. The FDA in June had recommended that U.S. consumers discard all Chinese-produced toothpaste after toothpaste containing diethylene glycol was found in several discount stores in the U.S. The diethylene glycol had been used as a cost-saving substitute for the harmless thickener glycerin. Three Japanese companies had also begun recalling millions of tubes of Chineseproduced toothpaste after diethylene glycol was discovered in toothpaste there, it was reported June 29. „

Space Shuttle ‘Atlantis’ Installs Station Part.

The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis June 8–22 conducted a mission to the International Space Station, installing a new structural truss segment that bore a solar panel array to provide the station with additional power. Atlantis also carried a new astronaut to the station, who replaced a crew member who returned to Earth with the shuttle. The connection of the new power source caused a failure in a Russian-operated computer system that helped keep the shuttle in orbit, but the problem was resolved before the shuttle’s departure from the station. [See p. 314C1] The mission commander was Marine Col. Rick Sturckow, 45; the mission’s pilot was Air Force Col. Lee Archambault, 46; the mission specialists were retired Army Col. Patrick Forrester, 50, John (Danny) July 5, 2007

Olivas, 41, Steven Swanson, 46, and James Reilly 2nd, 53. Clayton Anderson, 48, traveled on Atlantis to join the space station crew, replacing Sunita Williams, 41. Williams had been on the station since December 2006. Atlantis lifted off June 8 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., after three months of delays while damage to its external fuel tank from a hailstorm was repaired. The craft reached the space station June 10. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) June 9 said that a piece of the insulation blanket that protected the shuttle’s upper surface from the extreme heat of atmospheric reentry had come loose. The agency June 11 extended the planned duration of the mission by two days, to accommodate an extra space walk to repair the gap. Archambault June 11 used the shuttle’s robotic arm to attach the new truss to the existing station structure. Later that day, Reilly and Olivas conducted a space walk in which they connected power and data cables to the new truss, and removed restraints that allowed the solar arrays to be unfurled the following day. Meanwhile, in the mission’s second space walk, Forrester and Swanson June 13 began to fold away an old solar array, and loosen restraints that would allow the new one to rotate and track the sun. The third space walk by Olivas June 15 took on the unscheduled task of repairing and securing the thermal blanket, and continued retracting the old array. That pushed back to a fourth space walk, conducted June 17, additional work on freeing the new array to rotate. Atlantis undocked from the station June 19, and landed June 22 at Edwards Air Force Base in California, after weather conditions ruled out the scheduled landing at Cape Canaveral. „ SPACE SHUTTLE DATA

Shuttle: Atlantis Liftoff: June 8, 7:38 p.m. (Eastern daylight

time), Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Touchdown (Wheelstop): June 22, 12:50

p.m. (Pacific daylight time; 3:50 p.m. Eastern daylight time), Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Flight Duration: 332 hours, 12 minutes Flight Distance: 5.8 million miles (9.3 million km) Mission Number: 118th mission in the U.S. shuttle program; 28th launch for the Atlantis orbiter Crew: Mission Commander: Marine Col. Rick Sturckow, 45; Pilot: Air Force Col. Lee Archambault, 46; Mission Specialists: retired Army Col. Patrick Forrester, 50, John Olivas (known as Danny), 41, Steven Swanson, 46, and James Reilly 2nd, 53; Mission Specialist and Space Station Flight Engineer: Clayton Anderson, 48 Mission Highlights:

† Added a new truss to the International Space Station, and unfurled and activated a new solar panel array † Exchanged one station crew member

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Bush Commutes Ex-Cheney Aide Libby’s Prison Term Calls

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President George W. Bush July 2 commuted the 30-month prison sentence of I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff. A federal jury in March had convicted Libby, 56, of four felony counts, including perjury, lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and obstruction of justice during a probe of the leak of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer’s name by Bush administration officials. In June, a judge had sentenced Libby to 30 months in prison and two years’ probation, and fined him $250,000. [See p. 397D2; for a text of Bush’s statement on commuting Libby’s sentence, see box, p. 430A1] Libby and other officials had leaked the name of CIA officer Valerie Plame in June and July 2003, after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson 4th, wrote a New York Times op-ed article describing a mission he had led to Niger to check claims that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium there to build nuclear weapons. Those claims, which Wilson said he found no evidence to support, were part of Bush’s discredited original rationale for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq—that the regime of President Saddam Hussein had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction. [See p. 427A2] Immediately after Libby’s June sentencing, his supporters clamored for Bush to grant Libby a pardon, which would have wiped out the conviction completely. (A U.S. president had the power under the Constitution to grant clemency in the form of a pardon or a commutation.) They claimed that Libby should never have been indicted in the first place because no one had been charged with leaking Plame’s name, the crime that had sparked the investigation. However, the president refused to intervene, saying he wanted to let the appeals process run its course. Bush’s latest action was prompted by a ruling, issued earlier July 2 by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, that Libby could not delay his prison sentence while he appealed the conviction. That meant he would have been required to start serving the sentence in less than a month. Hours later, Bush issued a statement saying, “I respect the jury’s verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison.” Bush upheld the $250,000 fine and two years’ probation. Bush pointed out that Libby had already suffered as a result of his conviction, saying, “The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant and private citizen will be long-lasting.” Bush July 3 held out the possibility that he could grant Libby a pardon. He told reporters, “As to the future, I rule nothing in or nothing out.” 429

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TEXT OF BUSH’S STATEMENT ON COMMUTATION OF LIBBY’S SENTENCE

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Following is the text of President George W. Bush’s statement July 2 on his decision to commute the 30-month prison sentence of I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff [See p. 429A3]: The United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today rejected Lewis Libby’s request to remain free on bail while pursuing his appeals for the serious convictions of perjury and obstruction of justice. As a result, Mr. Libby will be required to turn himself over to the Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his prison sentence. I have said throughout this process that it would not be appropriate to comment or intervene in this case until Mr. Libby’s appeals have been exhausted. But with the denial of bail being upheld and incarceration imminent, I believe it is now important to react to that decision. From the very beginning of the investigation into the leaking of [former Central Intelligence Agency officer] Valerie Plame’s name, I made it clear to the White House staff and anyone serving in my administration that I expected full cooperation with the Justice Department. Dozens of White House staff and administration officials dutifully cooperated. After the investigation was under way, the Justice Department appointed United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald as a

It was the first time since taking office in 2001 that Bush had commuted a sentence in a politically charged case. (He had previously issued 113 pardons and three commutations, fewer than most other presidents.) Bush reportedly had discussed the issue with only a close circle of advisers, so his announcement came as a surprise to many. Analysts said the president, who had 18 months left in office and was facing sinking poll numbers, might have felt he had little to lose by sparing Libby prison, and would appease his conservative base. [See p. 430F1 for a list of well-known presidential pardons and commutations] Conservatives, who had always maintained that Libby was wrongly convicted, praised the president’s action. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, a GOP presidential candidate and a former prosecutor, July 2 called Bush’s decision “reasonable” and “correct.” However, many in the GOP who praised Bush’s decision were also advocates of socalled law-and-order policies and strict sentencing guidelines, and observers noted that Libby’s sentence was well within the guidelines for the crimes he was convicted of. Al-

Special Counsel in charge of the case. Mr. Fitzgerald is a highly qualified, professional prosecutor who carried out his responsibilities as charged. This case has generated significant commentary and debate. Critics of the investigation have argued that a special counsel should not have been appointed, nor should the investigation have been pursued after the Justice Department learned who leaked Ms. Plame’s name to columnist Robert Novak. Furthermore, the critics point out that neither Mr. Libby nor anyone else has been charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act or the Espionage Act, which were the original subjects of the investigation. Finally, critics say the punishment does not fit the crime: Mr. Libby was a first-time offender with years of exceptional public service and was handed a harsh sentence based in part on allegations never presented to the jury. Others point out that a jury of citizens weighed all the evidence and listened to all the testimony and found Mr. Libby guilty of perjury and obstructing justice. They argue, correctly, that our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth. And if a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable. They say that had Mr. Libby only told the truth, he would have never been indicted in the first place. Both critics and defenders of this investigation have made important points. I have made my own

so, the judge who had imposed the sentence, Reggie Walton of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., was appointed by Bush. Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the leak case, July 2 said, “In this case an experienced federal judge considered extensive argument from the parties and then imposed a sentence consistent with the applicable laws. It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals.” Libby’s lawyer, Theodore Wells Jr., issued a statement on behalf of Libby and his family, saying they “wished to express their gratitude for the president’s decision.” Bush Critics Blast Decision—Democratic leaders July 2 criticized the commutation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) called the move “disgraceful.” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said, “Accountability has been in short supply in the Bush administration, and this commutation fits that pattern. It is emblematic of a White House that sees itself as being above the law.” Wilson in an interview implied that the commutation was an effort to discourage Libby from revealing the administration’s

PRESIDENTIAL COMMUTATIONS AND PARDONS

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High-profile presidential commutations and pardons, and the crimes to which they were applied, from 1921 through 2007 [See p. 429A3]: Commutations Labor leader and Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs; for sedition; by Warren G. Harding in 1921. † Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Collazo; for attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman; by Truman in 1952. [See 1994, p. 132C3] † Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa; for attempted bribery; by Richard Nixon in 1971. [See 2001, p. 1006A2] † Political operative G. Gordon Liddy; for burglary and wiretapping in the Watergate scandal; by Jimmy Carter in 1977. [See 1977, p. 725A1] † Heiress Patricia Hearst; for armed robbery; by Carter in 1979. [See 2001, p. 45E1; 1979, p. 79F1]

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Former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, for perjury and obstruction of justice, by George W. Bush July 2. Pardons † Former President Richard Nixon; for Watergate involvement; by Gerald Ford in 1974. [See 1974, p. 746A1] † Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official W. Mark Felt; for FBI break-ins; by Ronald Reagan in 1981. [See 2005, p. 368A1; 1981, p. 255A3] † New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner; for illegal campaign contributions; by Reagan in 1989. [See 1989, p. 40F2] † Former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger; for Iran-contra charges; by George H.W. Bush in 1992. [See 1992, p. 972C2] † Financier Marc Rich; for fraud, embargo violation; by Bill Clinton in 2001. [See 2002, p. 230G2]

evaluation. In preparing for the decision I am announcing today, I have carefully weighed these arguments and the circumstances surrounding this case. Mr. Libby was sentenced to thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. In making the sentencing decision, the district court rejected the advice of the probation office, which recommended a lesser sentence and the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation. I respect the jury’s verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison. My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged. His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting. The Constitution gives the President the power of clemency to be used when he deems it to be warranted. It is my judgment that a commutation of the prison term in Mr. Libby’s case is an appropriate exercise of this power.

actions in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. “By his action, the president has guaranteed that Mr. Libby has no incentive to begin telling the truth,” he said. Former President Bill Clinton, who had drawn criticism for pardoning 140 people in the waning hours of his presidency, including fugitive broker Marc Rich, the exhusband of a top Democratic donor, July 3 criticized Bush’s decision. “I think the facts were different,” Clinton said, when asked to compare his actions to Bush’s, during a campaign trip in support of the presidential bid of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.), in Davenport, Iowa. He added, “This is consistent with [the Bush administration’s] philosophy; they believe that they should be able to do what they want to do, and that the law is a minor obstacle.” [See 2001, p. 45E1] Decision Could Affect Justice System—

Legal experts said Bush’s July 2 statement that Libby’s 30-month sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice was “excessive” could have ramifications for the U.S. justice system as a whole. Such rationales were often used by defense lawyers, and opposed by the Justice Department, which supported tough sentencing guidelines, the experts said. It was expected that Bush’s decision in the Libby case would be used by defense lawyers to argue for sentence reductions in similar crimes. „

Supreme Court Guantanamo Case Accepted. The Supreme Court June 29 accepted a case that would decide whether detainees at the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could challenge their incarceration in federal courts. The decision surprised most observers, as the high court had originally rejected the case April 2, and reversals of decisions were extremely rare. [See p. 379A1; 2006, p. 501A1] The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C., in February had upheld provisions in the Military Commission Act (MCA) that said FACTS ON FILE

Guantanamo detainees considered “enemy combatants” did not have the right to habeas corpus, and could not be tried in a federal court. In April, the Supreme Court was unable to muster the four votes necessary to hear the case. At that time, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer had voted to hear the case. [See 2006, p. 951B3] Justices John Paul Stevens and Anthony M. Kennedy at the time wrote that they were “respecting the denial” of the four justices—Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.—who had rejected the case outright. Stevens and Kennedy said the detainees had not yet exhausted the appeal procedure system outlined in the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act. They also said they would reconsider the case if it was revealed that “the government has unreasonably delayed proceedings” in the case. The detainees’ lawyers June 22 had presented a petition for rehearing to the court, which contained an affidavit from Stephen E. Abraham, an Army Reserve military intelligence officer. The affidavit elaborated on and criticized combatant status review tribunals, military courts protected by the MCA in which detainees were not allowed lawyers and could not see the evidence used against them. The court did not explain the reasons for reversing its earlier decision, an act that required five votes, and did not reveal how each justice voted. The court, in essence, would have to decide whether foreign-born detainees at Guantanamo were protected by the Constitution. The consolidated cases were Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. U.S. The Bush administration had argued that allowing foreigners held as enemy combatants the right to habeas corpus would restrict the actions of the military in the fight against terrorism. It said the military would be subject to and impeded by the decision-making powers of judges. The court’s decision came at a time of increased pressure for President George W. Bush to close down Guantanamo. Many members of Congress and Bush’s administration, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, had called for its dissolution, saying the prison camp ran counter to the U.S.’s democratic values and undermined the U.S.’s moral authority in the world. „

2008 Presidential Campaign Obama Leads 2nd-Quarter Fund-raising.

Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) July 1 announced that he had raised $32.5 million for his presidential campaign in the second quarter of 2007, leading all candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, and setting a quarterly record for a Democrat in a nonelection year. Fund-raising reports from other top candidates July 3 showed that from April through June, the Democratic contenders had raised significantly more than the Republicans for the second threemonth period in a row. That was seen as a sign that President George W. Bush’s unpopularity and discontent over the Iraq war July 5, 2007

were hurting Republican efforts to keep control of the White House. [See p. 261D1] Obama’s leading rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), July 1 reported that she had raised $27 million in the second quarter. Of Clinton’s total, $21 million was for the primary election campaign and the rest for a general election if she became the nominee. All but $1.5 million of Obama’s total was for the primaries. He had relied on the Internet as a fund-raising tool, and also tapped small or first-time donors to a much greater extent than Clinton. Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) was third among the Democrats, raising $9 million in the second quarter, down from $14 million in the first quarter. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was fourth, with $7 million, trailed by Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.), with $3.25 million. Those totals were all reported July 1. The combined total for Obama, Clinton and Edwards of $68.5 million in the second quarter compared with $48.7 million for the top three Republicans: former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). Obama’s total of 258,000 donors since January exceeded the combined number of contributors for the top three Republicans. Romney led the GOP field with a second-quarter total of $20.5 million, which he reported July 3. However, that included $6.5 million that he lent to his campaign to make up for a sharp decline in contributions. His outside haul of $14 million compared with a $20.5 million take in the first quarter. Romney, a former executive at a private equity firm, had a fortune estimated at several hundred million dollars, and had given $9 million to his campaign so far. Giuliani July 3 reported raising $17 million, up from his $14 million take in the first quarter. McCain raised $11.2 million in the second quarter, down from $13.1 million in the first quarter. McCain Runs Short of Cash— McCain July 3 reported that he had just $2 million in cash on hand, revealing that his once front-running campaign was in dangerous financial straits. McCain’s campaign manager, Terry Nelson, July 2 had announced that he was laying off staff members and cutting salaries to help ease the cash crunch. Nelson said he himself would give up his salary of about $13,000 a month. He also said the campaign had abandoned a previously set goal of raising $100 million by the end of the year. Nelson and other McCain backers put part of the blame for the disappointing fund-raising figures on McCain’s highprofile support for an immigration reform bill that was deeply unpopular among conservatives. The Senate had shelved the bill the previous week after it failed to clear a procedural vote. [See p. 413A1] Nelson said McCain was considering whether to accept $6 million in federal matching funds. That would require him to abide by a spending limit of $55 million for the primaries. None of the top candidates

of either party had previously signaled an interest in public funding. „ Clintons Stump Together in Iowa. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), a front-runner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, July 2–4 campaigned in Iowa, joined for the first time in the key primary-season state by her husband, former President Bill Clinton. The couple appeared July 2 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, stopped in Iowa City and Davenport July 3 and marched in a July 4 parade in Clear Lake. [See pp. 430F3, 362G1] Several other presidential candidates campaigned in Iowa over the Independence Day holiday week, demonstrating the importance of the state due to its January caucuses being the first contest in the 2008 primary season. A top Republican contender, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, was also at the Clear Lake parade. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), Clinton’s leading rival for the Democratic nomination, also stumped in Iowa that week. Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) led the Democratic field in most polls in Iowa, and Clinton had also trailed Obama in some polls there. Her husband’s appearance on the campaign trail was seen as an early move aimed at bolstering her position in Iowa. He had headlined some fund-raising events for her, but his absence from official campaign events before the Iowa trip had led to talk that her campaign was concerned that he might overshadow her on the stump. During their Iowa swing, Bill Clinton gave short introductions for his wife, speaking for about six minutes, and then she delivered her campaign speech of nearly a half hour. Democrats Debate at Howard U.— The eight Democratic presidential candidates June 28 met for their third debate, held at Howard University in Washington, D.C., before a largely black audience at the historically black school. The candidates condemned a Supreme Court decision issued earlier that day, which barred public school systems from using race as a factor in assigning students to schools in order to maintain integration. [See p. 409A1] Obama, the only black candidate, said he “would not be standing here” without the efforts of civil rights pioneers such as the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who as a lawyer had argued the landmark 1954 school desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education. Clinton said, “For anybody to assert that race is not a problem in America is to deny the problem that is right before our very eyes.” Television and radio journalist Tavis Smiley moderated the debate, asking the candidates questions about issues of particular concern to black voters, such as the AIDS epidemic and a conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that had left more than 200,000 civilians dead. [See p. 401A3] „

Espionage CIA Releases Records of Covert Operations. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

June 26 declassified and released hundreds

431

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

of pages of documents revealing information on covert, often illegal operations carried out by the organization in the 1960s and 1970s. The documents, known as the “family jewels,” detailed assassination attempts against Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz; surveillance against peace, labor and other liberal groups based in the U.S. and abroad; and complicity in the 1970s Watergate scandal. The release came in response to a 1992 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the National Security Archive, a research group, at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. [See 2003, p. 245D2] CIA Director Michael Hayden said he was releasing the documents to promote a culture of openness in the secretive agency. He acknowledged that they included “reminders of some things the CIA should not have done,” but said reforms enacted after Watergate had given the agency “a far stronger place in our democratic system.” The revelations prompted comparisons in many quarters to the government’s current antiterrorism operations, which included practices such as secret detentions and wiretapping that critics said were illegal. Some intelligence experts said the release was a ploy to distract attention from such current controversial actions. The documents were first assembled as part of an internal investigation of illegal operations in 1973 ordered by then-CIA Director James Schlesinger. However, William Colby, his successor, reportedly decided against making them public for fear of sullying the agency’s reputation even further in the aftermath of Watergate. Operations detailed in the 693 pages of documents were already largely known to the public, although most of the documents themselves had never been seen before. However, the declassified documents did not include information on many other known operations during the period. In addition, large sections had been censored. Illegal Operations Detailed—Among the operations covered by the documents was a 1960–61 assassination plot against Castro, in which the government attempted to hire Mafia hitmen to poison the Cuban president. The plot was almost exposed after a CIA technician was arrested for trying to bug a hotel room at a Mafia boss’s request, in order to check the mobster’s girlfriend’s fidelity. The plot was first revealed in 1971, but the declassified documents confirmed some details, such as the names of the involved Mafia bosses, Sam Giancana and Santos Trafficante. [See 2001, p. 234G1] Documents also showed CIA complicity in the 1961 assassination of President Rafael Trujillo Molina of the Dominican Republic, and a 1960 failed plot on the life of Premier Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [See 2002, p. 162C2; 1975, p. 884C1] Other documents provided details of programs conducting surveillance on hundreds of thousands of domestic and foreign anti– Vietnam War activists, at the order of President Lyndon Johnson. One such program had CIA officers grow their hair long and learn leftist jargon in order to infiltrate hip432

pie groups. The documents also referred to surveillance of journalists. The CIA’s charter forbade it from spying in the U.S. Two reports dealt with a U.S. program under which the CIA and other U.S. agencies would train foreign police and counterterrorism forces, who would then be coopted to serve U.S. interests. Other memoranda alluded to the CIA’s testing of hallucinogens such as LSD on unknowing people, and told how the agency had provided disguises, surveillance equipment and a reference to an expert lockpicker to E. Howard Hunt Jr., who engineered the Watergate break-ins. Other Documents Released—In addition to the covert operations documents, the CIA also June 26 released 11,000 pages of Cold War–era analyses of the Soviet Union and China. The National Security Archive June 21 had released separate documents dating from January 1975 that portrayed an increasingly anxious debate within the administration of President Gerald Ford as illegal operations were starting to be revealed by the press. „

Immigration Guardsmen Charged With Human Smuggling.

The Justice Department June 11 filed charges of conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants against three volunteer National Guardsmen who had been assigned to Operation Jumpstart, a program to help local and federal authorities with immigration enforcement. [See 2006, p. 837D3] The three men had been arrested June 7– 8 after Border Patrol agents near Cotulla, Texas, stopped a van being driven by Pfc. Jose Rodrigo Torres carrying 24 illegal immigrants, at least five of them from Mexico. The smuggling operation was reportedly led by Sgt. Julio Cesar Pacheco, who stood accused of recruiting its other members. He had been awarded a Purple Heart for service in Iraq. A third soldier, Sgt. Clarence Hodge Jr., was accused of getting Torres past a Border Patrol checkpoint. Torres told police he had driven vanloads of illegal immigrants from Laredo, Texas, deeper into U.S. territory on seven occasions, and said he had received between $1,000 and $3,500 each time. At least two of the immigrants found June 11 in the van said they had paid between $1,500 and $2,000 for transportation from Laredo to Dallas, Texas. „

Politics Ex–Interior Department Deputy Sentenced.

Judge Ellen Huvelle of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., June 26 sentenced former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles to serve 10 months in prison and pay a $30,000 fine for lying to the Senate about his links with corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Griles, 59, had pleaded guilty in March. [See p. 191E1] Prosecutors had recommended a lighter sentence of five months in prison and five months under house arrest. But Huvelle

disagreed, telling Griles, “I find that, even now, you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct and the nature of your misstatements.” Griles’s ex-girlfriend, Italia Federici, 37, June 8 pleaded guilty to charges of lying to the Senate and tax evasion. She admitted in the plea agreement that she had acted as a gobetween for Abramoff and Griles. She had been head of a conservative group, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, that received more than $500,000 in contributions from Abramoff and his clients. They sought to influence Griles’s decisions on matters such as permitting new casinos on American Indian territory. „

Business Bear Stearns Rescues Hedge Fund.

New York City–based investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. June 22 announced it would loan $3.2 billion to save one of its two faltering hedge funds from collapsing. The company revised that amount June 26 to $1.6 billion, after the fund sold some of its assets. It was one of the largest bailouts of a hedge fund since Long-Term Capital Management LP was rescued by investment banks in 1998. Both the Bear Stearns hedge funds had faced collapse for investing in bonds and securities backed by subprime mortgage loans, which had sharply decreased in value in the preceding months. [See p. 224B3; 1998, p. 691F1] The salvaged fund, the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Fund, was created in 2004, and had posted 41 straight months of positive returns investing mainly in subprime mortgage loans. Subprime mortgage loans, given to home buyers with spotty credit, featured a very low introductory interest rate that would spike after a number of years. Bear Stearns bought subprime loans from lenders and bundled them into bonds, known as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), that they carved up and sold to investors. The investors were attracted to the high rate of interest they would receive on the back end of the subprime loan, which was also perceived to balance the risk of a subprime borrower defaulting on his or her loan. Fueled by the success of the fund, Bear Stearns created a second fund, the HighGrade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund, in August 2006. The newer fund also utilized CDOs but relied more heavily on leverage, money borrowed from banks and brokerage firms, as opposed to hard equity. At their high point, the hedge funds together managed more than $20 billion in investments. At the end of 2006, housing prices began to fall and many subprime borrowers soon defaulted on their loans, causing many lenders to file for bankruptcy. Bear Stearns’s older fund in March posted its first loss. By April, the value of the older fund’s assets had fallen 5% for the year. [See 2006, p. 1006F1] Bear Stearns informed investors in a letter May 15 that the new fund was down 6.5% in April. But the bank June 7 said that FACTS ON FILE

the value of the fund’s assets had plunged 19% in April and 23% for the year. On release of the revised report, investors began demanding their money back. Banks that had loaned money to the funds, including some of the biggest firms on Wall Street like J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., began making margin calls, a way of asking for cash or securities to act as collateral for the loans they had made. By June 8, the older fund was looking at $63 million in margin calls, and the new fund at $145 million. Banks threatened to offload their collateral assets at auction if Bear Stearns did not use its own money to save the funds and pay back creditors. Executives at Bear Stearns did not want to see shares of the funds sold at “fire-sale,” or extremely low, prices, which would drastically devalue the mortgage-backed securities in the funds. Executives said such a drop could also cause widespread panic in the subprime-mortgage-bond market, and that Bear Stearns had acted responsibly by rescuing the older fund with its own money. Since 2000, $1.8 trillion worth of securities backed by subprime mortgages had been created, according to the industry newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance, cited in media reports June 20–21. Additionally, Bear Stearns’s bailout was widely seen as a way for the company to preserve its reputation as a reliable investment bank, as letting the investors and lenders bear the brunt of the losses could have hurt business in the future. Bear Stearns June 26 said it would not bail out the newer fund, although negotiations were continuing with lenders on what action to take. Shares in Bear Stearns had fallen 6.7% in the two weeks running up to the closing of the market on June 29. New Rules for Subprime Lending—Federal regulators June 29 issued new guidelines on subprime mortgages to combat the rising number of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures. The regulators were the Federal Reserve Board, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration. The regulators said subprime borrowers had to qualify not only for the introductory interest rate of the loans, but for the adjusted rate that would be imposed years later as well. In a statement, Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner said loans commonly known as “2/28” and “3/27” loans were especially unstable. The 2/28 loans offered a low interest rate for the first two years of the loan, and a much higher one for the remaining 28 years. Similarly, 3/27 loans offered a lower rate for the first three years, and a much higher one for the remaining 27 years of the loan. The rules called for lenders to verify a borrower’s income before issuing a loan, a practice that had not been commonly used in preceding years because of strong housing prices. The rules could only be enforced on the banks, thrifts and credit unions that were overseen by the regulators. The Federal July 5, 2007

Reserve chose not to take advantage of a 1994 law that allowed it to impose standards on all mortgage lenders. Some critics of the rules cited this lack of accountability for mortgage companies and brokers, while others said the new rules would make it harder for those with poor credit to buy a home. SEC Launches Probes Into CDOs—

Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), June 26 told the House Financial Services Committee that the SEC had launched 12 investigations related to CDOs. The Associated Press June 28 reported that the SEC was also informally investigating the near-collapse of the Bear Stearns hedge funds. Cox said of particular concern to the SEC was the unclear way in which CDOs were priced. As CDOs were not commonly sold on the market, the values of the bonds were based on estimates made by sellers that sometimes inaccurately pumped up their actual values. „

July Financial Update

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average (see box, p. 434A1)

Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index Nasdaq Composite Index London Stock Exchange

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100)

18,146.30 13,906.57

(Nikkei index)

(TSE Composite Index)

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield) Currencies (late New York trading) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars)

4.89% 5.07%

$656.50

Silver (per troy oz.)

$12.4700

(N.Y. Comex spot price) (London fixing spot price)

Gasoline (per gallon)

(Nymex crude future)

(nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released June 24)

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel) (Kansas City market)

$3.00 $6.0400

2.7%

Unemployment rate

4.5%

Gross domestic product growth

0.7%

(May; see p. 380B3)

(annualized first-quarter rate, final report; see p. 434G1)

Prime rate

C

$71.09

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

(consumer price index 12-month increase through May; see p. 420E2)

B

$0.8593 $2.0169 $0.9473 $1.3622 122.32 10.7596 $0.8260

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.) Oil (per barrel)

stake to London-based private equity firm BC Partners for $5.03 billion plus assumption of $11.4 billion in debt. Intelsat’s current owners, a consortium of private equity firms, would keep the remaining shares. Intelsat had its headquarters in Bermuda. The deal was subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Justice Department. [See 2005, p. 948G1] Charlotte, N.C.–based Wachovia Corp., one of the country’s largest banks, May 31 agreed to acquire retail brokerage house A.G. Edwards Inc., based in St. Louis, Mo., for $6.8 billion in cash and stock. A.G. Edwards would be combined with Wachovia Securities LLC, to form the second-largest U.S. brokerage firm, after Merrill Lynch & Co. It would be headquartered in St. Louis. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) June 25 approved the deal. [See 2006, p. 820A3] Vernon Hills, Ill.–based CDW Corp., one of the country’s leading online computer resellers, May 29 announced that it

1519.43 2632.30 6590.6

Toronto Stock Exchange

News in Brief. Spanish

Intelsat Ltd., the world’s largest satellite company, June 19 agreed to sell a 76%

13,535.43

Tokyo Stock Exchange

Mergers & Acquisitions utility company Iberdrola SA June 25 announced that it would buy New Gloucester, Maine–based Energy East Corp., a regional utility owner. Iberdrola would pay $4.5 billion in cash, a 27% premium over Energy East’s value based on its June 22 closing market share price. The deal required approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Home Depot Inc., a warehouse chain of do-it-yourself construction and repair supplies, June 19 said it would sell its wholesale supply division, Home Depot Supply Unit, to a consortium of private equity firms for $10.3 billion. The buyers were Bain Capital, the Carlyle Group and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Each would own a third of the company. Home Depot, based in Atlanta, Ga., also that day announced a $22.5 billion share repurchase program to buy back about a third of the company’s outstanding shares. [See p. 16C3]

A

(Close of trading July 2 except where indicated)

D

8.25%

would be bought by private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners for $7.3 billion in cash. The price was a 16% premium above CDW’s May 25 closing market share price. The company said it was soliciting other bids. Archstone-Smith Trust, a publicly held real-estate owner based in Englewood, Colo., May 29 said it would sell itself to private buyers led by New York City–based real estate firm Tishman Speyer Properties LP for $15.5 billion plus some $7 billion in assumed debt. [See p. 96B3] The Nasdaq stock market May 25 announced an agreement to buy Scandinavian financial exchanges and technology group OMX AB, for $3.7 billion in cash and

stock. The pairing followed completion of the transatlantic merger in April of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with the Euronext exchange and Nasdaq’s recent failed attempt to acquire the London Stock Exchange. OMX had its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. The combined exchange group would be worth about $7 billion and would operate in eight countries. [See 2006, p. 1029B1] Private equity firm Blackstone Group May 17 said it would buy Alliance Data Systems Corp. (ADS), a data-processing and marketing company, for $6.4 billion plus assumed debt of more than $1 billion. ADS, based in Dallas, Texas, processed 433

E

F

G

Dow Jones Industrial Average Trading on the New York Stock Exchange

A

June 1

4

5 6 7 8 11 12 13 14 15 18 19 20 21 22 25 26 27 28 29

B

C

Closing

Volume (in millions of shares)

13,668.11 13,676.32 13,595.46 13,465.67 13,266.73 13,424.39 13,424.96 13,295.01 13,482.35 13,553.73 13,639.48 13,612.98 13,635.42 13,489.42 13,545.84 13,360.26 13,352.05 13.337.66 13,427.73 13,422.28 13,408.62

1,480.1 1,347.0 1,511.9 1,537.6 1,904.7 1,563.0 1,321.2 1,601.5 1,588.1 1,446.5 2,015.3 1,183.7 1,459.2 1,669.1 1,602.8 2,204.8 1,739.6 1,730.2 1,759.1 1,489.8 1,633.8

credit card transactions and ran branded credit card programs for retailers. It had gone public in 2001. „

Economy

D

E

F

Fed Leaves Interest Rate at 5.25%. The Fed-

eral Reserve, the nation’s central bank, June 28 left interest rates unchanged for the seventh straight time. The Open Market Committee, the Fed’s policy-making body, voted unanimously to leave the benchmark federal funds rate on overnight loans between banks at 5.25%, and the discount rate on loans to commercial banks at 6.25%. [See p. 191E3] The committee in a statement issued with the decision said the threat of inflation had not yet clearly passed. It called economic growth in 2007 “moderate” and projected that moderate growth would continue for several quarters. „ New Home Sales Fell 1.6% in May. The Departments of Commerce and of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) June 26 reported jointly that sales of new single-family homes fell 1.6% in May from the previous month. The new seasonally adjusted annual rate was 915,000 units, down from the revised April rate of 930,000 units. The median price for a single-family home sold in May was $236,100. [See p. 349B2] Existing Home Sales Declined in May—

G

Sales of existing homes declined 0.3% in May from the previous month, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.99 million units, the National Association of Realtors reported June 25. The rate for April was revised slightly upward to 6.01 million. The median sale price for existing homes in May was $223,700, down from $228,500 a year earlier. [See p. 349C2] „ 1st Quarter GDP Growth Revised Higher.

The Commerce Department June 28 reported that, according to its third and final estimate, gross domestic product (GDP) for 434

the first quarter of 2007 had grown at a 0.7% annual rate. That was slightly better than its most recent prior estimate of 0.6%, but still below the original estimate of 1.3%. The improvement was due to positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures and increased spending by state and local governments, the report said. [See p. 348F3] „

Environment EPA Head Backs Stricter Smog Standards. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Administrator Stephen Johnson June 21 released a new smog regulation proposal that would significantly reduce the amount of ground-level ozone smog allowed under agency rules. The proposal would reduce ozone standards to between 70 and 75 parts per billion (ppb), from the current rate of 84 ppb. [See 2006, p. 1003D2] “New scientific evidence indicates that the impact of ozone is more significant than we previously thought,” Johnson said. Ground-level smog was created by a chemical reaction between pollution resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels and nitrogen oxide generated by some motor vehicles and industries. It was linked to asthma attacks, and was especially damaging to children, the elderly and those with lung problems. The proposed rule, which was open to a public comment period, was expected to generate fierce opposition from business and industry groups. Johnson in his announcement said the EPA would consider maintaining the current standard, a caveat quickly criticized by environmental groups. The EPA was set to issue a finalized standard by March 12, 2008. The ozone standard was last changed in 1997. „ EPA Limits Small Waterway Protections.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers June 5 issued new guidelines eliminating environmental protections given to nonpermanent streams and nearby wetlands under the 1972 Clean Water Act. Under the new guidelines, the act’s pollution protections would extend only to bodies of water large enough for boats to traverse, and their adjacent wetlands. EPA officials said they would decide on a case-by-case basis whether to regulate the pollution in smaller tributaries that affected larger waterways. [See 2006, p. 484A1] The new guidelines resulted from a June 2006 split decision by the Supreme Court over the types of waters subject to the act. Four of the high court’s justices had ruled to limit the law to waters navigable by boat, while four had ruled to extend protections to smaller water areas. Environmentalists criticized the new guidelines as damaging to many streams and waterways previously guaranteed protection under the act. Other News—In other EPA news: † The EPA Jan. 29 said 10 manufacturers of wood-burning boiler heaters that created large amounts of pollution had agreed to increase the cleanliness and efficiency of

their machines. The companies said they would begin selling models that reduced pollution levels by 70%. Such wood burners had been commonly used on farms, but had become increasingly popular in suburban areas. † The EPA Jan. 8 said it had rejected the use of the carcinogenic acid copper chromate (ACC) as a preservative for lumber used in common household uses, such as deck construction and picnic tables. The carcinogenic ingredient in ACC was hexavalent chromium. The EPA had also said that lumber workers handling products treated with ACC had shown a much higher incidence of cancer than the federally accepted standard. Lumber industry groups had reportedly lobbied the EPA intensely to have ACC approved for such uses. [See 2006, p. 328F3] „

Medicine & Health Conn. Medicinal Marijuana Bill Vetoed.

Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell (R) June 19 vetoed a bill that would have legalized marijuana as a medical treatment for several diseases, including AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis. The bill had passed the state House of Representatives, 89–58, May 23, and had passed the state Senate, 23–13, June 1. Although 13 states had legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes, its medical use remained illegal under federal law. [See 2006, p. 327G1] The bill would have allowed patients with a prescription and a license from the state to grow as many as four marijuana plants in their homes, and to possess small amounts of the drug. Rell, a cancer survivor, issued a threepage veto message empathizing with patients with serious medical conditions, but stating that she was “troubled by the fact” that the bill would force “law abiding citizens to seek out drug dealers to make their marijuana purchases.” Other News—In other medical marijuana news: † A three-member panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., March 14 ruled that a terminally ill woman treating her ailments with marijuana was subject to federal prosecution. The court in its decision agreed with Angel McClary Reich’s argument that she needed marijuana to survive, but also found that there was no legal basis for the argument that “the right to medical marijuana is ‘fundamental.’” The Supreme Court in 2005 had ruled against a lawsuit that Reich had brought against the federal government. The high court found that Congress had the power to outlaw the cultivation and use of marijuana for medical purposes. [See 2005, p. 385E3] † A team of scientists reported in the Feb. 13 issue of the journal Neurology that smoking marijuana had been at least as effective as prescription drugs in treating nerve pain symptoms resulting from AIDS. The scientists found that 13 of 25 patients given marijuana reported at least a 30% FACTS ON FILE

reduction in pain, compared with six of 25 patients given a placebo. Supporters of medical marijuana research said the study bolstered the argument that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was wrong to classify marijuana as a drug with “no currently accepted medical use.” „

Media FCC Profanity Policy Struck Down. A panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City June 4 ruled, 2–1, that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) did not have the right to penalize broadcasters for airing unscripted profanities, or “fleeting expletives.” The FCC in March 2006 had decided that four network television broadcasts that contained such profanities had violated federal indecency rules. Previously, for the most part, only scripted profanity had drawn the FCC’s ire. After the four major television networks— ABC, CBS, NBC Universal Television and Fox Broadcasting Co.—challenged the decision in court, the 2nd Circuit Court in September 2006 sent it back to the FCC for review. [See 2006, p. 840B2] In issuing its latest ruling, the appeals court said the FCC had not adequately explained why it altered its long-standing policy on unscripted profanities. The court noted that obscenities were often spontaneously uttered out of anger or excitement, rather than as literal references to “sexual or excretory activities.” The court cited examples of unscripted profanities uttered by both President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, including a widely reported expletive directed by Cheney at Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) in 2004. [See 2004, p. 499A1] Following the ruling, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin June 4 said the agency was considering whether to appeal it to the full 2nd Circuit Appeals Court, or directly to the Supreme Court. „

Legislation House Passes Anti-‘Spyware’ Bills. The

House May 22 and June 6 passed similar bills making it illegal to maliciously install on someone’s computer so-called spyware, software usually installed via the Internet that was often used to capture sensitive personal data and could hinder computer performance. Violators could receive fines or prison sentences of up to five years. [See 2006, p. 633A1; 2005, p. 506D3; 2004, p. 1049A1] The bill passed May 22, by voice vote, authorized $10 million annually over the next four years for the Justice Department to fight computer scams. It had been approved May 2 by the House Judiciary Committee. The legislation approved June 6, by a vote of 368–48, instead delegated enforcement to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). That bill had been approved May 10 by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. „ July 5, 2007

AFRICA

Kenya Nairobi Rocked by Gang Violence, Bombing.

At least 22 people June 22 were killed in a spate of violence across greater Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. Three of the victims were found beheaded. The method and the locations of the attacks suggested involvement by the extortionist Mungiki gang, which had been terrorizing the Nairobi area for months and had threatened to target the government. Among the dead were nine suspected members of the group who were gunned down by police. [See p. 402B2] At least 100 people had been killed as of July 5 either by the Mungiki or in a police crackdown on the group since the beginning of June. Separately, an explosion June 11 rocked a section of central Nairobi. Two people were killed and more than 30 others were injured. According to witnesses, the blast occurred when men carrying a small bomb were pushed off a crowded public bus. No one claimed responsibility for the bomb. However, suspicion fell on either the Mungiki or insurgents from neighboring Somalia. [See p. 382A3] „

South Africa Unions End Four-Week Strike. Public ser-

vice workers June 28 called off a strike they had launched June 1 that had closed many schools and hospitals, left garbage uncollected and interrupted transportation systems. Leaders of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) labor federation ended the strike after accepting a government offer to raise wages for public employees by 7.5%. [See 2005, p. 595E1; 2000, p. 346F1] Municipal employees June 13 had joined in sympathy with some 700,000 striking provincial- and national-level workers who had already walked off their jobs. It was reportedly the largest labor strike in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994. Cosatu had initially demanded a 12% increase in wages, while the government had initially offered only a 6% hike, which just matched the inflation rate. Cosatu leaders June 13 rejected a sweetened government offer to raise wages by 7.25%. The government June 20 gave the strikers a 16-hour ultimatum to accept an offer of 7.5% or be forced to make do with the lower one. Cosatu defied the ultimatum, but two independent unions, representing teachers and health care workers, June 25 called off their strike participation and said Cosatu was being “greedy.” The unions June 4 had temporarily abandoned talks to end the strike after police shot at a crowd of striking nurses with rubber bullets. Thousands of nurses had been fired for walking off the job, it was reported June 14. South Africa’s coalition government was headed by the African National Congress (ANC), a traditional Cosatu ally. In

December, the ANC was due to hold its five-year congress, at which it would set policy and choose a party president. South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose final term in public office would be up in 2009, was running to keep his party post, but had fallen out of favor with Cosatu due to his business-friendly policies. The unions were planning to mount a challenge to his party leadership. Cosatu represented 1.8 million South African workers. „

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Brazil Police Raid Drug Gang–Controlled Slums.

More than 1,350 Brazilian police officers June 27 stormed the Complexo do Alemao, a sprawling network of 12 favelas, or slums, controlled by drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro city. At least 19 suspected members of drug gangs were killed in the raid, in which police were supported by helicopters and tanks. At least 11 others were wounded in the firefight, including some innocent bystanders and at least one police officer. [See p. 228C1] Police had begun a siege of Alemao after two officers were killed there May 2. Including the June 27 deaths, 46 people had been killed in the favelas and some 80 others wounded since May. Police said they had orchestrated the raid to serve warrants and seize drugs in the favelas. Local media reported that the raid had resulted in a pitched battle between police forces and drug gangs that lasted eight hours. Gang members had reportedly used automatic weapons and grenades to fight off the police. Jose Mariano Beltrame, Rio de Janeiro state’s security secretary, June 28 said further police actions were planned to rid the city’s 600 favelas of drug gangs. However, some human rights advocates and residents of Alemao criticized the police for trying to kill gang members without regard to innocents caught in the cross fire. Some said the raid was carried out to improve Rio’s image before the Pan American Games, which were set to start July 13. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva July 2 said the federal government would invest $1.7 billion to bring running water, sewage infrastructure and other services to slums in an effort to displace drug gangs. “If the state doesn’t fulfill its role and does not provide [adequate] conditions for the people, drug traffickers and organized crime will,” da Silva said. „

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Colombia FARC Blames Hostage Deaths on Raid.

The leftist guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) June 28 said 11 provincial legislators it had taken hostage had been killed in cross-fire resulting from a June 18 raid by an “unidentified military group” at a remote camp. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez hours later rejected FARC’s claim, saying the government had not mounted a rescue attempt and 435

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claiming that the legislators had been killed by FARC in cold blood. However, the deaths of the legislators had not been independently confirmed. [See p. 403C1] Citing unidentified sources in the Colombian ministry of defense, the Spanishlanguage U.S. newspaper El Nuevo Herald July 1 reported that the slain lawmakers might have died from stray bullets fired during a raid by bounty hunters on the FARC prison camp. (The government had offered a $2.5 million reward for each of eight FARC leaders.) A competing theory was that the guerrillas had been attacked by a right-wing paramilitary group, the Herald reported. The reports of the deaths further endangered reconciliation efforts between the government and FARC, which had been embroiled in a de facto civil war for decades. Uribe earlier in June had released the government’s highest-ranking FARC captive as a step toward a hostage exchange for some 60 people being held by FARC, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. However, Uribe had refused to agree to a FARC demand to demilitarize two towns near Cali, the provincial capital of southwestern Valle del Cauca province, as a setting for hostage exchange negotiations; talks subsequently had reached a standstill. Uribe June 28 indicated that his policy toward FARC was hardening, referring to the rebels as “terrorists” and describing their demands as “blackmail.” He said plans to release other FARC members held by the government had been canceled. The 11 lawmakers said to be killed had been among a group of 12 who were kidnapped by FARC forces in Cali in 2002; FARC rebels June 28 said only one of the legislators remained alive. FARC forces in May 2003 had executed 10 other hostages during a rescue operation by government troops. [See 2003, p. 987G3] Bombing Campaign Attributed to FARC—

A man and a young girl June 24 were killed by a bomb planted at a popular beach in the port city of Buenaventura on the Pacific Ocean. Seven other bombings in the city June 22–23 had left 23 people injured, and marines June 23 had defused two other bombs discovered in the city. Officials attributed the attacks to FARC guerrillas seeking revenge for the killing of one of the group’s regional commanders. Other Rebel Group Seeks Cease-fire—

The National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia’s largest guerrilla group after FARC, June 27 said it hoped to broker a cease-fire agreement with the government by the end of July. However, the group was vague on its demands. [See p. 403B2] „

officials would undergo drug and polygraph tests and receive ethics training, Garcia Luna said. [See p. 383A3] Vetted officials tapped to replace those ousted would also undergo similar scrutiny and have their personal finances regularly reviewed for impropriety. “It is obvious that mafias are taking steps to assure that the situation doesn’t change so that they can continue enriching themselves under the protection of corruption,” Garcia Luna said. However, he declined to say if any of the demoted officials were under investigation for corruption, or to specify what had brought about the demotion decision. Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa soon after taking office in December 2006 had begun to dispatch some 24,000 federal police and troops across the country to quash increasingly gruesome drug cartel violence. Execution-style murders, kidnappings and beheadings had occurred at an increasing rate over the past year, with more than 1,300 drug-related murders reported as of mid-June. However, the federal troops and police charged with eliminating the drug trade were poorly paid and often bribed to work for drug cartels. Corruption within Mexico’s law enforcement system was said to be endemic. Ex-Governor Arrested on Drug Charges—

The former governor of Quintana Roo state, Mario Villanueva Madrid, June 21 was arrested in the first step toward an extradition requested by a U.S. federal court. He was wanted in the U.S. on charges of racketeering, drug trafficking and money laundering. Villanueva was arrested immediately after his release from a prison in Mexico City, the capital, where he had served six years for a money-laundering conviction. [See 2002, p. 634B3; 2000, p. 176D3] U.S. prosecutors had accused Villanueva of accepting millions of dollars from the Juarez drug cartel in exchange for facilitating the transport of some 200 tons of cocaine from South America to the U.S. The U.S. had also alleged that Villanueva had laundered at least $11 million in drug profits. If extradited, Villanueva would become the highest-ranking former elected official from Mexico to be tried in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges. Mexico had previously been unwilling to extradite those arrested on drug charges to face trial in the U.S., but extraditions had become increasingly common under Calderon. „

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Cambodia Judges Approve Genocide Trial Rules.

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Mexican Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna June 25 said 284 federal police commanders, including the heads of federal police agencies in all 31 states and the federal district, had been demoted in an effort to weed out corrupt officials. The demoted 436

Judges in Cambodia June 13 announced rules for a United Nations–assisted genocide tribunal, paving the way for long-delayed trials of senior officials of the 1970s Khmer Rouge government, under which an estimated 1.7 million people lost their lives. The 17 Cambodian and 12 international judges March 16 had announced that they had resolved months-long disputes

over the tribunal rules, but the international judges would not proceed until acceptable fees were decided for foreign lawyers. [See 2006, p. 1020F2] The trial proceedings were endangered after the March agreement when the Cambodian Bar Association levied $4,900 in registration fees on foreign attorneys, potentially limiting the pool of defense lawyers. Human rights activists decried the move as a ploy by the government to stall the trials; many current government officials, including Premier Hun Sen, had been mid-ranking Khmer Rouge members. Judges April 28 announced that the stalemate had been resolved, after the bar association agreed to reduce the fee to $500. The rules were officially accepted June 12. The trials were not expected to begin soon, and many Cambodians reportedly feared that the Khmer Rouge leaders, most of whom were elderly and living at large in Cambodia, would die before they faced the tribunal. No one had yet been indicted, and only one person was under arrest—Kaing Khek Iev (also known as Duch), who had headed the notorious Tuol Sleng (S-21) torture center in Phnom Penh, the capital. Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, died in 1998. [See 1998, p. 262C1] „

Indonesia Jemaah Islamiah Head Captured. Indonesian police June 15 announced that they had captured the leader of the Southeast Asian regional Islamic terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiah, Zarkasih (who used only one name). Police said Zarkasih was arrested on the main island of Java by the elite Detachment 88 antiterrorism unit, some of whose members had received training from the U.S. and Australia. The arrest reportedly came shortly after the June 9 capture of Abu Dujana, the alleged leader of Jemaah Islamiah’s military wing. [See p. 385C2] Col. Petrus Golose, a member of Detachment 88, in an interview said Zarkasih “is the emir of Jemaah Islamiah…He controls everyone; everyone important reports to him.” Analysts and law-enforcement officials said the twin arrests had dealt a significant blow to the group’s operations and would hamper its recovery from losses to a series of prosecutions and deaths in police operations since 2002. However, some experts said Jemaah Islamiah had deemphasized large-scale terrorist attacks long before the arrests. Dujana, in an interview with the Indonesian magazine Tempo published June 18, blamed Noordin Muhamad Top, Southeast Asia’s most-wanted terrorist, for planning a 2003 hotel bombing in Jakarta, the capital. Dujana said he had disapproved of the attack, although he admitted that he had attended a planning meeting with Top. „

Kazakhstan Term Limit Waived for President. Kazakh-

stan’s parliament May 18 approved a slate of constitutional amendments, one of which would exempt President Nursultan FACTS ON FILE

Nazarbayev’s

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Rakhat Aliyev, Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, June 1 was arrested in Vienna, Austria. He had been dismissed as the Kazakh ambassador to Austria May 26, and Kazakh authorities May 28 said an international warrant had been issued for his arrest in connection with the January abductions of two Kazakh bank managers. [See 2006, p. 736F1] Aliyev was a successful businessman who had risen to a position of political power with his marriage to Dariga Nazarbayeva, the president’s daughter. He issued a statement May 26 claiming that Nazarbayev was trying to silence him after he privately told the president of his plans to run for president himself. Government authorities May 24 had shut down a television channel he owned, KTK, and his newspaper, Karavan, for three weeks. The Kazakh interior ministry May 28 said Aliyev was wanted for running a mafia group in Kazakhstan. He had already been accused of staging the kidnappings of two executives at a bank he controlled, Nurbank, and forcing them to sign over their stakes in the bank. Austria June 3 released Aliyev on bail while it considered Kazakhstan’s extradition request. The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) June 20 reported that Nazarbayeva was divorcing Aliyev. In a July 4 interview from Austria with the New York Times, Aliyev claimed that he had been framed. „

Vietnam President Triet Visits U.S. Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet June 18–23 visited the U.S., the first time that a Vietnamese head of state had traveled to the U.S. since the 1975 end of the Vietnam War between the two countries. He visited the White House June 22 and met with U.S. President George W. Bush. Before the tour started, Triet had expressed his desire to keep a focus on the growing economic ties between the two countries. However, he was faced by protests by Vietnamese American groups over Vietnam’s human rights record. [See p. 248G3; 2006, p. 891C1] July 5, 2007

Bush at the meeting praised the close trade ties between Vietnam and the U.S. However, he also warned that the relationship was conditional upon Vietnam granting its people increased political and religious freedom. Triet after the meeting said the two leaders had a “direct and open exchange” on human rights. However, he gave no indication that Vietnam would make rights reforms. Triet in an June 13 interview had asserted that everyone currently in prison had been detained under Vietnamese law. Bush and Triet at the White House meeting also reportedly discussed efforts to locate the missing remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the Vietnam War, and to help Vietnam mitigate the aftereffects of Agent Orange, a highly toxic defoliant spread over the Vietnamese jungle by U.S. warplanes during the war. Vietnam Frees Critics Before Visit—

Vietnamese Vice Foreign Minister Le Van Bang June 6, after the details of Triet’s U.S. visit had been finalized, announced that the government would release three unspecified dissidents. The government the previous months had imprisoned a number of dissidents, in what was seen as a renewed crackdown. The government June 9 had released prominent dissident Nguyen Vu Binh from prison under a presidential amnesty, a prison official announced June 10. Binh was a former journalist who had promoted prodemocracy views using the Internet. Binh in 2003 had been convicted of spying for overseas “reactionary organizations,” and was sentenced to seven years in prison and three years of house arrest. Vietnamese state media June 16 reported that Le Quoc Quan, a lawyer and pro-democracy activist, had been released. Quan had been arrested March 8 after returning from a human rights fellowship in the U.S., and police said on his release that he had “made a sincere statement of guilt.” „

family a long legal ordeal, and not because he was guilty. Mazuz said the deal served the public interest because it avoided “harm to the institution of the presidency.” Israel’s major newspapers ran editorials harshly criticizing the perceived special treatment afforded Katsav. A rally to protest the plea bargain June 30 drew some 20,000 people. Israel’s High Court of Justice July 1 accepted a legal challenge to the plea agreement brought by the group Movement for Quality Government and several women’s rights groups, and gave Mazuz 24 hours to provide justification for his decision. Mazuz July 5 said he had settled on the plea bargain due to a lack of substantial evidence needed to pursue prosecution. „

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West Bank and Gaza Strip BBC Reporter Released From Captivity. British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reporter

Alan Johnston was released July 4 by kidnappers after 114 days of captivity in the Gaza Strip. The Islamist militant group Hamas said its paramilitary wing had taken custody of Johnston earlier that day from the small armed faction that had abducted him March 12. Johnston was taken under guard to the house of Ismail Haniya, the former Palestinian Authority (PA) premier and Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, where he was met by BBC colleagues and other journalists. [See p. 410D3, D1 ] Johnston had been abducted in the Gaza Strip by a group calling itself the Army of Islam, which was allied with Gaza’s powerful Dagmoush clan. Johnston said he was not beaten by his captors until immediately prior to his release. He said the kidnappers had been indifferent to two serious illnesses that he had suffered during his ordeal, and that he had spent most of the time in solitary confinement in a small room.

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Israel President Resigns Over Rape Scandal. Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz June 28 announced that he was dropping rape charges against President Moshe Katsav in exchange for Katsav’s resignation and confession to lesser charges of indecent acts and sexual harassment. Katsav would receive a suspended one-year prison sentence and a fine of $11,695 to compensate two of the four women whose accusations had been the subject of an indictment against him. [See p. 386F3] Katsav the next day submitted his letter of resignation, effective July 2. His term was to have expired in mid-July. Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres would assume the president’s office, a largely ceremonial post, on July 15; he had been elected president earlier in the month. Dalia Itzik, speaker of the Knesset, or parliament, would continue as president in the interim. Lawyers for Katsav June 28 said he had agreed to the plea bargain only to spare his

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Nazarbayev from a law limiting him to two terms. The change would allow Nazarbayev, 66, to remain president for life. He had held the country’s top office since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and under the existing law would have been required to step down in 2012. [See p. 19E2] The amendments package also included measures to strengthen parliament, such as granting it the right to nominate ministers as well as a greater say in selecting the country’s premier, and increasing its size from 77 members to 107. Nazarbayev, who had proposed the changes himself, signed the approved amendments May 21. The president June 20 dissolved parliament and called early elections for Aug. 18. They had previously been scheduled for 2009. Nazarbayev justified the move by saying the shortened timeline would put a stronger parliament in place more quickly.

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BBC reporter Alan Johnston July 4, after his release from 114 days in captivity in the Gaza Strip.

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Hamas had reportedly begun negotiating Johnston’s release with the Dagmoush clan soon after seizing control of Gaza in mid-June after ousting militants allied with its political rival, Fatah. Hamas’s effort to free Johnston was seen as an attempt to establish greater international credibility for its administration and stronger rule of law in Gaza, where powerful armed clans such as the Dagmoush wielded substantial power. (The U.S., Israel and the European Union considered Hamas a terrorist organization. Hamas refused to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.) [See p. 393A1] “Every kidnapping, every illegal behavior, we will fight with all our force, the force of law, the force of moral principles,” Hamas Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar said. He added, “Every Palestinian and every foreigner will be secure and safe, regardless of their political beliefs.” Though Johnston’s release was considered something of a political coup for Hamas, Western and Israeli officials said it was unlikely to change the policy of the so-called Quartet of the U.S., the United Nations, the EU and Russia toward Hamas. However, some Palestinians in Gaza loyal to Fatah reportedly acknowledged that they felt safer under Hamas rule. During negotiations over Johnston’s release, Hamas and the Dagmoush clan had reportedly agreed to swap prisoners and cease any further kidnappings. Hamas also reportedly allowed the Dagmoush clan to retain their arms as part of “the resistance” against Israel. Army of Islam Spokesman Arrested—

Hamas forces July 2 arrested Army of Islam spokesman Abu Khatab Maqdisi and two other men in an apparent move to speed Johnston’s release. Hamas militants July 3 surrounded a stronghold of the Dagmoush clan in the Sabra district of Gaza City where Johnston was thought to be held.

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Israel Restores Financial Ties With PA—

Israel July 1 agreed to restore financial ties to the Fatah-led emergency PA government headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, which was headquartered in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Israel had halted the flow of tax revenue it collected on behalf of the PA after Hamas won control of the government in January 2006 elections. Israel said it would resume its monthly transfer of the tax revenue in light of Abbas’s move to dissolve the previous Hamas-Fatah unity government. Israel also pledged to begin the handover of some $600 million withheld from the Hamas-led government since March 2006, and transferred $120 million to the PA that day. [See p. 410G1] The PA emergency government July 4 paid the full salaries of most of its 150,000 employees for the first time in 17 months. Such employees had received only partial payment of their salaries since Hamas came to power, though many had received European aid to supplement their incomes. The PA emergency government premier, Salam Fayyad, said some 31,000 PA employees, mostly hired by Hamas, would not receive their salaries, a move that drew criticism from many Palestinians, including some Fatah leaders. 438

Israel Launches New Gaza Assault—Israeli troops and tanks July 5 crossed into the Gaza Strip, where they clashed with Palestinian militants in the al-Maghazi refugee camp. At least 10 militants and one civilian were reported killed in the fighting, which included Israeli air strikes. Twenty people, including children, were reported wounded. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the raid had been conducted to search for wanted militants, suppress rocket fire into Israel and uncover weapons-smuggling tunnels. She said two Israeli troops had suffered minor injuries in the fighting. Seven Palestinians June 30 were killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza. Israel said the attacks had targeted a weapons depot and militants linked to attacks against Israel. Haniya Rejects International Force—

Haniya June 30 said Hamas would not accept a proposal by Abbas for an international force to be sent to Gaza to oversee early elections. Hamas’s military wing that day said any international force sent to Gaza would be treated as an “occupation force” and would be “received with missiles and rockets.” “We are in no need for more forces to put more pressure on us. We are able to resolve our internal problems ourselves,” Haniya said. „

Yemen Suicide Bomb Kills Nine. Seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis July 2 were killed when a suicide bomber in Marib province drove his car through the gates of a 3,000-year-old temple reputedly ordered built by the Queen of Sheba. Five other Spaniards were wounded. [See 2006, pp. 772A1, 119D1] Security officials said Al Qaeda, a global terrorist network, was suspected in the attack. The group had recently issued a statement threatening attacks if Yemen did not release several of its imprisoned members. Yemen was the ancestral home of Al Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, and a number of attacks blamed on Al Qaeda had occurred there in recent years. The U.S. had warned its citizens to avoid traveling in Marib and neighboring Shabwa province after a Yemeni guard in Shabwa June 23 shot at a group of foreign oil workers, killing one. A Yemeni American listed by the U.S. as one of its most-wanted terrorism suspects had surrendered to Yemeni authorities, the interior ministry said May 24. The suspect, Jaber A. Elbaneh, had been among 23 suspected Al Qaeda members who escaped from a Yemeni prison in February 2006. His surrender, along with another of the suspects, brought to 11 the number of escapees who had turned themselves in, it was reported May 25. Four more suspects had been killed by security forces. Shiite Muslim rebels in Saada province in the north had reached a cease-fire with the government, the two sides announced June 16. The rebellion had begun in 2004 but fighting had escalated since January. The Shiite fighters agreed to hand over

their heavy weapons to the government in exchange for the release of rebel prisoners and money to rebuild villages destroyed in the war and help displaced residents return, the Associated Press reported June 16. „

SOUTH ASIA

Storms Strike Region Cyclone Kills Hundreds in Pakistan. A cy-

clone June 26 struck coastal areas of Baluchistan province in southwestern Pakistan, causing torrential rains and massive flooding that led to the deaths of up to 240 people, relief officials said July 3. Officials added that 200 people were reported missing. The cyclone and ensuing floods destroyed or damaged up to 200,000 homes and affected nearly two million people across the province, rendering many homeless and depriving them of food, water and electricity. [See 2006, p. 670E3] Several thousand villagers rioted June 29 in the Baluchistan city of Turbat, protesting the slow rate at which government agencies were delivering relief aid. Relief supplies to Turbat had first arrived June 28, a full 48 hours after the storm hit. The rioters broke into and pillaged the mayor’s office. Police used tear gas and fired gunshots into the air, but were unable to disperse the crowd. Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, a spokesman for the military, said the flooded roads and fierce winds and rain prevented agencies from reaching those affected by the storm, Cyclone Yemyin, either by air or ground. Storm Kills 228 in Karachi— Torrential rains and heavy winds June 23 killed as many as 228 people in Karachi, a provincial official said June 24. The official, Sardar Ahmed, health minister for Sindh province, of which Karachi was the capital, said the deaths were due to “electrocution, falling trees, house collapses and road accidents” caused by the storm. The storm left many people without electricity in temperatures as high as 104°F (40°C). Karachi had already suffered extensive electricity shortages in the months preceding the storm, and rioting youths June 19 had set fire to a police booth and set up burning barricades to protest power cuts that lasted up to 10 hours a day. Tropical storms affected other countries in the region as well. The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) July 3 reported that nearly 200 people in India and more than 80 people in Afghanistan had died from flooding in the previous week. „

Pakistan Violence Erupts at Islamabad Mosque.

Clashes between Pakistani security forces and militant students July 3 broke out in the streets around the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, prompting paramilitary forces to lay siege to the mosque. After days of continued violence, which left 19 people dead and more than 150 injured, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, one of the leaders of the mosque, FACTS ON FILE

July 5 offered to surrender to government forces, but on terms that the government refused to accept. [See pp. 339G2, 234B3] Students of the mosque’s adjoining madrassas, or Islamic schools, and government security forces each claimed that the other had started the violence. The government forces said students had attacked a police post near the mosque complex with sticks and stones. Mosque leaders claimed that the government forces started shooting at the students without provocation. The students fired back using automatic machine guns stored at the mosque. Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, the interior minister, July 5 said more than 700 male and 400 female students had fled the mosque and surrendered. He estimated that 300– 400 students, of whom 50–60 were considered hard-core militant Islamists, remained with Ghazi behind the mosque’s walls. Authorities July 4 captured Abdul Aziz, Ghazi’s older brother and the leader of the mosque, who had attempted to escape among female students fleeing the mosque, wearing a burqa, a garment for Muslim women that covered the face and the entire body, as a disguise.

clamp down on Islamic extremists, and was an important ally of the U.S. in its fight against worldwide terrorism. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte June 16 at a press conference in Islamabad had reaffirmed U.S. support for Musharraf at a time when opposition parties had been calling loudly for a return to democracy. Musharraf had come to power in 1999 in a bloodless coup. [See p. 389G2] 20 Killed in Blast—An explosion June 19 killed 20 people in Mami Rogha, a tribal town in North Waziristan, a semiautonomous region situated along the border with Afghanistan. Pakistani television stations reported that the explosion came from missile attacks launched from Afghanistan, where U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops were fighting Taliban insurgents. North Waziristan was a center of activity for the Taliban fighters and members of the international terrorist group Al Qaeda. U.S. forces had launched missiles at the area in January 2006, hoping to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri the number-two leader of Al Qaeda. [See 2006, p. 26F1] „

Months-Long Standoff Preceded Clashes—

The clashes and ensuing siege July 3–5 were the culmination of a months-long standoff between the mosque and the government of President Pervez Musharraf. The mosque’s leaders had called for Pakistan to adopt sharia, or Islamic law, and supported the Taliban, who were fighting an insurgency against a Western-backed government in Afghanistan. Some of the students attending the madrassas had formed squads to “prevent vices and promote virtue,” intimidating music shop owners, kidnapping women who allegedly operated brothels and taking police officers hostage. A group of female students June 22 had kidnapped at least five Chinese masseuses for allegedly running a brothel, prompting sharp criticism of the government from China’s ambassador, Luo Zhaohui. China and Pakistan were allies. The Pakistani interior ministry issued a strongly worded statement condemning the kidnappings, and the masseuses were released June 23. Opposition political parties, political moderates and foreign diplomats had all criticized Musharraf for allowing the mosque’s leaders and students to skirt the law without reprimand. Musharraf had avoided clamping down on the mosque, saying he feared that mosque members might carry out suicide attacks, as they had threatened. He also said there would be political fallout if he ordered an attack on the women and children living in the mosque complex. The incident was seen as a remarkable development in the contentious relationship between Musharraf’s secular government and militant Islamist forces. While clashes between the groups were not uncommon, most had occurred in regions that bordered Afghanistan, far from the mostly moderate capital, Islamabad. Musharraf derived much of his international support from his perceived ability to July 5, 2007

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Basketball Oden Picked First by Portland in NBA Draft.

The Portland Trail Blazers June 28 selected Ohio State University center Greg Oden with the first pick in the 2007 National Basketball Association (NBA) draft. [See 2006, p. 563E1; for a complete list of firstround selections, see box, p. 439E2] The Trail Blazers July 2 announced that they had signed Oden, who had helped lead Ohio State to the final of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament in April, to a two-year contract worth a total of about $8 million, with team options for two more seasons. [See p. 214C2]

University of Texas forward Kevin Durant was picked second, by the Seattle SuperSonics. Rounding out the top five were University of Florida forward/center Al Horford (Atlanta Hawks), Ohio State guard Mike Conley Jr. (Memphis Grizzlies) and Georgetown University forward Jeff Green (Boston Celtics; immediately traded, along with forward Wally Szczerbiak and guard Delonte West, to Seattle for guard Ray Allen). In one of the draft’s most surprising selections, the Milwaukee Bucks chose the relatively unknown Yi Jianlian, a six-foot, 11inch forward from China, with the sixth pick. Yi’s agent, Dan Fegan, after the draft said there could be a problem with obtaining permission from the Chinese authorities for Yi to play in the U.S. Fegan said Chinese basketball officials had wanted him to join a team in a city with a large Chinese population, which Milwaukee, Wis., did not have. Also, the Miami Heat traded Colorado State University forward/center Jason Smith, the 20th overall pick, to the Philadelphia 76ers for Ohio State guard Daequan Cook, the 21st overall pick. The Phoenix Suns traded the rights to the 24th pick, Spanish guard Rudy Fernandez, to Portland for cash. The 76ers traded Finnish guard Petteri Koponen, the 30th pick, to Portland for Vanderbilt University guard Derrick Byars, the 42nd overall selection. Other News—In other NBA news: † The SuperSonics July 5 hired P.J. Carlesimo as their new head coach. He replaced Bob Hill, who had been fired in April. [See p. 286G3] † The Sacramento Kings June 19 agreed to hire Reggie Theus as their new head coach. He replaced Eric Musselman, who had been fired in April. [See p. 287E1] † The Grizzlies May 31 hired Marc Iavaroni as their new head coach. He replaced Tony Barone Sr., the former director of player personnel, who had been appointed inter-

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2007 NBA DRAFT: FIRST ROUND

The teams that selected in the first round of the June 28 National Basketball Association draft, their selections, the projected professional positions of the players, and the players’ colleges, high schools or pre-NBA teams were as follows (players marked by an asterisk were traded; see story for details) [See p. 439D2]: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Portland: Greg Oden, center, Ohio State Seattle: Kevin Durant, forward, Texas Atlanta: Al Horford, forward/center, Florida Memphis: Mike Conley Jr., guard, Ohio State Boston: Jeff Green, forward, Georgetown* Milwaukee: Yi Jianlian, forward, China Minnesota: Corey Brewer, forward, Florida Charlotte: Brandan Wright, forward, North

Carolina

9. Chicago (from New York): Joakim Noah, for-

ward, Florida

10. Sacramento: Spencer Hawes, center, Wash-

Southern California

17. New Jersey: Sean Williams, center, Boston

College

18. Golden State: Marco Belinelli, guard, Italy 19. L.A. Lakers: Javaris Crittenton, guard, Geor-

22. Charlotte (from Toronto via Cleveland):

Jared Dudley, forward, Boston College

ington

23. New York (from Chicago): Wilson Chandler,

Texas A&M

24. Phoenix (from Cleveland via Boston): Rudy

Georgia Tech

25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

11. Atlanta (from Indiana): Acie Law 4th, guard, 12. Philadelphia: Thaddeus Young, forward, 13. New Orleans: Julian Wright, forward, Kansas 14. L.A. Clippers: Al Thornton, forward, Florida

State

15. Detroit (from Orlando): Rodney Stuckey,

guard, Eastern Washington

16. Washington: Nick Young, guard/forward,

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gia Tech 20. Miami: Jason Smith, forward/center, Colorado State* 21. Philadelphia (from Denver): Daequan Cook, guard, Ohio State*

forward, DePaul

Fernandez, guard, Spain* Utah: Morris Almond, guard, Rice Houston: Aaron Brooks, guard, Oregon Detroit: Arron Afflalo, guard, UCLA San Antonio: Tiago Splitter, forward, Brazil Phoenix: Alando Tucker, forward, Wisconsin

Philadelphia (from Dallas via Denver and Golden State): Petteri Koponen, guard, Finland*

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BEST SELLER LISTS

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Publishers Weekly July 2 listed the following hardback and paperback best sellers [See p. 372A1]:

Top-Rated Programs. The following were the most-watched prime-time national television shows June 4–July 1 as determined by A.C. Nielsen Co. (Series marked with an asterisk * had at least one other episode during the period that outranked some of the other programs listed.) Figures in parentheses are rating points; each point represents 1% of the 110.2 million television households in the U.S. [See p. 372A2]:

Fiction Hardback

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1. Lean Mean Thirteen, by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s) 2. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) 3. Blaze, by Richard Bachman (Scribner) 4. Double Take, by Catherine Coulter (Putnam) 5. The Navigator, by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos (Putnam) General Hardback 1. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne (Atria/Beyond Words) 2. The Dangerous Book for Boys, by Conn and Hal Iggulden (Collins) 3. The Best Life Diet, by Bob Greene (Simon & Schuster) 4. The Diana Chronicles, by Tina Brown (Doubleday) 5. The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore (Penguin Press)

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Mass Market Paperback 1. Twelve Sharp, by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s) 2. Beach Road, by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge (Warner Vision) 3. Lisey’s Story, by Stephen King (Pocket) 4. Angels Fall, by Nora Roberts (Jove) 5. The Husband, by Dean Koontz (Bantam)

Music Best-Selling Singles and Albums. Billboard magazine in its June 30 issue

listed the five most popular singles (as determined by air play and sales) and the five best-selling albums in the U.S. as the following [See p. 372C1]:

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Singles 1. “Umbrella,” Rihanna featuring Jay-Z (SRP/Def Jam/IDJMG) 2. “Party Like a Rockstar,” Shop Boyz (OnDeck/Universal Republic) 3. “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” Fergie (will.i.am/A&M/Interscope) 4. “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’),” T-Pain featuring Yung Joc (Konvict/Nappy Boy/Jive/Zomba) 5. “Hey There Delilah,” Plain White T’s (Hollywood) Albums

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1. Big Dog Daddy, Toby Keith (Show Dog Nashville) 2. From Nothin’ to Somethin’, Fabolous (Desert Storm/Def Jam/IDJMG) 3. Memory Almost Full, Paul McCartney (MPL/Hear/Concord) 4. It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, Maroon 5 (A&M/Octone/IGA) 5. Epiphany, T-Pain (Konvict/Nappy Boy/Jive/Zomba)

im coach in December 2006 after Memphis fired Mike Fratello. [See 2006, p. 1037A1] † The Houston Rockets May 23 hired Rick Adelman as their new head coach. He replaced Jeff Van Gundy, who had been fired earlier in May. [See p. 407D1] „

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UNITED STATES

People

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A star-studded memorial tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, on what would have been her 46th birthday—she died in a 1997 car crash—took place July 1 at the new Wembley Stadium in London. More than 60,000 people attended the six-hour Concert for Diana, organized by her sons, Prince William, 25, and Prince Harry, 22, and televised worldwide. Popular singer Sir Elton John, 60, who had sung at Diana’s funeral, both opened and closed the concert. Among other British artists who performed at the event were Sir Tom Jones 440

1. “Dateline,” (NBC), June 18 (8.4) 2. “America’s Got Talent,” (NBC), June 5 (8.3)* 3. “Deal or No Deal,” (NBC), June 18 (7.8) 4. “Two and a Half Men” (CBS), June 4 (7.4) 5. “So You Think You Can Dance” (Fox), June 7 (6.9)

Films Top-Grossing Films. The following were the top-grossing films in the U.S. for

the week of June 22–28 according to Variety. Figures in parentheses were each film’s cumulative domestic box-office total and number of weeks in release to date. Information on cast and director is included when a film first appears on the list. [See p. 372B2]:

1. Evan Almighty, Universal ($45.5 million, 1) Directed by Tom Shadyac. With Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham, John Goodman and Jimmy Bennett. 2. 1408, MGM (29.8 million, 1) Directed by Mikael Hafstrom. With John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, Jasmine Jessica Anthony and Christopher Carey. 3. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 20th Century Fox ($105.8 million, 2) Directed by Tim Story. With Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis and Julian McMahon. 4. Knocked Up, Universal ($115.0 million, 4) Directed by Judd Apatow. With Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Katherine Heigl and Jason Segel. 5. Ocean’s Thirteen, Warner Bros. ($96.0 million, 3) Directed by Steven Soderbergh. With George Clooney, Ellen Barkin, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Andy Garcia. 6. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Buena Vista ($290.7 million, 5) [See p. 372B2] 7. Surf’s Up, Sony ($51.3 million, 3) Directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck. With Jeff Bridges, Shia LaBeouf, Zooey Deschanel, James Woods and Jon Heder. 8. Shrek the Third, Paramount ($311.1 million, 6) [See p. 372C2] 9. Nancy Drew, Warner Bros. ($19.3 million, 2) Directed by Andrew Fleming. With Emma Roberts, Tate Donovan, Barry Bostwick, Laura Elena Harring and Josh Flitter. 10. A Mighty Heart, Paramount Vintage ($5.4 million, 1) Directed by Michael Winterbottom. With Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman, Irrfan Khan, Adnan Siddiqui and Alyy Khan.

and the pop group Duran Duran. U.S. entertainers at the event included rappers Kanye West and Pharrell Williams. [See p. 391A2; 1997, pp. 637D2, 639F3] „

O B I T UA R I E S AGUILAR Barraza, (Pascual) Antonio, 88, Mexican singer and actor; an iconic figure in Mexico, where he recorded more than 150 albums of ranchera music and made more than 100 films; he was also extremely popular among Mexican Americans, who flocked to his shows in large cities such as Los Angeles and New York; from the 1960s on, he combined musical entertainment with rodeos; he often toured with his actresssinger wife, Flor Silvestre, whom he married in 1959, and their two musician sons, Pepe Aguilar and Antonio Aguilar Jr.; born May 17, 1919, in Villanueva, Mexico; died June 19 at a hospital in Mexico City, of pneumonia after battling heart disease. MIYAZAWA, Kiichi, 87, Japanese premier, 1991– 93; before becoming premier, he rose through the ranks of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and held a series of high-level posts, including foreign minister and finance minister; as premier, he worked to improve relations with China and other Asian nations; he was forced to step down as premier in August 1993 after his government failed to implement anticorruption legislation, precipitating a vote of no confidence; his ouster ended

the LDP’s 38-year run as Japan’s ruling party; in 1998, he returned to serve as finance minister, remaining in that post through 2002; born Oct. 8, 1919, in Tokyo; died June 28 at his Tokyo home; no cause of death was reported. [See 2003, p. 903E3; 2001, pp. 302A2, 301G2, 218C1, 198B2–E2; Indexes 1998–2000, 1984– 93, 1981–82, 1974–77, 1970, 1966, 1962–63] SILLS, Beverly (born Belle Miriam Silverman),

78, opera singer and arts administrator; a coloratura soprano trained entirely in the U.S.—a rarity for opera singers of her day—she joined the New York City Opera in 1955, and won international acclaim for her performance as Cleopatra in a 1966 production by that company, after it moved to New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, of Georg Friedrich Handel’s opera Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) (1724); she retired from the operatic stage in 1980, a year after she became general director of the City Opera, a post she retained until 1989; from 1994 to 2002, she was the unpaid chairwoman of the board of Lincoln Center, and after a brief retirement, assumed the chairmanship of the board of the Metropolitan Opera, also part of Lincoln Center, remaining in that post until early 2005; both during and after her years as a singer, she made many appearances on network television, and in the late 1970s hosted an interview show, “Lifestyles With Beverly Sills,” on the NBC network; the mother of two children born with disabilities, she served for many years as head of the board of the March of Dimes Foundation; born May 25, 1929, in New York City; died July 2 at her New York home; she had recently been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. [See 2005, p. 160A1; 2002, pp. 488D2, 284A3; Indexes 1994, 1988, 1980, 1970] „

July 5, 2007

U.S. House Again Votes for Troop Withdrawal From Iraq Senate, With GOP Dissent, Opens Debate Bush, Citing Progress Report, Urges Patience.

The U.S. House July 12 voted, 233–201, to approve a bill that would require the U.S. to begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq, and complete the withdrawal by April 1, 2008, retaining only a “limited presence” there afterward. The vote came a day after the Senate began debate on a series of proposals for curtailing or ending the U.S.’s military operations in Iraq. The Senate proposals were offered as amendments to the fiscal 2008 Defense Department authorization bill, and the debate opened amid growing dissent over the war among Republican senators. [See pp. 442B1, 426C1, 330D2, 273A1] U.S. President George W. Bush in May had vetoed a war spending bill in which Congress had included a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Bush July 10 called on Congress to refrain from taking up similar measures until September, when the U.S. was due to issue a report on progress in Iraq. The White House July 12, prior to the House vote, issued an interim report finding satisfactory progress on nearly half of a series of 18 “benchmarks” established by Congress. [See below] House Votes on Party Lines—The House measure July 12 was approved largely on party lines, with only four Republicans voting in favor. House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) said, “After nearly five years of a failed policy in Iraq, we have a duty not just to voice our opposition, but to vote today to end the war.” In the face of Bush’s veto threat, she vowed to hold repeated votes “until pressure from the American people causes the president to change his mind and change his policy.” A measure similar to the one passed in the House was among those being considered in the Senate, sponsored by Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D, Mich.). A Senate amendment came to a vote July 11 that would have required that U.S. troops receive periods of home leave lasting as long as their preceding deployment in Iraq. That would reduce the number of soldiers available for deployment at a given time. The amendment, sponsored by Sens. Jim Webb (D, Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R, Neb.), failed to draw the 60 votes required to end debate and move to a vote on the measure itself. Seven Republicans joined the Senate’s 49 Democrats in voting to limit debate, to 41 opposed. Among other proposals scheduled for votes the following week was another with bipartisan sponsorship that would require the administration to implement the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. The group, a bipartisan commission established by Congress, in 2006 had outlined recommendations for the U.S. to reduce its role in Iraq. Bush so far had not adopted the recommendations for changing the mission. The amendment was offered by Sens. Ken Salazar (D, Colo.) and Lamar Alexander (R, Tenn.). [See 2006, p. 945A1] However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R, Nev.) said that the proposal was

inadequate, and that nothing short of a binding timeline for withdrawal would force Bush to change his strategy. Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe (Maine), Hagel and Sen. Gordon Smith (Ore.) had declared their support for Levin’s proposal. Snowe July 9 had joined Hagel and Smith as the only three GOP senators expressing a willingness to back legislation mandating a troop withdrawal deadline. Three other Republican senators had recently explicitly broken with Bush’s strategy in Iraq, but did not back binding withdrawal dates. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) July 9 called on the Republican dissenters to “put their words into action” and vote for the amendments that would force Bush to change course. However, despite the GOP defections, none of the proposed measures yet appeared to have gathered enough support to override a presidential veto. Bush Seeks More Time—Bush in an address at a town hall–style meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, July 10 said that newly deployed additional U.S. troops had only begun their efforts to improve the security situation in Iraq. He urged Congress to “give the commander a chance to fully implement his operations” and “come back and give us an assessment of the strategy that he’s putting in place,” referring to the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Army Gen. David Petraeus. Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker were to report on the war’s progress, and on the Iraqi government’s progress on a series of political benchmarks, by September. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari July 9 also issued a plea for Congress to consider the “dangers” of withdrawing soon, which he said could include “a civil war, dividing the country, regional wars and the collapse of the state.” Crocker in an interview reported in the July 10 New York Times also suggested that the consequences of withdrawal would be dire. Among them he listed a revival of activity by the Al Qaeda in Iraq insurgent group, the disintegration of Iraq’s security forces into sectarian militias, and increasing involvement by neighboring countries including Iran and Turkey. Report Cites Mixed Progress—The White House July 12 issued an interim report, assembled by the National Security Council, on the 18 benchmarks, judging progress on eight, mostly related to military goals, to be “satisfactory.” Progress toward eight others, mostly pertaining to the Iraqi government’s achieving greater political stability, was judged “not satisfactory,” and progress toward the other two was mixed. Among the areas of satisfactory progress were a variety of security goals for Baghdad, the capital, and a constitutional review process, including plans for sharing authority between the central and regional governments. However, key political and legislative projects recorded unsat-

Facts On File

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Volume 67, No. 3474 July 12, 2007

B isfactory progress, including laws governing the distribution of oil revenue and permitting more former members of ousted President Saddam Hussein’s Baath party to hold government jobs. The report also pointed to what it called notable indications of progress in Iraq that fell outside the categories of the congressional benchmarks, including a decline in the number of sectarian killings in Baghdad. Bush held a news conference just after the release of the report, citing what he called its “encouraging signs” and that it was Congress’s place not “to be running the war,” but to be “funding the troops.” The interim report also predicted an increase in attacks by the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq in a bid to influence the U.S. political debate. U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner July 11 had

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U.S. House again votes for troop withdrawal from Iraq; Senate, with GOP dissent, opens debate; Bush, citing progress report, urges patience. PAGE 441

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Pakistani commandos storm mosque, end siege in Islamabad. PAGE 442

Frenchman nominated to head IMF. PAGE 443

Bush orders ex-aides not to testify about fired federal prosecutors. PAGE 444

African Union leaders discuss unity at summit. PAGE 449

Sierra Leone tribunal convicts three of war crimes.

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PAGE 449

Japanese defense chief quits over nuclear bomb comment. PAGE 451

Britain charges suspect in failed terrorist attacks. PAGE 451

Afghan public protests civilian deaths. PAGE 452

Federer, Venus Williams win tennis’s Wimbledon. PAGE 454

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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made similar predictions, calling Al Qaeda in Iraq “the principal threat” and “greatest source of these spectacular attacks.” Some intelligence observers said that Al Qaeda in Iraq was only one of many insurgent groups with divergent aims fighting the U.S. and Iraqi authorities, and suggested that the U.S. was overstating the role of the Al Qaeda international terrorist network, which Al Qaeda in Iraq had ties to. Intelligence officials testifying July 11 at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee offered a bleak view of progress in Iraq. U.S. National Intelligence Council head Thomas Fingar said that the council’s view of the outlook in Iraq had not improved since the pessimistic assessment issued in a January National Intelligence Estimate. [See p. 86B1] „

Other Iraq War News Market Bombing Is Among War’s Worst.

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A truck bombing at a market in the village of Armili in Iraq’s northern province of Salahuddin July 7 killed some 150 people and wounded at least 240 others. One area official July 8 put the death toll at 155, which if confirmed would make the attack the deadliest such bombing since the U.S.led invasion of Iraq in 2003; a truck bombing in Tal Afar in March had killed 152 people. Late July 6, a suicide car bomber had killed at least 17 people in Zargosh, just southeast of Armili. [See pp. 441A1, 426C1, 204A1] The sites of the two attacks were mostly populated by Shiite Muslims, and although no groups immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, they resembled recent attacks by Sunni militant insurgent groups against Shiite targets. Zargosh was in Diyala province, where U.S. forces were conducting a campaign against a concentration of Sunni insurgents. The attacks raised the possibility that they were carried out by insurgents who had managed to escape the U.S. assault and move their operations to adjacent areas. Among other major violent incidents, a suicide truck bomber July 8 crashed into another truck carrying Iraqi army recruits in Haswa, west of Baghdad, the capital, killing 23. In eastern Baghdad, at least six people were killed by a suicide car bomber July 7, and the next day a pair of closely timed car bombs in the capital’s Karrada neighborhood together killed eight people. Also in Baghdad, three people, including one U.S. soldier, July 10 were killed in a fierce mortar assault on the Green Zone, the heavily fortified district where government and U.S. facilities were located. Eighteen others were wounded in the attack, the heaviest yet on the Green Zone. The U.S. July 10 said that a car bombing at a checkpoint in Baghdad the previous day had killed three Iraqi soldiers and four policemen. Zebari Accuses Turkey of Troop Buildup—

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari July 9 accused Turkey of amassing 140,000 soldiers along its border with Iraq. That was a 442

larger number than Turkey was generally thought to have deployed in its efforts to clamp down on Kurdish separatists, who it said were conducting cross-border attacks from bases in Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. Zebari urged Turkey to reverse the buildup and enter into talks on the issue with the U.S. and Iraq. [See p. 367A3] The U.S. State Department July 9 expressed skepticism about the figure offered by Zebari. Maliki Warns Sadr—Iraqi Premier Nuri Kamal al-Maliki July 7 said that the Mahdi Army Shiite movement led by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had been infiltrated by violent elements, including loyalists to the late President Saddam Hussein, and demanded that Sadr oust such rogue elements. Maliki had recently taken to criticizing Sadr, an erstwhile political ally. An aide to Sadr July 8 accused Maliki of acquiescing to U.S. desires to wipe out the Mahdi Army. Other News—In other Iraq war news: † Iraq’s justice ministry July 6 announced that Oras Huhammad Abdul-Aziz, who it said had confessed to a role in an August 2003 bombing that killed a prominent Shiite leader, had been hanged July 3. The bombing, in Najaf, had killed Ayatollah Muhammad Bakir al-Hakim. Offiscials said Aziz was a member of Al Qaeda in Iraq and had confessed to involvement in other attacks. [See 2003, p. 685A1] † The U.S. Navy was investigating the alleged wrongful killing of several unarmed captive insurgents by U.S. marines in Fallujah in November 2004, it was reported July 7. † A U.S. Marine Corps investigator in a July 6 report recommended the withdrawal of charges against Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt in connection with killings of civilians in Haditha in November 2005. The investigator said the charges were unsupported by evidence. Two other marines were charged with murder in the case, and four officers with dereliction of duty. A separate investigation had recommended that one of those four, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, be court-martialed, it was reported July 12. [See 2006, p. 1031A1] † A German woman abducted along with her son in February was released July 11, but the son was not. The woman, Hannelore Marianne Krause, 61, had lived in Iraq for more than four decades. [See p. 155F2] „

Pakistani Commandos Storm Mosque, End Siege More Than 100 Killed in Capital. An elite

security force of 164 commandos July 10 stormed the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, to end a standoff between the government and Islamic militants within the mosque that had begun July 3. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz July 11 announced that the unit had taken control of the mosque and killed the last of the militants after an intense 36-hour battle. The army announced that 73 bodies had

been recovered, bringing the total death toll of the eight-day siege to at least 106, including 10 government soldiers. [See p. 438F3] Government officials had previously stated that the commandos could overrun the mosque in a few hours. However, it became clear soon after the raid began that the militants were highly trained and possessed heavy firepower, including automatic weapons, rocket launchers, gas bombs and land mines. The militants used booby traps and an intricate maze of underground tunnels to frustrate the commandos, turning the raid into a drawn-out, room-by-room takeover. The leader of the mosque, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, was killed in the battle, government officials confirmed July 10. Ghazi took over leadership of the mosque after the chief cleric, his brother Abdul Aziz, had been captured by authorities when he tried to flee the mosque in disguise six days earlier. President Pervez Musharraf and government officials had previously demanded an unconditional surrender from the militants, but July 9 sent a delegation of negotiators, which included prominent clerics and government officials, to the mosque to try and reach a peaceful settlement. Musharraf eventually rejected Ghazi’s terms, which reportedly were related to the fate of foreign fighters within the mosque and clemency for Ghazi, and early in the morning July 10 ordered the strike. The last-minute negotiations were seen as an attempt on the part of the government to spare civilians within the mosque. Although hundreds of civilians were previously reported to have been in the mosque, only 83 were able to escape after the raid began, mainly women and children. Government officials claimed that few, if any, of the 73 people found dead after the raid

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FACTS ON FILE

were civilians. Shaukat Aziz July 11 said 1,300 people had escaped from the mosque, leaving very few women and children behind when the raid began. Members of the media were kept away from the mosque as well as from hospitals, and could not verify the official casualty numbers. The raid was the conclusion of six months’ worth of antagonism between the mosque and Musharraf’s secular government. Mosque leaders had called for sharia, or Islamic law, in Pakistan, and students from the mosque’s madrassas, or Islamic schools, had taken to intimidating music shopkeepers and kidnapping police in the name of Islamic fundamentalism. Until the raid, the government had done little to stop them. The siege was one of the most violent episodes in the history of Islamabad. Secular and Foreign Reactions Mixed—

Pakistan’s secular moderates and the U.S. government July 10 praised Musharraf’s decision to storm the mosque. Moderates had clamored for months for the government to crack down on what they saw as a religious extremist element invading the capital. Tom Casey, a U.S. State Department spokesman, said, “The government of Pakistan has proceeded in a responsible way.” Benazir Bhutto, an exiled former Pakistani prime minister and leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), also commended the raid. However, critics were quick to question why it took the government so long to flush out the extremists, especially after officials during the raid revealed that many of the militants were well-known terrorists from Uzbekistan, Chechnya, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Critics also questioned how the government could have allowed terrorists to amass such a large and powerful stockpile of weapons in the heart of the capital. As a result, Musharraf faced tough questions about his commitment as an ally to the U.S. in its fight against worldwide terrorism. Musharraf had been largely unsuccessful in rooting out Islamist terrorists in regions bordering Afghanistan, where members of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda were known to operate. Pakistan had received billions of dollars in aid from the U.S. since it pledged to fight Islamist terrorists after Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. Analysts said Musharraf and his ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League, relied on religious factions to bolster their domestic support, especially in the face of nationwide protests against Musharraf’s rule that had taken place after he dismissed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in March on charges of corruption. [See p. 321C3] Analysts also noted that Pakistani intelligence services had traditionally used religious extremists to indirectly influence the country’s territorial disputes with India over Kashmir, and the war between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Lal Masjid had been a haven for such extremists for decades. July 12, 2007

However, Musharraf July 11 in a televised address to the nation vowed to crush religious extremists across the country and any madrassas that spawned them. Religious Reaction Muted—Protests and sporadic incidents of violence by religious supporters were reported July 11–12 across Pakistan, but the backlash against the mosque raid was not as severe as government officials had reportedly feared. Two suicide attacks July 12 in Pakistan’s northwest, a region from which many of Lal Masjid’s students came, killed three police officers and three government officials. No one claimed responsibility for the blasts. Government officials July 12 allowed Abdul Aziz to lead the funeral procession for his slain brother Ghazi in the village of Basti Abdullah in Punjab province. Aziz said, “Our struggle will continue. There are many Ghazis living to be martyred.” He also said, “God willing, Pakistan will have an Islamic revolution soon.” Aziz was joined by 3,000 mourners and the procession was monitored by 700 policemen. He was placed back in custody directly after the funeral. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the highest-ranking Al Qaeda leader after Osama bin Laden, July 11 released a video condemning the raid and calling for jihad, or holy war, in Pakistan. Gunmen Fire at Musharraf’s Plane—

Unidentified gunmen July 6 reportedly shot at a plane carrying Musharraf as it took off from the Rawalpindi district near Islamabad. Security officials found two antiaircraft guns and an assault rifle on the roof of a nearby house. The plane was not hit, and it was unclear if the shooting was related to the mosque siege. Military officials denied that the shots were an assassination attempt. Musharraf had survived at least two assassination attempts in the past. „

was seen by Socialists as a tactic designed to destabilize their party. [See p. 335D3] Strauss-Kahn, 58, had been France’s finance minister from 1997 to 1999, and was credited with turning France toward a more free-market economy. He had run for his party’s presidential nomination in 2006, eventually losing to Segolene Royal. [See 2006, p. 899E1; 1999, p. 800E3] European support put Strauss-Kahn in a very strong position to win the job despite calls for a more meritocratic selection process from some countries. The U.S. in May had exerted its traditional right to name the president of the World Bank after thenPresident Paul Wolfowitz resigned from the post over an ethics scandal. The U.S. was not expected to oppose Strauss-Kahn’s nomination. De Rato’s resignation had surprised most observers, as he was leading the charge to reform the IMF and revitalize its relevance in international finance. The IMF had traditionally lent money to governments in financial trouble and advised them on their economic policies. Amid recent perceived failures, funding for the IMF had fallen to $11.8 billion in 2007, from $81 billion in 2004. De Rato would leave his post in October. [See 2006, p. 320F2] Wolfowitz Joins Think Tank—Christopher DeMuth, president of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., announced July 2 that Wolfowitz had been hired as a visiting scholar. DeMuth said Wolfowitz’s work would focus on “entrepreneurship and development issues, Africa and publicprivate partnerships.” Wolfowitz had previously served as U.S. deputy secretary of defense, and was one of the chief architects of the U.S.’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. „

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International Terrorism International Finance

Lockerbie Bomber Wins Right of Appeal.

Frenchman Nominated to Head IMF. The

An independent Scottish review board June 26 granted former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi the chance to appeal his conviction for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, which had killed 270 people. Megrahi was currently serving a 27-year prison sentence in Scotland. His case was referred to Scotland’s High Court. [See 2006, p. 1013B1] At Megrahi’s original trial, his defense team had not been informed that a key witness who picked Megrahi out of a lineup as the person who had bought clothes at his shop in Malta in December 1988 had seen a picture of Megrahi four days earlier in a magazine article that linked him to the bombing. That information could threaten the credibility of the witness, the review board said. Also, it said it had seen new evidence that the clothes, found later in what was presumed to be the suitcase that contained the bomb, had been purchased earlier than the prosecution had claimed, on a date when there was no evidence Megrahi had been in Malta.

European Union July 10 nominated Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister of France, to become managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), after a majority of EU finance ministers voted to back him. The nomination came after the abrupt resignation of Spaniard Rodrigo de Rato June 28, two years before his term expired. De Rato said he was leaving for personal reasons. [See p. 428A2; 2004, p. 322A3] The nomination was a coup for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had outmaneuvered calls by Britain and other countries for a more open and transparent selection process for the head of the IMF. Traditionally, the U.S. chose the president of the World Bank and European leaders chose the director of the IMF. Sarkozy also managed to frustrate his domestic political opponents by nominating Strauss-Kahn, a member of the rival Socialist Party. Sarkozy had appointed several Socialists to his new administration in the name of unifying the country, but it

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The board said there was no reason to suspect any deliberate manipulation of evidence in the trial. Megrahi had consistently maintained his innocence, and in response to the board decision said, “I was not involved in the Lockerbie bombing in any way whatsoever.” He had lost one appeal already, in 2002. His new one would likely be heard in 2008. The decision threw into doubt Libya’s 2003 formal acceptance of responsibility for the bombing, as well as $2.7 billion it had agreed to pay in compensation to families of the victims of the bombing. It also renewed interest in long-held alternative theories about who was behind the bombing. „

Other International News Worldwide Growth in City Populations Seen.

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The United Nations Population Fund June 27 released a report stating that for the first time in history, half of the world’s population, 3.3 billion people, would be living in cities and towns by 2008. The urban population was expected to reach almost five billion by 2030, with the number of urban dwellers in Africa and Asia reaching double their 2000 levels. The report said the urban population surge would occur mostly in mid-sized cities of 500,000 or fewer people, although megacities of 10 million or more would also continue to grow. [See 2006, p. 527D2] The report warned that unless governments took immediate action to provide the urban poor with secure housing, water, sanitation, power and other basic services, they would see an explosive growth of slums that provided a dismal standard of living and contributed to pollution and crime. However, if properly anticipated, it said, urbanization could be a beneficial force, giving the poor increased access to educational and economic opportunities. The growth of the urban population was largely due to births in cities, rather than migration from rural areas, according to the report. It said policies aimed at reducing poverty and promoting reproductive health and women’s education could be instrumental in reducing birthrates. „

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Oil, Gas Price Pressures Forecast. The Parisbased International Energy Agency (IEA) July 9 issued its annual medium-term forecast, predicting an increasingly tight global supply of oil and gas through 2012 and a corresponding likelihood of upward price pressures on those commodities. [See 2006, p. 568A1] The agency, a monitor of energy markets for 26 advanced economies, saw demand for oil rising 2.2% annually until 2012, to 95.8 million barrels per day. That was based on an assumption of 4.5% yearly global economic growth, and up from its February forecast for demand. Growth in demand would be strongest in Asia and the Middle East, the IEA said. Supply by countries outside the Organization of Petroleum 444

Exporting Countries (OPEC) was forecast to grow at about half that rate, while OPEC’s spare capacity would diminish to 1.6% of global demand—a “minimal level”—after 2010. “If the path of demand doesn’t change on its own, it may well be driven to change by higher prices,” the agency said. „

Religion Pope Approves Revival of Latin Mass.

Pope Benedict XVI July 7 announced that he had removed restrictions on the use of the old Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Mass. The Roman Catholic Church had replaced the Latin rite as part of the broad reforms ushered in by the Second Vatican Council, which met from 1962 to 1965. [See 1988, p. 510A3] Benedict withdrew a rule that required a parish priest to receive permission from the local bishop in order to use the Latin Mass. Instead, he said, priests would be allowed to celebrate the Latin Mass if a “stable group of faithful” requested it. The Latin Mass dated to the 1545–63 Council of Trent. In it, the priest spoke in Latin, often in a whisper, while facing away from the congregation, toward the altar. In the new Mass that replaced the Latin Mass, and was meant to be more accessible, the priest faced the congregation and spoke mostly in the modern language of the worshippers. The Society of Saint Pius X, a traditionalist group in France that had split from the Catholic Church over the Vatican II reforms, welcomed the pope’s pronouncement. The group’s late leader, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, had been excommunicated in 1988 along with four bishops appointed by him without the Vatican’s assent. Jewish groups strongly opposed the pope’s decision on the grounds that the Latin Mass included a prayer on Good Friday that called for the conversion of Jews. The Anti-Defamation League said the change was a “body blow to CatholicJewish relations.” Vatican Calls Other Churches Inferior—

The Vatican July 10 issued a new document restating its view that other Christian denominations suffered from “defects.” The document, prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reaffirmed the positions laid out in an earlier statement, titled “Dominus Iesus,” that was issued by Benedict in 2000, when he headed the doctrinal office as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. [See 2000, p. 711D2] The document said the Orthodox churches were true churches because they traced their leadership back through succession to the original apostles of Jesus Christ, as did the Catholic Church. However, it said the Orthodox rejection of the pope’s primacy was a serious “wound.” The document said the Protestant denominations “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they were not based on apostolic succession. „

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Fired Federal Prosecutors Bush Orders Ex-Aides Not to Testify.

White House counsel Fred Fielding July 9 sent a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, saying that President George W. Bush had instructed two former aides, Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor, not to answer subpoenas to testify on their involvement in the firing of several federal prosecutors in 2006. Democrats had alleged that the firings had been improperly motivated by political considerations. [See p. 418D1] Fielding’s letter said Bush was invoking executive privilege to keep internal White House discussions confidential. Fielding had sent the committee chairmen a similar letter less than two weeks earlier, saying Bush would not comply with subpoenas they had issued for White House documents linked to the prosecutor purge. In his July 9 letter, Fielding wrote, “The assertion of executive privilege here is intended to protect a fundamental interest of the presidency: the necessity that a president receive candid advice from his advisers and that those advisers be able to communicate freely and openly with the president.” Executive privilege had no specific basis in the Constitution, but presidents since George Washington had claimed it. In 1974, the Supreme Court had defined limits on executive privilege in U.S. v. Nixon, ruling that President Richard Nixon had to hand over to a special prosecutor audiotapes of his discussions with aides about the Watergate affair. [See 1974, p. 595C2] Anyone who did not comply with subpoenas to testify risked a citation for contempt of Congress, a criminal offense. But in most previous clashes between Congress and the president over executive privilege, the two sides had reached compromises to settle the issue before it reached the courts. Ex–Political Director Avoids Questions—

Taylor, the former White House political director, July 11 appeared at a hearing held by the Senate panel, denying any role in the purge but declining to answer questions that her lawyer said conflicted with Bush’s orders. Taylor said that she “did not speak to the president about removing U.S. attorneys” and “did not attend any meetings with the president where the matter was discussed.” She also said she “did not have any knowledge” that Bush was involved in the firings. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), chairman of the committee, said that if Bush in fact was not involved in the purge, it would undercut the claim of executive privilege, as it would not have involved communications with the president himself. Miers, Fielding’s predecessor as the top White House lawyer, July 12 did not appear at a hearing of the House Judiciary administrative law subcommittee that had been called to hear her her testimony. In response, the Democratic majority on the panel began proceedings that could lead to citing Miers for contempt of Congress. FACTS ON FILE

Miers’s lawyer July 11 had sent the committee a letter saying that Bush’s claim of executive privilege gave her “absolute immunity” from being forced to testify. „

NSA Surveillance Program Wiretap Lawsuit Dismissed on Appeal.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 6 dismissed, 2–1, a lawsuit challenging the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretap program. The decision reversed a 2006 district court ruling that the surveillance program was unconstitutional. The appeals court ruled that the plaintiffs in the case— lawyers, journalists and academics represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)—did not have standing to sue because they could not show that they had been direct targets of National Security Agency (NSA) wiretaps. It did not directly rule on the program’s legality. [See p. 417A3; 2006, p. 729E2] The reversed ruling, issued by Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of U.S. District Court in Detroit, Mich., in August 2006, had held that the wiretap program violated both the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment and the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which required spy agencies to obtain warrants from a special court in order to place wiretaps on domestic communications. Taylor’s decision had been widely criticized by legal experts, who said it was based on unfamiliar interpretations of constitutional law and failed to address relevant precedents. The ruling had been stayed during the appeal. Judge Alice Batchelder, writing the lead opinion for the appeals court, said the case had provoked “a cascade of serious questions” about whether the wiretap program was illegal and unconstitutional. However, Batchelder held that the plaintiffs had not shown sufficiently direct and concrete injury from the surveillance to allow them to sue. Judge Ronald Lee Gilman wrote in the dissenting opinion that at least the plaintiffs in the case who were lawyers had standing to sue. They had argued that fear of government surveillance had made them alter their communication with clients in the Middle East. Gilman said they had “articulated an actual or imminent harm” because the wiretap program “puts them in the position of abrogating their duties under applicable professional-responsibility rules if they communicate with clients and contacts via telephone and e-mail.” However, Gilman refrained from endorsing Taylor’s rationale for her ruling. The primary remaining impediment to the wiretap program was a group of cases in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Calif., and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals there. Some of the plaintiffs in those cases claimed that their communications had actually been intercepted by the surveillance program, which would give them standing even in light of the appeals court’s ruling. The ACLU’s legal director, Steven Shapiro, expressed disappointment with the appeals court’s ruling, and said the organiJuly 12, 2007

zation would consider appealing to the Supreme Court. Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto released a statement hailing the court ruling, and called the lower court’s ruling “wrongly decided.” „

Terrorism Nuclear Sting Reveals Regulatory Gaps. The Government Accountability Office (GAO)

had orchestrated an operation in which undercover investigators set up a fake company and obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) allowing them to buy enough radioactive material to construct a “dirty bomb,” it was reported July 12. Investigators said the operation, conducted in March, exposed gaps in the NRC’s regulatory procedures and showed that the U.S. was not protected against nuclear terrorism threats. [See p. 404G3] The operation was undertaken at the request of Sen. Norm Coleman (R, Minn.), the ranking minority member of the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, and was one of a series designed to probe security flaws at the NRC and other federal agencies. Coleman warned that the investigation had exposed a dangerous complacency about nuclear security among regulators. During the operation, undercover investigators had requested a license from the NRC to purchase portable moisture density gauges, devices commonly used in construction that contained radioactive americium-241 and cesium-137 isotopes. The West Virginia construction company investigators claimed to be calling from consisted of a telephone, a fax machine and a post office box. However, the NRC had conducted only a minimal background check and did not require a face-to-face interview or visit to verify that the company existed. After receiving the license, the investigators altered it to appear as though they could buy “an unrestricted quantity” of the gauges. They then ordered 45 machines containing enough radioactive material to build a dirty bomb that could contaminate a city block. Such a bomb would rate as a level 3 threat on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the most dangerous. The investigators did not take possession of the machines, in part because they were not able to handle them safely. NRC Commissioner Edward McGaffigan Jr. June 11 said that after being shown the report, the NRC June 1 had temporarily stopped granting licenses allowing companies to handle radiation risks of 3 or lower; they resumed two weeks later, he said, after new rules mandating face-to-face meetings or site visits were instituted. He also said the commission was looking into measures making the licenses harder to alter. McGaffigan added that the NRC allocated its limited resources to defending against the largest threats, and that making a dirty bomb out of the radioactive materials in question would have required an immense amount of work on the part of potential terrorists.

Investigators dealt directly with the NRC because they had claimed to operate in West Virginia, which did not have its own licensing system. In another sting operation based in Maryland, one of 34 states that performed its own licensing, investigators were unable to order radioactive material after state officials required visits to the company and other checks. „

Bush Administration Surgeon General Nominee Named. Pres-

ident George W. Bush May 24 nominated James Holsinger, a cardiologist and professor of preventive medicine at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, as the next surgeon general. Holsinger would replace Richard Carmona, who had not been reappointed to the role after his four-year term expired in July 2006. The surgeon general served as the head of the U.S. Public Health Service, and acted as the leading spokesperson on behalf of the federal government regarding public health issues. [See 2006, p. 632E3] Holsinger had a reputation for fighting childhood obesity, which was widely viewed as a growing public health problem. However, he had been widely criticized by gay rights groups regarding positions he had taken on homosexuality as a high-ranking layman member of the United Methodist Church. Holsinger in 1991 had written a United Methodist Church committee report that described homosexuality as unnatural. Some gay rights advocates said Holsinger’s congregation had founded a ministry aimed at converting gay and lesbian men and women to heterosexuality. Senate Confirmation Hearing Held—Holsinger July 12 at his Senate confirmation hearing disavowed claims that he was antigay, and distanced himself from the 1991 report. He explained that his views had changed since that time, saying, “I’ve worked diligently to provide quality health care to everyone regardless of personal characteristics including sexual orientation.” Holsinger also said he would resign before allowing political pressure to trump science in regard to public health policy. [See below] Prior to the Senate hearing, 35 members of the House, along with the American Public Health Association, the U.S.’s largest organization of public health professionals, and several civil rights groups expressed their opposition to Holsinger’s nomination. Carmona Claims Muzzling—Carmona in testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform July 10 said he had been routinely muzzled by the Bush administration regarding controversial public health issues such as stem cell research and sex education, and that his speeches were often edited. Carmona said he had been barred from speaking on the virtues of comprehensive sex education, including condom use and emergency contraception. 445

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“The reality is that the ‘nation’s doctor’ has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas,” Carmona said. He added, “Anything that doesn’t fit into the political appointees’ ideological, theological or political agenda is often ignored, marginalized or simply buried.” Carmona said his superiors directed him to mention Bush’s name at least three times per page when delivering speeches, and that he was asked to support Republican political candidates in his remarks. His claims followed those of other civil servants who had publicly claimed that the Bush administration had placed politics before science. [See pp. 245E3, 174E1] Bush administration officials rejected Carmona’s claims. Two other previous surgeons general, C. Everett Koop and David Satcher, said the position had been in decline for years, and detailed their own experiences of political interference. Satcher said the Clinton administration had deterred him from releasing information showing the effectiveness of drug needle–exchange programs in preventing the spread of disease, but that he had released the information anyway. Koop said the Reagan administration had tried to curb „ his discussion of the AIDS crisis. National Hurricane Center Head Replaced.

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The director of the National Hurricane Center, X. William Proenza, July 9 was placed on leave, after half of the center’s staff members signed a letter calling for him to step down. Since his appointment in January, Proenza had been criticized for publicly feuding with the National Weather Service, the center’s parent organization, and half of the center’s staff members July 5 had signed a letter calling for his resignation. Edward Rappaport, the center’s deputy director, became acting director after Proenza’s departure. The Commerce Department, which oversaw the National Weather Service, also sent a team to review the center’s operations. [See p. 382G2] The July 5 letter, signed by 23 staff members, called for the Commerce Department to replace Proenza “as quickly as possible,” and warned that “the effective functioning of the National Hurricane Center is at stake.” The dispute centered around Proenza’s public claims that the National Weather Service was lagging on the replacement of the aging Quikscat satellite system, which measured ocean surface wind speeds, in favor of increased public relations spending. Critics claimed that Proenza was overstating Quikscat’s importance in forecasting hurricanes. „

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Sen. Vitter Admits Using Escort Service.

Sen. David Vitter (R, La.) July 9 admitted that his telephone number had been found on the records of a Washington, D.C.–area escort service, and acknowledged a “very serious sin” in his past. Vitter, who was known as an outspoken social conservative with strong views on family issues and 446

moral values, made the disclosure in an unsolicited e-mail statement to the Associated Press bureau in New Orleans, La. [See p. 277E3; 2004, p. 872E1; 1999, p. 399A2] The statement read, in part, “This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible. Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there—with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way.” Dan Moldea, an investigative reporter working for pornographer Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler magazine, July 10 said he had identified Vitter’s number on the escort service’s records. Hustler said it had contacted Vitter with the finding before the senator sent his statement to the AP. The magazine accused Vitter of hypocrisy, saying that he had “built his reputation on family-values platforms such as marriage protection and abstinence-only programs.” The owner of the escort service, Deborah Jean Palfrey (widely known as the “D.C. Madam”), was facing federal prostitution charges. She had said she was releasing her phone records in order to force customers to come forward and back her claims that her escorts had not sold sex. Vitter was the first member of Congress identified as a customer. A former State Department official, Randall Tobias, had resigned in April after ABC News found his phone number in Palfrey’s records. Tobias claimed that he had only hired the escorts to give him massages. The phone records were posted on the Internet July 9 after U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler July 5 lifted a restraining order blocking their release. New Orleans Madam Names Vitter—

Jeanette Maier, the former madam of a bordello in New Orleans’s French Quarter, July 10 told the New Orleans TimesPicayune that Vitter had been a customer of hers in the 1990s. However, Maier’s attorney, Vinny Mosca, said Vitter’s name did not appear on any of the brothel’s records. Vitter five years earlier had denied reports that he had regularly patronized a French Quarter prostitute. Maier said her motive in coming forward was to defend Vitter’s character. “I know from what I’ve seen that he is honorable, that he’s a good man,” she said, adding, “His wife should be very proud of her husband irregardless of what he’s done.” Vitter was the Southern chairman of former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani’s campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Giuliani July 10 said he had yet not made a decision on whether Vitter would stay in that post. Vitter had first entered Congress in 1999, when he won a special election for a House seat vacated by Rep. Robert Livingston (R, La.). Livingston resigned abruptly in late 1998 as he was about to become House speaker in the midst of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

Livingston admitted to extramarital affairs after Flynt said he had evidence of them. Alleging Republican hypocrisy in the Clinton impeachment, Flynt had offered up to $1 million to anyone who could prove they had had an affair with a member of Congress. [See 1999, p. 4A2] „

2008 Presidential Campaign McCain’s Top Campaign Aides Resign.

Terry Nelson, the campaign manager for the presidential bid of Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.), and John Weaver, McCain’s senior adviser, July 10 both resigned. The resignations plunged McCain’s once-front-running campaign into deeper turmoil, days after it had reported that it was low on cash following lackluster fund-raising results and heavy spending for the first half of the year. But McCain insisted that he would not drop out of the race. [See p. 431F1] Nelson had been national political director for President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign. McCain replaced him with campaign chief executive Rick Davis, who had been the campaign manager for McCain’s presidential bid in 2000, when he lost to Bush in the Republican primaries. McCain’s strong support for an immigration reform bill was the latest in a series of his actions that had alienated conservatives and made many Republican donors reluctant to contribute to his campaign. His popularity had also suffered from his staunch support for the war in Iraq. „

Legislation House Passes FDA Regulation Reform Bill.

The House July 11 voted, 403–16, to approve a bill that would institute wide-ranging reform of the regulation of the pharmaceutical industry by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Senate had passed a similar measure in May. [See p. 293C1] The bill would allocate $393 million annually over the next five years for the FDA to spend on improving the safety of prescription drugs. Those funds would come from “user fees” assessed on the drug firms the FDA regulated. The measure would also require new drugs to be reviewed for safety in each of the first three years after it they were brought to market, and then again after seven years. A new computerized system would also be established to scan data for patterns indicating a drug’s dangers. Under the measure, companies that failed to adhere to FDA regulations could face fines of up to $50 million, and could pay up to $250,000 for running misleading or false advertisements. The Senate and House bills were expected to be reconciled within a few weeks. „

CIA Leak Investigation Libby Pays Fine, Will Serve Probation.

Court papers released to the public July 5 showed that I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby Jr. had paid a $250,400 fine for committing FACTS ON FILE

perjury and obstruction of justice in the course of a federal investigation into the leak of a U.S. intelligence operative’s name to the press. President George W. Bush days earlier had commuted Libby’s 30month prison sentence for those convictions. [See p. 429A3] A spokeswoman for Libby said he had paid the fine himself, rather than using money from a legal defense trust fund established by his political allies. Both Libby’s lawyers and prosecutors July 9 filed court papers saying that Libby could still be subject to two years of supervised release that formed part of his sentence but had not been commuted. Judge Reggie Walton of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., had questioned whether existing law allowed for a convict to serve “supervised release” without first being imprisoned, but the lawyers said Bush’s constitutional power outweighed that statutory consideration. Walton July 12 formalized Libby’s term of probation. In a footnote to his opinion, the judge noted that the prison sentence he originally gave Libby was on the low end of federal guidelines. Bush had called it “excessive.” Bush at a news conference July 12 said the case had “run its course,” adding, “We’re going to move on.” Bush, who had initially vowed to fire anyone found to have leaked the agent’s name, steered clear of acknowledging subsequent revelations, saying, “Perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person.” „

Business Blackstone

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New York City–based Blackstone Group June 21 launched an initial public offering (IPO) of $31 a share, hitting the top of its expected price range. The stock June 22 traded for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), rising 13% to a value of $35.06 per share by the close of trading. Blackstone was the largest private equity firm in the U.S. and only the second to sell a stake in itself to the public. [See p. 192C2] The offering gave Blackstone a market value of $38 billion June 22, after it sold a 12.3% stake in the firm, or 133.3 million common units, at a value of $4.6 billion. The firm in May had announced that it would sell a 9.9% stake to the government of China for $3 billion, boosting the total money raised by the IPO to approximately $7.6 billion. [See below] The chief executive and cofounder of Blackstone, Stephen Schwarzman, would hold a 24% stake in the firm valued June 22 at around $8.5 billion. Schwarzman was expected to receive an additional $677 million in cash from the IPO’s proceeds. Peter Peterson, also a founder and chairman of the company, was due $1.9 billion in cash proceeds and would hold 4% of Blackstone’s stock worth close to $1.4 billion. The Blackstone IPO was seen as a major landmark for the private equity industry, which in recent years had dramatically expanded its influence and increased its reveJuly 12, 2007

nues by buying out ailing companies at record prices, taking them private and reorganizing them to be sold at a profit. Private equity companies managed a large reservoir of money on behalf of a variety of investors, including pension funds, wealthy individuals and financial institutions. [See p. 309E1; 2006, p. 893F2] Schwarzman and Peterson had started Blackstone in 1985 with $400,000 in capital. In May, the value of assets managed by the firm was $88 billion, up from $14 billion in 2001, making it one of the largest private equity firms in the world. Private Equity Tax Bills Proposed—

Fourteen House Democrats June 22 cosponsored a bill that, if passed, would increase the tax rate on income of managers of private partnerships, to 35%, from 15%. Private partnerships, unlike corporations, earned most of their money by managing the assets of others. Firms that classified themselves as private partnerships included private equity firms, venture-capitalist firms, real-estate partnerships and some hedge funds. Under a tax law loophole, managers of private partnerships could pay a long-term capital-gains tax rate of 15% on income earned through investments. Managers of private equity firms utilized that tax rate on all income they derived from so-called carried interest, which was generally 20% of the profits a company as a whole made in investments. Those managers had come under increasing scrutiny from lawmakers when it was revealed that they paid only a 15% tax rate on hundreds of millions of dollars in yearly performance income. Rep. Sander Levin (D, Mich.) was the chief sponsor of the bill, which was cosponsored by Rep. Charles Rangel (D, N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Rep. Barney Frank (D, Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Sen. Max Baucus (D, Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Charles Grassley (R, Iowa), the ranking Republican on that committee, June 14 had introduced a separate bill targeting the profits of the partnerships themselves. The bill called for publicly traded partnerships to pay the standard 35% corporate tax rate on all company profits, instead of the capital-gains rate of 15%. The Senate bill would give Blackstone and other publicly traded partnerships like Fortress Investment Group LLC until 2012 to comply with the new tax rate. Private partnerships that were considering going public, like Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., would be subject to the new tax rate as soon as they went public. [See 2006, p. 976G3] Democrats said the bills were designed to ensure that everybody received equal tax treatment. The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor union federation, had complained about the tax inequities between the average worker and managers of private equity companies who made much more money. Competing investment companies taxed at the corporate rate, like mutual investment funds, were thought to approve of the Senate bill because the capital-gains tax rates

gave private equity firms a significant financial advantage. The proposed bills were widely viewed as a reaction to the extraordinary amount of money Blackstone and its managers would be making on its IPO, information that was made public June 11 in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The bills were also seen as a way for the Democratic majority to increase revenue for proposed spending plans without raising taxes on the middle class. Critics of the bills, which included the Private Equity Council, a lobbying group for private equity firms, and some lawmakers, said the bills would undermine the private equity industry and hamper the country’s economic growth as a whole. Analysts predicted that some private equity companies would choose to go public in different countries if the bills passed. China Buys Stake in Blackstone— The Chinese government May 20 announced that it would purchase a $3 billion stake in Blackstone through a state-controlled investment agency that was yet to be formally created. The acquisition was the first time China had used some of its $1.2 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves to directly invest in a private equity company. [See p. 181E3] Under the terms of the deal, China would receive a 9.9% nonvoting stake in the company at a 4.5% discount to the public offering price, which at the time was estimated to be between $29 and $31 a share. China would not be allowed to sell its stake for another four years and could not invest in a competing private equity fund for one year. Chinese officials insisted that the deal was not an attempt to take over U.S. companies, but merely a way to diversify the way it used its foreign-exchange reserves. Its reserves had mostly been invested in U.S. Treasury bonds and other public securities that offered consistent but low returns. The new Chinese investment agency that would own the Blackstone stake was expected to invest in companies that could offer higher returns. [See 2005, p. 518C1] The acquired stake was below the percentage level at which U.S. government approval was necessary. China would be investing in Blackstone itself, not in any of the more volatile funds that it managed. „

Environment Bald Eagle Removed From Endangered List.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne June 28 signed an order to remove the bald eagle from the federal list of “threatened” or “endangered” species. The removal would take effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. The bird had been listed as “endangered” in 1967, after the effects of poisoning, hunting and harmful pesticides had caused the U.S. bald eagle population to decline to 417 breeding pairs. That status was upgraded to “threatened” in 1995. [See 2006, p. 1003G1] There were currently an estimated 10,000 breeding pairs of bald eagles in the U.S., and the birds could be found in each of the contiguous 48 states. The birds 447

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would continue to receive protections outlined by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) policy. Environmentalists credited the bald eagle’s resurgence to protections established by the Endangered Species Act. Other News—In other endangered species news: † The FWS July 10 declared that 10 penguin species, including the emperor penguin, required protections offered by the Endangered Species Act. The move sparked a review of the penguin species, the first step to listing them as either endangered or threatened, two categories that provided them with protection under the law. [See 2006, p. 1003D1] † The FWS July 3 announced that it would publish in the Federal Register new rules easing restrictions on the killing of wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains regions of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The FWS Jan. 26 had announced that two gray wolf groups, in the Northern Rocky Mountains and the Western Great Lakes regions, would be removed from the endangered species list within a year. [See 2005, p. 570D2] † The National Audubon Society conservation group June 14 reported that the populations of several common meadow birds were threatened by large-scale farms and suburban growth. The group reported that the populations of 20 formerly common birds had declined by at least 50% over the past 40 years. Its report found that the U.S. population of the northern bobwhite had fallen more than 80%, to 5.5 million, from more than 31 million. Another bird, the evening grosbeak, had declined 78%, to 3.8 million, from 17 million. [See 2005, p. 837C3] † The FWS April 9 recommended upgrading the status of the manatee to threatened, from its current listing as endangered. The move implied that the species had recovered from the edge of extinction. The manatee would still be protected from harassment, poaching or killing, but boating and development restrictions designed to protect the animals could be eased under the new status. According to a census of Florida manatees, there were 2,812 in 2007, up from 1,267 in 1991. † The FWS March 20 upgraded the status of the American crocodile to threatened, from endangered. The crocodile, which was found only in South Florida, had been added to the endangered species list in 1975. The population of the species was estimated at 2,000, up from an estimated 300 in 1976. „

Medicine & Health

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Traveler’s TB Found to Be Less Severe.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with physicians at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colo., July 3 said the type of tuberculosis infecting a man originally diagnosed with a rare, hard-totreat form of the disease was less severe 448

than had been thought. The man, Andrew Speaker, in May had been told by health authorities that he was infected with a strain of “extensively drug resistant” tuberculosis (XDR-TB). He had subsequently traveled from the U.S. to several European countries, then back to the U.S. via Canada. [See p. 359D1] CDC officials and doctors revised Speaker’s diagnosis from XDR-TB to multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), a less severe infection. Speaker had been held at the Denver facility under quarantine for observation and treatment since late May. The announcement raised concerns regarding the accuracy of tests administered by the CDC to determine the severity of tuberculosis infections. Federal officials and Speaker had differing claims as to whether he had been instructed not to travel after receiving his diagnosis. Health officials had criticized Speaker’s travels as endangering dozens of passengers on international commercial flights. Speaker maintained that he was never told that he was a health threat. Regardless, his travels had exposed several flaws in the U.S.’s response to public health threats, as well as the monitoring of U.S. borders. The Associated Press (AP) June 12 had reported that health officials attempting to track down Speaker during his European travels had received little aid from Speaker’s father or his father-in-law. (Speaker had traveled to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon.) Officials at the CDC had asked Speaker’s father-in-law, Robert Cooksey, to stop their wedding in Greece, but Cooksey had ignored their requests, according to the AP. Cooksey was a microbiologist at the CDC. TB Funding Increase Sought—Officials with the World Health Organization and the Stop TB Partnership June 22 called for a two-year, $2.15 billion plan to prevent and treat the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. The money would fund new drugs, laboratories and research, and would prevent an estimated 134,000 deaths from the disease by 2008. The drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis required more extensive and expensive treatments that were rarely available in the developing world. An estimated 400,000 people contracted MDR-TB each year worldwide, most of whom died. Several U.S. health officials June 14 called on the U.S. government to increase domestic spending on drug-resistant tuberculosis to $300 million annually, from $137 million. They also requested expanded authority to restrict the movement of those suspected of being infected. „

Gulf Coast Hurricane Disaster New Orleans Flood Risk Report Released.

The Army Corps of Engineers June 20 released a report detailing the vulnerability of New Orleans to flooding from a major storm. The city had been devastated by flooding from Hurricane Katrina in 2005,

and its population remained at roughly half of pre-Katrina levels. The report, which mapped vulnerability to more than 150 types of storms on a block-by-block and neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis, was expected to unleash further controversy over which sections of the city would be resettled. [See pp. 262G1, 260E1] The report gave a 1-in-500 annual chance that nearly all of New Orleans would be flooded with more than six feet (1.8 m) of water, and a 1-in-100 annual chance that about one-third of the city would be flooded up to six feet. However, the chance of flooding in several individual neighborhoods was said to be much greater. The report credited the corps’ improvements to New Orleans’s system of levees, floodwalls, pumps and gates with substantially reducing the flood risk for many threatened areas. However, the risk remained the same as before Katrina in areas where flood controls had been repaired but not significantly upgraded, such as much of the Upper Ninth Ward. The report also found that flooding caused by a hurricane could not be attributed solely to the storm’s intensity, but that its track and radius also played a major role. The corps did not release estimates on the degree of protection that would be afforded by a $7 billion flood-control upgrade, to be completed by 2011, which was meant to protect New Orleans from a storm powerful enough to occur on average once every hundred years. (Katrina was considered a 1-in-400-year storm.) City and federal officials said the flood risk maps would be a powerful tool to help plan recovery programs. In addition, they said, the maps would help homeowners make an informed decision on whether to rebuild in threatened areas. New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin (D) released a statement calling for further flood-control measures, saying, “We need assurance that this is reliable data…But even if this information is accurate, simply identifying the risk does not solve the problem.…These American citizens deserve the protection they were denied to begin with.” „

Economy Housing Starts Dropped 2.1%. The Department of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) June 19 reported jointly that the rate of housing starts in May was 1.47 million units, annualized and adjusted for seasonal variation. That was 2.1% below the revised rate for April of 1.51 million units. Building permits were issued in May at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.50 million units, 3.0% above April’s revised rate of 1.46 million. [See p. 349D2] Durable Goods—The Commerce Department June 27 reported that the value of durable goods orders in May fell by 2.8% from the previous month, to $213.0 billion. [See p. 349A3] „ FACTS ON FILE

Accidents & Disasters Government Faults Lightning in Mine Blast.

A federal report May 9 concluded that two simultaneous lightning strikes that ignited methane pockets had most likely caused a January 2006 explosion that resulted in the deaths of 12 miners at the Sago Mine in West Virginia. The findings, which came after a 16-month-long investigation by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), were in line with those issued in two reports by the state of West Virginia and one by the mine owner, International Coal Group Inc. (ICG). However, it was the first to suggest that a section of old pump cable in the mine had allowed the lightning to arc, igniting the gas in an abandoned section of the mine. The MSHA May 18 issued mine safety rules requiring operators to monitor abandoned mine sections for explosive gases, in order to prevent similar explosions in the future. [See p. 192F3] „

Other U.S. News Victims of Communism Memorial Dedicated.

A monument to those killed by communist regimes around the world was dedicated June 12 in Washington, D.C., north of the Capitol. The Victims of Communism Memorial was a 10-foot- (three-meter-) tall statue modeled after the “Goddess of Democracy” sculpture erected in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, during pro-democracy demonstrations that provoked a violent crackdown in 1989. It was inscribed, “To the more than one hundred million victims of communism and to those who love liberty.” [See 1990, pp. 982F2, 427B2] President George W. Bush, speaking at the ceremony, likened radical Islamic terrorism to communism as “a murderous ideology that despises freedom, crushes all dissent, has expansionist ambitions and pursues totalitarian aims.” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D, Calif.), who had emigrated from his native Hungary in 1947 following its occupation by Soviet forces, made a similar comparison. He also denounced former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and former French President Jacques Chirac for declining to support the U.S.’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. He called Schroeder a “political prostitute” in the pay of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, referring to the position Schroeder took after leaving office as chairman of a gas pipeline project controlled by a Russian state company. [See 2006, p. 309D3] German officials June 13 expressed outrage at Lantos’s remarks. A foundation, chaired by Lee Edwards of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, raised $950,000 to build the monument from private donors, many from formerly communist-ruled countries. The dedication was held on the 20th anniversary of a speech in which U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in Berlin, Germany, called on Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” the Berlin Wall. [See 1987, p. 451G1] „ July 12, 2007

AFRICA

African Union Leaders Discuss Unity at Summit. African leaders July 1–3 met for a summit of the African Union (AU) in Accra, Ghana’s capital. At the summit, the only item on the official agenda was a proposal, put forth by Libyan leader Muammer el-Qaddafi, to create a single government, foreign policy and army for the continent of Africa. However, the leaders ended the summit without coming to an agreement on the proposed “United States of Africa.” [See p. 65A1] The concept of uniting Africa’s 53 nations under a single government had first been advocated by Kwame Nkrumah, who guided Ghana to independence from Britain in 1957. However, the idea had floundered since then. [See p. 146B1] Some observers said the debate over creating a single African government—a concept seen by many as unrealistic—distracted the leaders from more pressing issues, such as the conflicts in Somalia and Sudan’s Darfur region and the deteriorating political and economic situation in Zimbabwe. [See below, pp. 401A3, 382A3, 315A2] Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, in a July 1 speech to young people in Accra endorsed the idea of uniting Africa, saying, “Until and unless we put our act together, and look at our resources, organize and start pooling our resources together…we will never, ever prosper from any aid from any source outside Africa.” The summit opened July 1 with a speech by Ghanaian President John Kufuor, the current AU chairman. The next day, the leaders debated the merits of establishing a federal state for all of Africa. Most leaders, including South African President Thabo Mbeki, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua, reportedly favored a gradual process for uniting the continent. A smaller group, led by Qaddafi and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, wanted immediate change, arguing that it was the best way to combat poverty and the numerous other problems that Africa faced. There were already eight regional economic bodies in Africa, including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Kibaki said those groups could be the foundation for a pan-African state. Critics of the idea of a United States of Africa pointed out that many leaders had been reluctant to cede power to the economic groupings, and would be even less likely to relinquish political power to a pan-African government. Wade July 2 said, “There is no salvation for Africa outside political unity.…If we remain fragmented into little states, we will remain weak.” Qaddafi in a July 3 speech called for “all the heads of state to hold a referendum” on the issue. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni July 2 expressed doubt about integrating the continent because the peoples of Africa were too diverse to unite under one

government. “Politically we should only integrate with people who are either similar or compatible with us,” he said. He did say, however, that he favored economic integration. The leaders late July 3 reached a compromise on the issue, after running over the conference’s scheduled time by half a day. Under the compromise, a committee of AU ministers would study the integration proposal for six months. The ministers would present their report at the next AU summit, in January 2008. Kufuor said of the final decision, “We emerge with a common vision in principle for the realization of a union government. We all have a shared vision of a united, vibrant continental union.” Lack of Darfur Funding Lamented—Alpha Oumar Konare, the chairman of the AU commission, the executive branch of the AU, July 1 said at the summit’s opening session that a plan to deploy a hybrid AU– United Nations peacekeeping force to Darfur was being hampered by a lack of “financial resources.” He also called on the Sudanese government to “end the bombardments” that it had launched against Darfur-based rebels. U.N. Deputy Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro, the former foreign minister of Tanzania, called on African leaders to “urgently proceed” with the joint peacekeeping force. Sudanese President Omar Hassan alBashir did not attend the summit due to the June 27 death in a car accident of a close adviser, Majzoub al-Khalifa. Khalifa had played a key role in a May 2006 peace deal with one of the Darfur rebel groups. Bashir alleged in a June 30 teleconference call from Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, that some Western governments were interested in placing a U.N. force in Darfur only “because of what they will gain from the resources of the people.” [See 2006, p. 364B1] „

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Sierra Leone Tribunal Finds Rebels Guilty of War Crimes.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone, a joint national and United Nations tribunal, June 20 found three Sierra Leone rebel leaders guilty of 11 of 14 charges against them, including murder, rape, conscription of child soldiers and terrorism. The convictions were the first verdicts from the court, which was set up to try war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the country’s 1991–2002 civil war. [See p. 358F2] The three defendants, Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu, were former military officers who had allegedly formed the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which conspired with rebel forces to control Sierra Leone from 1997 to 1998. They were acquitted of charges of sexual slavery and “inhumane acts” related to physical and sexual violence. It was reportedly the first time that an international court had issued a verdict on child soldier recruitment. 449

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Judge Julia Sebutinde scheduled sentencing for July 16. The court was based in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital. Taylor Appears in Court—Former Liberian President Charles Taylor July 3 attended a procedural hearing of the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, the Netherlands. Having rejected his court-appointed defense attorney, Taylor had boycotted both previous sessions of his trial on 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, on June 4 and June 25. Sebutinde July 3 delayed resumption of the trial until Aug. 20 so that a new defense team could be appointed and have time to prepare. At the hearing, Taylor, who had already pleaded not guilty to all charges against him, pleaded not guilty to an amended charge of sexual slavery. „

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Argentina Kirchner’s Wife Bids for Presidency. Argentine President Nestor Kirchner July 2 announced that he would not seek a second term, and threw his support behind a presidential bid by his wife, Sen. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The announcement was seen as a political maneuver intended to give Kirchner, 57, and his wife the opportunity to secure several consecutive terms as president between them. Under Argentina’s electoral laws, a president was limited to two consecutive four-year terms. [See p. 98E2] Cristina Kirchner, 54, a veteran politician with her own following, became the front-runner to win the presidential election, scheduled for Oct. 28. She was a lawyer and member of her husband’s center-left Victory Front faction of the Peronist party, and had first been elected to the Senate in 2005 after serving in the lower house of parliament. She was expected to formally announce her candidacy July 19. Nestor Kirchner, who had been elected president in 2003, enjoyed high poll numbers credited to policies that helped Argentina recover from an economic collapse in 2001. However, Kirchner’s popularity had recently waned in the face of an energy shortage, a high inflation rate and a government construction scandal. [See p. 365A3] Kirchner Allies Lose Local Elections—

Conservative businessman Mauricio Macri of the center-right Republican Proposal (PRO) party June 24 won the mayoralty of Buenos Aires, the capital, in the second round of elections, 61%–39%. He defeated the Kirchner-allied education minister, Daniel Filmus. Also, Hugo Coccaro, the incumbent governor of Tierra del Fuego and another Kirchner ally, June 24 was defeated in the second round of elections by Fabiana Rios of the center-left Support for an Egalitarian Republic (ARI) party, 52%–46%. The two losses were viewed as reflecting growing public discontent with Kirchner’s administration. „ 450

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China New Law Enhances Workers’ Rights. The Standing Committee of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, June 29 enacted a new labor law that enhanced protections for workers. The law set new requirements for employers to meet in providing workers with clear written contracts, and restricted the endemic use of short-term employment. It also gave the state-backed All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the only legal union in China, new power to conduct collective bargaining. However, observers said that the law’s material effect on work conditions would depend on how stringently it was enforced. Many common labor abuses in China were practices already proscribed by existing laws. [See 2006, p. 826B3] The final passage of the law, first proposed in December 2005, came after a nationwide scandal over widespread forced labor in brick factories in northern China, reportedly enabled by labor officials who overlooked the abuses. In reaction to those revelations, lawmakers added a provision to the law making government officials who failed to enforce labor standards liable for compensation to abused workers. [See below] The government’s unusual step in 2006 of soliciting public comment on a draft of the law, and its trumpeting of its passage, appeared intended to signal its determination to address an issue threatening to contribute to social unrest. Millions of rural residents had migrated to China’s cities, where they were often subjected to abusive treatment and enjoyed little job stability or recourse to legal protection. Foreign companies that relied on China as a source of low-cost labor had lobbied the government to soften some proposed measures in the law. Previous drafts had reportedly proposed that companies seek permission from the ACFTU before dismissing an employee, but the final version specified only that companies “consult” with the labor body. Police Halt Brick Factory Slavery— Chinese state news media June 15 reported that police had freed more than 450 people who had been held as forced laborers at numerous brick factories in Henan and Shanxi provinces in north-central China. News media in China over the past week had been publicizing the plight of people, including children and the disabled, who had been kidnapped or lured into working at thousands of remote rural brick kilns, where they were essentially imprisoned and subjected to beatings and exceedingly grueling conditions. The publicity and police actions followed an Internet-based campaign by the families of 400 missing youths demanding official action. [See 2005, p. 431C3] The foreman of one kiln in Shanxi was arrested June 16 in Hubei province after a nationwide manhunt. Two labor inspectors in Shanxi were arrested June 21 for alleg-

edly helping to cover up the abuses. State media the following day reported that the governor of Shanxi, Yu Youjun, had apologized for the scandal. Rights activists said forced labor had increased in China recently, as human traffickers preyed on the country’s large number of migrants. Many of the operators of the brick factories, which were often illegal operations, had reportedly been shielded by ties to local government or Communist Party officials. The state media reports said that at least 13 people were known to have died as a result of abusive conditions in the kilns. They said that President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao had ordered a thorough investigation and compensation for victims. The crackdown on the brick kilns came as the central government said it was addressing the social problems caused by economic growth, and was also seeking to improve its international image ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the capital. A group of labor unions and advocacy groups June 10 had detailed labor abuses at Chinese factories producing Olympic merchandise. „ Stock Tax Shakes Markets. China’s finance ministry May 30 announced that it would triple the rate of a tax on stock trades, to 0.3%, in an attempt to slow recent speculation-fueled growth in Chinese stock investments. The announcement, which followed days of official denials that such a move was in the works, led to a sharp drop in Chinese stock prices that day, amid investor fear that more official moves to cool off the market were impending. The Shanghai composite’s index fell by 6.5%, and June 4 fell another 8.3%. [See p. 123A1] However, unlike a bigger drop in Chinese markets in February, the decline did not spark downturns in foreign stock markets. That appeared to reflect the fact that China’s mainland markets were largely isolated from international ones, and that the latest fall was linked chiefly to the tax announcement rather than to global concerns about China’s economy. The Shanghai index made modest gains in the days following the June 4 plunge. China’s stock markets had risen dramatically over the past two years, with a growing number of ordinary Chinese people investing in stocks. The markets had quickly resumed soaring after the February drop. However, analysts said the events illustrated the degree to which the Chinese government was willing to interfere to guide the course of the markets, and investors’ sensitivity to such interventions. State-run newspapers June 4 published commentaries insisting that the long-term outlook for stock investments in China remained positive. „ Ex–Food and Drug Regulator Executed.

Zheng Xiaoyu, the former chief of China’s State Food and Drug Administration, who in May had been sentenced to death on bribery charges, was executed July 10. Zheng’s sentence was carried out with unusual swiftness, in what appeared to be intended as a demonstration of resolve to enFACTS ON FILE

sure the integrity of China’s food and drug safety regulation. [See pp. 428D2, 351G3] An official of the regulatory agency said that Zheng’s corruption had “brought shame to the nation.” Officials of the agency and other regulatory bodies held a news conference at which they pledged to better coordinate their efforts to allow fewer tainted foods, drugs and other products to reach the market. They described a plan to organize the country’s millions of small farmers into cooperatives that would facilitate the inspection and tracking of food products. Another Ex-Official Sentenced—Another former official of the State Food and Drug Administration, Cao Wenzhuang, July 6 was convicted of taking bribes and negligence of his duties, and given a death sentence suspended for two years. Such sentences were commonly later reduced to a prison term. Cao, a former secretary to Zheng and from 2002 to 2006 the director of the agency’s drug registry, was found guilty of accepting $307,000 in bribes from companies seeking approval of their medical products. „ Anniversary of China Handover Marked.

Hong Kong June 30–July 1 held official commemorations of the 10th anniversary of the territory’s reversion to Chinese sovereignty from British colonial rule. The occasion was also marked by protests by demonstrators demanding democratic political reform. Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Hong Kong for the celebrations, and in an address July 1 called for “gradual and orderly” political change. He emphasized Hong Kong’s duty to “uphold the power vested in the central government” under the “one country, two systems” policy that governed Hong Kong’s political autonomy within China. [See 2002, p. 587A1] Hu July 1 also swore in Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang to his second term. Tsang in his speech pledged to issue a plan later in the year for a transition to democracy. Pro-democracy parties in 2005 had defeated Tsang’s previous proposal as inadequate. [See 2005, p. 973E1] Pro-democracy demonstrators marched June 30 and July 1, demanding unconditional universal suffrage, as they had on four previous anniversaries of the 1997 handover. [See 2006, p. 669G1] „

Japan Defense Chief Quits Over Bomb Comment.

Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma July 3 resigned, after causing an uproar June 30 by saying that the U.S.’s use of atomic bombs against the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945 was necessary to end World War II. That angered survivors of the bombings and officials of the two cities, and jarred Japan’s widely ingrained consciousness of its status as the only country to be the victim of an attack with nuclear weapons. The controversy erupted as Premier Shinzo Abe was already suffering low public approval ratings in the run-up to July elections to July 12, 2007

the upper house of the Diet (parliament). [See p. 352E2; 2006, p. 751C2; 2005, p. 546F2] Kyuma said the nuclear bombings “couldn’t be helped” and “ended the war,” forestalling a Soviet assault on Japan. Kyuma, who represented Nagasaki in the Diet, apologized July 1, after contending that he had been describing the U.S.’s view of the bombings, rather than his own. Abe initially indicated that he would keep Kyuma in office, but accepted his resignation immediately. Abe July 3 named his national security adviser, Yuriko Koike, 54, to succeed Kyuma. Koike, a former environment minister, took office the next day, becoming Japan’s first female defense minister. Abe’s recent sluggish poll ratings had been further battered after revelations in April that the social security system over a decade had mishandled the records of more than 50 million people’s payments into the system, endangering their benefits. In May, his agriculture minister committed suicide amid corruption allegations. Abe’s coalition June 22 won enactment of legislation extending the parliamentary session and therefore delaying the election to July 29, from July 22, in what was widely seen as a bid by Abe to gain time to revive his political standing. „

Asia-Pacific News in Brief Taiwan: Budget Sets U.S. Aircraft Buy.

Taiwan’s legislature June 15 approved the government’s fiscal 2007 budget, which included allocations for a small portion of a package of arms purchases offered by the U.S. in 2001. Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian favored buying the weapons, but the legislature, controlled by the opposition Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), opposed them, objecting that they were too expensive and would fuel an arms race with China. Out of the total proposed package, which would be worth $18 billion, the budget included 9.9 billion Taiwanese dollars (US$300 million) worth of items, including the US$190 million acquisition of 12 P-3 Orion antisubmarine aircraft. [See 2004, p. 828C1] „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

European Union Bulgaria, Romania Warned on Corruption.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, June 27 issued a report saying that Romania and Bulgaria were making “insufficient” progress in combating corruption and organized crime. The commission, however, did not impose sanctions in the form of withholding aid that had been made conditional on such progress when the two countries joined the EU at the beginning of the year. The implementation of anticorruption reforms in Bulgaria and Romania was seen as necessary for the EU to undertake expansion into other Balkan nations plagued with similar problems. [See pp. 336E2, 5E2]

The language of the final report was reportedly less critical of the two countries’ track records than a previous draft. EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini June 27 defended the report and the decision not to impose sanctions against critics who said it showed inadequate determination by the EU to force the countries to reform. He said sanctions should be reserved for “exceptional cases,” and that it was important to “strike the right balance” between criticizing failures and praising progress. He suggested that Bulgaria and Romania would be given about another year to complete the required reforms. „

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Great Britain Suspect in Failed Attacks Charged. Bilal Abdulla, an Iraqi doctor, July 6 was charged with conspiracy to cause explosions in connection with failed terrorist attacks a week earlier in London and Glasgow, Scotland. He appeared in a London court July 7. Abdullah, 27, was one of two men who had rammed their vehicle into a terminal at Glasgow’s airport after rigging it with propane gas canisters, in an apparent attempt at a suicide bombing. Abdullah had worked at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, near Glasgow. [See p. 425A1] The driver of the vehicle, Khafeel Ahmed, 28, had reportedly suffered severe burns in the attack and was being treated in a Glasgow hospital. Police reportedly had described Abdulla and Ahmed as the principal suspects in the plot for both the London and Glasgow attacks. The two men had allegedly rigged car bombs in two cars that were planted in central London, then driven to Glasgow and carried out the attack there. Six other suspects who remained in detention were believed to have played lesser roles in the plot. They were all reportedly from the Middle East or India. Infotech Enterprises, a company in Bangalore, India, that designed aircraft parts for The Boeing Co. of the U.S. and other airplane makers, July 9 said it had employed Ahmed as an aeronautical engineer from December 2005 to July 2006. U.S. officials July 6 confirmed that two of the suspects had sought information about working in the U.S. as doctors. They reportedly had contacted the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, a nonprofit organization in Philadelphia, Pa., that reviewed foreign applicants for medical residencies and fellowships in the U.S. Interpol

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Ronald Noble, secretary general of Interpol, the international police agency, July 9 posted an open letter on the agency’s Web site that criticized British authorities for inadequate cooperation. “The U.K. has not shared its watch list with Interpol,” he said. As a result, he warned, “The U.K. might lose a significant investigative lead. The country consulting Interpol would obtain no, or incomplete information; and those individuals on the U.K. terrorism watch list would remain free to plan and carry out more terrorist attacks.” „ 451

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Four Convicted in Botched ’05 Attack. A

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British jury July 9 convicted four African immigrants of conspiracy to murder, for their roles in failed July 2005 suicide bombings in London’s transportation system. The botched attacks had taken place two weeks after suicide bombings by British Muslims killed 52 commuters in London subway trains and a bus. A judge July 11 sentenced the men to life in prison, with no eligibility for parole until they served at least 40 years of their terms. [See p. 51D3] The convicted men were Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, born in Eritrea; Hussain Osman, 28, from Ethiopia; Yassin Omar, 26, from Somalia; and Ramzi Mohamed, 25, also from Somalia. Prosecutors said Ibrahim had led the group and had traveled to terrorism training camps in Sudan and Pakistan. The trial concluded July 10 after nearly six months, when the jury failed to reach a verdict on two other defendants, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 34, and Adel Yahya, 24. Asiedu allegedly had decided not to go through with the suicide bombing bid and dumped his bomb in a park. Yahya allegedly trained with the other plotters, but was not in Britain on the day of the attempt. The four convicted men had carried homemade bombs in backpacks into trains and a bus, but the bombs, made of hydrogen peroxide and flour, failed to detonate. During the trial, the defendants claimed that they had not intended to hurt anyone with the bombs, and said they had only wanted to protest the Iraq war. Evidence presented during the trial showed that police had conducted surveillance on all four men in 2004 when they went on a camping trip to England’s Lake District and performed military training exercises. Also, Ibrahim had been arrested in October 2004 for assaulting a policeman while handing out extremist pamphlets. Those relevations prompted some to ask why he had been allowed to travel to Pakistan two months later. They criticized the police for failing to act on those clues and break up the plot before it was carried out. Other News—In other terrorism cases: † A London court July 5 sentenced three men who had pleaded guilty to inciting terrorism by operating extremist Web sites. Moroccan-born Younis Tsouli, 23, received a 10-year prison sentence. Prosecutors accused Tsouli of recruiting for the international terrorist network Al Qaeda. The other two men were British-born Waseem Mughal, 24, and Tariq al-Daour, 21, from the United Arab Emirates; they were each sentenced to at least six and a half years. The group reportedly had used stolen credit card accounts to finance their activities. † A court in Manchester July 5 convicted Omar Altimimi, 37, for possession of a “vast library” of terrorism-related material, including bomb-making manuals. Altimimi had moved to Britain in 2002, from the Netherlands. „ 452

Russia BP Sells Gas Field to Gazprom. British energy company BP PLC June 22 agreed to sell its stake in a Siberian natural gas field to the Russian state gas monopoly, OAO Gazprom. The agreement came amid proceedings by Russian regulators to suspend the license granted to BP joint venture TNK-BP to operate the field, called Kovykta. Those proceedings were widely regarded as intended to pressure BP to give up Kovykta, as part of a broader Russian effort to give Gazprom control of key energy assets, and reduce the role of foreign companies. [See p. 230D2; 2006, p. 1027E2] BP said it would sell its 62.9% stake in Kovykta, along with a 50% stake in a Siberian gas distribution venture, for between $600 million and $800 million, although the exact price was yet to be fixed. BP said it had also agreed to enter into a new joint venture with Gazprom that would invest some $3 billion in energy projects worldwide. BP would have the option of buying back 25% of the Kovykta field if that joint venture was successfully concluded. In a similar transaction agreed in 2006 under Russian government pressure, Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC April 18 had completed its sale to Gazprom of a controlling stake in an oil and gas project located on Russia’s Sakhalin Island in the Pacific Ocean. French oil company Total SA July 12 agreed to a joint venture with Gazprom to develop the Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea. Total would hold a minority stake in the venture, while Gazprom would retain full control of the actual gas reserves. Gas Pipeline Set With Italy—Russia and Italy June 23 signed an agreement on developing a gas pipeline from Russia to Europe in a joint venture of Gazprom and Italy’s Eni SpA. The pipeline, called South Stream, would run under the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria, and possibly branch out from Bulgaria to two destinations farther west. Construction was planned to begin in 2008, and take three years. [See p. 345C2] „

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Iran Government Rations Gasoline. Iran’s oil

ministry late June 27 announced that it would begin rationing gasoline the following day, provoking riots across the country. It would allow drivers of private cars up to 100 liters (26 gallons) of gas per month at the heavily subsidized price equivalent to $0.38 per gallon, while taxis would be limited to 211 gallons per month. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad July 9 clarified that extra fuel would not be made available at market prices for those who exhausted their rations. [See p. 166A2] Iran, the second-largest oil exporter in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in recent years had imported about half of its gas, for as much as $2 per gallon, because its own refinery system was inadequate. The government for

months had warned that it was preparing to ration subsidized gas to conserve money to invest in its oil and gas industries. It planned to spend $18 billion to boost its refining capacity by one million barrels per day. The government May 22 had raised subsidized prices for gas by 25% as a preliminary measure to cut demand for fuel ahead of the rationing scheme. Riots Ensue—At least 12 gas stations around Iran were set on fire June 28 in response to the rationing. Dozens of people were reported arrested in Tehran, the capital, for offenses related to the move in what was reportedly the biggest public display of sentiment against the government since Ahmadinejad took office. His popularity was already flagging in response to steep inflation and continued high unemployment. The government argued that it had to cut fuel demand in response to threats from the U.S. and possible foreign sanctions on oil imports to Iran. A bill June 28 was introduced in the U.S. House to shut out of U.S. markets any company that provided Iran with gasoline beyond the end of the year. [See p. 326D2] Crackdown on Dissent, ‘Immorality’—

The New York Times June 24 reported that Iranian authorities were cracking down particularly hard on dissenting elements of society including pro-democracy agitators, labor leaders, women’s rights advocates and Iranian Americans. The country’s judiciary July 10 said the government had resumed executions for immoral behavior such as “rape, insulting religious sanctities and laws and homosexuality,” despite a 2002 moratorium on capital punishment for such offenses imposed by the judiciary chief. A man convicted of adultery had been stoned to death the previous week, while his partner’s sentence was being reviewed, according to a spokesman for the judiciary. Also, an annual spring campaign against “indecency” that enforced dress codes based on Islamic teachings was unusually harsh and restrictive this year, especially for men, it was reported May 12. Allies of the president had claimed that the media was mounting a “creeping coup” against the president with recent criticisms of Ahmadinejad’s policies, Britain’s Guardian reported July 9. Two pro-reform newspapers had been shut down the previous week, according to the Guardian report. Two suspended reformist newspapers May 13–14 resumed publication, after the judiciary granted them permission. Also, Tehran’s city council May 9 had reelected as mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a relative moderate against whom the government had campaigned. Iran’s parliament in April had voted to hold early presidential elections, along with elections to parliament, in 2008. „

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan Public Outcry Over Civilian Casualties.

Nearly 62 insurgents and 45 civilians were killed in air strikes by North Atlantic TreaFACTS ON FILE

ty Organization (NATO) forces June 29–30 in southern Helmand province, two Afghan officials said July 1. Civilian casualties had risen as a result of an increase in fighting between insurgents and NATO coalition and government forces in the month of June in southern Afghanistan. The increasing number of civilian casualties had become a major political concern for the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who June 23 had forcefully condemned the “careless operations” of U.S.and NATO-led forces. [See below, p. 387F1] Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO force in Afghanistan, June 30 said Taliban insurgents the day before had fired on U.S. ground forces assisting a NATO mission. Thomas said the insurgents fired from compounds and trenches located in the nearby village of Hyderabad. He said the coalition forces fired back and called in air support that was meant to target “clearly identified firing positions” within the village. U.S. and NATO forces had increasingly relied on aerial bombardments to quell a resurgent Taliban force. U.S. Army Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman, June 30 said insurgents were to blame for using civilians as “human shields in close combat with friendly forces,” repeating a claim many NATO and U.S. military spokesmen had made in the preceding weeks. He said the dead civilians had been found in trenches and other positions where insurgents had been firing weapons. Thomas July 1 challenged the civilian death count of 45 given by the two Afghan officials—Dor Ali Shah, mayor of the district in which Hyderabad was located; and Muhammad Hussein Andewal, the police chief of Helmand province. Thomas said no more than a dozen civilians had been killed. Karzai had called for an investigation into the attacks, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported July 2. The Associated Press (AP), citing United Nations statistics, July 1 reported that 314 civilians had been killed by NATO coalition or Afghan forces in 2007, and 279 had been killed by insurgents. Approximately 230 civilians had been killed by NATO coalition forces in 2006, according to an April report by Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based advocacy group. [See p. 269D3] In the same report, the AP, using its own figures, said in the first half of 2007, at least 2,800 people overall had died in violence related to the insurgency. Ninety-six of those were coalition troops, 46 of whom were American. Around 4,000 people had been killed in insurgent violence in 2006. Air Strikes Hit Civilians—Andewal June 22 said at least 25 civilians had been killed in NATO air strikes directed at Taliban insurgents June 21–22 in Helmand province. Mohammed Answar Esaqzai, a member of parliament representing the province, that day said 36 civilians had been killed. Lt. Col. Mike Smith, a NATO spokesman, said NATO could not confirm the number of ciJuly 12, 2007

vilian casualties and that the air strikes had been a response to hostile fire from Taliban insurgents. He said an estimated 30 insurgents were killed. Belcher had acknowledged in a statement June 18 that U.S.-led air strikes on a suspected Al Qaeda compound in Paktika province the previous day had killed seven children. He apologized on behalf of the coalition, but said forces had completed a surveillance of the compound that indicated no civilians were inside. He said Al Qaeda fighters had used physical force to prevent the children from leaving the compound. In response to the incidents, Karzai June 23 said the coalition’s “extreme use of force” had led to civilian casualties. He said, “Afghan life is not cheap and it should not be treated as such.” Tony Snow, press secretary for the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, June 18 and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer June 22 had both expressed their regret at the civilian casualties, and reiterated that the insurgents were using civilians as human shields to discourage legitimate military actions. Tactical Shift by Insurgents Seen— A bomb June 17 exploded on or near a bus full of police academy recruits and instructors in Kabul, the Afghan capital, killing at least 24 and injuring as many as 52. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was carried out by a suicide bomber. The blast was one of a rising number of attacks that employed either a suicide bomber or a sophisticated roadside bomb, highlighting Taliban insurgents’ increasing willingness to use tactics more commonly used by insurgents in the ongoing war in Iraq. [See 2006, p. 718C3] The powerful blast tore apart two other vehicles next to the bus. It was one of the deadliest single attacks since the NATO coalition forced the Taliban from power in 2001. The sheer strength of the blast led many observers to believe that insurgents were using more advanced bomb-making technology. Karzai that day denounced the attack, saying the “enemies of Afghanistan” were targeting the country’s fledgling security forces, an important part of the NATO coalition’s strategy to stabilize the country. The attack was seen as a setback to the NATO coalition’s thwarting of a spring offensive promised by Taliban leaders in the winter. NATO forces had claimed to have killed almost 40 mid- and top-level Taliban commanders in 2007, the AP reported July 1. Many districts in the south of the country, where most of the fighting occurred, were considered pacified. [See p. 321B1] But a spate of bombings in coalitioncontrolled districts like Panjwai in Kandahar, one of which killed three Canadian soldiers June 20, suggested insurgents had adopted a different strategy. NATO and U.S. commanders attributed the rise in suicide and roadside attacks to a weakened Taliban force that could no longer engage in sustained fighting in many parts of the country.

The Associated Press July 1 reported that suicide bombings in eastern Afghanistan had climbed 200% in 2007. In other related violence, six Canadian soldiers and their Afghan interpreter died July 4 after a roadside bomb exploded underneath their armored vehicle in Kandahar province. The bomb was suspected to have been an improvised explosive device (IED), a powerful bomb commonly used by insurgents fighting American forces in Iraq. The soldiers’ deaths renewed calls from opposition politicians in Canada to pull out Canadian troops from Afghanistan before a February 2009 commitment agreed to by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. A suicide attack apparently intended for a NATO patrol of Dutch soldiers July 10 missed its target and killed at least 17 civilians, including 13 children, in the southern province of Uruzgan. The bomber detonated his charge in a busy marketplace next to a school. At least 35 Afghans were wounded. Fierce Fighting in the South—A NATOled offensive into the southern province of Uruzgan June 15–18 led to the deaths of 50 to 60 insurgents, Thomas said June 18. He said one NATO soldier and two Afghan police officers were killed, and 10 civilians were injured. Mulvi Hamdullah, council head of the province, contradicted those casualty numbers, saying 50 to 60 civilians had been killed. He also said NATO and government forces were not helping local authorities bring injured civilians to hospitals. Thomas said the offensive was an aggressive push by NATO to take control of a relatively lawless area. Hamdullah estimated that nearly 1,500 insurgents, including Afghans, Chechens, Arabs and Pakistanis, had gathered in the Chora district, which was where most of the fighting took place. In a separate battle, NATO June 23 said it had killed 60 insurgents in Paktika province, describing the insurgent group as the largest that had traversed the region in six months. Other News—In other Afghanistan news: † U.S.-led forces in Nangarhar province June 12 killed seven Afghan policemen and injured four more in a case of mistaken identity. The policemen fired on a unit of U.S. troops believing they were insurgents; the unit fired back and called in an air strike. No coalition troops were killed or injured. Karim Rahimi, a spokesman for Karzai, blamed the incident on a lack of communication and intelligence-sharing between coalition and government forces, a complaint repeatedly made by Karzai. † A report issued June 26 by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said 92% of the world’s illicit opium was grown in Afghanistan, and that the country in 2006 had increased its production by 49%. The report said the province of Helmand alone was the largest cultivator of opium poppies in the world. Opium cultivation was a lifeline for many Afghan farmers and merchants; opium exports, valued at $3 billion, accounted for nearly half of the country’s gross domestic product. [See p. 213F2] „ 453

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Federer, Venus Williams Win Tennis’s Wimbledon Federer Ties Borg at Five Straight Wins.

Roger Federer of Switzerland July 8 beat Spain’s Rafael Nadal, 7–6, 4–6, 7–6, 2–6, 6–2, to win the men’s singles title at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club at Wimbledon, England, for a fifth consecutive year. Venus Williams of the U.S. July 7 had defeated Marion Bartoli of France, 6–4, 6–1, to win the women’s Wimbledon title for the fourth time. [See p. 390D2; 2006, p. 562E3] Federer’s streak at Wimbledon tied the record for consecutive wins at the tournament in the modern era, set in 1980 by Bjorn Borg of Sweden, who attended the match. [See 1980, p. 606G1] Nadal, seeded second, had faced topseeded Federer in both the 2006 Wimbledon final and the current season’s French Open final, which the Spaniard had won. Nadal was vying to become the only man to claim both titles in a single year since Borg did so with his 1980 win. He failed, but gave his opponent the first five-set match of Federer’s career in Grand Slam finals. In a measure of the closeness of the contest, two of the five sets went to tie-breaks. Federer July 7 had defeated 12th-seeded Richard Gasquet of France in the semifinal, 7–5, 6–3, 6–4. Nadal the same day advanced to the championship match when his semifinal opponent, fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia, withdrew because of injury in their match’s third set. At that point, Nadal led, 3–6, 6–1, 4–1.

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Roger Federer July 8 celebrating his fifth consecutive singles victory in the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

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came just the fourth player—along with Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King and Steffi Graf—to have won the women’s title at least four times during the Open era. For Bartoli, seeded 18th, it was the first appearance in the final of a major tournament. Williams, who had been sidelined for portions of recent seasons due to injury, had advanced to the final July 6 by beating sixth-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in the semifinal round, 6–2, 6–4. In perhaps the tournament’s biggest upset, Bartoli that day eliminated the top seed, Justine Henin of Belgium, 1–6, 7–5, 6–1, in the semifinal. Doubles Results—Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra, both of France, July 8 beat defending champions and twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan of the U.S. to win the men’s doubles title, 6–7, 6–3, 6–4, 6–4. Zimbabwe’s Cara Black and South Africa’s Liezel Huber that day defeated Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and Ai Sugiyama of Japan to win the women’s doubles championship, 6–3, 3–6, 6–2. Jamie Murray of Britain and Jelena Jankovic of Serbia July 8 beat Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Alicia Molik of Australia, 6–4, 3–6, 6– 1, to earn the mixed doubles title. Murray, playing in his first mixed doubles tournament, became the first Briton in 20 years to win a major Wimbledon title. „

Guerrero July 9 had won the annual Home Run Derby. He beat Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Alex Rios, 3–2, in the final round of the contest. Line Score of the Game— July 10 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif. (attendance 43,965):

R H E American . . . . . 000 021 020 5 10 0 National . . . . . 100 001 002 4 9 1 Winning pitcher—Josh Beckett (Red Sox). Losing pitcher—Chris Young (Padres). Save—Francisco Rodriguez (Angels). Bonds Nears Home Run Record—

Bonds hit 17 home runs in the first half of the season, bringing his career total to 751, just four shy of Hank Aaron’s all-time record of 755. The 42-year-old Bonds had been linked to the use of performance-enhancing drugs for several years, but had never tested positive and had always denied knowingly taking a banned substance. His march toward the record had provoked substantial controversy about how the anticipated record-breaking home run should be recognized by the baseball establishment. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig July 10 said he was unsure whether he would try to attend the game at which the record was broken, and Aaron May 22 had declared that he would not be present. [See pp. 455E2, 235F1]

Baseball A.L. Wins MLB All-Star Game. The American League (A.L.) July 10 defeated the National League (N.L.), 5–4, to win the annual Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif. The win gave the A.L. home-field advantage in the World Series. The N.L. had not won an All-Star Game since 1996. [See 2006, p. 586A2] Seattle Mariners center fielder Ichiro Suzuki, who went three for three and, in the fifth inning, hit the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history, was named the game’s most valuable player (MVP). The A.L. team was managed by Jim Leyland of the Detroit Tigers. Suzuki led off for the A.L., followed by New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz (who started at first base), Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Angels right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, Tigers left fielder Magglio Ordonez, Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez and Tigers second baseman Placido Polanco. Oakland Athletics right-handed pitcher Dan Haren started for the A.L. and batted ninth. The N.L. team, managed by Tony La Russa of the St. Louis Cardinals, led off with New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes. Batting second was San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds, followed by Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran, Cincinnati Reds right fielder Ken Griffey Jr., Mets third baseman David Wright, Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Russell Martin, Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley and right-handed pitcher Jake Peavey of the San Diego Padres.

Major League Baseball First-Half Standings Major League Baseball’s divisional standings at the All-Star Break July 10 were: AMERICAN LEAGUE Eastern Division W L Pct.

Boston Toronto N.Y. Yankees Baltimore Tampa Bay

53 43 42 38 34

34 44 43 49 53

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Detroit Cleveland Minnesota Chicago White Sox Kansas City

52 52 45 39 38

34 36 43 47 50

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L.A. Angels Seattle Oakland Texas

53 49 44 38

35 36 44 50

.609 .494 .494 .437 .391

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.605 .591 .511 .453 .432

— 1 8 13 15

.602 .576 .500 .432

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NATIONAL LEAGUE N.Y. Mets Atlanta Philadelphia Florida Washington Milwaukee Chicago Cubs St. Louis Pittsburgh Houston Cincinnati San Diego L.A. Dodgers Arizona Colorado San Francisco

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48 47 44 42 36

39 42 44 47 52

Central Division

49 44 40 40 39 36

39 43 45 48 50 52

Western Division

49 49 47 44 38

38 40 43 44 48

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.552 .528 .500 .472 .409

— 2 4½ 7 12½

.557 .506 .471 .455 .438 .409

— 4½ 7½ 9 10½ 13

.563 .551 .522 .500 .442

— 1 3½ 5½ 10½

FACTS ON FILE

Bonds had remained defiant in the face of speculation about his alleged drug use. Addressing the fact that he was jeered in nearly every away ballpark he visited, Bonds July 9 said, “They boo, but all those cameras flash every time I swing.” He also said, “You’re judging me on a third party when I’ve actually done nothing wrong.” He also pointed out that he had been voted an All-Star starter by the fans. A New York Times/CBS News poll, published in the Times July 11, found that about one-third of respondents wanted Bonds to break the record, one-third did not and the final third were undecided or had no opinion. Fifty-seven percent of blacks surveyed wanted Bonds, who was black, to break the record, while only 29% of whites backed Bonds. A federal grand jury was currently looking into the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), a Northern California nutritional supplement company that had provided performance-enhancers to top athletes. Bonds had been implicated in that investigation, but no charges had been filed. The grand jury’s term expired later in July, and the possibility remained that Bonds could be indicted. Other News—In other MLB news: † Tigers infielder Neifi Perez July 6 was suspended for 25 games for testing positive for the second time for a stimulant. He became the first player to be suspended for taking stimulants, which MLB began testing for in 2006. [See p. 24E1] † Mike Hargrove July 1 abruptly resigned as manager of the Mariners, despite leading the team on an eight-game winning streak. Hargrove, 57, said his “passion has begun to fade” for baseball. He was replaced with bench coach John McLaren. [See 2004, p. 830B3] † The Reds July 1 fired manager Jerry Narron, and the next day named advance scout Pete Mackanin as his interim replacement. [See 2005, p. 480C1] † Houston Astros second baseman Craig Biggio June 28 got the 3,000th hit of his career, in an 8–5 victory over the Colorado Rockies in Houston, Texas. Biggio, 41, became the 27th player in MLB history to reach that milestone. [See 2005, pp. 530D2, 480C1] † Blue Jays designated hitter Frank Thomas June 28 hit the 500th home run of his career, in an 8–5 loss to the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis, Minn. Thomas, 39, became the 21st player to reach 500 home runs. Thomas was ejected from the game in the ninth inning for arguing with home plate umpire Mark Wegner after striking out. [See 2006, p. 986E1] † Former All-Star reliever Rod Beck June 23 was found dead by police officers at his home near Phoenix, Ariz. Beck, who had 286 career saves, was 38. The cause of death was unknown, but police said they did not suspect foul play. [See 1999, p. 769F1] † The Baltimore Orioles June 18 fired manager Sam Perlozzo. Dave Trembley, a July 12, 2007

team coach, was named interim manager. [See 2005, p. 744G2] † Pitcher Roger Clemens, in a dramatic surprise announcement to 52,553 fans at Yankee Stadium in New York City, May 6 said he had signed with the Yankees for the remainder of the 2007 season. Clemens, 44, would have a $28 million salary, prorated from the day he was added to the team’s major-league roster. Clemens June 9 made his 2007 debut, in a 9–3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in New York. [See 2006, p. 587B2] † MLB owners May 16 approved the sale of the Atlanta Braves from Time Warner Inc. to Liberty Media Corp. for about $460 million. [See p. 235D2] † Cardinals reliever Josh Hancock April 29 was killed in a car accident. Hancock, 29, died when his sport utility vehicle (SUV) crashed into the back of a tow truck on a highway in St. Louis, Mo. It was revealed May 4 that Hancock had been drunk at the time of the accident. Authorities also said he had been talking on his mobile phone, and that marijuana had been found in his SUV. Hancock’s father May 24 sued the restaurant that had served the pitcher drinks before his death, but the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control June 29 said it would take no action against the establishment. The Cardinals had banned alcoholic beverages in their home clubhouse in the wake of Hancock’s death, it was reported May 14. [See 2002, p. 547A3] † Left-hander Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox April 18 pitched the season’s first no-hitter, in a 6–0 victory over the Texas Rangers. Buehrle was nearly perfect; the only runner he allowed to reach base was designated hitter Sammy Sosa, who walked in the fifth inning. However, Buehrle picked him off first base, and as a result faced only the minimum 27 batters in the game. „ Former Mets Worker Admits Steroid Dealing.

Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse attendant, April 27 pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Calif., to felony charges of money laundering and distributing performanceenhancing drugs—including anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (HGH)— to players on several Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. [See pp. 454B3, 235E2] Radomski pleaded guilty as part of the complex investigation surrounding the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), a Burlingame, Calif., nutritional supplement company that had distributed performanceenhancing drugs to top athletes. A federal grand jury in San Francisco was currently probing BALCO and those connected with the company, including San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds and other athletes. Radomski, 37, had worked for the Mets as a batboy, equipment manager and clubhouse assistant from 1985 to 1995, and then worked as an independent personal trainer. In his plea agreement, he admitted to distributing drugs to MLB players out of his Manorville, N.Y., home from 1995 to 2005. Federal investigators had raided his home on

Dec. 14, 2005. The U.S. attorney in San Francisco, Scott Schools, who was overseeing the BALCO probe, said in a statement that agents had seized “thousands of doses of numerous types of anabolic steroids in both pill and injectable form” in the raid. (Schools had taken over the case after the firing of Kevin Ryan, who was one of several federal prosecutors controversially ousted at the behest of the Bush administration in 2006.) [See p. 444A3] Since the raid, Radomski reportedly had been cooperating with investigators. Radomski April 26 had testified before the BALCO grand jury, it was revealed May 1. As part of the plea deal, approved by Judge Susan Illston, Radomski agreed to cooperate with a separate probe, led by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D, Maine), that was looking into drug use in MLB. Commissioner Bud Selig had appointed Mitchell to lead the probe in March 2006. However, Mitchell did not have the power to compel testimony, and the probe had made little progress, as most players refused to cooperate. Radomski’s agreement was seen as a boost for the investigation. Also, federal investigators had said they would turn over evidence used against Radomski to Mitchell’s team, it was reported May 4. That reportedly included the names of 36 current and former players, which had been redacted in the original court filings. [See below] News Outlets Sue for Information—The New York Times June 12 reported that Hearst Corp., which owned 12 daily newspapers in the U.S., had filed suit in U.S. District Court in New York City asking for access to the same information—including players’ names—being provided to Mitchell’s inquiry. The Associated Press (AP) also reportedly sued for access to the information. The media outlets argued that Mitchell was technically a member of the public, and therefore they should have access to the same information that he did. However, the BALCO investigators July 9 denied that they had given Mitchell the names of players identified by Radomski or by former MLB pitcher Jason Grimsley, who had been suspended in 2006 for using HGH. [See 2006, p. 773F2] Also July 9, the MLB Players’ Association (MLBPA), the players’ union, filed a motion seeking to intervene on behalf of the San Francisco U.S. attorney’s office to prevent the players’ names from being made public in either the Radomski or Grimsley cases. That motion was approved July 10. The MLBPA was also opposing efforts by Mitchell to obtain medical records of players implicated in drug use. Giambi to Cooperate—New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi, who had been implicated in the BALCO scandal, June 21 agreed to cooperate with Mitchell’s inquiry. He became the first active player to do so. Giambi said in a statement that he would be “candid about my past history regarding steroids,” but would not implicate other players. [See 2004, p. 974A3] Giambi in an interview published in USA Today May 18 had tacitly admitted 455

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using performance-enhancers when he said, “I was wrong for doing that stuff.” In response to that statement, Selig had requested that he meet with Mitchell. Lawyer Jailed for BALCO Leak—A Colorado lawyer, Troy Ellerman, July 12 was sentenced in U.S. District Court in San Francisco to two-and-a-half years in prison for leaking grand jury documents to a San Francisco Chronicle reporter who was investigating the BALCO scandal. The sentence was the harshest to have been imposed so far in relation to the scandal. Ellerman had pleaded guilty in February. [See p. 103A1] „

century chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte near Paris for a lavish reception. [See p. 406B3; 2006, pp. 944B2, 360C2] British rock singer Rod Stewart, 62, June 16 married model Penny Lancaster, 36, in a low-key civil ceremony at Santa Margherita Ligure, just outside Portofino on the Italian Riviera. The couple had a 19month-old son. It was Stewart’s third marriage. [See 2006, p. 848D1] „

O B I T UA R I E S CRESPIN, Regine, 80, French operatic soprano; after gaining wide recognition in the late 1950s, she performed in major opera houses around the world, singng in five languages: French, German, Italian, Russian and English; one of her most acclaimed roles, the one in which she made her 1962 debut at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, was as the Marschallin in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier; she was also a famed interpreter of art songs, and conducted master classes for singers after retiring from the stage in 1989; born Feb. 23, 1927, in Marseille, France; died July 4 at a hospital in Paris, of liver cancer. EVANS, Bob, 89, founder of a national chain of sausage restaurants bearing his name, with nearly 600 outlets in 18 states; based on an old family recipe, his sausages used lean pork and a secret blend of seasonings; the first Bob Evans restaurant opened in 1962 on his hog farm near Gallipolis, Ohio; the company also owned Mimi’s Cafes, a chain of more than 100 casual restaurants in 20 states; born May 30, 1918, in Sugar Ridge, Ohio; died June 21 at a hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, from complications of pneumonia. HUTT, William Ian deWitt, 87, Canadian actor; he appeared in the 1953 opening season of what became North America’s largest repertory theater, the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario, and kept working there for decades, appearing in or directing well over 100 productions; one of his most striking achievements was his portrayal—originally at Stratford in 1975—of Lady Bracknell, the lead female character in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest; although he worked mostly in Canada, he occasionally made theatrical appearances in both New York City and London, as well as in Chichester, England; born May 2, 1920, in Toronto, Ontario; died June 27 at a Stratford hospital, of leukemia. [See 1965, p. 487D2]

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JOHNSON, Lady Bird (born Claudia Alta Taylor),

94, widow of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the U.S., and one of the main keepers of his legacy since his 1973 death; a powerful Texas Democrat, her husband, who had been President John F. Kennedy’s vice president, became president when Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963; the Johnsons were married from November 1934 until his death in January 1973, just over four years after he left the White House, having decided, amid the turbulence of the Vietnam War, not to seek a second full term; as he climbed the political ladder in Washington, D.C.—he would eventually become U.S. Senate majority leader—she tended to their business interests in Texas, which began with a radio station and grew to include television stations, a bank and several ranches; as first ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Karol Wight, 48, an expert on ancient glass, June 20 was named antiquities curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, replacing Marion True, who was currently on trial in Rome, Italy, on charges of having purchased stolen objects. Wight had been acting antiquities curator at the Getty since True resigned under pressure in October 2005. [See 2005, p. 995B1] Actor Isaiah Washington, who starred in the ABC television network’s popular medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” would no longer be part of the show when it returned in the fall, it was confirmed June 8 by ABC executives. Washington, 43, had sought counseling for “behavioral issues” in January, after twice directing a homophobic slur at one of his “Grey’s Anatomy” costars, T.R. Knight. [See p. 71A2] Marcus W. Brauchli, 45, April 18 was named managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, succeeding Paul E. Steiger, who had held the Journal’s top editorial post since 1991. Before becoming an editor in 1999, Brauchli had been a Journal foreign correspondent for 15 years. Steiger was nearing the newspaper’s mandatory retirment age of 65. Brauchli May 15 formally succeeded Steiger, who that day became editor at large, a post he would hold for the rest of the year. [See p. 278A3] Washington, D.C.’s National Symphony Orchestra (NSO), which had been seeking a successor to its longtime music director, Leonard Slatkin, April 12 announced the appointment of an interim leader with lesser duties, Hungarian maestro Ivan Fischer. Slatkin, 62, was preparing to step down at the close of the 2007–08 season. Currently the NSO’s principal guest conductor, Fischer, 56, would become its principal conductor at the start of the 2008–09 season and would remain in that post for the following season as well. That would give the NSO two more years to find a permanent successor to Slatkin. [See 1994, p. 268G2] San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker, 25, who was raised in France, July 6 married actress Eva Longoria, 32, in a civil ceremony in Paris. The next day, Parker and Longoria, who starred in the television show “Desperate Housewives,” exchanged vows at a Paris church before being driven, along with several hundred guests, to the 17th-

Lady Bird Johnson in 1967

lady, she emerged as a leading advocate of highway beautification, through such means as planting wildflowers and eliminating billboards; during her husband’s presidency, her behind-the-scenes efforts were instrumental in the passage of about 150 laws that directly benefited the environment; for her strenuous conservation efforts, she was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and a Congressional Gold Medal in 1988; born Dec. 22, 1912, in Karnack, Texas; died July 11 at her home in Austin, Texas, of natural causes, after having briefly been hospitalized with a low-grade fever; she had had a stroke in 1993, and had been declared legally blind in the mid-1990s. [See 1994, p. 376F3; 1992, p. 768D3; Indexes 1988, 1986, 1979–80, 1973–77, 1960–70] MARLETTE, Doug, 57, Pulitzer Prize–winning editorial cartoonist; he won the award in 1988 while on the staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; since 2006, his employer had been an Oklahoma newspaper, the Tulsa World; besides being an editorial cartoonist, he was the creator of the syndicated comic strip “Kudzu,” which satirized small-town life in the American South; the strip, which first appeared in the early 1980s, was the basis for a musical that premiered in Washington, D.C., in 1998; born Dec. 6, 1949, in Greensboro, N.C.; died July 10 near Holly Springs, Miss., when a car he was riding in struck a tree after skidding off a rain-slicked highway; the driver of the vehicle, its only other occupant, was not seriously injured. [See 1998, p. 447C1; 1988, p. 272A1] POWERS, Mala (Mary Ellen), 75, actress who starred in a number of 1950s films, notably Cyrano de Bergerac and Outrage (both 1950); in the former, she portrayed Roxane opposite Jose Ferrer in the title role, for which he won an Academy Award; in Outrage, one of the first Hollywood films to treat rape frankly, she portrayed a rape victim; in later years, she worked mostly on the stage, radio and television; born Dec. 20, 1931, in San Francisco, Calif.; died June 11 at a hospital in Burbank, Calif., of leukemia. [See 1964, p. 471E2; 1954, p. 352F3; Index 1950] RANDOLPH, Boots (born Homer Louis Randolph 3rd), 80, saxophonist who had been a fixture on the

Nashville, Tenn., music scene for decades, playing not only country music but also pop, rock and jazz; he recorded with Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and Brenda Lee; in 1963, he had his biggest solo hit with “Yakety Sax,” a tune that from 1969 on accompanied the girl-chasing sequences on the British television comedy “The Benny Hill Show,” first aired in the U.S. in the late 1970s; born June 3, 1927, in Paducah, Ky.; died July 3 at a Nashville hospital, after being removed from a respirator; he had been in a coma since June 25, when he suffered a stroke. [See 1992, p. 300C3] SHOULDERS, Jim (James Arthur), 79, rodeo cowboy who won seven bull-riding world titles, four bareback-riding world titles and five all-around world championships between 1949 and 1959; after retiring from the professional rodeo circuit in 1970, he became known to a wider public for his appearances in a series of 1980s televised beer commercials; born May 13, 1928, in Tulsa, Okla.; died June 20 at his home in Henryetta, Okla., of heart disease and kidney failure. SIEGEL, Joel, 63, film critic who appeared regularly on the ABC television network’s “Good Morning America” show since 1981; born July 7, 1943, in Los Angeles; died June 29 in New York City, after a long battle with colon cancer. THI, Nguyen Chanh, 84, South Vietnamese military officer who in March 1966, during the Vietnam War, was ousted as commander of the five northernmost provinces that constituted the I Corps region of South Vietnam, before being deported to the U.S., which became his home for the rest of his life; his dismissal provoked civil unrest that nearly escalated to civil war; he made a failed attempt to return to South Vietnam in 1972; born Feb. 23, 1923, in Hue, Vietnam, then part of French Indochina; died June 23 in Lancaster, Pa.; he had had heart ailments. [See 1972, p. 119F2; Indexes 1964–66, 1960] Vander JAGT, Guy Adrian, 75, Michigan Republican who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1966, when he won a special election, through 1992, when he lost his bid for reelection, defeated in a Republican primary by Peter Hoekstra; a leading Republican fund-raiser and campaigner, he chaired the Republican National Congressional Committee for 18 years (1974–92), and in 1980 delivered the keynote address at the Republican National Convention in Detroit, Mich.; born Aug. 26, 1931, in Cadillac, Mich.; died June 22 at a hospice in Washington, D.C., of pancreatic cancer. [See 1992, pp. 840E3, 680C1, 566E3; 1990, pp. 931G1, 838B2, 773F2; Indexes 1988–89, 1984–86, 1980–82, 1978, 1976, 1974, 1972, 1970, 1966] „

July 12, 2007

Senate Republicans Block Iraq Withdrawal Measure Debate Suspended on Alternatives. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) July 18 suspended plans to debate a series of proposals to force President George W. Bush to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq or otherwise change his war strategy. The unexpected decision came after Republicans had thwarted the Democrats’ efforts to advance a measure that would require the U.S. to begin withdrawing its forces within 120 days. The proposals had been offered as amendments to a Defense Department authorization bill, which Reid withdrew from consideration, saying, “We will come back to this bill as soon as it is clear we can make real progress.” [See pp. 457C3, 441A1] The House had passed a bill with a similar withdrawal timetable the previous week, when the Senate had opened its debate on the various proposals. Bush vowed to veto any legislation seeking to force a withdrawal or other alteration of the U.S.’s war plans. He urged Congress to await a report on the progress of the war due in September from the U.S. military commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and the U.S. ambassador there, Ryan Crocker. The White House had also recently issued an interim report, saying that positive results in some areas showed promise for a recently implemented effort to establish security in Iraq through the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops. The Senate July 18 voted, 52–47, in favor of cutting off debate on the Democratic withdrawal measure, sponsored by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D, Mich.), and holding a direct vote on it; that was short of the 60 votes required. Although several Republican senators had expressed dissatisfaction with Bush’s course in Iraq, not enough joined the Democrats to overcome the procedural hurdle. Four Republicans voted with 47 Democrats and one Democratic-aligned independent in favor of ending debate. (Reid voted against, in a procedural maneuver that would allow him to bring the bill back later.) After Republican leaders refused Reid’s request for an agreement to put the proposal to a direct vote, he canceled plans to debate other amendments, including Republican- and bipartisan-backed alternatives to the main Democratic proposal. That drew criticism from Republicans, including some of those who had come out for a change in Iraq policy. Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) said, “He chastises Republicans for not allowing a vote, but he’s the one who is pulling the bill from the floor and thus precluding further consideration of all of the Iraq amendments that we have pending.” Collins had voted in favor of ending debate, although she said she had “grave reservations” about an “abrupt withdrawal.” Among the measures sidelined was one sponsored by Collins and Sen. Ben Nelson (D, Neb.) that would have redefined more narrowly the U.S.’s mission and gradually reduced the deployment accordingly. An-

other, sponsored by Sens. Ken Salazar (D, Colo.) and Lamar Alexander (R, Tenn.) would have required Bush to take up the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, an independent commission that in late 2006 had recommended substantially altering and curtailing the U.S.’s mission. Sens. Richard Lugar (R, Ind.) and John Warner (R, Va.) July 13 had unveiled another proposal, that would require the president to seek a renewal of the congressional resolution approved in 2002 authorizing the use of force in Iraq. It would require Bush to draw up and present by October plans for a scaled-back Iraqi mission that could be put in place by the beginning of 2008. Reid July 18 called the Republicans’ use of the 60-vote procedural requirement “a new math that was developed by the Republicans to protect the president,” while Republicans countered that Democrats had used the same tactic when they were in the minority. All-Night Session Held—Reid July 16 called an all-night debate on the Democratic withdrawal proposal for July 17–18, and cots were set up in areas near the chamber so that senators could remain nearby for quorum calls and votes. Reid July 17 said the rare tactic would “focus attention on the obstructionism of the Republicans,” while many Republicans called it a purely theatrical move intended to score political points rather than achieve substantial progress on Iraq. Supporters of the Levin amendment said during the debate that the time had come to force Bush to alter a failed policy on Iraq. Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D, Ill.) said that the measure was a test of whether Republicans who “have been back home telling their constituents they’ve given up on the president’s policy” would now “have the courage to vote with those who want real change.” However, Alexander said Reid’s tactics were “slowing down our effort to find common ground,” while adding that Bush should be “more flexible.” Other Republicans, like Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.), a Republican presidential candidate, argued that a withdrawal would prematurely cut short the U.S. military’s “surge” offensive before it had a chance to succeed. In the days since the Senate began taking up the issue, administration and military officials had urged that the surge strategy be given more time to show results. National security adviser Stephen Hadley July 15 welcomed Lugar and Warner’s proposal as “useful” in “indicating the kinds of things that we should be thinking about,” but added, “The time to begin that process is September,” when the progress report would be issued. Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the efforts to impose security in a large area south of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, that day said it would take until the spring of 2008 for the U.S. offensive to show lasting gains, although he refused to comment directly on the current Senate debate.

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3475* July 19, 2007

B Separately, following the White House progress report’s assessment that the Iraqi government was failing to make progress toward certain political benchmarks, Iraqi Premier Nuri Kamal al-Maliki July 14 said that Iraqi forces could take over “full responsibility” for Iraqi security if international forces withdrew at “any time.” „

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Other Iraq War News Bombings Kill More Than 80 in Kirkuk. A massive truck bombing, followed by two smaller blasts, July 16 killed more than 80 people and wounded at least 180 in the northern city of Kirkuk. The suicide truck bombing occurred along a commercial strip containing the headquarters of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s political party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. [See p. 442B1] A smaller car bombing in the nearby Haseer outdoor market followed some 20

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Senate Republicans block Iraq withdrawal measure; debate suspended on alternatives.

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North Korea shuts nuclear facility. PAGE 458

Russia suspends European arms pact. PAGE 459

U.S. intelligence assessment warns of Al Qaeda resurgence. PAGE 460

Conrad Black found guilty in Hollinger fraud.

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Libya commutes foreign medics’ death sentences. PAGE 466

Brazil plane crash kills scores. PAGE 466

Japan quake forces nuclear plant closure. PAGE 468

Britain expels Russian diplomats in extradition spat; Russia retaliates. PAGE 469

Violence across Pakistan kills hundreds. PAGE 470 *First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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minutes later. The market was largely empty at the time, but the explosion caused several injuries. Hours later another car bomb exploded in the southern Domiz area of Kirkuk, killing one police officer and injuring six others. Kirkuk and its surrounding areas were populated by a mix of ethnic Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen who had a tense relationship with one another. Former President Saddam Hussein had sought during his rule to establish an Arab majority in Kirkuk, a center of Iraq’s oil industry. Since his overthrow, Kurdish elements had attempted to regain control of the area, angering both Arabs and Turkmen. Although Kirkuk had been plagued by violence, the bombings were larger in scale than most previous attacks there, and seemed to be aimed at maximizing civilian casualties. The attack also raised concerns that insurgents pushed out of Baghdad, the capital, by an increased presence of U.S. troops were migrating northward. Also, several northern areas around Kirkuk were set to participate in a public referendum on whether to join the autonomous Kurdistan region. An official committee was set to finalize July 31 the rolls of voters eligible to participate in the referendum. Parliamentary Boycott Ended— A 30member bloc of legislators loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr July 17 ended its four-week-old boycott of the 275-seat parliament. The legislators had initiated the boycott to protest the government’s response to a February 2006 bombing that destroyed the golden dome of the Shiite Askariya shrine in Samarra, 65 miles (105 km) north of Baghdad. A spokesman for the bloc said the legislators had agreed to end the boycott after Premier Nouri alMaliki’s administration agreed to rebuild the shrine, whose minarets had been destroyed in a separate June bombing. [See p. 374A1] A separate, 44-member Sunni bloc of lawmakers July 19 ended its five-week-old boycott of parliament after a deal was brokered to reinstate an ousted speaker it supported, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. The two boycotts had largely paralyzed Iraq’s parliament. Al Qaeda Leader’s Capture Announced—

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The U.S. military July 18 announced that it had captured Khalid al-Mashhadani, the man reportedly responsible for relaying messages between Osama bin Laden, leader of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda, and insurgents allied with him in Iraq. A U.S. military spokesman said Mashhadani had been captured July 4, and that he had subsequently provided “significant insights” into Al Qaeda in Iraq’s operations. U.S. officials also said Mashhadani had confirmed that Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, a man said to be the leader of the Al Qaeda– allied Sunni group Islamic State of Iraq, was in fact a fictional creation. Baghdadi had reportedly been conceived by Egyptian Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. [See p. 375D2] 458

Military Operation Launched in South—

The U.S. military July 16 said in a statement that it had launched a new offensive in an area south of Baghdad thought to be a stronghold for the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq. The operation, named Marne Avalanche, sent thousands of U.S. troops to the Euphrates River valley about 20 miles (35 km) south of Baghdad in an effort to staunch the flow of weapons and insurgents into the southern part of the capital city. [See p. 411C3] U.S., Iran Discussions Confirmed—U.S. and Iranian officials July 17 confirmed that they had agreed to hold talks regarding the future of Iraq within the next 10 days. The top envoys to Iraq from both countries, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi, had previously met to discuss the same issue in late May. Since that time, tensions had increased between the two countries over Iran’s nuclear program and U.S. allegations that Iran was supporting Shiite insurgents in Iraq. [See p. 426C1] Other Violence—Some 125 men in police pickup trucks dressed in Iraqi army– issued clothing and weapons July 16 killed at least 29 civilians, including several children, in the rural Shiite town of Dulayiya, in Diyala province. An Iraqi military spokesman July 17 said it was not known how the men had obtained their fatigues or gear. Separately, U.S. troops supported by fighter jets July 13 killed six Iraqi policemen and seven gunmen in a rare conflict between U.S. forces and uniformed Iraqi forces in eastern Baghdad. The U.S. military said it had carried out a raid targeting Shiite militias, specifically a police lieutenant described as having ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The U.S. troops had reportedly come under fire from an Iraqi police checkpoint and other areas during the raid, and had returned fire. U.S. officials had made repeated assertions that Iraqi police forces were often allied with Shiite groups, such as the Mahdi Army, hostile to U.S. forces and engaged in sectarian warfare. In an earlier incident, two Iraqis working for Britain’s Reuters news agency July 12 had been killed during clashes between U.S. troops and members of a Shiite militia in the al-Amin neighborhood of Baghdad. Nine other civilians were killed during the fighting, which lasted for six hours, and several others wounded. It was not clear whether the civilians had been killed by U.S. or Shiite militia fire, though eyewitness accounts stated that a U.S. helicopter had indiscriminately fired rounds into the area where the journalists were located. Also, an Iraqi working as a reporter and translator for the New York Times July 13 was shot to death in his car. „

North Korea Shuts Nuclear Facility IAEA Confirms First Disarmament Step.

North Korea July 14 announced that it had closed the main reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, the center of the country’s

nuclear weapons program. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear monitor, July 16 confirmed the shutdown of the reactor. The closure was the first step toward a complete dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear programs, envisioned in a February agreement between North Korea, the U.S., China, South Korea, Russia and Japan. [See p. 404C1] The shutdown of Yongbyon was originally to have taken place within 60 days of the February agreement, but had been delayed by complications in the resolution of a financial dispute,which was a condition of the nuclear deal. (North Korea June 25 had confirmed that it had taken possession of the $25 million in frozen funds that the U.S. had allowed to be released to resolve that matter.) North Korea’s announcement coincided with the arrival of a South Korean ship carrying 6,500 tons of oil, part of a promised 50,000 tons as an incentive for North Korea to give up its nuclear activities. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei July 18 said that North Korea had also shut down four related facilities at Yongbyon. That announcement came on the same day that the six nations involved in the negotiations opened a new round of talks in Beijing, China’s capital, on implementing subsequent steps in the disarmament process. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill July 14 had cautioned that the reactor closure that day was “just the first step.” He said a lengthy process would follow that would include a full declaration by North Korea of all of its nuclear equipment and materials, including manufactured weapons, and the permanent disablement of its facilities.

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FACTS ON FILE

ElBaradei July 18 said that work was under way to seal the Yongbyon facilities and reestablish a monitoring regime to verify its continued inaccessibility. IAEA inspectors June 28–29 had made their first visit to Yongbyon since North Korea expelled an inspection team in 2002 and restarted the facility. North Korea July 15 said, after the initial announcement of the shutdown at Yongbyon, that subsequent steps would depend “on what practical measures the U.S. and Japan, in particular, will take to roll back their hostile policies.” Among such measures foreseen in the February agreement that it cited were the lifting of economic sanctions and removal of North Korea from the U.S.’s list of states that sponsored terrorism. Chun Yung Woo, South Korea’s representative at the Beijing talks, July 18 said that North Korea had “expressed its intention to declare and disable them [its nuclear assets] within the shortest possible period, even within five or six months.” In addition to the plutonium-based program centered at Yongbyon, which had produced the device used in North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006, the U.S. sought an accounting of alleged North Korean efforts to conduct a secret uranium-enrichment program. North Korea’s military July 15 proposed bilateral talks with the U.S. military on “issues related to ensuring the peace and security on the Korean peninsula.” Separately, U.S. officials were reportedly looking into ways to conclude a peace treaty that would formally end the 1950–53 Korean War. „

portent of a substantial redeployment of Russian military forces. Russia bitterly opposed the U.S.’s plans to base part of the missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, a major factor in the generally worsening relations between Russia and the West. Russia’s foreign ministry, however, did not include the missile plans on its list of reasons for suspending the CFE. Those reasons included the fact that some NATO countries, including the U.S., had failed to ratify a 1999 revision of the treaty, which Russia had ratified in 2004. Those countries had said they would not ratify it until Russia withdrew it troops from Georgia and Moldova, one of the requirements of the revised pact. Russia also accused NATO of violating the CFE treaty with the deployment of forces along Russia’s western border, in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, new alliance members that were not party to the treaty. However, Russian officials indicated that they were open to continued dialogue on the issues raised. Reaction— U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe July 14 expressed disappointment at Russia’s decision, adding that “we’ll continue to have discussions with them in the coming months on the best way to proceed in this area.” NATO and the European Union also expressed disappointment. The move was widely praised within Russia. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who had signed the original 1990 treaty, July 15 called it “entirely justified” and said it was meant to lead to “constructive dialogue.” „

Arms Control

Middle East

Russia Suspends European Pact. Russia

Bush Calls for Peace Conference. U.S. President George W. Bush July 16 called for an international peace conference in the fall to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to be attended by representatives from the U.S., Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt and other Arab governments. Chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the conference would seek a territorial agreement as its highest priority. Bush did not specify where the conference would take place. He said countries that did not recognize Israel’s right to exist would be excluded. [See p. 437B3] Although Bush in 2002 had declared a full-scale effort to achieve peace in the Middle East, he had been largely absent from that process for several years. Meanwhile, Palestinian lands and society had fractured, with the Islamist militant group Hamas in June gaining control of the Gaza Strip, while the U.S.-favored Fatah movement, which was largely secular, consolidated its hold on the West Bank. Bush said that with Hamas’s Gaza takeover, Palestinians “must now choose between a path toward chaos and suffering,” or one “to security and a better life.” Bush pledged $80 million in already allocated U.S. money to prop up the security forces under President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA) govern-

July 14 formally announced that it would “suspend” its participation in a major 1990 treaty restricting the deployment of conventional armed forces in Europe. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in April had announced a “moratorium” on Russia’s observance of the pact, the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, due to a series of grievances against the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Those included plans to base an antimissile shield in Europe, and NATO’s expansion to include member nations along Russia’s borders. [See pp. 428A1, 275D3] Russia’s foreign ministry said the suspension was prompted by “exceptional circumstances in relation to the treaty’s content that affect the security of the Russian federation and require immediate measures.” The language of the treaty did not provide for a suspension of observance, but Russia invoked its requirement of 150 days’ notice of a party’s plans to withdraw from the agreement. Russia said that after the 150 days, it would no longer permit NATO to conduct inspections of its military installations under the treaty’s terms. However, the announcement was widely taken to be primarily a symbolic expression of Russia’s displeasure, rather than a July 19, 2007

ment in the West Bank. He said a planned donor conference would generate more aid for Abbas’s side. The U.S. would also contribute $154 million in food and other humanitarian aid to Palestinians throughout the region, including Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Another $50 million in U.S. money would support democracy and civil society, and development of the private sector. Analysts said Bush’s strategy appeared predicated on the idea that an aid-fueled West Bank economy would undermine Hamas rule in Gaza, which was subject to economic boycotts of Hamas by most foreign governments. Bush called on Israel to “reduce” its “footprint” in the West Bank, describing it as an “occupation.” He said Arab states had to end “the fiction that Israel does not exist,” and send cabinet-level officials to meet with the Israeli government. An Israeli government spokeswoman July 17 welcomed the idea of a conference but said Israel would not yet discuss “the three core issues of borders, refugees and Jerusalem.” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier July 16 had met with Abbas in Jerusalem.

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Abbas Installs Caretaker Government—

Abbas July 13 swore in a caretaker government led by Salam Fayyad, who until that day had served as premier of the emergency government that Abbas had installed in June. Under Palestinian Basic Law, the emergency government had a lifetime of 30 days, which expired July 13, unless it was approved by parliament. The new caretaker government had an indefinite mandate. Abbas July 11 had called a parliamentary session for that purpose, but Hamas boycotted it because so many of its members of parliament had been arrested that it would be unable to muster a majority to vote against the government. Abbas’s office July 13 cited support from deputy speaker of parliament and political independent Hassan Khreisheh, who said parliament would become “ineffective” unless it met within the week. That would legally allow Abbas to “issue laws by decree,” according to Khreisheh. A Hamas spokesman July 14 denounced the caretaker government as illegal. Acting speaker Ahmed Bahar, a Hamas member, that day called a parliamentary session for July 15 to hold a vote against the government, but Fatah members boycotted the session, leaving it without a necessary quorum. Abbas July 18 said he would call fresh elections for the parliament and presidency. U.N. Warns of Gaza Collapse—The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees July 18 called on Israel and Abbas to reopen the Karni crossing into Gaza to avert an impending collapse of Gaza’s economy. The agency’s commissioner general, Karen AbuZayd, said the U.N. was already feeding more than one million people in Gaza, both refugees and ordinary residents. The agency’s Gaza director, John Ging, said the territory was on course to become “nearly a totally aid-de459

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pendent society.” He urged the Quartet (the U.S., the European Union, Russia and the U.N.) to push for the reopening of the crossing, which was shut June 12. Other News—In related news of IsraeliPalestinian affairs: † The Israeli cabinet July 8 approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners, in a gesture of support to Abbas. † Israeli officials July 15 said they would remove 178 West Bank militiamen—all of them with ties to Fatah—from their wanted list. They also allowed several former Palestinian officials in exile to reenter the West Bank for a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). † The Arab League July 8 said it was sending a mission to Israel July 12 for peace talks and to discuss methods of bolstering Abbas. The Israeli government July 10 said the visit had been postponed until July 25 due to “logistics.” † Alvaro de Soto, a Peruvian diplomat who in May had left his post as the U.N.’s envoy to the Middle East, had compiled an “End of Mission” report dated May 5 which claimed that the U.S. had a onesided agenda supporting Israel and had hampered international efforts toward peace in the region, Britain’s Guardian reported June 13. The report was supposed to have remained confidential. De Soto faulted the U.S. government for, among other things, pressuring the international community into boycotting Hamas—a move he said had been disastrous for the Palestinian people, the Guardian reported. „

Other International News U.S.-Caribbean Summit Held. Foreign minis-

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ters from the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) June 19–21 met with high-level U.S. officials, including U.S. President George W. Bush, during the Conference on the Caribbean in Washington, D.C. On the summit’s agenda were the issues of trade, security, drug trafficking and the deportation of U.S. criminals back to their Caribbean homelands. CARICOM leaders also said they intended to address Bush’s refusal to accede to the authority of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands. [See 2006, p. 582C1] U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice June 18 met with the CARICOM foreign ministers in advance of the conference. The CARICOM delegates June 20 met with Bush, marking the first time that the group had met with a U.S. president in 10 years. Bush at the meeting pledged to support efforts to increase U.S.-Caribbean trade. Thomas Shannon, the assistant U.S. secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, June 21 said he would soon visit the Caribbean as a follow-up to the conference. CARICOM delegates had also reportedly reached out to leaders within the Caribbean American community in an effort to organize that constituency on matters such as U.S. immigration policy. „ 460

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Intelligence Assessment Warns Of Al Qaeda Resurgence Pakistan Cease-fire Blamed. Counterter-

rorism officials July 17 released an intelligence assessment stating that the international terrorist network Al Qaeda had reestablished its operational capacity over the past two years, and concluded that the Bush administration’s counterterrorism strategy had failed to stop the group. The assessment said Al Qaeda’s resurgence was due mainly to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s failure to stop the radicalization of his country’s northwestern tribal areas, which Al Qaeda reportedly was using as a safe haven. It concluded that “the U.S. Homeland will face a persistent and evolving terrorist threat over the next three years,” with Al Qaeda remaining the primary danger. [See p. 470E2; 2006, p. 745A1; for the declassified portions of the report, see box p. 461A1] The released report was a two-page declassified summary of key judgments of a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) entitled “The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland,” representing a consensus among the U.S.’s 16 intelligence agencies. The full NIE remained classified. Cease-fire Allowed Al Qaeda’s Recovery—

The report said a 2006 cease-fire between Musharraf and tribal leaders had allowed Al Qaeda to develop safe havens in the tribal areas and replenish the ranks of both its top leadership and “operational lieutenants.” White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend at an intelligence briefing July 17 predicted that Al Qaeda would intensify efforts to plant operatives in the U.S. in preparation for an attack. She added that the predictions were not based on any new intelligence of impending terrorist attacks. The Bush administration, seeking to bolster Musharraf’s government, had lent grudging backing to the cease-fire, but White House officials July 17 welcomed a potential policy shift. “It hasn’t worked for Pakistan,” Townsend said. “It hasn’t worked for the United States,” she added. However, other officials warned that even if the cease-fire was scuttled, the Pakistani military would not be able to operate effectively in the mountainous tribal regions. Focus on Iraq Defended—The NIE said Al Qaeda would “leverage” its connections with regional terrorist groups, most notably Al Qaeda in Iraq, in order to attack the U.S. The administration claimed that Al Qaeda was closely linked with the Iraqi group, although independent experts said that the two operated independently for the most part. The assessment said Al Qaeda’s connections with Al Qaeda in Iraq helped it to attract new recruits. [See p. 457C3] Townsend defended the U.S.’s continued military focus on Iraq despite the reported danger emanating from Pakistan. She said both the White House and Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden considered Iraq

to be “the central front in the war on terror.” “The fact is, we were harassing them in Afghanistan, we’re harassing them in Iraq, we’re harassing them in other ways, nonmilitarily, around the world,” Townsend said. “And the answer is, every time you poke the hornet’s nest, they are bound to come back and push back on you. That doesn’t suggest to me that we shouldn’t be doing it.” The assessment described Al Qaeda in Iraq as the “most visible and capable affiliate and the only one known to have expressed a desire to attack the [U.S.].” Intelligence officials at the briefing substantiated the description by pointing to a November 2006 Web site posting by Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri (also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer), in which Masri threatened to blow up the White House. Other Findings—The NIE said the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was more likely to attack the U.S. if the U.S. were seen as a direct threat to that group or its main sponsor, Iran. It also said non-Muslim terrorist groups would probably conduct small-scale attacks over the next three years. The assessment predicted that radical Islamic philosophy would increasingly be spread via the Internet. It added that the danger of radicalization of the U.S.’s Muslim population was not as severe as in Europe. Democrats Blast Iraq War—Many Democrats July 17–18 seized on the intelligence assessment as proof that the Bush administration’s military involvement in Iraq had been a distraction from the war on terrorism. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) July 17 said in a statement, “Changing our strategy in Iraq and narrowing our military mission to countering Al Qaeda terrorism—as a bipartisan majority in the Senate now favors—would be the single greatest thing we could do to undermine Al Qaeda’s ability to use Iraq as a recruiting and propaganda tool fueling the growth of regional terrorist groups.” [See p. 457A1] Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.)—all leading Democratic presidential candidates—July 18 in statements and speeches also said the NIE proved the folly of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, and called for U.S. troops to be pulled out. By contrast, of the top Republican candidates, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) refused to comment on the issue, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney July 18 issued a statement generally calling for increased national security. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani that day said both Democrats and Republicans could interpret the assessment as backing up their chosen viewpoints on Iraq. Government Warns of Increased Threat—

The NIE came in the wake of several government warnings of an increased Al Qaeda threat. The Associated Press July 12 reFACTS ON FILE

THE DECLASSIFIED EXCERPTS OF THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE ON TERRORIST THREATS TO THE U.S.

Following are the portions of the National Intelligence Estimate, “The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland,” that were declassified July 17 [See p. 460A2]: Key Judgments We judge the U.S. homeland will face a persistent and evolving terrorist threat over the next three years. The main threat comes from Islamic terrorist groups and cells, especially Al Qaeda, driven by their undiminished intent to attack the homeland and a continued effort by these terrorist groups to adapt and improve their capabilities. We assess that greatly increased worldwide counterterrorism efforts over the past five years have constrained the ability of Al Qaeda to attack the U.S. homeland again and have led terrorist groups to perceive the homeland as a harder target to strike than on 9/11. These measures have helped disrupt known plots against the United States since 9/11. • We are concerned, however, that this level of international cooperation may wane as 9/11 becomes a more distant memory and perceptions of the threat diverge. Al Qaeda is and will remain the most serious terrorist threat to the homeland, as its central leadership continues to plan high-impact plots, while pushing others in extremist Sunni communities to mimic its efforts and to supplement its capabilities. We assess the group has protected or regenerated key elements of its homeland attack capability, including: a safe haven in the Pakistan Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), operational lieutenants, and its top leadership. Although we have discovered only a handful of individuals in the United

ported that the National Counterterrorism Center had compiled a classified report, entitled “Al Qaeda Better Positioned to Strike the West,” that laid out many of the same conclusions as the NIE. That report warned that Al Qaeda was using Pakistan’s tribal areas as a safe haven and that the network was rebuilding. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff July 10 told the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune that he had a “gut feeling” that the U.S. faced an increased risk of terrorist attack during the summer. “Summertime seems to be appealing to them,” Chertoff said. “We worry that they are rebuilding their activities.” A Chertoff aide refused to say whether the warning was based on new intelligence, and the Department of Homeland Security did not raise the national terrorist threat level. „

2008 Presidential Campaign 2nd Quarter Finance Reports Filed. Candi-

dates for the 2008 Republican and Democratic presidential nominations July 15 filed reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), giving final numbers on their campaign fund-raising and spending for the second quarter of 2007, from April through June. [See p. 431F1; for a table of fund-raising results for all the major party presidential candidates, see p. 461E2] The reports confirmed that the Democratic candidates had continued to raise money at a much faster clip than their Republican rivals, a reversal of the usual pattern of Republican financial superiority. Together, the eight Democratic candidates raised a combined $80 million in the second quarter, compared with $50 million for the Republicans. July 19, 2007

States with ties to Al Qaeda senior leadership since 9/ 11, we judge that Al Qaeda will intensify its efforts to put operatives here. • As a result, we judge that the United States currently is in a heightened threat environment. We assess that Al Qaeda will continue to enhance its capabilities to attack the homeland through greater cooperation with regional terrorist groups. Of note, we assess that Al Qaeda will probably seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), its most visible and capable affiliate and the only one known to have expressed a desire to attack the homeland. In addition, we assess that its association with AQI helps Al Qaeda to energize the broader Sunni extremist community, raise resources, and to recruit and indoctrinate operatives, including for homeland attacks. We assess that Al Qaeda’s homeland plotting is likely to continue to focus on prominent political, economic, and infrastructure targets with the goal of producing mass casualties, visually dramatic destruction, significant economic aftershocks, and/or fear among the U.S. population. The group is proficient with conventional small arms and improvised explosive devices, and is innovative in creating new capabilities and overcoming security obstacles. • We assess that Al Qaeda will continue to try to acquire and employ chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear material in attacks and would not hesitate to use them if it develops what it deems is sufficient capability. We assess Lebanese Hezbollah, which has conducted anti-U.S. attacks outside the United States in

the past, may be more likely to consider attacking the homeland over the next three years if it perceives the United States as posing a direct threat to the group or Iran. We assess that the spread of radical—especially Salafi—Internet sites, increasingly aggressive antiU.S. rhetoric and actions, and the growing number of radical, self-generating cells in Western countries indicate that the radical and violent segment of the West’s Muslim population is expanding, including in the United States. The arrest and prosecution by U.S. law enforcement of a small number of violent Islamic extremists inside the United States—who are becoming more connected ideologically, virtually, and/or in a physical sense to the global extremist movement— points to the possibility that others may become sufficiently radicalized that they will view the use of violence here as legitimate. We assess that this internal Muslim terrorist threat is not likely to be as severe as it is in Europe, however. We assess that other, non-Muslim terrorist groups—often referred to as “single-issue” groups by the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation]—probably will conduct attacks over the next three years given their violent histories, but we assess this violence is likely to be on a small scale. • The ability to detect broader and more diverse terrorist plotting in this environment will challenge current U.S. defensive efforts and the tools we use to detect and disrupt plots. It will also require greater understanding of how suspect activities at the local level relate to strategic threat information and how best to identify indicators of terrorist activity in the midst of legitimate interactions.

Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) led all candidates in fund-raising, with $32.9 million in second-quarter contributions. He spent $16 million, leaving him with $36.3 million in cash on hand. In the first two quarters of the year combined, Obama raised $58.6 million and spent $22.6 million. He had drawn on 258,000 contributors to date, more than the top three Republicans combined. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), who remained the Democratic front-runner in nationwide polls, reported raising $27 million and spending $12.2 million in the second quarter. She had $45.2 million in cash on hand. In the first half of the year, she had raised $53.1 million and spent $17.3 million.

Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) was the third-leading fund-raiser among the Democrats, with $9 million in the second quarter and $23.1 million in the first half. He had spent $6.4 million in the second quarter and $9.7 million in the first half, leaving him with $13.3 million in cash on hand. Giuliani

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Among the top Republicans, former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani raised $17.5 million in the second quarter, boosting his take for the first half of the year to $33.5 million. He had spent $11 million in the second quarter and $17 million to date, leaving him with $18.3 million in cash on hand.

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PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES’ FUND-RAISING

Democrats Barack Obama Hillary Rodham Clinton John Edwards Bill Richardson Christopher Dodd Joseph Biden Dennis Kucinich Mike Gravel Republicans Rudy Giuliani Mitt Romney John McCain Ron Paul Sam Brownback Tom Tancredo Mike Huckabee Duncan Hunter Tommy Thompson

Contributions 2nd Quarter To Date

Spending 2nd Quarter To Date

Cash on Hand

$32.9 $27.0 $9.0 $7.0 $3.3 $2.4 $0.8 $0.1

$58.6 $53.1 $23.1 $13.3 $7.3 $4.5 $1.1 $0.2

$16.0 $12.2 $6.4 $5.0 $4.4 $2.5 $0.7 $0.1

$22.6 $17.3 $9.7 $6.2 $5.7 $3.7 $0.9 $0.2

$36.3 $45.2 $13.3 $7.1 $6.4 $2.8 $0.2 $0.03

$17.5 $14.0 $11.3 $2.4 $1.4 $1.5 $0.8 $0.8 $0.5

$33.5 $35.0 $24.9 $3.0 $2.7 $2.8 $1.3 $1.3 $0.8

$11.0 $20.5 $13.0 $0.5 $1.8 $1.5 $0.7 $0.9 $0.5

$17.0 $31.8 $21.8 $0.6 $2.8 $2.2 $0.9 $1.1 $0.8

$18.3 $12.1 $3.2 $2.4 $0.5 $0.6 $0.4 $0.2 $0.1

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All numbers in millions. Contributions exclude transfers and loans, and include funds designated for the general election campaign. Source: Federal Election Commission, Associated Press

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Politics Cheney Energy Task Force Contacts Leaked.

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A list of interest groups and industry executives who had met in 2001 with an energy policy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney was revealed July 18 by the Washington Post, which said it had received a list of the contacts from an unidentified former Bush administration official. Cheney had successfully fought a legal battle all the way to the Supreme Court to keep the records secret. [See p. 418G2; 2005, p. 324F2] In a 2004 ruling, the high court had agreed with Cheney that the records should be kept secret to preserve the confidentiality of executive branch deliberations. According to the Post, the list of visitors included about 20 oil and drilling companies and three dozen trade associations, such as the American Petroleum Institute and the National Mining Association. Many of them had previously confirmed their participation in the meetings. A meeting with 13 environmental groups had been held April 4, 2001, toward the end of the four months of meetings. Those 462

groups had later complained that the task force’s contacts had been skewed toward industry. The task force’s report, issued in May 2001, recommended increasing domestic production of energy supplies, although it also stressed the need for more energy efficiency and conservation. Cheney himself attended only a few of the meetings, according to the document, and was not at the one with the environmental groups. Cheney’s involvement in drawing up energy policy had attracted close scrutiny because he had been chief executive of a major energy services company, Dallas, Texas–based Halliburton Co., from 1995 to 2000. A spokeswoman for Cheney declined to comment on the list, telling the Post, “The vice president has respectfully but resolutely maintained the importance of protecting the ability of the president and vice president to receive candid advice on important national security matters in confidence, a principle affirmed by the Supreme Court.” „

Business Black Found Guilty in Hollinger Fraud. A

jury in U.S. District Court in Chicago July 13 convicted former Hollinger International Inc. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Conrad Black on three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstructing justice. Canadianborn Black faced up to 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines. Federal prosecutors said they would ask for a sentence of 15 to 20 years at Black’s sentencing hearing Nov. 30, while his defense lawyers said they would appeal the verdict. Black was cleared of nine other counts against him, which included tax fraud and racketeering. [See p. 175C3] Federal prosecutors had indicted Black and three other Hollinger executives in November 2005 on charges of fraud, racketeering and illegal tax filings. By the time the trial started March 20, the four men together were accused of stealing $60 million from Chicago-based Hollinger. [See 2005, p. 873G2] Black was convicted of stealing approximately $2.9 million from Hollinger in the form of noncompete payments accrued between 1998 and 2001, when he sold off parts of Hollinger (now known as SunTimes Media Group Inc.), a vast media company that once controlled more than 300 newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph in Britain, the Jerusalem Post in Israel, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the National Post in Canada. Buyers had given noncompete payments to Black to guarantee that he would not create newspapers that could compete with the buyers’ newly acquired assets. The noncompete payments for which he was convicted of fraud were either given to Black by a company owned by Black himself, or were supposed to go to Hollinger instead of being diverted into Black’s pocket. Black’s codefendants—John Boultbee, former chief financial officer, Peter Atkinson, a former vice president and general

counsel, and Mark Kipnis, a former corporate counsel—were found guilty on the same three counts of fraud as Black, and faced 15 years in prison and a $750,000 fine each. The codefendants either profited from the payments or helped Black carry out the scheme. In total, the four were convicted of stealing $6.1 million from Hollinger. The conviction that carried the highest maximum penalty, 20 years, was the obstruction of justice count. Black in May 2005 had been caught on camera removing 13 boxes of files from his Hollinger offices in Toronto, Canada, which was found to be a violation of a court order stipulating that he could not throw out potential evidence. The jurors were shown the videotape May 30, the day the prosecution rested its case after unexpectedly dropping a money laundering charge against Black. Black faced more than a dozen other criminal proceedings on the same charges and others, including lawsuits filed by Canada’s Ontario Securities Commission and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as a civil case brought by Sun-Times Media accusing Black and other former executives of stealing $542 million from the company. Prosecution Relied on Star Witness—

The former president of Hollinger and Black’s business partner of more than 30 years, F. David Radler, took the stand May 7–17 for a total of eight days, and was the prosecution’s central witness. Radler had pleaded guilty to one count of fraud in September 2005, and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors for a lesser prison sentence of up to 29 months and a $250,000 fine. [See 2005, p. 713B3] Radler told the jury that in 1999 Black came up with the idea to carve out money for themselves from Hollinger’s sales by using noncompete payments. During crossexamination, the defense tried to paint Radler as an inveterate liar who would say anything to keep his plea deal with the prosecution. In turn, the prosecution pointed out that Radler had agreed to go to jail for a considerable amount of time, calling that an indication of his sincerity. TASOS KATOPODIS/Getty Images

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney raised $14 million in the second quarter, bringing his total to $35 million to date. That included $9 million of his own money that he had lent to his campaign so far. He had spent $20.5 million in the second quarter and $31.8 million overall. He had $12.1 million in cash on hand. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the onetime front-runner, showed financial weakness, raising $11.3 million and spending $13 million in the second quarter. He had raised $24.9 million and spent $21.8 million to date, leaving him with $3.2 million on hand. Those spendthrift ways had led to the previous week’s replacement of McCain’s campaign manager. McCain had also laid off about half of his campaign staff. [See p. 446B3] McCain campaigned in New Hampshire July 13–14, vowing to press on and defending his support for President George W. Bush’s Iraq war policy. McCain said he now planned to focus his scaled-down campaign on the key earlyvoting states of New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina. He pointed to his victory in New Hampshire in the 2000 Republican primary as the model for the kind of underdog candidacy he now planned to revive, although he went on to lose the nomination to Bush that year. Gilmore Drops Out— Former Virginia Gov. James Gilmore 3rd July 14 announced that he was dropping out of the race for the Republican nomination, citing inadequate fund-raising. Gilmore reported raising $188,000 in the second quarter and about $62,000 in cash on hand. He was the first Republican candidate to drop out. He had touted himself as a proven, consistent conservative, challenging the conservative credentials of GOP front-runners Giuliani, Romney and McCain, whom he derided collectively as “Rudy McRomney.” „

Former Hollinger International Inc. Chief Executive Conrad Black arriving at U.S. District Court in Chicago July 13, the day he was convicted of mail fraud and obstruction of justice, and acquitted of racketeering and other counts.

FACTS ON FILE

The prosecution relied heavily on Radler’s testimony, but in the course of the trial also secured testimony from former Hollinger board directors to the effect that the noncompete payments were acquired without their approval. The jury also heard testimony that revealed details about Black’s life and his lavish spending habits, as Black was charged with using corporate money for his personal expenses. In opening arguments March 20 and closing arguments June 18 the prosecution tried to convince jurors that although the defendants used complicated financial transactions, their actions were equivalent to those of common burglars and liars. The Defense—Edward Genson, a lawyer for Black, in his opening argument March 20 said the noncompete agreements of questionable legality were carried out under Radler’s watch. He said, “David Radler will come into this court and lie to you about Conrad Black.” Genson also argued that Black’s personal and professional lives often intermixed, and that his luxurious expenditures on parties and exotic trips were a means of developing professional relationships that benefited Hollinger. Defense lawyers June 12 brought in an expert witness, Alan Funk, a forensic accountant. Funk testified that all the noncompete payments were documented by the defendants and approved by company auditors. In response, the prosecution argued that the defendants had covered their tracks. The defense rested its case that day. In closing arguments, Edward Greenspan, another lawyer for Black, June 19 stressed that the prosecution’s case lay on Radler’s shoulders, reiterating that he was not to be trusted. Greenspan also pointed out that Hollinger’s board of directors admitted that they had not read or had only skimmed documents that outlined the details of the noncompete payments. In all, the trial lasted nearly four months. The jurors heard 47 days of testimony from a total of 50 witnesses. None of the defendants testified in the trial; Judge Amy St. Eve presided. Ex-Partner Settles With ‘Sun-Times’—

Radler March 18 agreed to pay $63.4 million to Sun-Times Media to settle claims against himself and companies he owned. Of the total, $21.2 million would be paid to settle civil charges that he had stolen money from Hollinger and backdated stock options. The remaining money would be paid by North American Newspapers Ltd., Horizon Publishing Co. and Bradford Publishing Co., companies owned by Radler or jointly by Radler and Black that had bought parts of Hollinger and given Radler noncompete payments. „ Tyco’s Accounting Firm Settles Fraud Suit.

New York City–based accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) LLP July 6 agreed to pay $225 million to settle auditmalpractice claims brought by Tyco International Ltd. and Tyco investors. They charged that PwC had failed to stop Tyco’s former executives from committing accounting fraud when PwC was the compaJuly 19, 2007

ny’s auditor. Tyco had reached a separate settlement with investors over accounting fraud charges in May. [See 2005, p. 423A1] The settlement covered investors who had held stock in Tyco between Dec. 13, 1999, and June 7, 2002. PwC said in a statement that it had been prepared to defend itself against any charges, but chose to settle due to the size of the case and the litigation costs it would incur. It was one of the largest settlement fees ever paid by an auditing firm. [See 1999, p. 936C3] Investors lost an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion after it was revealed in June 2002 that Tyco executives had overstated income by as much as $5.8 billion, causing the stock to crash. Dennis Kozlowski, former Tyco chief executive officer (CEO), and Marc Swartz, former chief financial officer, were convicted in June 2005 of stealing $600 million from Tyco, and were serving up to 25 years in prison each. Tyco Agrees to $3 Billion Settlement—

Bermuda-based Tyco agreed May 15 to pay $2.98 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by investors that charged the company with accounting fraud. The settlement covered shareholders who had held stock in Tyco between Oct. 1, 1998, and June 7, 2002. Tyco also agreed to split any money it gained from ongoing lawsuits against Kozlowski, Swartz and former board member Frank Walsh with investors, and gave investors a stake in any money gained from suits against PwC for audit malpractice. The settlement was viewed by current Tyco executives as a way to put to rest the legal troubles that had hampered the company in recent years. The company was planning to split itself into three independent companies, unravelling much of what Kozlowski had done as CEO. The settlement was one of the largest payouts ever in a class-action suit. „

Religion L.A. Archdiocese Agrees to Abuse Settlement.

The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles July 15 agreed to a record $660 million settlement with 508 people who claimed to have been victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy. The settlement was the largest that any diocese had agreed to since a nationwide sexual abuse scandal became public five years earlier. [See 2006, p. 1002B3] Cardinal Roger Mahony, the Los Angeles archbishop, July 15 announced the settlement and offered an apology to the victims, saying he hoped the deal would bring a “final resolution” to a “terrible sin and crime.” The Los Angeles archdiocese was the largest in the U.S. The archdiocese, its insurers and associated religious orders had already agreed to pay $114 million in previous abuse settlements. Mahony said the archdiocese would sell some of its properties and other assets and borrow money to pay the settlement. But he said no parish churches or schools would be affected.

Mahony said the archdiocese itself would pay $250 million of the settlement, while insurers would pay $227 million, and religious orders whose members had committed abuse would pay $60 million. He said other religious orders that had not yet signed on to the settlement would be expected to pay part of the remaining $123 million. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge July 16 approved the settlement. Each victim would receive a payment based on the type of abuse, and its duration and frequency; the alleged incidents had taken place from the 1940s to the 1990s. The settlement preempted several pending civil trials, including one that had been scheduled to begin July 16. It had been expected that Mahony himself would be called to testify in that case. In addition to the payments, the settlement also required the church to release documents including files on clergy implicated in abuse, which would reveal how the church had dealt with the allegations against them. „

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Economy Unemployment Remained at 4.5% in June.

The unemployment rate remained at 4.5% in June after Unemployment seasonal adjust4.5% ment, the Labor June 2007 Department re- Previous Month 4.5% 4.6% ported July 6. Year Earlier The rate had stayed level for three straight months, leading many analysts to believe that the economy was growing. An estimated 132,000 nonfarm jobs were created in June, a slight decrease from the revised 190,000 created in May. [See p. 380B3] 146.1 Million Jobs Held in June— According to a household survey, 146.1 million people held jobs in June, the Labor Department reported July 6. The department counted 6.9 million people as unemployed. The department counted 401,000 workers as “discouraged” in June. Those workers were not looking for work because they believed that no jobs were available. They were not counted as part of the labor force. About 4.5 million people who sought fulltime employment were working part-time instead. The average manufacturing workweek was 41.3 hours in June, up from 41.1 hours in May, while factory workers’ overtime per week also increased, to 4.3 hours, from 4.2. Average hourly wages for production workers rose six cents, to $17.38. The unemployment rate among whites in June was 4.0%, up slightly from 3.9%. The jobless rate for blacks remained unchanged at 8.5%. For Hispanics, who could be of any race, the rate dipped by 0.1 percentage point in June, to 5.7%. For men aged 20 and over, June unemployment was 4.1%, up from 4.0%. For adult women, it also rose slightly, to 3.9%, from 3.8%. The teenage jobless rate in June was 15.8%, up from 15.7% in May, while 463

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MERCHANDISE TRADE DATA

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Deficit/Surplus* May April 2007 2007

Country/ Region China Japan Canada European Union Mexico NICs†

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-20.02 -5.93 -5.17 -8.82 -5.87 -1.29

-19.37 -7.37 -5.84 -9.04 -5.22 -0.36

*Bilateral trade figures in billions of dollars unadjusted for seasonal variations. The data—except figures given for Canada—do not include revisions of month-earlier figures. †Newly industrialized countries—Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

for black teenagers it was 31.2%, up from 30.4% in May. „ Trade Gap Rose in May to $60 Billion. The Commerce Department July 12 reported that the seasonalTrade Deficit ly adjusted U.S. (in billions) trade deficit in May 2007 $60.04 goods and servic- Previous Month $58.67 es for May was Year Earlier $65.71 $60.0 billion, up from a revised $58.7 billion in April. [See p. 380D2] Exports increased $2.9 billion, to $132.0 billion, in May, led by exports of capital goods and industrial supplies and materials. Imports rose $4.2 billion, to $192.1 billion, in May, most notably in the areas of industrial supplies and materials and capital goods. n

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May Bilateral Trade Data Reported—

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The Commerce Department July 12 also reported bilateral trade data for May. The numbers were not seasonally adjusted and contained merchandise-trade data only, with no revisions for the previous month except to the data for Canada. The May merchandise-trade deficit with China rose to $20.0 billion, from $19.4 billion the previous month. The deficit with Canada shrank to $5.2 billion, from a revised $5.8 billion in April. The gap with the European Union decreased to $8.8 billion in May, from $9.0 billion the previous month. The gap with Japan also shrank, to $5.9 billion, from $7.4 billion in April. „ Consumer Prices Gained 0.2% in June.

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The Labor Department July 18 reported that its consumer price index (CPI), which tracked prices paid for conInflation (CPI) sumer goods by June 2007 0.2% Previous Month 0.7% all urban con12-Month Increase 2.3% sumers, grew 0.2% in June after adjustment for seasonal variation. The growth was caused mostly by increasing food prices. “Core” consumer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food costs, increased by 0.2% in June, after a 0.1% rise in May. For the 12-month period through June, the overall unadjusted inflation rate was 2.3%. [See 420E2] Unadjusted for seasonal variation, the CPI for all urban consumers stood at 208.352% of its 1982–84 base average. 464

That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982–84 would have cost $208.35 in June. „ Producer Prices Fell 0.2% in June. Producer prices in June fell 0.2% after seasonal adjustment, according to the Labor Department’s Producer Price Index (PPI), released July 17. The index tracked prices charged by manufacturers and producers of finished goods. It had risen 0.9% in May. “Core” producer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food prices, rose 0.3%, compared with a 0.2% rise in May. Energy prices fell 1.1% in June, after a 4.1% rise in May, and food prices fell 0.8%, after falling 0.2% the previous month. [See 348G3] The finished goods index, before seasonal adjustment, stood at 167.1% of its 1982 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982 would have cost $167.10 in June. Prices for intermediate—or partially processed—goods increased 0.5% in June, after a 1.1% gain in May. Prices for crude goods rose 0.3%, after a 2.0% rise the previous month. Producer Prices Rose 0.9% in May—

The Labor Department June 14 released the PPI for the month of May. In that report, the department said producer prices increased 0.9% in May, following a 0.7% increase in April; core prices rose 0.2% in May, after not moving in April; energy prices gained 4.1%, an improvement on April’s 3.4% rise; and food prices decreased 0.2%, following a 0.4% rise in April. The finished goods index, before seasonal adjustment, stood at 167.8% of its 1982 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982 would have cost $167.80 in May. Prices for intermediate goods rose 1.1%, following a 0.9% increase in April. Prices for crude goods rose 2.0%, after a 1.5% decline in April. „ Fed Sees Mixed Growth. The Federal Reserve June 11 issued its “beige book” survey of economic data covering the period from mid-April to early June. The survey was compiled eight times a year on a rotating basis by the Fed’s 12 regional banks. The latest survey indicated modest growth in some districts mixed with slowing in others. [See p. 294D3] Residential construction and the housing market strengthened in many districts, but the overall real estate market was still weak. Consumer spending was weak, as was the labor market. Results for manufacturing activity, tourism and travel activity were mixed. Energy industry activity continued to grow in several districts. „ Industrial Production Rose 0.5% in June.

The Federal Reserve July 17 reported that its industrial production index grew 0.5% in June, following a 0.1% decrease in May. The overall index now stood at 113.4% of its 2002 base average, up from its revised level of 112.8% the previous month. [See p. 349E1] Manufacturing rose 0.6% in June, due largely to increases in production of dura-

ble goods, and motor vehicles and parts. The output of utilities was up 0.3%, and mining output grew 0.5%. U.S. factories, mines and utilities operated at 81.7% of their total capacity. Figures for May Reported—The Federal Reserve June 15 reported that its industrial production index remained unchanged in May, following an increase of 0.4% in April. The overall index stood at 112.7% of its 2002 base average in both April and May. Manufacturing rose 0.1% in May. The output of utilities fell 1.3%, after greater April activity caused by “unusually cold temperatures” that month. The output of mines rose 0.5%. U.S. factories, mines and utilities operated at 81.3% of their total capacity. „ Leading Indicators Declined 0.3% in June.

The Conference Board business research organization July 19 reported that its composite index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of future economic activity, fell by 0.3% in June, to 137.5. It had increased a revised 0.2% in May, the board reported. The index’s base level of 100 reflected conditions in 1996. Three of the 10 indicators in June—most notably average weekly manufacturing hours—were “positive” contributors. Five indicators were “negative,” led by building permits and average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance. Two indicators were unchanged from May. [See p. 349B1] Indicators Rose in May—The Conference Board June 21 reported that its composite index of leading economic indicators rose by 0.3% in May, to 138. It had decreased a revised 0.3% in April, the board reported. Five of the 10 indicators in May were positive contributors, led by average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance and stock prices. Three indicators were negative, led by real money supply. Two indicators were unchanged from April. Other News—In other economic news: † The Conference Board June 26 reported that its index of consumer confidence fell to 103.9 in June, from a revised level of 108.5 in May. The index’s base level of 100 reflected consumer confidence in 1985. [See p. 349C3] † The Commerce Department July 13 reported that the value of U.S. retail sales, adjusted for seasonal variation, fell 0.9% in June, to $373.9 billion. The department had announced June 13 that the value of U.S. retail sales, adjusted for seasonal variation, increased 1.4% in May, to $377.9 billion. [See p. 349G2] † The Commerce Department July 13 reported that the value of business inventories at the end of May was $1.40 trillion after seasonal adjustment, up 0.5% from the revised value at the end of April. The ratio of inventories to sales—a measure of how long it would take businesses to unload their inventories at the current sales pace—was 1.26. The department had reported June 13 that the value of business FACTS ON FILE

inventories at the end of April was $1.40 trillion after seasonal adjustment, up 0.4% from the revised value at the end of March. The ratio of inventories to sales was 1.27. „

lumbia River. Craig had said the center’s data were “cloaked in advocacy” and modified a spending bill to prevent a local utility from providing the center’s $1.3 million annual budget. „ Interior Department Appointee Resigns.

Environment Judge Overturns Fish Count Policy. Judge John Coughenour of U.S. District Court in Spokane, Wash., June 13 overturned a policy instituted by the Bush administration that would allow fish raised in hatcheries to be counted in determining whether their species qualified for protection under the Endangered Species Act. [See 2006, p. 694B1] The National Marine Fisheries Service in 2004 had issued the overturned policy, which had been widely criticized by environmentalists. Several environmental groups filed suit against the agency after the steelhead species of trout native to the Columbia River in Washington had been downgraded to “threatened” status, from “endangered.” “Species are to be protected in the context of their habitats, until they are self-sustaining without the interference of man,” Coughenour wrote in his decision. He added, “Artificial propagation is a temporary measure designed to bring a species to the point where the species no longer requires [protection].” Environmentalists hailed Coughenour’s ruling, but lawyers representing a building trade group said they would appeal it. (Endangered Species Act protections limited property development in areas populated by endangered species.) Fish Protections Ordered— The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., April 9 upheld a ruling which found that the National Marine Fisheries Service had failed to adequately provide protections for endangered salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake rivers. Environmentalists had argued that the best method of protecting the fish would be to eliminate four hydroelectric dams owned by the utility PacifiCorp that impeded spawning behaviors on the lower Snake River, which ran through Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. [See 2004, p. 758D3] The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service Jan. 30 had ordered PacifiCorp to build new fish ladders and other modifications on four hydroelectric dams to ease the passage of salmon on the Klamath River, which ran through Oregon and California. The cost of the modifications was estimated at $300 million. However, removing the dams, as was desired by environmentalists, would cost an estimated $199 million, increasing the likelihood that PacifiCorp would exercise that option. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Jan. 24 had also denied an attempt by Sen. Larry Craig (R, Idaho) to eliminate the funding of the Portland, Ore.–based Fish Passage Center, which monitored the numbers of endangered salmon in the CoJuly 19, 2007

Julie MacDonald, a senior political appointee at the Interior Department, April 30 resigned as deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. MacDonald in March had been criticized by the Interior Department’s inspector general for altering scientific reports to minimize their potential impact on landowners and businesses opposing endangered species protections. She had also reportedly provided industry lobbyists with internal department documents. MacDonald, a civil engineer by training, had no background in environmental science. [See p. 245E3] Congress had planned to investigate MacDonald’s role at the Interior Department, and officials at the department were reportedly discussing plans to demote her. MacDonald said she had resigned for personal reasons. „

Accidents & Disasters Plane Carrying Transplant Organ Crashes.

A small jet plane carrying doctors and a pair of lungs destined for a transplant operation in Michigan crashed into Lake Michigan June 5, minutes after it took off from General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Wis., killing all six people aboard. [See p. 314F3] National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators said the plane, a Cessna 550 Citation II, had likely crashed due to technical difficulties with its trim system, which controlled the plane’s bank and pitch. Besides the two pilots, the plane was carrying two transplant surgeons and two perfusionists (organ transplant specialists) from the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Doctors June 8 said the transplant’s intended recipient had received a new set of lungs from another donor. „ FAA, Airline Blamed in ’05 Seaplane Crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) May 30 faulted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in a December 2005 seaplane crash off Miami Beach, Fla. All 20 people on board were killed in the crash. The NTSB said the FAA should have detected ineffective repairs in one of the wings of the plane, a Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallard built in 1947, that caused the wing to fall off in flight. The board also found fault with the safety practices of the operating airline, Chalk’s Ocean Airways (which changed its name from Chalk’s International Airlines in 1999). Congress in 1991 had passed legislation tightening regulations on older aircraft, but the rules would not take full effect until 2010 and did not cover planes approved by the government before 1958. [See 2005, p. 960E1] „

AFRICA

A

Ethiopia Opposition Leaders Get Life Terms. A three-

judge panel in Federal High Court in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, July 16 sentenced 35 members of the political opposition to life in prison, including five leaders sentenced in absentia for attempting to overthrow the government. They were also barred for life from voting or running for public office. Eight other defendants received terms ranging from 18 months to 18 years in prison. However, soon after the sentence was handed down, it was revealed that the defendants had requested clemency, which the government, under pressure from the U.S., reportedly was considering. [See below; 2006, p. 821D1] The sentences related to protests in June and November 2005, when some 30,000 opposition supporters were arrested in a government crackdown for demonstrating against the results of legislative elections. In the elections, held in May 2005, the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) had accused Premier Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) of widespread fraud. The government alleged that the opposition protesters had been attempting to overthrow the government. However, most of those arrested were later set free and were not charged. The defendants included CUD leader Hailu Shawel; Berhanu Nega, the elected mayor of Addis Ababa; and several journalists and CUD members of parliament. They had been convicted June 11 on charges including high treason and “outrage against the constitution.” Their trial had begun in 2006, and many had refused to recognize the court or present a defense. The judges April 9 had thrown out the charges against 25 of the defendants. Prosecutor Abraham Tetemke July 9 had requested the death penalty for those who had been convicted. However, one of the judges, Adil Ahmed, in reading the verdict July 16 said, “The court has deemed life imprisonment as a comprehensive and sufficient verdict for the actions taken.” The trial would continue for the 10 prisoners who opted to present a defense in the case. London-based human rights group Amnesty International July 17 called the defendants “prisoners of conscience imprisoned on account of their opinions, who have not used or advocated violence and should therefore be immediately and unconditionally released.” A senior Ethiopian judge in October 2006 had said Ethiopian government forces killed 193 protesters in the 2005 protests, which took place in Addis Ababa and other cities. The judge, Wolde-Michael Meshesha, had been part of a panel set up by the government to investigate the killings. The panel’s final report, which found that the protesters had been unarmed and that the security forces had used excessive force, had been suppressed by the govern465

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ment, and several of its members were reportedly forced to flee the country. U.S. Inaction Criticized—Human rights groups and relatives of the defendants had criticized the U.S. government, an ally of Meles’s administration, for not putting more public pressure on the Ethiopian government to release the prisoners, it was reported June 11. U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D, N.J.), who April 23 had sponsored a bill calling for the release of political prisoners in Ethiopia, July 16 said the defendants had “paid a price for what they felt was simply expressing political views.” The bill July 18 was approved by the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa and global health. U.S. officials reportedly had been working behind the scenes to secure the prisoners’ release. Relatives of the prisoners said the U.S. had pressured them to sign an apology to the Ethiopian government in exchange for their release. [See below] The defendants’ families had alleged that the U.S. did not exert strong pressure on Meles’s government to release the prisoners because it needed Ethiopia as an ally in counterterrorism activities in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia in December 2006 had invaded neighboring Somalia with U.S. support and helped oust an Islamist militia that had taken control of the country. [See p. 382A3] However, the treatment of the protesters and the subsequent trial of the opposition leaders had led to criticism of Meles by some Western governments, and a reduction of foreign aid from the European Union and other donors. Pardon Considered—A spokesman for Meles, Bereket Simon, July 17 said the government had received a “request for a pardon by the detainees almost three weeks ago.” Simon said the final decision on the request would be made by President Girma Woldegiorgis. An excerpt from the pardon request, read that day on Ethiopia’s ETV television channel and published in the state-run Herald newspaper, said the defendants regretted “the attempts we made to get rid of the constitutionally established government functions through the use of unconstitutional means.” They went on to ask for “forgiveness.” However, a top opposition figure, Merera Gudina, had said that the request might not be authentic and could merely be an effort to discredit the opposition, the Web site of U.S. government–funded Voice of America reported July 18. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack July 16 had said, “As a matter of trying to bring together the Ethiopian people and bring an end to this particular chapter of political turmoil, we would urge the Ethiopian authorities to…strongly consider clemency for these individuals.” „

Libya Foreign Medics’ Death Sentences Commuted.

The High Judicial Council, Libya’s top legal body, July 17 commuted to life in prison death sentences for five Bulgarian nurs466

es and a Palestinian trainee doctor who had been convicted of deliberately infecting more than 400 children in the Libyan city of Benghazi with HIV, the virus that caused AIDS, in the late 1990s. The judicial council’s decision marked the latest development in a long and complicated legal and diplomatic saga that had begun in 1999. [See below; 2006, p. 1012F3] The five female Bulgarian nurses were Valia Cherveniashka, 52; Snezhana Dimitrova, 54; Nasya Nenova, 41; Valentina Siropoulo, 48; and Kristiana Valcheva, 48. The male doctor was Ashraf al-Hazouz, a Palestinian born in Egypt who was in his late 30s. Valcheva had worked at the Hauari Hospital in the city of Benghazi, while the other five had begun working at the al-Fateh Pediatric Hospital in Benghazi in 1998. The medics had been in custody in Libya since 1999, when they and several other foreign health workers were arrested in Benghazi on charges of deliberately infecting the children with HIV by using contaminated blood products. They were first convicted and sentenced to death in May 2004. In December 2005, the Bulgarian and Libyan governments agreed to set up a fund to compensate the infected children and their families, and the Supreme Court subsequently overturned the guilty verdicts and ordered a retrial. In January 2006, the children’s families demanded a total of $5.5 billion in compensation. In their retrial, the medics in December 2006 were again convicted and sentenced to death. They had filed an appeal of their convictions with the Supreme Court Feb. 17. The defendants had maintained their innocence from the beginning. Their lawyers consistently argued that the children had become infected due to poor hygiene at the hospitals and that the outbreak had begun before the workers’ arrival. Expert testimony and medical research supported those claims. The lawyers also asserted that their clients had confessed under torture. The case had created tension between Libya and the U.S. and European governments. It had hindered Libya’s efforts to restore its standing in the international community after it renounced its illicit weapons program in 2003 and accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. [See p. 443E3; 2006, p. 387A2] Observers said that Libyan leader Muammer el-Qaddafi was under pressure domestically from the children’s families to uphold the death sentences or to reach an acceptable compensation settlement. Compensation Deal Facilitates Pardon—

The Libyan Supreme Court July 11 upheld the death sentences, bringing an end to the judicial proceedings in the case. However, the Qaddafi Foundation for Charity Associations, a Libyan charity run by Seif alIslam, a son of Qaddafi, July 10 had announced that a settlement had been reached with the families that could lead to the medics’ release. That deal, under which the relatives reportedly agreed to payments worth $1 million per child, apparently facilitated the

July 17 decision by the High Judicial Council, which was chaired by Libya’s justice minister. (Under Islamic law, a death sentence could be overturned if a victim’s family agreed to financial compensation.) In its decision, the council overruled the Supreme Court and commuted the sentences to life in prison. The agreement on the medics’ fate was reached after behind-the-scenes maneuvering by European officials and other representatives. On June 10, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner met in Libya with al-Islam, who had acted as Libya’s main envoy in the case. Also, Cecilia Sarkozy, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Claude Gueant, an aide to Sarkozy, July 12 met with the imprisoned medics, the children’s families and Qaddafi, in what was described as an unofficial visit. The New York Times, citing an unidentified EU diplomat, reported July 12 that the EU, its member states and private corporations had already paid as much as $13 million per child in an effort to resolve the case. (More than 50 of the children had already died.) However, the Financial Times, citing European diplomats including FerreroWaldner, July 19 reported that the most recent compensation package, which amounted to about $460 million, would be paid by the Qaddafi Foundation and by the Libyan government itself. The Bulgarian government July 19 formally requested that the medics be transferred to Bulgaria. (Hazouz had been granted Bulgarian citizenship June 19, in order that he might be released to Bulgarian custody with the rest of the defendants if a deal was reached.) The two countries had signed a prisoner exchange agreement in 1984. It was expected that the medics would be freed if they were allowed to return to Bulgaria. The nurses’ families had long criticized the Bulgarian government for not working hard enough to obtain their freedom. The Bulgarian government had reportedly refused to pay any compensation, arguing that such a payment would amount to an admission of guilt. Medics Cleared of Slander— A Libyan court May 27 acquitted the six medical workers on charges of slander. The charges had been filed by three Libyan police officers and a doctor whom the medics had accused of torturing them in prison to gain „ confessions in the HIV case.

AMERICAS

Brazil Sao Paulo Plane Crash Kills Scores. A com-

mercial passenger jetliner July 17 skidded off a runway at Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo, then crashed into an office building and gas station, setting off an intense fire that engulfed the plane. Rescue workers July 18 said they had recovered some 170 FACTS ON FILE

bodies from the wreckage, adding that they did not believe any of the passengers or crew from TAM Linhas Aereas flight JJ 3054 had survived the crash and subsequent fire, making it the deadliest crash in Brazilian history. The plane, an Airbus A320, was carrying a reported 186 passengers and crew. Three other people on the ground at the time of the accident were also reported killed. [See p. 365F3; 2006, p. 769F1] Several experts interviewed in local media said a persistent heavy rain in Sao Paulo that day had most likely caused the plane to skid. However, Jose Serra, governor of Sao Paulo state, said it was too early to determine the accident’s cause, and suggested that numerous other events could have caused or contributed to the crash. The plane’s “black box” recorder July 18 was recovered and sent to the U.S. for analysis. Firefighters reportedly battled the fire resulting from the gas station explosion for more than six hours before bringing it under control. Brazil’s civil aviation system had been in a protracted crisis since a September 2006 collision between a commercial passenger jetliner and a smaller private business jet that killed 154 people. Since that accident, various civilian and military agencies had struggled for control over the country’s aviation. Work slow-downs and strikes by air traffic controllers protesting their working conditions had also resulted in scores of delayed and canceled flights. Critics July 18 lambasted Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration for failing to implement at Congonhas Airport safety measures that had been put in place at other airports. Among those killed was Rep. Julio Redecker, the opposition leader in the lower house of Congress and an outspoken critic of da Silva’s handling of the aviation crisis. Congonhas was Brazil’s busiest airport, serving domestic flights. Air traffic safety experts had reportedly long warned that its old, relatively short runways were a significant danger. A federal judge in February had prohibited larger planes like the Airbus that crashed from taking off or landing at Congonhas Airport, the New York Times reported July 18. However, that decision had been quickly overturned by a higher court, which said such a prohibition would severely affect the economy. Federal prosecutors July 19 sought an injunction to close the airport “until a complete refurbishment of both its runways can be completed and there is certainty they are fully secure.” „

Canada New Mounties Commissioner Named.

William Elliott, a lawyer and public servant in the Public Safety Department, July 6 was named the new commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), effective July 16. Elliott became the first RCMP commissioner who had never served as a police officer. [See p. 265F2; 2006, p. 934C2] Elliott, 53, replaced Giuliano Zaccardelli, who had resigned in December 2006 afJuly 19, 2007

ter revelations regarding the RCMP’s mishandling of the U.S. detention and deportation of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian national who was tortured in Syria but later cleared of any wrongdoing. The RCMP had also recently been buffeted by a pension and insurance fund scandal. [See p. 66C2] Elliott had worked in several Conservative Party governments. His appointment was quickly criticized by some government observers and veterans from within the RCMP, who said that his close political ties to the governing party would imperil the law enforcement agency’s independence. Report Finds Agency ‘Broken’— David Brown, a former head of the Ontario Securities Commission assigned to investigate the RCMP, June 15 issued his report on allegations that the agency’s pension and insurance fund managers had abused their positions. Brown described the RCMP’s operations and management practices as “horribly broken” in the report. He described the organization’s hierarchy as “paramilitary,” and harshly criticized Zaccardelli, describing his leadership style as “autocratic.” Brown found that whistle-blowers in the RCMP who had brought mismanagement of the pension and insurance funds to light had been punished for their efforts. He also found that a purportedly independent investigation into the matter headed by the Ottawa Police Service had largely been guided by members of the RCMP. Brown recommended that a review board be instituted to ensure greater over„ sight of the RCMP’s activities.

Mexico Central Gas Pipelines Attacked. Several

pipeline explosions July 11 crippled natural gas supplies in central Mexico’s Queretaro state. A group claiming to be the leftist guerrilla Popular Revolution Army (EPR) released a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, as well as for other pipeline attacks carried out July 5 in nearby Guanajuato state. Both attacked pipelines were operated by the state-run firm Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), and had served numerous industries in central Mexico. The attacks had led to evacuations of nearby areas, but no injuries or deaths were reported. [See 1998, p. 955F1] The EPR in its communique, which was also signed by a group calling itself the People’s Democratic Revolutionary Party, said it had organized the attacks to demand the release of Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Raymundo Rivera Bravo, two of its members who it claimed were being held by the government. (The office of the attorney general July 11 said neither man was in the government’s custody.) The group said it was fighting a “prolonged people’s war” and a “campaign of harassment against the interests of the oligarchy and the government.” The EPR had orchestrated violent attacks against government institutions in southern Mexico in the 1990s, but had remained

largely inactive in recent years. However, some analysts had tied the group to a 2006 popular violent uprising in Oaxaca city, in Oaxaca state. The EPR said the two prisoners it requested released had been captured in Oaxaca city in May. [See 2006, p. 981F2] Several opposition political leaders with the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) questioned the legitimacy of the EPR’s statement, suggesting that the government had organized the attacks as a means of distracting the public from the country’s problems. Canacintra, an industrial trade group, July 12 said the pipeline attacks had disrupted the operations of up to 1,200 companies in several industrial hubs located in central Mexico. Among the firms affected were the U.S.’s Kellogg Co., and Japan’s Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa had sent an elite 5,000-member military force to guard strategic infrastructure in the country, including gas and oil pipelines and hydroelectric dams, it was reported July 12. The unit, known as the Corps of Federal Support Forces, had been created in May to aid the government in battling powerful drug cartels. „

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Australia Aboriginal Intervention Plan Announced.

Prime Minister John Howard June 21 announced a slate of radical measures aimed at curbing child abuse in Aboriginal communities in Australia’s Northern Territory, after a report released June 15 detailed widespread alcohol-fueled abuse among the country’s indigenous population. The measures, which were supported by the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP), included banning alcohol and pornography, mandating health checks for all children under 16, reducing welfare payments if children were not sent to school and requiring families to spend at least half of their welfare on essentials such as food. [See 2006, p. 535F2] The government June 22 said that extra police would be sent to Aboriginal communities to enforce the measures, with logistical support from the Australian Defense Force. Some Aboriginal leaders and activists attacked the measures as racist and paternalistic, and local politicians said enforcement would be problematic. In addition, the announcement was seen by critics as a political ploy by Howard, who was expected to call parliamentary elections by the end of the year. The report, commissioned by the government, said rampant alcoholism and lack of education in Aboriginal communities had led to small children being exposed to hard-core pornography and adults having sex in their presence. In addition, it said alcohol was used by both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal men to barter for sex with Aboriginal girls only 12 to 15 years old. 467

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Other News—In other news on Australia’s Aboriginal community: † A World Health Organization (WHO) report released May 1 said that Aborigines’ standard of health was 100 years behind that of other Australians. The report said the life expectancy of Aborigines and the indigenous people of the Torres Strait Islands, off the northern coast of Queensland, was 17 years below the Australian average. † Up to 300 people rioted Jan. 9 in the remote Aboriginal town of Aurukun in the north of Queensland, attacking shops and a police station, after a man was arrested and fell ill while in police custody. Police set up an emergency cordon around the town to contain the violence. The unrest was linked to a December 2006 decision by Queensland’s top prosecutor not to charge a police officer, Chris Hurley, in the 2004 death of an Aboriginal man while in custody. [See 2004, p. 1072A2] † The Githabul Aboriginal tribe Jan. 2 reached a deal with the New South Wales environment and conservation department that would give the tribe joint management control over 2,300 square miles (6,000 sq km) of territory along the state’s coast. The tribe had traditionally lived on those lands, and had fought a 10-year legal battle to control them. The area included 19 national parks and forests, including several United Nations World Heritage rainforests. [See 2006, p. 803D3] „ Treasurer Unveils 2007–08 Budget. Australian Treasurer Peter Costello May 8 presented the government's budget for fiscal 2007–08, which would begin July 1. The budget proposed A$31.5 billion (US$27.5 billion) in income tax cuts and A$35 billion in new spending over the next four years, including one-off payments for parents, senior citizens, veterans, caregivers and low- to middle-income earners. The opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP), which led Prime Minister John Howard’s center-right coalition government in opinion polls, said the heavy spending was a bid to boost support for the government in upcoming elections. [See 2006, p. 417A2] The budget included A$3.5 billion in spending on primary, vocational and secondary schools, and an endowment of A$5 billion for universities and research. It also promised A$4.3 billion in environmental spending, and an A$22.3 billion boost in spending on road and rail infrastructure over the five years starting in fiscal 2009– 10. The budget raised military spending by A$14 billion over the next 10 years. Costello projected an economic growth rate of 3.75% in 2007–08, up from 2.5% in 2006–07, and forecast a surplus of A$10.6 billion for the current year. Costello said the budget would not overstimulate the economy and raise interest rates, which sat at a six-year high of 6.25%. ALP leader Kevin Rudd May 10 in his budget reply outlined A$3 billion in new spending promises if his party won the elections. Rudd’s proposals called for A$2.5 billion over the next 10 years to address a skills shortage by building practical 468

training centers in public schools. It also included measures to promote the study of Asian languages, fix leaky water pipes around the country in order to combat water shortages, and establish Australia as a funds management hub for Asia. „

Japan Quake Forces Nuclear Plant Closure. A

strong earthquake July 16 struck just off the northwest coast of Japan, killing 10 people in Niigata prefecture (province) and injuring hundreds more. Japan’s meteorological agency said the earthquake’s magnitude was 6.8 on the open-ended Richter scale of ground motion. The quake also caused a leak of water containing radioactive material from a nuclear power plant in Kashiwazaki into the Sea of Japan, but authorities said that the leak caused no environmental harm. [See 2006, p. 284F2; 2004, p. 885D2] However, the government July 17 ordered the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), to keep it closed until thorough safety inspections were completed, and ordered checks of the rest of the country’s nuclear plants to verify their earthquake resistance. Japan depended on nuclear energy for almost a third of its power generation, but the country’s industry had been plagued by a series of accidents and cover-ups. Tepco initially denied that there had been any radiation leak at the plant, which was the world’s largest nuclear power plant. Tepco did not acknowledge the leak until hours after learning of it. At the plant, about 1.4 quarts (1.3 liters) of water from a pool used to cool spent radioactive fuel rods spilled during the earthquake and leaked into a separate water tank. More than 300 gallons of that nowtainted water were accidentally pumped into the sea. The quake also caused a fire elsewhere in the facility, and caused barrels of radioactive waste to tip over and spill. Premier Shinzo Abe, who interrupted parliamentary election campaigning to visit Niigata, July 16 criticized Tepco for failing to promptly disclose the accident. Criticism of Tepco intensified in the following days, as it acknowledged July 18 that the facility had not been designed to withstand an earthquake of magnitude greater than 6.5. Tepco also said the plant might in fact sit atop an active fault. The company said it had initially understated the number of barrels of waste that had been toppled, and the level of radioactivity in the spilled water. Tepco July 19 said radioactive material had been found the day before in an exhaust filter at the plant, indicating another previously undetected radiation leak. Hundreds of buildings were damaged or destroyed by the quake, along with many roads and bridges, hindering emergency workers. All of those killed were elderly people, provoking public discussion of the vulnerabilities of the country’s large aged population. „

Laos U.S. Arrests 11 in Coup Plot. U.S. federal agents June 4 arrested 10 people in California on charges that they were planning to orchestrate a coup against the communist government of Laos. The suspects included Vang Pao, a Laotian military general in exile who had led U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)–backed Hmong forces against the Laotian government during the Vietnam War, and eight other Hmong elders. Former California National Guard Lt. Col. Harrison Jack, who was involved in Vietnam-era covert operations, was also arrested. An 11th suspect, Dang Vang, was arrested June 14. A Laotian government spokesman June 5 hailed the arrests as “the great news that Laos has awaited for so long.” [See 2006, p. 1025C2] A federal grand jury in Sacramento, Calif., June 14 indicted the men on charges of conspiring to kill, kidnap and maim, violating the Neutrality Act, which prohibited U.S. citizens from taking military actions against countries with which the U.S. was at peace, and other felonies. Nine were also charged with attempting to purchase weapons to shoot down aircraft. Police said the men were arrested after attempting to buy $10 million worth of AK-47 assault rifles, Stinger surface-to-air missiles and other weapons from an undercover federal agent. Their intent was allegedly to launch an attack against the Laotian capital, Vientiane, and other targets in the country. The Associated Press (AP) June 18 reported that the prosecution had filed a document, authored by Dang Vang, setting out detailed plans for the so-called Operation Popcorn. The plot involved using $28 million to hire local mercenaries to bomb Laotian government buildings, shoot down military aircraft and “neutralize trusted government leaders.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Twiss June 4 said, “We’re looking at conspiracy to murder thousands and thousands of people at one time.” He added that thousands of co-conspirators remained at large. The suspects reportedly enjoyed considerable support among the Hmong exile community, and hundreds protested for their freedom at a June 4 court appearance in Sacramento. Hmong who had remained in Laos after the Vietnam War were persecuted by the government, according to the U.S. State Department. „

Thailand Ex-Premier Thaksin’s Assets Frozen. An anticorruption committee organized by Thailand’s military-appointed government June 11 froze 21 bank accounts belonging to former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was in exile in Britain. The accounts held some $1.6 billion. Investigators said in a nationally televised briefing that they had found evidence that Thaksin had obtained the money illegally through abuse of his former position to enrich his family. Thaksin’s family in early 2006 had sold its Shin Corp. for a FACTS ON FILE

profit of about $1.9 billion in a deal that had triggered mass protests leading to his resignation in 2006. [See p. 366A3] The government June 19 formally charged Thaksin and his wife, Pojamarn, with concealing stockholdings related to a 2003 real estate acquisition. It ordered the former leader to return to Thailand by June 29 or face a possible international arrest warrant. Thaksin June 21 refused, saying he could not receive justice in Thailand. Instead he said he would sue the military government for the return of his frozen funds. Thaksin, speaking by video link from London to thousands of supporters gathered in Bangkok, the capital, June 15 denounced the freeze on his accounts and an earlier decision to ban his political party. The Thai supreme court’s political crime section July 10 agreed to hear the case, and ordered Thaksin and Pojamarn to return to Thailand Aug. 14 to stand trial. Thaksin July 6 said he had completed an £81.6 million (US$162 million) takeover of the British soccer team Manchester City. He said the Thai corruption charges would not affect the purchase. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Britain Expels Russian Diplomats in Extradition Spat Russia Retaliates in Tit-for-Tat Ousters.

ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband July 16 said Britain would expel four Russian diplomats in response to Russia’s refusal to extradite a suspect in the 2006 poisoning murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian former spy, in London. Russia July 19 said it would retaliate by expelling four British diplomats. Russia July 9 had delivered its formal rejection of Britain’s May request to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, another former spy, saying that Russia’s constitution forbade extradition of its citizens. [See p. 368B1; 1996, p. 383D3] A Russian foreign ministry spokesman July 16 condemned Britain’s move as “immoral” and vowed that it would have “serious consequences” for bilateral relations.

Former Soviet intelligence agent Andrei Lugovoy in May 2007. Britain sought to extradite Lugovoy from Russia for prosecution in the 2006 poisoning murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London.

July 19, 2007

Diplomatic tensions had mounted over the case from the start, as Russia had limited British investigators’ ability to operate in Russia, and Russia complained of what it called the politically charged sensationalizing of the case in Britain. Litvinenko, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, on his deathbed had accused Russian intelligence agencies of carrying out the poisoning, possibly at Putin’s behest, a charge that Russia dismissed as preposterous. Miliband said Russia had failed to acknowledge “the seriousness of the issues involved.” He noted that Litvinenko, who had become a British citizen, had “suffered a horrifying and lingering death” by radiation poison that “put hundreds of others” in danger of contamination. Miliband added that Britain “has a wider duty to ensure the safety of the large Russian community living in the U.K.,” which included numerous expatriate opponents of Putin. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking in Germany July 16, echoed Miliband’s statement, saying, “When a murder is committed on British soil action has to be taken.” Miliband said that Britain would also place tighter restrictions on the granting of visas to Russian officials, and review Britain’s “cooperation with Russia on a range of issues.” However, he said Russia remained “a key international partner” of Britain, and British officials expressed the hope that the dispute would not widen and disrupt cooperation between the countries in unrelated matters. Russia, along with the retaliatory expulsions, instituted similar restrictions on visas for British officials wishing to visit Russia. Russia Cites Constitutional Bar— Russian officials July 9 contended that they were constitutionally barred from extraditing citizens, despite Russia’s signing of the 1957 European Convention on Extradition. British officials said they believed that, in light of the seriousness of the matter, Russia could have found a way to accommodate the request. Russia had offered to consider bringing charges against Lugovoy in Russia if Britain supplied sufficient evidence for doing so, but Miliband cited international “concern that the law in Russia is applied selectively.” Russia’s foreign ministry in a July 17 statement pointed out that Britain had refused the extradition of 21 Russians requested by Russia, including expatriate billionaire Boris Berezovsky, who had been close to Litvinenko, and Chechen rebel spokesman Akhmed Zakayev. [See below; 2005, p. 740F3] Other Reaction—Lugovoy July 16 said that Britain’s expulsions of the Russian diplomats “confirms that the Litvinenko affair had a political subtext from the very beginning.” After British police announced their desire to prosecute him, Lugovoy made counteraccusations that Litvinenko had been an agent of British intelligence services, which he said had been responsible for his death.

Britain’s main opposition parties, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, expressed support for Miliband’s actions. Litvinenko’s widow, Marina Litvinenko, expressed gratitude and said she was “proud” to be a British citizen. Berezovsky Plot Reported—British police July 18 said they had arrested and deported a Russian man who had allegedly been plotting to murder Berezovsky. The tycoon said the plot against his life had been organized by the Russian government, a charge dismissed by Russian officials. Probe of British Espionage Opened— Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in-

telligence agency June 15 said it had opened a criminal investigation into allegations of British espionage in Russia. The agency said it would look into the allegations made by Lugovoy, who in proclaiming his innocence had accused the British foreign intelligence service, MI6, of employing not only Litvinenko but also other prominent Putin critics as agents. The FSB said it was acting on Lugovoy’s public declaration as well as unspecified additional information provided by him. [See p. 368B1] The Litvinenko case came as Russia’s broader relations with the U.S. and Western Europe were fraying. British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a June 8 meeting with Putin raised concerns about Russia’s democracy. He also warned that Russian moves to strip foreign companies of key energy assets would discourage foreigners from investing in Russia. The two met during a summit of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized nations in Germany. [See pp. 452A2, 375D3] However, some British business leaders had expressed concern that such criticism by Blair and other British officials threatened to undermine their ability to operate in Russia, Britain’s Financial Times reported June 12. „

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Iran Reactor Inspection Allowed After Talks.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog based in Vienna, Austria, July 13 said Iranian authorities had agreed to give its inspectors access to a heavy-water nuclear reactor under construction in Arak. Earlier in the year, Iran had banned IAEA personnel from the reactor. The agency also said Iran had agreed to its demand to disclose information about past nuclear experiments that the agency suspected might be related to a secret nuclear weapons program. [See p. 326D2] The concessions came at talks in Tehran, the Iranian capital, between an IAEA team and Iranian authorities. The IAEA had announced June 25 that it was sending the team at Iran’s invitation, after meetings between IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, chief Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. 469

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The sudden cooperation from Iran was seen as an attempt to prevent the U.N. from imposing a third set of punitive sanctions, the toughest yet, for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment activities. The U.S. had been trying to build support for stronger sanctions. ElBaradei July 9 said IAEA inspectors had visited another Iranian nuclear site, Natanz, the previous week and had reported an apparently significant slowdown in expansion of enrichment activities since their previous visit. However, analysts from the independent Institute for Science and International Security, in Washington, D.C., led by former U.N. weapons inspector David Albright, July 9 reported that recent satellite photos revealed construction of a complex of tunnels in a mountain near the Natanz facility. The construction appeared to be new since January, they wrote. The photos were obtained from commercial satellite imagery company DigitalGlobe. The analysts speculated that the tunnels could be planned for protective storage of nuclear equipment in case of a military attack on Natanz, or could be used for storage and staging of weapons to defend Natanz. An IAEA spokeswoman July 9 said the agency had received “clarifications” from Iran about the tunnels, but did not elaborate. Separately, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency May 2 reported that Hossein Moussavian, a former Iranian diplomat and nuclear negotiator, had been arrested that week on spying charges. Moussavian was reportedly released on bail May 9. He was an ally of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a rival of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and had criticized Ahmadinejad’s hard-line defense of the nuclear program.

name of dialogue, in the name of women’s rights, in the name of democracy.” Tajbakhsh, who was connected to the Open Society Institute of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, explained in the clip that Soros’s organization had shifted its focus to the Islamic world after the fall of communism. The Iranian broadcast asserted that Esfandiari had been an agent of the Georgian Republic’s 2003 “velvet revolution” that overthrew its president, a charge her husband, Shaul Bakhash, called “ridiculous.” Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh were among four dual citizens of Iran and the U.S. who were being held by Iranian authorities. Esfandiari was reportedly being held in solitary confinement, although the video clips showed both detainees outside prison and looking reasonably healthy. Footage of Iranian-Canadian Ramin Jahanbegloo was also shown during the July 18 broadcast. He had been held in Iranian detention for four months in 2006. [See 2006, p. 701B1] Esfandiari had been charged with trying to undermine Iranian sovereignty, state television had reported May 21. Tajbakhsh had been arrested and imprisoned sometime around May 11. Iranian officials May 29 said similar charges had been brought against Tajbakhsh and Iranian-American journalist Parnaz Azima, who had been released but had not been allowed to leave the country. The U.S. State Department July 16 renewed calls for the release of all Americans held in Iran. The U.S. July 8 had permitted Iranian officials to visit five Iranian nationals held by U.S. forces in Iraq. Their capture in Irbil, Iraq, in January had been a sore point between the U.S. and Iran ever since, and was often cited as a possible motivation for Iran’s detention of the four dual U.S. citizens. „

IAEA Director Decries Lack of Funds—

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El Baradei June 15 told the IAEA’s board of directors that the agency was so underfunded that “if an accident were to happen tomorrow, we would be hard pressed to carry out core functions.” He complained of antiquated equipment that would force the agency to rely on external laboratories for some tests, undermining the “independence of the agency’s verification system.” „ Iranian-American Detainees Footage Aired.

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Iranian state television news July 16 broadcast video footage of Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh, two Iranian-American academics who had been imprisoned since May for suspected espionage and “acting against national security.” The footage was the first sign of them since their arrests. The clip was initially aired to promote a longer program entitled “In the Name of Democracy,” broadcast July 18–19, that featured similar footage of interviews with the two. The program was billed as an expose of an alleged U.S.-backed attempt to overthrow the Iranian government. [See p. 320D2] In the July 16 clip, Esfandiari, a scholar at the Washington, D.C.–based Woodrow Wilson International Center, was seen explaining that she had recruited speakers for the center, and that her work was “in the 470

SOUTH ASIA

Pakistan Violence Across Country Kills Hundreds.

A spate of suicide attacks and bombings across Pakistan July 14–19 left at least 160 people dead, and ended a 10-month-old truce between the government and tribal chiefs in North Waziristan, a semiautonomous region in the northwest between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The violence apparently came in retaliation for a July 10 government raid on the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad, the nation’s capital, which killed more than 70 Islamic militants. [See below, p. 442F2; 2006, p. 703A1] Tens of thousands of soldiers July 13–14 were deployed to the North-West Frontier Province, which bordered North Waziristan, after President Pervez Musharraf in a televised address July 12 had promised to crack down on Islamic extremists. Officials said the troops’ presence in the region was meant to ensure peace after extremists called for jihad, or holy war, against the government after the mosque raid. The northwest region was a hotbed of Islamic militants, members of the interna-

tional terrorist network Al Qaeda and supporters of the Taliban, who were fighting an insurgency against U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in Afghanistan. [See p. 452G3] In the first large attack, a suicide car bomb July 14 slammed into a military convoy, killing at least 24 paramilitary soldiers and wounding 26 others in Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. A suicide bomber July 15 detonated his charge in a room full of police recruits taking exams in the city of Dera Ismail Khan, killing at least 26 people and injuring 60. Two suicide bombers and a roadside bomb that day struck a military convoy in Swat district, killing 18 people and injuring 47. Both attacks took place in the North-West Frontier Province. In subsequent violence: † A roadside bomb and an ensuing ambush by militants July 18 killed 17 troops who were part of a convoy driving through North Waziristan. † A suicide car bomber July 19 killed seven people at a police academy in Hangu, a town near Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province. Another suicide bomber July 19 killed at least 15 people at a mosque in an army camp at Kohat, a town also close to Peshawar. † A suicide bomber July 19 killed at least 26 people in the town of Hub, in Baluchistan province in the south of the country. The bomber was allegedly aiming at a convoy carrying Chinese workers. It was unclear if the bomber’s motives were tied to the government raid on the Lal Masjid or to an ethnic Baluch insurgency against the government. Chinese citizens in the past had been targeted by students at the Lal Masjid as well as by Baluch insurgents, as China and Pakistan were close allies. † The military July 18 began shelling targets in North Waziristan, signaling the start of a larger offensive. Truce With Tribes Unravels— Pro-Taliban militants July 15 renounced a 10month-old peace agreement between the government and tribes in North Waziristan, and declared that it was at war with the army. The militants said the government had violated the truce by deploying the army to the northwest, establishing checkpoints and conducting operations against suspected militants. The government and North Waziristan tribal chiefs in September 2006 had signed an agreement in which the government promised to withdraw its troops from the region. In exchange, the tribes would keep militants from conducting operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The agreement ended several years of fighting between the two sides. The truce had been criticized by Pakistani moderates and U.S. officials who believed Taliban militants and Al Qaeda operatives used the tribal areas as a haven to regroup and organize themselves with impunity. Pakistan had received billions of dollars in military aid from the U.S. since it pledged to fight Islamist terrorists after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., FACTS ON FILE

and had been pressured to flush out extremists from the country. The U.S. March 15 had announced that it would provide $750 million in humanitarian aid to Pakistan’s tribal areas over a five-year period. A U.S. National Intelligence Estimate partly released July 17 said Al Qaeda had used the tribal areas to bolster its strength. When asked about the effects of the truce, White House press secretary Tony Snow July 18 said, “The one thing we can say for sure is that the plan, as well intentioned as it was, didn’t work.” [See p. 460A2] Pakistani officials bristled at the insinuation that they were to blame for a resurgent Al Qaeda. The foreign ministry responded, “Pakistan has done more than any other country to weaken and destroy Al Qaeda.” However, the government July 16 had sent a team of tribal elders to meet with militant leaders in the northwest to try to save the truce, an indication that Musharraf was hesitant to engage in an all-out battle with the militants. Musharraf in the past had insisted that the truce was the most effective way to pacify the region. Suicide Bomber Hits Political Rally—A suicide bomb July 17 killed at least 15 people and wounded 40 others at a political rally in Islamabad. The rally was held to demand that Musharraf step down from power and restore democracy. It was one of many that had occurred across the country since March, when he suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry for an alleged abuse of his office. Chaudhry had been scheduled to speak at the rally; he was unhurt. [See p. 389G2] Musharraf July 17 called for an immediate investigation into the attack. Mohammed Ali Durrani, the information minister, called the attack “an act of terrorism.” However, some protesters claimed that the government’s intelligence agencies were responsible for the attacks. Munir Malik, a lawyer for Chaudhry, said the government was targeting Chaudhry himself. A statement from Benazir Bhutto, an exiled former prime minister who was also the head of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), July 17 said “a hidden hand” was working to destabilize the country so that martial law could be imposed, a fear echoed by many observers. Musharraf was also chief of the army. Bhutto’s party was also seen as a target of the attacks, as Bhutto had endorsed the government raid on the Lal Masjid mosque. Members of the PPP were among those killed at the rally. Musharraf July 18 promised he would not impose martial law. That day, he also told a group of newspaper editors that elections scheduled would be held later in the year. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Sailing Switzerland’s ‘Alinghi’ Retains America’s Cup.

Swiss yacht Alinghi, skippered by New Zealander Brad Butterworth, July 3 sucJuly 19, 2007

cessfully defended its America’s Cup title, beating Emirates Team New Zealand, five races to two, in the best-of-nine series off the coast of Valencia, Spain. Alinghi, owned by Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli, who was also part of its crew, became just the third boat to successfully defend its title in the 156-year history of the America’s Cup. [See 2003, p. 153A2] The competition was a rematch of the previous America’s Cup, held in 2003 in New Zealand, in which Alinghi had swept Team New Zealand. That had been the third straight sweep in the America’s Cup. Bertarelli had selected Valencia to host the competition, as there was no suitable venue in landlocked Switzerland. The boats raced on a 12.6-nautical-mile (14.5-mile, 23.3-km) course, with each sailing upwind and downwind twice. The 2007 version was much more competitive than recent America’s Cups, with Alinghi capturing the first race June 23 by a margin of 35 seconds. Team New Zealand—which was skippered by Dean Barker for the second straight time—June 24 rallied after being down early in the second race to win by 28 seconds and tie the series. Team New Zealand won the third race June 26, crossing the finish line 25 seconds ahead of Alinghi. Alinghi June 27 evened the series at two races apiece, winning by 30 seconds. The series turned in Alinghi’s favor in the fifth race June 29, when the Swiss boat won by 19 seconds after Team New Zealand’s spinnaker, a type of sail, ripped. The crew lost control of its replacement and the third sail became tangled. Alinghi June 30 took a 4–2 lead, after taking advantage of a sudden wind shift and winning by 28 seconds. In the final race July 3, Alinghi crossed the finish line just one second ahead of Team New Zealand to clinch the America’s Cup. It was the closest finish in the event’s history. New Zealand Wins Challenger Series—

Emirates Team New Zealand June 6 defeated Italy’s Luna Rossa Challenge team to win the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series and the right to face defending champion Alinghi in the America’s Cup final. New Zealand swept the best-of-nine series against Luna Rossa, also held off Valencia’s coast. It was the first sweep in the Louis Vuitton Cup’s 24-year history. [See 2003, p. 91A2] „

Olympics Russia’s Sochi Gets 2014 Winter Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), meeting in Guatemala City, Guatemala’s capital, July 4 voted to award the 2014 Winter Olympic Games to Sochi, a resort city on Russia’s Black Sea coast. [See 2005, p. 463B2] Sochi had been competing against two other finalists for the chance to host the games: Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Salzburg, Austria. In the first round of secret-ballot voting by committee members,

Salzburg was eliminated. Sochi beat out Pyeongchang in the final round, receiving 51 votes, to 47 for the South Korean city. The only previous Olympic Games hosted by Russia—the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow, the capital—had been boycotted by the U.S. on account of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan the year before. Russia had collected 293 Olympic medals in winter events, a factor said to have worked in Sochi’s favor. Sochi lay on the Black Sea’s “Russian Riviera” and enjoyed a temperate climate, but the nearby Caucasus mountains further inland were suitable for outdoor winter events. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, who traveled to Guatemala to lend his support to Sochi’s bid, pledged $12 billion to develop the resort’s winter sports facilities.

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‘Highway’ on Everest Planned for Torch—

China’s state news media June 19 reported that the government had begun surfacing with blacktop an existing unpaved road from the foot of Mount Everest to a base camp at about 17,000 feet (5,000 m), to facilitate taking the 2008 Olympic torch to the peak’s summit during its pre-Games relay. China was to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in the capital, Beijing. Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, formed part of the border between Nepal and China’s autonomous region of Tibet. „

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Figure Skating World Championships Held. Japan’s Miki

Ando March 24 won the women’s competition at the World Figure Skating Championships, held in Tokyo, Japan. She edged out countrywoman Mao Asada, who took second place. Kim Yu-Na of South Korea took third. A day earlier, Kim had received 71.95 points in the short program, a recordhigh in women’s skating, but she fell twice in the free skate March 24. [See 2006, p. 251C3] Brian Joubert March 23 won the men’s competition, becoming the first Frenchman to take the title in 42 years. Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi was second, and two-time world champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland placed third. In the pairs competition, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo March 21 took the gold, outperforming defending world champions Pang Qing and Tong Jian, who took silver. Both teams were from China. Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany won the bronze. Defending champions Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria March 23 won the ice dancing competition. MarieFrance Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon of Canada were second, followed by Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto of the U.S. „

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Archaeology Mummy Identified as Female Pharaoh. A team of archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme 471

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Council of Antiquities, June 27 announced in Cairo, the capital, that they had identified a mummy as that of the ancient Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut, an important ruler in the 15th century B.C. The archaeological team said the finding was the first time a mummy of an Egyptian pharaoh had been found and “positively identified” since the 1922 opening of King Tutankhamen’s tomb. The team’s claim had not been independently reviewed, and other Egyptologists warned of the need to reserve judgment until results from DNA analysis and the investigation of other evidence came in. [See 2003, p. 902A3] Hawass said the team had made the identification after a CT (computed tomography) scan of a box bearing Hatshepsut’s name had revealed a tooth, which fit exactly into the mummy’s jaw. The mummy had been found in 1903 in an obscure, unadorned tomb in the Valley of the Kings, near the Nile River. „ Earliest American Gunshot Victim Found.

The National Geographic Society June 19 announced that independent Peruvian archaeologists Guillermo Cock and Elena Goycochea had discovered the oldest remains of a gunshot victim found in the Americas, in an Inca cemetery in the Puruchuco suburb of Lima, Peru’s capital. Forensic experts at the University of New Haven, in the U.S., confirmed that the man, an 18- to 22-year-old Inca, had most likely been shot and killed by a Spanish musket ball. [See 1999, p. 319D1] Cock said carbon dating and analysis of other bodies found in the area showed that the man had been killed in the 1530s, probably in the 1536 siege of Lima, an Inca uprising against Spanish invaders. Other indigenous people had most likely been killed by guns between Europeans’ 1492 landing in the New World and the estimated date of the man’s death, but evidence had not been found. The man’s body was one of 72 bodies found buried in shallow mass graves. The archaeologists said many of the others, who included women and children, had been killed by native weaponry, most likely in the same conflict. They said it lent credence to the theory that the Spanish conquest’s success was due in a large part to their native allies, rather than the traditional explanation that they had triumphed through superior technology, the possession of horses, the natives’ lack of immunity to European diseases, and sheer courage and skill. „

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The funeral for President Lyndon B. Johnson’s widow, Lady Bird Johnson, who died July 11 at age 94, was held July 14 in Austin, Texas. The memorial service for the former first lady was attended by current First Lady Laura Bush and by all four living former first ladies: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.), Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan and Rosalynn Carter. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were also in attendance. [See p. 456E2] 472

Agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, 93, who developed high-yield, disease-resistant strains of wheat credited with saving millions of lives, July 17 in Washington, D.C., was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor awarded by the U.S. Congress. Borlaug had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. [See 1970, p. 800B1] The New York Philharmonic July 18 formally announced the appointment of Alan Gilbert, 40, to be its next music director, over a five-year period beginning with the 2009–10 season. He would succeed Lorin Maazel, now 77, who had held the post since 2002. Gilbert would be the first native New Yorker to lead the orchestra in its long history, and its first U.S.-born music director since Leonard Bernstein, who led the ensemble throughout the 1960s. Gilbert was also a violinist and violist, and his parents were violinists who had both played with the Philharmonic. (His mother still did.) He was currently chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in Sweden. [See 2002, p. 776F2; 1990, p. 788G2] Many international celebrities descended on Rome July 6–8 for a weekend of extravagant festivities marking the 45th anniversary of the debut of Italian designer Valentino, one of Rome’s best-known figures. Over the weekend, whose events included fireworks and a retrospective of the designer’s work, Valentino, 75, laid to rest speculation that he was planning to retire. [See 1997, p. 653B1] „

O B I T UA R I E S BISMARCK, Count Gottfried von (Gottfried Alexander Graf von Bismarck-Schoenhausen), 44, Ger-

man aristocrat known for his decadent lifestyle; he was a great-great-grandson of Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1815-98); in 1986, as a student at Oxford University in England, he hosted a party at which Olivia Channon, the daughter of a British cabinet minister, died of a drug overdose; he later worked in finance and telecommunications, staying out of the news until 2006, when a 38-year-old man died after falling from a roof garden during a homosexual orgy at his London apartment; born Sept. 9, 1962, in Brussels, Belgium; found dead July 2 at his London apartment, apparently of a heroin overdose. [See p. 88F2] DEMPSTER, Nigel Richard Patton, 65, most influential British gossip columnist of his generation; he was a mainstay of London’s Daily Mail tabloid for more than three decades, beginning in the early 1970s, and for much of that time also had a column in the Mail on Sunday; he was also a columnist for the satirical magazine Private Eye (1969–85); born Nov. 1, 1941, in India; died July 12 in Ham, England; he had been forced into retirement in 2003 after being diagnosed with a disease of the nervous system somewhat similar to Parkinson’s. [See 1987, p. 575F3] LOPEZ Michelsen, Alfonso, 94, president of Colombia, 1974–78; the son of a two-time president, Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo (1934–38, 1942–45), he made his mark as a constitutional lawyer before entering politics; before becoming president, he was Colombia’s foreign minister in the late 1960s; his presidency was marked by some economic progress but also much civil unrest; he was the losing Liberal Party candidate in Colombia’s 1982 presidential election, beaten by Conservative Belisario Betancur; in recent years, he had been a political columnist for Colombia’s leading daily, El Tiempo, and worked to free hostages held by leftist guerrillas; born June 30, 1913, in Bogota, Colombia; died there July 11, reportedly after suffering a heart attack. [See 1984, p. 587D2; 1982, pp. 405A2, 296D2; Indexes 1980, 1971–78, 1968, 1962]

McLAREN, Dame Anne (Laura), 80, British reproductive biologist and developmental geneticist; her work helped lay the foundation for in vitro fertilization in humans, which yielded the first “test-tube” baby, Louise Brown, in 1978; in the 1990s, she became the first female officer of Britain’s venerable Royal Society, concurrently serving for four years as its foreign secretary and vice president; she was made a dame of the British Empire in 1993; born April 26, 1927, in London; died July 7 in a car crash outside London that also claimed the life of computer scientist Donald Michie, her former husband; during their marriage, which lasted from 1952 to 1959, they collaborated on genetic research; after they were divorced, they remained on close terms, and they had been living in the same London house, bought by both of them, for a year. [See below; 1978, p. 596E3] MELLY, (Alan) George (Heywood), 80, flamboyant British entertainer best known for his renditions of racy jazz and blues songs, many of them associated with legendary U.S. singer Bessie Smith, who died in 1937; outrageously attired, he introduced his numbers with memorable verbal flourishes; he sang with Mick Mulligan’s Magnolia Jazz Band from the late 1940s to the early 60s, when he gave up music to concentrate on writing; he went on to write books on subjects ranging from Surrealist art to popular culture to fishing, and also produced two screenplays, as well as several memoirs; for eight years (1965–73), he wrote pop-music, television and film reviews for the London newspaper the Observer; he returned to music full-time in 1974 as a vocalist with John Chilton’s Feetwarmers, and sang with that group for 30 years; born Aug. 17, 1926, in Liverpool, England; died July 5 at his home in London; he had been battling lung cancer and emphysema and had also developed dementia. [See 2006, p. 1044A2; 1970, p. 986E2; Index 1967] MICHIE, Donald, 83, British computer scientist who did pioneering work in robotics and artificial intelligence; he also worked in genetics; during World War II, he played a key role in the British effort, at Bletchley Park, England, to decipher coded German messages; at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, he led a team that developed the first laboratory robot able to assemble complex objects from jumbled parts; born Nov. 11, 1923, in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar); died July 7 in a car accident in which his ex-wife, geneticist Anne McLaren, also died. [See above] MIRVISH, Ed(win) (born Yehuda Mirvish), 92, Canadian businessman who in 1948 opened Honest Ed’s, a discount-goods store in Toronto, Ontario, that became a local landmark; later, he became a major theatrical producer, in both Canada and Britain; in the early 1960s, he bought and restored Toronto’s historic Royal Alexandra Theatre, built in 1907, and in 1993 he opened a new, 2,000-seat Toronto theater, the Princess of Wales; he also bought and restored London’s Old Vic Theatre, and owned it for 16 years (1982–98); born July 24, 1914, in Colonial Beach, Va.; died July 11 at a Toronto hospital, of natural causes. [See 1967, p. 581A1] ODELL, Jack (John William), 87, British engineer turned toy maker; he was the creator of Matchbox toy cars, which became a worldwide craze in the 1950s, and their principal designer from 1953 to 1973; born March 19, 1920, in London; died July 7 in Barnet, England; he had been battling Parkinson’s disease. [See 2005, p. 448D3] SHEKHAR, Chandra, 80, prime minister of India from November 1990 until June 1991; he was pressured to resign in March 1991, but stayed on in a caretaker role until June 1991, after parliamentary elections were held that led to his being succeeded by P.V. Narasimha Rao; a longtime socialist, he was the first president of India’s Janata Party, formed in 1977, after he was jailed for opposing Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s autocratic rule; born July 1, 1927, in Ibrahimpatti, in India’s Uttar Pradesh state; died July 8 in New Delhi, the Indian capital, of multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood. [See 1981, p. 300D3; Indexes 1990– 91, 1984, 1981, 1978] ZARET, Hy (born Hyman Harry Zaritsky), 99, prolific lyricist who collaborated with film composer Alex North on one of the best-known pop songs of the 20th century, “Unchained Melody” (1955); first heard in a low-budget prison movie called Unchained, the song would eventually be recorded more than 300 times; he also wrote the English lyrics for “The Partisan” (1969), based on Anna Marly’s “Song of the Partisan,” the anthem of the French Resistance in World War II; born Aug. 21, 1907, in New York City; died July 2 at his home in Westport, Conn. [See 2006, p. 199G2; 1991, p. 684F3; Index 1955] „

July 19, 2007

Turkey’s Ruling Islamic Party Wins New Majority Landslide in Parliamentary Elections. Tur-

BURAK KARA/Getty Images

key’s ruling Islamic-based Justice and Development Party (AKP) in July 22 elections won a new parliamentary majority, scoring a landslide victory. The AKP won 46.3% of the vote and at least 340 of the 550 seats in parliament, according to preliminary results. Its share of the vote rose from 34% in the last general election, in 2002. Voter turnout registered at more than 80%. [See p. 353A1; 2002, p. 861F3] In a victory speech, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the AKP’s leader, said, “We will continue with economic development and democratic reforms with determination in order to raise our nation’s living standards.” He also assured voters who backed other parties, “We respect your choices…as the richness of your democratic life.” Turkey’s strong economic growth was seen as a factor in the AKP victory. Gross domestic product had grown at an annual rate of more than 7% over the past five years, in a strong recovery from a severe financial crisis that hit Turkey in 2000. But unemployment remained high at 10%, up from 6.5% in 2000. Erdogan, a former mayor of Istanbul, had served four months in prison in 1999 after being convicted of inciting violence with statements allegedly calling for Islamic rule. However, as premier since 2003, he had led the AKP in a moderate direction. His government had focused on modernizing the economy and pushing through reforms aimed at winning membership in the European Union for Turkey. The EU had partly suspended Turkey’s entry bid in late 2006. [See 2006, p. 983A1] Secular Opposition Fails to Gain— The main opposition Republican People’s Party, which had campaigned on a secularist, anti-AKP platform, failed to make any big gains, taking 20.9% of the vote, compared with 19% in 2002. It would have at least 111 seats in parliament The AKP was distrusted by secular groups, including the top military leaders, who vowed to preserve the constitutional order that had underpinned modern Turkey since its founding by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. They alleged that the AKP was determined to replace secular government with Islamic rule. Tensions between the two sides had burst into the open in April, when Erdogan

nominated Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a fellow leader of the AKP, to replace outgoing President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a staunch secularist. Military leaders had warned that they might intervene to block Gul’s election by parliament, and hundreds of thousands of people joined secular protests against his candidacy. Erdogan finally postponed the presidential election and called early parliamentary elections instead. The fact that Gul’s wife wore an Islamic head scarf in public was key to the confrontation. Turkish law banned head scarves in public buildings, including schools and universities. Secularists called the head scarf a sign of creeping Islamic fundamentalism. Turkish commentators described the election results as a rebuke to the military for its threat to depose an elected government. But the AKP failed to win the twothirds majority it would need to amend the constitution by itself. Erdogan had proposed an amendment to hold presidential elections by popular vote, rather than in parliament. AKP Surges In Kurdish Region—The AKP won more than 50% of the vote in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey, where a separatist rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), had waged an insurgency against government forces since the 1980s, leaving more than 30,000 people dead. [See p. 353D1] Kurdish candidates won at least 23 seats in parliament. Although Kurds made up about 20% of Turkey’s population, there had been no Kurdish members of parliament since several were arrested for taking their oaths in Kurdish and convicted of membership in the PKK in 1994. [See 2004, p. 465E2] The Kurdish candidates ran as independents to circumvent a requirement that parties win at least 10% of the vote in order to qualify for seats. Most of them were reportedly aligned with the political wing of the PKK, which had been banned in 2003. The Turkish military had repeatedly warned that it would take action unless the U.S. and Iraq stopped Kurdish militants based in Iraq from carrying out crossborder raids. Turkey had deployed tens of thousands of troops on the border in recent weeks. But Erdogan had blocked any major incursion so far, insisting that the military needed approval from his government for such an operation. [See p. 367A3] Nationalists

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife, Emine Erdogan (right), and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and his wife, Hayrunisa Gul (left), July 22 celebrating their Justice and Development Party’s victory in parliamentary elections.

Gain—

The far-right Nationalist Action Party won 14% of the vote, becoming the third-biggest party in parliament, with at least 71 seats. The party warned of threats to Turkish nationhood from both Western powers and Kurdish insurgents.

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services A division of World Almanac Education Group A WRC Media Inc. company

Volume 67, No. 3476 July 26, 2007

B In January, extreme nationalists had assassinated a leading Turkish-Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, who had violated a taboo by writing about the massacre of more than a million Armenians by Turkish troops during World War I. [See p. 52B2] Nationalist lawyers had brought legal actions against other journalists and intellectuals, including Turkey’s most prominent novelist, Orhan Pamuk, for discussing the Armenian massacres. The charges against Pamuk had been dropped in January 2006. [See 2006, p. 54E1] „

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Libya Frees Foreign Medics After Deal With European Union Nurses, Doctor Spent Eight Years in Jail.

The Libyan government July 24 freed five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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Turkey’s ruling Islamic party wins new majority; landslide in parliamentary elections. PAGE 473

Libya frees foreign medics after deal with European Union; nurses, doctor spent eight years in jail.

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Senators question truth of Attorney General Gonzales’s testimony; grilled on prosecutor purge, wiretapping. PAGE 477

Bush approves CIA interrogation methods for terrorism detainees. PAGE 477

Brazilian defense minister resigns after air crash.

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Suspended Pakistan Supreme Court judge reinstated. PAGE 485

Afghan Taliban insurgents kill South Korean hostage; 22 still held. PAGE 486

India elects first female president. PAGE 487

Ireland’s Harrington wins golf’s British Open. PAGE 487

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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who had been imprisoned for more than eight years after being accused of intentionally infecting more than 400 children at a hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi with HIV, the virus that caused AIDS. They arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, later that day on a French government jet along with Cecilia Sarkozy, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, both of whom had been instrumental in winning their release. [See p. 466G1] The deal was seen as a coup for Nicolas Sarkozy, who reportedly wanted to expand France’s ties with Libya, which had large reserves of oil and gas. It was also seen as an avenue for Libyan leader Muammer elQaddafi to further regain his international standing after Libya gave up its illicit weapons program in 2003 and accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. Sarkozy July 25 visited Qaddafi in Tripoli, Libya’s capital, in what was described in the media as a reward for the medics’ release. [See below, p. 443E3; 2006, p. 387A2] The freed Bulgarian nurses were Valia Cherveniashka, 52; Snezhana Dimitrova, 54; Nasya Nenova, 41; Valentina Siropoulo, 48; and Kristiana Valcheva, 48. The doctor was Ashraf al-Hazouz, a Palestinian born in Egypt who was in his late 30s. AlHazouz had been made a Bulgarian citizen in June. All six had maintained their innocence throughout their imprisonment. Their lawyers, as well as international medical experts, had asserted that the children had become infected due to poor hygiene at the hospital, and that the outbreak had begun before the medics arrived. The medics also alleged that they had been tortured while in Libyan custody. The Libyan Supreme Court earlier in July had reaffirmed the medics’ death sentences, originally handed down in 2004. However, the High Judicial Council, Libya’s top legal body, then commuted their sentences to life in prison, after months of negotiations with European emissaries including Ferrero-Waldner, Cecilia Sarkozy and German officials. (Germany had held the rotating presidency of the EU for the first six months of 2007; Portugal took over as of July 1. Bulgaria had joined the EU Jan. 1.) Although the medics technically were transferred to Bulgaria to serve out their life sentences there, as part of a 1984 agreement between the two countries, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov immediately pardoned them when they landed in Sofia. [See below] Cecilia Sarkozy’s role in the negotiations was described as unofficial. She was accompanied on both trips to Libya by Claude Gueant, Nicolas Sarkozy’s chief of staff. The role of the French first lady, a 49year-old former fashion model, prompted much debate among French and European politicians and diplomats. [See below, p. 290C2] As part of the agreement that led to the medics’ release, reached in talks between Ferrero-Waldner and Qaddafi and Libyan 474

Foreign Minister Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Shalgam late July 23, the EU would provide support to the infected children for the rest of their lives, including financial assistance and treatment at European hospitals. The EU would also help restore two hospitals and a medical center in Benghazi, and assist with a new anti-AIDS program in Libya. Further, the EU would consider more favorable visa regulations for Libyans, new patrols to counter illegal immigration from Libya to southern Europe, more EU market access for Libyan fish and agricultural products, and assistance to preserve archaeological sites in Libya. Shalgam July 24 said the deal would permit “full cooperation and partnership between Libya and the European Union.” The families of the children had already been promised a total of $460 million in compensation. It was unclear where that money would come from, although Libya had said the compensation fund was partly financed by debt forgiveness by nations including Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. Ferrero-Waldner said the EU would seek voluntary contributions to the fund from EU governments and nongovernmental associations. Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, July 24 said, “We hope to go on further normalizing our relations with Libya. Our relations with Libya were in a large extent blocked by the nonsettlement of this medics issue.” Human rights groups praised the medics’ release. However, they criticized what they said was the trumped-up nature of the charges against them and referred to the allegations that the medics had been tortured while in Libyan custody. French First Lady’s Role Questioned—

Noel Mamere of France’s Green party July 24 downplayed Cecilia Sarkozy’s role in winning the medics’ release as a “big publicity stunt.” Pierre Moscovici, a member of parliament from France’s opposition Socialist Party, asked, “It it a humanitarian or a political affair?…If it is a political affair, we are entering diplomatic methods that I totally condemn.” Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who had visited Libya twice on the medics’ behalf, and other German diplomats noted that much of the bargaining to free them had been conducted before Sarkozy became involved. Nicolas Sarkozy July 24 called the release “the end of a nightmare for these women and this man. Everyone in Europe is convinced that they are innocent.” He also defended his wife’s role in winning the medics’ freedom. “We had to get them out, we got them out and that’s all that matters,” he said, adding, “It was a humanitarian problem involving women. I thought that Cecilia could be useful.” Sarkozy had promised during his presidential campaign that he would work to free the medics. Also, officials close to the negotiations said the personal relationship that Cecilia Sarkozy had established with Qaddafi and members of his family was key to winning the medics’ freedom.

The New York Times July 25 reported that the emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, July 20 had telephoned Qaddafi to push for the medics’ release while meeting with Sarkozy in France. French President Visits Libya—Sarkozy July 25 met with Qaddafi in Tripoli. French and Libyan ministers that day signed accords on a military-industrial association, a nuclear-energy project, and science research and education cooperation. One of the deals--for France to build a civilian nuclear reactor in Libya--July 26 was criticized by French opposition parties and environmental and antinuclear activists. Sarkozy made the stop in Libya as part of a previously scheduled trip to Senegal and Gabon. HIV Victims’ Families Criticize Pardon—

An organization representing the families of the children infected with HIV July 25 blasted the pardon bestowed upon the medics by Parvanov, and called on Libya to sever ties with Bulgaria. Libya that day lodged a formal protest with Bulgaria’s foreign ministry. An unidentified Libyan official July 26 said the pardon was a “clear violation of the agreement reached on July 23.” However, Bulgarian Premier Sergei Stanishev that day countered that “Libya is reacting under existing pressure from the families of the infected children,” and called the pardon “motivated and fair.” „

Iraq War Bombing After Soccer Win Kills at Least 50.

A pair of suicide car bombs in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, July 25 exploded in streets filled with people celebrating a victory by the national soccer team in an Asian Cup semifinal, killing at least 50 people and

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wounding more than 135. Several other people were reportedly killed by celebratory gunfire, or in vengeance gun killings carried out in the midst of the celebrations. [See p. 457C3] Iraq earlier in the day had defeated South Korea on penalty kicks, 4–3, after a scoreless tie game, in the semifinal in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The victory had prompted an outpouring of joy across the country that until the attacks appeared to give many Iraqis a respite from the fear of violence. Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamal alMaliki before the bombings said that the soccer team had done more for “national unity” than politicians had. U.S. Meets With Iran—U.S. and Iranian diplomats July 24 met at Maliki’s offices in Baghdad to discuss the security situation in Iraq, but reported little progress. U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker called the discussions “full and frank” and “difficult,” with “several heated exchanges.” U.S. and Iranian diplomats had met in May to discuss the issue, their first direct talks in decades. [See p. 341A1] Crocker said he had raised U.S. accusations that Iran was aiding insurgents in Iraq, and increasing such assistance. He said that Iran’s ambassador, Hassan Kazemi-Qumi, denied the allegations. Qumi said “the presence of foreign forces” was largely to blame for Iraq’s problems. The two countries did agree to form a committee along with Iraq to study proposals to improve security. U.S. Generals Seek More Time— U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, July 19 said that it would take “at least till November” to judge the results of the “surge” strategy of sending some 30,000 additional troops to Iraq since the beginning of the year. Military leaders and Crocker were due to submit a report on the strategy’s progress in September. The White House July 20 said that Odierno’s comments were not intended to delay the report. [See p. 457A1] Odierno, Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, July 19 made a series of appearances by video link in the U.S. Odierno spoke with reporters, Crocker gave testimony to a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and he and Petraeus privately addressed a group of lawmakers at the Pentagon. The events were part of the Bush administration’s effort to persuade Congress not to try to force a change in the conduct of the war, and to await the findings of the September report. Many lawmakers expressed impatience with the pleas for additional time. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (D, Del.) said at the hearing with Crocker, “We’re not staying,” adding, “You don’t have much time.” Separately, the office of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.), a member of the Armed Services Committee and frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, July 19 released a letter dated three days earlier from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman. In July 26, 2007

the letter, Edelman took Clinton to task for having inquired whether the Defense Department was drawing up contingency plans for a possible withdrawal from Iraq. Edelman said that such a discussion “reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq.” Clinton July 20 called the response “offensive and totally inappropriate.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates July 25 sent Clinton a letter saying that contingency planning was “indeed taking place with my active involvement as well as that of senior military and civilian officials and our commanders in the field.” He said the Defense Department would work to update the Armed Services Committee on its general approach to such plans, although he noted that established practice barred it from disclosing “operational military plans.” Gates expressed his “regret that this important discussion went astray,” but also affirmed his confidence in Edelman. In the latest U.S. congressional action on the war, the House July 25 voted, 399– 24, in favor of a bill that would forbid the establishment of permanent U.S. bases in Iraq or the expenditure of federal funds “to exercise United States economic control of the oil resources of Iraq.” Few Republicans opposed the bill, saying that it was consistent with U.S policy. However, cosponsor Rep. Barbara Lee (D, Calif.) said it was necessary to counter “the vision of an open-ended occupation,” which she said was fueling violence against U.S. forces in Iraq and providing a “recruiting poster for terrorists.” Bush in a July 24 address at Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina fiercely defended the administration’s claim that the Iraq war was key to combating terrorist threats to the U.S., rather than a distraction from that task, as war critics suggested. He rejected critics’ claims that he overstated the connections between the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq and the international Al Qaeda terrorist network that had mounted Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. He said that recently declassified information illustrated the two groups’ coordination. “The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on Sept. 11,” he said. Other News—In other Iraq news: † The U.S. July 21 launched an aerial attack on buildings in a Shiite Baghdad neighborhood from which it said insurgents had been firing on U.S. forces. The U.S. said that six insurgents were killed and five other people wounded, and disputed local Iraqi officials’ claims that 15 or more people had been killed, some of them civilians. The organization of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which had a stronghold in the area, Husseiniya, condemned the attack. The New York Times July 25 reported that Husseiniya remained closed off by a U.S. vehicle ban, prompting protests by residents. † Abdullah Falaq, an aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most senior Shiite cleric, July 20 was stabbed and

killed at his office in the southern Shiite holy city of Najaf. Authorities said four suspects had been arrested. † A suicide truck bomb July 22 killed five people north of Baghdad. The attack appeared to target a meeting of the Awakening Council, a group of local Sunni tribal sheikhs who had united against Al Qaeda in Iraq, which was also Sunni. (An organization with the same purpose had also been established by Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province.) [See p. 412D1] † A pair of car bombs July 23 struck Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood, killing at least 12 people. At least three other bombs exploded elsewhere in the capital that day. Karrada, a mostly Shiite area, had been one of the city’s less violent neigborhoods. † A car bomb in Hilla, south of Baghdad, July 24 killed at least 26 people near a maternity hospital. † Crocker had requested that the Bush administration grant immigrant visas to all Iraqi employees of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, the Washington Post reported July 22. He was reportedly concerned that without the assurance that they could eventually leave for safety in the U.S., they would abandon their jobs and leave Iraq for other countries. The U.S. was far behind on its goals for processing applications for entry by refugees from Iraq. The U.S. had said that it would admit 7,000 refugees by September, but had admitted only 133 since October 2006, according to the Post. † Maliki July 21 called on the Iraqi parliament to limit its planned August vacation to two weeks, or cancel it altogether. The parliament had yet to pass several pieces of major legislation that were among the “benchmarks” that the U.S. was to report progress on in September. The New York Times July 23 reported that lawmakers said they were far from reaching an agreement on key legislation on managing Iraq’s oil resources and distributing the profits from oil sales. † The Iraqi Consensus Front, the main Sunni Arab political bloc in parliament, July 25 threatened to withdraw its participation in the government if a series of its demands was not met. The group the previous week had ended a five-week-long boycott of the parliament. It had recently stayed away from cabinet meetings over charges against one of the group’s six ministers, the culture minister, of masterminding an assassination attempt. The demands included the release of thousands of Sunnis being detained without charges, faster progress in disarming militia groups, more Sunni input on security affairs and the return of Sunni refugees to their homes. „

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International Trade FDA Food Inspection Hearings Held. The

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quately inspect food imports. The hearings were held after a slew of Chinese-produced products imported into the U.S. had been found to be unsafe, including tainted food products, toys containing lead paint and defective car tires. [See p. 428D2] Rep. Bart Stupak (D, Mich.) at the hearing described the FDA’s food safety program as severely understaffed. “Entry reviewers, investigators and compliance officers simply cannot keep up with the flood of imported food,” he said. The subcommittee’s staff had reportedly found that less than 1% of imported food had been examined by FDA inspectors. Members of the subcommittee also harshly criticized an FDA plan to close seven of its 13 laboratories that tested for unsafe food, including one that focused on detecting radiological material. FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach told the committee that the closings would streamline the agency’s field operations, making it more efficient. David Nelson, an investigator for the subcommittee, said in his testimony that the FDA allowed importers to outsource the inspection of potentially tainted goods to private laboratories that used questionable testing methods. Bush Forms Import Committee— U.S. President George W. Bush July 18 announced the creation by executive order of a high-level panel assigned to minimize the risks posed by food and other products imported into the U.S. The panel, called the Interagency Working Group on Import Safety, would be chaired by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael Leavitt and include Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, among others. The panel would examine steps that could be taken “within existing resources” to address import safety, Bush said. Congressional Democrats quickly criticized the move as inadequate. Product Safety Regulation Mulled—

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Nancy Nord, the acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), July 16 submitted to Congress porposals for new, stricter regulatory rules regarding the inspection of imports, and stiffer penalties for failures to adhere to safety standards. [See 2006, p. 646G1] Nord’s plan recommended that the CPSC be given the authority to block the import of some products that failed to meet voluntary industry standards, which were far more prevalent than mandatory standards. It would also raise the maximum fine the agency could levy on offenders to roughly $10 million, from about $2 million. Nord’s recommendations would require congressional approval. The CPSC had been limited in its ability to enforce recalls and levy fines because only two of the required three commissioners were in place. U.S., China Trade Dispute Grows—China July 13 said it would suspend the import of U.S.-produced chicken and pork from 476

eight companies after finding shipments contaminated with bacteria or excess antibiotics. Those companies barred from importing their chicken and pork included Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat processor. The announcement was widely viewed as retaliation by China for a U.S. halt on the import of five kinds of Chinese-farmed fish and shellfish announced in June. Chinese officials had in recent months also rejected several other U.S. products at the point of import. Australian and French food products had also been turned back by the Chinese. China and the U.S. had already had a tenuous trade relationship, with many U.S. officials arguing that China engaged in unfair trade practices. [See p. 380D2] Chinese officials had repeatedly asserted that U.S. regulators had questioned the safety of Chinese imports for political gain. However, China at the same time had made concerted domestic efforts to improve the regulation of its drug and food industries to reassure foreign consumers of the safety of its products. [See below, p. 450G3] China’s public announcements regarding its food and product regulation practices represented a sea change in a country whose government traditionally had ignored or evaded calls for information about social problems or threats to security. China Reports Product Safety Problems—

China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine July 4 reported that 19.1% of hundreds of types of food, agricultural and other products it had investigated during the first half of 2007 were found to be substandard or unsafe. The state-run news agency Xinhua July 11 reported that the government had banned the use of diethylene glycol, a poisonous chemical often used as a cheaper substitute for harmless glycerin, in toothpaste. Chinese officials had previously maintained that the chemical was harmless to people in small amounts, a stance U.S. regulators strongly contested. Chinese regulators July 20 announced that they had revoked the business licenses of three companies that had produced poisonous products that ended up in pet food and medicine. One had produced diethylene glycol, sold as glycerin, that ended up in Panamanian cold medicine that had reportedly killed hundreds of people. The other two companies had produced wheat protein laced with the chemical melamine that had ended up in U.S. pet food. Recall Developments— The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, July 10 said two brands of Chinese-produced toothpaste had been removed from Spanish stores “because of a risk to public health.” Officials said that the toothpaste might contain diethylene glycol, and that the tainted product posed a “moderate immediate risk” to consumers. Italian officials also removed 20,000 tubes of possibly tainted toothpaste as a precautionary measure.

Inspectors in the U.S. state of Connecticut July 9 said they had seized 700 tubes of diethylene glycol–tainted Chinese- and South African–made toothpaste since July 2. In a related development, two lawsuits June 27 were filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago against toy maker RC2 Corp. regarding its imports from China of toy trains containing lead paint. A lawyer for one of the plaintiffs said the company should have known that the toys were “defective and presented a serious risk to the health and safety of children.” Both suits sought classaction status. „

Other International News World Public Opinion of U.S. Worsens.

Public opinion of the U.S. around the world had fallen since 2002, according to survey results from 46 countries and the Palestinian territories released June 27. However, majorities in 25 of the 46 countries still had favorable attitudes toward the U.S. The survey, the Pew Global Attitudes Project, was conducted by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group that had conducted a similar survey in 2002. [See 2002, p. 998D2] Opinion of the U.S. dropped most notably in countries traditionally allied with it. In several European countries, the U.S.’s favorable rating fell by 20%–30% from 2002 levels. In France, 60% of respondents expressed negative views of the U.S.; in Britain and Canada, the figure was 42%. The U.S. was most popular with respondents in Ivory Coast, Kenya and Ghana, where at least 80% held positive views of the country. It was also looked upon favorably by 78% of Israelis. The U.S. was least popular with the Turkish public, where just 9% of respondents viewed it favorably, down from 30% in 2002. It was seen in a positive light by just 13% of those in the Palestinian territories and 15% of people in both Pakistan and Morocco. Views on Other Issues— Majorities in most countries, including the U.S., said they supported a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. Among Americans, 56% did so. [See p. 475D1] In many countries, including all those in the Western Hemisphere except the U.S., a majority of respondents said global warming was a very serious problem. In the U.S., the figure was 47%. In China, where the figure was 42%, fully 70% of those surveyed saw environmental problems generally as among the world’s gravest dangers, whereas in the U.S., that figure was 37%. Respondents worldwide tended to view the U.S. as the country “hurting the world’s environment the most,” with China second. [See p. 219A3] Other issues that vied for “world’s greatest danger” in the eyes of respondents were AIDS (by Africans, primarily) and the spread of nuclear weapons (by respondents in Japan and Israel, in particular--North Korea had threatened Japan, and Iran had threatened Israel, with nuclear attack). „ FACTS ON FILE

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Senators Question Truth of Gonzales’s Testimony Grilled on Prosecutor Purge, Wiretapping.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales July 24 testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, facing a fresh round of harsh criticism over the firing of several federal prosecutors in 2006 and a secret antiterrorism wiretapping program. Senators from both parties directly challenged the veracity of his testimony. [See p. 444A3] Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the senior Republican on the committee, who was among Gonzales’s sharpest critics, told him, “I do not find your testimony credible.” He added, “The committee’s going to review your testimony very carefully to see if your credibility has been breached to the point of being actionable.” That was a warning to the attorney general about committing perjury. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) told Gonzales, “I just don’t trust you.” Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Russell Feingold (Wis.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) July 25 sent a letter to Solicitor General Paul Clement. “We ask that you immediately appoint an independent special counsel from outside the Department of Justice to determine whether Attorney General Gonzales may have misled Congress or perjured himself in testimony before Congress,” they wrote. Also, Leahy July 26 approved subpoenas for White House political director Karl Rove and one of his deputies, J. Scott Jennings, requiring their testimony on the prosecutor firings by Aug. 2. Denies Pressuring Ashcroft in ’04— At the hearing, Gonzales also faced questions about recent allegations that he had gone to the hospital room of then–Attorney General John Ashcroft in March 2004 to pressure him to sign a document authorizing a warrantless wiretapping program. Gonzales, who was White House counsel at the time, had gone to see Ashcroft with then–White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. [See p. 445A1] Gonzales denied that they had tried to take advantage of Ashcroft, who had just undergone gallbladder surgery. He also said their discussion had not been about the wiretapping program, but rather about other unspecified intelligence programs. Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey had testified in May that he had witnessed the visit and that Ashcroft had refused to sign the wiretapping authorization, despite what appeared to be an attempt by Gonzales and Card “to take advantage of a very sick man.” Comey had been acting attorney general during Ashcroft’s incapacitation. Gonzales also testified that a March 10, 2004, White House meeting with congressional leaders, on the day of the hospital visit, did not concern the National Security Agency (NSA) wiretapping program. He July 26, 2007

said the meeting dealt with other “intelligence activities,” which he did not specify. However, leading Democratic lawmakers who had been present at the meeting, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), disputed Gonzales’s account, insisting that the wiretapping program was the subject of the meeting. The Associated Press July 25 reported that a March 2004 memorandum by then–National Intelligence Director John Negroponte confirmed that the meeting was about the NSA program. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller 3rd July 26 also contradicted Gonzales’s account. At a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Mueller, who had gone to Ashcroft’s hospital room with Comey, said the conversation there was in fact about the NSA program. Bush Aides Cited for Contempt— The House Judiciary Committee July 25 voted along party lines, 22–17, to pass a resolution citing White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for criminal contempt of Congress, due to their refusal to comply with subpoenas for testimony and records on the prosecutor purge. Miers had refused to appear at a hearing she was summoned to, and Bolten had refused to provide White House documents. The full House was not expected to vote on the citations until after Congress’s August recess. The House had not approved such citations since 1983. [See 1983, p. 568G2] White House spokesman Tony Fratto July 20 said the Justice Department would order U.S. attorneys not to carry out any prosecutions for contempt of Congress. The White House had asserted that its current and former staff members were shielded from congressional subpoenas by executive privilege, a legal doctrine that held that the president was entitled to keep the advice he received confidential. The chairman of the House panel, Rep. John Conyers (D, Mich.), July 24 had issued a report alleging that administration officials might have broken a number of laws in the prosecutor purge. „

appeared at events with Democrats earlier in 2006. They said Democrats had probably not wanted to appear with him shortly before the election, because they worried he would tout Bush administration successes in the war on drugs. Waxman asked Taylor to appear for a deposition and possibly testify before his committee later in July. Taylor’s lawyer, Neil Eggleston, responded that “Ms. Taylor believes she managed the Office of Political Affairs in a manner consistent with prior administrations, both Republican and Democratic.” He said she was considering the request for a deposition. Taylor had testified earlier in July before the Senate Judiciary Committee on a separate matter, the firing of several federal prosecutors in 2006. Democrats alleged that the purge of U.S. attorneys reflected improper politicization of the Justice Department. [See p. 477A1] In a letter to Taylor released July 17, Waxman said, “Documents recently provided to the oversight committee suggest that White House efforts to politicize the activities of federal agencies may be more widespread than previously known.” In a separate case, the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency, June 8 had sent a letter to Bush, calling on him to discipline the head of the General Services Administration, Lurita Alexis Doan. The letter said Doan had violated the Hatch Act, a law that barred federal employees from using their positions for partisan ends, by urging subordinates at a January meeting to support Republican candidates. Doan June 13 appeared before Waxman’s committee, and denied engaging in “partisan political activities.” Also, former Surgeon General Richard Carmona had testified the previous week that the White House had barred him from speaking on certain politically charged health topics and had asked him to appear with Republican candidates. [See p. 445G3] „

Campaign Use of Antidrug Officials Alleged.

President George W. Bush July 20 issued an executive order setting guidelines for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) interrogations of detained terrorism suspects. The order required interrogators to adhere to Geneva Convention prohibitions on abusive treatment and set out several minimum standards for the detention of suspects, but did not touch upon many of the more controversial interrogation techniques allegedly used by the CIA. [See pp. 310B1, 305C3, 282E1, 27F3; 2006, pp. 837F2, 798F1] An order clarifying interrogation practices had been mandated by the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA). Administration officials said Bush’s move would allow the CIA’s secret overseas detention system to resume operating, after a Supreme Court ruling had suspended it in 2006. Bush’s order forbade interrogators from using torture or other extreme techniques. It

Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, July 17 asserted that White House political advisers had ordered the director of the National Office for Drug Control Policy, John Walters, and his deputies to appear at events with Republican members of Congress in the run-up to the 2006 elections. [See p. 258G2] Waxman said his committee had obtained documents showing that President George W. Bush’s top political aide, Karl Rove, and former White House political director Sara Taylor had dispatched the antidrug officials to about 20 events in the districts of Republicans who were locked in close races. A 1994 law barred the drug control agency’s officials from taking part in any political activities. Spokesmen for the White House and the drug control agency said Walters had also

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Terrorism Detainees Bush Approves CIA Interrogation Methods.

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also banned them from denigrating detainees’ religion or religious practices or objects. It prohibited abusive acts deemed to be “beyond the bounds of human decency,” such as various sexually humiliating acts. However, Bush’s directive did not mention several interrogation practices widely criticized as tantamount to torture, such as “waterboarding,” which simulated drowning. An unidentified senior intelligence official said, “It would be very wrong to assume that the program of the past would move into the future unchanged,” although he would not discuss specifics, the Washington Post reported July 21. The order stipulated that detainees had to receive “the basic necessities of life,” such as adequate food and water, protection from the elements and extreme heat and cold, necessary clothing and vital medical care. However, it did not bar sleep deprivation. An unidentified senior Bush administration official said the CIA would continue to prevent International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) representatives from visiting detainees held in secret prisons. Human rights activists criticized Bush’s order for not explicitly setting out which interrogation techniques were approved or barred from use, and said the order would further systematize abusive practices and the secret detention system. “Essentially the Bush administration is saying: ‘Trust us—these rules conform with the Geneva Conventions,’” said Jennifer Daskal of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch. However, CIA Director Michael Hayden July 20 in a message to agency employees defended the CIA’s secret prisons program as “irreplaceable,” and said the executive order would allow the agency to “focus on our vital work, confident that our mission and authorities are clearly defined.” He added that harsh interrogation techniques had been used on fewer than half of about 100 terrorism suspects who had been held by the CIA. An unidentified senior intelligence official said nearly half of the intelligence used in a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released earlier in the week came from CIA interrogations. [See p. 460A2] The New York Times May 29 had reported that a group of psychologists and other experts, commissioned by the Intelligence Science Board to advise intelligence agencies, had argued that harsh interrogation techniques that had been used were amateurish and obsolete, and produced unreliable intelligence. „ Court Orders Handover of Guantanamo Data.

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A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit July 20 unanimously ruled that the Justice Department was required to release all information requested by terrorism suspects contesting their detention at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The ruling came in response to appeals lodged by eight detainees under the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act (DTA) regarding their classification as enemy combatants. It was the latest in a string of setbacks to the Bush administration’s detention policies, 478

and was expected set a precedent for further detention challenges. [See pp. 477E3, 430F3] The judges in the ruling rejected a motion by the government to restrict the information it would be required to give detainees’ lawyers and the courts in challenges. “The court cannot, as the DTA charges us, consider whether a preponderance of the evidence supports the [Combatant Status Review] Tribunal’s status determination without seeing all the evidence,” wrote Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg. However, the ruling said the government was only required to turn over “reasonably available” information, and could ask for a court review if it deemed the information too sensitive to be released. It also restricted the subjects that lawyers could discuss with their detainee clients, and allowed special Defense Department teams to read and censor letters between lawyers and their clients. Other News—In other news on terrorism detainees: † The Defense Department July 16 said it had transferred 16 detainees who had been held at Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia. A Defense Department spokesman said the transfer, the largest since December 2006, reduced the camp’s detainee population to 360. † Six Democratic senators, led by Majority Whip Richard Durbin (Ill.), July 13 sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressing “grave concern” that Guantanamo detainees would be transferred to countries where they would then be tortured. The senators called upon the government to set up an independent review process. † Army Reserve Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, a lawyer who in 2004–05 had helped review intelligence on terrorism detainees and had served on a Combatant Status Review Board, June 22 filed a sworn affidavit in the D.C. Circuit court claiming that the process of determining enemy combatants was “fundamentally flawed.” He said the tribunals relied too heavily on unsubstantiated intelligence reports, and that the officers screening the information were under intense pressure from their superiors to classify detainees as enemy combatants. Abraham was the first person involved in the tribunals to publicly criticize their fairness. [See p. 419A1] † The Defense Department June 22 said Haroon al-Afghani had been transferred to Guantanamo Bay. Afghani had allegedly been in close contact with Al Qaeda international terrorism network leaders and high-level militants in Afghanistan. † The Defense Department June 19 said it had repatriated six detainees who had been held at Guantanamo Bay. Four of the men were turned over to the Yemeni government, while the other two were transferred to Tunisia. One of the men being transferred to Tunisia, Abdullah bin Omar, had been convicted in absentia of involvement in an Islamist opposition party there, and his lawyers said they feared that he

would be tortured. Omar’s lawyer said he was beaten and threatened with rape upon his arrival in Tunisia, the Washington Post reported July 14. U.S. officials June 19 said another detainee’s transfer to Libya had been postponed over fears of torture. † Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, a senior Al Qaeda figure, May 24 said Abd al-Hadi alIraqi, an alleged top Al Qaeda operative who had been held in secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) custody before his April transfer to Guantanamo Bay, had been arrested in Turkey in late 2006 and had been turned over to the U.S. The U.S. government had previously revealed only that Iraqi had been captured in an unidentified foreign country that was not Iran or Pakistan. Yazid’s comments came in an Arabic-language interview broadcast in the Middle East by Qatar-based satellite television network Al Jazeera. [See p. 282A1] † A military court-martial in Norfolk, Va., May 17 convicted Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz, who had served as a legal adviser at Guantanamo Bay, of leaking the names of 550 Guantanamo Bay detainees in 2005 to a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, a human rights group challenging the detentions. A military jury May 18 recommended that Diaz be jailed for six months and dismissed from the Navy. † Justice Department lawyers May 11 told the D.C. Circuit court that the department’s plans to allow lawyers only three visits to their clients held at Guantanamo Bay were “no longer warranted,” based on “a current evaluation of resources and needs.” The proposed limit had first been reported in April. [See p. 293F2] † A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Feb. 9 ruled that Shawqi Omar, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Kuwait who had been arrested in October 2004 and was being held in U.S. military custody in Iraq, had the right to contest his detention in U.S. federal court with a habeas corpus petition. Omar was accused of harboring terrorists and of being a close associate of former Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who had been killed by U.S. forces in June 2006. The ruling said that the government could not hold U.S. citizens in indefinite custody overseas. It also prevented the government from transferring Omar to Iraqi custody to avoid a habeas corpus petition. [See 2006, p. 88C2] „

2008 Presidential Campaign Democrats Hold Interactive YouTube Debate.

Candidates for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination July 23 met in Charleston, S.C., for an unusual debate—voters participated directly by asking the candidates questions in home videos that they had submitted using the Web site YouTube. The debate was broadcast by CNN, which chose the videos from more than 3,000 posted on YouTube. [See p. 461E1] A number of the questions were posed with a personal edge. A lesbian couple FACTS ON FILE

asked the candidates if they would “allow us to be married.” Another woman said she had breast cancer and doffed her wig as she complained about health care costs. An animated snowman asked about global warming. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) was asked if he was “authentically black enough.” He replied, “When I’m catching a cab in [the New York City borough of] Manhattan in the past, I think I’ve given my credentials, but let me go to the broader issue here, which is that race permeates our society.” The front-runner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), was asked if she was feminine enough. She said, “I couldn’t run as anything other than a woman. I am proud to be running as a woman.” She said that in her role as first lady when her husband, Bill Clinton, was president, she had visited 82 countries on official missions and did not doubt that she could be taken seriously as president. One questioner asked the candidates if they would serve as president for the national minimum wage, which July 24 increased to $5.85 an hour, rather than the official salary of $400,000. Clinton said she would, as did former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.). Obama, Clinton’s leading rival, said, “We can afford to work for the minimum wage because most people on this stage have plenty of money.” Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.) said he could not work for the minimum wage because he had two daughters to put through school. [See p. 481B1] Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.) questioned the sanity of one questioner, who appeared in his video holding an automatic rifle and referred to it as “my baby” while asking about the candidates’ views on gun control. “I don’t know that he is mentally qualified to own that gun,” Biden said. Clinton, Obama Clash On Diplomacy—

In the sharpest exchange between the candidates, Clinton took issue with Obama when he said he would be willing, in his first year as president, to meet the rulers of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, even though they were all outspokenly hostile to the U.S. Obama said, “The notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them, which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of [the Bush administration], is ridiculous.” He added, “It is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them.” In her answer, Clinton said she favored a more cautious use of diplomacy. “I don’t want to be used for propaganda purposes-I don’t want to make a situation even worse.” Clinton’s camp hailed her answer as proof that she was more experienced than Obama in foreign policy. Clinton herself July 24 followed up by telling an Iowa newspaper, the Quad-City Times, that Obama’s answer had been “irresponsible and frankly naive.” Obama retorted that Clinton was trying to create a “fabricated controversy.” He said her position on the use of diplomacy bore an unfortunate resemblance to President George W. Bush’s. July 26, 2007

During the debate, Obama had noted, as he had before, Clinton’s vote in favor of a 2002 congressional resolution that authorized the use of force against Iraq. He praised her recent calls for the Defense Department to plan an exit strategy for ending the Iraq war, but said, “The time for us to ask how we’re going to get out of Iraq was before we went in.” Obama had still been an Illinois state senator in 2002, but said he had opposed the decision to go to war. [See p. 475G1] Obama July 26 continued his dispute with Clinton, telling reporters, “I don’t want Bush-Cheney lite. I want a fundamental change.” Clinton responded that the clash was “getting kind of silly,” adding, “I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but I’ve never been called George Bush or Dick Cheney, certainly.” „

played a role in such a decision under current policy. The report also recommended that injured military personnel be assigned one case manager charged with helping the soldier and his or her family navigate the government’s health care system. The panel said more resources should be dedicated to the treatment of traumatic brain injuries, which were becoming increasingly common as a result of the use of roadside bombs in combat areas in Iraq where U.S. troops were stationed. Bush the said he had instructed Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Nicholson to examine and implement the recommendations, six of which required congressional approval. „

Armed Forces

White House Lowers Deficit Forecast. The

Veterans Affairs Secretary Resigns. Veter-

ans Affairs (VA) Secretary Jim Nicholson July 17 tendered his resignation, saying he would stay on in his role no later than Oct. 1. Nicholson had overseen the Veterans Affairs Department since February 2005 during a tenure that had been buffeted by criticism of the treatment of wounded veterans and the loss of computerized personal data of some 26.5 million veterans. Nicholson said his departure had been precipitated by his impending 70th birthday in 2008, as well as a desire to return to the private sector. [See below; 2006, p. 530A2] Critics of the VA said U.S. veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan faced overwhelming bureaucracy, a shortage of caseworkers and long waits after being transferred from the military health care system to the VA’s. The VA treated roughly 5.5 million veterans annually, and commanded an annual budget of $77 billion, with a staff of 235,000. It operated more than 1,400 treatment centers and 155 medical centers. Veterans’ Care Overhaul Urged—A ninemember bipartisan presidential commission July 25 delivered a report on the military health care system to President George W. Bush. The report recommended “fundamental changes” to revamp the veterans’ disability system and reduce health care bureaucracy. The commission, which was led by former Sen. Bob Dole (R, Kan.) and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, had been created in the wake of a scandal over the substandard treatment of veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. [See p. 142A1] The commission issued six broad recommendations that were broken down into 35 “action steps.” Among them were the reorganization of the Defense Department’s disability and compensation program, often cited as a source of frustration by injured service members. The panel suggested that the VA be given sole discretion on assigning the level of benefits that wounded soldiers would receive. Both the VA and the Defense Department

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Federal Budget White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) July 11 said it had reduced its forecast for the budget deficit in fiscal year 2007, which would end Sept. 30, to $205 billion, from OMB’s February estimate of $244 billion. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had forecast a deficit of up to $200 billion. The fiscal 2007 deficit was forecast to equal 1.5% of gross domestic product (GDP). [See p. 330D1; 2006, p. 780F3] OMB Director Rob Portman said the main factor in the dwindling deficit was rising corporate profits, which had boosted federal corporate tax receipts. However, OMB projected that the deficit would grow again in fiscal 2008, to $258 billion. In fiscal 2006, the deficit was $248 billion. The deficit had entered a downward trend after rising sharply in the first term of President George W. Bush and peaking at $413 billion in fiscal 2004. Bush July 11 hailed the reduced deficit forecast, arguing that his “policies of low taxes and fiscal restraint have produced a clear and measurable record of success.” He warned that the Democratic majority in Congress would reverse that success if it allowed his major tax cuts, enacted in 2001 and 2003, to expire at the end of 2010. He had also vowed to veto extra spending that Democrats wanted for domestic programs. Democrats countered that Bush’s fiscal record had been disastrous, adding more than $3 trillion to the national debt during his watch. „

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Fiscal 2008 Spending Bills House Passes Labor-HHS-Education Bill.

The House July 19 voted, 276–140, to approve an appropriations bill that would provide $607 billion in funding to the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education. It included $151.7 billion in discretionary spending and exceeded President George W. Bush’s budget request for discretionary spending by $10.8 billion. The White House July 17 had issued a statement warning that Bush would veto the bill because of the additional spending. [See pp. 79C1, 77E2, 76G2] 479

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The bill set aside $68.2 billion for HHS, an increase of $4.1 billion, or 6.5%, from fiscal 2007 levels. It also exceeded Bush’s request by $5 billion. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would receive $29.6 billion, $750 million, or 3%, more than in fiscal 2007. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would be funded at $6.4 billion under the measure, an increase of $246 million, or 4%, over fiscal 2007 levels. The CDC figure also exceeded Bush’s proposal by $466 million. The bill set funding for pandemic flu preparedness at $1.1 billion, and $144.8 million for rural health programs. Under the measure, the Education Department would receive $61.7 billion, an increase of $4.2 billion, or 7%, over fiscal 2007 levels. The figure exceeded Bush’s budget plan by $5.5 billion. No Child Left Behind programs would receive $25.6 billion, an increase of $2 billion, or 8%, from fiscal 2007. Most of that increase, $1.9 billion, would go to low-income children under the Title I program. Pell grants, given to low-income college students, would be funded at $2 billion, a 15% increase from fiscal 2007 levels. The measure also funded teacher quality improvement state grants at $3.2 billion, and set aside $141 million for abstinence education. The measure funded the Labor Department at $11.9 billion, an increase of $209 million, or 2%, from fiscal 2007. The bill exceeded Bush’s budget proposal for the department by $931 million. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would receive $16.6 million, a 3% increase from fiscal 2007. Also, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) would be funded at $313 million, a $12 million, or 4%, increase over fiscal 2007. House members earlier July 19 had engaged in a contentious debate over funds received by reproductive health group Planned Parenthood, which provided abortions among its services. Rep. Mike Pence (R, Ind.) that day introduced an amendment that would have prevented the organization from receiving any family planning funds. The amendment was defeated, 189– 231. „ House Passes State, Foreign Aid Funds.

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The House June 22 passed, 241–178, a $34.4 billion appropriations bill to fund the State Department and foreign aid programs in fiscal 2008, which would begin Oct. 1. The bill’s $34.2 billion in discretionary spending was 10% more than had been approved in fiscal 2007, but 2% less than requested in President George W. Bush’s February budget proposal. Democrats in Congress were seeking to appropriate more than the president had proposed for domestic programs. [See pp. 94A3, 79B2] An amendment to the bill, approved 223–201 June 21, would alter the Bush administration’s policy of barring financial aid to international organizations that provided abortions. The amendment would allow the U.S. to donate contraceptives for distribution in developing countries. Opponents of the amendment said that providing such aid would indirectly allow such 480

groups to direct more resources toward abortion programs. Bush had threatened to veto a bill that modified the funding restriction, known as the Mexico City policy. The Senate Appropriations Committee June 28 voted, 28–1, to approve its version of the spending bill, which also contained the exception to the Mexico City policy. In foreign aid, Israel and Egypt topped the list of recipients, as they did consistently, and the bill matched Bush’s proposals for those countries. Israel would receive $2.4 billion, and Egypt, $1.7 billion. Military aid of $200 million for Egypt was made conditional on its progress in reforming its judicial system and preventing arms from being smuggled into the Gaza Strip. Aid to Pakistan was set at $300 million. The bill entirely excluded Bush’s request of $400 million for Iraq, over Republican objections. Democratic leaders pointed to money for Iraq contained in war emergency spending bills. In other programs, the bill fulfilled Bush’s request for $4.2 billion for the administration’s HIV/AIDS initiative. The House June 21 had voted, 223–201, to reject an amendment to renew an existing provision requiring that a third of such funding be used to promote sexual abstinence and marital fidelity. „ House Passes Interior Appropriations Bill.

The House June 27 voted, 272–155, to approve a $27.6 billion appropriations bill funding the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies. The amount was an increase of 4.3% over fiscal 2007 levels, and exceeded President George W. Bush’s budget request by $1.9 billion. Bush had previously said that he would veto the bill for that reason. [See p. 76C3] The bill became the first to be considered by the House under the terms of a June agreement by House leaders that required earmarks, or funds for individual projects, to be disclosed and itemized. The bill contained $119 million in funds for 321 individual earmarks. Under the measure, the Interior Department would receive $10.2 billion in funding, including $2.5 billion for the National Park Service, $2.3 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and $1.4 billion for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The EPA would receive $8.1 billion, and the U.S. Forest Service $4.6 billion. House members June 26 had voted, 233–196, to defeat an amendment introduced by Rep. John Peterson (R, Pa.) that would have allowed natural gas drilling operations 25 miles (40 km) off the Outer Continental Shelf on both coasts of the country. (A moratorium on oil and gas drilling was currently in effect.) Also defeated that day was an amendment by Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R, Texas) that would have allowed oil and gas drilling in the entire Outer Continental Shelf. „ House Passes Energy and Water Bill. The House July 17 voted, 312–112, to approve an appropriations bill that would provide

$31.6 billion in funding for the Energy Department and various energy and water projects among several federal agencies. President George W. Bush in his budget plan had requested $30.5 billion in discretionary spending for such projects, a $176 million increase over fiscal 2007. The measure included $1.1 billion in earmarks, or member-requested projects. [See p. 76C3] The measure would increase discretionary funding for the Energy Department, the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies by 4% from their fiscal 2007 levels. The Energy Department would receive $25.2 billion, $246.5 million of which was slated for earmarks. The Army Corps of Engineers was allotted $5.6 billion, $713 million more than Bush’s request. The Interior Department would receive $1.1 billion in funds, the bulk of which would be received by the Bureau of Reclamation. The bill also reduced spending for a number of nuclear programs, cutting funds for 37 nuclear weapons programs by $396 million from fiscal 2007 levels. The measure would allocate only $120 million of the $405 million sought by Bush for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), a plan to encourage the U.S. and other countries to adopt new technologies for reprocessing and reusing spent nuclear fuel. „ House Passes Financial Services Bill. The House June 28 voted, 240–179, to pass the Financial Services and General Government spending bill for fiscal year 2008. The $43.8 billion bill covered the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the rest of the Treasury Department, as well as White House and related operations, the federal judiciary and annual federal funding for the District of Columbia. [See pp. 94E3, 79A3] The Senate Appropriations Committee July 12 voted, 15–14, to approve the bill and send it to the Senate floor. The White House June 26 had said that President George W. Bush would veto the bill in its current form because he opposed provisions easing trade and travel rules for Cuba and allowing a needle-exchange program for drug addicts in Washington, D.C. Under the House bill, the Treasury Department would receive $12.3 billion, with $11.1 billion of that going to the IRS. The White House would get $722 million. The Office of Personnel Management, which managed the federal workforce, would get $21.1 billion. The judiciary would get $6.3 billion. The District of Columbia would get $654 million. Before the House passed the bill, members voted, 217–209, to reject an amendment that would have stripped funding for Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D, Ill.) had offered the amendment in response to Cheney’s recent contention that he was exempt from White House rules for handling classified documents. [See p. 418G2] House members June 27 voted, 244– 181, to protect their annual pay raise from procedural obstacles. „ FACTS ON FILE

House Passes Legislative Branch Funds.

The House June 22 voted, 216–176, to pass a $3.1 billion spending bill to fund the legislative branch in fiscal year 2008. The bill included $27.5 million to complete and open the new Capitol Visitor Center. The center’s estimated cost had ballooned to $600 million after long construction delays. The bill also included $3.9 million to fund an environmental initiative, proposed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.), to reduce the use of fossil fuels in the Capitol. [See p. 94E3] „

Labor Minimum Wage Increase Takes Effect. The first increase in the federal minimum wage in nearly 10 years took effect July 24. The wage increase, to $5.85 per hour, had been included in a bill funding the Iraq war that had passed both houses in May and was signed by President George W. Bush May 25. [See p. 327A2, F2] The minimum wage would rise to $7.25 per hour from $5.15 per hour, to be implemented in three 70-cent increments over the next two years. The minimum wage had last been raised in September 1997, marking the longest period without an increase since it was first instituted in 1938. About 1.7 million people had earned the minimum wage or less in 2006, according to government figures reported July 24. The wage-increase legislation had also included $4.84 billion in tax breaks for small businesses. The tax breaks had been demanded by Republicans in order to ease the impact of the wage hike on employers. At least 24 states, as well as the District of Columbia, already had minimum wages higher than $5.85 per hour. „

Economy Bernanke Makes 2nd Report to Congress.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke July 18–19 made the second of his semiannual reports to Congress, testifying before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. He told Congress that the nation was heading for moderate economic growth, but that the slumping housing market had led the Fed to lower its growth forecasts. [See below, p. 95G3] Bernanke July 18 before the House committee said gross domestic product (GDP) would grow at a rate of 2.25% to 2.50% in 2007, and 2.75% in 2008. Those growth rates were a quarter of a percentage point lower than the estimates he gave Congress during his first report of the year, in February. However, Bernanke stressed that the Fed was more concerned with the threat of rising inflation than it was with the slowing of the economy. He said “core” inflation rates, which excluded volatile food and oil prices, would grow around 2% in 2007, and 1.75% in 2008. While those rates were within the range the Fed believed was stable, Bernanke warned lawmakers that curJuly 26, 2007

rent forecasts could be due to “transitory influences.” Bernanke said rising food and oil prices as well as a slowing down of the country’s productivity growth rate could lead to increased inflation. A slowing productivity rate meant that companies required more labor to produce goods, which could lead to a rise in production costs, and hence a rise in prices. As a result, observers deduced that Bernanke was not likely to lower the Fed’s benchmark interest rate of 5.25% until unemployment rates rose and businesses were not running so close to total capacity. Those trends would indicate a reduced risk of inflation. Bernanke July 19 indicated to the Senate panel that he would not believe that the risk of inflation had been reduced until there was evidence of both those trends occurring. [See 2006, p. 531B2] In response to questions from lawmakers July 18, Bernanke said a recent surge in buyouts by private-equity companies brought “important benefits” to the economy, acting like natural market mechanisms for improving companies that were poorly managed. Addressing lawmakers’ concerns about the growing income gap between rich and poor, Bernanke said the economy would eventually generate higher incomes for people, and that Congress could diminish the gap by passing laws that created more educational and economic opportunities. [See p. 447D1] Subprime Loans Addressed—Bernanke July 18–19 said the housing market had been hit by a rising number of home foreclosures and delinquencies on loan payments, and that those trends would “get worse before they get better.” Bernanke described to lawmakers the steps the Fed had taken to impose stricter regulations on lenders that approved adjustable subprime mortgages, home loans made out to borrowers with spotty credit at low introductory interest rates that spiked to burdensome levels after a few years. [See p. 432B3] The Fed had come under heavy criticism for failing to curb the proliferation of subprime mortgage loans, which had resulted in a spate of delinquencies when borrowers could not pay the higher interest rates. The rising number of delinquencies led to an unstable mortgage market, and threatened bond markets tied to mortgages as well. The Fed was the only government body that could bar any lending practice by banks that it deemed unfair or harmful to consumers. Lawmakers had threatened to grant that authority to other government bodies if the Fed did not take greater responsibility for the subprime situation. The Federal Reserve Board and other federal and state regulators had announced July 17 that they would work together to review the practices of lenders prominent in the subprime mortgage market to ensure that they were in line with consumer-protection laws. The lenders in question included some not normally subject to federal oversight. [See p. 433D1] „

Medicine & Health OxyContin

Maker,

Executives

Fined.

Judge James Jones of U.S. District Court in Abingdon, Va., July 20 ordered Purdue Frederick Co., a holding company owned by Stamford, Conn.–based Purdue Pharma LP, and three of its executives to pay fines totaling $634.5 million for misleading people regarding the risks of its painkiller OxyContin. [See p. 350A1] The drug was a highly addictive synthetic time-released narcotic that had been linked to hundreds of deaths by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Abusers of the drug had found they could circumvent its time-release properties by crushing it. OxyContin was the brand name of a painkiller known by the generic name oxycodone. Three company executives--former Chief Executive Officer Michael Friedman, former Chief Medical Officer Paul Goldenheim and General Counsel Howard Udell--were ordered to pay $34.5 million of the fine. They were also placed on probation for three years and ordered to perform community service. The three had pleaded guilty to charges of misbranding OxyContin in May. The balance of the fine was to be paid by Purdue Frederick. The company was also placed on probation for five years. Several family members of overdose victims had attended the hearing to lobby Jones to throw out the plea agreements reached in May, which had precluded the possibility of prison time for the executives. „ J&J Heart Stent Dangers Reported. Medical products maker Johnson & Johnson (J&J) May 7 said it would halt sales of a drug-coated heart stent after the device failed to meet performance goals in clinical trials. J&J in November 2006 had acquired stent-maker Conor Medsystems Inc. for its drug-coated stent design. However, the patients given that device were found to be more likely to die, suffer a heart attack or require a new stent within eight months when compared to patients given a drug-coated stent produced by Boston Scientific Corp. Stents were small devices inserted into plaque-blocked blood vessels in order to keep them propped open. [See p. 226G3; 2006, p. 955A3] Shares of J&J May 7 fell 22 cents, to close at $64.26 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), while shares of Boston Scientific rose 51 cents, to close at $16.67. Drug-coated stents had become a highly profitable product for medical device manufacturers, and had been increasingly used to treat heart attack patients and others suffering from blocked arteries. However, recent medical data had questioned the effectiveness of the devices and linked them to an increased incidence of blood clots. Doctors had reportedly sharply scaled back their use of drug-coated stents in favor of bare metal ones. Medical market researcher Goodroe Healthcare Solutions LLC had found that doctors had implanted fewer stents in June than in any other month in 2006, it was reported July 20. „ 481

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Defense News in Brief. The U.S. Army had missed its June recruiting target of 8,400 new sol-

diers enlisted during the month, Army officials confirmed July 9. The recruiting effort fell 1,400 soldiers short, after missing its May goal by about 400 soldiers. However, the Army was still ahead of its year-to-date goal. Longer tours of duty and the growing unpopularity of the war in Iraq were partly to blame, according to news media and a Defense Department official who asked to remain anonymous. An Army spokesman July 9 told the New York Times that recruitment of soldiers in their late teens and early 20s was hindered partly because 70% of the pool of potential recruits were ineligible because they had either failed to graduate from high school or were overweight. [See 2006, p. 839G3] The Senate June 28 voted, 94–4, to confirm Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute as deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan and a special assistant to President George W. Bush. Lute would act as White House coordinator on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a new post created by Bush. Before his nomination Lute had publicly criticized a recent troop-surge in Iraq ordered by the president, but at a June 7 confirmation hearing he said the policy should be allowed more time to show results. [See p. 310B2 ] Bush July 11 nominated Army Gen. William Ward to lead a new unified Africa Command (AFRICOM), aimed at strengthening African governments and countering the threat of terrorism on that continent. Ward, currently deputy commander of the European Command, was the Army’s only black four-star general. The new command would initially be run through the European Command based in Germany, but would gain autonomy in 2008. A U.S. delegation had toured North Africa in early June to discuss plans to base the new command in an African country, but had been rebuffed or discouraged by the governments of potential host countries including Libya, Algeria and Morocco, it was reported June 24–26. African officials had stressed that the African Union (AU) should guide the establishment of AFRICOM, the delegation’s leader said. [See 2005, p. 77G1] „

Environment Park Service Sets Fee Increase. The Na-

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tional Park Service planned to raise entrance fees at dozens of national parks over the next three years, the Associated Press reported May 6. The report said the Park Service planned to raise per-person and vehicle rates, as well as the cost of annual park passes, at 130 of the 391 monuments, parks and other areas it managed. The fees at 11 parks were raised for the summer of 2007; 84 parks would institute fee hikes in 2008; and 36 other parks would raise their fees in 2009. The superintendents of individual parks could rec482

ommend to National Park Service Director Mary Bomar that the fee hike should be rolled back if enough parkgoers complained. [See p. 77C2] „

Space Astronaut in Romantic Drama Leaves NASA.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) May 25 said that Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, an astronaut involved in an apparent love triangle that led to an alleged attack by a fellow astronaut on her perceived romantic rival, had left the agency to return to another military assignment. Astronaut Lisa Nowak was to be tried in September on attempted kidnapping and other charges in the case. She was accused of attacking Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman in Orlando, Fla., after driving there from Texas for the purpose. [See p. 144C2] Nowak’s lawyer, Donald Lykkebak, June 29 said that a widely reported detail of Nowak’s trip, that she had worn diapers while driving in order to avoid making rest stops, was false. A police affidavit said Nowak had given that explanation for the presence of children’s diapers in her car. However, Lykkebak said they had simply been left in the car since Nowak and her family fled Houston as Hurricane Rita approached in 2005. „

Other U.S. News Coal Firm Cleared in Colombian Killings.

A jury in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala., July 26 found that U.S.-based coal firm Drummond Ltd. was not liable for the 2001 murders of union leaders in Colombia by right-wing paramilitary groups. The Washington, D.C.–based International Labor Rights Fund and the United Steelworkers Union had filed a lawsuit against the company on behalf of the families of three slain leaders—Gustavo Soler, Victor Orcasita and Valmore Locarno. Lawyers for the families said they would appeal the verdict. [See pp. 266F1, 179G3] The lawsuit was thought to be the first brought to trial under the Alien Tort Statute of 1789, which was originally intended to keep sea pirates from U.S. shores, and which granted diplomats certain legal rights. However, in recent years the law had been revised to allow plaintiffs in the U.S. to sue multinational corporations accused of participating in human rights abuses in areas of the developing world. Drummond, a subsidiary of Drummond Co. Inc., in 1993 had begun coalmining operations in La Loma, an area of Colombia that was plagued by violence between leftist guerrilla forces and rightwing paramilitary groups. It had since become one of the largest coal-producers in the country, generating an estimated 25 million tons (22.7 million metric tons) of coal annually. The plaintiffs alleged that Drummond paid paramilitary groups and provided them with material assistance in return for protection services.

In March 2001, Locarno, a union president, and Orcasita were leaving a Drummond facility on a company bus when it was stopped by paramilitary forces. The paramilitaries reportedly called for the pair by name, and Locarno was shot and killed in front of the passengers. Orcasita’s corpse was later found with bullet wounds and signs of torture. Several months later, Soler, who had succeeded Locarno as union president, was also abducted and killed. Information uncovered in recent months as part of an ongoing investigation into ties between the administration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez and rightwing paramilitary groups had further linked Drummond to such organizations. In particular, several witnesses had said Drummond had depended on support from the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which was considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. Colombia’s chief federal prosecutor, Miguel Iguaran, March 20 had announced a formal criminal investigation into Drummond’s alleged paramilitary ties. However, the judge in the case told the jury that the plaintiffs were required to prove that Drummond had deliberately assisted the victims’ killers in carrying out the crime. Congress Hears Testimony—The House Foreign Affairs international organizations, human rights and oversight subcommittee June 28 heard testimony on alleged ties between several U.S. companies and rightwing paramilitary groups in Colombia. At the hearing, several Colombian witnesses gave detailed accounts of Drummond’s ties to paramilitary groups, as well as links between those groups and banana producer Chiquita Brands International Inc., which in March had acknowledged paying some $1.7 million to right-wing groups in protection money. Chiquita and Coca-Cola Co. also faced U.S. lawsuits over their Colombian paramilitary ties. Salvatore Mancuso, a jailed former AUC leader, May 17 testified in Bogota, Colombia’s capital, that Chiquita and two other U.S. fruit firms, Del Monte Foods Co. and Dole Food Co., had paid his men a “war tax” on exported bananas. Mancuso had agreed to testify on paramilitary actions as part of a plea deal. [See p. 334A3] FARC Member Convicted—Ricardo Palmera, a former leader of the leftist guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) July 9 was convicted in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., of conspiracy to commit hostage-taking, a charge related to the abduction of three U.S. workers in Colombia in 2002. The workers, civilian contractors with the U.S. Defense Department, had been captured by FARC after their plane crashed in a guerrilla-controlled area of Colombia. Palmera, also known by the nom de guerre “Simon Trinidad,” had been extradited to the U.S. in 2004. Jurors had remained split on separate charges against Palmera of supporting terrorism. [See 2006, p. 1017B2] „ FACTS ON FILE

AFRICA

Ethiopia Jailed Opposition Leaders Pardoned. The Ethiopian government July 20 pardoned 38 opposition leaders, activists and journalists who had been imprisoned during protests following 2005 elections. Four days earlier, they had been handed jail sentences ranging from 18 months to life in prison. The prisoners, who included opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) leader Hailu Shawel and Berhanu Nega, the mayor of Addis Ababa, the capital, had been convicted in June on charges including high treason and “outrage against the constitution.” [See p. 465A3] The jailed opposition supporters had also been barred for life from voting or running for public office. However, Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi July 20 said the pardon was “total,” and that the prisoners had been “freed with their constitutional rights restored.” Meles also denied reports that the U.S. had been involved in negotiating their release, saying, “The Ethiopian government isn’t willing and is unable to be run like a banana republic from Capitol Hill,” referring to the seat of the U.S. Congress. A bill was currently pending in the U.S. House calling for Ethiopia to improve its human rights record. Prior to their release, the prisoners reportedly signed a letter in which they admitted responsibility for violent electionrelated protests in 2005 in which 193 people had died. Those protests, against disputed May 2005 parliamentary elections that were won by Meles’s party, had been at the root of the charges against them. However, Shawel, who had received a life sentence, after his release said he had signed the letter “under duress.” Ten opposition activists were still on trial. They had refused to sign the letter. „

AMERICAS

Argentina Economy Minister Resigns in Scandal.

Argentina’s economy minister, Felisa Miceli, July 16 resigned as a result of a judicial inquiry into the discovery of some $64,000 in U.S. dollars and Argentine pesos found in a private bathroom in her office. The money had been discovered in late June during a routine security inspection of the economy ministry by police. President Nestor Kirchner named Industry Secretary Gustavo Peirano, 40, as Miceli’s replacement. [See p. 450C1] Miceli, 54, had claimed that the cash had been loaned to her by her brother for a house purchase, and that she had stored it in her office bathroom for safekeeping. She said storing the cash in her bathroom had been a mistake, but claimed that she had not committed a crime. Guillermo Marijuan, the federal prosecutor investigating the case, hours before Miceli’s resignation said she should provide testimony under oath regarding the July 26, 2007

source of the cash. Marijuan said the money had been traced to a bank, but that he could not find any accounts linked to Miceli or her brother. Athough it was not uncommon in Argentina for real estate to be paid for in cash, it was widely assumed that government officials often accepted bribes and other gifts. Miceli had served as economy minister since November 2005, and was the first woman to hold the post. Wife Opens Presidential Bid—Kirchner’s wife, Senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, July 19 formally announced her bid for the presidency, though her plans had been revealed earlier that month. Nestor Kirchner had been struggling to control political damage resulting from Miceli’s resignation and chronic energy shortages. However, Cristina Kirchner was considered the early front-runner in the race, with the election set for October. Cristina Kirchner in her announcement said she would continue the populist economic policies started by her husband. “Argentina has new hopes, so there is now a need to keep carrying this model forward,” she said. „

Brazil Defense Minister Resigns After Air Crash.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva July 25 accepted the resignation of his embattled defense minister, Waldir Peres. In his role as defense minister, Peres had overseen Brazil’s civil aviation, which had come under heightened scrutiny in the wake of a July 17 airplane crash at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas Airport that killed almost 200 people, making it the country’s worst air disaster ever. Peres was replaced by Nelson Jobim, a former chief justice of the Supreme Court. [See p. 466F3] The TAM Linhas Aereas flight had skidded off a Congonhas Airport runway during a landing attempt and crashed into a gas station and office building. Aviation experts had long warned of the dangers posed by Congonhas’s relatively short and floodprone runways. The accident had thrown the country’s civil aviation system into crisis, with pilots at several domestic airlines refusing to land at Congonhas in inclement weather. Peres had also been heavily criticized for failing to address outstanding safety issues raised after a collision between two airplanes over the Amazon rain forest in September 2006 that had killed 154 people. TAM July 25 revised the number of deaths resulting from the accident to 199 people, 187 of whom had been on the plane. Da Silva July 20 said he had ordered changes to the country’s civil aviation system in order to “reduce the risk of new tragedies.” Da Silva said Congonhas, the busiest domestic airport in the country, would cease to be a hub for airlines. It would instead focus on nonstop regional flights and shuttle service from Rio de Janiero. Da Silva also said a new airport

would be built to serve the Sao Paulo area’s 20 million residents. However, Da Silva’s announcement was quickly undercut by a July 21 airline radar failure in the Amazon that forced the cancellation of several international flights. Further eroding the public’s confidence was an announcement by crash investigators that they had mistaken a piece of fuselage for the TAM plane’s “black box” flight recorder. TAM July 20 said the right thruster of the crashed aircraft had been disconnected during its landing attempt, possibly contributing to the accident. Security video had indicated that the plane was traveling more than four times as fast as other airplanes during its landing attempt, it was reported July 20. „

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a freight rail line after Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice offered them 75 acres (30 hectares) of land. A poll conducted June 8–11 and published by the Toronto Globe and Mail June 14 found that 43% of Canadians believed the government was stalling in land negotiations with native groups, compared with 38% who thought the negotiations were being delayed by their complicated nature. Protester Death Report Released—Sydney Linden, the commissioner of a public inquiry into the 1995 shooting death of native protester Anthony O’Brien (Dudley) George May 31 issued a four-volume report of his findings. George was the leader of a group of native protesters who had occupied the Ipperwash Provincial Park in southwestern Ontario as part of a dispute over the land. He had been killed during a raid by Ontario Provincial Police. Linden concluded that a variety of factors, including the cultural insensitivities of local police in Ottawa and the provincial government’s lack of patience, had contributed to George’s death. Linden also found that then-Premier Mike Harris had uttered a racial slur during a meeting held hours before the raid, a claim Harris had strenuously denied. Linden recommended that Ontario’s provincial government establish a commission to oversee land disputes and a separate cabinet-level ministry to address native issues. „ Bell Canada Agrees to Buyout. The directors of BCE Inc. (Bell Canada), Canada’s largest telecommunications company, June 30 endorsed a buyout offer worth roughly US$48.5 billion (C$51.7 billion) made by a group including the investment arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and the U.S. private equity firms Providence Equity Partners Inc. and Madison Dearborn Partners. The buyout offer amounted to the largest leveraged private-equity deal ever and the largest takeover in Canada’s history. [See p. 402D3] Under the terms of the deal, the buyout group would pay US$40.12 (C$42.75) for each BCE share. That was a 40% premium over the company’s average first-quarter share price, before it rose in late March after buyout rumors spread. The total purchase price of the shares was estimated at US$32.6 billion, and the buyout group would also assume $15.9 billion in debt and other obligations. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan had already owned a 6.3% stake in BCE. Under the deal, it would increase that stake to 52%, while Providence would own 32%; Madison Dearborn, 9%; and other Canadian investors, the remaining 7%. BCE directors June 26 had received takeover bids from three groups: one from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and U.S. buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR); one led by U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP; and the one made by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan group. The deal still required approval by BCE shareholders and Canadian regulators. 484

Telus Withdraws From Merger Talks—

Telus Corp., BCE’s largest telecommunications rival in Canada, June 26 said it had ended takeover negotiations with BCE. Telus released a surprise statement saying the bidding process for BCE “did not make it possible” for the company to submit an offer. Telus and BCE June 20 had confirmed that they were in merger negotiations, quickly making Telus the leading takeover candidate among analysts. „

Mexico Echeverria Cleared in ’68 Student Massacre.

Mexican federal Magistrate Jesus Guadalupe Luna of the Third United Criminal Tribunal July 12 ruled that former President Luis Echeverria Alvarez was exempt from charges or punishment related to the 1968 mass killings of pro-democracy student demonstrators. The students had rallied in Mexico City, the capital, before federal agents opened fire on them. Though official reports listed the deaths at 25, some rights advocates said as many as 300 had been killed during the protest. [See 2006, p. 935C1] Luna in his decision found that “the crime of genocide was committed” but that there was “not a single proof” that Echeverria had planned or otherwise participated in the student deaths. He also ordered that Echeverria be released from house arrest, which was imposed in November 2006. Echeverria, 85, had been the interior minister at the time of the massacre, and served as president from 1970 to 1976. Human rights advocates said the ruling was a significant step back in attempts to hold government leaders accountable for human rights abuses against leftist dissidents carried out during Mexico’s 1960–80 “dirty war.” An estimated 700 students, guerrillas and other dissidents had disappeared during Echeverria’s presidency. Rosa Maria Alvarado Martinez, an architect who had overseen the 1981 remodeling of a Mexico City hospital, July 9 said three bodies that were possibly those of student demonstrators were buried under the building. Martinez said that soon after the discovery, men calling themselves police officers had threatened to kill her and her young son if she revealed the bodies’ presence. „

Venezuela Chavez Visits Russia, Iran to Strengthen Ties.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias June 27–July 2 toured Russia, Belarus and Iran to discuss oil and arms deals with the leaders of the three countries. The trip was seen as an attempt by Chavez to stengthen ties among the four countries, each of which had a strained or combative relationship with the U.S. Chavez had made a longer, similar tour in July–August 2006. [See 2006, p. 634D3] Russian Arms Negotiations Reported—

Chavez June 27 arrived in Moscow, Russia’s capital, amid reports that he sought to negotiate an arms purchase with Russian

President Vladimir V. Putin. The Russian newspaper Kommersant June 14 had reported that the Venezuelan government was negotiating the possible purchase of between five and 10 Russian-built submarines. Chavez had also reportedly sought to discuss the purchase of a Russian missile defense system. [See p. 428A1] Putin and Chavez June 28 reportedly discussed possible weapons deals during a dinner meeting. However, there were no reports of the pair reaching an arms agreement, although negotiations were reportedly ongoing. Russia in 2006 had agreed to sell some $3 billion worth of military helicopters and planes to Venezuela, which had become the second-largest purchaser of Russian military hardware, after Algeria. An aide to Chavez Jan. 30 had said the country planned to purchase surface-to-air missiles, possibly from Russia, in order to defend critical infrastructure such as oil refineries and bridges. Venezuela had become Latin America’s largest purchaser of arms, spending $4.3 billion on weapons over the past two years, according to a January U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency estimate, the New York Times reported Feb. 25. Chavez’s administration said the increased purchases were needed to circumvent a U.S. ban on the sale of American-made weapons to the country. However, Venezuela’s arms escalation had been criticized by others in Latin America as a destabilizing factor in the region. Chavez and Putin at the June 28 dinner meeting reportedly discussed the establishment of a fund to finance joint energy projects, including the construction of several oil refineries. Chavez also offered Russian oil companies the chance to develop lucrative oil fields in the Orinoco River Basin region of Venezuela, where the government had recently acquired majority stakes in projects previously controlled by Western oil firms. The region contained the largest known oil reserves in the world. [See p. 421D1] ‘Solidarity’

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Chavez June 29 arrived in Minsk, Belarus’s capital, where he met with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and declared “solidarity” with the country. Chavez called on Lukashenko to deepen military and economic ties between the two countries in the face of “pressure” from the U.S., which he referred to as “the Empire.” [See 2006, p. 600B3] Iran Invited to Join Trade Pact—Chavez June 30 arrived in Tehran, Iran’s capital, for meetings with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad’s official Web site July 1 reported that Iran had accepted an offer extended by Chavez to join the Bolivian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA) trade pact backed by Cuba and Venezuela. ALBA had been founded by Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz in 2004 as an alternative to the U.S.sponsored Free Trade of the Americas (FTAA) pact. [See p. 316A2] Chavez and Ahmadinejad July 2 launched the joint construction of a methaFACTS ON FILE

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Indonesia Government Sues Ex-President Suharto.

Indonesian state prosecutors July 9 filed a $1.54 billion civil lawsuit against former President Suharto. The government sought to recover $441 million in scholarship funds it said Suharto had siphoned off between 1978 and his government’s fall in 1998 through the Supersemar foundation, a charity set up by the aging president that was also targeted in the lawsuit. The government was also asking for $1.1 billion in damages. The government in May 2006 had decided not to levy criminal corruption charges against Suharto, accepting his claim that he was in poor health and unfit to stand trial. The civil case could proceed without Suharto appearing in court. [See 2006, pp. 1022G2, 418F1] Prosecutors July 19 named Suharto’s youngest son, Hutomo Mandala Putra, also known as Tommy Suharto, as a suspect in a criminal corruption case. They said Hutomo had misused tens of millions of dollars in government loans to Indonesia’s clove marketing board during the 1990s. „

North Korea Nuclear Talks Adjourn Without Progress.

The latest round of six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program July 20 concluded in Beijing, China’s capital, without establishing a deadline for disabling North Korea’s nuclear facilities. North Korea the previous week had shut down its Yongbyon nuclear complex, the first concrete step in implementing a February agreement under which it would abandon its nuclear activities in steps, in return for an array of aid and security incentives. That prompted negotiators at the talks, which opened July 18, to seek to fix a date for the permanent disabling of the facilities. The six countries were North Korea, the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. [See p. 458G2] The U.S. pressed for a North Korean commitment to complete the second phase by the end of the year. However, the talks July 26, 2007

faltered over North Korea’s demands for reciprocal steps by the U.S. and its allies. The negotiators said they would assign those issues to working groups, and reconvene in September. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Serbia Kosovo Independence Plan Stalls at U.N.

The U.S. and Western European nations July 20 withdrew a proposed United Nations Security Council resolution that would have outlined a path for the Serbian province of Kosovo to become independent. The mostly ethnic-Albanian province had been under U.N. administration since a war between separatists and Serbian forces, which ended in 1999 after a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air assault on Serbia. [See p. 376B3] The sponsors of the resolution pulled it amid signs that Russia would veto it. They said they would instead conduct talks among Kosovan and Serbian leaders and a “contact group” composed of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the U.S. and Russia. Russia had vowed to oppose any resolution that was not accepted by Serbia, which resolutely opposed any international effort to grant Kosovo independence as a violation of its territorial integrity. Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., Vitaly Churkin, July 20 seconded that view, and said that granting Kosovo independence would serve to “reward aggressive separatist inclinations” elsewhere. Britain’s ambassador to the U.N., Emyr Jones Parry, said the sponsors refrained from putting the resolution to a vote so as to avoid the “high drama” of the likely veto, which he said might have inflamed tensions in Kosovo and Serbia. The resolution had been based on recommendations delivered earlier in the year by U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari. The original draft had been revised more than once to try to win Russian support. A version circulated June 20 would have given the two sides a 120-day period to reach an agreement before the proposed independence mechanism would take effect. A July 13 version removed the automatic reversion to Ahtisaari’s plan after the 120 days. However, Churkin July 16 said the chances of the proposal passing were “zero.” The contact group’s talks began July 25 in Vienna, Austria, and were to last no longer than 120 days. Kosovo Premier Agim Ceku July 20 suggested that the U.S. and the European Union back a declaration of Kosovo independence on Nov. 28, an Albanian holiday. He said Kosovo would not unilaterally declare independence without their support. War Crimes Suspect Arrested— Vlastimir Djordjevic, a former Serbian police commander charged with crimes against humanity in the Kosovo conflict, was arrested June 17 in Montenegro. A Serbian official said the arrest was the result of a

joint Serbian-Montenegrin operation in cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the Netherlands. He was handed over to the tribunal the same day. [See 2006, p. 789E2] Djordjevic had been indicted in 2003, charged with responsibility for a Serbian police campaign against ethnic Albanians that forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. He was believed to have been living in Russia. „

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Suspended Pakistan Supreme Court Judge Reinstated Move Seen as Blow to Musharraf. Pakistan’s

13-member Supreme Court July 20 ruled unanimously that President Pervez Musharraf’s suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in March for alleged abuses of his office went beyond the constitutional powers granted to the president. The court also ruled, 10–3, that Chaudhry should be reinstated to his former position. [See pp. 471C1, 389G2] The verdict was seen as the latest blow to Musharraf’s presidency, which had been buffeted in previous months by a growing pro-democracy movement that had formed around Chaudhry, as well as a surge in violent attacks by Islamic extremists. Since Chaudhry’s suspension, tens of thousands of people, including lawyers and members of opposition political parties, had attended rallies across the country calling for Musharraf’s resignation and a return to civilian rule. Musharraf was both president and chief of the army, two positions he had held since he took control of the country in 1999 in a bloodless coup. Additionally, Musharraf faced the possibility that a reinvigorated Supreme Court could challenge his hold on power. Opposition parties July 22 announced plans to file charges that would question the constitutionality of Musharraf’s continuing as both president and army chief. That challenge could force a presidential election before the term of the current parliament expired. Presidents were voted in by parliament and the four provincial assemblies;

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PAULA BRONSTEIN/Getty Images

nol plant in the southern, oil-rich region of Assalouyeh. A second methanol facility was set to be built in Venezuela. The two leaders the same day signed a series of economic agreements designed to strengthen ties between Venezuela and Iran. Chavez July 2 left Iran for Portugal. Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez in an interview published July 3 by Iranian newspaper Shargh said Venezuela had agreed to sell Iran gasoline, but he did not say how much Iran had requested. Although Iran was a major producer of crude oil, it lacked the refineries needed to process the raw fuel into gasoline. Ramirez July 10 said in a statement that Venezuela and Iran had agreed to spend $4 billion on a joint oil project in the Orinoco region. Ramirez said the project would begin yielding oil in 2009. [See p. 452F2] „

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G Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry after his reinstatement as chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court July 20. President Pervez Musharraf had suspended him in March.

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the current parliament was dominated by Musharraf’s allies. The verdict was also seen as a landmark victory for the judicial branch of Pakistan’s government, which had traditionally bent to the will of the country’s military leaders. After the verdict was announced in Islamabad, the nation’s capital, celebrations occurred outside the courthouse and in cities across the country. Musharraf did not comment on the decision, but the prime minister, Shaukhat Aziz, signaled that the government would not challenge the ruling. He issued a statement that urged Pakistanis to “accept the verdict with grace and dignity reflective of a mature nation.” Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the exiled leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), also praised the ruling, and said her return to Pakistan was imminent. [See p. 339B2] Chaudhry was not at the courtroom when the verdict was announced, and he did not offer comments to the press as lawyers celebrated at his house in Islamabad. U.S. Maintains Military Options—Frances Fragos Townsend, homeland security adviser to the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, July 22 said in an interview on the television program “Fox News Sunday” that there remained the possibility that the U.S. would employ military force against operatives of Al Qaeda, an international terrorist group, and other Islamic extremists in Pakistan’s northwest border regions. “There are no options off the table,” she said. [See pp. 470E2, E3, 460A2] The remark, along with similar ones made by White House press secretary Tony Snow July 19 and U.S. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell July 22, provoked angry rebukes from Pakistani officials and the country’s media outlets. Tasnim Aslam, a spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, July 23 described the prospect of U.S. military action on Pakistani soil as “ill-conceived,” saying it would create strong resentment toward the U.S. across Pakistan, and jeopardize Pakistan’s own efforts at minimizing Islamic extremism. The remarks by U.S. officials came in the wake of a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, released in part on July 17, which concluded that a September 2006 ceasefire between the Pakistani government and tribal leaders in North Waziristan, a semiautonomous region in northwestern Pakistan on the Afghan border, had allowed Al Qaeda to use the region as a safe haven. Pakistan was a U.S. ally in its fight against international terrorism, and had come under increasing pressure to weed out terrorists and Islamic extremists in North Waziristan and other areas of the northwest. The cease-fire had fallen apart July 15 after government forces days earlier had stormed a mosque in Islamabad and killed at least 70 Islamic militants. The government July 19 sent a group of tribal elders to North Waziristan for a second time to salvage the cease-fire, after a rash of suicide 486

attacks by extremists across the northwest had left at least 160 people dead in the preceding days. Musharraf’s government had argued that a cease-fire was the best way to achieve a long-term peace in the historically ungovernable region. The army, deployed to the northwest July 13–14, also continued to shell North Waziristan. Security officials July 23 claimed that government forces July 22–23 had killed at least 35 extremists, and that two soldiers had been killed as well. „

Afghanistan South Korean Hostage Killed; 22 Still Held.

Taliban insurgents July 25 killed one of 23 South Korean hostages abducted July 19 as they were traveling on a central highway from Kabul, the Afghan capital, to the southern city of Kandahar. Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman who claimed to speak for the Taliban and the kidnappers, said the hostage was shot because the Afghan government had not given a “positive response” to the Taliban’s demands that it release eight Taliban prisoners. [See below, pp. 486F3, 452G3, 197F1] Baek Jong Chun, chief national security adviser to South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun, departed for Kabul July 26 to work with the Afghan government toward securing the hostages’ release. Baek said in a statement earlier that day that the kidnappers would be “held accountable for taking the life of a Korean citizen.” Afghan army forces July 22 had surrounded an area where they suspected the captives were held, just south of Kabul in Ghazni province. South Korean officials July 26 reiterated their government’s demand that no rescue mission be carried out that could put the hostages in greater danger. Taliban Outlines Demands—The Taliban July 26 said it had killed the hostage because the Afghan government had not accepted an offer to release eight of the hostages in exchange for the eight jailed Taliban members. The Taliban’s previous demands had been inconsistent. Through Ahmadi and reportedly other channels, the Taliban had called for South Korea to withdraw its approximately 210 noncombatant engineers and medics that served with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)–led forces attempting to stamp out a Taliban insurgency against the government. The Taliban had also previously demanded the release of all Taliban members imprisoned in Ghazni. The deadline for meeting the demands was extended several times. South Korea had already announced before the kidnapping that it would withdraw its workers by the end of 2007, as the NATO-led campaign in Afghanistan was unpopular with the South Korean public. The Taliban had used kidnappings of foreigners to discourage them from assisting in development projects in more remote areas of the country, as well as to undermine efforts by the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to stabilize the country. The Taliban had kidnapped two German engineers July 18. An

Italian journalist kidnapped in March had been released later that month only after the government freed five Taliban insurgents from jail. [See below] South Koreans Criticized—Several Afghan officials, including Ghazni’s police chief and governor, July 21 criticized the South Koreans for traveling through an area of the country that was very dangerous and rife with insurgents. The group’s abduction was the largest kidnapping to take place in Afghanistan since U.S. and NATO forces invaded the country in 2001. The abducted South Koreans were members of Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Bundang, just south of Seoul, South Korea’s capital. They were on a 10-day relief mission to Afghanistan to provide medical and education services, according to South Korean officials. The group was composed mainly of women in their 20s and 30s, many of whom were teachers and nurses. The slain hostage was identified as 42year-old Bae Hyung Kyu, a pastor and founder of the church. South Korean officials stressed that the group was not conducting missionary work. The Afghan government in August 2006 had expelled as many as 1,200 visiting South Korean Christians after they were accused of attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity. The group had said it was there to stage a “peace march.” A new South Korean law barring its citizens from traveling to Afghanistan without government permission went into effect July 24. German Hostage Dies— One of two German engineers kidnapped July 18 by the Taliban was found dead July 22 in Wardak province. Ahmadi July 21 had claimed that the Taliban killed the man because Germany had refused to meet Taliban demands that it pull out its 3,000 troops from the NATO-led coalition. Afghan and German officials maintained that the man had a heart attack. The other engineer and four Afghans who were also abducted apparently remained in Taliban hands. One Afghan had managed to escape. German Chancellor Angela Merkel refused to cede to the Taliban’s demands, saying July 24 that Germany would “intensify its engagement in Afghanistan.” Germany’s force was mostly involved in reconstruction projects in the country. „ NATO Offensive Begins; Violence Spikes.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officials July 24 announced that NATO was beginning a new offensive in Helmand province in the south of Afghanistan. Helmand was the largest opium-producing region in the country. The aim of the offensive was to flush out Taliban insurgents in Helmand’s Gereshk district to make way for other economic projects. [See pp. 486B2, 453F3] Meanwhile, violence spiked as NATOand U.S.-led forces tried to gain territory in the east and the south of the country. The Associated Press (AP) July 26 reported that more than 3,500 people had died thus far in 2007 in violence related to the insurgency, FACTS ON FILE

according to casualty numbers made available by U.S., NATO and Afghan officials. Violence Reports—Among the major incidents of violence across Afghanistan July 22–26: † U.S. officials July 26 said 160 insurgents had been killed during battles July 22–26 between Taliban and U.S.-led coalition forces in Musa Qala district in Helmand. Officials said U.S. forces relied heavily on air strikes to demolish a network of compounds from which insurgents had fired at coalition forces. † U.S. officials July 25 reported that 20 insurgents were killed after they attacked a patrol of Afghan army soldiers in Kandahar province, in the south. A clash between insurgents and coalition forces in Kandahar July 26 had led to the deaths of 10 insurgents and one policeman. † Wali Jan, a deputy police chief in southern Uruzgan province, July 24 said three days of fighting between police officers and insurgents had left 26 insurgents and two police officers dead. He said the insurgents were blocking a road leading to Kandahar province. † A roadside bomb July 23 killed four U.S. soldiers in the eastern province of Paktika. According to an AP tally, 114 Western soldiers, including 54 from the U.S., had died in 2007 in insurgency-linked violence. „

India First Female President Elected. Pratibha

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Patil, 72, July 21 was declared the winner of India’s presidential election. She claimed nearly two-thirds of the votes cast July 19 by parliament and state legislators to become the first female president in the country’s history. (A woman had been elected to the powerful post of India’s prime minister in the past, however.) Patil had been expected to win because she had the support of the governing Congress party and was close to its leader, Sonia Gandhi. In the race, Patil beat Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the sitting vice president and a member of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). [See p. 339D1]

Pratibha Patil, who became India’s first female president July 25.

July 26, 2007

The election was seen as a symbolic victory for women, who were still subject to discrimination across the country. Many families viewed girls as financial liabilities, because families traditionally had to pay a hefty dowry to marry off their daughters. A 2006 study by the Lancet, a British medical journal, estimated that 10 million female fetuses had been aborted over the past 20 years in India, despite the fact that sex-selective abortions had been made illegal in 1994. [See 1994, p. 1005D2] The largely ceremonial office of president was traditionally given to a member of a minority or disadvantaged group. Past presidents included three Muslims and a Sikh. Patil was a lawyer who had 40 years of political experience and most recently had been the governor of the state of Rajasthan. She had been subjected to an intense mudslinging campaign during the election process. Her detractors accused her of protecting her brother from a murder investigation and stealing money from a bank she had founded to aid poor women. Patil and her supporters, who included Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, dismissed the claims. Patil was sworn in to office July 25. „

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UNITED STATES

Ireland’s Harrington Wins Golf’s British Open Beats Garcia in Playoff for First Major Title.

Padraig Harrington of Ireland July 22 won the 136th British Open, the third annual major tournament in men’s golf. He claimed victory after beating Spain’s Sergio Garcia in a four-hole playoff at the Carnoustie Championship course in Carnoustie, Scotland. [See 2006, p. 603A2] It was the first major victory for the 35year-old Harrington, who had previously won 14 professional tournaments, including two on the U.S. Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour. He had won the Order of Merit as Europe’s top golfer in 2006. Harrington became the first Irishman to win a major since Fred Daly won the British Open in 1947. He also became the first European to win a major since Scotland’s Paul Lawrie in 1999. [See 2006, p. 902B3] For Garcia, 27, the playoff loss was yet another near-miss in a major. His secondplace finish was his sixth top 10 showing in the last seven British Opens. Garcia Loses Three-Shot Lead—Garcia led for the first three rounds of the British Open July 19–21. He entered the final round July 22 at nine under par, three shots ahead of Steve Stricker of the U.S. (who shot a course-record 64 in the third round) and six shots ahead of Harrington and six other golfers. However, Garcia surrendered his advantage after a shaky front nine. Andres Romero of Argentina, who started the round at two under par, grabbed a two-shot lead after 16 holes. However, he double-bogeyed the 17th and bogeyed the 18th to finish at six under. Harrington, playing two groups ahead of Garcia, took a one-shot lead to the 18th tee.

However, he proceeded to hit his tee shot into Carnoustie’s infamous Barry Burn, a creek that snaked across the 17th and 18th fairways. After taking a penalty drop on the fairway, Harrington also hit his third shot into the burn. He ended up with a doublebogey six on the hole to finish at 277, seven under par. Garcia managed to avoid the burn on the 18th, but hit his second shot into a bunker and then missed an eight-foot putt for par that would have won the tournament. He bogeyed the hole to tie Harrington. In the four-hole aggregate-score playoff—contested on the first, 16th, 17th and 18th holes—Harrington took an early twoshot lead by making birdie on the first, to Garcia’s bogey. Both players parred the 16th and 17th. On the 18th, Garcia made par and Harrington made bogey, giving the Irishman a one-shot victory in the playoff. The events of the final round evoked memories of the last time the Open was played at Carnoustie, in 1999. In that event, Frenchman Jean Van de Velde triple-bogeyed the 18th after hitting his ball into the Barry Burn. Van de Velde went on to lose in a playoff to Lawrie. [See 1999, p. 538A1] Romero ended up with third place, and Richard Green of Australia (who tied the course record with a 64 in the final round) and Ernie Els of South Africa tied for fourth, at five under par. Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, 18, won the silver medal as the top amateur. He finished with a five-over-par 289. Player Alleges Drug Use—Golf legend Gary Player of South Africa, at a news conference in Carnoustie before the start of the British Open, July 18 said at least one male golfer had admitted to using performanceenhancing drugs. “Whether it’s HGH [human growth hormone], whether it’s creatine or whether it’s steroids, I know for a fact that some golfers are doing it,” Player said. The only professional golf tour that had definite plans to test for performance-enhancing drugs was the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), which would start doing so in 2008. However, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem June 20 had said that his tour might implement its own testing regimen by the end of 2007. Player said it was “absolutely essential” for all of golf’s governing bodies to begin random drug testing. [See 2006, p. 903F1] „

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Football Star QB Vick Indicted in Dog-Fighting Ring.

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick July 17 was indicted on federal charges of conspiracy involving competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting, and conducting the operation across state lines. Prosecutors alleged that a large-scale dog-fighting operation—known as Bad Newz Kennels—was operated on property owned by Vick in Surry County, in rural Virginia. [See 2006, p. 1034F3] Vick, 27, July 26 pleaded not guilty to the charges in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va. A trial date was set for Nov. 26. Vick in a statement read outside the courthouse by his lawyer, Billy Martin, said, “I 487

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take these charges very seriously and look forward to clearing my good name.” Vick’s indictment prompted calls for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who had recently instituted a crackdown on poor behavior off-field behavior by players, to suspend the star quarterback. Animal rights groups held protests outside NFL headquarters in New York City and the Falcons’ offices in Flowery Branch, Ga., after the indictment was announced. [See p. 323A1] Goodell responded July 23 by barring Vick from training camp while the league investigated the charges. (The Falcons’ training camp opened July 26.) The commissioner July 24 appointed Eric Holder, a former U.S. deputy attorney general, to study how the NFL should handle Vick’s case. Goodell said the league would not take any action against the quarterback until Holder’s review was completed. Falcons owner Arthur Blank July 24 had said the team had planned to suspend Vick without pay for four games, the maximum penalty allowed, but the NFL asked him to wait until the league completed its review. Some Falcons fans continued to support Vick, a former Virginia Tech star who had been the first overall selection in the 2001 draft and was the team’s star player. The scandal reportedly polarized public opinion in the Atlanta area. [See 2001, p. 323G1] Details of the Case—Federal investigators April 25 raided Vick’s Surry County property, intending to search for drugs. During the search, they found 66 dogs, including 55 pit bulls, and equipment used in dogfighting. Many of the dogs found on the property reportedly might have to be euthanized. Another search of the property June 7 uncovered the graves of seven pit bulls. Among the graphic details in the 18page indictment filed July 17 included descriptions of how dogs that were not killed while fighting were shot, hanged, drowned or electrocuted. The indictment said Vick gave his approval on at least one occasion for a dog to be electrocuted. It also described equipment found on the property, including a device that was used to hold dogs in place for mating and an electronic treadmill used for dogs. The document alleged that the operation had begun in 2001, and that payouts as high as $26,000 were offered to the owner of a winning dog. Vick claimed he had no knowledge of the dogfighting operations at the property, where one of his cousins reportedly lived. The other defendants in the case were Purnell Peace, Quanis Phillips and Tony Taylor. All four faced up to six years in prison and $350,000 in fines if convicted. Athletic footwear maker Nike Inc. July 19 said it would delay the release of a shoe endorsed by Vick. The release had been set for Aug. 23. [See 2006, p. 687F1] „

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Science Firstborns Found to Have Higher IQs.

Norwegian epidemiologists June 22 reported that eldest children in families tend488

ed to have slightly but significantly higher intelligence quotients (IQs) than their siblings, in separate papers published in the journals Science and Intelligence. The scientists were led by Petter Kristensen, of the University of Oslo, and Tor Bjerkedal, of the Norwegian Armed Forces Medical Services. [See 1994, p. 898D2] The studies analyzed military records from 1967 to 1976 on the birth order, health status and IQs of 241,310 Norwegian men age 18 and 19. Eldest children were found on average to have IQs of 103.2, while second children averaged 100.3 and third children averaged 99.0. If the firstborn child had died in infancy, it found, the next oldest experienced the same IQ advantage over his younger siblings. Although the study included only men, scientists said the results would almost certainly hold true for women as well. Scientists proposed several theories to explain the differences, which they said were the result of family dynamics rather than biological factors. One possibility was that elder children tutored their younger siblings, which consolidated and reinforced their own knowledge. Another theory noted that all siblings tended to describe the eldest as more studious and responsible, and suggested that younger children developed alternate skills in order to create niches for themselves. „

Genetics Microbial DNA Transplant Reported. A team of scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., led by genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter, June 28 reported that they had successfully transplanted the complete genome of a microbe into another related species of bacteria, in an operation they said was a major step toward creating synthetic forms of life. The study was published in the online edition of the journal Science. The team was aiming to create cells that could remove carbon dioxide from the air and secrete biofuels, which could be used to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and fight global warming. [See 2002, p. 1031F3] Venter’s team, which included Nobel laureate Hamilton O. Smith, reported that it had transferred the entire genome of a species of the simple bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium to another Mycoplasma species. The transferred DNA was able to “boot up,” or take control of, the host cell, making it produce proteins specified by that DNA. The genome was the largest ever transferred, about one million bases long, and the first to be transferred without the protein coatings that could hinder genetics work. Venter said his institute was close to being able to synthesize an entire bacterial genome in the laboratory out of simple chemicals, which would allow it to claim the creation of the first synthetic life form. Scientists said Venter’s next step, attempting to transplant a functional synthetic genome into an organism, would be a more significant step toward creating new organisms than the current operation, as they said Mycoplasma was too simple to be useful in synthetic biology. „

Arts Harry Potter Finale Breaks Sales Record.

An estimated 8.3 million copies of Scottish author J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, were sold in the U.S. in the first 24 hours after the book went on sale, just after midnight July 21, according to a statement issued July 22 by the book’s U.S. publisher, Scholastic Inc. It was a new one-day sales record for a book, well above the previous mark of 6.9 million, set by the sixth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, in 2005. The new book also broke a sales record in Britain, selling 2.65 million copies in the first 24 hours. Bloomsbury PLC was the book’s British publisher. [See 2005, p. 768G2] „

People Actress Lindsay Lohan, 21, was arrested early July 24 in Santa Monica, Calif., after being involved in a car chase with another woman. She was allegedly driving while intoxicated, and a small amount of cocaine was found in her possession. The arrest came 11 days after she checked out of a Malibu, Calif., rehabilitation center, where she had been treated after an earlier drunkdriving arrest. [See p. 372G2] Comedian Drew Carey, 49, July 23 said he would succeed Bob Barker as the host of the CBS television network’s long-running daytime game show “The Price Is Right.” Carey would also host a new CBS game show, “Power of 10,” scheduled to debut in August. [See p. 408G1] „

O B I T UA R I E S MESSNER, Tammy Faye (born Tamara Faye LaValley and widely known by her first married name, Tammy Faye Bakker), 65, evangelist, gospel singer

and television personality; with her first husband, televangelist Jim Bakker, to whom she was married from 1961 to 1992, she hosted a TV show on the couple’s PTL (Praise the Lord) network that, at its peak, reached up to 13 million households; a tiny woman given to elaborate hairdos and heavy use of makeup, she often cried on camera; the Bakkers lost their ministry in the late 1980s after a series of sex and money scandals, and he was jailed for more than five years after a fraud conviction; during his imprisonment, in 1992, she was granted a divorce, and in 1993 she married a former business associate of his, Roe Messner; in later life, having become an icon of sorts for gays, championed gay rights; she often appeared on cable TV, where one of the subjects she discussed was her battle with cancer, waged since 1996; she last appeared on TV on the eve of her death; born March 7, 1942, in International Falls, Minn.; died July 20 at her home near Kansas City, Mo., from complications of colon cancer. [See 1996, p. 524D3; 1993, p. 760A2; Indexes 1992, 1987– 90 (indexed as Bakker)] ZAHIR Shah, Mohammad, 92, king of Afghanistan from 1933 to 1973 and, since 2002, the country’s ceremonial “father of the nation”; he became king at age 19 when his father, Nadir Shah, was assassinated in his presence, but until the 1950s the country was run mostly by his paternal uncles; once he assumed control, his cautious foreign policy and modest liberalization contributed to 20 years of peace; overthrown in 1973 by a cousin, who proclaimed the country a republic, he spent 29 years in exile in Italy before being invited back to Afghanistan after the ouster of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime in late 2001; born Oct. 15, 1914, in Kabul, the Afghan capital; died July 23 in Kabul; he had been in failing health for several years. [See 2005, p. 969D3; 2003, p. 1076B3; Indexes 2001–02, 1996, 1991, 1987–89, 1983, 1980–81, 1978, 1973, 1966, 1964, 1960, 1957] „

July 26, 2007

Sunni Bloc Quits Iraqi Government Blow to Reconciliation Goals. The Iraqi

(Range based on news reports of deaths)

estimated the depth of the mistrust” among Iraq’s sectarian and political factions. [See 491C3] U.S. Adm. Michael Mullen, at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, July 31 warned that no military strategy would be able to succed in making Iraq more secure without progress on political reconciliation. [See p. 378E1] Baghdad Car Bombs Kill 75—Three car bombs Aug. 1 exploded in Baghdad, the capital, killing a total of at least 75 people. In one attack, a fuel tanker truck was used in a suicide attack at a gas station in the western district of Mansour. In other major violent incidents: † A car bomb July 26 exploded in a market in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Karrada, which until recently had been a relatively calm area. Iraqi police July 28 said that the death toll, originally put at 25, was 60. † U.S. forces July 28 conducted a raid, including air strikes, in the southern city of Karbala, a Shiite holy site and a base of the Mahdi Army militia led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. U.S. officials said that among those captured was a “rogue” leader who had directed attacks on U.S., Iraqi and allied forces. The U.S. military said it had killed 17 militants during the clash. Refugee Conference Held—Jordan July 26 hosted an international conference on aiding Iraqi refugees who had fled to neighboring countries. Representatives from Iraq, Syria and Egypt participated, along with the Arab League and United Nations aid groups. Sending observers were the U.S., Turkey, Iran, Russia, Japan and the European Union. The meeting did not result in substantial new proposals for dealing with the refugees. Iraq said it would add to a previous pledge to give host nations $25 million to help defray their costs, but Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Hamoud said that the countries were demanding amounts far beyond Iraq’s capacity to pay. Jordan said it urgently needed help in handling the estimated 750,000 Iraqi refugees in the country. Jordan said the presence of the refugees was putting pressure on the country’s infrastructure and posed security challenges, costing about $1 billion a year. Syria, which hosted an estimated 1.5 million Iraqis, put its annual costs at about $250 million. The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that about 50,000 Iraqi refugees fled the country every month, mostly to Jordan and Syria. London-based human rights group Amnesty International July 25 said that the flow of refugees was “threatening a humanitarian crisis that could engulf the region unless concerted international action is taken now.”

Sources: U.S. and allies, Iraqi security, contractors— U.S. Defense Department, www.icasualties.org. Iraqi civilians—www.iraqbodycount.org.

The British-based international relief agency Oxfam International July 30 issued a re-

Consensus Front, Iraq’s main Sunni Arab political bloc, Aug. 1 announced the resignation of its six cabinet ministers in protest of the government’s failure to meet a series of demands on security and other issues. The bloc’s withdrawal was a blow to the Iraqi government’s goal of promoting political reconciliation among the country’s sectarian and ethnic groups. The group said its 44 members of parliament would continue in their roles. [See pp. 474D3, 458D1] The Iraqi Consensus Front the previous week had issued a threat to pull out of the cabinet if the government did not meet several demands, including a greater role in setting security policies, the prompt disbanding of sectarian militias and the release of thousands of Sunni detainees. Bloc member Rafaa al-Issawi Aug. 1 said, “The government is continuing with its arrogance, refusing to change its stand, and has slammed shut the door to any meaningful reforms necessary for saving Iraq.” Premier Nouri Kamal al-Maliki Aug. 1 issued a statement saying, “Our aim had always been the continuation of active political participation with everyone taking his proper role in… making decisions.” Maliki July 27 had condemned the Iraqi Consensus Front’s threat to withdraw as “blackmail” that was “delaying the work of the government.” The parliament July 30 had adjourned for a monthlong vacation without having made progress on passing several bills that the government and the U.S. said were key to establishing political stability. The U.S. had pressured the parliament to shorten or cancel the recess in order to complete pending legislation prior to the mid-September release of a major progress report on Iraq. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in remarks to reporters en route to the U.S. from a Middle East tour, Aug. 2 noted that “the developments on the political side” in Iraq, including the Sunni group’s departure from the cabinet, were “somewhat discouraging.” He suggested that the U.S., when it introduced a strategy of sending 30,000 additional troops earlier in the year, “underIRAQ CASUALTIES

Following are tallies of casualties in Iraq since the beginning of a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, as they stood Aug. 2 [See p. 411E1]: U.S. military casualties:

Deaths Wounded

3,649 27,104

Allied military deaths: 293 Iraqi security forces deaths: 7,335 U.S. civilian contractor deaths: 159 Other civilian contractor deaths: 255 Iraqi civilian deaths: 68,172–74,575

Aid Group Warns of Humanitarian Crisis—

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B port on living conditions in Iraq, and calling on the Iraqi and foreign governments to increase humanitarian aid. The report said that “the slide into poverty and deprivation since the coalition forces entered the country in 2003 has been dramatic.” Oxfam found that 43% of Iraqis lived in “absolute poverty,” and that about four million Iraqis were dependent on food aid, which many could not get because they were displaced and lacked documentation entitling them to rations. About 70% of Iraqis lacked access to adequate water supplies, and 80% were without proper sanitation facilities. The report urged a reversal in the steep decline in humanitarian assistance to Iraq, which was down to $95 million in 2006, from $453 million in 2005, partly due to a shift by donor countries to reconstruction spending. It called on the Iraqi government to double its monthly cash payments to

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Sunni bloc quits Iraqi government. PAGE 489

U.N. approves Darfur peacekeeping contingent.

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U.S., India finalize nuclear pact. PAGE 490

Murdoch’s News Corp. buys Dow Jones in $5 billion deal. PAGE 493

Minneapolis bridge collapse kills at least four. PAGE 494

Congress clears ethics reform bill. PAGE 494

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Chief Justice Roberts suffers seizure. PAGE 496

Japan’s ruling party loses upper house majority; Premier Abe resists calls to quit. PAGE 499

Contador wins Tour de France marred by doping scandals. PAGE 501

NBA referee probed for betting on games. PAGE 502

*First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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households headed by widows, currently $100. Soccer Victory Celebrated— Iraq’s national soccer team July 29 won the championship game of the Asian Cup tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, defeating Saudi Arabia, 1–0. The victory unleashed mass celebrations across Iraq, described as a rare collective moment of distraction from the conflict. Similar celebrations after Iraq’s semifinal victory the previous week had been marred by Baghdad car bombings. With a ban on vehicles in the capital and other cities, from the start of the final through the following morning, no such attacks occurred, although casualties from celebratory gunfire were reported. „

U.N. Approves Darfur Peacekeeping Contingent Sudan to Support 26,000-Strong Force.

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The United Nations Security Council July 31 unanimously approved a resolution authorizing a 26,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force for the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan. [See p. 401A3] More than 200,000 people had died and some 2.5 million others had been driven from their homes in Darfur since 2003, amid fighting between local rebel groups on one side and Sudanese forces and government-backed Arab militias known as the Janjaweed on the other. Government troops and the Janjaweed had been accused of terrorizing civilians. A 7,000-member African Union (AU) force had been in Darfur since 2004, but had failed to protect civilians and was suffering increasing casualties and a severe lack of funding. The Sudanese government Aug. 1 said it would support the force. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had previously resisted the presence of non-African troops in Darfur. Sudanese negotiators in June had agreed to the creation of the force at a meeting with U.N. and AU representatives in Ethiopia. The U.N. contingent in Darfur, if fully deployed, would be the largest peacekeeping force in the world, surpassing the 17,000-member force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It would comprise about 20,000 soldiers and 6,000 civilian police officers, and cost about $2 billion per year. The 7,000 AU troops would be absorbed into the U.N. force. Nigeria, which supplied the majority of the AU troops, said it would contribute another battalion to the U.N. contingent. Other countries offering troops to the U.N. included France, Indonesia, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. It was expected to begin deployment by the end of the year. The resolution authorized the use of force by U.N. troops in cases of self-defense, to secure the unhindered movement of aid workers and to protect civilians who were being attacked. A threat of sanctions against Sudan for noncompliance with the force July 24 had been dropped from the U.N. resolution, which was sponsored by Britain and France, after objections from the Sudanese 490

government. Another provision that would have allowed the force to seize and dispose of illegal weapons was also removed. Instead, it would “monitor” illicit arms. Analysts said that a change of position by China, after years of refusing to pressure Bashir’s government, with which it had extensive economic ties, had been key to winning passage of the resolution and acceptance of the force. [See pp. 401G3, 297E3] Chad Approves European Force— Idriss Deby, the president of Chad, which bordered Darfur, July 19 agreed in principle to allow a European Union peacekeeping force into eastern Chad. According to the U.N., about 230,000 displaced civilians from Darfur had taken refuge there since the start of the Darfur conflict. The fighting had recently spilled over into Chad, displacing more than 170,000 Chadian civilians. The EU July 23 said it planned to send 3,000 peacekeepers to the region to assist in providing security and aid to the refugees. It was intended to work in concert with the planned U.N. Darfur force. U.S. Envoy Alleges Attacks on Civilians—

Andrew Natsios, the U.S.’s special envoy to Darfur, July 13 claimed at a news conference in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, that the government had renewed a bombing campaign against civilian targets in Darfur. The U.N. July 24 reported that 25,000 people had fled their homes in Darfur in May and June due to aerial bombing and fighting on the ground. Also, the World Food Program July 25 reported that aid convoys were coming under attack. Other News—In other news related to the Darfur conflict: † Representatives from 18 countries— including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Liu Guijin, China’s special envoy to Darfur—met June 25 in Paris to discuss the Darfur crisis. Little progress was reported at the meeting. † Bashir July 21–23 visited Darfur, stopping in the capitals of the region’s three provinces. It was his first visit to the region since the beginning of the conflict. „

U.S., India Finalize Nuclear Pact Deal Draws Criticism From U.S. Congress.

The U.S. and India July 27 announced that they had finalized a pact that would foster civilian nuclear cooperation between the two countries. The pact would enable bilateral trade in nuclear reactors, technology and fuel. The announcement ended two years of negotiations following a July 2005 agreement by U.S. President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to pursue a deal. [See 2006, p. 972F3; 2005, p. 484A3] The pact still needed approval from India’s Parliament and the U.S. Congress. India would have to reach separate agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the United Nations and the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group, an international collective that set rules for the export of nuclear technology.

The pact would require India to separate its civilian nuclear reactors from its military ones, and bring the civilian reactors under the oversight of the IAEA. India would be allowed to reprocess nuclear fuel from the U.S., which would technically enable it to produce weapons-grade plutonium, although IAEA safeguards were meant to prevent that. India also retained the right to create a strategic nuclear fuel reserve in the case that fuel supply from the U.S. was discontinued. India also received pledges that the U.S. would help it find other fuel suppliers if supply disruption occurred. Those provisions were included because of fears that U.S. lawmakers in Congress could deem aspects of the pact unlawful. [See below] In exchange, India would open up its market to U.S. energy and defense industries. The U.S.-India Business Council, a Washington, D.C.–based advocacy group for U.S. companies investing in India, said in a press release July 27 that the expansion of India’s civilian nuclear energy capacity could be worth $150 billion over the next 30 years and lead to the creation of thousands of new jobs in both countries. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice July 27 described the pact as a “historic milestone” in the U.S.’s relations with India, a rising economic giant in Asia and the world’s largest democracy. U.S. Democrats Criticize Pact— Democrats in Congress July 27 criticized the pact, saying it did not go far enough in discouraging India from conducting nuclear weapons tests. They also said the pact contradicted the U.S.’s position on nuclear proliferation. Rep. Edward Markey (D, Mass.), cochairman of the House Bipartisan Task

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Force on Nonproliferation, July 26 said the deal gave the impression that the U.S. had “one set of rules for countries we like, another for countries we don’t.” As part of a nonproliferation initiative, Bush had maintained that countries should not be allowed to reprocess fuel or enrich uranium, practices that could produce nuclear weapons and were not necessary to manufacture nuclear energy for civilian purposes. The Bush administration was currently trying to impose tougher U.N. sanctions on Iran for enriching uranium, even though Iran had claimed that it did not have ambitions to create a nuclear weapon. Critics said the pact with India would undermine the U.S.’s stance on the issue. [See p. 469E3] Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs and a negotiator of the pact, said in a July 26 interview that Iran would not receive the same treatment as India because it was a “nuclear outlaw state,” and that a nuclear deal with India was in the U.S.’s national interest. Congressional Democrats also noted that while lawmakers in December 2006 had exempted India from a ban on nuclear cooperation with countries that had not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), Congress had required the administration to cut fuel supplies to India if it ever tested a new nuclear weapon. India had tested its first nuclear weapon in 1998. [See 1998, p. 317A1] However, the pact made no mention of what would happen if India tested another nuclear weapon, and required the U.S. to find other suppliers for India if the U.S.’s fuel supply was disrupted. Indian officials had been adamant that the pact give it free rein to produce new nuclear weapons if it had to, which over the past two years proved to be the main obstacle to finalizing the pact. Indian officials had maintained that the ability to create nuclear weapons was vital to protecting the country’s national security, as its neighbor Pakistan possessed nuclear weapons as well. M.K. Narayanan, India’s national security adviser, July 27 said, “Our right to test [nuclear weapons] did not come into this at all. And that’s key.” Israel, Pakistan and India were the only three countries that had never signed the NPT. North Korea had pulled out of the NPT in 2003. „

Middle East Blair Makes First Visit as Quartet Envoy.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in his new capacity as envoy from the socalled Quartet for Middle East peace, July 23–24 met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to listen to their ideas. In Tel Aviv, Israel, Blair July 24 met with President Shimon Peres. Later, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, he met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the caretaker prime minister, Salam Fayyad. He then went to Jerusalem, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. [See p. 459D2] Blair July 23 also traveled to Amman, Jordan, to see Jordanian Foreign Minister August 2, 2007

Abdelelah al-Khatib and to Tel Aviv for meetings with Israeli cabinet members. After the talks, Blair told reporters he felt a “sense of possibility” of progress toward peace but cautioned that any solution would take time. Arab Leaders Visit Olmert—The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan July 25 made an unprecedented visit to Israel as official emissaries of the Arab League, meeting with Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to offer permanent normal relations between Israel and all the members of the Arab League in exchange for Israel’s full withdrawal from all territories occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The proposal had been made first by Saudi Arabia in 2002 but Israel had rejected it. Olmert said there was no firm timetable for peace talks but, through a spokeswoman, said he supported the “basic ideas” of the Arab League’s proposal. Olmert July 25 had confirmed news reports that he had his own plan to offer Abbas a Palestinian state on most of the West Bank and Gaza, after first trying to solve Palestinian economic and institutional problems. Israel Releases Prisoners— Israel July 20 released 255 Palestinian prisoners, virtually all of them from Abbas’s Fatah movement. The gesture, announced in advance, was meant to bolster Abbas as his West Bank government had lost the Gaza Strip to the forces of the radical Islamist group Hamas. For the same reason, Israel had also removed hundreds of names from its list of wanted Fatah-aligned militants. In response, some of the militants, including ones from the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, had begun disarming and pledging to halt attacks on Israel, the New York Times reported July 19. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon July 27 called for a withdrawal from “most” of the occupied West Bank, saying he believed Abbas’s government could be a “partner.” Separately, the paper that day reported that the government no longer employed the phrase “armed resistance” in its platform. Palestinian National Security Adviser Mohammed Dahlan July 26 resigned in the wake of his forces’ June defeat in Gaza by Hamas. Dahlan cited health problems, but Abbas had dissolved his national security council weeks earlier. Egypt Allows Return of Gazans—Egypt July 29–30 allowed the first of about 6,000 Palestinians stuck near the Egyptian border town of Rafah to return home to Gaza, via Israel. The border post at Rafah had been closed following Hamas’s Gaza takeover. With Israeli permission, Egypt let some 700 refugees through to Israel at Al Oja, south of Rafah. They were then bused to Israel’s Gaza border at Erez and permitted to reenter. Other News—In other Israeli-Palestinian news: † An Israeli elite soldier had been abandoned in Gaza during his brigade’s incursion near Khan Yunis the previous week,

the military confirmed July 29. He had fallen asleep just inside the Gaza border and his fellow soldiers had returned to Israel without him. They recovered him after he woke up. † A textbook in Arabic calling Israel’s 1948 war of independence a “catastrophe” for the territory’s Arab population had been approved for use in Arab third-grade classrooms, Israel’s education ministry said July 22. The book’s account of that period of Israel’s history was more complicated than the standard one taught in Israel’s schools, and differed from the one that appeared in the Hebrew version of the textbook. † Hamas’s Gaza takeover had left it in possession of Fatah’s intelligence and military infrastructure in Gaza, which the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had helped develop, the Wall Street Journal reported July 30. The seized records included evidence that Fatah had spied on other Muslim countries for the U.S., evidence of Fatah collusion with Israeli intelligence officers, and other material embarrassing to Fatah and the U.S., according to Hamas. The Journal reported that Hamas had also picked up weapons and espionage techniques with its Gaza victory. „ U.S. Announces Arms Deals. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice July 30 pledged $30 billion to Israel and $13 billion to Egypt in military aid to help stabilize the region. The 10-year deals required approval by the U.S. Congress. The announcement came as Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates prepared to leave later that day on a multistop tour of the Middle East. [See pp. 489A1, 276D2] Rice also announced that on their trip she would offer military aid to several states around the Persian Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, as a means of countering the regional influence of Iran and emphasizing the U.S.’s enduring support for those countries despite growing disagreement. She did not say how much the arms deal would be worth, but other U.S. officials had put the figure at about $20 billion over 10 years. The offer was for advanced weaponry, mostly defensive, including satelliteguided bombs, new fighter planes and navy vessels. Speaking of the Israeli, Egyptian and Gulf-region aid together, Rice said, “This effort will help bolster forces of moderation and support a broader strategy to counter the negative influences of [global terrorist network] al-Qaeda, [Lebanese militant organization] Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.” Iran immediately criticized the move. Its foreign ministry said the U.S. was inciting “fear and concerns” and “trying to harm the good relations between these countries.” The package directed to Israel was reportedly 43% larger than what it had received in military and defense aid from the U.S. over the previous 10 years. Israel reportedly did not object to the arming of its neighbor states, although it asked the U.S. to take steps to ensure that satellite-guided 491

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bombs sold to Saudi Arabia would not be used against it. The Gulf-states arms deal, especially, was expected to meet resistance in the U.S. Congress over concerns that the Saudis would not back the government of Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki nor thwart the movement of Sunni Muslim radicals into Iraq. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D, Calif.) had already called for hearings with leaders of the State and Defense departments, and several House members vowed to block the proposal. Rice, Gates Tour Region—Rice and Gates July 31 traveled to a meeting with the foreign ministers of eight Arab states to try to persuade them to help bolster Iraq’s Shiite Muslim–dominated government. The participants were Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. In a statement issued afterward, the Arab ministers pledged unspecified increases in aid to Iraq. They expressed agreement on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although none of the participants promised to attend an upcoming Middle East peace conference called by U.S. President George W. Bush. The statement supported continuing diplomatic efforts against Iran’s nuclear program but noted the right of all states to peaceful use of nuclear energy. Rice and Gates late July 31 flew to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, for talks Aug. 1 with Saudi leaders. At a joint news conference afterward, Saudi officials said the country might send representatives to Bush’s peace conference if the meeting included talks on so-called final-status issues: the borders of a Palestinian state, right of return for Palestinian refugees from Israel’s 1948 war of independence, Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the status of Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians claimed as a capital. Saudi and Israeli officials had not attended peace talks together since 1991, and Saudi Arabia had never recognized the state of Israel. Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, announced that his government might open an embassy in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. Saud said he was “astonished” by criticism from the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad. In a July 20 opinion piece in the Times, Khalilzad had suggested that certain U.S. allies in the region had joined Syria and Iran in “pursuing destabilization policies” in Iraq, which was taken as a reference to Saudi Arabia. Saud said his country was not to blame for militants crossing into Iraq and claimed instead that the flow of extremists went in the other direction. Gates Aug. 1 traveled on to Kuwait, touring the port of Kuwait City by helicopter. He returned to the U.S. Aug. 2 after stopping in the United Arab Emirate of Abu Dhabi for talks with its crown prince. Rice Aug. 1 went to Israel, where Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly told her he was prepared to take up some of the final status issues with Abbas’s government. 492

She traveled on to Ramallah Aug. 2 to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and his cabinet, in a show of support for the caretaker government installed by President Mahmoud Abbas. The two leaders signed an agreement on the terms and conditions of U.S. funding for security forces under Abbas. Hamas, a militant Islamist group that now controlled the Gaza Strip, in a statement said Rice had come not “to establish a Palestinian state but to build up death squads that will work against resistance groups.” Later, at a news conference following a meeting between Rice and Abbas, the latter said he was prepared to negotiate with Israel a “declaration of principles” for a Palestinian state. „

Other International News Britain’s Brown Visits Bush at Camp David.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown July 29–30 visited U.S. President George W. Bush at the presidential retreat in Maryland, Camp David. It was Brown’s first meeting with Bush since succeeding Tony Blair as prime minister a month earlier. [See pp. 421D2, 336C2] The encounter was closely watched for signs that Brown would avoid replicating the close relationship with Bush that had cost Blair much of his popularity at home. Blair had been accused of accepting a new subservient role, as Bush’s “poodle,” in the traditional “special relationship” between the two countries, and of heedlessly following Bush into the Iraq war. Prior to the visit, some of Brown’s cabinet ministers had hinted that he would pointedly distance himself from Bush. However, Brown July 29 issued a statement before his departure, describing the alliance with the U.S. as Britain’s “single most important bilateral relationship.” At a July 30 joint news conference at Camp David, Brown signaled one key difference with Bush, describing Afghanistan as the “front line against terrorism.” Bush often referred to Iraq as the main battleground in the war against the international terrorist network Al Qaeda. Asked by reporters about the Iraq war, Brown said, “Our aim, like the United States, is step by step to move control to the Iraqi authorities—to the Iraqi government and to its security forces—as progress is made.” He said Britain had “duties to discharge and responsibilities to keep in support of the democratically elected government of Iraq.” He refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of the remaining 5,500 British troops in Iraq, the same position that Bush had taken on the future of U.S. forces in Iraq. [See p. 375A2] Bush hailed Brown’s stance, saying, “There’s no doubt in my mind that Gordon Brown understands that failure in Iraq would be a disaster for the security of our own countries.” During their news conference, Bush struck a far more personal note than Brown, warmly praising the new prime minister’s personality. “He is not the dour

Scot you describe, nor the awkward Scot. He is the humorous Scotsman,” Bush said. Brown, by contrast, did not reciprocate with much personal praise, aside from thanking Bush for his hospitality. He also retained a more formal manner, reading from prepared remarks at the news conference. Brown July 30 traveled straight from Camp David to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., where he met with both Democratic and Republican congressional leaders. Brown Visits U.N.— Brown July 31 went to New York City to meet with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. He also delivered an address before the U.N. General Assembly, calling for renewed efforts to fight global poverty by living up to the Millennium Development Goals agreed to at a U.N. summit in 2000. [See 2005, p. 618C3] Brown also helped that day to secure the U.N. Security Council’s unanimous vote to authorize the deployment of a joint U.N.– African Union peacekeeping force in the Darfur region of Sudan. In his speech, Brown called the Darfur conflict, which had taken the lives of more than 200,000 people, “the greatest humanitarian disaster the world faces today.” [See p. 490B1] „ Australia Frees British Bomb Plot Suspect.

An Indian doctor, Mohamed Haneef, held in Australian custody for more than three weeks as a suspect in attempted terrorist bombings in Britain, went free July 27, a day after prosecutors dropped charges against him. He returned home July 29 to Bangalore, India. [See p. 451B3] Damien Bugg, Australia’s chief prosecutor, July 27 said the charges against Haneef had been a “mistake.” Haneef was reportedly a cousin of two brothers being held in British custody, Kaleef and Sabeel Ahmed, as suspects in the failed car bombings in London and Glasgow, Scotland, in late June. Haneef had been charged with providing support to a terrorist organization by giving them a prepaid SIM card for cellular telephone service. Sabeel Ahmed had been charged July 14 with a terrorism offense in Britain. He appeared in court July 16 and was ordered held in custody. Kafeel Ahmed died Aug. 2 in a Scottish hospital after suffering severe burns in the attack on Glasgow’s airport. The case against Haneef fell apart after it was disclosed that his phone card was not found in the vehicle used in the Glasgow attack, as police had initially alleged. In fact, the card was found in Liverpool, England, in the possession of Sabeel Ahmed. Australian police blamed their British counterparts for the error. Two other men faced charges in the bomb plot: Mohammed Asha, who was ordered held in custody at a July 20 hearing, and Bilal Abdullah, who had been charged earlier in July. At a July 27 hearing, their case was adjourned until September. British police July 15 said two unidentified men held as suspects had been released without charge. Asha’s wife, Marwa Asha, had been released July 12. „ FACTS ON FILE

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Murdoch’s News Corp. Buys Dow Jones in $5 Billion Deal Takes Over ‘Wall Street Journal.’ Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of international media conglomerate News Corp., July 31 sealed a $5 billion buyout of Dow Jones & Co., the owner of the Wall Street Journal, after tentatively securing a majority of shareholder votes. Shareholders were expected to officially vote on the deal later in the year. [See p. 278A3] Dow Jones would receive $60 a share in cash, an enormous 67% premium over the stock’s value before Murdoch’s offer had been made public May 1. The stock’s price closed Aug. 2 at $58.37. The deal ended a three-month-long negotiation process between News Corp., the Dow Jones board of directors and about three dozen members of the Bancroft family, who together owned a 64.2% shareholder voting stake in Dow Jones, and had controlled the company since 1902. Many members of the Bancroft family had opposed the deal, fearing that Murdoch would undermine the Journal’s reputation for journalistic integrity in order to generate more money in advertising revenues. News Corp.’s other media properties included highly successful tabloids in Britain and Australia, as well as the New York Post and Fox News Channel in the U.S., which were known for their often blunt reports and conservative viewpoints. While the Journal’s editorial page was transparently of a conservative bent, its news section was known for its objectivity. Furthermore, family members feared meddling from Murdoch himself, as he had reportedly used or interfered with News Corp. media outlets in the past to further his political and business interests. The family declined to talk to Murdoch for several weeks, but May 31 agreed to a meeting, which took place June 4. As part of the deal, News Corp. was required to establish a five-member committee that would ensure that the Journal’s in-

dependence and control over news content was preserved. The committee’s members would be chosen jointly by News Corp. and Dow Jones. News Corp. also had to include one member of the Bancroft family on its board of directors. Several companies, including General Electric Co. and Pearson PLC of Britain, owner of the Financial Times, a leading business newspaper that competed with the Journal, had attempted to cobble together competitive bids, but none came close to Murdoch’s $60-a-share cash offer. Pearson and GE said June 21 that they had discussed combining their operations with Dow Jones but had decided not to make a bid. Efforts to find a rival bidder failed. Bancroft Family Divided—A decisive moment in the negotiations came July 30, when Holme Roberts & Owen, a Denver, Colo.–based law firm that oversaw Bancroft trusts and controlled a 9.1% voting stake in Dow Jones, agreed to a News Corp. deal. The family’s lead trustee, Michael Elefante, had set a deadline for that day for the family to present him with their decision on a sale. (Most of the Bancroft family’s shares were held in various trusts overseen by lawyers.) Holme Roberts & Owen had been searching for an increase in the offering price, but Murdoch, lacking any real competition, refused to go beyond his original bid. Instead it was agreed that Dow Jones would pay for the Bancroft family’s legal fees, estimated to be at least $30 million. The issue of fees was reportedly one that emerged late in the talks, and wrangling among family members on the matter continued down to the deadline. News Corp. would assume those fees when it formally bought the company. In all, News Corp. gained a little more than half of the votes controlled by the Bancroft family. News Corp. expected to receive a vast majority of the votes controlled by other shareholders and a 60% majority overall when it went to a vote, probably later in the year. The Bancroft family members who opposed the deal mostly did so out of fears that Murdoch would compromise the cred-

RUPERT MURDOCH’S MEDIA HOLDINGS

Following are some of the major media properties owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. With the acquisition of Dow Jones & Co., News Corp. would become the secondlargest media conglomerate in the world, after Time Warner Inc. [See p. 493A1]: Newspapers

New York Post (U.S.) Times of London (Britain) Sunday Times (Britain) Sun (Britain) News of the World (Britain) Daily Telegraph (Australia) The Australian (Australia) Internet

MySpace (U.S.) Fox Sports (U.S.) Film

20th Century Fox (U.S.) August 2, 2007

Fox Home Entertainment (U.S.) Satellite Television

DirecTV (U.S.) British Sky Broadcasting (Britain) Sky Italia (Italy) STAR (China) Broadcast Television

Fox Broadcasting Co. (U.S.) Fox Television Stations (U.S.) Cable Television

Fox News Channel (U.S.) Fox Sports Net (U.S.) National Geographic (U.S.) Book Publishing

HarperCollins Publishers (U.S.) Magazines

TV Guide (U.S.) The Weekly Standard (U.S.)

ibility of the Journal and other Dow Jones media properties. Leslie Hill, an outspoken critic of the deal, resigned from the Dow Jones board July 31 in protest. James Ottaway, whose immediate family controlled a 7% voting stake, in a written statement July 31 described other family members as “betraying their 105-year family loyalty to Dow Jones independence.” Those against the deal cited numerous letters written to them by reporters and editors of the Journal that urged them to reject Murdoch’s offer for the sake of retaining the independence and quality of the newspaper. Critics had also said that Murdoch had circumvented editorial safeguards put in place at other newspapers he had bought out and by which he had promised to abide, like the Times of London. Those that supported the deal said they were concerned about the Journal’s ability to survive on its own after years of shrinking advertising revenues and a general shift in readership from traditional news media to the Internet. Without a takeover, Dow Jones faced the prospect of cutting jobs to bolster its stock price. [See 2006, p. 932A1] News Corp. not only had far greater financial resources to prop up Dow Jones, but established platforms in the worlds of television and the Internet that could help the Journal bridge the gap between traditional and emerging media. That point had been made clear to the Bancrofts on numerous occasions. In a May 11 letter to the Bancrofts, Murdoch had said he would enlarge Dow Jones’s online presence, and invest in the Journal’s Washington, D.C., bureau and its Asian and European editions. Dow Jones CEO Richard Zannino explained May 2 in a presentation to the board of directors, which included Bancroft family members, how News Corp. could better market and distribute the Journal. The family’s financial advisers and Dow Jones officials also illuminated the benefits of a News Corp. deal. The sale of Dow Jones was the latest in a series of takeovers of a newspaper by a large media conglomerate, underscoring concerns in the journalism community that newspapers could no longer generate enough revenue to stand financially on their own. [See p. 223B2; 2006, p. 213B3] Deal a Coup for Murdoch—In an interview published July 9 in Time magazine, Murdoch said the acquisition of the Journal would be a crucial element in his goal of creating a multimedia business information service. He said the Journal’s quality reporting and prominence would add substance to his online ventures and his Fox Business Channel, which was due to premiere on cable television in October. Murdoch also said he planned to invest heavily in the Journal itself so that it could rival the Financial Times as the preeminent business news publication in Europe, and rival the New York Times as the U.S.’s most influential general-interest paper. It was widely reported that Murdoch had longed to acquire the Journal for more 493

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than 10 years. The Journal had received 33 Pulitzer Prizes, was the nation’s secondmost-popular newspaper in terms of circulation after USA Today, and had 900,000 subscribers to its online edition. Murdoch’s News Corp. also controlled the New York Post, the Times of London, the Fox News Channel, the Fox network, and the online social networking Web site MySpace. In acquiring Dow Jones, Murdoch also would control Dow Jones Newswires, Barron’s magazine and business news Web service MarketWatch. „

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report in 2005 had found structural deficiencies. But they said the report indicated that the bridge was still safe to use and could be rehabilitated at a later date. Federal and local officials said there was no sign of deliberate sabotage, but that the bridge area was nonetheless being designated a crime scene. Parallel Inspections Announced—National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Mark Rosenker Aug. 2 said inspectors would arrive in Minneapolis that day to investigate the cause of the collapse, and said the NTSB report would be complete in about a year. Pawlenty later that Minneapolis Bridge Collapse day said a private forensic engineering Kills At Least Four firm, Wiss, Janney and Elstner Associates, Inc., would be hired to conduct a parallel Toll Likely to Rise in Rush-Hour Accident. A highway bridge crossing the Mississippi investigation. Another outside firm would River in Minneapolis, Minn., Aug. 1 col- be brought in to investigate three other lapsed during the evening rush hour, plung- bridges in the state that were similar to the ing dozens of vehicles into the water and Minneapolis bridge. President George W. Bush Aug. 2 ofonto the land beneath. Officials Aug. 2 said at least four people were confirmed dead, fered federal assistance for the rebuilding but that the death toll was likely to rise; dif- efforts, and said he had discussed the matferent estimates put the number of people ter with the cabinet. “We in the federal missing at 20–30. Another 79 people were government must respond and respond roreported injured. [See p. 315C1; 1982, p. bustly to help the people there not only recover but make sure that lifeline of activity, 374F3] The collapse dropped a 1,000-foot (300- that bridge, gets rebuilt as quickly as possim) stretch of the eight-lane Interstate 35W ble.” The federal government initially bridge into the river more than 60 feet be- pledged $5 million, but Minnesota legislalow. Several vehicles remained on the tors said they would seek to use an addiwreckage, including a tractor-trailer that tional $100 million federal reconstruction caught fire and a school bus, from which fund. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Red Cross officials said rescuers had reNev.) Aug. 2 said the collapse was “a moved 61 children and other riders. Rescue work was reportedly hindered wakeup call,” and demanded that the U.S. by the river’s strong and unpredictable cur- do more to maintain its “crumbling infrarent and the wreckage, and divers had to re- structures.” peatedly halt recovery operations. Divers Other News—In other news of infraAug. 2 continued to investigate objects in structural failures: the river that might be submerged vehicles. An evaluation of the steel truss bridge † A highway overpass under construcperformed in 2001 for Minnesota’s trans- tion near Oroville, Calif., July 31 colportation department by the University of lapsed, injuring two people. The cause of Minnesota Civil Engineering Department the collapse was under investigation. had reported preliminary signs of stress in † A steam pipe under a New York City the steel trusses, but no cracking. It did not street near Grand Central Terminal July 18 recommend replacing the bridge, which exploded, opening up a crater and sending had been built in 1967. a geyser of steam and debris hundreds of Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) and feet in the air. One person died of a heart U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters attack while fleeing, and more than 30 at a press conference Aug. 2 said a federal were injured. The explosion was attributed to condensation from heavy rainfall the previous day. Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) July 19 sought to minimize fears that the explosion had exposed bystanders to asbestos, saying tests had not found dangerous amounts of the carcinogen in debris and the air. New York City’s Manhattan Island had 105 miles (160 km) of steam pipes, the largest such network in the world, and the pipe that exploded had been laid The Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minn., af- in 1924. [See 1994, p. 994E3] „ ter its Aug. 1 collapse. 494

Congress Clears Ethics Reform Bill Stricter Rules for Pet Projects, Lobbying. The

Senate Aug. 2 voted, 83–13, to clear a wideranging ethics reform bill that would tighten the rules for members of Congress in their use of federal money for pet projects, their dealings with lobbyists and other potential conflicts of interest. The House July 31 had voted, 411–8, to pass the bill and send it to the Senate for final approval. [See p. 347C2] Democrats hailed the bill as a landmark reform of congressional ethics that fulfilled their vows to clean up corrupt practices that had led, in part, to the Republicans’ loss of their House and Senate majorities in the 2006 elections. However, Republicans and some independent advocates said that Democratic leaders, in closed-door meetings to hammer out the final legislation, had weakened an earlier version of the bill passed by the Senate in January. The bill was cleared days after federal agents raided the Alaska home of Sen. Ted Stevens (R), the longest-serving Senate Republican, in an investigation of his dealings with VECO Corp., an energy services company. More than a dozen other current or former members of Congress were reportedly under federal investigation for corruption. [See p. 497C1] Disclosure of Earmarks Required—The bill would require senators to disclose more fully their sponsorship of funding provisions, or “earmarks,” for pet projects. That would bring the Senate into line with the House, which had adopted such rules in January. Senators would have to disclose any earmarks they sponsored 48 hours before they came to a vote. They would also have to certify that neither they nor their families had any financial interest in the earmarks they sponsored. However, the bill would give authority to oversee earmark disclosure in the Senate to the party leaders and the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, whereas an earlier version would have left that responsibility to the independent Senate parliamentarian. Critics asked how Senate leaders could be trusted in that role when they also used earmarks to dole out funding. In debate before the Senate vote, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) Aug. 2 dismissed the notion that he or other leaders would “cheat and lie” to conceal earmarks. Lobbyists’ Fund-raising Targeted—The other key point of the bill would require lawmakers to disclose the names of lobbyists who solicited, or “bundled,” packages of campaign contributions on their behalf in each six-month period, if the total exceeded $15,000. However, the original version of the bill had called for more frequent reports and lower disclosure thresholds. The bill would also ban lawmakers and their staffs from accepting gifts or meals from lobbyists or their clients. House members and candidates would be barred from accepting travel on private airplanes. Senators, Senate candidates and FACTS ON FILE

presidential candidates would have to pay charter rates for private air travel. Former senators and executive-branch officials would have to wait two years after retiring before they could become lobbyists themselves, while former House members and senior congressional staffers would have to wait one year. The bill would also bar senators from anonymously putting “holds” on legislation. Under existing rules, a single senator could secretly block a bill’s progress. The new rule would require senators to disclose their use of holds and their reasons for it in the Congressional Record. A White House spokeswoman said President George W. Bush had “serious concerns” about aspects of the bill, including the two-year “cooling off” lobbying ban for administration aides and the impact of the air-travel rules on a sitting president seeking reelection and using the presidential jet. „

Other Legislation 9/11 Commission Antiterrorism Bill Cleared.

The House July 27 approved, 371–40, a Democratic-sponsored bill with wide bipartisan support implementing many antiterrorism measures suggested by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (known informally as the Sept. 11 commission), an independent, bipartisan panel that had investigated September 2001 attacks on the U.S. The Senate the day before had voted, 85–8, to approve the bill. Scott Stanzel, a White House spokesman, July 27 said President George W. Bush would sign the bill. [See p. 158F3] The House in January and the Senate in March had passed separate versions of the antiterrorism legislation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) July 9 said Democrats had dropped a measure granting union bargaining rights to airport security screeners in order to avoid a threatened veto, and negotiators from the two houses July 25 agreed upon a compromise bill. The Democratic leadership said the bill’s passage proved that the party was keeping its campaign promises and would dispel talk of a “do-nothing” Congress. The cleared bill required that all U.S.bound maritime cargo be scanned for nuclear weapons or radioactive “dirty bombs” by 2012. However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be able to apply for two-year extensions. In addition, the legislation required all cargo carried on passenger planes to be screened within three years. It ordered the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to present Congress with classified briefings on its progress if it could not meet that goal. Funding Formulas Changed—The legislation lowered the minimum allocation of antiterrorism grant funding per state to 0.375% of the total, from 0.75%; the current minimum grant was $3.8 million. The minimum would drop even more, to 0.35% over the next five years. The change addressed concerns that states with a higher perceived risk of terrorist attack were receiving too little anAugust 2, 2007

titerrorism funding under the current population-based formula, in favor of states with less prominent targets. [See 2006, p. 574E2] The bill authorized more than $4 billion in mass transit security grants, up to $3.3 billion to help communities improve emergency communications, and up to $750 million for airport security and research. The legislation required the government to declassify the U.S. intelligence budget total in fiscal 2007 and 2008. However, in a concession to the Bush administration, it would allow the president to keep the intelligence budget classified beginning in fiscal 2009 if he judged the release to be harmful to national security. In another controversial move, the bill set up a program requiring air travelers from 27 friendly countries, most of them in Europe, to register with the U.S. government up to 48 hours in advance, giving the government time to check for suspicious passengers. [See p. 345D3] A Republican-backed provision of the bill shielded individuals who reported suspicious activity from “frivolous lawsuits.” The provision, similar to one included in a transportation security bill passed in March by the House, came after six Muslim men in March had filed a lawsuit after being removed from a plane for allegedly suspicious activities; the liability shield would be retroactive to October 2006, just before the men had been removed. [See pp. 313E1, 312C3] The Bush administration released a statement saying Congress had addressed its major concerns about the bill. However, it criticized legislators for not following the Sept. 11 commission’s recommendation to reform congressional oversight of homeland security. „ House Passes Five-Year Farm Bill. The House July 27 passed, 231–191, a $286 billion agricultural policy bill that would reauthorize farm subsidies for the next five years. The current version of the law, commonly known as the farm bill, would expire Sept. 30. Nineteen Republicans joined 212 Democrats in voting in favor of the bill. Fourteen Democrats voted against it because they favored larger cuts to farm subsidies. President George W. Bush July 25 had threatened to veto the legislation in its current form, because, he said, it did too little to reduce agricultural subsidies and because it would raise taxes on some foreign companies in order to pay for increases in nutrition programs. [See p. 60B3] The bill disqualified farmers earning more than $1 million per year in gross income from receiving federal subsidies, down from $2.5 million. It did the same to farmers earning between $500,000 and $1 million unless at least 67% of their income derived from farming. The annual cap on direct payments to individual farmers would rise to $60,000, from $40,000, under the bill, and the use of partnerships in multiple farms to avoid the income cap for subsidies would be curtailed. Fruit and vegetable growers would get $1.8 billion in new federal grants under the House bill. The measure would also boost funds for research of alternative biofuels such as cellulose-based ethanol, and pro-

vide some new money for land conservation programs. Some Republican lawmakers July 26 had withdrawn their stated support for the bill after Democratic leaders attached a provision subjecting certain foreign corporations that operated U.S. subsidiaries to rent, royalty and interest taxes from which they were exempt under international treaties. The proposal would raise an estimated $7.5 billion over five years for an expansion of the Food Stamp program, increasing the minimum benefit. It also increased international nutrition aid. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. that day warned that the proposal contravened international law and could hurt foreign investment in the U.S. Country-of-origin labeling rules for beef, pork and lamb, passed in 2002 but repeatedly delayed, would be enforced under the farm bill. The rules required that meat come exclusively from animals born, raised and slaughtered within the U.S. in order to receive a domestic label. The bill also contained $100 million to settle black farmers’ claims against the Agriculture Department of discrimination in loan approvals. The bill would also levy fees on energy companies that had been able to avoid paying royalties on federal oil and gas leases, and eliminate certain incentives granted to energy companies. [See p. 29B1] Reform Plans Compromised—U.S. farm prices were currently relatively high, and opponents of farm subsidies, had seen that as an opportunity for much greater reform than the final bill delivered July 27. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had favored deeper reform, but reportedly deferred to the political needs of freshmen Democrats in swing agricultural districts who could be vulnerable in the next election The House July 26 had defeated 309– 117, an amendment, offered by Rep. Ron Kind (D, Wis.), to lower the income cap for receipt of subsidies to $250,000 and cut payments to farmers under guaranteed loan programs. The Agriculture Department itself had proposed capping annual income for subsidized farmers at $200,000. Congress was under international pressure to reduce agricultural subsidies to advance negotiations over a global trade agreement through the World Trade Organization (WTO). Brazil July 27 said the WTO, in an interim ruling, had sided with it and several West African counties who claimed that their cotton industries had been hurt by U.S. payments to its own cotton farmers. Those payments would continue under the House bill. „ House Passes Child Insurance Funds. The House Aug. 1 voted, 225–204, to approve a significant expansion of the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provided health care to poor children. The measure would increase spending for the program over the next five years to $75 billion, from its current level of $25 billion. The bill would also provide $19 billion to doctors in Medicare payments that had been scheduled to be cut, and expand some Medicare benefits, such as screenings for seniors. 495

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

If signed into law, the bill would represent the largest growth in the federal health system in more than 10 years. [See p. 177A2] The expanded funds would pay for an additional five million children to receive health care under the program, adding to the six million already covered. The vote was viewed as a step toward the Democrats’ stated goal of establishing universal health care coverage in the U.S. (More than 45 million people in the U.S. did not have health insurance.) President George W. Bush had said he would veto the bill. Bush’s competing proposal would increase funding for the program by $5 billion over the next five years, falling short of the estimated $14 billion needed to maintain benefits for children already enrolled in the program. The bill had divided the House largely along party lines, with 220 Democrats and five Republicans supporting it. Ten Democrats had voted with 194 Republicans in opposing the measure. Most Democrats had argued that the government had a responsibility to provide health care to children whose parents or guardians were unable to afford it. Republicans opposed to the bill said it was a step toward a government-managed national health care system. Money to fund the program’s expansion would come from a 45-cent raise in the federal cigarette tax, to 84 cents per pack. The bill would also eliminate the gap between government payments made to privately managed Medicare health care plans, and the cost of providing health care to those enrolled in the traditional Medicare plan. Medicare paid an estimated 12% more for private plans. Senate Version Passed— The Senate Aug. 2 voted, 68–31, to pass a competing measure that would increase CHIP funding by $35 billion over the next five years, adding three million children to the ranks of those receiving care under the plan. The Senate bill had received greater bipartisan support than the House’s measure. It would also be funded through an increase on the cigarette tax to $1 per pack, up from 39 cents. The Bush administration July 14 said the president would veto the Senate bill due to the tax increase, and for providing an incentive for people to drop private insurance plans. Funding for CHIP was set to expire Sept. 30. „ House, Senate Pass Student Aid Bills. The Senate July 20 voted, 78–18, to pass a measure that would stop payments of more than $18 billion in government subsidies to student loan companies and divert most of that money to federal grants for low- and middle-income students. The House July 11 had passed a similar measure, 273–149, that would cut $19 billion in subsidies to student loan companies. [See p. 363E3] The Senate bill would raise the maximum amount of the federal Pell grant to $5,400, from the current amount of $4,300, by 2011. The bill would also cap monthly payments on federal student loans at 15% of a student’s discretionary income. Any outstanding loans to graduates working in public service would be forgiven after 10 496

years. The bill would also introduce “promise grants,” which would financially assist the neediest students. The Senate bill carved out $750 million from the $18 billion formerly in student loan subsidies to go toward reducing the federal deficit. The House bill was similar to the Senate bill in many aspects: it would funnel $1 billion formerly in student loan subsidies to reducing the federal deficit; cap monthly payments at 15% of a student’s discretionary income; increase the maximum Pell grant to $5,200 by 2011; increase the number of grants to poorer students; and forgive loans of those who had worked in the public sector for 10 years. However, the House bill would halve interest rates on subsidized student loans over the next five years, to 3.4% from 6.8%. Democrats in the House were especially keen on reducing loan interest rates, as it was one of the pillars of their campaign platform in the congressional elections of 2006. The strong bipartisan support for the bills was seen as an indication of the diminishing political influence of the student loan industry, after investigations by Congress and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo had revealed many instances where lenders had behaved unethically in securing loans from students. Reaction—Education Secretary Margaret Spellings in an interview reported July 10 in the Washington Post said the Senate bill was “a good, strong step forward.” However, in a statement released July 18 the Bush administration said it had “serious concerns” about aspects of the Senate bill, which it would address “as the legislative process goes forward.” The administration had threatened to veto the House bill, saying it objected to the interest rate cut and wanted more money to go into the Pell grants. Student loan companies criticized the bills, arguing that the cut in subsidies would not only hurt their businesses, but also hurt students who would face higher loan costs if the bills became law. Additionally, SLM Corp. (better known as Sallie Mae), the nation’s largest student loan provider, July 11 in a government filing said a group of financial firms seeking its purchase had threatened to withdraw from the deal, which it had agreed to in April, because of the subsidy cuts in the House bill, a move that would hurt the company. [See p. 244E2] Lawmakers critical of the bills said the legislation would push students to borrow directly from the government instead of from student loan companies, which would increase the federal deficit. Democratic lawmakers had strongly supported the federal loan program over the private programs. Senate Passes Ethics Reform Bill—The Senate July 24 voted, 95–0, to pass a measure that would renew the Higher Education Act, which authorized various federal student aid programs. The bill included provisions that would forbid student loan companies from offering inducements to

financial aid officers at universities and colleges to get on “preferred lender” lists that were disseminated to students. The ethics reforms included in the bill came in the wake of a report released June 14 by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D, Mass.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, that revealed numerous examples of improper behavior on the part of lenders and financial aid officers alike. Those officers directed students to certain lenders after receiving inducements, and thereby undermined a student’s ability to make educated choices between student loan companies. The bill included provisions that would simplify the application for financial aid, which critics had complained was so complicated that it disadvantaged families from poorer, less educated backgrounds. The bill also would require the Education Department to make public the names of schools whose yearly tuition and fees grew at a faster rate than comparable institutions. The House was expected to propose its own bill that reauthorized the Higher Education Act, though no timetable had been set.„

Bush Administration Bush Undergoes Colon Exam; Cheney Fills In.

President George W. Bush July 21 underwent what was described as a routine colon cancer screening at Camp David, the official presidential retreat in Maryland. Doctors from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., removed five small polyps from Bush’s colon, which reportedly did not appear cancerous. The growths were sent to the Naval Medical Center for further testing. Because he was sedated for the procedure, Bush invoked the 25th Amendment to formally transfer the powers of the presidency to Vice President Dick Cheney for two hours. [See 2002, p. 522D2] Bush, 61, had transferred power to Cheney once before, in June 2002, also when he underwent a colonoscopy. Ronald Reagan was the only other president to have invoked the 25th Amendment since its ratification in 1967. Reagan had briefly transferred power in 1985 to Vice President George H.W. Bush, when he had a precancerous colon tumor removed. The American Cancer Society recommended colon cancer screenings for everyone over 50. Cheney’s Defibrillator Replaced—Cheney July 28 underwent successful surgery to replace his defibrillator, a device implanted in his chest to monitor his heart. The defibrillator would deliver electric shocks to steady his heartbeat if it detected an abnormal rhythm. A checkup in June had revealed that the battery needed replacement. Cheney, 66, had a history of cardiac problems, including four heart attacks and quadruple bypass surgery. [See p. 145F1; 2001, p. 509F1] „

Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts Suffers Seizure.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. July 30 was taken to a hospital in Rockport, Maine, FACTS ON FILE

after suffering a seizure near his family vacation home on Hupper Island, part of the town of Port Clyde. A statement from the Supreme Court that day described the seizure as “idiopathic,” meaning its cause was not related to a tumor or brain injury, and that Roberts had “fully recovered” from the episode. Roberts spent the night at the hospital for observation, and was released July 31 in apparent good health. [See 2005, p. 623A1] Roberts, 52, was the youngest member of the Supreme Court and had no history of serious illness. However, he had suffered a similar seizure in 1993, and the occurrence of two seizures meant that he could be diagnosed as having epilepsy. Court spokespersons declined to clarify whether Roberts would begin taking epilepsy medication, which could produce side effects like insomnia, irritability and forgetfulness. Sen. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.) July 30 told Cable News Network (CNN) that he and the other senators on the Judiciary Committee that held Roberts’s 2005 confirmation hearings had been made aware of Roberts’s previous seizure. Specter said they felt the incident was not worrisome enough to bring up in questioning. „

Committee, he was known for sending hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money to Alaska in the form of earmarks, or funding for individual projects. He was currently the senior Republican on the Commerce Committee. It was reported July 31 that the FBI was probing Stevens’s use of earmarks, especially several that he had secured for the SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska. The marine center had bought property from a business partner of Ben Stevens. Stevens was one of more than a dozen current or former members of Congress being probed by the FBI for their links to lobbyists and other corporate interests. Stevens was the only senator in that group. Alaska’s lone House member, Rep. Don Young (R), former chairman of the House Transportation Committee, reportedly was also under investigation for his dealings with VECO. Stevens July 30 issued a statement in response to the raid, saying, “I urge Alaskans not to form conclusions based on incomplete and sometimes incorrect reports in the media.” He said, “The legal process should be allowed to proceed so that all the facts can be determined and the truth determined.”

Politics

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R), the third member of Alaska’s congressional delegation, July 26 announced that she planned to sell back to a real estate developer a piece of property on the Kenai River in Alaska, in response to a complaint about the purchase. A watchdog group, the National Legal and Policy Center, July 25 had filed the complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee, alleging that she had bought it at about half its real value. Murkowski had bought the 1.27-acre (0.5-hectare) property for $179,500 from Bob Penney, who was another co-owner of the racehorse partially owned by Stevens. „

Federal Agents Raid Sen. Stevens’s Home. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents July

30 raided the house of Sen. Ted Stevens (R, Alaska) in Girdwood, Alaska, a ski resort 40 miles (65 km) outside Anchorage. Stevens, 83, the longest-serving Senate Republican in history, reportedly had been under investigation for more than a year for his ties with executives of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based energy services company. [See 2006, p. 1000B1] Former VECO Chief Executive Bill Allen and Vice President Rick Smith May 7 had pleaded guilty to federal charges of paying more than $400,000 in bribes to at least four members of the state legislature, mainly to buy their votes for a natural-gas pipeline project. According to the plea deals, more than half of the bribe money went to Stevens’s son, former state Senate President Ben Stevens (R), whose office was raided by the FBI in September 2006. Ben Stevens had not been charged in the case to date. Local contractors reportedly had told a federal grand jury that Allen and other VECO executives had overseen extensive remodeling that doubled the size of Ted Stevens’s Girdwood house in 2000. Stevens insisted that he had paid every bill he received for the remodeling out of his own pocket. He and Allen had close ties, and had bought a racehorse together with other friends. VECO had been the recipient of more than $30 million in federal contracts since 2000. Stevens May 30 had opened his campaign for reelection to a seventh term in November 2008 elections. He had served in the Senate since 1968. As a former chairman of the Senate Appropriations August 2, 2007

Murkowski Reverses Land Purchase—

Environment Endangered Species Rulings Reviewed.

H. Dale Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, July 20 ordered a review of eight of the agency’s recent endangered species decisions. Hall said the decisions might have been “inappropriately influenced” by a political appointee, former Interior Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald. [See p. 465A2] MacDonald in March had been criticized by the Interior Department’s inspector general for altering endangered species reports to limit their potential impact on businesses and landowners. She had played a role in some 200 rulings on endangered species between 2002 and May, when she resigned her post, citing personal reasons. Hall said he had asked regional directors of the Fish and Wildlife Service to examine decisions in which MacDonald had played a role, then ordered the reviews of the eight endangered species decisions based on their recommendations. Eighteen species had been affected by the eight decisions,

including the white-tailed prairie dog, Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, California red-legged frog and 12 different species of Hawaiian picture wing flies. “Should our reviews indicate that additional corrective actions are necessary, we will take appropriate corrective action as quickly as we can,” Hall said. Several environmentalists and other critics said the agency had not reviewed enough of MacDonald’s decisions in their investigation. Several current and former government scientists and other officials in recent years had alleged that President George W. Bush’s administration had allowed political ideology to inappropriately influence health, science and environment policy. „

A

B

Economy New Home Sales Fell 6.6% in June. The De-

partments of Commerce and of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) July 26 reported jointly that sales of new singlefamily homes fell 6.6% in June from the previous month. The new seasonally adjusted annual rate was 834,000 units, down from the revised May rate of 893,000 units. The median price for a single-family home sold in June was $237,900. [See p. 434E1]

C

Existing Home Sales Fell 3.8% in June—

Sales of existing homes dropped 3.8% in June, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.75

D

August Financial Update

(Close of trading Aug. 1 except where indicated)

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average (see box, p. 498A1)

Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index Nasdaq Composite Index London Stock Exchange

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100)

13,362.37 1465.81 2553.87 6250.60

Tokyo Stock Exchange

16,870.98

Toronto Stock Exchange

13,654.74

(Nikkei index)

(TSE Composite Index)

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield)

4.75% 4.94%

Currencies (late New York trading) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars)

$0.8524 $2.0313 $0.9454 $1.3671 118.78 10.9553 $0.8307

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.)

$666.90

Silver (per troy oz.)

$12.7700

(N.Y. Comex spot price) (London fixing spot price)

Oil (per barrel)

(Nymex crude future)

Gasoline (per gallon)

(nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released July 29)

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel) (Kansas City market)

$2.88 $6.3950

2.3%

Unemployment rate

4.5%

Gross domestic product growth

3.4%

(June; see p. 463C3)

(annualized second-quarter rate, advance estimate; see p. 498E1)

Prime rate

F

$76.53

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

(consumer price index 12-month increase through June; see p. 464F1)

E

8.25%

497

G

A

Dow Jones Industrial Average Trading on the New York Stock Exchange

July 2

3 4

5 6 9 10 11 12 13 16 17 18 19 20 23 24 25 26 27 30 31

B

C

D

E

F

G

Closing

Volume (in millions of shares)

13,535.43 13,577.30 Holiday 13,565.84 13,611.68 13,649.97 13,501.70 13,577.87 13,861.73 13,907.25 13,950.98 13,971.55 13,918.22 14,000.41 13,851.08 13,943.42 13,716.95 13,785.07 13.473.57 13,265.47 13,358.31 13,211.99

1,379.1 764.8 — 1,373.7 1,246.0 1,332.0 1,636.3 1,508.0 1,661.0 1,341.7 1,368.3 1,433.2 1,762.4 1,524.8 1,986.8 1,519.4 1,983.3 2,028.2 2,749.3 2,267.0 2,028.2 2,193.1

million units, the National Association of Realtors reported July 25. The rate for May was revised downward to 5.98 million. The median sale price for existing homes in June was $230,100, up from $229,300 a year earlier. Housing Starts Rose 2.3% in June— HUD and the Department of Commerce

July 18 reported jointly that the rate of housing starts in June was 1.47 million units, annualized and adjusted for seasonal variation. That was 2.3% above the revised rate for May of 1.43 million units. Building permits were issued in June at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.41 million units, 7.5% below May’s revised rate of 1.52 million. [See p. 448F3] „ GDP Grew at 3.4% in 2nd Quarter. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.4% in the second quarter of 2007, the Commerce Department reported July 27 in its advance estimate. That was up from a revised 0.6% growth rate in the first quarter. The department said the sharp acceleration was attributable in part to increases in exports and government spending. [See pp. 481E1, 434G1] However, analysts were cautious to interpret the results as indicators that the economy was bouncing back after several months of slow growth, mostly because the housing market continued to struggle and oil prices threatened to rise. The estimate would be revised twice. GDP was a measure of the output of goods and services produced within a nation’s borders. „ Durable Goods Orders Rose 1.4% in June.

The Commerce Department July 26 reported that the value of durable goods orders in June rose by 1.4% from the previous month, to $217.1 billion. Durable goods were so-called big-ticket items designed to last three years or more. [See p. 448G3] „ 498

AMERICAS

Chile Fujimori Extradition Request Rejected.

Chilean Supreme Court Judge Orlando Alvarez July 11 ruled that there was not enough evidence to warrant the extradition of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori to face charges of corruption and human rights abuses in Peru. The ruling surprised observers, as Alvarez rejected the recommendations of federal prosecutors and lower courts in issuing his decision. Peruvian prosecutors said they would appeal the decision, which was to receive an automatic review by the Supreme Court. [See p. 420F3] Alvarez in his ruling said evidence had failed to link Fujimori, 68, to death squads in Peru that had been active during his 1990–2000 rule and dismissed the charges against him as “mere speculations or hearsay.” Human rights activists said Alvarez in his decision had ignored substantial evidence against Fujimori. Fujimori, who was Peruvian-born but of Japanese descent, in 2000 had fled to Japan in the midst of a political scandal linking him to corruption and various abuses by the Peruvian intelligence agency. Fujimori, who denied all the charges against him, had been arrested in Chile in November 2005 while seeking to return to Peru. Fujimori July 29 lost his bid for a seat in the Japanese parliament. He had run his campaign from Chile, in what was widely seen as an attempt to avoid extradition from Chile by gaining immunity as a Japanese lawmaker. [See p. 499B2] „

Cuba Castro Absent From Revolution Ceremony.

Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz July 26 failed to appear at ceremonies marking the 54th anniversary of the start of the Cuban revolution, the first time he had missed the event. The annual ceremony, considered Cuba’s most important national holiday, was instead overseen by Castro’s younger brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro Ruz. The younger Castro had become acting head of Cuba’s government in July 2006, after Fidel Castro announced that he was ceding power due to a gastrointestinal ailment. [See p. 283C1] Cuba’s government had remained in a limbo of sorts since the announcement. Raul Castro in public remarks since July 2006 had intimated that he sought to reform certain aspects of Cuba’s Soviet-style economy. His failure to institute any significant changes had been attributed to a continued exertion of power by Fidel Castro. Raul Castro in his July 26 remarks said Cuba was considering allowing greater foreign investment in the country, a sign analysts took of impending economic reform. (Cuba’s economy had largely been shut to other countries under Fidel Castro.) He also broke with tradition by saying that the

Cuban government did not pay a high enough salary to most employees, and criticized the country’s inadequate food production. Altough Fidel Castro, 80, had not appeared publicly since the Cuban revolution festivities held in July 2006, various pictures and videos of him had been published by state-run media outlets. He also continued to regularly write opinion pieces for state-run newspapers on a variety of topics. However, many people took his absence from the revolution commemoration as a sign that he would never return to power. Raul Castro had reportedly encouraged internal debate over economic reforms within the Cuban government. He was said to have led the call for economic reforms instituted in the early 1990s that flourished, but were eventually overturned by his brother in 1996. In a further sign of the loosening of controls over the population, artists and intellectuals Jan. 30 had been allowed to convene to criticize the country’s history of cultural repression, a move that was unheard of during Fidel Castro’s rule. A crowd gathered outside the building where the convention was held and took part in an unprecedented protest to express anger at their exclusion from the invitation-only event. U.S. Relations Addressed—Raul Castro in his July 26 speech reiterated an offer to begin talks with the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to end animosity between the two countries. However, officials with the U.S. State Department rejected the offer. U.S. officials June 4 had confirmed that several third parties had approached the Bush administration on behalf of the Cuban government in an effort to communicate, but said such messages had been shunned in favor of those relayed through formal channels. The Cuban government had agreed to stop providing refuge for U.S. fugitives, according to a U.S. State Department report released April 30. Cuba had previously allowed several people wanted for crimes in the U.S. to remain in Cuba, regarding them as political prisoners. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice June 1 said that Cuba was in transition from “one dictatorship to another.” Rice made the remarks in Madrid, Spain’s capital, after reportedly criticizing the Spanish government for engaging in diplomatic discussions with Cuba and not reaching out to Cuban dissidents. Bush June 28 in public remarks ruminated on what would happen in Cuba following Fidel Castro’s death. “One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away,” he said. „ Cabinet Shuffled. The Cuban government March 22 announced that Justice Minister Roberto Diaz Sotolongo and National Institute of Water Resources President Jorge Aspiolea Roig would be replaced by Justice Vice Minister Maria Esther Reus and Construction Vice Minister Rene Mesa, respectively. The reasons for the cabinet shuffle were not clear. [See 1999, p. 406F3] „ FACTS ON FILE

Mexico Supreme Court Limits Broadcasters’ Power.

Mexico’s Supreme Court June 7 struck down several provisions of a law that gave two television broadcasters a virtual monopoly in the country, finding them unconstitutional. The final ruling confirmed a series of preliminary votes by the court in recent weeks. The law was sent back to Congress to be rewritten. [See 2006, p. 348A2] The ruling struck down a portion of the law that would allow the two largest Mexican broadcasters, Grupo Televisa SAB and TV Azteca SAB, to use newly freed spectrum to offer telephone and Internet services without paying for a license. The court also overturned a provision that would have granted new broadcast licenses to the highest bidder. That part of the ruling allowed the government to consider a channel’s programming when awarding a license. Justice Genaro Gongora during May 31 arguments had said the law “discriminated” against Televisa and Azteca’s competitors, and that the law needed to be overturned to stop a “breakdown of Mexico’s democracy.” Together, Televisa and Azteca accounted for an average of around 90% of the country’s viewing audience, and were the only private companies that broadcast nationwide. The law had been passed just prior to fall 2006 elections, and several lawmakers later alleged that Televisa and Azteca had threatened them with negative press coverage unless they supported the measure. The law had been dubbed the “Televisa Law,” owing to the significant influence Televisa lawyers had in writing it. The ruling was seen as a sign that the court favored opening up Mexican industry in general, in which the dominance of one or two companies was not unusual, to greater economic competition. The Supreme Court had also broken with tradition by televising hearings in which both opponents and supporters of the law had supplied testimony. „ Lopez Obrador Stages Protest Rally. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the defeated candidate in a closely contested 2006 Mexican presidential election, July 1 staged a rally attended by tens of thousands of people in Mexico City, the capital. The event marked the one-year anniversary of Lopez Obrador’s loss to Felipe Calderon Hinojosa of the center-right National Action Party (PAN). [See 2006, p. 897F3] Lopez Obrador had never conceded defeat, alleging that the election results were fraudulent, and after the election had led months of protest occupations in Mexico City. Soon after the results were made official by an electoral court, Lopez Obrador, the leader of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), declared himself the head of a “parallel” government. Interest in his protest campaign had waned, but his strict adherence to a “zero negotiation” policy with President Calderon’s administration had earned him the respect of many of Mexico’s poor, with whom he remained August 2, 2007

popular. Calderon, however, received wider support among Mexicans, according to nationwide polls. Lopez Obrador at the rally said he would call for widespread protests should Calderon attempt to privatize Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the state-owned oil firm responsible for generating a substantial amount of the government’s revenues. Lopez Obrador had continued to tour the rural areas of Mexico to rally support, and hosted a weekly predawn television program. „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

Japan’s Ruling Party Loses Upper House Majority Abe Resists Calls to Quit. The Japanese ruling coalition led by Premier Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost its majority in the upper house of the Diet (parliament) in elections held July 29. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), led by Ichiro Ozawa, won a majority in the chamber for the first time since the party’s formation in 1998. It was a landmark defeat for the LDP, which had controlled Japan’s government since 1955 without interruption except for a period of less than a year in 1993–94. [See p. 451F1; 2004, p. 532D2; 1994, p. 453A1] Because the LDP controlled the more powerful lower house, which chose the country’s premier, the loss did not force Abe’s resignation. He vowed to remain in office, amid calls from within his own party for him to step aside, and demands from the DPJ that he resign and call an election for the lower house. [See below] The loss of the upper house also threatened Abe’s ability to carry out his agenda of economic reforms and military enhancement. Though the upper chamber was less powerful, the opposition would still be able to use its majority to challenge and delay legislation. Half of the 242 seats in the upper chamber, the House of Councillors, were contested in the election. The LDP and its junior coalition party, New Komeito, held a combined 132 seats before the election, and needed to win 64 of the contested seats to retain their majority. However, the LDP won only 37, and New Komeito, nine, leaving

the coalition with a total of 103 in the chamber. The DPJ, which had 83 seats in total before the election, won 60 in the July 29 election, and emerged with 109 overall.

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Scandals, Pension Blunder Take Toll—

Abe had become premier only 10 months before, when he was elected by the party to succeed Junichiro Koizumi as its leader. His opinion poll ratings had slumped in recent months over a series of scandals involving members of his cabinet. Two ministers had been forced to resign, and another had committed suicide amid a bidrigging inquiry. [See p. 352E2] Agriculture Minister Norihiko Akagi, the successor to the minister who committed suicide, had himself come under scrutiny for allegedly filing fraudulent expense reports, and new accusations against him surfaced in the Japanese news media July 27, two days before the election. Akagi Aug. 1 resigned to take responsibility for the scandal’s role in the party’s defeat. In addition, Abe’s government had suffered from the disclosure earlier in the year that the government had mishandled the records of some 50 million people’s payments into the national pension system, endangering their benefits. The errors, going back a decade, largely occurred under previous governments, but Abe’s administration was criticized for failing to act when the opposition first flagged the apparent problem. The DPJ made heavy inroads among rural voters, the LDP’s traditional base of support.

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Opposition Demands General Election— DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama

July 29 said that the election showed that “people have lost trust in the Abe administration,” and demanded that Abe dissolve the lower house. Some LDP figures, including former defense chief Shigeru Ishiba and former party Secretary General Koichi Kato, July 30 suggested that Abe should step aside in favor of a new party leader. Observers noted precedents for such a move: LDP Premiers Sosuke Uno and Ryutaro Hashimoto had resigned after the party registered dramatic losses in upper house elections in 1989 and 1998, respectively. [See 1998, p. 481A1; 1989, p. 583A3] However, while Abe July 29 accepted “responsibility for this utter defeat,” he said, “I must push ahead with reforms and continue to fulfill my responsibilities.” He JAPAN’S UPPER HOUSE ELECTIONS vowed to pursue his Following are results of Japan’s July 29 elections to the upper house goal of “creating a of the parliament, in which 121 of its 242 seats were contested. beautiful country,” a There were two vacant seats going into the election [See p. 499B2]: slogan that referred to his nationalist-minded agenda. Contested Seats Total Seats Before After Before After Chief among such Party Election Election Election Election goals was the revision of the country’s constiLiberal Democratic Party* 63 37 109 83 New Komeito* 12 9 23 20 tution to ease narrow Democratic Party of Japan 34 60 83 109 restrictions on its miliJapanese Communist Party 5 3 9 7 tary operations. HowSocial Democratic Party 3 2 6 5 ever, the DPJ was critiPeople’s New Party 2 2 4 4 cal of the LDP’s New Party Nippon — 1 — 1 Other small parties and — 7 6 13 proposals in that arena, independents and its upper house victory raised the possibil*Members of the governing coalition. ity that it would seek to 499

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obstruct them. The DPJ July 30 said it would oppose the renewal of legislation, due to expire Nov. 1, allowing Japan’s military vessels to refuel U.S. and allied ships in the Indian Ocean. U.S. ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer July 31 urged the DPJ not to block the extension, calling it a matter of importance to “the international community” that Japan should regard “in a nonpartisan way.” Fujimori Loses Bid— Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who held Japanese citizenship but was currently under house arrest in Chile, was a candidate in the July 29 elections. Standing for the small People’s New Party, Fujimori did not win his race. Fujimori, accused of abuses of power, in 2000 had fled Peru for Japan, and then gone to Chile in 2005, where he was arrested soon after his arrival. [See p. 498A2] „

Philippines 14 Marines Die in Clash With Rebels. Philippine military officials July 11 said at least 14 marines had been killed in clashes the previous day with members of the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf in TipoTipo, a remote town on southern Basilan island. They said that a unit of 50 marines had been ambushed by as many as 300 heavily armed fighters while searching for an Italian Roman Catholic priest, Rev. Giancarlo Bossi, who had been abducted June 10 and was reportedly being held on the island. The incident was the worst violence in the southern Philippines in recent months, and prompted fears that a delicate ceasefire between the government and Islamic separatists would unravel. [See p. 51B3] Officials said 10 of the marines had been beheaded. Maj. Gen. Ben Mohammad Dolorfino said the beheadings might have been a response to the killing of the son of an Abu Sayyaf leader. A spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), another Islamic separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attack. He said the government had not notified the MILF of the operation, as it was required to do under the terms of a ceasefire. The spokesman said its fighters had killed 23 of the marines, and had suffered four deaths in the engagement. However, he said, the beheadings had been perpetrated by “unidentified groups” after the fighting. The MILF July 16 refused demands to surrender the fighters involved in the attack. Police July 19 announced that Bossi had been freed the previous day by his kidnappers. Other News—In other news on violence in the Philippines: † Military officials July 17 said Abu Sayyaf fighters had killed two Philippine marines during an attack on a military patrol on the southern island of Jolo. † A bomb June 15 destroyed a crowded bus near Davao city on the southern island of Mindanao, killing 10 people. Another bomb had exploded half an hour before at 500

a bus terminal in Cotabato city, also on Mindanao, but had not caused any casualties. A military spokesman linked the bombings to a splinter faction of the MILF allied with Southeast Asian regional Islamic terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiah, which rejected the cease-fire. † Military officials April 19 said Abu Sayyaf militants on Jolo had beheaded seven men whom they had kidnapped earlier that week, and sent their heads in sacks to two military bases in the area. The military said the killings were in response to a U.S.-backed eight-month-old campaign that had killed more than 70 members of the group. † At least 25 heavily armed men Feb. 2 attacked a jail in Kidapawan city on Mindanao, freeing 46 prisoners. A military spokesman said the attackers were thought to be members of MILF, and that some of the escapees were also militants. Several militants in December 2006 had escaped from another prison on Mindanao, in Cotabato, after a previous raid. [See 2005, p. 215F2] „ Court Dismisses Rebellion Charges. The Philippine Supreme Court July 2 threw out rebellion charges against 50 leftist legislators, rogue military officers and communist guerrillas in an alleged coup attempt in 2006 against the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in a ruling made public July 10. The government later July 10 released Crispin Beltran, a left-wing leader in the House of Representatives, whose February 2006 detention had set off protests. The court ruled that prosecutors lacked evidence and their investigation had been “tainted with irregularities.” [See 2006, p. 1023C3] „ Military Accused of ‘Dirty War.’ U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch June 28 released a report claiming that the Philippine military was conducting a “dirty war” against left-leaning political activists and journalists. It said the government had failed to prosecute the military for the extrajudicial killings or disappearances of hundreds of leftists. In addition, the report said, the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had failed to consistently uphold international law, despite pledges to halt the killings. The military denied the allegations, although it said that some rogue soldiers might have been independently involved in the killings. [See 2006, p. 868F1, G1] Arroyo July 23 in her annual state-ofthe-nation address called on Congress to pass a law to halt political killings. A commission led by retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo Feb. 22 had released a report saying that armed forces members were responsible for “an undetermined number of killings” of political activists. The inquiry found that senior officers could be held responsible for the killings, singling out retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan as especially culpable. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, the armed forces chief of staff, dismissed the findings as “strained, unfair and a blank accusation.” „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Great Britain Party Funding Probe Ends Without Charges.

British prosecutors July 20 said they were ending a 16-month-long investigation into political campaign finances without bringing any charges. The probe had examined allegations that the Labour Party government under former Prime Minister Tony Blair had offered seats in the House of Lords and other honors to wealthy supporters who made undeclared loans to the party. [See p. 68F2] During the investigation, Blair, who resigned in late June, became the first sitting prime minister to be questioned by police, and three of his aides and associates were arrested. A Crown Prosecution Service official July 20 said there was “insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction” for anyone involved. In a statement in response to the announcement, Blair said, “Those involved have been through a terrible, even traumatic, time. Much of what has been written and said about them has been deeply unfair, and I am very pleased for all of them that it is now over.” His successor, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, said it was time to “move ahead to try to get a better system of political funding in our country.” „

SOUTH ASIA

Bangladesh Military Govt. Charges Ex–Prime Ministers.

Police July 16 arrested former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed on charges of extortion. The same day, another former prime minister, Khaleda Zia, was summoned by the military-backed caretaker government to appear in court Aug. 26 on tax evasion charges. Hasina had been prime minister from 1996 to 2001, while Zia led the country from 1991 to 1996 and 2001 to 2006. Hasina’s Awami League party and Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party were the two largest political parties in Bangladesh. [See p. 304F1] The moves by the government were the latest in a series of charges brought against prominent former politicians since it declared martial law in January, suspended civil rights and outlawed political activity. An estimated 200,000 people, including more than 170 politicians, had been arrested since then in an anticorruption purge that the government said was necessary before Bangladesh could return to democratic elections at the end of 2008. [See p. 22G2] Human rights groups had also accused the government of secretly seizing, torturing and executing many people. The army had declared a state of emergency in January after weeks of violence between members of Hasina’s and Zia’s parties disrupted the economy and brought the country to a state of chaos. However, the caretaker government, under FakhrudFACTS ON FILE

din Ahmed, had not restored democracy to Bangladesh as quickly as it had promised, and the ensuing arrests and alleged killings had prompted criticism from U.S. and British lawmakers. Hasina was formally charged July 24 with demanding $441,000 from a company that wanted to build an electrical power station during her time in office, her lawyer said. Her lawyer had dismissed the charges as “false, fabricated and conspiratorial.” Her arrest July 16 had prompted her supporters to riot outside a police station in Dhaka, the capital, but police dispersed the crowd with tear gas and rubber bullets. Hasina also faced murder charges for the deaths of four people in October 2006. Zia was accused of evading taxes as one of the directors of Daily Dinkal Ltd., a publisher of the Dainik Dinkal newspaper, which supported her party. „

Pakistan Suicide Blast Kills 13 in Islamabad. A sui-

cide attack July 27 at a marketplace near the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad, the nation’s capital, left 13 people dead and 61 wounded, according to a spokesman for the interior ministry. The blast occurred as police clashed with hundreds of rioters who were protesting the reopening of the mosque. The mosque was the site of an eight-day standoff between Islamic militants and government troops that ended with a July 10 raid which left more than 70 Islamic militants within the mosque dead. [See p. 442F2] No one claimed responsibility for the attack, though analysts speculated it was carried out by Islamic militants in retaliation for the mosque raid. It was the latest in a series of suicide attacks that had occurred almost daily in Pakistan since the raid, though most had taken place in the country’s northwestern region which was a stronghold of Islamic militants. It was the first suicide attack in Islamabad since July 17, when a bomber killed at least 15 people at a political rally. [See p. 470E2] Clashes between police forces and protesters began July 27 after the government attempted to reopen the mosque and have a government-appointed cleric lead the Friday prayers. Protesters, many of whom were formerly students at the mosque’s madrassas, or religious schools, barred the cleric from entering. They demanded that the government release Abdul Aziz, formerly the mosque’s leader, who had been arrested July 4 as he tried to escape from the mosque. The students tried to reoccupy the mosque, prompting police forces to move in with armored cars and fire tear gas on the crowd. The government announced later that day that the mosque would remain closed indefinitely. „ Musharraf Meets With Bhutto. President Pervez Musharraf July 27 met with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Few details of the meeting were disclosed, but Pakistani officials July 28 and 29 confirmed that the two had met to disAugust 2, 2007

cuss a power-sharing arrangement. [See p. 339B2] Musharraf had come under increasing pressure from pro-democracy activists to step down after he suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in March for an alleged abuse of his office. In what was seen as a rebuke to Musharraf, Chaudhry was reinstated by the Supreme Court earlier in July. Musharraf had come to power in 1999 through a bloodless coup, and was both president and head of the army. [See p. 485B3] Additionally, Musharraf faced a threat to his authority from Islamic militants who were conducting suicide attacks almost daily in Pakistan’s northwestern region. The day he met Bhutto, a suicide attack killed 13 people in Islambad, the nation’s capital. [See p. 501C1] An arrangement in which Bhutto became prime minister was seen as a way for Musharraf to continue in power while appeasing pro-democracy activists. Bhutto had been in exile since 1999, but was still the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), one of the largest parties opposed to Musharraf. She had promised to return to Pakistan before elections took place later in the year. Additionally, Bhutto was a secular moderate, which could help Musharraf gather popular support against Islamic extremist elements in the country. Bhutto in an interview July 28 with KTN, a Pakistani television channel, said she could agree to a power-sharing arrangement with Musharraf only if he discontinued his role as army chief. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Contador Wins Tour de France Marred by Doping Scandals Leading Riders Ousted During Race. Al-

berto Contador of Spain July 29 won the 104th Tour de France, cycling’s premier race. However, the race was overshadowed by numerous doping scandals, and its credibility was called into question after the ouster of the pre-race favorite, Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, and the thenleader of the race, Michael Rasmussen of Denmark, in the week prior to the finish. [See below, pp. 355C1, 354C1, B3; 2006, p. 602B3] The race’s scandals came on the heels of the admission in May by the 1996 winner, Bjarne Riis of Denmark, that he had taken performance-enhancing drugs when he won the event, and the concurrent arbitration hearing on whether the 2006 champion, Floyd Landis of the U.S., who had failed a drug test after winning the Tour, would be stripped of his title. (Landis did not compete in the 2007 Tour.) The 2006 Tour had also been marred by information uncovered during a Spanish doping probe known as Operation Puerto, which had led to the elimination of several top riders before the race began. Contador, 24, a member of the Discovery Channel team (which was part-owned by

seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong of the U.S.), finished the race in 91 hours and 26 seconds, 23 seconds ahead of Australia’s Cadel Evans of the Predictor-Lotto team. (Evans’s second-place finish marked the highest-ever placing for an Australian in the Tour.) It was the second-closest finish in Tour de France history, after the 1989 race, which Greg LeMond of the U.S. won by eight seconds. American Levi Leipheimer, also of Discovery, placed third, 31 seconds behind Contador. [See 1989, p. 562B2] Contador also won the white jersey as the best young rider in the tour, and Discovery won the award for best team. Colombia’s Juan Mauricio Soler Hernandez of the Barloworld team claimed the polkadot jersey as the king of the mountains, and Belgium’s Tom Boonen of Quick Step took the green jersey as the top sprinter. Race Begins in London—The Tour de France July 7 began with a prologue in London, the first time the race had traveled to that city. One hundred eighty-nine riders began the approximately 2,200-mile (3,550-km) race; that number was reduced to 141 through injuries and expulsions by the time the Tour reached its conclusion July 29 on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. Prior to the race, all of the starters signed an antidoping charter at the request of the International Cycling Union (UCI), cycling’s world governing body. In the charter, the riders stated that they were not involved in doping, and they pledged to give up a year’s pay if they tested positive. They also pledged to give DNA samples to be used to aid officials probing the Operation Puerto scandal in identifying seized blood samples of unknown origin. [See 2006, p. 538A2]

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Vinokourov Barred For Blood Doping—

In the first major doping scandal of the Tour, it was revealed July 24 that Vinokourov, 33, who rode for the Astana team, had tested positive for receiving a banned blood transfusion after winning Stage 13 July 21. (Vinokourov had been considered one of the favorites after placing third in the 2003 Tour de France and winning the 2006 Tour of Spain.) Stage 13 was an individual time trial, and Vinokourov, who had slipped far behind after a crash July 12 that caused injuries requiring 30 stitches in his knees, bested Evans, the second-place finisher, by one minute and 14 seconds. The stage victory had put him back in contention to win the race; however, on the next stage, in the Pyrenees mountain range, he fell more than 30 minutes behind thenleader Rasmussen to drop from contention. (That stage was won by Contador, his only stage win of the race.) Vinokourov July 23 won the 15th Stage, also in the Pyrenees, seemingly cementing his status as a fan favorite and great rider. The revelation of his positive test the next day came as a shock to the cycling world. Vinokourov’s initial, or “A,” sample tested positive for the presence of a donor’s red blood cells, indicating that he had received what was known as a homologous blood transfusion. Cyclists used transfusions, either of another person’s blood or of their 501

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own, to boost levels of oxygen-rich red blood cells and improve endurance. Transfusions of one’s own blood were undetectable. After the positive test was revealed, the remaining eight members of the Astana team July 24 withdrew from the Tour at the request of the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), the Tour’s organizers. Astana, named after the Kazakh capital, was sponsored by Kazakh businesses and politicians. In 2006, Vinokourov had missed the Tour because five of the riders barred due to Operation Puerto belonged to his Astana-Wuerth (formerly Liberty Seguros) team. As a result, the team was forced to withdraw from the Tour because it was left with fewer than the minimum six riders. He had previously been linked with Italian doctor Michele Ferrari, who in 2004 had been convicted in an Italian court of sporting fraud for allegedly advising riders on taking drugs. (Ferrari was acquitted of a more serious charge of distributing doping products.) [See 2004, p. 1094D3] Christian Prudhomme, the Tour de France director, July 24 responded to news of the positive test by saying that the testing system, which was overseen by the UCI, “is a failure.” Astana team manager Marc Biver July 24 said Vinokourov “denies having manipulated his blood,” and said the rider believed that the “blood anomalies in his body” could have been caused by treatment he received for the July 12 crash. However, Astana July 30 fired Vinokourov after his backup, or “B,” sample also tested positive. Vinokourov had hired Maurice Suh, the lawyer representing Landis, to defend him against the doping charges, it was reported July 27. Rasmussen Out After Missed Tests—

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Rasmussen, a 33-year-old who rode for Rabobank, July 15 took over the yellow jersey after winning Stage Eight from Le Grand-Bornand to Tignes in the Alps mountain range. Rasmussen was known as a strong climber, and had won the polkadot jersey in 2005 and 2006, but had not been considered a favorite to win the race. Suspicions began to arise regarding Rasmussen soon after he pulled on the yellow jersey. The Danish Cycling Union July 19 announced that it had barred Rasmussen from the national team. That meant he would be barred from riding for his country in the world championships later in 2007 and, possibly, from the 2008 Summer Olympics. The union said Rasmussen had missed several drug tests that it had attempted to administer earlier in 2007, because he was not at the location where he claimed he was going to be. (Cyclists were required to keep authorities informed of their locations at all times in order for surprise tests to be conducted.) Rasmussen reportedly had been informed of the Danish union’s decision June 26. Also, the UCI July 20 said Rasmussen had missed UCI tests May 8 and June 28 because he had not been truthful about his whereabouts, and he had received a warning from the world governing body June 29. Three missed tests within 18 months 502

were considered the equivalent of a failed test; however, cycling rules stipulated all three tests had to be administered by the same body. That allowed Rasmussen to escape a two-year ban. The Danish authorities July 20 said they had publicly disclosed the UCI warning—information that typically remained confidential—because Rasmussen July 19 had told reporters that he had missed only one test. Also, the Web site of cycling magazine VeloNews July 21 reported allegations made by a former amateur mountain-biker who claimed that Rasmussen had asked him to carry blood-doping products to Europe. Rasmussen July 20–21 refused to answer questions about those allegations, and July 20 called his failure to report his whereabouts an “administrative error.” UCI President Pat McQuaid July 23 said “from an image point of view, it would be better” if Rasmussen did not win the Tour. Prudhomme July 22 had lamented that if he and other race organizers had known about the missed tests, they would have asked Rabobank to exclude Rasmussen from the Tour. At the start of the 16th Stage July 25, many riders delayed crossing the starting line in a silent protest of the doping scandals involving Rasmussen, Vinokourov and others. Rasmussen was not among those riders. Although he won the stage, his fourth-stage victory, he was jeered by spectators over much of the course. The stage win had seemingly assured him of winning the Tour. However, Rabobank later July 25 suspended Rasmussen and removed him from the Tour. Team officials said Rasmussen had lied to them about his whereabouts in June, claiming he had been training in Mexico, his wife’s native country, when he had really been in Italy. The rider had passed several blood and urine tests administered just prior to the Tour as well as during the race. In response, Prudhomme said, “We cannot say that Rasmussen cheated, but his flippancy and lies on his whereabouts had become unbearable.” It was just the second time in race history that the overall leader had been expelled during the race. The first such incident had occurred in 1978, when Belgium’s Michel Pollentier was caught attempting to evade a drug test by submitting urine that was not his. [See 1978, p. 692D2] Contador Takes Lead—Contador, who had been three minutes and 10 seconds behind Rasmussen prior to his expulsion, July 26 took over the yellow jersey after Stage 17. (No rider had started that stage in the yellow jersey.) Contador entered a crucial time trial July 28, on the race’s secondto-last stage, with a 1:50 lead over Evans. The Spaniard managed to hang on to a narrowed 23-second lead over Evans after the time trial, which Leipheimer won. That virtually assured Contador of victory, as the final stage, from Marcoussis to Paris, was traditionally ceremonial. Questions Arise Over Contador— German authorities July 31 said a German dop-

ing expert, Werner Franke, had delivered to them documents relating to Operation Puerto, purporting to show that Contador had been involved in doping. Contador had been forced to miss the 2006 Tour after he and other members of his former team were linked to the Spanish investigation. However, no charges were ever filed, Contador had never failed a drug test and he claimed that his name had appeared in relation to the scandal by mistake. A spokesman for Germany’s federal criminal police office, Christian Brockert, said the documents “will be incorporated into procedures of the district attorney’s office.” Other Doping Incidents—Among other doping incidents related to the Tour de France: † Spanish rider Iban Mayo of the Saunier Duval-Prodir team, who placed 16th overall in the Tour, had tested positive for the banned endurance-boosting substance erythropoietin (EPO), it was revealed July 30. The test had been on a sample taken July 24. The team said it had suspended the rider. † The entire Cofidis team July 25 withdrew from the Tour after it was revealed that one of its riders, Italian Christian Moreni, had tested positive for synthetic testosterone July 19. Moreni subsequently admitted his guilt. † German rider Patrik Sinkewitz, a member of the T-Mobile team, had tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone in a June 8 test and had been suspended by his team, it was revealed July 18. Sinkewitz had been allowed to start the Tour de France, but withdrew July 15 after sustaining serious injuries in a collision with a spectator while riding back to his hotel after Stage Eight. As a result of the suspension, German state television channels ARD and ZDF suspended their coverage of the Tour de France. Sinkewitz July 31 was fired by T-Mobile after his backup sample tested positive. Also that day, he admitted using a testosterone gel. Race Official Criticizes UCI—Prudhomme July 28 blasted the UCI, calling it “totally unprofessional” for failing to inform Tour officials of Rasmussen’s missed tests. He also threatened to organize the Tour independently of the UCI in 2008. In an interview published July 28 in Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, he reiterated that threat, alleging that the UCI “never wanted a clean Tour.” „

Basketball NBA Referee Probed for Betting on Games.

The New York Post July 20 reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was investigating a National Basketball Association (NBA) referee, later identified as Tim Donaghy, a 13-year veteran, for allegedly betting on games he officiated. Donaghy, 40, had resigned July 9, soon after learning he was a target of the FBI’s probe. NBA Commissioner David Stern in a statement July 20 said the league was coFACTS ON FILE

operating with the investigation. [See p. 287E1] The FBI reportedly was investigating whether Donaghy had wagered on NBA games in the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. In that time period, he officiated 139 regular-season games and eight playoff games. It was also looking into whether he had attempted to influence the outcome of between 10 and 15 games he had officiated since December 2006. Donaghy and associates involved in organized crime had allegedly placed bets on those games. No official in any of the four major North American sports leagues had ever been arrested for attempting to fix the outcome of a game. Several match-fixing scandals had recently hit international soccer and cricket. [See p. 199B3; 2006, p. 655F2] The New York Times July 27 reported that, according to an unidentified “law enforcement official,” two alleged bookmakers had also been implicated in the betting ring. A federal grand jury in U.S. District Court in New York City reportedly was examining the evidence, and charges against all three could be filed soon. Wagering on NBA games involved much more than simply picking the winners. Other aspects that were wagered on included the margin of victory and how many points a team scored. Those aspects were said to be easier for a single official to manipulate, and also difficult to detect, as some calls in basketball, such as fouls or technical fouls, could be considered subjective. Some team owners and players, most notably Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, had been fined by the NBA in recent years for criticizing the league’s officiating. [See 2006, p. 539G2] Stern Calls Case ‘Isolated’—Stern July 24 in his first press conference since the revelations called the scandal “the most serious and the worst situation” he had faced as commissioner, a post he had held for 23 years. Stern referred to Donaghy as a “rogue, isolated criminal.” He said the league had been notified by the FBI of the investigation June 20. The commissioner said the league would undertake a thorough review of the games Donaghy had worked, and vowed that “we are going to maintain the confidence of our fans and regain the confidence of those who are shaken.” He also signaled that the system that the NBA used to evaluate its referees would be reevaluated. The NBA prior to the start of the 2006– 07 season had given referees an eight-page pamphlet outlining its policy on betting. It stated that referees were barred from “participating in any gambling or placing bets of any kind,” including casino gambling or off-track betting. „

Hockey Crosby Named NHL MVP. Pittsburgh Pen-

guins center Sidney Crosby June 14 was awarded the Hart Trophy as the most valuable player (MVP) of the 2006–07 National Hockey League (NHL) season. Voting for the award was conducted by the ProfesAugust 2, 2007

sional Hockey Writers’ Association. It was one of several handed out at a ceremony that night in Toronto, Canada. [See below, p. 270E3; 2006, p. 671B3] Crosby, age 19 years and 10 months, became the youngest player to win the Hart Trophy since Wayne Gretzky did so in 1980 at age 19 years and five months. Crosby had led the NHL in scoring in the 2006–07 season, notching 36 goals and 84 assists for 120 points to earn the Art Ross Trophy. The Penguins May 31 had named Crosby team captain, making him the youngest captain in NHL history. Crosby June 14 also collected the Pearson Award, for the MVP as voted by the players. Crosby July 10 signed a five-year contract extension with the Penguins worth $43.5 million. The contract would begin in the 2008–09 season. Other Awards—In other awards presented June 14: † Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie. [See 2006, p. 1037A2] † Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils took the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender. [See p. 270F3] † Carolina Hurricanes center Rod Brind’Amour won the Selke Trophy as the top defensive forward for the second straight year. † Niklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings captured the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman for the fifth time in his career. † Red Wings center Pavel Datsyuk won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship for the second year in a row. † Alain Vigneault of the Vancouver Canucks won the Adams Trophy as the NHL’s top coach. † Montreal Canadiens captain Saku Koivu won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy for his contributions to humanitarian causes. [See 2002, p. 306F2] Salary Cap Rises, Stars Switch Teams—

The NHL and the NHL Players’ Association (NHLPA), the players’ union, June 29 said each team’s salary cap for the 2007–08 season would increase by $6.3 million, to $50.3 million. The minimum payroll for each team would be $34.3 million. [See 2005, p. 990G3] Several high-profile players switched teams or signed new contracts on or after the July 1 beginning of the free-agent signing period. Among those who signed July 1 were: former Buffalo Sabres forward Daniel Briere, who signed an eight-year, $52 million deal with the Philadelphia Flyers; former Devils forward Scott Gomez (New York Rangers, seven years, $51.5 million); former Sabres forward Chris Drury (Rangers, five years, $35.25 million); and former Devils defenseman Brian Rafalski (Red Wings, five years, $30 million). Other News—In other NHL news: † The Devils July 13 hired Brent Sutter as their new head coach. He replaced interim coach Lou Lamoriello, who was also the team’s chief executive, president and

general manager. Lamoriello in April had fired head coach Claude Julien with three games remaining in the season and the team in first place in the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division. [See p. 271B1] † Six International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) member nations—the Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland—July 13 ratified a new four-year transfer agreement between the IIHF and the NHL. Russia, as it had done previously, refused to sign. Among the highlights of the new deal, the annual deadline for NHL teams to sign players under contract with an IIHF-member team would be June 15; and the NHL would pay the IIHF clubs $200,000 per player for each of the first 45 players signed, then $400,000 for each additional player. [See p. 391D1] † The Chicago Blackhawks June 22 selected forward Patrick Kane, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., with the first pick in the NHL entry draft. The Philadelphia Flyers chose Middletown, N.J.–native James vanRiemsdyk, a forward, with the second pick, marking the first time Americans had been the top two selections in the NHL draft. [See 2006, p. 672E1] † The Ottawa Senators June 18 fired general manager John Muckler and promoted coach Bryan Murray to replace him. Assistant coach John Paddock July 6 was promoted to replaced Murray. [See p. 371D2] † Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli June 15 announced that head coach Dave Lewis would be relieved of that position and reassigned. The Bruins June 21 hired Julien as their new head coach. [See 2006, p. 672D1] † The Phoenix Coyotes May 28 hired Don Maloney as their new general manager. He replaced Mike Barnett, who had been fired April 11. [See 2001, p. 824E1] † Defenseman Brian Leetch, considered one of the best U.S.-born players of all time, May 24 announced his retirement after 18 seasons in the NHL. Leetch, 39, was an 11-time All-Star and had won the Norris Trophy twice. [See 2005, p. 723E1; 1997, p. 468C1] † The NHLPA’s executive board May 10 voted unanimously to fire Executive Director Ted Saskin for secretly accessing players’ private e-mail accounts. [See p. 271B2] „

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ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

People The Library of Congress Aug. 2 announced that Charles Simic had been appointed the 15th poet laureate of the U.S. Simic, 69, would assume the post in the fall, succeeding Donald Hall, who would be stepping down after serving a single one-year term. Like Hall, Simic was a New Hampshire resident, having taught at the University of New Hampshire for nearly 35 years. A native of the former Yugoslavia, Simic had won a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 and was the author of 18 books of verse. Couched in deceptively 503

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BEST SELLER LISTS

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Television

Publishers Weekly July 30 listed the following hardback and paperback best sellers [See p. 440A1]:

Top-Rated Programs. The following were the most-watched prime-time national television shows July 2–29 as determined by A.C. Nielsen Co. (Series marked with an asterisk * had at least one other episode during the period that outranked some of the other programs listed.) Figures in parentheses are rating points; each point represents 1% of the 110.2 million television households in the U.S. [See p. 440A2]:

Fiction Hardback 1. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) 2. The Quickie, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown) 3. High Noon, by Nora Roberts (Putnam) 4. The Tin Roof Blowdown, by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster) 5. Lean Mean Thirteen, by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s)

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General Hardback 1. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne (Atria/Beyond Words) 2. The Dangerous Book for Boys, by Conn and Hal Iggulden (Collins) 3. Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson (Little, Brown) 4. Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, & Priorities of a Winning Life, by Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker (Tyndale) 5. The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About, by Kevin Trudeau (Alliance Publishing) Mass Market Paperback 1. Twelve Sharp, by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s) 2. The Bourne Ultimatum, by Robert Ludlum (Bantam) 3. Beach Road, by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge (Warner Vision) 4. The Book of the Dead, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Vision)

5. The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever, by Julia Quinn (Avon)

Music Best-Selling Singles and Albums. Billboard magazine in its July 28 issue list-

ed the five most popular singles (as determined by air play and sales) and the five best-selling albums in the U.S. as the following [See p. 440C1]:

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Singles 1. “Hey There Delilah,” Plain White T’s (Fearless/Hollywood)

2. “Umbrella,” Rihanna featuring Jay-Z (SRP/Def Jam/IDJMG) 3. “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” Fergie (will.i.am/A&M/Interscope)

4. “Party Like a Rockstar,” Shop Boyz (OnDeck/Universal Republic) 5. “The Way I Are,” Timbaland featuring Keri Hilson (Mosley/Blackground/Interscope) Albums

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1. T.I. Vs T.I.P., T.I. (Grand Hustle/Atlantic/AG) 2. Zeitgeist, Smashing Pumpkins (Martha’s Music/Reprise/Warner Bros.) 3. Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus, Miley Cyrus (Walt Disney/Hollywood) 4. Our Love to Admire, Interpol (Capitol) 5. My December, Kelly Clarkson (RCA/RMG)

simple language, his work was often both surreal and ironic. [See 2006, p. 480G1; 2005, pp. 428D1–E1; 1990, p. 271F3] „

O B I T UA R I E S

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ANTONIONI, Michelangelo, 94, Italian film director who explored the alienation of modern life in such works as L’Avventura (The Adventure, 1960), BlowUp (1966) and The Passenger (1975); his films, all of which were in black and white before 1964, were characterized by long takes and a paucity of dialogue; L’Avventura was viewed by critics as part of an important, informal trilogy, along with La Notte (The Night, 1961) and L’Eclisse (The Eclipse, 1962); in 1995, he received an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement; born Sept. 29, 1912, in Ferrara, Italy; died July 30 in Rome; no cause of death was disclosed; he had suffered a stroke in 1985 that had left him partly paralyzed, though he kept working sporadically until 2005. [See p. 24F3; 2004, p. 1099D2; Indexes 1995, 1974, 1970, 1961–62, 1951] BERGMAN, (Ernst) Ingmar, 89, Swedish filmmaker whose psychologically probing works, fraught with symbolism, grappled with such themes as existential despair, fear of death, loss of faith and the battle between the sexes; among his best-known works were Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), The Seventh Seal (1957), Persona (1965), Cries and Whispers

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1. “Major League Baseball All-Star Game,”(Fox), July 10 (8.4) 2. “The Singing Bee,” (NBC), July 10 (8.1)* 3. “America’s Got Talent,” (NBC), July 10 (7.1)* 4. “NCIS” (CBS), July 10 (6.5) 5. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS), July 12 and 26 (6.4)

Films Top-Grossing Films. The following were the top-grossing films in the U.S. for

the week of July 20–26 according to Variety. Figures in parentheses were each film’s cumulative domestic box-office total and number of weeks in release to date. Information on cast and director is included when a film first appears on the list. [See p. 440B2]:

1. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Universal ($52.5 million, 1) Directed by Dennis Dugan. With Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel, Steve Buscemi and Dan Aykroyd. 2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Warner Bros. ($224.7 million, 2) Directed by David Yates. With Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes and Gary Oldman. 3. Hairspray, New Line ($43.8 million, 1) Directed by Adam Shankman. With John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Amanda Bynes, Nicole Blonsky and Zac Efron. 4. Transformers, Paramount ($273.0 million, 3) Directed by Michael Bay. With Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Anthony Anderson and Megan Fox. 5. Ratatouille, Buena Vista ($172.4 million, 4) Directed by Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava. With the voices of Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn and Peter O’Toole. 6. Live Free or Die Hard, 20th Century Fox ($119.8 million, 4) Directed by Len Wiseman. With Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q, Jeffrey Wright and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. 7. License to Wed, Warner Bros. ($40.4 million, 3) Directed by Ken Kwapis. With Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, John Krasinski, Christine Taylor and Roxanne Hart. 8. Evan Almighty, Universal ($95.2 million, 5) [See p. 440B2] 9. 1408, MGM ($68.8 million, 5) [See p. 440C2] 10. Knocked Up, Universal ($143.9 million, 8) [See p. 440C2]

(1972) and Fanny and Alexander (1982), his last feature film; many of his films were shot by cameraman Sven Nykvist, and he created a stock company of performers whom he repeatedly cast in key roles in his films; among them was actress Liv Ullmann, with whom he had an out-of-wedlock relationship and by whom he fathered a child; he was married five times and reportedly had a total of nine children; he lived in exile in West Germany from 1976 to 1984, after Swedish authorities in 1976 charged him with tax evasion (the charges were later dropped); he was also a leading stage director; born July 14, 1918, in Uppsala, Sweden; died July 30 at his home on the island of Faro, off the Baltic coast of Sweden; no cause of death was disclosed. [See 2006, p. 756D3; 2004, pp. 851F2, 100F3; Indexes 1995–96, 1992–93, 1988, 1983–84, 1980, 1978, 1976, 1974, 1967–72, 1958– 63, 1954, 1947] ELLIS, Albert Isaac, 93, psychotherapist who in the 1950s developed rational emotive behavior therapy, which, in contrast to the then-dominant psychoanalytic approach associated with Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, focused on directly confronting psychological problems as they presented themselves in daily life rather than linking them to traumatic childhood experiences; he popularized his therapeutic approach, which was widely adopted after much initial resistance, in many books, and held a long-running series of Friday night workshops at his training institute in New York City that attracted thousands of people over the years; born Sept. 27, 1913, in Pittsburgh, Pa.; died July 24 at his New York home, of kidney and

heart failure; he had been battling pneumonia and had suffered a heart attack in March. MAGALHAES, Antonio Carlos Peixoto de, 79, Brazilian politician and power-broker; a three-time governor of his home state, Bahia, he was also federal communications minister under Jose Sarney, Brazil’s first civilian president after 21 years of military dictatorship (1964–85), and president of the Senate from 1997 to 2001, when a voting scandal forced him to step down; born Sept. 4, 1927, in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil; died July 20 at a hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil, of multiple organ failure. [See 1998, pp. 743E3, 291A3; 1992, p. 653C2; 1985, p. 196B3] SNYDER, Tom, 71, quirky television newsman who from 1973 to 1982 hosted a postmidnight talk show on the NBC network called “The Tomorrow Show”; from 1995 to 1999, he hosted a similar show on CBS; born May 12, 1936, in Milwaukee, Wis.; died July 29 in Tiburon, Calif., from complications of leukemia. [See 1994, p. 576F2] WALSH, Bill (William Ernest), 75, football coach who led the National Football League’s San Francisco 49ers to three Super Bowl titles in the 1980s (1982, 1985 and 1989); he pioneered the so-called West Coast offense, which relied on short or medium-range passes, and was considered the most innovative NFL coach of his era; born Nov. 30, 1931, in Los Angeles; died July 30 at his home in Woodside, Calif., after a threeyear battle with leukemia. [See 2001, p. 736A1; 1999, p. 47C2; Indexes 1996, 1992–93, 1989, 1986–87, 1982, 1979] „

August 2, 2007

Credit Fears Spark Stock Selloff Subprime Mortgage Fallout Hits Banks.

Wall Street Aug. 9 recorded its worst day of losses since February after French bank BNP Paribas SA froze three funds that had invested in subprime mortgage loans. The Dow Jones Industrial Average on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) fell 2.8% and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index (S&P 500) fell nearly 3%. The drop was an acceleration of a recent broad decline in stock markets over rapidly growing investor concern that the credit market was shrinking after banks had been exposed to bad subprime loans in the mortgage industry. [See below, p. 432B3; 2002, p. 123A1] The Aug. 9 plunge came soon after Wall Street July 23–27 posted its worst week of losses since September 2002. The Dow fell 4.2% that week, and the S&P 500 fell 4.9%. Many analysts had expected stocks to fall after two hedge funds managed by investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. collapsed in June and the mortgage giant New Century Financial Corp. filed for bankruptcy in April. The Bear Stearns hedge funds had invested in subprime loans, while New Century was the nation’s second-largest subprime lender. [See p. 224B3] Subprime mortgage loans were given to home buyers with poor credit. Many were adjustable-rate mortgages, meaning they featured low introductory interest rates that eventually spiked to very high ones. Investment banks had bought subprime loans from lenders, bundled them into investment packages called collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and divided and sold them to investors as bonds or securities. After housing prices dropped toward the end of 2006, borrowers were unable to refinance the mortgages on their homes, and many subprime borrowers defaulted on their loans. The rising number of defaults crippled the mortgage industry, hurt Wall Street investors and affected foreign banks and markets. The defaults highlighted the risks of granting credit too freely, and banks began to shy away from making loans in general, which stifled access to credit for companies and homeowners alike. Easy credit had propelled the economy in recent years. Leveraged buyouts, or takeovers of companies made with large amounts of borrowed money, had occurred with increasing frequency. Wall Street’s plunge indicated that large leveraged buyouts were on the wane. Several companies were unable to secure the loans they needed to finalize acquisition deals, which stoked investor fears that credit was drying up. Cerberus Capital Management LP July 25 announced it was unable to muster the credit needed to buy Chrysler Group, which had been one of the most highly publicized acquisitions announced in the year. The transaction was eventually completed through a debt-sharing arrangement. [See p. 309E1] Bush Expresses Confidence in Economy—

U.S. President George W. Bush Aug. 8 described the market’s volatility as a sign that the market was naturally adjusting itself and moving away from a dependence on

large amounts of easy credit to finance transactions. He said the “fundamentals of the economy” were strong, which included low inflation, increasing wages and low unemployment. He predicted that the crisis in the mortgage industry would end with a “soft landing” and not threaten the rest of the economy. The Federal Reserve offered a similar view of the situation. Investors had hoped the stock market’s woes would prompt Chairman Ben Bernanke to lower the Fed’s benchmark interest rate, which would make borrowing cheaper and catalyze more financial transactions. However, the Fed Aug. 7 voted to keep the interest rate at 5.25%. In a statement released that day, it said problems in the credit market did not indicate a recession was on the horizon, and that curbing inflation was still its greatest concern. [See pp. 511D1, 481E1] However, the Fed Aug. 9 was compelled to inject $24 billion from its reserves into the financial system in order to introduce much needed credit into the markets and bring down the interest rate, which had climbed to 5.5%. Congressional Democrats Aug. 7 took a more dire view, saying the credit market crisis could lead to a collapse of the mortgage industry. They called for the government to lift restrictions on the governmentsponsored mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae so that they could buy mortgages from struggling lenders and flush more credit into the markets. The government had placed investment caps on the two companies in 2006 after the companies were charged with corruption and accounting malpractice. Bush Aug. 8 suggested that he would prefer to see Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reformed before increasing their roles. [See 2006, p. 954C1] Subprime Woes Spread to Europe— BNP Paribas, the largest publicly traded

bank in France, Aug. 9 suspended the operations of three of its hedge funds that had invested in subprime loans. A spokesman for the bank said one-third of the funds’ investments were in subprime loans. However, he said the bank had suspended the funds mostly because it could not value their assets after the credit market in the U.S. had stalled, and that the bank was forced to stop investors from buying and selling shares. German bank IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG July 30 announced its profits would be hurt by bad investments made in U.S. subprime mortgage loans. The announcement forced German banks and regulators to come up with a bailout package estimated at 3.5 billion euros ($4.8 billion) to make up for any losses, and 14.6 billion euros ($20 billion) to keep IKB in business. The European Central Bank (ECB) Aug. 9 loaned 94.8 billion euros ($130 billion) to financial markets to ease the strain on credit. It was the first time the ECB had funneled cash into the financial system since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S.

Facts On File

®

World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3478 August 9, 2007

B from his position. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) James Cayne Aug. 1 had asked for Spector’s resignation, saying Spector had mismanaged two of the company’s hedge funds that had collapsed in June. The funds had made bad investments in bonds and securities backed by subprime mortgage loans. In June, the company loaned one of the funds $1.6 billion to salvage it. The loan was meant to stabilize the market and assuage the funds’ investors, but on July 17 Bear Stearns informed investors that one fund was valueless, and the fund it had saved was down 91% at the end of June. At their high point, the hedge funds together managed more than $20 billion in investments. Bear Stearns said the funds fared poorly partly because of the devaluation of securities that were ostensibly their safest, a trend that was occurring across the mortgage market. When investment companies bun-

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Credit fears spark stock selloff; subprime mortgage fallout hits banks. PAGE 505

Britain requests release of Guantanamo detainees.

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French weapons deal with Libya investigated. PAGE 506

Bush signs expansion of wiretap program into law. PAGE 506

U.S. House approves energy policy revamp. PAGE 507

Democratic presidential candidate Obama backs attacks in Pakistan.

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PAGE 508

Millions of toys recalled over lead paint. PAGE 511

Additional Iraqi ministers withdraw from cabinet. PAGE 516

Afghan President Karzai meets with U.S. President Bush. PAGE 518

Bonds breaks Aaron’s all-time home run record. PAGE 518

Bear Stearns Co-President Resigns—

Warren Spector, co-president of New York City–based Bear Stearns, Aug. 5 resigned

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dled subprime loans into CDOs, the CDOs could be assigned to a risk category, such as AAA or AA, that indicated to investors it was a safe investment. This happened despite the fact that the subprime loans incorporated in the CDOs were normally placed in high-risk investment categories like BBB. Investors then became wary of securities rated at the AAA level. Bear Stearns had seized the remaining assets of the fund that still had assets after the fund could not return its margin calls, or demands for cash to act as collateral on the $1.6 billion loan, the Wall Street Journal reported July 27. Bear Stearns told investors July 17 that $1.4 billion of the loan had not been spent. As of Aug. 6, Bear Stearns stock had fallen 30% since January. Mortgage Company Files for Bankruptcy—

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American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., based in Melville, N.Y., Aug. 6 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Wilmington, Del. American Home Mortgage was the 10th largest mortgage company in the country in terms of loan volume, and the latest of more than 50 lenders that had filed for bankruptcy in 2007. [See p. 224B3] American Home Mortgage Aug. 2 announced it was closing down, after creditors had made margin calls, or demands for cash to act as collateral on loans, and the company was unable to fulfill them. The creditors made the margin calls when they discovered the value of the mortgage loans that the company had been using as collateral had fallen. The company also said it was unable to raise money from banks for new loans. Its creditors included large investment banks like Deutsche Bank AG and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. In a statement released Aug. 2, the company said the deteriorating credit market was the cause of its demise. American Home Mortgage did not specialize in subprime loan mortgages, which had been causing major disruptions in the mortgage industry. American Home Mortgage made many loans to “Alt-A” borrowers, those that fell between the prime and subprime categories, and also used adjustable-rate mortgages. „

Other International News Britain Asks for Guantanamo Detainees.

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British Foreign Secretary David Miliband Aug. 7 in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requested the transfer to British custody of five longtime British residents who were being held at the U.S. prison camp for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. U.S. officials said they welcomed the request, which was seen as progress towards the U.S.’s stated goal of reducing Guantanamo Bay’s detainee population, currently about 385. U.S. and British officials said details of the release had been negotiated over the past several months. [See p. 379A3] The five men, all non-British citizens, were Jamil el-Banna, a Jordanian; Shaker Aamer, a Saudi; Omar Deghayes, a Libyan; Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian; and Abdennour Sameur, an Algerian. All five claimed that they had been abused while in U.S. custody. 506

The British government under former Prime Minister Tony Blair had previously claimed that it was not obligated to help the men because they were not British citizens. An unidentified U.S. official said the turnaround had been prompted by a pending British lawsuit by some of the detainees to force intervention on their behalf. Critics attributed the move to a desire by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who in June had succeeded Blair, to distance himself from Blair’s close relationship with the U.S. U.S. and British officials warned that the release could take time, as the U.S. still had security concerns. U.S. officials had reportedly asked for them to be detained on their return and closely monitored after released, terms that Britain had resisted. Human rights organizations and the lawyer for the five men, Clive Stafford Smith, hailed the British request as a recognition of the importance of human rights in the struggle against terrorism. „ French Arms Deal With Libya Probed.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy Aug. 3 agreed to call an inquiry into France’s dealings with Libya. European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS), a French-German-Italian consortium, that day confirmed that a subsidiary, MBDA Missile Systems, had finalized an agreement to sell antitank missiles to the Libyan government. EADS also said it would supply Libya with its Tetra secure-communication radios. [See p. 473C3] The French government in July had secured Libya’s release of one Palestinian and five Bulgarian medical workers facing life sentences for allegedly infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV. A day later, it had agreed to help Libya build a nuclear reactor. Seif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Muammer el-Qaddafi, in an interview published Aug. 2, told France’s Le Monde newspaper that France had also promised the Libyan government weapons, fueling suspicions that the medical workers’ release had been bought. Sarkozy Aug. 5 insisted that there had been no arms trade-off for the prisoners, saying the MBDA deal had been in the works for more than a year. The European Union had lifted military sanctions against Libya in 2004. Freed

Doctor

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Torture—

Ashraf al-Hazouz, an Egyptian-born Palestinian doctor who was among the six freed medical workers, in an interview with the New York Times July 31 said their Libyan captors had tortured them throughout 1999 and treated them harshly until 2002, when they were moved from prison cells to injail apartments. He described being locked in a room with attack dogs, beaten, hung from a metal pole with his hands and feet tied, subjected to repeated electric shocks and injected with a substance the Libyans falsely claimed contained HIV. The Bulgarian nurses, he said, were also tortured and sometimes sexually abused. Al-Islam, in an interview with Qatarbased satellite television network Al Jazeera broadcast Aug. 8, admitted that the medics had been tortured, though he did not apologize for those actions. „

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Bush Signs Wiretap Expansion Temporary Law Eliminates Court Role.

The Senate Aug. 3 and the House Aug. 4 passed a bill legalizing and expanding the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretap program operated by the National Security Agency (NSA). President George W. Bush Aug. 5 signed the bill. The Bush administration had campaigned heavily for Congress to pass the bill before it went into recess, warning that congressional Democrats must give the government the tools it needed to combat the increased threat of terrorism. The legislation was intended as a temporary measure, and had a sunset clause causing it to expire after six months. [See below, p. 477A1] The new legislation allowed the government to use giant telecommunications switches in order to listen in on telephone conversations, as long as the target of the wiretap was “reasonably believed” to not be in the U.S. The government said that procedure was the most efficient way to eavesdrop on the fiber-optic cables that carried most international telephone calls into and out of the U.S., and that the legislation would modernize the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to take into account current telecommunications technology. Court Wiretap Authorization Dropped—

Under the new rules, the government did not have to seek warrants from a special intelligence court in order to conduct surveillance on telephone calls and e-mails, which had previously been required by FISA but had been circumvented by the Bush administration. Instead, the attorney general and

Facts On File

World News Digest With Index (ISSN 0014-6641) Publication #183680

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FACTS ON FILE

the director of national intelligence would be authorized to approve wiretaps. The FISA courts’ role would be limited to reviewing the approval procedures after the wiretaps took place. The legislation would also allow the attorney general and the national intelligence director to compel telecommunications companies to cooperate with wiretapping efforts. Concerns were raised over whether current law allowed U.S. authorities to monitor calls between two subjects who were both outside the country, but whose call was routed through communications networks in the U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R, Ohio) July 31 in an interview with Fox News had said an unnamed FISA court judge in January had declared such wiretaps illegal, giving the legislation’s passage a new urgency. In addition, the wiretaps would record the conversations of U.S. residents who were speaking with the overseas surveillance subjects. However, White House spokesman Tony Fratto stressed that the purpose of the law was to give the government increased flexibility to monitor foreign terrorism suspects, rather than gather information on U.S. residents. Democratic Version Dies in House—

The Senate voted, 60–28, to approve the legislation, with 16 Democrats joining 43 Republicans and one independent to vote for the bill; legislators had agreed to require 60 votes to pass the bill. The House vote was 227–183, with 41 Democrats joining all but two Republicans in voting for the bill. House Democrats Aug. 3 failed to win the two-thirds majority support necessary to pass a version of the legislation that would have kept wiretap warrants in the hands of the FISA court, but would have allowed it to issue broader authorizations. The congressional debate was marked by intense arguments on both sides. Bush Aug. 3 urged Congress to pass the bill. Referring to a letter by National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell pushing for new wiretap rules, Bush said, “The director of national intelligence has stated that without this change in the law, we will continue to miss significant information that we should be collecting to protect against potential attack.” Other Republicans struck a similar tone, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) Aug. 4 saying, “I can’t imagine they would take a monthlong vacation without fulfilling their obligation to keep America safe,” referring to Congress’s August recess. Democrats, meanwhile, argued that they were being backed into a corner on the issue by Republican pressure to pass the law before the recess, for fear of being seen as “soft” on terrorism. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) Aug. 4 said the legislation “does violence to the Constitution,” and the previous day accused Republicans of not caring “about the truth.” Democrats were especially wary of the power the bill gave to Attorney General Alberto GonzaAugust 9, 2007

les, who they said had proved to be untrustworthy and incompetent. Dispute Linked to NSA Data Mining—

The New York Times July 28 reported that a 2004 dispute within the Bush administration that had been thought to be over the wiretap program was actually related to data mining performed by the NSA, according to unidentified officials. The data mining, which involved analysis of so-called metadata—records on calls and e-mails by millions of U.S. residents, but not their contents—had been previously reported, but its involvement in the dispute had not been known. It was not clear why the data mining had provoked the disputes. [See p. 477A1] Mike McConnell July 31 sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Republican member Arlen Specter (Pa.), saying that Bush in a 2001 executive order had authorized “a number of … intelligence activities.” It was the first time the Bush administration had acknowledged that the order had authorized programs beyond the wiretaps. Gonzales Defends Testimony— Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Aug. 1 said that testimony he had given earlier that week before the Senate Intelligence Committee—that there had been no dispute within the administration over the legality of the NSA warrantless wiretap program— was technically true, as the dispute had involved other intelligence activities. In the letter, sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) and Specter, he acknowledged that his answers to the Intelligence Committee might have been open to misinterpretation. His and Mike McConnell’s letters appeared consistent with the Times report. Leahy that day released a statement saying Gonzales’s “legalistic explanation…is not what one should expect from the top law enforcement officer of the United States.” He renewed calls for Gonzales to correct his testimony by the end of the week. Specter also challenged Gonzales’s claims, saying, “When he says he may have created confusion, it was more than confusion, it was misleading.” „

Other Legislation House Approves Bill on Energy Policy.

The House Aug. 4 passed, 241–172, an energy bill that would mandate more energy from renewable sources and increased efficiency of appliances, buildings and electric grids. Twenty-six Republicans backed the bill, while nine Democrats voted against it. [See pp. 480G2, 417A2] To avoid a confrontation among the majority Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) blocked a vote on an amendment to match the Senate’s mandate of a significant rise in the average fuel economy of cars and trucks sold in the U.S. It faced strong opposition from Rep. John Dingell (D, Mich.) and from the United Auto Workers union, as well as the automobile lobby. House leaders vowed to bring the measure to a vote later in the year.

The House the same day also passed, 221–189, a companion bill to repeal tax breaks for the oil and natural gas industries that dated from 2005, worth $16 billion. Revenue gained by their repeal would in part fund research grants and renewable fuel initiatives in the energy bill. [See p. 495C3] Under the energy bill, investor-owned utilities would have to generate at least 15% of their electricity by 2020 from renewable sources like solar, wind and geothermal energy, and hydropower. Lawmakers from southeastern states had objected that their region naturally lacked the wind and hydropower to meet the mandate, the provision had been altered to allow states to get credit toward the standard through better electrical efficiency. Funding for research into the capture of carbon dioxide emissions would rise under the House bill, as would incentives for producing alternative fuels. The bill set as a goal the “carbon neutrality” of the federal government, the world’s largest energy consumer, by 2050. Toward that goal, it imposed higher energy efficiency standards for government buildings. It would also ban the sale of 100-watt incandescent lightbulbs beginning in 2012. The Bush administration Aug. 3 threatened to veto both the energy and tax bills. A letter to Congress from the White House said the bill failed to reduce oil imports, bolster national security, lower energy prices or take action against climate change. Rep. Don Young (R, Alaska) Aug. 4 said, “It tells us to turn the lights out, that’s what this bill does. There’s no energy in this bill at all.” „

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9/11 Commission Antiterrorism Bill Signed.

President George W. Bush Aug. 3 signed a bill implementing many antiterrorism measures suggested by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (known informally as the 9/11 commission), an independent, bipartisan panel that had investigated Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. The bill would require the screening of container ship cargo for nuclear devices, and weighted the distribution of terrorism funds towards states with higher risk factors. Bush said he would work with legislators to ensure that the cargo screening process would not harm trade. [See p. 495C1] „ House Passes Final Water Projects Bill.

The House Aug. 1 voted, 381–40, to adopt a conference report on a bill that would authorize $21 billion for hundreds of Army Corps of Engineers water resources projects. The House in April had passed a $15 billion version of the bill, and the Senate May 16 voted, 91–4, for a $14 billion draft. The Senate had been expected to clear the conference report, but Aug. 6 recessed without taking action. Congress had not enacted a water resources authorization bill since 2000. [See pp. 480G2, 260D1] The bill, the Water Resources Development Act, authorized funds for some 900 projects and studies, many of them request507

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ed by individual legislators. It included about $3.5 billion to repair damage done to Louisiana by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In addition, it authorized $20 million per year for six years to create a National Levee Safety Program, which would monitor federally constructed levees throughout the U.S. The bill also authorized $3.6 billion for infrastructural and environmental projects on the upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway system, and $2 billion for projects in Florida, mostly in the Everglades. The legislation required Army Corps of Engineers projects that exceeded $45 million or were deemed “controversial” to undergo an independent peer review process. Bush Issues Veto Threat—The Bush administration Aug. 1 in a letter to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members threatened to veto the bill over what it labeled its excessive cost. It also said the legislation shifted the responsibility for some projects from non-federal bodies to the government, and that other projects were outside the legislation’s scope. Senate Environment Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D, Calif.) and the committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.), both vowed to obtain the votes necessary to override a veto. Rep. John Mica (Fla.), the ranking Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the many projects in the bill proposed by Republicans would give them an incentive to defy a Bush veto. „ House Passes Antiterrorism Investment Bill.

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The House July 23 reauthorized by voice vote an agency that promoted investment in developing countries, and placed restrictions on investments in nations sponsoring terrorism. The bill reauthorized through fiscal 2011 the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a self-supporting agency that provided support to U.S. companies overseas, in the forms of loans and political risk insurance. OPIC’s current authorization was set to expire Sept. 30. [See 2002, p. 277C1; 1992, p. 878B2] The legislation included a measure barring the agency from helping entities that made investments of more than $20 million or underwrote loans in the energy industries of so-called terrorist states, such as North Korea, Sudan and Iran. The bill also directed OPIC to consider environmental and worker rights issues in deciding which projects to support. „ Senate Increases Bin Laden Bounty. The Senate July 13 voted, 87–1 to increase the bounty on Al Qaeda international terrorism network leader Osama bin Laden to $50 million, from $25 million. The reward would be granted for Bin Laden’s killing or capture, or for information leading to his capture. The legislation also directed President George W. Bush to refocus U.S. efforts on capturing the Al Qaeda leader. Sen. Jim Bunning (R, Ky.) cast the lone vote against the bill, saying that capturing Bin Laden was already a top priority of the government. [See 2001, p. 913D2] „ 508

2008 Presidential Campaign Obama Warns He Would Strike Pakistan.

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), a leading candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Aug. 1 said he would, as president, order U.S. forces to attack the international terrorist network Al Qaeda inside Pakistan if Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf failed to do so. Obama issued his warning in a speech on national security at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. [See pp. 478F3, 460A2] Obama’s remarks were viewed as an attempt to counter suggestions from his main rival for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y), that he was inexperienced in foreign policy. Clinton had described Obama as “irresponsible” and “naive” after he said in a debate the previous week that he would be willing, as president, to meet with the leaders of nations hostile to the U.S., such as Iran and North Korea. In his Aug. 1 speech, Obama said, “When I am president, we will wage the war that has to be won. The first step must be to get off the wrong battlefield in Iraq and take the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” He said he would send at least two more brigades, or 7,000 troops, to Afghanistan, to help the 22,000 U.S. troops already there fight a resurgence of the Taliban, the Islamic extremist group that had ruled the country until its ouster in 2001. He also pledged $1 billion in nonmilitary aid to Afghanistan. Referring to Pakistan’s tribal areas on the Afghan border, Obama said, “There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again.” He warned, “If we have actionable intelligence about highvalue terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.” Bush, Musharraf Weigh In— President George W. Bush Aug. 6 said the U.S. and Pakistan would act on any sound intelligence reports to launch strikes against Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, but he did not say whether the U.S. would inform Pakistan before sending forces there. Pakistan’s foreign ministry Aug. 7 said Musharraf had told visiting U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D, Ill.) that “certain recent U.S. statements were counterproductive to the close cooperation and coordination between the two countries in combating the threat of terrorism.” Obama Rules Out Nuclear Weapons—

Obama, in response to a question from an Associated Press reporter, Aug. 2 ruled out the use of nuclear weapons against terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. “I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance” in those two countries, he said, adding, “involving civilians.” Then he added, “Let me scratch that. There’s been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That’s not on the table.” Asked to comment on his remarks that day, Clinton said, “I think that presidents

should be very careful at all times in discussing the use or non-use of nuclear weapons. Presidents, since the Cold War, have used nuclear deterrence to keep the peace, and I don’t believe any president should make blanket statements with regard to use or non-use.” Dispute Continues in Debate— Clinton again criticized Obama’s remarks about Pakistan at an Aug. 7 debate between the Democratic candidates at Soldier Field in Chicago, hosted by the AFL-CIO labor federation. Clinton said, “You shouldn’t always say everything you think if you’re running for president, because it has consequences across the world.” [See p. 362G1] Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.) during the debate called Obama’s remarks “irresponsible.” Obama hit back against his opponents’ record on the Iraq war, saying, “I find it amusing that those who helped to authorize and engineer the biggest foreign policy disaster in our generation are now criticizing me for making sure that we are on the right battlefield and not the wrong battlefield in the war against terrorism.” The debate also focused on economic issues of concern to the thousands of labor union members in the audience. Clinton joined the other candidates in criticizing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, had negotiated in 1993. “NAFTA and the way it has been implemented has hurt a lot of workers,” she said. Other News—In other campaign events: † The Democratic candidates appeared in Chicago Aug. 4 at the Yearly Kos Convention, a meeting of liberal bloggers (writers of Web logs, or blogs). Clinton came under attack from Obama and former Sen. John Edwards for accepting campaign contributions from lobbyists, a practice both men had renounced. Talking over jeers from the crowd, Clinton said, “A lot of these lobbyists, like it or not, represent real Americans.” † Republican presidential candidates Aug. 5 met in Ames, Iowa, for a nationally televised debate. The candidates largely agreed in expressing support for President George W. Bush’s current military escalation in Iraq, and criticized Democrats for demanding a withdrawal of U.S. forces. However, Rep. Ron Paul (R, Texas) remained steadfast in his insistence that U.S. forces should “just come home.” [See p. 361F2] „

Politics Rep. Jefferson Wins Ruling on Office Search.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Aug. 3 ruled that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had violated the Constitution during a search of the office of Rep. William Jefferson (D, La.) in May 2006. Since then, Jefferson had been indicted on federal corruption charges in June 2007, in connection with a bribery scheme. The FBI had found $90,000 in alleged bribe money in his freezer during a sting operation. The JusFACTS ON FILE

tice Department said the court ruling would not affect the criminal case, scheduled to go to trial in January 2008. [See p. 379F3] A panel of the court ruled, 3–0, that FBI agents had violated Jefferson’s rights as a member of Congress when they searched the materials in his office without allowing him to first review and withhold any documents related to his legislative duties. The court ordered the FBI to return such documents to Jefferson. The FBI raid had included a team of agents and Justice Department lawyers who were not directly involved in the case. They were assigned to review documents and set aside any pertaining to legislative activity. But the court ruled that such measures were “insufficient to protect the privilege” that the Constitution granted to Congress to shield it from executive branch interference. The “speech and debate clause” of Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution gave members of Congress protection from prosecution in connection with their legislative activity. That was considered a key element of the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. However, the court ruled against Jefferson’s demand for the FBI to return all of the materials from his office. The court said the FBI could keep all non-legislative items, including copies of his computer hard drives that had not yet been examined. The court did not rule that the raid itself had been unconstitutional. The raid had been the FBI’s first on a congressional office. It had sparked strong complaints from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. In response, President George W. Bush had ordered Jefferson’s materials sealed to allow the Justice Department and congressional leaders to negotiate a compromise. In July 2006, a federal judge ruled against Jefferson and ordered the materials unsealed, but the appeals court had promptly resealed them. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) Aug. 3 said the ruling “restates the central role of the separation of powers, and the separation of checks and balances in our system.” But she also warned, “No member should think that he or she is above the law or that his or her office is off limits if they’re the subject of a criminal investigation.” Meanwhile, the House Ethics Committee Aug. 6 suspended its investigation of Jefferson at the request of federal prosecutors, who had raised concerns that the panel’s probe might impede the criminal case against him. „

Fiscal 2008 Appropriations Bills Senate Passes Homeland Security Bill.

The Senate July 26 passed, 89–4, an appropriations bill that would provide $40.6 billion in funding to the Department of Homeland Security in fiscal year 2008, which would start Oct. 1. The bill included $36.4 billion in discretionary spending, which exceeded President George W. August 9, 2007

Bush’s request by $2.3 billion and the amount in a version passed by the House in June by $177 million. The Bush administration issued a veto threat over what it called “excessive” spending, but Republicans said they would join Democrats to defeat any veto. [See pp. 507D3, 398D1] The Senate accepted, 89–1, an amendment offered by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R, S.C.) that would provide $3 billion in emergency spending for border security. Those funds would pay for the hiring of an additional 3,000 border patrol agents and 700 additional immigration enforcement personnel. In addition, it funded 4,000 new beds for detained immigrants, 300 miles (480 km) of vehicle barriers, 105 radar cameras and the completion of a 700-mile border fence authorized in 2006 by Congress. Funds could also be used for immigration enforcement within the U.S. [See p. 511C3] Another amendment, offered by Sen. Ken Salazar (D, Colo.) and adopted by voice vote, specified that the funds could be used to secure the U.S.’s northern and maritime borders, as well as the southern border with Mexico. The Senate unanimously adopted an amendment, proposed by Sen. David Vitter (R, La.), that would bar the use of funds to stop individuals from importing prescription drugs into the U.S. from Canada. The fiscal 2007 Homeland Security appropriations bill had a similar measure that allowed individuals to import only a 90-day supply of drugs, but the Vitter amendment contained no such limit. The Senate approved by voice vote an amendment offered by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I, Conn.) providing $100 million for emergency communications grants. The program would be paid for by an acrossthe-board spending reduction in the bill. The Senate voted, 50–44, to table and effectively defeat an amendment by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R, Tenn.) that would have appropriated $300 million to fund state compliance with the 2005 Real ID Act. States anticipated difficulty in complying with the act, which required them to distribute secure driver’s licenses and identification cards. However, senators argued that the amendment would take funds away from other valuable security programs. [See p. 313C1] „ House Passes Agriculture, FDA Funds.

The House Aug. 2 passed, 237–18, a $90.7 billion appropriations bill for the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The bill’s $18.8 billion in discretionary spending, most of it for the USDA, was almost $1 billion more than President George W. Bush had requested in his budget proposal. The House bill would appropriate $1.69 billion for the FDA. [See p. 94E3; 2006, p. 428D3] The bill included increased in spending on food safety of $38 million for the USDA and $28 million for the FDA. It also included a provision that would force the USDA to implement by September 2008 a rule requiring meat to be labeled by country of origin. Congress had delayed implementation of the rule, which was included in a

2002 farm policy law but had been resisted by the meatpacking industry. [See p. 495B3] It also included a provision seeking to effectively bar the sale of horse meat by forbidding the FDA from using funds to inspect it. [See 2006, p. 838B1] The bill was the latest to include a measure to ease restrictions on the import of prescription drugs, which had drawn a veto threat from the Bush administration. Some U.S. residents had resorted to obtaining prescriptions in Canada, where they were cheaper, but opponents of permitting the practice said it would lead to an influx of unsafe counterfeits. [See 2006, p. 764F1] The House bill would allocate $39.8 billion to the USDA’s Food Stamp program. The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition assistance program would receive $5.6 billion, an increase of $416 million from the year before, due to rising food costs. Vote Dispute—The bill’s passage Aug. 2 was marred by a dispute over the vote tally for a Republican motion to send the bill back to the House Appropriations Committee. The motion would have required the committee to add an amendment that would bar illegal immigrants from receiving benefits from programs included in the legislation. The vote was recorded as 216– 212 against the proposal, even though at the time the gavel was dropped, amid a flurry of vote switches, it had received 215 votes in favor, to 213 against. Republican lawmakers demanded that the 215–213 tally stand, and rejected a proposal to hold the vote anew, walking out of the chamber in protest. Some said it was part of a pattern of abuses by the Democratic leadership intended to shut the GOP out of the legislative process. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D, Md.) apologized, saying he believed it was an error rather than intentional wrongdoing. The House Aug. 3 unanimously approved the formation of a special select committee to investigate the incident. „

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Accidents & Disasters Death Toll Rises in Minn. Bridge Collapse.

Officials Aug. 9 raised the death toll to at least seven in the collapse of a bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minn., the previous week, after divers brought up the remains of two or three victims, according to conflicting news reports. Officials Aug. 3 said search crews the previous night had found the body of a victim in a burned-out truck on the bridge, bringing the number of dead up to five, from the initial count of four. Divers, including personnel from the Navy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), continued to search for at least five people who were missing and presumed dead, but were hampered by treacherous wreckage, the river’s strong current and extremely low visibility. [See p. 494B1] The House Aug. 3 passed, 421–0, a bill authorizing the federal government to grant the state of Minnesota up to $250 509

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million to reconstruct the bridge. The Senate later that day passed the bill, amended with an unrelated transit measure, by voice vote. The House Aug. 4 cleared the Senate bill, and president George W. Bush signed it Aug. 6. Bush Aug. 4 had visited the bridge site and taken a helicopter tour of the wreckage. He expressed condolences to the victims’ relatives, and vowed to rebuild the bridge “in a way that not only expedites the flow of traffic but in a way that can stand the test of time.” First Lady Laura Bush had visited the collapse site the previous day. Flaws Found in Girder Connectors—

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Federal officials Aug. 8 said that flaws in the gusset plates—steel connectors used to hold together the girders on the bridge’s truss—might have led to the bridge’s collapse. The flaws were first found by Wiss, Janney and Elstner Associates, Inc., a private forensic engineering firm hired by the state of Minnesota to conduct an investigation parallel to that of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The Federal Highway Administration warned states to closely monitor how much additional weight bridges of any design were subjected to by construction crews. A crew had been working on the Minnesota bridge at the time of its collapse, and federal officials said the additional weight of their construction equipment and materials might have overly stressed the gusset plates. The collapse had sparked a national discussion over the safety and maintenance of infrastructure throughout the U.S., and the gusset plate flaw discovery raised new concerns. Attention had initially been focused on so-called fracture critical bridges, which could collapse if a single component failed. However, the federal warnings did not single out any particular type of bridge. Bush Aug. 9 at a press conference rejected a proposal by House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D, Minn.) to raise the federal gasoline tax in order to pay for bridge repairs throughout the U.S. Bush warned that tax increases could harm the economy, and accused legislators of directing funds toward their own local transportation projects rather than considering national infrastructural needs. „

Armed Forces Rumsfeld Denies Coverup in Tillman Case.

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Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Aug. 1 testified before a House committee investigating the aftermath of the 2004 death of Army Cpl. Pat Tillman by friendly fire in Afghanistan. The Army had initially reported that Tillman, a former professional football player, had died while engaged against the enemy, and awarded him a posthumous Silver Star. It was not until five weeks after his death that Tillman’s family was informed that he had not been killed by the enemy. [See p. 278E1] Rumsfeld told the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led by Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.), that neither he 510

nor any of the three current and retired generals also testifying that day had participated in any kind of coverup of the circumstances of Tillman’s death. He said he could not recall how he first learned that Tillman was killed, and maintained that he had probably learned it was by friendly fire after May 20, 2004, weeks after the generals had been made aware of it. Retired Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified that he could not remember when he learned of the friendly-fire finding or whether he had told Rumsfeld, his thenboss, about it. Retired Army Gen. John Abizaid, former commander of the U.S. Central Command, testified that the Army “screwed this thing up,” but said his staff had not alerted him to an e-mail from an investigating officer disclosing his suspicion of friendly fire. The same e-mail had been sent to Army Gen. Bryan Brown, former commander of the U.S. Special Forces Command, who also testified before the committee. Army Secretary Pete Geren July 31 had announced that he was censuring retired three-star general Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger Jr. for lying to investigators about when he knew of the friendly fire. Geren said he would also ask a review board to consider reducing Kensinger’s rank. In response, Kensinger, who refused to appear before the House committee, officially denied any deception on his part. Geren’s investigation was the Army’s seventh into the Tillman matter. Waxman at the Aug. 1 hearing complained that no one at the hearing would accept personal responsibility for the government’s botched response to Tillman’s death. Waxman and the committee’s ranking minority member, Rep. Thomas Davis 3rd (R, Va.), July 13 had objected to the White House’s refusal, on grounds of executive privilege, to supply them with documents relating to the case. „ U.S. Soldiers Jailed for Mahmudiya Attack.

A military jury at Fort Campbell Army base in Kentucky Aug. 3 found Pfc. Jesse Spielman guilty of rape, four counts of murder and the intent to commit both in the March 2006 rape of a 14-year-old girl and the murder of her and her family in the Iraqi town of Mahmudiya. He was sentenced the following day to 110 years in prison. [See 2006, p. 1031G1] Spielman, 23, was a member of the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. He was the fourth member of the company to be convicted in the case. Spielman had pleaded guilty to lesser charges, saying he had only served as a lookout during the attack and was not physically involved in the rape of the 14year-old, Abeer Qasem Hamzeh, or in the subsequent murders of her and her family. Sgt. Paul Cortez, 24, Feb. 22 had been sentenced to 100 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder, rape and conspiracy in the case. Spec. James Barker, 24, had been convicted on similar charges in 2006 and sentenced to 90 years in prison. Under Cortez’s and Barker’s plea agreements, they would be eligible for parole af-

ter 10 years. Pfc. Bryan Howard, 23, March 21 received a 27-month sentence for being an accessory to the attack. A fifth man, discharged soldier Steven Green, 21, the attack’s alleged ringleader, had yet to be tried in federal court in Kentucky. Marines Sentenced in Hamdaniyah Case—

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins 3rd Aug. 3 was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the April 2006 murder of an unarmed Iraqi man, Hashim Ibrahim Awad, in Hamdaniyah, Iraq. A day earlier, a military jury in Camp Pendleton, Calif., had convicted Hutchins, 23, on a reduced charge of unpremeditated murder and several lesser charges and acquitted him of kidnapping and assault. [See 2006, p. 1031C1] Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, a member of the squad Hutchins led, Aug. 3 was sentenced to time served (448 days) for housebreaking and conspiracy to commit Awad’s murder. Another squad member, Cpl. Trent Thomas, July 20 had been discharged for bad conduct, sentenced to time served and released. A military jury July 18 had convicted him of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder. He had initially pleaded guilty to murder, but later said he was following orders from Hutchins. The juries for all three men were composed of veterans of the war in Iraq. „

Business Judge Dismisses Tax Shelter Charges.

Judge Lewis Kaplan of U.S. District Court in New York City July 16 dismissed indictments against 13 former executives of accounting firm KPMG LLP on charges related to the creation of tax shelters. Kaplan concluded that federal prosecutors had used tactics in their investigation that deprived the defendants of their constitutional rights to counsel. The executives had been charged with creating and selling tax shelters that allowed KPMG clients in the late 1990s to shirk tax payments that amounted to $2.5 billion. The case was considered the largest criminal tax case in history. [See 2006, p. 1006C2] Kaplan found that prosecutors ran afoul of the law when they threatened to levy criminal charges against KPMG if the company did not pressure its executives to cooperate with the investigation. Kaplan said KPMG was forced by the government to renege on paying accused employees’ legal fees if they did not cooperate with prosecutors. Kaplan said the government’s actions prevented the defendants “from presenting the defenses they wished to present and, in some cases, even deprived them of counsel of their choice.” Kaplan in June 2006 had already rebuked federal prosecutors for the practice. The government in December 2006 revised prosecutorial guidelines, known as the Thompson Memorandum, that allowed prosecutors to bring charges against companies that paid their accused employees’ legal fees. The Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group, the FACTS ON FILE

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several lawmakers had all said the revised guidelines still gave prosecutors too much coercive power. In late June, federal prosecutors asked Kaplan to dismiss the charges because they felt his June 2006 rebuke would offer the defendants grounds for appeal if they were convicted of abusing tax shelters. Prosecutors July 16 filed for appeal with the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City. The appellate case would allow prosecutors to appeal Kaplan’s pretrial decision. The decision was seen as a large blow to the Justice Department’s crusade against illegal tax shelters, as the KPMG case was the biggest tax evasion prosecution the government had under way. The dismissal also marred the fifth anniversary July 17 of the creation by President George W. Bush of the Corporate Fraud Task Force, which had brought down more than 200 executives and company presidents in corporate crime verdicts, including leaders of Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. [See p. 400D3] Five defendants in the case, including three former KPMG executives, were still scheduled to stand trial. Of the 19 originally charged in 2005, one had pleaded guilty. Kaplan July 17 announced that the trial would begin in October; the defendants had requested an even longer delay. KPMG had already settled with the government in August 2005, paying $456 million in a deal. [See 2005, p. 589E1] „

Economy Fed Holds Interest Rate Steady at 5.25%.

The Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, Aug. 7 left interest rates unchanged for the eighth straight time. The Open Market Committee, the Fed’s policy-making body, voted unanimously to leave the benchmark federal funds rate on overnight loans between banks at 5.25%, and the discount rate on loans to commercial banks at 6.25%. [See pp. 505A1, 434D1] The committee in a statement issued with the decision acknowledged problems in the country’s housing and credit markets. However, the committee said it was more concerned with the threat of inflation and thus chose not to lower the interest rate. It predicted that the economy would continue to grow at a moderate pace because of “solid growth in employment and incomes and a robust global economy.” „

Consumer Affairs Lead Paint Discovery Leads to Toy Recalls.

The Fisher-Price unit of Mattel Inc. Aug. 1 announced that it would voluntarily recall some 967,000 Chinese-produced toys that had paint containing unsafe amounts of lead. Mattel said it was able to halt the distribution of more than 66% of the lead paint–containing toys, but that some 300,000 had been purchased by consumers in the U.S. A total of 83 products produced between April 19 and July 6 and sold in the August 9, 2007

U.S. between May and August were included in the recall. [See pp. 475G3, 400F2] Toys included in the recall bore some of the most popular character brands in the U.S., including Dora the Explorer and characters from the children’s television show “Sesame Street.” The recall was significant in that Mattel was a company known for strict quality controls in its manufacturing process. Concerns over China’s production processes and domestic regulation practices had been raised over the past several months after a variety of Chinese-manufactured goods, including food products, toothpaste and tires, had been found to be contaminated or otherwise unsafe. RC2 Corp., the maker of popular Thomas & Friends toy trains, June 14 had recalled more than 1.5 million toys because of lead paint concerns. CPSC Concerns Raised— Mattel’s announcement renewed concerns that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) was unable to adequately regulate consumer products sold in the U.S. Four senators, among them Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D, Ill.), Aug. 2 sent a letter to CPSC acting Chairman Nancy Nord requesting an evaluation of the U.S.’s inspection practices regarding Chinese-made children’s products. The CPSC since 2006 had lacked a threecommissioner quorum needed to levy penalties, sue manufacturers and set rules. It employed between 85 and 100 field investigators, but legislators, consumer groups and others had questioned whether the agency was adequately staffed or funded. President George W. Bush Aug. 3 signed into law a homeland security spending bill that included an amendment granting the CPSC authority to meet and take certain actions until Jan. 15, 2008, with only two commissioners. [See p. 507D3] The CPSC had found through unannounced inspections that 20% of toy jewelry samples it had tested presented a potential lead poisoning hazard, the New York Times reported Aug. 6. The CPSC had collected the samples and conducted the tests beginning in the fall of 2006. An estimated 17.9 million pieces of toy jewelry had been removed from the market since the beginning of 2005, 95% of which had been manufactured in China. „ Ford Recalls 3.6 Million Vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Aug. 3 said Ford Motor Co. would recall 3.6 million vehicles because of a flaw in their cruise control systems that could lead to smoking or fire. The vehicles named in the recall had been manufactured between 1992 and 2004, and included the Crown Victoria, Town Car, Grand Marquis, Capri, Mark VII and Taurus Sho sedans; the F-Series and Ranger pickup trucks; and the Explorer, Bronco and Mountaineer sport utility vehicles (SUVs). [See 2005, p. 955A1] „ Sauces, Meats Linked to Botulism Outbreak.

Canadian food producer Connors Bros. Income Fund July 19 said its Augusta, Ga.– based Castleberry’s Food unit would begin

a recall of 20,000 cases of chili sauce, pork and beef products linked to four cases of botulism in Texas and Indiana. Food and Drug Administration officials July 23 renewed their call for retailers and consumers to examine store shelves for chili sauce products manufactured by Castleberry’s. Stores reportedly continued to stock the recalled items several days after the initial announcement had been made. [See p. 313C3] Although only the chili sauces had been tied to the cases of botulism, Castleberry’s had expanded its recall to include some 80 products manufactured at the same site, including four types of dog food. A Castleberry’s official July 23 said the botulism had been the result of undercooked chili sauce. „

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Immigration Local Anti-Immigrant Measures Blocked.

Judge James Munley of U.S. District Court in Scranton, Pa., July 26 ruled that a slate of anti-immigration ordinances passed in 2006 by the city of Hazleton, Pa., ran afoul of federal law and could not be enforced. The ordinances would revoke the business license of any employer of illegal immigrants, impose heavy fines on landlords who rented to them, make English the city’s official language and forbid city employees from translating official documents into other languages before getting prior approval. [See 2006, p. 748D1] Munley accepted the argument of civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), that the measures interfered with the federal government’s authority to regulate immigration and denied their targets due process. Hazleton Mayor Louis Barletta July 26 said the city would continue to defend the measures in court. In a related development, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) July 2 had signed a bill to suspend the business licenses of employers in her state who failed to make sure their employees were in the country legally. She expressed reservations about the new law’s potential deleterious effect on hospitals and nursing homes, but said in a signing statement that the bill was necessary because Congress had “failed miserably” to enforce immigration laws. Separately, a federal judge in Texas June 5 had issued a preliminary injunction against a local ordinance, endorsed in a May 12 referendum by the voters of Farmers Branch, Texas, that would fine landlords who rented to illegal immigrants. Similar municipal measures in Missouri and California had also been dropped after they suffered court defeats, it was reported July 27. The Washington Post June 25 reported that more than a thousand bills to curb the activities of illegal aliens had been introduced in various state legislatures as of May. Responding to local anti-immigration efforts, the U.S. Senate July 26 approved $3 billion in emergency spending on bor511

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der security as part of a homeland security appropriations bill. [See p. 509A2] „ U.S. to Honor Green Card Applications. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, in a reversal, July 17 announced that it would accept all applications for workbased permanent residency that were filed through early July. [See p. 419E2] The service had received a flood of applications after a June 12 notice put out by the State Department inviting foreign professionals to begin the green card process. The service, however, July 2 announced a moratorium on new applications, claiming that it had already filled its yearly quota of green cards. By that time, though, thousands of prospective permanent residents had gone to great lengths to complete the required documentation, some of them flying family members to the U.S. from overseas to meet the agency’s requirements. The agency reversed itself under pressure from employers and threats of classaction lawsuits, and after its director received hundreds of flower bouquets sent by disappointed Indian immigrants modeling their protest on the example of Indian independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi. Other News—In other immigration news: † President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers June 19 issued a report stating that immigration had “a positive effect on the American Economy.” Immigrant laborers, the council reported, improved the productivity of nonimmigrant workers and raised their earnings by an estimated $37 billion annually overall, while slightly pushing down the wages of least-skilled workers. The council also reported that, over the long term, immigrants on average paid some $80,000 more in taxes than they recouped in the form of government benefits and services. † The nonprofit, nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center March 28 had published a study showing that, for the first time since 1980, more than half (52%) of the country’s legal immigrants were naturalized citizens. For the first time ever, non-European immigrants had become citizens in greater numbers over the most recent decade (1995–2005) than had European immigrants. Instead, immigrants from Latin America had made up the biggest share of those choosing naturalization—2.4 million. The total number of naturalized citizens living in the U.S. as of 2005 was nearly 13 million, according to the study. † Federal agents June 19 arrested 81 suspected illegal immigrants at a raid on a factory in East Stroudsburg, Pa. Also, U.S. authorities said at least 175 illegal immigrants had been arrested in Orange County, Calif., the previous weekend, it was reported June 23. Among them were 27 who authorities said had committed crimes beyond their immigration transgressions. [See p. 279D2] † Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton May 6 said he had suspended as many as 60 elite officers from their jobs pending an inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into clashes between 512

protesters and police at a May Day immigration-rights rally. Bratton May 7 demoted one officer of high rank and reassigned another. Police had been seen indiscriminately striking rallygoers with batons and firing rubber bullets. [See p. 279D1] „

Mergers & Acquisitions Chicago Futures Exchanges Merge. Shareholders and members of CBOT Holdings Inc., parent company of the Chicago Board of Trade, July 9 agreed to merge CBOT with Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (CME), creating the world’s largest futures and derivatives exchange. The consolidated group would be called CME Group Inc. [See p. 225G3; 2006, 816D2]. The Department of Justice approved the merger June 11. The combined CBOT-CME exchange had a market value July 9 of $32 billion, making it the world’s most valuable exchange of any kind. „ News in Brief. New York City–based private equity firm Blackstone Group July 3 announced it would buy Hilton Hotels Corp., based in Beverly Hills, Calif. Blackstone would buy the hotel group for $18.5 billion in cash, or $47.50 a share, a 40% premium over its closing price July 2 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Blackstone would also assume $7.5 billion in debt. Hilton had more than 2,800 hotels around the world. [See 447D1] Dutch supermarket group Ahold NV May 2 announced it would sell its U.S. Foodservice subsidiary group to private equity firms Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Fund VII LP and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for $7.1 billion. The purchase amount included some debt to be assumed by the private equity firms, though how much was not disclosed. U.S. Foodservice, which had been mired in a major accounting fraud scandal, distributed food to hotels and restaurants. [See 2006, p. 893B1] The Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.– based private equity firm, July 2 said it would buy ManorCare Inc. of Toledo, Ohio, one of the largest owners of nursing homes in the U.S., for $6.3 billion. ManorCare would receive $67 a share in cash, a 2.6% premium over its closing price June 29 on the NYSE. Carlyle would also assume an undisclosed amount of debt. ManorCare was the latest in a series of health service providers bought out by private equity firms. [See 2006, p. 596A3] Huntsman Corp., a chemicals maker in Salt Lake City, Utah, July 12 accepted a $6.5 billion buyout offer from Hexion Specialty Chemicals Inc., a unit of New York City–based private equity firm Apollo Management LP. With an assumption of debt by Apollo, the purchase amount was valued at $10.6 billion. Apollo planned to combine the two companies, creating a chemical manufacturer with approximately $14 billion in yearly sales and 180 facilities worldwide. [See 2006, p. 1005F1] AT&T Inc., the U.S.’s largest wireless carrier, agreed June 29 to purchase Dobson Communications Corp. of Oklahoma City, Okla., for $5.1 billion. AT&T bought the company at $13 a share in cash, a 17% pre-

mium on Dobson’s closing price June 29 on the Nasdaq stock exchange, and assumed $2.3 billion in debt. The buyout was seen as a way for AT&T to extend its network coverage into more rural areas of the country, in which Dobson had 1.7 million subscribers under the Cellular One brand. „

Medicine & Health FDA Panel Backs Heart Risk Diabetes Drug. A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ad-

visory panel July 30 voted, 22–1, to recommend that the diabetes drug Avandia remain on the market, in spite of studies that had linked it to an increased risk of heart attacks. In a separate vote held earlier that day, the advisory panel voted, 20–3, that the drug did increase the risk of heart attack, and recommended that it carry the FDA’s strongest “black box” warning on its label. Though the FDA generally followed the recommendations of its advisory panels, it was not required to do so. [See p. 381D2] David Graham, an FDA drug safety officer, told the advisory panel that Avandia had caused as many as 205,000 strokes and heart attacks between 1999 and 2006. He called for its immediate withdrawal. However, he was contradicted by Robert Meyer, another senior FDA official, who said there was a “fundamental disagreement” within the FDA. Several panel members said they had stopped short of recommending that the drug be pulled because of incomplete data on the drug’s safety. Increased heart attack risks associated with Avandia, also known by the generic name rosiglitazone, had first been reported publicly in May in the New England Journal of Medicine. However, its manufacturer, British firm GlaxoSmithKline PLC, had reportedly informed the FDA of potential health risks from the drug in 2005, although the agency had never acted on the information. An estimated seven million people with Type 2 diabetes had used Avandia to help control their blood sugar levels. The drug had achieved global sales of $3.38 billion in 2006. „ Court Blocks Access to Experimental Drugs.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Aug. 7 voted, 8–2, that terminally ill patients did not have a constitutionally protected right to receive experimental treatments that had not yet been proven effective and safe. [See 2006, p. 1008G2] The Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs interest group and the Washington Legal Foundation in 2003 had filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to force the agency to allow terminally ill patients to receive treatments that had not yet completed the drug-approval process. The groups said they would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. Judge Thomas Griffith, writing for the majority, found that the courts could not “justify creating a constitutional right to assume any level of risk, without regard to FACTS ON FILE

the scientific and medical judgement expressed through the clinical testing process.” In her dissent, Judge Judith Rogers wrote that it was “startling” that the court had ruled that the Fifth Amendment held no bearing in the case, “despite its textual anchor in the right to life.” The Fifth Amendment guaranteed against the deprivation of life, liberty or property without “due process of law.” „

Gulf Coast Hurricane Disaster FEMA Knew of Toxic Chemicals in Trailers.

Legislators at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing July 19 accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of covering up warnings that trailers provided to as many as 120,000 families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita contained high levels of the toxic chemical formaldehyde. According to 5,000 pages of documents released that day, officials at FEMA headquarters had overruled attempts by field workers to investigate the danger, in order to shield the agency from risk of litigation. [See p. 261B3, E3] The documents indicated that FEMA had not tested occupied trailers for high levels of formaldehyde, which was often found in building materials, after the agency in March 2006 had discovered levels of the chemical at 75 times the U.S.-recommended workplace safety threshold. FEMA lawyers and other officials had allegedly ignored complaints and refused to conduct tests for formaldehyde. After a trailer resident sued FEMA in May 2006, according to the documents, an agency lawyer wrote, “Do not initiate any testing until we give the O.K.…Once you get results and should they indicate some problem, the clock is running on our duty to respond to them.” FEMA allegedly had rejected testing suggested by officials from six different agencies after a man in June 2006 was found dead in his trailer in Louisiana, after previously complaining of formaldehyde fumes. FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison at the hearing apologized and said the agency should have acted on warnings and complaints sooner. However, he said he was not “100% sure” that the trailers or exposure to formaldehyde had caused residents’ health problems. Paulison said FEMA had asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to test the air quality in occupied trailers. In addition, he said, the agency would update trailer standards, improve employee training on responding to complaints and work to move displaced hurricane victims into longer-term housing. FEMA Aug. 1 in a statement said it had stopped donating or selling trailers while it studied the formaldehyde issue. More than 500 hurricane victims Aug. 7 filed a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, La., against 14 companies that provided FEMA with the trailers, claiming that inferior materials had been used in their construction. „ August 9, 2007

Telecommunications FCC Approves Open Wireless Networks.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) July 31 issued rules that would allow more open access to national wireless broadband networks. The FCC declined to include rules further opening the spectrum that had been supported by consumer activist groups and some technology companies, including Google Inc. [See p. 264C2; 2003, p. 898A3] The rules came ahead of a government auction of radio spectrum to the commercial wireless industry, which was expected to start in January 2008. The auctioned spectrum, which was being vacated by television broadcasters in their switch to digital from analog transmission, were highly sought after by telecommunications companies, which needed the capacity to expand their service. The ruling would not affect the existing wireless spectrum, and the new spectrum was not expected to go into use until 2009. The rules were supported by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, and one other Republican and the two Democratic commissioners; one Republican commissioner opposed the rules. Use of Any Device Allowed on Networks—

The new FCC rules, whose wording had not been made public, would reportedly allow consumers to use any cellular telephone or other device on any wireless network, although they would have to pay the owner of that network. Previously, telecommunications companies had restricted which devices could be used on their networks, which they claimed allowed them to regulate the quality of their customers’ experience. Martin set a $4.6 billion reserve price for the auction, and said the open-access clause would be removed if the reserve was not met. The auction was expected to fetch the government about $15 billion. Third-Party Sale Rules Rejected— The FCC did not approve stronger rules that would have required the winning bidder to sell portions of the spectrum to third parties. Those rules would have allowed technology companies to provide Internetsearch and other services without negotiating with the telecommunications companies, and consumer activist groups said they would introduce more competition into the wireless telephone industry. However, telecommunications companies AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. had fought against the provision, arguing that it would reduce the value of the spectrum. Google July 20 had said it would bid at least $4.6 billion in the auction if the stronger rules were passed. The company in the wake of the FCC decision said it was less likely to participate in the auction, although it did not rule out a bid. „ Firms Chosen for Second Federal Upgrade. The General Services Administration (GSA)

May 31 approved a list of five companies that could compete for contracts to provide telecommunications upgrades for 135 out of

184 federal agencies over the next 10 years.

AT&T Inc., Level 3 Communications Inc.,

Qwest Communications International Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. were chosen for the contract, dubbed Networx Enterprise, which could be worth up to $20 billion. [See p. 314D3] The GSA in March had approved AT&T, Qwest and Verizon for the much larger Networx Universal contract, which required companies to provide more technologically advanced services over a wider geographic area. GSA officials said agencies were expected to spend about $20 billion over the life of both contracts, despite the far greater total allowed. Analysts described Networx Enterprise as a “consolation prize” for Sprint, which currently had about $1 billion in federal contracts annually but had been shut out of Networx Universal and was losing ground to its competitors. „

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Capital Punishment

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South Dakota Man Executed. South Dako-

ta July 11 executed its first convict since 1947, Elijah Page. Page, 25, was put to death by lethal injection in Sioux Falls, after the state legislature amended South Dakota law to give prison officials permission to use more than two drugs in the process of lethal injection. Page’s execution had been delayed since August 2005, when Gov. Michael Rounds (R) raised questions about whether the lethal injection procedure, then involving only two drugs, caused inmates undue pain and suffering. Page had been convicted in the 2000 torture and murder of a 19-year-old South Dakota man. [See 2006, p. 783B2]

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Last-Minute Stay Granted in Georgia—

A Georgia state board July 16 stayed the execution of Troy Davis, 38, in order to review his clemency request. Davis in 1991 had been convicted in the 1989 murder of a police officer. He had exhausted all his appeals, but many of the witnesses who testified against him had since recanted, some of them alleging police coercion. The courts had refused to hear new evidence of Davis’s innocence, due to a 1996 federal law limiting courts’ options to grant retrials or new sentence hearings for prisoners on death row. His case had drawn the attention of legal experts and some Georgia politicians, including Rep. John Lewis (D), who testified at the clemency hearing. The board had until Oct. 14 to grant or deny clemency. Other News—In related news about capital punishment: † A panel of the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals June 4 ruled that Missouri’s lethal injection procedure did not cause inmates “any unnecessary pain” and was not “cruel and unusual.” The decision allowed Missouri to resume executions by the method. They had been halted in 2006 by a judge in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., during the course of an inmate’s death penalty appeal. [See 2006, p. 783B1] † Tennessee May 9 executed Philip Workman after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant a stay based on last-minute 513

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challenges to Tennessee’s revised lethal injection protocols, which had been released April 30. The revisions addressed problems with the state’s lethal injection procedures that had led to a state moratorium on executions since February. In a scientific analysis published in the April Internet issue of the journal PLoS Medicine and published in the Washington Post April 24, researchers from the University of Miami in Florida found that the cocktail of chemicals commonly used by states for executions by lethal injection could not be relied upon to induce rapid, painless death. Working from records of 33 executions in California and North Carolina between 1984 and 2006, they found that, given the chemical doses used, some inmates might be left conscious and sentient but unable to move or communicate as they were administered pancuronium bromide, a paralyzing drug that caused severe pain. †

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† A Florida panel appointed in 2006 by then-Gov. Jeb Bush (R) March 1 issued its recommendations for improving the state’s lethal injection protocol. They included steps to guarantee complete sedation of inmates with the first of three injected chemicals, as well as better training of executioners. After a botched execution, Bush had suspended lethal injections in the state and ordered a review of the procedure. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) July 18 signed the first death warrant issued since the suspension, for an execution scheduled for November. „

Crime

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Pro Wrestler Kills Family, Self. Professional wrestler Chris Benoit, 40, a star of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) circuit, June 25 was found dead at his home in Fayetteville, Ga. The bodies of his wife, Nancy, 43, and his son, Daniel, 7, were also found on the premises. Authorities determined that Benoit had strangled his wife, suffocated his son, and then hanged himself with a weight-machine cable. A WWE attorney June 27 said that, in the days leading up to the murder-suicide, Benoit had been arguing with his wife over whether he should play more of a role in taking care of Daniel, who was mentally retarded. Toxicology Findings Released— Investigators July 17 released the results of toxicology tests done on all three victims. Benoit’s body had very high levels of testosterone; the hormone appeared to have been injected shortly before he died. Traces of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and the painkiller Hydrocodone were also found in his body, but no illegal drugs or other anabolic steroids were detected. Some experts believed that steroid use could trigger violent outbursts, or “roid rage.” Benoit’s test results did not allow investigators to conclude that the killings were steroid-related. Benoit’s wife’s body was found to contain “therapeutic” levels of both Xanax and Hydrocodone. Xanax was also detected in Daniel’s body, suggesting that he had been sedated. „ 514

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Colombia News in Brief. Hundreds of thousands of

people July 5 demonstrated in cities across Colombia to protest the continued abduction of an estimated 3,143 people by leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups and common criminals. The protest resulted from a June announcement that 11 legislators kidnapped by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels had died under disputed circumstances. [See p. 435F3] Former FARC commander Anayibe Rojas Valderama, also known by the nom de guerre “Sonia,” July 2 was sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison on drug trafficking charges. Valderama had been convicted in February. [See p. 180E1] „

Mexico Millionaire Arrested in U.S. on Drug Charges.

Chinese-born Mexican businessman Zhenli Ye Gon July 23 was arrested by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents in Wheaton, Md., on charges of money laundering and drug trafficking. Zhenli had been sought by Mexican authorities since March, when some $207 million in cash in various currencies had been seized at a home he owned in Mexico City, Mexico’s capital. He was wanted there on weapons, drug trafficking and organized crime charges. [See pp. 436G1, 283D3] U.S. law enforcement officials July 24 indicted Zhenli on drug trafficking charges, delaying the chance that he would be extradited to Mexico. Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials alleged that Zhenli was linked to one of the world’s largest networks for trafficking psuedoephedrine, a main ingredient in the production of methamphetamines. Zhenli’s lawyer, Ning Ye, July 23 denied the allegations against his client, claiming that he had been set up by corrupt high-ranking Mexican officials. He said Zhenli’s company, Unimed Pharm Chem de Mexico SA, had legally imported chemicals to Mexico to produce prescription drugs, and dismissed the charges against Zhenli as “lousy evidence made up by the Mexican government.” Zhenli, in an interview with the Associated Press (AP) published July 2, had alleged that high-ranking officials within President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa’s National Action Party (PAN), specifically Labor Minister Javier Lozano Alarcon, in May 2006 had forced him to safeguard $150 million of the seized money under threat of death. Martin McMahon, another of Zhenli’s lawyers, alleged that PAN members had intended to use the seized money as a slush fund. Lozano Alarcon July 3 rebutted the allegations, describing them as “false” and “absurd.” Zhenli July 24 filed a petition for asylum in the U.S. on the grounds that he was being framed by powerful Mexican officials who wanted him dead. „

Osuna Secures Baja Calif. Governorship.

Voters in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California Aug. 5 elected former Tijuana mayor and economist Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan, 51, of the National Action Party (PAN), governor. Osuna defeated former Tijuana mayor and gambling tycoon Jorge Hank Rhon of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), 50.57%– 43.70%, according to preliminary results released Aug. 7. Although Hank Rhon, 51, Aug. 7 conceded defeat in a television interview, he said PRI party officials would decide whether or not to challenge the election results. “There were many irregularities,” he said, without providing further details. The PRI had held control of the state’s governorship from 1929 to 1989, when it was ousted by the PAN, the party of President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa. Hank Rhon, who was known for his flamboyant personal style, had in the past been accused of ties to Mexican drug smuggling cartels and corruption, but none of the allegations had ever been proven. Hank Rhon had again been plagued by reports of impropriety in the days leading up to the election. Federal authorities had released tapes suggesting that Tijuana police during Rhon’s mayoralty had worked in coordination with drug traffickers, the Spanish-language newspaper Reforma reported July 31. „ Bus Buried in Landslide, 32 Killed. A bus carrying an estimated 40 to 60 passengers July 4 was buried in a landslide in the mountains in Puebla state in Mexico’s south. Some 400 rescue workers were sent to the accident scene, but they ended their efforts July 6 after recovering 32 bodies. Rescue workers said search dogs did not detect any more people in the landslide, which had been caused by heavy rains. The bus had reportedly been transporting native Indians from their small farm towns to Tehuacan, the largest city in the area, so that they could sell goods and pick up their government subsidies. [See 2006, p. 123E2] „

Panama France

Seeks

Noriega’s

Extradition.

The U.S. Justice Department July 17 filed papers in U.S District Court in Miami, Fla., on behalf of the French government, seeking the extradition of former Panamanian military leader Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega to France. Noriega in 1999 was convicted in absentia in France of several charges, including money laundering and drug trafficking, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. [See 1999, p. 316B3] Noriega had ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, when he was deposed during a U.S. military invasion. In 1992 he was convicted in the U.S. of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering and given a 30-year prison sentence, later reduced to 15 years for good behavior. Noriega was set to be released from a Miami prison on Sept. 9. Lawyers for Noriega July 23 argued in U.S. District Court in Miami that their client had been declared a prisoner of war by FACTS ON FILE

a U.S. federal judge in 1992. They said that as such, he should be repatriated to Panama in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. However, Panamanian officials said they wanted to try Noriega in person on charges related to the 1985 beheading of a dissident leader and the 1989 killing of an army officer who had tried to overthrow him. He had been convicted in those cases in absentia. U.S. Justice Department officials July 17 said they had not received an extradition request from Panama. „

Venezuela Chavez Threatens to Oust Foreign Critics.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias July 22 said foreigners who openly criticized him or his government would be subject to immediate deportation. Chavez during a televised address said he had ordered cabinet officials to monitor statements made by visiting foreign officials for such offenses. “Foreigners who come to Venezuela to denigrate it must be deported,” he said. [See p. 484F2] Chavez’s edict had reportedly been sparked by a recent speech in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, by Manuel Espino, the leader of Mexico’s conservative National Action Party (PAN). Espino in his remarks had criticized Chavez as being antidemocratic. Property Rights Discussed—Chavez in his address also reiterated his government’s claim that private property would not be seized as a result of an impending constitutional reform. The statement was aimed at quelling rumors that the government planned to seize the second homes or luxury vehicles of the wealthy. [See 2005, p. 883F1] Chavez March 25 had announced that the planned constitutional reform would result in the creation of “collective property.” Chavez said the property would be used by state-financed cooperatives in which workers would share profits. Since 2002, Chavez had instituted rural land reform efforts in which the government said it had seized 4.5 million acres (1.8 million hectares) of farmland, allowing more than 15,000 families to resettle. Farming collectives had been established on much of that land. Prior to the reform effort, about 80% of private land in Venezuela had been owned by 5% of the population. Farm production had reportedly dropped as a result of the seizures, owing to landowners’ reluctance to invest money in their facilities. „ Chavez Names New Defense Minister.

Gen. Gustavo Rangel Briceno July 19 was sworn in as Venezuela’s defense minister by President Hugo Chavez Frias. Chavez July 9 had named Rangel Briceno, who had led the country’s reserve army forces, to replace Gen. Raul Isaias Baduel in the role. [See p. 18C2] In his retirement speech, Baduel delivered remarks viewed as critical of Chavez’s socialist policies. Baduel had previously been thought of as a staunch August 9, 2007

supporter of Chavez, and had aided him in returning to power after a brief 2002 coup. “It should be clear that a socialist production system is not incompatible with a profoundly democratic system, with checks and balances and separation of powers,” Baduel said. Analysts said the remarks reflected tension within the armed forces over Chavez’s policies. Chavez and a faction of senior military officers favored building a military that relied on a large civilian militia trained in guerrilla resistance techniques. Chavez June 24 had ordered military forces to prepare for a guerrilla war in the event of a U.S. invasion of the country. However, other senior military officers reportedly desired to build a more conventional force. Gen. Alberto Muller Rojas, another retired military official previously considered a close ally of Chavez’s, had criticized the increasing politicization of Venezuela’s armed forces under Chavez in a local media interview, it was reported by the Miami Herald July 6. Chavez in mid-April had also ordered all members of the armed forces to use the slogan “Fatherland, socialism or death” when addressing superior officers, the Herald reported May 18. The move had been criticized by government opponents as political interference. „ U.S. Ambassador Concludes Term. William Brownfield, the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, July 4 ended his term after serving for three years as the top envoy to the country. During Brownfield’s tenure, the relationship between the two countries had become strained and often antagonistic. He was to be replaced by Patrick Duddy, a senior official with the U.S. State Department. Brownfield, who had been threatened with expulsion from Venezuela several times by President Hugo Chavez Frias, was set to become the U.S. ambassador to Colombia. [See p. 67A2] „

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Philippines Tanker Explosion Kills 50. A tanker truck Feb. 2 exploded on a road in Tigbao, a town on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Police Feb. 3 put the death toll at 50, after earlier reports had listed 27 dead; many of those killed had been riding on a bus driving near the tanker. Reports indicated that the tanker was carrying either compressed carbon dioxide gas or liquefied petroleum gas. [See 2006, p. 683E2] „

Taiwan News in Brief. Costa Rica June 7 withdrew its diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, and

established diplomatic relations with mainland China. That reduced the number of countries that recognized Taiwan to 24, compared with 169 with ties to China; seven other countries had switched to recognizing China since 2000. Many of those with ties to Taiwan were small, relatively poor countries that Taiwan rewarded with

development aid. However, China’s growing economic importance and new largesse with aid had come to overshadow Taiwan’s incentives. Bucking the trend, one small Caribbean island nation, St. Lucia, May 1 had reversed its 1997 recognition of China, reestablishing ties to Taiwan. [See 2006, p. 669A2] Former Premier Frank Hsieh of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) May 6 placed first in a primary to choose the party’s candidate for a 2008 presidential election. His main rival, current Premier Su Tseng-chang, withdrew after Hsieh’s victory, giving Hsieh the nomination. The opposition Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) June 24 gave final approval to its Central Standing Committee’s choice of former Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou to be the Nationalist candidate. The current president, Chen Shui-bian of the DPP, was constitutionally barred from seeking a third term. [See p. 248E3] „

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UNITED STATES

France Ex-Premier Villepin Named in Smear Probe.

French judges July 27 placed former Premier Dominique de Villepin under formal investigation into his role in a plot to smear his political rival Nicolas Sarkozy in 2004. Sarkozy’s name that year had appeared on documents purportedly showing that he held a secret bank account at a Luxembourg-based clearinghouse, Clearstream. The account was rumored to hold kickbacks from an arms sale to Taiwan. The documents were later discovered to be false. Sarkozy was elected president in May. [See p. 404E2; 2006, p. 1026C1] Villepin July 27 appeared at the offices of two investigating magistrates leading the probe into the so-called Clearstream affair. The judges told him that they were probing him for “complicity in making false accusations.” He was ordered not to contact former President Jacques Chirac, who had also been named in the probe. Villepin had denied allegations that he had orchestrated the smear campaign under orders from Chirac. Police had raided Villepin’s Paris apartment July 4, and his office the next day. He had been questioned at length about the matter in December 2006. Chirac had refused to answer questions about the matter, citing his immunity from prosecution for his actions as president. Chirac Questioned on Paris Graft—An investigating magistrate July 19 questioned Chirac for more than four hours about political corruption connected with his tenure as Paris mayor from 1977 to 1995. Chirac June 16 had lost his immunity for actions predating his presidency, a month after leaving office in May. [See 2004, p. 75A2] Chirac was questioned in his Paris office as a witness who could later become a criminal suspect in the investigation. The probe concerned a scheme in which members of Chirac’s former party, the now-de515

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funct Rally for the Republic, were given fake jobs on the city payroll. Their salaries were used to finance their party work. Former Premier Alain Juppe, a close Chirac ally, had been convicted in 2004 and received a suspended prison sentence for his role in the scheme. In an open letter to the French people published July 19 in the newspaper Le Monde, Chirac declared that he had a “good conscience,” and said the campaign finance laws had been unclear at the time in question. „

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Russia Accused of Firing Missile. Georgian leaders Aug. 7 alleged that Russian military airplanes had crossed into Georgian airspace and fired a missile at a village near Tbilisi, the capital, equipped with a bomb that did not explode. Russian officials flatly denied the allegations, and suggested that Georgia had staged the incident itself. Relations between the two countries had become strained as Georgia, a former Soviet republic, sought to orient its foreign policy away from Russian influence, and Russia supported separatist movements in two Georgian regions. [See p. 229F3] Georgia’s interior ministry said the missile did not injure anyone, but would have created a “disaster” if it had exploded. It landed near the village of Tsitelubani, about 40 miles (65 km) from Tbilisi. Officials said that radar had tracked two Sutype jets flying into Georgian airspace from Russia to the area in question, and then returning to Russia. They said the missile was a Soviet-era AS-11 Kilter, which Georgia said it did not possess or have aircraft capable of launching. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili urged European leaders to condemn Russia over the incident, calling it “a problem for European security and safety.” Estonia and Latvia, two other former Soviet republics that had experienced friction with Russia, Aug. 8 issued denunciations of what they called Russian aggression. Georgia that day requested that the United Nations Security Council meet to address the matter. The missile landed in an area near South Ossetia, which was controlled by a Russian-backed breakaway government. The separatist South Ossetian president, Eduard Kokoity, Aug. 7 accused Georgia of carrying out the strike as a “provocation…aimed at discrediting Russia.” Georgia in March had accused Russia of a helicopter-launched missile attack in the Kodori Gorge area of Abkhazia, another Russian-backed breakaway region. A U.N. investigation July 12 had issued a report suggesting that there was evidence of Russian involvement, but it did not reach a firm conclusion. „

Great Britain Labs Blamed for Foot-and-Mouth Outbreak.

British government health investigators Aug. 7 reported that there was a “strong probability” that an outbreak of foot-and516

mouth disease among cattle at two farms in southern England had originated at laboratories in the vicinity of the afflicted farms. Officials said the virus had probably been spread by human movements from the labs, whether “accidental or deliberate.” They said it was unlikely that it had been spread by recent flooding or by airborne transmission. [See p. 516G2; 2002, p. 694G3] Foot-and-mouth disease caused fever, blisters and often death in cloven-hoofed animals, such as cows, sheep and pigs, but rarely spread to humans. Britain had been hit by a devastating foot-and-mouth epidemic in 2001. Several million animals had to be slaughtered. The outbreak had spread to several other European countries and caused costs estimated at up to $16 billion. The two labs linked to the latest outbreak, four miles (6.5 km) from the infected farms, were the government-run Institute of Animal Health and a commercial veterinary vaccine producer, Merial Animal Health. Merial was jointly owned by drugmakers Merck & Co. of the U.S. and Sanofi-Aventis SA of France. The British government Aug. 3 had announced the discovery of the outbreak at a farm in Guildford, near Surrey, England. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it had responded by banning the movement of livestock nationwide and setting up a surveillance zone in a six-mile radius around the farm. All cattle on the farm were slaughtered. Prime Minister Gordon Brown Aug. 4 cut short a vacation in southern England and returned to London to manage the crisis response. Officials Aug. 5 said the strain of the disease found on the infected farm appeared to be a virus isolated during a 1967 foot-and-mouth outbreak. The virus had been used by Merial in July to make a vaccine. The strain had not recently been found in animals. An outbreak at a second farm near Guildford was confirmed Aug. 6. The government Aug. 8 said it would end the ban on moving livestock at the end of that day, allowing farmers outside the six-mile zone to send their cattle to slaughterhouses. Officials said the risk of the disease spreading further was low, but that cattle at a third farm had been slaughtered as a precaution. More than 200 livestock had been killed so far. The other 26 members of the European Union Aug. 6 banned imports of British meat, livestock and dairy products until they were found to be free of disease again. Britain in May 2006 had lifted a ban on exports of beef and livestock imposed in 1996 after an outbreak of another disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. „ Worst Flooding in 60 Years Hits England.

The banks of two English rivers, the Avon and the Severn, overflowed July 23 after a month of heavy rains, causing the worst flooding in Britain in 60 years. The worst of the flooding was in Gloucestershire, a county in central England. About 350,000 homes had their tap water cut off, and tens

of thousands lost power. [See 2004, p. 696C3] According to official data released July 26, the 15.06 inches (382.4 mm) of average rainfail in Britain from May to July was the most in more than 200 years of recordkeeping. „

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Iraq Five Additional Ministers Boycott Cabinet.

Five more of the Iraqi government’s ministers Aug. 6 withdrew from cabinet meetings, in the latest blow to Iraqi Premier Nouri Kamal al-Maliki’s effort to establish a stable “national unity” government. The cabinet members, who said they would continue in their ministerial duties, were members of the Shiite al-Iraqiyah political bloc, which comprised Sunni and Shiite members with a secular agenda loyal to former Iraqi Premier Iyad Allawi. Their announcement raised to 17 the number of cabinet members who had either quit or were boycotting cabinet meetings. [See p. 489A1] The group said the reason for their withdrawal was the government’s failure to make any progress on several issues, including the status of Iraqi detainees, the resurgence in the government of Baath Party members loyal to former President Saddam Hussein and the return of Iraqi refugees in other countries. “The bloc is marginalized in the government,” said Shiite al-Iraqiyah legislator Alia Nusaiyef Jasim. Members of the bloc said they would wait to see how the government responded before taking any further actions. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani Aug. 5 met with various Sunni and Shiite political leaders, including Maliki and Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, in an effort to persuade six Sunni cabinet ministers with the Iraqi Consensus Front bloc who earlier that week had quit the government to return. Talabani said he hoped to “study the demands of our brothers” and “implement the legitimate and reasonable ones among them.” U.S., Iran Officials Meet Anew—U.S. and Iranian officials Aug. 6 held a third session of talks in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, on ways to restore stability in Iraq. The discussion was led by U.S. diplomat Marcie Ries and Iranian Foreign Ministry official Hossein Amir Abdollahian, and was presided over by Talabani. The meetings were the first of a new security subcommittee whose goal was reducing endemic violence in Iraq, and all sides agreed to continue the discussions at an as yet undecided date. [See p. 475B1] Also, U.S. officials the same day said U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Kazemi Qomi met for two hours with Mowaffak alRubaie, Maliki’s national security adviser. All sides described the two sets of talks as “frank and serious.” Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the secondhighest U.S. commander in Iraq, said attacks using roadside bombs that the U.S. FACTS ON FILE

said were being produced with Iranian assistance had reached a new high in July, the New York Times reported Aug. 8. Odierno said the devices, called explosively formed penetrators, had been used in 99 attacks in July, and were responsible for one-third of U.S.-led forces’ deaths in that month. Tension between the U.S. and Iran had deepened over various issues related to Iraq. U.S. officials had alleged that Iran had provided haven and support to Shiite insurgents attacking U.S. troops in Iraq. Iran had called for the U.S. to release five Iranians seized by the U.S. in January in Iraq. Iran claimed all five were diplomats. Turkey, Iraq Sign Border Attack Pact—

Maliki and Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan Aug. 7 signed an agreement that committed Iraq to combating Turkish separatists with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who based themselves in northern Iraq. Maliki said any actions taken by Iraq would require approval from parliament. PKK members based in Iraq had engaged in cross-border attacks against Turkish forces. Some 80 Turkish troops had been killed in PKK attacks thus far in 2007. The government had responded to the attacks by deploying about 100,000 troops on its border with Iraq. [See p. 367A3] Thousands of Guns Unaccounted For—

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) July 31 issued a report which found that the U.S. Defense Department could not account for about 190,000 assault rifles and pistols that had been distributed to Iraqi forces from 2004 to early 2007. The report criticized the U.S. Defense Department for distributing weapons without following established protocols, especially during a period from 2004 to 2005. The GAO also said the location of 135,000 pieces of body armor and 115,000 helmets was not known. The report said the U.S. had spent $19.2 billion to develop Iraq’s security forces since 2003, including a minimum of $2.8 billion on weapons and other equipment. U.S. Defense Department officials said they had launched an investigation into the distribution of its weapons and equipment. U.N. Offers to Expand Iraqi Presence—

B. Lynn Pascoe, the top political adviser to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Aug. 7 told the U.N. Security Council that the U.N. was prepared to expand its staff presence in Iraq to 95, from its current level of 65. Under Ban, the U.N. had moved toward increasing its role in Iraq, where it had aided in drafting a constitution and holding elections. However, elements within the U.N. were reportedly opposed to taking on too much responsibility in Iraq out of fears that the U.N. would become saddled with the country’s problems. U.S. Troop Levels Reach Highest Point—

A U.S. Defense Department spokesman Aug. 7 said the number of U.S. troops in Iraq had temporarily peaked at nearly 162,000. The level was due to the overlap of the presence of arriving troops and those they had been sent to replace. The number of U.S. troops in Iraq had ranged between 155,000 and 159,000 since U.S. President August 9, 2007

George W. Bush in January had ordered an escalation. [See p. 301F2] Also, the U.S. House Aug. 2 voted, 229–194, to require that active duty military spend the same amount of time at home as was served in Iraq before they were sent back. The measure, which was opposed by the Bush administration, was unlikely to become law, but was viewed as symbolic of Democrats’ dissatisfaction with the way the war had been prosecuted. [See p. 411C1] Democrats said sending troops back into battle so quickly had lowered morale and strained the armed forces, while destabilizing military families. Most Republicans said the bill constituted potentially harmful interference in military command decisions. U.S. Executes Sadr City Raid—U.S. military forces Aug. 8 launched a two-pronged offensive in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, which was a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. U.S. forces reported that 32 militants suspected of smuggling weapons and money from Iran were killed during the attack, which consisted of an airstrike and a raid. An additional 12 people had been detained during the raid, according to the U.S. military. [See p. 458D2] Iraqi police and other witnesses said a number of civilians, including women and children, had been killed during the raid. The U.S. military rejected those reports. In other incidents of violence: † A truck bomb Aug. 6 was detonated in a predominantly Shiite village near the northern city of Tal Afar, killing at least 28 people and wounding dozens more. † A mortar attack Aug. 5 killed at least 13 people in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Mashtal, which was predominantly Shiite. † The U.S. military Aug. 4 said it had killed Haitham al-Badri, a member of the Al Qaeda in Iraq insurgent group, during an air raid. Badri was attributed as the mastermind behind a February 2006 attack on the Shiite Askariya shrine in Samarra, 65 miles (105 km) north of Baghdad. [See p. 374A1] † A suicide bomber Aug. 2 drove his car into a police station in the largely Sunni town of Hibhib, just north of Baghdad, before detonating his explosives and killing 13 people. „

Lebanon By-Elections Highlight Christian Split. Vot-

ers in two districts in Lebanon Aug. 5 chose replacements in elections for seats vacated by two assassinated members of parliament. In one race, Kamil Khoury won a closely contested election for a seat in Metn, a Maronite Christian stronghold north of the capital, Beirut. Khoury was backed by the opposition Christian party the Free Patriotic Movement, which was led by Gen. Michel Aoun and allied with the Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah. Khoury defeated Christian pro-government candidate Amin Gemayel, another

former president and the father of the assassinated parliamentarian from Metn, Pierre Gemayel.[See p. 405D1] The outcome in the Metn would be key in September presidential elections. A long-standing power-sharing agreement required that the president be a Maronite Christian. Ordinarily, Metn’s demographics meant that its representative could claim leadership of the Maronite community and assume front-runner status for the presidency. Gemayel Aug. 6 conceded defeat, but claimed that he had received the majority of the district’s Maronite votes, effectively declaring himself the Maronites’ leader. The dispute between the two candidates left unsettled a nine-month standoff in parliament between pro-Western and pro-Syrian blocs. The country’s 14 political parties July 15–16 had held talks for the first time since November 2006 in Paris, France, but achieved no progress. In the other race, Mohammed al-Amin Itani handily won the seat left vacant when Walid Eido, a Sunni Muslim, was assassinated in June. The win helped the U.S.backed government led by Premier Fouad Siniora retain a slim majority in parliament. Other News—In other Lebanese news: † U.S. President George W. Bush Aug. 2 ordered the Treasury Department to freeze the property of anyone acting or threatening to act in support of Syrian interference in Lebanon’s government. Bush June 29 had barred such persons from entry into the U.S. † Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, in a July 22 interview with Qatarbased satellite television network Al Jazeera, said Hezbollah rockets could “reach any corner and any point in occupied Palestine,” using the group’s term for Israel. † The United Nations Security Council Aug. 3 said it was concerned that weapons continued to flow across the Syria-Lebanon border despite an arms embargo. † Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the country’s top Shiite Muslim cleric, Aug. 2 declared honor killings to be “a repulsive act.” (Honor killings were the murder of a female by a relative for perceived sexual misconduct.) His fatwa, or religious edict, followed reports of a rise in honor killings in Lebanon. † The U.N. July 23 said it had asked the Netherlands to host an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. „

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Army Tries ‘Final Assault’ at Refugee Camp.

The Lebanese army was beginning a “final assault” on suspected militant positions inside the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, it was reported July 29. The violence at Nahr al-Bared between the Fatah al-Islam militant group and the Lebanese army was reportedly some of the worst since the country’s civil war. [See p. 423A3] State-run media said soldiers had killed eight Fatah al-Islam members, it was re517

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ported July 29. Lebanese troops July 25 had begun heavily shelling the group’s hideouts. Virtually all of the civilians in the camp had reportedly fled, aside from the families of the fighters. As of Aug. 8, 136 soldiers had died at Nahr al-Bared. Some 90 militants and 40 civilians had died in the conflict. The Fatah al-Islam fighters, inspired by Al Qaeda, the global terrorist network, had said they intended to take control of Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps and then attack Israel. „

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan Karzai Visits Bush in U.S. Afghan Presi-

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dent Hamid Karzai held talks with U.S. President George W. Bush Aug. 5–6 at Bush’s retreat in Camp David, Md. Karzai said at a joint press conference Aug. 6 that the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan was a “frustrated” and “defeated” force that did not pose a threat to the country’s government and institutions. “It’s a force that is acting in cowardice” by killing innocent civilians, he said. [See p. 486B2] Bush reaffirmed that the U.S. military would support Karzai’s government in quelling the insurgency. He said, “There’s still a fight going on, but I’m proud to report to the American people that the Afghan army is in the fight.” While the two leaders were united in their intentions toward the Taliban, they differed starkly on Iran’s role in Afghanistan. In an interview broadcast Aug. 5 on the U.S.’s Cable News Network (CNN), Karzai described Iran as a “helper and a solution” in Afghanistan’s fight against terrorism and opium production, and said the two countries would continue to have “good relations.” Approximately two million Afghan refugees lived in Iran. In contrast, Bush at the Aug. 6 press conference called the Iranians “a destabilizing influence wherever they are.” The Bush administration had accused Iran of arming the Taliban insurgents. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Aug. 5 had described Iran as “playing both sides of the street” by helping Karzai’s government while providing weapons to the Taliban. Karzai did not make comments about Iran at the press conference. At the press conference, Bush faced questions about whether he would deploy U.S. troops to areas of Pakistan if he knew members of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda were there. Bush said the U.S. and Pakistani governments were in “constant communications” and that it was in Pakistan’s interest to root out Al Qaeda terrorists. He said, “I’m confident, with real actionable intelligence, we will get the job done.” Bush’s response came after Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), a Democratic presidential candidate, said Aug. 1 that he would use U.S. troops to fight Al Qaeda extremists in Pakistan if Pakistani forces failed to do so. Excerpts of a U.S. Nation518

al Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released in July said Al Qaeda terrorists and other Islamic extremists had used the northwestern regions of Pakistan as a safe haven. Those regions stood on the border with Afghanistan. [See pp. 508A2, 460A2] Afghan officials had long accused the Pakistani government of not doing enough to prevent Islamic extremists from entering Afghanistan and joining the insurgency. Officials of the U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces fighting the Taliban insurgency had said the Taliban was replacing lost fighters with volunteers mainly from Pakistan, as well as from the Middle East and Chechnya. Karzai was scheduled to meet with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and tribal leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan Aug. 9 for a four-day jirga, or peace conference, meant to improve relations between the two countries and encourage cooperation to stop extremist violence. However, Musharraf Aug. 8 abruptly canceled his trip to the conference, sending Prime Minister Shaukhat Aziz in his place. Taliban Kill 2nd South Korean Hostage—

Afghan police July 31 found the body of Shim Sung Min, one of 23 South Koreans who had been kidnapped by Taliban insurgents in late July. The insurgents had previously killed one other hostage; both of the murdered hostages were male. A purported Taliban spokesman July 30 had said the group killed the hostage because the Afghan government had not agreed to its demand to release jailed Taliban insurgents in exchange for the hostages. A spokesman for Korean President Roh Moo Hyun in a statement July 31 asked the international community to use “flexibility” in securing the release of the hostages, a reference to the U.S. government’s policy of not negotiating with kidnappers. A spokesman for Karzai said his government would do “everything” it could, but that it could not cede to the Taliban’s demands that it release Taliban insurgents from jail. South Korean civic groups, politicians and media outlets were heavily pressuring their government and the U.S. to secure the release of the hostages. It was widely reported that many South Koreans believed the U.S. could resolve the hostage situation if it chose to negotiate with the Taliban. Many questioned if the U.S. valued its alliance with South Korea, which had contributed 210 noncombatant medics and engineers to the NATO coalition. Seventy-eight civic and religious groups Aug. 7 released a statement that called for the U.S. to intervene, and blamed the U.S. for perpetuating a “vicious circle of violence.” It was also widely reported that many South Koreans expressed anger or disbelief that the hostages had been sent to work in such a dangerous part of the world. The hostages were members of a Presbyterian church, and were reportedly there on a 10-day aid mission. South Korean Christian volunteers had been kidnapped and killed in war-torn areas as recently as 2004 in Iraq.

The Taliban Aug. 1 agreed to meet face to face with the South Korean ambassador to Afghanistan to negotiate the hostages’ release. Afghan officials were searching for a venue that both sides could agree on. Afghan army helicopters Aug. 1 dropped leaflets that warned residents of imminent military action in Ghazni province, where the hostages were believed to be held. Richard Boucher, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, Aug. 2 said the U.S. would not eliminate the possibility of using military force to end the hostage situation. „

Pakistan Widow of Slain Reporter Sues Bank. Mari-

ane Pearl, widow of Daniel Pearl, a U.S. journalist kidnapped and murdered in 2002 in Pakistan, July 18 filed suit in a U.S. federal court against Habib Bank of Karachi, Islamic charity Al Rashid Trust, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the ringleader of Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., and more than 12 other terrorists. Pearl’s suit claimed that Habib “knowingly conducted financial transactions” on behalf of Al Rashid Trust, an alleged front for Mohammed and other terrorists. Pearl demanded damages for the murder and torture of her husband. [See pp. 390A2, 115E1] Mohammed was being held at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the U.S. said he claimed to have personally beheaded Pearl. Al Rashid Trust and its successor, Al Akhtar International, were closed down by the Pakistani government in February on suspicions that the charity funded terrorists. Habib Bank, which had 1,500 branches in Pakistan and more than 100 international branches, later that day denied that it had any knowledge of Al Rashid’s activities.„

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Bonds Breaks Aaron’s All-Time Home Run Record Hits Number 756 in Front of Home Crowd.

San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds Aug. 7 hit the 756th home run of his career, breaking Major League Baseball’s all-time home run record. The record had been set by Hank Aaron in 1976, the year he retired. Bonds had set the single-season home run record of 73 in 2001, and held several other Major League Baseball (MLB) records. [See p. 454B3; 2006, p. 439C1; 1982, p. 923C3; 1974, p. 315D2; for a list of Bonds’s records, see box, p. 519F2] Bonds, 43, hit the record-breaking home run in the fifth inning of a game against the Washington Nationals at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif. He hit a fastball from Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik over the right-center field fence. The blast measured 435 feet (133 m). Bacsik became the 446th pitcher to give up a home run to Bonds. (Bacsik’s father, Mike Bacsik Sr., had coincidentally pitched to Aaron in 1976, after he hit his 755th and final home FACTS ON FILE

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run.) The Giants went on to lose the game, 8–6. Baseball’s home-run record was considered one of the most hallowed in American sports, and Bonds’s chase had provoked considerable controversy due to suspicions that he had taken performanceenhancing drugs during at least part of his career. A federal grand jury in San Francisco was currently investigating Bonds’s role in a scandal surrounding the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), a Northern California nutritional supplement company that had provided performance-enhancing drugs to top athletes. Bonds, who along with several other athletes had testified before the BALCO grand jury in 2003, was reportedly being investigated for perjury and tax evasion in connection with the case. Bonds’s former personal trainer, Greg Anderson, had been in jail since November 2006 for refusing to testify before the BALCO grand jury about Bonds. Bonds hit an unprecedented 334 home runs after turning 35, which was around the time he started working with Anderson. In comparison, Aaron hit 245 home runs after his 35th birthday, and Babe Ruth, whose record of 714 home runs Aaron had broken in 1974, hit 198. Bonds Receives Accolades—After hitting the record-breaking home run Aug. 7, Bonds was greeted at home plate by his 17year-old son, Nikolai, who was a bat boy for the Giants. The game was stopped for a celebration of the record, with the rest of Bonds’s immediate family, as well as his godfather, Hall of Famer Willie Mays, joining him on the field. Also, a videotaped message from Aaron was broadcast in the stadium. (Aaron had previously indicated that he did not plan to be on hand to witness Bonds breaking his record.) Aaron congratulated Bonds and praised his “skill, longevity and determination.” He added, “I move over and offer my best wishes to Bar-

ry and his family on this historical achievement.” Bonds made a speech to the crowd at the stadium, thanking the fans and his family for their support. He paid a special tribute to his father, Bobby Bonds, a former MLB player who had died in 2003. [See 2003, p. 684E2] President George W. Bush Aug. 8 telephoned Bonds to congratulate him. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig was not at AT&T Park to witness the record-breaking home run. Selig sent MLB Executive Vice President Jimmie Lee Solomon and MLB Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, also a league executive, to San Francisco in his place. Selig in a statement congratulated Bonds, saying, “Barry’s achievement is noteworthy and remarkable.” Selig had been on hand Aug. 4 to see Bonds hit his 755th home run, tying Aaron’s record. That hit came off San Diego Padres pitcher Clay Hensley at Petco Park in San Diego, Calif. At Petco Park, as at many opposing ballparks, fans held up signs with asterisks, in reference to suggestions that Bonds’s entry in the record books should include an asterisk to indicate that it was tainted. At a press conference after Aug. 7 game, Bonds asserted that the record was “not tainted at all.” He had consistently denied using steroids or other performance enhancers, and had never failed a test for such drugs. Bonds Aug. 8 hit his 757th home run, off Nationals pitcher Tim Redding. The record for the most home runs by a professional baseball player belonged to Japanese player Sadaharu Oh, who had hit 868 home runs playing for Japan’s Yomiuri Giants from 1959 to 1981. [See 1977, p. 748E2] Mets Fan Grabs Record Ball—Matt Murphy, a 22-year-old New York City resident who was wearing a New York Mets jersey, Aug. 7 came up with the 756th home run ball after a mad scramble in the stands. He was quickly taken away by police officers for his own protection. The ball was expected to fetch at least $500,000, although Murphy Aug. 9 said he had yet to decide whether to sell it. [See 2003, p. 779G2] BONDS’S RECORDS

Following are the Major League Baseball records set by San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds thus far in his career [See p. 518E3]: † † † † † † † † † Barry Bonds shortly after he hit his record-breaking 756th home run Aug. 7.

August 9, 2007

Most home runs, career: 757* Most home runs, season: 73 (2001) Most walks, career: 2,541* Most walks, season: 232 (2004) Most intentional walks, career: 679* Most intentional walks, season: 120 (2004) Most MVP awards, career: 7* Slugging percentage, season: .863 (2001) On-base percentage, season: .609 (2004) *As of Aug. 9

Rodriguez is Youngest to 500 HRs—

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez Aug. 4 hit the 500th home run of his career, becoming the 22nd player to reach that milestone. The home run, off pitcher Kyle Davies, came in the first inning of the Yankees’ 16–8 defeat of the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium in New York. At age 32 years and eight days, he became the youngest player in MLB history to reach 500 home runs. The previous youngest player had been Jimmie Foxx, who had been 32 years and 338 days when he reached 500 in 1941. Rodriguez hit his 500th home run in his 1,855th game. Only two other players reached 500 in fewer games: Mark McGwire (1,639th game) and Ruth (1,740th game). As a result, many analysts said Rodriguez had the best chance of any current player to eventually surpass Bonds. [See p. 455F1; 2005, p. 862A3] Glavine Earns 300th Victory—Mets lefthanded pitcher Tom Glavine Aug. 5 won his 300th game, when the Mets defeated the Chicago Cubs, 8–3, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Glavine allowed two runs, six hits and one walk in six-and-two-thirds innings. Glavine, 41, was a 21-year veteran who had won two Cy Young Awards. He became the 23rd pitcher and just the fifth left-hander to reach 300 wins. [See 2004, p. 785B2; 1998, p. 843F1] „

Golf Ochoa

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Lorena Ochoa of Mexico Aug. 5 won the Women’s British Open at the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. It was the first victory in a major tournament for the 25year-old Ochoa, the top-ranked player in the world. It was the first time that a women’s professional tournament had been played on the historic Old Course, widely considered the home of golf. [See p. 424D2; 2006, p. 655A2] Ochoa led the tournament from start to finish, posting a women’s course-record 67 on the par-73 course in the first round Aug. 2. She finished with a final score of 287, five under par. Maria Hjorth of Sweden and Jee Young Lee of South Korea tied for second, at one under par, and Reilley Rankin of the U.S. was third, at even par. Ochoa collected $320,512 for the victory. Kerr Wins U.S. Women’s Open—Cristie Kerr of the U.S. July 1 won the U.S. Women’s Open, the third of four annual major tournaments in women’s golf, at Pine Needles Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C. It was the first major title for Kerr, 29. She finished with a five-under-par 279, two strokes ahead of Ochoa and Angela Park of the U.S. and three strokes ahead of Se Ri Pak and In-Bee Park, both of South Korea. Kerr earned $560,000 in prize money. [See 2006, p. 563E2] Other Results—In other women’s golf results: † Natalie Gulbis of the U.S. July 29 won the Evian Masters in Evian-les-Bains, France, for her first victory on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour. Gulbis, 24, and Jeong Jang of South Korea 519

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were tied after 72 holes of regulation play at 284, four under par. Gulbis birdied the first playoff hole to claim the win and a $450,000 winner’s check. [See 2006, p. 655E2] † Seon Hwa Lee of South Korea July 22 won the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship in New Rochelle, N.Y. She defeated Ai Miyazato of Japan, two and one, in the final. Lee earned $500,000 for the victory. [See 2006, p. 563G2] „

Basketball Seven Chosen for Hall of Fame. The Nai-

smith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., April 2 announced its 2007 electees. [See 2006, p. 357A3] The new members were: † Coach Phil Jackson, who had led two National Basketball Association (NBA) teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Bulls, to a combined nine championships in three separate three-year streaks. The Bulls had won in 1991–93 and 1996– 98, and the Lakers in 2000–02. It was Jackson’s first year as a Hall of Fame nominee. [See 2002, p. 467A2] † Coach Roy Williams, a six-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Coach of the Year. He led North Carolina to the 2005 national title, having reached the finals with North Carolina in 2003 and as University of Kansas coach in 1991. [See 2005, p. 237A1] † 1966 NCAA champions the Texas Western Miners. The Hall of Fame called them “inspirational” for being the first NCAA team with a starting lineup of all black players to beat an all-white team— the University of Kentucky—in the title game. [See 1966, p. 382G3] † Van Chancellor, who coached the Houston Comets to four straight Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) titles from 1997 to 2000. Chancellor was voted the association’s coach of the year three times. He was also the coach of the U.S. 2004 Olympic gold medal team. [See 2001, p. 584F2] † Marvin (Mendy) Rudolph, a referee who had officiated a total of 2,112 NBA games when he retired after 28 years in 1978—a record at the time. They included at least one of the games of the finals series for 22 years in a row. As the association’s head of officials, he wrote the NBA Official’s Manual and Case Book. He died in 1979. † Spanish coach Pedro Ferrandiz, who led Real Madrid to four European Cup championships as well as 12 Spanish League and 11 Spanish Cup titles. Considered one of Europe’s all-time greatest coaches, he was a cofounder and the first president of the World Association of Basketball Coaches. † Coach Mirko Novosel, whose Yugoslav Olympic teams won the silver medal in 1976, the gold in 1980 and the bronze in 1984. Under his direction, the Yugoslav national team took the silver at the 1974 World Championships. Novosel had also had great success as coach of the profes520

sional Cibona Zagreb Basketball Club. [See 1984, p. 595D2] „

College Baseball Oregon State Repeats as NCAA Champion.

The Oregon State University Beavers June 24 beat the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, 9–3, in Omaha, Neb., to win the College World Series, the championship of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I baseball. Oregon State swept the series, two games to none, for its second straight College World Series title. [See 2006, p. 656G1] Oregon State, coached by Pat Casey, became the first team since Louisiana State University in 1997 to repeat as NCAA champion. The Beavers won all five of their College World Series games, and trailed in just one out of the 45 innings they played. „

in 1999; since then, though, his bookings had waned and he had been financially insecure and prone to bouts of depression; born June 16, 1952, in Princeton, Ill.; died July 18 at a hospital in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., eight days after shooting himself in the head with an air rifle; he died after being taken off life support, after it was determined that he had suffered irreversible brain damage. KOVACS, Laszlo, 74, Hungarian-born cinematographer who worked on such notable 1960s and 1970s Hollywood films as Easy Rider (1969), directed by Dennis Hopper, Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces (1970) and The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), and Peter Bogdanovich’s Paper Moon (1973); born May 14, 1933, in Cece, a farming village near Budapest; died in his sleep July 22 at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., after an apparent stroke. LUSTIGER, Cardinal Jean-Marie (born Aaron Lustiger), 80, French Roman Catholic priest who was

O B I T UA R I E S

a close associate of Pope John Paul II, who appointed him archbishop of Paris in 1981 (he held the post until 2005) and elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 1983; born into a Polish Jewish family, he converted to Christianity at the age of 13; in 1995, he was elected to the elite Academie Francaise (French Academy), limited to 40 members; born Sept. 17, 1926, in Paris; died Aug. 5 in Paris, reportedly of cancer. [See 1997, p. 640G2; 1991, p. 366D2; Indexes 1989, 1983, 1981] PAFFENBARGER Jr., Ralph Seal, 84, physician and epidemiologist who in 1960, while at Harvard University—he would later also teach at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley— launched the College Alumni Health Study, which tracked thousands of college graduates in order to determine the health benefits of physical exercise; one of the study’s key findings, reported in 1986, was that vigourous exercise in adult life could significantly increase life expectancy; born Oct. 21, 1922, in Columbus, Ohio; died July 9 at his home in Santa Fe, N.M., of congestive heart failure. [See 1986, p. 282F3] POLANCO Gutierrez, Jesus de, 77, cofounder (1976) of Spain’s most influential daily newspaper, El Pais, a pioneer of the independent press in Spain after the death of Gen. Francisco Franco; he was chairman of Grupo Prisa, reportedly the largest media group in the Spanish-speaking world, with newspapers, magazines, and television and radio stations; born Nov. 7, 1929, in Madrid, Spain; died July 21 in Madrid, of an unspecified rheumatic disorder. SIEGBAHN, Kai Manne Borje, 89, Swedish physicist awarded a 1981 Nobel Prize for his key role in the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy, a technique for analyzing the composition of materials by shooting X-rays at them and measuring the speed of the electrons released as a result; he was named after his physicist father, a Nobel laureate in 1924; born April 20, 1918, in Lund, Sweden; died July 20 in Angelholm, Sweden, after a heart attack. [See 1981, p. 842G2, D2] SZARKOWSKI, John, 81, chief curator of photography at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), 1962–91; in that capacity, he was instrumental in establishing photography as an art form comparable to painting and sculpture; he catapulted such photographers as Diane Arbus and Garry Winogrand to fame and cemented the reputations of established figures; before coming to MOMA, he had published two books of photographs of his own, and a retrospective of his work was touring the U.S. when he died; born Dec. 18, 1925, in Ashland, Wis.; died July 7 at a rehabilitation center in Pittsfield, Mass., of complications from a stroke suffered in March. VYROUBOVA, Nina, 86, Soviet-born ballerina; she grew up in France and achieved international stardom after World War II in works created by leading French choreographers; she was one of Rudolf Nureyev’s first dance partners in the West after his 1961 defection from the Soviet Union; born June 4, 1921, in Gurzuf, in the Crimean region of what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Ukraine); died June 25 in Paris. [See 1993, p. 5E3] WINE, Rabbi Sherwin Theodore, 79, founder of Humanistic Judaism, which viewed the Jewish tradition as compatible with atheism; he founded the Society for Humanistic Judaism in 1969, six years after setting up the first of the movement’s congregations, in the Detroit, Mich., area; born Jan. 25, 1928, in Detroit; died July 21 in a car accident in Essaouira, Morocco.

HADLEY, Jerry, 55, lyric tenor who made his professional debut at the New York City Opera in 1979 and then went on to sing at most of the world’s major opera houses; he sang the title role in John Harbison’s opera The Great Gatsby, based on the 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, at New York’s Metropolitan Opera

ginning with The Flame and The Flower (1972), that were more explicitly erotic than such works had traditionally been, and more elaborately plotted and richer in historical detail; born June 3, 1939, in Alexandria, La.; died July 6 at a hospital near her home in Princeton, Minn., of cancer. „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Awards Wallace Stevens Award. The Academy of

American Poets Aug. 2 named poet Charles Simic, 69, winner of the $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award for lifetime achievement. In its citation, the academy called Simic “a poet of immense, humane consideration,” who “carries our souls in his back pocket like a map of the world.” The Yugoslav-born Simic was named the winner of the award on the day he was designated the next U.S. poet laureate, succeeding Donald Hall. [See p. 503F3; 2006, p. 740B2] „

People Comedian and actress Whoopi Goldberg, 51, had been chosen to replace Rosie O’Donnell as moderator of the ABC network’s daytime television program “The View,” it was announced Aug. 1. The announcement was made on the show’s broadcast that day by TV personality Barbara Walters, the show’s co-executive producer and one of its panelists. She and O’Donnell had reportedly not been on good terms before O’Donnell announced in April that she was leaving the show. Goldberg, who would join it in September, would continue with her nationally syndicated morning radio show, “Wake Up With Whoopi.” [See p. 304B3; 2006, p. 384C3] Singer Britney Spears’s marriage to dancer and rapper Kevin Federline July 30 officially ended in divorce in a Los Angeles courtroom. Terms of the divorce were not made public. Spears, 25, and Federline, 29, had been sharing custody of their two children since Spears filed for divorce in November 2006. They had been married since October 2004. [See p. 151E3] „

WOODIWISS, Kathleen E. (born Kathleen Erin Hogg), 68, author of best-selling romance novels, be-

August 9, 2007

Quadruple Bombing in Northern Iraq Kills Hundreds Said to Be Deadliest Attack Since 2003.

Four truck bombs Aug. 14 exploded in the villages of Qahtaniyah and Jazeera in a Kurdish-speaking area of Nineveh province in northern Iraq, killing hundreds of people in what was reported to be the deadliest attack in the country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The victims were mostly members of the minority Yazidi sect, who combined elements of Islam with ancient religious teachings from other faiths and segregated themselves from mainstream Iraqi society. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but U.S. officials said it bore the hallmarks of the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq. [See pp. 516B3, 457C3, 254G2] Zayan Othman, health minister for the nearby autonomous Kurdish region, Aug. 15 said the remains of 250 victims had been found, and about 350 people had been injured. However, an Iraqi interior ministry spokesman Aug. 16 said at least 400 people had been killed—a figure disputed by police officials and the health ministry—and other counts reached up to 500. Officials said many more victims remained under the rubble, and that they expected the death toll to rise. The truck bombs, which included a fuel tanker, destroyed a market and a bus station and leveled entire neighborhoods in the two villages. Many homes had been constructed solely of clay bricks, making them more vulnerable to the blasts and complicating rescue operations. The wounded overwhelmed emergency rooms throughout the area, and U.S. helicopters ferried many victims to hospitals up to 150 miles (240 km) away. The commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, labeled the attack “an act of ethnic cleansing.” He based his characterization on the remote location of the villages and the lack of prior widespread violence in the region. Mixon in July had called for reducing U.S. forces in the region and had predicted that it would be transferred to Iraqi control as early as August. It was not clear whether the bombings would alter those projections. U.S. officials and Iraqi politicians issued statements condemning the attack. The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, Aug. 15 said a recent surge in U.S. troop levels had produced security improvements in Iraq, but that the attack showed that progress was “gradual” and “uneven.” Religious and ethnic minorities had suffered consistent attacks in Iraq. A Sunni insurgent group the week before the attack had reportedly distributed leaflets to Yazidis in the region demanding that they leave. Tensions between Yazidis and other Iraqis had increased after a Yazidi woman dating a Sunni was stoned to death in April. Shiite-Kurd Governing Alliance Unveiled—

Premier Nouri Kamal al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani Aug. 16 announced that Shiite and Kurdish political parties had formed a coalition in an attempt to save

Maliki’s foundering government. The alliance, which had a parliamentary majority, was formed after an Aug. 14–15 “crisis summit” convened to bring sectarian leaders to a compromise on a number of key issues, including a new oil law and provincial elections. Sunni parties were not included in the coalition, although Maliki said the “doors are still open” for Sunni ministers who had boycotted his government in recent weeks to return. The new governing coalition consisted of Maliki’s Dawa party, Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi’s Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdish regional government. Limits on Sept. Progress Report Mulled—

Senior U.S. congressional aides Aug. 15 said officials from the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush had proposed to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee that Gen. David Petraeus, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker deliver a September report on progress in Iraq to a closed congressional session, rather than publicly. Under the proposal, only Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates would publicly deliver testimony on the report to Congress. A U.S. National Security Council (NSC) spokesman later that day did not deny that the proposal had been made, but said Petraeus and Crocker would publicly deliver the report, as required by May legislation funding the Iraq war. Security Cost Overruns Reported—The Washington Post August 12 reported that the U.S. Department of Defense had paid two British private security firms $200 million more than had been budgeted for security for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects in Iraq. The two firms were Aegis Defence Services Ltd. and Erinys Iraq Ltd. U.S. and company officials attributed the overruns to the increased manpower and equipment necessitated by the growing insurgency. The Defense Department was reportedly attempting to consolidate the contract, which it said would produce cost savings. However, analysts said the payments to Aegis and Erinys were typical and the product of the U.S. military’s increasing reliance on civilian contractors in Iraq. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Aug. 9 reported that the Army Corps of Engineers had paid U.S. firm KBR Inc. $221 million in questionable charges for an Iraqi oil infrastructure and fuel delivery contract. U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D, Calif.) that day said the report was too “limited in scope,” and that the Corps should not have paid KBR if it thought it had been overcharged. [See 2006, p. 185B1]

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3479* August 16, 2007

B Security Council Approves Larger Role—

The United Nations Security Council Aug. 10 unanimously voted to expand its role in Iraq. The resolution, which was cosponsored by the U.S. and Britain, extended the U.N.’s mandate by a year and broadened it to encompass national reconciliation efforts, the settlement of border disputes and other moves to end sectarian violence. The U.N. in 2003 had pulled its personnel out of Iraq after the devastating bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. Its participation in the country had also been constrained by hostile elements within the Bush administration. The resolution raised the maximum number of U.N. international staff members allowed in Iraq to 95 by October, from its current ceiling of 65. It also directed the U.N. to increase efforts to protect human

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Quadruple bombing in northern Iraq kills hundreds; said to be deadliest attack since 2003. PAGE 521

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Central banks pump money into markets as credit fears spread. PAGE 522

Russia, Canada assert Arctic claims. PAGE 523

Padilla, codefendants convicted of terrorism charges. PAGE 524

Presidential adviser Rove resigns. PAGE 524

Romney wins Iowa straw poll.

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South African health official’s firing sparks protests. PAGE 530

Peru earthquake kills hundreds. PAGE 531

Polish ruling coalition dissolved. PAGE 532

Afghanistan, Pakistan hold summit. PAGE 534

NBA referee pleads guilty in betting scandal. PAGE 535

*First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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rights, provide aid and promote the safety of relief workers and civilians in Iraq. U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Zalmay Khalilzad, who had previously served as the country’s ambassador to Iraq, hailed the Security Council vote, saying, “There is a recognition that what’s happening in Iraq affects everyone.” He added that the U.S. would continue to uphold its responsibilities in Iraq and would not seek to transfer them to the U.N. The U.N. Staff Council, which represented U.N. workers in New York City and U.N. operations around the world, Aug. 7 in a unanimous vote protested against the deployment of any more U.N. personnel to Iraq because of the high risks there. The staff association also called for the withdrawal of staff members currently stationed in the country. The U.N. that day said it could find people to staff new positions in Iraq and would continue with the planned escalation despite the protests. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † U.S. federal prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Riverside, Calif., Aug. 16 charged former Marine Sgt. Jose Nazario Jr. with voluntary manslaughter for “unlawfully and intentionally” killing two unarmed Iraqi prisoners in Fallujah in 2004. Nazario pleaded not guilty † The British newspaper the Guardian Aug. 12 reported that Italian anti-Mafia police had intercepted an illicit shipment of 105,000 rifles allegedly ordered by the Iraqi interior ministry. Italian police in February had reportedly arrested several men in Italy in connection with the arms shipment. An Iraqi interior ministry official said the rifles were mostly for Iraqi police in Anbar province, but it was suspected that they were intended for use by Shiite militias or their allied police units. U.S. officials said they had not been notified of the shipment. † The pilots of a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 civilian passenger airliner operated by Sweden’s Nordic Airways Aug. 9 reported that they had been attacked by a missile fired from the ground after they took off from Sulaimaniya, in Kurdishcontrolled northern Iraq. All Swedish flights to the region Aug. 10 were suspended, and Sweden’s civil aviation authority said it was reviewing security conditions in northern Iraq. Kurdish officials denied that there had been an attack. The alleged attack was seen as an indication that insurgent attempts to disrupt Western air traffic were moving into the north. [See 2003, p. 950F1] † The U.S. Marine Corps Aug. 9 announced that Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt had been cleared of murder charges in connection with killings of civilians in Haditha in November 2005. Lt. Gen James Mattis found that Sharratt had done his best to uphold military standards in a morally difficult situation. Mattis also dismissed charges against Capt. Randy Stone, a military lawyer charged with not investigating the incident sufficiently, saying his shortcomings did not constitute a crime. [See p. 442D2] 522

Other Violence—In other major incidents of violence: † At least 100 gunmen, wearing Iraqi Army uniforms and driving government vehicles, Aug. 14 kidnapped Deputy Oil Minister Abdul Jabar al-Wagaa and three other ministry officials, as well as one of the official’s sons. The men were taken from their homes in the fortified oil ministry compound in eastern Baghdad. Wagaa was a Sunni, but two of the other officials were Shiite. Oil Minister Hussain alShahristani said the kidnapping was meant to “damage the political process.” † A truck bomb mounted on a fuel tanker Aug. 14 exploded in Taji, north of Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and destroying the bridge. The bridge in May had been damaged by a previous car bomb. † A U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopter Aug. 14 crashed in Anbar province, killing five soldiers. The military said the crash was under investigation. † About 10,000 U.S. troops and 6,000 Iraqis Aug. 13 began a major offensive aimed at Sunni extremists in the villages surrounding Baqba, in Diyala province. † Iraqi police Aug. 13 said a tribal sheik in the northern city of Kirkuk had been shot and killed, allegedly because he had worked with the U.S. military. A separate bombing in Baghdad Aug. 11 seriously injured a Sunni cleric and killed three of his relatives. The cleric had aided U.S. troops in the past. † A U.S. military spokesman Aug. 13 announced that a senior leader of the Mahdi Army Shiite militia and five subordinates Aug. 11 had been captured by the Iraqi Army. The leader was suspected of coordinating deadly July car bombings in the Baghdad suburb of Karrada. † U.S. troops in western Baghdad Aug. 13 arrested a man accused of financing insurgent cells and acting as a link to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, which was allegedly financing Shiite militias in Iraq. [See p. 533D2] † The U.S. military Aug. 12 announced that five U.S. soldiers had been killed in an attack south of Baghdad. Four of the deaths occurred when the soldiers entered a house booby-trapped with explosives, a tactic that was reportedly being used with increasing frequency by Al Qaeda in Iraq. † A roadside bomb attack in Qadisiya province Aug. 11 killed the province’s governor, Khalil Jalil Hamza, as well as the provincial police chief and three guards. † An Iraqi police official Aug. 11 said a U.S. helicopter Aug. 9 had fired a rocket in Samarra that had killed eight Iraqi workers. A U.S. military spokesman rejected the account, but said coalition aircraft had killed six men in the area as they were planting a roadside bomb. † The Iraqi army Aug. 10 said Al Qaeda in Iraq senior leader Mwafaq Yassin had been killed near Mosul. † A car bomb Aug. 10 exploded in a produce market in a Kurdish neighborhood of Kirkuk, killing at least 11 people. „

Central Banks Pump Money Into Markets as Credit Fears Spread Markets Fall Worldwide as Investors Panic.

Stock markets in Europe and Asia Aug. 16 plunged, after problems in the U.S. mortgage industry sent shock waves through international credit markets. The U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day at 12,845.78, down 15.69 points, or 0.1%, but earlier in the day had fallen more than 300 points. The Dow rebounded late in the day as investors speculated that the Federal Reserve would cut its benchmark interest rate, which would ease the strain on available credit. [See p. 505A1] Concerns about U.S. mortgages intensified Aug. 16 when a major lender said it had to resort to an emergency credit line to maintain its operations. The Federal Reserve that day loaned $17 billion to financial institutions in order to provide muchneeded liquidity to the system. That brought the total amount of money it had injected into the system since Aug. 9 to $88 billion. [See below] U.S. banks had withdrawn their credit lines after a meltdown in the subprime mortgage sector of the housing market exposed them to the risks of granting easy credit. Banks and hedge funds had invested heavily in subprime mortgage loans— loans given to home buyers with poor credit—and when the housing market declined in 2006 and borrowers defaulted on their loans, investors saw the value of their assets plummet. The restriction of credit caused fear among investors worldwide that financing would not be available to companies to conduct transactions and operate smoothly. Furthermore, investors needed credit to

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buy stock and raise money, and could no longer use mortgage-backed assets as collateral, prompting federal banks to step in as surrogates for investment banks. It was unclear how many investors were exposed to bad subprime mortgage loans. Subprime loans were consolidated into large complicated packages called collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), which were carved up and sold across the world, spreading the risks to foreign markets as well. The manner in which the loans were bundled up and later divided made it unclear whether an investor was holding a subprime loan or a more secure asset, fueling panic among investors. European, Asian Markets Fall—The FTSE 100 Index in London Aug. 16 fell 4.1%, to 5858.9, its largest one-day percentage drop since 2003. China’s Shanghai Composite Index that day fell 2.1%. Stocks also dipped in South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, France, Germany, and Australia. The international plunge was sparked by concerns that the squeeze in the U.S. credit market could result in a U.S. recession that would slow global economic growth. Furthermore, investors worried that companies worldwide would be unable to use U.S. credit to finance their own transactions, and that some of these companies were exposed to bad subprime loans. Finally, many analysts saw the huge sell-offs as a panicked reaction to the general uncertainty that had crept into the marketplace. Federal banks in other countries also pumped billions of dollars into financial markets in order to stabilize them. The European Central Bank (ECB) Aug. 13 loaned $47.7 billion euros ($65 billion) to banks, after loaning 61.1 billion euros Aug. 10 and 94.8 billion euros Aug. 9. The Bank of Japan Aug. 10 loaned one trillion yen ($8.5 billion) to Japanese banks, and central banks in Australia, Singapore, Canada, Norway and Switzerland also pumped money into their respective markets. Leading Home Lender Bailed Out—Countrywide Financial Corp., the U.S.’s largest home mortgage lender in terms of volume, Aug. 16 announced it would tap into an $11.5 billion emergency credit line, after failing to raise needed funds through ordinary short-term borrowing methods. The credit line was sponsored by a group of more than 40 of the world’s largest banks. [See p. 224B3] Countrywide’s announcement further fueled volatility in the stock markets, because if the company fell it would have major negative implications for the U.S. economy. Countrywide relied heavily on loans from banks to conduct its mortgage business, and its failure to raise money also worried investors, as it was another indication that credit was drying up. David Sambol, Countrywide’s president and chief operating officer, in a statement Aug. 16 said 90% of Countrywide’s future loans would meet the risk standards of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the governmentsponsored mortgage companies. As many as 50% of Countrywide’s loans before the August 16, 2007

subprime meltdown were considered too risky for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy. Goldman Sachs Bails Out Hedge Fund—

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., one of Wall Street’s most prominent investment banks, announced Aug. 13 that it was directing $3 billion into its Global Equity Opportunities (GEO) Fund, after the fund lost more than 30% of its value the preceding week, Aug. 6–10. Goldman would invest $2 billion of its own money, while outside investors would account for the remainder. [See p. 432B3] The GEO fund was a quantitative fund, or quant, which meant it relied on computer models to make trading decisions. The GEO fund had been highly successful in the past, but had failed to predict the market swings sparked by the crisis in the credit market, and sold large amounts of assets at a loss. Furthermore, the use of quants had become more ubiquitous, and many quants triggered each other to start selling off at the same time. Executives at Goldman were quick to point out that the $3 billion transfer was entirely different from the $1.6 billion loan Bear Stearns Cos. had made to one of its faltering hedge funds in June. Goldman said the GEO fund was capable of making any refunds requested by investors, whereas Bear Stearns’s fund was unable to do so and eventually collapsed in July. Two other Goldman funds reported major losses from the week of Aug. 6–10. Its Global Alpha Fund was down 27% for the year, and half of those losses were incurred in that week. Its North American Equity Opportunities Fund was down 25% for the year. „

Other International News Russia, Canada Assert Arctic Claims. A Russian submarine expedition Aug. 2 planted a Russian flag in the seabed underneath the North Pole, in a symbolic expression of Russia’s claims to sovereignty over a large swath of the Arctic. The expedition’s leader, Artur Chilingarov, a deputy speaker of Russia’s parliament, said the expedition was intended to bolster Russia’s claim that the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater mountain range that ran across much of the Arctic, was a part of the Russian continental shelf. Canada July 9 had announced plans to increase its patrols in the waters of the Northwest Passage, as an assertion of its claims to sovereignty. [See below, p. 291C1] Canada and Denmark, whose Greenland territory was in the Arctic, also maintained claims to the Lomonosov Ridge. The five nations with Arctic Ocean coasts—which also included Norway and the U.S.—were entitled to exclusive economic exploitation of areas within 200 miles (320 km) of their coastlines under the current provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, the law also gave the nations 10 years after their ratification of the convention to submit evidence that additional parts of the Arctic floor were integral parts of their continental shelves. (The resulting claims would apply to underground resources, not to the sea above.)

At stake in the claims were the rights to possibly large oil and gas reserves underneath the Arctic seabed. Although the Arctic ice cap made drilling for those resources too difficult, the prospect of further melting of the cap due to global climate change made future exploitation a possibility. In the Russian expedition, the research ship Akademik Fyodorov traveled to the North Pole in the path of an icebreaker ship. Two small submersible vessels descended from the Akademik Fyodorov to the ocean floor, a depth of about 14,000 feet (4,300 m). A robotic arm was used to plant the Russian flag, made of titanium. The mission also collected water and mineral samples for geological study. Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay Aug. 2 called the expedition “just a show” that would not have a substantial effect on the status of the countries’ competing claims. He said, “This isn’t the 15th century. You can’t go around the world and just plant flags and say, ‘We’re claiming this territory.’” Russian President Vladimir V. Putin reportedly congratulated the expedition crew by telephone Aug. 2. Canada Sets Patrols, Base— Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper July 9 said Canada would acquire six to eight patrol ships that would ply the icy waters in the Northwest Passage archipelago. If global warming were to melt the ice that sometimes covered much of its waters, the passage could emerge as a strategically important route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The U.S. claimed that some of the sea lanes were international waters. In the 2006 Canadian federal election campaign, Harper’s Conservative Party

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Countries currently enjoyed exclusive economic rights to the portions of the Arctic within 200 miles (320 km) of their coasts. Russia, Denmark and Canada each claimed that the Lomonosov Ridge was an extension of its continental shelf. A Russian submarine Aug. 2 planted a Russian flag in the seabed under the North Pole, and Canada Aug. 10 announced that it would establish new military facilities in Nanasivik and Resolute Bay.

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had pledged to deploy three larger icebreakers, but the Navy reportedly had concluded that the patrol boats would have more versatile uses, and that it was less necessary to mount patrols when the channels were blocked with ice. However, Canada would need to employ icebreakers to conduct the kind of undersea surveys required to substantiate a continental-shelf claim under the Law of the Sea treaty, which it had ratified in 2003. Harper Aug. 8 began a three-day tour of the Arctic, highlighting Canada’s activity in the area as a way of solidifying its claim of effective control. He announced Aug. 8 that day the expansion of the Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories. Harper Aug. 10 announced that a previously planned deep-water port would be built in Nanisivik, in the far northern Nunavut territory. He said Canada would also create a military training center on Resolute Bay, which was on the Northwest Passage in Nunavut. Speaking there, the prime minister said, “The first principle of Arctic sovereignty is ‘use it or lose it.’” He said the announcements demonstrated that Canada had “a real, growing, long-term presence in the Arctic.” Jack Layton, leader of the opposition New Democratic Party, Aug. 5 had accused Harper’s government of taking too little action to secure Canada’s claims, demanding “immediate, strategic investments” in the region. The U.S. Coast Guard Aug. 6 dispatched an icebreaker in support of an undersea mapping project in an area north of Alaska. „ Bush Hosts Sarkozy in Maine. U.S. President George W. Bush Aug. 11 hosted French President Nicolas Sarkozy for a lunch meeting at the Bush family’s summer vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine. Sarkozy at the time was vacationing in Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, about 50 miles (80 km) away. Bush welcomed Sarkozy warmly to the casual meeting, in an apparent effort to publicly embrace France’s new leader. Sarkozy in May had succeeded Jacques Chirac, whose relations with Bush had been notably cool, particularly over the Iraq war. [See pp. 482A1, 404E2] Sarkozy, while also not a supporter of U.S. policy in Iraq, was nevertheless known in France for his admiration of the U.S. in many respects. At the meeting, he praised the U.S.’s tradition of democracy. Bush acknowledged that the U.S. and France “have had good disagreements—on Iraq in particular,” but said Sarkozy had “a good brain, good vision and goodwill.” Sarkozy’s wife, Cecilia Sarkozy, canceled plans to attend the lunch, saying she was ill. However, after she was seen in public the next day, her absence drew criticism in France. Commentators contrasted the episode with the high-profile role she had recently and controversially taken in European negotiations with Libya to free a group of foreign medics imprisoned there for several years. [See p. 506C2] „

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Padilla, Codefendants Convicted Of Terrorism Charges Trial Follows Military Imprisonment. A U.S.

District Court jury in Miami, Fla., Aug. 16 convicted Jose Padilla and two codefendants on charges of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas, and two counts of providing material support to terrorists. Padilla, Kifah Wael Jayyousi and Adham Amin Hassoun faced life sentences for each conspiracy charge and 15 years for each material support charge. [See below, p. 330F3] Padilla, 36, was a U.S. citizen and Muslim convert who had been accused of being an operative of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda. He had been detained by the military in May 2002 following his return to the U.S. after four years abroad. He was subsequently held without charges as an “enemy combatant” for three and a half years. The Justice Department in June 2002 had accused him of plotting to set off a radioactive “dirty bomb” within the U.S., and in June 2004 alleged that Padilla had also been involved in a plot to blow up apartment buildings using natural gas, though neither charge was included in his indictment. [See 2002, p. 433A2] Padilla filed suit to challenge his indefinite detention, but was added in November 2005 to the indictment of Jordanian-born Jayyousi, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian, before the U.S. Supreme Court could rule on his suit. [See 2005, p. 833D1] During the course of the trial, jurors were not told of Padilla’s designation as an enemy combatant or his allegations that he had been tortured during his detention. Details of the Trial—Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier in his opening statement May 14 alleged that the three defendants were members of a Florida-based support cell for Al Qaeda, which used Jayyousi’s nonprofit organization American Worldwide Relief to assist “Islamic fighters all over the world.” Prosecutors beginning June 4 played tapes of 123 of the about 300,000 calls made by the codefendants that had been taped between 1994 and 2001 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). On those tapes, Jayyousi discussed providing supplies such as satellite phones to Muslims in Chechnya. FBI agent John Kavanaugh Jr. testified June 7–8 that he believed seemingly innocuous conversations on the tapes were actually filled with coded messages regarding terrorism, in which “eating cheese” meant waging jihad, or holy war, and “the dogs” referred to the U.S. government. Padilla was heard on only seven of the calls played for the jury. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke June 21 allowed the prosecution to show a shortened version of a 1997 Cable News Network (CNN) interview with Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The prosecution had argued that the tape provided context to calls in which Jayyousi and Hassoun spoke effusively about the Al Qaeda leader. Responding to the decision, Anthony Natale,

Jose Padilla in January 2006, when he was transferred to Miami, Fla., for his trial in federal court on terrorism conspiracy charges.

a lawyer for Padilla, suggested June 21 that allowing the tape could be grounds for a mistrial, because the prosecution had presented no evidence that Padilla had ever seen the bin Laden interview. The interview was shown in court June 26. Padilla’s attorneys July 31 told Cooke that they would not present a defense, and suggested Aug. 7 that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Lawyers for Hassoun and Jayyousi did mount a defense, which included July 23 testimony from an Arabic translator who disputed the prosecution’s interpretation of coded phrases in the taped calls. They also asserted that Hassoun and Jayyousi had been trying to provide humanitarian aid to Muslims in conflict zones, not support terrorism. The prosecution in closing arguments Aug. 13 alleged that Padilla had taken part in an Afghanistan-based Al Qaeda training camp, based on the discovery of Padilla’s fingerprints on a “mujahedeen data form” that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) discovered in 2001 in Afghanistan. Padilla attorney Michael Caruso Aug. 14 suggested in his closing argument that the presence of the fingerprints proved only that Padilla had handled the form, not that he filled it out. Some legal analysts suggested that the government had presented a relatively weak case, a result of the prosecution’s unusual decision to pursue conspiracy charges without presenting any evidence regarding specific plots or crimes. Reaction—Scott Silliman of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University Aug. 16 said the verdict weakened the Bush administration’s justifications for extra-legal measures in terrorism cases. However, Acting Deputy Attorney General Craig Morford Aug. 16 claimed that while Padilla’s conviction proved some terrorism cases could be handled by the legal system, other cases might too dangerous or contain too much sensitive information to be trusted to the courts. „

Politics Presidential Adviser Rove Resigns. Karl Rove, the political adviser to President George W. Bush widely credited with orFACTS ON FILE

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vestigation concluded that Rove had either provided or confirmed Wilson’s identity to two news media organizations, he was never charged with a crime related to the case. [See p. 446G3] Democrats Vow to Press Investigation—

Rove also remained a prominent figure in the investigation by congressional Democrats into the 2006 firing of several federal prosecutors by the Bush adminKarl Rove, right, Aug. 13 announcing his resignation as White House deputy istration, which some chief of staff and political adviser to President George W. Bush, left. Democrats said had been motivated by politchestrating his two presidential election wins, Aug. 13 announced that he would re- ical concerns. Sen. Charles Schumer (D, sign as deputy White House chief of staff N.Y.) Aug. 13 said Rove’s resignation and senior adviser effective Aug. 31. Rove would not stop the Senate Judiciary Comhad been nicknamed “The Architect” by mittee’s inquiry into the prosecutors’ disBush, was one of the last remaining mem- missals. Rep. John Conyers (D, Mich.), bers of a group of senior officials who had chairman of the House Judiciary Commitserved the Bush administration since its in- tee, that day also said he would continue to ception. He had first worked with Bush pursue Rove in his inquiry. [See p. 477A1] Rove in July had been subpoenaed to during the president’s unsuccessful bid for a congressional seat in 1978, and was con- appear before the Senate Judiciary Comsidered one of Bush’s closest aides and mittee for a hearing on the affair on Aug. 2, but did not show up. Rove deputy J. Scott friends. [See p. 380C1] In remarks delivered at the White House Jennings, who had also been subpoenaed, with Bush at his side, an emotional Rove appeared before the committee, but refused said he was leaving his post in order to to answer any questions. “I must respectspend more time with his family. “I’m fully decline to respond at this time,” Jengrateful to have been a witness to history. nings said in response to all questions, citIt has been the joy and honor of a lifetime. ing “President Bush’s directive invoking executive privilege.” But now is the time,” he said. White House lawyers had also claimed Rove said he and Bush had first discussed resigning his position in the sum- that Rove was immune to congressional mer of 2006, but that he had decided in- questioning because executive privilege alstead to remain through the midterm lowed the president to receive confidential „ congressional elections held that fall. advice from aides. However, widespread Democratic gains in those elections, resulting in their capture of majorities in both the House and Senate, 2008 Presidential Campaign had somewhat tarnished Rove’s reputation Romney Wins Iowa Straw Poll. Former Masas a political mastermind. sachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney Aug. 12 Rove said he decided to resign after placed first among Republican presidential White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten candidates participating in a straw poll of told senior aides that if they did not resign Iowa voters, with support from 31.5% of before the Sept. 3 Labor Day holiday, he participants. The straw poll was a mock would expect them to continue on until the vote held as a fund-raiser by the Iowa Reend of Bush’s term in January 2009. publican Party, and seen by some as an earRove was best known for a political strat- ly bellwether of strength in the state, whose egy that relied on energizing the Republican caucuses were traditionally the first contest party’s base by playing up divisive social of the nomination process. However, since issues, while deriding Democrats as weak participating candidates paid for supporton national security issues. ers’ tickets, as well as for their transporta“Karl Rove was an architect of a politi- tion and entertainment, many observers cal strategy that has left the country more discounted the results as primarily infludivided, the special interests more power- enced by candidates’ spending. [See p. ful and the American people more shut out 508E3; 1999, p. 591A1] from their government than any time in Two of the other leading candidates for memory,” Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) the GOP nomination, former New York said. Obama was a top Democratic presi- Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani and Sen. dential candidate. John McCain (Ariz.), had opted not to parRove had figured prominently in the in- ticipate in the event. So did former Sen. vestigation by Special Counsel Patrick Fred Thompson (Tenn.), who had not yet Fitzgerald into the leaking of the identity of declared his candidacy but was widely beCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) opera- lieved to be preparing to do so, and in some tive Valerie Wilson, also known as Valerie polls had fared as well as some of the top Plame, to the news media. Though the in- declared candidates. August 16, 2007

Their absence made room for a secondplace showing by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who had trailed in fundraising and spent far less than Romney. Huckabee, who received 18.1% of the votes, said he had spent just over $100,000 on the event. Romney was widely estimated to have spent more than $2 million. Huckabee’s finish opened the possibility that he might be able to raise his profile and present himself as a viable choice for Republican social conservatives, who had expressed dissatisfaction with the records of the front-runners. Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.), who had also sought to appeal to conservatives, placed third, with 15.3%, followed by Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.), who took 13.7%. Rep. Ron Paul (Texas), who had built a following with his libertarian views and, unique in the GOP field, his opposition to the Iraq war, garnered 9.1%. Tommy Thompson Exits—Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson Aug. 12 announced that he was dropping his bid for the Republican nomination. Thompson, who came in sixth in the Iowa straw poll, had previously indicated that he would withdraw if he did not win one of the top two spots there. [See p. 208E3] Romney Details Wealth—Romney Aug. 13 filed a required financial disclosure report with the Federal Election Commission, in which he said his personal wealth fell within the range of $190 million and $250 million. His income for 2006 and the first half of 2007 was put between $17.2 million and $68.9 million. Romney’s fortune was derived largely from his past career as chief of a private equity firm, Bain Capital Partners. He continued to receive what the filing termed a “passive profit share as a retired partner” of Bain, which in 2006 and early 2007 totaled between $7.1 million and $15.5 million. His own investments had been in a blind trust since he became Massachusetts governor in 2003.

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Some emergency service personnel who had worked at the site of New York City’s World Trade Center after it was destroyed in Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Aug. 9 criticized Giuliani for claiming that day to have been “at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers.” The workers expressed indignation at the comparison of his occasional appearances at the site with the nonstop labor of those sifting through the wreckage. Giuliani Aug. 10 said he had not been “trying to suggest a competition,” but expressing solidarity with the workers, and noting the fact that, like them, he had been exposed to potential health hazards at the area. Giuliani in his campaign pointed to his experience as mayor in the aftermath of the attacks as pertinent to his national security credentials. „ Democrats Attend Gay Forum. Six candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination Aug. 9 met at a forum sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC), a gay rights advocacy group, and broadcast on the gay-themed cable televi525

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sion network Logo. Panelists at the event questioned the candidates on their stances on issues such as same-sex marriage, and on their attitudes toward homosexuality in general. [See p. 508A2; 2003, p. 554A3] The front-running Democratic candidates said they opposed legalizing samesex marriage, although some emphasized that they supported granting same-sex couples rights equal to those enjoyed by married couples. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) said such an arrangement would represent “enormous progress”; Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed strong support for civil unions. Only Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (Alaska), both long-shot candidates, supported gay marriage. Clinton also said she favored repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy governing the presence of gays in the military, established under President Bill Clinton, her husband, although she defended the policy as intended to protect gay service members from a “witch hunt” that had prevailed before the policy. Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) denied a suggestion in a book by political consultant Robert Shrum that Edwards had once said he was “not comfortable” around gay people. He also expressed regret for having once said that his opposition to gay marriage stemmed from his religious faith, pledging to avoid imposing his beliefs on the nation, which he said President George W. Bush had done. Sens. Christopher Dodd (Conn.) and Joseph Biden (Del.) said that scheduling conflicts prevented them from attending. The HRC said no Republican candidates had accepted its offer to join the event. Other News—In other news about the Democratic race: † The executive council of the AFL-CIO labor federation Aug. 8 voted to refrain from endorsing a candidate for the Democratic nomination. There was reportedly little prospect of agreement on a single candidate by the required two-thirds of the group’s 55 member unions. The AFL-CIO, which had hosted a debate among the candidates the previous day, left it to its member unions to make their own individual endorsements if they wished. Union officials expressed broad satisfaction with the Democratic field as a whole. [See p. 508B3] † Clinton’s campaign had revised its reported fund-raising for the first quarter of the year downward by $400,000, to $25.6 million, it was reported Aug. 13. Clinton’s initial report had put her ahead of all other presidential candidates. But the new figures showed that she and Obama had raised roughly equal amounts. His total was also revised downward slightly, to $25.6 milion, from $25.7 million. The revisions accounted for such problems as mistaken multiple credit card charges, bounced checks and improper donations. [See p. 461E1] „ South

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2008, on Jan. 19, 2008. Amid a broader scramble by states to exert greater influence over the nomination process by holding their contests earlier, the move suggested the possibility that the primary season would begin as early as late 2007. [See p. 174B1] The traditional first primary state, New Hampshire, required by law that its primary be held at least a week before any other state’s. It was currently scheduled for Jan. 22. Iowa law specified that the state’s caucuses, currently planned for Jan. 14, be held at least a week before the New Hampshire primary. However, Iowa Gov. Chet Culver (D) Aug. 10 ruled out holding the caucuses earlier than January. New Hampshire officials had not yet announced a new primary date as of Aug. 16. South Carolina’s Democrats were scheduled to hold their primary Jan. 29. „

Fiscal 2008 Spending Bills House Approves Defense Funds. The House Aug. 5 approved, 395–13, an appropriations bill that would provide $459.6 billion in funding to the Defense Department for fiscal 2008, which would begin Oct. 1. The legislation allocated $3.5 billion less than President George W. Bush had requested in his fiscal 2008 budget, but would boost military spending by $39.7 billion over enacted spending for fiscal 2007. Democrats did not include an extra $147 billion in funding for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan requested by Bush. [See pp. 398A2, 76E1; 2006, p. 763B2] The House adjourned immediately after the vote for Congress’s August recess. The Senate was scheduled to consider the bill when it returned in September. Bush expressed concern over the legislation’s variations from his request, but had not threatened a veto. The legislation would fund a 3.5% pay raise for service members, up from the 3% raise proposed by the Bush administration. It also added $416 million to the $22.5 billion Bush had requested for defense health care, which paid for improvements in the Defense Department’s electronic medical records system and its coordination with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Democrats also eliminated an administration proposal to increase fees and premiums for service members. [See p. 479E2] Other increases in spending that would benefit defense personnel included an additional $1.3 billion for Army housing, child care and community facilities, and an additional $558 million for family counseling and advocacy programs. The budget would allocate $8.5 billion for building a missile defense network. That amount was $298 million less than the $8.8 billion requested by Bush, but $1 billion more than current spending. The cuts included a $139 million reduction from the $310 million requested to build missile defense sites in the Czech Republic and Poland, which had caused tensions with Russia. [See p. 459D1]

The bill maintained funding for most of the Defense Department’s major weapons systems in development, including the F22A Raptor fighter jet and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. However, it cut by 11% the budget for the Future Combat Systems, an array of high-technology innovations designed to modernize the Army. The legislation also included $6 billion for 12,000 additional soldiers and Marines, $1.1 billion for new Stryker armored vehicles and $925 million for equipment for the National Guard and Army Reserve. A measure in the bill would prevent the U.S. from building permanent military bases in Iraq. However, Democrats decided against taking up amendments that would have forced a withdrawal from Iraq after 60 days, enacted minimum training and equipment standards for troops before they were deployed, and closed the U.S. prison camp for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Democratic leaders said they would debate the allocation of funds for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in separate legislation in September. [See p. 521C1] „

Legislation House Seeks Japan Sex-Slave Apology.

The House in a voice vote July 30 approved a nonbinding resolution demanding that Japan issue a formal apology for forcing as many as 200,000 women in occupied Asian countries into sexual slavery during World War II. Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe earlier in the year had revived controversy over the issue when he asserted that there was no evidence that Japanese forces had forced the women, often referred to euphemistically in Japan as “comfort women,” into sexual servitude. [See p. 195F3] Abe later said he abided by previous Japanese acknowledgments of the military’s role in holding the women. However, Japan had never issued a formal apology backed by parliament, as was demanded by many victims and affected countries, including South Korea, China and the Philippines. Victims’ groups praised the House resolution, as did a spokesman for South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun. The spokesman July 31 urged Japan “to show a changed attitude.” Abe July 31 said that the resolution, which was an unusually sharp criticism of Japan from within the U.S. government, was “regrettable,” contending that Japan had already addressed the issue adequately. The resolution was sponsored by Rep. Mike Honda (D, Calif.). Another backer, Rep. Tom Lantos (D, Calif.), July 31 denounced what he called Japan’s efforts “to distort and deny history and play a game of blame the victim.” „ House Approves Housing Voucher Overhaul.

The House July 12 approved, 333–83, a bill that would reform the Section 8 low-income housing aid voucher program run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It authorized 100,000 new vouchers through 2012. It also directed HUD to calculate voucher aid based on FACTS ON FILE

the previous year’s data rather than older information, which Democrats and housing activists said unfairly reduced the amount of aid. Three Republican amendments aimed at limiting aid were rejected. The Bush administration said the bill would lead to “unsustainable” cost increases, but Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D, Mass.) cited a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate that it would save the government $20 billion over the next five years. [See p. 78F2] „

Consumer Affairs Mattel Recalls 18.6 Million Additional Toys.

Mattel Inc., the world’s largest toy company, Aug. 14 announced the recall of some 18.6 million Chinese-manufactured toys deemed unsafe to children. It was the largest recall in the company’s history. Roughly 436,000 of the recalled toys contained unsafe levels of lead paint. The remaining 18.2 million recalled toys had a design flaw that might allow children to remove small magnets which could be harmful if swallowed. Chinese manufacturers of the magnet-containing toys had followed Mattel’s design specifications. [See p. 511F1] A total of 63 types of toys with the magnet flaw had been made since 2002 and sold before January. The recall included toys sold under the brand names Polly Pocket, Doggie Day Care, Batman and Barbie. The other recalled toys, containing lead paint, were die-cast cars of the character Sarge from the 2006 animated film Cars. The announcement came two weeks after Mattel Aug. 1 recalled about 967,000 other Chinese-made toys with unsafe levels of lead paint. It was the latest in a slew of revelations regarding the potential danger of a variety of Chinese-produced goods that had been imported into the U.S., including food products, tires and toothpaste. The recall increased concerns that toy companies and other industries reliant on Chinese labor and manufacturing to produce their goods could not accurately determine the production standards used by their Chinese contractors and subcontractors. Mattel’s announcement also renewed calls for increased funding and greater regulatory power for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the federal agency charged with protecting consumers from unsafe products. CPSC acting Chairman Nancy Nord Aug. 14 said the agency was in the midst of talks with toy companies regarding expanded testing of toys imported to the U.S. Chinese Toymaker’s Suicide Reported—

The owner of a Chinese toy factory that made products recalled in Mattel’s Aug. 1 announcement Aug. 11 was found dead in a company warehouse in southern China, in an apparent suicide. The man, Zhang Shuhong, had owned the Hong Kong– based Lee Der Industrial Co., which had been contracted by Mattel to produce toys August 16, 2007

in China’s Guangdong province, the center of the Chinese toy manufacturing industry. Chinese authorities Aug. 9 had announced that Lee Der Industrial was prohibited from exporting its products as a result of the Mattel recall. Authorities also revoked the business license of Hansheng Wood Company, which had produced toys recalled in the U.S. by RC2 Corp. in June. It was unclear if Zhang’s death was related to the recall and its resulting loss of business for Lee Der Industrial, but the apparent suicide was viewed as indicative of increasing pressure on Chinese manufacturers by the Chinese government over quality problems. However, such businesses were frequently under competing pressures on Chinese suppliers to keep their prices low, thereby encouraging sometimes dangerous cost-cutting measures during production processes. China Sets More New Rules— Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao July 25 approved a slew of food, drug and health manufacturing regulations. The new policies instituted fines of up to $26,460 on manufacturers of products deemed unsafe by inspectors, and allowed company officials to be jailed or have their business licenses revoked. Since the recalls of Chinese goods had begun in early 2007, the Chinese government had both defended Chinese products as safe while promising to crack down on the production of dangerous goods. The new regulations came amid increasing pressure by U.S. and European Union authorities. Officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) July 31 had arrived in Beijing, China’s capital, to discuss improving the country’s food and drug safety. Zhao Baoqing, a senior Chinese trade official, Aug. 15 said his government was willing to examine every food shipment set for export to the U.S. to ensure quality and safety standards were met. Other Recall News—In related product recall news: † Chinese-produced vinyl baby bibs sold in Toys “R” Us stores in the U.S. were potentially contaminated with lead, the New York Times reported Aug. 15. According to the Times, the Center for Environmental Health advocacy group in the summer of 2007 had performed tests on the products revealing lead levels at three times the allowed amount. The Times reported that separate tests it had funded returned results indicating similar lead contamination levels. † Union, N.J.–based tire importer Foreign Tire Sales Inc. Aug. 9 announced that it would recall some 255,000 Chinesemanufactured truck tires. That was fewer than the 450,000 that the company had originally estimated might be affected. The faulty tires, produced by Hangzhou Zhonce Rubber Co. of China, lacked a gum strip that helped maintain the tire’s integrity. The tires had been sold between 2004 and 2006, and were intended for use in vans, pickup trucks and sport utility vehi„ cles (SUVs). [See p. 429A1]

Business Former CEO Guilty of Backdating Options.

A jury in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Calif., Aug. 7 convicted former Brocade Communications Systems Inc. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gregory Reyes on 10 counts related to the backdating of stock options. Reyes faced up to 20 years in prison; Judge Charles Breyer scheduled his sentencing for Nov. 21. Reyes’s attorney said Reyes would appeal the verdict. [See 2006, p. 630F2] Reyes, 44, was found guilty of defrauding Brocade investors between 2000 and 2004 by changing the grant date of stock options given to employees, and altering accounting documents to hide the practice. Stock options allowed employees to purchase shares of the company within a predetermined window of time, or grant date, and at a given price, normally the market price of a share on the grant date. If the stock price rose, employees could cash in the stock they held for a profit. By backdating, or falsely changing the grant date to an earlier date when the share price was lower, companies could inflate the value of the shares held by employees. Backdating came at the expense of outside investors, as it understated the costs the company was incurring. The practice of granting stock options to employees gained popularity during the socalled dot-com boom of the 1990s, when technology companies like Brocade were competing to hire and retain talented employees. While some executives had been accused of profiting from backdating practices, Reyes had never given himself backdated options. [See below] As many as 140 companies had come under federal investigation for questionable backdating practices. Sixteen former or current executives from eight companies had been indicted on criminal charges, seven of whom had already pleaded guilty. Stephanie Jensen, a former human resources executive at Brocade, was among those charged and was awaiting a trial date. A former executive of another company, Jacob Alexander, had fled to Namibia and was contesting a demand for his extradition to the U.S. [See below] The trial was closely observed by law firms and other companies facing similar cases, as Reyes’s case was the first time charges over backdating options had been brought to a criminal trial. Analysts predicted that his guilty verdict would lead the government to bring more backdating cases to trial. Reyes still faced civil charges brought against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Brocade May 31 agreed to settle backdating charges with the SEC, paying a fine of $7 million. Brocade was based in San Jose, Calif. Trial Hinges on CEO’s Intent—In opening statements June 18, Reyes’s attorney said his client had been unaware that he was committing an illegal act, and that he had relied on the expertise of his chief financial officer to ensure that the company was issuing accurate accounting state527

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ments. The prosecution that day contended that Reyes was fully aware of the illegality of the company’s backdating practices when he signed off on accounting statements. Backdating stock options was not necessarily illegal. As long as corporations filed accounting statements that recognized the practice, the value of backdated employee stocks could be treated as a company expense. Furthermore, backdating had been a common practice among technology corporations during the dot-com era, and until Reyes’s case no executive had been brought to trial for it. As a result, defense lawyers during the trial did not deny that backdating had occurred under Reyes’s watch. Rather, the defense focussed on proving that Reyes did not know that backdating was illegal, and did not know that accounting statements hid the backdating from investors. Prosecutors argued that Reyes and Jensen had conspired to hide the backdating from investors in order to please employees who were potentially sought by other companies. Former employees at Brocade’s human resources department testified that they had created false meeting minutes showing options had been granted at an earlier date than they actually had, and that Reyes had signed off on those minutes to be included in accounting statements. Additionally, prosecutors presented as evidence a 2004 e-mail written by Reyes to a board member in which he wrote, “It is illegal to backdate options grants.” The defense said the e-mail referred to other kinds of stock options unrelated to the case. In closing arguments July 26, the defense said that as CEO, Reyes was “entitled to rely” on financial officers working under him, and that he was not to blame for their mistakes. The defense also highlighted the fact that Reyes had not personally profited from any of the backdating practices. Prosecutors in closing arguments said Reyes “routinely falsified documents” and urged the jury to return a guilty verdict in order to preserve the “integrity” of financial markets. Breyer Aug. 3 denied a motion by the defense to dismiss the case. The motion argued that the prosecution had not presented enough evidence to suggest Reyes understood the accounting requirements of backdating stock options, a question that Breyer had openly mulled over during the trial. Other News—In other news related to companies and executives charged with illegally backdating stock options: † Jacob Alexander, former CEO of Comverse Technology Inc., Aug. 10 filed an application asking the Namibian High Court to deem it unconstitutional for a lower court judge to preside over his extradition hearing. Alexander had already succeeded in removing one judge from the hearing, and the hearing had been postponed nine times since Namibian police arrested him in September 2006. Alexander faced charges of fraud and money laundering in 528

the U.S. related to backdated stock options. [See 2006, p. 878F1] † The SEC July 25 charged former KLATencor Corp. CEO Kenneth Schroeder with fraud and other crimes for authorizing backdated stock options to himself and other employees. The SEC said Schroeder had earned millions of dollars through the scheme, and overstated the company’s income by $200 million. † The SEC July 12 charged Michael Shanahan Sr., former CEO of Engineered Support Systems Inc., and his son, Michael Shanahan Jr., a former board member at the company, with receiving undisclosed income from the company by way of an option backdating plan. Shanahan Sr. was accused of taking nearly $9 million from the company, while his son was accused of taking $380,000. † Mercury Interactive Corp. and the SEC May 31 reached a settlement over charges related to backdating. Mercury Interactive agreed to pay a $28 million fine. Four former Mercury executives were contesting civil backdating charges brought against them. [See 2006, p. 667A3] „ Cerberus Names New Chrysler CEO. Cerberus Capital Management LP Aug. 6 named Robert Nardelli to be the chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of Chrysler LLC, the car manufacturer based in Auburn Hills, Mich. Nardelli would replace Thomas LaSorda, who remained at the company as its president and vice chairman. Cerberus, a private equity firm based in New York City, was the majority owner of Chrysler after it acquired an 80% stake in the company in May from the German car company DaimlerChrysler AG. [See pp. 309E1, 16C3] Nardelli, 59, had worked at General Electric Co. for more than 30 years, eventually becoming one of its top executives. From 2000 to early 2007, he was the CEO of retailer Home Depot Inc. During his tenure at Home Depot, Nardelli helped the company double its sales and earnings, but failed to boost its stock prices, angering investors. He was forced to resign in January as investors took issue with what was seen as his exorbitant salary, which exceeded $124 million over six years of work. Nardelli received a $210 million severance package, further fueling investors’ ire. It was widely reported that Nardelli would receive a yearly salary of $1 at Chrysler, and any compensation he received would be dependent on the financial success of the company. At a press conference Aug. 6, Nardelli said he would keep a “laser focus” on the restructuring program already in place at Chrysler, which included eliminating 13,000 jobs, closing down a factory in Delaware and investing $3 billion in new fuelefficient engines. Chrysler had posted a $1.5 billion loss in 2006. Nardelli said LaSorda would be in charge of Chrysler’s ongoing contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.

Cerberus, DaimlerChrysler Seal Deal—

Cerberus and DaimlerChrysler Aug. 3 finalized the deal that would allow Cerberus to take a majority stake in Chrysler. Chrysler became the first of the “Big Three” U.S. automakers based in the Detroit, Mich., area to be owned by a privately held company. The deal had been in jeopardy after investment banks underwriting the sale were unable to sell $12 billion in debt to help finance the acquisition, as credit markets dried up in the wake of problems in the U.S. housing sector. The deal was completed through a debt-sharing arrangement: Cerberus took on $500 million of the debt, DaimlerChrysler took on $1.5 billion, and the banks, led by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., assumed the remaining $10 billion. [See p. 522A3]„ Qwest Names New Chief Executive. Qwest Communications International Inc., a telephone company based in Denver, Colo., Aug. 13 named Edward Mueller as its new chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman. Mueller, whose position would officially begin Aug. 17, replaced Richard Notebaert, who had announced his retirement in June. Notebaert had taken over as leader of the company in 2002 after thenCEO Joseph Nacchio resigned over an insider trading scandal. [See p. 400D3] Mueller, 60, was a veteran in the telecommunications industry, having served as CEO of Ameritech Corp., part of AT&T Inc., from 2000 to 2002. [See 1998, p. 319A1] Mueller was also CEO of retail chain Williams-Sonoma Inc. from 2003 to 2006. Notebaert, 59, had led Qwest through a troubled period in which the company had to relieve itself of billions of dollars in debt, and battle with shareholder lawsuits sparked by the insider trading scandal and alleged accounting malpractice at the company. Nacchio Given Six-Year Prison Term—

Judge Edward Nottingham of U.S. District Court in Denver, July 27 sentenced Nacchio to six years in federal prison. Nacchio had been convicted on 19 counts of insider trading in April. Nacchio, 58, was also required to pay a $19 million fine and relinquish $52 million that he had made off stock sales in 2001 when he knew Qwest was on the brink of a financial downturn. Nacchio was found guilty of keeping that information from shareholders and using it for his own financial benefit. Nottingham also denied Nacchio’s request to remain free on bail while his appeal was heard. „

Economy Trade Gap Shrank in June to $58.1 Billion.

The Commerce Department Aug. 14 reported that the Trade Deficit seasonally adjust(in billions) ed U.S. trade defi- June 2007 $58.14 cit in goods and Previous Month $59.16 $64.53 services for June Year Earlier was $58.1 billion, down from a revised $59.2 billion in May. [See p. 464B1] FACTS ON FILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE DATA Country/ Region China Japan Canada European Union Mexico NICs†

Deficit/Surplus* June 2007 May 2007 -21.16 -6.28 -5.77 -9.19

-20.02 -5.93 -5.19 -8.82

-6.39 .50

-5.87 -1.29

*Bilateral trade figures in billions of dollars unadjusted for seasonal variations. The data—except figures given for Canada—do not include revisions of month-earlier figures. †Newly industrialized countries—Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

Exports increased $2.0 billion, to $134.5 billion, in June, led by exports of industrial supplies and materials. Imports rose $900 million, to $192.7 billion, in June, most notably in the areas of automotive vehicles, parts and engines, and capital goods. June Bilateral Trade Data Reported—

The Commerce Department Aug. 14 also reported bilateral trade data for June. The numbers were not seasonally adjusted and contained merchandise-trade data only, with no revisions for the previous month except to the data for Canada. The June merchandise-trade deficit with China rose to $21.2 billion, from $20.0 billion the previous month. The deficit with Canada climbed to $5.8 billion, from a revised $5.2 billion in May. The gap with the European Union rose to $9.2 billion in June, from $8.8 billion the previous month. The gap with Japan also increased, to $6.3 billion, from $5.9 billion in May. „ Unemployment Rose to 4.6% in July. The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in July after seasonal adjustment, Unemployment from its June July 2007 4.6% level of 4.5%, Previous Month 4.5% Year Earlier 4.8% the Labor Department reported Aug. 3. An estimated 92,000 nonfarm jobs were created in July, a decrease from the revised 126,000 created in June. [See p. 463C3] 146.1 Million Jobs Held—According to a household survey, 146.1 million people held jobs in July, the Labor Department reported Aug. 3. The department counted 7.1 million people as unemployed. The department counted 367,000 workers as “discouraged” in July. Those workers were not looking for work because they believed that no jobs were available. They were not counted as part of the labor force. About 4.3 million people who sought fulltime employment were working part-time instead. The average manufacturing workweek was 41.3 hours in July, the same as in June, while factory workers’ overtime stayed the same at 4.2 hours. Average hourly wages for production workers rose six cents, to $17.45. August 16, 2007

The unemployment rate among whites in July was 4.2%, up slightly from 4.0%. The jobless rate for blacks was 8.0%, down from 8.5% the previous month. For Hispanics, who could be of any race, the rate rose by 0.2 percentage points in July, to 5.9%. For men aged 20 and over, July unemployment was 4.2%, up from 4.1%. For adult women, it also rose, to 4.1%, from 3.9%. The teenage jobless rate in July was 15.2%, down from 15.8% in June, while for black teenagers it was 26.5%, down from 31.2% in June. „ Producer Prices Rose 0.6% in July. Producer prices in July rose 0.6% after seasonal adjustment, according to the Labor Department’s Producer Price Index (PPI), released Aug. 14. The index tracked prices charged by manufacturers and producers of finished goods. It had fallen 0.2% in June. “Core” producer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food prices, increased 0.1%, compared with a 0.3% rise in June. Energy prices rose 2.5% in July, after a 1.1% decrease in June, and food prices fell 0.1%, after falling 0.8% the previous month. [See p. 464A2] The finished goods index, before seasonal adjustment, stood at 168.2% of its 1982 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982 would have cost $168.20 in July. Prices for intermediate—or partially processed—goods increased 0.6% in July, after a 0.5% gain in June. Prices for crude goods rose 1.2%, after a 0.3% rise the previous month. „

Space Mars Lander Launched. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aug. 4 launched an unmanned spacecraft that was to be the first to land on the planet Mars’s Arctic region. The craft, called the Phoenix Mars Lander, would collect samples of the ice and soil believed to lie just below the planet’s surface in that area. The samples were to be analyzed for the presence of organic compounds, believed to be necessary for the existence of life. [See 2006, p. 927A3] NASA had sent a lander to Mars’s southern polar region that arrived there in 1999, but it was lost as it descended to the planet’s surface. Phoenix was the successor to a previous lander mission canceled in 2001 after that failure and the loss of another Mars craft. Phoenix, launched atop a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., was scheduled to land on Mars in May 2008, for a threemonth mission. Other News—In other news about Mars missions: † Radar data from the European Space Agency’s orbiting Mars Express craft showed that the planet’s southern polar region contained large ice deposits, the journal Science reported on its Web site March 15. Scientists said the deposits were large enough to cover the entire planet with water 35 feet (11 m) deep.

† Scientists Feb. 15 said that photographs taken by another orbiting Mars craft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, showed evidence that liquid water had once flowed under the surface of the planet in the large canyon known as the Valles Marineris. Rock formations in the valley showed fractures and bleaching that were characteristic effects of the presence of water. The findings were published in the Feb. 16 edition of Science. „

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NASA Sets Probe of Drunkenness Reports.

Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) July 26 said the agency would investigate reports of heavy drinking by astronauts prior to space flight launches. Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine that day had reported on its Web site that the allegations were contained in an internal report on the agency’s supervision of astronauts’ physical and mental health, which NASA released the following day. [See p. 482A2] The internal NASA report described two alleged incidents that it said had not been confirmed, and were presented as items warranting further investigation rather than established facts. It described some details of the accounts, but did not name the astronauts said to be involved in the incidents, or when they occurred. In one case, an astronaut was said to have been intoxicated with alcohol prior to a planned space shuttle launch. The launch was postponed due to a mechanical problem, but the astronaut was also said to have been impaired when, later the same day, the crew members were to fly their training aircraft from Florida to Houston, Texas. In another, a crew member had been drinking before a voyage to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule. Some astronauts, including NASA flight crew operations director Ellen Ochoa, July 27 expressed surprise at the described events, saying they were inconsistent with their own experience of a strict preflight regimen. However, NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale said the allegations would be thoroughly investigated. NASA barred the consumption of alcohol within 12 hours of a space flight. However, the report said that “interviews with both flight surgeons and astronauts identified some episodes of heavy use of alcohol by astronauts in the immediate preflight period.” Col. Richard Bachmann Jr., who headed the panel that produced the report, July 27 said reports of the incidents to superiors had been “disregarded.” NASA Administrator Michael Griffin had requested the report after astronaut Lisa Nowak was arrested in February and charged with assault and attempted kidnapping in a confrontation with a romantic rival. „

Medicine & Health Boston Scientific Device Settlement Set.

Medical device manufacturer Boston Scientific Corp. July 13 said it would settle for $195 million all pending federal lawsuits 529

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filed against the company for allegations that its Guidant Corp. unit had hidden defects in its implantable heart devices. Boston, Mass.–based Boston Scientific in April 2006 had finalized its purchase of Guidant, thereby assuming liability related to its implantable cardiovascular devices. [See 2006, pp. 955A3, 549A3] Guidant in 2005 had acknowledged that its implantable defibrillators, which were designed to issue a charge to restart a stopped heart, had a defect that could cause the device to malfunction. The company the same year had recalled more than 100,000 implantable cardiovascular devices. Some 4,000 people had filed around 1,500 lawsuits alleging that Guidant executives had known about the implantable defibrillator defects long before the 2005 disclosure. „ Low Antidepressant Pregnancy Risk Found.

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Two groups of researchers reported in the June 28 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that they had found an increased, but small, risk of birth defects associated with the use of a class of antidepressant medications by pregnant women. The studies backed long-held claims by doctors that a type of antidepressant known as a selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) was not a major cause of physical deformity in newborns. [See 2006, pp. 979F1, 579B1] However, the research did not examine the potential behavioral effects on newborns of SSRI use by pregnant women. It also did not gather enough data to assess the risks associated with some rare birth defects. One of the studies, led by Sura Alwan of Canada’s University of British Columbia, found that SSRI use by mothers was linked to a small increased risk of anencephaly, or birth without a forebrain; craniosynostostis, a premature fusion of the skull; and omphalocele, when babies were born with some organs outside their bodies. The other study, led by Carol Louik of Boston University in Massachusetts, found a small increased risk of a rare heart defect in newborns whose mothers had taken SSRIs. „

Crime Oakland Newspaper Editor Killed. Chaun-

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cey Bailey Jr., editor of the weekly Oakland Post newspaper, Aug. 2 was shot and killed in downtown Oakland, Calif. Oakland police Aug. 6 said Devaughndre Broussard, 19, a handyman at a local Black Muslim organization, Your Black Muslim Bakery, had confessed to the killing, after he and six others were captured Aug. 3 in a police raid of the organization. The bakery was a well-known black nationalist institution in the city, but recently some of its members had been linked with criminal activities, including two kidnappings and two other murders. [See pp. 361E2, 349F3] Bailey, 57, had been writing a piece for the Post, Northern California’s largest black-run paper, on the bakery’s financial status just prior to his death. Oakland police alleged Aug. 10 that the shooting had been motivated by Broussard’s anger regarding the story. „ 530

AFRICA

South Africa Health Official’s Firing Sparks Protests.

South African President Thabo Mbeki Aug. 9 fired Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, a vocal advocate for reforming the country’s HIV/ AIDS policy. Madlala-Routledge had taken a lead role in promoting a comprehensive government anti-AIDS strategy. Her ouster prompted criticism from groups ranging from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) labor federation, which traditionally supported Mbeki’s African National Congress (ANC) government, to opposition parties, to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a powerful AIDS advocacy group. [See p. 146D2] South Africa had one of the highest number of citizens with HIV/AIDS in the world. After being slow to respond to the crisis initially, the government in December 2006 had unveiled a five-year plan to combat the disease. The plan included providing life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs to 80% of those who needed them. Madlala-Routledge’s role had grown after Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang took a leave of absence earlier in 2007 due to health problems, and received a liver transplant March 14. TshabalalaMsimang had previously sparked controversy among AIDS activists for her advocacy of garlic, beetroot and other folk remedies instead of scientifically proven drug treatments to fight the disease. Madlala-Routledge was ostensibly fired for traveling to Spain to attend an AIDS conference without Mbeki’s permission. However, it was rumored that she was actually fired for clashing with TshabalalaMsimang, who had returned to work in June. Madlala-Routledge had also reportedly drawn Mbeki’s ire for publicly criticizing the government’s past inaction on the AIDS crisis. The TAC Aug. 9 called the firing a “dreadful error of judgment that will harm public health care and especially the response to the HIV epidemic.” Cosatu praised Madlala-Routledge for having “completely transformed what’s happened on the ground” in dealing with the AIDS crisis. Madlala-Routledge Aug. 10 alleged that she had been dismissed because she had clashed with Tshabalala-Msimang over the country’s AIDS treatment policy. Mbeki the next day reportedly said she had been fired for insubordination. „ Mbeki Seeks to Remain ANC Leader.

South African President Thabo Mbeki June 30 indicated that he wanted to remain leader of the governing African National Congress (ANC) party after his term as the nation’s president ended in 2009. His remarks came at the end of an ANC policy conference that had begun June 27. [See 2006, pp. 881A2, 821F2] The ANC, South Africa’s dominant party, was set to hold leadership elections in December. Since the ANC took power at the

end of the apartheid era in 1994, the post of party leader and national president had been held by the same person. Mbeki’s remarks were seen as an indication that he would seek to retain political influence after leaving office at the end of his second term. (He was barred under the constitution from seeking a third term.) Others vying for the ANC presidency included former Deputy President Jacob Zuma, whom Mbeki had fired in 2005 over corruption and rape charges (he had since been cleared of those crimes), and wealthy politician Tokyo Sexwale, a former anti-apartheid activist. Mbeki had faced criticism from leftwing members of the ANC’s governing coalition in recent months, notably the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) labor federation, which had complained that the presidency had become too powerful under Mbeki, and objected to his pro-business policies. At the June 27–30 conference, the ANC moved toward limiting the powers of the president by voting to shift to the party the appointment of regional premiers and mayors. It also voted to require the president to consult the party leadership on cabinet appointments. [See pp. 530A2, 435D2] The ANC also declared that, while it would be preferable that the same person hold the positions of national and party president, it was not absolutely necessary. Zuma had reportedly sought to make it a requirement that the two positions be held by the same person. In a related development, the South African Communist Party, also a member of the ANC’s governing coalition, at the end of its party conference July 15 demoted three officials who were members of Mbeki’s cabinet. Two of the ministers—Ronnie Kasrils, minister of intelligence, and Jeff Radebe, minister of transport—were removed from the party’s central committee. The third, Charles Nqakula, minister for safety and security, was removed as party chairman. The moves were seen as further evidence of the left’s dissatisfaction with Mbeki’s policies. „ News in Brief. South African gold mining giant AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. July 31 announced that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Robert Godsell would retire, effective Sept. 30. The previous day, Ralph Havenstein, CEO of South Africa’s Anglo Platinum Ltd., the largest platinum producer in the world, announced his resignation, effective Aug. 30. Both companies were partly owned by British-based Anglo American PLC. Anglo American’s new CEO, Cynthia Carroll, reportedly was restructuring the company’s mining operations, and planned to sell Anglo American’s 42% stake in AngloGold in the next two years. Australian Mark Cutifani, the chief operating officer of Brazil’s Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA (CVRD), was named to replace Godsell; a search had been launched for Havenstein’s successor. [See 2003, p. 912E1] The South African government July 3 released statistics showing that violent crime had risen in the 12-month period through March 31. According to the statistics, murders were up 2.4%, to 19,202; carFACTS ON FILE

jackings increased 6%; and residential robberies rose 25.4%. Also, bank robberies more than doubled; robberies of businesses rose 52.5%; and robberies of armored cars were up 21.9%. However, rapes decreased 5.2%, and, overall, so-called contact crimes, such as rape and assault, fell 3.4%. The statistics prompted concern about potential crime during the 2010 soccer World Cup, which South Africa was to host. [See p. 98A1] „

JAIME RAZURI/AFP/Getty Images

AMERICAS

schools potentially damaged in the earthquake and mobilizing some 100,000 police officers. State doctors ended a strike they had called Aug. 15 in order to aid in emergency efforts. Garcia said the country had begun receiving aid from Spain, Mexico and Brazil, but that his government was attempting to transport more doctors and other help to the affected region. „

Argentina

Venezuela Linked to Cash Seizure. Argentine customs officials Aug. 4 discovered Peru Earthquake Kills Hundreds $790,550 in cash in the luggage of a Venezuelan businessman at an airport in Buenos Ica Region Hardest Hit, Hundreds Injured. An earthquake measuring 8.0 on the open- Aires, Argentina’s capital. The man, Guido ended Richter scale of ground motion Aug. Alejandro Antonini Wilson, had traveled to 15 struck an area about 90 miles (145 km) Buenos Aires aboard an airplane chartered southeast of Lima, Peru’s capital, at 6:40 by Argentine state-run energy company p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geo- Energia Argentina SA (Enarsa). Also logical Survey. The epicenter of the earth- aboard the flight were several employees quake was located just off Peru’s coast in of Venezuela’s state-run energy firm, Pethe Pacific Ocean. Civil defense authorities troleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), and a Aug. 16 said at least 500 people had been number of Argentine government officials. killed by the earthquake, though that figure [See p. 483E1] Argentine customs regulations required was expected to climb as searchers sifted carrying cash amounts exceedthrough rubble. At least 1,500 others had passengers $10,000 to declare the money, with a been injured in the quake. [See p. 468A2; ing 50% penalty levied on any undeclared 1996, p. 926C1] funds. Violating the regulation was a misThe southern department of Ica was demeanor. hardest hit by the disaster, with heavy casuThe discovery preceded an Aug. 6 visit alties suffered in Ica city, the department’s to Argentina by Venezuelan President capital, located some 165 miles south of Hugo Chavez Frias, and sparked rumors of Lima. Much of southwestern Peru had re- corruption involving one or both of the portedly lost water, power and electricity. Venezuelan and Argentine governments. The nearby port city of Pisco was also dev- The two Argentine officials on board the astated. Pisco Mayor Juan Mendoza Uribe flight had reportedly been in Caracas, VenAug. 16 estimated that 70% of the city had ezuela’s capital, in efforts to broker an enbeen reduced to rubble. Building collapses ergy deal with Chavez’s government. Anwere also reported in Lima, though they tonini Wilson had also reportedly been in were not as widespread there. Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, on Aug. 8, Peruvian officials the same day said at the same time as Chavez. some 300 aftershocks had been recorded, Some observers theorized that the the strongest measuring 6.0 on the Richter funds were a gift from Chavez intended to scale. Although a tsunami warning for the aid Argentine President Nestor Kirchner’s coastal areas of several countries, includ- wife, Senator Cristina Fernandez de ing Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Chile, Kirchner, in her October presidential elechad been issued soon after the earthquake, tion bid. only a harmless minor tsunami was detectChavez Aug. 6 said allegations that Aned, and the warning was short-lived. tonini Wilson had ties to his government Peruvian President Alan Garcia Aug. were “absolutely false.” He also said it was 16 declared a state of emergency, closing “the plan of the empire to disrupt our travels,” using a term that he reserved for the government of U.S. President George W. Bush, with whom he had an antagonistic relationship. Claudio Uberti, the chief of Argentina’s toll road authority and a passenger on the flight, Aug. 9 resigned as a result of the scandal. Planning Minister Julio De Vido said the government had requested Uberti’s resignation because he had allowed Antonini Wilson on the A street in Pisco, Peru, devastated in an Aug. 15 earthquake. flight. August 16, 2007

Argentine federal prosecutor Maria Luz Rivas Diez Aug. 14 said she had requested an arrest warrant for Antonini Wilson, who had reportedly left the country Aug. 5 for Uruguay. His current whereabouts were unknown. The revelations had threatened previously harmonious relations between Chavez and the Kirchner administration, which had demanded an explanation from Venezuela. The scandal was also the latest to plague Fernandez de Kirchner’s presidential bid; the election was set for Oct. 28. „

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Brazil Airport Authority Head Replaced. Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim Aug. 4 said Gen. Jose Carlos Pereira, the president of the national airports authority, would be replaced in the wake of the country’s worst air disaster. Jobim said Pereira would be replaced by the president of Brazil’s space agency, Sergio Mauricio Brito Gaudenzi. [See p. 483D2] The Brazilian defense ministry also oversaw civilian aviation in the country. Jobim in July had been named defense minister, less than two weeks after a TAM Linhas Aeras flight had crashed at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas Airport, killing 199 people. The crash had occurred less than 10 months after the country’s previous worst airplane accident, a September 2006 collision between a commercial airliner and a private business jet that killed 154 people. Transcripts from the TAM airplane’s flight recorder Aug. 1 were publicly released as part of a congressional investigation into the accident. The pilot of the plane was heard saying, “Only one reverser— spoiler nothing.” The copilot was then heard saying “Look at that. Slow down, slow down.” The pilot replied, “I can’t! I can’t!” as the copilot repeatedly said, “Turn!” The recordings bolstered theories that the accident had been caused by mechanical failure or a pilot error. Unidentified sources close to the investigation said they believed that pilot error had caused the crash, the Washington Post reported Aug. 1. Some analysts had previously theorized that a failure in the maintenance of the airport’s runway had contributed to the accident. Brazil’s airline industry had grown significantly in recent years with the advent of low-cost carriers, making air travel affordable to many Brazilians for the first time. However, some observers questioned whether the rapid growth had overburdened the country’s aviation system and the infrastructure that supported it. „

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Canada New Arar Documents Released. The Canadian government Aug. 9 released uncensored portions of a report on the 2002 deportation from the U.S. of Canadian national Maher Arar to Syria, where he was detained and tortured. Arar had been arrested in the U.S. on the basis of intelligence provided by Canada. The declassi531

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fied information showed that officials with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) believed the U.S. might deport Arar, who was born in Syria, to a country where he would be tortured. [See p. 66C2] The new documents also suggested that Canadian officials had relied on the confession of Ahmad El Maati, a Kuwaiti-born Canadian national, in investigating Arar. El Maati had been arrested and tortured in Syria in 2001. The newly released information also included the first public recognition that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had shared intelligence with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the matter. [See 2006, p. 980G3] A September 2006 report by a federally appointed commission which investigated Arar’s treatment had concluded that he had been erroneously linked to the international terrorist organization Al Qaeda, and falsely labeled an Islamic extremist. Several portions of that document had been censored by the government, which said it needed to preserve national security interests. However, a federal judge July 24 ruled that all but about 500 of the 1,500 words excised from the report should be released. According to the newly released information, CSIS Deputy Director Jack Hooper in a document dated Oct. 10, 2002, wrote, “I think the U.S. would like to get Arar to Jordan where they can have their way with him.” That document was written a day after Arar was taken to Jordan by the CIA; he was taken to Syria from there days later. However, Canadian intelligence agencies were not aware of the CIA’s actions at the time. It remained unclear who in the government at the time, led by Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien, was made aware of the CSIS’s concerns regarding Arar’s treatment. Several observers questioned the rationale of the current government, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, for arguing that the newly released information needed to be withheld. “The law is very clear that the government can only legitimately claim [as a state secret] material that could injure national security,” Paul Cavalluzzo, a lawyer who acted on behalf of the Arar commission, said. „

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U.S. Announces Visa Quota Shortfall. The U.S. State Department July 17 announced that it would not meet the annual quota of 20,000 visas issued to Cuban nationals, citing “unreasonable constraints” imposed by Cuba on U.S. diplomats in the country. The U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba’s capital, in an e-mailed statement said the Cuban government had failed to approve the hiring of 47 staff members and denied requests to import supplies and other materials. [See p. 498D3; 2006, p. 698D2] The Cuban Foreign Ministry in a statement issued that day said the U.S. had intentionally limited the number of visas issued in an effort to “give rise to a situation of instability.” Cuban Foreign Ministry official Josefina Vidal July 18 said the U.S.’s failure to process more visas would encourage Cubans to attempt to illegally enter the U.S. 532

The Cuban foreign ministry Aug. 8 said it had formally protested the visa shortfall, and rejected U.S. claims that Cuba had impeded the U.S. Interest Section’s business. “U.S. authorities deliberately lie,” Dagoberto Rodriguez, chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., said. The diplomatic quarrel had been sparked when Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, July 17 reported that the U.S. had approved 10,724 visas in the ninemonth period ending June 30. Under the terms of a 1994 bilateral agreement, the U.S. could issue up to 20,000 visas during a year-long period ending Sept. 30. The visas were intended to reduce the number of Cubans attempting to reach the U.S. by perilous illegal sea journeys. The 1994 agreement had also set out the terms for the U.S.’s “wet foot/dry foot” policy, which allowed Cubans who reached U.S. soil to remain in the country, while returning those interdicted at sea. „

Venezuela Chavez Proposes Eliminating Term Limits.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias Aug. 15 called for wide-ranging reforms to the country’s constitution, including the elimination of presidential term limits. Chavez delivered his remarks during a speech before the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. [See p. 484F2] Chavez proposed lengthening the president’s term to seven years, from its current six years. He also recommended that the government’s expropriation powers be expanded, that the Venezuelan workday be capped at six hours and that the president be allowed to designate military regions for “defense reasons.” He proposed that the government take control over the country’s central bank and its international reserves, and suggested that the country’s natural gas and coal industries also be nationalized. Chavez’s opponents criticized his remarks as an attempt to further consolidate his power. Chavez had first been elected in 1998, then reelected in 2000 and again in 2006. His current term was set to expire in 2012, and the constitution in its current form would prohibit him from running for president again. Since winning reelection in 2006, Chavez had called for a one-party nation and nationalized such key industries as oil, electricity and telecommunications. [See pp. 421D1, 351E3] Chavez planned to bring the proposed constitutional reforms before the public in the form of a referendum. However, critics of the plan said Chavez would likely bundle the elimination of term limits with other highly popular reform efforts, such as social programs for the poor. Critics also said that the reforms could potentially eliminate Chavez’s remaining political opposition at the local level, as political power would increasingly be shifted to local grass-roots organizations. (Chavez’s political allies already controlled all of the seats in the National Assembly.) „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

East Timor Gusmao Named Premier, Sparking Violence.

Newly elected East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta Aug. 6 selected former President Jose Alexandre (Xanana) Gusmao as premier. Gusmao’s appointment sparked violent protests by supporters of the Revolutionary Front for the Independence of East Timor (Fretilin), the previous ruling party. [See p. 352C2; 2002, p. 283A3] Fretilin had won 21 of parliament’s 65 seats, the most of any individual party, in elections held June 30. However, a coalition headed by Gusmao’s National Congress of East Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) carried a total of 37 seats, enough to form a government. Former Premier Mari Alkatiri of Fretilin Aug. 6 called Ramos-Horta’s decision to appoint Gusmao illegal, and claimed Fretilin should govern the nation because it won a plurality of votes. Alkatiri threatened legal action and a Fretilin boycott of parliament. In response to Gusmao’s appointment, angry youths Aug. 6–7 in Dili, the capital, set fire to a tax office and built barricades out of flaming tires before being overwhelmed by tear gas from security forces. About 3,000 police officers and peacekeepers under the auspices of the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) Aug. 7 were deployed to combat the violence, which had spread to the Fretilin-dominated areas of Baucau and Viqueque in the east of the country. The U.N. Aug. 11 confirmed that more than 140 homes in those areas had been burned. Some 4,000 people had been displaced by the violence as of Aug. 14. The scenes were reminiscent of factional violence in May and June 2006, in which at least 37 people had died before order was restored by international peacekeepers. [See 2006, p. 518G1] Gusmao was sworn in Aug. 8, but Fretilin boycotted the ceremony. The new premier had chosen dissident Fretilin member Jose Luis Guterres as deputy premier, along with a 12-member cabinet, it was reported Aug. 8. Fretilin Aug. 14 backed down from its previous threats against the Gusmao administration, and agreed that Fretilin would sit in opposition in the new parliament. However, Alkatiri continued to assert that the Gusmao government was illegitimate. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Poland Ruling Coalition Dissolved. Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Premier Jaroslaw Kaczynski, his twin brother, Aug. 13 announced the end of the ruling coalition between their Law and Justice Party (PiS) and two junior partners, the right-wing League of Polish Families and the leftwing Self-Defense Party. They announced FACTS ON FILE

the dismissal of four cabinet ministers belonging to those parties, and confirmed that because PiS was left in a minority government, elections would be held no later than November, two years ahead of schedule. [See p. 113D3] The dissolution of the coalition, and the early elections, had been seen as inevitable following the Aug. 8 dismissal of Interior Minister Janusz Kaczmarek. Jaroslaw Kaczynski accused Kaczmarek of leaking details of a corruption investigation of Andrzej Lepper, the Self Defense leader and former deputy premier. Lepper had been fired as agriculture minister and deputy premier July 9, raising tensions in the government, which had already been shaken by numerous ministerial resignations and firings. Kaczmarek, who had been interior minister since February, was replaced by Wladyslaw Stasiak, chief of the country’s National Security Bureau. Afterward, Lech Kaczynski Aug. 9 met with Donald Tusk, the leader of the opposition Civic Platform, for talks on plans for an election. In the Aug. 13 dismissals, PiS members were named to replace the League of Polish Families education and maritime economy ministers, and the Self-Defense labor and construction ministers. „ Convictions in ’81 Mine Protest Shootings.

A court in Katowice, in southern Poland, May 31 found 15 former riot policemen guilty in the December 1981 shooting deaths of nine miners protesting the imposition of martial law by Poland’s communist-era government. The defendants were given prison sentences ranging from two and a half years to the 11 years handed down to Romuald Cieslak, the chief of the police unit involved. [See 1997, p. 889G2] The shootings came as police sought to suppress a protest at the Wujek mine led by the Solidarity labor movement, which was outlawed with the imposition of martial law days earlier. It was the deadliest such incident in the 1981–83 period of martial law. Acquittals of the defendants, in 1997 and 2001, had been set aside by an appeals court. The new convictions were subject to possible appeal. Separately, the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal, May 11 declared unconstitutional parts of a law enacted earlier in the year that expanded the number of professions whose members were required to declare their past links to the communist-era secret police. The court said the law, by demanding such declarations from entire classes of people, violated constitutional guarantees of equality under the law. [See p. 183F1] „

Turkey Gul Renominated for Presidency. Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Aug. 13 said that it had again chosen Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as its candidate for the presidency. The party’s nomination of Gul in April had provoked a political crisis, when opposition members of parliament boycotted the presidential vote, contending that the AKP was seeking to end August 16, 2007

the secularist basis of Turkey’s modern government. The boycott prevented parliament from reaching the required quorum for the vote, but the AKP in July won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, giving it enough seats to push its chosen candidate through. [See p. 473A1] Gul, 56, Aug. 14 publicly confirmed his candidacy, insisting that “protection of secularism is one of my basic principles.” But Onur Oymen, deputy chairman of the secular opposition Republican People’s Party, Aug. 14 said that the AKP’s renomination of Gul “shows how determined they are to convert the modern secular Turkish state into a religion-based administration.” Although the presidency was largely ceremonial in Turkey’s political system, it was traditionally regarded as a powerful symbol of the secular order established in 1923. Gul Aug. 14 met with leaders of the farright Nationalist Action Party, which had also gained strength in the July elections and held 71 seats, and said they had pledged to ensure a quorum. If he did not win two-thirds, or 367, of the parliament’s 550 votes by a second round of voting, the election would be put to a simple majority vote, which Gul would be poised to win, as the AKP controlled 341 seats. The first vote was scheduled for Aug. 20. „

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Iran U.S. Set to Declare Guards Terrorist Group.

Senior U.S. officials had said the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush was planning to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group, it was reported Aug. 14. The move would indicate that the administration was adopting a more confrontational posture toward Iran over its nuclear program and its allegedly destabilizing influence in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East. The officials said the White House wanted to finalize the designation before the United Nations General Assembly in September. [See pp. 516E3, 469E3] The Revolutionary Guard was thought to be the largest branch of Iran’s military, with an estimated 125,000 members, and had its own ground, air, naval and special forces rivaling the country’s regular armed forces. In addition, it allegedly had a hand in numerous business enterprises throughout the country, as well as significant smuggling operations. The U.S. had accused the Revolutionary Guard of providing arms, funds and training to Shiite insurgents in Iraq, Taliban rebels in Afghanistan and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The designation would come under an executive order, signed by Bush shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., that authorized the government to label terrorist groups and individuals. The order allowed the U.S. government to block designated terrorists’ assets and disrupt foreign business activity with them. The U.S. had long labeled Iran a supporter of terrorism. However, the Revolutionary Guard would be the first military

branch of a nation, as opposed to a nonstate group, to be designated under the order. Officials had reportedly debated whether to designate as a terrorist group the entire Revolutionary Guard or just the elite Quds Force, which was the branch accused of involvement in Iraq. Despite the initial decision to include the entire Revolutionary Guard, the issue was reportedly still under discussion. The final decision had to be ratified by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Designation Meant to Press Sanctions—

Unidentified U.S. officials cited in the Aug. 14 news reports said the terrorist designation was in part meant to pressure the U.N. Security Council to adopt a strict sanctions package against Iran, the passage of which was currently stalled. Officials in talks with foreign governments had indicated that the designation could be stopped if the Security Council moved quickly to pass the sanctions. According to European diplomats, Rice had warned that delays could lead to unilateral U.S. action. The decision was also seen as a sign of the influence of Vice President Dick Cheney and other hawks in the Bush administration who were pushing for greater consideration of military options against Iran, as opposed to Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others who favored diplomacy. Bush in a speech Aug. 9 had seemingly signaled the administration’s tougher stance. Speaking about the Revolutionary Guard’s alleged aid to Iraqi militants, he said, “When we catch you playing a nonconstructive role, there will be a price to pay.” He also told the Iranian people, “You can do better than this current government. You don’t have to be isolated. You don’t have to be in a position where you can’t realize your full economic potential.” State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack Aug. 15 said, “We are confronting Iranian behavior across a variety of different fronts, on a number of different ‘battlefields,’ if you will.” The word “battlefields” was reportedly interpreted by some European diplomats to indicate a more belligerent U.S. attitude toward Iran. Some U.S. lawmakers also cautioned Bush against the prospect of military action against Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, Aug. 14 denied that his country was arming the Taliban and said he was “fully supporting” Afghanistan’s government. Afghan President Hamid Karzai also downplayed talk of disputes between the two countries. [See p. 518B1] Iran’s commander in chief, Rahim Safavi, in an Aug. 15 speech did not refer directly to the report, but warned, “Our coast-tosea missile systems can now reach the breadth and length of the [Persian] Gulf and Oman Sea and no warships can pass in the Gulf without being in range of our coast-tosea missiles.” U.S. battleships had conducted war games in the Persian Gulf in the past. Iranian politicians across the political spectrum that day said the U.S. move would only increase tensions between the two countries. „ 533

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Afghanistan Peace Summit With Pakistan Held. Approximately 650 delegates from Pakistan and Afghanistan Aug. 9–12 attended a peace jirga, or tribal assembly, in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. The purpose of the summit was to improve relations between the two countries and encourage cooperation to stem Islamic extremist violence. The delegates were composed of government officials and tribal elders from both countries. [See p. 518B1] Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf joined the meeting Aug. 12, and in a closing ceremony that day admitted that Islamic militants in Pakistan’s border regions had supported a Taliban insurgency fighting the Afghan government. Musharraf also acknowledged that Taliban insurgents used Pakistani border regions as safe havens from which to conduct attacks against the Afghan army and its U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, which sought to quell the insurgency. Musharraf’s remarks were welcomed by the delegates, as the two countries had often exchanged bitter barbs in the past. Afghan President Hamid Karzai had long maintained that the Pakistani government was not doing enough to stop insurgents from entering Afghanistan through their shared border. Pakistani officials had claimed that the insurgency in Afghanistan was an internal problem caused by the Afghan government’s inability to bring the nation together. Musharraf also dismissed allegations that Pakistan had purposely tried to destabilize the Afghan government by supporting extremists. He said it was in Pakistan’s interests to have a stable neighbor, and that his country would never adopt a policy that was so “shortsighted.” Musharraf had initially pulled out of the jirga a day before it commenced. He remained in Pakistan to conduct a meeting with high-level officials Aug. 9 to decide whether he should impose emergency rule over Pakistan, after Islamic extremist violence had rocked the country and a prodemocracy movement had called for his ouster. Pakistani news outlets, officials and foreign diplomats, including, reportedly, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, pressured him to continue with elections scheduled for October. [See p. 501C1, G1] The jirga ended with a declaration from all the delegates in which they pledged to conduct an “extended, tireless and persistent campaign against terrorism,” and promised to ban havens or training camps for militants in their territories. The practical significance of the jirga was somewhat undermined by the absence of tribal elders from North and South Waziristan, Pakistani regions that bordered Afghanistan and were known to harbor Islamic extremists. Pakistan’s largest proTaliban religious party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, also did not attend the summit. 534

Two South Korean Hostages Freed—

The Taliban Aug. 13 released two South Korean women who had been held hostage since July, when insurgents kidnapped 23 South Korean aid workers traveling on a highway from Kabul to Kandahar province in the south. The Taliban had previously killed two male hostages. [See p. 518C2] A man claiming to be a Taliban spokesman said the hostages were released as a “gesture of goodwill.” Two Taliban commanders had been negotiating directly with a delegation of South Korean officials since Aug. 10 at a Red Cross office in Ghazni province, where the hostages were being held. The Taliban held to its previous demand that the Afghan government release Taliban prisoners from jail in exchange for the remaining South Koreans’ release. South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun hailed the prisoners’ release. Roh had been under great pressure from his country to rescue the remaining hostages. Afghan officials claimed that the South Korean government had held them back from conducting two military operations that could have ended the hostage situation, for fear of provoking more South Korean casualties. Afghan officials maintained that they would not release any Taliban prisoners in exchange for the hostages. Shortly after the South Koreans’ release, a man who identified himself as one of two German engineers also taken hostage in July was allowed by his kidnappers to speak to reporters over the phone. He said he needed medical assistance and asked the German government to secure his release. His kidnappers had demanded the withdrawal of all 3,000 German troops in the NATO-led force in Afghanistan. The other German engineer had been found dead in July. [See p. 486D3] Violence Reports—Among the major incidents of violence across Afghanistan Aug. 3–16: † Afghan army and U.S. forces Aug. 15 launched a large assault against Taliban insurgents and members of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda in Tora Bora, a region in eastern Afghanistan. The assault deployed air and ground forces. Local government officials said 50 militants and 30 civilians had been killed as of Aug. 16. U.S. officials did not report any civilian casualties and said they were not targeting any civilian villages. A roadside bomb Aug. 12 killed three coalition soldiers near Tora Bora. [See 2005, p. 261D2] † A roadside bomb near Kabul Aug. 15 killed three German police officers and wounded one as they were driving to a firing range. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Later that day, a British man working for private security firm ArmorGroup was shot dead in Kabul. An ArmorGroup spokesman said Afghan police were investigating the killing. † A roadside bomb Aug. 12 killed three U.S. soldiers and their interpreter in Nangarhar province, in eastern Afghanistan. The previous day, a British soldier had been killed in an attack in southern Afghanistan.

† U.S. officials Aug. 3 said its forces had carried out an air strike on two Taliban commanders in Baghran district of Helmand province in the south, but could not confirm they were dead. The officials said U.S. forces had used “precision-guided munitions” to target the “notorious” commanders, and that there were “no innocent Afghans in the surrounding area.” Local officials said 18 civilians had been injured in the strike, including an eightyear-old boy. The commanders had been watching a public execution of men accused of spying for the U.S. when the strike occurred. † The Associated Press (AP) Aug. 13 reported that more than 3,700 people had died thus far in 2007 in violence related to the insurgency, according to casualty numbers made available by U.S., NATO and Afghan officials. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Woods Wins PGA Championship Claims 13th Major Title. Tiger

Woods of the U.S. Aug. 12 won the 89th Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championship at the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. With the victory, Woods, 31, captured the 13th major championship title of his career, the second-most of all time. Only Jack Nicklaus had more, with 18. It was Woods’s fourth PGA title, and his second in a row. [See 2006, p. 671E1] Woods shot a four-round total of 272, eight under par, on the par-70 course. In the second round Aug. 10, he had shot a 63, tying the record for the best one-round score in a major. Woods held a three-shot lead after the third round; he had never lost after being either in the lead or tied going into the final round of a major. Journeyman Woody Austin of the U.S. finished second, at six under, and Ernie Els of South Africa was third, at five under. Woods earned $1.26 million in prize money. The tournament was played in searing heat; the temperature reached 102° Fahrenheit (39° Celsius) in the final round. The victory was Woods’s first since his wife, Elin Woods, gave birth to the couple’s first child, daughter Sam Alexis, June 18. Watson Wins Senior British Open—

Tom Watson of the U.S. July 29 won the Senior British Open, the third major tournament of the year on the Champions Tour, at the Muirfield course in Gullane, Scotland. Watson shot an even-par 284 to win the tournament for the third time in five years. Mark O’Meara of the U.S. and Stewart Ginn of Australia tied for second, at one over par. Watson earned about $324,500 for the victory. [See 2006, p. 655D2] Bryant Wins U.S. Senior Open—Brad Bryant of the U.S. July 8 won the U.S. Senior Open, the second major of the year on the Champions Tour, at Whistling Straits golf course in Haven, Wis. He shot a four-under 68 in the final round to overcome a five-shot deficit to Watson, who shot a 78 that day. Bryant finished with a 282, six under par. Ben Crenshaw of the U.S. was second, three FACTS ON FILE

strokes back, and Loren Roberts of the U.S. was third, at two under. Bryant collected $470,000 for the win. [See 2006, p. 603C3] Other News—In other golf news: † Woods Aug. 5 won the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, for the third consecutive year. He shot an eight-underpar 272, and earned $1.35 million for the victory. [See 2006, p. 756B1] † Jim Furyk of the U.S. July 29 won the Canadian Open in Markham, Ontario, for the second year in a row. He shot a 16-under-par 268—including a hole in one on the fourth hole in the final round—and collected $900,000 in prize money. [See 2006, p. 756E1] † Joe Ogilvie of the U.S. July 22 won the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee, Wis., for his first victory on the PGA Tour. He shot a 14-under-par 266, and earned a $720,000 winner’s check. [See 2006, p. 655E2] † Legendary Spanish golfer Seve Ballesteros July 16 announced his retirement. Ballesteros, 50, had won five major titles and a record 50 events on the European Tour in his career. He also helped the European Ryder Cup team turn around its fortunes against the U.S., playing on winning teams in 1985, 1987, 1989 and 1995, and captaining the winning team in 1997. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1999. [See 1997, p. 719G2; 1988, p. 547F2] † Jonathan Byrd of the U.S. July 15 won the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Ill. He shot a 266, 18 under par, and earned $738,000 in prize money. [See 2006, p. 603B3] † K.J. Choi of South Korea July 8 won the inaugural AT&T National tournament, played at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. The tournament was hosted by Woods’s foundation, the Tiger Woods Charity Event Corp., and attracted large crowds. Choi shot a nine-under-par 271, and earned $1.08 million for the victory. Woods finished tied for sixth, at two under. † Brian Bateman of the U.S. July 1 won the Buick Open in Grand Blanc, Mich., to claim his first PGA Tour title. He shot a 15under-par 273, and earned $882,000 in prize money. [See 2006, p. 655B2] † Hunter Mahan of the U.S. June 24 won the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn., for his first victory on the PGA Tour. Mahan and Jay Williamson of the U.S. were tied at 265, 15 under par, at the end of regulation play. Mahan birdied the first playoff hole to claim victory and the $1.08 million winner’s check. [See 2006, p. 603D3] „

mation to professional gamblers, had rocked the NBA when it was first made public in July. [See p. 502F3] Donaghy, who had worked as an NBA official for 13 years until he resigned in July due to the scandal, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to transmit wagering information across state lines. As part of his plea deal, he agreed to pay at least $30,000 in restitution. Donaghy was released on $250,000 bond, and surrendered his passport to the court. He faced up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine; sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 9. Donaghy admitted in court that he had bet on NBA games—some of which he officiated—for four years. He also told the presiding judge, Carol Bagley Amon, that between December 2006 and April 2007 he had advised two professional gamblers, Thomas Martino and James Battista, on how to bet on certain games, and received payments ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 for correct picks. In doing so, he used insider information that was available to him as an NBA official, such as which officials were assigned to games, whether those officials had bad relationships with players on the teams involved, and information on player injuries. The information was provided over the telephone, usually through the use of coded language. Donaghy told the judge he had been in a “unique position to predict the outcome of NBA games.” Donaghy also acknowledged in court that he was being treated for a gambling addiction, and that he was taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication. His lawyer, John Lauro, told reporters that his client’s actions were the result of the addiction. Martino, 41, and Battista, 42, Aug. 15 were arraigned as Donaghy’s co-conspirators. They did not enter pleas that day. Donaghy was not charged in relation to allegations that had arisen earlier in the investigation that he had been involved in point shaving or game fixing. However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was reportedly still probing that issue. NBA Commissioner David Stern Aug. 15 said in a statement on the league Web site, “We will continue with our ongoing and thorough review of the league’s officiating program to ensure that the best possible policies and procedures are in place to protect the integrity of our game.” „

Basketball

Obesity Trends Linked to Social Networks.

NBA Referee Pleads Guilty in Betting Scandal.

Former National Basketball Association (NBA) referee Tim Donaghy Aug. 15 pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in New York City to two conspiracy charges related to a betting scandal. The scandal, which involved Donaghy betting on games he officiated and providing insider inforAugust 16, 2007

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Medical Research A team of researchers reported in the July 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that social relationships appeared to contribute to the incidence of obesity. The scientists found that the weight gain of one member in a spousal, sibling or friendly relationship had a significant impact on the other member’s chances of gaining weight. [See p. 419A3; 2006, p. 412E1]

The researchers found that when one spouse was obese, that person’s partner was 37% more likely to become obese within the next two to four years. If a man became obese, his brother’s risk of also doing so increased by 40%, according to the study. The researchers also found that a person’s chance of becoming obese increased by 57% when a friend suffered from obesity. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass., who led the research, said one possible explanation for the data was that a person’s perception of what was considered overweight was affected by those with whom they had close relationships. The scientists had examined data on the weight gain between 1971 and 2003 of 12,067 people enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study, a large federally funded study that tracked the health of residents of Framingham, Mass., over a period of several decades. „ Electrical Current Aids Brain-Damaged Man.

A team of scientists reported in the Aug. 2 issue of the journal Nature that a severely brain-damaged man treated with pulses of electrical current regained some measure of his ability to communicate and move. The unidentified 38-year-old man had remained in a barely conscious state without talking for more than five years after suffering severe brain trauma sustained during a mugging. [See 2006, p. 896F1] Surgeons had inserted two wires deep into the man’s brain, then connected them to a pacemaker-like device implanted under his collarbone. The device issued electrical pulses designed to stimulate the thalamus, a portion of the brain known to play a role in supporting consciousness. The treatment, known as deep-brain stimulation, had previously been used to treat Parkinson’s disease. After receiving the treatment, the man was able to open his eyes for extended periods of time and provide one- or two-word answers during conversations. The man also regained his ability to eat and drink under his own power. The research had been led by Nicholas Schiff of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and Joseph Giacino of the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison, N.J. „ FDA Halts Gene Therapy Study. Officials with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) July 26 said a patient in a gene therapy experiment designed to treat arthritis had died July 24. Targeted Genetics Corp., the Seattle, Wash.–based company conducting the gene therapy, July 20 had notified the FDA that the patient had experienced a “serious adverse event,” a designation indicating a life-threatening condition. The FDA immediately halted the experiment, but the man died four days later. [See 2006, p. 732D1; 2000, p. 993C1] FDA officials said they were investigating the experiment to see if the gene therapy treatment had contributed to the woman’s death. Gene therapy was a relatively new field of medicine in which viruses were used to 535

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introduce specially designed genes to patients. The field, believed to hold significant promise, had suffered numerous setbacks since the 1999 death of a teenager enrolled in a gene therapy experiment. „

nounced July 23, would join CNN Sept. 1, but had signed an exit agreement with NBC that would keep her off-camera until Nov. 1. [See 2001, p. 736E2] „

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Absolute Beginners. Drama based on a 1959 novel by Colin MacInness about changing race relations and the evolution of youth culture in 1950s London; a film musical drawn from the novel came out in 1986. Adapted by Roy Williams, with music by Soweto Kinch. Directed by Liam Steel. With Sid Mitchell, Joanne Matthews and Micah Balfour. In London, at the Lyric Hammersmith. May 3. [See 1986, p. 368F1] Horizon. Theatrical tribute to Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971), widely regarded as the foremost U.S. religious philosopher of his time. Created, written and composed by Rinde Eckert. Directed by David Schweizer. With Eckert, David Barlow and Howard Swain. In New York City, at the New York Theater Workshop. June 5. [See 1971, p. 704E3] Passing Strange. Rock musical about a young black musician from Los Angeles seeking artistic fulfillment in Europe. Book and lyrics by Stew; music by Stew and Heidi Rodenwald. Directed by, and created in collaboration with, Annie Dorsen. With Stew, Danny Breaker, Eisa Davis and Colman Domingo. In New York City, at the Joseph Papp Public Theater’s Anspacher Theater. May 14. Rafta, Rafta. Reworking of a 1961 British comedy about newlyweds having trouble consummating their marriage; in this version, the couple has South Asian roots. By Ayub Khan-Din, based on Bill Naughton’s play All in Good Time. Directed by Nicholas Hytner. With Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi, Ronny Jhutti, Meera Syal and Harish Patel. In London, at the Royal National Theatre’s Lyttelton Theatre. April 26. [See 1965, p. 165F3] Vernon God Little. Adaptation of a satirical novel about a Texas boy wrongly suspected of being involved in a high-school massacre. Adapted by Tanya Roder from the novel by DBC Pierre. Directed by Rufus Norris. With Colin Morgan, Mark Lockyer, Joanna Scanlan and Lorraine Bruce. In London, at the Young Vic. May 8. [See 2003, pp. 843E3–844A1] Yellow Face. A Chinese American playwright’s life is complicated by his ties to a white actor passing for Asian, at a time when the playwright’s father, a banker, is implicated in a money-laundering scandal. By David Henry Hwang. Directed by Leigh Silverman. With Hoon Lee, Peter Scanavino and Tzi Ma. In Los Angeles, at the Mark Taper Forum. May 20. „

People Longtime talk-show host Don Imus, 67, who in April had been fired by CBS Radio after making a demeaning remark about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, had settled his differences with CBS over his firing, it was announced Aug. 14. Terms of the settlement, which averted a threatened $120 million breach-of-contract lawsuit by Imus, were not disclosed, but it reportedly set the stage for his possible return to the airwaves as the host of a show on another network. Meanwhile, that same day, Kia Vaughn, 20, one of the members of the basketball team slighted by Imus, filed a lawsuit in New York City against both Imus and CBS accusing them of slander and defamation of character. [See p. 222F3] Television newswoman Paula Zahn, 51, Aug. 2 ended her association with cable channel CNN, where she had been hosting a prime-time news show since 2003. She had previously hosted a morning news show for CNN for two years. CNN replaced Zahn with Campbell Brown, 39, whom CNN had lured away from NBC, where she had been a weekend morning host and a substitute anchor on the evening news broadcast. Brown, whose hiring by CNN was an536

ASTOR, Brooke (born Roberta Brooke Russell),

105, New York City socialite, philanthropist and author; as administrator of a foundation created by and named after her third husband, Vincent Astor—heir to a fur-trading and real-estate fortune—she gave away nearly $200 million between 1959 (the year he died, six years after they got married) and 1997, when she closed the foundation down; much of the money went to major New York institutions such as the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but a lot also went to neighborhood groups throughout the city; for her benevolence, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998; her writings included magazine articles, two novels and two poetry collections; after turning 100, she gradually withdrew from the limelight, but was thrust back into it in 2006, when a bitter custody battle led to her only son, Anthony Marshall, being removed as her legal guardian; born March 30, 1902, in Portsmouth, N.H.; died Aug. 13 at her estate in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., of pneumonia. [See 2006, pp. 847A3, 604F2; 1998, p. 1001C3; 1996, p. 1016E2; 1959, p. 48E1] FLOWERS, Richmond McDavid, 88, Alabama attorney general, 1963–67, who opposed the segregationist policies of George Wallace during Wallace’s first term as governor; he challenged Wallace’s wife, Lurleen Wallace, in the state’s 1966 Democratic gubernatorial primary, which she won easily; in 1969, he was convicted of conspiring to extort payments from companies seeking to do business in Alabama, despite claiming to have been framed on account of his antisegregationism; paroled in 1974 after serving more than two years in federal prison, he was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter in 1978; born Nov. 11, 1918, in Dothan, Ala.; died Aug. 9 at his Dothan home, of Parkinson’s disease. [See 1973, p. 812B3; 1970, p. 84B2; Indexes 1968, 1965–66] GABLER, Norma

(born

Norma

Elizabeth

Rhodes), 84, founder with her husband, Mel Gabler, of a nonprofit textbook-criticism enterprise, Educational Research Analysts, that for decades was instrumental in tilting the textbook-selection process in Texas, a crucial market for U.S. educational publishing as a whole, toward the conservative end of the political and social spectrum; they were married from 1942 until his death in 2004; born June 16, 1923, in Garrett, Texas; died July 22 at an assisted-living facility in Phoenix, Ariz., from complications of Parkinson’s disease. [See 1984, p. 322F2; 1982, p. 194G2] GRIFFIN, Merv (Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr.), 82, onetime big-band singer who became one of Hollywood’s wealthiest entrepreneurs; he created and produced the long-running television game shows “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” and hosted the daytime syndicated TV talk show “The Merv Griffin Show” from 1965 to 1986; he was also involved in other television production ventures, and owned radio stations, hotels, casinos and racehorses; the issue of his sexuality came to the fore in 1991, when two men filed lawsuits against him, one seeking $200 million in palimony and the other alleging sexual harassment; both suits were eventually dismissed; born July 6, 1925, in San Mateo, Calif.; died Aug. 12 at a hospital in Los Angeles, of cancer; he had been treated for prostate cancer in the 1990s and had recently been hospitalized after a recurrence of the disease. [See 1996, p. 904A3; 1991, p. 292F2; Indexes 1988–89] HAZLEWOOD, (Barton) Lee, 78, singer, songwriter and record producer; his most famous song, “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” was a huge 1966 hit for singer Nancy Sinatra; he was regarded as a pioneer of such hybrid genres as country rock and “cowboy psychedelia”; born July 9, 1929, in Mannford, Okla.; died Aug. 4 at his home in Henderson, Nev., of kidney cancer. [See 1993, p. 240G1] HILBERG, Raul, 81, historian who was the author of a landmark work in the field of Holocaust studies, The Destruction of the European Jews (1961); he taught at the University of Vermont for many years; born June 2, 1926, in Vienna, Austria; died Aug. 4 at a hospital in Williston, Vt., of lung cancer. HILL, Oliver (born Oliver White), 100, civil rights lawyer who played a key role in a Virginia case later incorporated into Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that desegregated U.S. public schools; that legal victory came six years after

he won a city council seat in Richmond, Va., the first black to do so since Reconstruction; he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999; born May 1, 1907, in Richmond; died Aug. 5 at his Richmond home; he had had a heart ailment. [See 1999, p. 620B2; 1954, p. 163C1; Indexes 1952, 1948] KIRKALDY, Irene Morgan, 90, black plaintiff in a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case, Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, in which the court outlawed segregation in interstate travel; the case arose from her refusal, during a 1944 bus trip between Gloucester, Va., and Baltimore, Md., to surrender her seat to a white passenger; born April 9, 1917, in Baltimore; died Aug. 10 at her home in Gloucester, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. [See 1946, p. 180H] KOSHLAND Jr., Daniel Edward, 87, molecular biologist who early in his career established that enzymes could change shape as they interacted with various molecules, overthrowing a 100-year-old theory that ruled out such a possibility; at the University of California at Berkeley, where he taught for many years, he revamped the biology department; from 1985 to 1995, he edited Science, the weekly journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; an heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. jeans fortune, he donated millions of dollars in support of science education; born March 30, 1920, in New York City; died July 23 at a hospital in Walnut Creek, Calif., after a massive stroke. [See 1998, p. 704D1; 1995, p. 160C3] MAKEM, Tommy (Thomas James), 74, Irish singer and songwriter who in the 1950s and 1960s helped popularize Irish folk music worldwide by performing with the trio known as the Clancy Brothers; from 1975 to 1988, he and one of the brothers, Liam Clancy, performed as a duo; the other two brothers, Tom and Paddy Clancy, died in 1990 and 1998, respectively; born Nov. 4, 1932, in Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland; died Aug. 1 at his home in Dover, N.H., from complications of lung cancer. [See 1998, p. 883B3; 1990, p. 844C3] RIZZUTO, Phil (born Fiero Francis Rizzuto), 89, shortstop for Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees for 13 seasons between 1941 and 1956 (with three years taken off for U.S. Navy service during World War II) who was renowned for his defensive skills, and base-running and bunting ability; nicknamed Scooter for his small size and agility, he was a mainstay of teams that won eight World Series championships, including five in a row from 1949 through 1953; after retiring as a player, he was a Yankees television broadcaster from 1957 to 1996, known for his often rambling commentary and frequent use of the phrase “Holy cow!”; the Veterans Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame voted to induct him into the hall in 1994; born Sept. 25, 1916, in New York City; died Aug. 13 at a nursing home in West Orange N.J., of pneumonia. [See 2005, p. 771F3; 1994, p. 174G1; Indexes 1955–56, 1950–52] ROBERTO, Holden Alvaro, 84, African liberation movement leader; he founded Angola’s first nationalist movement in 1956, when Angola was a Portuguese colony, and transformed it into the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) in 1962; in 1975, he and the leaders of two other Angolan political factions signed peace accords with Portugal that led to Angola’s independence later that year; the FNLA, however, was soon defeated in the ensuing power struggle, which escalated into a 27-year-long civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives; born Jan. 12, 1923, in Sao Salvador (now Mbanza Congo), Angola; died Aug. 2 at his home in Luanda, Angola, of heart failure. [See 1992, p. 799C2; 1986, p. 709D2; Indexes 1972–77, 1969, 1966, 1961–64] SERRAULT, Michel, 79, French actor best known internationally for his performance as a flamboyantly gay nightclub performer in the original film version of La Cage aux Folles (1978); he originated the role in a long-running Paris play co-starring Jean Poiret, who wrote the play; in the 1978 film, however, Poiret was replaced by Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi; born Jan. 24, 1928, in Brunoy, France; died July 29 at his home in Honfleur, France, of cancer. [See 1992, p. 204F3; 1990, p. 860G3; Indexes 1986, 1979] TABORI, George (Gyorgy), 93, Hungarian-born playwright, screenwriter, novelist and translator, particularly of the work of German playwright Bertolt Brecht; of Jewish ancestry, he settled in Britain before the outbreak of World War II; after the war, he lived in the U.S. for a number of years, writing Hollywood screenplays and getting work produced on Broadway; after returning to Europe in 1970, he become a major presence in German theater, as both dramatist and director; born May 24, 1914, in Budapest; died July 23 at his home in Berlin; no cause of death was reported. [See 2002, p. 1074G3; 1972, p. 987C2; Indexes 1971, 1968, 1962–63, 1950–54, 1946] „

August 16, 2007

Bush Cites Vietnam to Argue for Pursuing Iraq War U.S. Report Doubts Iraqi Government.

U.S. President George W. Bush in a speech Aug. 22 invoked the Vietnam War in arguing for a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq. He said that pulling troops out of Iraq would result in a “disaster” comparable to the widespread killings in Cambodia and Vietnam following the Vietnam War in the 1970s. U.S. intelligence agencies Aug. 23 released a report questioning whether the administration of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was able to govern effectively enough to allow the country to stabilize. [See p. 521A1; for excerpts from Bush’s speech, see p. 537E1] Bush, speaking before a friendly audience at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Kansas City, Mo., said that “a free Iraq” was within reach. He vowed to resist Democratic efforts in Congress to end U.S. military involvement, and reaffirmed his administration’s support of Maliki, saying he was “a good guy, a good man with a difficult job.” He said U.S. troops in Iraq were making progress, and urged the U.S. Congress not to “pull the rug out from under them.” Bush in his speech drew parallels between the war in Iraq and past U.S. wars against Japan, North Korea and North Vietnam. “There are many differences between the wars we fought in the Far East and the war on terror we’re fighting today,” he said. “But one important similarity is that, at their core, they are all ideological struggles. The militarists of Japan and the communists in Korea and Vietnam were driven by a merciless vision for the proper ordering of humanity.” Bush said, “Today, the names and places have changed, but the fundamental character of the struggle has not. Like our enemies in the past, the terrorists who wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan and other plac-

es seek to spread a political vision of their own—a harsh plan for life that crushes freedom, tolerance, and dissent.” Bush, who had long resisted comparisons of Iraq and Vietnam, characterized the U.S. pullout from Vietnam as the source of the suffering that followed in Southeast Asia. “One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America’s withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like ‘boat people,’ ‘re-education camps,’ and ‘killing fields,’” he said. Bush added that the U.S.’s victory in World War II and its continued presence on the Korean Peninsula after the Korean War had produced strong democratic allies in Japan and South Korea. Critics immediately assailed Bush’s speech as a wrongheaded view of history. U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D, Mass.) said the comparison of Iraq with Vietnam was “as irresponsible as it is ignorant of the realities of both of those wars…Half of the soldiers whose names are on the Vietnam Memorial Wall died after the politicians knew our strategy would not work.” Historians also criticized Bush’s interpretation of the Vietnam War’s effect on Southeast Asia. They said humanitarian catastrophes like the rise of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime were spawned by U.S. military involvement in the region, rather than by a failure to remain there. Report Predicts More Iraqi Instability—

The U.S. government Aug. 23 released an intelligence report predicting that Maliki’s government would grow “more precarious over the next six to 12 months,” and that its security forces were not strong enough to operate effectively without outside assistance. The report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), represented the collective judgment of the U.S.’s 16 intel-

EXCERPTS FROM BUSH’S SPEECH ON IRAQ

Following are excerpts from U.S. President George W. Bush’s Aug. 22 speech on the Iraq war [See p. 537A1]: The tragedy of Vietnam is too large to be contained in one speech. So I’m going to limit myself to one argument that has particular significance today. Then as now, people argued the real problem was America’s presence and that if we would just withdraw, the killing would end.… In 1972, one antiwar senator put it this way: “What earthly difference does it make to nomadic tribes or uneducated subsistence farmers in Vietnam or Cambodia or Laos, whether they have a military dictator, a royal prince or a socialist commissar in some distant capital that they’ve never seen and may never heard of?” A columnist for the New York Times wrote in a similar vein in 1975, just as Cambodia and Vietnam were falling to the communists: “It’s difficult to imagine,” he said, “how their lives could be anything but better with the Americans gone.” A headline on that story, date Phnom Penh, summed up the argument: “Indochina without Americans: For Most a Better Life.” The world would learn just how costly these misimpressions would be. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a murderous rule in which hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died by starvation and torture and execution. In Vietnam, former allies of the United States and government workers and intellectuals and businessmen were sent off to prison camps,

where tens of thousands perished. Hundreds of thousands more fled the country on rickety boats, many of them going to their graves in the South China Sea. … A free Iraq is not going to be perfect. A free Iraq will not make decisions as quickly as the country did under the dictatorship. Many are frustrated by the pace of progress in Baghdad, and I can understand this. As I noted yesterday, the Iraqi government is distributing oil revenues across its provinces despite not having an oil revenue law on its books, that the parliament has passed about 60 pieces of legislation. [Iraqi] Prime Minister [Nouri al-] Maliki is a good guy, a good man with a difficult job, and I support him. And it’s not up to politicians in Washington, D.C., to say whether he will remain in his position—that is up to the Iraqi people who now live in a democracy, and not a dictatorship. A free Iraq is not going to transform the Middle East overnight. But a free Iraq will be a massive defeat for [the terrorist network] Al Qaeda, it will be an example that provides hope for millions throughout the Middle East, it will be a friend of the United States, and it’s going to be an important ally in the ideological struggle of the 21st century. Prevailing in this struggle is essential to our future as a nation. And the question now that comes before us is this: Will today’s generation of Americans resist the allure of retreat, and will we do in the Middle East what the veterans in this room did in Asia?

Facts On File

®

World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3480 August 23, 2007

B ligence agencies, and was an update of an

NIE on Iraq issued in February. [See p.

86B1; for excerpts from the report, see p. 538A1] The report concluded that “Iraqi political leaders remain unable to govern effectively,” and said Maliki’s government would most likely be unable to overcome sectarian rivalries. It attributed divisions to Shiite political insecurity, Sunnis’ reluctance to accept a smaller role than they had enjoyed under former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and instability caused by terrorism. The report said a surge in U.S. troop levels in Iraq had produced “measurable but uneven improvements” in the country’s security, and Iraqi forces working with U.S. troops had performed “adequately.” However, the report said, they would not be able to operate effectively without support, and an early withdrawal by U.S. troops would

C

D

MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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Bush cites Vietnam to argue for pursuing Iraq war; U.S. report doubts Iraqi government. PAGE 537

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Fed lowers discount rate; surprise response to market turmoil. PAGE 540

Domestic use of spy satellites expanded. PAGE 541

South African officials plead guilty to apartheid-era crime. PAGE 545

Hurricane Dean batters Caribbean, Mexico.

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PAGE 546

Thai voters approve new constitution. PAGE 547

Russia resumes long-range bomber flights. PAGE 548

Abbas, Olmert meet in West Bank. PAGE 549

South Asia floods kill thousands. PAGE 550

Pakistani Supreme Court allows ex– prime minister Sharif’s return. PAGE 551

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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EXCERPTS FROM THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE ON IRAQ

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Following are excerpts from the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraqi stability that was released Aug. 23 [See p. 537D2]: There have been measurable but uneven improvements in Iraq’s security situation since our last National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq in January 2007.… We assess…that Iraq’s security will continue to improve modestly during the next six to 12 months but that levels of insurgent and sectarian violence will remain high and the Iraqi Government will continue to struggle to achieve national-level political reconciliation and improved governance.… Political and security trajectories in Iraq continue to be driven primarily by Shia insecurity about retaining political dominance, widespread Sunni unwillingness to accept a diminished political status, factional rivalries within the sectarian communities resulting in armed conflict, and the actions of extremists.… The IC [intelligence community] assesses that the emergence of “bottom-up” security initiatives, principally among Sunni Arabs and focused on combating AQI [insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq], represent the best prospect for improved security over the next six to 12 months, but we judge these initiatives

lead to more sectarian violence. In addition, it said, if U.S. troops changed their mission from directly hunting militants to merely supporting Iraqi troops, it “would erode security gains achieved thus far.” U.S. Sen. John Warner (Va.), the second-ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, in the wake of the report called for Bush to withdraw a symbolic fraction of the troops in Iraq before Christmas, saying it would send a message to the Iraqi government. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said any decision would be made after a progress report on the surge was released in September. Democrats cited the report as evidence of the administration’s failed policy, and called for a withdrawal from Iraq. Bush, U.S. Legislators Blast Maliki—

E

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The NIE was the latest in a stream of criticism directed at Maliki’s government from the U.S. Bush, speaking at a North American summit meeting in Canada, Aug. 21 appeared to distance himself from Maliki. “The fundamental question is, Will the [Iraqi] government respond to the demands of the people?…If the government doesn’t respond to the demands of the people, they will replace the government.” However, he said, “That’s up to the Iraqis to make that decision, not American politicians.” [See p. 547D1] Bush’s statements about Maliki’s government were much cooler than previous endorsements. However, administration aides later said Bush was merely highlighting the fact that Iraq now had a democratic system. Senate Armed Forces Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D, Mich.) Aug. 20 called the Iraqi government “non-functional,” saying it was “too bound to its own sectarian roots.” Levin said, “I hope the parliament will vote the Maliki government out of office and will have the wisdom to replace it with a less sectarian and more unifying prime minister and government.” Levin had just returned from a three-day trip to Iraq and Jordan with Warner. Levin and Warner earlier Aug. 20 had released a joint statement saying a summit Ma538

will only translate into widespread political accommodation and enduring stability if the Iraqi Government accepts and supports them.… Iraqi Security Forces [ISF] involved in combined operations with Coalition forces have performed adequately…However, we judge that the ISF have not improved enough to conduct major operations independent of the Coalition on a sustained basis in multiple locations and that the ISF remain reliant on the Coalition for important aspects of logistics and combat support.… The IC assesses that the Iraqi Government will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months because of criticism by other members of the major Shia coalition (the Unified Iraqi Alliance, UIA), Grand Ayatollah Sistani, and other Sunni and Kurdish parties.… The IC assesses that Iraq’s neighbors will continue to focus on improving their leverage in Iraq in anticipation of a coalition drawdown.… We assess that changing the mission of Coalition forces from a primarily counterinsurgency and stabilization role to a primary combat support role for Iraqi forces and counterterrorist operations to prevent AQI from establishing a safe haven would erode security gains achieved thus far.…

liki had been holding with other Iraqi leaders to resolve oil-sharing legislation, a ban on government jobs for former members of Hussein’s Baath Party and other contentious issues was “the last chance for this government to solve the Iraqi political crisis.” Maliki Aug. 22 lashed out at his critics, labeling calls for his resignation “discourteous.” Speaking from Damascus, Syria, at the end of a three-day visit, he said. “No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq government.…It was elected by its people.” Maliki added, “We will pay no attention. We care for our people and our constitution and can find friends elsewhere.” The Syrian government Aug. 20 had suggested that Maliki set a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq. Presidential Candidates Spar Over Policy—

U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), a leading Democratic presidential candidate, Aug. 20 said military success in Iraq was impossible and that U.S. troops should be gradually withdrawn. “We’ve begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Al Anbar province, it’s working,” she said, speaking at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. “We’re just years too late changing our tactics. We can’t ever let that happen again. We can’t be fighting the last war; we have to be preparing for the next war.” Republican presidential candidates had lately been using the example of progress in Al Anbar province to argue that the U.S. military effort in Iraq needed more time. U.S. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), speaking directly after Clinton, argued that pulling troops out of Iraq would be “a mistake of colossal proportions.” He said, “As long as there is a prospect for not losing this war, then we must not choose to lose it.” Another Democratic candidate, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), Aug. 21 told the convention that efforts to stabilize Iraq had been a “complete failure,” even if the surge had produced limited gains. Former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson (R, Tenn.), who had not yet declared his expected candidacy for the Republican nomina-

tion, later that day argued against pulling troops out of Iraq but offered few concrete proposals of his own. Other News—In other news: † Iraqi Electricity Minister Karim Wahid Aug. 22 said that militias and insurgent groups were increasingly taking control of the antiquated switching stations that directed electricity around the country. Wahid said the groups had used access to the stations both to channel power to their own areas and to support their armed operations—for instance, by cutting power in areas where they were attacking U.S. troops. He said cities such as Mosul and Baquba, in the north, and Basra, in the south, were among those hoarding energy, leaving Baghdad with increased shortages. † French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner Aug. 19–21 visited Iraq on what he said was a “fact-finding mission,” and said France was “ready to play a role in the fight against the violence,” although he did not give details. He also called on European nations to assist the U.S. in rebuilding Iraq. The visit, reportedly at the invitation of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, was the first visit by a French minister since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, which France had bitterly opposed. It was seen as a sign of the pro-U.S. orientation of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who took office in May. [See p. 524E1] † U.S. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander in charge of districts south of Baghdad, Aug. 19 said 50 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had crossed into Iraq and were training Shiite militiamen in his area. He said the military had captured 217 weapons with Iranian markings since April, although he said that no

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Revolutionary Guard members had been captured. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman called the accusations “completely baseless.” [See p. 533D2] Violent Incidents—In major incidents of violence: † Insurgents Aug. 23 attacked two villages near Baquba, but were repulsed by fighters of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a Sunni militia that had recently turned against the Al Qaeda in Iraq insurgent group. Ten militants and 22 villagers, including a sheik who had worked with U.S. forces, were killed, and 15 women and children were kidnapped. † The U.S. military Aug. 23 said it had ended an offensive in Diyala province, killing 26 Al Qaeda in Iraq members and clearing 50 villages of insurgents. [See p. 522B2] † A U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter Aug. 22 crashed north of Baghdad, killing all 14 troops on board. The military said it was investigating the crash but that it appeared to have been due to mechanical failure. It was the deadliest helicopter crash suffered by U.S. forces in Iraq since January 2005, and, with the death of another soldier the same day, the highest single-day death toll since January. [See 2005, p. 42E2] † A truck bomb Aug. 22 exploded outside a provincial education office and a police station in the city of Baiji, north of Baghdad, killing at least 20 people, police said. † The Iraqi Red Crescent Society Aug. 21 said the death toll from a series of devastating coordinated truck bombings the previous week in northern Iraq had exceeded 500, topping previous estimates of 250–400. That count, which might still rise, confirmed that attack as by far the most deadly since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. † A roadside bomb Aug. 20 in Muthanna province in southern Iraq killed the province’s governor, Mohammed Ali alHassani. A previously unknown group, Ansar Allah, claimed responsibility for the attack; others blamed remnants of Hussein’s regime or the Mahdi Army Shiite militia, with which Hassani’s government had clashed. Another governor, Khalil Jalil Hamza of Qadasiyah province, had been assassinated earlier in August; both were members of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), the main Shiite political party. [See p. 522E2] „

International Finance Russia Nominates Czech Banker for IMF.

The Russian finance ministry in a statement Aug. 22 announced that it was nominating Josef Tosovsky, a former head of the Czech central bank, to become managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Tosovsky in 1997 served as a caretaker prime minister under then–Czech President Vaclav Havel, and currently was chairman of the Financial Stability Institute at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. [See p. 443E2; 1997, p. 953A1] Russia’s nomination was seen as a challenge to the existing system for selecting August 23, 2007

the IMF managing director. Traditionally, the European Union picked the leader of the IMF, while the U.S. picked the president of the World Bank. The EU and the U.S. between them had enough votes within each institution to ensure their nominations were selected. The EU had already nominated Frenchman Dominique StraussKahn to be the IMF’s managing director. The nomination did not immediately attract substantial backing. The Czech Republic, a member of the EU, said it would continue to back Strauss-Kahn. Countries that had called for reform in the selection process in the past, like India, China and Brazil, did not declare support for Tosovsky either. Since its creation after World War II, the IMF had lent money to governments in financial trouble and advised them on their economic policies. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in June described the IMF and other such financial institutions as “archaic” and “undemocratic.” „

Space ‘Endeavour,’ With Teacher, Visits Station.

The U.S. space shuttle Endeavour Aug. 8– 21 conducted a mission to carry new structural elements and equipment to the International Space Station. The shuttle landed safely despite a gouge torn in the heat shield on its underside by a piece of foam insulation that fell off during launch. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) regularly scrutinized shuttles for such damage after the 2003 loss of the Columbia. NASA Aug. 16 determined that the gouge did not pose a safety threat that would require an unprecedented attempt to repair it in orbit. [See p. 429F1; 2002, p. 970A3] Endeavour lifted off Aug. 8 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was the first launch of Endeavour since December 2002, when it was taken in for the same comprehensive overhaul previously given to the rest of the fleet. One crew member, Barbara Morgan, in 1986 had been in the “teacher in space” program as backup to Christa McAuliffe, who died in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. [See 1986, p. 50A1] The mission commander was Navy Cmdr. Scott Kelly, and the pilot was Marine Lt. Col. Charles Hobaugh. In addition to Morgan, the mission specialists were Tracy Caldwell, Air Force Col. Benjamin Drew, Richard Mastracchio and Canadian astronaut Dafydd Williams. Morgan, after first returning to elementary school teaching, in 1998 had returned to astronaut training. She flew as a fully trained mission specialist, rather than a guest private citizen as McAuliffe had. However, she did talk with pupils in Idaho, where she had been a teacher, over a live video link Aug. 14, together with Williams, Drew and Clayton Anderson, one of the space station crew members. As Endeavour approached the space station Aug. 10, photographs of its underside taken from the station revealed the gouge, raising the possibility that astronauts would have to patch the damage in a space walk. NASA officials initially said it had been

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Shuttle: Endeavour Liftoff: Aug. 8, 6:36 p.m. (Eastern daylight

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Flight Duration: 305 hours, 56 minutes Flight Distance: 5.3 million miles (8.5

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Mission Number: 119th mission in the

U.S. shuttle program; 20th launch for the Endeavour Crew: Mission Commander: Navy Cmdr. Scott Kelly, 43; Pilot: Marine Lt. Col. Charles Hobaugh, 45; Mission Specialists: Tracy Caldwell, 38; Air Force Col. Benjamin Drew Jr., 44; Richard Mastracchio, 47; Barbara Morgan, 55; and Canadian astronaut Dafydd Williams, 53

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† Added new structural elements to the International Space Station, and replaced a failed gyroscope † Morgan had been a backup for Christa McAuliffe, a teacher who joined the crew of the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded after launch in 1986

caused by a piece of ice falling from the supercooled external fuel tank. As ice was much denser than the foam debris that had been the root cause of the Columbia disaster, officials expressed concern about the possible seriousness of the damage. However, they later determined that the damage had been caused by a piece of foam. Morgan and Caldwell Aug. 12 used a laser device on the craft’s robotic arm to scan the gash. NASA engineers used the scan to construct a three-dimensional computer model and a physical reproduction of the affected tiles, and conducted experiments with them to assess the extent of the damage. NASA Aug. 17 said it had determined that the gouge was not a safety threat justifying the risk of a space walk. Williams and Mastracchio in the mission’s first space walk Aug. 11 added a new segment to the space station’s structural truss. In the second, Aug. 13, they replaced a failed gyroscope, one of four that helped keep the station steady, with a new one carried by Endeavour. Mastracchio and Anderson in a third space walk Aug. 15 completed scheduled work on the station’s solar array and communications systems before the walk was cut short due to a hole in Mastracchio’s glove. Williams and Anderson Aug. 18 carried out the mission’s final spacewalk. They left some work on the station’s exterior for a future mission because NASA that day announced that the shuttle would return to Earth a day earlier than planned. The flight was cut short out of concern that Hurricane Dean, a storm sweeping across the Caribbean Sea, might hit Houston, Texas, where mission control was based. After the shuttle’s Aug. 21 landing at Kennedy Space Center, officials said that the intense heat of reentry had caused slight additional damage around the gouge. They said the craft’s interior aluminum frame would be closely examined. „ 539

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Other International News Central Asian Bloc Holds Summit. Lead-

ers of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)—Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan—Aug. 16 met in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, for the group’s annual summit. The SCO had been founded in 2001 to promote security and economic cooperation in Central Asia, and analysts said it was developing into a powerful counterbalance to the U.S. and Western-dominated organizations. [See 2006, p. 482B2] Attending the summit as observers were Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mongolian President Nambariin Enkhbayar, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and Murli Deora, India’s oil and gas minister. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and new Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov were also in Bishkek; it was the first time a Turkmen leader had attended an SCO summit. [See p. 99F3] At the meeting, Ahmadinejad called U.S. plans to base a missile defense system in Eastern Europe “a threat to more than one country.” Russia had also objected to the planned system. [See p. 459E1] Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, in what was taken as a veiled reference to the perceived unilateral policies of U.S. President George W. Bush, advocated a “multipolar” world order. He added, “Any attempts to solve global and regional problems unilaterally are hopeless.” Uzbek President Islam Karimov expressed concern that Afghanistan’s ongoing battle with Taliban insurgents and its escalating drug production could threaten the security of the region. [See p. 534A1] The leaders in a final joint statement said, “Modern challenges and security threats can only be effectively countered through united efforts of the international community.” They also agreed to establish a “unified energy market,” and stressed that the region’s energy resources were “the basis for continued economic growth and security.” The U.S., European Union, Russia and China had been competing for access to Central Asia’s vast energy resources. [See below, p. 345C2; 2006, p. 366A1] More than 6,500 troops from SCO member nations Aug. 9–17 conducted joint military exercises in Chelyabinsk, Russia. The six SCO leaders Aug. 17 traveled to Chelyabinsk to view the close of the exercises. China, Kazakhstan Reach Oil Deal—

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Chinese President Hu Jintao and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev Aug. 18 met in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, and agreed to build a pipeline that would transport oil and gas to China from Kazakh fields near the Caspian Sea. The new pipeline would be in addition to one that connected a central Kazakh oil field, owned by the staterun China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), to China. That pipeline had begun operating in 2006. [See 2005, p. 979F3] In a related development, CNPC officials Aug. 14 had announced that they were in discussions with Turkmenistan on building a gas pipeline to supply China. „ 540

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Fed Lowers Discount Rate Surprise Response to Market Turmoil. The

U.S. Federal Reserve Aug. 17 lowered the interest rate on money it loaned directly to banks, known as the discount rate, from 6.25% to 5.75%. The move was intended to relieve a credit crunch in financial markets, as lowering the interest rate would make borrowing cheaper. The Fed lowered the rate after it became concerned that turmoil in the markets could slow overall economic growth and provoke a recession, a turnaround on its position that the threat of inflation was a more pressing concern. [See pp. 522A3, 511D1] The Fed encouraged banks to borrow money from its so-called discount window by prolonging the due date on a loan’s repayment from one day to 30 days. The Fed also allowed banks to use mortgagebacked assets as collateral, a practice other lenders had largely halted after a collapse in the subprime mortgage industry. The Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index reacted positively to the change in the interest rate. It gained 233.30 points, or 1.8%, and ended the day at 13,079.08. However, the Fed’s actions failed to pacify the markets altogether, as companies still found it difficult to issue shortterm debt instruments known as commercial paper. Investors also began buying Treasury bills, which were regarded as the safest investment vehicles, indicating that investors were avoiding buying assets that had risk attached to them. The mortgage industry continued to struggle as well, contributing to investors’ worries. [See below] The Fed surprised observers by choosing to lower the discount rate instead of the benchmark federal funds rate, which was the rate used for overnight loans between banks. Lowering the federal funds rate would have directly helped businesses and consumers, but only banks could buy credit at the discount window. The Fed also sought to overcome a stigma attached to the use of the discount window, which was normally reserved for banks that were in financial trouble. The Fed organized a conference call earlier that day with several of the country’s largest banks to assure them that their use of the window would be seen as an indication of strength, not weakness. In what was viewed as a symbolic act of support for the Fed’s actions, the country’s four largest banks—Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wachovia Corp.—Aug. 22 said they had together borrowed $2 billion from the Fed. The Fed’s decision to lower the discount rate was seen as a way for it to reinvigorate the credit market without alleviating losses incurred by companies and lenders during the subprime mortgage meltdown. The Fed viewed those losses as a natural correction for investors that had played the credit market too riskily by acquiring subprime

mortage loans, made to borrowers with poor credit. Investors Flock to Treasury Bills— Investors Aug. 20 poured money into shortterm government Treasury bills, sending the yield for three-month bills down by about 0.7 percentage points, to 3.09%, the biggest one-day drop since 1987. Managers of money-market funds led the movement toward the safer Treasury bills, as investors in the funds had panicked over possibly being exposed to bad subprime mortgage loans. Money-market funds did not normally invest in risky assets like subprime mortgage loans, but sometimes invested in commercial paper. Commercial paper had traditionally been considered a safe investment, and companies depended on easy access to commercial paper to carry out dayto-day financial transactions. However, companies sometimes used mortgagebacked assets as collateral for the debts, prompting concern among money-market fund investors. The drying up of credit in the commercial paper sector also indicated that the credit crunch had extended to companies that normally would not have had problems obtaining credit. Mortgage Companies Struggle—Capital One Financial Corp., a bank based in McLean, Va., Aug. 20 announced that it was closing down its GreenPoint mortgage subsidiary due to an inability to sell loans to investors. Company officials said the bank would shut down GreenPoint’s 31 offices and lay off 1,900 people. GreenPoint was the latest in a series of mortgage companies to fall since the collapse of the subprime mortgage sector. [See p. 506B1] In the 1990s, GreenPoint was one of many companies that had specialized in mortgages that required little or no documentation to show that the borrower had ample resources to pay off the mortgage. GreenPoint specialized in “jumbo” loans—loans worth more than $417,000 that had higher interest rates—and loans to “Alt-A” borrowers, those that fell between the prime and subprime categories. Neither type of loan met the lending standards of government-sponsored mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In other mortgage company news: † Thornburg Mortgage Inc., based in Santa Fe, N.M., Aug. 20 announced it had sold $20.5 billion, or 35%, of its assets to slough off some of its mounting debt. The company had specialized in jumbo loans as well. † New York City–based investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Aug. 22 announced that it was closing down its subprime mortgage unit, BNC Mortgage LLC. The move would eliminate 1,200 jobs. Lehman in the past had been particularly successful among investment banks in selling risky mortgages to investors. † Bank of America Corp. Aug. 22 invested $2 billion in Countrywide Financial Corp., the country’s largest home mortgage lender in terms of volume. Countrywide FACTS ON FILE

earlier in the week had tapped into an emergency credit line after failing to secure commercial paper it needed to conduct its business. Bank of America’s investment was seen as intended to encourage confidence in Countrywide among investors and banks. [See p. 523B2] „

Intelligence Domestic Use of Spy Satellites Expanded.

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell May 25 authorized an unprecedented expansion in the domestic use of spy satellites in a memorandum to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The move, which was first made public in news reports Aug. 15, would allow civilian government agencies and domestic law enforcement bodies to gain access to data and images from the U.S.’s system of spy satellites, access that was previously given only to select agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The network of satellites had been put in place during the Cold War and had been used in recent years to search for terrorist strongholds and follow the movements of nuclear materials. [See 2004, p. 963D1] Analysts raised the possibility that extending access to the satellite network, which was constructed and owned primarily by the Department of Defense, to domestic police agencies could constitute a violation of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibited the military from engaging in law enforcement within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis Charles Allen had claimed that the new program would not violate the law, it was reported Aug. 17. [See 2002, p. 582C2] The level of access that law enforcement officials would have to satellite data was still unclear, and officials indicated that legal issues were still being ironed out. Allen said the new authorization resulted from a demand for increased communication between intelligence agencies after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., and indicated that the program’s first priority was to provide information to help agencies secure America’s borders and respond to natural disasters. Because of the highly sensitive nature of the satellite network, the full intelligence gathering capabilities of the satellites were unknown. Experts believed that they were capable of taking higher-quality images than commercial satellites, and might be able to use infrared and ultraviolet detection to penetrate underground and through buildings to track people and weapons. Allen stressed that civil liberties would be protected under the program, which would be policed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the DHS. “No American should be concerned,” he said. In response to the memo, it was reported Aug. 17 that Rep. Jane Harman (D, Calif.), chairwoman of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence, inforAugust 23, 2007

mation sharing and terrorism risk assessment, had said, “Crystal-clear rules on the use of such information are needed to protect the privacy of the American people.” A House Intelligence Committee official indicated that it would request a briefing on the authorization when Congress returned from its August recess. „

NSA Surveillance Program Mueller’s Notes Refute Gonzales Testimony.

The House Judiciary Committee Aug. 16 released five pages of notes written by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller 3rd that were relevant to the committee’s inquiry into a March 2004 hospital visit by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, then White House counsel, to then–Attorney General John Ashcroft. In the visit, Gonzales and then–White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card attempted to get Ashcroft to sign off on the legality of a White House–backed warrantless wiretapping program run by the National Security Agency (NSA) while Ashcroft was recovering from gall bladder surgery. Mueller’s notes, which were typewritten and heavily redacted by the FBI and the Justice Department, contradicted statements Gonzales had made in late July to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the visit. [See pp. 506A3, 477E1, 310E3] The visit was made after former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, then acting attorney general while Ashcroft recovered, refused to sign off on the program. Ashcroft also refused to approve it. The program was only reauthorized after the threat of mass resignations within the Justice Department, including by Comey and Mueller, prompted President George W. Bush to modify it. The notes were selections from Mueller’s daily log written in March 2004, during the height of a period of secret disagreement within the White House and Justice Department regarding the warrantless wiretapping program. The notes bolstered previous testimony by Mueller July 26 and Comey May 15 about the hospital visit. Comey had testified that he viewed Gonzales’s visit as “an effort to take advantage of a very sick man,” a viewpoint supported by the notes’ March 10, 2004, description of Ashcroft as “feeble, barely articulate, clearly stressed” following his conversation with Gonzales and Card. In contrast, Gonzales in his July 24 testimony denied pressuring Ashcroft and suggested that the attorney general had “talked about the legal issues in a lucid form.” House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D, Mich.) Aug. 16 said Mueller’s notes “confirm an attempt to goad a sick and heavily medicated Ashcroft to approve the wireless surveillance program.” He also quoted passages in the notes which suggested that Ashcroft had been unable to seek advice from his senior legal advisers regarding the program because of the White House’s “strict compartmentalization rules” designed to limit information about the warrantless wiretapping program. „

September 11 Attack Aftermath 2 Firefighters Killed in Ground Zero Blaze.

A fire in the condemned Deutsche Bank high rise building across from ground zero, the former World Trade Center site in New York City, Aug. 18 led to the deaths of firefighters Joseph Graffagnino, 33, and Robert Beddia, 53. The Deutsche Bank building had been damaged in Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., which destroyed the World Trade Center. Following years of lawsuits and legal wrangling over the toxic materials and human remains inside, the structure was in the process of being dismantled. [See 2003, p. 706B3] Graffagnino and Beddia, who died of smoke inhalation, had been assigned to Engine 24 and Ladder 5 of Battalion 2, which had lost 11 firefighters on Sept. 11. During the Aug. 18 fire, as many as 20 mayday distress calls were received from firefighters lost or trapped within the building, and at least five firefighters were later treated for smoke-related injuries. The cause of the fire was unclear, but officials suggested that a cigarette or malfunctioning electrical wiring were the most likely culprits. The building lacked an operational standpipe, a required system intended to provide water to firefighters in high rise buildings, which forced firefighters to drag hoses up the sides of the building and impeded operations. City and state prosecutors announced Aug. 21 that they would open a criminal investigation into the source of the fire. „

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Accidents & Disasters Utah Mine Collapse Leaves Six Missing. A

coal mine in the Manti-La Sal National Forest in Utah Aug. 6 collapsed, trapping six miners about 1,800 feet (550 m) below the surface. Despite sporadically promising signs, repeated attempts to discover whether the miners were alive proved unsuccessful. A second collapse during rescue operations Aug. 16 killed three rescue workers. State and federal officials the next day announced that rescue operations had been indefinitely suspended. [See p. 449A1] The mine, the Crandall Canyon Mine, was owned by UtahAmerican Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. The first collapse was so powerful that its magnitude registered at 3.9 on the openended Richter scale of ground motion at University of Utah seismic stations. Robert Murray, chairman of Murray Energy, insisted that the collapse had been due to an earthquake. However, federal, state and university officials said both collapses were due to “mountain bump,” which involved the mountain above the mine settling as internal supports buckled. Miners and engineers said the so-called retreat method of mining used in the mine, in which support pillars were removed to extract more coal, and the extreme depth of the mine had increased the risk of its collapse. The mine owners were also criticized 541

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by some for not putting in place modern communication and tracking equipment, but federal and industry officials said that adequate technology did not yet exist. No Trace of Miners Found—Rescue workers had drilled several holes to the mine and lowered video cameras and microphones in an attempt to locate the miners, but found no trace of them. The work was complicated by the mine’s depth. Tests Aug. 10 showed that oxygen levels in the area of the mine where the miners were last known to have been were too low to sustain life, although rescue workers had held out hope that the air could be breathable in other parts of the mine. In halting rescue operations, officials said it was too dangerous to risk the lives of more workers as long as there was no evidence that the trapped miners were still alive. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) said there would be an “unprecedented and comprehensive” investigation of the collapse and rescue operation. The United Mine Workers of America that day said federal officials should never have approved the mine in the first place. The union also said the rescue attempt should not have been undertaken while the mountain was still unstable. „ Last Victims Found in Minn. Bridge Collapse.

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Divers Aug. 20 brought up the remains of the last missing victim of the collapse of a bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minn., earlier in the month, raising the official death toll to 13. Recovery workers had been removing the remains of victims and submerged vehicles from the water over the past weeks, but had been hampered by bad weather. The state transportation department Aug. 14 released preliminary plans for a new bridge, but Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak (D) and members of the city council protested that it was possibly unsafe and would not leave room for a planned memorial and light-rail line. [See p. 509E3] „

2008 Presidential Campaign Democrats Debate in Iowa. Candidates for

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the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination Aug. 19 debated in Des Moines, Iowa. The focus was mainly on Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), the top three candidates in polls in Iowa, whose January caucuses traditionally kicked off the nominating process. George Stephanopoulos moderated the debate, which was broadcast by the ABC television network. [See p. 525G3] Obama fended off criticism from rivals about his relative lack of foreign policy experience, joking, “You know, to prepare for this debate, I rode in the bumper cars at the state fair.” Obama stressed his message that he was the candidate best equipped to bring a spirit of change to the presidency. “What I’m suggesting is that we’re going to need somebody who can break out of the political patterns that we’ve been in for the last 20 years,” he said. 542

Clinton, for her part, highlighted her experience as first lady and as a senator. “I have been fighting against these people for longer than anybody else up here. I’ve taken them on, and we’ve beaten them,” she said, referring to “the Republican attack machine.” Clinton and other contenders renewed their criticism of Obama for recent statements that he had made on foreign policy. Obama had said that he would be willing to meet with foreign leaders hostile to the U.S. He had also said that he would order attacks on the international terrorist network Al Qaeda inside Pakistan if the Pakistani government failed to act first, but that he would rule out using nuclear weapons in such a case. [See p. 508A2] Clinton was asked how Obama’s remarks differed from her own statement, during her 2006 reelection campaign, ruling out the use of nuclear weapons against Iran. She replied that her comment came in the context of the Bush administration’s rising tensions with Iran, adding, “One thing I agree with is we shouldn’t use hypotheticals. You know, words do matter.” Obama countered, “It is not hypothetical that Al Qaeda has established base camps in the hills between Afghanistan and Pakistan. No military expert would advise that we use nuclear weapons to deal with them, but we do have to deal with that problem.” Edwards broke into the Clinton-Obama standoff, asking, “How about a little hope and optimism? Where did it go?” Richardson Urges Full Iraq Pullout—

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson emphasized that he favored a withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq within several months, unlike the top candidates. Clinton, Obama and Edwards had all said they favored leaving a smaller number of U.S. troops in Iraq to help stabilize the country and take on terrorist groups. Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also touted his own credentials, saying, “Senator Obama does represent change. Senator Clinton has experience. Change and experience. With me you get both.” Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) used a question about prayer to complain about Stephanopoulos’s focus on the top candidates, saying, “George, I’ve been standing here the last 45 minutes praying to God you were going to call on me.” „ Thompson Appears at Iowa State Fair.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.), an undeclared but leading contender for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Aug. 17 appeared at the Iowa State Fair, a requisite stop for candidates of both parties. The Iowa caucuses, set for January 2008, traditionally were the first contest of the presidential nominating process. [See pp. 525G2, 362B1] In a speech to fairgoers, Thompson, 64, struck a conservative note, saying, “I am unabashedly pro-life. I am pro–Second Amendment. And I don’t apologize for the United States of America. This country has shed more blood for the freedom of other

people than all the other nations in the history of the world combined, and I’m tired of people feeling like they’ve got to apologize for America.” The passage drew loud applause. He also lamented that “the government can’t any longer do some basic things that the government was supposed to do,” referring to the widely criticized federal response to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005. [See p. 448G2] Thompson was running strongly in polls on the Republican field, but was barred by his “testing the waters” status from broadcasting advertisements or matching the heavy organizational spending of his leading rivals, former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. However, Thompson was using his official Web site to raise funds and promote his potential candidacy. A liberal blogger (writer of a Web log, or blog), Lane Hudson, Aug. 20 filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), accusing Thompson of exceeding the fund-raising limits on his presidential exploratory committee. „

Medicine & Health Bush Limits Child Health Insurance Plan.

Dennis Smith, the director of the federal Center for Medicaid and State Operations, in an Aug. 17 letter informed state administrators of the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) of new rules restricting the ability of low-income parents to receive health insurance for their children under the program. The Bush administration said the new rules were designed to prevent parents from abandoning private health insurance plans for their children in favor of those run under CHIP. [See p. 495F3] The House and Senate in early August had passed separate measures that would substantially expand federal funding for CHIP over the next five years, making possible the enrollment of millions of additional children. Bush had vowed to veto both bills, citing opposition to the tax increases required to fund the new appropriations. Bush had also reportedly been pressured by fiscal conservatives strongly opposed to an expansion of governmentprovided health care. The new rules required a family seeking coverage under CHIP and earning more than 250% of the federal poverty level— $51,625 for a family of four—to first provide proof that the child had lacked insurance for at least one year. The new policy also required states to prove that a minimum of 95% of children from families making less than 200% of the federal poverty level were enrolled in either CHIP or Medicaid, a level no state had been able to attain. At least 18 states would be forced to scale back CHIP in order to comply with the new rules. Smith in the letter wrote, “We would not expect any effect on current enrollees from this review strategy.” However, many conFACTS ON FILE

gressional Democrats, health care advocates and policy analysts said the new rule would jeopardize coverage for tens of thousands of low-income children. Several governors and state and federal legislators criticized the new rules as an attempt to dismantle CHIP. New York state officials Aug. 21 said the state’s governor, Eliot Spitzer (D), would lobby aggressively to have the new rules reversed. „ West Nile Virus Rise Reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Aug. 16 reported that, as of Aug. 14, 444 people had been infected with West Nile virus in the U.S. so far in 2007, 15 of whom had died from the disease. A CDC epidemiologist said there had been 13 deaths among 388 people infected with West Nile virus by the same date in 2006. [See 2005, p. 805B1] CDC researchers July 25 had said the slight rise in diagnosed West Nile virus cases could be the prelude to an epidemic. “The worst is yet to come,” said CDC researcher Lyle Petersen. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Aug. 2 declared a state of emergency in three counties where four people had died of the disease. The West Nile virus was transmitted by mosquitoes and caused flu-like symptoms in 20% of people infected with it. Though 80% of those acquiring the virus exhibited no symptoms, 1% of infected people developed a potentially fatal brain infection. The virus had first been discovered in the U.S. in New York City in 1999, but had spread throughout the country since then. „ FDA Issues Breast Feeding Drug Warning. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Aug. 17 advised breast feeding women to monitor their use of the painkiller codeine, as the drug could be concentrated in breast milk in a small but significant number of women who metabolized it quickly. The FDA advised nursing mothers taking codeine to monitor their babies for unusual limpness or drowsiness, and recommended that breast-feeding women limit their use of codeine. [See p. 530B1] As many as 10% of whites were thought to have a gene making them “ultrarapid metabolizers” of codeine. The rate of those with the gene was around 3% for blacks, and estimated near 1% for Hispanics and those of Southeast Asian ancestry. However, 16%–28% of people from North Africa, Saudia Arabia and Ethiopia were believed to have the gene. The FDA said it would ask producers of codeine to modify their labels to warn of the risks. The drug was commonly prescribed for mothers experiencing pain from a Caesarean section birth, or an episiotomy, which was an incision made in the perineum to assist childbirth. „

errors. The rule had been proposed in April, and was set to take effect in October 2008. CMS officials said the new rule was an effort to end policies that rewarded health care providers for poor care. The administration of President George W. Bush said the new rule could save Medicare $20 million annually, but other analysts said the savings would likely be even greater. [See p. 399E3; 2006, p. 32B1] The rule identified eight preventable conditions caused by hospital workers for which Medicare would end payments: vascular infections resulting from catheter use; pressure ulcers (bed sores); urinary tract infections resulting from catheter use; mediastinitis (an infection resulting from heart surgery); air embolisms; blood incompatibility; objects left inside patients during surgery; and patient falls. CMS said other conditions would eventually be added to the list. The new rule also prohibited hospitals from billing patients for the cost of treating the conditions. Under the current rules, Medicare made payments to hospitals for treating the conditions. Consumer advocates and policy analysts applauded the new rule as one that would help prevent infections and improve the quality of care provided to patients. „ Anemia Drug Restrictions Set. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) July 30 issued final rules on the reimbursement of prescriptions for a class of anemia drugs known as erythropoietins that had been linked to various health risks, including heart attacks, strokes and tumor growth. The new rules restricted payments based on dosage allowances and other uses of the drugs for cancer treatment. The rule did not apply to the drugs’ use in treating kidney failure. [See p. 420F1] The CMS in May had issued a proposed rule with much stricter limits on how and when the drugs could be used, but in a subsequent public comment period received some 2,600 comments criticizing the proposal as too restrictive. The new rule was aimed at discouraging doctors from administering unapproved high doses of the drugs to cancer and kidney patients suffering from anemia. The Medicare rule was also expected to have a wider effect by influencing the reimbursement policies of private insurers. Amgen Inc., which manufactured erythropoietins, Aug. 1 challenged a portion of the new rule, arguing that it would limit cancer patients’ access to useful treatment. Producers of erythropoietins stood to lose substantial amounts of revenue as a result of the Medicare rule. „

Bush Administration Rumsfeld Resigned Before ’06 Elections.

Medicare Payments for Medical Errors Halted. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Aug. 19 issued a new policy that would end payments to health care providers for treatments resulting from their own August 23, 2007

Donald Rumsfeld had resigned as defense secretary in a letter dated Nov. 6, 2006, the day before the midterm elections in which the Republican Party lost control of both houses of Congress, the White House confirmed Aug. 15. President George W. Bush had not announced Rumsfeld’s resignation

until the day after the elections. According to the White House, he had seen and accepted the resignation on Election Day. [See 2006, p. 849A1] Some Republicans had criticized Bush for delaying Rumsfeld’s departure. They said Rumsfeld was closely identified with the increasingly unpopular Iraq war, and ousting him earlier would have eased voters’ anger. In his letter to Bush, Rumsfeld wrote, “I leave with great respect for you and for the leadership you have provided during a challenging time for our country.” He said it was “time to conclude my service,” but he did not mention Iraq or the war in the letter. „

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Bush Was Treated for Possible Lyme Disease.

President George W. Bush had been treated in August 2006 for a rash on his left shin attributed to Lyme disease, according to a report on his annual physical examination, released Aug. 8 by the White House. Lyme disease was spread by deer ticks, and was common in the northeastern U.S. [See p. 496C3; 2006, p. 645D2] The White House said Bush’s rash had not recurred, but did not say how it was treated. Lyme disease could cause arthritis, an abnormal heart rhythm or nervous system disorders, but those symptoms were preventable by treatment with antibiotics at an early stage of infection. Separately, in the past few weeks, Bush had suffered episodes of mild vertigo since coming down with a viral infection at a June meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized powers in Germany. But the report said the dizziness had not interfered with his duties. [See p. 357A1] Overall, Bush’s doctors found him to be “fit for duty” in exams that began July 17. He weighed 192 pounds (87 kg), four less than a year earlier. „

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National Politics Hastert Sets Retirement From House.

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R, Ill.) Aug. 17 announced that he would not seek reelection to the House in 2008. Hastert, 65, had been the longest-serving Republican speaker. He held the post from 1999 until the Democrats regained control of the chamber following their November 2006 midterm election victories. He had served in the House since 1987. [See p. 1A1; 2006, p. 488C1] Shortly before the 2006 elections, Hastert had been tarnished by a scandal over claims that Rep. Mark Foley (R, Fla.) had made improper sexual advances toward male House pages. Hastert was accused of failing to act on prior warnings about Foley’s behavior. [See 2006, p. 948B3] Hastert had also faced questions about his own ethics, in connection with a land purchase near a highway for which he had secured federal funds. [See 2006, p. 814E1] Another former top House Republican, Rep. Deborah Pryce (Ohio), Aug. 5 had announced that she would not run for reelection to a ninth term. Pryce, 56, had been the 543

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fourth-ranking member of the Republican leadership before the 2006 elections, but nearly lost her own reelection bid. Rep. Rick Renzi (R, Ariz.) Aug. 23 said he would not seek a fourth term in 2008. He faced a federal corruption probe. [See p. 258C3] Republican Reps. Ray LaHood (Ill.) July 26 and Charles Pickering Jr. (Miss.) Aug. 16 had also ruled out reelection bids. The incumbents’ retirements could make it harder for the Republicans to regain a House majority in the 2008 elections. „ Ex–Ney Aide Gets Probation. Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Aug. 16 gave a sentence of two years of probation to William Heaton, a onetime chief of staff to former Rep. Bob Ney (R, Ohio). She also ordered him to pay a $5,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service. In January, Huvelle had sentenced Ney to 30 months in prison for corrupt dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He was currently serving the sentence in a federal prison in West Virginia. [See p. 61D3] Heaton, 29, had pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy. Court filings showed that Heaton had cooperated with federal investigators by secretly recording his conversations with Ney, starting in the summer of 2006. Prosecutors did not seek a prison sentence for Heaton. „ Broun Wins Election for Georgia House Seat.

Paul Broun, a Republican doctor, July 17 won a special election for a House seat representing Georgia’s 10th Congressional District. The seat had been vacated by the death of Rep. Charlie Norwood (R) in February. [See p. 104F3] Broun beat a fellow Republican, former state Sen. Jim Whitehead, the favorite of the local GOP establishment, by 394 votes in a runoff. Broun had finished second in a June 19 first round, with 21% of the vote to Whitehead’s 44%. The runoff followed since no candidate won more than 50% of the vote in the first round. „

CIA Leak Investigation Plame Civil Lawsuit Dismissed. U.S. Dis-

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trict Court Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., July 19 dismissed a civil lawsuit brought by former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson 4th. The suit, filed in July 2006, alleged that a number of government officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby Jr.— Cheney’s former chief of staff—and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, had been involved in discussions that resulted in the leaking of Plame’s identity as a CIA covert operative in order to attack the credibility of Wilson. [See pp. 524G3, 446G3; 2006, p. 575C3] In his decision, Bates ruled that the defendants could not be held liable for damages because rebutting outside criticism was part of their duties as high-ranking government officials and was therefore protected under law. The case was dis544

missed on jurisdictional grounds and the judge did not comment on the merits of the lawsuit. Nevertheless, Bates said the allegations made by Plame and Wilson “pose important questions relating to the propriety of actions undertaken by our highest government officials.” [See 1982, p. 451D2] „

Fiscal 2008 Spending Bills House Passes Transportation-HUD Bill.

The House July 24 voted, 268–153, to approve an appropriations bill that would provide $104.4 billion in funding for the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for fiscal 2008, which would begin Oct. 1. The legislation allocated $4.1 billion more than President George W. Bush had requested in his fiscal 2008 budget, and $4.4 billion more than was enacted in fiscal 2007. The White House July 23 said Bush would veto the bill because of its cost. [See pp. 526G3, 94F3, 79E2, 78D2] The bill included $50.7 billion in discretionary spending. That was $2.8 billion more than had been requested by Bush and $4 billion more than was included in the fiscal 2007 budget, but $800 million less than the discretionary spending in the draft of the bill being considered by the Senate. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would receive $14.6 billion, $545 million more than Bush had requested and $140 more than the amount included in the fiscal 2007 budget. The House legislation would allocate $40.2 billion for highway programs, $631 million more than Bush’s request and $1.1 billion more than enacted the previous year. The Community Development Fund, which funded the construction of housing in low-income areas, would receive $4.2 billion, $1.1 billion more than the administration’s request and $408 million more than enacted the previous year. A program aimed at revitalizing decaying public housing projects, HOPE VI, would receive $120 million, $21 million more than in fiscal 2007; Bush had proposed eliminating the program. Conservatives Attack Earmarks—There was contentious debate over numerous earmarks inserted in the bill by individual representatives. A group of fiscal conservatives, led by Reps. Jeff Flake (R, Ariz.) and Jeb Hensarling (R, Texas), proposed amendments striking many of the earmarks. That forced the sponsors of those earmarks to take the floor to defend them. [See p. 397E3] The House voted, 268–158, to approve an amendment offered by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D, Fla.) that would stop the FAA from consolidating large air traffic control centers, as the administration had proposed in 2006. The House also adopted by voice vote an amendment offered by Peter DeFazio (D, Ore.) that blocked funding for a program allowing some Mexican trucking companies to operate beyond delineated

commercial zones on the U.S.-Mexican border. The House voted, 220–207, against an amendment proposed by Rep. Barney Frank (D, Mass.) that would have barred HUD from enforcing provisions of a law requiring public housing residents to perform community service. Legislators also defeated several Republican-sponsored amendments that would have cut funding for Amtrak, the nation’s passenger rail service. „

Economy Consumer Prices Rose 0.1% in July. The Labor Department Aug. 15 reported that its consumer price Inflation (CPI) index (CPI), July 2007 0.1% which tracked Previous Month 0.2% prices paid for 12-Month Increase 2.4% consumer goods by all urban consumers, grew 0.1% in July after adjustment for seasonal variation. Analysts viewed the moderate growth as an indication that inflationary pressures were relaxing. “Core” consumer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food costs, grew by 0.2% in July, which was the same as the increase seen in June. For the 12month period through July, the overall unadjusted inflation rate was 2.4%. [See p. 464F1] Unadjusted for seasonal variation, the CPI for all urban consumers stood at 208.299% of its 1982–84 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982–84 would have cost $208.30 in July. „ Housing Starts Fell 6.1% in July. The Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Aug. 16 reported jointly that the rate of housing starts in July was 1.38 million units, annualized and adjusted for seasonal variation. That was 6.1% below the revised rate for June of 1.47 million units. Building permits were issued in July at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.37 million units, 2.8% below June’s revised rate of 1.41 million. [See p. 498D1] „ Leading Indicators Increased 0.4% in July.

The Conference Board business research organization Aug. 20 reported that its composite index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of future economic activity, rose by 0.4% in July, to 138.1. It had decreased a revised 0.3% in June, the board reported. The index’s base level of 100 reflected conditions in 1996. Six of the 10 indicators in July—most notably in consumer expectations, vendor performance and average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance—were “positive” contributors. Three indicators were “negative,” led by housing permits. [See p. 464B3] „ Industrial Production Grew 0.3% in July.

The Federal Reserve Aug. 15 reported that its industrial production index grew 0.3% in July, following a revised 0.6% increase in June. The overall index now stood at 113.9% of its 2002 base average, up from its revised level of 113.5% the previous month. FACTS ON FILE

Manufacturing rose 0.6% in July, due largely to increases in production of both durable and nondurable goods. The output of utilities was down 2.1%, and mining output grew 0.7%. U.S. factories, mines and utilities operated at 81.9% of their total capacity. [See p. 464F2] „ Retail Sales Rose 0.3% in July. The Commerce Department Aug. 13 reported the value of retail sales in July at $376.1 billion, after seasonal adjustment. That was 0.3% above the revised figure for June. Analysts suggested that high gasoline prices and weakness in the housing market contributed to the slow growth in consumer spending. [See 464F3] Other News—In other economic news: † The Commerce Department Aug. 13 reported that the value of business inventories at the end of June was $1.41 trillion after seasonal adjustment, up 0.4% from the revised value at the end of May. The ratio of inventories to sales—a measure of how long it would take businesses to unload their inventories at the current sales pace— was 1.27. [See p. 464G3] † The Conference Board July 31 reported that its index of consumer confidence jumped to 112.6 in July, from a revised level of 105.3 in June. The index’s base level of 100 reflected consumer confidence in 1985. [See p. 464E3] „

Mergers & Acquisitions Giant Offshore Drilling Companies Merge.

Transocean Inc. and GlobalSantaFe Corp., the world’s largest offshore oil and gas drilling companies, announced July 23 that they were merging. While both Houston, Texas–based companies described the deal as a merger between two equals, the deal was technically a $18 billion takeover of GlobalSantaFe by Transocean. The new company would have 146 rigs and a market value of $51.5 billion. [See 2006, p. 949G2; 2003, p. 721B3] Under the terms of the deal, Transocean would buy GlobalSantaFe with no premium on GlobalSantaFe’s latest stock price. Transocean shareholders reportedly would own 66% of the consolidated company, and GlobalSantaFe shareholders would own 34%. The new company would buy back $15 billion worth of shares from shareholders. In recent years, offshore drilling companies had experienced a boom in revenue. As oil prices rose and older reserves dried up, oil companies sought new reserves, which sharply increased the demand for offshore rigs that tapped oil from remote locations. Rents for deep-water oil rigs had risen to $500,000 a day, an estimated 13% increase from a year earlier. On the day the deal was announced, the companies said they had a combined $33 billion worth of pending orders. Analysts predicted that the deal would lead to more mergers among offshore drilling companies, as larger companies could better afford the costs of buying or building massive offshore rigs and better absorb losses if oil prices fell. „ August 23, 2007

AFRICA

South Africa Officials Plead Guilty to Apartheid-Era Crime.

Two apartheid-era security officials, Adriaan Vlok, a former minister of law and order, and Johann van der Merwe, a former police chief, Aug. 17 pleaded guilty in Pretoria High Court to the attempted murder of anti-apartheid activist Rev. Frank Chikane in 1989. Chikane, then the general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, had become severely ill after apartheid state security agents laced his underwear with nerve toxin. Three lower-level security police officers also pleaded guilty that day. Vlok and van der Merwe each received 10-year suspended prison sentences, under a plea deal reached with prosecutors, and the other officers got five-year suspended sentences. [See 1999, p. 825D2; 1996, p. 1010A2; 1989, p. 502G3] Vlok, 70, became the only senior minister from the apartheid system of white minority rule to be convicted of crimes against anti-apartheid activists. Under the plea bargain, he reportedly agreed to aid prosecutors looking into other apartheidera crimes. In 1996, Vlok had testified before the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) about a series of church bombings, becoming the only apartheidera cabinet minister to appear before the body. He received amnesty for those crimes. However, he did not apply for amnesty for his role in the Chikane case, opening the door for South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority to press formal charges. In 2006, Vlok had publicly apologized to Chikane, and, in a highly symbolic act of contrition, washed his feet. Vlok in an Aug. 17 statement said he had not sought amnesty from the TRC in the Chikane case because the government at the time had refused to supply the necessary information for an application. Chikane, who was currently a top adviser to President Thabo Mbeki of the African National Congress (ANC) party, had said he had forgiven Vlok and did not wish him to be sent to prison. After the suspended sentences were announced Aug. 17, Chikane said, “I’m pleased that this thing is over and that we can move forward.” The prosecution of Vlok and his codefendants, who had been indicted July 16, sparked debate in South Africa over whether apartheid-era cases should be pursued, or if it would be better for reconciliation in the country if such prosecutions were stopped. Dirk van Eck, a white man whose wife and two children had been killed in 1985 by a land mine planted by the ANC, July 30 launched a campaign to press for charges against ANC leaders for apartheidera crimes, unless cases against the former security services were dropped. The ANC had been the leading resistance group in the apartheid era. De Klerk Issues Denial—Former South African President F.W. de Klerk July 26 at

a news conference in Cape Town denied reports that he had been involved in the attempted murder of Chikane and other crimes when he served as president from 1989 to 1994, and in his earlier role as a member of the state security cabinet. De Klerk had been the last white president under the apartheid system. He had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 along with his successor, Nelson Mandela, for orchestrating the end of apartheid. The Johannesburg Sunday Times July 22 had reported that Vlok had implicated de Klerk in the attempt on Chikane’s life and in other crimes. De Klerk had previously claimed that any crimes committed during his time in government had been carried out without his knowledge by rogue elements of the state security apparatus. [See 2003, p. 565C1; 1997, p. 634B1] Another notorious apartheid-era security operative, Eugene de Kock, who was currently serving a 212-year sentence for the crimes he committed, had also implicated de Klerk in various crimes, the Economist reported Aug. 2. „

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AMERICAS

Brazil Alleged Colombian Drug Kingpin Arrested.

Brazilian federal police Aug. 7 arrested alleged Colombian drug trafficker Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, also known as “Chupeta,” in Aldeia da Serra, Sao Paulo state. Ramirez Abadia, 44, was accused of managing the shipment of several hundred tons of cocaine to Europe and the U.S. from Colombia, and of involvement in the murder of several police officers and informants. The U.S. State Department in 2004 had issued a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of leaders of the Norte del Valle drug cartel to which Ramirez Abadia was linked. [See 2006, p. 800E3] The U.S. State Department Aug. 8 said the U.S. planned to file an extradition request with the Brazilian Supreme Court. However, Colombia’s chief federal prosecutor, Mario Iguaran, the same day said Colombia was considering seeking Ramirez Abadia’s extradition. Brazilian authorities had reportedly relied on voice recognition technology to identify Ramirez Abadia, who had undergone extensive plastic surgery in efforts to disguise himself. Law enforcement officials raided 22 locations in six states, seizing luxury homes, cars, yachts and almost $1 million in cash during their operations. Colombian law enforcement officials Aug. 14 said they had arrested one of Ramirez Abadia’s associates, Jhon Marroquin, in the Colombian city of Cali. Marroquin had been accused of linking Colombian drug traffickers with Mexican smugglers. The U.S. Treasury Department Aug. 15 said it had frozen several assets in the U.S. that had been linked to Ramirez Abadia. „ 545

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Canada Harper Overhauls Cabinet. Prime Minister

Stephen Harper Aug. 14 appointed a new cabinet, most notably replacing Defense Minister Gordon O’Connor with former Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay. O’Connor was shifted to the position of revenue minister, a relatively minor role in the cabinet. Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, also announced nine other new cabinet members, all of whom were sworn in that day at a ceremony in Ottawa, Canada’s capital. Harper said his government would “continue to provide the same strong and decisive leadership that Canadians have come to expect.” [See p. 17D3] The Defense Ministry shift was seen as a response to heavy criticism of Harper’s administration regarding the deployment of Canadian troops in Afghanistan as part of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) force fighting a Taliban insurgency. Canada in 2002 had begun the deployment of some 2,300 military personnel to Afghanistan, but public support for the mission had waned as the number of Canadian soldiers killed had grown, to 69 as of Aug. 23. [See 2006, p. 769G2] Members of the opposition in March had begun calling for O’Connor’s resignation after reports emerged of Canadian forces torturing Afghan detainees, or handing them over to Afghan police, who then tortured them. [See p. 195D1] Harper also named Maxime Bernier, the former industry minister, as the new foreign minister, while giving former Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice the industry portfolio. Harper’s new cabinet consisted of 26 ministers and five secretaries of state. Stephane Dion, leader of the opposition Liberal Party, criticized Harper’s cabinet moves as an attempt to hide his administration’s failures. He called on MacKay and Bernier to inform NATO that Canadian troops would not stay in Afghanistan past a planned February 2009 withdrawal date. „

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Looting Widespread After Earthquake. Peruvian President Alan Garcia Perez Aug. 18 said he would dispatch additional military forces to areas of the country decimated by an earthquake that struck three days earlier. Widespread looting and armed robbery had been reported in the hard-hit towns of Pisco, Ica, Chincha Alta and Canete, all of which were located near the coast south of Lima, Peru’s capital. [See p. 531B1] Defense Minister Allan Wagner Tizon said an additional 600 troops sent to restore order in the area would raise the total number of troops there to 1,000. Officials said the disorder had been exacerbated by the escape of prisoners from a jail whose walls had collapsed during the quake. Garcia Aug. 17 said the distribution of aid to those in need of food, water, clothing and shelter had been slow, but said he expected “a situation approaching normality” within 10 days. Many Peruvians and mem546

bers of the opposition criticized Garcia’s government for failing to quickly distribute an adequate supply of needed items. Government officials said they had received some $40 million in international pledges of aid since the earthquake struck. Garcia Aug. 19 pledged that the government would lead the rebuilding of Pisco, where an estimated 85% of total housing had been destroyed. „

Venezuela Chavez Tours South America, Strikes Deals.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias Aug. 6–10 toured Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Ecuador, meeting with the leaders of those countries and making a number of financial and energy deals. Analysts said many of the deals were reflective of Chavez’s strategy to cement support among South American nations using funds garnered through Venezuela’s lucrative state-run oil industry. His trip was also designed to further his plans for Venezuela’s entry into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc. Chavez also attacked the policies of the U.S. several times during his travels. [See p. 484F2] Chavez Aug. 6 arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, to meet with Argentine President Nestor Kirchner. Venezuela’s government that day announced that Venezuela had purchased $500 million in Argentine bonds, and planned to purchase additional bonds worth up to another $500 million. Chavez Aug. 7 said the bond purchases would help keep Argentina independent of the influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the country, and also help fund a planned joint natural gas plant. Argentina in 2006 had finished repaying a $9.6 billion debt to the IMF. Kirchner Aug. 7 said he fully supported Venezuela’s accession to Mercosur. The legislatures of Uruguay and Argentina had already approved Venezuela’s Mercosur entry, but lawmakers in Brazil and Paraguay had yet to do so. However, Chavez’s visit renewed concerns among Argentine Jewish leaders regarding his relationship with Iran. Chavez during his tenure as president had cultivated a close relationship with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the dismay of Jewish leaders. Iran had been suspected of ties to the 1994 bombing of an Argentine Jewish community center that killed 85 people. Ahmadinejad had called for the destruction of Israel, and had suggested that the Holocaust had never occurred. [See 2006, p. 964E1] Though Kirchner and Chavez had a relatively warm relationship, tension between the two had increased after the Aug. 4 discovery of a Venezuelan businessman attempting to enter Argentina with $800,000 in cash. The discovery had prompted speculation about corrupt dealings by one or both governments, though it was unclear what the money had been intended for. Chavez Aug. 6 denied any links to the cash. [See p. 531B2]

Uruguay, Ecuador Promised Energy Aid—

Chavez Aug. 8 met with Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez in Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital. Chavez said the two leaders had signed an “energy security treaty” that would guarantee Uruguay would receive Venezuelan oil and gas for decades. Chavez also pledged to help Uruguay expand capacity at its only oil refinery. Chavez Aug. 9 met with Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa in Quito, Ecuador’s capital. Correa and Chavez that day signed an agreement for Venezuela to aid Ecuador in the construction of a $5 billion oil refinery. Meets With Morales, Kirchner—Chavez Aug. 10 met with Bolivian President Evo Morales Aima and Kirchner in the southern Bolivian town of Tarija. The three leaders agreed to split the cost of a gas-separation plant to be built in Bolivia, near the Argentine border. Chavez also during the meeting suggested constructing a gas pipeline between Venezuela and Argentina that would pass through Bolivia. Morales and Chavez that day also signed an agreement to establish Petroandina, a joint operation between the countries’ state-run oil firms, Venezuela’s Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) and Bolivia’s Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB). Caribbean Oil Pledges Extended— The 14 member-nations of Petrocaribe Aug. 11 met in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, for their annual meeting. Members of the group were able to receive Venezuelan oil at a steep discount. Nicaragua became the 15th member of the group, with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra attending the summit. Chavez at the meeting also proposed constructing an underwater natural gas pipeline from Venezuela to Cuba and other Caribbean nations. „

Other Americas News Hurricane Dean Batters Caribbean, Mexico.

Hurricane Dean, the first major storm of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, Aug. 17–22 battered several Caribbean islands and Mexico, peaking as a Category 5 storm on the Saffir-Sampson scale of intensity, with winds of up to 165 miles per hour (265 kmph). The storm was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall since record-keeping began in the 1850s, but it took a route that largely avoided heavily populated areas, minimizing casualties. As of Aug. 23, twenty-two people were reported killed in Mexico, Haiti, Jamaica and other Caribbean countries. [See p. 382D2; 2006, p. 735E2] Observers said early action by government officials had also helped minimize the impact of the storm, which nonetheless caused more than $1.5 billion in insured losses, according to early estimates. Some 15,000 people in Mexico’s Quintana Roo state lost their homes in the hurricane. Hurricane Dean Aug. 17 swept through the eastern Caribbean Sea, destroying property on several small islands and killFACTS ON FILE

ing at least three people. The storm’s center Aug. 19–20 skirted just south of Jamaica, but still lashed the island with strong winds, heavy rains and a nine-foot (threemeter) storm surge that caused heavy flooding and mudslides. Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller Aug. 20 declared a monthlong state of emergency in the country to help deal with fallout from the storm, and try to prevent looting. The storm Aug. 21 made landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 5 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph and gusts of up to 200 mph. After reaching land, the hurricane was soon downgraded to Category 1 status. The storm’s path led its eye south of major tourist areas, such as Cancun, but parts of the peninsula still suffered significant damage. The storm later that day moved into the Gulf of Mexico. Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico’s state-run oil company, Aug. 19 had evacuated thousands of workers from its Gulf of Mexico oil fields as a preventive measure. Pemex Aug. 20 said it had shut down production on more than 400 oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Dean Aug. 22 again made landfall in Mexico in a sparsely populated area of Veracruz state as a Category 2 storm, after crossing the Gulf of Mexico. The storm later that day was downgraded to a tropical storm, and then to a tropical depression. „ North American Leaders Attend Summit.

U.S. President George W. Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Aug. 20–21 attended a summit in the resort town of Montebello, east of Ottawa, Canada’s capital. The leaders during the meeting reportedly discussed trade and other economic issues, immigration, border security, drug trafficking, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military mission in Afghanistan. However, no significant policy initiatives were announced at the summit’s conclusion. [See 2006, pp. 552D1, 261D3] Talks between the leaders were cut short so Calderon could return to Mexico to deal with fallout from Hurricane Dean, which Aug. 20 had crossed the Yucatan Peninsula and again made landfall in central Mexico on Aug. 22. [See p. 546E3] Harper, Bush Meet for Bilateral Talks—

Harper and Bush Aug. 20 in bilateral talks discussed new U.S. rules requiring travelers crossing the U.S.-Canada border to carry passports. When that requirement was put into effect for air travelers, it had caused a significant backlog in the issuing of passports in both the U.S. and Canada. The rules were set to expand to include land and sea crossings in 2008. Harper and Bush at their meeting also discussed the issue of Arctic sovereignty. The issue had moved to the forefront of northern countries’ foreign policy agendas, as warmer temperatures were expected to open up new shipping routes and spur exploration for oil and gas. Canada disputed the U.S.’s claim that the Northwest PasAugust 23, 2007

sage waterway through Canada’s northern islands belonged to international waters. [See p. 523D2] Harper and Bush in their talks also addressed Canada’s deployment of some 2,500 military personnel to Afghanistan as part of a NATO force there. Harper reportedly said he was committed to maintaining a force in Afghanistan until at least February 2009, but that Canada’s Parliament would have to define “what the mission will be” after that date. Bush, Calderon Discuss Drug Trade—

In separate bilateral talks held Aug. 20, Bush and Calderon discussed plans for the U.S. to support a crackdown on drug trafficking in Mexico. Shortly after their talks concluded, Calderon announced that he would leave earlier than planned on Aug. 21 to deal with the effects of Hurricane Dean. Bush at an Aug. 21 press conference said he and Calderon had begun talks on developing a U.S. aid package to combat Mexican drug production and smuggling efforts, but that further discussions on the issue were warranted. However, he said the program would not be modeled after Plan Colombia, a multibillion-dollar antidrug aid package that had included military and intelligence aid to Colombia. Bush said the aid package would not include the presence of U.S. military forces in Mexico. Bush in his remarks lauded the controversial 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying it had “yielded prosperity” for all three countries. Three of the leading Democratic presidential candidates—Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.)—had criticized NAFTA in its current form for failing to adequately protect U.S. workers. The three leaders also dismissed rumors that their administrations had been secretly planning to construct a superhighway from the Canadian province of Manitoba, through the U.S., to Mexico. „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

Papua New Guinea Somare Reelected Prime Minister. Papua

New Guinea’s parliament Aug. 13 elected Sir Michael Somare to a second consecutive five-year term as prime minister, his fourth term overall since Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia in 1975. In elections that had begun June 30, Somare’s National Alliance party won just 27 of parliament’s 109 seats, but led a coalition of smaller parties that held 59 additional seats, enough to form a government. [See 2005, p. 509B3; 2002, p. 624D3] Somare, 71, had been credited with helping to economically revitalize Papua New Guinea, whose gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to grow 5.5% in 2007. However, he had drawn criticism from Australia in his previous term for refusing to release a secret report on the escape of Julian Moti from Papua New Guinean custody. Moti had controversially been appointed attorney general of the Solomon Islands in 2006, despite that fact that he was wanted by

Australia on charges of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl. (Moti was formally sworn in July 10.) Somare claimed he was not involved in Moti’s escape, but copies of the report leaked to the media recommended that the prime minister face criminal charges. [See 2006, p. 869D1] Australia was Papua New Guinea’s biggest aid donor; it gave more than A$350 million (US$302 million) to the country annually. „

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Thailand Voters Approve New Constitution. Voters

in Thailand Aug. 19 approved a new draft constitution backed by the military government, in the country’s first-ever national referendum. The charter passed with 57.6% of the vote; voter turnout was estimated at 57.6%. The vote was the first since Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra had been deposed in a September 2006 coup. A military junta had taken control of Thailand following the coup. [See p. 547G3; 2006, p. 721A1] The new constitution was Thailand’s 18th in 75 years. It transferred certain powers from the president to the judiciary, and created a senate that would be half appointed. It replaced a 1997 charter intended to foster democracy after years of military interference in the government. Analysts suggested that the new document was intended to make it more difficult for future prime ministers to consolidate power in the manner of Thaksin, whose Thai Rak Thai party had dominated government for six years and won the first single party parliamentary majority in Thai history. [See 1997, p. 777D2] The constitution would also grant increased political influence to the military and elite members of the government bureaucracy at the expense of poor, rural voters in northeastern Thailand, once Thai Rak Thai’s central voting bloc. Thai Rak Thai had been dissolved in May by a Thai court. Thaksin and 110 of its members were barred from participating in politics for five years for violating election laws. [See p. 366A3] Under the provisions of the referendum, if the constitution had failed to pass, members of the junta would have been able to select any of Thailand’s previous constitutions, amend the document as they saw fit, and then institute it, without a vote, as the law of the land. Nevertheless, 63% of voters in the northeastern provinces voted against the constitution, in what analysts viewed as a sign of a continued divide between rural and urban Thailand. Interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont had announced the government’s intention to hold parliamentary elections in December, it was reported Aug. 20. „

Arrest Warrants Issued For Thaksin, Wife.

The supreme court of Thailand Aug. 14 issued warrants for the arrest of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 58, and his wife, Pojamarn Shinawatra, 50, after they failed to appear in court to face corruption charges. The case stemmed from 547

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Pojamarn’s $25 million purchase in 2003 of land in Bangkok, the capital, from Thailand’s central bank. Thaksin and Pojamarn had been charged June 19 under an anti-corruption law that forbade a husband or wife from signing a contract with a government division under the supervision of their spouse. [See pp. 547B3, 468F3, 469F3] Thaksin and Pojamarn had been living in exile since a September 2006 coup that drove Thaksin from office. Thaksin’s Thailand-based assets were frozen in June by a committee ruling on separate corruption charges. Thailand’s military-controlled government had ordered Thaksin, who was living in Britain, to return to face charges by June 29, and had threatened to extradite him if he did not comply. However, political analysts suggested that Thailand’s ruling military junta were unlikely to successfully extradite Thaksin and Pojamarn, and that the charges might have been intended to dissuade Thaksin from returning to rally his supporters. [See p. 366A3] In an interview with the Financial Times published July 30, Thaksin said he was unlikely to return to face charges, and suggested that he feared for his safety in a military-ruled Thailand. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

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Six Italians Killed, Mafia Feud Suspected.

Six Italian men were shot dead early Aug. 15 in Duisburg, a city in western Germany, north of Düsseldorf. Italian officials said the murders appeared to be part of a feud between two clans that belonged to the organized crime network in the Calabria region of southern Italy, known as the ’Ndrangheta, which was distinct from the Sicilian Cosa Nostra Mafia. The feud dated to 1991. [See 2006, p. 536B3] The slain men, whose ages ranged from 16 to 39, were gunned down as they left a pizzeria. German police said two suspects were seen running from the scene of the crime. The victims were all linked to one of the feuding ’Ndrangheta clans, the PelleRomeo, while the killers were believed to be members of the other clan, the StrangioNirta. Italian officials said the attack was the first time that an Italian Mafia vendetta had led to revenge killings outside the country. One of the men killed in Duisburg, Marco Marmo, 25, was suspected in the December 2006 killing of the wife of Giovanni Nirta, a leader of the Strangio-Nirta clan. There were about 530,000 Italians living in Germany, making them the secondlargest immigrant group there, after Turks. Italian Mafia outfits reportedly were active in money laundering and drug trafficking in Germany. The ’Ndrangheta was believed to dominate the European cocaine trade. According to the Italian government, the ’Ndrangheta had become the most profitable Mafia organization, thanks mainly to its narcotics activities, with operations worth about 37 billion euros ($50 billion.). „ 548

Long-Range

Great Britain Army Ends 38-Year Northern Ireland Mission.

The British army Aug. 1 ended its 38-yearold mission in Northern Ireland, known as Operation Banner. The operation had begun in 1969. At its height, some 27,000 troops were deployed to support the police in confronting the sectarian conflict between Roman Catholics, who wanted to end British rule in the province, and proBritish Protestants. [See p. 300B2] The troops had initially been sent to protect the Catholic community, but came to be seen by Catholics as a repressive force after the 1972 “Bloody Sunday” massacre by British soldiers of 14 unarmed Catholics during a civil rights protest in Derry. (An official British inquiry into the massacre, opened in 1998, had yet to report its findings.) [See 2002, p. 1040B1] Violence in the province had mostly ceased after the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. In May, Catholic and Protestant parties had taken office in a new power-sharing local government. With the military operation’s end, about 5,000 British troops would remain in a garrison in Northern Ireland, but the police would have full responsibility for security in the province. „

Russia Bomb Derails Train. A bomb Aug. 13 exploded on a busy railway track between Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, derailing a passenger train and injuring at least 60 people. Several of the passengers were reportedly seriously injured, but no one was killed. Russian security officials said that they were treating the incident as an act of terrorism, but that no groups had yet claimed responsibility. Police Aug. 14 resaid they had made composite sketches of two people said to have been seen acting suspiciously near the tracks. [See 2005, p. 425B1] The bombing occurred near the town of Malaya Vishera, about 300 miles (480 km) north of Moscow and 100 miles southeast of St. Petersburg. The bomb, a homemade device, had been planted along the train’s approach to a bridge. However, the momentum of the train, reportedly moving at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour (75 mph), allowed it to reach the other side of the bridge before derailing. Nikolai Patrushev, director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Aug. 14 suggested that the bombing was linked to separatist violence in Chechnya and elsewhere in the Caucasus region. Terrorist incidents in Russia had declined in recent years, but Patrushev cautioned that “the threat of terrorism and extremism had not yet been eliminated.” He said that security measures would be intensified with the approach of parliamentary elections in December, and a presidential election in March 2008. A bomb had derailed a train outside Moscow in 2005, in an attack blamed on Russian nationalist extremists. „

Bomber

Flights

Resume.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Aug. 17 announced that Russia’s military had resumed long-range patrols by its strategic bombers for the first time in 15 years. Putin said that Russia in 1992 had “unilaterally” halted such flights, which were a regular Soviet practice during the Cold War, but complained that “not everyone followed our example,” in an apparent reference to the U.S. and its allies. [See p. 459E1] The announcement was the latest in a series of moves by Russia to assert its global military presence, and respond to what it claimed were threats posed by the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In particular, Russia vehemently objected to U.S. plans to base parts of an antimissile defense system in Eastern Europe. [See below] Putin said that 14 Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers had taken off on 20-hour patrol missions at midnight that day, and that “such tours of duty will be conducted regularly.” The aircraft were shadowed by NATO jets. U.S. officials downplayed the significance of Putin’s announcement, suggesting that the flights were within the range of normal military exercises a country might choose to undertake. Russian Air Force Maj. Gen. Pavel Androsov Aug. 9 said that a pair of Tu-95 bombers had flown near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, site of a major U.S. naval base. He said that U.S. fighter jets had intercepted the bomber, but U.S. officials denied that claim. The resumption of the bomber flights came after the commander of Russia’s navy, Adm. Vladimir Masorin, Aug. 3 suggested that Russia should reestablish a permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea, which it had not maintained since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russian and foreign experts suggested that it would not be practical for Russia’s navy to establish such a presence soon, and that Masorin’s comments should be taken primarily as symbolic of Russia’s desire to exert renewed influence in the Middle East. Putin in a July 25 address to military and security service officers called for an “allround strengthening of our military forces” and an increase in foreign intelligence activities in response to “global threats.” He complained that the U.S. had failed to respond to Russia’s proposal of an alternative to the U.S.’s missile defense plans. The announcements also followed a Russian submarine mission to the North Pole that dramatized the country’s claims to sovereignty in the Arctic region. [See p. 523E2] „ Neo-Nazi ‘Execution’ Video Investigated.

Russian law-enforcement officials Aug. 14 said they were investigating the origin of a video recording posted on the Internet two days earlier that appeared to depict two killings carried out by a neo-Nazi group. The video purported to have been made by a previously unknown group called the National Socialist Party of Rus (Rus was the name of an ancient people, and the origin of the name of Russia). It showed one man FACTS ON FILE

being beheaded and another shot. [See 2004, p. 530A3] The video described the two men as “colonists from Dagestan and Tajikistan,” and called for all those of Asian origin or from the Caucasus to be expelled from Russia. (Dagestan was a Russian republic in the Caucasus, and Tajikistan was a former Soviet republic in Central Asia.) Authorities Aug. 15 said they had detained one man in Maykop, in the Adygeya region of southern Russia, in connection with the posting of the video. The SOVA Center, an independent anti–hate crime group, said the footage appeared to depict a real event, although interior ministry officials Aug. 21 said it remained a possibility that the video was an edited montage. Russia had seen an increase in violence against immigrants and ethnic minorities in recent months. The SOVA Center had tallied at least 310 racially motivated crimes from January through July, including 37 killings, which it said was a 22% increase from the previous year. Following a spate of attacks against foreigners, the I.M. Sechenov Medical Academy in Moscow April 19 had advised its numerous foreign students to remain indoors the following day, Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler’s birthday, to avoid run-ins with neo-Nazi groups. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin July 26 had signed a new law expanding the definition of extremism and broadening authorities’ power to act against groups designated as extremist. Critics, however, said that the law was intended to stifle legitimate political opposition, and that Putin’s government was itself manipulating nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment. [See p. 231A2] The government April 1 had implemented a decree banning non-Russian citizens from selling produce in markets. Putin June 21 had endorsed a new manual for the teaching of social studies and history with a pronounced nationalist approach. Also, large demonstrations in favor of the government on foreign policy and other issues were regularly staged by Nashi, a government-backed patriotic youth group whose name meant “ours.” [See 2005, p. 288C3] „

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Iraq Trial Over 1991 Shiite Revolt Begins. Iraqi

prosecutors in the high tribunal in Baghdad, the capital, Aug. 21 began the trial of Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali for his alleged gassing of Kurdish villages in the 1980s. In the current case, Majid, a cousin of former President Saddam Hussein, was accused of playing a leading role in the brutal suppression of a Shiite uprising in southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, in which tens of thousands were killed. Fourteen other defendants were also accused of playing roles in the suppression. The trial only took into account offenses committed in Basra and Amara provinces; August 23, 2007

separate trials would cover other areas. [See p. 423A1] A U.S. embassy spokesman said the trial was the first that had been largely organized by the Iraqi government, rather than by the U.S. Majid and two other defendants—Sultan Hashem Ahmed al-Taie, Hussein’s former defense minister, and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, the former armed forces deputy director of operations—in June had been sentenced to death for a 1988 massacre of ethnic Kurds. They were appealing the convictions. Iraqi officials Aug. 17 said Interpol arrest warrants had been circulated for Hussein’s eldest daughter, Raghad Saddam Hussein, and his first wife, Sajida Khairalla Tulfa. Charges were not made public. Raghad Hussein was currently living in Jordan, and Tulfa was in Qatar. „

West Bank and Gaza Strip Abbas, Olmert Meet in Jericho. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Aug. 6 met in the West Bank city of Jericho for a three-hour summit ahead of a proposed U.S.-backed peace conference scheduled for later in the year. It was the first meeting between senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the West Bank since the most recent Palestinian intifada—or uprising—against Israel began in 2000. [See pp. 491C3, 492G1] Olmert after the meeting said, “We spoke about fundamental issues, which are the basis for establishing a Palestinian state.” Olmert’s media adviser, David Baker, said those issues were “the steps needed to be taken in order to establish a Palestinian state, such as the establishment of institutions and security mechanisms.” He said the discussions had not encompassed sensitive “final status” issues such as the borders of the proposed Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the situation of Palestinian refugees. Palestinian officials before the meeting had pressured Israel to take up those issues, but the Israeli government had refused. EU Fuel Aid Restored— The European Union Aug. 22 agreed to resume funding for fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip’s sole power plant, after having announced the previous day that it was stopping all fuel subsidies. It renewed the funding after receiving assurances that Hamas, a militant Islamist group that now controlled the Gaza Strip, would not receive any of the aid money. The EU Aug. 16–20 had suspended funding, leaving thousands of Palestinians without power for days, after it received information that Hamas was planning to tax electricity bills, transferring the money to its own accounts. Israel Aug. 17 had blocked fuel shipments through one of Gaza’s main border crossings due to security concerns. It had reopened the crossing Aug. 19, but shipments were not immediately restarted due to the aid embargo. The foreign affairs select committee of the British House of Commons Aug. 13 recommended in a report that Western na-

tions should negotiate with “moderate elements within Hamas” in order to encourage the creation of a coalition government with the rival Fatah movement, and said sanctions had been “counterproductive.” Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni the next day warned that such a move would be a “big mistake.” The United Nations Relief and Works Agency deputy chief, Filippo Grandi, Aug. 9 warned that Israel’s closure of major crossings into Gaza since the Hamas takeover in June risked turning Gaza into “a virtually 100 percent aid dependent, closed down and isolated community within a matter of months or weeks.”

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Israeli Strike Kills Six Hamas Gunmen—

Israeli forces Aug. 20 killed six armed men in a missile strike near the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Hamas identified the men as part of its military wing. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the men had fired rockets at Israel earlier that day, a charge Hamas denied. In separate strikes the next day, Israeli troops killed three members of the Islamic Jihad militant group and two boys in the Gaza Strip, and one Palestinian in the West Bank who Israel said was an armed militant. Abbas Aug. 22 condemned the attacks as “a massacre” that “casts doubt about Israel’s real intentions towards the peace process.” Israeli forces Aug. 14 killed six Palestinians in operations in the Gaza Strip. They said most of those killed were members of Hamas’s military wing, but Palestinian sources said civilians had also been killed. Israeli troops Aug. 8 shot and killed three Hamas fighters, one of whom was later identified as a member of Hamas’s paramilitary police, the Executive Force. The Israeli military Aug. 4 killed two Islamic Jihad members in an air strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. A military spokeswoman said the militants had been smuggling a vehicle rigged with explosives for “an imminent terrorist strike on Israel.”

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Abbas Fires Hamas Civil Servants—

Abbas, a Fatah leader, Aug. 17 had fired dozens of civil servants associated with Hamas, an official from his office said the next day. In his decree, Abbas rescinded all promotions and appointments of ministry officials and government corporation employees that had taken place between March 7 and April 15. The move was seen as severing the last ties between the two parties, which in March had formed a short-lived Hamas-led unity government but had since clashed repeatedly. Ahmed Bahar, a Hamas member and the acting speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Aug. 18 called the firings “absolutely illegal.” The Executive Force Aug. 13 violently broke up a protest by secular local leaders of the Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the Gaza Strip, after Hamas the previous day had issued a ban on unauthorized public gatherings. The protest leaders said they had been 549

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peacefully demonstrating in support of free expression. Hamas Aug. 10 arrested 15 Fatah members at a wedding in Beit Hanun in northern Gaza, prompting protests and violent clashes the next day in which at least 20 people were wounded. Settlers Evicted From Hebron— Israeli police and soldiers Aug. 7 forcibly evicted 17 Jewish settlers from the city of Hebron, in the West Bank. The settlers and hundreds of supporters resisted fiercely, and the resulting confrontations left at least 15 people injured, including 11 police officers. Twelve Israeli soldiers the previous week had been court-martialed for refusing orders to assist in the evictions on religious grounds, and received sentences of up to one month in military jail. [See p. 203C3]„

SOUTH ASIA

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Floods Kill Thousands Millions Displaced in India and Bangladesh. A

landslide caused by heavy rains Aug. 15 killed as many as 60 people in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh in India, bringing the death toll in the country caused by rains to nearly 2,000 since the monsoon season began in June. The unusually severe monsoon season had caused massive flooding in the northern and eastern parts of the country, displacing as many as 14 million people. [See p. 438A3] The monsoon and subsequent flooding affected other countries in the region as well. As many as 500 people in Bangladesh had died, and as many as five million people had been displaced. At one point, at least half of the low-lying delta country was inundated by floods. As many as 92 people had died in Nepal. Some areas experienced continuous rain for nearly three weeks at a time. Flooded rivers quickly overpowered the weak dams and embankments found in many parts of the region, destroying many nearby homes that were made of mud, thatch and other degradable materials. The floods left millions of people without access to food, drinking water and emergency supplies. Governments worked with relief agencies such as the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to airlift supplies to stranded flood victims, many of whom had camped out in elevated areas. Flooded roads and railways hampered aid agencies’ ability to reach flood victims. As the rains let up in late July, government authorities and relief agencies struggled to provide adequate medical attention to populations. Stagnant flood waters and searing temperatures threatened to spread waterborne illnesses like diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, dengue fever and encephalitis. Inadequate sewer systems in many parts of the region prevented flood waters from draining. The prevalence of carcasses of drowned animals and deadly mosquitoes contributed to fears that other epidemics could flourish. The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) Aug. 15 said as many as 110,000 people had been admitted to hospitals for water550

borne diseases contracted since late July in Bangladesh alone. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that Bangladesh needed an additional $2.5 million in medical supplies to cope with the situation, the Washington Post reported Aug. 11. UNICEF said stagnant waters presented a serious threat to nearly 11 million people in India’s Bihar state, Britain’s Financial Times newspaper reported Aug. 10. The rains and floods also destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland across the region. The World Bank Aug. 10 said it would try to directly inject cash payments into affected areas to help farmers replenish livestock and restore their land. Paying cash, as opposed to providing food and other commodities, had succeeded in revitalizing local economies in the aftermath of the tsunami that hit many parts of Asia in 2004. Monsoon rains killed thousands of people in South Asia each year, and critics blamed governments for not doing more to build infrastructure that would protect populations. India came under a particularly harsh spotlight; while its economy was growing rapidly, the monsoons showed that a vast portion of its rural population was still vulnerable to the yearly rains. The U.N. said as many as 329 people in Pakistan had been killed and 90,000 made homeless since the monsoon season began, the New York Times reported Aug. 5. „

Bangladesh Curfew Imposed to Quell Protests. Bangladesh’s caretaker government, led by Fakhruddin Ahmed, Aug. 22 imposed a curfew in the country’s six largest cities, including Dhaka, the capital. Colleges and universities throughout the country were closed down and cellular telephone service was halted. The move came in reaction to three days of violent student protests that began Aug. 20. The protests were the first major public demonstration against the government since it came to power in January. [See p. 500D3] In a televised address to the country, Ahmed said the curfew was “temporary” and necessary to “protect public life and property.” Ahmed also said “evil forces” in the political opposition had used the student protests to create “anarchy in different parts of the country.” The army appointed the caretaker government in January after weeks of violence between leading political parties had brought the country to a state of chaos. Since then, it had arrested numerous politicians and as many as 200,000 civilians, bringing criminal charges against two former prime ministers in an anticorruption purge. The government had promised it would reintroduce democratic elections by the end of 2008. The riots began Aug. 20 after a fight broke out between students at Dhaka University and military personnel stationed there. Students demanded that the army remove its troops from the campus, which it did Aug. 21. However, the protests that day grew more violent and spread to other universities in the country, as students set fire

to vehicles and clashed with police, who dispersed student mobs with tear gas and rubber bullets. The protesters at Dhaka University Aug. 22 spilled out onto the streets of the capital, prompting the government to impose the curfew. As many as 250 people were injured in the clashes, and one student was killed Aug. 22. „

India Japanese Prime Minister Abe Visits. The Indian government Aug. 21–22 hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a large delegation of Japanese businessmen and politicians. The visit was intended to forge a stronger economic and strategic partnership between the two countries, and offset the growing influence of China in the region. [See p. 490E2] Abe in a speech to India’s Parliament Aug. 22 said India was a “partner and friend,” and that a partnership between the countries would encourage the exchange of “goods, capital and knowledge.” Abe was the first Japanese leader to address the Indian Parliament, and the first foreign leader to do so since U.S. President Bill Clinton in 2000. [See 2000, p. 207E3] In a joint statement released that day, Abe and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the value of the countries’ bilateral trade would increase to $20 billion by 2010, doubling the figure for 2007. They promised a “steady and qualitative” buildup of security and defense cooperation. They also said that with their shared democratic values, the partnership would promote “peace, stability and prosperity in Asia and the world.” Toyota Motor Corp. of Japan’s chairman, Fujio Cho, told reporters in New Delhi, the Indian capital, Aug. 22 that his company hoped to introduce a new car to India’s markets, and possibly manufacture the car in India. An executive from Hitachi Ltd., the third-largest manufacturer of nuclear reactors in Japan, said his company was interested in investing in India’s nuclear sector. „

Maldives Referendum on Government Held. More than

60% of Maldivians voted Aug. 18 to adopt a presidential system of government, which would have an executive branch with strong powers. President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom had favored the presidential system. Opposition parties had pushed for a parliamentary system, in which the head of government would need the support of a legislative majority. That option received 38% of the vote. The results of the referendum were announced Aug. 19. [See 2005, p. 105E2] The referendum was a first step toward creating a new constitution, which was to be adopted in November. Gayoom, 71, had ruled the archipelago nation under an autocratic system since 1978, but promised in 2004 to reform the government after he faced public protests and criticism from human rights groups for cracking down on political opposition. He legalized the establishment of political parties in 2005, but had FACTS ON FILE

yet to adopt a new constitution or distribute power equally among various branches of government, as he had pledged. During his rule, Gayoom oversaw an economic boom in the country, as he created numerous luxury resorts and established a thriving tourism industry. The resorts alone generated 35% of the country’s $700 million gross domestic product in 2006. However, he was criticized for not dispensing that wealth evenly among the population of 300,000, half of whom lived on about $1 a day. Gayoom Aug. 19 described the results as a “massive endorsement” of his rule and announced that he would be a candidate in the country’s first multiparty presidential election, scheduled for 2008. The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party that day accused Gayoom of rigging the results and called for people to protest the government. „

Pakistan Supreme Court Allows Sharif’s Return.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court Aug. 23 ruled that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif could return to the country. Sharif had been in exile in Saudi Arabia and London since 2000, after President Pervez Musharraf agreed to release him from prison if Sharif pledged not to return to Pakistan for 10 years. Sharif at the time was serving a life sentence for corruption and other charges brought against him in 1999, when Musharraf overthrew him in a bloodless coup. [See pp. 501G1, 485B3, 339B2] Sharif was expected to return to Pakistan in time to challenge Musharraf in a presidential election to be held between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15. Sharif was the leader of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League party. Another exiled former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, had also promised to return in time for elections. However, she had met with Musharraf in July to discuss an arrangement in which they would share power, while Sharif had opposed any kind of alliance with Musharraf. The court decision was seen as an affirmation of the court’s newly won independence after its chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry was reinstated in July. Musharraf had suspended Chaudhry in March for an alleged abuse of his office, in what was widely viewed as an attempt to exert more control over the court. The Supreme Court was expected to hear cases later in the year that would challenge the constitutionality of Musharraf serving as both president and army chief. Chaudhry after his reinstatement had quickly begun issuing decisions that challenged the government’s grip on power. The government indicated in court filings Aug. 22 that it retained the right to detain Sharif if he returned to Pakistan, because he would be in violation of the original agreement made in 2000. However, the government was unable to furnish the court with the original documents that Sharif had signed. The government said the documents were being kept by a “friendly August 23, 2007

country,” which analysts speculated referred to Saudi Arabia. A Pakistan Muslim League spokesman acknowledged that the documents existed, but said they reflected an agreement between Sharif and the government of Saudi Arabia, and hence had no bearing on whether Sharif could return to Pakistan. Opposition Party Member Released—

The Supreme Court Aug. 3 ordered the release on bail of Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League. Hashmi had been convicted in 2004 of mutiny and treason after he made public a letter purportedly written by army officers that criticized Musharraf. Hashmi was serving seven counts concurrently, the longest being seven years, and was due for parole. [See 2004, p. 673D2] Government prosecutors had argued that parole should not be given to someone convicted of mutiny. The court rejected that claim and said Hashmi would be free on bail while it reviewed his case. Opposition and human rights groups had claimed that the original charges were manufactured by the government to suppress dissent. „ Al Qaeda Suspect Released. A Pakistani government spokesman Aug. 20 announced that Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a suspected member of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda, had been released from government custody without charges having been filed against him and returned to his home in Karachi. Khan had been arrested in 2004 during a joint operation conducted by British and Pakistani forces in Lahore, Pakistan. [See p. 167B2; 2004, 602F2] Khan was on a list of more than 250 people who had disappeared since 2001 after being taken into custody by Pakistan’s police or intelligence agencies. The Supreme Court was scheduled to hold hearings on his detention the day the government announced that he had been released. The court had demanded an investigation into the missing persons shortly before President Pervez Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in March. After he was reinstated in July, Chaudhry had resumed the inquiries into the status of those on the list, as well as issuing rulings challenging the government. Khan was suspected to have worked as a computer expert for Al Qaeda, sending electronic messages from commanders in Pakistan’s border regions to operatives around the world. U.S. and Pakistani officials had claimed that files found on his computer after his arrest had led to the capture of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian accused of taking part in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Ghailani was currently being held at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. [See p. 207B2] Additionally, British officials had claimed that information procured from the Khan investigation had led to the arrest of Dhiren Barot, a Briton who pled guilty in 2006 to plotting large-scale attacks in the U.S. and Britain that targeted the International Monetary Fund and World Bank

headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, among other institutions. [See 2006, p. 870B1] The Pakistani government did not reveal why Khan had not been charged for nearly three years, nor why it had decided to release him. The U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch said that since 2004, Khan had been kept in a secret prison in Lahore that was run by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. The U.S. government, which supported Musharraf, did not make an official comment. The U.S. had relied on Musharraf’s government as a partner in its fight against worldwide terrorism and had pushed Musharraf to crack down on terrorists in the border regions of Pakistan. Chaudhry Aug. 21 ordered the release of two other men held in government custody without charge, Hafiz Abdul Basit and Aleem Nasir. Basit was a Pakistani citizen arrested in the city of Faisalabad; Nasir was a German citizen seized earlier in the year as he was about to leave Pakistan for Germany. „

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SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Football QB Vick to Plead Guilty in Dog-Fighting Case.

Billy Martin, a lawyer for Atlanta Falcons star quarterback Michael Vick, Aug. 20 said his client would plead guilty to conspiracy charges related to a dog-fighting operation known as Bad Newz Kennels that had been operated on property owned by Vick in Surry County, in rural Virginia. Vick’s plea hearing was set for Aug. 27 in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va. [See p. 487F3] In mid-July, Vick, 27, and three codefendants had been indicted on federal charges of conspiracy involving competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting, and conducting the operation across state lines. Vick pleaded not guilty in late July. One of Vick’s codefendants, Tony Taylor, July 30 agreed to plead guilty to dogfighting charges in U.S. District Court in Richmond. Two other codefendants, Purnell Peace and Quanis Phillips, Aug. 17 also accepted plea agreements. In court, they described traveling with Vick to dogfights in other states, and recounted that Vick was involved in executing “approximately eight dogs that did not perform well” by methods including hanging and drowning, according to a statement by Phillips. They also said the operation was mainly funded by Vick. All three agreed to cooperate with the prosecution and testify against Vick. With his codefendants set to testify against him, and the possibility of additional federal charges looming, Vick’s lawyers reportedly advised him to accept a plea deal. Martin said his client would plead guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and conspiracy to sponsor a dog in an animal-fighting venture. Vick 551

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faced a maximum term of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine; however, legal analysts said Vick, like his codefendants, would likely receive a sentence of 12 to 18 months in prison. Martin Aug. 20 said Vick “has agreed to enter a plea of guilty…and to accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made.” Martin added, “Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter.” Martin reportedly blamed a group of Vick’s friends and family members for taking advantage of his celebrity status and then turning on him. The National Football League (NFL) had yet to rule on how it would punish Vick. There had been an intense public outcry, led by animal-rights groups, against Vick in the wake of his indictment. Also, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in recent months had started a crackdown on players’ off-thefield misconduct. Goodell in July had ordered Vick to stay away from the Falcons’ training camp while the league conducted a review of the case. Under the NFL’s personal conduct policy, a guilty plea gave Goodell the option of suspending, fining or imposing a lifetime ban on the player. In an Aug. 20 statement, the NFL said in response to Vick’s plea deal, “We totally condemn the conduct outlined in the charges, which is inconsistent with what Michael Vick previously told both our office and the Falcons.” Surry County prosecutor Gerald Poindexter Aug. 22 said he intended to pursue state charges against Vick and his codefendants. Dog-fighting was a felony under Virginia state law. R.L. White, president of the Atlanta, Ga., chapter of the NAACP civil rights organization, Aug. 22 said Vick should be allowed to return to the NFL after serving his sentence. Meanwhile, the Falcons named Vick’s backup, Joey Harrington, as their new starting quarterback. Separately, National Basketball Association (NBA) star Stephon Marbury of the New York Knicks Aug. 20 defended Vick, saying dog-fighting was a “sport” similar to deer hunting, “just behind closed doors.” Seized Dogs Face Deadline—The 53 pit bulls seized from Vick’s property in an April raid faced an Aug. 23 deadline to be either adopted or designated for euthanasia. The dogs had been kept at animal shelters in eastern Virginia since being taken from the property, and federal prosecutors had set the deadline for them to be claimed. Daphna Nachminovitch, a spokeswoman for animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Aug. 22 said the dogs were unadoptable because they had been trained to behave so aggressively, and that “euthanasia is the most humane thing for them.” Vick Loses Endorsements— Sporting goods maker Reebok International Ltd. July 27 halted the sale of all NFL products related to Vick, including replicas of his number 7 jersey. Also that day, sports trading card manufacturer Upper Deck removed Vick cards from sets to be released 552

in the fall, and removed autographed Vick goods from its online store. Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. Inc., another sports equipment and apparel maker, that day also severed its relationship with Vick. „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Theater Openings Beyond Glory. Solo show based on a book of the same

title containing interviews with a number of recipients of the U.S.’s highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Written and performed by Stephen Lang, based on the book by Larry Smith. Directed by Robert Falls. In New York City, at the Roundabout Theater Co.’s Laura Pels Theater. June 21. Dead Man’s Cell Phone. A woman enters the world of a recently deceased stranger by answering incoming calls on his cell phone. By Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Rebecca Bayla Taichman. With Polly Noonan, Rick Foucheux, Sarah Marshall, Naomi Jacobson and Jennifer Mendenhall. In Washington, D.C., at the Woolly Mammoth Theater. June 4. The Lord of the Rings. Reworked, condensed version of a lavish musical adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s trio of fantasy novels; the show had its world premiere in Toronto, Canada, in 2006. Book and lyrics by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus; music by A.R. Rahman, the Finnish folk group Varttina and Christopher Nightingale. Directed by Warchus; choreographed by Peter Darling; sets and costumes designed by Rob Howell. With Malcolm Storry, James Loye, Peter Howe, Michael Therriault and Laura Michelle Kelly. In London, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. June 19. [See 2006, p. 359D1] A Matter of Life and Death. A British airman shot down during a wartime mission miraculously survives his earthward plunge and then falls in love. Adapted by Tom Morris and Emma Rice, from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1946 British film of the same name. Directed by Rice; music by Stu Barker. With Tristan Sturrock, Lyndsey Marshal and Douglas Hodge. In London, at the Royal National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre. May 10. [See 1990, p. 132D3] Philistines. Revival of Russian dramatist Maxim Gorky’s 1902 play (his first), in a new translation by Andrew Upton, about a family whose internal conflicts mirror those of Russian society at large. Directed by Howard Davies. With Rory Kinnear, Ruth Wilson, Phil Davis and Conleth Hill. In London, at the Royal National Theatre’s Lyttelton Theatre. May 30. 10 Million Miles. Musical about a man and a woman whose relationship deepens as they drive from Florida to upstate New York. Book by Keith Bunin; music and lyrics by Patty Griffin. Directed by Michael Mayer. With Matthew Morrison, Irene Molloy, Mare Winningham and Skipp Sudduth. In New York City, at the Atlantic Theater Co.’s Linda Gross Theater. June 14. The Witches of Eastwick. First U.S. production of a musical based on John Updike’s 1984 novel (and the 1987 film made of it) about three women consorting with the devil; the show, originally mounted in London in 2000, was extensively reworked for its U.S. premiere. Book and lyrics by John Dempsey; music by Dana P. Rowe. Directed by Eric Schaeffer; choreographed by Karma Camp. With Marc Kudisch, Emily Skinner, Christiane Noll and Jacquelyn Piro Donovan. In Arlington, Va., at the Signature Theater’s Max Theater. June 15. [See 2000, p. 1058B3] Xanadu. Musical comedy, based on a 1980 film musical of the same name, about a muse on roller skates who inspires a young painter in a Los Angeles beach community. Book by Douglas Carter Beane; music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, based on the screenplay by Richard Danus and Marc Rubel. Directed by Christopher Ashley; choreographed by Dan Knechtges. With Kerry Butler, Cheyenne Jackson, Tony Roberts, Jackie Hoffman and Mary Testa. In New York City, at the Helen Hayes Theater. July 10. [See 1980, pp. 796B3, 716G3] „

People The White House Aug. 16 announced that Jenna Bush, one of President George W. Bush’s 25-year-old twin daughters, a day earlier had gotten engaged to Henry Hager, 29, a graduate student at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

They had been dating for several years, and got engaged Aug. 15 while visiting the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Hager’s father, John Hager, 70, had recently stepped down as an assistant secretary of education in the Bush administration to assume the chairmanship of the Republican Party of Virginia. From 1997 to 2001, he had been lieutenant governor of Virginia. [See p. 168A3; 2001, p. 452B2, D2] „

O B I T UA R I E S DAVIS, Art(hur), 73, bassist who excelled in both jazz and classical music; he was reportedly saxophonist John Coltrane’s bassist of choice in the 1960s and worked with such other jazz luminaries as drummer Max Roach and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie; in the 1970s, his musical career suffered after he filed a lawsuit against the New York Philharmonic contending that the orchestra had denied him a full-time position because he was black; although his suit failed, it led him to return to school and earn a doctorate in psychology in 1981; thereafter, he maintained a clinical psychology practice while working in a more limited capacity as a musician; born Dec. 5, 1933, in Harrisburg, Pa.; died July 29 at his home in Long Beach, Calif., of a heart attack; he died about two and a half weeks before Roach did. [See below] DEAVER, Michael K(eith), 69, public relations consultant who was deputy chief of staff during Republican Ronald Reagan’s first term as U.S. president (1981–85) and, as such, the person most responsible for shaping Reagan’s public image; his association with Reagan dated back to 1967, after Reagan was elected to the first of his two terms as governor of California; after leaving the White House in 1985, Deaver became a leading Washington, D.C., lobbyist; his success as a lobbyist, though spectacular, was short-lived; in late 1987, he was convicted on three of five counts of perjury for lying about his lobbying activities; he was fined $100,000, given a suspended three-year prison sentence and probation, and barred from working as a lobbyist again until the early 1990s; born April 11, 1938, in Bakersfield, Calif.; died Aug. 18 at his home in Bethesda, Md., of pancreatic cancer. [See 2005, p. 781F1; 1995, p. 262B3; Indexes 1979–89] HELMSLEY, Leona (born Leona Mindy Rosenthal), 87, second wife of New York City real

estate mogul Harry Helmsley (they were married from 1972 until his death in 1997) who became prominent as the president of, and spokesperson for, the couple’s chain of luxury hotels; at the same time, she acquired a reputation for arrogance and greed that led to her being dubbed “the queen of mean”; in 1988, she and her husband were charged with multiple counts of tax fraud; after he was found mentally unfit to stand trial, she alone was tried, in 1989; much of the testimony at that trial reinforced the public’s negative image of her; convicted of evading $1.2 million in federal income taxes, she ended up serving 18 months in prison; after her husband’s death, she sold many of the Helmsley holdings, and was recently estimated to have been worth more than $2 billion; in contrast to her public image, she was a major philanthropist; born July 4, 1920, in Marbletown, N.Y.; died Aug. 20, at her home in Greenwich, Conn., of a heart ailment. [See 2003, p. 155C2; 2001, p. 164E2; Indexes 1988–97] ROACH, Max(well Lemuel), 83, jazz percussionist who was an early, and arguably the greatest, exponent of the bebop style of drumming pioneered by Kenny Clarke in the early 1940s; among his innovations was shifting the pulse from the bass drum to the cymbals, permitting greater rhythmic complexity; in May 1953, he performed with saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianist Bud Powell and bassist Charles Mingus in Toronto, Canada, in a concert that came to viewed as bebop’s crowning moment; he was also a composer and a leader of various ensembles, some of them unorthodox, including an allpercussionists group; a social activist, he wrote music inspired by the civil rights movement, notably We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite (1960); he also composed music for dance pieces by Alvin Ailey and plays by Sam Shepard, and performed with early hiphop artists in the 1980s; born Jan. 10, 1924, in Newland, N.C.; died Aug. 16 at a hospital in New York City; no cause of death was disclosed, but he had long suffered from a neurological condition. [See 2006, p. 688A3; 1985, p. 72D3; Index 1979] „

August 23, 2007

U.S. Attorney General Gonzales Resigns After Battling Congress Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Aug. 27 announced his resignation at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. His move came after his credibility was damaged by months of clashes with congressional Democrats, and some Republicans, over the firing of several federal prosecutors in 2006. His critics had accused him of improperly politicizing the Justice Department, and of putting his personal loyalty to President George W. Bush before his responsibility to uphold the law. They had also accused him of repeatedly misleading lawmakers in his testimony about the firings and other actions under investigation. [See pp. 541A2, 477A1; 2005, p. 66A3] In his brief statement, Gonzales, 52, did not give an explanation for his resignation or address the controversies surrounding him. He referred instead to his rise from humble roots as one of the eight children of Mexican immigrants, saying, “Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father’s best days. I have lived the American dream.” He did not answer any questions from reporters. Gonzales, the first Hispanic attorney general, had taken office in February 2005, succeeding John Ashcroft. For the previous four years, he had served as Bush’s White House counsel, or chief lawyer. In that role, he had approved some of the Bush administration’s most controversial antiterrorism policies, including the use of extreme interrogation techniques, which opponents said amounted to torture. In the treatment of detainees, domestic surveillance and other matters, Gonzales had provided legal arguments for Bush’s wide-ranging expansions of executive power following Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. Gonzales had also served as Bush’s counsel when Bush was governor of Texas in the 1990s, and Bush had appointed him as Texas secretary of state and as a state Supreme Court justice. Bush Reacts—In an Aug. 27 statement at the airport in Waco, Texas, made shortly after Gonzales’s announcement, Bush said he had accepted the attorney general’s resignation “reluctantly.” He charged that Gonzales had received “months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department.” He added, “It’s sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud.” Bush said Solicitor General Paul Clement, the administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, would take over as acting attorney general when Gonzales’s resignation took effect Sept. 17. The White House said Bush would soon nominate a permanent replacement, but had not yet chosen anyone. The nominee could face difficult confirmation hearings,

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and would have less than a year and a half to serve before Bush left office. Gonzales was the last of a circle of fellow Texans who had accompanied Bush to the White House in 2001. Another key member of that group, Bush’s longtime chief political adviser Karl Rove, had resigned two weeks earlier. Rove had been cited in testimony and documents as one of the planners of the prosecutor purge. [See p. 524G3] According to the White House, Gonzales had telephoned Bush Aug. 24 to say he had decided to resign. Bush Aug. 26 had hosted Gonzales and his wife for lunch at the president’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. U.S. Attorneys’ Firings Probed—The new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate over the past seven months had investigated Gonzales’s role in the purge of federal prosecutors in 2006. He and other officials had given conflicting reasons for the purge. Gonzales had described the firings as based on performance, but testimony and documents later showed that some U.S. attorneys were targeted for dismissal for political reasons, such as perceived disloyalty to Bush administration priorities. A number of top Justice Department aides had resigned during the probe, and several Republican senators had joined Democrats in criticizing Gonzales for presiding over a dysfunctional department. Gonzales had testified before both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on the firings, repeatedly saying that he could not recall certain details, such as meetings held to plan the purge. Lawmakers from both parties had expressed frustration with his testimony, and some Republicans had joined Democrats’ calls for his resignation. However, in June, Republicans had defeated a Senate motion of no confidence in Gonzales. [See p. 378D2] The standoff had reached a new low point in July, when members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Sen. Arlen

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Volume 67, No. 3481* August 30, 2007

B Specter (Pa.), its senior Republican, vowed to find out whether Gonzales had committed perjury while testifying about a secret domestic surveillance program. Bush, almost alone, had stood by Gonzales in the confrontation. Citing executive privilege—the doctrine that presidents had the right to confidential advice—the White House had refused to comply with congressional subpoenas to turn over documents on the firings or allow former aides to testify on their roles in the purge. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) Aug. 27 said Democrats would pursue their investigations of the prosecutor firings despite Gonzales’s resignation. However, other Senate Democrats said they would be willing to drop the matter if Bush named a suitable replacement for Gonzales. Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D,

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U.S. Attorney General Gonzales resigns after battling Congress.

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Iraqi Shiite cleric Sadr calls truce after violence. PAGE 554 Saul Loeb/Getty Images

Credibility Damaged by Prosecutor Purge.

2005 report cites CIA’s pre-9/11 failures. PAGE 557

Sen. Craig pleaded guilty in airport restroom arrest. PAGE 557

Panel criticizes university response in Virginia Tech massacre.

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Japanese Prime Minister Abe shuffles cabinet after election loss. PAGE 562

Kazakh ruling party sweeps elections. PAGE 563

Greek wildfires kill more than 60. PAGE 564

Islamic party candidate Gul elected Turkish president. PAGE 565

NFL quarterback Vick pleads guilty in dogfighting case. PAGE 567 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announcing his resignation Aug. 27.

*First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Vt.), Aug. 30 disclosed that he was investigating whether Gonzales had made “false, misleading or inappropriate” statements to Congress in his testimony on the prosecutor purge, the domestic surveillance program and other matters. „

hood of Kadhimiyah, in August 2005 had been the scene of the deadliest day of the war, when about 1,000 people were killed after a Shiite religious procession stampeded due to rumors of a suicide bomber. [See 2005, p. 585F1]

Iraq War

U.S. troops Aug. 29 released eight members of an Iranian energy ministry delegation, after they had been arrested the previous day in their hotel in Baghdad. Seven Iraqis who had been arrested with the Iranians were also freed. Iraqi and Iranian officials said the Iranians had been invited to Iraq to help resolve the country’s energy crisis. The U.S. military said the men had been arrested after troops confiscated several unauthorized weapons from the delegation’s Iraqi guards at a checkpoint. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Aug. 29 said the government had summoned a diplomat from Switzerland, which represented the U.S. in Iran, to protest the arrest. Saadi Othman, an adviser to Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, the same day said the arrests were “regrettable.” He denied that they were related to an Aug. 28 speech by U.S. President George W. Bush that had criticized Iranian involvement in Iraq. [See below] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Aug. 28 at a televised news conference predicted the downfall of U.S. influence in Iraq. “The political power of the occupiers is being destroyed rapidly and very soon we will be witnessing a great power vacuum in the region,” he said. “We, with the help of regional friends and the Iraqi nation, are ready to fill this void.” Ahmadinejad also threatened a forceful response if the U.S. went ahead with plans revealed earlier in August to designate Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group. [See p. 533D2] Iraqi Weapons Found in Turkey— U.S. Defense Department officials Aug. 29 said weapons that had been provided to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005 had been recovered in Turkey, where they were being used in violent crimes. They said there was no evidence that the weapons had been used by Kurdish separatists from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who based themselves in Iraq. [See p. 517B1]

U.S. Troops Arrest, Release Iranians—

Sadr Calls Truce After Shiite Violence.

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Radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Aug. 29 ordered his Mahdi Army militia to “suspend operations” for up to six months, after Aug. 28 clashes between Shiite groups during a Shiite religious ceremony in the holy city of Karbala killed 52 people. However, numerous splinter groups had reportedly broken off from the militia and were not under Sadr’s control, and U.S. and Iraqi officials expressed skepticism that he would be able to enforce the cease-fire. [See pp. 537A1, 458C1] Sadr ordered a “freeze” on Mahdi Army operations “without exception in order to have it restructured in a way that would retain for this ideological body its prestige.” The intra-Shiite battles had reportedly damaged the reputation of Sadr’s movement, threatening his stature as a political force. Ahmed al-Shaibani, Sadr’s chief media officer in Najaf, said the truce “includes suspending the taking up of arms against occupiers,” referring to U.S.-led coalition troops. However, other Sadr officials said the militia would still be able to fight back in “self-defense.” U.S. military officials said they doubted that Sadr’s proclamation would stop attacks against coalition troops or Iraqis. They said several groups under Iranian influence had broken off from Sadr’s main militia and would disregard his orders. Some also dismissed it as a political ploy, saying that the Mahdi Army would publicly shutter operations while continuing to carry out attacks covertly. Government reports said the Aug. 28 fighting in Karbala had been between government security forces and unknown gunmen. However, Iraqi witnesses said instead that Mahdi Army members had fought against fighters from the Badr Organization, which was the military wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), the largest Shiite bloc in parliament. Officials and witnesses gave conflicting accounts of which group had started the fighting. Officials from both groups denied involvement and condemned the violence. The street battles scattered thousands of pilgrims who had traveled to Karbala to celebrate a festival marking the birthday of the 12th, or “hidden,” imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who lived during the 9th century. Police ordered the pilgrims, who numbered as many as a million, to leave the city after the fighting. Retaliatory attacks on SIIC offices in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, and several southern cities killed at least five people. A bomb placed beneath a car in front of a major Shiite shrine in Baghdad Aug. 25 killed at least five people at the start of the festival. The shrine, in the Shiite neighbor554

Report Says Few Benchmarks Achieved—

A U.S. congressional draft report had stated that Iraq had fully met only three of 18 political and military goals mandated by May U.S. legislation, it was reported Aug. 29. The report questioned aspects of a progress assessment released in July by the White House, which was more optimistic about the situation in Iraq. The report, which was prepared by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), was still being reviewed by the U.S. Defense Department and Sept. 4 would be presented to the U.S. Congress; the GAO Aug. 30 reportedly gave a classified briefing to U.S. legislators on its findings. [See p. 441F2] The May legislation had required the GAO report to assess each benchmark as either met or unmet, a stipulation that Bush

administration officials complained left no room for assessing intermediate degrees of progress. However, the report judged two benchmarks—the allocation and expenditure of $10 billion in reconstruction funds and the formation of semiautonomous regions within Iraq—as partially met. The report judged seven out of the eight political benchmarks—including the passage of legislation on constitutional reform, oil resources, and loosening prohibitions on government jobs for former members of former President Saddam Hussein’s mostly Sunni Baath Party, or “deBaathification”—as unmet. Only the goal of protecting the rights of minority political parties was achieved. The report said an ongoing boycott by several cabinet ministers hurt the chances for political progress. [See below] Two out of the nine security benchmarks were found to have been met. The report cited numerous shortcomings relating to the numbers, quality and loyalty of Iraqi forces. It also disputed the July report’s claim that sectarian violence was decreasing, saying that the average number of daily attacks on civilians between February and July had remained largely the same. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe refused to comment on the report’s findings, saying that judgment should be reserved until for a report by the military and the administration on the results of the troop level surge in Iraq came out in September. Bush Sees ‘Encouraging’ Signs in Iraq—

Bush Aug. 28 in a speech before the American Legion’s annual convention in Reno, Nev., said early results of the surge in Iraq were “encouraging,” and claimed that too much focus on the benchmarks gave an in-

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accurate picture of the country’s progress. He depicted the Middle East as caught between the Sunni extremism of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda and Shiite extremism promoted by Iran, and warned that if the U.S. pulled out, “the region would be dramatically transformed in a way that would imperil the civilized world.” Bush directed strong criticism at Iran, which he had accused of posing a grave threat with its pursuit of nuclear technology and assisting Shiite militias in Iraq and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. “Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, and that is why the United States is rallying friends and allies around the world to isolate the regime, to impose economic sanctions,” he said. Bush also said he had authorized the U.S. military to “confront [the Iranian government’s] murderous activities.” Bush’s critics, including Democrats, Iraq experts and some administration members, said he was emphasizing security gains in some areas while in others violence was rising. They also said his prior predictions of success in Iraq had all proved to be premature. The Washington Post Aug. 29 reported that the Bush administration was planning to ask the U.S. Congress for $50 billion in additional funding for the Iraq war to pay for the surge, on top of about $460 billion in the fiscal 2008 defense budget and $147 billion for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in a pending supplementary spending bill. The request would reportedly be announced after the September progress report was delivered. [See p. 526C2] U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R, S.C.) Aug. 28 called for the surge to be continued, saying that demands for a withdrawal in 2007 put forward by other senators would undercut recent security gains. He said the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was “dysfunctional, but it’s not a failed state. They’re still trying.” Graham had just returned from two weeks in Iraq serving in the Air Force Reserve, where he was a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. U.S. Sen. John Warner (R, Va.) Aug. 24 said he stood by his call the previous day for the U.S. to withdraw a symbolic fraction of its troops from Iraq by the end of 2007. The Bush administration and several loyal lawmakers had attacked his statement, quashing speculation that it was preceding the official announcement of a withdrawal. U.S. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander in charge of districts south of Baghdad, Aug. 24 in a video briefing warned against cutting troop levels before the end of the year, saying that it would represent “a giant step backward.” Senior U.S. generals, including Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and George Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, were planning to advise the Bush administration to cut troop levels in Iraq by as much as half by the end of 2008, the New York Times reported Aug. 24. The August 30, 2007

cut was thought to be much steeper than what Petraeus was expected to recommend in the September progress report. Pace in a statement said he had not decided on any recommendation. British Minister Addresses Deployments—

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband Aug. 28 declared that decisions about British troop deployments in the southern city of Basra would be based on the situation on the ground there, rather than in Baghdad, where U.S. operations were focused. It was seen as an indication that Britain might pull its troops out of Iraq before the U.S. did. The statement came the day after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that Britain would not withdraw from Iraq prematurely. The Financial Times Aug. 27 reported that the British government had spent £6.6 billion ($13.3 million) on the war in Iraq and reconstruction efforts, about one-third more than the total budgeted by the government to cover the war. Iraqi Leaders Announce Agreement—

Maliki and four other top Iraqi political leaders Aug. 27 announced an agreement on several issues considered vital to national reconciliation. The announced measures, which had not yet been put into law, would ease de-Baathification restrictions, release thousands of detainees being held without charge and resolve issues surrounding provincial elections. Sunni leader Tariq al-Hashemi, a vice president in Maliki’s government, hailed the agreement but said other issues would need to be resolved before his Iraqi Islamic Party and others would drop their boycott of the government. The leaders involved in the summit were Maliki; Hashemi; Shiite Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi; and the country’s two senior Kurdish leaders, President Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani, the president of the autonomous Kurdish region. Maliki the same day further denounced U.S. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.) and Carl Levin (D, Mich.), who had criticized his government as ineffectual. He said the two legislators had spoken “as if Iraq is one of their villages,” and added, “Iraq is a sovereign country, and we will not allow anyone to talk about it as if it belongs to this country or that.” Maliki also criticized French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who in an interview appearing Aug. 26 on Newsweek’s Web site had called for Maliki to be replaced. Iyad Jamal al-Deen, a member of the Iraqi National List, a group of secular Shiite and Sunni political parties, Aug. 24 said three cabinet members belonging to the group would formally resign from Maliki’s government the next day. They had previously been taking part in the cabinet boycott. Former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi Aug. 25 on CNN’s “Late Edition” confirmed that he had withdrawn from Maliki’s government and was seeking to form a new coalition in order to take power. Allawi, a Shiite and former Baathist, also said he had hired a U.S. lob-

bying firm “to help us advocate our views, the views of the nationalistic Iraqis, the nonsectarian Iraqis.” U.S. Detainee Levels Rise— U.S. military officials said the number of detainees held by U.S. troops in Iraq had grown to 24,500, from 16,000 when the surge began, the New York Times reported Aug. 24. They said the rise was due to U.S. forces operating in new areas for longer periods, and because more Iraqis were cooperating with U.S. forces. The U.S. military would not say how many detainees were held by Iraqi forces. The officials said nearly 85% of the detainees were Sunni Arabs; 1,800 identified themselves as members of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, while 6,000 more said they were takfiris, extremist Sunnis who viewed Shiites as heretics. However, they said, large numbers of other detainees had been motivated by money rather than religious extremism. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society reported that the number of Iraqis who had fled their homes and were seeking refuge elsewhere in Iraq had more than doubled, to 1.14 million, from 499,000, since the beginning of the surge in February, the Times reported Aug. 23. Other Violence—In other major incidents of violence: † The U.S. military Aug. 28 announced that U.S. troops had killed 33 Sunni militants who had been controlling the water supply in the town of Khalis, north of Baghdad, and who had been denying water to Shiite residents. † Kurdish officials Aug. 24 accused Iran of shelling villages in northeast Iraq beginning Aug. 16, in intensifying clashes between Iranian forces and Kurdish guerrillas. † The U.S. military Aug. 24 said it had killed 18 militants in a battle with Shiite fighters in the Shiite Shuala neighborhood of Baghdad. The fighting reportedly took place during a raid aimed at capturing senior Shiite militia leaders. „

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Consumer Affairs China Forms Product Safety Committee.

China Aug. 17 announced the formation of a 19-member cabinet-level committee to oversee the safety of foods and products made for both export and domestic consumption. The State Council (cabinet) said Vice Prime Minister Wu Yi would head the committee. The State Council the same day released a report indicating that 85% of food items sold in the country had passed quality inspections, up from 78% the previous year. [See pp. 527B1, 450G3] The Chinese government in recent weeks had taken several steps to reestablish consumer confidence in its products; since March, several food items and other goods had been discovered to be dangerous or otherwise defective. Several U.S. companies had issued recalls of Chinese-produced products deemed unsafe, and the 555

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U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had also halted the import of some Chinese food products. However, China had blamed foreign media outlets for exaggerating the safety problems, and had halted the import of some U.S.- and Europeanproduced products in moves viewed as retaliatory measures. Chinese Assistant Commerce Minister Wang Chao Aug. 23 criticized the U.S.’s response to Chinese product dangers as an overreaction. “Recently, the U.S. side has taken a series of measures that betray a strong trade-protectionist sentiment,” he said. (The U.S. had reported a trade deficit of $235 billion with China in 2006, and the figure was expected to increase in 2007.) Leavitt Addresses Inspections—Michael Leavitt, the U.S. secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the chairman of the U.S.’s newly established Interagency Working Group on Import Safety, Aug. 17 said the U.S.’s use of technology to inspect food and product imports would have to be intensified. However, he noted that the volume of imports was too great for inspections to adequately protect consumers. “We will not be able to inspect our way to food and product safety,” he said. Leavitt, whose cabinet-level committee was set to produce a report in September, said the U.S. needed to acquaint foreign manufacturers with U.S. standards, and inspect more imports at ports, as opposed to off-site laboratories. Working group member and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff the same day said his department would likely expand its role in guaranteeing the safety of products imported to the U.S. The U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on commerce, trade and consumer protection Aug. 23 said it had requested information from 19 companies, including Mattel Inc. and Target Corp., which had sold Chinese-made children’s products made with lead-contaminated paint. The subcommittee also scheduled hearings for Sept. 19 on protecting children from contaminated items. Additional Tainted Products Reported—

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U.S.-based retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Aug. 20 said it had removed from its shelves on July 26 two kinds of Chinesemade dog treats, after consumers complained they had made pets sick. A WalMart spokesman said tests had showed the treats contained low levels of the chemical melamine, which in recent months had been discovered in Chinese-produced food products used in both pet and human foods. The FDA Aug. 22 said it was in the process of testing the removed protects for biological or chemical contamination, but had not yet found any. Wal-Mart officials Aug. 23 said they would ask manufacturers for increased documentation regarding the safety of their products in advance of the holiday shopping season. The company also said 556

it would increase the number of toys tested at independent labs to 50%, up from 25%. U.S. retailer Toys “R” Us Inc. Aug. 17 said it had stopped selling Chinese-made vinyl bibs, some of which had been found to have high levels of lead. A company spokeswoman said the lead levels had exceeded the company’s internal standards, but not those of the U.S. government. „

Global Health Bird Flu Outbreak Found on German Farm.

Germany’s consumer protection ministry Aug. 26 said that tests had confirmed the presence of the highly fatal H5N1 strain of avian influenza (bird flu) virus on a poultry farm near Munich, in the country’s south. Officials said the virus had been found in several ducks at the farm, and that more than 400 other birds had died over a short period of time at the facility. Officials said they would cull 160,000 birds at the farm as a precautionary measure. [See p. 291B3] The disease in 2006 had spread from Southeast Asia to several dozen countries and territories in Europe, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Although it was difficult for humans to contract the virus, experts said they feared the disease would mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, sparking a deadly pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) Aug. 23 reported that 322 cases of H5N1 infection had been detected in humans, with 195 of them fatal. Other News—In other bird flu news: † The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Aug. 15 said it had placed an additional order of 22.5 million doses of an avian flu vaccine made by British drug firm GlaxoSmithKline PLC. HHS in November 2006 had placed an order for five million doses. † The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) June 25 reported that the plan formulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to respond to, or prevent the spread of, bird flu contained flaws that could possibly endanger poultry workers. The GAO report said the USDA had failed to plan an adequate response to a bird flu pandemic at both the federal and state levels. † Health authorities in the Czech Republic June 21 confirmed that hundreds of turkeys on a farm had died of the H5N1 bird flu virus. Though wild birds had previously been found with the disease, the discovery marked the first time it had been detected in poultry there. † The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) May 3 released guidelines for the use of face masks in the event of a flu pandemic. The CDC recommended that anyone entering a crowd use a surgical mask, and that more substantial industrial masks be used by those caring for the sick. The CDC had been cautious about issuing guidelines on the use of such

masks, citing the lack of firm scientific evidence that they provided protection from the flu. [See 2006, p. 406B1] „ Infectious Disease Spread Reported. The World Health Organization (WHO) Aug. 23 reported that infectious diseases were spreading more quickly that at any other time in history, and that new infectious diseases were emerging at an “unprecedented rate.” In its World Health Report 2007, the WHO reported that the increase in human mobility contributed to the more rapid spread of disease. “An outbreak or epidemic in one part of the world is only a few hours away from becoming an imminent threat somewhere else,” the report stated. [See pp. 359D1, 291B3] WHO Director General Margaret Chan said there was a good chance that a new infectious disease comparable to AIDS or Ebola fever could emerge within the next 10 years and kill millions. She called for improved communication and cooperation between countries in the event of an international health crisis. „ WHO Backs Free Malaria Nets. The World Health Organization (WHO) Aug. 16 endorsed the free distribution of treated mosquito nets in areas where malaria was endemic. The nets were treated with an insecticide that was released over a long period of time. The WHO cited mortality reduction rates of 44% in Kenya for children who slept under the treated nets, which cost $5 apiece. [See p. 241F2] Though the benefits of such nets had been well-documented, public health experts had debated the best way to distribute them. One group said people should pay a small amount for the net, as those who spent their own money would be more likely to value and properly use them. Others argued that, for many populations suffering from malaria, any cost could be prohibitively expensive. The WHO in its report concluded that distribution at no cost to recipients was a more effective means of preventing deaths from the disease. It also recommended expanding mosquito net coverage from pregnant women and children under age five, to any person at risk of contracting the disease. Malaria, a parasite transmitted by mosquito bites, was estimated to kill more than one million people annually. It was considered endemic in 114 countries. Treatment Curbs Malaria in Uganda—

Anne Gasasira, an AIDS researcher at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, Feb. 28 reported that HIV-positive children given a daily antibiotic and insecticide-treated mosquito nets had a 97% lower incidence of malaria than members of a control group. It was not clear whether the regimen would be equally effective in HIV-negative children. The researchers had found 356 instances of malaria in 561 children thought to be HIV negative who did not sleep under bed nets and take the antibiotic. That comapred with four instances of malaria in 300 children who had taken the drug and slept under bed netting. „ FACTS ON FILE

Intelligence 2005 Report Cites CIA’s Pre-9/11 Failures. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

Aug. 21 released a 19-page, partly censored summary of a 2005 report by CIA Inspector General John Helgerson that criticized high-ranking CIA officials for failing to resolve problems that kept the agency from addressing the threat posed by the international terrorist network Al Qaeda in the years leading up to Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. The report recommended the creation of an “accountability board” to oversee potential disciplinary actions against former CIA Director George Tenet and other senior officials. [See p. 495C1; 2005, p. 627A1] The summary had been released at the insistence of Congress over the objections of CIA Director Michael Hayden, who Aug. 21 said he feared that the summary would “distract officers serving their country on the frontlines of a global conflict.” The report found no evidence that CIA employees broke the law or participated in misconduct in pre-Sept. 11, 2001, operations. However, the report also said that the agency suffered a systemic failure in its response to Al Qaeda, and determined that the ultimate responsibility lay with officials including then–Director Tenet, then– Deputy Director for Operations James Pavitt, and J. Cofer Black, then director of the CIA’s counterterrorist center. The report blamed those top officials for failing to use their authority to see that antiterrorism operatives had sufficient resources. In addition, it said their failure to work out the CIA’s information-sharing relationship with the National Security Agency (NSA), then run by Hayden, had kept transcripts of wiretapped conversations between Al Qaeda operatives out of reach of CIA analysts. The report highlighted that as a serious problem in the run-up to Sept. 11. Helgerson’s report also examined the agency’s slowness to realize that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was believed to have masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks, was a high-level Al Qaeda planner. It also cited the failure of 60 agents to forward information about Al Qaeda operatives and Sept. 11 coconspirators Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). [See p. 153A1] Tenet Aug. 21 attacked the report and the decision to release its summary, calling Helgerson “flat wrong” regarding the contents of the report. However, the report was praised by Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (popularly known as the 9/11 Commission), who said it mostly reflected his panel’s findings. [See 2006, p. 908B2] „

National Politics Sen. Craig Pleaded Guilty in Restroom Arrest.

Sen. Larry Craig (R, Idaho) Aug. 8 had pleaded guilty in a Minneapolis, Minn., state court to a charge of disorderly conduct August 30, 2007

in a men’s bathroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where he was arrested June 11, the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported Aug. 27. He was fined $575 and put on unsupervised probation for one year; a 10-day jail sentence was suspended. [See pp. 497D1, 446G1] According to the police report on the arrest, Craig had used foot and hand signals to make a sexual proposition to an undercover police officer in the next stall. The report said Craig had tapped his right foot, “a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct,” then touched that foot against the officer’s and swiped his hand under the stall divider. After his arrest, Craig handed over a business card identifying himself as a U.S. senator and asked, “What do you think about that?” He denied making any signals, claiming that he merely had “a wide stance when using the bathroom.” Craig Aug. 27 issued a statement confirming his arrest and guilty plea, but denying wrongdoing. “At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions,” he said, adding, “I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct. I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously.” Craig, 62, was up for reelection to a fourth term in November 2008. He had voted for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage. The amendment failed to win congressional approval, most recently in 2006. [See 2006, p. 861G2] Craig became the third Republican senator to face a scandal in recent weeks. Sen. David Vitter (La.) had apologized for sinning after his telephone number was found in the records of an escort service. Federal agents had raided the home of Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska) in a corruption probe. Insists ‘I Am Not Gay’—Craig Aug. 28 held a news conference in Boise, Idaho, with his wife at his side. He insisted, “I am not gay. I never have been gay.” He added, “I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport,” but said he had pleaded guilty “in the hope of making it go away.” He blamed the local newspaper, the Idaho Statesman, for “viciously” conducting a “witch hunt” delving into rumors about his sexual orientation. (The paper that day printed a lengthy article on its findings, but noted that it had decided not to run a story earlier after Craig denied being gay in a May interview.) Craig also said he regretted that he had told no one about his arrest, not even his wife or lawyer. The Senate Republican leadership Aug. 28 issued a statement that it would “recommend that Senator Craig’s incident be referred to the Senate Ethics Committee,” calling it a “serious matter.” Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a leading Republican presidential candidate, Aug. 28 said he had dropped Craig from his campaign role as Idaho chairman. In an interview on the CNBC cable television network, Romney called the news

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Sen. Larry Craig (R, Idaho) denied that he was gay at an Aug. 28 press conference.

about Craig “a disappointment” and “disgusting.” Craig had previously denied rumors that he was gay. In 2006, gay activist Mike Rogers had alleged on his Web site, BlogActive.com, that several men had told him of having sexual encounters with Craig, including one in a bathroom at Union Station in Washington, D.C. Craig had dismissed the claims as “completely ridiculous.” In 1982, when Craig was a member of the House, he had held a news conference to preemptively deny that he was one of several unnamed lawmakers alleged to have had sex with teenage male congressional pages. [See 1982, p. 932A3] In 2006, Rep. Mark Foley (R, Fla.) had resigned abruptly, weeks before the November elections, after reports that he had made sexual advances toward male pages. [See p. 61G3]

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Fellow Republicans Urge Resignation—

Sens. John McCain (R, Ariz.) and Norm Coleman (R, Minn.) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R, Mich.) Aug. 29 all called on Craig to resign from the Senate. McCain, a presidential candidate, said, “My position is that when you plead guilty to a crime, you shouldn’t serve.” Five more Republican members of the House called for Craig’s resignation the next day. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel, asked about President George W. Bush’s response to Craig’s situation, Aug. 29 said, “We are disappointed in the matter.” Republican Senate leaders that day ousted Craig from his status as the party’s senior member on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee and two subcommittees. No such action had been taken as yet against Vitter or Stevens. Craig had been the fourth-ranking member of the Senate Republican leadership from 1996 to 2002. „ Sen. Johnson Returns After Hemorrhage.

Sen. Tim Johnson (D, S.D.) Aug. 28 gave a speech in Sioux Falls, S.D., making his first public appearance since suffering a brain hemorrhage in December 2006. Johnson arrived on stage in a wheelchair, then rose to his feet to deliver the speech. 557

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The right side of his face and body remained paralyzed; he spoke slowly and slurred some words. [See p. 419C2] Declaring, “I am back,” Johnson spoke for about 15 minutes and said he planned to return to the Senate as early as the next week. He joked, “Of course, I believe I have an unfair edge over most of my colleagues right now. My mind works faster than my mouth does. Washington would probably be a better place if more people took a moment to think before they spoke.” In an interview later that day on ABC News, Johnson, 60, vowed to run for reelection to a third term in 2008. “I expect to run and to win,” he said. Johnson had undergone physical and speech therapy since the hemorrhage, which had been attributed to arteriovenous malformation, a condition that caused blood vessels in the brain to grow abnormally large and tangled, and in some cases to burst. „

2008 Presidential Campaign DNC Bars Fla. Delegates Over Primary Date.

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The Democratic National Committee (DNC), the executive body of the national Democratic Party, Aug. 25 voted to bar all of Florida’s delegates to the party’s 2008 national convention unless the state reversed its move to hold its primary on Jan. 29, 2008. The DNC gave Florida 30 days to propose a new primary date in compliance with DNC rules that allowed only four states—Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada—to hold primaries before Feb. 5. [See p. 526G1] The DNC’s threat reflected the struggles of both national parties to maintain control of the presidential nominating process. The parties were faced with a trend of dozens of states rescheduling their primaries earlier in the calendar in a bid for greater influence over the nominations. The Republican National Committee (RNC) Aug. 28 said it would ban half the delegates from states that held primaries earlier than allowed under RNC rules, which barred any primaries before Feb. 5. So far, Florida, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Michigan and South Carolina faced the penalty. Iowa and Nevada, which held nonbinding caucuses instead of primaries, would be exempt. The Michigan state Senate Aug. 22 had voted to move its primary up to Jan. 15, and the state House approved the move Aug. 30. Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) said she would sign the bill. The Wyoming Republican Party Aug. 29 announced that it had voted to hold the county and state conventions at which it selected delegates on Jan. 5, the earliest date set by any state so far for a nominating contest. „

Virginia Tech Massacre Panel Criticizes University Response. An

independent panel appointed by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) to investigate April mass shootings at Virginia Tech Aug. 29 released a report that criticized the univer558

sity’s response to the attack and laid out a series of recommendations intended to reduce the chances of a similar massacre. The shooting rampage, carried out by Seung-Hui Cho, 23, was the deadliest in U.S. history, leaving 33 dead, including Cho, who killed himself. Kaine Aug. 30 said he would not fire Virginia Tech President Charles Steger or campus police Chief Wendell Flinchum over the report’s conclusions, arguing that doing so would not fix the problems outlined in the report. [See p. 259F1] The 147-page report highlighted the university’s failure to promptly notify students about an initial shooting by Cho, which left two students dead. Cho’s second rampage, in which he killed 30 people, occurred about two and a half hours after the first shooting. The report said university officials sent an e-mail more than two hours after the first shooting, and suggested that lives could have been saved if students had been promptly notified that a killer was loose on campus. It also found that the information that was given to students significantly understated the nature of the threat. “The events were highly disturbing and there was no way to sugarcoat them,” the report said. “Straight facts were needed.” The panel found that while the police response at Norris Hall, where the second rampage occurred, was “prompt and effective,” the search for suspects in the first shooting was too focused on the boyfriend of one of the initial victims, something that led them to ignore the possibility that the perpetrator was still on Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg, Va., campus. However, the report found that locking down the campus’s 131 buildings would have been all but impossible and that earlier, more accurate warnings would not have kept Cho from killing. “There does not seem to be a plausible scenario of a university response to the double homicide that could have prevented the tragedy,” the report said. In addition, the report called for Virginia to allow all colleges and universities in the state “to regulate the possession of firearms on campus,” and recommended that background checks be required for all gun purchases in the state, including gun shows, where it was still possible to purchase a firearm without a background check. The panel did not attempt to explain Cho’s reasons for carrying out the shootings. However, it did point to a systemic lack of communication about Cho’s mental health issues between his Fairfax, Va., high school and Virginia Tech, as well as between individuals and organizations within Virginia Tech. “No one knew all the information,” the report said, “and no one connected all the dots.” It added that there had been “widespread confusion about what federal and state privacy laws allow” regarding the sharing of Cho’s medical records. Cho Had History of Mental Issues—According to the Aug. 29 report, Cho had been fascinated by a 1999 rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.—

in which two students killed 13 people before committing suicide—and once wrote in a middle-school English paper that he wanted to “repeat Columbine.” He was referred to a psychiatrist who diagnosed him with major depression and “selective mutism,” an anxiety-driven refusal to speak. He was treated with the antidepressant Paroxetine from June 1999 until July 2000 and placed in special education classes at his high school that allowed him to avoid oral presentations and answering questions from teachers. Cho had been admitted to Virginia Tech without submitting an essay or participating in an interview. The university was never notified about his special needs or mental health issues because federal law banned high schools from sharing that type of private information with colleges. The report stated that a judge had ordered Cho to attend Virginia Tech’s counseling center in 2005, but that the center had failed to treat him. Internal Report Assigns No Blame—

Virginia Tech officials who had carried out an internal review, requested by Steger, Aug. 22 set forth recommendations to improve university communications, campus security and counseling services for troubled students in the wake the massacre. However, it avoided criticizing any individuals or departments within the university for their response to the tragedy. University officials argued that the report was never intended to address the issue of blame. The report described the university’s communication system as “dramatically stressed” during the incident, and recommended upgrading the campus’s phone systems and creating new electronic emergency notification systems to make it easier to disseminate information during a crisis. The review raised questions about the university’s system for identifying and supporting students with mental or emotional issues, and suggested increasing the number of mental health professionals on campus and creating a threat assessment team to examine more complex cases. Other suggestions, including replacing door handles of the sort that Cho had locked with chains to prevent police from entering, had already been put into effect in the aftermath of the massacre. 23 Poisoned by Carbon Monoxide— A malfunctioning valve on an apartment complex water heater Aug. 19 sickened 23 people, many of them Virginia Tech students, at the Collegiate Suites apartments in Blacksburg, less than an hour before the dedication of a monument to the students and faculty killed by Cho. There were no fatalities, but 21 people were hospitalized due to carbon monoxide exposure. Two Virginia Tech students were unable to breathe on their own and were airlifted to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville for treatment. Victims Offered Compensation— Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, set up in the wake of the massacre, Aug. 15 announced that payments of up to $180,000 would be offered FACTS ON FILE

to victims and their families. The money would come from a fund that had received more than $7 million in private donations. Families of the dead were offered the full $180,000 payout, while survivors of the attack were offered a full tuition waiver and between $10,000 and $90,000, depending on whether they had been injured and, if so, on the injury’s severity. „

Accidents & Disasters Midwest Flooding Causes 26 Deaths.

Floodwaters Aug. 23 began to recede throughout the Midwest, after weeks of heavy rains had caused floods killing at least 26 people over the previous week. Texas and Oklahoma starting Aug. 16 were hit with flash floods caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin. Separate storm systems beginning Aug. 19 deluged Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota, and Aug. 20 spread to Iowa and Ohio. The rains caused rivers to burst their banks, flooding some areas at record levels and forcing thousands to evacuate their homes. [See 2006, p. 614F1] Minnesota and Wisconsin Aug. 19 declared states of emergency in storm-struck counties, followed by South Dakota Aug. 20, and Iowa and Ohio Aug. 22. Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry (R) Aug. 22 requested that three counties be designated federal disaster areas. Other News—In other news on flooding: † Thunderstorms June 19 caused flash floods in Colchester, N.Y., killing three people and leaving one person missing and presumed dead. The remains of one of the victims were found Aug. 4. † Heavy rainfall June 18 flooded several towns in northern Texas, causing at least four deaths. Additional floods June 26–27 killed at least one person. Officials July 7 said at least 15 people had been killed in the intense rains that had blanketed Texas over the past weeks. Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri were also hit with heavy rains and floods. A flash flood in Coffeyville, Kan., July 1 released thousands of gallons of crude oil from a refinery storage tank— reportedly because a valve had been left open—leaving hundreds of homes in the area coated in oil. „

Immigration Enforcement Crackdown Announced. The

Bush administration Aug. 10 announced a broad crackdown on the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the U.S. and the organizations that employed them. The 26 measures included harsher penalties for businesses employing illegal workers, strengthened border security, a crackdown on immigrants and potential immigrants associated with gang activity, and improved record-keeping for noncitizens departing the country by air and sea. [See p. 511C3] Most controversial were new procedures concerning the expanded use of “nomatch letters.” No-match letters were generated by the Social Security AdministraAugust 30, 2007

tion and the Department of Homeland Security, and cited businesses that had at least 10 employees whose submitted Social Security numbers did not match government records. The letters required the employer and employee to resolve the discrepancy, and if they did not, the employer would be required to fire the worker. If the company still refused to comply, it could be fined up to $10,000 per employee. No-match letters had originally been devised as a way to ensure that workers received correct Social Security benefits in case of clerical errors, but in recent years had been increasingly employed as a method of identifying illegal workers. However, they had often been distributed without clear procedural guidelines and were rarely followed up. Critics said the measures would dry up the labor pool and create a black market for forged documents. Craig Regelbrugge, government relations director for the American Nursery and Landscape Association, a trade group representing industries that relied heavily on immigrant workers, Aug. 10 said employers would be forced to either fire most of their workers or “duck and hope the law doesn’t catch up with them.” Others expressed concern that legal workers would be unable to get their documentation processed by the Social Security Administration before the specified 90-day deadline expired. Democratic and Republican critics in Congress said the plan was no substitute for comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Such legislation had failed in the Senate earlier in the year. [See p. 413A1] In conjunction with the new enforcement policies, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez Aug. 10 announced that guest worker programs for agricultural and other industries would be streamlined to become more “workable,” and that the administration would consider options to change visa programs for highly skilled workers. The new policies were scheduled to take effect in 30 days. Other News—In other immigration news: † The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Aug. 27 announced that the federal government had approved a settlement of a lawsuit in which it agreed to reforms at T. Don Hutto Detention Center, a former prison in Taylor, Texas, that had been used as a holding facility for immigrants and their children. The lawsuit had been filed by the ACLU and the University of Texas Law School on behalf of 26 children between the ages of one and 17 who had been held at the center. The settlement required improvements to education at the facility, as well as more humane treatment of children, who had been forced to live in cells and wear prison uniforms. It also required that privacy curtains be installed around toilets and that a full-time pediatrician be hired. Most children were from families seeking asylum within the U.S. All 26 children had been released from the facility since the lawsuit was filed in March.

† A report released Aug. 10 by the InterAmerican Development Bank said the proportion of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. who regularly sent remittances home had declined to 64% so far in 2007, from 71% in 2006. Bank officials suggested that more workers were unsure of their future in the U.S. and were saving money in order to return home. The Inter-American Development Bank was an international institution established to promote development in Latin America. † The National Conference of State Legislatures in an Aug. 6 report said that in the absence of federal immigration reform legislation, individual states had considered 1,404 immigration measures so far in 2007, and enacted 170 of them. They included harsher penalties for undocumented employees and employers who knowingly hired them, making undocumented workers ineligible for some medical aid, and harsher penalties for those convicted of human trafficking, especially in cases where immigrants were forced into sex work. [See pp. 432D2, 413A1] † Mexican-born immigration activist Elvira Arellano was arrested Aug. 19 in Los Angeles and deported without her eightyear-old U.S.-born son. Arellano had defied a deportation order and since August 2006 had taken refuge in a Chicago church, where she worked to raise awareness about how deportation affected immigrant families. She had recently emerged from the church in order to travel to Los Angeles to make a series of speeches. She was arrested near a church in Los Angeles where she had been speaking, and was escorted to Tijuana, Mexico. Her son remained in the custody of the Chicago church. [See 2006, p. 972G2] „

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Census Income Increases, Number of Insured Drops.

The Census Bureau Aug. 28 reported that the median household income, adjusted for inflation, rose 0.7%, to $48,201, in 2006, from $47,845 in 2005. However, analysts said the rise was due to an increase in household members entering the workforce, or working for longer periods of time. [See 2006, p. 677C1] The national poverty rate fell to 12.3%, or 36.5 million people, from its 2005 rate of 12.6%. Those considered below the poverty line earned an annual income of about $10,000 for individuals, or $20,000 for a family of four. The report also found that earnings for individual workers fell for the third straight year. Male workers earned $42,261 in 2006, a drop of 1.1% from the previous year, while female workers earned $32,515 in 2006, a drop of 1.2% from 2005. Number of Uninsured Rises—The Census Bureau Aug. 28 also reported that the number of people in the U.S. without health insurance had risen to 47 million in 2006, an increase of 5% over the previous year’s figure of 44.8 million. It was the largest annual increase in the number of uninsured in four years. [See p. 542D3] 559

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The Census Bureau reported that the number of uninsured children had risen to 8.7 million, or 11.7% of all children, in 2006, from 8.0 million, or 10.9%, the previous year. The number of people obtaining insurance through the government dropped to 27%, from 27.3% the previous year. Census officials said the overall increase in the number of the uninsured was likely caused by the loss of either privately purchased or employer-provided insurance. The number of people who obtained health insurance through their employer declined to 59.7%, from 60.2%. The 2006 household income levels remained below their 1999 peak, and the poverty rate exceeded the 2000 level by one percentage point. Reaction—President George W. Bush said the data showed that “more of our citizens are doing better in this economy, with continued rising incomes and more Americans pulling themselves out of poverty.” Several leading Democratic presidential candidates challenged Bush’s claims. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) characterized the number of uninsured people as an “outrage,” while Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) said the statistics demonstrated “a betrayal of the ideals we hold as Americans.” The data was released as part of the Census Bureau’s report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States. „

Economy 2nd Quarter GDP Growth Revised Higher.

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The Commerce Department Aug. 30 reported an upward revision of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth during the second quarter of 2007, to 4.0%, from the 3.4% advance estimate reported in July. It was the highest growth rate since the first quarter of 2006. The upward revision primarily reflected increases in business spending and sales to foreign countries. However, the second quarter report, which covered the period between April and June, did not reflect economic problems related to the country’s credit markets that had rattled the stock market in August. Analysts feared that economic activity would slow in the third and fourth quarters. [See pp. 540A2, 498E1] The new figure was preliminary and would be revised once more. GDP was a measure of the output of goods and services produced within a nation’s borders. „ Consumer Confidence Fell in August. The Conference Board Aug. 28 reported that its index of consumer confidence fell to 105.0 in August, from a revised level of 111.9 in July. The index’s base level of 100 reflected consumer confidence in 1985. [See p. 545C1] „ New Home Sales Rose 2.8% in July. The Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Aug. 24 reported jointly that sales of new single-family homes rose 2.8% in July from the previous month. The new seasonally adjusted annual rate was 870,000 units, up from the 560

revised June rate of 846,000 units. The median price for a single-family home sold in July was $239,500. [See p. 497B3] Existing Home Sales Fell 0.2% in July—

Sales of existing homes dropped 0.2% in July, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.75 million units, the National Association of Realtors reported Aug. 27. The rate for June was revised upward to 5.76 million. The median sale price for existing homes in July was $228,900, down from $230,200 a year earlier. „

Business Analyst Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading.

Eugene Plotkin, 28, a former analyst at investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Aug. 28 pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in New York City to one count of conspiracy and eight counts of insider trading. Plotkin had been accused of playing a central role in a scheme that earned him and his partners more than $6.7 million in illegal profits. Plotkin was scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 30; his plea agreement with prosecutors recommended a sentence of 57 to 71 months. [See 2005, pp. 555A3, 439D1; 2003, p. 981B2] Plotkin, an analyst at Goldman from 2000 to 2006, had allegedly conspired with David Pajcin, also a former Goldman employee, to make trades on companies involved in six mergers before the mergers were announced; buy stocks in at least 20 companies based on information obtained illegally from BusinessWeek magazine; and bribe a person serving on a grand jury trial to leak them information. Pajcin had earlier pleaded guilty to involvement in the operation, and had cooperated with prosecutors. The insider trading network came to the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after the announcement of the acquisition of Reebok International Ltd. by Adidas-Salomon AG in 2005. Pajcin’s aunt, a seamstress in Croatia, had traded heavily in Reebok stock before the announcement, reaping a $2 million profit. An ensuing investigation revealed that a Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst, Stanislav Shpigelman, had provided Pajcin and Plotkin with advance information on planned mergers. Shpigelman, 24, pleaded guilty to insider trading charges in 2006 and was sentenced to three years in prison Jan. 5. Prosecutors also said Plotkin and Pajcin paid two informants to get jobs at a BusinessWeek printing plant in Wisconsin to gather information on companies before the magazine was published. They bribed the grand juror, Jason Smith, to leak information about the accounting fraud trial of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. that they used to make financial predictions. Smith was sentenced to 33 months in prison in 2006. Analysts viewed a recent spate of insider trading cases as a result of a boom in record-breaking buyouts in previous years. Other News—In other news related to insider trading: † The SEC May 8 filed civil insider trading charges against Kan King Wong and his

wife, Charlotte Ka On Wong Leung. The SEC said the Hong Kong–based couple had used nonpublic information to buy shares in publishing company Dow Jones & Co. just before it was announced that media conglomerate News Corp. had made an unsolicited offer for the company. The announcement sent the Dow Jones stock price soaring by more than 50%, and the couple made a profit of $8.2 million when they sold the stock three days later, the SEC said. The SEC had also informed David Li, a Hong Kong banker and board member of Dow Jones, that they were planning to bring charges against him in relation to the case. [See p. 493A1] † Hafiz Muhammad Zubair Naseem, a former investment banker at Credit Suisse Group, May 3 was charged in New York City on 26 counts of conspiracy and securities fraud. Naseem was accused of leaking information to partners in Pakistan on as many as nine mergers before they were announced, most notably the $32 billion acquisition of electricity retailer TXU Corp. by a consortium of private equity groups earlier in the year. Naseem and his partners allegedly made more than $7.5 million on the information he provided. Federal prosecutors May 29 charged Ajaz Rahim, an investment banker at Faysal Bank Ltd. in Pakistan, on 26 counts in connection with the case. [See p. 127B3] † Randi Collata, a former compliance lawyer at investment bank Morgan Stanley, and her husband, Christopher Collata, also a former Morgan Stanley lawyer, May 10 pleaded guilty to charges of insider trading. The Collatas were part of a crackdown on an $8 million insider-trading scheme announced by federal prosecutors in March, which targeted employees at Morgan Stanley, UBS AG and Bear Stearns Cos. With the Collatas’ guilty pleas, six of the original 13 defendants had pleaded guilty. [See p. 159A3] † Jennifer Wang, a former Morgan Stanley analyst, and her husband, Ruben Cheng, an analyst at ING Investment Management, May 10 were charged in New York City with earning $600,000 from insider trading practices. The couple was accused of using nonpublic information to trade shares in three companies that Morgan Stanley advised. „

Mergers & Acquisitions Dubai World Buys Stake in MGM Mirage.

The board of MGM Mirage Aug. 21 approved a deal giving Dubai World, a stateowned company that managed investments for the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a 9.5% stake in MGM and a 50% stake in its development project CityCenter for $5 billion. MGM Mirage owned several casinos and hotels in Las Vegas, Nev., including some of the city’s most profitable properties. MGM was controlled by Tracinda Corp., an investment company owned by billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian. [See 2006, pp. 1006D1, 954B3] FACTS ON FILE

Under the terms of the deal, Dubai World would pay $2.7 billion to buy its stake in CityCenter, a project composed of hotels, condos and stores scheduled to open by 2009. Dubai World would buy $1.2 billion worth of outstanding MGM shares, at $84 a share, for half of its 28 million-share stake in the company. The price was a 13% premium over MGM’s Aug. 21 closing price of $74.32 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Dubai World would buy the other 14 million MGM shares from the public for around the same price. Dubai World had the option of purchasing up to a 20% stake in MGM. The deal would allow Dubai World to expand its international holdings. Istithmar, Dubai World’s private equity branch, Aug. 9 had bought the Barneys New York retail chain for close to $1 billion. Dubai World’s subsidiary, Dubai Ports World, had suffered a setback in 2006 when it was forced by the U.S. government to sell the port operations it owned in the U.S. amid a storm of opposition to the deal in Congress. The deal would give Kerkorian a large investment that would free up some of MGM’s resources to invest in other development projects, and help relieve some of its debt. Additionally, an association with Dubai World increased the possibility that international investors would invest in Kerkorian’s companies. „

Capital Punishment Attorney General May Get Fast-Track Power.

The Los Angeles Times Aug. 14 reported that new regulations were set to go into effect that would grant the U.S. attorney general the authority to hasten the conclusion of death penalty cases across the country. That power, known as “fast-tracking,” involved certifying that a given state had strong procedures in place to guarantee legal representation for defendants. That allowed the state to carry out sentences more quickly and cut the amount of time death row inmates had to file an appeal to six months, from one year. [See pp. 513C3, 243E2; 2006, p. 973G1] Fast-track authority had first been created by the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which was passed under President Bill Clinton. Fasttracking had been left in the hands of federal judges until 2006, when language embedded in the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act turned that power over to the attorney general. [See 1996, p. 277D2] Critics said that a fast-track provision would improperly interfere with defendants’ right to court review of their sentences and contest crucial legal errors. Supporters said it was necessary to cut what they called the unnecessarily long periods that it took many death penalty cases to work through the courts. Due to controversy generated by the proposed new rules, Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse had said the comment period on the rules would be extended to Sept. 24, it was reported Aug. 15. „ August 30, 2007

AFRICA

Sierra Leone

emergency if the two factions did not stop fighting. He said the country had suffered too much during its civil war for him to allow another descent into chaos. „

A

Presidential Election Heads to Runoff.

Election officials Aug. 23 revealed the final results of Sierra Leone’s Aug. 11 presidential election, which showed that no candidate had been able to muster the 55% of votes necessary to win the election outright. A runoff election between the two top vote-getters was scheduled for Sept. 8. Opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People’s Congress (APC) won 44% of the vote; Vice President Solomon Berewa, leader of the governing Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), won 38% of the vote; and Charles Margai of the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) won 14% of the vote. [See p. 449E3] The country’s previous election, in 2002, had been organized by the United Nations. Sierra Leone had emerged from a bloody 11-year civil war in 2002, and U.N. peacekeeping forces had been present in the country until 2005. The election was seen as a gauge of the country’s stability, and international observers said the election was free and fair. Approximately 2.6 million of the country’s five million people were registered to vote, and about 76% of those voters turned out for the election. [See 2002, p. 38F3] Parliamentary elections were also held Aug. 11. The APC won 59 of the 112 seats in Parliament; the SLPP won 43 seats, down from the 83 they had held the previous term; and the PMDC won 10 seats. The runoff election was expected to be close. Margai had endorsed Koroma after the election’s first round, but many members of his party, a splinter group of the SLPP, had ties to the ruling party and could swing votes toward Berewa. Berewa had been tapped by current President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah to lead the SLPP. Kabbah was to step down after completing his second five-year term, the maximum number of terms allowed by law. Berewa was running a campaign that focused on his party’s success in bringing stability to the previously war-torn country, and emphasized that the nation was too fragile to remove the ruling party from power. Sierra Leone’s economy was growing at a rate of 7% a year, mostly through exports of titanium ore and diamonds. The opposition had accused the SLPP of corruption and failing to develop the country. Opponents claimed that the SLPP siphoned aid from foreign countries and revenues from diamond sales for itself and powerful allies, leaving most people to earn less than $1 a day. The income gap between rich and poor had increased, much of the population was unemployed, and the government struggled to provide people with basic amenities like water and electricity. Supporters of the SLPP and the APC clashed Aug. 26–27 in Freetown, the capital, and other parts of the country, leading police to fire tear gas into crowds to quell the violence. In a televised address Aug. 27, Kabbah said he would declare a state of

Zimbabwe African Leaders Fail to Pressure Mugabe.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), a grouping of 14 southern African nations, Aug. 16–17 met in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss the worsening political and economic situation in Zimbabwe, one of the group’s members, but the leaders avoided publicly pressuring Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. [See below, p. 315A2] The SADC had held a similar meeting in March, at which it decided that South African President Thabo Mbeki should mediate talks between Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party, and the two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The two sides had opened talks in Pretoria, the South African capital, MDC representative George Sibotshiwe said June 18. However, little progress had been reported since then. At the Lusaka meeting, the SADC leaders, as they had in March, declined to openly criticize Mugabe’s repressive rule or the policies that had caused an economic crisis in his country. Some analysts had speculated that the SADC leaders might take action at the summit because an increasing number of Zimbabwean refugees were flooding into neighboring countries, especially South Africa. An estimated four million people, or one third of the population, had fled the country, it was reported Aug. 17. Mugabe and his supporters had asserted that economic sanctions and criticism from the U.S. and some European countries had been the main cause of Zimbabwe’s problems, a claim echoed by SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao of Mozambique Aug. 16. Zimbabwe’s justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, Aug. 16 said, “You have a situation where issues are being portrayed, exaggerated, to portray Zimbabwe as a country that has become ungovernable.” He added, “Nothing is further from the truth,” and claimed, “Political reform is not necessary in my country because we are a democracy like any other democracy.” Analysts noted that the sanctions—a travel ban and foreign asset freeze that applied to top officials and a ban on military equipment sales—affected only Zimbabwe’s government and elite. They also said southern African leaders were reluctant to criticize Mugabe due to his status as a hero of the struggle for independence from colonial rule. After the meeting, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa said the SADC leaders believed Zimbabwe’s problems had been “exaggerated.” In March, however, he had likened Zimbabwe to a “sinking Titanic.” Mbeki Aug. 23 asserted that talks between the ZANU-PF and the MDC were making progress. 561

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Controls Introduced to Curb Inflation—

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Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate had reached 7,251% in June and 7,635% in July, according to government figures released Aug. 22. It was the first publication of official inflation figures since May. (The actual inflation rate was believed to be about twice as high.) Prices had risen 86% in June from May, the bank said. In an effort to curb the country’s inflation rate, the highest in the world, the government June 26 had imposed strict price controls, ordering a rollback of prices to June 18 levels. As a result, the price increase from June to July had been just 31.6%, the lowest month-to-month increase since November 2006, the government said Aug. 23. However, the price controls—which in practice made inflation illegal—had been widely unpopular with business owners, as the lower prices forced them to sell their goods at a loss. The move had also resulted in factory production cuts, worker layoffs and empty store shelves. Many stores sought to circumvent the controls, leading to the arrest of more than 7,500 shop owners and other businesspeople. Rioting was reported when the scarce goods were delivered. An estimated 80% of the population was unemployed. The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) July 31 reported that Zimbabweans were increasingly relying on a barter system or on remittances from relatives who had fled the country. An estimated 3,000 people per day were reportedly crossing the border in search of work. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the central bank, July 31 said it would issue a Z$200,000 note, two times higher than the previous largest denomination, as a “convenience” to citizens. The note was worth about US$13, according to the official exchange rate, or US$1 according to black market rates. The government Aug. 22 eased some of the price controls. However, that was expected to push the inflation rate up again. Some analysts and opponents of Mugabe predicted that the increasingly desperate state of the economy would lead to the collapse of his regime. However, others noted that Mugabe had survived for years despite the deteriorating economy. Other News—In other news related to Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis: Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, a prominent opponent of Mugabe, July 16 was accused in a lawsuit of having a two-year adulterous affair with a church secretary. The suit was filed in Bulawayo, Ncube’s base and Zimbabwe’s secondlargest city, by Onesisums Sibanda, the husband of Rosemary Sibanda, who reportedly had admitted to the affair. The husband demanded Z$2 million in damages. State-run television July 17 broadcast what it claimed were photographs of Ncube and the woman in bed together, apparently taken by a secret camera in the archbishop’s bedroom. Ncube and his supporters denounced the revelations as an attempt to silence the archbishop, although †

562

he declined to deny the affair. [See 2005, p. 236D3] † Christopher Dell, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, who had been a vocal critic of Mugabe, July 14 ended his posting in the country. Dell Aug. 2 became deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Prior to his departure, Dell in an interview published June 22 by a British newspaper, the Guardian, had predicted that hyperinflation would reach 1.5 million percent by the end of 2007, leading to the collapse of Mugabe’s regime. [See p. 179A2] † Zimbabwean police May 26 arrested about 200 MDC supporters in a raid on the party’s headquarters in Harare, the capital, during a meeting of the party’s youth organization. The raid was a continuation of a crackdown on the opposition that had begun earlier in the year. A lawyer for the opposition supporters, some of whom claimed to have been assaulted by the police, May 28 said they had all been released without charge. „

AMERICAS

Chile Former General Given Life Sentence.

Chile’s Supreme Court Aug. 28 upheld a life prison sentence for former Gen. Hugo Salas Wenzel for his role in ordering the murder of 12 leftist guerrillas in June 1987. At the time of the murders, Salas Wenzel was the head of the country’s intelligence service, the National Information Center, under then-President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. The 12 executed rebels had been accused of attempting to assassinate Pinochet in September 1986. [See 2006, p. 946F1] Salas Wenzel became the first senior member of Pinochet’s government, which ruled from 1973 to 1990, to be sentenced to life in prison on human rights abuse charges. He had been convicted of the charges and sentenced in 2005, but had appealed his verdict. The high court the same day also increased the sentence of Maj. Alvaro Corvalan Castilla, the man found guilty of carrying out the execution operation, and upheld the sentences of 13 others accused of human rights abuses. Pinochet-Era Intelligence Official Caught—

Gen. Raul Iturriaga Neumann, another former military intelligence official who served under Pinochet, Aug. 2 was captured in Vina del Mar, a resort town on the country’s Pacific coast. Iturriaga had escaped from custody after he was convicted in June of charges related to the operation of a secret prison and torture facility and sentenced to five years in prison. „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

Japan Abe Shuffles Cabinet After Election Loss.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Aug. 27 shuffled his cabinet in a major overhaul

of his government following losses in upper house elections in July. Abe, 52, named a number of experienced older figures from his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to key posts, saying, “I have placed priority on people’s ability to implement policy.” Analysts suggested that the appointment of party veterans was intended to stem criticism from within the LDP. Abe had resisted calls from the opposition, as well as some of his own party’s members, to resign after the elections. [See p. 499B2] Two of Abe’s cabinet ministers had been forced to resign prior to the elections, another had committed suicide and a fourth had quit after the elections to take responsibility for ethical questions that had damaged the LDP’s campaign. Abe in announcing the cabinet shuffle acknowledged missteps including some ministers’ “inappropriate comments” and “ethical slips,” and the government’s response to revelations that millions of pension accounts had been mishandled. Abe appointed 62-year-old Nobutaka Machimura, a former foreign and education minister and longtime lawmaker, as foreign minister. He named Masahiko Komura, 65, a former foreign and justice minister, to the defense portfolio. They would play a key role in Abe’s effort to renew a law allowing Japanese military ships to refuel U.S. and allied ships in the Indian Ocean, in support of operations in Afghanistan. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan had threatened to use its upper house majority to block the renewal of the law, which was to expire Nov. 1. Machimura Aug. 27 called Japan’s relations with the U.S. “the cornerstone of our foreign policy.” Machimura replaced Taro Aso, whom Abe named secretary general of the LDP. Komura succeeded Yoriko Koike, who had been appointed in July. Kaoru Yosano, 69, a former economy and education minister, was named chief cabinet secretary, who functioned as leader and public spokesman of the cabinet. Abe appointed one of the LDP critics who had called for his resignation, Yoichi Masuzoe, as health and welfare minister, where he would be responsible for the aftermath of the pension scandal. In the economic arena, Fukushiro Nukaga, 63, a former defense and economy minister, became finance minister, and Abe retained Economy Minister Hiroko Ota, who had been an economic policymaker under his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi. Abe acknowledged that rural areas—traditional LDP strongholds where the party had suffered severe electoral losses—had not benefited from reforms intended to stimulate economic growth. „ Jet Explodes, Passengers Escape. A China Airlines Boeing 737 passenger jet Aug. 20 exploded shortly after landing at Naha Airport in Okinawa, Japan. None of the 165 passengers and crew on the flight was seriously hurt, as the craft was evacuated after a fire broke out. The entire craft blew up just after the last passengers reached safety, although at least one crew member FACTS ON FILE

jumped out a cockpit window after the fireball engulfed the fuselage. [See 2002, p. 699B2] The flight had arrived at Naha from Taipei, the Taiwanese capital. China Airlines was Taiwan’s main carrier. It had overhauled its safety practices after a string of deadly accidents between 1994 and 2002. Japanese accident investigators Aug. 23 said an errant bolt had pierced the plane’s fuel tank, causing a leak that was the apparent cause of the fire. Investigators had said that a failure to put a washer back in place during a recent maintenance procedure appeared to have allowed the bolt to loosen, it was reported Aug. 28. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Aug. 27 ordered inspections of U.S. carriers’ late-model 737s, to ensure that such nuts and bolts were installed and tightened properly on the slats attached to the planes’ wings. „

Kazakhstan Ruling Party Sweeps Elections. Kazakhstan’s ruling Nur Otan (Fatherland Ray of Light People’s Democratic Party) in elections Aug. 18 had won all 98 available parliamentary seats with 88% of the vote, according to preliminary results announced the next day by the Central Election Commission. It was the first election held under a new proportional-representation system, which required parties to secure at least 7% of the popular vote in order to sit in the Majlis, or lower house of parliament. The elections were widely viewed as an attempt to increase the country’s democratic standing, while still allowing President Nursultan Nazarbayev to retain tight control over the government. [See p. 436G3; 2004, p. 804D1] New elections had been scheduled after the June enactment of constitutional changes that granted the lower house increased political authority, and exempted Nazarbayev from term limits that would have ended his presidency in 2012. Kazakh opposition parties claimed the elections were fraudulent, citing faulty vote counting and the influence of a pervasive state-controlled media. Alikhan Baymenov, leader of the opposition party Ak Zhol (Bright Road–Democratic Party of Kazakhstan), claimed that his party received 12% of the vote, but official counts credited it with only 3.25%. Ak Zhol and the National Social Democratic Party (which received 4.6% of the vote) had expressed a desire to merge prior to the election, but did not meet the administrative deadline to do so. Criticism of the elections also came from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which sent 436 observers to monitor polling. The OSCE reported that the elections did not meet international standards, but nevertheless were a positive step in Kazakhstan’s progress toward democracy. The OSCE cited an “increased ability of political parties to convey their message to voters.” However, the organization also noted “proceAugust 30, 2007

dural problems” and a lack of transparency at more than 40% of polling stations monitored. Lubomir Kopaj of the OSCE said, “As an experienced observer, I can tell you I have never seen a democratic country with one political party in parliament.” Kazakhstan was seeking the rotating OSCE presidency in 2009. „ Austria Blocks Aliyev Extradition. An Austrian court Aug. 8 ruled that Rakhat Aliyev, a former son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, would not be extradited to Kazakhstan to face charges including kidnapping, assault and corruption. The court said he would not receive a fair trial if returned to Kazakhstan. Kazakh authorities Aug. 9 said they would appeal the decision. [See pp. 563C1, 437C1] Aliyev had been arrested in June in Vienna, Austria’s capital, under an international warrant in connection with the kidnapping of two Kazakh bank managers. The arrest followed his dismissal from his position as Kazakh ambassador to Austria and his subsequent declaration of plans to run for president in 2012. In a related development, Nazarbayev Aug. 27 dismissed another son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, from his seat on the board of Samruk, a state-run holding company that managed energy assets, according to a decree posted on the Kazakh government’s Web site. No reason was given for his removal. „ Medical Workers Convicted in HIV Case.

Twenty-one doctors and medical workers accused of causing an outbreak of HIV, the virus that caused AIDS, that had infected more than 115 children June 27 were found guilty by a court in the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent, where the outbreak had taken place. The epidemic had affected so many people in Shymkent that the trial had to be held in a decaying concert hall in order to accommodate everyone who wished to attend. [See p. 19D2] The court found that contaminated blood had been used in transfusions and that intravenous equipment had not been properly cleaned before being re-used. Blood donations reportedly were an unregulated and highly profitable business in poverty-stricken Kazakhstan, where doctors’ salaries were as low as $175 a month. Individuals were paid meager sums for blood donations, which could then be resold at four times the price. Blood transfusions were widely viewed in Kazakhstan as a means to fortify the body and prevent disease. In one instance cited in court documents, an eight-month-old boy received 25 blood transfusions before treatment was halted after it was discovered that he was HIV-positive. Of the 21 people found guilty, 17 were given prison sentences, ranging from eight years for those convicted of trading illegal blood, to three to five years for others involved. The rest were given suspended sentences, including Nursulu Tasmagambetova, former head of the regional health department and sister of Imangali Tasmagambetov, a former prime minister who was currently the mayor of Almaty, the

largest city in Kazakhstan. Sagadat Masaurov, head of the Protect Children from HIV/ AIDS Foundation and a lawyer for those affected by the epidemic, said his clients would appeal for harsher sentences. [See 2003, p. 662C2] Thirteen other doctors had been the subject of related investigations. As a result of increased pressure exerted on the Kazakh health system, about 50 doctors resigned in protest, saying they should not be held individually accountable for larger failures in the system, and that more would resign unless the government changed its response to the crisis, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reported July 25. Ten of the affected children had died, as new HIV cases continued to emerge in the „ area, according to the BBC.

A

B

Myanmar Fuel Price Rise Sparks Demonstrations.

Myanmar’s ruling military junta Aug. 15 unexpectedly cut fuel subsidies, causing gas prices to double and elevating the impoverished nation’s inflation rate to approximately 40%. No explanation was given for the sudden price increase, but analysts linked it to financial mismanagement and the junta’s decision to build a new capital city in central Myanmar, a project with an estimated cost of $1 billion. The rise in fuel costs made commuting to work or school prohibitively expensive for many citizens and led to a series of rare protests in the cities of Yangon, the former capital, and Bago. [See p. 366A2, D2; 1989, p. 466B3] The protests began Aug. 19 in Yangon, when 400 people marched peacefully through the city to demonstrate against the rise in fuel prices. On Aug. 21, 13 dissidents linked to the demonstrations were arrested, including seven prominent members of the 88 Generation Students group, which rose to prominence during 1988 prodemocracy protests that left hundreds dead and led then–military ruler Ne Win to resign. [See 1988, p. 551B3] Following the arrests, a second protest of more than 100 people in Yangon Aug. 22 was attacked by a mob of stick-wielding junta supporters. Eight protesters were held captive and accused of being antigovernment agitators, but were freed later that day. On Aug. 23, a group of 40 people linked to the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, were stopped by security forces during a march toward the headquarters of the military junta. Twelve protesters were arrested. Protests continued Aug. 24 but were quickly dispersed by security forces. State media reported Aug. 25 that Myanmar’s military had arrested at least 63 protesters, some of whom faced up to 20 years in prison on sedition charges. [See 1991, p. 791G3] Acting U.S. State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos Aug. 22 denounced the arrests and called “for the immediate release of these activists and for an end to the regime’s blatant attempt to intimidate 563

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North Korea

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Summit With South Planned, Postponed.

North Korea and South Korea Aug. 8 announced that they would hold a summit meeting Aug. 28–30 in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. However, the two countries Aug. 18 said the summit, which would be the first since 2000, would be postponed until early October, due to severe floods that had killed hundreds of people in North Korea. [See pp. 564G1, 485E1, 326C3; 2000, p. 401A1] The two countries had remained bitter enemies since the 1950–53 Korean War, and had never signed a treaty formally ending the war. They held a landmark summit in 2000, ushering in South Korea’s “sunshine” policy of pursuing warmer relations with North Korea’s highly isolated communist regime. The announcement of the new summit came after North Korea agreed in multinational talks earlier in the year to shut down its nuclear programs. A spokesman for South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun Aug. 8 quoted Roh as saying that the meeting would “provide fresh momentum to improve North Korea’s international relations.” [See below] However, the South Korean opposition Grand National Party (GNP) Aug. 8 called the announcement a stunt intended to help Roh in the run-up to the country’s December presidential election. The GNP criticized the government for its recent denials that it was arranging a North Korean summit. Nuclear Deal Progress Reported— The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear monitor, had been able to confirm the shutdown of four facilities at North Korea’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, the Associated Press (AP) reported Aug. 17. The AP cited a report being prepared for a September IAEA meeting. North Korea in July had announced the closure of Yongbyon’s main reactor. The U.S. envoy to talks on the nuclear issue, Christopher Hill, Aug. 17 said that recent talks with North Korea had reached a “consensus on the way forward” in shutting down the entire nuclear program. The AP said that according to U.S. diplomats, North Korea had also agreed in the talks to address U.S. claims that it had maintained a separate uranium-based nuclear program, in addition to its declared plutonium activities. „ Floods Said to Kill Hundreds. North Korea’s state-run news agency Aug. 25 said more than 600 people had died in severe flooding across the country. North Korea 564

Aug. 13 had first announced the devastation, saying unspecified “hundreds” were dead or missing, and that thousands of houses, as well as “major railways, roads and bridges” had been destroyed, and power and communications disrupted. It was unusual for the North Korean government to admit to internal difficulties, although observers said it had at times exaggerated natural disasters in order to downplay its failures in responding to them and gain foreign aid. [See pp. 267C2; 1996, p. 1008G3] North Korea Aug. 15 appealed for international aid, saying some 300,000 people had been left homeless, and that about 11% of its cropland had been destroyed. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) estimated that such damage would mean losses of 450,000 tons of crops. North Korea was already expected to have a one-million-ton food shortfall for the year. In 1995 flooding that plunged North Korea into a famine that killed some two million people, about four times as much farmland had been wiped out. The WFP Aug. 21 said it would immediately begin delivery of emergency food aid to flood victims. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Greece

fighting equipment and humanitarian aid. Six of Greece’s fellow European Union member nations and Israel Aug. 26 had sent more than 30 firefighting aircraft. The Greek government Aug. 24 had appealed for “urgent assistance” from the EU. The government Aug. 29 said it would grant tax exemptions to people and businesses in the affected areas for the next six months. However, the Greek media had reported widespread criticism of the government’s relief effort from residents of stricken villages. The government had already faced criticism for its handling of an earlier wave of forest fires in July. Karamanlis Aug. 25 declared a national state of emergency. He also called a halt to campaigning for the September elections, although he said they would be held as scheduled. Karamanlis Aug. 16 had called early elections for Sept. 16, six months ahead of schedule. His conservative New Democracy Party had come to power in 2004 elections. [See 2005, p. 270F1] Karamanlis Aug. 25 blamed the fires on arson. Police had arrested nearly 80 people on suspicion of arson, and seven were charged Aug. 27 with starting fires either deliberately or negligently. Arson intended to clear forests for real estate development was said to be common in Greece. Regulations requiring that burned forest land be replanted were not strongly enforced.

Widespread Wildfires Kill More Than 60. A Heat Wave Hits Southern Europe— drop in winds and temperatures Aug. 29 allowed firefighters to gain control of Greece and other southern European counwildfires that had blazed across Greece tries had suffered through a heat wave in and left more than 60 people dead since late July. In Athens, the Greek capital, the Aug. 24. Meanwhile, the government of temperature July 25 reached 113º FahrenPrime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who heit (45º Celsius). Officials across the region had attributhad previously called early parliamentary elections for September, drew criticism ed dozens of deaths to the heat, including for its response to the fires. [See 2006, p. about 500 in Hungary by July 27, and 33 in Romania as of July 25. Widespread elec602B1] Most of the major fires and deaths had tricity and water delivery failures had addoccurred on the southern Peloponnesian ed to the impact of the heat. The heat wave was blamed on the jet peninsula, including one that threatened ancient Olympia, where the Olympic stream being further south than usual, Games were founded during the 8th centu- bringing hotter air from Africa and the subtropics. „ ry B.C. According to independent estimates, nearly 500,000 acres (200,000 hectares) of forest, olive groves and scrub were destroyed in the fires. That was the worst damage since current record keeping for fires began in Greece in the 1950s. The Greek fire department had received aid from 19 other countries, including A wildfire Aug. 27 threatens the Church of Zoodohos Pygi near the village of Andrit$100,000 from sena, in Greece’s Peloponnesian peninsula. Fires across Greece had left more than the U.S. for fire- 60 people dead between Aug. 24 and Aug. 29. FACTS ON FILE

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and silence those who are engaged in peaceful promotion of democracy and human rights” in Myanmar. In January, the U.S. had drafted a United Nations resolution that condemned Myanmar’s human rights abuses and called on the country to release political prisoners, but the measure was voted down by India and China. [See p. 35C2] „

FACTS ON GUL

Russia Ten Arrested in Politkovskaya Murder.

Russia’s prosecutor general, Yuri Chaika, Aug. 27 announced that 10 people had been arrested in connection with the murder of prominent journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who had been gunned down in her Moscow apartment building in October 2006. Chaika placed the blame on both a Chechen criminal gang specializing in contract killings and an unnamed orchestrator living abroad, who sought to destabilize the government and instigate a return to the “old system where money and oligarchs decided everything.” [See 2006, p. 828E1, B3] Politkovskaya, 48, had been a harsh critic of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s administration in a country where suppression of the independent press was rampant and 13 journalists had been murdered (three of whom worked for Politkovskaya’s newspaper, Novaya Gazeta) since Putin assumed office in 2000. She wrote largely about human rights violations in Russia and news related to an armed conflict in the restive southern republic of Chechnya. She accused government officials at all levels of corruption, torture and killing. Just before her murder, she had been about to publish an article about brutality in Chechnya that she claimed had been orchestrated by pro-government gangs. Dmitri Muratov, editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta, was critical of Chaika’s statement, saying that the motive given had been designed to further the Kremlin’s agenda. He described it as “a nightmare…The prosecutor general is acting not like a prosecutor general, but a politician who works at the instructions of the president.” Novaya Gazeta had been cooperating with government investigators while also investigating the case independently. Muratov said the newspaper had not found evidence suggesting foreign involvement, and would likely publish its findings before the one-year anniversary of the killing. Many suggested the Kremlin’s allusions to a foreign orchestrator referred to Boris Berezovsky, an exiled Russian tycoon who had made his fortune from the privatization of Russian industry in the 1990s. He relocated to London after falling out with Putin, who claimed that Berezovsky was trying to interfere with his leadership and tarnish his reputation abroad. Berezovsky, who also accused by the Kremlin of being responsible for the November 2006 poisoning of former Russian intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko in London, Aug. 27 asserted his innocence, saying Chaika’s comments were “psychopathic” and that Politkovskaya had been a friend. He added that he was not surprised the Kremlin would suggest that he was behind the murder, and that “it was those who were angered by what she published who eliminated her.” [See p. 368B1] Among those arrested were Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Lt. Col. Pavel Ryaguzov and four others linked with the August 30, 2007

Abdullah Gul was born Oct. 29, 1950, in the city of Kayseri in central Turkey. He studied economics at the University of Istanbul, earning a doctorate in 1983. He worked for the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank from 1983 to 1991. Gul served as a member of the Turkish parliament from 1991 to 1995 for the Islamicbased Welfare Party. He was elected again in 1999 as a member of the Virtue Party, the successor to the Welfare Party, which was banned after being ousted from office by the military in 1997. He lost a bid in 2000 to become the leader of the Virtue Party, and the following year became a founder of a new party with Islamic roots, the Justice and Development Party (AKP). After the AKP won parliamentary elections in 2002, Gul became prime minister. He switched to foreign minister in 2003, making way for AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan to become prime minister. [See 2003, p. 195C3] FSB. Chaika further suggested that the indi-

viduals arrested might be linked with the deaths of Forbes journalist Paul Klebnikov in July 2004 and bank regulator Andrei Kozlov in September 2006. There had already been arrests in both cases. [See 2006, p. 737C3; 2004, p. 530F1] „

Turkey Islamic Party’s Candidate Elected President.

Turkey’s parliament Aug. 28 elected Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a leader of the ruling Islamic-based Justice and Development Party (AKP), as the nation’s president. Gul, 56, became the first president of modern secular Turkey to come from a religious party since the nation’s founding in 1923. [See p. 533G1; for facts on Gul, see box p. 565A2] The presidency in Turkey was largely ceremonial, but had long been a stronghold of the secular establishment. The president had the power to veto legislation and controlled appointments to the judiciary and other positions. Gul won 339 votes in a third round of voting in the 530-seat parliament, exceeding the simple majority he required. The main secular opposition party boycotted the vote. Gul had failed to win a majority in the two prior rounds, held Aug. 20 and Aug. 24. Those rounds required a twothirds majority for victory. The AKP had first tried to elect Gul as president in April, drawing strong opposition from both secular parties and the military, which traditionally had seen itself as the defender of Turkey’s secular constitution. In response to the standoff, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also of the AKP, had called early parliamentary elections. The AKP won those elections, in July, by a landslide. The AKP had been in power since 2002. After the victory, it renominated Gul for president. The chief of the Turkish military, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, Aug. 27 warned that “centers of evil” were trying to undermine secularism, and that the military would not “stand by.”

As foreign minister, Gul had led Turkey’s efforts to open membership negotiations with the European Union. The talks formally opened in June 2006, but were expected to last for years, and were partly suspended by the EU that December. [See 2006, p. 983A1] In April 2007, after Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer announced his retirement, the AKP nominated Gul to succeed him. Secular opposition parties boycotted the election in parliament, and the Constitutional Court ruled it invalid because there had not been a quorum of lawmakers present. [See p. 285G2] Gul’s candidacy also drew a threat from the secular leadership of the military to intervene to block his election. Millions of secularists demonstrated against him. In May, Gul withdrew his candidacy and Erdogan called early parliamentary elections. The AKP won the elections by a landslide in July. It renominated Gul for president in August. Parliament elected him on the third vote Aug. 28. [See p. 565C2, 301F1]

The military had also threatened in April to intervene to block Gul’s election, but had not taken any such action. The military had ousted four governments since 1960, mostly recently one it deemed too Islamic in 1997. [See 1997, p. 426B3] No high-ranking military commanders attended Gul’s inauguration Aug. 28. Nor did his wife, Hayrunisa Gul, who was controversial for wearing an Islamic head scarf, which was banned in Turkey’s public buildings. After taking the oath of office, Gul reaffirmed that “Turkey is a secular democracy” and vowed to “defend and strengthen these values.” In his first major action as president, Gul Aug. 29 approved Erdogan’s new cabinet. It included Ali Babacan replacing Gul as foreign minister and Mehmet Simsek as economy minister. The cabinet was seen as reflecting Erdogan’s determination to continue with political and economic reforms needed to win membership in the European Union. [See 2006, p. 983A1] „

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Iran Iranian-American Scholar Freed on Bail.

Haleh Esfandiari, an academic with dual Iranian-U.S. citizenship, Aug. 21 was released on bail valued at three billion rials ($324,000), after being held by Iran for almost four months on suspicion of promoting a U.S-backed revolution. It was still unclear whether she would be allowed to leave the country or whether a court date had been set. Iran’s detention of Esfandiari and three other dual Iranian-U.S. citizens had further worsened the already-strained relations between the two countries. [See p. 470F1] Esfandiari’s release came after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Aug. 7 responded to a June 29 appeal for her freedom by former U.S. Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton (Ind.), president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where Esfandiari 565

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was director of Middle East programs. Hamilton in 2006 had been a cochairman of the Iraq Study Group, which urged the U.S. to open dialogue with Iran. [See 2006, p. 921A1] An Iranian judge had said that another of the Iranian-American detainees, Kian Tajbakhsh, would be released from prison on bail, but not for at least 10 to 15 days, it was reported Aug. 23. Hassan Haddad, the deputy prosecutor in Tehran, the capital, Aug. 12 had said that the government had ended investigations of Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh. Haddad that day also said the case of a third detained Iranian-U.S. academic, Ali Shakeri, was not linked to those of Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh. Execution Rise Seen—The Observer, a British newspaper, Aug. 19 reported that Iran had hanged up to 30 people over the past month in what the government said was a crackdown against dangerous criminals. Opposition members said some of those executed had been political activists, and that the campaign was intended to intimidate dissidents. London-based human rights group Amnesty International Aug. 1 had said Iran had executed 143 people so far in 2007, compared to 177 in all of 2006. [See p. 452C3] In the highest-profile execution, two men Aug. 2 were publicly hanged from cranes after being convicted of the 2005 murder of Hassan Moghaddas, a judge. It was Tehran’s first public hanging in five years. Moghaddas had been involved in several prominent cases in which he had convicted political dissidents. A judiciary spokesman July 31 had said two Kurdish journalists, Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed Hiva Botimar, had been sentenced to death on charges of being mohareb, or enemies of God. Their lawyer Aug. 1 said they had been charged with assisting armed opposition groups. „ Ministers, Bank Governor Ousted. Iran’s central bank governor, Ebrahim Sheibani, Aug. 26 resigned in the midst of an ongoing cabinet shuffle by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Two other government officials, Petroleum Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh and Industry Minister Alireza Tahmasebi, had resigned Aug. 12. The three men were widely seen as having been forced out by Ahmadinejad in a bid to consolidate his power and distance himself from failed economic policies. [See p. 452F2] Tahmaseb Mazaheri, a former economy minister, Aug. 26 was named to replace Sheibani as central bank governor. Sheibani had opposed populist proposals by Ahmadinejad in May to drastically lower interest rates, a move many critics said would hamper efforts to control inflation. Ahmadinejad appointed Gholam Hossein Nozari, the head of the state-owned National Iranian Oil Co., to temporarily replace Vaziri-Hamaneh, who had opposed Ahmadinejad’s efforts to purge the oil ministry of what he called corrupt special interests. In June, Vaziri-Hamaneh had presided over an unpopular gasoline-rationing program. 566

Ali Akbar Mehrabian, Ahmadinejad’s special representative on the government’s fuel consumption committee, replaced Tahmasebi as acting minister. The reason for Tahmasebi’s replacement was not given, but he had reportedly opposed Ahmadinejad’s efforts to dismiss officials and replace them with his own appointees. „ ‘Smart Bomb’ Development Reported. The Iranian defense ministry Aug. 22 reported that Iran had developed a 2,000-pound (900-kg) “smart bomb,” according to official news outlets. The bomb, which had an unspecified guidance system, was reportedly able to be dropped by Iran’s aging F-4 and F-5 fighter jets, which had been supplied to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s government by the U.S. prior to his ouster by the 1979 Islamic revolution. Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said Iran would use the bombs “against our enemies when the time comes.” Iran and the U.S. were involved in a standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, and the U.S. had not ruled out military action. [See p. 250A3]„

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan U.S. Bomb Kills Three British Soldiers.

British officials Aug. 24 said three British soldiers were killed and two seriously injured when a U.S. fighter jet Aug. 23 dropped a bomb that exploded close to where the soldiers’ unit was located in southern Afghanistan. The unit had called in for U.S. air support after it came under fire from Taliban insurgents in Helmand province. [See pp. 486F3, 452G3] A North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) spokesman said the bomb caused the casualties, but that the incident had yet to be fully investigated. He said it was unclear if any insurgents had been killed by the explosion. The U.S. embassy in London issued a statement of condolence. British Defense Secretary Des Browne said he was “very saddened” by the deaths, but emphasized that friendly fire casualties were “rare.” The U.S. had been criticized in the past for what Afghan officials considered a careless use of air strikes that caused the deaths of innocent civilians. The New York Times Aug. 9 reported that British officers in Helmand blamed U.S. Special Forces for hindering British efforts to pacify the area and gain the support of the local population. U.S. Special Forces moved in smaller patrols that relied heavily on air strikes, which had reportedly led to civilian casualties. The special forces took orders from U.S. officers, not NATO commanders. The incident brought the British death count to 73 since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by U.S.- and NATO-led forces. Approximately 7,000 British troops had operated under NATO’s authority in Helmand, a Taliban stronghold, since early 2006. NATO officials had reported successes in driving out insurgents, but had failed to clamp down on the province’s thriving opium industry, which was supported by

the Taliban. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Aug. 27 released its annual survey on Afghan opium production, which concluded that opium cultivation in Helmand had risen 48% in 2007 and that Helmand produced more than half of Afghanistan’s opium. Afghanistan produced 93% of the world’s opium supply, the report said. Afghan opium production had risen 17% in 2007, hitting a record level for the second straight year. U.S. Forces Allegedly Kill Civilians—

Afghan tribal elders Aug. 26 said a U.S. air strike in Musa Qala district in Helmand had killed 12 civilians, including six children and two women, and wounded 12 others. A U.S. military spokesman denied the allegations, suggesting that Taliban mortar fire was the cause of the casualties. A villager said U.S. forces had entered the village of Kobar Aug. 25 and encountered no opposition. Several hours later, air strikes destroyed two houses, the villager said. U.S. officials said U.S. and Afghan forces had fought with Taliban insurgents protecting a heroin production site, and that NATO had deployed air strikes, but no buildings were targeted. Violence Reports—Among the major incidents of violence across Afghanistan Aug. 18–28: † U.S. military officials Aug. 28 said U.S.-led coalition forces that day had killed more than 100 insurgents in heavy fighting in the southern province of Kandahar. The fighting left one Afghan soldier dead. † A suicide bomber Aug. 28 killed three U.S. soldiers who were part of a NATO-led force in eastern Paktia province. The soldiers were helping build a bridge when the bomb exploded. † A roadside bomb Aug. 22 killed two Canadian soldiers and their interpreter in Kandahar province. The Canadians were part of a regiment that had just won back a hill from Taliban insurgents in a joint Canadian-Afghan mission. The mission came in the wake of a suicide bombing Aug. 17 that killed the chief of Zhari district and his three children. The suicide bombing had infuriated local Afghan leaders and led to popular support for the mission. † A suicide car bomb Aug. 18 killed 13 civilians and two Afghan security guards in Kandahar province. The security guards were part of a convoy that included vehicles owned by U.S. Protection and Investigations LLC, a private U.S. security company that protected foreign contractors. However, a van full of civilians bore the brunt of the bomb’s impact. „ South Korean Hostages Freed. The Taliban insurgent group Aug. 29–30 released in Ghazni province 19 South Korean hostages out of a group of 23 that had been kidnapped in mid-July, ending a six-week crisis. The hostages, who had been taken while traveling to Kandahar from Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, were released in small groups to the International Committee of the Red Cross; all were in apparent good health. The Taliban in July had killed two male hostages, and in August had reFACTS ON FILE

India Hyderabad Bombings Kill More Than 40.

Two bombs Aug. 25 exploded within ten minutes of one another in the city of Hyderabad in southern India, killing as many as 42 people and wounding dozens. The first bomb was detonated at an open-air theater in a public park; the second at a popular restaurant. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Y.S.R. Reddy, August 30, 2007

the chief minister of the state of Andhra Pradesh, of which Hyderabad was the capital, Aug. 26 said preliminary evidence indicated the “involvement of terrorist organizations based in Bangladesh and Pakistan.” [See p. 339G1] The governments of both of those mostly Muslim countries denied the allegation. A spokeswoman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry described Reddy’s comments as “irresponsible,” and said Indian officials were “maligning Pakistan.” Many Muslim residents of Hyderabad claimed that Hindu extremists were behind the attacks. A bombing in May had killed at least 11 people, most of whom were Muslims, at a mosque in Hyderabad. In Hyderabad, about 40% of the population was Muslim, a higher proportion than in nation as a whole, which was 13% Muslim. About 80% of India’s 1.1 billion people were Hindus. Hyderabad officials Aug. 25 said “antisocial elements” intended to cause strife between the two religions, pointing out that the victims included both Hindus and Muslims. Observers said Hyderabad had become a target for terrorism because of its booming economy, which centered around internet technology, software development and a customer service industry for foreign companies. Bombings in India in the recent past had targeted symbols of its growing economy, like commuter trains in Mumbai, its financial center, in 2006, and marketplaces in New Delhi, the capital, in 2005. [See 2006, p. 542E1; 2005, p. 784D3] Hyderabad police Aug. 26 said they had discovered and defused 19 undetonated bombs since the attacks. They said the bombs were hidden in plastic bags, rigged with timers and planted in public places, including movie theaters, bridges and bus stops. The city police commissioner said the bombs “could have killed hundreds” if they had detonated. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Football Vick Pleads Guilty in Dogfighting Case.

Atlanta Falcons star quarterback Michael Vick Aug. 27 in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., formally pleaded guilty to one count of “conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture.” Judge Henry Hudson set his sentencing hearing for Dec. 10. Vick was expected to receive a prison sentence of 12 to 18 months. [See p. 551C3; 2005, p. 355F3] Afterwards, Vick made a statement to reporters at the courthouse in which he apologized to members of the National Football League (NFL), his teammates and his fans for his involvement in the dogfighting operation known as Bad Newz Kennels, which had been located on his property in Surry County, Va. Vick said he took “full responsibility” for his ac-

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leased two female captives. [See p. 534A2] The Taliban had agreed to release the hostages Aug. 28, after weeks of negotiations with a delegation of South Korean diplomats. South Korea said it had reaffirmed a promise to withdraw 200 noncombatant troops from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) coalition force that was fighting the Taliban in order to secure the hostages’ release. South Korea also agreed to prohibit Christian missionaries from entering Afghanistan. (The hostages were members of a Presbyterian church, but South Korean officials had said they were in Afghanistan to perform aid work, and not proselytize.) The Taliban had dropped its initial demand that the Afghan government release several jailed Taliban insurgents in exchange for the South Korean hostages. Observers speculated that the South Korean delegation had paid a ransom in exchange for the hostages’ release, as the South Korean government had previously agreed to the Taliban’s other demands. Both South Korean officials and Taliban spokesmen denied that any ransom had been paid. Many Afghan officials criticized the South Korean government for establishing a precedent that could encourage the Taliban to kidnap other foreigners working in Afghanistan in order to achieve political goals. Furthermore, Afghan officials said that the negotiations had given the insurgency greater political legitimacy, as it demonstrated that the Taliban could negotiate with a sovereign government. Taliban spokesmen Aug. 28 held a press conference with foreign media outlets for the first time since the U.S.- and NATO-led invasion began in 2001. News of the hostages’ release was cheered in South Korea. The crisis had been a dominant issue there, and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun had come under intense pressure to win the hostages’ freedom. German Aid Worker Freed in Raid—Afghan police and intelligence services Aug. 20 in an early-morning raid freed a German aid worker who had been kidnapped Aug. 18 from a restaurant in Kabul. In a video of the kidnapped woman released Aug. 19, one of the kidnappers demanded that the government release “innocent prisoners” from jail, and said that he was not affiliated with the Taliban. Observers viewed the kidnapping as an indication that small gangs were imitating Taliban kidnapping tactics. „

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Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick Aug. 27 leaves federal court in Richmond, Va. Vick pleaded guilty to charges related to dogfighting on his property.

tions, and that he felt “dogfighting is a terrible thing.” He reached out to his younger fans, saying, “What I did was very immature, so that means I need to grow up.” Vick had filed a plea agreement Aug. 24 in which he admitted to funding operations at Bad Newz Kennels, providing money for gambling on dogfights, and hosting dogfights on his property. Vick did not acknowledge that he had placed bets on the fights or profited from the gambling. Vick also admitted to approving the killing of six to eight pit bulls, which were then put down through the “collective efforts” of him and his co-conspirators, Tony Taylor, Purnell Peace and Quanis Phillips. Vick did not admit to participating in the killings. Taylor, Peace and Phillips had already pleaded guilty to charges surrounding the operation. As part of the plea agreement, Vick agreed to pay for the “long-term care and/ or humane euthanasia” of the remaining Bad Newz Kennels pit bulls. The NFL Aug. 24 suspended Vick from the league without pay indefinitely. In a letter to Vick, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell described the player’s actions as “cruel and reprehensible,” and said the player’s involvement in illegal gambling was in violation of his contract with the NFL. Goodell said the league would reassess the suspension after Vick’s legal proceedings were over. Athletic apparel and footwear giant Nike Inc. later that day announced it had terminated its relationship with Vick. Vick had endorsed Nike athletic products since 2001, after he became the first pick in the NFL draft that year. Owners of the Atlanta Falcons Aug. 27 sent a letter to Vick informing him of their intent to recoup some of the $37 million Vick made in bonuses since 2004. The NFL’s suspension had rendered Vick in default of his 10-year, $130 million contract with the Falcons, and thus allowed the team’s ownership to try and reclaim some of the money it paid him. „ 567

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Cycling Discovery Channel Team to Disband. San

Francisco, Calif.–based Tailwind Sports Corp., owner of the Discovery Channel cycling team, Aug. 10 announced that it would disband the team after the current season. Discovery was part-owned by seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. Two of its riders—Alberto Contador of Spain and Levi Leipheimer of the U.S.—had placed first and third, respectively, in the Tour de France in July. However, the sport had been plagued by doping scandals in recent years, and Tailwind said it was having difficulty finding a sponsor to replace Discovery, which was ending its association with the team at the end of the season. Discovery had replaced the U.S. Postal Service as the team’s sponsor in 2005. [See p. 501D2] The team also indicated that coach Johan Bruyneel, who had guided Armstrong and Contador to their Tour wins, would retire. Cycling teams were totally dependent on sponsors for revenue. Tailwind, the owner of the only U.S. team in the International Cycling Union’s top level, the ProTour, had reportedly been seeking $15 million per year from a new sponsor. Team general manager Bill Stapleton said, “We finally concluded that we couldn’t in good conscience make a recommendation to a company to spend the sort of money that is necessary.” Contador Barred From German Race—

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Frank Bertling, the director of the Hamburg Cyclassics race, an event on the ProTour that was held Aug. 19 in Germany, Aug. 8 said Contador would not be permitted to participate. Bertling cited Contador’s alleged links to the 2006 Operation Puerto doping scandal, in which Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and seven others had been arrested in connection with a suspected blood-doping network. (All charges were later dismissed.) Contador at an Aug. 10 news conference in Spain denied the doping allegations, and emphasized that he had never tested positive. He had previously asserted that his name had been linked to Operation Puerto by mistake. [See pp. 502G2, 355C1] T-Mobile Sets Conditions for Support—

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T-Mobile, which was owned by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG, Aug. 9 said it would continue to sponsor its ProTeam cycling outfit. However, a T-Mobile spokesman said the company would pull out of the sponsorship deal if any more of the team’s riders tested positive for doping. One of its members, Germany’s Patrik Sinkewitz, had tested positive just prior to the start of the Tour de France. [See p. 502D3] „

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UNITED STATES

People Actor and comedian Owen Wilson, 38, was hospitalized Aug. 26 in Santa Monica, Calif., after the local police and fire depart568

ments responded to a call referring to an “attempted suicide.” There were unconfirmed reports that Wilson had attempted to kill himself by slashing one of his wrists and swallowing pills. He was later transferred to a hospital in Los Angeles. It was reported Aug. 29 that Wilson, still hospitalized, had withdrawn from a forthcoming film being directed by comedian Ben Stiller. The two were longtime friends who had appeared together in a number of film comedies, including Meet the Fockers (2004). [See 2004, p. 1100C2] Socialite Nicole Richie, 25, who starred with hotel heiress Paris Hilton in the television reality show “The Simple Life,” Aug. 23 was released from the Los Angeles County women’s prison in Lynwood, Calif., after serving just over one hour of a four-day prison sentence. The sheriff’s department cited “jail overcrowding” as the reason for her quick release. Richie, who was five months pregnant, had been sentenced July 27 to four days in jail and three years’ probation, after pleading guilty to driving under the influence of drugs. She had been arrested in Burbank, Calif., in December 2006 after driving the wrong way down a highway, then admitted to police that she had smoked marijuana and taken a painkiller, Vicodin. Hilton had been jailed at the same jail for a number of days in June, for violating her probation in a reckless driving case. [See p. 424C3] The Los Angeles home of actor and comedian Steve Martin, 61, July 28 was the scene of his wedding to writer Anne Stringfield, 35. The ceremony was conducted by former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey (D), a friend of Martin’s. It was Stringfield’s first marriage and Martin’s second. He had been married to British actress Victoria Tennant from 1986 until their 1994 divorce. [See 2005, p. 768G2; 2004, p. 258G1; 1986, p. 895G2] „

O B I T UA R I E S ALPHER, Ralph Asher, 86, physicist who in his doctoral dissertation, published in 1948, and in a follow-up paper, provided a mathematical foundation for the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe and suggested that background radiation from the initial event might still be detectable, offering experimental verification for the theory; two radio astronomers who detected such radiation in the 1960s, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, won the Nobel Prize in 1978, but Alpher’s work was not cited by the Nobel committee at the time and did not receive ample recognition until years later; born Feb. 3, 1921, in Washington, D.C.; died Aug. 12 at an acute care facility in Austin, Texas; he had been in failing health since breaking a hip in a fall in February. [See 2006, p. 808A2; 1978, p. 886A2] BARRE, Raymond, 83, French premier, 1976–81, under President Valery Giscard d’Estaing; trained as an economist, he helped lay the groundwork for the economic policies of the future European Union as vice president for economic and financial affairs at the European Commission (1967–72); partly concurrent with his premiership (1976–78), he was France’s trade and finance minister; he made an unsuccessful bid for the French presidency in 1988, running as an independent (he was never an official member of any party); he was a member of Parliament from the city of Lyon from 1978 to 2002, and served as its mayor from 1995 to 2001; born April 12, 1924, in Saint-Denis, on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean; died Aug. 25 at a hospital in Paris, where he had been a patient since suffering a heart attack in April. [See 1995, pp. 452B1, 431E2; 1993, p. 132A3; Indexes 1991, 1976–89, 1972, 1970, 1967–68]

BREWSTER, Daniel Baugh, 83, Maryland lawyer who, as a Democrat, served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1959–63) and one term in the U.S. Senate (1963–69); soon after leaving the Senate (he lost his reelection bid), he was indicted by the federal government for accepting a campaign contribution from Spiegel Inc., a mail-order firm, in exchange for voting for low postal rates; the case against him was not resolved until 1975, when he pleaded no contest to a felony charge of accepting an illegal gratuity without corrupt intent and was fined $10,000 but kept his law license; he also fought an eventually successful battle against alcoholism; during World War II, he had enlisted in the Marine Corps and was decorated for his service in the Pacific; born Nov. 23, 1923, in Baltimore County, Md.; died Aug. 19 at his home in Owings Mills, Md., of liver cancer. [See 1984, p. 416A2; 1980, p. 824C3; Indexes 1972–75, 1966–70, 1962–64] DEEDES of Aldington, Lord (William Francis Deedes), 94, British journalist and Conservative poli-

tician; a member of Parliament from 1950 to 1974, he held cabinet posts in the early 1960s under two Tory prime ministers, Harold Macmillan and Sir Alec Douglas-Home; the pinnacle of his career in journalism was from 1974 to 1986, when he edited the London newspaper the Daily Telegraph; through his 80s and into his 90s, he continued to produce a regular Telegraph column; he was given a life peerage in 1986; he was said to have been the model for William Boot, the hapless hero of Scoop, a 1938 Evelyn Waugh novel that spoofed journalism; born June 1, 1913, in London; died Aug. 17 in Aldington, England. [See 1986, p. 536A1; 1973, p. 1063E3; Indexes 1962–64] GARDNER, John Edmund, 80, British author who wrote many thrillers, including 14 featuring James Bond, the secret agent created by Ian Fleming, who died in 1964; Fleming left behind 12 Bond novels; a 13th, Colonel Sun by Kingsley Amis (under the pseudonym Robert Markham), was published in 1968, and the 14 by Gardner were published between 1981 and 1996; born Nov. 20, 1926, in Seaton Delaval, England; died Aug. 3 in Basingstoke, England, of heart failure after collapsing near his home. [See 1985, p. 391G3; 1982, p. 464D3] KHRENNIKOV, Tikhon Nikolayevich, 94, Russian composer who for decades was a major Soviet bureaucrat, serving as secretary of the Soviet composers’ union from 1948 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991; in that capacity, he was widely perceived in the West as a reactionary opponent of such important modernist composers as Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev and Alfred Schnittke, whose work he decried as decadent and in violation of the principles of “socialist realism”; however, he reportedly offered private assistance to some of the artists whose careers he publicly impeded; born June 10, 1913, in Yelets, Russia; died Aug. 14 in Moscow; no cause of death was reported. [See 1970, p. 973G3; 1959, p. 380D2] MURRAY, Elizabeth, 66, painter of large, colorful, irregularly shaped canvases of a semi-abstract nature that teemed with cartoonish references to body parts and household objects, including cups, shoes and tables; she was regarded as one of the revitalizers of painting as an art form in the 1970s and early 1980s; since 1982, she had been married to poet Bob Holman, the founder of New York City’s Bowery Poetry Club; born Sept. 6, 1940, in Chicago; died Aug. 12 at her home in Granville, N.Y., from complications of lung cancer. [See 1999, p. 483D3] SELBERG, Atle, 90, mathematician, long associated with the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., who greatly enriched the field of analytic number theory; he was an early (1950) recipient of the International Mathematical Union’s coveted Fields Medal; born June 14, 1917, in Langesund, Norway; died Aug. 6 at his Princeton home, of heart failure. SHAVELSON, Mel(ville), 90, writer, director and producer of films and television shows; some of his better-known movies starred comedians Bob Hope and Danny Kaye, including Hope’s The Great Lover (1949) and The Seven Little Foys (1955) and Kaye’s The Kid from Brooklyn (1946) and The Five Pennies (1959); born April 1, 1917, in New York City; died Aug. 8 at his home in Studio City, Calif., of natural causes. [See 1990, p. 548A2; 1972, p. 987G3; Indexes 1969, 1966, 1962, 1957–60, 1954–55, 1949–52] WILSON, Tony (Anthony Howard), 57, British television broadcaster, music executive and nightclub owner credited with turning Manchester, England, into a 1980s mecca for youth culture; his businesses included the Factory Records label—among whose artists were such major post-punk groups as Joy Division and the Happy Mondays—and the Hacienda nightclub; born Feb. 20, 1950, in Salford, England; died Aug. 10 in Manchester, of a heart attack after a yearlong battle with kidney and lung cancer. „

August 30, 2007

Bush Visits Iraq, Hails Progress in Anbar Province Independent Report to Congress Shows Few Goals Met Visit Comes Ahead of Key Progress Report.

U.S. President George W. Bush Sept. 3 made a surprise visit to Anbar province in western Iraq to tout what he called continuing gains in security there, and said that such progress could lead to an eventual drawdown in U.S. troop levels in the country. The trip, his third to Iraq since the U.S.led invasion in 2003, came a week before U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker were scheduled to give a pivotal report to the U.S. Congress on the results of a surge in U.S. troop levels in Iraq. [See below, p. 554A1] Bush was accompanied on the visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley, and Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. They spent the entire eight-hour visit in the heavily fortified Al-Asad Air Base in the Anbar desert, which housed 10,000 U.S. troops and was located 120 miles (190 km) west of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital. Bush met with Petraeus and Crocker to receive an update on the war’s progress. Afterwards, he said they had told him “if the kind of success we are now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces.” The comment was seen as an indication that the U.S. government might withdraw some troops in the coming months, although Bush did not elaborate on the size or timing of such a withdrawal. “Those decisions will be based on a calm assessment by our military commanders on the conditions on the ground— not a nervous reaction by Washington politicians to poll results on the media,” Bush told U.S. troops after the meeting. “In other words, when we begin to draw down troops from Iraq, it will be from a position of strength and success, not from a position of IRAQ CASUALTIES

Following are tallies of casualties in Iraq since the beginning of a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, as they stood Sept. 6 [See p. 489F1]: U.S. military casualties:

Deaths Wounded

3,742 27,767

Allied military deaths: 297 Iraqi security forces deaths: 7,408 U.S. civilian contractor deaths: 159* Other civilian contractor deaths: 257* Iraqi civilian deaths: 71,302–77,852

(Range based on news reports of deaths)

* Totals of contractor deaths identified by www.icasualties.org. However, U.S. government sources had listed 1,001 U.S. and other civilian contractor deaths as of June 30. Other sources: U.S. military—U.S. Defense Department. Allied military and Iraqi security—www.icasualties.org. Iraqi civilians—www.iraqbodycount.org.

fear and failure. To do otherwise would embolden our enemies and make it more likely that they would attack us at home.” Bush later that day met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and members of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government, as well as local Sunni leaders who in recent months had sided with the U.S. against Al Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni insurgent groups, after having previously fought against U.S. forces. Bush at the meeting encouraged government leaders to take concrete actions to promote reconciliation among Iraq’s ethnic groups, such as passing a new oil revenue-sharing law. “The government they represent, of course, is based in Baghdad,” he said, “but they’re here in Anbar because they know the success of a free Iraq depends on the national government’s support from the bottom up.” Bush held up Anbar province as an example to be emulated in reducing violence throughout Iraq. Although in the summer of 2006 he had been told that Anbar was lost, he said, Iraqi citizens “refused to give in” and were able to stabilize the region. Gates after the meeting said the Anbar leaders had told Bush that an additional 4,000 U.S. marines who had been sent to the province as part of the surge had “helped cement the gains” there. Besides Maliki, the Iraqi government officials present were President Jalal Talabani—whom Bush greeted as “Mr. President, the president of the whole Iraq”— Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi, Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih and Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish autonomous region. Bush’s visit had been in the works for about six weeks, according to White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino. However, it had been kept secret until the last moment for security reasons; Bush had been scheduled to leave for an Asia-Pacific economic forum in Australia Sept. 3, but his jet instead left the night before in order to fit in the Iraq trip. A spokesman for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) Sept. 3 said “this massive P.R. operation” would not blunt calls for a new strategy in Iraq. Bush after the meeting also remarked, “I don’t think a presidential visit will cause people to vote one way or the other.” Bush Aug. 31 had met with Vice President Dick Cheney, Gates and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., in the latest of a series of strategy meetings. Bush reportedly approved an increase in aid to Sunni groups fighting with U.S. forces in Anbar province and other regions, and also discussed expanding the armed forces and increasing coordination between civilian and military officials. GAO Details Unmet Benchmarks— The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Sept. 4 released the final version of a progress report on the surge in Iraq, say-

Facts On File

®

World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3482 September 6, 2007

B ing that the nation had fully met only three of the 18 political and military goals mandated by May U.S. legislation. The final report painted a slightly brighter picture of the situation than had a draft leaked the previous week, after the Defense Department reportedly demanded that some of that draft’s conclusions be changed. [For excerpts of the report, see p. 570A1] The report generally concluded that violence of all types in Iraq remained high, and the political process remained mired in sectarian infighting. “Given the fact that significant progress has not been made in improving the living conditions of the Iraqis on a day-to-day basis with regard to things that all citizens care about—safe streets, clean water, reliable electricity, a variety of other basic things, I think you’d have to say it’s dysfunctional—the government is dysfunctional,” said Comptroller

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Bush visits Iraq, hails progress in Anbar province; independent report to Congress shows few goals met. PAGE 569

Darfur peace talks set for October.

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Sen. Craig sets resignation, reconsiders. PAGE 573

Former Sen. Fred Thompson sets GOP presidential bid. PAGE 573

Bush offers aid for homeowners. PAGE 574

Jamaican ruling party ousted in parliamentary elections. PAGE 578

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Myanmar protests continue. PAGE 580

Terrorist plot against U.S. targets in Germany foiled. PAGE 580

Lebanese army seizes refugee camp from militants. PAGE 581

Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Zia arrested. PAGE 582

Star tenor Pavarotti dies. PAGE 584

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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THE GAO ASSESSMENT OF IRAQ ‘BENCHMARKS’

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Following is the Sept. 4 assessment by the U.S. Government Accountabilty Office (GAO) of 18 political and security benchmarks gauging progress in Iraq [See p. 569G2]: Benchmarks Met

Status

1. Establishing supporting political, media, economic, and services committees in support of the Baghdad security plan.

Committees established.

2. Establishing all of the planned joint security stations in neighborhoods across Baghdad.

32 of 34 stations established.

3. Ensuring that the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature are protected.

Legislators’ rights protected; minority citizens’ rights unprotected.

Benchmarks Partially Met 1. Enacting and implementing legislation on procedures to form semi-autonomous regions.

Law enacted; implementation scheduled for 2008.

2. Providing three trained and ready brigades to support Baghdad operations.

Forces provided; some of limited effectiveness.

3. Ensuring that, according to President Bush, Prime Minister Maliki said “the Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of [their] sectarian or political affiliation.”

Militia control some local security; unclear whether sectarian violence has decreased.

4. Allocating and spending $10 billion in Iraqi revenues for reconstruction projects, including delivery of essential services, on an equitable basis.

Funds allocated but unlikely to be fully spent.

Benchmarks Not Met 1. Forming a Constitutional Review Committee and completing the constitutional review. 2. Enacting and implementing legislation on de-Baathification.

Laws drafted.

3. Enacting and implementing legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources of the people of Iraq without regard to the sect or ethnicity of recipients, and enacting and implementing legislation to ensure that the energy resources of Iraq benefit Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, Kurds and other Iraqi citizens in an equitable manner.

3 of 4 components drafted; none being considered by parliament.

4. Enacting and implementing legislation establishing an Independent High Electoral Commission, provincial elections law, provincial council authorities, and a date for provincial elections.

Commission law enacted and implemented; however, supporting laws not enacted.

5. Enacting and implementing legislation addressing amnesty.

No law drafted.

6. Enacting and implementing legislation establishing a strong militia disarmament program to ensure that such security forces are accountable only to the central government and loyal to the Constitution of Iraq.

No law drafted.

7. Providing Iraqi commanders with all authorities to execute this plan and

Political intervention continues.

8. Ensuring that Iraqi security forces are providing even-handed enforcement of the law.

Iraqi security forces engaged in sectarian-based abuses.

9. Reducing the level of sectarian violence in Iraq and eliminating militia control of local security.

Militias control some local security; unclear whether sectarian violence has decreased.

Facts On File

10. Increasing the number of Iraqi security forces capable of operating in-

dependently.

Number of independent units declined between March and July 2007.

(ISSN 0014-6641) Publication #183680

11. Ensuring that Iraq’s political authorities are not undermining or making false accusations against members of the Iraqi security forces.

Unsubstantiated accusations continue to be made.

to make tactical and operational decisions, in consultation with U.S. commanders, without political intervention, to include the authority to pursue all extremists, including Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias.

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Committee formed but amendments not approved by the Iraqi legislature and no referendum scheduled.

that Iraq’s 26,000-member national police force be disbanded and reformed, saying that it was “incapable” and riddled with sectarianism. The report found that there had been “uneven progress” in the military and the police, although more improvement was needed. It said that if gains from the surge continued, U.S. troops in early 2008 should be “retasked” to protect critical infrastructure and guard the border from external threats such as Iran and Syria. It added that all 18 of the country’s provinces should be turned over to Iraqi government control— seven were currently—and that increasing emphasis should be placed on boosting Iraqi sovereignty. U.S. commanders in Iraq voiced opposition to disbanding the police, saying Iraqi forces were already in short supply. U.S. presidential candidates and other legislators used the report’s mixed findings to buttress their own positions, with Republicans saying it showed that setting a deadline for troop withdrawal was a mistake, while Democrats said such an ultimatum would force more rapid change in Iraq. Maliki Visits Top Shiite Cleric— In the wake of Bush’s visit and the GAO report’s release, Maliki Sept. 5 visited Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most powerful Shiite cleric, in the holy city of Najaf. The two men reportedly discussed replacing 17 cabinet ministers who had quit Maliki’s government in protest, snarling progress on issues considered vital to reconciliation. Maliki Sept. 2 continued to criticize U.S. lawmakers who the previous month had called for his replacement. “They do not realize the size of the disaster that Iraq has passed through and the major role of this government, a government of national

General David Walker, the head of the GAO, in presenting the report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. According to the report, Iraq failed to meet all but two security goals. However, the status of two security benchmarks that had been listed as unmet in the draft—the elimination of militia havens and the deployment of three Iraqi army brigades in Baghdad—was upgraded to partially met. The change reportedly came at the insistence of Defense Department officials, who said the report’s conclusions were too harsh and were based in some cases on insufficient information. Other requests for changes were reportedly denied. One other security benchmark was also listed as partially met. Only one out of the eight political benchmarks—guaranteeing minority rights in the 570

Iraqi parliament—was listed as met, with another judged as partially met. Democrats said the GAO report demonstrated that the Bush administration’s Iraq strategy was not working. Democratic congressional leaders also indicated that they were willing to compromise with disaffected Republicans in order to pass legislation that would force troop withdrawals. Panel Doubts Iraqi Security Capability—

An independent panel of retired U.S. military officers established by the U.S. Congress reported Sept. 6 that Iraqi forces would not be able to secure the country without U.S. assistance for at least 12–18 months, and “cannot yet meaningfully contribute to denying terrorists safe haven.” The 20-member commission, led by retired Marine Gen. James Jones, recommended

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unity,” he said. “The most important achievement is it stopped a sectarian and civil war.” Hashimi, Iraq’s highest-ranked Sunni official, Aug. 30 announced the release of about 1,700 detainees being held by the Iraqi government without charge. He said 50 prisoners would be released that weekend, with weekly releases gradually growing to 350. The release of mostly Sunni prisoners held without charge was one of the major issues being stressed by Sunni politicians boycotting Maliki’s government Minister Protests Iranian Shelling—Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Sept. 3 called on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stop the Iranian shelling of a Kurdish area of Iraq on the northern border with Iran. Zebari said Iran, while not publicly acknowledging the attacks, did not dispute his account. “In a normal relationship between two countries, this amounts to an act of aggression,” he said, although he acknowledged that the conflict in Iraq made for special circumstances. Zebari said Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had said Iran was responding to attacks by a Kurdish separatist guerrilla group, Pezak, which he said had bases in Iraq. However, Zebari said the shelling was indiscriminate and had not been effective against Pezak positions. Instead, he said, it had displaced as many as 3,000 Kurdish villagers. Maliki Orders Probe of Karbala Violence—

Maliki Sept. 2 ordered a “professional and neutral” investigation into fighting the previous week that had disrupted a Shiite religious ceremony in the holy city of Karbala and killed 52 people. The order followed a demand that day by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for an impartial inquiry. Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia during the violence was reported to have battled the Badr Organization, the military wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), the largest Shiite bloc in parliament. Maliki in his speech blamed “corruptive gangs” for the fighting. “The investigation will go its own way, and that is why a neutral committee was formed to run the inquiry and uncover all the details, the background, who took part and who fired and killed and wounded this number of people,” he said. He added that the participation of any Iraqi soldiers in the fighting would be disclosed. However, Sadr protested that his faction had been unfairly targeted by the investigation and denied that it had started the fighting. He said more than 200 Mahdi Army members had been arrested “in a Saddamstyle measure,” referring to former President Saddam Hussein. Sadr Aug. 30 threatened to repeal an order given the previous day for his militia to suspend operations, after six militia members were killed and 30 arrested in a raid by U.S. and Iraqi forces on a Mahdi Army office in Karbala that day. British Withdraw From Basra—The British military Sept. 3 withdrew its troops from its last base in the center of the southSeptember 6, 2007

ern city of Basra, in one of Hussein’s former palaces. The 500 soldiers and their vehicles and equipment were withdrawn to the city airport outside Basra, the British military’s last outpost in Iraq, and the city was turned over to Iraqi forces. The British military also was expected to reduce its overall forces in Iraq to 5,000, from the current 5,500. Britain faced criticism that it had abandoned Basra to Shiite militias such as the Mahdi Army. The Mahdi Army had regularly bombarded Basra Palace while the British were based there. British commanders said their presence in the city was inciting attacks. Bush Aug. 31 ahead of the withdrawal defended the British decision as “fine,” and added, “When you say withdraw, it makes it sound like all their troops are coming home, but that’s not what’s going to happen…They will have a presence there to help this Iraqi government succeed.” The British Defence Ministry Aug. 30 denied that it had made a deal with Sadr to prevent attacks leading up to the withdrawal. The British since May had reportedly handed over 26 unidentified men to Iraqi custody, many of whom were then freed or released on bail. British retired Maj. Gen. Sir Michael Jackson, who had headed the army in 2003, Aug. 31 criticized the U.S. approach to Iraq as “intellectually bankrupt” and former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s opposition to “nation-building” as “nonsensical.” A second retired British officer, Maj. Gen. Tim Cross, who had been the deputy head of the coalition’s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, the next day blasted the U.S. postwar policy for Iraq as “fatally flawed.” The British defense ministry said the statements of both men represented their private opinions. Other News—In other news: † Iraq’s top antigraft official, Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, chairman of the Commission on Public Integrity, asked Maliki’s permission to resign, the New York Times reported Sept. 6. He said he had come under political pressure for aggressively investigating government corruption. [See 2006, p. 87C3] † The U.S. military Sept. 6 reported that it had killed 14 people in an attack on the Shiite al-Washsash neighborhood of Baghdad, where the Mahdi Army was known to operate. The military said it was targeting militia members who were violating Sadr’s truce and committing criminal acts. † Ginger Cruz, the U.S. deputy inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Sept. 5 told the U.S. Congress that the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) program’s effectiveness had been compromised by underfunding, a lack of clear objectives and high leadership turnover. She said that fewer than 5% of staff members of the joint civilian-military PRTs, which were tasked with fostering local reconstruction efforts in Iraq, had the Arabic-language and cultural skills necessary to work with Iraqis. [See p. 10D2]

† The United Nations Sept. 5 appointed Staffan de Mistura as its top envoy to Iraq. He would replace Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, who Sept. 4 was assigned to lead U.N. operations in southern Sudan. De Mistura had been Qazi’s deputy envoy to Iraq in 2005 and 2006, and before that had worked in Lebanon as the personal representative of then–U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. [See p. 521B3; 2004, p. 521B1] † The U.S. military Sept. 5 announced the arrest in Karbala of a “highly sought individual” suspected of belonging to the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, saying that he had aided and trained Shiite militants in Baghdad. [See p. 538D3]

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† The Iraqi electricity ministry Sept. 4 said eight of its engineers and technicians had been kidnapped and killed the previous day in Baghdad. [See p. 538A3] † Syria Aug. 30 announced that it would begin to require visas from many Iraqi refugees entering the country starting Sept. 10. The vast majority of the more than two million displaced Iraqis living outside Iraq were in Syria, and the new regulations were expected to make crossing the border more difficult. [See p. 489D2] † A U.S. military C-130 cargo plane Aug. 30 carrying four U.S. legislators Aug. 31 came under attack from ground-fired rocket-propelled grenades as it was leaving Baghdad. The plane was able to avoid damage by dropping flares and banking sharply, and no one was injured. The legislators on board were Republican Sens. Mel Martinez (Fla.), Richard Shelby (Ala.) and James Inhofe (Okla.), and Democratic Rep. Robert (Bud) Cramer (Ala.). [See p. 522C1] „

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Darfur Crisis Peace Talks Set for October. The Sudanese government and the United Nations Sept. 6 said in a joint statement that the government and rebel groups based in Sudan’s war-torn western Darfur region would hold a new round of peace talks starting Oct. 27 in Libya. The announcement came as U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon was concluding a four-day visit to Sudan. He had met earlier that day with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. [See below, p. 490B1] More than 200,000 people had died and some 2.5 million others had been driven from their homes in Darfur since 2003, amid fighting between local rebel groups on one side, and Sudanese forces and government-backed Arab militias known as the Janjaweed on the other. Government troops and the Janjaweed had been accused of terrorizing civilians. It was widely reported that fighting between the two sides, as well as attacks on civilians, had been on the rise in recent months. The two sides were also fighting amongst themselves. A 7,000-member African Union (AU) force had been on the ground since 2004, but had been unable to protect civilians, 571

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and was suffering increasing casualties and a lack of funding. The Sept. 6 statement said the U.N. “expresses the hope that parties will cooperate fully” in the talks, which would be mediated by Jan Eliasson, the U.N.’s Darfur envoy, and AU envoy Salim Ahmed Salim. However, Abdel Wahed al-Nur, a prominent leader of a faction of the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA), one of the largest Darfur rebel groups, had previously said he would not attend the talks. The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) Sept. 6 quoted Nur as saying, “We are not going to Libya to negotiate unless we can guarantee the security of our people.” Nur, who was currently based in Paris, had also boycotted talks attended by leaders of the various rebel factions in Tanzania in August. [See below] Ban Sept. 6 said of Nur, “I would strongly urge him to participate.” Some U.N. officials reportedly hoped that Libyan leader Muammer el-Qaddafi, who would host the October talks, would be able to bring Nur to the table. A previous peace deal, signed in May 2006 by just one faction of the SLA, led by Minni Minnawi, had failed to bring peace to Darfur. Officials said that highlighted the importance of including all combatants in the Libya talks. Although Nur controlled only a small number of troops in Darfur, he reportedly had widespread support among members of the Fur ethnic group, the largest in Darfur. [See 2006, p. 363A1] Another main priority for Ban on his visit to Sudan was to iron out details of a 26,000-member hybrid U.N.-AU peacekeeping force for Darfur, which had been approved by the U.N. Security Council in July. The existing AU force would be incorporated into the U.N. force. However, Ban, along with others, had emphasized that the peacekeeping force would be ineffective if a peace did not exist. “The hybrid troop process should be accompanied by a political process. Otherwise our peacekeepers or police or civilian workers will have a lot of difficulty in carrying out their roles,” Ban said Sept. 5. [See below] Ban Visits Refugee Camp—Ban Sept. 5 visited the Al Salam refugee camp near El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state. The secretary general said he was “shocked and humbled” after visiting the camp, which housed 48,000 people displaced by the conflict. Ban was cheered and welcomed by the residents. He told a crowd there, “We must bring peace and development. We must protect human rights. We must help all of you return to your homes and land.” However, earlier in the day, when Ban had been meeting with refugee leaders in El Fasher, a crowd of protesters gathered outside, shouting pro-government and antiU.N. slogans. The previous day, Ban had traveled to autonomous south Sudan, where he met with the region’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardit. Ban and Kiir reportedly discussed shoring up the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which had ended a 21-yearlong civil war between southern rebels and 572

the Sudanese government. [See 2006, p. 933A1] After leaving Sudan, Ban planned to travel to neighboring Chad, which had also been affected by the Darfur conflict, and to Libya. [See below, p. 490B2] Darfur Rebels Reach Tentative Deal—

Seven leaders of the main Darfur rebel factions, excluding Nur, Aug. 4–6 held talks in Arusha, Tanzania, in an effort to present a unified front in future peace negotiations with Sudan’s government. The talks, facilitated by the U.N. and the AU, included factions of the SLA as well as Darfur’s other main rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The rebels agreed to a “common platform on power-sharing, wealth-sharing, security arrangements, land and humanitarian issues,” according to a statement released at the conclusion of the meeting. Two important issues that were not resolved, however, were who would represent the rebels at peace talks with the government, and how to convince Nur to join forces with the other rebels. Eliasson, who took the rebels’ demands to the government, Aug. 7 said that “not all of the points of course are met with great enthusiasm.” AU Chair Calls for All-African Force—

Alpha Oumar Konare, the chairman of the AU commission, the executive branch of the body, Aug. 12 said all personnel in the U.N.-AU force should come from African nations, and that it should be commanded by an African. He asserted that enough troops could be mustered from African countries to make troops from other regions unnecessary. That idea had been supported by Bashir, but criticized by most others involved in planning the Darfur force, including the U.N. Also, the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the force had stipulated that the hybrid force be under U.N. control. Some Asian nations had already offered to contribute personnel. [See p. 449B3] Analysts said a purely African force would lack key capabilities, such as engineering, transport, specialized military equipment and logistics, that could be provided by richer nations. Other News—In other news on the Darfur conflict: † The U.N. Security Council Aug. 27 approved a plan for a European Union– U.N. peacekeeping force in eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic. Civilians in both countries had been affected as the Darfur conflict and refugees spilled over Sudan’s western borders. † The Sudanese foreign ministry Aug. 23 confirmed that it had expelled top Canadian and EU diplomats from Sudan for alleged “intervention in the internal affairs of the Sudan.” Both envoys—Canadian charge d’affaires Nuala Lawlor and Kent Degerfelt, the head of the EU’s mission— had in the past criticized Bashir’s government for its actions in Darfur. Canada Aug. 29 said it would respond by expelling Lawlor’s Sudanese counterpart from Canada. In a related development, U.S.-based

aid group CARE Aug. 27 said Sudan had expelled its country director, Paul Barker. The Sudanese government said his expulsion had “something to do with security,” but did not provide specific details. [See 2006, p. 821D3] † The U.N. Aug. 15 said the Sudanese government had agreed to allow 62-year-old Suleiman Adam Jamous, the humanitarian coordinator of Nur’s SLA faction, who was suffering from a serious stomach ailment, to leave the country for medical treatment. Jamous had been in a U.N.-run hospital near Darfur since 2006, but the government had threatened to arrest him if he left the hospital. [See 2006, p. 551G3] „

Consumer Affairs Mattel Announces Third Chinese Toy Recall.

Mattel Inc. Sept. 4 announced the global recall of 848,000 Chinese-made toys found to have dangerous levels of leadcontaminated paint. It was the third major recall of Chinese-made toys by the company, the world’s largest toy maker, in recent weeks, and the latest in a series of revelations of safety problems with a variety of Chinese-produced goods and food. [See p. 555F3] The recall involved three products sold under the Fisher-Price brand name, as well as a number of accessories for Barbie dolls. The tainted products had been sold between September 2006 and August, with 530,000 units sold in the U.S., according to Mattel. However, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), a U.S. federal agency, said the recall involved 773,900 items in the U.S. A CPSC spokeswoman said the agency’s investigation into potentially tainted toys was ongoing, and that additional recalls were possible. Also, Toys “R” Us Inc. Aug. 29 announced it would recall some 27,000 paint and crayon sets that had been made in China, due to concerns that the kits’ packaging and some of the watercolor paints contained unsafe levels of lead. Unsafe U.S. Exports Reported—The CPSC in 2006 had received 97 notices from U.S. companies that they planned to export products that failed to meet some U.S. product safety standards, the Washington Post reported Sept. 1. That was an increase from 57 instances in 2002. Companies planning to export products that failed to meet CPSC domestic standards had to inform the agency at least 30 days before shipping them. However, the CPSC was limited in its power over exports, though it was able to warn countries to which substandard products were to be shipped. China Launches Recall System— China Aug. 31 put into effect its first nationwide system for recalling unsafe toys and food. The Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine oversaw the system. It required manufacturers to halt production and marketing and notify the government, as well as retailers and customers, whenever they found defective products. „ FACTS ON FILE

Sen. Craig Sets Resignation Over Sex Sting Plea Leaves Open Option to Reconsider. Sen. Larry Craig (Idaho), bowing to pressure from fellow Republicans, Sept. 1 announced that he planned to resign at the end of the month. It had emerged days earlier that Craig had been arrested in June for allegedly propositioning an undercover police officer in an airport bathroom in Minneapolis, Minn., and had subsequently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. [See p. 557G1] However, spokesmen for Craig Sept. 4 said the senator was reconsidering his decision to resign, as he launched a legal effort to have his guilty plea withdrawn and to block an investigation into the matter by the Senate Ethics Committee. At a Sept. 1 news conference in Boise, Idaho, Craig, 62, said, “It is with sadness and deep regret that I announce that it is my intent to resign from the Senate, effective Sept. 30.” He added, “I apologize for what I have caused. I am deeply sorry.” His wife and two of their three children stood by his side, along with Idaho Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter (R), who was expected to name a Republican replacement to serve the rest of Craig’s term. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel Sept. 1 said President George W. Bush had telephoned Craig after his statement “and told him that he knew it was a difficult decision and that he wished him well.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, Ky.) who had led a push by Craig’s fellow Republicans for a speedy resignation, earlier Sept. 4 said, “I think the episode is over. We’ll have a new senator from Idaho at some point in the next month or so and we’re going to move on.” Craig did not appear in the Senate as Congress returned that day from its August recess. The Republicans’ swift moves to force Craig’s resignation had been attributed to fears that a dragged-out scandal could worsen their prospects in the 2008 elections, when they had 22 Senate seats to defend, compared with 12 for the Democrats. The Democrats had won a narrow Senate majority in the 2006 elections. Mulls Serving Term—McConnell Sept. 5 said that in a telephone call that morning, Craig had told him that he planned to serve the rest of his Senate term if he succeeded in having his conviction thrown out by Sept. 30. His term expired in January 2009. McConnell said he believed that Craig’s prior decision to resign had been the right one. One of Craig’s lawyers, Stanley Brand, Sept. 5 sent a letter to the Ethics Committee, arguing that it had no jurisdiction or precedent to probe “purely personal conduct unrelated to the performance of official Senate duties.” The committee, however, issued a letter later that day saying that it would pursue the investigation. It asserted that Senate ethics rules did allow reprimands for any conduct that “unfavorably reflects on the institution as a whole.” September 6, 2007

In response, Craig issued a statement declaring, “It is my intent to fight the case before the Ethics Committee while I am a sitting senator.” Craig’s spokesman Dan Whiting Sept. 6 told the Associated Press it was unlikely that Craig would finish his term. He said that Craig would only do so if his conviction was dismissed by Sept. 30 and Republican leaders restored his senior committee assignments, which had been stripped from him the previous week. In any case, Craig would not run for reelection in 2008, Whiting said. He added that Craig had met with Otter Sept. 5 to discuss naming a replacement senator. Voice Mail Hints at Strategy—Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, reported Sept. 4 that it had obtained a voice-mail message that Craig had left at a wrong telephone number, apparently intending it for Billy Martin, a prominent defense attorney he had retained. The message suggested that Craig had crafted his resignation statement to give himself a loophole for changing his plans. [See p. 551D3] In the message, Craig said, “[Sen.] Arlen Specter [R, Pa.] is now willing to come out in my defense, arguing that it appears by all that he knows I’ve been railroaded.…Having all of that, we’ve reshaped my statement a little bit to say, ‘It is my intent to resign on September 30.’” Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, during an appearance on the Fox News Channel Sept. 2 said, “I’d like Larry Craig to go back to court, seek to withdraw his plea and fight the case.” Post-Arrest Recording Released— The Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport Police Aug. 30 released a recording of an eight-minute interview between Craig and the officer who arrested him, Sgt. Dave Karsnia, made immediately after the June 11 arrest. During the interview, Craig said, “I am not gay; I don’t do these kinds of things.” He insisted, “I’m a respectable person.” But he also said, “I don’t want to be in court.” Craig denied that he had used foot and hand signals to make a sexual proposition to the officer, who had been sitting in the stall next to Craig’s. Claiming that any contact had been accidental, he said, “Your foot came toward mine, mine came toward yours. Was that natural? Did we bump? Yes, I think we did. You said so.” Karsnia called Craig’s denials “unbelievable” and “embarrassing.” Craig told him, “You’re out to enforce the law. But you shouldn’t be out to entrap people, either.” Karsnia replied, “This isn’t entrapment.” The airport police had been running a sting operation to catch men soliciting sex in the bathroom, making 40 arrests. „

vocating traditional Senate bipartisanship and consensus, and for taking independent stands, sometimes bucking Republican orthodoxy. [See p. 538C1; 2006, p. 851C2] As a former Navy secretary and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, as well as a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, Warner was also an authority on military matters. He had called on President George W. Bush the previous week to withdraw at least a small number of U.S. troops from Iraq by Christmas. Warner’s retirement was seen as giving an opportunity to Democrats to win a second Virginia Senate seat and increase their one-seat Senate majority. Democrat James Webb had defeated incumbent Sen. George Allen (R) in 2006. „

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2008 Presidential Campaign Fred

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Declares

Candidacy.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) Sept. 5 entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination, after months of flirting with a bid. Thompson, 65, also known as a television and movie actor, made the first declaration of his candidacy during an appearance on NBC’s “Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” taped in Burbank, Calif. He said, “I’m running for president of the United States.” [See p. 542F2] Thompson skipped a televised debate with the eight other Republican candidates that evening, but broadcast his first advertisement just before the debate aired on the Fox News Channel. In the ad, Thompson warned, “We can’t allow ourselves to become a weaker, less prosperous and more divided nation.” Asked by Leno whether he thought his late entry into the race would hurt his chances, Thompson replied that he was not concerned about it, saying, “I don’t think people are going to say, ‘That guy would make a very good president, but he just didn’t get in soon enough.’” Thompson was already running second in the Republican field, behind former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, according to most national polls.

Other National Politics News

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Sen. Warner Announces Plan to Retire.

Sen. John Warner (R, Va.) Aug. 30 announced that he had decided not to run for a sixth term in 2008. Warner, 80, announced his decision at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Warner was known for ad-

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U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R, Tenn.), speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, Sept. 6.

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Thompson embarked Sept. 6 on a bus tour through the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He also posted a video on his Web site announcing his candidacy. Referring to his first successful campaign for the Senate, he said, “In 1994, when I first ran, I held the same common sense conservative positions that I hold today.” That claim of consistency was widely seen as a shot at two of his leading rivals for the Republican nomination, Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Both had faced questions from conservatives about their previous positions on social issues such as abortion and gay rights. Thompson had served in the Senate from 1994 to 2003. He had first made his mark on Capitol Hill as a lawyer for the Senate Republicans during the Watergate hearings that forced President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974. He had later worked as a lobbyist, as well as appearing in a number of movies and, most recently, playing the role of District Attorney Arthur Branch for several years on the NBC series “Law & Order.” [See 1975, p. 594A2] Rivals Mock Absence at Debate—The Republican candidates at the Sept. 5 debate in Durham, N.H., aimed several quips at Thompson over his absence that evening. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) said, “Maybe we’re up past his bedtime.” Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, said, “I think he’s done a pretty good job playing my part on ‘Law & Order.’ I personally prefer the real thing.” The debaters also sparred among themselves, especially on the issues of immigration and the Iraq war. Romney said Giuliani had offered illegal immigrants sanctuary in New York when he was mayor, contributing to “three million illegals in this country becoming 12 million illegals coming into this country.” Dismissing the criticism as “political rhetoric,” Giuliani replied, “The reality is, my programs and policies led to a city that was the safest large city in the country, so they must have been sensible policies.” McCain challenged Romney for saying that the current U.S. troop increase in Iraq was only “apparently working.” McCain, an outspoken supporter of President George W. Bush’s decision to send more troops, said, “Governor, the surge is working. The surge is working, sir.” Romney replied, “That’s just what I said.” McCain said, “No, not ‘apparently.’ It’s working.” In another clash on the war, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee confronted Rep. Ron Paul (Texas), the only Republican candidate who called for an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Huckabee said, “Well, what we did in Iraq, we essentially broke it. It’s our responsibility to do the best we can to try to fix it before we just turn away.” Paul said, “The American people didn’t go in. A few people advising this administration, a small number of people called the neoconservatives, hijacked our foreign policy.” Huckabee replied, “If we make a mistake, we make it as a single country: the 574

United States of America, not the divided states of America.” „ Clinton Donor Called Fugitive, Arrested.

Norman Hsu, a leading fund-raiser for the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.), Aug. 31 turned himself in to police in California. The Los Angeles Times Aug. 29 had reported that he was a fugitive on a 15-year-old California arrest warrant in a fraud case. Hsu was arrested in Colorado Sept. 6, a day after skipping a court hearing. [See pp. 542E1, 461E1] After surrendering, Hsu was booked and jailed. He posted $2 million bail and appeared in San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City, Calif. In 1991, Hsu had pleaded no contest in the same court to a felony charge of grand theft for defrauding investors of as much as $1 million, which he had raised for a scheme to import latex gloves from China. He had been named a fugitive after skipping a court hearing at which he faced a sentence of up to three years in prison. Hsu Aug. 29 issued a statement through his lawyer, saying that he was “surprised to learn that there appears to be an outstanding warrant” and believed that he had “properly resolved all of the legal issues relating to my bankruptcy in the early 1990s.” Hsu Sept. 5 failed to appear for a court hearing that had been set to consider his request that his bail be reduced by half. Judge Robert Foiles issued a new warrant for his arrest. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) late Sept. 6 said its agents had arrested Hsu that night at a hospital in Grand Junction, Colo. Surfaced as Big Donor in ’04—In 2004, Hsu had emerged as a major New York City–based Democratic donor and fundraiser. He had told associates that he was an executive or owner of various apparel import companies. However, after his fugitive status came to light, apparel industry groups said that he and his purported firms were unknown to them. The Associated Press Sept. 5 reported that Federal Election Commission (FEC) records showed that Hsu had contributed $260,000 to Democratic party committees and candidates for federal office since 2004, when he made his first contribution. Hsu had enlisted as a “HillRaiser” in Clinton’s presidential campaign, pledging to raise at least $100,000 from associates. He had reportedly already raised more than $1 million for the campaign, making him one of the biggest Democratic fund-raisers in the country. He had contributed smaller amounts to the 2004 Senate campaign and political action committee (PAC) of Clinton’s leading rival, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), as well as other Democratic politicians across the U.S. at the federal, state and local levels. Hsu had also given $100,000 to the New School University in New York City, which had named him to its board of trustees in 2006. Hsu had been born and raised in Hong Kong. He came to the U.S. at the age of 18 and became a naturalized citizen.

Clinton, Others to Give Money to Charity—

Clinton’s campaign Aug. 29 said it would give Hsu’s donations to charity, after it was reported that he was wanted by the California authorities. He had personally given a total of $23,000 to her Senate and presidential campaigns and her PAC. However, the campaign did not say it would give away the contributions that he had solicited from other donors on Clinton’s behalf. Clinton Aug. 30 said that the revelations about Hsu’s past were “a big surprise to everybody.” Another Democratic presidential candidate, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Aug. 29 said he would give to charity the $37,000 he had received from Hsu for his 2006 reelection campaign. A spokesman for Obama the next day said he would do the same with the amounts he had received from Hsu. Clinton’s camp rejected comparisons to a fund-raising scandal surrounding the 1996 reelection campaign of her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, which had included allegations of illegal contributions from the Chinese government and other Asian sources. [See 2001, pp. 83F1, 30C2; 1999, p. 345E3] Justice Dept. Probe Reported—The Wall Street Journal Sept. 1 reported that the Justice Department had opened an investigation of Hsu’s political fund-raising activities. The Journal had reported Aug. 28 that mail carrier William Paw and his family, who lived in a small house in Daly City, Calif., had given an improbable total of $244,000 to Democratic candidates, including $55,000 to Clinton. Hsu had formerly listed the Daly City house as his address. He denied having reimbursed the Paw family for the contributions, which would be a felony. Under federal election law, individuals could contribute a maximum of $4,600 per federal candidate—up to $2,300 each for the primary and general election campaigns. „

Economy Bush Offers Aid to Homeowners. President George W. Bush Aug. 31 at a White House press conference with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson introduced a plan to help homeowners refinance their mortgages. The plan was a response to the increasing number of mortgage defaults and foreclosures caused by a fallout in the subprime mortgage market. [See p. 540A2] In the past, Bush had said problems in the mortgage market would be resolved by the market itself, but at the press conference he said that the government had “a role to play” in helping those struggling to pay their home loans. However, he said the government’s involvement in the mortgage market would be “limited” and that “speculators or those who made the decision to buy a home they knew they could never afford” would not be helped. In particular, Bush described adjustable-rate mortgages made to subprime borFACTS ON FILE

Dow Jones Industrial Average Trading on the New York Stock Exchange Closing Aug. 1 2

3 6

7 8 9 10 13 14 15 16 17 20 21 22 23 24 27 28 29 30 31

13,362.37 13,463.33 13,181.91 13,468.78 13,504.30 13,657.86 13,270.68 13,239.54 13,236.53 13,028.92 12,861.47 12,845.78 13,079.08 13,121.35 13,090.86 13,236.13 13,235.88 13,378.87 13,322.13 13,041.85 13,289.29 13,238.73 13,357.74

Volume (in millions of shares) 2,404.9 1,974.8 2,046.0 2,283.8 2,239.7 2,583.6 2,778.4 2,523.4 1,715.3 1,792.6 1,981.2 2,964.7 2,467.9 1,535.2 1,347.7 1,448.4 1,374.7 1,173.9 1,103.5 1,389.6 1,329.0 1,278.4 1,384.1

3% equity requirement. Bush also asked that Congress revise a tax law so that homeowners would not have to pay taxes on any portion of debt that was forgiven by lenders. The practice was common among lenders to prevent foreclosures, but the law treated the difference as a borrower’s taxable income. Bush also said the Treasury and HUD would begin a “foreclosure avoidance initiative” that would identify borrowers who were on the verge of defaulting and help them refinance their mortgages. He added that his administration was working to make the mortgage market more transparent, so that the controversial lending practices of recent years did not proliferate. Many Democrats praised Bush’s proposals as a recognition of the government’s responsibility toward homeowners and a gesture of bipartisanship. However, they also said Bush had not acted fast enough, and repeated their calls for him to lift restrictions on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored mortgage companies, so that they could help refinance borrowers’ loans. [See p. 505C2] Bernanke Says Fed is Ready to Help—

rowers—those with poor credit—as “one of the most troubling developments” in the mortgage market in recent years. Adjustable-rate mortgages featured a low introductory interest rate that rose sharply after a period of time. Some two million homeowners were expected to see the interest rates on their mortgages spike in the next 12 to 18 months, prompting widespread concerns that the number of defaults would rise. Democratic lawmakers in Congress had called for the Bush administration to take a more active approach in averting a potential crisis. Bush said the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) would begin providing insurance on adjustable-rate loans made to subprime borrowers, which would make the loans cheaper and reduce the risks assumed by lenders. The program, known as FHA-Secure, would be available to borrowers who had made down payments on their homes that were at least 3% of the home’s total value. Borrowers would have had to have made their payments on time in the six months before the loan adjusted to a higher rate to qualify. Additionally, only loans that adjusted between June 2005 and December 2009 would qualify. The FHA estimated that some 60,000 borrowers would be eligible for the plan in the 2008 fiscal year, which would begin Oct. 1. A separate program announced by Bush that day would aid homeowners with better credit than subprime borrowers by lowering their insurance costs, and would attract another 20,000 borrowers after it took effect in January 2008, the FHA said. The FHA, a part of HUD, was a government agency that provided insurance to borrowers through various lending companies in the private sector. Bush called on Congress to pass legislation that would allow the FHA to insure loans of as much as $417,000, up from its current limit of $362,000, and eliminate the September 6, 2007

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a speech Aug. 31 to economists, academics and bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo., said that the Fed was willing to ease a credit crunch in financial markets if it appeared that market volatility could hurt economic growth. A contraction in the availability of credit had arisen after investors were exposed to bad subprime loans, and the markets in preceding weeks had been highly turbulent. The comments fueled speculation among investors that the Fed would lower the federal-funds interest rate when its policy-making body, the Open Market Committee, met Sept. 18. However, like Bush, Bernanke rejected the idea that the federal government should rescue people who had made unwise investments. The comments from Bush and Bernanke appeared to reassure investors, leading to a gain Aug. 31 of 199.01 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which ended at 13,357.74 for the day. „

Gulf Coast Hurricane Disaster Katrina Anniversary Commemorated. Presi-

dent George W. Bush Aug. 29 visited New Orleans, La., to mark the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city in 2005. Bush during an appearance at a newly built charter school proclaimed that New Orleans was “coming back,” and that the government was “still paying attention” to the plight of New Orleans residents. However, Bush faced continued harsh criticism from residents for what was perceived as a gross mismanagement of the city’s recovery. [See p. 513B1; 2006, p. 675A2] The storm, which flooded 80% of New Orleans, had killed as many as 1,600 people and displaced more than one million. Since then, only two-thirds of the total population and 40% of public school students had returned. A mere 17,000 new jobs had been created to make up for the 118,000

September Financial Update

A

(Close of trading Sept. 4 except where indicated)

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average (see box, p. 575A1)

Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index Nasdaq Composite Index London Stock Exchange

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100)

13,448.86 1489.42 2630.24 6376.8

Tokyo Stock Exchange

16,420.47

Toronto Stock Exchange

13,755.23

(Nikkei index)

(TSE Composite Index)

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield)

4.55% 4.54%

Currencies (late New York trading) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars)

$0.8239 $2.0142 $0.9529 $1.3609 116.24 11.0266 $0.8255

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.)

$681.65

Silver (per troy oz.)

$12.0950

(N.Y. Comex spot price) (London fixing spot price)

Oil (per barrel)

(Nymex crude future)

Gasoline (per gallon)

(nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released Aug. 26)

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel) (Kansas City market)

$2.75 $7.5950

2.4%

Unemployment rate

4.6%

Gross domestic product growth

4.0%

(July; see p. 529D1)

(annualized second-quarter rate, preliminary report; see p. 560D1)

Prime rate

C

$75.08

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

(consumer price index 12-month increase through July; see p. 544B3)

B

D

8.25%

lost due to the storm, according to the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, D.C. Additionally, the Road Home reconstruction grant program, run by the Louisiana state government, despite being well-funded had provided relief to only 44,000 out of 184,000 storm victims who had applied for aid to rebuild their houses. The federal government had allocated more than $114 billion toward the city’s recovery, $7.1 billion of which had been used to repair 220 miles (350 km) of levees destroyed by the storm. The Bush administration was seeking to complete the city’s flood protection system by 2011 with an additional $7.6 billion. Also, the government had funded the opening of charter schools, and the building of mixed-income community housing, two projects depicted by the administration as an improvement over the public schools and low-income housing of the past. However, New Orleans residents reportedly were frustrated at the slow rate at which the relief money trickled down to them, and had a general sense of being neglected by the Bush administration. Critics said some of the money had been misallocated, and that some programs—in the areas of housing and education—were underfunded. Several contenders for the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations appeared in New Orleans in the days lead575

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ing up to the anniversary to lambaste the Bush administration’s handling of New Orleans’s recovery, and propose how they would run it better. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) Aug. 27 said the people of New Orleans “were abandoned by their own government.” Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) Aug. 26 said there wasn’t a “sense of urgency in the White House” to fix the problems in New Orleans. „

Labor UAW Reaches Agreement With Delphi. The United Automobile Workers (UAW)

June 29 announced that 68% of its members at bankrupt auto-parts supplier Delphi Corp. had voted to approve a new labor contract after two years of negotiations. Among the provisions of the agreement, wages were cut to around $14.50 per hour, from more than $27 per hour for some veteran employees. The contract, which affected 17,000 hourly workers, also eliminated what had been known as a “job bank,” a clause that ensured employees would receive most of their pay if laid off. The contract averted the possibility of a strike that could have further crippled the already struggling Delphi, in addition to wounding former parent General Motors Corp. (GM) and the U.S. auto industry as a whole. [See 2006, p. 1006B1] Troy, Mich.–based Delphi had filed for bankruptcy in October 2005, citing high labor costs and foreign competition amid billions of dollars in losses, government accounting investigations and UAW criticism of executive salaries. During contract negotiations, Delphi had threatened to ask a bankruptcy court to nullify its union contracts if an agreement with the UAW could not be reached. To compensate for hourly wage decreases, Delphi offered employees three annual “buy down” payments of $35,000, or a lump sum payment of up to $140,000 if they agreed to leave their jobs. Those who had reached retirement age were offered a $35,000 incentive to retire with full benefits. Most of those payments reportedly would be financed by GM. A memorandum circulated June 22 at Delphi had said the new contract would “ensure that sacrifices by UAW-represented employees are reflected in the pay and benefit practices of all nonrepresented employees,” meaning that executives and managers also agreed to make salary concessions. Delphi Aug. 5–6 reached tentative deals with four other unions in its bid to exit bankruptcy protection. The largest of the four was the International Union of Electronic Workers–Communications Workers of America, which represented some 2,000 hourly Delphi employees; it agreed to a new contract Aug. 5. The June 29 vote came less than a month before the UAW began contract negotiations with the “Big Three” U.S. auto firms—Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and GM. Particularly contentious was the impending decision concerning employees’ health care and other benefits, which the companies were seeking to cut as a means of saving money in the midst of increasing 576

competition from foreign automakers operating in the U.S. [See p. 528D2; 2006, p. 892C2] „

Civil Rights Iowa Judge Rejects Same-Sex Marriage Ban.

Judge Robert Hanson of Polk County, Iowa, Aug. 30 overturned a state law banning same-sex marriage on the grounds that it violated the constitutional rights of due process and equal protection under the law of six gay couples who had filed a lawsuit. Hanson’s decision overturned a portion of the state’s 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a relationship between a man and woman. [See p. 380F3] Hanson also ordered the Polk County recorder to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. However, Hanson Aug. 31 ordered the recorder to delay the issuance of any marriage licenses while the Iowa Supreme Court decided whether to hear an appeal of the case. Some 20 same-sex couples submitted their applications for a marriage license before Hanson ordered the stay. One couple was able to skirt the usual three-day waiting period for a license by paying a small fee and obtaining a waiver from a judge. They were legally married Aug. 31. „

Medicine & Health Traveler With Rare TB Released. Andrew Speaker, who had caused an international scare when he traveled by air with a rare form of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), July 26 was released from the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colo., where he had been quarantined. Officials at the facility said tests showed that Speaker did not have signs of infection, and that he was no longer contagious. However, Speaker would be required to take antibiotics for the next two years and regularly check in with public health officials. [See p. 448G1] Speaker July 17 had undergone surgery to have a diseased part of his right lung removed. Health officials earlier in July had downgraded his TB to “multidrug resistant” (MDR-TB), from “extensively drug resistant” (XDR-TB). Speaker in May had made several trips between the U.S., Europe and Canada after being diagnosed with XDR-TB. He had been widely criticized for potentially exposing other passengers on commercial flights to the disease, but had maintained that public health officials had never clearly prohibited him from traveling. „

Crime FBI Liable for $101.8 Million in Framing.

Judge Nancy Gertner of U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass., July 26 ordered the federal government to pay $101.8 million to four men who had been framed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for a 1965 murder. The judgment was said to be the largest in U.S. history for a false conviction, eclipsing a $36 million settlement paid to three

men by Clark County, Ill., in 1999. [See 2001, pp. 1041B1, 1027E2] In a 223-page opinion, Gertner found that the FBI had encouraged Joseph Barboza, a mob informant and the main witness in the murder trial, to commit perjury to protect the real killer, FBI informant Vincent Flemmi. He did so by fingering the four men—Peter Limone, Joseph Salvati, Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo—for the killing of small-time gangster Edward Deegan. Both Tameleo and Greco died in prison, while Limone was paroled in 1997 and Salvati was released in 2001 after a newly disclosed FBI memorandum exonerated all four men. “The FBI’s conduct was intentional, it was outrageous, it caused plaintiffs immeasurable and unbearable pain and the FBI must be held accountable,” Gertner wrote in her decision. „ Two Charged in Collar Bomb Bank Heist.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh, Pa., July 11 announced that Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and Kenneth Barnes had been charged with conspiracy, armed bank robbery, and carrying a destructive device during and in relation to a violent crime, in connection with an unusual 2003 bank robbery that left its perpetrator, Brian Wells, dead. Diehl-Armstrong, 53, and Barnes, 58, were already imprisoned for other crimes and faced life in prison if convicted. [See 2003, p. 1002A2] Wells, 46, had been killed in August 2003 in Erie, Pa., when an timed homemade bomb locked to his neck exploded before a bomb squad could arrive to defuse it. Wells, a pizza deliveryman, had been apprehended soon after robbing the bank and told police that he had been forced to commit the crime against his will. U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan July 11 said at a press conference announcing the charges that Wells’s claims of coercion were a preplanned cover story intended to shield Diehl-Armstrong, Barnes and their co-conspirators. She offered no explanation of Wells’s motive for taking part. „

Bush Administration Press Secretary Snow Sets Resignation.

White House press secretary Tony Snow Aug. 31 announced that he planned to resign on Sept. 14. Snow, 52, had undergone chemotherapy since being diagnosed in March with a recurrence of colon cancer. However, he said his departure was due to financial reasons rather than his health. He currently earned $168,000 a year, but had taken a big pay cut from his previous job as a prominent radio and television talk show host on the Fox network. [See p. 278D1] President George W. Bush appeared in the White House press briefing room for Snow’s announcement. Bush told the press corps, “I sadly accepted his desire to leave the White House. It’s been a joy to watch him spar with you.” Snow’s deputy, Dana Perino, would replace him. Snow had held the post for two years, following Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan. Perino, 36, would be the first woman to hold the job under Bush. „ FACTS ON FILE

AFRICA

Nigeria Government Files Pfizer Charges, Lawsuits.

Authorities in the northern Nigerian state of Kano in May had filed eight criminal charges against U.S. pharmaceutical firm Pfizer Inc. related to a 1996 drug trial that allegedly led to the death of 11 children, the Washington Post reported May 30. Among the charges filed by Kano authorities were criminal conspiracy and voluntarily causing grievous harm. Kano officials had reportedly also filed a civil lawsuit seeking more than $2 billion in damages and restitution. [See 2005, p. 751C3] Separately, Nigerian federal authorities had also charged Pfizer and several of its medical researchers with several criminal counts and filed civil claims totaling $7 billion against the company for its actions in the 1996 drug trial, the Post reported June 2. The four federal and state actions, when combined, totaled 31 criminal counts against 10 people, and sought a total of $9 billion in damages and restitution. The lawsuits alleged that Pfizer, during a 1996 bacterial meningitis epidemic in Kano, had offered Nigeria humanitarian aid, but instead had tested experimental drugs on patients without their knowledge or consent. The government said Pfizer had selected 200 children infected with meningitis, giving half of them an untested version of its antibiotic Trovan. The remaining children were given a dangerously low dose of another antibiotic manufactured by a Pfizer rival, the government alleged. The lawsuits said no parents were informed of the nature of the drug trial and that 11 children had died as a result, with many more suffering a range of injuries. Trovan in 1997 had been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use by adults, but had never been approved for use by children. Its use had been severely restricted in 1999 after it was linked to liver damage. Federal lawyers in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, July 20 withdrew their original lawsuit and filed a new one, adding a new, more serious fraud charge and seeking $7 billion in damages. Lawyers said they had added the new charge after discovering that Pfizer had violated its own rules on obtaining consent from families that were given drugs. Pfizer maintained that the study had been performed in accordance with Nigerian regulations and international ethical guidelines regarding such studies. „

AMERICAS

Brazil Former da Silva Aide Charged in Scandal.

Brazil’s Supreme Court Aug. 27 approved corruption charges against Jose Dirceu de Oliveira e Silva, a private lobbyist and former aide to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, clearing the way for a criminal trial. Dirceu was accused of engaging in a 2003–05 scheme to pay federal legislators September 6, 2007

monthly bribes of up to $13,000 to back da Silva’s policies. The charges against him included misuse of public office, fraud, racketeering, money laundering and embezzlement. The high court Aug. 28 also voted to charge Dirceu with being the “head of a criminal organization.” [See p. 163D2] Along with Dirceu, the court approved trials for Jose Genoino, the former president of da Silva’s leftist Worker’s Party (PT), and former PT Treasurer Delubio Soares. The Supreme Court had approved trials in recent days for a total of 40 people accused of involvement in the scandal. The decisions marked the first time that the high court had pursued criminal charges against high-level government officials. Dirceu, 51, had been accused in 2005 of masterminding the vote-buying scheme, and had been expelled from the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil’s lower house of Congress. He was also barred from holding political office for eight years. Analysts said that the Supreme Court’s decision effectively ended Dirceu’s political career. He had once been considered a possible contender to succeed da Silva in the 2010 presidential election. [See 2005, p. 899A1] It remained unclear what effect the charges against Dirceu and other officials would have on da Silva, who faced a presidential election in October. Though his administration had been hit by several scandals, da Silva still enjoyed high public approval ratings, largely because of Brazil’s economic prosperity during his tenure. Da Silva had maintained that he was ignorant of the alleged vote-buying scheme. „

Canada Rio Tinto Sets US$38.1 Billion Alcan Bid.

British-Australian mining firm Rio Tinto PLC July 12 made a friendly US$38.1 billion (C$40.3 billion) offer for Montrealbased metals company Alcan Inc. Rival U.S. mining firm Alcoa Inc. the same day withdrew its competing hostile US$28 billion bid for Alcan. Rio Tinto’s bid, at US$101 per share, represented a 65.5% premium on Alcan’s closing share price on May 4, just prior to Alcoa’s unsolicited May 7 bid offer. It was also a 32.8% premium on Alcoa’s offer. If finalized, the deal would create the world’s largest aluminum company. [See p. 403B1] Representatives from Rio Tinto had reportedly consulted with the Quebec provincial government before revealing their bid. A slew of recent foreign takeovers of Canadian corporations had raised concerns among economic nationalists. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Industry Minister Maxime Bernier July 12 announced the creation of an independent panel charged with reviewing Canada’s foreign investment and competition rules. Alcoa July 9 had extended its takeover offer for Alcan by one month, to Aug. 10. Australia’s BHP Billiton PLC and Brazilian firm Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA (CVRD) were reportedly considering making competing offers for Alcan. „

Colombia Video Links Uribe to Paramilitary Leader.

U.S. Spanish-language newspaper El Nuevo Herald June 14 reported that it had obtained a video of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez meeting in October 2001 with a man identified by human rights activists as right-wing paramilitary leader Fremio Sanchez Carreno. According to the Herald, the meeting appeared to take place during a campaign stop by Uribe in the town of Puerto Berrio in the northwestern state of Antioquia. It was not clear that Uribe, who was shown in the video shaking Carreno’s hand, knew who the man was. [See p. 266F1] Carreno, a leader of a right-wing paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces (AUC), was arrested later that year on charges that his soldiers had murdered about 80 people over the previous two years. Uribe had previously denied having any contact or links to paramilitary groups. A presidential spokesman sent an e-mail saying, “The president does not comment on or explain each of the millions of photos and hours of video such as the ones you refer to,” the Miami Herald reported June 15. In recent months Uribe’s administration had been bombarded with charges that many of its officials had deep, long-standing ties to members of the AUC and other right-wing military groups responsible for torture, murder and other human rights abuses during decades of fighting with leftist rebels. The groups had also been linked to drug trafficking operations in the country, and some were regarded as terrorist organizations by the U.S.

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Captured Leaders Halt Cooperation—

Some 60 jailed paramilitary leaders July 25 stopped providing testimony to federal prosecutors, threatening to imperil an amnesty deal that had been brokered between the government and the right-wing groups. The paramilitary groups in 2003 had agreed to demobilize some 31,000 of its members and turn over 60 of its leaders to the government. In exchange for confessing to their crimes and providing the government with information on the location of mass graves, the paramilitary leaders would receive special treatment under the law, such as reduced sentences. A paramilitary spokesman said the stoppage had resulted from a July 11 ruling by Colombia’s Supreme Court, which found that the AUC was a criminal organization, and not a political one. The high court had issued the ruling in a case involving a disarmed former paramilitary fighter who had sought amnesty under the peace agreement. However, the captured paramilitary leaders July 29 agreed to resume their confessions after Uribe introduced special legislation describing AUC members as “subversives.” Other News—In other news about Colombia’s right-wing paramilitaries: † Government authorities Aug. 24 said they would strip amnesty benefits granted 577

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to the paramilitary leader Carlos Jimenez because he had continued to orchestrate a drug trafficking operation from inside prison. Jimenez faced a criminal investigation and possible deportation to the U.S. as a result of the government’s actions. † A spokesman for the Supreme Court July 11 said a preliminary investigation into alleged ties between Uribe’s cousin, Senator Mario Uribe, and two other senators and right-wing paramilitary groups had been opened. The high court would later decide if the allegations against the three lawmakers warranted a formal investigation and charges. † Chief federal prosecutor Mario Iguaran July 6 ordered the re-arrest of Jorge Noguera, the former head of the Administrative Department of Security (DAS), Colombia’s domestic intelligence agency. Iguaran that day released a report finding Noguera responsible for passing government intelligence to the AUC, some of which may have resulted in the murder of 24 union leaders. Noguera was also being investigated for electoral fraud. [See 2006, p. 416B2] † Lawyers representing the families of 12 judicial investigators killed by armysupported paramilitary groups in 1989 June 8 said the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on May 11 had awarded the relatives a $7.8 million judgement to be paid by the government. One of the lawyers said it marked the first time that the state had been found guilty of “collaborating in the murder of other agents of the state.” „ Chavez Mediates Rebel Talks. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias Aug. 31 arrived in Bogota, Colombia’s capital, to begin mediating talks between the Colombian government and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group. Chavez that day met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez at a retreat outside Bogota. [See p. 524A2] The Colombian government and FARC had agreed in principle to an exchange of several hundred captured guerrillas for 45 hostages held by FARC, among them politicians, soldiers and three U.S. contractors. However, the talks had been held up by disputes over FARC demands. The rebels had required that two adjacent municipalities in the southwest of the country, Florida and Pradera, be demilitarized for the handover. FARC had also called for the release of two guerrillas who were imprisoned in the U.S., a demand that required U.S. President George W. Bush to pardon them. FARC negotiators had said released rebels would have to be allowed to rejoin their comrades, a condition that Uribe had balked at. Chavez Sept. 1 freed 27 Colombians arrested in Venezuela in 2004 on charges of plotting to overthrow the Venezuelan government. Chavez pardoned a total of 41 Colombians that day, many of whom had already been released. The move was intended by Chavez to foster goodwill to promote the success of the prisoner exchange. 578

Other News—In other civil strife news:

Gustavo Moncayo, the 55-year-old father of one of the longest-held FARC hostages, Aug. 1 arrived in Bogota after walking 600 miles (1,000 km) to draw attention to the plight of his son and other hostages. Moncayo the same day met with and debated Uribe over how best to negotiate the hostages’ release. † Andres Penate, head of Colombia’s intelligence service, the Administrative Security Department (DAS), July 28 said 11 FARC hostages had been killed in June by the guerrillas after they had mistaken another group of insurgents for the government’s army. FARC members in July had claimed that the hostages, who were all state legislators, had been killed in a crossfire during an attack on their camp by an “unidentified military group.” [See p. 435F3] † The U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch July 25 released a report condemning the use of land mines by FARC and another rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN). Human Rights Watch said reported casualties from land mines had grown to 1,107 in 2006, from 287 in 2001. The group said more people were hurt or killed by land mines in Colombia than in any other country. „ †

Jamaica Ruling PNP Party Ousted in Elections.

Bruce Golding’s Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) Sept. 6 was declared the victor in closely contested parliamentary elections held Sept. 3. The JLP’s victory ousted Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and her People’s National Party (PNP), which had been in power for 18 years. The Jamaican electoral commission Sept. 7 said the JLP had won 33 seats in the 60-seat legislaFACTS ON GOLDING

Bruce Golding was born on Dec. 5, 1947, in Clarendon parish in southern Jamaica, to two teachers. His father, Tacius Golding, also served as a member of Parliament for 22 years. Bruce Golding attended the University of the West Indies, earning an undergraduate degree in economics in 1969. He was first elected to the House of Representatives, the elected lower house of Parliament, in 1972 as member of the Jamaican Labour Party (JLP), becoming at 24 the youngest person ever elected to the body. In 1974 he was elected general secretary of the JLP. He lost a 1976 bid for reelection to his parliamentary seat, but continued in his role as JLP secretary, and in 1977 was appointed to the Senate. Golding served as construction minister from 1980 to 1989, winning back his parliamentary seat in 1983 elections. In 1995 he resigned from the JLP to form the National Democratic Movement (NDM), serving as the party’s president from 1995 to 2001. Golding rejoined the JLP in 2002, and was elected its leader in February 2005. The JLP won Jamaica’s Sept. 3 parliamentary elections, securing 33 of the legislature’s 60 seats and making Golding the prime minister–elect. [See p. 578D2]

ture, compared with 27 for the PNP. [See 2006, p. 283B1; for facts on Golding, see p. 578E2] Simpson Miller late Sept. 4 said she would abide by preliminary election results showing that the JLP had won 32 seats and the PNP 28. Recounts were ordered for six election districts because of close results. However, Simpson Miller refused to concede defeat and said her party would retain the right to challenge the results. Golding’s swearing-in ceremony was scheduled for Sept. 10. Analysts said there were no significant social or economic policy differences between the two parties’ platforms, and that the contest mostly came down to the popularity of Simpson Miller, 61, and Golding, 59, among the electorate. Simpson Miller had campaigned as a maternal figure who had strong support among Jamaica’s poor, while Golding had presented himself as a capable technocrat. Support for the JLP had surged after a debate in which Simpson Miller was thought to have made a poor showing. The PNP had also suffered from criticism of the government’s response to Hurricane Dean. Though some incidents of voter intimidation and other irregularities had been alleged by members of both parties, an international observer with the Organization of American States (OAS) said the elections had largely been free and fair. However, 17 politically related violent deaths were reported in the days preceding the vote. The election had originally been scheduled for Aug. 27, but had been delayed because of Hurricane Dean. [See p. 546E3] „

Mexico Calderon Gives State of the Nation Speech.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa Sept. 2 delivered his first annual state of the nation address from the National Palace in Mexico City, the capital. In his speech, Calderon criticized U.S. immigration policy, called on Mexico to expand its influence in Latin America and pledged to focus on ending poverty in the country. [See p. 547D1; 2006, p. 699D1] Calderon had broken with tradition by delivering his speech in the National Palace, and not the congressional chambers. Opposition legislators had vowed to block any attempt at a speech by Calderon in Congress, but he nonetheless Sept. 1 delivered a printed copy of his speech to lawmakers there. Former President Vicente Fox Quesada of Calderon’s National Action Party (PAN) in 2006 had also been barred by opposition lawmakers from delivering his speech before Congress. Assails U.S. Immigration Policy— Calderon strongly criticized the immigration policy of U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration in his speech. U.S. raids on businesses suspected of employing illegal immigrants had been stepped up in recent months, and a record number of illegal immigrants had been deported from the U.S. in 2006. The U.S. Congress in 2007 had also failed to pass immigration reform legFACTS ON FILE

islation. “I again issue an energetic protest against the unilateral measures taken by the Congress and the United States government that exacerbate the persecution and the vexing treatment against undocumented Mexican workers,” Calderon said. [See p. 559F1] Calderon called on the U.S. to give the estimated 12 million Mexicans working illegally in the U.S. legal status, and denounced plans to build fences and other barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border. Touts Antidrug Efforts—Calderon noted that several drug cartel leaders had been captured since he took office in December 2006. Calderon had dispatched some 24,000 troops across the country to combat increasingly frequent and gruesome violence resulting from drug trafficking enterprises. “The fight against organized crime is moving forward,” he said. [See p. 436G1] „

Other Americas News Hurricane Felix Lashes Central America.

Hurricane Felix Sept. 4 made landfall near the sparsely populated Nicaragua-Honduras border on the Atlantic coast. After making landfall as a Category 5 storm on the SaffirSampson scale of intensity, it was quickly downgraded to Category 1 and then to a tropical depression as it made its way west through Honduras. [See p. 546E3] Nicaraguan and Honduran officials Sept. 6 said 65 deaths were known to have resulted from the storm. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra Sept. 5 had said the storm had destroyed some 9,000 homes. A Nicaraguan indigenous ethnic group known as the Miskitos reportedly were hit particularly hard by the storm. Many Miskitos, who generally lived in impoverished rural areas, had declined to evacuate their homes. Hurricane Felix was the second Category 5 storm to make landfall in 2007, after Hurricane Dean in August. It was the first time two Category 5 Atlantic hurricanes had come ashore during the same storm season. Another storm, Hurricane Henriette, Sept. 4 made landfall on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, on the Pacific coast. The U.S.’s National Hurricane Center said it was the first time on record that Atlantic and Pacific hurricanes had made landfall on the same day. Seven people were reported killed by Hurricane Henriette. „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

China Finance Minister, Others Replaced. The

Chinese government Aug. 30 announced that Finance Minister Jin Renqing, 63, was being replaced by State Tax Administration chief Xie Xuren, 59, and that four other ministers were also being replaced. The shuffle in the State Council, China’s cabinet, was widely seen as the latest in an ongoing series of moves by President Hu JinSeptember 6, 2007

tao to place allies in key posts in the run-up to a major congress of the ruling Communist Party in October. [See p. 284C1] The government said that Jin, who had been finance minister since 2003, was resigning for unspecified “personal reasons.” Hong Kong news media carried numerous reports suggesting that he had been forced to quit because of a relationship with a woman, described variously as his mistress or a prostitute, who had also been linked to other officials. However, some observers said that Jin’s reassignment to the cabinet’s policy research institute indicated that he remained in good standing with the party. The change at the ministry was not expected to portend a change in financial policies, which were largely set by top party leaders. Also Aug. 30, State Security Minister Xu Yongyue was replaced by a deputy, Geng Huichang. Xu had been chief of the state security ministry—which included the secret police and shared the oversight of public order with the public security ministry—since 1998. The other changes announced Aug. 30 were replacements of the minister of personnel, the minister of supervision, and the director of the State Council of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. Personnel changes in such government posts were usually announced during the spring annual session of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress. The unusually timed shake-up, along with numerous replacements throughout the year of provincial and local leaders, led some observers to suggest that Hu was paving the way for major changes at the October congress. Legislators Ousted—Four members of the National People’s Congress Aug. 30 were formally expelled for corruption. Among them was Chen Liangyu, who had been ousted as Communist Party chief in Shanghai in 2006. His removal from the congress stripped him of legislative immunity from prosecution. [See p. 352A2] „

Japan New Resignation Mars Cabinet Revamp.

Japanese Agriculture Minister Takehiko Endo resigned Sept. 3, just a week after he was appointed as part of a cabinet shake-up by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Endo acknowledged that a farmers’ association that he had led in 1999 had illegally obtained government subsidies by overstating weather damage to its crops. Endo was Abe’s third agricultural minister to come under an ethical cloud; one had committed suicide in May, and another had resigned just after a July election in which Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost control of the upper house of the Diet (parliament). [See p. 562G2] A newly appointed vice foreign minister, Yukiko Sakamoto, also resigned Sept. 3, after admitting that her campaign staff had falsified expense reports.

The new resignations appeared to threaten Abe’s effort to gain a fresh start with his new cabinet. Abe’s long-stagnant opinion poll ratings had markedly improved following the shuffle. After Endo quit, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) renewed its calls for Abe to dissolve the lower house of parliament and call a general election. Abe Sept. 3 named Masatoshi Wakabayashi, a former environment minister, to replace Endo. „

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Kazakhstan Work at Kashagan Oilfield Halted. Kazakh

officials Aug. 27 called for a three-month hiatus in work at the Kashagan oilfield in the northern Caspian Sea, citing environmental damage and runaway production costs. The field was operated by Italian company Eni SpA, with a consortium of investors from Western, Japanese and Kazakh energy companies: ExxonMobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips Co. of the U.S.; Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell PLC; Total SA of France; Inpex Holdings Inc. of Japan; and KazMunaiGaz, the Kazakh national oil group. Kazakhstan lacked the technology to develop the oilfield on its own. [See 2005, p. 979G3] The Kashagan oilfield, underneath the Caspian seabed, had been disovered in 2000, and was the largest oil discovery in 30 years. Production had been expected to peak at 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day by 2019. Eni had originally intended to begin production in 2005, but pushed that date back to 2010. It had also raised the estimated long-term costs to $136 billion, from $57 billion. [See 2000, p. 618E1] Complications in developing Kashagan included seasonal pack ice and a lack of efficient technology for extracting the deeply buried deposits. The oil contained high levels of poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas, which had to be removed and then pumped back underground, a procedure that posed the risk of explosions. The waters were also home to protected species including Caspian seals and beluga sturgeon, prized worldwide for their caviar. Kazakhstan attracted foreign investors to the cumbersome project by offering production-sharing agreements. The agreements required outside companies to shoulder initial production costs, but did not require them to share revenue with the Kazakh government until they recouped their costs. Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov in an interview published Aug. 28 in the Wall Street Journal expressed vexation over Eni’s cost claims, stating that “either the planning was wrong, the execution was wrong, or it was deliberate.” The Kazakh government Sept. 4 said it would seek at least $10 billion in compensation from Eni. Representatives from Eni did not immediately respond publicly to Kazakhstan’s demand, but were reportedly in talks with shareholders and Kazakh officials. There was speculation that another shareholder might take over Kashagan operations, and some concern that the delay represented an attempt by the Kazakh gov579

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ernment to gain greater control over the country’s energy industry. The move was reminiscent of Russia’s Sakhalin 2 gas and oilfield project, in which Russia had expressed similar complaints concerning rising costs and environmental violations. Shell had relinquished control of the project to OAO Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned natural gas company. [See 2006, p. 1027E2] „

Myanmar Antigovernment Protests Continue. As many

as 1,000 people Sept. 4 joined a peaceful march in Myanmar’s coastal city of Taunggok to protest the detention of two demonstrators who had spoken out against a steep rise in fuel prices. The march was headed by 15 members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the pro-democracy party of detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The protesters called on local officials to release Than Lwin and Se Thu, who had been arrested Aug. 31 for waving signs in a public marketplace that attacked the ruling military junta’s decision earlier in August to cut fuel subsidies. The protest march dispersed without any arrests. [See pp. 563C3, 366A2] The march was the largest reported demonstration against the military-controlled government since a wave of protests began Aug. 19. It came one day after a planned “long march” from Labutta to Yangon, a distance of 170 miles (270 km), was broken up as it began by security forces just outside of Labutta. Several leaders were detained, including pro-democracy activist Aung Moe Win. Other small protests, including a Sept. 3 demonstration by 15 people in Kyaukse, hometown of military leader Gen. Than Shwe, had taken place across Myanmar, though most of the demonstrations had occurred in Yangon, the former capital and largest city. The protests were the biggest in Myanmar in years, but smaller than demonstrations in 1988. Analysts attributed that to changes made by the junta in the aftermath of the 1988 demonstrations, including the removal of universities and government offices from major cities to keep students and civil servants from taking to the streets. The military hired gangs of civilians armed with hoes and brooms to stake out and disrupt demonstrations and was quick to detain activists and protesters. The NLD claimed that more than 100 people had been detained by the military since the protests began. In addition, the government raided the homes of prominent activists, started searching vehicles crossing the border to Thailand, and passed out photos of pro-democracy leaders to hotels in hopes of capturing dissidents who were still in hiding. U.S. President George W. Bush Sept. 4 condemned the crackdown on protesters during a press conference in Sydney, Australia. “It’s inexcusable that we have this kind of tyrannical behavior in Asia,” Bush said. He called on the rest of the world to “speak out about these kinds of human 580

rights abuses.” Bush’s wife, Laura Bush, Aug. 31 had urged United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to push the U.N. Security Council to prevent more violence against activists in Myanmar. [See p. 35C2]

ilar agreements to block Web sites in Germany that promoted Holocaust denial and removed clips in Turkey that attacked Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the nation’s founder. „

Constitutional Convention Concludes—

The National Convention, a governmentcontrolled constitutional drafting convention, concluded Sept. 3 after 14 years, setting guidelines for the adoption of a new national constitution that provided for ostensibly democratic institutions but would preserve the military’s ability to control them. The new rules set aside 25% of the seats in parliament for unelected members appointed by the military, banned Aung San Suu Kyi and members of the NLD from holding elective office, and preserved the military’s authority to proclaim a state of emergency and retake full power at any time. Myanmar had been operating without a constitution since 1988. The National Convention had been created in 1993, following the military’s refusal to honor 1990 elections in which the NLD won a large majority of contested seats, and ran until 1996, when NLD representatives decided to boycott the convention on the grounds that it was undemocratic. The military reopened the convention in 2004 and selected 1,100 representatives to run it, none of whom were from the NLD. In addition, the government outlawed criticism of the constitutional process and set a term of 20 years’ imprisonment for anyone who violated that law. [See 2004, p. 450D2; 1990, p. 414G3] A U.S. State Department spokesman Sept. 4 criticized the convention and said the new guidelines “do not represent a step toward democracy.” Mark Farmaner, the acting director of activist group Burma Campaign UK, claimed that “as far as democracy is concerned, the big change will be that the generals will be wearing suits instead of uniforms.” The conclusion of the National Convention was the first step in a proposed sevenstep “road map to democracy,” which included a referendum on the constitution and eventual elections. „

Thailand YouTube Ban Lifted. Thailand’s militarycontrolled government Aug. 31 ended its ban on Google Inc.’s YouTube video file– sharing Web site, after Google agreed to remove video clips deemed insulting to Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The government had imposed the ban in April, saying the site carried videos that violated a strictly enforced Thai law against “lesemajeste,” which banned threatening, insulting or defaming the country’s king, queen, regent or heir apparent. Anyone convicted of lese-majeste faced up to 15 years in prison. [See p. 248F2] Google agreed to review any clips that allegedly broke Thai law, but insisted that it would only ban videos based on independent legal advice. Any clips deemed in violation of Thai law would be blocked only in Thailand. The company had struck sim-

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Belarus Russia Gas Dispute Resolved. OAO Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gas company, Aug. 8 announced that Belarus had paid in full an overdue $456 million natural gas bill. Gazprom officials Aug. 1 had threatened to cut Belarus’s natural gas supply by 45%, after the country failed to pay the bill by a July 23 deadline. The threat had sparked fears of a gas shortage among countries in the European Union, which received 20% of their natural gas from a pipeline running through Belarus. The EU had called a special meeting to discuss natural gas supplies, but it was canceled after Gazprom received payment. [See p. 21D1] Gazprom in January had increased the price of natural gas for Belarus to $100 per 1,000 cubic meters, from $46, but allowed Belarus to pay $55 per 1,000 cubic meters for the first half of 2007. Belarussian President Aleksandr Lukashenko Aug. 2 said the price increase had been draining the country’s finances, but that friendly countries, including Venezuela, and Western banks were “ready to extend a loan at advantageous terms” in order to shore up the country’s cash reserves. [See p. 484F2] „ 50 Arrested as Police Storm Theater Group.

Police special forces Aug. 22 interrupted a private theater performance in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, and arrested all 50 people present, including the cast, foreign theater professionals and children. They were detained for several hours but later released. [See 2006, p. 960A3] The performance, by an outlawed group, Free Theater, had been held at a private residence. Several political and cultural groups had been suppressed by President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s government. According to Free Theater’s managing director, Nataliya Koliyada, the police claimed that there had been reports of people firing weapons at the residence. Free Theater had been supported by prominent individuals, including Mick Jagger of rock group the Rolling Stones, British playwright Tom Stoppard and former Czech President Vaclav Havel. „

Germany Terrorist Plot Against U.S. Targets Foiled.

German officials Sept. 5 said they had foiled a major terrorist plot to attack U.S. military and civilian targets in Germany. Police Sept. 4 arrested the three suspects in the village of Oberschledorn in western Germany, 75 miles (120 km) north of Frankfurt. They appeared in court Sept. 5 in the city of Karlsruhe, where a judge ordered them held in custody on charges of membership in a terrorist group. Police that FACTS ON FILE

day raided 41 other residences in connection with the case. [See 2006, p. 670A1] German federal prosecutor Monika Harms said two of the suspects were German converts to Islam and the third was a Turkish citizen resident in Germany. She said they had attended terrorism training camps in Pakistan. Since February, the suspects had allegedly collected more than 200 gallons (750 liters) of hydrogen peroxide. Joerg Ziercke, head of the German Federal Crime Office, said that amount of the chemical “would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid bombings.” He referred to terrorist attacks that had killed 52 people in London in July 2005, and 191 people in Madrid in March 2004. Hydrogen peroxide had been the main ingredient of the bombs used in the London attack. However, German police said they had secretly diluted the chemical in July while continuing to monitor the plot. The group had been under surveillance since December 2006, when one member was briefly detained for acting suspiciously outside a U.S. military base in Hanau, near Frankfurt. Harms said the suspects were “planning massive attacks.” Two of their alleged top targets were the U.S. military’s Ramstein Air Base, outside Frankfurt, and Frankfurt International Airport. Ramstein was the U.S.’s largest air base in Germany and was used for transporting forces to Iraq and Afghanistan. Harms asserted that the group was part of a German cell of the Islamic Jihad Union, an extremist Sunni Muslim group said to be linked to the international terrorist group Al Qaeda, but not previously cited as active in Europe. It had split off from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in 2004 near the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital. [See 2004, p. 596B3] Police in Denmark Sept. 4 had arrested eight suspects in an alleged terrorist bomb plot, but had released six of them by the next day. German officials said there was no evidence linking the Danish suspects to the German ones. [See 2006, p. 700D1] „

Russia Court Orders Arrest of Oil Tycoon. A court

in Moscow Aug. 28 ordered the arrest of Mikhail Gutseriyev, head of OAO RussNeft, a major privately held Russian oil company. The arrest order was issued on the grounds that Gutseriyev had broken court-ordered travel restrictions, according to Russian news agencies. He had been charged earlier in the year with tax evasion and illegal business practices, and had been ordered to remain in Moscow. His whereabouts were currently unknown, though many speculated that he had fled to Britain. [See 2002, p. 620C2] Gutseriyev had founded RussNeft in 2002, and built it into a company that produced 300,000 barrels of oil per day, or 3% September 6, 2007

of Russia’s oil output. The arrest order came after Gutseriyev July 30 published a letter in a Russian business newspaper that both announced the sale of RussNeft and accused the government of conspiring to seize the country’s oil assets from Western companies and private owners within Russia. He also claimed that Russian authorities had offered to buy him out of the energy industry, but he had refused. In the letter, he announced the sale of RussNeft to pro-Kremlin tycoon Oleg Deripaska, but claimed that he only made the sale under “unprecedented persecution,” and that the government bullied him out of business. However, he recanted some of his statements several days later. The week before, Deripaska’s holding company, Basic Element, had applied to Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service for permission to purchase RussNeft. Russian newspaper Kommersant Aug. 29 reported that Gutseriyev collected $3 billion from the sale. He had been a 100% owner of RussNeft, valued at approximately $6 billion, but those assets had been frozen by a Russian court. The court had also demanded that he pay $800 million in back taxes. The sale of RussNeft and the subsequent arrest order for Gutseriyev drew comparisons to the prosecution of the former head of defunct oil company OAO Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was in a Siberian prison serving an eight-year sentence for tax evasion and fraud. Khodorkovsky had been an outspoken foe of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, and his supporters claimed that his prosecution had been politically motivated. [See p. 101D1] „

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Iran Ex-President Wins Council Leadership.

Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a clerical body that had the power to dismiss and elect the country’s supreme leader and monitor his performance, Sept. 4 elected former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as its leader. Rafsanjani, who was seen as a pragmatic conservative, in 2005 had lost his bid for a third term to the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His election to the assembly was seen as a step forward for Iran’s reformist movement. [See pp. 566E1, 470D1; 2006, p. 984B2] The previous chairman, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Meshkini, had died July 30, leaving the position open. Under Meshkini, the assembly had largely followed the lead of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. Rafsanjani reportedly was more open to dealing with the West than Ahmadinejad, and opposed the president’s populist economic policies. He Sept. 4 asserted the assembly’s right to “take responsibility for important practical duties and to interfere in the current issues of the country at the highest level,” indicating that he might break with his predecessor and challenge Khamenei. Rafsanjani had previously rec-

ommended that the supreme leader post be replaced by a collective leadership, and had proposed term limits. Rafsanjani received 41 of the 76 votes cast, while his hard-line conservative opponent, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, received 31 votes. Rafsanjani currently headed the Expediency Council, which mediated between elected legislators and the hard-line appointed Guardian Council, and would keep that post. The run-up to the election was characterized by a concerted hard-line campaign to discredit Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani, who had been a close associate of former supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had aroused controversy when he reported in the latest volume of his memoirs that Khomeini in 1984 had supported abandoning the customary use of the country’s signature “Death to America” slogan, it was reported Aug. 20. „

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Iraq Death Sentence Upheld for ‘Chemical Ali.’

An Iraqi appeals court Sept. 4 upheld a death sentence against Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” for ordering mustard-gas and nerve-agent attacks against Kurdish civilians and guerrillas in the 1980s. Two other top military officials under former President Saddam Hussein also had their death sentences affirmed. The three men in June had been convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their role in the Anfal campaign, in which up to 180,000 ethnic Kurds were killed by Hussein’s Baath Party regime in 1988, but had appealed their sentence. The head of the tribunal, Arif Abd al-Razaq, said the ruling paved the way for the men to be executed within 30 days, in accordance with Iraqi law. [See p. 549F1] The other defendants were former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad alTai and former armed forces deputy chief of operations Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti. The three men were currently being tried in a separate case for the brutal suppression of a Shiite revolt in 1991. However, it was expected that they would be executed before a verdict was reached in that case. „

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Lebanon Army Seizes Refugee Camp From Militants.

The Lebanese army Sept. 2 took control of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon from Islamist militants who had occupied it since May. The fighting at the camp between the Fatah al-Islam militant group and the army had killed more than 300 people, in some of the worst violence since Lebanon’s civil war. [See p. 517F3] The takeover came after about 70 Fatah al-Islam militants Sept. 2 attempted to escape the camp, leading to a firefight in which at least 32 of the fighters were killed and at least 15 were captured. Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi was identified by his wife as being among the dead. Five soldiers were also killed. 581

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The siege had reportedly killed at least 120 militants, 42 civilians and 157 soldiers since May. Lebanese forces in the wake of the fighting entered the camp, which had been largely destroyed by government bombing during the siege. Most of the camp’s 30,000 residents had fled in May after the fighting broke out. The army Aug. 24 had said it had allowed the families of besieged fighters, reportedly the last noncombatants in the camp, to evacuate, in a move seen as paving the way for a final assault. The Lebanese troops were greeted by cheering crowds after taking the camp, and politicians from across the political spectrum hailed the military’s success and the restraint it showed during the siege. President Emile Lahoud said the “army has achieved what superpowers couldn’t in confronting terrorism,” and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in a televised speech said it was “the greatest national victory for Lebanon.” However, analysts warned that Fatah alIslam and similar groups still posed a threat to Lebanon. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Aug. 9 had designated Fatah al-Islam as a terrorist organization, imposing financial and travel restrictions on the group and its members. „

SOUTH ASIA

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Bangladesh Former Prime Minister Zia Arrested. Ban-

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gladeshi police Sept. 3 arrested former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and her youngest son, Arafat Rahman, in Dhaka, the country’s capital, on corruption charges. Zia was refused bail, and government officials said she would remain in custody until an investigation of the charges was complete. [See pp. 550D2, 500D3] Zia was charged with improperly awarding government contracts during her tenure as prime minister in 2003. The contracts allowed a Bangladeshi company to run two state-owned cargo terminals, and allegedly robbed the government of $145 million. Rahman was accused of urging Zia to approve the contracts, and eleven others were also charged in connection with the case. Zia described the charges as a “conspiracy to tarnish” her reputation, while a government official said her arrest proved that “no one is above the law.” Zia also faced charges of tax evasion that were brought against her in July. Her older son, Tarique Rahman, a senior member of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was arrested in March on extortion charges. [See p. 166G3] The move by the military-backed caretaker government had long been expected. Since the government came to power in January amid political violence between members of Zia’s party and its rival Awami League party, the government had arrested more than 170 former politicians in an anticorruption campaign, including 582

former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, leader of the Awami League. The government had said it would purge corruption from the country’s political classes before reintroducing democratic elections by the end of 2008. Observers viewed the arrests of Zia and Hasina as part of a plan to keep both leaders from running in future elections. From 1991 until late 2006, either Zia or Hasina had been the country’s prime minister, and both were viewed as responsible for the widespread corruption in Bangladeshi politics. However, while some approved of the government’s anti-corruption campaign, others protested the government’s tightening grip on power, leading to student riots in Dhaka and other parts of the country in August. The government Sept. 3 brought new corruption charges against Hasina, saying she had accepted a $435,000 bribe in 1997, when she was prime minister, from an electrical company in exchange for allowing it to build a power plant. Hasina had been held in jail since July on extortion charges. „

Pakistan Legal Challenges to Musharraf Begin. Pakistan’s Supreme Court Sept. 5 began hearing petitions that challenged the legality of President Pervez Musharraf holding the offices of president and army chief simultaneously, and running for another term as president. The petitioners included the Pakistan Lawyers’ Forum and Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist political party. [See pp. 551C1, 501G1] The court’s chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, in recent weeks had made several rulings that had threatened Musharraf’s grip on power, including allowing former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan from exile. Musharraf had suspended Chaudhry in March, but the move triggered protests nationwide that called for Musharraf to step down and allow free elections to take place. Musharraf had come to power in 1999 through a coup. Chaudhry’s rulings threatened to derail Musharraf’s plans to seek a second fiveyear term as president. (Musharraf had won a 2002 presidential referendum that was widely believed to be rigged.) Pakistan’s constitution forbade the army chief from holding political office, and stipulated that government employees, which included military personnel, had to be in retirement for two years before running for office. Musharraf in 2003 had convinced Parliament to pass an amendment that lifted the restrictions; the amendment was due to expire Dec. 31. [See 2004, p. 1082D2; 2003, p. 1090D2; 2002, p. 324D2] Musharraf and his aides had been in negotiations with Benazir Bhutto, another former prime minister in exile, to arrange a deal in which the two could share power. Musharraf needed political support in Parliament to extend his exemption from the constitutional restrictions that the court could use to invalidate his presidency, and Bhutto was the leader of one of Pakistan’s

largest political parties, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Bhutto was seeking to run for prime minister for a third term; Musharraf in 2002 had backed a constitutional amendment limiting prime ministers to two terms. She also said she wanted to nullify the corruption charges that had kept her in exile. [See 1999, p. 294G2] However, the negotiations had stalled. Bhutto Aug. 29 said Musharraf had agreed to resign as army chief in exchange for her support; the next day, government officials denied the claim. Bhutto Sept. 1 announced she would return to Pakistan before the presidential election regardless of whether a deal with Musharraf was struck. Representatives from both camps met in the United Arab Emirates Sept. 4 in an attempt to revive the deal, and talks were ongoing. It was widely reported that the U.S. government supported a Musharraf-Bhutto alliance. In the U.S. view, Bhutto, a popular politician, could counteract the instability in the country wrought by the pro-democracy protests, while Musharraf, a longtime ally in the U.S.’s fight against worldwide terrorism, could remain in power. Pakistan in recent months had been wracked by attacks from Islamic extremists in the northwestern region that bordered Afghanistan. [See p. 501C1] Musharraf also faced a challenge from Sharif, who Aug. 30 said he would be in Pakistan Sept. 10 to lead the opposition Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party in a “movement against Musharraf and his government” and in parliamentary elections due to take place by February 2008. Sharif had refused to enter any power-sharing deal with Musharraf. However, Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum Sept. 1 said on Pakistani television that Sharif would be arrested if he landed in Pakistan. Pakistani law required that the president be elected between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15, at least a month before Musharraf’s term expired Nov. 15. The president was voted in by Parliament and the country’s four provincial assemblies. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Track & Field U.S.’s Gay Takes Sprint Double at Worlds.

The biennial International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Track & Field Championships Aug. 25–Sept. 2 were held in Osaka, Japan. In one of the highlights of the event, U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay Aug. 26 won the men’s 100 meters in 9.85 seconds—beating world-record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica—and Aug. 30 took the men’s 200 meters in 19.76 seconds. He became just the third man to win both races at the world championships. Gay, 25, won a third gold medal when the U.S. captured the 4x100 relay Sept. 1. [See 2006, p. 439A3; 2005, p. 595B2] The U.S. captured the most medals at the championships, with 26—14 golds, four silvers and eight bronzes. Russia was FACTS ON FILE

second, with 16 medals, and Kenya was third, with 13. In other highlights: † Liu Xiang of China, the world-record holder, Aug. 31 won the men’s 110-meter hurdles. He became the first man from China, which was to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, to win a track gold medal at the world championships. [See 2006, p. 687G2] † Reigning champion Allyson Felix of the U.S. Aug. 31 won the women’s 200 meters in 21.81 seconds. † Jeremy Wariner of the U.S. Aug. 31 defended his title in the men’s 400 meters, winning in 43.45 seconds. Wariner Sept. 2 also anchored the U.S. team in its victory in the 4x400 meter relay. † Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu Aug. 29 won the women’s 400 meters. Ohuruogu had just returned from a one-year ban for missing three out-of-competition drug tests. On Sept. 2, she helped the British relay team win a bronze medal in the 4x400 meter relay, a race won by the U.S. Ohuruogu was currently appealing an automatic lifetime ban imposed by the British Olympic Association in the wake of her drug suspension. † Kenyan-born Bernard Lagat, who had obtained U.S. citizenship in 2004, Aug. 29 won the men’s 1,500 meters in three minutes, 34.77 seconds. Lagat became the first American to win a gold medal in that event since 1908. [See 2005, p. 994C1] † Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia, the world record holder, Aug. 28 won the women’s pole vault competition. † Veronica Campbell of Jamaica Aug. 27 won the women’s 100 meters, in one of the closest finishes in world championships history. Judges took more than five minutes to examine video replay of the finish before deciding that Campbell had crossed the line just before Lauryn Williams of the U.S.; both posted official times of 11.01 seconds. Carmelita Jeter of the U.S. was third, with a time of 11.02 seconds. „

College Football

PRESEASON NCAA FOOTBALL POLLS

Following are the top 10 teams in the 2007 Associated Press (AP) preseason poll of media members, released Aug. 18, and the USA Today preseason coaches’ poll, released Aug. 3, for Division I-A National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football teams [See p. 583E1]: Associated Press

1. University of Southern California (USC) 2. Louisiana State University (LSU) 3. West Virginia 4. Texas 5. Michigan 6. Florida 7. Wisconsin 8. Oklahoma 9. Virginia Tech 10. Louisville 1. USC 2. LSU 3. Florida 4. Texas 5. Michigan 6. West Virginia 7. Wisconsin 8. Oklahoma 9. Virginia Tech 10. Ohio State

USA Today

and himself in an April rampage on Virginia Tech’s campus in Blacksburg. [See p. 558G1] „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

People Italian designer Valentino, 75, who in July, amid festivities in Rome marking his 45 years in the fashion industry, had said he had no plans to retire, Sept. 4 announced that he would be stepping down as head designer of the Valentino Fashion Group in January 2008. His longtime business partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, would also be retiring at that time. A former designer for Italy’s Gucci Group, Alessandra Facchinetti, 35, Sept. 5 was named Valentino’s successor. [See p. 472C2] „

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2007–08 Season Opens. The 2007–08 Na-

tional Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I-A football season opened Aug. 30–Sept. 2. Among the highlights of opening weekend, the fifth-ranked University of Michigan Wolverines Sept. 1 were beaten by the unranked Appalachian State University Mountaineers, 34–32, at home in Ann Arbor, Mich., in what was called one of the biggest upsets in college football history. The loss caused Michigan to fall out of the top 25 when the Associated Press (AP) released its second poll of the season Sept. 4. [See p. 23C2, C3; for the top 10 teams in the major preseason polls, see p. 583A2] Also, the Virginia Tech Hokies Sept. 1 had defeated the University of East Carolina Pirates, 17–7, in front of a home crowd of 66,233, in the first game for the school since a student gunman killed 32 people September 6, 2007

ARIF (or AREF), Abdel Rahman, 91, president of Iraq, 1966–68; he and his younger brother, Abdul Salam Arif, were both involved in a coup that overthrew the Iraqi monarchy in 1958; after his brother became president in 1963, he served as army chief of staff; he assumed the presidency in April 1966, after his brother died in a helicopter crash, under suspicious circumstances; he himself was ousted in a bloodless coup in July 1968, by Baath Party leader Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, who remained president until 1979, when he was succeeded by Saddam Hussein (widely believed to have been the de facto leader of Iraq during Bakr’s presidency); after Hussein became president, Arif was allowed to return to Iraq from Turkey, where he had been living in exile for a decade; thereafter, he remained in Iraq, maintaining a low profile, but moved to Jordan, after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Hussein; born in 1916; died Aug. 24 at a hospital in Amman, Jordan, where he had reportedly been undergoing medical treatment for unspecified health problems. [See 2005, p. 58C1–D1; 1968, pp. 294D1, 114E3; 1965–67, 1963] BRADSHAW, Richard James, 63, British-born conductor who became a major presence on the Canadian arts scene during his association with Toronto’s

Canadian Opera Company, dating back to 1989; the company’s general director since 1998, he was the prime mover behind the construction of Toronto’s acclaimed Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, inaugurated in June 2006; born April 16, 1944, in Rugby, England; died Aug. 15 in Toronto, reportedly after suffering a heart attack at Toronto Pearson International Airport. [See 2006, p. 1040G3] COHN, Norman Rufus Colin, 92, British historian; trained as a linguist and fluent in many languages, both ancient and modern, he drew upon his linguistic skills to establish links between 20th-century totalitarian ideologies and medieval apocalyptic movements; he elucidated these links in a seminal work, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages (1957); he was the father of pop-culture critic Nik Cohn; born Jan. 12, 1915, in London; died July 31 in Cambridge, England, of a degenerative heart condition. JEWELL, Richard

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White), 44, security guard at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., who was initially hailed as a hero after he spotted a knapsack containing a pipe bomb and helped evacuate the area before the bomb exploded, killing one person; later, he was identified as a suspect in the bombing, and had to fight to clear his name; the attack was later linked to antigovernment extremist Eric Rudolph, who was captured in 2003 and pleaded guilty in 2005; born Dec. 17, 1962, in Danville, Va.; found dead Aug. 29 at his home in Woodbury, Ga.; he had been diagnosed with diabetes in February. [See 2005, p. 572B2; 1998, p. 325C1; Indexes 1996–97] KRISTAL, Hilly (Hillel), 75, founder of a bar and music club, CBGB (Country, Bluegrass and Blues) in New York City’s East Village neighborhood, regarded as the cradle of the punk rock movement; he ran it from its opening in 1973 until a dispute with the landlord led to its closure in October 2006; born Sept. 23, 1931, in Hightstown, N.J.; died Aug. 28 at a New York hospital, from complications of lung cancer. MacCREADY Jr., Paul Beattie, 81, aeronautical engineer who, having been a soaring champion in his youth, went on to design the Gossamer Condor, which in 1977 became the first human-powered aircraft to cover a substantial distance; two years later, his Gossamer Albatross made the first human-powered flight over the English Channel; he was also an inventor and entrepreneur in the fields of weather modification and air-pollution monitoring; born Sept. 29, 1925, in New Haven, Conn.; died Aug. 28 in Pasadena, Calif.; he had reportedly been recently diagnosed with a serious ailment, but the cause of his death was not disclosed. [See 1979, p. 527F3; 1948, p. 224H] MESSMER, Pierre August Joseph, 91, French prime minister, 1972–74, under President Georges Pompidou, who died in office in 1974; earlier, under President Charles de Gaulle, he had been France’s minister of the armed forces (1960–69); in the late 1940s and 1950s, before the break-up of France’s colonial empire, he was a colonial administrator, and during World War II he was active in the French Resistance; born March 20, 1916, in Vincennes, France; died Aug. 29 in Paris. [See 1991, p. 361C3; 1987, p. 883A2; Indexes 1977, 1971–75, 1960–69] NABB, Magdalen (born Magdalen Nuttall), 60, British crime novelist, resident in Florence, Italy, since the mid-1970s, who wrote 14 books set in Florence that featured a Sicilian-born detective, Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia; these books, which attracted a cult following, were mostly based on actual crimes perpetrated against foreigners; the first of them, Death of an Englishman, appeared in 1981; since the late 1980s, she had also published award-winning children’s fiction; born Jan. 16, 1947, in Church, England; died Aug. 18 in Florence, of a stroke suffered while horseback riding; she died a few months after Michael Dibdin, another British crime novelist whose books were set in Italy. [See p. 236C3] PALEY, Grace (born Grace Goodside), 84, short story writer, essayist, poet and social activist; she wrote only poetry until she was in her 30s, publishing her first short-story collection, The Little Disturbances of Man, in 1959; her reputation came to rest mostly on her stories, although her Collected Stories (1994) ran to less than 400 pages; hailed for their humor, spare yet rich language, and artfully constructed dialogue, her stories were among the first to focus on the struggles of urban women; a longtime pacifist, she was jailed several times during the Vietnam War for participating in antiwar demonstrations and in recent years had protested the U.S.-led war in Iraq; born Dec. 11, 1922, in New York City; died Aug. 22 at her home in Thetford Hill, Vt., after battling breast cancer. [See 1986, p. 69F1; 1979, p. 133A3]

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BEST SELLER LISTS

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Publishers Weekly Sept. 3 listed the following hardback and paperback best sellers [See p. 504A1]:

Top-Rated Programs. The following were the most-watched prime-time national television shows July 30–Sept. 2 as determined by A.C. Nielsen Co. (Series marked with an asterisk * had at least one other episode during the period that outranked some of the other programs listed.) Figures in parentheses are rating points; each point represents 1% of the 110.2 million television households in the U.S. [See p. 504A2]:

Fiction Hardback 1. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) 2. Play Dirty, by Sandra Brown (Simon & Schuster) 3. The Quickie, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown) 4. Away, by Amy Bloom (Random House) 5. The Sanctuary, by Raymond Khoury (Dutton)

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General Hardback 1. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne (Atria/Beyond Words) 2. The Dangerous Book for Boys, by Conn and Hal Iggulden (Collins) 3. The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About, by Kevin Trudeau (Alliance Publishing) 4. Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao, by Wayne W. Dyer (Hay House) 5. Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, & Priorities of a Winning Life, by Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker (Tyndale) Mass Market Paperback 1. Echo Park, by Michael Connelly (Grand Central) 2. Almost Dead, by Lisa Jackson (Zebra) 3. The Bourne Ultimatum, by Robert Ludlum (Bantam) 4. Under Orders, by Dick Francis (Berkley)

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5. Crisis, by Robin Cook (Berkley)

Music Best-Selling Singles and Albums. Billboard magazine in its Sept. 1 issue list-

ed the five most popular singles (as determined by air play and sales) and the five best-selling albums in the U.S. as the following [See p. 504C1]:

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1. “Beautiful Girls,” Sean Kingston (Beluga Heights/Epic/Koch) 2. “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” Fergie (will.i.am/A&M/Interscope) 3. “The Way I Are,” Timbaland featuring Keri Hilson (Mosley/Blackground/Interscope) 4. “Hey There Delilah,” Plain White T’s (Fearless/Hollywood) 5. “Stronger,” Kanye West (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam/IDJMG) Albums 1. High School Musical 2, soundtrack (Walt Disney) 2. Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus, Miley Cyrus (Walt Disney/Hollywood) 3. Live at Radio City, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds (Bama Rags/RCA/ RMG) 4. Now 25, Various Artists (Universal/EMI/Sony BMG/Zomba/UMRG) 5. Hairspray, soundtrack (New Line)

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Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti in Hamburg, Germany, during his 2004 Worldwide Farewell Celebration Tour. PAVAROTTI, Luciano, 71, Italian tenor who achieved superstardom by the early 1970s, becoming known as the “king of the high Cs,” for his seemingly effortless ability to sing high notes; a massive, bearded figure, he sang with the world’s leading opera companies, often appeared on television and sold millions of

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1. “America’s Got Talent,” (NBC), Aug. 21 (8.4)* 2. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS), Aug. 23 (7.0)* 3. “60 Minutes” (CBS), Aug. 12 (6.8)* 4. “Two and a Half Men” (CBS), Aug. 27 (6.6) 5. (tie) “Power of Ten” (CBS), Aug. 28 (6.4) “Without a Trace” (CBS), Aug. 9 and 23 (6.4)

Films Top-Grossing Films. The following were the top-grossing films in the U.S. for

the week of Aug. 24–30 according to Variety. Figures in parentheses were each film’s cumulative domestic box-office total and number of weeks in release to date. Information on cast and director is included when a film first appears on the list. [See p. 504B2]:

1. Superbad, Sony ($76.8 million, 2) Directed by Greg Mottola. With Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Bill Hader. 2. The Bourne Ultimatum, Universal ($189.4 million, 4) Directed by Paul Greengrass and Peter MacDonald. With Matt Damon, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn and Paddy Considine. 3. Rush Hour 3, New Line ($111.9 million, 3) Directed by Brett Ratner. With Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Max von Sydow, Noemie Lenoir and Hiroyuki Sanada. 4. Mr. Bean’s Holiday, Universal ($13.0 million, 1) Directed by Steve Bendelack. With Rowan Atkinson, Willem Dafoe, Emma De Caunes, Jean Rochefort and Karel Roden. 5. War, Lionsgate ($12.8 million, 1) Directed by Philip G. Atwell. With Jet Li, Jason Statham, Devon Aoki, Nicholas Elia and Luis Guzman. 6. The Nanny Diaries, MGM ($10.2 million, 1) Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. With Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, Chris Evans and Donna Murphy. 7. The Simpsons Movie, 20th Century Fox ($174.9 million, 5) Directed by David Silverman. With the voices of Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Pamela Hayden and Albert Brooks. 8. Stardust, Paramount ($28.0 million, 3) Directed by Matthew Vaughn. With Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sienna Miller and Charlie Cox. 9. Hairspray, New Line ($108.8 million, 6) [See p. 504C2] 10. The Invasion, Warner Bros. ($12.6 million, 2) Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. With Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jeffrey Wright and Jackson Bond.

recordings—he was reportedly the most popular artist in the history of the classical recording industry—not only of opera but of music ranging from Neapolitan folk songs to Christmas carols; beginning with the 1990 World Cup soccer championship in Rome, he frequently performed with Spanish tenors Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras; billed as the “Three Tenors,” they drew countless fans to their live performances; he also gave charity concerts with rock stars such as Elton John, Sting and Bono; various aspects of his personal life, including his struggles with his weight and the break-up of his marriage in 1996, were widely covered by the media; he married the much younger woman for whom he had left his wife, Nicoletta Mantovani, in 2003, some months after she gave birth to his fourth daughter; soon after performing at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, he underwent cancer surgery and would never again perform in public; born Oct. 12, 1935, in Modena, Italy; died at his home there early Sept. 6, of pancreatic cancer. [See 2006, pp. 640A2, 119B2; 2004, p. 300B1; Indexes 2001–03, 1996–97, 1994, 1992, 1988–89, 1982, 1980] THORN, Gaston Egmont, 78, prime minister of Luxembourg, 1974–79; before that, he had been foreign minister; for part of his premiership, from 1975 to 1976, he served as president of the United Nations General Assembly; afterwards, from 1981 to 1985, he was chairman of the Commission of the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union; born Sept. 3, 1928, in Luxembourg City; died Aug. 26. [See 1994, p. 520D1; 1984, pp. 899E3, 555E2, 442F1, 418A3; Indexes 1982, 1979–80, 1972–77]

Van BREDA Kolff, Butch (Willem Hendrik), 84, basketball coach with 13 teams in three professional leagues and at a number of colleges during a nearly four-decade-long career; his two-year tenure as coach of the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Lakers ended ignominiously in 1969, after he benched the team’s center, Wilt Chamberlain, during the final moments of the seventh and deciding game of the 1969 NBA championship playoffs, and the Boston Celtics won by two points; elsewhere in the NBA, he coached the Detroit Pistons (1969–72), the Phoenix Suns (1972–73) and the then–New Orleans Jazz (1974–77); he was the father of college basketball coach Jan van Breda Kolff; born Oct. 28, 1922, in Montclair, N.J.; died Aug. 22 at a nursing home in Spokane, Wash., of various diseases, including Parkinson’s and pneumonia. [See 1994, p. 267G3; 1974, p. 1070C3; Indexes 1971–73, 1969, 1965 (as Kolff)] VANIK, Charles Albert, 94, liberal Ohio Democrat who served 13 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1955–81); in 1974, with Sen. Henry M. (Scoop) Jackson (D, Wash.), he sponsored an amendment to a trade bill, later referred to as the JacksonVanik amendment, denying “most-favored-nation” status to nations with nonmarket economies and emigration restrictions; the amendment was credited with spurring the Soviet Union to allow thousands of Jews to leave; born April 7, 1913, in Cleveland, Ohio; died Aug. 30 at his home in Jupiter, Fla., of natural causes. [See 1980, p. 851E2; 1979, p. 314E1–G1; Indexes 1978, 1968–76, 1962] „

September 6, 2007

U.S. Gen. Petraeus, Before Congress, Calls ‘Surge’ Effective, Sees Withdrawal of Added Troops Bush Affirms Plan in Speech to Nation.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Sept. 10–11 testified before the U.S. Congress to give a progress report on a “surge” in U.S. troop levels in Iraq. Petraeus said that the surge had been successful enough to allow the 30,000 troops it had added to U.S. forces in Iraq since January to be withdrawn by the summer of 2008, but warned that larger and hastier withdrawals could have “devastating consequences.” President George W. Bush Sept. 13 in a televised speech endorsed Petraeus’s proposals. [See p. 569A1] Petraeus and Crocker Sept. 10 appeared before a joint hearing of the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees. “The situation in Iraq remains complex, difficult and sometimes downright frustrating,” Petraeus told the panel, adding, “I also believe that it is possible to achieve our objectives in Iraq over time, although doing so will be neither quick nor easy.” He said the U.S. military had “dealt significant blows” to Al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni Muslim insurgent group, but that Iran was now waging a “proxy war” using Shiite Muslim militias against Iraq and the U.S. Petraeus said that because U.S. forces in Iraq were having significant success, the military could begin to withdraw some troops from Iraq. According to his plan, a 2,200-strong Marine unit would be rotated out of Iraq without replacement in September, followed by 2,000 more Marines and 17,500 Army soldiers starting in mid-December. The total number of withdrawn troops would reportedly come to 30,000 by mid-July 2008, if logistics and other supporting personnel were also withdrawn. Petraeus said the drawdown would leave 15 combat brigades, or about 130,000 troops in Iraq, the same as before the surge began. Most of those troops would patrol with Iraqi forces, but some would assume what he called an “overwatch” role, aiding Iraqi forces as needed but not helping in day-to-day operations. Petraeus said the situation in Iraq was too fragile at present to absorb further reductions in troop levels or major mission shifts. He asked Congress to put off decisions on further withdrawals until March in order to gauge political and security progress in Iraq. “Like Ambassador Crocker, I believe Iraq’s problems will require a long-term effort,” Petraeus said, adding, “There are no easy answers or quick solutions. And though we both believe this effort can succeed, it will take time.…A premature drawdown of our forces would likely have devastating consequences.” Crocker acknowledged frustration with the slow pace of political progress in Iraq. However, he said, Iraqi leaders “are serious” and “are capable of coming together and thrashing out issues in a serious and deliberate manner.” Some Democrats challenged Petraeus and Crocker, although the showdown was less contentious than had been expected.

Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D, Mo.) questioned why troops were being kept in Iraq to buy the Iraqi government time to reconcile the nation, when Iraqi leaders “won’t make the tough sacrifices leading to reconciliation.” Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D, Calif.) charged that Petraeus had not laid out the full range of options for withdrawal. Lantos said, “Juxtaposing your token proposal with a hypothetical, rapid and irresponsible proposal does not do justice to this most important issue.” Petraeus replied, “What I recommended was a very substantial withdrawal.” Another Democrat, Rep. Robert Wexler (Fla.), accused Petraeus of “cherry-picking statistics” and “massaging information.” He compared Petraeus’s testimony to a speech to Congress given by U.S. Gen. William Westmoreland in 1967, in which Westmoreland had claimed progress in the Vietnam War. [See 1967, p. 481A1] Several anti-war protesters jeered Petraeus and were escorted out of the room. Republicans defended Petraeus’s proposal, saying that they would support it. They also called on Democrats to renounce an advertisement placed in the New York Times that day by Internet-based anti-war group MoveOn.org. The advertisement— headlined, “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?”—charged that Petraeus had provided misleading statistics to show a decrease in violence in Iraq on instructions from the Bush administration. Petraeus insisted that his statements were his own and had not been influenced by the White House. Senate Testimony Draws More Criticism—

Petraeus and Crocker Sept. 11 testified before the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, giving many of the same arguments for staying the course in Iraq as they had the previous day. However, the questioning was much more intense. Five of the senators in attendance were running for president—Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Barack Obama (Ill.), Joseph Biden (Del.) and Christopher Dodd (Conn.), and Republican John McCain (Ariz.)—and used the forum to reinforce their positions on the war. Petraeus and Crocker avoided many questions on the specifics of the withdrawal plans and timelines for progress in Iraq. When Sen. John Warner (R, Va.) asked Petraeus whether the new policy would make the U.S. safer, he replied: “Sir, I don’t know, actually.” (He later revisited the question to say that his answer was “yes.”) Responding to a question by McCain about his level of confidence in the Iraqi national government, Crocker said, “My level of confidence is under control.” McCain pledged his support for Petraeus and Crocker’s plan, saying, “I believe we cannot choose to lose in Iraq.” However, he also pointed to the “colossal failure” of the Iraqi national police. Democrats were more direct with their criticism. Clinton said accepting Petraeus’s

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Volume 67, No. 3483 September 13, 2007

B report on Iraq required “the willing suspension of disbelief.” Obama asked what circumstances would lead Petraeus to recommend an immediate withdrawal if the U.S. were still in Iraq a year later, adding, “At what point do we say, enough?” [See p. 590B1] Some Republicans joined in, with Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) asking, “Are we going to continue to invest American blood and treasure at the same rate we’re doing now? For what?” Reaction—Democrats continued their criticism after the Sept. 10–11 testimony, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) Sept. 12 saying of Petraeus’s plan, “This is unacceptable to me, it is unacceptable to the American people.” Reid said the party would move ahead in the next week with legislation addressing Iraq, including a bill to require more time between deployments in Iraq for troops.

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U.S. Gen. Petraeus, before Congress, calls ‘surge’ effective, sees withdrawal of added troops; Bush affirms plan in speech to nation. PAGE 585

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Japanese Prime Minister Abe, weakened by election loss, to step down. PAGE 587

U.S. marks sixth anniversary of 9/11 attacks. PAGE 589

U.S. job losses prompt recession fears. PAGE 591

Algeria suicide bombings kill more than 50. PAGE 593

Guatemala presidential election goes to runoff.

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Multiple earthquakes hit Indonesia. PAGE 595

Philippines’ Estrada found guilty of corruption. PAGE 596

Russian President Putin dissolves government, names new PM. PAGE 597

Pakistani ex-PM Sharif deported upon return. PAGE 598

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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EXCERPTS FROM BUSH’S SPEECH ON THE IRAQ ‘SURGE’

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Following are excerpts from U.S. President George W. Bush’s Sept. 13 speech on the “surge” in U.S. troop levels in Iraq [See p. 586G1]: In Iraq, an ally of the United States is fighting for its survival. Terrorists and extremists who are at war with us around the world are seeking to topple Iraq’s government, dominate the region and attack us here at home. If Iraq’s young democracy can turn back these enemies, it will mean a more hopeful Middle East and a more secure America. This ally has placed its trust in the United States, and tonight our moral and strategic imperatives are one. We must help Iraq defeat those who threaten its future and also threaten ours. Eight months ago, we adopted a new strategy to meet that objective, including a surge in U.S. forces that reached full strength in June. This week General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker testified before Congress about how that strategy is progressing. In their testimony, these men made clear that our challenge in Iraq is formidable. Yet they concluded that conditions in Iraq are improving, that we are seizing the initiative from the enemy, and that the troop surge is working. The premise of our strategy is that securing the Iraqi population is the foundation for all other progress.…The goal of the surge is to provide that security and to help prepare Iraqi forces to maintain it. As I will explain tonight, our success in meeting these objectives now allows us to begin bringing some of our troops home. Since the surge was announced in January, it has moved through several phases. First was the flow of additional troops into Iraq, especially Baghdad and Anbar province. Once these forces were in place, our commanders launched a series of offensive operations to drive terrorists and militias out of their strongholds.… Throughout Iraq, too many citizens are being killed by terrorists and death squads. And for most Iraqis, the quality of life is far from where it should be. Yet General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker report that the suc-

cess in Anbar is beginning to be replicated in other parts of the country.… These gains are a tribute to our military, they are a tribute to the courage of the Iraqi security forces, and they are the tribute to an Iraqi government that has decided to take on the extremists. Now the Iraqi government must bring the same determination to achieving reconciliation. This is an enormous undertaking after more than three decades of tyranny and division. The government has not met its own legislative benchmarks, and in my meetings with Iraqi leaders, I have made it clear that they must. Yet Iraq’s national leaders are getting some things done. For example, they have passed a budget. They are sharing oil revenues with the provinces. They are allowing former Baathists to rejoin Iraq’s military or receive government pensions. Local reconciliation is taking place. The key now is to link this progress in the provinces to progress in Baghdad. As local politics change, so will national politics. Our troops in Iraq are performing brilliantly.…Yet ultimately, the way forward depends on the ability of Iraqis to maintain security gains. According to General Petraeus and a panel chaired by retired General Jim Jones, the Iraqi army is becoming more capable, although there is still a great deal of work to be done to improve the national police. Iraqi forces are receiving increased cooperation from local populations, and this is improving their ability to hold areas that have been cleared. Because of this success, General Petraeus believes we have now reached the point where we can maintain our security gains with fewer American forces. He has recommended that we not replace about 2,200 Marines scheduled to leave Anbar province later this month; in addition, he says it will soon be possible to bring home an Army combat brigade; for a total force reduction of 5,700 troops by Christmas. And he expects that by July we will be able to reduce our troop levels in Iraq from 20 combat brigades to 15.

General Petraeus also recommends that in December we begin transitioning to the next phase of our strategy in Iraq. As terrorists are defeated, civil society takes root and the Iraqis assume more control over their own security, our mission in Iraq will evolve. Over time, our troops will shift from leading operations, to partnering with Iraqi forces, and eventually to overwatching those forces. As this transition in our mission takes place, our troops will focus on a more limited set of tasks, including counterterrorism operations and training, equipping, and supporting Iraqi forces. I have consulted with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, other members of my national security team, Iraqi officials, and leaders of both parties in Congress.…I have benefited from their advice and I have accepted General Petraeus’s recommendations.… The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is return on success. The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home. And in all we do, I will ensure that our commanders on the ground have the troops and flexibility they need to defeat the enemy.… The way forward I have described tonight makes it possible, for the first time in years, for people who have been on opposite sides of this difficult debate to come together. This vision for a reduced American presence also has the support of Iraqi leaders from all communities. At the same time, they understand that their success will require U.S. political, economic and security engagement that extends beyond my presidency.… The success of a free Iraq is critical to the security of the United States. A free Iraq will deny Al Qaeda a safe haven. A free Iraq will counter the destructive ambitions of Iran.… Some say the gains we are making in Iraq come too late. They are mistaken. It is never too late to deal a blow to Al Qaeda. It is never too late to advance freedom. And it is never too late to support our troops in a fight they can win.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Sept. 10 in a speech to the Iraqi parliament said that despite “tangible improvements” due to the surge, Iraqi forces could not maintain security in Iraq without U.S. help. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Sept. 11 in an interview with the Financial Times said that if the U.S. pulled out of Iraq too quickly, “The division of the country would become a fact.…Iraq would be a free-for-all.…And because of the polarization between Shia and Sunni, the removal of the multinational forces would lead to regional war.” Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the same day in a speech claimed “spectacular progress in reconciling the differences among our citizens” and improving the Iraqi army. He claimed that the Iraqi government expected a “relaxation of the requirements for coalition forces in direct combat operations” in the near future. Rubaie Sept. 12 said foreign troop levels in Iraq could drop below 100,000 by the end of 2008 if Iraqi security forces continued to improve and violence continued to decline. Bush Announces Drawdown—Bush Sept. 13 endorsed Petraeus and Crocker’s recommendations for Iraq and said troops could begin to withdraw as a “return on

success,” in a speech from the Oval Office. Bush said 5,700 combat troops would be pulled out “by Christmas” and five combat brigades, or about 18,000 more troops, would return home by mid-July 2008. “The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home,” he said, adding, “And in all we do, I will ensure that our commanders on the ground have the troops and flexibility they need to defeat the enemy.” [See p. 537A1; for excerpts from Bush’s speech, see p. 586A1] Bush did not specify the total number of personnel that would be withdrawn, counting support staff, but administration and military officials said it might be fewer than the 30,000 added by the surge. Bush warned that victory in Iraq “will require U.S. political, economic and security engagement that extends beyond my presidency.” He said that a premature withdrawal would cause “a humanitarian nightmare” and benefit Iran and the international terrorist network Al Qaeda. (Petraeus that day told the Washington Post that the U.S. anticipated Iraq reaching nationwide “sustainable security” by June 2009.) Bush gave a generally optimistic overview of progress in Iraq, where he said the security situation was improving, life was

beginning to return to normal and Iraqi politicians were making progress on vital compromises. He said his plan would allow “people who have been on opposite sides of this difficult debate [in the U.S.] to come together.” In the official Democratic response, Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.) said Bush was proposing an “endless and unlimited military presence in Iraq,” and pledged that Congress would oppose it. Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) Sept. 11 had met with Bush ahead of his speech. Afterwards, Pelosi said she had told Bush that he was wrongly endorsing a 10-year “open-ended commitment” in Iraq.” Pelosi said his attempt to portray the withdrawal as a major policy shift was “an insult to the intelligence of the American people.”

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Polls Show U.S. Public’s Skepticism—

A series of polls conducted Sept. 4–10, showed widespread skepticism in the U.S. about the Iraq war. A Washington Post–ABC News poll, conducted Sept. 4–7 and published Sept. 9, showed 53% of respondents thought Petraeus would exaggerate U.S. success in the upcoming progress report. Meanwhile, 58%, a new high, called for a decrease in FACTS ON FILE

U.S. troop levels in Iraq, and 55% supported a spring 2008 deadline for withdrawal. A New York Times–CBS News poll, conducted Sept. 4–8 and published Sept. 10, found that 68% of respondents most trusted military commanders to handle the war, with 21% favoring Congress and 5% trusting the Bush administration. It reported that 56% backed a partial withdrawal from Iraq, leaving some troops to fight terrorists, train Iraqi forces and protect diplomats, while 53% said Iraqi would probably never be a stable democracy. A Wall Street Journal–NBC News Poll, conducted Sept. 7–10 and reported Sept. 13, showed slightly improved results for Bush, with 30% supporting his handling of Iraq, up from 22% in July, and 37% saying that victory in Iraq was still possible, up from 32%. A plurality of 37% said the U.S. should withdraw most of its troops in the next year but that some should remain in the Middle East for the long term. Iran Threatens Strike Against Kurds—

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Baqiri Sept. 9 at a diplomatic conference in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, raised the possibility that Iran would launch a military incursion into Iraq unless the Iraqi government stopped Kurdish separatists from launching attacks across the border. He charged that the U.S. was supporting the separatists; the U.S. denied the allegations. Zebari acknowledged that some cross-border attacks were occurring. He downplayed their significance but said Iraq wanted them to end. Zebari at the conference called on Iraq’s neighbors to stop interfering in its affairs. His comments were seen as aimed against Iran, which had allegedly trained and armed Iraqi Shiite militias, and Syria, from which Sunni suicide bombers reportedly crossed into Iraq. “The fires that they are igniting in the land of the two rivers [Iraq] will spread outside the borders and endanger neighboring countries,” Zebari said. Hundreds of people that day demonstrated in the Kurdish provincial capital, Erbil, against Iranian cross-border shelling that had reportedly forced 2,500 villagers from their homes in recent weeks. Other News—In other news: † A bombing in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, Sept. 13 killed Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, a high-profile Sunni sheik who had been a key U.S. ally against Sunni extremists in Anbar. In September 2006, he had founded the Anbar Salvation Council, which rallied Sunni tribes against Al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups. Earlier in September, he had met with Bush during Bush’s brief visit to Anbar. Politicians in Anbar and across Iraq lamented Abu Risha’s death and vowed that it would not halt progress in Anbar. Bush and Petraeus also paid tribute to him. † California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Sept. 12 vetoed a bill that would have added an advisory question to February 2008 presidential primary ballots asking whether “the president should end the United States occupation of Iraq.” Schwarzenegger said it was “not a state issue.” September 13, 2007

† Iraqi health officials Sept. 11 said an outbreak of cholera in the northern Iraqi regions of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniya had infected 7,000 people, causing at least 10 deaths. Iraqi Red Crescent Society President Said Hakki said new cases had been found in the neighboring provinces of Erbil and Ninevah, and that it might spread to Baghdad by late September or early October. Officials said the cholera was spread by contaminated water, and that imports of chlorine, which could be used to kill the bacteria, had been curtailed because the chemical had been used in concentrated form in insurgents’ bombs. [See 369B1] † The U.S. military Sept. 10 said that it planned to build a base near the Iran-Iraq border, in Iraq’s Wasit province, in order to stem the flow of weapons to Shiite militants from Iran. † United Nations officials said the U.N. had delayed until October the release of a quarterly report on human rights in Iraq at the request of Crocker so as not to disrupt efforts by the U.S. and Iraqi governments to rally support for the war, it was reported Sept. 8. A draft reportedly focused on acts by insurgents and sectarian militias, but also cited abuses by U.S. and Iraqi soldiers. [See p. 273D2] † Dallas, Texas–based Hunt Oil Co. and Iraq’s Kurdish regional government Sept. 8 announced that they had signed an oil exploration deal. The agreement was seen as a victory for the Kurdish government in attracting investment, and a blow to the Iraqi central government. Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said the deal was illegal. An oil revenue–sharing law was stalled in the Iraqi parliament, but Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said the agreement would not conflict with any future legislation. † The Iraqi parliament Sept. 8 unanimously voted to extend until the end of 2007 a deadline for a committee to recommend changes to the constitution. Several constitutional measures considered vital to Iraq’s reconciliation remained stalled in parliament. Also Sept. 8, the last Sunni political bloc boycotting parliament, the 11member Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, announced that it would return. Three other Sunni blocs had previously dropped their boycott. † Talabani Sept. 7 said that if given the chance he would vote against carrying out the death sentence of former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai. Ahmad’s sentence, for the killing of up to 180,000 Kurds by President Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party regime in 1988, had been upheld earlier that week. However, Talabani argued that Ahmad had been forced into carrying out orders under threat of death, and had made overtures to the Kurds. [See p. 581C3] Other Violence—In other major incidents of violence: † The U.S. military Sept. 9 said that a U.S. airstrike Sept. 3 had killed Abu Muhammad al-Afri in a rural area southwest of Mosul. It said Afri was one of the men

responsible for a series of coordinated truck bombings in August that had killed hundreds in northern Iraq, in the deadliest attack since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. [See p. 539D1] † A suicide bomb Sept. 8 detonated in the Shiite Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people. It was the first attack against Shiites in Baghdad since radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr the previous week ordered his Mahdi Army militia to observe a truce for six months. † The U.S. military Sept. 8 said one of its unmanned Hunter drones had bombed two suspected insurgents planting a roadside bomb in Qarraya, north of Baghdad, killing them both. It was the first reported use of unmanned aircraft to kill enemy fighters in Iraq. † The U.S. military Sept. 7 said Iraqi soldiers had captured a Mahdi Army commander who had led 750 insurgents in bombings and sniper attacks, and was suspected of coordinating training for Iraqi fighters in Iran. „

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International Terrorism New Bin Laden Video Issued. A new video message from Osama bin Laden, the leader of the international terrorist group Al Qaeda, Sept. 7 emerged on the Internet. The message did not warn of any impending attacks, but bin Laden said he would “continue to escalate the killing and fighting” in Iraq. [See p. 589A2] Bin Laden, reading in Arabic from a script, called on “the people of America” to convert to Islam. He predicted that the U.S. would fail in Iraq and criticized the Democratic Party for failing to force a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Bin Laden denounced what he called the “terrorism” of Western leaders such as U.S. President George W. Bush and the new leaders of France and Britain, President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, respectively. He also criticized economic globalization and referred to global warming during his 26-minute speech. The video was bin Laden’s first since October 2004, and was thought to be authentic. Analysts said he had noticeably aged, and had probably dyed his beard. A second message was released Sept. 11, on the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S. by Al Qaeda. In the video, a still image of bin Laden appeared, while a voiceover matching bin Laden’s voice introduced a prerecorded statement by Walid al-Shehri, who participated in the suicide attacks. „

Japan’s Abe, Weakened by Election Loss, to Step Down Parliament Debates U.S. Refueling Measure.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Sept. 12 announced that he would resign, after less than a year in office. Abe had resisted persistent calls for his resignation, including some from his own Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), since the LDP lost control of the up587

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per house of the Diet (parliament) in July elections. He had said Sept. 9 that he would quit if parliament did not renew a law permitting Japan’s naval force to refuel U.S. and allied ships in support of their operations in Afghanistan. Abe surprised many observers by stepping down as a special parliamentary election was just getting under way to consider the renewal of the law, which was to expire Nov. 1. [See p. 579E2] Abe, 52, said, “In the present situation, it is difficult to push ahead with effective policies that win the support and trust of the public.” He said that his stepping down would allow a new prime minister to lead the “fight against terrorism.” The LDP said it would hold an election for a new party leader, who would automatically become prime minister, on Sept. 19. The party Sept. 13 delayed the vote until Sept. 23, to give the candidates more time to make their cases to the public. The special Diet session had opened Sept. 10, with the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) threatening to use its new upper house majority to obstruct the law’s renewal. Abe in an opening address had pledged to see through the law’s renewal, calling it vital to combating terrorism. His resignation prompted parliament to cancel a session scheduled for later Sept. 12 in which he would have faced questions from the opposition. DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa and other opposition politicians criticized the timing of Abe’s announcement as irresponsible. Ozawa said his party would continue to oppose the special law’s extension under Abe’s successor. Abe Sept. 8 at an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Australia had met with U.S. President George W. Bush, who had called for the renewal of the refueling measure, describing it as a “vital service.” [See p. 588A3] Abe had espoused a nationalist vision for Japan, seeking to ease constitutional strictures on its armed forces’ scope of action and casting doubt on the history of World War II–era atrocities committed by Japanese forces. His popularity had waned amid a series of corruption scandals involving cabinet ministers, and over his response to revelations that the government had mishandled millions of citizens’ pension accounts for years. Some LDP officials suggested that health reasons had played a part in Abe’s decision to resign. He was admitted Sept. 13 to a Tokyo hospital for what doctors called “extreme exhaustion.” „

North Korean Nuclear Dispute Foreign Experts Invited. U.S. Assistant Sec-

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retary of State Christopher Hill Sept. 7 said North Korea had invited nuclear experts from the U.S., China and Russia to inspect its nuclear facilities and advise it on methods of disabling them. North Korea in February had agreed in six-nation talks to give up its nuclear weapons programs in a series of steps, in exchange for foreign aid and diplomatic recognition. [See p. 564E1] Hill called North Korea’s invitation a “sign of seriousness of purpose” on North 588

Korea’s part, noting that it had originated the proposal. The team of experts Sept. 12– 13 visited the Yongbyon nuclear complex, North Korea’s main facility, which it had shut down in July. U.S. officials Sept. 2 said North Korea, in bilateral talks in Geneva, Switzerland, had agreed to declare the full range of its nuclear activities and disable its nuclear facilities, as called for under the February deal, by the end of the year. North Korea’s envoy to the Sept. 1–2 talks, Kim Gye Gwan, affirmed that North Korea had agreed to the declaration and dismantling in exchange for “political and economic compensation,” but did not mention a particular timetable. Hill said the agreement reached in Geneva included the declaration of any uranium activities on North Korea’s part. The U.S. said that North Korea had obtained uranium-enrichment equipment from Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, but it was not clear to what extent it had been used. Bush, Roh Spar Over Peace Treaty—U.S. President George W. Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun Sept. 7 met in Sydney, Australia, on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. In a tense exchange at a joint news conference afterward, Roh pressed Bush on the question of pursuing a peace treaty with North Korea to formally end the 1950–53 Korean War. Bush said it was “up to Kim Jong Il,” North Korea’s ruler, to make that possible by abandoning nuclear weapons “in a verifiable manner.” Roh pressed again, asking Bush to be “clearer,” leading Bush to cut short the exchange. [See p. 588A3] U.S. Denies Terror List Claim—North Korean state media Sept. 3 quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying that the U.S. had agreed at the talks to remove North Korea from its list of countries that sponsored terrorism. However, Hill Sept. 4 denied that claim, saying, “Their getting off that list will depend on further denuclearization.” „

Other International News Australia Hosts APEC Summit. The leaders of 21 nations met in Sydney, Australia, Sept. 8–9 for the 19th annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum to discuss issues relating to international trade. Outside the summit, as many as 5,000 protesters peacefully demonstrated Sept. 8 against U.S. President George W. Bush and the Iraq war. [See p. 585A1; 2006, p. 890A2] In addition to meetings on climate change and potential new World Trade Organization (WTO) draft agreements, leaders of member nations used the summit as an opportunity to hold private conferences with each other. Among them, Bush met Sept. 5 with Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Sept. 6 with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Although Bush and Hu reportedly discussed contentious issues such as global warming and the safety of Chinese consumer goods, no significant new agreements resulted. [See p. 555F1] Bush did accept an offer Sept. 6 from Hu to attend the 2008 Summer Olympics in

Beijing, China’s capital, as the guest of the Chinese government. Aides emphasized that he would do so out of an interest in the games and not to make a political point. Some activists had sought to promote boycotts of the Beijing games over China’s human rights record. Nonbinding Climate Change Accord—

The representatives of all 21 APEC nations Sept. 8 agreed to a nonbinding “long-term aspirational goal” to combat global warming that Howard termed the “Sydney Declaration.” Under the declaration, all member nations would work toward reducing the rate of greenhouse gas emissions growth to 75% of the growth in national output, and raising energy efficiency by 25% from 2005 levels by 2030. “The world needs to slow, stop and then reverse the growth of global greenhouse-gas emissions,” a joint statement said. [See p. 292E1] Critics argued that the declaration could be part of an attempt to water down emissions targets for the period after the expiration in 2012 of the Kyoto Protocol. Doha Trade Deal Discussed—Bush Sept. 7 called in a presummit speech in Sydney for the restarting of stalled discussions between WTO members on a global trade agreement in order to “open markets and help millions rise from poverty.” Referring to the so-called Doha round of talks where negotiations broke down, Bush accused countries of blocking the proceedings: “No single country can make Doha a success,” he said, “but it is possible for a handful of countries that are unwilling to make the necessary contributions to bring Doha to a halt.” Britain’s Financial Times reported Sept. 7 that the U.S. had placed the blame for the stalled talks on South Africa, Argentina, India and Brazil. [See p. 328C3]

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The APEC member nations in a Sept. 9 statement said there had “never been a more urgent need to make progress” in the Doha talks, and vowed to do what was necessary to finalize a deal. The leaders also raised the possibility of creating a preferential trade compact between APEC countries, presumably as an alternative to the Doha agreement if it failed. The 21 nations that made up APEC accounted for almost 60% of the world’s combined gross domestic product. Australia To Sell Uranium to Russia—Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Sept. 7 signed an agreement with Australia to buy large quantities of uranium. Under the terms of the deal, finalized while Putin was in Sydney in preparation for the APEC summit, Russia would import more than A$1 billion (US$825 million) worth of uranium from Australia each year. Howard rejected the suggestion that the uranium might end up in the hands of other nations. [See p. 366E2] „ China Accused of ‘Cyberattacks.’ China’s military had conducted a computer attack on a U.S. Defense Department system in June, Britain’s Financial Times reported Sept. 4, citing unidentified U.S. officials. According to the article, U.S. officials said that hackers, traced to China’s army, had penetrated a network in the office of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and managed to download information from it. A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Sept. 4 denied the report. [See p. 381C1] Most military powers were believed to routinely conduct scans of each other’s computer networks. The U.S. officials cited in the Financial Times said that the apparent Chinese attacks were notable as a sign of China’s increasingly sophisticated abilities. The Guardian, another British newspaper, Sept. 4 reported that, according to unidentified British government officials, organized hackers based in China had attacked computer systems of the British Foreign Office and other government departments. Francis Delon, France’s secretary general for national defense (an interagency coordinator), Sept. 9 said that French government computers had also fallen victim to attacks from China, although he added that it was not clear whether the attackers had any link to China’s government. German Chancellor Angela Merkel Aug. 27 had raised the issue of Chinesebased hacker attacks on German government networks in a meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Beijing, China’s capital. Wen said China “attaches great importance” to such concerns and pledged to combat computer hacking. U.S. President George W. Bush Sept. 5, in Sydney, Australia, for an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, acknowledged the U.S.’s potential vulnerabilities to foreign “cyberattack.” He suggested that he would raise the matter with any suspected countries, but did not single out China. [See p. 588A3] A Chinese official had accused unidentified foreign intelligence agencies of causing “massive” damage to Chinese government systems by hacking, it was reported Sept. 12. „ September 13, 2007

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

September 11 Attack Aftermath U.S. Marks Sixth Anniversary of Attacks.

The U.S. Sept. 11 commemorated the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with ceremonies at the White House and in New York City, Arlington, Va., and Shanksville, Pa., the three sites where Americans were killed in the attacks. [See 2006, p. 708A3; 2001, p. 697A1] In New York City, approximately 3,000 people attended a ceremony marking the anniversary. Because of construction work on the complex that would replace the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the attacks, the event was for the first time not held on the site itself, but in an adjacent park. The names of the more than 2,700 victims were read out by emergency workers, firefighters and police officers. In Arlington, Va., Defense Secretary Robert Gates joined as many as 300 mourners to observe a moment of silence at 9:37 a.m., the time at which Flight 77 struck the Pentagon. In Shanksville, Pa., more than 300 people, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, attended a ceremony honoring the victims of Flight 93, which crashed near an abandoned strip mine following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In Washington, D.C., President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush, stood with White House staff to observe a moment of silence. White House Links Iraq, War on Terror—

The Bush administration Sept. 11 released a statement reiterating its argument that the military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were a central part of the war on terror. “We are fighting violent extremists in Iraq and Afghanistan and across the world so that we do not have to fight them on American soil,” the statement said. The U.S. soon after the attacks had invaded Afghanistan and ousted the ruling Taliban regime, which had harbored leaders of Al Qaeda, the terrorist network that mounted the attacks. Bush had cast the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 as integral to the struggle to defeat Al Qaeda, a suggestion disputed by critics of the war. White House spokesman Tony Snow Sept. 11 told reporters that the Bush administration was focused on capturing Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but downplayed suggestions that his continued evasion of U.S. forces reflected on the government’s success in combating Al Qaeda. “The fact is,” he said, “that the war on terror is not a war against one guy, Osama bin Laden. It is against a network that uses all sorts of ways of trying to recruit new terrorists.” „

Intelligence Elements of Patriot Act Struck Down.

Judge Victor Marrero of U.S. District Court in New York City Sept. 6 struck down a portion of the revised USA Patriot Act that allowed the Federal Bureau of In-

vestigation (FBI) to request information from telecommunications and Internet service providers (ISPs) without obtaining a warrant, through the use of secret requests known as “national security letters” (NSLs). [See p. 157E3] Companies that received NSLs had little ability to legally challenge the request and were barred indefinitely from revealing that they had turned over information. In his decision, Marrero described the act’s secrecy provisions as “the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values,” and ordered the FBI to cease issuing NSLs. The ruling was not expected to affect other aspects of the USA Patriot Act, and did not preclude the FBI from requesting bank data or other financial records of suspects; such requests were authorized by separate laws. Marrero had previously ruled against the FBI’s use of NSLs in 2004. The decision led the guidelines on NSLs to be rewritten during a 2006 revision of the USA Patriot Act. The new rules gave recipients of NSLs more scope to challenge the orders in court. However, decisions on whether gag orders were necessary for national security reasons were still left primarily to the FBI, with courts only able to intervene if they found that the FBI had acted in bad faith. [See 2006, p. 142A2; 2004, p. 751D3] Sen. Russell Feingold (D, Wis.) said in a statement Sept. 6, “Congress needs to fix the mess it created when it gave the government overly broad powers to obtain sensitive information about Americans.” Feingold had been the only senator to vote „ against the 2001 USA Patriot Act.

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2008 Presidential Campaign Clinton to Return Funds Raised by Fugitive.

The presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.) Sept. 10 announced that it would return about $850,000 in contributions raised on Clinton’s behalf by Norman Hsu, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser whose status as a fugitive with a criminal record had recently come to light. [See p. 574A2] Hsu, 56, had turned himself in to California authorities 10 days earlier, after it was reported that he was wanted on a 15year-old arrest warrant in a fraud case. He was arrested a week later at a Grand Junction, Colo., hospital after skipping a court hearing in Redwood City, Calif. Hsu remained under guard at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction until Sept. 12, when he was transferred to the local county jail pending extradition to California. Paramedics had removed him from an Amtrak train bound for Chicago, after responding to calls that a passenger required medical attention. It was reported Sept. 13 that Hsu, before boarding the train, had sent copies of a suicide note to several friends and the Innocence Project, a New York City-based legal organization that used DNA evidence to seek the release of wrongly convicted prisoners. Hsu had contributed money to the group. 589

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The Clinton campaign said it was returning contributions from about 260 donors recruited by Hsu, but would not immediately identify those donors. The campaign had previously said it would give to charity the $23,000 that Hsu had personally contributed to Clinton’s Senate and presidential campaigns, as well as her political action committee. Several other Democratic politicians, including two other presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, had also pledged to return contributions from Hsu. Clinton and Obama had vied for the lead in fund-raising among the Democratic contenders, each raising more than $50 million through the first half of 2007. Several other prominent Democrats said Sept. 11 that they would return contributions raised or directly given by Hsu, including Sens. Edward Kennedy (Mass.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Claire McCaskill (Mo.). Kennedy was returning the largest amount, $35,000. Hsu had also reportedly given $30,000 to the Clinton Global Initiative, a charitable program led by Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton. The money was refunded in late August as Hsu’s background was revealed in the press. Clinton Camp Pledges Better Vetting—

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Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson Sept. 10 said the campaign had taken action “in light of recent events and allegations that Mr. Norman Hsu engaged in an illegal investment scheme.” Wolfson also said, “To help ensure against this kind of situation in the future, our campaign will also institute vigorous additional vetting procedures on our bundlers, including criminal background checks.” Bundling was a term used for the practices of major fund-raisers like Hsu, who solicited checks on behalf of candidates from large numbers of associates. Wolfson Sept. 11 said the campaign had previously used computer searches to check Hsu’s background, but failed to find public records on his 1990 bankruptcy or 1991 criminal case. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had reportedly opened a preliminary review of allegations about Hsu’s fundraising and business practices. The sources of Hsu’s personal wealth remained mysterious. The Los Angeles Times Sept. 10 reported that Hsu had operated an investment scheme for the past four years, describing it to his investors as a loan pool for businesses that needed shortterm financing. The investors also made tens of thousands of dollars in donations to political candidates backed by Hsu. The New York Times Sept. 9 reported that Components Ltd., a company controlled by Hsu, in 2003 had paid more than $100,000 to at least nine people from whom Hsu later raised money for Clinton and other candidates. Hsu had made his first political contribution in 2003, $2,000 to the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry (D, Mass.), before he emerged as a leading Democratic donor and fund-raiser. The Wall Street Journal Sept. 12 reported that Source Financing Investors, an in590

vestment fund headed by Joel Rosenman, had notified its investors that week that Hsu’s company owed it $40 million. Rosenman said he had lent Hsu the money to provide short-term financing for imports of retail goods from China by high-end apparel brands in the U.S. The outstanding 1992 warrant for Hsu’s arrest stemmed from his fraud conviction for bilking investors of $1 million in a pyramid scheme based on the pretext of importing latex gloves from China. „ Obama Presents Iraq Withdrawal Plan.

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), a leading Democratic presidential candidate, Sept. 12 presented a plan for withdrawing all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of 2008. Obama offered his plan in a speech at Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa, a day after Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, completed two days of testimony before House and Senate committees. Petraeus had proposed withdrawing about 30,000 troops by July 2008, returning to the level of 130,000 troops that had been in place before President George W. Bush ordered a temporary troop buildup in January. [See pp. 585A1, 542E1] Obama said, “The best way to protect our security and pressure Iraq’s leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year—now.” He called for the withdrawal of one or two combat brigades per month, but said he would leave a small U.S. force in Iraq to fight terrorist groups and train Iraqi troops. Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), who continued to lead Obama in nationwide polls on the Democratic race, Sept. 12 sent a letter to Bush, urging him to accept a faster withdrawal plan as he prepared to address the nation on the Iraq war the next evening. She wrote, “One year from now, there will be the same number of troops in Iraq as there were one year ago. Mr. President, that is simply too little too late, and unacceptable to this Congress, and to the American people who have made clear their strong desire to bring our troops home, and end this war.” The leading Republican presidential candidate in national polls, former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, Sept. 12 criticized Clinton for saying that accepting Petraeus’s report required a “willing suspension of disbelief.” Giuliani said, “You can disagree with General Petraeus, but you can do it without this kind of name-calling.” Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), another Republican candidate, Sept. 12 embarked on a campaign tour of Iowa in a bus emblazoned with his new slogan, “No Surrender.” McCain was a leading supporter of “the surge,” as Bush’s troop increase strategy was known. He was joined on the bus tour by fellow military veterans, including some who had been prisoners of war with him during the Vietnam War. McCain warned against a premature withdrawal from Iraq, saying, “If we leave, there will be chaos and genocide in the region, and we will be back.” He also attacked Clinton’s remark, saying, “It’s a

willing suspension of disbelief that Senator Clinton thinks she knows more than General Petraeus.” „ Democrats Debate on Spanish-Language TV.

Democratic presidential candidates Sept. 9 met for a debate at the University of Miami, Fla., that was sponsored and broadcast by Univision, the U.S.’s biggest Spanish-language network. In a first for such an event, questions were asked in Spanish and translated into English for the candidates, who, however, delivered their answers in English. [See p. 542E1] The debate focused on issues of concern to Hispanic voters, especially immigration. In June, legislation to reform the U.S. immigration system and grant legal status to the millions of illegal immigrants in the country had failed to win passage in Congress. [See p. 559F1] Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the front-runner in national polls on the race for the Democratic nomination, said the immigration debate had been “demagogued” by Republicans and used to “bash immigrants.” New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the only Hispanic among the candidates (his mother was Mexican), complained that the moderators refused to allow him to answer questions in Spanish. Richardson said it was unfortunate that “the 43 million Latinos in this country” would not get a chance to “hear one of their own speak Spanish.” „

National Politics Sen. Hagel Announces Retirement. Sen.

Chuck Hagel (R, Neb.) Sept. 10 announced in Omaha, Nebraska’s capital, that he would not run for reelection in 2008. Hagel, 60, also said he had decided not to run for president in 2008. [See pp. 573G2, 174A1] Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran, had emerged as one of the most outspoken Republican opponents of President George W. Bush’s handling of the Iraq war. In June, he had been one of only two Senate Republicans to vote for a Democraticbacked measure that would have set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, but the bill’s supporters failed to override Bush’s veto. [See p. 273A1] Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning (R) had previously said he planned to run for Hagel’s seat in the 2008 Senate primary. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, a former Nebraska governor, was also seen as a possible Republican contender for the seat. Among Democrats, former Sen. Bob Kerrey (Neb.) had said he would consider running for the seat if Hagel did not seek reelection. Kerrey had served as president of the New School University in New York City since 2001, after completing two terms in the Senate and declining to seek a third. Hagel became the fourth incumbent Republican senator to rule out a reelection bid in 2008. Five-term Sen. John Warner (Va.) at the end of August had announced his FACTS ON FILE

retirement, and Sen. Wayne Allard (Colo.) in January had ruled out seeking a third term. [See pp. 573G2, 62C1] Sen. Larry Craig (Idaho), who had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after being arrested in a sex sting operation in a men’s bathroom at the Minneapolis airport, had indicated that he would not seek a fourth term. [See p. 591B1] The retirements added to difficulties faced by the Republicans in their effort to regain a Senate majority in 2008. „ Sen. Craig Asks to Withdraw Guilty Plea.

Lawyers for Sen. Larry Craig (R, Idaho) Sept. 10 filed motions in Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis, Minn., asking to withdraw his guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct in an airport bathroom. The court said it would hold a hearing on Craig’s request Sept. 26. [See p. 573A1] Craig had been arrested in June in a sting operation cracking down on men soliciting sex in the airport bathroom. But he insisted that he was not homosexual, and claimed that the undercover police officer who arrested him had wrongly accused him of making a sexual proposition with foot and hand signals. Under pressure from Republican colleagues, Craig had announced Sept. 1 that he planned to resign from the Senate on Sept. 30. However, he had later suggested that he might decide to serve the rest of his term if he succeeded in having his guilty plea dismissed by the end of the month. If he did not resign, his term would expire in January 2009. In a sworn affidavit filed Sept. 10, Craig said that he had agreed to plead guilty, without seeking the advice of an attorney, because he had been “deeply panicked” by the arrest and the possibility of “unnecessary publicity.” His lawyers argued that the plea was not “knowingly and understandingly made” because Craig was not a lawyer. They also asserted that Craig had been in a “state of intense anxiety” at the time of his arrest because the Idaho Statesman newspaper had been investigating his sexual orientation for the past five months. The New York Times Sept. 7 reported that police at Minnesota-St. Paul International Airport had arrested 39 other men during the three-month men’s room sting operation. Of the 40 defendants, Craig was the only one to have been charged with both disorderly conduct and interference with privacy. The latter charge was the more serious one, a gross misdemeanor that carried a maximum sentence of a year in prison. The charge was dropped as part of Craig’s plea agreement. He was fined $575 and placed under unsupervised probation for a year, with a suspended 10-day jail sentence. „

Economy Job Losses Prompt Recession Fears. The Labor Department Sept. 7 reported that the U.S. lost 4,000 nonfarm jobs in August; it was the first time employment had deSeptember 13, 2007

clined since August 2003. The report fueled concerns among investors that the country was heading for a reUnemployment 4.6% cession, which August 2007 sent the Dow Previous Month 4.6% 4.7% Jones Industrial Year Earlier Average down 249.97 points, or 1.9%, ending the day at 13,113.38. [See pp. 574E3, 529E1; 2003, p. 709B3] The report was a strong indication that recent problems in the housing market had spilled over into other areas of the economy. Industries closely tied to the housing industry lost a significant number of jobs: construction employment dropped by 22,000 jobs, and manufacturing employment fell by 46,000 jobs. The recession threat also fueled speculation that the Federal Reserve would cut its benchmark federal funds interest rate at its next policy-making meeting, scheduled for Sept. 18. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in the past had said the Fed would not cut the interest rate unless it was clear that the meltdown in the housing market, which had caused turmoil in financial markets, could stunt economic growth. An interestrate cut would make borrowing cheaper for companies and consumers alike, which would spur economic growth. A recession was defined as a protracted period of time during which the economy shrank, unemployment rose and consumer spending fell, which hurt corporate profits, and thus was a major concern for investors. A recession was said to be in effect when the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the output of goods and services produced within a nation’s borders, declined for two consecutive quarters. [See p. 560D1] While the Labor Department’s report said the August unemployment rate had remained unchanged from July, at 4.6%, analysts said the number of non-farm jobs lost was balanced out by an increase in unemployed workers who were not looking for work. Those people were not counted by the department as unemployed. Additionally, the Labor Department’s figure for nonfarm jobs created in July was reduced to 68,000 after seasonal adjustment, indicating that the job market, which had been steady in recent years, had begun to deteriorate earlier than previously expected. During 2005 and 2006, the average job growth per month was above 200,000. Furthermore, analysts expected the employment situation to get worse, as the latest report only covered activity through mid-August, leaving out recent large layoffs in the mortgage industry. Home mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. Sept. 7 said it was cutting 20% of its labor force. [See p. 540C3] The unemployment report came on the heels of the Federal Reserve’s “beige book,” released Sept. 5, which said recent volatility in the country’s financial markets had a “limited” effect on the rest of the economy. [See below, p. 540A2] 145.8 Million Jobs Held—According to a household survey, 145.8 million people

held jobs in August, the Labor Department reported Sept. 7. The department counted 7.1 million people as unemployed. The department counted 392,000 workers as “discouraged” in August. Those workers were not looking for work because they believed that no jobs were available. They were not counted as part of the labor force. About 4.5 million people who sought full-time employment were working part-time instead. The average manufacturing workweek was 41.3 hours in August, the same as in July, while factory workers’ overtime fell to 4.1 hours, from 4.2 in July. Average hourly wages for production workers rose five cents, to $17.50. The unemployment rate among whites in August was the same as it was in July, at 4.2%. The jobless rate for blacks was 7.7%, down from 8.0% the previous month. For Hispanics, who could be of any race, the rate fell by 0.4 percentage points in August, to 5.5%. For men aged 20 and over, August unemployment was 4.1%, down from 4.2%. For adult women, it stayed the same from July, at 4.1%. The teenage jobless rate in August was 16.1%, up from 15.2% in July, while for black teenagers it was 31.2%, up from 26.5% in July. Fed Releases Beige Book—The Federal Reserve Sept. 5 issued its “beige book” survey of economic data covering the period from mid-July through August. The survey was compiled eight times a year on a rotating basis by the Fed’s 12 regional banks. The latest survey indicated economic activity had “continued to expand.” The Fed noted that a recent contraction in credit markets had negatively affected the housing mortgage market. However, it said problems in credit and mortgage markets had a “limited” impact on other areas of the economy. The Fed said retail sales were “generally positive,” manufacturing activity had increased in most districts, and the energy industry was also growing. The Fed July 25 had also released its beige book for the period covering June and early July. That report said consumer spending “rose at a moderate pace,” and that activity in the energy industry “remained at high levels.” The Fed also reported that real estate and construction activity during that time was in decline. „ Trade Gap Shrank in July to $59.2 Billion.

The Commerce Department Sept. 11 reported that the seasonally adjusted U.S. trade deficit in Trade Deficit goods and servic(in billions) es for July was July 2007 $59.25 $59.2 billion, Previous Month $59.43 $67.55 down from a re- Year Earlier vised $59.4 billion in June. [See p. 528F3] Exports increased $3.6 billion in July, to $137.7 billion, led by exports of capital goods and automotive vehicles, parts and engines. Imports rose $3.4 billion in July, to $196.9 billion, most notably in the areas of automotive vehicles, parts and engines, and industrial supplies and materials. 591

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The Commerce Department Sept. 11 also reported bilateral trade data for July. The numbers were not seasonally adjusted and contained merchandise-trade data only, with no revisions for the previous month except to the data for Canada. The July merchandise-trade deficit with China rose to $23.8 billion, from $21.2 billion the previous month. The deficit with Canada fell to $5.7 billion, from a revised $5.9 billion in June. The gap with the European Union rose to $13.0 billion in July, from $9.2 billion the previous month. The gap with Japan also increased, to $8.0 billion, from $6.3 billion in June. „ Durable Goods Orders Rose 5.9% in July.

The Commerce Department Aug. 24 reported that the value of durable goods orders in July increased by 5.9% from the previous month, to $230.7 billion. Durable goods were so-called big-ticket items designed to last three years or more. [See p. 498G1] „

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House Passes Patent Overhaul Bill. The

House Sept. 7 voted, 220–175, to pass legislation that would overhaul the U.S. patent system. The bill was an attempt to discourage an increasing amount of patent litigation that critics said stymied innovation and hurt the ability of some companies to compete effectively. In general, the bill would make it more difficult to obtain a patent and bring a patent-infringement case to court, as well as reduce the monetary damages a plaintiff could collect by winning a patent-infringement case. [See p. 280G1] The bill was hailed by business sectors commonly accused of patent infringement, like technology companies, and criticized by interests that were normally plaintiffs in such cases, including pharmaceutical companies, small companies and individual inventors. The Bush administration Sept. 6 released a statement saying the bill had some “useful reforms,” but that it would oppose the bill unless it was revised, particularly the proposed rules for awarding damages in patent-infringement cases. The bill would require courts to award a successful plaintiff damages based on the value of the component the plaintiff had pat592

ented. Under current guidelines, the plaintiff could be awarded damages based on the value of the product as a whole, even if the component the plaintiff had invented constituted only a small part of that product. Technology companies were particularly susceptible to this kind of litigation— and having to pay what they considered excessive damages—as they often made products that were composed of a large number of parts, many of which, like computer chips, were previously patented. The Bush administration said the proposed rule “risks reducing incentives to innovate” by holding out the prospect of inadequate compensation to successful plaintiffs. The bill would place limits on where patent-infringement cases could be heard so as to avoid clustering cases in districts that traditionally had favored plaintiffs. The bill would also make it more difficult to establish that a patent had been purposely infringed upon. The bill would introduce a “first-to-file” system, which gave patents to the first person who filed the patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as opposed to the inventor. The provision was intended to limit legal disputes over invention claims and make the U.S. patent system more similar to systems in other developed countries. The bill would also create a nonlitigation process whereby new patents could be challenged, and allow outside parties to submit objections to particular patent applications. These efforts were intended to fortify what some considered a lax patent approval process that designated unworthy inventions as patents, and gave holders of those patents an unfair leverage in trials. „ Congress Passes Student Aid Reform Bill.

The House Sept. 7 voted, 292–97, to pass a bill that would reduce by more than $20 billion subsidies made to private banks that offered student loans, and use most of that money to increase the maximum federal Pell grant, which was given to the neediest students. The measure would increase the maximum level of the grant to $5,400 a year by 2012, from the current rate of $4,310. The Senate earlier that day had voted, 79– 12, to approve the bill, which had received strong bipartisan support there. [See p. 496F1] Additionally, the bill would reduce interest rates on loans made to low- and middle-income students to 3.4% by 2011, from the current rate of 6.8%; introduce a loanforgiveness program for graduates who had worked in the public service for 10 or more years; and place a cap on monthly loan payments at 15% of a borrower’s discretionary income. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said she would recommend that President George W. Bush sign the bill into law, because it met his objective of increasing funding for Pell grants. The Bush administration had previously objected to aspects of the bill, including the interest rate cut and the loan-forgiveness program. All of those who voted against the bill were Republicans. They argued that it would place the burden of student loans on

taxpayers and hurt the private sector’s student loan industry. Private lenders said the bill would not only harm their business, but also reduce the number of services they could offer to students. Democrats viewed the passage of the legislation as a fulfillment of their promise during the 2006 congressional elections to make higher education more affordable. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D, Mass.), chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said the bill “restores the balance to this grossly unfair student loan system by directing funds to the students, not to the banks.” „

Environment Judge Upholds Vermont Emissions Law.

Judge William Sessions 3rd of U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vt., Sept. 12 ruled that Vermont had the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks. Sessions found that a Vermont law did not conflict with federal laws regulating the release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Sessions also dismissed an argument made by automakers that the law was an attempt by Vermont to regulate the fuel economy of vehicles, a power held exclusively by the federal government. [See p. 206A1] Vermont in November 2005 had adopted standards, first adopted by California in 2004, requiring a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas vehicle emissions by the 2016 model year. Because of its poor air quality, California had special dispensation to impose air pollution laws more stringent than the federal government’s. Vermont and 12 other states had copied California’s legislation. [See 2005, p. 857E1] The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry group, along with the U.S.’s General Motors Corp. (GM) and Germany’s DaimlerChrysler AG had filed lawsuits in California and Vermont to block those states’ laws. The plaintiffs had argued that automakers lacked the technology to make vehicles with substantially lower emissions, a claim Sessions had also dismissed in his ruling. The Vermont lawsuit had gone to trial first, in May. Vermont still needed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to grant it a waiver allowing it to implement the California standards. Vermont in December 2005 had requested such a waiver, and EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson had said he would issue a decision on the request by the end of 2007. Analysts said Sessions’ ruling would increase the pressure on Johnson to issue the waiver. The governors of the 13 states that planned to adopt California’s regulations Sept. 12 issued a letter calling on automakers to end their attempts to block the legislation. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that the EPA had authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, which it had previously declined to do under the Bush administration. „ FACTS ON FILE

AFRICA

Civil Rights FBI Spied on Coretta Scott King. Houston, Texas, television station KHOU Aug. 30 re-

ported that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) documents showed that the bureau had kept Coretta Scott King, the widow of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., under almost constant surveillance until November 1972, more than four years after her husband’s assassination. [See 2006, p. 96E3; 1968, p. 139D3] According to the documents, the FBI was concerned that Scott King might follow her husband’s example in attempting to “tie the anti-Vietnam movement to the civil rights movement.” The papers also suggested that members of the Nixon administration and then–Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were regularly updated about the spying. The final memorandum regarding Scott King justified ending the surveillance by arguing that “no information has come to the attention” of the Atlanta, Ga., FBI branch “which indicates a propensity for violence or an affiliation with subversive elements.” Scott King died at the age of 78 in January 2006. It was revealed in 1975 that the FBI had kept Martin Luther King under surveillance during much of the 1960s in an attempt to find information that could be used to discredit him. The exposure of unethical wiretapping of critics of the Vietnam War and other prominent Americans on the part of U.S. intelligence agencies had helped build support for the passage of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. [See 1978, p. 863A1; 1975, p. 161B2] „

Medicine & Health Children’s Bipolar Disorder Diagnoses Grow.

A study in the September issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, made public Sept. 4, found that the number of diagnoses or treatments for bipolar disorder in people under 19 had grown to 800,000 in 2003, from 20,000 in 1994. Experts also said it was likely that the number had continued to increase since 2003. [See 2006, p. 979F1; 1995, p. 521F2] Bipolar disorder was characterized by disruptive behavior and extreme and sudden mood swings, and until the 1990s, had been diagnosed mainly in adults. Scientists and observers were divided on what the trend meant. The study’s lead author, Mark Olfson of the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University in New York City, said the data likely indicated either an underdiagnosis of bipolar disorder in children in previous years, or a current overdiagnosis, rather than an actual increase in the incidence of the condition. Other experts questioned the validity of any diagnosis of the disorder in children, claiming that it was being improperly applied to those exhibiting any kind of extremely aggressive behavior. Several observers noted that pharmaceutical firms stood to benefit from increased diagnoses of the disorder in children. „ September 13, 2007

Algeria Suicide Bombings Kill More Than 50. Two suicide bombings in Algeria Sept. 6 and Sept. 8 killed a total of more than 50 people. The radical Islamic terrorist group Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, which had recently increased its activity in North Africa, Sept. 9 claimed responsibility for the attacks. [See pp. 333A3, 264A3] In April, two suicide bombings by the group in and around Algiers, the capital, had killed 33 people. Those attacks had prompted fears of renewed violence in the country, which was still recovering from a brutal civil war in the 1990s that had pitted Islamist rebels against the government. In January, the group had changed its name from the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), in what many analysts saw as an attempt by remnants of the Algerian Islamist insurgency to gain support and publicity by associating itself with the widely known international terrorist group Al Qaeda. After the April attacks, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s government had launched a crackdown on the Islamist group in its base in mountainous eastern Algeria. Fighters from Morocco, Libya and Tunisia were reportedly killed in military operations against the group. However, the president also vowed to continue a program of reconciliation with former Islamist rebels who wanted to lay down their arms. An amnesty offered by the government had been taken up by many former rebels, depleting their ranks. [See 2006, p. 171A3] Attacks Target President, Military—In the Sept. 6 attack, at least 20 people were killed and about 100 others were injured when a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body in a crowd of people awaiting the arrival of Bouteflika in the town of Batna, 270 miles (430 km) southeast of Algiers. The bomber had apparently intended to set off the explosives upon Bouteflika’s arrival, but was spotted by people in the crowd, prompting him to detonate the device early. It was reportedly the first time that the North African Al Qaeda group had used a bomber with explosives strapped to his body, rather than a car bomb. The Sept. 8 bombing occurred in Dellys, a town on the northern coast about 30 miles east of Algiers. A car bomb exploded near a coast guard barracks, killing 37 people and wounding dozens. According to the interior ministry, most of the dead were coast guard members, although three civilians were also killed. In a related development, 10 soldiers July 11 had been killed and 35 people injured when an explosives-laden truck crashed into a military barracks in Lakhdaria, about 50 miles east of Algiers. Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb also claimed responsibility for that attack.

Tens of thousands of Algerians in major cities and towns across the country Sept. 9 protested against the recent increase in terrorist attacks. Bouteflika joined the rally in Algiers, which was comprised mainly of women. In a Sept. 9 statement, posted on the Internet, Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb said Bouteflika had been the intended target of the Sept. 6 attack. The group vowed to continue its fight against the Algerian government, saying, “We swear to God to continue sacrificing our lives until you stop supporting the crusaders in their war, apply the Islamic tenet and stop your war against God’s religion.” Bouteflika had supported the U.S. in its global war on terror. „

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Morocco Conservatives Gain in Legislative Polls.

Morocco’s interior ministry Sept. 10 announced that the conservative Istiqlal (Independence) party had won the most seats in legislative elections held Sept. 7. Istiqlal, a member of the governing coalition, took 52 seats in the 325-member lower house. The opposition Justice and Development Party (PJD), a moderate Islamist party, took 46 seats. Istiqlal’s coalition partner, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP), which had taken the most seats in the previous elections, in 2002, placed fifth, garnering 38 seats. [See 2002, p. 796D1] The combination of seats won by Istiqlal, the USFP and smaller allied parties, including the Progress and Socialism Party (PPS), meant that the ruling coalition would have a 180-seat majority and would hold on to power. Turnout in the legislative elections was just 37%, a record low. Analysts said that reflected a recognition by voters that the legislature had little political clout. King Mohammed VI, the head of state, held most of the power in Morocco. He had the power to promulgate or veto laws; had final say over the appointment of the prime minister, cabinet ministers, governors and judges; and was head of the military and the country’s religious institutions. The PJD, which had anticipated a better showing, accused the ruling coalition of vote-buying. The government pledged to investigate the allegation, which it denied. King Mohammed was expected to appoint a new prime minister in the next few weeks. „

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Bolivia Constituent Assembly Suspends Sessions.

Silvia Lazarte, president of a constituent assembly convened by Bolivian President Evo Morales Aima, Sept. 7 announced a monthlong halt in the assembly’s proceedings, following weeks of violent protests in Sucre, the city in central Bolivia hosting the assembly. Delegates attending the assembly had been forced to halt their activi593

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ties for weeks because of the violence. [See p. 66D1; 2006, p. 1015B3] The protesters, many of whom were university students, had demanded that the government relocate Bolivia’s capital from La Paz, a Morales stronghold in the western Andes mountains, to Sucre, some 435 miles (770 km) to the southeast. Both the legislative and executive branches of government were seated in La Paz, a city of 1.7 million people. However, Bolivia’s highest court was located in Sucre, which was known historically as Bolivia’s constitutional capital. The call to relocate the capital to Sucre had been backed by the country’s rightist opposition, concentrated in Bolivia’s wealthier eastern provinces. Relocation advocates said Sucre, a city of 250,000, would better serve as the country’s capital because of its central location. Government backers said the relocation effort was a ploy to halt the work of the constituent assembly. Morales, an Aymara Indian, had been elected president in December 2005 after pledging to increase the power of Bolivia’s poor, indigenous population. (Native people composed 60% of Bolivia’s population.) Morales in August 2006 had inaugurated the constituent assembly, which was charged with rewriting the constitution. [See 2005, p. 918A1] Observers said the halt in the assembly’s work imperiled a Dec. 14 deadline to present a draft of the new constitution, which would then be voted on in a public referendum. Thousands of Morales supporters Sept. 10 marched in Sucre to call for the continuation of the assembly’s work. Hundreds of thousands of people July 20 had also marched in La Paz to protest the relocation effort. „ Legislators Scuffle Over Judiciary Battle.

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Bolivian legislators in the Chamber of Deputies, the country’s lower house of Congress, Aug. 23 engaged in fisticuffs over a dispute regarding the judiciary. The scuffle broke out during an attempt by opposition lawmakers to block members of President Evo Morales Aima’s Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party from bringing corruption charges against Bolivia’s highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal. [See p. 66D1; 2006, p. 1015B3] Morales in December 2006 had sparked the row when he appointed four federal judges on an interim basis during a congressional recess, even though the country’s constitution mandated that congress select the justices from a list. The Constitutional Tribunal May 9 ruled that Morales had been within his rights to appoint the interim justices, but that their 90-day tenure had expired and could not be extended. Although congress in July approved the judicial appointments, Morales had attempted to file charges against four of the constitutional tribunal’s five justices, alleging that they had exceeded their powers and allowed political considerations to sway their decision. Morales’s opponents condemned the move as a power grab. „ 594

Brazil Prison Fire Kills 25 Inmates. Twenty-five in-

mates in a Brazilian prison in Ponte Nova, Minas Gerais state, Aug. 23 were killed in a fire set by imprisoned rival gang members. The attackers reportedly herded members of rival gangs into a cell, then set fire to mattresses to kill them. [See 2006, p. 1016B1] Though the prison had been built to hold only 87 inmates, 187 had been kept there, according to a local media report. Overcrowding was an endemic problem in Brazilian jails, which were often effectively controlled by criminal gangs. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Aug. 20 had announced a plan to spend $3.5 billion on programs intended to reduce violence, especially the homicide rate, in the country. The plan called for the construction of 160 new prisons that could each hold 400 inmates. It would also expand prisoner access to education. Da Silva said the funds would also be used to expand social programs in povertystricken areas of the country, focusing largely in 11 crime-ridden urban areas. However, the plan did not provide for the hiring of any additional police or any upgrading of their equipment, as some officials had called for. „

Canada News in Brief. Houston, Texas–based Marathon Oil Corp. July 31 said it had agreed

to pay US$5.45 billion (C$5.76 billion) in cash and stock for Calgary, Alberta–based Western Oil Sands Inc. Under the terms of the deal, Marathon would pay US$3.6 billion in cash and 34.3 million shares of Marathon stock to Western Oil shareholders. The price reflected a 4% premium over Western Oil’s July 30 closing price on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Marathon would also assume about $650 million in Western Oil debt. Analysts said the deal reflected a growing trend of U.S. refiners seeking to make use of crude oil produced in Alberta. [See 2006, p. 416F1] Judge Suzanne Coupal of Quebec Court June 27 sentenced former advertising executive Jean Lafleur to a four-year prison term for his role in defrauding the Canadian government of some C$1.6 million (US$1.4 million). Lafleur April 27 had pleaded guilty to 28 counts of fraud related to government payments he had received in the 1990s for little or no advertising work, in the so-called sponsorship scandal. He was also ordered to repay the C$1.6 million; the federal government also sought C$11 million from him in a separate lawsuit. [See p. 228F1] „

Colombia Alleged Cartel Head Montoya Captured.

Reputed cocaine baron Diego Montoya Sept. 10 was captured by a Colombian special forces unit at a farm in the Norte de Valle region, striking what officials called a major blow against cocaine growing and

trafficking operations in the country. Montoya was the alleged head of the Norte del Valle drug cartel, and had overseen the trafficking of hundreds of tons of cocaine to the U.S., according to Colombian and U.S. officials. He was also on the top 10 Most Wanted list maintained by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). [See p. 545C3] Officials said Montoya was arrested along with his mother, an uncle and three other cartel members in a predawn operation in the town of Zarzal. Colombian officials said they would question him before extraditing him to the U.S. to face trial there. Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Montoya was linked to 1,500 murders, and analysts said his capture would likely significantly disrupt the flow of cocaine to the U.S. Officials also said the power vacuum left by Montoya’s capture could spark new violence among smugglers looking to replace him. „

Guatemala Presidential Vote Goes to Runoff. Guatemalans Sept. 9 voted in a presidential election, sending the first- and second-place finishers to a runoff election set for Nov. 4. According to preliminary results released Sept. 10, center-left businessman and engineer Alvaro Colom Caballeros led the polling with 28.4%, followed by conservative former army Gen. Otto Perez Molina with 23.6%, with 98% of votes counted. Voters also chose 332 mayors and 158 national legislators in the elections. [See p. 129F3] Perez Molina, 57, of the Patriotic Party, during campaigning had pledged to address Guatemala’s soaring crime rate by battling drug traffickers with military troops, hiring more police officers and reinstating capital punishment. Colom Caballeros, 56, of the National Unity of Hope party, had promised to address corruption in the country’s judicial system and boost spending on social programs to combat unemployment. Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Mayan rights advocate Rigoberta Menchu Tum, 42, finished sixth, with 3% of the vote. She had been the first female Mayan presidential candidate in Guatemala, where 42% of the population was Mayan. Violence Rampant in Election Run-up—

Two candidates from Menchu’s Encounter for Guatemala party running for local council seats Sept. 5 were shot dead. According to local media reports, some 50 political candidates, their family members and other political activists had been killed over the past 15 months, with violence increasing during the run-up to elections. Sporadic incidents of violence were also reported during the elections. [See p. 228F3] Guatemala was one of the most violent countries in Latin America, with an estimated 6,000 homicides in 2006. It also served as a major corridor for illicit drugs being shipped from South America to the U.S. Violence and killings had been routine during the country’s civil war in the 1980s and 1990s, but analysts said the current wave of murders had more to do with drug trafficking than political conflict. „ FACTS ON FILE

Mexico Leftist Rebels Claim Gas Pipeline Attacks.

A series of bombs early Sept. 10 were detonated at six points on four different gas pipelines and one oil pipeline operated by state-run oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in Mexico’s Veracruz state. A small leftist rebel group, the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), Sept. 11 issued a statement to news media claiming responsibility for the pipeline attacks. [See p. 467D2] Pemex officials said the attacks caused no casualties, but estimated that they would cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars in lost production. Pemex Director Jesus Reyes Heroles said fuel supplies in nine states and Mexico City, the capital, would be affected by the bombings, and that it would take several days to repair the damage. In its statement, the EPR reiterated a demand for Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa to release two of its leaders. “Our political-military action will not stop until our disappeared/detained comrades are presented alive,” the communique read. The government said it had no knowledge of the supposed captives’ whereabouts. The EPR in July had said it was behind several similar attacks against Pemex pipelines that month, and had demanded the release of the two men. The rebels said the men had been captured by the government in Oaxaca state in May. The pipeline bombings caused the shutdown of several dozen factories in Mexico City and the nearby city of Puebla. Analysts said continued attacks by the EPR could present a significant threat to the operations of various Mexican industries. Truck Accident Explosion Kills 37—

Separately, a truck carrying explosives intended to be used for mining Sept. 9 exploded in Coahuila state after hitting a pickup truck, killing at least 37 people. Some 240 people were taken to a hospital for treatment. The truck had reportedly carried more than 50,000 pounds (22,600 kg) of the explosive ammonium nitrate when it rammed the pickup truck, flipped over and caught fire. The powerful explosion occurred after onlookers and rescuers arrived at the scene. „

Panama Noriega Extradition to France Approved.

Judge William Hoeveler of U.S. District Court in Miami, Fla., Sept. 7 approved a request to extradite former Panamanian military leader Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega to France. Noriega had been scheduled to finish serving a reduced U.S. prison term on Sept. 9, but remained in a federal detention center after that deadline, pending the outcome of an appeal his lawyers had filed fighting Hoeveler’s decision. [See p. 514E3] U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey Sept. 7 said he expected Noriega to be sent to France after the judicial appeals September 13, 2007

process had been exhausted. (The U.S. State Department would issue the final decision on the extradition request). Noriega had ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, when he was deposed during a U.S. military invasion. In 1992 he was convicted in the U.S. of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering and given a 30-year prison sentence, later reduced to 15 years for good behavior. He had served that sentence as a prisoner of war, which his lawyers claimed entitled him to be repatriated to Panama upon his release. Noriega had also been convicted in absentia in France of several charges, including money laundering and drug trafficking, and sentenced to 10 years in prison there in 1999. However, French officials said he would face a new trial if sent to France. Panama had also filed an extradition request with the U.S., but had reportedly failed to actively pursue it. Many observers said it was likely that Noriega would receive relatively lenient treatment in Panama, where a law might allow him to serve his sentence under house arrest. „ Wanted Man Elected Congressional Head.

Panama’s National Assembly Sept. 1 elected Pedro Miguel Gonzalez Pinzon, who was wanted in the U.S. on charges related to the death of a U.S. soldier, as its president. He had been nominated by the country’s ruling Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD), which controlled the legislature. [See p. 514E3; 1992, p. 433E3] Gonzalez Pinzon, 42, had been indicted in the U.S. on charges of murder in connection with the shooting death of a U.S. Army sergeant in Panama, and charged with the attempted murder of a second sergeant. The shootings took place in 1992, just prior to a visit by then–U.S. President George H.W. Bush. Tensions between some Panamanians and the U.S. were high at the time, since the U.S. in 1989 had invaded the country and deposed its military leader, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega. Gonzalez Pinzon had maintained that he had been at a demonstration miles away at the time of the shooting, and in 1997 had been acquitted of the charges in a Panamanian trial. The U.S. had said the trial had been manipulated, but Panama had refused entreaties to extradite Gonzalez Pinzon to the U.S. for a separate trial there. U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey Sept. 1 said the U.S. was “deeply disappointed” that Gonzalez Pinzon had been elected by the legislature “from among all its members.” Gonzalez Pinzon that day said he would consider stepping down from his role as congressional president if it threatened to derail negotiations between the U.S. and Panama regarding a new bilateral trade agreement. „

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China Pig Disease Outbreak Reported. Officials of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Food and Agricul-

ture Organization (FAO) in Hong Kong May 7 said a fatal illness was spreading among pigs in China’s southeastern Guangdong province. They said the Chinese government was providing little information about the epidemic, fueling renewed concerns about its willingness to be forthcoming about health and safety problems that might have international effects. China’s agriculture ministry May 9 said the epidemic, possibly of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, a viral infection also known as “blue ear” disease, was under control. [See 2005, p. 526E3] However, over the following months, international experts said the disease was continuing to spread, and that the government was still not providing many details. The New York Times Aug. 16 reported that the disease had reached 25 of China’s 33 provinces and regions. The Times reported that the government estimated that 165,000 pigs had died of the disease, which foreign experts said was likely an underestimate. The agriculture ministry July 26 had said it would distribute a vaccine for blue ear disease. But observers said there was not a fully effective vaccine, and many expressed doubt that the epidemic was in fact blue ear disease, which was not ordinarily known to be so lethal to adult pigs. The disease was apparently contributing to a dramatic rise in the price of pork in China, up in August by about 85% from a year earlier. The Times reported that a similar disease had appeared among pigs in Vietnam and Myanmar, and that health officials were trying to determine whether it had spread there from China. Chinese government scientists in an article published June 13 in the U.S. online journal PLoS ONE said an outbreak of the disease in 2006 had killed 400,000 pigs. „

Indonesia Multiple Earthquakes Rock Islands. A se-

ries of five earthquakes struck Indonesia Sept. 12–14, killing more than a dozen people and driving thousands from their homes. The quakes triggered tsunami warnings from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center of the U.S. National Weather Service, though no serious tsunamis resulted. [See p. 531B1; 2006, p. 582D2] Earthquakes had been a major cause for concern in Indonesia in recent years. In December 2004, more than 130,000 people were killed in Indonesia by a massive tsunami triggered by a 9.3 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. A tsunami that struck the island of Java in July 2006 had killed more than 530 people, in part because the Indonesian government had no efficient way to warn its citizens about the approaching wave. [See 2005, p. 223F2] The initial earthquake struck at 6:10 p.m. local time Sept. 12 in an area of the Indian Ocean approximately 80 miles (130 km) southwest of Bengkulu on the island of Sumatra, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS measured it at a magnitude of 8.4 on the open-ended Richter scale of ground motion. A small 595

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tsunami 2.9 feet (90 cm) high was reported near the city of Padang, north of Bengkulu, approximately 20 minutes after the first quake. The second earthquake struck at 6:49 a.m. Sept. 13 near the Sumatran coast, approximately 200 miles north of the initial quake and 115 miles southeast of Padang. That quake measured 7.9 on the Richter scale. A third earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.0, hit at 10:35 a.m., about 105 miles southwest of Padang. At 5:48 p.m., a fourth quake, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, struck 190 miles northwest of the city of Manado on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The fifth earthquake struck 80 miles west of Bengkulu at 1:01 p.m. Sept. 14, and measured 6.2 on the Richter scale. The area was struck by more than 55 additional tremors during the time between quakes, including more than 10 aftershocks that measured at least 5.1 on the Richter scale. The first two quakes killed at least 10 people in Bengkulu and four people in Padang and the surrounding area. At least 200 people were injured and more than 2,600 buildings were damaged in Padang and Bengkulu. The New York Times reported Sept. 13 that, according to a local Indonesian journalist, approximately 10,000 people had fled their homes in low-lying areas and were living in refugee camps. The full extent of the casualties and damage from the series of earthquakes was still unknown. Scientists expressed concern that the series of earthquakes could be precursors to an even more serious quake. Dr. Kerry Sieh, a California Institute of Technology seismologist, Sept. 13 said the sites of the recent earthquakes surrounded “a big strong part of the fault that hasn’t broken yet.” „ Suharto Wins Lawsuit Against ‘Time.’ A panel of three judges of the Indonesian Supreme Court Aug. 31 ordered the U.S.’s Time magazine to pay $106 million in damages to former Indonesian President Suharto for alleging in a 1999 article in its Asian edition that he and his family had unethically built a $15 billion fortune during his 32-year rule. The decision reversed earlier rulings in Jakarta district court that dismissed Suharto’s complaint. [See p. 485C1; 2000, p. 433A2] The article alleged that much of Suharto’s fortune had been transferred to Swiss bank accounts in the days before his 1998 resignation. The court ruled that the depiction of Suharto negatively affected his image and ordered six Time journalists to run apologies in three consecutive editions of prominent Indonesian and international magazines and newspapers, including Time. Vincent Brossel of the press-freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders had said that the ruling “gives the bad impression that inside the justice system there are more supporters of defending Mr. Suharto’s legacy and less efforts to try and get back all the millions, or billions, he wrongly took in the past,” Voice of America reported Sept. 13 on its Web site. 596

Suharto had never been convicted of corruption, and an attempt in 2000 to charge him with embezzling $441 million was derailed when Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh ruled that Suharto’s health was too fragile for him to appear in court. In July, prosecutors filed a $1.54 billion civil suit against him with the same allegations. [See 2006, p. 418F1] „

Philippines Estrada

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well as the sale of their shares in 2006. The charges carried a two-year sentence and the possibility of a $15,500 fine. Thaksin also allegedly violated a law that banned cabinet members from owning stock, a crime punishable by 10 years in prison and a fine of $31,000. Pichit Chuenban, one of Thaksin’s attorneys, said Sept. 3 that he would advise the Shinawatras not to return to Thailand until after a new democratically elected government was in power. „

Corruption.

Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada Sept. 12 was convicted by a Philippines anticorruption court of taking financial advantage of his office, and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was charged with receiving more than $85 million during his 30 months in office, from sources including kickbacks on illegal gambling, diverted tobacco tax revenues and commissions on the government pension fund’s stock purchases. He was also charged with perjury for allegedly misstating his income, but was acquitted of that charge. [See 2001, pp. 1069B3, 320A1] Estrada’s son, Senator Jose (Jinggoy) Estrada, and Edward Serapio, his lawyer, were both codefendants but were acquitted of all charges. Estrada was the first president of the Philippines to be tried for crimes committed while in office. Estrada, 70, had been a film star before winning the presidency in a landslide 1998 victory. Allegations of corruption were raised against him in October 2000. An impeachment trial was halted in January 2001 after all 11 prosecutors resigned in protest over the Senate’s refusal to allow them to subpoena Estrada’s bank records. Following the termination of the impeachment proceedings, he resigned amid mass demonstrations against him and the defection of his cabinet to Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was still the country’s president. He was arrested soon after on corruption charges and had been living under house arrest during his sixyear trial. [See 2001, p. 57C3] Estrada called the court a “kangaroo court,” alleging that the verdict had been politically calculated to bolster Arroyo. „

Thailand New Warrants Issued for Thaksin, Wife.

The Bangkok Criminal Court Sept. 3 issued warrants for former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife, Pojamarn Shinawatra, on charges that the pair had violated securities laws during Thaksin’s tenure as prime minister. The warrants were the second set issued for the Shinawatras, who had been indicted in June on charges stemming from a land purchase in Bangkok, the capital. Thaksin, 58, and Pojamarn, 50, had been living in exile since Thaksin was forced from power by the military in a September 2006 coup. [See p. 547G3] Thaksin and Pojamarn were accused of neglecting to report their controlling stake in SC Asset, a Thai real estate company, as

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Germany Convert Named as Terrorist Plot Leader.

German officials had identified a convert to Islam, Fritz Martin Gelowicz, 28, as the leader of a terrorist cell plotting to attack U.S. military and civilian targets in Germany with bombs made from hydrogen peroxide, it was reported Sept. 6. Gelowicz and two other suspects had been arrested earlier that week. [See p. 580F3] German authorities Sept. 6 said they were investigating at least seven other suspects believed to be linked to the plot, including German Muslim converts, Turks and other foreigners. German intelligence officials said Gelowicz and several other suspects had attended terrorism training camps in Waziristan, a tribal region of Pakistan, starting in early 2006. Among them were the other two men arrested with Gelowicz: Daniel Martin Schneider, 22, another German convert; and Adem Yilmaz, 28, a Turkish immigrant. Intelligence officials also said at least five other German residents had been detained in Pakistan for attending such training camps in recent months. Gelowicz reportedly had lived in the city of Ulm in southern Germany, known as a center of Islamic radicalism. He was said to have converted to Islam at the age of 18. Uzbek Group Claims Responsibility—

The Islamic Jihad Union, an extremist group that had originated in Uzbekistan, had claimed responsibility for the German bomb plot in a statement posted on the Internet, German officials said Sept. 11. The U.S. had designated the group as a terrorist organization in 2005, and it was believed to be linked to the international terrorist network Al Qaeda. The group ran the training camp in Pakistan that the three arrested suspects had allegedly attended. According to the German interior ministry, the group said the attacks were planned for the end of 2007 and would have targeted the U.S.’s Ramstein Air Base outside Frankfurt, as well as “U.S. and Uzbek consular facilities in Germany.” The statement also said that the planned attacks were aimed at pressuring Germany to shut down its own air base in Termez, Uzbekistan, near the Afghan border. The base was used to provide support to the 3,000 German troops in Afghanistan as FACTS ON FILE

part of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) force. [See p. 486D3] In testimony before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell Sept. 11 said that U.S. surveillance of terrorist suspects’ communications had made “significant contributions” to thwarting the German plot. However, McConnell Sept. 12 released a statement acknowledging that he had erred in testifying that the investigation had benefited from a recent law giving authorities more leeway to conduct surveillance without a court order. [See p. 506A3] „

Portugal Parents of Missing British Girl Suspected.

Portuguese police Sept. 7 named the parents of Madeleine McCann, a fouryear-old British girl missing since May 3, as suspects in her death. The parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, Sept. 9 returned to Britain with their other two children for the first time since Madeleine’s disappearance. Under Portuguese law, the McCanns, who denied any role in the crime, had the right to return to Britain because they had not been charged to date. However, as criminal suspects, they were required to keep the Portuguese police informed of their movements. The police reportedly had named the couple as suspects after forensic tests detected traces of Madeleine’s DNA in blood found in a car they had rented 25 days after she went missing. Blood was also reportedly found in the family’s vacation apartment in Praia da Luz, on Portugal’s southern coast. The couple underwent hours of interrogation Sept. 6–7. Friends of the McCanns said the police had suggested that the parents might have killed Madeleine accidentally and then hid her body. The McCanns insisted that Madeleine was kidnapped when they left her and their two-year-old twins asleep at the apartment while they ate at a restaurant. The couple, both doctors, for the past four months had remained in Praia da Luz. They had led a widely publicized campaign to find Madeleine, raising money, enlisting the support of British celebrities and meeting Pope Benedict XVI May 30 at the Vatican to receive his blessing. „

Russia Putin Dissolves Government, Names New PM.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Sept. 12 accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and the rest of his cabinet, in advance of Dec. 2 parliamentary elections. Putin said the restructuring would pave the way for the transition to a new president, who would be elected in March 2008. [See p. 101B2; 2004, p. 161D3] Putin that day nominated Viktor Zubkov, the largely unknown head of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, to be the next prime minister. That move cast doubt on widespread reports in the Russian September 13, 2007

FACTS ON ZUBKOV

Viktor Alekseyevich Zubkov was born Sept. 15, 1941, in Arbat, a village in the southern Ural region of Sverdlovsk. He graduated from the Leningrad Agricultural Institute in 1965, with a degree in economics. He went on to be named general director of a group of collective farms in the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) region. In 1991 he began his service under Vladimir V. Putin in the St. Petersburg city government from 1993 to 2001. He held various senior positions within the tax ministry. Zubkov ran unsuccessfully for governor of the Leningrad region in 1999. In 2001, he became head of Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service, an agency that investigated money-laundering rackets. The position put him in close contact with efforts to rein in the oligarchs, who had accumulated massive profits as Russian industry was privatized during President Boris Yeltsin’s post-Soviet rule in the 1990s. Zubkov had no known connections with the KGB or its successor, the FSB, which Putin headed from 1998 to 1999. However, he was associated with Putin’s inner circle, known as the siloviki, many of whom were former KGB officials. Zubkov Sept. 12 was nominated by nowPresident Putin for the post of prime minister, after Putin’s cabinet resigned. [See p. 597F1]

media that Putin had been grooming either of the country’s two first deputy prime ministers, Sergei Ivanov and Dmitri Medvedev, for the job. Putin and Zubkov had worked together in the 1990s in the government of the city of St. Petersburg. [See p. 597A2 for facts on Zubkov] Fradkov said he had asked Putin for the dissolution so the president would have “full freedom of decision, including staff decisions” in anticipation of the upcoming elections. Fradkov would remain prime minister until the lower house of Parliament, or Duma, confirmed his replacement. The vote was scheduled for Sept. 14. Russian correspondents suggested the new prime minister would have a significant advantage in the upcoming presidential race. However, others theorized that Zubkov was merely a placeholder, as he had very little recognition within Russia and even less in the international community. Nevertheless, Zubkov Sept. 13 said he would not rule out running for president. Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin had named Putin prime minister in 1999, months before Yeltsin resigned suddenly and Putin was made acting president. He went on to win elections months later amid controversy. [See 2000, p. 205A1] „

Serbia U.N. Sets Deadline for Kosovo Settlement.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Aug. 1 announced a new round of talks between Serbia and the breakaway province of Kosovo, with a deadline of Dec. 10. All previous talks, mediated by the U.S., Russia and the European Union, had failed to arrive at a consensus on what should be done about demands for independence by the ethnic Albanian majority

in Kosovo. The U.N. had administered Kosovo since a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air campaign forced the withdrawal of Serbian forces in 1999. [See p. 485A2] The political leadership of Kosovo’s Albanians, who comprised approximately 90% of the province’s population, had demanded nothing short of full sovereignty and stated that Kosovo would declare independence if an acceptable alternative was not agreed to by the Dec. 10 deadline. Serbia was fiercely opposed to Kosovo’s independence, and claimed the territory as a vital piece of its history and ethnic heritage. Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority feared they could become victims of violence if Serbian influence in the region were decreased. The U.N.’s special envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, in March had submitted a proposal to the U.N. Security Council that had formed the basis for earlier talks on Kosovo’s status. That proposal had called for EU-supervised independence for Kosovo. It included provisions for extensive minority rights for Serbs in Kosovo, and allowed the EU to have a say in hirings and firings in the Kosovo government. The plan had received support from the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Italy but had been opposed by Serbia and Russia. The U.S. and Western European nations had abandoned efforts to push it through to the U.N. Security Council in July in the face of Russian opposition. [See p. 211G3] Another proposal, for partitioning Kosovo from Serbia but not recognizing it as independent, had also been discussed. One version of that plan included ceding a small section of Kosovo where many Serbs lived to Serbia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Aug. 31 said Russia would accept partition if both sides could reach an agreement. If no deal was reached by the Dec. 10 deadline, several nations, including the U.S., Britain and other EU members, had said they would unilaterally recognize Kosovo’s independence. Other nations, including Spain, Greece (both EU members) and Russia, would not. EU members vowed to work out their differences, as a split could significantly weaken the EU’s credibility. Wolfgang Ischinger, an EU mediator, Sept. 7 said, “In diplomacy there are many shades of gray between black and white, and we’re looking for the right shade of gray.” Serbia Denies Plans to Use Force—Vuk Jeremic, Serbia’s foreign minister, Sept. 5 in an interview with Britain’s Financial Times rejected suggestions that Serbia would resort to military action if Kosovo declared independence. Some in the Serbian government had indicated that they were ready to use force, and statements from various officials had been conflicting. Jeremic said military intervention in Kosovo would open a “Pandora’s box” of security problems across the Balkans. Nevertheless, he reiterated that “all legal, diplomatic and practical resources, short of security and defense resources, will be used in order to demonstrate that we don’t accept a declaration of independence and that it’s invalid.” 597

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However, Dusan Prorokovic, Serbia’s state secretary for Kosovo, the same day contradicted Jeremic, saying Serbia would not rule out troop deployments to Kosovo, a border blockade or a trade embargo in the event of a declaration of independence. An unidentified to EU official Sept. 10 said Serbia had assured the EU that it had no intention of using force against Kosovo. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had been disbanded following the U.N. occupation, but claimed to have 25,000 former members in the province, some of whom were ready to fight again. A Kosovo Albanian newspaper, Koha Ditore, reported Sept. 11 that Serbia might be quietly considering partition if Western countries were receptive to the idea. Jeremic Sept. 11 dismissed the report, saying he strongly doubted there was any truth to it. Conditions in Kosovo Worsening—The Washington Post Aug. 21 reported that unemployment in Kosovo stood at around 50%, and that many basic services were lacking. Due to its uncertain political status, Kosovo’s economy was stagnating. A top U.N. development official had stated earlier in the year that living standards in Kosovo, whose economy largely depended on foreign aid, were “on par with some of Africa’s poorest countries,” according to the Post. Despite efforts on behalf of the Kosovo chamber of commerce to attract foreign investment, negotiations had reached a stalemate as potential investors were reluctant to begin business negotiations with a region whose status was in limbo and had been considerably isolated from Eastern Europe’s larger economy. Parliamentary and municipal elections were scheduled in Kosovo for Nov. 17. „

European News in Brief

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Poland: Parliament Votes for Dissolution.

The Polish parliament Sept. 7 voted, 377– 54, to dissolve itself and conduct a snap election, which was expected to occur Oct. 21. The vote came after the governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) split with its junior coalition partners in August, leaving it in a minority government. Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski after the vote dismissed 15 of his cabinet ministers who had faced noconfidence votes that they were likely to lose. Kaczynski Sept. 10 announced that he would reinstate all of those ministers, saying, “I will reinstate all ministers that Poland needs and I think it needs all of them.” [See p. 532F3] „

SOUTH ASIA

India

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Wal-Mart Finalizes Joint Venture Deal.

U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Aug. 6 announced that it had signed a deal with India’s Bharti Enterprises Ltd. to create a joint venture, Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt. Ltd. The two companies had begun working on the deal in November 2006. [See 2006, p. 939B1] 598

The 50–50 joint venture was the outcome of two agreements. The first agreement would create a wholesale chain to supply retailers across the country. The first wholesale facility was expected to open by the end of 2008, and the companies planned to open 15 similar facilities within seven years. The facilities would employ approximately 5,000 people. Indian law prohibited foreign retailers from opening stores that sold a variety of product brands directly to consumers, but did permit foreign wholesale operations. In the second agreement, Wal-Mart would give Bharti access to supply chain expertise and technology that it used in its operations in the U.S. and other parts of the world. Bharti planned to build a chain of stores that sold goods directly to consumers. The deal was the latest step in WalMart’s strategy to maintain its sales growth by expanding operations outside the U.S., as its untapped markets within the U.S. diminished. [See 2006, pp. 935D1, 883C2] The deal faced political opposition in India, as the country’s retail system was mostly composed of small stores run by individuals or families. Opponents claimed that Wal-Mart was using the wholesale deal to get past India’s foreign investment laws and eventually establish a large retail chain that would put traditional retailers out of business. Retailer advocacy groups Aug. 9 held rallies around the country to protest the deal. „

Pakistan Sharif Deported Upon Return. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived in Pakistan Sept. 10, ending seven years of exile, only to be deported and flown to Saudi Arabia less than five hours later. Tariq Azim Khan, a state information minister, said Sharif had been presented with a warrant for his arrest on money laundering charges upon his arrival, and had chosen to fly to Saudi Arabia to avoid being taken into custody. Sharif’s supporters denied the claim, saying that the Pakistani government had forcibly expelled him from the country. [See pp. 582C2, 551C1] Sharif’s plane had been instantly surrounded by police after it landed at Islamabad’s airport. Intelligence officials boarded the plane and demanded that Sharif relinquish his passport. Sharif refused, and after two hours was allowed to enter a lounge in the airport. As he waited to pass through an immigration checkpoint, he was arrested and escorted by officials back to the airport tarmac. He eventually boarded a plane that flew to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah. Pakistan’s Supreme Court in August had ruled that Sharif had an “inalienable” right to return to the country, finding a 2000 agreement that sent him into exile for 10 years unlawful. The agreement commuted a life prison sentence on charges of corruption that had been brought against Sharif in 1999, when he was ousted from power by current President Pervez Musharraf in a coup. Musharraf was also the chief of the army.

Sharif had vowed to lead a movement to depose Musharraf, and intended on his arrival to lead a procession from Islamabad, the capital, to the industrial city of Lahore to protest the government. Before Sharif’s arrival, hundreds of supporters of his opposition Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party were prevented from welcoming him by police roadblocks on the main roads leading to the airport. Sharif’s supporters clashed with police in Islamabad and the nearby city of Rawalpindi, which was near Islamabad’s airport. They were dispersed with tear gas and stun guns, and many were arrested. PML-N officials said the government, in anticipation of Sharif’s arrival, Sept. 9 had arrested more than 2,500 of its members. Senior members of the party were placed under house arrest that night. Shahbaz Sharif, Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother and a former chief minister of Punjab state, did not accompany him on his return to Pakistan as he had reportedly planned. An antiterrorism court in Lahore Sept. 7 had ordered his arrest on murder charges in connection with the killing of five men by police in 1998. Sharif’s Lawyers File Lawsuit— Lawyers representing Sharif Sept. 11 filed petitions with the country’s Supreme Court that claimed the government had acted in contempt of court by expelling Sharif, and demanded that Sharif be allowed to return to tell the court the details of his deportation. The court was viewed as a major obstacle to Musharraf’s ambitions of remaining in power. It was currently considering another case in which it would decide whether he was eligible to run for a second fiveyear presidential term. According to Pakistan’s constitution, Musharraf could be disqualified, because he held the posts of president and army chief simultaneously. An amendment to the constitution that allowed Musharraf to hold both offices was due to expire in December. A presidential election was scheduled to be held between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15. Sharif’s wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, Sept. 11 said she planned to return to Pakistan in her husband’s stead to lead the campaign against Musharraf. U.S.’s Negroponte Weighs In—U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte arrived in Islamabad Sept. 12 for a two-day trip. He said Sharif’s deportation was “a legal matter for the government and people of Pakistan to decide,” in what observers viewed as an indication of support for Musharraf. Musharraf was viewed by the U.S. as a valuable ally in its worldwide fight against terrorism. It was widely reported that the U.S. supported a powersharing deal that was being negotiated between Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, another former prime minister living in exile and leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Negroponte was in Pakistan to discuss strategies on combating extremism in Pakistan’s northwest border regions. The security situation in those areas had deteriorated in the preceding months. [See p. 599A1] „ FACTS ON FILE

Militants Take Soldiers Hostage. Militants loyal to Afghanistan’s Taliban rebels Aug. 30 seized as many as 270 Pakistani soldiers and officers that were part of a convoy traveling through the northwestern province of South Waziristan, a tribal area that bordered Afghanistan. Baitullah Mehsud, a pro-Taliban commander who had effective control over the area, said the troops would not be released unless the Pakistani government acceded to the terms of a February 2005 truce that had fallen apart earlier in August. [See p. 470E3] Under the truce’s conditions, Pakistan had withdrawn its troops from the region in exchange for promises that South Waziristan would not let militants fire upon army posts, host foreign fighters or allow militants to cross over into Afghanistan to support the Taliban’s insurgency there. Mehsud claimed that Pakistan violated the agreement by redeploying troops to the area, though observers said Mehsud had broken with his end of the deal long before, leading to a spike in cross-border attacks and militant activity in the region. The Pakistani government had a similar agreement with tribal elders from North Waziristan, which fell apart in July. The army acknowledged that the soldiers were being held hostage Sept. 3, after days of denying it. The situation was seen as an embarrassment for the military, and an indication that it had little or no control over Pakistan’s northwestern region. Negotiations for the hostages’ release began Aug. 31, with local tribal elders mediating. Violence Reports—In other reports of violence across Pakistan Sept. 4–12: † Two suicide bombers Sept. 4 killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens more in Rawalpindi, where the bulk of the country’s military and intelligence services personnel were stationed. The first blast struck a bus carrying security forces and killed 18, many of whom were believed to work for Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, InterServices Intelligence. The second blast hit a market area approximately twenty minutes later, and killed seven. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, though the interior ministry said they were connected to violence in the country’s northwestern tribal areas. † A suicide bomber Sept. 11 killed as many as 18 people and wounded 18 others in Dera Ismail Khan, a city on the border of Pakistan’s northwestern region. The bomber was reported to be 15 years old. † Twelve members of a border security force were kidnapped Sept. 12 from a checkpoint in the town of Bannu, in North Waziristan. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Federer, Henin Win U.S. Open Tennis Titles Federer Nears Sampras’s Record. Roger

Federer of Switzerland, the world’s topranked player, Sept. 9 beat third-seeded September 13, 2007

Novak Djokovic of Serbia, 7–6, 7–6, 6–4, to win his fourth consecutive men’s singles title at the U.S. Open in New York City, the last of tennis’s four annual Grand Slam events. Justine Henin of Belgium, the world’s top-ranked women’s player, Sept. 8 had defeated fourth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, 6–1, 6–3, to capture her second U.S. Open title and seventh Grand Slam championship. [See below; 2006, p. 719A2] Federer, 26, won the 12th Grand Slam title of his career, moving into a tie with Australia’s Roy Emerson for the secondmost of all time. He was just two titles behind the all-time leader, Pete Sampras of the U.S. [See p. 39F3] In the final, the 20-year-old Djokovic—who earlier in the year had been one of the few players to defeat Federer—at one point in the first set led 6–5 and was serving at 40–0. However, Federer saved five set points to eventually win the game and bring the set to a tiebreak, which he won 7–4. The Serbian, playing in his first Grand Slam final, also led 6–5 and had two set points in the second set, but Federer recovered to win that set as well. [See below] Federer took home a record $2.4 million in prize money—$1.4 million for winning the tournament and a $1 million bonus for winning the U.S. Open Series, a series of hard-court events in North America that culminated in the U.S. Open. In the semifinals, Federer Sept. 8 had defeated Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, 7– 5, 6–1, 7–5, and Djokovic beat David Ferrer of Spain, 6–4, 6–4, 6–3. [See below] Henin Captures Seventh Grand Slam—

Henin Sept. 8 in the women’s final easily defeated Kuznetsova, the 2004 U.S. Open champion, who made 29 unforced errors. The match lasted just one hour and 22 minutes. Henin, 25, had also won in 2003. She triumphed in the 2007 tournament without losing a set. Henin Sept. 7 had defeated 12th-seeded Venus Williams of the U.S., a two-time U.S. Open champion, 7–6, 6–4, and Kuznetsova beat sixth-seeded Anna Chakvetadze of Russia, 3–6, 6–1, 6–1. Henin in the quarterfinals Sept. 4 beat Williams’s younger sister, eighth-seeded Serena Williams, 7–6, 6–1, becoming the first player to defeat both sisters in a Grand Slam and then win the title. Doubles Results—Nathalie Dechy of France and Dinara Safina of Russia Sept. 9 defeated Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chiajung of Taiwan, 6–4, 6–2, to win the women’s doubles title. In the men’s doubles final, Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Julian Knowle of Austria Sept. 7 had defeated the Czech team of Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner, 7–5, 6–4. In mixed doubles, the Belarussian team of Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi Sept. 6 won the championship, defeating Meghann Shaughnessy of the U.S. and Leander Paes of India, 6–4, 7– 6. Other News—In other tennis news: † Tim Henman, Britain’s top player, Aug. 23 announced that he would retire af-

ter the U.S. Open. The 32-year-old played his last professional match Aug. 31, when he lost in the second round of the U.S. Open to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, 7– 6, 2–6, 7–5, 6–4. He would play for Britain in the Davis Cup in late September. [See 2003, p. 1099F1] † Henin Aug. 19 defeated Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, 7–6, 7–5, to win the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada. [See 2006, p. 719F3] † Federer Aug. 19 beat James Blake of the U.S., 6–1, 6–4, to win the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Mason, Ohio. With the victory, Federer became the fifth-youngest player to win 50 tournaments. † Djokovic Aug. 12 beat Federer, 7–6, 2–6, 7–6, to win the Rogers Cup, a Masters Series event, in Montreal, Canada. Djokovic had defeated Rafael Nadal of Spain, the world’s second-ranked player, in the semifinal Aug. 11, after beating third-ranked Andy Roddick of the U.S. Aug. 10 in the quarterfinals. [See 2006, p. 719G3] † British online gambling company Betfair Aug. 2 voided all bets on a secondround match in the Prokom Open in Sopot, Poland, between Davydenko, the world’s fourth-ranked player, and Argentina’s Martin Vassallo Arguello, ranked 87th. Betfair took action due to suspicious betting patterns. About $7 million, or 10 times the normal amount, was wagered on the match, with most of the bets placed on Arguello after he lost the first set to Davydenko, 6–2. The Russian went on to win the second set before retiring with a toe injury during the third. Betfair had voided the bets “in the interests of integrity and fairness,” Mark Davies, Betfair’s communications director, said in an Aug. 6 e-mail to the New York Times. The company also informed the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the governing body of men’s tennis, of the suspicious betting patterns, and the organization Aug. 4 launched an investigation. Davydenko and his representatives consistently maintained that he had retired from the match due to a legitimate injury and knew nothing about the betting. † Argentine player Guillermo Coria June 20 settled a lawsuit he had filed against vitamin maker Universal Nutrition Inc. of New Brunswick, N.J. Coria had filed the suit in New Jersey Superior Court in New Brunswick, alleging that a multivitamin made by Universal that he had taken triggered a positive drug test because it contained a banned steroid that was not listed on the label. Coria had tested positive for nandrolone, a banned steroid, in 2001 at age 19, and was handed a seven-month suspension by the ATP. He returned to competition in 2002 and rose to number three in the world in 2004, but had since been hampered by injuries and dropped to number 347. In his suit, he claimed that he had suffered damage to his career and reputation due to the positive test, and that he had lost at least $10 million in prize money, endorsements and appearance fees. Details of 599

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the settlement, which was reached on the second day of a trial, were not released. [See 2004, p. 431A2] „

Track & Field Powell Bests Own Record in 100 Meters.

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Asafa Powell of Jamaica Sept. 9 set a new world record in the men’s 100 meters, posting a time of 9.74 seconds in a heat at the Rieti Grand Prix meet in Italy. He improved on the record of 9.77 seconds that he had set in June 2005. He subsequently tied that record twice, in June and August 2006. Powell won the final at the Rieti Grand Prix with a time of 9.78. Despite his record-setting times, Powell had never won a gold medal at the World Championships or the Olympics. [See p. 582F3; 2005, p. 412A2] „

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U.S. Wins Americas Title. The U.S. Sept. 2

defeated Argentina, 118–81, to win the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Americas championship, a qualifying tournament for the 2008 Summer Olympics, in Las Vegas, Nev. The victory was seen as a step toward restoring U.S. basketball’s reputation on the world stage, after recent losses in international competitions. [See 2006, p. 739G3] Both the U.S. and Argentina, the defending Olympic champion, automatically qualified for the Olympics. The two losing semifinalists—Brazil and Puerto Rico— and fifth-place finisher Canada would advance to a qualifying tournament in July 2008 in an effort to gain the final Olympic berths allotted to the Americas. „

Baseball

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Georgia Wins Little League World Series.

A team from Warner Robins, Ga., Aug. 26 defeated a team from Tokyo, Japan, 3–2, in South Williamsport, Pa., to win the Little League World Series. Georgia’s Dalton Carriker hit the game-winning home run in the bottom of the eighth inning off Japanese pitcher Junsho Kiuchi. Warner Robins became the third straight U.S. team to win, and the second straight from the state of Georgia. [See 2006, p. 720C1] „

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ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Theater Openings August: Osage County. A woman lashes out at her

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three daughters and other family members who have come to her Oklahoma home to comfort her after her husband mysteriously disappears. By Tracy Letts. Directed by Anna D. Shapiro. With Deanna Dunagan, Amy Morton, Mariann Mayberry, Sally Murphy, Jeff Perry, Kimberly Guerrero and Dennis Letts (the playwright’s father). In Chicago, at the Steppenwolf Theater Co.’s Downstairs Theater. July 8. Baghdad Wedding. An Iraqi doctor living in exile in London is caught up in the Iraq war after returning to his country to get married. By Hassan Abdulrazzak. Directed by Lisa Goldman. With Matt Rawle, Nitzan Sharron, Sirine Saba and Emilio Doorgasingh. In London, at the Soho Theatre. July 3. The Corn Is Green. Revival of a 1938 drama, set in a Welsh village, whose main characters are a schoolteacher and her most promising student, a coal miner’s

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son. By Emlyn Williams. Directed by Nicholas Martin. With Kate Burton as the teacher, Morgan Ritchie (Burton’s son) as the student, Dylan Baker and Becky Ann Baker. In Williamstown, Mass., at the Williamstown Theater Main Stage. Aug. 2. [See 1987, p. 728G3; 1950, p. 15M] Grease. Broadway revival of a rock musical set in a Midwestern high school; it was first seen on Broadway in 1972 and was first revived there in 1994. Book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey; additional songs by Barry Gibb, John Farrar, Louis St. Louis and Scott Simon. Directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall. With Max Crumm, Laura Osnes and Matthew Saldivar. In New York City, at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. Aug. 19. (Crumm and Osnes won the lead roles in this show by outpolling all the other contestants in a 12-week-long television talent search.) [See 1994, p. 435F3] In Celebration. Revival of a 1969 drama about three well-educated English brothers who return to the coalmining community where they grew up to celebrate their parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. By David Storey. Directed by Anna Mackmin. With Orlando Bloom, Paul Hilton, Gareth Farr, Tim Healy and Dearbhla Molloy. In London, at the Duke of York’s Theatre. July 16. [See 1984, p. 996D3] Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Revival of an elaborate 1991 version of a musical based on the Old Testament story of Joseph and his coat of many colors; the show was the outgrowth of a short work commissioned for a 1968 London school production. Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; lyrics by Tim Rice. Directed by Steven Pimlott (who died in February); choreographed by Anthony Van Laast; sets and costumes by Mark Thompson. With Lee Mead (cast as Joseph by virtue of winning a television star search contest). In London, at the Adelphi Theater. July 17. [See p. 152C3; 1981, p. 1003D2] Opus. Drama about an originally all-male string quartet that ousts its violist and replaces him with a woman on the eve of a major performance. By Michael Hollinger. Directed by Terrence J. Nolen. With Douglas Rees, Richard Topol, David Beach, Michael Laurence and Mahira Kakkar. In New York City, at Primary Stages’ 59E59 Theaters. Aug. 7. Saint Joan. Revival, in a somewhat stripped-down version, of George Bernard Shaw’s 1923 drama about the life and martyrdom of Joan of Arc, the national heroine of France. Directed by Marianne Elliott. With Anne-Marie Duff, Angus Wright, Paterson Joseph, Oliver Ford Davies and Paul Ready. In London, at the Royal National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre. July 11. [See 1950, p. 352G] „

People It was reported Aug. 1 that British guitarist Keith Richards of the rock group the Rolling Stones had signed a $7.3 million book deal for a forthcoming autobiography, set to be published in 2010 by Little, Brown & Co. in the U.S. and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in Britain. Richards, 63, would collaborate on the book with British author James Fox, a longtime friend. [See 2006, p. 400A3; 1988, p. 528E2] „

O B I T UA R I E S BASRI, Driss, 68, Moroccan interior minister, 1979–99; the second most powerful man in the country during that period, after King Hassan II, he oversaw Morocco’s security services in an era when political dissent was brutally suppressed; after Hassan died in July 1999 and was succeeded by his son, King Mohammed VI, Basri was soon dismissed and went into exile in France; born Nov. 8, 1938, in Settat, Morocco; died Aug. 27 at a hospital in Paris, reportedly of a lung infection. [See 1999, p. 902E2–G2; 1997, p. 1005F3] COMPTON, Sir John (George Melvin), 82, prime minister of St. Lucia for much of the time since the small Eastern Caribbean island became independent of Britain in 1979; instrumental in securing that independence, he was briefly St. Lucia’s first prime minister in 1979, then regained the post in 1982 and served until 1996; Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II knighted him a year later; he became prime minister for the third time in 2006, after defeating the incumbent, Kenny Anthony; he had, however, relinquished his leadership role since suffering a series of strokes in April; born April 29, 1925, on the island of Canouan, one of the Grenadine

Islands, which, together with St. Vincent, was then a British colony; died Sept. 7 at a hospital in Castries, St. Lucia. [See 1996, p. 331G2; 1992, p. 423G1] DUNN, Jennifer (born Jennifer Blackburn), 66, Republican from Washington State who served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1993– 2005) and became a member of the House Republican leadership; she was one of two Republicans to deliver the party’s response to President Bill Clinton’s 1999 State of the Union speech; she declined to run for reelection in 2004, and, after leaving Congress, became a Washington, D.C., lobbyist; born July 29, 1941, in Bellevue, Wash.; died Sept. 5 at a hospital in Alexandria, Va., of a pulmonary embolism. [See 2004, p. 875C1; 2002, p. 850C4; Indexes 1996–2000, 1994, 1992] GILLMOR, Paul Eugene, 68, Ohio Republican who had served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1989; viewed as a moderate, he was elected to the House two years after an unsuccessful bid for the governorship of his state; born Feb. 1, 1939, in Tiffin, Ohio; found dead Sept. 5 at his home in Arlington, Va.; he was initially thought to have had a fatal heart attack, but an autopsy report released Sept. 7 said he had died of “blunt head and neck trauma” consistent with a fall down a flight of stairs. [See 2006, p. 857A1; 2004, p. 866G4; Indexes 2002, 2000, 1998, 1996, 1994, 1992, 1990, 1988, 1986] GOFMAN, John William, 88, nuclear chemist and medical researcher; in the late 1960s, he and a colleague at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, Arthur Tamplin, sounded an alarm about the health effects of ionizing radiation; the two men called for federal safety guidelines for low-level exposure to such radiation to be reduced by 90%; after their findings were disputed by the Atomic Energy Commission, he became an antinuclear activist, helping to found a San Francisco, Calif.–based advocacy group, the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, in 1971, and serving as the group’s chairman; born Sept. 21, 1918, in Cleveland, Ohio; died Aug. 15 at his San Francisco home, of a heart ailment. [See 1979, p. 381E2; 1971, pp. 573G2, 64B2; Index 1970] L’ENGLE, Madeleine (born Madeleine L’Engle

Camp), 88, prolific author best known for her children’s novels, notably A Wrinkle in Time (1962) and four sequels, combining elements of science fiction with religious speculation; the main characters in the series were members of the Murry family; she also wrote a well-known series of children’s novels about a family called the Austins, beginning with Meet the Austins (1960); born Nov. 29, 1918, in New York City; died Sept. 6 at a nursing home in Litchfield, Conn., of natural causes; she had reportedly had a stroke in recent years. [See 2004, p. 936A2; 1963, p. 170A2] MARTIN, Janis Darlene, 67, pioneering rockabilly singer; she rose to fame contemporaneously with Elvis Presley and was dubbed “the female Elvis”; she was only 15 years old when her first record and biggest hit, “Will You Willyum,” was released in 1956; her career languished for a number of years, but European audiences rediscovered her in the late 1970s; she played her first concert in England in 1982, on her 42nd birthday; born March 27, 1940, in Sutherlin, Va.; died Sept. 2 at a hospital in Durham, N.C., of cancer. SEIDENSTICKER, Edward George, 86, translator of Japanese literature into English; his translation of the 11th-century epic The Tale of Genji, about court intrigue in medieval Japan, was hailed by critics and drew many readers after it was published in 1976; he also translated such notable modern Japanese novelists as Junichiro Tanizaki, Yukio Mishima and Yasunari Kawabata, the winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Literature; having studied Japanese during World War II, he worked as a translator for U.S. occupation forces after the war; born Feb. 11, 1921, in Castle Rock, Colo.; died Aug. 26 in Tokyo, after slipping into a coma as a consequence of a head injury sustained in April. [See 1972, p. 1011G1; 1971, p. 199F2; Index 1966] WYMAN, Jane (born Sarah Jane Mayfield), 90, Academy Award–winning actress and the first wife of actor Ronald Reagan, whom she divorced in 1949, after eight years of marriage, and who would go on to become a two-term governor of California and president of the U.S. (1981–89); her lone Oscar, for best actress, came in 1949, for her role as a deaf-mute rape victim in Johnny Belinda (1948); she earned Oscar nominations for three other films—The Yearling (1946), The Blue Veil (1951) and Magnificent Obsession (1954); later generations knew her mostly from her work in television, notably as a manipulative California winery owner in the long-running television series “Falcon Crest” (1981–90); born Jan. 5, 1917, in St. Joseph, Mo.; died Sept. 10 at her home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., of undisclosed causes. [See 2004, p. 422C1; 2001, p. 616E3; Indexes 1987, 1984–85, 1969, 1960, 1952–56, 1947–50] „

September 13, 2007

U.S. Senate Blocks Measures to Curtail Iraq War Democrats Drop Compromise Attempt.

U.S. Senate Republicans Sept. 19 blocked Democratic legislation that would have required that U.S. troops receive periods of home leave lasting as long as their preceding deployment in Iraq. The measure, which had been offered by Sen. Jim Webb (D, Va.) as an amendment to the fiscal 2008 Defense Department authorization bill, won 56 votes, four short of the 60 needed to avoid a filibuster. It had been considered the Democrats’ best chance to influence the U.S.’s policy on the Iraq war, and party members conceded that other bills up for consideration had little chance of success. [See pp. 585A1, 441E1] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and other Democratic leaders Sept. 18 said they would cease pushing compromise legislation making withdrawal from Iraq by spring 2008 “a goal,” because of a lack of Republican support. Instead, they said, the party would support a firm June 2008 deadline to cut off support for the war. The troop leave measure had initially attracted widespread bipartisan support because it addressed widespread frustration among military families and was seen as supporting the troops. Webb had made a number of changes to address concerns from military officials and Republican legislators after the Senate blocked a previous version of the amendment in July. However, the Bush administration and the U.S. Defense Department launched a concerted effort to defeat it, saying that tampering with leave would weaken military units and was being used as a covert way to provoke a troop drawdown. The final blow came when Sen. John Warner (R, Va.), an initial supporter of the bill who was considered an expert on military matters, Sept. 19 reversed his position after meeting with defense officials. In the end, six Republicans voted to advance the bill. The Senate the next day rejected, 70–28, an amendment sponsored by Reid and Sen. Russell Feingold (D, Wis.) that would have required the withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by June 2008 and would have cut off funds for the war thereafter. It had rejected a similar bill from the two senators in May. [See p. 310A3] The Senate earlier Sept. 20 had voted, 72–25, to condemn an advertisement placed in the New York Times the previous week by Internet-based antiwar group MoveOn.org, which had accused Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, of betrayal ahead of his testimony before Congress. U.S. President George W. Bush in a news conference that day criticized top Democrats for not disowning the advertisement, saying, “most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org, or more afraid of irritating them, than they are of irritating the United States military.” Pentagon Releases Quarterly Report—

The Defense Department Sept. 17 released its eighth congressionally mandated quarterly report on progress with respect to security and government reform in Iraq. The report covered the three months from mid-

June to mid-September. It highlighted the decaying security situation in Iraq’s south due to continuing violence by rival Shiite militias. [See p. 374A2] The report said the violence had spread throughout the south after having been previously contained in Basra, and was primarily due to the growing strength of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. Iran’s influence in that region was also increasing as it ramped up efforts to train and arm Shiite militias, including those suspected of killing two Shiite provincial governors in August. Attacks using armorpiercing explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) had reportedly increased by nearly 40 percent from mid-February to midMay. The report said Iranian support for the militias was “one of the greatest impediments to progress on reconciliation” in Iraq, and the southern violence would make it less likely that political leaders would make progress on key legislation in the fall. [See p. 539E1] The report touted nationwide drops in sectarian violence, high-profile bombings and total attacks. However, it said casualties rose to nearly 150 killed or wounded per day on average in July and August, from 130 in June, and there was also a rise in the ratio of civilian to military casualties. Baghdad reportedly continued to have the most attacks of any province, with about 58 per day on average from early May to late July. Anbar province experienced a sharp drop, to about 10 per day in May, from 25 in February.

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B been passed, oil revenues were being distributed fairly across Iraq. It also said the benchmarks did not take into account security gains in Anbar province, where Sunni tribes had been turning against Sunni insurgent groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq and fighting alongside U.S. troops. Democratic reaction to the report was subdued. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (Del.) said, “You don’t even need to go to the benchmarks to realize what an abject failure this policy has been.” Also Sept. 14, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said U.S. troop levels in Iraq might be drawn down to about 100,000, from the current level of about 170,000, by the end of 2008, but added that “there is no script” for the cuts. The announcement, which came the day after Bush had announced a modest withdrawal, was the first time a senior Bush administration official had discussed troop levels beyond summer 2008, or had projected such a major drop.

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White House Report Shows Mixed Gains—

The Bush administration Sept. 14 reported that the Iraqi government had had mixed progress in achieving 18 political and military goals mandated by May U.S. legislation. The report, which was far more optimistic than one released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) earlier in September, said Iraq had met nine of the benchmarks, with two being impossible to fully assess at the time and the rest being partially or fully unmet. However, the Bush administration in the report sought to de-emphasize the benchmarks as a gauge of Iraqi progress, saying they did not adequately represent substantial but intermediate degrees of progress. [See pp. 569G2, 441F2] The report said one more benchmark had been met than had been claimed in a draft released in July: reversing so-called deBaathification, in which former members of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s mostly Sunni Baath Party had been prohibited from holding government jobs. It cited an August agreement on the issue brokered by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and four other top Iraqi political leaders, although it did not mention that a boycott of Maliki’s government currently prevented implementation of the deal. In contrast to the previous draft and the the GAO report, the White House report emphasized areas where it claimed the benchmarks obscured real progress. It said that even though oil legislation had not

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U.S. Senate blocks measures to curtail Iraq war.

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Iraq bans U.S. security firm. PAGE 602

Israeli air strike on Syria reported. PAGE 603

Fed cuts interest rates sharply. PAGE 606

Bush nominates retired Judge Mukasey for attorney general. PAGE 607

Sierra Leone opposition leader Koroma wins presidential election.

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Khmer Rouge leader arrested. PAGE 614

Myanmar monks hold government officials hostage. PAGE 615

Pakistan’s President Musharraf drop army post after election.

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Tiger Woods wins Tour Championship, FedEx Cup. PAGE 618 *First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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An antiwar march in Washington, D.C., Sept. 15 ended with the arrests of 189 people. A law enforcement officer estimated the size of the crowd at about 10,000, the Washington Post reported Sept. 15. U.S., British Officials Meet—Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Sept. 18 met with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and British defense chiefs in London to discuss Britain’s continuing role in Iraq. Britain earlier in September had pulled its troops out of the Basra city center and had announced a withdrawal of 500 troops from Iraq, from a total of 5,500. Some war supporters had said the move had endangered security in Iraq, and expressed concerns that Brown was caving in to British antiwar sentiment and would pull British troops out completely. British defense officials said Brown’s government would announce further troop withdrawals in the coming weeks, it was reported Sept. 19. [See p. 571G1] Petraeus after the meetings played down friction between U.S. and British policy towards Iraq. He told reporters that they had discussed the military “tasks” Britain would carry out in southern Iraq, although he did not say what those tasks were. He said the meeting had not covered troop levels, but implied that the defense chiefs had agreed to defer decisions about further troop withdrawals for several months. „

Other Iraq War News Iraq Orders U.S. Security Firm’s Expulsion.

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The Iraqi interior ministry Sept. 17 announced that it had revoked the license of Blackwater USA, a Moyock, N.C.–based security company, and had ordered the immediate expulsion of all the company’s employees from the country. The ban followed the alleged shooting of several civilians the previous day by Blackwater contractors, in what U.S. officials said was the ambush of a U.S. State Department convoy. [See pp. 585A1, 54E2; 2005, p. 13D2] The shootings prompted widespread outrage over what many Iraqis said were the security contractors’ trigger-happy tactics and disregard for the safety of civilians. Blackwater was one of the largest private security companies in Iraq, with an estimated 1,000–1,500 employees in the country and a fleet of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and armed helicopters. U.S. officials and observers reportedly considered its work guarding U.S. diplomatic personnel, including Ambassador Ryan Crocker, to be vital. The U.S. was expected to rely on contractors—which employed 126,000 people in Iraq, including 20,000–30,000 security workers—even more heavily following President George W. Bush’s decision to withdraw some U.S. troops from the country. It was not clear whether the Iraqi government actually had the authority to ban Blackwater from operating in the country. A directive, Order No. 17, issued by the U.S.led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in June 2004—before sovereignty had been turned over to the Iraqi government—pro602

tected private security companies from prosecution by Iraqi courts. Blackwater, a U.S. State Department contractor, was not subjected to certain controls imposed on those working for the U.S. military, but another occupation authority order required foreign security companies to obtain a license from the Iraqi interior ministry. According to initial reports of the Sept. 16 incident from Blackwater and U.S. officials, a U.S. State Department convoy guarded by Blackwater contractors came under attack in the neighborhood of Mansour in Baghdad, the capital. The contractors returned fire on “armed enemies,” according to a Blackwater spokeswoman, but Iraqi witnesses said that those fired upon were instead unarmed civilians. U.S. officials said two car bombs had also exploded in the area, killing at least three people and touching off the shooting. Witnesses said helicopters escorting the convoy had also opened fire, a charge denied by Blackwater and U.S. officials. Initial reports of the Iraqi death toll ranged from eight to 28. U.S. officials refused to comment on whether Blackwater contractors had caused any of the deaths. The incident prompted expressions of outrage from Iraqi government officials. “This is a big crime that we can’t stay silent in front of,” said Interior Minister Jawad alBolani on Al Arabiya, a United Arab Emirates–based satellite television network Sept. 17, adding, “Anyone who wants to have good relations with Iraq has to respect Iraqis. We apply the law and are committed to it.” Iraqi state television reported that Iraqi President Nouri Kamel al-Maliki that day had vowed to “punish” Blackwater and had dubbed the incident a “criminal operation.” A U.S. State Department spokesman Sept. 17 said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that day had called Maliki to express her regret “over the death of innocent civilians that occurred during the attack on an embassy convoy.” The Blackwater spokeswoman maintained that its contractors had fought against armed insurgents, and added that it had not received any official word from the Iraqi government about its license. The company said it was conducting an investigation of the incident. The U.S. State Department also said it was investigating the shooting. A preliminary report presented Sept. 18 by the Iraqi interior ministry to the Iraqi cabinet contradicted U.S. accounts of the incident. The report said the U.S. convoy had not come under attack, but had opened fire when a car had ignored a policeman’s call to stop. It also reported that Blackwater helicopters had been involved in the shooting. It said the car bombs cited by U.S. officials were too far away to have been the cause of the shooting. The U.S. and Iraqi governments Sept. 18 agreed to form a joint commission to investigate the incident and ensure that something similar did not happen again. The Iraqi government also began a review of all private security companies working in the country. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Sept. 18 suspended all ground travel for its diplomats in Iraq, except for within the fortified Green

Zone in Baghdad. That would effectively halt Blackwater’s operations; its main task in Iraq was guarding U.S. diplomats. Maliki Sept. 19 in a press conference reiterated his intention to close down Blackwater’s Iraqi operations. “This act, which I call a crime, has created a state of tension and anger among all of us,” he said. “It is better for this company to freeze its activity, and the embassy can drive out with other companies.” Maliki added, “This company should be held accountable for these violations because we will never allow Iraqi citizens to be killed in cold blood.” Maliki said the Iraqi interior ministry had recorded seven cases of Blackwater employees unjustly killing Iraqis, including the current incident. He did not give details. However, Iraqi officials in the past had accused a Blackwater contractor of shooting and killing one of Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi’s bodyguards in December 2006; the contractor was fired and forced to leave Iraq, but was not prosecuted by either U.S. or Iraqi authorities. U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D, Calif.) Sept. 18 said he would hold hearings on the “perils of excessive reliance on private security companies.” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R, S.C.) Sept. 20 said he would seek an extension of 2006 legislation that brought all U.S. military contractors in Iraq under the Uniform Code of Military Justice to State Department contractors, such as the Blackwater employees. Other U.S. legislators also said they would support laws seeking to control inadequately regulated use of security contractors in Iraq. Suspect in Sheik’s Death Captured—

U.S military officials Sept. 16 announced the capture of a suspect in the death the

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previous week of Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, a high-profile Sunni sheik who had been a key U.S. ally against Sunni extremists in Iraq’s Anbar province. The suspect, Fallah Khalifa Hiyas Fayyas al-Jumayli, also known as Abu Khamis, was captured in a raid near Balad, north of Baghdad. Jumayli was also accused of being an associate of high-ranking members of Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq and of plotting the deaths of several other pro-U.S. Sunni leaders. The Islamic State of Iraq group, an umbrella group for several terrorist elements, including Al Qaeda in Iraq, Sept. 14 in a posting on its Web site claimed responsibility for the attack. It said it had killed Abu Risha because he had worked with U.S. forces and because of his opposition to its cause. The group said they had planned the assassination for a month, and threatened to kill anyone who worked with U.S. forces. Mourners at Abu Risha’s funeral in Ramadi, Anbar’s capital, the same day pledged to keep working with the U.S. and to hunt down his killers. Sadr’s Followers Quit Shiite Bloc—Iraqi legislators allied with Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Sept. 15 announced that they were withdrawing from the leading Shiite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which supported Maliki. The Sadrists complained that they had been marginalized within the bloc, which had failed to set a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal as they demanded, and which had pressed for an oil revenue–sharing law that they opposed. In addition, they said an investigation by Maliki’s government of August clashes between Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia and other Shiite fighters in Karbala had been biased. [See p. 139F2] The Sadrists, who held 30 seats in parliament, announced the move at a press conference in Najaf with leaders of the Shiite Fadhila party, which had left the UIA coalition in March and held another 15 seats. The losses left the UIA with 83 seats in the 275-seat parliament. Other News—In other news: † Surveys conducted in Iraq in August by a British polling agency, ORB, indicated that more than 1.2 million Iraqi civilians had died in the fighting in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003, the Los Angeles Times reported Sept. 14. The U.S. government and military did not keep records of civilian deaths, but both said Iraqi civilian death tolls compiled by independent organizations were exaggerated. The results appeared to bolster the controversial findings of a study published in October 2006 by the Lancet, a British medical journal, which said over 600,000 Iraqis had been killed as of July 2006, a far greater toll than had previously been reported. [See 2006, p. 790A3] † The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Iraqi Red Crescent Society Sept. 20 said they had confirmed the first cases of cholera in Baghdad, a sign that the outbreak already reported in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniya was spreading south. Possible outbreaks had also been reported in the province of DiyaSeptember 20, 2007

la, north of Baghdad, and in the city of Kut, southeast of the capital. † The Iraqi Army Sept. 19 began an offensive against Sunni insurgents in the restive city of Baquba, killing 13 fighters. † U.S. Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, Sept. 18 announced that he had instituted education programs taught by moderate Muslim clerics in the prisons, aimed to “bend [detainees] back to our will” and combat extremist Islamism. He said the effort was aimed especially at detainees who had been held for more than a year, and the more than 820 juveniles among the 25,000 people held by the U.S. † Crocker in a State Department cable dated Sept. 7 criticized the U.S. process for admitting Iraqi refugees to the U.S. as too slow, and called on the government to smooth bureaucratic hurdles to their entrance, the Washington Post reported Sept. 17. Rice Sept. 19 appointed two senior officials to expedite the acceptance of Iraqi refugees. [See p. 475C3] † Fighters allegedly belonging to Al Qaeda in Iraq Sept. 16 attacked two predominantly Shiite towns in Diyala province, burning homes and killing at least 14 people. U.S. troops had spent months trying to pacify the province and convince Sunni tribes to turn against Al Qaeda in Iraq, as they had done in Anbar province. † U.S. Brig. Gen. James Huggins Sept. 16 said his troops were training 16,000 Iraqis in the so-called Sunni Triangle region and other areas south of Iraq, in an effort modeled after Anbar’s. † The U.S. military Sept. 16 announced that U.S. and Iraqi troops had killed 14 suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq fighters in Diyala and Tamim provinces, during operations targeted at senior leaders of the group. † Georgian Defense Minister Davit Kezerashvili Sept. 14 announced that the nation would withdraw all but 300 of its 2,000 troops from Iraq by summer 2008. Kezerashvili said the withdrawal was in keeping with an agreement with the U.S. † A suicide truck bomb Sept. 14 exploded in the northern city of Baiji, killing at least 10 people. The bombing targeted the only restaurant in the city that had stayed open during fasting hours of the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan, which had started Sept. 13, had traditionally seen an upsurge in violence in Iraq. † The U.S. military Sept. 13 said it had awarded the largest Iraq security contract, worth up to $475 million over two years, to Aegis Defence Services Ltd., a British company. Aegis currently held a $293 million three-year contract to provide intelligence services for the Army and security for Army Corps of Engineers reconstruction projects in Iraq. Aegis had won the contract over six competitors. One of the other companies, British-based Erinys Iraq Ltd., was challenging the deal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in order to stop the contract from being carried out. [See p. 521E2] „

Israeli Air Strike on Syria Reported Israel Refuses to Confirm Raid. Syrian of-

ficials Sept. 6 said that Israeli warplanes early that morning had violated Syrian airspace and dropped munitions in unpopulated areas of the country before being repulsed by Syrian air defenses. Some subsequent media reports linked the air strike to allegations that Syria was receiving nuclear assistance from North Korea. Others said the target might have been a chemical weapons plant or weapons destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, or that Israel was testing Syrian air defenses ahead of a strike on Iran. [See pp. 564E1, 353B3; 2006, p. 3B1] Israeli officials refused to comment on the raid, and the Israeli government barred the country’s news media from reporting details of the incident. However, a U.S. Defense Department official Sept. 11 confirmed that Israeli jets had struck at least one target in northeastern Syria, but said the target and the extent of the damage done was unclear. Unidentified Israeli and U.S. officials Sept. 17 said the raid was an attempt to destroy a suspected Syrian nuclear site, the New York Times reported. Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafar, Sept. 11 sent letters to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the U.N. Security Council accusing Israel of “flagrant violation” of its airspace. Security Council members that day discussed the issue but did not reach any conclusions. Israeli opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sept. 19 in a television interview acknowledged that the attack had taken place and expressed his support for the government. He was the first Israeli public figure to publicly speak about the attack, and was criticized for speaking out. Israel in 1981 had launched a pre-emptive airstrike against Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, which it said was intended to produce nuclear weapons for use against Israel. [See 1981, p. 385A1]

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North Korea Nuclear Links Alleged—

An unnamed Bush administration official said Israeli intelligence indicated that North Korea was supplying Syrian facilities with nuclear material, the Times reported Sept. 12. Andrew Semmel, a top U.S. State Department nuclear antiproliferation official, Sept. 14 told the Associated Press that North Korean technicians were currently operating in Syria. He said that Syria might have several “secret suppliers” for an illicit nuclear program. The Washington Post Sept. 15 reported that an unnamed U.S. Middle East expert said the Israeli air strike had been linked to a North Korean ship that had docked Sept. 3 at the Syrian port of Tartus and offloaded its unknown cargo—labeled as cement but suspected to be nuclear equipment—to the area struck by Israel. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a Sept. 16 appearance on the Fox News Channel would not confirm either the Israeli raid or whether North Korea was aiding Syria’s nuclear program. However, he 603

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said, “If such an activity were taking place, it would be a matter of great concern because the president has put down a very strong marker with the North Koreans about further proliferation efforts, and obviously any efforts by the Syrians to pursue weapons of mass destruction would be a concern.” U.S. President George W. Bush Sept. 20 at a news conference refused to comment on the Israeli attack, but warned North Korea to shut down its nuclear weapons program and to stop exporting nuclear materials or expertise. Syria was a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), but had not signed a provision allowing inspections by the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Many analysts discounted the likelihood of Syria seriously pursuing a nuclear program because the cost and technical complexity would be daunting for the Syrian government. Some also doubted that North Korea would have taken the risks to provide Syria with nuclear materials. North Korean Nuclear Talks Canceled—

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U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the U.S. envoy to ongoing negotiations on dismantling the North Korean nuclear program, Sept. 14 said alleged Syria–North Korea links would not derail the next round of talks, planned for the next week in Beijing, China’s capital. However, China Sept. 17 canceled the talks without giving a reason. The move was seen as an effort to avoid a confrontation over the Syrian developments. „

OPEC Output Raised Amid Economic Concerns.

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The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at a Sept. 11 meeting in Vienna, Austria, said it would raise its production quota by 500,000 barrels per day, to 27.2 million barrels per day. The cartel had been expected to maintain its previous production levels, but Saudi Arabia reportedly lobbied for an increase—over the objections of Venezuela and Iran—because of fears that rising prices would contribute to global economic troubles. However, supply was still expected to be tight. [See pp. 606A1, 444F1, 46E1] The production increase was the first to be approved since June 2005. However, many OPEC members were already producing more oil than their quotas allowed. [See 2005, p. 418E2] Despite the modest rise in the quota, U.S. benchmark crude for October delivery closed Sept. 11 up 74 cents, at a record closing price of $78.23 per barrel, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price Sept. 12 briefly rested at an intra-day record-breaking $80.18, before closing at $79.91, and the next day closed at $80.09; $80 had previously been considered a price ceiling. (Adjusted for inflation, prices were still well below 1980 levels, which topped $100 in current dollars.) The price rises were spurred in part by a U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report released Sept. 11 noting that 604

the nation’s gasoline inventories were equivalent to 19.7 days’ supply at the end of August, the lowest since the agency began measuring such levels in March 1991. Another EIA report the next day said U.S. crude oil stocks had fallen by 7.1 percent in the week ending Sept. 7, more than twice the predicted drop. OPEC Secretary General Abdalla el-Badri Sept. 14 said the $80 price level was not sustainable and had been caused by limited U.S. refining capacities, the Atlantic hurricane season and attacks against natural gas pipelines in Mexico. [See p. 595A1] More Oil Rigs Reported in Operation— OPEC July 31 in its annual statistical bulle-

tin said its members had operated 336 oil rigs the previous year, an 11.5 percent increase from 2005. The statistic was seen as one of the best gauges of oil investment levels, as oil-producing countries usually did not report how much they invested in the industry. „

Global Environment Vienna Climate Change Talks Held. About

1,000 environmental activists, business leaders, scientists and diplomats from 158 countries Aug. 27–31 attended the United Nations–backed Vienna Climate Change Talks in Austria’s capital. The discussion had been organized by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in advance of a higher-level meeting for government cabinet members scheduled to take place in December in Bali, Indonesia. [See pp. 357A1, 290E1] The talks Aug. 31 concluded with significant differences remaining between countries over emission reduction goals. They agreed to a final statement setting a goal of reducing emissions by 25%–45% below 1990 levels by a 2020 deadline, but left that as a nonbinding starting point for future talks. A group of the 48 least-developed nations in the world Aug. 27 called on China and India to address the increased greenhouse gas emissions generated by their fast-growing economies. A coalition of developing nations known as the Group of 77 had called on industrialized nations to reduce their emissions by 80% by the 2020 deadline. „

AIDS U.S. Expands Circumcision Funds. U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secre-

tary Mike Leavitt Aug. 19 said U.S. President George W. Bush’s anti-AIDS program, known as the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), would expand funding for male circumcision in Africa as part of efforts to reduce HIV infection rates. Leavitt, who made the announcement during a visit to Johannesburg, South Africa’s capital, cited recent research in South Africa, Uganda and Kenya showing the benefits of circumcision as the basis for the decision. [See p. 345A1] Kent Hill, an official with the U.S. Agency for International Development

(USAID), said funding for the programs would start in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but was likely to grow in the following years. The Bush administration had previously been cautious about endorsing or funding circumcision efforts, instead waiting for more conclusive scientific data backing the procedure’s benefits. The World Health Organization (WHO) in March had officially recommended circumcision as a means of reducing the likelihood of HIV transmission. However, some African health experts said the Bush administration’s move could shift needed funding away from populations traditionally averse to circumcision. Also, scientists March 6 presented research showing that HIV-positive men who resumed sexual activity too soon after undergoing circumcision had a higher risk of infecting their partners. Experts said the research indicated the need for education efforts aimed at women, warning them of the risks attached to having sex with recently circumcised men. The conclusions, drawn from a study being conducted in Uganda in conjunction with the U.S.’s Johns Hopkins University, were presented at a meeting of government officials, scientists and other health officials in Montreaux, Switzerland. Other News—In other HIV/AIDS news: † Indian Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, along with officials from the United Nations, July 6 said India had about 2.5 million people infected with HIV, less than half the previous estimate of 5.7 million people. The revision dropped India from having the most HIV cases in the world to third, behind South Africa’s 5.5 million and Nigeria’s 2.9 million. Previous estimates had been based on samples taken from groups at high risk of contracting HIV, including intravenous drug users and prostitutes. The new data resulted from the analysis of a much wider group of blood samples. Analysts said the new data indicated that India’s HIV cases were concentrated in the high-risk groups, rather than spread throughout the population, as was the case in many hard-hit African countries. [See 2006, p. 947B3] † The European Medicines Agency, the European Union’s drug regulator, June 6 recalled the AIDS drug Viracept after discovering that some batches had been contaminated with a harmful chemical. Both the WHO and the European Medicines Agency later criticized the drug’s maker, Swiss firm Roche Holding AG, for not telling them where the tainted medicine had been sent and what recourse patients could take. The recall had reportedly left tens of thousands of AIDS patients in the developing world without access to treatment. The European Commission, the legislative arm of the EU, Aug. 7 suspended Roche’s license to sell Viracept, known generically as nelfinavir, pending analysis of new data to ensure the drug’s safety. [See 2001, p. 725B2] † Researchers reported in the Aug. 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that young sex slaves sent abroad and then returned to their home FACTS ON FILE

countries were becoming a source of HIV outbreaks. The study was said to be one of the first to link sex trafficking to the spread of HIV, and focused on Nepalese girls sent to Indian brothels. The research was led by Jay Silverman of the School of Public Health at Harvard University in the U.S. „

United Nations Chemical Samples Prove Harmless. It was reported Sept. 6 that a set of chemical samples discovered in United Nations offices in New York City did not contain the nerve agent phosgene, as had been initially reported Aug. 30. According to an unidentified U.N. official interviewed by the New York Times, “initial tests indicated that it might be some kind of over-the-counter solvent.” [See 2004, p. 765A1] The samples were found Aug. 24 in a shipping crate in the offices of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), which was in the process of shutting down, but the inventory records meant to identify the sample were not found until Aug. 29. Those records identified the substance as phosgene taken from a chemical weapons depot near Samarra, Iraq, in 1996 as part of inspections into then–Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs carried out by UNMOVIC’s predecessor, the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM). Phosgene was made using chlorine and carbon monoxide and was capable of fatally searing the lungs. [See 1999, p. 929A2] „

Consumer Affairs U.S. Senate, House Probe Import Safety.

The U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee on financial services and general government Sept. 12 held hearings on the import of Chinese-made products, particularly toys, that had been found to be unsafe. In recent months several kinds of Chinesemade items, ranging from food products to toothpaste, had been found unsafe or otherwise faulty. The world’s largest toy company, Mattel Inc., in recent weeks had also initiated three recalls of millions of its Chinese-made products found to have unsafe levels of lead paint. [See p. 572B3] Senators at the hearing grilled Nancy Nord, the acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), as well as several toy company executives, regarding the safety of products sold in the U.S. Several senators proposed increasing fines and criminal penalties against retailers that continued to sell tainted products. Nord testified that the CPSC was underfunded and lacked the authority to halt potentially dangerous shipments of goods into the U.S. She said the CPSC’s staff levels had declined to 401 employees, from 978 in 1980. Mattel Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Robert Eckert apologized to the subcommittee for his company’s failure to prevent imports of lead-tainted toys to the U.S. He also promised more stringent testing for lead. Toys “R” Us Inc. CEO Gerald Storch September 20, 2007

called on the government and toy companies to find a way to speed up the recall process in cases where contaminated goods had been discovered. Sen. Richard Durbin (D, Ill.) harshly criticized the CPSC as having failed in its role, and questioned whether the agency’s leadership had the “will to deal with issues they face.” House Hearings Held—The U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on commerce, trade and consumer protection Sept. 19–20 held similar hearings. Eckert Sept. 19 said tests had shown that some Mattel products had contained 200 times the allowable amount of lead. The House hearings came on the heels of the Sept. 18 release by U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee investigators of documents that showed that several major U.S. retailers had lead-tainted products in their inventory, but had not yet notified the public. Among the retailers were Target Corp., Dollar General Corp. and Tween Brands Inc., which operated the Limited Too chain of stores. White House Panel Report Released—

The Interagency Working Group on Import Safety, a U.S. cabinet–level panel formed by President George W. Bush in July, Sept. 10 released a preliminary report on the safety of the country’s import system. The panel recommended that the U.S. focus its inspection efforts on imports more likely to pose a danger to U.S. consumers, instead of random testing. It suggested creating a database to track potential safety hazards posed by imported products. [See p. 476C1] The panel also found that the U.S.’s inspection efforts had not kept pace with the growing amount of imports, and recommended increased communication between federal agencies charged with import inspections, including the CPSC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In an unusual development, the discovery of unsafe imported products had sparked a movement among some toy and food makers for more stringent regulation of their products. The board of the Toy Industry Association had approved a plan calling for the U.S. government to impose mandatory safety-testing on all toys sold in the U.S., the New York Times reported Sept. 7. Also, the Walt Disney Co. Sept. 9 said it would begin administering its own lead-content tests of its toys. The Grocery Manufacturers Association Sept. 18 proposed a quality assurance plan for its members, and called on the FDA to enforce it. Analysts said the call for federal regulation was being driven by U.S. companies’ desire to stave off stricter state regulation, prevent lawsuits and gain an edge over competition from cheaper imports that did not adhere to voluntary safety standards. China Bans Lead Paint from Exports—

China Sept. 11 signed an agreement prohibiting the use of lead paint in toys manufactured for export to the U.S. The agreement was reached during a Sept. 10–11 consumer safety meeting, held in Washington, D.C.,

between the CPSC and a Chinese regulatory body, the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. However, some safety and consumer groups questioned the worth of the agreement, as neither government spelled out details of how they would monitor and enforce the ban. (It was common for local Chinese governments to ignore national government directives.) Nord said China had agreed to ramp up domestic inspections of products intended for export. Regulators from the two countries also planned to hold regular discussions of product safety issues. „

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Nokia Issues Cell Phone Battery Recall.

Finnish cell phone manufacturer Nokia Corp. Aug. 14 said it would voluntarily replace some 46 million handset lithium-ion batteries with the potential to overheat. The batteries had been manufactured by Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which Aug. 26 said it expected the recall to cost between $86 million and $172 million. [See 2006, p. 646G1] Nokia said it had documented about 100 cases worldwide of overheating from the faulty batteries, with no reports of property damage or serious injury. The company said the overheating had not occurred until after the batteries had been recharged several hundred times. Matsushita said the defective batteries had been made in a factory in Zhuhai, China. „

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Religion Mother Teresa’s Letters Reveal Doubts. A collection of Mother Teresa’s letters to friends and spiritual advisers had illustrated the renowned nun’s crisis of faith, it was widely reported Aug. 25. The letters were released Sept. 4 in a book entitled Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. Mother Teresa, an ethnic Albanian, was a Roman Catholic nun who had lived in Calcutta, India, and founded a religious order dedicated to serving its poor. Her work had gained international recognition and she had been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She had died in 1997 at the age of 87. [See 2003, p. 825E2; 1997, p. 663F3] Mother Teresa had requested that her letters be destroyed after her death, but the Vatican kept them as potential relics. The letters revealed that at times her faith had been deeply troubled, and that she had doubted the existence of God. “I spoke as if my very heart was in love with God—tender, personal love. If you were [there], you would have said ‘what hypocrisy,’” she wrote to an adviser. Mother Teresa had been beatified by the Vatican in 2003, though by Catholic tradition an additional miracle needed to be acknowledged by church officials before she could be elevated to sainthood. Many Catholic officials and people who had known her said her doubts were not surprising given the misery she witnessed, and that other saints had experienced similar uncertainty. „ 605

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Fed Cuts Interest Rate Sharply Responds to Turmoil in Financial Markets.

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The Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, Sept. 18 cut the benchmark federalfunds interest rate on overnight loans between banks to 4.75%, from 5.25%, to prevent recent crises in the housing and credit markets from pushing the economy into a recession. The Open Market Committee, the Fed’s policy-making body, voted unanimously to make the 0.5 percentage point cut, and also voted to cut the discount rate on loans to commercial banks by the same amount, to 5.25%. The announcement sent stock prices soaring: the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 335.97 points, or 2.5%, and ended the day at 13,739.39, the highest one-day percentage gain since 2003. [See pp. 591G1, 540A2, 511D1] In a statement released that day, the Fed said the cut was intended to “forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy” that could occur if turmoil continued in the financial markets. The Fed as recently as its last policy-making meeting in August had said its main concern was the threat of inflation, and voted to keep interest rates steady at 5.25%. It was the Fed’s first interest-rate cut since 2003. [See 2003, p. 496E2] Analysts attributed the Fed’s change in policy to several factors. Since August, severe problems had emerged in the mortgage market, as borrowers struggled to pay their loans and defaulted on their mortgages at an increased rate. That both threatened to intensify a slowdown in the housing market and caused available credit to shrink, as banks became warier of making loans, started charging higher interest rates, and refused to accept mortgagebacked securities as collateral. Financial markets since then had been highly volatile, because of investor fears that companies could no longer take out loans that were necessary to conduct business. The interest rate cut was prompted by the Fed’s concerns that the lack of available credit could “intensify” problems in the housing market and “restrain economic growth.” The Fed also surprised Wall Street investors by making the more aggressive move of cutting the rate by 0.5 percentage points instead of 0.25 percentage points, which was what had been expected. Analysts viewed the larger cut as a reaction to a recently released report on unemployment rates, which showed that the country lost jobs for the first time since 2003, and indicated that the ills in the housing market had spread to other areas of the economy. [See 2003, p. 709B3] However, the Fed said inflation was still a major concern. It did not suggest that it would lower interest rates again in the future, which would have indicated that the threat of recession had become its primary concern. In practical terms, the interest rate cut was expected to make borrowing cheaper for individuals and companies alike, encourage lending between banks, and lead to the finalization of various acquisitions of companies made with borrowed money. All of those de606

velopments would theoretically increase consumer spending and corporate profits, which would help the economy grow. However, analysts did not expect the cut to immediately solve the problems in the housing market, nor stem the number of expected defaults and foreclosures on the horizon. The House Sept. 18 passed a bill that would allow the Federal Housing Administration to insure more and different types of home loans in an attempt to save some 500,000 homeowners who were on the verge of defaulting. [See p. 608G1] Bernanke Testifies Before Congress—

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke Sept. 20, in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, defended the Fed’s decision to cut the interest rate, saying greater “uncertainty” had clouded the economic outlook, but that the Fed was ready to act to sustain economic growth. [See p. 608B3] Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson also testified, saying that while the housing market was “undergoing a transition,” he believed “overall economic fundamentals remain solid.” He said the Fed had acted appropriately in making the rate cut. Euro Soars to Record Value—The value of the European Union’s unified euro currency Sept. 20 rose to $1.4065 against the U.S. dollar, the first time the euro exceeded $1.40 since it was introduced in 1999, as investors moved away from assets denominated in U.S. dollars, which with the Fed’s rate cut no longer gave as high a return. The U.S. dollar ended the day almost equal to the Canadian dollar (valued at $1.0008), the closest the two currencies had been in value since 1976. The plunge in the U.S. dollar was also attributed to speculation that the U.S. economy would slow down. [See 1999, p. 8A1] „ Greenspan Memoir Criticizes Bush. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in a memoir published Sept. 17 criticized President George W. Bush and congressional Republicans for sacrificing their conservative principles of fiscal discipline and small-government economics for political gain. Greenspan, who identified himself as a “lifelong libertarian Republican,” wrote that Republicans “deserved to lose” the congressional elections of 2006 because “they swapped principle for power.” Some contents of the book, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, were first reported Sept. 14 on the Wall Street Journal Web site. [See pp. 606A1, 591G1, 224E3; 2006, p. 70C3] Greenspan, 81, had been appointed Fed chairman by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and had held that position until early 2006. Prior to holding the top spot at the Fed, Greenspan had been an economic adviser to President Gerald Ford, and worked on Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign. He was generally admired for his management of financial crises during his tenure as Fed chairman, and his stewardship of the economy during the so-called dot-com boom of the 1990s. He had been appointed to an unprecedented fifth term by Bush in 2004. [See 2006, p. 765E2; 2004, p. 484C1; 1987, p. 773A1]

In his memoir, Greenspan wrote that he was at first pleased when Bush won the 2000 presidential election, saying that with the support of a Republican-controlled Congress, the Bush administration had a “golden opportunity to advance the ideals of effective, fiscally conservative government and free markets.” However, he wrote that his opinion soon changed, because Bush did not wield his veto power to curb government spending, and introduced heavy tax cuts without securing other savings, which led to large increases in the federal deficit. Greenspan wrote that the Bush administration did not utilize his advice on economic matters, nor the advice from Bush’s first two treasury secretaries, Paul O’Neill and John Snow. Greenspan claimed that the Bush administration’s “political operation was far more dominant,” and that “little value was placed on rigorous economic policy debate or the weighing of long-term consequences.” Greenspan wrote that he regretted making a 2001 endorsement of tax cuts before Congress, because it had been used by Republicans to push through a large tax cut that did not include provisions to minimize the deficit. [See 2001, pp. 405A2, 47D2] Greenspan wrote that Republicans in Congress, particularly former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (Ill.) and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Texas), had loosened “the federal purse strings any time it might help add a few more seats to the Republican majority.” [See p. 543E3; 2006, p. 256E1] In contrast, Greenspan wrote that former Democratic President Bill Clinton—whom he described as a “fellow information hound” and having “political courage”—had “a consistent, disciplined focus on long-term economic growth.” Tony Fratto, a spokesman for the White House, Sept. 14 said Bush’s veto threats had worked in keeping government spending under the administration’s desired limits, and that the administration did not need to defend spending money on fighting terrorism and bolstering homeland security. At a press conference Sept. 20, Bush said he “respectfully” disagreed with Greenspan’s claims. Bush said the tax cuts he had introduced had spurred economic growth, and that his administration had been able to keep the deficit down even as it funded the war in Iraq. Housing Market Collapse Addressed—

Greenspan in several interviews with mainstream media outlets timed around his book’s release, Sept. 16–17, said the current meltdown in the housing market was partly a result of the Fed lowering its benchmark federal funds interest rate in the early 2000s, but that the Fed had not been irresponsible in lowering the rate. Greenspan said low interest rates in the U.S. had simply matched the unprecedented worldwide trends at the time of low interest rates, low inflation rates and strong housing markets, which were caused by a shift by Russia and China toward market economies in the 1990s. Greenspan had been criticized for lowering the interest rate to 1% between 2001 FACTS ON FILE

and 2004. The low interest rate made it easier for individuals and companies alike to borrow money, which led to a large housing bubble that burst in late 2006. Critics said it also led to the proliferation of improper mortgage lending practices, such as when borrowers with poor credit were given home loans that featured low introductory interest rates that then spiked to unaffordable levels. When housing prices fell, many of those borrowers could not refinance their mortgages and defaulted on their loans. [See 2003, p. 496E2] The meltdown in the housing and mortgage markets had extended into other areas of the economy as well, causing a crisis in credit and financial markets. The Fed Sept. 18 said it would cut the federal funds interest rate to 4.75%, from 5.25%, to ease the strain in credit markets and head off the threat of a recession. „

Bush Administration Mukasey Nominated for Attorney General.

President George W. Bush Sept. 17 announced that he planned to nominate retired Judge Michael Mukasey of U.S. District Court in New York City as attorney general. If confirmed by the Senate, Mukasey would succeed Alberto Gonzales, who had resigned after months of criticism from congressional Democrats, and some Republicans, who had accused him of improperly politicizing the Justice Department and lying to Congress. [See p. 553A1] Nominated to the federal bench in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, Mukasey, 66, had served in New York’s Southern District from 1988 to 2006 (as chief judge for the last six years). He had presided over important terrorism cases, issuing rulings that supported some of Bush’s aggressive national security policies following Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. Bush alluded to those cases during an appearance with Mukasey at the White House, saying, “Judge Mukasey is cleareyed about the threat our nation faces.…He knows what it takes to fight this war effectively, and he knows how to do it in a manner that is consistent with our laws and our Constitution.” In 2002, Mukasey upheld the Bush administration policy of using “material witness” warrants to arrest people believed to have information on terrorist plots. [See 2002, p. 593D2] In a 2002–03 case, he upheld the decision to hold Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen accused of plotting a radioactive “dirty bomb” attack, indefinitely without charges, as an “enemy combatant.” The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City overturned that ruling in 2003. [See p. 524A2; 2003, p. 1012A1] However, Mukasey had also ruled against the federal government in the Padilla case, ordering that Padilla be given access to a lawyer. Mukasey had presided over the 1995 trial of Omar Abdel Rahman and other Islamic militants charged with plotting a 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center, as well as unrealized attacks against the September 20, 2007

United Nations and other New York landmarks. Mukasey sentenced Rahman, an Egyptian known as the “blind sheik,” to life in prison. [See 1996, p. 20E1] Bush Avoids More Controversial Pick—

Bush had previously been reported to be considering former Solicitor General Theodore Olson for the nomination, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) Sept. 12 warned that Democrats viewed Olson as a conservative partisan and would not allow him to be confirmed. Democrats had accused Olson of playing a role in the American Spectator magazine’s dogged investigations of then-President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 1990s. [See 2001, p. 407B2] By contrast, Democratic senators mostly signaled acceptance of Mukasey’s nomination, praising his credentials. However, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested that he might delay the confirmation process until the White House turned over documents relating to Gonzales’s conduct and other matters under investigation by the committee, such as a domestic wiretapping program. Mukasey was a longtime friend of former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, a front-running Republican presidential candidate. The two had worked together as federal prosecutors and in private legal practice, and Mukasey had presided at Giuliani’s mayoral swearing-in ceremony in 1994. Mukasey and his family had given at least $10,000 to Giuliani’s presidential campaign, and Mukasey had served on the campaign as an adviser on legal affairs. Mukasey reportedly had not met Bush before the president interviewed him for the job at the White House Sept. 1. New Acting Attorney General Named—

At his Sept. 17 appearance introducing Mukasey, Bush announced that he had appointed Peter Keisler as acting attorney general, replacing Solicitor General Paul Clement in that role, which Clement held for only one day after Gonzales’s resignation took effect Sept. 17. As acting attorney general, a temporary post that did not require Senate confirmation, Keisler would head the Justice Department until a permanent attorney general was confirmed. Keisler was a former head of the department’s civil division and a cofounder of the Federalist Society, an influential conservative legal group. Democrats in 2006 had prevented the Senate from taking up his nomination by Bush for the seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated by the appointment of John G. Roberts Jr. as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. „

2008 Presidential Campaign Clinton Unveils Universal Health Care Plan.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the national front-runner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Sept. 17 unveiled her plan to provide health insurance for everyone in the U.S., in a speech in Des Moines, Iowa. Clinton emphasized that her plan incorporated lessons she had learned

from the failure of a universal health care proposal that she had championed in 1993, during the administration of her husband, President Bill Clinton. [See p. 346D3; 1994, p. 701B1; 1993, p. 704F1] “Every man, woman and child should have quality, affordable health care in America. I intend to be the president who accomplishes that goal—finally—for our country,” she said. Health care ranked as the top domestic issue of the presidential race. Both of Clinton’s leading Democratic rivals, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), had already proposed similar plans. Clinton said her new plan would extend health insurance to the 47 million people who lacked it, and require everyone in the U.S. to obtain insurance, although she did not say how that requirement would be enforced. However, she said the plan was designed to avoid the creation of unwieldy new bureaucracies. She also stressed that it would not force change on people content with their current insurance coverage. “This is not government-run. There will be no new bureaucracy,” she said. Instead, she promised that her plan would give people more “choice,” allowing them to obtain coverage either from private insurers or from federal programs. Critics had attacked her 1990s plan as too coercive and bureaucratic, and her advocacy for it as first lady had often been confrontational. Clinton now said that her experience as a senator gave her a better understanding of the compromises that would be necessary to get the legislation passed by Congress. Proposes Tax Credits— Clinton called for tax credits to help people afford insurance premiums. She also proposed tax credits for small businesses that offered insurance to employees. But bigger businesses would be required either to provide insurance to their employees, as most already did, or else pay into a government fund to finance such coverage. The plan would require insurance companies to offer coverage to anyone who applied for it. Clinton vowed to succeed in “eliminating discrimination” by insurers that refused to cover people with preexisting health problems. Clinton said she would finance the cost of the plan, estimated at $110 billion per year, by repealing President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for people with incomes of more than $250,000 a year. She also counted on finding $35 billion in savings from increased efficiency in the health care system. Republicans Blast Plan—Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a top Republican presidential candidate, Sept. 17 blasted Clinton’s health care plan, calling it “European-style socialized medicine.” Romney Aug. 24 had laid out his own plan to expand access to health insurance, relying mainly on tax breaks, as well as incentives offered by the federal government to states if they took steps to reduce the cost of insurance. Unlike Clinton’s plan—and unlike a health care reform that Romney had 607

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pushed through in Massachusetts in 2006—his federal proposal would not mandate that individuals or companies obtain or provide insurance. Conservatives opposed such mandates as a government intrusion on the free market. [See 2006, p. 279E1] Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, who led the Republican presidential race in national polls, July 31 had outlined his own health care proposal, which envisioned a move away from the existing system of employer-provided coverage. He denounced the plans offered by the Democratic candidates as “socialist.” Giuliani called for tax exemptions of up to $15,000 per family for people to buy their own insurance. He also said he would propose additional vouchers and tax refunds to help people who could not otherwise afford to buy individual insurance policies. „ Obama Proposes Middle-Class Tax Cuts.

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Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.), a leading Democratic presidential candidate, Sept. 18 announced a plan to deliver at least $80 billion a year in tax cuts for the middle class. [See p. 607F2] Obama called for a new $500 tax credit for individuals, or $1,000 for families, which would offset payroll taxes. The credit would be phased out for people making more than $150,000 a year. He also proposed eliminating income tax for older people who earned less than $50,000 a year, as well as extending a mortgage tax credit to homeowners who did not itemize their deductions. Obama said he would pay for his tax cuts by raising the top tax rates for capital gains and dividends, and closing corporate tax loopholes, including ones exploited by hedge fund managers. Another top Democratic presidential contender, former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), had announced a similar tax plan July 25. Edwards called for $80 billion in tax hikes: raising the capital gains rate to 28%, from 15%; raising income taxes on people who earned more than $200,000 a year; and closing corporate loopholes and tax shelters. Edwards said he would use part of the extra tax revenue to give $30 billion in tax breaks to middle-class and low-income people, such as a $500 payment by the government to match savings by people earning up to $75,000 a year. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the national front-runner in the Democratic presidential race, had not yet outlined a specific tax plan, but had spoken in similar terms about raising taxes on the wealthy to benefit the middle class. Among GOP candidates, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney Sept. 7 had proposed the most detailed plan so far. Romney called for eliminating taxes on interest, capital gains and dividends for everyone earning up to $200,000 a year, an estimated total reduction of $32 billion a year. „

Legislation House Passes Mortgage Aid Bill. The House

Sept. 18 voted, 348–72, to pass a bill that 608

would expand the types of loans the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) could insure, in an effort to stem an expected rise in mortgage foreclosures. The bill would raise the limit on the size of mortgages the FHA could insure to $500,000, from its current level of $362,000. The bill would also allow the FHA to insure mortgages in which the borrower had not paid a down payment that amounted to at least 3% of the home’s total value. [See pp. 606A1, 574E3] The bill was one of three mortgage-aid bills proposed by congressional Democrats in recent weeks, as lawmakers became increasingly concerned that a wave of foreclosures was forthcoming, which could hurt the mortgage market and the economy in general. In recent years, mortgage lenders had issued more adjustable-rate mortgages, which featured low, introductory teaser interest rates that then jumped to a much higher rate after a few years. Many of those mortgages were due to adjust to their higher rates in the coming months, and as housing prices had fallen, many homeowners were no longer able to refinance their loans and were forced to foreclose. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D, Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Sept. 5 proposed a bill that would curb “predatory lending.” The proposed bill would also require lenders to verify the borrower’s income and assess the borrower’s ability to pay off the loan—many loans in recent years had been made to subprime borrowers, or those with poor credit, and subprime borrowers comprised a significant percentage of homeowners who were foreclosing. Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) Sept. 10 proposed a bill that would temporarily allow Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored mortgage companies, to purchase more expensive loans and increase the limits on their portfolios, which would help more struggling homeowners. The Bush administration had opposed lifting the spending caps on both companies. [See below] President George W. Bush had previously supported the House bill, but was against an amendment added by Rep. Barney Frank (D, Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, that allowed the FHA to insure loans as high as $500,000 and those that were not backed by a 3% down payment. Fannie and Freddie Limits Lifted— The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the government regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Sept. 19 said it would allow the companies to increase their home-loan portfolios. The OFHEO said Fannie Mae’s portfolio could grow by 2% a year, and that both companies’ investment caps would be raised to $735 billion. Fannie Mae’s previous cap had been $727 billion and Freddie Mac’s $728 billion. The move was intended to push the companies to buy an additional $20 billion in subprime loans. Dodd described the loosened restrictions as “timid and inadequate.” Schumer’s proposal in the Senate had called for a 10% in-

crease in the companies’ caps. A Fannie Mae spokesman, Brian Faith, Sept. 19 also said a 10% increase would be more appropriate. The Bush administration had opposed raising the caps, saying Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had not completely undergone an overhaul of their internal structures. The companies had been charged with corruption and accounting malpractice in 2006. [See 2006, p. 954C1] Hearing Held on Mortgage Industry—

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Sept. 20 testified to the House Financial Services Committee that the Fed was conducting a full assessment of mortgage lending practices. Particularly, he said the Fed was “looking closely” at lenders that included prepayment penalties on their loans; eschewed the use of escrow accounts for taxes and insurance; required little or no documentation of a borrower’s income; and did not evaluate a borrower’s ability to pay the loan back. Prepayment penalties imposed a heavy fine on borrowers who wanted to get out of loans they could not afford. Escrow accounts for taxes and insurance prevented borrowers from receiving a large annual bill for all the year’s property taxes and insurance costs. Alphonso Jackson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), also testified, saying he estimated that as many as 500,000 homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages would foreclose on their homes in the near future. Additionally, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson testified. In a slight change in position for the Bush administration, Paulson said Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae could temporarily purchase loans above their current limit of $417,000. However, he did not advocate that the companies’ portfolios should be allowed to grow beyond their current limits. He said any risky mortgages assumed by the companies would expose taxpayers to risk as well. „ FDA Regulation Reform Bill Cleared. The House Sept. 19 voted, 405–7, to pass a finalized version of a bill that would grant the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) greater powers to regulate the prescription drug industry. The Senate Sept. 20 cleared the bill by unanimous consent. Members of Congress had negotiated for months to reconcile two versions of the bill, one passed by the House in July and the other by the Senate in May. [See p. 446D3] The final version of the bill authorized the FDA to increase and collect existing fees levied on drug and medical device manufacturers for the next five years. The revenue generated by the fees, estimated to be $393 million from drug companies in fiscal year 2008, $87 million more than current levels, would be used to fund reviews of drugs and other medical products. Medical device makers were expected to pay $48 million in fees in fiscal year 2008, which would begin Oct. 1. Companies would also pay another $225 million over five years to pay for continued monitoring of drugs that had been brought to market. Under the measure, the FDA would gain the power to force drugmakers to initiate FACTS ON FILE

new clinical trials of drugs that had already been approved by the agency. Drug companies would also be required to make public the results of any clinical trials they had performed on FDA-approved medications. The FDA would also be authorized to force companies to change the labels of drugs and add warnings. The reform effort had been sparked by the 2004 withdrawal of the pain medication Vioxx from the market, after it was linked to an increased risk of strokes and heart attack. Since then, the agency’s methods and management practices had come under intense scrutiny. A panel named by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a federal advisory group, had issued a report in September 2006 that was strongly critical of the FDA’s management, structure and drug regulation practices. In April 2006, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had issued a report reaching similar conclusions. „ D.C. Representation Bill Blocked in Senate.

Republican senators Sept. 18 blocked a bill that would have granted Washington, D.C., a representative in Congress with full voting rights for the first time. In a vote of 57–42, supporters fell three votes short of the 60 they needed to clear a procedural hurdle and proceed with consideration of the bill on the floor. Eight Republicans voted to advance the bill. [See p. 259A3] The House had passed the bill in April. In a compromise, it would have granted one House seat to heavily Democratic Washington, and a fourth seat to mostly Republican Utah. However, Republican opponents of the bill said it was unconstitutional. They argued that the Constitution, in Article I, Section 2, only provided for “people of the several states” to receive representation in the House. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, Ky.), who led the opposition to the bill, said a constitutional amendment would be the only valid way of getting around that obstacle. Supporters of the bill said Washington residents deserved a representative because they paid federal taxes and discharged the other obligations of citizenship. They also said the withholding of representation amounted to disenfranchisement of the mostly black residents of the capital. The Senate had last voted on a D.C. representation bill in 1978, when it passed a constitutional amendment to grant to the capital voting members in both the House and Senate. But the amendment later failed to win ratification from the required 38 states. „

Civil Rights ‘Jena Six’ Teen’s Convictions Overturned.

Louisiana’s Third Circuit Court of Appeal Sept. 14 overturned the aggravated battery conviction of Mychal Bell, one of a group of seven black high school students from Jena, La., charged with beating a white classmate, Justin Barker, in December 2006. The court ruled that under state law, Bell, a minor at the time of the crime, September 20, 2007

should not have been charged as an adult. The group of defendants, who had become known as “the Jena Six,” were Bell, Carwin Jones, Theodore Shaw, Robert Bailey Jr., Bryant Purvis, Jesse Ray Beard and a seventh student who had not been named by prosecutors. [See 2006, p. 454D1; 2000, p. 646F2] The case gained major media attention after Bell’s conviction when nationally syndicated radio host Michael Baisden began discussing the case, and the racially charged circumstances surrounding it, on his show. Civil rights leaders decried what they said were the excessively serious charges brought against the Jena Six, and disparities in the treatment of white and black youths in the surrounding incidents. Bell, 17, was initially charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit attempted murder, but the charges were reduced before his trial to aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. He was convicted on both charges in June by an all-white jury and faced up to 15 years in prison; the conspiracy charge was overturned Aug. 24 by a state district court. Following the appeals court ruling, prosecutors still had the option of trying Bell for aggravated battery as a juvenile or for attempted murder as an adult. Because Bell was on probation for earlier juvenile charges when the 2006 beating occurred, he would remain in custody even if the charges against him were dropped. Charges against the other members of the Jena Six were pending. Racial Incidents Precede Attack— The Dec. 4, 2006, beating of Barker came after a number of violent or controversial incidents in Jena. In August 2006, three white students hung nooses from a tree on the campus of Jena High School, allegedly in response to a question asked by a black student about whether blacks could sit under the tree, a location unofficially reserved for white students. The white students were suspended for three days, but a criminal investigation found that the incident did not constitute a federal hate crime. On Nov. 30, 2006, there was a major fire at Jena High School. Arson was determined to be the cause of the fire, but no link to the noose incident had been shown. On Dec. 1, 2006, a fight broke out between black and white students at a party held in Jena. The fight was allegedly triggered when a group of black students, including Bailey, attempted to enter the party. A white student was arrested in connection with the fight but was not charged with a crime. The next day, Bailey, Shaw and another black student were arrested following an altercation with a white student at a Jena convenience store. The white student claimed that the three black students had held him up and stolen his shotgun. Bailey, Shaw and the other black student were later charged with second-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery and theft of a firearm. According to a Sept. 20 Washington Post report, the white student was one of the attackers from the party the previous night and when confronted by the black students, had brandished an unloaded shotgun.

In the attack that the Jena Six had been charged for, Barker was beaten Dec. 4, 2006, at Jena High School. He was knocked unconscious during the beating and was later briefly hospitalized. Up To 60,000 March on Jena—As many as 60,000 people marched Sept. 20 in Jena to protest the treatment of the Jena Six by the local legal system. The march had been intended to coincide with Bell’s sentencing, which had been scheduled for that day, but organizers made the decision to continue the protest in the aftermath of the appeals court’s decision. Jena, which was 86% white, had a population of approximately 3,000 people. In preparation for the rally, all schools in Jena were closed for the day and hundreds of police officers from across the state were brought in to monitor the crowd, which included Baisden, writeractor Tyler Perry, civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, rapper-actor Mos Def, two children of slain civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and members of the families of the Jena Six. Jackson Barb at Obama Reported—According to South Carolina paper the State, civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson Sept. 18 criticized Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.), a leading presidential candidate, for failing to respond appropriately to the situation in Jena. Jackson was quoted as saying that Obama, who was of mixed racial parentage, was “acting like he’s white,” but later denied making the statement, saying he had simply been trying to emphasize how all the candidates had failed to taken the opportunity to point out the unfair criminal treatment that blacks regularly faced. Jackson had endorsed Obama’s candidacy in March. [See p. 208C3] Members of the Obama campaign downplayed the comments, pointing out that Obama had issued a statement Sept. 10 urging the district attorney in the case to drop the charges. Two other top Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), made statements Sept. 19 criticizing the handling of the case. „

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Crime Simpson Charged With Armed Robbery.

Former football star O.J. Simpson and three co-defendants were arrested Sept. 16 in connection with an alleged robbery that took place Sept. 13 at the Palace Station hotel-casino in Las Vegas, Nev. Simpson, 60, was charged with conspiracy to commit a crime, conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, burglary with a deadly weapon, coercion with a deadly weapon, and two counts apiece of assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping with a deadly weapon and robbery with a deadly weapon. If convicted on all charges, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Simpson was notorious for the 1995 trial in which he was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. [See below; 2006, p. 904B2] According to the charges, Simpson and five other men posed as memorabilia buy609

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ers in order to gain access to the hotel room of Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, who were planning an auction of Simpsonrelated memorabilia including the suit he wore the day of his acquittal. Simpson allegedly seized items that he said had been stolen from him and kept Fromong and Beardsley from leaving the room or calling 911 while two members of his group brandished guns. The items Simpson took were estimated to be worth $75,000. Simpson was released Sept. 19 on $125,000 bail and returned to his home near Miami, Fla. Yale Galanter, his attorney, said that Simpson planned to plead not guilty and would not be willing to accept a plea bargain, if offered one. Simpson maintained that all the items he took belonged to him and that no one was carrying firearms during the altercation. ‘If I Did It’ Published—A book credited to Simpson, titled If I Did It, was published Sept. 13, the day of the alleged Las Vegas robbery. The book dealt hypothetically with how he would have carried out the double murder of Goldman and Brown Simpson, and was ghostwritten by Pablo Fenjves, a neighbor of Brown Simpson who testified for the prosecution in Simpson’s murder trial. [See 1995, p. 716F3] If I Did It was originally scheduled to be published in 2006 by HarperCollins Publishers, but public outcry caused the publisher to cancel the release. The Goldman family July 30 was awarded the rights to the book from a bankruptcy court, and sold it to a new publisher, Beaufort Books. Simpson had lost a 1997 wrongful-death civil lawsuit against the Goldmans, and was ordered to pay them $33.5 million but had yet to pay the vast majority of the award. Peter Haven, a lawyer for the Goldmans, justified the release of the book, arguing that “the family believes that this is going to expose his state of mind, why he did it and, ultimately, that he did it,” the New York Times reported Aug. 19. [See 1998, p. 730B3] „

Terrorism Flaws Found in Watch List. Justice Depart-

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ment Inspector General Glenn Fine Sept. 4 released a report that criticized the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) for its failure to maintain a terrorist watch list capable of ensuring “that consistent, accurate and complete terrorist information is disseminated to frontline screening agents in a timely manner.” The TSC was run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). [See 2005, p. 713A1] The watch list contained at least 720,000 names as of April and was growing by approximately 20,000 names per month, according to the report. The list was used by law enforcement agencies, border agents and consulate officials to screen more than 270 million people each month. The TSC and its watch list were created in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S. The TSC’s list was compiled from more than a dozen watch lists, including the FBI’s Violent Gang and 610

Terrorist Organizations File and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) “no-fly” list. [See p. 345D3] Fine’s report found that the TSC was operating two unsynchronized versions of the watch list database on its servers, making it easier for known or suspected terrorists to slip through the cracks. In addition, the report noted that nearly half of the people who were initially identified as matching names on the list proved to be misidentified, suggesting that new policies were necessary to keep innocent people from being treated as suspected terrorists. “It is critical,” the report said, “that TSC further improve the quality of its watch list data because of the consequences of inaccurate or missing information.” The report found that the TSC had addressed several of the issues raised in a 2005 internal audit by increasing its employee base and creating an office designed to deal with complaints from people who believed they had been erroneously added to the list. Auditors found that in a sample of 105 watch list records, 38 had errors uncovered by the TSC. In addition, the government’s reluctance to reveal whether a given person was on the watch list made it especially difficult for people to successfully challenge their status. „ California Man Sentenced in Terror Case.

Judge Garland Burrell Jr. of U.S. District Court in Sacramento, Calif., Sept. 10 sentenced Hamid Hayat to 24 years in prison following his conviction in April 2006 on charges of lying to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and providing material support to terrorists by attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. Burrell said that the evidence presented in the trial suggested that Hayat was unlikely to be successfully rehabilitated by the prison system. Lawyers for Hayat filed an appeal of his conviction less than an hour after his sentencing, citing jury misconduct and the exclusion of vital witnesses. [See 2006, p. 574G3] Hayat, 25, had been arrested in June 2005 upon his return to the U.S. from Pakistan, where prosecutors said he had attended a terrorist training camp at some point between October 2003 and November 2004. His father, Umer Hayat, 49, had been arrested at the same time on terror charges but pleaded guilty to customs offenses in May 2006 and was sentenced to time served and probation. „ Canadian Linked to Sikh Group Sentenced.

Canadian Khalid Awan was sentenced Sept. 12 in U.S. District Court in New York City to 14 years in prison on charges that he provided financial support to the Khalistan Commando Force (KCF), an Indian-based Sikh terrorist group that sought the creation of an independent nation in the Punjab region of India. During his trial, prosecutors introduced tapes documenting an attempt by Awan to contact a leader of the KCF from prison. [See 1987, p. 489E2] His conviction, in December 2006, had followed a 2004 conviction for credit card fraud that resulted from a search of his home while he was being held as an alleged material witness to Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist

attacks against the U.S. He was never shown to have any connection to Al Qaeda, the international terrorist network that carried out the 2001 attacks. [See 2001, p. 697A1] „ 16 Detainees Transferred to Saudi Arabia.

A Defense Department spokesman Sept. 6 announced that 16 Saudi Arabian citizens previously held at the U.S.’s military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had been released into Saudi custody, in the seventh such transfer in 17 months. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz alSaud praised the transfer and said that Saudi Arabia would continue to request the return of all its detained citizens. None of the men had been charged with a crime. [See p. 506E1] Guantanamo had once held 136 Saudi citizens, but following the Sept. 6 transfer that number had declined to fewer than 40, according to the Associated Press. Since 2002, three Saudis had committed suicide while in captivity. Approximately 340 prisoners were still being held in Guantanamo. „

Intelligence DHS Drops ADVISE Data-Mining Program. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

spokesman Russ Knocke announced Sept. 5 that the department’s Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE) data-mining program was being shut down. “ADVISE is not expected to be restarted,” Knocke said. He said that DHS had decided instead to make use of less-expensive, commercially available products. To date, developing and activating ADVISE had cost DHS $42.5 million. The program was one of 12 datamining projects initiated by the department. [See 2002, p. 1022G1] The decision followed heavily negative assessments of the program in reports released by Congress’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) in March and DHS’s own Inspector General Richard Skinner on July 2 and Privacy Office on July 11. The GAO report suggested that the planned use of ADVISE could “misidentify or erroneously associate an individual with undesirable activity such as fraud, crime or terrorism,” and pushed for DHS to put ADVISE through an in-house privacy audit and to explain to the public how its data would be verified and safeguarded. The reports by the Inspector General and Privacy Office found that the pilot version of ADVISE had been tested using the names and personal information of real people, including foreign exchange students, people on the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) “no-fly” list and people who had attempted to cross the U.S.-Canadian border. In addition, Skinner’s report found that “on at least one occasion,” data from ADVISE was used “to produce classified intelligence information,” despite the fact that DHS had told Congress in 2006 that the program was not operational. In response to Knocke’s announcement, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) FACTS ON FILE

Technology and Liberty program director Barry Steinhardt Sept. 5 called for DHS to terminate its Automated Targeting System (ATS), an even larger data-mining system used by the department to screen all passengers entering the U.S. from other countries. “The judgments about Americans calculated by ATS will be stored for years,” Steinhardt said, “and we have no idea how they may be used in the future. The benefit to the government is extremely questionable, but the consequences for Americans are simply dangerous.” „ Spy Satellite Program Delay Requested.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D, Miss.) Sept. 6 wrote a letter calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to delay its planned Oct. 1 expansion of spy satellites for domestic use, citing concerns about the program’s legality and privacy protections. The proposed change in regulations would allow images from spy satellites built for international surveillance to be used within the U.S. by civilian agencies, and, in time, law enforcement officers. The letter was also signed by the panel’s intelligence subcommittee chairwoman, Rep. Jane Harman (D, Calif.), and management and investigations subcommitteee Chairman Christopher Carney (D, Pa.). [See p. 541B1] The letter, addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and DHS chief intelligence officer Charles Allen, was issued following a Sept. 6 committee hearing on the domestic use of spy satellites. During the hearing, Allen testified that the expanded program would not require any additional authority on the part of DHS and said that thermal sensors would not be used to look inside buildings and that no individuals would be tracked by satellite. He assured the committee that the new regulations “will make the nation safer while maintaining the privacy and civil liberties of Americans.” In the letter, the lawmakers wrote that Allen’s testimony “made clear that there is effectively no legal framework governing the domestic use of satellite imagery” and demanded that DHS provide a “written legal framework” to the committee that would lay out specifically how the program would operate. “Without this legal framework,” the letter said, “the Department runs the risk of creating a program that—while well-intentioned—could be misused and violate Americans’ Constitutional rights.” DHS spokesman Russ Knocke Sept. 6 downplayed the significance of the letter and suggested the regulations would be enacted on schedule. “This program and its capabilities,” he said, “are too important for an all-hazards agency like [DHS] to be pushed aside by politics.” „

Religion San Diego Diocese Settles for $198 Million.

The Roman Catholic diocese of San Diego, Calif., Sept. 7 agreed to pay $198.1 million to 144 people who claimed that hey were sexually abused by members of the clergy. September 20, 2007

The amount awarded to each plaintiff would likely vary, and would be decided by a judge. It was the second-largest amount paid by any Catholic diocese in an abuse case; the largest had been a $660 million settlement agreed to by the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles in July. [See p. 463E2] The settlement had been reached under pressure from a judge after the church had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection just before the trial began. The judge had threatened to dismiss the bankruptcy suit if the church was unable to settle with the victims. Bishop Robert Brom said the bankruptcy had not been a plan to delay the case, but was the result of “many forces beyond our control.” Also as part of the settlement, the church agreed to release thousands of pages of documents expected to reveal internal information concerning the abuse. „

Business Former Enron Chief Executive Files Appeal.

Jeffrey Skilling, 53, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Enron Corp., Sept. 7 filed a brief with the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, La., asking the court to overturn his conviction. A federal jury in 2006 had found Skilling guilty on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading that led to the 2001 collapse and eventual bankruptcy of Enron, the Houston, Texas–based energy giant. He started serving a 24-year sentence at a federal prison in Waseca, Minn., in December 2006. [See 2006, p. 815D3] In Skilling’s brief, defense lawyers argued that the legal theory used by government prosecutors to convict Skilling was “untenable,” and had since been dismissed by an appeals court that overturned convictions against other former Enron employees. The theory maintained that executives could be held liable for defrauding their employers even if the executives thought they were working in the employers’ interests and did not profit personally at the company’s expense. The 5th Circuit Court in December 2006, in denying Skilling’s request for bail, had said in regard to the theory that there were “serious frailties” in the prosecution’s conviction against Skilling. The defense also argued that instructions given to the jury during Skilling’s trial had been misleading. The jury was told to convict Skilling of accounting fraud if it found that Skilling had displayed “deliberate ignorance,” or should have known about the accounting fraud. Defense lawyers said the instructions were improper, because Skilling had never claimed ignorance of the fraud; he instead insisted that accounting fraud had not occurred at Enron. Also, the brief said Skilling’s 24-year sentence was “unconstitutional” as it went beyond what was recommended by sentencing statutes and guidelines, and claimed that the trial judge’s decision to conduct the trial in Houston—where thousands were laid off after Enron’s collapse—prejudiced the jury against Skilling.

Other News—In other news related to white-collar crime: † Judge George Daniels of U.S. District Court in New York City Aug. 29 formally dismissed obstruction of justice and witness tampering charges against Frank Quattrone, 51, a former investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston (now Credit Suisse Group). Quattrone had been found guilty of the charges in 2004, but an appeals court overturned the conviction in 2006. Quattrone then reached an agreement with federal prosecutors in which they agreed to drop the charges if he did not break the law for a year. [See 2006, p. 665B3] † Xujia (Jennifer) Wang, a former analyst at Morgan Stanley, and her husband, Ruopian (Ruben) Chen, Sept. 5 each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of securities fraud for using non-public information acquired by Wang to trade stocks in companies that Morgan Stanley advised. The sentencing hearing was scheduled for Dec. 7, and they were each expected to receive 30 to 37 months in prison. [See p. 560E3] „

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Economy Industrial Production Up 0.2% in August.

The Federal Reserve Sept. 14 reported that its industrial production index grew 0.2% in August, following a revised 0.5% increase in July. The overall index now stood at 114.4% of its 2002 base average, up from its revised level of 114.2% the previous month. [See p. 544G3] Manufacturing fell 0.3% in August, due largely to decreases in production of both durable and nondurable goods. The output of utilities was up 5.3% due to “unusually hot weather,” and mining output dropped by 0.6%. U.S. factories, mines and utilities operated at 82.2% of their total capacity.„ Retail Sales Rose 0.3% in August. The Commerce Department Sept. 14 reported the value of retail sales in August to be $377.6 billion, after seasonal adjustment. That was 0.3% above the revised figure for July. The growth was mainly fueled by a 2.8% spike in auto sales, a result of car sellers’ summer promotional deals. Without taking car sales into account, the value of retail sales would have fallen 0.4%, and analysts predicted that consumer spending would keep shrinking as long as the housing market continued to fare poorly. [See p. 545A1] „

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Business Inventories Grew 0.5% in July.

The Commerce Department Sept. 14 reported that the value of business inventories at the end of July was $1.42 trillion after seasonal adjustment, up 0.5% from the revised value at the end of June. The ratio of inventories to sales—a measure of how long it would take businesses to unload their inventories at the current sales pace— was 1.27. [See p. 545B1] „ Current Account Deficit Fell in 2nd Quarter.

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Deadly Heat Waves Sweep Across U.S. A weeklong heat wave with sustained tripledigit temperatures in many areas Sept. 6 ended in Southern California. State officials that day said they had confirmed five deaths from heat-related causes, but coroners’ reports put the toll around 25. A power-use surge had also caused blackouts across the area. California in 2006 had suffered its worst heat wave since 1955, killing at least 140 people. [See 2006, p. 733C1] A separate heat wave in the Southeast and the Midwest regions of the country Aug. 19 eased after two weeks. Authorities said at least 49 people had died, many of whom were elderly and lacked air conditioning. The heat and an ongoing drought reportedly increased the danger of an early start to the wildfire season, which normally began in October. „ Charges Filed in 2006 ‘Big Dig’ Death. A Boston, Mass., grand jury in Suffolk County Superior Court Aug. 8 brought charges of involuntary manslaughter against a company that had provided the epoxy used in a tunnel of the city’s so-called Big Dig highway system that had collapsed July 2006, killing one person. [See 2006, p. 1009D3] Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said Brewster, N.Y.–based Powers Fasteners Inc. had provided a weaker fast-set epoxy rather than the standard epoxy to hold up the ceiling tiles of the tunnel section that had fallen. Coakley said the company had had “blurred the distinction” between the two epoxies even though company tests had indicated that the fast-set one was inadequate. She said the charge would carry a penalty of only $1,000, but that a conviction might help prosecutors extract additional damages in civil cases. The company president, Jeffrey Powers, in a statement claimed that “the only reason that our company has been indicted is that unlike others implicated in the tragedy, we don’t have enough money to buy our way out.” That was apparently referring to ongoing talks on covering the collapse’s cost between the state and other companies involved in the tunnel’s construction. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) July 10 had concluded that the epoxy failure had led to the tunnel’s collapse. It said construction companies involved in the project had tested the epoxy during construction but not over the long term, and had dismissed initial failures as installation errors. Powers Fasteners, it said, had noted that the fast-set epoxy was not for long-term use only “in the fine print.” „ 612

Pilots Blamed in ’06 Kentucky Plane Crash.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators July 26 said pilot error was the primary cause of an August 2006 plane crash that killed 49 people after takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Ky. The plane, a Bombardier CRJ-100 commuter jet, was operated by Comair, a regional subsidiary of Delta Air Lines. [See 2006, p. 678D3] Investigators said the two pilots should have noticed that they had mistakenly picked a runway intended for small planes. In addition, they said the men had not completed a pre-takeoff briefing, and had broken rules against discussing “non-pertinent” matters in the cockpit. The board also reported that the pilots had not been properly notified of construction on the runway. The single air traffic controller on duty had reportedly turned his back to do paperwork right before the jet chose the wrong runway. The board said the controller had shown poor judgment but was not at fault. The air traffic controllers’ union had said that staff cuts had left the sole controller in charge of both radar and nonradar duties, which it said was a violation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules. Other News—In other aircraft crashes: † Two television news helicopters July 27 crashed into each other while covering a police chase in Phoenix, Ariz., killing all four people aboard. † A small plane July 10 crashed in Sanford, Fla., while trying to make an emergency landing, killing both people aboard and three who were in houses that caught fire in the crash. The pilot of the plane, a Cessna 310, had reported smoke in his cockpit before crashing. The plane passenger killed was Bruce Kennedy, the husband of Lesa France Kennedy, a NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Racing) board member and president of International Speedway Corp. [See 2004, p. 1093B2] „ South Carolina Blaze Kills Nine Firefighters.

AFRICA

Morocco Government, W. Sahara Rebels Hold Talks.

The Moroccan government and the rebel Polisario Front, which since 1976 had been fighting for independence in the disputed Western Sahara region, June 18–19 and Aug. 10–11 held two rounds of United Nations–brokered negotiations. The talks, held in Manhasset, N.Y., near New York City, were the first direct communication between the two sides in at least seven years to address the dispute over the region. However, the talks produced few concrete results, aside from an agreement to hold another round later in 2007. [See 2006, p. 933E2; for a map of the disputed territory, see p. 612F3] Also attending the negotiations were representatives of neighboring states Algeria, where the Polisario Front was based, and Mauritania. Morocco, under the late King Hassan II, had seized the mineral-rich Western Sahara region in 1976, after Spain relinquished its colonial claim to the territory. The Polisario Front then launched a guerrilla war against Moroccan occupation, backed by Algeria. Morocco, meanwhile, built a 1,500-mile (2,400-km) wall of sand—fortified by army posts and land mines—that divided Western Sahara, and sent in settlers to the western portion, which was under Moroccan control. The eastern part, which bordered Mauritania, was held by the Polisario Front. (Mauritania had also laid claim to Western Sahara after the Spanish withdrawal, but relinquished that claim in 1979.) In 1991, the warring sides agreed to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, and Morocco pledged to allow a referendum on independence, but the vote had yet to be scheduled. A small U.N. force, the U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), had been stationed in the territory since the cease-fire; it currently num-

A fire in a Charleston, S.C., furniture warehouse June 18 killed nine firefighters when the building’s roof collapsed. Two warehouse employees were rescued from the building. Thousands June 22 attended a memorial service, including Charleston Fire Chief Rusty Thomas, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and firefighters from around the country. The incident was the deadliest for firefighters since Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, and marked the first death in the Charleston Fire Department in more than 40 years. [See p. 82F1] The warehouse did not have a sprinkler system but was reportedly up to code. Federal investigators June 23 confirmed that the fire had started on the warehouse’s loading dock, where employees took smoke breaks. Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley (D) June 27 said the city would buy the warehouse site in order to turn it into a park and erect a memorial to the firefighters. „

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broadest measure of trade with other nations, included investment income and foreign aid as well as trade in goods and services. [See p. 192B1] The Commerce Department June 15 had reported that the current account deficit rose to $192.6 billion in the first quarter, from a revised $187.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006. „

FACTS ON FILE

King Names Veteran as Prime Minister.

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI Sept. 19 named Abbas el Fassi, leader of the conservative secular Istiqlal (Independence) party, as the country’s new prime minister. He would replace Driss Jettou, who had served since 2002. Istiqlal had won the most seats in elections earlier in the month. Fassi, 67, was a veteran politician who had previously held several ministerial portfolios. [See p. 593C3] „

Sierra Leone Opposition Leader Koroma Wins Presidency.

Sierra Leone’s National Electoral Commission Sept. 17 declared Ernest Bai Koroma of the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party the winner of a runoff presidential election held Sept. 8. Koroma, who won 54.6% of the vote, defeated Vice President Solomon Berewa of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), who garnered 45.4%. He was sworn in later Sept. 17 in Freetown, the capital. [See p. 561A2; for facts on Koroma, see p. 613E2] The current president, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of the SLPP, was barred by term limits from seeking a third stint in office. Kabbah had led the country since 1996, although he was sidelined by a coup from 1997 to 1998. Koroma had placed a distant second to Kabbah in 2002 elections. His inauguration marked the first peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another in Sierra Leone since the country gained independence from Britain in 1961. [See 2002, p. 384B1] The election was the first in Sierra Leone since the end of a brutal 11-year civil war in 2002 to be organized and run solely September 20, 2007

Reuters news agency, he said he planned to run Sierra Leone “like a business concern,” with the aim of shifting the economy’s emphasis “from mining to agriculture and tourism.” Diamond mining had been a major source of wealth and conflict in Sierra Leone. In his inaugural speech, Koroma pledged, “My government will spare no effort to adopt zero tolerance on corruption and mismanagement of state resources.” Soon after the new president was sworn in, looters attacked the SLPP’s headquarters in Freetown. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. „

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bered just over 230 military, police and civilian personnel. A Moroccan government panel, led by allies of King Mohammed VI, Hassan’s son, in December 2006 had presented a plan under which Morocco’s constitution would be revised to allow for self-rule in Western Sahara, but would continue to claim Moroccan sovereignty over the region. However, the Polisario Front and the U.N. continued to call for a referendum on self-determination for the people of the Western Sahara, known as Sahrawis. A leaked 2006 U.N. report had expressed “serious concern” about alleged human rights violations committed against Sahrawis living west of the wall, the Economist reported March 8. Tens of thousands of Sahrawis had fled to refugee camps in southwestern Algeria, near the Polisario Front’s main base in the town of Tindouf. The U.N. Security Council April 30 approved a resolution calling for the two sides to find “a mutually acceptable political solution providing for the self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.” The U.S. had been pushing for a settlement of the dispute, which had caused tension between Morocco and Algeria. The U.S. wanted the two North African neighbors to join forces to fight a growing Islamic terrorist threat in the region. [See p. 593A2] „

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Militia Leaders Convicted of War Crimes.

Ernest Bai Koroma arriving to cast his ballot in Sierra Leone’s Sept. 8 runoff presidential election. He was declared the winner Sept. 17.

by the government, without oversight from the United Nations. Despite sporadic outbreaks of violence and charges of fraud by the SLPP, international observers praised the election. Victor Angelo, head of the U.N. mission in Sierra Leone, Sept. 17 said the conduct of the balloting sent “a very strong message that it is possible to hold credible elections in Africa.” The APC had ruled Sierra Leone from 1967 to 1996, and from 1978 to 1991 was the only legal political party under the constitution. Some observers linked the roots of the country’s civil war to the long period of one-party rule, under which corruption and poor governance had flourished. Koroma, a charismatic 53-year-old former insurance executive, campaigned on a platform of change. He vowed to rejuvenate Sierra Leone’s economy, which had stagnated since the end of the civil war. In a Sept. 13 interview with Britain’s FACTS ON KOROMA

Ernest Bai Koroma was born Oct. 2, 1953, in Makeni, the capital of Sierra Leone’s Northern Province. His father was from the Temne ethnic group, while his mother was an ethnic Limba. He was raised as a Christian in the largely Muslim north. He was married to Sia Koroma, and the couple had two children. Koroma attended Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, where he studied history, law and philosophy and graduated in 1976. He joined insurance company Ritcorp in 1985, and served as its managing director from 1988 to 2002, when he retired to enter politics. Koroma was imprisoned for four weeks in the early 1990s by the ruling military junta for involvement in an alleged coup plot. In the 2002 presidential election, he placed a distant second to incumbent Ahmed Tejan Kabbah. [See 2002, p. 384B1] Koroma placed first in an Aug. 11 presidential election, but did not garner enough votes to avoid a runoff election against incumbent Vice President Solomon Berewa of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). Koroma Sept. 17 was declared the winner of the Sept. 8 runoff, and was sworn in as president later that day. [See p. 613E1]

The Special Court for Sierra Leone, a joint national and United Nations tribunal, Aug. 2 in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, found two ex-leaders of a pro-government militia active during the country’s 1991– 2002 civil war guilty of war crimes. The defendants, Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa, were convicted of crimes including murder, cruel treatment, pillage and issuing collective punishment. [See below, p. 449E3; 2004, p. 533D3] Fofana and Kondewa had been highranking members of the Civil Defense Force (CDF) militia, also known as the Kamajors. The prosecution of the CDF leaders had been controversial because the militia was popular among many Sierra Leoneans for having fought to protect civilians from the vicious Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group. CDF head Sam Hinga Norman had died in prison in February while awaiting trial. [See p. 146C2] Rebel Leaders Sentenced—The Special Court July 19 handed down sentences to three former rebel leaders who had been convicted in June of murder, rape, conscription of child soldiers and terrorism. Alex Tamba Brima and Santigie Borbor Kanu were sentenced to 50 years in prison, and Brima Bazzy Kamara received a 45year sentence. The sentences were the first issued by the Special Court. As leaders of the rebel Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, the three men had helped orchestrate a coup that overthrew President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah in 1997. Kabbah was returned to power in 1998. Taylor’s Trial Delayed— The Special Court Aug. 20 postponed the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor until Jan. 7, 2008. The trial, being held in The Hague, the Netherlands, was delayed after Taylor’s lawyers asked for more time to examine new evidence. [See p. 450A1] „

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Chile Hundreds Arrested in Economic Protests.

Thousands of protesters Aug. 29 clashed with police in Santiago, Chile’s capital, during demonstrations against the economic policies of President Michelle Bachelet Jeria. The demonstrators reportedly advanced on the presidential palace, where 613

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they were met with police wielding water cannons and tear gas. Burning barricades were erected on streets, and protesters fought police with rocks. [See p. 265G3] The unrest had reportedly begun in Santiago’s downtown district, but then spread to several working-class neighborhoods. A group of protesters reportedly briefly gained access to the presidential palace and chanted antigovernment slogans. Police officials Aug. 30 said around 670 people had been arrested during the clashes, and 50 others injured. Among the casualties was Senator Alejandro Navarro, who belonged to Bachelet’s Socialist party but supported the protesters. He appeared on television reports bleeding from the back of the head, apparently after being struck by a police club. The protest had been organized by the United Workers Central trade union, the country’s largest, as an expression of dissatisfaction with growing economic inequality in Chile. The group had called on Chileans to mobilize in support of a higher minimum wage, stronger union bargaining powers and greater pension benefits. According to the United Nations Development Program, 42% of Chile’s wealth was concentrated in the hands of 10% of the population. „

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Cambodia Khmer Rouge Leader Arrested. Cambodian special forces and military police Sept. 19 arrested Nuon Chea, the highest-ranking surviving former leader of the Khmer Rouge, at his home outside the town of Pailin in northwest Cambodia. He was transported to Phnom Phenh, the capital, to face war crimes charges relating to his role in the death of about 1.7 million people during the Khmer Rouge’s 1975–79 rule. [See p. 436F2; 1998, p. 899B2] Vietnam in 1978 had invaded Cambodia and ousted the Khmer Rouge from power, but the group mounted a drawn out guerrilla campaign that lasted until a peace process began in 1989. Bureaucratic disagreements between the United Nations and Cambodia delayed the establishment of a genocide tribunal until 2006. Nuon Chea, 82, was the most prominent living Khmer Rouge official arrested in connection with the regime’s actions. He had been the group’s ideological chief and, as a principal deputy to Khmer Rouge Leader Pol Pot, was known as “Brother No. 2.” Pol Pot died in 1998, and military commander Ta Mok, died in 2006, both before they could be prosecuted. Only Tuol Sleng prison commandant Kang Kek Ieu, known as Duch, was currently being held for trial. In a 1999 interview with the Far East Economic Review, Duch claimed that Nuon Chea had given him direct orders to commit murder on numerous occasions, and analysts believed that his testimony could be used against Nuon Chea when their cases went to trial. [See 1999, p. 352G1; 1998, p. 262C2] 614

At the time of Nuon Chea’s arrest, the tribunal was said to be mulling the indictment of three other unidentified former Khmer Rouge members, Time magazine reported Sept. 20 on its Web site. Sources close to the court suggested that the trials could begin by early 2008. „

China Jailed Activist’s Wife Detained. Yuan Wei-

jing, the wife of jailed Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng, was detained at the airport in Beijing, China’s capital, and forcibly returned to her village near Linyi in Shandong province. Yuan was arrested as she prepared to depart on a flight to the Philippines, where she planned to receive a human rights award on behalf of her husband. Chen had been imprisoned in 2006 after bringing attention to Linyi officials’ alleged abuses of China’s population control policies. [See p. 34D3] Yuan had been under strict police surveillance in Linyi until July 4, when she managed to escape to Beijing. There she had stayed with Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan, an activist couple also under police watch. She said she went to the capital to seek Chen’s release. She said her husband, who was blind, was being mistreated in prison. His lawyers said he had mounted a threeday hunger strike in June to protest a beating by fellow inmates. Chen was a recipient of a prize for “emergent leadership” from the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, which recognized achievements by Asians in several fields. Other News—In other Chinese human rights news: † A court in Shanxi province July 18 sentenced the supervisor of a brick kiln to death and a foreman to life in prison in connection with a recent scandal over slave labor in the region’s brick factories. The supervisor was convicted of beating a mentally handicapped enslaved laborer to death with a shovel. Ten other defendants were sentenced to prison terms, including one of nine years for the owner. Victims’ families said his sentence was too lenient, and criticized authorities for handing out light punishments to officials of the local government and the ruling Communist Party accused of colluding in the abuses. The provincial government Aug. 13 announced that raids on illegal kilns since late June had freed another 359 forced laborers, including 121 mentally handicapped people and 15 children. [See p. 450F2] † The British founder of a Chinese newsletter on social and economic topics, China Development Brief, July 11 said that police had shut down the publication and threatened to ban him from the country for five years. The editor, Nick Young, said officials had told him that China Development Brief had violated a law prohibiting the collection and publication of social statistics without government authorization, but did not specify what in particular had drawn the charge. Young had founded the monthly nonprofit newsletter in 1996. „

Kyrgyzstan President Sets Constitutional Referendum.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev Sept. 19 called for a national referendum on Kyrgyzstan’s constitution to be held Oct. 21. The upcoming referendum was in response to years of parliamentary squabbling that finally culminated in a constitutional crisis. [See p. 267B1; 2006, p. 883A3] Bakiyev’s announcement was prompted by a Sept. 14 ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court, which had found that two constitutional amendments passed in late 2006 were illegal and that the country must revert to a constitution passed in 2003. The first 2006 change had been enacted after mass protests in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, and had resulted in the transfer of some power from the president to parliament. However, many of those popular changes had been reversed by pro-presidential lawmakers the next month. Court Chairman Cholpon Bayekova said, “Parliament should have taken into account that the 2003 constitution was adopted by a national referendum and can only be amended through a referendum.” Kyrgyz Minister of Justice Marat Kaiypov Sept. 16 asserted that rulings made by the Constitutional Court were irreversible. However, the Kyrgyz parliament Sept. 18 passed a vote of no confidence in the court in an emergency meeting, and unanimously approved legislation requiring Bakiyev to name new court candidates within two weeks. Parliament additionally voted to form a panel that would review all decisions made by the Constitutional Court since 1993. Bakiyev Urges Reform—In response to the turmoil, Bakiyev Sept. 19 said the country had reached a “constitutional deadlock.” He called for a vote on revisions to the 2003 constitution, specifically, the way members of parliament (MPs) were elected. Bakiyev added, “Members of today’s parliament are not accountable to anyone and this may lead to negative consequences.” Currently, MPs were voted into parliament by direct election. The referendum, if passed, would require MPs to be voted in by a proportional representation system, in which citizens would vote for a party as a whole, as opposed to individuals. Such a change would result in decreased political presence for smaller parties and independent candidates. Supporters of the plan said the referendum would offer all citizens a chance to actively participate in the restructuring of the constitution. Opposition lawmaker Kabai Karabekov called it an opportunity for “civil society to be included in a normal political process,” according to a Sept. 17 article on the Web site of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Opponents of Bakiyev accused the president of trying to undermine opposition parties by rushing a vote before people had time to absorb the situation, and of oversimplifying the crisis. Parliamentary Deputy Iskhak Masaliev Sept. 19 criticized the referendum, FACTS ON FILE

saying, “You have to give one answer: ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ There could be 100 questions and if I support 99 of them except one, I can still only say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to all the points.” In the referendum, voters would decide on two issues: whether or not to accept the new constitution, and whether to accept the proposed electoral code that would modify electoral procedures. The referendum, if passed, would likely result in new parliamentary elections in early 2008. Kyrgyzstan had once been viewed as a developing democracy after the fall of the Soviet Union. However, it was currently mired in political and economic strife after years of corruption, intimidation and nepotism during the 14-year administration of former President Askar Akayev, who fled to Russia and tendered his resignation from there in 2005. [See 2005, p. 213A1] „

Myanmar Buddhist Monks Hold Officials Hostage.

Buddhist monks in the central city of Pakokku Sept. 6 held 13 government officials hostage within their monastery for more than five hours before releasing them after the intervention of a senior abbot. In the interim, four of the officials’ cars were burned by monks. The hostage-taking followed a Sept. 5 protest by monks that had been broken up by armed soldiers. Monks were reportedly beaten with bamboo poles and rounded up with lassos. The officials had allegedly visited the monastery to apologize for the violent way the protest had been dispersed and to request that the monks cease their demonstrations. In the aftermath, Myanmar’s military junta placed the nation’s monasteries under close observation. [See p. 580B1] Monks had played a significant role in the 1988 protests against then-ruler Ne Win due to their influence in heavily Buddhist Myanmar. Analysts suggested that their support for a series of protests that had begun in late August could be linked to their own growing financial difficulties following the junta’s Aug. 15 decision to cut fuel subsidies. The Washington Post Sept. 14 reported that a newly formed group of Buddhist monks, called the National Front of Monks, had called on the junta to apologize for its violent repression of protesters, resume fuel subsidies and begin negotiations with the 88 Generation Students group and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). [See 1990, p. 824B3] U.N. Calls for Prisoners’ Release—

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Sept. 10 that he had sent Ibrahim Gambari, special adviser on Myanmar, to hold talks with the ruling junta. U.N. special investigator on human rights in Myanmar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro Aug. 31 had called on the junta to release detained protesters, citing allegations that the prisoners were being tortured and beaten in custody. Monks Begin Boycott, Large Protests—

More than 1,300 monks Sept. 20 demonstrated in Yangon, Myanmar’s former capital and largest city, marking the third consecSeptember 20, 2007

utive day of protests by monks against the junta. More than 600 monks conducted prayers at the Sule Pagoda in central Yangon while as many as 2,000 supporters looked on. At Shwedagon Pagoda, a major Burmese landmark in Yangon, more than 400 monks held a march and a prayer session while another contingent of approximately 350 monks marched in southern Yangon. Marches of more than 400 monks had been reported Sept. 18–19 in Yangon and the northwestern city of Kyaukpadoung. In the city of Sittwe in northwestern Myanmar, a protest carried out by approximately 1,000 monks was broken up Sept. 19 by the military using tear gas. The following day more than 5,000 monks continued the protest there. In addition, the Associated Press reported Sept. 18 that monks were planning a religious boycott of the military following the junta’s failure to apologize for the beating of monks during the protest in Pakokku Sept. 6, a move that analysts suggested could be humiliating to the military. „

Taiwan Rallies Back U.N. Membership Bid. At least 100,000 people Sept. 15 took part in a march in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung in support of the island’s bid to join the United Nations. The rally was organized by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and attended by President Chen Shui-bian. Chen’s government planned to hold a referendum in March 2008 to gauge public support for U.N. membership under the name Taiwan. [See p. 515G2; 2006, p. 173B2; 2002, p. 703F2] China claimed that Taiwan’s bid, and the proposal to use the name Taiwan rather than the island’s formal name, Republic of China, were provocative moves toward declaring independence. China sought to hold Taiwan to the “one China” policy that held that China and Taiwan were parts of a single country, and had threatened to use force in response to any declaration of Taiwanese independence. The U.N. in 1971 had transferred the seat representing China from Taiwan to mainland China, which had the power to block any effort by Taiwan to join the U.N. The U.N. July 24 had rejected the latest of Taiwan’s numerous bids to join the body, and the first made under the name Taiwan. The U.N. Sept. 19 rejected another request by Taiwan for consideration of its application. [See 1971, p. 825A1] Kaohsiung was a stronghold of support for the traditionally pro-independence DPP. The opposition Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) Sept. 15 held its own rally on the central city of Taichung, attended by some 50,000 people, also in favor of U.N. membership. However, the Nationalists, who historically favored more cooperative relations with China, backed applying under the name Republic of China. Chen in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Sept. 12 had called the referendum an exercise in “basic democracy.” He rejected criticism from U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Chris-

tensen, who Sept. 11 had called the referendum “ill-conceived.” The U.S. maintained a pledge to aid Taiwan against threats from China, and Chen described the disagreement over the referendum as the kind of “quarrel” that was routine in a close relationship.

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Taiwan Objects to Olympic Torch Plan—

The organizers of the 2008 summer Olympic Games April 26 announced the planned route of the torch relay that would carry the Olympic flame from Greece around the world. Taiwanese Olympic officials that day protested the plan as an affront to the island’s “sovereignty” because, by having the torch pass from Taiwan to China’s Hong Kong and Macao territories, they said it implied that Taiwan was part of the torch’s itinerary within China. They demanded that the torch enter and depart Taiwan via other countries as part of its international route. „ Opposition Leader Acquitted. A Taiwanese court Aug. 14 acquitted Ma Ying-jeou, the candidate of the opposition Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) for the March 2008 presidential election, of corruption charges. He had been tried for allegedly misappropriating 11.2 million Taiwanese dollars (US$339,000) from a municipal government fund when he was mayor of Taipei, the capital. He contended that his use of the funds was legitimate and within commonly accepted practice. The acquittal was seen as a crucial boost to Ma’s candidacy. [See p. 248E3] Ma’s rival for the presidency, former Prime Minister Frank Hsieh of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was under investigation in connection with an alleged kickback scheme in Kaohsiung when he was mayor of that city. Three of Hsieh’s former subordinates Aug. 1 were acquitted of charges in the case, which involved a subway construction project. „

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Thailand 89 Dead in Phuket Plane Crash. A passen-

ger jet crashed Sept. 16 while attempting to land during a monsoon at Phuket International Airport on the Thai resort island of Phuket. Flight OG269, operated by budget airline One-Two-GO, burst into flames after splitting in two and sliding from the runway into a row of trees. Eighty-nine people were killed, and 40 of the 41 survivors were hospitalized. Many passengers were foreign tourists, and citizens of Australia, Britain, Iran, Ireland, Germany, Israel, the U.S., France and Sweden were among the victims. [See 1998, p. 930E1; 1991, p. 394C1] Britain’s Guardian newspaper Sept. 18 reported that pilot Arief Mulyadi had aborted an early landing attempt due to lack of visibility caused by heavy rain. An examination of the plane’s data recorders revealed that Mulyadi, who was killed in the crash, decided to attempt another landing despite warnings from the air traffic control tower about the potential for wind shear, a rapid shift in wind speed and direction caused by the storm. The cause of the crash had not been determined. „ 615

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Greece Prime Minister’s Party Wins Election.

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Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’s conservative New Democracy Party Sept. 16 narrowly won a new parliamentary majority in a general election. The party had come to power when it won the 2004 election. It would begin its second term in government with a majority of 152 seats in the 300-seat parliament, down from 165 seats in the previous term. [See p. 564D2] New Democracy won 41.8% of the vote, compared with 38.1% for its leftwing rival, the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). PASOK would have 102 seats in the new parliament, down from 117. That was the party’s worst election result since 1977. Discontent over the government’s response to recent wildfires was seen as a factor in the drop in New Democracy’s share of the vote. Analysts also attributed New Democracy’s loss of seats to new proportional representation rules that reduced the number of seats awarded to the party that finished in first place. Both major parties lost ground to smaller parties on the political margins. The Greek Communist Party won 22 seats, with 8.2% of the vote; the Radical Left Coalition won 14 seats, with 5% of the vote; and a far-right party, the Popular Orthodox Rally, won 3.8% of the vote and 10 seats, entering parliament for the first time. „

Great Britain Bank Bailed Out as Depositors Panic. The

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British Treasury and the Bank of England, the central bank, Sept. 17 made the unusual move of guaranteeing all deposits at Northern Rock PLC, a mortgage lender whose branches had been besieged by lines of panicked depositors seeking to withdraw their savings. Northern Rock, Britain’s fifth-largest mortgage lender, had been hit by worldwide turmoil in financial markets, which had begun in the U.S. mortgage market. [See p. 606A1] A sharp rise in short-term interest rates in August had left Northern Rock, whose distinctive business model relied heavily on short-term borrowing, unable to get the financing it needed. The Bank of England Sept. 14 stepped in and said it would give Northern Rock emergency funding. That was the first such rescue by the central bank in more than a decade. After that, customers reportedly withdrew more than £2 billion ($4 billion) by Sept. 17, or about 8% of Northern Rock’s total deposits. The panic among depositors appeared to ease Sept. 18. The bank’s shares rose by 8.2% that day, to 306 pence ($6.11), after falling about 30% on each of the previous two trading days. The rescue marked a reversal by Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, who had recently said that such government bailouts would only encourage irresponsible behavior by commercial banks. 616

The Bank of England Sept. 18 made an extra £4.4 billion available for short-term lending between banks. „

Russia Zubkov Confirmed as New Prime Minister.

Viktor Zubkov Sept. 14 was confirmed by the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, as Russia’s new prime minister. Zubkov had risen from relative obscurity, and his appointment as prime minister by Russian President Vladimir V. Putin two days earlier had come as a surprise to Russians and international onlookers. [See p. 597F1] Speculation abounded among Russian political commentators in anticipation of two upcoming elections: elections to the Duma, set for Dec. 2; and a presidential election, scheduled for March 2, 2008. Zubkov had said he would not rule out running for president. Putin Sept. 14 said there were at least five potential candidates for the office of president, but that whoever succeeded him should be prepared to accept him as a continued influence in the government. He would complete his second term in March and was barred from serving a third consecutive term. However, there had been speculation he would run again in 2012 or 2016, with Zubkov or another loyalist serving as a stand-in in the interim. In addition to Zubkov, Sergei Ivanov and Dmitri Medvedev, both first deputy prime ministers, were expected to emerge as presidential candidates. The two others Putin referred to had yet to be named. [See p. 101B2] „ Chechen Arrested in Politkovskaya Case.

Former Chechen official Shamil Burayev Sept. 13 was arrested in connection with the October 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and detained in Moscow under suspicion of organizing a murder, according to news reports. Burayev had been the leader of the Achkhoi-Martan district in Chechnya until he was dismissed in 2003. Politkovskaya had dedicated much of her career to writing about atrocities in Chechnya. [See p. 565A1; 2006, p. 787F3] Burayev’s wife Sept. 15 confirmed her husband’s arrest the same day it had been reported by Russian tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, which cited unidentified law-enforcement officials. Ten suspects had been arrested in August in connection with the murder, and prosecutors had previously claimed that the mastermind was an unidentified person living abroad. Since then, two had been released, and a court Sept. 4 and Sept. 11 had ruled that the arrest of another, Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Col. Pavel Ryaguzov, was illegal. However, new charges of abduction, abuse of office, extortion and illegal entry were brought against Ryaguzov Sept. 12. Russian news organizations said the charges were unrelated to the Politkovskaya case, although they also said Ryaguzov was suspected of providing the killer with her address.

Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor of Politkovskaya’s newspaper Novaya Gazeta, in an interview with Radio Free Europe published Sept. 15, criticized the leak of the Burayev arrest and other case details to the media, saying that it rendered the investigation “powerless because its secrecy is being violated immediately,” alerting other possible suspects to the direction it was taking. „ Poisoning Suspect to Run for Parliament.

Andrei Lugovoy, an agent of the Soviet-era KGB security service who was wanted by Britain for allegedly poisoning another former KGB agent, Alexander Litvinenko, Sept. 16 announced that he would seek a seat in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament. Litvinenko had been a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. Lugovoy would run as a member of the right-wing nationalist Liberal Democratic Party headed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky. [See pp. 469C1, 183B3] If his party won the 7% of the Dec. 2 vote required for a party to sit in the State Duma, or lower house of parliament, Lugovoy would be guaranteed a seat. He would also be able to avoid trial or extradition to Britain under the Russian constitution, which gave members of Parliament immunity from prosecution. Both the Russian government and Lugovoy denied involvement in Litvinenko’s death. [See 2006, p. 899C2 ] Relations between Russia and Britain continued to deteriorate after Russia had refused in May to extradite Lugovoy to Britain to be tried. Russian officials said prosecution of Lugovoy would be possible if the British provided evidence of his guilt, but that none had been offered. In July, Britain expelled four Russian diplomats in retaliation for Russia’s refusal to extradite Lugovoy. Russia responded by expelling four British diplomats. Lugovoy maintained that he had been framed by MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, and Boris Berezovsky, an anti-Kremlin Russian oligarch living in Britain. Zhirinovsky Sept. 18 called Britain a nation of “bandits and criminals, your whole government, together with your Queen.” „ Putin to Revitalize Aviation Industry. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, speaking Aug. 21 at the largest airshow in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, said he was determined to restore Russia’s status as a world military power, and that aircraft manufacturing would be a priority in reaching that goal. The airshow, near Moscow, the capital, took place days after Russia had announced the resumption long-range patrols by its strategic bombers for the first time in 15 years. The aircraft had been on patrols near Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific, and the U.S. state of Alaska, in addition to long-range missions across the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. [See p. 548A3; 2006, p. 225D1] Russia had dramatically reduced spending on its aircraft industry and halted daily military flights after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Most of Russia’s military aircraft dated back to the Soviet era and were not as technologically adFACTS ON FILE

vanced as planes manufactured in the U.S. and Western Europe. [See 1991, p. 974A2] Putin Aug. 21 also said Russia possessed new technology and economic capabilities that allowed for sophisticated aviation technology. Those included a new supersonic cruise missile and the S-400 missile and aircraft interceptor system, which were on display at the airshow. Upgraded Sukhoi airplanes and “vector thrust” MiG-29 OVT airplanes were also unveiled. Western nations sought to downplay Russia’s renewed pursuit of air superiority. In response to Putin’s announcement of the resumption of long-range strategic bomber flights, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack Aug. 17 said, “If Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircraft out of mothballs and get them flying again that’s their decision.” Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) Sept. 6 intercepted eight long-range Russian planes near British airspace in the North Atlantic. A British defense official said the interception of the eight Russian planes was “routine NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] procedure” and dismissed concerns of a new Cold War. The Russian government had also stated its intent to build 4,500 passenger airplanes by 2025, and pledged more than $250 billion to the civilian aircraft industry, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported Aug. 22. The increased spending was largely a result of income from Russia’s growing oil and gas industries. [See p. 444F1] Military Tests Powerful Bomb—Russia’s military Sept. 11 announced that it had successfully tested a vacuum bomb whose strength was “comparable with nuclear weapons in its efficiency and potential,” according to Alexander Rushkin, the deputy chief of staff of Russia’s armed forces, in a report on a state-run television station. In the Sept. 11 report, the bomb, technically known as a thermobaric device, appeared to flatten a multistory block of buildings after being dropped on a military test site from a supersonic bomber. The report said damage was caused by “an ultrasonic shockwave and an incredibly high temperature. All that is alive merely evaporates.” The bomb, which the Russian military dubbed “the father of all bombs,” contained seven tons of explosives. Pavel Felgenhauer, a military columnist for Russia’s Novaya Gazeta newspaper, Sept. 12 told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the bomb was “filled with a flammable liquid. The bomb drops, breaks up, the liquid is released.” In the second stage of detonation, the dispersed liquid ignited, causing a massive explosion and a powerful vacuum resulting from the burning of gases. Rushkin added in the report, “I particularly want to emphasize that this bomb does not cause ecological or environmental pollution, in contrast to a nuclear bomb.” The report also stressed that in detonating the bomb, Russia had not violated any international treaties. Arms Deal Signed With Indonesia—Putin Sept. 6 witnessed the signing of a $1 billion arms deal with Indonesia, which had September 20, 2007

been under a U.S. arms embargo until 2005. The deal supplied Indonesia with Russian helicopters, submarines and tanks. The weapons would be paid for over a period of 15 years. Indonesian officials favorably compared the deal with Russia to prior deals with Western countries, where trades came with conditions concerning human rights, accountability and licensing. A previous deal with Britain had stipulated that Indonesia not use Scorpion tanks in the western territory of Aceh, despite the presence of armed separatists there. (A peace deal had been signed in Aceh in 2005, leading to the lifting of the U.S. embargo.) [See p. 589B1; 2006, p. 982A3] U.S. Officials Visit Nuclear Warehouse—

Russia Aug. 31 allowed U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R, Ind.) and former Sen. Sam Nunn (D, Ga.) into the Fissile Material Storage Facility in near Ozersk, Russia, the world’s largest warehouse for nuclear materials. The visit was part of a trip to commemorate the 15-year anniversary of the inception of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, a U.S.-funded operation that helped Russia and the former Soviet states to locate, secure and destroy nuclear, chemical and biological materials that could be used for weapons. [See 2002, p. 597A2] The structure’s walls were 23-feet (seven-meters) thick and its storage space larger than a football field. It had been built by the U.S. at a cost of $309 million. After completion in 2003, the facility had been turned over to Russia, which fought to keep access restricted. While the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration praised the collaborative effort between the U.S. and Russia, Lugar and Nunn criticized the slow pace of operations there. The facility was capable of holding 100 tons of plutonium or 400 tons of highly enriched uranium. Lugar and Nunn said only about a sixth of the space was being used. „

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Lebanon Bombing Kills Anti-Syrian Legislator. A car bombing in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, Sept. 19 killed anti-Syrian legislator Antoine Ghanem, a member of the Christian Phalange party. The blast also killed a bodyguard and five bystanders, and at least 19 people were injured. Members of the country’s governing coalition, the March 14 Movement, accused Syria of involvement in the bombing, but the Syrian government denied the charges. [See p. 517F2] Ghanem, 64, had been staying outside the country over security concerns and had returned to Lebanon two days before the bombing. He was the eighth anti-Syrian figure killed in the country in the past three years. Some in Lebanon saw the bombing as part of a plot to erode the March 14 Movement’s thin parliamentary majority ahead of the parliament’s election of a president,

scheduled for Sept. 25. The coalition held 68 seats in the 128-seat unicameral legislature; an absolute majority was necessary to elect a president, but the number of legislators necessary for a quorum was currently under debate. “This is a clear message to silence the voices of freedom and the revolution of independence, but the Lebanese people will not back off, and they will have a new president elected by parliament members no matter how big the conspiracy gets,” said Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. „ Militant Leader Reported Alive. Lebanese army officials Sept. 10 said Shaker al-Abssi, the leader of the Fatah al-Islam militant group, might have survived a siege of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Abssi’s wife had identified as Abssi a body found after the camp had been taken by the army earlier in September. However, a DNA test of the remains proved negative, and a captured Fatah al-Islam member reportedly said that he and Abssi had fled the camp the night before it fell. [See p. 581F3] The Lebanese army Sept. 15 captured four Fatah al-Islam members, including the group’s spokesman, Abu Salim Taha. „

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Pakistan Musharraf to Drop Army Post After Election.

A lawyer for President Pervez Musharraf Sept. 18 submitted a statement to a panel of Pakistan’s Supreme Court that said Musharraf would resign as army chief if he won a new term in a forthcoming presidential election. The panel was hearing petitions filed by Musharraf’s political opponents and activist lawyers that challenged the legality of Musharraf’s bid for reelection while serving as president and army chief simultaneously. A constitutional exemption allowing him to hold both posts was scheduled to expire Dec. 31. [See pp. 598D2, 582C2] Musharraf’s statement said he would relinquish his military post “soon after the election, but before taking the oath of office” on Nov. 15 for another presidential term. Pakistan’s election commission Sept. 20 announced that the presidential election would be held Oct. 6. The president was elected by Parliament—which was dominated by Musharraf’s allies—and the country’s four provincial assemblies. The election commission Sept. 17 had announced a change in a rule that had barred public servants, including army officers, from running for office without first retiring for a minimum of two years. The commission said that the rule did not apply to presidential elections. It said its finding was based on rulings made by the Supreme Court in 2002 and 2005. The commission’s members had been appointed by Musharraf. Opponents argued that Musharraf’s election bid would be legal only if he gave up his army position before the election was held. They said Musharraf was seeking to circumvent constitutional obstacles 617

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tated. One soldier was still missing, while another was found wounded. Meanwhile, the army was still seeking the release of 270 troops held captive by militants in South Waziristan. [See p. 599F1] „

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to his reelection bid, and had reneged on prior promises to resign from the army. [See 2004, p. 1082D2] Sherry Rehman, a spokeswoman for the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the country’s largest political party, Sept. 17 said the election commission was changing “the rules to tilt the field in favor of a military president to prolong his rule.” The nine-member Supreme Court panel had begun a formal hearing of the petitions Sept. 17, and that day rejected a request to have all 13 members of the court present. Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who had ruled against Musharraf’s government in several recent decisions, after overcoming an attempt by Musharraf to suspend him, had recused himself from sitting on the panel, for unknown reasons. [See p. 551C1] Musharraf had seized power in a coup in 1999. He appointed himself president in 2001, and was confirmed in office by a 2002 referendum that was widely believed to have been rigged. Analysts said the new developments could complicate reportedly ongoing negotiations between Musharraf and exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to arrange a power-sharing deal, which was supported by the U.S., a Musharraf ally. Members of opposition parties, including the PPP, which Bhutto led, had threatened to resign from Parliament during the election to delegitimize the vote. The PPP Sept. 14 announced that Bhutto would return to Pakistan Oct. 18. Government officials said she would be allowed to return but could face corruption charges that had caused her to flee Pakistan in 1999. „ Bomb Kills 15 Commandos. A bomb exploded Sept. 13 in the northwestern town of Tarbela Ghazi, the base for the Pakistan army’s elite commando unit, the Special Services Group, killing 15 troops. The bomb was suspected to have been detonated by a suicide bomber. It was the second time in September that militants were able to infiltrate a heavily fortified town controlled by the army, prompting concerns that Islamic extremists were growing bolder in their attacks. A suicide bomber had killed 25 people in Rawalpindi, a main garrison town, earlier in the month. [See p. 599D1] Members of the Special Services Group had taken part in a July raid that had killed as many as 100 militants in the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in the capital, Islamabad. [See p. 442F2] Violence Reports—In other incidents of violence across Pakistan Sept. 13–18: † Pakistani military officials Sept. 13 said militants had attacked an army base in South Waziristan, a tribal stronghold for militants on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. Officials said 50 militants were killed in the fighting. [See 599A1] † The New York Times, quoting an anonymous official, Sept. 19 reported that the bodies of 15 Pakistani soldiers who had been reported missing were found in North Waziristan, which bordered Afghanistan. The official told the Times that the soldiers had been shot and some had been decapi-

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Golfer Woods Wins Tour Championship, $10 Million Prize Dominates Field in Final FedEx Cup Event.

Tiger Woods of the U.S. Sept. 16 won the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Ga., the final event of the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour season as well as the culmination of the inaugural FedEx Cup, a points-based system that determined the PGA Tour’s season champion. Woods, who earned 123,033 total points to capture the FedEx Cup, won a $10 million annuity. He also earned $1.26 million for winning the Tour Championship. [See 2006, pp. 902G2, 603E2] Woods, the world’s top-ranked golfer, dominated the Tour Championship, shooting a tournament-record 23-under-par 257. He finished eight strokes ahead of U.S. players Zach Johnson and Mark Calcavecchia. (Johnson had shot a course-record 60 in the third round Sept. 15.) It was Woods’s seventh victory in 16 starts on the PGA Tour in the 2007 season. The FedEx Cup, with four playoff events and a $10 million prize, had been instituted to drum up interest in the conclusion of the PGA Tour season. The points system had begun with the first tournament of the year, and players’ points totals were reset based on their season standings for the final four events, dubbed the FedEx Cup playoffs. Those events were the Barclays tournament in Harrison, N.Y.; the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Mass.; the BMW Championship in Lemont, Ill.; and the Tour Championship. The Barclays featured all 144 players in the points race; the field was reduced to the top 120 for the Deutsche Bank Championship; the top 70 for the BMW Championship; and the top 30 for the Tour Championship. (Previously, the Tour Championship had been played in November and featured the top 30 players on the money list.) Many players expressed confusion about the points system, and some said they found it irrelevant. They also complained that the final payouts in the FedEx Cup, including Woods’s $10 million, would not be disbursed immediately but would instead be put into players’ retirement accounts, which they could not access until age 45. Some high-profile players, citing fatigue from playing in a recent string of high-profile events, declined to play in each of the four tournaments, including Woods, who skipped the Barclays. Woods, 31, who began the playoffs in first place, could afford to skip that event and still qualify for the rest of the playoffs. By placing second in one tournament and winning the other two he entered, he easily captured the FedEx Cup.

U.S. golfer Tiger Woods hoists the FedEx Cup after winning the Tour Championship Sept. 16.

Steve Stricker of the U.S. Sept. 16 finished second in the FedEx Cup final standings with 110,455 points, earning a $3 million annuity. Phil Mickelson of the U.S. was third, and received a $2 million deposit into his retirement account. [See below] Other FedEx Cup Playoff Results—

Stricker Aug. 26 won the Barclays, shooting a 16-under-par 268 to claim his first PGA Tour title in 146 tournaments. Stricker, 40, earned $1.26 million for the victory. The win, combined with Woods’s absence from the event, put Stricker in first place in the FedEx Cup points standings. [See 2006, p. 498G3] Mickelson Sept. 3 won the Deutsche Bank Championship. He outdueled Woods in the final round, shooting a 16-under-par 268 for the tournament to beat the world number one by two strokes. Mickelson earned $1.26 million for the victory, which moved him into first place in the playoffs points standings. However, Mickelson Sept. 4 said he would not play in the next tournament, the BMW Championship, due to an undisclosed dispute with PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem. [See 2006, p. 756C1] Woods Sept. 9 won the BMW Championship (formerly the Western Open), finishing the tournament at 262, or 22 under par. He shot a 63 in the final round, the lowest finalround score of his career. Aaron Baddeley of Australia was second, two strokes behind. Woods earned $1.26 million in prize money. [See 2006, p. 603D3] Other News—In other golf news: † Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe Aug. 19 won the JELD-WEN Tradition, the final major tournament of the year on the seniors’ Champions Tour, in Sunriver, Ore. He shot a 16-under-par 272 to claim his first major title and a $390,000 winner’s check. [See 2006, p. 756F1] † Brandt Snedeker of the U.S., a PGA Tour rookie, Aug. 19 won the Wyndham Championship (formerly the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro) in Greensboro, N.C. He shot a 22-under-par 266 for his first Tour victory, and collected $900,000 in prize money. [See 2006, p. 903B1] „ FACTS ON FILE

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sion Arts and Sciences Sept. 16 presented its 59th annual Prime-time Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The Sunday night ceremony, shown on the Fox network, was hosted by Ryan Seacrest for the first time; Seacrest was the host of Fox’s hit talent-search show “American Idol.” [See p. 372A2; 2006, p. 687E3] (Fox, committed to broadcasting the 2007 awards as part of a four-year cycle among the four major networks, returned the broadcast to its traditional mid-September slot; NBC in 2006 had aired the ceremony in late August, to avoid conflicting with its own programming of National Football League [NFL] games in September.) Pay cable channel HBO, which in 2006 had won nine Prime-time Emmys, more than any other network, won only six this time; the network with the most wins was NBC, with seven. ABC also won six, matching its total for 2006. HBO’s long-running Mafia drama “The Sopranos,” which had gone off the air in June, eight years after its debut, was honored as best drama for the second time, and the first since 2004. Four of its cast members were up for acting Emmys, but none of them won. The show’s stars, James Gandolfini and Edie Falco, had been honored three times before, most recently in 2003. [See 2004, p. 744C2; 2003, p. 763G3] Gandolfini was beaten out for best actor in a drama by the star of ABC’s “Boston Legal,” James Spader, claiming his third Emmy. Falco lost to Sally Field, the star of another ABC show, “Brothers & Sisters,” a first-year series, in the category of best actress in a drama. It was Field’s third Emmy as well. [See 2005, p. 656E1] The award for best actress in a comedy series went to America Ferrera, for “Ugly Betty,” another first-year show on ABC; Ferrera in January had won a Golden Globe Award for her work in that show. Named best actor in a comedy series was British comic Ricky Gervais, for “Extras,” an HBO series coproduced with the British Broadcasting Corp. Britain’s Dame Helen Mirren won her second Emmy in a row in the category of best actress in a miniseries or movie, for “Prime Suspect: The Final Act,” a “Masterpiece Theater” presentation on PBS. It was Mirren’s fourth Emmy overall. [See p. 40C1; 2006, p. 688D1] For the fifth year in a row, the satirical newscast “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” on the Comedy Central cable network won the Emmy for best variety, music or comedy series. However, it failed to win its fifth consecutive writing award in that category, which instead went to NBC’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” for the first time, on that show’s 12th try. The Emmy winners included: Drama Series: “The Sopranos’ (HBO) Actor, Drama Series: James Spader, “Boston

Legal” (ABC)

Actress, Drama Series: Sally Field, “Brothers

& Sisters” (ABC)

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Individual Performance, Variety or Musical Show: Tony Bennett, “Tony Bennett: An

American Classic” (NBC) Reality-Competition Program: “The Amazing Race” (CBS) „

People A collection of Russian art amassed by two leading Soviet-born classical musicians, cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, who died in April, and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, had been sold to Russian steel magnate Alisher Usmanov, Sotheby’s Holdings PLC announced Sept. 17. The announcement came a day before the London branch of Sotheby’s was to have begun a two-day auction of the art, which Sotheby’s deemed the most important collection of its kind in private hands. Usmanov, 53, reportedly paid Sotheby’s substantially more than $40 million, the high-end estimate for what the collection would have fetched had it gone on the block. He reportedly planned to return the works to Russia. In 2004, another Russian magnate, Viktor Vekselberg, had bought a collection of jeweled Faberge Easter eggs in advance of a planned Sotheby’s auction, with the intention of returning the objects to Russia. [See p. 288B2; 2004, p. 132F1] The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minn., Sept. 12 announced that it had appointed Olga Viso, director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., as its next director, succeeding Kathy Halbreich, who had held the post for 16 years. Under Halbreich, 58, the Walker had unveiled a dramatic expansion in 2005. She had announced March 19 that she would be leaving the Walker in November. Viso, 41, who had led the Hirshhorn for two years, would replace Halbreich in January 2008. [See 2005, p. 996B2] „

O B I T UA R I E S GRAMLICH, Edward Martin, 68, economist, long associated with the University of Michigan, who was a governor of the Federal Reserve Board from 1997 to 2005; before being named to the Fed by President Bill Clinton, he had chaired the Clinton administration’s Advisory Council on Social Security; after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., he chaired the Air Transportation Stabilization Board, tasked with doling out $10 billion in federal loan guarantees to struggling airlines; he foresaw the recent crisis in the subprime mortgage market, and published a book on the subject, Subprime Mortgages: America’s Latest Boom and Bust, in June; born June 18, 1939, in Rochester, N.Y.; died Sept. 5 at a hospice in Washington, D.C., of acute myeloid leukemia. [See p. 606F3; 2006, p. 169D1; Indexes 2004–05, 2001, 1997] JONES, Arthur A., 80, inventor of the Nautilus line of exercise machines, introduced in 1970 and a key factor in the evolution of health clubs into environ-

ments dominated by high-tech resistance equipment rather than free weights; he sold his Nautilus business for $23 million in 1986 (the deal closed in 1987); born in 1926 in Arkansas; died Aug. 28 at his home in Ocala, Fla., of natural causes. KENNEDY, Rev. D(ennis) James, 76, Presbyterian minister and television evangelist; though not as well known as such fellow preachers as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, he, like them, was instrumental in the rise of the Christian conservative movement as a powerful force in U.S. politics; his sermons on the syndicated TV show “The Coral Ridge Hour,” named after his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., megachurch, reached as many as 3.5 million people a week; born Nov. 3, 1930, in Augusta, Ga.; died Sept. 5 at his Fort Lauderdale home, less than four months after the death of Falwell; he had been undergoing rehabilitation since suffering permanent damage from heart arrhythmia in December 2006. [See p. 310D1] MOORE, Sir (John) Jeremy, 79, major general who commanded British ground forces during the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina, won decisively by Britain; he was knighted after Britain’s victory in that war; born July 5, 1928, in Lichfield, England; died Sept. 15. [See 1982, pp. 430A1, 429G2, 394C1] PEET, Alfred, 87, tea and coffee trader who in 1966 opened a coffeehouse in Berkeley, Calif., that came to be viewed as the birthplace of the gourmetcoffee revolution in the U.S.; he went on to train the founders of the Seattle, Wash.–based Starbucks Corp. chain of coffee shops and supplied Starbucks with roasted coffee when it began operating in 1971; born March 10, 1920, in Alkmaar, the Netherlands; died Aug. 29 at his home in Ashland, Ore., of cancer. RODDICK, Dame Anita (born Anita Lucia Perilli),

64, British entrepreneur who founded the Body Shop cosmetics chain in 1976; a strong environmentalist, she was committed to using natural ingredients in her products, avoiding animal testing, minimizing packaging, and buying ingredients from indigenous farmers rather than commodity brokers; she and her husband, poet Gordon Roddick, took the business public in 1984; it eventually grew to encompass more than 2,000 stores in about 50 countries; in 2006, the company was sold to French cosmetics giant L’Oreal for £652 million (US$1.3 billion), and she and her husband made more than £100 million in the deal; she became a dame of the British Empire in 2003; born Oct. 23, 1942, in Littlehampton, England; died Sept. 10 at a hospital in Chichester, England, of a brain hemorrhage; in February, she had revealed that a hepatitis C infection she had picked up during a 1971 blood transfusion, and had not known about until 2005, had progressed to cirrhosis of the liver. SAVOY, Gene (Douglas Eugene), 80, explorer and amateur archaeologist who uncovered ancient ruins at many sites in Peru, including Vilcabamba, the Incas’ last refuge from the Spanish conquerors; he was also the founder (1959) of the International Community of Christ, Church of the Second Advent, which claimed thousands of adherents worldwide; born May 11, 1927, in Bellingham, Wash.; died Sept. 11 at his home in Reno, Nev.; he had been suffering from heart disease. [See 1985, p. 175F1] SWEARINGEN, John Eldred, 89, chief executive of Standard Oil Co. (Indiana) for 23 years (1960–83) and chairman for 18 (1965–83); under his leadership, the company (which became widely known as Amoco Corp.) grew into an oil industry giant; in 1984, U.S. bank regulators persuaded him to come out of retirement to head Continental Illinois Corp., the parent company of Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co., which the government had taken over to keep from collapsing; born Sept. 7, 1918, in Columbia, S.C.; died Sept. 14 at a hospital in Birmingham, Ala., of pneumonia; he was said to have had Alzheimer’s disease. [See 1987, pp. 978D3, 554D1; 1984, pp. 909F1, A2, 716C3, 544C3; Indexes 1982–83, 1979, 1977, 1975] UMEKI, Miyoshi, 78, actress who in 1958 became the first Asian performer to win an Academy Award; she was named best supporting actress for her role in Sayonara (1957) as a Japanese woman involved in a doomed love affair with a U.S. airman; Red Buttons, who played the airman, won the supporting-actor Oscar for his performance; in the late 1950s, she triumphed on Broadway as a young Chinese immigrant in the Richard Rogers–Oscar Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song, reprising her role in its 1961 film adaptation; later, she had a recurring role in the television situation comedy “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” (1969–72); she retired from acting after that show went off the air; born May 8, 1929, in Otaru, Japan; died Aug. 28 in Licking, Mo., of cancer. [See 2006, p. 588B3; 1958, pp. 412E3, 248G3, 108C3] „

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World Heads of State and Government Leaders The following were the heads of state, government leaders and selected cabinet members for the countries listed, as of Sept. 1 unless otherwise noted. For changes after Sept. 20, consult the Index. Spellings are based on various schemes of transliteration and may occasionally vary from earlier or subsequent versions contained in news accounts. Adapted from information provided by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. [See p. 116A1] Afghanistan—President: Karzai, Hamid; Vice Presidents: Masood, Ahmad Zia; Khalili, Abdul Karim; Min. of Defense: Wardak, Abdul Rahim; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Spanta, Rangeen Dadfar; Min. of Interior: Zarar, Ahmad Moqbel Albania, Republic of—President: Topi, Bamir; Prime Minister: Berisha, Sali; Min. of Defense: Mediu, Fatmir; Min. of Finance: Bode, Ridvan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Basha, Lulzim Algeria, Democratic and Popular Republic of—President, Min. of National Defense: Bouteflika, Abdelaziz; Prime Minister: Belkhadem, Abdelaziz; Min. of Finance: Djoudi, Karim; Min. of Industry: Temmar, Abdelhamid; Min. of State for Foreign Affairs: Medelci, Mourad; Min. of State for Interior & Local Governments: Zerhouni, Nourredine Yazid; Min. of State for Justice: Belaiz, Tayeb Andorra, Principality of*—Prime Minister: Pintat, Albert; Min. of Finance: Mirapeix, Ferran; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mateu, Meritxell *Andorra is under the formal sovereignty of the president of France and the Roman Catholic bishop of Seo de Urgel, Spain. Angola, Republic of—President: dos Santos, Jose Eduardo; Prime Minister: dos Santos, Fernando da Piedade Dias; Min. of Defense: Paihama, Kundi; Min. of External Relations: de Miranda, Joao Bernardo; Min. of Finance: de Morais, Jose Pedro; Min. of Petroleum: da Costa, Desiderio Antigua and Barbuda—Governor General: Carlisle, James B.; Prime Minister, Min. of Barbuda Affairs, Min. of Defense, Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Trade: Spencer, Baldwin; Min. of Finance & the Economy: Cort, Eroll; Min. of Tourism, Culture & Civil Aviation: Lovell, Harold Argentina (Argentine Republic)—President: Kirchner, Nestor Carlos; Min. of Defense: Garre, Nilda; Min. of Economy & Production: Peirano, Miguel; Min. of Foreign Relations, International Trade & Worship: Taiana, Jorge; Min. of Interior: Fernandez, Anibal; Min. of Justice, Security & Human Rights: Iribarne, Alberto; Min. of Labor, Employment & Social Security: Tomada, Carlos; President, Central Bank: Redrado, Martin Armenia, Republic of—President: Kocharyan, Robert; Prime Minister: Sargsyan, Serzh; Min. of Defense: Harutyunyan, Mikayel; Min. of Finance: Khachatryan, Vartan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Oskanyan, Vartan Australia, Commonwealth of—Governor General: Jeffery, Maj. Gen. Michael (ret.); Prime Minister: Howard, John; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. for Transport & Regional Services: Vaile, Mark; Treasurer: Costello, Peter; Attorney General: Ruddock, Philip; Min. for Defense: Nelson, Brendan; Min. for Education, Science & Training: Bishop, Julie; Min. for Foreign Affairs: Downer, Alexander; Min. for Health & Aging: Abbott, Anthony; Min. for Immigration & Citizenship: Andrews, Kevin; Min. for Trade: Truss, Warren Austria, Republic of—President: Fischer, Heinz; Chancellor: Gusenbauer, Alfred; Vice Chancellor, Min. of Finance: Molterer, Wilhelm; Min. of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment & Water Management: Proell, Josef; Min. of Defense: Darabos, Norbert; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Plassnik, Ursula; Min. of Justice: Berger, Maria; President, Austrian National Bank: Liebscher, Klaus Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani Republic)—President: Aliyev, Ilham; Prime Minister: Rasizade, Artur; Min. of Defense: Abiyev, Col. Gen. Safar; Min. of Finance: Sharifov, Samir; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mammadyarov, Elmar; Min. of Internal Affairs: Usubov, Ramil Bahamas, Commonwealth of the—Governor General: Hanna, Arthur Dion; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Ingraham, Hubert; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Symonette, Theodore (Brent); Min. of Health & Social Development: Minnis, Hubert; Min. of Tourism & Aviation: Grant, Neko

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Bahrain, Kingdom of—King: Khalifa, Hamad bin Isa al-; Prime Minister: Khalifa, Khalifa bin Salman al; Min. of Defense: Khalifa, Maj. Gen. Khalifa bin Ahmad al-; Min. of Finance & Economy: Khalifa, Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Hamad bin Abdallah al-; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Khalifa, Khalid bin Ahmad alBangladesh, People’s Republic of*—President: Ahmed, Iajuddin; Chief Caretaker Adviser: Ahmed, Fakhruddin; Army Chief: Lt. Gen. Moeen U Ahmed *President Iajuddin Ahmed Jan. 11 declared emergency rule and stepped down as chief adviser to a caretaker authority. Fakhruddin Ahmed Jan. 12 succeeded him as chief adviser. Elections were scheduled to take place by the end of 2008. [See pp. 582D1, 102D2] Barbados—Governor General: Husbands, Sir Clifford; Prime Minister, Min. of Defense & Security, Min. of Finance, Min. of Information: Arthur, Owen; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Economic Affairs & Development: Mottley, Mia; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade: Miller, Billie; Min. of Home Affairs, Attorney General: Marshall, Dale; Min. of Tourism & International Transport: Lynch, Noel Anderson Belarus, Republic of—President: Lukashenko, Aleksandr; Prime Minister: Sidorsky, Sergei; Min. of Defense: Maltsev, Leonid; Min. of Finance: Korbut, Nikolay; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Martynov, Sergei Belgium, Kingdom of*—King: Albert II; Premier: Verhofstadt, Guy; Dep. Premier, Min. of Budget: Van Den Bossche, Freya; Deputy Premier, Min. of Finance: Reynders, Didier; Deputy Premier, Min. of the Interior: Dewael, Patrick; Dep. Premier, Min. of Justice: Onkelinx, Laurette; Min. of Foreign Affairs: De Gucht, Karel; Min. of Defense: Flahaut, Andre; Min. of Economy, Energy, Foreign Trade & Science: Verwilghen, Marc *Verhofstadt and his ministers remained in office on a caretaker basis after June 10 parliamentary elections; center-right parties had not reached a deal for a coalition government as of Sept. 20. [See p. 385A3] Belize—Governor General: Young, Sir Colville; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Musa, Said; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Agriculture & Fisheries: Marin, Vildo; Min. of Defense, Min. of Youth & Sports: Ferguson, Rodwell; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Min. Foreign Trade: Shoman, Lisa Benin, Republic of—President: Boni, Thomas Yayi; Min. of Development, Finance & Economy: Koupaki, Pascal; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Diallo, Mariam Alaji; Min. of National Defense: N’Douro, Issifou Kogui Bhutan, Kingdom of*—King: Wangchuck, Jigme Khesar Namgyel; Prime Minister: Dorji, Kinzang; Min. of Education: Gyamtsho, Thinley; Min. of Information & Communication: Dorji, Leki *Prime Minister Khandu Wangchuck and six other cabinet members July 26 had submitted their resignations in order to run in the country’s first political elections scheduled for 2008; according to the country’s election commission guidelines, sitting cabinet members were prohibited from affiliating with political parties. The current cabinet was limited to running day-to-day affairs, and could not make government policy. [See p. 389C1] Bolivia, Republic of—President: Morales Aima, Juan Evo; Vice President: Garcia Linera, Alvaro; Min. of Defense: San Miguel Rodriguez, Walker; Min. of Finance: Arce Catacora, Luis Alberto; Min. of Foreign Relations & Worship: Choquehuanca Cespedes, David; Min. of Government: Rada Velez, Alfredo; Min. of Hydrocarbons: Villegas Quiroga, Carlos; Min. of the Presidency: Quintana Taborga, Juan Ramon; Min. Without Portfolio for Water: Mamani Marca, Abel Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of—Chairman, Collective Presidency: Komsic, Zeljko (Croat); Members, Collective Presidency: Radmanovic, Nebojsa (Serb); Silajdzic, Haris (Bosniak); Chairman, Council of Ministers: Spiric, Nikola; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Alkalaj, Sven; President, Muslim– Croat federation: Lozancic, Niko; President, Bosnian Serb Republic (Republika Srpska): Jelic, Milan Botswana, Republic of—President: Mogae, Festus Gontebanye; Min. of Finance & Development Planning: Gaolathe, Jacob; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation: Merafhe, Lt. Gen. Mompati (ret.); Min. of Health: Tlou, Sheila; Min. of Trade & Industry: Moroka, Daniel Neo Brazil, Federative Republic of—President: Da Silva, Luiz Inacio Lula; Vice President: Alencar, Jose;

Min. of Defense: Jobim, Nelson Azevedo; Min. of Development, Industry & Trade: Jorge, Miguel; Min. of Finance: Mantega, Guido; Min. of Foreign Relations: Amorim, Celso; Min. of Justice: Genro, Tarso; Min. of Sports: Silva, Orlando; President, Central Bank: Meirelles, Henrique de Campos Brunei (Negara Brunei Darussalam)—Sultan, Prime Minister, Min. of Defense, Min. of Finance: Hassanal Bolkiah, Sir; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Min. of Trade: Mohamed Bolkiah Bulgaria, Republic of—President: Parvanov, Georgi; Prime Minister: Stanishev, Sergei; Min. of Defense: Bliznakov, Vesselin; Min. of Finance: Oresharski, Plamen; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kalfin, Ivailo; Min. of Interior: Petkov, Rumen; Min. of Labor & Social Policy: Maslarova, Emilia Burkina Faso —President: Compaore, Capt. Blaise; Prime Minister: Zongo, Tertius; Min. of Defense: Boly, Yero; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Bassole, Djibrill Yipene Burma, Union of—See Myanmar, Union of Burundi , Republic of—President: Nkurunziza, Pierre; First Vice President: Nduwimana, Martin; Min. of External Relations & Cooperation: Batumubwira, Antionette; Min. of Finance: Nizigama, Clotilde; Min. of National Defense & Former Fighters: Niyoyankana, Maj. Gen. Germain Cambodia, Kingdom of—King: Norodom Sihamoni; Prime Minister: Hun Sen; President of the National Assembly: Heng Samrin; Min. of Economy & Finance: Keat Chhon; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation: Hor Namhong; Min. of Justice: Ang Vong Vattana; Min. of National Defense: Gen. Tea Banh Cameroon, Republic of—President: Biya, Paul; Prime Minister: Inoni, Ephraim; Min. of Economy & Finance: Abah Abah, Polycarpe; Min. of External Relations: Atangana Mebara, Jean-Marie Canada—Governor General: Jean, Michaelle; Prime Minister: Harper, Stephen; Min. of Agriculture & Agri-Food, Min. for the Canadian Wheat Board: Ritz, Gerry; Min. of Citizenship & Immigration: Finley, Diane; Min. for Democratic Reform, House Leader: Van Loan, Peter; Min. of the Environment: Baird, John; Min. of Finance: Flaherty, Jim; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Bernier, Maxime; Min. of Health: Clement, Tony; Min. of Indian Affairs & Northern Development: Strahl, Chuck; Min. of Industry: Prentice, Jim; Min. of Intergovernmental Affairs, Privy Council President, Min. of Western Economic Diversification: Ambrose, Rona; Min. of International Cooperation: Oda, Bev; Min. of International Trade: Emerson, David; Min. of Justice, Attorney General: Nicholson, Rob; Min. of National Defense: Mackay, Peter; Min. of Natural Resources: Lunn, Gary; Min. of National Revenue: O’Connor, Gordon; Min. of Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness: Day, Stockwell; Min. of Public Works & Government Services: Fortier, Michael; Min. of Transport, Infrastructure & Communities: Cannon, Lawrence; President of the Treasury Board: Toews, Vic; Governor, Bank of Canada: Dodge, David Cape Verde, Republic of—President: Pires, Pedro; Prime Minister: Neves, Jose Maria Pereira; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation & Communities: Borges, Victor; Min. of Justice & Local Administration: Andrade, Jose Manuel Central African Republic—President, Min of Defense: Bozize, Francois; Prime Minister: Dote, Elie; Min. of Finance & Budget: Ndoutingai, Sylvain; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration & Francophonie Affairs: Zoumara, Come Chad, Republic of—President: Deby, Idriss; Prime Minister: Kassire Koumakoye, Nouradine Delwa; Min. of Defense: Nour Abdelkarim, Mahamat; Min. of Economy, Planning & Cooperation: Hassan, Mahamat Ali; Min. of Finance: Tolli, Mahamat Ali; Min. of Foreign Affairs & African Integration: Allammi, Ahmad Chile, Republic of—President: Bachelet Jeria, Michelle; Min. of Defense: Goni, Jose; Min. of Economy, Development & Reconstruction: Ferreiro, Alejandro; Min. of Finance: Velasco Branes, Andres; Min. of Foreign Relations: Foxley Rioseco, Alejandro; Min. of Interior: Velasco, Belisario; Min. of Justice: Maldonado, Carlos; Min. of Mining: Poniachik, Karen; President, Central Bank: Corbo, Vittorio China, People’s Republic of—President, Chairman, Central Military Commission: Hu Jintao; Vice Presi-

FACTS ON FILE

dent: Zeng Qinghong; Prime Minister: Wen Jiabao; Vice Prime Ministers: Wu Yi, Zeng Peiyan, Hui Liangyu; Min. of Commerce: Bo Xilai; Min. of Finance: Xie Xuren; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Yang Jiechi; Min. of National Defense: Cao Gangchuan; Governor, People’s Bank of China: Zhou Xiaochuan Hong Kong Special Administrative Region—Chief Executive: Donald Tsang; Chief Secretary for Administration: Tang, Henry; Secy. for Finance: Tsang, John Macao Special Administrative Region—Chief Executive: Edmund Ho China, Republic of (Taiwan)—President: Chen Shui-bian; Vice President: Lu, Annette; Prime Minister: Su Tseng-chang; Min. of Economic Affairs: Hwang, Morgan; Min. of Finance: Lin Chuan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Chen, Mark; Min. of Justice: Shih Mao-lin; Min. of National Defense: Li Chieh; Governor, Central Bank of China: Perng Fai-nan Colombia, Republic of—President: Uribe Velez, Alvaro; Vice President: Santos Calderon, Francisco; Min. of Commerce, Industry & Tourism: Plata, Luis Guillermo; Min. of Defense: Santos Calderon, Juan Manuel; Min. of Finance & Public Credit: Zuluaga Escobar, Oscar Ivan; Min. of Foreign Relations: Araujo Perdomo, Fernando; Min. of Interior & Justice: Holguin Sardi, Carlos; President, Central Bank: Uribe Escobar, Jose Dario; Prosecutor General: Igua ran Arana, Mario German Comoros, Union of the—President of the Union: Sambi, Ahmed Abdallah; Vice Presidents: Dhoinine, Ikililou; Nadhoim, Idi; President of Anjouan: Bacar, Mohamed; President of Grand Comore: Abdoulwahabi, Mohamed; President of Moheli: Said, Mohamed Ali; Min. of Foreign Relations: Jaffar, Ahmed Ben Sa’id Congo, Democratic Republic of the—President: Kabila, Joseph; Prime Minister: Gizenga, Antoine; Min. of Agriculture: Mobutu, Nzanga; Min. of Defense & Veterans Affairs: Diemu, Chikez; Min. of Finance: Matenda Kyelu, Athanase; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mbusa Nyamwisi, Antipas; Min. of Interior: Kalume Numbi, Denis; Min. of Mines: Kabwelulu Labilo, Martin Congo, Republic of the—President: Sassou-Nguesso, Denis; Prime Minister: Mvouba, Isidore; Min. of Economy, Finance & Budget: Andely, Roger Rigobert; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mvouba, Isidore; Min. of Security & the Police: Oba, Brig. Gen. Pierre Costa Rica, Republic of—President: Arias Sanchez, Oscar; First Vice President, Min. of Justice: Chinchilla, Laura; Min. of Finance: Zuniga, Guillermo; Min. of Foreign Relations: Stagno Ugarte, Bruno; Min. of Foreign Trade: Ruiz, Marco Vinicio; Min. of Labor & Social Security: Morales, Francisco Cote d’Ivoire, Republic of—President: Gbagbo, Laurent; Prime Minister: Soro, Guillaume; Min. of Economy & Finance: Diby, Charles Koffi; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Bakayoko, Youssouf; Min. of Justice: Kone, Mamadou; Min. of Mines & Energy: Monnet, Emmanuel Leon Croatia, Republic of—President: Mesic, Stipe; Prime Minister: Sanader, Ivo; Min. of Defense: Roncevic, Berislav; Min. of Finance: Suker, Ivan; Min. of Foreign Affairs & European Integration: Kitarovic, Kolinda Grabar; Min. of the Interior: Mlinaric, Marijan Cuba, Republic of*—President of the Council of State and of the Council of Ministers: Castro Ruz, Fidel; First Vice President of the Council of State and of the Council of Ministers, Min. of the Revolutionary Armed Forces: Castro Ruz, Gen. Raul; Vice Presidents of the Council of State: Almeida Bosque, Juan; Colome Ibarra, Gen. Abelardo (also Min. of Interior); Lage Davila, Carlos; Lazo Hernandez, Esteban; Machado Ventura, Jose Ramon; Min. of Economy & Planning: Rodriguez Garcia, Jose Luis; Min. of Foreign Relations: Perez Roque, Felipe *Raul Castro had assumed effective power in 2006 after Fidel Castro was incapacitated by illness. [See p. 498E2] Cyprus, Republic of*—President: Papadopoulos, Tassos; Min. of Defense: Pashiardis, Christodoulos; Min. of Finance: Sarris, Michaelis; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kozakou-Marcoullis, Erato; Governor, Central Bank: Orphanides, Athanasios *A separate entity known since 1983 as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus came into existence after Turkey invaded the island in 1974. Turkey was the only foreign country that formally recognized the enclave. Mehmet Ali Talat had been president since 2005. Czech Republic—President: Klaus, Vaclav; Prime Minister: Topolanek, Mirek; Min. of Defense: Parkanova, Vlasta; Min. of Finance: Kalousek, Miroslav; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Schwarzenberg, Karel; Min.

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of Interior: Langer, Ivan; Min. of Justice: Pospisil, Jiri Denmark, Kingdom of—Queen: Margrethe II; Prime Minister: Rasmussen, Anders Fogh; Min. of Defense: Gade, Soren; Min. of Economic Affairs, Business & Trade: Bendtsen, Bendt; Min. of Environment & Nordic Affairs: Hedegaard, Connie; Min. of Finance: Pedersen, Thor; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Moller, Per Stig Djibouti, Republic of—President: Guelleh, Ismail Omar; Prime Minister: Dileita, Mohamed Dileita; Min. of Defense: Ahmed, Ougoureh Kifleh; Min. of Economy, Finance & Privatization: Bouh, Yacin Elmi; Min. of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation & Parliamentary Relations: Youssouf, Mahamoud Ali Dominica, Commonwealth of—President: Liverpool, Nicholas J.O.; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance, Planning, National Security & Overseas Nationals: Skerrit, Roosevelt; Min. of Foreign Affairs, Trade, Labor & Public Service: Savarin, Charles; Min. of Tourism, Industry & Private Sector Relations: Bannis-Roberts, Loreen Dominican Republic—President: Fernandez Reyna, Leonel; Vice President: Alburquerqe de Castro, Rafael; Secy. of State for Finance: Bengoa Albizu, Vicente; Secy. of State for Foreign Relations: Morales Troncoso, Carlos; Secy. of State for Interior & Police: Almeida Rancier, Francisco; Secy. of State for Tourism: Jimenez Jimenez, Felix East Timor—See Timor Leste Ecuador, Republic of—President: Correa Delgado, Rafael; Min. of Economy & Finance: Ortiz de la Cadena, Fausto; Min. of Mines & Petroleum: Chiriboga Zambrano, Galo; Min. of Foreign Relations, Foreign Trade & Integration: Espinosa Garces, Maria Fernanda; Min. of Industry & Competitiveness: Sagasti Lupera, Raul Egypt, Arab Republic of—President: Mubarak, Mohammed Hosni; Prime Minister: Nazif, Ahmed Mohamed; Min. of Agriculture & Land Reclamation: Abaza, Amin; Min. of Defense: Tantawi, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein; Min. of Finance: Boutros-Ghali, Yousef; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Aboul Gheit, Ahmed Ali; Min. of Interior: Adli, Habib alEl Salvador, Republic of—President: Saca Gonzalez, Elias Antonio; Vice President: De Escobar, Ana Vilma Albanez; Min. of Defense: Romero Orellana, Alejandro (Otto); Min. of Economy: Gavidia, Yolanda Mayora de; Min. of Finance: Handal, William; Min. of Foreign Relations: Lainez Rivas, Francisco Esteban; Min. of Government: Bolanos, Juan Miguel Equatorial Guinea, Republic of—President: Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Brig. Gen. Teodoro (ret.); Prime Minister: Mangue Obama Nfube, Ricardo; Min. of Economy, Commerce & Promotion: Ndong, Jaime Ela; Min. of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation & Francophone Affairs: Bile, Micha Ondo; Min. of National Defense: Mba Nguema, Gen. Antonio Eritrea, State of—President: Issaias Afwerki; Min. of Defense: Sebhat Ephrem; Min. of Finance: Berhane Abrehe; Min. of National Development: Woldai Futur Estonia, Republic of—President: Ilves, Toomas; Prime Minister: Ansip, Andrus; Min. of Defense: Aaviksoo, Jaak; Min. of Finance: Padar, Ivari; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Paet, Urmas Ethiopia, Federal Democratic Republic of—President: Girma Woldegiorgis; Prime Minister: Meles Zenawi; Min. of Defense: Kuma Demeksa; Min. of Finance & Economic Development: Sufian Ahmed; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Seyoum Mesfin; Min. of Trade & Industry: Girma Birru Fiji, Republic of*—President: Iloilo, Josefa; Prime Minister, Min. for Home Affairs & Immigration, Min. for Information: Bainimarama, Cmdre. Frank; Min. for Finance & National Planning: Chaudhry, Mahendra Pal; Min. for Foreign Affairs & External Trade: Nailatikau, Ratu Epeli *A military coup led by Bainimarama in December 2006 had overthrown the democratically elected civilian government. Bainimarama in January 2007 had restored Iloilo to the presidency and had himself sworn in as interim prime minister; the other cabinet positions were also held on an interim basis. [See p. 19G3] Finland, Republic of—President: Halonen, Tarja; Prime Minister: Vanhanen, Matti Taneli; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Katainen, Jyrki; Min. of Defense: Hakamies, Jyri; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Nordic Cooperation: Kanerva, Ilkka; Min. of Justice: Brax, Tuija; Min. of Trade & Industry: Pekkarinen, Mauri; Governor, Bank of Finland: Liikanen, Erkki France (French Republic)—President:

Sarkozy,

Nicolas; Prime Minister: Fillon, Francois; Min. of State, Min. of Environment, Sustainable Development & Regional Development: Borloo, Jean-Louis; Min. of Agriculture & Fisheries: Barnier, Michel; Min. of Budget, National Accounts & the Civil Service: Woerth, Eric; Min. of Culture & Communication: Albanel, Christine; Min. of Defense: Morin, Herve; Min. of Economy, Finance & Employment: Lagarde, Christine; Min. of Labor, Labor Relations & Solidarity: Bertrand, Xavier; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kouchner, Bernard; Min. for Health & Solidarity: Bertrand, Xavier; Min. of Immigration, Integration & National Identity: Hortefeux, Brice, Christine; Min. of the Interior, Overseas France & Local Authorities: AlliotMarie, Michele; Min. of Justice: Dati, Rachida; Min. of National Education: Darcos, Xavier; Governor, Bank of France: Noyer, Christian Gabon (Gabonese Republic)—President: Bongo Odimba, El Hadj Omar; Prime Minister: Ndong, Eyeghe; Min. of Defense: Bongo, Ali-Ben; Min. of State for Economy, Finance, Budget & Privatization: Toungui, Paul; Min. of State for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation & Francophonie Affairs: Ping, Jean Gambia, Republic of the—Head of State: Jammeh, Yahya; Vice President: Njie-Saidy, Isatou; Secy. of State for Finance & Economic Affairs: Bala-Gaye, Mousa; Secy. of State for Foreign Affairs: Jahumpa, Bala Garba Georgia, Republic of—President: Saakashvili, Mikheil; Prime Minister: Nogaideli, Zurab; Min. of Defense: Kezerashvili, Davit; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Bezhuashvili, Gela; Min. of Internal Affairs: Merabishvili, Vano; Min. of Justice: Kavtaradze, Gia Germany (Federal Republic of Germany)—President: Koehler, Horst; Chancellor: Merkel, Angela; Vice Chancellor, Min. for Labor & Social Security: Muentefering, Franz; Min. of Defense: Jung, Franz Josef; Min. for Environment & Nuclear Safety: Gabriel, Sigmar; Min. for Family, Seniors, Women & Youth: Von der Leyen, Ursula; Min. of Finance: Steinbrueck, Peer; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Steinmeier, Frank-Walter; Min. of the Interior: Schaeuble, Wolfgang; Min. of Justice: Zypries, Brigitte; Min. for Transportation, Construction & Housing: Tiefensee, Wolfgang; President, German Federal Bank: Weber, Axel Ghana, Republic of—President: Kufuor, John Agyekum; Min. of Defense: Kan-Dapaah, Albert; Min. of Finance & Economic Planning: Baah-Wiredu, Kwadwo; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Asei-Adjei, Akwasi Great Britain—See United Kingdom Greece (Hellenic Republic)*—President: Papoulias, Karolos; Prime Minister: Karamanlis, Costas; Min. of Defense: Meimarakis, Evangelos-Vassilios; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Bakoyianni, Thedora; Min. of Justice: Hadjigakis, Sotirios; Min. of National Economy & Finance: Alogoskoufis, Georgios; Governor, Bank of Greece: Garganas, Nikos *Karamanlis and his cabinet were sworn in for a new term Sept. 19 after his New Democracy Party won parliamentary elections. [See p. 616A1] Grenada—Governor General: Williams, Daniel; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance, Min. of Information, Min. of Mobilization: Mitchell, Keith; Min. of Foreign Affairs & of Carriacou & Petite Martinique Affairs, Min. of Labor: Nimrod, Elvin; Min. of Health & Environment, Min. of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Culture & Performing Arts: Modeste-Curwen, Clarice Guatemala, Republic of—President: Berger Perdomo, Oscar; Vice President: Stein Barillas, Eduardo; Min. of Defense: Leiva Rodriguez, Maj. Gen. Ronaldo Cecilio; Min. of Economy: Estrada, Luis Oscar; Min. of External Relations: Rosenthal Koenigsberger, Gert Guinea, Republic of—President: Conte, Gen. Lansana; Prime Minister: Kouyate, Lansana; Min. of Economy & Finance: Dore, Ousmane; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Camara, Kabele Guinea-Bissau, Republic of—President: Vieira, Joao Bernardo; Prime Minister: Cabi, Martinho; Min. of Finance: Sanha, Issuf; Min. of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation & Diaspora: Cabral, Maria de Conceicao Nobre Guyana, Cooperative Republic of—President: Jagdeo, Bharrat; Prime Minister, Min. of Public Works: Hinds, Samuel; Min. of Finance: Singh, Ashni; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Insanally, Rudolph; Min. of Health: Ramsammy, Leslie Haiti—President: Preval, Rene Garcia; Prime Minister: Alexis, Jacques-Edouard; Min. of the Economy & Finance: Dorsainvil, Daniel; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Worship: Clerisme, Jean Reynald; Min. of Interior &

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Territorial Collectivities: Bien-Aime, Paul Antoine; Min. of Justice & Public Security: Magloire, Rene Honduras, Republic of—President: Zelaya Rosales, Manuel; Min. of Defense: Mejia, Aristides; Min. of Finance: Santos Rivera, Rebeca; Min. of Foreign Relations: Jimenez Puerto, Milton; Min. of Industry & Commerce: Azcona Bobcock, Elizabeth; Min. of Government & Justice: Reina, Jorge Arturo Hungary, Republic of—President: Solyom, Laszlo; Prime Minister: Gyurcsany, Ferenc; Min. of Defense: Szekeres, Imre; Min. of Finance: Veres, Janos; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Goncz, Kinga; Governor, Hungarian National Bank: Simor, Andras Iceland, Republic of—President: Grimsson, Olafur Ragnar; Prime Minister: Haarde, Geir; Min. of Fisheries & Agriculture: Gudfinsson, Einar; Min. of Environment: Sveinbjarnadottir, Thorunn; Min. of Finance: Mathiesen, Arni; Min. of Foreign Affairs & External Trade: Gisladottir, Ingibjorg Solrun; Dir., Central Bank: Oddsson, David India, Republic of—President: Patil, Pratibha; Prime Minister: Singh, Manmohan; Min. of Commerce & Industry: Nath, Kamal; Min. of Defense: Antony, A.K.; Min. of External Affairs: Mukherjee, Pranab; Min. of Finance: Chidambaram, Palaniappan; Min. of Health & Family Welfare: Ramadoss, Anbumani; Min. of Home Affairs: Patil, Shivraj; Governor, Central Bank: Reddy, Y. Venugopal Indonesia, Republic of—President: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono; Vice President: Kalla, Jusuf; Coordinating Min. for Political, Legal & Security Affairs: Widodo A.S.; Coordinating Min. for Economic Affairs: Boediono; Min. of Defense: Juwono Sudarsono; Min. of Finance: Sri Mulyani Indrawati; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Noer Hassan Wirajuda; Min. for State-Owned Enterprises: Djalil, Sofyan; Attorney General: Supandji, Hendarman Iran, Islamic Republic of—Supreme Leader: Khamenei, Ayatollah Mohammed Ali Hoseini; President: Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud; Min. of Defense & Armed Forces Logistics: Najjar, Mostafa Mohammad; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mottaki, Manouchehr; Min. of Interior: Pour-Mohammadi, Mostafa; Min. of Petroleum (Acting): Nozari, Gholam Hossein Iraq—President: Talabani, Jalal; Prime Minister: Maliki, Nouri Kamel al-; Vice Presidents: Mahdi, Adel Abdul; Hashimi, Tariq al-; Deputy Prime Ministers: Saleh, Barham; Zubaie, Salam Zikam Ali al-; Min. of Defense: Mufriji, Abd al-Qadir al-; Min. of Finance: Jabr, Bayan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Zebari, Hoshyar; Min. of Interior: Bolani, Jawad al-; Min. of Oil: Shahristani, Hussain alIreland, Republic of (Eire)—President: McAleese, Mary; Prime Minister: Ahern, Bertie; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. for Finance: Cowen, Brian; Min. for Agriculture, Fisheries & Food: Mary Coughlan; Min. for Defense: O’Dea, Willie; Min. for Enterprise, Trade & Employment: Martin, Micheal; Min. for Foreign Affairs: Ahern, Dermot; Min. for Health & Children: Harney, Mary; Min. for Justice, Equality & Law Reform: Lenihan, Brian; Governor, Central Bank of Ireland: Hurley, John Israel, State of—President: Peres, Shimon; Prime Minister: Olmert, Ehud; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Livni, Tzipora (Tzipi); Min. of Defense: Barak, Ehud; Min. of Finance: Bar-On, Roni; Min. of Health: Ben-Yizri, Yacov; Min. of Industry, Trade and Labor: Yishai, Eliyahu (Eli); Min. of Interior: Sheetrit, Meir; Min. of Justice: Friedmann, Daniel; Min. of Pensioners’ Affairs: Eitan, Rafael (Rafi) Italy (Italian Republic)—President: Napolitano, Giorgio; Prime Minister: Prodi, Romano; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Foreign Affairs: D’Alema, Massimo; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Culture: Rutelli, Francesco; Min. of Defense: Parisi, Arturo; Min. of Environment: Pecoraro Scanio, Alfonso; Min. for Economic Development:Bersani, Pierluigi; Min. of Economy & Finance: Padoa-Schioppa, Tommaso; Min. of Health: Turco, Livia; Min. of Interior: Amato, Giuliano; Min. of Justice: Mastella, Clemente; Min. of Labor: Damiano, Cesare; Governor, Bank of Italy: Draghi, Mario Ivory Coast—See Cote d’Ivoire, Republic of Jamaica*—Governor General: Hall, Kenneth; Prime Minister, Min. of Planning, Development & Defense: Golding, Bruce; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Foreign Affairs & Trade: Baugh, Kenneth; Min. of Agriculture: Tufton, Christopher; Min. of Finance & Public Service: Shaw, Audley; Min. of Health & Environment: Spencer, Rudyard; Min of National Security: Smith, Derrick

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*Golding was sworn in Sept. 11 and named his cabinet the following day. [See p. 578D2] Japan*—Emperor: Akihito; Prime Minister: Abe, Shinzo; Chief Cabinet Secretary: Yosano, Kaoru; Min. of Economy, Trade & Industry: Amari, Akira; Min. of Defense: Komura, Masahiko; Min. of Finance: Nukaga, Fukushiro; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Machimura, Nobutaka; Min. of Internal Affairs & Communications: Masuda, Hiroya; Min. of Justice: Hatoyama, Kunio; Min. of Land, Infrastructure & Transport: Fuyushiba, Tetsuzo; State Min., Financial Services & Administrative Reform: Watanabe, Yoshimi; State Min., Economic & Fiscal Policy: Ota, Hiroko; Governor, Bank of Japan: Fukui, Toshihiko *Abe Sept. 12 announced his resignation, to take effect upon the selection of a new leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party Sept. 23. [See p. 588C1] Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of—King: Abdullah II; Prime Minister, Min. of Defense: Bakhit, Marouf al-; Min. of Finance: Fareez, Ziad; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Khatib, Abdul Ilaah al-; Min. of Interior: Fayez, Eid alKazakhstan, Republic of—President: Nazarbayev, Nursultan; Prime Minister: Masimov, Karim; Min. of Defense: Akhmetov, Daniyal; Min. of Finance: Korzhova, Natalya; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Tazhin, Marat Kenya, Republic of—President: Kibaki, Mwai; Vice President: Awori, Moody; Min. for Finance: Kimunya, Amos; Min. for Foreign Affairs: Tuju, Raphael; Min. for Health: Ngilu, Charity Kaluki; Min. for Trade & Industry: Kituyi, Mukhisa Kiribati, Republic of—President, Min. for Foreign Affairs: Tong, Anote; Min. for Environment, Lands & Agricultural Development: Tofinga, Martin; Min. for Finance & Economic Development: Mwemwenikarawa, Nabuti Korea, North (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)—General Secretary, Korean Workers’ Party; Chairman, National Defense Commission: Kim Jong Il; President, Supreme People’s Assembly Presidium: Kim Yong Nam; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Pak Ui Chun Korea, South (Republic of Korea)—President: Roh Moo Hyun; Prime Minister: Han Duck Soo; Min. of National Defense: Kim Jang Soo; Min. of Finance & Economy: Kwon O Kyu; Min. of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Song Min Soon; Governor, Bank of Korea: Lee Seong Tae Kuwait, State of—Emir: Sabah, Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jabir al-; Prime Minister: Sabah, Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmed al-; First Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Defense, Min. of Interior: Sabah, Jabir Mubarak al-; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Sabah, Muhammad al-Sabah al-Salim al-; Min. of Finance: Humaydi, Badr Mishari al-; Min. of Energy & Oil (Acting): Sabah, Ali al-Jarrah alKyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic)—President: Bakiyev, Kurmanbek; Prime Minister: Atambayev, Almaz; Min. of Defense: Isakov, Ismail; Min. of Finance: Japarov, Akylbek; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Karabayev, Ednan Laos (Lao People’s Democratic Republic)—President: Choummali Saignason, Lt. Gen.; Vice President: Boungnang Volachit; Prime Minister: Bouasone Bouphavanh; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Thongloun Sisoulit; Min. of National Defense: Douangchai Phichit, Maj. Gen. Latvia, Republic of—President: Zatlers, Valdis; Prime Minister: Kalvitis, Aigars; Min. of Defense: Slakteris, Atis; Min. of Economy: Strods, Jurijs; Min. of Finance: Spurdzins, Oskars; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Pabriks, Artis Lebanon, Republic of—President: Lahoud, Emile; Prime Minister: Siniora, Fouad; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Defense: Murr, Elias; Min. of Economy & Trade: Haddad, Sami; Min. of Finance: Azour, Jihad; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Salloukh, Fawzi; Min. of Interior & Municipalities: Sabaa, Hassan Lesotho, Kingdom of—King: Letsie III; Prime Minister, Min. of Defense: Mosisili, Pakalitha Bethuel; Min. of Finance & Development Planning: Thahane, Timothy; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Moleleki, Monyane Liberia, Republic of—President: Johnson-Sirleaf, Ellen; Min. of Finance: Sayeh, Antoinette; Min. of Foreign Affairs: King-Akerele, Olubanke; Min. of National Defense: Samukai, Brownie Libya (Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya)—Leader: Qaddafi, Col. Muammer el-; Secy., General People’s Congress: Zanati, Mohammed al-; Secy., General People’s Committee (Prime Minister): Mahmudi, Baghdadi al-; Secy. of the General People’s Committee for Foreign Liaison & Interna-

tional Cooperation: Shalgam, Abd al-Rahman Liechtenstein, Principality of—Head of State: Prince Hans Adam II; Prime Minister: Hasler, Otmar; Chairman, Liechtenstein State Bank: Fehr, Josef Lithuania, Republic of—President: Adamkus, Valdas; Prime Minister: Kirkilas, Gediminas; Min. of Defense: Olekas, Juozas; Min. of Finance: Sadzius, Rimantas; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Vaitiekunas, Petras Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of—Grand Duke: Henri; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Juncker, Jean-Claude; Vice Prime Minister, Min. of Foreign Affairs and Immigration: Asselborn, Jean; Min. of Economy & Foreign Trade: Krecke, Jeannot; Chairman, Luxemburg Central Bank: Mersch, Yves Macedonia, Republic of*—President: Crvenkovski, Branko; Prime Minister: Gruevski, Nikola; Min. of Defense: Elenovski, Lazar; Min. of Finance: Slaveski, Trajko; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Milososki, Antonio; Min of the Interior: Jankulovska, Gordana *The country was known internationally as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, but the U.S. in 2004 had recognized its constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia. Greece, which had a region called Macedonia, objected to that name. Madagascar, Republic of—President: Ravalomanana, Marc; Prime Minister: Rabemananjara, Gen. Charles; Min. of Defense: Behajaina, Gen. Petera; Min. of Economy, Commerce, Planning & Private Sector: Radnriarimanana, Harrison; Min. of Finance: Radavidson, Benjamin Andriamparany; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Ranjeva, Gen. Marcel Malawi, Republic of—President, Min. of Agriculture & Food Security: Mutharika, Bingu wa; Vice President: Chilumpha, Cassim; Min. of Finance: Gondwe, Goodall; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation: Banda, Joyce Malaysia—Paramount Ruler (King): Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Mahmud AlMuktafi Billah Shah; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Defense: Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Syed Hamid bin Syed Jaafar Albar; Governor, Central Bank: Zeti Akhtar Aziz Maldives, Republic of—President: Gayoom, Maumoon Abdul; Min. of Defense & National Security: Shafeeu, Ismail; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Shahid, Abdullah Mali, Republic of—President: Toure, Amadou Toumani; Prime Minister: Maiga, Ousmane Issoufi; Min. of Economy & Finance: Traore, Abou-Bakar; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Ouane, Moctar; Min. of Internal Security & Civil Protection: Gassama, Col. Sadio Malta, Republic of—President: Fenech Adami, Eddie; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Gonzi, Lawrence; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Justice & Home Affairs: Borg, Tonio; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Frendo, Michael Marshall Islands, Republic of the—President: Note, Kessai; Min. of Finance: Konelios, Michael; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Trade: Zackios, Gerald Mauritania, Islamic Republic of—President: Abdellahi, Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh; Prime Minister: Zeidane, Zeine Ould; Min. of Economy & Finance: Hamma Vezzaz, Abderrahmane Ould; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation: Lemine, Mohamed Saleck Mohamed Mauritius, Republic of—President: Jugnauth, Sir Anerood; Prime Minister, Min. of Civil Service & Administrative Reforms, Min. of Defense & Home Affairs: Ramgoolam, Navinchandra; Min. of Finance & Economic Development: Sithanen, Rama Kirshna; Min. of Foreign Affairs, International Trade & Cooperation: Dulloo, Murlidhar Madun Mexico (United Mexican States)—President: Calderon Hinojosa, Felipe de Jesus; Attorney General: Medina Mora Icaza, Eduardo; Secy. of Economy: Sojo Garza-Aldape, Eduardo; Secy. of Energy: Kessel Martinez, Georgina; Secy. of Finance & Public Credit: Carstens Carstens, Agustin; Secy. of Foreign Relations: Espinosa Cantellano, Patricia; Secy. of Government: Ramirez Acuna, Francisco Javier; Secy. of Labor & Social Welfare: Lozano Alarcon, Javier; Secy. of National Defense: Galvan Galvan, Guillermo; Secy. of Public Education: Vazquez Mota, Josefina; Secy. of Tourism: Elizondo Torres, Rodolfo; Governor, Bank of Mexico: Ortiz Martinez, Guillermo Micronesia, Federated States of—President: Urusemal, Joseph; Vice President: Killion, Redley; Secy. of Foreign Affairs: Anefal, Sebastain Moldova, Republic of—President: Voronin, Vladimir; Prime Minister: Tarlev, Vasile; Min. of De-

FACTS ON FILE

fense: Vrabie, Vitale; Min. of Finance: Pop, Mihai; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Stratan, Andrei; Min. of Internal Affairs: Papuc, Gheorghe Monaco, Principality of—Chief of State: Prince Albert II; Min. of State: Proust, Jean-Paul Mongolia—President: Enkhbayar, Nambariin; Prime Minister: Enkhbold, Mieagombyn Montenegro, Republic of—President: Vujanovic, Filip; Prime Minister: Sturanovic, Zeljko; Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policy: Lazovic, Vujica; Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration: Djurovic, Gordana; Min. of Finance: Luksic, Igor; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Rocen, Milan Morocco, Kingdom of*—King: Mohammed VI; Prime Minister: Fassi, Abbas el *King Mohammed VI Sept. 19 appointed Fassi prime minister. He had yet to name a new cabinet. [See p. 613D1] Mozambique, Republic of—President: Guebuza, Armando; Prime Minister: Diogo, Luisa Dias; Min. of Finance: Chang, Manuel; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation: Abreu, Alcinda; Min. of National Defense: Dai, Tobias Myanmar, Union of—Prime Minister: Soe Win, Gen.; Chairman, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC); Min. of Defense: Than Shwe, Sr. Gen.; Vice Chairman, SPDC: Maung Aye, Vice Sr. Gen.; First Secy., SPDC: Thein Sein, Lt. Gen.; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Nyan Win, Maj. Gen. Namibia, Republic of—President: Pohamba, Hifikepunye; Prime Minister: Angula, Nahas; Min. of Defense: Namoloh, Maj. Gen. Charles; Min. of Finance: Kuugongel Wa-amadhila, Saara; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Hausiku, Marco Nauru, Republic of—President: Scotty, Ludwig; Min. for Finance, Min. for Foreign Affairs: Adeang, David; Min. for Health: Keke, Dr. Kieren; Min. for Justice: Thoma, Godfrey Nepal, Kingdom of—King: Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah; Prime Minister, Min. of Defense: Koirala, Girija Prasad; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Pradhan, Sahana; Min. of Finance: Mahat, Ram Sharan; Min. of Home: Sitaula, Krishna; Min. of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs: Nemwang, Narendra Bikram Netherlands, Kingdom of the—Queen: Beatrix; Prime Minister: Balkenende, Jan Peter; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Bos, Wouter; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Youth & Family Affairs: Rouvoet, Andre; Min. of Defense: van Middelkoop, Eimert; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Verhagen, Maxime; Min. of Housing, Communities & Integration: Vogelaar, Ella; Min. of Justice: Hirsch Ballin, Ernst; Min. of Social Affairs & Employment: Donner, Piet Hein; President, Central Bank: Wellink, Nout New Zealand, Dominion of—Governor General: Satyanand, Anand; Prime Minister, Min. of Arts, Culture & Heritage: Clark, Helen; Deputy Prime Minister, Attorney General, Min. of Finance: Cullen, Michael; Min. of Defense, Min. of Trade: Goff, Philip; Min. of Education: Benson-Pope, David; Min. of State Services: King, Annette; Min. of Justice, Min. in Charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations: Burton, Mark; Min. of Maori Affairs: Horomia, Parekura Nicaragua, Republic of—President: Ortega Saavedra, Daniel; Vice President: Morales Carazo, Jaime; Min. of Environment & Natural Resources: Argenal, Juana; Min. of Finance & Public Credit: Guevara Obregon, Alberto Jose; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Santos Lopez, Samuel; Min. of Labor: Chavez, Jeaneth Niger, Republic of the—President: Tandja, Mamadou; Prime Minister: Oumarou, Seine; Min. of Defense: Hamadou, Djida; Min. of Economy & Finance: Lamine, Ali Zeine; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mindaoudou, Aichatou Nigeria, Federal Republic of—President, Min. of Energy: Yar’Adua, Umaru; Vice President: Jonathan, Goodluck; Min. of Defense: Ahmed, Mahmud Yayale; Min. of Finance: Usman, Shamasudeen; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Maduekwe, Ojo; Min. of Internal Affairs: Abbe, Godwin; Min. of Justice: Aondokaa, Michael Kaase Norway, Kingdom of—King: Harald V; Prime Minister: Stoltenberg, Jens; Min. of Defense: StromErichsen, Anne-Grete; Min. of Environment: Bjornoy, Helen; Min. of Finance: Halvorsen, Kristin; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Store, Jonas Gahr; Min. of Justice & Police: Storberget, Knut; Min. of Petroleum & Energy: Enoksen, Odd Roger; Min. of Trade & Industry: Andersen, Dag Terje; Governor, Bank of

September 20, 2007

Norway: Gjedrem, Svein Oman, Sultanate of—Sultan, Prime Minister, Min. of Defense, Min. of Finance: Said, Qaboos bin Said al-; Min. of Oil & Gas: Rumhi, Muhammad bin Hamad bin Sayf alPakistan, Islamic Republic of—President: Musharraf, Gen. Pervez; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Aziz, Shaukat; Min. of Defense: Iqbal, Rao Sikandar; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kasuri, Mian Khursheed Mehmood; Min. of Information & Broadcasting: Durrani, Mohammad Ali; Min. of Interior: Sherpao, Aftab Ahmed Khan; Min. for Law, Justice & Human Rights: Zafar, Muhammad Wasi; Min. for Kashmir Affairs & Northern Areas: Iqbal, Tahir Palau, Republic of—President: Remengesau, Tommy; Vice President: Chin, Elias Panama, Republic of—President: Torrijos Espino, Martin; First Vice President, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Lewis Navarro, Samuel; Min. of Commerce & Industries: Ferrer, Alejandro; Min. of Economy & Finances: Vallarino, Carlos; Min. of Government & Justice: Golcher, Olga; Min. of Presidency: Real Solis, Ubaldino; Min. of Public Works: Colamarco, Benjamin Papua New Guinea, Independent State of—Governor General: Matane, Sir Paulius; Prime Minister: Somare, Sir Michael; Min. for Defense: Dadae, Bob; Min. for Finance, Min. for Treasury & Finance: Pruaitch, Patrick; Min. for Foreign Affairs, Trade & Immigration: Abal, Sam Paraguay, Republic of—President: Duarte Frutos, Nicanor; Min. of Finance: Barreto Otazu, Cesar; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Ramirez Lezcano, Ruben; Min. of Interior: Delmas Frescura, Guillermo; Min. of Justice & Labor: Cespedes, Derlis; Min. of National Defense: Gonzales, Roberto Peru—President: Garcia Perez, Alan; Prime Minister: Del Castillo Galvez, Jorge; Min. of Defense: Wagner Tizon, Allan; Min. of Economy & Finance: Carranza Ugarte, Luis; Min. of Energy & Mines: Valdivia Romero, Juan; Min. of Foreign Relations: Garcia Belaunde, Jose Antonio; Min. of Interior: Alva Castro, Luis Philippines, Republic of the—President: Macapagal-Arroyo, Gloria; Vice President: De Castro, Noli; Executive Secretary: Ermita, Eduardo; Secy. of Finance: Teves, Margarito Gary; Secy. of Foreign Affairs: Romulo, Alberto; Secy. of Interior & Local Government: Puno, Ronaldo; Secy. of National Defense: Teodoro, Gilberto Jr.; Secy. of Trade & Industry: Favila, Peter Poland, Republic of—President: Kaczynski, Lech; Prime Minister: Kaczynski, Jaroslaw; Min. of Finance: Glowska, Zyta; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Fotyga, Anna; Min. of Internal Affairs & Administration: Kaczmarek, Janusz; Min. of Justice: Ziobro, Zbigniew; Min. of National Defense: Szczyglo, Aleksander; President, Polish National Bank: Skrzypek, Slawomir Portugal (Portuguese Republic)—President: Cavaco Silva, Anibal Antonio; Prime Minister: Socrates Carvalho Sousa de Pinto, Jose; Min. of Agriculture, Rural Development & Fisheries: Silva, Jaime; Min. for the Economy & Innovation: Pinho, Manuel; Min. of Finance: Teixeira dos Santos, Fernando; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Amado, Luis; Min. for Internal Administration: Costa, Antonio; Min. of Justice: Pereira, Rui; Min. for National Defense: Severiano Teixeira, Nuno; Governor, Bank of Portugal: Constancio, Victor Qatar, State of—Emir, Min. of Defense: Thani, Hamad bin Khalifa al-; Prime Minister: Thani, Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabir al-; Min. of Energy & Industry: Sadah, Muhammad Salih al-; Min. of Finance: Kamal, Yusuf Husayn al-; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Thani, Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabir al-; Min. of Water & Electricity: Attiyah, Abdallah bin Hamad al-; Romania—President: Basescu, Traian; Prime Minister: Tariceanu, Calin Popescu; Min. of Defense: Melescanu, Teodor Viorel; Min. of Economy & Finance: Vosganian, Varujan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Cioroianu, Adrian Russia (Russian Federation)*—President: Putin, Vladimir V.; Prime Minister: Zubkov, Viktor; First Deputy Prime Minister: Ivanov, Sergei B., Medvedev, Dmitriy A.; Min. of Defense: Serdyukov, Anatoliy E.; Min. of Agriculture: Gordeyev, Aleksei V.; Min. of Finance: Kudrin, Aleksei L.; Min. of Industry & Energy: Khristenko, Viktor B.; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Lavrov, Sergei V.; Min. of Justice: Ustinov, Vladimir V.; Min. of Natural Resources: Trutnev, Yuri P. *The cabinet was dissolved on Sept. 12. Viktor

Zubkov was appointed to be Prime Minister that day by Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, and was confirmed Sept. 14 by the Duma, or lower house of parliament. The members of the new cabinet were expected to be announced within seven days of Zubkov’s confirmation. [See p. 616A2] Rwanda (Rwandese Republic)—President: Kagame, Paul; Prime Minister: Makuza, Bernard; Min. of Defense & National Security: Gatsinzi, Maj. Gen. Marcel; Min. of Finance & Economic Planning: Musoni, James; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation: Murigande, Charles; Min. of Justice: Karugarama, Tharcisse St. Christopher (St. Kitts) and Nevis, Federation of—Governor General: Sebastian, Cuthbert Montraville; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance, Min. of Sustainable Development, Min. of Technology, Min. of Tourism & Culture: Douglas, Denzil; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Education, Min. of Youth, Social & Community Development: Condor, Sam; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Trade, Min. of Industry & Commerce: Harris, Timothy; Min. of Immigration & Labor, Min. of Justice, Min. of National Security: Astaphan, GeraldAnthony Dwyer St. Lucia—Governor General: Louisy, Dame Pearlette; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance & Physical Development: Compton, Sir John; Min. of Economic Affairs, Economic Planning, National Development & Public Service: D’Auvergne, Ausbert; Min. of External Affairs, International Financial Services, Information & Broadcasting: Bousquet, Rufus St. Vincent and the Grenadines—Governor General: Ballantyne, Sir Frederick Nathaniel; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance, Min. of Grenadine Affairs & Legal Affairs, Min. of Information, Min. of Labor, Min. of Planning & Economic Development: Gonsalves, Ralph; Dep. Prime Minister, Min. of Foreign Affairs, Commerce & Trade: Straker, Louis; Min. of Tourism, Youth & Sports: Beache, Glen; Min. of Transportation & Works: Burgin, Clayton Samoa, Independent State of—Head of State: His Highness Malietoa Tanumafili II; Prime Minister, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Tuila’epa Sailele Malielegaoi; Deputy Prime Minister: Misa Telefoni Retzlaff San Marino, Republic of—Secy. of State for Foreign & Political Affairs & Economic Planning: Stolfi, Fiorenzo; Secy. of Budget & Finance: Macina, Stefano; Secy. of Interior & Civil Protection: Ciavatta, Valeria Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of—President: de Menezes, Fradique; Prime Minister: Vera Cruz, Tome Soares da; Dep. Prime Minister, Min. of Planning & Finance: Tebus, Maria; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation: Gustavo, Carlos Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of—King, Prime Minister: Saud, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-; Crown Prince, First Deputy Prime Minister: Saud, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-; Min. of Finance: Asaf, Ibrahim Abdul Aziz al-; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Saud, Saud al-Faisal al-; Min. of Interior: Saud, Nayif bin Abdul Aziz al-; Min. of Justice: Sheikh, Abdallah Mohammed al-; Min. of Petroleum & Mineral Resources: Naimi, Ali Ibrahim al-; Min. of Pilgrimage Affairs & Religious Trusts: Farsi, Abd al-Salam Muhammad alSenegal, Republic of—President: Wade, Abdoulaye; Prime Minister: Soumare, Cheikh Hadjibou; Min. of Armed Forces: Diop, Becaye; Min. of Economy & Finance: Diop, Abdoulaye; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Gadio, Cheikh Tidiane Serbia, Republic of—President: Tadic, Boris; Prime Minister: Kostunica, Vojislav; Min. of Defense:Sutanovac, Dragan; Min. of Finance: Cvetkovic, Mirko; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Jeremic, Vuk; Min. of Interior: Jocic, Dragan Seychelles, Republic of—President, Min. of Internal Affairs, Defense & Legal Affairs: Michel, James Alix; Vice President: Belmont, Joseph; Min. of Finance: Faure, Danny; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation: Pillay, Patrick Georges Sierra Leone, Republic of*—President: Koroma, Ernest Bai; Vice President: Sam-Sumana, Samuel *Koroma Sept. 17 was declared the winner of a Sept. 8 runoff election, and was sworn in later that day. [See p. 613E1] Singapore, Republic of—President: Nathan, S. R.; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Lee Hsien Loong; Senior Minister; Chairman, Monetary Authority of Singapore: Goh Chok Tong: Min. of Foreign Affairs: Yeo, George; Minister Mentor: Lee Kuan Yew Slovakia (Slovak Republic)—President: Gasparovic, Ivan; Prime Minister: Fico, Robert; Deputy

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Prime Minister, Min. of Interior: Kalinak, Robert; Min. of Defense: Kasicky, Frantisek; Min. of Finance: Pociatek, Jan; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kubis, Jan Slovenia, Republic of—President: Drnovsek, Janez; Prime Minister: Jansa, Janez; Min. of Defense: Erjavec, Karl; Min. of Finance: Bajuk, Andrej; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Rupel, Dimitrij Solomon Islands—Governor General: Waena, Sir Nathaniel; Prime Minister: Sogavare, Manasseh; Deputy Prime Minister: Rini, Snyder; Min. of Finance & Treasury: Boyers, Peter; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Oti, John Patteson; Attorney General: Moti, Julian Somalia, Republic of*—Interim President: Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed; Interim Prime Minister: Ali Muhammad Gedi *Somalia had been without a permanent functioning central government since 1991. [See p. 382A3] South Africa, Republic of—President: Mbeki, Thabo; Deputy President: Mlambo-Ngcuka, Phumzile; Min. of Agriculture & Land Affairs: Didiza, Angela Thoko; Min. of Defense: Lekota, Mosiuoa; Min. of Finance: Manuel, Trevor; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Dlamini-Zuma, Nkosazana; Min. of Health: Tshabalala-Msimang, Manto; Min. of Justice & Constitutional Affairs: Mabandla, Brigitte Spain, Kingdom of—King: Juan Carlos I; Prime Minister: Rodriguez Zapatero, Jose Luis; Min. of Defense: Alonso, Jose Antonio; Min. of Economy & Finance: Solbes, Pedro; Min. of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation: Moratinos, Miguel Angel; Min. of Interior: Rubalcaba, Alfredo Perez; Min. of Justice: Fernandez Bermejo, Mariano; Governor, Bank of Spain: Fernandez Ordonez, Miguel Angel Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of— President, Min. of Defense, Min. of Finance: Rajapakse, Mahinda; Prime Minister: Wickremanayake, Ratnasiri; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Bogollagama, Rohitha; Governor, Central Bank: Cabraal, Ajith Nivard Sudan, Republic of the—President: Bashir, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed al-; First Vice President, President of Southern Sudan: Kiir Mayardit, Salva; Vice President: Taha, Ali Osman; Senior Assistant to the President: Minnawi, Minni; Min. of Defense: Hussein, Abdel Rahim Mohammed; Min. of Energy & Mining: Jaz, Awad Ahmad al-; Min. of Finance & Planning: Hassan, Zubeir Mohammed; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Lam Akol Ajawin Suriname, Republic of—President: Venetiaan, Ronald; Vice President: Sardjoe, Ramdien; Min. of Defense: Fernald, Ivan; Min. of Finance: Hildenberg, Humphrey; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kraag-Keteldijk, Lygia; Min. of Justice & Police: Santhoki, Chandrikapersad; Min. of Natural Resources: Rusland, Gregory Swaziland, Kingdom of—King: Mswati III; Prime Minister: Dlamini, Absalom Themba; Min. for Agriculture: Fakudze, Mtiti; Min. for Finance: Sithole, Majozi; Min. for Foreign Affairs & Trade: Dlamini, Moses Mathedele Sweden, Kingdom of—King: Carl XVI Gustaf; Prime Minister: Reinfeldt, Fredrik; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Enterprise & Energy: Olofsson, Maud; Min. of Agriculture, Food & Fisheries: Erlandsson, Eskil; Min. of Defense: Odenberg, Mikael; Min. of Environment: Carlgren, Andreas; Min. of Finance: Borg, Anders; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Bildt, Carl; Governor, Swedish Central Bank: Ingves, Stefan Switzerland (Swiss Confederation)—President; Chief, Dept. of Foreign Affairs: Calmy-Rey, Micheline; Vice President; Chief, Dept. of Home Affairs: Couchepin, Pascal; Chief, Dept. of Transportation, Communications & Energy: Leuenberger, Moritz; Chief, Dept. of Defense, Civil Protection & Sports: Schmid, Samuel; Chief, Dept. of Economic Affairs: Leuthard, Doris; Chief, Dept. of Finance: Merz, Hans-Rudolf; Chief, Dept. of Justice & Police: Blocher, Christoph; Chairman, Swiss National Bank: Roth, Jean-Pierre Syria (Syrian Arab Republic)—President: Assad, Bashar al-; Prime Minister: Utri, Muhammad Naji al; Min. of Defense: Turkmani, Lt. Gen. Hassan; Min. of Finance: Husayn, Muhammad al-; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mouallem, Walid; Min. of Interior: Majid, Gen. Bassam Abdel Taiwan—See China, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of—President: Rakhman, Imamali; Prime Minister: Oqilov, Oqil; Min. of Defense: Khayrulloyev, Col. Gen. Sherali; Min. of Finance: Najmuddinov, Safarali; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Zarifi, Hamrohon

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Tanzania, United Republic of—President: Kikwete, Jakaya Mrisho; Prime Minister: Lowassa, Edward; President of Zanzibar: Karume, Amani Abeid; Min. of Defense & National Services: Kapuya, Juma; Min. of Finance: Meghji, Zakia; Min. of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation: Membe, Bernard Kamillius Thailand, Kingdom of*—King: Bhumibol Adulyadej; Prime Minister: Surayut; Deputy Prime Minister: Khosit Panpiamrat; Deputy Prime Minister: Phaibun Wattanasiritham; Min. of Finance: Chalongphob Sussangkan; Min. of Defense: Bunrot Somthat, Gen.; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Nit Phibunsongkram; Governor, Central Bank: Tharisa Watthanaket *A military coup led by Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratglin in September 2006 had overthrown the democratically elected civilian government, and the government officials in October 2006 were appointed on an interim basis. [See p. 547B3] Timor Leste, Democratic Republic of—President: Ramos-Horta, Jose; Prime Minister: Gusmao, Jose Alexandre (Xanana); Min. for Justice: Lobato, Lucia; Min. for Finance: Pires, Emilia; Min. for Foreign Affairs: Da Costa, Zacarias Togo, Republic of—President: Gnassingbe, Faure; Prime Minister: Agboyibo, Yawovi; Min. of Economy, Finance & Privatization: Boukpessi, Payadowa; Min. of Foreign Affairs & African Integration: Ayeva, Zarifou; Min. of Security: Laokpessi, Col. Pitalouna-Ani Tonga, Kingdom of—King: Tupou V, Siaosi; Prime Minister: Sevele, Feleti (Fred); Deputy Prime Minister: Tangi, Viliami; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Tupou, Sonatane Tua Taumoepeau Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of—President: Richards, George Maxwell; Prime Minister, Min. of Finance: Manning, Patrick; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Piggot, Arnold Tunisia, Republic of—President: Ben Ali, Zine el-Abidine; Prime Minister: Ghannouchi, Mohamed; Min. of Finance: Kechiche, Mohamed Rachid; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Abdallah, Abdelwaheb; Min. of Justice & Human Rights: Tekkari, Bechir; Min. of National Defense: Morjane, Kamel Turkey, Republic of—President: Gul, Abdullah; Prime Minister: Erdogan, Recep Tayyip; Deputy Prime Ministers: Cicek, Cemil; Ekren, Nazim; Yazici, Hayati; Min. of Finance: Unakitan, Kemal; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Babacan, Ali; Min. of Interior: Atalay, Besir; Min. of Justice: Sahin, Mehmet Ali; Min. of National Defense: Gonul, Mehmet Vecdi; Governor, Central Bank: Yilmaz, Durmus Turkmenistan, Republic of—President: Berdymukhammedov, Gurbanguly; Deputy Chairman, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Meredov, Rashid; Min. of Defense: Mammetgeldyev, Agageldy; Min. of Internal Affairs: Annagurbanow, Hojamyrat; Min. of National Security: Ashirmukhammedov, Geldymukhammed Tuvalu—Governor General: Telito, Filiomea; Prime Minister: Ielemia, Apisai; Deputy Prime Minister and Min. of Natural Resources: Teii, Tavau; Min. of Finance, Economic Planning & Industries: Metia, Lotoala Uganda, Republic of—President: Museveni, Yoweri Kaguta; Prime Minister: Nsibambi, Apollo; Min. of Defense: Kiyonga, Crispus; Min. of Finance: Suruma, Ezra; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kutesa, Sam; Min. of Justice & Constitutional Affairs: Makubuya, Kiddu Ukraine, Republic of—President: Yushchenko, Viktor; Prime Minister: Yanukovich, Viktor; Min. of Defense: Hrytsenko, Anatoly; Min. of Finance: Azarov, Mykola; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Yatsenyuk, Arseniy; Min. of Internal Affairs: Tsushko, Vasyl United Arab Emirates —President: Nuhayyan, Khalifa bin Zayed al-; Vice President, Prime Minister, Min. of Defense: Maktoum, Mohammed bin Rashid alUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland—Queen: Elizabeth II; Prime Minister & First Lord of the Treasury: Brown, Gordon; Chancellor of the Exchequer: Darling, Alistair; Secy. of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform: Hutton, John; Secy. of State for Children, Schools & Families: Balls, Ed; Secy. of State for Communities & Local Government: Blears, Hazel; Secy. of State for Defense, Secy. of State for Scotland: Browne, Des; Secy. of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs: Benn, Hilary; Secy. of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs: Miliband, David; Secy. of State for Health: Johnson, Alan; Secy. of State for the Home Office: Smith, Jacqui; Secy. of State for International Development: Alexander, Douglas; Secy. of State for Justice & Lord Chancellor:Straw, Jack; Secy. of State for Northern Ireland; Woodward, Shaun; Secy. of State for Transport: Kelly, Ruth; Secy. of State for Work &

Pensions, Secy. of State for Wales: Hain, Peter; Leader of the House of Commons, President of the Council & Labour Party Chairman:Harman, Harriet; Leader of the House of Lords: Baroness Ashton; Governor, Bank of England: King, Mervyn; Northern Ireland First Minister: Paisley, Ian; Scottish First Minister: Salmond, Alex; Welsh First Minister: Morgan, Rhodri United States of America *—President: Bush, George Walker; Vice President: Cheney, Richard Bruce Cabinet—Secy. of Agriculture: Johanns, Mike; Attorney General: Gonzales, Alberto; Secy. of Commerce: Gutierrez, Carlos; Secy. of Defense: Gates, Robert; Secy. of Education: Spellings, Margaret; Secy. of Energy: Bodman, Samuel; Secy. of Health & Human Services: Leavitt, Michael; Secy. of Homeland Security: Chertoff, Michael; Secy. of Housing & Urban Development: Jackson, Alphonso; Secy. of the Interior: Kempthorne, Dirk; Secy. of Labor: Chao, Elaine L.; Secy. of State: Rice, Condoleezza; Secy. of Transportation: Peters, Mary E.; Secy. of the Treasury: Paulson Jr., Henry (Hank); Secy. of Veterans’ Affairs: Nicholson, Jim Congress—President pro Tempore, Senate: Byrd, Robert; Majority Leader, Senate: Reid, Harry; Minority Leader, Senate: McConnell, Mitch; Speaker, House of Representatives: Pelosi, Nancy; Majority Leader, House: Hoyer, Steny; Minority Leader, House: Boehner, John Supreme Court—Chief Justice of the U.S.: Roberts Jr., John. G.; Associate Justices, Supreme Court: Stevens, John Paul; Scalia, Antonin; Kennedy, Anthony M.; Souter, David H.; Thomas, Clarence; Ginsburg, Ruth Bader; Breyer, Stephen G.; Alito Jr., Samuel A. *Johanns resigned Sept. 20. Gonzales resigned effective Sept. 17; Bush that day said he would nominate Michael Muksey as attorney general, and named Peter Keisler as acting attorney general in the interim. [See p. 607C1] Uruguay, Oriental Republic of—President: Vazquez, Tabare; Vice President: Nin Novoa, Rodolfo; Min. of Agriculture, Livestock & Fishing: Mujica, Jose; Min. of Economy & Finance: Astori, Danilo; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Gargano, Reinaldo; Min. of Industry, Energy & Mines: Lepra, Jorge; Min. of Labor & Social Welfare: Bonomi, Eduardo; Min. of National Defense: Berrutti, Azucena Uzbekistan, Republic of—President: Karimov, Islam; Prime Minister: Mirziyayev, Shavkat; Min. of Defense: Mirzayev, Ruslan; Min. of Finance: Azimov, Rustam; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Norov, Vladimir; Min. of Interior: Matlyubov, Bakhodir Vanuatu, Republic of—President: Kelekele, Kalkot Matas; Prime Minister: Lini, Ham; Deputy Prime Minister, Min. of Foreign Affairs: Kilman, Sato; Min. of Finance & Economic Development: Carcasses, Moana Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of—President: Chavez Frias, Hugo; Vice President: Rodriguez Gomez, Jorge; Min. of Defense: Rangel Briceno, Gen. Gustavo Reyes; Min. of Energy & Petroleum: Ramirez Carreno, Rafael Dario; Min. of Finance: Cabezas Morales, Rodrigo Eduardo; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Maduro Moros, Nicolas; Min. of Health & Social Development: Mantilla Oliveros, Jesus; Min. of Interior & Justice: Carreno Escobar, Pedro Miguel Vietnam, Socialist Republic of—President: Nguyen Minh Triet, Gen.; Prime Minister: Nguyen Tan Dung; Secy. General, Communist Party: Nong Duc Manh; Min. of Finance: Vu Van Ninh; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Pham Gia Khiem; Min. of National Defense: Phung Quang Thanh; Min. of Trade: Vu Huy Hoang Yemen, Republic of—President: Saleh, Ali Abdullah; Prime Minister: Mujawar, Ali Muhammad; Min. of Defense: Ali, Brig. Gen. Muhammad Nasir Ahmad; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Qirbi, Abu Bakr al-; Min. of Interior: Alimi, Rashid Muhammad al-; Min. of Oil & Minerals: Bahah, Khalid Mahfuz Zambia, Republic of—President: Mwanawasa, Levy; Min. of Defense: Mpombo, George; Min. of Finance & National Planning: Magande, Ngandu Peter; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Pande, Kabingas; Min. of Mines & Mineral Development: Mwansa, Kalombo Zimbabwe, Republic of—President: Mugabe, Robert; Vice Presidents: Msika, Joseph; Mujuru, Joyce; Min. of Agriculture: Gumbo, Rugare; Min. of Defense: Sekeramayi, Sydney; Min. of Finance: Mumbengegwi, Samuel; Min. of Foreign Affairs: Mumbengegwi, Simbarashe; Min. of Home Affairs: Mohadi, Kembo; Min. of Legal & Parliamentary Affairs: Chinamasa, Patrick; Min. of Local Government: Chombo, Ignatius; Governor, Reserve Bank: Gono, Gideon

September 20, 2007

Myanmar Military Cracks Down on Growing Protests Led by Buddhist Monks At Least 10 Killed; Biggest Uprising Since ’88.

Myanmar’s security forces Sept. 27 killed at least eight protesters and a Japanese video journalist while attempting to break up demonstrations in the city of Yangon, formerly Rangoon. As many as eight additional protesters had been killed Sept. 26 as the country’s military government began a violent counteroffensive aimed at suppressing dissent following a month of peaceful marches and rallies by Buddhist monks and others opposed to the policies of the regime. The protests began in the wake of an August cut in fuel subsidies that doubled the price of gas and sparked outrage among Myanmar’s already impoverished population. [See below, p. 615C1] The wave of protests was the largest since a 1988 uprising against the military government that had ruled the country since 1962. More than 3,000 people had died in the government’s crackdown on those protests. The leading role of the monks in the new demonstrations posed a challenge to the government, as they were figures of moral authority in the mostly Buddhist country. Because of the Myanmar government’s strict control of domestic media and severe restrictions on foreign journalists, details of the protests and crackdown, including the actual death toll, were not entirely clear. Protests Escalate; 100,000 March—Despite heavy rain, approximately 1,500 monks and 1,000 supporters Sept. 21 gathered at Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda, marking the fourth consecutive day of protests in Myanmar. (The military regime had changed the country’s name to Myanmar, from Burma, in 1989.) Shwedagon was the country’s most prominent religious monument and had been adopted as a symbol by pro-democracy dissidents. The demonstrators marched more than 10 miles (16 km) across Yangon while people looked on, and were unmolested by security forces. The next day, a group of 500 monks and protesters were unexpectedly allowed to approach the house where 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi was being held by the junta. When the crowd paused outside the villa to say a prayer, Suu Kyi emerged to greet them in her first public appearance since her 2003 detention by the junta. Suu Kyi, the daughter of national independence hero Gen. Aung San, had spent 11 of the previous 18 years in custody, mainly under house arrest. The NLD had won a landslide victory in 1990 democratic elections whose results the junta refused to honor. [See 1990, p. 544E1] The approach to the house was the first time in the recent demonstrations that the monks had explicitly linked their protests to Suu Kyi’s democracy movement. Demonstrators described her brief appearance as a great inspiration, and some monks chanted her name in subsequent marches. Also Sept. 22, an organization calling itself the All Burma Monks Alliance called on members of the public to rise up with the protesting monks in “order to banish”

the junta “from Burmese soil forever.” Analysts had previously suggested that monks might be discouraging the public from joining their protests in order to protect them from violent retribution. Protests swelled Sept. 23 when as many as 20,000 protesters, including about 10,000 monks, took to the streets of Yangon. The protesters included at least 100 Buddhist nuns, marking the first time they had joined the demonstrations. The march began at Shwedagon Pagoda and proceeded toward downtown Yangon, passing both Sule Pagoda and the U.S. Embassy. During the march, a group of 400 demonstrators attempted to approach the house where Suu Kyi was held before being turned away by security forces. Also that day, about 10,000 people, including 4,000 monks, demonstrated in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, after Yangon. Expatriate Burmese news media reported protests in the cities of Myitkyina, Monywa and Kalay-wa. As many as 100,000 protesters marched Sept. 24 in Yangon, in Myanmar’s largest protest since 1988. Up to 20,000 monks and nuns headed up the march, which again began at Shwedagon Pagoda. For the first time, prominent public figures, including Burmese movie star Kyaw Thu and comedian Zaganar, joined the marchers. (Zaganar was arrested the following day.) After the bulk of the crowd dispersed of its own accord, a group of about 1,400 again attempted to approach Suu Kyi’s residence. When they were stopped by security forces, the marchers recited a Buddhist prayer that called for peace before dispersing. Up to 20,000 people took part in a demonstration that day in Mandalay, and small protests were reported in the cities of Sittwe and Pakokku. Junta Threatens Monks, Protesters—

Brig. Gen. Thura Myint Maung, Myanmar’s minister of religious affairs, appeared Sept. 24 on a state-controlled television broadcast following the protests and called on senior Buddhist officials to curb the protests by monks. He claimed that protesters had been provoked by “destructive elements who do not want to see peace, stability and progress in the country,” and threatened reprisals if the protests continued. When up to 10,000 protesters assembled at Shwedagon Pagoda Sept. 25, they were surrounded by security forces, but were not kept from marching through the city. Reuters news service Sept. 25 reported that before the march, government vehicles drove through Yangon broadcasting threats of military force. “People are not to follow, encourage or take part in these marches,” the announcement stated. “Action will be taken against those who violate this order.” Reuters reported Sept. 25 that in the city of Taunggok, thousands participated in demonstrations against the junta. Following the protests, the military government announced a 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. curfew in Yangon and Mandalay. In addition, the junta banned all gatherings of five or more people. Reuters reported Sept. 25

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B that troops were being moved from the Thai border, where they had been fighting a longrunning war against rebels from the Karen ethnic group, and brought to Yangon, a move that echoed a redeployment carried out just before the 1988 massacres. Government Crackdown Begins—Violence struck protests in Yangon and Mandalay Sept. 26 when security forces used tear gas and warning shots to try to disperse crowds in both cities. In Yangon, tens of thousands of people marched after massing at the Shwedagon Pagoda. Monks were beaten with batons and allegedly retaliated by setting two police cars afire. Outside of Sule Pagoda, monks attempting to push through a police line were arrested. Other clashes were reported in Sittwe and Mandalay. Burmese exile groups operating in Thailand alleged that more than 200 people had been arrested, and that between one

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Myanmar military cracks down on growing protests led by Buddhist monks; at least 10 killed. PAGE 625

U.N. General Assembly debate session opens.

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Probe of shootings by private contractors in Iraq continues. PAGE 627

U.N. chief calls for emissions action at climate change summit. PAGE 629

UAW calls strike after GM talks falter; walkout ends; deal sets new health fund. PAGE 631

Congress clears children’s health insurance bill.

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Peru extradites former President Fujimori. PAGE 636

Fukuda named Japanese prime minister. PAGE 636

U.S.’s Rice visits Middle East. PAGE 638

Cyclist Landis loses doping appeal, Tour de France title. PAGE 640

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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response to peaceful demonstrations. “The situation there has some problems, but does not constitute a threat to international and regional peace,” Wang said. The Security Council issued a statement calling for the junta to exercise restraint in dealing with protesters and insisting that the regime meet with U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari as soon as possible. [See pp. 615F1, 35C2] Gambari had met with the junta twice in recent weeks, and had been scheduled to return in October before events escalated. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Sept. 26 dispatched him to Myanmar, whose government the following day said it would issue a visa for him to enter the country. China was one of Myanmar’s largest trading partners and its closest international ally, leading some critics to attack China for failing to use its influence to put pressure on the junta. [See p. 401G3] U.S. President Tens of thousands of Buddhist monks and supporters in a protest march Sept. 25 in Yangon, Myanmar. George W. Bush Sept. 25 had used a speech to and eight people had been killed. The state- the U.N. General Assembly to condemn the controlled media reported that one person junta and announce new, stricter U.S. sanchad been shot and killed in Yangon. tions against the regime, including an exThe violence continued Sept. 27, when panded travel ban on junta members and security forces attacked protesters in their families and the freezing of U.S. and Yangon with tear gas and smoke bombs, U.S.-affiliated accounts held by members of firing warning shots above the crowd with the junta. [See p. 626C3] automatic weapons. The demonstrators, The Association of Southeast Asian Nawho numbered approximately 70,000, tions (ASEAN), a 10-member group that inwere given 10 minutes to disperse before cluded Myanmar, demanded Sept. 27 that facing “extreme action” on the part of the Myanmar’s military “immediately desist police. Protesters were also attacked with from the use of violence against demonstrabatons, and eyewitnesses reported that tors.” In a statement issued by the foreign some were so badly beaten that they had to ministers of ASEAN’s nine other members, be carried away. At one point, protesters the organization said that it had expressed formed a human chain around the monks in its “revulsion to Myanmar Foreign Minister an attempt to protect them from attack. Nyan Win over reports that the demonstraMyanmar’s state-run media reported tions in Myanmar are being suppressed by that nine people were killed and 11 pro- violent force.” The rebuke was unusual for testers injured during the violence; 31 the group, which primarily concerned itself members of the security forces were also with trade issues and was founded on the reportedly injured. A Japanese diplomat principle of “non-interference in the interconfirmed the death of the journalist, Ken- nal affairs” of member nations. ji Nagai of Japan’s APF news service. In adSurayud Chulanont, the prime minister dition, Reuters reported that more than 850 of neighboring Thailand, said Sept. 27 in a monks had been arrested during early speech to the U.N. General Assembly said morning raids on monasteries Sept. 27 in that his government was “gravely conYangon and northeast Myanmar. cerned about what we are seeing and hearing in Myanmar.” In addition, he stated China Blocks U.N. Resolution— Wang Guangya, China’s ambassador to the Unit- that Thailand “finds as unacceptable the ed Nations, Sept. 26 blocked a U.S. and commission of violence and bodily harm to European–backed U.N. Security Council Buddhist monks and other demonstrators resolution condemning the junta’s violent in Yangon.” Reuters reported Sept. 27 that 626

Chumporn Polrak, governor of the Thai province of Tak, which bordered Myanmar, had given an interview to a Bangkok, Thailand, radio station in which he pledged food and shelter to Burmese refugees. „

United Nations General Assembly Debate Begins. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Sept. 25 opened the general debate session of the 62nd annual General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City. In his speech, he highlighted the U.N.’s efforts to address crises in Darfur, Iraq and Myanmar, and pledged U.N. support in working toward peace in the Middle East and slowing the spread of AIDS and other deadly diseases. Ban also stated that further increasing the efficiency and transparency of the U.N. was “a very high priority.” [See 2006, p. 742B2] In the speeches that followed, U.S. President George W. Bush announced increased U.S. financial and political sanctions against Myanmar’s repressive military government, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared discussions of his country’s nuclear program to be “closed.” In addition to the speeches, discussions between world leaders on a variety of issues took place outside the General Assembly session, including a meeting focused on reducing opium production in Afghanistan. The general debate of the General Assembly was scheduled to conclude Oct. 3. [See below] Ahmadinejad Calls Nuclear Issue ‘Closed’—

Ahmadinejad addressed the General Assembly Sept. 25, and used his speech to declare that Iran would ignore further U.N. Security Council resolutions regarding its nuclear program. Iran claimed that its ura-

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nium-enrichment activities were for civilian power-generating use only, but the U.S. and other countries suspected that Iran was seeking to develop a nuclear weapon. Ahmadinejad also assailed the U.S. for human rights abuses in its execution of the war on terror and hypocrisy in criticizing other nations for their alleged abuses, as Bush had done earlier the same day during his speech. [See pp. 581E2, 469E3] Ahmadinejad said, “In the last two years, abusing the Security Council, the arrogant powers have repeatedly accused Iran and even made military threats and imposed illegal sanctions against it” because of Iran’s nuclear program. He added, “Today, because of the resistance of the Iranian nation, the issue is back to the agency [the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a nuclear supervisory division of the U.N.], and I officially announced that in our opinion, the nuclear issue of Iran is now closed and has turned into an ordinary agency matter.” Ahmadinejad also decried Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people. Ahmadinejad Appears at Columbia U.—

Ahmadinejad Sept. 24 a talk at Columbia University in New York City. The university’s invitation had provoked controversy, in light of past statements by Ahmadinejad doubting the Holocaust and threatening Israel, and Iran’s links to terrorism. Columbia President Lee Bollinger prefaced Ahmadinejad’s speech with remarks defending the school’s decision but also attacking Ahmadinejad, saying, “You exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.” Hundreds of Columbia students, alumni and faculty members protested outside the hall. In his address, Ahmadinejad asserted that Iran had no interest in procuring nuclear weapons. He expressed doubts about “some aspects of” the accepted history of the Holocaust, and about who “really” carried out Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. by the international terrorist network Al Qaeda. He sidestepped direct answers to many questions, and provoked derisive laughter when, in response to a question about executions of homosexuals, he said, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.” Ahmadinejad had also attracted controversy with a request to visit the former World Trade Center site, one of the targets of the 2001 attacks. The New York Police Department Sept. 19 denied the request, citing security concerns. Bush Announces Myanmar Sanctions—

During his speech, Bush Sept. 25 condemned Myanmar’s ruling military junta and outlined new, more severe sanctions aimed at the regime. Under the new U.S. sanctions, members of the junta deemed “responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights” would be barred from entering the U.S., and economic penalties would be expanded to include those who gave financial backing to the regime. [See p. 625A1] “Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma,” Bush said, using the country’s name before the military rulers renamed it Myanmar in 1989. He cited the military’s curbs on freedom of speech and September 27, 2007

its detention of political prisoners such as 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as examples of the government’s abuses. Bush also described Belarus, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Cuba as examples of nations that failed to respect their citizens’ basic human rights. Bush highlighted the U.N.’s mission to liberate “people from hunger and disease,” emphasizing the U.S.’s programs to provide food aid to impoverished countries and spotlighting his previous calls to increase funding for the global fight against AIDS and malaria. He also called for “major developing countries” to “make the tough political decisions” necessary to finalize an agreement in the so-called Doha round of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks to create a global trade agreement, arguing that doing so would help “lift people out of poverty.” [See pp. 604F2, 588C3] Bush Meets With Iraqi PM Maliki—Bush Sept. 25 met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki to discuss the political situation in Iraq while both were in New York for the general debate. During their meetings, Bush urged Maliki to muster the political will to pass a number of laws, including a bill to facilitate the sharing of Iraqi oil revenues. “You sit in a vital region,” Bush told Maliki, “and when you succeed, which I’m confident you will, it’ll send a message to other people who believe in peace.” According to officials at the meeting, Maliki raised the U.S. military’s unilateral arrest of Iraqis and Iranian within Iraq, and the activities of U.S. employed independent contractors like Blackwater USA, as infringements of Iraqi sovereignty. [See pp. 629C2, 627B3, 587D2] Opium the Focus of Afghan Meeting—

Ban and Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, held a meeting Sept. 23 with representatives from 18 nations to discuss the challenges facing Afghanistan, particularly the nation’s illegal opium production and the use of drug money to fund terrorism. Following the meeting, Ban announced that the group had agreed that “breaking this linkage is vital to creating a stable, prosperous and democratic Afghanistan,” and said that many leaders felt that Karzai should intensify efforts to promote “inclusive political dialogue for national reconciliation.” [See p. 566D2, F3] The meeting followed a Sept. 19 vote by the U.N. Security Council that renewed for one year the mandate of the Afghanistanbased International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The ISAF was an operational force of 39,000 people drawn from 37 nations and backed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It was created by the U.N. in December 2001 to ensure peace in Afghanistan in a mission that was initially scheduled to last six months. [See 2001, p. 995C1] Clinton Hosts Charitable Conference—

The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s philanthropic organization, opened its third annual conference in New York City Sept. 26. The meeting was intended to spur wealthy and powerful individuals to devote more of

their money and influence to combating global problems like climate change and the spread of AIDS. The conference was to conclude Sept. 28. [See 2006, p. 742D3] British bank Standard Chartered PLC Sept. 27 pledged to underwrite up to $5 billion in debt to finance renewable energy projects. „

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Probe of Shootings by Private Contractors in Iraq Continues Report Says Guards Opened Fire. An Ira-

qi interior ministry report had found that employees of Blackwater USA, a Moyock, N.C.–based security company, the previous week had opened fire without provocation on Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, while guarding a U.S. State Department convoy, the New York Times reported Sept. 21. Blackwater had claimed that its employees had been attacked and were returning fire. U.S. officials were still preparing their own account of the incident, and warned against drawing conclusions before it was released. [See pp. 627C2, 602D1] The incident, which had left at least eight Iraqis dead, had caused an uproar in Iraq over what was seen as Blackwater’s disregard for the welfare of civilians and for Iraqi laws, and had developed into a test of the strength of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki’s government. Maliki’s government had banned Blackwater from operating in Iraq, although it was unclear that it had the authority to do so. The interior ministry recommended that the government overturn Order No. 17, a directive issued by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in June 2004—before sovereignty had been turned over to the Iraqi government—that protected private security companies from prosecution by Iraqi courts. It also called for Blackwater to compensate the families of the victims, and recommended that foreign security companies be replaced by Iraqi contractors. In the Iraqi account, the Blackwater contractors had taken up positions in Nisour Square in Baghdad after a bomb had gone off about one mile (1.6 km) to the north, and had attempted to block traffic. (The account did not clarify the direction in which the convoy was traveling when it arrived at the square.) When a car failed to stop quickly enough, they opened fire, killing the driver. They kept on shooting as the car continued to roll forward until it caught fire, killing the driver’s wife and baby. The contractors reportedly then continued their barrage, riddling a traffic policeman’s booth with bullets. The Iraqi report omitted accounts from some witnesses, including the contractors, that Iraqi troops stationed in the square had started firing. If they had opened fire before the contractors, it would lend credence to claims that the contractors believed they were defending themselves. A U.S. embassy spokeswoman, Mirembe Nantongo, Sept. 21 said a ban on travel by diplomatic convoys in Iraq enacted earlier that week had been repealed, and indicated that Blackwater personnel had been 627

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guarding some of the convoys. She said the move had been made after “consultation with Iraqi authorities,” although it was unclear whether they had approved Blackwater’s renewed operations. Bassam Ridha, a senior Maliki adviser, said, “The reality of the matter is we can’t” effectively ban the company from Iraq. Rice Orders Review—U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Sept. 21 said she had ordered a “full and complete” review of the Blackwater incident and of the role of private contractors in Iraq. “We will review how we carry out our security,” Rice said, adding, “We take seriously what happened in Iraq.” Tom Casey, a U.S. state department spokesman, said a joint U.S.-Iraqi committee would also investigate the shooting. The Iraqi state minister for national security affairs, Shirwan al-Waili, Sept. 22 said the Iraqi government planned to bring criminal charges against Blackwater within the next few days. Also Sept. 22, an Iraqi interior ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, detailed six previous incidents in which Blackwater had fired on civilians, killing a total of 10 Iraqis and wounding 15. Khalaf also said Iraqi investigators had a videotape of the contractors firing on civilians in the latest incident. The Times that day reported that, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials, the U.S. had ignored repeated complaints from Iraqi officials about the previous shootings. The Raleigh News and Observer Sept. 22 reported that the U.S. government was investigating whether Blackwater lacked permits for automatic weapons and other equipment it had used for training in Moyock and had imported into Iraq. Two Blackwater employees had reportedly pleaded guilty to weapons charges and were cooperating with the investigation. Blackwater that day called the charges “baseless,” and said the conviction of its employees was unrelated to the federal investigation. Maliki Sept. 23 told the Associated Press that his government would take action against Blackwater. “The Iraqi government is responsible for its citizens, and it cannot be accepted for a security company to carry out a killing. There are serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq,” he said. However, a spokesman for the Iraqi security forces, Tahseen al-Sheikhly, the same day said that the Iraqi government had been forced to allow Blackwater to resume operations rather than risk creating a security vacuum. Khalaf Sept. 25 said a draft law stripping private security companies of their immunity from Iraqi prosecution had been submitted to a state legal committee for review. “They will be strictly accountable for all actions committed on the streets,” he said. Also Sept. 25, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England sent a memorandum to top Pentagon officials and military commanders calling on them to tightly regulate Defense Department contractors. The memorandum detailed military and civilian laws that applied to contractors, including the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act and the Uniform Code of 628

Military Justice, and required that commanders prevent contractors who had committed felonies from leaving Iraq. It also said the Defense Department had been working on new guidelines for disciplining contractors using the military code. The New York Times Sept. 25 reported that U.S. military officials over the past days had been pressuring State Department officials to exercise tighter control over that department’s security contractors. Unnamed U.S. officials said Defense Department regulations on licensing oversight and incident reports were more strictly enforced than those of the State Department. State Dept. Accused of Blocking Probe—

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D, Calif.) Sept. 25 released a letter he had written to Rice complaining that the State Department had blocked a committee inquiry into the Blackwater incident and Iraqi corruption. He said the department had imposed stifling restrictions on interviews with three subpoenaed officials and had told Blackwater not to provide the committee with requested documents. The State Department said the complaints were the result of a “misunderstanding,” and that requested information was being provided. Maliki Sept. 25 reportedly discussed the Blackwater incident briefly with U.S. President George W. Bush at the United Nations in New York City, and, later that day, more extensively with Rice. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Sept. 26 at a U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee hearing said he had sent a fiveperson team to Iraq to investigate the Blackwater incident. “My concern is whether there has been sufficient accountability and oversight in the region over the activities of these security companies,” he said. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte Sept. 27 said Blackwater employees in 2007 had been involved in 56 incidents in which they had fired their weapons, during 1,873 convoy missions protecting diplomats. The Times Sept. 26 had reported that Blackwater contractors had been involved in shooting incidents at least twice as often per convoy mission as employees of the two other U.S.-based security companies working in Iraq, DynCorp International Inc. and Triple Canopy Inc. U.S. officials attributed the increased frequency of shootings, which included warning shots, to Blackwater’s tendency to work in more dangerous areas and to a corporate attitude that allegedly encouraged excessively forcefully behavior. Separately from the current incident, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Sept. 27 released a report on the 2004 killing of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah, Iraq. The report said the company had provided its employees with insufficient equipment and training due to cost considerations. Blackwater rejected the report, saying it was “a one-sided version of this tragic incident.” [See p. 221A1] Gates Requests Hike in War Spending—

Gates Sept. 26 asked the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee to approve $42.3 billion in additional funding for military oper-

ations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 15% increase would bring the Bush administration’s total request for fiscal 2008 to $189.3 billion, its highest for the wars so far, and would put the total cost of the wars since Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. at more than $800 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service. Gates said the increase would allow the U.S. to sustain a surge in troop levels in Iraq, and added that he supported keeping some U.S. troops in Iraq as a “long-term presence.” [See pp. 601A1, 555C1] Gates said that of the additional funds requested, $11 billion would be used to build 15,000 new heavily-armored Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles that could better survive the roadside bombs that caused the majority of U.S. casualties in Iraq. Additionally, the Defense Department requested $6 billion to support Army and Marine units in Iraq; $9 billion to repair and refit equipment stores; and $1 billion to train Iraqi security forces. Gates said he foresaw a U.S. force in Iraq that equaled a quarter of the 20 combat brigades currently in Iraq, or a minimum of 17,500 combat troops plus support troops. “When I speak of a long-term presence, I’m thinking of a very modest U.S. presence with no permanent bases, where we can continue to go after Al Qaeda in Iraq and help the Iraqi forces,” he said. Some Democratic senators expressed frustration at the Bush administration’s continued “emergency” funding requests. Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (W. Va.) warned that the committee would not “rubber stamp” the request. “The president and his supporters claim that we’re now finally on the cusp of progress and that we must continue to stay the course,” Byrd said. He added, “I’ve heard that before. Call me a skeptic, but we have heard this tune before.” Negroponte at the hearing said the U.S. State Department also planned to request more funding, in addition to the $3.3 billion it already sought. Also Sept. 26, U.S. Army Chief of Staff George Casey Jr. warned the U.S. House Armed Services Committee that current military operations had dangerously overstretched the armed forces. “The current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply,” he said. “We are consumed with meeting the demand of the current fight and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies.” Casey said military equipment was wearing out at a faster rate than anticipated, and that soldiers did not have enough time at home to train. “I believe we can put this back in balance in three or four years,” he added. The committee chairman, U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton (D, Mo.), said Casey had requested the hearing in order to explain the strains on the Army. The U.S. Senate the same day approved, 75–23, a nonbinding resolution supporting a divided Iraq, with separate autonomous Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish regions presided over by a federal government. The measure was proposed by Sen. Joseph Biden (D, FACTS ON FILE

Del.), and won the votes of 26 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). Bombings Intensify Over Ramadan—

Car bombings Sept. 26 killed dozens of people across Iraq, in what U.S. and Iraqi officials said was an increase in violence coinciding with the holy month of Ramadan. The interior ministry said two coordinated car bombs killed 32 people in Bayaa, a Sunni and Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. Another bombing near Sinjar, 240 miles (385 km) northwest of Baghdad, that was apparently targeted at a Sunni tribal leader who opposed the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, killed 10 people. A suicide bombing at a reconciliation ceremony for Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders and provincial officials in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, Sept. 24 killed at least 16 people. The dead included the city police commander and a former leader of the 1920s Revolutionary Brigade, a Sunni insurgent group that had turned against Al Qaeda in Iraq. Diyala Governor Raad Rashid Mulla Jawad was injured in the attack. The U.S. military’s chief spokesman in Iraq, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, Sept. 26 said the violence was equal to that of Ramadan in 2005, but down 38% from 2006. Insurgent groups had released messages on the Internet vowing to step up attacks. Ban Urges Help From Iraq’s Neighbors—

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Sept. 22 at a closed meeting with representatives of 20 nations urged Iraq’s neighbors to prevent people within their borders from destabilizing Iraq. Ban also signaled the U.N.’s intention to increase its staff in the capital of Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdistan province, Erbil, and to reopen an office in the southern city of Basra. Nations represented at the meeting included eight of Iraq’s neighbors, including Syria and Iran, and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members. [See p. 571A3] Maliki after the meeting said all of the attendees had expressed support for Iraq. They reportedly also had discussed the plight of the approximately two million Iraqis who had fled the country, and Syria and Jordan had expressed concerns over the increased costs of hosting them. Senate Rejects Withdrawal Timetable—

The U.S. Senate Sept. 21 rejected a Democratic bill that would have set a timeline for the withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq by June 2008. The vote, on a procedural motion requiring 60 votes to advance the measure, was 47–47. The bill, which was offered by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D, Mich.) and Sen. Jack Reed (D, R.I.), was an amendment to the fiscal 2008 Defense Department authorization bill. Votes fell largely along the same lines as a similar measure that had failed in July. Other News—In other news: † An unnamed senior U.S. State Department official Sept. 27 acknowledged that the first oil contract in Iraq, between Dallas, Texas–based Hunt Oil Co. and the government of Kurdistan, had “needlessly elevated tensions between the KRG [Kurdistan September 27, 2007

Regional Government] and the national government of Iraq,” the Times reported. He also said the deal was “legally uncertain.” The Iraqi government had said the contract was illegal. [See p. 587C2] † Spain’s El Pais newspaper Sept. 26 reported that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003—less than a month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq that deposed him—had signaled his willingness to go into exile in Egypt if he could take $1 billion and information on weapons of mass destruction with him. The information came from a report of a Feb. 22, 2003, private meeting between Bush and then-Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, before a final effort to win U.N. approval for the invasion. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe declined to comment on the report. [See p. 22C1] † Iraqi special forces, accompanied by U.S. advisers, Sept. 25 raided a military academy in Baghdad and arrested 20 people for the kidnapping and murder of the academy’s former director, and the kidnapping of his successor, who was freed in the operation. They said the suspects had kidnapped the men for profit and were not affiliated with sectarian militias. † The Iraqi ministry of health Sept. 25 confirmed the first cholera death in Baghdad. It said a cholera epidemic sweeping across Iraq had killed 12 people. † Iraqi President Jalal Talabani Sept. 22 protested the Sept. 20 arrest by U.S. forces of an Iranian diplomat in northern Iraq. Talabani said the man, Agai Mahummdi Firhadi, had been part of a diplomatic delegation. The U.S. military said he had been involved in training militants and smuggling bombs into Iraq. Iran Sept. 24 closed major border crossings into Kurdistan, apparently in protest of the arrest. [See p. 554A2] † The U.S. military Sept. 22 confirmed the arrest of 25 suspects in the assassination earlier in September of Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, a high-profile Sunni sheik who had been a key U.S. ally against Sunni extremists in Anbar province. The suspects included the head of Abu Risha’s security detail, who said he had been offered $1.5 million by Al Qaeda in Iraq to carry out the killing. † Between 50 and 100 Sunni families Sept. 21 were forced to flee their homes in the Washash neighborhood of Baghdad by the Shiite Mahdi Army militia, after a senior militia leader was killed in an ambush earlier that day. U.S. and Iraqi forces reportedly helped the families evacuate but did not attempt to stop the evictions. † Two aides to Grand Ayatollah Ali alSistani, Iraq’s most powerful Shiite cleric, Sept. 21 were assassinated in the cities of Basra and Diwaniya, in Iraq’s south. The killings were the latest in a series of attacks on Sistani’s followers, and were seen as a sign of growing intra-Shiite fighting in the south. † U.S. government officials Sept. 21 announced that the U.S. would admit about 12,000 Iraqi refugees over the next year, and that the process to accept them would

be sped up. They said only 1,135 of the 11,000 refugee applicants from Iraq had been accepted in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30. † Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil Jr., the U.S. commander in Baghdad, Sept. 20 in a video briefing to reporters said U.S. and Iraqi forces controlled more than half of Baghdad’s neighborhoods, and that in 8%, Iraqi forces had the leading role in maintaining security. Baghdad had been a major focus of the U.S. troop level surge, but Fil said Iraqi troops would be able to take over once the additional U.S. forces were withdrawn. † The Iraqi Red Crescent Society Sept. 19 reported that almost two million Iraqis had fled their homes but remained within Iraq. The group said August had seen a 71.1% rise in the number of displaced Iraqis, the sharpest monthly increase to date.„

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Global Environment U.N. Chief Calls for Emissions Action. Unit-

ed Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Sept. 24 hosted a meeting of more than 80 heads of state and government on the issue of global climate change at the U.N. headquarters in New York City. It was described as the largest meeting of world leaders ever on the issue. The meeting was intended as a precursor to a December conference in Indonesia to develop a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, a 1996 climate accord set to expire in 2012. It came in advance of the general debate session of the U.N. General Assembly, which began Sept. 25. [See pp. 626A3, 290F1] Ban described greenhouse gas emissions made by industrialized countries as “unacceptably high,” and called on the heads of those nations to commit to reducing them. He also said poorer, developing countries should be provided with inducements encouraging them to curb emissions “without sacrificing economic growth or poverty reduction.” Ban also said that scientific evidence linking carbon emissions to climate change was well-established. “The scientists have very clearly outlined the problem,” he said. U.S. President George W. Bush, an opponent of mandatory emissions caps, did not attend the meeting, but appeared at a dinner held by Ban after the conference. Bush had argued that such limits would harm the U.S.’s economy, and had prevented the U.S. from joining the Kyoto treaty. Bush had scheduled a separate meeting of climate talks on Sept. 27–28 that critics said was an attempt to undercut the U.N.’s efforts. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the meeting called for a “technological revolution” that would “transcend the current system of fossil fuels, carbon emissions and economic activity.” „

U.S. Climate Change Panel Flaws Reported.

A 15-member panel of the U.S. National Research Council, part of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Sept. 13 reported that an initiative by the administration of President George W. Bush to oversee U.S. research on global warming lacked neces629

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sary tools and focus. The review centered on the Climate Change Science Program, which had begun in 2002 and received $1.7 billion in annual funding intended to improve climate research in 13 government agencies. [See p. 294G3] The report found that the program had allocated only $25–$30 million annually on research examining the impact of climate change on human affairs. “U.S. capability to monitor trends, document the impacts of future climate change and further improve prediction and assimilation models...will decline even as the urgency of addressing climate change increases,” the report concluded. The panel also found that the program had published only two of 21 planned reports on climate issues, with three others in a final draft stage. The panel concluded that communication among government agencies, officials, industries and communities regarding climate change issues was lacking. It also noted that the program director lacked the authority to allocate funds as needed. „ ‘Live Earth’ Climate Change Concerts Held.

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Live Earth, a series of eight major concerts intended to raise awareness of climate change issues, July 7 was held in Sydney, Australia; Tokyo, Japan’s capital; Shanghai, China; Johannesburg, South Africa; Hamburg, Germany; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; East Rutherford, N.J., in the U.S.; and London. A smaller concert was also held in Washington, D.C. [See 2005, p. 452C1] The concerts were attended by hundreds of thousands of people, and broadcast to an audience estimated in the hundreds of millions via television and the Internet. The event was endorsed by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, a leading proponent of controls on greenhouse gas emissions believed to cause global warming. Kevin Wall, the producer of Gore’s movie on the subject, An Inconvenient Truth, organized the event. [See p. 174F1] Performers at the various concerts included Madonna, the Black Eyed Peas, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Pharrell Williams and the Beastie Boys. The event had been criticized by some as lacking purpose, since the concerts were not expected to raise much money—any profits were designated for Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection. Also, some critics noted that performers and fans would generate substantial amounts of greenhouse gases traveling to and from the concerts. However, people who attended the concerts had been asked to agree to a sevenpoint pledge of various environmental commitments, such as reducing personal carbon dioxide pollution and supporting environmentally friendly businesses. „ Arctic Ice Reaches Record Summer Low.

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The U.S.’s National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Colorado Sept. 20 reported that the area of floating sea ice in the Arctic Ocean had fallen to 1.59 million square miles (4.12 million sq km), an area about one million square miles below its average minimum over the past several decades. Scientists with the NSIDC said the 630

low appeared to have been reached on Sept. 16. The ice was expected to grow as the winter season approached and the Arctic was plunged into a six-month period of darkness, starting Sept. 21. [See p. 523E2; 2005, p. 662E1] Though NSIDC scientists said some natural fluctuations in the earth’s climate could have contributed to the ice decline, they said it was impossible to discount the effect that man-made greenhouse gas emissions were having on the Arctic ice. “We’re starting to see the system respond to global warming,” said NSIDC senior researcher Mark Serreze. The European Space Agency (ESA) Sept. 14 had reported that satellite imagery showed that the levels of Arctic sea ice had fallen as much as reported by the NSIDC. The ESA said the average amount of summer ice loss over the past 10 years had been about 38,600 square miles (100,000 sq km), and characterized the 2007 seasonal loss of one million square miles of ice as “extreme.” The ESA also said the decline in ice cover had led to the opening of the Northwest Passage, a formerly unnavigable Arctic Ocean trade route north of Canada that linked Europe and the Americas to Asia. Use of the Northwest Passage would eliminate thousands of miles in travel required by existing shipping routes. Scientists also said the ice decline could lead to the opening of the Northeast Passage, a similar route that ran north of Russia. Scientists with the U.S.’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported in the Sept. 8 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters that the Arctic ice cap was melting more quickly than expected. The researchers said that the ice cover would shrink by more than 40% by 2050. Some scientists had theorized that the accelerated ice loss trends could lead to an ice-free Arctic within decades. The resulting rise in sea levels was thought to threaten the world’s low-lying coastal areas. Scientists also said the ice melt could significantly change the world’s weather patterns, affecting food production. Other news—In other climate change news: † Economist William Cline of the Center for Global Development and the Peterson Institute for International Economics Sept. 12 released a study which predicted that global climate change would cause the collapse of agricultural productivity in several African countries by 2080. The study predicted that Senegal and Sudan could see their crop production fall by more than 50%, while India’s decline would range between 29% and 38%. The study found that agriculture in South Asia, Latin America and Africa would be hit hardest by climate change, while the U.S., Europe, Russia and Canada could see some agricultural gains. † The U.S. Geological Survey Sept. 7 reported that the loss of Arctic sea ice over the next 50 years could cause the death of two-thirds of the world’s polar bears. The agency said Arctic warming could result in

the loss of 42% of “optimal polar bear habitat” by 2050, sparking the population decline. The agency’s data had been compiled to aid the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in determining if polar bears warranted endangered species protections under U.S. law. There were currently about 22,000 polar bears. [See 2006, p. 1003D1] † The Rockefeller Foundation, a U.S.based philanthropic group, Aug. 9 announced that it would provide $70 million over five years to African farmers and Asian cities to help them cope with drought, floods and other threats resulting from climate change. Poor people in developing countries were thought to be especially vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change. † The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, which advised the Dutch government, June 19 released figures showing that China had overtaken the U.S. as the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, in 2006. The agency reported that China had released 6.2 billion metric tons (6.8 billion tons) of carbon dioxide in 2006, compared with 5.8 billion metric tons released by the U.S. that year. However, China’s per capita emissions remained substantially lower than the U.S.’s. [See p. 290A3] † Researchers reported May 16 on the Web site of the journal Science that the oceans might be losing their ability to absorb carbon dioxide. Scientists found that between 1981 and 2004, the southern portions of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans became “30% less efficient at absorbing carbon dioxide.” The researchers said the decline in absorption had been caused by increased wind speeds over the southern areas of oceans, due to rising temperatures. The scientists said the oceans’ inability to absorb the gas would lead to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The research was led by Corinne Le Quere of the University of East Anglia in England. [See 2005, p. 706C2] † Scientists with the U.S.’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) May 15 reported that an area the size of California in Antarctica had undergone significant melting during a week in January 2005 before freezing again. NASA scientists said it was uncommon to see areas of melting in Antarctica as far inland as was detected. The researchers called the event the most significant Antarctic thaw of the past 30 years. The event was revealed during a new analysis of satellite data gathered by NASA. [See 2006, p. 209B3] † Scientists from 63 countries March 1 began the International Polar Year, a wideranging two-year study of the North and South Poles. The researchers were set to study the impact that climate change was having on Earth’s polar regions, as well carrying out studies in a range of fields, including biology, physics, ocean chemistry, geology and astronomy. The effort totaled 320 projects involving more than 50,000 scientists, and had a budget of $320 million. „ FACTS ON FILE

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

United Auto Workers Call Strike After GM Talks Falter Walkout Ends; Deal Sets New Health Fund.

Approximately 73,000 members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union employed by General Motors (GM) Sept. 24 walked out of their jobs in a nationwide strike after contract talks between GM and the UAW reached an impasse. It was the first nationwide auto workers strike since 1970. The contract talks had been extended from the original Sept. 14 deadline after no agreement on funding for employee health care could be reached. [See below; 2006, p. 212A3; 2005, p. 945A1] UAW President Ron Gettlefinger early Sept. 26 announced that the two sides had reached a preliminary agreement and that workers would return to their jobs that day. The deal included a landmark agreement that would alter the decades-old structure under which GM had provided health care coverage to retired workers. UAW Sept. 13 had selected GM as the lead company of the “Big Three” U.S. automakers, GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC. The lead agreement set a pattern for contracts with the other two. The UAW’s previous contracts with Chrysler and Ford were also extended beyond their Sept. 13 expiration while the union negotiated with GM. [See p. 576B1] The central dispute concerned a health care plan for the UAW’s current and retired workers. The Big Three automakers collectively had more than $90 billion in retiree health care obligations, about $55 billion of which belonged to GM. However, the U.S. auto industry already was already struggling to make a profit from its U.S. operations, and automakers said rising health care costs threatened their solvency. [See 2006 p. 50D2] U.S. automakers’ foreign competitors in recent years had built nonunion factories in the U.S. and paid workers similar wages to the Big Three, but without taking on the burden of insuring retirees. Another critical point of conflict had been the UAW’s demand that GM stop outsourcing work to factories outside the U.S. The strike reportedly cost GM $100 million a day. GM Proposes Health Care Trust—During the negotiations, GM’s main proposal to alleviate health care costs had been to set up a tax-exempt trust called a voluntary employees’ beneficiary association (VEBA). In a VEBA, GM would be able to unload its health care obligations by transferring health care money to a trust, which would then be administered by both the UAW and a third party. It was unclear where automakers’ funds for the VEBA would come from. The UAW would also contribute money to the VEBA. The UAW reportedly wanted GM to invest more money in the VEBA than what it had offered. It was not the first time a VEBA had been proposed to the union; one had September 27, 2007

been negotiated between the UAW and Caterpillar Inc. in 1998. That VEBA had run out of money in 2005. [See 1998, p. 219B1] GM had been preparing for the possibility of transferring its health care liability to a VEBA since 2005, when it publicly stated its demand for UAW health care concessions. A compromise was brokered later that year, in which GM gained $1 billion in savings and a $15 billion cut in future health care liabilities. The UAW later made a similar deal with Ford, but not with Chrysler. The UAW had suggested a VEBA at that time, but again, had not been satisfied with the amount GM had been willing to contribute. Tentative Agreement Reached—A tentative agreement Sept. 26 was reached between GM and the UAW that would implement the VEBA. The VEBA would be subject to review each year by both GM and the UAW, and if it was underfunded, GM would have to make up the shortfall. The UAW called off the strike, but said if the contract was not signed, workers would strike again. The UAW would meet Sept. 28 to discuss the contract and put it to a vote. It was unclear how much GM would contribute. „

Legislation Children’s Health Insurance Bill Cleared.

The House Sept. 25 voted, 265–159, to pass the final version of a measure that would expand funding for the state Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP), which provided health care coverage for children whose families were unable to afford private health care, but had too high an income to qualify for Medicaid. Support for the bill fell short of the 290 votes that would be needed to override a promised veto by President George W. Bush. [See pp. 542C3, 495F3] The Senate Sept. 27 also voted, 67–29, to approve the measure, earning enough votes to override a potential veto by Bush. The measure drew support from a number of congressional Republicans despite being opposed by the GOP leadership and Bush. The final bill would authorize an increase in funding for the program by $35 billion over the next five years, for a total of $60 billion. The expansion was estimated to boost enrollment to 10 million children, up from its current level of 6.6 million. The increased funding would be paid for with a hike in tobacco taxes, particularly an increase on the cigarette tax to $1 per pack, from its current level of 39 cents per pack. CHIP had been created in 1997 with an allocation of $40 billion for a 10-year period, and was set to expire Sept. 30, the end of the 2007 fiscal year. However, congressional Democrats said they would include funding for the program in a broader fiscal 2008 appropriations bill to ensure it continued uninterrupted. Fiscal conservatives argued that the bill would create an “entitlement” whose

costs would soon outstrip any revenue generated by the new tobacco tax. Opponents also said the expanded funding would only serve as an incentive for families with children enrolled in private health care plans to abandon them in favor of the public one. However, the bill was supported by 45 House Republicans, some of whom criticized the White House for attempting to put them in the politically unpopular position of opposing health care for children. Eighteen Senate Republicans backed the bill. Bush at a Sept. 20 news conference had reiterated his threat to veto the bill, describing the measure as “a step toward federalization of health care.” Bush said he supported a $5 billion expansion of CHIP over the next five years, short of the $13–15 billion the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had estimated would be needed to maintain the program’s current enrollment. „

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2008 Presidential Campaign Democrats Debate in New Hampshire.

Eight Democratic presidential candidates Sept. 26 debated at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. Tim Russert, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” served as moderator. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.), the front-runner in national polls, fended off criticism from her leading rivals, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), on a range of topics, including the Iraq war, the prospect of conflict with Iran and domestic issues such as Social Security and health care. [See p. 590A3] Russert asked Clinton, Obama and Edwards whether they would commit to withdrawing all U.S. troops from Iraq by January 2013, when the next president’s first term would end. All three declined. However, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said he would withdraw all the troops by the end of his first year in office. [See p. 590B2] Clinton said, “I will drastically reduce our presence there to the mission of protecting our embassy, protecting our civilians and making sure that we’re carrying out counterterrorism activities there.” Obama made a similar response, while Edwards said he would “immediately draw down 40,000 to 50,000 troops.” He said, “I do not want to continue combat missions in Iraq,” and argued that Clinton did want to continue such missions. She replied that she only wanted missions focused on the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Clinton also came under fire for voting in favor of a Sept. 26 Senate resolution that called on President George W. Bush to designate the Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the Iranian military, as a terrorist group. The measure had passed by a vote of 76–22. [See p. 533D2] Two other candidates at the debate, Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.) and Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.), had voted against it, while Obama had not voted. Edwards said 631

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he had learned to be more careful about such measures after voting for a 2002 resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. Noting that Clinton had also voted for the 2002 measure, he said, “We learned a very different lesson from that. I have no intention of giving George Bush the authority to take the first step on a road to war with Iran.” He added that Bush “cannot be trusted.” Clinton said the Iran resolution “gives us the options to be able to impose sanctions” on Iranian leaders. Domestic Issues—Russert asked the candidates if they would back raising payroll taxes to ensure that the Social Security system remained solvent. Clinton said she would not commit to any plan for Social Security before restoring “fiscal responsibility” in the federal budget. But Obama and Edwards both said they would likely support raising the payroll tax cap, which currently left income above the first $97,500 untaxed. [See p. 263D1] Obama chided Clinton after she said she had waged a “lonely fight” for a universal health care plan as first lady in the early 1990s. Obama said, “Part of the reason it was lonely, Hillary, was because you closed the door to a lot of allies in that process,” which had ended with the failure of the legislation in Congress in 1994. [See p. 607F2] Biden, who trailed far behind the top contenders in the polls, made one of the sharpest challenges to Clinton, citing the legacy of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as a reason why Republicans might be unwilling to cooperate with her as president. Biden said, “I’m not suggesting it’s Hillary’s fault. I think it’s a reality that it’s more difficult, because there’s a lot of very good things that come with all the things that President Clinton did, but there’s also a lot of the old stuff that comes back. It’s kind of hard.” He clarified, “When I say old stuff, I’m talking about policy.” Bill Clinton came up again when Russert asked Sen. Clinton if she thought it would be justified to use torture if a terrorist in custody had knowledge of an imminent attack against a U.S. city. She said, “As a matter of policy, it cannot be American policy, period.” Russert said that her husband had taken the opposite view a year earlier. She replied, “Well, he’s not standing here right now,” then added, after Russert pressed her about the difference of opinion, “Well, I’ll talk to him later.” „ Giuliani Addresses NRA. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, a leading Republican presidential candidate, Sept. 21 addressed about 500 members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Washington, D.C. Giuliani used his speech to proclaim his support for the right to bear arms, and to try to explain his record of strong advocacy for stricter gun control when he was mayor. Because of that record, he faced a skeptical audience. His speech was reportedly received with lukewarm applause. [See p. 143A2] 632

The encounter was a test of Giuliani’s front-runner status in national polls despite his record of taking stances at odds with conservatives on issues such as gun control, abortion and gay rights. As mayor from 1994 to 2001, Giuliani had called for a federal assault weapons ban, and in 2000 the city filed a lawsuit against gun makers and distributors. The lawsuit was currently pending before the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. [See 2005, p. 957A2] In 1995, he said in a PBS interview with Charlie Rose that the NRA “goes way overboard,” and compared its behavior to “extremists on the other side.” In his speech to the NRA, Giuliani explained his pro–gun control record as mayor by saying that his top priority then had been fighting crime, and that he had used every available means to do so. Giuliani said Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. had changed his views on gun control. He said the attacks put “a whole different emphasis on the things America needs to do to protect itself, and maybe even a renewed emphasis on the Second Amendment.” Giuliani’s leadership after the destruction of New York’s World Trade Center in those attacks had won him national acclaim and propelled his presidential campaign. Giuliani interrupted his speech to take a call on his cellular telephone, explaining, “This is my wife calling.” He said, “Hello dear.…I’m talking to members of the NRA,” then signed off, saying, “I love you and I’ll give you a call as soon as I’m finished, O.K.?” Afterwards, he remarked to the audience, “This is one of the great blessings of the modern age, being always available. Or maybe it isn’t.” A spokeswoman for Giuliani’s campaign said the call was “a moment of candor and spontaneity on the campaign trail.” However, the same interruption had reportedly occurred at previous Giuliani events. Two of Giuliani’s top rivals in the Republican presidential race, former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), also spoke at the NRA meeting, while a third, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, sent a video affirming his support for the Second Amendment. Giuliani Visits London, Meets Thatcher—

Giuliani Sept. 19 visited London, where he met separately with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown; Brown’s predecessor, Tony Blair; and another former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher, 81, was an icon to U.S. conservatives, along with her close ally, the late President Ronald Reagan. The trip was seen partly as a bid by Giuliani to boost his foreign policy credentials. [See 2004, p. 440D1; 1990, p. 875D1] Giuliani delivered a speech in Thatcher’s honor before the Atlantic Bridge, a conservative group devoted to maintaining a strong U.S.–British relationship. He warned against “defeatism and appeasement” in the global fight against Islamic extremism.

He also proposed expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to include far-flung new members such as Israel, India, Japan, Australia and Singapore. NATO currently included only European nations together with the U.S. and Canada. While in London, Giuliani also attended a fund-raising event for his campaign, where he mingled with U.S. expatriates. The New York Times Sept. 22 reported that both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates were raising money from U.S. citizens overseas at an unprecedented rate. Giuliani led the Republicans with $121,550 raised overseas prior to the London event, but trailed the Democratic leader, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), who had raised $251,000 abroad. [See p. 461E1] „ Clinton Donor Hsu Charged With Fraud.

Federal prosecutors in U.S. District Court in New York City Sept. 20 unsealed a criminal complaint against Norman Hsu, a leading Democratic fund-raiser who had raised $850,000 for the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.). The complaint alleged that Hsu had pressured investors to make political contributions, and had used illegal Ponzi schemes to swindle investors of more than $60 million. He was charged with mail fraud, wire fraud and violations of federal election law. He faced up to 45 years in prison if convicted. [See p. 589D3] The complaint said Hsu, 56, had confessed to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents that his business activities were fraudulent. It said he “admitted that he made implied threats to his investors to pressure them to contribute to political candidates he supported.” According to the complaint, Hsu had also broken the law by making political contributions under other people’s names and reimbursing others for their contributions. Hsu’s Ponzi schemes allegedly paid interest to early investors with money from people who invested later. He described the schemes as based on providing shortterm loans to companies in the garment industry. He allegedly used his increasingly high-profile political activities to lure new investors. Investment fund Source Financing Investors Sept. 18 filed a civil lawsuit against Hsu in New York State Supreme Court, alleging that $40.2 million it had invested with Hsu was missing. Judge Shirley Werner Kornreich froze some of Hsu’s assets. She also ordered Clinton and other New York Democrats—Gov. Eliot Spitzer, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand—to retain campaign contributions from Hsu for possible recovery by Source Financing. The four politicians had said they planned to give the tainted money to charity. Returned to Calif. to Face Sentencing—

Authorities Sept. 20 returned Hsu to California, from Colorado, to face sentencing in a 1992 case, in which he had pleaded no contest to theft charges related to a fraud FACTS ON FILE

scheme. He had surrendered to police in California earlier in the month, after it came to light that he was a fugitive there. Then, after being released on $2 million bail, he had fled the state again, only to be arrested at a hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., where he had been removed from a train after an apparent suicide attempt. Hsu Sept. 21 appeared in San Mateo County (Calif.) Superior Court and was ordered held without bail. Hsu’s lawyer, James Brosnahan, said he would seek to have the 1992 plea dismissed and recover the $2 million bail. Brosnahan also criticized the FBI, saying it was “inappropriate” that agents had questioned Hsu in the hospital as he recovered from an overdose of sleeping pills. The FBI maintained that it had not interviewed Hsu in the hospital. „

2008 Elections Warner, Shaheen Set Senate Bids. Former

Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D) Sept. 13 announced that he would run in 2008 for the Senate seat that would be left vacant by the retirement of Sen. John Warner (R, Va.), who had held it for five terms. Another prominent Democrat, former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, Sept. 14 said she would seek the nomination to challenge Sen. John Sununu (R, N.H.) in 2008, in a rematch of their 2002 contest. The Democratic Party had recruited wellknown candidates like Warner and Shaheen in hopes of adding to the one-seat Senate majority it had won in 2006. [See p. 573G2; 2002, p. 845B2] Warner, 52, had served one term as governor, from 2002 to 2006, before stepping down due to Virginia’s limit of one term at a time for governors. He had briefly explored a presidential bid before ruling himself out of the running in late 2006. He was a former venture capitalist with a fortune estimated at more than $200 million. In 1996, he had challenged John Warner for his Senate seat and lost by five percentage points. Virginia Republicans were still reeling from Democrat James Webb’s defeat of incumbent Sen. George Allen (R) in 2006. Virginia had not had two Democratic senators since 1970. Rep. Tom Davis 3rd and former Gov. James Gilmore 3rd had both signaled interest in seeking the Republican Senate nomination, but had not yet set any plans. Gilmore had dropped a presidential bid in July. [See p. 462D1] Shaheen, 60, had won three consecutive two-year terms as New Hampshire governor, from 1998 to 2002, when she lost the Senate election to Sununu by five points. Since then, she had held the post of director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Democrats viewed Sununu as one of the more vulnerable Republican incumbents, saying his support for President George W. Bush’s Iraq war policy had left him out of step with strong antiwar sentiment in New Hampshire. „ September 27, 2007

Bush Administration Agriculture Secretary Johanns Resigns.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns Sept. 20 resigned, effective immediately. Johanns said he intended to return to Nebraska to decide whether to run for a Senate seat that would be open in the 2008 election, due to the recently announced retirement plans of Sen. Chuck Hagel (R). Johanns, a Republican, was a former governor of Nebraska. [See pp. 633C1, 590D3] President George W. Bush said Johanns “would make an outstanding member of the United States Senate,” and praised his work on a major farm bill that was pending in Congress. But Democrats criticized Johanns for leaving before the bill was finished. [See p. 495D2] Bush named Deputy Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner to take over as acting secretary. „

Civil Rights ‘Jena Six’ Defendant Freed on Bail. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) Sept. 26 said that the prosecutor of the case against Mychal Bell, one of a group of black teenagers accused of beating a white classmate in Jena, La., had decided not to continue to seek a trial of Bell as an adult. A state appeals court earlier in the month had overturned Bell’s aggravated second-degree battery conviction, saying he should have been tried as a juvenile. The prosecutor, Reed Walters, had initially vowed to challenge the ruling. Bell would face the same battery charge as a juvenile. If convicted, instead of a possible 15-year prison sentence he would be held only until he turned 21. He was released Sept. 27 on $45,000 bail. [See p. 609G1] The case had drawn national attention, as civil rights activists contended that the group of seven youths known as the “Jena Six” (one of the seven remained unidentified) were being subjected to unduly aggressive prosecution. Details of Story Questioned— A Sept. 24 Associated Press (AP) report raised questions about several significant details given in press reports about the series of racially charged events that led up to the beating of the white student, Justin Barker, in December 2006. The article challenged the claim that a Jena High School tree that three white students had hung nooses from in August 2006 was unofficially designated for whites only. According to interviews with teachers and school administrators, the AP reported, students of all races were known to sit under the tree. The report also contradicted reports that the boys who had hung the nooses were only briefly suspended; in fact, the three students were sent to an alternative school for approximately a month before returning to Jena High School to serve a two-week inschool suspension.

The AP attributed the errors to “repeated retelling” and “omissions and alterations of fact” in the interval between the 2006 events and the time they gained wider attention beginning in August 2007. Supremacists Post Jena Six Data— A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spokeswoman announced Sept. 22 that the bureau had “gathered information” on a white supremacist Web site that appeared to have posted contact information for the family homes of five of the seven members of the Jena Six, and “essentially called for their lynching.” According to a report on the Cable News Network (CNN) Web site Sept. 23, the supremacist site contained street addresses and phone numbers supposedly belonging to families of the Jena Six, as well as racial slurs and a swastika. The FBI said law enforcement authorities were still examining the site to determine if it broke any federal laws. Truck Carried Nooses After Protest—

Police in Alexandria, La., Sept. 20 arrested two teenagers following reports that a pickup adorned with two nooses was repeatedly driving past groups of protesters who were waiting for buses. Jeremiah Munsen, 18, the driver of the pickup, was charged with driving while intoxicated, inciting to riot and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. His passenger, age 16, was held following the arrest but had not yet been charged with a crime. The passenger told police that his family belonged to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and that he had the initials “KKK” tattooed into his chest. A search of the pickup produced brass knuckles, an unloaded shotgun and two nooses made from extension cords. „

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Crime Mormon Sect Leader Guilty in Rape Case.

Warren Jeffs, leader of a reclusive breakaway Mormon sect in Utah and Arizona that practiced polygamy, Sept. 25 was found guilty in a Washington County, Utah, court of two felony counts of rape as an accomplice. Jeffs, who was recognized as a prophet by the approximately 10,000 members of his Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), had arranged a marriage between the plaintiff, a 14-year-old girl, and her 19-year-old cousin. The plaintiff said her cousin had sex with her against her will. [See 2006, p. 1010C3] The plaintiff, now 21, said Jeffs had coerced her into a marriage she did not want, and when she asked to be released from it, he had told her to repent and give her “mind, body and soul” to her husband. She further alleged that Jeffs exercised near-total influence over the members of his church, and had insisted dissent would result in eternal damnation. He also allegedly punished men by giving their wives and children to other men. The defense argued that the state of Utah was abusing its power in order to persecute members of a religion it did not approve of. Utah had outlawed polygamy in 633

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1890 in a deal to obtain statehood. The FLDS had split from the mainstream Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after that church renounced polygamy. Sentencing was set for Nov. 20. Jeffs, 51, faced five years to life in prison for each of the two charges. One of his lawyers Sept. 25 said they would appeal. He was likely to appear in two similar cases in Mohave County, Ariz., court next. He faced four counts in each of those cases: two counts of sexual conduct with a minor as an accomplice, and two counts of incest as an accomplice. Jeffs was also named in several other lawsuits, including charges of misconduct as a trustee for his church and accusations of harm from a forced marriage. He also faced federal charges in Utah for fleeing prosecution. Jeffs had been on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s mostwanted list for nearly four months before his arrest in August 2006. In a Sept. 25 statement, the plaintiff said, “The trial has not been about religion nor a vendetta. It is simply about child abuse and preventing further abuse.” The plaintiff’s ex-husband, Allen Steed, Sept. 26 was charged with rape. Bail was set at $50,000 and the trial had not yet been scheduled. „ Mistrial Declared in Spector Case. Record producer Phil Spector Sept. 26 was released on $1 million dollar bail after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in his murder trial and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler declared a mistrial. Spector, 67, had been accused of murdering actress Lana Clarkson in February 2003 in his Los Angeles area home after she rejected his advances. Clarkson, 40, was found dead in Spector’s mansion of a gunshot wound to the mouth. [See 2004, p. 882D1] During the trial, which had begun March 19, the prosecution had presented testimony from Spector’s chauffeur, who said he had heard a loud pop, and that Spector had emerged from his mansion with a gun in his right hand and stated “I think I killed somebody.” However, no fingerprints were found on the gun. Five women testified for the prosecution that Spector had threatened them at gunpoint for similar reasons. In contrast, the defense portrayed Clarkson as an alcoholic and a failed actress who had killed herself because of career and financial troubles. Clarkson had been working as a hostess at West Hollywood venue House of Blues at the time of her death. Jurors, who had begun deliberations Sept. 10, told Fidler Sept. 18 that they were deadlocked, 7–5. (The judge did not reveal in which direction the jury was leaning.) However, they resumed deliberations Sept. 20 after receiving new instructions from the judge. Jurors Sept. 26 said they were deadlocked 10–2 in favor of convicting Spector, after 41 hours of deliberations. After the trial, some jurors suggested there had been uncertainty regarding the mental state of Clarkson around the time of her death. One juror Sept. 26 said the prosecution should 634

have presented a “psychological profile” of “whether she was suicidal.” Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley Sept. 26 said, “We are disappointed the jury was unable to reach a verdict …we will seek the court’s permission to retry the case and begin immediately to prepare for a retrial.” John Taylor, a lawyer for the Clarkson family, the same day said, “We will not rest until justice is done.” Spector had been a successful music producer in the 1960s and 1970s, known for the “wall of sound” recording technique, featured in hits by “girl groups” such as the Crystals and the Ronettes. Spector had a reputation for being reclusive and eccentric. „ ‘Die Hard’ Director Sentenced to 4 Months.

Judge Dale Fischer of U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Calif., Sept. 24 sentenced film director John McTiernan to four months in prison and a $100,000 fine for lying to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent in connection with the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping case. McTiernan was ordered to turn in his passport to the court and told to turn himself in by Jan. 15, 2008, to serve his sentence. [See 2006, p. 299A3] McTiernan had pleaded guilty in April 2006 to charges that he lied to an FBI agent when asked if he had hired Pellicano, then a private investigator, to wiretap producer Charles Roven in August 2000. As part of his guilty plea, McTiernan agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors investigating Pellicano’s alleged illegal wiretapping activities connected with high-profile Hollywood personalities. However, when McTiernan continued to deny to federal agents that he had hired Pellicano to wiretap his then-wife Donna Dubrow during their 1997 divorce, prosecutors came to believe that McTiernan was still lying to them and made the decision to pursue prison time for the director. „

Accidents & Disasters Blast at Private Spaceship Site Kills Three.

An explosion at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, Calif., during a test of a private space tourism vehicle, July 26 killed three workers. The blast occurred at a test facility belonging to Scaled Composites LLC, whose owner, Burt Rutan, had designed SpaceShipOne, which became the first private, manned ship to reach space in 2004. The company was testing propellant system components for a new rocket motor for that craft’s successor, SpaceShipTwo, when the explosion occurred. The ship was being built for British entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceliner venture. [See 2005, p. 914E3] „ Methane Gas Kills Five on Virginia Farm.

A deadly buildup of methane gas in the manure pit of a Bridgewater, Va., dairy farm July 2 killed five people. One of the victims, Scott Showalter, 34, climbed into the pit to unclog a pipe and was overcome by the fumes. Reportedly believing Showalter had suffered a heart attack, a farmhand and

then Showalter’s wife and two of his four children subsequently entered the pit to rescue him, only to succumb to the fumes themselves. „ Dragster Accident in Charity Event Kills Six.

A drag-racing car June 16 spun out of control at a children’s charity event in Selmer, Tenn., killing six people, including three teenagers. The driver, Troy Critchley, had been performing an “exhibition burnout”—revving the engine and spinning the car’s wheels to produce smoke from the tires before racing down the track— when the car lost traction and skidded into the crowd. Police said that part of the blocked-off highway used for the event did not have guardrails. The event was being held by Cars for Kids, which raised money for injured and disabled children, and was sponsored by a drag-racing organization, the AMS Pro Modified Series. Critchley, a professional drag racer, suffered minor injuries. Police were investigating the cause of the crash. [See 2006, p. 358A2] „

Economy Consumer Prices Fell 0.1% in August. The Labor Department Sept. 19 reported that its consumer price index (CPI), which tracked prices Inflation (CPI) paid for conAugust 2007 -0.1% sumer goods Previous Month 0.1% by all urban 12-Month Increase 2.0% consumers, dropped 0.1% in August after adjustment for seasonal variation. “Core” consumer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food costs, grew by 0.2% in August, which was the same as the increase seen in July. For the 12-month period through August, the overall unadjusted inflation rate was 2.0%. [See p. 544B3] Unadjusted for seasonal variation, the CPI for all urban consumers stood at 207.917% of its 1982–84 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982–84 would have cost $207.92 in August. „ Producer Prices Fell 1.4% in August. Producer prices in August fell 1.4% after seasonal adjustment, according to the Labor Department’s producer price index (PPI), released Sept. 18. The index tracked prices charged by manufacturers and producers of finished goods. It had risen 0.6% in July. “Core” producer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food prices, increased 0.2%, compared with a 0.1% rise in July. Energy prices dropped 6.6% in August, after a 2.5% gain in July, and food prices fell 0.2%, after falling 0.1% the previous month. [See p. 529B2] The finished goods index, before seasonal adjustment, stood at 165.8% of its 1982 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982 would have cost $165.80 in August. Prices for intermediate—or partially processed—goods fell 1.2% in August, after a 0.6% gain in July. Prices for crude goods dropped 3.0%, after a 1.2% rise the previous month. „ FACTS ON FILE

Leading Indicators Down 0.6% in August.

The Conference Board business research organization Sept. 20 reported that its composite index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of future economic activity, fell by 0.6% in August, to 137.8. It had increased a revised 0.7% in July, the board reported. The index’s base level of 100 reflected conditions in 1996. One of the 10 indicators in August—real money supply—was a “positive” contributor. Eight indicators were “negative,” led by the index of consumer expectations, average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance, stock prices and building permits. One indicator—average weekly manufacturing hours—did not change in August. [See p. 544E3] „ Housing Starts Fell 2.6% in August. The Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Sept. 19 reported jointly that the rate of housing starts in August was 1.33 million units, annualized and adjusted for seasonal variation. That was 2.6% below the revised rate for July of 1.37 million units. Building permits were issued in August at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.31 million units, 5.9% below July’s revised rate of 1.39 million. [See p. 544D3] Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.), chairman of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, Sept. 19 said the low housing starts figures showed that the “worst is still yet to come” for the housing market, and that problems in the housing market might trigger a recession. The Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank, a day earlier had cut its benchmark interest rate to stem the threat of a recession caused by a collapse in the housing market, among other things. [See pp. 606A1, 608G1] „ Existing Home Sales Fell 4.3% in August.

Sales of existing homes dropped 4.3% in August, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.50 million units, the National Association of Realtors reported Sept. 25. The revised rate for July was the same as the preliminary report of 5.75 million. The median sale price for existing homes in August was $224,500, up from $224,000 a year earlier. The decline in sales of existing homes was attributed to current problems in the mortgage market. [See pp. 606A1, 560G1] „ Consumer Confidence Fell in September.

The Conference Board Sept. 25 reported that its index of consumer confidence fell to 99.8 in September, from a revised level of 105.6 in August. The index’s base level of 100 reflected consumer confidence in 1985. The index was at its lowest level in almost two years. Analysts said the decline in consumer confidence was due to weak housing and labor markets. [See pp. 606A1, 591G1, 560F1] „ Durable Goods Orders Fell 4.9% in August.

The Commerce Department Sept. 26 reported that the value of durable goods orders in August decreased by 4.9% from the previous month, to $219.5 billion. Durable goods were so-called big-ticket items designed to last three years or more. [See p. 592D1] „ September 27, 2007

AFRICA

Somalia Antigovernment Alliance Formed. Leaders of Somali Islamist and other opposition factions meeting in Asmara, Eritrea’s capital, Sept. 12 agreed to form an alliance to counter Somalia’s transitional government. The group, which called itself the Alliance for the Liberation of Somalia, Sept. 14 selected Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as its leader. [See p. 382A3] An Islamist militia known as the Council of Islamic Courts had taken control of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern and central Somalia in mid2006. The militia was ousted by transitional government and Ethiopian troops in late 2006, after which some of its members began an insurgency against the government. The U.S., which alleged that members of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda were among the Islamists, had supported the campaign against the insurgents by Ethiopia and the transitional government. Earlier in 2007, the U.S. had launched attacks on suspected insurgents in northern and southern Somalia. Attacks by the insurgents had led to intense fighting in Mogadishu and surrounding areas, causing heavy casualties and prompting tens of thousands of civilians to flee. Pro-government troops and politicians had increasingly become the targets of roadside bombs, suicide attacks and assassinations, prompting comparisons to the current situation in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, which was riven by sectarian violence. [See p. 627B3] The African Union (AU) had agreed in January to send 8,000 peacekeepers to Somalia, but thus far only about 1,600 Ugandan troops were in the country. Ahmed, who had been the Islamic courts’ second-in-command, had fled to Yemen in February. The whereabouts of the courts’ leader, Hassan Dahir Aweys, who was considered more radical than Ahmed, had been unknown until he surfaced at the opening of the meeting in Asmara Sept. 6. At least 300 people attended the meeting, including representatives of Somalia’s political opposition, the United Nations, European Union, France and Israel. The opposition alliance Sept. 12 demanded that Ethiopian troops withdraw from Somalia immediately. A representative said the alliance’s goal was to oust the transitional government, either through peaceful negotiation or war. Eritrea, Ethiopia’s longtime enemy, had been accused in the past of aiding Islamist fighters in Somalia. A report by U.N. monitors delivered to the Security Council July 20 had alleged that Eritrea sent “huge quantities of arms” to the insurgents, including bombs that could be used in suicide missions and missiles that could shoot down airplanes. The Eritrean government had denied the allegations. Some observers reportedly feared that Somalia could become a proxy battleground in the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. [See 2006, p. 1014C3]

The U.N. Security Council Aug. 20 had adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the AU force for six months, and pledging to “take measures” against groups that threatened the transitional government. Eritrea’s state-run media Sept. 15 reported that the country’s president, Issaias Afwerki, supported the new antigovernment alliance.

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Government Reconciliation Talks End—

A six-week reconciliation conference sponsored by the transitional government ended Aug. 30 in Mogadishu. Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf and Interim Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi July 15 had opened the conference, which was attended by more than 2,000 clan leaders, politicians, former warlords and foreign diplomats. However, most opposition leaders who had been invited failed to attend, including the Islamists, undermining the conference’s chance of long-term success. Insurgents launched mortar attacks as the meeting began, and continued the bombardments throughout the conference. At the conference’s closing, Yusuf announced that the delegates had agreed on goals including a truce between rival clans, the sharing of natural resources and elections in 2009. “The government promises to take decisive action in implementing the agreements you reached,” the interim president told the attendees. However, analysts questioned whether there was any real hope of achieving those goals, given that the Islamists had boycotted the talks and appeared determined to oust the transitional government. Nevertheless, Michael Ranneberger, the U.S. ambassador to neighboring Kenya, Sept. 20 called the conference a “milestone” in Somali peace efforts. Other News—In other news related to the conflict in Somalia: † At least seven journalists had been killed in Somalia in 2007 by both the Islamists and pro-government forces, it was reported Aug. 25. Those included the Aug. 11 murders in Mogadishu of two prominent journalists: Ali Iman Sharmarke, the founder and co-owner of HornAfrik Media, and Mahad Ahmed Elmi, the host of a popular HornAfrik radio talk show. HornAfrik was one of the largest privately owned media outlets in the country. Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed Dheere Aug. 12 said three people had been arrested in connection with the killings. No group claimed responsibility for the two murders. † A report released Aug. 13 by U.S.based watchdog group Human Rights Watch alleged that all sides in Somalia’s conflict had committed war crimes. The report accused the warring parties of showing “criminal disregard for the well-being of the civilian population of Mogadishu,” according to Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch. † The leaders of two U.N. agencies—the International Maritime Organization and the World Food Program (WFP)—had appealed for a crackdown on piracy off Somalia’s coast, it was reported July 11. Pirates often targeted ships carrying WFP food aid. They 635

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Golding Sworn in as Prime Minister. Bruce Golding Sept. 11 was sworn in as Jamaica’s eighth prime minister in a ceremony attended by 6,000 people in Kingston, the capital. Golding’s Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) the previous week had won a majority of seats in the country’s parliament, ending 18 years of rule by the People’s National Party (PNP). [See p. 578D2] Golding, 59, in his inaugural address said he would focus on Jamaica’s rising crime rate. Shootings in the country were up 9% and homicides up 12% in the first eight months of 2007, when compared with the same time period in 2006, according to Jamaican police officials. An estimated 60% of homicides went unsolved. Golding said he would work to root out corruption in the government. He also said he would attempt to protect citizens by codifying a charter of fundamental rights and establishing a system of redress for those whose rights had been violated. He pledged to eliminate tuition charges for public high schools. „

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Fujimori Extradited From Chile to Face Trial.

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori Sept. 22 was extradited from Chile to Peru to face seven charges of human rights violations and corruption. The Chilean Supreme Court Sept. 21 had issued a final ruling approving the extradition, overturning a July decision by a member of the high court who had said there was not enough evidence to warrant Fujimori’s handover. [See p. 498A2] Among the charges Fujimori faced were human rights violations in connection with the activities of a secret death squad composed of army intelligence officers known as the Colina Group. Fujimori was also accused of using $15 million in government money for payoffs to Vladimiro Montesi636

nos, Peru’s intelligence chief under Fujimori. Montesinos in 2001 had been arrested after a video was released showing him paying a lawmaker a bribe. Fujimori, 69, had been president of Peru from 1990 to 2000, when he fled the country for Japan in the midst of a corruption investigation into his administration. In 2005 he was arrested in Chile while attempting to return to Peru. Though Fujimori had a sizable number of supporters in Peru who admired him for battling the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrilla group and reining in Peru’s hyperinflation, critics said his administration had used oppressive tactics to suppress dissidents and had engaged in massive corruption. Human rights advocates praised the extradition, which U.S.-based Human Rights Watch called the first time a court had ordered the former ruler of any country to return home to face human rights charges. Fujimori after the Chilean high court’s ruling Sept. 21 said he welcomed the “opportunity…to reunite with the people” of Peru, and was “prepared to deal with the situation.” Peruvian President Alan Garcia Perez’s American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) relied on a pro-Fujimori legislative bloc to pass laws in the country’s unicameral Congress. Analysts said the Fujimori bloc might seek to halt congressional business in protest of Fujimori’s prosecution. „

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Ruling Party Veteran Fukuda Named Japanese Prime Minister Faces Continued Opposition Challenge.

Japan’s Diet (parliament) Sept. 25 elected Yasuo Fukuda prime minister. Fukuda, 71, succeeded Shinzo Abe, who had unexpectedly announced his resignation earlier in the month. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Sept. 23 had named Fukuda its new leader, which meant that he would become prime minister, since an LDP-led coalition controlled the lower house of the Diet. [See p. 588C1; for facts on Fukuda, see p. 637A1] However, because the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) had won control of the upper house in July elections, that chamber voted, 133–106, in favor of DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa, in the first split vote for prime minister since 1998. Under Japan’s constitution, that led to the appointment of a joint committee of the two houses. When the committee failed to reach an agreement, the lower house’s choice was final, and Fukuda was formally installed later Sept. 25. Fukuda in his first news conference as prime minister Sept. 25 said that party unity would be crucial in the face of the opposition’s new strength. He said he would press for the extension of a special law allowing Japanese naval forces to refuel U.S. and allied ships involved in military operations in Afghanistan. The DPJ since gaining its upper house majority had vowed to block the renewal of the law, which would expire Nov. 1.

Ozawa said the replacement of Abe would not affect his efforts to oust the LDP government. The opposition repeated its demand that the prime minister dissolve the lower house and call a general election. Fukuda had been a member of the lower house since 1990, and had served as chief cabinet secretary under Prime Ministers Yoshiro Mori and Junichiro Koizumi, Abe’s predecessor. He became the first son of a former prime minister to attain the post; his father, Takeo Fukuda, had been prime minister from 1976 to 1978. [See 1995, p. 512C3] Factions Back Fukuda Over Aso—Fukuda emerged as Abe’s likely successor Sept. 14, when he won the backing of leaders of LDP factions representing a majority of the party’s lower house membership. Some observers suggested that the factions had reclaimed their traditional powerbroker role, which Koizumi had sought to diminish. Fukuda and another leading candidate, former party secretary general and foreign minister Taro Aso, embarked on a campaign tour of the country, although ordinary citizens did not participate in the selection of the new party leader. Aso Sept. 15 acknowledged that Fukuda was the likely winner, but said he was staying in the race to show that the party was “holding an open election” rather than simply choosing a leader “through back room deals.” In the party’s Sept. 23 election, which polled its members of parliament and representatives of its regional branches, Fukuda won 330 votes, to Aso’s 197. By choosing Fukuda, the LDP was widely seen as opting for his experience and reputation as an architect of political alliances. Fukuda was also seen as more moderate on foreign policy questions than Abe, who embraced a nationalist revival begun under his predecessor Koizumi. Fukuda Sept. 15 at a news conference said that if he became prime minister he would not visit Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni shrine to the country’s war dead. Previous leaders’ visits to the shrine had drawn criticism because convicted war KOICHI KAMOSHIDA/Getty Images

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called for foreign warships that patrolled international waters near Somalia to be granted permission to enter the country’s territorial waters to fight the pirates. The WFP Sept. 26 said it welcomed an offer made by France the previous day to send a warship to protect food shipments to Somali ports for two months. [See 2006, p. 933C2] † Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, in a June 28 address to the Ethiopian parliament, admitted that he had “made a wrong political calculation” in sending in troops to back Somalia’s transitional government. The Ethiopian leader said he had not anticipated that the Islamists would regroup as an insurgency after being ousted from power in December 2006. Ethiopia’s forces had become bogged down in Somalia, as the transitional government did not have enough strength to fight the insurgency on its own. Also, many Somalis resented the presence of troops from Ethiopia, viewing them as an occupying force. „

Yasuo Fukuda, who was elected Japanese prime minister Sept. 25

FACTS ON FILE

FACTS ON FUKUDA

Yasuo Fukuda was born July 16, 1936, in Gunma prefecture. His father, Takeo Fukuda, was prime minister of Japan from 1976 to 1978. He graduated from Waseda University with a degree in politics and economics in 1959, and then began a career in the oil industry. He entered public service in 1977 when he became chief secretary to his father, the prime minister, and continued as his private secretary during the rest of Takeo Fukuda’s tenure in the lower house of the Diet (parliament), until 1989. Fukuda himself was elected to the lower house in 1990. In 1995 he became parliamentary vice minister of foreign affairs, and in 1996 took the first of a series of positions in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) organization. In 2000, he became chief cabinet secretary to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, continuing in that position under Junichiro Koizumi until 2004; from 2001 to 2004 he was also minister for gender equality. [See 2004, p. 356A2] Fukuda Sept. 23 was named leader of the LDP following the resignation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Sept. 25 became prime minister. [See p. 636D2] Fukuda and his wife, Kiyoko Fukuda, had two sons and a daughter.

criminals were among those honored there. (Abe, while still prime minister, Aug. 15 had opted not to visit Yasukuni on the anniversary of Japan’s acceptance of the terms of its surrender in World War II, although Koizumi did.) [See p. 299D3] Fukuda at the news conference also vowed to continue economic reforms begun under Koizumi, including public spending cuts. However, key elements within the LDP reportedly sought to scale back the reforms, because the spending cuts had undermined support for the party among its traditional rural base. Fukuda said he would “address problems arising from reforms,” in an apparent nod to such concerns. Fukuda Sept. 25 appointed a cabinet composed mostly of the same ministers as the outgoing one. However, he shifted Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura to the post of chief cabinet secretary, and made Defense Minister Masahiko Komura the new foreign minister. Shigeru Ishiba replaced Komura as defense minister, a post he had held before. Abe Apologizes—Abe, who had been admitted to a hospital for stress-related ailments after he announced his resignation, Sept. 24 made a statement asserting that his poor health had been his main reason for stepping down. At the time, he had cited the deadlock over the special law permitting Japanese support for the Afghanistan operations. Abe in his Sept. 24 statement also apologized for the “trouble I have caused,” and for the timing of his announcement, which came just as parliament was beginning to debate the law’s extension. „

China Tibetans Arrested. Police in Lithang, in western Sichuan province, arrested 200 ethnic Tibetans protesting the arrest of a September 27, 2007

man who had demanded that Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama be allowed to return to the region, U.S. government– funded Radio Free Asia reported Aug. 3. (Lithang was in a predominantly Tibetan part of Sichuan.) The man, Runggye Adak, had been arrested Aug. 1 when he took to a stage at a horse festival to lead the crowd in calls for the Dalai Lama’s return. He also demand the release of the youth designated in 1995 by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnated Panchen Lama, the second-ranking Tibetan Buddhist leader, believed to be in Chinese custody. China’s state-run news agency Aug. 3 said he had been arrested for inciting separatism. China that day also declared that the government had the sole authority to name Tibetan Buddhist lamas. (China in 1995 had installed another child as its officially recognized Panchen Lama.) [See 2006, p. 898D2; 2000, p. 36D3] „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Great Britain Brown Addresses Labour Conference.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Sept. 24 addressed the annual conference of his ruling Labour Party for the first time since he had taken over from Tony Blair as prime minister at the end of June. At the conference, held Sept. 24–27 in Bournemouth, England, Brown gave an hourlong speech, but did not address speculation that he might call an early general election either later in the year or in the spring of 2008. [See p. 421D2; 2006, p. 752B2] Labour had won its third straight general election under Blair in May 2005. The next election was not due until 2010 at the latest. But observers said Brown might be anxious to win his own mandate from the voters. In his speech, Brown focused on domestic issues, pledging to improve schools and the National Health Service (NHS). He spoke of a rugby accident when he was 16 that had left him blind in the left eye and threatened his remaining sight. “It is because of the NHS that I can see the words I read today,” he said, which for him was an unusually personal reference. Brown mentioned a series of crises that had emerged in his first three months in office: attempted terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow, Scotland; severe floods in England; an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in livestock; and the previous week’s government bailout of a bank, Northern Rock PLC, whose panicking customers had lined up outside its branches to withdraw their savings. Brown said the calm response to those crises had proven the strength of the British people. [See pp. 616D1, 516G1, G2, 451B3] In foreign affairs, Brown referred only briefly to Britain’s troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying Britain would fulfill its commitments to help those countries achieve stability. He also criticized human rights abuses in Sudan, Zimbabwe and Myanmar. „

Russia New Cabinet Appointed. Russian

President Vladimir V. Putin Sept. 24 appointed a new cabinet with most of the same members of his previous one, in what analysts said was an effort to keep his associates in the government after the end of his term in March 2008. The new cabinet was submitted by Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, who had been appointed by Putin Sept. 12, the same day Putin dissolved the previous cabinet. As with the appointment of the little-known Zubkov, Putin again offered few clues as to whom he would anoint as his preferred successor. [See p. 616A2] Only three ministers were dismissed. Trade and Economic Development Minister German Gref, whose pro-Western reforms had been unpopular, was replaced by his deputy, Elvira Nabiulina. Health and Social Development Minister Mikhail Zurabov, who had made unpopular changes in social benefit payouts, was replaced by Tatyana Golikova, who had been deputy finance minister. Regional Development Minister Vladimir Yakovlev, who had failed to reform Russia’s inadequate housing service program, was replaced by Dmitry Kozak, who had been Putin’s envoy to the Southern Federal District. [See 2006, p. 962F1; 2005, p. 37A3; 2004, p. 705G2–B3] Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin retained his position and was also promoted to deputy prime minister. Additionally, Putin declined the resignation of Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who had offered to leave in order to avoid a conflict of interest after Zubkov, his father-in-law, became prime minister. [See p. 276E1] Russia’s two first deputy prime ministers, Sergei Ivanov and Dmitri Medvedev, who were seen as leading candidates in the race to succeed Putin, also retained their posts. Putin Sept. 24 said of the shuffle, “It is my great hope that the Russian government under the leadership of the new chairman, Viktor Zubkov, will strive in the most decisive way to achieve the objectives that we, together with members of parliament, have formulated as the strategic goals for the country’s development.” „

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European Business News Microsoft Loses Appeal of Antitrust Ruling.

The European Union’s second-highest court, the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, Sept. 17 upheld an EU antitrust order against U.S.-based Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest computer software company. Observers said the ruling could prompt new EU antitrust investigations into the practices of other big U.S. technology companies. [See 2006, p. 558F3] The court upheld a 2004 order by the European Commission, the executive body of the EU. The court also upheld a record fine of 497.2 million euros ($690 million) that the commission had imposed on Mi637

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crosoft for failing to comply with the order. The fine had since grown to about two billion euros due to additional penalties for Microsoft’s delay in complying with parts of the order. The court’s ruling upheld the commission’s finding that Microsoft had abused its dominant market position by using tactics intended to stifle competition. The two Microsoft tactics that the commission had cited were bundling new features, such as its Media Player, into the Windows operating system, putting makers of competing products at a disadvantage; and refusing to share technical information that other companies needed to allow their software to operate on Windows. The commission’s 2004 order required Microsoft to share such information with rival software makers. The commission had also ordered Microsoft to sell a version of Windows without Media Player. Microsoft Sept. 17 said it would comply with the court ruling by immediately sharing the information with its rivals. It had already begun selling a version of Windows without Media Player, but at the same price as the bundled version; there had been little consumer demand for it. Microsoft had the option of appealing the case to the European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, a process that could take two years. EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes hailed the ruling, saying it “set an important precedent in terms of the obligations of dominant companies to allow competition, in particular in high-tech industries.” She noted that Microsoft controlled 95% of the desktop operating system market worldwide, and said she wanted to see “a significant drop” in that market share. However, the U.S. Justice Department Sept. 18 warned that the ruling, “rather than helping consumers, may have the unfortunate consequence of harming consumers by chilling innovation and discouraging competition.” The department had settled its own antitrust case against Microsoft in 2001. That case had dealt mainly with Microsoft’s bundling of its Web browser, Explorer, into Windows. [See 2004, p. 527B3] „

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U.S.’s Rice Visits Region Ahead of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks Israel Declares Gaza ‘Hostile Entity.’ U.S.

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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Sept. 19–20 visited Israel and the Palestinian territories, ahead of U.S.-backed peace talks tentatively scheduled for mid-November. Rice met with leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, but left without settling on an agenda or a specific date for the talks. The visit came as Israel Sept. 19 declared the Gaza Strip, which was controlled by the Islamist militant group Hamas, a “hostile entity,” casting a shadow over the preparations. 638

Reports of an Israeli air strike on Syria earlier in September had also heightened tensions. [See pp. 603A3, 549C2] “The international meeting has to be serious, it has to be substantive,” Rice said Sept. 20 after a meeting with Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “We have many things to do. We don’t need a photo opportunity.” She added that the talks needed to “advance the cause of a Palestinian state.” However, Rice’s attempt to forge a common ground between Israel and the Palestinians was largely frustrated. Palestinian leaders would not commit to attending the talks unless a detailed agenda was spelled out, including a timeline for the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Abbas also pressed for discussion of the so-called core issues: the borders of a prospective nation, the status of Palestinian refugees and the division of Jerusalem. Olmert supported establishing a more general agenda that would guide future peace talks. Olmert and Abbas Sept. 10 had met in Jerusalem to discuss the peace talks. They had agreed to form cabinet-level committees to deal with matters of common interest, such as water rights and security. Olmert also promised to release 100 Palestinian prisoners during Ramadan, and to register 5,000 Palestinians living without legal status in the Palestinian territories, allowing them to travel. Gaza Called ‘Hostile,’ Energy Cuts Set—

Israel’s security cabinet Sept. 19 declared Gaza “hostile territory,” a move that included sanctions leading to cuts in supplies of electricity, fuel and other goods to the Hamas-controlled territory. Israel said the move was a response to persistent rocket attacks from Gaza, which had killed 12 Israelis and wounded hundreds since 2000. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the cabinet, “The objective is to weaken Hamas,” and said that “every day that passes brings us closer to an operation in Gaza.” Gaza’s roughly 1.5 million inhabitants relied on imports for most of their food, fuel and other supplies. A Qassam rocket attack on an Israeli army base north of Gaza Sept. 11 had injured 69 soldiers, the highest number of casualties in a single such rocket attack yet. Many Israeli politicians called for a major military incursion into Gaza to stop the rocket attacks, and the Israeli army bombarded the launch site. The militant groups Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the attack, and Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called it a “victory from God.” Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni Sept. 19 said, “It’s not a secret that Hamas is a terrorist organization.” She added, “Even though when it comes to humanitarian needs we have our responsibilities, on the other hand all the needs which are more than humanitarian needs will not be supplied by Israel.” Israeli officials said such humanitarian needs would include food, water and med-

ical supplies. However, they said that nonessential fuel and electricity would be cut. They did not give a date for the beginning of cuts. Rice signaled U.S. support for the move, saying, “Hamas is a hostile entity to us as well.” However, she said, “We will not abandon the innocent Palestinians in Gaza,” and added that Gaza and the West Bank “are both constituent entities in the to-be future Palestinian state.” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called the Israeli move “a declaration of war against the Palestinian people, an attempt to target resistance forces and to undermine Hamas politically,” He said it showed “that Israel is not ready for political compromise with the Palestinians.” United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon called on Israel to reconsider the decision on humanitarian grounds. Aid and human rights groups also criticized the move, saying it was a form of collective punishment, illegal under international law. They said Israel was violating its obligations as an occupying power, although it had removed its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005. Bank Hapoalim Ltd., Israel’s largest commercial bank, Sept. 25 announced that it was cutting all business ties with Palestinian banks in Gaza in response to the Israeli government’s move. Syria To Be Invited to Talks—Rice Sept. 23 acknowledged for the first time that the U.S. would invite Syria to the November peace talks. “It’s only natural that we would hope that the participants would include the members of the Arab League Follow Up Committee,” Rice said. The committee, established by the Arab League to pursue an Arab proposal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, consisted of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen and Syria. Of the 12 countries, only Egypt and Jordan had diplomatic relations with Israel. “Coming to this meeting also brings certain responsibilities,” Rice said, calling on participants to renounce violence and support the right to exist of both Israel and a Palestinian state. The British Guardian newspaper Sept. 25 reported that, according to diplomatic officials, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem would decline the invitation unless he received assurances that the talks would cover substantive issues. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries had also signaled that they would not attend unless core issues were addressed. Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, Sept. 26 said Israel should abandon a controversial separation barrier it was building in the West Bank and stop settlement activity there, as an overture to the Arab countries. He also called on Hamas to form another unity government with its rival, Abbas’s Fatah organization. Other News—In other news: † Israeli military strikes in Gaza Sept. 26 killed up to nine Palestinians, after rockets and mortars were fired at Israel FACTS ON FILE

earlier that day. The dead included up to five members of the Army of Islam militant group killed in an air strike in Gaza City, and one Popular Resistance Committees gunman and three noncombatants killed during a clash with Israeli forces in Beit Hanoun. † Ismail Haniya, the former Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister and Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, Sept. 20 met with leaders of Islamic Jihad, which had been launching rockets at Israel, but failed to negotiate a cease-fire. Hamas leaders in exile in Damascus, Syria’s capital, also said they would meet with Islamic Jihad leaders there to discuss stopping the attacks on Israel. † Israeli armored vehicles, including bulldozers, Sept. 20 conducted an operation aimed at rocket-launching sites and smuggling tunnels in central Gaza, near the Bureij refugee camp. Four Palestinians were killed, including one who reportedly was hit by shrapnel and then run over by a bulldozer. † Israeli forces Sept. 20 completed a three-day operation in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp, in Nablus in the West Bank. A military spokesman said they had captured three men who were planning a suicide bombing. More than 35 Palestinians were reportedly arrested during the operation. † The British government Sept. 17 released a report highlighting the need for dramatic economic improvement in the Palestinian territories. It said Palestinian real gross domestic product (GDP) had fallen by 5% and exports had fallen by more than 10% in 2006, and warned that Israeli long-term security depended on reducing the territories’ unemployment rate of about 24%. The report outlined five steps for economic recovery, including establishing a stable relationship between the Palestinian and Israeli economies and removing obstacles to movement. † Israeli troops Sept. 10 killed six Islamic Jihad members as they approached a Gaza perimeter fence. Islamic Jihad said the men were traveling to attack an Israeli military post. Israeli forces that day killed 10 other Palestinian militants in clashes in Gaza. † Israeli commandos dressed in Hamas police uniforms Sept. 7 reportedly conducted a covert raid on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, capturing a Hamas military commander. The commander, Mohawah al-Qadi, allegedly knew details about the June 2006 capture of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit. [See p. 411A1] † An Israeli shell or rocket Aug. 29 killed three Palestinian children in Beit Hanoun. The Israeli army said they had been near a rocket launcher, which was the target of the attack. The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group said 18 Palestinians under the age of 19 had been killed by Israeli fire since June 1, including seven under the age of 15, the New York Times reported Sept. 26. „ September 27, 2007

Lebanon Presidential Contest Delayed. The Lebanese

parliament Sept. 25 delayed a vote to elect a new president, after the opposition Shiite militant movement Hezbollah and its allies boycotted the session, preventing a quorum. Parliament would take up the issue again Oct. 23. The delay had been widely expected due to a continuing power struggle between Hezbollah—which was supported by Syria and Iran—and the March 14 Movement, the pro-Western governing coalition. [See p. 617E2] The term of the pro-Syrian incumbent president, Emile Lahoud, ended Nov. 24. If his successor had not been chosen by that date, presidential powers would be turned over to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s government until an election. March 14 members argued that in the next legislative session, a president could be elected by a simple majority of the 128seat unicameral parliament, rather than the current requirement that two-thirds of lawmakers be present to form a quorum. Hezbollah rejected that claim, insisting that only a two-thirds quorum and a twothirds vote for president were valid. The group called on the government to work with it in order to find a candidate acceptable to both sides. The parliamentary session took place under heavy security in Beirut, the capital, after the assassination the previous week of an anti-Syrian legislator, Antoine Ghanem. Many legislators from the government coalition reportedly had taken refuge in a secured hotel near the parliament building, or had stayed out of the country until hours before the vote. Legislators from both sides showed some willingness to compromise at the session, as Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, brokered talks. Members of the government toned down previous accusations that pro-Syrian forces had killed Ghanem in order to erode the ruling coalition’s small majority in advance of the election. „

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan Major NATO Offensive Begins. Fighting

between Taliban insurgents and a U.S.-led coalition force in the southern Afghan province of Helmand Sept. 25–26 left more than 100 insurgents and one coalition soldier dead, officials reported Sept. 26. [See pp. 566C2, 486F3] Helmand, the largest producer of opium in the world, was the site of a “major military operation” that North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Afghan Army forces had initiated Sept. 19, according to a NATO statement. The effort was an attempt to “clear” insurgents from the Taliban stronghold, and “provide an enduring security presence in the area,” according to the statement. The NATO operation, codenamed Palk Wahel, involved more than 2,500 troops.

According to U.S. officials, a battle began Sept. 25 when several dozen insurgents attacked a convoy of NATO coalition troops patrolling the town of Musa Qala; the troops then returned fire and called in air strikes to support them. Officials reported that Taliban reinforcements streamed into the area through the next day. Musa Qala had been controlled by British forces as recently as late 2006. The British forces had left after transferring security responsibilities to village elders, but the town in February came under the control of the Taliban. Intelligence analysts said the NATO- and U.S.-led military presence in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, had failed to secure large areas of the country, particularly in the east and the south, and was struggling with a resurgent Taliban force. NATO, U.S. and Afghan government officials denied such claims, saying the Taliban was on its heels. Both U.S. President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, after a meeting in New York City, Sept. 26 praised what they called improved security conditions in Afghanistan. [See p. 627D2] Other News—In other news on the war in Afghanistan: † More than 65 Taliban insurgents were killed Sept. 25, after they attempted to ambush a U.S.-led patrol in southern Uruzgan province, U.S. officials said. The coalition troops used air strikes to repel the insurgents. U.S. officials said the strikes injured three civilians, though Afghan officials said the strikes had killed four civilians. U.S. and NATO forces had come under heavy criticism in recent months for causing an increasing number of civilian casualties, in what many Afghans viewed as their indiscriminate use of air strikes. [See p. 452G3] † As many as 400 villagers Sept. 25 protested against NATO forces that they claimed had killed two civilians, a father and his son, while conducting a search operation in Zhari district of southern Kandahar province. Villagers said the forces had been arresting innocent civilians who were suspected to be insurgents. NATO and U.S. officials denied any killings and said no search operations had been conducted in Zhari. † In an operation that took place Sept. 9–10, as many as 700 Canadian and 100 Afghan soldiers succeeded in taking back control of Zhari from Taliban insurgents, Canadian and Afghan officials said Sept. 14. Canadian troops had taken control of the district several times in the past year, only for the Taliban to retake control when a transfer of security responsibilities to local Afghans was attempted. Canadian officials said the Taliban had offered little resistance, which they said was part of a new tactic to avoid direct confrontation with troops, and instead rely on suicide attacks and roadside bombs. † A suicide bomber Sept. 10 detonated his charge in the town of Gereshk, Helmand, killing at least 26 people and wounding two dozen. Half of those who died were policemen; the rest were civilians. Investigators were unsure if more 639

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than one bomb had been set off. A suicide bomber Sept. 17 killed at least seven people in the town of Nad-e Ali, also in Helmand. The bomber’s intended target was reported to be the town’s police chief. † The United Nations Sept. 8 released to the media a report showing that suicide attacks in Afghanistan had increased by 69% in the first eight months of 2007, when compared with the same period in 2006. The report said 80% of the suicide bombers “pass through recruitment, training facilities or safe houses” in the border areas of Pakistan before carrying out attacks in Afghanistan. Additionally, the report said suicide bombers mostly targeted Afghan security forces, but 80% of the more than 200 people killed in 2007 were civilians. As of the end of August, 103 suicide attacks had occurred in 2007, compared with 123 in all of 2006. Suicide attacks in Afghanistan were rare until 2005, but the report found they were currently “an integral part of the Taliban’s strategy.” [See pp. 618D1, 534A1] † Italian commandos and NATO forces in a Sept. 24 raid rescued two Italian intelligence officers and their interpreter, who had been kidnapped Sept. 22 in western Herat province. The three men were wounded, though it was unclear if they had been hit by bullets from their kidnappers or liberators. NATO officials said all of the kidnappers, at least eight in total, were killed. It was unclear who the kidnappers were, and if they were connected to the Taliban. [See p. 566F3] † U.S. Army Gen. Dan McNeill, senior NATO commander in Afghanistan, Sept. 20 said a shipment of weapons intercepted Sept. 6 in Herat most likely came from Iran, and with the knowledge of the Iranian military. The shipment contained explosively formed projectiles, which were bombs that could pierce armor and were commonly used in roadside attacks against U.S. troops fighting in Iraq. U.S. officials in recent months had claimed that Iran was providing weapons to the Taliban as well as militants in Iraq; Iranian officials denied the claim. Karzai had a strong relationship with Iran’s leaders, saying Iran had greatly aided the rebuilding of Afghanistan. [See pp. 518B1, 387F1] † The Associated Press (AP) Sept. 26 reported that more than 4,500 people, of whom at least 600 were civilians, had died thus far in 2007 in violence related to the insurgency, according to casualty numbers made available by U.S., NATO and Afghan officials. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

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Landis Loses Appeal, Tour de France Title.

A three-member U.S. arbitration panel Sept. 20 upheld U.S. cyclist Floyd Landis’s positive test for performance-enhancing drug use during the 2006 Tour de France. Landis had won the race, but days later it was revealed that he had tested positive for impermissibly high levels of testosterone, as well 640

as traces of synthetic testosterone. [See p. 354B3] The 2007 Tour de France had also been marred by doping scandals. [See p. 501D2] Hearings in the high-profile case, which was prosecuted by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), had been held in May. At the hearings, Landis mounted an elaborate defense in which he alleged that drug testers at France’s Chatenay-Malabry laboratory, where the tests were conducted, had mishandled his samples and made errors in the testing process. The arbitration panel voted, 2–1, against Landis. In an 84-page decision, the two majority arbitrators, Patrice Brunet and Richard McLaren, wrote that the initial test on Landis’s urine sample, taken after the 17th stage of the Tour—in which the rider rebounded from a seemingly insurmountable time deficit—had not been conducted according to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) guidelines. That test measured the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone (T-E ratio). Landis’s sample had shown an abnormally high ratio, and had also contained traces of synthetic testosterone. Despite the lab’s errors in the handling of the T-E test, the panel noted that after the first test, a second, more accurate carbonisotope ratio analysis (IRMS) was performed. That test confirmed the results of the first test, and therefore “an anti-doping violation is established,” according to the panel. The arbitrators concluded that, “As has been held in several cases, even where the T-E ratio has been unreliable…the IRMS analysis may stand alone as the basis” for a positive test. The dissenting arbitrator, Christopher Campbell, argued that if the French laboratory could not perform the relatively simple T-E test correctly, “how can a person have any confidence that [it] got the much more complicated IRMS test correct?” As a result of the panel’s decision, Landis was officially stripped of his Tour de France title. He became the first rider in the 105-year history of the Tour de France to lose his title due to a doping offense. The official winner was now Oscar Pereiro of Spain, who had finished second in 2006. Landis was also banned from cycling for two years, retroactive to Jan. 30. Landis Blasts Ruling—Landis Sept. 20 said, “This ruling is a blow to athletes and cyclists everywhere. For the panel to find in favor of USADA when, with respect to so many issues, USADA did not manage to prove even the most basic parts of their case shows that this system is fundamentally flawed. I am innocent, and we proved I am innocent.” Landis, who reportedly spent more than $2 million on his defense, had a month to file an appeal with the Court for Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He could also seek to challenge the ruling through the U.S. legal system. Pat McQuaid, head of the International Cycling Union (UCI), the sport’s world governing body, Sept. 20 praised the panel’s decision, saying Landis had assembled “a highly qualified legal team who tried to baffle everybody with science and public relations. And in the end the facts stood up.” „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

People An unidentified private collector who in March had paid $2.35 million for a 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card had sold the card for $2.8 million, it was reported Sept. 7. The identity of the new owner was not revealed either. [See p. 168B3] Kathy Halbreich, the outgoing director of Minneapolis, Minn.’s Walker Art Center, had been hired as an associate director of New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), it was reported Sept. 27. She would reportedly be involved in planning performances and new exhibitions at the MOMA, but would not have any fund-raising duties, as she did at the Walker, which earlier in September had appointed a new director, Olga Viso. [See p. 619E2] „

O B I T UA R I E S JACKSON, Michael, 65, British author of bestselling books on beer; his first major work on the subject, The World Guide to Beer, appeared in 1977; his 1990 six-part television documentary, “The Beer Hunter,” made for Britain’s Channel 4, was later aired internationally; he was also recognized as an authority on malt whiskey; born March 27, 1942, in Leeds, England; died Aug. 30 at his home in London, after a heart attack; he had had Parkinson’s disease. MARCEAU, Marcel (born Marcel Mangel), 84, indefatigable French mime who performed wordlessly (although accompanied by music) on stages around the world for six decades; his best-known character was the chalk-faced Bip, who wore a stovepipe hat with a red flower; he began his career after World War II, having been active in the French Resistance during the war (he was born into a Jewish family, and his father died in a concentration camp); he often appeared on U.S. television in the 1960s and 1970s, and presented several solo Broadway shows; he also appeared in a number of films, notably Mel Brooks’s Silent Movie (1976); born March 22, 1923, in Strasbourg, France; died Sept. 22 in Cahors, France; no cause of death was reported. [See 1991, p. 228C3; 1970, p. 492E3; Indexes 1968, 1963, 1956] McGAFFIGAN Jr., Edward, 58, member since 1996 of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the only commissioner in NRC history to have served more than two four-year terms; born Dec. 8, 1948, in Boston, Mass.; died Sept. 2 at a hospice in Arlington, Va., of melanoma. [See p. 445F2–G2] RIGNEY Jr., James Oliver, 58, author, as Robert Jordan, of the best-selling Wheel of Time fantasy series; the 11-volume series, whose hero was a messianic figure named Rand al’Thor, included such titles as Knife of Dreams (2005) and Winter’s Heart (2000); born Oct. 17, 1948, in Charleston, S.C.; died Sept. 16 at a Charleston hospital, from complications of amyloidosis, a rare blood disease that damaged the heart. [See 2005, p. 788A1; 2004, p. 80A1; Indexes 2003, 2000, 1998, 1996, 1994; indexed as Jordan] TOMLINSON, Jane, 43, inspirational British athlete; diagnosed with breast cancer in 1990 and told that it was terminal in 2000, she subsequently competed in marathons and other endurance events while on chemotherapy, and raised more than £1.5 million for various cancer charities; in 2006, she completed a 4,200mile bicycle ride from San Francisco, Calif., to New York City; born Feb. 21, 1964, in Wakefield, England; died Sept. 3 in Leeds, England. ZAWINUL, Joe (Josef Erich), 75, Austrian-born keyboardist and composer; with saxophonist Wayne Shorter, he founded the group Weather Report, an influential jazz fusion group in the 1970s and 80s, and was its principal composer; he was known for his mastery of electronic keyboards; since 1987, he had been the leader of the Zawinul Syndicate, a group whose music was influenced by non-Western traditions; born July 7, 1932, in Vienna; died Sept. 11 at a Vienna hospital, of Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare form of skin cancer. [See 1980, p. 296E3] „

September 27, 2007

Myanmar Junta Detains Protesters Offers Talks to Opposition Leader Suu Kyi.

Myanmar’s state-run media Oct. 4 announced that the government had detained 2,093 people in response to a recent wave of mass protests, led by Buddhist monks, and said that 692 had been released. The announcement came amid widespread speculation about the extent and death toll of the military regime’s crackdown, after the government blocked most international Internet and other communications. The Associated Press (AP) had reported Oct. 3 that dissident groups were claiming that as many as 200 people had been killed and up to 6,000 people had been detained. The government had previously said that 10 protesters had been killed during the crackdown. [See p. 625A1] The government Oct. 4 also said that Gen. Than Shwe, leader of the nation’s ruling military junta, had set out conditions under which he would be willing to meet with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The conditions were that Suu Kyi cease what the junta called her confrontational attitude and rescind her support for international sanctions against Myanmar. Than Shwe’s offer followed his meeting with United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari Oct. 2 and Gambari’s talks Sept. 30 and Oct. 2 with Suu Kyi, 62, a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate for her efforts to bring democracy to Myanmar. [See p. 626B2] Following nine consecutive days of escalating protests in September by Buddhist monks, pro-democracy activists and others upset by the government’s August decision to sharply cut fuel subsidies, the military had cracked down on demonstrations using tear gas, batons and automatic weapons. The junta, which controlled the country’s telecommunications companies, Sept. 28 shut down most Internet access, making it difficult for the international media to confirm reports received from inside Myanmar about defections within the army and the killing of monks and other detained protesters. The military successfully halted most large protests in Yangon and Mandalay, Myanmar’s two largest cities, by Sept. 30 and had begun a series of late-night raids and intimidation tactics, the AP reported Oct. 3. An unknown number of people were arrested, including U.N. Development Program employee Myint Nwe Moe, her husband, her brother-in-law and her driver. The AP also reported that military vehicles patrolling Yangon broadcast an announcement which threatened the arrest of people seen in photographs of the demonstrations. Roundups of Monks Reported— The whereabouts of hundreds of monks who had been detained following early morning raids Sept. 27 could not be confirmed, but Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, said Oct. 1 that her staff had visited at least 15 monasteries in and around Yangon and had found all of them empty. The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) reported Oct. 1 that some 4,000 monks had been rounded up at an abandoned race-

track, with plans to send them to prisons in north Myanmar. Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper reported Oct. 2 that there were unconfirmed reports that some detained monks were refusing to accept food and that many were being forced to remove their religious robes. [See p. 626F1]

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

U.N. Envoy Meets Suu Kyi, Than Shwe—

Gambari arrived Sept. 29 in Yangon and traveled north to the nation’s newly constructed capital city of Naypyidaw as part of a U.N. attempt to restart long-stalled talks between Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and the ruling junta. He met Sept. 29 with acting Prime Minister Thein Sein, among others, but not with Than Shwe. Gambari Sept. 30 met with Suu Kyi for more than an hour following his return to Yangon. He was allowed to meet with Than Shwe Oct. 2 in Naypyidaw and, later that day, met again with Suu Kyi in Yangon. He did not release any information on what was discussed at the meetings. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Oct. 3 said that Gambari had sent a “strong message” to Than Shwe about the U.N.’s outrage regarding the military crackdown but conceded that the mission could not be called a “success,” presumably because no concrete concessions or changes had resulted from Gambari’s visit. China Urged to Step Up Pressure—

Wang Baodong, a spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington, D.C., Oct. 1 denounced as “totally irresponsible” attempts to link participation in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China’s capital, to China’s response to the events in Myanmar. As the most powerful country with substantial ties to the isolated Myanmar regime, China had come under pressure to exert its influence on the government to ease the crisis. Wang said China had a key role to play in getting Gambari access to Myanmar. China had blocked U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning Myanmar in January in late September. [See pp. 626G1, 35C2] Unidentified U.S. officials cited in news reports Sept. 29 had said they had been pressuring Chinese officials to do more on the issue, and suggested that the U.S.’s goal was the removal of the junta from power. An unidentified U.S. official cited in the Sept. 29 Washington Post said that the U.S. had asked China to consider offering the generals refuge if they agreed to step down and leave the country. The U.S. Treasury Sept. 27 had imposed new economic sanctions on Myanmar, barrying dealings by U.S. banks or companies with 14 top government officials. The U.S. in 1997 had prohibited new investments in the country, but U.S. oil company Chevron Corp. currently owned a stake in an energy project established before the ban, as did Total SA of France. Pope Benedict XVI Sept. 30 called for the junta to end its attacks against peaceful protesters and said he was “following with great trepidation the very serious events” taking place in Myanmar. An estimated

Volume 67, No. 3486* October 4, 2007

B 3,000 people Sept. 30 marched in London to call for increased international pressure on Myanmar’s military regime. Additional demonstrations were reported in Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo, Japan. „

Darfur Crisis AU Peacekeepers Killed in Rebel Assault.

Rebel fighters in Sudan’s war-torn western Darfur region Sept. 29–30 attacked an African Union (AU) base in Haskanita, in eastern Darfur. About 1,000 rebels attacked the base, which housed some 150 peacekeepers, late Sept. 29, and overran it the next day, killing at least 10 AU troops, injuring dozens more and seizing supplies and weapons. [See p. 571E3] The rebels were later repelled by government forces, who reportedly looted the base in the aftermath of the battle. It was unclear which of Darfur’s many rebel factions was responsible for the assault.

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Myanmar junta detains protesters, offers talks to opposition leader Suu Kyi.

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AU peacekeepers killed in rebel assault in Sudan’s Darfur region. PAGE 641

U.S. House passes bill allowing prosecution of contractors in Iraq. PAGE 642

Sen. Clinton gains fund-raising edge in presidential race. PAGE 646

Supreme Court term begins. PAGE 647

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Bush vetoes children’s health insurance bill. PAGE 648

North Korea agrees to year-end deadline for dismantling nuclear facilities. PAGE 654

Putin suggests run for prime minister. PAGE 654

Ukraine parties hold coalition talks after elections. PAGE 655

Major League Baseball season ends. PAGE 657 *First of two sections Section Two is the Nine-Month Index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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It was the worst attack on the AU force since its arrival in 2004. Noureddine Mezni, an AU spokesman, Sept. 30 said, “Our troops fought a defensive battle to protect the camp, but 30 vehicles eventually stormed it.…The camp is completely destroyed.” In the Darfur conflict, more than 200,000 people had died and some 2.5 million others had been driven from their homes since 2003, amid fighting between local rebel groups and Sudanese forces allied with Arab militias known as the Janjaweed. Government troops and the Janjaweed had been accused of committing atrocities against civilians. The 7,000member AU force had been unable to protect civilians, and was suffering increasing casualties and a lack of funding. In recent months, the conflict had become more complicated, with the Arab militias, local tribes and rebels fighting among themselves. A 26,000-member hybrid United Nations–AU peacekeeping force for Darfur had been approved by the U.N. Security Council in July, and was set to be deployed begining in October. Observers said the latest attack might discourage contributions to the U.N. force. Most of the troops for the force were expected to come from African nations. Also, new peace talks between the rebels and the government were set for late October in Libya. Analysts said one essential element for the peace talks’ success was a united rebel front, which was called into question by the attack on the peacekeepers. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir Sept. 14 had vowed to maintain a cease-fire with rebels prior to the beginning of the peace talks. Senegal, which had contributed more than 500 troops to the current AU force, Oct. 1 threatened to withdraw them from Darfur unless they were properly equipped and allowed to act in self-defense. Senegal had the third-largest representation in the AU force, behind Nigeria and Rwanda. Among the dead in the rebel attack were seven Nigerians and one soldier each from Senegal, Mali and Botswana. Senegalese officials cited reports that the peacekeepers ran out of ammunition during the attack. Aid workers had also been the target of increased attacks in Darfur. British charity Oxfam Sept. 24 said it was considering pulling its staff from Darfur. Leaders of 26 nations Sept. 21 had called for the rapid deployment of the hybrid force. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi Oct. 4 said he would contribute 5,000 troops to the force. China planned to send 315 military engineers, and was still considering whether to send combat troops, it was reported Sept. 16. ‘Elders’ Group Visits Darfur—An international group of former leaders and other elder statesmen, known as the “Elders,” Oct. 2–4 visited Darfur and Juba, the capital of the autonomous region of southern Sudan. The group was led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, and included former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, women’s and children’s rights advocate 642

Graca Machel (the wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela), and former U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. [See p. 646E2] The visit was described as largely symbolic. However, Carter, 83, Oct. 3 got into a heated argument with Sudanese security officials while attempting to meet with refugees in the town of Kabkabiya, in North Darfur state. The officials prevented Carter from walking into the town to talk to a tribal chief, prompting an angry outburst from him. Machel Oct. 4 described meeting with women in Darfur who told of being raped, beaten and harassed. She criticized the government for ignoring that rape was a widespread element of the Darfur violence. EU Central African Force Approved—

The U.N. Security Council Sept. 25 approved a plan for a European Union–U.N. peacekeeping force in eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic for one year. Both countries had been affected as the Darfur conflict and refugees spilled over Sudan’s western borders. Chad and the Central African Republic also alleged that Darfur rebels were launching attacks on their territory from Darfur and supporting domestic insurgent groups. [See p. 653A1] According to the U.N., there were 240,000 refugees from Darfur in eastern Chad, as well as 173,000 internally displaced people, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reported Oct. 4. In northeastern Central African Republic, there were about 2,660 Darfur refugees and 200,000 internally displaced people. France Oct. 3 said it was confident that EU nations would contribute at least 3,000 troops to the force, with about half provided by France itself. Leaders of the four main Chadian rebel groups Oct. 3 initialed a preliminary peace accord with the government. However, one rebel leader said many issues had yet to be resolved. „

Iraq War U.S. Passes Bill to Prosecute Contractors.

The U.S. House Oct. 4 passed, 389–30, a bill that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other war zones subject to prosecution in U.S. courts, and require the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate alleged misdeeds. The legislation was a reaction to a September shooting by employees of Blackwater USA, a Moyock, N.C.–based security company, that killed at least 11 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, prompting Iraqi leaders to demand that the U.S. ban Blackwater from operating in Iraq. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. David Price (D, N.C.), said the legislation “means that we will have the tools at our disposal to ensure that the criminal behavior of the men and women working in our name and on our dime does not, in any way, damage our goals and objectives.” [See p. 627B3] U.S. Defense Department contractors had been subject to prosecution under the the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, but Blackwater was under contract to protect U.S. State Department officials and

so had not been liable under that law. U.S. contractors were also immune to prosecution in Iraqi courts, under a directive issued by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in June 2004. The House bill would not cover the September Blackwater shooting or other past incidents. The Bush administration Oct. 3 expressed its opposition to the bill through an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) statement, saying it was too vague and would have “intolerable consequences for crucial and necessary national security activities and operations.” All 30 votes against the bill were cast by Republicans, although House Minority Leader John Boehner (R, Ohio) and House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R, Mo.) voted for it. Two Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) Oct. 3 demanded more accountability for contractors, and Edwards called for halting their use in security and military capacities. Obama Oct. 4 introduced a bill that would require the FBI to set up offices in Iraq to investigate offenses by contractors and that would require the U.S. Justice Department to report to Congress on wrongdoing by contractors. Blackwater CEO Defends Company—

Blackwater’s chief executive officer, Erik Prince, Oct. 2 defended his company’s operations in Iraq in testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Prince, a former Navy SEAL, said the 1,000 Blackwater guards in Iraq had “acted appropriately at all times” in protecting State Department personnel, and that the company had disciplined or dismissed employees who violated rules. Under an agreement with committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D, Calif.) and

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its ranking Republican, Rep. Tom Davis (Va.), to avoid prejudicing any criminal inquiry, Prince was not questioned about the September shooting. However, he said, “I stress to the committee and to the American public that based on everything we currently know, the Blackwater team acted appropriately while operating in a very complex war zone on Sept. 16.” Prince said Blackwater contractors followed strict rules for “escalation of force” before opening fire on Iraqis who appeared to be threatening a convoy. He said some 30 Blackwater employees had been killed in Iraq over thousands of escort missions, but that no one they protected had been killed or seriously injured. Prince said, “A lot of people call us mercenaries. We are Americans, working for Americans, protecting Americans.” Prince, who came from a prominent Michigan Republican family, denied that he had used political connections to help Blackwater win government contracts. Waxman and other committee Democrats asserted that military or government security guards could do the work currently given to Blackwater contractors at a much lower price. Prince disputed that, but said, “If the government doesn’t want us to do this, we’ll go do something else.” Waxman also charged that the State Department acted as an “enabler” for the company by helping it to cover up shootings and compensate victims. Prince said Blackwater had fired an employee who allegedly had shot and killed a bodyguard of Iraq Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi in December 2006. But he said it was up to the U.S. Justice Department to investigate and prosecute the case. The New York Times Oct. 4 had identified the suspect as Andrew Moonen, a former Army paratrooper. Three State Department officials at the hearing praised Blackwater’s performance in Iraq. Richard Griffin, head of the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, said it was unclear if the U.S. could prosecute contractors. He said, “The area of laws available for prosecution is very murky. That lack of clarity is part of the problem.” Report Details Previous Shootings—

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Oct. 1 released a report IRAQ CASUALTIES

Following are tallies of casualties in Iraq since the beginning of a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, as they stood Oct. 4 [See p. 569F1]: U.S. military casualties:

Deaths Wounded

3,806 28,093

Allied military deaths: 301 Iraqi security forces deaths: 7,499 Iraqi civilian deaths: 74,689–81,391

(Range based on news reports of deaths) Sources: U.S. military—U.S. Defense Department. Allied military and Iraqi security—www.icasualties.org. Iraqi civilians—www.iraqbodycount.org.

October 4, 2007

giving details on previous shootings by Blackwater contractors in Iraq. It said company employees had been involved in nearly 195 incidents in which weapons were fired since early 2005, resulting in at least 16 Iraqi casualties, several of which were previously unreported. Blackwater and the State Department would not comment on the report, which was based on Blackwater and State Department documents. The report provided an account of the December 2006 incident, in which Moonen had shot the bodyguard while drunk and fled, claiming that he had shot in self-defense. Blackwater two days later had flown Moonen out of Iraq. According to the report, the acting U.S. ambassador, whom a State Department spokesman identified as Margaret Scobey, recommended that Blackwater apologize and give the victim’s family $250,000. In an e-mail message the day after the incident, an embassy official said that was “the best way to assure the Iraqis don’t take steps, such as telling Blackwater that they are no longer able to work in Iraq.” Howeer, the compensation reportedly was reduced to $15,000 after a diplomatic security official warned that such “crazy sums” could “cause incidents with people trying to get killed by our guys to financially guarantee their family’s future.” According to the report, the State Department helped to deliver the compensation. In a June 2005 incident, in which contractors reportedly shot and killed a civilian standing on the side of the street as they were driving past, the report said an unnamed State Department official urged Blackwater to pay the family $5,000 in order to “put this unfortunate matter behind us quickly.” Blackwater contractors in other shootings reportedly did not stop to count the dead or assist the injured, and the company did not provide compensation. The report said contractors had fired first in more than 80% of the shootings, mostly from their vehicles while racing through the streets. The report said Blackwater had dismissed 122 of its employees since 2005, for offenses including misuse of weapons, violent behavior and failure to report incidents. The report faulted the State Department for not monitoring the company, which had received more than $832 million under a diplomatic security contract. Committee Democrats released a memorandum saying, “There is no evidence in the documents that the Committee has reviewed that the State Department sought to restrain Blackwater’s actions, raised concerns about the number of shooting incidents involving Blackwater or the company’s high rate of shooting first, or detained Blackwater contractors for investigation.” The report said Blackwater in several cases had violated its contract with the State Department by engaging in offensive operations alongside U.S. or coalition forces. The contract only allowed contractors to use their weapons for defensive purposes. Unnamed U.S. officials said security contractors in Iraq drastically underreport-

ed the number of shooting incidents they were involved in, the Washington Post reported Oct. 3. FBI Team to Investigate—The FBI Oct. 1 announced that it was sending a team to Iraq to investigate the September shootings. State Department officials said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had requested FBI involvement in order to avoid appearances of “institutional bias,” as the department investigated its own actions. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack Oct. 4 said the FBI would take control of the official U.S. inquiry from the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security as soon as the entire team arrived in Baghdad. The FBI Oct. 3 said its team would be protected by government security guards while in Iraq. The New York Daily News the previous day had reported that the FBI security detail would be provided by Blackwater, drawing criticism from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), who headed the Appropriations subcommittee on State Department operations. The State Department’s director of management policy, Patrick Kennedy, Sept. 28 said he was traveling to Iraq with a panel of outside experts the next day to investigate the department’s use of security contractors. The review had been ordered by Rice. Two investigations of the September Blackwater shooting were already under way: a joint inquiry by the U.S. embassy and the Iraqi defense ministry, and a separate investigation by the U.S. embassy’s regional security officer, who Kennedy said had the power to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department.

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Initial U.S. Report Details Shooting—

Initial results from the official U.S. investigation into the September Blackwater shooting were reported Sept. 28, revealing additional details of the incident. According to the accounts of Blackwater personnel, the incident began at about 11:50 a.m. on Sept. 16, when a Blackwater convoy evacuated U.S. diplomats from a compound in Baghdad, one mile (1.6 km) northeast of the shooting site at Nisour Square, after a car bombing. Another Blackwater convoy was called to Nisour Square to block traffic for the first one. The shooting began at 12:08 p.m., when at least one contractor began to fire on a car that failed to stop. The driver was killed and the car caught fire, but the contractors continued to shoot, killing the passengers and other Iraqis. At least one contractor reportedly called out to cease fire during the shooting, and another pointed his gun at a colleague. ABC News Sept. 28 reported that several Blackwater employees involved in the shooting had said in sworn statements that they had only opened fire on Iraqis after following proper escalation-of-force procedures. The Post Sept. 29 reported statements from five Iraqi witnesses that the contractors had opened fire without provocation, and that Iraqi police officers in the 643

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square had not returned fire, as the contractors had claimed. „ U.S. House Passes Withdrawal Bill. The U.S. House Oct. 2 approved, 377–46, a bipartisan bill that would require U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, within 60 days, to present Congress with a plan for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq. Democratic and Republican supporters of the bill portrayed the vote as a victory for House centrists and a move away from partisan bickering over the war. [See p. 629E1] The bill required Gates to provide a detailed plan for U.S. forces’ transition from a military mission in Iraq to one based on counterterrorism and training Iraqi forces. It would require details including the number of troops and types of equipment necessary, a timeline of the transition and how troops and equipment would be withdrawn. However, it did not mandate a timetable for the withdrawal or require that the Bush administration implement the plan. Instead, the administration would have to report back to Congress every 90 days, which the legislation’s backers said would keep the issue of troop reductions in the public eye. The bill was sponsored by Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D, Hawaii), John Tanner (D, Tenn.) and Phil English (R, Pa.). It drew the support of 196 Democrats and 181 Republicans, while 30 Democrats and 16 Republicans voted against the bill. Abercrombie called the bill “the crucial fulcrum, the key, the tipping point for pulling out of Iraq.” However, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R, Ohio) noted that the bill would not force a withdrawal, but only compel the Defense Department to draft contingency plans that were already in the works. Democrats Threaten to Block Funds—

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House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D, Wis.) Oct. 2 said he would block President George W. Bush’s request for nearly $200 billion in additional funding for the Iraq war unless the administration made drastic changes in its Iraq policy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) signaled her support for the move. [See p. 628F2] Obey and two other senior House Democrats—Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (Pa.) and Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.)—also proposed that the government levy a temporary income surtax of up to 15% to cover the cost of the war. Obey ridiculed Bush for cutting taxes instead of raising them to pay for the war. He admitted that he did not expect support from Democratic leaders, but said the proposal would “call the president’s bluff on fiscal responsibility,” which Bush had invoked in vetoing a children’s health insurance bill that week. [See p. 648F2] Pelosi criticized Bush’s war policy but dismissed the tax proposal, saying, “Just as I have opposed the war from the outset, I am opposed to a draft and I am opposed to a war surtax.” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the proposal showed Democrats 644

“are willing to raise taxes on just about anything.” „ Drop in Iraqi Casualties Reported. Civilian casualties in Iraq for September dropped to their lowest level since June 2006, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials, it was reported Oct. 1. Exact figures were impossible to obtain, but most of the different counts noted a drop in civilian deaths by roughly 50% from the previous month. The drop took place during the holy month of Ramadan, when Sunni extremist groups had vowed to step up attacks. Ramadan had brought a surge in violence in previous years of the war. [See pp. 628F3, 603E1, 601C2] Reuters reported that sources in the Iraqi health, interior and defense ministries had recorded 884 civilian deaths in September, down from 1,773 in August. An unnamed Iraqi health ministry official cited in the Washington Post put the September total at 827, down from 1,584 in August. An unnamed Iraqi interior ministry official cited in the New York Times counted 1,654 civilians killed in September, down from 2,318 in August. Iraq Body Count, a British nongovernmental group, said 1,280 civilians had been killed in September, down from 2,575 in August. U.S. military deaths also dropped, with 63 killed in September, compared with 84 in August. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, released a joint statement praising the drop in violence, saying, “Increasing numbers of citizens have rejected extremism.” The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Sept. 28 released a report on violence trends in Iraq for August. It said the average number of attacks on coalition and Iraqi forces and civilians that month had decreased to 123 per day, the lowest number since June 2006. Shiite Bloc Condemns Sunni Tribes—

The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), Iraq’s largest Shiite bloc, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Oct. 2 denounced the U.S. military’s policy of recruiting Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi police. The U.S. military had had success in reducing violence in Anbar province after it persuaded tribesmen to turn against Sunni extremist groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq, and said it had recruited 30,000 tribesmen throughout Iraq over the past six months. However, the UIA said some tribe members belonged to “armed terrorist groups.” Maliki Sept. 28 condemned a U.S. Senate resolution passed earlier that week expressing support for the creation of separate Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish federal regions in Iraq. He said that such a division would be a “catastrophe,” and that the Senate “should stand by Iraq to solidify its unity and its sovereignty.” Maliki said he would seek a formal response to the resolution from the Iraqi parliament. The U.S. embassy Sept. 30 issued a statement affirming its support for a unified Iraq. Six Iraqi political parties that day held a joint news conference to denounce the resolution.

Other News—In other Iraq war news:

Iraqi Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, a former top Iraqi antigraft official and exchairman of the Commission on Public Integrity, Oct. 4 told the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that “rampant” corruption had cost Iraq up to $18 billion, and that Maliki had protected relatives and associates who had been implicated in graft. He said 31 commission employees and 12 of their relatives had been killed because of their anticorruption work. Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D, Calif.) said Radhi had sought asylum in the U.S. [See p. 571E2] † A roadside bomb near the Polish embassy compound in the Karada neighborhood of Baghdad Oct. 3 left the Polish ambassador to Iraq, Gen. Edward Pietrzyk, with severe burns. His driver and an Iraqi civilian were killed. [See 2005, p. 923E1] † Iraqi President Jalal Talabani Oct. 3 said Iraq had ordered $100 million worth of light military equipment from China for Iraq’s police. He complained that the U.S. had been slow to deliver arms to Iraqi forces. Analysts expressed concerns that the weapons would fall into the hands of sectarian militias, like more than 190,000 weapons that had disappeared after being supplied to Iraq by the U.S. [See p. 554E2] † British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Oct. 2 paid a surprise visit to Baghdad, where he announced that Britain would withdraw an additional 500 troops from Iraq by the end of 2007, on top of a 500troop reduction previously announced. The drawdown would leave 4,500 British troops in Iraq, where Brown said they would play an “overwatch role,” training Iraqi troops and assisting them if they were in grave danger, but no longer taking a regular combat role. [See p. 602A1] † A car bomb Oct. 1 exploded in front of a university in Mosul, in northern Iraq, killing an agriculture professor. Also that day in Mosul, gunman kidnapped the head of a teaching hospital. † The U.S. military Sept. 28 said it had killed a senior leader of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq in a Sept. 24 air strike in Karbala. The leader, who went by the name Abu Osama al-Tunisi, allegedly had overseen the movement of foreign fighters in Iraq, and had been responsible for the June 2006 capture and execution of two U.S. soldiers. Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief of staff of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, said his killing represented a “significant blow” against Al Qaeda in Iraq. The military said 23 other insurgents had been killed and 54 had been arrested in Sept. 12–25 raids south and west of Baghdad. [See 2006, p. 497B2] † The Iraqi and Turkish interior ministers, Jawad al-Bolani and Besir Atalay, respectively, Sept. 28 signed an agreement in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, for the two countries to cooperate in military operations against a Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which was active along their shared border. The agreement did not include a provision that †

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would have allowed the Turkish army to attack the group across the Iraqi border. [See p. 517B1] † An air strike by U.S. helicopters in a Shiite area of Baghdad Sept. 27 killed at least seven civilians, according to local officials. The U.S. military said it had attacked men firing mortars and had not observed any “collateral damage.” „

voiced support for renewed dialogue between the ruling junta and its critics and suggested that Myanmar’s government open an inquiry into the use of force by the military in putting down the protests. India, a major economic partner of Myanmar, had been widely criticized for failing to condemn the junta’s violent response to peaceful protesters. „

United Nations

Global Environment

General Assembly Debate Ends. The United

Nations General Assembly Oct. 3 closed its annual general debate session after seven days of speeches from representatives of 191 of the U.N.’s 192 member nations, as well as a number of separate meetings between world leaders. Crises in Africa, including violence in the Darfur region of Sudan and the AIDS epidemic, were repeatedly discussed during the debate, as was the crackdown on protesters in Myanmar. [See pp. 641A1, C3, 626A3] In his closing statement, Srgjan Kerim of Macedonia, president of the 62nd General Assembly, warned that the U.N. was in danger of failing to meet its central goals by a self-imposed deadline of 2015. Progress on those efforts, which included halting the spread of AIDS, ensuring basic education for all children and halving the number of severely impoverished people, was particularly lacking in sub-Saharan Africa, where Kerim stated that the U.N. “may not achieve a single goal by 2015. This is indeed an emergency situation.” Kerim also said that member nations “need to be on high alert” regarding the effects of climate change on the world. A major attack against African Union (AU) troops stationed in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan prompted Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju Oct. 2 to urge the U.N. to strengthen its ties to the AU peacekeeping force in order to help resolve conflicts within Africa. Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol Oct. 3 called on all rebel groups in Darfur to “join the peace march without delay and to cease hostilities” within Sudan. The Sudanese government had previously announced that it would begin a unilateral cease-fire at the scheduled opening of peace talks on Oct. 27. [See p. 641C3] Myanmar

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‘Neocolonialism’—

Myanmar’s foreign minister, Nyan Win, Oct. 1 used his address to the General Assembly to call the international condemnation of Myanmar’s military government for its crackdown on peaceful protesters an instance of “neocolonialism” on the part of powerful nations. “They conduct media campaigns against the targeted country and spread disinformation that the country concerned is committing gross human rights violations. They portray these campaigns as a fight for democracy,” he said. [See p. 626G1] Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Oct. 1 met with Nyan Win outside the General Assembly to discuss the situation in Myanmar. India’s Foreign Office said that in the meeting, Mukherjee October 4, 2007

Bush Hosts Alternative Climate Talks.

U.S. President George W. Bush Sept. 27– 28 hosted a conference on climate change in Washington, D.C., attended by mid-level representatives of 16 countries that were major producers of greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming. The summit was intended to establish an alternative to talks led by the United Nations. A U.N. conference was scheduled for December in Indonesia to develop a successor plan to the 1996 Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that set mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions by industrialized countries. That treaty was set to expire in 2012. [See p. 629G3, C3 ] Bush Sept. 28 called on nations with representatives at the conference to “set a long-term goal for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.” Bush proposed setting a collective goal for such reductions, but allowing individual countries to determine their own plans for reaching the goal, without imposing mandatory emissions caps. He also proposed establishing an international fund to support the development of technology that would reduce emissions. However, he suggested no specific goals for cutting emissions, and no details about the fund. The talks were widely criticized by environmental activists and foreign officials. Several attendees said they thought the talks had been scheduled during the general debate session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, in an attempt to undercut discussions on a U.N. emissions reduction plan. “The American government didn’t bring any new ideas, any new proposals in terms of the American position,” said Everton Vargas, Brazil’s delegate to Bush’s conference. [See p. 645B1] However, the meeting marked the first time that Bush had sought a leadership role

in confronting global warming. Previously, he had rejected the Kyoto Protocol and questioned the scientific basis for the widely accepted theory that human activity contributed to climate change. Bush said, “By setting this goal, we acknowledge that there is a problem.” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, addressing the conference Sept. 27, said, “If we stay on our present path, we face an unacceptable choice. Either we sacrifice global economic growth to secure the health of our planet, or we sacrifice the health of our planet to continue with fossilfueled growth.” Observers said the impetus for the U.S. to impose mandatory emissions caps was more likely to come from the Democraticcontrolled Congress, where several such bills were currently being considered. „

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Global Economy Strauss-Kahn Appointed IMF Chief. The 24member board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Sept. 28 appointed Dominique Strauss-Kahn to be the fund’s managing director. Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister of France, had been expected to win the appointment after being nominated by the European Union in July and endorsed by the U.S. and Britain in September. [See p. 539F1; for facts on Strauss-Kahn, see box, p. 645F2] The only other contender for the position was Josef Tosovsky, a former head of the Czech central bank, who was nominated by Russia in August. Russia’s nomination was a challenge to the traditional nomination system, whereby European leaders chose the head of the IMF and the U.S. chose the head of the World Bank. In an address to members of the IMF board Sept. 20, Strauss-Kahn said the two challenges facing the institution were “relevance and legitimacy.” The IMF had traditionally advised governments on economic policy, and lent money to countries in financial trouble. However, the fund faced the prospect of reduced income after countries paid off their debts early to the fund and started turning to international bond markets for credit instead. The volume of international financial transactions had exploded since the IMF’s inception, dwarfing

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FACTS ON STRAUSS-KAHN

Dominique Gaston Andre Strauss-Kahn was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, on April 25, 1949, and raised in Morocco. After receiving a doctorate in economics from the University of Paris, he was elected to the National Assembly, the lower chamber of the French parliament, in 1986, as a member of the Socialist Party. From 1988 to 1991, he was chairman of the assembly’s finance commission. Strauss-Kahn served as the industry and international trade minister from 1991 to 1993. After a stint in the private sector, he returned to the government in 1997, serving as the minister of economy, finance and industry until 1999. During that time, he was credited with helping introduce the euro as the common currency of the European Union, and

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privatizing the French aerospace industry. [See 1999, pp. 898B1, 8A1] Strauss-Kahn resigned from the position in 1999 amid a corruption scandal, in which he was accused of forgery while working for the state-run student health-insurance company, MNEF, during his time in the private sector. He was acquitted of any wrongdoing in 2001. [See 2000, p. 1027F3; 1999, p. 800E3] From 2001 to 2007 he served three terms in the National Assembly. In 2006, he ran for his party’s presidential nomination, but lost to Segolene Royal. He was elected managing director of the International Monetary Fund Sept. 28. [See p. 645C3; 2006, p. 899D1] Strauss-Kahn was married to Anne Sinclair, a French journalist. 645

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its reserve and diminishing its relative power to intervene. Strauss-Kahn promised to continue the reforms of his predecessor, Rodrigo de Rato of Spain, who had tried to shift the fund’s focus from rescuing faltering economies to collecting data, analyzing the global economy and preempting financial crises. [See 2006, pp. 320E2, 23C1] Strauss-Kahn Oct. 1 said the fund would adapt by giving greater shareholder representation to countries with fast-growing economies, like China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico. He also said the fund would do more to address the needs of poorer countries. „ World Bank, U.N. Pledge Asset Recovery.

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The World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Sept. 17 announced the creation of a program that would help developing countries recover money that had been stolen by corrupt leaders and hidden in wealthier countries. The program, Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR), would pressure wealthier countries to help recover the assets, as well as invest the recovered assets in development projects for the poor. [See p. 428A2; 2005, p. 641F1] World Bank officials said the program would bolster the ability of financial centers to detect when laundered money was funneled into their systems, and help poorer countries track money that was sent overseas. The program would also help developing countries sue for stolen assets in international courts, and encourage countries to ratify the U.N. Convention Against Corruption, which required signatories to cooperate with asset recovery projects. Ninety-eight countries had not signed the 2005 treaty, including Canada, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan and Switzerland. Robert Zoellick, the bank’s president, said that as much as 25% of Africa’s gross national product (GNP) was diverted to corrupt leaders’ pockets. He said even a small portion of recovered money could be put to good use in development programs that gave broad access to immunization, water supplies and HIV/AIDS treatment. Officials said an estimated $40 billion in graft money was hidden in bank accounts in wealthier countries every year. In the past, developing countries had to overcome significant legal obstacles to recoup money stolen by corrupt leaders. The government of the Philippines had spent 18 years in court before winning back, in 2003, $624 million held in Swiss bank accounts by former President Ferdinand Marcos; Nigeria in 2005, after five years in court, was awarded nearly $500 million stolen and kept in Switzerland by former President Sani Abacha. [See 2005, p. 158G2; 2003, p. 990B2] Panel Calls for World Bank Reform—

An outside panel Sept. 12 issued a report that said the World Bank’s Department of Institutional Integrity had “serious operational issues” and was in need of reform. The department was in charge of minimizing the amount of money lost to corruption 646

in developing countries that received World Bank loans. The panel was appointed in February by then-President Paul Wolfowitz, and was headed by Paul Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, and the lead investigator of corruption charges against the U.N.’s oil-for-food program in Iraq. [See pp. 306C3, 27C1] While urging reform, the panel also commended the department’s mission. The department had been given a larger role under Wolfowitz, who made anticorruption efforts a priority of his presidency, and had unilaterally suspended aid to countries he considered too corrupt. Many bank employees criticized the campaign, as they said that corruption was an inevitable aspect of dealing with less developed countries, and that halting loans altogether to corrupt countries would hurt those countries’ poor populations, undermining the bank’s mission. The panel found that the department had created “distrust” within the bank, and called for administrative changes to create a “common purpose” in fighting corruption. The panel recommended that Zoellick create a new position that would oversee the department, as well as an outside panel to review the bank’s anticorruption activities. It also said the anticorruption department should be more diverse, addressing a criticism that most of the department’s leaders were American. The panel also said the department’s director should be prevented from being a counselor to the president. The current director, and a counselor to the president, Suzanne Rich Folsom, had been accused by bank employees of sharing information with Wolfowitz that she did not divulge to other members of the bank, in order to further an agenda influenced by her and Wolfowitz’s ties to the U.S. Republican Party. The panel, however, found that Folsom had committed no wrongdoing. [See 2006, p. 320E2] Zoellick embraced the panel’s findings, and said he would implement most of its recommendations. „

Other International News Mandela Launches ‘Elders’ Group. Former

South African President Nelson Mandela July 18 announced the creation of a brain trust of mainly retired international leaders, called “The Elders,” who would use their experience and influence to initiate solutions to the world’s most serious problems, such as the AIDS epidemic, climate change, poverty and long-running violent conflicts. [See p. 642G1; 2004, p. 430B3] The group would include Mandela, who made the announcement on his 89th birthday, as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Irish President Mary Robinson and former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. “We will be able to risk failure…and we will not need to claim credit for any success,” Carter said. Funding was provided by British billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and British musician Peter Gabriel. „

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

2008 Presidential Campaign Clinton Gains Fund-Raising Edge. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.) Oct. 2 said that she had raised $22 million for her presidential primary campaign from July through September, more than any other candidate of either party had reported for the third quarter of the year. For the first time, Clinton posted a better quarterly fund-raising total than her leading rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), who had beaten her in the first and second quarters. Obama Oct. 1 said he had raised at least $19 million for the primary. [See pp. 632C3, 461E1] Clinton’s strong fund-raising reinforced her standing as the front-runner in the Democratic race. She also continued to widen her lead in national polls. A Washington Post/ABC News poll, published in the Post Oct. 3, found that 53% of Democrats said they would vote for Clinton, compared with 20% for Obama and 13% for former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.). Clinton said she had raised another $5 million in the third quarter that could only be used in a general election campaign, if she won the Democratic nomination. Obama said he had raised $1 million for the general election in the third quarter. In the year to date, Clinton had raised $72.5 million for the primary campaign, compared to Obama’s $75 million. Edwards Oct. 1 said he had raised $7 million in the third quarter, bringing his total to $30 million for the year to date. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s campaign Sept. 30 said he had raised $5.2 million in the third quarter, for a total of more than $18 million to date. The Democratic candidates had raised money at a faster rate than the Republicans in the first half of the year, and appeared to have continued that trend, although not all the results were in yet. Candidates had until Oct. 15 to file official third-quarter fundraising reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Giuliani Leads Republicans—The campaign of former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani Oct. 4 announced that it had raised more than $11 million in the third quarter, the most among the Republicans. Aides to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who had raised the most of the Republicans in the first half of the year, Oct. 4 said that his fund-raising had slowed in the third quarter, to $10 million. However, Romney had also loaned another $8.5 million of his own money to his campaign, bringing his personal contribution to nearly $17.5 million to date. His fortune, as a cofounder of private equity firm Bain Capital, was estimated at up to $250 million. The campaign of former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.), who had entered the Republican field just a month earlier, Sept. 30 said he had raised more than $8 million in the third quarter. FACTS ON FILE

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) had raised $6 million in the third quarter, his campaign said Oct. 4. A campaign spokesman for Rep. Ron Paul (Texas), a dark horse contender who was the sole Republican candidate to oppose the Iraq war, Oct. 3 said he had raised $5 million in the quarter. Edwards to Accept Public Funds— Edwards Sept. 27 said he planned to accept public matching funds for his bid for the Democratic nomination, a decision that would provide extra cash but force him to comply with spending limits in key primary states. Edwards cast his decision as a matter of principle, saying he wanted to take a stand against the influence of money in politics. However, earlier in the year, Edwards had said he planned to decline public financing in order to avoid the spending limits it entailed. Among the other top candidates, only McCain had said that he would consider accepting public financing, after poor second-quarter fund-raising results forced him to cut the size of his staff. „ Gingrich Rules Out Run. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R, Ga.) Sept. 29 announced that he had decided against running for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Gingrich had said the day before that he would run if he could raise $30 million by Oct. 21. [See pp. 646A3, 173G3] Gingrich Sept. 29 said he had decided not to run after being advised that in order to comply with campaign finance law, he would have to resign from his nonprofit think tank, American Solutions for Winning the Future, if he entered the race. „ Top Republicans Skip Minority Forum.

The top four Republican presidential candidates—former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.), former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.)—Sept. 27 skipped a forum on issues of concern to black voters, held in Baltimore, Md., with PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley as moderator. The absence of the four drew criticism from five candidates who did attend, and from some other Republicans, who warned that a pattern of avoiding such forums would send an unfortunate message that the party was not interested in attracting minority voters, especially blacks and Hispanics. [See pp. 590A3, 431D3] The top four cited scheduling conflicts as their excuse for missing the event. Each of them was busy raising money before the end of the third quarter of 2007. One of the candidates who did attend, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, said, “I’m embarrassed for our party, and I’m embarrassed for those who did not come. Because there’s long been a divide in this country. And it doesn’t get better when we don’t show up.” Alan Keyes, a black conservative commentator who had run for president in 1996 and 2000 and Sept. 17 had declared his third candidacy, also participated in the forum. October 4, 2007

Univision, the U.S.’s biggest Spanishlanguage cable-television network, the previous week had canceled a Republican presidential debate after only McCain committed to appearing. The leading Democratic candidates had appeared at a debate hosted by Smiley in June and a Univision debate earlier in September. „

National Politics Sen. Craig Loses In Court But Vows to Stay.

Sen. Larry Craig (R, Idaho) Oct. 4 vowed to serve the rest of his term in office, despite a court ruling earlier that day denying his motion to withdraw an August guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct in a men’s room at Minneapolis– St. Paul International Airport. He had been arrested in June in an undercover police sex sting operation. [See p. 591B1] Craig had previously said he would resign on Sept. 30 if he was unable to have his plea reversed by then. However, he said Sept. 26 that he would stay in office until Judge Charles Porter Jr. of Hennepin County (Minn.) District Court ruled on his motion. Porter held a hearing on the motion Sept. 26. In his Oct. 4 ruling, Porter said he was denying Craig’s motion because his guilty plea was “accurate, voluntary and intelligent, and because the conviction is supported by the evidence.” Craig’s lawyer, Billy Martin, said the senator was considering whether to appeal the ruling. Craig Oct. 4 issued a statement that he would stay in the Senate until the end of his term in January 2009, saying, “I have seen that it is possible for me to work here effectively.” He added, “I will continue my effort to clear my name in the Senate Ethics Committee—something that is not possible if I am not serving in the Senate.” He said that he would not run for reelection in 2008. Shortly before Craig issued his statement, Idaho Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter announced that he had selected a replacement for Craig and was waiting for his resignation letter. Craig Sept. 18 had returned to the Senate for the first time since his guilty plea was reported in late August. He reportedly encountered a cool reception from fellow Republicans when he spoke at a caucus luncheon that day. Republican Senate leaders had previously pressured him to resign and stripped him of his top committee assignments. „

Legislation Bush Vetoes Children’s Health Insurance Bill.

President George W. Bush Oct. 3 vetoed a bill that would expand funding for the state Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP or SCHIP) by $35 billion over the next five years, for a total of $60 billion. The program provided health care coverage for children whose parents could not afford private insurance, but who earned too much money to qualify for assistance un-

der Medicaid. The bill would have expanded the number of children enrolled in the program to 10 million, from 6.6 million. [See p. 631D2] The veto was just the fourth of Bush’s presidency. Bush in his budget proposal had sought an increase of $5 billion over the next five years for CHIP, and had criticized the bill as a step towards federalized medical care. He said it would encourage families whose children were already enrolled in private health care plans to switch to governmentprovided insurance, expanding into the middle class a program designed to help the poor. He had also criticized a tax increase levied on tobacco products that would provide funding for the expansion. However, Bush said he would consider a compromise with Congress to raise the program’s funding beyond the $5 billion increase he had envisioned. “I do want Republicans and Democrats to come together to support a bill that focuses on the poor children,” he said. The House in September had approved the bill, but had fallen short of a veto-proof majority. The Senate in September had passed the bill with enough votes to override a veto. Congressional Democrats and Republicans who had backed the bill said they would work on rounding up the House votes needed to overcome the veto rather than negotiate with Bush. House Democrats Oct. 3 postponed a vote on the override to Oct. 18, in an effort to give themselves more time to corral supporters. „

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Senate Approves Defense Authorization Bill.

The Senate Oct. 1 approved, 92–3, legislation authorizing $648 billion for the Defense Department for fiscal 2008. The bill included $142 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but not an additional $42 billion requested by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in September. It also included a controversial measure protecting homosexuals under federal hate crime statutes, which the Bush administration had opposed. The House had passed a version of the bill in May. [See pp. 649E3, 644E1, 330D2] Republicans in September had blocked several Democratic amendments to the bill intended to force a curtailment of the U.S.’s involvement in Iraq. The bill authorized an across-the-board 3.5% pay raise for military service members, as well as nearly $950 million for military health care and $23.6 billion for armored vehicles. The spending on the vehicles was intended to protect troops from the roadside bombs that caused the majority of U.S. casualties in Iraq. The bill also would cut funding for the missile defense program and several weapons systems. The bill would establish a commission to investigate private security contractors operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. [See p. 642E2] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) said the legislation would help to repair the U.S. armed forces “where our commander in chief has so badly mismanaged them.” 647

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The three senators who voted against the bill included two outspoken opponents of the Iraq war—Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd (W.Va.) and Russell Feingold (Wis.)—as well as Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.). Hate Crime Provision Attached—The Senate Sept. 27 voted, 60–39, to attach an amendment extending federal hate crime protections to gay, lesbian and transgendered people. The Senate then approved the amendment by unanimous voice vote. The House in May had approved the measure as a stand-alone bill. [See p. 293D2] The Matthew Shepard Act, named for a gay man murdered in 1998, would expand the federal definition of a hate crime to include people assaulted due to sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability. (Hate-crime designations already existed for those attacked because of their race, national origin, religion or color.) Federal agents and prosecutors would be granted extended powers to investigate and prosecute such crimes. [See 1999, p. 835C2] Though the measure had been passed in either the House or Senate in several previous sessions of Congress, it had never been able to clear both chambers. Opponents of the bill said it was tantamount to creating a “thought crime,” with some also arguing that the majority of states already had hate crime laws. President George W. Bush had previously threatened to veto the measure, but the White House did not say whether he would do so now that it was attached to the defense bill. Detainee Rights Measure Defeated—An amendment was defeated Sept. 19 that would have restored the rights of noncitizen terrorism suspects held by the U.S. military to challenge their detention in federal court on habeas corpus grounds. Senators voted, 56–43, in favor of ending debate on the measure and proceeding to a vote, four short of the 60 required. Sponsored by Sens. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.) and Patrick J. Leahy, (D, Vt.), it would have reversed a provision in the 2006 law establishing military commissions for trying “enemy combatants.” [See p. 108A1] „ Bush Signs Student Aid Reform Bill.

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President George W. Bush Sept. 27 signed into law the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. The law reduced by more than $20 billion subsidies made to private banks that offered student loans, and used most of that money to increase the maximum federal Pell grant, which was given to the neediest students, to $5,400 by 2012. The law also cut interest rates on loans made to lower-income students to 3.4% over five years, from the current rate of 6.8%. The act received strong bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate, after revelations of unethical practices by student loan companies and school financial aid officers. [See pp. 592D2, 363E3] „

Supreme Court 2007–08 Term Begins. The Supreme Court Oct. 1 began its 2007–08 term, and heard its first oral arguments that day. The court 648

Sept. 25 had added 19 new cases to the docket, and was expected to add more as the term progressed. [See p. 413C3] The 2006–07 term had been the first in which President George W. Bush’s conservative appointees, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., served full terms. The term was characterized by a distinctive shift to the right in a series of 5–4 decisions that sided with conservative viewpoints in the contentious areas of public school integration, abortion, student speech and workers’ rights. Analysts expected the cases on the 2007–08 docket to be just as ideologically divisive. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy was expected to be the swing vote on these cases. Kennedy was the only justice siding with the majority in every 5–4 ruling of the last term. In those rulings, he joined the more conservative side of the bench, which included Roberts, Alito and Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, twice as many times as he did the more liberal wing, which included Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter and John Paul Stevens. The following were among the major cases scheduled for argument and decision during the 2007–08 term: Guantanamo Detainee Rights—The court in June had accepted appeals from two groups of detainees held at the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The appeals challenged a provision of the 2006 Military Commission Act that took jurisdiction away from federal courts to hear cases brought by Guantanamo detainees. The cases were Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. United States. In previous cases concerning the rights of Guantanamo inmates, in 2004 and 2006, the court had ruled in favor of the inmates and against the Bush administration. [See p. 430F3; 2006, pp. 728A2, 501A1; 2004, p. 471D2] Voter Rights—The court Sept. 25 accepted cases from two groups challenging an Indiana state law that required voters to present officially issued photo identification at polling places. Republican politicians had argued that such laws, enacted in more than 20 states, were necessary to combat voter fraud. Democrats said the threat of voter fraud was exaggerated, and that the law created improper voting obstacles for the poor, minorities and the elderly. The court was to decide whether the law infringed the constitutional right to vote. The cases were Crawford v. Marion County Election Board and Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita. [See 2006, p. 815C1] Death Penalty—The court Sept. 25 accepted an appeal from two Kentucky death-row inmates claiming execution by a particular form of lethal injection violated the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The use of lethal injection had come under scrutiny in recent years, as studies showed that a combination of three chemicals used to kill death row prisoners could cause them undue suffering. The court would only decide if the use of that particular

combination of drugs was cruel and unusual, rather than judging lethal injection in principle. Nearly all of the 37 states that employed lethal injection used the same lethal combination. The consolidated case was Baze v. Rees. [See p. 513C3; 2006, p. 471B2] The court Sept. 27 issued a last-minute stay of execution for Carlton Turner Jr., a Texas death-row inmate. The court did not provide any rationale for its decision, but analysts said the court would likely to prove willing to stay more executions until it made its ruling on the use of lethal injections. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Oct. 2 stayed the execution of Heliberto Chi, signaling that it would wait until the Supreme Court’s decision before allowing any more executions to continue. Eleven states had stopped employing lethal injections due to ongoing litigation. Sentencing Guidelines—The court had accepted the case Kimbrough v. United States in June, in which it would decide whether a judge could issue a lighter sentence than what was recommended by federal sentencing guidelines, if the judge disagreed with the guidelines as a matter of policy; in this case, sentences for dealing crack cocaine. The court in June had also accepted Gall v. United States, which addressed the general question of the circumstances under which a judge could offer a sentence lower than the federal guidelines. In June, the court had ruled in Rita v. United States that the federal guidelines were “advisory,” not mandatory. [See pp. 416A3, 398F3] Workplace Discrimination—The court Sept. 25 accepted CBOCS West Inc. v. Humphries to decide if a law barring racial discrimination in the workplace also barred retaliation by employers against workers who made discrimination complaints. Every lower court that had heard the case agreed that the law protected against any retaliation. Therefore, as the court was not taking up the case to resolve an inconsistency between lower courts, analysts predicted that the high court would use the case to advance a new interpretation of the issue. Executive Power—The court in April had accepted a case that would address whether President George W. Bush had overstepped his authority by ordering a Texas court to provide a new hearing for Jose Medellin, a death-row inmate. Bush had made the order after the United Nations International Court of Justice, or World Court, found that Texas officials violated international law by not allowing Medellin and about 50 other Mexican inmates to meet with Mexican consular officials. The Texas courts had resisted Bush’s order. The case was Medellin v. Texas. [See p. 279G2] Business—The court in March had accepted Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta Inc. to decide if investors could sue third parties—such as outside companies, lawyers and accountants—associated with a company that had defrauded the investors. Pro-business groups argued that investors should not be FACTS ON FILE

able to sue third parties, as it would discourage companies from entering into partnerships with U.S. companies out of the fear that they could be sued if the U.S. company was found to have committed fraud. Pro-investor groups claimed that a ruling in their favor would allow investors to recoup all the money that was owed to them. „

Intelligence More Patriot Act Provisions Struck Down.

Judge Ann Aiken of U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., Sept. 26 struck down two sections of the 2001 USA Patriot Act, a controversial antiterrorism law. Aiken ruled that new wording which made it easier for the government to gain warrants for searches and surveillance violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. A separate provision of the USA Patriot Act had been struck down earlier in the month by another federal court. [See p. 589G2] In her 44-page ruling, Aiken found that the USA Patriot act altered the wording of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to allow the government to wiretap subjects under that law even if part of the purpose was not to gather foreign intelligence. Aiken argued that the change violated the Constitution’s requirement that search and seizure be preceded by probable cause of wrongdoing. Upholding the Patriot Act, she wrote, would “in essence, amend the Bill of Rights, by giving it an interpretation that would deprive it of any real meaning.” Aiken’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer and convert to Islam who was erroneously detained following 2004 terrorist bombings in Madrid, Spain. Mayfield, 38, received a $2 million settlement and an official apology from the government in 2006. In addition, Mayfield reserved the right to challenge the legality of the investigation, which was carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which was created by the FISA law to oversee government surveillance. During the FBI’s investigation, Mayfield’s home and law office were secretly searched, his law office was bugged and his telephone conversations were recorded. [See 2006, p. 930D1] „

Fiscal 2008 Spending Bills House Passes Commerce-Justice Bill. The House July 26 passed, 281–142, a $53.6 billion fiscal 2008 appropriations bill that funded the Justice Department, the Commerce Department, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and additional law enforcement and antidrug programs that involved multiple agencies. Additionally, the bill would block the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from using the appropriations to issue “national security letters” (NSLs), secret and warrantless requests for information, that violated the 1947 NationOctober 4, 2007

al Security Act, the 2003 Fair Credit Reporting Act, the 1978 Right to Financial Privacy Act and the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The bill had yet to be passed by the Senate. [See 2006, p. 597D3] The appropriations bill included $24.2 billion for the Justice Department, including $6.53 billion for the FBI, $8.97 billion for the Commerce Department, $3.95 billion for NOAA, $17.62 billion for NASA, including $5.7 billion specifically for scientific research and development, and $509.15 billion for multiagency crime and anti-drug initiatives. The spending bill’s $53.6 billion in discretionary spending was approximately 6% more than in fiscal 2007 and 5% more than President George W. Bush had requested. The Bush administration released a statement July 24 threatening a veto over the extra money. On July 25, the House attached a controversial amendment to the bill that barred the use of its funds to carry out the prison sentences of two U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug dealer and failing to report it. The amendment, proposed by Reps. Duncan Hunter (R, Calif.), Tom Tancredo (R, Colo.) and Ted Poe (R, Texas), was an unusual legislative attempt to stop the incarceration of agents Ignacio Ramos, sentenced to 11 years in prison, and Jose Alonso Compean, sentenced to 12 years. Hunter and Tancredo were both candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. „ Senate Passes Military Building-Veterans Bill.

The Senate Sept. 5 voted, 92–1, to pass a fiscal 2008 appropriations bill with $109.2 billion in funding for military construction and veterans affairs. The bill represented an $18.2 billion increase over the fiscal 2007 budget, and $4 billion more than the amount President George W. Bush had requested. The House in June had passed a version of the bill. [See p. 398A2] The legislation included $87.5 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs— $3.6 billion more than Bush’s request— including $44.6 billion for the Veterans’ Benefits Administration and $37.2 billion for the Veterans Health Administration. The department had been beset by a scandal over poor treatment provided to wounded soldiers. The bill also included $21.6 billion for military construction, including $8.9 billion for construction on active-duty bases. [See p. 142A2] The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Sept. 4 issued a policy statement saying that it would not recommend a veto of the bill, but would urge a veto of other spending bills if the increase for veterans programs was not balanced by cuts elsewhere. „ Senate Passes Transportation-HUD Bill.

The Senate Sept. 12 passed, 88–7, a $104.7 billion appropriations bill to fund the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for fiscal 2008, which began Oct. 1. A $104.4 billion bill had been passed by the House in July; both versions contained approximately $4

billion more than what President George W. Bush had requested. Bush had threatened to veto either version. While the Senate had more than the two-thirds majority, or 67 votes, needed to override a presidential veto, the House had voted 268–153, short of an override. [See p. 544A2] The Senate bill included an allowance for the secretary of transportation to increase funding for bridges by $1 billion, a move that had been prompted by the August collapse of a major bridge in Minneapolis, Minn. The Senate also voted, 75– 23, to bar an experimental program sponsored by the Transportation Department that would have allowed up to 100 Mexican trucking companies to operate 25 miles (40 km) inside the U.S. border. The amendment was defeated due to concerns of discrepancies between U.S. and Mexican truck inspection and maintenance procedures that might render some Mexican trucks dangerous. [See p. 494B1] The bill also included an amendment that required airline pilots over 60 years old to be accompanied by a copilot younger than 60 on international flights. A $25 million increase in funds directed toward low-income Americans with first-home down payments was approved, along with an amendment that expanded housing programs for those who spoke limited English. Another amendment that established alternatives to mortgage foreclosure was included in the bill. Housing programs would receive $38.7 billion under the bill, $2.1 billion more than in fiscal 2007 and $3.1 billion more than Bush had requested. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) received $14.6 billion, up slightly from fiscal 2007. Amtrak, the national passenger rail service, received $1.4 billion, an amount similar to the previous year’s but $600 million more than the president requested. Highway programs were funded at $40.2 billion, $1.1 billion more than in fiscal 2007 and $631 million more than the president had requested. The community development fund, which helped to build housing in low-income areas, was given $4.2 billion, $408 million more than in fiscal 2007 and $1.1 billion more than Bush had requested. The overall cost of senators’ individual pet projects, or earmarks, was down to $8.2 billion for fiscal 2008, from $10.5 billion the previous year. [See p. 494A3] „ Senate Passes Defense Funds. The Senate Oct. 3 approved by voice vote an appropriations bill that would provide $459.6 billion in funding to the Defense Department for fiscal 2008, which began October 1. The bill would boost the Pentagon’s budget by $43 billion, but did not include an emergency request from President George W. Bush of some $190 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The House had passed a version of the bill in August. [See pp. 648C3, 526C2] The bill funded most of Bush’s $100 billion request for new weapons systems, many of which were over budget. It also provided a 3.5% raise for military personnel and funding increases for National Guard equipment and military health care. 649

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The Senate Oct. 3 approved, 95–1, an amendment offered by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R, S.C.) that added $3 billion in emergency spending for border security. An almost identical measure had been included in the Homeland Security Department spending bill passed by the Senate in July. The amendment was reportedly added to the defense bill in order to save Bush the embarrassment of having his threatened veto on the Homeland Security bill overridden by Republicans who backed the border security funds. [See p. 509A2] „ Stopgap Funds Cleared, Signed. The Senate Sept. 27 voted, 94–1, to clear a stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government running at current funding levels through mid-November, after the start of fiscal year 2008 on Oct. 1. President George W. Bush Sept. 29 signed the bill, known as a continuing resolution. [See pp. 650F2, 648E2] The stopgap measure was required because Congress had failed to send Bush any of the 12 annual spending bills in time for fiscal 2008. The House had passed all 12 bills, but the Senate had passed only four. Those four had been set aside for conference committees of House and Senate members to work out their differences, but the committees had yet to meet. The budget stalemate had arisen over Bush’s threats to veto most of the spending bills, in order to prevent the new Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress from adding $23 billion in spending on domestic programs to Bush’s $933 billion request. Bush’s veto threats were seen as a bid to reclaim the Republicans’ reputation for fiscal conservatism, which had been tarnished by heavy spending by the Republican-controlled Congress in the first six years of Bush’s term. Bush had not vetoed any spending bills in that period. Democrats argued that the additional money they sought was a modest amount compared with the sums that Bush was requesting for the Iraq war. National Debt Limit Raised—The Senate Sept. 27 voted, 53–42, to clear a measure that would increase the statutory limit on the national debt to $9.815 trillion, from $8.965 trillion. It was the fifth debt limit increase since the beginning of Bush’s presidency in 2001. Those increases had raised the limit by a total of $3.865 trillion. The national debt had risen to 65% of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), compared with 57% in 2001. [See 2006, p. 210G2] The House had approved the latest debt limit increase in May, as part of a fiscal 2008 budget resolution. „

Labor UAW, GM Set Contract Details. The United Auto Workers (UAW) Union and General Motors Corp. (GM) Sept. 28 came to an agreement on a four-year contract, after weeks of negotiations and a two-day strike. The contract was unanimously approved by the UAW’s national council. The union’s 650

73,000 GM employees would vote to ratify the contract on Oct. 10. [See p. 631A1] The changes in the contract between the UAW and GM largely concerned the rising costs of health care funding, which had been crippling GM. The automaker had been responsible for approximately $50 billion in health care obligations for its employees, retirees and their families. The deal would transfer the health care costs from GM to a UAW-administered trust called a voluntary employees’ beneficiary association (VEBA), which would be monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission. GM would initially contribute approximately $30 billion to the VEBA, and include a $4.4 billion note convertible into GM shares. The contract also made changes to GM’s “jobs bank,” which had guaranteed pay and benefits indefinitely to laidoff workers. The new contract stipulated workers could only use the job bank for a set period of time. Another significant change was an agreement to a wage system under which newly hired workers would initially only earn between $14 and $16.23 per hour, which was slightly more than half of the previous rate. In exchange for that concession, GM had made several moves to guarantee job security in the face of increased competition from Asian automakers, which included assigning upcoming GM projects to U.S.-based plants instead of moving them overseas. While many UAW members supported the new contract, a small but vocal group expressed their disappointment and skepticism concerning the VEBA plan, and criticized UAW President Ron Gettelfinger for what they saw as gambling health care funds on the stock market. The UAW had no legal ground to force health care payments from GM in the event the company went bankrupt. Nearly half of UAW manufacturing employees would be eligible to retire within five years, which would drive up the overall cost of UAW workers’ medical care. Another aspect of the contract included GM’s plans to close as many as 13 factories, up from the nine it had previously announced. An engine plant in Detroit, Mich., would close, and possibly additional plants in Parma, Ohio; Indianapolis, Ind.; and Flint, Mich. Union leaders maintained that the deal improved workers’ overall job security. „

Bush Administration Nussle Confirmed as Budget Director. The

Senate Sept. 4 voted, 69–24, to confirm former Rep. Jim Nussle (R, Iowa), as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Of the 46 Democrats who voted on the nomination, 23 opposed Nussle’s confirmation. No Republicans voted against it. [See pp. 650A1, 398C2] Nussle, a former chairman of the House Budget Committee, was expected to play a more combative role than his predecessor, Rob Portman. President George W. Bush had threatened to veto several of the annual spending bills pending in Congress,

vowing to block the Democratic majorities from adding more than $20 billion in spending on domestic programs. „

Armed Forces Gates Favors Army Expansion. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Sept. 27 said he intended to approve a $2.8 billion plan that would expand the Army to 547,000 troops by 2011, recruiting an additional 65,000 active-duty soldiers, 8,000 Army National Guard members and 1,000 Army Reservists. Gates’s proposal would accelerate by one year a planned expansion announced in January by President George W. Bush. Gates said he would not allow the Army to lower recruiting standards in order to attract more recruits. [See p. 43G3] The same day, Army Secretary Pete Geren told reporters that he supported such an expansion in order to relieve pressure on troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, he suggested that limited removal of some combat brigades from Iraq might increase, rather than decrease, the overall number of troops needed, as more soldiers would be involved in training Iraqi troops and other support tasks. [See p. 585A1] Geren said the expansion was in preparation for an expected “persistent conflict” involving U.S. ground forces over the next few decades. He said the growth would be achieved by boosting recruiting and retention. Geren said a program granting $1,000 bonuses to National Guard members who brought in new recruits would lead to 2,000 additional active-duty enlistees per year. Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the secondranking U.S. commander in Iraq, Oct. 2 also said the partial withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq might necessitate more support troops. He said U.S. commanders had not yet decided from which Iraqi regions combat troops would be withdrawn, but that he was considering Anbar province, where violence had declined after Sunni tribes allied with U.S. forces. 2007 Recruiting Goal Met— The Army Oct. 2 announced that it had met its recruiting goal of 80,000 new active-duty enlistees fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30, with about 80,400 soldiers joining the service. However, senior Defense Department and Army officials said it had not met a larger internal goal of 83,000–86,000, which was considered necessary for the planned expansion. [See p. 482A1] Officials said the 80,000-troop goal had been met in part by offering a $20,000 “quick ship” bonus for enlistees who left for basic training within 30 days. This decreased the number of recruits in line to join the Army in fiscal 2008 to less than 7,000, the lowest number in over a decade. The Army had met its recruiting targets every month in fiscal 2007 except May and June, in part due to cuts in the recruiting force. The Army Sept. 10 announced that it had exceeded its August recruiting target of 9,600 new soldiers enlisted during the month, gaining 10,126 enlistees. The strong enlistment figures were attributed in FACTS ON FILE

Dow Jones Industrial Average Trading on the New York Stock Exchange Closing

Sept. 3

4

5 6 7 10 11 12 13 14 17 18 19 20 21 24 25 26 27 28

Volume (in millions of shares)

Holiday 13,448.86 13,305.47 13,363.35 13,113.38 13,127.85 13,308.39 13,291.65 13,424.88 13,442.52 13,403.42 13,739.39 13,815.56 13,766.70 13,820.19 13,759.06 13,778.65 13,878.15 13,912.94 13,895.63

— 1,366.8 1,387.1 1,279.0 1,456.7 1,341.9 1,303.7 1,283.6 1,268.9 1,199.3 1,105.1 1,647.5 1,667.1 1,271.6 2,003.7 1,341.9 1,326.7 1,292.2 1,177.4 1,306.1

part to the July 25 institution of the “quick ship” bonus. The Army Aug. 10 announced that it had exceeded July’s target of 9,750 new soldiers, gaining 9,972 enlistees. It said it had reversed the recruiting slump of the previous two months in part by adding new recruiters from within the recruiting organization and from elsewhere in the Army. The same day, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, Bush’s top adviser on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, during an interview on “All Things Considered” on National Public Radio (NPR) said that it “makes sense to certainly consider” a draft in order to relieve pressure on U.S. forces, and that such a policy had “always been on the table. National Security Council (NSC) spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the statement was consistent with Bush’s stated policy on a military draft. „

Mergers & Acquisitions Nasdaq Sells Stake to Borse Dubai. Nasdaq

Stock Market Inc., based in New York City, Sept. 20 agreed to sell a 19.99% stake of its exchange to Borse Dubai, part of the Dubai International Financial Exchange, which was owned by the government of Dubai, a part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As part of the deal, Nasdaq would sell 28% of the London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LSE) to Borse Dubai—Nasdaq owned a 31% stake in the LSE. In return, Borse Dubai would buy out OMX AB, a stock exchange based in Stockholm, Sweden, and sell it to Nasdaq. [See pp. 560F3, 433F3; 2006, p. 406C1] The deal was the latest in a spate of stock exchange mergers in recent years, as exchanges became publicly traded companies in search of profits. Large, multinational exchanges allowed investors to buy and sell stock in various places at cheaper rates through a single market operator. Nasdaq had long sought the OMX, but had October 4, 2007

been outbid for it Aug. 17 by Borse Dubai. [See p. 512A2; 2006, p. 1029B1] The deal was also the latest in a series of investments in Europe or the U.S. by companies representing the governments of Persian Gulf countries. Flush with cash from oil revenues, Dubai and other governments were seeking to invest in assets that would offer higher returns. The Qatar Investment Authority, which had failed to secure a deal with Nasdaq on its LSE stake, Sept. 20 bought out two hedge funds’ stakes in the LSE amounting to 20% of the entire exchange. The investment group that day also bought 10% of the OMX. [See below] U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.), chairman of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, Sept. 20 said the NasdaqDubai deal would require review, claiming that Dubai was “a nexus of terror financing” and “money laundering,” and an ally of Iran. Schumer had led the opposition that forced Dubai Ports World, another Dubai investment arm, to reverse its acquisition of shipping port operations in the U.S. Representatives from Nasdaq and Borse Dubai said they were voluntarily submitting the terms of their deal to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a federal agency. The deal also faced some political opposition in Sweden. Abu Dhabi Buys Carlyle Group Stake—

Carlyle Group LP, a major private-equity firm based in Washington, D.C., Sept. 20 announced that it was selling a 7.5% stake in its investment branch to Mubadala Development Co., controlled by the government of Abu Dhabi, also an emirate in the UAE. The sale, at $1.35 billion, placed the total value of Carlyle, a privately held company, at $20 billion. Mubadala would also invest $500 million in one of Carlyle’s funds. „

Economy New Home Sales Fell 8.3% in August. The Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Sept. 27 reported jointly that sales of new single-family homes fell 8.3% in August from the previous month. The new seasonally adjusted annual rate was 795,000 units, down from the revised July rate of 867,000 units. The median price for a new single-family home sold in August was $225,700. [See p. 560G1] The August rate was the slowest in more than seven years. Analysts predicted that the housing market would continue to suffer well into 2008. [See p. 608G1] „

Media Former Anchor Rather Sues CBS. Former CBS television news anchor Dan Rather

Sept. 19 filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS Corp. and three of his former superiors in New York State Supreme Court in New York City, alleging contract violations. Rather in March 2005 had been forced to resign as anchor after presenting an unverified September 2004 report claiming that

October Financial Update

A

(Close of trading Oct. 2 except where indicated)

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average (see box, p. 866A1)

Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index Nasdaq Composite Index London Stock Exchange

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100)

14,087.55 1,547.04 2,740.99 6,506.20

Tokyo Stock Exchange

16,845.96

Toronto Stock Exchange

14,200.58

(Nikkei index)

(TSE Composite Index)

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield) Currencies (late New York trading) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars)

4.55% 4.18% $0.8943 $2.0437 $1.0086 $1.4238 115.69 10.8897 $0.8556

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.)

$747.20

Silver (per troy oz.)

$13.7750

(N.Y. Comex spot price) (London fixing spot price)

Oil (per barrel)

(Nymex crude future)

Gasoline (per gallon)

(nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released Sept. 27)

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel) (Kansas City market)

$2.79 $9.3675

2.0%

Unemployment rate

4.6%

Gross domestic product growth

4.0%

(August; see p. 591G1)

(annualized second-quarter rate, preliminary report; see p. 560D1)

Prime rate

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$80.24

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

(consumer price index 12-month increase through August; see p. 634C3)

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7.75%

President George W. Bush had been given preferential treatment while serving in the Texas Air National Guard. Rather initially stayed at CBS as a correspondent, but had left the network in June 2006. [See 2006, p. 943F2] The lawsuit sought $20 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages from CBS; Leslie Moonves, the company’s chief executive; Sumner Redstone, the executive chairman of CBS’s parent company, Viacom Inc.; and Andrew Heyward, the former president of CBS news. Rather claimed in the lawsuit that CBS and the executives had made him a scapegoat and had commissioned a “biased” and incomplete investigation on his Bush National Guard report in order to “pacify the White House.” In addition, Rather said, CBS had violated his contract by giving him less prominence as a correspondent after he stepped down as anchor. CBS responded in a statement, “These complaints are old news and this lawsuit is without merit.” „

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Defense Nuclear Missiles Mistakenly Flown Over U.S.

Defense Department officials Sept. 5 said that six cruise missiles armed with nuclear weapons had been mistakenly flown across the central U.S. Aug. 30. According to the 651

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military, ground crews at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota had attached the nuclear warheads to six of 12 air-launched AGM-129 cruise missiles that were mounted on a B-52H Stratofortress bomber. The missiles were flown to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana to be decommissioned. The incident had first been reported by the Military Times Sept. 5. It was the first unauthorized flight of a nuclear-armed bomber over the U.S. in almost 40 years. [See 1997, p. 924D3] Geoff Morrell, the Defense Department press secretary, said President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates had been notified immediately and had been monitoring the situation. However, he said, “At no time was the public in danger.” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D, Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the committee’s ranking Republican, called the incident “a matter of grave concern” and requested an investigation by the Defense Department’s inspector general. The Air Force also said it was investigating the incident. According to Air Force officials, ground crews had loaded half of the bomber’s missiles with nuclear warheads rather than dummies, and the bomber’s pilots and crew members were unaware of their nuclear payload. The Washington Post Sept. 23 reported that the warheads had been left unnoticed and without safeguards for 36 hours. Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D, Calif.), chairwoman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic weapons, said the Air Force’s decision to store the nuclear and dummy warheads in the same warehouse had contributed to the ground crew’s error, the Post reported Sept. 28. The Air Force said the munitions squadron commander involved in the incident had been relieved of his duties, and the crews had been temporarily decertified from handling munitions. Some officials said the incident had been relatively harmless, since the warheads could not have detonated due to failsafe devices, the Post reported Sept. 23. However, the incident was seen as a breakdown in the Air Force’s safety and security procedures for handling nuclear weapons. Independent experts said it had put the warheads’ radioactive material in danger of theft, and that a crash could have spread radiation over a wide area. „

Crime Two Shot at Delaware State University.

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Two 17-year-old freshmen were shot and wounded Sept. 21 at Delaware State University (DSU) in Dover, Del., a historically black public university. The shootings took place around 1 a.m. outside a campus dining hall. One student, Shalita Middleton, was shot twice in the abdomen and was airlifted to a hospital, where she was listed in critical condition. The other, Nathaniel Pugh, was shot in the ankle and was also hospitalized following the attack. [See p. 237A1] Within 15 minutes of the attack, officials locked down the majority of build652

ings on DSU’s 400-acre (160-hectare) campus, canceled the day’s classes and alerted resident advisers and other students to the incident using fliers, phone calls and Web postings. “We learned a lesson from Virginia Tech,” DSU spokesman Carlos Holmes said Sept. 21, contrasting DSU’s response to the shooting with the actions taken by the administration of Virginia Tech during a shooting spree on its campus that left 32 people dead. [See p. 558G1] Classes resumed Sept. 24, the same day that the police announced that they had arrested DSU student Loyer Braden, 18, in connection with the attack. Braden was charged with attempted murder and reckless endangerment, among other charges. „ Duke Case Prosecutor Jailed. Judge W. Osmond Smith 3rd of Durham, N.C., Superior Court Aug. 31 sentenced former Durham County District Attorney Michael Nifong to one day in jail for lying to the court during proceedings related to nowdiscredited charges that three Duke University lacrosse players had raped a stripper during a 2006 party. Nifong was imprisoned Sept. 7 and released the following the day. He was kept separate from the rest of the prison population for his own protection. [See p. 399B3] Nifong had faced up to 30 days in jail after Smith found him guilty of criminal contempt for giving false testimony about whether lawyers for Duke players David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann were given a full report on DNA evidence that eventually helped clear the students. Smith found that Nifong had lied when he stated that the report provided to defense attorneys had been complete, an assertion that was later undercut by testimony from the director of the private lab that processed the DNA samples from the accuser’s underwear and genitals. Interim Durham County District Attorney Jim Hardin Sept. 5 requested a criminal investigation into Nifong’s handling of the Duke rape case. Exonerated Students Seek Settlement—

Lawyers representing Evans, Seligmann and Finnerty Sept. 5 proposed that the city of Durham pay the three former players $10 million each and institute new safeguards for defendants’ rights. The proposed terms were unveiled by attorneys Brendan Sullivan Jr. and Barry Scheck during a meeting with city representatives, and reportedly threatened to sue the city if it did not agree to the proposal within a month. In addition to the money, which would cover both the players’ legal fees, estimated at $3 million, and punitive damages, the settlement called for the videotaping of police line-ups, independent oversight of the police department and mandatory transcriptions of all grand jury proceedings. „

Agriculture Virus Suspected in Honeybee Deaths. A study published Sept. 7 in the journal Science found that the incidence of a virus

called Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) was strongly correlated with the deaths of billions of U.S. honeybees. Approximately 23% of beehives in the U.S. had been destroyed the previous winter by what scientists had called colony collapse disorder. At least 50% of commercial honeybee colonies had been affected since the disease appeared in 2004. [See p. 193F3] The honeybee deaths led to financial trouble for honey producers and farmers who depended on the honeybees to pollinate more than 90 fruit and vegetable crops, industries worth $14 billion. In affected colonies, most adult honeybees disappeared, leaving a few dead bees near the hive. Scientists suggested IAPV might affect the honeybees’ instinct to return to the hive. Scientists had reproduced the virus and given it to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which would implant it in a sample of healthy bees to see how their colonies were affected. Other researchers suggested that new colonies could be spawned from bees that were immune to the disease. Scientists had not ruled out other causes of the deaths, and had considered factors such as mites, other diseases that had yet to be discovered and temperature fluctuations that affected the amount of vegetation in the areas around hives. „

Space Google Sponsors Moon Landing Prize.

The X Prize Foundation Sept. 13 announced a challenge in which it would award as much as $25 million to a private enterprise that successfully landed an unmanned spacecraft on the Moon. Internet company Google Inc. would fund the prize, to be called the Google Lunar X Prize. The foundation in 1996 had launched a similar, $10 million challenge that led in 2004 to the first private manned space flight. [See 2004, p. 799D1] The contest held out a prize of $20 million to a company that met the goal by 2012, plus a possible $5 million if the moon mission succeeded in carrying out certain additional tasks, such as lengthy traveling across the lunar surface or sending images back to Earth. A $5 million second-place award was also offered. The first-place award would fall to $15 million if no one won it by the end of 2012, and be withdrawn in 2014. Larry Page, a cofounder of Google, was an X Prize trustee, and the company had extensive relations with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It was reported Sept. 12 that Google and NASA had reached an unusual agreement allowing Page and cofounder Sergey Brin to base their private Boeing jet at NASA’s Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, Calif. Some local officials and activists opposed to expanding commercial use of the airfield questioned the propriety of the deal. The Google cofounders also allowed NASA to install scientific instruments on their planes. [See 2006, p. 995D3] „ FACTS ON FILE

AFRICA

Central African Republic Government Implicated in Atrocities. A re-

port released Sept. 14 by U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch said an elite presidential guard was largely responsible for atrocities in the Central African Republic since 2005. The report was released after three weeks of research in the country by Human Rights Watch. [See p. 642B2; 2006, p. 979A2] The report said government troops, engaging in a campaign against northernbased rebels, had burned houses, executed citizens and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. Peter Takirambudde, the Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said, “The widespread burning of homes by government security forces is the signature abuse of the conflict.” The report said no one had been held accountable for the atrocities, which included war crimes. Since 2005, instability had plagued the northwestern corner of the Central African Republic. More recently, spillover from the troubled western Darfur region of Sudan had exacerbated the violence and poverty in the northeast. The United Nations Security Council Sept. 25 authorized European Union and United Nations forces to enter the Central African Republic and Chad to “contribute to protecting citizens in danger, particularly refugees and displaced persons.” Human Rights Watch recommended that both the U.N. and the EU provide protection for citizens of the landlocked nation, and called on France, the former colonial power, to raise worldwide awareness of the situation and demand accountability for the crimes. „

AMERICAS

Canada Quebec By-Elections Held. Voters in three

federal ridings, or voting districts, in Quebec province Sept. 17 elected three members of Parliament in by-elections. Though the elections, held to fill vacant seats, did not shift the balance of power in the legislature, they were viewed as a setback to the Liberal Party, which failed to win in any of them, and its leader, Stephane Dion. [See p. 546A1; 2006, p. 44C1] Former Quebec provincial cabinet minister Thomas Mulcair of the leftist New Democratic Party (NDP) defeated the center-left Liberal Party’s Jocelyn Coulon, 47.5%–29%, in the Outremont riding in Montreal. Mulcair’s win was viewed as a particular blow to the Liberals, who had controlled the riding since 1935. Conservative Party candidate Denis Lebel captured the seat in the RobervalLac-Saint-Jean riding in Saugenay, 280 miles (450 km) north of Montreal, defeating separatist Bloc Quebecois (BQ) party candidate Celine Houde, 59.7%–26.8%. October 4, 2007

In the Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot riding east of Montreal, BQ candidate Eve-Mary Thai Thi Lac defeated Conservative Bernard Barre, 42.1%–37.5%. After the elections, the ruling Conservative Party held 126 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons; the Liberals, 95; the „ BQ, 47; and the NDP, 30.

Colombia Chiquita Protection Money Plea Approved.

Judge Royce Lamberth of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Sept. 17 approved a plea agreement under which fruit company Chiquita Brands International Inc. would pay a $25 million fine for giving a Colombian right-wing paramilitary group a total of $1.7 million in protection money. Chiquita in March had pleaded guilty in connection with the payments, which had been made by a Chiquita subsidiary, Banadex, between 1997 and 2004. [See p. 179G3] Chiquita’s paramilitary group payments had become illegal under U.S. law in September 2001, when the U.S. State Department declared the right-wing group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a terrorist organization. The AUC had been linked to murders, kidnappings and drug trafficking. Prosecutors had also alleged that Chiquita had made similar payments to a left-wing rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), also on the U.S. terrorist group list. The U.S. Justice Department Sept. 11 filed a memorandum with the court indicating that it would not seek charges against five former and current Chiquita officials regarding the company’s payments, in an “exercise of prosecutorial discretion.” Company officials maintained that they had continued making payments to the AUC in the interest of the safety of their Colombian employees. The Chiquita officials had said they had disclosed the payments to U.S Justice Department officials in April 2003, and then continued to make them while awaiting advice from then–Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff and then–Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson. „

Ecuador Correa Leads National Assembly Vote.

Voters in Ecuador Sept. 30 went to the polls to elect the 130 members of a special assembly to be convened with the purpose of rewriting the country’s constitution. According to incomplete preliminary counts released Oct. 2, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa’s leftist Alianza Pais (National Alliance) party was leading the official tally. Several exit polls also showed Alianza Pais candidates making a strong showing. Complete, official results were not expected for several weeks, owing to the complexity of the election system. [See p. 99E1] Nevertheless, Correa Oct. 1 claimed victory before a crowd of his supporters,

declaring, “We have won the mother of all battles.” Alianza Pais needed 66 seats in the assembly to control it outright. However, even without a simple majority, Correa’s party would likely be able to control the assembly by forming a coalition with smaller left-wing parties. Correa said the assembly would dissolve Ecuador’s unicameral legislature in an effort to reform the country’s tumultuous national political system. He also said the assembly would give the government greater control over oil revenues, and end the autonomy of the country’s central bank. Correa in January had been elected on a platform of reforming the legislature, which had a reputation for corruption. Since 1997, seven different presidents had been elected, with the most recent four ousted by the legislature before the completion of their terms. Ecuador’s governments for decades had been characterized by a constant struggle between the legislative and executive branches. Correa’s opponents said his assembly plan was mainly an attempt to consolidate the power of the presidency. [See p. 266E2] The assembly would debate a draft of a proposed constitution written by academics. The document would then go to a public referendum, requiring approval by twothirds of voters to be implemented. Investors had expressed fears that Correa would also attempt to nationalize some sectors of the economy, such as the oil and mining industries. Correa had previously said he would renegotiate Ecuador’s $10 billion foreign debt. „

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Mexico Legislature Approves Tax Reform Bills.

Mexico’s Senate Sept. 14 approved a series of bills that were part of a plan by President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa to overhaul the country’s tax laws, in the biggest economic reforms in 10 years. The lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, had approved the package Sept. 13. [See p. 578D3] The cornerstone of the tax plan was a new minimum corporate income tax of 16.5%, set to take effect in 2008 and rise to 17.5% by 2010. The plan would raise the gasoline tax by 5.5%, with that revenue going to state governments. The reform effort would institute a 2% tax on cash bank deposits exceeding about $2,200, an attempt to clamp down on tax delinquents who worked in a cash economy. In all, the reforms were expected to raise the tax collection rate to about 13.5% of the country’s gross domestic product by 2012, from its current rate of about 11%. Mexico had one of the lowest tax collection rates in Latin America. Tax evasion by entities ranging from large corporations to small street vendors was rampant. As a result, the government relied on the state-run oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to provide nearly 40% of the national budget. However, analysts warned that a continued failure by the government to allow Pemex to invest in pro653

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duction and exploration had imperiled its ability to reliably produce oil. The reform bill would cut taxes on Pemex to allow the company to keep an additional $3 billion for reinvestment. Calderon won the support of opposition leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) legislators for the package by agreeing to a slate of electoral reform laws, which cleared the Senate Sept. 12. Under the agreement, the commissioners of the federal election agency, the Federal Electoral Institute, would be replaced prior to the completion of their terms. Also, the presidential campaign season would be shortened to 90 days, from 186, and paid electoral campaign ads would be eliminated in favor of free airtime provided by broadcast outlets. Calderon had narrowly won the July 2006 presidential election, and in December 2006 had been sworn in amidst fierce protests by opposition lawmakers who accused him of rigging the election. However, analysts said Calderon’s ability to negotiate with PRD members had cemented his authority as president. „

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North Korean Nuclear Dispute Year-End Deadline Set for Dismantling.

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North Korea Oct. 3 in six-nation talks in Beijing, China, agreed to disable its nuclear facilities and furnish a complete accounting of its nuclear activities and materials by the end of the year. The dismantling and disclosure would constitute the second stage of implementation of a February deal under which North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons programs in a gradual process in exchange for foreign economic and energy aid and normalized relations with the West. [See p. 588F1] The latest round of the Beijing talks had begun Sept. 27, and recessed Sept. 30 for the participating nations to consider a draft of the agreement. In addition to North Korea, the countries were the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. North Korea agreed to disable its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, which it had closed in July, by the end of the year. U.S. experts would travel to North Korea to assist the process, which would likely include sealing some facilities and removing some equipment from the country. The U.S.’s envoy to the talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said North Korea would make an initial declaration of its nuclear activities within a month, with an aim of completing a full disclosure by the end of the year. Among issues that the U.S. sought a full accounting of were the number of plutonium nuclear weapons North Korea had produced, and the extent of its pursuit of an alleged separate, uranium-based weapons program. U.S. officials said they were also pressing for details of any North Korean nuclear aid to Syria, rumors of which had emerged surrounding a recent Israeli air strike on a Syrian military target. [See p. 603A3] 654

In return, the agreement said, the U.S. would work toward removing North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and lift severe financial sanctions against it, “in parallel” with North Korea’s compliance and as determined in future working group talks. Hill said that the U.S. had made a “side understanding” assuring North Korea of its intentions in that area. However, he said the U.S. had avoided making more specific commitments on the timing of the terrorism list action, in part because of concerns expressed by Japan, which was still demanding a North Korean accounting for Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents. The U.S. would also soon send a shipment of 50,000 tons of fuel oil to North Korea, an installment of the energy aid held out in the February agreement. U.S. President George W. Bush Sept. 28 had authorized the shipment. „

Korea because it was not among the signatories to the armistice that ended the war— North Korea, China and the U.S.-led United Nations Command. [See 1953, p. 245B1] The joint statement also called for the establishment of joint fishing areas and other measures to ease sea-border tensions. South Korea agreed to build another special economic zone in the North Korean city of Haeju. It also pledged to build railway and highway projects in North Korea. Roh’s opponents in South Korea continued to express skepticism about his trip, calling it a stunt intended to influence the country’s December presidential election. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Russia Putin Suggests a Run for Prime Minister.

Other North Korea News South Korea’s Roh Visits. South

Korean President Roh Moo Hyun Oct. 2–4 visited North Korea for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in only the second summit meeting between leaders of the two countries, bitter enemies since the 1950–53 Korean War. The two leaders Oct. 4 signed a joint agreement pledging to work toward easing military and border tensions, to undertake joint economic projects and to seek a permanent peace treaty formally ending the Korean War. [See p. 564B1] Roh Oct. 2 crossed the border into North Korea by foot, before traveling by car to Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital. After a meeting with Kim the following day, he said in lunchtime remarks to aides that Kim had displayed “distrust” at his suggestion that joint economic projects would promote “reform and openness” in North Korea, ruled by a isolated and idiosyncratic communist regime. He said Kim had also expressed impatience with the speed with which South Korea was developing a special economic zone in North Korea called Kaesong. Roh said Kim had also expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program. However, those talks, held in China, the same day yielded a breakthrough agreement on a timetable for North Korea to disable its nuclear facilities. [See p. 654D1] Kim after the Oct. 3 meeting unexpectedly suggested that Roh extend his visit to hold another day of meetings. Kim expressed puzzlement at Roh’s reply that he would have to check with his aides, asking, “Can’t a president decide?” before dropping the invitation. Roh that day also attended a meticulously choreographed patriotic spectacle staged at Pyongyang’s May Day stadium. The next day, Kim mocked South Korean news reports suggesting that he appeared sickly. The Oct. 4 declaration’s inclusion of a peace treaty among its goals was a departure for North Korea, which had previously declined to discuss that matter with South

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Oct. 1 accepted the nomination to lead the dominant United Russia party in upcoming parliamentary elections to be held Dec. 2, and implied that if United Russia won those elections, he could become prime minister. An enthusiastic crowd of delegates from the United Russia party cheered after Putin, who spoke at an Oct. 1 meeting, said, “Heading the government is quite a realistic proposal.” Putin’s presidential term would end in March 2008, and he was ineligible for reelection under the Russian constitution. [See pp. 616A2, 183F2] Putin, 54, said that in order for him to become Russia’s prime minister, United Russia needed to win control of the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, and a “decent, competent and effective person with whom I could work” needed to win the presidential elections, to be held in March 2008. Putin in mid-September had nominated Viktor Zubkov, a close but largely unknown associate of Putin’s, as Russia’s new prime minister. Most Russian analysts agreed that Zubkov, with the backing of Putin, would have a strong advantage in the upcoming presidential race. Russian analysts had long speculated that Putin would act to maintain a strong influence in the government after his term ended. Some suggested the move indicated an impending shift from Russia’s presidential system to a parliamentary democracy, which would weaken the office of the president but bolster the power of the prime minister. If United Russia won a two-thirds majority in the Duma, it would have the power to change the constitution. Putin had been a popular figure in Russia since he assumed office in 1999, and Russia had experienced sustained economic growth throughout his presidency. He currently had an approval rating of over 70%, and, according to a poll cited Oct. 2 by the British newspaper the Guardian, 64% of Russians said they would vote for him if he were allowed a third presidential term. Putin had briefly served as prime minister in 1999 before succeeding Boris Yeltsin as president. FACTS ON FILE

Putin’s opposition expressed concern over the developments. They suggested that heavy dependence on just one person in the government would set the stage for instability in the future, and warned that Russia appeared to be headed toward oneparty rule. Mikhail Kasyanov, Putin’s former prime minister and now an opposition figure, said of Putin’s move, “It means that the current political course, which in my view is leading our country to collapse, will continue.” [See p. 249F2] Boris Gryzlov, leader of United Russia, said at the Oct. 1 meeting of delegates that Putin was inextricably linked to Russia’s recent economic success, adding, “This course, your course, Vladimir Vladimirovich, we call Plan Putin, and for us this is the vector of Russia’s future development.” Chess Champion to Run for President—

Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov Sept. 30 was selected as the presidential candidate for Russian opposition party Other Russia, a loose coalition of opposition groups. Other nominees included Kasyanov and the former head of the Russian central bank, Viktor Gerashchenko. [See p. 337D1] Kasparov, a founding member of Other Russia, Sept. 30 urged unity within the party, saying that “the goal of Other Russia is not winning elections, but to have an election. We’re trying to force the regime to accept our rights to participate in free and fair elections, to agitate the Russian population and Russian public to support our ideas.” Other Russia was an unregistered party, and was ineligible to participate in upcoming parliamentary elections. It was unclear whether Kasparov would be allowed to register as a presidential candidate. Analysts said Kasparov had little chance of winning the presidency over whomever Putin chose as his successor. Kasparov began playing chess when he was five years old and achieved grandmaster status by the time he was 17. He was ranked the number one player in the world from 1984 to 2000. [See 2003 p. 132G2]„

Serbia Kosovo Talks Stall at U.N. Session. Offi-

cials from Serbia and the breakaway province of Kosovo Sept. 28 met with officials from the European Union, Russia and the U.S. at the 62nd United Nations General Assembly in New York City, to discuss the future of Kosovo. It was the first time that Serbian and Kosovo leaders had met faceto-face along with the “troika,” the three countries mediating the talks, since a U.N. plan to grant Kosovo supervised independence had stalled in July. Once again, no consensus on the conflict was reached. [See pp. 645A1, 597G2] Kosovo’s Albanian majority had demanded independence from Serbia, which vehemently opposed the idea. Kosovo had been governed by the U.N. since 1999. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in August had stipulated that the Kosovo crisis must be resolved by Dec. 10. Ban Oct. 3 further emphasized the deadline in a reOctober 4, 2007

port suggesting that if the two sides could not come to an agreement, it would undermine everything the U.N. had accomplished since its intervention in Kosovo. He advised officials to make “concrete and realistic proposals.” Kosovo’s politicians had said if no consensus could be reached by the deadline, Kosovo would unilaterally declare its independence, with the backing of the U.S. and some EU members, including Britain and France. Russia and several other EU members, including Spain, Romania, Hungary and Greece, were reluctant to recognize the breakaway republic. Many European countries, especially in eastern Europe, had struggled with their own separatist movements. Russia, in particular, argued that those movements could be agitated by a declaration of independence from Kosovo. Talks were scheduled to continue Oct. 14 in Brussels, Belgium. Two Killed in Kosovo Blast—A bomb early Sept. 24 exploded in a shopping mall in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, leaving two people dead and at least nine injured. The blast destroyed several shops and part of the building. U.N. police closed off the area to search for other explosive devices, but did not recover any. Officials said the bomb did not appear to be terrorist-related, and instead was likely a result of locally motivated crime. Both authorities in Kosovo and EU leaders condemned the attack. No group stepped forward to claim responsibility. Tensions were high in Kosovo between the Albanian majority and the Serbian minority due to Kosovo’s proposed independence, which Serbia opposed. „

Sweden Muhammad Cartoon Draws Death Threat.

The Islamic State of Iraq, an Iraqi insurgent group, Sept. 15 issued a death threat against Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks for having drawn the head of Islam’s prophet Muhammad on a dog’s body. The group, which was linked to the better-known Sunni Muslim insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, offered $100,000 for Vilks’s death, or $150,000 if he was “slaughtered like a lamb.” It also offered a $50,000 bounty for the killing of Ulf Johansson, the editor in chief of Nerikes Allehanda, the newspaper that had published the cartoon Aug. 19. [See p. 197C2] The Islamic State of Iraq further threatened to launch attacks on major Swedish companies unless Sweden apologized for the cartoon. Vilks Sept. 17 said he was under police protection in a secret location, and had been warned by the police that it was not safe to return to his home. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt Sept. 16 addressed the death threats in comments to Swedish news agency TT, urging “calm” and rejecting “calls to violence.” He also said Sweden remained committed to freedom of speech.

In 2006, cartoons of Muhammad originally published by a Danish newspaper had sparked violent protests and boycotts of Danish goods across the Muslim world. Islam deemed any pictorial image of the prophet to be blasphemous. Sweden had taken in more Iraqi refugees than any other industrialized nation. According to data released Sept. 21 by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sweden had received applications for asylum from 9,300 Iraqi refugees in the first half of 2007. „

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Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko Oct. 3 proposed a broad coalition between Ukraine’s three major parties after Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich’s pro-Russian Party of Regions won the largest percentage of votes, 34.3%, in Sept. 30 parliamentary elections. Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s pro-western bloc secured 30.8% of the vote, and Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine party took 14.2%, with 99.7% of votes counted as of Oct. 3. [See p. 367D3] Two smaller parties, the Communist Party and the centrist Lytvyn party, also cleared the 3% cutoff needed for seats in Parliament. The Socialist Party fell just short, with 2.9%. Yushchenko and Tymoshenko had previously promoted an “Orange Coalition” between their parties, and analysts expected Yushchenko to appoint Tymoshenko as the new prime minister. However, Yushchenko Oct. 3 suggested that Yanukovich’s Party of Regions could take seats in the cabinet for the sake of national unity. “I have one goal,” said Yushchenko, “Ukraine must emerge united following the elections; there must not be two Ukraines.” Tymoshenko Oct. 3 on her Web site stated that she would move into opposition if a coalition between Our Ukraine and Party of Regions formed. Talks between the parties began Oct. 4, but Tymoshenko’s bloc only spoke with Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine faction. Feuds Spark Political Instability— The Sept. 30 vote was the third parliamentary election held in four years in Ukraine. Yushchenko had dissolved the Rada, the lower house of parliament, in early April and called for snap elections. Yanukovich and his party had disputed the move as unconstitutional. However, the three major parties in May had agreed that an election was necessary after months of infighting. Presidential authority had been somewhat uncertain in recent months due to legislation that had transferred some presidential power to the prime minister and parliament. The election outcome was expected to forecast the direction in which Ukrainian economic and other policies would move. Yushchenko’s party planned to seek to strengthen ties with the European Union and other Western powers, while Yanukovich’s party sought to restore close relations with Russia and had received the sup655

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port of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. Tymoshenko’s bloc had been loosely allied with Yushchenko’s faction. Tymoshenko had been Yushchenko’s prime minister after he was elected in the “Orange Revolution” of 2004. However, she was fired in 2005 and replaced with Yanukovich, after she was accused of corruption and her faction was crippled by in-fighting. Many Ukrainians had become disillusioned with recent political trends, saying that economic gains in Ukraine had not affected the average citizen. Elections Declared Free and Fair— The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which had sent approximately 710 monitors to oversee voting, said Oct. 1 that the elections had been free and fair. Oleg Mushenko, a Russian election monitor, said Ukrainian voters were more informed than in the past, and had been less influenced by fleeting events like mass demonstrations. The British newspaper the Financial Times Sept. 28 had reported that parties had paid citizens to attend political demonstrations and rallies. Officials from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the national intelligence agency, alleged election fraud in the eastern region of Kharkiv, according to a Sept. 24 report published by the Ukrainian newspaper Korrespondent. The intelligence was the result of a secret investigation that found approximately 94,000 nonexistent citizens on voter rolls. Oleksander Krivtsov, an election official in the province, cited clerical errors resulting from the need to have election rolls in both Russian and Ukrainian, and said he would make sure mistakes were corrected. Yushchenko Oct. 1 ordered an investigation into possible vote-rigging, after the three major parties had all accused the others of fraud. Gazprom Claims $1.3 BIllion Gas Debt—

Russian energy giant OAO Gazprom Oct. 2 threatened to cut gas supplies to Ukraine if a $1.3 billion debt was not paid, further complicating the political atmosphere in the country. Yushchenko Oct. 3 denied Ukraine owed any money, and added that he did not think the accusation “was formulated in such a way and at such a time so as to be constructive for our relations.” Nevertheless, Gazprom that day said it had reached a deal for Ukraine to repay its debt by Nov. 1. [See 2006, p. 18C1] „ Shield to be Built Over Chernobyl. Ukrainian officials Sept. 17 signed a $505 million contract with French energy engineering consortium Novarka to build a massive protective structure over the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. In 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had exploded, spewing radiation across Europe. It was the worst nuclear disaster in history. [See 2005, p. 930E2; 1986, p. 305A1] The new structure, meant to contain dangerous radiation, was largely funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in addition to other interna656

tional donors. Novarka was a 50–50 venture between French construction companies Vinci SA and Bouygues Construction. The new structure would be 105 meters (344 ft) high and 150 meters long, with a span of 260 meters. Construction was set to begin in October, and was expected to be completed by 2012. The structure, a dome designed to last a century, would be made of steel and would completely encase the current shield, a concrete “sarcophagus” that was poured over the site in 1986 and had been crumbling and leaking radiation for a decade. Analysts said there was a danger that the sarcophagus would release a deadly radioactive dust cloud if it collapsed. About 95% of the original nuclear fuel remained at the Chernobyl site. Once the structure was in place, the reactor would be dismantled. A separate deal with U.S. energy firm Holtec International was signed Sept. 17. Holtec would construct a storage facility for nuclear waste. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko Sept. 17 said, “Today is probably the first time that we can openly look into the eyes of the national and international community and say that a solution to the problem that has long been called the Chernobyl problem was formally found.” „

European Business News French Energy Giants Reach Merger.

French energy utilities Gaz de France SA (GdF) and Suez SA Sept. 3 agreed to a merger that would form the world’s thirdbiggest power and gas company, and Europe’s biggest buyer and supplier of natural gas. French President Nicolas Sarkozy intervened to help seal the agreement, ending 18 months of negotiations. Suez bowed to pressure from Sarkozy to spin off 65% of its water and waste management business in order to focus the company on energy. [See 2006, p. 152D3] The French government held a 79.8% stake in GdF. Under the terms of the deal, the government would retain a 35.6% stake in the combined company. The merger had first been proposed with government backing in February 2006, as a protectionist move to block a takeover bid for Suez by Italian energy company Enel SpA. However, the allFrench merger had been delayed by regulatory requirements. The merger clashed with a plan by the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, to bring more competition to the European energy market by breaking up big national companies. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde Sept. 19 said the government would seek a “golden share” in the new company, which would grant the government veto rights over asset sales even without a controlling stake in the company. Deal for Spain’s Endesa—Shareholders of Spanish utility Endesa SA Sept. 25 approved voting rights changes that were expected to clear the way for the completion

of a 42.5 billion euro ($60 billion) takeover by Enel and Spanish conglomerate Acciona SA. Enel and Acciona had announced their bid for Endesa March 26. The Spanish government had previously intervened to block a takeover bid for Endesa by E.On AG of Germany. E.On dropped its bid for Endesa April 2. [See 2006, p. 1028G1] „

SOUTH ASIA

Nepal Maoists Quit Government. Former members of Nepal’s Maoist rebel army Sept. 18 resigned from their positions in the interim coalition government. The Maoists demanded that the country’s monarchy be abolished before elections for a constituent assembly, set for Nov. 22. Under a 2006 peace agreement, the assembly was supposed to decide whether Nepal would remain a constitutional monarchy or become a republic. The Maoists claimed that the monarchy’s supporters were trying to disrupt the elections. [See p. 234B2] The Maoists’ resignation threatened to derail a peace process that had begun in April 2006, when King Gyanendra yielded most of his powers and restored democracy, and the Maoists ended a violent decade-long insurgency. The Maoists joined the coalition government a year later. The Maoists’ deputy leader, Baburam Bhattarai, Sept. 18 said they would disrupt the elections through peaceful means, and begin a nationwide strike between Oct. 4–6. Bhattarai warned, “If there are attempts to crush our peaceful movement, we will also get violent.” The Nepali Congress, the coalition’s largest party, Sept. 7 had officially withdrawn its support for the monarchy, and called for the establishment of a republic. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, leader of the Congress party, maintained that it was up to the assembly, not the interim government, to rewrite the constitution and decide the role of the monarchy. Koirala did not accept the Maoists’ resignations. Members of the coalition government met with Maoist leaders Sept. 19 in an attempt to persuade them to rejoin the government. „

Pakistan Court Dismisses Suits Against Musharraf.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court Sept. 28 voted, 6–3, to dismiss two challenges arguing that President Pervez Musharraf could not run for reelection while remaining chief of the army. The ruling allowed Musharraf to seek a second five-year term in an election scheduled for Oct. 6. He would compete against five other candidates approved by the country’s election commission Sept. 29. [See p. 617C3] The petitions had been filed by political opponents and activist lawyers. They argued that it was unconstitutional for Musharraf to hold the offices of president and army chief simultaneously, and that it was against the law for him to run for election as army chief. Pakistani law said governFACTS ON FILE

ment employees, including army officers, had to retire for a minimum of two years before running for office. An amendment that exempted Musharraf from that law was due to expire Dec. 31. Musharraf in September had pledged to resign from the army only if he won the election. Musharraf had come to power in 1999 through a coup. The panel dismissed the charges on a legal technicality, saying the petitions should come under the jurisdiction of a lower court. Observers said the court avoided the issues at stake, since a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs could lead to a declaration of martial law by Musharraf and the country’s destabilization. The court’s chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, had recused himself from the panel in order to maintain the court’s neutrality. Chaudhry had ruled against Musharraf’s government in several recent decisions, after Musharraf tried to oust him from his position. [See p. 551C1] Musharraf was expected to win the election, as his allies dominated Parliament. The president was elected by an electoral college composed of both houses of Parliament and the country’s four provincial assemblies. Opposition leaders of the All Parties Democratic Movement—which included a coalition of various Islamist parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amaland, and the center-right Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N)—Oct. 2 resigned from Parliament in an attempt to delegitimize the election. The resigning members accounted for 85 of the 342 seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. Police Clash With Lawyers, Reporters—

Police officers in Islamabad, the capital, Sept. 29 used tear gas and batons to disperse some 200 lawyers who tried to march from the Supreme Court to the office of the election commission to protest Musharraf’s reelection bid. More than 40 were injured. Reporters at the scene were attacked by police as well, and the government shut down all the television stations that were broadcasting the event. A state information minister, Tariq Azim Khan, was badly beaten by journalists during the clashes. Chaudhry Oct. 1 condemned the violence, and ordered the suspensions of the Islamabad police chief and two senior law enforcement officials. Chaudhry Orders Prisoners’ Release—

Chaudhry Sept. 27 ordered the government to release more than 100 activists and leaders of opposition parties who had been arrested in a round-up that began Sept. 22. Government officials that day agreed to follow Chaudhry’s ruling. The opposition members were arrested after they called for demonstrations outside the court and the election commission office to protest Musharraf’s reelection bid. The U.S. had also issued a rare criticism of Musharraf. The U.S. embassy in Islamabad Sept. 24 released a statement that said the arrests were “extremely disturbing” and urged the government to release the prisoners “as soon as possible.” U.S. SecOctober 4, 2007

retary of State Condoleezza Rice said the arrests were “troubling.” The U.S. had been a steadfast supporter of Musharraf, viewing him as a valuable ally in its worldwide fight against terrorism. [See p. 598E3] Many of those arrested were members of the All Parties Democratic Movement. The movement’s leaders said the number of people arrested was much higher than officially reported. Musharraf Names Vice Army Chief—

Musharraf Oct. 2 announced that a close ally, Lt. Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, had been promoted to general and vice chief of staff of the army. Musharraf said Kiyani would succeed him as army chief if he was elected president. Musharraf Sept. 21 had announced that another ally, Lt. Gen. Nadeem Taj, had been promoted to lead Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s powerful military-led intelligence agency. Taj replaced Kiyani at the position. Taj had been Musharraf’s military secretary when Musharraf seized power in the 1999 coup. Observers said Musharraf was putting allies in key positions of the army bureaucracy in case he won the election and resigned as army chief. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

A

Baseball MLB Season Ends. The Major League Baseball (MLB) season ended Sept. 30, with

several playoff races going down to the wire. The postseason, with eight of the 30 teams competing—the three division champions and one wild card each from the American League (A.L.) and the National League (N.L.)—started Oct. 3. [See p. 454D2] The San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies finished tied for the N.L. wild card, forcing a one-game playoff Oct. 1 in Denver, Colo. The Rockies won, 9–8, in 13 innings. Colorado stormed into the postseason by winning 14 of its last 15 games. The Philadelphia Phillies Sept. 30 clinched the N.L. East division title at home when they defeated the Washington Nationals, 6–1, and the New York Mets lost at home to the Florida Marlins, 8–1. The Mets had led the division for most of the season, and held a seven-game lead over the Phillies as of Sept. 12, with 17 games to go. No team in MLB history had failed to make the playoffs after holding such a large lead so late in the season. Despite the collapse, Mets general manager

B

C

Bin Laden Urges Musharraf Overthrow.

In an audio recording released Sept. 20, Osama bin Laden, leader of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda, called on the people of Pakistan to “carry out jihad,” or holy war, to “remove” Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and his government. Bin Laden said Musharraf had betrayed Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim nation, by allying with the U.S., and ordering a raid on the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, that killed more than 100 Islamic militants. Bin Laden was believed to be in hiding in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border, which had seen a surge in violence in recent months. [See below, pp. 587C3, 442F2] The recording, which was released on the Internet and accompanied by previously taped video footage, was bin Laden’s third public statement in September. The first two were timed for the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., and were addressed to U.S. citizens. Suicide Bomb Kills 15—A woman Oct. 1 detonated a bomb in the northwestern town of Bannu, killing herself and as many as 15 others, including four police officers. It was the country’s first female suicide bombing, according to the Associated Press (AP). The security situation in the northwestern region had deteriorated in previous months, after truces between the government and tribal leaders in the provinces of South and North Waziristan fell apart. Analysts said Musharraf would first solidify his rule over the country before tackling the militants in the region. Musharraf had come under intense pressure from pro-democracy opponents to step down from power, and was trying to secure a second five-year term as president in an election scheduled for Oct. 6. [See p. 656F3] „

2007 Final Major League Baseball Standings

Boston New York* Toronto Baltimore Tampa Bay Cleveland Detroit Minnesota Chicago Kansas City Los Angeles Seattle Oakland Texas

Philadelphia New York Atlanta Washington Florida Chicago Milwaukee St. Louis Houston Cincinnati Pittsburgh Arizona Colorado* San Diego Los Angeles San Francisco

American League EAST DIVISION W L Pct.

GB

CENTRAL DIVISION W L Pct.

GB

96 94 83 69 66

96 88 79 72 69

66 68 79 93 96

66 74 83 90 93

.593 .580 .512 .426 .407 .593 .543 .488 .444 .426

— 8 17 24 27

WEST DIVISION W L Pct.

GB

National League** EAST DIVISION W L Pct.

GB

94 88 76 75

89 88 84 73 71

68 74 86 87

73 74 78 89 91

.580 .543 .469 .463

.549 .543 .519 .451 .438

— 1 5 16 18

GB

WEST DIVISION W L Pct.

GB

90 90 89 82 71

77 79 84 89 90 94

72 73 74 80 91

.525 .512 .481 .451 .444 .420

.556 .552 .546 .506 .438

E

— 6 18 19

CENTRAL DIVISION W L Pct.

85 83 78 73 72 68

D

— 2 13 27 30

F

— 2 7 12 13 17

— ½ 1½ 8 19

*Won wild-card berth ** Records include San Diego–Colorado wild-card playoff game Oct. 1.

657

G

Final Major League Baseball Leaders* Oct. 1, 2007**

A

B

C

D

E

F

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American League

National League

Individual Batting†

Individual Batting†

Ordonez, Detroit Suzuki, Seattle Polanco, Detroit Posada, New York Ortiz, Boston Figgins, Los Angeles Guerrero, Los Angeles Lowell, Boston Jeter, New York Pedroia, Boston

G

AB

R

H

Avg.

157 161 142 144 149 115 150 154 156 139

595 678 587 506 549 442 574 589 639 520

117 111 105 91 116 81 89 79 102 86

216 238 200 171 182 146 186 191 206 165

.363 .351 .341 .338 .332 .330 .324 .324 .322 .317

RUNS BATTED IN—Rodriguez, New York, 156; Ordonez, Detroit, 139; Guerrero, Los Angeles, 125; Pena, Tampa Bay, 121; Lowell, Boston, 120. HOME RUNS—Rodriguez, New York, 54; Pena, Tampa Bay, 46; Ortiz, Boston, 35; Thome, Chicago, 35; Konerko, Chicago, 31; Morneau, Minnesota, 31. DOUBLES—Ordonez, Detroit, 54; Ortiz, Boston, 52; Hill, Toronto, 47; Guerrero, Los Angeles, 45; Hunter, Minnesota, 45. TRIPLES—Granderson, Detroit, 23; Iwamura, Tampa Bay, 10; Crawford, Tampa Bay, 9; DeJesus, Kansas City, 9; Guillen, Detroit, 9. HITS—Suzuki, Seattle, 238; Ordonez, Detroit, 216; Jeter, New York, 206; M. Young, Texas, 201; Polanco, Detroit, 200. RUNS—Rodriguez, New York, 143; Abreu, New York, 123; Granderson, Detroit, 122; Sizemore, Cleveland, 118; Ordonez, Detroit, 117. STOLEN BASES—Crawford, Tampa Bay, 50; Roberts, Baltimore, 50; Figgins, Los Angeles, 41; Patterson, Baltimore, 37, Suzuki, Seattle, 37. EARNED RUN AVERAGE—Lackey, Los Angeles, 3.01; Carmona, Cleveland, 3.06; Haren, Oakland, 3.07; Bedard, Baltimore, 3.16; Sabathia, Cleveland, 3.21. VICTORIES—Beckett, Boston, 20–7; Carmona, Cleveland, 19–8; Lackey, Los Angeles, 19–9; Sabathia, Cleveland, 19–7; Wang, New York, 19–7. STRIKEOUTS—Kazmir, Tampa Bay, 239; Santana, Minnesota, 235; Bedard, Baltimore, 221; Vazquez, Chicago, 213; Sabathia, Cleveland, 209. SAVES—Borowski, Cleveland, 45; Jenks, Chicago, 40; Putz, Seattle, 40; Rodriguez, Los Angeles, 40; Jones, Detroit, 38.

Holliday, Colorado Jones, Atlanta Ramirez, Florida Renteria, Atlanta Utley, Philadelphia Pujols, St. Louis Wright, New York Cabrera, Florida Helton, Colorado Young, Washington

G

AB

R

H

Avg.

158 134 154 124 132 158 160 157 154 136

636 513 639 494 530 565 604 588 557 460

120 108 125 87 104 99 113 91 86 57

216 173 212 164 176 185 196 188 178 147

.340 .337 .332 .332 .332 .327 .325 .320 .320 .320

RUNS BATTED IN—Holliday, Colorado, 137; Howard, Philadelphia, 136; Cabrera, Florida, 119; Fielder, Milwaukee, 119; Lee, Houston, 119. HOME RUNS—Fielder, Milwaukee, 50; Howard, Philadelphia, 47; Dunn, Cincinnati, 40; Holliday, Colorado, 36; Berkman, Houston, 34; Braun, Milwaukee, 34; Cabrera, Florida, 34. DOUBLES—Holliday, Colorado, 50; Uggla, Florida, 49; Ramirez, Florida, 48; Utley, Philadelphia, 48; Gonzalez, San Diego, 46. TRIPLES—Rollins, Philadelphia, 20; Reyes, New York, 12; Johnson, Atlanta, 10; five tied with nine. HITS—Holliday, Colorado, 216; Ramirez, Florida, 212; Rollins, Philadelphia, 212; Pierre, Los Angeles, 196; Wright, New York, 196. RUNS—Rollins, Philadelphia, 139; Ramirez, Florida, 125; Holliday, Colorado, 120; Reyes, New York, 119; Uggla, Florida, 113; Wright, New York, 113. STOLEN BASES—Reyes, New York, 78; Pierre, Los Angeles, 64; Ramirez, Florida, 51; Byrnes, Arizona, 50; Rollins, Philadelphia, 41. EARNED RUN AVERAGE—Peavy, San Diego, 2.54; Webb, Arizona, 3.01; Penny, Los Angeles, 3.03; Smoltz, Atlanta, 3.11; Young, San Diego, 3.12. VICTORIES—Peavy, San Diego, 19–6; Webb, Arizona, 18–10; Zambrano, Chicago, 18–13; Francis, Colorado, 17–9; Harang, Cincinnati, 16–6; Hudson, Atlanta, 16–10; Penny, Los Angeles, 16–4. STRIKEOUTS—Peavy, San Diego, 240; Harang, Cincinnati, 218; Smoltz, Atlanta, 197; Webb, Arizona, 194; Hill, Chicago, 183. SAVES—Valverde, Arizona, 47; Cordero, Milwaukee, 44; Hoffman, San Diego, 42; Saito, Los Angeles, 39; Cordero, Washington, 37.

*The complete names of the players are found in the index. †Based on minimum 3.1 plate appearances for each game a player’s team played. ** Statistics include San Diego–Colorado wild-card playoff game Oct. 1..

Omar Minaya Oct. 2 said manager Willie Randolph would not be fired. The Arizona Diamondbacks Sept. 29 claimed the N.L. West division title when the second-place Padres lost to the host Milwaukee Brewers, 4–3. The Chicago Cubs Sept. 28 had clinched the Central when they beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6–0, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the second-place Brewers lost to the Padres, 6–3. A.L. Playoff Races—The Boston Red Sox Sept. 28 clinched the A.L. East at home when they beat the Minnesota Twins, 5–2, and the second-place New York Yankees lost to the host Baltimore Orioles, 10–9. The Yankees took the A.L. wild-card berth. It was the first division title for the Red Sox in 12 years. In the A.L. Central, the Cleveland Indians Sept. 23 had clinched the title when they beat the visiting Oakland Athletics, 6– 2. The Indians ended the season with an eight-game lead over the Detroit Tigers. The Los Angeles Angels Sept. 23 clinched the West when they defeated the Seattle Mariners, 7–4, in Anaheim, Calif. 658

More Players Linked to Drugs—The New York Daily News and the Web site of Sports Illustrated magazine, SI.com, Sept. 7 reported that St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel and Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Troy Glaus had received performance-enhancing drugs from Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, Fla. The pharmacy, which sold drugs over the Internet, had been raided by federal and state officials in February. The probe of the pharmacy had been led by the Albany County, N.Y., district attorney’s office. It was illegal in New York to sell prescription drugs to patients who had never been examined by the doctors who wrote their prescriptions. [See p. 235E2] The Daily News reported that Ankiel had received eight shipments of human growth hormone (HGH) from the pharmacy in 2004. SI.com said Glaus had received “multiple shipments” of the steroids nandrolone and testosterone from September 2003 to May 2004. Both players reportedly had prescriptions for the drugs. The two steroids had

been banned by MLB in 2003, but HGH had not been banned until 2005, meaning Ankiel could not be punished by the league if he had only taken it before that time. No reliable urine test for HGH existed. Ankiel, 28, was a former pitcher who had some success before losing the ability to control his pitches and undergoing reconstructive surgery on his left elbow in 2003. He had returned to the Cardinals in August as an outfielder, after spending three years out of the major leagues, and got off to a remarkable start, hitting .353 with nine home runs since being called up from the minors. [See 2004, p. 787B1] SI.com Sept. 9 reported that a third MLB player, Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons, had received steroids and HGH from the Florida pharmacy between October 2003 and July 2005. ESPN.com Oct. 1 reported that in 2003 and 2004, Mets reliever Scott Schoeneweis had received six shipments of steroids (he had played for the Chicago White Sox at the time). Ankiel Sept. 11 and Gibbons Sept. 17 met with MLB officials concerning the investigation. MLB was conducting its own probe into steroid use in the sport, led by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D, Maine). Two lawyers working with Mitchell Sept. 13 met with officials from the Albany County district attorney’s office. MLB officials had met with representatives of the district attorney’s office Sept. 10. Both MLB and the National Football League (NFL) had reportedly been in contact with the Albany County district attorney’s office since March, in an effort to obtain the names of players linked to the investigation. The NFL Aug. 31 had suspended New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison for the first four games of the season for buying HGH from the Florida pharmacy. Mitchell’s commission was seeking to interview at least 45 current and former MLB players about alleged performance-enhancing drug use, the New York Times reported Sept. 6. However, all the players had thus far refused to be interviewed, and Mitchell had no power to compel them to talk. The Times reported that the MLB Players Association, the players’ union, in an Aug. 23 letter to Mitchell had expressed fears that any information the players gave him could be used against the players by MLB. The only player to meet with Mitchell so far was Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi. Giambi, who earlier in 2007 had tacitly admitted taking steroids, spoke with Mitchell July 13. Details of the discussion were not disclosed. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig Aug. 16 said Giambi had been “frank and candid” and would not be punished by the league. In a related development, a federal judge in New York City Sept. 14 denied a motion filed by the Hearst Corp., which owned 12 daily newspapers in the U.S., that had sought access to names of players connected to the case of Kirk Radomski, a former Mets clubhouse attendant. Radomski in April had pleased guilty to distributing performanceenhancing drugs to MLB players. A federal magistrate judge in Phoenix, Ariz., July 27 FACTS ON FILE

had denied a similar motion filed by the Associated Press to gain access to players named by former MLB pitcher Jason Grimsley, who had been suspended in 2006 for using HGH. [See p. 455E2] Bonds’s Ball Sold, To Have Asterisk—

Electronic bidding Aug. 28 opened for the ball hit by San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds when he broke Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record of 755 earlier that month. Sotheby’s/SCP Auctions handled the sale of the 756th home run ball, which had been caught by 21-year-old New Yorker Matt Murphy. The ball Sept. 16 sold for $752,467.20. The buyer, fashion designer Marc Ecko, Sept. 17 said he had set up a Web site, www.vote756.com, on which fans could vote on whether he should give the ball to the Baseball Hall of Fame, brand it with an asterisk and then send it to the Hall of Fame, or blast it into space. (The asterisk alluded to suspicions that Bonds had achieved much of his late-career success by taking performance-enhancing drugs, and that therefore his record was tainted.) [See below, pp. 518E3, 519E2] Ecko Sept. 26 announced that, of more than 10 million online voters, 47% had voted for the asterisk, 34% said the ball should be sent to the Hall unchanged and 19% supported blasting it into space. The Hall of Fame that day said it would accept the ball with an asterisk, but that that did not mean it agreed that the record was tainted. Other News—In other MLB news: † MLB Sept. 26 suspended umpire Mike Winters for the rest of the regular season, after a confrontation with Padres outfielder Milton Bradley during a Sept. 23 game. During the argument, Bradley had suffered a season-ending knee injury when his manager, Bud Black, attempted to restrain him from charging at Winters. MLB did not give a reason for Winters’s suspension, but he had reportedly escalated the confrontation by using profanity in arguing with Bradley. † Giants owner Peter Magowan Sept. 21 said the team would not sign Bonds for the 2008 season. Bonds Aug. 13 had said he planned to make 2008 his last season. † Twins general manager Terry Ryan Sept. 13 resigned after 13 seasons, and was succeeded by his assistant, Bill Smith. † Red Sox rookie pitcher Clay Buchholz, making just his second career start, Sept. 1 pitched a no-hitter. Buchholz, 23, stuck out nine batters, walked three and hit one with a pitch in a 10–0 Red Sox victory over the Orioles in Boston. † The Houston Astros Aug. 27 fired manager Phil Garner and general manager Tim Purpura. Bench coach Cecil Cooper was named interim manager; he signed a contract Sept. 28 to become the team’s fulltime manager through 2009. Cooper became the third black manager currently in MLB, and the 14th in history. The Astros Sept. 20 had hired Ed Wade as their new general manager; Wade had previously held the same job with the Phillies. † The Texas Rangers Aug. 22 defeated the Orioles, 30–3, in Baltimore, Md., to set an A.L. record for the most runs scored in October 4, 2007

a game. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last team to score 30 runs had been the N.L.’s Chicago Colts in 1897. † Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox Aug. 14 was ejected from a game for the 132nd time in his career, surpassing Hall of Famer John McGraw and setting a new record for managerial ejections. After three years with the Orioles, McGraw managed the New York Giants from 1902 to 1932. † Tigers infielder Neifi Perez was suspended Aug. 3 for 80 games after testing positive for a banned stimulant for the third time. Perez had been suspended for 25 games in July after his second positive test for amphetamines. [See p. 455C1] † Kansas City Royals manager Buddy Bell Aug. 1 announced that he would resign at the end of the season. † The Red Sox July 31 acquired relief pitcher Eric Gagne from the Rangers for pitcher Kason Gabbard and two minorleaguers. † The Mets July 30 acquired second baseman Luis Castillo from the Twins for two minor-leaguers. † Two retired stars—Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. and Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn—July 29 were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. They had been elected in January. [See p. 23F3] „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Awards MacArthur Fellowships Announced. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Sept. 25 formally announced the winners of its annual MacArthur Fellowships, honoring individuals in many fields. Twenty-four of the so-called genius grants were awarded, with each recipient getting $500,000: $100,000 a year for five years. [See 2006, p. 774D3] The winners were: Deborah Bial, 42, founder and president of the New York City–based Posse Foundation, which helped disadvantaged youths get into college Peter Cole, 50, Jerusalem, Israel–based poet, publisher and translator, hailed for his English translations of Hebrew poetry from medieval Spain Lisa Cooper, 44, Johns Hopkins University professor of medicine seeking to improve medical care for minority populations in the U.S. Ruth DeFries, 50, University of Maryland geographer researching the global effects of agriculture and urbanization on the environment Mercedes Doretti, 48, cofounder (1984) of the Buenos Aires, Argentina–based Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team and coordinator of the group’s New York City office; originally founded to collect evidence of crimes against humanity committed by the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, the group had expanded its work to more than 30 countries Stuart Dybek, 65, Chicago-based short story writer and poet whose work dealt with Chicago’s ethnic communities Marc Edwards, 43, Virginia Tech civil engineer dealing with urban water safety concerns Michael Elowitz, 37, California Institute of Technology molecular biologist investigating gene interactions

Saul Griffith, 33, Australian-born, Californiabased inventor of devices in fields ranging from nanotechnology to optics Sven Haakanson, 40, anthropologist and executive director of the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, Alaska, which housed a collection of artifacts of his native culture Corey Harris, 38, Virginia-based blues musician Cheryl Hayashi, 40, University of California at Riverside biologist probing the genetics of spider silk production My Hang Huynh, 45, chemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico working on ways to synthesize highly energetic compounds, such as explosives, while minimizing environmental damage Claire Kremen, 46, University of California at Berkeley conservation biologist whose work focused on bees and other natural pollinators Whitfield Lovell, 47, New York–based painter and installation artist whose work depicted anonymous black Americans Yoky Matsuoka, 36, University of Washington at Seattle robotics researcher and developer of prosthetic devices for the neurologically impaired Lynn Nottage, 42, New York–based playwright concerned with the struggles of black women throughout American history [See 2004, pp. 1097F1, 415E2] Mark Roth, 49, biomedical scientist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Wash.; he was exploring ways of slowing down metabolism to permit a broader range of treatments Paul Rothemund, 35, California Institute of Technology computer scientist working to create nanodevices using DNA strands Jay Rubenstein, 40, medieval historian at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville Jonathan Shay, 65, clinical psychiatrist treating veterans and active-duty military personnel in the Boston, Mass., area Joan Snyder, 67, New York–based abstract painter Dawn Upshaw, 47, soprano known for her collaborations with contemporary composers Shen Wei, 39, New York–based choreographer drawing on both Western and Chinese traditions in creating works for his Shen Wei Dance Arts company „

A

B

C

D

People Singer Britney Spears Oct. 1 in Los Angeles County Superior Court was ordered to surrender custody of her two small sons to dancer and rapper Kevin Federline, the boys’ father. Since their marriage ended in divorce in late July, she and Federline had been sharing custody of the boys, but Federline Aug. 8 had petitioned the court for additional custody. Citing evidence of “habitual, frequent and continuous” substance abuse, the judge Sept. 17 had ordered Spears to undergo random drug testing. Four days later, Spears had been charged with misdemeanor counts of hit-and-run driving and driving without a license in connection with an August incident in which she hit another car in a Los Angeles parking lot. [See pp. 520F2, 151E3] „

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O B I T UA R I E S ABDEL-Shafi, Haidar, 88, Palestinian physician who became a leader in the struggle for Palestinian independence; a member of the first all-Palestinian conference that established the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964, he soon became the leading PLO figure in the Gaza Strip and was detained and deported by Israel when its forces occupied Gaza in 1967; in 1972, he founded the Gaza branch of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, directing it until 2005; his political career reached its apex in 1991 when he led the Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to a peace confer-

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BEST SELLER LISTS

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Television

Publishers Weekly Oct. 1 listed the following hardback and paperback best sellers [See p. 584A1]:

Top-Rated Programs. The following were the most-watched prime-time national television shows Sept. 3–30 as determined by A.C. Nielsen Co. (Series marked with an asterisk * had at least one other episode during the period that outranked some of the other programs listed.) Figures in parentheses are rating points; each point represents 1% of the 110.2 million television households in the U.S. [See p. 584A2]:

Fiction Hardback

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1. You’ve Been Warned, by James Patterson and Howard Roughan (Little, Brown) 2. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) 3. Dead Heat, by Dick Francis and Felix Francis (Putnam) 4. The Bone Garden, by Tess Gerritsen (Ballantine) 5. Making Money, by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins) General Hardback 1. The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, by Alan Greenspan (Penguin Press) 2. If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer, by the Goldman Family (Beaufort Books) [See p. 610B1]

3. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne (Atria/Beyond Words) 4. Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism, by Jenny McCarthy (Dutton) 5. Power to the People, by Laura Ingraham (Regnery)

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1. The Collectors, by David Baldacci (Grand Central) 2. Act of Treason, by Vince Flynn (Pocket) 3. 74 Seaside Avenue, by Debbie Macomber (Mira) 4. Killer Dreams, by Iris Johansen (Bantam) 5. Innocent in Death, by J.D. Robb (Berkley)

Music Best-Selling Singles and Albums. Billboard magazine in its Sept. 29 issue list-

ed the five most popular singles (as determined by air play and sales) and the five best-selling albums in the U.S. as the following [See p. 584C1]:

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Singles 1. “Stronger,” Kanye West (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam/IDJMG) 2. “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” Soulja Boy Tell ’em (ColliPark/Interscope) 3. “The Way I Are,” Timbaland featuring Keri Hilson (Mosley/Blackground/Interscope) 4. “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” Fergie (will.i.am/A&M/Interscope) 5. “Ayo Technology,” 50 Cent featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope) Albums

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1. Graduation, Kanye West (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam/IDJMG) 2. Curtis, 50 Cent (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope/IGA) 3. Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates, Kenny Chesney (BNA/SBN) 4. High School Musical 2, soundtrack (Walt Disney) 5. Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus, Miley Cyrus (Walt Disney/Hollywood) ence in Madrid, Spain, in which Palestinians and Israelis formally met face-to-face for the first time; he also led the Washington, D.C., negotiations that followed the Madrid parley and were superseded by secret talks that led to a 1993 peace accord in Oslo, Norway; in the wake of that agreement, he broke with Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, claiming that the pact had failed to address the issue of Jewish settlements on disputed land and scoring other concessions made by Arafat; he was a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, an elected body, from 1996 to 1997; born June 10, 1919, in Gaza, then under Turkish control near the end of the Ottoman Empire; died Sept. 25 at his home in Gaza City, of cancer. [See 1997, p. 1010F1; 1996, pp. 178E2, 25F2; Indexes 1993–95, 1991, 1979] DANBY, Ken(neth Edison), 67, Canadian realist artist best known for his 1972 painting At the Crease, depicting a masked ice-hockey goaltender awaiting a hit; the work became a Canadian national symbol; born March 6, 1940, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario; died Sept. 23 during a family canoe trip in Algonquin Park in northern Ontario, of an apparent heart attack.

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GILMOUR of Craigmillar, Lord (Ian Hedworth John Little Gilmour), 81, British politician and writer;

a member of the liberal wing of the Conservative Party, he took issue with many of the policies of Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in power throughout the 1980s, and in 1981 was dismissed from highranking posts in her first administration; before being elected to the House of Commons in 1962 (he served there until 1992, and was then elevated to the House of Lords), he had owned the Spectator magazine from

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1. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS), Sept. 27 (14.9) 2. “Dancing With the Stars” (ABC), Sept. 24 (13.5)* 3. “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC), Sept. 27 (13.2) 4. “Desperate Housewives” (ABC), Sept. 30 (12.2) 5. “Sunday Night Football” (NBC), Sept. 23 (11.8)

Films Top-Grossing Films. The following were the top-grossing films in the U.S. for the week of Sept. 21–27 according to Variety. Figures in parentheses were each film’s cumulative domestic box-office total and number of weeks in release to date. Information on cast and director is included when a film first appears on the list. [See p. 584B2]:

1. Resident Evil: Extinction, Sony ($28.8 million, 1) Directed by Russell Mulcahey. With Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Mike Epps, Iain Glen and Ali Larter. 2. Good Luck Chuck, Lionsgate ($17.3 million, 1) Directed by Mark Helfreich. With Jessica Alba, Dane Cook, Dan Fogler, Michelle Harrison and Ellia English. 3. The Brave One, Warner Bros. ($27.1 million, 2) Directed by Neil Jordan. With Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Mary Steenburgen and Jane Adams. 4. 3:10 to Yuma, Lionsgate ($39.7 million, 3) Directed by James Mangold. With Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Alan Tudyk, Peter Fonda and Gretchen Mol. 5. Eastern Promises, Focus Features ($8.3 million, 2) Directed by David Cronenberg. With Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Sinead Cusack. 6. Mr. Woodcock, New Line ($16.6 million, 2) Directed by Craig Gillespie. With Billy Bob Thornton, Seann William Scott, Susan Sarandon, Kurt Fuller and Amy Poehler. 7. Sydney White, Universal ($5.9 million, 1) Directed by Joe Nussbaum. With Amanda Bynes, Matthew Long, Sara Paxton, Jeremy Howard and Crystal Hunt. 8. Superbad, Sony ($117.2 million, 6) [See p. 584B2] 9. The Bourne Ultimatum, Universal ($221.0 million, 8) [See p. 584C2] 10. Dragon Wars (D-War), Freestyle Releasing ($9.3 million, 2) Directed by Hyung-rae Shim. With Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Robert Forster, Chris Mulkey and Elizabeth Pena.

1954 to 1967 and had edited it from 1954 to 1959; he wrote such books as Britain Can Work (1983) and Whatever Happened to the Tories? (1997); born July 8, 1926; died Sept. 21 at a hospital in London, after a short illness. [See 1985, pp. 368D3, 309C1; 1981, pp. 779F2–C3, 676E1; Indexes 1979, 1976, 1972–74] GRIZZARD, George (George Cooper Grizzard Jr.), 79, actor best known for his work in the theater,

notably in plays by Edward Albee; he originated the role of Nick, a young academic, in the original Broadway production of Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) and won the Tony Award for best actor in 1996 for his performance in a revival of Albee’s A Delicate Balance; he also acted in films and, more prominently, in U.S. television series; born April 1, 1928, in Roanoke Rapids, N.C.; died Oct. 2 at a hospital in New York City, from complications of lung cancer. [See 2006, p. 1042D1; 2005, p. 997G2; Indexes 2001, 1996, 1982, 1980, 1978, 1973, 1967–70, 1965, 1962, 1960, 1958, 1955–56] MAXWELL, Lois (born Lois Ruth Hooker), 80, Canadian-born actress best known for her role as Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond movies; the character she portrayed was the flirtatious secretary of Bond’s Secret Service boss, known as “M”; born Feb. 14, 1927, in Kitchener, Ontario; died Sept. 29 at a hospital in Perth, Australia, of cancer. [See 2000, p. 476E2; 1967, p. 304G2; Indexes 1963, 1954] McRAE, Colin Steele, 39, automobile racer who in 1995 became the youngest driver and the first Briton to win the World Rally Championship; he was the son of five-time British Rally champion Jimmy McRae;

born Aug. 5, 1968, in Lanark, Scotland; died Sept. 15 in a helicopter crash in Jerviswood, Scotland, along with his five-year-old son and two others. OERTER Jr., Al(fred), 71, track and field athlete who won the gold medal in the men’s discus throw in four consecutive Summer Olympics (1956–68) and broke the world record six times; born Sept. 19, 1936, in New York City; died Oct. 1 at a hospital in Fort Myers, Fla., of a heart attack or a blood clot; he had had high blood pressure since childhood and a history of heart problems. [See 1980, p. 891C2; 1968, p. 601E2; Indexes 1962–64, 1960, 1958, 1956] PANOFSKY, Wolfgang K(urt) H(ermann), 88, German-born particle physicist and presidential armscontrol adviser; he taught at Stanford University for decades and was founding director (1961–84) of the school’s Linear Accelerator Center in Menlo Park, Calif.; experiments conducted there led to the discovery of new forms of matter and were recognized with three Nobel Prizes, in 1976, 1990 and 1995; his father was art historian Erwin Panofsky, who died in 1968, and he was the brother of Hans Panofsky, a climate researcher who died in 1988; born April 24, 1919, in Berlin; died Sept. 24 at his home in Los Altos, Calif., of a heart attack. [See 1970, pp. 340F1, 258B2, 88E2; 1969, pp. 256B2, 199C2; 1968, p. 183G3; Index 1961, 1959] RODRIGUES, Percy, 89, Canadian-born actor who in 1968 was cast as a neurosurgeon in the primetime television soap opera “Peyton Place,” making him one of the first black actors to portray an authority figure on U.S. television; born June 13, 1918, in Montreal, Quebec; died Sept. 6 at his home in Indio, Calif., of kidney failure. „

October 4, 2007

Britain Sets Major Troop Withdrawal From Iraq Half of Forces to Leave by Spring 2008.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Oct. 8 announced that Britain would withdraw half of its 5,000 troops stationed in Iraq by spring 2008. Brown said the withdrawal of 2,500 soldiers was warranted by the “calmer” situation around the southern Iraqi city of Basra, where the British troops were stationed, and in Iraq in general. The troop reduction was announced in the British House of Commons on the opening day of Parliament’s fall session. Brown the previous week in a surprise visit to Iraq had announced the withdrawal of 500 British soldiers, on top of a 500-troop reduction announced earlier. [See pp. 673A2, 644D3] Brown said British forces in Iraq would drop to 4,500 by the end of the year, and then to 4,000 and eventually to 2,500 by spring 2008. An additional 500 troops stationed in a neighboring country, which analysts said would most likely be Kuwait, would perform support functions. Brown would not give a timetable for further withdrawals, saying they would be informed by assessments by military commanders. Brown said British troops were transitioning to an “overwatch” role, in which they would train Iraqi forces, patrol supply routes and the Iranian border, and assist Iraqi troops if called upon. In the spring, they would move to a second stage of overwatch, in which they would have a more limited capacity to intervene. Responding to pressure from military commanders and British public, Brown announced that Britain would set up a program to allow some translators and other Iraqis who had worked with British forces to be resettled out of the country in order to protect them from retaliation. He said the program would be open to about 450 current or former employees, Iraqi civilians who had worked with British forces for at least a year. Brown said the Iraqis would be settled in neighboring countries, and in some cases in Britain. Brown in his speech also warned Iran and Syria to stop “their support for terrorists and armed groups operating in Iraq,” and announced that Britain would purchase 140 additional Mastiff armored vehicles from U.S.-based Force Protection Inc. for its forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. British opposition leaders assailed Brown for not doing more to oppose the Iraq war while he was in the cabinet of his predecessor, Prime Minister Tony Blair, and for allegedly timing the withdrawal announcement for political effect. Conservative leader David Cameron also criticized Brown for announcing the previous withdrawal in Iraq rather than to the British Parliament, and charged that had timed the announcement to overshadow the annual Conservative Party conference taking place at the same time. Some analysts said Britain was leaving behind a dangerously unstable situation in southern Iraq, as feuding Shiite militias escalated violence. However, Brown said there had only been five mortar or rocket attacks on the British base in Basra over the past month, as opposed to 87 in July. An

unidentified senior British official said the troop reduction had been discussed with General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and that “it is a number with which Gen. Petraeus is content,” the New York Times reported Oct. 8. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Oct. 11 in London also defended the British move, saying it resulted from a “joint agreement.” Contractors Kill Two Iraqi Women—Private security guards under contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Oct. 9 shot and killed two Iraqi women in the Karada neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital. The shooting followed a September incident in which guards from another private security company, Moyock, N.C.–based Blackwater USA, had killed at least eight Iraqis, and seemed likely to further fuel anger over the contractors among Iraqi government officials and civilians. [See p. 662B3] The guards worked for Unity Resources Group, an Australian-founded security company based in Dubai and registered in Singapore. Unity Resources was employed to provide protection for RTI International, a nonprofit organization that assisted with governance issues in Iraq and was hired by USAID. USAID was a quasi-independent agency of the U.S. State Department, which had directly hired the Blackwater guards. A U.S. Bush administration official said the State Department did not have any authority over RTI’s security arrangements, the Times reported Oct. 10. The victims, both members of Iraq’s Armenian Orthodox Christian minority, reportedly were approaching a Unity Resources convoy in their car when guards opened fire. Unity Resources said the car continued to approach even after the guards had warned it away and fired a flare, and it had been fired upon as a last resort. However, Iraqi witnesses said the car had posed no threat to the convoy. Witnesses said another woman and a young boy in the back seat of the car survived the shooting, although the boy was injured. The Iraqi government and Unity Resources reportedly both were investigating the shooting. The Iraqi interior ministry chief spokesman, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said the company was registered with the Iraqi government and had reported the incident. “They have apologized and said they will do whatever the interior ministry wants them to do,” he said. Relatives of the two women Oct. 10 called for justice at a funeral service, and said they would sue Unity Resources. The company said it had tried to contact the victims’ families, but the families said they had not heard from Unity Resources. Iran Envoy Called Quds Force Member—

Petraeus Oct. 7 told the U.S.’s Cable News Network (CNN) that the Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, was a member of the elite Quds Force unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The U.S. in the past had accused Iran and the Quds Force of training and arming Shiite

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3487 October 11, 2007

B militias in Iraq, but Petraeus’s remarks were the first time that Kazemi-Qomi had been linked to the Quds Force. [See pp. 629D2, 533D2] “The Quds Force controls the policy for Iraq; there should be no confusion about that either,” Petraeus said. He added, “The ambassador is a Quds Force member. Now he has diplomatic immunity and therefore he is obviously not subject [to scrutiny]— and he is acting as a diplomat.” Petraeus also reasserted claims that Iran had provided weapons, funding, training and direction for Iraqi militia operations that had killed U.S. soldiers, and said he had “absolute assurance” that several Iranians arrested by the U.S. military were Quds Force members. He did not provide any new evidence for the allegations. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the claims, saying, “His remarks

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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Britain sets major troop withdrawal from Iraq; half of forces to leave by spring 2008. PAGE 661

U.S. Armenian genocide vote angers Turkey.

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PAGE 663

Secret Justice Department terrorism interrogation guidelines revealed. PAGE 664

Supreme Court declines to hear CIA torture case. PAGE 664

UAW, Chrysler settle after brief strike. PAGE 665

Chile arrests Pinochet family for embezzlement.

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Costa Rica voters approve CAFTA. PAGE 671

Myanmar opposition calls for unconditional talks. PAGE 672

Pakistani President Musharraf wins vote, faces court ruling. PAGE 674

Sprinter Jones admits drug use; returns Olympic medals; faces prison. PAGE 675

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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are not new and what he said was in line with the previous accusations against Iran.” The U.S. military Oct. 7 said it had arrested three members of an Iranian-backed militia that had allegedly abducted five British security contractors in May. The contractors remained missing. [See p. 341B3] Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie Oct. 5 told the Washington Post that Iran was smuggling sophisticated missiles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) into Iraq, although he did not provide any evidence. Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the U.S. second-in-command in Iraq, Oct. 3 told the Post he would recommend that five Iranians captured in a January raid on an Iranian liaison office in the northern city of Irbil not be released when their detention came up for review later in the month. The U.S. said they were Quds Force members, but the Iranian and Iraqi governments said they were credentialed diplomats. [See p. 320B3] Odierno also said another Iranian captured in September, Agai Mahummdi Firhadi, was a Quds Force member suspected of providing militants with funding, weapons and training since 2005. Iran and Iraq said he was part of a business delegation. Iran Oct. 8 opened five border crossings into Iraq that it earlier had closed in protest of his arrest. Shiite Militias Agree to Truce—The leaders of two powerful Shiite militias Oct. 6 announced an agreement meant to end increasingly frequent clashes between their forces in southern Iraq. An aide to one of the leaders, cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, said the agreement called for a cease-fire, an end to propaganda spread through the news media and the formation of joint mediation committees. Sadr controlled the Mahdi Army, and Abdul Aziz Hakim, another cleric, was the leader of the rival Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), Iraq’s most powerful Shiite political bloc. The agreement was seen as a boon for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who depended on the political support of both men. [See p. 601A2] The Post Oct. 6 reported that the preliminary results from an Iraqi government investigation of a bloody August battle between the Mahdi Army and guards linked to the Badr Organization in the Shiite holy city of Karbala showed that the Mahdi Army had started the fighting. The report said Mahdi Army members had fired on a crowd of Shiite pilgrims. Sadr loyalists in the Iraqi government and Mahdi Army members denied that account. The fighting had killed more than 50 people. [See p. 571D1] Other News—In other Iraqi news: † U.S. forces Oct. 11 killed 19 Iraqi insurgents and 15 civilians in the Lake Tharthar region northwest of Baghdad, in an attack aimed at a meeting of alleged senior leaders of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq. The civilian death toll was one of the highest in a U.S. operation in recent months. † A suicide car bomb Oct. 11 killed nine people in the ethnically mixed northern city of Kirkuk, in an attack on a police con662

voy. A police chief was injured but survived. It was the latest of a series of insurgent attacks targeted at Iraq’s police. † The Sudanese foreign ministry Oct. 8 said it would accept as refugees hundreds of Palestinians who had fled Iraq and were stranded on the Syrian and Jordanian borders. Sudanese President Omar Hassan alBashir said he had accepted them at the request of the Islamist militant group Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip, and the rival group Fatah, which controlled the West Bank. Britain’s Guardian newspaper Oct. 11 reported that 10 out of 18 Iraqi provinces had barred internal Iraqi refugees from entering. [See p. 571C3] † The Post Oct. 7 reported that, according to U.S. officials and a U.S. State Department document provided to the U.S. Congress, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad could cost $144 million over budget and its opening could be delayed by months. The embassy was to be the largest such U.S. facility in the world and was designed to consolidate and protect U.S. diplomatic offices in Iraq. It was budgeted at $592 million and was supposed to have been completed in September, but construction delays and State Department infighting had pushed back the completion date indefinitely. Democratic legislators attacked its cost, but U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the cost overruns were due to new requirements for the complex, rather than mistakes in the construction and planning. [See p. 427C2] † Iraqi police Oct. 6 said they had discovered the beheaded body of a member of the Babil Awakening Council in the town of Iskandariya, in Babil province south of Baghdad. The council had been formed to promote the cooperation of Sunni tribes with U.S. forces against Sunni extremists, and was the latest in a series of attacks on such groups. [See pp. 644E2, 629E2] † U.S. forces, supported by air strikes, Oct. 5 attacked a Shiite village in the district of Khalis, in Diyala province, Gizani al-Imam, killing 25 Iraqis. The village was known to be a stronghold for Shiite militias, and the U.S. military claimed that all those killed were militants, but Iraqi witnesses said the victims had been civilians who had joined a local guard force to protect against attacks by the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq. The U.S. military Oct. 6 said it had captured a Shiite insurgent commander in the raid. † U.S. and Iraqi forces Oct. 4 reportedly arrested a suspected financier for Al Qaeda in Iraq in Baghdad. The U.S. military said in a statement that intelligence sources indicated that the man had received $100 million from foreign donors over the past summer to fund insurgent activities, a sum far larger than those usually associated with Sunni insurgent groups. † A roadside bomb in Babil Oct. 4 killed the head of the Iskandariya district council and four of his bodyguards. Gunmen the same day killed a police chief elsewhere in the province.

† The U.S. military Oct. 3 arrested 23 people in a raid on a suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq meeting in Sharqat, in Salahuddin, including a member of Parliament from Iraq’s main Sunni political bloc. † Odierno Oct. 2 said Iraqi forces would need most of 2008 in order to become capable of providing security throughout Baghdad. He said the Iraqi Army suffered from logistical weaknesses, a lack of qualified commanders and some remaining sectarianism. However, he said, a surge in U.S. troop levels in Iraq had put “extreme pressure” on foreign terrorists in Iraq. „ Iraq Calls Blackwater Shootings ‘Murder.’ Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesperson for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Oct. 7 said an Iraqi government investigation found that a September shooting in which at least eight Iraqis were killed by government-contracted security guards with the firm Blackwater USA was “deliberate murder.” He said, “It should be tried in court and the victims should be compensated.” Dabbagh said 17 people had been killed and 27 injured in the incident, which took place in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital. That was up from the previous Iraqi official casualty figures of 14 dead and 18 injured. [See pp. 661B2, 642E2] The announcement was the first indication that the Iraqi government had concluded its inquiry into the shooting, one of several ongoing probes. However, it said it would postpone legal steps until a U.S. investigation was completed. The Iraqi investigation contradicted claims by Moynock, N.C.–based Blackwater and U.S. officials that the contractors had been fired upon by Iraqi civilians and police. “Not even a brick was thrown at them,” said Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassim.

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The investigation documented new details of the shooting, including that the Blackwater guards had shot in almost every direction, hitting victims in full circle around them. It also depicted a second shooting shortly after the first, in which the contractors fired into cars while leaving the scene, killing one person. The Iraqi government in a report demanded that Blackwater pay $8 million in compensation to each of the 17 victims’ families, the Associated Press reported Oct. 8. The report also urged the U.S. government to turn over the contractors involved in the shooting for possible legal action. The Washington Post Oct. 5 had reported that U.S. military investigations corroborated the Iraqi version of events. U.S. military and Iraqi investigators said U.S. State Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) teams looking into the Blackwater shootings were refusing to share information with them, the New York Times reported Oct. 11. A legal advocacy group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Oct. 11 sued Blackwater in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of a wounded survivor of the shooting and three families of Iraqis killed in the incident. Tighter Blackwater Monitoring Set—

The U.S. State Department Oct. 5 announced that it would add measures to monitor Blackwater security contractors in Iraq. The department said it would place its own diplomatic security agents in all convoys in and around Baghdad. In addition, it would install video cameras in all Blackwater armored vehicles and record all radio transmissions between Blackwater convoys and military and civilian authorities, in order to preserve an “objective” account of any future incidents. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the measures had been suggested by Patrick Kennedy—the department’s director of management policy, who the previous week had been sent to Iraq to evaluate its use of security contractors—and approved by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He said the regulations would apply only to Blackwater and not to other security companies employed by the U.S. State Department. McCormack would not say how many diplomatic security agents the U.S. State Department had in Iraq, although it employed 1,450 worldwide. It currently used about 1,400 private security contractors in Iraq to protect diplomats and other civilians. U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.)— the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which was investigating Blackwater—Oct. 5 in a letter to Rice expressed concern over the U.S. State Department’s handling of another Blackwater contractor, who in December 2006 had allegedly killed a bodyguard of Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi while drunk. The U.S.’s Cable News Network (CNN) Oct. 4 had reported that although the contractor, Andrew Moonen, had been fired from Blackwater, he had been hired by a U.S. Defense Department contractor in February. Moonen had October 11, 2007

worked in Kuwait on logistics related to the Iraq war for Combat Support Associates, which said it had not known that he had been dismissed for the December 2006 shooting. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Oct. 3 said a classified military report recommended that U.S. military commanders have greater authority over contractors in Iraq, though it also found that commanders often did not use existing military laws to control contractors. Many military officials reportedly believed contractors behaved in an arrogant fashion, flouting military restrictions and operating more aggressively than was necessary. Blackwater Oct. 10 withdrew from the International Peace Operations Association, a Washington, D.C.–based trade association for private security companies. „

Other International News U.S. Armenian Genocide Vote Angers Turkey.

Turkish leaders Oct. 10 denounced a U.S. House committee’s vote that day to approve a resolution condemning the massacres of Armenians during World War I as an act of genocide. U.S. President George W. Bush earlier that day had called on the panel not to vote on the measure, warning that it could cause damage to U.S. relations with Turkey, an important North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally. [See p. 165D3; 2006, pp. 804G1, 416C1; 2000, p. 1034C2] Turkey had long denied that the deaths of some 1.5 million Armenians during the breakup of the Ottoman Empire constituted a deliberate act of genocide by Turkish forces. The issue remained so controversial in Turkey that a number of Turkish writers and journalists had been prosecuted in recent years for discussing it. Despite Bush’s warning, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted, 27–21, to approve the nonbinding resolution. In his statement in the White House Rose Garden before the vote, Bush said, “We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in 1915.” He added, “This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror.” Military Cooperation Endangered—The Turkish government had signaled that if the resolution passed, it might retaliate by withdrawing permission for the U.S. to transport supplies to its forces in Iraq and Afghanistan through Turkey. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. sent about 70% of its air cargo and 30% of its fuel to Iraq through Turkey. Meanwhile, Turkey was also preparing for a possible cross-border attack on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. The U.S. had urged Turkey not to carry out such an operation, warning that it would make the situation in Iraq even more dangerous. Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, joined by eight former secretaries of state and three former defense secretaries, had lobbied against the resolution.

Turkey had cut military ties with France in 2006 after the French National Assembly passed a measure that would make it a crime to deny that genocide had been committed against the Armenians. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.), whose San Francisco district included a large Armenian community, had vowed to follow up the committee vote by bringing the resolution to the floor for a vote by the full House. The measure’s main sponsor was Rep. Adam Schiff (D), whose Southern California district also had a large Armenian population. Armenian Americans, including elderly survivors of the massacres, attended the committee session and applauded after the vote, while Turkish Americans who were also present looked on silently. A similar resolution had last been passed by the House committee in 2005, but was not brought to the floor. President Ronald Reagan had been the only U.S. president to declare the Armenian massacres a genocide, in a 1981 proclamation on the Holocaust.

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Turkey, Armenia Respond to Resolution—

Turkish President Abdullah Gul Oct. 10 said in response to the House committee vote, “Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once again sacrificed important matters to petty domestic politics despite all calls to common sense.” Armenian President Robert Kocharian Oct. 10 hailed the House vote, saying, “We hope this process will lead to a full recognition” by the U.S. “of the genocide.” The Turkish government Oct. 11 issued a statement condemning the vote. It said, “It is not possible to accept such an accusation of a crime which was never committed by the Turkish nation.” It said the committee had no business “distorting a matter which specifically concerns the common history of Turks and Armenians.” The Turkish foreign ministry Oct. 11 said it had recalled its ambassador to the U.S., Nabi Sensoy, for talks over the House resolution. The ministry said it was not permanently recalling Sensoy, but he would remain in Turkey for a week to 10 days. „

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Myanmar, Somalia Ranked Most Corrupt.

Berlin, Germany–based corruption watchdog group Transparency International Sept. 26 released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which measured levels of corruption among public officials and politicians in 180 countries and territories, as perceived by business leaders and analysts. Myanmar and Somalia—both of which were experiencing high levels of political turmoil and poverty—were jointly ranked the most corrupt. On the other end of the scale, Denmark, Finland and New Zealand were ranked least corrupt. [See pp. 672F2, 635A2, 128B1] Transparency International chairwoman Huguette Labelle alleged that businesses in the least corrupt nations were “complicit in driving corruption in poor nations” by paying bribes and engaging in other dishonest behavior. She also noted that there was a strong correlation between corruption and poverty. „ 663

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Terrorism Secret Interrogation Guidelines Revealed.

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The New York Times reported Oct. 4 that in 2005 the Justice Department had issued two classified memoranda on the interrogation of terrorism suspects ruling that painful and extreme techniques like “waterboarding” were acceptable and did not violate a 2005 law against torture. The memos contrasted with a December 2004 statement posted on the Justice Department’s Web site that proclaimed that torture was “abhorrent both to American law and values and to international norms.” Both memos were issued in 2005 following the appointment of Steven Bradbury as acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, a division charged with independently overseeing and assessing the legality of the department’s activities. [See p. 477E3; 2004, p. 1031B3] The revelation of the memos, which remained in effect, revived debate over the U.S.’s treatment of terrorist suspects and the Bush administration’s secrecy in promulgating justifications of practices of disputed legality. Members of Congress Oct. 4 demanded that the administration hand over all of its internal opinions on prisoner treatment. [See below] President George W. Bush Oct. 5 said the U.S. government did not torture detainees and that “the techniques we use have been fully disclosed to appropriate members of the United States Congress.” The first memo, issued in May 2005, allowed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents carrying out interrogations of detainees to use a number of controversial techniques on prisoners, including slapping them in the face, exposing them to extreme temperatures, keeping them awake for days using loud music, chaining them in uncomfortable positions and waterboarding, a procedure in which water was poured over a detainee’s cloth-covered face in order to simulate drowning. Those techniques had been introduced following Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. The interrogations, carried out by the CIA, were reportedly based on techniques used by the Soviet Union and the governments of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Then–Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had approved the memo over the objections of his deputy, James Comey, the Times reported. Comey reportedly said at the time that the department would be “ashamed” if the opinion were made public. The second memo was issued following a request by the administration for Bradbury to determine whether the then-pending antitorture legislation, which banned “cruel, inhuman, and degrading” treatment of prisoners held by the U.S., would outlaw the CIA’s interrogation techniques. The memo argued that all of the interrogation methods authorized by the previous memo were not “cruel, inhuman, and degrading,” and therefore the law, if passed, would not apply to those techniques. It was unclear at 664

what point in 2005 the second memo was issued. [See 2005, p. 818A3] The legal viewpoint put forth by the two secret memos echoed an earlier legal memo written in 2002 by then–Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo and issued by Jay Bybee, then-head of the Office of Legal Counsel, which maintained that interrogation techniques constituted torture only if the methods were the “equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.” That document was withdrawn in June 2004, after its existence was revealed, and under then–acting head Daniel Levin, the department issued the December 2004 statement. That statement called torture “abhorrent” but contained a footnote that explained that the previous actions of the CIA during its interrogations were not illegal. [See 2004, p. 363C2] Congress Demands Documents—Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. John Rockefeller 4th (D, W. Va.) sent a letter to acting Attorney General Peter Keisler Oct. 4 reiterating his request for documents relating to the Justice Department’s memos on the legality of the CIA’s interrogation program. “I find it unfathomable,” he wrote, citing the New York Times piece, “that the Committee tasked with oversight of the CIA’s interrogation and detention program would be provided more information by the New York Times than by the Department of Justice.” The Intelligence Committee’s senior Republican, Sen. Christopher Bond (Mo.), Oct. 4 said that the committee had been adequately informed of the administration’s legal opinions on interrogations, and that the administration was justified in claiming confidentiality for its legal advice. Some senators said they would raise the issue of interrogation practices at the confirmation hearings for attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey later in the month. However, some Republicans joined the demand that the opinions be turned over, including Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. „

Supreme Court Court Declines to Hear CIA Torture Case.

The Supreme Court Oct. 9 declined to hear a case that accused the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of abducting and torturing Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent. The case, brought on behalf of el-Masri by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), had previously been dismissed by a federal court and an appeals court. The justices announced the decision without comment. [See pp. 386G2, 68D1] Masri said he had been arrested in Macedonia in 2003, taken by CIA agents to a secret prison in Afghanistan, where he was drugged and tortured, and eventually released in Albania in 2004. Masri claimed that the agents’ conduct violated U.S. and international law.

German officials said Masri had been detained in a case of mistaken identity. German prosecutors had issued warrants for the arrest of 13 unidentified CIA agents in January. The U.S. government had not publicly admitted any involvement in the case. Masri’s was one of the most high-profile cases related to the U.S.’s so-called “extraordinary rendition” program, in which suspected terrorists were transferred for interrogation to countries where the use of torture was common. The U.S. government argued that it was protected by the “state secrets” privilege, and thus Masri could not bring his case to court. The “state secrets” privilege was a principle established by court precedent that protected the government from revealing information that could jeopardize national security. Lawyers for the ACLU argued that the principle could be applied only to the introduction of specific pieces of evidence, and should not be used to grant the government immunity from such cases. They also claimed that the “secrets” in question had in fact already been revealed. Government officials said that while the general existence of the rendition program had been acknowledged by U.S. officials, it would still be damaging for the government to be forced to reveal specific details. The case was El-Masri v. U.S. „

Intelligence Warrantless Wiretaps Said to Be Halted.

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell testified Sept. 18 before the House Judiciary Committee that the National Security Agency (NSA) had not carried out any warrantless wiretaps since he assumed his post in February. His testimony was the first official confirmation that the government had ceased carrying out warrantless wiretaps. The Bush administration had announced in January that the NSA’s controversial wiretapping program would be operated in accordance with the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which required authorities to obtain warrants from a special court to conduct domestic surveillance in cases affecting national security. [See p. 506A3] During his appearance before the committee, McConnell called for Congress to make permanent a revision of FISA that it had passed on a temporary basis in August. The revision expanded the government’s power to wiretap communications conducted between the U.S. and terrorism suspects outside the country. It also allowed warrantless surveillance of communications between two suspects who were both outside the country, if the communications were routed through networks in the U.S. McConnell in Sept. 20 testimony before the House Intelligence Committee had offered an example that he said showed that the unrevised FISA law had constrained the U.S.’s ability to effectively fight terrorism and other threats to national security. He said that in a May 2006 surveillance operation against Iraqi insurgents, the process of obtaining a warrant, required because FACTS ON FILE

the intercepted communications had been routed within the U.S., took 12 hours, hampering efforts to locate three kidnapped U.S. soldiers. However, the Washington Post Sept. 29 reported that newly public information about the incident contradicted McConnell’s account. The wait was approximately nine-and-a-half hours long, rather than 12, much of it devoted to resolving concerns and bureaucratic issues unrelated to FISA requirements. In addition, the wiretaps had not been sought until at least 86 hours into the search for the soldiers, following several other approved wiretapping requests. [See p. 597A1] Program Called ‘Legal Mess’—Jack Goldsmith, former head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel testified Oct. 2 before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had been “unable to find a legal basis for some aspects of the program” and described the wiretapping program as “the biggest legal mess I have ever encountered.” [See p. 311D1] Goldsmith had issued a legal opinion in 2004 that declared the warrantless wiretapping program run by the National Security Agency (NSA) to be illegal. Goldsmith said only four members of the Justice Department were briefed on the program. That assertion backed up notes taken by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller 3rd, which suggested that then-Attorney General John Ashcroft had been unable to confer with other members of the Justice Department regarding the legality of the program due to severe secrecy rules instituted by the Bush administration. The full extent of the program was still not publicly known. [See p. 541A2] Goldsmith also confirmed former acting Attorney General James Comey’s account of a March 2004 visit to Ashcroft in a hospital room by administration officials seeking his approval for an extension of the program. Telecoms Linked to NSA Wiretapping—

In an interview with the El Paso Times published Aug. 22, McConnell appeared to confirm that major telecommunications companies had been part of the NSA warrantless wiretapping program. In the interview, which was conducted Aug. 14, McConnell stated that under “the president’s program, the terrorist surveillance program, the private sector had assisted us.” He said that some of the companies involved were “being sued” and suggested the cases would “bankrupt these companies” if Congress did not grant them immunity from such lawsuits. The government had previously refused to confirm reports that telecom companies were involved in the wiretapping effort, arguing that the information was classified. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., was considering a lawsuit filed against telecommunications company AT&T Inc. in connection with the program. The government had urged that such cases be dismissed, because hearing them would require divulging “state seOctober 11, 2007

crets.” In a sworn affidavit filed for the AT&T case in May, McConnell had argued that revealing whether companies had assisted the surveillance “reasonably could be expected to cause grave damage to the national security of the United States.” Separately, McConnell said in the interview that fewer than 100 people in the U.S. were targets of court-approved communications interceptions, compared with “thousands” of people abroad. „ Tracking of Travelers Wider Than Reported.

A civil liberties group had obtained documents suggesting that the Homeland Security Department’s Automated Targeting System (ATS) data-mining program was recording information about the personal lives and habits of millions of travelers at a level far more comprehensive than previously thought, the Washington Post reported Sept. 22. ATS records reviewed by the Post contained information about flights, itineraries and traveling companions as well as objects such as books carried by passengers. [See p. 611A1] The ATS program was begun during the administration of President Bill Clinton but was enlarged and automated in 2002. The program was intended to collect data about all people entering the U.S., including U.S. citizens. All the data was intended to be preserved for 15 years. Members of the Identity Project, a nonprofit organization based in Alaska and California, requested their ATS files and provided them to the Post. They sought to demonstrate that the records contained an unprecedented level of detail about people not suspected of any crime, and were both collected by border agents and furnished by airlines and other travel companies. The ATS database routinely contained travelers’ names, addresses and other contact information, and details of rental car and hotel reservations and traveling companions. Identity Project members found records of additional kinds of information, such as books they had traveled with, racial background and travel conducted entirely outside the U.S. Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke denied that the government specifically kept track of what travelers read, the Post reported, but said, “If there is some indication based on the behavior or an item in the traveler’s possession that leads the inspector to conclude there could be a possible violation of the law, it is the front-line officer’s duty to further scrutinize the traveler.” „ Domestic Spy Satellite Program Delayed.

The House Homeland Security Committee Oct. 1 issued a statement announcing that the Homeland Security Department had agreed to temporarily suspend its plans to extend domestic use of U.S. spy satellites. DHS had planned to launch the National Applications Office (NAO), intended to oversee the program, on Oct. 1 but reconsidered following the committee’s demands for greater privacy safeguards and congressional input. [See p. 611B1] The new guidelines for domestic use of spy satellites were authorized by National

Intelligence Director Mike McConnell in a May memo to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff but were not revealed to the public until August. Under the guidelines, civilian government agencies dealing with immigration and disaster relief would gain access to data from the U.S.’s fleet of orbiting surveillance satellites, which were first launched during the Cold War to spy on other countries. [See p. 541B1] In addition, the department announced plans to eventually extend access to the data to U.S. law enforcement agencies, raising questions about privacy protections and the legality of the extension, which analysts suggested might violate the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which banned the military from taking part in domestic law enforcement. In the Oct. 1 committee statement, Chairman Bennie Thompson (D, Miss.) welcomed the department’s decision but said the panel remained “troubled” by the department’s failure to respond to a request for members of Congress to participate in reviewing the program’s legal guidelines. “Turning this technology on the homeland without a written legal framework is a recipe for disaster,” he wrote. „

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Labor UAW and Chrysler Settle After Brief Strike. The United Auto Workers (UAW) union

Oct. 10 agreed on a new four-year contract with Auburn Hills, Mich.–based automaker Chrysler LLC, after workers had gone on strike for approximately six hours earlier that day. The agreement covered approximately 45,000 workers and 78,000 retirees and spouses. [See p. 650F1] Chrysler had experienced problems similar to those plaguing other U.S. automakers, including crippling health care obligations and the rising cost of employing union workers. It had suffered a loss of $1.5 billion in 2006, and in February had announced a plan to cut 13,000 jobs. In August, Chrysler had been sold by German car company DaimlerChrysler AG to U.S.based private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP. [See p. 528C2] The Oct. 10 agreement resembled the one the UAW and General Motors Corp. (GM) had reached in late September. It included a Chrysler-funded, UAW-run trust that would help fund the estimated $18 billion Chrysler owed in employee and retiree health care obligations. Chrysler had pledged $11 billion to finance the healthcare trust. Chrysler made some concessions guaranteeing workers job security, although they were not as generous as the guarantees GM had agreed to the previous month. Also included in the contract were wage cuts for newly hired employees, and incentives for higher-earning employees to retire early. The most notable discrepancy between the GM and Chrysler deals was that Chrysler had made fewer long-term commitments to producing certain models in the future, which could boost job security. UAW president Ron Gettelfinger Oct. 11 confirmed that the Chrysler agreement fol665

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lowed the pattern of the agreement with GM, but added there was some room for adjustment. Ford Motor Co. would be the next company to negotiate with the UAW, and Gettelfinger suggested that agreement would also follow the pattern. “Ford understands pattern bargaining,” said Gettelfinger, and added that the contract had been written so Ford could “take that agreement and put it in place there.” Ford, despite being the second-largest manufacturer of the so-called Big Three U.S. automakers, was under the most financial pressure. In 2006, it had lost $12.6 billion, and it planned to close 16 factories by 2012. Some analysts suggested Ford did not have the assets available to pay for a health-care trust, and that it was more vulnerable to a strike than GM or Chrysler. Gettelfinger, who had begun his career with Ford, Oct. 11 said he hoped talks would proceed “without any kind of altercation.” [See p. 176E1; 2006, p. 50E1] In a related development, the four-year UAW-GM agreement Oct. 10 was finalized, after 66% of production workers and 64% of skilled workers voted in favor of it. „

2008 Presidential Campaign Thompson Debuts; Giuliani, Romney Clash.

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Former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) Oct. 9 took part in a Republican presidential debate for the first time since declaring his candidacy in September. But his low-key debut was upstaged by sparring between two other top candidates, former New York Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The debate, focused on economic issues and sponsored by the MSNBC and CNBC cable television networks and the Wall Street Journal, was held in Dearborn, Mich. [See pp. 646A3, 573B3] Thompson, whose campaign had gotten lukewarm reviews so far, managed to avoid making any embarrassing mistakes in the debate. Quizzed on the name of the Canadian prime minister, he correctly replied, “Harper,” referring to Stephen Harper. (Then–Texas Gov. George W. Bush had failed a similar pop quiz as a presidential candidate in 1999, when he was unable to identify the leaders of several foreign countries.) [See 1999, p. 889C1] Romney said Giuliani, as mayor, had backed a tax on commuters who worked in New York but lived outside the city. Giuliani replied, “I controlled taxes. I brought taxes down by 17%. Under him, taxes went up 11% per capita. I led; he lagged.” Romney retorted, “It’s a nice line, but it’s baloney. Mayor, you’ve got to check your facts.” He added, “I did not raise taxes in Massachusetts. I lowered taxes.” Romney also attacked Giuliani for having joined a lawsuit to challenge the presidential line-item veto after Congress granted it to President Bill Clinton in 1996. That suit led to a 1998 Supreme Court ruling that the line-item veto, which allowed the president to remove individual items in spending bills, after signing the bills into law, was unconstitutional. [See 1998, p. 421A1] 666

Romney argued that the line-item veto was a useful tool for controlling federal spending. Giuliani said he had joined the suit to prevent Clinton from taking “$250 million away from the people of my city illegally and unconstitutionally.” Both Giuliani and Romney also tossed barbs at the Democratic front-runner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.). Giuliani said Clinton “finds endless ways to spend” taxpayer money. Criticizing Clinton’s health care plan, Romney said, “The way we improve something is not by putting more government into it—of course, that’s what Hillary Clinton wants to do.” Free Trade—The top Republican candidates—Giuliani, Romney, Thompson and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.)—reaffirmed the party’s traditional backing for free trade. But three dark horse contenders—Reps. Duncan Hunter (Calif.) and Tom Tancredo (Colo.) and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee—raised doubts, particularly about trade with China. Hunter said that “1.8 million jobs have moved to communist China from the United States.” McCain replied, “It sounds like a lot of fun to bash the Chinese and others,” but “free trade should be the continuing principle that guides this nation’s economy.” War Powers and Congress—In one key foreign policy issue, the candidates were asked if they would seek approval from Congress before taking military action against Iran to stop it from obtaining nuclear weapons. Romney equivocated, saying “you sit down with your attorneys” first, but added that the president “has to do what’s in the best interest of the United States to protect us against a potential threat.” [See p. 632A1] Rep. Ron Paul (Texas), the only one of the Republican candidates who opposed the Iraq war, ridiculed Romney’s answer. “This idea of going and talking to attorneys totally baffles me,” he said, adding, “Why don’t we just open up the Constitution and read it? You’re not allowed to go to war without a declaration of war” by Congress. Congress had not issued such a formal declaration in any of the major wars that the U.S. had engaged in since World War II. But the 1973 War Powers Act curbed a president’s ability to go to war without at least a congressional authorization for the use of force, such as the one passed in 2002 before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.„

National Politics Sen. Domenici Announces Retirement.

Sen. Pete Domenici (R, N.M.) Oct. 4 announced that he planned to retire at the end of his sixth term in January 2009, revealing that he had been diagnosed with an incurable brain disease. He was the fifth incumbent Republican senator to rule out a 2008 reelection bid. [See pp. 647B2, 590D3] Domenici, 75, said at a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M., that he suffered from frontotemporal lobar degeneration, a term for a group of diseases that damaged parts of the brain controlling language, be-

havior, movement and other vital functions. Also known as frontotemporal dementia or Pick’s disease, the condition was relatively uncommon. It currently affected 100,000 to 200,000 people in the U.S., compared with 4.5 million people who had Alzheimer’s disease, another degenerative brain condition. Domenici said he had decided not to run for another term after an examination in September showed that his disease had progressed. He said, “The progress of this disease is apparently erratic and unpredictable,” adding, “I am not willing to take a chance that the people who have so honored me with their trust for 40 years might not be served as well as they deserve.” Domenici had won his last election in 2002 with 65% of the vote. He had been expected to win a seventh term, despite being the subject of an ongoing Senate Ethics Committee investigation. David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney in New Mexico, had accused Domenici of pressuring him to indict local Democratic officials on corruption charges just before the 2006 elections. [See p. 142A3] „

Economy Unemployment Rose 4.7% in September.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.7% in September after Unemployment seasonal adjustSeptember 2007 4.7% ment, from its Previous Month 4.6% August level of Year Earlier 4.6% 4.6%, the Labor Department reported Oct. 5. An estimated 110,000 nonfarm jobs were created in September, an increase from the revised 89,000 created in August. [See pp. 606A1, 591G1] The number of nonfarm jobs created in August contrasted with the Labor Department’s initial report of a drop in the number for that month. That report for August had stoked fears that a weak housing market had bled into other areas of the economy. In response to such concerns, the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark federal funds interest rate to 4.75%, from 5.25%, to stave off the threat of a recession. Analysts said the September unemployment report indicated that economic growth was slowing, but that a recession was less likely. 146.3 Million Jobs Held—According to a household survey, 146.3 million people held jobs in September, the Labor Department reported Oct. 5. The department counted 7.2 million people as unemployed. The department counted 276,000 workers as “discouraged” in September. Those workers were not looking for work because they believed that no jobs were available. They were not counted as part of the labor force. About 4.5 million people who sought full-time employment were working part-time instead. The average manufacturing workweek was 41.4 hours in September, the same as in August, and factory workers’ overtime also held steady, at 4.1 hours. Average hourly wages for production workers rose seven cents, to $17.57. FACTS ON FILE

The unemployment rate among whites in September was the same as it had been in August, 4.2%. The jobless rate for blacks was 8.1%, up from 7.7% the previous month. For Hispanics, who could be of any race, the rate rose by 0.2 percentage points in September, to 5.7%. For men aged 20 and over, September unemployment was 4.2%, up from 4.1%. For adult women, it was 4.0%, down from the August rate of 4.1%. The teenage jobless rate in September was 16.0%, down from 16.1% in August, while for black teenagers it was 28.8%, down from 31.2% in August. „ 2nd Quarter GDP Growth Revised Lower.

The Commerce Department Sept. 27 reported that, according to its third and final estimate, gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter of 2007 had grown at a 3.8% annual rate. That was slightly lower than its most recent prior estimate of 4.0%, but still above the original estimate of 3.4%. The downward revision was primarily due to an “upward revision of imports,” the report said. [See p. 560D1] „ August Trade Gap Shrank to $57.6 Billion.

The Commerce Department Oct. 11 reported that the seaTrade Deficit sonally adjusted billions) U.S. trade deficit August (in 2007 $57.59 in goods and ser- Previous Month $59.00 vices for August Year Earlier $67.61 was $57.6 billion, down from a revised $59.0 billion in July. [See p. 591F3] Exports increased $0.6 billion in August, to $138.3 billion, led by exports of industrial supplies and materials, and foods, feeds and beverages. Imports fell $0.8 billion in August, to $195.9 billion, most notably in the areas of industrial supplies and materials, and automotive vehicles, parts and engines. Analysts attributed the rise in exports to a weakening in the dollar’s value. [See p. 606C2] August Bilateral Trade Data Reported—

The Commerce Department Oct. 11 also reported bilateral trade data for August. The numbers were not seasonally adjusted and contained merchandise-trade data only, with no revisions for the previous month except to the data for Canada. The August merchandise-trade deficit with China fell to $22.5 billion, from $23.8 MERCHANDISE TRADE DATA Country/ Region

Deficit/Surplus* August 2007 July 2007

China Japan Canada European Union Mexico NICs†

-22.53 -6.73 -5.31 -10.23 -6.95 0.07

-23.80 -8.02 -5.69 -12.98 -5.62 -1.01

*Bilateral trade figures in billions of dollars unadjusted for seasonal variations. The data—except figures given for Canada—do not include revisions of month-earlier figures. †Newly industrialized countries—Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

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billion the previous month. The deficit with Canada fell to $5.3 billion, from a revised $5.7 billion in July. The gap with the European Union fell to $10.2 billion in August, from $13.0 billion the previous month. The gap with Japan also decreased, to $6.7 billion, from $8.0 billion in July. „

Consumer Affairs 550,000 Lead-Tainted Toys Recalled. Retailer Target Corp. and toymaker RC2 Corp. Sept. 26 in separate statements announced the recall of a combined 550,000 Chinesemade toys that contained unsafe levels of lead paint. Target recalled 350,000 gardening toys sold exclusively in its stores, and RC2 recalled 200,000 toys sold as part of the popular Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway line. [See p. 572B3] Over the past few months, numerous dangerous or faulty Chinese-produced products had been recalled in the U.S., prompting intense scrutiny not only of Chinese practices but also of the U.S.’s regulation of imports. Mattel Apologizes to China— Thomas Debrowski, Mattel Corp.’s executive vice president for worldwide operations, Sept. 21 issued an apology to China in Beijing, the Chinese capital, although the content of his remarks was disputed. Mattel, the world’s largest toy company, in August and September had announced the recall of several Chinese-produced toys deemed dangerous to children. Many of the toys had contained unsafe levels of paint, but most had a design flaw—for which Mattel was responsible—making them dangerous. According to Chinese state-run media outlets, Debrowski apologized to either a senior Chinese official or to Chinese manufacturers for the recall of products produced in China with the design flaw. However, Mattel said Debrowski had only repeated a general apology to consumers that the company had already offered in the U.S. and Europe. Reports of Debrowski’s apology to Chinese manufacturers were met with widespread criticism in the U.S., including from some lawmakers. Analysts said Mattel was attempting a delicate balance of placating Chinese and U.S. authorities, Chinese suppliers and consumers at the same time. „ E. Coli–Tainted Beef Recalled. Elizabeth, N.J.–based food manufacturer Topps Meat Co. Sept. 25 announced a recall of some 330,000 pounds of frozen hamburger patties that had been linked to an outbreak of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacterial infections. Topps Sept. 29 expanded the recall to include 21.7 million pounds of meat, making it one of the largest meat recalls in recent years. [See p. 511G2] E. coli infections in at least 30 people in eight states had been linked to the tainted meat, 10 of whom had been hospitalized. Cases had been reported in Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, Ohio, Indiana and New York. Officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said that tests on the meat had first indicated a positive result for E. coli on Sept. 7, and that the next day they

had informed Topps of their suspicions that the meat was linked to an E. coli case in Florida. However, the USDA had waited for confirmation of the test results for 18 days before ordering the recall. USDA officials Oct. 4 acknowledged that they could have reacted to the test results more promptly, and said they were reviewing the agency’s recall process. Topps Oct. 5 said it was going out of business as a result of the recall. In a separate development, the Sam’s Club retail chain Oct. 6 removed from its shelves a brand of frozen beef patties produced by Wayzata, Minn.–based Cargill Inc. that had been linked to several cases of E. coli infection. USDA officials said that recall was not related to the one announced by Topps. „ Deaths Lead to Crib Recall. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Sept. 21 announced the recall of around one million cribs sold by Reading, Pa.–based Simplicity Inc. and Graco Children’s Products Inc. Although all the cribs had been produced by Simplicity, some had carried the logo of Graco, which was owned by Newell Rubbermaid Inc. [See 2001, p. 561A1] A flaw in the design of the cribs had been linked to the suffocation of three young children. In those, the crib had been assembled improperly, creating a space that a small child could enter and suffocate within. The cribs had been sold between January 1998 and May 2006. The recall sparked criticism of the CPSC’s effectiveness, since Simplicity had been forced to issue two prior recalls of crib models for other flaws. „

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Medicine & Health Insurance Costs Continue to Rise. The nonprofit Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust Sept. 11 released an annual report which found that the nationwide average cost of employer-sponsored health insurance had risen 6.1% between the spring of 2006 and the spring of 2007, after a rise of 7.7% in the year-earlier period. The average annual health insurance costs for a family of four increased to $12,106 in 2007, with workers paying $3,281 of those costs. [See 2006, p. 979D1] Analysts said the slowing of the rise in costs reflected the fact that many health plans were reducing coverage, as hospital and other provider costs continued to climb. Employees were also increasingly shouldering a greater proportion of their health care costs. The rise in health insurance costs continued to outpace both the period’s inflation rate, 2.6%, and the rate of wage growth, 3.7%. The survey also found that 3.8 million workers, or 5% of all covered employees, were enrolled in a health savings account plan, up from 4% the previous year. Such accounts paired high-deductible insurance plans with tax-sheltered accounts that employees could use to pay out-of-pocket costs. The report was based on a survey of 1,997 private and public employers. 667

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Disparity Found in States’ Spending—

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A federal study published Sept. 17 on the Web site of the journal Health Affairs found wide differences in health care spending among states. The study found that Massachusetts had the highest health care spending per capita in 2004, at nearly $6,700, followed by Maine, New York, Alaska and Connecticut. Utah spent the least, at less than $4,000. Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico and Nevada were among the other lowest-spending states. The national average was $5,283. Analysts said factors contributing to the range of health care spending in states included the age and income of populations, the status of existing public programs and the number of doctors in a state. „

Armed Forces GAO Faults Troop Treatment Progress.

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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) Sept. 26 released a report criticizing the slow progress of reforms in the treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and other military hospitals. The reforms had come after a scandal earlier in 2007 over the poor treatment of patients at Walter Reed. A bipartisan presidential commission in July had prescribed fixes, but the report said the Defense and Veterans Affairs Departments had not yet put in place a recommended program assigning “recovery coordinators” to each seriously wounded soldier, and criticized their decision not to use coordinators from outside the departments. [See p. 479E2] The report said the Army had failed to fully implement a plan to manage every patient’s care by assigning each one to a team consisting of a doctor, a nurse case manager and a squad leader. The report found that although the Walter Reed team was almost fully staffed, 17 of the 32 teams around the country had less than half of their staff in place, and 46% of eligible patients had not been assigned to a team. House and Senate members criticized the military for not adhering to the reforms. Rep. John Tierney (D, Mass.) blasted the Army, and the Defense and Veterans Affairs Departments for showing an “utter lack of urgency.” New Army Surgeon General Nominated—

Defense Secretary Robert Gates Oct. 2 nominated Maj. Gen. Eric Schoomaker for the post of Army surgeon general. Schoomaker in March had been brought to Walter Reed to replace Maj. Gen. George Weightman as the hospital’s commander after the scandal broke. If approved by Congress, he would replace the acting Army surgeon general, Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock. [See p. 158C2] The previous surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Keven Kiley, in March had resigned over the scandal. Schoomaker had received generally positive reviews, but he was dogged by reports of slow progress on reforms and continued problems in Army medical facilities. „ 668

Fiscal 2008 Spending Bills

Legislation

Foreign Aid Bill Passes House and Senate.

Senate Passes Final Water Projects Bill.

The House June 22 passed, 241–178, a 2008 State Department–Foreign Operations appropriations bill that would provide $34.4 billion in funding for the State Department and foreign humanitarian, political and military aid. The bill’s $34.2 billion in discretionary spending was 10% more than in fiscal 2007 but 2% less than the amount requested by President George W. Bush. The Senate Sept. 6 passed a similar version of the bill, 81–12. [See 2006, p. 469E3] The House bill would provide $4.2 billion for a Bush-backed AIDS initiative, which was 45% more than in fiscal 2007 and matched the president’s request. The State Department would receive $10.68 billion, which was $1.04 billion more than in fiscal 2007 and $40 million less than Bush has asked for. Israel, traditionally the largest recipient of U.S. military aid, received $2.4 billion, while Egypt received $1.7 billion; however, $200 million was to be withheld until Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice certified that Egypt had made reforms to its legal system and reduced weapons smuggling into the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip. About $2.7 billion was set aside for the general economic support fund while $4.5 billion was dedicated to supporting military assistance overseas. In addition, the measure provided $1.3 billion for United Nations peacekeeping missions, $949 million in aid for Sudan, and $300 million in military aid for Pakistan, while cutting funds for antidrug operations in Colombia and earmarking no additional money for Iraq. The president had sought $400 million for Iraq on top of the nearly $3 billion authorized by a May emergency spending bill. Rep. Nita Lowey (D, N.Y.) June 21 successfully proposed an amendment to the bill which would modify the so-called Mexico City policy, which was instituted in 1984 by then-President Ronald Reagan and reinstated by President George W. Bush, banning U.S. assistance to international organizations that supported or carried out abortions, even if U.S. funds are not used to perform abortions. The amendment would allow organizations subject to the Mexico City policy to distribute contraceptives donated by the U.S. government. [See 2001, p. 249E1] Other amendments earmarked $1 million to reestablish the Iraq Study Group and increased funding for pro-democracy activities in Cuba from $9 million to the $45.7 million Bush had requested. [See p. 2006, p. 921A1] An amendment to the Senate version, introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D, Calif.) and approved Sept. 6, would overturn the Mexico City policy’s ban on funds for groups that provided abortion counseling. Bush had threatened a veto if the final bill contained language altering the Mexico City policy. „

The Senate Sept. 24 voted, 81–12, to pass a bill that would authorize $23 billion for hundreds of Army Corps of Engineers water resources projects. The House had passed the legislation in August. President George W. Bush had threatened to veto the bill over what he called its excessive cost, but Senate supporters said they were confident that they could muster the twothirds majority necessary to override a veto. Congress had not enacted a water resources authorization bill since 2000. [See p. 507F3] The bill, the Water Resources Development Act, authorized funds for hundreds of projects and studies, many of them requested by individual legislators. It did not actually provide any money for the projects, which would have to receive funding from a separate appropriations bill. Authorized funds included $3.6 billion for Louisiana, the bill’s biggest beneficiary, whose coasts and wetlands had been badly damaged by erosion and storms. The bill would authorize restoration, flood control and dredging projects. The bill also authorized almost $2 billion for projects in Florida’s Everglades, and almost $2 billion for projects on the upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway system. Critics, led by Sen. Russell Feingold (D, Wis.), charged that the bill ignored urgent infrastructural improvements and needed reforms to the Army Corps of Engineers, which did much of the work on the projects, in favor of legislators’ pet projects. The bill’s supporters, who included Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D, Calif.) and Sen. James Inhofe (R, Okla.), the committee’s ranking minority member, countered that all of the projects were important for the economy, transportation and disaster prevention. „

Environment Mountaintop Mining Rules Proposed. The

Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Aug. 24 released proposed rules easing environmental requirements for mine operators engaging in “mountaintop removal” mining. That technique involved the removal by blasting and bulldozing of the top of a mountain to expose a coal seam. The resulting rubble was then moved to lower areas, often streambeds. Environmentalists criticized the practice as intensely damaging to the surrounding environment. [See p. 245B3] Under current rules, mountaintop miners were barred from disturbing land within 100 feet (30 m) of a stream unless they could show the quality and quantity of the waterway would not be affected. The proposed rule would require miners to show only that they had prevented environmental damage “to the extent possible using the best technology currently available.” FACTS ON FILE

Mountaintop removal mining had become an increasingly used method in central Appalachia, which stretched from New York to Georgia, over the past 20 years. According to a statement accompanying the new rule, 724 miles (1,200 km) of streambed had been buried by mountaintop mining waste between 1985 and 2001. Under the new rule, a similar amount would be buried by 2018, according to the statement. The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement said the new rule would clear up ambiguities in the current regulations, drafted in 1983, which had been challenged by environmentalists in court. A spokesman for the National Mining Association, a trade group, said the proposed rule would allow miners to gain access to rich seams of low-sulfur coal that would otherwise go untapped. Environmentalists said the proposed rule would allow the destruction of vast swaths of Appalachian forest and mountains. The proposal was subject to a 60-day public comment period before it would take effect. „

Abortion La. Gov. Signs Late-Term Procedure Ban.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) July 13 signed legislation banning a controversial type of late-term abortion, known as intact dilation and extraction. It was the first time a state had outlawed the procedure since the Supreme Court in April had upheld a 2003 federal law making the surgery illegal. The procedure was called “partial-birth” abortion by its opponents, because the fetus was first partially delivered. [See p. 242A1] Louisiana’s House of Representatives June 26 had passed a bill outlawing the procedure, with the state Senate passing a similar law the next day. Though the two bills were slightly different, Blanco signed both into law, and a state legal panel would later examine the differences and codify the statutes. The legislation would allow the procedure only in cases where a mother’s life was in danger. Under the laws, doctors found guilty of violating the ban would face a prison sentence of between one and 10 years, and a fine of between $1,000 and $10,000. The laws did not provide for penalties for women who obtained such abortions. The outlawed abortion procedure accounted for a very small percentage of the overall abortions performed in the U.S. However, it had become a flashpoint in the debate over abortion. Abortion rights advocates claimed such bans would lead to an outright ban of all abortions, while antiabortion activists said the procedure was unethical because fetuses could feel pain. „ Missouri Gov. Signs New Clinic Regulations.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt (R) July 6 signed into law a bill that imposed new regulations on abortion clinics by classifying them as ambulatory surgical centers. The law also prohibited abortion clinics from providing public schools with materials for October 11, 2007

use in sex education programs, and limited those classes to teaching only abstinence. [See p. 242A1; 2006, p. 861A3] Under previous regulations, the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services licensed facilities that derived 50% or more of their revenue from abortions. The new law would require three additional abortion clinics to meet the licensing requirements. The new regulations would impose new standards on equipment, personnel and cleanliness, as well as issues such as parking and door width. Critics of the law said it posed an undue burden on those facilities that performed very few abortions or provided abortifacient drugs to patients. Blunt July 6 said that if clinics could not “meet the same basic requirements that other [medical] providers do, then they should be shut down,” and called the law “one of the strongest pieces of pro-life legislation in Missouri history.” The reproductive health group Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, which performed abortions, Aug. 20 filed a lawsuit attempting to halt implementation of the law, set to take effect Aug. 28. The group argued that the new law would obstruct patients’ constitutionally guaranteed right to obtain an abortion, under the guise that it was intended to improve health standards. The group said it would have to shut two of its three clinics in Missouri to make the “medically unnecessary” changes in order to comply with the law, at a cost of $2 million. Judge Ortrie Smith of U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 27 issued a temporary injunction keeping the law from taking effect. Smith Sept. 24 extended the injunction for at least 60 days, while abortion providers and state health officials negotiated a compromise over some of its regulations. „

Civil Rights Md. Court Upholds Gay Marriage Ban. The Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, Sept. 18 voted, 4–3, to uphold a 1973 state law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The court’s majority found that an equal rights state law ratified in 1972 protected against discrimination based on gender, but that it was not written to extend those protections to victims of discrimination based on sexual orientation. The court also found that the state had an interest in protecting heterosexual marriages in order to promote childbearing. [See 2006, p. 169G2] The ruling overturned a January 2006 decision by a Baltimore County Circuit Court judge who found the 1973 law was discriminatory against gays, and could not “withstand constitutional challenge.” Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr. wrote in the high court’s majority opinion that the decision “should by no means be read to imply that the General Assembly may not grant and recognize for homosexual persons civil unions or the right to marry a person of the same sex.” Proponents of same-sex marriage in Maryland’s General Assembly

said they would introduce legislation to legalize same-sex marriage. Opponents of the practice said they would attempt to amend the state constitution to ban such marriages. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maryland had filed the lawsuit in 2004 on behalf of the nine gay couples whose requests for marriage licenses had been denied, along with a gay man whose partner had died since their application. Other News—In other same-sex marriage and domestic partnership news: † Scores of same-sex couples in Washington July 23 began registering as domestic partners under a state law taking effect that day. Those couples registering as domestic partners were eligible for new rights in connection with hospital visitation, inheritance and organ donation. The domestic partnerships did not offer all the rights afforded to married couples in the state. [See p. 365G1] † Stanley Nyberg, the Massachusetts registrar of Vital Records and Statistics, July 18 issued an order allowing same-sex couples from New Mexico to marry in Massachusetts, since no New Mexico law explicitly forbade the practice. Gay couples had been able to wed in Massachusetts since 2004. However, then-governor and current presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R) had directed that gay couples from other states not be allowed to marry in Massachusetts, citing a 1913 law prohibiting marriages of couples not legally able to marry in their home states. [See p. 380F3] „

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Business Freddie Mac Settles SEC Fraud Charges.

Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage company, Sept. 27 agreed to pay a $50 million fine to settle fraud charges brought against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC had accused the company of making false earning reports from 2000 to 2002 in order to create the impression that the company had a “smooth and dependable earnings growth,” when in fact the earnings growth during that time was highly volatile. Freddie Mac made the settlement without admitting or denying any wrongdoing. [See 2005, p. 803C3; 2003, p. 999C2] Additionally, the SEC reached settlements with four former Freddie Mac executives accused of negligent conduct. The executives were to pay a combined $515,000 in fines, and pay back $275,548 in alleged improper gains. The executives did not admit or deny any wrongdoing. They were former President, Chief Operating Officer and Vice Chairman David Glenn; former Chief Financial Officer Vaughn Clarke; and two former senior vice presidents, Robert Dean and Nazir Dossani. Freddie Mac had paid the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, a government regulator, $125 million in fines in 2003 when it was revealed the company had misstated earnings by billions of dollars. 669

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Other News—In other ongoing investigations by the SEC: † SEC Chairman Christopher Cox Sept. 26 said at a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing that the commission was investigating whether credit ratings agencies had been “unduly influenced” by investment banks when valuing mortgage-backed securities sold to investors. Critics said agencies like Moody’s Corp. and Standard & Poor’s, a unit of McGraw Hill Cos., had rated those securities as safer than they really were. Many of those securities were backed by subprime mortgage loans made to borrowers with poor credit, who began defaulting on those loans at a higher rate in recent months. Senators noted that the agencies were paid for their services by the issuers of the securities, rather than investors who bought them. Representatives from credit agencies at the hearing denied any collusion with the banks, saying that the inaccurate ratings were unintentional. [See p. 505A1] † The SEC Sept. 20 filed civil fraud and money laundering charges against 38 people in a crackdown on stock-lending fraud. Seventeen of them were current or former employees at large Wall Street trading firms, including Morgan Stanley, Van der Moolen Holding NV and Janney Montgomery LLC. Stock-lending had grown with the practice of short-selling, in which a trader bet that a stock price would drop by selling borrowed shares in the hope of buying them back at a lower price before returning them. The individuals in question were accused of stealing $12 million between 1998 and 2006 from the firms in the form of false fees for finding tradable stocks. Those fees went to fake companies operated by the individuals, or to their associates and relatives in exchange for kickbacks. Federal prosecutors in New York City brought criminal fraud charges against five of the individuals. „

Space Accounts of Drinking Not Substantiated.

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aug. 29 issued a report concluding that there was no evidence backing up allegations of intoxication among astronauts preparing for space launches. An internal NASA report, made public in July, had alluded to two unverified anecdotes of heavy preflight drinking by astronauts, prompting the agency to investigate the accounts. [See p. 529B3] Safety and Mission Assurance Chief Bryan O’Connor, in a summary of the investigation’s findings, said, “I was unable to verify any case in which an astronaut spaceflight crewmember was impaired on launch day.” O’Connor said that NASA had “reasonable safeguards” to prevent such an occurrence. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said the agency would implement a limited drug and alcohol testing regime, as called for by a 1991 law but never carried out. „ 670

AFRICA

Madagascar Ruling Party Wins Polls. President Marc Ravalomanana’s I Love Madagascar (TIM) party Sept. 28 was declared the winner of parliamentary elections held Sept. 23. TIM captured 106 of 127 seats; turnout was estimated at less than 50%. A constitutional referendum approved by voters in April had reduced the size of parliament from 160 members, and Ravalomanana had dissolved the body in July. [See p. 402C2] „

South Africa Police Chief’s Arrest Warrant Reported.

The state-run South African Broadcasting Corp. (SABC) and South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper Sept. 27 reported that the National Prosecuting Authority had obtained an arrest warrant for Jackie Selebi, South Africa’s national police commissioner. Selebi was also president of international police agency Interpol. [See 2006, p. 933A3] Selebi in 2006 had been linked to the 2005 murder of billionaire mining magnate Brett Kebble, allegedly by organized crime elements. The warrant related to charges of being an accessory after the fact to Kebble’s murder, as well as to racketeering and corruption, South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper reported Sept. 30. President Thabo Mbeki, a close ally of Selebi, Sept. 24 had suspended Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Vusi Pikoli, the head of the National Prosecuting Authority. The president cited poor relations between Pikoli and the Justice Ministry. However, Mbeki’s opponents, as well as rivals within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, alleged that the president made the move after learning of plans to arrest Selebi. They also questioned why the arrest warrant had never been carried out. Selebi Sept. 30 denied that the warrant existed. Helen Zille, leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party, Sept. 28 had said the matter “constitutes a potential constitutional crisis.” She alleged that “the suspension of Pikoli was motivated by the desire of President Mbeki to protect his close ally, Jackie Selebi.” The National Prosecuting Authority Oct. 5 confirmed the existence of search and arrest warrants for Selebi, but said it was reviewing them before taking action. It said it had secured the arrest warrant Sept. 10 and the search warrant Sept. 14. Observers said the Selebi matter was linked to power struggles within the ANC, which would choose a new president in December. Mbeki was barred from seeking a third term as South Africa’s president, but had indicated that he wanted to retain the powerful position of ANC president. Pikoli had been responsible for deciding whether to bring new corruption charges against former Deputy President Jacob Zuma, Mbeki’s main rival for the ANC presidency. (The original corruption charg-

es against Zuma had been dismissed in September 2006.) Observers speculated that Pikoli’s successor would move forward with new charges against Zuma. [See below, p. 530F2; 2006, p. 881A2] The dispute was also seen as symptomatic of a rivalry between the police and a unit known as the Scorpions, an elite investigative group that reported to the DPP. Zuma Receives Union Endorsement—

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) labor federation Sept. 20 endorsed Zuma’s candidacy for president of the ANC. Many Cosatu members were also ANC members, and would take part in the December leadership election. Mbeki during his term in office had angered Cosatu and the South African Communist Party—the ANC’s partners in the ruling coalition—with his pro-business and free market policies. Zuma, meanwhile, had retained much support despite the corruption allegations and a separate rape trial, in which he was found not guilty. If he won the ANC presidency, he was expected to easily win an election to succeed Mbeki as South Africa’s president in 2009. [See 2006, p. 378A1] „ 3,200 Miners Rescued After Accident.

About 3,200 miners Oct. 3 became trapped 1.4 miles (2.2 km) underground in Harmony Gold Mining Co.’s Elandsrand mine, about 40 miles southwest of Johannesburg. The workers became trapped after the electricity line to the main elevator was severed when a pipe carrying pressurized air exploded. All the workers were rescued unharmed by Oct. 4, after an operation that lasted nearly 20 hours. [See p. 541D3; 2005, p. 595E1] The workers were brought to the surface via a small auxiliary elevator. The first workers were removed about 15 hours after the accident. The National Union of Mineworkers Oct. 4 criticized Harmony for delaying reporting the accident to the government and the union. The union also alleged that Harmony and other South African mining companies had lax safety standards. Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica Oct. 4 said she would order the Elandsrand mine closed for six weeks, and would step up oversight of mine safety. Harmony was the world’s fifth-largest gold producer. An estimated 200 mineworkers had died in both 2005 and 2006 in South Africa. „

Other Africa News More Than 20 Nations Hit by Flooding.

The Agence France-Presse news agency Oct. 9 reported that at least 300 people in 20 nations in west, central and east Africa had been killed in flooding over the previous two months. The flooded areas stretched from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east. The floods, which damaged or destroyed crops, homes and infrastructure and led to the spread of disease, had been caused by unusually heavy summer rains. The United Nations and relief agencies Sept. 21 had appealed to the interFACTS ON FILE

national community for millions of dollars in aid. [See p. 145G2; 2006, p. 1014A3] The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Sept. 26 said the lost crops could cause a food crisis in the affected areas. The group said 1.5 million people in 22 countries across the continent had been affected, with Ghana, Sudan and Uganda being hit the hardest. Uganda, where many villages had been cut off by the floods, Sept. 20 declared a state of emergency, which would allow the government to direct funds from other programs toward relief efforts. U.N. Gives $3.7 Million to West Africa—

The U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund Oct. 9 granted $3.7 million in flood aid to Mali, Ghana and Togo. The funds would be used to provide food aid to thousands of families whose homes, fields and livestock had been destroyed by the floods. „

AMERICAS

Chile Pinochet Family Arrested for Embezzlement.

Chilean Judge Carlos Cerda Oct. 4 ordered the arrest of the widow and five children of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte on charges of embezzling public funds. Cerda also ordered the arrest on similar charges of 17 former government officials, including several army officers, who had worked under Pinochet during his 1973–1990 rule. Pinochet had died in December 2006. [See 2006, pp. 946F1, 77D3] All five children were placed in police custody that day, while Pinochet’s widow, Maria Lucia Hiriart Rodriguez, was treated for high blood pressure at a military hospital. Several Pinochet family members in 2005 had been indicted on charges of false passport use and tax evasion, though those cases were never brought to trial. In his ruling, Cerda found that the 23 defendants had been linked to at least $20 million taken from a discretionary account for the president, the military’s commander in chief and a body of presidential advisers known as the Casa Militar. Funds from that account had been sent to private foreign accounts under false names, Cerda found. A three-judge panel Oct. 6 ordered the 23 people arrested to be released on bail ranging from $200 to $590. Lawyers for the family denounced the indictments as politically motivated, while human rights advocates praised the decision as bolstering the rule of law in Chile. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet Jeria said that the country’s judiciary would address the case on its merits, adding, “No one in Chile should think that they are above the law.” Chilean courts in 2004 had begun investigating Pinochet’s finances. Investigators later alleged that he had kept some $27 million in several foreign accounts under numerous aliases. At the time of his death, Pinochet was facing charges of tax fraud and human rights abuses, among others. „ October 11, 2007

Costa Rica Voters Approve Trade Agreement. Costa

Rican voters Oct. 7 approved the country’s accession to the seven-nation Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in a public referendum, according to results released Oct. 8. With 97% of precincts reporting, results showed that 51.5% of voters had supported the agreement. An official outcome of the referendum was contingent on results reached by a mandatory recount, which could last no longer than two weeks, beginning Oct. 9. [See 2006, p. 331D2] Costa Rica remained the last of the six Latin American countries in the trade group to ratify CAFTA. The agreement, signed in 2004, had already been signed and ratified by the U.S., El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, and had taken effect in those countries. Supporters of the deal, including Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez, said it would increase the country’s access to global markets and spur the economy. Those opposed to CAFTA said it granted multinational corporations advantages that would harm small businesses and independent farmers. An estimated 100,000 Costa Ricans Sept. 30 had protested CAFTA’s terms and U.S. trade policy in San Jose, the capital. The National Assembly still needed to approve 13 pieces of legislation by a March 1, 2008, deadline to bring the country’s laws into compliance with the terms of CAFTA. Among them were bills that would end the state’s monopolies in the telecommunications and insurance fields. Opposition lawmakers said they would hold out their votes on the 13 measures in order to win concessions on farm and education spending. The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush had strongly lobbied Costa Rica to approve the deal. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino Oct. 6 had said the U.S. would not consider renegotiating the trade deal with Costa Rica should voters reject it. Vice President Resigns—Vice President and Planning Minister Kevin Casas Sept. 12 resigned from those roles after the Costa Rican newspaper Semanario Universidad Sept. 6 published a memo he had co-authored spelling out a strategy to “sow discord” among CAFTA opponents. Casas in the memo also suggested threatening to withhold federal funds from more than 50 local governments if voters in their municipalities did not back the trade agreement.„

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Cambodia U.N. Reports Criticize Genocide Tribunal.

The United Nations–backed tribunal responsible for prosecuting members of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge Oct. 2 released the results of an audit of its human resources procedures by the U.N. Development Pro-

gram (UNDP). U.S. magazine Newsweek Oct. 7 reported on its Web site that a second, confidential U.N. report prepared in June blamed the tribunal’s structure for inefficiencies that threatened its mission. The reports, which were publicized following the Sept. 19 arrest of high-ranking former Khmer Rouge official Nuon Chea, were seen as potential embarrassment to the tribunal, which was largely funded by the U.N. and other donors. [See p. 436F2] The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975–79 and was blamed for the deaths of approximately 1.7 million people. The tribunal, officially known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), was divided into U.N. and Cambodian sections. The UNDP also managed the finances of the Cambodian part of the court. The tribunal was administered by a Cambodian, and Cambodian judges made up the majority of the court. According to Newsweek, the ECCC had sat on the audit for months until public pressure convinced the Cambodian side of the tribunal to release it. The audit found that the ECCC had hired superfluous employees whose positions had not been included in its budget, and that as many as two-thirds of the tribunal’s employees were unqualified for the positions they held. The report called for all Cambodian hires to be rescinded, and suggested that the U.N. reconsider its support for the tribunal if reforms were not made. In its response to the report, the ECCC described the cited concerns as mere errors, and criticized the UNDP for drawing an “unbalanced” picture of the organization. It said it had already embarked on a series of reforms intended to keep such situations from recurring, including the adoption of a formal code of ethics. The June report, on the tribunal’s divided structure, had been prepared for the U.N. by former Special Court for Sierra Leone registrar Robin Vincent and Chief of Administration for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Kevin St. Louis. Their report found that the unusual structure had become “divisive and unhelpful,” and linked the court’s structure to its failure to retain international staff and carry out basic functions like protecting witnesses and carrying out in-court translations. In addition to the two U.N. reports, the ECCC had faced allegations that its Cambodian employees had been forced to illegally contribute part of their wages to their superiors in exchange for being hired. The charges were first aired Feb. 14 by the Open Society Justice Initiative, a U.S.based judicial watchdog group. The UNDP refused to conduct an investigation into the allegations, arguing in its audit that since the claims dealt with the “personnel of the Government of Cambodia,” the issue was beyond its jurisdiction. Nuon Chea Indictment Released— The ECCC released a detention order for Nuon Chea Sept. 21 that detailed charges against the former Khmer Rouge official. In the order, Nuon Chea was accused of having “planned, instigated, ordered, directed, or 671

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otherwise aided and abetted in the commission” of crimes that included murder, “extermination,” “forcible transfer” and enslavement. He was also accused of overseeing the Khmer Rouge’s network of prisons and detention camps. [See p. 614D1] „

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Beijing Bishop Installed. China’s statesponsored Catholic Church Sept. 21 installed Joseph Li Shan as the new bishop of Beijing, the capital. In contrast to recent disputes over episcopal appointments with Pope Benedict XVI, whose authority the Chinese state church did not recognize, Li’s elevation drew a generally positive reaction from the Vatican. The Vatican did not explicitly announce whether the pope had approved Li’s elevation. However, it was reported with little comment in the Sept. 21 edition of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, in what was widely seen as a tacit signal of the Vatican’s agreement. [See 2006, p. 960A2] The pope in 2006 had condemned China’s installation of a number of bishops without his consent. However, there had recently been expressions by both sides of a desire for reconciliation between the state-led church, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, and the underground Roman Catholic community in China loyal to the pope. Benedict June 30 had issued an open letter to Chinese Catholics that reasserted the Vatican’s claim of authority to appoint bishops but expressed a desire to avoid confrontation and renew dialogue, a message that was welcomed by state church leaders. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone July 19 called Li “well-suited,” a day after his appointment was reported. Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese State Patriotic Association, Sept. 17 denied that it had consulted with the Vatican in choosing Li, “because the two sides have no diplomatic relations.” (The Vatican’s diplomatic recognition of Taiwan was another source of friction between the two sides.) However, he said Sept. 20 that the Vatican’s apparent approval of the choice was a positive sign for progress in relations between China and the Vatican. „ Beijing Bans Cars in Olympic Trial Run.

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Beijing, China’s capital, Aug. 17–20 imposed severe restrictions on the use of automobiles in the city, in a trial run for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, to be held there. The car ban was intended to alleviate the city’s traffic congestion during the games. It was one of a series of planned measures to ease the capital’s oppressive air pollution for the Olympics. [See 2006, p. 750B3] Private cars with license plates ending in even numbers were barred from the streets on two of the days, and odd numbers the other two days, while public agencies sought to reduce their vehicle use by about 70%. In all, the rules kept about 1.3 million cars, of Beijing’s total of three million, off the streets each day. 672

An index of particulate air pollution in Beijing actually rose over the course of the test. However, government officials Aug. 21 declared the test a success, attributing those readings to high humidity and low winds prevalent on those days, and said the index would have been worse without the driving ban. They said the readings were within levels considered safe for activities including sports. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge Aug. 8 had said on a visit to Beijing that some Olympic events might have to be rescheduled if the air quality at the appointed time was deemed risky to competitors. China Marks One-Year Countdown—

Beijing Aug. 8 held ceremonies in the city’s Tiananamen Square to mark the oneyear countdown to the 2008 games. At a news conference Aug. 6, organizers had trumpeted their achievements in preparing for the games, in such areas as construction and coordinating the secure supply of food and medicine to athletes. However, human rights activists also used the one-year mark to highlight rights abuses in China, which was widely seen as hoping to use its host role to burnish its international image. They said the country was not living up to promises it had made in bidding for the games to improve its human rights record and guarantee press freedoms. London-based advocacy group Amnesty International Aug. 7 issued a report highlighting the detention or harassment of political dissidents in the capital, and a campaign to “clean up” the city for the Olympics by detaining vagrants and others indefinitely. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S.-based press-freedom group, also issued a report that day, urging the release of 29 imprisoned Chinese journalists and criticizing restrictions on Chinese and foreign reporters. Another press-freedom group, Frenchbased Reporters Without Borders, Aug. 6 had staged an unauthorized demonstration in Beijing. Police quickly broke up the protest, and briefly detained foreign reporters covering it. A group of leading Chinese dissidents and scholars Aug. 7 issued an open letter to the heads of the Chinese government, charging that the government had violated its human rights promises. The letter urged the government to add the phrase “and Universal Human Rights” to its Olympic slogan of “One World, One Dream.” „

Myanmar Opposition Calls for Unconditional Talks.

Myanmar’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by detained 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, released a statement Oct. 9 that expressed a willingness to enter into talks with Myanmar’s ruling military junta. However, the NLD also objected to preconditions that junta leader Gen. Than Shwe had outlined in a recent offer of talks to Suu Kyi, including an end to Suu Kyi’s support for international sanctions against

Myanmar and the dropping of what the junta called her confrontational attitude. [See p. 641A1] The maneuvering followed a wave of protests emanating from the military’s Aug. 15 decision to unexpectedly cut fuel subsidies. A violent military crackdown on protesters that began in late September had brought international condemnation of the regime. In its statement, which drew on speeches given by Suu Kyi before her current confinement, the NLD wrote, “The success of a dialogue is based on the sincerity and the spirit of give and take,” and argued that “the will for achieving success is also crucial, and there should not be any preconditions.” The NLD also expressed a willingness to be flexible in order to promote successful talks. Myanmar’s deputy labor minister, Aung Kyi, was appointed Oct. 8 as a “liaison minister” to Suu Kyi, though the military government did not clarify what role he would play as an intermediary. Suu Kyi had been detained by the government since 2003 and held under house arrest for 11 of the past 18 years. An Oct. 8 article in a state-run newspaper suggested that the military had no plans to release Suu Kyi. Protester Dies in Military Custody—The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a nonprofit advocacy group based in Thailand, reported Oct. 10 that NLD member Win Shwe had died during a military interrogation following his Sept. 26 arrest for protesting the ruling junta. There was no official confirmation of the death by the government, but AAPP said that Shwe’s family had been notified about his death by the military Oct. 9. According to NLD spokesman Nyan Win, as many as 225 NLD members were being detained by the junta. [See p. 625A1] Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, said Oct. 10 that the U.S. “strongly condemns the atrocities committed by the Junta and calls for a full investigation into the death of Win Shwe during his detention.” Johndroe also suggested that the junta would face more sanctions if it did not comply with U.S. demands, though he did not specify what they would be. Britain’s Reuters news agency Oct. 11 reported that according to a Buddhist monk recently released from a military detention center, prisoners were kicked, beaten, refused access to medical treatment and bathroom facilities, and packed together so tightly that they could not lie down. The facility was located at the Technical Institute in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. Britain’s Guardian newspaper Oct. 11 reported that film actor Kyaw Thu and his wife had been detained by the junta that day, after spending days in hiding following the military crackdown on the protests. Kyaw Thu had been one of the most prominent public figures in Myanmar to participate in the marches. Singapore Breaks Up Anti-Junta Protest—

In Singapore, Chee Soon Juan, leader of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party FACTS ON FILE

(SDP), was arrested with three party members Oct. 8 as they led a protest against Singapore’s ties with Myanmar’s junta. Chee and his associates were arrested under a law that required a permit for public assemblies of five or more. [See 2003, p. 468B1] Singapore’s trade with Myanmar totaled as much as S$1 billion ($680 billion) in 2006, and senior junta officials like Than Shwe had sought medical care in Singapore hospitals. Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a television interview with the U.S.’s Cable News Network (CNN) Oct. 5 denied allegations that junta members were laundering money through Singapore’s financial institutions. Thousands of demonstrators led by Buddhist monks from Myanmar protested in London Oct. 6 to express their solidarity with the country’s protesters. [See p. 641B3] „

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Croatia Serbs Convicted of War Crimes. The Inter-

national Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Sept. 27 found former Yugoslav army officer Mile Mrksic responsible for the massacre of 194 people in a 1991 attack on the Croatian town of Vukovar, during the Yugoslav civil war. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for aiding and abetting the murders, as well as charges of torture and cruel treatment of prisoners of war. Another officer, Veselin Sljivancanin, was sentenced to five years in prison for aiding and abetting torture, and a third, Miroslav Radic, was acquitted. [See 2005, p. 967D1; 1991, p. 898E3 ] Croatian officials and citizens expressed widespread outrage at the sentence, which they regarded as excessively lenient. While Mrksic and Sljivancanin were convicted of war crimes, they were acquitted of crimes against humanity because the court found that they had suspected their victims of being members of the Croatian armed forces. Croatia rejected that reasoning, insisting that the men were civilians. About 1,000 of Vukovar’s residents had died in the 1991 capture of the town by the Serbian-dominated Yugoslav army, and nearly 5,000 taken prisoner. Refugees seeking shelter in the town’s hospital had been promised they would be evacuated under the watch of international observers. However, the army blocked the observers’ entry into the town and smuggled some of the prisoners out of Vukovar to a farm, where they were tortured, shot and buried in a mass grave. Croatian President Stipe Mesic had said the verdict was “absolutely unacceptable both in terms of the duration of the sentences and the explanation of the verdicts,” the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reported Sept. 28. A spokeswoman for Carla Del Ponte, the U.N.’s chief war crimes prosecutor, Sept. 27 said, “The prosecutor finds it inOctober 11, 2007

comprehensible that someone who is convicted for the torture of 200 people can receive only a sentence of five years.” „

Great Britain Brown Decides Against Early Elections.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Oct. 6 said he had decided not to call an early general election, after weeks of growing speculation that he was preparing to call one. The opposition Conservative (Tory) Party accused Brown of cowardice, claiming that he had retreated as a result of the Tories’ gains in the polls after their annual conference the previous week. [See p. 637C2] Brown disclosed his decision to defer the election in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), recorded Oct. 6 and broadcast Oct. 7. He said there would probably not be an election until 2009, explaining, “I have a vision for change in Britain, and I want to show people how in government we’re implementing it.” Brown’s Labour Party had won the last election in May 2005, led by then–Prime Minister Tony Blair. Brown, who had taken over from Blair at the end of June, had until 2010 at the latest to call the next election. Tory leader David Cameron Oct. 3 had rallied his party and dared Brown to call an election in a speech at the party conference, held Sept. 30–Oct. 3, in Blackpool, England. At prime minister’s questions, the weekly session in Parliament at which the prime minister debated opposition leaders, Cameron Oct. 10 poured scorn on Brown. Cameron asked, “Do you realize what a phony you now look? Have you found a single person who believes your excuses for canceling the election?” Tories Gain in Polls—An ICM poll published in the Guardian newspaper Oct. 5 showed that the Tories had surged to pull even with Labour. Each party drew the support of 38% of voters, while the third major party, the Liberal Democrats, drew 16%, a six-year low. The Tories had trailed Labour by eight percentage points in the previous poll. George Osborne, the Tory shadow chancellor, or chief economic spokesman, Oct. 2 had unveiled populist tax plans that were seen as a factor in the Tories’ poll surge. He called for raising the threshold for inheritance taxes to £1 million ($2 million), from £300,000. He also proposed exempting first-time buyers of homes worth £250,000 or less from the stamp tax on real estate transactions. Osborne proposed to pay for the tax cuts by raising taxes on the overseas earnings of foreigners who lived in Britain but claimed “non-domiciled” status to avoid paying taxes there. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling Oct. 9 delivered the annual prebudget report, setting out the government’s economic plans. Darling announced an increase in the inheritance tax threshold to £600,000 for married couples, and tax hikes on “non-domicileds” long resident in

Britain and on private equity fund managers. In response, Osborne mocked the Labour government as “weak and cynical” for adopting the Tories’ tax proposals.

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Brown Announces Iraq Withdrawals—

Brown had contributed to the speculation over an early election by traveling to Iraq Oct. 2 to announce the withdrawal of 1,000 British troops by Christmas. The Iraq war was deeply unpopular in Britain. The Tories condemned the timing of the announcement, alleging that Brown was exploiting the military for political gain, They also noted that the withdrawal of 500 of the 1,000 troops had been previously announced. Brown Oct. 8 appeared at the first day of the new session of Parliament, to announce a bigger troop pullout that would cut Britain’s Iraq deployment to 2,500, from 5,000, by the spring of 2008. [See p. 661A1] „

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Putin, Sarkozy Discuss Iran Nuclear Issue.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Oct. 10 met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Moscow, Russia’s capital. At a joint press conference after the meeting, Putin affirmed his belief that Iran did not pose an imminent nuclear threat. He said, “We do not have data that says Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons.… Therefore we proceed from a position that Iran has no such plans, but we share the concern of our partners that all programs should be as transparent as possible.” [See p. 626D3] Sarkozy had visited Russia in an attempt to garner support for tougher United Nations sanctions on Iran. The Russian government urged patience on the issue until November, when a report on Iran from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, would be released. Putin was scheduled to travel to Tehran, Iran’s capital, Oct. 16 for a meeting of nations bordering the Caspian Sea. Putin Oct. 14–15 would meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. „ News in Brief. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Oct. 6 announced that former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov would be appointed head of the country’s foreign intelligence service. Fradkov had been prime minister from 2004 to September, when Putin appointed Viktor Zubkov to the position. [See p. 616A2] Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya had worked for, Oct. 6 said it knew the identity of the man who had murdered her one year earlier, but that he was still at large. The identity of the person or persons who orchestrated the killing had not yet been discovered. Dimtry Muratov, editor of Novaya Gazeta, said more time was needed to complete the investigation. “The organizer is free,” he said, adding, “This crime cannot be considered solved.” Nine people had been charged in connection with the murder, according to Muratov. [See p. 616D2] „ 673

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European Business News Battle for Dutch Bank ABN Amro Ends. British bank Barclays PLC Oct. 5 withdrew its offer for Dutch bank ABN Amro Hold-

ing NV, conceding defeat in a takeover battle against a rival consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. The bidding war for ABN Amro had begun in March. The consortium Oct. 10 formalized its 70.4 billion ($99.34 billion) bid, which made the deal the biggest acquisition in the history of the financial industry. [See 2004, p. 350E2] „

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Israel Confirms Syria Air Strike Syria Says Raid Hit Empty Military Building.

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The Israeli government Oct. 2 confirmed for the first time that Israeli warplanes in September had conducted an air strike on Syria. It did not release any details about the strike’s target or Israeli forces involved. The government lifted a ban on Israeli media reporting the fact that incident took place, but details of the attack remained censored. [See p. 603A3] Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Oct. 1 in a British Broadcasting Company (BBC) interview said the air strike had hit an undefended, uninhabited military building that was under construction. He also played down the possibility of military retaliation, although he did not rule it out. Reports had linked the strike to rumors that North Korea was providing Syria with nuclear assistance. However, Assad said, “We have a relation with North Korea and this is not something in secret…We are not interested in any nuclear activity.” The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot Sept. 26 reported that the raid had hit a government agricultural research center in the eastern Syrian city of Deir Zoir. The Syrian government denied the claim, and Oct. 9 had foreign journalists tour the facility in order to prove that it was not linked to nuclear research. and had not been hit by an air strike. The article had also caused controversy in Syria because its Israeli writer, Ron Ben-Yishai, had documented his visit to the site, and travels elsewhere in the country, in violation of Syria’s prohibition on Israelis entering the country. Unidentified U.S. government officials said Israel had shared intelligence on the Syria–North Korea links, and the U.S. had most likely provided corroboration of the data, the Washington Post reported Sept. 21. The New York Times Oct. 10 reported that factions within the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush disagreed over the significance of the Israeli intellince. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and his allies reportedly argued that Israel had evidence of a credible nuclear threat, while U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and administration moderates downplayed the danger and pressed for continued negotiations with North Korea. [See p. 654C1] „ 674

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Afghanistan German and Afghan Hostages Freed. German engineer Rudolf Blechschmidt and five Afghans taken hostage in July by the Taliban Oct. 10 were freed in a deal releasing five Taliban members held prisoner by the government. Another German kidnapped with the group had been found dead in July; his kidnappers apparently shot him after he suffered a heart attack. [See pp. 639F2, 534D2] Mohammad Naiem, governor of southern Wardak province, where the hostages were held, said the released Taliban prisoners were “not very important” figures. Naiem said one of the prisoners was a father of the Taliban commander that had reportedly organized the kidnapping. He said the prisoners had originally been arrested so that authorities could use them as leverage in negotiating the hostages’ release. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier released a statement that day welcoming the hostages’ release. A spokesperson for the foreign ministry declined to comment on whether the German government had pressured the Afghan government to make the exchange. The Afghan government had come under heavy criticism in March, when it released five Taliban prisoners in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist. [See p. 233F2] The number of kidnappings of foreigners in Afghanistan had risen in the past year, as the Taliban attempted to hamper foreign reconstruction efforts and frustrate government authorities. The Taliban in July had kidnapped 23 South Koreans, releasing 21 of them in August after killing two. Four employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross were kidnapped in Wardak Sept. 26, as they attempted to negotiate Blechschmidt’s freedom; they were released unharmed Sept. 29. [See p. 566F3] „ Suicide Bombs Kill Nearly 50 in Kabul. A string of suicide attacks Sept. 29–Oct. 6 killed at least 47 people in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. The Taliban insurgent group claimed responsibility for the bombings. [See pp. 639F2, 453C2] The number of suicide bombings had increased in 2007, as the Taliban switched to guerrilla warfare tactics to undermine the country’s security and gain an edge against the U.S.- and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led forces that had ousted the Taliban from power in a 2001 invasion. In the Sept. 29 attack, a man dressed as an Afghan Army soldier detonated his charge on or near a bus transporting soldiers, killing at least 30 people. It was one of the most devastating suicide attacks to occur in the country since the 2001 invasion. Analysts said the bombing was similar to attacks in September and June, in that it targeted army personnel. Karzai Calls for Peace Negotiations—

Karzai Sept. 29 after the suicide bombing announced that he would be willing to meet

with Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader, to enter into peace negotiations. Karzai said he would be willing to let some Taliban officials occupy leadership positions in the government if the Taliban halted its insurgency. Karzai also said he would be willing to meet with warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an insurgency leader. [See p. 321B1; 2006, p. 654B2] The Taliban Sept. 30 rejected Karzai’s offer, saying it would not enter into negotiations until all 50,000 U.S.- and NATO-led troops were removed from the country. Karzai had long maintained that the foreign troops would stay until Afghanistan’s army and police forces could take over the country’s security. It was thought to be the first time that Karzai had offered the Taliban high-level, ministerial positions in the government in exchange for an end to the insurgency. The government had a long-standing policy of giving Taliban fighters amnesty if they renounced violence and recognized the government. Other Bombings—A suicide bomber Oct. 2 detonated his charge near a bus carrying police officers and civilian employees of the interior ministry, killing at least 11 people. A suicide bomber Oct. 6 killed one U.S. soldier and at least four Afghan civilians, when the bomber targeted a military convoy on the main road leading to the Kabul airport. More Than 5,000 Killed in 2007—The Associated Press (AP) Oct. 2 reported that more than 5,000 people, of whom at least 650 were civilians, had died thus far in 2007 in violence related to the insurgency, according to casualty numbers made available „ by U.S., NATO and Afghan officials.

Pakistan Musharraf Wins Vote, Faces Court Ruling.

President Pervez Musharraf Oct. 6 won 98% of the total votes cast by Parliament and Pakistan’s four provincial assemblies in the country’s presidential election, according to unofficial results. However, the Supreme Court Oct. 5 had announced that the results would not be official until the court ruled on petitions that challenged the eligibility of Musharraf running for president while serving as army chief. The petitions were brought by two other presidential candidates. [See p. 656F3] The announcement came a week after the court had dismissed similar challenges against Musharraf. The first petition, scheduled to be heard Oct. 17, was brought by Wajihuddin Ahmed, a former Supreme Court judge. Ahmed received eight votes of support from the 685 cast in the election; Musharraf received 671. Nearly all of Musharraf’s political opponents boycotted the elections, in protest of Musharraf holding the offices of president and army chief simultaneously. As many as 80 opposition leaders had resigned from Parliament a week earlier in an attempt to delegitimize the election. Members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the country’s largest party, Oct. 6 abstained from voting. FACTS ON FILE

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Musharraf’s government Oct. 4 announced that a presidential ordinance of “national reconciliation” had been approved. The ordinance was a “package” that would ensure “free and fair elections,” Musharraf said that day on a television news program. The deal was the result of months of U.S.backed negotiations between Musharraf and Bhutto. It cleared all corruption charges brought against Bhutto and other politicians between 1988 and 1999. Those charges had forced Bhutto to live in exile since 1999; she was scheduled to return to Pakistan Oct. 18. [See p. 501G1; 1999, p. 294G2] In exchange, Bhutto promised that her party would not resign from Parliament before the presidential election. Bhutto still had several outstanding demands, including that Musharraf lift a restriction on prime ministers serving for a third term. Bhutto had served as prime minister twice, and hoped to secure a third term by leading the PPP to victory in parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2008. The U.S. supported the deal because both Musharraf and Bhutto were considOctober 11, 2007

ered secular moderates who could combat Islamic extremism in the country’s tribal regions. Musharraf’s popularity had been in decline ever since he tried to oust Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry from his position in March, which sparked a pro-democracy movement. The inclusion of Bhutto, a popular leader, was expected to bolster support for the government, as well as lend it international legitimacy. However, observers speculated that Bhutto’s association with Musharraf could erode her popularity. Another former prime minister in exile, Nawaz Sharif, who had refused to negotiate with Musharraf, was not granted amnesty under the ordinance. Sharif had returned to Pakistan in September after seven years in exile, only to be deported to Saudi Arabia hours later. [See p. 598D2] Hundreds Killed in Northwest Clashes—

As many as 250 people, including 45 soldiers, were killed in fighting Oct. 6–9 between the army and Islamic militants in North Waziristan, a lawless region that bordered Afghanistan. Thousands from the region were reported to have fled their homes after the army ordered air strikes to bomb suspected militant hideouts. Observers reported that dozens of civilians had also been killed. [See pp. 657C2, 470E2] Fighting began Oct. 6 when a militant group attacked a military convoy. The violence was thought to be the most intense to have occurred in the region since Pakistan formed an alliance with the U.S. to fight worldwide terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. North Waziristan and other provinces in the northwest were suspected safe havens for Al Qaeda operatives, including the group’s leader, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. [See p. 443C2] The violence had spiked in recent months, after Musharraf in July ordered a raid on the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad, that left more than 100 extremists dead. Cease-fires between the government and tribal elders of North and South Waziristan, another northwestern province, had fallen apart since then. U.S. officials said the cease-fires, established in 2006, had allowed terrorists and militants to use the provinces as safe havens, as well as conduct operations against U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. [See p. 442F2] Analysts said the rising extremism and lack of government control in the northwestern areas were also due in part to the government’s preoccupation with securing a fresh five-year term for Musharraf. Many Pakistanis opposed the army’s operations in the northwestern areas, saying they only served U.S. interests. The U.S. had pledged $750 million in development aid to the region, and was helping train its security forces.

spokesman. Officials said the crash was an accident. Musharraf had survived at least three assassination attempts in the past. [See p. 443D2; 2005, p. 924B3 ] „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Sprinter Jones Admits Drug Use Returns Olympic Medals; Faces Prison.

U.S. sprinter Marion Jones, who had won a record five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Oct. 5 admitted in U.S. District Court in White Plains, N.Y., that she had made false statements to federal agents when she denied taking performance-enhancing drugs. She also admitted to lying to federal agents in a separate check-fraud investigation. Under a plea agreement, she faced up to six months in prison; sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 11, 2008. [See 2006, p. 703A2; 2004, p. 974A3, E3] Jones’s accomplishments at the Sydney Olympics had been hailed as among the greatest ever by a female athlete, and her admission of guilt brought widespread condemnation from sports officials, the media and fellow athletes. After entering her plea, Jones, in a statement outside the courthouse addressed to fans, said, “It is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust.” [See 2000, p. 745G2] With her Oct. 5 plea, to two counts of lying to federal investigators, Jones became the first athlete to be convicted in connection with a scandal surrounding the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), a Northern California nutritional supplement company that had supplied top athletes in several sports with performance-enhancing drugs. Jones and several other prominent athletes, including baseball star Barry Bonds, had testified before a grand jury investigating BALCO. Six others connected with the BALCO scandal had pleaded guilty and served jail time, including its founder, Victor Conte Jr. Jones in 2006 had settled a defamation case against Conte, who in 2004 had publicly stated that he had observed her taking steroids. [See pp. 659A1, 455E2]

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Helicopter on Musharraf Trip Crashes—

One of three helicopters escorting Musharraf as he visited the site of a 2005 earthquake in Kashmir Oct. 8 crashed, killing four people and injuring five, including a Musharraf

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The PPP’s decision to have its members abstain from voting, rather than resign from Parliament, was part of a U.S.-backed compromise worked out between Musharraf and the PPP’s leader, the exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, which was announced Oct. 4. Abstention could not be used as a premise to proclaim the vote illegitimate. As a result, the PPP’s boycott of the election was seen as merely symbolic. [See below] Musharraf Oct. 7 brushed aside questions about the election’s legitimacy. “Democracy means majority, whether there is opposition or no opposition,” he told reporters. “A majority, a vast majority, have voted for me, and therefore that result is the result.” Musharraf in September had pledged to resign as army chief, but only if he won the presidential election. Pending the court’s decision, he was expected to resign before Nov. 15, when his new five-year presidential term would begin. Musharraf had come to power in 1999 through a coup. Musharraf’s reelection was met with relative calm. Planned protests and a call for a general strike in Islamabad, the nation’s capital, failed to take place. Observers said the benign response was an indication that active opposition to Musharraf came from rival political parties and activist lawyers, and not the general population. However, in Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province, hundreds of protesting lawyers clashed with police. Opposition parties held a majority in the province, and approximately 75% of its electors boycotted the presidential vote. The province bordered lawless tribal regions, which were strongholds for members of Al Qaeda, the international terrorism network, and supporters of the Taliban insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan. Violence between the government and militants had increased in recent months, and intensified Oct. 6–9, leaving hundreds dead. [See below]

Sprinter Marion Jones, accompanied by her mother, Marion Toller (left), addresses the media after admitting to performance-enhancing drug use in a White Plains, N.Y., court Oct. 5.

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Jones, 31, had long been suspected of drug use, but had never tested positive and had consistently denied taking banned substances. Her former coach, Trevor Graham, her former husband, shot-putter C.J. Hunter, and sprinter Tim Montgomery, her former partner and the father of her four-year-old son, had all been implicated in doping. (Jones Feb. 24 had married Barbadian sprinter Obadele Thompson.) Graham’s trial on perjury charges related to the BALCO probe was scheduled to begin Nov. 26 in San Francisco, Calif. [See 2006, p. 940D3] In 2006, an initial test of a urine sample of Jones’s had come back positive for the banned endurance-boosting substance erythropoietin (EPO), but an analysis of a backup sample had been negative. Jones Admits Taking ‘the Clear’— In a letter to her family and friends, the contents of which were first reported Oct. 5 by the Washington Post, Jones admitted that she had taken a previously undetectable steroid known as “the clear.” In court that day, she told Judge Kenneth Karras that Graham had given her the clear from September 2000 to July 2001. The clear was a liquid, ingested orally, that contained tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), a so-called designer steroid that had been unknown to testers prior to mid-2003, when Graham anonymously sent a sample of it to the U.S. AntiDoping Agency (USADA). Jones said in court that Graham had told her the substance was flaxseed oil, a nutritional supplement. (Similarly, Bonds had told the grand jury probing BALCO that his trainer, Greg Anderson, had given him a substance purported to be flaxseed oil but that prosecutors believed to have been the clear.) “I trusted Graham, I did not ask any questions,” Jones told the judge. She said she realized the true nature of the substance after she stopped taking it. Jones admitted to lying to federal agents investigating BALCO in November 2003, when she denied ever taking the clear. She said she had been shown a sample of the clear by the agents, but denied recognizing it. [See 2004, p. 975A2] Jones also admitted to lying to federal investigators in August and September 2006 regarding a $25,000 check that Montgomery had given her. That probe was unrelated to the BALCO investigation. Montgomery April 9 had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in New York City to conspiracy charges in connection with the bank-fraud and money-laundering case. [See 2005, p. 992A2] Prosecutors told the judge that Jones had been persuaded to admit taking the banned substance when confronted with proof that she had lied about her role in the bank-fraud case. Jones’s statements were expected to help the prosecution in its case against Graham, who had also coached several other track and field stars. Jones Oct. 8 turned in her five Olympic medals—three golds (in the 100 meters, 200 meters and the 4x400 meter relay) and two bronzes (in the long jump and the 4x100 meter relay)—giving them to officials of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and the USADA. The USOC would 676

return them to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In addition, she agreed to forfeit all results from competitions during the period she was using the banned substance. Also that day, she accepted a two-year suspension from the sport, according to the USADA. (She had announced her retirement on the day of her guilty plea.) Jones might also be asked to return prize money she won during the period she was taking the banned substance. The IOC had begun an investigation into how to reallocate the medals Jones won in the 2000 Olympics, including the relay medals, it was reported Oct. 10. Jones’s teammates in the relay races would be asked to return their medals, USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth had said Oct. 8, although it was unclear whether any of the governing bodies had the authority to compel them to do so. Another issue involved Jones’s gold medal in the 100 meters. Ekaterini Thanou of Greece had placed second in that race; however, Thanou in December 2006 had finished serving a two-year ban for missing three drug tests prior to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. [See 2006, p. 687E2] „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Medical Research Food Additives Linked to Hyperactivity.

Scientists reported in the Sept. 6 issue of the British journal Lancet that common food additives had been linked to hyperactivity in children. The research, which had been funded by Britain’s Food Standards Agency (FSA), had focused on the preservative sodium benzoate, as well as a number of food colorings. The research was led by Jim Stevenson of the University of Southampton in England. [See 2006, p. 956E2] The researchers found that a group of three-year-olds and a group of eight- and nine-year-olds given a mix of food additives mimicking those commonly found in a serving of candy exhibited an increase in “the mean level of hyperactivity,” when compared with a control group of children given additive-free foods. However, the researchers found a spectrum of responses among those children given the additives, with some showing significant hyperactivity and others none at all. The FSA recommended that parents monitor the diet of their children, and eliminate artificial additives in cases of changed behavior. However, several consumer advocates criticized the FSA for stopping short of banning the additives, while placing a burden on parents. They noted that many children’s foods were sold without additive information on the label, making it impossible for parents to adequately monitor their children’s diets. „

People Conductor Leonard Slatkin, the outgoing music director of Washington, D.C.’s National Symphony Orchestra, Oct. 8 was

named music director of the Detroit (Mich.) Symphony Orchestra. Slatkin, 63, would assume the post in the fall of 2008 and would initially hold it for three years. The Detroit ensemble had been leaderless since Estonian-born Neeve Jarvi, 70, stepped down at the end of the 2004–05 season, after 15 years. Jarvi was the father of conductor Paavo Jarvi, 44, leader of Ohio’s Cincinnati Orchestra since 2000. [See p. 456E1; 2000, p. 72F1] Nearly a year after actress Reese Witherspoon filed for divorce from actor Ryan Phillippe in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences, their divorce was finalized Oct. 5. Witherspoon, 31, had won an Academy Award in 2006 for her starring role in the film Walk the Line. Phillippe, 33, was known for such films as Breach (2007) and Crash (2005). The couple, who had two children, had been married since 1999, when they co-starred in Cruel Intentions. [See p. 136D2; 2006, p. 179D3; 2005, p. 380C2; 1999, p. 240C2] „

O B I T UA R I E S BYRD, Bobby Howard, 73, singer, pianist and songwriter who in the early 1950s collaborated with James Brown in the Famous Flames, the band that launched Brown’s career as the eventual “godfather of soul”; he continued to perform with Brown until 1973, and later had a modest solo career; he claimed to have written many songs with Brown for which Brown took all the credit, and once filed a lawsuit against Brown along those lines that was eventually dismissed; born Aug. 15, 1934, in Toccoa, Ga.; died Sept. 12 at his home in Loganville, Ga., of lung cancer; Brown died in December 2006. [See 2006, p. 1042F3] DAVIS, Jo Ann S., 57, conservative Republican from Virginia who had served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2001; she was the first Republican woman—and only the second woman—to win election to the House from Virginia; born June 29, 1950, in Rowan County, N.C.; died Oct. 6 at her home in Gloucester, Va., after a two-year battle with breast cancer. [See 2006, p. 857E3; 2004, p. 867E3; Indexes 2002, 2000] HUMBARD, (Alpha) Rex (Emmanuel), 88, one of the first revivalist preachers to reach millions of television viewers; his weekly services were televised on Sundays from the early 1950s until the late 1990s, for much of that time from his Cathedral of Tomorrow, a 5,400-seat, nondenominational church in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and one of the first U.S. “megachurches”; at the height of his popularity, in the 1970s, an estimated 20 million people a week watched his show in the U.S., Canada and many other countries; his ministry declined rapidly in the early 1980s, after federal and state officials linked him to financial irregularities; born Aug. 13, 1919, in Little Rock, Ark.; died Sept. 21 at a hospital near his home in Lantana, Fla., of natural causes. [See 1980, p. 413A2] RYAN, Tony (Thomas Anthony), 71, Irish businessman who in 1985 founded Ryanair Holdings PLC, which in the 1990s, under the day-to-day leadership of Michael O’Leary, grew into Europe’s biggest budget airline; born Feb. 2, 1936, in Thurles, Ireland; died Oct. 3 in Celbridge, Ireland, after a long illness. [See 2006, pp. 1027B1, 660G1] SHAPIRA, Rabbi Avraham Elkana Kahana, 94, Orthodox Jewish scholar who was chief rabbi (1983– 93) of Israel’s Ashkenazic Jews, followers of Eastern European traditions; he championed the Israeli settler movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, insisting that Jews had a divine right to those lands; in 2004, after then–Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came up with a plan to evacuate a number of Jewish settlements, he called for Israeli soldiers to disobey orders to expel Jews from their homes; nevertheless, the evacuation, once it began, proceeded relatively smoothly and was completed in September 2005; born May 20, 1913, in Jerusalem, then ruled by the Ottoman Empire; died Sept. 27 in Jerusalem; the cause of death was not reported. [See 2005, p. 566A2; 2004, p. 834A3; Indexes 1983–84] „

October 11, 2007

Pakistan’s Bhutto Returns; Bombs Hit Procession At Least 130 Killed in Attack. Former Prime

northwest region, had threatened to use suicide bombers to attack Bhutto. Bhutto Oct. 17 had dismissed the threat, saying, “Islam forbids suicide bombing.” The attack was said to have been similar to those conducted by Mehsud in the past. [See p. 599G1] Bhutto Celebrates Homecoming—Bhutto Oct. 18, upon disembarking from the plane, said: “The most important step—to be back on Pakistani soil.” Earlier, on the plane from Dubai, Bhutto had told reporters that she felt “very excited, very happy, very proud, a tremendous sense of responsibility as there are so many people at the airport.” She later added, “The time has come for democracy” in Pakistan. “If we want to save Pakistan, we have to have democracy.” Bhutto Faces Court Challenge—Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry Oct. 12 announced that the court would decide if a deal Bhutto reached with Musharraf the preceding week was legally sound. The deal, described as a “national reconciliation” ordinance, cleared corruption charges brought against all politicians between 1988 and 1999. Charges against Bhutto had driven her into exile in 1999; she claimed that they were politically motivated. If the court found the deal unconstitutional, Bhutto could face time in prison. The deal had been backed by the U.S., because both Musharraf and Bhutto were considered secular moderates who could confront Islamic extremism in the country’s northwestern provinces. Musharraf’s popularity had waned in recent months, and he was reelected president Oct. 6 only after nearly all his opponents boycotted the election. Bhutto, a popular politician, was expected to bolster support for Musharraf. However, analysts said her reputation had been tainted by her association with Musharraf. Another former prime minister in exile, Nawaz Sharif, had refused to negotiate with Musharraf, and had seen his popularity rise. Sharif had returned to Pakistan in September, but was deported to Saudi Arabia hours later. Bhutto was expected to lead the PPP in parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2008. Bhutto was negotiating with Musharraf to have him lift a restriction on prime ministers serving for a third term. Bhutto had served as prime minister twice in the 1990s. Musharraf had urged Bhutto to put off her return date until the court ruled on petitions that challenged the eligibility of Musharraf running for president while also serving as army chief. The court Oct. 17 began hearing those petitions. MushBurning and damaged cars next to a vehicle that had carried former Pakistani arraf had vowed to rePrime Minister Benazir Bhutto, after a suicide bombing late Oct. 18 hit a con- sign as army chief by voy of Bhutto and her supporters in Karachi, Pakistan, killing at least 130. Nov. 15. „

AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images

Minister Benazir Bhutto Oct. 18 returned to Pakistan, ending more than eight years of self-imposed exile. She came from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and arrived in the city of Karachi. At least 200,000 supporters welcomed her as she traveled from the airport in a bullet-proof truck that was to take her to the tomb of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of modern Pakistan, where she was scheduled to deliver a speech. However, before Bhutto could reach her destination, two bombs exploded several yards from the truck, killing at least 130 people and wounding as many as 450. Bhutto was not hurt, and was taken to her residence in Karachi. [See p. 674E3] The explosions occurred just before midnight local time. Bhutto reportedly had climbed down from the roof of the truck— where she had spent nearly eight hours waving to the crowds—and entered the interior of the armored vehicle some 10 minutes before the bombs went off. The dead included civilians and workers for Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). In the aftermath of the bombings, government officials said they believed that the apparent assassination attempt had been conducted by a suicide bomber. They said the bomber first set off a grenade, and then detonated a much more powerful charge that was strapped to the bomber’s body. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. Bhutto Oct. 16 had sent a letter to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf identifying three people in the government or security forces that she believed had ties to Islamic extremists and were plotting her assassination. Musharraf’s government had organized the security for her procession through Karachi. Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who had remained in Dubai, after the attack said members of Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agencies had organized the attack because his wife posed a threat to their influence. The intelligence agencies had long been linked with the country’s extremist groups. [See p. 38E1; 2006, p. 806E1] Musharraf released a statement condemning the attack, as did a spokesman for the U.S. government. Before Bhutto’s arrival, Baitullah Mehsud, a warlord from Pakistan’s volatile

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3488* October 18, 2007

B Turkish Parliament Approves Offensive Against Kurds in Iraq Iraq, U.S. Urge Restraint. The Turkish par-

liament Oct. 17 voted, 507–19, to authorize possible cross-border military action within the next year against Kurdish separatist guerrillas based in northern Iraq. The Turkish government Oct. 15 had formally requested the parliamentary authorization, responding to a series of attacks by the rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which had left 30 Turkish soldiers, police officers and civilians dead over the past two weeks. Both the Iraqi and U.S. governments urged Turkey not to launch an attack. [See pp. 663C2, 644G3] Turkish aircraft and artillery had reportedly been bombing and firing shells over the Iraqi border since the wave of PKK attacks. But U.S. military officials said they had no intelligence indicating that Turkey was preparing for an immediate large-scale incursion.

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan; procession bombed, killing 130.

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Turkish parliament approves incursion against Kurds in northern Iraq. PAGE 677

Exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama given U.S. Congressional Gold Medal. PAGE 679

Attorney general nominee Mukasey’s Senate hearings held. PAGE 681

House fails to override veto in children’s health insurance vote.

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U.N. Security Council censures Myanmar rulers. PAGE 687

U.S.’s Rice, Gates meet with Russian President Putin. PAGE 689

Nobel Prizes awarded; Al Gore shares Peace Prize. PAGE 690

National Football League season opens. PAGE 692

*First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Oct. 16 said, “Passage of this motion does not mean an immediate incursion will follow. But we will act at the right time and at the right conditions.” Erdogan had previously resisted pressure from the Turkish military to launch such an offensive. However, he said Oct. 12 that he was prepared to defend Turkish interests, even at the cost of a break in relations with the U.S. “Did they seek permission from anyone when they came from a distance of 10,000 kilometers and hit Iraq?” he asked, adding, “We do not need anyone else’s advice.” At the same time, Turkey’s ties with the U.S. were also suffering severe strain due to a pending resolution in the U.S. House that declared the World War I–era massacres of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Turkish forces to have been an act of genocide. [See below] Iraqi Reaction—Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Oct. 16 said, “We will never accept a military solution to the differences between Turkey and Iraq.” He said he had set up an emergency meeting with senior aides to address the border issue, and was ready for “urgent negotiations” with Turkey. Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi Oct. 16 traveled to Ankara, the Turkish capital, for meetings with Erdogan and other Turkish leaders. The prospect of a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, a major oil-production center, had contributed to a rise in world oil prices to near-record levels that week. Crude-oil futures contracts closed Oct. 16 at $87.61 a barrel, up $1.48, or 1.7%, in New York trading. Northern Iraq, one of the country’s few stable areas, was a mostly Kurdish region with a government largely autonomous from Iraq’s central government. Iraqi Kurdish leaders had called on the PKK to agree to a cease-fire with Turkey, but had done little to restrain the group. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who was Kurdish, during a visit to Paris Oct. 17 said, “We consider activities of the PKK against the interests of the Kurdish people first, and then against the interests of Turkey.” He added, “We have asked the PKK to stop fighting, to end the so-called military activity.” The PKK had waged an insurgency in southeastern Turkey since the 1980s. Turkey had repeatedly made incursions into northern Iraq in the 1980s and 1990s, striking at the PKK’s bases, but had failed to subdue the group. Under pressure from the U.S., Turkey had stayed out of Iraq since the start of the Iraq war in 2003. Turkey had repeatedly pressed the U.S. and Iraq to take action against the PKK, which the U.S. had classified as a terrorist group. Bush Cautions Turkey, Congress—U.S. President George W. Bush at a news conference in Washington, D.C., shortly before the Turkish parliament voted Oct. 17, said, “We are making it very clear to Tur678

key that we don’t think it is in their interest to send troops into Iraq.” Bush also warned the leadership of the U.S. House not to provoke Turkey by voting on the genocide resolution. “One thing Congress should not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman Empire,” Bush said. Modern Turkey had been founded in 1923, after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish government denied that Turkish forces had deliberately committed genocide, arguing that the Armenian mass deaths had resulted from the violent turmoil of the empire’s collapse, in which many Turks also died. Turkish General Warns U.S. Congress—

Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, the chief of the Turkish military, in an interview published Oct. 14 in the Turkish newspaper Milliyet warned that if the Armenian genocide resolution should pass by the full House, “our military ties with the U.S. will never be the same again.” The U.S. depended on Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally, as a transportation hub for supplying U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The House Foreign Affairs Committee had passed the genocide resolution the previous week. House Democratic leaders had vowed to bring the resolution to the floor for a vote by the full chamber. However, support for the measure among both Democrats and Republicans was eroding as lawmakers heeded warnings from the Bush administration and from Turkey that its passage would risk serious consequences for U.S.-Turkish relations. Bush Oct. 16 telephoned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) to ask her not to bring the resolution to the floor. Pelosi Oct. 17 said the prospects for a vote had become uncertain. “Whether it will come up or not, or what the action will be, remains to be seen,” she said. „

Russia’s Putin Visits Iran Leaders Meet at Caspian Sea Summit.

Leaders including Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Oct. 16 met in Tehran, Iran’s capital, for a summit meeting of the five nations that bordered the Caspian Sea. The leaders issued a joint statement that none of the five Caspian Sea nations would allow military strikes on any of the other nations from to be launched from its soil. [See 2002, p. 312C3] Ahmadinejad said, “The Caspian Sea is an inland sea and it only belongs to the Caspian states, therefore only they are entitled to have their ships and military forces here.” The statement signaled the disapproval of the Caspian countries (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan) regarding increased U.S. military influence in the region, which traditionally had been under the influence of Russia. The U.S. currently refueled Afghanistan-bound airplanes in Turkmenistan, and had under-

written improvements to a former Soviet airfield in Azerbaijan. The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush had recently made allusions to the possibility of a military strike on Iran if it did not discontinue its nuclear program. There had been speculation in the region that Turkmen or Azerbaijani airfields could be used in such an attack. Responding to a question at an Oct. 17 news conference, about Putin’s warning regarding military action against Iran, Bush said, “We’ve got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So…If you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.” The Caspian leaders also discussed how to distribute the oil and gas resources under the sea. Before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the USSR and Iran had evenly split the resources, but since the Caspian nations had become independent, rights to those resources had become a point of contention. Each nation was currently developing resources including Kazakh oilfields and a Turkmen-Kazakh gas pipeline. However, analysts said a lack of clear sea borders limited the sector’s development. No border agreements were made at the summit. [See p. 579B3] Putin had traveled to the summit despite rumors of an assassination attempt while he was there. “If I always listened to the various threats or recommendations from the security services, I’d never leave the house,” said Putin Oct. 15, before he left for Iran. Putin was the first Russian or Soviet leader to visit Iran since Joseph Stalin in 1943.

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Putin Meets Iran’s Supreme Leader—

Putin Oct. 16 met with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran. During the meeting, Putin delivered a “special proposal” to Khamenei concerning Iran’s nuclear program, according to Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Oct. 17. Khamenei responded to the proposal by saying, “We will think about what you said and about your proposal,” and added that Iran was “determined to provide our country’s need for nuclear energy.” The details of the proposal were not disclosed. Putin also said Iran had a right to peaceful nuclear energy, and that a planned Russian-built nuclear plant in Bushehr in southern Iran would be finished. Construction of the plant had been delayed because of a dispute over payments from Iran to Russia. [See p. 250E2] „

U.S. Award for Dalai Lama Angers China Bush Welcomes Tibetan Spiritual Leader.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, Oct. 17 was given the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. China, which condemned the Dalai Lama as a Tibetan separatist, angrily denounced the award, demanding that the U.S. cancel the event, and warning it would seriously damage U.S.-Chinese relations. [See p. 637G1] U.S. President George W. Bush attended the ceremony, along with members of Congress including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.). It was the first public appearance by a sitting U.S. president with the Dalai Lama. Bush had met privately with him the previous day in the residential quarters of the White House, apparently in a pointed distinction from meetings with the leaders of foreign countries, customarily held in the Oval Office. Bush had signed the bill granting the award on Sept. 27, 2006. It praised the Dalai Lama, 72, for “many enduring and outstanding contributions to peace, non-violence, human rights and religious understanding.” A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Oct. 16 called the award a “gross interference” in China’s domestic affairs, and accused the Dalai Lama of conducting “se-

cessionist activities in the camouflage of religion.” Zhang Qingli, the leader of the ruling Communist Party in Tibet, that day said the government was “furious,” while Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said China had “solemnly demanded” the withdrawal of the medal. The Dalai Lama brushed off those statements as routine, but in his speech at the ceremony, he said he felt “a sense of regret” at the tensions. He insisted that he was only seeking “meaningful autonomy” from China, not independence. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, noting a decision not to make photographs of Bush’s Oct. 16 meeting with the Dalai Lama public, that day said, “We in no way want to stir the pot and make China feel that we are poking a stick in their eye.” China’s state media Oct. 9 had carried an article accusing the Dalai Lama of betraying Buddhist teachings by supporting “evil cults” such as the banned Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong and Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo doomsday sect. China, which had invaded Tibet in 1950 and ruled it since then, claimed that Tibet had effectively been part of China for more than 700 years. But the Dalai Lama asserted that Tibet had been a sovereign country until the Chinese invasion. He had lived in exile since 1959, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. „

Iraq War Ex-Commander Sanchez Criticizes Bush.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who led U.S. military operations in Iraq during the year following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Oct. 12 blamed the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for badly mishandling the war. Speaking at the annual convention of the Military Reporters and Editors Association in Washington, D.C., he said Bush had launched the invasion with a “catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan,” resulting in “a nightmare with no end in sight.” Sanchez was the highest-ranking of a number of retired military officers who had criticized the administration’s war policy. [See pp. 680G1, 677B3, 661A1; 2006, pp. 1001D1, 875A3] Sanchez criticized the current surge in U.S. troop levels as a “desperate attempt by the administration that has not accepted the political and economic realities of this war.” He called for bipartisan cooperation, but said, “The best we can do with this flawed approach is stave off defeat.” Sanchez faulted the civilian leadership, especially the National Security Council (NSC), as incompetent and negligent, and said it had erroneously tried to stabiU.S. President George W. Bush (right) during an Oct. 17 ceremony in Wash- lize Iraq using only the ington, D.C., for the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

October 18, 2007

military. “The administration, Congress and the entire interagency, especially the State Department, must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure,” he said. Sanchez’s command in Iraq had been tarnished by the 2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Also, critics said that he and other military commanders had been slow to respond to the rise of the insurgency in Iraq. He had retired in 2006 after Defense Department officials opted not to promote him to four-star rank, reportedly because they feared a bitter confirmation hearing focused on the Abu Ghraib scandal. [See p. 685G2] Responding to questions about why he had waited almost a year after his retirement to speak out, Sanchez said it was not for active-duty officials to challenge lawful orders from civilian authorities. A White House spokeswoman refused to comment on Sanchez’s statements, saying, “We appreciate his service to the country.” She said progress was being made in Iraq. Little Reconstruction Progress Reported—

The U.S. Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Oct. 18 reported little progress in reconstruction efforts in the vast majority of Iraq’s provinces. The report came as the special inspector general, Stuart Bowen Jr., that day testified before the House Armed Services oversight and investigations subcommittee. [See p. 571F2] Bowen said the office’s 32 Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) had made “incremental progress” in some areas “despite continuing political and ethnic conflicts, as well as the difficult security situation.” However, he said, the PRT program had not yet developed concrete methods to assess their progress.

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The U.S. House Oct. 16 passed, 395–21, a resolution condemning the U.S. State Department for refusing to publicly disclose details on corruption in the Iraqi government. The non-binding resolution was seen as a challenge to the Bush administration’s policy by Democrats; several Republicans derided it as an empty political gesture, but most voted for it. [See p. 644A3] The bill’s sponsor, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D, Calif.), had subpoenaed documents and held a hearing on the matter earlier in October. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had refused his requests for testimony and documents on the corruption, which Waxman said was undermining reconstruction efforts in Iraq. David Satterfield, the U.S. State Department’s Iraq policy coordinator, Oct. 15 said that corruption in the Iraqi government was “real, endemic and pernicious.” He said the U.S. government had brought up its concerns on the issue with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Blackwater Claims Contradicted— U.S. soldiers’ reports of a September shooting incident, in which guards from the U.S.based private security company Blackwater USA killed at least eight Iraqi civilians, contradicted the company’s claims

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that the guards had been defending themselves from enemy fire, it was reported Oct. 12. The soldiers, who had arrived at the shooting site—Nisour Square in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital—shortly after the firing stopped, said there appeared to be “no enemy activity involved” and described it as a “criminal event.” [See p. 662B3] The Washington Post reported that, according to soldiers and pictures of the site, at least two cars had had their back windshields shot out while their front windshields were left intact, indicating that they had been fired upon while driving away from the guards. Another car reportedly had not yet entered Nisour Square when it was fired upon. Soldiers also reportedly said that they had not found any empty bullet casings from weapons commonly used by Iraqi police and insurgents, but only from arms used by U.S. troops and contractors. The New York Times Oct. 13 reported that three Kurdish witnesses who had watched the shooting from a nearby rooftop said no one had fired on the Blackwater guards. Officials associated with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most powerful Shiite Muslim cleric, Oct. 12 called for sanctions against Blackwater. Iraqi officials in a report on the shooting had called for Blackwater to be expelled from the country within six months, the Post reported Oct. 15. They also called for $8 million in compensation to be paid by the company to the family of every victim killed in the September shooting. A spokeswoman for Blackwater said she hoped a decision would be postponed until an investigation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had been completed. However, she said, Blackwater would leave Iraq if asked to do so by the U.S. government. U.S Defense Secretary Robert Gates Oct. 18 said private security guards’ missions “work at cross-purposes to our larger mission in Iraq,” adding that they led to the mistreatment of Iraqis. The Times Oct. 16 reported that Gates was calling for a unified authority, most likely the U.S. military, to oversee private security companies working in Iraq for the U.S. government. Of the approximately 10,000 security contractors working in Iraq, 2,500—including 800 employed by Blackwater—were under contract with the State Department, which reportedly opposed the move. Private security guards working for British-based Erinys Iraq Ltd. Oct. 18 fired on a taxi in the Kurdish village of Qara Hanjiel, 22 miles (35 km) east of the northern ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, injuring three Iraqis. Erinys provided security for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A military spokesman said the taxi had approached the guards’ convoy at high speed, and that they issued warnings before opening fire. However, Iraqis said the firing had been unprovoked and sustained, and that the guards had driven away without offering assistance. The shooting was seen as likely to further inflame Iraqi opinion against foreign private security companies. „ 680

U.N. Reports ‘Humanitarian Crisis.’ The United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) Oct. 11 released a report detailing an “ever-deepening humanitarian crisis” in Iraq. The report, which covered April 1– June 30, said civilians had suffered the most from ongoing fighting between Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias, and that thousands of Iraqis had been forced to flee their homes every month. In addition, it expressed concern about detainees in Iraqi custody, who it said were often held for months without charges or legal counsel, kept in substandard conditions and subjected to routine abuse. The report said 44,325 detainees were being held in Iraqi or U.S. custody as of June, up by almost 4,000 from April. [See pp. 679D1, 677B3, 661A1, 587B2] UNAMI expressed concern over the number of civilians killed in U.S. military operations, and said all such incidents should be investigated. It said at least 88 Iraqi civilians had been killed in U.S. air strikes over the three-month period, and 15 had died in U.S. ground operations. A U.S. air strike that day killed 15 more civilians. [See below] The report also urged the U.S. to make private security companies legally accountable for unjustified killings in Iraq. It called on the companies to obey international humanitarian law. Iraqi interior ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said the ministry “totally rejects this report,” and that other inspections had revealed no abuse within its detention facilities. The report had originally been due in September. However, U.N. officials had said that Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, had requested that its release be delayed in order to give Iraq time to respond to the allegations. Journalists Killed—Gunmen Oct. 15 killed Eyad Tariq, the editor of al-Watan, a weekly newspaper in Tikrit, and two bodyguards in an ambush near Kirkuk, in northern Iraq. Two other journalists were injured in the attack. Tariq’s death added to the prior total of at least 119 journalists killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, nearly all of them Iraqis. [See p. 458F2] An Iraqi reporter working for the Washington Post, Salih Saif Aldin, Oct. 14 was shot and killed in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital. The Post’s Baghdad bureau chief, Sudarsan Raghavan, said Saif Aldin had been shot once in the head at close range while reporting in the Saydia neighborhood of the city, the site of clashes between the Shiite Mahdi Army militia and Sunni insurgents. A New York Times reporter had been killed in the same area in July. Locals blamed Saif Aldin’s death on Iraqi soldiers loyal to the Mahdi Army or members of the Awakening Council, a U.S.-backed organization of Sunni tribesmen who had turned against Sunni extremist groups. Iraqi government officials had accused Awakening Council members of committing murders and kidnappings. [See p. 644E2] Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Sunni and Shiite leaders in southwestern Baghdad Oct. 18 signed a U.S. mili-

tary-brokered “reconciliation document between Muslims” that called for an end to sectarian fighting and violence against Iraqi and U.S. troops. The agreement also restricted U.S. and Iraqi troops to “limited raids on specific targets,” although the U.S. military commander in the area, Lt. Col. Patrick Frank, said it would not change U.S. operations. Leaders who signed the agreement included Sunni tribal leaders and politicians, and local government officials loyal to the Shiite Mahdi Army. U.S. military officials said the agreement was a sign of good faith among sectarian foes, although it was not expected to eliminate violence in the area. [See p. 554A1] † Iraqi Electricity Minister Karim Wahid Oct. 17 said Iraq had granted a $940 million contract for China’s Shanghai Heavy Industry to build a large power plant in Wasit province, in eastern Iraq, and a $150 million contract for the Iranian Sunir company to build a smaller plant in Sadr City, a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. He said Iran had also agreed to build a large power plant for free in the area between the two southern Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, and to provide cheap power from its own electrical grid for southern Iraq. U.S. officials warned against Iran’s growing influence in Iraq, but also said the deals showed that Iraq was a free marketplace. [See p. 538A3] † U.S. military officials Oct. 17 said a planned partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq would begin with the December departure of a combat brigade stationed in Diyala province, which would not be replaced with a fresh unit. However, they said a neighboring unit would take over responsibility for the restive province, and that forces there would not be reduced. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, in September had outlined a reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq from 20 to 15 combat brigades by the summer of 2008. [See p. 585A1] † The Kut province governor’s office Oct. 16 said 56 Iranian prisoners the previous day had been released to Iranian diplomats. They had been charged with illegal entry into Iraq and given one-year prison sentences. † The U.S. military Oct. 12 said it was investigating an air strike the previous day in the Lake Tharthar region, northwest of Baghdad, which had killed an estimated 15 Iraqi women and children, one of the highest civilian death tolls in a U.S. operation in recent months. The military had said the attack, on a suspected meeting of leaders of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, had also killed 19 insurgents. The U.N. that day had called for a “vigorous” probe, and said the results should be made public. † Six Sunni insurgent groups Oct. 11 announced that they had formed a political umbrella group, in a video broadcast on Qatar-based satellite television network Al Jazeera. The group did not recognize the Iraqi government and called for continued violent resistance against the U.S. FACTS ON FILE

† The U.S. military Oct. 11 said a patrol Oct. 9 had discovered an arms cache with weapons belonging to Spec. Alex Jimenez, one of two U.S. soldiers missing since being captured in May. The weapons were reportedly found south of Baghdad, seven miles (11 km) north of where Jimenez was captured. [See p. 395D3] „

Religion Episcopal Church Said to Comply on Gays.

A high-ranking Anglican advisory committee Oct. 3 reported that the Episcopal Church had fulfilled a directive to stop the appointment of openly gay bishops. The directive, which also demanded that Episcopal leaders ban the blessing of same-sex unions, had been issued in February by international Anglican leaders. The issue had headed the agenda at the biennial meeting of the Episcopal Church, held Sept. 20-25 in New Orleans, La. [See p. 124D2] The Episcopal Church was the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The conflict over gays in the church had prompted warnings of a schism between the U.S. church and more conservative branches in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. The dispute over homosexuals in the clergy had intensified after the Episcopal Church consecrated V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire in November 2003. The church did not have official blessings for same-sex unions but some parishes permitted them nonetheless. [See 2003 p. 888B3] In response to the February directive, the Episcopal House of Bishops Sept. 25 approved a resolution that “reconfirms” that bishops would “exercise restraint” in the appointment of gay bishops, and promised not to allow “any public rites of blessings of same-sex unions.” But it also petitioned for an “immediate end” to the trend of foreign bishops consecrating conservative U.S. church members as ministers for breakaway Episcopal parishes. The Anglican advisory panel Oct. 3 said the response had “clarified all outstanding questions” and “given the necessary assurances sought” from the Episcopal Church. Breakaway Group Meets in Pittsburgh—

Bishops from 13 Anglican and Episcopal organizations in North America Sept. 28 announced they had formed a coalition, in the first step to creating a “separate ecclesiastical structure.” The group, called the Common Cause Partnership, met Sept. 2528 in Pittsburgh, Pa. Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, a leader of the group, said the Episcopal Church had “lost its way” and was “weak, in decline, and uncertain about Jesus.” Rev. Jan Nunley, a spokeswoman for the Episcopal Church, in comments reported Sept. 30 said such breakaway groups were not a new phenomenon and had had little success in the past. According to the Episcopal Church, 66 of its approximately 7,000 parishes had voted to leave the church. [See 2006, p. 1002B3] „ October 18, 2007

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Attorney General Nominee Mukasey Vows Independence Rejects Torture at Confirmation Hearing.

Michael Mukasey, a former federal judge and prosecutor nominated for attorney general by President George W. Bush, Oct. 17 appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first of two days of confirmation hearings. He pledged to maintain the independence of the Justice Department. He also rejected a 2002 Bush administration legal opinion that claimed that the president had the authority to order the use of torture against terrorism suspects. [See p. 607C1] Mukasey, 66, had retired as chief judge of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2006. Bush had named him to replace Alberto Gonzales, who had resigned as attorney general under pressure from lawmakers who accused him of improper partisanship and a lack of independence from Bush, his longtime boss. Asked by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, about how he would address allegations of political interference in cases during Gonzales’s tenure, Mukasey said, “Partisan politics plays no part in either the bringing of charges or the timing of charges.” Mukasey also pledged to recuse himself from any cases involving the Republican presidential candidacy of his longtime friend, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Asked by Sen. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.), the committee’s senior Republican, whether he would resign in the event of a serious legal or ethical difference of opinion with Bush, Mukasey said, “That would present me with a difficult but not a complex problem. I could either try to talk him out of it or leave.” Questioned about his views on the interrogation of terrorism suspects, Mukasey said, “Torture is unlawful under the laws of this country.” He added, “It is not what this country stands for. It’s antithetical to everything this country stands for.” Mukasey said the president’s authority as commander in chief of the armed forces did not give him the right to order torture. He said the 2002 legal opinion, which authorized extreme interrogation techniques, was “a mistake” and “unnecessary.” However, he declined to comment about more recent administration directives on interrogation techniques. He also said he was not yet familiar with a warrantless wiretapping program aimed at terrorism suspects. [See p. 664D3, A1] He said the U.S. prison camp for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had become a “black eye” for the U.S. because “we are detaining people apparently without end.” But he said it would be difficult to close Guantanamo. Grilled On Waterboarding—At a second hearing Oct. 18, Democratic senators pressed Mukasey on whether he thought a specific interrogation technique—water-

boarding, which simulated drowning— was unconstitutional. Mukasey said, “If it is torture as defined by the Constitution, or defined by constitutional standards, it can’t be authorized.” However, he said that he did not know enough about the technique to answer that question. He also drew criticism from Democrats by opining that, as commander in chief, the president could ignore certain laws during wartime, such as the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which restricted domestic spying. „

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Legislation Children’s Insurance Override Bid Fails.

The House in an Oct. 18 vote failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed to overcome a veto by President George W. Bush of a bill that would expand funding for the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP or SCHIP). The program provided health care coverage for children whose parents could not afford private insurance, but who earned too much money to qualify for assistance under Medicaid. The House voted, 273–156, in favor of the measure, falling 13 votes short of the number needed to overturn Bush’s veto. [See p. 648E2] The House had passed the bill in September, with 45 Republicans breaking ranks to support it. In the override vote, 44 Republicans voted for the measure. The bill had passed the Senate in September with a veto-proof majority. Democratic leaders had pressured Republicans to vote for the bill by characterizing lawmakers as either for or against a popular program for poor children. Several congressional Republicans had also expressed frustration with Bush for refusing to negotiate on the measure. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) said, “Each Republican who voted to uphold President Bush’s heartless veto should be embarrassed that he chose to stand in the way of improving the lives of millions of America’s poorest children.” Bush at an Oct. 17 news conference had indicated some new flexibility, saying, “If putting poor children first requires more than the 20% increase in funding I proposed, we’ll work with Congress to find the money we need.” Republicans opposed to the measure had cited provisions that they said could allow children of illegal immigrants and middle- and upper-income families to obtain government-provided health insurance. House Democratic leaders said they would consider reworking the bill’s language to eliminate any potential loopholes and clarify that families with incomes in excess of 300% of the federal poverty level (which would be about $60,000 a year for a family of four) would be ineligible. They also said if Bush rejected that reworking, they would reintroduce the measure just prior to the 2008 elections. The measure would have expanded funding for CHIP to about $12 billion per year, from its current rate of about $5 billion per year, for total funding of $60 681

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billion between fiscal years 2008 and 2013. Supporters said the increased funding would allow 10 million children to enroll in the program, up from the 6.6 million „ currently participating in CHIP.

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3rd-Quarter Finance Reports Filed. Democratic and Republican presidential candidates Oct. 15 filed reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), giving final numbers on their campaign fund-raising, spending and cash on hand for the third quarter of 2007, from July through September. [See p. 646A3] Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.) led all candidates at the end of the quarter in cash on hand for the primaries, with nearly $35 million in the bank. (Clinton had a total of $50.5 million on hand, some of which could only be used in the general election.) Her top rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), was close behind, with $32 million on hand for the primaries. Clinton returned $1.2 million in questionable contributions, including more than $800,000 raised on her behalf by Norman Hsu, a top Democratic fund-raiser facing fraud charges. [See p. 632B3] Among the Republicans, former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani led with $11.6 million on hand for the primaries, trailed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who reported $9.2 million in cash on hand. Romney spent $21 million in the quarter, raised $9.8 million and lent his campaign $8.5 million of his own money. Romney had bought $6 million in television and radio ads in the quarter, mostly in New Hampshire and Iowa, which traditionally had the first contests of the primary season. That brought his total ad spending for the year to $12.7 million, the most of any candidate.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.), who had joined the field in September, reported $7.1 million on hand, while Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) had just $1.67 million in the bank, which was exceeded by his $1.7 million in debt. Rep. Ron Paul (Texas), a long-shot libertarian antiwar candidate, showed surprisingly strong financial support, with $5.4 million in cash on hand. „

Federal Budget Fiscal ’07 Deficit Fell to $162.8 Billion. The Treasury Department Oct. 11 reported that the federal budget deficit dropped to $162.8 billion in fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30. That was the smallest deficit in five years, and a decrease of about 34% from the fiscal 2006 deficit of $248 billion. The fiscal 2007 deficit equaled 1.2% of gross domestic product, down from 1.9% in fiscal 2006. [See p. 479B3] Federal spending grew 2.8% in fiscal 2007, to $2.73 trillion, while revenue grew 6.7%, to $2.57 trillion. Individual income tax receipts increased 12%, to $1.163 trillion; corporate tax receipts grew 4.6%, to $370.2 billion; and payroll taxes grew 4.3%, to $824.3 billion. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. said, “This year’s budget results demonstrate the remarkable strength of the U.S. economy. This strength has translated into record-breaking revenues flowing into the U.S. Treasury and a continued decline in the federal budget deficit.” President George W. Bush in February had set a goal of balancing the budget by fiscal 2012. However, the White House and independent economists had forecast an increase in the deficit in fiscal 2008, due to a slowing economy. Also, budgetary pressures were expected to increase in the coming decade, as the post–World War II baby boom generation entered retirement and began drawing Social Security and Medicare benefits. „

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES’ FUND-RAISING: PRIMARY AND GENERAL ELECTION

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Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton Barack Obama John Edwards Bill Richardson Christopher Dodd Joseph Biden Dennis Kucinich Mike Gravel Republicans Rudy Giuliani Mitt Romney Fred Thompson* John McCain Ron Paul Mike Huckabee Sam Brownback Tom Tancredo Duncan Hunter Alan Keyes

Contributions 3rd Quarter To Date

Spending 3rd Quarter To Date

Cash on Hand

$27.9 $21.3 $7.2 $5.4 $1.5 $1.8 $1.0 $0.1

$90.9 $80.3 $30.3 $18.7 $13.6 $8.2 $2.1 $0.2

$22.6 $21.5 $8.3 $6.7 $4.0 $2.6 $0.9 $0.1

$40.5 $44.2 $17.9 $12.9 $9.7 $6.3 $1.8 $0.2

$50.5 $36.1 $12.4 $5.8 $3.9 $1.9 $0.3 $0.03

$11.6 $18.4 $12.8 $5.7 $5.3 $1.0 $0.9 $0.8 $0.5 $0.02

$47.3 $62.8 $12.8 $32.1 $8.3 $2.3 $4.2 $3.5 $1.9 $0.02

$13.3 $21.3 $5.7 $5.5 $2.2 $0.8 $1.3 $1.2 $0.6 $0.01

$30.6 $53.6 $5.7 $28.6 $2.8 $1.7 $4.1 $3.5 $1.8 $0.01

$16.6 $9.2 $7.1 $3.5 $5.4 $0.7 $0.09 $0.1 $0.1 $0.01

All numbers in millions. Contributions exclude transfers and loans, and include funds designated for the general election campaign. *Thompson officially joined the race in September; his fund-raising results were for June through September. Sources: Federal Election Commission, Center for Responsive Politics

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Economy Officials Say Housing Woes to Continue.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in a speech Oct. 16 said the downturn in the housing market posed “the most significant current risk to the economy,” and that it would continue to “adversely impact” the economy “for some time.” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a speech Oct. 15 said problems in the housing market would place a “significant drag” on economic growth until at least early 2008. [See below; pp. 608G1, 606A1] Paulson projected that foreclosures would begin on nearly one million homes in 2007. He described as “shameful” the mortgage brokers that gave adjustable-rate mortgages to subprime borrowers, or those with poor credit. Those mortgages featured a low introductory interest rate that spiked to often unaffordable levels after a couple of years, and were a principal cause for the sudden increase in foreclosures. The interest rates on an estimated two million mortgages were expected to rise in the next 18 months. Paulson said the absence of a single government lender regulator had allowed harmful lending practices to flourish on a local level. He said the “patchwork structure” of oversight should be “streamlined and modernized.” He said the Treasury would create a “blueprint” for a new system by early 2008, but that such “fundamental changes” to the current system would take several years to enact. Paulson said a “nationwide monitoring system” was “worth considering.” That system would require mortgage brokers to obtain a federal license to sell mortgages. Paulson said mortgage brokers should show greater transparency in their dealings with borrowers, but stopped short of saying hidden brokerage fees and prepayment penalties should be banned. Prepayment penalties imposed a heavy fine on borrowers who wanted to get out of loans they could not afford. Paulson also said he would consider working with Democrats on proposals that would expand the influence of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the governmentsponsored mortgage companies. Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.), chairman of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, Oct. 16 welcomed Paulson’s suggestions, but said the Bush administration was moving too slowly to alleviate problems in the housing market. Schumer said 400,000 foreclosures had been filed in the preceding two months. [See below] Bernanke Says Outlook ‘Uncertain’—

Bernanke Oct. 15 said the Fed’s recent cut of its benchmark federal-funds interest rate in September had increased “the likelihood of achieving moderate” economic growth in the near-term. However, he said the country’s economic outlook remained “uncertain” due to the downturn in the housing market. Bernanke said the woes in the housing market had not led to “significant spillovers” into the areas of consumer and busiFACTS ON FILE

ness spending, but that such spillovers were possible. Mortgage Coalition Announced— Paulson and other administration officials Oct. 10 announced the creation of a coalition of mortgage companies and consumer counseling groups that would help homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages switch over to fixed-rate mortgages. Paulson said the coalition was responsible for 60% of the mortgages issued in the U.S., and included the 11 largest mortgage companies in the country. Alphonso Jackson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), said the main focus of the coalition was to get homeowners to contact counseling groups that could help them renegotiate their mortgages. The officials did not specify how the coalition was going to help borrowers find cheaper mortgages. Critics said the administration did not address a central problem, which was that many of those loans were bundled into securities that had been bought by investors, making it difficult for homeowners to change to a new interest rate. Democrats Propose Mortgage Help—

Schumer and Rep. Barney Frank (D, Mass.) Oct. 11 introduced joint legislation that would lift portfolio restrictions on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The proposal would allow the two companies to increase their portfolios by 10% over a sixmonth period, and require that 85% of that additional money, approximately $150 billion, be directed to aiding subprime borrowers. The Bush administration opposed the bill, saying that the companies’ interior structures should first be overhauled before their responsibilities were increased. The companies’ caps had been limited since 2006, when it was revealed that they had committed accounting malpractice. The administration in September had said it would allow the companies’ portfolios to grow by 2%, which Democrats contended was not enough to help struggling homeowners. Congressional Democratic leaders Oct. 3 called for Bush to appoint a so-called “mortgage czar” to oversee the government’s response to the housing crisis. A spokesman for the administration that day rejected the request, saying, “We have a housing czar, his name is Alphonso Jackson.” Other Developments—In other news concerning the housing market: † The National Association of Home Builders Oct. 16 reported that its index of builders’ confidence fell in October to 18, its lowest level since 1985, when the association began the index. The report said the results were due to “problems in the mortgage market” and “substantial inventories of unsold units.” † D.R. Horton Inc., the country’s largest home builder in terms of sales, Oct. 16 announced that 48% of its orders were canceled in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year, which covered the period from July to SepOctober 18, 2007

tember. Beazer Homes USA Inc., another large home builder, Oct. 11 reported that 68% of its orders were canceled in its fiscal fourth quarter. † RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure tracking company, Oct. 11 reported that there were 223,538 foreclosures in September, almost double the amount from a year earlier. „ Banks to Create $100 Billion Rescue Fund.

Three of the country’s largest banks Oct. 15 announced the creation of a fund that would buy assets from struggling investment funds and issue short-term debt instruments to investors. The fund would manage up to $100 billion, and was expected to last for approximately a year, once it began operating in late December. The fund was the product of discussions that began in September between the U.S. Treasury Department and the three banks, Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. [See pp. 606A1, 540A2] The fund was intended to prevent struggling investment funds from selling their assets at too low prices, thereby weighing down capital markets in general. The fund would also introduce liquidity to markets that had seen available credit dry up in recent months. The Treasury did not want to use taxpayer money to solve those problems, and had instead sought a solution from the private sector. The investment funds in question were “structured investment vehicles,” or SIVs. Many SIVs were created by major banks, like Citigroup, but acted independently from them, with the result that their performance did not register on the banks’ balance sheets. SIVs invested in long-term assets, and issued short-term debt instruments, known as commercial paper, to investors to fund most of their activities. Traditionally, commercial paper had been considered a safe investment, and was used by different kinds of companies to conduct everyday transactions. Investors stopped buying commercial paper when a credit crunch hit markets in August. Although the strain on credit had eased in recent weeks, and the stock market had risen, commercial paper continued to fare poorly, prompting the Treasury’s concern that the debt market was malfunctioning on a fundamental level. Investors were shunning commercial paper out of concern that the debt was backed by investments in bad mortgages. As a result, many SIVs posed the threat of selling their mortgage-backed assets at socalled “fire sale” prices, or prices that were much lower than what the assets were actually worth. A mass sell-off of those assets would cause the SIVs to go under and devalue mortgage-backed securities across the board, which could lead to a meltdown that affected the broader economy. The new fund, called the MasterLiquidity Enhancement Conduit, or MLEC, would issue commercial paper to investors; the commercial paper would effectively be guaranteed by the banks themselves, as opposed to mortgages or any

other investment type the SIV would normally use as collateral. The M-LEC would use the money secured from commercial-paper buyers to purchase assets from the SIVs and prevent sales at fire-sale prices. However, the MLEC would only purchase mortgagebacked assets with a rating of AA or higher. Furthermore, the SIVs would have to sell assets at a discount; in exchange for the discount, they would receive commercial paper at a “junior” level that would be assessed for losses before commercial paper at a “senior” level, which was issued to outside investors. It was unclear how the fund would value the market price of the SIVs’ assets. Other major banks had not yet committed to joining the fund. Citigroup was criticized because it had sponsored seven leading SIVs that stood to benefit from the fund. „

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August Business Inventories Grew 0.1%.

The Commerce Department Oct. 12 reported that the value of business inventories at the end of August was $1.42 trillion after seasonal adjustment, up 0.1% from the revised value at the end of July. The ratio of inventories to sales—a measure of how long it would take businesses to unload their inventories at the current sales pace— was 1.27. [See p. 611F3] „

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Producer Prices up 1.1% in September.

Producer prices in September increased 1.1% after seasonal adjustment, according to the Labor Department’s producer price index (PPI), released Oct. 12. The index tracked prices charged by manufacturers and producers of finished goods. It had decreased 1.4% in August. “Core” producer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food prices, increased 0.1%, compared with a 0.2% rise in August. Energy prices increased 4.1% in September, after a 6.6% fall the previous month. [See p. 634E3] The finished goods index, before seasonal adjustment, stood at 167.4% of its 1982 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982 would have cost $167.40 in September. Prices for intermediate—or partially processed—goods increased 0.4% in September, after dropping 1.2% in August. Prices for crude goods were up 0.1%, after a 3.0% fall the previous month. „

Immigration Crackdown Blocked by Judge. Judge Charles

R. Breyer of U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Calif., Oct. 10 granted a preliminary injunction blocking an immigration crackdown planned by the Homeland Security Department. Breyer ruled that the Bush administration had failed to consider the “massive ramifications” of the policy change or analyze its impact on businesses. [See p. 559F1] The department had planned to send “no-match letters” to employers whose employees’ names did not match their Social Security numbers. Employers then had 90 days to rectify the discrepancy (by providing a valid Social Security number or firing the worker) or they would face strin683

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gent penalties. The plan had been expected to result in the firing of up to 8.7 million workers. Breyer’s ruling barred the department from sending the letters until the case was resolved, which could take months. Breyer ruled that the Social Security database was so error-prone that thousands of legally employed workers were at risk of getting caught up in the crackdown. He wrote, “The government’s proposal to disseminate no-match letters affecting more than eight million workers will, under the mandated timeline, result in the termination of employment to lawfully employed workers.” He found that the policy could result in “irreparable harm to innocent workers and employers.” Breyer also sided with the plaintiffs— including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the AFL-CIO labor federation, and several other labor and small business groups—in concluding that the government had failed to give sufficient consideration to the effect that the plan would have on employers. Business groups argued that being required to fire large numbers of workers, and train many new workers at the same time to replace them, would pose too heavy a financial burden. The plaintiffs had also argued that the Social Security database was unreliable. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said that “more than 70%” of workers with nomatch discrepancies were actually U.S. citizens. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff expressed frustration with the ruling but affirmed that the department would continue to enforce immigration laws while considering an appeal of the decision. He also said that the ruling showed the need for Congress to “enact comprehensive immigration reform.” Such a bill, including a guest worker program as well as enforcement measures, had stalled in Congress earlier in the year. „

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Stay of Virginia Execution Issued. The Supreme Court Oct. 17 granted a last-minute stay of execution for Christopher Emmett, a Virginia death-row inmate. It was the second stay of execution the court had issued since Sept. 25, when it accepted Baze v. Rees. In that case two Kentucky death-row inmates had challenged whether a particular form of lethal injection violated the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. [See p. 647F3] The stay would last until a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled on Emmett’s case, or if the Supreme Court made another ruling. The justices did not provide any rationale for their decision. Analysts said the court would be more willing to issue stays of execution until it made a ruling on Baze sometime in 2008. Some suggested a de facto moratorium on all lethal-injection executions would remain in place until then. At issue was whether the most common combination of chemicals used in lethal injections caused death-row prisoners undue suffering. That combination was used by nearly all of the 684

37 states that employed lethal injection as the primary means of execution. The Nevada Supreme Court Oct. 16 issued a last-minute stay of execution for William Castillo that would last at least 60 days. The court was to consider if the state’s lethal injection concoction constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Lawyers were expected to argue for the court to prolong the stay until the U.S. Supreme Court made its ruling. The supreme courts of five states—Nevada, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware and Texas—had stayed executions since the U.S. Supreme Court accepted Baze. „

Terrorism Detainees Transfer of Guantanamo Prisoner Blocked.

Judge Gladys Kessler of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in a ruling unsealed Oct. 9 ordered the U.S. government not to transfer detainee Mohammed Abdul Rahman from a detention facility on a U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to his home country of Tunisia. In her decision, issued the previous week, Kessler argued that Rahman might be tortured and killed if he were returned to Tunisia, where he had been convicted in absentia of terrorrelated charges and faced 20 years in prison. [See p. 610A3] The decision came the same day Kessler issued another injunction, barring the U.S. government from moving a detainee held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan without first giving the detainee’s lawyer 30 days’ notice. The moves were the first judicial interventions into the U.S. government’s treatment of detainees since a 2006 law that sought to limit court influence over prisoners held outside the U.S. by instituting military tribunals for non-U.S. prisoners. Joshua Denbeaux, an attorney for Rahman, Oct. 9 said of the decision, “It is the only time a court has said the government does not have the unfettered right to do what they will with these people.” In explaining her ruling, Kessler referenced a pending Supreme Court case, Boumediene v. Bush, which had the potential to grant habeas corpus rights to detainees such as Rahman. If the Supreme Court granted detainees habeas corpus after Rahman had already been repatriated to Tunisia, Kessler said, the opportunity for him to legally challenge his detention by the U.S. government would have passed. [See p. 430F3] In response to the ruling, Defense Department spokeswoman Cynthia Smith Oct. 9 maintained that “detainees are not repatriated to countries where it is more likely than not that they will be tortured.” The U.S. had sent two other Guantanamo prisoners to Tunisia in June. „ Guantanamo Prosecutor Resigns. The Air Force Oct. 5 said Col. Morris Davis had resigned as the chief military prosecutor at the prison located on a U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His departure reportedly followed a clash with Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, who was also an Air

Force officer and whose position as legal adviser made him Davis’s superior. [See p. 190F2] The precise nature of the dispute between Davis and Hartmann was unclear. The New York Times reported Oct. 6 that Hartmann had pushed Davis to increase the speed and number of detainee trials and told military prosecutors to make provocative accusations against the detainees. Davis pursued a complaint against Hartmann, according to the Times, charging that Hartmann had overstepped his authority, but Defense Department officials had backed Hartmann. Davis said Oct. 5 that he was “under direct orders not to comment with the media about the reasons for my resignations or military commissions.” It was unclear how much Davis’s departure would affect plans to try detainees for war crimes. Before Davis’s resignation, as many as 80 of the approximately 330 detainees who remained at Guantanamo had been eyed for possible military trials, including Khalid Skeikh Mohammed, allegedly the mastermind behind terrorist group Al Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S. No full military trials of detainees at Guantanamo had been carried out; the only conviction of a detainee occurred as part of a plea bargain. [See p. 379D3] High-Level Detainees Offered Legal Aid—

The Washington Post Sept. 28 reported that 14 so-called high-level detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay had recently been given forms that allowed them to request access to lawyers, something previously denied to them. As many as four high-level detainees had requested lawyers. The forms provided to the detainees gave each prisoner the option of asking the American Bar Association (ABA) to find them a pro bono lawyer willing to work on their case. The mention of the ABA prompted a Sept. 27 letter to the Justice Department from ABA President William Neukom that criticized the inclusion, saying that the association would not “lend support and credibility to such an inadequate review scheme.” [See 2003, p. 677E2] The New York Times Sept. 29 reported that Neal Sonnett, who headed an ABA task force focused on the legal treatment of detainees, had said the ABA had told the government in 2005 that it would provide assistance only if detainees were allowed to file habeas corpus suits, something that had been prohibited under a 2006 law. „

Intelligence Hayden Orders Inquiry on CIA Watchdog. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director

Michael Hayden had ordered an unusual internal review of the agency’s inspector general, who had issued critical reports on the CIA’s conduct before Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S., and regarding the agency’s treatment of terrorism suspects, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 12. The review, headed by Hayden deputy Robert Deitz, was intended to investigate allegations that Inspector FACTS ON FILE

General John Helgerson and his office had failed to conduct investigations in an unbiased manner. [See p. 557A1] Sen. Christopher Bond (Mo.), the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Oct. 12 expressed concern that Hayden might be attempting to rein in Helgerson’s office. Bond said, “I will be watching carefully to make sure that nothing is done to restrain or diminish that important office.” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D, Texas) said that Congress would “very aggressively preserve” the independence of the inspector general’s office. Dietz was scheduled to appear before both the House and Senate Intelligence committees the following week to discuss the inquiry. Helgerson had informed members of the Senate Intelligence Committee about the inquiry in early October, during one of his regular briefings for its members, the Washington Post reported Oct. 13. Hayden reportedly had ordered the inquiry in April, in response to allegations by CIA officers that Helgerson’s investigations were too long and aggressive, and were undermining morale. The Times reported Oct. 12 that Helgerson’s office was nearly finished with new reports examining the CIA’s interrogation of detainees and its use of “extraordinary rendition,” the practice of kidnapping suspects and transporting them to another country, allegedly to be tortured. The office of the CIA inspector general was created in 1952 and made independent by Congress in 1989, following the Irancontra scandal. Under that law, the inspector general was appointed by the president and reported to both Congress and the CIA director. [See 1989, p. 890D2] Heads of federal agencies dissatisfied with their inspector general had the option of filing complaints either with the Integrity Committee of the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency, or directly with the president , who had the authority to dismiss the inspector general if the official was found to be abusing the post. „

Armed Forces Sniper Cleared of Iraqi Murders. A military jury at Camp Liberty, a U.S. military base west of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, Sept. 28 acquitted an Army sniper, Spec. Jorge Sandoval Jr., of murder charges connected to the deaths of two Iraqi men. Sandoval was convicted of a lesser charge of planting a coil of copper wire, often used to make or detonate roadside bombs, on the body of another Iraqi man he had killed in April near Iskandariyah, a predominantly Sunni city 30 miles (50 km) south of Baghdad. [See p. 427C1] The jury Sept. 29 sentenced Sandoval, 22, to five months in prison, reduced his rank to private and ordered that his pay be withheld. Prosecutors had sought a fiveyear prison sentence. Sandoval had admitted to the April killing, in which the victim had been cutting grass with a scythe but had otherwise been unarmed when Sandoval shot him. MiliOctober 18, 2007

tary prosecutors said the killing was illegal because the victim had not shown hostile intent. However, Sandoval said his superior, Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley, had ordered him to shoot, believing the man to be a disguised insurgent who had just fled a firefight with Iraqi troops. The second killing was that of an unarmed Iraqi who had surrendered after inadvertently discovering the sniper team’s hideout near Iskandariyah in May. Prosecutors had charged Sandoval with premeditated murder for standing by while another sniper, Sgt. Evan Vela, shot the man at Hensley’s command. Sandoval argued that he had not been part of any plot to kill the man, and had been standing on guard 100 feet (30 m) away at the time of his death. Vela Sept. 27 had testified in Sandoval’s trial, and, after striking a deal with prosecutors to avoid self-incrimination, had admitted to killing the Iraqi under orders only from Hensley. Vela and other soldiers had described an atmosphere in which senior officers were constantly pressuring sniper teams to increase their number of kills. Hensley and Vela were scheduled to face separate courts-martial. ‘Baiting’ of Insurgents Revealed— Testimony at Sandoval’s trial shed new light on a classified sniper tactic known as “baiting.” Snipers planted items such as ammunition, fake explosives or detonation cords as “bait,” with the aim of luring insurgents to collect the items and expose themselves to fire. The Washington Post Sept. 24 had first reported the tactic, after it was detailed in court filings and transcripts from Sandoval’s trial. The tactic had reportedly been developed by the Pentagon’s Asymmetric Warfare Group, which had met with Army Ranger sniper teams in January and given them “drop items” for use as bait. Defense attorneys representing the snipers and other critics said the program had eroded the distinctions between legal and illegal killings on the battlefield, and had paved the way for the shooting of civilians. Soldiers testified that only some of the snipers had been briefed on the tactic, but that others had been given bait items to carry, without explanation. That had led them to believe that they were supposed to plant those items on Iraqis they had shot in order to make it look like they had been insurgents. Several snipers said Hensley had ordered the planting of such items on killed Iraqis. An Army spokesman Sept. 24 said the military did not publicly discuss specific methods of “targeting enemy combatants,” but that it had not authorized planting items in order to give the appearance of justified killings. „ Abu Ghraib Officer Acquitted. A military jury at Fort Meade, Md., Aug. 29 cleared Army Reserve Lt. Col. Steven Jordan of charges that he had failed to properly train and supervise U.S. soldiers who had abused Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib, a prison outside Baghdad, in 2003 and 2004, and that he had personally participated in the abuse. Jordan was the only officer to

face a court-martial in the scandal, and his acquittal meant that no officers had been convicted on criminal charges for the abuse. (Several low-ranking soldiers had received prison sentences, while the two other officers were punished administratively.) Jordan’s trial was the last of 12 courts-martial related to the Abu Ghraib scandal. [See 2006, pp. 1031D2, 354E3] The jury convicted Jordan of a lesser charge of willfully disobeying an order. Prosecutors had alleged that in 2004 he had violated an order from Maj. Gen. George Fey not to contact soldiers about the Abu Ghraib investigation. Jordan Aug. 29 received a reprimand and a $7,200 fine; he had faced up to five years in prison and dismissal from the Army. The judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley, Aug. 20 had dismissed two of the most serious charges facing Jordan: making a false official statement and obstruction of justice. Jordan’s lawyers during the trial had argued that he had not been responsible for the interrogation techniques used at Abu Ghraib. Jordan also had repeatedly claimed that the Army was using him as a scapegoat in order to show that at least one officer was being held responsible. „

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Medicare Part B Premium Rise Announced. Kerry Weems, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Oct. 1 announced an increase in the basic Medicare premium to $96.40 per month in 2008, from its current cost of $93.50 per month. The 3.1% increase was the lowest in six years. The increase affected Part B premiums, which covered diagnostic tests, outpatient care and doctors’ services. [See 2006, p. 767G2] The majority of the 43 million elderly and disabled people enrolled in Medicare would pay the standard Part B premium. However, the roughly 5% of enrollees whose individual annual income exceeded $82,000, or couples who filed joint tax returns and made more than $164,000, would pay a premium based on a sliding scale, up to $238.54 for those with annual incomes exceeding $205,000 for individuals, or $410,000 for couples. The rise in the premium was smaller than analysts had expected, partly because Medicare payments to doctors were scheduled to be cut by 10%, as mandated by law. However, Congress usually postponed implementation of that law, passing the cost on to future Medicare beneficiaries. CMS had also rectified an accounting error that would have added another $2.50 to the 2008 Part B monthly premium. The deductible for Part A, which covered hospital stays, hospice care and short nursing home stays, would increase to $1,024 per year in 2008, from its current $992. „

Mergers & Acquisitions Sallie Mae Sues Buyout Consortium. Sallie Mae, the Reston, Va.–based student loan giant formally known as SLM Corp., Oct. 8 filed a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court 685

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against a consortium that had agreed to buy the company in April for approximately $25 billion. Sallie Mae claimed that the consortium had violated the agreement by walking away from its original offer, and thus owed Sallie Mae a break-up fee of $900 million that was stipulated in the agreement. Albert Lord, Sallie Mae’s chairman, that day said his company would drop the suit if the consortium went ahead with the acquisition at the price originally agreed upon, $60 a share. [See pp. 649D1, 496F1, 244E2] J.C. Flowers & Co., the New York City–based private-equity firm that led the consortium, filed a counterclaim with the court Oct. 15. The firm asked the court to dismiss Sallie Mae’s suit, and let the consortium drop the deal without paying the break-up fee. The consortium included the banks J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp., as well as private-equity firm Friedman Fleischer & Lowe LLC. J.C. Flowers said a new student aid reform law signed by President George W. Bush in September had invoked the “material adverse change” clause in the agreement, allowing the consortium to walk away without penalty if Sallie Mae’s business prospects declined significantly. The law cut government subsidies made to providers of student loans, including Sallie Mae. J.C. Flowers also said a recent squeeze in the credit market had affected Sallie Mae more than other loan companies, which further hurt the company’s prospects. [See p. 606A1] Sallie Mae claimed that the consortium was exaggerating the law’s potential effect. Sallie Mae also said it had disclosed to the consortium, before the agreement was made in April, all the legislation Congress was mulling that could affect the student loan industry. Sallie Mae said problems in the credit market could not be used as a justification to renege on the agreement. Sallie Mae Oct. 2 had rejected a reduced offer from the consortium of $50 a share, after the consortium had withdrawn from the original deal in late September. The new offer included an offer to buy warrants from Sallie Mae, which the buying group said could add an additional $10 to each share if Sallie Mae performed well. (Warrants gave the buyer the right to buy shares at a particular price.) Sallie Mae Oct. 11 posted a third-quarter loss of $344 million. Lord said the “disappointing” results were due to the dealings with the consortium, which he said had been a distraction preventing it from making important business decisions. Sallie Mae Oct. 12 asked the Delaware court for an expedited trial, so that it could either force a buy-out or return decision-making powers to Sallie Mae’s executives. „ News in Brief. Atlanta, Ga.–based home repair and construction retailer Home Depot Inc. Aug. 28 sold its wholesale supply division, Home Depot Supply, to a consortium of private-equity groups for $8.5 686

billion. The price was nearly $2 billion less than what was agreed to when the deal was first announced in June. The drop in price was due to a recent tightening in the credit markets, which made it more difficult for the consortium to procure the financing it needed to complete the deal. Additionally, problems in the housing market had lowered the value of the unit, since its future health depended on housing trends. The private-equity firms were Bain Capital LLC, Carlyle Group and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Inc. [See pp. 606A1, 433D2] Whole Foods Market Inc., an organic and natural food chain based in Austin, Texas, Aug. 27 announced that it had enough shareholder votes to complete the acquisition of its rival Wild Oats Markets Inc., based in Boulder, Colo. Under the terms of the deal, Whole Foods would pay $565 million for Wild Oats, at $18.50 a share. The deal was first announced in February, but ran into trouble in June when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sought to block the acquisition, claiming it would decrease competition and lead to higher prices. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Aug. 23 dismissed a request by the FTC to put the deal on hold, allowing Whole Foods to complete the acquisition. „

Telecommunications Verizon Reverses Text Message Policy.

Telecommunications firm Verizon Wireless, which was owned by the U.S.’s Verizon Communications Inc. and Britain’s Vodafone Group PLC, had denied a request from the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America to use its mobile phone network to disseminate text messages, the New York Times reported Sept. 27. However, Verizon Wireless, the U.S.’s second-largest wireless carrier, later Sept. 27 said it had reversed its decision after facing widespread criticism for censoring the messages it carried. [See 2006, p. 486G3] Verizon Wireless initially cited a company policy allowing it to block content from any organization “that seeks to promote an agenda or distribute content that, in its discretion, may be seen as controversial or unsavory to any of our users.” The NARAL program allowed people to subscribe to regular releases of text messages from the group. “No company should be allowed to censor the message we want to send people who have asked us to send it to them,” NARAL President Nancy Keenan said in the Times article. Text messaging programs, such as the one set up by NARAL, had become popular as a political tool. However, legal experts said Verizon Wireless was likely within its legal rights to deny dissemination of NARAL’s text messages on its own network. The company’s decision raised the larger issue of “net neutrality,” a debate over whether a telecommunications firm or Internet service provider should have a say over content it distributed. „

AMERICAS

Argentina Priest Sentenced to Life for Dirty War Crimes.

An Argentine tribunal Oct. 9 sentenced Roman Catholic priest Rev. Christian von Wernich to life in prison for human rights crimes committed during the “dirty war” waged against leftist dissidents by the military junta that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983. Von Wernich, 69, had served as a police chaplain during the junta’s rule, under which at least 12,000 were believed to have been killed. He had been found guilty of playing a role in seven murders, 42 kidnappings and 31 instances of torture. [See p. 146E2] The sentence marked the first time a Catholic priest had been found guilty of crimes related to the dirty war. The verdict was lauded by human rights activists, who had long decried the Catholic Church’s complicity with the country’s military dictatorship. Much of the Argentine Catholic hierarchy had worked closely with the country’s rulers during the dirty war, in contrast to the church’s leadership roles in the opposition to contemporaneous dictatorships in Brazil and Chile. During his three-month trial, von Wernich had been accused by witnesses of aiding police in coercing confessions from prisoners, and witnessing acts of torture. Von Wernich had maintained his innocence, and accused witnesses testifying against him of doing the devil’s work. „

Honduras U.N. Court Grants Sovereignty Over Islands.

The United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, in the Netherlands, Oct. 8 granted Honduras sovereignty over four Caribbean Sea islands, settling a decades-long dispute between it and Nicaragua. The two countries in the past had clashed over fishing privileges and offshore oil and gas exploration rights in the waters surrounding the islands. Officials from both countries lauded the judgment as fair. The decision by the court’s 17-judge panel was final. [See 2000, p. 494C3] „

Mexico Lawmakers Order Probe of Fox’s Finances.

Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies, the country’s lower house of Congress, Sept. 24 ordered the formation of a special congressional committee to investigate the finances of former President Vicente Fox Quesada, a member of the conservative National Action Party (PAN). [See 2006, p. 883D1] Members of the opposition in Congress, which was controlled by PAN, had called for the investigation after an article published in the September issue of the magazine Quien showed photos of extensive renovations at Fox’s luxury ranch. Fox critics had questioned how he could afford such an estate on the president’s salary, FACTS ON FILE

which was $242,000 when he left office in December 2006. Opposition members said the special committee would also examine Fox’s ties to businesses that had enjoyed substantial success during his tenure as president. It would also examine the $20 million construction of a Fox presidential library to see if any public funds had been used. Fox, a former executive of the Mexican unit of the U.S.’s Coca-Cola Co., Sept. 24 said in a statement, “Ethics, transparency and full accounting have been the permanent norm throughout my entire life.” He said he had paid for his ranch with income from his time working in the private sector, and substantial earnings gained for delivering speeches since leaving office. He reportedly provided to the committee his tax returns for 2001–06. [See 2006, p. 698D3] „

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Australia Howard Calls November General Election.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard Oct. 14 asked Governor General Michael Jeffery to dissolve parliament and set parliamentary elections for Nov. 24. The election pitted the governing coalition, composed of Howard’s Liberal Party and the National Party, against the Australian Labor Party (ALP), headed by Kevin Rudd. Howard’s coalition controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the current parliament. [See 2004, p. 802E3] Howard, 68, was seeking a fifth term as prime minister, but had promised to step down before the end of his new term if reelected. In an Oct. 14 press conference in Canberra, Australia’s capital, Howard emphasized his experience and said, “Love me or loathe me, the Australian people know where I stand on all the important issues of their future.” He also highlighted his economic record, suggesting that the nation’s 4.2% unemployment rate, a 33year low, could “go even lower” if his coalition remained in power. [See p. 468D1] Rudd, 50, had led the ALP since December 2006. In a speech given in his home city of Brisbane following Howard’s announcement, Rudd Oct. 14 described Howard’s government as one that had “lost touch” and “gone stale.” He also promised that Australia would join the Kyoto Protocol if the ALP gained control of the government, and called for the withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq. The ALP needed to win 16 seats in the House to gain control of the government, a change of 5%. Britain’s Financial Times newspaper reported Oct. 15 that all recent major Australian polls gave ALP a 10% or greater lead. [See 2006, p. 1019E2] „

China Miners Trapped in Flood. A total of 181 coal miners Aug. 17 were trapped in two neighboring flooded mines near Xintai in the eastern province of Shandong, in the latest October 18, 2007

in a series of deadly accidents in China’s mining industry. The shafts were inundated after the nearby Chaiwen River, swollen from heavy rains, breached a dike. Rescuers helped 584 miners escape soon after the flooding, but officials Aug. 23 said there was no longer any hope of rescuing the remaining 181, of whom 172 were trapped in the Huayuan Mining Co.’s Zhangzhuang mine, and nine in the nearby Minggong mine. [See 2005, p. 900B3] Relatives of the trapped miners Aug. 20 forced their way into Huayuan offices in Xintai, protesting a lack of information about the miners. They contended that the company was negligent in failing to suspend operations before the predicted heavy rainfall, and that corrupt officials abetted companies’ failures to maintain adequate safety practices. In a separate incident, all 69 miners trapped July 29 in a flooded coal mine in Henan province were rescued Aug. 1. „ Dam’s Environmental Problems Admitted.

China’s Xinhua state news agency Sept. 26 reported comments by government officials describing “hidden ecological and environmental dangers” posed by the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest, on the Yangtze River. According to Xinhua, officials acknowledged that “if no preventive measures are taken, the project could lead to catastrophe.” It was a rare official admission of the validity of environmental concerns over the project. The government had sought to quash such warnings since construction began in 1994, hailing the dam as a technological marvel and asserting that, as a source of hydroelectric power, it was environmentally beneficial. The dam was not scheduled to begin generating power until 2008. [See 2006, p. 475D1] Xinhua reported officials’ comments from a recent conference, describing such problems as the erosion of riverbanks, alterations in the rate of water flow due to the accumulation of silt upstream from the dam, and the growth of algae that deprived the water of oxygen. Other News—In other Chinese environmental news: † The city of Xiamen, in the southeastern province of Fujian, May 30 postponed plans to build a petrochemical plant amid rapidly spreading popular opposition. Critics organized a protest against the plant by cellular phone text messages, culminating in demonstrations June 1–2 by protesters demanding that the project be canceled completely. News of the protests were spread on the Internet by Chinese bloggers (writers of web logs, or blogs). The plant was intended to manufacture paraxylene, a hazardous chemical used in making synthetic products such as polyester and plastic. Opponents cited the risk of an accident at the plant, which would be located near residential areas. At least one organizer of the protests had been arrested, it was reported July 20. [See 2005, p. 840A3] † A World Bank report produced in conjunction with China had omitted, at the request of the Chinese government, an es-

timate of the number of people who died prematurely from pollution in China, the Financial Times reported July 3. The final report had not yet been issued, but a draft had been presented at a Beijing conference in March after the estimate, of 750,000 early deaths, was deleted. Chinese officials said the methodology underlying the estimate was inadequate. The World Bank in a statement July 4 said that the issue was “still under discussion.” † Chinese news media July 23 reported that the government had canceled plans to report a “green” gross domestic product (GDP) figure—adjusted to take into account the estimated cost of environmental degradation—for the year 2005. The government in 2006 had released such a figure for the first time, for 2004. An environmental official said the program had prompted complaints from local officials under pressure to show optimal growth rates. Environmentalists also noted the difficulty of producing an accurate and widely accepted calculation of the economic costs of environmental damage. [See 2006, p. 1021C3] „

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Myanmar U.N. Security Council Censures Junta.

The United Nations Security Council Oct. 11 issued a statement condemning Myanmar’s military crackdown against peaceful demonstrators and calling for the quick release of thousands of detained protesters. The statement, which said the council “strongly deplores” the crackdown, was the first official Security Council comment on the military’s violent response to a series of massive protests that took place in Myanmar in September. [See p. 672F2] The censure followed an unexpected decision by the Chinese government, one of Myanmar’s few international allies, to back the statement. China had used its veto power to block two previous attempts by the U.N. Security Council to rebuke Myanmar’s ruling junta over its human rights abuses. The agreement came after other members of the Security Council agreed to alter a section of the document that demanded the immediate release of all detained protesters. Instead, it called for the early release of “all political prisoners and remaining detainees.” It also called on the junta to engage in “genuine dialogue” with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was currently under house arrest. [See p. 641D2] Another factor in the decision was U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari’s Oct. 15 return to the region to work toward talks between Myanmar’s junta and the nation’s pro-democracy movement, negotiations that the Chinese government hoped to bolster with its shift in position, the Washington Post reported Oct. 12. Myanmar’s state-controlled media responded to the Security Council statement Oct. 12 with a television broadcast that depicted the censure as “contrary to the [citizens of Myanmar’s] desires.” Analysts suggested, however, that China’s reversal on the U.N. statement was a significant 687

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blow to the junta, which had few other international supporters. The European Union Oct. 15 agreed to a set of new, harsher sanctions against Myanmar, designed to put pressure on the military regime. The new rules targeted Myanmar’s lumber and mining industries, and would ban the importation of materials from those industries into the EU. They would also bar investment by EU citizens in those areas. According to EU officials, those sectors of the economy had been targeted because junta leaders were believed to disproportionately benefit from the profits of those industries. [See p. 641F2] Envoy Meets With Myanmar’s Neighbors—

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Gambari Oct. 15 arrived in Thailand as part of a six-nation trip intended to push neighboring countries to do more to resolve the political unrest in Myanmar. The countries, which also included Japan, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and India, were seen as essential to any attempt to exert influence over the notoriously insular junta. Gambari also planned to return to Myanmar in November to push for talks between the National League for Democracy (NLD)—Suu Kyi’s party—and the military junta. [See p. 641B1] Japan Cuts Aid—The government of Japan, Myanmar’s largest individual source of foreign aid, Oct. 16 withdrew a planned $4.7 million grant earmarked for education following the death of Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai. Nagai had been shot by Myanmar’s military during its violent crackdown on protests in late September. Britain’s Financial Times newspaper reported Oct. 15 that Myanmar’s state-run newspaper had published an editorial which argued that Nagai had been “inviting danger” by standing near the protesters and suggested that the journalist was to blame for his own death. The Japanese government had previously condemned both the death and the junta’s decision to respond violently to peaceful protests. [See p. 626F1] Arrests Continue; Curfew Reduced—

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Four pro-democracy activists were arrested by the military Oct. 13, including three members of the once-prominent 88 Generation Students group, according to Amnesty International, a London-based human rights advocacy group. The activists included Htay Kywe, 39, who had been in hiding since taking part in early protests during August, and Mie Mie, 35, who had been prominently featured in footage and pictures of the early demonstrations. Following their arrest, all leaders of the 88 Generation Students group were believed to be in military custody. Gambari Oct. 15 called the new arrests “extremely disturbing” and called on Myanmar’s military government to stop its arrests of pro-democracy activists. Myanmar’s state-controlled media Oct. 16 announced that the military had detained 2,927 since the beginning of its crackdown on protesters in late September; as many as 500 were still being held. Among those released were film star Kyaw Thu and his wife as well as comedian Zaganar. [See p. 672F3] 688

The Associated Press (AP) reported Oct. 15 that Internet service had been partially restored in Myanmar and that the nightly curfew instituted in September had been cut to 11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m., from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. According to the AP report, irregular Internet access had resumed in Myanmar, but foreign news sites, such as those of the U.S.’s Cable News Network (CNN) and the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), as well as sites run by anti-junta activists, remained inaccessible. Weapons in Monasteries, Junta Claims—

The New Light of Myanmar, a newspaper run by Myanmar’s government, had claimed that searches of emptied Buddhist monasteries had revealed quantities of knives, guns and bullets, the AP reported Oct. 8. In addition, the New Light of Myanmar reported Oct. 18 that additional searches had uncovered a large number of U.S.-made explosives. „

Papua New Guinea Court Upholds Cover-up Inquiry. The Na-

tional Court of Papua New Guinea Sept. 13 rejected an attempt by Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and three others to nullify the findings of a classified Defence Force Board of Inquiry report. The report had recommended criminal charges against Somare and his aides for allegedly assisting the flight from Papua New Guinea of Solomon Islands Attorney General Julian Moti, wanted in Australia on sex crime charges. [See p. 547E2] Somare and the three others—Col. Vagi Oala, former Chief Secretary Joshua Kalinoe and Defence Force Chief of Staff Tom Ur—claimed in a lawsuit that the Board of Inquiry had lasted beyond its prescribed length. They asked the court to void the investigation’s proceedings and its findings. Somare refused to turn over a copy of the report to the court, leading Justice Bernard Sakora Sept. 4 to threaten contempt charges against the four men; however, Sakora decided Sept. 5 not to charge them. Although the report had been widely leaked, only Somare had the authority to officially release it. The Board of Inquiry’s proceedings had begun in December 2006 following reports that Moti, an Australian citizen wanted by the Australian government for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu, had been secretly flown on a military plane to the Solomon Islands following his 2006 arrest in Papua New Guinea. Australia’s child sexual abuse laws allowed its citizens to be tried for crimes committed overseas. [See 2006, p. 869D1] The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier reported Sept. 13 that the Board of Inquiry had found that Somare had given the order that allowed Moti to escape and that several members of the government, including Ur and Kalinoe, had either directly abetted the escape or deliberately done nothing to prevent it. The board reportedly recommended that Somare be charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and violating the nation’s leadership laws. It also called for charges against Leonard

Louma, Somare’s former chief of staff, and for investigations of the other plaintiffs and five additional current and former government and military officials. Sir Mekere Morauta, the leader of the parliamentary opposition, Sept. 13 called for Somare to step down as prime minister and allow further investigations into the Moti scandal. He cited a 1997 scandal involving former Prime Minister Julius Chan in which Somare, then opposition leader, had called for Chan’s resignation. „

Thailand Thaksin Corruption Trial Postponed. The Su-

preme Court of Thailand Sept. 25 suspended corruption proceedings against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife, Pojamarn Shinawatra, after the defendants failed to appear at the trial’s initial hearing. The Shinawatras had been living in exile in Britain since Thaksin was deposed in a September 2006 coup. [See p. 596F2] Supreme Court Chief Justice Thonglor Chomngang Sept. 25 said that “the law prohibits prosecution of the case without the defendants being present, so the court has ordered the trial suspended until officials can bring the defendants to court.” Thaksin issued a statement Sept. 25 in which he claimed that the prosecution was politically motivated and said he and Pojamarn would not return to Thailand until they were “confident that we would be given a fair trial.” The Shinawatras were charged in relation to a real estate deal Pojamarn had carried out in 2003 while Thaksin was prime minister. Thaksin also faced separate charges stemming from the sale of his company, Shin Corp., to Singaporean investors. Thai Prosecutors Visit Britain—Following the Supreme Court’s decision, a delegation of Thai prosecutors Oct. 12 traveled to Britain to explore the possibility of extraditing Thaksin and Pojamarn. Delegation leader Nanthasak Poolsuk denied that the prosecutors would attempt to extradite the Shinawatras during the visit, the Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper, reported Oct. 15, and said they would “only consult British prosecutors on the legal procedures and evidence that a British court would require.” For Britain to agree to extradite the Shinawatras under its extradition treaty with Thailand, Thai prosecutors would need to prove that the charges that they faced existed under British law, that there was significant evidence against them and that they would receive a fair trial. „ King Hospitalized. Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 79, Oct. 13 was admitted to a hospital in Bangkok, the capital, and treated for weakness in his right arm and leg. Doctors discovered diminished blood flow to his brain and removed a clot from his right leg. Hundreds of Thai citizens gathered outside the hospital following reports of the king’s treatment. It was unclear when he would be released from the hospital. [See p. 580F2] „ FACTS ON FILE

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnian Serb President Jelic Dies at 51.

Bosnian Serb President Milan Jelic, 51, Sept. 30 died at a hospital in the town of Doboj after suffering a heart attack while watching a soccer game. The government Oct.1 declared three days of mourning, and Jelic was buried Oct. 3 with full state and religious honors in his hometown of Modrica before thousands of mourners. [See 2006, p. 403G3] Jelic, a member of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) party, had been elected president of Bosnia’s Serb Republic in 2006 after serving as minister for economics and industrial development. A former soccer player, he had also been the head of Bosnia’s soccer association. (Bosnia and Herzegovina was composed of two states, the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic.) The line of succession in such a situation was unclear. The parliament of the Serb Republic Oct. 1 appointed Igor Radojcic, the SNSD speaker, as interim president until an election could be held, which was required within 90 days, according to Bosnian law. The Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Oct. 2 criticized the move as a conflict of interest, because Radojcic would have both executive and legislative powers. Additionally, they claimed the move was unconstitutional because Radojcic was registered as an ethnic Montenegrin. The Bosnian constitution stated that government officials had to be from the three main ethnic groups of Bosnia: Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs. It was unclear if Radojcic would stay in office until the election. The president of the Serb Republic was largely a ceremonial post. Bosnia and Herzegovina was governed by a tri-ethnic cooperative presidency, currently composed of Bosniak President Haris Silajdzic, Croat President Zeljko Komsic and Serb President Nebojsa Radmanovic. [See 2006, p. 786A2] „

Georgia Former Minister Arrested After Criticism.

Former Georgian defense minister and current opposition leader Irakli Okruashvili Oct. 8 recanted accusations he had made in late September, in which he said Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was guilty of corruption, including cover-ups, nepotism and planning the murder of Badri Patarkatsishvili, a prominent Georgian businessman. The accusations had prompted mass protests in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, that included calls for Saakashvili’s resignation. [See 2006, p. 884D1] Okruashvili Sept. 25 had made the allegations on Georgian national television but offered no evidence for them. Okruashvili was then arrested Sept. 27 on charges of extortion, money laundering and abuse of power, but was released early Oct. 9 on bail of 10 million lari (US$6 million) after he October 18, 2007

withdrew the accusations. Prosecutors that day said he had also pleaded guilty to charges of extortion. A weary-looking Okruashvili appeared on Georgian national television Oct. 8 and said the allegations he had made against the president were false and intended only to further his own political career. He then added, “I did it in order to discredit Saakashvili.” Okruashvili’s opposition party, Movement for United Georgia, had drawn an influx of new recruits after Okruashvili’s initial accusations. Okruashvili’s lawyer, Eka Beselia, said that she had been denied access to her client during the interrogation and that Okruashvili’s statements had been made under duress. Opposition parties echoed that concern. After posting bail, Okruashvili had been escorted to his home by a police convoy and was believed to have left the country with his family. Okruashvili had been a political ally of Saakashvili since the latter was elected in 2004 following the peaceful “Rose Revolution” of late 2003. Okruashvili held several posts in Saakashvili’s government before being fired from the cabinet in 2005. Saakashvili’s government had come to power on a pro-Western platform that had since caused tension with Russia. Arrest Sparks Mass Protest in Tbilisi—

Okruashvili’s arrest prompted a mass demonstration by thousands of protesters Sept. 28 in central Tbilisi. Demonstrators called for an end to Saakashvili’s rule and demanded parliamentary elections in April 2008, as required by the constitution. Saakashvili had earlier decreed that those elections be pushed back to the fall of 2008. Many demonstrators voiced discontent with Georgia’s stagnant economy, which had suffered since Russia imposed trade restrictions and increased the price of natural gas it sold to Georgia. [See 2006, p. 869E3] „

Russia Rice, Gates Visit, Spar With Putin. Russian

President Vladimir V. Putin, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Oct. 12 met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Moscow, Russia’s capital. The U.S. and Russian officials held tense negotiations concerning proposed U.S. missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as relations with Iran. [See p. 428A1] Putin greeted Rice and Gates at his home in suburban Moscow with an eightminute monologue before television cameras, in which he disparaged U.S. missile defense plans. Putin said, “We can some time in the future decide that some antimissile defense should be established somewhere on the moon, but before we reach such an arrangement we will lose an opportunity of fixing some particular arrangements between us.” Putin further cautioned against “forcing forward your previous agreements with Eastern European countries.” While U.S. officials said the

meeting was constructive once behind closed doors, the only agreement reached was that the two sides would meet again in Washington, D.C., in six months. The U.S. planned to place 10 anti-missile interceptors in Poland and one advanced radar operation in the Czech Republic. Russia viewed the plan as a threat to the global balance of power. Putin in July had suggested an alternative location in Azerbaijan, which the U.S. had been receptive to, but as an addition rather than an alternative to the existing plan. Rice said talks with Poland and the Czech Republic would continue. She and Gates said the missile defense system was necessary in order to protect Europe and regions beyond from long-range Iranian missiles. Putin, in a Oct. 10 meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, had said Russia did not believe Iran was a nuclear threat. Putin Oct. 16 met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran, Iran’s capital. [See pp. 678E2, 673D3] Putin also suggested in the meeting that Russia was considering withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which had been negotiated in 1987 between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The treaty stated that both countries would eliminate all intermediate and conventional ground-launched missiles. Putin said since other countries, including Pakistan, China and India, were not included in the treaty, the U.S. and Russia were therefore under constraints as to the types of weapons they were allowed to build. Putin suggested that the treaty be expanded to other countries that were building arsenals. [See p. 102B1; 1987, p. 669A1]

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Rice Meets Human Rights Activists—

Rice Oct. 13 met with human rights advocates in Russia and said that she wanted to help shield Russian citizens from “the arbitrary power of the state,” and inquired about current efforts to protect civil rights in Russia. “In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development,” Rice said. However, Rice said that criticism of Russian authorities was “wasted to a large extent.” Rice’s comments did not elicit a response from top Russian officials, but nonetheless was expected to exacerbate tensions between the U.S. and Russia. „

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Spain Basque Separatist Political Leaders Arrested.

Spanish police Oct. 5 arrested 23 members of the leadership of Batasuna, the banned political wing of the Basque separatist movement. Baltasar Garzon, a high-profile Spanish antiterrorism judge, ordered the arrests, which were carried out in the town of Segura in the Basque region in northern Spain, where the Batasuna leaders were holding a clandestine meeting. Spain’s Supreme Court had banned Batasuna in 2003, ruling that it was part of the armed Basque separatist group Euzkadi ta Aska689

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tasuna (ETA), or Basque Homeland and Liberty. [See p. 405B1] Peace talks between ETA and the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had broken down after a December 2006 car bombing by ETA at Barajas international airport in Madrid, Spain’s capital. The arrests were widely seen as part of a crackdown against ETA since the bombing, as Zapatero moved to toughen his image before parliamentary elections slated for March 2008. Bilbao Car Bombing Blamed on ETA—

A car bombing in the Basque city of Bilbao Oct. 9 injured the bodyguard of a local Socialist politician. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the regional „ government blamed ETA.

European News in Brief Ukraine: Deal Reached With Gazprom. A

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dispute over a debt between Ukraine and Russia’s state-run natural gas giant OAO Gazprom ended Oct. 9, after Ukraine agreed to pay a $2 billion debt by transferring $1.2 billion in gas supplies from its reserves back to Russia to be exported elsewhere. The remainder of the debt would be paid by Ukrainian gas companies. The deal had been signed by Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich during a visit to Moscow, Russia’s capital. Gazprom had threatened to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine if the debt was not paid. [See p. 656E1] „

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Afghanistan

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Government Executes 15 Inmates. The Afghan government Oct. 7 executed 15 prisoners by firing squad, ending a three-year moratorium on the death penalty. It was only the second time the government had carried out executions since U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces toppled the Taliban from power in 2001. The executed prisoners had been convicted of murder, rape and kidnapping, among other crimes. [See p. 639F2; 2004, p. 491B3] The mass execution raised concerns among NATO countries and the United Nations that the Afghan government could execute prisoners of war turned over by NATO forces. Several NATO countries considered the death penalty a violation of human rights. Tom Koenigs, chief of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Oct. 8 said the U.N. had been “a staunch supporter of the moratorium on executions observed in Afghanistan in recent years.” The Dutch foreign ministry that day said, “Abolition of the death penalty is one of our priorities in terms of international human rights policy.” A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai Oct. 9 said the executions would continue. One of the executed men was Reza Khan, who had been convicted of killing three foreign journalists and an Afghan photographer in 2001. Another was Farhad 690

(who went by one name), who had been convicted of abetting the kidnapping of an Italian aid worker, Clementina Cantoni, in 2005. [See 2005, p. 970A2; 2004, p. 1071C1] „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Nobel Prizes Awarded Former U.S. VP Gore Shares Peace Prize.

The 2007 Nobel Prizes were announced in Stockholm, Sweden, and Oslo, Norway, Oct. 8–15. Each award carried a monetary value of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.6 million.) [See 2006, p. 807C3] The awards, listed by category, were: Peace—The Norwegian Nobel Committee Oct. 12 named two winners of the Nobel Peace Prize: former U.S. Vice President Al Gore (D) and the United Nations– sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Gore and the U.N. group were both honored for “their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change.” Gore, 59, had come to the fore as a crusader for environmental causes after losing the 2000 U.S. presidential election to President George W. Bush (R). He had narrated a documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, that won two Academy Awards in February, including the Oscar for best documentary feature, and had been associated with Live Earth, a series of high-profile concerts in July intended to raise global awareness of climate-change issues. [See pp. 630C1, 135E1–A2] (Gore became a Nobel laureate two days after a British High Court judge, Michael Burton, in a lawsuit seeking to ban An Inconvenient Truth from being shown in British classrooms on the grounds that it was scientifically inaccurate, ruled that the film contained “nine errors.” Those errors, though, the judge concluded, failed to undermine the film’s central argument—that greenhouse gas emissions produced by humans were largely to blame for global warming—and hence did not warrant his banning the film. Teachers who showed it, though, Burton ruled, would have to alert students to the errors he cited.) Gore was the second U.S. Democratic politician to win the Peace Prize in recent years. Former President Jimmy Carter, in office from 1977 to 1981, had won it in 2002. [See 2002, p. 798B2] Gore shared the Peace Prize with the IPCC two days after a group called Draft Gore ran a full-page advertisement in the New York Times urging him to actively seek the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Gore’s representatives, meanwhile, continued to insist that he had no desire to run for political office again. Established in 1988, the IPCC in 2007 had issued a three-part report on climatechange issues drawing on the work of more than 2,500 scientists and regarded as the most comprehensive such study to date. In the latest part of the report, issued in May, the panel had tried to assess the long-term economic impact of global warming. The

panel, led by climatologist Rajendra Pachauri, had concluded that the economic costs of halting global warming might not be too high to seriously weaken global economic growth. [See p. 290F1–G1, E2] Literature—The Swedish Academy of Letters Oct. 11 awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to British novelist Doris Lessing, 11 days shy of her 88th birthday. Lessing was the oldest writer ever to win the prize; she had reportedly been in the running for it for decades. Born in Persia (now Iran), Lessing was raised on a farm in colonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) but left home and dropped out of school as a teenager. She was married and divorced twice before moving to London in 1949, with her son from her second marriage. A year later, she published her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, which addressed the racial discrimination she witnessed as a white child growing up in Africa. [See 1950, p. 295L] During the 1950s, she worked on what were to become the five novels of her Children of Violence series, whose heroine was a political and social nonconformist named Martha Quest. (Lessing herself was for some years a committed communist.) In 1962, she published The Golden Notebook, the novel widely regarded as her masterpiece, and cited by the Swedish Academy as among “the handful of books that informed the 20th-century view of the malefemale relationship.” Complex in structure and embraced by the then-burgeoning feminist movement, it was divided into four notebooks (black, red, yellow and blue) capturing diverse aspects of the inner life of its heroine, Anna Wulf. Much of her later work was even more experimental, combining science-fiction elements with Sufi mysticism. Some literary critics felt that these works—which included the five-volume cycle Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979–83)—were less impressive than the realistic, politically engaged fiction that made her famous. She continued to write into her late 80s, with her most recent novel, The Cleft, having been published in January. Physiology or Medicine—The Karolinska Institute for Medicine in Stockholm Oct. 8 awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to two American geneticists and a Briton for work that led to the creation of “knockout mice,” genetically modified mice used as animal models for human diseases. The Americans were Mario Capecchi, 70, of the University of Utah, and Oliver Smithies, 82, of the University of North Carolina. The Briton was Sir Martin J. Evans, 66, of the University of Cardiff in Wales. The three, who had worked largely independently and would each get a third of the prize, had shared a Lasker Award in 2001 for their gene technology breakthrough. [See 2001, p. 848B2] Smithies, a native of Britain who had been associated with the University of Wisconsin before moving to the University of North Carolina in the late 1980s, was the first to figure out how to “target” genes for FACTS ON FILE

modification in mouse cells. Capecchi, a native of Italy who had survived World War II as a street urchin while his mother was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, made the gene-targeting process more efficient. Evans in the early 1980s was among those who discovered that stem cells could be extracted from mouse embryos and cultivated to grow into any cell type. He also used gene targeting to modify embryonic stem cells in order to create lines of “transgenic” mice with the new gene in every cell. To date, scientists had knocked out more than 10,000 mouse genes, or about half of the mouse genome. Physics—The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Oct. 9 awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to two European scientists for their discovery of giant magnetoresistance (GMR), a physical phenomenon whose exploitation led to the development of electronic devices in which digital data could be stored on smaller and smaller hard disks and still be read. The two were Albert Fert, 69, of the Universite Paris-Sud in Orsay, France, and Peter Gruenberg, 68, of the Institute of Solid State Research at the Jülich Research Center in Germany. Teams led by Fert and Gruenberg independently discovered GMR in 1988, and it was Fert who came up with the term for it. The scientists found that when they applied a magnetic field to ultra-thin sandwiches of metal, very weak changes in magnetism produced much more dramatic changes in electrical resistance than would have arisen had the layers been thicker. The ability to detect fainter magnetic signals was crucial to the development of smaller hard disks, one of the first practical achievements in the field of nanotechnology, currently one of the most dynamic areas of scientific research. Chemistry—The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Oct. 10 gave the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to German scientist Gerhard Ertl, who that day turned 71. Ertl, an emeritus professor at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, was honored for elucidating the interactions between gases and the surfaces of metals under high-vacuum conditions. His work set the stage for the development of better catalysts—materials, often metals, that facilitated chemical reactions without undergoing chemical changes themselves. It was seen as shedding light on phenomena ranging from the rusting of iron to the depletion of Earth’s ozone layer. Economics—The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Oct. 15 awarded the Bank of Sweden Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics to three U.S. economists who had pioneered a discipline known as mechanism design theory, which helped determine when markets were not allocating resources efficiently and how to go about remedying that situation. The three, who would share the prize money equally, were Leonid Hurwicz, 90, a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota and reportedly the oldest Nobel Prize winner to date in any category; Eric S. Maskin, 56, of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, October 18, 2007

N.J.; and Roger B. Myerson, 56, of the University of Chicago. Hurwicz was born to a Jewish family in czarist Russia a few months before the Russian Revolution of 1917. He grew up in Warsaw, Poland, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1940 to escape persecution by the Nazis during World War II. He laid the foundation for mechanism design theory in the early 1960s, and his work was separately built upon by Maskin and Myerson in the 1970s and 1980s. Myerson’s research, in particular, led to better ways of setting up auctions in which public assets were privatized, such as auctions of radio spectrum by the U.S.’s Federal Communications Commission. [See p. 513B2] „

Other Awards Lasker Awards. The

Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation Sept. 15 announced the winners of the Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards. [See 2006, p. 775D1] In the category of basic medical research, there was only one winner, Ralph M. Steinman of New York City’s Rockefeller University, who would receive the maximum prize: $150,000 (up from $100,000 in 2006). Steinman, 64, was honored for his discovery of dendritic cells, which initiated and regulated the body’s immune response against microbes. He and other scientists later found that dendritic cells were hospitable to the AIDS virus, HIV, helping to spread it rather than fight it. The possibility of developing an AIDS vaccine based on this finding was raised in 2001. To date, though, all AIDS vaccine efforts had failed. [See 2001, p. 103E3; 1991, p. 491E3] In the category of clinical medical research, two surgeons who developed prosthetic heart valves would split the $150,000 prize. They were Frenchman Alain Carpentier, 74, of the Georges Pompidou hospital in Paris, and Albert Starr, 81, of the Providence Health System in Portland, Ore. In 1960, Starr performed the first successful heart-valve implantation in a human, using a mechanical device developed with engineer Lowell Edwards, who died in 1982. Carpentier went on to adapt animal valves for use in people, implanting the first such device, a Teflon-coated pig valve, in 1968. Currently, about 300,000 heart-valve replacement operations were done annually around the world, with animal-tissue implants accounting for nearly half of them. The Lasker public service award, which was presented biennially, went to immunologist Anthony Fauci, 66, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. Fauci, who would receive $150,000 (winners in this category had previously received only a nominal cash prize), was honored as the chief architect of two major health initiatives taken by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush: a global plan for combating AIDS known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Project BioShield plan to defend against bioterrorism. Fauci was also cited

for his role “in explaining [to the public] issues of great concern like the science behind emerging biological hazards.” [See p. 345A1; 2004, p. 752G2] „

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People The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Oct. 11 presented its 10th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor to comedian and actor Billy Crystal, 59, whose one-man Broadway show 700 Sundays had won a Tony Award in 2005. Crystal had also hosted the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles eight times since 1990, most recently in 2004. [See 2006, p. 832F1; 2005, p. 396E1; 2004, p. 147F3] French rock singer Bertrand Cantat, 43, Oct. 16 was paroled from a prison near Toulouse, France, after serving four years of an eight-year sentence for the 2003 fatal beating of his lover, French actress Marie Trintignant, in a hotel room in Vilnius, Lithuania. Cantat, who had been the lead singer of the group Noir Desir (Black Desire), had initially been jailed in Lithuania but had been flown to France in September 2004 to serve out his sentence there. The victim’s mother, film director Nadine Trintignant, 72, had appealed in vain to French President Nicolas Sarkozy to block Cantat’s early release. [See 2004, p. 832A3; 1986, p. 632E2] „

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SPORTS

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Marathons Gebrselassie Sets World Record in Berlin.

Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia Sept. 30 set a world record at the Berlin Marathon in Germany. He finished the race in two hours, four minutes and 26 seconds, besting the record of 2:04:55 set by Kenya’s Paul Tergat on the same course in 2003. Gebrselassie, 34, had set a total of 23 world records in his career, in distances ranging from two miles (3.22 km) to the marathon, which was 26.2 miles. Ethiopia’s Gete Wami won the women’s race at the Berlin Marathon for the second straight year, with a time of 2:23:17. [See 2006, p. 920D2; 2003, p. 908C2; 1998, p. 91E2] Race officials Oct. 8 disqualified the winner of the over-55 age group title, Mexican politician Roberto Madrazo Pintado, for apparently taking a shortcut to the finish line. Madrazo had placed a distant third in Mexico’s 2006 presidential election as the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). [See 2006, p. 534A1] Chicago Race Halted Due to Heat—Organizers of the Chicago Marathon Oct. 7 stopped the race after four hours due to extreme heat and humidity. Temperatures reached at least 88° Fahrenheit (31° Celsius), a record for the marathon. Race officials said 49 competitors were taken to area hospitals for treatment for heat-related illnesses, and hundreds of others were reportedly treated on the race course. A 35-yearold man, Chad Schieber, collapsed during the race and later died; however, an autop691

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sy Oct. 8 showed that he had died of a heart condition, and not from the heat, as originally suspected. [See 2006, p. 920C2] The men’s race was won by Patrick Ivuti of Kenya, who finished in 2:11:11. He beat Morocco’s Jaouad Gharib by fivehundredths of a second. Ethiopia’s Berhane Adere won the women’s race for the second year in a row, posting a time of 2:33:49. Romania’s Adriana Pirtea was three seconds behind. „

Cycling Landis Files Appeal of Doping Verdict.

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U.S. cyclist Floyd Landis, who in September had lost an appeal of a positive drug test and been stripped of his 2006 Tour de France victory, Oct. 8 filed an appeal of the decision with the Court for Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland. The CAS appeal was Landis’s last chance to overturn a charge by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that he had used performance-enhancing drugs during the 2006 Tour de France. [See p. 640G1] In a related development, Oscar Pereiro of Spain, who had finished second in the 2006 Tour de France, Oct. 15 was awarded the yellow jersey that went to the winner at a ceremony in Madrid, Spain’s capital. He had been officially declared the winner of the race Sept. 21. „

National Football League Season Opens; Patriots Fined for Spying. The National Football League (NFL) season

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opened Sept. 6, when the defending Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts defeated the visiting New Orleans Saints, 41–10. The rest of the league’s teams opened their seasons Sept. 9–10. [See p. 87D1] The New England Patriots, winners of three of the last six Super Bowls, Sept. 9 defeated the New York Jets, 38–14, in East Rutherford, N.J., in their opening game. A league source Sept. 10 said the NFL was investigating allegations that members of the Patriots’ staff had been videotaping signals sent by Jets coaches on the sideline to players on the field during the game. A Patriots’ staff member had been caught videotaping the Jets’ sideline by a member of the Jets’ security staff, and the videotape was subsequently confiscated by the league. [See 2005, p. 91A1] As a result of that investigation, the NFL Sept. 13 fined the Patriots $250,000 and coach Bill Belichick $500,000, and decreed that the team forfeit its first-round draft pick in 2008 if it made the playoffs in the current season. (If New England did not make the playoffs, it would lose its secondand third-round picks.) The fine was the largest ever levied against a coach by the NFL, as well as the first time a team and coach had been punished for videotaping opposing coaches. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a letter to the Patriots, “This episode represents a calculated and deliberate attempt to avoid longstanding rules de692

signed to encourage fair play and promote honest competition on the playing field.” Belichick Sept. 13 in a statement apologized for “the embarrassment, distraction and penalty my mistake caused.” However, he also said, “As the commissioner acknowledged, our use of sideline video had no impact on the outcome of last week’s game,” adding, “We have never used sideline video to obtain a competitive advantage while the game was in progress.” He blamed the incident on his “incorrect” interpretation of NFL rules, which barred videotaping of sideline coaches sending signals. The incident prompted questions by some as to whether the Patriots had used videotaping to gain an advantage in their recent Super Bowl–winning seasons. Jets coach Eric Mangini had been Belichick’s assistant before being hired as Jets head coach in 2006. State Charges Filed Against Vick— A grand jury in Surry County, Va., Sept. 25 indicted suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and three codefendants on two felony counts related to a dogfighting operation on property owned by Vick in the county. Vick in late August had pleaded guilty to federal charges connected to the dogfighting ring, and was suspended indefinitely by the NFL. In the state court, he was indicted on one count of beating or killing dogs or causing them to fight other dogs, and a second count of engaging in or promoting dogfighting. Vick’s lawyers argued that the state charges violated the Constitution’s so-called double jeopardy clause, which prohibited trying someone twice for the same crime. [See p. 567F2] U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson, who was overseeing the federal case against Vick, Sept. 26 ordered the player to remain at his residence every night between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., and have his movements monitored through an electronic bracelet. The order came after Vick had tested positive for marijuana Sept. 13. Federal prosecutors Oct. 2 filed a motion with Hudson recommending that only one of the 49 pit bulls seized from Vick’s property be euthanized because it could not be rehabilitated. The recommendation was based on an evaluation of the dogs by specialists from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). In a related development, an arbitrator Oct. 9 ruled that the Falcons could pursue the recovery of $19.97 million in bonus money paid to Vick. The team had argued that Vick violated a 10-year, $130 million contract signed in December 2004, which included a $7.5 million signing bonus and $29.5 million in roster bonuses. The NFL Players Association (NFLPA), the players’ union, said it would appeal the ruling. Other News—In other NFL news: † Goodell and Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the NFLPA, Sept. 18 testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation regarding high-profile criticism from some retired players that the league and the union provided inadequate benefits. Also testifying at the hearing were former play-

ers, who alleged that the NFL and the union had conspired to deny them disability and other benefits. [See p. 134E2] † Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre Sept. 16 won his 149th game, surpassing John Elway for the most quarterback wins of all time. On Sept. 30, Favre threw his 421st touchdown pass, becoming the NFL’s career leader in that category. (Dan Marino had previously held the record.) The Packers quarterback set a more dubious record Oct. 14, when he threw his 278th career interception to surpass George Blanda. Favre, who turned 38 Oct. 10, had begun his career in 1991. [See 2006, p. 1034E3] † Six former players—guard Gene Hickerson, wide receiver Michael Irvin, offensive lineman Bruce Matthews, tight end Charlie Sanders, running back Thurman Thomas and cornerback Roger Wehrli— Aug. 4 were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. [See p. 134A3] † Jets running back Curtis Martin July 26 announced his retirement. [See 2005, p. 989E1] „

Tennis Russia Wins Fed Cup. Russia Sept. 16 defeated defending champion Italy, four matches to none, to win the Fed Cup, the women’s team competition of the International Tennis Federation, in Moscow, Russia’s capital. Russia had also won in 2004 and 2005. [See 2006, p. 831F3] Russia Sept. 15 jumped out to an early 2– 0 lead in the first day of the event. Anna Chakvetadze beat Francesca Schiavone, 6– 4, 4–6, 6–4, and Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Mara Santangelo, 6–1, 6–2. Russia clinched the Fed Cup when Kuznetsova beat Schiavone, 4–6, 7–6, 7–5, in the first singles match Sept. 16. Russia also claimed the second singles match of the day, when Elena Vesnina defeated Santangelo, 6–2, 6–4. „

O B I T UA R I E S DENARD, Bob (born Gilbert Borgeaud), 78, French mercenary known for leading many coups and coup attempts across post-colonial Africa; he was involved in conflicts in Angola, Congo, Nigeria, and Rhodesia, which later became Zimbabwe, but was best known for four coups in Comoros, a former French colony off the coast of East Africa, where he ruled behind the scenes from 1975 to 1989; in 2006, a French court convicted him for a 1995 coup there and gave him a fiveyear suspended sentence, taking into account that by then he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease; in July, another French court had sentenced him to a year in prison in connection with that 1995 coup; when he died, a separate court had been weighing whether he was well enough to go to prison; born April 7, 1929, in Bordeaux, France; died Oct. 13 in Paris. [See 2006, pp. 533A3–C3, 305D1, 228E3; 1999, pp. 976D3, 324D3; Indexes 1995, 1989, 1978, 1967] SOE Win, 59, Myanmar’s premier since 2004 and the fourth-ranking member of the country’s ruling military junta; he was linked to a 2003 attack on a motorcade accompanying pro-democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in the town of Dipeyin in northern Myanmar; dozens of people were thought to have died in that attack, after which he was labeled the “butcher of Dipeyin”; born in 1948; died Oct. 12 in Yangon, Myanmar; he had reportedly been battling leukemia. [See 2004, p. 848B3; 2003, pp. 721E1, 436G3] „

October 18, 2007

U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Iranian Revolutionary Guard Elite Unit Accused of Supporting Terrorism.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Oct. 25 announced a new slate of unilateral sanctions against Iran, and accused the elite Quds Force unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps of supporting terrorism. They also said the Revolutionary Guard had proliferated weapons of mass destruction. The long-debated move was expected to further strain the already-tense relationship between the U.S. and Iran. It was the largest expansion of sanctions by the U.S. on Iran since the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran’s capital, by Iranian student militants, and the first time that the U.S. had targeted a foreign nation’s military unit as a terrorism supporter. [See pp. 678E2, 661G2, 533D2] U.S. White House officials in August had announced that the Bush administration planned to label the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group for its alleged support of Shiite militias in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. However, that move had been reportedly criticized as needlessly provocative by U.S. allies in Europe and some U.S. State and Treasury Department officials, and the current stance was seen as a compromise. The Quds Force, which directed Iranian covert operations in the Middle East, was designated a terrorism supporter under a 2001 executive order signed by U.S. President George W. Bush to disrupt terrorist finances. The order would make it illegal for anyone under U.S. jurisdiction to provide material support or resources to the organization. The Revolutionary Guard’s designation came under a separate executive order signed in 2005, which allowed the U.S. to freeze the assets of any proliferator of weapons of mass destruction. The designation referred to the proliferation by Iran of ballistic missiles. [See 2005, p. 456F3; 2001, p. 737A1] Rice Backs ‘Diplomatic Solution’— Rice said the use of sanctions showed that the U.S. was “committed to a diplomatic solution” to tensions with Iran over its nuclear program and support of armed groups. She stressed that the U.S. had no quarrel with the Iranian people, but only meant “to confront the threatening behavior” of their government. “Unfortunately the Iranian government continues to spurn our offer of open negotiations, instead threatening peace and security by pursuing nuclear technologies that can lead to a nuclear weapon, building dangerous ballistic missiles, supporting Shia militants in Iraq and terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, and denying the existence of a fellow member of the United Nations, threatening to wipe Israel off the map,” Rice said. The Revolutionary Guard, thought to be the largest branch of the Iranian military, also allegedly participated in many legal and illegal business operations throughout the country, including front businesses that helped to obtain nuclear technology, according to U.S. officials.

Paulson said that the Revolutionary Guard “is so deeply entrenched in Iran's economy, that it is increasingly likely that if you are doing business with Iran you are doing business with the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps],” and “unwittingly facilitating the regime’s reckless behavior and conduct.” The sanctions called for foreign countries and businesses to stop dealing with three main Iranian banks: Bank Melli and Bank Mellat, which were accused of financing Iran’s nuclear program, and Bank Saderat, which allegedly financed terrorism. In addition, the sanctions included five Revolutionary Guard leaders, nine businesses and the Iranian defense and armed forces logistics ministry, which controlled the country’s defense industries. The U.S.’s imposition of unilateral sanctions came after Russia and China had repeatedly blocked a strong United Nations Security Council resolution against Iran. Relatively few U.S. businesses dealt with Iran, and the sanctions’ main goal was thought to be to persuade foreign countries and businesses to isolate that nation. Reaction—An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Oct. 25 said the sanctions were “doomed to fail,” and criticized the U.S.’s confrontational tactics. Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi the same day warned that military attacks on Iran would be met with a “crushing response.” Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican presidential candidate, warned that he would back actions against Iran ranging “from blockade to bombardment of some kind” if the nation did not abandon its nuclear program. Two other Republican presidential candidates, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, praised the sanctions as necessary to blunt Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Of the Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) renewed criticisms of their opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.), for her vote in favor of a September resolution calling on Bush to declare the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group. They said it would allow Bush to move towards war with Iran. Clinton and Obama also expressed their support for the sanctions [See p. 631F3] Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the sanctions would “worsen the situation and bring it to a dead end.” The increase in tensions with Iran, a major oil supplier, pushed world oil prices to record levels. Crude-oil futures contracts closed Oct. 25 at $90.46 a barrel, up $3.36, or 3.8%, in New York trading. „

Turkey Again Warns Iraq After Kurdish Rebel Ambush U.S. Presses Iraqis to Act. An ambush by Kurdish separatist rebels based in Iraq, across the border from southeastern Tur-

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Volume 67, No. 3489 October 25, 2007

B key, Oct. 21 killed 12 Turkish soldiers, provoking new threats from Turkey that it would launch a cross-border attack against the rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), unless Iraq cracked down on the group. U.S. officials, concerned that a Turkish incursion could further destabilize Iraq, also pressed Iraqi leaders to take action against the PKK. [See p. 677B3] The ambush, which occurred three miles (5 km) inside Turkey, was the latest in a series of attacks by the PKK that had left more than 40 Turkish troops, police officers and civilians dead in the past three weeks. The PKK Oct. 22 said it was holding captive eight Turkish soldiers who had been declared missing by the Turkish military after the ambush. In another Oct. 21 incident blamed on the PKK, a bombing of a convoy of wedding celebrants in Turkey left 17 wounded.

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U.S. imposes sanctions on Iranian Revolutionary Guard; elite unit accused of supporting terrorism. PAGE 693

Turkey again warns Iraq after Kurdish rebel ambush.

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U.S. reports blast oversight of private guards in Iraq. PAGE 694

California fires force mass evacuations. PAGE 696

Bush requests $46 billion more for Iraq, Afghanistan wars. PAGE 696

Mistrial declared in terrorism case against Muslim charity.

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Bush pledges to maintain Cuba embargo. PAGE 702

China holds five-year party congress. PAGE 703

Polish ruling party ousted in elections. PAGE 704

Far-right party gains in Swiss elections. PAGE 705

Red Sox, Rockies advance to baseball’s World Series. PAGE 707

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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The string of attacks had increased pressure on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan from both the military and the public to launch an offensive against the PKK. Tens of thousands of people Oct. 23 gathered in Turkish cities for the funerals of the soldiers killed in the Oct. 21 ambush. The PKK had long staged attacks in Turkey from bases inside northern Iraq, a mostly Kurdish region with an autonomous government. Turkish military aircraft Oct. 21 reportedly conducted attacks on PKK positions inside Iraq, while Turkish forces continued to mass on the border. Erdogan Oct. 21 said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had telephoned him and, while recognizing the “righteousness” of Turkey’s grievance, asked him to delay action for “a few days.” The Turkish parliament the previous week had approved plans for military action in Iraq. Iraqi leaders Oct. 21 condemned the ambush but rejected Turkey’s demands that PKK leaders be extradited. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said, “We will not hand over any Kurdish man to Turkey, not even a Turkish cat.” U.S. officials Oct. 22 pressed Iraqi leaders to crack down on the PKK. U.S. President George W. Bush discussed the matter with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri alMaliki during a video conference. He also telephoned Turkish President Abdullah Gul to express “deep concern” about the PKK attacks. Rice that day reportedly warned Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s Kurdish region, that the PKK was putting the region’s stability in peril. Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki Vows Action—

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Maliki Oct. 23 issued a statement declaring, “The PKK is a notorious terror organization and we have decided to shut down its offices and not allow them to operate on Iraqi soil. We will take all measures to restrict its terror activities that threaten Iraq and threaten Turkey as well.” Erdogan, at an Oct. 23 news conference in London with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, warned, “We cannot wait forever” for Iraq to take action against the PKK. Erdogan Oct. 25 reiterated that U.S. objections would not stop Turkey from conducting cross-border operations. Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan Oct. 23 visited Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, to present a list of demands to Iraqi leaders, including the extradition of PKK leaders and the destruction of its bases. David Satterfield, the U.S. State Department’s coordinator for Iraq, Oct. 23 said Iraq’s Kurdish regional government was responsible for “dealing with” the PKK. “We are not pleased with the lack of action undertaken against the PKK,” he said. Turkey Rejects PKK Cease-fire Offer—

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The PKK Oct. 22 issued a statement that it was prepared to offer a cease-fire to Turkey, but Turkey, which had refused to deal directly with the group, rejected the proposal. Babacan Oct. 23 said, “A cease-fire is done between countries, or two armies, but not with terrorist organizations.” The U.S. classified the PKK as a terrorist group, but had not taken any action against 694

it since invading Iraq in 2003. The PKK was had about 3,000 fighters in Iraq. Its conflict with Turkey had caused more than 30,000 deaths since the 1980s. „

Iraq War Reports Blast Oversight of Private Guards.

Two new U.S. government reports disclosed Oct. 22 criticized the U.S. State Department’s oversight of private security companies operating in Iraq, which were increasingly being used to safeguard U.S. diplomats and perform other protective tasks for U.S. forces in the country. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the next day approved new rules mandating greater supervision and accountability for the companies. The role of private security companies was facing scrutiny in the wake of a September shooting incident involving one such company, Blackwater USA, in which 17 Iraqis had been killed, according to Iraqi investigators. [See pp. 693G2, 680G1, 679G3] One of the reports, ordered by Rice in September after the shooting, faulted the State Department’s communications and oversight procedures for private security companies. It said the problems were especially severe around Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, where Blackwater operated. The report was prepared by a four-member panel led by Patrick Kennedy, the department’s director of management policy. The report did not cover the September Blackwater shooting, which was being investigated by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The report said there was no real alternative to using private contractors to guard U.S. officials, because both the U.S. military and the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security were unprepared to take up the task. It recommended that the State Department set up a center to monitor and coordinate the movement of armed convoys protected by private contractors through areas controlled by U.S. military commanders, who had complained that contractors often did not keep them informed. It also said the department should work with the U.S. Defense Department to improve coordination between contractors and Iraqi security guards, and to set up procedures for compensating the families of Iraqis killed or injured by contractors. The second report, officially released Oct. 23 by Stuart Bowen Jr., the U.S.’s Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, said that the State Department’s records of a contract with Dyncorp International Inc., another private security company, to train Iraqi police officers were “in such disarray” that an audit could not be completed. It said the State Department could not say “specifically what it received” for most of the $1.2 billion it had paid Dyncorp since 2004. It added that the department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs only had one contracting officer monitoring the deal. State Department officials said that they had made progress in improving oversight

of the contract, but that resolving accounting issues could take three to five years. U.S. officials Oct. 16 had said that the State Department’s payments to security contractors had increased to nearly $4 billion a year, from $1 billion in 2004. However, few new officials had been hired to monitor the contracts. Rice Approves Security Changes—Rice Oct. 23 approved reforms recommended in the State Department report to improve the coordination of security in Iraq. The changes included establishing teams to rapidly investigate contractor shootings; establishing a joint diplomatic security and military team to develop “commonly agreed operational procedures”; training in Iraqi culture for contractors; and outreach to civilian victims of shootings. Some of the measures, such as installing video cameras in all armed contractor vehicles and having a diplomatic security agent ride with each convoy, had been announced previously. Rice’s reforms were seen as implicitly rejecting suggestions by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates that all contractors in Iraq be placed under military control. The head of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Richard Griffin, Oct. 24 resigned, after being told to leave his post by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte. Griffin’s departure had been one of the measures recommended in the report. U.S. embassy officials in Baghdad Oct. 24 began offering “condolence payments” to victims of the September Blackwater shooting and their families. An embassy spokeswoman said the payments did not represent a final settlement or an admission of guilt. Several family members reportedly turned down the payments—which in some cases totaled $12,500 for a death—as insulting.

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jonathan Taylor MANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham SENIOR EDITOR: Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Ryu Spaeth ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Todd Grennan, Ian McGullam, Shannon O’Toole DATABASE COORDINATOR: Ben Miller INDEX EDITOR: Jonathan Leith COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Ernesto Malinis Jr., John Wright FACTS ON FILE World News Digest is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. Vice President & Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Associate Publisher: Marjorie B. Bank. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

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Legal ‘Hole’ Shielding Contractors Seen—

Rice Oct. 25 in testimony before the U.S House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee conceded that “there is a hole” in U.S. law shielding Blackwater and other U.S. contractors in Iraq from prosecution. She indicated that she had doubts over a bill passed by the House earlier in October that would bring all contractors in Iraq under the military justice system, but said it was being discussed in the U.S. Justice Department. Rice said she had begun an investigation of State Department contractors after the September Blackwater shootings because “I did not think personally that I could say that oversight and follow-up was appropriate.” Committee Democrats pressed Rice on corruption in the Iraqi government, and questioned her whether she even knew about the most serious allegations. Rice had declined to comment on specific allegations, but acknowledged that Iraqi corruption was a problem and said the State Department was working to correct it. The committee’s ranking Republican, Rep. Thomas Davis 3rd (Va.), dismissed the hearings as a partisan effort “to drill enough small holes in the bottom of of the boat to sink the entire Iraqi enterprise, while still claiming undying support for the crew about to drown.” Blackwater Tax Evasion Alleged— U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D, Calif.) in a letter sent Oct. 22 to Blackwater owner Erik Prince accused the company of evading taxes. Waxman said the company might have avoided paying $31.8 million in Social Security, Medicare, federal income and unemployment taxes from May 2006 through March, and also might owe an additional $18 million for taxes it should have paid from April through September. Waxman said the allegations were prompted by a newly discovered March Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruling that a Blackwater employee could not be designated as an independent contractor. Blackwater, unlike other private security companies, designated its workers as independent contractors rather than full-time employees, which Waxman called “an illegal tax scheme.” Blackwater denied Waxman’s charges, saying that its arrangement met IRS requirements. The Associated Press Oct. 23 reported that Blackwater had filed a report with Congress charging that Democrats and the families of four Blackwater contractors killed in Iraq in 2004 had joined forces to attack the company for political gain. The families had filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Blackwater. [See p. 628F2] Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Bowen’s office Oct. 24 released a report saying that a four-year, $38 million U.S. effort to streamline and modernize the Iraqi government’s accounting system had failed to achieve its goals, in part because the Iraqi finance ministry refused to abandon its paper system for the new computerized system. The report also cited Iraqi employees’ absenteeism—largely due to concerns for their safety—as a major problem. October 25, 2007

† The U.S. military Oct. 23 said U.S. helicopters had opened fire on insurgents planting roadside bombs near the city of Tikrit, killing 11 Iraqis, including five women and a child. Iraqi officials and witnesses said instead that a U.S. helicopter had shot a suspected insurgent and then shot at a crowd that gathered around him— and that at least 15 people had been killed. † Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al Qaeda international terrorist organization, called for unity among insurgents in Iraq in an audio recording broadcast Oct. 22 on Qatari satellite television channel Al Jazeera. Bin Laden said they had “been lax” in allowing tribal infighting to hamper the struggle against U.S. forces. “The interest of the Islamic nation surpasses that of a group,” he said. The tape’s authenticity had not yet been verified, but the voice reportedly sounded like bin Laden’s. Some Sunni tribes in recent months had turned against Sunni insurgent groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq and had been cooperating with U.S. troops. [See p. 587C3] † Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Oct. 17 had approved a classified U.S. strategy for Iraq through summer 2009, the Washington Post reported Oct. 22. The strategy reportedly called for switching focus to Shiite militias, which it saw as an increasing threat, and away from Sunni insurgents. It also acknowledged that the U.S. military could not guarantee absolute victory in Iraq and would aim to instead use “politcal accommodation” to persuade militants to stop fighting. The strategy, which had to be reviewed by top military and U.S. Defense and State Department officials, was expected to finalized by mid-November. † An unidentified Iraqi reporter working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Arabic-language Radio Free Iraq service Oct. 22 was reported missing in Baghdad, after she was attacked on the way to an interview and her driver was shot and killed. Two other Radio Free Iraq reporters had been killed in separate incidents earlier in 2007. † The U.S. military Oct. 21 said U.S. forces that day had killed 49 militants after coming under heavy fire in the Shiite Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad. Officials said the operation had been aimed at the head of an Iranian-backed kidnapping group, but that he escaped capture. Iraqi witnesses put the death toll much lower, and said many or all of the victims had been civilians. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said U.S. troops should be careful not to endanger civilians with excessive force, but did not explicitly condemn the attack. † Syria Oct. 1 imposed new rules closing its borders to all but a small group of Iraqi refugees, it was reported Oct. 20. The rules also required the 1.5 million Iraqis in Syria to apply for visas at the Syrian embassy in Baghdad. Syria in August had said the new regulations would take effect in September, but then postponed them. Syria had accepted more Iraqi refugees than any other nation since the war began in 2003,

and 25,000 Iraqis crossed the border in the last four days before the new rules came into effect. [See p. 571C3] † U.S. troops Oct. 20 discovered a cache of more than 18 tons of homemade explosives near the city of Tarmiya, north of Baghdad, one of the largest such finds in the war. † U.S. forces had arrested eight Iraqi police officers in connection with an Oct. 10 rocket attack that killed two U.S. soldiers inside the U.S. military headquarters compound in Baghdad, it was reported Oct. 20. † A U.S. antiwar group, Appeal for Redress, Oct. 17 delivered petitions to Congress calling for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, which the group said had been signed by 2,050 U.S. service members. It said it had not released the troops’ names, in order to help them avoid punishment. „

Space China Launches Moon Orbiter. China Oct. 24 launched its first lunar space mission, an unmanned craft that would orbit the moon. The craft, called Chang’e-1 after a mythological Chinese goddess said to have flown to the moon, was launched on a Long March 3A rocket from the Xichang Launch Center in the central province of Sichuan. It was the latest step in China’s accelerating space program, which had launched its first manned mission into Earth orbit in 2003. It came soon after Japan launched its first lunar orbiter, in a growing competition among Asian countries to establish space programs. [See below; 2006, p. 812C2] Chinese Vice Prime Minister Zeng Peiyan said the launch solidified “China’s international status and international competitiveness in this field.” China said it planned to launch a manned moon mission by 2020. Chang’e-1 was to enter its lunar orbit Nov. 5, and to conduct photographic and other surveys for a year. Japan Launches Craft—The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Sept. 14 launched the Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE), an unmanned spacecraft that was to orbit the moon, collecting observations of its geological features and composition. The probe was launched aboard an H2A rocket, four years after the originally envisioned date. The project had been delayed by problems with the H-2A rocket program. [See 2006, p. 796E1; 2005, p. 156D3] JAXA Oct. 5 said that the craft, nicknamed Kaguya after a folktale character associated with the moon, had successfully entered its intended orbit. Kaguya was scheduled to begin its 10-month mission in December, orbiting the moon at an altitude of 60 miles (100 km), and releasing two smaller satellites into orbit. Kaguya reportedly cost 55 billion yen ($470 million). JAXA said that the mission was the most scientifically significant mission to the moon since the U.S.’s Apollo program, which sent astronauts to the lunar surface in the 1960s and ’70s. India Sept. 28 said it planned to launch its first unmanned mission to the moon in April 2008. [See 2006, p. 812C2] „ 695

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Southern California Wildfires Force Mass Evacuations More Than 500,000 Flee. Massive wildfires Oct. 21–25 swept Southern California from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border, causing the largest evacuation in the state’s history. California had been suffering the driest year on record, making the brush highly susceptible to outbreaks of fire, and high winds quickly spread the blazes. State officials Oct. 24 said 351,000 people had been ordered to leave their homes, and news reports put the number of evacuees at more than 500,000. Officials as of Oct. 25 confirmed seven deaths as being directly attributable to the fire, including those of four unidentified immigrants apparently trying to cross the Mexican border when they were caught in a fire. Seven other deaths were known to have occurred during the evacuations. [See 2006, p. 930C3] Firefighters Oct. 24–25 began to gain control over the fires, with the help of military and emergency personnel sent by the federal government and nearby states, as well as lowering temperatures and weaker winds. However, 10 of the 23 of the fires were still partially uncontained as of Oct. 25, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The state Office of Emergency Services said 45,600 homes remained in danger. The Office of Emergency Services also said nearly 451,000 acres had burned, with 1,640 structures destroyed. Up to 10,000 people had taken shelter in San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium during the fires, but the number of people there had dropped to 2,500 by Oct. 25. Insurance experts said the damage caused by the fires likely ranged from $1 billion to $1.6 billion. However, San Diego County officials said housing damage in

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that county alone would top $1 billion. Authorities as of Oct. 25 had designated two of the fires, in Orange and Riverside counties, as arson, and were searching for evidence of arson in other fires. At least two suspected arsonists had been arrested, in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties. San Bernardino city officials Oct. 24 said police had killed a suspected arsonist who was allegedly trying to set brush on fire, after he attempted to ram the officers’ vehicles.

K.C. ALFRED-POOL/GETTY IMAGES

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

President George W. Bush, center, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Oct. 25 visit a neighborhood in San Diego hit by wildfires that swept across Southern California.

Emergency Declared—California Gov.

Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Oct. 22 declared a state of emergency in seven affected counties. President George W. Bush Oct. 23 declared a federal state of emergency in those counties, and the next day strengthened the designation to a major disaster, making residents eligible for increased federal aid. Frances Fragos Townsend, Bush’s homeland security adviser, Oct. 25 said the declaration was “just the beginning” of federal assistance, which would include a “disaster food stamp program.” Bush Oct. 25 visited areas in San Diego County affected by the fire, saying, “It really is important for me to come out here and see firsthand the situation. And there’s no question a lot of people are suffering and there’s no question there’ve been terrible losses.” Bush and Schwarzenegger praised, respectively, the state and federal response to the fires. The Bush administration’s response to the fires prompted largely favorable comparisons to its lackluster performance after

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005. However, experts said the hurricanes had caused much greater damage than the fires, and that the federal government played a smaller role in the response to the fires. [See p. 575E2] Some local California officials also criticized the state government for not investing in more firefighting equipment in the wake of major fires that hit the region in 2003. [See 2003, p. 870D2] „

Fiscal 2008 Spending Bills Bush Requests $46 Billion More for Wars.

President George W. Bush Oct. 22 asked Congress to approve $46 billion in additional funds for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The request would bring Bush’s total emergency spending request for the wars to $196.4 billion for fiscal 2008, which had begun Oct. 1. Bush’s move set the stage for another confrontation with Democrats over the Bush administration’s Iraq policy. [See p. 644E1] The new request included $42.3 billion for the Defense Department and $3.6 billion for the State Department. The money would pay for routine operational costs in Iraq and Afghanistan, which had increased because of a surge in U.S. troop levels in Iraq. It would also fund the purchase of new armored vehicles designed to withstand roadside bombs, which caused the majority of U.S. casualties in Iraq. The request, if enacted, would bring the total appropriated for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to $807 billion since 2001. The request also funded other overseas security programs, including $800 million for a United Nations peacekeeping mission and elections in Sudan; more than $400 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA); and $106 million for fuel oil in exchange for North Korea giving up its nuclear program. [See pp. 654B2, 642C1] Bush warned Congress to pass the spending bill quickly. “Congress should not go home for the holidays while our troops are still waiting for the funds they need,” he said. However, Democrats criticized the request, saying they would not act until 2008 while they debated a new strategy for opposing the administration’s war policy. FACTS ON FILE

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) criticized Bush’s tactic of paying for the Iraq war with emergency requests. “The entire war has been paid for with borrowed money,” he told the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) questioned Bush’s spending priorities, pointing to his veto of a five-year, $35 billion expansion of a children’s health insurance program earlier in October. “For the cost of less than 40 days in Iraq, we could provide health-care coverage to 10 million children for an entire year,” she said. [See p. 697D2] „

Terrorism Mistrial in Muslim Charity Case. Judge A. Joe Fish of U.S. District Court in Dallas, Texas, Oct. 22 declared a mistrial in the prosecution of Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development on charges that it funneled money to Palestinian charitable groups controlled by militant Islamist group Hamas. The jury had deliberated for 19 days before informing Fish that it was deadlocked on many of the charges, which included aiding a terrorist organization, conspiracy and money laundering. [See 2004, p. 1042E2] The case against Holy Land, which had been the U.S.’s largest Islamic charity until President George W. Bush ordered its assets frozen in 2001, included more than 197 charges against the foundation and five of its current and former leaders. The jury said it could not agree on verdicts for 132 of the criminal charges. A poll of the jury conducted by Fish found that some jurors disagreed with the not-guilty verdicts initially rendered on 62 of the counts, in addition to the 70 counts that no agreement had ever been reached on. Former Holy Land Chairman Mohammed El-Mezain was found not guilty of 31 of the 32 charges against him. Following the ruling, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Jacks said that the government would seek to retry the case. [See 2001, p. 947G3] Although Bush had justified the decision to seize all of Holy Land’s assets by suggesting that the foundation was financing Hamas’s violent activities against Israel, that claim was not part of the prosecutors’ case against the charity. Instead, the Justice Department alleged that Holy Land had given upwards of $12 million to Palestinian relief organizations, called zakat committees, that were controlled by Hamas. It said that the humanitarian efforts of the zakat committees had burnished Hamas’s image and made it easier for the militant group to recruit new followers. The defense disputed the link between the zakat committees and Hamas, which the prosecution had attempted to bolster by using the anonymous testimony of an Israeli official Aug. 15–16. The defense called a former U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, Edward Abington, to refute the connection. He testified Sept. 4 that he had received daily Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) briefings during his time in Israel and said that none of the briefings had suggestOctober 25, 2007

ed a link between the charities Holy Land supported and Hamas. Analysts viewed the trial as a test case for government attempts to prosecute charities that it alleged were funneling money to terrorist organizations, and critics said the verdict suggested that the strategy was not legally viable. „ Bin Laden Video Leak Criticized. A private antiterrorist surveillance firm that obtained a video message from Osama bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist network, in early September had accused the government of leaking the video and damaging the firm’s ability to monitor Al Qaeda’s communications, the Washington Post reported Oct. 9. [See p. 587C3] Rita Katz, who founded the Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group in 2002, said that she had provided the U.S. government with access to a private Web site containing the video in order to allow it to prepare a response before the video was made public by Al Qaeda. The link was sent Sept. 7 to Michael Leiter, an official at the National Counterterrorism Center, and White House counsel Fred Fielding. According to Katz, within three hours the video was downloaded dozens of times by government computers. The video appeared on newscasts that afternoon. Katz said that the release of the video had exposed SITE’s ability to secretly access internal Al Qaeda communications. A spokesman for National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said Oct. 9 that the government was studying Katz’s allegations, but that no official probe had been launched. „

Legislation House Passes Revised Child Insurance Bill.

The House Oct. 25 voted, 265–142, to pass a revised version of a bill that would expand funding for the state Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP or CHIP). The program provided health insurance for children whose families were unable to afford private health insurance, but who earned too much income to qualify for Medicaid. Supporters of the bill fell seven votes short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override President George W. Bush’s threatened veto of the bill. [See p. 681B3] The bill would increase funding for the program to about $12 billion per year, from its current rate of $5 billion per year, for total funding of $60 billion over the next five years. Congress in September had cleared the bill, which was then vetoed by Bush in early October. The House Oct. 18 had failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto. The new bill received one vote less from Republicans than in the override attempt. (The Senate had passed the measure with a veto-proof majority.) The new version of the bill would more clearly prohibit enrollment in the program by adults without children, illegal immigrants and children in families earning more than three times the poverty-level in-

come, or $61,950 for a family of four. The bill also would require that program applicants provide a Social Security number so that their citizenship or legal residency could be verified. The measure, like its predecessors, relied on a increase on taxes on cigarette packs to $1 per pack, from 39 cents per pack, to fund the program’s expansion. The Bush administration prior to the Oct. 25 House vote issued a statement affirming that Bush would veto the new version of the bill if it were cleared by Congress. However, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt Oct. 24 said Bush would be willing to back a $20 billion SCHIP expansion over five years, a figure between the $35 billion proposed by Democrats and the $5 billion previously suggested by Bush. Leavitt also said the administration would agree to expand the program to families making three times the poverty-level income, up from the previous limit of twice as much. Some House Republicans criticized the timing of the vote, noting that nine of their party members were in California assessing damage from wildfires there. [See p. 696A1] „

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2008 Presidential Campaign Republicans Clash at Florida Debate.

Republican presidential candidates Oct. 21 had their most combative debate to date. The debate, held in Orlando, Fla., was sponsored by the Florida Republican Party and aired by Fox News Channel. [See pp. 698B1, 666C1] Former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) attacked first, questioning the conservative credentials of former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, the frontrunner in national polls. Thompson said, “Mayor Giuliani believes in federal funding for abortion. He believes in sanctuary cities [for illegal immigrants]. He’s for gun control. He supported Mario Cuomo, a liberal Democrat, against a Republican [George Pataki] who was running for governor, then opposed the governor’s tax cuts when he was there.” [See 1994, p. 976E2] Giuliani replied, “You know, Fred has his problems, too.” He said Thompson had been “the single biggest obstacle to tort reform in the United States Senate,” referring to conservatives’ efforts to restrict lawsuits and damages awards. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) blasted former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney after Romney claimed to be the most conservative candidate. McCain said, “Governor Romney, you’ve been spending the last year trying to fool people about your record. I don’t want you to start fooling them about mine.” Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee criticized the tone of the debate, saying, “I’m interested in fighting for the American people, and I think they’re looking for a presidential candidate who’s not so interested in a demolition derby against the other people in his own party.” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the front-running Democratic presidential 697

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candidate, was also a favorite target. McCain mocked her for requesting $1 million in federal funds for a museum to commemorate the 1969 Woodstock music festival in Bethel, N.Y. McCain said, “I am sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event,” but remarked that he could not attend. “I was tied up at the time,” he said, alluding to his more than five years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. The quip drew a standing ovation, and applause from his rivals. Thompson faced a question about his work ethic; his campaign had been widely described as listless since he joined the race in September. In response, he cited his lengthy resume and said, “If a man can do all that and be lazy, I recommend it to everybody.” „ Republicans Court Christian Conservatives.

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Republican presidential candidates Oct. 19–20 spoke at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., courting 2,500 representatives of the Christian conservative movement, a major bloc of Republican primary voters. White evangelical Protestants made up about 25% of the U.S. electorate, and their support had helped President George W. Bush win the 2000 and 2004 elections. But so far in the 2008 campaign, no candidate had emerged as the clear favorite of those voters. [See pp. 697C3, 143A2] The convention posed a test for some top GOP candidates whose conservative credentials on social issues had been questioned. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, the Republican front-runner in nationwide polls, had drawn criticism over his long record of support for abortion rights and gay rights, as well as a personal life that included three marriages. Addressing the convention Oct. 20, Giuliani, a Roman Catholic, said he hoped to earn the trust of social conservatives despite their differences. “Isn’t it better that I tell you what I really believe, instead of pretending to change all my positions to fit the prevailing winds? I believe that trust is more important than 100% agreement,” he said. He received a standing ovation at the end of his speech. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee also spoke Oct. 20, drawing repeated standing ovations that showed him to be a crowd favorite. Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, told the audience, “I come today not as one who comes to you, but as one who comes from you.” Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) amd Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) addressed the convention Oct. 19. Romney, who led the polls in the earlyvoting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, faced doubts among Christian conservatives over his Mormon faith, which some of them viewed as a heretical sect. Like Giuliani, he faced skepticism over his past record of backing abortion and gay rights, although he said he now opposed them. McCain, who had clashed with evangelical leaders during his failed 2000 campaign for the Republican nomination, had 698

changed course and now courted their support. Thompson, who had made a late entry into the race in September, touted himself as a “consistent conservative,” but his campaign so far had been criticized as lackluster. Romney won an Oct. 20 straw poll, with 27.6% of the 5,775 votes cast, both at the convention and over the Internet. Huckabee placed second, with 27.1%. Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) was third, with 15%; Thompson was fourth, with 9.8%. Giuliani finished second to last, with 2%; McCain finished last. Other News—In related developments: † Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.) Oct. 19 announced that he was dropping out of the race for the Republican nomination. Brownback was known for his conservative views on social issues, but he had failed to gain traction in the polls or raise much money for his campaign. [See p. 46C3] † Bob Jones 3rd, chancellor of Christian fundamentalist Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., Oct. 16 told the Greenville News that he was endorsing Romney’s candidacy. Bush had sparked controversy by visiting the school during the 2000 campaign and not criticizing its ban on interracial dating, which it later lifted, and Jones’s anti–Catholic pronouncements. [See 2000, p. 148E2] † A group of prominent evangelical leaders, at a meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept. 29 reportedly discussed the possibility of backing a third-party candidate if someone who supported abortion rights won the Republican nomination. The group included Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, and James Dobson, chairman of another conservative advocacy group, Focus on the Family. „ Clinton Presents Savings Plan. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Oct. 9 proposed a new government program to encourage personal savings. Clinton called for granting an annual tax credit of up to $1,000 a year to match savings that people put into 401(k) retirement accounts. She said the government should create new 401(k)-style accounts for people whose employers did not provide them. [See p. 607G2] Clinton unveiled the plan on the first day of a four-day campaign tour through Iowa and New Hampshire on a bus called the “Middle Class Express.” The tour was focused on economic issues. Under her savings plan, people who made up to $60,000 a year would be eligible for a matching tax credit for the first $1,000 saved every year. Those who made from $60,000 to $100,000 a year would be eligible for a 50% matching credit. Clinton said she would pay for the plan, which she estimated would have an annual cost of up to $25 billion, by repealing the scheduled temporary expiration of the estate tax in 2010. Instead, she would freeze the tax at its 2009 level, when it would exempt couples inheriting assets of $7 million or less. Her campaign estimated that

doing so would raise more than $400 billion in tax revenue over 10 years. Clinton Sept. 28 had floated the idea of the federal government giving a $5,000 “baby bond” to every child born in the U.S. to promote savings, but later dropped the idea. Republicans had mocked the suggestion, saying it showed that Clinton had bigspending tendencies. McCain Offers Health-Care Plan— Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), a Republican presidential candidate, in Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 11 presented a health-care plan aimed at controlling costs. He said, “The biggest problem with the American health care system is that it costs too much.…Businesses and families pay more and more every year to get what they often consider to be inadequate attention or poor care.” McCain called for measures such as basing payments to hospitals and doctors on their performance. He also said he would bring more competition to the market for drugs by allowing the “safe reimportation of drugs” and “faster introduction of generics.” McCain’s cost-cutting push differed from the plans offered by Clinton and the other top Democratic contenders, who instead put a priority on extending coverage to the more than 40 million uninsured people in the U.S. Taking more of a free-market approach than the Democrats, two of McCain’s leading Republican rivals, former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, had offered health-care plans featuring tax breaks to help people buy their own insurance policies. McCain proposed refundable tax credits of $2,500 for families and $5,000 for families, to be paid for by no longer making employers’ health care costs tax-deductible. „

State & Local Politics Jindal Wins Louisiana Governor’s Election.

Rep. Bobby Jindal (R) Oct. 20 won the Louisiana governor’s election in the first round, taking 54% of the vote and beating 11 other candidates. He avoided a runoff by winning more than half the vote. Jindal, 36, would become the youngest sitting governor in the U.S. upon taking office in January. The son of immigrants from India, he also became the first Indian-American governor in the U.S., and the first nonwhite governor of Louisiana since the post–Civil War Reconstruction period. [See p. 264D1; 2003, p. 917C3] State Sen. Walter Boasso (D) finished second, with 17% of the vote, while businessman John Georges, an independent, placed third, with 14%. Both had spent millions of dollars of their own money on the race. Incumbent Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D), whose reputation had suffered due to the slow state response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, had not run for reelection. Jindal had lost to Blanco in a runoff that decided the 2003 governor’s election. He had won a House seat representing the FACTS ON FILE

New Orleans suburbs in 2004, and was now serving his second term. [See 2004, p. 872G1] Earlier in his career, after studying at Britain’s Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, he had been appointed as the head of Louisiana’s health care system at the age of 24. He subsequently became president of the University of Louisiana system and then assistant secretary of health and human services in the Bush administration. Jindal said Oct. 21 that he planned to call the state legislature into special session to pass ethics reform measures aimed at cleaning up Louisiana’s notoriously corrupt politics. „

National Politics Tsongas Widow Wins Mass. House Seat.

Niki Tsongas, the widow of Sen. Paul Tsongas (D, Mass.), Oct. 16 won a special election for a House seat representing Massachusetts’s 5th District, an area northwest of Boston that included the cities of Lowell and Lawrence. Tsongas, a Democrat and former community college dean, won 51.5% of the vote, beating Republican Jim Ogonowski, 50, a retired Air Force officer, who won 45.3%. Ogonowski’s brother had been killed on one of the passenger jets that were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center in New York City in Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. [See pp. 544D1, 419G1; 1997, p. 40E3] Rep. Martin Meehan (D), who had held the seat since 1993, had left it vacant when he resigned July 1 to become chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Tsongas was sworn in Oct. 17. She became the first female member of Massachusetts’s congressional delegation since 1983. Democrat Richardson Wins Calif. Seat—

Former state Assemblywoman Laura Richardson (D) Aug. 22 won a special election for a House seat representing California’s Long Beach–area 37th Congressional District, left open by the death of Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D) in April. Richardson won 67% of the vote, as only 8.6% of eligible voters turned out. Republican John Kanaley, a policeman and Iraq war veteran, placed second with 25%. „

Intelligence Senate Panel Approves Telecom Immunity.

The Senate Intelligence Committee Oct. 18 voted, 13–2, to approve a draft update of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that included immunity for telecommunications companies that assisted the National Security Agency (NSA) in its warrantless wiretapping program. The inclusion of the immunity provision, sought by President George W. Bush, was not part of the House’s proposed FISA update. It sparked criticism from Democratic senator and presidential candidate Christopher Dodd (Conn.), who placed a hold on the bill Oct. 18 and threatened to stage a filibuster if the legislation, which also reOctober 25, 2007

quired the approval of the Senate Judiciary Committee, came to the Senate floor. [See pp. 699E3, 664D3] The proposed bill would replace a temporary law passed in August that gave the Bush administration the authority to approve wiretaps without consulting the FISA court, set up by the 1978 law to oversee domestic surveillance. The temporary law was due to expire in February 2008. [See p. 506A3] Under the draft approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the NSA could request so-called blanket warrants (yearlong warrants targeting no specific individual) for communications based in other countries. But the NSA would be required to submit to regular investigations by the inspector general of the Justice Department, who would be charged with verifying whether the NSA was complying with the law. Except for the immunity provisions, the Senate’s bill closely resembled a bill that House Democratic leaders had pulled from the floor Oct. 17 after Republicans used a procedural move to block it. The House was expected to reconsider it in late October. Bush had threatened to veto the final bill if it included an amendment by Sen. Ron Wyden (D, Ore.), one of two Intelligence Committee members to vote against the bill, that required the NSA to get individual warrants to wiretap American citizens in other countries. The immunity provisions were seen as controversial in part because there were few precedents for Congress passing laws that retroactively shielded individuals or corporations from the legal consequences of their illegal actions. One exception was a 2006 law that, in part, immunized government interrogators who could have been charged with war crimes for their treatment of detainees. Critics said such provisions infringed improperly on the powers of the judiciary, and set a dangerous precedent. The inclusion of immunity provisions was backed by companies like Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc., which were being sued for their alleged role in assisting the government in its warrantless wiretapping. [See p. 665E1] Sen. Russell Feingold (D, Wis.), the second senator voting against the draft bill, said Oct. 22 that he believed the warrantless wiretapping program to be illegal, based on an aide’s study of the documents turned over by the Bush administration. He described the surveillance as “an executive power grab that is not justified by the statute or the Constitution.” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R, Utah), also a member of the committee, said that he still believed that the wiretappings “were and are” legal after seeing the documents. White House Shows Panel Documents—

As part of the compromise reflected in the measure approved Oct. 18, the White House gave members of the Senate Intelligence Committee access to highly classified documents regarding the legal justifications for the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program. The White House had denied requests for the documents by

others in Congress—including the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John Rockefeller 4th (D, W. Va) had negotiated with Bush administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, for more than six months to gain access to the documents, the New York Times reported Oct. 19. The unexpected release of the documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee led Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) and ranking member Sen. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.) to allege that the Bush administration had struck a deal with Rockefeller to turn over the documents in exchange for the passage of the immunity provisions, an agreement they described as “unacceptable.” White House spokesman Tony Fratto Oct. 22 described the connection between the inclusion of the provisions and the decision to hand over the documents as “not exactly” a quid pro quo, but said that the committee’s role in deciding what liability telecommunications companies would face played a part in the Bush administration’s decision. The Bush administration agreed Oct. 25 to release the documents to Leahy and Specter but not to the Senate Judiciary Committee as a whole. Leahy said Oct. 25 that while he would continue to push for the documents to be given to the rest of the committee, he intended to take the opportunity to examine the files. Wired magazine Oct. 22 reported on its Web site that Rockefeller had received $42,850 in political contributions from executives at Verizon and AT&T between March and June 2007, more than 10 times the amount he received from such sources during the previous five years. Rockefeller spokeswoman Wendy Morigi Oct. 22 downplayed the significance of the contributions and said that “any suggestion that Senator Rockefeller would make policy decisions based on campaign contributions is patently false.” „ Ex-Qwest Chief Alleges NSA Pressure. In court documents unsealed Oct. 10, Joseph Nacchio, former chief executive of Qwest Communications International Inc., alleged that the National Security Agency (NSA) had proposed that the company cooperate in a secret program in February 2001. Nacchio said Qwest had refused after its lawyers found the program to be illegal. His account suggested that the NSA had been trying to recruit telecommunications companies for its surveillance programs even before Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. [See pp. 699F1, 528E3] The court filings also alleged that the NSA had canceled plans to award Qwest an unrelated $100 million contract after the company refused to take part in the program. The documents were filed as part of Nacchio’s appeal of an April conviction for insider trading. He had been convicted of selling shares in Qwest at a time when he was aware that the company faced undisclosed financial problems. His appeal argued that NSA contracts he expected Qwest 699

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to receive would have offset an earnings slump that lowered the company’s stock price. According to Nacchio’s filings, on Feb. 27, 2001, he and Qwest Senior Vice President of Government Systems James Payne met with NSA representatives at its headquarters at Fort Meade, Md. The meeting had been scheduled to discuss Qwest’s participation in “Groundbreaker,” an NSA plan to hire private-sector companies to provide its nonconfidential communications services. Nacchio alleged that NSA officials also used the meeting to discuss a classified program that they wanted Qwest to participate in. When Nacchio refused to participate after Qwest’s general counsel found that the program in question was illegal, the NSA withdrew its offer to allow Qwest to participate in Groundbreaker. Nacchio’s court filings were heavily censored and it was unclear if the program Qwest allegedly refused to participate in was part of the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program. In 2006, Nacchio had said that he had refused an NSA request for Qwest customer records in late 2001. [See 2006, p. 389F1] Verizon Revealed Customer Info— The House Energy and Commerce Committee Oct. 15 released a 13-page letter that it had received Oct. 12 from Verizon Communications Inc., in which the company said it had repeatedly provided private customer information to federal investigators without a court order. The letter was sent in response to the committee’s request for information from Verizon, Qwest and AT&T Inc. about their role in domestic surveillance programs. Verizon said it had turned over Internet and phone data 720 times between January 2005 and September 2007 to federal officials without warrants. It also said it had turned over such information 94,000 times in that period to officials with court orders. All three companies refused to discuss their involvement in the controversial NSA warrantless wiretapping program. In its letter to the committee, AT&T said, “Given the focus of your questions, our company essentially finds itself caught in the middle of an oversight dispute between the Congress and the executive relating to government surveillance activities.” The letter also argued that the primary responsibility for determining the legality of surveillance rested with the government, not telecommunications companies. The telecoms were facing a number of lawsuits regarding their alleged involvement with the NSA wiretapping program. The plaintiffs included advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well as U.S. citizens who claimed that the companies had helped the government invade their privacy. „

killed roughly 18,650 people in 2005, a figure higher than the number of deaths reported from AIDS complications in the same year. The bacterium, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), had infected 94,360 people in the U.S. in 2005, according to the researchers. It was the first nationwide survey of the incidence of the infection. [See pp. 576D2, 264G1; 2000, p. 371C3] Staphylococcus aureus was a relatively common bacterium that had previously been easily treated with general-purpose “first-line” antibiotics, such as methicillin. However, a drug-resistant strain had been increasingly found in hospitals, nursing homes and prisons, and sometimes among children and athletes. Hospitals had become a common breeding ground for drugresistant bacteria, commonly referred to a “superbugs,” as they were spread from patient to patient by health care providers and unclean equipment. Experts said the revelation highlighted the need for development of new classes of antibiotics, and closer review of the use of existing bacterial drug treatments, as well as more stringent preventive measures at hospitals. “This is a significant public health problem. We should be very worried,” CDC medical epidemiologist Scott Fridkin said. The research was published in the Oct. 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Schools in many states had disinfected their facilities in the past week, following reports of MRSA infections spreading among students, including deaths in Virginia, Mississippi and New Hampshire. „ News in Brief. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Aug. 23 proposed new regulations governing sunscreens intended to give consumers more information. Under current regulations, sunscreens were required only to provide a sun protection factor (SPF) rating, which indicated a product’s ability to block the ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation that caused sunburn. The proposed rules would also require products to contain a rating for protection from ultraviolet A (UVA) radiation, which caused long-term skin damage. [See 1999, p. 509A3] Researchers reported in the Aug. 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that nearly half of Americans continued having sex into their early 70s. The study was the first nationally representative survey of sexual behavior among older adults. It found that 83.7% of men and 61.6% of women between the ages of 57 and 64 reported having sex in the previous year. Those figures declined to 67% for men and 39.5% for women among people aged 65–74. Among sexually active people aged 75–85, roughly 52% reported having sex at least two or three times a month. „

Medicine & Health

Armed Forces

Drug-Resistant Bacteria Rise Found. Researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Oct. 16 reported that a drug-resistant staph bacterium

Marines Push for Transfer to Afghanistan.

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The Marine Corps was pushing for its forces to be withdrawn from Iraq and transferred to Afghanistan in order to take a

leading role in U.S. military operations there, the New York Times reported Oct. 11. The Marine commandant, Gen. James Conway, had reportedly pressed for the transfer at a meeting the previous week with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and regional military commanders. [See p. 585D1] The 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq currently included about 25,000 Marines. Marine combat units had served in Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion in 2001. However, they had been withdrawn over the last two years, and no major Marine units remained there. Supporters of the plan said the Marines’ integrated ground, air and logistical units and their specialized training for mountainous regions would be well-suited for Afghanistan’s rugged terrain. However, some officers argued that landlocked Afghanistan would present difficulties for the sea-based Marines, and that the Marines’ seven-month combat tours would hamper a long-term counterinsurgency effort. Others said that putting Afghan operations under command of the Marines would undermine the military’s emphasis on joint operations between the services. Some suggested that the Corps was attempting to move itself to Afghanistan to dissociate itself from the more controversial Iraq conflict. Gates Oct. 11 said he had not seen any proposals for the transfer. He called the idea “extremely preliminary thinking on the part of, perhaps, some staff people in the Marine Corps,” adding, “I don’t think at this point it has any stature.” „ Army Suicides Reported at Record Level.

The Army Aug. 16 released a report finding that 99 active-duty soldiers had killed themselves in 2006, up from 87 in 2005. It was the highest number of Army suicides since 102 were recorded in 1991, during the Persian Gulf War. The 2006 suicide rate in the 500,000-member Army translated to 17.3 per 100,000, the highest since the Army started keeping suicide records in 1980. Two other possible suicides remained under investigation. About 62% of soldiers who committed suicide in 2006 had served in Iraq or Afghanistan; 30 of the suicides had occurred in war zones. [See 2006, p. 327F3] The report said the most common motivating factors were failed personal relationships, legal and financial problems and job stress. Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a psychiatry consultant to the Army surgeon general, said at a news conference that although a direct link had not been found between combat deployments and suicide, such deployments greatly increased stress on marriages and other relationships. Abuse in Army Families Linked to Wars—

A Defense Department-funded study published Aug. 1 in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that mothers in Army families were more likely to abuse their children while their husbands were deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq. It said substantiated reports of child mistreatment tripled during husbands’ deployFACTS ON FILE

ments when compared with periods when they were home. It found mothers to be four times as likely to neglect their children and almost twice as likely to physically abuse them while fathers were deployed. The study examined only families with at least one report of child mistreatment. The Army released a statement saying that it was improving its family support services. [See p. 517B2] „

Environment Coal Utility Settles Pollution Suit. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Oct.

9 announced that it had reached a settlement with Columbus, Ohio–based utility American Electric Power Co. (AEP) in a lawsuit regarding emissions linked to haze and acid rain generated by the company’s coal plants. As part of the settlement, AEP agreed to pay $15 million in civil penalties and $60 million to clean up pollution in various waterways and parks. [See p. 206C3] The EPA said that it would cost the AEP $4.6 billion to comply with the terms of the settlement, a figure that AEP disputed. It was not clear if the EPA’s figure included costs already incurred by AEP for emissions reduction efforts. AEP in its 2006 annual report said it had spent $1.2 billion that year to reduce emissions, and expected to spend another $1.5 billion over the next two years. The EPA, eight states and several environmental groups in 1999 had filed the lawsuit against AEP, alleging that the company had failed to adhere to a clause in the Clean Air Act known as “New Source Review.” That clause required utilities to install new pollution-reduction technology when it did any significant updating of its existing plants. New Source Review had become a major source of contention among federal regulators, environmental groups and energy utilities, since all had different interpretations of the regulation. Under the terms of the deal, AEP would be allowed to make “efficiency improvements” at several plants without subjecting them to the New Source Review provisions. The company would be required to install at 16 of its plants emissions-reducing technology projected to remove 1.6 million tons of air pollution by 2018. Kentucky Settlement Reached—The EPA Sept. 20 said it had fined a Kentucky utility, East Kentucky Power Cooperative Inc., $11.4 million as part of a settlement of alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. The settlement also required the cooperative, which generated power through coal-fired plants, to reduce pollution by about 400 tons (360 metric tons) per year. The fine would be paid over six years, and if the cooperative met certain financial benchmarks, could increase by as much as $10 million. „

ber after adjustment for seasonal variation. “Core” consumer prices, which excluded volatile energy Inflation (CPI) and food costs, September 2007 0.3% grew by 0.2% in Previous Month -0.1% September, which 12-Month Increase 2.8% was the same as the increase seen in August. For the 12month period through September, the overall unadjusted inflation rate was 2.8%. [See p. 634C3] Unadjusted for seasonal variation, the CPI for all urban consumers stood at 208.49% of its 1982–84 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982–84 would have cost $208.49 in September. „ Fed Sees Deceleration in Growth. The Federal Reserve Oct. 17 issued its “beige book” survey of economic data covering the period from September to early October. The survey was compiled eight times a year on a rotating basis by the Fed’s 12 regional banks. The latest survey indicated the pace of economic growth had “decelerated” since August. [See pp. 682A3, 591D3] The Fed’s report said expansion continued, but at a slowed pace, in the areas of consumer spending and manufacturing, as well as in the service sector and energy industries. The report said the housing market remained weak, and that the quality of credit had deteriorated. It also said that several industries “indicated a higher-thanusual degree of uncertainty” about the future of the economy, mostly because of problems in the housing market. „ Housing Starts Fell 10.2% in September.

The Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Oct. 17 reported jointly that the rate of housing starts in September was 1.19 million units, annualized and adjusted for seasonal variation. That was 10.2% below the revised rate for August of 1.33 million units. [See p. 635B1] Building permits were issued in September at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.23 million units, 7.3% below August’s revised rate of 1.32 million. The number of permits issued was at its lowest level since 1993. „ September Industrial Production Up 0.1%.

The Federal Reserve Oct. 16 reported that its industrial production index grew 0.1% in September. Based on revised data, the Fed found that industrial production had not changed in August. The overall index now stood at 114.4% of its 2002 base average, up from its revised level of 114.3% the previous month. [See p. 611C3] Manufacturing rose 0.1% in September. The output of utilities decreased 0.1%, and mining output increased 0.2%. U.S. factories, mines and utilities operated at 82.1% of their total capacity. „ Leading Indicators Rose 0.3% in September.

Economy Consumer Prices Rose 0.3% in September.

The Labor Department Oct. 17 reported that its consumer price index (CPI), which tracked prices paid for consumer goods by all urban consumers, rose 0.3% in SeptemOctober 25, 2007

The Conference Board business research organization Oct. 18 reported that its composite index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of future economic activity, grew by 0.3% in September, to 137.9. It had decreased a revised 0.8% in August, the board reported. The index’s base level

of 100 reflected conditions in 1996. Seven of the 10 indicators in September were “positive” contributors, led by vendor performance, average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance and stock prices. Two indicators—building permits and interest rate spread—were “negative.” One indicator—average weekly manufacturing hours—did not change in September. [See p. 635A1] „ Retail Sales Rose 0.6% in September. The Commerce Department Oct. 12 reported the value of retail sales in September at $380.2 billion, after seasonal adjustment. That was 0.6% above the revised figure for August. The figure was higher than what analysts had expected, easing fears that a weak housing market had dampened consumer spending. [See pp. 701D2, 611E3] „

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Business Class-Action Law Firm Cofounder Indicted.

A grand jury in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles Sept. 20 indicted Melvyn Weiss, 72, cofounder and partner of New York City law firm Milberg Weiss LLP, on four criminal charges of conspiracy. The firm had been indicted in May 2006 for allegedly paying $11 million in kickbacks to plaintiffs it had represented in more than 150 class-action lawsuits between the late 1970s and 2002, earning the firm more than $250 million in fees. Weiss was indicted after two former partners pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. He faced up to 40 years in prison. [See 2006, p. 451B1; 2005, p. 423A3; 2002, p. 276A2] Milberg, formerly known as Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman, had built its reputation on winning multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuits against giant corporations like Enron Corp., Tyco International Ltd. and Exxon Mobil Corp. The firm maintained that it was innocent. The seven-year investigation into the firm’s practices had picked up speed in recent months after a former Milberg partner, David Bershad, July 9 pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy. Bershad admitted that he and others at the firm paid clients to become lead plaintiffs in investor lawsuits against large corporations, and hid those kickbacks from investigators. The ploy allowed the firm to file the lawsuits first and take a larger portion of the ensuing legal fees, even if the plaintiffs only owned small stakes in the accused companies. Bershad agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, give up $7.75 million that he earned from the alleged conspiracy, and pay a fine of $250,000. He faced up to five years in prison. Another former partner at Milberg, William Lerach, Sept. 18 pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy. Under the terms of the deal, he would pay $7.75 million in money earned from the alleged scheme, and pay a fine of $250,000. He faced between one and two years in prison. A third former partner, Steven Schulman, Sept. 20 agreed to plead guilty to a federal racketeering charge. He agreed to 701

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cooperate with prosecutors, and give up nearly $2 million in fees. Also, Steven Cooperman, a former Milberg client, July 10 had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy. He admitted to accepting $6.1 million from the firm in exchange for serving as a lead plaintiff in several lawsuits. „

Crime Four Wounded in Ohio School Shooting.

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A 14-year-old student Oct. 10 opened fire at a Cleveland, Ohio, high school, wounding two students and two teachers before fatally shooting himself. The student, Asa Coon, carried two guns, two knives and two boxes of bullets into the school and opened fire on the building’s third floor. He had been suspended from the school, SuccessTech Academy, on Oct. 8 for fighting. [See p. 652F1] All of the shooting victims were expected to recover. Only one was severely injured, teacher Michael Grassie, 42, who was shot in the chest. A third student was injured when she was trampled by students in the melee. In 2005, Coon had been convicted of domestic violence at the age of 11 for striking his mother in the face. He was sentenced by a juvenile court to probation with community service, anger management classes and counseling sessions. According to the New York Times Oct. 12, Coon was regularly teased about his appearance, which included nail polish and black trench coats, and had made threats against other students the week before the shooting. Pa. Student Arrested Over Weapons—

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A home-schooled 14-year-old boy was arrested Oct. 10 in Plymouth Township, Pa., and charged as a juvenile with possession of a criminal instrument and solicitation to commit terror after stockpiling weapons in his bedroom and asking another teenager to assist him in carrying out an attack on Plymouth Whitemarsh High School. The boy’s name was not revealed by the authorities because he was under the age of 18. The boy’s mother, Michele Cossey, 46, was arrested Oct. 12 and charged with reckless endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, unlawful transfer of a firearm, and providing a firearm to a minor. She had given three guns, including an assault rifle, to her son. Montgomery County, Pa., District Attorney Bruce Castor Jr. Oct. 11 said that he did “not think an attack was imminent” and questioned whether a shooting would have taken place at all. A search of the teenager’s bedroom produced three firearms and seven handmade grenades, as well as an assortment of knives and air rifles. Notebooks containing violent material and a documentary on the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., were also discovered. The boy had been a student at a middle school in Montgomery County but had been home-schooled by his parents for 18 months because he had been the target of bullies, according to police. „ 702

AFRICA

Sudan Former Southern Rebels Quit Government.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), a party of southern-based former rebels, Oct. 11 announced that it was suspending its participation in Sudan’s national unity government. The SPLM, the political wing of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), had joined the national government, based in Khartoum, the capital, in 2005, under the terms of a peace agreement that had ended a 20-year-long civil war in southern Sudan. The SPLM had 18 government ministers, as well as First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit. Kiir, the chairman of the SPLM and president of the semiautonomous south, did not join in the boycott. [See 2006, p. 933A1] The north-south conflict had pitted the northern-based, Muslim, Arab-oriented national government against the southerners, who were mainly Christian and identified with black sub-Saharan Africa. Some 2.2 million people had died in the conflict before an internationally brokered peace deal was signed in January 2005. The war in the south was separate from the conflict that had been raging in Sudan’s western Darfur region since 2003. However, the involvement of negotiators from south Sudan in upcoming Darfur peace talks was seen as key. Also, the United Nations had touted the north-south peace deal, known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), as a potential model for a settlement in Darfur. Analysts said each conflict had a similar general cause: the monopolization by northerners of Sudan’s wealth and power. [See p. 641C3] The SPLM alleged that Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) had been slow in implementing many facets of the CPA. Under the CPA, south Sudan, currently a semiautonomous region, could hold a referendum in 2011 on whether to break away from Sudan and become a separate country. Also, an independent commission was established to demarcate the northsouth boundary, and the Khartoum government was obliged to accept its decisions and to withdraw its troops from southern areas—something the SPLM alleged that it failed to do. Among other alleged violations, the SPLM said hundreds of its members continued to be held as political prisoners in northern jails, and that Bashir had refused to approve a shuffle of SPLM cabinet ministers submitted by Kiir. The government, in turn, accused the former rebels of violating various provisions of the CPA. A major source of tension between the government and the SPLM was the status of the oil-rich Abyei region, located near the north-south divide. The independent boundary commission had placed the Abyei region in the south; however, the Khartoum government, which stood to lose billions of dollars in oil proceeds, rejected that decision. Currently, the region was oc-

cupied by government, SPLM and U.N. peacekeeping troops. (There were about 10,000 U.N. troops in the south.) Diplomats had been warning of the increasing tensions between north and south for months. Andrew Natsios, the U.S.’s special envoy to Sudan, Oct. 6 had called the atmosphere between the two sides “poisonous,” and said that “we are deeply concerned about the health of the CPA.” Recently, much of the attention of the international community had been focused on the Darfur conflict. Leaders of North, South Meet—An SPLM delegation Oct. 16 met in Khartoum with Bashir and other NCP officials, in Bashir’s first meeting with the SPLM since it left the government. (The president kept the delegation waiting two days before receiving them.) The delegation was led by Riek Machar, the vice chairman of the SLPM. They reportedly demanded that all provisions of the CPA be implemented by Jan. 9, 2008— the three-year anniversary of the agreement. “The return of the ministers to work is dependent on how fast the critical provisions…are resolved and how fast the violations are corrected,” Machar said. He added, “Most of the issues can be resolved by the president alone…by the stroke of his pen.” [See 2005, p. 22D1] Machar did not indicate what the SPLM would do if the Jan. 9 deadline was not met. Bashir and Kiir met face-to-face Oct. 18 in Khartoum. However, the talks ended with no settlement. After a three-and-ahalf-hour meeting, presidential spokesman Mahjoub Fadul said, “There was agreement to complete discussions on the outstanding problems in the deal.” However, Bashir, in an apparent attempt to meet some of the SPLM demands, Oct. 17 had agreed to the cabinet shuffle demanded by Kiir. Further increasing tensions, Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha Oct. 21 accused the SPLM of building up its forces in the south. “We are calling on the SPLM to practice self-control and to stop the escalation of the situation,” he said. Taha also accused the SPLM of neglecting the people of south Sudan. The SPLM Oct. 23 urged the U.N. and the international community to intervene to help break the stalemate, calling for an emergency meeting on the issue. „

AMERICAS

Cuba Bush Pledges to Maintain Embargo. U.S.

President George W. Bush in an Oct. 24 speech called the Cuban government of President Fidel Castro Ruz a “disgraced and dying order,” and pledged to continue enforcing strict economic sanctions against the country. “Calls for fundamental change are growing across the island,” Bush said. The speech marked the first substantial comments Bush had made about Cuba in four years. He delivered it at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., before FACTS ON FILE

an audience that included Cuban-American political figures and relatives of Cuban dissidents. [See p. 532F1] Cuba been ruled by Castro, 81, from 1959 until he ceded power in July 2006 to his brother, Gen. Raul Castro Ruz, citing an unspecified intestinal ailment as the cause of his withdrawal from day-to-day governing tasks. Although the power transfer had been described as temporary, many expected Fidel Castro would not return to power. Bush said life in Cuba would not improve by “exchanging one dictator for another.” He called on Cubans to help foster democracy in their country, and sought the support of other countries in promoting democratic change. “Now is the time to stand with the Cuban people as they stand up for their liberty,” he said. He also proposed the creation of a “freedom fund” that would provide aid to Cubans in the event of a change in power. Bush said release of money in the fund would be contingent on Cuba proving it had instituted specific reforms, such as freedom of speech and the press, and the establishment of “periodic, multi-party elections.” Reaction—Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque Oct. 24 derided Bush’s comments as “gross meddling” in Cuba’s domestic affairs. “You are not a liberator, Mr. Bush. You are a brutal repressor,” he said. Bush’s statement was also criticized by several congressional Democrats. Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.), a 2008 presidential candidate, in an Oct. 24 statement called for the end of travel restrictions for Cuban Americans who sought to go to Cuba, calling them “the most effective messengers of freedom and democratic change.” He also said the government should end a ban on remittances sent to Cuba by Cuban Americans. Castro Heard on Television—Fidel Castro Oct. 14 talked by telephone with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias during a live television broadcast from central Cuba that was aired in Venezuela. It was the first time Castro had made a live broadcast since relinquishing power, and quelled continually circulating rumors that he had died. However, Castro did not appear on the show. [See p. 498D2] Cuban state television Sept. 21 aired an interview with Fidel Castro, his first since June 5. In the appearance Castro spoke on a range of topics, but referenced the rising price of oil and the falling value of the U.S. dollar against the euro, which viewers took as proof that he was still alive. „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

China Five-Year Party Congress Held. China’s rul-

ing Communist Party Oct. 15–21 held its 17th five-year congress in Beijing, the capital. The congress was China’s most important political assembly, and was traditionally the occasion for making major new October 25, 2007

appointments to senior positions. The congress elected a new Central Committee, which in turn Oct. 22 promoted to the powerful Politburo Standing Committee two younger officials widely seen as the top contenders to succeed party chief and President Hu Jintao: Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang. [See p. 579F1; 2002, p. 882C2] Hu, in his address opening the congress Oct. 15, said that maintaining economic growth was still the “central task” of the party, and vital for the “lasting stability of the party and the nation.” However, he said that China’s recent rapid growth had been attained “at an excessively high cost of resources and the environment,” and should become more “balanced and sustainable.” He said future economic development should be based on greater productivity, and shift from manufacturing industries to high technology and the service sector. Hu also acknowledged popular discontent and income inequality, saying that the party’s “achievements…still fall short of the expectations of the people.” He set a goal to “basically eliminate” severe poverty, and revised an existing goal—to quadruple the country’s overall gross domestic product (GDP) from its 2000 level by 2020—to a more ambitious quadrupling of per-capita GDP, which stood at about $2,000 in 2006. Hu pledged to expand the ability of the Communist Party’s members—some 73 million people, out of the country’s population of 1.3 billion—to participate in its decision-making. However, he reaffirmed the government’s insistence that the party retain its monopoly on power, and offered little else in the way of political reforms. The congress’s 2,217 delegates Oct. 21 approved an amendment to its constitution enshrining Hu’s doctrine of “scientific development,” his emphasis on tempering growth with concern for the environment and social problems, as a historic theoretical contribution to Marxism. Committee Chosen, Retirements Set—

The party Oct. 21 unveiled its new 204member Central Committee. Three members of the outgoing nine-member Politburo Standing Committee who did not owe their seniority to Hu’s patronage were absent from the new roster, indicating that they were retiring, making way for Hu to install his own allies. They were Vice President Zeng Qinghong, who was closely associated with Hu’s predecessor, Jiang Zemin; Wu Guangzheng, who had been responsible for party discipline, including anticorruption efforts; and Luo Gan, who was responsible for justice and law enforcement policies. Also retiring were Politburo members and vice premiers Wu Yi, the only woman in the Politburo, and Zeng Peiyan, an industrial policymaker. All of the retiring members were in their late sixties, the usual retirement age. Committee Elevates Likely Successors—

The new Central Committee Oct. 22 held its first meeting, and unveiled the new 28member Politburo and its Standing Committee. Among the new appointees to the Standing Committee were the two proba-

ble contenders to succeed Hu in 2012, when he was expected to step down. They were Shanghai party chief Xi, 54, and Li, 52, the party chief of Liaoning province. Li was a close protege of Hu’s, but Xi enjoyed greater seniority. According to some news accounts, Hu had sought unsuccessfully to install Li as his unrivaled designated successor. Xi was the son of a Chinese revolutionary guerrilla leader and Politburo member, Xi Zhongxun. His father was purged in the 1960s, and the younger Xi rose in the party only after being banished to live on a rural commune during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. He had been named Shanghai party leader in May after the previous chief, Chen Liangyu, was ousted in a corruption scandal. [See p. 352A2] Li, like Hu, had risen in the party’s Communist Youth League. Prior to becoming party leader of Liaoning, he had been the party chief for Henan province. The others promoted to the Standing Committee were He Guoqiang, the party’s new disciplinary chief, and Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang. (In addition to the three retirements, there had been a fourth vacancy after the June death of Vice Premier Huang Ju.) [See p. 403E3] The Standing Committee members remaining from the previous term were, in descending order of rank in the party leadership: Hu; Wu Bangguo, chairman of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress; Premier Wen Jiabao; Jia Qinglin, leader of the People’s Consultative Congress, a parliamentary advisory body; and party propaganda chief Li Changchun. Wu, Jia and Li were more closely identified with Jiang, who still wielded influence within the party. „

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EUROPE

UNITED STATES

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European Union Leaders Approve Treaty at Lisbon Summit.

Leaders of the 27 member nations of the European Union at a summit in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, Oct. 18 agreed on a treaty intended to reform the EU’s institutions and make it function better after a period of rapid enlargement. The EU had added 12 new members since early 2004. The treaty was a scaled-down version of a proposed constitution that had been rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005. [See p. 422D2] Referring to the period of uncertainty caused by the defeat of the constitution in those two countries, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, who led the Lisbon summit, said, “With this treaty, we have managed to get out of a blind alley where we have been for some time.” The treaty provided for an appointed president with a 30-month term that could be extended to five years, to replace the current system of a presidency that rotated among the member nations every six months. The powers of the EU foreign policy chief would also be strengthened. 703

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The treaty provided for a new voting system that would give more weight to nations with larger populations, but required 15 of 27 nations, representing at least two-thirds of the total EU population, to approve any decision. The new treaty still had to be ratified by each member nation, in either a parliamentary vote or a more risky popular referendum. So far, only Ireland had said it would hold a referendum, as it was obliged to do under its own laws. France and the Netherlands both said they planned a parliamentary vote this time. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced pressure from Britain’s opposition Conservative (Tory) Party to call a referendum on the treaty. Brown Oct. 18 reiterated his view that a referendum was unnecessary. He said he had succeeded in preserving “red lines” in the treaty, ensuring that Britain would continue to control its own policies in justice, employment rights, foreign affairs and national security. “The British national interest has been protected,” he said. Poland won concessions in the treaty’s formulas for voting procedures, including the right of groups of member nations to demand a delay in the implementation of measures narrowly passed over their opposition. [See p. 704C2] Meanwhile, speculation grew over possible candidates for the first EU president, who would take office in January 2009. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had resigned in June, emerged as a contender. French President Nicolas Sarkozy Oct. 19 praised Blair as “a remarkable man, the most pro-European of all the British.” Brown also endorsed Blair as “a great candidate for any significant international job.” Blair was now acting as a Middle East envoy trying to help broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace. [See p. 491F1] „

Great Britain Liberal Democrat Leader Campbell Resigns.

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Sir Menzies Campbell Oct. 15 resigned as leader of Britain’s third-largest political party, the Liberal Democrats. Campbell, 66, was a former Olympic sprinter who had led the party for 19 months. He had recently faced pressure after the party slipped in the polls, trailing well behind the ruling Labour Party and the opposition Conservative (Tory) Party. Other top Liberal Democrats reportedly had criticized Campbell’s performance and questioned whether he was too old for his role. The party would elect a new leader by mail-in ballots, with the winner announced in December. [See p. 673A2; 2006, p. 174D3] „

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Hirsi Ali’s Security Funding Withdrawn.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former member of the Dutch parliament who had received death threats over her criticism of Islamic extremism, had returned to the Netherlands after the Dutch government withdrew funding for her security abroad, it was re704

ported Oct. 1. Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin Oct. 4 said the government would no longer pay about $3 million in annual costs for Hirsi Ali’s protection while she lived in the U.S., but would provide “protection measures” for her in the Netherlands. [See 2006, p. 518E3] In 2006, a controversy over the Somaliborn Hirsi Ali’s citizenship had caused the collapse of the previous Dutch government. She had then left the Netherlands, accepting a position at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., where she had spent the past 13 months. The AEI Oct. 16 said it was raising contributions to help pay for Hirsi Ali’s protection. It said she had returned to the U.S., where she had received permanent residency status. „

Poland Ruling Party Ousted in Snap Elections.

Poland’s electoral commission Oct. 23 declared that the opposition center-right, probusiness Civic Platform party, led by Donald Tusk, had won parliamentary elections held Oct. 21. The Civic Platform victory ousted Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party from power. [See p. 598E1] Civic Platform claimed 41.51% of the vote, or 209 seats in the 460-member parliament. The PiS was second, with 32.11%. The Polish Peasant Party (PSL) claimed 8.91%, or 31 seats. Other, mostly left-leaning parties claimed 13.15% of votes. The combined 240 parliamentary seats between Civic Platform and the PSL were enough to override a veto by Polish President Lech Kaczynski, the twin brother of outgoing Prime Minister Kaczynski. Jaroslaw Kaczynski in September had called snap elections after being in office for only two years, as a result of infighting with the coalition partners that PiS needed to form a majority: the right-wing League of Polish Families and the populist SelfDefense Party. Kaczynski called the elections in a gamble that supporters of the dissenting coalition parties would vote for PiS, but instead both of the smaller coalition parties were eliminated from parliament. Tusk was expected to become Poland’s new prime minister as soon as he was able to form a coalition with the PSL. President Kaczynski would remain in office until 2010, and was expected to fight a hostile parliament to keep members of his party in government positions. Jaroslaw Kaczynski Oct. 21 in a concession speech said the remaining 166 PiS members of parliament would form a “tough and determined opposition.” Officials Report High Voter Turnout—

Election officials Oct. 23 said the overall turnout for the election was 53.88%, a low number compared with many European Union countries but nonetheless the highest turnout since Poles voted out Communist rule in 1989. It was also a significant increase from the elections in 2005, when

PiS needed only 3.2 million votes in a country of 38 million to win elections and Civic Platform had trailed by only 340,000 votes. In the current round of elections, some polling stations reported running out of ballots, and others were forced to stay open hours later than they had anticipated in order to accommodate everyone who wished to vote. [See 2005, p. 672A3; 1989, p. 423D3] While Kaczynski had initially objected to the presence of election monitors from the Office for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Polish officials Oct. 3 announced that the OSCE would be invited to monitor the election process. The OSCE Oct. 22 said in a press release that the elections had “demonstrated a democratic and pluralistic election process, founded on a high level of public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the electoral administration.” Kaczynskis’ Policies Divided Citizens—

PiS in 2005 had come to power on a conservative platform that aimed to fight corruption. Prime Minister Kaczynski’s reforms included a controversial law that required Polish professionals and public servants to declare whether or not they had worked with the Communist secret police before 1989. A failure to make such a declaration resulted in the loss of the person’s job. The law had since been struck down by Poland’s supreme court. Kaczynski’s leadership had also severely strained relations with Germany after instances in which he used anti-German rhetoric in speeches and negotiations. [See pp. 422G2, 183F1] The Kaczynski brothers also embraced Catholicism, which in turn led to their opposition to abortion and gay rights. They had also supported policies unpopular in the EU, such as the death penalty. The Kaczynskis’ policies largely won them the support of older Poles who remembered both World War II and Poland under communist rule. [See p. 366F3] However, the departure of the PiS-led government was largely attributed by analysts to an unprecedented turnout of young voters, a substantial number of whom lived abroad, and many of whom were too young to remember Poland under communism. Tusk represented a pro-EU, pro-business alternative to the Kaczynskis’ traditionalist conservative government. The Civic Platform under Tusk was expected to attempt to curb spending, adopt the euro, privatize remaining state-controlled industries and reduce taxes. He also planned to withdraw Poland’s approximately 900 troops from operations in Iraq, and would not offer as many concessions as Kaczynski had to the U.S. regarding its controversial plan for a missile defense system in Poland, though Tusk also favored strong ties to the U.S. [See pp. 695F1, 689E2] Polish relations with the EU were expected to warm, after Kaczynski had alienated some EU leaders with his abrasive manner and rejection of EU policies including a constitution. Tusk also had the advantage of speaking English, something neither Kaczynski brother could do. „ FACTS ON FILE

Russia Putin Says He Will Enhance Military.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Oct. 18 answered questions from Russian citizens in a three-hour question-and-answer session aired on live television. Putin touched on a variety of issues, including plans for a military buildup, the Iraq war, U.S. plans for a missile shield in Eastern Europe and Russian domestic issues. Putin’s discussion was the sixth such session in the eight years he had been president. [See 2006, p. 917D2] Putin took a strong stance on the Iraq war, saying the U.S. had invaded Iraq in order to “establish control of the country’s oil reserves.” He added, “one can wipe off a political map some tyrannical regime…but it’s absolutely pointless to fight with a people.” He also said the U.S. should adopt a deadline for troop withdrawal from Iraq, and that the situation in Iraq demonstrated that energy-rich countries must have adequate defenses. [See p. 695F1] “Russia, thank God, is not Iraq,” said Putin, “and Russia has enough forces and funds to defend itself and its interests both on its own territory and in other parts of the world.” Putin also stated that Russia had “grandiose” plans for a sizable military buildup. He said goals included a strengthened nuclear arsenal, a new class of nuclear submarine and a “new-generation warplane” that would be developed by 2015. [See pp. 616E3–617D1] On the issue of a planned U.S. missile shield in Poland and radar station in the Czech Republic, Putin said, “The latest contacts with our American colleagues show that they have indeed given some thought to the proposals we made and are looking for a solution to the problems and for ways to ease our concerns.” Putin six days earlier had met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Russian generals had reportedly said such a system would allow the U.S. to monitor Russian territory as far inland as the Ural mountains, and would give the U.S. the opportunity to intercept Russian ballistic missiles if they were launched. [See p. 689E2] On the domestic front, Putin said he recognized that there were problems with inflation, but also pointed to a 13.4% increase in incomes and a 5.1% increase in pensions. Putin Oct. 11 had ordered the government to raise pensions on the day before parliamentary elections scheduled for Dec. 2, in response to the rising cost of groceries. Putin was considering a run for prime minister after his presidential term expired in 2008. [See p. 654C3] „

Serbia Stalemate Continues in Kosovo Talks.

Talks Oct. 14 between Serbian and Kosovar officials in Brussels, Belgium, produced no tangible results after both sides refused to budge on the issue of independence for the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo. The two factions, under the October 25, 2007

watch of international mediators, continued talks in Vienna, Austria, Oct. 22, but again failed to reach any agreements. [See p. 655E1] Serbian Minister for Kosovo-Metohija (Serbia’s name for the province) Slobodan Samardzic Oct. 15 said the talks needed to be extended beyond a Dec. 10 deadline imposed by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Kosovo Albanians had threatened to unilaterally declare independence if no agreement was reached by that date. “We need time to talk. If we start to speak as two delegations about our legitimate problems we need more time. If there is an idea to come to a compromise, we need more time,” said Samardzic in a Reuters article. He also stated that “nobody can expect a positive outcome” by the deadline. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica Oct. 16 said a U.S. promise to recognize Kosovo if it declared its independence hindered the negotiations because the support discouraged Kosovo Albanians from accepting a compromise. The U.S. State Department dismissed the remarks and said U.S. envoys were working to find a satisfactory compromise. According to a poll conducted by the Belgrade, Serbia–based Center for Free Elections and Democracy, only 10% of Serbians (excluding Kosovo) would support “some kind of military action” to ensure Kosovo remained a part of Serbia, the Financial Times reported Oct. 8. Serbia Offers $1.4 Million for Fugitive—

Serbia Oct. 12 announced a $1.4 million reward for information leading to the arrest of fugitive former Bosnian Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic, a Serbian citizen. Mladic had been indicted by the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the Netherlands, on charges of genocide for 1995 attacks on civilians in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, which resulted in the deaths of at least 8,000 Muslims. Also wanted by the tribunal in connection with the Srebrenica massacre was Radovan Karadzic, a former Bosnian Serb leader. Both were believed to be hiding in Serbia. [See pp. 673C1, 385E3] Carla Del Ponte, the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor, Oct. 15 criticized Serbia for a lack of political will to locate and arrest the fugitives, and said Mladic was “within reach” of Serbian authorities. Analysts said that sending either of the two to the tribunal could expedite Serbia’s entrance to the European Union. Unrest Building in Kosovo and Serbia—

Footage of masked men armed with sniper rifles who claimed to be members of the outlawed Albanian National Army Oct. 3 was broadcast on Kosovo public television. The men said they were prepared to defend Kosovo against a possible Serb attack. The footage was condemned by Serbian President Boris Tadic and by senior officials representing Kosovo’s Albanians. Analysts had suggested that the group had a very small following and did not pose a threat to negotiations between the factions. [See 2003, p. 380D2]

The Albanian National Army achieved recognition in 1991 and had claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in Macedonia. The group had said it sought to reunite Albanian lands spanning from Greece to Serbia. Serbian police Oct. 8 said they had detained 56 neo-Nazis, members of a group called the National Guard, in the city of Novi. The demonstrators had met the previous day to demand that Kosovo remain a part of Serbia. They were arrested after skirmishes broke out between the National Guard and antifascist counterdemonstrators. Several people were injured after National Guard members threw rocks at the counterdemonstrators. The rally took place despite a ban placed on it after Jewish groups and others had complained. „

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Switzerland Far-Right Party Gains in Elections. The farright Swiss People’s Party (SVP) Oct. 21 won parliamentary elections, fortifying its position as the biggest party in parliament after an anti-immigration campaign widely denounced as racist. Swiss Justice Minister Christoph Blocher, a billionaire industrialist, led the SVP. [See 2006, p. 771E2; 2003, p. 835C1] According to official results released Oct. 22, the SVP won 29% of the vote, for a gain of seven parliamentary seats, raising its total to 62 of the 200 seats in the National Council, the lower chamber of parliament. It was the biggest proportion of seats won by any party since the introduction of the proportional representation system in 1919. The second-largest party, the center-left Social Democratic Party, won 19.5% of the vote and would have 43 seats, a loss of nine from its previous total. The two main center-right parties, the Radical Democrats and the Christian Democrats, each won about 15% of the vote, and would each have 31 seats. That was a loss of five seats for the Radical Democrats and a gain of three for the Christian Democrats. All four major parties held cabinet seats in the outgoing government. A new cabinet would be selected in December. The SVP in its campaign had called for foreign-born criminals to be deported after they served their sentences, and for every member of an immigrant family to be deported if a child broke the law. The party also vowed to keep Switzerland out of the European Union. The Swiss population of 7.5 million included about 1.6 million foreign-born residents. SVP posters, depicting three white sheep kicking a black sheep away from the Swiss flag, had drawn accusations of racism and protests that flared into an Oct. 6 riot in Bern, the capital. Hundreds of protesters, some throwing rocks and bottles, tried to block a march of at least 5,000 SVP supporters. Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse the protesters, and arrested dozens of them. The outbreak of street violence was highly unusual for Switzerland. „ 705

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Turkey Voters Approve Constitutional Changes.

Turkish voters in a referendum Oct. 21 approved several constitutional changes, including one that would require presidential elections to be held by popular vote, rather than in parliament. According to the state-run Anatolia news agency, 69% of voters backed the changes. However, turnout was low for Turkey, with 67% of eligible voters participating, compared with 80% in July parliamentary elections. [See p. 565D2] Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had proposed the changes in response to a political stalemate earlier in the year. Erdogan’s Islamic-based Justice and Development Party (AKP) had nominated another of its leaders, Abdullah Gul, for president in April. Secularist opposition parties, which viewed the AKP as a threat to the separation of religion and the state, blocked Gul’s election by boycotting the vote in parliament. However, the AKP won the July elections, and Gul was elected by the new parliament in September. His election would stand; the first presidential election by popular vote was scheduled for 2014. Under the changes, the president would serve a five-year term, instead of the current seven years, and parliamentary elections would be held every four years, instead of five. „

SOUTH ASIA

India U.S. Nuclear Deal in Jeopardy. Indian Prime

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Minister Manmohan Singh Oct. 15 told U.S. President George W. Bush during a telephone call that “certain difficulties” could prevent Singh’s government from making progress on a nuclear cooperation pact that the two countries had finalized in July. Communist parties within Singh’s United Progressive Alliance coalition opposed the deal, saying it would give the U.S. too much influence over India’s foreign policy. [See p. 490E2] The deal’s opponents had implied that they would withdraw from the coalition if the government attempted to make the pact operational. Singh’s Indian National Congress party needed their support for the coalition to hold its majority in parliament. The Congress party initially appeared ready to hold early elections if the communists withdrew from the coalition. However, Singh Oct. 12 had changed the party’s stance, saying that if the pact fell apart, “it will not be the end of life.” He added, “We are not a one-issue government.” Tom Casey, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, Oct. 16 said Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, the principal U.S. negotiator of the pact, was holding discussions with Indian officials in an attempt to salvage it. Casey said the pact was “a very important agreement” that would benefit both countries. 706

Analysts expressed surprise that Indian politicians opposed the pact, since the Bush administration had given in to nearly all of the Indian government’s major demands. Additionally, India needed new and cheaper energy sources to accommodate its fast-growing economy. Critics of the Indian communists said they had prevented the country from modernizing since they joined the coalition in 2004. [See 2004, p. 389B2] The pact had been touted by Burns as “perhaps the single most important initiative” between the two countries since India gained independence in 1947. The possible dissolution of the pact was seen as a significant blow to Bush’s foreign policy agenda. The pact would allow the two countries to trade nuclear reactors, technology and fuel. India was required to gain approval for the pact from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an international collective that set rules for the export of nuclear technology. The pact also required U.S. congressional approval. India’s communist parties were against the government’s taking the preliminary step of holding talks with the IAEA, stalling the entire process. U.S. officials said the deal’s chances for success depended on India securing approvals from the IAEA and NSG by early 2008, so the Bush administration would have time to push the pact through the U.S. Congress before the U.S. elections in November of that year. The pact faced opposition from U.S. lawmakers as well. Critics said it did not comply with aspects of the Hyde Act, a 2006 law that exempted India from a ban on nuclear cooperation with countries that had not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). The pact did not stipulate that the U.S. would cut off trade of nuclear supplies to India if it tested a new nuclear weapon, a requirement of the Hyde Act. India had tested its first weapon in 1998. [See 2006, p. 972F3] Some lawmakers opposed the pact because it would allow India to reprocess nuclear fuel, from which it could technically produce a nuclear weapon. Critics said that aspect of the pact gave too much leeway to a country that had never signed the NPT. „

Pakistan Bhutto Blames Extremists, Officials for Attack.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Oct. 19 said Islamic extremists were behind bombings that had targeted her convoy in the city of Karachi the previous day. The attack had killed at least 140 people who were part of a large procession celebrating Bhutto’s return to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile. Bhutto said there were “certain individuals” in the government who were involved in plotting the assassination attempt, although she declined to identify them. [See p. 677A1] Bhutto said she had sent a letter to President Pervez Musharraf Oct. 16 identifying “three individuals and more” in his government who had ties to extremist groups.

Bhutto also claimed that a “brotherly” country had informed her that four groups of suicide bombers would target her upon her return. She said one was sponsored by the Taliban insurgency group, which used to control Afghanistan; another by Al Qaeda, the international terrorist network; a third by a Pakistani Taliban group, which operated near the Afghan border; and a fourth by an unidentified group from Karachi. Bhutto, a secular moderate, was viewed by Islamic extremists as an enemy. Bhutto said the friendly country, which she did not name, had sent Musharraf’s government a list of telephone numbers that the conspirators were using. In an interview published Oct. 19 on the Web site of the French magazine ParisMatch, Bhutto said, “I know exactly who wants to kill me,” adding, “They are dignitaries of General Zia’s former regime who are behind extremism and fanaticism.” General Zia ul-Haq, who had died in 1988, was a military ruler who had ousted Bhutto’s father, former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, from power in 1977. Bhutto was later executed in 1979. [See 1979, p. 247A1; 1977, p. 509A1] Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, had earlier said Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agencies had organized the attack, fearing the loss of influence they would experience if Bhutto returned to power. The intelligence agencies in the past had propped up extremist groups in Afghanistan and the disputed region of Kashmir as part of a strategy to maintain influence in those areas. Bhutto did not overtly place blame for the attack on Musharraf, who had organized the security for her return. She praised the bravery of the government personnel and her own security guards who had surrounded the convoy and borne the brunt of the bombs’ impact. Bhutto and Musharraf the preceding week had reached a deal that dismissed all corruption charges brought against her during her tenure as prime minister in the 1990s, allowing Bhutto to return to Pakistan. The two leaders were trying to form an alliance of moderates that could combat Islamic extremism in the country. However, their relationship in the past had been rocky, and analysts said there were figures in the government who opposed the deal, which had been backed by the U.S. Bhutto Oct. 19 promised to continue to lead her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in parliamentary elections that were scheduled to take place in January 2008. She said, “We are prepared to risk our lives...but we are not prepared to surrender our great nation to the militants.” Bhutto Says Investigation Obstructed—

Bhutto Oct. 22 claimed that the government was trying to “cover up” who was responsible for the attack, and that people within the government were “being protected.” Bhutto’s statement came a day after officials rejected her call for the government to seek international assistance in its investigation. She said Oct. 22 that if the FACTS ON FILE

government had “nothing to hide, then they will be open to investigators from all over the world.” Officials dismissed the accusation, saying the investigation was being conducted without interference. They also said they had warned Bhutto before her arrival that suicide bombers would target the procession. Ishrat ul Ebad Khan, governor of Sindh province, where Karachi was located, Oct. 22 said the government believed that the attack was conducted by two suicide bombers. Officials had initially speculated that there had been only one. Khan said the attack resembled those conducted by Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups in Pakistan. Bhutto Oct. 19 had said her personal security guards had intercepted two other would-be assassins the night of the attack; one with an undetonated suicide vest, and another armed with a gun. No group had claimed responsibility for the attack. Baitullah Mehsud, a warlord in the country’s northwestern region, Oct. 19 denied any involvement. In the past, Mehsud had threatened to employ suicide bombers against Bhutto if she returned to Pakistan. Bhutto Oct. 19 had also called for an investigation into why the street lights near the convoy had been turned off; she said security personnel were unable to detect the bombers in the darkness. Khan Oct. 22 dismissed the idea, saying video footage of the attack showed that the lights were on. Police Oct. 20 announced that three people had been detained for questioning. A lead detective in the investigation of the attacks, Manzur Mughal, Oct. 25 withdrew from the case after Bhutto alleged that he had been present during the torture of her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, while he was being held on corruption charges in 1999. [See 2004, p. 1082A3] Government to Ban Rallies—Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao Oct. 22 announced that the government had drawn up a code of conduct, which it wanted the country’s political parties to sign. The code would end political rallies and processions, and limit gatherings to well-secured areas. Sherpao said the code was devised to avoid creating large targets for suicide bombers, and to ensure that parliamentary elections were conducted peacefully. The PPP rejected the code. Traditionally, Pakistani political parties, and especially the PPP, had relied on mass rallies to mobilize supporters, particularly those from poorer communities. Bhutto had planned on organizing a string of rallies across the country upon her return from exile. Bhutto Receives New Death Threats—

Farooq Naik, a lawyer for Bhutto, Oct. 23 said Bhutto had received a death threat in the mail. The author of the letter claimed to be associated with Al Qaeda. Bhutto Oct. 22 had said a government official the previous day had warned her of another plan to assassinate her in Larkana, her ancestral home. She claimed that she had been aware of the plot before she returned to Pakistan. „ October 25, 2007

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Red Sox, Rockies Advance To World Series Boston Rallies From 3–1 Deficit. The Boston Red Sox Oct. 21 beat the visiting Cleveland Indians, 11–2, to win the bestof-seven American League Championship Series (ALCS), four games to three. The Colorado Rockies Oct. 15 had defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks, 6–4, in Denver, Colo., to sweep the National League Championship Series (NLCS). The two league champions would meet in the World Series beginning Oct. 24. [See p. 657A3] The Red Sox had last won the World Series in 2004, after not winning it since 1917. The Rockies were making their first trip to the Fall Classic since joining Major League Baseball (MLB) 15 years earlier. The Rockies had won 21 of their previous 22 games, stretching back to the regular season—the hottest streak for any team ever going into the World Series. [See 2004, p. 849A2] Red Sox Oust Indians—The Red Sox Oct. 12 won the first game of the ALCS, 10– 3, in Boston. Red Sox starter Josh Beckett—who had helped the Florida Marlins win the World Series in 2003—gave up four hits and two runs and struck out seven batters in six innings, and left fielder Manny Ramirez and third baseman Mike Lowell each drove in three runs to lead Boston to victory. Meanwhile, Indians starter C.C. Sabathia surrendered seven hits and eight runs in four and one-third innings. [See 2003, p. 859A1] The visiting Indians won the second game, 11–6, in 11 innings. The game was tied, 6–6, after nine innings, but Red Sox reliever Eric Gagne surrendered the winning runs in the top of the 11th. The series moved to Cleveland, Ohio, for games three through five. The Indians Oct. 15 beat the Red Sox, 4–2, behind a stellar outing from starter Jake Westbrook, who gave up two runs in six and two-thirds innings. He bested Red Sox pitching ace Daisuke Matsuzaka, who allowed four runs and six hits in four and two-thirds innings, including a two-run home run by left fielder Kenny Lofton in the second. Cleveland closer Joe Borowski pitched a perfect ninth to earn the save. Cleveland Oct. 16 won the fourth game, 7–3, to push Boston to the brink of elimination. Indians starter Paul Byrd held the Red Sox to six hits and two runs in five innings. Meanwhile, Boston starter Tim Wakefield gave up five runs in four and two-thirds innings, including a three-run home run to shortstop Jhonny Peralta. The Red Sox began their comeback Oct. 18, defeating the Indians, 7–1. Boston was sparked by another superb outing from Beckett, who gave up five hits and one run in eight innings, and struck out 11 batters. Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis had two home runs and three runs batted in (RBI) off Sabathia. The series returned to Boston for games six and seven. The Red Sox Oct. 20 pre-

vailed in game six, 12–2, thanks to a solid outing from starter Curt Schilling—who allowed just six hits and two runs in seven innings—and five runs batted in (RBI) from right fielder J.D. Drew. Drew’s hits included a grand slam in the first, off Indians starter Fausto Carmona. In the clinching seventh game, the Red Sox Oct. 21 jumped out to a 3–0 lead after three innings. The Indians pulled to within 3–2 after five innings, but Boston scored eight runs in the seventh and eighth to seal the victory. Boston was led by second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who had five RBI, and starter Matsuzaka, who allowed six hits and two runs in five innings. Reliever Hideki Okajima pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh, and closer Jonathan Papelbon shut down Cleveland in the final two innings to seal the victory. Beckett, who had a 1.93 earned run average (ERA) in the series, was named the most valuable player (MVP) of the ALCS. Lesser-known players such as Pedroia and Youkilis were also seen as key to Boston’s victory. The two combined to hit .577—15 hits in 26 at-bats—in the final three games of the series, and drove in 11 runs. Rockies Sweep Diamondbacks— The Rockies Oct. 11 took the first game of the NLCS, 5–1, in Phoenix, Ariz. Colorado starter Jeff Francis held the Diamondbacks to seven hits and one run in six and twothirds innings, and right fielder Brad Hawpe led the Rockies’ hitters with two hits and two RBI. The second game Oct. 12 was tighter, with the two teams tied 2–2 after nine innings. The visiting Rockies won it in the 11th, when Arizona closer Jose Valverde gave up an infield single and two walks to load the bases, and then walked center fielder Willy Tavares to force in the winning run. Colorado reliever Ryan Speier pitched a perfect bottom of the 11th to preserve the 3–2 win. The Rockies Oct. 14 defeated the Diamondbacks, 4–1, in front of a home crowd to take a 3–0 series lead. Colorado collected its four runs off a solo home run by left fielder Matt Holliday—the regular-season N.L. leader in batting average and RBI—in the first inning and a three-run shot in the sixth by catcher Yorvit Torrealba. Rockies starter Josh Fogg allowed just seven hits and one run in six innings. The Rockies clinched their first trip to the World Series with a 6–4 win Oct. 15. Colorado scored six runs in the fourth, including a three-run home run by Holliday, to chase Arizona starter Micah Owings from the game. Holliday, who hit .333 in the series, was named the MVP of the NLCS. A.L. Division Series Results—The Red Sox Oct. 7 beat the Los Angeles Angels, 9– 1, in Anaheim, Calif., to sweep their bestof-five A.L. Division Series (ALDS). Ramirez and Ortiz homered for Boston in that game, and Schilling pitched seven scoreless innings. The Red Sox Oct. 3 had taken the first game, 4–0, in Boston, with Beckett pitching a complete-game shutout. In the second game Oct. 5, Ortiz hit a three707

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run home run in the bottom of the ninth to give Boston the win, 6–3. In the other ALDS, the visiting Indians Oct. 8 defeated the New York Yankees, 6– 4, to win the series, three games to one. Yankees ace starter Chien-Ming Wang gave up four runs in the first and second innings, putting the Yankees into an early hole that they could not climb out of. In the first game of the series Oct. 4 in Cleveland, the Indians had won, 12–3, again chasing Wang from the game early. In the second game, the Indians Oct. 5 beat the visiting Yankees, 2–1, in 11 innings. Cleveland tied the game at 1–1 in the eighth inning, as a cloud of insects descended on the field, swarming around Yankees ace reliever Joba Chamberlain, who was obviously bothered by them and subsequently gave up the tying run. Such infestations, on a humid night in Cleveland, were reportedly commonplace, and Indians pitcher Carmona seemed unfazed by the bugs when he pitched in the bottom of the inning. In the 11th, designated hitter Travis Hafner singled to drive in the winning run. The series returned to New York City for the third game Oct. 7, which the Yankees won, 8–4. N.L. Division Series Results—The Rockies Oct. 6 defeated the visiting Philadelphia Phillies, 2–1, to sweep their NLDS. Pinchhitter Jeff Baker provided the game-winning RBI in the bottom of the eighth inning. Colorado Oct. 3 had won the first game, beating the Phillies, 4–2, in Philadelphia, Pa. The visiting Rockies Oct. 4 pummeled the Phillies in the second game of the series, winning, 10–5, led by a grand slam in the fourth by second baseman Kazuo Matsui. In the other NLDS, the visiting Diamondbacks Oct. 6 beat the Chicago Cubs, 5–1, to sweep the series. Arizona Oct. 3 had won the first game of the series in Phoenix, beating the Cubs, 3–1, behind strong pitching from Brandon Webb, who allowed four hits and one run in seven innings. The Diamondbacks easily took the second game Oct. 4, winning, 8–4, in Phoenix. „

Auto Racing Franchitti Captures IndyCar Series Title.

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Dario Franchitti of Scotland Sept. 9 clinched the title of the IndyCar Series, the premier series of the Indy Racing League (IRL), by winning the season’s final race, the Indy 300 Clean at Chicagoland Speedway in Illinois. The Scot won by 1.844 seconds over Scott Dixon of the U.S., whom he had led by just three points in the drivers’ standings going into the final race. Franchitti, who drove for the Andretti Green Racing team, earned 637 total points, compared with 624 for Dixon. Tony Kanaan of Brazil was third, with 576 points. Franchitti, who claimed a $1 million bonus for winning the title, had won four races in 2007, including the prestigious Indianapolis 500. He was expected to move to the U.S.’s NASCAR series in 2008. [See p. 355A3; 2006, p. 831A2] „ 708

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

People A letter signed by 41 Democratic senators blasting conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh Oct. 19 fetched $2.1 million in an auction conducted by Internet auction company eBay Inc. The letter, dated Oct. 2, had been sent to Clear Channel Communications Inc., which syndicated Limbaugh’s show, by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.). Besides Reid, the signatories included Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Barack Obama (Ill.) and Christopher Dodd (Conn.). The letter denounced Limbaugh for referring, on his Sept. 26 show, to U.S. troops who had come out against the ongoing war in Iraq as “phony soldiers.” Limbaugh auctioned the letter to raise money for a foundation that gave scholarships to children of U.S. Marines and federal law enforcement personnel killed in action or in the line of duty. He had pledged to make an additional donation matching the winning bid, which was placed by Washington, D.C., philanthropist Betty Brown Casey and set a new eBay record for largest charity bid. [See p. 631C3, G3; 2006, p. 836F2] British rock band Radiohead, led by singer and songwriter Thom Yorke, 39, and guitarist Jonny Greenwood, 35, Oct. 10 released its seventh album, In Rainbows, as a digital download from an Internet Web site the band had set up that would allow Radiohead fans to pay what they wished for the album, or get it for free. Early on, most people downloading the album appeared to be paying anywhere from $1 to $20 for it; it was reportedly downloaded 1.2 million times in the 24 hours after it went on sale. [See 2003, p. 548D1; 1998, p. 124D2] „

O B I T UA R I E S BISHOP, Joey (born Joseph Abraham Gottlieb),

89, quick-witted comedian who, during his heyday in the 1960s, appeared in both films and Las Vegas, Nev., stage productions with fellow members of a group known as the “Rat Pack”; led by singer Frank Sinatra, the group also included singer Dean Martin, entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. and actor Peter Lawford, all of whom Bishop outlived; besides his Rat Pack activities, Bishop was prominent in U.S. television in the 1960s; not only did he star in “The Joey Bishop Show,” a situation comedy about a talk-show host that ran for most of the first half of that decade, but he later (1967–69) actually hosted a talk show of his own, also called “The Joey Bishop Show”; born Feb. 3, 1918, in New York City; died Oct. 17 at his home in Newport Beach, Calif., of a variety of causes. [See 1998, p. 352D3; 1995, p. 1016B3; Indexes 1990, 1967, 1960] BREWER, Teresa (born Theresa Veronica Breuer), 76, pop vocalist who dominated the charts in the

1950s, when she frequently appeared on U.S. television; later in her career, she reinvented herself as a jazz artist; her prolific recording career lasted into the 1990s, with her final album being released in 1995; born May 7, 1931, in Toledo, Ohio; died Oct. 17 at her home in New Rochelle, N.Y., of progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare degenerative brain disorder. COREN, Alan, 69, British humorist, journalist, and radio and television personality; he wrote many books, edited the long-running satirical weekly Punch from 1978 to 1987, was a longtime panelist on the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) radio show “The News Quiz” and often appeared on TV on the BBC’s

“Call My Bluff”; born June 27, 1938, in Barnet, England; died Oct. 18 in London, of cancer. CROWE Jr., William James, 82, U.S. Navy admiral who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during President Reagan’s second term in office (1985– 89); he declined a request from Reagan’s successor, President George H.W. Bush, to stay on for a second four-year term, and in the 1992 presidential race, in which Bush was defeated by Democrat Bill Clinton, he endorsed Clinton; in the Clinton administration, he served as chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1993–94) and U.S. ambassador to Britain (1994–97); in 2000, Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom; born Jan. 2, 1925, in La Grange, Ky.; died Oct. 18 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., of cardiac arrest. [See 2004, p. 440E2; 2000, p. 580A2; Indexes 1997–99, 1994, 1992, 1985–90] KERR, Deborah (born Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer), 86, British actress who achieved success in such

British films as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and Black Narcissus (1947) before becoming a Hollywood leading lady for about two decades; one of her best-known roles, which subverted her image as a well-bred Englishwoman, was that of an adulterous wife in From Here to Eternity (1953), whose most famous scene was one in which she made passionate love to her co-star, Burt Lancaster, on a Hawaiian beach; she was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in that film, one of six films for which she was nominated for a best-actress Oscar without winning; the others included The King and I (1956) and An Affair to Remember (1957); in 1994, she finally received an honorary Oscar, for lifetime achievement; born Sept. 30, 1921, in Helensburgh, Scotland; died Oct. 16 in Suffolk, England, after battling Parkinson’s disease. [See 1997, p. 994D2; 1994, p. 219G3; Indexes 1975, 1967–69, 1964, 1955–60, 1953, 1949–51, 1947] KITAJ, R(onald) B(rooks), 74, figurative painter; U.S.-born, he lived in Britain for nearly 40 years (1958–97), feeling more at home there among artists such as Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon who, like him, resisted the art world’s emphasis on abstraction in the 1960s and 1970s; his works were rife with literary references and he eventually attached texts to them; a non-practicing Jew raised as an atheist, in later years he saw fit to address themes drawn from modern Jewish history, particularly the Holocaust; he returned to the U.S. for good in 1997, settling in Los Angeles, three years after a retrospective of his work at London’s Tate Gallery was savaged by local critics; born Oct. 29, 1932, in Chagrin Falls, Ohio; died Oct. 21 at his Los Angeles home; the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said it planned to conduct tests to determine the cause of his death. KUROKAWA, Kisho, 73, Japanese architect who was a founder of the 1960s Metabolist movement in Japanese architecture, which sought to incorporate “life principles,” inspired by concepts from biology, ecology and Buddhism, into its designs; his major works included the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo (1972), Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport (1998) and a curvaceous extension of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (1998); born April 8, 1934, in Nagoya, Japan; died Oct. 12 at a Tokyo hospital, of heart failure after having been admitted for treatment of an intestinal ailment. MUSCHAMP, Herbert Mitchell, 59, architecture critic for the New York Times, 1992–2004, known for his exuberant, highly personal style of writing; born Nov. 28, 1947, in Philadelphia, Pa.; died Oct. 2 at a hospital in New York City, of lung cancer. ROTHMAN, Lorraine

(born

Evelyn

Lorraine

Fleishman), 75, schoolteacher who in the early 1970s, several years after joining the women’s movement, cofounded a Los Angeles clinic in which women were taught to perform basic gynecological procedures, including cervical exams and pregnancy tests, on their own; she later developed a controversial “menstrual extraction kit” that could be used for at-home abortions in the early stages of pregnancy, but by the time she patented it (in 1974), the U.S. Supreme Court had already legalized abortion, in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision; born in 1932 in San Francisco, Calif.; died Sept. 25 at her home in Fullerton, Calif., of bladder cancer. SHERRIN, Ned (Edward George), 76, British playwright, novelist, radio show host, and producer and director of films, plays and television shows; he rose to fame as the producer of the early 1960s TV show “That Was the Week That Was,” which satirized Britain’s political establishment with unprecedented sharpness; born Feb. 18, 1931, in High Ham, England; died Oct. 1 in London, of throat cancer. [See 1992, p. 1010G2; 1970, p. 436F3] „

October 25, 2007

Darfur Peace Talks in Libya Yield Few Results Rebel Groups Boycott Meeting. Peace talks Oct. 27 began in Sirte, Libya, between Sudanese government officials and representatives of some rebel groups based in Sudan’s war-torn western Darfur region. The talks were mediated by the United Nations and the African Union (AU). Also in attendance were representatives of Middle Eastern, African and Western nations, including the U.S. and Britain, as well as Darfuri tribal elders and the heads of some refugee and civil society groups. However, three major rebel factions refused to attend the peace talks, which seriously jeopardized their chance for success. Mediators Oct. 28 said they would send representatives to Darfur in an effort to convince the groups boycotting the talks to attend. [See below, p. 641C3] The Darfur conflict had begun in 2003, when two rebel groups—the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)—began attacking government installations, in protest of perceived neglect of the region by the government of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, based in the northern capital city of Khartoum. Since 2003, more than 200,000 people had died and some 2.5 million others had been driven from their homes, amid fighting between the rebel groups and Sudanese forces allied with Arab militias known as the Janjaweed. Government troops and the Janjaweed had been accused of committing atrocities against civilians. The conflict— and refugees—had also spilled over into neighboring Chad and Central African Republic. [See below, p. 653A1] A 7,000-member AU force, deployed to Darfur in 2004, had been unable to protect civilians, and was suffering increasing casualties and a lack of funding. Also, a peace deal signed in May 2006 between the government and a faction of the SLA had done little to stop the violence. In recent months, the conflict had become more complicated, with the Arab militias, local tribes and rebels fighting among themselves. A 26,000-member joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force for Darfur had been approved by the U.N. Security Council in July, and was set to be deployed by the end of 2007. However, the deployment of the force was reportedly being held up due to objections by the Sudanese government to the inclusion of troops from non-African countries. [See below; 2006, p. 363A1] The discussions in Sirte had been intended to focus on bringing about a ceasefire, compensating Darfuris affected by the conflict, and sharing power between the Darfur rebels and the central government. In a speech opening the conference, Libyan leader Muammer el-Qaddafi Oct. 27 said the international community should not interfere in the Darfur conflict, either by sending peacekeepers or mediators for the peace process. Sirte, located on the Mediterranean coast, was Qaddafi’s hometown.

Prominent Rebels Refuse to Attend—

Among the rebels refusing to attend the Oct. 27 talks was Abdel Wahed al-Nur, a prominent leader of an SLA faction. Nur reportedly did not command a large number of troops, but had the support of many citizens of Darfur from the Fur ethnic group, the region’s largest. He was currently based in Paris. Also boycotting the talks were the JEM faction led by Khalil Ibrahim—which had its roots in a Sudanese Islamist movement—and the SLA-Unity faction. Those two groups were said to command the most troops on the ground in Darfur. The support of Nur and two rebel factions was considered vital to the success of any peace deal. Nur said in an interview published in Britain’s Guardian newspaper Oct. 27 that he was opposed to the location of the talks in Libya, because Qaddafi was too close to the Sudanese government. He also said a cease-fire, enforced by international peacekeepers, was a prerequisite for any talks to be successful. The other groups said they needed more time to prepare for the talks and to reach a common negotiating position. The rebel factions—excluding Nur—had met in August in Tanzania in an effort to agree on a unified platform prior to the talks, but made no lasting deals. Analysts said a major problem was that the original two rebel groups—the SLA and the JEM—had splintered into several factions, and that there was no one leader who could speak for all. Many had split along ethnic lines. The New York Times Oct. 31 reported that there were at least 28 rebel factions, according to the U.N., and that only seven were represented in Sirte. According to Andrew Natsios, the U.S.’s special envoy to Sudan, “There’s nobody who can speak for all the movements, and that means the negotiations will be more complicated.” The U.N. Oct. 24 had threatened to impose sanctions on groups deemed to be “impeding” the peace talks. Jan Eliasson, the U.N. envoy to Sudan, Oct. 26 criticized the rebels who boycotted the talks, saying, “I don’t see this as a failure for the negotiations. I see it as a failure for those who didn’t grasp an opportunity to move towards peace.” However, Eliasson Oct. 28 appeared to change his position, saying the absent rebel groups would be granted their request for more time, and declaring that the “real substantial negotiations will start when the parties are prepared.” Similarly, Salim Ahmed Salim, the AU envoy, said the absent rebels “have an important role so we will continue trying to engage them so at the end of the day we have a fully inclusive process.” Rebels who were boycotting the talks Oct. 30 agreed to meet with the envoys from the AU and the U.N. who had been dispatched to Darfur. Government Declares Cease-Fire— The Sudanese government at the opening of the talks Oct. 27 declared a unilateral ceasefire in Darfur. However, it had broken several cease-fires in the past. Rebel com-

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3490* November 1, 2007

B manders from groups boycotting the talks Oct. 29 alleged that the government had launched attacks near the Chadian border, which the government denied. The Times in its Oct. 31 article reported that as the peace talks were taking place, Sudanese troops were driving refugees out of displaced persons’ camps in Darfur. The U.N. and AU Oct. 7 had said the town of Haskanita, which was under the control of the Sudanese army, had been razed, driving at least 7,000 civilians from their homes. Some observers said the incident was apparently in retaliation for a late September attack by unidentified rebels on an AU base there that had killed at least 10 peacekeepers. The army took control of the town after that attack. Rebel leaders Oct. 8 said the government had attacked the town of Muhajariya, in southern Darfur, which was controlled

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE To access enhanced online delivery of Facts On File, go to

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Darfur peace talks in Libya yield few results; rebel groups boycott meeting. PAGE 709

E

Turkish military attacks Kurdish rebels. PAGE 711

Obama, Edwards press Clinton at Democratic presidential debate. PAGE 713

Merrill Lynch CEO ousted after mortgage losses. PAGE 714

Fed lowers interest rate to 4.5%. PAGE 714

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner elected president of Argentina.

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PAGE 717

Myanmar monks in first protest since crackdown. PAGE 720

Spanish court delivers verdicts in ’04 attack trial. PAGE 721

Ukraine’s Yushchenko, Tymoshenko set coalition. PAGE 721

Red Sox sweep Rockies to win World Series. PAGE 723

*First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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by the faction of the SLA that had signed the May 2006 peace agreement. In a further indication of the complexity of the Darfur conflict, the Guardian Oct. 27 reported that members of the Fur had been attacking ethnic Zaghawa in the Kalma refugee camp in South Darfur state, which housed some 90,000 people. Rebels Attack Chinese-Run Oil Field—

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A JEM commander, Mohamed Bahr Hamdeen, Oct. 25 said his fighters had attacked a Chinese-run oil field in Kordofan province, which bordered Darfur, two days earlier. Hamdeen said the attack was a warning for Chinese companies to leave Sudan. China was the largest foreign investor in Sudan’s oil industry, and such investments had been criticized as providing the Sudanese government with funds to attack civilians in Darfur. Two foreign workers reportedly were kidnapped in the attack. [See p. 490A2] Chad Rebels, Government Reach Deal—

The government of Chad and four Darfurbased Chadian rebel groups Oct. 25 agreed to a “definitive peace accord” in talks in Sirte. Chadian President Idriss Deby, Bashir and Qaddafi were reportedly present when the deal was signed. The accord provided for an immediate cease-fire, the release of imprisoned rebels and the establishment of a committee to oversee the integration of the rebels into Chadian state institutions. The European Union Oct. 15 had given final approval to the deployment of up to 3,000 peacekeeping troops to eastern Chad beginning in November. [See p. 642B2] Chad’s government Oct. 16 declared a 12-day state of emergency in three regions in the east and north of the country. The declaration came after clashes between government troops and fighters from the United Front for Democratic Change (FUC) rebel group, which had formerly been led by Defense Minister Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim. The violence was blamed on ethnic tensions between the Tama group, to which Nour belonged, and the Zaghawa, of which Deby was a member. Nour Oct. 19 called on FUC fighters to join the national army. However, he also alleged that the Zaghawas had started the recent violence by attacking Tamas. [See p. 145B2] „

Iraq War U.S. Blackwater Guards Offered Immunity.

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U.S. government officials Oct. 29 said U.S. State Department officials had improperly offered immunity to U.S. private security guards involved in a September shooting in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, which according to Iraqi investigators had killed 17 Iraqi civilians. The Associated Press had first reported the immunity offer Oct. 29. Unidentified U.S. law enforcement officials said the offer of immunity could complicate an ongoing probe of the shooting by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The guards involved in the incident worked for Blackwater USA, a private security company that protected diplomats and 710

other State Department officials in Iraq. [See pp. 711A3, 694A2] The law enforcement officials said that investigators from the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security had offered to grant most of the guards so-called limited-use immunity, meaning that they could not be prosecuted based on true statements given to the authorities during interviews. The officials said the State Department was not authorized to grant such immunity. They said several guards had refused to talk to the FBI, because they had already been given immunity by the State Department. Private contractors were protected from prosecution in Iraqi courts. The U.S. House earlier in October had passed a bill that would make them subject to prosecution in U.S. courts under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. The State Department Oct. 30 acknowledged that it had offered the Blackwater guards “limited protections,” but said that would not prevent a successful prosecution. The U.S. Justice Department released a statement saying the guards had not been granted broad immunity from prosecution, but alluded to “complex issues” in the probe. U.S. Democrats in Congress also criticized the immunity offers. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Oct. 30 agreed that State Department contractors in Iraq—including Blackwater guards—would come under U.S. military control. Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell said the military would have greater control over contractor training, operations and use of force regulations. U.S. military commanders had previously complained that contractors did not keep them informed of movements in battle zones. The Iraqi cabinet Oct. 30 approved a draft law rescinding Order 17, a directive issued by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in June 2004—before sovereignty had been turned over to the Iraqi government—that protected private security companies from prosecution by Iraqi courts. The law, which the Iraqi parliament was expected to pass by an overwhelming majority, would not be retroactive and so would not cover the September Blackwater shootings. A U.S. federal agency, the Small Business Administration (SBA), Oct. 25 said Blackwater’s classification of its workers as independent contractors instead of fulltime employees did not affect its tax status. Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.), the chairman of the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, earlier in the week had said that Blackwater might have avoided taxes by improperly classifying its employees, a claim the company denied. Danger of Dam Collapse Reported—

The Washington Post Oct. 30 reported that a draft report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had found that the Mosul Dam—on the Tigris River in northern Iraq—was in danger of imminent collapse. The officials said a collapse could flood the city of Mosul under 65 feet (20 m) of water and parts of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, under 15 feet,

and could kill as many as 500,000 Iraqis. Iraqi government officials reportedly had disputed the seriousness of the danger, and had rejected the proposed construction of a second dam as a fail-safe measure, calling it unnecessary and too expensive. The U.S. Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) Oct. 30 released a report saying that a U.S. embassy-led project to provide the Iraqi government with equipment necessary to reinforce the dam had failed to make any progress. The embassy starting in 2005 had awarded $27 million in contracts for the project, although a U.S. official said the total cost was $34 million. Tribal Leaders Abducted—Ten Iraqi tribal leaders were kidnapped Oct. 28 in Shaab, a mostly Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad, while traveling back to Baquba, the capital of Diyala province. One of the men was found dead shortly after the kidnapping. The tribal leaders, three of them Sunnis and the rest Shiites, had met with representatives of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad just before their abduction. Iraqi interior ministry commandos Oct. 29 freed the nine remaining men. The U.S. military blamed the kidnapping on rogue elements of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia, which was affiliated with the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Sadr in September had called on his militia to observe a truce. However, a Sadr aide Oct. 26 said the cease-fire might be abandoned because of increased U.S. and Iraqi raids on the group. Al Qaeda in Iraq Said to Be Disrupted—

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Oct. 27 said the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq had been disrupted and no longer had a significant

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FACTS ON FILE

IRAQ CASUALTIES

Following are tallies of casualties in Iraq since the beginning of a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, as they stood Nov. 1 [See p. 643F1]: U.S. military casualties:

Deaths Wounded

3,837 28,385

Allied military deaths: 303 Iraqi security forces deaths: 7,605 Iraqi civilian deaths: 75,971–82,776 (Range based on news reports of deaths) Sources: U.S. and allies, Iraqi security—U.S. Defense Department, www.icasualties.org. Iraqi civilians— www.iraqbodycount.org.

presence in the Baghdad. “In general, we think that there are no Al Qaeda strongholds at this point,” he said to reporters in Baghdad. Petraeus said the disruption was due in part to operations aimed at manufacturing centers for car bombs and other explosives outside the capital. He said military operations over the previous two weeks had reduced Al Qaeda in Iraq’s presence in its last Baghdad stronghold, the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Dora. However, he acknowledged that members of the group still remained in Dora and other Sunni neighborhoods. “They remain very lethal, very dangerous, capable at any point in time, if you will, of coming back off the canvas and landing a big punch, and we have to be aware of that,” Petraeus warned. He said Shiite militia violence also remained a problem. Petraeus the next day in a speech at Camp Speicher, a U.S. military base northwest of Tikrit, said the weakening of Al Qaeda in Iraq’s continuing threat had exposed other problems in Baghdad, such as extortion and other criminal activities. Slow Hiring of Sunni Police Criticized—

Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the U.S. commander in northern Iraq, Oct. 26 criticized the Shiite-led Maliki administration for failing to make much progress in hiring Sunni and other volunteers for the police force. He said Maliki had approved a plan initiated in April to increase by 6,000 the number of police officers in Diyala province, but that it had not been put into effect. The U.S. government in recent months had experienced success recruiting Sunnis to turn against Sunni extremist groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq and organizing them to guard their neighborhoods. However, many Sunni volunteers were being paid by the U.S., at less than the full police salary. Mixon said the reluctance of the Iraqi government to hire Sunni policemen, and the hiring of Shiites not on rosters of volunteers submitted by U.S. forces, was due to “sectarian divides” within the Iraqi interior ministry. State Department to Order Iraq Postings—

Harry Thomas, the U.S. Foreign Service’s director general, Oct. 26 announced that the State Department would order up to 50 November 1, 2007

U.S. diplomats to accept one-year postings in Iraq or face dismissal. The move was in response to possible staffing shortfalls in Iraq, which Rice had warned of in June. Postings in Iraq had been voluntary due to the danger of the assignment. There had been no mass mandatory assignments of U.S. diplomats since the “directed assignments” of 15 to 20 junior diplomatic officials to Vietnam in 1969. Thomas said 250 “prime candidates” would be selected for 50 open positions; if too few volunteered to take the posts, he said, others would be compelled to accept them. He said only candidates with valid excuses, such as serious medical conditions, would be exempt. The union representing U.S. diplomats, the American Foreign Service Association, protested the decision, saying that unarmed civilians should only be sent into war zones on a voluntary basis. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Donald Tusk, who was slated to become Poland’s prime minister after elections the previous week had ousted the ruling party, Oct. 31 said his nation wanted to end its military involvement in Iraq in 2008. Poland had about 900 troops stationed in southeastern Iraq. [See p. 704C2; 2005, p. 923E1] † British Defense Minister Des Browne Oct. 31 announced that British troops would transfer the southern province of Basra to Iraqi control by mid-December. He said “the level of security has been sustained if not improved” in Basra since British troops pulled out of the city center in September. [See p. 661A1] † A suicide bomber on a bicycle Oct. 29 killed at least 28 policemen in Baquba. The bombing was the deadliest insurgent attack in more than a month. Many of the victims reportedly were new recruits. Another suicide bomber at the same time attacked a police station elsewhere in Baquba, but was shot before he could detonate his bomb. † U.S. forces in Karbala province, southwest of Baghdad, Oct. 29 transferred security responsibility for the province to Iraqi forces. It was the eighth province to be turned over to Iraqi control. [See p. 239C2] † A roadside bomb in northern Baghdad Oct. 29 injured U.S. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko. He was evacuated to a U.S. military hospital in Germany, but his injuries were not life-threatening. He was the highestranking U.S. officer to be injured in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. † Shehab Mohammad al-Hiti, 27, the editor of the just-founded Baghdad weekly newspaper al-Youm, Oct. 28 was found killed in Baghdad. He was at least the 122nd journalist killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S. based advocacy group. Gunmen in Kirkuk that day kidnapped Qasim Muhammad Sari Kahiyah, the managing editor of the Turkmen magazine al-Akhaa. „

Turkish Military Attacks Kurdish Rebels

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100,000 Troops Massed on Iraqi Border.

The Turkish military Oct. 28 said its special forces troops and helicopters had attacked Kurdish rebels in the southeastern Turkish province of Tunceli. The operation against the separatist militant group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), took place about 400 miles (640 km) from the Iraqi border. Turkey had threatened to launch a cross-border offensive against PKK bases in northern Iraq in retaliation for a series of attacks that had killed more than 46 people in Turkey over the past month. [See p. 693G2] Turkish helicopters Oct. 29–30 attacked suspected PKK positions in the area of Mount Cudi, near the Iraqi border. Turkey reportedly had massed about 100,000 troops on the border. The PKK had an estimated 3,000–4,000 fighters in Iraq. Turkey had demanded that Iraq extradite PKK leaders and close down the group’s camps. The PKK’s conflict with Turkey had left nearly 40,000 people dead since the 1980s. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech to lawmakers Oct. 30 said, “It is now unavoidable that Turkey will have to go through a more intensive military process.” Erdogan was scheduled to visit the U.S. for a meeting with President George W. Bush Nov. 5. Erdogan said, “We will openly express that we expect urgent steps from the United States, which is our strategic partner and ally and has a special responsibility regarding Iraq.” The U.S. had urged Turkey to refrain from a cross-border operation, and pressed the leaders of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq to crack down on the PKK. Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, the chief of the Turkish military, Oct. 26 said Turkey would not begin a major offensive into Iraq until after Erdogan’s meeting with Bush. However, Erdogan said, “I cannot tell what will happen before my visit” to the U.S. Erdogan Oct. 26 also rejected a proposal by Iraqi officials to station U.S. troops on the border to monitor the PKK strongholds in the Qandil Mountains. Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the U.S. commander in northern Iraq, Oct. 26 said he planned to do “absolutely nothing” about the PKK. However, a U.S. military spokesman in Iraq later that day said the U.S. would consider any request for assistance from Iraq. Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s Kurdish region, Oct. 28 said, “We are a friend of Turkey and the Turkish people, but we will not respond to threats and blackmail.” Barzani Oct. 26 had claimed that Turkey had a hidden agenda to “stop or hinder the development of the Kurdish region.” Turkey for decades had restricted the rights of its 15 million Kurdish citizens. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Oct. 31 said Iraqi forces had cut off the PKK’s supply lines and set up new check711

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points to isolate the group’s fighters. He also said Iraq was negotiating for the release of eight Turkish soldiers captured by the PKK in an ambush in Turkey the previous week. A spokesman for the Russian government Oct. 31 called on Turkey to fulfill “its responsibility as a regional state so as not to make things worse.” Maliki at a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Oct. 31 asked for Iran’s cooperation in resolving the Kurdish crisis. The U.S. Defense Department Oct. 31 said it was providing “an increased level of intelligence” to Turkey, using spy planes to „ observe PKK activities.

United Nations Libya, Vietnam Named to Security Council.

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The United Nations General Assembly Oct. 16 voted to elect Libya, Vietnam, Burkina Faso, Croatia and Costa Rica to two-year terms as temporary members of the U.N. Security Council. Neither Vietnam nor Croatia had ever previously served on the Security Council. The five seats, which constituted one-third of the 15-member Security Council and half the council’s 10 rotating seats, were currently held by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia; the new terms were scheduled to begin Jan. 1, 2008. [See 2005, p. 753D2] The seats were allotted to specific regions—two seats for Africa, and one apiece for Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia—and under U.N. rules, nations had to win the votes of two-thirds of the General Assembly to be selected. Only Costa Rica and Croatia had their candidacies challenged by other nations from their regions, but their opponents dropped out of the running after losing the majority of votes in the first round. That contrasted with the voting in 2006, when Guatemala and Venezuela competed for 47 rounds of voting before a compromise was reached to allow Panama to take that year’s Latin American seat. [See 2006, p. 835F1] Libya’s selection was seen as potentially controversial given its role in a 1988 bombing of a jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, and a recent controversy over its detention of medical workers accused of infecting children with HIV. It had been the subject of U.N. sanctions from 1992 to 2003 and had only fully normalized relations with the U.S. in 2006. During that time, the U.S. had blocked Libya’s 1995 and 2003 attempts to join the Security Council, the U.N. body that had imposed the sanctions against Libya. [See p. 473C3; 2006, p. 387A2] „ Ex–Budget Official Sentenced. Judge Deborah Batts of U.S. District Court in New York City Oct. 12 sentenced Vladimir Kuznetsov, the former head of the United Nations’ Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, to 51 months in prison and ordered him to pay a $73,671 fine for his role in a money-laundering scheme that was uncovered during 712

an investigation into corruption in the U.N.’s 1995–2003 Iraqi oil-for-food program. [See 2005, p. 607G2] Kuznetsov, formerly Russia’s highestranking U.N. employee, had been accused of helping U.N. procurement officer Alexander Yakovlev launder bribes that Yakovlev had received from corporations hoping for U.N. contracts in exchange for inside information. Kuznetsov had been convicted March 8 of one charge of money laundering. Yakovlev, who had pleaded guilty in the case in 2005, testified against Kuznetsov at his trial. Yakovlev had yet to be sentenced, and analysts suspected that he would receive a reduced sentence in return for his information and testimony against others involved in the scandal. Both Kuznetsov and Yakovlev had been covered by diplomatic immunity until it was revoked by then–U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. [See 2005, p. 535G2] Batts overruled a prosecution request to jail Kuznetsov following the hearing and gave him until Oct. 22 to turn himself in. Kuznetsov had been free during his trial on $1.5 million bail, paid by Russia. Wyatt Pleads Guilty—Oscar Wyatt Jr., former chairman of Coastal Corp., a Texas energy company, Oct. 1 pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in New York to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, as part of a plea bargain. Wyatt, 83, had faced 74 years in prison if convicted on all five charges, which stemmed from investigations into the oil-for-food program. Under his plea agreement, he would serve a maximum of two years in prison and forfeit $11 million in ill-gotten profits. [See 2005, p. 774B3] „

International Finance World Bank, IMF Hold Fall Meetings. The

World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Oct. 20–22 held the second of their semiannual meetings in Washington, D.C. Finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G-7) leading industrial nations Oct. 19 had also convened ahead of the meetings. [See p. 257C3; 2006, p. 725C3] Both the World Bank and the IMF had come under increasing pressure to reform their operations. The World Bank’s mission was to fight poverty in developing nations by granting loans with low interest rates. The IMF had traditionally bailed out struggling economies, and administered advice on national economic policy. However, developing countries that had borrowed money from the institutions in the past now found it easier and cheaper to borrow money from financial markets. The IMF did not make any substantial decisions at its meetings, and was criticized for failing to address any reform efforts. Developing countries had long complained that they were underrepresented at the IMF, but the IMF did not spell out a plan to increase developing countries’ voting shares. Analysts said developing countries’ diminished influence with the IMF reduced its relevance to those countries. Additionally, the IMF had long faced questions of

how it was to fund itself, but did not commit to selling its gold reserves, an idea that had been suggested by IMF members several times in the past. Some critics were disappointed that the IMF did not use the occasion to take a leading position on a recent fallout in the U.S. housing market, which had affected financial markets across the world. Those critics said it was multilateral institutions like the IMF that could best cope with such global economic problems. [See p. 606A1] The IMF was waiting for its new managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to begin work before tackling the issues it faced. Strauss-Kahn was set to take over the IMF on Nov. 1. [See p. 645C3] World Bank Makes Farming a Priority—

The World Bank Oct. 19 released its signature annual report, the “World Development Report,” which said increasing productivity of rural farmers was the key to reducing world poverty. It was the first time since 1982 that the bank had made the development of agriculture in poorer countries its priority. Development projects in preceding decades had focused on improving access to education and fighting HIV/AIDS and other diseases. However, the report concluded that sickness and premature death were more likely to be caused by malnutrition and crippling poverty, especially in Africa and South Asia. The report recommended that development agencies invest in farming technology, irrigation, fertilizer and seeds to help rural farmers thrive. An estimated 75% of the world’s poor lived in rural areas dependent on agriculture. G-7 Pressures China on Currency—The finance ministers of the G-7 nations—the U.S., Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, France and Britain—Oct. 19 called on China to allow its currency, the yuan, to float freely in value. The G-7 said the yuan’s current value was artificially low, causing distortions in the global economy. The Chinese government kept the yuan at a certain level, fearing that otherwise its value would spike, destabilizing its own economy. [See p. 344G2] The G-7’s statement was the most forceful disapproval it had yet released of China’s currency policy. The G-7’s finance ministers agreed that China’s undervalued currency made it more expensive for their countries to export goods to China and other countries, and cheaper for China to export goods to their nations. Analysts also said large imbalances in trade had kept interest rates artificially low and had encouraged irresponsible lending. Wu Xiaoling, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, that day said, “If we risked things too much, that would hurt the Chinese economy and thus the world economy.” The G-7 also called on government-controlled investment funds, known as sovereign wealth funds, to work together to create “best practices” guidelines that would regulate how those funds invested their money. Sovereign wealth funds managed more than $2 trillion in assets, investing in securities, FACTS ON FILE

debt, and real estate of foreign countries. The G-7 countries worried that those funds could use their financial clout to take over their domestic industries, or use assets for political advantage. „

Other International News U.S. Armenian Genocide Resolution Shelved.

Sponsors of a U.S. House resolution that declared the massacres of more than 1.5 million Armenians during the World War I era to have been an act of genocide Oct. 25 called for postponing a vote on the measure, which had drawn strong protests from Turkey. U.S. President George W. Bush had also opposed the resolution, warning that it would damage relations with Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally. [See pp. 711A3, 678A2] After the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the resolution earlier in October, Turkey had withdrawn its ambassador to the U.S. and threatened to reduce military cooperation. The U.S. relied on the use of air bases in Turkey as a transportation hub for U.S. forces in Iraq. In an Oct. 25 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.), four leading sponsors of the resolution asked her not to schedule a vote by the full House “at this time,” and suggested “consideration sometime later this year, or in 2008.” They said, “We believe that a large majority of our colleagues want to support a resolution recognizing the genocide on the House floor and that they will do so, providing the timing is more favorable.” The four sponsors were Reps. Adam Schiff (D, Calif.), Brad Sherman (D, Calif.), Anna Eshoo (D, Calif.) and Frank Pallone (D, N.J.). Pelosi indicated that she would follow the recommendation to delay the vote. She had previously pledged to bring the resolution to the floor, but fellow Democrats, including Rep. John Murtha (Pa.), an influential voice on military matters, had warned her of the possible consequences for relations with Turkey. „ Cost of African Conflicts Weighed. British aid group Oxfam International Oct. 10 released a report entitled “Africa’s Missing Billions,” which calculated the cost of armed conflicts in Africa since the end of the Cold War. The report, also compiled by the International Network on Small Arms and by Saferworld, a British nongovernmental organization, found that wars had cost the continent about $284 billion from 1990 to 2005, or $18 billion per year. The cost of the 23 conflicts that were the focus of the report amounted to roughly the amount of aid that the continent had received over the same time period, according to Oxfam. [See pp. 709A1, 635A2] The report blamed the global trade in illicit weapons for most of the African conflicts, finding that the bulk of the weapons used in the conflicts came from outside the continent. It came in advance of a United Nations conference on a treaty governing the trade in small arms. [See 2006, p. 863C3] „ November 1, 2007

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

2008 Presidential Campaign Obama, Edwards Press Clinton at Debate.

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) Oct. 30 at a Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia, Pa., sharply challenged the front-runner for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.). Obama and Edwards, Clinton’s leading rivals—in second and third place, respectively, in most polls—both took a more confrontational tone with her than they had in the six previous debates. The MSNBC cable news channel aired the debate, which was held at Drexel University. [See p. 631C3] Edwards criticized Clinton more directly than Obama, seeking to cast doubt on her honesty and integrity. He said, “Senator Clinton says that she believes she can be the candidate for change, but she defends a broken system that’s corrupt in Washington, D.C.” He added that voters “deserve a president of the United States that they know will tell them the truth, and won’t say one thing one time and something different at a different time.” Obama accused Clinton of “changing positions whenever it’s politically convenient.” He said, “Now that may be politically savvy, but I don’t think that it offers the clear contrast that we need. I think what we need right now is honesty with the American people about where we would take the country.” Clinton Cites Republican ‘Obsession’—

Clinton rejected Edwards’s suggestion that she had taken positions close to those of the Republican presidential candidates. In fact, she said, the Republicans had shown that they had “a constant obsession with me” by frequently attacking her at their debate the previous week. She said she was a Republican target because she had “stood against” President George W. Bush “and his failed policies.” [See p. 697D3] Obama told Clinton that Republicans were “very comfortable” fighting her because it was “a fight that we’ve been through since the ’90s. And part of the job of the next president is to break the gridlock.” Edwards told Clinton that Republicans “may actually want to run against you, and that’s the reason they keep bringing you up.” He also criticized Clinton for voting for a nonbinding Senate resolution that called Iran a threat to U.S. interests. Edwards said the resolution “looks like it was literally written by the neocons,” referring to neoconservatives, a term for advocates of readiness to use military force to achieve U.S. foreign policy aims, such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Clinton replied that she did not support “rushing to war” against Iran, but added that “we should not let them acquire nuclear weapons, and the best way to prevent that is a full-court press on the diplomatic front.” [See p. 721E3] Clinton also faced persistent questions from one of the NBC moderators, Tim Russert, who asked her why her husband,

former President Bill Clinton, had requested that the National Archives seal their White House correspondence until 2012. She said it was “not my decision to make.” Obama likened such a move toward secrecy to the attitude of the Bush administration, which he called “one of the most secretive” in U.S. history. Russert also pressed Clinton on whether she supported a proposal by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. She replied, “Do I think this is the best thing for any governor to do? No.” But she added that she understood “the sense of real desperation, trying to get a handle on this.” Edwards said, “Unless I missed something, Senator Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes.” ‘Holier-Than-Thou’ Tone Faulted—New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, running fourth in national polls, criticized the tone of the debate. He said, “I’m hearing this holier-than-thou attitude toward Senator Clinton. It’s bothering me because it’s pretty close to personal attacks that we don’t need.” The other candidates at the debate were Sens. Christopher Dodd (Conn.) and Joseph Biden (Del.), and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio). Kucinich confirmed an account by actress Shirley MacLaine that he had once spotted an unidentified flying object while staying at her house. „ Iowa Caucuses Set for Jan. 3. The Iowa Republican Party Oct. 16 officially moved up its presidential caucus to Jan. 3, 2008, from Jan. 14. The Democratic Party Oct. 29 voted to follow suit. Iowa was intent on retaining its traditional role as the state that held the first contests of the primary season, but faced a trend of other states scheduling their contests earlier in the season than usual. New Hampshire, which traditionally held the first primary, had not yet chosen a date, but had hinted that it might be as early as Dec. 11. [See p. 558C1] Democrats Shun Michigan—Four Democratic presidential candidates—Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Joseph Biden (Del.), former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson— Oct. 9 said they would not compete in the Michigan Democratic primary, which had been scheduled for Jan. 15 in violation of party rules. However, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the front-runner in both Michigan and national polls, said she would remain on the ballot. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) Sept. 4 had signed a bill moving up the primary date. The Democratic National Committee (DNC), the executive body of the national Democratic Party, had warned that it would bar delegates from states that scheduled early primaries or caucuses in defiance of a DNC rule that only Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada could hold contests in January. Clinton, Obama, Edwards and other Democratic candidates Sept. 1 had signed a pledge, circulated by those four officially 713

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sanctioned early-voting states, that they would not campaign in other states that scheduled their primaries for January. „

Business Merrill Lynch CEO Ousted After Losses.

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Merrill Lynch & Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) E. Stanley O’Neal Oct. 30 resigned from the company, the world’s largest brokerage firm, under pressure from its board of directors. His announcement came after Merrill Lynch Oct. 24 said it would record for the third quarter an $8.4 billion write-down, a reduction in the book value of assets held by the company to reflect their actual market value. Merrill Lynch had previously estimated that the write-down would be $4.5 billion. [See p. 682A3; 2003, p. 637E2] The company Oct. 24 reported an overall quarterly loss of $2.24 billion resulting from the write-down. It was the largest quarterly loss recorded by the company in its history. Analysts said additional writedowns in the billions of dollars were also possible. The write-down and quarterly loss were attributed to the ongoing U.S. housing crisis, which had resulted in the default of many people with subprime mortgage loans—those made to home buyers with poor credit. Merrill Lynch had underwritten a substantial number of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), debts that had been bundled into complicated packages that often included subprime mortgage loans. Mortgage-backed securities held by Merrill Lynch accounted for some $7.9 billion of the write-down. O’Neal, 56, after taking control of Merrill Lynch in 2002 had overseen a significant restructuring of the company, shutting down several of its overseas offices and cutting some 20,000 jobs. The firm’s stock had risen about 53% since he became chairman and CEO, and had peaked even higher earlier in the year, before the subprime mortgage market crisis began to unfold. He had directed the company to invest heavily in high-risk subprime mortgage–based CDOs. O’Neal had also reportedly angered several of the firm’s board members by approaching the banking company Wachovia Corp. Oct. 19 about a possible merger without first consulting them. Merrill Lynch Oct. 30 said its board of directors had elected Alberto Cribiore to serve as interim nonexecutive chairman, while current co-Presidents Gregory Fleming and Ahmass Fakahany were tapped to oversee day-to-day operations. Cribiore was also tasked with forming a search committee to select the firm’s next CEO. Countrywide Reports Loss—The U.S.’s largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial Corp., Oct. 26 reported a $1.2 billion loss for the third quarter, resulting from the meltdown in the U.S. mortgage and residential real estate market. It was the company’s first quarterly loss in 25 years. However, the company said it expected to return to “significant” profitabili714

ty by the end of the year, largely due to a restructuring of its business model and an expected turnaround in the ongoing housing crisis. [See p. 591F2] Countrywide Oct. 23 had announced a plan to provide refinancing or modification to some $16 billion worth of home loans. The plan could affect as many as 82,000 borrowers, many of whom had loans with interest rates set to substantially increase by the end of 2008. The company said the plan included provisions for the refinancing of the subprime mortgages of 52,000 people. Some members of Congress and affordable housing advocates had accused the company of engaging in predatory lending practices. [See p. 683A1] „

Economy Fed Lowers Interest Rate to 4.5%. The Fed-

eral Reserve, the nation’s central bank, Oct. 31 cut the benchmark federal-funds interest rate on overnight loans between banks a quarter-point to 4.5%, from 4.75%. The move came only six weeks after the Fed had cut interest rates sharply, from 5.25% to 4.75%. A statement released with the decision said the latest cut was intended to further reduce the risk of an economic slowdown caused by a downturn in the housing market and a credit squeeze that had emerged in the summer. [See pp. 714A1, 606A1] The Fed said its decision would “help forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy that might otherwise arise” from the housing crisis. The Federal Open Market Committee had voted, 9–1, in favor of the cut; Thomas Hoenig of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City said he would have preferred none. The committee also voted unanimously to cut the discount rate on loans to commercial banks, to 5.0%, from 5.25.%. The statement also said the Fed now considered the risk of inflation “roughly balanced” with the risk of slowing growth, noting that “growth was solid in the third quarter.” Analysts suggested that the cuts indicated the Fed had seen ensuring continued growth and stabilizing volatile markets as more pressing than fighting inflation. The Fed also said, “Readings on core inflation have improved modestly this year, but recent increases in energy and commodity prices, among other factors, may put renewed upward pressure on inflation” and said it would “continue to monitor inflation developments carefully.” [See p. 714F2] „ GDP Grew at 3.9% in 3rd Quarter. The Commerce Department Oct. 31 reported that gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.9% in the third quarter of 2007. That was up slightly from the third and final revised estimate of 3.8% in the second quarter. The department said an increase in personal consumption and private inventory investment had contributed to the rise. [See p. 667B1] The figure exceeded most analysts’ projections and was taken as a signal of the U.S. economy’s resiliency in the face of an ongoing housing downturn. The estimate would be revised twice. GDP was a mea-

November Financial Update

(Close of trading Nov. 1 except where indicated)

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average

13,567.87

(see box, p. 866A1)

Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index Nasdaq Composite Index London Stock Exchange

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100)

1,508.44 2,794.83 6,586.10

Tokyo Stock Exchange

16,870.40

Toronto Stock Exchange

14,372.54

(Nikkei index)

(TSE Composite Index)

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield)

4.36% 3.93%

Currencies (late New York trading) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars)

$0.9139 $2.0787 $1.0512 $1.4437 114.53 10.7032 $0.8637

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.)

$787.30

Silver (per troy oz.)

$14.36

Oil (per barrel)

$93.49

(N.Y. Comex spot price) (London fixing spot price) (Nymex crude future)

Gasoline (per gallon)

$2.96

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel)

$8.26

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

2.1%

Unemployment rate

4.7%

Gross domestic product growth

3.9%

Prime rate

7.5%

(nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released Nov. 4) (Kansas City market)

(consumer price index 12-month increase through September; see p. 701G1) (September; see p. 666C3)

(annualized third-quarter rate, preliminary report; see p. 714F2)

sure of the output of goods and services produced within a nation’s borders. „ New Home Sales Rose 4.8% in September.

The Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Oct. 25 reported jointly that sales of new singlefamily homes rose 4.8% in September when compared with the previous month. The new seasonally adjusted annual rate was 770,000 units, up from the revised August rate of 735,000. The median price of a new single-family home sold in September was $238,000. [See p. 651E2] Analysts said that despite the increase, the overall trend of the housing market remained on a downward track. Existing Home Sales Fell 8.0%—The National Association of Realtors Oct. 24 reported that sales of existing homes fell 8.0% in September, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.04 million units. It was the slowest annual pace in almost 10 years. The downwardly revised rate for August was 5.48 million units. The median sale price for existing homes in September was $211,700, down 4.2% from the $220,900 reported a year earlier. [See p. 635E1] „ Consumer Confidence Declined in October.

The Conference Board Oct. 30 reported that its index of consumer confidence fell to 95.6, from a revised 99.5 in September. The index’s base level of 100 reflected consumer confidence in 1985. It was the third FACTS ON FILE

Dow Jones Industrial Average Trading on the New York Stock Exchange Closing

Oct. 1

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14,087.55 14,047.31 13,968.05 13,974.31 14,066.01 14,043.73 14,164.53 14,078.69 14,015.12 14,093.08 13,984.80 13,912.94 13,892.54 13,888.96 13,522.02 13,566.97 13,676.23 13,675.25 13,671.92 13,806.70 13,807.26 13,792.47 13,930.01

Volume (in millions of shares) 1,415.3 1,270.9 1,246.3 1,099.5 1,253.1 849.3 1,183.4 1,154.3 1,515.0 1,097.2 1,285.8 1,283.4 1,418.5 1,263.6 1,779.6 1,393.4 1,311.1 1,572.2 1,601.4 1,402.3 1,213.9 1,218.0 1,543.0

decline in three months, and the index was at its lowest level since October 2005. Analysts said higher gas and food prices, a continuing housing market downturn and less available credit had contributed to the decline. [See p. 635F1] „ Durable Goods Orders Fell in September.

The Commerce Department Oct. 25 reported that the value of durable goods orders in September had fallen by 1.7%, compared with the previous month, to $214.5 billion. Durable goods were so-called big-ticket items designed to last three years or more. [See p. 635G1] „

Supreme Court Justices

Stay

Mississippi Execution.

The Supreme Court Oct. 30 issued a stay of execution to Earl Berry only 19 minutes before he was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Mississippi. The stay was expected to last until the Supreme Court took up Baze v. Rees, a case focusing on whether certain drugs and procedures used in lethal injection constituted cruel and unusual punishment, in January 2008. [See p. 684E1] Berry, 48, had been sentenced to death in 1988 for kidnapping and fatally beating a 56-year-old woman. He had filed a number of appeals during his 19 years on death row, including two appeals rejected by the Supreme Court. Berry’s successful Oct. 18 request for a stay argued that lethal injection procedures ran the risk of constituting cruel and unusual punishment, and suggested that the reversible harm that an erroneous delay would cause the state of Mississippi would be minor compared to what a flawed execution would do to Berry. Analysts said the Supreme Court’s decision to issue a stay would likely influence other state and federal courts to delay executions until after the conclusion of Baze v. November 1, 2007

Rees. It was the third stay issued by the court since it announced it would hear the case. Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito Jr. opposed granting the Berry stay, but the court did not specify whether all seven of the other justices voted in favor. Texas Appeal Misses Court Deadline—

Judge Sharon Keller of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Sept. 25 refused to hear the last-minute appeal of a man scheduled to be executed later that day, citing the court’s 5:00 p.m. closing time. Her decision kept the man, Michael Richard, from being able to submit an appeal for a stay of execution to the U.S. Supreme Court that could have stopped his execution, and provoked widespread condemnation within the legal profession. The Supreme Court had agreed to hear Baze v. Rees Sept. 25, a move that prompted Richard’s attorney to file an expedited appeal challenging the methods of execution. The appeal was delayed by problems with the attorney’s computer. After Keller refused to hear the appeal, Richard was executed later that day. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Oct. 24 sent a complaint to the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct regarding Keller’s actions. Association President Carmen Hernandez Oct. 24 said that was the first such complaint ever filed by the group. In addition, the New York Times reported Oct. 25 that approximately 150 Texas lawyers had stated their intention to file complaints with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Stay Granted in Alabama Case—A threejudge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Ga., Oct. 24 issued a stay of execution for a terminally ill man on death row who had argued that his cancer medications could interfere with the effectiveness of the lethal injection procedures and leave him in severe pain. The prisoner, Daniel Siebert, 56, who had been convicted in 1986 in the murders of two adults and two children, suffered from pancreatic cancer and was believed to have only months to live. The panel Oct. 25 agreed to the state’s request for a hearing of the case by the full court, but the stay was continued pending the court’s final decision. „

Energy BP Settles Price-Fixing and Safety Charges. British energy company BP PLC agreed

Oct. 25 to end three U.S. criminal and civil investigations into its conduct by pleading guilty to felony environmental crimes, submitting itself to extensive outside monitoring and paying a combined $373 million in fines and restitution. [See p. 192G2] The charges stemmed from a 2006 oil spill in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, a 2005 explosion at BP’s oil refinery in Texas City, Texas, and a 2004 attempt by the company to manipulate the market in propane gas. BP agreed to pay $303 million in the price-fixing case, as well as $50 million for violations of the Clean Air Act in connection with the refinery explosion, and $20 million over the oil spill. The company had

previously set aside more than $1.6 billion to settle civil suits relating to the explosion in Texas City, which killed 15 people and injured approximately 180 other workers. [See 2006, pp. 819C1, 532D2 ] In addition, as part of the price fixing settlement, BP agreed to let an independent observer monitor its trading practices for three years. The monitor, attorney Bart Schwartz, would have full access to BP’s traders and would have the authority to bring complaints to the government and suggest disciplinary actions. The settlement did not affect pending Justice Department prosecutions or investigations into the actions of BP employees. On Oct. 25, a grand jury in U.S. Federal District Court in Chicago issued indictments against four former BP employees accused of attempting to manipulate the market for propane. In a separate case, a former trader for BP that day agreed to pay $400,000 to settle civil charges of manipulating the unleaded-gasoline market in 2002. BP said the settlement “concludes all criminal investigations” of its commodity trading, including crude oil, confirming reports that the government planned to refrain from prosecuting the company over allegations of oil-trading irregularities. The settlements were widely seen as emblematic of new BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward’s efforts to make a break from the tenure of his predecessor, John Browne, who had been forced to resign in May. [See p. 319E1] „

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Terrorism Detainees Ex-Prosecutor Alleges Political Pressure.

Col. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor at the U.S.’s prison located on a military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Oct. 19 said he had been pressured by other officials to make larger use of secret evidence and closed trials for detainees in order to ensure high-profile convictions before the 2008 elections. Davis had resigned his position in early October following clashes with his superior, Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, and had previously been under orders not to discuss the circumstances of his departure. [See p. 684G2] According to Davis, his resignation stemmed from disputes with Hartmann over the conduct of the prison’s planned military commissions, which were special war crimes trials for suspected terrorists who had not been granted the legal rights and protections of the U.S. legal system. “There was a big concern that the election of 2008 is coming up,” he said. “People wanted to get the cases going. There was a rush to get high-interest cases into court at the expense of openness.” Before the conflict with Hartmann, Davis had been working to declassify evidence against detainees he planned to charge, a slow process that would have allowed the government to conduct more of the proceedings in public. Davis said he supported the use of military commissions but felt that other officials efforts to make use of secret evidence and trials that were closed to the public would undermine the proceedings. Hart715

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mann, he said, insisted that secret hearings were legal and appropriate for the presentation of classified evidence. Defense Department spokesman J.D. Gordon said Oct. 19 that “we are working closely with our interagency counterparts to ensure that prosecutions by military commission result in fair and open trials while at the same time protecting sensitive information” that could harm American interests. Court OKs Military Commissions— The Court of Military Commission Review, an appeals court created by a 2006 law that laid out the rules for military trials of detainees, Sept. 24 ruled that a judge in an earlier ruling had erred in dismissing a case against Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen held at Guantanamo, on the grounds that Khadr had not been classified as an “unlawful enemy combatant” as required by law. [See p. 360E2] The appeals court found that while detainees who had been classified simply as “enemy combatants” during their detainee review could not be treated as intrinsically unlawful, the military judges overseeing the tribunals had the authority to designate them as such. The decision allowed prosecutions of detainees by military commissions to move forward without requiring all detainees to be reclassified as “unlawful enemy combatants” by the detainee review. The ruling was expected to be applied to a similar case involving another detainee, Salim Ahmed Hamdan. U.S. military Judge Col. Peter Brown ruled Oct. 15 that Khadr’s trial would begin Nov. 8. Khadr, whose trial had originally been scheduled to be held in June, would be the first Guantanamo detainee to go to trial. Another detainee who was convicted in March had pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain. [See p. 207D1] Fourth Detainee Charged—Military prosecutors had charged detainee Mohammed Jawad with three counts of attempted murder and three counts of causing intentional serious bodily harm in relation to a December 2002 incident in Afghanistan in which Jawad allegedly tossed a grenade at a military vehicle, the Department of Defense announced Oct. 11. Jawad was the fourth person to be formally charged under the current military commission system. Jawad had been in custody for more than four years and had previously maintained that a confession he made following his arrest was coerced by Afghan police who had tortured him. „

Terrorism CIA Counsel Nominee Withdrawn. The Bush

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administration Sept. 25 withdrew its nomination of John Rizzo to the position of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) general counsel, the highest-ranking lawyer in the agency, in the face of Democratic opposition. Sen. Ron Wyden (D, Ore.) had placed a hold on Rizzo’s nomination Aug. 15, citing concerns about his failure to intervene in the CIA’s internal debate about the legal716

ity of extreme interrogation methods. Rizzo, a CIA lawyer for 32 years, was expected to continue as acting general counsel, a position he had held since August 2004 and which he had previously held from 2001 to 2002. It was unclear whether the Bush administration intended to nominate another candidate for the position before the end of Bush’s second term. [See p. 664A1] „ Suspect Extradited in Ore. Terror Camp Case.

U.S. officials Sept. 25 announced the extradition of Oussama Abdullah Kassir from the Czech Republic to face charges in U.S. District Court in New York City relating to his alleged role in organizing a terrorist training camp and publishing information about how to construct bombs and produce toxins on several Web sites. Kassir, 41, a Swedish citizen of Lebanese descent, had been arrested on Dec. 11, 2005, in Prague, the Czech capital, while on a layover flying from Sweden to Lebanon. [See 2002, p. 670B2] Kassir was accused of working with militant Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri and his assistant, Haroon Rashid Aswat, to establish a terrorist training camp in Bly, Ore., in November 1999 and to create compact discs containing instructions on how to concoct poisons and build explosives. The information on the CDs was similar to that later posted on three different Web sites started and overseen by Kassir. Aswat and Abu Hamza were being held by British authorities pending extradition to the U.S. The Czech government Sept. 25 said it had given permission for Kassir to be extradited after the U.S. government provided a written guarantee that he would be tried in civilian courts and would not be held in the U.S.’s military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. „

Legislation House Passes Reporter Shield Measure.

The House Oct. 16 passed, 398–21, a bill protecting reporters from being forced to disclose confidential sources or information in the majority of federal court cases. Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia had previously passed laws protecting reporters to some degree. However, there were no such protections in federal law. The bill was the first such measure to reach a House vote in 30 years. [See 2005, pp. 955B2, 488A2] The bill’s sponsors included Reps. Mike Pence (R, Ind.), John Conyers Jr. (D, Mich.) and Rick Boucher (D, Va.). The bill was prompted by several recent cases in which reporters were compelled to reveal their sources, including one in which reporters were subpoenaed to testify regarding a leak that revealed the identity of former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative Valerie Plame. [See p. 544E1] The legislation protected those who “regularly practice journalism.” It did not apply to information requests that would identify a terrorist or a threat to national security, or to a source who leaked “properly classified information” that threatened “significant and articulable harm to nation-

al security.” The bill also exempted from protection information sought for a criminal investigation or prosecution, when that information was judged to be “critical” and there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that a crime had occurred. The bill drew a veto threat from the Bush administration, which said the legislation’s protections “could severely frustrate—and in some cases completely eviscerate—the federal government’s ability to investigate acts of terrorism or threats to national security.” The bill had widely cleared the two-thirds majority necessary to override a veto. The Senate Judiciary Committee Oct. 4 had approved, 15–2, a companion bill, introduced by Sens. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.) and Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.), that provided more limited protections to reporters. „

Medicine & Health Companies Recall Child Cough Medicines.

The industry trade group Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) Oct. 11 announced that the major manufacturers of over-the-counter cough and cold medications for children under the age of two would voluntary recall those products. The group cited the potential danger posed by parents failing to heed warnings on the drugs’ labels as the cause of the recall. The withdrawal included 14 products manufactured by several large companies, among them Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Novartis AG, Wyeth and Prestige Brands Inc., and made up at least 95% of the market for the drugs. The companies involved in the recall said their drugs were safe, but that their misuse could endanger young children. Critics of the use of cough and cold medicines had long argued that there was little scientific data to back claims that the drugs aided children, and that any benefit was outweighed by their potential harm. Panel Recommends Ban for Youth—An advisory panel with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oct. 19 voted, 13–9, to recommend that over-the-counter multisymptom cough and cold medications not be given to children six years old or younger. The panel voted, 15–7, against recommending a similar ban for children aged six to 11. The votes also applied to antihistamines, drugs used to treat allergies. FDA officials said that if the agency accepted the panel’s recommendation, it could still take years to remove the drugs from the market. The differing votes reflected a divide within the panel. Though several panel members said no scientific data had proven the effectiveness of the drugs, many expressed concern that without them, parents would turn to giving their children adult medicines. The vote come after a separate FDA panel of safety experts Sept. 28 recommended that the agency ban multisymptom cough and cold medicines for children under six. Use of the drugs was “associated with serious adverse events, including death,” the FACTS ON FILE

experts wrote in their report. The FDA between 1969 and 2006 had catalogued 54 deaths of children taking decongestants, and 69 deaths of children taking antihistamines, according to the report. The FDA Aug. 15 had issued an advisory recommending that parents never administer over-the-counter cough and cold medications to children younger than two unless following a physician’s instructions. The FDA said a growing number of injuries reflected a trend among parents to ignore warnings urging that the drugs not be used without consulting a doctor. „

Immigration Guest-Worker Program Under Review.

The Bush administration Oct. 9 announced that it would redevelop rules managing guest-worker programs in the U.S., in response to situations across the country in which agricultural employers were not able to find enough workers to produce a normal year’s output. [See pp. 683F3, 413A1] “The current temporary agriculture worker program has become too antiquated and too cumbersome to be used effectively by the producers,” said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel. The National Council of Agricultural Employees had called on the administration to consider measures that included speeding up the application process, easing housing requirements for guest workers and increasing the range of jobs that guest workers were eligible to hold, the New York Times reported Oct. 10. Sharon Hughes, the council’s vice president, had said the application process was so long that for some agricultural workers, the harvest season had ended by the time the permit arrived. The Labor Department affirmed that the Bush administration was aware of farmers’ concerns, and a spokesman, according to the Times, said the department was “in the process of identifying ways the program could be improved.” The administration also faced continued pressure from groups that opposed bringing immigrants into the U.S. as guest workers. ‘Virtual’ Border Fence Faces Delays—

The Washington Post Sept. 26 reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said a $20 million pilot program to construct a “virtual” fence of surveillance equipment along a 28-mile (45-km) stretch of the southern U.S. border had been delayed until the end of the year due to inadequate surveillance capabilities. The fence had been slated for completion in June 2007. [See p. 509B2] The fence, composed of ground radar equipment and video cameras, was being built by Boeing Co. south of Tucson, Ariz., and was intended to detect undocumented immigrants crossing the border from Mexico. However, the equipment had been unable to differentiate people and automobiles from cows and plants, and proved too sensitive to moisture to be of use. The department had withheld $5 million in payments to Boeing until the probNovember 1, 2007

lems could be fixed. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff Sept. 5 had said that if the program was too costly or complicated, he was “prepared to go back to the drawing board and do something simpler.” „

Crime Georgia Man Freed in Teenage Sex Case.

A Georgia teenager given a mandatory 10year prison sentence for felony child molestation in a case of consensual oral sex with another teenager Oct. 26 was freed from prison, hours after the Georgia Supreme Court overturned his sentence. The court ruled, 4–3, that the sentence imposed on the youth, Genarlow Wilson, was “grossly disproportionate” and constituted cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. [See p. 648C3; 2005, p. 912E3] Wilson, 21, had been convicted in 2005 of felony child molestation following a 2003 New Year’s Eve party where he was unknowingly videotaped receiving consensual oral sex from a 15-year-old girl; he was 17 at the time. Although the state child-molestation law made an exception for teenagers having intercourse with other teenagers, it did not apply to oral sex. Wilson’s conviction carried a 10-year minimum sentence and required that he be registered as a sex offender. Jurors had not been told of the minimum sentence before rendering a verdict. Georgia’s General Assembly had closed the law’s oral sex loophole in 2006 after Wilson’s case attracted widespread attention, but did not retroactively include previously decided cases. Wilson’s sentence had been revised June 11, following a habeas corpus petition by his lawyer, to a one-year sentence for misdemeanor aggravated child molestation, the crime with which Wilson would have been charged had he been caught having intercourse. Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker had appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court, arguing that the judge lacked the authority to revise the conviction. Wilson had been unwilling to accept a standing offer of a plea deal from the state that would have cut the length of his sentence but still forced him to register as a sex offender, the New York Times reported June 11. In the Supreme Court’s decision, Chief Justice Leah Ward Seats wrote that the alteration of the law by the General Assembly signified “a seismic shift in the legislature’s view of the gravity of oral sex between two willing teenage participants,” and said the law’s harsh sentence guidelines had been intended to punish adults who abused children. In a dissenting opinion, Justice George Carley argued that the General Assembly’s failure to make the law retroactive should have been taken as a sign of its intentions regarding Wilson’s case. Baker Oct. 26 said the state would not challenge the Supreme Court’s decision. „

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Togo Ruling Party Wins Parliamentary Elections.

Togo’s electoral commission Oct. 23 declared that the ruling Rally for the Togolese People (RPT) party had won a majority in parliamentary elections held Oct. 14. The results Oct. 30 were confirmed by the constitutional court, Togo’s highest court. [See 2005, p. 674F2] According to the commission, the RPT took 50 of the 81 seats in the unicameral National Assembly. The opposition Union of Forces for Change (UFC) garnered 27 seats, and a smaller opposition party, the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR), won the rest. It was the first parliamentary election in 13 years in which opposition parties participated; voter turnout was estimated at 95%. The elections were free of the violence that had plagued the 2005 presidential election, which was won by Faure Gnassingbe, the son of late President Gnassingbe Eyadema, the West African nation’s longtime authoritarian ruler. Observers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union, the African Union and La Francophonie, an alliance of French-speaking nations, Oct. 15 had declared the elections free and fair. The electoral commission Oct. 21 said it would not announce results for five seats in the capital, Lome, because of irregularities with vote counting, and referred the issue to the constitutional court. However, those results were apparently included in the final counts, and the court did not address the complaints in its Oct. 30 ruling. „

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Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner Elected President of Argentina Succeeds Husband Nestor Kirchner. Voters in Argentina Oct. 28 elected Senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a member of the center-left Front for Victory (FV) party and wife of President Nestor Kirchner, as the country’s next president. With 96% of precincts reporting Oct. 29, Fernandez de Kirchner, 54, won 45% of the vote, easily eclipsing the 23% garnered by center-left congresswoman Elisa Carrio, her closest competitor. Former Finance Minister Roberto Lavagna finished third, with 17% of the vote. Eleven other candidates also ran in the election. [See p. 450C1; for facts on Fernandez de Kirchner, see p. 718F1] Fernandez de Kirchner, who was scheduled to take office Dec. 10, became the first woman elected president in Argentina. (Isabel Martinez de Peron, who had been vice president under her husband, Juan Peron, had succeeded to the presidency upon his death in 1974, remaining in office until 1976.) [See p. 146E2] Fernandez de Kirchner declared victory late Oct. 28. In her speech, she said the 717

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ference toward foreign protocol exhibited by Nestor Kirchner. Fernandez de Kirchner had enjoyed wide support among Argentina’s poor, many of whom had benefited from economic reforms instituted by her husband, who was credited with rehabilitating the country’s economy after his 2003 election. Under the counCristina Fernandez de Kirchner Oct. 28 celebrating her victory in Argentina’s presidential election that day with her husband, outgoing President Nestor Kirch- try’s constitution, ner, in Buenos Aires, the capital. presidents were perwin, “far from putting us in a position of mitted to serve a maximum of two conprivilege, puts us instead in a position of secutive four-year terms, though there greater responsibilities and obligations.” was no limit on the overall number of Turnout for the election was recorded at terms a person could hold. Observers 73%, an unusually low figure in a country widely suggested that Nestor Kirchner where voting was legally compulsory. Sev- had not run for a second term as part of a eral rival candidates reported voting irreg- plan to alternate presidential terms beularities, such as missing ballots, in some tween himself and his wife, and establish strongholds of the Justicialist (Peronist) a long-running political dynasty. „ Party, of which the FV was an offshoot faction. Although Argentina under Nestor Canada Kirchner’s presidency had been beset by Government Presents Throne Speech. Caproblems including sharp inflation, rising nadian Governor General Michaelle Jean violent crime levels, an energy shortage Oct. 16 delivered the second “Speech from and a diminishing budget surplus, Fernan- the Throne” of Conservative Party leader dez de Kirchner had held a significant and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The lead over rivals during the campaign. Her speech outlined the general policy goals of opposition had remained fragmented and Harper’s government, and marked the befailed to present a significant challenge. ginning of the fall session of Parliament. During the campaign, Fernandez de The speech outlined five priorities of the Kirchner had not participated in any de- Harper government: improving the envibates with her rivals or granted interviews ronment, addressing crime, providing to any Argentine media outlet until a sin- economic leadership, building a stronger gle radio appearance at the end of the federation and strengthening Canada’s sovcampaign. ereignty and standing in the world. [See p. Fernandez de Kirchner had spent a 83F2] significant amount of time in the run-up to Harper Oct. 3 in his first news conferthe election traveling abroad to meet with ence as prime minister had said he would diplomats and business figures, in an ap- designate all legislation flowing from the parent effort to shore up foreign in- Throne Speech as votes of confidence in vestment in Argentina, which had suf- his minority government. That meant that fered an economic collapse in 2001. if the opposition prevented any of the bills Fernandez de Kirchner’s diplomatic ef- from passing, it would trigger elections for forts also marked a change from the indif- the House of Commons. FACTS ON FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was born on Feb. 19, 1953, in La Plata, the capital of Buenos Aires province in east central Argentina. She studied law at the National University of La Plata where she met Nestor Kirchner, whom she married in 1975. The following year, the couple relocated to Nestor Kirchner’s home province, Santa Cruz, in the country’s south. There they established a law practice together, and Nestor Kirchner later became mayor of the town of Rio Gallegos and governor of the province. Fernandez de Kirchner was first elected to the Santa Cruz provincial legislature in 1989. She became Santa Cruz’s representative in the federal Senate, the upper house of the National Congress, after winning a 1995 election, but shifted to a seat in the lower house, 718

the Chamber of Deputies, that she won 1997 elections. In 2001 she again won a seat in the Senate representing Santa Cruz. Fernandez de Kirchner served as an influential adviser to Nestor Kirchner after he was elected president in 2003, helping her husband advance his legislative agenda. In 2005 she was elected senator of the Buenos Aires federal province, having switched her residency to Buenos Aires city, the capital. [See 2005. p. 763C1; 2003, p. 396A1] Fernandez de Kirchner Oct. 28 handily won the presidential election with 45% of the vote, outpacing her closest opponent by 22 percentage points. She was scheduled to take office Dec. 10. [See p. 717E3] The couple had two children, Maximo and Florencia.

Observers said Harper’s political maneuvering was designed to help the Conservative Party push through its legislation. Recent polls had indicated that Conservatives had gained in popularity against the main opposition Liberal Party, but it was uncertain that they would secure a majority government in the 308-seat Commons if elections were called. Policy Goals—The speech called for postponing the withdrawal of Canadian military forces in Afghanistan until 2011. Parliament had authorized some 2,500 Canadian troops to remain in Afghanistan until February 2009 as part of a North Alliance Treaty Organization (NATO) coalition force battling Taliban insurgents in the country. Harper’s administration proposed that Canada’s military forces in Afghanistan shift their efforts to training Afghan police and army units, but did not specify whether they would continue in combat roles. [See p. 333F3] The speech also proposed tax reductions for individuals and businesses over several years, as well as a one-percentage-point cut in the 6% goods and services tax (GST). Harper Sept. 27 had announced that the country had posted a record C$13.8 billion (US$13.7 billion) budget surplus. He said the surplus would allow the government to institute some C$750 million in tax cuts. Harper’s government said in the speech that greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets set out in the 1996 Kyoto Protocol on climate change were unattainable, and that it would not adhere to the international treaty. Under Kyoto, Canada was to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 6% below their 1990 levels by 2012. Instead, the speech said Canada would attempt to reduce its total emissions by 60%–70% by 2050, hitting a 20% reduction benchmark by 2020. [See p. 98G2] The government pledged to increase its presence in the Arctic, where various countries were vying to establish sovereignty in order to secure access to oil and gas supplies and claim dominion over emerging trade routes. In the speech, the government also said it would institute tougher crime legislation. Reaction—Jack Layton, leader of the leftist New Democratic Party (NDP), and Gilles Duceppe, leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois (BQ) party, Oct. 16 said after the Throne Speech that they would oppose a bill approving it. Duceppe harshly criticized the environmental plan laid out in the speech. “This sends Canada in the wrong direction,” said Layton. Liberal Leader Stephane Dion Oct. 17 said his party would abstain from the votes on the speech and on the specific bills to make its policies law, thereby avoiding federal elections. He said the Liberals would not “make the government fall on its Throne Speech, which would cause the third general election in four years, something Canadians have told us they do not want.” Accordingly, the Commons Oct. 24 voted, 126–79, to pass the bill approving the Throne Speech, with the NDP and BQ votFACTS ON FILE

ing against the bill and the Liberal Party abstaining. „ Liberals Hold Ontario in Elections. Ontario’s Liberal Party, led by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Oct. 10 secured a second consecutive majority in provincial parliament elections. It was the first time in 70 years that a Liberal-led government had won two consecutive majorities in Ontario. With 99.9% of precincts reporting, the Liberals captured 71 seats in the 107-seat legislature; the Progressive Conservative (PC) party, 26; and the leftist New Democratic Party (NDP), 10. The election was also marked by a record low turnout, only 52.8% of eligible voters. [See p. 653E1; 2003, p. 800A3] The results were a resounding defeat for PC Leader John Tory, who was ousted from his own provincial parliament seat. The parliament at dissolution had been composed of 103 seats, with the Liberals holding 67; the PC, 25; the NDP, 10; and one vacant seat. The PC in early polls had seen growing support among voters, raising the possibility that the Liberals would be reduced to a minority government. PC candidates had attacked Liberals for failing to keep a promise not to raise taxes. However, Tory’s campaign proposal to provide faithbased schools with public funding had met with strong resistance among his conservative base. Electoral Reform Rejected—Voters also rejected a proposal to reform Ontario’s election system. Under its current system, known as first-past-the-post (FPTP), voters elected a candidate in their local riding, or voting district. The political party with the most parliamentary seats went on to form the government. Under that system, a party could be voted into government without winning the highest province-wide popular vote. Under the proposed reform system, known as the mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) plan, each voter would cast two votes. One vote would be for the representative of the riding, and the other for a political party. Under MMP, 90 of the provincial parliament seats would be assigned based on electoral districts. Another 39 seats would be assigned based on the number of second votes a party received, with parties supplying a list of candidates prior to the election. With 99.8% of votes counted, 63% of voters backed the FPTP system, while 37% supported the MMP. Supporters of the reform effort criticized McGuinty’s government for failing to adequately educate the populace on the benefits of the reform. McGuinty had been officially neutral on the proposal, while Tory opposed it, and Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton supported it. „

Colombia Uribe, High Court Clash Over Investigation.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez Oct. 9 in several press interviews accused the country’s Supreme Court of offering a November 1, 2007

jailed right-wing paramilitary leader various benefits in exchange for providing testimony against the president. [See p. 577A3] Uribe said the jailed paramilitary leader, Jose Orlando Moncada, had been asked by Supreme Court Judge Ivan Velasquez and a federal prosecutor to testify that in 2003 Uribe had ordered the murder of Alcides de Jesus Durango, another paramilitary chief. Durango had been captured by the government in June. Supreme Court President Cesar Julio Valencia the same day brushed off Uribe’s allegations, calling them an obstruction of an ongoing investigation into alleged ties between Uribe’s administration and rightwing paramilitary groups in the country, known as the “para-politics” scandal. Paramilitary groups, such as the United SelfDefense Forces of Colombia (AUC), had been linked to murders, kidnappings and other human rights violations, as well as drug-trafficking efforts. Fourteen federal legislators, many of whom were allied with Uribe, had been arrested in connection with the investigation and currently awaited trial. Another 22 current or former lawmakers were also under investigation. Uribe had repeatedly denied any links to paramilitary groups. Uribe Ally Quits Senate—Mario Uribe, Alvaro Uribe’s cousin and close political ally, Oct. 4 resigned from the Senate, days after the Supreme Court officially opened an investigation into charges that he had worked with paramilitary groups. Under the Colombian constitution, the Supreme Court was the only body authorized to investigate sitting lawmakers. Mario Uribe’s resignation would push his case into the regular court system, which would provide him with greater opportunities for appeal in the case of a conviction. Two jailed paramilitary leaders, Salvatore Mancuso and Jairo Castillo, who had agreed to provide the government with testimony on their past activities in exchange for certain amnesties, had said Mario Uribe had met with various paramilitary leaders in 1998 and 2002. However, Mario Uribe dismissed the allegations against him. Uribe Denies Ties to Drug Lord— Alvaro Uribe Oct. 2 disputed claims, made in a book published in September, that he had aided drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 1980s, while head of Colombia’s civil aviation authority. The book, Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar, had reiterated claims that Uribe had allowed Escobar’s organization to secure authorization to use landing strips to traffic drugs. “I had no political relations with Escobar, I had no business dealings with Escobar and I was not a friend of Virginia Vallejo,” Uribe said, referring to the book’s author, a former mistress of Escobar. He also criticized Gonzalo Guillen, a Colombia-based journalist with the U.S.based Spanish-language newspaper El Nuevo Herald, who Uribe claimed had coauthored the book.

Guillen Oct. 5 said he had no connection with the book, but that he was forced to flee the country after receiving dozens of death threats from paramilitary groups. „

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Kyrgyzstan Voters Approve New Constitution. Kyrgyz

citizens Oct. 21 voted to approve a new constitution that would increase the number of seats in the parliament, limit the president to two terms in office, change the election system from a single-constituency system to a party-list system and abolish the death penalty. The day after the referendum, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev dissolved the parliament after accusing members of corruption and repeated challenges to presidential authority that he said equaled “a parliamentary coup.” Bakiyev said snap parliamentary elections would be held in the near future, though he did not give a date. Analysts expected the vote to take place in December. [See p. 614A3] The constitutional referendum followed Bakiyev’s call in September for constitutional changes after years of infighting between the president and parliament over the balance of power and the legality of several previous constitutional reforms. The new constitution, which the Central Election Commission said was backed by about 75% of voters, increased the number of parliamentary seats to 90, from 75, and broadened parliamentary responsibilities. It also gave Bakiyev the power to dismiss the government and directly appoint lowlevel officials such as local judges and administrators. Under the new system, members of parliament would be elected by party list, which ensured each party was represented according to its strength in the nationwide vote, but also cut ties between the former members of parliament and their constituents. Bakiyev’s critics said the new system would be disadvantageous to small parties and independent politicians. Much of Kyrgyzstan’s recent instability had stemmed from the lack of any clear ruling party since the country became independent in 1991. Opposition Criticizes President—Parliament’s former deputy speaker, Erkinbek Alymbekov, Oct. 22 said the governmental changes could lead to a “strict, totalitarian system of power.” Others former members of parliament said the changes in the constitution had provided Bakiyev with an excuse to dismiss the parliament, which he had been threatening to do for months anyway. Opposition politician Azimbek Beknazarov said, “The decree [dissolving parliament] contradicts the constitution. It’s illegal. But President [Bakiyev’s] abuse of his power to dissolve this parliament will get legal backing for sure…in this situation, we have no choice but to dissolve.” Watchdog Cites Voting Irregularities—

Independent election monitors, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Oct. 22 expressed concern over the validity of the referendum 719

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results, due to reports of ballot-stuffing and other irregularities. Observers claimed that voter turnout, which the Kyrgyz officials had stated was 85%, was actually lower than 50%. Markus Mueller, head of the OSCE office in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, said, “Domestic observation teams reported that they observed massive ballot-stuffing by members of precinct election commissions, use of administrative resources to bring people to polling stations, obstruction of domestic observers by local authorities and members of election commissions.” Bakiyev Founds, Leaves New Party—

Bakiyev Oct. 15 registered a new, pro-government party called Ak Jol Eldik Partiyasi (True Path Popular Party, also known as Ak Zhol or Bright Path) and resigned from it the next day. An article in the constitution stated that presidents must refrain from activity in a political party while in power. Analysts suggested that the upcoming snap elections would provide Bakiyev with a significant power base if his new party performed well. „

Myanmar Monks Stage First Protest Since Crackdown.

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As many as 200 Buddhist monks Oct. 31 marched in the first large demonstration against Myanmar’s government since the military crackdown that ended an escalating series of protests in late September. [See p. 687C3] The march took place in the town of Pakkoku, the location of approximately 80 monasteries and the site of a September protest that had been violently broken up by pro-government attackers, triggering widespread anger over the treatment of the demonstrating monks. The military was given advance notice of the march, the New York Times reported on its Web site Oct. 31, and the monks marched for under an hour, chanting Buddhist prayers. [See p. 615C1] One of the monks, in an Oct. 31 interview with the Democratic Voice of Burma, a dissident-run radio station based in Norway, framed the march as a continuation of the earlier demonstrations. The monk, who was not identified, said the protests would continue because the monks’ demands “for lower commodity prices, national reconciliation, and immediate release” of imprisoned protesters as well as of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi had not been met. Suu Kyi Meets With Junta Liaison—Suu Kyi Oct. 25 was temporarily allowed to leave the house where she was imprisoned for a meeting with retired Maj. Gen. Aung Kyi, her first meeting with an official representative of Myanmar’s ruling military junta since she was placed under house arrest in 2003. The meeting lasted an hour and 15 minutes, Myanmar’s state-run media reported, but no details were released about the nature of the discussion. Aung Kyi had been appointed “liaison minister” in early October, and was expected to serve as a direct link between Suu Kyi and the members of the ruling junta. The same day, authorities released 50 members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party. No of720

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U.S. President George W. Bush Oct. 19 said that the U.S. government would expand its sanctions against the government of Myanmar and those prominently associated with the regime as part of an attempt to pressure the junta to end its repression of Buddhist monks and pro-democracy activists. The sanctions targeted 11 additional members of the government of Myanmar, including the country’s finance and commerce ministers, and allowed the U.S. Treasury Department to seize money belonging to “individuals or entities who provide material or financial support to designated individuals or to the government” of Myanmar. [See p. 626D2] Several measures aimed at financially weakening the military regime were pending in the U.S. Congress, including two bills targeting U.S.-based Chevron Corp.’s stake in a Myanmar natural gas field. Curfew, Assembly Ban Lifted—The government Oct. 20 lifted a nightly curfew and ban on assembly that it had imposed in late September in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, during the recent protests. It was unknown if similar restrictions had also been lifted in Mandalay, the second-largest city. Analysts said the move suggested that the junta believed renewed protests were unlikely. [See p. 625G2] Report: Military Using Child Soldiers—

Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based advocacy group, Oct. 31 released a report detailing the forcible recruitment of child soldiers both by Myanmar’s military and many of the ethnic militias fighting it. According to the report, the military paid independent brokers within Myanmar to recruit child soldiers as young as 11 into the army. [See 2002, p. 1060F1] The report alleged that some children were beaten until they agreed to join, and said some child soldiers were made to take part in brutal human rights violations under the orders of their superior officers. It was unknown how many of the army’s approximately 400,000 soldiers were under the age of 18, but the report said interviews with former soldiers suggested that the proportion could be as high as 30%. Opposition groups such as the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army also used child soldiers in their activities, and the report said some such groups even set enlistment quotas on villages in their sphere of influence, forcing a given number of young boys to join their forces. „

Philippines Former President Estrada Pardoned. Phil-

ippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Oct. 25 pardoned her predecessor, former President Joseph Estrada, 70, who had been convicted in September on corruption charges and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Ignacio Bunye, acting executive secretary to the president, Oct. 25 said that Arroyo’s decision to pardon her onetime political rival had been influenced by the six and a half years he had already spent under house arrest and

the administration’s policy of pardoning all prisoners who were at least 70 years of age. Estrada would regain all rights granted to citizens of the Philippines, but a mansion and $15.5 million seized from him would not be returned. [See p. 596B2] Critics of Arroyo suggested that the pardon was part of an attempt to distract attention from alleged corruption in her own administration. It came just before Arroyo’s husband was set to testify before the Senate about his role in a corruption scandal involving a lucrative broadband Internet contract that had been awarded to a Chinese company. In addition, Estrada’s Oct. 22 withdrawal of a pending appeal of his conviction was seen as a sign that he had reached some kind of deal with Arroyo, a suggestion that a representative of Estrada’s Party of the Filipino Masses denied. The Associated Press Oct. 25 reported that Estrada had recently said he would not seek to return to public office if he regained the right to do so. Recent polls had suggested that Estrada enjoyed wider popularity than Arroyo, the New York Times reported Oct. 25. „ Manila Explosion Kills 11; Cause Unknown.

An explosion Oct. 19 at the upscale Glorietta 2 shopping mall in the financial district of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, killed 11 people and wounded more than a hundred. Police Oct. 23 said they had ruled out terrorism as the cause of the explosion, and considered a methane gas leak a more likely scenario. The mall had been the target of a May 2000 bombing by Islamic terrorists that injured 13 people. [See p. 515E2] However, an Oct. 24 report by Ayala Land Inc., the company that operated Glorietta 2, said no sign of an accidental cause had been found. At a press conference that day, Ayala Land President Jaime Ayala said, “There are no maintenance reports or observations by maintenance personnel of any aberrations” that might have caused the explosion. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

France Sarkozy Divorce Announced. French Pres-

ident Nicolas Sarkozy’s office Oct. 18 announced that he and his wife, Cecilia Sarkozy, had divorced “by mutual consent.” Nicolas Sarkozy, 52, who had been elected in May, became the first French president to divorce while in office. The couple had been married since 1996, and had one son. They had separated for several months in 2005. [See p. 524D1] Cecilia Sarkozy, 49, was a former fashion model. Earlier in the year, she had said that the idea of being France’s first lady bored her. She had kept a low profile in the first months of her husband’s presidency, except for a July diplomatic mission to Libya. She had negotiated with Libyan ruler Muammer el-Qaddafi for the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor held for several years on charges of infecting children with HIV, the AIDS virus. Despite the subsequent release of the prisoners, FACTS ON FILE

her diplomatic role had been criticized in France as inappropriate. [See p. 506C21] L’Est Republicain, a French newspaper, Oct. 19 published an interview with Cecilia Sarkozy. She said that she and her husband had “tried everything” to avoid a divorce, but found it “wasn’t possible anymore.” She also acknowledged that she had had an affair with another man in 2005. “France elected a man, not a couple,” she said. „ Transport Workers Strike. French public transportation workers went on a 24-hour nationwide strike Oct. 17–18, protesting President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to revoke their special pension benefits. The strike halted most rail, subway and bus service. Sarkozy had proposed that they should have to work for 40 years before drawing their pensions, the same period as other civil servants and private sector employees. The transport workers, as well as certain other public-sector employees, including energy utility workers, currently had to put in 37 and a half years before retirement. [See p. 289A1] The strike posed the first major challenge by France’s powerful labor unions to the broad economic reform agenda that Sarkozy had pledged to enact after his election in May. It also coincided with an announcement that the president and his wife had divorced. [See p. 720E3] „

Spain Verdicts Delivered in ’04 Madrid Attack Trial.

A Spanish court Oct. 31 acquitted Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, the accused Egyptian mastermind of March 2004 terrorist attacks in Madrid, the capital of Spain, but convicted three other main suspects of murder. The Madrid bombings had hit commuter trains, killing 191 people and wounding more than 1,800. [See p. 132D1; 2004, p. 173A1] Osman had allegedly boasted in wiretapped telephone conversations that he had devised the bomb plot. But his lawyers argued that his comments had been mistranslated. Osman was currently in prison in Italy, where he had been convicted of membership in a terrorist group. The three convicted lead suspects were Moroccans Jamal Zougam and Osman Gnaoui, and Emilio Suarez Trashorras, a Spaniard and former miner who helped procure the explosives. They received symbolic sentences ranging from 34,000 to 43,000 years in prison, due to their conviction on multiple counts. However, the maximum they could serve under Spanish law was 40 years. Spain had no life imprisonment or death penalty. None of the other convicted defendants received sentences of more than 23 years in prison. Four other prominent suspects were acquitted of murder but convicted of lesser charges, such as membership in a terrorist organization, as were 14 minor suspects. In all, 21 of the 29 defendants were convicted. The defendants were mostly young Muslim men of North African origin. According to Spanish officials, they had been inspired by the international terrorist netNovember 1, 2007

work Al Qaeda, but had not received direct orders or financing from Al Qaeda. Seven other suspects, including two believed to have been ringleaders of the plot, had blown themselves up when police surrounded them in a Madrid suburb in April 2004. [See 2004, p. 246D3] Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez ruled that there was no evidence that the Basque militant separatist group Euzkadi ta Askatasuna (ETA), or Basque Homeland and Liberty, had played any role in the bombings, as alleged by the conservative government in office at the time of the attacks. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero hailed the verdicts, saying, “Justice was rendered today.” He added, “The barbarism committed on March 11, 2004, has left a deep imprint of pain on our collective memory.” However, families of victims criticized the acquittals and the sentences, which were mostly lighter than what prosecutors had requested. One victims’ group said it would appeal the verdicts. „

Ukraine Yushchenko, Tymoshenko Set Coalition.

The political parties of Yulia Tymoshenko, a leading Ukrainian figure, and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko Oct. 15 agreed to form a coalition. The alliance between the two parties, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine–People’s Self Defense Bloc (NUNS), was a repeat of a failed coalition that had emerged from the country’s 2004 “Orange Revolution.” [See p. 655B3; 2005, p. 51A3] The agreement came after a showdown following late September elections in which Tymoshenko had said she would move into opposition if Yushchenko allied with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich’s pro-Russian Party of Regions. Yushchenko had previously proposed a broad alliance between the three parties. Official results published Oct. 27 by Ukraine’s Central Election Commission showed the Party of Regions winning a plurality of 34.37% of Verknovna the votes, or 175 seats in the 450-member Verkhovna Rada, or parliament. Tymoshenko’s party was second, with 30.71%, and NUNS was third, with 14.15%. The Tymoshenko-Yushchenko coalition, with 228 of the 450 seats in the Rada, would hold a majority over the Party of Regions.Yanukovich had pressed for a broader coalition, and said in an interview published Oct. 27 in Ukrainian newspaper the Weekly Mirror that “irrespective of distribution of forces in Verkhovna Rada, not a single important decision as for domestic and foreign policy will be taken without considering the Party of Regions.” Analysts expected Tymoshenko to emerge as prime minister when a government was formed. She had served as prime minister under Yushchenko for seven months in 2005 before he fired her after bitter internal disputes. [See 2005, p. 630C2] The Oct. 27 publication of official results paved the way for the first parliamentary session to be held. According to the constitution, the first meeting of a new parliament

must take place within 30 days of the announcement of official election results, and a government must be formed within 30 days of the parliament’s first meeting. The new coalition had already begun to show signs of internal conflict. Tymoshenko had been planning to end mandatory conscription on Dec. 31, 2007, and convert the military into an all-volunteer force. However, Yushchenko Oct. 24 published a decree ordering a military draft in 2008. „

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European Business News Microsoft Drops EU Antitrust Battle. U.S.

computer software giant Microsoft Corp. Oct. 22 said it would not pursue further legal appeals of a 2004 European Union antitrust ruling, and would comply with the EU’s demands. Microsoft had lost its latest appeal of the ruling in September. [See p. 637F3] Under the agreement, Microsoft said it would sell access to its software code, at a reduced cost of 10,000 euros ($14,300), to rivals who sought to make their products work with Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Microsoft had previously refused to provide such access, arguing that the code was its intellectual property. The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, had found that Microsoft abused the dominant market position of Windows to squeeze out its competition. Microsoft had already complied with the commission’s other demand—to sell a version of Windows without its audio and video Media Player feature included. The Commission had charged that the practice of “bundling” separate products into Windows gave Microsoft an unfair advantage over smaller makers of such products. In return for Microsoft’s compliance, the commission agreed to stop fining the company for failing to adhere to its orders. The commission had fined Microsoft 497 million euros as part of the 2004 ruling, and daily fines since then had added several hundred million euros to the bill. „

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Iran Nuclear Envoy Resigns. Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator and the secretary of the nation’s Supreme National Security Council, resigned Oct. 20. He was replaced by Saeed Jalili, a mid-level foreign ministry official and close ally of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Larijani had been seen as more moderate than Ahmadinejad, and analysts and Western officials said his departure might presage a harder Iranian line in negotiations concerning the country’s nuclear program. An Iranian government spokesman said Jalili’s appointment would not bring about a policy change. [See pp. 693A1, 673C3, 581E2, 469E3] Larijani and Ahmadinejad had publicly quarreled over a visit by Russian President Vladimir V. Putin earlier in October, when Ahmadinejad disputed Larijani’s assertion that Putin had presented Iran with a “nuclear proposal.” Larijani reportedly had of721

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fered to resign several times in the past, but had been held back by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. [See p. 679A1] Jalili Oct. 23 met in Rome with Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, for the latest talks on Iran’s nuclear program. Jalili was accompanied by Larijani, who reportedly had been ordered by Ahmadinejad and Khamenei to attend the meeting. Solana said the closed talks had been “constructive,” and Larijani said they were “good.” However, unidentified participants said Iran had refused to suspend uranium enrichment, which was the United Nations Security Council’s key demand. Jalili also stressed the need for continued negotiations and agreed to another round of talks in November. Ahmadinejad that day reiterated his nuclear stance on a visit to Armenia. “Iran will not retreat one iota,” he said on television. “We are in favor of talks, but we will not negotiate with anyone about our right to nuclear technology.” Jalili Oct. 26 dismissed sanctions leveled by the U.S. Bush administration the previous day against the elite Quds Force unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. “These sanctions are nothing new,” Jalili said. “Sanctions have been imposed on us for the past 28 years. The new sanctions, like those before, will have no effect on Iran’s policies.” Security Council Vote Delayed—The Security Council Sept. 28 agreed to delay until November a vote on a resolution imposing a third round of sanctions against Iran. The delay was seen as a compromise by the U.S., Britain and France, who supported immediate sanctions, with Russia, China and Germany, who wanted to wait for the results of a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The delaying statement said the sanctions resolution would be completed and voted on unless reports from the IAEA and Solana “show a positive outcome of their efforts.” The U.S. House Sept. 25 passed, 397– 16, a bill imposing sanctions on energy companies investing more than $20 million in Iran. France Increases Pressure on Iran—

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Tensions between France and Iran increased after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner Sept. 16 suggested that the world had to prepare for a possible war with Iran. In a radio and television interview that day, Kouchner said, “We will negotiate until the end. And at the same time we must prepare ourselves.” Asked to clarify what he meant, he added, “It is necessary to prepare for the worst…The worst, it’s war, sir.” He also suggested that the French military had contingency plans for a possible war with Iran. Kouchner’s remarks were greeted with harsh criticism from Iran. United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei also called on Iran’s critics to refrain from threatening “any use of force.” Kouchner the next day said his comments 722

were not meant to threaten war, and called for further negotiations with Iran. French Defense Minister Herve Morin Sept. 19 said France had no plans to launch a military attack on Iran’s nuclear proram. French President Nicholas Sarkozy Sept. 20 directly accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, and called for tougher U.N. sanctions against Iran. Sarkozy had attracted attention Aug. 27 when he described the prospects for a failure of diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue as either “an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran.” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Sept. 21 said the U.S. and France had agreed to independently bring economic and diplomatic pressure against Iran in order to curb its nuclear program. Report Shows Slow Nuclear Progress—

The IAEA Aug. 30 released a quarterly report showing that Iran’s nuclear program had expanded, but was making slower progress than expected. It said that Iran was operating nearly 2,000 centrifuges used to enrich uranium at a nuclear complex at Natanz, up from 1,300 in May. However, Iran had predicted that it would have 3,000 centrifuges running at the time of the report’s release. The report also said Iran was being unusually cooperative with investigators. Analysts disagreed over whether the reduced number of centrifuges was due to technical difficulties, or because of an Iranian political decision to slow operations in order to decrease international pressure. Ahmadinejad Sept. 2 in remarks published on the Iranian state television Web site contradicted the report, saying that Iran was operating 3,000 centrifuges. The IAEA Aug. 27 said Iran had agreed to answer questions regarding controversial past nuclear activities. It said Iran had agreed to a timetable for trying to resolve the nuclear issue by the end of the year. Chinese Arrested for Spying—An Iranian judiciary spokesman Aug. 15 said two Chinese citizens had been arrested in the city of Arak for allegedly spying on a heavy-water nuclear reactor under construction there. The Chinese foreign ministry Aug. 20 said they had been released, and that the arrest had been the result of a misunderstanding. China and Iran had close political and economic ties, and China, as a permanent U.N. Security Council member, played a role in deciding on possible U.N. actions against Iran. „

SOUTH ASIA

Pakistan Supreme Court Sets Bhutto Attack Probe.

Pakistani Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry Oct. 31 said he would begin a probe into the bomb attack on a procession celebrating the return of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto earlier in October in Karachi. At least 140 people had been killed when a convoy carrying Bhutto, who had returned to Pakistan from exile after eight years, was attacked hours after her arrival. [See p. 706F2]

Although President Pervez Musharraf’s government had announced its own investigation into the bombing, Chaudhry in a statement said the Supreme Court would ensure that “the perpetrators of this barbaric act are brought to book, which will result in restoring the confidence of the nation in the system of governance.” Bhutto had claimed that Islamist extremists had been behind the attack, and alleged that forces within Musharraf’s government were working to obstruct the investigation. The announcement signaled Chaudhry’s continuing role as a political counterweight to the president. Musharraf, who served as both the president and head of the armed forces, in March had unsuccessfully attempted to suspend Chaudhry from the high court. That move had given rise to an opposition pro-democracy movement. Chaudhry in July had been reinstated; he was set to rule within days on the legality of Musharraf’s early October reelection as president. Musharraf, who had come to power in a 1999 coup, in September had pledged to resign from the military if he won the presidency in the October election. If the Supreme Court found his reelection constitutional, he was expected to relinquish his army post by Nov. 15. Parliamentary elections would then be set for January 2008. There were widely held expectations that Bhutto would enter into a power-sharing agreement with Musharraf in the new government, as prime minister, forming a Western-allied front against extremist elements in Pakistan. Bhutto Cancels Dubai Trip—Bhutto Oct. 31 said she had canceled plans to visit relatives in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), amid rumors that Musharraf might impose a state of emergency in the country if the Supreme Court found his reelection illegal. Bhutto Oct. 27 had traveled to her ancestral village, Garhi Khuda Baksh, near Kalarna, and paid a visit to the grave of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a prime minister who was hanged in 1979 by the regime of military ruler Mohammed Zia ul-Haq. „ Army Clashes With Militants in Northwest.

The government of the North-West Frontier Province Oct. 24 dispatched between 2,000 and 3,000 troops to the Swat Valley area in an effort to tamp down the growing power of a local religious leader. The cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, was also known as “Maulana Radio” for his practice of preaching strict Taliban-style Islamic law in the area over a pirate radio station. He had an estimated 4,500 armed supporters, and his followers were suspected of attacks on about 100 stores selling music and videos. Fazlullah had also defended the practice of suicide bombing and called on local barbers to refrain from shaving residents’ beards. [See p. 675B2] At least 20 people, 17 of them soldiers, Oct. 25 were killed in a bomb attack on a truck carrying 42 members of a provincial civilian armed force. At least 25 people were wounded. The attack sparked days of fighting between government forces and Islamist militants allied with Fazlullah. Some FACTS ON FILE

100 people were believed to have been killed Oct. 25–31 during clashes in the area. Fazlullah’s supporters Oct. 29 had called for a cease-fire with government forces in order to bury their dead. However, Islamist militants Oct. 30–31 attacked Pakistani military forces, including helicopter gunships, ending the brief truce, according to military officials. Government helicopters Oct. 31 responded by strafing militant positions, killing an estimated 20 people, government officials said. Pakistan had been engaged in intermittent fighting with forces in the country’s northern tribal belt allied with the Taliban insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan and the international Al Qaeda terrorist network. However, the Swat Valley area, a former tourist destination known for its natural beauty, had previously been largely spared from such violence. [See p. 723C1] „ Bomber Strikes Near Musharraf Office. A suicide bomber Oct. 30 detonated explosives in Rawalpindi, killing seven people, including himself and at least three police officers, and wounding at least 14 people. President Pervez Musharraf was in military offices less than one mile (1.6 km) away from the bombed site at the time of the attack, though a presidential spokesman denied that he was a target. [See p. 706F2] The spokesman, Rashid Qureshi, said the bomb had exploded on a public highway outside a fortified area surrounding Musharraf’s offices. The attacker had attempted to force his way past a police checkpoint before being stopped and detonating his explosives. Supporters of the Taliban insurgency group in neighboring Pakistan and members of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda had reportedly increased operations in Pakistan. Pakistani intelligence had warned that both groups, which opposed the U.S.-allied Musharraf regime, might increase suicide attacks in Rawalpindi and nearby Islamabad, the capital. [See p. 722F2, F3] „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Red Sox Sweep Rockies to Win World Series Boston Takes Second Title in Four Years.

The Boston Red Sox Oct. 28 defeated the Colorado Rockies, 4–3, in Denver, Colo., to sweep the best-of-seven World Series. The Red Sox, managed by Terry Francona, won the Major League Baseball (MLB) championship for the second time in four years, after failing to win since 1917. [See p. 707A2; 2004, p. 849A2] Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell was named the most valuable player (MVP) of the World Series. He hit .400 in the series, with four runs batted in (RBI) and six runs scored. The Rockies, managed by Clint Hurdle, prior to the World Series had won 21 of 22 games dating back to the regular season. However, they had an eight-day layoff between the end of the National League Championship Series (NLCS) and the start of the World Series, which some analysts November 1, 2007

said could have dampened their momentum. Boston outscored Colorado, 29–10, in the World Series. Boston held home-field advantage in the World Series because the American League had won the All-Star Game in July. For the games in Boston, Francona led off his batting order with second baseman Dustin Pedroia, followed by first baseman Kevin Youkilis, designated hitter David Ortiz, left fielder Manny Ramirez, Lowell, right fielder J.D. Drew, catcher Jason Varitek, center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury and shortstop Julio Lugo. Ortiz played first base in place of Youkilis for the games played at the Rockies’ home, Coors Field in Denver, where the games were played under National League rules, which excluded the role of the designated hitter. Hurdle led off with center fielder Willy Tavares, followed by second baseman Kazuo Matsui, left fielder Matt Holliday, first baseman Todd Helton, third baseman Garrett Atkins, right fielder Brad Hawpe, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, catcher Yorvit Torrealba and designated hitter Ryan Spilborghs. First Game—Oct. 24 at Fenway Park in Boston (attendance 36,733): R H E

Colorado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .010 000 000 1 6 0 Boston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 270 00x 13 17 0 Winning pitcher—Josh Beckett. Losing pitcher— Jeff Francis.

The Red Sox won game one, 13–1, at Fenway Park in Boston. The Red Sox, sparked by Pedroia’s leadoff homer, jumped out to an early lead, scoring four runs in the first two innings off Rockies starter Jeff Francis. Boston broke the game open in the fifth, scoring seven runs. Meanwhile, Red Sox starter Josh Beckett allowed just one run and six hits in seven innings, striking out nine. Second Game—Oct. 25 at Fenway Park (attendance 36,730): R H E

Colorado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 000 000 1 5 0 Boston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 110 00x 2 6 1 Winning pitcher—Curt Schilling. Losing pitcher— Ubaldo Jimenez. Save—Jonathan Papelbon.

The second game was much tighter, but the Red Sox ultimately prevailed, 2–1. The Rockies took a 1–0 lead in the first inning, when a groundout by Helton drove in Taveras. However, the combination of Red Sox starter Curt Schilling, reliever Hideki Okajima and closer Jonathan Papelbon stymied the Colorado offense from then on. Boston tied the score in the fourth, when Varitek hit a sacrifice fly off rookie starter Ubaldo Jimenez to drive in Lowell. In the fifth, the Red Sox took the lead for good when Lowell doubled to drive in Ortiz. Third Game—Oct. 27 at Coors Field (attendance 49,983): R H E

Boston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 006 000 031 10 15 1 Colorado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 002 300 5 11 0 Winning pitcher—Daisuke Matsuzaka. Losing pitcher—Josh Fogg. Save—Papelbon.

In game three, the Red Sox exploded for six runs in the third inning off Rockies starter Josh Fogg, with Ortiz, Lowell, starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and Ellsbury driving in runs. The Rockies got back into the game in the sixth, scoring two runs, and added three in the seventh on a three-

run home run by Holliday. However, the Red Sox went on to score three runs in the eighth off reliever Brian Fuentes, and added another in the top of the ninth to make the score 10–5. Papelbon got the final four outs to earn his second save of the series. Fourth Game—Oct. 28 at Coors Field (attendance 50,041):

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Boston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 010 110 4 9 0 Colorado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 000 120 3 7 0 Winning pitcher—John Lester. Losing pitcher— Aaron Cook. Save—Papelbon.

The Red Sox took the lead in the first inning of the fourth game. Ellsbury doubled off Rockies starter Aaron Cook, and later scored on a single by Ortiz. Boston scored again in the fifth, when Lowell doubled and scored on by a Varitek single. In the seventh, a solo home run by Lowell stretched the lead to 3–0. Hawpe homered in the bottom of that inning to make the score 3–1. The Red Sox got the run back in the top of the eighth, when pinch hitter Bobby Kielty homered. Colorado scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth off Okajima, on a two-run homer by Atkins, to pull within 4–3. The Red Sox then brought in Papelbon, who retired the final two batters in the eighth and pitched a perfect ninth to seal the sweep for Boston. „

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ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Awards Man Booker Prize. Britain’s

top literary award, the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, worth £50,000 (US$102,000), Oct. 16 was awarded to Irish author Anne Enright for her fourth novel, The Gathering. The book dealt with the suicide of one of a large number of children in a dysfunctional Irish Catholic family, and was narrated by one of the dead man’s sisters, the sibling he had been closest to. [See 2006, p. 792C2] Enright, 45, had been a television producer in Ireland before becoming a fulltime writer. Having battled depression in early adulthood, she once extolled the advantages of “having a breakdown young.” Besides novels, her writings included a short-story collection and a nonfiction work, Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood (2004). Enright had been one of six writers nominated for the Man Booker Prize Sept. 6. The others on the shortlist, all of whom received £2,500 (making Enright’s total award £52,500), were Nicola Barker, for Darkmans, a contemporary ghost story; Mohsin Hamid, for The Reluctant Fundamentalist, about the turmoil experienced by an Ivy League–educated Pakistani in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S.; New Zealander Lloyd Jones, for Mister Pip, about a Pacific island isolated from the rest of the world during wartime; Ian McEwan, for On Chesil Beach, about a sexually repressed newlywed couple; and Indra Sinha, for Animal’s People, about a young man gravely injured in a chemical disaster similar to the one that devastated Bhopal, India, in 1984. [See 2006, p. 438E3] „ 723

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BEST SELLER LISTS

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Publishers Weekly Oct. 29 listed the following hardback and paperback best sellers [See p. 660A1]:

Top-Rated Programs. The following were the most-watched prime-time nation-

Fiction Hardback 1. Playing for Pizza, by John Grisham (Doubleday) 2. The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold (Little, Brown) 3. World Without End, by Ken Follett (Dutton) 4. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) 5. The Choice, by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central)

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1. “Dancing With the Stars” (ABC), Oct. 22 (13.7)* 2. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS), Oct. 18 (12.9)* 3. “World Series Game 4” (Fox), Oct. 28 (12.6) 4. “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC), Oct. 4 (12.5)*

General Hardback 1. Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day, by Joel Osteen (Free Press) 2. I Am America (And So Can You!), by Stephen Colbert (Warner Books) 3. Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, by Jessica Seinfeld (Collins) 4. Clapton: The Autobiography, by Eric Clapton (Broadway) 5. Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors, by Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint (Thomas Nelson) Mass Market Paperback 1. Cross, by James Patterson (Grand Central) 2. H.R.H., by Danielle Steel (Dell) 3. The Gift, by Nora Roberts (Silhouette) 4. Mine Till Midnight, by Lisa Kleypas (St. Martin’s) 5. The Collectors, by David Baldacci (Grand Central)

Music Best-Selling Singles and Albums. Billboard magazine in its Oct. 27 issue list-

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ed the five most popular singles (as determined by air play and sales) and the five best-selling albums in the U.S. as the following [See p. 660C1]:

Singles 1. “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” Soulja Boy Tell ’em (ColliPark/Interscope) 2. “Stronger,” Kanye West (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam/IDJMG) 3. “Apologize,” Timbaland featuring OneRepublic (Mosley/Blackground/ Interscope) 4. “No One,” Alicia Keys (J/RMG) 5. “Bubbly,” Colbie Caillat (Universal Republic) Albums

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1. Rock N Roll Jesus, Kid Rock (Top Dog/Atlantic/AG) 2. Magic, Bruce Springsteen (Columbia/Sony) 3. Still Feels Good, Rascal Flatts (Lyric Street/Hollywood) 4. Family, LeAnn Rimes (Curb) 5. Exile on Mainstream, matchbox twenty (Melisma/Atlantic/AG)

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Nobel laureate James D. Watson, 79, Oct. 25 retired as chancellor of Long Island, N.Y.’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and quit its board of directors. He did so amid a controversy stemming from an interview published Oct. 14 in a London newspaper, the Sunday Times, in which he strongly suggested that blacks were less intelligent than whites. In the interview, Watson, a biochemist who had shared a 1962 Nobel Prize for discovering the double-helical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the master molecule of heredity, was quoted as saying that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really.” After the interview was widely disseminated, Cold Spring Harbor, with which he had been affiliated since 1968, Oct. 18 had 724

al television shows Oct. 1–29 as determined by A.C. Nielsen Co. (Series marked with an asterisk * had at least one other episode during the period that outranked some of the other programs listed.) Figures in parentheses are rating points; each point represents 1% of the 110.2 million television households in the U.S. [See p. 660A2]:

5. “Desperate Housewives” (ABC), Oct. 7, 28 (11.8)

Films Top-Grossing Films. The following were the top-grossing films in the U.S. for the week of Oct. 19–25 according to Variety. Figures in parentheses were each film’s cumulative domestic box-office total and number of weeks in release to date. Information on cast and director is included when a film first appears on the list. [See p. 660B2]:

1. 30 Days of Night, Sony ($20.6 million, 1) Directed by David Slade. With Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Jon Bennett and Ben Foster. 2. Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?, Lionsgate ($41.6 million, 2) Directed by Tyler Perry. With Perry, Janet Jackson, Sharon Leal, Jill Scott and Denise Boutte. 3. The Game Plan, Buena Vista ($70.8 million, 4) Directed by Andy Fickman. With Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Roselyn Sanchez, Morris Chestnut, Brian J. White and Madison Pettis. 4. Michael Clayton, Warner Bros. ($23.7 million, 3) Directed by Tony Gilroy. With George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack and Pamela Gray. 5. Gone Baby Gone, Miramax ($7.4 million, 1) Directed by Ben Affleck. With Casey Affleck, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, John Ashton and Robert Wahlberg. 6. We Own the Night, Sony ($21.7 million, 2) Directed by James Gray. With Joaquin Phoenix, Eva Mendes, Robert Duvall, Alex Veadov and Dominic Colon. 7. Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D, Buena Vista ($6.7 million, 1) Directed by Henry Selick. With the voices of Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey and Glenn Shadix. 8. The Comebacks, 20th Century Fox ($6.6 million, 1) Directed by Tom Brady. With David Koechner, Carl Weathers, Matt Lawrence, Brooke Nevin and George Back. 9. Rendition, New Line ($5.4 million, 1) Directed by Gavin Hood. With Reese Witherspoon, Omar Metwally, Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard and Alan Arkin. 10. The Heartbreak Kid, DreamWorks/Paramount ($33.4 million, 3) Directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly. With Ben Stiller, Michelle Monaghan, Malin Akerman, Carlos Mencia and Robert Corddry.

suspended him from administrative duties. In announcing his retirement, Watson implied that, in light of his age, he had been “overdue” to surrender his posts. [See 2004, pp. 808F3, 600E1] „

O B I T UA R I E S GOULET, Robert Gerard, 73, singer and actor who soared to fame after originating the role of Lancelot in the 1960 Broadway production of the Alan Jay Lerner–Frederick Loewe musical Camelot; strikingly handsome and possessed of a rich baritone voice, he turned a romantic number from that show, “If Ever I Would Leave You,” into his signature song; he won a Tony Award in 1968 for his role in another musical, Happy Time, and often appeared on 1960s television variety shows such as “The Ed Sullivan Show”; he also had a bit of a movie career and headlined shows in Las Vegas, Nev., for many years; his professional suavity eventually came to be widely parodied, even by himself, as in the film Atlantic City (1980), in which he had a cameo role as a lounge singer; born Nov. 26, 1933, in Lawrence, Mass.; died Oct. 30 at a hospital in Los Angeles, where he was

awaiting a lung transplant after having been diagnosed with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis. [See 1996, p. 155B2; 1968, pp. 272A1, 271A2; Indexes 1963, 1960] KORNBERG, Arthur, 89, biochemist who shared the 1959 Nobel Prize for medicine with Severo Ochoa for research demonstrating how the master molecule of heredity, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), was assembled; a longtime faculty member at California’s Stanford University, he was the father of Stanford biochemist Roger Kornberg, the sole winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for chemistry; born March 3, 1918, in New York City; died Oct. 26 at a Stanford hospital, of respiratory failure. [See 2006, p. 808E2; 1993, p. 840D3; Indexes 1985, 1982, 1967, 1959, 1950] WAGONER, Porter Wayne, 80, country singer and songwriter who hosted the longest-running country-music variety show in television history, “The Porter Wagoner Show” (1960–81); singer Dolly Parton got her first big break on that show in 1967, after he hired her to replace his first female co-star, Norma Jean; the two of them worked together until 1974, when she decided to strike out on her own; her later success eclipsed his, but he remained a fixture on the Nashville, Tenn., radio show “The Grand Ole Opry” for half a century; born Aug. 12, 1927, near West Plains, Mo.; died Oct. 28 at a Nashville hospice, of lung cancer. [See 1970, p. 375D2] „

November 1, 2007

Pakistani President Musharraf Declares State of Emergency, Dismisses Chief Justice Lawyers Protest, Bhutto Vows Resistance.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Nov. 3 declared a state of emergency. Musharraf suspended the country’s constitution, dismissed the chief justice of the Supreme Court, shut down privately owned television channels and deployed hundreds of security forces to the streets of Islamabad, the nation’s capital. Musharraf in an address on state television later that night said the decree was necessary because of growing Islamic extremism in the country. He added that the Supreme Court was “at cross purposes” with the government’s efforts to quell extremist terrorism. [See pp. 722F2, 677A1] However, it was widely reported that the move was intended to preempt a forthcoming ruling by the court that would have said Musharraf’s reelection in October to a second five-year presidential term was unconstitutional. Musharraf held the offices of president and chief of staff of the army simultaneously, and under the constitution was forbidden from running for office. [See p. 674E3] The state of emergency decree was essentially an imposition of martial law, since Musharraf made the decree using his authority as army chief, and the constitution did not grant any government entity the power to make such a decree. Government security forces Nov. 4 in cities across the country began arresting Musharraf’s political opponents, workers for opposition political parties, humanrights activists and lawyers loyal to the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. At least 2,000 people—and possibly many more—had been arrested by Nov. 8. Chaudhry Nov. 3 had been placed under house arrest along with six other Supreme Court judges, after they issued a ruling earlier that day that said the emergency decree was unconstitutional. Five of the 17 judges of the court took an oath to accept a new provisional constitution created by the government. Chaudhry was replaced by Abdul Hamid Doger, a pro-government judge. Chaudhry had proved to be a huge obstacle to Musharraf holding on to the presidency for another term. After Musharraf attempted to fire Chaudhry in March, Chaudhry became the leader of a pro-democracy movement fueled by support from lawyers who felt threatened by Musharraf’s control over the judiciary. [See p. 485B3] Chaudhry was reinstated to his position in July, and since then the court had ruled against the government’s wishes on several key cases, including releasing terrorism suspects on the grounds that they had not been officially charged by the government. Chaudhry had also said Musharraf’s reelection by Parliament and the country’s four provincial assemblies would not be made official until the court had a chance to review petitions that questioned its legality. [See p. 551C2] Musharraf had come to power in 1999, after leading the army in a bloodless coup

that deposed then–Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from power. He had suspended the constitution at that time as well, and promised to eventually restore civilian rule in the country. In his address to the nation Nov. 3, Musharraf again promised to implement democracy in Pakistan, but said the decree was necessary “to save Pakistan” and “preserve the democratic transition I initiated eight years back.” He cited U.S. Civil War–era President Abraham Lincoln as having suspended certain laws and liberties in the struggle to keep his country united. [See p. 598D2; 1999, p. 738E2] Sets Army Resignation, Elections—

Musharraf Nov. 8 announced that he would resign as army chief before Nov. 15, when he was scheduled to begin his presidential term, and that parliamentary elections would be held before Feb. 15, 2008. (Musharraf had not dissolved Parliament, which was dominated by his supporters.) The announcement appeared to be meant to mollify domestic and international critics who had condemned the emergency decree. However, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, head of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), described the announcement as “vague,” and demanded more concrete promises. A spokeswoman for the U.S. government, Dana Perino, said Musharraf’s comments were “a good thing.” [See below] Musharraf did not give any indication of when he would end emergency rule. Government officials said it might extend past the elections. Lawyers Protest—Thousands of lawyers Nov. 5 staged protests in major cities across the country. The largest gathering was in Lahore, in Punjab province. The protesters were met by security forces who dispersed the crowds with tear gas and batons. Hundreds of lawyers were arrested. Aitzaz Ahsan, a leader for the lawyers who had served as Chaudhry’s lawyer after Musharraf attempted to fire him, had been placed under house arrest Nov. 3. [See 390E1] Chaudhry Nov. 6 called on lawyers to “rise up and restore the constitution.” Lawyers’ protests continued through Nov. 8, as did government crackdowns. Since Chaudhry’s suspension in March, Pakistani lawyers had emerged as leaders in the movement to depose Musharraf and restore democratic rule. It was widely reported that the majority of Pakistani citizens were less inclined to join the protests, and often hung back and watched as police dispersed the crowds of lawyers. Observers attributed the lack of greater participation to citizens’ fears of being arrested, and a lack of initiative from Bhutto, who was viewed as the country’s most popular politician. However, Bhutto Nov. 7 vowed to hold a rally Nov. 9 to protest the emergency decree in Rawalpindi, home of the country’s military. [See below] Human-rights activists were also ensnared in the government crackdown. Critics were quick to point out that while

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3491 November 8, 2007

B Musharraf had said a rising tide of extremism had forced him to declare a state of emergency, government forces were being used to arrest the pillars of Pakistan’s moderate civil society. Bhutto Calls for ‘Long March’— Bhutto Nov. 7 said her party would continue with plans to hold a protest Nov. 9 in Rawalpindi, and that she would lead a “long march” from Lahore to Islamabad, a 150-mile (240-km) journey that would traverse Punjab, the country’s most populous and politically powerful province. She invited Pakistanis outside her party to join the protest as well, saying, “If you support democracy, please join us.” Security forces that day arrested as many as 500 PPP workers and leaders, who had thus far been spared from the government crackdown. Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azam Khan Nov. 8 said he hoped

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE Pakistani President Musharraf declares state of emergency, dismisses chief justice; lawyers protest, Bhutto vows resistance. PAGE 725

U.S. President Bush claims Iraq war progress in speech to troops. PAGE 727

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Senate confirms Mukasey as attorney general. PAGE 730

Citigroup CEO resigns after losses. PAGE 731

Congress overrides Bush veto of water projects legislation. PAGE 732

Somali prime minister resigns; violence flares. PAGE 736

Colom wins Guatemalan presidential runoff election.

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Venezuelan legislature backs constitutional changes. PAGE 738

U.N.’s Myanmar envoy pushes for talks. PAGE 740

Georgian President Saakashvili declares emergency rule. PAGE 740

Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers leader killed in air strike. PAGE 742

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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KEY EVENTS UNDER PAKISTAN’S CIVILIAN AND MILITARY GOVERNMENTS

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mad Zia ul-Haq, seizes power in a bloodless coup, deposing Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. [See 1977, p. 509A1] April 4, 1979—Bhutto is executed on charges of conspiring to kill a political opponent. [See 1979, p. 247A1] Aug. 17, 1988—A plane carrying Zia explodes in mid-air under mysterious circumstances, killing Zia. [See 1988, pp. 782A2, 610A1] Dec. 1, 1988—Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Zulfikar, is named prime minister of Pakistan, after her party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), wins the most seats in parliamentary elections. She is the first woman to lead a predominantly Muslim nation. [See 1988, p. 886C3] Aug. 6, 1990—Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Pakistan’s president, dismisses Bhutto and her government over charges of corruption. Khan also declares a state of emergency. [See 1990, p. 586A3] Nov. 6, 1990—Nawaz Sharif is sworn in as prime minister, after he led the nine-party Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA) to election victory. [See 1990, p. 882B2] July 18, 1993—Sharif resigns as prime minister after being accused of corruption and mismanaging the economy. He resigns together with Khan in a deal negotiated with Gen. Abdul Waheed, the army chief of staff. [See 1993, p. 551F2] Oct. 19, 1993—Bhutto defeats Sharif in a parliamentary vote to become prime minister, after the PPP won a plurality of seats in a general election. [See 1993, p. 815A1] Nov. 5, 1996—Farooq Leghari, Pakistan’s president, dismisses Bhutto and her government, alleging corruption and economic

mismanagement. Leghari’s actions were reportedly urged by the military. [See 1996, p. 829F3] Feb. 17, 1997—Sharif is sworn in as prime minister, after his party, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), won a landslide in national elections. [See 1997, p. 153G1] May 28, 1998—Pakistan conducts five underground nuclear tests, two weeks after its longtime rival India conducted its first tests. [See 1998, p. 353A1] April 15, 1999—A Pakistani court convicts Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, on corruption charges. Bhutto was in London at the time of the conviction; Zardari had been imprisoned since 1996 on charges of attempting to kill Bhutto’s brother. [See 1999, p. 294G2] Oct. 12, 1999—The army, led by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, seizes power in a bloodless coup, deposing Sharif. [See 1999, p. 294G2] Dec. 9, 2000—Sharif is released from prison, where he was serving consecutive life sentences on charges of terrorism and attempted murder, for attempting to prevent a plane carrying Musharraf from landing on the day of the 1999 coup. He flees to Saudi Arabia. [See 2000, p. 977A3] June 20, 2001—Musharraf appoints himself president. [See 2001, p. 485F1] Sept. 13, 2001—Musharraf pledges to cooperate with the U.S. in its fight against terrorism, after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. [See 2001, p. 697A1] May 1, 2002—Approval is announced of a national referendum extending Musharraf’s presidency for five years. The referendum is widely believed to be rigged. [See 2002, p. 324D2] Sept. 5, 2006—Musharraf’s government signs a peace agreement with tribal chiefs in the northwest region of North Waziristan, end-

Bhutto would cancel the demonstration, since public gatherings were barred by the emergency decree. Khan said, “She’s a responsible politician, so I don’t think she’ll create a law-and-order situation.” Government officials also said they would not be able to provide security for the event. A suicide bombing in October, amid hundreds of thousands of people who had gathered to welcome Bhutto home from eight years in self-imposed exile, had killed more than 140. Bhutto had said Nov. 7 that she would not back down unless Musharraf “revives the constitution, retires as chief of army staff and sticks to the schedule of holding elections.” She added, “The ball is now in the government’s court.” Bhutto’s decision to confront the government directly was seen as an attempt to restore her legitimacy as an opposition leader. Bhutto and Musharraf had been in months-long, U.S.-backed negotiations for a power-sharing deal, in which Musharraf would remain president, and Bhutto would serve as prime minister if her party won the parliamentary elections. U.S. Reaction—U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Nov. 3 called for Pakistan to quickly “return to constitutional law.” President George W. Bush Nov. 5

said the decree “would undermine democracy,” but praised Musharraf for being “a strong fighter against extremists and radicals.” Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Nov. 5 said the U.S. should remain “mindful not to do anything that would undermine ongoing counterterrorism efforts.” U.S. officials said they would review the government’s policy of giving aid to Pakistan. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., the U.S. had funneled some $10 billion into Pakistan, most of which was reserved for military use in combating Islamic extremism in Pakistan’s northwest regions. Those regions were strongholds for members of Al Qaeda, the international terrorist network, and supporters of the Taliban, who were waging an insurgency against the U.S.-backed government in neighboring Afghanistan. [See p. 742G1] The U.S. had long viewed Musharraf as a valuable ally in its worldwide fight against terrorism, and hoped that a BhuttoMusharraf alliance would give the Pakistan government international legitimacy, as well as present a moderate bulwark against Islamic extremism. The state of emergency made it more difficult for the U.S. to support Musharraf, since Bush had made it a hallmark of his

Following are key events in the relationship between the military and civilian governments in Pakistan’s recent history [See p. 725A1]: July 5, 1977—The army, led by Gen. Moham-

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ing three years of fighting. [See 2006, p. 703A1] March 9, 2007—Musharraf suspends Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry for allegedly abusing his office, triggering nationwide pro-democracy protests led by lawyers. [See p. 167B2] July 10, 2007—Government forces storm the Red Mosque in Islamabad, the nation’s capital, killing more than 100 Islamist militants holed up inside. The incident leads to a spate of retaliatory violence from Islamic extremists across the country. [See pp. 470E2, 442F2] July 15, 2007—North Waziristan militants renounce the 2006 peace agreement. July 20, 2007—The Supreme Court reinstates Chaudhry as chief justice. [See p. 485B3] July 27, 2007—Musharraf meets with Bhutto in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to discuss a power-sharing arrangement. [See p. 501G1] Sept. 10, 2007—Sharif returns to Pakistan after seven years of exile, only to be deported and flown to Saudi Arabia hours later. [See p. 598D2] Oct. 5, 2007—The Supreme Court announces that the forthcoming presidential election would not be official until the court ruled on petitions challenging its legality. [See p. 674E3] Oct. 6, 2007—Musharraf wins a presidential election conducted by Parliament and the country’s four provincial assemblies; political opponents boycott the election. [See p. 674E3] Oct. 18, 2007—Bhutto returns to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile. Her welcoming procession is attacked by a suicide bomber, killing more than 140 people. [See p. 677A1] Nov. 3, 2007—Musharraf declares a state of emergency and dismisses Chaudhry. [See p. 725A1]

Facts On File

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jonathan Taylor MANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham SENIOR EDITOR: Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Ryu Spaeth ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Todd Grennan, Ian McGullam, Shannon O’Toole DATABASE COORDINATOR: Ben Miller INDEX EDITOR: Jonathan Leith COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Ernesto Malinis Jr., John Wright FACTS ON FILE World News Digest is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. Vice President & Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Associate Publisher: Marjorie B. Bank. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, 512 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

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foreign policy to spread democracy throughout the world. Bush Nov. 7 said he had spoken to Musharraf and urged him to hold elections and resign as army chief. Analysts said the Bush administration was too reliant on Musharraf to have much leverage over him. Musharraf had also come under criticism for not doing enough to combat extremism, since he had expended most of his resources trying to secure another term as president. The government Nov. 4 released at least 25 militants in exchange for more than 200 army soldiers who had been captured in August by Taliban-allied warlord Baitullah Mehsud, in what had been an embarrassing incident for the military. The army also agreed to withdraw its troops from the area of South Waziristan that Mehsud controlled; the lightly armed Frontier Corps would replace them. [See pp. 722E3, A1, 599G1] „

Iraq War Bush Claims Progress in Speech to Troops.

U.S. President George W. Bush Nov. 2 extolled progress in Iraq and called for continuing support of military operations there, in a speech to new graduates of a U.S. Army basic training camp in Fort Jackson, S.C. It was Bush’s first public update on the war in Iraq since a September speech in which he had announced a partial withdrawal from Iraq due to the success of a surge in U.S. troop levels that had begun in February. Bush’s speech came as U.S. reports showed a downward trend in violence in Iraq. [See pp. 729B2, 710F1, 585A1] Bush said violence in Iraq was declining, with improvised bomb attacks decreasing, neighborhoods being cleared of insurgents and U.S. casualties in Iraq for October at their lowest level in 19 months. He said, “Slowly but surely, the people of Iraq are reclaiming a normal society,” and that Iraqis “are increasingly taking more responsibility for their own security.” In a rare move, Bush provided figures on insurgent casualties, saying that U.S. and Iraqi troops had killed or captured more than 1,500 “enemy fighters” every month since January. Bush acknowledged that sectarian “reconciliation at the national level hasn’t been what we hoped it’d been by now” and that he had “made my disappointments clear to the Iraqi leadership.” U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney the same day said the U.S. strategy in Iraq “is working” and warned that “walking away from Iraq” would have dangerous consequences, in a speech to the World Affairs Council of Dallas-Fort Worth, in Texas. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) released a statement accusing Bush of “overstating the security situation.” He said that despite Bush’s claims, violence in Iraq had stayed high and political reconciliation remained beyond reach. Drop in Violence Shown—The U.S. military Nov. 1 released statistics showing that violence in Iraq had decreased. According November 8, 2007

to the military, 39 U.S. troops were killed in October, the lowest death toll since March 2006 and the eighth-lowest since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. The U.S. military said civilian deaths had also fallen, to about 800 in October, from 2,800 in January. U.S. officials attributed the drops to factors including the surge in U.S. troop levels; the recruitment of former Sunni insurgents to fight against Sunni extremist groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq; and a truce called by Shiite cleric Moqtada alSadr for his Mahdi Army militia. However, an unidentified Iraqi health ministry official put the October civilian total at 1,448, up from 827 in September, the Washington Post reported Nov. 2. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Oct. 30 released a report stating that insurgent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces and Iraqi civilians in September had dropped to their lowest level since March 2006. It said there had been about 3,000 “enemy-initiated attacks” in September, down from 5,300 in June. However, it said, the decline in attacks on U.S. and coalition troops had been much steeper than the decline in attacks on Iraqis. The GAO report said the U.S. military possibly underreported attacks, especially those involving Shiite militias in Iraq’s south. It also warned that the Iraqi government had failed to make progress in meeting legislative benchmarks or spending reconstruction funds, despite the gains in security. U.S. military officials Nov. 6 announced that six service members had been killed in Iraq the previous day, bringing the year’s death toll to at least 852 U.S. troops, a record for the Iraq war. The previous high had been at least 849 killed in 2004. U.S. officials attributed the high death toll to the troop level surge, which placed more soldiers in danger. Sharp Rise in Displaced Iraqis Reported—

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society Nov. 5 reported that the number of internally displaced Iraqis had risen to almost 2.3 million due to rising sectarian conflict, a more than fourfold increase since the U.S. troop surge began in February. The report said more than 83% of the displaced Iraqis were women and children and that most of them lived in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. It said many lacked jobs, health care and access to schools. [See p. 695G2] However, an Iraqi government spokesman, Tahsin al-Sheikhly, Nov. 7 said 46,030 displaced Iraqis in October had returned to Baghdad from outside the country. Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, the commander of U.S. troops in Baghdad, the same day said that displaced Baghdad residents were starting to return to their homes, with 200 families moving back to northwestern neighborhoods of Baghdad. Fil also said Al Qaeda in Iraq had been driven from every neighborhood in the city, although Shiite militias still maintained a small presence. The U.S. State Department Nov. 1 said the U.S. would accept 12,000 Iraqi refugees in 2008. The U.S. had previously been criticized for not admitting more Iraqi ref-

ugees. It said 450 had been admitted in October. The U.S. State Department Nov. 8 said Syria, which was hosting 1.2 million to 1.4 million Iraqi refugees, had agreed to allow U.S. interviewers to enter the country to begin screening refugees.

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Amnesty for Insurgents Discussed—

Iraqi officials had resumed discussion of a “conditional amnesty” program for insurgents as a result of the decrease in violence, the Post reported Nov. 2. Iraq’s deputy national security adviser, Safa Hussein, said the program would at first apply only to members of insurgent groups and militias who had not been accused of crimes, and might be tested in the Jihad neighborhood of Baghdad and Taji, a city north of Baghdad. An adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the program was being considered, as did Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Nearly 500 Iraqi detainees Nov. 8 were released from a U.S. detention center in Baghdad. Maliki that day told the New York Times that he was mulling a general amnesty for detainees, “except for those who have committed direct crimes against Iraqis, and against our infrastructure.”

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Iran Pledges to Stem Bomb Smuggling—

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Nov. 1 said the Iranian government had told Iraq that it was working to slow the flow of armor-piercing explosively-formed penetrators (EFPs) to Shiite militias in Iraq, which used them in roadside bombings. “It is my understanding that they have provided such assurances,” Gates said, adding, “I don’t know whether to believe them. I’ll wait and see.” Gates also said he believed that Iran’s top leaders and the leaders of the elite Quds Force unit of the Revolutionary Guard Corps knew about the smuggling of such bombs into Iraq. [See p. 693A1] Gates hailed statistics showing lowered violence in Iraq. However, he declined to say that the U.S. was “winning” in Iraq, saying: “I think those end up being loaded words. I think we have been very successful. We need to continue being successful.” Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the U.S. second-in-command in Iraq, the same day said there had been 53 incidents in which EFPs were used in attacks or found before detonation in October, down from 99 in July. There had been 78 such incidents in August and 52 in September. The U.S. military Nov. 6 said it would release nine Iranian detainees it was holding in Iraq, including two of five Iranians captured in a January raid on an Iranian liaison office in the northern city of Irbil. The U.S. military said it would keep 11 other Iranians in custody, including the other three captured in the Irbil raid. All 20 men were known or suspected members of the Quds Force, which was suspected of supplying and training Iraqi Shiite militias. [See p. 662B1] Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad alBolani Nov. 7 said he would authorize raids by ministry security forces in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone to ensure that Western security contracting 727

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firms were complying with newly tightened weapons regulations. A September shooting incident in Baghdad involving guards employed by the U.S. security company Blackwater USA, which Iraqi investigators said had killed 17 Iraqis, had inflamed Iraqi feeling against Western contractors. † Iraqi government officials Nov. 7 for the first time acknowledged allegations by U.S. oversight officials that 190,000 pistols and automatic rifles supplied to Iraqi forces by the U.S. in 2004–05 had gone missing. However, they blamed the U.S. for not providing the information necessary to track the weapons, and said they had created a database to do so. [See p. 644B3] † Iraqi troops Nov. 7 discovered a mass grave in the south of Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, containing 17 bodies bearing signs of torture and execution, with four more decapitated bodies discovered nearby. U.S. troops the previous day had discovered another mass grave containing 22 bodies in the Lake Tharthar region of Anbar province. † An Iraqi interior ministry official Nov. 6 said a member of the governing council of the northern city of Mosul had been assassinated. † Iraqi officials Nov. 4 said they had discovered the decayed body of a U.S. soldier in Babil province, south of Baghdad, whom they said was one of two who had been captured by insurgents in May. The two missintg soldiers were Spec. Alex Jimenez and Pvt. Byron Fouty. The U.S. military denied the reports. [See p. 680G3] † Gunmen in Baghdad Nov. 4 killed Qutaiba Badr al-Deen, a Sunni adviser to the Iraqi finance ministry, and his driver. † U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Nov. 2 said she would go ahead with plans to order U.S. Foreign Service officers to accept postings in Iraq if qualified volunteers could not be found to take 48 remaining positions. The forced postings had encountered widespread opposition from Foreign Service officers. One officer at a town hall meeting Oct. 31 reportedly called the Iraq assignments a “potential death sentence.” † A delegation of officials from Anbar province Nov. 2 met with Bush and Stephen Hadley, the U.S. national security adviser, in Washington, D.C. The Iraqi officials said progress in decreasing violence in mostly-Sunni Anbar was being slowed by the Shiite-led Iraqi national government, which they said provided insufficient funds and opposed plans to hire more police in the province. The Bush administration had held up Anbar as an example of progress after Sunni tribesmen there turned against Sunni extremist groups, causing a reduction in violence. † Insurgents Nov. 1 attacked a convoy carrying an Iraqi police commander, Staff Col. Faris al-Emairy, south of Baquba. A roadside bomb missed him but killed six police officers. It was the fourth assassination attempt on al-Emairy. 728

† CBS’s “60 Minutes” Nov. 1 reported that it had discovered the identity of a man known as “Curveball,” who had provided falsified evidence that then–Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed biological weapons, providing a pretext for the 2003 invasion. The program identified him as Rafid Ahmed Alwan, an Iraqi chemical engineer who the report said had studied chemical engineering but had lied about running an Iraqi biological weapons plant. It said he was most believed to be living under an assumed identity in Germany. [See p. 427G1] „

Space Discovery Visits Space Station. The U.S. space shuttle Discovery Oct. 23–Nov. 7 carried out an extensive construction mission to the International Space Station. Discovery carried a new module, called Harmony, that contained additional living quarters for the station. The objectives also included the repositioning of a set of solar panels on the station to their permanent location, a task complicated by the discovery of damage to the solar arrays. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials described the amount of station construction work as the most ambitious of any shuttle mission to date. [See p. 539C2; 2006, p. 995A2] Discovery lifted off Oct. 23 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The mission commander was retired Air Force Col. Pamela Melroy, and the pilot was Marine Col. George Zamka. The mission specialists were Dr. Scott Parazynski, Stephanie Wilson, Army Col. Douglas Wheelock, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Paolo Nespoli of Italy, and Daniel Tani, who joined the crew of the space station. He replaced Clayton Anderson, who had arrived at the station in June and returned to Earth with Discovery. [See p. 429F1] The orbiter docked with the International Space Station Oct. 25. It was the first time that a shuttle rendezvous with the station occurred while both vessels were commanded by women. Peggy Whitson had become the first female commander of the station Oct. 19, after traveling to it Oct. 10– 11 on a Russian Soyuz capsule, along with Russian Col. Yuri Malenchenko and Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a physician and Malaysia’s first astronaut. Two Russians who had been aboard the station since April, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, returned to Earth in a Soyuz capsule Oct. 21. Wilson and Tani, using the shuttle’s robot arm, Oct. 26 installed the Harmony module at its temporary location on the station, assisted by spacewalking crew members Parazynski and Wheelock. In addition to living areas, Harmony contained power, water and air equipment. On their second spacewalk Oct. 28, Parazynski and Wheelock, making preparations for the relocation of the solar array, noticed damage to its rotation mechanism. Collected metal shavings in a joint indicated that metal parts were grinding against

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Shuttle: Discovery Liftoff: Oct. 23, 11:38 a.m. (Eastern day-

light time), Cape Canaveral, Fla. Touchdown (Wheelstop): Nov. 7, 1:02 p.m. (Eastern standard time), Cape Canaveral Flight Duration: 362 hours, 24 minutes Flight Distance: 6.25 million miles (10.05 million km), 238 orbits of Earth Mission Number: 120th mission in the U.S. shuttle program; 34th launch for the Discovery orbiter Crew: Mission Commander: Col. Pamela Melroy, Air Force (ret.), 46; Pilot: Col. George Zamka, Marines, 45; Mission Specialists: Dr. Scott Parazynski, 46; Col. Douglas Wheelock, Army, 47; Stephanie Wilson, 41; Paolo Nespoli, European Space Agency, 50; Mission Specialists and Space Station Flight Engineers: Daniel Tani, 46; Clayton Anderson, 48 Mission Highlights:

† Installed Harmony, a new module containing living quarters and utility equipment, on the International Space Station † Moved the station’s solar panel array to its permanent position; repaired damage to solar panel array

each other. NASA Oct. 29 extended the mission by a day to address the problem. The following day, Parazynski and Wheelock in their third spacewalk installed the truss bearing the solar array in its permanent spot. Afterward, as the panels were being unfurled, the crew confronted a new problem, a tear in the solar panels. A spacewalk scheduled for Nov. 1 and intended to address the faulty joint was postponed until Nov. 3, and the objective shifted to repairing the tear as a higher priority. On that spacewalk, Parazynski and Wheelock succeeded in patching the damage so that the array could be fully unfurled. It was an unusually risky procedure, in which Parazynski had to venture an unprecedented distance from the air lock by which he could reenter the station, and ran the risk of a shock from the active power array. Discovery undocked from the International Space Station Nov. 4, and landed at Kennedy Space Center Nov. 7. Foam Flaw Addressed—NASA Aug. 24 said it had likely identified the reason that a piece of foam insulation had fallen from the fuel tank of the space shuttle Endeavour during a launch earlier that month, causing damage to the orbiter’s heat shield. NASA said that, examining another fuel tank, it had found microsopic cracks in an adhesive foam on brackets used to attach fuel lines to the tank. The agency reattached the brackets to the tanks without the faulty foam. Heat shield damage from launch debris had been the cause of the 2003 loss of the shuttle Columbia. „ Asteroid Orbiter Launched. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Sept. 27 launched Dawn, an unmanned spacecraft that was to study two FACTS ON FILE

of the largest objects in the asteroid belt between the planets Mars and Jupiter, from Cape Canaveral, Fla. On its 3.2-billionmile (5.2-billion-km) journey, Dawn would orbit the asteroid Vesta in 2011–12, and the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015. [See 2005, p. 891E2; 2001, p. 1041D3] The craft was to survey the bodies and analyze their makeup. Scientists said that observations of the bodies might shed new light on the formation of the solar system. They were believed to be largely unchanged since the solar system’s early stages, possibly two pieces of what was once a planet in formation before it was pulled apart by Jupiter’s gravitational field. However, the two objects appeared to differ greatly. Vesta was composed of rock, resembling the solar system’s inner planets, while Ceres was believed to contain a large amount of ice, like the outer planets. Dawn was powered on its journey by an ion-propulsion engine, which accelerated more slowly than conventional chemical rocket engines but was able to run much longer on much less fuel. It used electricity from large solar panels to ionize xenon gas. Dawn’s launch had been delayed from July due to weather conditions and problems with a ship and aircraft used to track the launch. „

Aviation Boeing Faces Delays in 787 Construction.

The Boeing Co. Oct. 10 said the release of its 787 Dreamline wide-bodied jet would once again be delayed, to November or December of 2008. The first test flight was supposed to have taken place in August, but earlier in the year had been pushed back to the end of 2007, and was currently delayed to March 2008. Boeing had planned to begin distribution in May 2007. Boeing already had 710 orders for the new aircraft from 50 customers. [See 2006, p. 1029B2] Half of the main structure of the 787 was to be composed of plastic composites, which were lighter and stronger than aluminum, which most airplanes were made of. The new materials made the aircraft more energy-efficient and less expensive than its competitors. The delays stemmed in part from complications surrounding Boeing’s decentralized production model for the 787, in which components were produced by numerous companies around the world in a risk-sharing strategy, and assembled by Boeing in Everett, Wash. Boeing July 8 had showcased the 787 in a ceremony at its Everett facility, which was attended by approximately 15,000 people. However, the aircraft had been put together with temporary parts and was mostly disassembled after the ceremony. Airbus A380 Delivered to Singapore—

European aircraft maker Airbus Industrie Oct. 15 delivered the first of its long-awaited A380 models to Singapore Airlines. The double-decker A380 jet, currently the world’s largest passenger aircraft, had 471 seats, over 100 more than Boeing’s 747. According to Airbus, the A380 was the November 8, 2007

quietest and most energy-efficient passenger aircraft ever built. [See p. 148G3] The first A380 delivery had been delayed 19 months due to rapidly rising costs and production problems. The A380’s difficulties had caused turmoil for Airbus and its parent, European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. (EADS). Mario Heinen, who was hired to lead the recovery program after wiring problems had brought the A380 project to a nearstandstill, said Airbus planned to deliver one A380 in 2007, 13 in 2008, 25 in 2009 and 45 in 2010. Airbus had orders for 189 of the aircraft from 16 customers. „

Other International News Turkish Leader, Bush Discuss Kurdish Crisis.

U.S. President George W. Bush Nov. 5 hosted Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House in Washington, D.C., and promised that the U.S. would increase military cooperation with Turkey against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish rebel group based in northern Iraq. Turkey had threatened to launch a cross-border attack against the PKK’s bases in Iraq, in response to a series of recent attacks by the group that had killed more than 40 people in Turkey. [See p. 711A3] Turkey had massed about 100,000 troops on the Iraqi border, but so far had carried out only limited strikes against alleged PKK positions in Iraq. Bush called the PKK “an enemy of Turkey, a free Iraq and the United States of America.” Bush said Erdogan had asked him “what would my reaction be if there was an attack” across the Iraqi border by Turkey. Bush said, “Well, that’s a hypothetical question. But what we did talk about is to make sure that there is good enough intelligence so that we can deal with a common problem, and that problem is a terrorist organization called PKK.” U.S. officials had urged Turkey to refrain from a major offensive in northern Iraq, a Kurdish-controlled region that was one of the only stable areas in Iraq. Erdogan said he was “happy” with the meeting, but did not reveal details. He also said he was “cautiously optimistic” that the U.S. House would not proceed with a floor vote on a resolution that declared the mass killings of Armenians during the World War I era to have been an act of genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire. [See p. 713A1] Erdogan said that the measure had “the potential to deeply damage our strategic cooperation,” and that it was “important to ensure it is not discussed on the floor of Congress.” House leaders had recently shelved the resolution after Bush warned that it could harm relations with Turkey. Rice Visits Turkey—U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Nov. 3 met with Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri alMaliki at a regional conference in Istanbul, Turkey. Maliki pledged to “cooperate in the fight against terror,” but called for “dialogue, not weapons and force.” Turkey

said the Istanbul meeting produced no offers of “tangible steps.” Later that day, Iraqi authorities in two northern cities, Sulaimaniya and Irbil, shut down the offices of a political party linked to the PKK. Rice Nov. 2 had visited Ankara, the capital of Turkey, for a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, who called on the U.S. to take action against the PKK. PKK Releases Turkish Soldiers—The PKK Nov. 4 released eight Turkish soldiers taken prisoner in an ambush inside Turkey two weeks earlier. A PKK spokesman said the release was intended to “stop deepening the war, violence and bloodshed, and also to make a step toward peace.” The PKK in the past had said its goal was to create a Kurdish nation composed of mostly Kurdish parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. However, the group currently claimed that it only sought more political autonomy for Kurds, recognition of Kurdish culture by Turkey and the release of its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who had been captured by Turkey in 1999. „

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French President Sarkozy Visits U.S.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy Nov. 6– 7 visited the U.S., meeting U.S. President George W. Bush and addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress, as he reaffirmed his desire to renew the relationship between France and the U.S. Ties between the two nations had become strained when Sarkozy’s predecessor, Jacques Chirac, opposed Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003. Sarkozy, elected in May, had brought a change in tone with his outspoken admiration for the U.S., although he had also criticized the decision to go to war in Iraq and had not offered to send French troops there. [See p. 524D1] At a Nov. 6 White House dinner in his honor, Sarkozy said, “I come to Washington to bear a very simple message, a message that I bear on behalf of all Frenchmen. I want to reconquer the heart of America.” In his speech to Congress the next day, delivered in French, Sarkozy expressed gratitude for the sacrifices of U.S. troops in liberating France from occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II. “Every time, whenever an American soldier falls somewhere in the world, I think of what the American Army did for France,” he said. He added, “I think of them and I am sad, as one is saddened to lose a member of one’s family.” Bush and Sarkozy Nov. 7 visited Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of President George Washington. Bush told Sarkozy, “It’s safe to say that you’ve impressed a lot of people here on your journey.” Sarkozy pledged that French troops would remain in Afghanistan as part of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) force, and said he agreed with Bush’s call for new international sanctions to pressure Iran to give up its nuclear program. [See pp. 742E2, 722D1] „ Pacific Group Addresses Fiji, Solomons.

The 38th annual meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum, attended by leaders or representatives from its 16 member nations, 729

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was held Oct. 16–17 in Neiafu Vava’u, Tonga. Items on the agenda included the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) and the political situation in Fiji, which had undergone a coup in December 2006. Other topics discussed at the forum included climate change, lingering radioactivity in the Marshall Islands from U.S. nuclear tests and the regulation of the region’s fisheries. [See 2006, p. 869C2] Before the forum, both New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had announced that they would refuse any oneon-one meetings with representatives of Fiji’s coup-installed interim government, Britain’s Economist reported Oct. 18. The member nations called on Fiji to produce a workable plan for transition back to democracy by the interim government’s planned 2009 elections. [See p. 739B3; 2006, p. 935G3] Following a review of RAMSI, an Australian-led peacekeeping force, initiated at the previous year’s conference, the forum called for more communication between the mission and the government of the Solomon Islands. The 2006 conference had been marked by Australian anger over the escape of Julian Moti, an Australian citizen who had been accused of raping a 13-yearold girl in Vanuatu and who was being sheltered in the Solomon Islands, where he had become attorney general, following his escape from custody in Papua New Guinea. [See p. 688C2] Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, who demanded a plan for RAMSI’s departure, boycotted the meeting in protest of the report of the mission review. Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare Oct. 16 demanded that Australia and New Zealand show “respect for the sovereignty” of the small member nations. „ Ex-Soviet Countries Hold Summit. Leaders from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of 12 former Soviet republics, Oct. 5 met in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, to discuss regional issues including migrant workers and free trade between the member states. The summit produced 17 agreements. However, analysts noted that several pacts reached at previous summits had no lasting effect in the region. [See 2005, p. 318B1] The summit was described as disappointing for some member states that were trying to reduce the influence of Russia in their national affairs. The relationship between Georgia and Russia had suffered over Russian trade restrictions and conflicts in pro-Russian breakaway states in Georgia. Pro-Western Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko skipped the summit altogether. [See pp. 740C3, 721D2] The CIS had been formed in 1991 by Belarus, Russia and Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was composed of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Taijikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. „ 730

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Senate Confirms Mukasey as Attorney General Nominee Survives Dispute Over Torture.

The Senate Nov. 8 voted, 53–40, to confirm retired federal Judge Michael Mukasey as attorney general. He became the third attorney general in the Bush administration, after John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales. Six Democrats and one independent joined 46 Republicans in voting for confirmation; 39 Democrats and one independent voted against it. [See p. 681A2] Mukasey’s nomination had become endangered after Democrats turned against him for refusing to say whether he thought an interrogation technique that simulated drowning—known as waterboarding— constituted torture. During an Oct. 18 Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Mukasey had repeatedly declined to answer questions on the matter, saying that he was not familiar with the technique. It had reportedly been used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against top leaders of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda. Two Democrats, Sens. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), rescued his nomination, siding with the Republicans in a Nov. 6 vote by the committee. The panel approved Mukasey by a vote of 11–8, sending the nomination to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote by the full chamber. Schumer Nov. 2 issued a statement that Mukasey had assured him that he would enforce any new law passed by Congress that banned “certain interrogation techniques.” Schumer said he was “confident that this nominee would enforce a law that bans waterboarding.” Schumer had recommended Mukasey to President George W. Bush as a nominee who could draw support from Democrats looking for a relatively nonpartisan successor to Gonzales. Democrats had accused Gonzales of improperly politicizing the Justice Department. At the Nov. 6 committee vote, Schumer said, “No one questions that Judge Mukasey would do much to remove the stench of politics from the Justice Department.” But Sen. Edward Kennedy derided Mukasey’s pledge to enforce a future ban on waterboarding, saying, “Can our standards really have fallen so low? Enforcing the law is the job of the attorney general. It’s a prerequisite, not a virtue.” Democrats Demand Answers— All 10 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee Oct. 23 sent a letter to Mukasey, expressing surprise at his claim to be unfamiliar with waterboarding, “since it has been the subject of much public discussion.” They requested that he promptly answer the question, “Is the use of waterboarding, or inducing the misperception of drowning, illegal under U.S. law, including treaty obligations?” Mukasey replied in a letter delivered Oct. 30, stressing that waterboarding and

other extreme interrogation techniques “seem over the line or, on a personal basis, repugnant to me, and would probably seem the same to many Americans.” However, he said he did not know if waterboarding violated U.S. laws against torture, because he had not yet been briefed on such classified techniques. He also said he was concerned about giving “uninformed” answers that might pose “a perceived threat” to CIA interrogators “that any conduct of theirs, past or present…could place them in personal legal jeopardy.” He noted that the Justice Department, following Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., had authorized harsh techniques. But he said he would “not hesitate” to “rescind or correct” any such department opinions that appeared to go too far. Bush Criticizes ‘Unfair’ Treatment—

Bush in a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., Nov. 1 defended Mukasey, saying, “I believe that the questions he’s been asked are unfair.” Bush argued, “It’s wrong for congressional leaders to make Judge Mukasey’s confirmation dependent on his willingness to go on the record about details of a classified program he has not been briefed on.” Bush asserted, “Some in Congress are behaving as if America is not at war. In a time of war, it is vital for the president to have a full national security team in place.” Three Republican senators who had been instrumental in the passage of a 2005 law banning the inhumane treatment of prisoners by the U.S. military—John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and John Warner (Va.)—that day sent Mukasey a letter pledging to vote for him. But they said, “Once you are confirmed and fully briefed on the relevant programs and legal analyses, we urge you to publicly make clear that waterboarding is illegal and can never be employed.” All four Democratic senators running for president—Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Barack Obama (Ill.), Joseph Biden (Del.) and Christopher Dodd (Conn.)—had said they intended to vote against Mukasey’s confirmation. However, none of them voted Nov. 8. „

Other Bush Administration News Ex-Governor Tapped for Agriculture Dept.

President George W. Bush Oct. 31 nominated former North Dakota Gov. Edward Schafer (R), 61, to serve as the next agriculture secretary. If confirmed, Schafer would replace Mike Johanns, who had resigned in September to run for a Senate seat representing Nebraska. [See p. 633A2; 2000, p. 717E1] Schafer, the grandson of Danish immigrant farmers, if quickly confirmed would face work on an upcoming $288 billion farm bill, which dealt with issues including an antiquated subsidy program, the fruit and vegetable industries, food stamps and improving food safety. The House had passed the bill in July, and the Senate was FACTS ON FILE

currently working on the legislation. Bush Nov. 5 threatened to veto the bill in its current state. [See p. 495E2] Schafer had previously served as chief executive officer of Extend America, a wireless telecommunications company, and as president of Fish ’N Dakota, a fish farm. „ Ex–Army Doctor Nominated as VA Secretary.

President George W. Bush Oct. 30 nominated retired Army Lt. Gen. James Peake to serve as Veterans Affairs (VA) secretary. His predecessor, Jim Nicholson, in July had resigned, effective Oct. 1. If confirmed by the Senate, Peake, a thoracic surgeon who had served as an infantry officer during the Vietnam War and as Army surgeon general from 2000 to 2004, would be the first general and the first doctor to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. [See pp. 668B1, 479C2] The Veterans Affairs Department over the past year had been harshly criticized for providing poor care for wounded soldiers, and Peake said his first move as secretary would be to put into effect reforms urged in July by a bipartisan commission. Democratic legislators said they would closely question Peake on any involvement with the poor care given to soldiers during his tenure as Army surgeon general. „

Business Citigroup CEO Resigns After Losses.

Charles Prince, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Citigroup Inc., the U.S.’s largest bank, Nov. 4 announced his resignation, under pressure from the bank’s investors and board of directors. Prince’s ouster came after Citigroup Oct. 2 announced a $5.9 billion reduction in earnings for the third quarter, and as a result Oct. 15 said the quarter’s profits were down 57% from a year earlier. Citigroup’s board Nov. 4 announced that it would record additional third-quarter writedowns of $8 billion to $11 billion. [See pp. 714A1, 683A2; 2006, p. 433E2] Citigroup Oct. 1 said it would record a $3.3 billion write-down, or a reduction of the recorded value of a company’s assets that reflected their updated actual market value. Nearly half of the write-down was attributed to investments backed by subprime mortgages, or those given to people with poor credit. The value of those assets had plummeted after the housing market entered a slump. The bank also said international consumer business costs would increase by $2.6 billion. (Also Oct. 1, Swiss bank UBS AG announced a $3.4 billion write-down largely related to U.S. subprime mortgage-based securities.) The bank Oct. 15 announced that the write-down would cause profit for the third quarter to fall to $2.38 billion, compared with $5.51 billion the previous year. The additional write-downs announced by the bank Nov. 4 were also related to investments in subprime mortgages. Prince, 57, had long been criticized by investors for failing to boost the bank’s stock price after he became CEO in 2003. The stock price had fallen 17% during his November 8, 2007

tenure. Prince had created a far-reaching program to expand the bank overseas and internally, but was unable to control the bank’s spending, which by the end of the third quarter of 2007 outpaced revenue for the third straight year. Recent problems in the housing market had exacerbated Citigroup’s problems, and added fuel to investor criticism that Prince had badly managed the bank’s investments. Prince was the second CEO of a large Wall Street firm to resign within a week, after banks began reporting huge losses stemming from investments made in bad mortgages. E. Stanley O’Neal, the CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co., had resigned in late October. Citigroup Nov. 4 said former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin would serve as interim chairman until a replacement for Prince was found. Sir Win Bischoff, head of Citigroup’s European branch, was named „ interim CEO. [See 1999, p. 344A1]

2008 Presidential Campaign Robertson Endorses Giuliani. Pat Robertson, a prominent television evangelist, Nov. 7 announced that he was endorsing former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Giuliani led the Republican race in national polls, but faced doubts among Christian conservatives, an important Republican voting bloc, because of his record of supporting abortion rights and gay rights. Some evangelical leaders had suggested that they might back a thirdparty candidate if someone who backed abortion rights won the Republican nomination. [See p. 698B1] At an announcement with Giuliani in Washington, D.C., Robertson said he considered Giuliani the best candidate to defend the U.S. against “the bloodlust of Islamic terrorists,” which he called the “overriding issue” of the election. Giuliani had built his campaign around the issue of terrorism and his experience as mayor during Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Robertson shortly after those attacks said they had happened because “we have insulted God at the highest levels of our government.” Robertson, 77, was seen as having lost some political influence since he ran for president in 1988. But his Christian Broadcasting Network was still a major evangelical outlet. In an interview on the network after he endorsed Giuliani, he said, “Abortion is important, but it’s only one issue.” He explained, “I thought it was time to solidify around one candidate.” [See 1988, pp. 235C2, 81C1] Brownback Endorses McCain—Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.), who had dropped out of the Republican presidential field in October, Nov. 7 endorsed Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.). Brownback, known for his Christian conservative credentials, praised McCain as “the best pro-life candidate to beat Hillary Clinton,” the Democratic front-runner. During the 2000 presidential campaign, McCain had called Robertson and other evangelical leaders “agents of in-

tolerance,” but he had since tried to mend his ties to them. Paul Weyrich, a leading Christian conservative activist, Nov. 5 endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination. Romney had previously backed abortion rights and gay rights, but now said he opposed them. Polls showed that he also faced doubts among some voters because he was a Mormon. „

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Clinton Downplays Debate Sexism Claims.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Nov. 2 played down suggestions by her campaign and supporters that her six male rivals had unfairly targeted her at a debate earlier that week. At a news conference at the New Hampshire state capitol in Concord, she said, “I don’t think they’re picking on me because I’m a woman; I think they’re picking on me because I’m winning.” [See p. 713A2] She added, “I anticipate it’s going to get even hotter—and if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. And I’m very much at home in the kitchen.” During the debate, Clinton’s top rivals, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), had both repeatedly challenged her over what they said was her evasiveness in answering questions. Her campaign Oct. 31 had released a video accusing her rivals of “piling on” during the previous night’s debate. Edwards Nov. 2 said, “I think that Senator Clinton ought to be held to the same standard that every presidential candidate is held to.” Obama that day noted that he had not asked to be spared from criticism by other candidates because he was black. “I hope that Senator Clinton wants to be treated like everybody else,” he said. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, Nov. 6 in Las Vegas, Nev., said the debate had reminded him of what he called the “scandalous Swift Boat ad” during the 2004 presidential campaign. A conservative group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, had broadcast advertisements accusing the Democratic nominee, Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), of falsifying his Vietnam War record. [See 2004, p. 638A1] Obama that day responded, “I was pretty stunned by that statement.” Another Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.), said Bill Clinton’s remark was “way over the top in my view.” „

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2007 Elections Democrat Unseats Kentucky Governor.

Former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear (D) Nov. 6 won Kentucky’s gubernatorial election, unseating Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R), whose first term had been overshadowed by ethics scandals. Fletcher, Kentucky’s first Republican governor in more than three decades, had been indicted on misdemeanor charges in 2006 for improper patronage hiring, but prosecutors had later dropped the charges against him. [See p. 348B3] 731

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Barbour Wins 2nd Term in Mississippi—

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Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) easily won a second term, defeating Democrat John Arthur Eaves Jr., a lawyer. Barbour had gained popularity with his rebuilding efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Eaves, unusually for a Democrat, had run a heavily religious campaign, and criticized Barbour for his background as a top lobbyist in Washington, D.C. [See 2003, p. 863F3] Democrats Win Virginia Senate—Virginia Democrats won control of the state Senate by gaining four more seats. That extended a trend of recent successes for the state’s Democrats, including victories in the last two gubernatorial elections and the 2006 U.S. Senate election in which James Webb beat Republican incumbent George Allen. The Republicans retained control of the state House. [See p. 633C1] Mayoral Elections—In Nov. 6 mayoral elections in major cities: † San Francisco, Calif., Mayor Gavin Newsom (D) easily won a second term. Newsom, 40, had remained popular despite admitting eight months earlier that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with a secretary and was battling a drinking problem. [See 2003, p. 998E1] † Pittsburgh, Pa., Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (D) won his first full term, beating Republican Mark Desantis. Ravenstahl, 27, had taken office in 2006 after the death of Mayor Bob O’Connor (D). He was the youngest mayor of a major U.S. city. † In Philadelphia, Pa., former city councilman Michael Nutter (D) easily won the race to succeed John Street (D). [See p. 348D3] † Baltimore, Md., Mayor Sheila Dixon (D) won her first full term. She had replaced Martin O’Malley when he became Maryland governor in January. [See 2006, p. 859A3] † Houston, Texas, Mayor Bill White (D) easily won a third and final term. [See 2005, p. 798G3] Ballot Initiatives— Among noteworthy results: † Utah voters rejected a proposal to create the U.S.’s first statewide school voucher system open to all children. The plan called for granting families $500 to $3,000, varying by income, to send each child to private school. The vouchers would have been available to all families, regardless of their incomes or the performance of their public school districts. [See 2006, p. 577E2] † New Jersey voters rejected a proposal sponsored by Gov. Jon Corzine (D) to borrow $450 million over 10 years to finance stem cell research. [See p. 397G2] † Oregon voters rejected a proposal to raise the cigarette tax by 84 cents a pack, to $2.02, to pay for health insurance for an estimated 100,000 uncovered children. Tobacco companies spent more than $10 million campaigning against the plan. [See 2002, p. 706A3] 732

Ohio Congressional Contest Set—In the only congressional elections held Nov. 6, state Rep. Bob Latta (R) and Democrat Robin Weirauch won the primaries in the race for a House seat in northwest Ohio that had been vacated by the death of Rep. Paul Gillmor (R) in September. The general election was slated for Dec. 11. [See p. 600B3] „

Congress Overrides Bush Veto Of Water Projects Legislation Bipartisan Support for $23 Billion Bill. The Senate Nov. 8 overwhelmingly voted, 79– 14, to override a veto by President George W. Bush and enact a $23 billion water projects authorization bill. The House Nov. 6 had voted, 361–54, to override. Bush Nov. 2 had vetoed the bill, claiming that it contained excessive spending. [See pp. 681B3, 668A3] The vote marked the first time Congress had overridden a veto by Bush. Bush had vetoed five bills during his time in office, all in his second term, and four of which had been subjected to override attempts. Congress had successfully overridden vetoes only 107 times in its history. Republicans in both houses joined Democrats to override the bill, easily exceeding the two-thirds majority needed. Two hundred twenty-three Democrats and 138 Republicans voted to override in the House, with 54 Republicans supporting Bush’s veto. In the Senate, 43 Democrats, 34 Republicans and two independents voted to override, with 12 Republicans and two Democrats opposing the bill. The bill, the Water Resources Development Act, authorized funds for hundreds of projects and studies, many of them requested by individual legislators. It did not actually provide any money for the projects, which would have to receive funding from a separate appropriations bill. Congress had not enacted a water resources authorization bill since 2000. Authorized funds included $3.6 billion for Louisiana, the bill’s biggest beneficiary; the state’s coasts and wetlands had been badly damaged by erosion and storms. The bill would authorize restoration, flood control and dredging projects. The bill also authorized almost $2 billion for projects in Florida’s Everglades, and a similar amount for projects on the upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway system. Reaction—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) Nov. 8 said, “I hope that the Congress feels good about what we’ve done,” adding, “I believe in the institution of the legislative branch of government. I think it should exist, and for seven years, this man has ignored us,” referring to Bush. The override vote was seen as an indication that Democratic congressional leaders would continue to attack Bush’s opposition to domestic spending increases while he asked for much larger sums for military operations. White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said in a statement, “No one is surprised that this veto was overridden.” However, she said, “It’s obvious that the bill

doesn’t make difficult choices and doesn’t set spending priorities. We don’t believe it’s a responsible way to budget.” „

Other Legislation House Passes Gay Workplace Protections.

The House Nov. 7 passed, 235–184, a measure providing lesbians, gay men and bisexuals protection from workplace discrimination based on their sexual orientation. However, the bill, called the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, would not extend those protections to transgender men and women, a limitation that had been criticized by a coalition of nearly 400 gay, lesbian and transgender organizations. [See pp. 648A1, 313B2] The bill would prevent employers from making hiring, firing or promotion decisions based on an employee’s sexual orientation. Liberal Democrats since 1974 had sought to pass legislation extending antidiscrimination protections to gay and lesbian workers, while social conservatives had opposed those efforts. The vote had been split largely along party lines, with 35 Republicans and 200 Democrats backing the bill, and 159 Republicans and 25 Democrats opposing it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) and other Democrats had reportedly removed language extending protections to transgendered individuals for fear that its inclusion would prevent passage of the measure. The bill would also exempt religious organizations from the bill’s provisions, a condition criticized by civil liberties groups. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D, Mass.) said he would work to quickly introduce a companion measure in the Senate. The White House had said it would veto the measure, should it be cleared by Congress, arguing that it could lead to excessive litigation against companies and infringe on the rights of religious groups that considered homosexuality immoral. There was no federal law protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation, though 19 states, Washington, D.C., and several cities had passed laws enacting such protections. It remained legal to dismiss a worker because of their sexual orientation in 30 states. „ Senate Passes Child Insurance Revision.

The Senate Nov. 1 voted, 64–30, to clear a revised version of a measure that would substantially expand funding for the state Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP or CHIP). The program was designed to provide federally funded health care insurance to children whose families earned too much income to qualify for Medicaid, but could not afford private insurance. [See p. 697E2] President George W. Bush in October had vetoed a version of the bill, and the House had failed to achieve a two-thirds majority to override the veto. The new version was designed to eliminate loopholes that had been criticized by opponents. It would more clearly prohibit enrollment by childless adults, illegal immigrants and children in families whose inFACTS ON FILE

come exceeded the federal limit of $61,950 for a family of four. The House in late October had passed the revised version of the bill. That version would increase funding to roughly $12 billion per year, from its current $5 billion per year, for a total of $60 billion in funding over the next five years. The new measure would provide health coverage for an estimated 10 million children. Bush had pledged to veto the new version of the bill as well. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) had attempted to postpone the vote while representatives of both parties worked on a compromise that would win a two-thirds majority. But GOP leaders objected to the delay and forced a vote. „ Internet Access Tax Moratorium Extended.

The House Oct. 30 unanimously cleared a bill extending a moratorium on local and state taxes on Internet access for seven years. The House Oct. 16 had previously passed, 405–2, a four-year extension. However, the Senate Oct. 25 had lengthened the extension to seven years before passing it by voice vote, and the second House ballot approved that version of the bill. President George W. Bush signed the bill Oct. 31. [See 2004, p. 963D3] The Internet tax moratorium had been set to expire Nov. 1. It had first been enacted in 1998 to promote the expansion of Internet service, and had been extended twice before the current bill, most recently in 2004. Internet companies and service providers had lobbied for a permanent ban but praised the seven-year extension. Some Republican legislators had also pressed for a permanent ban. The moratorium prohibited taxing Internet access, and also contained a measure specifically banning taxes on e-mail and Internet messaging services “that are provided independently or not packaged with Internet access.” It allowed the continued taxation of telephone and pay-television service that was bundled with Internet access. It also permitted state and local governments that had levied taxes on Internet access since before the moratorium was put into place to keep collecting them. „ House Passes War Profiteering Measure.

The House Oct. 9 passed, 375–3, a bill prohibiting “war profiteering” by private contractors associated with U.S. military and reconstruction operations, such as those in Iraq. The measure came as investigations were uncovering major corruption and fraud by companies supplying the Iraq war. The House the previous week had passed a bill making private contractors working in Iraq subject to U.S. law. [See p. 642E2; 2006, p. 311D3] The bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D, Hawaii), prohibited deliberately defrauding the government in order to make excess profits, such as by purposefully overcharging for goods or services. Such fraud would be punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Presenting false information or concealing information on contracts related to military operations would be punishable with a fine of $1 million or twice the amount the offender had received from the crime, whichever was greater. November 8, 2007

The bill gave federal courts jurisdiction in all war profiteering cases, closing what Abercrombie said was a loophole in current law. Abercrombie said that “while we have anti-fraud laws to protect against the waste or outright theft of U.S. tax dollars in the United States, there are none in Iraq, and legal jurisdiction has been in question.” Thomas Davis 3rd (Va.), the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, criticized the bill as taking “political potshots at contractors,” and said it might have “unintended consequences.” However, supporters said it would only target contractors who intended to defraud the government, rather than those who merely charged high prices. Panel Criticizes Army Contracting— A six-member independent panel Nov. 1 reported that the Army had inadequate safeguards in place against wartime contracting abuse. It faulted the Army’s training of contracting officials and their slow deployment to war zones. It also criticized senior Army officials for their slow response to reports of waste and fraud. The panel’s report did not single out individuals for blame or address particular alleged crimes. The report recommended that the Army hire 1,400 more contracting officers, a 25% increase. In addition, it said the Army should improve its contracting training, and start training procurement officers early in their careers. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would look into the suggestions. Army Secretary Pete Geren Aug. 29 had appointed the panel to investigate the Army’s wartime contracting procedures. The same day, he appointed a separate team of investigators to look into corruption and fraud in current contracting operations, especially in Kuwait. Military officials Sept. 20 said the investigation of current operations encompassed $6 billion in contracts, twice what was initially reported. They also said an additional $88 billion in contracts and programs were being audited for financial irregularities. An Army spokesman said that as of Oct. 24, the Army had 83 criminal inquiries related to contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. They included a case against Army Maj. John Cockerham and his wife and sister, charged with taking $9.6 million in bribes in what officials said was the biggest bribery case of the Iraq war. Procurement Official Found Dead— Air Force and police officials Oct. 15 said the second-highest-ranking Air Force procurement official, Charles Riechers, had been found dead in his home the previous night in an apparent suicide. The Washington Post Oct. 1 had reported that the Air Force had arranged for a nonprofit firm that did intelligence work—Commonwealth Research Institute (CRI), a unit of Concurrent Technologies Corp.—to give Riechers a job with no duties, while Riechers was waiting for his nomination as principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisitions to be confirmed. Riechers had been on the CRI payroll from Nov. 27, 2006, to Jan. 25, and had been paid $26,788, but during that time

Riechers had reportedly worked on Air Force projects unrelated to CRI. Riechers had acknowledged the arrangement, and the Air Force said it was routine. „

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Foreign Trade House Passes Peru Agreement. The House Nov. 8 voted, 285–132, to approve a bilateral free trade agreement with Peru that had sharply divided House Democrats. The pact would decrease tariffs and other trade barriers on both sides; currently, Peruvian tariffs on U.S. imports were generally higher than those faced by Peruvian exporters to the U.S. About 80% of duties imposed on industrial exports from the U.S. and about 66% imposed on U.S. agricultural exports would be eliminated immediately. Remaining industrial tariffs would be phased out over a 10-year period. [See p. 328C3] The trade agreement had been signed in April 2006, but had stalled amid renegotiations over labor and environmental provisions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.), who had backed the agreement, said it would strengthen environmental and labor standards in Peru. Under the trade deal, Peru would be subject to standards set by the International Labor Organization, and would be required to maintain domestic environmental standards while also acceding to international environmental accords. However, many House Democrats from industrial districts with strong unions said the agreement would shift domestic manufacturing jobs overseas. Others opposed to the pact said it did not do enough to strengthen environmental protections in Peru. Out of a total of 225 House Democrats voting on the agreement, 116 opposed it. President George W. Bush, who had lobbied for the trade deal’s passage, lauded the outcome. Supporters of the bill said it would strengthen the U.S.’s standing in Latin America. The U.S. International Trade Commission estimated that trade between the two countries under the agreement would grow to an annual rate of $10.3 billion, from $8.8 billion in 2006. „

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Labor UAW Completes Deals With Automakers. The United Auto Workers (UAW) concluded

deals on new labor contracts with Chrysler LLC Oct. 27 and Ford Motor Co. Nov. 3. The agreements ended a series of tense negotiations with the Detroit, Mich.–area “Big Three” automakers: General Motors Corp. (GM), Chrysler and Ford. The negotiations had been marked by concerns over job security, how the companies would manage climbing health care costs, and brief strikes at GM and Chrysler. [See p. 665D3] The UAW Oct. 27 said that its workers at Chrysler had approved a new four-year contract by a slim margin, with 56% of production workers and 51% of skilled laborers voting in favor. There had been concern following official negotiations that workers would not approve the contract. Many had voiced dissent, saying it did not 733

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include adequate job security measures because there was nothing in the contract guaranteeing Chrysler would continue to produce certain models. That concern had been echoed by workers at the other two auto companies, who were concerned that future models would be outsourced to nonunion workers. Few details of the tentative, four-year deal reached Nov. 3 between the UAW and Ford were made public. However, it was widely reported that negotiations at Ford, which was said to face the largest financial obstacles of the three, had followed the model of the GM and Chrysler negotiations. A voluntary employees’ beneficiary association (VEBA) was set up in order to ease Ford’s health care obligations, which some media reports estimated were as high as $31 billion. Ford would contribute an unspecified amount to the VEBA. The contract was expected to be quickly ratified by the UAW’s 54,000 Ford employees. [See p. 631F1] Thousands of Positions Cut— Despite new contracts that leading UAW negotiators had called revolutionary, tens of thousands of positions had been eliminated by the automakers so far in the year in order to ease already-stretched finances. GM in September had said it planned to close as many as 13 factories. Chrysler, in February, had announced a plan to cut 13,000 jobs, and Nov. 1 announced that 11,000 more hourly positions would be eliminated. [See pp. 650E2, 176C2] Ford, in addition to selling off parts of its luxury car division including Aston Martin, was currently working on a process it called “the way forward,” which included closing 16 plants and cutting between 30,000 and 40,000 salaried and hourly jobs. Ford had suffered the highest loss of the three; so far in 2007, sales had fallen by 13%, it was reported Nov. 4. The company had posted a $12.6 billion loss in 2006. Jobs at the three companies had been some of the most sought-after industrial positions in the U.S., due to high wages and generous benefit packages, but GM and Chrysler had cut starting wages by nearly half in the new contracts. GM Posts $39 Billion Loss—GM Nov. 6 announced it would take a $39 billion noncash charge in the third quarter, resulting in the biggest loss in the history of the company. According to GM, proper accounting procedures required it to remove a number of tax-related credits that had accumulated in past years when the company had sustained losses. GM said the charge would not affect daily operations or its restructuring process. [See 2006, p. 50G2] „

Economy Unemployment Stayed at 4.7% in October.

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estimated 166,000 nonfarm jobs were created in October, an increase from the revised 96,000 created in September. [See p. 666C3] The increase in new nonfarm jobs was dramatic enough to surprise analysts, who had expected a slump in the housing market to place a greater strain on companies’ ability to hire. However, most analysts warned that the housing market would continue to slow down economic growth. 146.0 Million Jobs Held—According to a household survey, 146.0 million people held jobs in October, the Labor Department reported Nov. 2. The department counted 7.2 million people as unemployed. The department counted 320,000 workers as “discouraged” in October. Those workers were not looking for work because they believed that no jobs were available. They were not counted as part of the labor force. About 4.3 million people who sought full-time employment were working part-time instead. The average manufacturing workweek was 41.2 hours in October, down from 41.3 in September, and factory workers’ overtime held steady at 4.1 hours. Average hourly wages for production workers rose three cents, to $17.58. The unemployment rate among whites in October was the same as it had been in September, 4.2%. The jobless rate for blacks was 8.5%, up from 8.1% the previous month. For Hispanics, who could be of any race, the rate fell by 0.1 percentage points in October, to 5.6%. For men aged 20 and over, October unemployment was 4.3%, up from 4.2%. For adult women, it was 4.1%, up from the September rate of 4.0%. The teenage jobless rate in October was 15.6%, down from 16.0% in September, while for black teenagers it was 27.6%, down from 28.8% in September. „

Supreme Court Justices Accept Exxon Valdez Case. The Supreme Court Oct. 29 accepted an appeal from oil company Exxon Mobil Corp. in which the company argued that the punitive damages it had been ordered to pay for a 1989 oil spill in Alaskan waters caused by the company’s tanker, the Exxon Valdez, were excessive. At issue was whether maritime law allowed for punitive damages, and whether a ship’s owner could be held responsible for actions taken by the ship’s captain, if the owner did not instruct the captain to commit any wrongdoing. The case was Exxon Shipping Company v. Baker. [See p. 108G1; 2006, p. 1003A3] The court would not decide if excessive punitive damages violated the Constitution’s guarantee of due process, as Exxon Mobil had argued in the past. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. recused himself from the case, reportedly because he owned stock in Exxon Mobil. A federal district court in Alaska in 1994 had awarded some 32,000 plaintiffs $5 billion in punitive damages. Those plaintiffs claimed that the oil spill, which released 11 million gallons (42 million liters) of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince Wil-

liam Sound, had hurt their livelihoods. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., in December 2006 had reduced the damages amount to $2.5 billion. That amount was still by far the largest punitive damages award ever granted. Exxon Mobil argued that it had already spent $3.5 billion to clean up the environmental damage the spill had caused to the Alaskan coastline. Exxon Mobil’s lawyer said the amount was “more than enough to deter and punish anyone for anything.” The company also said it was not responsible for the actions of Joseph Hazelwood, who was the tanker’s captain when it ran into a reef, causing the spill. The plaintiffs argued that the company had acted irresponsibly by allowing Hazelwood to captain the tanker, since the company had been made aware that Hazelwood was an alcoholic. The plaintiffs’ lawyers had presented evidence in the 1994 case indicating Hazelwood was inebriated when the tanker hit the reef. [See 1999, p. 500B3] „

Environment CDC Climate Testimony Editing Reported.

Testimony delivered to the Senate by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Julie Gerberding on how climate change would affect various health issues had been heavily edited by the White House, the Associated Press (AP) reported Oct. 24. [See pp. 465A2, 174E1] Gerberding Oct. 23 had testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Before she testified, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had removed from her testimony statements indicating that public health officials remained unprepared for the health effects of climate change. The OMB had also removed a statement reading that the “CDC considers climate change a serious public concern.” Gerberding had reportedly submitted a 12-page draft of her testimony to the OMB, which was cut to six pages. White House press secretary Dana Perino Oct. 24 said Gerberding’s testimony had not been “watered down in terms of science.” She said the OMB had removed elements of the testimony that differed from conclusions made in a report released earlier in the year by the United Nations– backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). [See p. 290F1] Some Senate Democrats called for an investigation into the editing of the documents. The Bush administration had previously been criticized as allowing political concerns to trump scientific data regarding the potential ill effects of climate change resulting from human activity. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D, Calif.), chairwoman of the committee, Oct. 24 sent the Bush administration a letter requesting that all drafts of Gerberding’s testimony be released. „ Federal Aid Set for NYC Congestion Plan.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters Aug. 14 said her department would provide $354 million for a plan by New FACTS ON FILE

York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) to reduce traffic in the borough of Manhattan. Bloomberg in April had released the plan, which included a controversial proposal to charge drivers in Manhattan’s business district a fee during certain hours in an effort to combat congestion in the city. [See p. 314D1] The federal funds included $112 million for expanded bus service and $16 million for ferry service. But the department would contribute only $10 million to the car fee plan, which the city said would cost $223 million. The traffic plan also required the approval of the New York City Council and the New York State legislature in order to be implemented. It faced opposition in both bodies. „ U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Fall in 2006.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) May 23 said U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from energy-production sources had fallen 1.3% in 2006, compared with the previous year, according to initial estimates. The EIA reported that the U.S. had released 5.88 billion metric tons (6.48 billion tons) of carbon dioxide in 2006, down from 5.96 billion in 2005. It was the first time emissions of the gas had declined in the U.S. since 2001. [See p. 327F1] „

Terrorism Rice Says U.S. Mishandled Arar Rendition.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Oct. 24 told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the U.S. government had made a mistake in its deportation of Syrian-born Canadian national Maher Arar to Syria in 2002. Arar was deported after Canadian officials erroneously linked him to the international Al Qaeda terrorist network. [See 2006, p. 733F3] Arar alleged that he was tortured during his time in Syria, a claim verified by a September 2006 Canadian report on Arar’s case. Rice declined to issue an apology for Arar’s treatment but said that the U.S. government did not “wish to transfer anyone to any place in which they might be tortured.” [See 2006, p. 769C2; 2005, p. 824F3] The House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees Oct. 18 held a joint hearing on the Arar case. Arar, who was still banned from entering the U.S., testified via video link. Rep. Bill Delahunt (D, Mass.), who chaired the session, said, “The fact that he [Arar] is still on the no-fly list is unacceptable,” referring to a list of allegedly dangerous individuals kept by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Delahunt said that the government should apologize for its conduct in the case. During the hearing, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R, Calif.) deplored Arar’s deportation but defended extraordinary renditions, the practice of secretly handing over suspects to third countries. He asked Arar if so-called extreme interrogation techniques such as waterboarding—which simulated drowning with water was poured onto a cloth covering the subject’s face—were justified if using them could prevent a terNovember 8, 2007

rorist attack. Arar argued that information extracted using torture was unreliable, citing a false confession he had made under torture that he had been to Afghanistan, which he had never visited. „ Counterterrorism Center Chief Quits. The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, retired Vice Adm. John Scott Redd, Oct. 17 announced his intention to step down in November, citing medical and family reasons. Redd, who had retired from the Navy in 1998, had been selected as the center’s director in August 2005 following the departure of Acting Director John Brennan. Redd’s spokesman, Carl Kropf, Oct. 17 said Redd’s resignation would allow him to undergo necessary major knee surgery without impeding the center’s work. The interagency center had been created in 2004 by an executive order from President George W. Bush, and its mission written into an intelligence reform law later that year. [See 2005, p. 404B2] „ FBI Terrorism

Divisions Reorganized.

The top counterterrorism official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Joseph Billy Jr., said in an interview with the Washington Post, published Sept. 26, that the FBI had started work on a large-scale restructuring of its two main antiterrorist divisions. The restructuring was part of a new strategy to improve the FBI’s ability to monitor and destroy terrorist organizations that had grown increasingly fluid and wide-ranging. [See p. 361D1] The new configuration drew on aspects of Britain’s MI5 domestic security agency and the FBI’s anti-Mafia tactics, merging its general antiterrorist desk with its division focused on the activities of the terrorist network Al Qaeda. Billy said the change was meant to help FBI agents and analysts more effectively track the complex links between terror groups in different regions by coordinating the flow of information through a single division. In addition, Billy said the FBI intended to increase the length of its surveillance of terrorist suspects, instead of making early arrests in cases where there was no immediate threat of an attack. That change of strategy was designed to allow the bureau to collect more information about the membership, supporters and sympathizers of major international terrorist groups. The Post quoted Richard Ben-Veniste, a member of the commission that investigated intelligence failures leading to Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., as saying that the reorganization was consistent with the reforms the panel had urged. „

Intelligence TSA to Request Data for Non-U.S. Flights.

Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper reported Oct. 11 that the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) planned to collect detailed passenger information from Canadian airlines on all flights passing through the airspace of the U.S.’s 48 contiguous states, including flights that did not take off or land at a U.S. airport (but excluding intra-Canadian flights). The plan

sparked criticism from the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC), a trade organization representing Canadian airlines and aerospace companies, and analysts suggested that it could violate Canada’s strong privacy laws. [See p. 665B2] ATAC Vice President for Policy Fred Gaspar raised questions about the reasoning behind the decision, the Globe and Mail reported. Gaspar said that Canadian airlines had believed that the June 18 unveiling of Canada’s “no-fly” list of potentially dangerous passengers would satisfy the TSA’s security concerns. The New York Times Oct. 14 quoted Gaspar as saying, “Either the United States places no value whatsoever on the Canadian list, which it helped develop, or I have to suspect what’s going on here is a pure and simple datafishing expedition.” The TSA had given individuals and organizations until Oct. 22 to file comments or complaints. [See 2005, p. 576E1] Under the proposed rules, Canadian airlines would be required to provide each passenger’s name, gender, date of birth and “known traveler number,” a code that designated that the U.S. had already investigated the traveler and found no potential security threats. That data would have to be handed over 72 hours before every flight that crossed U.S. air space. Airlines were also to be encouraged to turn over passenger itineraries and any additional travel information. U.S. officials defended the plan, contending that it would help ensure the safety of Canadians, who would make up the majority of passengers on the flights. „

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review of 91 audit reports of the Medicare “Part D” privately managed prescriptiondrug program and other private insurance options revealed that enrollees had been wrongly denied drug claims and subjected to deceptive sales tactics, the New York Times reported Oct. 6. The Times reported that government officials had fined 11 companies more than $770,000 in total since March for violating marketing policies and failing to keep enrollees fully informed of changes in costs and benefits. [See p. 159D2] Part D had taken effect in January 2006, and many companies that sold drug coverage plans also offered “Medicare Advantage” plans, which provided other benefits, including hospital stays and physician visits. An estimated eight million people were enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, also known as private fee-for-service plans. The audits showed that companies providing Medicare Advantage plans had most often violated policies regarding the handling of appeals and complaints, as well as marketing rules. The Times report found that Sierra Health Services Inc., a Part D provider, had halted drug coverage for more than 2,300 people with HIV or AIDS, citing beneficiaries’ failure to pay their monthly premi735

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ums. However, many of the enrollees had documentation proving that they had paid their premiums, and their benefits were eventually reinstated at the request of federal officials. Critics of the plans said they were an attempt by the Bush administration to privatize Medicare, and questioned the cost savings they were intended to generate. Several congressional Democrats, including presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), said the Times report was evidence of the inability of private insurers to adequately provide health and drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries. Several companies singled out in the audits said Oct. 9 that they had taken steps to address the problems cited. Other News—In other Medicare Advantage and Part D news: † Investigators with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee found that the cost of the 10 most commonly prescribed drugs under Part D plans had risen an average of 6.8% since December 2006, compared with a 3% rise in wholesale prices during the same period, the Washington Post reported May 13. The investigators also found that premiums for Part D had climbed 13% over the past 12 months. † The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Sept. 24 allowed four Medicare Advantage plan providers to resume marketing efforts to seniors after completing a review of their practices that found them in accordance with federal policy. The CMS in June had ordered seven companies to stop marketing their plans after receiving numerous complaints about illegal or unethical tactics by salespeople. The companies covered under the September announcement were UnitedHealth Group Inc., Humana Inc., BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Inc. and Sterling Life Insurance Co. The CMS in August had allowed Coventry Health Care Inc., WellCare Health Plans Inc. and Universal American Financial Corp. to resume marketing plans. [See p. 399E3] „

Mergers & Acquisitions Buyers Pull Out of Harman Deal. Private-

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equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc., both based in New York City, Sept. 21 announced that they were backing out of an $8 billion takeover of Harman International Industries Inc., an audio-equipment maker based in Washington, D.C. The buyers claimed that they could drop the deal because of the “material adverse change” clause in the original agreement made in April, which allowed them to walk away if Harman’s business prospects declined significantly. Harman denied that there were grounds for invoking the clause. [See pp. 682A3, 606A1] Analysts viewed the disintegration of the deal as an example of buyers struggling to fund the leveraged buyouts they had agreed to before a crisis in credit markets began in August. „ 736

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Crime Murder-Suicide Wrestler Had Brain Damage.

Somalia

Two neurosurgeons who examined the brain tissue of late World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) professional wrestler Chris Benoit Sept. 5 announced that they had found evidence that Benoit had suffered from a degenerative brain condition believed to be triggered by physical trauma. Benoit in June had killed his wife, his son and himself. [See p. 514D1] Dr. Robert Cantu of Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass., and Dr. Julian Bailes of West Virginia University in Morgantown had found brain damage in the form of dead or injured brain cells that was consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disorder that had been found in many boxers, as well as several former professional football players. According to Cantu, symptoms of the disorder included erratic behavior and depression. In an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Sept. 5, Bailes called the levels of damage evident in Benoit’s brain “something you should never see in a 40-year-old,” and suggested that repeated concussions suffered in the wrestling ring could be a “leading cause” of Benoit’s violent actions. Cantu and Bailes had examined Benoit’s brain at the request of the Sports Legacy Institute, a nonprofit group concerned with the long-term effect of professional athletics on the brain. Following the announcement, the WWE released a statement Sept. 5 in which it called the link between Benoit’s wrestling and the diagnosis speculative. „

Prime Minister Resigns; Violence Flares.

Other U.S. News Adventurer Vanishes in Flight Over Nevada.

Millionaire U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett Sept. 4 vanished while flying a single-engine Citabria Super Decathalon plane over rugged terrain in western Nevada. Search teams using planes and assisted by hundreds of volunteers on the ground—as well as others scanning satellite images over the Internet—discovered no trace of the aviator. Authorities Oct. 2 officially suspended the search, although Fossett’s family and William Barron Hilton, the owner of the ranch Fossett had taken off from, continued to send out private search planes. Fossett in 2002 had gained fame by becoming the first person to circumnavigate the globe solo in a balloon. [See 2006, p. 368E2] Fossett Sept. 4 had taken off for what was to have been a short flight in clear skies, to scout locations for a planned attempt to break the land-speed record in a jet-powered car. Fossett had not filed a flight plan or taken along a satellite telephone system or other radio equipment; the plane reportedly had a tracking device, but no signal had been received by authorities. The search efforts had turned up the wrecks of three unidentified planes in the state’s remote Sierra Nevada region. „

Somali Interim Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi Oct. 29 resigned, after a prolonged power struggle with Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and other members of the country’s transitional government. Meanwhile, battles between progovernment troops and Islamist insurgents continued to rage in Mogadishu, the capital, and surrounding areas. [See below, p. 635A2; 2006, p. 643D1] An Islamist militia known as the Council of Islamic Courts had taken control of Mogadishu, and much of southern and central Somalia in mid-2006. The militia was ousted by transitional government and Ethiopian troops in late 2006, after which some of its members began an insurgency against the government and Ethiopian forces, which remained in Somalia. The U.S., which alleged that members of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda were among the Islamists, had supported a campaign against the insurgents by Ethiopia and the transitional government. Earlier in 2007, the U.S. had launched attacks on suspected insurgents in Somalia. Further undermining Somalia’s chances for peace and stability, tensions had developed within the United Nations– backed transitional government, culminating in the rift between Gedi and Yusuf. In early October, Yusuf, a member of the Darod clan, and 22 other government ministers had begun gathering support to oust Gedi, a member of the Hawiye clan, in a parliamentary no-confidence vote. Gedi, who had served since November 2004, had narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in July 2006. Yusuf alleged that, under the transitional government’s charter, Gedi’s term had expired, a claim that the prime minister denied. Analysts said that clan rivalry, as well as personal frictions and disputes over oil exploration deals, were reportedly the true causes behind the two leaders’ problematic relationship. The Hawiye were the most powerful clan in Mogadishu, although it had not always supported Gedi, a 55-yearold veterinarian by training. The Darod, based in the north of Somalia, were traditional rivals of the Hawiye. The two leaders Oct. 18 had traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, and reportedly met separately with African Union (AU) and Ethiopian government officials. However, little progress was made in those meetings. Gedi, in an Oct. 29 speech to parliament announcing his resignation in Baidoa, where the body was meeting due to instability in Mogadishu, said, “There has been a lot of wrangling back and forth. And to put all this to rest, I am resigning for the interests of the Somali people.” He denied that he was stepping down under outside pressure, despite rumors that Ethiopian and U.S. officials had urged him to resign. ImFACTS ON FILE

mediately after his speech, Gedi left the country for Kenya. The U.S. State Department Oct. 29 issued a statement saying Gedi’s resignation was “made in the spirit of continued dialogue and national reconciliation.” The U.N. Oct. 30 praised the peaceful resolution of the conflict between Yusuf and Gedi. Gedi’s successor had yet to be chosen; Deputy Prime Minister Salim Aliyow Ibrow was named his temporary replacement. Analysts said Yusuf should chose a candidate favorable to the Hawiye if there was to be any chance of unity in the fight against the Islamists. Members of the transitional parliament Nov. 7 approved a constitutional amendment that would allow Yusuf to nominate a non-legislator as prime minister, a move that was expected to speed the process. Some observers said Gedi’s departure represented a chance for the president to select a replacement who wielded greater influence and was better positioned to quell the insurgency. U.N. Reports on Refugee Flow—The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Nov. 1 said an estimated 88,000 people had fled Mogadishu during three days of intense fighting in the city in late October. Attacks by the insurgents in and around Mogadishu had led to heavy fighting, causing heavy casualties and prompting tens of thousands of civilians to flee. Since the spring, about 20,000 people had reportedly fled the city each month. The insecurity in the area had also prevented aid agencies from reaching the refugees and others in need of assistance. Meanwhile, public antagonism toward the presence of Ethiopian troops was running high. Sporadic protests in Mogadishu called for the withdrawal of the Ethiopians. However, only about 1,600 Ugandan troops, of a planned 8,000-member AU peacekeeping force, were on the ground in Somalia, and a security vacuum was feared if Ethiopia withdrew before the rest of the force arrived. In a related development, Bashir Nur Gedi (no relation to Ali Muhammad Gedi), a journalist and acting chairman of prominent news outlet Radio Shabelle, Oct. 19 was shot dead in Mogadishu. He was the eighth journalist killed in Somalia in 2007. Journalists had reportedly been targeted by both the government and the Islamists. [See p. 635E3] U.N. Food Program Official Seized—

Some 60 Somali intelligence officers Oct. 17 raided the office of the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) in Mogadishu, seizing the group’s country director, Idris Osman, at gunpoint. He was reportedly taken to the intelligence agency’s headquarters. The arrest of Osman, a Somali citizen, was said to have been prompted by his decision two days earlier to distribute food aid through a network of 42 local mosques, although the Somali government refused to specify the charges against him. In response, the WFP immediately halted aid distribution in the country, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon criticized November 8, 2007

the action as a violation of Osman’s diplomatic immunity. Osman was released Oct. 23. „

South Africa Reggae Star Murdered. South African reg-

gae star Lucky Dube, 43, died Oct. 18 after he was shot in an attempted carjacking in a suburb south of Johannesburg. When gunmen attacked his car, apparently without warning. Dube tried to flee but lost control of his car and collided with a tree. He died at the scene. [See p. 530G3] Five people Oct. 22 were arrested in connection with his death, which sparked outrage and grief among South African citizens and elsewhere. Dube’s death was the latest in a string of high-profile murders in South Africa, whose murder rate was among the highest in the world. Several instances of vigilante attacks against suspected criminals by citizens claiming to be motivated by rage over crimes like the killing of Dube were reported around Johannesburg in the days afterward. Dube, born into an impoverished Zulu family in a village west of Johannesburg, had risen to fame in the early 1980s singing African folk songs. He switched to reggae in 1984, and later became Africa’s bestselling reggae artist, with politically charged lyrics that had been banned by some African censors. „

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Bolivia Troops, Protesters Clash Over Airport.

Bolivian Air Force troops Oct. 18 seized control of Viru Viru Airport, the country’s busiest, in Santa Cruz city, after airport workers Oct. 16 held passenger airplanes and demanded payment of landing fees in cash. Three airport workers carrying weapons were arrested, and one soldier was wounded by gunfire during the raid, in which troops used tear gas to repel protesting workers and residents. [See p. 593F3] Bolivian President Evo Morales Aima sent some 220 troops to the airport to wrest control of it from workers. Javier Garcia, head of the country’s aviation authority, Oct. 18 said the airport would “remain militarized until the government is certain there will be no more disturbances.” However, thousands of Santa Cruz residents, armed with clubs and waving flags, Oct. 19 retook control of the airport. Ruben Costas, the governor of Santa Cruz province, that day had called on residents to storm the airport. Federal troops and police did not engage the residents, instead withdrawing from conflict. Workers Oct. 16 had demanded that an American Airlines flight bound for Miami, Fla., carrying 140 passengers, pay a landing fee of around $2,000 to them in cash, instead of to the federal civil aviation authority. The clash over the airport was emblematic of a larger divide between the relative-

ly wealthy eastern province of Santa Cruz, which objected to Morales’s policies of nationalization and redistribution of land and resources, and poorer, indigenous populations in the west. „

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Guatemala Colom Wins Presidential Runoff Election.

Businessman and engineer Alvaro Colom Caballeros Nov. 4 won a runoff presidential election, defeating conservative former army General Otto Perez Molina. Colom, a former deputy economy minister and member of the center-left National Unity of Hope (UNE) party, finished with 52.8% of the vote, while Perez Molina, of the Patriotic Party, earned 47.2%, the federal election agency reported Nov. 5. [See p. 594C3; for facts on Colom, see p. 737E3] Colom Nov. 5 pledged to unify the country, saying, “We will work to attain a brotherhood with our 23 indigenous groups.” He was set to take office Jan. 14, 2008, succeeding Oscar Berger Perdomo. Colom and Perez Molina had finished first and second, respectively, in the first round of elections held in September. Colom, 56, during the campaign had pledged to combat corruption in the judicial system and reduce the country’s soaring crime rate by creating jobs and increasing spending on social programs. Perez Molina had suggested using the military to quell violent crime and had backed the death penalty. Although the runoff occurred without major incidents of violence, at least 50 local and congressional candidates, party activists and their family members had been killed in the runup to the September elections. Almost 20 members of Colom’s party had been killed during the violence. Colom called his victory “a ‘no’ to Guatemala’s tragic history.” A peace accord signed in 1996 had ended decades of civil war in Guatemala, which suffered some of the highest rates of poverty and malnutrition in the Western Hemisphere. „

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Alvaro Colom Caballeros was born on June 15, 1951, in Guatemala City, the capital of Guatemala. He studied industrial engineering at the University of San Carlos, earning his degree in three years. In 1991 he was appointed deputy economy minister by President Jorge Serrano Elias. The same year he became director of the National Fund for Peace (FONAPAZ), a post he held until 1997. In that role he oversaw the repatriation of at least 40,000 Guatemalan refugees from Mexico. [See 1991, p. 21D3] Colom in 1999 became the presidential candidate for the leftist New National Alliance (ANN) party. After his defeat, he left the ANN in 2000 to form the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party. He made a second unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2003 under UNE’s banner. Colom in Sept. 9 placed first in the first round of a presidential election. He was elected president on Nov. 4, defeating conservative former army Gen. Otto Perez Molina in a runoff. [See p. 737A3] 737

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Mexico Bush Seeks $1.4 Billion in Drug War Aid.

U.S. President George W. Bush Oct. 22 said he would seek $500 million to fund the Mexican government’s efforts to combat the drug trade in fiscal 2008, which had begun Oct. 1. The plan had provisions to expand the funding to $1.4 billion over several years, and raised the additional possibility of annual funding after that period. The proposal was included in a $45.9 billion emergency spending bill for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. [See pp. 696D3, 436G1] Bush’s plan called for the U.S. to provide $500 million in the first year to fund police training and drug detection equipment, including surveillance planes, helicopters and drug-sniffing dogs. The aid plan would fund improvements at Mexico’s border crossings, give Mexico instruction on vetting police recruits and help the country establish a witness protection program. Another $50 million in aid would be given to six Central American countries for similar projects. Mexico, which served as a major corridor for U.S.-bound drugs produced in South America, over the past two years had seen a surge in violence connected to the country’s narcotics trafficking. An estimated 4,000 people had died from drug-related violence during the previous 22 months. Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa since taking office in December 2006 had sent 20,000 troops to areas of Mexico beset by drug violence in an effort to control warring cartels. The aid package was called the Merida Initiative by Mexican and U.S. government officials, a reference to a March meeting between Bush and Calderon at which negotiations over the funding had first begun. However, the Mexican press had named it “Plan Mexico,” in reference to Plan Colombia, the U.S.’s multibillion dollar antidrug program in that country. Mexican officials said, unlike Plan Colombia, their aid package would not include the placement of U.S. military personnel in Mexico. U.S. Democrats criticized the Bush administration for negotiating the aid deal in secrecy. Mexican opponents had criticized the plan for potentially granting the U.S. government too much control over the country’s affairs. Human rights activists also expressed concern that alleged abuses by Mexican military forces fighting drug cartels would continue under the new plan. Price Rise Seen as Sign of Success—

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John Walters, director of the U.S.’s National Office for Drug Control Policy, Oct. 2 said the price of cocaine had risen significantly since March in 37 U.S. cities. According to figures based on undercover purchases by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the average street price of a gram of cocaine had risen to $118.70 per gram in June, from $95.89 per gram in January. The drug’s purity had also dropped by 11% over the same time. [See p. 403C3] 738

Walters said Calderon’s efforts to combat drug traffickers in Mexico, and the extradition of several Mexican cartel leaders to the U.S., accounted for the price increase and quality decline. However, Larry Birns, a U.S. drug policy critic and analyst with the nonprofit Council of Hemispheric Affairs, characterized the change in price as “seasonal” and unattributable to antidrug efforts. U.S. GAO Report Faults U.S. Efforts—

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Sept. 20 released a report concluding that coordination between the U.S. and Mexico on antidrug efforts had improved, but was still hindered by bureaucracy. The GAO report estimated that Mexican drug cartels generated as much as $23 billion annually, and were still able to traffic thousands of tons of narcotics into the U.S. each year. The GAO said 90% of cocaine in the U.S. in 2005 arrived from Mexico, up from 66% in 2000. However, the GAO praised Calderon for dispatching forces to fight traffickers, and said improvements had been made to buffer Mexico’s judicial system from corrupting forces. Other News—In other drug news: † Mexican federal agents Sept. 28 arrested suspected drug trafficker Sandra Avila Beltran during a raid on a diner where she was having coffee. Avila Beltran, 45, was the country’s best-known female suspected drug smuggler, known popularly as the Queen of the Pacific, and had been accused of facilitating the shipment of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico for the Sinaloa cartel. Hours after her arrest, federal agents also captured her lover, alleged Colombian trafficker Juan Diego Espinoza Ramirez, 39. He was believed to be the second-in-command of Colombia’s Norte del Valle cartel. The U.S. had issued extradition warrants for both. [See p. 594G2] † Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission Sept. 21 reported that Mexican soldiers sent to fight drug cartels had participated in torture and rape, and recommended that the military be removed from such operations. The commission had investigated four instances in which soldiers had been accused of killing, torturing or sexually abusing residents in areas where they had been sent to combat traffickers. † Drug baron Benjamin Arellano Felix, a leader of the Tijuana drug cartel, Sept. 4 was convicted on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to 22 years in prison. Arellano Felix had received a separate fiveyear jail term in April on arms possession charges. He had been captured in 2002 and was wanted in U.S. on trafficking charges. [See 2006, p. 712C2] † Tony Garza, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, July 13 said drug traffickers had pledged to kill foreign journalists reporting on events around the U.S.-Mexico border. Several U.S.-based newspapers had reportedly withdrawn staff members from Mexico after learning of plans by cartels to kill writers reporting on the drug trade in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. [See 2006, p. 842C2] „

Floods Devastate Southern States. Heavy rains Oct. 28–Nov. 1 fell in the southern states of Tabasco and Chiapas, on the Gulf of Mexico, causing severe flooding. At least 80% of Tabasco was submerged during the floods, and the state capital, Villahermosa, was hit particularly hard. The federal Social Development Department Nov. 4 estimated that between 400,000 and 500,000 people’s homes had been damaged or destroyed. [See 1999, p. 750A2] Though the area was prone to annual floods, the rapid rise of rivers had surprised many residents. Hundreds of thousands of people Nov. 2 were evacuated from flooded areas. President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa Nov. 1 called the flooding one of the worst natural disasters experienced by Tabasco. Chiapas state officials Nov. 4 reported finding seven bodies, and one death had been reported earlier in Tabasco state. However, the death toll was expected to rise as more bodies were discovered. „

Trinidad and Tobago Ruling Party Secures Majority in Elections.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) party Nov. 5 won parliamentary elections in Trinidad and Tobago. According to results reported Nov. 6, the PNM secured a majority of 26 seats in the 41-seat parliament. The United National Congress Alliance (UNC) party, led by former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, won the remaining 15 seats. The Congress of the People (COP) party, formed in 2006 and led by former UNC leader Winston Dookeran, failed to win any seats. [See 2006, p. 493C3; 2002, p. 775G1] Trinidad and Tobago’s political parties were split largely along racial lines, with the PNM drawing support from African Caribbeans and the UNC backed by ethnic East Indians. COP leaders said they had broken off from the UNC in an effort to end the racial divide in politics. Panday in a concession speech delivered Nov. 6 criticized the COP for splitting the UNC’s traditional voting base. He claimed that had prevented his party from winning a majority. The two-island nation of 1.3 million people was the world’s fifth-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. The government depended on natural resources for almost 40% of its revenues. Analysts said Manning had been aided at the polls by economic growth resulting from climbing energy prices. Manning Nov. 7 was sworn in for a new five-year term. „

Venezuela Legislature Backs Constitutional Changes.

The Venezuelan National Assembly Nov. 2 voted, 160–7, to grant final approval to a raft of 69 constitutional amendments that would grant more power to President Hugo Chavez Frias, including the abolition of presidential term limits. The changes still required approval by the public in a referFACTS ON FILE

endum set for Dec. 2 before they would take effect. The country had been beset by protests, some violent, by a wide range of opponents of the constitutional changes who said they would erode democracy in Venezuela. [See p. 532C2] The amendments would expand the presidential term to seven years, from six. They would establish socialism as Venezuela’s official ideology, and reduce the working day to six hours, from eight. They would also grant Chavez control over the country’s central bank and international currency reserves, in effect giving him the power to print more currency to offset government deficits. Independent economists warned that those changes could spur greater inflation in Venezuela, which already had the highest inflation rate in Latin America. One amendment would allow the government to suspend constitutionally guaranteed due process to citizens and allow censorship of the media if the president declared a state of emergency. Some observers said the proposed constitution would not immediately change the political climate in Venezuela, where Chavez’s allies controlled the legislature, the Supreme Court and much of the country’s industry. Chavez’s term was set to expire in 2012, and under the current constitution he would be barred from running for another term. Opinion polls indicated that the amendments had polarized the public, but were likely to be approved in the referendum, with a low voter turnout expected. Chavez Oct. 31 had agreed to allow the public to vote separately on two blocks of the amendments, a sign that he had acknowledged the deep division within the electorate over the proposal. Chavez had previously said the changes would be voted on as a whole. Observers suggested that the amendment reducing the length of the workday was an effort to entice the country’s poor to vote for the entire package of reforms. Since Chavez had been reelected in December 2006 he had moved quickly to nationalize several key industries in Venezuela, including the country’s large oil sector, the telecommunications industry and the electricity utility. He had also proposed shifting governing power away from state and local governments to local communal councils as part of his efforts to enact what he called “21st century socialism.” Opponents described them as a shift toward an autocratic state headed by Chavez. [See pp. 421D1, 351E3] Reaction—An estimated 80,000 university students Nov. 6–7 marched on the Supreme Court in Caracas, the capital, in protest of the passage of the amendments package. Men wearing masks and armed with guns Nov. 8 shot into a crowd of student demonstrators calling on the high court to suspend the referendum. Eight people were reported injured as a result, at least one from gunfire, according to a government official. Sporadic protests had been led by university students in the weeks leading up to November 8, 2007

the National Assembly vote. Tens of thousands of anti-Chavez demonstrators Nov. 2 threw bottles and rocks at police forces, who attempted to disperse them with water cannons, tear gas and plastic bullets. Similar protests had occurred on Oct. 23. The amendment proposal had also elicited strong opposition from a wide range of groups, including the Roman Catholic Church, business organizations and human rights advocates. Gen. Raul Isaias Baduel, a retired top army commander and former Chavez ally, Nov. 5 described the amendments as an effective “coup d’etat,” further energizing the protest movement. [See p. 515F1] „

Other Americas News Tropical Storm Noel Strikes Caribbean.

Tropical Storm Noel Oct. 29–Nov. 1 lashed the Caribbean with heavy rains, damaging thousands of homes and forcing mass evacuations. Officials from several countries Nov. 3 reported a combined death toll of 143 people. [See p. 579C1] The storm Oct. 29–Nov. 3 drenched the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It caused the Dominican Republic’s power grid to fail and several rivers to overflow their banks, and triggered mudslides that caused several deaths. Dominican officials Nov. 3 reported that 84 people had been confirmed dead. It was reported the same day that at least 57 people had been killed in Haiti. Noel Oct. 30 passed over Cuba, damaging or flooding some 60% of roads and forcing the evacuation of 30,000 people. The storm Nov. 1 also hit the archipelago nation of the Bahamas, killing one person. Another person died in Jamaica. „

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China IPO Lifts PetroChina Value Over $1 Trillion.

Shares in PetroChina Co., China’s largest oil and gas company, in their first day of trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Nov. 5 rose 163%, making PetroChina by far the world’s largest company by market capitalization. Its capitalization, at $1.08 trillion, was more than twice the value of the next-biggest company, U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp.—$488 billion as of Nov. 2—even though its production, revenue and profits were well below Exxon’s. [See p. 35B1] PetroChina had offered four billion shares, representing 2.2% of the company’s share capital, at 16.70 yuan (US$2.24) apiece. They closed at 43.96 yuan Nov. 5. The explosive debut reflected a recent broad increase in mainland China’s stock markets, which was driven in part by the fact that Chinese were restricted in their ability to put their money in markets elsewhere. It also highlighted the resulting gap between Chinese companies’ stock prices on mainland markets and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. PetroChina’s shares in Hong Kong Nov. 5 declined by 8%, closing at US$2.32.

Analysts said that comparisons of the market capitalization of PetroChina and other major Chinese companies with foreign counterparts were misleading because of the restricted nature of the Chinese markets, and the fact that they remained overwhelmingly state-owned. Only 13% of PetroChina was listed. However, PetroChina’s strength also reflected widespread expectations that it would enjoy strong future growth in line with China’s increasing energy demands. „

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Fiji 16 Arrested in Alleged Assassination Plot.

The interim government of Fiji announced that it had arrested a total of 16 people, foiling an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, among others, it was reported Nov. 5. Police Superintendent Isikeli Ligairi said Nov. 6 that more arrests in the case were expected. [See p. 19G3] Bainimarama issued a statement Nov. 5 attributing the plot to “disgruntled groups” at odds with the government’s efforts to ensure “a peaceful, safe and secure environment for everyone in the country.” Bainimarama the following day said that his government did not believe that foreign nations had been involved in the conspiracy, contradicting earlier government claims that nongovernmental organizations funded by Australia and New Zealand had been linked to the plot. Those arrested included former Fijian intelligence chief Col. Metuisela Mua, former military commander Col. Jone Baledrokadroka, and Ratu Inoke Takiveikata, who had been accused of involvement in a 2000 mutiny against Bainimarama, then Fiji’s military chief. Also held were two citizens of New Zealand, Ballu Khan and Sivaniolo Naulaga. [See 2006, p. 868A1] All except for Khan were among 10 suspects charged Nov. 7 with attempting to incite a mutiny in Fiji’s armed forces and plotting to kill government officials including Bainimarama, Attorney General Aihaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry (who had been overthrown as prime minister in a 2000 coup). The suspects had initially been charged with treason, but those charges were dropped Nov. 6. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark Nov. 5 said Khan had been severely beaten while in Fijian police custody. „

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Japan Coalition Offer Roils Opposition. Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Nov. 6 withdrew his resignation, which he had announced two days earlier. Ozawa had said he would quit as party president after members criticized him for holding discussions with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on forming a coalition government. However, party officials said Ozawa had agreed to remain leader at the urging of other senior members. [See p. 636D2] 739

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Fukuda Nov. 2 had broached the idea of a coalition including his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the DPJ, amid a political stalemate caused when the DPJ captured control of the upper house of the Diet (parliament). The opposition had blocked the renewal of a law temporarily allowing Japan to provide refueling assistance in the Indian Ocean to U.S. and allied forces fighting in Afghanistan. The law expired Nov. 1, forcing the suspension of the refueling program, which had begun in 2001 and whose extension the U.S. had pressed for. The government failed to win passage of the measure despite having scaled it back Oct. 17 to more narrowly confine the permitted refueling to counterterrorism operations, in a bid to gain opposition support. The DPJ after the August upper house election had announced its intention to stymie the bill and try to force the government to dissolve the lower house and call a general election. The standoff had precipitated the resignation of Premier Shinzo Abe, Fukuda’s predecessor, in September. Although the upper house was less powerful than the lower chamber, in which the LDP held a commanding majority, it was able to delay or block certain kinds of legislation. A continuing stalemate would threaten the government’s ability to pass economic reforms and other domestic measures. Fukuda made the coalition proposal in a private meeting with Ozawa. Although Ozawa did not accept the offer, his apparent willingness to consider it reportedly angered many DPJ members, who viewed it as a betrayal of the party’s pledge to present an alternative to LDP rule. In announcing his plans to resign, he apologized “for the political confusion” caused by the coalition proposal. He also said that he had considered the offer because voters did not see the DPJ as a credible potential ruling party, and it was unlikely to win a majority in a lower house election. Despite party members’ discontent with Ozawa over the episode, they were said to be anxious not to lose him, due to the absence of an obvious successor and the possibility that Ozawa might attract other defectors to a new grouping. Party Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama Nov. 5 said, “We decided to ask President Ozawa to stay on.” „

Myanmar U.N. Envoy Pushes for Talks. United Na-

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tions envoy Ibrahim Gambari met with officials from Myanmar’s ruling junta Nov. 3–8, as well as with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi Nov. 8, but was unable to speak to Gen. Than Shwe, the regime’s leader. The trip was Gambari’s second visit to Myanmar since its military rulers had violently put down peaceful mass protests in late September. His trip had been overshadowed by the junta’s Nov. 2 decision to ask the U.N.’s highest-ranking official in Myanmar to leave the country. [See below, p. 720C1] 740

During his meetings with government representatives, including the prime minister, Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, Gambari called for talks between the government and prodemocracy dissidents and for the release of political prisoners including Suu Kyi, who had been under house arrest since 2003 and detained for more than 12 of the last 18 years. His push for three-way negotiations between Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), the U.N. and the junta was rejected Nov. 7 by the government, though further talks with Suu Kyi had not been ruled out. In addition, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe Nov. 7 said that Gambari had told the junta that “a return to the status quo before the crisis would not be sustainable” and urged the government to take steps to make peace with its internal critics. Suu Kyi Issues Statement, to Meet NLD—

After leaving Myanmar, Gambari Nov. 8 issued a statement on behalf of Suu Kyi, her first official statement since 2003. Suu Kyi expressed her thanks to the U.N. for its “unwavering support” and said that “in the interest of the nation I stand ready to cooperate with the government in order to make this process of dialogue a success.” Gambari expressed optimism regarding the situation in Myanmar, saying, “We now have a process going which will lead to a dialogue” between the government and Suu Kyi, a dialogue that he said was a “key instrument in promoting national reconciliation and the goals of peace and democracy and full respect for human rights in Myanmar.” Myanmar’s state-run media said Nov. 8 that Suu Kyi would be temporarily released the next day from house arrest to allow a meeting with representatives from the NLD, the first since her imprisonment. Junta representative Maj. Gen. Aung Kyi was also expected to attend the meeting, his second with Suu Kyi since his appointment as a liaison between Suu Kyi and the ruling regime. [See p. 720F1] U.N. Official Asked to Leave—U.N. Development Program official Charles Petrie, the highest-ranking U.N. official in Myanmar, was asked to leave the country Nov. 2 by the ruling junta in response to statements Petrie made and approved regarding the situation in Myanmar. Petrie had written a statement Oct. 24 that called on the regime to recognize September’s protests as a genuine expression of popular suffering and discontent and had signed off on an Oct. 18 statement that linked the nation’s poverty to the financial mismanagement by the government. The statements contradicted the official government characterization of the protests, which the junta blamed on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Petrie was given a letter Nov. 2 by regime officials that claimed he had “jeopardized the good working relationship between the government and the United Nations” and said that Petrie’s mandate to serve in Myanmar would not be renewed. Petrie Nov. 8 said in an interview with the New York Times that he would leave Myanmar by the end of November.

U.N. Human Rights Official to Visit—

The U.N. Oct. 22 said the junta had agreed to a visit by U.N. human rights official Paulo Sergio Pinheiro. The five-day visit, to begin Nov. 11, would be his first since 2003, when he had accused the junta of undermining his investigation after finding a recording device in a room he was using to interview prisoners. Pinheiro announced Nov. 6 that he intended to demand full access to the nation’s prisoners, and said that he would leave immediately if his request was not granted. [See p. 615F1] First Monk Sentenced—Buddhist monk Eik Darea was sentenced to seven and a half years’ imprisonment for his involvement in September protests against the ruling junta following a closed trial in the town of Sittwe, Britain’s Reuters news service reported Oct. 17. Darea, 26, was charged with inciting civil unrest and illegal association, and was defrocked as part of his punishment. He was the first Buddhist monk sentenced in connection with the protests. [See p. 641A1] „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Georgia’s Saakashvili Declares Emergency Rule Amid Crackdown, Sets Presidential Election.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili Nov. 7 declared a 15-day state of emergency in the country, as a result of six days of protests in the central square of Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital. Riot police armed with water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas earlier that day had dispersed thousands of the demonstrators. Amid international condemnation of the violent crackdown, Saakashvili Nov. 8 announced that a special presidential election would be held in January 2008. [See below, pp. 741G2, 689F1] A coalition of opposition parties Nov. 2 had begun the rallies, with tens of thousands of supporters demonstrating in front of Georgia’s parliament building to protest against Saakashvili and to press for early parliamentary elections. The demonstrations had continued in smaller numbers until Nov. 7, when riot police dispersed the crowd on at least two occasions. Saakashvili’s government had at first downplayed the demonstrations, which came the same day as a conference in Tbilisi attended by diplomats from the U.S. and European Union, as part of the democratic process. Giga Bokeria, a member of parliament and spokesman for Saakashvili’s government, Nov 2. had said the protests were a “normal part of democracy” and a “natural thing that happens to all reformers.” Saakashvili’s opponents alleged that he had failed to solve ongoing problems with poverty and unemployment, had improperly transferred power from the parliament to the executive branch, was intolerant of dissent and refused to enter into dialogue with opposition leaders, often painting dissenters as foolish or as Russian sympathizers. Protesters had opposed Saakashvili’s move in 2006 to push parliamentary elections back to the fall of 2008, from the spring of FACTS ON FILE

that year, as mandated by the constitution. Some had cited fears that the parliament would become illegitimate once the term it had been elected to expired in the spring. Protesters abandoned calls for parliamentary elections and began to call for Saakashvili’s removal from office after the Nov. 7 police crackdown. Saakashvili, before announcing his proposal to hold elections in January 2008, had previously refused to comply with any of the protesters’ demands. Under the state of emergency, all protests were banned, and opposition television stations were closed. Parliament was required to approve the emergency rule order within two days after it was issued. The health ministry Nov. 7 said at least 365 people had been treated at hospitals after the protests became violent. Saakashvili Blames Russia, Sets Election—

Saakashvili, in a televised address, Nov. 7 accused “Russian special services” of causing Georgia’s unrest, and charged that the Russian government sought to remove his regime by the end of the year. “We cannot let our country become a stage for dirty geopolitical escapades by other countries,” said Saakashvili. Later, Georgian authorities announced the expulsion of three Russian diplomats for “espionage,” and the Georgian foreign minister in Moscow, Russia’s capital, was also recalled. The Russian government denied involvement with the demonstrations, and responded by expelling three Georgian diplomats from Russia. [See below] Saakashvili, in response to the violence and international condemnation, Nov. 8 in another televised address proposed a special presidential election, to take place Jan. 5, 2008, with a referendum on the date of parliamentary elections to occur on the same day. He said, “You demanded early elections but now you have them even earlier.” The pro-Western Saakashvili, 39, had implemented a number of reforms since he came to power after the peaceful “Rose Revolution” in November 2003, when protests took place in Tbilisi’s main square against his predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze. Since Saakashvili assumed power, he had pushed for membership to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union. He also had bolstered the formerly ill-prepared army and repaired infrastructure so that Georgians had a reliable electricity supply. He had also sent 2,000 Georgian troops to join U.S. forces in the Iraq war. Police Suppress Citizens, Journalists—

The main opposition television station, Imedi TV, Nov. 7 was stormed by an armed and masked special forces unit and shut down in mid-broadcast. A photographer from the New York Times that day reported that her camera had been smashed by riot police and that later she had been shot at with rubber bullets while she tried to photograph the police presence outside the Imedi TV building. Before the crackdown, Saakashvili’s government had stated that it would allow protests as long as those present did not block traffic on the centrally located November 8, 2007

Rustaveli Avenue, and did not pitch tents. Gigi Ugulava, Tbilisi’s mayor, said Georgian authorities had made a “timely decision” to clear the avenue, because he had heard protesters on television saying they intended to turn the town square into a “town of tents.” Georgian officials also cited a coup attempt as a reason for the crackdown, but did not offer specifics. Foreign Reaction—Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, secretary general of the North Atlantic Trade Organization (NATO), which Georgia under Saakashvili had been attempting to join, Nov. 8 said emergency rule and media suppression were “not in line with EuroAtlantic values.” The U.S., France and Britain had also expressed concern over the situation, according to an article posted Nov. 8 on Voice of America’s Web site. U.S.-based watchdog group Human Rights Watch called the situation a “complete abuse of the use of force,” and said the government did not have the right to “restrict fundamental freedoms just because it is in crisis.” The Russian government had yet to make an official statement regarding Saakashvili’s accusations, but spokesman Dmitry Peskov Nov. 7 said there was no need to make a statement about “every emotional speech” by Saakashvili. Also, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that day called the recent unrest “a domestic issue for Georgia and its people.” Saakashvili had recently confronted Russian troops near the breakaway territory of Abkhazia in front of television cameras, and accused them of beating several members of a Georgian security force. Saakashvili’s most recent accusations against Russia marked a deepening rift between the countries, whose relations had been steadily eroding in recent months. [See p. 516B1] Ex-Minister

Renews

Allegations—

Saakashvili’s former defense minister, Irakli Okruashvili, whose arrest in late September had sparked the antigovernment protests, appeared Nov. 5 on Imedi TV. Okruashvili renewed his claim that Saakashvili had ordered the murder of Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, and apologized for recanting his accusations against the president while he had been detained. Okruashvili was currently in Munich, Germany, where he claimed to be a political refugee. However, Georgian officials claimed he requested permission to travel abroad for medical treatment. Patarkatsishvili owned Imedi TV in partnership with international media conglomerate News Corp., chaired by Rupert Murdoch. Okruashvili in early October had been released from custody on $6 million bail after his recantation. „

Russian troops that their commander, Gen. Sergei Chaban, was unwelcome in Georgia and “if such an incident occurs again, you will draw Russia and Georgia into an enormous provocation.” [See pp. 740C3, 516B1] Abkhazia and another Georgian breakaway region, South Ossetia, claimed de facto independence from Georgia and had formed their own governments, which pressed for closer relations with Russia. Russian peacekeeping troops were stationed in Abkhazia. However, Abkhazia was recognized internationally as part of Georgia, and Saakashvili had pledged to bring it back under Georgian control. Georgian officials claimed the policemen were part of a larger group protecting a youth camp in Abkhazia that had been established by central Georgian powers, and that the Russian troops had illegally crossed into restricted territory. Saakashvili Oct. 30 alleged the policemen “were subjected to a truly criminal and banditlike attack, they were disarmed, their hands were bound, and they were beaten sadistically.” Chaban claimed that his troops had transferred the policemen over to Georgian officials, and that they had been detained after threatening to open fire on his troops. He also stated, according to Russia’s ItarTass news agency, that he was “not accountable to President Saakashvili,” and that he would not leave the region. Russia claimed the troops were there as a result of a joint decision of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). [See p. 730E1] Both Russian and Abkhazian media outlets claimed Saakashvili was using the incident as a publicity stunt aimed at deflecting media attention from upcoming protests against him. Georgian opposition leaders were planning a massive rally in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, for Nov. 2, the anniversary of the country’s 2003 “Rose Revolution,” which had brought Saakashvili to power. [See pp. 741E1, 689D2] The confrontation was captured by television cameras, and showed Georgian security forces scuffling with Russian troops, who fired machine guns into the air before departing. The cameras also recorded the release of men Georgia claimed were the beaten police officers. Saakashvili said later that day that he would demand the removal of Russian troops from the province at the United Nations Security Council. The incident was the latest in a string of conflicts between Russia and Georgia. Earlier in the year Georgia had accused Russia of flying into Georgian airspace and firing a missile at a town near Tbilisi. Russia had also imposed a series of trade restrictions on Georgia. „

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Saakashvili Confronts Russian Troops.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili Oct. 30 confronted Russian peacekeeping troops near the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia, after they had allegedly detained and beaten several Georgian policemen. Saakashvili arrived by helicopter at the site of the conflict, the village of Ganmukhuri, located in a security zone between Georgia and Abkhazia. He told the

Finland Student Fatally Shoots Nine at High School.

A student at Jokela High School in Tuusula, Finland, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Helsinki, the capital, Nov. 7 shot to death six other students, the school nurse and the principal, then shot himself in the head, using a .22 caliber handgun. He also appar-

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ently tried unsuccessfully to start a fire. He died in a hospital several hours after the attack. [See p. 558G1; 2002, p. 320F2] The killer, identified as Pekka-Eric Auvinen, 18, had posted a video on the Internet site YouTube hours before the rampage. It was titled, “The Jokela High School Massacre, 11/7/2007.” In the video, he vowed to “eliminate all who I see unfit.” Police said he had legally obtained the weapon a few days earlier. He belonged to a gun club and had received a pistol permit Oct. 19. Finland had the third-highest rate of per capita gun ownership in the world, after the U.S. and Yemen. But violence in Finnish schools had been rare, with only four nonfatal stabbings reported since 1999. „

Spain Civil War Remembrance Law Approved.

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The lower house of the Spanish parliament Oct. 31 passed legislation that sought to redress victims on both sides of Spain’s 1936–39 civil war, and condemned the resulting fascist dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco, which lasted until Franco’s death in 1975. The measure was called the Law of Historical Memory. It had been championed by Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose grandfather had been executed by Franco’s forces. The bill would take effect upon its expected approval by the Senate. [See 2006, p. 17C3] The law provided funding for locating and reburying the remains of thousands of people who had died fighting for the leftist Republican government against Franco’s Nationalist forces during the civil war. The remains of Franco’s supporters had been buried with honors during his rule, while his opponents were left in mass graves. The law declared that military trials that had condemned thousands of Franco opponents to execution or imprisonment were “illegitimate.” It also banned public commemorations of Franco’s rule. Mariano Rajoy, leader of the Popular Party, the main conservative opposition to Zapatero’s government, had criticized the legislation for reopening the divisions of the civil war. Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican Oct. 28 had beatified nearly 500 priests, nuns and other Roman Catholics killed during the Spanish Civil War by leftist supporters of the Republican government. It was reportedly the biggest mass beatification ceremony in history. (Beatification was the first step toward sainthood.) The church had backed Franco in the civil war, and thousands of clergy members had been killed by Republican forces. [See 2002, p. 1002A2] „

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Afghanistan Bombs Kill Dozens of Civilians. As many

as two bombs Nov. 6 exploded next to a sugar factory in the northern province of 742

Baghlan, killing up to 52 civilians and wounding more than 100. Six members of Afghanistan’s parliament and at least 18 children were among the dead. The attack was thought to be the work of suicide bombers, which would make it the deadliest suicide attack since U.S.- and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)–led forces toppled the Taliban from power in 2001. [See p. 674E2] The attack was seen as a push by the Taliban or other Islamic extremists to spread violence to Afghanistan’s northern regions. Violence related to an insurgency led by the Taliban had largely been contained to areas in the east and south of the country. A purported Taliban spokesman denied that the Taliban was involved in the attack, but officials and observers said it bore similarities to recent suicide attacks by the Taliban and international terrorist network Al Qaeda. The lawmakers were part of an 18member parliamentary delegation that was supposed to tour the sugar factory; the bomb exploded as they were welcomed outside the factory by a large group of children, teachers and local elders. Among the slain lawmakers was Sayed Mustafa Kazemi, a former commerce minister and a prominent member of the Northern Alliance, a group that had fought against the Taliban during its 1996–2001 rule. Kazemi was also one of the leaders of the National Front, an opposition party composed of northern minority groups and some Pashtuns from the south, who made up the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai Nov. 7 condemned the attacks and called for three days of national mourning. Karzai said an investigation into the attack was under way. Gates Criticizes NATO Members— U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Oct. 25 criticized members of NATO for not committing enough troops and resources to fight the Taliban insurgency. He said, “A handful of allies are paying the price and bearing the burdens.” The remark was an apparent reference to the fact that only four of the 36 nations committed to the U.S.- and NATO-led force took on almost all of the dangerous combat assignments: the U.S., Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made similar remarks later that day, following a meeting Oct. 24–25 of NATO defense ministers in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer Oct. 24, following the opening of the meeting, announced that nine countries had committed additional troops to the Afghanistan mission. The announcement was intended to mollify the Netherlands government, which had threatened to pull its troops from the volatile Uruzgan province if other countries did not provide additional forces. De Hoop Scheffer did not disclose which countries had made the commitments, nor how many troops each would provide. The number of new troops was expected to be small. However, he said some would be assigned to the southern regions of Afghanistan, where violence was heaviest.

Disagreements between the NATO members on troop deployment were due to the unpopularity of the Afghan mission in various European countries, including the Netherlands and Germany, as well as Canada. U.S. officials argued that the lack of troops prevented the coalition from holding territory it had won from the insurgents. While the coalition had made some progress training an Afghan army that could provide security, it had been less successful in training and funding a national police force. NATO members also disagreed over how the coalition should tackle opium farming used to produce heroin. U.S. officials believed eradication of opium would cut one of the Taliban’s sources of revenue. Some NATO officials argued that eradication of opium was not part of the coalition’s mission, and could lead farmers dependent on the crop to join the Taliban. Afghanistan was the largest producer of opium in the world. Other Developments—In other developments related to the Afghan conflict: † The Associated Press Nov. 6 reported that more than 5,700 people, most of whom were militants, had died thus far in 2007 in violence related to the insurgency, according to casualty numbers made available by U.S., NATO and Afghan officials. † Fighting between hundreds of Taliban soldiers and NATO forces Oct. 30–31 left 50 Taliban dead, local Afghan officials said Nov. 1. The clashes occurred 15 miles (25 km) north of Kandahar, the southern region’s largest city, and marked the closest the Taliban had come to the city since the NATO invasion in 2001. Thousands of villagers had fled the Arghandab district in anticipation of prolonged fighting. The Taliban was reportedly feeling out the area for support, after an influential local leader, who had been against the Taliban, had died two weeks earlier of a heart attack. † U.S. officials Oct. 28 said U.S. and Afghan forces had killed about 80 Taliban fighters the previous day near the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province. Officials said a group of insurgents Oct. 27 had ambushed an army patrol, and had been repelled by gunfire and airstrikes during a sixhour battle. † U.S. President George W. Bush Oct. 22 posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the U.S.’s highest military award, to Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy during a ceremony at the White House. Murphy had died in action in the Hindu Kush mountains in June 2005. According to Navy reports, during an ambush by Taliban fighters, he knowingly placed himself in the line of enemy gunfire, in order to catch a radio signal to call in support for his team. Murphy was the first service member to receive a Medal of Honor for extraordinary valor in the Afghan conflict. „

Sri Lanka Tamil Tigers Leader Killed in Air Strike.

Sri Lankan government forces Nov. 2 in an air strike killed S.P. Tamilselvan, the FACTS ON FILE

leader of the political wing of the rebel group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The strike was part of an attack on a rebel hideout near the northern town of Kilinochchi, which the rebels considered their capital. The strike killed five other rebel officers. [See p. 423E3; 2005, p. 563B1] Tamilselvan’s death was a blow to the LTTE. He had been the group’s most prominent international figure, and its principal negotiator for a resolution to a conflict that began in 1983 and had led to 70,000 deaths. Tamilselvan was thought to be second in command to Velupillai Prabhakaran, the reclusive LTTE chief. Analysts warned that his death could hinder any peace process, and that the conflict was quickly becoming an all-out civil war. [See 2006, p. 1033C3] The LTTE in a statement released Nov. 2 acknowledged “with deep sorrow” that Tamilselvan had been killed. The government’s defense secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, that day said the government would target the LTTE leadership “one by one.” Tamilselvan had been an active LTTE soldier until 1993, when he was injured during a battle with government forces. He had also been a bodyguard for Prabhakaran. After a 2002 cease-fire between the government and the rebels, Tamilselvan eclipsed Anton Balasingham as the rebels’ top negotiator; Balasingham died in 2006. That cease-fire had fallen apart in late 2005. [See 2002, p. 134C2] While Tamilselvan had repeatedly told the international community that the LTTE wanted a peaceful resolution to the conflict, he was also committed to the LTTE’s central demand that ethnic Tamils receive a separate homeland. The majority of Sri Lankans were of Sinhalese ethnicity, and the Tamils had accused them of oppression. The U.S. and the European Union considered the LTTE a terrorist organization. ‘Black Tigers’ Attack Air Base—The LTTE Oct. 22 carried out a ground and air assault on a government air base, killing as many as 14 service members and destroying eight aircraft. The rebel ground assault was conducted by 21 members of its suicide squad, known as the Black Tigers. At least 20 rebels died in the attack. The base was 130 miles (210 km) north of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital. [See p. 199B1; 2000, p. 706F2] It was the LTTE’s first joint ground and air attack on government forces. Two light aircraft dropped two bombs on the base, and escaped unharmed. The LTTE had a small air force that had last been deployed in April to bomb government oil installations in Colombo. The attack was the first LTTE military success in months, since the government began a series of air strikes on rebel strongholds. The government had declared in July that it had regained control of the eastern part of the country from the LTTE. That left the rebels with strongholds in the country’s north. „ November 8, 2007

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Baseball Torre Leaves Yankees, Joins Dodgers.

New York Yankees manager Joe Torre Oct. 18 rejected a one-year contract offer from the team, marking the end of his 12-year tenure at the Yankees’ helm. Torre Nov. 1 signed a three-year deal to manage the Los Angeles Dodgers. [See pp. 723E1, 708A1; 2004, p. 284E1] It had been widely predicted that team owner George Steinbrenner and other Yankees officials would seek to replace Torre if the team did not win the 2007 World Series. Steinbrenner Oct. 7 had suggested that Torre’s job would be in jeopardy if the team did not beat the Cleveland Indians in the first round of the playoffs. The Yankees lost the series to the Indians the next day. Torre, 67, had managed the Yankees since 1996, and led the Yankees to four World Series titles—in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000. He accumulated 1,173 wins as Yankees manager, the most in team history behind leader Joe McCarthy (1,460 wins), and led the Yankees to 12 straight postseason appearances. He was also widely respected by the players and the notoriously demanding New York fans. Torre was reportedly offered a one-year, $5 million base contract, $2.5 million less than he had earned in 2007. The new contract included incentives of $1 million each if the team reached the playoffs, the League Championship Series and the World Series—a potential total of $3 million. In a news conference Oct. 19, Torre called the inclusion of incentives insulting after having had so much success in the past. “If somebody wanted me to manage here, I’d be managing here,” he said, implying that the Yankees’ management did not really want him to return. Steinbrenner, 77, in recent years had ceded some control over the franchise to his sons, Hank Steinbrenner and Hal Steinbrenner. The two sons, along with general manager Brian Cashman and Randy Levine, the team president, reportedly were instrumental in crafting the deal offered to Torre. Yankees Hire Girardi—The Yankees Oct. 30 hired former catcher Joe Girardi, who won three World Series with them in the 1990s, as their new manager. Girardi had been named manager of the year in 2006 for leading the Florida Marlins in his debut year as a manager; however, he was fired prior to receiving the award after clashing with owner Jeffrey Loria. He had worked for the Yankees organization as a television analyst in the 2007 season. The Yankees chose Girardi, who signed a three-year, $7.8 million contract, over Don Mattingly, a popular former Yankees captain who had served as Torre’s bench coach in 2007. Mattingly resigned after Girardi’s hiring was announced. [See 2006, p. 920A1] When he was introduced as the Yankees’ new manager Nov. 1, Girardi was given number 27—which was seen as a signal that the goal of his tenure was to bring the team its 27th World Series title.

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685) 1. Publication title: Facts On File 2. Publication No. 183–680 3. Date of filing: November 7, 2007. 4. Frequency of issue: weekly. 5. Number of issues published annually: 52. 6. Annual subscription price: $1,090.00 7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, 22nd Floor, New York, NY 10018-4721. 8. Complete mailing address of the headquarters or general business offices of the publisher: Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, 22nd Floor, New York, NY 10018-4721. 9. Publisher: Louise Bloomfield, Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10018-4721. Editor: Jonathan Taylor, Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, 21st Floor, New York, NY 100184721. Managing Editor: Jonathan Taylor, Facts On File News Services, 512 Seventh Avenue, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10018-4721. 10. Owner: Facts On File Inc., 132 West 31st Street, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10001; 100% owned by IHI Acquisition Inc. 11. Known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding one percent or more of the total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None. 12. Not applicable. 13. Publication title: Facts On File 14. Issue date for circulation data below: October 25, 2007. 15. A. Total no. copies printed (net press run): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 1,966. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 1,856. B. Paid and/or requested circulation: 1. Paid/requested outside-county mail subscriptions stated on Form 3541. (Include advertiser’s proof and exchange copies): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 1,105. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 984. 2. Paid in-county subscriptions stated on Form 3541 (include advertiser’s proof and exchange copies): None. 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other non-USPS paid distribution: None. 4. Other classes mailed through the USPS: None. C. Total paid and/or requested circulation [sum of 15B(1), (2), (3) and (4)]: Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 1,105. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 984. D. Free distribution by mail (samples, complimentary, and other free copies): 1. Outside-county as stated on Form 3541: Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: None. Single issue published nearest to filing date: None. 2. In-county as stated on Form 3541: Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: None. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: None. 3. Other classes mailed through the USPS: Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 22. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 22. E. Free distribution outside the mail (carriers or other means): None. F. Total free distribution (sum of 15D and 15E). Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 22. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 22. G. Total distribution (sum of 15C and 15F). Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 1,127. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 1,006. H. Copies not distributed. Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 839. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 850. I. Total (Sum of 15G and 15H): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 1,966. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 1,856. J. Percent paid and/or requested circulation (15C, divided by 15G, times 100): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 98.0. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 98.0. 16. Publication of Statement of Ownership will be printed in the November 8, 2007 issue of this publication. 17. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. (Signed) Jonathan Taylor, Editor.

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Torre Nov. 1 signed a three-year, $13 million deal with the Dodgers. His predecessor, Grady Little, had resigned Oct. 30. Mattingly joined Torre’s staff in Los Angeles. Rodriguez Opts Out of Contract— Scott Boras, the agent for star third baseman Alex Rodriguez, Oct. 28 said his client would exercise an opt-out clause in his contract with the Yankees, and would become a free agent. Rodriguez opted out of the final three years of the 10-year, $252 million deal he had signed with the Texas Rangers in 2000. [See p. 519A3; 2004, p. 192A1] The Yankees would still be able to negotiate with Rodriguez. However, they had said they would not do so because his opting out meant that the Rangers were no longer obligated to pay the Yankees a portion of his salary, which they had agreed to do when they traded him to New York in 2004. Other News—In other MLB news: † The Philadelphia Phillies Nov. 7 acquired closer Brad Lidge and infielder Eric Bruntlett from the Houston Astros for outfielder Michael Bourn, pitcher Geoff Geary and a minor-leaguer. † MLB’s general managers, meeting in Orlando, Fla., Nov. 6 voted, 25–5, to recommend that instant video replay be used to assist umpires in certain types of calls. Those calls included so-called boundary calls, such as whether a potential home run was fair or foul. It was the first time the general managers had endorsed instant replay. The National Football League, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League all used some variety of video review. † The Kansas City Royals Oct. 19 named Trey Hillman as their new manager. Hillman had spent the previous five years managing in Japan. He replaced Buddy Bell, who had resigned at the end of the season. [See p. 659B2] † The Cincinnati Reds Oct. 14 hired Dusty Baker as their new manager. Baker, a three-time manager of the year, had previously served as skipper of the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs. He replaced interim manager Pete Mackanin, who had been filling in since Jerry Narron was fired in July. [See p. 455E1; 2006, p. 773E3] † John Schuerholz Oct. 11 stepped down from his position as general manager of the Atlanta Braves. During his 17-year tenure, the Braves had won 14 straight division titles and one World Series. The 67-year-old Schuerholz would become team president. † The Pittsburgh Pirates Oct. 5 fired manager Jim Tracy. John Russell Nov. 6 was hired as his replacement. [See 2005, p. 744A3] † The St. Louis Cardinals Oct. 3 fired general manager Walt Jocketty after 13 seasons with the team. The team Oct. 31 hired assistant general manager John Mozeliak to replace Jocketty. [See 1994, p. 807F1] „ More MLB Players Linked to Drugs. The San Francisco Chronicle Oct. 21 reported that Cleveland Indians pitcher Paul Byrd had received, between 2002 and 2005, several shipments of human growth hormone (HGH) and syringes worth some $25,000 744

from a Florida anti-aging clinic. The clinic, the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center, was currently under investigation by the Albany County, N.Y., district attorney’s office for providing performance-enhancing drugs. [See p. 658E2] Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell (D, Maine), who was leading a probe by Major League Baseball (MLB) into drug use among players, Oct. 22 denied that he had leaked Byrd’s name to the newspaper. Byrd that day admitted taking HGH—which was not banned by MLB until January 2005—for a “pituitary gland issue” for which he was under a doctor’s care and which he claimed the Indians and MLB were aware of. MLB did not test its players for HGH. The Chronicle Nov. 6 reported that Seattle Mariners outfielder Jose Guillen and retired players Matt Williams and Ismael Valdez had received HGH and steroids from the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center. The New York Times Nov. 8 reported that Mitchell had set a deadline of Nov. 10 for players to submit documentary evidence to his probe and to undergo interviews with his investigators. Thomas Carlucci, Mitchell’s liaison with MLB’s 30 teams, Oct. 12 had told the teams that they should be prepared for his final report, which was expected to be released by the end of 2007, to publicly name players implicated in illicit drug use. In a related development, San Diego Padres center fielder Mike Cameron Oct. 31 was suspended for 25 games for a second positive test for a banned stimulant. [See p. 659B2] „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom. President George W. Bush Nov. 5 honored eight people with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the U.S.’s highest civilian honor. The awards ceremony was held at the White House. [See 2006, p. 987C2] Six of the honorees were present for the occasion. One of the missing recipients was Cuban physician and human rights activist Oscar Elias Biscet, 46. Currently a political prisoner in Cuba, he was described as being in poor health. The Cuban government had originally arrested him and banned him from practicing medicine after he released a study of its policy of compulsory abortions. His medal was presented to his son, Yan Valdes Morejon, and his daughter, Winnie Biscet. The other recipients were: Gary S. Becker, 76, Nobel Prize–winning econo-

mist [See 1992, p. 805A3]

Francis S. Collins, 57, geneticist and physician

who was director of the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute [See 2000, p. 437B1] Benjamin L. Hooks, 82, executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1977 to 1993 [See 1993, p. 268B3] Henry J. Hyde, 83, Illinois Republican who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 32 years (1975–2007) and was known for his opposition to abortion and his leading role in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s [See 2006, p. 858A1; 2005, p. 266E1]

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 69, president of Liberia since late 2005 and the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa [See 2005, p. 832E1] Brian Lamb, 66, public affairs broadcaster and chief executive of the C-SPAN cable television channel since its inception in 1979 [See 2003, p. 154E3] Harper Lee, 81, reclusive author of the celebrated novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) [See 2005, p. 580A2] „

People Actress Pamela Anderson, 40, Oct. 6 in Las Vegas, Nev., married Rick Salomon, 39, whom she referred to as a longtime friend. Salomon was Anderson’s third husband; her divorce from singer Kid Rock, briefly her second husband, had officially been finalized on May 28. Her first husband had been rock musician Tommy Lee, with whom she had made a notorious sex tape in the 1990s, while they were still married. Salomon was perhaps best known for a sex tape that had surfaced on the Internet in 2003. His female partner in that tape was former girlfriend and hotel heiress Paris Hilton. [See p. 424C3; 2006, p. 1042A2; 1998, p. 142B3] „

O B I T UA R I E S BRACKEN, Peg (Ruth Eleanor), 89, author of The I Hate to Cook Book (1960) and other best-selling cookbooks designed to make cooking quick and easy; born Feb. 25, 1918, in Filer, Idaho; died Oct. 20 at her home in Portland, Ore., of pulmonary fibrosis. [See 1967, p. 128F2] FEKLISOV, Aleksandr, 93, onetime Soviet master spy who supervised a number of foreign agents, including Julius Rosenberg, who with his wife, Ethel Rosenberg, was executed by the U.S. in 1953 for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union; in 1997, he told Western media sources that Julius Rosenberg had provided no useful atomic secrets and that Ethel Rosenberg had not been a spy herself; he was widely credited with helping defuse the Cuban missile crisis; born March 9, 1914, in Moscow; died Oct. 26; details of his death were not revealed. [See 1997, p. 413B1] FORSBERG, Randall (born Randall Caroline Watson), 64, arms control expert who in 1980 published a

manifesto, “The Call to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race,” that helped spark the nuclear freeze movement that surged in the early 1980s; she continued her work as the founder of a research organization, the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies, that in 2006 moved to the City University of New York (CUNY) when she joined its faculty as a professor of political science; born July 23, 1943, in Huntsville, Ala.; died Oct. 19 at a New York City hospital, of endometrial cancer. KHUN Sa (Chang Chi-fu), 73, longtime drug lord in eastern Myanmar; for three decades, until he turned himself in—with amnesty—in 1996, he headed what was widely considered the world’s largest heroin-trafficking ring, controlling the drug trade in the “Golden Triangle” region straddling Myanmar, Laos and Thailand; born Feb. 17, 1934; died Oct. 26 in Yangon, Myanmar; he was thought to have been ailing from high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. [See 2000, p. 426G1; 1996, p. 11D3; Indexes 1995, 1982] MAZEL, Judy, 63, self-educated nutritionist whose 1981 best-selling book, The Beverly Hills Diet, laid out a weight-loss plan based on eating nothing but fruit for the first 10 days and then eating meals that avoided mixing carbohydrates with proteins; born Dec. 20, 1943, in Chicago; died Oct. 12 at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., from complications of peripheral vascular disease. [See 1981, p. 844F1] TIBBETS Jr., Paul Warfield, 92, commander and pilot of the Enola Gay, the U.S. aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945; the aircraft was a B-29 Superfortress that he named after his mother; an Army Air Forces colonel at the time of the bombing, he retired from the U.S. military with the rank of brigadier general in 1966; born Feb. 23, 1915, in Quincy, Ill.; died Nov. 1 at his home in Columbus, Ohio, after a period of failing health; he had reportedly had a series of strokes. [See 2003, p. 132F3; 1953, p. 38M; Index 1945] „

November 8, 2007

Bhutto Calls for Musharraf’s Resignation in Pakistan Seeks to Form United Opposition. Former

AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images

Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Nov. 13 demanded that President Pervez Musharraf resign as president and army chief of staff. Bhutto also said she wanted to join forces with her political rivals to form a broad alliance against Musharraf. Musharraf had declared a state of emergency 10 days earlier, after it became apparent that the Supreme Court would rule that his October reelection as president was unlawful. He suspended the constitution, dismissed the chief justice of the court and shut down private television stations. [See below, p. 725A1] Bhutto spoke after she had been placed under house arrest Nov. 12 in Lahore, in Punjab province, and government security forces Nov. 13 prevented her supporters from conducting a planned “long march” of more than 200 miles (320 km) from Lahore to Islamabad, the capital, to protest the emergency decree. Bhutto Nov. 13 told a cable television channel, “Pakistan and Musharraf cannot coexist. He must go. My dialogue with him is over.” She added that she had reached out to her fellow opposition politicians “to build a broad-based alliance with a onepoint agenda for the restoration of democracy and the rule of law.” Bhutto said her “breaking point” with Musharraf was when she learned from members of her party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), that about 7,500 PPP supporters had been arrested since the decree was announced. Independent accounts placed the number of people arrested since the decree in the thousands. The government Nov. 9–15 continued to arrest supporters of opposition political parties, lawyers loyal to the chief justice, and human-rights activists. Anti-government demonstrators continued to clash with security forces in cities across the country. Nearly every prominent oppo-

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Nov. 10 addressing journalists protesting a state of emergency declared earlier in the month by President Pervez Musharraf, in Islamabad, the capital.

sition politician had been detained or placed under house arrest. [See below] Bhutto’s comments were her strongest to date protesting the decree. It was the first time she had called on Musharraf to resign as president. (Musharraf had promised to resign as army chief several times in recent weeks, but had set no specific date for his resignation.) Her comments appeared to scuttle any chances that Bhutto and Musharraf would finalize a power-sharing agreement, which had been negotiated for months. The agreement reportedly would have allowed Musharraf to remain president, while Bhutto would become prime minister if her party won parliamentary elections that Musharraf had set for January. [See below] Those talks had been backed by the U.S. government, which viewed Musharraf as a valuable ally in its worldwide fight against terrorism. Backing from Bhutto, the leader of Pakistan’s largest political party, could have given new legitimacy to Musharraf, who had come to power in a 1999 coup. Musharraf’s popularity had waned since March, when he attempted to suspend Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, after Chaudhry ruled against the government in several cases. The move had sparked prodemocracy rallies across the country that called for Musharraf’s ouster. Chaudhry was placed under house arrest shortly after the emergency decree was announced. National Unity Government Proposed—

In an interview with the Associated Press (AP), Bhutto Nov. 15 said she was in discussions with other opposition political parties to form a national unity government that would replace Musharraf’s regime ahead of the scheduled January parliamentary elections. Bhutto confirmed that she had spoken with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, her political rival and head of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party, about allying against Musharraf. [See p. 598D2] Sharif Nov. 14 told Reuters news agency, “We are ready to set aside our differences” with Bhutto and the PPP. Sharif was living in exile in Saudi Arabia; he had returned to Pakistan in September, only to be forced from the country hours later. Other parties involved in the discussions included Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist party led by Qazi Hussein Ahmed, and the Pakistan Justice Movement, a party led by former cricket player Imran Khan, who was arrested by police Nov. 14. [See below, p. 582C2; 2006, p. 162C2] Observers said the proposed alliance could change the nature of the movement against Musharraf. Thus far, opposition factions had not coordinated their protests. Bhutto had been criticized for acting independently, and trying to salvage the powersharing agreement with Musharraf through back channels, while publicly denouncing him. Bhutto said her call for a caretaker government was meant as an assurance to the U.S. that Pakistan would be stable if Musharraf was ousted from power. Interna-

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3492* November 15, 2007

B tional observers had raised concerns that a destabilized Pakistan could give Islamic extremists access to the country’s nuclear weapons. Interim Prime Minister Named—Musharraf Nov. 15 appointed Mohammedmian Soomro as interim prime minister, replacing Shaukhat Aziz. Parliament was dissolved Nov. 15, as previously scheduled. A caretaker government headed by Soomro, scheduled to be sworn in Nov. 16, would oversee the January parliamentary elections. Soomro was a member of Musharraf’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PMLQ) party. Musharraf kept his post as president. His term had also been scheduled to expire Nov. 15, but the emergency decree extended it. Musharraf also gave the office of the president the right to implement or lift a state of emergency. He had issued the decree using his authority as army chief. The change would give him authority over

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Bhutto calls for Pakistani President Musharraf’s resignation; seeks to form united opposition.

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U.S. House passes conditional Iraq, Afghanistan war funds. PAGE 747

Bernanke warns of U.S. economic slowdown. PAGE 748

Mukasey sworn in as U.S. attorney general. PAGE 750

Chad arrests French aid workers for child kidnapping.

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Congo, Rwanda reach deal to disarm Hutu rebels. PAGE 755

Cambodia arrests Rouge officials.

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Danish PM’s coalition wins third term. PAGE 758

MLB star Bonds indicted on perjury, obstruction charges. PAGE 760 *First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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The court under Chaudhry had started an investigation into the disappearance of some 250 people taken into government custody. The court had also said that Musharraf’s reelection would not be official until the court ruled on petitions challenging its legality. Musharraf said television stations had to be shut down, because he wanted to protect the country against a “distortion of facts.” He also defended the expulsion of three British journalists for the Daily Telegraph, after the newspaper published an editorial Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf at a news conference in Islamthe capital, Nov. 11, at which he defended his decision to declare Nov. 9 that he deemed per- abad, a state of emergency and dismiss Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar sonally insulting. He said the Mohammed Chaudhry. paper owed him an apology. Bhutto Nov. 10 also attended a rally led Bhutto Rally Blocked—Some 8,500 police officers Nov. 9 swarmed the garrison by journalists protesting the government town of Rawalpindi to squelch a PPP rally lockdown on independent media. U.S., International Reactions— Gordon that was to be held there that day to protest Musharraf’s decree. Bhutto was detained at Johndroe, a spokesman for the administraher Islamabad home, which was surrounded tion of U.S. President George W. Bush, by barbed wire and riot police. Police during Nov. 15 said, “The president would like to the night had also arrested more PPP sup- see everyone detained during this period released, and for the state of emergency to porters. Government officials said the crack- be lifted.” U.S. officials had consistently called for down was necessaryto enforce the ban on public rallies under the state of emergen- Musharraf to resign as army chief, lift the cy. Additionally, officials said the rally state of emergency, and schedule free and would have been a magnet for suicide fair elections. However, they had refrained bombers, and that they had information from sharply criticizing Musharraf. Bush Nov. 10 praised Musharraf for his suggesting that an attack on Bhutto was aid in capturing terrorists, saying, “That imminent. Bhutto had been the target of a suicide would not have happened without Presiattack in October, when she returned to Pa- dent Musharraf honoring his word.” Rice, in an interview published Nov. 9 kistan after spending eight years in exile. The attack killed more than 140 people in the Dallas Morning News, said Musharwho were part of a procession welcoming her home. Bhutto said the government was using the threats against her as a pretext to quell popular dissent. She spoke to reporters On File from behind barbed wire, saying, “These Facts World News Digest With Index barbed wires are not here for me as an indi- (ISSN 0014-6641) vidual, but against the hopes and aspira- Publication #183680 tions of the people of Pakistan.” EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jonathan Taylor Some observers speculated that the inciMANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham dent was choreographed, since it allowed SENIOR EDITOR: Joshua Lustig both Bhutto and Musharraf to appear as if EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Ryu Spaeth they were sticking by their principles, ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Todd Grennan, Ian McGullam, Shannon O’Toole while avoiding a direct confrontation. The DATABASE COORDINATOR: Ben Miller two at the time were thought to be conductINDEX EDITOR: Jonathan Leith ing negotiations on the power-sharing COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg agreement. EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Ernesto Malinis Jr., John Wright Bhutto Nov. 10 attempted to visit Chaudhry’s home in Islamabad, where he FACTS ON FILE World News Digest is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, an imprint of Infohad been detained since the decree was anbase Publishing, 132 West 31st Street, 17th Floor, New nounced. Bhutto was rebuffed by security York, N.Y. 10001 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a forces. Surrounded by her supporters, she year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. Vice Prescalled for his release, saying, “He is the ident & Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Associate Pubreal chief justice,” in reference to the fact lisher: Marjorie B. Bank. Periodicals postage paid at that Musharraf had replaced Chaudhry New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTwith one of his allies. MASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, Facts On File News Services, 132 Chaudhry and the country’s lawyers West 31st Street, 17th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10001 had spearheaded the democracy movement For help with your subscription, call us toll free at after Chaudhry was suspended in March. 1-800-363-7976, ext. 4223 or 4226. For access to this Some lawyers reportedly distrusted Bhutpublication online go to to’s approach to them, suspecting that she www.facts.com/FF7 or visit our Web site at www.facts.com. was secretly negotiating with Musharraf. Printed in the U.S.A.

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emergency rule even if he stepped down from his military post. Khan Arrested—Police Nov. 14 arrested Khan, after he emerged from hiding to lead a rally protesting the emergency decree at Punjab University in Lahore. Khan’s party was highly popular among student activists, but a group of students from Jamaat-eIslami reportedly seized him and turned him over to police. Khan had gone into hiding the day the decree was announced, and was one of the last major opposition figures to have evaded the government crackdown. Abida Hussein, a former ambassador to the U.S. and a member of the PPP, was also arrested that day. Musharraf Sets Election Date— In his first press conference since announcing the state of emergency, Musharraf Nov. 11 said parliamentary elections would be held by Jan. 9, 2008. He had previously said the elections would be held before Feb. 15. Observers said the change of schedule was due to international and domestic pressure. Musharraf refused to specify when the state of emergency would end, but said it would last through the election. He also refused to say when he would resign as army chief. The confirmation of an election schedule drew cautious praise from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Bhutto, although both said the emergency decree should be lifted before the elections. Sharif was more critical, saying the elections would be “the biggest joke in the democratic history of any country in the world.” Several parties suggested that they would boycott the elections. The decree banned public gatherings and severely restricted reporting by independent media. Musharraf also announced that new legal amendments would allow military courts to try civilians for a variety of offenses, including “giving statements conducive to public mischief.” While the government said that the amendments were necessary to combat Islamic extremism, critics said they would be used to stifle public dissent. Additionally, the amendments were made retroactive to 2003, which critics said would enable the government to justify the disappearances of many people who had been taken into government custody in recent years. [See p. 551C2] Musharraf used the press conference to justify the state of emergency, saying it would save the country from the “turmoil and shock and confusion” caused by rising Islamic extremism. He also said the decree was necessary “to ensure peace and an atmosphere conducive to elections.” Musharraf defended his decision to dismiss Chaudhry, saying the Supreme Court’s recent rulings had left the government in a “state of semi-paralysis,” which “totally demoralized” security forces and “encouraged” terrorists. Musharraf added that Chaudhry was corrupt and had tried to “gain cheap popularity.”

raf was “someone who has tried to fight terrorism.” She said the U.S. had to “remain engaged” with Pakistan. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was scheduled to visit Pakistan Nov. 16. He was expected to urge Musharraf to lift the state of emergency. U.S. officials reportedly were also growing increasingly concerned that Musharraf’s government was not doing enough to combat Islamic extremists in the Swat Valley region, in the country’s northwest. The Pakistani army Nov. 15 reported that it had killed 41 supporters of Maulana Fazlullah, an Islamic fundamentalist cleric who had taken control of parts of Swat. [See p. 722E3] Foreign ministers of the Commonwealth, a grouping of Britain and its former colonies, Nov. 12 said Pakistan would be suspended from the 53-member body if Musharraf did not lift the emergency decree, resign as army chief and free detainees by Nov. 22. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Nov. 12 also called for Musharraf to lift the decree. „

Iraq War House Passes Conditional War Funds.

The U.S. House Nov. 14 approved, 218– 203, a bill providing $50 billion to fund U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through mid-February 2008. U.S. President George W. Bush had requested $196 billion in fiscal year 2008 for the wars. The bill put numerous restrictions on the use of the funds, all but ensuring that it would not be enacted. The Bush administration threatened to veto the legislation. Four Republicans joined 214 Democrats to vote for the bill. [See pp. 727C1, 696D3] The bill would require that the U.S. begin to withdraw troops from Iraq within 30 days with a complete pullout by mid-December 2008, and would narrow the U.S. mission to counterterrorism and training Iraqi forces. The legislation would also require all U.S. personnel, including members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to abide by U.S. Army standards for prisoner treatment and interrogation, which disallowed harsh methods that were reportedly used against terrorism detainees. The bill would also bar the funds from being used to establish permanent military bases in Iraq or control the country’s oil industry. Democrats argued that Bush was ignoring the mandate they said voters had given to them in 2006 elections to end the war. Meanwhile, Republicans said Democrats were wasting time on a futile issue and that they were ignoring progress in Iraq. Senate Republican leaders said they would allow a vote on the House measure if they could also vote on their own $70 billion bill, which did not restrict the use of the funds. The Democratic staff of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee Nov. 13 released a report stating that the economic costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars totaled about $1.5 trillion, nearly double the $804 billion requested or spent by the Bush November 15, 2007

administration. They said the increased figure was due to “hidden costs” such as the rise in oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans, interest on money borrowed to pay for the wars and the diversion of war funding from “productive investment” in the U.S. War-funding experts said the report had valid arguments but questioned some of its figures. Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.) and Rep. H. James Saxton (N.J.), senior Republicans on the committee, the same day released a statement calling for the report to be withdrawn, saying that it relied on flawed methodology. FBI Finds Shootings Baseless—U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials ruled that at least 14 out of 17 shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, by private guards employed by Blackwater USA were unjustified, the New York Times reported Nov. 14. Blackwater was a U.S. security company under contract to the U.S. State Department. The FBI said three other deaths in the same September incident had possibly been justified under rules for use of deadly force by security contractors in Iraq, according to the Times. The FBI investigation was still ongoing, but its findings reportedly were under review by the U.S. Justice Department. The FBI reportedly found no evidence that supported the Blackwater guards’ claims that they were defending themselves after having come under fire from the civilians. Investigators said many of the 14 unwarranted deaths resulted from Iraqi victims being shot while fleeing Nisour Square, the site of the incident. FBI investigators said three of the killings might have been justified because the Blackwater guards believed they were under threat of attack. Those killings included the shooting of two people who were approaching the convoy in a car when they were fired on, as well as the death of a third, unidentified Iraqi. FBI investigators reported difficulties in conducting their inquiry. They reportedly were unable to reconstruct the crime scene, ascertain exactly how many people were killed in the incident or definitively tie shell casings found at Nisour Square to the shooting. In addition, FBI investigators were not granted access to statements made to the State Department by the guards, as those comments were made under the condition they could not be used in criminal investigations or prosecutions. The guards had also declined to speak to FBI investigators, according to a Blackwater spokeswoman. The U.S. State Department’s inspector general, Howard Krongard, Nov. 14 said he would recuse himself from the department’s probe of the Blackwater shootings. Krongard’s announcement came after the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee alleged that Krongard had improperly intervened in the investigation. The committee also noted potential conflicts of interest, including the fact that his brother, Alvin Krongard, was a member of Blackwater’s advisory board. Krongard also recused himself from an investigation of the construction of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. [See p. 662B2]

A guard employed by Dyncorp International Inc., another private security firm under contract to the U.S. State Department to protect U.S. diplomats and contractors, Nov. 11 shot and killed an Iraqi taxi driver in Baghdad. Iraqi witnesses said the taxi driver had not posed a threat to the Dyncorp convoy and had not been carrying weapons or explosives. Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, an Iraqi interior ministry spokesman, said the convoy had driven away after shooting the man, and that the ministry had started an investigation of the incident. Curfew to Be Eased in Baghdad—Iraqi military officials Nov. 12 said they would soon ease a curfew and other restrictions on movement in Baghdad, due to a recent downward trend in violence. Iraqi Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the commander of a security crackdown in Baghdad that began in February, said that control of some areas would be transferred to police, from the military. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Nov. 11 in a news conference announced a program to give amnesty to “misguided” members of insurgent groups who had not committed “major crimes.” He said increased security in Baghdad had allowed 7,000 families to return to Baghdad. Maliki during the conference also demanded that three senior officials from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime be turned over to the Iraqi government from U.S. custody for execution. The officials—former Defense Minister Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” for ordering chemical weapons attacks against ethnic Kurds in the 1980s; former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai; and former armed forces deputy chief of operations Hussein Rashid alTikriti—had been sentenced to death for their roles in Hussein’s Anfal campaign, in which up to 180,000 Kurds had been killed in 1988. U.S. Embassy spokesman Mirembe Nantongo said the U.S. was waiting for the Iraqi government to “come to consensus as to what Iraqi law requires before preparing a physical transfer.” Senior Iraqi government officials Nov. 14 said they would send a $40 billion budget to parliament for approval. The budget included a record $19 billion for capital projects, including $900 million for Baghdad. However, analysts expressed doubt that the government would be able to spend more than a fraction of the money due to security issues and a lack of contracting and management experience. Maliki the same day sent draft legislation to parliament that would overhaul many so-called de-Baathification measures, which had barred former members of Hussein’s mostly Sunni Baath Party from holding government jobs. The legislation was considered a key step to reconciliation. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † U.S. Maj. Gen. James Simmons Nov. 15 said the number of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) found in Iraq had steadily dropped to 1,560 in October, from 747

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3,239 in March. He said Iran seemed to be upholding a pledge reported earlier in November to stem the flow of bombs into Iraq. He said the IEDs had mostly been planted by members of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq and members of criminal groups that had once been attached to Sadr’s Shiite Mahdi Army militia, and that about half had been discovered before they exploded. † Iraqi government officials and doctors Nov. 14 said one child from a Baghdad home for the severely disabled had died and 12 others had been hospitalized with serious diarrhea and dehydration, with some reports indicating cholera as the cause. Unidentified officials said the Iraqi ministry of labor and social affairs, which was responsible for the home, had instructed the officials to cover up the incident, as they had done regarding the starvation and abuse of disabled children uncovered in June. [See pp. 629C2, 395F3] † The U.S. military Nov. 13 confirmed that a 3,000-soldier U.S. brigade stationed in Diyala province would not be replaced when it returned to the U.S. in January 2009. Security for the province would be provided by a larger brigade stationed closer to Baghdad, which would also continue to fulfill its previous responsibilities. [See p. 680D3] † The U.S. military Nov. 13 reported that up to 45 members of Al Qaeda in Iraq the previous day had attacked two checkpoints manned by members of neighborhood defense groups in Baghdad. The neighborhood fighters were supported by U.S. and Iraqi troops and U.S. fighter jets, and drove off the insurgents. A military spokeswoman said 15 insurgents and five neighborhood fighters were killed. It was one of the largest attacks so far on a U.S.sponsored neighborhood defense group. † Bahaa al-Araji, a prominent legislator associated with Shiite cleric Moqtada alSadr, Nov. 13 called for the dissolution of parliament and new elections in order to end Iraq’s political stalemate. † Iraqi police in the town of Khalis in Diyala Nov. 12 arrested five Iranians, including a woman, who had allegedly entered Iraq without proper identification. † The U.S. military Nov. 9 released nine Iranian detainees, two of whom it had been holding since they were captured in a January raid on an Iranian liaison office in the northern city of Irbil. The U.S. said the men, who were suspected members of the elite Quds Force unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, no longer posed a threat or had further intelligence value. † Firefights in the city of Samarra between the Islamic Army, a local Sunni insurgent group that had recently aligned itself with U.S. forces, and Al Qaeda in Iraq Nov. 9 reportedly killed 18 Al Qaeda in Iraq members. Fighting the next day killed two Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders. An Islamic Army leader said it had suffered no deaths, but an Iraqi police source said 15 members had been killed. „ 748

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

Economy Bernanke Warns of Slowdown. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Nov. 8 testified to Congress’s Joint Economic Committee that U.S. economic growth would slow down in the fourth quarter of 2007, and continue to slow down in early 2008, before picking up again. Bernanke said deteriorating conditions in the housing and credit markets were the principal causes of the slowdown. He said delinquencies and foreclosures on homes would rise in the near future, and that consumers would spend less, because the weak credit market made it more difficult to borrow money. [See pp. 731D1, 714B2, F2, 682A3] Bernanke added that the economy had thus far been “resilient” despite any negative effects from the housing and credit markets, after the Fed lowered its benchmark federal-funds interest rate in late October, to 4.5%. He said the Fed would continue to monitor the economy for any threat of recession. However, Bernanke also said the Fed was concerned about the threat of inflation, which had been stoked by a drop in the value of the dollar and a sharp rise in oil prices. Both those factors could make goods more expensive for consumers. He said the Fed would ensure that the rise in energy prices did not have an overflow effect on the “core” inflation rate, which measured the prices of goods apart from energy and food. [See below, pp. 606A1, 604D1] Bernanke said the rise in oil prices had the potential to slow economic growth as well. Bernanke reaffirmed the Fed’s view that the economy was “roughly balanced,” which the Fed had stated after its last policy-making meeting in October. That meant the risks of inflation and recession were more or less equal. Bernanke’s statement was seen as a signal to investors that the Fed was as likely to raise its benchmark interest rate or leave it unchanged as it was to lower it at its next policy-making meeting, scheduled for Dec. 11. Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.), chairman of the committee, asked Bernanke to take a more active role in sparking economic growth. Bernanke responded that the Fed’s priorities were to ensure “price stability” and facilitate “sustainable growth.” Sen. Sam Brownback (R, Kan.) asked Bernanke to consider cutting the interest rate at the Fed’s next policy-making meeting, saying high oil prices would discourage consumers from shopping during the December holiday season. ‘Jumbo’ Mortgage Plan Proposed—

Bernanke Nov. 8 proposed that lawmakers temporarily allow Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored mortgage companies, to buy “jumbo” mortgages from lenders and turn them into securities that would be backed by the federal government. Bernanke said the move would

encourage Wall Street to invest in those mortgages. That would ease strains on mortgage lenders, and thereby ease the “tighter terms and higher prices” for borrowers, prevalent after banks and financial institutions reported heavy losses from investments made on risky mortgages. [See pp. 749A1, 682A3] Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae currently bought mortgages from lenders that were worth $417,000 or less. “Jumbo” mortgages were worth more than $417,000, and had higher interest rates than other mortgages. Bernanke suggested that the companies be allowed to buy mortgages worth up to $1 million. He warned that the plan involved the government taking on the risk that borrowers could default on their mortgages. Schumer said it was “a very good idea,” adding that he would soon introduce a bill that included Bernanke’s recommendations. The Bush administration had resisted expanding the companies’ responsibilities; their activities had been limited since 2006, when they settled accounting fraud charges. Oil Reaches Record High—The cost of crude oil Nov. 1 reached a record high of $96.24 a barrel, due to slow growth in oil production, high demand from developing countries and a decrease in the oil inventories of countries that bought oil. Oil prices were also driven up by speculators who had started investing more in oil as a commodity, because of uncertainty in financial markets and the weakening of the dollar. Dollar Falls to Record Low—The value of the U.S. dollar Nov. 8 fell to a record low against the euro, the single currency of the European Union. One euro that day was worth $1.4635. The U.S. dollar also fell to a decades-low level against the Canadian dollar; one U.S. dollar that day was worth 93 Canadian cents. Analysts attributed the fall to investor speculation about a slowing in U.S. economic growth, and the fact that U.S. interest-rate cuts had led investors to seek higher returns by investing in other countries. The dollar’s Nov. 8 drop was also aided by comments by a Chinese official suggesting that China might shift some of the vast U.S. dollar holdings in its foreign reserves to the euro or other currencies. However, the Chinese government disclaimed the remarks as not reflecting official policy. Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Nov. 8 said the rise of the euro against the dollar was “brutal” and not “welcome.” A stronger euro made exports from Europe more expensive, and could slow economic growth. (The ECB also announced that it was pumping some 115 billion euros [$169 billion] into European financial markets, to inject liquidity into a system that had also seen credit dry up.) The Dow Jones Industrial Average Nov. 7 had fallen 360.92 points, to close at 13,300.02, shedding nearly all the gains it had made since the Fed’s September 0.5percentage-point rate cut. The decline was due to rising oil prices and the falling dolFACTS ON FILE

lar, as well as renewed investor fears about problems stemming from the housing market. After dipping further to 12,987.55 Nov. 12, the Dow rebounded by 319.54 points the following day, closing at 13,307.09. „ Bank of America Writes Down $3 Billion.

Bank of America Corp., the second-largest bank in the U.S., Nov. 13 announced that it would record a $3 billion fourth-quarter write-down. The bank said the write-down was caused by a drop in value of mortgagebacked assets that it held. The bank said it would spend an additional $600 million to prop up funds that were attached to “structured investment vehicles,” or SIVs. The bank also said it would lose $300 million from other bad investments. [See p. 731D1, 683A2] A write-down was a reduction of the recorded value of a company’s assets that reflected their updated market value. Mortgage-backed assets had plummeted in value after the housing market entered a slump. In particular, Bank of America had invested in collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), which contained various assets and mortgages bundled together, including subprime mortgages, or those given to borrowers with poor credit. SIVs were funds that relied on selling short-term debt instruments to investors to raise money for long-term investments. The SIVs had been unable to sell those instruments, known as commercial paper, because investors were worried that they were backed by bad mortgages. Bank of America was among a group of banks, backed by the Treasury Department, that had set up a so-called “superfund” in October that would help those SIVs conduct business. Bank of America’s announcement was the latest revelation by a major financial institution that it had experienced a large devaluation of assets related to investments made in the housing market. The U.S. banking industry had recorded more than $40 billion in write-downs for the third quarter. Financial markets remained highly volatile, since investors feared more losses related to subprime mortgages would be announced, among other reasons. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Nov. 9 had fallen 223.55 points, or 1.7%, to 13,042.74, after banking company Wachovia Corp. revealed it had lost $1.1 billion on mortgagebacked securities. [See below, p. 748A2] Bank of America Reports Losses—

Bank of America Oct. 18 announced that its third-quarter profits were down 32% from a year earlier. Much of those losses came from its investment banking arm, which earned $100 million in the third quarter compared with $1.43 billion the previous year, a 93% decline. The investment banking unit lost $527 million from its CDO-packing business, but the unit suffered losses across other areas as well. The bank announced Oct. 22 that it would cut 3,000 jobs from the unit. Morgan Stanley Reports Losses—Morgan Stanley Nov. 7 reported that it had lost $3.7 billion in the first two months of the fourth quarter, on CDOs it underwrote that November 15, 2007

had plummeted in value. Morgan Stanley had become one of the leading underwriting firms for CDOs in the past year. The firm specialized in “super-senior” CDOs, which in the past had been considered relatively safe investments, but had deteriorated in value as investors shied away from any kind of asset backed by mortgages. AIG Announces Write-down—American International Group (AIG) Inc., the world’s largest insurance company, Nov. 7 announced that it would record a $2.68 billion write-down for the third quarter, and that its earnings for the quarter were down 27% from the previous year. The company said much of the losses stemmed from mortgagerelated investments. [See 2006, p. 954B3] Wachovia Reports October Losses—

Wachovia Nov. 9 reported that it lost $1.1 billion in the month of October, due to a devaluation of the super-senior CDOs it held. Wachovia also said it would reserve $600 million to pay off losses on loans in the fourth quarter. J.P. Morgan Posts Profit Increase—J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Oct. 17 reported that its third-quarter profit rose 2.3% from a year earlier. J.P. Morgan was one of the few large financial firms to weather problems related to the recent squeeze in the credit market. Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive officer (CEO), that day said, “We did avoid some of the potholes of SIVs, subprime and, for the most part, CDOs.” Merrill Names New Chief—Merrill Lynch & Co. Nov. 14 announced that John Thain would become its new CEO. Thain replaced E. Stanley O’Neal, who had resigned in October, after it was revealed that Merrill would record an $8.4 billion write-down for the third quarter. Thain had previously been the CEO of NYSE Euronext, which operated the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Thain was widely credited with modernizing the exchange by acquiring Archipelago Holdings Inc., an electronic exchange platform; taking the formerly not-for-profit NYSE public; and merging it with Euronext, a pan-European exchange. [See 2006, pp. 1029B1, 213A2] NYSE Nov. 14 appointed its president, Duncan Niederauer, to succeed Thain. „ Trade Gap Shrank to $56.5 Billion. The Commerce Department Nov. 9 reported that the seasonally adjustTrade Deficit ed U.S. trade def(in billions) icit in goods and September 2007 $56.45 services for Sep- Previous Month $56.80 $64.15 tember was $56.5 Year Earlier billion, down from a revised $56.8 billion in August. [See p. 667C1] Exports increased $1.5 billion in September, to $140.1 billion, led by foods, feeds and beverages, and industrial supplies and materials. Imports increased $1.2 billion in September, to $196.6 billion, most notably in the areas of capital goods and automotive vehicles, parts and engines. Analysts attributed the shrinking trade gap to a weak dollar, which helped increase exports, and rising oil prices, which depressed the demand for imported goods.

MERCHANDISE TRADE DATA Country/ Region China Japan Canada European Union Mexico NICs†

Deficit/Surplus* September August 2007 2007 -23.77 -6.19 -4.88 -6.43 -6.30 -0.12

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*Bilateral trade figures in billions of dollars unadjusted for seasonal variations. The data—except figures given for Canada—do not include revisions of month-earlier figures. †Newly industrialized countries—Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

September Bilateral Trade Data— The Commerce Department Nov. 9 also reported bilateral trade data for September. The numbers were not seasonally adjusted and contained merchandise-trade data only, with no revisions for the previous month except to the data for Canada. The September merchandise-trade deficit with China rose to $23.8 billion, from $22.5 billion the previous month. The deficit with Canada fell to $4.9 billion, from a revised $5.0 billion in August. The gap with the European Union fell to $6.4 billion in September, from $10.2 billion the previous month. The gap with Japan also decreased, to $6.2 billion, from $6.7 billion in August. „

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Fiscal 2008 Spending Bills Bush Vetoes Health-Labor-Education Bill.

President George W. Bush Nov. 13 vetoed a measure that would have provided $606 billion in funding to the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor and Education for fiscal year 2008. The measure included $150.7 billion in discretionary spending allocations, an increase of $6.2 billion from fiscal 2007 and exceeding Bush’s request by $9.8 billion. [See p. 479F3] Bush described the measure as “bloated” with more than 2,200 spending initiatives for various lawmakers’ pet projects, or earmarks. Bush called on Congress to “cut out that pork, reduce the spending and send me a responsible measure.” Congressional Democrats criticized Bush’s veto. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D, Wis.) compared the $6.2 billion increase for “crucial domestic investments” with Bush’s request for $200 billion for the Iraq war. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) said, “Given his dismal record, President Bush is in no position to lecture Congress about fiscal responsibility.” The House Nov. 15 narrowly fell short of the two-thirds majority for an override, in a 277–141 vote. Spending Levels—The bill would have increased funding for the Education Department by $3.2 billion when compared with fiscal 2007, and exceeded Bush’s budget request by $4.5 billion. HHS would have received an increase of $4.4 billion from fiscal 2007, for a total that was $5.3 billion 749

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more than Bush had requested. The Labor Department would have been allocated $296 million more than in fiscal 2007, to a level exceeding Bush’s plan by $1 billion. Military Construction, VA Bundling Fails—

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A House-Senate conference committee Nov. 1 agreed to bundle the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill with a separate measure, with greater Republican support, that would fund military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) at $64.7 billion. The move was intended to convince more Republicans to vote for higher allocations in the Labor-HHS-Education bill, over Bush’s objections. [See p. 398A2] The House Nov. 6 voted, 269–142, to approve the conference version, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to overcome a veto. In a setback for Democrats’ efforts to overcome a veto, 47 Republicans voted for the measure, six fewer than had backed an earlier version of the bill passed in July. The Senate in a Nov. 7 procedural vote split the Labor-HHS-Education bill from the military construction-VA bill. The vote, 47–43, fell along party lines; Democrats needed a minimum of 60 votes to keep the two funding measures packaged together. The Senate that day passed, 56– 37, the separated Labor-HHS-Education bill, in a vote that was also short of a twothirds majority. The House Nov. 8 voted, 274–141, to pass the separated Labor-HHS-Education allocations, again falling short of a vetoproof majority. The Senate Oct. 23 had voted, 75–19, to approve a preconference committee version of the Labor-HHS-Education funding bill. That version would have provided $149.9 billion in discretionary spending, $1.9 billion less than the House version passed in July. „ Defense Funds Cleared. The House Nov. 8 passed, 400–15, and the Senate the same day cleared by voice vote, an appropriations bill that would provide $459.3 billion in funding to the Defense Department for fiscal 2008, which began Oct. 1. The bill represented a $39.7 million, or 9.5%, increase in the department’s budget, but was $3.5 billion less than President George W. Bush had requested. Conferees from both chambers Nov. 6 had reached an agreement on a compromise bill, after the House in August and the Senate in October had passed initial versions of the legislation. Bush signed the bill Nov. 13. [See pp. 747D1, 526C2] Legislators approved $8.7 billion for missile defense programs, but dropped $85 million slated for constructing controversial missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. It provided $15 million for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program aimed at developing a new nuclear weapon—half the requested amount—and allowed the funds to be used only for design and cost-study activities. [See p. 704F3] The bill provided $11.6 billion to purchase armored vehicles that could better resist roadside bombs, which caused the majority of U.S. casualties in Iraq. 750

The legislation funded a 3.5% pay raise for service members, up from the 3% raise proposed by the Bush administration. It also increased funding for oversight in the Defense Department, in the wake of ongoing contracting scandals. [See p. 733E1] A resolution attached to the bill kept the government running at fiscal 2007 spending levels through Dec. 14. The defense bill was the first of 12 annual spending bills enacted by Congress. In September it had passed a bill providing stopgap funding for government programs, but most of the legislation’s provisions would expire Nov. 16. [See p. 650B1] Bill Omits War Funding—The bill ommitted funds for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which Republican legislators had sought to include. Democrats indicated that they would use their control over funding to influence the course of the Iraq war, while Republicans argued that such actions amounted to political interference with the provision of needed resources to the military in wartime. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D, W.Va.) said of a GOP bid to attach $70 billion for the war for the next six months, “This amendment would send to the president additional funding for his horrible, misguided war in Iraq without any congressional direction that he change course. No strings attached. That would be a tragic mistake.” (The House Nov. 14 passed a separate $50 billion war funding bill.) The final defense spending bill also omitted an amendment providing $3 billion in spending on border security that had been attached to the earlier Senate version. „

Legislation House Passes Tax Bill. The House Nov. 9 voted, 216–193, to pass a $73.8 billion tax bill that would shield about 21 million people from the spread of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) in 2008. It would also expand tax breaks for homeowners and tax credits for the working poor. The bill would offset the cost of those measures by ending a special tax break for managers of private equity funds and hedge funds. [See 2006, p. 368A3] The AMT had been created in the 1969 to ensure that the richest people were not able use tax deductions and loopholes to completely avoid paying taxes. However, because it had not been indexed for inflation, it had extended its reach to middle-class taxpayers. It currently affected four million families, and would hit more in 2008 unless Congress acted. In each of the past several years, Congress had enacted temporary “patches” to block the spread of the AMT, while avoiding a full repeal of the tax. Repealing the AMT would cost the federal government an estimated $1 trillion in revenue over the next decade. The one-year patch in the pending bill would cost $50 billion. Senate Democratic leaders had said they intended to pass a new AMT patch by the end of the year. But they had expressed

doubts that the tax increases in the House bill could win passage in the Senate. Also, Sen. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.)—the chairman of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, a party fundraising arm—said he opposed singling out the hedge fund and private equity industries for tax hikes. Some fund managers had become major Democratic donors. The loophole used by private equity firms and hedge funds allowed such partnerships to treat their managers’ fees, charged in the form of profit shares, as capital gains, taxed at a rate of 15%, instead of the top income tax rate of 35% that would otherwise apply. Earlier in the year, seeking to display fiscal responsibility, Democrats had revived “pay-as-you-go” budget rules that required new expenditures or tax cuts to be offset by equivalent tax hikes or spending cuts. The rules had made it more difficult to pass a new AMT patch. Republicans argued that because the growth of the AMT was unintentional, Congress should scrap it without replacing the revenue. But Democrats pointed out that long-term budget estimates by both parties assumed growing revenue from the AMT, so that reducing or repealing the tax would add to the budget deficit unless the loss of that money was offset. Rangel Unveils Broad Reform Plan—

Rep. Charles Rangel (D, N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Oct. 25 unveiled a broader tax reform proposal that included repealing the AMT and cutting the corporate tax rate to 30.5%, from 35%, raising taxes on the wealthy and boosting tax breaks for the poor. Rangel called for imposing a surtax of 4% on single people with adjusted gross income of more than $150,000, and couples making more than $200,000. The surtax would rise to 4.6% for couples with income exceeding $500,000, and single people making over $250,000. He also proposed increasing the earned income tax credit, the refundable child credit and the standard deduction, which would benefit low-income people. Rangel’s plan was not expected to come to a vote until at least 2008, but it was seen as setting the terms for the debate on tax policy leading up to the 2008 elections. Vice President Dick Cheney Oct. 26 criticized Rangel’s plan in an interview on cable television network CNBC. “He’s doing an awful lot of damage in the name of what he describes as tax reform,” Cheney said. The Bush administration, working with a Republican-controlled Congress, had enacted major tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. „

Bush Administration Mukasey Sworn In as Attorney General.

Michael Mukasey Nov. 14 took the oath of office as the U.S.’s 81st attorney general in a ceremony at the Justice Department presided over by Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. [See p. 730A2; for facts on Mukasey, see p. 751A1] Referring to his service as an assistant U.S. attorney in the 1970s, Mukasey said, FACTS ON FILE

FACTS ON MUKASEY

Michael Mukasey was born in the borough of the Bronx in New York City on July 28, 1941. After attending an Orthodox Jewish school, he graduated from Columbia University, in 1963, and Yale Law School, in 1967. He worked in private law practice, then served as an assistant U.S. attorney in New York from 1972 to 1976. He worked at the law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler from 1976 to 1987. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated Mukasey as a judge in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He served there from 1988 to 2006, and was chief judge for the last six years. He presided over a number of high-profile cases, including the trial of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted of plotting terrorist attacks against the United Nations headquarters and other sites in New York. Mukasey sentenced Rahman to life in prison. [See 1996, p. 20E1] In 2003, he presided over the trial of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen accused of plotting a radioactive “dirty bomb” terrorist attack in the U.S.

“There are laws in the books that did not exist when I was sworn in then, and there are problems that confront us now that did not confront us then—mainly, but not entirely, involving the threat to our security from those who believe it is their religious duty to make war on us.” Mukasey had been officially sworn in Nov. 9, following his confirmation by the Senate the previous day. President George W. Bush attended the Nov. 14 ceremony. He praised Mukasey’s predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, who had resigned under pressure from Democrats, who charged that he had brought improper partisanship to the Justice Department. Friends of Gonzales had created a legal defense fund to pay his costs of defending himself from a probe by the Justice Department inspector general. The probe examined whether he had given false testimony to Congress about the firing of several U.S. attorneys in 2006 and other matters. Bush Nov. 15 announced nominees for several other top Justice Department posts that had been vacant since Gonzales left. Bush nominated Judge Mark Filip of U.S. District Court in Chicago as deputy attorney general, the number two post, and Kevin O’Connor, the U.S. attorney in Connectict, as associate attorney general, the number three post. Bush also named Grace Chung Becker to head the civil rights division, where she already worked. „ Hughes Resigns as Public Diplomacy Chief.

Karen Hughes, a longtime adviser to President George W. Bush, Oct. 31 resigned as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. Hughes had taken the State Department post in 2005 with the aim of improving the U.S.’s image abroad, particularly in the Muslim world, which had deteriorated during Bush’s presidency. Polls had not shown any improvement during Hughes’s two-year effort, despite her success in securing more funding for public diplomacy activities, such as dealing with foreign news media. [See 2005, p. 681D1] „ November 15, 2007

Mukasey ruled that Padilla could be held indefinitely as an enemy combatant, but should be given access to a lawyer. [See 2003, p. 1012A1] Mukasey returned to Patterson, Belknap as a partner after retiring from the bench in 2006. President George W. Bush Sept. 17 nominated him as attorney general, following the resignation of Alberto Gonzales. Mukasey was seen as a relatively nonpartisan figure who could repair a Justice Department damaged by allegations of improper partisanship under Gonzales. Mukasey’s nomination drew unexpected opposition from Senate Democrats after confirmation hearings in which he declined to say whether he believed that the use of waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulated drowning, amounted to torture. However, the Senate Nov. 8 voted, 53–40, to confirm him, after Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) broke ranks to back him in a Judiciary Committee vote. He was sworn in Nov. 14. [See p. 750G3]

2008 Presidential Campaign Giuliani’s NYC Police Chief Kerik Indicted.

Federal prosecutors Nov. 9 unsealed an indictment charging former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik with 16 counts of corruption, mail and tax fraud, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the government. Kerik that day pleaded not guilty at U.S. District Court in White Plains, N.Y. He was released on a $500,000 bond after surrendering his passport and gun license. [See p. 208F2] Kerik, 52, had been a protege of former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, who was now a leading candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Giuliani had appointed Kerik as city prison commissioner, then as police commissioner, and later recommended him to President George W. Bush as a nominee for Homeland Security secretary in 2004. Kerik had withdrawn from that nomination as reports that he had engaged in various improprieties emerged in the media. The indictment charged that Kerik had failed to report more than $500,000 in income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) between 1999 and 2004, and had claimed false tax deductions. It also accused him of “selling his office” while serving in his city posts. It said he had accepted payments and free home improvements from a construction company that had pursued city contracts. The company, Interstate Industrial Corp., had been linked to organized crime. The indictment also alleged that Kerik had failed to disclose a $250,000 loan from “a wealthy Israeli industrialist who did business with the federal government,” as well as more than $200,000 in rent for an apartment that a New York businessman had paid for him. Prosecutors said the charges against Kerik bore a maximum penalty of 142 years in prison and more than $5 million in fines.

Rivals Question Giuliani’s Judgment—

The indictment was seen as an embarrassment for Giuliani, with the potential to become a liability for his presidential campaign. Giuliani Nov. 9 said, “It’s a sad day because Bernie Kerik was a hero police officer.” His Republican rivals said the charges against Kerik reflected poorly on Giuliani’s judgment of character. One of those rivals, Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.), Nov. 9 cited Kerik’s brief stint in Iraq in 2003. McCain said, “Supposedly his mission was to help train Iraqi police. He stayed a couple of months, got up and left. That should have been part of anybody’s judgment before they would recommend that individual to be head of the Department of Homeland Security.” McCain Nov. 9 campaigned in New Hampshire with former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who also criticized Giuliani’s endorsement for Kerik’s nomination to that post. “We’re not talking about some urban city patronage job,” Ridge said. Another Giuliani presidential rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, called the Kerik indictment “sad and disappointing,” adding, “You expect people who assume the public trust to abide by it and to live by high standards of ethical conduct.”

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Ex-Publisher Cites Kerik Affair in Lawsuit—

Judith Regan, a former book publisher, Nov. 13 filed a lawsuit alleging that executives at News Corp., knowing of her extramarital affair with Kerik, had urged her to conceal information about him from federal investigators. She asserted that News Corp.’s “political agenda” had “long centered on protecting Rudy Giuliani’s presidential ambitions.” News Corp. owned the Fox News Channel television network, among other media properties. [See p. 439A1; 2006, p. 1007C1] Regan’s lawsuit, which sought $100 million in damages from News Corp., claimed that the company had defamed her when it fired her in 2006 amid a controversy over her plan to publish a book by O.J. Simpson. Regan filed the suit in New York State Supreme Court in New York City. Regan had published Kerik’s memoir, The Lost Son. Their affair was one of the revelations that emerged after Kerik withdrew his Homeland Security nomination. The pair had reportedly met for trysts after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in an apartment overlooking the rubble of the World Trade Center. The apartment had been donated for the use of workers in the rescue and cleanup efforts at ground zero. „

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Labor Screenwriters Strike in New York, L.A.

Members of the East and West divisions of the Writers Guild of America, which represented television writers, Nov. 5 went on strike to protest against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, after no contract agreement between them was reached after three months of negotiations. The approximately 12,000 writers, whose 751

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contracts had expired Oct. 31, had demanded they receive higher residuals, or payments made when a show was rebroadcast, than studios were prepared to pay. [See 2004, p. 1051G3] The writers’ demands included greater payment from television programs that were broadcast on the Internet and a more substantial cut from DVD sales and “new media” sales of shows downloaded onto portable devices such as cellular phones and video MP3 players. The writers and some television personalities picketed studios in New York City and Los Angeles after the strike began. By halting the production of televisionshows, the strike, in addition to costing studios millions of dollars, affected nonwriting entertainment industry employees and other peripheral industries. The last writers’ strike, which lasted five months in 1988, cost the entertainment industry approximately $500 million. [See 1988, p. 593C3] Late-night talk shows began showing reruns on the first day of the strike, and evening sitcoms appeared to be next on the list of shows to go off the air, though most had enough episodes already written to continue broadcasting until the beginning of 2008. Studios said they were prepared to substitute other programs for the regularly scheduled prime-time lineup, including reruns, movies and reality shows. Battle Over New Media Revenue—

The dispute largely revolved around the revenue produced by the sales through new media. While studios had so far earned only $158 million from online movie sales and $194 million from online TV sales, most writers and analysts agreed that a substantial amount of future revenue would be generated through such nontraditional distribution. However, the studios said that they needed the extra revenue to cover increasing production costs, and that it was too early to make a determination about where future revenue would come from. ‘Runners’ Receive Contract Notices—

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The New York Times Nov. 9 reported that two major studios, 20th Century Fox and CBS Paramount, had issued breach-of-contract letters to “show runners,” who did not go to work in sympathy with the striking writers. Show runners were responsible for editing or producing, in addition to having writing responsibilities. At a Nov. 7 meeting, a group of approximately 100 show runners had said they would return to their nonwriting duties if the guild members and studio representatives resumed negotiations in good faith. „

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California Sues EPA Over Emissions Rules.

The California state government Nov. 8 filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., demanding a ruling from the agency on a state law that would allow California to impose limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and 752

light trucks. [See p. 592B3; 2002, p. 584A2] California in 2002 had passed a law requiring cars, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) sold in the state to produce lower emissions, with a target of a 25% reduction in total emissions by 2030. The new standards were set to take effect beginning with model year 2009 vehicles. Because California sought to impose stricter standards than those outlined in federal law, it required a waiver from the EPA to enact its law. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said the state was “ready to implement the nation’s cleanest standards for vehicle emissions,” and was prepared to sue the EPA several times in order to receive the waiver. An EPA spokeswoman said the agency planned to issue a decision on the waiver request by the end of December. Observers said an April Supreme Court decision defining carbon dioxide emissions as pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act would aid California’s waiver request. Fourteen other states had passed their own emissions laws modeled after California’s. [See p. 206A1] „

Consumer Affairs Bush Releases Import Safety Plan. Presi-

dent George W. Bush Nov. 6 released a detailed plan to improve the safety standards of consumer goods and food imported to the U.S. The plan had been developed by the Interagency Working Group on Import Safety, a cabinet-level panel formed by Bush in July to address growing concerns regarding unsafe imports. In recent months several kinds of Chinese-made items, ranging from toys to food products, had been found unsafe or otherwise faulty. [See p. 605D1] Under the plan, the various federal agencies that regulated food and consumer good imports would receive expanded powers and develop a database intended to ease the sharing of information. Several elements of the plan had previously been suggested by federal agencies or members of Congress, and many would require congressional approval. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would be granted the power to issue recalls of dangerous food from domestic and foreign sources, according to the plan. The agency would also be able to bar the import of foods if not given access to their production records, and require producers to take contamination prevention measures for high-risk foods. The plan called for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to be able to assess civil penalties of up to $10 million on companies found selling unsafe products, up from its current ceiling of $1.8 million. The CPSC would also be able to make the sale of recalled goods illegal. Bush also proposed that increased numbers of inspection agents from the FDA, CPSC and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection be stationed in countries that were major exporters to the U.S.

The plan was criticized by several congressional Democrats and consumer advocates, who said it was too vague and failed to detail the funding of agencies charged with regulating imports. Some Democrats had called for a new agency to oversee food regulation in the country, replacing numerous entities, including the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), currently responsible for different aspects of food regulation. CPSC Overhaul Advances in Senate—

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Oct. 30 approved by voice vote a bill that would significantly overhaul the CPSC, increasing the agency’s annual funding and staff levels. Under the measure, the CPSC’s funding would be increased to $80 million in fiscal 2009, from $62.7 million in fiscal 2007, and gradually to $141.7 million in fiscal 2015. The agency’s staff would increase to 500 people, from 420, under the measure. The bill would also increase the cap on fines for violators of the Consumer Product Safety Act to $100 million, and increase fines levied on individual violations to $250,000 per infraction, from $5,000. Protections for whistle-blowers employed by importers and manufacturers would also be enacted under the bill. Nancy Nord, the acting chairwoman of the CPSC, in an Oct. 24 letter to committee Chairman Sen. Daniel Inouye (D, Hawaii) criticized several elements of the Senate bill, particularly the whistle-blower and increased fine provisions. Nord, a former lawyer for photographic equipment maker Eastman Kodak Co. and a former official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce business lobbying group, said the agency would be forced to dedicate significant resources to ensuring those elements of the measure were addressed. Nord’s stated concerns mirrored those raised by several industry and trade groups opposed to the bill. Another CPSC commissioner, Thomas Moore, had supported the legislation as being “strongly pro-consumer.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) and other congressional Democrats Oct. 30 called on Nord to resign, citing her opposition to the bill. “Any commission chair who, in the face of the facts that are so clear, says we don’t need any more authority or any more resources to do our job does not understand the gravity of the situation,” Pelosi said. Nord and her predecessor, Hal Stratton, had taken nearly 30 trips funded by companies in industries the CPSC regulated, or by their lawyers or lobbyists, the Washington Post reported Nov. 2. Government ethics experts cited in the Post said the travel expenses, which totaled almost $60,000, presented a conflict of interest. China Arrests 774 in Crackdown—A Chinese regulatory agency, the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, Oct. 29 said that over the previous two months it had arrested 774 people accused of participating in the production of counterfeit drugs and FACTS ON FILE

substandard food and agricultural products. Chinese officials also said 626 criminal investigations had been opened. The crackdown came amid increasing concerns that Chinese-produced goods lacked regulatory oversight ensuring their safety. [See p. 555E3] Chinese regulators Nov. 1 said they had suspended the export licenses of more than 750 toy companies due to quality control problems, and had ordered the improvement of conditions at some 690 toy factories in the country. New Recalls Announced— The CPSC Nov. 7 ordered the recall of 4.2 million toys sold in the U.S. under the brand name Aqua Dots, after it was discovered they released a potentially deadly chemical, gamma hydroxybutryrate (GHB), if they were ingested by children. The toys consisted of packets of small beads that could be arranged into various shapes and then sprinkled with water to be fused together. The toy’s manufacturer, Australian company Moose Enterprise, said it had found that a Chinese factory had replaced a safe glue with a toxic chemical that broke down to GHB after being ingested. [See p. 667A2] The Boy Scouts of America Oct. 4 said as many as 1.6 million Chinese-produced plastic badges given to scouts were being voluntarily recalled after excessive levels of lead were discovered in their paint. „

Medicine and Health Merck Reaches Vioxx Settlement. Whitehouse, N.J.–based drug company Merck & Co. Nov. 9 said it had reached a $4.85 billion blanket settlement of some 45,000 claims by patients alleging that its painkiller Vioxx had caused strokes and heart attacks. Vioxx had been removed from the market in September 2004 after clinical trial data had linked its use to such cardiovascular events. [See p. 296B1] Under the terms of the settlement, Merck would establish two funds: a $4 billion one for heart attack claims and an $850 million one for stroke claims. Plaintiffs seeking damages would have to show that they took the drug for 30 days. They would also have to show that they suffered either a heart attack or ischemic stroke—one in which an artery leading to the brain was blocked—within 14 days of using the drug. Plaintiffs were still able to opt out of the settlement and file a separate lawsuit against Merck, and 10,000–15,000 plaintiffs who did not qualify for the settlement deal were also expected to continue litigation. The settlement figure was viewed as a victory for Merck, as analysts in 2005 had estimated that a settlement could be as much as $25 billion. Observers credited the relatively low figure to Merck’s strategy of initially refusing to settle, instead fighting individual cases in court. Analysts said the relatively positive outcome for Merck could inspire other drug companies facing similar lawsuits to follow a similar strategy. November 15, 2007

New York State, City File Lawsuit—The offices of New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) Sept. 17 filed a joint lawsuit againt Merck, alleging it had hidden Vioxx’s potential dangers. In their complaint, the state and city sought to recoup money spent on the drug between 1999 and 2004 through Medicaid and a separate prescription-drug assistance program. State officials estimated those costs at more than $100 million. Six other states had already filed similar suits. New Jersey Class-Action Status Denied—

The New Jersey Supreme Court, the state’s highest court, Sept. 6 ruled that a group of insurers and health care providers could not receive class-action status to sue Merck over Vioxx claims. The ruling eliminated a significant source of potential liability for Merck. Analysts said class-action status for plaintiffs in New Jersey could have cost the company between $10 billion and $18 billion in damages, owing to the state’s consumer fraud laws. Merck had said it would argue each lawsuit individually. Judge Issues Vioxx Label Ruling—U.S. District Court in New Orleans, La., July 3 ruled that approval of a drug’s label by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not absolve its manufacturer of liability if the label warnings were found to be inadequate. The ruling potentially affected Vioxx lawsuits filed by patients who began taking the drug after April 2002, when the FDA approved a label warning of Vioxx’s potential cardiovascular risks. „

Terrorism Guantanamo Military Commissions Begin.

Prosecutors at the U.S. government’s military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Nov. 8 arraigned Canadian detainee Omar Khadr in the first military commissions trial since a June ruling on the classifications of so-called unlawful enemy combatants delayed all legal proceedings there. Khadr, 21, had been captured in Afghanistan in 2002 at age 15. He was charged with killing a U.S. soldier, providing material support to terrorists and espionage, in connection with an incident in which he allegedly tossed a grenade at a military vehicle. [See p. 716B1] Following the two-hour hearing, Lt. Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, Khadr’s military counsel, attacked the proceedings as manufactured to produce guilty verdicts. He said the prosecution had long known about a witness whose testimony might show that Khadr was a “lawful” enemy combatant, but told reporters that he had been informed about the witness less than a week before. Kuebler also said presiding Judge Peter Brownback 3rd had told him that he was feeling pressure from his superiors over the case and suggested that therefore Brownback would be unable to carry out his duties objectively, a charge Brownback denied.

Ex-Prosecutor Charges Political Agenda—

Col. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Oct. 27 said recent changes in the chain of command had taken “the ‘military’ out of military commissions and [made] them political commissions,” by putting the commissions under the direct control of the Department of Defense general counsel, a Bush administration appointee. Davis also told the Journal that a recent push to get more cases before military commissions soon was intended to keep the next president, “particularly Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, if they win,” from shifting terrorism suspects to trials in civilian courts. Davis had resigned from his position in October after clashing with his superiors. [See p. 715D3] Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell said Davis’s claims were untrue, the Journal reported. Morrell said “at no time over the course of his two years in that job did he allege political interference to anyone, and not until he chose to leave the job did he cry politics.” 25 Detainees Repatriated—Department of Defense officials Nov. 9 said that the number of detainees at Guantanamo had declined to 305, following the transfer of 25 prisoners to their home countries. The prison had held a total of 759 people so far during its use, more than 450 of whom had been either released or transferred into the custody of their country of origin. [See p. 610A3] The Department of Defense announced Nov. 4 that it had transferred eight detainees to Afghanistan and Guantanamo’s three remaining Jordanian prisoners back to Jordan. The Jordanian prisoners were released soon after their transfer, the Associated Press (AP) reported Nov. 11. In addition, 14 of the prison’s 36 remaining Saudi Arabian detainees were released Nov. 10 into Saudi custody. „

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Palestinian Deportation Case Dropped.

The U.S. government Oct. 31 announced that it had dropped a 20-year attempt to deport two Palestinian-born U.S. permanent residents accused of providing assistance to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist Palestinian militant group. The move was part of a settlement between the government and the two men, Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh, in which the government agreed to end its push for deportation if Shehadeh and Hamide agreed not to seek U.S. citizenship for three years. The settlement followed a January ruling by the U.S. Immigration Court in Los Angeles that described the government’s case against Shehadeh and Hamide as “an embarrassment to the rule of law.” [See p. 61D2] Hamide and Shehadeh were initially charged in 1987 in Los Angeles along with six others under the McCarran-Walters Act, which allowed for the deportation of immigrants who espoused communist beliefs. Charges against the other six members of the so-called L.A. Eight were even753

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tually dropped. In 2003, the Justice Department initiated new proceedings against Hamide and Shehadeh under a provision of the 2001 USA Patriot Act that made it illegal to provide “material support” to a terrorist organization; the PFLP had been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1997. The two men maintained their innocence throughout the 20-year case, arguing that their activities, which consisted of handing out pro-PFLP literature and soliciting charitable donations, did not violate the law. [See 2003, p. 768A2] „ Guilty Plea in Fort Dix Plot. A Kosovo, Serbia–born U.S. resident Oct. 31 entered a guilty plea as part of a plea bargain in a case related to the May arrest of five men accused of plotting to attack the Fort Dix Army Base in New Jersey. Agron Abdullahu pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to provide weapons to illegal immigrants, a charge that carried up to a $250,000 fine and five years in prison. Abdullahu had originally been charged with providing weapons to illegal immigrants, a crime that carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. [See p. 312G1] Richard Coughlin, Abdullahu’s lawyer, Oct. 31 said his client had not known about the planned assault and had thought that the weapons he loaned to the three other defendants—Dritan Duka, Eljvir Duka and Shain Duka—would be used only at a firing range. Prosecutors disputed that Abdullahu had not known about the planned attack, but suggested that he had been vocally opposed to carrying it out. „ Ex-Prosecutor, Security Officer Acquitted.

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A former Justice Department prosecutor and a former State Department security officer accused of hiding evidence from defense attorneys in the first major U.S. terrorism trial following Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against the U.S. Oct. 31 were found not guilty by a jury in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Mich. The acquittal of ex-prosecutor Richard Convertino, 46, and State Department official Harry Smith 3rd, 51, was seen as an embarrassment for the Justice Department, which had already faced criticism for its handling of the original terrorism case, against alleged members of a terrorist “sleeper cell” in Detroit. [See 2004, p. 689A2] Convertino and Smith were accused of failing to turn over photographs of Jordan’s Queen Alia military hospital, allegedly the target of a planned attack by the cell, to lawyers for defendants Ahmed Hannan, Farouk Ali-Haimoud, Karim Koubriti and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi. The photos did not match a sketch, allegedly of the hospital, which had been seized from the defendants’ apartment. In 2004, a federal judge voided convictions against Elmardoudi and Koubriti, ruling that consideration of the photos could have created reasonable doubt regarding their guilt. Prosecutors charged Smith and Convertino with making false statements, conspir754

acy and obstruction of justice. Convertino’s lawyers argued during his trial that his failure to turn over the photos had been an accident caused by the overwhelming amount of evidence that had to be sorted through and the Justice Department’s refusal to give him the additional assistance that he had requested. „

Intelligence 2007

Intelligence

Budget

Declassified.

The government’s nonmilitary intelligence spending for fiscal 2007, which had ended Sept. 30, totaled $43.5 billion according to figures released Oct. 30 by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell. The disclosure marked the first time that the national intelligence budget total had been officially made public since 1998, when it totaled $26.7 billion. The declassification of the intelligence budget had been a recommendation of the socalled Sept. 11 Commission and had been enacted by Congress in late July. [See p. 495A2] The $43.5 billion total included the operating budgets for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Reconnaissance Office, which was in charge of the nation’s intelligence satellites, as well as the intelligence programs of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the State Department and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Unidentified government officials reportedly said that if military intelligence costs were included, the total would top $50 billion. „

Crime Five Arrested in D.C. Tax Refund Scam.

Federal agents in Washington, D.C., announced Nov. 7 that they had arrested five people in connection with a a fraudulent tax-refund plot that had cost the District of Columbia government approximately $20 million. The suspects included two employees of the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue. Authorities said that their investigation was ongoing and that more people could still be charged. The conspiracy, which authorities believed began in 2001, was never detected by the suspects’ superiors in the tax department. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began its probe following a tip-off from a bank clerk who had balked at cashing a refund check for a corporation that seemed not to exist. District Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, who had previously been hailed for his careful management of the district’s finances, Nov. 7 described the situation as “a major management failure” and said that he took full responsibility for the department’s lack of oversight. He also announced the resignation of four high-level department employees who he said had failed to ferret out the conspiracy. „

AFRICA

Chad French Aid Workers Held for Child Kidnap.

Chadian authorities Oct. 25 arrested six workers for the French-based charity Zoe’s Ark on charges of attempted kidnapping and fraud, as they were boarding a plane in the eastern Chadian town of Abeche with 103 children they said were orphans. The authorities also arrested 11 other Europeans, including the flight crew and journalists. The flight had been bound for France. [See p. 710C1] The charity workers claimed that they believed the children were sick, malnourished orphans from western Sudan’s wartorn Darfur region, just across the border from eastern Chad. They had raised money to conduct an operation to place the children, who ranged in age from one to 10, with foster families in Europe. About 300 European families had each reportedly paid Zoe’s Ark a minimum “donation” of $2,800 to aid the operation. [See p. 709A1] However, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Nov. 1 said almost all the children were not orphans, but had been living with their families in eastern Chad. The UNHCR based its conclusions on interviews with some of the children. All were also said to be in relatively good health. Most of the children reportedly came from Chadian villages near Sudan, and, due to the porous border and the frequent movement of refugees between Chad and Darfur, officials were having difficulty determining their nationality. The U.N., the International Committee for the Red Cross and Chadian authorities were working on locating the children’s families; meanwhile, they were being cared for at an orphanage in Abeche. The operation by Zoe’s Ark was condemned by French and Chadian authorities. Chadian President Idriss Deby Oct. 26 described it as “child trafficking,” and Bruno Foucher, the French ambassador to Chad, Oct. 28 said it was a “completely illegal operation.” Chadian authorities Oct. 30 said the six Zoe’s Ark workers had been officially charged with kidnapping. Most of the other detained Europeans were charged with complicity in the operation. Chadian authorities Nov. 2 transferred the European detainees to the capital, N’Djamena, from Abeche, to stand trial. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon Nov. 3 ordered an investigation into the affair. The French foreign ministry had reportedly warned Zoe’s Ark earlier in the year that there was no way to verify that the children were orphans, and that the operation was illegal because Chad and Sudan did not allow international adoptions. The incident raised tensions between Chad and France, its former colonial power. France had pledged to provide about half the troops for a 3,000-member European Union peacekeeping force set to be FACTS ON FILE

Sarkozy Visits, 7 Detainees Freed—

French President Nicolas Sarkozy Nov. 4 flew to N’Djamena and met with Deby. He returned to France later that day, bringing with him on his official jet four Spanish flight attendants and three French journalists who had been traveling with the group. After the meeting, Deby insisted that there had been “no pressure on Chad, nor on President Deby” to release the detainees. Sarkozy in N’Djamena Nov. 4 called for Chad to invoke a judicial cooperation accord that would allow the Zoe’s Ark workers to stand trial in France. However, Deby had insisted that they be tried in Chad. Sarkozy, after returning to France, Nov. 6 vowed to bring the rest of the detainees back to Europe, saying, “I will go and get those still there, whatever they may have done.” Chadian Justice Minister Albert Pahimi Padacket called the statement “inopportune,” and said it would “have no bearing on the handling of the case before the judge.” Sarkozy’s whirlwind visit was compared with an intervention made by his former wife, Cecilia Sarkozy, in a case involving Bulgarian medics detained in Libya in July. (Nicolas and Cecilia Sarkozy had divorced in October.) [See pp. 720E3, 473C3] Chad Nov. 9 released the remaining members of the plane’s crew—three Spaniards and a Belgian pilot. The affair had led to a rise in antiFrench sentiment in Chad. Several thousand Chadian students Nov. 14 held antiFrench protests in N’Djamena, attacking cars belonging to whites. Protests had also been reported in Abeche. One of the freed journalists who had been traveling with the Zoe’s Ark workers, Marc Garmirian, had filmed a documentary on the operation, parts of which had aired Nov. 4 on French television. In the film, the aid workers acknowledged that they could not verify that the children were orphans. They were also shown wrapping the children in bandages to make them appear sick. Garmirian Nov. 5 said the workers had been “blinded by zeal,” and described the two leaders of Zoe’s Ark, Eric Breteau and Emilie Lelouch, as “fanatics.” French newspaper Le Parisien Nov. 4 reported that men claiming to be the fathers of some of the children said the Zoe’s Ark workers had offered to take their children to schools in other parts of Chad. Aid Workers’ Bail Denied—Gilbert Collard, a lawyer for the six Zoe’s Ark workers, Nov. 14 said a court in N’Djamena had denied bail to his clients. If convicted of the charges against them, the aid workers faced five to 20 years of hard labor in a Chadian prison. French newspaper Le Monde Nov. 15 reported that, in testimony before the court Nov. 3, Breteau had claimed that they had been deceived about the children’s origin and nationality by village chiefs in the border region. „ November 15, 2007

Democratic Republic of the Congo Deal Set With Rwanda to Disarm Hutu Rebels.

The governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, its eastern neighbor, Nov. 11 announced that they would join forces to disarm ethnic Hutu rebels currently operating in eastern Congo. Since late August, fighting had intensified in Congo’s eastern North Kivu province between the Congolese army and forces loyal to a dissident former army general, Congolese ethnic Tutsi Laurent Nkunda. He had accused the army of backing the Hutu fighters, many of whom had fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide in that country. [See below, pp. 402F2, 33E3] The clashes had been sparked when Nkunda reneged on a January peace deal brokered by Rwanda. In that deal, Nkunda had agreed to integrate his 8,000-strong militia into the Congolese army, as long as the government dropped an international warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges. Nkunda’s forces Aug. 27 had begun attacks on United Nations and government troops in the area, in response to an order by the government to deploy his troops to other parts of the country. Nkunda maintained that it was necessary for his forces to remain in the area to protect the Tutsi minority from the Rwandan Hutus, who had fled Rwanda after forces of now–Rwandan President Paul Kagame, then a Tutsi rebel leader, in June 1994 had overthrown the Hutu authorities perpetrating the genocide.

The U.N. and Congolese army commanders had accused the Rwandan government of arming Nkunda’s fighters; in turn, Nkunda had alleged that the Congolese army was supporting the Hutu rebels, known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The FDLR, previously known as the Interahamwe, had been terrorizing residents of the region since fleeing Rwanda. The Mai Mai, a local Congolese militia, had also joined in the fighting on the side of the government. Congo’s president, Joseph Kabila, Oct. 17 had ordered the army to begin an all-out offensive against Nkunda. Kabila Oct. 26 met with U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C., where the two leaders discussed the security situation in eastern Congo. U.S. officials had said they were mulling direct U.S. military training for the Congolese army. The recent fighting between Nkunda’s forces, the FDLR, and government and U.N. troops had forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee the already unstable area since the beginning of the year. Many refugees had escaped to camps in Congo or crossed the border into Uganda and Rwanda. At least 750,000 people had been displaced in North Kivu since the beginning of 2007, it was reported Oct. 25. The violence had made it difficult for aid workers to provide assistance to the refugees. An estimated four million people had died in Congo, mainly in the east, in nearly 10 years of fighting. Many died from hunger or preventable diseases.

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Congo, Rwanda Pledge Cooperation—

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In a joint statement announcing the Nov. 11 deal, which was brokered by the U.N., the U.S. and the European Union at a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, the FDLR was described as “a genocidal military organization,” and the Congolese government said it “commits to launch military operations as a matter of urgency” to disarm it. Rwanda promised to seal its border with Congo, and Congo pledged to turn over to Rwanda any Hutu fighters who had been indicted in connection with that country’s 1994 genocide, in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists. The deal was intended to reduce tensions between the two countries, which had been rising due to Rwanda’s perception that Congo had targeted Nkunda while allowing the Hutu rebels to operate in the border region with impunity. Rwanda in 1996 and 1998 had invaded Congo in an effort to wipe out the Hutu rebels, with the second invasion helping to ignite a fiveyear war in Congo. Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande Nov. 12 said of the deal, “I witnessed a change in attitude and language on the part of Congolese officials. There seems to be a new resolve to deal with the FDLR problem.” However, at least six such agreements had been reached since 1999, yet the tensions had remained. Fighting continued despite the deal. Nkunda’s forces Nov. 13 reportedly attacked the Congolese army near the Mugunga refugee camp, 10 km (six miles) from the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma. Congolese army officials said they repulsed the raid, killing 27 Tutsi fighters. Thousands of refugees fled the camp due to the fighting. Also, the Ugandan military Nov. 13 said its troops had clashed the previous day with Nkunda’s fighters, killing one, after they crossed the border into the western Ugandan district of Kisoro. Abuses, Rape Epidemic Reported—

U.S.-based watchdog group Human Rights Watch Oct. 23 issued a report saying that all parties in the eastern Congo conflict were responsible for atrocities against civilians. The report accused all the armed groups, including the Congolese army, of killings, rapes, abductions, looting and other violations. The report was based on interviews with dozens of witnesses, and found that the civilians had been punished for allegedly supporting the different sides in the conflict. Sir John Holmes, the U.N.’s undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and coordinator of emergency relief, Sept. 8 said the level of sexual violence against women in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu was “almost unimaginable.” He said 4,500 cases of rape had been reported in the region in 2007, but asserted that the actual number of attacks was likely much higher. “Violence and rape at the hands of these armed groups has become all too common,” he said, adding, “The intensity and frequency is worse than anywhere else in the world.” [See 2006, p. 910A2] 756

Poachers Kill Gorillas in National Park—

As many as 10 endangered mountain gorillas had been killed in eastern Congo’s Virunga National Park by gunmen or poachers since the beginning of 2007, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reported Nov. 5. At least one ranger had been killed and another injured, according to the BBC. [See 2006, p. 1012E1; 2003, p. 589B3] The Associated Press Oct. 7 reported that only about 700 mountain gorillas remained in the world, with about half living in Virunga, which stretched into western Rwanda and Uganda. The park was founded in 1925 and was Africa’s oldest national park. It was designated a World Heritage Site by the U.N. in 1979, and was listed by the U.N. as a heritage site in danger in 1994. Conservation group WildlifeDirect Oct. 7 said Nkunda’s forces had seized a portion of the park. That prompted the ill-equipped park rangers to flee, leaving the gorillas unprotected. „

AMERICAS

Canada Harper Orders Mulroney Payments Inquiry.

Canadian Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper Nov. 13 ordered a public inquiry into deals made between former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber, a GermanCanadian businessman wanted in Germany on tax-evasion charges. Harper, who had previously resisted calls for an inquiry, changed his mind after Schreiber Nov. 8 filed new testimony about his dealings with Mulroney. [See 2003, p. 357G3; 1999, p. 656D1] Mulroney had served as prime minister from 1984 to 1993, as the leader of the Progressive Conservative party. (The Conservative Party had resulted from the 2003 merger of the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance party, known as the Reform Party before 2000.) At issue in the inquiry were conflicting statements about a series of cash payments made by Schreiber to Mulroney in 1993 and 1994, totaling C$300,000 (US$230,000). Schreiber in court documents filed Nov. 8 said he had negotiated the payments on June 23, 1993, two days before Mulroney left office. According to Schreiber, the payments had secured Mulroney’s aid in his efforts to establish a chain of restaurants in Ontario and win government approval for an armored tank plant in Quebec province. Mulroney’s lawyers, citing previous statements by Schreiber himself, claimed that the deals had been brokered after Mulroney left office. Schreiber also alleged that while Mulroney was still in office, one of his aides had requested that Schreiber transfer funds to Mulroney’s lawyer, in connection with Air Canada’s 1980s purchase of a fleet of airplanes from European aircraft maker Airbus. Mulroney in 1997 had won a C$2.1 million defamation settlement from the federal government for being named as a suspect in an alleged graft scheme involv-

ing the aircraft purchase by Air Canada, which at the time was government-owned. Harper Nov. 9 had called for an independent investigator to review the allegations made by Schreiber, a step short of calling for a public inquiry. He had also ordered his administration to cut all ties to Mulroney, who had served as an adviser and political mentor to many high-ranking Conservatives. Harper announced the inquiry after Mulroney Nov. 12 requested that he accede to Schreiber’s demands for a public inquiry, so that he could clear his name. „ News in Brief. Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty Oct. 30 announced a C$60 billion (US$62.6 billion) tax relief plan to be instituted over six years. Under the plan, tax rates on businesses would be reduced to 15% by 2012, from the current rate of 22%. The goods and services tax (GST) would be reduced one percentage point from its current rate of 6%. Those changes were set to take effect Jan. 1, 2008. The plan also called for a cut in personal income taxes, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2007. The tax cuts would reduce an estimated budget surplus of C$16.4 billion by C$4.8 billion. [See p. 718C3; 2006, p. 882A1] Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach Oct. 26 announced a series of changes to the province’s oil royalty system set to take effect in 2009 that would increase the province’s annual royalty income by C$1.4 billion, or 20%. Oil industry groups protested the increase, arguing that it was excessive. The rising price of oil and relative political instability in other oil-producing regions had made investment in Alberta’s oil sands increasingly popular with large oil companies. [See p. 594D2] The administration of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Oct. 4 announced that Senior Associate Deputy Finance Minister Mark Carney, 42, would take over as governor of the Bank of Canada, the nation’s central bank, in February 2008. The seven-year term of the current bank president, David Dodge, was set to expire at the end of January 2008. [See 2000, p. 1039G2] Justice Mary Lou Benotto of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Oct. 1 acquitted four doctors and a U.S.-based drug company of criminal charges related to the distribution of tainted blood products that had infected thousands of Canadians with HIV and hepatitis C in the 1980s and 1990s. Her decision came after an 18-month trial. The four doctors, who were all acquitted of criminal negligence and endangering the public, were Roger Perrault, the former national director of the Canadian Red Cross Society; former Health Canada officials Donald Boucher and John Furesz; and Michael Rodell, a former executive with Armour Pharmaceutical Co. Armour was acquitted of the same charges. [See 2005, p. 393D1] „

Colombia Nationwide Local Elections Held. Colombian

voters Oct. 28 went to the polls to elect 32 governors, 1,098 mayors and thousands of other political officials in local elections held nationwide. Though several attacks by FACTS ON FILE

rebel forces had killed 29 candidates in the run-up to voting, the elections were largely free of violence. Independent election observers from the Organization of American States (OAS) said the contests had generally been free of irregularities. [See 2006, p. 434A1] Samuel Moreno, 47, of the leftist opposition party Polo Democratico Alternativo (Alternative Democratic Pole or PDA) won the mayorship of Bogota, the capital. He defeated Enrique Penalosa, a candidate allied with conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez, 43.7%– 28.1%. Bogota’s mayor was considered the second-most powerful elected official in the country, after the president. Observers said Moreno’s victory could strengthen the PDA’s position in advance of the 2010 presidential election. However, the PDA failed to make substantial gains in elections outside Bogota, which was home to about seven million people, or 17% of the country’s population. Several of the parties participating in the elections had been linked to the “para-politics” scandal, in which allegations had surfaced tying Uribe and his political allies to right-wing paramilitary groups responsible for murders, kidnappings, torture and drug trafficking. Candidates of the parties that had been linked to the scandal won governorships in only two departments, Antioquia and Amazonas. [See p. 719G1] Government officials said 170,000 troops and police had been sent to safeguard polling sites from right-wing paramilitary groups and guerrillas of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC). Several candidates had reported receiving death threats from FARC forces, who had said they would target any Uribeallied candidate. „

Haiti U.N. Peacekeeping Mission Extended. The

United Nations Security Council Oct. 15 voted unanimously to extend a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti for one year. The U.N. had sent more than 7,000 troops and 2,000 police to Haiti to replace a U.S.-led coalition dispatched after the February 2004 ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. [See p. 180D3] The U.N. resolution reorganized the mission to focus on combating drugs and arms smuggling in the country. It also reduced the maximum number of troops in the country to 7,060, from 7,200. The maximum number of police was increased to 2,091, from 1,951. The peacekeeping mission was composed of forces from several countries, including the U.S., Brazil, Argentina, Chile, France and Canada. The U.N. force had suffered 31 deaths, including some civilian members killed, during the mission. In a separate development, the U.N. Nov. 2 said 108 Sri Lankan members of its peacekeeping force would be sent home amid allegations that they had paid for sex with women and girls. „ November 15, 2007

Former President Duvalier Admits ‘Wrongs.’

A recorded message from former Haitian President Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier, in which he apologized for “wrongs” committed during his 1971–86 rule, Sept. 22–23 was broadcast on Haitian radio stations. “If, during my presidential mandate, the government caused any physical, moral or economic wrongs to others, I solemnly take the responsibility,” he said. [See 2004, p. 134D1; 1996, p. 288G2] Duvalier in his address called on “militants and militant sympathizers” of his fringe political party, the National Unity Party, to “be ready” for a “revival” in its fortunes. The comments were his first in several years. Duvalier, 56, in 1971 had been named president for life, assuming power after the death of his father, President Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier. The younger Duvalier had violently suppressed political opposition and embezzled funds from the country’s treasury. He was overthrown in 1986 and fled to France, where he remained in exile. Though Duvalier did not say that he sought to return to Haiti, a small group of his supporters had been campaigning for his repatriation. Haitian President Rene Preval Sept. 28 said Duvalier would face charges of corruption and human rights abuses if he returned. He also said his government sought control of some 7.6 million Swiss francs ($6.3 million) linked to Duvalier that were being held in Swiss bank accounts. „

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Cambodia Two Ex–Khmer Rouge Officials Arrested.

Police acting on the orders of the United Nations–backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) Nov. 12 arrested two former leaders of the Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. The arrests followed the September indictment of former Khmer Rouge official Nuon Chea. The court had been established to try leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime for crimes committed during its 1975–79 reign, during which an estimated 1.7 million people had died as a result of its policies. [See p. 671G3] Former Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ieng Sary and his wife, former Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, had been charged with crimes against humanity, the ECCC announced in a Nov. 13 statement. Sary was also charged with war crimes. The court alleged that Sary and Thirith had been involved in drafting and coordinating the regime’s radical restructuring of the country, which attempted to create an agrarian communist state through the use of rural forced labor camps and violent purges. Sary had been sentenced to death in absentia in 1979 after the invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam, but had been granted a pardon by King Norodom Sihanouk in 1996 as part of an agreement with the Cambodian government intended to help end the Khmer

Rouge’s lingering insurgency. It was unclear how the pardon, which included acts of genocide, would affect the ECCC’s prosecution of Sary. [See 1996, p. 999A3]

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Ex-Khmer Rouge Leader Hospitalized—

Former Khmer Rouge Prime Minister Khieu Samphan, believed to be the fifth and final member of the regime targeted by the ECCC for indictment, was hospitalized Nov. 13 in Phnom Penh. Initial reports suggested that Khieu had suffered a stroke, but the episode was described by Sor Socheat, his wife, resulting from Khieu’s high blood pressure and a possible panic attack, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Nov. 13. „

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China Yahoo Settles Dissident Lawsuit in U.S.

U.S. Internet company Yahoo Inc. Nov. 13 settled a lawsuit filed on behalf of the families of two Chinese dissident writers who had been imprisoned after Yahoo allegedly gave Chinese authorities information about their on-line activities. The terms of the settlement were undisclosed, and Yahoo did not admit fault. The settlement came after the House Foreign Affairs Committee Nov. 6 held a hearing on the matter, in which Yahoo Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jerry Yang faced harsh questioning from lawmakers. [See 2006, p. 379G3] The suit had been filed April 18 by the advocacy group World Organization for Human Rights USA in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Calif., originally over the case of one writer, Wang Xiaoning. Wang, 57, had been arrested in September 2002 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for inciting subversion through his Internet writing. The lawsuit said Yahoo’s Hong Kong subsidiary, which then had controlled Yahoo China, had first blocked the account he had used to post his writings anonymously at China’s behest, and later turned over information identifying him as the author. The case of Chinese journalist Shi Tao was later added to the suit. Shi, 39, had been arrested in 2004 for sending to a U.S. Web site the text of an order by the ruling Communist Party warning journalists not to report on the 15th anniversary of a violent 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China’s capital. He was sentenced in 2005 to 10 years in prison for disclosing state secrets. The lawsuit said both men had been tortured in prison. [See 2005, p. 719F3] Human rights advocates said there were at least two other instances in which Yahoo had provided China with information about dissidents. The lawsuit was filed under the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act, under which foreigners could file lawsuits in U.S. courts seeking damages for serious human rights abuses committed outside the country. CEO Called Before U.S. Congress— At the Nov. 6 House hearing, committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D, Calif.) said that Yahoo executives had lied at a 2006 hearing of the same committee, when they said they had been unaware of the nature of the 757

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investigation of Shi when they received the Chinese government’s request for information. It later emerged that the request did indicate that Shi was being investigated for leaking state secrets, a typical charge lodged against dissidents. Yahoo general counsel Michael Callahan, who had testified at the 2006 hearing, said he had not been aware of those details. However, the company had not sought to amend its testimony after learning it was incorrect. Committee members expressed disbelief at the company’s explanation. Lantos called it “inexcusably negligent behavior at best, and deliberately deceptive behavior at worst.” Callahan and Yang said their company could not know whether Yahoo China was still providing authorities with similar cooperation, because it had turned over control of it to Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group in a 2005 deal. [See 2005, p. 576E3] Yang apologized to Shi’s mother, Wang’s wife, and other relatives of the dissidents who attended the hearing, for what the prisoners “and their families are going through.” He said Yahoo was “doing what we can to secure their freedom.” Separately, Hong Kong’s privacy commission March 14 said it had not found sufficient evidence that Yahoo Hong Kong had violated the territory’s privacy laws in the Shi case. „

Malaysia Electoral Reform Protest Dispersed. Police in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, Nov. 10 used tear gas and water cannons against demonstrators marching to protest irregularities in the nation’s electoral system, including vote-buying and the inclusion of nonexistent voters on election rolls. The march was believed to be Malaysia’s largest since 1998 demonstrations protesting then–Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s expulsion from the cabinet. [See 2005, p. 981A1; 1998, p. 888B2] The protest, which called for electoral reform and transparent elections, was organized by an organization known as Bersih (the Malay word for “clean”) and backed by more than 60 nongovernmental organizations and Malaysia’s three largest opposition parties. Police estimates put the number of demonstrators at 4,000; protest organizers said that the number was closer to 30,000. In addition, the police arrested 245 people for violating a Malaysia law that outlawed assemblies of more than four people without a permit. Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based human rights advocacy group, issued a statement Nov. 15 calling for an inquiry into police treatment of protesters and alleging that arrested protesters had not been allowed access to legal counsel before being questioned by police. Rejecting the demand for an inquiry, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Nov. 15, “I don’t think any country’s human rights body can tell other countries what it should do” and stated that “Malaysia will govern the country in its own way.” „ 758

Philippines Capitol Building Blast Kills Four. An ex-

plosion outside the Philippines’ House of Representatives Nov. 13 killed one lawmaker, Wahab Akbar, and two other people as they were leaving a House session; a third person died Nov. 14 from blast-related wounds. Eight others, including two legislators, were injured. [See p. 720C3] Police suspected that the explosion had been caused by a nail bomb attached to a motorcycle, Time magazine reported on its Web site Nov. 14, and had recovered a cellular telephone believed to have been used to trigger the bomb. The blast came three weeks after an October explosion at a shopping mall in Manila, the nation’s capital, that killed 11 people. The cause of that explosion was still unknown. Philippine National Police Chief Avelino Razon said at a Nov. 14 press conference that the police were primarily “looking at the threats on Congressman Akbar” in conducting their investigation, but did not rule out that the explosion could have been an attack against Rep. Luz Ilagan or Rep. Henry Teves, who were both injured in the blast. Akbar, a former commander of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) separatist rebel group, represented the province of Basilan, a stronghold for Muslim terrorist groups such as Abu Sayyaf. „

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Denmark Prime Minister’s Coalition Wins Third Term.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s center-right Liberal Party and its coalition partners Nov. 13 narrowly won parliamentary elections, securing a third term in government. Rasmussen, 54, had called the elections two years ahead of schedule, moving to take advantage of high public approval ratings and a strong economy, with unemployment at a threedecade low of 3.1%. Turnout was high, at 86% of eligible voters. [See 2005, p. 86A2] The Liberal Party and its two coalition partners, the Conservative Party and the Danish People’s Party, won 90 seats in the 179-seat Folketing, or parliament. The opposition center-left Social Democratic Party and its allies won 84 seats. The Liberal Party won 46 seats, a drop of six from the previous parliament, while the People’s Party won 25 seats, a gain of one, and the Conservative Party won 18, the same as before. Rasmussen Nov. 14 said he had asked a small party, the New Alliance, to join his coalition in order to give it “broad backing.” The New Alliance had won four seats. Without them, Rasmussen’s coalition would have only a one-seat majority. The New Alliance was a six-month-old party led by Naser Khader, a Syrian-born Palestinian immigrant. It called for easing immigration laws and cutting Denmark’s high income taxes. It had proposed a flat tax rate of 40%, compared with the current top rate of 63%. Rasmussen had frozen tax

rates since 2001 and tightened immigration policy. Khader, a nonobservant Muslim, had emerged as a supporter of Rasmussen’s defense of free speech during worldwide Muslim protests in 2006 against cartoons of the prophet Muhammad originally published in a Danish newspaper. [See 2006, pp. 805A3, 85A2] Observers said Rasmussen would face a challenge in managing a coalition that included both the New Alliance and the Danish People’s Party. The latter, which won 24 seats, was strongly anti-immigration and favored preserving Denmark’s generous welfare system rather than cutting taxes. However, it did not hold any seats in the cabinet. „

Germany Vice Chancellor Quits, Coalition Strained.

German Vice Chancellor Franz Muentefering resigned Nov. 13, adding to growing strains between his center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The two parties, traditional rivals, had governed together in a “grand coalition” for two years. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the SPD took over as vice chancellor. [See 2006, p. 236C3] Muentefering, who also served as labor minister, had been an architect of the grand coalition and Merkel’s strongest SPD ally. He had defended economic reforms enacted under Merkel’s predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder of the SPD. However, in a shift to the left, SPD leader Kurt Beck now called for reversing some of those reforms, which had included cuts to unemployment and retirement benefits. The SPD had recently endorsed a proposal by Beck to double, to two years from one, the period during which people over 50 could claim maximum unemployment benefits. Muentefering strongly opposed the proposal, although the coalition Nov. 12 approved a modified version of it. Muentefering, 67, said he was quitting the government in order to spend more time with his wife, who had cancer. „ Merkel Visits Bush Ranch. German Chancellor Angela Merkel Nov. 9–10 visited U.S. President George W. Bush’s Texas ranch, in a sign of the warm relations between the two leaders. Days earlier, Bush had hosted French President Nicolas Sarkozy for a state visit at the White House. The two visits were widely seen as an indication of improving U.S. ties with Germany and France. Those ties had been frayed by the opposition of the previous French and German leaders, President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. [See p. 729C3; 2006, p. 353A1] At a Nov. 10 news conference, Bush and Merkel said they had discussed ways of dealing with Iran’s refusal to halt its nuclear program. Merkel said she would support new economic sanctions, including reduced German-Iranian business links, if FACTS ON FILE

Iran did not back down. But she stressed that Germany wished to find a diplomatic solution to the problem. The U.S. had imposed new unilateral sanctions on Iran in late October. [See p. 721E3] „

Great Britain Irish Protestant Militia Gives Up Violence.

The Ulster Defense Association, the largest Protestant paramilitary group in Northern Ireland, Nov. 11 announced that it was giving up violence, ending its decades-old campaign against Roman Catholics in the British province. In a statement, the group said it “believes that the war is over,” referring to a new power-sharing provincial government that had taken office in May. [See p. 548A2] The group said its “weaponry will be put beyond use,” but that it would not destroy its weapons or hand them over to disarmament monitors. Another Protestant paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force, had said in May that it was renouncing violence. The main Catholic militia, the Irish Republican Army, had said in 2005 that it was giving up its arms, and had cooperated with international monitors to verify its progress in doing so. „ London Police Fined For Wrongful Death.

A jury at London’s Central Criminal Court (also known as the Old Bailey) Nov. 1 found the London Metropolitan Police guilty of violating public health and safety laws in a July 2005 incident in which armed officers had shot dead an innocent man in a subway train. A judge fined the police force £175,000 ($364,000) and ordered it to pay £385,000 in legal costs. [See 2006, p. 583F3] The victim, Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, had been mistakenly identified as a suicide bomber, a day after failed attacks on the London transportation system and two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 commuters. London Mayor Ken Livingstone called the verdict “disastrous,” warning that it could cause police to hesitate before acting to prevent another terrorist attack. Most British police were unarmed, except for specially trained squads. The London police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, rejected calls for his resignation after the verdict. Fifth Would-Be Bomber Pleads Guilty—

Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, a 34-year-old immigrant from Ghana, Nov. 9 pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause explosions in the botched July 2005 terrorist attack. In July, four other plotters had been convicted of conspiracy to murder and sentenced to at least 40 years in prison. Asiedu admitted that he had bought the hydrogen peroxide that the group used to make bombs, and that he was supposed to be the fifth bomber. However, unlike the others, he had not gone through with a suicide bombing attempt. Instead, he had dumped his bomb in a wooded park. [See p. 452A1] A sixth accused plotter, Adel Yahya, 25, Nov. 5 had pleaded guilty to a lesser November 15, 2007

offense of collecting information likely to be of use to terrorists, and was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison. New Public Safety Measures Set—British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Nov. 14 announced new plans to boost security measures against terrorist attacks in public places such as airports, train stations and shopping centers. Brown also said the government would require technology companies to cooperate in curbing the spread of “extremist propaganda” on the Internet. The head of Britain’s MI5 domestic security agency, Jonathan Evans, Nov. 5 had warned that at least 2,000 people in Britain posed a threat to national security due to their support for terrorism. Evans said extremists inspired by the international Al Qaeda terrorist network posed “the most immediate and acute peacetime threat” of the past century. He warned that extremists were “radicalizing, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism,” including teenagers as young as 15. [See 2006, p. 884F1] „

was between Russia, Georgia and Moldova. [See p. 741F2; 2006, p. 1029B3] The dispute over the treaty was the latest in a series of conflicts between Russia and Western countries, which included mounting tension over a U.S. proposal for missile defense stations in the Czech Republic and Poland, which Russia said would allow the U.S. to monitor Russian territory. Russia had also backed Serbia in the ongoing conflict over the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo, in which Kosovo Albanians sought to declare independence from Serbia. Many Western countries, including the U.S. and Britain, had said they would recognize Kosovo’s independence. Putin had also accused NATO of military buildups near Russian borders. [See pp. 705E1, G1, 276C1 ] Russia was required by law to give 150 days’ notice of its withdrawal from the treaty, and was expected to withdraw by Dec. 12 if no compromise was reached. A senior Russian official Nov. 7 had said the developments did not necessarily mean Russia would withdraw unilaterally from the CFE, only that it wanted NATO to ratify the modified 1999 treaty. „

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Duma Votes to Suspend Arms Treaty. The

State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, Nov. 7 voted unanimously to suspend membership in the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which limited the number of conventional arms, including tanks and artillery, that could be deployed between the Atlantic Ocean and Russia’s Ural mountains. The treaty had been adopted in 1990 by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia, and had been viewed as both a cornerstone of European security in the post-Soviet era, as well as an important link between Russia and NATO countries. [See p. 459D1] The legislation had yet to be approved by the upper house of parliament and by Russian President Vladimir V. Putin; however, both were expected to endorse it. The Russian foreign ministry in July had formally announced Russia’s intent to withdraw from the CFE as a result of NATO’s reluctance to adopt an amended version of the treaty that had been renegotiated in 1999. The amended version had been ratified only by Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, but also included Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Those three countries had been part of the Soviet Union when the treaty was originally negotiated, but had been NATO countries since 1999. Russia had expressed concern that NATO could use these bordering states for army bases. The 1999 agreement had not been ratified by NATO because of Russia’s refusal to withdraw troops from breakaway sections of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, and Trans-Dniester in Moldova, a demand included in the 1999 treaty that resurfaced in the ongoing treaty negotiations between Russia and NATO. Moscow had said the two issues were not linked and that the conflict

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Tuerk Wins Presidential Race. Leftist Da-

nilo Tuerk, 55, a law professor and former diplomat, Nov. 11 won a runoff presidential election against his conservative opponent, former Prime Minister Lojze Peterle, winning 68% of the vote, to Peterle’s 32%. Tuerk would take office Dec. 21, before Slovenia assumed the rotating six-month European Union presidency in January 2008. The position of president in Slovenia was mostly ceremonial, though the president was involved in foreign policy and defense affairs. [See p. 164A3] Analysts suggested the vote was indicative of Slovenians’ growing discontent with the current right-wing government, headed by Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose popularity had sharply declined in recent months as a result of rising inflation. Jansa Nov. 13 suggested that his government might resign, saying that Tuerk’s hostility to the governing coalition would “make the government’s work more difficult.” The runoff was held after no clear winner emerged in the first round of elections Oct. 21, in which seven candidates competed. In that round, Peterle won 29% of the vote, to Tuerk’s 25%; significant minorities voted for center-left candidate and central bank governor Mitja Gaspari and Zmago Jelincic, leader of the Slovene National Party, preventing either leading candidate from reaching the 50% threshold needed to win. Tuerk, who in the runoff gained votes from supporters of the losing left-wing candidates, would replace outgoing leftist President Janez Drnovsek, who had chosen not to run for another five-year term. Slovenia was the only former Yugoslav country in the EU. It would be the first of the 10 countries inducted into the EU in 2004 to hold the EU presidency. „ 759

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Lebanon Presidential Election Further Delayed. Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri Nov. 10 in a statement said he was delaying presidential elections until Nov. 21 “to give more time for consultations to reach agreement on a president.” The 128-member Lebanese parliament was responsible for electing the president, but the governing pro-Western March 14 Movement and the opposition Shiite militant movement Hezbollah—which was supported by Iran and Syria—had not not been able to agree on a compromise candidate. It was the third time that the presidential election had been postponed; Berri Oct. 22 had announced a previous delay. [See p. 639A2] The current president, Emile Lahoud, was set to leave office Nov. 24. It was feared that failure to adopt a compromise candidate could lead to a resurgence of violence in Lebanon, which had been devastated by a 1975–90 civil war. U.S. President George W. Bush Nov. 12 in a telephone call to Western-backed Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora expressed his support for democratic elections in Lebanon, and warned against interference by Syria. „

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MLB Star Bonds Indicted on Perjury, Obstruction Charges Charges Raise Questions About Records.

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Barry Bonds, the all-time home run leader in Major League Baseball (MLB), Nov. 15 was indicted on four felony counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. The indictment was handed down by a federal grand jury in San Francisco, Calif., that since 2003 had been investigating a scandal surrounding the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), a Northern California nutritional supplement company that had provided performance-enhancing drugs to top athletes. Bonds was scheduled to appear in court Dec. 7. [See p. 518A1] Bonds, 43, had broken Hank Aaron’s home run record while playing for the San Francisco Giants in August. In 2001, he had set the single-season home run record, hitting 73. [See 2001, p. 799E2] The charges stemmed from Bonds’s Dec. 4, 2003, testimony before the BALCO grand jury that he had never knowingly used steroids. Bonds and other athletes had been given immunity in return for their testimony, and therefore could be prosecuted only for giving false information. In the indictment, prosecutors alleged that, in the course of the BALCO probe, they had seized a blood sample—which could be proven to belong to Bonds—that tested positive for steroids. Bonds had never tested positive for steroids in any MLB-administered test, and had consistently denied using illicit substances. However, BALCO had reportedly administered regular blood tests to its clients. Prosecutors said they also had 760

other circumstantial evidence, as well as testimony from others involved in BALCO, that Bonds had used steroids. To date, seven people had pleaded guilty to various charges in connection with the case, including sprinter Marion Jones in September. [See p. 675A3] Bonds’s former personal trainer, Greg Anderson, had been jailed since 2006 for refusing to testify against the slugger. Prosecutors alleged that Anderson had begun providing steroids to Bonds in 1999. Anderson Nov. 15 was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif. After his release, his lawyers criticized prosecutors for targeting their client, noting that the indictment proved that Anderson’s testimony was not needed to make a case against Bonds, as prosecutors had claimed. Bonds had long been suspected of steroid use—a result of his link to the BALCO scandal and the dramatic increase in his home run output beginning in his late 30s, when players’ performances tended to decline. His breaking of Aaron’s record— one of the most hallowed in American sports—had therefore prompted much controversy, and his subsequent indictment raised even more questions about his place in MLB history. [See p. 659A1] Bonds’s lawyer, Michael Rains, Nov. 15 called the charges “ridiculous” and said that there had been prosecutorial “misconduct” that would cause the case to collapse when it came to light. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said in response to the indictment, “While everyone in America is considered innocent until proven guilty, I take this indictment very seriously and will follow its progress closely.” Similarly, Donald Fehr, executive director of the MLB Players Association, said in a statement that he was “saddened to learn…of the indictment,” but that Bonds was “entitled to the presumption of innocence.” Many also pointed out that Bonds—a seven-time most valuable player—was a supremely talented player, regardless of whether he had used steroids. Bonds, who finished the 2007 season with 762 career home runs, became a free agent when the Giants did not offer him a new contract after the season. He had said he wanted to play one more season; however, analysts said that in light of the indictment, teams would be unlikely to risk signing him. „

the Paris National Opera, a post that had been vacant since 2004, when James Conlon left it after being named to the corresponding post at the Los Angeles Opera. Jordan, who turned 33 on Oct. 18, would join the Paris institution, which had been relying on guest conductors since Conlon’s departure, at the beginning of the 2009–10 season. He would be starting at the same time as the company’s new director general, Nicolas Joel, whose appointment was announced in late 2006. [See 2006, p. 988C2; 2004, p. 1099D1] „

O B I T UA R I E S DAY, Laraine (born Laraine Johnson), 87, movie actress whose heyday was in the 1940s, when she starred in such films as Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Cecil B. DeMille’s The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944); she was perhaps best known, though, for her role as a nurse, Mary Lamont, in seven “Dr. Kildare” films released between 1939 and 1941; from 1947 to 1960, she was married to baseball manager Leo Durocher, the second of her three husbands; during that period, she came to be known as “the first lady of baseball”; born Oct. 13, 1920, in Roosevelt, Utah (some sources claimed she was born in 1917); died Nov. 10 at her daughter’s home in Ivins, Utah; no cause of death was reported. [See 1961, p. 172G3; 1960, pp. 208G3, 119B3; Indexes 1954, 1946–48] MAILER, Norman Kingsley, 84, provocative writer of fiction and nonfiction who was in the limelight for decades; his first novel, The Naked and The Dead (1948), a partly autobiographical account of U.S. soldiers on the Pacific front during World War II, immediately put him on the literary map; many critics felt he never wrote a better novel, although An American Dream (1965) was also highly regarded; he himself deemed Ancient Evenings (1983), set in ancient Egypt, to be his best novel; his nonfiction, though, generally came to be viewed as superior to his fiction; a cofounder (1955) of the New York City alternative weekly the Village Voice, he was a leading practitioner of the New Journalism; a highly subjective approach to reportage that came to fruition in the 1960s; he won the first of his two Pulitzer Prizes for a book that adopted this approach, The Armies of the Night (1968), about his participation in an antiwar protest during the Vietnam War; the second of his Pulitzers was for The Executioner’s Song (1979), a fictionalized account of the life of Gary Gilmore, a convicted murderer who in 1977 was executed by the state of Utah; besides writing, he directed several films, ran for mayor of New York City in 1969, often appeared on television talk shows and frequently sparred with feminists; married six times, he nearly killed his second wife in 1960, when he drunkenly stabbed her at a party; his life became much more sedate, though, after he married the sixth of his wives, artist and former model Norris Church, in 1980; that marriage lasted for the rest of his life; born Jan. 31, 1923, in Long Branch, N.J.; died Nov. 10 at a hospital in New York City, of acute renal failure. [See 2006, p. 252D2; 2005, pp. 844D2, 332F1; Indexes 2002, 1997, 1989–90, 1986–87, 1980–84, 1976, 1965–74, 1963, 1959–61, 1955, 1948–51] „ STF/AFP/Getty Images

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People Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had stepped down in June after 10 years in office, had agreed to sell his memoirs for a near-record advance of around $9 million, it was reported Oct. 26. The agreement came at the end of a four-day bidding war, won by two divisions of Random House Inc., Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, and Hutchinson in Britain. Blair, 54, would reportedly write the book himself. [See p. 421D2] Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan Oct. 10 was named the new music director of

Author Norman Mailer in 1987.

November 15, 2007

IAEA Report Finds Iranian Nuclear Enrichment Program Continuing Disclosure Deadlines Missed. The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Nov. 15 released a report detailing Iran’s continuing efforts to enrich uranium, in the face of a U.N. Security Council demand that it stop doing so. The report stated that Iran had provided the agency with some information, but had not made complete disclosures regarding its nuclear program, describing its cooperation as “reactive rather than proactive.” The report also said, “The agency’s knowledge about Iran’s current nuclear program is diminishing.” [See p. 721E3] The IAEA found that Iran had missed a deadline in a “work plan” that required the country to make disclosures regarding its past nuclear activities. That plan had been negotiated by IAEA Director Mohammed ElBaradei in 2006. The agency also confirmed that Iran had 3,000 working uranium-enrichment centrifuges, a figure that theoretically would allow the production of enough uranium to construct a nuclear weapon within 12 to 18 months. However, the IAEA said the centrifuges were not operating at full capacity, and that it had not found evidence that Iran was capable of making weapons-grade uranium. The report also said Iran had provided the IAEA with information regarding Iran’s centrifuge program in the 1980s and 1990s. Reaction—Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, said the report showed that “all the claims that Iran’s nuclear activities have a military agenda and are deviant are not true.” He added that the report showed that “the basis upon which the nuclear case was referred to the Security Council has collapsed.” Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said the U.S. would push efforts in the U.N. Security Council to impose a third round of sanctions against Iran for its failure to meet the work plan deadlines. The Security Council had passed two separate resolutions, in December 2006 and March, imposing sanctions on Iran for its failure to fully disclose aspects of its nuclear activities. Of the five permanent Security Council members, Russia and China had favored diplomatic pressure over sanctions, while the U.S., Britain and France had pushed for stronger penalties. Mohammad Khazaee, Iran’s ambassador to the U.N., Nov. 20 said he did not expect the Security Council to impose new sanctions, owing to Russian and Chinese opposition to them. Unidentified European diplomats cited in news reports Nov. 16 said China had withdrawn from a London meeting, scheduled for Nov. 19, of the Security Council’s five permanent members over possible sanctions on Iran. European officials reportedly said the withdrawal was due in part to China’s aversion to sanctions. China Nov. 9 in a statement had asked Iran to “respond positively” to demands that it limit its nuclear program, using stronger language than it previously had regarding

the issue. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Nov. 13 visited Tehran, Iran’s capital, to urge Iran to comply with the U.N.’s demands. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Nov. 12 had said he would lobby for a worldwide ban on foreign investment in Iran’s oil and gas industry unless the IAEA report and another from European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana found that Iran had abandoned its nuclear activities. (Solana’s report was expected by the end of November.) Brown said he would seek U.N. and EU sanctions in the financial sector as well. Internal Tensions Seen in Iran—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a Nov. 12 speech described critics of his nuclear policies as “traitors,” apparently reflecting growing tensions within Iran’s government over the country’s nuclear agenda. Analysts said Ahmadinejad’s remarks were aimed at conservative pragmatic and reformist elements within the government that had grown increasingly critical of Iran’s stance on the nuclear issue. Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani the same day delivered a speech warning of the seriousness of military and economic threats made by Western countries. Rafsanjani was accompanied by Hossein Mousavian, a former senior nuclear negotiator whom Ahmadinejad had accused of being a “nuclear spy.” Mousavian, a moderate who favored compromise during discussions, in May had been detained for several days on espionage charges before being released on bail, and had not yet been put on trial. His presence was viewed as a sign of Rafsanjani’s support for him. Iran’s intelligence minister, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, Nov. 14 accused Mousavian of providing classified material to foreign governments, including the British embassy in Tehran. Separately, Iran’s parliament Nov. 14 approved a cabinet shuffle proposed by Ahmadinejad, a signal that his control over key energy ministries had increased. The parliament overwhelmingly approved Gholam Hossein Nozari’s appointment as oil minister, while Ali Akbar Mehrabian won approval as industry minister by a slightly slimmer margin. Ahmadinejad in August had fired the pair’s predecessors; both Mehrabian and Nozari were considered his allies. [See p. 566E1] „

Middle East U.S. Sets Israeli-Palestinian Talks. The U.S.

State Department Nov. 20 formally announced that it had invited more than 40 countries to participate in peace talks between the Israeli and Palestinian governments. It also confirmed that the talks would take place Nov. 27 in Annapolis, Md., with a preliminary meeting Nov. 26 in Washington, D.C., between U.S. President George W. Bush, Palestinian Authority

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3493 November 22, 2007

B (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Another meeting between the three leaders was scheduled for Nov. 28. [See p. 638F1] Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other U.S. officials had been engaging in shuttle diplomacy in the months leading up to the talks, in order to promote agreement among the Israelis and Palestinians on the substance of the talks, and to persuade influential neighbors in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to attend. Bush Nov. 20 called Saudi King Abdullah, trying to persuade him to send his foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, as his representative to the talks. The call’s outcome was unclear, but the Saudi royal family had previously said it would not attend the talks unless Israel was prepared to make significant concessions.

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE IAEA report finds Iranian nuclear enrichment program continuing, ‘work plan’ deadlines missed. PAGE 761

Worldwide AIDS figures revised downward. PAGE 763

Clinton hits back in Democratic debate.

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Supreme Court accepts D.C. gun ban case. PAGE 765

House passes revised wiretapping law. PAGE 766

North Korean nuclear dismantling begins. PAGE 769

OSCE declines to monitor Russian elections.

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Ex-rebel wins Kosovo elections. PAGE 772

Cyclone Sidr kills thousands in Bangladesh. PAGE 773

Pakistani Supreme Court rejects petitions challenging Musharraf’s reelection. PAGE 773

Human stem cells created from skin cells. PAGE 775

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that day endorsed the talks, in a meeting with Olmert in Sharm el Sheik, in Egypt. The Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Abul Gheit, Oct. 16 had backed the talks after meeting with Rice. The Egyptian government had previously expressed skepticism about the talks. Abbas, Olmert Fail to Resolve Statement—

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Abbas and Olmert Nov. 19 met at Olmert’s residence in Jerusalem in order to reach an agreement for a joint statement on the core issues to be discussed at the talks. They failed to reach a resolution, but Palestinian and Israeli officials after the meeting said they had made progress. Olmert reiterated a pledge to freeze the construction of new Jewish settlements in the West Bank and dismantle illegal settlement outposts. Palestinian officials dismissed the move as inadequate, demanding that Israel block the expansion of all existing settlements. The Israeli government also said it would release 441 Palestinian prisoners as a good-will gesture. The PA had called for the release of 2,000 prisoners. Israel held about 10,000 Palestinians. Israel Oct. 1–2 had released 86 Palestinian prisoners, most of them belonging to Abbas’s Fatah movement. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the envoy from the so-called Quartet for Middle East peace—the U.S., the European Union, Russia and the United Nations—Nov. 19 announced four development projects designed to boost the dismal Palestinian economy. They included a sewage treatment plant in northern Gaza, industrial zones in Jericho and Hebron and easier access to Bethlehem for tourists. Blair said the projects would create tens of thousands of jobs. “Without hope of prosperity, rising living standards and an economic stake in the future for ordinary Palestinians,” peace talks would not succeed, Blair said. Olmert Nov. 4 and Abbas Nov. 5 had both said they thought they could reach a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before Bush’s term in office ended in January 2009. The pair Oct. 26 had pledged to carry out the first phase of the “road map,” a plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace backed by the quartet. That phase required the Palestinians to restructure their security forces and work to prevent violence against Israel, and the Israelis to dismantle West Bank settlement outposts and ease travel restrictions on Palestinians. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Oct. 13 called on all Muslim nations to boycott the November conference. Leaders of militant Islamist group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), which controlled the Gaza Strip and opposed Fatah, Oct. 12 had also called on Abbas to boycott the talks. Abbas Oct. 10 had demanded that Israel give up 2,400 square miles (6,205 sq km) of territory in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a new Palestinian state. That was the amount of territory conquered by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. 762

Israelis Oppose Jerusalem Division—

The Israeli parliament Nov. 14 gave preliminary approval to a bill requiring a twothirds majority, rather than a simple majority, to change the territorial status of Jerusalem, which was a major negotiation issue with the Palestinians. The legislation, supported by right-wing and nationalist members of parliament, was seen as an impediment to partitioning Jerusalem. Olmert and most of the senior members of his Kadima party did not vote on the bill, although members of his coalition supported it. Olmert Oct. 15 for the first time had indicated his willingness to consider giving up some of the outer Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, which had been annexed to the city following their seizure by Israel in 1967. Asking in parliament if it had been “necessary” to declare those districts as part of Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967, he added, “I must therefore admit it is possible to raise legitimate questions” about their status. Abbas Calls for Overthrow of Hamas—

Abbas Nov. 15 called for the overthrow of Hamas, his strongest statement yet since Hamas in June had seized power in the Gaza Strip from Fatah. “We must topple this gang that took control of the Gaza Strip by force and that is exploiting the suffering and tragedies of our people,” Abbas said in a televised address. Hamas policemen in Gaza Nov. 12 had opened fire on a Fatah-organized rally marking the third anniversary of the death of Fatah founder Yasir Arafat, killing seven. The rally, which had drawn tens of thousands of Palestinians, was the largest Fatah demonstration since the June takeover. Polls reportedly indicated that Fatah was gaining support, at the expense of Hamas. Hamas in the wake of the shooting arrested hundreds of Fatah activists and imposed restrictions on press coverage. London-based human rights group Amnesty International Nov. 14 released a statement criticizing Hamas’s “unwarranted use of lethal force” and “unlawful killing” of demonstrators. The group Oct. 24 had issued a report condemning serious human rights abuses committed by both Hamas and Fatah in their ongoing fighting since Hamas’s takeover of Gaza. Abbas Nov. 2 had met in the West Bank with a group of Hamas officials for the first time since June. He said the meeting was not the beginning of an official dialogue. Hamas had pressed Abbas to start talks on forming a unity government, but the U.S. and Israel had discouraged him from negotiating with the group, which they considered a terrorist organization. Gaza Tunnels Destroyed—The Israeli military Nov. 1 said it had uncovered and destroyed seven tunnels used by Hamas to smuggle fighters and weapons between Egypt and Gaza. A Hamas representative acknowledged that the groups used the tunnels. Egypt Nov. 7 said it had destroyed six more tunnels, but the Israeli government accused Egypt of doing too little to restrict Hamas’s activities.

Israeli officials Oct. 28 said Israel had begun to reduce fuel shipments to Gaza and had closed one of the two crossings that allowed food, medicine and other supplies to be imported into Gaza. The move came in response to the continued firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel. Israeli officials said it would mainly affect fuel for private or vehicular use, rather than industrial fuel used by the Gaza power plant. Israeli officials Oct. 25 had proposed punitive cuts in power supplied to Gaza. They said power would at first be cut for 15 minutes after each rocket attack and then for longer periods, but that the cuts would not create a humanitarian crisis. Israel provided about 120 of the 200 megawatts of electricity used annually in Gaza. Israeli officials Oct. 28 said the cuts would require approval by the attorney general, due to protests filed by human rights groups in the Israeli Supreme Court. Ala al-Araj, an economic adviser to Ismail Haniya, the former PA prime minister and Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, Oct. 11 said Gaza’s banks were facing a cash shortage. Israeli banks had stopped doing business in the territory following Israel’s September designation of Gaza as a “hostile entity.” An unnamed Gaza banker Oct. 11 said Israel that day had allowed some cash to enter Gaza, alleviating the shortage. Israel’s Haaretz newspaper Oct. 9 reported that the Israeli military in August had ordered that land be confiscated from four Palestinian villages in order to build a road between East Jerusalem and Jericho. The military said the road would be for the use of Palestinians only and would improve their quality of life, but critics said it would instead be used to expand Jewish settlements. „

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Global Environment Climate Change Report Summary Issued.

The United Nations–backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Nov. 17 released its fourth report of the year on the effects of worldwide climate change caused by the emission of manmade greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. [See pp. 690A2, 290F1] The report summarized data included in three other reports delivered by the panel between February and May: the first addressing trends in the earth’s climate; the second, the human population’s ability to adapt to climate-induced changes; and the third, plans for reducing atmospheric carbon emissions. The reports had been authored by some 2,500 scientists, and the IPCC in October had shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore for its work. The summary report described climate change as “unequivocal” and said emissions were causing “abrupt or irreversible climate changes and impacts.” The panel said the world needed to start reducing emissions immediately, and reverse emissions growth by 2015 in order to limit warming to 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit), which it said was necessary to minimize catastrophic consequences. “What we do in the next two or three years will determine our future,” Rajendra Pachauri, an economist and scientist who led the IPCC, said. The report was reviewed and approved by representatives from 130 countries. Environmental advocates and scientists said that unlike the earlier IPCC reports, the summary report did not dull its conclusions as a result of pressure from governments opposed to mandatory emissions controls, such as the U.S. and China. Those countries, the two largest greenhouse gas emitters, and Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, reportedly tried to change language in the report, but were met with stiff resistance from developing countries thought likely to bear the brunt of damages resulting from climate change. The summary report said the melting of an ice sheet covering much of Greenland could result in a significant rise in sea levels over centuries, rather than over millennia, as had been suggested in previous reports. It found the average temperatures of the Northern Hemisphere over the last half of the 20th century were likely the highest in 1,300 years. It also found that a 2° Celsius rise in temperature would cause severe fresh water shortages for millions, destroy most life in coral reefs and cause an increase in floods and storms. A 3.5° Celsius rise would result in decreased food production, the disruption of global currents and widespread extinctions, according to the report. Response—U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Nov. 17 said climate change was “the defining challenge of our age,” and called on the U.S. and China to “play a more constructive role.” Some scientists noted that the IPCC had begun its work on the reports years ago, November 22, 2007

and that even grimmer data on threats to the environment presented by emissions had emerged in the interim. James L. Connaughton, chairman of U.S President George W. Bush’s Council on Environmental Quality, said, “The issue warrants urgent action, and we need to bring forward in a more accelerated way the technologies that will make a lasting solution possible.” Connaughton also acknowledged that the U.S. had unsuccessfully attempted to change language in the report. [See pp. 734C3, 645A2] The U.S. was one of a handful of industrialized countries that had not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, a 1996 international treaty outlining mandatory emissions reductions. Energy ministers from several countries were set to meet for December talks in Indonesia to formulate a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol. „

Global Health Worldwide AIDS Figures Revised Downward. The United Nations Joint Program on HIV/ AIDS (UNAIDS) Nov. 19 released an annual

report on the disease that sharply reduced estimates of both the number of people infected with the HIV virus and the scope of the AIDS epidemic. The new figures were based on more accurate methods used to gather data on HIV, the AIDS virus, according to the agency. [See p. 604F2; 2006, p. 947B3] The report revised the estimated number of people living with HIV worldwide in 2006 to 32.7 million, from the 39.5 million reported in November 2006. The report also stated that 33.2 million people were living with HIV in 2007, 22.5 million of them in subSaharan Africa. UNAIDS said there were 2.5 million new HIV infections in 2007. The report also said the annual number of new infections had likely peaked in the late 1990s, by 2001 at the latest, at three million. Health officials had previously said that the number of new infections had consistently increased every year. The agency said about half of the 2006 figure’s reduction was due to new statistical methods used in India. HIV infection rates were also revised downward in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Mozambique, Kenya and Angola. UNAIDS had previously relied on a statistical methodology that extrapolated HIV infection rates from the infection rate of pregnant women receiving prenatal care and women who feared they had contracted a sexually transmitted disease. Epidemiologists noted that this statistical model exaggerated the overall infection rate in a country, as it oversampled people at a high risk of contracting HIV. Governments had increasingly commissioned their own studies, relying on random samplings of people to gather data, and found consistently lower infection rates than had been reported by UNAIDS. Despite the revision, AIDS remained a serious health crisis, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The report also found that the number of people with HIV in Central Asia had increased to 1.6 million in 2007, from

630,000 in 2001, and infection rates in Indonesia and Vietnam were growing at high rates. Some critics of the agency said it had intentionally exaggerated HIV infection rates in order to bolster fund-raising and political support. The agency denied those charges. „

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AIDS Vaccine Failure, Dangers Reported.

U.S. pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. Sept. 21 said its experimental AIDS vaccine had failed to work in a large international clinical trial, and that it would halt the study. The company said the vaccine had failed to prevent HIV infection, and did not reduce the level of the virus in those who had become infected. The announcement was viewed as a significant blow to efforts to combat the disease, as a vaccine was considered potentially the most effective means of halting the AIDS epidemic. [See pp. 763C2, 157B1] Merck said it had based its decision on an interim analysis of 1,500 patients, out of the total of 3,000 enrolled in the study. Company officials said that 24 of 741 volunteers enrolled in the study had contracted HIV, compared with 21 of 762 patients given a dummy vaccine. Researchers also found similar amounts of virus in the blood of all enrollees who had contracted HIV, a sign that the vaccine was unlikely to delay the onset of full-blown AIDS. The study had enrolled participants who had tested negative for the virus, but were at a high risk of contracting the disease. The research had been conducted by Merck in coordination with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Researchers who analyzed data from the entire class of 3,000 participants Nov. 7 said their data also indicated that the vaccine may have increased the HIV infection rate. They found that 49 of 914 male volunteers had contracted the virus, compared with 33 infections in 922 men given a placebo. The scientists said that the vaccine itself could not cause HIV infection, but that it could possibly affect people’s immune systems, making them more susceptible to infection. Researchers involved in the vaccine study Nov. 13 said they would inform participants if they had received the vaccine or the placebo. „

OPEC Divisions Mark High-Level Summit. Heads

of state from 13 member nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Nov. 17–18 attended a highlevel summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The summit, which was marked by disputes over OPEC’s role and the pricing of oil, came ahead of a meeting of the cartel members’ oil ministers planned for December 5. OPEC at the summit did not commit to increasing production in order to lower the price of oil, which continued to hover just under $100 a barrel. [See pp. 748C3, 604D1] The summit was the third such meeting of OPEC leaders to be held, after previous summits in 1975 and 2000. [See 2000, p. 732B1] 763

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias at the summit Nov. 17 argued that OPEC should adopt a “revolutionary” policy of combating “exploitation” and poverty, as he said it had done in the 1970s. “OPEC should set itself up as a more active political agent, to demand more respect for our countries, to ask the more powerful nations of the world to stop threatening OPEC,” he said. However, Saudi King Abdullah countered that the cartel “has always acted moderately and wisely,” and that oil “shouldn’t be a tool for conflict.” OPEC members also differed over the price of oil. Several representatives, including Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi, said current prices were dangerously high and that they would prefer them to come down, although OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri said the cartel had limited influence over prices. Venezuela and Iran insisted that $100 a barrel was a fair price for oil. Chavez also warned that prices might rise to $200 a barrel “if the United States is crazy enough to invade Iran.” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad downplayed the risk of a military conflict between Iran and the U.S., asserting that the U.S. was not capable of taking such a step. [See p. 761A1] OPEC Nov. 18 at the summit’s close pledged $750 million for a fund supporting research into technologies to prevent climate change by capturing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it underground. However, it warned oil-importing countries not to adopt policies to reduce demand for, or discriminate against, oil. [See p. 763A1] Leak Exposes Pricing Dispute—OPEC

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ministers Nov. 16 clashed over whether to continue to price oil in U.S. dollars, in light of the dollar’s continuing drop in value. The discussion took place at a closed meeting in Riyadh before the summit, but was disclosed after a live television feed of the meeting was mistakenly broadcast to journalists. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki argued that OPEC should set prices in a different currency or basket of currencies, and Iran, Venezuela and Ecuador urged that the group mention concern over the dollar in the summit’s final joint statement. However, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said that OPEC should not publicly comment on the dollar, becase that might drive down its value even further. At the summit, Chavez and Ahmadinejad disparaged the dollar and its effect on oil producers’ revenues, with Ahmadinejad saying, “They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper.” Ecuador Rejoins OPEC—Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa’s attendance at the summit marked that nation’s rejoining of OPEC, as the cartel’s 13th member. The move was seen as an indication of OPEC’s increased stature since oil prices started reaching highs. Ecuador had stopped paying dues to the cartel in 1992, although it had never formally left, and had $4.7 million in outstanding debt. Ecuador was OPEC’s smallest oil producer, with an output of 545,000 barrels per day in 2006. [See 2006, p. 933G1] „ 764

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2008 Presidential Campaign Clinton Hits Back in Democratic Debate.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) at a Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nev., Nov. 16 displayed a new aggressiveness in fighting back against criticism from her leading rivals, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.). Clinton was the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in national polls, but the three were in a tight race in polls in Iowa, whose caucuses would kick off the primary season on Jan. 3, 2008. Clinton had received poor reviews for her performance in the previous debate two weeks earlier, giving her campaign its first appearance of weakness. [See p. 731B3] After Edwards reiterated his claim that Clinton defended a Washington, D.C., political establishment “that is rigged and corrupt,” Clinton responded sharply. “I don’t mind taking hits on my record, on issues,” she said, adding, “But when somebody starts throwing around mud, at least we can hope that it’s both accurate and not right out of the Republican playbook.” Edwards also alluded to an Iowa college student’s claim that the Clinton campaign had arranged for her to ask the candidate a planted question during a Nov. 6 forum. Some audience members, identified as Clinton supporters in some reports, booed Edwards during the debate. Obama also tried to raise doubts about Clinton’s honesty, saying, “What the American people are looking for right now is straight answers to tough questions, and that is not what we’ve seen out of Senator Clinton on a host of issues.” Clinton replied by charging that Obama’s health care plan “would leave 15 million Americans out. That’s about the population of Nevada, Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire.” (Those four states, which were the ones scheduled to hold the earliest presidential primary contests in January 2008, actually had a combined population of about 11 million.) Clinton said Obama’s plan would not provide “universal health care coverage” because, unlike her, he would not require people to obtain insurance. Clinton also said that Obama’s proposal to raise a cap on the payroll tax to shore up the Social Security system would amount to “a $1 trillion tax increase.” Obama replied, “This is the kind of thing that I would expect from Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani,” two top Republican presidential candidates. He insisted that he would only raise taxes on the rich. Asked if she supported granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, a question that had drawn a muddled response from her in the previous debate, Clinton replied simply, “No.” But Obama, who had criticized her for equivocating on the issue, gave an uncertain answer of his own. Asked about remarks by her campaign staff and by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, which had portrayed her male rivals as ganging up on her in the last de-

bate, Clinton said, “I’m not playing the gender card here in Las Vegas. I’m trying to play the winning card.” Bill Clinton Nov. 12 had said, “Those boys have been getting tough on her lately.” The other candidates who participated in the debate, but were mostly out of the spotlight, were New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Sens. Joseph Biden (Del.) and Christopher Dodd (Conn.), and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio). Column Sparks Clinton-Obama Clash—

The Clinton and Obama campaigns clashed again Nov. 17 after syndicated newspaper columnist Robert Novak reported in a column that day that Clinton “agents” were “spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent,” Obama. Novak did not name his sources for the item. [See 2006, p. 694E3] The Obama campaign denounced the “innuendo and insinuation” of the column, and challenged the Clinton camp to either publicly release any such information “or concede the truth: that there is none.” Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson replied, “A Republican-leaning journalist runs a blind item designed to set Democrats against one another. Experienced Democrats see this for what it is. Others get distracted and thrown off their games. We have no idea what Mr. Novak’s item is about and reject it totally.” „

Fiscal 2008 Spending Bills War Funding Bill Falls Short in Senate.

The Senate Nov. 16 voted, 53–45, on a procedural vote to end a filibuster on a Democratic-backed $50 billion supplementary bill to fund U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through mid-February 2008, falling short of the 60 votes needed to bring the measure to a floor vote. The House two days earlier had approved the bill, which would have imposed significant limitations on how the funds could be spent. [See p. 747C1] The measure would have required that the U.S. begin to withdraw troops from Iraq within 30 days, with the goal of a complete pullout by mid-December 2008. It would have also shifted the focus of U.S. military missions in Iraq to counterterrorism efforts, Iraqi force assistance and protection of diplomatic facilities, and altered rules governing the treatment of detainees by all U.S. personnel. Senate Democrats vowed to keep up their opposition to the Bush administration’s Iraq policy. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) said he would consider bringing the bill back to the floor in December. White House spokesman Tony Fratto charged that the bill had been a Democratic political ploy “to micromanage the war from the halls of Congress.” Democrats “know that such a bill will be vetoed, should it ever come to the president’s desk,” he said. FACTS ON FILE

The Senate Nov. 16 also rejected, 53– 45, a Republican-backed bill that would have provided $70 billion with no restrictions to fund the wars. Civilian Layoffs Threatened—The White House and the Defense Department Nov. 20 announced that if Congress did not pass an unrestricted military funding bill, the Defense Department would be forced to furlough as many as 100,000 civilian employees and cut training, counseling and family support programs. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said $4.5 billion had been reallocated from other accounts to maintain military operations, but that those funds would be exhausted for the Army in early February and for the Marines in early March. Democrats dismissed the warnings as scare tactics. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D, Wis.) said President George W. Bush could push military funding through by telling Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, Ky.) to “stop blocking it.” Democrats also said the Defense Department could fund the wars with money from its $459.3 billion base budget, which Congress had passed the previous week. [See p. 750E1] „ Senate Passes Commerce-Justice Bill.

The Senate Oct. 16 approved, 75–19, a $56 billion appropriations bill for fiscal 2008 to fund the Departments of Justice and Commerce, and agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In addition, the bill included a provision, added Oct. 16 by voice vote, which banned the practice of “phonemarking,” in which lawmakers who did not wish to be caught placing earmarks—appropriations for pet projects in their home districts—in bills instead sought to persuade government officials to spend generally assigned funds on such projects. [See p. 649F1] The Senate version of the appropriations bill included $24.3 billion for the Justice Department and $7.4 billion for the Commerce Department, as well as $6.6 billion for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and $4.2 billion for NOAA. NASA received $17.5 billion and, following an Oct. 16 amendment, was allotted $1 billion in emergency funds to maintain its space shuttle fleet. The bill totaled $54.4 billion in discretionary spending, which was $800 million more than the House version of the bill and $3.2 billion more than the Bush administration had requested. President George W. Bush had threatened in July to veto the bill if it exceeded its request. The bill contained an amendment proposed by Sen. Joseph Biden Jr. (D, Del.) and enacted by voice vote Oct. 16, which would increase the budget of the government’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant program to $660 million, from $550 million, an amount still $65 million less than allotted in the House version of the bill. The bill did not include a controversial provision added by the House barring the November 22, 2007

use of assigned funds to carry out the prison sentences of two Border Patrol operatives who had been convicted of shooting a drug dealer and then covering up the shooting. Discrepancies between the two bills would be addressed in a House-Senate conference. „ House Passes Transportation-HUD Bill.

The House Nov. 14 passed, 270–147, its final version of a $105.6 billion appropriations bill to fund the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Transportation for fiscal 2008, which had begun Oct. 1. The bill included $66.7 billion for the Transportation Department and $38.7 billion for HUD, for a total increase of $5.9 billion over fiscal 2007 levels, and $3 billion over President George W. Bush’s request. The House in July had passed an initial, $104.4 billion version of the bill, and the Senate in October had passed a $104.7 billion version. [See p. 649G2] The bill would block an initiative that had been backed by Bush. The initiative would have permitted Mexican truck drivers to deliver their cargo from Mexico to anywhere in the U.S., and allow U.S. truck drivers access to Mexican highways. The bill also contained $250 million for counseling to help homeowners affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, and $195 million to replace the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minn., which had collapsed in August. Amtrak, the nation’s passenger railroad, would receive approximately $1.4 billion, $550 million more than the president had requested. The bill would also raise the mandatory retirement age for commercial airline pilots to 65, from 60. [See p. 494B1] Bush had threatened to veto the bill for exceeding his budget request. The White House Nov. 14 released a statement criticizing Congress for approving a bill that contained more than 2,000 earmarks for projects that the president claimed diverted funds from “such priority purposes as housing, low-income families, bridge repairs, and highways.” „

Supreme Court Justices Accept D.C. Gun Ban Case. The Supreme Court Nov. 20 accepted a case that challenged an appeals court ruling that a 31-year-old ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., was unconstitutional. For the first time since 1939, the high court was expected to cast an interpretation of the wording of the Second Amendment, the language and intent of which had long been debated among legal scholars, gun-control advocates and gun-rights proponents. [See p. 159E1] The court in a statement said it would determine if the district’s gun-control laws violated “the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes.” Washington’s gun-control laws effectively banned handgun ownership, and required that other guns that could be kept at

home—like shotguns or rifles—be unloaded and disassembled, or fitted with a trigger lock. The laws were considered the strictest in the country. The plaintiff in the case, Dick A. Heller, had requested a permit to keep a handgun in his home, but his application was denied by the district. The Second Amendment read, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” Gun-control advocates argued that the first clause qualified the second, thereby limiting the right to bear arms to state militias. Gun-rights supporters said the amendment’s wording guaranteed every individual the right to bear arms. The Supreme Court would decide on the narrow issue of whether Washington residents could keep handguns in their home. The decision would not directly affect other gun-control measures, including restrictions on carrying handguns. However, the court would have to make a ruling that addressed whether individuals not belonging to state militias had a right to bear arms. Analysts said the court’s final decision could be affected by the fact that the district was not a state. Lower courts in the past had mostly agreed with the interpretation of the guncontrol advocates. In March, U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled, 2–1, that the district’s laws were unconstitutional, and that the Constitution’s framers had intended for the right to bear arms to extend to individuals. The plaintiff argued that the district’s laws denied individuals the right to own weapons that could be used for self-defense, saying the restrictions on rifles and shotguns debilitated the weapons’ effectiveness. The plaintiff also said the laws affected law-abiding citizens more than they did criminals. The Washington district attorney’s petition to the Supreme Court argued that the appeals court ruling was incorrect, because it recognized an individual right to bear arms. The petition also said the purpose of the Second Amendment was to protect state militias and state rights from federal interference, and not to immunize individuals from local law. It argued that the district had a right to ensure the safety of its citizens by banning certain firearms. None of the justices had ruled on a Second Amendment case. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., at his confirmation hearing in 2005, had said that the last Supreme Court ruling on the amendment, made in 1939, had “sidestepped” an interpretation of the amendment’s wording, and that it was “very much an open issue.” [See 2005, p. 623A1] Observers expected the court to rule on the case, District of Columbia v. Heller, by the end of June 2008. The case was expected to bring intense discussions about the Second Amendment and its implications to the 2008 presidential campaign. „ Justices Stay Florida Execution. The Supreme Court Nov. 15 granted a stay of execution to Mark Schwab five hours before he was scheduled to be executed by lethal 765

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injection in Florida. The court said the stay would last until it was able to consider a request by Schwab to review his case. While the court did not provide a rationale for its decision, observers said it indicated that the court had effectively placed a moratorium on lethal injection executions until it was able to rule on Baze v. Rees, a case focusing on whether certain drugs and procedures used in lethal injection constituted cruel and unusual punishment, in January 2008. [See p. 715E1] It was the fifth time in the past two months that the court had granted or approved a stay of execution. In granting the stay, the Supreme Court overturned a decision made earlier that day by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Ga., that would have allowed the execution to take place. The appeals court said Schwab’s case did not prove that Florida’s lethal injection method posed “an unnecessary risk of pain.” The appeals court added that “the interest of the State of Florida and the victim’s family in seeing that Schwab’s sentence is carried out without further delay was substantial.” A federal court in Orlando, Fla., had initially stayed the execution Nov. 14, citing the pending Supreme Court case. Schwab had been sentenced to death in 1992 for kidnapping, raping and killing an 11-year-old boy. „

Economy Fed Sees Slow Economic Growth in 2008.

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The Federal Open Market Committee, the policy-making board of the Federal Reserve, Nov. 20 projected that U.S. economic growth would slow in 2008, before picking up in 2009. The Fed said the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the output of goods and services produced within the nation’s borders, in 2008 would grow by between 1.8% and 2.5%. That range reflected the forecasts of the committee’s 17 current members, excluding the three highest and three lowest forecasts. The report was the first in a new series of quarterly economic forecasts intended to make the Fed’s policy-making process more transparent. [See below, pp. 748A2, 714F2] The Fed predicted that GDP growth would be between 2.4% and 2.5% in 2007; 1.8–2.5% in 2008; 2.3–2.7% in 2009; and 2.5–2.6% in 2010. The prediction for 2010 represented the Fed’s view on the economy’s “potential” growth rate, or what it could reach in the long term. That potential rate also represented the Fed’s view of the limit at which the economy could grow before causing inflation. Additionally, that rate could help outside economic analysts predict the Fed’s target for inflation rates, as well as how the Fed would adjust interest rates to accomplish that target. The Fed’s projection for 2010 was far lower than the average 3.1% annual GDP growth the country had experienced in the previous 12 years. The Fed said the main drags on economic growth were a slump in the housing market and deteriorating conditions in the country’s credit markets. 766

The Fed projected that the country’s inflation rate for “personal-consumption expenditures” would be between 2.9% and 3.0% in 2007; 1.8–2.1% in 2008; 1.7–2.0% in 2009; and 1.6–1.9% in 2010. The Fed said core inflation, which excluded energy and food inflation, would keep pace with total inflation, meaning energy and food prices would rise at the same rate as for other goods. The Fed’s previous reports had included forecasts only for the core inflation rate, a practice that critics said ignored the impact of food and fuel prices on consumers. The Fed that day also released the minutes from its last policy-making meeting, held in late October. The minutes revealed that the Fed’s decision to cut its benchmark federal-funds interest rate to 4.5% was a “close call,” since some committee members debated whether the Fed should leave the interest rate at 4.75%. In the end, the Fed adopted the cut as “insurance” against any dramatic downturn in economic growth. Fed to Disclose More Information— Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke Nov. 14 announced that the Fed would begin publishing its economic forecasts four times a year, as opposed to the current two. Bernanke that day said that the Fed’s reports would forecast economic conditions three years ahead, as opposed to the current two. The Fed’s reports would also detail the economic projections of each of the committee’s 19 members, composed of seven governors and 12 regional bank presidents. (At the time, two governor seats were vacant.) Bernanke had argued in the past that the Fed should publish official inflation targets, and base its policy on those targets, to make the bank more predictable and accountable to the public. Critics of that idea, including Bernanke’s predecessor, Alan Greenspan, argued that published inflation targets locked the Fed into positions that could prevent it from responding flexibly to unexpected swings in the economy. „

$380.3 billion, after seasonal adjustment. That was 0.2% above the revised figure for September. [See p. 701B3] „ September Business Inventories Up 0.4%.

The Commerce Department Nov. 14 reported that the value of business inventories at the end of September was $1.43 trillion after seasonal adjustment, up 0.4% from the revised value at the end of August. The ratio of inventories to sales—a measure of how long it would take businesses to unload their inventories at the current sales pace—was 1.27. [See p. 683B3] „ Industrial Production Fell 0.5% in October.

The Federal Reserve Nov. 16 reported that its industrial production index decreased 0.5% in October. Based on revised data, the Fed found that industrial production had increased 0.2% in September. The overall index now stood at 114.0% of its 2002 base average, down from its revised level of 114.6% the previous month. [See p. 701E2] Manufacturing fell 0.4% in October. The output of utilities decreased 1.6%, and mining output dropped 0.6%. U.S. factories, mines and utilities operated at 81.7% of their total capacity. „ Producer Prices Rose 0.1% in October.

Producer prices in October increased 0.1% after seasonal adjustment, according to the Labor Department’s producer price index (PPI), released Nov. 14. The index tracked prices charged by manufacturers and producers of finished goods. “Core” producer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food prices, did not rise or fall, after a 0.1% rise in September. Energy prices dropped 0.8% in October, after a 4.1% rise the previous month. [See p. 683C3] The finished goods index, before seasonal adjustment, stood at 168.6% of its 1982 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982 would have cost $168.60 in October. Prices for intermediate—or partially processed—goods increased 0.1% in October, and prices for crude goods were up 2.4%.„

Consumer Prices Rose 0.3% in October.

The Labor Department Nov. 15 reported that its consumer price index (CPI), which tracked prices Inflation (CPI) paid for conOctober 2007 0.3% sumer goods by Previous Month 0.3% all urban con12-Month Increase 3.5% sumers, rose 0.3% in October after adjustment for seasonal variation. “Core” consumer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food costs, grew by 0.2% in October, which was the same as the increase in September. For the 12-month period through October, the overall unadjusted inflation rate was 3.5%. [See pp. 748A2, 701G1] Unadjusted for seasonal variation, the CPI for all urban consumers stood at 208.94% of its 1982–84 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982–84 would have cost $208.94 in October. „ Retail Sales Climbed 0.2% in October. The Commerce Department Nov. 14 reported the value of retail sales in October at

Intelligence House Passes Revised Wiretapping Bill. The

House Nov. 15 passed, 227–189, a revision of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that would increase judicial and congressional oversight on U.S. wiretapping of foreign terrorist suspects. In addition, the bill, called the Responsible Surveillance That is Overseen, Reviewed and Effective (RESTORE) Act, authorized the use of so-called blanket warrants, which allowed investigators to monitor multiple people linked to the same investigation under a single warrant. [See p. 699F1] The bill, which was intended to replace a temporary measure passed in August, did not include a controversial provision of retroactive immunity for FISA violations committed by U.S. telecommunications companies involved in warrantless wiretapping activities carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA). The Bush administration had lobbied heavily for the immunity provision, which had been included in a FACTS ON FILE

version of the bill approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee, saying that lawsuits pending against the companies could bankrupt them. The House version of the bill required intelligence agencies to get warrants from the surveillance court set up by FISA when targeting foreign subjects who were likely to communicate with people in the U.S., and increased the size of the FISA court. In addition, it tightened restrictions against sharing information gathered on domestic targets during the surveillance of foreigners, and prohibited future presidents from engaging in surveillance that was not overseen by the FISA court. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) Nov. 15 said that the bill “defends Americans against terrorism and other threats, protects Americans’ civil liberties and restores checks and balances.” The Bush administration issued a statement Nov. 15 saying that the House bill “would dangerously weaken our ability to protect the nation from foreign threats,” and suggested that Bush would veto the bill if it were not amended. Senate Committee Omits Immunity—

The Senate Judiciary Committee Nov. 15 by voice vote sent a FISA revision bill to the full Senate without an immunity provision for telecommunications companies. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) Nov. 15 said, “When we give the government sweeping surveillance powers, there need to be clear rules and checks and balances to prevent abuses against the American people.” The Judiciary Committee’s decision to omit the immunity provision that appeared in the Intelligence Committee’s bill meant that the final decision about the provision would be made on the Senate floor. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D, Conn.), a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, had previously vowed to filibuster the bill if it included immunity for telecommunication companies. Justice Wiretapping Probe Reopened—

The Justice Department Nov. 13 said that it had recently reopened a stalled internal probe of its involvement in a warrantless wiretapping program of the National Security Agency (NSA). Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) chief counsel H. Marshall Jarrett announced the resumption of the investigation in a letter to four House Democrats who had initially requested the probe. The inquiry, which had begun in February 2006, was put on hold in July 2006 after the Bush administration refused to grant the OPR security clearances needed to carry out its probe. [See 2006, p. 572D1] In his letter, Jarrett wrote that OPR staff members had “recently received the necessary security clearances and are now able to proceed with our investigation,” which, he said, would focus on Justice Department lawyers and their role in the “authorization and oversight of warrantless electronic surveillance.” No reason was given for the administration’s decision to grant the security clearances. November 22, 2007

The announcement followed the swearing-in of Michael Mukasey as attorney general, leading to suggestions that the unexpected reversal in Bush administration policy might be a result of Mukasey’s intervention. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (N.Y.), one of the four Democrats whom Jarrett had written to, Nov. 13 credited Mukasey for the change, saying, “We may have an attorney general who understands his obligations and responsibilities are to the people of the United States and not the president.” Mukasey’s predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, had been accused of improperly politicizing the department. Vermont OKs Telecom Wiretap Probe—

Members of Vermont’s Public Service Board, a state agency charged with utility oversight, Oct. 31 issued an order reopening an investigation into whether two telecommunications companies had violated the state’s consumer privacy laws by releasing personal customer data to the federal government. The decision was expected to be legally challenged by the Justice Department. [See p. 699F1] The initial investigation had been stalled by an October 2006 lawsuit filed by the federal government that had argued that the inquiry would violate the so-called state secrets privilege by revealing confidential information about the nation’s terrorist surveillance program. Investigations by the states of New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri and Maine had also been delayed by similar government lawsuits. The Public Service Board said that its inquiry would not examine the specific nature of the warrantless wiretapping program carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA). Instead, the board would focus on whether Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. had violated state law by turning over information they were not authorized to release. The board justified its decision to reopen the investigation in its order, writing that “federal courts have better defined the permissible scope of these state utility commission investigations.” Additionally, it said that the courts had “found that states retain a significant authority for consumerprotection activities.” The board instructed Verizon and AT&T to begin turning over information Nov. 9. Telecoms Relied on Legal Letters—According to a report released Oct. 26 by the Senate Intelligence Committee, telecommunications companies that assisted the NSA in its warrantless wiretapping program were given letters signed by the attorney general—and, in one instance, the White House counsel—that attested to the legality of the program. Each letter also stated that the program had been authorized by President George W. Bush. It was unknown why one of the letters was sent by White House counsel Fred Fielding, but analysts suggested that Fielding’s letter might be related to a 2003 standoff over the legality of the program between the administration and the Justice Department. [See p. 699G2] The report was issued following the committee’s approval of an updated ver-

sion of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that would immunize telecommunications companies that had from lawsuits stemming from their „ assistance to the NSA.

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Senate Passes Authorization Measure.

The Senate Oct. 3 passed its first annual intelligence authorization bill since 2004 by voice vote. The House had passed its version of the bill May 11, but debate in the Senate over provisions dealing with the Bush administration’s intelligence activities had delayed passage of the Senate version. [See 2006, p. 370F2] The version passed by the Senate required annual reports from intelligence agencies regarding major expenditures and granted increased authority over personnel to the director of national intelligence. The bill omitted Republican-opposed requirements that would have forced the Bush administration to brief all members of congressional intelligence committees on all intelligence activities, turn over all documents relating to the warrantless wiretapping program carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA) and release intelligence briefings relating to the run-up to the war in Iraq. „

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Labor Stagehand

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Members of Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage employees Nov. 10 began a strike to protest job and wage cuts proposed by the League of American Theatres and Producers. The strikers, who worked in New York City’s Broadway theaters and included light, sound, and special effects employees known as stagehands, claimed that theater owners and producers had demanded a 38% decrease in stagehand jobs and wages. The union had been working without a contract since July. [See p. 392B1; 2003, p. 218A1] Theater owners and show producers said they needed more flexibility in the new contract in the number of stagehands that had to be hired and the types of jobs they would do, both during a show’s run and in “loadins,” the process in which the set was installed. Load-ins could last weeks and could cost up to a million dollars. About two dozen Broadway shows were closed as a result of the strike, although some shows operating under different contracts continued to run. The League of American Theatres and Producers said that the strike was costing its members up to $17 million a day, largely in ticket refunds. „

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Religion Pittsburgh Episcopal Diocese Sets Secession.

Clergy members and lay people of the Pittsburgh, Pa., Episcopal diocese Nov. 2 voted, 227–82, to approve preliminary measures to separate from the Episcopal Church. The vote came as a result of differences with the national church regarding scriptural interpretation, largely concerning conflicting views of homosexuality. Some Episcopal churches within the U.S. had expressed a 767

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desire to join a more conservative branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, after an openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, was consecrated by the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire in 2003. [See p. 681E1; 2003, p. 888B3] If the vote was approved again in one year, the Pittsburgh Diocese could begin to take official steps to realign with a more conservative church in the worldwide Anglican community, a loosely associated group of churches affiliated with the Church of England. Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church, Nov. 2 issued a letter to Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, a leader of the secession movement, threatening to see that “appropriate canonical steps are promptly taken to consider whether you have abandoned the Communion of this Church…and whether you have committed canonical offenses that warrant disciplinary action.” The dioceses of San Joaquin, Calif., Quincy, Ill., and Fort Worth, Texas, have also proceeded with the preliminary vote to break with the Episcopal Church. The vote to split in the San Joaquin Diocese would become permanent if the decision was approved at the diocesan convention in December. Gay Candidate Defeated in Chicago—

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Rev. Tracey Lind, an openly gay member of the Episcopal Church, Nov. 10 was defeated by Rev. Jeffrey Lee in her bid to become the new bishop of the Chicago diocese. She had been one of eight candidates for the position, which was decided in a series of two votes by delegates of the 40,000-member diocese. The Episcopal Church earlier in the year had received a directive from the Anglican Advisory Committee instructing it to exercise restraint in the appointment of openly gay bishops. [See p. 681A1] „

Medicine and Health Weight, Death Risk Relationship Reported.

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A team of government researchers reported in the Nov. 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical association that while being overweight had been linked to a higher risk of dying from kidney disease and diabetes, it had no effect on the death rates of people with heart disease and cancer, and appeared to reduce death rates among those with a host of other diseases. Their analysis was based on health statistics gathered by the government between 1971 and 2004. [See p. 535F2] The researchers used the federal definitions of “obese” and “overweight” for the purposes of their research. Obese people were defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30, overweight people had a BMI of between 25 and 30 and normal weight people fell between 18.5 and 25. (BMI was calculated using a height-weight ratio.) The researcher found that overweight people were less likely to die from a range of illnesses, including pneumonia, emphy768

sema, tuberculosis, and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Those people who were obese or underweight were found to have overall higher death rates than those with normal weight. Some scientists said the study reflected a more nuanced relationship between health and weight than had previously been thought. Although the research did not address why overweight people experienced lower death rates from some illnesses, the lead author of the study, senior researcher Katherine Flegal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), speculated that extra weight might provide reserves to those fighting illness or injury. „ Internal

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Medical device manufacturer Medtronic Inc. Oct. 14 said it would suspend sales of a component of its internally implanted defibrillators after finding that a flaw might have caused five deaths. Medtronic said a wire that connected patients’ hearts with the defibrillator, known as a lead, could fracture and emit a possibly fatal jolt of electricity. The Minneapolis, Minn.–based company in a statement said the leads “may have been a possible or likely contributing factor” in the five deaths. [See 2006, p. 549A3] Medtronic recommended that patients with the potentially faulty leads not get them removed because of the additional health risks such surgery posed, a recommendation that was backed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company said patients should instead have the devices reprogrammed to improve their ability to monitor any lead failures. An estimated 235,000 patients had internal defibrillators with the leads. Medtronic estimated that 2.3% of those patients would experience a failure of their lead within 30 months of receiving the device. Internally implanted defibrillators monitored a patient’s heartbeat, delivering a shock to correct a detected irregularity. Sales of implantable defibrillators had fallen after a recall of the devices by another manufacturer, Guidant Corp., that began in June 2005 and was expanded in 2006. Separately, Boston Scientific Aug. 30 said three of its subsidiaries had reached a $16.8 million settlement with the attorneys general of 35 states and Washington, D.C., of investigations into its handling of information on its implantable defibrillators. Under the terms of the agreement, the company did not admit any liability, but agreed to extend its warranty on several heart devices by six months. [See p. 529G3] Drug Stent Approved—An FDA advisory panel Oct. 10 unanimously recommended that the agency approve the use of a drug-coated heart stent manufactured by Medtronic. The panel also recommended that the FDA require Medtronic to conduct a five-year study examining potential health risks posed by the new device. The FDA Oct. 5 had released data that linked use of the stent, known as Endeavor, to an increase in blood clot formation. Such stents were inserted in heart arteries to prop them open. [See p. 481D3] „

AFRICA

Comoros African Union Blockades Rebel Island.

The African Union (AU) Nov. 3 began a naval blockade of Anjouan, one of the three islands in the Comoros archipelago, off Africa’s southeast coast. The AU Oct. 10 had imposed sanctions on Anjouan after Mohamed Bacar, the island’s president, refused to relinquish power despite having been ordered to do so by the federal government. [See 2006, p. 393A2] The Comoros comprised the islands of Anjouan, Grand Comore and Moheli, each of which had its own president and a measure of autonomy. The country also had a federal president, Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi, who had been elected in 2006. The Comoros had a history of instability, undergoing 19 coups or attempted coups after winning independence from France in 1975. [See p. 692E3] Elections for the three islands’ presidents had been set for June 10. The balloting went ahead as scheduled on Grand Comore and Moheli. Both of those votes went to June 24 runoffs, with Mohamed Abdoulwahabi winning the presidency of Grand Comore and Mohamed Ali Said winning in Moheli. Bacar had taken power in Anjouan in a 2001 coup, and was reputedly involved in money laundering and smuggling. The Comorian constitutional court April 26 ruled that his term as president of Anjouan had expired, but he refused to step down. The federal government May 2 attempted to install a replacement, sending troops to take control of Anjouan government buildings. However, the effort was unsuccessful, and at least two soldiers were killed in the operation. The Comorian government then announced a postponement of the June 10 Anjouan elections until June 17 due to the clashes; however, Bacar defied the government and went ahead with the polls as scheduled. He was reelected with about 73% of the vote, after most other candidates boycotted. He was sworn in June 14, despite federal government and foreign condemnation. The Oct. 10 AU sanctions imposed a travel ban and an asset freeze on 145 government and military officials from Anjouan. Bacar Oct. 11 said the sanctions would only harm the people of the Comoros, and that they would “force us to become even more radical in our positions.” In an effort to defuse the crisis, Abdoulwahabi Oct. 19 traveled to Anjouan and met with Bacar. Sambi, a native of Anjouan, criticized the meeting as undermining attempts to isolate Bacar. The federal government Oct. 26 gave Bacar 45 days to hold new elections. Under the AU’s Electoral and Security Assistance Mission (MAES) to Comoros, patrol boats manned by Comorian and Tanzanian soldiers inspected all ships arriving at and departing from the island starting Nov. 5. However, Sambi’s government Nov. 6 alleged that some ships were ignorFACTS ON FILE

ing the ban. Sambi had repeatedly threatened to attempt another military offensive to oust Bacar. „

Africa News in Brief Sierra

Leone:

President

Inaugurated.

Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People’s Congress (APC) party Nov. 15 was sworn in as Sierra Leone’s new president in a ceremony in Freetown, the capital, attended by several other West African leaders. Koroma in September had won a runoff election, defeating then–Vice President Solomon Berewa of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). In his inaugural speech, Koroma pledged “zero tolerance towards corruption,” which was seen as a major impediment to the nation’s recovery from an 11-year civil war. He also promised to reform the judiciary and civil service and to improve the lives of the poor. The previous day, a leaked report, commissioned by Koroma, had emerged that showed massive corruption in the administration of his predecessor, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of the SLPP. [See p. 613E1] „

AMERICAS

Brazil Large Oil Reserve Discovered Off Coast.

Brazil’s state-run oil firm, Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras), Nov. 8 said it had discovered a new oil reserve about 180 miles (290 km) off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, in the Atlantic Ocean. The company said tests had indicated that the reserve, known as the Poco Tupi oilfield, could have a recoverable volume of between five billion and eight billion barrels of crude oil. [See 2006, p. 711E2; 2000, p. 618E1] If found viable for production, the oil reserve would place Brazil among the highest-producing oil countries in the world. The oil reserve was located under about 1.25 miles of water and 2.5 miles of rock and salt. Analysts said the salt layer would pose some operational difficulties, and Petrobras said significant production from the area was several years off. „

Canada Saskatchewan Party Ousts NDP. Voters in Saskatchewan Nov. 7 elected the centrist Saskatchewan Party to a majority government in the provincial parliament, ending the 16-year rule of the leftist provincial New Democratic Party (NDP) led by Premier Lorne Calvert. The Saskatchewan Party, led by Premier-elect Brad Wall, won 38 seats in the 58-seat parliament, with 50.8% of the popular vote. The NDP finished second, capturing the remaining 20 seats and 37.25% of the popular vote. The provincial wings of the Liberal Party and Green Party failed to win any seats, but secured 9.5% and 2.0% of the popular vote, respectively. [See 2003, p. 945E3] Wall, 41, was a businessman who had moved the Saskatchewan Party’s policy November 22, 2007

positions from the right toward the center. He had eschewed some policies previously backed by his party, such as boot camp for criminal youth offenders and work-forwelfare programs. Wall had supported environmental initiatives, ceilings on prescription drug costs and tax cuts. At dissolution, the NDP had held 30 seats to the Saskatchewan Party’s 28. The Saskatchewan Party had been formed in 1997 by a group of Liberals and Progressive Conservatives who united in order to „ beat the NDP.

Chile Pinochet Family Charges Dropped. A Chil-

ean appeals court Oct. 26 dismissed corruption charges that had been filed against the widow and four children of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, in power from 1973 to 1990. However, the charges remained in effect for Pinochet’s oldest son, also named Augusto Pinochet, because he had not filed an appeal. [See p. 671C1] Pinochet’s family members, as well as 17 former high-ranking officials of his government, earlier in October had been accused of links to the embezzlement of some $20 million in state funds. However, the appeals court found the charges flawed because the investigative judge had failed to interview any of the family members. It also found that the relatives would have to have been employed by the government during Pinochet’s rule in order to face charges of misusing state funds. Charges against 10 of the former government officials were also dismissed. „ Earthquake Strikes Mining Region. An earthquake measuring 7.7 on the open-ended Richter scale of ground motion Nov. 14 struck northern Chile, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake’s epicenter was about 780 miles (1,250 km) north of Santiago, the capital, and about 25 miles southeast of Tocopilla city, in a region where some of the country’s largest copper mines were located. [See p. 531B1; 1997, p. 933E2] Chilean officials said two women were killed by collapsed walls in Tocopilla, and about 100 were injured. Some 15,000 people were displaced by the quake, which caused power outages and destroyed some 4,000 homes. A 6.0 magnitude aftershock Nov. 17 also struck the region. „

Panama Canal Expansion Work Begins. The Panama Canal Authority, the Panamanian government agency that oversaw the waterway, Sept. 3 began work on an expansion of the canal. The enlargement was projected to be completed by 2015, at a cost of $5.25 billion, and was intended to double the canal’s capacity. About 4% of the world’s international trade passed through the canal, and some two-thirds of goods traveling through the waterway were going to or coming from the U.S. [See 2006, p. 824G1] „

A S I A - PA C I F I C

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Cambodia Three Arrested in 1996 Mine Expert Murder.

Three former Khmer Rouge officials were charged Nov. 13 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, for planning and carrying out the 1996 murder of a British mine-removal expert and his Cambodian interpreter. The arrests came nearly 10 years after investigators from Britain determined in 1998 that Christopher Howes and Huon Hourth had been murdered only days after their March 1996 abduction by members of the Khmer Rouge, then an insurgent group fighting government forces. [See 1998, p. 986C3] Maj. Gen. Khem Ngun, 58, and Loch Mao, 56, both former deputies of Khmer Rouge military leader Ta Mok, and Chep Cheat, 33, were charged with kidnapping and premeditated murder; if convicted, they each faced a maximum of 20 years in prison. The reasons behind the timing of the arrests were unknown but experts suggested that the recent arrests of high-level former Khmer Rouge officials had emboldened the government in its efforts to prosecute former members of the regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. „

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Ex–Khmer Rouge Prime Minister Arrested.

Former Khmer Rouge Prime Minister Khieu Samphan was arrested Nov. 19 and charged with crimes against humanity by Cambodia’s United Nations–backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) following his release earlier that day from a Phnom Penh hospital, where he had been treated for a possible stroke. Samphan was the fifth highranking Khmer Rouge official to be arrested by the ECCC in connection with the regime’s 1975–79 rule, which left 1.7 million people dead. [See p. 757A3] Former Prison Chief At Bail Hearing—

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The former Khmer Rouge official who oversaw the regime’s notorious Tuol Sleng prison appeared in court Nov. 20 for a bail hearing. Kang Kek Ieu, called “Duch,” had been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the torture and killings of about 14,000 people at the prison. Only a handful of prisoners survived the prison; three were still alive at the time of the hearing. [See p. 614G1] Duch had been detained for more than eight and a half years without trial. His lawyer argued that the imprisonment constituted an abuse of Duch’s human rights, a claim that drew laughter from spectators in the court. However, he was reportedly prepared to acknowledge his role in crimes committed at Tuol Sleng. Duch’s request for bail was denied. His trial was expected to begin in 2008. „

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North Korea

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Disabling of Nuclear Complex Begins. The

U.S. State Department Nov. 5 said that U.S. experts had begun disabling key facilities at North Korea’s Yongbyon complex, the principal site of its plutonium-based nuclear weapons program. North Korea in October 769

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had agreed to the disabling of its nuclear installations and a complete declaration of its nuclear activities by the end of the year, implementing a February agreement under which it agreed to abandon those programs in exchange for economic aid and normalized relations. [See p. 654C1] U.S. State Department official Sung Kim Nov. 6 said in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, that the disabling process was “off to a good start” to make the Dec. 31 deadline. The U.S.’s chief envoy on the issue, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, Nov. 3 had said that disabling, a step toward “dismantling” the program, would result in a situation in which it would take North Korea more than a year to revive Yongbyon’s operations. The U.S. had also accused North Korea of pursuing a separate, uranium-based weapons program, citing evidence that it had acquired equipment and materials that could be used to enrich uranium. The U.S. had demanded that North Korea explain its alleged uranium activities in accounting for its nuclear programs. The Washington Post Nov. 10 reported that North Korea was giving U.S. officials access to evidence meant to prove that it had used the materials in question for nonnuclear purposes. „

South Korea

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North Korean Prime Minister Visits. North

Korean Prime Minister Kim Yong Il Nov. 14–16 visited Seoul, South Korea’s capital, for the first meeting between the two countries’ prime ministers in 15 years. Kim and South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck Soo focused on issues of economic cooperation in the talks, which followed an October meeting between South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun and North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Il, who in practice held all decision-making power in his country. The meeting also came as North Korea was taking steps toward disabling its nuclear program, although the talks did not substantially address that issue. [See pp. 769G3, 654C2; 1992, p. 345E2] Kim and Han agreed to restore rail freight links severed since the 1950–53 Korean War, and to establish a joint fishing zone in border waters that had been the site of naval confrontations. They also set construction of an industrial zone, to be served by South Korean cargo ships and trains, at what was currently North Korea’s Haeju naval base. Some observers suggested that both sides were eager to conclude new agreements in the run-up to South Korea’s December presidential election, in order to bolster the South Korean ruling party, which supported pursuing warmer relations with North Korea. [See p. 770G1] „

Parties Choose Presidential Candidates. The United New Democratic Party (UNDP),

a liberal party formed out of the former Uri party of President Roh Moo Hyun, Oct. 15 named former Unification Minister Chung Dong Young as its candidate for the country’s Dec. 19 presidential election. Chung would face Lee Myung Bak of the conser770

vative opposition Grand National Party (GNP), a former mayor of Seoul, the capital. [See 2006, p. 474A3] Lee Aug. 20 had won the GNP nomination, defeating Park Geun Hye, the daughter of the late Park Chung Hee, who had been military ruler of South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s. The Uri party Aug. 20 had merged with the UNDP, which was founded Aug. 5. [See 2004, p. 1084B3] Lee faced a challenge for the support of conservatives from two-time GNP presidential candidate Lee Hoi Chang, who Nov. 7 announced that he would run again, this time as an independent. „

Thailand King Released from Hospital. King Bhumibol Adulyadej was released Nov. 7 from a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital city, following treatment for a colon infection and weakness on his right side caused by diminished blood flow to his brain. Thousands of Thai citizens celebrated the king’s recovery outside the hospital. The king had been hospitalized for three weeks and was expected to regain full strength. [See p. 688F3] „

Vietnam Floods and Typhoons Kill More Than 215.

More than 215 people in nine provinces of central Vietnam had been killed by storms and floods since the beginning of October, wire services reported Nov. 13. The number included almost 100 people who had been killed Oct. 3 by Typhoon Lekima and at least 28 people killed by flooding linked to Typhoon Peipah, which had made landfall Nov. 10 as a tropical depression. [See 2006, p. 937A2] The floods were believed to have been caused by severe rains and the effects of the two typhoons. More than 61,000 homes were submerged in central Vietnam and evacuees numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Officials Nov. 7 warned citizens not to leave their homes while floodwaters remained, attributing a large number of the flood deaths to people attempting to cross swollen rivers and streams. An agriculture official had also warned that flooding could cause the spread of bird flu, Reuters reported Nov. 7. [See 2006, p. 727A2] „

Other Asia-Pacific News U.S. Defense Secretary Tours Region. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Nov. 4–6 visited Beijing, the capital of China, on a tour that also included visits to South Korea Nov. 7 and Japan Nov. 8–9. In Beijing, Gates, on his first visit to China as defense secretary, met Nov. 5 with Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Cao Guangchuan. At a joint news conference, Gates raised the U.S.’s previously stated concerns about China’s rapid “military modernization” and “the need for greater transparency” in China’s strategic aims. [See p. 384D3; 2005, p. 754F1] U.S.-Chinese military relations had been gradually improving since a 2001

incident in which a U.S. reconnaissance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet, and the U.S. plane’s crew was detained for 11 days. Gates and Cao agreed to establish a dedicated military telephone “hotline” between their countries, to facilitate communication and avert incidents resulting from misunderstandings. They also said they would increase military dialogue and exchanges, including new joint naval exercises. [See 2001, p. 631B2] Gates said he had raised the issue of China’s test of an antisatellite weapon in January, but that “there was no further discussion” of it. [See p. 45D2] Chinese officials reportedly expressed concerns about the U.S.’s military support for Taiwan, which China claimed as part of its territory. In Seoul, South Korea’s capital, Gates met with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Jang Soo for the two countries’ annual security meeting. At their joint news conference, Kim cautioned that moves in recent days by North Korea toward disabling its nuclear weapons program did not mean that “the threat from North Korea has reduced tangibly or discernibly.” He said that “North Korea is continuing to pursue the acquisition of asymmetrical [or unconventional] weapons.” [See p. 769G3] Urges Japan to Take Greater Role—

Gates in Tokyo, Japan’s capital, Nov. 8 said the U.S. wanted Japan to play a more prominent role in international security issues, as “befits its role as one of the world’s greatest and wealthiest democracies.” He expanded on that theme in a speech at Sophia University in Tokyo Nov. 9. Japan’s millitary activities were constrained by its pacifist constitution imposed by the U.S. after World War II. [See p. 335B2] Gates’s visit came amid an ongoing political standoff in Japan that had forced it to suspend a refueling mission in support of the U.S.’s military operations in Afghanistan. At a news conference with Gates Nov. 8, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said the government was working to restore the program, asserting that the suspension reflected poorly on Japan’s commitment to combating terrorism. (The lower house of Japan’s parliament Nov. 13 passed a bill to restore a restricted version of the program, but it faced likely opposition in the upper house.) [See p. 739F3] Gates Nov. 8 also met with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, who said the government wanted to make cuts in its spending on supporting U.S. forces stationed in Japan. Gates urged Japan to maintain the funding as a symbol of the importance of its alliance with the U.S. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Azerbaijan U.S., British Embassies Close After Threat.

The U.S. and British embassies in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital and diplomatic center, FACTS ON FILE

Oct. 29 closed down in response to the discovery of a terrorist plot. According to Azerbaijan’s national security ministry, security forces had prevented a “large-scale horrifying attack against government structures and diplomatic missions.” The alleged militants, who reportedly had planned an attack on the U.S. embassy, included an Azerbaijani army officer who had deserted after stealing grenades and automatic weapons from the army. [See p. 678G2] The security ministry Nov. 10 announced that Lt. Kamran Asadov and another man had been arrested in connection with the plot, and had confessed to it while detained. They had been apprehended Nov. 9 in a forest outside Baku, 10 days after they had robbed a gas station of several thousand dollars, according to the ministry. Azerbaijani officials Oct. 29 said they had detained several people who belonged to a Wahhabi group in an Oct. 27 raid outside Baku. Wahhabism was a strict sect of Sunni Islam that sought to restore Islam by purging it of corrupt influences, and had been viewed as an extremist sect in the West. Asadov had been a member of that movement, the ministry said Nov. 10. A spokesman from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which operated near the British embassy, Oct. 29 said, “Some organizations have taken super-precautionary measures, but life is generally continuing as normal.” British-based energy company BP PLC, which operated two large-scale oil and gas ventures in Caspian waters off the coast of Azerbaijan, Oct. 29 continued business in Baku normally. The U.S. embassy Oct. 30 reopened with a limited staff, and both the U.S. and British embassies Oct. 31 resumed normal operations. U.S. officials in Baku Oct. 28 warned Americans living in the area to stay vigilant about their security. „

Germany Drivers’ Strike Paralyzes Rail System. The GDL train drivers’ union went on strike

Nov. 14–16, paralyzing Germany’s rail system. It was reportedly the biggest railway strike in German history. The GDL, which represented 34,000 workers, demanded a 31% wage increase from the national rail company, Deutsche Bahn AG, although the unions representing the company’s other 195,000 workers had accepted a 4.5% raise in July. [See 2006, p. 263C3] The GDL sought a separate contract for the drivers, which would break with the German practice of negotiating single wage deals for industries as a whole. The government had opposed such a break with precedent. However, Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee Nov. 19 said he had ordered Deutsche Bahn to improve its wage offer to the drivers. Deutsche Bahn said the strike was costing 50 million euros ($73 million) a day. The German industrial federation BDI called the strike “irresponsible,” noting that the auto, steel and chemical industries depended on the rail system to transport November 22, 2007

freight. About five million commuters also used the trains every day. „

Italy Romanians Deported After Murder. Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu Nov. 7 visited Rome, the capital of Italy, for talks with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi on the arrest and deportation of three dozen Romanian immigrants from Italy since the murder of a 47-yearold Italian woman at a Rome train station a week earlier. Police had arrested a Romanian as a suspect in the murder, which had sparked public anger against Romanian immigrants, especially Roma, sometimes referred to as Gypsies. [See p. 5E2; 2006, p. 1029C3; 2005, p. 97F2] The murder victim, Giovanna Reggiani, was the wife of a naval officer. She had been robbed and sexually assaulted. In response to the murder, Prodi’s center-left government Nov. 2 had issued a decree allowing local authorities to deport European Union immigrants classified as dangerous, even if they had no criminal record. A judge had to approve each deportation order. There were an estimated 560,000 Romanians among the 3.7 million immigrants in Italy. Many had arrived since Romania joined the EU in January. During his visit, Tariceanu apologized for crimes committed by Romanians, but said he wanted to “ensure safety for the Romanians who work and lead an honest life in Italy and who represent the vast majority of Romanians there.” He warned of increasing xenophobia. Conservative Italian political parties had called for mass deportations of immigrants and a halt to Romanian immigration. Former Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini, leader of the formerly neofascist National Alliance, Nov. 4 said Roma had criminal tendencies and were “not able to be integrated into our society.” He called for expelling as many as 200,000 people.

A masked mob armed with knives and metal bars Nov. 2 attacked four Romanians in Rome, wounding one severely. Authorities Nov. 3 demolished a shantytown in Rome that was largely inhabited by Roma, including the murder suspect. Tensions over the immigration issue Nov. 14 caused the collapse of a caucus of far-right parties in the European Parliament, the legislative branch of the European Union. The Greater Romania Party quit the caucus after Alessandra Mussolini, an Italian member (and granddaughter of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini) Nov. 2 said Romanians in Italy “cannot make a living by honest work.” As a result, the caucus, known as Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty, fell below the threshold of 20 members needed to receive public funding and recognition as a parliamentary caucus. „

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Poland Tusk Sworn In as Prime Minister. Donald

Tusk, 50, Nov. 16 was sworn in by Polish President Lech Kaczynski for a four-year term as Poland’s prime minister. His 18 cabinet members were also sworn in. The ceremony took place at the presidential palace in Warsaw, Poland’s capital. Tusk Nov. 23 would face a confidence vote in parliament, but his approval was expected because his coalition government, composed of his Civic Platform party and the smaller Polish Peasant Party (PSL), held a majority of seats. [See p. 704B2; for facts on Tusk, see p. 771E1] Tusk’s predecessor, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of President Kaczynski, had resigned Nov. 5. His Law and Justice (PiS) party had been soundly defeated by Civic Platform in snap parliamentary elections held in October. Among his more prominent cabinet appointments, Tusk named Jacek Rostowski, 56, a British-born graduate of the London School of Economics, as his finance minister. Radoslaw Sikorski, 44, a Britisheducated former war correspondent in Afghanistan and Angola who had previously

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FACTS ON TUSK

Donald Tusk was born April 22, 1957, in the northern Polish port city of Gdansk, on the Baltic Sea, to parents who had survived labor camps during the Nazi occupation of Poland. A Roman Catholic member of the small Kashubian community, a Slavic minority concentrated near Gdansk, Tusk became interested in politics at the age of 13 after he witnessed police open fire on striking workers. In his early life, he cofounded a cooperative of industrial painters; cooperatives were a rare form of private enterprise in Poland, which was under communist rule until 1989. Tusk received a degree in history from the University of Gdansk in 1980, and participated in anticommunist student groups while studying there. Tusk was an active participant in the Solidarity movement of the 1980s, which originated in Gdansk and had challenged and eventually overturned communist rule in Poland. In the early 1990s, he became the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Congress, a party that emerged from the Solidarity movement, which had splintered after the fall of commu-

nism. Tusk gained a seat in the upper house of parliament in 1997 as a representative of the Freedom Union party. Tusk founded the Civic Platform party in 2001. The party gained 65 seats in the lower house of parliament that year, and Tusk was subsequently elected that house’s deputy speaker. He occupied that position until 2005, when he lost a presidential election to Lech Kaczynski, and Civic Platform lost parliamentary elections to the Law and Justice (PiS) party, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president’s twin brother. [See 2005, pp. 761D3, 672G3] Jaroslaw Kaczynski in August called for snap elections, held Oct. 21, in which the PiS was ousted from power by Civic Platform and its coalition partner, the Polish Peasant Party. Tusk and his cabinet were sworn in Nov. 16. [See pp. 771C3, 704B2] Tusk married his wife, Malgorzata, while he was studying at the University of Gdansk. They had a son, Michal, and a daughter, Katarzyna. 771

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served as Poland’s defense minister, was named foreign minister. Tusk’s government was expected to improve relations with the European Union and seek to adopt the euro, the common EU currency, as well as implement a series of pro-business reforms in Poland, which would encourage privatization and deregulation. Tusk was further expected to be less accommodating toward the U.S. on the issue of its proposed missile defense facilities than Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a bristly nationalist who had supported the U.S. plan over Russian objections and other European concerns. Tusk’s defense minister, Bogdan Klich, Nov. 19 said the government would “weigh the benefits and costs of this project for Poland. And if that balance results unfavorably, we should draw a conclusion from those results.” [See p. 689F2] The new prime minister was also expected to recall the approximately 900 Polish troops in Iraq in 2008. „

Russia

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OSCE Declines to Monitor Elections. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a regional body, Nov. 16 said it would not send observers to Russia to monitor its parliamentary elections, scheduled for Dec. 2, because Russia had not yet issued visas to the 70 election monitors the organization had planned to send. [See pp. 656B1, 654B3] The OSCE said in a statement that Russian authorities “remain unwilling to receive [the group’s] observers in a timely and cooperative manner and cooperate fully with them,” and that it regretted that “delays and restrictions” meant it “would be unable to deliver its mandate.” The OSCE had not been invited into Russia until Oct. 31, two months after the group had planned to send monitors to observe the initial election process. The monitors therefore did not submit visa applications until Nov. 2. Russia Nov. 16 said it had fulfilled all its obligations as a member of the OSCE, and that the visa delays happened because OSCE monitors had not completed the proper paperwork. The OSCE’s move came after the Russian government Oct. 31 formally announced restrictions on the number of international monitors allowed into the country to observe the elections, and had additionally stated its intention not to allow the monitors that were permitted inside the country to publish their findings immediately following the elections. Instead, they would have to wait until official results were announced, which usually took place about a week after voting. The Russian proposal to limit election monitors, which had circulated confidentially at a September meeting of the OSCE, stated that Russia would not allow more than 70 representatives of the OSCE’s monitoring branch, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), to observe the elections, compared with some 450 monitors the OSCE had sent for the elections in 2003. 772

Igor Borisov, an official of Russia’s Central Election Committee, Oct. 31 said, “Russia does not need to invite an army of observers because the Russian electoral system is one of the most advanced in the world.” The conflict served to further illuminate the increasing tensions between Russia and the West; Russia had long accused the OSCE of meddling in the internal affairs of countries whose elections it monitored. During Russia’s 2003 parliamentary elections, the OSCE had reported the elections were “free but not fair” and had cited “clear bias” in the Russian media toward Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s party, United Russia. [See 2003, p. 1004C2] Past OSCE observer missions had found that most elections in former Soviet satellite countries did not meet democratic standards. In some countries, such as Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, its determinations had boosted mass movements that ousted the incumbent government after observers declared official election results unreliable or corrupt. The Russian government had referred to those movements as threats to regional stability and to Russian sovereignty. [See 2005, p. 174E1; 2004, p. 1023D3; 2003, p. 931G3] Russia had invited between 300 and 400 international election monitors from various organizations in anticipation of the Dec. 2 elections, including the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which was composed of former Soviet satellites, and had previously challenged the findings of the OSCE. The OSCE, composed of 56 member countries, was considered by many in Western nations to be the world’s most authoritative election monitor. Its members were required to invite ODIHR monitors to observe voting. It had monitored elections in Russia since 1993. Compulsory Pro-Putin Rallies Reported—

Russian citizens in recent weeks had been ordered by government officials to attend rallies urging Putin to run for an unconstitutional third presidential term, it was reported Oct. 31. Directives ordering the rallies had been discovered by Russian opposition officials. It was unclear whether the directives came from the central government in Moscow, the capital, or from regional authorities. [See pp. 772C1, 654C3] “Organize participation in the demonstration by workers and veterans of collectives and members of their families in the following quantities,” a government telegram concerning a demonstration in late October in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk stated, according to an Oct. 31 report in a British newspaper, the Guardian. Police said up to 30,000 people attended the rally, but opposition leaders said that number was inflated, and that there had actually been fewer than 10,000 people present, most of whom, they claimed, had been ordered to attend. A statement released by the Novosibirsk chapter of the “For Putin” movement, reported Oct. 31 by the Washington Post, said, “We are expressing our solidarity with Vladimir Putin. We believe that de-

spite his decision to follow the constitution, he should have all the powers that will allow him to continue his activity as the leader of the country.” The Russian government denied involvement with the rallies. Putin, who had high popularity ratings throughout his two terms, had repeatedly denied he would run for a third presidential term, but was considering a run for prime minister in the Dec. 2 parliamentary elections. „

Serbia Ex-Rebel Wins Kosovo Elections. Hashim Thaci, leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Nov. 18 claimed victory for his party in elections held the day before in the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo. With approximately 90% of votes counted, the PDK claimed 34% of the vote, to 22% for the ruling party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). [See p. 705G1; 2004, p. 884F3] Thaci, who was likely to become Kosovo’s new prime minister, said that he would declare independence “immediately” after Dec. 10, the date United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon had set as the deadline for talks on Kosovo’s future status between the European Union, Russia and the U.S. Negotiations resumed Nov. 20 in Brussels, Belgium The PDK won by a margin small enough that Thaci would need to form a coalition government. In the weeks before the elections, Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian parties, which shared the primary goal of independence, had agreed to form a government quickly so that a declaration would not be delayed. The province’s parliament was composed of 120 seats: 100 that were allocated through direct election and 20 reserved for Serbs and other minorities. Officials said voter turnout was the lowest since the U.N. began to administer the breakaway region in 1999. Of the 1.5 million eligible voters, fewer than 45% participated in the elections. Analysts said that poor weather the day of the elections, and widespread political apathy resulting from an unemployment rate exceeding 50%, contributed to the low turnout. Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority boycotted the elections; Rade Negojevic, a Kosovo Serb spokesman, said that of 46,000 Serbs in Kosovo, just three had voted. The EU had not reached a consensus on whether it would recognize Kosovo if independence were unilaterally declared, and the issue was further complicated by ongoing Western tensions with Russia, which had said it would oppose independence for Kosovo as long as Serbia did. Branislav Ristivojevic, a spokesman for Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica’s party, the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), Nov. 19 warned that if Kosovo were to declare independence, it could encourage a series of other separatist movements to act similarly, including movements in nearby Bosnia and Macedonia, in addition to “all the flash points in the world.” „ FACTS ON FILE

Ukraine 89 Dead, 11 Missing After Mine Explosion.

An explosion of methane gas approximately 3,800 feet (1,250 m) underground Nov. 18 resulted in the deaths of at least 89 coal miners, while 11 remained missing. The explosion, which occurred in eastern Ukraine’s Zasyadko coal mine near the city of Donetsk, appeared to have been caused by an accident that occurred while miners attempted to bore a shaft leading out of the mine to clear a concentration of methane gas, according to Ukrainian newspaper Kommersant Nov. 19. It was the deadliest mining accident in post-Soviet Ukrainian history. [See below; 2002, p. 640D2] The Zasyadko mine employed about 10,000 miners in economically depressed eastern Ukraine, where job opportunities outside the mine were rare. About 450 miners had been working underground at the time of the explosion. An effort to locate those trapped inside was hindered by underground fires. The rescue effort had since been suspended, Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported Nov. 21. The Ukrainian government said it would pay $20,000 per miner in compensation to the families of the deceased, according to a Nov. 20 report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Ukrainian Mines Called Dangerous—

Mine accidents in the Ukraine were relatively common, and Ukrainian mines were considered more dangerous than other European mines because they were so deep underground. A typical Ukrainian mine was more than 3,300 feet deep, while European mines were usually no more than 2,000 feet deep. Flammable methane gas releases were a by-product of coal mining, and the deeper the mine, the higher the concentration of methane in the air. The Ukrainian mining industry was reportedly plagued by rampant safety violations. In many mines, workers used outdated Soviet-era equipment, including ventilation equipment. The miners were also paid by the amount of coal extracted from the mine, which prompted some mine workers to ignore or disable methane gasdetecting devices so they could continue to work. Mine workers earned as much as three times the average wage in Ukraine. According to government statistics, more than 4,700 miners in the Ukraine had died in accidents since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was reported Nov. 20. The Zasyadko mine alone had been the scene of deadly accidents in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2006. „

Other European News Storm Capsizes Oil Tanker Near Black Sea.

Hundreds of thousands of gallons of heavy fuel oil Nov. 11 spilled into a strait leading to the Black Sea, after a powerful storm hit the area and caused a Russian oil tanker to break apart. The storm caused at least 12 ships to capsize or run aground near the Strait of Kerch, a narrow passage that November 22, 2007

linked the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov, according to Russian officials. Four people were reported dead and four others were reported missing following the storm, which generated waves as high as 18 feet (5.5 m). The oil spill was expected to cause long-term environmental damage to the area. [See p. 705A1] Viktor Beltsov, spokesman for Russia’s ministry of emergency situations, Nov. 12 said the ships’ captains had ignored storm warnings. Other officials said the Volganeft-139, the tanker that had split in half and spilled up to 2,000 tons of oil, had been built in the 1970s for river transport and was not suited for rough waters. Russian prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the role of the ships’ captains and owners, and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin sent Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov to the area to assess the damage. The oil tanker had been carrying fuel oil from the Russian city of Samara to neighboring Ukraine, which shared the coastline of the Sea of Azov with Russia. Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor, a state-sponsored environmental watchdog, Nov. 11 expressed concern that oil was continuing to leak from the tanker, and said the wind was pushing the oil toward Ukraine’s coast. The area affected by the spill was home to dolphins and several species of migratory birds. Mitvol Nov. 15 said the oil had contaminated a 30-mile (50-km) stretch of the Black Sea’s coastline and that 10,000 tons of oily residue would need to be removed. Mitvol said that not only had the spill killed thousands of fish and birds and coated numerous other birds with thick fuel oil, here had been documented reports of dead dolphins. The Black Sea dolphin was nearing extinction, according to environmentalists. Russian officials estimated the cleanup would cost more than $12 billion. „

SOUTH ASIA

Bangladesh Cyclone Sidr Kills Thousands. Government

officials Nov. 19 said more than 3,100 people had been killed by a powerful cyclone, and the U.N. estimated that the cyclone had rendered more than one million people homeless. Cyclone Sidr Nov. 16 had made landfall on Bangladesh’s southwestern coast, reaching speeds of 150 mph (240 kmh) as it headed northward, before losing strength later that day. The cyclone destroyed crops, fish farms and homes. Officials said the death toll could reach 5,000 or more, as the government made contact with areas whose lines of communication had been severed by the cyclone. [See p. 550C1; 1991, p. 333A1] Up to a million survivors were in need of shelter, food, safe drinking water and medicine. The Bangladeshi government and international aid agencies began sys-

tematically distributing aid Nov. 18, after initial aid efforts were hampered by the destruction caused by the cyclone. The leader of Bangladesh’s interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, Nov. 19 toured some of the most devastated areas, and praised survivors for their “courage.” The government reported that it had received emergency aid pledges from other countries of up to $140 million, with $100 million coming from the government of Saudi Arabia. U.S. President George W. Bush Nov. 17 had pledged $2 million in emergency aid. Bangladesh, a low-lying delta region, had experienced severe flooding in August during its monsoon season, which had killed hundreds, displaced millions and destroyed large swaths of farmland. Experts said Cyclone Sidr would exacerbate the obstacles to agricultural development in the region. Government officials said they were creating a program to supply farmers with seeds and fertilizer. Cyclone Sidr was thought to be of similar strength to a cyclone that hit the area in 1991 and killed as many as 140,000 people. It was widely reported that the lower death toll from Cyclone Sidr was due to improvements made in early warning systems, the successful evacuation of some 1.5 million people from their homes before the cyclone hit, and the fact that Cyclone Sidr made landfall in an area dominated by extensive forests, which bore the brunt of the storm. „

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Pakistan Court Dismisses Election Challenges. A 10-member panel of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Nov. 22 dismissed the last of six petitions challenging the legality of President Pervez Musharraf’s reelection as president in October, paving the way for Musharraf to begin a five-year presidential term. The court Nov. 19 had dismissed the other five petitions. Tariq Azim Khan, the deputy information minister, Nov. 22 said Musharraf would resign as army chief of staff; Musharraf had vowed several times in recent weeks to resign from the army if his reelection was confirmed by the court. [See p. 745A1] Musharraf had reshuffled the court in early November, after he declared a state of emergency and suspended the constitution. Musharraf ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and several other justices who had refused to accept a provisional constitution, and replaced them with his supporters. Chaudhry and six other justices were placed under house arrest. Musharraf had declared the state of emergency days before the court was to rule on whether his reelection by parliament, while occupying the office of army chief, was constitutional. The Pakistani constitution forbade civil servants, including army officers, from running for office without first retiring for a minimum of two years. [See p. 674E3] Musharraf claimed that Parliament had exempted him from that requirement after he won a presidential referendum in 2002. That referendum was widely believed to 773

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have been rigged. [See 2003, p. 1090D2; 2002, p. 324D2] The government Nov. 22 also introduced an amendment to the suspended constitution, which stated that the emergency decree declared by Musharraf was permanently legal, protecting him from any future legal challenges. Political Opponents Released—A spokesman for the interior ministry, Javed Iqbal Cheema, Nov. 20 announced that the government had released more than 3,400 people who had been detained since the emergency decree was announced. Cheema said 2,000 others were still in jail, but “would be freed soon,” although those facing criminal charges might be detained for a longer period. Benazir Bhutto, head of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the largest opposition party, had been released from house arrest Nov. 16. Many of the most prominent opponents of Musharraf’s government were still in custody or under house arrest. They included Chaudhry; Aitzaz Ahsan, a leader of Pakistani lawyers who had protested the decree; and senior members of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League party (PML-N), which was led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Former cricket star Imran Khan while in jail Nov. 19 started a hunger strike to protest the state of emergency. He was released from prison Nov. 21. Since the emergency decree, government forces had rounded up human-rights activists, lawyers loyal to Chaudhry, and supporters of opposition parties. Police Nov. 20 arrested more than 100 journalists in Karachi and 20 journalists in the southern city of Hyderabad, after they protested the emergency restrictions on independent media. [See below] Musharraf had been under intense domestic and international pressure to release the detainees. Analysts also said Musharraf was more willing to make concessions to his domestic opponents after the court ruled that his reelection was legal. Musharraf Visits Saudi Arabia—Musharraf Nov. 20 left for Saudi Arabia on his first trip overseas since he declared the state of emergency. It was reported that he was to meet with members of the Saudi government, an important Pakistani ally, to discuss the fate of Sharif, who was living in Saudi Arabia in exile. It was reported that the Saudi government wanted Musharraf to allow Sharif to return to Pakistan. Sharif Nov. 19 said he would not meet with Musharraf in person, and that he would not return to Pakistan unless the emergency decree was lifted. Sharif less than a week earlier had said he was in discussions with Bhutto, his longtime rival, to form an alliance against Musharraf. Musharraf had ousted Sharif from power in a 1999 coup. Sharif had lived in exile since 2000. He returned to Pakistan in September, only to be deported back to Saudi Arabia hours later. [See p. 598D2; 2000, p. 977A3; 1999, p. 294G2] 774

Negroponte Urges End to Emergency—

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte Nov. 18 at a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, said he had urged Musharraf at a meeting the previous day to lift the emergency decree, free political prisoners, resign from his army post and allow free and fair parliamentary elections. It was widely reported that Musharraf did not give Negroponte any indication of when the state of emergency would end. Negroponte Nov. 18 also urged Musharraf and Bhutto to renew communication, saying it “could help improve the political environment and pull the political actors back from the brinkmanship and confrontation of recent weeks.” Negroponte spoke with Bhutto on the phone Nov. 16. She was released from house arrest just before his arrival that day. The U.S. had backed months-long discussions between Musharraf and Bhutto that were supposed to lead to a powersharing agreement. The U.S. considered both leaders secular moderates who could form an alliance against growing Islamic extremism in the northwest regions of the country. Bhutto said that the discussions were over after Musharraf placed her under house arrest. [See below] Musharraf had claimed that the threat of Islamic extremism was the main reason he declared the state of emergency. During his trip, Negroponte also held at least two meetings with Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, who was slated to take over as chief of army staff if Musharraf retired. Kiyani was considered a moderate, and the attention from Negroponte suggested to observers that he had the U.S.’s support. Bhutto Calls for Halt of U.S. Aid—After her release from house arrest, Bhutto Nov. 16 urged the U.S. to stop sending aid to Pakistan, arguing that it propped up Musharraf’s government. The U.S. had given Pakistan more than $10 billion in aid since Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. Most of the money was reserved for military use in combating Islamic extremists. Bhutto also reiterated her rejection of a caretaker government that was to oversee parliamentary elections. Musharraf swore in the government Nov. 16, after the term of the previous parliament expired the previous day. Pakistan’s election commission Nov. 20 announced that elections would be held Jan. 8, 2008. Potential candidates had to register for nomination before Nov. 26. Musharraf’s critics claimed that the elections could not be free and fair while the state of the emergency was in place. The decree banned public gatherings and placed restrictions on independent media. Satellite TV Stations Shut Down— Two of Pakistan’s largest television networks, GEO Television Network and ARY One World, were shut down Nov. 16 by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where they broadcast from via satellite and the Internet. GEO representatives said Pakistani officials had asked the UAE government to stop the broadcasts. Satellite television was one of the last means by which Pakistanis

could receive independent news. Since the decree, private television channels that had not agreed to sign a code of conduct had been shut down. GEO and ARY had also refused to sign the code, which imposed penalties for anything deemed to be ridiculing the government. 130 Militants Killed in Northwest—Government officials Nov. 20 said the military had killed 130 Islamic militants in the Swat Valley region in the country’s northwest region over the past several days. Swat Valley, a former tourist destination, had become the latest battleground between the government and Islamic extremists. Followers of the fundamentalist cleric Maulana Fazlullah had seized areas formerly under government control. Fazlullah’s followers reportedly included militants from Chechnya, Uzbekistan and the Middle East. U.S. Proposes More Involvement— The New York Times Nov. 19 reported that the U.S. military was considering a plan that would increase the number of U.S. military trainers in Pakistan; bolster Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force; and pay Pakistani tribes to fight against members of Al Qaeda, the international terrorist network, and other Islamic extremists in Pakistan’s northwest regions. The plan had reportedly been developed by the U.S. Special Operations Command, based in Tampa, Fla. The plan to pay Pakistani tribes for their military allegiance was based on a similar plan employed by the U.S. military in Anbar province in Iraq, in which Sunni Iraqi sheikhs were paid to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group. The Anbar plan had been deemed a success. [See p. 747C1] The Frontier Corps had 85,000 members, who were recruited from tribes in the country’s northwest. According to the Times, the U.S. military considered the training and financing of the Frontier Corps to be the best long-term option for fighting extremists in that area. Under the plan, the Frontier Corps would receive $350 million from the U.S. over the next several years. The plan would also increase the number of U.S. military personnel in Pakistan. About 50 U.S. troops were currently stationed in the country. Pakistan’s northwest region had long been largely autonomous from the central government. The government had signed a peace treaty with regional tribal elders in 2006. Since then, Islamic extremists had used the area as a safe haven, and as a base from which to conduct attacks against U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces, which were fighting an insurgency led by the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist group, in neighboring Afghanistan. U.S. Helped Secure Nuclear Sites—The New York Times Nov. 18 reported that the U.S. government had given Pakistan nearly $100 million since Sept. 11, 2001, to help Pakistan secure its nuclear facilities. The Times reported that the safeguards were comprised of fencing and surveillance sysFACTS ON FILE

tems, including equipment that could detect nuclear material being taken from the facilities. The Times said the U.S. had not given Pakistan more sophisticated nuclear security technology, known as “permissive action links,” because of concerns that it would give the Pakistanis too much insight into the U.S.’s nuclear capabilities. The report said U.S. officials were discussing whether to give Pakistan more safety equipment and helicopters to secure its facilities. The recent instability caused by the state of emergency had led to concerns that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of extremists. Pakistan had first conducted nuclear tests in 1998. [See 1998, p. 353A1] The Times said it had delayed publication of its article for more than three years at the request of U.S. officials. „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Human Stem Cells Created From Skin Cells Method Avoids Embryo Destruction. Two

separate teams of scientists Nov. 20 reported in online science journals that they had successfully created human stem cells from human skin cells, a technique that would allow scientists to avoid the controversial practice of creating stem cells from human embryos. The research was considered one of the most significant advances in stem cell research, and could potentially yield new treatments for a host of diseases and other ailments. Because stem cells were able to grow into any type of cell, the new technique would theoretically allow replacement organs or tissue to be grown from a patient’s own body’s cells. [See p. 371D3; 2006, p. 986D3] One team, led by James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, had its research published on the Web site of the journal Science. The other, led by Shinya Yamanaka of Tokyo University, had its work published on the site of the journal Cell. The two teams had used a similar technique in creating the stem cells. Both relied on a type of virus known as a retrovirus to infect the skin cells and insert four genes. The inserted genes “instructed” other genes in the virus-infected skin cell to turn on and off in a pattern that resulted in the cell mimicking a stem cell. It was unclear to scientists exactly why that combination of genes had such an effect. Yamanaka was then able to grow the resulting cells into a variety of other cells, including nerve and heart cells. Yamanaka in June had published research showing the technique had been successful in mice, and had called the resulting cells “induced pluripotent stem” cells, or iPS cells. Thomson had achieved similar results using two of the same genes that Yamanaka had used, and two different ones. November 22, 2007

Yamanaka said he was able to produce about 10 iPS cell colonies from every 50,000 skin cells, a ratio considered favorable because skin cells were easily grown. Scientists warned that significant obstacles remained before medical treatments using the new technique could be developed. Retroviruses were known for causing mutations that could lead to cancer. Researchers added that the problems were not insurmountable, but that medical treatments relying on the new technique would likely be years away. Embryonic stem cell research required the use of human egg cells and the destruction of human embryos, prompting impassioned debate over the morality of such research. Those who had opposed embryonic stem cell research on moral grounds welcomed the new studies. U.S. President George W. Bush in 2001 had banned the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. However, the White House Nov. 20 released a statement saying Bush was “pleased” at the “important advances in ethical stem cell research.” James Battey, vice chairman of the U.S National Institutes of Health (NIH) stem cell task force, said research involving the new technique would be eligible for federal funds. [See p. 397G2] Richard Doerflinger, a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which was opposed to embryonic stem cell research, said he had spoken with a number of Roman Catholic ethicists and scientists, and none had opposed the new technique. Monkey Stem Cells Created From Clones—

A team of researchers reported Nov. 14 in the online version of the journal Nature that it had successfully extracted monkey stem cells from cloned monkey embryos. It was the first time that stem cell creation technique had been successful in an animal other than a mouse. (South Korean scientists in 2004 had claimed to have created human stem cells using the cloning technique, but that claim was later found false.) [See 2006, p. 604C1] The scientists, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton, had taken skin cells from an adult male rhesus macaque monkey and inserted them into a monkey egg whose genetic material had been removed. The egg, in a process not understood by scientists, reprogrammed the skin cells to revert to their early development stage. The reprogrammed cells then took over the egg’s development, creating a monkey embryo with the male skin cell donor’s DNA. Several days later the researchers were able to extract stem cells from the cloned embryo, destroying it in the process. They were able to grow the stem cells into various kinds of other cells, including nerve and heart cells. Although the research ignited renewed debate over the morality of research involving embryo destruction, it was overshadowed by Thomson and Yamanaka’s work. „

People Actress Lindsay Lohan, 21, Nov. 15 was released from the Los Angeles County women’s prison in Lynwood, Calif., after serving 84 minutes of a 24-hour sentence. Lohan had been sentenced as part of an Aug. 23 plea deal made in connection with two drunk-driving arrests. The Lynwood facility was the same chronically overcrowded one where celebrities Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton both served abbreviated sentences earlier in the year. [See pp. 568B2, 488C3, 424C3] „

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SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Major League Baseball Rodriguez, Rollins Win MVP Awards. New

York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez Nov. 19 was voted the most valuable player (MVP) of the American League (A.L.) for the third time in his career. Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins Nov. 20 won the National League (N.L.) MVP award. [See 2006, p. 919B3] Rodriguez, 32, had led Major League Baseball (MLB) in runs, with 143, home runs (54) and runs batted in, or RBI (156), in 2007, and batted .314. He claimed 26 of 28 first-place votes and 382 total points in the MVP balloting, conducted by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America at the end of the regular season. Detroit Tigers right fielder Magglio Ordonez was second, collecting the other two first-place votes and 258 points. Los Angeles Angels right fielder Vladimir Guerrero was third, with 203 points. [See pp. 658B1, 519A3] Rodriguez in late October had opted out of the remaining three years of a 10year, $252 million contract with the Yankees (originally signed with the Texas Rangers in 2000) on the advice of his agent, Scott Boras, and became a free agent. However, in an apparent change of heart—and after reports of tepid interest from other teams—Rodriguez and his wife, Cynthia Rodriguez, Nov. 14 met with Yankees executives Hank and Hal Steinbrenner, sons of the team’s principal owner, George Steinbrenner, about his possible return to the team. [See p. 744A1] The Wall Street Journal Nov. 17 reported that Rodriguez had been advised by billionaire investor Warren Buffett to sideline Boras, one of the most powerful agents in baseball, and to contact the Yankees through two managing directors at investment company Goldman Sachs Group Inc. who had close relationships with both Rodriguez and the Yankees. Although a deal had yet to be finalized, Rodriguez would reportedly sign a 10year, $275 million contract with the Yankees, which could be worth more if he broke baseball’s career home run record. He was also said to be willing to sign a deal that would make up for the salary subsidy from the Rangers that the Yankees lost by his opting out of the original contract. 775

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Rollins Beats Holliday for N.L. Award—

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Eric Wedge of the Indians Nov. 14 was named the A.L. manager of the year, becoming the first Cleveland manager to win the award. Wedge had guided the Indians to a record of 96 wins and 66 losses, tied with the Red Sox for the best in MLB. In the voting, he collected 19 first-place votes and 116 total points. Mike Scioscia of the Angels was second, with four first-place votes and 62 points, and Joe Torre of the Yankees was third, with five first-place votes and 61 points. [See p. 658G1; 2006, p. 920A1] Bob Melvin of the Diamondbacks Nov. 14 won the N.L. manager of the year award, earning 19 first-place votes and 119 total points. Melvin—the first Diamondbacks manager to win the award—led Arizona to a 90–72 record and first place in the N.L. West. Charlie Manuel of the Phillies was second in the voting, with seven firstplace votes and 76 points, and Clint Hurdle of the Rockies was third, with four firstplace votes and 58 points. [See p. 658E1]

MEN’S BASKETBALL POLLS

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL POLLS

Following are the top 10 teams in the Associated Press (AP) preseason poll of media members, released Nov. 2, and the USA Today/ESPN preseason coaches’ poll, released Oct. 26, for Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s basketball teams [See p. 214E1]:

Following are the top 10 teams in the Associated Press (AP) preseason poll of media members, released Nov. 3, and the USA Today/ESPN preseason coaches’ poll, released Oct. 31, for Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women’s basketball teams [See p. 214E1]:

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1. North Carolina 2. UCLA 3. Memphis 4. Kansas 5. Georgetown 6. Louisville 7. Tennessee 8. Michigan State 9. Indiana 10. Washington State

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Wedge, Melvin Named Top Managers—

Rollins, in voting results for the N.L. MVP announced Nov. 20, garnered 16 first-place votes and 353 total points. He edged out Colorado Rockies left fielder Matt Holliday, who led the N.L. in batting average (.340) and RBI (137), and collected 11 firstplace votes and 336 points. Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder was third, with five first-place votes and 284 points. Rollins in 2007 had led the N.L. in runs (139) and triples (20), and finished in the top five in hits (212) and stolen bases (41). He won a Gold Glove award for fielding, and helped lead the Phillies to the playoffs for the first time in 14 years. [See p. 658C2] Peavy, Sabathia Win Cy Youngs— San Diego Padres right-handed starter Jake Peavy Nov. 15 won the N.L. Cy Young Award by a unanimous vote. Peavy, who led the N.L. in victories, with 19, and led MLB in earned run average (2.54) and strikeouts (240), collected all 32 first-place votes and 160 total points. Arizona Diamondbacks starter Brandon Webb, the 2006 winner, was second, with 94 points, and Los Angeles Dodgers starter Brad Penny was third, with 14 points. [See p. 658D2; 2006, p. 919F3] Cleveland Indians left-handed starter C.C. Sabathia Nov. 13 won the A.L. Cy Young Award. Sabathia had placed among the league’s top five in earned run average (3.21), wins (19) and strikeouts (209) in 2007. He earned 19 first-place votes and 119 total points in the Cy Young voting. Boston Red Sox starter Josh Beckett was second, with eight firstplace votes and 86 points, and Angels starter John Lackey was third, with one first-place vote and 36 points. [See p. 658D1]

1. North Carolina 2. UCLA 3. Memphis 4. Kansas 5. Georgetown 6. Louisville 7. Tennessee 8. Michigan State 9. Indiana 10. Washington State 776

Pedroia, Braun Rookies of the Year—

Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia Nov. 12 was named the A.L. rookie of the year. Pedroia, who hit .317 with 50 RBI, garnered 24 of 28 first-place votes, and 132 total points. Tampa Bay Devil Rays right fielder Delmon Young was second, with three first-place votes and 56 points, and Kansas City Royals pitcher Brian Bannister was third, with one first-place vote and 36 points. [See 2006, p. 920C1] Brewers third baseman Ryan Braun, who hit .324 with 34 home runs and 97 RBI, Nov. 12 won the N.L. rookie of the year award. He garnered 17 first-place votes and 128 total points, barely beating out Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who earned 15 firstplace votes and 126 points. Houston Astros center fielder Hunter Pence was a distant third, with 15 points. „

Associated Press

1. Tennessee 2. Connecticut 3. Rutgers 4. Maryland 5. LSU 6. Oklahoma 7. Stanford 8. North Carolina 9. Georgia 10. Duke

USA Today/ESPN

1. Tennessee 2. Connecticut 3. Rutgers 4. Maryland 5. LSU 6. Oklahoma 7. North Carolina 8. Stanford 9. Duke 10. Georgia

O B I T UA R I E S HAWKINS, Augustus Freeman, 100, California Democrat who served 14 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1963–91), representing south-central Los Angeles, including the Watts area; the first black elected to Congress from California, he helped start the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971; a champion of minorities and working-class people throughout his political career, he sponsored, with Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D, Minn.), 1978 legislation to reduce unemployment and inflation that came to be known as the Humphrey-Hawkins Act; born Aug. 31, 1907, in Shreveport, La.; died Nov. 10 at a hospital in Bethesda, Md., after contracting pneumonia. [See 1990, pp. 588F3, 81C3; 1989, pp. 440D2, 239C3, 182B1; Indexes 1976–88, 1962–74] HERRERA Campins, Luis, 82, president of Venezuela from 1979 to 1984; he was soundly defeated in his bid for reelection, after a decline in oil revenues forced him to devalue his country’s currency, the bolivar; born May 4, 1925, in Acarigua, Venezuela; died Nov. 9 in Caracas, Venezuela; he had been in poor health since surgery for an abdominal aneurysm in 2005 left him with a kidney infection and other complications, and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. [See 1984, p. 763F1; 1983, pp. 922D2, 557C2, 535C2; Indexes 1977–82, 1972] LEVIN, Ira Marvin, 78, novelist and playwright; a master of suspense and chilling detail, he wrote a total of seven novels, three of which became huge best-sellers: Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Stepford Wives (1972) and The Boys From Brazil (1976); all three became major Hollywood films, which in turn inspired a spate of made-for-television movies; as a dramatist, he was best known for two long-running Broadway productions, No Time for Sergeants (1955–57)—his adaptation of a comic novel by Mac Hyman—and the thriller Deathtrap (1978–82); born Aug. 27, 1929, in New York City; died Nov. 12 at his New York home, after an apparent heart attack. [See 1982, p. 556C2; 1979, p. 711G1; Indexes 1976–78, 1970, 1967–68, 1965, 1962–63, 1960, 1958, 1955, 1953] MANN, Delbert (Delbert Martin Mann Jr.), 87, first director to win an Academy Award for a first feature film; he achieved that distinction for directing Marty (1955), whose central character was a New York City butcher; the film was based on an acclaimed 1953 live television production, written by Paddy Chayevsky, which he also directed; he directed many other TV dramas, as well as such feature films as Desire Under the Elms (1958) and That Touch of Mink (1962); he was president of the Directors Guild of America from 1967 to 1971; born Jan. 30, 1920, in Lawrence, Kan.; died Nov. 11 at a hospital in Los Angeles, of pneumonia. [See 1982, p. 411B3; 1962, p. 505C3; Indexes 1955– 60] MOISEYEV, Igor Aleksandrovich, 101, founder (1937) of what became the Soviet Union’s best-known folk dance troupe, which on international tours was known as the Moiseyev Dance Company; the works he choreographed for it combined classical ballet elements with traditional dances from various Soviet regions, as well as from other parts of the world; in 1958, it became the first major Soviet dance ensemble to perform in the U.S., when it visited New York City’s Metropolitan Opera; its triumphant reception helped usher in an era of U.S.-Soviet cultural detente; born Jan. 21, 1906, in Kiev, Ukraine (then part of czarist Russia); died Nov. 2 at a hospital in Moscow, after several days in a coma. [See 1959, p. 130B3] SMITH, Ian Douglas, 88, leader of Rhodesia’s ruling white minority from 1964, when he became prime minister, until 1980, when the southern African country, a longtime British colony, achieved full independence as Zimbabwe; in 1965, he issued a unilateral declaration of independence from Britain that led to the imposition of international economic sanctions and years of civil war; fearful of a spillover of that conflict into their country, white minority leaders in neighboring South Africa began withdrawing political and economic support from Smith’s government in the mid1970s; eventually, Smith was forced to surrender power after constitutional talks in London in 1979; independent elections in 1980, won by Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s only head of state to date, ushered in majority rule; Mugabe initially cooperated with Smith, who remained in Parliament, but in 1985 turned against him for good; Smith remained in Parliament until 1988, when he retired from politics; born April 8, 1919, in Selukwe, Rhodesia (now called Shurugwi); died Nov. 20 at a nursing home near Cape Town, South Africa, after a stroke. [See 2002, p. 305F3; 2000, p. 895D3; Indexes 1997, 1995, 1990, 1964–87, 1962] „

November 22, 2007

Israelis, Palestinians Agree to Revive Peace Talks Agreement Pledged by End of 2008. Israe-

li Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas Nov. 27 agreed to restart the IsraeliPalestinian peace process. The agreement was announced at a meeting convened by U.S. President George W. Bush at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and attended by almost 50 countries and nongovernmental organizations. Olmert, Abbas and Bush Nov. 26 had held a preliminary meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., and Bush Nov. 28 held separate meetings there with Olmert and Abbas. [See p. 761G2] The meeting was the largest since 1991 Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Madrid, Spain. It marked the U.S.’s first significant move to inject itself into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process after the collapse of the socalled “road map” peace plan, which had been agreed on in 2003 but which both sides claimed had been repeatedly violated. Expectations had been low for the Annapolis meeting, and Olmert and Abbas had not been able to reach a joint agreement prior to the talks. [See 2003, p. 417A1; 1991, p. 833A1] Bush Nov. 27 read out the Annapolis agreement, saying, “We agree to immediately launch good faith bilateral negotiations in order to conclude a peace treaty resolving all core issues without exception.” He said the involved parties would aim to reach a conclusion by the end of 2008. A joint steering committee would meet Dec. 12 to plan the talks. Under the agreement, the peace process would follow the road map, whose first phase required the Palestinians to restructure their security forces and work to prevent violence against Israel, and Israel to dismantle West Bank settlement outposts and ease travel restrictions on Palestinians. However, it would allow peace talks to begin before those conditions were met, unlike the original road map. The agreement, called a “joint understanding” between the Israelis and the Palestinians, did not specifically mention the so-called core issues of negotiation, which included the status of Jerusalem, the rights of Palestinian refugees, and final borders. Negotiators reportedly had broken a stalemate over the agreement only shortly before Bush gave his speech. Bush said, “America will do everything in our power to support their quest for peace, but we cannot achieve it for them.” Bush warned that a “battle for the future of the Middle East” was under way, and said, “With their violent actions and contempt for human life, the extremists are seeking to impose a dark vision on the Palestinian people…If this vision prevails, the future of the region will be endless terror, endless war and endless suffering.” Olmert and Abbas in their speeches expressed a desire for peace and a willingness to make hard compromises, and empathy for the plights of each other’s people. However, they both warned that serious obstacles to peace remained. Olmert called the talks “the beginning of historic reconcilia-

tion,” while Abbas said the Middle East “stands at a crossroad that separates two historical phases: pre-Annapolis phase and post-Annapolis phase.” U.S. Appoints Security Envoy—U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Nov. 28 appointed retired U.S. Gen. James Jones to oversee “the full range of security issues” for the Israelis and Palestinians. Jones in December 2006 had stepped down as the supreme commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and since had led a review of Iraq’s police force. [See p. 570G2] Bush after meeting with Olmert and Abbas separately Nov. 28 gave a short statement flanked by the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. “Yesterday was an important day, and it was a hopeful beginning,” Bush said. “No matter how important yesterday was, it’s not nearly as important as tomorrow and the days beyond.” Arab Nations Attend Talks—The Annapolis talks gained credibility when Saudi Arabia and other members of the Arab League Nov. 23 agreed to attend, after previously expressing skepticism over the talks’ substance. The meeting, which was attended by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, was the highest-level contact yet between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The two countries did not have diplomatic relations, and Saud had said he would not shake hands with Israeli officials. Syria, another influential neighbor, Nov. 25 also agreed to attend. It had previously said it would boycott the talks if the issue of the Golan Heights—which Israel had captured during the 1967 Six Day War—were not placed on the agenda. However, its role in the talks was subdued. Olmert Nov. 27 in his speech said Israel wished to normalize relations with the Arab nations. “Like us, you know that religious fanaticism and national extremism are a perfect recipe for domestic instability and violence,” Olmert said. Saud in remarks to attending foreign ministers said Saudi Arabia “was never on the sidelines, where peace was concerned. Over the years our leaders have proposed serious initiatives to end the conflict.” He called on Israel to pull back from the West Bank, saying Israel needed to “put its trust in peace after it has gambled on war for decades without success.” Iraq, Kuwait and Libya were invited to the Annapolis talks but did not attend. Palestinians, Israelis Protest—Thousands of Palestinians Nov. 26–27 rallied in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank against the Annapolis talks, and one protester was killed by police in the West Bank. The Islamist militant group Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip and opposed Abbas’s Fatah movement, warned against ceding territory to Israel. Many other Palestinians reportedly held little hope that the Annapolis talks would produce results. Several thousand Israeli protesters, organized by a group representing Jewish settlers in the West Bank, Nov. 26 marched in Jerusalem against concessions to the Palestinians. „

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3494 November 29, 2007

B Pakistani President Musharraf Lifts Emergency, Quits Army Former PM Sharif Returns From Exile. Pa-

kistani President Pervez Musharraf Nov. 29, in a televised address to the nation, announced that a state of emergency he had declared earlier in the month would be lifted Dec. 16. The announcement came hours after he was sworn in for a second five-year presidential term. Musharraf had resigned as army chief of staff the previous day in a ceremony at Rawalpindi, the location of the army’s headquarters, and was succeeded in that post by Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani. [See p. 773D3] Musharraf’s swearing-in came four days after former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan, ending seven years in exile. Sharif was one of Musharraf’s main rivals, and had vowed to challenge Mushar-

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE Israelis, Palestinians agree to revive peace talks. PAGE 777

Pakistani President Musharraf lifts emergency, quits army; former Prime Minister Sharif returns from exile. PAGE 777

Iraq, U.S. sign pact on long-term U.S. military presence.

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Rupublican presidential candidates hold heated YouTube debate. PAGE 782

House passes mortgage regulation bill. PAGE 783

New Somali prime minister named. PAGE 787

Labor wins Australian parliamentary elections; Howard loses House seat.

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ASEAN leaders divided over Myanmar at summit. PAGE 790

Weeklong French transit strike hurts economy. PAGE 791

Georgian President Saakashvili ends emergency, resigns. PAGE 792

Johnson wins NASCAR title. PAGE 794

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Nov. 26 announced that his party was boycotting the election.

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raf’s hold on power and return Pakistan to democratic rule. [See below] Musharraf had been under intense domestic and international pressure to lift emergency rule and resign from the army. Musharraf himself had promised to leave the army post if he was reelected president. He was reelected in October by the country’s four provincial assemblies and Parliament, which was dominated by his allies. However, he faced opposition from the country’s Supreme Court, which reportedly had been on the verge of ruling that his reelection was illegitimate, because it violated a constitutional requirement that civil servants, including army officers, retire for at least two years before pursuing office. Musharraf then declared emergency rule, replacing Supreme Court justices with supporters of his, who dismissed the petitions challenging the legality of the reelection. Musharraf had come to power in 1999, after leading the army in a bloodless coup that deposed Sharif, who was prime minister at the time. He had claimed a mandate to remain in office in a 2002 referendum. [See 2002, p. 324D2; 1999, p. 738E2] Musharraf, in a speech after his swearing-in, defended the declaration of emergency rule, saying it had been necessary to guide Pakistan toward democracy. Addressing a gathering of foreign diplomats, he said, “There is an unrealistic or even impractical obsession with your form of democracy, human rights and civil liberties, which you have taken centuries to acquire and which you expect us to adopt in a few years, in a few months.” The U.S., which considered Pakistan a valuable ally in its fight against worldwide terrorism, praised Musharraf for resigning from the army. U.S. President George W. Bush said it was evidence that Musharraf had “kept his word.” Musharraf Nov. 28 at a ceremony handing over command to Kiyani after a 46year military career, praised the army as having played a stabilizing role at moments of crisis in Pakistan. Kiyani had been the head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, the powerful military-led intelligence agency. He was considered a secular moderate, and was expected to continue cooperating with the U.S. to fight Islamic extremism in the country’s northwest regions that bordered Afghanistan. Musharraf claimed that rising Islamic extremism was one of the main reasons he had declared emergency rule. [See below] Sharif Returns From Exile—Sharif Nov. 25 returned to Pakistan, ending more than seven years in exile. He came from Saudi Arabia and arrived in the city of Lahore, where he was greeted by thousands of his supporters. It was widely reported that the Saudi government, an important Pakistani ally, had pressured Musharraf to allow Sharif to return, during Musharraf’s trip to Saudi Arabia a week earlier. Sharif had attempted to return to Pakistan in September, after a Supreme Court ruling said he could, but was deported back to Saudi Arabia hours later. [See p. 598D2]

Commonwealth Suspends Pakistan—

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Nov. 26 in Lahore, Pakistan, one day after his return from exile in Saudi Arabia.

It was reported that the Saudi government did not want to be viewed as interfering with Pakistan’s political affairs by keeping Sharif in exile. Sharif had fled to Saudi Arabia in 2000, under an agreement between the two countries that said Sharif would not have to return to prison if he stayed in exile for 10 years. Sharif at the time was serving consecutive life sentences for attempted murder and terrorism, charges that had been brought against him by Musharraf after the coup. [See 2000, p. 977A3] Additionally, it was reported that the Saudi government, which was religiously conservative, did not want to see Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister who had returned from self-imposed exile in October, wield too much influence in the country. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was considered more moderate than Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party (PML-N), which in the past had allied with Islamic conservatives. Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz Sharif, was also allowed back into Pakistan Nov. 25. PML-N spokesmen said hundreds of their members had been arrested to limit the number of people welcoming Sharif back. Sharif Nov. 26 filed his candidacy papers for parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8, 2008. Bhutto had filed her candidacy the previous day “under protest” of Musharraf’s emergency rule. Aitzaz Ahsan, a leader of a lawyers’ movement loyal to the Supreme Court’s deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, also filed his candidacy Nov. 26, after being released from prison Nov. 25. Sharif Nov. 26, at his first press conference since returning to Pakistan, demanded that Musharraf lift emergency rule and reinstate the Supreme Court justices who had been fired. He threatened that otherwise his party would consider boycotting the elections in January, if other political parties were willing to do so. He also dismissed the possibility of working with Musharraf, saying, he would “not be a candidate for the prime ministership under Pervez Musharraf.” Imran Khan, a former cricketer and leader of the Pakistan Justice Movement,

Foreign ministers of the Commonwealth, a grouping of Britain and its former colonies, Nov. 22 agreed to suspend Pakistan from the organization because Musharraf had declared emergency rule. The decision was a symbolic rebuke, since the organization did not have any official means of sanctioning its members. The move came ahead of a Nov. 23 meeting of Commonwealth countries in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. [See p. 780D3] Suicide Bomber Kills 15—A suicide attack Nov. 24 killed at least 15 people in Rawalpindi. The bomber targeted a bus carrying employees of Inter-Services Intelligence. Officials said the attack matched a pattern of recent suicide attacks targeting members of Pakistan’s armed forces, who were currently engaged in a military operation against Islamic fundamentalists in the Swat Valley region. Many areas of Swat had recently come under the control of a fundamentalist cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, and his followers. [See p. 774B3] A second bomb that day blew up near a checkpoint outside the army headquarters in Rawalpindi. Two security officers were hurt. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks. Military officials Nov. 29 announced that 220 militants in Swat had been killed, and that the military was regaining territory from the militants. „

Iraq War Pact Signed on Long-Term U.S. Presence.

U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Nov. 26 in a videoconference signed an agreement to

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begin negotiating the terms of an extended U.S. military presence in Iraq. The nonbinding agreement called for Iraq to extend a United Nations Security Council mandate that authorized U.S. military operations in the country for another year; it was currently set to expire at the end of 2007. It said the mandate would be replaced by a formal bilateral security pact between the U.S. and Iraq at the end of 2008. [See p. 764D3] The agreement did not address how long U.S. troops would remain in Iraq, or the number of troops that would stay. However, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, Bush’s top adviser on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said negotiators would seek to resolve such issues as the presence of permanent U.S. bases in Iraq, the mission of U.S. forces stationed there and protections for foreign contractors by July 31, 2008. The U.S. in the agreement said it would provide Iraq with economic assistance, including granting it most-favored-nation trading status and supporting its membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). “The basic message here should be clear: Iraq is increasingly able to stand on its own,” said Lute. “That’s very good news. But it won’t have to stand alone.” Iraqi officials Nov. 26 submitted the plan to the country’s parliament for approval. Lute said the agreement did not require U.S. congressional oversight, as it was not a treaty. Drop in Violence Reported— The Nov. 26 agreement came after U.S. military officials Nov. 18 reported a 55% drop in attacks in Iraq since a surge in U.S. troop levels had begun in February. It was the latest in a series of reports of reduced violence in recent weeks. Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a senior U.S. military spokesman, said the weekly number of attacks was the lowest since before the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra, which had touched off intensified violence. Smith said that since June, Iraqi civilian deaths had dropped 60% overall and 75% in Baghdad, the capital, and that casualties among Iraqi forces were down 40% since the surge began. U.S. officials attributed the decrease to the surge in U.S. troop levels; the recruitment of former Sunni Muslim insurgents to fight against Sunni extremist groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq; the weakening of Al Qaeda in Iraq by U.S. operations; and a truce called by Shiite cleric Moqtada alSadr for his Mahdi Army militia. However, they warned that attacks might increase again in the future. U.S. and Iranian officials Nov. 20 said they would begin a fourth round of talks aimed at stabilizing security in Iraq. Some Iraqi and U.S. officials had attributed the drop in violence to less Iranian support of Iraqi Shiite militias, but others said Iran’s influence had not abated. U.S. military officials Nov. 24 said the first major withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq had started, as the first of a planned 5,000 troops left restive Diyala province. U.S. troops from neighboring Salahuddin November 29, 2007

province had already transferred to Diyala to take over the departing soldiers’ responsibilities, leaving their previous areas under control of Iraqi forces. [See p. 748C1] About 800 Iraqi refugees Nov. 27 left Syria in an Iraqi government convoy, arriving in Baghdad the next day. The Iraqi government trumpeted their return as an indication of the improved security situation, but many Iraqis said they had left Syria because of the high cost of living there and heightened visa restrictions. U.S. military officials reportedly said the Maliki administration did not have plans in place to absorb the returning refugees and prevent renewed sectarian violence. [See p. 727E2] Blackwater Employees Subpoenaed—

The Web site of the U.S.’s ABC News Nov. 19 reported that according to unnamed U.S. lawyers and officials, a federal grand jury was investigating September shootings in Baghdad by employees of Blackwater USA—a Moyock, N.C.–based private security company under contract with the U.S. State Department—that left 17 Iraqis dead. Federal prosecutors reportedly subpoenaed several Blackwater employees who were present at the shooting, although not those who had fired their weapons. Officials said the subpoenas did not mean that charges would be brought against the guards, whose legal status remained unclear. Alvin Krongard, a member of Blackwater’s advisory board, Nov. 16 resigned after it emerged that he was the brother of Howard Krongard, the State Department inspector general who two days earlier had recused himself from a probe of Blackwater amid accusations of conflicts of interest. The Iraqi military Nov. 19 said it had detained 43 people from a convoy belonging to a U.S. Defense Department contractor—Dubai-based construction company Almco Group—after a convoy guard allegedly shot an Iraqi woman in Baghdad. Iraqis reportedly beat the guard and other convoy passengers after the shooting, believing them to be insurgents. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † An Iraqi military spokesman Nov. 29 said Iraqi troops had found two car bombs near the house of a senior leader of the Iraqi Consensus Front, Iraq’s main Sunni political bloc, in Baghdad’s mostly Sunni Adel neighborhood. The spokesman said seven of the leader’s bodyguards were arrested for building the bombs in order to kill U.S.-allied Sunni fighters. The leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, denied that his guards were responsible and said there had been only one bomb. † Iraqi legislators Nov. 29 successfully prevented a vote in parliament to approve Maliki’s nominees for the communications and justice ministerial posts. The legislators who blocked the vote said they were protesting Maliki’s failure to consult them on the nominations. † Australian Prime Minister–elect Kevin Rudd Nov. 29 said he would with-

draw 550 Australian combat troops from Iraq by mid-2008. Australia had 1,500 troops in the region. [See p. 788E3] † U.S. military officials Nov. 28 said they would hire another 10,000 Iraqis as unofficial neighborhood guards and would then stop expanding the program. The U.S. had already hired about 77,000 people, mostly Sunnis, in the program, which was directed against Sunni extremist groups. † The U.S. military Nov. 28 said a female suicide bomber the previous day had detonated explosives near a U.S. patrol near Baquba, in Diyala, injuring seven U.S. soldiers and five Iraqis. The attack was a rare incident of an Iraqi woman carrying out a suicide bombing. † The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Nov. 28 warned of a possible cholera outbreak in Baghdad, with 101 cases reported in recent weeks. It was feared that such an outbreak would be exacerbated by the poor state of Iraq’s sewage system and the upcoming rainy season. † Nearly 6,000 Sunnis Nov. 28 formed an alliance with U.S. forces in Hawija, in northern Iraq, in what was called the single largest volunteer mobilization of the war. † Draft legislation reversing many socalled de-Baathification measures—which had barred former members of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s mostly Sunni Baath Party from holding government jobs—Nov. 25 was presented in the Iraqi parliament for the first time. The legislation was seen as vital for reconciliation. However, Shiite legislators loyal to Sadr attacked it as allowing Sunni extremists to infiltrate the government, and forced postponement of the debate. † A bombing at Baghdad’s Ghazil pet market Nov. 23 killed at least 15 people, according to Iraqi officials. It was the deadliest attack in the capital since September. U.S. military officials Nov. 24 said the bombing had been carried out by an Iranian-linked militia cell that had splintered from the Mahdi Army. They said the cell had attempted to make the attack look like the work of a Sunni insurgent group in order to make Baghdad residents believe that they needed to be protected by Shiite militias. The officials said they had captured four people linked to the bombing. † Alleged Al Qaeda in Iraq gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms Nov. 22 attacked the Sunni village of Hawr Rajab, southeast of Baghdad, and killed at least 10 Iraqi fighters allied with the U.S. † Iraqi police Nov. 21 found a mass grave with at least 40 bodies, several of them children, near Ramadi in Anbar province. Another mass grave with dozens of people Nov. 17 had been found in Baghdad’s mostly Sunni neighborhood of Dora. † The U.S. military intended to charge an Iraqi Associated Press photographer in Iraqi court with aiding insurgents, it was reported Nov. 20. The photographer, Bilal 779

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Hussein, had been detained without charge by the U.S. military since April 2006. He had been part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography in 2005. [See 2005, p. 239C2] † The U.S. military Nov. 19 said it had discovered an apparent Al Qaeda in Iraq execution and torture site filled with human remains in a village in Diyala, along with a weapons cache and false identification papers. The military said eight insurgents were killed in the operation. † The U.S. State Department Nov. 15 said it had found volunteers to fill nearly all 48 previously vacant posts in Iraq starting in the summer of 2008. It had previously threatened to force officials to accept the postings if volunteers were not found. † Sheik Jasim Zaidan Khalaf, the leader of a Sunni tribal group allied with the U.S., Nov. 16 said U.S. air and ground strikes three days earlier in Taji, north of Baghdad, had killed 50 of his fighters during an operation against Al Qaeda in Iraq. The U.S. military disputed his account, instead saying it had killed 25 Al Qaeda in Iraq members. „

fections, raise sea levels in low-lying countries ill-equipped to deal with floods, aggravate water shortages and decrease food production in places like sub-Saharan Africa. Kevin Watkins, the lead author of the report, said, “Failure to act on climate change would be tantamount to a systematic violation of the human rights of the poor.” Report Details Threats to Humanity—

The U.N. Environmental Program (UNEP) Oct. 25 issued its fourth Global Environmental Outlook report since 1997, detailing threats to humanity presented by environmental damage and overpopulation. The report found that the global population had grown to a level that exceeded the resources necessary to sustain it. According to the report, the world’s population over the past 20 years had increased by 34%, to 6.7 billion, from five billion in 1987. As a result, land-use intensity had increased significantly, with one hectare (2.5 acres) of cropland yielding an average of 2.5 metric tons (2.8 tons) of crops in 2007, up from 1.8 metric tons in 1987. Such intense use was degrading land, according to the report. „

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The United Nations Development Program Nov. 27 released its annual Human Development Report, which focused on climate change and its adverse impacts on the world’s poorer regions. The report called on richer, industrialized countries to sharply reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and provide more financial aid to poor countries to help them adapt to the ill effects of climate change. The report built on conclusions issued the previous week in a summary report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which found that human-caused climate change was “unequivocal.” [See p. 763A1] The report recommended that developing countries, such as China and India, whose emissions outputs had grown substantially in recent years, cut their emissions by 20% by 2050. The report also said rich countries should shoulder greater responsibility, cutting their emissions by 80% by 2050. “They carry the burden of historic responsibility for the climate change problem. And they have the financial resources and technological capabilities to initiate deep and early cuts in emissions,” the report stated. In order to effect such cuts, the report recommended instituting a global carbon tax starting at $10–$20 per metric ton (1.103 ton) of carbon dioxide emitted, which eventually would rise to $60–100 per metric ton. The report also called on developed nations to spend $86 billion per year by 2015 to aid poor countries in adapting to climate change and its effects. The report estimated that 98% of people exposed to climate-related disasters in 2000– 04 were in the developing world. The report found that climate change could increase the incidence of malaria in780

Global Health Child Mortality Drops to Record Low. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

Sept. 12 said that worldwide deaths of children under five dropped to a record low of about 9.7 million in 2006. That was a decline from the 20 million deaths recorded in 1960. Health officials attributed the decrease to improvements in childhood-immunization, malaria-prevention and breastfeeding rates. [See p. 93E3; 2002, p. 357E1] Neonatal problems remained the cause of the most deaths in children under five, at 3.6 million in 2006. They were followed by pneumonia (1.8 million) and diarrhea (1.6 million). The highest child mortality rates were found in West and Central Africa. UNICEF officials said they expected the fall in the number of deaths to continue. „

Religion Muslim Leaders Urge Interfaith Peace.

Muslim leaders worldwide Oct. 11 issued an open letter to the world’s Christian leaders, urging them to recognize and build from the inherent similarities between Christianity and Islam, including love of God and love of one’s neighbor. The letter, which was issued by Jordan’s Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, was signed by 138 Muslim leaders from a wide range of theological schools. Signatories included several grand muftis, high-ranking spiritual leaders, some of whom had tens of millions of followers. [See 2006, p. 923B3] The letter, whose addressees included Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, stated that cooperation and tolerance between reli-

gions were essential to world peace. “If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace. With the terrible weaponry of the modern world; with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world’s inhabitants. Our common future is at stake,” the letter stated. It concluded that the two religions should compete only “in righteousness and good works.” The letter, however, was not signed by leaders of the conservative Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam, which was most prevalent in Saudi Arabia. It was the second time that the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute had addressed Pope Benedict XVI. In 2006, the organization had chided him following an address in his hometown of Regensburg, Germany, where he quoted a Byzantine emperor who had suggested that Islam was a religion of violence. The pope had issued a rare apology in response to Muslim criticism. Saudi King Abdullah Visits Vatican—

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia Nov. 6 became the first Saudi monarch to visit the Vatican. King Abdullah, who was entrusted with protecting the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, met with Pope Benedict XVI for a half hour and the two spoke about collaboration between Christians, Jews and Muslims to promote peace, especially in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a news release published by the Vatican. King Abdullah, 84, visited the Vatican as part of a tour of Europe that also included stops in Britain, Germany and Turkey. [See p. 273B2] „

Commonwealth Summit Held in Uganda. Heads of state of the 53-member Commonwealth, a grouping of Britain and its former colonies, Nov. 23–25 convened in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, for a biennial summit. The event was overshadowed by the suspension of Pakistan from the Commonwealth a day earlier, because its leader, President Pervez Musharraf, had declared emergency rule and suspended the constitution. Pakistan had been suspended once before, from 1999, when Musharraf came to power in an army-led coup, until 2004. [See p. 777B3; 2004, p. 410B3] The summit was also marred on its opening day by antigovernment protests near the summit site. As many as 100 supporters clashed with 100 police, who dispersed the protesters with batons. Opposition politicians and human-rights activists claimed that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was guilty of human-rights abuses and suppressing opposition political activity. [See 2006, p. 415A3] The Commonwealth Nov. 24 issued an “action plan” to combat climate change. The plan was meant to show the group’s support for a comprehensive global agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which was due to expire in 2012. The plan came ahead of U.N.-sponsored talks on a new agreement, which were scheduled for DeFACTS ON FILE

cember in Bali, Indonesia. However, the members were unable to agree on a common goal for greenhouse gas emissions cuts, and the plan was nonbinding. [See p. 604C2] Also that day, Kamalesh Sharma of India replaced Don McKinnon of New Zealand as the Commonwealth’s secretary general. Britain Nov. 25 announced that it had struck a new 10-year development partnership with Uganda. The partnership would funnel some £700 million ($1.4 billion) in aid money to Uganda to fight poverty. [See p. 604F2] „

Other International News Cruise Ship Sinks Near Antarctica. The cruise ship Explorer Nov. 23 struck an iceberg off the coast of an Antarctic archipelago and began taking on water through a fist-sized hole and a crack in its hull, forcing the evacuation of 154 passengers and crew members. The ship, operated by GAP Adventures of Toronto, Canada, sank several hours after the collision. About four hours after the crew and passengers were evacuated onto lifeboats, they were taken aboard by a passing Norwegian cruise ship. No serious injuries or deaths were reported. [See p. 268G1] The Explorer Nov. 11 had departed from the southern Argentine port of Ushuaia to retrace the path of early 20th-century Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. It was the first sinking of a passenger ship in the Antarctic region. Observers said a rapid rise in Antarctic tourism in recent years had increased the likelihood of accidents similar to the Explorer’s. Environmentalists said there was little regulation of the tourism industry operating in the Antarctic. They also said the estimated 48,000 gallons (182,000 liters) of fuel held by the ship when it went down could pose an environmental threat. [See 2006, p. 209B3] „ Spanish King Tells Chavez to ‘Shut Up.’

Spanish King Juan Carlos Nov. 10 told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias to “shut up” during the 17th IberoAmerican summit in Santiago, the capital of Chile, between Spain and Portugal and their former Latin American colonies. [See p. 738G3; 2006, p. 725C2] During a speech at the summit, Chavez had referred to conservative former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a “fascist,” adding, “Fascists are not human. A snake is not human.” Chavez was a leftist firebrand known for using harsh language against political opponents. In 2006, he had referred to U.S. President George W. Bush as “the devil” in a speech at the United Nations. Aznar’s Socialist successor, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, rebuked Chavez, saying that “Aznar was elected by the Spanish people,” and therefore deserved respect despite whatever disagreements Chavez had with him. Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt Zapatero, although his microphone had been turned off. November 29, 2007

At that point, Juan Carlos leaned toward Chavez and, gesturing angrily, asked, “Why don’t you shut up?” (In Spanish, the king said, “¿Por que no te callas?”—using the familiar form of address, “tu,” rather than the formal “usted.”) Soon afterward, the king walked out of the room as Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra, a Chavez ally, spoke in support of Chavez. Chavez Nov. 14 demanded an apology from the king and warned that he was “conducting a detailed review of the political, diplomatic and economic ties with Spain.” After Zapatero succeeded Aznar in 2004, he had turned Spanish foreign policy to the left, breaking with the U.S. by pulling Spanish troops out of Iraq, as well as selling military equipment to Venezuela. [See 2006, p. 39C2] „ Japan’s Fukuda Visits White House. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda Nov. 16 met with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House in Washington, D.C., in Fukuda’s first trip abroad since becoming prime minister in September. The meeting came as Fukuda’s government was struggling to pass legislation that would allow it to resume a refueling mission in support of U.S. operations in Afghanistan. Fukuda said he vowed to Bush to “do my level best” to win passage of the bill, blocked by opponents in Japan’s parliament. [See pp. 770D3, 299F1] The two leaders pledged cooperation in negotiations with North Korea on its nuclear program. Japan had expressed concern that the U.S. was contemplating removing North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism before North Korea satisfied Japan’s demand that it fully account for Japanese citizens it had abducted in the 1970s. Bush acknowledged the importance of the issue to Japan, and said, “We will not forget the Japanese abductees,” but reportedly made no commitment on the issue of the terrorism list. [See p. 769G3] „ Chevron Settles Oil-For-Food Case. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nov. 14 announced that Chevron Corp, the second-largest oil company in the U.S., after Exxon Mobil Corp., had agreed to pay $30 million in order to settle a case involving abuses in the United Nations’ 1995–2003 Iraqi oil-for-food program. An investigation had found that $1.8 billion in illegal kickbacks had been made to Iraqi officials during the program, which was intended to feed Iraqi citizens living under harsh international sanctions. Chevron was the fifth company to settle oil-for-food–related charges with the U.S. government. [See p. 712C2] According to the SEC, Chevron had failed to effectively carry out a 2001 company policy that barred payment to Iraqi government officials. That led the company to purchase 78 million barrels of oil between April 2001 and May 2002 from intermediates who had paid “surcharges” illicitly demanded by the Iraqi government. Chevron spokesman Donald Campbell had said that “the U.S. government advises

us that one former Chevron crude oil trader participated in transactions when he knew or should have known” that bribes were being paid, the Associated Press (AP) reported Nov. 15. Campbell emphasized that “there are no allegations that Chevron paid surcharges, and the trader is no longer affiliated with Chevron.” As part of the settlement, Chevron agreed to institute stricter oversight procedures and to cooperate with federal investigators. Additionally, Chevron agreed to pay $20 million to the Justice Department, $2 million to the Treasury Department, $3 million to the SEC and $5 million to the district attorney’s office of the New York City borough of Manhattan; $20 million of the $30 million payout was earmarked for a U.N.-linked fund meant to support development in Iraq. In exchange, the U.S. government agreed not to prosecute Chevron under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. „ Ship Piracy Up 14%. Pirate attacks against seagoing vessels had increased to 198 in the first nine months of 2007, from 174 during the equivalent period of 2006, an increase of 14%, according to a report issued Oct. 16 by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), a London-based division of the International Chamber of Commerce. The report said 15 ships had been hijacked between January and September; three crew members were killed and 63 were captured. Attacks were most common in Indonesia, which had 37, down three from 2006. Nigeria and Somalia logged the largest increases in attacks: each suffered 26, an increase of 17 and 18, respectively, over 2006. [See p. 635G3] Ships Freed Off Somalia— Two South Korean–owned ships that had been hijacked May 15 off the coast of Somalia were released Nov. 4 after the pirates who had seized them voluntarily departed following talks with the U.S. Navy. The ships held a combined 24 crew members. Experts suggested that the pirates’ sudden decision to leave the vessels could be a sign that a ransom had been paid. Following the pirates’ exit, a nearby U.S. Navy ship led the two vessels, Mavuno 1 and Mavuno 2, farther from shore and performed medical examinations on the crew; there were no reported injuries. In a separate incident, a North Korean ship was hijacked Oct. 29 after delivering its cargo to the port of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. The crew freed themselves Oct. 30 following a struggle that left two pirates dead. An additional five pirates were captured by the U.S. Navy following the fighting. North Korea’s state-run media Nov. 8 issued a statement thanking the U.S. Navy for its assistance and said North Korea would “continue to render international cooperation in the fight against terrorism.” Experts suggested that North Korea’s unusual public acknowledgment of U.S. assistance might be part of the nation’s campaign to be removed from the U.S.’s list of countries that sponsored terrorism. [See p. 781D2] „ 781

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2008 Presidential Campaign Republicans Hold Heated YouTube Debate.

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Republican presidential candidates Nov. 28 took part in a heated debate in St. Petersburg, Fla., answering questions posed in videos submitted online by users of the Web site YouTube. Observers said several sharp exchanges during the debate reflected an increasingly competitive race. It was the first time that the YouTube format had been used by the Republicans. The Democratic presidential candidates had taken part in a YouTube debate in July. [See pp. 697C3, 478F3] The debate, broadcast by the Cable News Network (CNN), began with a sharp clash on immigration between former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Giuliani continued to lead the race in national polls, while Romney was in front in Iowa and New Hampshire, which were scheduled to hold the first two contests of the primary season in early January 2008. However, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee had recently pulled close to Romney in Iowa polls. The first video questioner asked Giuliani why he had made New York a “sanctuary city,” one that did not enforce federal immigration laws—a charge that Romney had repeatedly made against Giuliani. “The reality is that New York City was not a sanctuary city,” Giuliani replied. He said he had only made exceptions to law enforcement in order to ensure health and safety. Giuliani then turned on Romney, saying he not only had done nothing about several sanctuary cities in Massachusetts, but also had a “sanctuary mansion,” referring to reports that illegal immigrants had worked for a gardening contractor employed at Romney’s home. Romney replied that it would “not be American” to check the workers’ status just because they had a “funny accent.” Former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) said Romney had previously favored a more liberal approach to immigration. “Now he’s taken another position, surprisingly,” he added, alluding to Romney’s shift to more conservative stances on abortion and gay rights. Thompson also needled Giuliani for bringing up Romney’s gardeners, saying, “I am a little surprised the mayor says, you know, everybody’s responsible for everybody that they hire.” That was taken as a veiled reference to the recent indictment of Giuliani’s former police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, on corruption and fraud charges. [See p. 751C2] Romney then criticized Huckabee for having proposed to give college-tuition aid to the children of illegal immigrants in Arkansas. “Mike, that’s not your money. That’s the taxpayers’ money,” Romney said, declaring that “illegals are not going to get taxpayer-funded breaks that are better than our own citizens’.” 782

Huckabee replied, “In all due respect, we’re a better country than to punish children for what their parents did.” He noted that he had “worked my way through college,” and that “I’m standing here tonight on this stage because I got an education.” McCain Confronts Romney on Torture—

Romney also clashed with Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). In response to a question on whether he agreed with McCain that waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulated drowning, was a form of torture, Romney expressed uncertainty. McCain, who had endured torture as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, said he was “astonished” by Romney’s answer. McCain then asserted that Romney’s stance meant he would “advocate that we withdraw from the Geneva Conventions,” the international treaties that established treatment standards for prisoners of war. McCain also criticized the foreign policy views of Rep. Ron Paul (Texas), who was the sole Republican presidential candidate to oppose the Iraq war. “We allowed [Nazi Germany’s ruler Adolf] Hitler to come to power with that kind of attitude of isolationism and appeasement,” McCain said. Paul denied that he was an isolationist, saying, “I want to trade with people, talk with people, travel. But I don’t want to send troops overseas using force to tell them how to live.” Paul, who had recently enjoyed fundraising success, also said he would not run as an independent for president if he failed to win the Republican nomination. He had been climbing in the polls in New Hampshire, where McCain was counting on a victory. Giuliani Denies Improper Expenses—

Giuliani faced a question about a report that day, on the Politico Web site, which said that tens of thousands of dollars in expenses related to trips he had taken in 1999–2001 had been billed to obscure city agencies. Giuliani reportedly had made the trips to visit Judith Nathan, with whom he was then having an extramarital affair, and who later became his third wife. Giuliani denied that there had been any intention to hide those expenses, which he said were for his police bodyguards, and Nov. 29 called the report a “political hit job.” Former aides said the various agencies were reimbursed by the New York City Police Department, but that they were trying to find an explanation for why the expenses were handled that way. Questioner Linked to Clinton Campaign— CNN Nov. 29 acknowledged that it had mis-

takenly allowed a campaign adviser to a Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), to ask a question at the Republican debate. The questioner, retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr, asked why gays should not be allowed to serve openly in the military. He was a member of the Clinton campaign’s steering committee on gay and lesbian issues. „

Clinton, Obama Trade Jabs on Experience.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the national front-runner for the Democratic

presidential nomination, and her leading rival, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), in exchanges beginning Nov. 19 sharpened their ongoing argument over which one of them had more experience. In a speech in Knoxville, Iowa, about the economy, Clinton said, “There is one job we can’t afford onthe-job training for—that’s the job of our next president.” She said the country needed “a president who understands the magnitude and complexity of the challenges we face.” She did not refer to Obama by name, but aides said she was drawing a contrast with him. [See p. 764A2] Obama replied that day by suggesting that Clinton’s role as first lady during the administration of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had not been substantial enough to give her the right to claim an edge in experience. “My understanding was that she wasn’t Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, so I don’t know exactly what experience she’s claiming,” he said, adding, “She’s been a senator, like I have. But rather than just assert experience, if she has specific differences with me with respect to economic policy, I’m happy to have those debates.” Obama Nov. 19 also said that although he sat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “probably, the strongest experience I have in foreign relations is the fact that I spent four years living overseas when I was a child in Southeast Asia.” Obama had lived with his mother and stepfather in Indonesia between the ages of six and 10. That experience had given rise to unfounded rumors that he had studied at Islamic schools in Indonesia and was a secret Muslim, although in fact he attended a Christian church in Chicago. Clinton Nov. 20 responded by saying she had traveled the globe and “met with countless world leaders.” She added, “Now voters will judge whether living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one to face the big, complex international challenges that the next president will face. I think we need a president with more experience than that.” In an interview aired Nov. 26 on ABC television, Obama again questioned the relevance of Clinton’s tenure as first lady. “Senator Clinton is claiming basically the entire eight years of the Clinton presidency as her own, except for the stuff that didn’t work out, in which case she says she had nothing to do with it,” he said. Oprah Winfrey to Stump for Obama—

The Obama campaign Nov. 26 announced that talk show host Oprah Winfrey would campaign for Obama in Iowa in December. Winfrey had never endorsed a presidential candidate before, but she had vast influence in popular culture. Obama was running neck-and-neck in Iowa polls with Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.). The Iowa caucuses, set for Jan. 3, 2008, would kick off the primary season. Bill Clinton Nov. 26 arrived in Iowa to campaign for his wife. During a campaign stop the next day, he drew scrutiny by claiming that he had opposed the Iraq war “from the beginning.” He had not made FACTS ON FILE

such a clear statement of opposition in his public comments before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, although he had said he was not persuaded that an invasion was necessary. Sen. Clinton had faced criticism from her rivals over her vote for a 2002 congressional resolution that authorized President George W. Bush to use force against Iraq. „ New Hampshire Schedules Jan. 8 Primary.

New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner Nov. 21 announced that the state would hold its presidential primary elections, traditionally the first in the nation, on Jan. 8, 2008. The New Hampshire primaries would come five days after the Iowa caucuses, which would preserve Iowa’s longtime status as the host of the first contest of the nominating calendar. [See p. 713D3] New Hampshire usually followed eight days after Iowa, but Iowa had scheduled its caucuses, or party meetings, earlier in January than usual, in response to a trend of other states moving up in the calendar in a bid for the attention that candidates lavished on the early-voting states. Gardner had previously raised the possibility of scheduling the New Hampshire primary as early as late December, in order to abide by a state law that required the primary to be held at least seven days before any “similar election,” excluding caucuses. Earlier Nov. 21, the Michigan Supreme Court affirmed that the Michigan primaries could be held Jan. 15, in defiance of rules set by both major parties that allowed only a handful of states to hold primaries in January. Most of the leading Democratic candidates had withdrawn from the Michigan ballot, and the state risked having its delegates barred from the national party conventions. „

National Politics Lott Announces Senate Retirement. Sen. Trent Lott (R, Miss.) Nov. 26 announced in Pascagoula, Miss., that he planned to resign by the end of December, early in his fourth term. He had won reelection to a new six-year term just a year earlier. As minority whip, Lott was the second-ranking Senate Republican. He was also a former Senate majority leader, and was known as one of the chamber’s most skillful dealmakers. He had fallen from power in a 2002 controversy after he made remarks widely interpreted as pro-segregation, but climbed back to a leadership post in 2006. [See p. 666F2; 2006, p. 876A3; 2002, p. 980A2] Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) said he would name an interim replacement for Lott within 10 days of his resignation taking effect. Barbour said there would be a special election for the seat on Nov. 4, 2008. However, Democrats said state law required an election within 100 days. Lott’s unexpected retirement added to Republican disadvantages going into the 2008 elections. Five Republican senators November 29, 2007

had already said they would not run for reelection. With Lott’s seat open, the Republicans would have to defend 23 Senate seats in 2008, compared with 12 for the Democrats. That would make it harder for the Republicans to regain the majority they had lost in the 2006 elections. Asked about the timing of his retirement, Lott said he had planned to step down after his previous term, but decided to run for reelection to help Mississippi recover from Hurricane Katrina, which caused severe damage along the Gulf Coast in 2005 and destroyed his Pascagoula home. [See p. 575E2] Lott hinted that he was considering private sector business opportunities, but said he had nothing “agreed to or lined up.” He said he had “no problems” with his health. Observers said one factor in his sudden departure might be new Senate ethics rules, set to take effect at the start of 2008, which imposed a two-year ban on lobbying by former members of Congress after they retired. By retiring before the end of the year, Lott would only have to abide by the current one-year ban before he could take a lucrative job as a lobbyist. Lott denied that that was his motivation. Lott had first won election to the House in 1972. He rose to House minority whip, then won election to the Senate in 1988. He became Senate majority leader in 1996, when Sen. Bob Dole (R, Kan.) gave up that position to campaign as the Republican presidential nominee. In 2002, at a 100th birthday party for Sen. Strom Thurmond (R, S.C.), Lott praised Thurmond’s 1948 segregationist presidential bid, saying the nation would not have had “all these problems” if Thurmond had won. The outcry in response to Lott’s remarks led to a movement among fellow Republicans to oust him from the leadership, forcing him to resign. But he made a comeback after the 2006 elections, winning the race for minority whip. Sen. John Kyl (R, Ariz.), the Republican conference chairman, or third-ranking member of the party leadership in the Senate, Nov. 26 said he would run to replace Lott as whip. Hastert Leaves Office— Rep. Dennis Hastert (R, Ill.), a former House speaker, Nov. 26 submitted his resignation in a letter to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D). He had announced his retirement in August, and Nov. 15 delivered a farewell speech on the House floor. Hastert, 65, had been the longest-serving Republican House speaker in history, holding the post from 1999 through 2006. [See p. 543E3] Hastert was one of 17 Republican incumbents in the House who had said they would not seek reelection in 2008, including several in competitive districts. The Republicans had lost their House majority in 2006. As in the Senate, having to defend more of their seats would make it harder for them to regain the majority. So far, only five House Democrats had announced plans not to run for reelection, and no Senate Democrats facing reelection in 2008 had pulled out. „

Bush Administration Economic Adviser to Depart. President

George W. Bush Nov. 28 announced that Allan Hubbard, director of the National Economic Council, would step down from his post at the end of the year. Keith Hennessey, deputy to Hubbard and to two previous directors, was appointed to take his place. Analysts said Hubbard’s resignation would increase the clout of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in forming economic policy. [See pp. 751F1, 682A3] Hubbard said he was resigning to spend more time with his children. Hubbard had helped Bush formulate his proposals to reform Social Security and overhaul the tax code. Those proposals and others were largely scuttled after Democrats gained control of Congress in November 2006. „

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Judge Orders White House to Save E-Mails.

Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Nov. 12 ordered the White House to preserve backup copies of all its e-mail messages. Kennedy issued his order in response to lawsuits filed by two private groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive. The groups alleged that at least five million emails were missing, in violation of laws requiring the preservation of presidential records. [See p. 244A1] The White House in April had first disclosed that it might have deleted large numbers of e-mails, after they were subpoenaed by congressional committees investigating the Justice Department’s dismissal of several federal prosecutors in 2006. „

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Legislation House Passes Mortgage Regulation Bill.

The House Nov. 15 passed, 291–127, a bill that would require mortgage lenders to issue loans only to borrowers who had a realistic ability to pay the loans back. That requirement was among several curbs on what lawmakers described as abusive lending practices by mortgage companies, which had led to an increase in home foreclosures. [See pp. 784B2, 608G1] The bill would require mortgage brokers and bank loan officers to file with a national registry; ban excessive prepayment penalties levied against borrowers who wanted to refinance their loans; create guidelines for states to follow in licensing mortgage brokers; and make investment companies that bundled loans into assets liable for damages if they did not duly investigate whether those loans were above board. Opponents argued that the bill was unclear on how mortgage lenders were to determine a borrower’s ability to pay a loan back. They said the bill would create confusion and undue litigation. Critics also contended that the bill did not create a national standard that would prevent states from passing harsher restrictions. The Bush administration objected to certain provisions in the bill, but did not go so far as to threaten a veto. The administra783

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tion argued that new restrictions on the mortgage industry would make it harder for people to secure a home loan. Mortgage companies had been accused of directing borrowers in recent years toward more expensive mortgages even when cheaper alternatives were available. Many of those borrowers were subprime, or had poor credit, and were given adjustable-rate mortgages, which featured low introductory interest rates that spiked to much higher and often unaffordable rates after several years. An estimated 500,000 people who had taken out subprime mortgages in the past two years were expected to default on their mortgages. An estimated two million adjustable-rate mortgages were expected to adjust to their higher interest rates by the end of 2008. „ House Approves Affordable Housing Fund.

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The House Oct. 10 passed, 265–148, legislation creating a trust fund to significantly expand the nation’s supply of affordable housing. The bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank (D, Mass.), would allocate roughly $1 billion per year for ten years to refurbish or maintain 1.5 million units of affordable housing. The fund would be funded by diverting money from the Federal Housing Administration and from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored mortgage companies. [See pp. 784B2, 783D3, 544E2] A Bush administration policy statement said advisers to President George W. Bush would “recommend” a veto, calling the fund “duplicative.” Republicans also criticized the fund’s cost, and had led two failed efforts to kill the bill. „ House Backs Federal Disaster Insurance Aid.

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The House Nov. 8 passed, 258–155, a bill expanding federal involvement in the disaster insurance market with the aim of making homeowner insurance in disasterprone areas more available and affordable. The bill would require the government to provide loans to a disaster-struck state if disaster costs exceeded 1.5 times the insurance premiums that had been collected by the state in the previous year. It would also allow states to pool their risk in a national consortium, and to sell so-called catastrophe bonds in order to raise funds. [See pp. 784G1, 696D1] Florida Reps. Tim Mahoney (D) and Ron Klein (D) sponsored the bill, and it was heavily backed by legislators from Louisiana, California and other coastal states. The Bush administration threatened to veto the bill, saying it would encourage homeowners to build in high-risk areas and not sufficiently protect their properties, and would unfairly expose the government and taxpayers to risk. „ House Passes Flood Insurance Overhaul.

The House Sept. 27 passed, 263–146, a bill expanding the National Flood Insurance Program to allow homeowners to buy optional “multiperil” coverage against wind damage. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Gene Taylor (D, Miss.), came after insurers had denied claims in the wake of devastation 784

caused by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma on the Gulf Coast in 2005. Insurers had said many claimant’s homes had been damaged by the high winds, and therefore were not covered by homeowners’ flood insurance. [See pp. 784D1, 262F3; 2006, p. 611C3] The bill would also end subsidies for flood insurance premiums for secondary residences, vacation houses and commercial properties built before 1974, and would increase the rate by which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could raise premiums, to 15% per year, from 10%. The Bush administration threatened a veto, saying the bill was fiscally irresponsible. „

Business Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae Post Losses.

Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage company, Nov. 20 announced that it would post a $2.0 billion loss for the third quarter. The company said the losses were due to a rising number of foreclosures, and included $1.2 billion set aside for future losses on mortgages. It was the company’s largest ever quarterly loss. Fannie Mae, which was also backed by the government, Nov. 9 had announced that it was posting a $1.4 billion loss. [See below, pp. 783D3, 748A2] Freddie Mac also announced that it would write down the value of some of its assets by $3.6 billion. A write-down was a reduction of the recorded value of a company’s assets that reflected their updated actual market value. Freddie Mac executives said losses on bad mortgages in the future could exceed $10 billion. Freddie Mac’s share price on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Nov. 20 dropped 28.7%, to $26.74, its lowest price in 11 years. The company Nov. 27 announced that it would reduce its annual common stock dividend by half, to 25 cents per share, and that it sought to sell $6 billion worth of preferred stock in an attempt to raise capital. Freddie Mac was regulated by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprises Oversight (OFHEO), which required that the company maintain a 30% surplus of capital over normal legal requirements. The third quarter loss left Freddie Mac close to falling beneath the OFHEO requirement. The losses posted by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae indicated that the housing market was even more unstable than it had appeared. The two companies mostly bought and sold mortgages that were rated as safe, indicating that a downturn in housing prices had led to defaults and foreclosures among prime borrowers, or those with good credit, and that investors were avoiding safely rated mortgages along with riskier ones. Investors had begun avoiding mortgagebacked assets after it was revealed that many of them contained riskier subprime loans, or those made to people with poor credit. Those loans had plummeted in value when the housing market entered a slump.

The two companies were chartered by the government to buy mortgages from lenders and repackage them as assets for investors, thereby introducing liquidity to the mortgage system and essentially offering a government guarantee that investors could expect a return on their investment. The losses by the two companies suggested that they did not have enough capital to buy loans and rehabilitate the mortgage market, as many Democratic lawmakers had suggested. Together, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae owned or guaranteed 40% (or $4.8 trillion) of the total outstanding home-mortgage loans in the country. Fannie Mae Reports $1.4 Billion Loss—

Fannie Mae Nov. 9 reported that it would record a $1.4 billion loss for the third quarter. The company said the loss was due to rising foreclosures. Declining home prices also made it more difficult for the company to recoup the losses from the foreclosures. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Daniel Mudd said, “We now believe that home prices won’t begin to stabilize until the end” of 2009. Freddie Ex-CEO Settles Suit— Former Freddie Mac CEO Leland Brendsel Nov. 6 settled charges brought against him by the OFHEO. The OFHEO had claimed that Brendsel encouraged a corporate climate that emphasized reporting steady earnings growth even when the company’s growth was uneven, which led to accounting malpractice. Brendsel made the settlement without admitting or denying any wrongdoing. [See 2004, p. 1038D3] Under the terms of the deal, Brendsel would pay a fine of $2.5 million, forfeit $10.5 million in past pay and bonuses, and drop claims for an additional $3.4 million in salary. The OFHEO had previously attempted to freeze some $50 million in pay Brendsel had received from the company. Brendsel had been ousted as CEO in 2003, when Freddie Mac’s accounting manipulations were revealed. [See p. 669D3] „

Economy Housing Starts Rose 3.0% in October. The Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Nov. 20 reported jointly that the rate of housing starts in October was 1.23 million units, annualized and adjusted for seasonal variation. That was 3.0% above the revised rate for September of 1.19 million units. [See p. 701D2] Building permits were issued in October at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.18 million units, 6.6% below September’s revised rate of 1.26 million. „ Leading Indicators Fell 0.5% in October.

The Conference Board business research organization Nov. 21 reported that its composite index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of future economic activity, fell by 0.5% in October, to 136.9. It had increased a revised 0.1% in September, the board reported. The index’s base level of 100 reflected conditions in 1996. Three of the 10 indicators in October were “posiFACTS ON FILE

tive” contributors, led by stock prices and real money supply. Seven indicators—led by building permits, average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance, and index of consumer expectations—were “negative.” [See p. 701G2] „

Labor Broadway Stagehand Strike Ends. Productions in New York City’s Broadway theater district Nov. 29 resumed, after stagehands and the League of American Theatres and Producers Nov. 28 agreed to a contract, ending a 19-day strike. The stagehands had gone on strike to protest proposed job and wage cuts. [See p. 767C3] Members of Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union were expected vote to ratify the contract in 10 days. Details of the settlement were not released, but Kevin McGarty, a business manager for Local One, Nov. 28 said the deal was “equitable for everyone involved.” The strike, which affected 31 theaters, cost the city approximately $2 million per day in lost revenue, according to the New York City comptroller’s office. „

Environment Ship Breach Causes California Oil Spill. A South Korean container ship, the Cosco Busan, Nov. 7 hit a pier of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in California, spilling some 58,000 gallons (220,000 liters) of bunker oil and diesel fuel near the mouth of San Francisco Bay. It was the largest oil spill in the area since 1988. Tides carried the oil, used to fuel ships, inside the bay and to beaches as far as 20 miles (32 km) away from the city of San Francisco. At least 16 beaches were closed, several dozen water birds were killed and hundreds more were injured. [See p. 95C2; 2006, p. 629E1] The U.S. Coast Guard Nov. 10 said a preliminary investigation found that human error had caused the ship to crash, without providing further details. Federal prosecutors Nov. 11 opened a criminal investigation into the oil spill, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) the same day opened a separate investigation into the accident. „ Endangered Species Decisions Reversed.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acting Director Kenneth Stansell said the agency had revised seven rulings on whether or not a species should receive protection under the Endangered Species Act, according to a letter released Nov. 27. The letter, dated Nov. 23, had been sent by the agency to Rep. Nick J. Rahall 2nd (D, W.Va.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. [See p. 497E2] The reversals had been sparked by inquiries made by the committee and the Interior Department’s inspector general into decisions made by Julie MacDonald, a political appointee who had served as the Interior Department deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. The November 29, 2007

Interior Department’s inspector general in March found that MacDonald had improperly released government information, changed scientific reports in order to limit protections to species, and pressured subordinates to change their conclusions. MacDonald had resigned in April. The Fish and Wildlife Service in July had begun reviewing eight endangered species decisions, affecting 17 species, made during MacDonald’s tenure. Among the species that would gain protections as a result were the white-tailed prairie dog, the arroyo toad, the California red-legged frog and 12 different species of Hawaiian picture-wing flies. „

Terrorism GAO Report Points to TSA Security Flaws.

A report released Nov. 14 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’s investigative arm, found serious flaws in the airport security checkpoints administered by the Transportation Security Agency (TSA). The report, an edited version of an earlier classified one, revealed that GAO investigators had successfully smuggled components that could be used to make explosives past TSA security checkpoints at 19 airports during March, May and June. Full details of the tests, including which airports were targeted, were not declassified due to security concerns. [See p. 735F2] According to the GAO’s report, the explosives were designed using plans found on the Internet and the necessary components were purchased from local stores. Agents used published TSA screening information as guidelines and were able to successfully conceal bomb parts from the TSA by using small intentional violations of rules to distract attention from actual contraband. GAO official George Kutz testified Nov. 16 before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He said that the test “clearly shows the increased security risk of the current policies of allowing substantial carry-on luggage aboard aircraft.” TSA officials at the hearing downplayed the tests, saying that the GAO had defeated only one of its 19 security initiatives. Other levels included measures intended to keep terrorists out of the U.S., and to identify suspicious persons at aiports and in aircraft. „ White House Adviser Resigns. Frances Fragos Townsend, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, Nov. 19 said that she would step down from her position within the Bush administration in early 2008 in order to work in the private sector. Townsend had been appointed assistant to the president on May 28, 2004. Her duties included briefing President George W. Bush on confidential matters relating to the U.S.’s antiterrorism efforts and matters of homeland security, as well as announcing potential security threats to the American people. No replacement for Townsend was announced. [See p. 696C2] „

Los Angeles ‘Muslim Map’ Shelved. Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief

William Bratton Nov. 15 announced the cancellation of a department proposal to compile a detailed map of the concentrations of Muslim communities across the Los Angeles metropolitan area, after widespread criticism of the plan. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) that day said “the mapping proposal has created a level of fear and apprehension” among Los Angeles–area Muslims “that made it counterproductive.” [See 2006, p. 660C2; 2005, pp. 933D3, 268B2] The proposal had been revealed Oct. 30 during testimony by LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Downing before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee. Downing said it was intended to help the department’s antiterrorism unit identify Muslim communities that were having difficulty integrating into U.S. society and where militancy might therefore be more likely to flourish. The plan triggered a Nov. 8 letter from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Muslim Advocates, an organization of Muslim lawyers, among others. The letter cited “grave concerns” about the potential for unlawful religious profiling and argued that the initiative appeared to be “premised on the faulty notion that Muslims are more likely to commit violent acts than people of other faiths.” Critics also questioned the usefulness of the potential map, pointing out that while isolated Muslim communities had been linked to terrorist attacks in Europe, most terrorism suspects arrested in the U.S. were individuals with few ties to religious or terrorist groups. Bratton Nov. 9 had defended the plan, saying it was not “targeting or profiling,” but “an effort to understand communities.” But he withdrew it after a meeting with representatives of local Islamic groups, saying that he regretted any mistrust the plan might have bred. „

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Intelligence Guilty Plea in Hezbollah FBI Files Case. A former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) employee and current Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative, Nada Nadim Prouty, Nov. 13 pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Mich., to charges that she had illegally accessed confidential files at the FBI and fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship. Experts suggested that the case illustrated flaws in the system for conducting background checks on U.S. government hires. [See 2005, p. 709B1; 2002, p. 361F1] Prouty, 37, submitted a guilty plea to one count of naturalization fraud, one count of criminal conspiracy and one count of unauthorized computer access. She faced up to 16 years in prison and $600,000 in fines. In addition, she agreed to resign from the CIA and give up her U.S. citizenship. After a two-year investigation, prosecutors had charged Prouty, who had been born in Lebanon, with illegally paying a U.S. citizen to marry her in 1990 to gain 785

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citizenship and also twice accessing classified documents on Hezbollah, a Lebanonbased Islamic militia, during her 1997– 2003 tenure at the FBI. Prouty was not accused of passing the information she had obtained to any other persons or groups. U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy said Nov. 13 at a press conference that “it is hard to imagine a greater threat than the situation where a foreign national uses fraud to attain citizenship and then, based on that fraud, insinuates herself into a sensitive position in the U.S. government.” Prouty had undergone background checks at both the FBI and the CIA and had passed an FBI preemployment polygraph without arousing suspicion. „

Religion News in Brief. A Roman Catholic reli-

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gious order, the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, composed of churches in the Pacific Northwest, agreed to pay $50

million to more than 100 native Alaskans

who claimed to be victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests, a lawyer for the victims said Nov. 18. The allegations involved approximately 13 priests, and victims said the abuse spanned a period from 1961 to 1987. None of the priests had been criminally charged. [See below, p. 611G1] The Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton, Pa., Nov. 7 agreed to pay $3 million to

a man who claimed he had been sexually abused as a teenager by former priest Albert

Liberatore. It was one of the largest settlements that had been awarded by the Catholic Church to an individual abuse victim. Liberatore had pled guilty to abuse charges in 2005. He had been sentenced to 10 years probation and was defrocked in 2006. Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, Nov. 6 announced that he had requested documents pertaining to the finances of six of the most popular televangelist organizations in the U.S., including those of faith

healer Benny Hinn and best-selling Christian author Joyce Meyer. He said he had received reports of religious leaders misusing church donation funds to support extravagant lifestyles. [See 2005, p. 856A2] A statement released Nov. 14 by U.S. Catholic bishops instructed Catholics to

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keep church teachings in mind as they considered whom to vote for in the 2008

presidential elections. The bishops said voting for candidates specifically because they took positions contrary to church teachings amounted to “formal cooperation in grave evil” and that political choices might affect “the individual’s salvation.” U.S. bishops had issued similar advice before every presidential election since 1976, but it was the first time spiritual consequences had been mentioned in such an election statement. [See p. 361D3] „

Medicine and Health Sales of Bayer Heart Drug Halted. German pharmaceutical firm Bayer AG Nov. 5 said it would halt worldwide sales of its heart 786

surgery drug Trasylol after a study linked its use to an increase in mortality. The drug, known generically as aprotinin, was administered during surgery to control blood loss. [See 2006, p. 73F3] The Ottawa Health Research Institute Oct. 25 said it had halted a clinical trial of Trasylol after an independent board monitoring the study had found an increase in death rates in the 30 days following surgery, when its use was compared to two older drugs. An estimated 200,000 people worldwide had received Trasylol in 2006, with 110,000 of them in the U.S., where it had been approved in 1993. „ News in Brief. A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel Nov. 27 voted, 9–5, to recommend that Swiss drugmaker Roche Holdings AG add stronger warnings of potential psychiatric problems to the label of its flu drug Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir. The panel recommended that the drug’s label carry more detail on hallucinations, delirium and psychotic behavior experienced by some patients taking it. The FDA Nov. 23 had published on its Web site similar recommendations made by agency staff members. Concerns over the drug’s side effects had first been raised in Japan in 2005, when 12 deaths and 32 cases of psychiatric problems in children taking Tamiflu were reported. [See p. 189B2] The FDA Nov. 20 said it was investigating reports of aggressive behavior, suicidal thoughts and other erratic acts by patients taking Chantix, a drug intended to help people quit smoking. U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc., Chantix’s producer, had reported the incidents to the FDA. Agency officials said another effect of quitting smoking, nicotine withdrawal, could also be responsible for the erratic behavior. Pfizer said it had changed the drug’s label to warn of problems reported by users. Chantix, known generically as varenicline, was a potential sales blockbuster for Pfizer, earning it about $600 million since the start of 2007. [See 2006, p. 515B1] The FDA Nov. 15 announced proposed rules intended to curtail conflicts of interest among non–government employees

serving on its advisory panels. Such panels provided the FDA with advice on the approval of prescription drugs and other medical devices and products. The proposal would require such experts to complete a form detailing financial links to industries under review by panel members, and other potential conflicts of interest. The experts would also be required to explain why they should remain on the panel despite potential conflicts. The proposed rules were subject to a 60-day comment period. [See 2006, p. 748F2] Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other public health officials Nov. 13 said an organ donor had infected four recipients in the Chicago area with hepatitis C and HIV, the AIDS virus. Health officials said it was the first known case of HIV transmission by organ donation since 1986. CDC officials said it was also the first known case in

which HIV and hepatitis C had been transmitted by an organ donor at the same time. Officials did not provide details on what organs had conveyed the diseases, or the identities of the donor or recipients. The four patients had received their organs in January. A patient questionnaire had revealed that the donor was at high risk for both diseases. Officials said the donor’s infection might have occurred too soon before the transplants to have been detected in screening tests. [See 2005, p. 805B1; 1991, p. 435B1] The American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the CDC and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries Oct. 15 released a study which found that the rate of cancer death had dropped an average of 2.1% annually between 2002 and 2004, the latest dates for which data were available. That was nearly double the average annual drop of 1.1% recorded between 1993 and 2002. The study’s authors said the decline was largely attributed to an increase in early detection and treatment of cancer, and improved prevention efforts. The American Cancer Society said an estimated 1.4 million U.S. residents would be diagnosed with cancer in 2007, and that 560,000 would die from the disease. [See 2006, p. 170A2] Gaithersburg, Md.–based MedImmune Inc. Sept. 19 said the FDA had approved its nasal flu vaccine, called FluMist, for use by children aged two to five. The vaccine was already approved for use by those aged five to 49. The FDA May 29 had said its investigators had found contamination in a plant in Liverpool, England, where the vaccine was being produced, but that the problems had not adversely affected the final product. [See 2005, p. 952B3] „

Other U.S. News Red Cross President Ousted. American Red

Cross President Mark Everson Nov. 27 was forced to resign by the organization’s board following the revelation that he had carried out a romantic relationship with a female Red Cross employee. Everson, 53, had worked as the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) before joining the Red Cross May 29. He was the organization’s fifth president in six years. [See 2006, p. 932D1] The Red Cross issued a press release Nov. 27 in which it said Everson’s actions reflected poor judgment. The press release also announced that Red Cross General Counsel Mary Elcano would serve as interim president until a replacement for Everson could be found. In a statement released Nov. 27, Everson wrote that he was resigning his position “for person and family reasons,” and expressed regrets regarding his quick exit from the position. Everson was married and the father of two adult children. The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 28 that the board had found out about the relationship in mid-November and had terminated Everson after it discovered that the female employee was pregnant with Everson’s child. „ FACTS ON FILE

AFRICA

Somalia New Prime Minister Named. Somali Inter-

im President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed Nov. 22 nominated Nur Hassan Hussein as the transitional government’s new prime minister. Hussein was endorsed by parliament Nov. 24 in a near-unanimous vote, and sworn in later that day. He succeeded Ali Muhammad Gedi, who had resigned in late October after disagreements with Yusuf and other government leaders. [See p. 736A3] Hussein, 69, was an Italian-trained lawyer who had served as head of the Somali Red Crescent Society for the previous 17 years. He was from the Abgal subclan of the powerful Hawiye clan, from which Gedi also hailed. The new prime minister would face the challenge of bringing peace and security to a country wracked by violence between government troops—backed by forces from neighboring Ethiopia—and an Islamist insurgency. The fighting had raged since late 2006, killing thousands and forcing an estimated one million people to flee Mogadishu, the capital, and surrounding areas. Analysts said that Hussein’s background as an aid bureaucrat made him more neutral than his predecessor, thus opening up the possibility of dialogue with the various sides in the conflict. After his nomination was announced, Hussein pledged that, “My first job will be to give urgent aid to the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Somali people.” Somalia Called ‘Forgotten Emergency’—

The New York Times Nov. 20 quoted several top United Nations officials as having said that the situation in refugee camps for internally displaced people just outside Mogadishu could be the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa. They stated that the Somalia crisis was more dire than the one in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, which had received far more attention from the media and the international community. It was also reported that aid organizations were unable to reach people in the camps outside Mogadishu due to the lack of security in the area. The Times quoted Eric Laroche, the head of U.N. humanitarian operations in Somalia, as saying, “If this were happening in Darfur, there would be a big fuss. But Somalia has been a forgotten emergency for years.” [See p. 709A1] Ethiopian, Ugandan Troops Attacked—

At least 60 people were killed in Mogadishu Nov. 8–9 in revenge attacks by Ethiopian troops on insurgent strongholds. The attacks came in response to a Nov. 8 incident in which the bodies of at least three Ethiopian soldiers were dragged through the streets of the city by pro-Islamist mobs chanting “God is great!” Separately, the insurgents Nov. 17 attacked a base in Mogadishu housing Ugandan peacekeepers, members of an African Union (AU) force. The AU force was supposed to number 8,000 troops; however, November 29, 2007

only about 1,600 Ugandans had arrived thus far. Media Outlets Shut—The Somali government Nov. 12–13 shut down three prominent radio stations in Mogadishu. Mayor Mohamed Dheere Nov. 14 defended the decision to close the stations, saying they had been spreading misinformation and that they did not have government permits. The media had been repeatedly targeted during the conflict, with at least eight journalists having been killed since the start of 2007 and several outlets shut down. [See p. 737E1] „

AMERICAS

Bolivia Four Killed During Constitution Protests.

Protesters objecting to constitutional changes backed by Bolivian President Evo Morales Aima Nov. 23–25 fought with police in Sucre, in central Bolivia, in battles that left three protesters and one police officer dead. Dozens of people were injured in the clashes, with protesters throwing rocks and police forces fighting back with tear gas and rubber bullets. [See p. 593F3] A 255-member constituent assembly charged with rewriting the constitution had suspended its work in September after weeks of violent protests in Sucre. Demonstrators had demanded that Morales’s government relocate the country’s capital from La Paz, a Morales stronghold in the western Andes mountains, to Sucre, some 435 miles (770 km) to the southeast. The country’s executive and legislative branches were based in La Paz, and the judicial branch was in Sucre, which was also known as the constitutional capital. A group of 154 assembly delegates allied with Morales Nov. 23 met at a military garrison outside Sucre to continue their deliberations. The assembly the following day approved a broad outline for a new constitution, sparking the riots. Members of the opposition boycotted the vote. Morales Nov. 25 said that when completed, the new constitution would be voted on in a public referendum, though he did not name a specific date. Opponents of constitutional reform Nov. 28 held strikes in cities throughout Bolivia. The proposed constitution would transfer public revenue disbursement powers from state governments to federal authorities, and eliminate presidential term limits. Morales, an Aymara Indian, had won the presidency in 2005 on a reform platform intended to grant indigenous peoples greater representation in the government. He was strongly supported by poor, indigenous people in Bolivia’s west. The opposition was based in the country’s wealthier eastern states, and centered around the city of Santa Cruz. „

Canada News in Brief. Hamilton, Ontario–based steel company Stelco Inc. Aug. 27 agreed

to be purchased by Pittsburgh, Pa.–based

U.S. Steel Corp. for US$1.1 billion (C$1.2

billion). Under the terms of the deal, U.S. Steel paid US$36.60 (C$38.50) per share of Stelco, a 43% premium over Stelco’s Aug. 24 closing price of C$26.93 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. U.S. Steel Oct. 31 said it had completed the takeover. The resulting company had a raw steel production capacity of 33 million tons (30 million metric tons) per year, and was the fifthlargest steelmaker in the world. Russia’s mining company OAO Norilsk Nickel May 23 made a US$6.28 billion (C$6.82 billion) bid for Toronto, Ontario– based rival LionOre Mining International Ltd. Under the terms of the deal, Norilsk would pay US$25.32 (C$27.50) per share of LionOre stock. LionOre June 8 said its board of directors would recommend that stockholders accept the Norilsk offer. The acquisition was expected to increase Norilsk’s nickel output to 331,000 tons (300,000 metric tons) annually. AngloSwiss company Xstrata PLC March 26 had started a bidding war for LionOre with a takeover offer valued at US$3.96 billion. [See 2006, p. 697D3] Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn April 25 announced that Canada would ban incandescent light bulbs in favor of more energy-efficient compact fluorescent and halogen bulbs by 2012. The prohibition was part of government efforts to reduce emissions of atmospheric carbon thought to contribute to global climate change. The replacement of 192 million 60-watt incandescent light bulbs with 15-watt fluorescent bulbs would reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 6.95 million tons (6.30 million metric tons). [See p. 181A1] „

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Colombia Chavez Rebel Mediation Halted. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez Nov. 22 ended his support for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Arias’s role as a mediator between the Colombian government and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla force. Uribe cited a breach of protocol by Chavez as the impetus for his decision. Chavez Nov. 21 had contacted Colombian Army commander Gen. Mario Montoya, despite Uribe’s request that he not communicate directly with any high-ranking military officials. [See p. 578D1] Chavez in August had begun his mediation efforts, aimed at securing a prisoner exchange between the FARC, which held some 45 political hostages, and the government. Among those held by the FARC were Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian dual national and former Colombian presidential candidate, and three U.S. Defense Department contractors whose plane had crashed in a rebel-held area in 2003. Chavez Nov. 8 had hosted a senior FARC representative, Luciano Marin Arango, but had failed to obtain any proof that the political hostages were still alive. Uribe, a staunch ally of the U.S., reportedly had been frustrated by Chavez’s failures and concerned that Chavez, a strongly 787

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Cuba Municipal Elections Held. Cubans Oct. 21

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began casting their votes for some 15,000 local council seats to begin the country’s multitiered, one-party elections. The electoral process was expected to culminate by early 2008 in a decision on President Fidel Castro Ruz’s position as the head of the country’s 31-member Council of State. Castro in July 2006 had ceded day-to-day governing responsibilities to his younger brother, Gen. Raul Castro Ruz, but formally remained the chief of the council. The elections were expected to determine if the younger Castro would permanently replace Fidel Castro. [See 2003, p. 37A1] The process would ultimately result in a new national assembly, the country’s legislature, as well as the selection of members of the Council of State. Under Cuba’s constitution, the Communist Party was the only party allowed to participate in the elections. An estimated 8.3 million Cubans over the age of 16 were eligible to vote. Although Cuba touted the elections as democratic, government opponents and human rights groups said they were meaningless so long as opposition candidates were not allowed. „

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Labor Wins Australian Parliamentary Elections

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Howard Loses House Seat. The Australian Labor Party (ALP), led by Kevin Rudd,

Nov. 24 won a majority in Australia’s House of Representatives, ending 11 years of rule by the Liberal Party–National Party coalition. With about 84% of the votes counted, the ALP had won at least 80 of the House’s 150 seats, an increase of at least 20 seats. [See p. 687C1] 788

Rudd, 50, a former diplomat, was expected to replace Prime Minister John Howard, 68, of the Liberal Party, who became the first Australian prime minister since 1929 to lose his House seat while in office. Howard, 68, had represented the Sydney-area district of Bennelong for 33 years before losing to ALP candidate Maxine McKew, a former television journalist. In his Nov. 24 concession speech, Howard took responsibility for the loss but said his government would pass to Rudd “a nation that is stronger and prouder and more prosperous than it was eleven and a half years ago.” At the time of the election, Australia had enjoyed 17 consecutive years of economic growth. Howard was expected to remain as a caretaker prime minister until Rudd and his cabinet were sworn in. Both the Liberal Party and the National Party were left without leaders following the election. Howard’s hand-picked successor as Liberal Party head, former Treasurer Peter Costello, said Nov. 25 that he would not take the position. Outgoing Defence Minister Brendan Nelson Nov. 29 defeated outgoing Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a party vote to become the new Liberal leader. Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile resigned as leader of the National Party Nov. 26, saying in a speech that it was “time for a new generation of Nationals to take up the challenge.” Scandal Wounds Liberals— A scandal emerged Nov. 22 in which Liberal Party members and supporters were found to have distributed fraudulent leaflets that claimed the ALP supported amnesty for the terrorists behind a 2002 bombing of a Bali, FACTS ON RUDD

Kevin Rudd was born Sept. 21, 1957, in Nambour, in the northeastern state of Queensland, Australia. His father, a farm worker, died in 1969 when Rudd was 11, leaving his family in dire financial straits. He joined the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at 15. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Rudd attended Marist Brothers Ashgrove, a Catholic boarding school, from 1969 to 1971, when he transferred to a local public high school. Rudd graduated from Canberra’s Australian National University in 1979 with first-class honors in Chinese language and history. [See 2006, p. 1019E2] He married Therese Rein in 1981, and joined Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs the same year. He served as a diplomat in Beijing, China, and Stockholm, Sweden, until leaving the foreign service in 1988 to work for Wayne Goss, then head of the ALP in Queensland, until 1996. He ran unsuccessfully to represent the Queensland district of Griffith in 1996, but won the seat in 1998 following two years spent working as a consultant for accounting firm KPMG LLP. Rudd was selected in November 2001 to serve as the opposition ALP’s shadow minister for foreign affairs, a position he held until his December 2006 election as head of the ALP. Rudd was expected to be sworn in as prime minister Dec. 3 following the ALP’s victory in Nov. 24 parliamentary elections. [See 2006, p. 1019E2; 2004, p. 783E1] Rudd and Rein had three children.

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anti-U.S. politician, had used his position as mediator to aggrandize his international influence. FARC hostage family members and French President Nicolas Sarkozy Nov. 22 requested that Chavez be allowed to continue in his mediation role. Chavez in public remarks Nov. 25 said his dismissal as mediator was a “brutal spitting in the face,” described Uribe as a “liar and a cynic” and declared that he was “putting relations with Colombia in the freezer.” Hours later Uribe responded, saying Chavez wanted to make Colombia “victim of a terrorist government of the FARC.” The Venezuelan foreign ministry Nov. 27 recalled its ambassador to Colombia for consultations. Chavez Nov. 28 said he would end all contact with the Colombian government, though it was unclear how trade and diplomatic relations between the two countries would be affected. Some analysts said Chavez’s remarks might have been an attempt to bolster nationalism prior to a Dec. 2 public referendum on a host of constitutional reforms in Venezuela that would significantly increase Chavez’s power. [See p. 738G3] „

Australian Prime Minister–elect Kevin Rudd at a Nov. 25 press conference, after his Australian Labor Party won elections held the previous day.

Indonesia, nightclub that killed more than 200 people, including 88 Australian citizens. The revelation further damaged the standing of the Liberal Party, which had already been trailing the ALP in polls since before Howard called the elections in October. [See p. 385E2] In contrast, the Aug. 19 revelation that Rudd had visited a New York City strip club while on a taxpayer-funded trip to the U.S. in 2003 appeared to have increased his approval rating among Australians, Britain’s Observer reported Nov. 25. Rudd Sets Out Legislative Goals—

Rudd announced at a Nov. 24 press conference following the ALP victory that his government would move to ratify the 1996 Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that instituted mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions, as part of its emphasis on environmental issues. Howard had opposed the protocol; Australia and the U.S. were the only industrialized nations that had failed to ratify it. Britain’s Financial Times reported Nov. 26 that Rudd would attend a planned United Nations conference on climate change in Bali, instead of sending a surrogate. Howard had not planned to attend the conference. Rudd was also expected to push for the removal of the remainder of Australia’s approximately 550 combat troops from Iraq, leaving only a few hundred support troops in the area. Analysts suggested that Rudd’s stances on global warming and Iraq could complicate Australia’s close relationship with the U.S. government, which had flourished during Howard’s tenure. [See p. 779G2] Cabinet Named—Rudd Nov. 29 unveiled his cabinet. Although ALP cabinet members traditionally had been chosen by the party as a whole, Rudd picked his own ministers. Among notable appointments, Rudd named Peter Garrett, former leader of the rock group Midnight Oil, as environment minister. Rudd also created a cabinet position overseeing climate-change issues, appointing Malaysian-born Penny Wong, who became the country’s first Asian-born cabinet minister. [See 2004, p. 531G1] „ FACTS ON FILE

Indonesia Earthquakes Kill Six. Three

earthquakes that each measured at least 6.0 on the openended Richter scale of ground motion struck Indonesia Nov. 26, killing at least six people and injuring more than 70 others. The earthquakes, two of which occurred near the island of Sumbawa and one near the island of Sumatra, followed a series of quakes in midSeptember that had killed at least 24 people on Sumatra. [See p. 595E3] The first earthquake struck just after midnight local time about 30 miles (45 km) northwest of the city of Raba on Sumbawa. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) measured it at a magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale. The first quake killed at least three people. The second earthquake hit about 40 minutes later about 90 miles from the Sumatran city of Padang and measured 6.0 on the Richter scale. No deaths or serious damage were reported. The third earthquake, detected by the USGS at approximately 3:53 a.m. local time, measured 6.5 on the Richter scale and struck 25 miles northwest of Raba. The total death toll was afterward raised to six, though it was unclear if the additional fatalities were the result of the second quake. More than 70 people were injured in the two quakes, and government officials said more than 500 buildings were destroyed. „

Myanmar Additional Activist Arrests Reported. Two

well-known Myanmar activists had been arrested by the military government, exiled pro-democracy groups reported Nov. 14. The arrests were part of a continuing crackdown against protesters and pro-democracy groups that had begun Sept. 26. [See p. 740A1] Labor activist Su Su Nway, 35, was detained Nov. 14 after being caught posting leaflets near the hotel in Yangon where United Nations humans rights official Paulo Sergio Pinheiro was staying. Su Su Nway had been in hiding since the crackdown against protesters began but had been seen Oct. 27 placing flowers on the spot where Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai was fatally shot by troops while he was covering the protests. [See p. 688C1; 2006, p. 699A3] It was unclear when and under what circumstances the other detained activist, U Gambira, a monk and member of Myanmar’s pro-democracy All-Burma Monks Alliance (Myanmar was known as Burma until 1989), was arrested. He had written an article published in the Nov. 4 edition of the Washington Post. U Gambira wrote that the September protests were different than previous demonstrations because “video and the Internet have allowed the world to witness the brutal response directed by Gen. Than Shwe,” the leader of the junta, and suggested that activists in Myanmar were “galvanized as never before” in their struggles against the ruling regime. The reports of the arrests came the same day that the U.N. envoy to Myanmar, IbraNovember 29, 2007

him Gambari, told the U.N. Security Council that Myanmar’s military junta had assured him that no more activists would be arrested. Gambari reported on the situation in Myanmar to the Security Council Nov. 14, following the end of his Nov. 3–8 visit to that country. Gambari said his mission had not achieved all its intended goals, but pointed to the regime’s recent decisions to allow Pinheiro into the country, appoint a liaison between the junta and detained prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and end a curfew imposed in September, as signs that progress was being made. 15 Killed in Crackdown, Junta Says—

Pinheiro announced Nov. 16 at a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, that Myanmar’s ruling junta had admitted that at least 15 people in Yangon, the former capital, had been killed in the military crackdown against protesters, up from its previous acknowledgment of 10 deaths. In his remarks, which followed the conclusion of his Nov. 11–15 visit to Myanmar, Pinheiro said that he was still sorting through the data he had gathered during his trip and said that he would present his final estimates of the number of dead and detained protesters at the U.N. Human Rights Council meeting on Dec. 11 in Geneva, Switzerland. [See p. 740A3] During Pinheiro’s time in Myanmar, he visited the country’s notorious Insein Prison Nov. 15, where he spoke to prisoners including Su Su Nway. He had not been allowed to meet with Suu Kyi. The visit to Myanmar was Pinheiro’s first since 2003. An opposition lawyer Nov. 16 said six political prisoners were freed from Insein shortly after Pinheiro’s visit. „

New Zealand 17 Arrested in Antiterrorist Sting. Police

Oct. 15 raided homes and arrested 17 people in the New Zealand government’s first use of a 2002 antiterrorism law, the Suppression of Terrorism Act. Most of those arrested were political activists, including prominent Maori activist Tame Iti. The arrests sparked outcry in the indigenous Maori community. Maoris made up 14.5% of New Zealand’s population, but nearly half of its prison population. [See 2006, p. 1023E2] The suspects Nov. 1–2 were charged with weapons violations and not under the 2002 law, which had been invoked to justify the raid. Police alleged that those arrested had been plotting attacks against domestic targets. Police Commissioner Howard Broad said Oct. 15 that the suspects were not predominantly Maori and that their motivations for participating in the alleged plot varied. He also said the raids had followed a yearlong investigation and had unearthed numerous weapons including assault rifles and Molotov cocktails. The suspects were alleged to have attended training camps run by a Maori militia where weapons training took place. Pita Sharples, cofounder of the Maori Party, Oct. 18 compared the raids to 19thcentury colonial abuses carried out against

the Maori, and said the police had used “storm trooper tactics” in carrying out its searches and arrests. „

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Philippines Boundaries Set for Islamic District. The Philippine government and leaders of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Nov. 15 agreed on boundaries for an autonomous Muslim territory within the Philippines. A fragile cease-fire had existed between the Philippine government and the MILF since July 2003, and participants expressed hope that the new agreement could pave the way to a comprehensive settlement between the MILF and the government in 2008. [See p. 758A2; 1996, p. 1009A3] The agreement drew up boundaries for the proposed Bamgsamoro Juridical Entity, which would expand the borders of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), but details of the new borders were not publicly released. The conflict between government forces and various Islamic separatist groups had begun in the 1960s. More than two million people had been displaced by the violence and approximately 120,000 people had been killed.

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Suspects Killed, Arrested in Bomb Case—

Police officers investigating a mid-November bombing at the Philippine House of Representatives in Manila, the capital, Nov. 15 shot and killed three people during a gun battle and arrested three survivors in connection with the explosion. Two more suspects were arrested Nov. 19–20. The November bombing had killed four people, including Representative Wahab Akbar, and injured at least 10 others. The three suspects arrested Nov. 15 were charged Nov. 19 with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. National Capital Region Police Chief Geary Barias said Nov. 19 at a press conference that they were believed to be members of the Abu Sayyaf Islamic separatist militia and that two of them, following a police interrogation, had admitted that they were involved in the bomb plot. One suspect, Barias told reporters, had confessed to owning a motorcycle used to carry out the attack, while the other suspect told the police that he had driven the motorcycle to the place where the bomb went off. Barias also said the suspects confirmed previous suspicions that the attack was primarily an assassination attempt against Akbar, a former militant with ties to Abu Sayyaf who had turned to support U.S.backed operations against the group in Basilan, the province he represented. A fourth suspect was arrested Nov. 19 following a raid in the Malate district of Manila. Additionally, military intelligence officers Nov. 20 arrested Hajaron Jamiri, one of Akbar’s political opponents, following a raid on an inn where investigators had been told that a second bomb had been constructed. That bomb, which was allegedly intended for an attack on Akbar’s residence if the first bombing failed to kill him, was not found, but small amounts of bombmaking chemicals were. „ 789

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New Impeachment Attempt Quashed. The Philippine House of Representatives Justice Committee Nov. 14 rejected, 43–1, a new impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, finding that the charges lacked merit. The complaint had alleged that Arroyo’s administration had been involved in corruption surrounding the awarding of a broadband Internet service contract to ZTE Corp., a Chinese telecommunications company. Two previous attempts to impeach Arroyo had also been blocked by the committee. [See p. 720G2] Seven opposition members of the committee, which was dominated by Arroyo supporters, boycotted the vote on the impeachment charges, contending that the proceedings had been skewed to ensure that the complaint would be defeated. Committee Vice Chairman Edcel Lagman said Nov. 14 that no new impeachment charges would be considered for a year, citing a law that banned the investigation of more than one impeachment complaint per year. „

South Korea Top Prosecutors Accused of Bribe-Taking.

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A former chief lawyer of South Korea’s Samsung Group conglomerate Nov. 12 identified three top government anticorruption officials as recipients of bribes systematically doled out by Samsung. The lawyer, Kim Yong Chul, in recent weeks had described an elaborate system by which Samsung regularly targeted prosecutors and other officials for cash gifts. However, he had not previously identified any bribe-takers. His Nov. 12 accusations were made through a group of Roman Catholic priests who were serving as his advisers. [See p. 99B3; 2006, p. 635B3] The accusations, the latest in a long line of scandals over political payoffs by the country’s powerful conglomerates, threatened to tarnish the outgoing administration of President Roh Moo Hyun in the run-up to a presidential election Dec. 19. The priests said that bribes had been accepted by Lim Chae Jin, recently appointed prosecutor general by Roh; Lee Jong Baek, named by Roh to head the Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption; and Lee Gui Nam, head of the anticorruption Central Investigation Bureau. All three denied the allegations that day, as did Samsung. Prosecutors Nov. 12 said they would open an investigation of the charges. A former legal aide to Roh, Kim Yong Chul, Nov. 19 said he had received an envelope in 2004 containing a gift of five million won ($5,445) from an executive of Samsung Electronics, and had immediately returned it. He also released photographs that he said he had taken of the package. Samsung Electronics said it would investigate his claim. Roh Nov. 27 signed a bill that required him to appoint an independent prosecutor to probe the allegations. He had previously opposed the legislation, which was passed that day by parliament. Hyundai Chief’s Sentence Suspended—

The High Court in Seoul, the capital, Sept. 6 suspended a three-year prison sentence 790

handed down earlier in the year to Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong Koo. Chung had been convicted in connection with a bribery slush fund maintained by the company. The court cited his importance to the company and the national economy in suspending his sentence for five years, a common outcome in prominent corporate corruption cases. Critics said the leniency undermined the credibility of the judiciary’s willingness to punish corporate crime. As in other such cases, Chung pledged to make a substantial donation to charity, in his case one trillion won for arts and cultural facilities. „

Uzbekistan President Karimov to Run for Third Term.

Uzbekistan’s Central Election Commission Nov. 19 announced that it had approved applications by President Islam Karimov and three others to run in presidential elections scheduled for Dec. 23. The Uzbek constitution allowed for an individual to serve only two presidential terms, and Karimov’s second term had expired in January. (He had remained in power by exploiting a constitutional loophole.) The Uzbek government and election officials had largely ignored legal hurdles to Karimov’s continued rule. [See pp. 316C3, 67A3] Karimov had been head of state in Uzbekistan since 1989,when he became the leader of the Communist Party in what was then Soviet Uzbekistan. He had remained in power since, twice holding referendums to extend each of his two terms. Elections in post-Soviet Uzbekistan had never been found “free and fair” by international election observers, largely due to government efforts to silence any opposition to Karimov. Some analysts and opposition figures said the three candidates running against Karimov were allies of his, only participating in the campaign in order to create the illusion of a democratic election. [See p. 790A3; 2006, p. 495D1] Karimov had been nominated by the pro-government Liberal Democratic party, one of the five registered political parties in Uzbekistan. His opponents were Asliddin Rustamov of the People’s Democratic Party; Diloram Tashmuhamedova of the Adolat (Justice) Social Democratic Party, who was the first woman ever to be nominated as a presidential candidate; and Akmal Saidov, head of the Uzbek National Human Rights Center, who was nominated by a citizens’ group. Five opposition candidates were rejected by the Central Election Committee. Approved candidates received equal time on Uzbek television and radio, and had their biographies and party platforms printed in several languages in Uzbek national newspapers. Campaign expenses for approved candidates were paid by the government, according to Uzbek electoral law. „ Dissident

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Murdered.

Uzbek journalist Alisher Saipov, 26, Oct. 24 died after being shot three times in the head as he left his office in the Kyrgyz city of Osh, near the Uzbek border. Saipov had

been a well-known critic of the government of Uzbekistan. He had edited the newspaper Siyosat (Politics), which was the only Uzbek-language periodical in the region that was openly critical of Uzbek President Islam Karimov. Saipov had also been a contributor to the U.S.-funded media outlets Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America. [See pp. 790E2, 316C3] In addition to strong criticism of the Uzbek government, Saipov had written at length on the issues of torture in Uzbek prisons and offenses committed against Uzbek refugees in Kyrgyzstan. Saipov Oct. 22 had told friends that he thought he was being followed by Uzbek secret service agents, but that he believed he would be safe on the Kyrgyz side of the border. Almost all independent journalists in Uzbekistan had either been imprisoned or been run out of the country, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reported Nov. 2. [See 2006, p. 683B3] The Kyrgyz interior ministry Oct. 30 alleged that Saipov had received money from, and harbored militants of, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a militant group that had been responsible for attacks across Central Asia. In the same report, the ministry also said it had identified Saipov’s killers and was searching for them, but did not give further information. The BBC Nov. 2 reported that the Siyosat office had been sealed and that the newspaper’s computers and mobile telephones had been seized by Kyrgyz authorities in connection with the murder investigation. [See p. 581D1] Saipov’s friends and relatives, along with international observers, condemned the murder. Daniil Kislov, editor of Ferghana.ru, an online publication focused on Central Asia that Saipov had worked for since 2004, said in an Oct. 30 Associated Press report that the Kyrgyz accusations against Saipov were “ravings and blunt lies,” and that they might have been planted by the Uzbek government. Others close to Saipov said they were afraid the Kyrgyz government would pass along records taken from the Siyosat office to the Uzbek government, in order to locate other government critics, according to the Nov. 2 BBC report. Vitalii Ponomarev of the Russian-based human rights group Memorial Nov. 21 said in a news conference in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, that Uzbekistan’s intelligence agency had informed its Kyrgyz counterpart that Saipov had been murdered for political reasons. He said, “There is no doubt that [Saipov’s murder] is connected to the presidential election in Uzbekistan,” set for Dec. 23. He further alleged that Kyrgyz investigators were purposely stalling the murder investigation. Kyrgyz interior ministry spokesman Bakyt Seyitov the same day denied the allegations, and said Ponomarev had not provided any proof for his claims. „

Other Asia-Pacific News ASEAN Divided Over Myanmar. Singapore Nov. 20 hosted a summit meeting of the 10member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), where the leaders signed FACTS ON FILE

a charter intended to give the informal grouping new legal standing and ultimately create a free-trade zone. However, prospects for implementing the charter were thrown into doubt by divisions over political repression in Myanmar, an ASEAN member. [See pp. 789D1, 35G3] Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo suggested that the Philippine Congress was unlikely to ratify the charter so long as Myanmar kept pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest and refused to permit democratic reforms. Ratification by all 10 members was required for the charter to take effect. Some of ASEAN’s more developed member nations, such as Singapore and Indonesia, reportedly saw Myanmar’s recent violent crackdown on peaceful mass demonstrations as an embarrassment to the group. But Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam backed Myanmar in resisting what it called interference in its domestic affairs. Those countries Nov. 19 forced the cancellation of a meeting scheduled for Nov. 21 between the United Nations special envoy for Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, and several ASEAN leaders, joined by those of China, Japan, South Korea and India. However, Gambari Nov. 20 held a private meeting with ASEAN leaders. U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, meeting ASEAN nation officials in Singapore Nov. 19, had urged the group to take a firm stance on Myanmar, saying its “credibility and reputation” were at stake. The U.S. Senate Nov. 17 had passed a resolution urging ASEAN to suspend Myanmar’s membership until it showed “improved respect for and commitment to human rights,” a call that ASEAN leaders rejected. The new charter would commit ASEAN nations to respecting human rights and the rule of law, but with little provision for enforcement powers. The charter laid out a framework for creating a zone with free movement of goods, investment and labor by 2015. However, member nations would be able to opt out of certain economic provisions, making the prospects for a fully integrated trade area uncertain. „

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Bosnia and Herzegovina Prime Minister Resigns in Protest. Bosnia

and Herzegovina’s prime minister, Nikola Spiric, Nov. 1 resigned, in protest of what he called a governance structure that rendered his authority ineffective. Bosnia’s rotating presidency Nov. 12 accepted Spiric’s resignation. The country had 30 days to appoint a new prime minister. [See p. 689A1] The conflict had begun in late October when Miroslav Lajcak, the international envoy appointed by the European Union and the United Nations who held ultimate authority in Bosnia, ordered a change in the way a quorum was calculated in Bosnia’s parliament, Voice of America reported on its Web site Nov. 22. A quorum was the minimum number of representatives needNovember 29, 2007

ed in parliament in order for the body’s decisions to be valid. Lajcak, a Slovak diplomat, proposed that the quorum be calculated by counting only delegates present at each parliamentary session. He reportedly proposed the changes in order to prevent members of the country’s competing ethnic groups from blocking decisions simply by refusing to attend parliamentary sessions. (The tactic had been used mainly by the Bosnian Serbs.) If the parliament did not adopt the proposal by Dec. 1, Lajcak had the power to impose it regardless. Lajcak, as the international high representative, had the authority to fire ministers, write laws and push legislation through the parliament. The position was created following the 1995 Dayton peace accord, which set up the country’s two states: the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic. The states were united by a weak central government whose activities were marked by ethnic squabbling. [See p. 131C2; 1995, p. 865A1] Claiming that the quorum proposal could ultimately threaten the autonomy of the Serbian state in Bosnia, some Bosnian Serbs Oct. 29 had protested in the streets. Most Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) wanted Bosnia and Herzegovina to enter the EU as one united country, but many Bosnian Serbs wanted to keep the Serbian state as autonomous as possible. Spiric was an ethnic Serb. Leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s rival ethnic communities of Croats, Muslims and Serbs Nov. 22 met in Sarajevo, the capital, to discuss a resolution to the crisis; however, no concrete results came from the meeting. „

France Weeklong Transit Strike Hurts Economy.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde Nov. 19 said that nationwide strikes by transportation workers over the past week had cost the French economy up to 400 million euros ($590 million) a day. The transport workers had gone on strike Nov. 14 to protest President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to revoke their special pension benefits. [See p. 721B1] The strike drew to an end after union assemblies across France Nov. 22 voted to return to work. Most public transportation services returned to almost normal the next day. The nine-day strike had been the longest transit stoppage in 12 years. Adding to the disruptions, several hundred thousand civil servants, including more than 300,000 teachers, Nov. 20 had staged a one-day strike, demanding pay raises and pledges of job security. Sarkozy had planned to cut the size of the civil service, which had more than five million employees and ranked as France’s biggest employer. Sarkozy Nov. 20 made his first comments on the transportation strike in a speech before a mayors’ conference, reaffirming his commitment to the pension changes and vowing, “We will not sur-

render and we will not retreat.” He said voters had given him a mandate to carry out economic reform by electing him in May. Sarkozy called for an end to the strike before it brought the economy “to its knees,” and warned, “You have to know how to stop a strike. You have to think of all those who have to go to work.” Six unions Nov. 18 had agreed to enter negotiations with the government and the SNCF rail company beginning Nov. 21. By Nov. 21, only a minority of workers were still on strike. SNCF said that 77% had reported for work that day. However, saboteurs Nov. 21 set fires in signaling stations on high-speed TGF train lines, causing additional delays. Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau denounced the arson as “grave and reprehensible acts of violence,” and said Sarkozy had ordered that the perpetrators be punished with “utmost severity.” Union leaders also condemned the sabotage, but said there was no evidence that their members were behind it. As negotiations with the government began, the unions agreed to discuss the pension changes, but demanded new pay increases in return, and threatened to strike again around the Christmas holiday if the talks did not progress. „ Youth Riots Erupt in Paris Suburb. Violent rioting by youths in Villiers-le-Bel, a poor, mostly immigrant suburb of Paris, broke out Nov. 25 after two teenagers were killed in a collision between their motorbike and a police car. The riots continued the next night as youths battled police and set fire to cars and shops. The government Nov. 27–28 deployed 1,000 police reinforcements, backed by helicopters, to contain the riots before they spread further. In November 2005, similar riots had swept the country after beginning in the Paris suburbs, sparked by the deaths of two teenagers fleeing from police. [See p. 229D2] Rioters in Villiers-le-Bel, 12 miles (20 km) north of Paris, Nov. 26 set fire to a public library and a police station. At least 130 police officers had been reported injured as of Nov. 28 in clashes with youth gangs firing shotguns and throwing Molotov cocktails, firecrackers and rocks. Police responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas. The rioting in Villiers reportedly eased Nov. 27 with the arrival of the heavier police presence, but several dozen cars and some buildings were set on fire in neighboring towns. Also, rioting erupted that night in the city of Toulouse on France’s southern coast, adding to fears that the riots would spread. Residents claimed that the police officers involved in the accident with the motorbike had left the scene without helping the two teenagers. The police Nov. 26 issued a preliminary report blaming the two boys—identified as Lakamy Samoura, 16, from Senegal, and Mohsin Sehhouli, 15, from Morocco—for speeding on an unregistered vehicle and not wearing helmets. But prosecutors Nov. 28 said they 791

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had opened a manslaughter investigation into the incident. Sarkozy Denounces Rioters—President Nicolas Sarkozy Nov. 28 returned from a visit to China and condemned the riots. He said, “Opening fire at officers is completely unacceptable. This has a name: attempted murder.” He also met with the families of the two dead teenagers. In 2005, Sarkozy had been interior minister. Critics said he had incited the rioters by calling them “scum.” The 2005 riots had drawn attention to poor living conditions in the suburbs, and the failure to integrate mostly Arab and African immigrant communities that suffered from widespread discrimination, poverty, high unemployment and crime. Villiers Mayor Didier Vaillant Nov. 27 said, “The violence is not acceptable. But we understand the anger.” He said there was “too much unemployment” in the housing projects, and “not enough affordable housing, not enough education for the young here.” While campaigning for the May presidential election, Sarkozy had pledged a major effort to address those problems with economic aid, but he had not focused on that issue in the months since he took office. The government Nov. 27 said that in January it would unveil a plan to provide more job training to young people in poor areas, as well as to improve housing and transportation in the suburbs. In a speech to police officers, Sarkozy Nov. 29 took a harder line. “I reject the kind of naive, wishful thinking that makes every delinquent a victim of society, and every riot a social problem,” he said, arguing that “the correct answer to riots is not more taxpayers’ money.” „

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Saakashvili Lifts Emergency, Resigns.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili Nov. 16 lifted a state of emergency he had imposed nine days earlier in response to mass anti-government protests in Tbilisi, the capital. Saakashvili that day also appointed a new prime minister, Lado Gurgenidze, chairman of the private Bank of Georgia, to replace Zurab Nogaideli. Saakashvili said, “We are putting forward new tasks that must be implemented by new people.” [See p. 740C3; 2005, p. 121A1] Saakashvili, 39, Nov. 8 had declared that an early presidential election would be held Jan. 5, 2008, along with a referendum on a date for parliamentary elections. He resigned as president Nov. 25 in preparation for the upcoming election, in which he would run. Under the constitution, parliament speaker Nino Burdzhanadze would serve as acting president in the interim. She had also served in that role in late 2003 and early 2004, after the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze and prior to Saakashvili’s inauguration. [See 2003, p. 931G3] Opposition

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Georgian opposition leaders Nov. 12 split over whom they would nominate to run 792

against Saakashvili in the upcoming election. A coalition of opposition parties that day nominated wine producer and member of parliament Levan Gachechiladze as their candidate. However, the Georgian Labor Party—which had previously been a member of the opposition coalition—Nov. 19 nominated its leader, Shalva Natelashvili, to run. Badri Patarkatsishvili, a business tycoon who had funded the Tbilisi protests, Nov. 26 applied to run in the election. Patarkatsishvili had founded independent television station Imedi TV, and co-owned it with international media conglomerate News Corp., chaired by Rupert Murdoch. [See p. 689F1] Opposition Station Remains Closed—

Martin Pompadur, executive vice president of News Corp., Nov. 9 said the police storming of the Imedi TV station during Georgia’s emergency rule resulted in “very extensive” damage. The station had remained closed since emergency rule was imposed. About 10,000 people Nov. 25 gathered in Tbilisi to demand that the government allow Imedi TV to resume broadcasting. [See p. 741F1] Alexander Lomaya, head of Georgia’s national security council, Nov. 28 imposed conditions for Imedi TV to meet before it would be able to reopen. The conditions included “financial transparency, a clear ownership and management structure, and compliance with journalistic ethics.” Gurgenidze that day announced that the Georgian government had attempted to buy out Imedi TV, but Pompadur had refused. „

Russia Government Cracks Down on Protests.

More than 200 people were arrested the weekend of Nov. 24–25 when riot police dispersed anti-government protests in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities across Russia. The protests took place in response to what opposition leaders said was an ongoing move by the government toward authoritarianism. The arrests were the latest in a series of conflicts between the government and opposition parties in the run-up to Russia’s Dec. 2 parliamentary elections. [See pp. 792E2, 759C2] Among those arrested was Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion who was the leader of an opposition coalition, Other Russia. He was sentenced Nov. 24 to five days in jail for leading an illegal procession. He had attempted to lead several hundred protesters from the approved protest site to the office of the Central Election Commission, in order to deliver a letter that stated the upcoming election was biased toward Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and his United Russia party. Boris Nemtsov, a leader of opposition party Union of Right Forces and former deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, Nov. 25 was detained at a protest in St. Petersburg, Putin’s hometown, but was released later that day. [See p. 655B1; 2005, p. 212G2]

Kasparov was released Nov. 29 after serving his sentence. He complained that he had been denied access to his lawyers. Putin, who was barred by the constitution from running for a third presidential term, had attempted to portray the parliamentary election as a referendum on his rule. United Russia was expected to win by a landslide due to Putin’s widespread popularity and the party’s aggressive campaigning. Putin in October had said he would lead United Russia in the parliamentary elections, possibly setting himself up to become Russia’s next prime minister. Putin had repeatedly asserted he would remain an influence in the government after his second presidential term expired in March 2008. [See p. 654B3] Opposition Parties Suppressed— The state-controlled media had largely ignored parties opposed to United Russia, and in many cases the government had actively suppressed the opposition. In one instance, a state-run printing company had refused to print copies of the newspaper Novyi Peterburg that had advertised the Nov. 24–25 protests, the Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 26. A reporter from Novyi Peterburg was also arrested, according to the Journal. [See p. 249B2] The Washington Post reported Nov. 25 that party leaders from the Union of Right Forces, which would run in the election, had said Russia’s interior ministry had confiscated 20 million copies of the party’s newspaper. The party further claimed that 17 regional leaders had dropped out of the race because of threats made against them. Leaders from the liberal Yabloko party said they had been banned from hanging campaign materials in St. Petersburg, according to an article published Nov. 26 in the British newspaper the Financial Times. Kasparov’s Other Russia was not allowed to participate in the Dec. 2 elections because it was not a registered political party. The only party aside from United Russia that was seen as likely to clear 7% of the vote, the minimum needed to win seats in parliament, was the Communist Party. Opposition Leader Murdered—Farid Babayev, an opposition politician, Nov. 24 died in a hospital in the southern region of Dagestan. He was shot four times Nov. 21 outside his home. Babayev had planned to run in the Dec. 2 parliamentary elections as a candidate for Yabloko. The party, which had recently received around 1%–2% in opinion polls, was not expected to gain enough support to win seats in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament. [See pp. 792D2, 549A1] Babayev’s assailant had not yet been identified and police had not released any motive for the murder. „ ‘Chessboard Killer’ Gets Life Sentence.

Aleksandr Pichushkin, a 33-year old grocery-store worker whom the Russian media had dubbed the “Chessboard Killer,” Oct. 29 was sentenced to life in prison in a court in Moscow, the capital, for the murder of 48 people and the attempted murder of three others between the years 2001 and 2006. He had been convicted by a Moscow City Court FACTS ON FILE

jury Oct. 24. The conviction made him the second-most-prolific serial killer in recent Russian history, after Andrei Chikatilo. [See below; 1994, p. 166G1] Pichushkin had said he wanted to commit a murder for each of the 64 squares on a chessboard, thus earning his nickname. He claimed to have killed 63 people. Prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to press further charges, but continued to investigate. Pichushkin, who had been arrested in June 2006, had lured most of his victims to a park in southwestern Moscow. Pichushkin spent his time in court in a glass cage inside the courtroom. The trial was closely followed by many Russians, who reportedly were both captivated and repulsed by Pichushkin’s self-satisfied manner and grisly claims. He had also stated that he wished to surpass Andrei Chikatilo, known as the Rostov Ripper, as Russia’s worst serial killer. Chikatilo had been executed in 1994 after being convicted of 52 murders in the southern city of Rostov-onDon in 1992. There was currently a moratorium on the death penalty in Russia. „

Other European News Greece, Turkey Open Gas Pipeline. Greece

and Turkey Nov. 18 formally opened a 178-mile (295-km) pipeline carrying natural gas to Europe from a field in the Caspian Sea controlled by Azerbaijan. The 300 million euro ($440 million) pipeline was designed to help secure European energy supplies by avoiding Russia and the Middle East. [See pp. 345C2; 2006, p. 333D1] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis inaugurated the pipeline in a ceremony on the border of their countries, on the Evros River. The pipeline was reportedly the first joint infrastructure project by Greece and Turkey, and was seen as evidence of improving relations between the historical enemies. U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were also present. The U.S. had encouraged the project as a counterweight to the dominance of Russia’s state-owned gas „ company, OAO Gazprom.

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Lebanon Deadline Passes Without Presidential Vote.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud’s term in office expired Nov. 24 at midnight, leaving the country without a head of state for the first time since its 1975–90 civil war. Legislators from the governing pro-Western March 14 Movement and the opposition Shiite militant movement Hezbollah—which was supported by Iran and Syria—had not not been able to agree on a compromise candidate. The 128-member Lebanese parliament was responsible for electing the president, who was constitutionally required to be a member of Lebanon’s Maronite Christian community. [See p. 760A1] November 29, 2007

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri earlier Nov. 23 had postponed a presidential vote scheduled for that day until Nov. 30, the latest in a string of such delays. He had previously postponed it from Nov. 21. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a member of the March 14 Movement, and his cabinet would govern the country until a president was chosen. Lahoud shortly before stepping down ordered the Lebanese army to take control of security in the country, saying that Lebanon faced a “state of emergency.” The army had already been mobilized to forestall unrest, and legislators said the order would not change its role in the government. March 14 Movement and Hezbollah legislators made conciliatory gestures in order to calm fears of civil strife. Hezbollah promised not to call for protests as long as Siniora’s caretaker government did not make major policy changes, although it said it did not regard that administration as legitimate. The March 14 Movement refrained from acting on previous threats to elect a president with a simple rather than a two-thirds majority, and without a constitutional quorum; the movement held a parliamentary majority of three votes. The U.S. and the main anti-Syrian Christian leader, Samir Geagea, Nov. 21 had claimed that Syria was preventing a compromise candidate from being chosen in order to foment civil unrest in Lebanon. „

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan Mass Walkout in Parliament Over Killings.

Mohammad Yunus Qanuni, speaker of the lower house of Afghanistan’s parliament, Nov. 26 led a mass walkout from the chamber, because he said President Hamid Karzai’s government had ignored parliament’s demand that officials in the northern province of Baghlan be suspended. Qanuni said the officials should be suspended until the government completed an investigation into a bombing in the province that killed 77 people in early November. It was widely thought that many of the victims had been killed by gunfire from bodyguards and police. [See p. 742G1] The Associated Press, citing an internal U.N. report, Nov. 17 said as many as twothirds of the victims, who included 61 schoolchildren and six members of parliament, were killed by gunfire from bodyguards and police, who fired into the crowd for unknown reasons after the bomb exploded. Authorities initially said all the victims had been killed by the bomb, and that the bomb contained ball bearings, explaining what appeared to be bullet wounds in the victims’ bodies. The U.N. report had not been officially released, and was one of several conflicting accounts of the incident. The Taliban, which was waging an insurgency against the government, denied any involvement.

The lawmakers were part of a delegation that was supposed to tour a sugar factory; the bomb exploded as they were being welcomed outside the factory by a large group of children, teachers and local elders. The incident had caused a large public outcry. The government had come under heavy criticism for not doing more to establish security in the country. Additionally, much of the criticism targeted the foreign and domestic private security companies that operated in Afghanistan. Many Afghans believed the companies’ contractors acted with impunity. Qanuni was part of the National Front, the largest opposition party challenging Karzai; one of the slain lawmakers, Sayed Mustafa Kazemi, had been a leader of the party. „

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Pakistan U.S. Secretly Held Pearl Murder Suspect.

Saud Memon, a Pakistani textile magnate who owned the nursery where Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was murdered by Islamic terrorists in 2002, had been secretly held in U.S. and Pakistani custody until shortly before his death, the Journal reported Nov. 12, citing unidentified U.S. and Pakistani law enforcement officials. Memon, 44, who was previously said to have fled abroad, was dumped April 28 outside his family’s home in Karachi, Pakistan, weighing less than 80 pounds (36 kg). He died less than three weeks later on May 18, from complications of tuberculosis and meningitis. [See p. 518B3; 2003, p. 858D3] It was unknown how long Memon had been held in U.S. and Pakistani custody, though his family said he had disappeared in March 2003. Pakistani police official Manzoor Mughal, who was directly involved in the Pearl investigation, May 18 said he had been unaware of Memon’s capture or subsequent release. Both U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources had refused to confirm or deny that Memon had been held in their custody, the Journal reported. Once in U.S. custody, the Journal reported, Memon was questioned about both his alleged role in the Pearl murder and his supposed involvement with the international terrorist network Al Qaeda before being handed over to agents of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. The Journal’s sources alleged that Memon had been involved in an Al Qaeda attempt to synthesize strains of anthrax, presumably for use in terrorist attacks. Following his release from ISI custody, Memon appeared May 3 before Pakistan’s Supreme Court as part of a petition filed by human rights activist Amina Masood. Masood had argued that Memon and others had been tortured during their ISI interrogations. The Supreme Court under then– Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, since ousted by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, had sought to scrutinize the disappearance and treatment of terrorism suspects in Pakistan. [See p. 773E3] „ 793

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Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. He was named rookie of the year Nov. 18. [See 2006, p. 831G1] „

fourth in the men’s handcycle division in his first marathon. Zanardi, 40, finished the race in 1:33:17. [See 2003, p. 1101D3]

Johnson Wins NASCAR Nextel Cup Title.

Bourdais Claims Fourth Champ Car Title.

The Nov. 5 New York City Marathon marked the end of the inaugural World Marathon Majors series, with Kenya’s Robert Cheruiyot and Wami emerging as the winners. In the two-year-long series, runners earned points based on their order of finish in the world’s five major marathons—Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London and New York City—as well as in the 2007 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Track & Field Championships. The leaders at the end of the series each won $500,000. Wami earned the title by placing second in New York, while Cheruiyot had clinched first place when he won the Boston race in April. [See p. 287A3; 2006, p. 920F2]

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Jimmie Johnson Nov. 18 finished seventh in the Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway, earning enough points to clinch the championship of the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit. It was Johnson’s second straight Nextel Cup title. The race was won by Matt Kenseth. [See 2006, p. 940E1] Johnson, who drove a Chevrolet for the Hendrick Motorsports team, ended the season with a total of 6,723 Nextel Cup points. Jeff Gordon, also a Hendrick driver, was second, with 6,646 points, and Clint Bowyer was third, with 6,377 points. Johnson won 10 races in the 2007 season, including four in the “Chase for the Nextel Cup” playoff, which involved the top 12 drivers in the points standings competing for the season title in the last 10 races of the year. Earnhardt Joins Hendrick Team— Dale Earnhardt Jr., the most popular driver on the NASCAR circuit, June 13 revealed that he would join the Hendrick Motorsports team in 2008. In May, he had announced that he would leave his current team, Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI), at the end of the 2007 season. The team had been founded by his late father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., who had died in a crash in the 2001 Daytona 500. Earnhardt Jr., 32, opted to leave the team after he was unable to gain a controlling interest in DEI from his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt. The Hendrick team already had a stable of top drivers, including Johnson and four-time NASCAR champion Gordon. [See p. 355D3] Hendrick July 13 said Earnhardt would no longer be sponsored by the beer brand Budweiser, owned by Anheuser-Busch Cos., after the 2007 season. Hendrick Aug. 15 said DEI would not allow the driver to carry with him his traditional number eight for his car. Earnhardt Sept. 19 announced that in 2008 his car would be number 88, and that his new sponsors would be Amp Energy Drink (owned by PepsiCo Inc.) and the U.S. National Guard. In a related development, DEI and MB2 Motorsports, a team owned by wealthy land developer Bobby Ginn 3rd, July 25 merged. Other News—In other NASCAR news: † Bowyer Sept. 16 won the Sylvania 300 at the New Hampshire International Speedway at Loudon, to claim his first NASCAR victory. The race marked the start of the Chase for the Cup competition. [See 2006, p. 940G1] † Tony Stewart July 29 won the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, held at the Indianapolis (Ind.) Motor Speedway. NASCAR July 31 fined Stewart $25,000 and subtracted 25 points from his total in the drivers’ standings for cursing during a post-race television interview. [See 2006, p. 940A2] † Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia, who had joined NASCAR from Formula One in 2007, June 24 won his first race, the 794

Sebastien Bourdais of France Oct. 21 clinched the Champ Car auto racing circuit points title for a record fourth straight season, by winning the Lexmark Indy 300 in Surfers Paradise, Australia. He ended the season with a Nov. 11 victory in the Grand Prix of Mexico in Mexico City, his eighth win of the year and his 31st career victory. It was his last race on the Champ Car circuit; in 2008, he planned to move to Formula One. [See 2005, p. 904B1] Bourdais finished with 364 points in the drivers’ standings. Justin Wilson of Britain was second, with 281 points, and Robert Dornbos of the Netherlands was third, with 268 points. „

Cheruiyot, Wami Win Marathon Majors—

Elite Runner Dies at Olympic Trials—

Marathons Radcliffe, Lel Win NYC Race. Martin Lel of

Kenya and Paula Radcliffe of Britain Nov. 4 won the men’s and women’s races, respectively, in the 38th annual New York City Marathon. [See 2006, p. 920E1] Radcliffe, 33, won the marathon for the second time in her career, after first triumphing in 2004. The world-record holder in the marathon, she had recently returned to competition after giving birth to her first child Jan. 17. In the New York City Marathon, Radcliffe, who trained during her pregnancy, ran nearly the entire race with Gete Wami of Ethiopia just a few feet behind her. The 32-year-old Wami, who had won the Berlin Marathon in late September, attempted to pass Radcliffe with less than a half-mile left in the race. After briefly falling behind, Radcliffe surged past Wami and opened up her largest lead of the race. She crossed the finish line in two hours, 23 minutes and nine seconds, 23 seconds ahead of Wami. Two-time defending champion Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia was third, with a time of 2:26:13. [See p. 691E3] In the men’s race, Lel, 29, who had also won in 2003, surged past Morocco’s Abderrahim Goumri in the final few hundred yards, finishing in 2:09:04. Goumri crossed the finish line 12 seconds behind Lel. South Africa’s Hendrick Ramaala, the 2004 winner, finished third, in 2:11:25. Wheelchair Results—Defending champion Kurt Fearnley of Australia Nov. 4 won the men’s push-rim wheelchair race in the New York City Marathon, with a time of 1:33:58. Krige Schabort of the U.S. was second, with a time of 1:35:08, and Masazumi Soejima of Japan was third, with a time of 1:36:16. In the women’s push-rim race, Edith Hunkeler of Switzerland won for the third time in four years, finishing in 1:52:38. Britain’s Shelly Woods was second, with a time of 1:54:19, and Amanda Gregory of the U.S. was third, finishing in 1:56:09. Former professional race car driver Alex Zanardi of Italy, who had lost both legs in a racing accident in 2001, placed

Ryan Shay, a top American distance runner, Nov. 3 died during the men’s Olympic marathon trials, also held in New York City. Shay, 28, collapsed at the 5½-mile mark of the race, and was pronounced dead soon after. Although the cause of death had yet to be officially determined, his father, Joe Shay, said his son had been diagnosed with an enlarged heart when he was 14 years old, and that he had apparently died of a heart attack. However, Shay reportedly had been cleared to compete by doctors earlier in the year. The race was won by Ryan Hall, Shay’s friend and occasional training partner. The top three finishers qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China’s capital. „

Rugby South Africa Wins World Cup. South Africa Oct. 20 won the Rugby World Cup, defeating defending champion England, 15– 6, in the final at the Stade de France in St. Denis, near Paris. The tournament, which had begun Sept. 7, was comprised of 20 national teams and featured several upsets and surprising performances by lowerranked squads. The 48 games in the World Cup were played in 10 venues across France, with Wales and Scotland also hosting matches. [See 2003, p. 967A1] South Africa, known as the Springboks, won for the second time in the history of the World Cup; it had first won in 1995, just as the nation was emerging from the apartheid era. In 1995, South Africa had just one nonwhite player in its starting lineup. In the 2007 tournament, just two colored players (as mixed-race citizens were called in South Africa) and no black players started in the final, prompting criticism from some South Africans that the team did not reflect the racial makeup of the country’s overwhelmingly black population. [See 2004, p. 904B2] In the final, South Africa, coached by Jake White and captained by John Smit, scored all 15 of its points on penalty kicks—four by fullback Percy Montgomery and one by center Francois Steyn. FlyFACTS ON FILE

half Jonny Wilkinson kicked two penalties for England’s only points. (Wilkinson ended the 2007 tournament with 249 total World Cup points, passing Scotland’s Gavin Hastings as the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer.) England’s progression to the final was considered surprising, since their pre– World Cup record had been poor and they had struggled in their pool games, including a 36–0 loss to South Africa Sept. 14. South African winger Bryan Habana, one of the two colored players who started in the final, Oct. 21 was named the International Rugby Board (IRB) player of the year. Habana scored eight tries in seven matches in the World Cup, tying a record for the most tries in a World Cup set by New Zealand winger Jonah Lomu in 1999. Springbok coach White Oct. 31 announced that he would resign after the team concluded an end-of-the-year tour of the Northern Hemisphere. Upsets Mark Earlier Rounds—The earlier rounds of the World Cup were marked by upsets and the emergence of some new teams among the traditionally powerful nations. Argentina, long considered a second-tier team, Sept. 7 stunned France, 17– 12, in the opening game of the tournament in St. Denis. Also, Argentina and Fiji advanced to the second round at the expense of two traditional powers, Ireland and Wales. In the quarterfinals, France Oct. 6 defeated the world’s top-ranked team and tournament favorite, the New Zealand All Blacks, 20–18, in Cardiff, Wales. In another surprise result, England Oct. 6 defeated Australia, 12–10, in Marseille, France. Argentina Oct. 7 advanced to the semifinals for the first time ever by defeating Scotland, 19–13, in St. Denis. South Africa Oct. 7 beat Fiji, 37–20, in Marseille in the fourth quarterfinal. In the semifinals, England Oct. 13 beat home favorite France, 14–9, in a tense match in St. Denis, and South Africa the next day soundly defeated Argentina, 37– 13. Argentina Oct. 19 beat France, 34–10, in Paris to win the third-place match. „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Awards Bush Honors Artists, Cultural Figures.

President George W. Bush Nov. 15 at the White House presented the 2007 National Medal of Arts to eight individuals and one institution and the 2007 National Humanities Medal to nine individuals and a group. Bush also belatedly presented a 2006 arts medal to Cincinnati Pops Orchestra conductor Erich Kunzel, who had been unable to attend the previous year’s White House ceremony. [See 2006, p. 942A3] The 2007 National Medal of Arts recipients were: Morten Lauridsen, composer of frequently performed choral music November 29, 2007

N. Scott Momaday, author of books on Native American subjects Roy R. Neuberger, 104-year-old philanthropist and art patron who founded the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, N.Y. R. Craig Noel, theater director and founder of San Diego, Calif.’s Old Globe Theater Les Paul, jazz guitarist and guitar designer Henry Z. Steinway, retired president and chairman of piano manufacturer Steinway and Sons, a company founded by his greatgrandfather George Tooker, painter Andrew Wyeth, painter University of Idaho Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, a 40-year-old musical enterprise based at the school’s campus in Moscow, Idaho

The 10 Humanities Medal recipients were: Stephen H. Balch, founder of the National Association of Scholars Russell Freedman, author of nonfiction books for children Victor Davis Hanson, military historian Roger Hertog, philanthropist supporting New York City cultural institutions Cynthia Ozick, novelist and literary critic Richard Pipes, specialist in Russian, Soviet and Eastern European history Pauline L. Schultz, founder of Wyoming’s Salt Creek Oil Field Museum Henry Leonard Snyder, scholar and bibliographer Ruth R. Wisse, authority on Yiddish language, literature and culture Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, a group dedicated to the memory of the men and women who rescued and restored art treasures during and after World War II „ National Book Awards. The National Book Foundation Nov. 14 in New York City presented its 58th annual National Book Awards. The ceremony was hosted by author and humorist Fran Lebowitz for the second year in a row. Award winners each received $10,000 and a bronze statue. [See 2006, p. 903G3] Denis Johnson won the fiction award for his novel Tree of Smoke, which dealt with the Vietnam War. (The author was on assignment in Iraq, and his award was presented to his wife, Cindy Johnson.) The award for nonfiction went to New York Times reporter Tim Weiner for Legacy of Ashes: The History of the C.I.A., a critical history of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. In the category of young people’s liteature the winner was Sherman Alexie for The Absolutely True Diary of a PartTime Indian, an autobiographical work based on its author’s experiences as an educationally privileged young Native American. And former U.S. poet laureate Robert Hass, who held the post from 1995 to 1997, won the poetry award for his latest collection of verse, Time and Materials. [See 1995, p. 352C2] A lifetime achievement award was presented to novelist, essayist and memoirist Joan Didion, 72. In accepting the award, Didion paid tribute to author Norman Mailer, who had received the same lifetimeachievement award two years earlier—the year Didion won the nonfiction award for her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking—and had died four days earlier. Didi-

on called Mailer “someone who really, truly knew what writing was for.” [See p. 760C3; 2005, p. 844A2, D2] „ Gish Prize. Performance artist Laurie Anderson Nov. 13 in New York City was presented with the 2007 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, worth $300,000. The prize honored creative artists whose work was perceived as having enriched “mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life. [See 2006, p. 832B1] Anderson, 60, had worked in many fields, including music, film and photography. Her musical activities included composing, singing, and the technologically inventive creation and manipulation of sounds. A concert film featuring her work, Home of the Brave, was released in 1986. [See 1986, p. 368B2] „ Goncourt Prize. France’s most prestigious literary honor, the Prix Goncourt, Nov. 5 was awarded to Gilles Leroy, 48, a former journalist, for his 12th novel, Alabama Song. The book focused on Zelda Fitzgerald, who, with her husband, novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, came to be widely identified with the excesses of the decade known as the Roaring Twenties. She, however, had a mental breakdown in the early 1930s, and spent the last years of her life in a mental institution. [See 2006, p. 872B2; 1986, p. 460E3] „ Bobbitt Poetry Prize. W. S. Merwin Oct. 31 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., accepted the 2006 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry. The biennial prize, worth $10,000, had last been presented in April 2005. Merwin, 80, was honored for his book Present Company, published in 2005. He had won a National Book Award that year for his preceding collection, Migration: New and Selected Poems. [See 2005, pp. 844B2, 379D1] „

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Theater Openings Clay. One-man show about a troubled white boy from the suburbs who becomes a hip-hop artist. By Matt Sax, developed in collaboration with Eric Rosen. Directed by Rosen. With Sax. In Culver City, Calif., at the Kirk Douglas Theater. Sept. 19. (This show was jointly produced by two Chicago theater companies, About Face Theater and Lookingglass Theater Co., and originated in Chicago in September 2006.) Die Mommie Die! Comedy about a faded Hollywood actress, played in drag by Charles Busch, the show’s author, who at one point murders her husband, a crime for which her children see fit to punish her. Directed by Carl Andress. With Busch, Kristine Nielsen, Chris Hoch, Bob Ari, Ashley Morris and Van Hansis. In New York City, at New World Stages. Oct. 21. The Emperor Jones. Revival of Eugene O’Neill’s 1920 drama about the rise and fall of the tyrannical black ruler of a small Caribbean island. Directed by Thea Sharrock. With Paterson Joseph, John Marquez and Dwayne Barnaby. In London, at the Royal National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre. Aug. 28. (This production originated at a tiny, 64-seat London theater, the Gate, 18 months before being transferred to the Olivier, a theater with more than 1,100 seats.) The Masque of the Red Death. In this site-specific adaptation of nine short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, including the titular tale, audiences are invited to explore a Victorian-era municipal building converted into an arts center. Directed by Felix Barrett; choreographed by Maxine Doyle. With members of London’s Punchdrunk theater group. In London, at the Battersea Arts Centre. Oct. 2. [See 2006, p. 1042C1] Mauritius. Broadway production of a drama, first mounted in 2006 in Boston, Mass., about two half-sisters battling over their late mother’s stamp collection.

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By Theresa Rebeck. Directed by Doug Hughes. With Alison Pill, Katie Finneran, Dylan Baker, Bobby Cannavale and F. Murray Abraham. In New York City, at the Biltmore Theater. Oct. 4. [See 2006, p. 987F3] Pygmalion. Broadway revival of George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play about the transformation of a cockney girl, Eliza Doolittle, into an elegant Englishwoman; the musical My Fair Lady, by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, was based on this play. Directed by David Grindley. With Claire Danes and Jefferson Mays. In New York City, at the American Airlines Theater. Oct. 18. [See 2003, p. 400C3; 2001, p. 424F1] The Ritz. Broadway revival of a 1975 comedy in which a sanitation company president fearing for his life takes refuge in a gay bathhouse. By Terrence McNally. Directed by Joe Mantello. With Kevin Chamberlin, Rosie Perez, Brooks Ashmanskas and Lenny Venito. In New York City, at Studio 54. Oct. 11. [See 1975, p. 203F2] 33 Variations. Drama in which a modern-day musicologist tries to figure out why German composer Ludwig van Beethoven spent so much time and energy creating an elaborate piano piece, the Diabelli Variations, based on a seemingly trivial waltz; Beethoven himself appears as a character in the play. Written and directed by Moises Kaufman. With Mary Beth Peil, Graeme Malcolm, Laura Odeh and Greg Keller. In Washington, D.C., at the Kreeger Theater. Sept. 2. Trying. Two-character drama whose author draws upon her experiences as a onetime secretary to Francis Biddle, a U.S. attorney general under President Franklin D. Roosevelt who later served as the chief U.S. judge at the post–World War II Nuremberg war crimes trials. By Joanna McClelland Glass. Directed by Cameron Watson. With Alan Mandell and Rebecca Mozo. In Burbank, Calif., at the Colony Theater. Aug. 11. [See 1968, p. 484F1] War Horse. Drama based on a 1982 children’s novel whose central character is a horse from the English countryside that is requisitioned for military duty during World War I. By Nick Stafford, adapted from Michael Morpurgo’s book of the same name. Directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris. With Luke Treadaway, Angus Wright and a group of life-sized horse puppets created by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Co. In London, at the Royal National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre. Oct. 17. „

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Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, a recent Nobel Prize winner, Nov. 26 had his first private meeting with President George W. Bush since Bush defeated Gore in the bitterly disputed 2000 presidential election. The two men met for more than 30 minutes in Washington, D.C., in the Oval Office of the White House, and reportedly discussed global warming. As a private citizen, Gore had become a leading proponent of controls on greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming, which had led to his sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with a United Nations–sponsored body. After meeting with Bush, who had recently shown a greater willingness to confront climate-change issues, Gore took part in a formal picture-taking ceremony at the White House, which included other U.S. winners of Nobel Prizes in 2007. [See pp. 690C2, 645E2] Some 400 boxes of journal entries, correspondence and other archival material from the estate of historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., who died in February, had been purchased by the New York Public Library, it was announced Nov. 26. No purchase price was disclosed; the material was expected to be made available to the public in a year or two. Schlesinger had been a leading U.S. public intellectual for decades, and a large selection from his diaries had been published earlier in the year. [See p. 136F1] „ 796

O B I T UA R I E S BEJART, Maurice (born Maurice Jean Berger),

80, French-born choreographer and ballet company founder whose flamboyant, erotically charged creations, though disdained by some critics, appealed to a wide public, particularly in Europe; he was based for nearly three decades (1960–87) in Brussels, Belgium, where his troupe was known as the Ballet of the 20th Century; since 1987, his company, renamed Bejart Ballet Lausanne, had been based in Lausanne, Switzerland; many roles in his ballets were originated by Argentine-born dancer Jorge Donn, his longtime companion, who died in 1992; born Jan. 1, 1927, in Marseille; died Nov. 22 at a Lausanne hospital, where he was being treated for heart and kidney ailments. [See 1992, p. 948A3; 1985, p. 704G1] ELLISON, Mary Lillian, 84, for decades the bestknown figure in women’s professional wrestling, fighting under the name the “Fabulous Moolah”; in 1995, she was the first woman inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Hall of Fame; born July 22, 1923, in Tookiedoo, S.C.; died Nov. 2 at a hospital in Lexington, S.C., from complications of shoulder replacement surgery. HYDE, Henry John, 83, Illinois Republican who served 16 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1975–2007), representing a Chicago-area district; although not a hard-line conservative—he favored some forms of gun control, for example, and supported many foreign aid initiatives—he was perhaps best known for his enduring opposition to abortion; in 1976, as a freshman congressman, he secured passage of what came to be known as the Hyde Amendment, which banned federal funding of abortions for poor women; as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, a post he held from 1995 to 2001, he managed 1998 impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton, linked to Clinton’s affair with a former White House intern; after Clinton was impeached, he played a key role in Clinton’s 1999 U.S. Senate trial, which ended in an acquittal; in 2001, he became chairman of the House International Relations Committee (now known as the Committee on Foreign Affairs), and held the post until his retirement; in early November, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but was too ill to attend the White House ceremony in person, and the medal was presented to one of his sons; born April 18, 1924, in Chicago; died Nov. 29 at a Chicago hospital, of cardiac arrhythmia; he had had openheart surgery in July, which had led to kidney failure, for which he was being treated when he died. [See pp. 744G2, 292E2; 2006, pp. 858A1, 747E3, 595E1, G1, 470A1, 277E2; Indexes 1976–2005, 1974] LERNER, Abram, 94, painter and art historian who helped financier Joseph Hirshhorn amass the vast art collection that came to be housed at the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., which opened in 1974; he was the museum’s first director, holding the post until 1984; born April 11, 1913, in New York City; died Oct. 31 at an assisted living home in Canaan, Conn., several weeks after a heart attack. [See 2001, p. 912D3; 1981, p. 664D2] McDARRAH, Fred(erick William), 81, photojournalist who for half a century chronicled major political and cultural developments in New York City while working for the nationally circulated alternative weekly the Village Voice; born Nov. 5, 1926, in New York City; died in his sleep Nov. 6 at his New York home, a day after celebrating his 81st birthday and 47th wedding anniversary; his death preceded that of author and Voice cofounder Norman Mailer by four days. [See p. 760D3] McNAIR Jr., Robert Evander, 83, Democrat from South Carolina who was his state’s governor from 1965 to 1971; elected lieutenant governor in 1962, he became governor in April 1965, replacing the incumbent, Donald Russell, who resigned to serve out the term of a deceased U.S. senator; McNair was elected to a full term as governor in 1966, but decided not to seek reelection after his term ended; viewed as a moderate on racial issues during the turbulent civil rights era, he was nearly chosen to be the vice presidential candidate on the 1968 Democratic ticket headed by Sen. Hubert Humphrey (Minn.); he was ultimately ruled out, though, for having been linked to the Orangeburg Massacre, in which three black students were shot to death by highway patrolmen at a historically black South Carolina college in February 1968; born Dec. 14, 1923, in Cades, S.C.; died Nov. 17 at his home in Charleston, S.C., of brain cancer. [See 1971, p. 74E3; Indexes 1968–70, 1965–66] NUXHALL, Joe (Joseph Henry), 79, left-handed pitcher whose June 1944 debut with the Cincinnati

Reds baseball team at age 15 made him the youngest player in Major League Baseball’s modern era; his association with the team, as a pitcher and then a broadcaster, continued for the rest of his life; born July 30, 1928, in Hamilton, Ohio; died Nov. 15 at a hospital in Fairfield, Ohio; he had been battling lymphoma and heart disease. [See 1955, p. 323E2] O’NEILL, William Atchison, 77, Connecticut Democrat who was his state’s governor for a decade, and the longest-serving Connecticut governor in nearly two centuries; elected lieutenant governor in 1978, he became governor on Dec. 31, 1980, when the incumbent, Ella T. Grasso (D), resigned for health reasons, five weeks before her death; he was elected in his own right in 1982 and reelected in 1986; his administration was particularly noted for its transportation and education initiatives; born Aug. 11, 1930, in East Hampton, Conn.; died Nov. 24 at his East Hampton home, of chronic emphysema. [See 1990, pp. 832D2, 677A3, 319F3, 191A3, 157G2; 1988, p. 218C2; Indexes 1985–87, 1980–82] ROCHE, (Donald Robert) Paul, 91, British poet and translator of Greek and Roman classics; he had a decades-long, apparently platonic, friendship with painter Duncan Grant, a founder of the Bloomsbury group of unconventional writers and artists that coalesced in the Bloomsbury area of London before World War I and lasted until the 1930s; born Sept. 25, 1916, in Mussoorie, India; died Oct. 30 at his home in Soller, on the Spanish island of Majorca, of cancer. [See 1978, p. 440F2] SONNABEND, Ileana (born Ileana Schapira), 92, art dealer who in the 1960s, with her second husband, literary scholar Michael Sonnabend, presided over an art gallery in Paris that introduced Europeans to the early work of various U.S. artists who were to become internationally dominant, including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein; she had married Sonnabend after divorcing art dealer Leo Castelli, in 1959; by then, Castelli had already emerged as a major presence on the New York City art scene; after she returned to New York in the late 1960s, she opened what became one of the leading contemporary art galleries in the city’s SoHo district; she often coordinated shows with Castelli, with whom she remained on good terms for the rest of his life (he died in 1999); born Oct. 28, 1914, in Bucharest, Romania; died Oct. 21 at her New York City home, after several months of illness. [See 1999, p. 620B3] THOMPSON, Hank (Henry William), 82, singer, guitarist and songwriter whose mastery of Texas musical traditions made him a country music star for decades, beginning in the late 1940s; at the peak of his popularity, in the 1950s, he had 21 songs that reached the Top 20 on the country charts, with five Top 10s in 1954, his biggest year; his band, the Brazos Country Boys, was Billboard’s top-ranked country band from 1953 to 1965, reportedly the longest stretch of its kind; born Sept. 3, 1925, in Waco, Texas; died Nov. 6 at his home in Keller, Texas, of lung cancer. VARAH, Rev. (Edward) Chad, 95, Anglican priest who, in 1953, while serving as the rector of a historic London church, founded the Samaritans, a telephone helpline charity offering counseling to suicidal people; eventually, there were more than 200 branches in Britain and Ireland, and many more in about 40 other countries; he also became a sex therapist, known for his liberal views on such matters as abortion and homosexuality; born Nov. 12, 1911, in Barton-uponHumber, England; died Nov. 8 at a hospital in Basingstoke, England, after a period of ill health. VIERTEL, Peter, 86, novelist, memoirist and screenwriter; he drew upon his experiences as an onscene script doctor for The African Queen, a 1951 film directed by John Huston, for his 1953 novel White Hunter, Black Heart, which in turn served as the basis for a 1990 Clint Eastwood movie of the same name, for which he collaborated on the screenplay; from 1960 until her death in October, he was married to British actress Deborah Kerr; born Nov. 16, 1920, in Dresden, Germany; died Nov. 4 at a clinic in Marbella, Spain, of lymphoma. [See p. 708B3; 1990, p. 712G2; Indexes 1963, 1960, 1957–58, 1953, 1951, 1948–49] WOODRUFF, John Youie, 92, track-and-field gold medalist at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, where he won the 800-meter run; he was one of five black athletes from the U.S. who won a total of eight gold medals in Berlin—with four of them won by sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens—helping to discredit Nazi German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s claims of Aryan racial superiority; born July 5, 1915, in Connellsville, Pa.; died Oct. 30 at an assisted living facility in Fountain Hills, Ariz., of atrial fibrillation, and chronic kidney failure linked to diabetes; both his legs had been amputated in recent years. [See 1993, p. 496G3; 1980, p. 280E1] „

November 29, 2007

U.S. Reports That Iran Stopped Nuclear Weapons Program in 2003 Assessment Contradicts 2005 Finding.

The U.S. government Dec. 3 declassified a summary of a U.S. intelligence report concluding that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and had not since resumed work on the weapons’ development. The report contradicted a previous report released in May 2005, which alleged that the Iranian government was actively working towards developing nuclear arms. The report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), was a consensus by the U.S.’s 16 intelligence agencies. [See p. 761A1; for excerpts of the report, see box, p. 798A1] Analysts said the NIE’s release represented a major shift in the U.S. approach to Iran, which under U.S. President George W. Bush had been marked by increasingly confrontational rhetoric. The report emerged as the U.S. was seeking to rally support for a new set of United Nations sanctions against Iran for failing to halt its uranium enrichment program as demanded by the U.N. Security Council. The NIE expressed “high confidence” that Iran’s covert weapons program had been discontinued in 2003, and “medium confidence” that the program had not been restarted since then. It said the U.S. intelligence agencies “do not know whether [Iran] currently intends to develop nuclear weapons,” although it said the nation would likely hold on to that option. It judged that there was a small chance that Iran could enrich enough uranium to produce a weapon by 2009 if it resumed production, but that it would more likely take until 2010–15. The report noted that Iran was proceeding with uranium enrichment activities for its civilian nuclear energy program. Because that was conducted openly and under the supervision of international monitors, the report did not consider it part of a covert military program. The NIE said Iran had closed down its military program as a response to international pressure, shortly after the United Nations had started investigating reports that it was developing nuclear weapons. The report said the move indicated that Iran’s “decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic, and military costs.” The NIE said Iran’s “decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.” The 2005 report had concluded that it had “high confidence that Iran currently is determined to have nuclear weapons.” The conclusions reportedly stemmed from intelligence obtained beginning in 2004, which included intercepts from Iranian military officials, but had been agreed on by U.S. intelligence agencies only in the past several weeks. The Los Angeles Times Dec. 5 reported that one of the main pieces of intelligence involved was a journal from an Iranian source documenting the deci-

sion to suspend the nuclear program. The New York Times Dec. 6 reported that intelligence officials had learned in the summer that the Iranians had shut down the program, after obtaining notes from a meeting of Iranian officers who complained about the program’s shuttering in 2003. The report was finished Nov. 27, and Bush and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney were briefed on it the next day. The full 150-page report remained classified. However, Donald Kerr, the U.S. principal deputy director of national intelligence, Dec. 3 said in a statement that a summary had been released “to ensure that an accurate presentation is available,” in light of the NIE’s significant differences from the 2005 report. Unidentified intelligence officials cited in news reports said that they had undertaken a particularly searching reexamination of previous findings on the subject in light of the revelations that their reports on Iraq’s weapons programs, used to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003, had been wrong. Bush Warns Iran Is Still ‘Dangerous’—

Bush Dec. 4 in a news conference warned that Iran was still a threat and that the NIE was “a warning signal” that it could restart development of nuclear weapons. “Look, Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, and Iran will be dangerous, if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon,” he said. He said that the conclusion that Iran had halted its program as a result of international pressure was a vindication of his administration’s approach. Bush, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other top aides Dec. 4 reportedly called leaders of the five other countries involved in nuclear talks with Iran—Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China—in order to convince them to keep pressure on Iran. “This report is not an ‘O.K., everybody needs to relax and quit’ report,” Bush said at the news conference. Bush as recently as October had referred to Iran’s nuclear ambitions as presenting the danger of a “World War III.” [See p. 678B3] Bush at the news conference emphasized the report’s conclusion that “a growing amount of intelligence indicates Iran was engaged in covert uranium conversion and uranium enrichment activity” from the late 1980s until 2003. Administration aides said it represented the first solid evidence of such activity. Bush said Mike McConnell, the U.S. director of national intelligence, had alerted him in August to the intelligence that the NIE was based on, but that McConnell had not explained it to him in detail. U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), a Democratic presidential candidate, criticized Bush’s statement, saying, “I refuse to believe that. If that’s true, he has the most incompetent staff in American, modern American history and he’s one of the most incompetent presidents in modern American history.”

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3495* December 6, 2007

B White House Press Secretary Dana Perino Dec. 5 released a statement saying McConnell had told Bush that new intelligence might indicate that “Iran does in fact have a covert weapons program, but it may be suspended.” However, Perino added, McConnell had said the intelligence community had not yet come to a conclusion at the time. Bush Dec. 5 in a speech at Eppley Airfield near Omaha, Neb., called on Iran to acknowledge and give details on its pre2003 nuclear program. He also indicated that he would not change the U.S.’s policy towards Iran. U.S. Senate Dec. 3 Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) called for renewed diplomatic efforts towards Iran and said the NIE was “directly challenging some of this administration’s alarming rhetoric about the threat posed by Iran.” Democratic presidential candidates also portrayed the new intelligence as a blow to the Bush administration’s policy. However, they also reiter-

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE U.S. reports that Iran stopped nuclear weapons program in 2003; assessment contradicts 2005 finding. PAGE 797

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Pro-Putin party wins Russian parliamentary elections in landslide. PAGE 799

GOP candidate Romney gives speech on religion. PAGE 802

Democrats clash over Iran in debate. PAGE 802

Supreme Court hears Guantanamo detainees case. PAGE 803

Bush announces mortgage aid agreement.

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Venezuelan voters reject expansion of Chavez’s powers. PAGE 810

Putin signs arms treaty suspension. PAGE 812

Turkish military claims attack on Kurds in Iraq. PAGE 813

Pakistani ex–Prime Minister Sharif barred from elections. PAGE 814

*First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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‘KEY JUDGMENTS’ OF THE U.S. INTELLIGENCE REPORT ON IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

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Following are the unclassified “Key Judgments” of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear weapons activities, released Dec. 3, with contrasting findings from a 2005 NIE [See p. 797A1]: A. We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program; we also assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons. We judge with high confidence that the halt, and Tehran’s announcement of its decision to suspend its declared uranium enrichment program and sign an Additional Protocol to its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Safeguards Agreement, was directed primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure resulting from exposure of Iran’s previously undeclared nuclear work. We assess with high confidence that until fall 2003, Iranian military entities were working under government direction to develop nuclear weapons. We judge with high confidence that the halt lasted at least several years. (Because of intelligence gaps discussed elsewhere in this Estimate, however, DOE and the NIC [the Department of Energy and the National Intelligence Council] assess with only moderate confidence that the halt to those activities represents a halt to Iran’s entire nuclear weapons program.) We assess with moderate confidence Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007, but we do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons. We continue to assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapon. Tehran’s decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005. Our assessment that the program probably was halted primarily in response to international pressure suggests Iran may be more vulnerable to influence on the issue than we judged previously.

B. We continue to assess with low confidence that Iran probably has imported at least some weaponsusable fissile material, but still judge with moderateto-high confidence it has not obtained enough for a nuclear weapon. We cannot rule out that Iran has acquired from abroad—or will acquire in the future—a nuclear weapon or enough fissile material for a weapon. Barring such acquisitions, if Iran wants to have nuclear weapons it would need to produce sufficient amounts of fissile material indigenously—which we judge with high confidence it has not yet done. C. We assess centrifuge enrichment is how Iran probably could first produce enough fissile material for a weapon, if it decides to do so. Iran resumed its declared centrifuge enrichment activities in January 2006, despite the continued halt in the nuclear weapons program. Iran made significant progress in 2007 installing centrifuges at Natanz, but we judge with moderate confidence it still faces significant technical problems operating them. We judge with moderate confidence that the earliest possible date Iran would be technically capable of producing enough HEU [highly enriched uranium] for a weapon is late 2009, but that this is very unlikely. [2005 Finding: Iran could produce enough fissile material for a weapon by the end of this decade if it were to make more rapid and successful progress than we have seen to date.]

We judge with moderate confidence Iran probably would be technically capable of producing enough HEU for a weapon sometime during the 2010-2015 time frame. (INR [the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research] judges Iran is unlikely to achieve this capability before 2013 because of foreseeable technical and programmatic problems.) All agencies recognize the possibility that this capability may not be attained until after 2015. [2005 Finding: We have moderate confidence in projecting when Iran is likely to make a nuclear weapon; we assess that it is unlikely before early-to-mid next decade.]

[2005 Finding: Assess with high confidence that Iran currently is determined to develop nuclear weapons despite its international obligations and international pressure, but we do not assess that Iran is immovable.]

D. Iranian entities are continuing to develop a range of technical capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons, if a decision is made to do so. For example, Iran’s civilian uranium enrichment program is continuing. We also assess with high confidence that since fall 2003, Iran has been conducting research and development projects with commercial and conventional military applications—

ated their own tough stances towards Iran, as did Republican candidates. [See p. 802E2] U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R, Neb.) said the new intelligence removes “if nothing else, the urgency that we have to attack Iran, or knock out facilities…I don’t think you can overstate the importance of this.” International Reaction—Iranian officials Dec. 4 hailed the report as vindicating their claims that they were not developing nuclear weapons. “Some of the same countries which had questions or ambiguities about our nuclear program are changing their views realistically,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Dec. 5 said the U.S. NIE was “a declaration of the Iranian people’s victory against the great powers,” and an indirect admission by the U.S. of its “mistake.” He added that Iran would continue with its program to enrich uranium for civilian purposes. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei Dec. 4 said in a statement that the NIE “tallies with the agency’s consistent statements over the last few years that—although Iran still needs to clarify some important aspects of its past and present

nuclear activities—the agency has no concrete evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons program or undeclared nuclear facilities in Iran.” He added that it “should help to defuse the current crisis.” However, unidentified IAEA officials criticized the NIE as being too generous towards Iran, and questioned whether that nation had actually stopped its weapons program, the New York Times reported Dec. 4. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak Dec. 4 rejected the NIE’s findings, saying that while Iran may have discontinued its nuclear weapons program in 2003, it had since resumed arms development. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would continue to pursue diplomacy to compel Iran to shut down its weapons program. British and French officials said the report proved that the international community’s engagement with Iran was working but cautioned that diplomatic pressure needed to be maintained. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel Dec. 6 at a meeting in Paris said Iran remained a threat and expressed support for continued pressure. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) foreign ministers the same day also supported con-

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some of which would also be of limited use for nuclear weapons. E. We do not have sufficient intelligence to judge confidently whether Tehran is willing to maintain the halt of its nuclear weapons program indefinitely while it weighs its options, or whether it will or already has set specific deadlines or criteria that will prompt it to restart the program. Our assessment that Iran halted the program in 2003 primarily in response to international pressure indicates Tehran’s decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs. This, in turn, suggests that some combination of threats of intensified international scrutiny and pressures, along with opportunities for Iran to achieve its security, prestige, and goals for regional influence in other ways, might—if perceived by Iran’s leaders as credible—prompt Tehran to extend the current halt to its nuclear weapons program. It is difficult to specify what such a combination might be. We assess with moderate confidence that convincing the Iranian leadership to forgo the eventual development of nuclear weapons will be difficult given the linkage many within the leadership probably see between nuclear weapons development and Iran’s key national security and foreign policy objectives, and given Iran’s considerable effort from at least the late 1980s to 2003 to develop such weapons. In our judgment, only an Iranian political decision to abandon a nuclear weapons objective would plausibly keep Iran from eventually producing nuclear weapons—and such a decision is inherently reversible. F. We assess with moderate confidence that Iran probably would use covert facilities—rather than its declared nuclear sites—for the production of highly enriched uranium for a weapon. A growing amount of intelligence indicates Iran was engaged in covert uranium conversion and uranium enrichment activity, but we judge that these efforts probably were halted in response to the fall 2003 halt, and that these efforts probably had not been restarted through at least mid2007. G. We judge with high confidence that Iran will not be technically capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon before about 2015. H. We assess with high confidence that Iran has the scientific, technical and industrial capacity eventually to produce nuclear weapons if it decides to do so.

Facts On File

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jonathan Taylor MANAGING EDITOR: Jennifer Dunham SENIOR EDITOR: Joshua Lustig EDITORS: Rahul Chadha, Ryu Spaeth ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Todd Grennan, Ian McGullam, Shannon O’Toole DATABASE COORDINATOR: Ben Miller INDEX EDITOR: Jonathan Leith COPY EDITOR: Walter Kronenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Ernesto Malinis Jr., John Wright FACTS ON FILE World News Digest is published weekly by Facts On File News Services, an imprint of Infobase Publishing, 132 West 31st Street, 17th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10001 (212-290-8090). Subscription $1,090 a year. Yearbooks (bound volumes) available from 1941. Cumulative Index published twice a month. Vice President & Publisher: Louise Bloomfield. Associate Publisher: Marjorie B. Bank. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Facts On File World News Digest, Facts On File News Services, 132 West 31st Street, 17th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10001

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FACTS ON FILE

London Meeting Sees No Progress—

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear envoy, Nov. 30 met in London for a new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program. The talks produced no new concessions from Iran, and Solana said, “I have to admit that after five hours of meetings, I expected more, and therefore I am disappointed.” He added that there would be more talks before the end of the year “only if circumstances permit.” Jalili, however, said the talks had been “good” and that they had agreed to meet again in December. The meeting was the first at which Jalili had led negotiations, after he had replaced the previous envoy, Ali Larijani. [See p. 721E3] Unnamed officials said that Jalili in the meeting had said all previous proposals made in past meetings were invalid, and that U.N. Security Council resolutions penalizing Iran for failing to suspend its nuclear program were illegal, the New York Times reported Dec. 2. Representatives of the six nations involved in talks with Iran Dec. 1 met in Paris to discuss imposing further sanctions against Iran, after the failure of the London talks. A French official after the meeting said they were working on a sanctions resolution, and hoped it would be agreed on within the next few weeks. A meeting in Brussels scheduled for Nov. 26 had been canceled after China did not send a representative. ElBaradei Nov. 22 at a meeting of the IAEA’s 35-country board had said Iran was providing limited cooperation in the agency’s investigation of its past nuclear activities, but that it needed to do more. He said the IAEA was “unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities” due to its lack of current information about Iran’s nuclear program.

Pro-Putin Party Wins Russian Election in Landslide Vote Called ‘Referendum’ on Putin’s Rule.

United Russia, Russia’s dominant political party, which had placed President Vladimir V. Putin at the head of its party list, Dec. 2 claimed 64.1% of the votes in Russia’s parliamentary elections, with 98% of votes counted. Putin and his administration had cast the election as a referendum on the president’s eight-year rule. Boris Gryzlov, the outgoing speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, Dec. 3 said the vote was “a referendum of support” for Putin, adding that “the Russian voters support the political course he has taken in the last eight years.” [See p. 792D2; 2003, p. 1004D1] United Russia won 315 of the 450 seats in the Duma, a majority large enough for December 6, 2007

the party to amend the constitution. The Communist Party, the only opposition party to clear the 7% threshold needed to be seated in the Duma, won 57 seats with 11.6% of the vote. Two pro-Putin parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and Fair Russia, won 40 and 38 seats, respectively (on 8.2% and 7.6% of the vote). Voter turnout was approximately Members of the Nashi (“Ours”) movement loyal to Russian President Vladimir V. in Moscow’s Red Square Dec. 6 celebrate the victory of Putin’s supporters in 63%, according to Putin parliamentary elections held Dec. 2. the Central Election tion in Russia after he entered the Duma. Commission. Putin, in his two terms, had overseen Britain had sought his extradition, but Ruswidespread economic growth driven large- sia denied the request. ly by rising oil and gas prices, and had Putin Critics Allege Unfair Campaigning— nearly paid off the national debt. His rule The election came after a campaign season had been preceded by a period of economic marked by reports of bias and coercion by instability under the administrations of the state. Media coverage of the campaigns former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in the prelude to the vote had been heavily and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, biased toward United Russia; opposition Putin’s predecessor. Under Putin, pensions parties were virtually ignored. Some oppoand salaries had increased, and Russia had sition parties were reportedly harassed by regained much of the international status it authorities, and opposition rallies were rouhad lost during the chaotic early years of tinely broken up by police. In one instance the post-Soviet era. reported Nov. 14 by the Canadian newspaPutin, whose second presidential term per the Globe and Mail, opposition leader would expire in March 2008, was constitu- Mikhail Kasyanov had scheduled a meeting tionally barred from seeking a third con- with students at a library in the city of Tver, secutive term. However, he had repeatedly but found that officials had closed all the listated his intention to remain an authority braries in the city that day. [See p. 792D2] in the government, but had not explained Stringent guidelines set prior to the elechow. Many analysts speculated that by tion served to lock all but one opposition heading United Russia he was preparing to party out of the Duma. Those guidelines inbecome prime minister. Putin in the past cluded a requirement that parties have at had said he was considering that option. least 50,000 members in order to run in the However, Putin had said he opposed both a election, up from the 10,000 required in constitutional amendment that would al- 2003. Parties that were allowed to register low him to remain president and one that had to win at least 7% of the national vote would create a parliamentary democracy in order to sit in the Duma, as opposed to and make the position of president ceremo- the 5% needed in 2003. nial. [See p. 654B3] Numerous reports of state intimidation Among the more surprising election re- had come from Russia in the run-up to the sults were those from the war-torn region election. Britain’s Guardian newspaper of Chechnya, where the government had Dec. 3 reported that many state employees crushed a rebellion that began in the 1990s. had been told their bonuses would be withThere, United Russia won 99.4% of the held or that they could even lose their jobs if vote, with 99.5% of the population report- they did not vote for United Russia. The edly turning out to vote. The region was Guardian also reported that students living currently governed by Ramzan Kadyrov, in dormitories were told they could lose who had been appointed by Putin and in their rooms if they did not vote for United April had been sworn in. [See p. 310A1] Russia. Other people were told they would United Russia was scheduled to an- be added to a blacklist if they did not vote nounce its presidential nominee Dec. 17. correctly. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Presidential elections were set for March Dec. 3 reported that some voters were given 2008. ballots that had already been filled out. The New York Times reported Dec. 3 Poisoning Suspect to Sit in Duma—Andrei Lugovoy, a former agent of the Soviet- that some employees working in state-fiera KGB security service and a suspect in nanced industries were instructed to get abthe poisoning death in London of Alex- sentee ballots and fill them out at their ander Litvinenko, another former KGB workplaces, while supervisors watched. agent, would receive a seat in the Duma as Liliya Shibanova, director of Golos, an ina result of the election. He had been the dependent Russian election monitor that second candidate on the party list for the had 2,000 observers in Russia, had said four times as many absentee ballots were Liberal Democratic Party. [See p. 616A3] Lugovoy, with other Russian lawmak- cast this year than in 2003, according to the ers, would receive immunity from prosecu- Guardian report. 799

AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel

tinued sanctions, in a meeting with Rice at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., Dec. 3 told reporters, “We have always been saying there is no proof they are pursuing nuclear weapons.” Russia had resisted imposing sanctions on Iran.

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The Communist Party and the liberal Union of Right Forces party—the latter did not cross the 7% threshold—had said they would challenge the election results, Voice of America reported Dec. 3. “The elections were so dirty, and the number of violations were so outrageous, that only a blind or deaf person could not have seen or heard them,” Communist Party head Gennady Zyuganov was quoted as saying in a Dec. 4 New York Times article. [See 2006, p. 225C2] International Reaction— The election watchdog branch of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an international body whose election monitoring activities were considered the most authoritative in the world by Western countries, did not monitor the Dec. 2 election after a dispute over observers’ visas. OSCE representatives claimed that Russian authorities had been uncooperative. [See p. 772C1] A delegation of approximately 80 monitors from the parliamentary assemblies of the OSCE and the Council of Europe had been allowed into Russia on a separate mission. They described the election Dec. 3 as “not fair,” and said it had failed to meet democratic standards. The delegation also said there had been “frequent abuse of administrative resources, media coverage strongly in favour of the ruling party, and an election code whose cumulative effect hindered political pluralism.” The report also said that Putin’s endorsement of United Russia constituted an illegal “merging of the state and a political party,” an act that constituted an “abuse of power.” German government spokesman Thomas Steg Dec. 3 said the election was not free, fair or democratic. The British Foreign Ministry had called on Russia’s Central Election Committee to investigate alleged abuses, according to the Financial Times Dec. 4. The U.S. Dec. 3 issued a similar statement. In contrast, French President Nicolas Sarkozy the same day called Putin to congratulate him. Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov Dec. 3 said criticism of the election was “one-sided.” Igor Borisov, an official of Russia’s Central Election Committee, that day said the OSCE/Council of Europe assessment had been “dictated from abroad.” Election observers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional group comprised of China, Russia and Central Asian states, Dec. 3 said the election had been “open, fair and free.” [See p. 540A1] Putin Dec. 3 said of the election, “This is an obvious success and a good victory. It’s now clear to me that Russians will never allow their country to develop along the destructive path seen in some other countries of the former Soviet Union.”

Iraq War Gates Discusses Security on Iraq Visit.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Dec. 5 hailed security gains in Iraq but warned 800

that threats remained, during a visit to Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. Gates that day met with top Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani, and the next day conferred with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. [See pp. 814A1, 778D3, 569B1] Gates Dec. 5 had arrived in Iraq for an unannounced visit after previously touring Afghanistan, and Dec. 6 traveled on to Bahrain to attend a regional security conference. “More than ever, I believe that the goal of a secure, stable and democratic Iraq is within reach,” Gates Dec. 5 said in a news conference in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone. However, he warned that insurgents pushed out of the areas around Baghdad by a surge in U.S. troop levels were trying to set up operational hubs in the northern city of Mosul and the surrounding areas, resulting in an increase in attacks there. Gates warned that Maliki’s Shiite-led government needed to integrate into the army or police, or give other work to, Sunnis who had volunteered in increasing numbers to fight extremist groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq. He also said national reconciliation measures “may be outpaced” by local efforts. Gates after meeting with the Iraqi officials said they had discussed not only how to “sustain the progress of recent months but how to build upon it.” Petraeus at his Dec. 6 meeting with Gates in Baghdad claimed security gains and reduced violence in some areas of Iraq, although he acknowledged a rise in insurgent activity in other areas, including the north. He and Gates said it was too soon to tell what had caused an overall drop in violence, although Petraeus credited a truce called by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for his Mahdi Army militia. Petraeus also noted “a reduction in some of the signature attacks that are associated with weapons provided by Iran.” Petraeus outlined a strategy linking further withdrawals of U.S. troops from Iraq to security gains. Gates said extended 15month Army tours of duty would remain in place until at least fall 2008. Gates Dec. 6 in Bahrain said of the Iraq visit, “I came away from all of it feeling very good about the direction of things in the security arena, about what is going on at the local and provincial level in terms of people reaching out to each other, crossing tribal, sectarian and provincial boundaries to work together.” However, he warned, “there is growing pressure from below for the top levels of the government to replicate the kind of reconciliation that is going on in a variety of other places in Iraq.” Gates’s visit to Iraq came as car and roadside bombs Dec. 5 killed at least 22 people across the country. In the most severe incident, a car bomb in Baghdad’s mostly-Shiite Karrada neighborhood killed at least 14 people, the deadliest attack in weeks. Other attacks occurred in the northern cities of Mosul, Baquba and Kirkuk, underscoring Gates’s warning of increased violence there.

U.S. Calls for Political Progress— U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte Dec. 2 called on the Iraqi government to take advantage of the decline in violence by quickly passing key reform legislation and improving basic services. Negroponte had just returned to Baghdad from a weeklong tour of nine cities throughout Iraq to meet with local officials, the most extensive such tour taken by a senior U.S. official since the 2003 invasion. Negroponte said that unless Maliki’s administration made necessary reforms, such as passing legislation to share oil revenues and overhaul many so-called deBaathification measures—which barred former members of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s mostly Sunni Baath Party from holding government jobs—it risked the erosion of security gains. Negroponte also said a referendum vote in the northern city of Kirkuk on joining the autonomous Kurdistan region would probably not occur in 2007. Contractor Controls Increased—U.S. officials Dec. 4 said Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, had settled on an agreement requiring “full coordination” between the U.S. Defense Department and private security contractors working for the U.S. State Department. State Department contractors had caused a scandal when they killed 17 Iraqis in a September incident, and military commanders had often complained that contractors did not coordinate their movements with them in combat zones. Gates had originally called for all U.S. contractors protecting U.S. diplomatic personnel to come under Defense Department control. [See p. 710C2] The agreement, which had not been published, called for diplomatic convoys to provide “prior notification” to military commanders of their activities, and allowed the military to stop them. It also set training and use of force standards for contractors, and called for a military official to be stationed in the tactical operations center of the U.S. embassy’s security office in Baghdad. The agreement did not outline contractors’ legal liability under U.S. law, which was in doubt in the September shootings. Refugees Told to Delay Return— Iraq’s minister of displacement and migration, Abdul Samad al-Sultan, Dec. 4 told Iraqi IRAQ CASUALTIES

Following are tallies of casualties in Iraq since the beginning of a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, as they stood Dec. 6 [See p. 711A1]: U.S. military casualties:

Deaths Wounded

3,884 28,629

Allied military deaths: 306 Iraqi security forces deaths: 7,710 Iraqi civilian deaths: 77,945–84,919

(Range based on news reports of deaths)

Sources: U.S. and allies, Iraqi security—U.S. Defense Department, www.icasualties.org. Iraqi civilians— www.iraqbodycount.org.

FACTS ON FILE

refugees living in neighboring countries to delay their return to Iraq because Iraq could not yet absorb them. “The reality is that we cannot handle a huge influx of people,” he said, adding, “The refugees in some countries, they will have to wait.” The Iraqi Red Crescent Society Dec. 3 reported that 25,000 Iraqi refugees had returned to Iraq from Syria since mid-September, out of the estimated 1.5 million who had fled to that nation since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Of those, it said, 20,000 had returned to Baghdad. Returning refugees were reportedly motivated both by the lull in violence in Iraq and by financial and visa difficulties. Kidnappers Threaten to Kill Briton—

The kidnappers of five British men Dec. 4 threatened to kill one of them within 10 days unless British troops were withdrawn from Iraq. The threat was made in a video broadcast that day by Al Arabiya, a United Arab Emirates–based satellite television network. The British men—a computer expert and his bodyguards—had been kidnapped in Baghdad in May. The British government declined to authenticate the tape, but a spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown Dec. 4 condemned it as causing more pain for the victims’ friends and families. [See p. 368E2] In the video, a man said, “My name is Jason. Today is Nov. 18. I have been here now 173 days, and I feel we’ve been forgotten.” He was surrounded by men with automatic weapons, and was seated under a banner reading, “The Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq.” The British Foreign Office Dec. 5 released a message from the victims’ friends and families calling for their release. Sunni Leader’s Compound Raided—

Iraqi and U.S. forces Nov. 30 raided the Baghdad compound of Adnan al-Dulaimi—a senior leader of the Iraqi Consensus Front, Iraq’s main Sunni political bloc— and arrested his son and dozens of his bodyguards, over suspicions that the bodyguards had built car bombs found in the area in order to kill U.S.-allied Sunni fighters. Dulaimi, who denied the accusations, claimed he was put under house arrest, but U.S. and Iraqi officials said he had been asked to stay in his home for his own protection. Iraqi Consensus Front legislators Dec. 1 walked out of the Iraqi parliament in protest of the arrests, which they said were politically motivated. They returned Dec. 2 after Dulaimi said he had been allowed to leave his home. Other News—In other Iraqi news: An audit performed by the U.S. Defense Department inspector general’s office Dec. 6 found that there were inadequate accounting safeguards on a $5.2 billion fund administered by Multinational Security Transition Command—Iraq (MNSTC—I) to train and equip Iraqi security forces. The report said MNSTC—I was unable to prove that the money it had spend had gone to Iraqi forces and was not wasted. [See p. 733E1] December 6, 2007

A man purporting to be Abu Omar alBaghdadi, supposedly the leader of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, called for attacks on Iraqi security forces, in a video posted Dec. 4 on an Islamist Web site. A U.S. military spokesman said Baghdadi did not exist, but was a “fictitious character” meant to put “an Iraqi face” on the group, which U.S. officials said had started in Iraq but was led by foreigners. The Iraqi cabinet Dec. 4 voted to ask the U.N. to extend the mandate of U.S. forces to operate in Iraq by another year, until the end of 2008. Maliki Dec. 3 in a news release declared a “war on corruption” for 2008, amid reports of rampant bribery throughout Iraq. He said his administration had “inherited the corruption” from Hussein’s regime. Iraqi security forces in Fallujah Dec. 2 found a mass grave containing the bodies of about 20 men, women and children. Fighters allegedly belonging to Al Qaeda in Iraq Dec. 1 attacked the village of Dwelah, in Diyala province, killing at least 13 people. Residents said they had been attacked because U.S. forces had recently withdrawn from the area, but U.S. officials denied that claim. The incident was Al Qaeda in Iraq’s second attack on Dwelah in 2007, reportedly for refusing to support the group. Vice President Dick Cheney Nov. 30 met with two senior Kurdish officials, in what Kurdish advisers said was a shift in the U.S.’s attitude towards Kurdistan’s signing of contracts with oil companies separately from the central Iraqi government. The U.S. had previously expressed opposition to the Kurdish oil contracts, as they were seen as undermining agreement on national oil revenue-sharing legislation. [See p. 629G1] A Maliki adviser, Sadiq al-Rikabi, Nov. 30 said that Maliki had sent a letter to Bush asking for the transfer to Iraqi custody of three former Hussein officials who had been sentenced to death for their roles in Hussein’s Anfal campaign, in which up to 180,000 Kurds had been killed in 1988, and were being held by U.S. forces. The officials were former Defense Minister Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” for ordering chemical weapons attacks against ethnic Kurds in the 1980s; former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai; and former armed forces deputy chief of operations Hussein Rashid alTikriti. Sunnis had argued that Hashim should be spared because he was only following orders, and the U.S. reportedly feared that his execution might worsen Sunni-Shiite relations. [See p. 747C3]

AIDS Higher U.S. Infection Estimates Expected.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) planned to release a sharply higher estimate of the number of people infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, in the U.S., the Washington Blade, a Washington,

D.C., gay community newspaper, reported Nov. 16, followed by wider reports Dec. 1. The Blade in its report cited AIDS advocacy groups with CDC ties. The CDC for the past 14 years had estimated that 40,000 people in the U.S. were newly infected with HIV each year. The revised estimate could reportedly be as high as 58,000–63,000 new HIV infection cases within the past year. [See p. 763C2; 2001, p. 1039F3] The revision reportedly resulted from new HIV testing technology allowing testers to distinguish between people who had been infected within the past 160 days and those who had been infected less recently. That allowed researchers to extrapolate estimates of the rate at which new infections were occurring. The nationwide figure was based on data gathered in 19 states and several large cities. The CDC Nov. 26 in a message to scientists outlined the new methodology, but the agency said the new estimates would not be released publicly until they were subjected to a peer review process by a medical journal. The CDC planned to officially release the new estimate in early 2008, according to several media reports. It was not known if the revised estimate reflected an actual increase in the number of new HIV infections in the U.S., in addition to the increase due to the more accurate estimating methodologies. Epidemiologists and AIDS activists had long questioned the CDC’s methodology in formulating the estimate, claiming that there was a substantial chance it was inaccurate. The United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Nov. 19 released an annual report reducing previous estimates of the number of cases of HIV infection worldwide.

United Nations Most Weapons Embargoes Fail, Report Says.

A report issued by two Swedish organizations Nov. 26 found that about 75% of the 27 arms embargoes imposed by the United Nations between 1990 and 2007 had failed to change the behavior of the countries that they targeted. It also said that not one of the embargoes had completely stanched the flow of weapons into the target country. The report recommended that the U.N. push its members to make it illegal for groups or individuals to help embargoed countries bypass weapons sanctions. [See p. 517E3; 2006, p. 882F3] The report, by the Uppsala University Special Program on the Implementation of Targeted Sanctions and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, also found that embargoes were nearly twice as successful—47% compared with 25%—in affecting the behavior of targeted countries if U.N. peacekeepers enforced them. Other factors, such as the willingness of neighboring countries to help enforce a weapons ban and the level of commitment to the sanctions on the part of the members of the U.N. Security Council, were also cited as capable of affecting the success of an arms embargo. 801

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U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

2008 Presidential Campaign Romney

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, Dec. 6 gave a speech in College Station, Texas, on the subject of religion’s place in the nation’s politics. As a Mormon, Romney faced widespread skepticism from Christian conservatives, a key Republican voting bloc. Many of them viewed Mormonism as a heretical sect. [See pp. 782A1, 698B1] Romney’s speech was widely seen as an attempt to address those doubts, and as a reponse to the recent surge of a rival candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister who had attracted increasing support from evangelical Christians. Recent polls showed that Huckabee had overtaken Romney’s lead in Iowa, whose caucuses would be the first nominating contest in January 2008. Romney delivered his speech at the presidential library and museum of former President George H.W. Bush. The location served as a reminder of a historic precedent: a speech given in nearby Houston by John F. Kennedy during the 1960 presidential campaign in order to reassure voters that his Roman Catholic faith would not conflict with his public duties. Kennedy went on to win the election and became the first Catholic president. Romney, if he won the election, would be the first Mormon president. [See 1960, p. 312B3] Citing Kennedy’s example, Romney said, “Like him, I am an American running for president. I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith, nor should he be rejected because of his faith.” He declared, “Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions.” However, he said, “I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers. I will be true to them and to my beliefs.” That was the only time that he said the word “Mormon” in his speech. He also said he supported a more prominent place for religion in public life, saying that had been the intention of the authors of the Constitution. “The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square,” he argued. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, had an estimated six million members in the U.S., or about 2% of the total population. It had been founded in New York State by Joseph Smith in 1830, but its leadership later migrated to Utah. The church held the Book of Mormon to be holy scripture, along with the Bible, and its theological doctrines about matters such as the nature of God and Jesus Christ differed 802

from those of traditional Christian denominations. Although Romney in his speech rejected the notion that a presidential candidate should have to “describe and explain his church’s distinctive doctrines,” he expressed adherence to the fundamental tenet of Christian belief: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the savior of mankind.” Mormonism’s controversial history also included such unusual practices as polygamy, which it once espoused, but disavowed in 1904. In accordance with Mormon practices, Romney had spent two years as a missionary during his college years, assigned to France. He had later served as a church elder, leading his local congregation. Huckabee Airs ‘Christian Leader’ Ad—

Huckabee Nov. 26 began broadcasting a television advertisement in Iowa that declared him to be a “Christian leader” and highlighted his opposition to abortion. His campaign denied suggestions that the ad appeared intended to play on voters’ doubts about Romney’s religion and his recent shifts to more conservative positions on social issues such as abortion and samesex marriage. In several interviews in the days leading up to Romney’s Dec. 6 speech, Huckabee had declined to answer questions about whether he believed that Mormons were Christians. The TV ad was Huckabee’s first in Iowa. By contrast, Romney, who had raised much more money than Huckabee, and had spent some of his own fortune on the race, had been airing ads in Iowa since February. [See p. 682A1] Huckabee had combined his appeal to Christian conservatives with a message of economic populism, including criticism of free trade and income inequality, which deviated from Republican orthodoxy. His most radical proposal was to repeal the income tax and replace it with a 23% national sales tax, which he called the “fair tax.” As Huckabee gained in the polls, his rivals for the nomination had stepped up their criticism of his record in Arkansas, particularly his support for a series of tax hikes and for providing college-tuition aid to the children of illegal immigrants. A Des Moines Register poll, published Dec. 2, showed Huckabee surging to 29%, up from 12% in October. Romney fell to 24%, down five points. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, who continued to lead in national polls and had focused less on Iowa, held steady at 13%. Democrats Clash Over Iran in Debate. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) Dec. 4 clashed with fellow Democratic presidential candidates over U.S. policy toward Iran at a debate in Des Moines, Iowa, broadcast by National Public Radio (NPR). The Bush administration Dec. 3 had released an intelligence estimate reversing its previous contention that Iran had maintained an active program to build nuclear weapons. The new estimate said Iran had probably

halted the program in 2003. [See pp. 797A1, 782G2] In light of that shift, Clinton faced renewed criticism from her rivals over her September vote for a nonbinding Senate resolution that called on the Bush administration to designate the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the largest branch of the Iranian military, as a terrorist organization. Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) said, “Senator Clinton and I just have an honest disagreement about this, but a very strong disagreement. I think it’s very clear that [President George W.] Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney have been rattling the saber about Iran for a very long time. And I said very clearly when this vote took place on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that it was important for us to stand up to them.” Edwards said the Bush administration’s handling of the Iranian nuclear issue was “eerily similar to what we saw with Iraq,” referring to Bush’s use of subsequently discredited intelligence about Iraqi weapons programs to build the case for invading Iraq in 2003. Clinton responded sharply to Edwards, saying, “I understand politics and I understand making outlandish political charges but this really goes way too far.” She said the Bush administration’s October designation of part of the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorism supporter had caused “some changes” in Iran’s “behavior.” She insisted that it had provided “absolutely no basis for a rush to war, which I oppose and have opposed for two years.” She also said that Edwards earlier in the year had characterized the Iranian nuclear program as “the greatest threat to our generation.” Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) also criticized Clinton’s vote, saying, “We can’t keep on giving the Bush administration the benefit of the doubt, knowing the ways in which they manipulate intelligence.” Obama had not cast a vote on the September resolution. Clinton replied that Obama in a 2004 interview had backed “surgical strikes by missiles to take out Iran’s nuclear capacity.” Obama said he had been talking about what to do in the event that Iran actually did obtain nuclear weapons. Recent polls showed Clinton, Obama and Edwards in a tight race in Iowa, with Obama pulling ahead of Clinton in some polls. The Iowa caucuses, scheduled for Jan. 3, 2008, were set to be the first contest in the primary season. Clinton maintained a sizable lead in national polls. The NPR moderators limited the debate to three subjects: Iran, trade with China and immigration. There was broad agreement on the other two topics among the candidates, who called for stricter enforcement of trade laws against Chinese violations, as well as legislation that would give illegal immigrants a path to obtaining legal status. The other candidates who participated in the debate were Sens. Joseph Biden (Del.) and Christopher Dodd (Conn.), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (Alaska). Clinton Targets Rivals—Clinton Dec. 2 told reporters that the time had come for FACTS ON FILE

her to sharpen her criticism of her opponents. She said, “I have said for months that I would much rather be attacking Republicans, and attacking the problems of our country, because ultimately that’s what I want to do as president. But I have been, for months, on the receiving end of rather consistent attacks. Well, now the fun part starts. We’re into the last month, and we’re going to start drawing the contrasts.” Clinton said she planned to raise questions about Obama’s character. She said Iowa voters would choose “between someone who talks the talk, and somebody who’s walked the walk.” During the past weeks, Clinton and Obama had engaged in a running argument over who had the right experience for the presidency. In response to Clinton, Obama Dec. 2 issued a statement saying, “This campaign isn’t about attacking people for fun, it’s about solving people’s problems, like ending this war and creating a universal health care system.” Clinton Dec. 3 kept up her attack, accusing Obama of offering voters “false hopes.” She questioned his experience again, asking, “When did running for president become a qualification for being president?” Clinton’s new aggression was seen as a response to Obama’s rise in the polls. A Des Moines Register poll, published Dec. 2, showed that Obama had pulled ahead in the Democratic race in Iowa, supported by 28% of respondents, up from 22% in October. Clinton drew 25%, trailed by Edwards with 23%. Man Holds Hostages at N.H. Clinton Office.

A man claiming to have a bomb strapped to his chest Nov. 30 entered a field office of the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.) in Rochester, N.H., and took three staff members and one volunteer hostage. The man, Leeland Eisenberg, released the volunteer and a child, but held two other hostages for more than three hours before releasing them unharmed and surrendering to police. A third reportedly escaped earlier in the afternoon. Police said Eisenberg had taped road flares to his chest, not a bomb. [See p. 802F2] Police said they had rejected a demand by Eisenberg to speak to Clinton, who canceled campaign events that day and monitored the situation from Washington, D.C., before flying to New Hampshire to meet with the hostages after they were released. “We had nothing on our minds but the safety of these young people,” she said. In an interview published Dec. 5 in the New York Daily News, Eisenberg, 46, said he had taken the hostages because he wanted to be killed by the police, partly as a statement on the need for better mental health services. His wife had reportedly filed for a divorce earlier that week. He had been scheduled to appear on the day of the hostage incident for a court hearing on domestic violence charges. Clinton Fund-raiser Hsu Indicted. Federal prosecutors in U.S. District Court in New York City Dec. 4 unsealed an indictment December 6, 2007

against Norman Hsu, a top fund-raiser for the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.), on charges of mail and wire fraud and violating federal campaign finance law. The indictment charged Hsu with defrauding investors in a $60 million Ponzi scheme, and using some of his ill-gotten gains to reimburse people for more than $60,000 in contributions they had made to Democratic candidates at his request. [See p. 632B3] Federal prosecutors in their criminal complaint against Hsu, filed in September, had said that he had confessed to the offenses in questioning by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents. Hsu was being held in California on separate charges related to a previous fraud conviction in California.

Supreme Court Court Hears Guantanamo Detainees Case.

The Supreme Court Dec. 5 heard oral arguments for the consolidated case of Boumediene v. Bush, which dealt with the legal rights of detainees held as terrorism suspects at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The justices would have to decide if the Constitution guaranteed the detainees the right to a writ of habeas corpus, allowing them to challenge their detention in federal courts. The court could also rule on whether the government’s use of “combatant status review tribunals” instead of the U.S. federal court system for detainees’ legal proceedings was an adequate substitute for habeas corpus. [See p. 430F3] The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in February had upheld provisions in the 2006 Military Commission Act (MCA) that said “no court, justice or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider” habeas corpus petitions brought by foreign “enemy combatants,” as Guantanamo detainees were classified. The appeals court ruled that the detainees, as foreign enemy combatants, were not entitled to any constitutional protections. In June, the Supreme Court had accepted an appeal of that ruling, brought by 37 Guantanamo detainees, after initially declining to hear the case. The court was expected to issue its ruling in June or July of 2008. Boumediene was the third case the court had heard concerning the rights of enemy combatants. The court in 2004 had ruled in Rasul v. Bush that federal courts did have jurisdiction over Guantanamo enemy combatants. However, that ruling determined that the detainees had a statutory right to habeas corpus, not a constitutional right. [See 2004, p. 471D2] Congress responded in 2005 by passing the Detainee Treatment Act, which stated that federal courts did not have jurisdiction over the detainees. The court in 2006 had ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that the combatant status review tribunals set up by the Bush administration had not been authorized by Congress. Congress later that year passed the

MCA, giving the administration its authori-

zation. [See 2006, p. 501A1] The administration, represented by Solicitor General Paul Clement, argued Dec. 5 that the tribunals provided an adequate substitute for the right to habeas corpus. Clement said the tribunals provided enough judicial review to amount to a “liberalization of the writ” of habeas corpus, compared to what the Constitution’s authors would have offered to foreign enemy combatants. Clement also said the tribunals represented the will of both the executive and legislative branches of government, as well as a compromise between the rights of the detainees and the terrorist threat that the detainees allegedly posed. The lawyer for the plaintiffs, former Solicitor General Seth Waxman, argued that the tribunals were not an adequate substitute for habeas corpus because the rights they afforded were too limited. Prisoners were barred from knowing what evidence and witness testimony had been presented against them, and were not granted access to lawyers of their choice, but assigned a “personal representative” by the military. Waxman also stressed that his clients had been held for six years without charge, which he said ran counter to the main principle underlying habeas corpus: the right to a “speedy release” for the innocent. In a rare concession during arguments, Clement suggested that the D.C. appellate court, designated by the MCA to review the military tribunals’ decisions, had the power to order an enemy combatant’s release. The plaintiffs’ lawyers had argued that the absence of such an authorization in the laws governing the tribunals had led to their indefinite detention.

Economy Bush Announces Mortgage Aid Agreement.

President George W. Bush Dec. 6 announced that an agreement had been struck between the government, mortgage lenders and investment banks that would help stem a rising number of foreclosures. The plan would freeze for up to five years the interest rates on some of the two million adjustable-rate mortgages that were scheduled to reset to higher rates by the end of 2009. The increase in foreclosures had caused havoc in the country’s credit and financial markets, and analysts warned that it could lead the economy into a recession. [See pp. 783E3, 574E3] The plan would benefit only those borrowers who had kept up with their payments. It would apply to mortgages secured between Jan. 1, 2005, and July 30, 2007, that were due to switch from a low introductory rate to a higher one between Jan. 1, 2008, and July 31, 2010. Bush said the plan would also allow borrowers with good credit to refinance their mortgages with the Federal Housing Administration (FHA); bolster federal efforts to protect borrowers from abusive lending practices; and establish an alliance between lenders and the government that 803

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13,567.87 13,595.10 13,543.40 13,660.94 13,300.02 13,266.29 13,042.74 12,987.55 13,307.09 13,223.93 13,110.05 13,176.79 12,958.44 13,010.14 12,799.04 — 12,980.88 12,743.44 12,958.44 13,289.45 13,311.73 13,371.72

1,739.9 1,711.6 1,522.5 1,496.4 1,649.1 2,178.3 1,820.4 1,700.5 1,646.1 1,484.2 1,464.0 1,758.2 1,670.9 1,864.8 1,603.2 — 668.9 1,483.0 1,648.4 1,747.5 1,328.3 1,856.6

would help homeowners on the verge of falling behind on their payments. Bush called on Congress to pass legislation that could aid homeowners, including bills that would modernize the FHA, and reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage companies. He also suggested that Congress make changes to the tax code that could help homeowners. Bush also said the Justice Department would “continue to pursue wrongdoing in the banking and housing industries, so we can help ensure that those who defraud American consumers face justice.” Lenders had been accused of directing borrowers toward more expensive loans even when cheaper plans were available. Bush said the plan would relieve the “terrible burden” that foreclosures placed on families, and “limit the disruption” caused by problems in the housing market. However, he stressed that the economy was fundamentally sound. Critics of the plan, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.), a contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, said it did not help enough struggling homeowners. Critics also said the plan would not help those who had already defaulted on their loans, or those whose adjustable-rate loans reset before 2008. Others said the plan would discourage investors, because it showed that the government would step in and change the terms of many contracts without consideration for the investors. (Many mortgages had been bundled into complex securities packages that had then been sold.) The plan would not require any government funds, and was the result of weeks of negotiations led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, in which lenders and major banks agreed to take on most of the costs. 804

Florida Freezes Withdrawals From Fund.

Florida’s State Board of Administration Nov. 29 halted withdrawals from its Local Government Investment Pool, a state-run money-market fund that had been exposed to subprime mortgages. Since early November, the fund’s investors—comprised mostly of counties, cities and school districts—had taken out at least $13 billion from the fund, reducing the fund’s remaining holdings to $14 billion. The fund was the largest of its kind in the country. [See pp. 784B2, 749A1] Local government leaders complained that the move hindered them from paying state employees and vendors for basic services. State officials said that if investors continued to withdraw money at the current rate, the fund would be forced to sell its assets at a major loss. The fund was set up to be an investment vehicle for local government entities. It bought only the safest possible assets, rated “AAA,” that promised steady returns and high liquidity, so that investors could withdraw money to use at their convenience. Investors began pulling out their capital en masse when it was revealed that the fund was exposed to more than $2 billion in assets backed by subprime mortgages, which were mortgages given to people with poor credit. Such assets had dropped sharply in value after the housing market entered a slump, and subprime defaults rose. As much as $1.5 billion of the exposed assets no longer met the fund’s safety standards. Because mortgage-backed assets and other forms of debt were bundled into complex packages, investors were unsure how much of their money was exposed to the risky investments, prompting wholesale withdrawals from the fund. The incident raised concerns that even the safest of investment funds were not immune to recent problems plaguing the credit and financial markets. Major banks, hedge funds and mortgage companies were reporting heavy losses due to devaluations of mortgage-backed assets. Florida officials had thus far rejected proposals to dip into the state’s $137 billion pension fund to provide capital to local governments, and it was reported Dec. 4 that the pension fund owned $1 billion in the same kinds of downgraded securities held by the local government pool. The money-market fund Dec. 4 approved a proposal by asset management company BlackRock Financial Management to split the fund in two, to separate the tainted assets from the safe ones. 3rd Quarter GDP Growth Revised Higher.

The Commerce Department Nov. 29 reported an upward revision of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth during the third quarter of 2007, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.9%, from the 3.9% “advance” estimate reported in October. It was the country’s highest growth rate since 2003. The upward revision primarily reflected a strong export market and an increase in inventory investment by businesses. [See pp. 766D1, 714F2]

December Financial Update

(Close of trading Dec. 3 except where indicated)

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index Nasdaq Composite Index London Stock Exchange

13,314.57 1,472.42 2,637.13 6,386.60

Tokyo Stock Exchange

15,628.97

Toronto Stock Exchange

13,657.17

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100) (Nikkei index)

(TSE Composite Index)

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield)

1.57% 3.30%

Currencies (late New York trading) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars)

$0.8805 $2.0657 $0.9999 $1.4668 110.49 10.9051 $0.8877

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.)

$794.30

Silver (per troy oz.)

$13.86

Oil (per barrel)

$89.31

(N.Y. Comex spot price) (London fixing spot price) (Nymex crude future)

Gasoline (per gallon)

$3.09

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel)

$9.13

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

3.5%

Unemployment rate

4.7%

Gross domestic product growth

4.9%

Prime rate

7.5%

(nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released Nov. 18, 2007) (Kansas City market)

(consumer price index 12-month increase through October; see p. 766E2) (October; see p. 734F1)

(annualized third-quarter rate, preliminary report; see p. 804G2)

The figure was taken as a signal of the U.S. economy’s resiliency in the face of an ongoing housing downturn. However, it did not change analysts’ predictions that economic growth would slow down significantly in the fourth quarter of the year, which covered the period between October and December. The new figure was “preliminary” and would be revised once more. GDP was a measure of the output of goods and services produced within a nation’s borders. New Home Sales Rose 1.7% in October.

The Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Nov. 29 reported jointly that sales of new single-family homes rose 1.7% in October when compared with the previous month. The new seasonally adjusted annual rate was 728,000 units, up from the revised September rate of 716,000. The median price of a new single-family home sold in October was $217,800. [See p. 714E3] Existing Home Sales Fell 1.2% in October.

The National Association of Realtors Nov. 28 reported that sales of existing homes fell 1.2% in October, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million units. The downwardly revised rate for September was 5.03 million units. The median sale price for existing homes in October was FACTS ON FILE

$207,800, down 5.1% from the $218,900 reported a year earlier. [See p. 714F3] Consumer Confidence Fell in November.

The Conference Board Nov. 27 reported that its index of consumer confidence fell to 87.3 in November, from a revised 95.2 in October. The index’s base level of 100 reflected consumer confidence in 1985. The index had declined steadily since the summer, when problems in the housing market surfaced in the country’s credit and financial markets. [See p. 714G3] Durable Goods Orders Fell in October.

The Commerce Department Nov. 28 reported that the value of durable goods orders in October had fallen by 0.4%, compared with the previous month, to $214.5 billion. Durable goods were so-called bigticket items designed to last three years or more. [See p. 715D1]

Legislation Terrorism Insurance Bill Passed by Senate.

The Senate Nov. 16 passed, by voice vote, a seven-year extension of the 2002 Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) intended to keep terrorism insurance available to U.S. citizens. While the bill differed significantly from the House’s terrorism insurance extension, both versions had been delayed because of costs that could conflict with Congress’s so-called pay-asyou-go rules, which required any legislation that added to the federal budget deficit to offset the additions with budget reductions elsewhere. The current extension of TRIA was scheduled to expire Dec. 31. [See 2005, p. 941D3 ] Both the Senate and House bills included an expansion of terrorism insurance coverage to include attacks plotted by domestic terrorists. However, while the Senate bill would extend TRIA for seven years, the House bill would extend coverage for 15 years, decrease the insurance trigger level to $50 million, from $100 million, and expand that coverage to include attacks involving nuclear weapons and radiation, as well as chemical and biological weapons, an expansion not included in the Senate version. The House and Senate bills also differed in their strategies for dealing with the constraints of pay-as-you-go. The Senate version allowed the U.S. government to increase fees to insurance customers before the end of the program’s current two-year window, a move that would allow the government to recoup its expenses more quickly. The House bill required a second vote by Congress after each terrorist attack before any money was paid out, effectively keeping the cost of the program out of the budget until that point. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the Senate bill would add $5.1 billion to the budget deficit over the next 10 years. The White House had threatened that President George W. Bush would veto the House version of the bill if it was sent to him. Online Protections for Children Pass House.

The House Nov. 13–15 passed six bills related to the protection of children from InDecember 6, 2007

ternet predators and other online threats. One of them, passed Nov. 14 by a vote of 417–0, would force convicted sex offenders to register all of their so-called online identifiers, including instant message screen names and e-mail addresses, among other measures. The information would be added to the sex offenders’ public online registry. [See 2003, p. 368D1] The House Nov. 14 passed, 415–2, a bill that would establish a special counsel within the office of the deputy attorney general focusing on the prevention of child exploitation. The bill would also establish a data-sharing network for law enforcement agencies, and a special task force specifically focused on crimes committed against children online. Also Nov. 14, the House passed, 417–0, a bill that would expand the authority of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to include Internet crimes targeting children and initiated a $5 million FTC publicity campaign intended to increase awareness of threats U.S. citizens faced on the Internet, among other measures. As part of the bill, the Department of Commerce would be charged with overseeing corporate compliance in initiatives intended to help shield children online. The House that day also passed, 409–0, a bill that would modify federal child pornography statutes to make explicit that prosecutors would not be required to prove that banned images had crossed state lines in order to prosecute offenders. The bill was introduced by Rep. Nancy Boyda (D, Kan.) in response to a September federal appeals court ruling that overturned a defendant’s conviction for receiving and possessing child pornography because the government had not proven that the images had crossed state lines. The House Nov. 15 passed a second bill relating to child pornography, 416–0, which would allow prosecutors in some cases to charge persons or entities involved in the production of child pornography under federal money-laundering statues. It also defined “accessing [child pornography] by computer with the intent to view” as possession under federal child pornography laws. The House Nov. 13 had passed, by voice vote, a bill that would allot $5 million per year between fiscal years 2008 and 2012 to fund anti–Internet crime initiatives carried out by i-SAFE Inc., a nonprofit group, as well as another $5 million for the same time period for grants to organizations doing similar work. All six of the bills, except for the one to establish the new Justice Department operations, were brought to the floor by the Democratic House leadership without consideration by the Judiciary Committee.

Foreign Trade Senate Passes Peru Pact. The Senate Dec.

5 voted, 77–18, to approve a bilateral free trade agreement with Peru, making it the first of several pending trade agreements to be cleared by Congress in 2007. As in the House’s vote in November to approve the

pact, Democrats were sharply split, with 29 Senate Democrats voting in favor of the pact and 17 opposing it. [See p. 733A3] President George W. Bush, who had urged approval of the agreement, said he would sign the bill. The trade deal would take effect after both countries made changes to their laws required by the pact. Trade between the U.S. and Peru had been valued at $8.8 billion in 2006, or less than 0.5% of the U.S.’s total annual foreign trade. Under the terms of the agreement, about 66% of Peruvian duties imposed on agricultural exports from the U.S. and about 80% imposed on U.S. industrial exports would be eliminated immediately. Other industrial tariffs would be gradually phased out over a 10-year period. Peruvian goods were already generally imported to the U.S. free of duties. Supporters of the trade deal said it included provisions intended to establish environmental standards in Peru and protections for Peruvian workers. They also said a trade deal was needed to counter the influence in Latin America of anti-U.S. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias. Opponents of the agreement said its environmental protections would likely go unenforced, and that similar free trade agreements had cost the U.S. three million jobs over the past six years.

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Terrorism Guilty Plea in Planned Mall Bombing. A man accused of planning an attack against an Illinois shopping mall in 2006 pleaded guilty Nov. 28 to one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Derrick Shareef, the accused, was scheduled to be sentenced on March 14, 2008. He faced the possibility of life in prison. [See 2006, p. 1000D2] Shareef, 23, had been arrested in December 2006 and accused of plotting to detonate grenades inside trash cans at a mall in Rockford, Ill., 85 miles (135 km) from Chicago. Prosecutors believed that Shareef had worked alone on the attempted mall attack, citing the crudeness and inefficiency of his plan. Shareef had also been linked to former Navy sailor Hassan Abujihaad, who was awaiting trial on charges of passing classified information about ship movements to Web sites connected to the Al Qaeda international terrorist network. Shareef and Abujihaad had been roommates in Phoenix, Ariz. and were thought to have taken part in discussions regarding possible attacks against U.S. domestic military installations. [See p. 263C3]

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11-Year Sentence in Hamas Obstruction Case.

A man who had been convicted of criminal contempt and obstruction of justice after refusing to testify about his knowledge of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic militia and political party, Nov. 21 was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Chicago to 11 years in prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. Abdelhaleem Ashqar, the defendant, had been acquitted in February of providing aid 805

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and support to Hamas. [See p. 61G1; 1998, p. 977G3] The sentence was imposed by Judge Amy St. Eve, who said that Ashqar had “disregarded [his] legal obligation” to testify. Ashqar had refused to discuss his knowledge of Hamas even after he was granted immunity by prosecutors. Before he was sentenced, Ashqar, who had once been a business professor, gave a statement to the court that lasted almost two hours. In it, he said that the court had attempted to force him to “become a traitor or collaborator and that is something I can’t do and will never do as long as I live.” Ashqar’s codefendant Muhammed Salah, who had been convicted in February of obstruction of justice for making a false statement under oath, Nov. 21 was sentenced to 22 months in prison. Salah had also been previously been acquitted on charges that he assisted Hamas.

State & Local Politics Ex–Illinois Gov. Ryan Reports to Prison.

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Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R) Nov. 7 reported to a federal prison camp in Oxford, Wis., to begin serving a six-and-ahalf-year prison term. Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court the previous day had rejected a petition by Ryan, 73, to remain free on bail while appealing his April 2006 conviction on corruption charges. [See 2006, p. 695B3] Former Illinois Gov. James Thompson (R), head of Ryan’s legal team, Nov. 7 said he planned to proceed with an appeal to the Supreme Court in 2008. The full U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago Oct. 25 had declined to rehear the case in a 6–3 decision, after a three-judge panel Aug. 22 ruled, 2–1, against Ryan’s claim that he had not received a fair trial.

Medicine and Health Kidney Drug Label Warnings Added. Amgen Inc. and Johnson & Johnson (J&J), the producers of two widely used anemia drugs, Nov. 8 changed the warning on the drugs’ labels to reflect the health risks they posed. The changes were made in consultation with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The drugs, known as erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, had been linked to a number of health risks, including heart attacks, strokes and tumor growth in cancer patients. Amgen sold the drugs under the brand names Aranesp and Epogen, and J&J sold one under the brand name Procrit. [See p. 543C2] An FDA advisory panel Sept. 11 had voted, 14–5, against imposing an upper limit on “target” blood levels of the drug in treatments of people suffering from severe kidney disease. Although the FDA was not required to follow the panel’s recommendation, it rarely ignored such advice. Patient representatives and kidney specialists testified before the panel that imposing a ceiling could leave patients undertreated. However, several panel members 806

said they supported a reduction in the target drug levels employed by dialysis clinics and kidney specialists. Diabetes Drugs to Carry ‘Black Box’ Warning. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Nov. 14 said it had decided to allow Avandia, a type 2 diabetes drug, to remain on the market even though its use had been linked to cardiovascular problems, including heart attacks and heart failure. However, the FDA said Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the drug’s manufacturer, would be required to add the strongest “black box” warning to Avandia’s label about its heart attack risks. [See p. 512A3] The FDA Aug. 14 had said it would require the class of drugs to which Avandia belonged to carry a black box warning. The warnings would be included on labels for Actos, manufactured by Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., and Avandia. A study on the safety of Avandia was published in the Sept. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, as was another on Actos. The Avandia study found that patients taking that drug, known generically as rostigliazone, had a 42% increased chance of having a heart attack. Researchers based their conclusions on data gathered in four long-term studies of the drug. The research was led by Sonal Singh of the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. The other study found that Actos, known generically as pioglitazone, appeared to lower the risks of death, stroke and heart attacks by 18% in patients, but that it also increased the risk of heart failure. The study consisted of an analysis of 19 previously conducted clinical trials of the drug, and was led by A. Michael Lincoff of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. FDA Advisers Report Underfunding, Risks. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Nov. 30 published on its Web site a report by an outside advisory group, the Science Board, finding that the agency was so underfunded it was unable to adequately regulate the food and drug industries. The report said the FDA lacked adequate staffing, did not perform enough food inspections and was reliant on outdated technology. [See pp. 752D2, 608E3; 2006, p. 748G1] “Without a substantial increase in resources, the agency is powerless to improve its performance, will fall farther behind, and will be unable to meet either the mandates of Congress or the expectations of the American public,” the report stated. The document concluded that, while the FDA’s responsibilities had grown substantially over the past 15 years, its funding and staffing levels had remained the same. It said the agency’s ability to carry out its various enforcement, inspection and rulemaking responsibilities was “severely eroded.” The report found that the FDA was unable to hire staff conversant with new and emerging technologies, and that its retention rate of scientific staff was about half that of other government agencies. It rec-

ommended that the agency restructure itself and hire a chief scientific officer. The report was the latest in a series of reports criticizing the FDA’s capabilities. The Bush administration earlier in November had released a plan to improve the safety standards of food and other consumer goods imported to the U.S., after several episodes in the last few months in which foreign-produced goods in the U.S., particularly from China, were found unsafe. Foreign Drug Inspections Criticized—

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) Nov. 1 released a report concluding that the FDA’s inspections of foreign drug companies’ facilities could not guarantee that they were making safe products. The report said that, at its current inspection pace, it would take the FDA more than 13 years to inspect every one of 3,249 foreign facilities on its regulation list. The document also found that the FDA had failed to maintain adequate records of inspections of foreign facilities that it had already completed. The report was released at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee. Investigators for the committee had found that fewer FDA personnel and resources were assigned to the inspection of foreign drug makers, even as drug imports from India and China were climbing sharply, the Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 31. The investigators found that the FDA was unable to track the number of foreign drug makers it was supposed to regulate, and that inspections of such companies’ manufacturing facilities occurred only once every eight to 12 years. The FDA was required by law to inspect domestic drug companies’ facilities once every two years, but no similar standard applied to foreign companies. FDA Considers ‘Off-Label’ Use Revisions.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D, Calif.) Nov. 30 released on his Web site a draft of an internal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “guidance” document which proposed that drug companies be allowed to provide doctors with research on unapproved, or “offlabel” uses of prescription drugs. Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the same day sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach requesting that the agency halt its consideration of the proposal. [See 2006, p. 732F1; 2004, p. 881B1] It was common for physicians to prescribe drugs for conditions other than those for which the drugs had been specifically approved by the FDA. However, FDA policies prohibited manufacturers from promoting off-label uses of drugs and medical products. The guidance document stated, “These off-label uses or treatment regimens may be important and may even constitute a medically recognized standard of care.” Waxman in his letter wrote that a relaxation of off-label marketing guidelines “would open the door to abusive marketing practices that will jeopardize safety, underFACTS ON FILE

mine public health and lead to an increase in approved uses of powerful drugs.” Gene Therapy Study Resumed. Seattle, Wash.–based Targeted Genetics Corp. Nov. 26 said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had given it permission to resume an experimental gene therapy study in which a woman had died in July. The therapy consisted of injections of an engineered virus intended to relieve the symptoms of arthritis. Investigations by the company, National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers and doctors at the University of Chicago found no substantial links between the woman’s death and the experimental treatment, which was being tested on 127 other subjects. The woman had died of a fungal infection and massive internal bleeding. [See p. 535F3]

Business News in Brief. Online brokerage company E*Trade Financial Corp., based in New

York City, Nov. 29 announced that Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel Investment Group was injecting $2.55 billion in cash into the company. Citadel would also buy

E*Trade’s portfolio of asset-backed securities, worth $3 billion, for $800 million. E*Trade also announced that Mitch Caplan, its chief executive officer (CEO), was stepping down, to be replaced temporarily by R. Jarrett Lilien, its president and chief operating officer (COO). E*Trade’s stock price had plummeted in early November, after a Citigroup Inc. analyst raised concerns that E*Trade’s assets could drop in value due to investments in bad mortgages. E*Trade’s share price Nov. 28 had ended the day at $5.28 on the Nasdaq Composite Index, down 78% for the year, and fell to $4.82 Nov. 29. [See pp. 749A1] Citigroup Inc., the country’s largest banking company, Nov. 26 announced that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) was injecting $7.5 billion in cash into the company. ADIA would become one of Cit-

igroup’s largest shareholders, with a 4.9% stake. Citigroup had sought a cash infusion, because it had been forced to write down the value of its mortgage-backed assets in October, and announced in November that it would further write down its assets by up to $11 billion. ADIA was a foreign investment branch of the government of Abu Dhabi, which was part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). ADIA’s deal with Citigroup was the latest in a spate of investments in U.S. companies by foreign government-controlled investment funds, known as sovereign wealth funds. [See pp. 731D1, 712G3, 651E1] New York City–based securities company Bear Stearns Cos. and Chinese bank Citic Securities Co. Oct. 22 announced that they would invest $1 billion in each other. Under the terms of the deal, Citic’s stake in Bear Stearns could grow to as large as 9.9%; Bear Stearns’s stake in Citic could reach 7%. The companies would also create a joint investment venture that would utilize various Bear Stearns offices in Asia, and Citic’s branch in Hong Kong. Citic’s largest shareholder was Citic Group, a December 6, 2007

company controlled by the Chinese government; the deal was seen as evidence of China’s desire to invest more heavily in financial markets. Bear Stearns shareholders welcomed the deal, because it would open up new sources of revenue for the company, which had seen two of its funds collapse in June due to investments in mortgage-backed assets. The deal needed approval from government regulators in both countries. [See pp. 447B3, 432B3]

Mergers & Acquisitions News in Brief. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Nov. 30 approved real estate magnate Sam Zell’s $8.2 billion

purchase of Chicago-based media company Tribune Co. The regulatory approval came after Tribune’s shareholders Aug. 21 voted overwhelmingly in favor of the deal. The deal was expected to close by the end of the year. [See p. 223B2] United Rentals Inc., a Greenwich, Conn.–based power-tool rental company, Nov. 19 filed a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court against private equity company Cerberus Capital Management for backing out of a $7 billion acquisition agreed to July 22. The failed deal was seen as further evidence that buyers were struggling to fund leveraged buyouts because of deteriorating conditions in credit markets. Cerberus said it was willing to pay a $100 million break-up fee, but United Rentals countered that Cerberus could not drop the deal unless it proved that United Rentals’ business prospects had declined, setting off what was known as the material adverse change clause. [See pp. 736E1, 685G3] Private equity company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Oct. 22 agreed to terminate their proposed $8 billion buyout of Harman International Industries Inc., an audio-equipment maker based in Washington, D.C. Under the terms of the termination agreement, the buyers would invest $400 million in Harman debt securities that could be converted into stock at the share price of $104, less than the $120 per share they had previously offered. The compromise averted a legal battle, since Harman had denied the buyers’ claim that it had triggered the material adverse change clause of the original agreement. [See p. 736E1] Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank Oct. 2 agreed to acquire U.S. bank Commerce Bancorp Inc. in an $8.5 billion cash-andstock deal. At $42.37 a share, the deal placed a slight premium over Commerce’s Oct. 2 closing stock price of $39.47. The deal was seen as resulting from the rising power of the Canadian dollar, which in September had reached parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time since 1976. [See p. 606C2] Finland’s Nokia Corp., the world’s biggest cellular telephone manufacturer, Oct. 1 announced that it was acquiring Navteq Corp., the Chicago-based digital map maker, for $8.1 billion. At $78 a share, the offer was a three-cent premium over Navteq’s closing stock price Sept. 28. Since Navteq was only one of two major digital-mapping

companies in the world (the other was Belgium’s Tele Atlas NV), the deal was expected to undergo an antitrust review. [See p. 605B3] 3Com Corp., the Marlborough, Mass.– based computer-networking technology company, Sept. 28 announced that it would be acquired by private equity firm Bain Capital and Chinese company Huawei Technologies Co. Under the terms of the deal, 3Com would be bought for $2.2 billion, a 44% premium on 3Com’s closing stock price Sept. 27. Bain would hold more than 80% of the company, while Huawei’s stake would be less than 20%. The deal was expected to be scrutinized by U.S. lawmakers, because 3Com developed technology used by the U.S. government to protect its computer systems from hackers. Opponents said the deal posed a threat to national security, because China could gain valuable information on the U.S.’s computer protections through Huawei. [See p. 589C1; 2005, p. 518C1 ] Shareholders of Clear Channel Communications Inc., the San Antonio, Texas– based owner of the largest chain of radio stations in the U.S., Sept. 25 voted to approve a $19.5 billion takeover by private equity firms Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, at $39.20 a share. The deal would undergo a review by Texas regulators. [See 2006, p. 894A1] Shareholders of Dallas, Texas–based energy company TXU Corp. Sept. 7 voted in favor of selling the company for $32 billion to a group of private equity firms including KKR and TPG, formerly known as Texas Pacific Group, among others. TXU Oct. 10 announced that the deal was finalized, and that its name would change to Energy Future Holdings Corp. The deal was the largest private equity buyout on record. [See p. 127B3] Software giant Microsoft Corp.’s $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive Inc., an online advertising company based in Seattle, Wash., cleared its final antitrust review July 10, after German regulators approved the deal. Microsoft July 6 had announced that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had approved the deal as well. AQuantive shareholders also voted their approval of the acquisition, according to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) papers filed Aug. 9. [See p. 333C1]

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Crime Convictions Linked to Flawed Bullet Test.

More than 250 criminal convictions had relied in part on a questionable and now-discontinued scientific test carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Washington Post reported Nov. 18, following a joint investigation by the Post and the CBS News television program “60 Minutes.” The testing, known as comparative bullet-lead analysis, was used to match shards of bullets found at crime scenes with unused bullets possessed by defendants. The first concerns about the process were raised in 1991 by an internal FBI study. [See 2005, p. 914D2] 807

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In September 2005, the FBI had announced that it would no longer use the technique, but cited only expense issues, not problems with its reliability, and failed to notify defendants who had been convicted using test data that the data could have been flawed. The FBI also continued to assist prosecutors in fighting appeals by defendants who challenged the test findings in court. The Post said that after its investigation, the FBI had agreed to contact all defendants convicted in cases where comparative bullet-lead analysis was used and to stop filing affidavits in support of prosecutors fighting appeal efforts by defendants convicted in such cases. In addition, the FBI said that it would examine the transcripts for all previous FBI testimony on the practice and inform prosecutors about misleading testimony, and would publish all bullet-lead-analysis lab-test results in cases where a conviction was obtained using the technique. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) in a Nov. 21 letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey demanded that the Justice Department turn over information regarding cases where bullet-lead analysis was used, and told Mukasey that he could be asked to testify about the issues surrounding the testing. Leahy also blasted the Justice Department for its failure to notify defendants about the shortcomings in the testing process and said that the new revelations were “just the latest examples of the Department’s inadequate efforts to ensure that sound forensic testing is utilized to the maximum extent to find the guilty rather than merely to obtain a conviction.” Guilty Plea for ‘Jena Six’ Teenager. A member of the so-called Jena Six, a group of black teenagers accused of beating a white classmate at Jena High School in Jena, La., Dec. 3 pleaded guilty to a juvenile count of aggravated battery as part of a deal with prosecutors. The plea, by Mychal Bell, made him the only member of the Jena Six to be convicted. Allegations of racial bias in the prosecution led thousands to march on behalf of the Jena Six in Jena, La., in September and resulting in Bell’s initial conviction on adult charges being overturned the same month. [See p. 633C2] Bell was sentenced to 18 months in prison, to be served concurrently with a separate 18-month sentence he received for violating his probation, and was given credit for the 10 months he spent in jail between December 2006 and September 2007. He was also ordered to pay court costs and $935 to the family of his victim, Justin Barker, and testify against other members of the Jena Six if their cases went to trial. Bell would be held in juvenile detention for the duration of his sentence, and undergo counseling before being allowed to return to school. Victim Sues Defendants, Families—

An attorney representing Barker’s parents Nov. 29 filed a civil lawsuit in Louisiana state district court against the LaSalle Parish School Board, which oversaw Jena High School, as well as members of the Jena Six and their parents. The suit also named an alleged seventh member of the 808

Jena Six as a defendant. The Barkers sought unspecified damages. The Shreveport Times reported Dec. 6 that Barker’s medical bills relating to the attack had topped $19,000. Eight Killed in Mall Shooting. A lone gunman Dec. 5 shot and killed eight people during a shooting spree in a shopping mall in Omaha, Neb. Robert Hawkins, the shooter, was later found by police dead from a selfinflicted bullet wound. Hawkins, 19, opened fire on the third floor of the mall’s Van Maur department store with an AK-47 semiautomatic rifle and fired at least fifteen shots, witnesses reported. In addition to those killed, five people were injured during the attack, which was believed to be Nebraska’s deadliest single shooting. [See p. 702B1] The day of the shooting, Hawkins’s mother found a suicide note in which he apologized for past misdeeds and said that he would soon be famous. According to the Associated Press, Hawkins had previously been convicted on felony drug charges, as well as numerous misdemeanors, and was due to appear in court regarding an arrest for underage drinking. News in Brief. Former Coastal Corp. Chairman Oscar Wyatt Jr. Nov. 27 was sentenced in U.S. District Court in New York City to one year and one day in prison after pleading guilty in October to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a case relating to the United Nations Iraqi oil-for-food program. Wyatt was also ordered to return $11 million in profits, which he did Nov. 28. Wyatt at the hearing expressed regret for his actions, saying that his strong opinions had “probably caused me to skirt too close to the law.” He was known as a prominent critic of U.S. policy regarding Iraq. [See p. 712C2] The Georgia Supreme Court Nov. 21 unanimously ruled that the portion of a 2006 law that banned registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet (305 m) of areas where children might congregate was unconstitutionally broad. The law barred sex offenders from living near schools, churches, parks, bus stops and other locations, and forced sex offenders to move if such a location were opened within 1,000 feet of their residence. Presiding Justice Carol Hunstein wrote in the decision that “under the terms of the statute, it is apparent that there is no place in Georgia where a registered sex offender can live without being continually at risk of being ejected” and said that the provision infringed on constitutionally guaranteed property rights. [See 2006, p. 611B2] Computer hackers exploited a security breach in a database of donors to nonprofit organizations between Oct. 23 and Nov. 1, stealing hundreds of thousands of e-mail addresses and passwords submitted to 92 groups, a spokesman for Convio Inc., which maintained the database, said Nov. 26 Affected nonprofits included the American Red Cross, CARE and New York City’s Museum of Natural History. Convio announced Nov. 28 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had launched an investigation into the theft. [See 2006, p. 633A1]

AFRICA

Chad Fighting Flares in East. Fighting between

government forces and rebel groups Nov. 26–Dec. 6 raged in eastern Chad, after two rebel factions Nov. 23 announced that they were pulling out of an October peace deal. Hundreds of people had been killed in the fighting thus far. [See p. 710C1] The two groups that withdrew from the deal were the United Front for Democracy and Development (UFDD) and the Assembly of Forces for Change (RFC). They alleged that the government of President Idriss Deby had reneged on commitments contained in the Libyan-brokered October peace deal to integrate their members into the national army. Chad Nov. 29 accused the Sudanese government of backing the UFDD, a charge that Sudan denied. Deby, a former army chief who had taken power via a military coup in 1990, was reportedly leading the government’s operations against the rebels. Defense Minister Fired—Deby Dec. 1 fired Defense Minister Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim, the former leader of another rebel faction, the United Front for Democratic Change (FUC). Deby’s action apparently came in response to clashes between FUC forces and government troops Nov. 30 in the eastern town of Guereda. Nour, who had taken up the post in March after agreeing to ally with the government and disband the FUC, reportedly took refuge in the Libyan embassy in N’Djamena, Chad’s capital, just prior to his dismissal. Nour was an ethnic Tama, and there were long-standing tensions between the Tama and Deby’s ethnic group, the Zaghawa. FUC fighters, who had been reluctant to disarm as required under Nour’s deal with the government, and had defected from the army, reportedly entered Guereda, a Tama stronghold, Nov. 26. EU Peacekeeping Force Delayed— Lt. Col. Patrick Poulain, a spokesman for the European Union’s planned peacekeeping force in eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic, Dec. 4 said the launching of the force had been “blocked for the moment.” The force’s mandate was to protect civilians and aid workers, including the more than 400,000 Chadian and Sudanese refugees living in camps in the area. Poulain cited delays in agreements between EU nations on the provision of equipment for the force, including airplanes, helicopters and a field hospital. The UFDD Nov. 30 had declared war on French and any other foreign troops that came to Chad, alleging that they were propping up Deby’s government. Troops from France, Chad’s former colonial power, were already stationed in the country under a bilateral accord. That accord provided for the French troops to give support to the Chadian military. The rebels’ Nov. 30 declaration of a “state of war” was interpreted as a warning to the EU force. FACTS ON FILE

France had committed to supplying half of the troops for the 3,700-member force, who would be transferred from the contingent already stationed in the country. French President Nicolas Sarkozy Nov. 30 said the UFDD threat would not deter France from its role in Chad. International aid officials, who had lobbied strongly for the EU force’s presence, Nov. 27 said the latest fighting had disrupted their operations in the region.

Sudan British Teacher Freed After Blasphemy Row.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir Dec. 3 pardoned British primary-school teacher Gillian Gibbons, who Nov. 29 had been sentenced to 15 days in jail by a court in Khartoum, the capital, for allowing her students to name a teddy bear “Muhammad.” She was convicted of insulting Islam by allowing students to give the bear the same name as Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Under Islamic law, images of the Prophet were banned. [See p. 655E2] The jailing of Gibbons, 54, had prompted international controversy, drawing criticism from leaders in the West and some Muslims who argued that the case was an overreaction to a simple mistake or cultural misunderstanding on the part of the teacher. Some Muslim scholars questioned whether the naming of the bear was actually a violation of Islamic law. The case evoked comparisons to 2006 protests in the Muslim world that had been sparked by the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper in September 2005. Gibbons, who had taught seven-yearolds at Khartoum’s exclusive Unity High School since August, had been arrested Nov. 25. She was charged Nov. 28 with insulting religion and inciting hatred. It was reported that some of her students’ parents had complained to local authorities that Gibbons allowed the stuffed animal to be named Muhammad, after a vote by the class in September. (Muhammad was one of the most common names in the Muslim world. The naming of the bear was part of a project to teach the children about animals.) However, it was later reported that a member of the school’s staff had alerted authorities. One of Gibbons’s students, named Muhammad, had defended the teacher, saying he had suggested the name for the bear because it was his own name, it was reported Nov. 28. After Gibbons was charged, Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, Nov. 28 said in a statement, “This is a disgraceful decision and defies common sense. There was clearly no intention on the part of the teacher to deliberately insult the Islamic faith.” Few details were released about Gibbons’s Nov. 29 trial in the Khartoum court, in which she was found guilty of insulting Islam and sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation. She could have received a much harsher sentence, including 40 lashes, six months in jail and a fine. December 6, 2007

British embassy officials in Khartoum had reportedly sought to secure her release since her arrest. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband Nov. 29 summoned the Sudanese ambassador to Britain, Omer Siddig, for a second time to protest Gibbons’s sentence. Protesters Call for Execution—More than a thousand Sudanese Nov. 30 protested in the streets of Khartoum in response to Gibbons’s sentence. The protesters, some carrying swords and clubs, burned pictures of Gibbons and called for her execution. The police did not intervene in the protests. However, witnesses reportedly said many of the demonstrators were government employees who had been ordered to take to the streets. Despite the protests, many in the Muslim community—from Britain as well as Sudan—criticized the arrest and verdict, arguing that it was an overreaction by the Sudanese authorities that perpetuated an image of Islam as radical and intolerant. Many saw the Nov. 30 demonstrations as a tool for Bashir’s Islamic government to protest against perceived interference by the West on other issues, such as the crisis in the war-torn western region of Darfur. Britain had been a leading critic of the government’s actions in Darfur, and had pushed for a United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed in the area, which Bashir had resisted. [See p. 709A1] The United Nations’ top peacekeeping official Nov. 27 had told the Security Council that the Sudanese government was blocking attempts to deploy the peacekeeping force. British Muslim Peers Win Release—

Two British Muslim members of Parliament, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Lord Nazir Ahmed, Dec. 1 arrived in Sudan in an effort to secure Gibbons’s release. They met with Bashir Dec. 3, after which he agreed to pardon the teacher. She was freed from detention later that day, and transferred to the British embassy. Gibbons returned to Britain Dec. 4. The efforts of the two Muslim peers were seen as a more effective way of winning Gibbons’s release than negotiations through official government channels. In a Dec. 4 news conference at London’s Heathrow Airport, Gibbons said she was in “total shock,” but added that she had been “well treated in prison and everyone was very kind to me.” She also said she was “sorry” to leave Sudan, which she described as a “beautiful place” where the people were “extremely kind and generous.”

Other Africa News U.S.’s Rice Visits, Seeks Talks on Crises.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Dec. 5 visited Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, in just her second trip to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office in 2005. Rice met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Somali Interim Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, the presidents of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, and a minister

from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in an effort to address various regional conflicts. [See 2005, p. 509D3] Rice discussed with Meles a potential escalation of tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea over their disputed border. She said in a statement that she had urged Meles “to avoid any acts that might heighten friction between Eritrea and Ethiopia and to take concrete steps to lessen tensions on the border. There must not be a resumption of hostilities initiated by either side.” [See p. 809F3] Rice met with Congolese Interior Minister Denis Kalume, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to discuss fighting in eastern Congo that had also affected the three neighboring countries. The leaders reportedly reiterated a previously stated plan that involved the “rapid strengthening” of Congolese security forces and a commitment by all countries not to “harbor negative forces.” Museveni said at a news conference with Rice that “the plan which she summarized is a good restatement of what we have talked about before, but this time with more vigor.” [See p. 755A2] Rice met with Hussein, Somalia’s newly appointed prime minister, and urged him to include rival groups in the government to promote political reconciliation. Somalia’s transitional government, backed by Ethiopian forces, was currently battling an Islamist insurgency. Rice also called for peacekeepers to be sent to Somalia, to replace the Ethiopian troops. [See p. 787A1] Somali Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed had originally been scheduled to attend the meeting with Rice, but he was hospitalized Dec. 4 in Nairobi, Kenya, and was later reported to be suffering from bronchitis. Yusuf, 72, had undergone a liver transplant in 1996. Sudanese President Omar Hassan alBashir boycotted the meeting with Rice. However, Rice did meet with representatives from the semiautonomous region of southern Sudan, who were feuding with Bashir’s government. Of Bashir’s boycott, Rice said, “That’s fine, we have had plenty of contact with the Sudanese government on this issue.” Bashir was also facing another crisis in the war-torn western region of Darfur. Rice criticized Sudan for delaying the deployment of a joint United Nations–African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. [See p. 709A1]

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Ethiopia-Eritrea Border Deadline Passes.

An independent arbitration panel, the Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Commission, Nov. 30 dissolved without reaching an agreement with the two countries on the demarcation of their shared 620-mile (1,000-km) border. The commission, part of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, had been assigned by the United Nations to set the border, after Ethiopia and Eritrea had fought a war over the issue from 1998 to 2000. [See 2006, p. 1014C3] In November 2006, the commission, which had ruled on the border in 2002, had given the two countries one year to accept its findings. Otherwise, the new border 809

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AMERICAS

Venezuelan Voters Reject Expansion of Chavez’s Powers 69 Amendments Narrowly Defeated. Vene-

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zuelan voters in a public referendum Dec. 2 narrowly rejected, 51%–49%, a proposal to make 69 amendments to the country’s constitution, handing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias his first substantial policy defeat since taking office in 1999. The Chavez-supported proposal included provisions that would have granted the president significantly expanded economic powers, abolished term limits and 810

extended the presidential term to seven years, from six. The current constitution had been adopted in 1999 after Chavez came to power. [See p. 738G3] The reforms would also have allowed the president to declare a state of emergency in which some due-process rights could be suspended, and in which government censorship of news of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias’s proposed constitutional outlets would be al- Opponents reforms rally in Caracas, the capital, Nov. 29. The amendments were narrowly delowed. The plan feated in a referendum Dec. 2. would have reduced Supporters Break With Chavez—Severthe workday to six hours, from eight. Turnout for the referendum was low, at al former Chavez allies had broken with around 56% of registered voters. Analysts him over the proposed constitutional said the poor showing reflected a growing amendments, campaigning against the reunease among Venezuela’s poor, tradition- forms. Among them were Gen. Raul Isaias ally a source of strong support for Chavez, Baduel, a former top army commander; about his push towards a socialist state. Al- Ramon Martinez, governor of the eastern though Chavez had relied on growing reve- state of Sucre; and Ismael Garcia, a memnues generated by the state-run oil company ber of the National Assembly. The former Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) to fund Chavez allies said the proposed changes a range of social programs, he had also insti- were aimed at concentrating power in the tuted price controls that had led to shortages hands of the president. “The proposal, in addition to taking of food staples such as rice, milk and sugar. Venezuela had also experienced an annual power from the people, is taking the couninflation rate of about 21%, while the coun- try to disaster,” Baduel had said in an intertry’s currency, the bolivar, had depreciated view published in the Washington Post sharply in 2007. Crime had also increased in Nov. 29. “We’re giving discretionary power to one person to take transcendental demany poor neighborhoods. Since his reelection in December 2006 cisions about the direction our country with 63% of the vote, Chavez had at- should take.” Baduel, who had aided Chavez during a tempted to institute what he called “21st century socialism” in Venezuela, and had brief, failed coup d’etat against him in nationalized companies in the oil, tele- 2002, also said there were “sectors” whose communications and electricity sectors. goal was to generate violence and create a In May he had also denied renewal of the “climate of insecurity and confusion,” the broadcast license of Radio Caracas Tele- Financial Times reported Nov. 30. Baduel, vision (RCTV), a television channel that who analysts said still held considerable inaired programming critical of his adminis- fluence within Venezuela’s armed forces, tration. In the weeks leading up to the ref- called on the country’s military to remain erendum Chavez had campaigned for ap- an apolitical body. Chavez prior to the referendum had reproval of the amendments, and increasingly criticized opponents of both peatedly described those planning to vote his rule and the reform plan. [See pp. against the reforms as traitors. In a Nov. 30 speech he claimed that the U.S., with which 384B1, 351E3, 283F3] Chavez had not allowed electoral ob- he had a sharply antagonistic relationship, servers from the Organization of American was planning to interfere with the vote. Students Rally Against Changes—HunStates (OAS) or the European Union to monitor the vote, but there were few re- dreds of thousands of opponents of the proports of irregularities, fraud and violence. posed reforms Nov. 29 rallied in Caracas, Chavez in a Dec. 5 televised speech at- the capital. An opposition movement had tacked his critics and said he would reintro- emerged among university student groups, sparked by Chavez’s decision to force duce the constitutional amendments. Despite the referendum’s results, Cha- RCTV off the air. The student groups had vez still wielded pervasive influence in the become increasingly defiant and organized country, with his allies effectively control- in their criticism of Chavez’s government; ling the legislative and judicial branches of many of the groups described themselves the federal government, as well as many lo- as leftists opposed to Chavez, whom they cal and state governments. However, an in- called an autocrat. Tens of thousands of student demonstracreasingly vocal opposition movement had sprung up among a loose coalition of polit- tors Nov. 9 marched in Caracas, demanding ical parties, student groups, businesses and that the Supreme Court, the country’s highactivists in the Roman Catholic Church. est court, suspend the constitutional amendment plan. Nine students were injured after [See below] FACTS ON FILE

AP Photo/Fernando Llano

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would be imposed unilaterally. The two sides had refused to meet with each other on the issue, and both had kept thousands of troops poised on the border. In a Nov. 30 statement, the commission said, “Until such time as the boundary is finally demarcated, the delimitation decision of 13 April 2002 continues as the only valid legal description of the boundary.” Eritrea had accepted the commission’s ruling. Ethiopia had initially rejected it. Now Ethiopia reportedly said it would accept the ruling, but wanted further talks on its implementation. Some 1,700 U.N. troops monitored a 16-mile- (25-km-) wide buffer zone along the border; however, their mandate was set to expire on Jan. 31, 2008. A Nov. 5 report released by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels, Belgium– based foreign policy research group, warned of an imminent war between the two countries. The U.S. government had estimated that Eritrea maintained about 12,000 troops in the border region, while Ethiopia—which had one of the largest and best-equipped armies in Africa—had some 100,000 troops on its side of the border, the Washington Post reported Nov. 6. Ethiopian troops continued to occupy territory that the commission had said was part of Eritrea, including the town of Badme. The dispute ran deeper than the border issue. The government of each country was allegedly backing rebel or opposition groups in the other. Also, Eritrea was believed to be aiding Islamist insurgents in Somalia. Ethiopian forces in December 2006 had helped Somalia’s transitional government retake power from the Islamists, but remained bogged down in the country fighting the insurgency. [See p. 787A1] Eritrean President Issaias Afwerki Nov. 9 told Edmond Mulet, the U.N.’s assistant secretary general for peacekeeping operations, that “the silence and the unjustified stance of the United Nations including the Security Council has been and continues to be an encouraging factor for this situation.” Eritrea in the past had criticized the U.N. for failing to pressure Ethiopia to accept the 2002 border ruling. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi Nov. 27 said his country did not intend to restart hostilities with Eritrea. However, he also accused Eritrea of seeking to invade Ethiopia.

they were attacked by gunmen at the Central University of Venezuela. Protesters and university officials said the gunmen were paramilitaries loyal to Chavez, but the government said the students were to blame for the violence.

Other Venezuela News Critical Channel Restarts Broadcasts. The television channel Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) July 16 resumed broadcasting by cable and satellite only, after President Hugo Chavez Frias in May had denied renewal of the station’s broadcasting license. The shutdown of the network, which had often aired shows critical of Chavez, had sparked weeks of protests and fomented a student activist movement opposed to the president. Because Chavez and his allies dominated all the branches of the government, the media outlets were the principal platform for the political opposition. Chavez had said he had let the station’s license lapse because it had backed a failed coup d’etat against him in 2002. [See p. 384B1] Because it would still be barred from traditional over-the-air transmission, the station’s reach would be limited to the roughly 33% of Venezuelans with cable or satellite television, leaving only state-controlled or Chavez-friendly stations with the ability to broadcast nationwide. The change would make it difficult for RCTV to reach its traditional viewership of poor Venezuelans, a demographic in which Chavez enjoyed strong support. Several other stations previously critical of Chavez had toned down their opposition in the face of government threats.

Brazil Senate Head Resigns From Leadership Role.

Renan Calheiros, the president of Brazil’s Senate, Dec. 4 resigned from his leadership position after his fellow senators moved to have him expelled from Brazil’s Congress due to his alleged ties to several corruption scandals. Hours after his announcement, the Senate voted, 48–29, against Calheiros’s impeachment, despite a recommendation from an ethics committee that he be removed from his seat. Analysts said Calheiros’s resignation was likely intended to persuade other senators to vote to allow him to remain in the Senate. [See pp. 577G1, 383C1; 2006, p. 750A1] The Brazilian magazine Veja in May had published a report accusing Calheiros of allowing an employee of a construction company to pay child support for a daughter he had fathered in an extramarital affair. The construction company received government contracts that Calheiros oversaw in his Senate role. Calheiros admitted that the payments had occurred, but claimed that the funds used were his own. Calheiros had also been accused of using a front to purchase stakes in two radio stations and a newspaper. Such holdings by politicians were prohibited in Brazil. Da Silva Liaison Resigns—Walfrido dos Mares Guia Nov. 22 resigned from his cabDecember 6, 2007

inet-level role as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s congressional liaison. Mares Guia was accused by federal prosecutors of engaging in embezzlement and money laundering during fund-raising for a 1998 gubernatorial campaign in Minas Gerais state. Mares Guia denied any wrongdoing, but said he had resigned so he could concentrate on his defense. Da Silva’s government had been plagued by several scandals since he first took office in 2003. AIDS Drug Patent Overridden. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Dec. 4 issued a “compulsory license” that would allow the country to manufacture or import a cheaper generic version of the AIDS drug efavirenz, which U.S. drug company Merck & Co. held a patent for. The license would allow Brazil to bypass Merck’s patent, paying them only a small royalty fee. Merck had offered to sell the drug to Brazil at $1.10 per pill, discounted 30% from $1.57 per pill. Brazil had declined the offer, intending to pay only 65 cents per pill. [See p. 182F1; 2005, p. 868C3] It was the first time Brazil had issued a compulsory license, a practice adopted by some other developing countries with AIDS patients too poor to afford drug treatment regimens. Brazil’s government provided free AIDS drugs to citizens; an estimated 180,000 Brazilians received free drugs, with 75,000 of them on efavirenz.

Colombia Video of Rebel-Held Hostages Seized. The

Colombian government Nov. 30 said it had seized video footage, letters and other proof showing that more than 15 hostages held by the Marxist rebel guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were still alive. The materials had been taken from three suspected FARC members captured during a Nov. 29 raid by army forces in Bogota, the capital. [See p. 787D3] The materials included video footage of Ingrid Betancourt, a dual French-Colombian national and former Colombian presidential candidate seized by FARC forces in February 2002. There was also footage of three U.S. military contractors—Thomas Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell—whose airplane crashed in 2003 in FARC-controlled territory. The most recent previous evidence that those four hostages were alive dated to 2003. Carlos Luis Restrepo, Colombia’s peace commissioner, Nov. 30 said the videos could have been shot as recently as late October. In the videos, the subjects were shown in a thick jungle setting, with several of the hostages, including Betancourt, appearing gaunt. Betancourt in a letter addressed to her mother, excerpts of which were released to the media Dec. 1, said she was forced by her captors to pack and move her possessions frequently. “Here, we are living like the dead,” she wrote in the letter, dated Oct. 24. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez the previous week had ended Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias’s role

as mediator between the Colombian government and FARC forces. A Colombian senator involved in those talks said the seized materials had been intended for Chavez in order to prove that the hostages were still alive.

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Australia Rudd Sworn In, Signs Kyoto Protocol. Australian Labor Party (ALP) leader Kevin

Rudd Dec. 3 was sworn in as prime minister, succeeding John Howard, following the ALP’s victory in November parliamentary elections. Julia Gillard was sworn in the same day as deputy prime minister; she was the first woman to hold the position. Rudd’s cabinet was also sworn in that day. [See p. 788D3] Rudd’s first official act as prime minister was to sign the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 international agreement that placed mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions, reversing his predecessor’s refusal to ratify the agreement. Rudd said Dec. 3 that “Australia’s official declaration today that we will become a member of the Kyoto Protocol is a significant step forward in our country’s efforts to fight climate change domestically—and with the international community.” The signing, which came on the first day of a United Nations conference on climate change in Bali, Indonesia, left the U.S. as the only highly industrialized nation that had signed but not ratified the protocol.

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China U.S. Protests Port Refusals. The U.S. De-

fense Department Nov. 28 delivered a formal protest to China over two recent incidents in which China had refused to grant U.S. Navy vessels entry to Hong Kong’s harbor. China earlier in the month had refused a request to allow two minesweepers to seek shelter from a storm and refuel in Hong Kong, and the U.S. Nov. 21 said China had unexpectedly rejected plans for the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying ships to call at Hong Kong, where crew members’ families had gathered to join the sailors for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. [See p. 770F2] Two top U.S. naval officers Nov. 27 had expressed strong concern about the Chinese denials. Adm. Timothy Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, and Adm. Gary Roughead, Navy chief of operations, Nov. 27 said that they were particularly disturbed about the refusal of the minesweepers’ request. Roughead said it violated a seagoing principle that “when someone is in need, you provide, and you sort it out later.” Keating said China’s response was not characteristic “of a country that understands its obligations as a responsible nation.” A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry Nov. 29 said that the refusals were partly a response to the U.S. Defense Department’s Nov. 13 announcement of a possible $939 million sale of updated Pa811

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triot missile systems to Taiwan. The ministry also cited an award presented by the U.S. Congress to the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, a Chinese territory, as having hurt bilateral relations. President George W. Bush had met with the Dalai Lama during his visit. [See pp. 679C1, 451D2] China Nov. 22 had reversed its decision on the Kitty Hawk, but U.S. officials said that the ship was too far away in stormy seas to change course and reach Hong Kong for Thanksgiving, which was that day. The carrier instead headed for its home port of Yokosuka, Japan. It took a relatively unusual route through the Taiwan Strait, prompting a warning Dec. 4 from China that the U.S. “take prudent actions in this sensitive area,” in the words of a foreign ministry spokesman. U.S. officials said that the route was determined by weather conditions. Chinese Navy Ship Visits Japan—China’s Shenzhen missile destroyer Nov. 28 docked near Tokyo, in the first visit to Japan by a Chinese warship since before the World War II era. Democracy Activist Wins Legislative Seat.

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Anson Chan, a former chief of Hong Kong’s civil service and an activist for greater democratization of the territory’s government, Dec. 3 won a by-election to the Hong Kong Legislative Council. Chan, as chief secretary, had held Hong Kong’s second-ranking government post from 1993, under British rule, until 2001, four years after China’s 1997 resumption of sovereignty. She defeated Regina Ip, a former security secretary who had resigned in 2003 after failing to secure the enactment of a controversial antisubversion bill. [See 2006, p. 914B1; 2003, p. 562B2] Chan said her 55%–43% victory showed that “Hong Kong people are anxious to put forward democracy,” and called for universal suffrage by 2012, when the next election for chief executive would be held. She ran as an independent, but was backed by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy coalition. Ip also ran as an independent, but was supported by parties loyal to the Chinese government. Chief Executive Donald Tsang was expected to unveil a plan for future democratic reforms in 2008. [See p. 451E1]

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him from intervening in alleged government plans to rig the Dec. 16 elections. Atambayev, who had been appointed prime minister in March, was an opposition leader and had organized anti-Bakiyev protests before his appointment. Analysts had viewed the appointment as an attempt by Bakiyev to ease tensions between his government and opposition parties, which had called for his removal. [See p. 267A1]

Philippines Military Puts Down Coup Attempt. Police

and military personnel Nov. 29 arrested more than 100 people following a coup attempt by rogue army officers who had occupied a hotel in the financial district of Manila, the capital, for about seven hours. The coup was the third armed attempt to overthrow the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo since she took office in 2001. [See p. 790A1; 2003, p. 608B3] The coup began Nov. 29 after about 30 soldiers on trial for their role in a 2003 antiArroyo coup left the court during a morning break in proceedings. The soldiers met up with armed supporters and then took control of the Peninsula Manila Hotel. Once inside, the group, which included Senator Antonio Trillanes 4th and former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, broadcast a message on national television accusing Arroyo of committing election fraud, calling for a popular uprising against her government. Philippine police officers and troops surrounded the hotel and stormed the building using an armored vehicle to break inside, firing warning shots and tear gas. Once the military entered the building, the rebels gave themselves up. Trillanes told reporters that the rebels had decided not to fight in order to minimize civilian casualties. Trillanes, Guingona and at least 98 others were arrested, including journalists and other news professionals. The police said that the reporters had been arrested in order to make sure that they were not rebels who had disguised themselves as reporters. All the journalists were released Nov. 30. The police that day said that they were still searching for at least four rogue military officers who had escaped from the hotel, including Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon.

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Kyrgyz Prime Minister Almaz Atambayev Nov. 28 left his post, amid conflicting reports that he had resigned or been fired. First Vice Prime Minister Iskenderbek Aidaraliyev would become acting prime minister until parliamentary elections were held Dec. 16. [See pp. 719A3, 385F2] Nurlan Shakiyev, a government spokesman, Nov. 28 said Atambayev had requested to step down, and he remained on good terms with Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. However, members of Atambayev’s party, the moderate opposition Social Democratic Party, said he had been forcibly removed from his position to keep 812

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

France Judge Opens Chirac Corruption Probe.

Judge Xaviere Simeoni Nov. 21 formally placed former French President Jacques Chirac under investigation for the misuse of public funds during his tenure as Paris mayor from 1977 to 1995. Chirac became the first former president to be declared the subject of a criminal probe, which could lead to an indictment if the judge determined that there was enough evidence to go to trial. Chirac, 74, had lost his immuni-

ty from prosecution after he left office in May. [See p. 515C3] Simeoni Nov. 21 questioned Chirac for three and a half hours in her chambers, according to Chirac’s lawyer, Jacques Veil. The judge had refused Chirac’s request to conduct the hearing in his private office, as a different judge had done in July in connection with a separate probe. Both investigations focused on allegations that Chirac had created unnecessary jobs on the public payroll for his associates and members of his center-right political party, which was known as Rally for the Republic during the period in question. In an opinion piece published Nov. 21 in the newspaper Le Monde, Chirac sought to justify those appointments, saying they had been “legitimate and necessary.”

Georgia Former Defense Minister Arrested. Former

Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili Nov. 27 was arrested in Berlin, Germany’s capital. Okruashvili, who had applied for asylum in Germany days before his arrest, was reportedly required by a Nov. 14 Georgian court order to appear before prosecutors in his home country for questioning related to outstanding charges against him, which included corruption, money laundering and abuse of power. [See pp. 741D2, 689E1] Okruashvili was arrested on a request filed by Georgian authorities with international police agency Interpol. German authorities would examine the charges and decide whether or not to extradite Okruashvili, a procedure that could take up to six weeks. Eka Beselia, Okruashvili’s lawyer, repeatedly had claimed that the charges were politically motivated, and that his extradition would be “totally unacceptable as his life and health would be in danger in Georgia,” Russian news agency Novosti reported Nov. 30. Okruashvili had been arrested in September in Georgia on various charges related to corruption, after he appeared on the since-closed Imedi television station and accused Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of corruption and devising a plan to murder Georgian businessman and opposition leader Badri Patarkatsishvili. He had been detained for two weeks. While in custody, he recanted his accusations against Saakashvili and was released on $6 million bail, at which point he fled the country. He had renewed the allegations from abroad earlier in November, and said he had been under duress when he withdrew them.

Russia Putin Signs Arms Treaty Suspension Law.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Nov. 30 signed a law that suspended Russia’s participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty. The treaty, adopted in 1990 by members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Soviet FACTS ON FILE

Union, limited the number of conventional arms that could be deployed between the Atlantic Ocean and Russia’s Ural mountains. The treaty also required signatories to disclose troop movements and missile launches. The suspension would take effect Dec. 12. [See p. 759C2] Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Nov. 30 said Russia was open to discussing the implementation of an amended version of the treaty, which had been negotiated in 1999. That version set arms limits for individual nations, as opposed to zones, and would add Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia to the list of member countries. Those countries had gained independence from the Soviet Union and joined NATO after the 1990 treaty had been signed and were not included in its stipulations. However, the amended version mandated Russian troop withdrawals from Moldova and Georgia. Russian troops remained in both countries, and some NATO members said they would not adopt the 1999 version of the treaty until that requirement had been met. Russia had ratified the new version in 2004. Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, Nov. 30 said in a press conference, “Russia has made a mistake in this unilateral behavior of walking out of a major arms control treaty in Europe.” NATO spokesman James Appathurai the same day expressed regret over the situation, and said negotiations would continue at the next NATO-Russia Council meeting, scheduled to take place Dec. 7 in Brussels, Belgium. News in Brief. Vitaly Kaloyev, a Russian who had been imprisoned in Switzerland in 2004 for the murder of an air traffic controller, Nov. 12 was released from a Swiss jail. Kaloyev had stabbed to death Peter Nielson, who had been involved in a 2002 midair aircraft collision that resulted in the deaths of 71 people, including Kaloyev’s wife and two children. He was released early, after a Swiss regional court in July had found he acted with diminished responsibility, due to the grief of losing his family. [See 2005, p. 968C1] Exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky Nov. 29 was convicted in absentia by a Moscow court of defrauding Russian airline OAO Aeroflot of about $9 million. Berezovsky was sentenced to six years in prison. Berezovsky had lived in London since 2000, and was granted asylum by Britain in September 2003. He faced prosecution in 11 cases in Russia, but said he had no assets left in the country for the courts to seize. [See p. 616E3] Igor Reshetin, head of TsNIIMASH-Export JSC, a Russian rocket and space technology company, Dec. 3 was convicted of leaking classified information to China and was sentenced by a Moscow court to 11½ years in prison. A spokeswoman for the court said the leaked information could be used to construct nuclear warheads. Reshetin had been incarcerated since his arrest in 2005. His lawyer said the defense would appeal the decision. [See 2005, p. 966E2] December 6, 2007

Turkey Military Claims Attack on Kurds in Iraq.

The Turkish military Dec. 1 said its forces had attacked a group of 50 to 60 Kurdish rebels across the border in Iraq that day, in an “intensive operation” that caused “significant losses” for the rebels. However, Iraqi officials and U.S. military officials in Iraq said they had no reports of such a clash, and the Kurdish rebels, known as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), denied that their forces inside Iraq had been hit by Turkey. [See p. 729B2] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Nov. 30 had said the government had authorized the military to launch a cross-border strike against the PKK, at any time. Turkish President Abdullah Gul Dec. 2 echoed that statement. Turkey had previously threatened a large-scale operation in Iraq, but had refrained from carrying it out, under pressure from the U.S., which had begun providing Turkey with intelligence on the PKK. Iraqi officials Nov. 13 had claimed that Turkish aircraft had attacked PKK sites on the Iraqi side of the border, but Turkey denied that such air strikes had taken place. Also that day, Turkey said PKK rebels in southeastern Turkey had killed four Turkish troops and wounded nine. Turkish prosecutors Nov. 16 indicted the only Kurdish party in the Turkish parliament, the Democratic Society Party, on charges of separatism and collaboration with the PKK. The prosecutors sought to have the party’s members expelled from parliament, and to ban them from participating in elections during the trial. The party had won 20 seats in July elections. It had demanded autonomy for the mostly Kurdish southeast of Turkey. Although it renounced violence, it had refused to condemn the PKK. [See p. 473A1] A crowd of supporters of the party, estimated at up to 40,000 people, demonstrated Nov. 25 in Diyarbakir, the largest city in southeastern Turkey. The protesters clashed with police after the route of their march was blocked. The PKK had fought a separatist campaign against the Turkish government for the past two decades, leaving nearly 40,000 people dead. The PKK Nov. 9 said it was “open to dialogue based on a political project which will totally exclude arms.” 57 Killed in Plane Crash. A Turkish passenger airplane crashed Nov. 30 in the mountains of southwestern Turkey, killing all 57 people aboard. The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, operated by budget airline AtlasJet, had departed from Istanbul. It crashed seven miles (12 km) from its destination, the airport in Isparta. Officials said the cause of the crash was unclear. [See 2003, p. 36E2] Suspect in German Bomb Plot Held. Turkish police Nov. 7 said a suspect in a foiled terrorist plot to bomb U.S. targets in Germany had been arrested the previous day in Konya, a city in central Turkey that was his his hometown. The suspect, Attila Selek,

22, was a German citizen of Turkish descent. German authorities had uncovered the plot in September and arrested three other men. [See p. 596B3]

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Europe News in Brief Bosnia: Parliament Agrees on Reforms.

Bosnian leaders Nov. 30 agreed to implement a controversial proposal from international envoy Miroslav Lajcak, which redefined the way a parliamentary quorum was calculated. Previously, Bosnian Serb leaders had objected to the plan, prompting Prime Minister Nikola Spiric, a Bosnian Serb, to resign. (Spiric would remain in the position until a successor could be named.) The parliament Dec. 3 agreed on a series of European Union–inspired reforms, which included a program that would unify the ethnically divided police force. The reforms could expedite the country’s entry into the EU. [See p. 791F1] Ukraine: Zasyadko Mine Blast Kills Five.

Five miners died and 66 others were wounded Dec. 2 in an explosion at the Zasyadko coal mine in Donetsk, the same mine where 101 miners had died as a result of an explosion in November. A methane blast at the mine Dec. 1 had injured 52 miners. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko Dec. 3 called for the mine to be closed until an investigation into the explosions was completed. However, Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and local residents said a total closure of the mine could adversely affect the region’s economy. [See p. 773A1]

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Jordan Government Allies Gain in Elections. Allies of the government under Jordanian King Abdullah II Nov. 20 made gains in elections for the 110-member lower house of parliament at the expense of the country’s Islamic opposition party, final results showed Nov. 21. Abdullah Nov. 22 accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit and his cabinet, whose mandate expired with the elections. The king asked Nader al-Dahabi, 61, a reformist former transport minister and air force commander who had run a special economic zone in the southern port city of Aqaba, to become the new prime minister. Dahabi and the 27 ministers of his cabinet were sworn in Nov. 25. [See 2005, p. 880B2] Dahabi Nov. 25 said he would focus on economic reforms and combating income inequality. The Islamic Action Front (IAF), Jordan’s largest opposition group, won only six seats of the 22 it contested in the election, down from 17 it had held in the outgoing parliament. Analysts said the result was largely due to Jordan’s electoral system—which favored rural voters, who often voted along tribal lines, over urban residents more likely to support Islamist candidates—and to the IAF’s inability to deliver on past promises to alleviate poverty. Seven women won seats in the election. 813

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The IAF charged that the government had engaged in widespread vote-rigging. However, the U.S., an ally of Jordan, Nov. 21 praised the elections as smooth and transparent.

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Afghanistan Gates Urges NATO to Increase Efforts.

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Dec. 4 in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, urged European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to “redouble their efforts” to provide more troops and military equipment to the conflict in Afghanistan. Gates had criticized European members of NATO in the past for not committing enough resources to help U.S. and NATO-led troops maintain security, and fight an insurgency by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban. Afghanistan had seen violence spike to its highest levels since a U.S- and NATO-led force invaded the country in 2001 and toppled the Taliban from power. [See p. 742D2] Gates Dec. 3, prior to arriving in Afghanistan for a Dec. 3–5 tour, said he was meeting with government leaders and military commanders there to discuss a “comprehensive development strategy” that would combine political and economic initiatives with military operations to stabilize the country. Gates also said he wanted to assess the extent to which recent political turmoil in neighboring Pakistan had allowed members of Al Qaeda, the international terrorist network, and other Islamic extremists to infiltrate Afghanistan through the countries’ shared border. [See p. 774A3] Gates Dec. 4 maintained that the principal reason violence had increased, especially in the southern region of the country, was because of “a much more aggressive effort” on the part of coalition troops to engage insurgent-controlled areas. Fueling concerns over Al Qaeda’s growing presence in Afghanistan were recent increases in suicide and cross-border attacks, officials said. Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, senior commander for U.S. forces in the country, Dec. 4 cited the fact that “suicide bombers were basically nonexistent here three years ago” as evidence that Al Qaeda had influenced the insurgency’s tactics. U.S. and Afghan officials Dec. 4 said the Afghan Army sought to recruit 12,000 additional members on top of the total of 70,000 it hoped to have by 2008. The army currently had 50,000 troops. Officials also said the U.S. would speed up shipments of military equipment by next spring. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, at a Dec. 5 press conference with Gates, urged the U.S. and its allies to provide “essentials” to the Afghan Army, including “air ability and transportation ability.” The Washington Post Dec. 4, citing unidentified U.S. officials, reported that the U.S. was considering implementing a plan in which it would train and arm local tribesmen to fight the Taliban. The plan was 814

based on a similar one employed by the U.S. military in Anbar province in Iraq, in which former Sunni insurgents were paid to fight extremist groups. The Anbar plan had been deemed a success. [See p. 727C1] Kabul Hit by Suicide Bombings—A suicide bomber Dec. 5 drove his car into a bus carrying employees of the Afghan Army, killing 13 people, in Kabul. Six civilians were among the dead. Another suicide bomber Dec. 4 had attacked a NATO convoy, and ended up wounding 22 civilians. A Taliban spokesman claimed that the group was responsible for the attacks. Analysts said the bombings matched a pattern in which insurgents would time attacks to coincide with visits from U.S. dignitaries. [See p. 133C1] Gates Visits Djibouti—Gates Dec. 3, en route to Afghanistan, stopped in Djibouti to inspect U.S. military operation Task Force Horn of Africa. The operation’s mission focused on economic development and humanitarian projects, what Gates had described as the military’s ability to use “soft power” to engender stability in a region. Gates said he considered the operation a model for Africa Command, which would be the first U.S. regional command based in Africa. The command had at first been designed to capture terrorists operating on the continent. [See 2006, p. 171E3]

Pakistan Sharif Barred From Elections. Pakistan’s

election commission Dec. 3 announced that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would be barred from running for a seat in Parliament in elections scheduled for Jan. 8, 2008. Also that day, Sharif and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said they were forming a joint committee that would draw up a list of demands to present to President Pervez Musharraf. The leaders said their parties would consider boycotting the elections if the demands were unmet. [See below, p. 777B3] The election commission said Sharif was ineligible to run because of a prior hijacking conviction. Sharif had been sentenced to life in prison in 2000, among other convictions, for preventing a plane carrying Musharraf from landing as it returned to Pakistan from Sri Lanka. That incident prompted Musharraf, who was the chief of army staff at the time, to lead a coup against Sharif, who was prime minister. Sharif claimed that the charges were politically motivated. [See 2000, p. 977A3; 1999, p. 738E2] Sharif’s lawyers said he might appeal the commission’s decision. However, leaders of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party (PML-N) said an appeal could be futile, since Musharraf had placed his allies in the country’s Supreme Court, after he had declared a state of emergency in early November. Musharraf had said the state of emergency would be lifted by Dec. 16. The commission’s decision meant that Sharif would not be able to serve as prime minister if the PML-N won a majority of seats in the election.

Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz Sharif, was also barred from running in the elections due to alleged financial improprieties. Sharif had returned to Pakistan in late November, ending more than seven years in exile, after the Saudi Arabian government reportedly pressured Musharraf to allow him to participate in the elections. Free and Fair Elections Demanded—

Sharif and Bhutto Dec. 3 said fair and transparent elections could not occur unless Musharraf removed some of the restrictions he had set in place when he declared emergency rule. Their joint committee was expected to make specific demands in the coming days. Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), that day accused Musharraf of planning to rig the elections, and demanded that Musharraf set up an independent election commission to observe the election process. Bhutto had opposed boycotting the elections since it could allow Musharraf to fill Parliament with his supporters. However, she said her party would consider a boycott if all the opposition parties adopted a united stance, and if their demands were not met. Sharif Nov. 29 had already announced that the PML-N and other opposition parties would boycott the elections if they were not conducted in a fair environment. However, observers said the boycott would lose its effectiveness if the PPP, the largest party in Pakistan, did not join it. Musharraf that day was sworn in for a second five-year term as president, after his handpicked Supreme Court validated his October reelection.

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Golf Ochoa Caps Record Year With Victory.

Lorena Ochoa of Mexico, the world’s topranked female golfer, Nov. 18 won the ADT Championship in West Palm Beach, Fla., the final event of the season on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour. Ochoa earned $1 million for the victory, the largest purse in women’s golf. [See p. 519D3; 2006, p. 903C1] Ochoa, 26, sealed the victory in the ADT Championship with a birdie on the 18th hole. She bested Natalie Gulbis of the U.S. by two shots. It was Ochoa’s eighth victory of the year. She ended the season with record earnings of $4.36 million, far surpassing the previous mark of $2.8 million, set by Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam in 2002. [See 2002, p. 1069A2] Ochoa Oct. 14 had clinched LPGA playerof-the-year honors for the second straight year by winning the Samsung World Championship in Palm Desert, Calif. Rose Wins European Tour Title. Justin Rose of England Nov. 4 claimed the European Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour money title, known as the Order of Merit, after winning the season-ending Volvo Masters in Sotogrande, Spain, on the second playoff hole. Rose, 27, defeated Simon Dyson of England and Soren Kjeldsen FACTS ON FILE

of Denmark in the playoff. [See 2006, p. 902B3] Rose earned nearly 2.95 million euros ($4.28 million) in 12 European PGA Tour tournaments in 2007. South Africa’s Ernie Els—the leader on the money list prior to the final tournament—did not compete in the Volvo Masters due to a scheduling conflict with another tournament, the Singapore Masters, which he had committed to play in. That allowed Rose to overtake him for the Order of Merit. Els Wins World Match Play— Els Oct. 14 defeated Angel Cabrera of Argentina, six and four, in the 36-hole final of the World Match Play Championship in Virginia Water, England. Els won the tournament for the seventh time in his career, and earned £1 million ($2 million) in prize money. [See 2006, p. 755G3] U.S. Wins Presidents Cup. The U.S. team Sept. 30 defeated the International team, 19½ points to 14½ points, to win the Presidents Cup, a biennial match-play competition pitting the top U.S. golfers against the top golfers from the rest of the world, excluding Europe. The event was held at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Canada. The U.S. had won three of the last four Cups; the 2003 event had ended in a tie. [See 2005, p. 674A3] The U.S. team, which was captained by Jack Nicklaus, featured Woody Austin, Stewart Cink, Jim Furyk, Lucas Glover, Charles Howell 3rd, Zach Johnson, Hunter Mahan, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, David Toms, Scott Verplank and Tiger Woods (the world’s top-ranked player). [See p. 618A2] The International team was captained by Gary Player of South Africa. It was comprised of South Africa’s Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabbatini; Australia’s Stuart Appleby, Geoff Ogilvy, Nick O’Hern and Adam Scott; Argentina’s Angel Cabrera; Canada’s Mike Weir; Fiji’s Vijay Singh; and South Korea’s K.J. Choi. The U.S. needed to reach 17 points to retain the cup, while the Internationals needed to earn 17½ points to win it. The event began Sept. 27 with six foursomes matches, in which the U.S. won 5½ points. On Sept. 28, the Internationals bested the U.S., 4½–1½, in the six four-ball matches. The following day featured five foursomes and five four-ball matches. The U.S. dominated play that day, building a near-insurmountable 14½–7½ lead. On the final day, Sept. 30, when 12 singles matches were played, the Internationals won seven matches to the U.S.’s five, but nevertheless lost because the U.S. had built up such a large lead. In the highlight of the day, Weir, the favorite of the home Canadian crowd, beat Woods, one-up. U.S. Claims Solheim Cup. The U.S. Sept. 16 beat Europe, 16 points to 12 points, at Halmstad Golf Club in Sweden to retain the Solheim Cup, a biennial match-play competition between the top female golfers from Europe and the U.S. The U.S. had also won the previous competition, in 2005. [See 2005, p. 636F2] December 6, 2007

The U.S. team, captained by Betsy King, was made up of Nicole Castrale, Paula Creamer, Laura Diaz, Natalie Gulbis, Pat Hurst, Juli Inkster, Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lincicome, Stacy Prammanasudh, Morgan Pressel, Angela Stanford and Sherri Steinhauer. The European team, led by Helen Alfredsson of Sweden, comprised Sweden’s Sophie Gustafson, Maria Hjorth, Annika Sorenstam and Linda Wessberg; Britain’s Becky Brewerton, Laura Davies, Trish Johnson and Catriona Matthew; Norway’s Suzann Pettersen; Denmark’s Iben Tinning; France’s Gwladys Nocera; and Germany’s Bettina Hauret. The U.S. team led, 4½–3½, after the first day, Sept. 14, which featured four four-ball matches and four foursomes matches. The same format was followed the next day, but the round could not be finished due to darkness. After it was completed early Sept. 16, the Europeans held a 8½–7½ lead. However, the U.S. dominated the 12 singles matches later that day, 8½– 3½, to retain the Cup. Thorpe Wins Champions Tour Finale.

Jim Thorpe of the U.S. Oct. 28 won the Charles Schwab Championship, the final event of the year on the Champions Tour, in Sonoma, Calif. Thorpe, who shot a 20-under-par 271, won the tournament for the second straight year, and earned $442,000 in prize money. [See 2006, p. 902E3] The U.S.’s Loren Roberts Oct. 28 claimed the points-based Charles Schwab Cup, the annual award for the Champions Tour’s top player, which came with a $1 million annuity. Roberts Wins Senior Players Title—Roberts Oct. 7 won the Senior Players Championship, the final major tournament of the season on the Champions Tour, in Timonium, Md. He shot a 13-under-par 267, and collected $390,000 in prize money. [See 2006, p. 603G2]

Basketball NBA Season Opens. The National Basketball Association (NBA) season opened Oct.

30, with six teams in action that day. The defending champion San Antonio Spurs defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, 106– 97, in San Antonio, Texas. [See p. 439C2] In other games that day, the Utah Jazz beat the Golden State Warriors, 117–96, in Oakland, Calif. Also, the visiting Houston Rockets defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, 95–93. A betting scandal surrounding former referee Tim Donaghy had tarnished the NBA in the off-season. Following an internal review of gambling by NBA referees, Commissioner David Stern Oct. 25 announced several rule changes that would actually ease some of the limitations in the league’s strict gambling policy. He also reported that referees who admitted to minor infractions, such as playing card games in casinos, would not be punished. [See p. 535G1] Knicks, Coach Lose Harassment Suit—

A federal jury in New York City Oct. 2 ordered Madison Square Garden, which

owned the New York Knicks, and its chairman James Dolan to pay $11.6 million in punitive damages to former senior executive Anucha Browne Sanders for sexual discrimination. Coach Isiah Thomas was found liable in the harassment suit, but would not have to pay any damages. [See 2006, p. 872D1] Sanders claimed that Thomas had made unwanted sexual advances and used derogatory language in the workplace. Madison Square Garden Oct. 16 filed papers in U.S. District Court seeking a reduction in the damages. Thomas also that day appealed the jury’s verdict. Other News—In other NBA news: The Philadelphia 76ers Dec. 4 fired general manager and team president Billy King, after the team started the season with the worst record (5–12) in the Atlantic Division. New Jersey Nets general manager Ed Stefanski was named his replacement that day. Seattle SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett Nov. 2 announced plans to move the team to Oklahoma City, Okla. The Sonics had two years remaining on an outstanding lease with their Seattle, Wash., home, KeyArena. [See 2006, p. 872E1] The Miami Heat Oct. 24 traded forwards Antoine Walker and Wayne Simien, center Michael Doleac and a conditional first-round draft pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves for forward-guard Ricky Davis and center Mark Blount. Stern Sept. 17 reinstated veteran referee Joey Crawford, who had been suspended indefinitely in April for improper conduct after ejecting Spurs forward Tim Duncan. [See p. 287E1] The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., Sept. 7 inducted seven new members: coaches Phil Jackson, Roy Williams, Van Chancellor, Pedro Ferrandiz and Mirko Novosel; referee Marvin (Mendy) Rudolph; and the 1966 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champions, the Texas Western Miners. [See p. 520B1] It was reported Sept. 6 that the NBA’s board of governors had approved an expanded use of instant replay in the upcoming season. Referees could now review all player altercations and severe flagrant fouls to ensure that all players involved in those incidents were penalized. China’s Yi Jianlian, the sixth pick in the 2007 draft, Aug. 29 signed a standard rookie deal with the Milwaukee Bucks. His agent, Dan Fegan, had hoped the six-foot, 11-inch forward could play in a city with a larger Asian population than Milwaukee, Wis. [See p. 439F2] The Minnesota Timberwolves July 31 traded superstar forward Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics for forwards Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes and Gerald Green; guard Sebastian Telfair; center Theo Ratliff; twofirst round draft picks; and cash. Former Orlando Magic forward Grant Hill, a free agent, July 5 agreed to a twoyear, $3.8 million deal with the Phoenix 815

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BEST SELLER LISTS

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Publishers Weekly Dec. 3 listed the following hardback and paperback best sellers [See p. 724A1]:

Top-Rated Programs. The following were the most-watched prime-time nation-

Fiction Hardback 1. Double Cross, by James Patterson (Little, Brown) 2. Stone Cold, by David Baldacci (Grand Central) 3. The Choice, by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central) 4. Playing for Pizza, by John Grisham (Doubleday) 5. Confessor, by Terry Goodkind (Tor)

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General Hardback 1. You: Staying Young: The Owner’s Manual to Extending Your Warranty, by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. (Free Press) 2. I Am America (And So Can You!), by Stephen Colbert (Grand Central) 3. An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World’s Biggest Problems, by Glenn Beck (Threshold Editions) 4. Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, by Jessica Seinfeld (Collins) 5. The Daring Book for Girls, by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz (Collins) Mass Market Paperback 1. The Innocent Man, by John Grisham (Dell) 2. Next, by Michael Crichton (Harper) 3. Cross, by James Patterson (Grand Central) 4. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson (Tor) 5. Wild Fire, by Nelson DeMille (Vision)

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the five most popular singles (as determined by air play and sales) and the five best-selling albums in the U.S. as the following [See p. 724C1]:

Singles 1. “No One,” Alicia Keys (MBK/J/RMG) 2. “Kiss Kiss,” Chris Brown featuring T-Pain (Jive/Zomba) 3. “Apologize,” Timbaland featuring OneRepublic (Mosley/Blackground/ Interscope) 4. “Low,” Flo Rida featuring T-Pain (Poe Boy/Atlantic) 5. “Bubbly,” Colbie Caillat (Universal Republic) Albums

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1. As I Am, Alicia Keys (MBK/J/RMG) 2. Noel, Josh Groban (143/Reprise/Warner Bros.) 3. Taking Chances, Celine Dion (Columbia/Sony) 4. Now 26, Various Artists (EMI/Sony BMG Strategic Marketing Group/Universal/Zomba/Capitol) 5. The Ultimate Hits, Garth Brooks (Pearl)

Suns. Hill, a former All-Star, had been hampered by injuries in recent years.

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UNITED STATES

People

Nearly eight months after being fired for making a racial and sexual slur about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, talk-show host Don Imus, 67, Dec. 3 returned to the airwaves. Imus’s new show originated on radio station WABC-AM in New York City, owned by Citadel Broadcasting Corp., and was initially carried on nearly two dozen other radio stations nationwide. It was also simultaneously televised on RFD-TV, a cable and satellite channel. Seeking greater diversity, Imus’s new show featured two new cast members, comedians Karith Foster and Tony Powell, both black. Upon returning to the airwaves, Imus called his Rutgers remark “reprehen816

al television shows Oct. 30–Dec. 2 as determined by A.C. Nielsen Co. (Series marked with an asterisk * had at least one other episode during the period that outranked some of the other programs listed.) Figures in parentheses are rating points; each point represents 1% of the 110.2 million television households in the U.S. [See p. 724A2]:

1. “Dancing With the Stars” (ABC), Nov. 27 (16.1)* 2. “Without a Trace” (CBS), Nov. 8 (13.8) 3. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS), Nov. 8 (13.7)* 4. “Sunday Night Football” (NBC), Nov. 25 (13.4) 5. (tie) “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC), Nov. 1 (12.6) “Desperate Housewives” (ABC), Nov. 29 (12.6)

Films Top-Grossing Films. The following were the top-grossing films in the U.S. for the week of Nov. 23–29 according to Variety. Figures in parentheses were each film’s cumulative domestic box-office total and number of weeks in release to date. Information on cast and director is included when a film first appears on the list. [See p. 724B2]:

1. Enchanted, Walt Disney ($53.6 million, 1) Directed by Kevin Lima. With Amy Adams, James Marsden, Idina Menzel, Susan Sarandon and Patrick Dempsey. 2. Beowulf, Paramount ($60.7 million, 2) Directed by Robert Zemeckis. With Brendan Gleeson, Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone, Robin Wright Penn and John Malkovich. 3. This Christmas, Sony ($28.5 million, 1) Directed by Preston Whitmore. With Laz Alonso, Chris Brown, Loretta Devine, Idris Elba and Regina King. 4. Hitman, 20th Century Fox ($24.4 million, 1) Directed by Xavier Gens. With Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko, Robert Knepper and Ulrich Thomsen. 5. Bee Movie, Paramount ($113.2 million, 4) Directed by Stephen Hickner and Simon J. Smith. With the voices of Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Kathy Bates, Oprah Winfrey and Matthew Broderick. 6. Fred Claus, Warner Bros. ($54.3 million, 3) Directed by David Dobkin. With Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Kevin Spacey, John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks. 7. August Rush, Warner Bros. ($15.2 million, 1) Directed by Kirsten Sheridan. With Freddie Highmore, Robin Williams, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Terrence Howard. 8. Stephen King’s The Mist, MGM ($15.0 million, 1) Directed by Frank Darabont. With Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher and Toby Jones. 9. American Gangster, Universal ($117.5 million, 4) Directed by Ridley Scott. With Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, Josh Brolin, Common and Ted Levine. 10. No Country for Old Men, Miramax ($18.5 million, 3) Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. With Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Beth Grant and Garret Dillahunt.

sible” and vowed never to say anything like it again. Imus in August had been sued for slander by Rutgers basketball team member Kia Vaughn, but she had retracted her lawsuit on Sept. 11. [See p. 536E1]

O B I T UA R I E S HARDWICK, Elizabeth Bruce, 91, author of fiction and nonfiction perhaps best known for her 1974 essay collection Seduction and Betrayal: Women in Literature; in 1963, she helped create the literary and intellectual journal the New York Review of Books; another founder was poet Robert Lowell, to whom she was married at the time; their marriage, which lasted from 1949 until 1972, was complicated by Lowell’s manic depression, for which he was repeatedly hospitalized; their marriage ended after he took up with British writer Lady Caroline Blackwood, whom he married after he and Hardwick divorced; they eventually reconciled, in 1977, not long before his sudden death in a taxicab on his way to their New York City apartment; born July 27, 1916, in Lexington, Ky.; died Dec. 2 at a New York hospital, after having been admitted with a minor infection. [See 1979, p. 755F3; 1977, p. 788E1; Indexes 1974, 1972]

KNIEVEL, Evel (born Robert Craig Knievel), 69, motorcycle daredevil, at his prime in the 1960s and 1970s, whose spectacular stunts, in which he sustained many broken bones, made him a legendary figure; he capitalized on his reputation by licensing toys that grossed more than $300 million; among his most widely publicized stunts was a 1974 failed attempt to rocket 1,600 feet (480 m) across Idaho’s Snake River Canyon; one of his sons, Robbie Knievel, also became a motorcycle stuntman, and bested some of his father’s jumps; born Oct. 17, 1938, in Butte, Mont.; died Nov. 30 at his home in Clearwater, Fla., while waiting for an ambulance to arrive; he had had various illnesses, including diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung condition, and had undergone a liver transplant in 1999. [See 1999, pp. 411G3, 72D2; 1992, p. 160C3; Indexes 1974, 1971] SMITH, Roger Bonham, 82, chairman and chief executive of General Motors Corp. (GM) from 1981 to 1990, during a period of decline in the company’s fortunes, which saw its share of the U.S. car market drop from 46% to 35%; he was spoofed in Michael Moore’s 1989 film Roger & Me, which chronicled the impact of GM plant closings in Flint, Mich., and launched Moore’s career as a documentary filmmaker; born July 12, 1925, in Columbus, Ohio; died Nov. 29 in Detroit, Mich., after a short illness. [See 1992, p. 125G1; Indexes 1980–90]

December 6, 2007

CIA Admits Destroying Secret Tapes of Terrorist Suspect Interrogations Tapes Showed Use of ‘Extreme’ Techniques. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Direc-

tor Gen. Michael Hayden Dec. 6 confirmed in a statement to employees that in 2005 the CIA had destroyed two tapes showing the 2002 interrogations of two high-level members of the Al Qaeda terrorist network. The disclosure came after Hayden was informed Dec. 5 by the New York Times that it intended to publish an article focusing on the destruction of the tapes. Following Hayden’s admission, investigations into the destruction of the tapes were announced by the House and Senate Intelligence committees and by the Justice Department. [See p. 735D1; 2006, p. 689C2] The tapes had contained footage from the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, both Al Qaeda members. In the case of Zubaydah, one of the earliest Al Qaeda members to be captured, the interrogation was known to have included waterboarding, a type of simulated drowning. The Times reported Dec. 10 that the decision to destroy the tapes was made by Jose Rodriguez Jr., the head of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, with the approval of lawyers in his division. Neither then–CIA Director Porter Goss and acting CIA General Counsel John Rizzo, the department’s head attorney, was believed to have been notified of Rodriguez’s decision. Rodriguez was due to retire at the end of 2007. [See pp. 716F1, 207D3] Hayden’s Account Disputed—While Hayden’s statement maintained that the leaders of Congress’s intelligence committees had been notified about the decision to destroy the tapes, both Rep. Jane Harman (D, Calif.), who had been the ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee at that time, and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R, Mich.), then the committee chairman, Dec. 6 said that they had not been told that the tapes were to be destroyed. Harman said that she had previously warned CIA officials that it would be a “bad idea” to destroy any interrogation tapes. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John Rockefeller 4th (D, W.Va.) also denied having been briefed about the destruction of the tapes. Members of the Bush administration including Harriet Miers, then–White House counsel, were also briefed about the existence of the tapes, the Times reported Dec. 8. Miers had also reportedly told the CIA not to destroy them. It was unclear whether the Bush administration or the Justice Department had been informed about the destruction of the tapes. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino Dec. 7 said at a press conference that President George W. Bush had “no recollection” of being notified about the existence of the tapes or their destruction. In his statement, Hayden claimed that the tapes had been destroyed in order to protect involved agents from reprisals by Al Qaeda members or sympathizers, and that the action was “in line with the law.” However, the Wall Street Journal reported

Dec. 7 that the destruction of the tapes was motivated in part by a desire to shield pictured agents from potential future war crimes charges. Additionally, Muhammed Bashimilah, a now-released Yemeni detainee who had been secretly held in CIA custody abroad, said that he saw video cameras and tripods in his cells and interrogation rooms during his 2003–05 detention, the Times reported Dec. 11. Bashimilah’s account conflicted with Hayden’s claim, made in his Dec. 6 statement, that the CIA had stopped videotaping interrogations in 2002. CIA Had Withheld Tapes From Probes—

The Times reported Dec. 7 that the socalled Sept. 11 Commission in charge of investigating 2001 terrorist attacks against the U.S. had formally requested from the CIA all its information and materials relating to the terrorist attacks, including information gathered from interrogations. The commission, which concluded in 2004, was not told that interrogation tapes existed and was forced to work from transcripts provided by the agency. Former commission Cochairman Lee Hamilton said of the CIA, “Did they obstruct our inquiry? The answer is clearly yes,” the Times reported Dec. 8. Additionally, in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was accused of being involved in planning the 2001 terrorist attacks, the CIA told prosecutors in 2003 and 2005 that it did not have any tapes of prisoner interrogations, only to admit in November that three tapes had been found; it was unknown who was being interrogated on the tapes. Moussaoui defense attorney Edward MacMahon Jr. Dec. 7 said in a Times interview that “it’s obvious to me that [the CIA] destroyed material evidence in the case.” Moussaoui had pleaded guilty in 2005 to conspiracy charges related to the 2001 terrorist attacks and had been sentenced to life in prison in 2006. [See 2006, p. 337A1] Analysts suggested that the CIA’s decision to destroy the tapes could potentially be criminally prosecuted as obstruction of justice, given that several inquiries and court proceedings appeared to have been falsely told that no tapes of CIA interrogations of detainees existed. Experts suggested that the revelation of the destruction of the tapes by the CIA could complicate future prosecution of detainees by making it easier for defense attorneys to credibly suggest that the government was hiding or had destroyed evidence that could help defendants. In January 2005, prosecutors had dismissed similar allegations by attorneys for a detainee at the U.S.’s Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison camp, as little more than a “conspiracy theory,” the Washington Post reported Dec. 8. On Dec. 10, lawyers representing 11 Guantanamo detainees petitioned for a special hearing to determine if the government’s destruction of the tapes had violated a June 2005 court order. The order, issued

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3496 December 13, 2007

B by Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., had required the U.S. government to keep “all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at” Guantanamo Bay. It was unclear if the court order was legally relevant to the destruction of the tapes, given that both Zubaydah and al-Nashiri had been interrogated in secret CIA prisons rather than in Guantanamo. In a similar case, lawyers for detainee Majid Khan Dec. 8 released documents filed with a federal court the previous week requesting an order forbidding the U.S. from destroying any evidence relating to the torture of their client in secret CIA prisons. The order was granted Dec. 12 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE CIA admits destroying secret tapes of terrorist suspect interrogations; tapes showed use of ‘extreme’ techniques. PAGE 817

Central banks unveil loan plan. PAGE 818

OPEC retains output levels after price drop. PAGE 819

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Republicans, Democrats hold final debates in Iowa. PAGES 821–22

Bush again vetoes children’s health insurance bill. PAGE 823

Fed lowers interest rate to 4.25%. PAGE 824

Car bombings kill at least 37 in Algerian capital. PAGE 826

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Ecuadoran constituent assembly assumes congressional powers. PAGE 828

European Union treaty signed; replaces failed constitution. PAGE 830

Russia’s Putin names Medvedev as his successor. PAGE 830

Top Lebanese general killed in car bombing. PAGE 831

Baseball steriods probe report released; dozens of players implicated. PAGE 832

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Investigations Announced—The Justice Department and the office of CIA Inspector General John Helgerson Dec. 8 said that they would begin a joint preliminary inquiry into the destruction of the interrogation tapes. The inquiry was intended to determine whether there was sufficient justification for a full investigation into the circumstances and legality of the CIA’s action. Helgerson was expected to refer the case to the Justice Department if the inquiry found evidence that laws had been broken. [See p. 684F3] The chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence committees Dec. 7 had announced that they would initiate separate congressional investigations into the destruction of the tapes. Hayden Dec. 11 and 12 testified in closed sessions before the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, respectively. He said, in public remarks delivered after testifying Dec. 11, that because he had not joined the agency until after the decision was made, “there are other people at the agency who know about this far better than I.” The committees were expected to ask former CIA directors George Tenet and Goss to testify. Tenet had been CIA director when the tapes were made. The Times reported Dec. 12 that the Senate committee intended to meet with Helgerson in order to make sure that its investigation would not interfere with any possible future criminal proceedings in the case. Interrogator Calls Waterboarding Torture—

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John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent who had helped capture and interrogate Zubaydah, Dec. 10 said in interviews that waterboarding had proved effective in securing information from Zubaydah, but that he now felt it constituted torture. Kiriakou said that Zubaydah had been uncooperative until the technique was used on him, breaking his resistance in approximately 35 seconds. Kiriakou had helped question Zubaydah, but had not been present for the waterboarding. In an interview with the Washington Post, Kiriakou said he believed that the use of the technique had helped to prevent future attacks. He said it “was perhaps necessary at that time. But we’ve moved beyond that.” Kiriakou’s account of Zubaydah’s interrogation conflicted with a version published Dec. 9 in the Times. In that piece, unidentified government officials said that Zubaydah had provided key information, such as identifying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the central planner behind the 2001 terrorist attacks, during Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) questioning that did not include extreme interrogation methods. The CIA later took over interrogation of Zubaydah and began to use harsher techniques. Torture Ban Added to Intelligence Bill—

An amendment that would ban the use of waterboarding and seven other controversial types of interrogation techniques was added Dec. 6 to an intelligence authorization bill during a conference between negotiators from the House and Senate. The 818

new provision would require all intelligence agencies to comply with interrogation guidelines set forth in the Army Field Manual, which did not allow the use of techniques such as waterboarding. Sen. Christopher Bond (R, Mo.) Dec. 6 said that the amendment was an attempt “to kill an important tool in our efforts to fight terror.” The House Dec. 13 voted, 222–199, to approve the bill as amended in conference. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D, Md.) said the provision would restore the boundary “between legitimate, sanctioned interrogation tactics and torture.” With the amendment attached, the bill was expected to be vetoed by Bush. „

Global Economy Central Banks Unveil Loan Plan. Central banks in the U.S., Canada and Europe Dec. 12 unveiled a plan that would inject capital into troubled interbank credit markets. The move was intended to stave off the threat of a recession posed by a recent worldwide squeeze in credit. It was the largest coordinated infusion of cash into markets since Sept. 11, 2001, when central banks poured money into markets to stabilize them in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on the U.S. [See pp. 824E3, 606A1; 2001, p. 707C3] Under the plan, the U.S. Federal Reserve would auction off $40 billion in special loans over two days through its socalled discount-rate window. The auctions were scheduled for Dec. 17 and Dec. 20. The Fed on Jan. 14 and Jan. 28, 2008, would auction off more loans, though the amount remained undetermined. The Fed would give the European Central Bank (ECB) $20 billion in exchange for the equivalent in euros, and also swap $4 billion with the Swiss National Bank. In turn, those banks would auction off that capital to domestic commercial banks that needed U.S. dollars to manage their U.S. investments. The Bank of England would auction off £11.35 billion ($23.2 billion), and the Bank of Canada at least $3 billion. The Fed would offer low interest rates on its loans; analysts expected the rate to be lower than its discount rate, which a day earlier had been reduced to 4.75%, from 5%. Commercial banks would have up to four weeks to pay the loans back if they bought them Dec. 17, and five weeks if they bought them Dec. 20. That was longer than the term of one to 14 days the Fed offered through its normal channel, called “open market operations.” By using the discount window instead of open market operations, the Fed could also accept riskier assets as collateral, like securities backed by subprime mortgages, which were given to people with poor credit. Mortgage-backed assets were a principal cause of the credit squeeze. After the U.S. housing market began to struggle, and home buyers defaulted on their mortgages at much higher rates, investors reported losses on those assets during the summer, prompting months of volatility in financial markets. The country’s largest banks in October and November reported

major losses on investments in bad mortgages. One result was that banks had made it much more difficult and expensive to borrow from one another. Banks wanted to hold on to the capital they had to make up for losses. Banks also became skeptical of the ability of other banks to pay loans back. The freezing of interbank lending led to concerns that economic growth would slow worldwide. The Fed had steadily dropped its benchmark federal-funds interest rate since August, but that had failed to spark lending between banks. It had also opened up its discount window in August, but that proved ineffective because banks had been reluctant to appear weak by using what was seen as a last recourse. Under the new plan, commercial banks could borrow from the discount window anonymously. The reaction from Wall Street was mixed. Upon the announcement of the plan, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 270 points, but it ended the day at 13,473.90, up only 41.13 points for the day. The Dow had fallen 294.26 points the day before, when the Fed disappointed investors by making only a modest cut of its benchmark interest rate, to 4.25%, from 4.5%. Banks Adjust Interest Rates—The Bank of England, Britain’s central bank, Dec. 6 cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 5.5%, as the U.S. credit squeeze spread to foreign economies. It was the bank’s first rate cut since August 2005. British economists as recently as August had predicted higher interest rates due to a strong housing market, but problems in the credit markets had affected large mortgage lenders like Northern Rock

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cued in September with emergency funding. [See p. 616D1] The ECB that day announced it was holding its benchmark interest rate steady at 4%, over the objections of some of its members, who voted for a rate increase to counter rising inflation in the countries whose common currency was the euro. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said, “The economic fundamentals of the euro area remain sound,” but that volatility in financial markets added uncertainty to the economic outlook. [See pp. 748F3, 164A3] The Bank of Canada Dec. 4 cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 4.25%, saying that the threat of a slowdown in U.S. economic growth was a graver threat than that of inflation. It was the bank’s first interest rate cut since April 2004. [See 2004, p. 281F1] „

Iraq War Amara Car Bombings Kill At Least 26. A

triple car bombing in Amara, the capital of the southern Iraqi province of Maysan, Dec. 12 killed at least 26 people, the worst attack in the country since August. It was believed to be the first mass bombing in Amara since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and came as the entire nation was experiencing a general lull in violence compared to levels of violence in recent months and years. [See pp. 800G1, 521A1] Official death tolls ranged from 26 to 46, and the number of casualties was expected to rise. Witnesses said the bomb blasts were separated by minutes, and that the second and third bombs went off as people were coming to help victims. The Iraqi government later that day said it had fired Amara’s police chief and would replace him with Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, who was currently the spokesman for the Iraqi interior ministry. Amara residents reportedly blamed the bombings on rival Shiite factions that dominated the city: the Mahdi Army militia, led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and militias tied to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), Iraq’s most powerful Shiite political bloc. British troops in April had turned over Maysan to Iraqi control, and were set to leave neighboring Basra province later in December. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri alMaliki Dec. 12 said the turnover would go ahead as scheduled. [See pp. 711D2, 239B2] British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Dec. 9 had made an unscheduled visit to British troops in Basra, where he said they would turn over security responsibilities to Iraqi forces “in the next two weeks.” Brown also said he would name “a British business figure” to act as senior adviser to a development commission for the region that would try to attract foreign and Iraqi investment. State Dept. Inspector General Resigns—

U.S. State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard Dec. 7 sent a letter to December 13, 2007

U.S. President George W. Bush announcing his resignation, effective Jan. 15, 2008. Krongard in November had recused himself from an investigation into wrongdoing by the U.S. private security firm Blackwater USA, which had been under contract with the State Department, amidst accusations that he had blocked the investigation. Krongard had also been accused of impeding investigations into fraud and mismanagement during the construction of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital. The Washington Post, citing unnamed U.S. officials, Dec. 8 reported that federal investigators of a September shooting by Blackwater guards that allegedly killed 17 Iraqis had narrowed their investigation’s focus to as few as three guards. Other guards present during the shooting were reportedly given immunity for their cooperation. Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Two liquor stores in Baghdad Dec. 13 were hit by bombings, and police the same day said they defused a bomb placed near a third liquor store. Islamic militants who wanted to ban the sale of alcohol often targeted liquor stores in attacks. † A suicide car bomber Dec. 11 killed two security guards at a Baghdad checkpoint near the homes and offices of two prominent Iraqi politicians. The politicians—former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, and Saleh al-Mutlak, the head of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, a Sunni political bloc—were out of the country at the time. † El Salvador’s president, Elias Antonio Saca, said he would commit another 280 troops to Iraq to help with reconstruction, doubling Salvadoran forces in the country, it was reported Dec. 11. El Salvador was the only Latin American nation that had maintained troops in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. [See 2005, p. 320E2] † A mortar attack on a Baghdad prison run by the Iraqi interior ministry Dec. 10 killed at least five people. Earlier that day in Baghdad, Iraqi officials said, mortar shells had landed on a major oil refinery, one of the largest in Iraq, setting ablaze hundreds of gasoline and kerosene tanks. However, U.S. officials said the fire was accidental. † A roadside bomb Dec. 9 killed Babil province’s police chief, Maj. Gen. Qais Hamza al-Mamouri, and two bodyguards in the provincial capital of Hilla. Officials in the mostly-Shiite Babil, south of Baghdad, said they suspected the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq of involvement in the bombing, but other residents blamed Shiite militias. Mamouri had been known as a politically independent figure who had cracked down on militia activity. † A suicide truck bomber Dec. 8 struck a police station in the northern city of Baiji that was being used as a base by Iraqi security forces and U.S.-allied Iraqi tribes against Al Qaeda in Iraq. The bombing killed at least eight people. Baiji, about 150 miles (250 km) north of Baghdad, had the

largest oil refinery in northern Iraq and was a key transfer point for crude oil exports. † A suicide bomber in Muqdadiyah, in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, Dec. 7 attacked former Sunni insurgents who had allied themselves with U.S. forces, killing 16 people. Witnesses said the bomber was a woman, a rarity in Iraq. [See p. 779B3] † A car bomb in Baquba, Diyala’s capital, Dec. 7 killed seven policemen and three U.S.-allied volunteer fighters. „

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OPEC Output Levels Retained After Price Drop.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at a Dec. 5 meeting in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, decided to maintain its current output level of 27.2 million barrels per day. The cartel had been under pressure by major consumers such as the U.S. to raise oil production by at least 500,000 barrels per day to reduce high oil prices. However, the benchmark crude oil price on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) had dropped nearly $12 from its November high level of $99.29, a record in terms of unadjusted dollars. OPEC said it would meet again Feb. 1, 2008, in Vienna, Austria, and would raise output if prices had risen sharply by then. [See 763F3] Oil prices Dec. 5 briefly rose $2 in the wake of the OPEC announcement, only to reverse course and eventually settle at $87.49 a barrel at the end of the day on Nymex. That was 83 cents below the previous day’s price, and the lowest that it had sunk since Oct. 24. The price drop was reportedly due in part to a U.S. Energy Department report released Dec. 5 stating that U.S. fuel reserves had increased over the previous week. OPEC argued that speculation and geopolitical instability, rather than an oil shortage in the market, had caused the previous price increases. “We have enough stocks in the market,” OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri said. “There is no reason for the price of oil to go to $100 a barrel.” Analysts said oil prices had been retreating due to the possibility of reduced demand in the case of an economic slowdown in the U.S., and in light of a new U.S. intelligence report that Iran, a top oil producer, had stopped work on its covert nuclear weapons program, which was seen as defusing geopolitical tension. [See p. 797A1] Saudi Arabia and other moderate members of OPEC reportedly had initially pushed for a production increase, but in the end had ceded to countries that had been arguing for driving up the price of oil significantly, including Venezuela and Iran. OPEC at the meeting assigned oil production quotas for the first time to its two newest members, Angola and Ecuador. Angola was set to produce 1.2 million barrels per day, and Ecuador would produce 520,000 barrels per day. „ 819

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United Nations Intellectual Property Head Resigns. The

director general of the United Nations patent agency, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Nov. 14 announced in a memorandum to his employees that he would retire from his position in September 2008, instead of in 2009, when his term was due to end. The announcement by Kamil Idris, who had served as director general since 1997, followed allegations that Idris had mismanaged WIPO and misled employers about his age, possibly to advance his career. A successor was expected to be selected in May 2008. [See p. 901E3] „

Other International News Gates Warns of Iran Threat at Bahrain Talks.

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U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Dec. 8, in a speech at a regional security conference in Manama, Bahrain, warned that Iran still posed a threat to the Middle East’s stability and could restart its nuclear program at any time. Gates’s speech came after a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released earlier that week had asserted that Iran had shut down its covert nuclear weapons program in 2003. However, U.S. President George W. Bush and his administration claimed that Iran’s continued enrichment of uranium—supposedly for civilian purposes—and its other alleged destabilizing activities made it a continuing danger. [See pp. 800G1, 797A1] Gates said the intelligence estimate had been “explicit that Iran is keeping its options open and could restart its nuclear weapons program at any time—I would add, if it has not done so already.” He added, “Everywhere you turn, it is the policy of Iran to foment instability and chaos, no matter the strategic value or cost in the blood of innocents.” Gates spoke mockingly of the Iranian government’s seizing on the findings of the U.S. intelligence estimate as proof that it had told the truth about its nuclear program. “Since that government now acknowledges the quality of American intelligence assessments,” Gates said, “I assume that it will also embrace as valid American intelligence assessments of its funding and training of militia groups in Iraq, its deployment of lethal weapons and technology to both Iraq and Afghanistan, its ongoing support of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas that have murdered thousands of innocent civilians and its continued research and development of medium-range ballistic missiles that are not particularly cost-effective unless equipped with warheads carrying weapons of mass destruction.” Gates called on Middle Eastern countries to increase multilateral cooperation on regional defense and law enforcement initiatives so they could rely less on bilateral support from the U.S. He also pressed the international community to demand that Iran “come clean” about its past nuclear program. 820

The meeting was an annual conference sponsored by the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies and attended by defense officials from 23 countries. The U.S.’s delegation for the first time included the defense secretary; the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen; and the senior commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Adm. William Fallon. Conference organizers said Iran did not send representatives, although it had been invited. Mullen on his way back from the conference Dec. 9–10 made an unusual visit to Israel. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli intelligence officials Dec. 10 reiterated in meetings with Mullen their belief that the NIE was wrong and that Iran had resumed nuclear weapons development in 2005, after halting the program in 2003. The Washington Post Dec. 7 reported that U.S. Senate Republicans were planning to call for a congressional review of the NIE. Conservative Republicans reportedly questioned the report’s accuracy and said Iran’s nuclear program was still active and posed a threat. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)—the political arm of a militant Iranian opposition group, Mujaheddin alKhalq (MKO)—Dec. 11 claimed that Iran had restarted its nuclear program in 2004 and had dispersed operations throughout the country, after having closed it down in 2003. U.N. Sanctions Mulled—Envoys from the six countries involved in talks on Iran’s nuclear program—the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China—Dec. 11 conferred by telephone on a possible third round of United Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran. All of the countries but Germany were permanent members of the Security Council. Officials said the sanctions could include freezing the assets of, and banning travel by, Iranian individuals and organizations suspected of involvement in the development of nuclear weapons. In addition, the six countries were reportedly considering targeted sanctions on the elite Quds Force Branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps for exporting arms and proliferating nuclear technology. The U.S. in October had announced sanctions against the Revolutionary Guard, the main arm of the Iranian military. [See p. 693A1] Ali Larijani, Iran’s former nuclear envoy and the current head secretary of the nation’s Supreme National Security Council, Dec. 6 rejected reports that the current envoy, Saeed Jalili, in November had said that all previous agreements made in nuclear talks with a European negotiator were invalid. “There was no such thing, and the Western media made it up,” Larijani said. Russia, Iran Agree on Nuclear Plant—

Russia and Iran Dec. 13 agreed to finish building a nuclear power plant at the southwestern Iranian port of Bushehr, according to Russian news reports. The plant had been a source of international tensions, over fears that it could be used for uranium enrichment for nuclear weapons. Sergei

Shmatko, the head of Russian state-owned contractor Atomstroiexport, said details of the agreement would be revealed later in the month. A dispute over payments to Russia from Iran had previously delayed work on the plant. [See p. 679B1] Shmatko reportedly also raised the possibility of a joint Russian-Iranian venture at the plant “to ensure security,” which was seen as alluding to a Russian interest in preventing the theft or diversion of enriched uranium. „ EU-Africa Summit Held in Lisbon. African leaders and leaders of member nations of the European Union Dec. 8–9 met at a summit in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. The agenda focused on trade issues, but was largely overshadowed by the controversial presence of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. [See p. 561A3] British Prime Minister Gordon Brown skipped the summit in protest of Mugabe’s attendance, as did the leaders of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. German Chancellor Angela Merkel Dec. 8 used her speech at the summit to criticize Mugabe over human rights abuses and economic collapse in Zimbabwe. “The situation of Zimbabwe is damaging the image of the new Africa,” she said. But some of Mugabe’s fellow African leaders spoke in his defense. Mugabe himself responded harshly Dec. 9, accusing Merkel and other European leaders of “arrogance” and a “superiority complex” that was inexcusable given the legacy of colonialism. The German foreign ministry Dec. 11 made a formal complaint after a Zimbabwean official was quoted in a state-owned newspaper as calling Merkel a “fascist.” Portugal had waived an EU visa ban that barred entry to Mugabe and members of his government, after leaders of southern African countries said they would boycott the summit unless Mugabe was invited. The ongoing dispute over Mugabe had prevented any EU-Africa summits from being held since 2003. Sudanese President Omar Hassan alBashir also attended, and drew criticism for delaying the deployment of a joint African Union (AU)–United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur, a war-torn region in western Sudan. [See p. 709A1] However, the EU was seen as eager to hold the Lisbon summit due to its members’ concerns that they were losing influence in Africa to China, which had signed trade, investment and aid agreements with a number of African nations in recent years. China had gained access to African oil and other natural resources, often in return for financing large-scale infrastructure projects. China did not consider human rights issues as a part of its trade negotiations, which also made it an attractive trading partner for some African leaders. [See p. 92A3] The EU’s trade overtures to Africa, however, faced skepticism from African leaders, some of whom alluded to the history of European colonization in Africa. AU Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare Dec. 8 said, “Africa doesn’t want charity or paternalism. We don’t want anyone doing FACTS ON FILE

things for us. We want to play in the global economy but with new rules.” African leaders complained at the summit about the EU’s pursuit of so-called strategic partnership agreements with individual African countries. The EU said the deals were needed to exempt its African partners from increased tariffs that would otherwise take effect in 2008, due to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that barred trade preferences granted by Europe’s ex–imperial powers to their former colonies. But some African nations opposed terms in the proposed agreements that would require them to open domestic markets to European companies. „ Libya’s Qaddafi Visits France. Libyan ruler Muammer el-Qaddafi Dec. 10 arrived in Paris for a five-day visit to France—his first in 34 years. French President Nicolas Sarkozy that day hosted Qaddafi at the Elysee Palace, the presidential residence and offices, and hosted a dinner in his honor that evening. Sarkozy said he and Qaddafi planned to sign several major trade deals during the visit, worth a total of about 10 billion euros ($14.7 billion), including agreements for Libya to buy nuclear reactors and arms from France. The visit drew sharp criticism from French commentators, including some members of Sarkozy’s government, who cited Qaddafi’s record of involvement in terrorism and human rights abuses. [See p. 506C2] A junior French cabinet minister, Secretary of State for Human Rights Rama Yade, said in an interview, published Dec. 10 in the newspaper Le Parisien, that Qaddafi “must understand that our country is not a doormat on which a leader, terrorist or not, can come and wipe the blood of his crimes off his feet. France should not receive that kiss of death.” She said it was scandalous that Qaddafi’s arrival had coincided with World Human Rights Day. Yade and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner both skipped the dinner for Qaddafi. Sarkozy Dec. 10 said he had urged Qaddafi at their meeting that it was “necessary to continue to move forward on the path of human rights.” But Qaddafi in a television interview that day denied that Sarkozy had raised the issue. Qaddafi had taken actions to restore his ties with the West in recent years. That process had started in 2003, when Libya acknowledged responsibility for bombing two passenger planes in the 1980s, Pan Am Flight 103 and French airline UTA’s Flight 772, and agreed to pay compensation to the victims’ families. Also in 2003, Libya agreed to give up its programs to acquire chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. [See 2003, pp. 1009A1, 728F2] The visit to Paris was Qaddafi’s first to a major Western capital since those agreements. Sarkozy had invited Qaddafi to visit France after Libya in July released five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had been held prisoner for eight years on charges of deliberately infecting children with HIV, the virus that caused AIDS. The doctor’s lawyer Dec. 13 said he had filed a lawsuit against Qaddafi in Paris, alleging that he had been tortured. „ December 13, 2007

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

2008 Presidential Campaign Republicans Hold Final Debate in Iowa.

Republican presidential candidates Dec. 12 met in Des Moines, Iowa, for their final debate before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, 2008, the nation’s first nominating contest. The debate, sponsored by the Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television, was widely described as more subdued than previous ones, with the format giving the candidates few chances to directly engage each other. The debate rules also barred discussion of two of the biggest issues of the campaign: immigration and the Iraq war. [See pp. 822D1, 802A1] Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee had surged in recent weeks to take the lead in Iowa polls from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Along with those two, the other candidates at the debate were former New York City Mayor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, who retained a narrowing lead in national polls over Huckabee; former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.); Sen. John McCain (Ariz.); Reps. Duncan Hunter (Calif.), Ron Paul (Texas) and Tom Tancredo (Colo.); and conservative commentator Alan Keyes. In response to a question on what the candidates would aim to do in their first year as president, Huckabee said, “I think the first priority of the next president is to be a president of all the United States. We are right now a very polarized country, and that has led to a paralyzed government.” Thompson, who had failed to meet expectations that he would become a frontrunner after making a late entry into the race in September, drew attention with a more energetic debate performance. In a discussion on taxes, Thompson referred to Romney’s wealth, saying, “My goal is to get into Mitt Romney’s situation, where I don’t have to worry about taxes anymore.” Romney had a fortune estimated at about $250 million from his career at a privateequity fund, and had loaned nearly $20 million of his own money to his campaign, which was the best financed in the Republican field. Giuliani was asked about a recent report raising questions about security expenses for trips he had made, while mayor, to visit Judith Nathan, with whom he was then having an extramarital affair, and who had since become his third wife. The expenses had been billed to obscure city agencies. Giuliani said, “I do the best I can to learn from my mistakes. But as far as open, transparent government, I think I’ve had both an open, transparent government and an open, transparent life.” Huckabee’s rivals did not target him with the sharp attacks that his new frontrunner status in Iowa might have drawn in another debate format. But Romney did challenge him at one point, after Huckabee claimed that he had the “most impressive education record,” citing improvement in Arkansas schools during his governorship. Romney replied, “I don’t believe you had the finest record of any governor on educa-

tion in America,” noting that Massachusetts fourth and eighth graders had the country’s best test peformance.

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After the debate, Huckabee apologized to Romney for a comment that he had made about Romney’s Mormon faith in an interview posted that day on the New York Times Web site, to be published in the Dec. 16 issue of the New York Times Magazine. The article quoted Huckabee as saying of Mormonism, “I think it’s a religion,” as opposed to a cult. Adding, “I really don’t know much about it,” he asked, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?” Romney the previous week had given a speech about his views on religion’s place in politics and society, seeking to reassure voters who had doubts or suspicions about Mormon beliefs, which departed in some respects from the doctrines of traditional Christian denominations. Huckabee Dec. 12 told CNN that he had apologized to Romney for his remarks. “I said, I would never try, ever to somehow pick out some point of your faith and make it, you know, an issue.” Kim Farah, a spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, Dec. 11 had rejected Huckabee’s suggestion about Mormon doctrine. She said Mormons believed, “as other Christians believe,” that “all beings were created by God and are his spirit children.” She added that Mormons worshiped Christ “as the son of God and the savior of mankind. Satan is the exact opposite of who Christ is and what he stands for.” Candidates Address Immigration—The Republican candidates Dec. 9 met in Coral Gables, Fla., for a debate largely focused on immigration, broadcast in Spanish on the Univision cable television network. There was little disagreement among the candidates, who mostly pledged to take action to reduce illegal immigration, which ranked with the economy as Republican voters’ top domestic concern. [See p. 782A1] McCain warned that anti-immigration rhetoric had alienated Hispanics from the Republican Party. McCain’s own campaign had lost traction after he backed an immigration reform bill in the Senate that would have offered illegal immigrants a path to legal status and citizenship. [See p. 413A1] Tancredo, who had based his presidential campaign on his opposition to illegal immigration, boycotted the debate to protest the Spanish-language broadcast. Romney Dec. 11 began airing a television advertisement in Iowa attacking Huckabee’s record on immigration, including his support for college tuition aid for the children of illegal immigrants. Huckabee had defended that position at a recent debate. However, Huckabee Dec. 7 had unveiled a tough new immigration plan calling for stronger law enforcement mea821

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sures, such as hiring more Border Patrol agents, completing a fence on the Mexican border by 2010 and deporting immigrants who failed to register within 120 days of their arrival. He also said illegal immigrants should be given a chance to obtain citizenship only if they first returned to their home countries. Huckabee Dec. 11 received an endorsement from Jim Gilchrest, leader of the Minuteman Project, a vigilante group that patrolled the border with Mexico to deter illegal immigration. Gilchrest hailed Huckabee’s plan “to solve this illegal alien invasion problem.” [See 2006, p. 340B2] Huckabee Record Draws Scrutiny—

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Huckabee, whose record had drawn increasing scrutiny from rivals and the media as he climbed in the polls, Dec. 9 tried to explain 1992 statements in which he had called for people with AIDS to be isolated. In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” he said he had not been advocating a quarantine. “We didn’t know as much as we do now about AIDS,” he said. However, it had been established in the 1980s that AIDS did not spread from casual contact. The Associated Press Dec. 8 had reported that Huckabee had made the 1992 statements on AIDS in his reply to a questionnaire during an unsuccessful campaign for a Senate seat. It said he had also called homosexuality “an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous health risk.” Huckabee had also faced persistent criticism over his support, while governor, for the early release from prison of convicted rapist Wayne Dumond. Dumond killed a woman after he was granted parole in 1997. „ Democrats Hold Last Iowa Debate. Democratic presidential candidates Dec. 13 held their last debate in Iowa before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, 2008, which would be the first nominating contest in any state. As in a Republican debate the previous day, the Democrats took a less confrontational approach toward each other than they had in previous debates. [See pp. 821A2, 802F2] The debate focused on the economy and the federal budget deficit. The candidates mostly agreed that they would raise taxes on the rich and on large companies, and end the Iraq war. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the national front-runner, and Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), who had risen in the polls in recent weeks to erase Clinton’s lead in Iowa, both spoke of their concern for people facing economic hardship. Obama said, “People are working harder for less and they’re seeing costs for everything from college education to health care to gas at the pump go up.” Clinton said people in Iowa and across the U.S. “feel as though they’re standing on a trapdoor. They are one pink slip, one missed mortgage payment, one medical diagnosis away from falling through.” Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), who was running close behind Obama and Clinton in Iowa, said, “The truth of the matter is that the tax policy has been established 822

by the big corporations and the wealthiest Americans…What we ought to be doing instead is getting rid of those tax breaks.” New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sens. Joseph Biden (Del.) and Christopher Dodd (Conn.), who trailed well behind the top three in the polls, also took part in the debate. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (Alaska) were excluded because they did not have campaign offices in Iowa. „ Oprah Winfrey Campaigns With Obama.

Influential syndicated television talk show host Oprah Winfrey Dec. 8–10 campaigned with Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), a Democratic presidential candidate, in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire, Obama and Winfrey appeared together at mass rallies in the three states, which would hold three of the four earliest nominating contests in January 2008. Winfrey lent Obama her celebrity support just as he was mounting a late surge in the polls against his main rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.). Clinton retained her lead in national polls, but Obama had overtaken her in Iowa and was close behind her in New Hampshire and South Carolina. [See pp. 822D1, 802F2] Winfrey Dec. 8 made her first appearance for Obama at a campaign rally that drew 15,000 people in Des Moines, Iowa. Telling the crowd that it was the first time she had endorsed a presidential candidate, she said, “You know, I’ve never done this before and it feels like I’m out of my pew. I’m nervous.” Winfrey did not mention Clinton’s name, but countered her arguments that she had more experience than Obama because of her role as first lady during the presidency of her husband, Bill Clinton. Saying Obama represented needed change, Winfrey said, “If we continue to do the same things over and over again, I believe we get the same results.” She declared, “Experience in the hallways of government isn’t as important to me as experience on the pathway of life.” Winfrey also joined Obama that day at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which drew a crowd of 7,000. Meanwhile, Clinton campaigned that day in Iowa with her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and her mother, Dorothy Rodham. Bill Clinton Dec. 10 campaigned for his wife at four events in Iowa. Obama and Winfrey Dec. 9 appeared at a rally in Columbia, S.C., attended by an estimated 29,000 people, reportedly the largest event held by any candidate so far in the 2008 campaign. In words aimed at the state’s large black population, Winfrey, who was black, reminded the audience that they had the chance to make Obama the first black president. Referring to civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., she said, “Dr. King dreamed the dream. But we don’t have to just dream the dream anymore. We get to vote that dream into reality.” Winfrey Dec. 10 spoke before about 8,000 people at an Obama rally in Manchester, N.H. Clinton Aide Quits Over Obama Remark—

Clinton Dec. 13 accepted the resignation of a top adviser, William Shaheen, a day after

he said that Obama’s previous admissions that he had used marijuana and cocaine as a young man could become an issue in the general election. In an interview posted on the Washington Post Web site Dec. 12, Shaheen had said, “It’ll be, ‘When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you ever sell them to anyone?’” Obama had brought up his drug use in a 1995 book, Dreams From My Father. Shaheen resigned as a cochairman of Clinton’s national and New Hampshire campaigns. He also said his comments “were in no way authorized by Senator Clinton or the Clinton campaign.” Shaheen was the husband of former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D), who was now a Senate candidate. [See p. 633C1] Clinton strategist Mark Penn in a television interview later that day said, “The issue related to cocaine use is not something the [Clinton] campaign was in any way raising,” drawing an immediate protest from the Obama campaign that, with such remarks, Penn was intentionally associating the word “cocaine” with Obama. Clinton Staffer Fired for Obama Rumor—

Clinton’s campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, Dec. 5 said an Iowa volunteer for the campaign had been asked to resign after reportedly forwarding an e-mail message making the false claim that Obama was secretly a Muslim. Obama was a Christian and attended the United Church of Christ in Chicago, but the unfounded rumor that he was a Muslim had been spread for months, principally by right-wing sources and through chain emails. Doyle said, “There is no place in our campaign or any campaign for this kind of politics.” She said the volunteer’s action had been “wholly unauthorized.” „

National Politics Republicans Retain Two Open House Seats.

Republicans Dec. 11 retained control of two House seats, in special elections in Ohio and Virginia for seats that had been vacated by the deaths of the incumbents. In northwest Ohio’s 5th District, state Rep. Bob Latta (R) beat Democrat Robin Weirauch in the race to complete the term of Rep. Paul Gillmor (R), who died in September after a fall. Latta won 57% of the vote to 43% for Weirauch, who was making her third run for the seat. Latta’s father, Rep. Delbert Latta (R), had held the same House seat from 1959 to 1989. [See pp. 732A2, 676D3] In southeastern Virginia’s 1st District, state Rep. Robert Wittman (R) beat Iraq war veteran and teacher Philip Forgit (D), 61% to 37%, in the race to finish the term of Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R), who died of breast cancer in October. „ Senate Republicans Fill Leadership Posts.

The Senate Republicans Dec. 6 elected two new members to their leadership team. Sen. John Kyl (Ariz.), running unopposed, won the second-ranking post of minority whip, which was being vacated by Sen. Trent Lott (Miss.), who had announced Nov. 26 that he planned to resign. Sen. FACTS ON FILE

Mitch McConnell (Ky.) would continue in the top-ranking position of Senate minority leader. [See p. 783E1] Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) won the contest to replace Kyl as conference chairman, the third-ranking position. Alexander beat Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.) who was seen as less in favor of bipartisan cooperation than Alexander. „ More Sex Claims Against Craig Reported.

The Idaho Statesman newspaper Dec. 2 reported that two men had claimed that they had had sexual encounters with Sen. Larry Craig (R, Idaho) and two others said he had made sexual advances toward them. Craig issued a statement denying the report, saying, “Despite the fact that the Idaho Statesman has decided to pursue its own agenda and print these falsehoods without any facts to back them up, I won’t let this paper’s attempt to malign my name stop me from continuing my work to serve the people of Idaho.” [See p. 647B2] In August, it had been disclosed that Craig had been arrested for allegedly making a sexual advance to an undercover police officer in an airport men’s room, and had later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. Craig had denied that he was homosexual, but said he would resign his seat. However, he had subsequently reversed that decision, saying he planned to serve the rest of his term, through 2008. The Statesman article identified each of the four men who claimed experiences with Craig. One of them was a former prostitute, Mike Jones, 50, who had been at the center of another scandal in 2006. Pastor Ted Haggard had resigned as leader of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., and as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, after Jones claimed that Haggard had regularly paid him for sex. [See 2006, p. 864F2] The Statesman reported that Jones claimed that Craig had paid him $200 for sex on one occasion in Denver, Colo., during the winter of 2004–05. Another man, David Phillips, 42, said he had had sex with Craig in 1986, when Craig was a member of the House. „

Legislation Bush Again Vetoes Children’s Insurance Bill.

President George W. Bush Dec. 12 vetoed for the second time legislation that would significantly expand funding for the state Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP or CHIP). The House in October had passed a revised version of the bill, and the Senate had followed suit in November. Bush in October had vetoed an earlier version of the bill that had been cleared by Congress. [See p. 732F3] The latest version of the measure would have increased funding to roughly $12 billion per year, from its current $5 billion per year, for a total of $60 billion in funding over the next five years. The new measure would have provided health coverage for an estimated 10 million children. The new version was designed to eliminate loopholes that had been criticized by December 13, 2007

opponents. It would more clearly prohibit enrollment by childless adults, illegal immigrants and children in families whose income exceeded the federal limit of $61,950 for a family of four. Bush said he opposed the expansion of SCHIP, originally intended to provide insurance only to children, to include adults. He argued that many people would abandon private insurance plans in favor of the public one, and opposed a proposed tobacco-tax increase that would fund the expansion. „ House and Senate Pass Energy Bill.

The House Dec. 6 passed, 235–181, an energy bill that would raise fuel economy standards for new U.S. cars by 40% by 2020, and promote the use of renewable energy and biofuels to reduce both U.S. consumption of fossil fuels and the output of greenhouse gases linked to climate change. The Senate Dec. 13 passed a revised version of the bill, 86–8, following two Republican filibusters earlier that day and on Dec. 7. [See p. 417A2] The House bill would mandate average fuel economy standards of 35 miles per gallon for new cars and light trucks sold in the U.S., the first increase in Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards since the introduction of those standards in 1975. It would order an increase in the use of renewable, nonfossil motor fuels, such as biofuels, to 36 billion gallons in 2022, and create a tax credit to encourage consumers to purchase electric and hybrid vehicles. It would also require U.S. utilities to generate 15% of their electricity by 2020 through the use of renewable sources like solar and wind power. The cost of the bill, whose tax breaks totaled $21.5 billion, were funded by ending about $13 billion in tax breaks for oil companies that had originally been passed in 2004 and 2005 by Congress when it was controlled by the Republicans. The White House Dec. 6 issued a statement attacking the House bill as “misguided” and threatened to veto it on the grounds that it would increase energy costs and raise taxes for oil companies. The Bush administration also called for a provision in the bill to allow for adjustment of the renewable motor fuel requirement if biofuels, many of which were still being studied, did not prove sufficiently effective. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) Dec. 6 suggested that it would be difficult to win Senate passage of the House version of the bill, but said he believed that an energy bill would be passed in some form. Following the passage of the bill by the House, Senate Democrats Dec. 7 voted, 53–42, to end debate on the bill, which was identical to the House version, failing to gain the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster. On Dec. 13, a second version of the bill, which tweaked the tax provisions and eliminated the renewable energy mandates for utilities, also failed to meet that threshold. In that 59–40 vote, nine Republican senators joined the Democratic majority; Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu (La.), who was from an oil-indus-

try state and up for reelection in 2008, was the only Democrat to oppose the measure. The Senate Dec. 13 passed a third version of the bill, which would not include the House’s cancellation of the oil company tax credits. Following the vote, the White House issued a statement which said it did not intend to veto the Senate version of the bill. The altered bill had not been approved by the House. „

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Senate Passes $50 Billion in Tax Relief.

The Senate Dec. 6 voted, 88–5, to pass a bill that would shield about 19 million people from having to pay the alternative minimum tax (AMT) on 2007 income. The bill did not include any offsetting measures to replace the estimated $50 billion in tax revenue that would be lost as a result. By contrast, the House in November had passed an AMT relief bill that called for making up most of the revenue by closing a tax loophole for the earnings of hedge fund and private-equity fund managers. [See p. 750E2] With Republicans opposed to raising taxes, Senate Democrats did not have enough votes to pass the House version. Lawmakers faced increasing pressure to act on the AMT as the year drew to a close and the tax-filing period approached. The Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, upon taking control of Congress in January, had approved socalled pay-as-you-go budget rules, which required new tax cuts or spending increases to be offset by equivalent tax hikes or spending cuts. But the rules, intended to reduce the budget deficit, could be waived by the Senate in individual cases. The AMT had been enacted in 1969 as a means of preventing the rich from using deductions and other strategies to avoid paying any taxes. But the tax had not been indexed for inflation, so in recent years it had begun to apply to middle-class taxpayers. It had affected 3.8 million people in 2006. In each of the past several years, Congress had passed one-year “patches” to stop the AMT from spreading, while shying away from a permanent solution to the problem. The Treasury Department estimated that unless Congress acted, 23 million people, including some making $50,000 or less, would have to pay the AMT on their 2006 income, for an average addition to their tax bills of $2,000 per household. „

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Supreme Court Judges’ Discretion on Sentencing Backed.

The Supreme Court Dec. 10 in two separate cases ruled that federal judges had broad discretionary powers in sentencing convicted criminals. The court, voting 7–2 in each case, reaffirmed its 2005 ruling, in United States v. Booker, that guidelines created by the U.S. Sentencing Commission were merely advisory. The court also limited the ability of appellate courts to overturn sentences issued by federal district courts. The cases were Gall v. United States and Kimbrough v. United States. [See pp. 648B3, 416A3] 823

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Justice John Paul Stevens, writing the court’s opinion in Gall, said the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, Mo., had erred by not giving “due deference” to a district judge’s “reasoned and reasonable decision” to issue a lighter sentence than the guidelines recommended. Stevens said that “the court may not apply a presumption of unreasonablness” just because a sentence deviated from the guidelines. He added that an appellate court could not overturn a sentence simply because it “concluded that a different sentence was appropriate.” The lower court judge in that case had sentenced Brian Gall to 36 months of probation, as opposed to the recommended 30–36 months in jail, after he was convicted of conspiring to sell the drug ecstasy. Gall had been caught for the crime years after he had stopped dealing drugs, and the judge gave him a lighter sentence because Gall had changed his lifestyle. The appellate court found that the judge’s sentence was too “extraordinary” a departure from the guidelines. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing the Supreme Court’s opinion in Kimbrough, said the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., had been wrong to conclude that a judge could not reduce a sentence based on the judge’s objection to a sentencing disparity between convictions for dealing crack and powder cocaine. Ginsburg said federal judges could “tailor the sentence in light of other statutory concerns,” with “respectful consideration” to the guidelines. The district judge in that case had sentenced Derrick Kimbrough to 15 years in prison for dealing crack cocaine, as opposed to the recommended 19 to 22-and-ahalf years, citing the fact that Kimbrough was an honorably discharged Marine, and that the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences was “disproportionate and unjust.” The judge was referring to a 1986 federal law, which mandated equal minimum sentences for a convicted crack dealer and a dealer who had sold 100 times as much powder cocaine. The law was meant to stem what lawmakers had considered an epidemic of crack abuse. Critics said the law was discriminatory, since the large majority of those convicted for crack possession were black. Ginsburg wrote that the Supreme Court’s decision had been affected by amendments to federal guidelines for crack sentences that had taken effect Nov. 1, which would reduce those sentences by one quarter. The sentencing commission Dec. 11, a day after the high court ruling, voted unanimously to make those amendments retroactive, which could affect as many as 19,500 inmates. The two dissenters in both cases were Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas. Alito, in the dissenting opinion in Gall, wrote that the court’s ruling would allow judges to proceed “as if the Sentencing Reform Act had never been enacted,” and added that “sentencing disparities would gradually increase.” That 1984 act had cre824

ated the federal sentencing guidelines in an effort to create greater uniformity in sentences issued for similar offenses. In an opinion concurring with the majority, Justice David Souter suggested that Congress reenact mandatory guidelines, which would pass the court’s constitutional test so long as juries, rather than judges, arrived at all facts affecting the sentence “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The court reinstated both lighter sentences instead of its customary practice of instructing the appellate courts to reconsider the cases with the most current rulings in mind. Observers said the rulings would lead to an increase in the number of defendants seeking rehearings for their sentences. „ Cases Accepted of Americans Held in Iraq.

The Supreme Court Dec. 7 accepted two cases that would determine whether U.S. federal courts had the jurisdiction to prevent the U.S. military in Iraq from transferring U.S. citizens in its custody to the Iraqi judicial system. Acceptance of the two cases reflected the Supreme Court’s efforts to define the extent of federal courts’ authority over those designated as suspected terrorists. The Supreme Court had consolidated the two cases, Geren v. Omar and Munaf v. Geren. [See p. 803B2] The U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., had ruled differently in each case, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upholding both of the district court’s rulings. The Supreme Court agreed to hear appeals from both cases to clear up any ambiguity. In Munaf v. Geren, the district court had ruled that it did not have the authority to halt the transfer of Mohammad Munaf, an Iraqi-born naturalized U.S. citizen accused of participating in the kidnapping of Romanian journalists. The appellate court cited a 1948 Supreme Court ruling in Hirota v. MacArthur, which said Japanese citizens convicted and sentenced by an international military court did not have a right to habeas corpus. The appellate court also said that because Iraq was a sovereign nation, it had a right to prosecute and punish those who broke its laws. Munaf had been convicted by Iraq’s Central Criminal Court on kidnapping charges, and sentenced to death. In Geren v. Omar, the district court had ruled that it had jurisdiction to hear the challenge of Shawqi Ahmad Omar, a Kuwaiti-born U.S. national accused of conspiring with the Al Qaeda international terrorist network, and issued a preliminary injunction delaying his transfer. The appellate court, noting that Omar had not yet been convicted of a crime, ruled that the district court’s authority was “abundantly clear” and that “challenging extrajudicial detention is among the most fundamental purposes of habeas.” In a brief filed with the Supreme Court, the Bush administration argued that the district and appellate courts’ decisions in Omar’s case were of “exceptional importance,” and added, “As far as the government is aware, no court has previously sanctioned such a far-reaching and interna-

tionally unsettling exercise of American judicial power.” Omar was considered a foreign enemy combatant by the U.S. military, and had been held without charge, among other places, in the Abu Ghraib prison camp in Iraq. The military wanted to turn him over to the Iraqi courts to face prosecution on terrorism charges. [See p. 685G2] The Supreme Court two days earlier had heard oral arguments for Boumediene v. Bush, which dealt with whether detainees held at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had a right to a writ of habeas corpus, which would allow them to challenge their detention in U.S. federal courts. Court Accepts Terrorism Case—The Supreme Court Dec. 7 accepted United States v. Ressam, a case in which an appellate court had overturned one count in a ninecount conviction against Algerian national Ahmed Ressam, for plotting to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., in January had ruled that one count of carrying explosives “during the commission of any felony” had to be thrown out. The appellate court found that prosecutors had been unable to prove that Ressam’s possession of the explosives was related to another crime, his signing a false name on a customs document as he entered the U.S. from Canada. The Supreme Court would rule on whether statute required prosecutors to prove such a relationship. [See p. 49A3] Court Accepts Disability Case—The Supreme Court Dec. 7 accepted Huber v. WalMart Stores Inc. The case would determine whether the Americans With Disabilities Act required employers to provide employees who became disabled, and were no longer able to perform their duties, with a position of equivalent pay, or if employers merely had to allow disabled employees to compete with others for the new position. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who reportedly owned Wal-Mart stock, recused himself from the case. [See p. 332E1] „

Economy Fed Lowers Interest Rate to 4.25%. The Fed-

eral Reserve, the nation’s central bank, Dec. 11 cut the benchmark federal-funds interest rate on overnight loans between banks by a quarter of a percentage point, to 4.25%, from 4.5%. It was the third time since August that the Fed had cut the interest rate. In a statement released that day, the Fed said the latest cut was intended to reduce the threat of a recession caused by a slump in the housing market and a decrease in business and consumer spending. The Fed also acknowledged that “strains” in the country’s financial markets had “increased the uncertainty surrounding the outlook for economic growth and inflation.” [See pp. 818B2, 766D1, 714B2] The Fed’s policy-making body, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), had voted, 9–1, in favor of the cut; Eric Rosengren of the Federal Reserve Bank of BosFACTS ON FILE

ton voted against, saying the rate should be cut by half a percentage point. The committee also voted unanimously to cut the discount rate on loans to commercial banks, to 4.75%, from 5%. Wall Street was unhappy with the Fed’s decision, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 294.26 points, or 2.1%, to end the day at 13,432.77. Investors had wanted a larger rate cut to ease a credit squeeze that had emerged in August, and tightened in November, after major banks reported large losses on investments tied to bad mortgages. The credit squeeze had made borrowing more difficult for home buyers, businesses and consumers, and lending had even slowed between banks, threatening economic growth. [See p. 749A1] In its statement, the Fed warned that “energy and commodity prices” could “put upward pressure on inflation.” However, unlike the last time the FOMC met in October, the Fed did not describe the risk of inflation as “roughly balanced” with the risk of slowing growth. Analysts took the distinction to mean the Fed was open to cutting the interest rate again at the next FOMC interest-rate meeting in January 2008. Fed Issues Beige Book—The Fed Nov. 28 issued its “beige book” survey of economic data covering the period from October to mid-November. The survey was compiled eight times a year on a rotating basis by the Fed’s 12 regional banks. The latest survey indicated that the pace of economic growth had slowed since the last survey period. [See p. 701B2] The Fed’s report said retail spending was weak for the period compared to a year earlier. The report said price increases for goods “remained modest” but that energy and food prices were high. It said the housing market continued to struggle, since home prices remained low. Additionally, lending by banks and other financial institutions had slowed, notably in the areas of commercial and industrial lending. „ November Unemployment Stayed at 4.7%.

The unemployment rate was 4.7% in November after seasonal adjustment, remaining unchanged for Unemployment the third straight 2007 4.7% month, the Labor November Previous Month 4.7% Department re- Year Earlier 4.5% ported Dec. 7. An estimated 94,000 nonfarm jobs were created in November, down from the revised 170,000 created in October. [See p. 734F1] 146.7 Million Jobs Held—According to a household survey, 146.7 million people held jobs in November, the Labor Department reported Dec. 7. The department counted 7.2 million people as unemployed. The department counted 349,000 workers as “discouraged” in November. Those workers were not looking for work because they believed that no jobs were available. They were not counted as part of the labor force. About 4.5 million people who sought full-time employment were working part-time instead. The average manufacturing workweek was 41.3 hours in November, up from 41.2 in October, and factory workers’ overtime December 13, 2007

held steady at 4.1 hours. Average hourly wages for production workers rose eight cents, to $17.63. The unemployment rate among whites in November was the same as it had been in October, 4.2%. The jobless rate for blacks was 8.4%, down from 8.5% the previous month. For Hispanics, who could be of any race, the rate increased by 0.1 percentage points in November, to 5.7%. For men aged 20 and over, November unemployment was 4.1%, down from 4.3%. For adult women, it remained at 4.1%. The teenage jobless rate in November was 16.3%, up from 15.6% in October, while for black teenagers it was 29.5%, up from 27.6% in October. „

lion Swiss francs ($1.76 billion) in the company, which would amount to a stake ranging from 1.3% to 1.9%. „

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Black Sentenced to 6½ Years in Prison.

Judge Amy St. Eve of U.S. District Court in Chicago Dec. 10 sentenced Conrad Black, former chief executive officer and chairman of Hollinger International Inc., to six and a half years in prison, after he was convicted in July on three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. The Canadian-born Black would also pay a $125,000 fine and restitution of the $6.1 million he and his associates were convicted of stealing from Hollinger, now known as Sun-Times Media Group Inc. His lawyers said they would seek bail pending his appeal. [See p. 462C2] „

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Business Citigroup Names New CEO, Chairman.

Citigroup Inc., the country’s largest banking company, Dec. 11 named Vikram Pandit as its new chief executive officer (CEO), and Sir Winfried (Win) Bischoff as its chairman. Pandit and Bischoff replaced Charles Prince, who had resigned as CEO and chairman in November, after Citigroup reported a $5.9 billion reduction in earnings for the third quarter, and said it expected to lose up to $11 billion more due to investments made in bad mortgages. Citigroup in late November had received a $7.5 billion cash infusion from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which helped it absorb the losses. [See pp. 807E1, 731D1] Pandit, originally from Mumbai, India, had previously been in charge of Citigroup’s investment-bank and alternativeinvestments groups. The German-born Bischoff, 66, had led Citigroup’s European operations, and was named Citigroup’s interim CEO after Prince left. Pandit, 50, Dec. 11 promised to review Citigroup’s business structure. Critics said Citigroup, a massive company that had a presence in all areas of investment and consumer banking, was too unwieldy. UBS Records Write-down—Swiss bank UBS AG Dec. 10 announced that it would write down an additional $10 billion on top of the $4.4 billion worth of losses it had recorded for the third quarter. The company said the write-down was due to a devaluation of the mortgage-backed securities it owned and underwrote. Those securities had plummeted in value after U.S. housing prices declined and homeowners began defaulting on their mortgages at a higher rate. [See pp. 749A1, 731F1] UBS announced that day that the Government of Singapore Investment Corp., a branch of the Singaporean government, would invest 11 billion Swiss francs ($9.75 billion) in the company, making Singapore UBS’s largest shareholder, for a stake somewhere between 7.3% and 10.5%. The deal was the latest in a rising number of investments in Western companies by foreign government–controlled investment funds, known as sovereign wealth funds. UBS also said an unidentified investor from the Middle East would invest two bil-

Environment News in Brief. A three-judge panel of the

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., Dec. 5 overturned a rule instituted by the U.S. Forest Service, under the Bush administration, that allowed log-

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ging and burning projects in national forests without prior analysis of their environ-

mental impact. The rule, which was issued in 2003, had exempted planned forest burns of up to 4,500 acres (1,800 hectares) and logging operations of up to 1,000 acres from environmental reviews. The court found that the rule violated the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act. It said the annual logging and burning of 1.2 million acres of national forest since the rule change had caused “irreparable injury.” [See 2006, p. 800C3] A coalition of state and city governments and environmental groups Dec. 5 filed petitions with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requesting that it begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions from airliners using U.S. airports. According to the petitions, aviation produced about 3% of the U.S.’s greenhouse gas emissions. The emissions produced domestically by aircraft were expected to increase 60% by 2025, according to the documents. The coalition included the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, New Jersey and New Mexico; the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection; New York City and the District of Columbia; and the environmental groups Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, Oceana and the Center for Biological Diversity. [See p. 763A1] The attorneys general of 12 states Nov. 28 filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York City against the EPA over revisions to rules requiring companies to publicly disclose information on the

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amount and types of toxic materials they released into the environment. The EPA in

December 2006 had revised the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program, allowing companies to file abbreviated forms if they were storing or releasing 500–4,999 pounds (220–2,300 kg) of toxins. More comprehensive disclosures were required if the companies broke the 5,000 pound threshold. The previous rule had required companies to report detailed information 825

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on the storage or discharge of 500 or more pounds of toxins. [See 2006, p. 1003F2] The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Nov. 28 estimated that the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the U.S. in 2006 had fallen 1.5% from the 2005 total. The EIA found that the U.S. had released 7.1 billion metric tons (6.4 billion tons) of greenhouse gases in 2006. Greenhouse gases catalogued in the report included carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, among other gases. [See p. 735B1] A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Nov. 15 rejected fuel economy standards for light trucks—a category of vehicles that included minivans, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and pickup trucks—that had been set to go into effect in 2008. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in March 2006 had finalized rules requiring the average fuel economy for light trucks to reach 23.5 miles per gallon (10 km per liter) by 2010, up from the current 21.6 miles per gallon standard. The court found that the NHTSA had failed to take into account greenhouse gas emissions when it set the new standards. In its ruling, the court also questioned the rationale for allowing light trucks to have less stringent standards than cars. The lawsuit had been filed by the attorneys general of 10 states, New York City, Washington, D.C., and several environmental groups. [See 2006, p. 278G3] „

Religion San Joaquin Leaves Episcopal Church.

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The diocese of San Joaquin, Calif., Dec. 8 became the first diocese to formally secede from the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The move marked a growing rift in the Episcopal Church that began when a gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, had been consecrated in New Hampshire in 2003. [See p. 767G3; 2006, p. 594E1; 2003, p. 888B3] Clergy and lay members of the conservative diocese that day voted, 173–22, to eliminate references to the Episcopal Church in the diocese’s constitution. A preliminary vote to secede had passed overwhelmingly in 2006, but such measures had to be voted on twice before official action could be taken. At least five churches in the diocese would remain affiliated with the Episcopal Church. The diocese, which had been one of three Episcopal dioceses that refused to ordain women, the same day accepted an invitation from Anglican Archbishop Gregory James Venables of Argentina to join the conservative Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, which was based in South America. In 2006, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori had become the first female leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church. The San Joaquin diocese was likely to become entangled in a lengthy court battle with the Episcopal Church over the diocese’s multimillion-dollar property holdings. „ 826

AFRICA

Algeria Car Bombings in Algiers Kill at Least 37.

Two suicide car bombs Dec. 11 exploded minutes apart in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, killing dozens of people and wounding hundreds more. The official death toll was 37; however, news reports put the toll at more than 60, and an unknown number of people reportedly remained buried beneath the rubble. The first bomb targeted the building that housed Algeria’s Constitutional Council, which oversaw elections and ruled on the constitutionality of laws. The second blast struck buildings housing United Nations agencies. [See p. 593A2] The radical Islamic terrorist group Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, which had recently increased its activity in North Africa, Dec. 11 claimed responsibility for the attacks on an Islamist Web site. In a statement, it said the attacks were targeted at “the Crusaders and their agents, the slaves of America and the sons of France,” Algeria’s former colonial ruler. The group in the past had called for the overthrow of the secular Algerian government and the establishment of an Islamic regime in all of North Africa. The Algerian military recently had been carrying out a campaign against the group. The Dec. 11 attack was the worst in Algiers since April, when 33 people died in attacks on the prime minister’s office and a police station. Also, more than 50 people had died in September in suicide bombings in other areas of the country. The Al Qaeda group had also claimed responsibility for those attacks. The continued violence reportedly sparked fears among some Algerians of a return to the rampant violence that had wracked the country during a civil war in the 1990s, in which more than 150,000 people were killed. [See p. 217A1] The remnants of the Islamic group that fought the civil war were believed to form the core of Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. However, observers were divided as to whether the group had genuine connections with the international terrorist network Al Qaeda, or was just using its name to help recruit for its local insurgency. Analysts noted that the date of the attacks continued a pattern of Islamic terrorist groups carrying out attacks on the 11th day of the month. The pattern began with Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., and also included March 11, 2004, attacks in Madrid, Spain, and the April 11 attack in Algiers. Bombs Kill Students, U.N. Workers—

The first bombing came at about 9:30 a.m. local time Dec. 11, outside the Constitutional Council in the Ben Aknoun district. A bus carrying students on the way to a nearby university bore the brunt of the explosion. At least 17 U.N. staff members died in the bombing outside its offices, which occurred about 10 minutes later. The dead in-

cluded local and foreign staff. The vehicle carrying the explosives had been parked on a narrow street in the exclusive Hydra district, along which various U.N. agencies were housed in buildings facing each other. On one side were the offices of the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), the World Food Program (WFP), the International Labour Organization and other U.N. agencies, and on the opposite side, the offices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Dec. 11 said in a statement that the organization would undertake “an immediate review of our security precautions and policies” as a result of the bombing. The attack was the deadliest on a U.N. office since the 2003 bombing of the U.N.’s headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, in which 23 people had been killed. [See 2003, p. 645A1] In other reactions, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had visited Algiers the previous week, called the attacks “barbaric and cowardly.” U.S. President George W. Bush said the attacks had been perpetrated by “enemies of humanity.” [See p. 826D3] „ Sarkozy

Visits,

Criticizes

Colonialism.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy Dec. 3– 5 visited Algeria. It was Sarkozy’s first trip to the North African country, a former French colony, since taking office in May. Sarkozy’s predecessor, Jacques Chirac, had visited Algeria in 2003. That had been the first official state visit by a French president since Algeria won a bloody war for independence from France in 1962. [See p. 826A2; 2003, p. 174D2] Sarkozy in a Dec. 3 speech denounced France’s colonization of Algeria, saying, “Yes, the colonial system was profoundly unjust, contrary to the three founding words of our Republic: freedom, equality, brotherhood.” He added that “terrible crimes” had been committed by both the French and Algerians during the 1954–62 independence war. However, he stopped short of apologizing for France’s 1830– 1962 rule over Algeria, during which France sent tens of thousands of settlers to the North African country and brutally repressed the native population. Algerian Foreign Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni Dec. 4 said the speech was a “step in the right direction,” but lamented that Sarkozy did not directly apologize for colonialism. Many current Algerian government officials had been involved in the war for independence. Sarkozy, upon returning to France, had said his country would pay “reparation” to the thousands of Algerians who fought on the side of the French in the independence war, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reported Dec. 6. Those fighters, known as “harkis,” had either been forced to flee to France after the end of the war, or were persecuted or killed if they remained in Algeria, where they were seen as collaborators with the enemy. Prior to Sarkozy’s visit, Mohamed Cherif Abbas, Algeria’s minister for war veterans, had sparked controversy by alFACTS ON FILE

leging that the new French leader owed his election victory to a “Jewish lobby,” in remarks reported in Algerian media Nov. 26. (Sarkozy’s mother was half-Jewish.) Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika sought to play down those remarks, saying they did not reflect the views of the Algerian government. French Companies Sign Deals—Sarkozy on his Dec. 3–5 trip was accompanied by seven cabinet ministers and about 100 business leaders. Among various deals reached Dec. 4: † French energy utility Gaz de France SA finalized an agreement with Algeria’s state-owned Sonatrach group worth 2.5 billion euros ($3.7 billion) per year to purchase liquefied natural gas through 2019. † French oil giant Total SA agreed to invest one billion euros in a petrochemical plant in Azrew, in western Algeria. † French engineering group Alstom SA agreed to provide turbines worth 800 million euros to a new power station in Terga. „

AMERICAS

zuelan dual citizen, Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Mulvihill said in court that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had recorded conversations indicating the seized funds had been intended for Fernandez de Kirchner’s campaign. Prosecutors alleged that the five charged men had pressured Antonini Wilson in Florida, where he owned a home, to cover up the source and intended purpose of the funds. They also claimed that high-ranking officials in the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias, a staunch opponent of the U.S., were aware of efforts to hide the alleged contribution. However, the complaint did not name Chavez as a participant in the scheme. Rumors had persisted that Chavez sought to influence elections in several Latin American countries by secretly aiding leftist candidates. Fernandez de Kirchner Dec. 13 dismissed the allegations, describing them as “garbage.” Chavez the same day called the complaint a “fabricated scandal.” „

Bolivia Constituent Assembly Approves Reforms.

Argentina Fernandez de Kirchner Assumes Presidency.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner Dec. 10 was sworn in as president of Argentina, succeeding her husband, Nestor Kirchner. Fernandez de Kirchner, a three-term senator, in October had become the first woman elected president of Argentina. [See p. 717E3] In her inauguration speech in Buenos Aires, the capital, Fernandez de Kirchner said she would devote more government resources to combating poverty, and would push investigations into human rights abuses during Argentina’s 1976–83 military dictatorship. She backed a strengthening of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc in order to bolster the security of South American energy supplies. Analysts said Fernandez de Kirchner would have to deal with a growing annual inflation rate, which the government had said was around 10%, but was estimated closer to 15%–20% by outside analysts. The country also faced a high unemployment rate of about 10%, despite strong economic growth. Venezuelan Funding Scheme Charged—

U.S. prosecutors in Miami, Fla., Dec. 13 alleged that five foreign nationals, four of whom were in custody in the U.S., were unregistered Venezuelan agents who had participated in a scheme by the Venezuelan government to funnel some $800,000 to Fernandez de Kirchner’s campaign in August. Of the four men in custody, three were Venezuelan nationals and one was a Uruguayan citizen. [See p. 531B2] It was illegal in the U.S. to act as an agent of a foreign government without alerting U.S. authorities. The whereabouts of one of the Venezuelans charged were unknown. Customs officials in Buenos Aires in August had discovered the money in the luggage of a businessman and U.S.-VeneDecember 13, 2007

A constituent assembly convened by leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales Aima Dec. 8–9 approved all but one of 412 proposed articles of a new constitution at a meeting in Oruro, a mining town 140 miles (230 km) south of La Paz, the capital. The 255-member assembly meeting and vote had been boycotted by 90 members of the main opposition party, Democratic and Social Power (Podemos). Delegates from the center-right Revolutionary Nationalist Movement also refused to attend. At the meeting, the body was instead dominated by members of the Morales-allied Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party. [See p. 593F3] The proposed constitution still required several steps before it could take effect. The one unapproved article would go to a public referendum. If approved, it would be added to the draft constitution, which would then go back to the assembly for another vote. The completed, assembly-approved draft would then be voted on in another public referendum. The proposed constitution would allow presidents to serve two consecutive fiveyear terms, up from the current one-term limit. That was a change from Morales’s initial proposal to permit a president to seek reelection an unlimited number of times. It would also restructure Congress’s voting procedures, and required that judges be elected by popular vote, rather than appointed by Congress. It would grant the government increased power over many of Bolivia’s natural resources, including natural gas and minerals. It also provided greater autonomy and power to provinces and the poor, indigenous majority. The article that did not receive approval would limit the size of private land holdings. Members of the opposition said the meeting violated several of the assembly’s bylaws, and denounced the approved draft constitution as illegal.

The assembly had been established in August 2006 by Morales, an Aymara Indian who had been voted into power on claims that he would address long-standing inequalities affecting Bolivia’s indigenous population. Its work had been slowed by infighting among political factions and violent protests in cities hosting its meetings.

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Four Provinces Propose Autonomy—

The leaders of four provinces Dec. 13 announced plans to create independent governments. A legislative body in Santa Cruz province that day passed a statute allowing the region to withhold two-thirds of its tax revenues. Santa Cruz, home to most of Bolivia’s oil and gas resources and a booming agricultural sector, was the richest province in the country. The leaders of three other provinces—Beni, Pando and Tarija—said they would pass similar statutes by Dec. 15 that would then be put to a public referendum. Morales Dec. 13 called for his supporters to rally in the dissenting provinces, saying that Bolivia’s unity was “not up for discussion.” He had reportedly sent 400 police officers to Santa Cruz and put the nation’s armed forces on a state of alert. Morales and the reform effort enjoyed support among the indigenous and poor based largely in Bolivia’s mountainous eastern region. Opposition was strongest in the wealthier eastern lowlands.

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Referendum on Presidency Proposed—

Morales Dec. 5 called for a nationwide referendum to decide if he and the country’s nine provincial governors should remain in office. The move was viewed as a challenge to the political opposition, which controlled six of the regional governorships. „

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Brazil U.S. Pilots Indicted in Airliner Crash. A

Brazilian federal judge June 1 indicted two U.S. pilots involved in the September 2006 crash of a commercial airliner that killed all 154 crew and passengers on board. Also indicted were four Brazilian air traffic controllers. [See pp. 531B3, 365F3] The two pilots, Jan Paul Paladino and Joseph Lepore, had been flying a small executive jet that collided with Gol Linhas Aereas Intelligentes SA Flight 1907. The passenger plane crashed into a remote area of the Amazon rain forest; the executive jet was able to land safely. Paladino and Lepore had been held by Brazilian authorities after the accident, but were released and returned to the U.S. in December 2006. The Brazilian judge found the men should be charged with “exposing an aircraft to danger,” and ordered them to appear on Aug. 27 in court for questioning. However, a lawyer representing the pilots Aug. 23 said that while his clients were willing to provide testimony in the case, they would not travel to Brazil to do so. The report of a Brazilian military investigation into the crash released to the public Oct. 2 found that five military officers working as air traffic controllers were partly at fault for the collision. (The Brazilian military operated the country’s air traffic 827

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system.) The investigation had been completed July 19, but its conclusions were not released until leaked to Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo. The inquiry report found that “crimes were committed” by the four controllers indicted in June, and a fifth. It said the officers had exhibited “lack of diligence” and “carelessness.” „ Conviction in Murder of U.S. Nun Upheld.

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A Brazilian jury Oct. 22 upheld the December 2005 conviction and 27-year prison sentence of Rayfran das Neves Sales, who in February 2005 had shot and killed U.S. Roman Catholic nun Dorothy Stang. (Brazilian law required an automatic retrial for cases in which a prison sentence exceeding 20 years was imposed.) Another gunman, Clodoaldo Carlos Batista, had also been convicted in December 2005 and sentenced to 17 years in prison. [See p. 366B1] Stang, an environmental activist, had spent decades advocating on behalf of poor Brazilian farmers. Prosecutors had argued that two ranchers ordered her death because she had opposed their plans to clear a forest for use as a pasture. A jury in May had found one of the ranchers, Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, guilty of ordering the murder; he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, and his retrial was scheduled for 2008. Another alleged planner of the killing, Regivaldo Galvao, still awaited trial. „

Ecuador Assembly Assumes Congressional Powers.

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A 130-seat constituent assembly whose majority was allied with leftist Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa Nov. 29 voted to “assume the legislative powers and duties” of Congress, suspending members of the opposition-controlled legislature without pay. The suspension of Congress, which was supported by 110 members of the constituent assembly, would last until the assembly, scheduled to meet for six months, drafted a new constitution and put it to a public referendum in 2008. The assembly also dismissed the attorney general, the banking superintendent and other high-ranking government officials. [See p. 653F2] Opposition lawmakers decried the assembly’s actions as a grab for power by Correa. “This is the end of constitutional democracy in Ecuador,” said opposition legislator Vicente Taiano. Correa Nov. 30 said the assembly’s actions were the first in a “radical” reformation of the country’s entrenched political order. “This is the hopefully irreversible beginning of the citizens’ revolution,” he said. Ecuadorans in September had voted on members of the assembly. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the country’s highest electoral court, Nov. 19 said Correa’s Alianza Pais (National Alliance) party had won 80 assembly seats, falling just shy of the two-thirds majority needed to gain outright control of the body. However, with the backing of eight delegates from two smaller parties, the Pachakutik party and the Movimiento Popular Democratico 828

(Popular Democratic Movement), the Correa-allied coalition crossed the two-thirds threshold. „

Peru Fujimori Human Rights Trial Begins. A threejudge panel of Peru’s Supreme Court, the country’s highest court, Dec. 9 began hearings in the trial of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori on charges of human rights abuses. Fujimori, 69, was accused by federal prosecutors of ordering two massacres resulting in 25 deaths, and the abduction of two people during his 1990–2000 presidency. He was the first former head of state in Peru to be tried in court on human rights charges. [See p. 636F1] Fujimori as president had backed aggressive action against the rebel guerrilla groups Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), which had killed thousands of people, and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. Prosecutors alleged that he had overseen the operations of a paramilitary death squad known as the Colina Group. Several of the charges against him were linked to the 1991 murder of 15 people at a party in Lima, the capital, by the Colina Group. Fujimori also faced charges over the 1992 killing by the Colina Group of nine students and one teacher at La Cantuta University in Lima. Fujimori was also accused of participating in the 1992 kidnapping of businessman Samuel Dyer and journalist Gustavo Gorriti. Fujimori at the trial proclaimed his innocence. “I reject the charges, totally!” he shouted while gesturing emphatically. If convicted, Fujimori would face a prison sentence of up to 30 years and fines of $33 million. Despite the allegations, Fujimori remained popular in Peru for reining in inflation and increasing social spending programs during his rule, as well as for his efforts to combat the guerrilla groups. Fujimori in 2000 fled Peru for Japan, as allegations of corruption and human rights abuses began to surface. He was arrested in Chile in 2005 while attempting to return to Peru to resurrect his political career. Fujimori was also charged with several acts of corruption, including the use of government funds to bribe government officials and journalists. He was to be tried separately on those charges. Fujimori Convicted of Illegal Search—

In a separate trial, Fujimori Dec. 11 was convicted in the Supreme Court of ordering a military aide to illegally search the apartment of the wife of Vladimiro Montesinos, his intelligence chief. He was sentenced to a six-year prison term the same day. „

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erately killed by agents of the Indonesian military. The ruling appeared to contradict the version of events accepted by the Australian and Indonesian governments, which held that the journalists, known as the “Balibo Five,” were killed in the cross fire between Timorese fighters and Indonesian troops. [See 2000, p. 723F3] The coroner, Dorelle Pinch, issued a report ruling that the five men—Australians Tony Stewart and Greg Shackleton, New Zealander Gary Cunningham, and Britons Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters—had been executed and then burned in order to keep them from reporting on the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. The corpses were dressed in the uniforms of the Portuguese military (Portugal had controlled East Timor until 1975) and photographed with weapons, in an attempt to disguise their identity. In her report, Pinch wrote that “there is strong circumstantial evidence that” the orders to kill the journalists “emanated from the head of the Indonesian special forces, Major General Benny Murdani, down to Captain [Yunus] Yosfiah,” who she said was directly involved with the killings. A spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign ministry told reporters Nov. 16 that the coroner’s finding would not prompt the government to reopen the case. Pinch asked Australian Attorney General Phillip Ruddock to initiate war crimes investigations regarding the deaths. „ Qantas Fined for Freight Price-Fixing. Qantas Airways Ltd. of Australia Nov. 27 pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to charges that its freight division had conspired with other airlines to set cargo prices on certain routes between 2000 to 2006. As part of a plea agreement with the Justice Department, Qantas agreed to pay $61 million (A$69.75 million) in fines and to cooperate with investigators. More than 30 airlines were thought to be under investigation for similar or related charges. Both Korean Air Lines Co. and British Airways PLC had already pleaded guilty to price-fixing charges. [See 2006, p. 1020A1] „

Kazakhstan Aliyev Tried in Absentia. The trial of Ra-

khat Aliyev, the former son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and more than 20 codefendants Nov. 8 began in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Aliyev faced charges including extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and conspiracy. [See p. 563A2] Aliyev, who was being tried in absentia, was currently in Vienna, Austria’s capital. He had resided there since Nazarbayev dismissed him from the position of Kazakh ambassador to Austria in May. The government of Kazakhstan had attempted to extradite him in August, but an Austrian court denied the request, ruling that he would not receive a fair trial in Kazakhstan. „

Coroner Rules 1975 Deaths Were Murder.

The deputy state coroner for the Australian state of New South Wales Nov. 16 found, following a six-week investigation, that five Australian-based journalists who died in Balibo, East Timor, in 1975 were delib-

Malaysia Ethnic Indians Hold Protest Demonstration.

As many as 20,000 ethnic Indians marched Nov. 25 in Kuala Lumpur, MaFACTS ON FILE

laysia’s capital, to demand reparations from the British government for the abuse of their ancestors, and to protest unequal treatment at the hands of the ethnic Malay–dominated Malaysian government. Ethnic Indians made up only 8% of Malaysia’s population and were the nation’s most impoverished ethnic group. The public protest was unusual for Malaysia, which banned assemblies of five or more people. [See p. 758D1] The demonstration was organized by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) advocacy group in support of a lawsuit filed in Britain that sought payment for the exploitation of indentured Indians who were forcibly moved to colonial Malaysia. Police officers used tear gas and water cannons to subdue the crowd, some of whom threw stones. Britain’s Financial Times reported Nov. 26 that hundreds of protesters were arrested. Following the protest, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi Nov. 27 threatened to invoke the country’s Internal Security Act, which dated to colonial rule and allowed for indefinite imprisonment without trial, to combat demonstrations. Thirty-one ethnic Indian protesters Dec. 4–5 were charged with attempted murder, illegal assembly and damaging public property for their alleged actions during the protest. The attempted murder charges stemmed from head injuries suffered by a police officer during the demonstrations. If convicted on the charges, the defendants faced up to 20 years in prison. The court rejected defense lawyers’ Dec. 5 motion to have the attempted murder charges dropped, and their Dec. 6 petition for the defendants to be released on bail, calling them a potential security threat. Their trial was scheduled to begin Jan. 14, 2008. „

Myanmar U.N. Report Says 31 Killed in Protests. A

report issued Dec. 7 by the U.N. human rights official for Myanmar found that at least 31 people had been killed during the late September military crackdown against peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks. That number was more than double the 15 deaths admitted by Myanmar’s ruling military regime. The report also confirmed that arrests of activists were still ongoing, and gave estimates of the number of political prisoners still being held by the junta. [See p. 789D1] The report, which was presented by U.N. rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro at a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, also said that 74 people were known to be missing and between 500 and 1,000 protesters were still being held by the junta. In addition, approximately 1,150 dissidents already taken into custody before the protests were also still reported to be imprisoned. Pinheiro’s report also suggested that more bodies, including those of monks, could have been burned following the end of the protests, presumably to obscure the full scope of the military’s reprisals. „ December 13, 2007

North Korea Bush Writes to Kim on Nuclear Compliance.

U.S. officials Dec. 6 said that U.S. President George W. Bush had written a letter to North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Il, urging North Korea to fulfill its pledge to completely declare and dismantle its nuclear weapons programs, and discussing the prospect of normalized bilateral relations in return. The letter represented a sharp reversal in the Bush administration’s approach to North Korea. Earlier in his presidency, Bush had cut off what few contacts the U.S. had with the highly isolated country, scuttling a 1994 nuclear agreement that had never been fully implemented. [See p. 769G3] However, in the past year, the U.S. had intensified contacts with North Korea, seeking to secure implementation of a February agreement, negotiated in six-nation talks, under which North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for economic and energy aid and other incentives. North Korea in October had agreed to a year-end deadline for its full declaration of its program, and for “disabling” its nuclear facilities, a step toward full dismantlement. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill Dec. 5 delivered the letter, dated Dec. 1, to a North Korean envoy in Beijing, China, and North Korea later that day announced that Kim had received it. The Bush administration did not publicly release the text, but news reports, citing administration officials, said it called for a “complete and accurate” declaration of all aspects of North Korea’s nuclear program. According to the New York Times Dec. 7, officials said the letter highlighted certain areas in which the U.S. sought a full accounting from North Korea: the amount of weapons-grade nuclear fuel it had produced, along with the number of actual nuclear warheads, and the nuclear materials and expertise it had received from or given to other countries. Hill Dec. 5 had said after a two-day visit to North Korea that it appeared on track to meeting the disabling deadline. However, North Korea was seen as unlikely to complete the declaration by the year’s end, but Hill and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had reportedly indicated that the U.S. would accept a declaration that was days or weeks late, so long as it met the criteria for comprehensiveness. Bush’s Letter Described as Cordial—

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino Dec. 6 described the tone of the letter as typical of “a presidential letter to a leader of a foreign country.” It was reportedly addressed “Dear Mr. Chairman,” a reference to Kim’s title as chairman of North Korea’s National Defense Commission, the de facto top state post. Bush signed the letter by hand. Bush in 2002 had branded North Korea as part of an “axis of evil,” saying later that year, “I loathe Kim Jong Il,” and calling him a “pygmy.” The issue of North Korean nuclear aid to other countries had gained new prominence

after reports in September that Israel had carried out an air strike against a site in Syria rumored to be a nuclear facility built with North Korean assistance. [See p. 674B1] Some observers said that Bush’s letter demonstrated the importance to the administration of the North Korea agreement as a potential unalloyed foreign policy success. It also highlighted the contrast in the U.S.’s approach to North Korea, which had tested a nuclear device in 2006, and its refusal to deal directly with Iran over suspicions that Iran was trying to develop nuclear weapons. A U.S. intelligence assessment released days earlier had found that Iran had halted such covert efforts in 2003. [See p. 797A1] Conservative U.S. critics of the North Korean deal, who said it amounted to caving in to North Korean nuclear blackmail, lamented Bush’s letter. John Bolton, Bush’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Dec. 6 said it damaged the U.S.’s “prestige and influence” and put U.S. foreign policy into “free fall.” U.S. Orchestra to Visit—The New York Philharmonic orchestra Dec. 11 formally confirmed that it would visit Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, for a concert performance in February 2008 at the end of a tour of other Asian countries. It would be the first major U.S. cultural visit to North Korea. The U.S. had conducted such exchanges during the Cold War amid efforts to reduce tensions with the Soviet bloc and China. Philharmonic President Zarin Mehta said at a news conference that the orchestra had accepted an August invitation from North Korea after consulting the U.S. State Department. He said he had demanded and received assurances that its members would be able to “engage directly with local music students and professional musicians,” and be accompanied by foreign reporters. The orchestra was to conduct master classes and hold an open rehearsal for music students, in addition to playing the concert. However, since earlier reports of North Korea’s invitation, some in the music world, as well as critics of efforts to engage Kim’s regime, had said that an orchestra visit would only be a propaganda victory for Kim and lend him legitimacy. The New York Times, reporting Dec. 10 on the imminent announcement, quoted Hill, who helped arrange the visit, defending the plan. He said the invitation showed that North Korea was “beginning to come out of its shell” in a way that had never been achieved by refusing such contacts, and suggested that the development might aid the ongoing nuclear talks. Mehta said the concert program would include the national anthems of both countries, U.S. composer George Gershwin’s 1928 American in Paris and Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s 1893 Symphony No. 9, From the New World, composed in the U.S. Groundbreaking musical tours to communist countries during the Cold War included the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 1956 trip to the Soviet Union, and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 1973 visit to China. [See 1973, p. 136B2; 1959, p. 275D1] „ 829

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Rail Link to South Korea Reopened. Regularly scheduled freight railway service between North Korea and South Korea Dec. 11 resumed for the first time since 1951. A South Korean train carrying raw materials for road-building and shoe manufacturing traveled from Munsan, South Korea, near the two countries’ border, to Kaesong, North Korea, site of a South Korean–operated industrial park; it returned with goods manufactured in Kaesong. Trains would run a 10-mile (six-kilometer) cross-border route five times a week. A ceremonial inauguration of the line had taken place in May. [See pp. 770E1, 326C3] „

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European Union Treaty Signed

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Replaces Failed Constitution. Leaders of the 27 member nations of the European Union, meeting in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, Dec. 13 signed a treaty designed to streamline the group’s structure and make it a more forceful player on the world stage. The treaty was a more modest version of a constitution that had been rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005. The new treaty required ratification by each member nation, but most of them planned to put it to a vote in their parliaments, rather than a public referendum. Only Ireland planned a referendum. [See p. 703E3] “This was the European project that many generations dreamed of and others before us championed, with a vision of the future,” said Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa at the signing ceremony, held in the 16thcentury Jeronimos Monastery. President Jose Manuel Barroso of the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, said, “From this old continent, a

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EU TREATY

Following are some of the major European Union reforms in the Treaty of Lisbon, signed Dec. 13 by EU leaders [See p. 830B1]:

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† A president of the European Council, the body of the leaders of EU member states, to serve two-and-a-half-year terms, replacing the existing system of a presidency that rotated among the member nations every six months. † A new foreign policy chief, heading an EU foreign service and serving as vice president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body. † The European Commission would be reduced in size in 2014. The number of commissioners would be reduced to two-thirds of the number of member nations. Currently there were 27 commissioners, one from each member nation. † The voting system would change in 2014 to a “double majority” rule, under which decisions would need the approval of 55% of member states representing 65% of the population. † Decisions in more policy areas, including justice and law enforcement, would be subject to majority voting. However, some areas, such as foreign policy, taxation and the budget, would still require unanimous approval. 830

new Europe is born.” Barroso was also Portuguese. The treaty created a new office of president of the European Council, the body of the member nations’ leaders. That would replace, in 2009, the existing system in which the presidency rotated among the member nations every six months. The treaty also created a new position for a chief of EU foreign policy. Other changes were intended to allow more efficient collective decision making, which had become more difficult due to the EU’s recent enlargement. It had added 10 new members in 2004, and two more, Bulgaria and Romania, in January. The treaty increased the number of policy areas in which decisions could be made by majority voting, particularly in justice and law enforcement matters. Decisions in other areas, including foreign policy, taxation and the budget, would still need unanimous agreement. The treaty also provided for a change to new voting rules in 2014, when a “double majority” of 55% of member nations and 65% of the total EU population would be required to approve decisions. The treaty omitted elements of the defeated constitution that defined official symbols such as a flag and anthem for the EU. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown skipped the signing ceremony, citing a scheduling conflict with an appearance before a committee of the British Parliament. Foreign Minister David Miliband represented Britain at the ceremony. Brown arrived later in the day and signed the treaty, which faced widespread public opposition in Britain. Brown had resisted calls by the opposition Conservative (Tory) Party to call a referendum on the treaty. „

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnian Serb Sentenced For Sarajevo Siege.

Gen. Dragomir Milosevic, the Bosnian Serb general who led the final 15 months of the 1992–95 siege of Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital, Dec. 12 was sentenced to 33 years in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the Netherlands. He was found guilty of murder, inhumane treatment and overseeing a campaign that had indiscriminately bombed the city without taking account of its citizens. The tribunal found that Milosevic had “planned and ordered gross and systematic violations of international humanitarian law” during the city’s siege. [See pp. 705D2, 673C1, 385D3; 2001, p. 982F2; 1996, p. 61A1] The 65-year-old Milosevic, who had pleaded not guilty to all charges, had argued that the city was a battleground and that his army of 18,000 had been carrying out justifiable military activities. Milosevic was not related to the late Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Gen. Stanislav Galic, Milosevic’s predecessor, received a life sentence in 2006 from the tribunal on similar charges for his role in the city’s siege. The tribunal also sought former Bosnian Serb leaders Rado-

van Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, both of whom had been accused of genocide. [See p. 706D2] „

Russia Putin Names Medvedev as His Successor.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Dec. 10 endorsed Dmitri A. Medvedev, one of Russia’s two first deputy prime ministers, to be Russia’s next president. Putin made the surprise announcement at a televised meeting of leaders of the four parties that sat in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament. Medvedev, 42, was expected to be formally nominated as the presidential candidate for the pro-Putin United Russia party Dec. 17. It had been widely speculated that whomever Putin, 55, named as his successor would face few obstacles in assuming the presidency. [See pp. 799E1, 637E3] Medvedev, a fluent English speaker, was viewed by many as a Putin protege. Both were natives of St. Petersburg. Medvedev had first worked with Putin in the St. Petersburg government in the early 1990s. He then taught and practiced law for several years before he was promoted to deputy head of government administration by Putin in 1999, just after Putin was appointed prime minister by Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin. He ran Putin’s presidential campaign in 2000, and the same year was appointed by Putin to chair stateowned gas giant OAO Gazprom. In 2003, Putin promoted him to chief of staff, and in 2005 Medvedev was named first deputy prime minister. In that position, he focused mainly on agriculture, medicine, housing and education. [See 2005, p. 839A1; 2003, p. 875B2; 2000, p. 942B1] Notably, Medvedev, unlike Putin, did not have any ties to current or former Russian state security agencies, including the Soviet-era KGB and its successor, the FSB, whose members currently dominated Russian politics. He represented the first of the post-Soviet generation to enter high-profile Russian politics. He had never before been elected to public office. In his Dec. 10 announcement, Putin noted that he had worked with Medvedev for 17 years, and said if Medvedev were elected, it would lead to “an administration that will carry out the same policies that have brought us results for the past eight years.” Putin’s announcement put an end to years of speculation concerning who would succeed him, and what Putin himself would do once the second of his two presidential terms expired. Putin had indicated repeatedly that he intended to remain an influence in the government after his presidency. Putin Named as Possible Premier—

Medvedev Dec. 11 in a speech to the nation said he would appoint Putin as prime minister if elected president in balloting scheduled for March 2008. Putin, who was constitutionally barred from a third consecutive presidential term, had yet to accept. Medvedev’s statement fueled speculation FACTS ON FILE

that Putin could attempt to transfer powers from the office of the president to the prime minister. „

Serbia U.N. ‘Troika’ Talks on Kosovo Fail. The U.S.,

the European Union and Russia Dec. 7 announced that United Nations–backed talks on the permanent status of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo had failed. The group, known as the “troika,” said in a final report, submitted that day to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, that “after 120 days of intensive negotiations, the parties were unable to reach an agreement on Kosovo’s status. Neither side was willing to yield on the basic question of sovereignty.” [See p. 772B3] Ban in August had called for a last round of talks on the breakaway province with a Dec. 10 deadline, after previous negotiations had failed. Kosovo, whose population was about 90% ethnic Albanian, had demanded independence from Serbia, which had refused. The U.N. had adminstered Kosovo since 1999. Kosovo’s leaders in the past had said they would unilaterally declare independence once the Dec. 10 deadline passed. However, Kosovar officials said they would not declare independence without the backing of both the U.S. and the EU. Britain’s Financial Times Dec. 10 reported that Kosovo’s leadership was willing to postpone independence until March 2008. [See p. 597F2] Such a strategy would give the U.N. time to transfer to the EU administration of Kosovo. EU leaders reportedly expected Ban to invite the EU to take over the administration of Kosovo from the U.N. Under that plan, the 16,000 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) peacekeeping troops in the region would remain. The transfer of power would reduce Russia’s influence over the situation in Kosovo through the U.N. Security Council. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica Dec. 8 said that more talks should be held in Kosovo and Serbia to resolve the conflict. Russia maintained that talks should continue until a consensus was reached. „

Slovakia 3 Arrested After Attempted Uranium Sale.

Two Hungarians and one Ukrainian Nov. 28 were arrested after they allegedly tried to sell about one pound (0.452 kg) of uranium in powdered form. The men were arrested in Slovakia and Hungary, near the common Ukrainian border. Slovak officials said the uranium, which the men had attempted to sell for about $1 million, had likely been smuggled from one of the former Soviet republics. It was only a fraction of the amount needed to build a crude nuclear warhead. [See p. 67E3] Slovak officials claimed that the uranium was 98.6% uranium-235. Uranium was considered highly enriched if was composed of more than 20% uranium-235, and was considered weapons-grade if it was at December 13, 2007

least 85% uranium-235. Uranium used in nuclear power plants was around 4% uranium-235. However, Western nuclear experts expressed skepticism over the Slovak claims, and suggested that 98.6% more likely referred to how accurate the radiation detection was, not the uranium-235 content. Nuclear experts were shown photographs taken by Slovak police of the radioactivity readings. The three men reportedly could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of the attempted sale. „

Turkey EU Calls for Freedom of Speech. The European Union Nov. 6 called on Turkey to protect free speech by repealing or amending an article of its penal code that made “insulting Turkishness” a crime. The EU said changing that law, which had led to the prosecution of many Turkish writers, journalists and academics, was a key condition for progress in negotiations on Turkey’s bid for membership in the EU. Olli Ren, the EU enlargement commissioner, said the law was “simply not acceptable in a European democracy.” The EU had frozen the Turkish membership talks in 2006 due to a separate dispute over Cyprus. [See 2006, p. 983A1] Turkish Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin later Nov. 6 said the government planned to change the “insulting Turkishness” law, and would soon propose a bill in parliament to do so. However, Turkish prosecutors Nov. 29 questioned Erol Karaaslan, the Turkish publisher of The God Delusion, a critique of religion by British biologist Richard Dawkins that had become a bestseller in the U.S., after a reader filed a complaint that the book was an incitement to hatred and offended “sacred values.” Most of the “insulting Turkishness” cases had also been initiated by private citizens, including one against Nobel Prize–winning novelist Orhan Pamuk. [See p. 52B2] „

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Lebanon High-Ranking General Killed in Car Bombing.

A powerful remote-controlled car bomb in the Baabda suburb of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, Dec. 12 killed Brig. Gen. Francois al-Hajj, the chief operations officer of the Lebanese army and a likely successor to Gen. Michel Suleiman as the army’s commander. Hajj’s bodyguard was also killed. The killing deepened the instability that had gripped Lebanon since President Emile Lahoud had stepped down in November. A divided parliament continued to struggle to elect a new president, leaving the country without a head of state. [See p. 793F1] The killing drew universal condemnation from the country’s rival political factions, including the opposition Shiite militant movement Hezbollah.

Hajj’s killing was the latest in a series of assassinations and attempted assassinations of Lebanese officials and politicians. However, the prior victims had been antiSyrian politicians, while the Lebanese army was seen as politically neutral. Hajj had gained popularity after directing a successful months-long army siege of a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon that was occupied by the Islamist militant group Fatah al-Islam. [See p. 581F3] Anti-Syrian politicians blamed the Syrian government for the bombing, while others suspected Fatah al-Islam. Critics of Syria pointed to remarks made by Syrian Vice President Farouq Sharaa on Dec. 11, when he warned that “no one in Lebanon, even with foreign support, can win the battle against Syria.” However, the Syrian government condemned the bombing and denied responsibility. A Syrian official that day suggested that Israel was behind the attack. Rival political factions in November had agreed to back Suleiman for president, but negotiations had since stalled over proposed amendments to the constitution. Hajj’s death left Lebanon without a clear successor for the army’s chief. Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri Dec. 10 announced that the presidential election would be delayed until Dec. 17, the eighth such postponement. „

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Other Middle East News Israeli-Palestinian Talks Yield Little Progress.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams Dec. 12 met in Jerusalem for the first round of talks aimed at laying the groundwork for a final peace settlement, as laid out at a November U.S.-backed meeting in Annapolis, Md. The Jerusalem talks reportedly were marked by tension between the two sides, and yielded little beyond an agreement to meet again after the Dec. 20 Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas Dec. 13 said the meeting would take place Dec. 23. [See p. 777A1] The negotiating teams were led by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former PA Prime Minister Ahmed Korei. Unnamed officials said Palestinian negotiators had protested Israel’s continued construction of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, as well as a major Israeli incursion Dec. 11 into the West Bank. A spokesman for Livni, meanwhile, said she had told the Palestinians to “address urgently the issue of security” in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a Nov. 29 interview with the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz said that if the Palestinians were not allowed to form an independent state, Israel would “face a South Africanstyle struggle for equal voting rights, and as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished” because of increased condemnation from its allies abroad. Olmert’s statements were seen as an attempt to increase Israeli public support for the renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace process. 831

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The U.S. government Dec. 4 announced that U.S. President George W. Bush would visit the Middle East in January 2008, but would not confirm whether he would travel to Israel or the Palestinian territories, which he had not yet visited as president. Israel Launches Major Gaza Incursion—

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In the Dec. 11 incursion, Israeli forces accompanied by tanks and air support pushed two miles (three km) into the Gaza Strip— which was controlled by the militant Islamist group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement)—near the towns of Khan Yunis and Rafah. Israeli troops killed at least six Palestinian fighters, and detained scores of Palestinians for questioning. Israeli officials said the operation was meant to stem rocket and mortar attacks, but Palestinian officials accused them of launching it to derail the Jerusalem peace talks the next day. Palestinian militants Dec. 12 launched missiles and rockets into Israel from Gaza, in what was reportedly a response to the incursion. Eli Moyal, the mayor of the Israeli town of Sderot, which was on the Gaza border and was often the target of Palestinian rockets, that day announced his resignation during a live radio interview in protest of what he said was the government’s failure to stop the attacks. Israel Dec. 4 announced that it would build 307 new homes in the Jewish Har Homa neighborhood in the eastern part of Jerusalam, which the Israelis had captured in the 1967 Six Day War. Palestinians said the announcement was another move to derail the talks. They had claimed East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Dec. 7 told Livni that the move “doesn’t help to build confidence,” in a rare criticism of Israeli policy by the Bush administration. An Israeli rocket strike Dec. 1 killed five members of Hamas’s armed wing near the village of Abassan in southern Gaza. Israel Releases Palestinian Prisoners—

Israel Dec. 3 released 429 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture aimed at strengthening Abbas. Most of the prisoners belonged to Abbas’s Fatah movement, which opposed Hamas. In another move to bolster Abbas, Israel Nov. 21 had approved the transfer of 25 armored personnel carriers to the PA from Russia, and also said it would allow Gaza farmers to export some produce for the first time since Hamas took over the territory in June. However, Israeli officials subsequently objected to a Palestinian proposal for the carriers to be armed with machine guns, it was reported Dec. 3. Abbas Dec. 3 said he would ask foreign donors for $5.8 billion in aid through 2010, nearly double the current amount, at a high-level donor meeting to be held Dec. 17 in Paris. Abbas said the money would be used to boost the Palestinian territories’ dismal economy, and reduce the PA’s budget deficit. Israeli Court Halts Gaza Power Cut—Israel’s supreme court Nov. 30 ruled that the Israeli government had to postpone plans to cut electricity to Gaza in response to Pal832

estinian rocket attacks, saying that the government had not provided sufficient detail on the cuts’ effects. The challenge had been brought by a group of human rights organizations, which argued that the cuts represented collective punishment. However, the court said the government could continue to limit fuel shipments to Gaza. U.S. Pulls U.N. Resolution— The U.S. Nov. 30 withdrew a United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the Annapolis peace process, after having introduced and promoted the resolution the previous day. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Zalmay Khalilzad said the embarrassing turnabout had been caused when Israeli diplomats had reiterated their long-held opposition to a U.N. role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. „

SOUTH ASIA

Pakistan Opposition Parties Drop Boycott Threat.

Pakistan’s two largest opposition political parties, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), Dec. 9 said they would participate in parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8, 2008. They had earlier raised the possibility of a boycott of the elections if President Pervez Musharraf did not meet certain demands that would guarantee a free and fair election process. However, the two parties’ leaders, the PPP’s Benazir Bhutto and the PML-N’s Nawaz Sharif, had failed to compile a list of demands that both could agree on. [See p. 814C2] The parties said they were participating in the elections “under protest” because they believed that the vote would be rigged. While Musharraf had promised to lift a state of emergency he had declared in early November, which had suspended the country’s constitution, critics said he had made a fair vote impossible by placing restrictions on the media, replacing judges on the country’s Supreme Court with his allies, and appointing loyalists to oversee the elections. Sharif, a former prime minister, had advocated boycotting the elections to avoid lending credence to them. Bhutto, also a former prime minister, had argued that a boycott would allow Musharraf and his faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, the PML-Q, to take control of the entire government. Spokesmen for Sharif’s party said that without the support of the PPP, the country’s largest party, the boycott would be ineffective. It was reported that talks broke down between the two parties over whether they should demand the reinstatement of the Supreme Court judges before or after the elections took place; Sharif favored their replacement beforehand, while Bhutto suggested it could happen later. It was also reported that U.S. and European diplomats had pressured the two parties to participate in the elections in order to maintain stability in the country, which had been in political turmoil since Musharraf made the emergency decree.

Bhutto Dec. 9 said her party would begin street demonstrations if it became clear that the elections had been rigged by the government. Smaller opposition parties, including the Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami, that day said they would boycott the elections. Musharraf that day announced that he would lift the emergency decree on Dec. 15, one day earlier than previously scheduled. „ Military Declares Success in Swat Valley.

Military officials Dec. 8 said they had succeeded in driving out Islamic militants who since July had taken control of at least eight towns in the Swat Valley, which bordered Pakistan’s lawless northwestern region. The officials said they had killed 290 militants and captured 143. The military had not captured the militants’ leader, Maulana Fazlullah, however. [See p. 777B3] The military said only five Pakistani soldiers had died during the operation, which began in November, though the militants accusd the army of overstating its success. Officials said a suicide attack in the northwestern town of Kamra that wounded five children and two adults Dec. 10 could have been a retaliatory act by the militants. Another suicide bomber Dec. 9 had killed six civilians and a police officer in the Swat region. „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Baseball Steroids Investigation Report Released Dozens of

Players Linked to Drugs.

Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell (D, Maine) Dec. 13 released a report detailing the conclusions of his 20-month investigation into the use of steroids, human growth hormone (HGH) and other performance-enhancing drugs by dozens of former and current Major League Baseball (MLB) players. Mitchell in the report described performance-enhancing drug use by MLB players as “widespread,” and said the league’s response to drug use was “slow” and “initially ineffective.” All 30 MLB teams had at least one player who was implicated in the report. [See p. 744G1; for excerpts of the report, see p. 834A1; for a list of players named in the report, see p. 833A2] “Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades—commissioners, club officials, the players association and players—shares to some extent the responsibility for the steroids era,” Mitchell said. He added, “There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on.” Those implicated in drugs by the report included former most valuable players (MVPs) Mo Vaughn, Jose Canseco, Ken Caminiti, Jason Giambi, Juan Gonzales, Miguel Tejada and Barry Bonds, the alltime home run record holder. Also named were seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, also a former MVP, and Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro, both of whom were on the top 10 all-time home run list. Those implicated in the report had FACTS ON FILE

not necessarily been proven to have used performance-enhancing drugs. Names of other players not listed in the report were expected to emerge as examinations of MLB drug use continued. [See p. 833E3] Mitchell in March 2006 had been appointed by MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to investigate performance-enhancing drug use among players after a book was published alleging that Bonds had used steroids. (Bonds had been indicted on federal charges in a related probe in November.) Mitchell’s investigation had been limited to events prior to September 2002, when MLB, in coordination with the MLB Players Association (MLBPA), the players’ union, had agreed to ban performance-enhancing drugs and establish a testing regimen to detect their use by players. MLB officials Dec. 10 had seen an advance copy of the Mitchell report in New York City, the Washington Post reported Dec. 12. Evidence Supplied by Trainer— Mitchell’s report relied heavily on already known information culled from media reports and legal investigations. However, much of the new information had been provided by Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse employee who in April had pleaded guilty to distributing performanceenhancing drugs to MLB players. He had agreed to cooperate with the investigation as part of his plea agreement, and was scheduled to be sentenced in 2008. Radomski had provided the investigation with email, checks and receipts as evidence of drug use by players. [See p. 455E2] Mitchell had also interviewed Brian McNamee, a former Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees strength trainer who had worked with Clemens and another pitcher, Andy Pettitte. McNamee had reportedly told investigators that he had provided Clemens, Pettitte and first baseman David Segui with steroids and human growth hormone after they had requested the drugs. He also reportedly said he had personally injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens strongly denied those claims. The report also cited information uncovered during a probe by the Albany County, N.Y., district attorney’s office into the distribution of steroids to players over the Internet by Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, Fla. A number of players were named on the strength only of oral testimony that was not corroborated by any documentation. However, Mitchell said that he had been hampered in his investigation by his inability to compel testimony from witnesses and players. The MLBPA had reportedly instructed its members that it would be in their best interests not to participate in Mitchell’s investigation. Donald Fehr, executive director of the union, denied that claim. Recommendations—The report recommended that MLB and the players’ union establish unannounced year-round performance-enhancing drug tests, and rely on an outside agency to perform them. It suggested that the league form an independent investigative body to examine players impliDecember 13, 2007

MLB PLAYERS NAMED IN THE MITCHELL REPORT ON DRUG USE

Following are the names of current and former Major League Baseball (MLB) players mentioned in connection with performance-enhancing drugs in a Dec. 13 report by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell (D, Maine). The report said that “the illegal use of these substances was not limited to the players identified” in it. [See p. 832D3]: Andy Pettitte Troy Glaus Manny Alexander Adam Piatt Juan Gonzalez Chad Allen Todd Pratt Jason Grimsley Rick Ankiel Stephen Randolph Jose Guillen David Bell Adam Riggs Jerry Hairston Jr. Mike Bell Armando Rios Matt Herges Marvin Benard Brian Roberts Phil Hiatt Gary Bennett Jr. John Rocker Glenallen Hill Larry Bigbie F.P. Santangelo Darren Holmes Barry Bonds Benito Santiago Todd Hundley Ricky Bones Scott Schoeneweis Ryan Jorgensen Kevin Brown David Segui Wally Joyner Paul Byrd Gary Sheffield Mike Judd Alex Cabrera Mike Stanton David Justice Ken Caminiti Ricky Stone Chuck Knoblauch Jose Canseco Miguel Tejada Tim Laker Mark Carreon Derrick Turnbow Mike Lansing Jason Christiansen Ismael Valdez Paul Lo Duca Howie Clark Mo Vaughn Nook Logan Roger Clemens Randy Velarde Josias Manzanillo Paxton Crawford Ron Villone Gary Matthews Jr. Jack Cust Fernando Vina Mark McGwire Brendan Donnelly Rondell White Cody McKay Chris Donnels Jeff Williams Kent Mercker Lenny Dykstra Matt Williams Bart Miadich Bobby Estalella Todd Williams Hal Morris Matt Franco Steve Woodard Daniel Naulty Ryan Franklin Kevin Young Denny Neagle Eric Gagne Gregg Zaun Rafael Palmeiro Jason Giambi Jim Parque Jeremy Giambi Luis Perez Jay Gibbons

cated in the purchase or use of drugs who had not tested positive for them. Mitchell in the report also recommended that punitive measures against players named in the report be limited to the most “egregious” cases. “The commissioner should give the players and everyone else the chance to make a fresh start,” Mitchell said, adding, “That’s what baseball needs.” Response—Selig in a news conference held hours after the report’s release Dec. 13 said he would move to implement all of Mitchell’s recommendations, but that he had not decided whether to pursue disciplinary action against the players named in the report. (However, some of the recommendations required the approval of the MLBPA before they could be implemented.) Selig did not rule out the possibility that he would seek disciplinary action against some players named in the report. “So long as there may be potential cheaters, we will always have to monitor our programs and constantly update them to catch those who think they can get away with breaking baseball’s rules,” Selig said. Fehr Dec. 13 criticized the report as unfair. “Many players are named,” he said, adding, “Their reputations have been affected, probably forever, even if it turns out that down the road that they should not have been.” Players Suspended—Separately, Selig Dec. 6 suspended players Jose Guillen of the Kansas City Royals and Jay Gibbons of the Baltimore Orioles for 15 games each after they were linked to evidence showing that they had obtained performance-enhancing drugs. Neither had tested positive

for the drugs, though Gibbons the same day admitted that he had used HGH in the past to recover from injuries more quickly. An MLBPA lawyer said Guillen would appeal his suspension. Both players were set to begin serving their suspensions at the beginning of the 2008 season. Also, MLB May 7 had suspended Tampa Bay pitcher Juan Salas for 50 games for failing a performance-enhancing drug test, making him the first player to do so in 2007. MLB Nov. 27 issued its second suspension for a failed drug test to Colorado Rockies pitcher Dan Serafini, also for 50 games. „

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Other Baseball News Bonds Pleads Not Guilty in BALCO Case. Major League Baseball (MLB) star slugger

Barry Bonds Dec. 7 pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Calif., to four felony counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. It was his first court appearance since being indicted in November. He faced up to 30 months in prison if convicted, under federal sentencing guidelines for first-time offenders. The next hearing in the case was scheduled for February 2008. [See pp. 832D3, 760D1] The charges stemmed from Bonds’s December 2003 testimony before a San Francisco federal grand jury investigating a scandal surrounding the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), a Northern California nutritional supplement company that had provided performance-enhancing drugs to top athletes. In that testimony, Bonds asserted that he had never knowingly used such 833

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EXCERPTS FROM THE MITCHELL REPORT

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Following are excerpts from the report by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell (D, Maine) on the use of performance-enhancing drugs by current and former Major League Baseball (MLB) players [See p. 832D3]: Summary

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For more than a decade there has been widespread illegal use of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances by players in Major League Baseball, in violation of federal law and baseball policy. Club officials routinely have discussed the possibility of such substance use when evaluating players. Those who have illegally used these substances range from players whose major league careers were brief to potential members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. They include both pitchers and position players, and their backgrounds are as diverse as those of all major league players. The response by baseball was slow to develop and was initially ineffective, but it gained momentum after the adoption of a mandatory random drug testing program in 2002. That program has been effective in that detectable steroid use appears to have declined. But the use of human growth hormone has risen because, unlike steroids, it is not detectable through urine testing. This report, the product of an intensive investigation, describes how and why this problem emerged. We identify some of the players who were caught up in the drive to gain a competitive advantage through the illegal use of these substances. Other investigations will no doubt turn up more names and fill in more details, but that is unlikely to significantly alter the description of baseball’s “steroids era,” as set

drugs. Prosecutors alleged in the indictment that Bonds had lied 19 times under oath. Bonds’s lead attorney, Allen Ruby, after the court appearance said his client was “innocent,” adding, “He’s looking forward to the court proceedings and to being vindicated.” Ruby was the head of a newly hired, high-powered defense team that Bonds had reportedly hand-picked in the wake of his indictment. „

College Football

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Florida QB Tebow Wins Heisman. University of Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow Dec. 8 was awarded the Heisman Trophy as the nation’s top college football player at a ceremony in New York City. He became the first sophomore ever to win the award. Tebow, 20, received 462 first-place votes and 1,957 total points in balloting by the media and former Heisman winners. He was just the third Florida player awarded the bronze trophy, and the first since quarterback Danny Wuerffel in 1996. [See 2006, p. 966F3; 1996, p. 1012C1] University of Arkansas running back Darren McFadden was the runner-up in Heisman voting for the second straight year, with 1,703 points. University of Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan finished third, with 632 points, and University of Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel placed fourth, with 425 points. Tebow became the first National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) player to accumulate more than 20 touchdowns in both the rushing and passing categories during the same season. He ran for 838 yards and 22 touchdowns. He also threw for 3,132 yards and 29 touchdowns. With two seasons remaining in his college ca834

forth in this report. From hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents we learned enough to accurately describe that era. While this investigation was prompted by revelations about the involvement of players with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the evidence we uncovered indicates that this has not been an isolated problem involving just a few players or a few clubs. It has involved many players on many clubs. In fact, each of the thirty clubs has had players who have been involved with performance enhancing substances at some time in their careers. The illegal use of these substances was not limited to the players identified in this report.…

The Effect on Baseball … The illegal use of performance enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the integrity of the game. Widespread use by players of such substances unfairly disadvantages the honest athletes who refuse to use them and raises questions about the validity of baseball records. In addition, because they are breaking the law, users of these substances are vulnerable to drug dealers who might seek to exploit their knowledge through threats intended to affect the outcome of baseball games or otherwise. The illegal use of these substances to improve athletic performance also carries with it potentially serious negative side effects on the human body. Steroid users place themselves at risk for psychiatric problemss, cardiovascular and liver damage, drastic changes to their reproductive systems, musculoskeletal injury, and other problems. Users of human growth hormone risk cancer, harm to their reproductive health, cardiac and thyroid problems, and overgrowth of bone and connective tissue....

reer, Tebow had a chance to repeat as the Heisman winner, a feat accomplished only by Ohio State tailback Archie Griffin in 1974 and 1975. [See 1975, p. 1030C1] Ohio State, LSU to Play for NCAA Title—

The Ohio State Buckeyes Dec. 2 topped the final Bowl Championship Series (BCS) poll of NCAA Division 1-A football teams, with the Lousiana State University (LSU) Tigers finishing second. The Buckeyes, who posted a record of 11 wins and one loss, and the Tigers, who had an 11–2 record, would meet in the BCS Championship Game in early January 2008 to determine the national champion. [See p. 23C2] In a season marked by major upsets and turmoil atop the national polls, the complicated BCS system for selecting teams to play in the title game once again proved controversial. Ohio State Nov. 10 had lost to the University of Illinois Fighting Illini, 28–21, in Columbus, Ohio, dropping out of the top spot in the nation. The team Nov. 17 seemed destined for the Rose Bowl instead of the championship game, after ending the season with a 14–3 win over the University of Michigan Wolverines. However, in subsequent weeks, several top-ranked teams suffered crushing losses to underdog opponents. On the final day of games Dec. 1, Missouri and the West Virginia University Mountaineers, ranked first and second, respectively, were upset in conference championship games. As a result, Ohio State jumped to the top of the polls, while LSU stood out among teams with two losses because both defeats came in triple overtime. Other News—In other college football news: † The University of Colorado Dec. 5 reported a $2.85 million settlement of a

Major Conclusions 1. The use of steroids in Major League Baseball was widespread. The response by baseball was slow to develop and was initially ineffective. For many years, citingconcerns for the privacy rights of the players, the Players Association opposed mandatory random drug testing of its members for steroids and other substances. But in 2002, the effort gained momentum after the clubs and the Players Association agreed to and adopted a mandatory random drug testing program. The current program has been effective in that detectable steroiduse appears to have declined. However, that does not mean that players have stopped using performance enhancing substances. Many players have shifted to human growth hormone, which is not detectable in any currently available urine test. 2. The minority of players who used such substances were wrong. They violated federal law and baseball policy, and they distorted the fairness of competition by trying to gain an unfair advantage over the majority of players who followed the law and the rules. They—the players who follow the law and the rules—are faced with the painful choice of either being placed at a competitive disadvantage or becoming illegal users themselves. No one should have to make that choice. 3. Obviously, the players who illegally used performance enhancing substances are responsible for their actions. But they did not act in a vacuum. Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades— Commissioners, club officials, the Players Association, and players—shares to some extent in the responsibility for the steroids era. There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on. As a result, an environment developed in which illegal use became widespread.

lawsuit by two women who alleged they had been sexually assaulted by football players and recruits. The scandal, which broke in 2004, had led to a shake-up of the university’s leadership. [See 2004, p. 999D2] † Bobby Petrino, coach of the National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons, Dec. 11 accepted an offer from Arkansas to become its new head coach. Petrino left the Falcons in the midst of the first year of a five-year, $24 million deal, after leading the team to a 3–10 record thus far in 2007. The Falcons that day named secondary coach Emmitt Thomas as interim head coach. [See pp. 834E3, 24F2] † The University of Nebraska Nov. 24 fired head coach Bill Callahan, after the team posted a losing record for the second season in four years. Bo Pelini, the defensive coordinator for LSU, Dec. 2 was named his replacement. [See 2004, p. 219B3] † Michigan coach Lloyd Carr Nov. 18 announced his retirement after 13 seasons. Carr, 62, had a 121–40 record throughout his career, which included a national championship and five Big Ten titles. [See 1995, p. 438C2] „

National Football League Vick Gets 23 Months in Dogfighting Case.

Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick Dec. 10 was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., to 23 months in prison on a federal dogfighting conspiracy charge. He had begun serving his prison time Nov. 19, three weeks before he was sentenced, in an apparent effort to expedite his return to the National Football League (NFL). [See p. 692C2] FACTS ON FILE

Vick, who had pleaded guilty in August, received a harsher sentence than had been expected. Prosecutors originally recommended Vick be sentenced to 12–18 months in prison. However, they later argued that his sentence should be longer, after Vick, who had for months denied direct involvement with the killing of animals, admitted involvement in the hangings of two dogs. Vick, 27, had also misled the court concerning the date on which he had smoked marijuana. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson said he was troubled by Vick’s lack of candor, and said while he recognized that Vick had accepted responsibility for the dogfighting ring and apologized, he was “convinced it was not a momentary lapse of judgment on your part. You were a full partner.” Two of Vick’s codefendants in the case, Purnell Peace and Quanis Phillips, Nov. 30 had been sentenced in the Richmond court to 18 months and 21 months, respectively, for their roles in the dogfighting ring. Vick also faced state dogfighting charges in Virginia. That case was scheduled to go to trial in April 2008. „ Redskins’ Taylor Slain in Suspected Burglary.

Washington Redskins star safety Sean Taylor Nov. 26 was shot in the upper thigh during a suspected burglary at his home in Palmetto Bay, Fla. He was rushed to a Miami hospital, where he died the next day following hours of surgery and significant blood loss. [See 2004, p. 316A1] Miami-Dade County police Nov. 30 announced four arrests and an alleged confession in the case. The suspects—Venjah Hunte, Eric Rivera Jr., Jason Scott Mitchell and Charles Kendrick Lee Wardlow—Dec. 4 were indicted on murder and armed burglary charges. Authorities were still investigating ties to a burglary at Taylor’s house eight days prior to the shooting. Taylor, 24, was a former University of Miami star who was in the fourth year of his National Football League (NFL) career, which had included a Pro Bowl selection for 2006. He had a history of behavioral issues on and off the field, such as a June 2005 confrontation that had led to felony assault charges. He was sentenced to 18 months’ probation after a plea bargain. The Redskins Dec. 2 honored Taylor by starting just 10 players in their first defensive series of their game against the Buffalo Bills in Landover, Md. The team, along with several other NFL players, the next day traveled to Miami for Taylor’s funeral service. „

Hockey Five Inducted Into Hall of Fame. The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada, Nov. 12 inducted five new members. The inductees—centers Ron Francis and Mark Messier, defensemen Al MacInnis and Scott Stevens, and executive Jim Gregory—had been elected June 28. The four players were elected in their first year of eligibility. [See 2006, p. 774E2] Francis, 44, played in 1,731 regular-season games throughout his 23-year National Hockey League (NHL) career, collecting December 13, 2007

1,249 assists and 1,798 points. He was a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins during the team’s two-year reign as Stanley Cup champions beginning in 1991. He returned to the Stanley Cup finals in a losing effort as captain of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2002. [See 2005, p. 723C2] Messier, 46, had led both the New York Rangers and the Edmonton Oilers to the Stanley Cup championship. In all, he played for six championship teams during his NHL career, which began in 1979. Messier, a two-time recipient of the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player (MVP), ranked second all-time in games played (1,756) and points (1,887). [See 2005, p. 723D2] MacInnis, 44, was named an NHL AllStar on 13 occasions throughout his 23year career. He played on the Calgary Flames’ 1989 Stanley Cup championship team, when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs. He also won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman in 1999. Best known for his scorching slap shot, MacInnis won a record seven All-Star hardest-shot competitions. [See 1999, p. 571B2; 1989, p. 407G2] Stevens, 43, played in 1,635 games during his NHL career, topping all defensemen. In his 13 seasons with the New Jersey Devils, the team captured three Stanley Cup championships. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2000. [See 2005, p. 723E2] Gregory, elected in the builders’ category, began his NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, rising to the general manager position in 1969. A decade later, he was named league director of central scouting. He currently served as the NHL’s senior vice president of hockey operations. „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Medical Research Stem Cells Cure Sickle-Cell Anemia in Mice.

A team of researchers reported Dec. 6 on the online version of the journal Science that it had used stem cells derived from skin cells to cure sickle-cell anemia in mice. It was the first time that scientists had used stem cells created from skin cells, known as induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, to reverse an inherited, potentially fatal disease in mice. It also proved that iPS cells could lead to treatment methods comparable to those involving embryonic stem cells. The medical use of human embryonic stem cells was controversial because it required the destruction of an embryo, which some considered the taking of a life. [See p. 775C1] Scientists in June had announced that they had created mouse iPS cells, and in November had created human iPS cells. That suggested that scientists might be able to bypass embryonic stem cells in trying to develop novel treatments based on stem cells, which could be used to grow new tissues or organs for a patient. Sickle-cell anemia was an inherited disease that resulted in the formation of mis-

shapen red blood cells that limited blood flow, resulting in pain, infection and organ damage. The researchers who cured the disease in mice had first collected skin cells from mice with the illness. They then used genetically engineered viruses to convert them to iPS cells with properties similar to those of embryonic stem cells. Researchers then removed from the iPS cells the elements of DNA responsible for causing sickle-cell anemia, replacing them with benign genetic material. Another virus was then introduced to the cells to induce them to become bone marrow cells, which created red blood cells. The new bone marrow cells were then injected back into the mice, where they produced normal red blood cells. The researchers said treated mice did not show any symptoms of the disease. Scientists said the technique required further refinement before it would work in humans. However, the new technique eliminated problems caused by the current method of treatment for sickle cell anemia, which consisted of bone marrow transplants with a high risk of failure. The iPS-derived bone marrow cells were genetically identical to the recipients’ cells, avoiding the possibility they would be rejected. Scientists noted that the virus used to induce the skin cells to become iPS cells contained genes with known links to cancer, raising the question of whether they would promote the growth of tumors in patients. The research was led by Rudolf Jaenisch and Jacob Hanna of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass., and Tim M. Townes of the University of Alabama Schools of Medicine and Dentistry in Birmingham. „

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Awards Kennedy Center Honors. Five artists who had been selected as recipients of the 30th annual Kennedy Center Honors were feted Dec. 2 in a gala performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The five honorees were: pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher, 79; comedian, actor and author Steve Martin, 62; singer Diana Ross, 63, who had risen to stardom with the 1960s’ all-female Motown trio the Supremes before launching a solo career and becoming an actress; film director Martin Scorsese, 65; and musician Brian Wilson, 65, the former leader and principal songwriter of the iconic Southern California band the Beach Boys. Medals marking the occasion had been formally presented to the five artists Dec. 1 at a U.S. State Department dinner hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. „ Grawemeyer Music Award. The University of Louisville, the Kentucky institution that administered the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, Dec. 2 announced that composer Peter Lieberson, 61, had been chosen to receive the $200,000 prize for his orchestral song cycle Neruda Songs, a setting of five love poems by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The award had previously been presented less than a year earlier, in 835

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March, at a special ceremony in New York City marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the university’s music school. [See p. 168F1; 1973, p. 896F2] Lieberson had written Neruda Songs for his late wife, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who died of cancer in 2006, at age 52, after premiering the work in Los Angeles in 2005 and then performing it elsewhere in the months before her death. She was also able to record the work before she died; the recording, made with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under conductor James Levine, had been released after her death. [See 2006, p. 564F2] „

Theater Openings Black Watch. Drama based on interviews conducted

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with soldiers from Scotland’s Black Watch regiment who served in the Iraq war. By Gregory Burke. Directed by John Tiffany. With Paul Rattray and Paul Higgins. In New York City, at St. Ann’s Warehouse. Oct. 23. (This National Theatre of Scotland production was first mounted in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2006.) A Bronx Tale. One-man Broadway production in which actor Chazz Palminteri reminisces about growing up in a tough neighborhood of New York City’s Bronx borough; first performed Off Broadway in 1989, this show was the basis for a 1993 movie of the same name directed by Robert De Niro. Written and performed by Palminteri. Directed by Jerry Zaks. In New York City, at the Walter Kerr Theater. Oct. 25. Current Nobody. A husband waits years for his wife to return home from a war photography assignment in this updated version of Homer’s Odyssey. By Melissa James Gibson. With Jesse Lenat, Christina Kirk and Casie Platt. In Washington, D.C., at the Woolly Mammoth Theater. Nov. 4. Cyrano de Bergerac. Broadway revival of a classic 19th-century French play about a lovesick 17th-century soldier-poet with an oversized nose. By Edmond Rostand; translated and adapted by Anthony Burgess. Directed by David Leveaux. With Kevin Kline, Jennifer Garner and Daniel Sunjata. In New York City, at the Richard Rodgers Theater. Nov. 1. [See p. 456C3] A Disappearing Number. Drama in which the reallife, early-20th-century relationship between Cambridge University mathematician G.H. Hardy and selftaught Indian math whiz Srinivasa Ramanujan is counterpointed by the relationship between a latter-day female mathematician and her lover, a futures dealer. Conceived and directed by Simon McBurney and devised by the members of Britain’s Theatre de Complicite. With David Annen, Firdous Bamji, Saskia Reeves and Saraj Chaudhry. In London, at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Barbican Theatre. Sept. 11. Rock ‘n’ Roll. Broadway production of a political drama set in its author’s native Czechoslovakia during the Cold War era; the play was first seen in London in 2006. By Tom Stoppard. Directed by Trevor Nunn. With Rufus Sewell, Brian Cox, Sinead Cusack and Alice Eve. In New York City, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater. Nov. 4. [See 2006, p. 588C2] „

People The British Library Dec. 11 announced that it had acquired the personal archive of British playwright Harold Pinter, 77, the winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature, for £1.1 million (US$2.3 million). The collection consisted of more than 150 boxes of manuscripts, letters, scrapbooks and other material, as well as a draft of an unpublished memoir of Pinter’s youth, The Queen of All the Fairies. [See 2005, p. 904A2] Actor Kiefer Sutherland, who starred as a federal counterterrorism agent in the television series “24,” Dec. 5 was sentenced to 48 days in the Glendale, Calif., city jail and began serving his sentence that same day. Sutherland, 40, Oct. 9 had pleaded no con836

test to a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving, the fourth alcohol-related offense on his record. He was also sentenced to five years’ probation, ordered to undergo therapy and complete an 18-month alcohol-education program, and fined $510. [See 2006, p. 687G3] Arthur H. Bremer, who in 1972 tried to assassinate then–Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace (D), an attack that left Wallace, paralyzed until his 1998 death, Nov. 9 was released from the Maryland Correctional Institution near Hagerstown after serving 35 years of a 53-year sentence. Bremer, 57, moved into a Cumberland, Md., residence run by a nonprofit organization. He was paroled on condition that he never leave the state of Maryland and that he “stay away from any local, state, federal or foreign official or office holder as well as a current [political] candidate.” Any violation of his parole terms could get him locked up again until 2025. [See 1998, p. 660F3; 1982, p. 441F1; 1972, p. 942B3] „

O B I T UA R I E S BEARD, Ralph (Milton M.), 79, basketball player who, as a guard, helped lead the University of Kentucky Wildcats to National Collegiate Athletic Association championship titles in 1948 and 1949, under legendary coach Adolph Rupp; he and Wildcat teammate Alex Groza (both were also members of the U.S. team that won the gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London) later both briefly played for the National Basketball Association’s Indianapolis Olympians; both, however, were banned for life from the NBA before the start of the 1952 season, after pleading guilty in a point-shaving and bribery scandal dating back to their days at Kentucky; Groza died in 1995; born Dec. 2, 1927, in Hardinsburg, Ky.; died Nov. 29 in Louisville, Ky., of congestive heart failure. [See 1995, p. 96C3; 1977, p. 1024B3; Indexes 1951–52, 1948–49] BENZER, Seymour, 86, molecular biologist, originally trained as a physicist, whose research into genetic factors influencing the behavior of fruit flies spurred the development of the field of neurogenetics; before turning to fruit flies and while working with viruses, he made the crucial discovery, in the 1950s, that genes could be split into smaller units; he was a faculty member at Indiana’s Purdue University for 20 years before moving to the California Institute of Technology in 1965; he taught there until 1992, and continued to do research there until his death; born Oct. 15, 1921, in New York City; died Nov. 30 at a hospital in Pasadena, Calif., of a stroke. [See 2000, p. 220D1] CADE, J(ames) Robert, 80, research physician at the University of Florida who led the medical research team that in 1965 developed Gatorade, the beverage that spawned the sports drink industry; its name was inspired by the Gators, the nickname for the school’s sports teams, which were the first to benefit from the drink’s ability to replenish nutrients lost during vigorous activity; born Sept. 26, 1927, in San Antonio, Texas; died Nov. 27 at a hospital in Gainesville, Fla., of kidney and heart ailments. [See 2000, p. 934G3] FERNAN-Gomez, Fernando, 86, Spanish actor, film director, novelist, playwright and poet; in 1998, he became the first actor to be elected to the Spanish Royal Academy of Language; born Aug. 28, 1921, in Lima, Peru; died Nov. 21 at a hospital in Madrid, Spain, where he was being treated for cancer. HARTACK, Bill (William John Hartack Jr.), 74, one of only two jockeys to win the Kentucky Derby five times, the other being Eddie Arcaro; his five wins, though, came during only 12 tries, compared to 21 for Arcaro; his first Derby win came in 1957—the year he became the first jockey whose mounts collected more than $3 million in earnings—and his other wins came in 1960, 1962, 1964 and 1969; he also won the Preakness Stakes three times, and the Belmont Stakes in 1960; born Dec. 9, 1932, in Ebensburg, Pa.; died Nov. 26 while on a hunting trip in Freer, Texas, from complications of heart disease. [See 1973, p. 1047A2; 1970, p. 339F1; Indexes 1967–69, 1954–64] KRYUCHKOV, Vladimir Aleksandrovich, 83, onetime head of the Soviet-era KGB security service

viewed as the main organizer of a 1991 coup against then–Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev—who had appointed him KGB head in 1988—that collapsed after three days; the coup attempt, though, helped precipitate the collapse of the Soviet Union itself months later; Kryuchkov and other coup plotters won amnesty in 1994; born Feb. 29, 1924, in Volgograd, then part of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic; died Nov. 23 in Moscow, of an unspecified ailment. [See 1993, pp. 336G1, 313F2; 1992, p. 779D2; Indexes 1988–91] NOBLE, John Helmuth, 84, U.S. citizen who survived a decade of imprisonment in Soviet penal labor camps, after being arrested by Soviet officials in 1945 in Dresden, Germany, where he and his father had operated a camera factory during World War II; after being freed, he became an anticommunism crusader; after the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, he was able to regain control of some of his family’s German assets; born Sept. 4, 1923, in Detroit, Mich.; died Nov. 10 at his Dresden home, after a heart attack. [See 1975, p. 836C3; 1955, p. 10F3] RABINOWITZ, Victor, 96, civil liberties lawyer and champion of leftist causes; he handled many cases with attorney Leonard Boudin, his partner from 1947 until Boudin’s death in 1989; in a landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case, he successfully argued that Cuba had the right to expropriate U.S. corporate holdings on Cuban territory; born July 2, 1911, in New York City; died Nov. 16 at his New York home. [See 1989, p. 924A3; 1979, p. 232E1; 1964, p. 94C2] RADULOVICH, Milo John, 81, onetime serviceman ousted by the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1953 after being deemed a security risk because his father had subscribed to a pro-communist newspaper and his sister had taken part in a left-wing political rally; he appealed the military’s decision, and was quickly reinstated after his story was featured on the CBS television show “See It Now,” hosted by newsman Edward R. Murrow; the episode was recalled in Good Night, and Good Luck, a 2005 film about Murrow’s opposition to the early 1950s “Red Scare” campaign associated with Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R. Wis.); Radulovich later became a National Weather Service meteorologist; born Oct. 28, 1926, in Detroit, Mich.; died Nov. 19 at a rehabilitation center in Vallejo, Calif., from complications of a stroke. [See 2006, p. 83B2; 1953, pp. 405A3, 369D3, 341A2] SAFFIR, Herbert Seymour, 90, structural engineer who in the late 1960s, with Robert Simpson, then director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla., developed the Saffir-Simpson Scale, the five-category scale for describing hurricane intensity; born March 29, 1917, in New York City; died Nov. 21 at a Miami hospital, of a heart attack. [See p. 579E1] STOCKHAUSEN, Karlheinz, 79, German avantgarde composer, music theorist and electronic music pioneer; in the early 1950s, he expanded the horizons of serial music, subjecting not only pitch but every dimension of sound to rigorous organizational rules; later, he incorporated aleatory, or chance, elements into his music; he influenced not only classical musicians but also such popular artists as the Beatles and the Grateful Dead; one major work was Gruppen (Groups), finished in 1957; he devoted the last third of his life to a seven-part, 29-hour-long opera called Licht (Light), completed in 2005; after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he created a furor by describing the toppling of the twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center as “the greatest work of art imaginable for the whole cosmos”; born Aug. 22, 1928, in Mödrath, Germany; died Dec. 5 at his home in KürtenKettenberg, Germany; no cause of death was disclosed. [See 2001, p. 776F1; 1996, p. 712E3] TURNER, Ike (born either Izear Luster Turner Jr. or Ike Wister Turner, according to various sources),

76, bandleader, songwriter, guitarist, pianist, producer and talent scout who was instrumental in the evolution of rock and roll; a recorded he released in 1951, called “Rocket 88,” came to be considered the first true rock recording by many music historians; from the late 1950s until the mid-1970s, he had a stormy marriage with female vocalist Tina Turner, whom he had discovered when she was singing under the name Anna Mae Bullock; after she left him, she went on to a major solo career; in 1986, she published an autobiography, I, Tina, alleging that he had physically abused her during their years together; that book served as the basis for a 1993 film, What’s Love Got to Do With It; as her career soared, he was arrested repeatedly on drug charges, and he was in prison in 1991, at the time he and Tina Turner were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; in recent years, though, he had made a bit of a comeback of his own; born Nov. 5, 1931, in Clarksdale, Miss.; died Dec. 12 at his home in San Marcos, Calif.; he had had emphysema. [See 2004, p. 24C3; 1994, p. 92C1; Indexes 1991, 1988] „

December 13, 2007

‘Road Map’ For New Greenhouse Gas Emissions Treaty Set at Bali Talks Nations Discuss Kyoto Protocol Successor.

Delegates from 187 countries Dec. 3–15 met in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian island of Bali, to discuss a new international treaty to limit worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases. The United Nations–sponsored discussions were intended to formulate plans for replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that capped emissions by industrialized countries, set to expire in 2012. The Kyoto Protocol had built on the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change. [See pp. 780C1, 763A1] Conference organizers Dec. 15 unveiled a compromise proposal providing a twoyear “road map” on talks to develop a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol. Under the road map, the replacement pact was to be finalized by late 2009. The plan was reached after a laborious 24-hour negotiation session characterized by sharp divisions between the U.S. and delegates representing countries in the developing world. U.S. lobbying efforts succeeded in excluding binding emissions reduction targets from the new treaty. But in a move seen as a major concession, the U.S. agreed to language that required industrialized nations to provide clearly defined financial and technological aid to help poorer, developing countries reduce emissions. (Under the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, the U.S. had not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, and had opposed mandatory emissions reduction targets and the formulation of a Kyoto Protocol successor.) [See p. 811A3] Several nations categorized as “developing,” including China—which by some estimates had surpassed the U.S. as the largest carbon dioxide emitter—and Brazil, for the first time agreed to pursue quantifiable emissions reductions. The road map did not compel such countries, which were exempted from emissions reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol, to join the new emissions treaty. The road map, bowing to U.S. influence, also relegated to a nonbinding footnote a recommendation by the U.N.backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that industrialized countries should reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to 25%–40% of their 1990 levels by 2020. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon praised the final agreement, calling it the “defining moment” of his tenure. U.S. Envoy Heckled—Paula Dobriansky, U.S. undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs, Dec. 15 at the meeting was booed by delegates after opposing language in the road map requiring that industrialized countries provide technological assistance to developing countries. The reaction was viewed as the culmination of years of frustration with the Bush administration’s opposition to greenhouse-gas emissions regulations in the face of a body of scientific evidence linking it to perilous global climate change. (The IPCC earlier in the year had released four reports detailing

the causes and ramifications of global climate change, and describing their link to human activity as “unequivocal.”) The U.S. later agreed to the aid goals. Kevin Conrad, the delegate from Papua New Guinea, responding to Dobriansky, said, “If for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please, get out of the way.” The White House Dec. 16 said it had “serious concerns” about future talks. However, it would fall to the administration of the U.S. president replacing Bush to negotiate the terms of the pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol. EU Threatens U.S. Talks Boycott—Delegates from the European Union Dec. 13 had threatened to boycott alternative climate change talks hosted by the Bush administration, after the U.S. continued its efforts to block inclusion of the IPCCrecommended emissions reduction targets in the report. “No result in Bali means no Major Economies Meeting,” German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said, using the formal name for the U.S.-hosted talks, which had been criticized by some as an attempt to undermine the U.N.-led negotiations. [See p. 645A2] The EU’s threat was made the same day that former U.S. Vice President Al Gore had addressed the conference, blaming the U.S. for blocking progress on climate talks. “My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali,” he said. Gore also alluded to the impending departure of Bush from the White House as promising a new opportunity for U.S. cooperation. “Over the next two years the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now,” Gore said to applause. [See p. 690B2] Gore made the remarks just days after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize Dec. 10 in Oslo, Norway, for his work publicizing the threats posed by global climate change. „

Facts On File

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World News Digest With Index ©2007 by Facts On File News Services An imprint of Infobase Publishing

Volume 67, No. 3497 December 20, 2007

B British officials said violence in the province had dropped since British troops had withdrawn from the Basra city center. However, some U.S. and Iraqi officials said that British statistics were too optimistic and that some types of attacks had increased. Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the secondranking U.S. commander in Iraq, Dec. 16 expressed doubt over Iraqi forces’ ability to stem Iranian interference in Basra. The province shared a border with Iran.

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Pentagon Releases Quarterly Report—

The U.S. Defense Department Dec. 18 released its latest congressionally mandated quarterly report on progress in security and government reform in Iraq. The report covered the three months from September through November. The report said that due to sectarian bias, the Shiite-dominated government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE ‘Road map’ for new greenhouse gas emissions treaty set at Bali talks. PAGE 837

British turn Basra over to Iraqi forces. PAGE 837

Donors pledge $7.4 billion to Palestinians. PAGE 839

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CIA to turn over evidence in interrogation tape inquiry. PAGE 840

Iraq War

New Jersey abolishes death penalty.

British Turn Over Basra to Iraqi Forces.

Congress clears $555 billion omnibus spending bill with war funds.

Britain Dec. 16 formally handed over the southern Iraqi province of Basra, the final region under British control, to Iraqi forces. It was the ninth and most important province that the U.S.-led coalition forces had turned over to Iraqi control since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. British troops in September had withdrawn from the center of Basra city to an airport on the city outskirts, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in October had announced the planned withdrawal of 2,500 of the 5,000 British troops in Iraq. [See pp. 842A2, 839F3, 819F1] British officials said their troops would train Iraqi forces and respond to requests for help. “We will continue to help train Basra security forces,” said Maj. Gen. Graham Binns, the commander of British forces in Basra, adding, “But we are guests in your country, and we will act accordingly.”

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Energy bill cleared, signed. PAGE 843

South Africa’s divided ANC elects Zuma as new party president.

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Cuba’s Castro hints at retiring. PAGE 850

South Korean conservative Lee wins presidential election. PAGE 852

Ukraine parliament approves Tymoshenko as prime minister. PAGE 854

Pakistani President Musharraf lifts state of emergency. PAGE 854

REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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al-Maliki was failing to make good on recent drops in violence by improving basic public services. [See p. 601G1] The report said the number of attacks per week in Iraq had dropped to fewer than 600 in November, from about 1,400 in February, when the U.S. began its “surge” in troop levels, sending about 30,000 more troops to Iraq. In addition, the report said, there had been about 600 civilian deaths in November, down from more than 2,500 in January. Roadside bombings and car bombings reportedly had also decreased sharply since the beginning of 2007, but the number of suicide bombings had gone up slightly from October to November. The report said that there had been “no identified decrease in Iranian training and funding” of Iraqi Shiite militias. U.N. Renews Coalition Mandate— The United Nations Security Council Dec. 18 unanimously voted to extend until the end of 2008 the mandate for the U.S.-led coalition to operate in Iraq. The resolution called for the Security Council to review the mandate by June 15, 2008, and raised the possibility that it could be cut short. The resolution also established an advisory board to monitor the use of Iraqi oil export revenue. [See p. 801B2] Other News—In other Iraqi news: † A car bombing targeted at a liquor store in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, Dec. 20 killed three people. Liquor stores had reportedly opened throughout Baghdad over the past year, but the sale of alcohol was opposed by both Sunni extremists and Shiite militias. † A suicide bomber Dec. 20 attacked a group of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians outside a courthouse in Kanaan village, in Diyala province, north of Baghdad. The Iraqi police said the attack had killed 14 people, including one U.S. soldier, and that Sunnis at the courthouse had been volunteering to serve in a U.S.-allied local defense force. A U.S. military spokesman said that the attack had killed only five people, and also denied Iraqi reports that the U.S. soldiers had been distributing presents for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. † Naseer al-Maamouri, a leader of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a Sunni insurgent group that had allied itself with the U.S. against Sunni extremist groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq, Dec. 20 was found shot dead in Baquba, the capital of Diyala, a spokesman for the group said. His bodyguard and driver were also found dead. The spokesman said they been kidnapped the previous day. † The U.S. military Dec. 20 said that U.S. troops had killed 24 insurgents and detained 37 other people in a four-day operation that month in Diyala. The U.S. forces had also reportedly found weapon stockpiles, a “torture complex” attributed to Al Qaeda in Iraq and mass graves containing the remains of 26 people “next to execution sites.” † Iraqi forces Dec. 19 backed by U.S. troops reported killing 17 militants linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq in Diyala. Iraqi police 838

reportedly killed four militants elsewhere in the province that day. † A survey compiled by Multi-National Forces–Iraq (MNF–I), the U.S.-led coalition, said Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups agreed that the current strife between different groups had not existed before the 2003 invasion, the Washington Post reported Dec. 19. The report said Iraqis blamed the U.S. for stirring up animosity, with some also pointing to Iran. U.S. military analysts said the results pointed to “shared beliefs” between all Iraqis and was a positive sign for reconciliation efforts. † The head of the U.S. State Department’s embassy-building program, Charles Williams, Dec. 19 announced his retirement, effective Dec. 31. Williams had directed the ongoing construction of the $730 million U.S. embassy complex in Baghdad, which would be the world’s largest U.S. diplomatic facility. The construction had been plagued by delays and construction problems. The State Department inspector general, Howard Krongard, earlier in December had resigned amid allegations that he had blocked inquiries into fraud and mismanagement during the construction. † U.S. officials and the Iranian embassy in Baghdad Dec. 19 said U.S. forces the previous day had released an Iranian prisoner held since 2004. The U.S. reportedly held about 10 Iranian detainees in Iraq. [See p. 748F1] † Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-incommand of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda, warned against “traitors” in Iraqi extremist groups, in a video posted Dec. 17 on the Internet. Zawahiri was seen as referring to the Iraqi Sunni insurgent groups that had joined with U.S. forces to fight Sunni extremists such as Al Qaeda in Iraq. [See p. 695B2] † A truck bomb Dec. 17 seriously damaged an access bridge over the Tigris River, close to the Mosul Dam, Iraq’s largest dam. The blast killed an Iraqi policeman, but did not damage the dam. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had warned of construction flaws in the dam, and said that the Tigris could inundate the cities of Baghdad and Mosul if the dam were breached. [See p. 710G2] † A suicide bomber on a motorcycle in Baquba Dec. 17 killed at least seven people in an attack on a market, Iraqi police said. Six other people were killed in two separate gunfights in the city that day, while two more were killed by roadside bombs. † Gunmen Dec. 15 attacked two Sunni villages in Diyala, killing 17 people. The villages were reportedly occupied by many former Sunni insurgents who had allied themselves with U.S. forces. † The Post Dec. 14 reported that the U.S. Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR)—which probed allegations of fraud in U.S. rebuilding projects in Iraq—was itself the target of four investigations by various arms of the U.S. government. The probes were being

carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and federal prosecutors; the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee; the Presidential Council on Integrity and Efficiency; and the Army’s Equal Employment Opportunity Office. The subjects of the probes included overtime policies that allegedly allowed some SIGIR employees, including Special Inspector General Stuart Bowen Jr., to earn more than $100,000 on top of their salaries; possible fraud and waste in connection with a book project; and hostile workplace practices, including monitoring employees’ e-mail messages. „

International Finance World Bank Raises Record Funds. Forty-

five donor nations of the World Bank Dec. 14 at a conference in Berlin, Germany’s capital, agreed to contribute a record $25.1 billion in additional funding to the bank’s International Development Association (IDA), which gave grants and low-interest loans to the poorest countries in the world. That sum brought the total amount of funding the IDA could use from July 2008 to June 2011 to $41.6 billion, a 42% increase from what the bank had raised during its last fund-raising campaign in 2005. [See p. 712E2; 2005, p. 112G2] For the first time in the bank’s history, Britain replaced the U.S. as the bank’s largest donor, pledging $4.2 billion in aid on Dec. 14. Analysts attributed the change at the top to the rise in value of the British pound against the U.S. dollar; the British government’s increased commitment to its foreign aid policy; and the U.S.’s growing reliance on delivering aid through bilateral agreements with individual countries, as

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opposed to through multilateral institutions. [See pp. 781A1, 748D3] The U.S. Dec. 14 pledged to contribute $3.7 billion, a 30% increase from the amount it donated in 2005. The fund-raising campaign was seen as a triumph for Robert Zoellick, the bank’s president. The bank had struggled to maintain its relevance in recent years, after donor countries began injecting money directly into countries to solve specific problems like AIDS and hunger. Bank officials convinced donor nations that the bank was necessary to coordinate all these aid efforts, because its focus was on the overall development of poorer countries. It was also reported that some donor nations, particularly in Europe, would not have pledged as much money if Zoellick’s predecessor, Paul Wolfowitz, had still been in charge. Wolfowitz had stepped down in June after a bank panel found that he had violated ethics rules by giving his romantic partner a raise. It was also widely reported that bank employees had been unhappy with Wolfowitz’s policies. [See p. 306C3] Zoellick was also credited with securing funding from new donor countries, including China, which until recently had been a recipient of the bank’s aid. „

Other International News Donors Pledge $7.4 Billion to Palestinians.

Eighty-seven countries and international organizations Dec. 17 pledged $7.4 billion in aid for 2008–10 to the Palestinian Authority (PA), at a conference in Paris. The pledges exceeded the PA’s $5.6 billion goal for the conference, and were intended to improve the dismal economy of the Palestinian territories, and to bolster the peace process restarted by U.S.-sponsored talks held in November in Annapolis, Md. The conference was the largest meeting of Palestinian aid donors since 1996. [See p. 831D3] PA President Mahmoud Abbas said the conference represented a “moment of truth,” and that “without this support, without the payment of aid that will allow the Palestinian treasury to fulfill its role, we will be facing a total catastrophe in the West Bank and Gaza.” Abbas and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the conference host, warned that aid would not bring lasting economic or political change to the Palestinian territories unless Israel eased restrictions on the movement of Palestinian people and goods and stopped the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. But Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Sarkozy both said that the PA in turn needed to reform its security services. The European Union remained the largest Palestinian aid donor, pledging $640 million for 2008. EU members separately promised additional aid for 2008–10, including $500 million from Britain, $420 million from Norway, $360 million from Spain, $300 million each from France and Sweden and $200 million from Germany. The U.S. promised $555 million for 2008, up from $75 million in 2007. HowDecember 20, 2007

ever, much of the 2008 figure had previously been announced by the administration of President George W. Bush but had not yet been approved by the U.S. Congress. Saudi Arabia pledged between $500 million and $750 million for 2008–2010, including monetary aid and development projects, and Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) each promised $300 million. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said 70% of the foreign funds would be used to make up budgetary shortfalls, with the rest going toward development projects. The World Bank Dec. 17 released a report saying that if Israel did not loosen its restrictions on movement in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the Palestinian economy would most likely contract by 2% per year over the next five years. However, it said that if restrictions were eased and the PA enacted reforms, the economy could grow by 5% annually. The U.S. Dec. 18 announced that Bush would travel to Israel and the West Bank for the first time as president in January 2008. The visits, including a stop in Jerusalem, were scheduled as part of a nine-day trip to the Middle East beginning Jan. 8, 2008, which would also include stops in Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the trip would bolster the Annapolis peace process and encourage reconciliation between Israel and Arab nations. She said Bush would not meet with the Islamist militant group Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip, and which the U.S. considered a terrorist organization. Israel Rejects Hamas Truce Offer—

Ismail Haniya, a former PA prime minister and leader of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, Dec. 18 offered to stop rocket attacks on Israel if Israeli forces lifted the blockade on Gaza and stopped killing Palestinians. The message was relayed by an Israeli television reporter, Sleman al-Shafhe, who said Haniya had called him earlier that day. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would negotiate only with Abbas’s government. However, Israeli Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, who had previously served as defense minister, said “mediation” with Hamas through a third party was a possibility. An Israeli air strike in northern Gaza City Dec. 17 killed Majed Harazin, a top commander of the militant group Islamic Jihad and the alleged head of squads that fired rockets into Israel. Two other militants were also killed in the attack, including a senior lieutenant of Harazin’s. Islamic Jihad’s Al Quds radio station confirmed Harazin’s death and said Israel had tried to assassinate him three times before. Khaled al-Batsh, an Islamic Jihad leader, threatened retaliation, and hundreds of Islamic Jihad gunmen gathered and fired their weapons into the air. Israeli air strikes Dec. 17–18 also killed at least five other Islamic Jihad members and two Hamas fighters, in an escalation of attacks against groups launching rocket and mortar attacks against Israel.

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research Dec. 17 released a poll reporting that the popularity of Hamas had remained steady since a September poll. The center said the new results showed a lack of confidence in the Annapolis talks among Palestinians. However, the poll found that Abbas’s Fatah movement would still defeat Hamas, 49%–31%, in legislative elections. About 200,000 Palestinians Dec. 15 rallied in Gaza City to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the founding of Hamas. Haniya at the rally said Palestinians had been victorious in the first and second intifadas—or uprisings—against Israel, which had begun in 1987 and 2000. He vowed, “Your message today is that the movement will not surrender in front of such an embargo,” referring to a cutoff of most international aid to Gaza since Hamas’s June takeover. He added, “We will not break. The root of the movement is like a good tree in good soil.” Haniya also called for renewed talks with Fatah, which Hamas had ousted from Gaza’s government in violent clashes. Hamas police Dec. 14 arrested Omar alGhul, a political adviser to Fayyad, in Gaza. Hamas said the arrest was for unidentified crimes, but an Abbas spokesman called it a “kidnapping.” Ghul had previously stated that he believed Hamas was not part of the Palestinian people, because of the group’s violent takeover of Gaza. An explosion Dec. 14 killed at least three people in Gaza at the funeral of a man killed the previous day in an Israeli air strike. Hamas officials said the blast was an accident, but some witnesses said it had been set off by a man in the funeral procession carrying explosives in his jacket. Fayyad Dec. 13 called on Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip, in a policy change for Abbas’s government. The comments came as Fayyad was unveiling a development plan for the Palestinian territories to be presented at the Paris meeting. Fayyad said the plan was “for Gaza and the West Bank together.” An Israeli air strike Dec. 13 killed three Palestinians and wounded a fourth in Gaza. Islamic Jihad said one of the dead was a commander of one of its rocket crews, while the others were identified as members of an armed wing of Fatah. The strike came after a rocket attack had wounded a woman in the Israeli town of Sderot, on the Gaza border, earlier that day. „

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Turkish Troops Enter Iraq to Attack Kurds.

The Turkish military Dec. 18 said several hundred of its troops had crossed the border into northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish guerrilla fighters based there. The statement, posted on the military’s Web site, said the “small-scale operation” had penetrated only “a few kilometers” into Iraq. It added that the Turkish troops had immediately returned to Turkey after they inflicted “a heavy blow” on the guerrillas, members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a separatist group that had used bases in Iraq to launch cross-border attacks on Turkey. [See p. 813A2] 839

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Turkey Dec. 16 had carried out air strikes on what it said were PKK bases in northern Iraq. The PKK said the bombing had killed five of its fighters and two civilians, while Iraqi officials said four people had been killed and 286 families displaced. Turkey denied that it had bombed civilians. The Turkish military said the U.S. had provided intelligence on PKK positions in Iraq and cleared Iraqi airspace for the air strikes. Earlier in December, Turkey had fired artillery across the border on PKK targets in Iraq. Turkey had threatened a large-scale incursion after a series of recent PKK attacks inside Turkey, but the U.S. had urged Turkey to show restraint, fearing that such an operation could destabilize northern Iraq, which had been the calmest part of the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The U.S. Defense Department Dec. 19 said Turkey had provided it with “ample notification of the [Dec. 16] air strikes” that was delivered “prior to the bombings.” The Associated Press Dec. 18 had quoted some unidentified U.S. officials as saying that Turkey had not alerted them to the attack plan until after Turkish aircraft had crossed into Iraqi air space. Rice

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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Dec. 18 visited the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, about 120 miles (190 km) south of the Turkish border. Later that day, at a news conference in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, Rice said the U.S., Turkey and Iraq had a “common interest” in “stopping the activities of the PKK.” However, she warned, “No one should do anything that threatens to destabilize the north” of Iraq. Appearing with Rice, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said, “We believe any unilateral actions to destabilize the situation will harm Iraq’s interests and Turkish interests at the same time.” But he added that “we fully understand the legitimate concern Turkey has over the PKK terrorist activities against them.” Massoud Barzani, the president of the autonomous government of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, refused to meet with Rice Dec. 18, a day after he denounced the Dec. 16 air strikes as “a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.” Turkey Arrests Leader of Kurdish Party—

Turkish police Dec. 18 arrested Nurettin Demirtas, the leader of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the only Kurdish political party in Turkey. Demirtas, 35, was detained at the airport in Ankara, the Turkish capital, after he returned from a trip to Germany. A military court charged him with avoiding military service and ordered him held in custody. The DTP said the charges were politically motivated. In November, Turkish prosecutors had charged the party with collaborating with the PKK, and sought to have the party’s members expelled from parliament. The DTP denied being linked to the PKK, but it called for autonomy for the mostly Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey. „ 840

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

CIA to Turn Over Evidence in Interrogation Tape Inquiry CIA, Justice Had Resisted House Requests. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

Dec. 19 agreed to turn over evidence requested by the House Intelligence Committee relating to the 2005 destruction of videotapes showing CIA interrogations of two terrorism suspects, after initially refusing to aid the committee in its investigation. The CIA also said it would allow its acting general counsel, John Rizzo, to testify on the issue. The House committee had announced its inquiry in early December, days after CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden admitted that tapes documenting the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, suspected members of the Al Qaeda terrorist network, had been destroyed in November 2005. [See p. 817A1] House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D, Texas) and the ranking minority member, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R, Mich.), Dec. 14 sent Hayden a letter requesting that the CIA turn over by Dec. 15 all e-mails, cables, memoranda and other documents relating to the destroyed tapes. The letter requested documentation of all legal advice given to CIA officials on the interrogation tapes. It also instructed the agency to make Rizzo and former CIA National Clandestine Service head Jose Rodriguez Jr., who allegedly gave the order to destroy the tapes, available for questioning before the committee. [See p. 716G1] Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein and CIA Inspector General John Helgerson Dec. 14 sent the House committee a letter requesting that its investigation be put on hold, and claiming that no witnesses or documents could be provided. Helgerson and Wainstein were in charge of a joint preliminary criminal inquiry by the CIA and the Justice Department into the destruction of the tapes. In their letter, they wrote that the House investigation would “represent significant risk to our preliminary inquiry.” After receiving the letter, Reyes and Hoekstra Dec. 14 issued a statement accusing the Justice Department of attempting to block their investigation. They argued that “parallel investigations occur all the time and there is no basis upon which the Attorney General can stand in the way of our work.” Reyes and Hoekstra promised to “use all the tools available to Congress, including subpoenas,” to get the information and testimony they required. Reyes Dec. 19 said it appeared that the Justice Department had reversed its position and was willing to hand requested information over to the House committee. However, he said that subpoenas had been prepared in case evidence was not handed over. Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse Dec. 19 said that the department had “no desire to block any congressional investigation.” However, he ex-

pressed continuing concerns that congressional investigations into the destruction of the tapes could negatively affect “our initial witness interviews, the delay and disruption of our document collection, and the tainting of any future criminal prosecution because of congressional grants of immunity to witnesses.” The New York Times reported Dec. 20 that the requested documents were expected to be turned over as early as the afternoon of Dec. 20. The House Intelligence Committee Dec. 20 subpoenaed Rodriguez to testify on the destruction of the tapes. Rodriguez and Rizzo were expected to testify before the committee at a mid-January 2008 hearing. The Washington Post reported Dec. 13 that the House committee also intended to call Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to testify. Negroponte had been director of national intelligence at the time the tapes were destroyed and had reportedly sent a memorandum to then–CIA Director Porter Goss recommending against their destruction. Mukasey Rebuffs Document Request—

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) and the ranking minority member, Sen. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.), Dec. 10 sent Attorney General Michael Mukasey a letter requesting “a complete account of the Justice Department’s own knowledge of and involvement with” the destruction of the interrogation tapes. The letter also included a list of 16 additional questions, including questions about whether the department had issued legal advice on the tapes and whether it had discussed the tapes with White House officials. Mukasey Dec. 14 sent a letter to Leahy and Specter informing them that the Justice Department would not respond to congressional requests for information regarding the preliminary investigation. Mukasey argued that doing so would open the department to criticism that it was “subject to political influence” and violate a longstanding policy against providing internal information about current investigations. Leahy that day expressed disappointment with Mukasey’s response and stressed that the committee needed “to fully understand whether the government used cruel interrogation techniques and torture.” Hearing Ordered—Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Dec. 18 scheduled a hearing for Dec. 21 to investigate whether the government’s destruction of the interrogation tapes violated a June 2005 court order issued by Kennedy, which mandated the preservation of all records related to the possible mistreatment of detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The hearing had been requested by lawyers representing 16 detainees held at Guantanamo. [See p. 817G2] Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bucholtz argued in a brief filed Dec. 14 that holding a hearing was unnecessary because Kennedy’s earlier ruling had affected only detainees held in Guantanamo, while the interrogation tapes had been FACTS ON FILE

made at secret CIA prisons elsewhere in the world. The brief also maintained that the hearing would interfere with Wainstein and Helgerson’s investigation and suggested that the destruction of the tapes did not fall under Kennedy’s jurisdiction. Detainee attorney David Remes Dec. 17 filed a brief that argued that the destruction of the tapes raised legal concerns that “reach well beyond whether the government has violated the court’s preservation order, to the more general question of the government’s handling of evidence that may be relevant to this case.” Several lawyers said the CIA’s destruction of the tapes might constitute obstruction of justice, by blocking attempts to determine if detainees were tortured into making false confessions. Also, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Dec. 12 asked a federal judge to find the CIA in contempt for allegedly violating a September 2004 court order requiring the agency to retain and turn over all information relating to its holding of detainees. Bush Lawyers Consulted On Tapes—

The New York Times reported Dec. 19 that four White House attorneys had taken part in discussions about the potential disposal of the interrogation tapes between 2003 and 2005. The Times identified the four as State Department legal adviser John Bellinger 3rd, who at the time had been a lawyer for the National Security Council; David Addington, then–counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney; and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and his successor, Harriet Miers. Unidentified sources cited by the Times differed on whether the lawyers had opposed or favored destroying the tapes. Zubaydah Interrogation Details Debated—

The Washington Post reported Dec. 18 that current and former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who were familiar with Zubaydah’s questioning by the U.S. government had taken issue with its depiction by the CIA and members of the Bush administration. The FBI sources interviewed by the Post alleged that CIA officials, believing Zubaydah to be a more significant member of Al Qaeda than he actually was, had mistaken his lack of useful information during FBI questioning as a sign that he was withholding information. The FBI sources said the CIA had subsequently initiated harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, a type of simulated drowning, in order to extract information that Zubaydah did not have. In addition, former FBI agent Daniel Coleman, who had examined Zubaydah’s diaries, raised concerns about the detainee’s mental state and the credibility of information he provided. According to Coleman, Zubaydah’s diary was written from the perspective of three distinct personalities, one younger than the detainee, one older and one the same age. The Post reported that the CIA had concluded that the three personalities were a literary device. Bush Reserves Comment— President George W. Bush at a year-end press conferDecember 20, 2007

ence Dec. 20 said he was reserving judgment over the destruction of the interrogation tapes until all investigations were complete. Bush said, “Let’s wait and see what the facts are.” He also defended the general conduct of government agents involved in the interrogation of detainees, saying that such agents were being asked to carry out the difficult task of finding and capturing terrorism suspects. Bush said he did not recall being briefed about the tapes before Hayden informed him of their destruction on Dec. 6. He had been questioned on the ambiguity of statements by his press secretary on when he had learned of the tapes’ destruction. [See p. 817G1] „

Capital Punishment New Jersey Abolishes Death Penalty. A bill signed into law Dec. 17 by New Jersey Governor John Corzine (D) ended the death penalty in the state. It was the first time that a state had legislatively repealed the death penalty, as opposed to having it struck down by a court, since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a national ban in 1976. The bill had been passed Dec. 10 by the state Senate, 21–16, and Dec. 13 by the state Assembly, 44–36. Corzine described the bill as “progress for us and for the millions of people across our nation and across the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical response” to murder. [See pp. 765G3, 561D1] A special New Jersey commission on capital punishment Jan. 2 had found that the death penalty failed to act as a deterrent to murder. The panel also said that it cost the state $72,602 per inmate per year to keep a prisoner on death row, but only $40,121 per inmate per year if the prisoner was kept in a prison’s general population. According to a poll conducted by the Qunnipiac University Polling Institute and released Dec. 11, 53% of New Jersey residents opposed repealing the death penalty, versus 39% who favored it. The poll also found that 52% of residents favored imposing life in prison without parole instead of the death penalty in cases of first-degree murder, versus 39% who backed the death penalty in those cases. Since New Jersey’s 1982 reinstatement of the death penalty, a total of 52 people had been sentenced to death in New Jersey, but none had been executed. Forty-one had had their sentences overturned, and three had died while on death row. Corzine Dec. 16 commuted the sentences of the state’s eight remaining death row inmates to life in prison without parole. „

2008 Presidential Campaign Lieberman Endorses McCain. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I, Conn.), the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, Dec. 17 endorsed Sen. John McCain (R, Ariz.) for president. Lieberman had become an independent in 2006 after losing a Democratic primary in a Senate reelection bid. He and McCain were both vocal supporters of the Iraq war. [See p. 821A2; 2006, p. 853G1]

McCain campaign advisers said Lieberman’s endorsement could help McCain attract independent voters, a large voting bloc in New Hampshire, which would hold the first primary in the nation Jan. 8, 2008. New Hampshire law allowed people without a declared party affiliation to vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary. Those voters were expected to make up about a quarter of the total turnout. McCain had campaigned heavily in New Hampshire, where he had won the Republican primary in his unsuccessful presidential bid in 2000. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney led the Republican field in New Hampshire polls, but McCain had regained some momentum there lately, months after his campaign nearly collapsed due to financing problems. [See p. 431E2] McCain Dec. 16 won endorsements for the Republican nomination from the Des Moines Register and the Boston Globe. The Register was the premier newspaper in Iowa. The Iowa caucuses, on Jan. 3, 2008, would be the first nominating contest in any state.

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The Register Dec. 16 endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) for the Democratic nomination. In 2004, the paper had endorsed former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.). Edwards was running again for the 2008 nomination, but the Register said he had dropped his “positive, optimistic” message of 2004 for “harsh, anticorporate rhetoric” that would “make it difficult for him to work with the business community to forge change.” [See p. 822B2] Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, Dec. 15 said in a PBS interview with Charlie Rose that her leading Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), was too inexperienced to be president, and that voters would “roll the dice” if they voted for him. Obama responded by quoting a statement that Bill Clinton had made during his 1992 presidential bid: “The same old experience is irrelevant.” Bill Clinton joined his wife Dec. 18 at the start of a tour through Iowa designed to boost her personal appeal to voters, after her campaign had spent most of the year focusing on her policy positions. She told reporters, “It’s a little hard for me. It’s not easy for me to talk about myself.” Bill Clinton said, “We want to give people a good sense of her, not only as a leader but as a person.” McCain

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McCain Dec. 20 responded to a story posted that day on the Drudge Report Web site that said his campaign had urged the New York Times not to publish an investigative article that supposedly raised ethical questions about his ties with a lobbyist. McCain told reporters, “I have never, ever done a favor for any lobbyist or special interest group.” He also said, “I do find the timing of this whole issue very interesting,” with the primaries approaching. He said he would not “stand for what happened to us in 2000,” referring to alleged smear tactics used against him during his primary battle with then–Texas Gov. George W. Bush, includ841

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ing the spreading of a false rumor that McCain had fathered an illegitimate mixed-race child. [See 2000, p. 105A1] Prominent Washington, D.C., attorney Robert Bennett Dec. 20 issued a statement that said McCain had retained him to help counter the allegations that the Times was said to be probing. Bennett said, “In 2000, during the South Carolina primary campaign, John McCain was the victim of false, vicious rumors about his personal life. These rumors and gossip damaged his campaign and may have cost him the election.” He added, “Upon hearing that such unfair tactics might be entering the campaign arena this year, Senator McCain, desiring to respond more forcefully than he did eight years ago, retained me to explore the options available. What is being done to John McCain is an outrage.” Huckabee Criticizes Bush Policies—

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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who had surged past Romney into the lead of the Republican field in Iowa, sharply criticized President Bush’s record in an article in Foreign Affairs, posted Dec. 15 on the journal’s Web site. “American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up and reach out,” he wrote, adding, “The Bush administration’s arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad.” Romney Dec. 16 condemned Huckabee’s article in a television interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Romney said, “That’s an insult to the president, and Mike Huckabee should apologize to the president.” Huckabee responded that if Romney actually read the article, “he would see that there’s no apology necessary to the president.” Tancredo Drops Out, Backs Romney—

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Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.) Dec. 20 dropped his bid for the Republican nomination and endorsed Romney. Tancredo had based his campaign on his opposition to illegal immigration. Although the issue ranked as a top concern of Republican voters, Tancredo had failed to gain traction in the polls, and had been mired at the bottom of the field. [See p. 683F3] Tancredo said he feared that his “remaining in this race, one which I cannot win, would contribute to the nomination” of a candidate with less hard-line views on immigration, naming both Huckabee and McCain. He said he had met with Romney that day and believed that Romney was tough enough on immigration. „

Fiscal 2008 Spending Bills $555 Billion Omnibus Passes With War Funds.

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The House Dec. 19 cleared, 272–142, a $555 billion domestic spending bill to fund most federal departments and agencies in fiscal year 2008, which had begun Oct. 1, and sent it to President George W. Bush. The House Dec. 17 had voted, 253–154, to pass an earlier, $516 billion version of the bill. The Senate Dec. 18 voted, 76–17, to pass the omnibus bill and send it back to 842

the House for final approval, after adding $40 billion in funding for the Iraq war to the $31 billion that the House had included for military operations in Afghanistan. [See pp. 764D3, 749D3] The omnibus spending bill represented a compromise by the Democratic majorities in Congress to resolve a months-long budget standoff with Bush. Bush had threatened to veto any appropriations bills that exceeded the limit that he had set for domestic spending and did not include war funding, raising the possibility of a government shutdown. The Senate Dec. 18 voted, 70–25, to approve a Republican amendment to add the $40 billion for military operations, and to give the Defense Department authority to spend all the war funds at its own discretion. The Democrats had vowed in November that they would not give Bush any more war funds unless he agreed to a timeline for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Bush rejected any timeline and had said he would veto the domestic spending unless the bill included the war funds he wanted. The Senate Dec. 18 rejected two proposed timelines offered as amendments to the omnibus bill. One, offered by Sen. Russell Feingold (D, Wis.), would have required that most troops be pulled out within nine months; it was defeated, 71–24. The other amendment, a nonbinding proposal, called for shifting U.S. troops in Iraq away from combat, to more limited missions such as antiterrorism and border security; it was rejected by a vote of 50–45. The omnibus bill also included funding for 11 of the 12 annual appropriations bills, as well as $11.2 billion in other emergency spending. The only other annual funding bill, providing $459 billion for the Defense Department, had been cleared by Congress in November. Bush Signals Approval—Bush Dec. 17 indicated that he would sign the omnibus bill if the Iraq war money was added, saying, “I’m pleased to report that we’re making some pretty good progress toward coming up with a fiscally sound budget.” Bush had set a limit of $933 billion for discretionary domestic spending. Democrats had tried to add more than $22 billion over that limit, but failed to draw enough votes to overcome Republican opposition. Nonetheless, conservative Republicans still criticized the omnibus bill, saying it was still too expensive and noting that it included nearly 9,000 earmarks, or requests by individual lawmakers for spending on pet projects, that had been rushed to a vote with little scrutiny. They also said the emergency spending was a gimmick that allowed the Democrats to exceed Bush’s limit by $11 billion. At a Dec. 20 news conference, Bush criticized “the number of earmarks that Congress included in the massive spending bill.” He said he was “instructing budget director Jim Nussle to review options for dealing with the wasteful spending in the omnibus bill.” However, Bush did not suggest that he would veto the bill.

Details of the Bill—The emergency funding in the omnibus bill included money for veterans’ health care, border and domestic security, foreign aid, drought relief, wildfire suppression and home heating aid. But the emergency designation would give Bush the final decision on whether to release those funds. In order to make the official cost of the bill comply with Bush’s limit, the Democrats cut about $17.5 billion from the previous House blueprints. However, they also cut some funding that Bush had requested, while shifting money to their own priorities, such as health care and student aid. The bill would cut in half Bush’s request of $3 billion for the Millennium Challenge Corp., a foreign aid program to reward poor nations that met benchmarks for democratic reform. Environmentalist groups criticized the bill for a provision that would authorize the Energy Department to give $18.5 billion in loan guarantees to companies that developed nuclear energy projects, and $6 billion for coal plants designed to emit less carbon. Abortion rights activists criticized the Democrats for dropping a provision that would have ended Bush’s ban on U.S. aid to international family planning groups that offered abortions. The Democrats also dropped provisions that would have barred the Internal Revenue Service from using private debt collectors and lifted some economic sanctions on Cuba. However, the bill did include some foreign policy changes, most notably restrictions on military aid to Pakistan until the State Department certified that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had restored democratic rights, following his declaration of emergency rule in November. [See p. 854E3] The bill also would raise the salaries of federal civilian employees by 3.5%. Bush Signs Stopgap Funding Measure—

Bush Dec. 14 signed a short-term spending measure to keep federal agencies running at fiscal 2007 funding levels through Dec. 21. The House Dec. 13 had voted, 385–27, to pass the stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution, and the Senate cleared it later that day by voice vote. „

Legislation Wiretapping Bill Pulled After Filibuster Threat.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) Dec. 17 temporarily pulled a bill from Senate consideration that would have granted immunity from lawsuits to telecommunications companies accused of turning over private customer information to the government without court orders. Reid said the bill, which would amend the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to provide a new legal basis for National Security Agency (NSA) antiterrorist surveillance programs, would be revisited in January 2008. A temporary bill it was intended to replace was scheduled to expire on February 1, 2008. [See p. 766E3] Reid’s decision followed eight hours of debate and protest on the Senate floor led FACTS ON FILE

by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.), who had threatened to filibuster the bill if the immunity provision was not removed. Dodd, whose presidential campaign emphasized the need for the restoration of constitutional principles that he said were ignored by the Bush administration, had temporarily left Iowa, where he had been campaigning, in order to return to Washington, D.C., to oppose the bill. Fellow senators and Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), Joseph Biden (Del.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) also opposed the immunity provision but did not return to Washington. Two separate versions of the bill had been approved by Senate committees. One, approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee, had included immunity for telecommunications companies, while a second, approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, had not included that provision. Although Reid said he supported Dodd’s position on immunity, he ignored a hold that Dodd had placed on the bill and chose to introduce the Senate Intelligence Committee’s version of the bill, undercutting attempts to remove the immunity provision. [See p. 767C1] Dodd’s initial attempt to filibuster the bill was defeated Dec. 17 by a vote of 76– 10 to bring it to a vote, but Dodd had promised to continue his attempts to amend or, if necessary, kill the legislation. Following Reid’s pulling of the bill, Dodd released a written statement that described it as “a victory for American civil liberties” that “sent a message to President Bush that we will not tolerate his abuse of power and veil of secrecy.” Dodd reiterated his promise to “utilize all the tools available” to him in order to block the bill. A spokesman for Reid Dec. 17 denied that the bill had been pulled because of Dodd’s actions. In his announcement, Reid said that “the Senate is committed to improving our nation’s intelligence laws to fight terrorism while protecting Americans’ civil liberties” and suggested that the bill was being held because it required more debate. Sen. John Rockefeller 4th (D, W.Va.), who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee and had supported including the immunity provision in the bill, Dec. 17 said that the bill was “one of the most important” before Congress and expressed disappointment that its passage would be delayed. [See p. 699F1] The White House Dec. 17 suggested that it would veto any version of the bill that did not include full immunity from lawsuits for telecommunications companies. In November, the House had passed a version of the bill that did not contain the immunity provision. NSA Spying Wider Than Reported—

The New York Times reported Dec. 16 that the warrantless surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency (NSA) were more widespread than initially thought, extending beyond antiterrorism initiatives to an anti–drug trafficking program, and suggested that the agency’s controversial wiretapping activities could have begun within weeks of the January 2001 December 20, 2007

inauguration of President George W. Bush. [See p. 699E3] The article revealed the existence of a cooperative program between the NSA and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) which collected information about phone-call and e-mail patterns relating to drug trafficking (but not the content of the communications themselves), using administrative subpoenas instead of court orders. The program was begun under the Clinton administration but expanded under the Bush administration. According to the Times, at least one major phone company refused in 2004 to cooperate with the program, allegedly out of concern that the subpoenas were overly broad. The article also contained allegations that the NSA had attempted to gain direct access to private customer information held by telecommunications companies in the first weeks of Bush’s presidency. The Times reported that a February 2001 meeting between the NSA and executives of Qwest Communications International Inc., previously revealed in court documents, had centered on an NSA request to install surveillance equipment at a Qwest switching facility. That would have allowed the government to monitor phone traffic within individual neighborhoods in the U.S. and would have been unlikely to intercept many international communications. Qwest refused to assist the NSA on its program, citing its belief that the proposed activities were illegal without specific court orders. The Times quoted unidentified sources within the government as claiming that Qwest had misunderstood the scope of the NSA program, which would have only targeted foreign citizens. According to a lawsuit filed in New Jersey, the Times said, NSA officials had approached AT&T Corp. executives in February 2001 and requested, without a court order, full access to information passing through one of the company’s regional network centers. In addition, the suit accused the NSA of illegally piping data passing through New Jersey networks operated by Verizon Communications Inc. to a military base in Quantico, Va. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Dec. 16 issued a statement that cited the Times report as proof that the Bush administration “and telecommunications companies are perilously tangled.” It also suggested that administration claims that the NSA was interested only in foreign intelligence were misleading, based on the information presented by the Times. FISA Court Won’t Release Rulings— A special court set up by FISA, the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Court, Dec. 11 refused to make public its rulings in two cases related to the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program, citing concerns that doing so could harm national security. The decision, which followed an August request for the texts of the two NSA wiretapping rulings by the ACLU, was only the third made public in the court’s 29-year history. [See 2006, p. 663D1] It was known that the first ruling, made in January, had allowed the Bush adminis-

tration to operate its wiretapping program, previously conducted without any court role, under the supervision of the FISA court and that the second ruling, made in May, set restrictions on the wiretapping program, prompting a political push from the administration for legislation that would allow the program to continue without alterations. However, the specifics of the ruling were not released. The ACLU argued that the court should release the decisions in order to allow a better-informed debate on new laws relating to the program. Judge John Bates of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., who served on the FISA court, Dec. 11 issued a 22-page decision in which he said that while releasing the rulings could “provide an additional safeguard against mistakes, overreaching and abuse” by allowing “enhanced public scrutiny,” the possible problems caused by such a release were “real and significant, and, quite frankly, beyond debate.” A spokesman for the Justice Department welcomed the decision, saying that the release of the rulings could have endangered national security. „ Energy Bill Cleared, Signed. The House Dec. 18 passed, 314–100, a revised version of an energy bill that would mandate an increase in fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2030, an increase of 40%. The bill was signed into law Dec. 19 by President George W. Bush, who had previously threatened to veto the bill if it included provisions, ultimately removed from the final bill, that would have cut $13 billion in tax breaks for energy companies. [See p. 823B2] The House had passed another version of the bill earlier in December that included the tax provisions, as well as $21.8 billion in alternative-energy tax incentives and a provision that would have required utilities to create 15% of their electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar power by 2020. Those sections had been removed by the Senate after two Republican-led filibusters kept the House’s version of the bill from reaching a vote. Provisions extending loan guarantees to companies producing energy at nuclear and so-called clean coal plants were included in a fiscal 2008 omnibus spending bill. [See p. 842G1] The new, 35-mpg Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard was an increase from the current level of 27.5 mpg for cars and 22.2 mpg for light trucks, minivans and sport utility vehicles. The final bill also set new standards for energy efficiency for federal buildings and a timetable for phasing out the use of traditional incandescent light bulbs, to be replaced by modern energy-saving bulbs. In addition, the bill mandated the addition of 36 billion gallons of renewable biofuels into the gasoline supply by 2020. The bill was expected to reduce U.S. oil consumption by at least 1.1 million barrels per day, the equivalent of taking 28 million cars and trucks off the roads. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) Dec. 18 said that despite the compromises, the passage of the bill amounted to “an earth-shattering change in terms of 843

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energy policy.” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino Dec. 18 said that the administration was “pleased that Congress had worked together on a bipartisan way that provides the chance for the president to sign a bill that does not include tax increases.” „ House Clears $50 Billion Tax Relief Bill.

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The House Dec. 19 voted, 352–64, to give final approval to a bill that would shield millions of middle-class taxpayers from the spread of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) in 2007. The result was a victory for President George W. Bush and the Republican minorities in the House and Senate, who had blocked Democrats’ attempts to include tax hikes in the bill to offset anticipated losses of $50 billion in tax revenue. Members of the Democratic majority cast all 64 votes against the House bill. [See p. 823B3] The bill was the latest in a series of annual one-year “patches” to protect the middle-class from the AMT, which had been created in 1969 to prevent the rich from using deductions and other breaks to avoid paying any taxes. But because it had not been adjusted for inflation, it had recently begun to apply to people in middle and upper-middle-income brackets. The bill would exempt up to $44,350 of individuals’ income in 2007, up from $42,500 in 2006. It would exempt up to $66,250 of married couples’ income, up from $62,550 in 2006. That would spare about 19 million taxpayers from paying the AMT, and reduce its impact on the 4.2 million people who would have to pay the tax. The House in November had passed a version of the bill that included offsetting measures, such as closing tax loopholes used by managers of hedge funds and private equity funds. The Democrats had said that Congress had to offset the cost of the AMT bill in order to comply with “pay-asyou-go” budget rules, enacted in January, which required tax cuts or spending increases to be offset by equivalent tax increases or spending cuts. However, the Senate, where the Democrats had a narrower majority, had subsequently passed a bill without any offsetting measures, putting pressure on the House to clear the bill before the year-end deadline for changes to 2007 tax law. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D, Md.) Dec. 19 said, “We are forced today to recognize that we don’t have the votes to pursue the pay-as-you-go principle that we adopted in a bipartisan fashion. I regret this day and this bill.” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that day said the lateness of the bill’s passage would likely result in delayed refunds for some taxpayers. „ Revised Terrorism Insurance Bill Passed.

The House Dec. 18 passed, 360–53, a seven-year extension of the 2002 Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) that was identical to a version passed by the Senate in November. The bill, which would replace a temporary extension of TRIA due to expire Dec. 31, would cover attacks perpetrated 844

by U.S. citizens; the 2002 law had only covered attacks carried out by foreigners. [See p. 805C1] The House had initially passed a broader, 15-year extension of the bill on Sept. 19, but that version was cut down in the Senate to seven years, and many of its provisions were removed or altered. In response, the House Dec. 12 passed, 303–116, a compromise bill, which included a reduction in deductibles for areas already attacked by terrorists, and reduced the threshold at which the government would step in to $50 million, from $100 million, while accepting the Senate’s seven-year time frame. That bill was not taken up by the Senate, forcing the House to accept the Senate bill or risk having the program expire. „ Senate Passes Farm Bill; Subsidies Survive.

The Senate Dec. 14 approved, 79–14, a $286 billion, five-year reauthorization of federal agriculture subsidy programs. The package, known as the “farm bill,” included measures to update the food stamp program, give new subsidies to growers and establish a $5.1 billion “disaster trustfund.” It would also provide $225 million to improve nutrition in schools, which would benefit fruit and vegetable growers, who were not eligible for existing subsidies. The White House, calling the subsidies excessive, had threatened to veto the bill, as well as a version passed by the House in July, which also had an estimated cost of $286 billion. [See p. 495D2] The bill had stalled in the Senate for weeks. The preceding farm bill had expired in September, but its programs had been temporarily extended while Congress considered the new legislation. The Senate bill protected billions of dollars in farm subsidies, which were opposed by a broad array of critics. Foreign aid groups said the subsidies created a glut of U.S. crops that hurt farmers in developing nations. Taxpayer advocates said subsidies often went to rich farmers who did not need them. Several amendments that would have limited or cut subsidies to wealthier farmers were defeated Dec. 13. An amendment offered by Sens. Charles Grassley (R, Iowa) and Byron Dorgan (D, N.D.), to cap annual payments at $250,000 per couple, down from the current level of $360,000, was rejected in a vote of 56–43, six votes short of the 60-vote threshold set by Senate leaders. An amendment offered by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D, Minn.) to bar subsidies to full-time farmers with income of more than $750,000 a year, and part-time farmers making more than $250,000 a year, was rejected in a vote of 48–47. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) then invoked cloture, a procedural move to limit debate in order to force a vote. The bill would move to a House-Senate conference committee in early 2008 for further discussion. Another short-term extension of agriculture programs was included in the fiscal year 2008 omnibus spending bill, cleared by the House Dec. 19. „

Senate Passes Mortgage Aid Bill. The Senate Dec. 14 voted, 93–1, to pass a bill that would increase the types of loans that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) could insure, in an effort to help a rising number of homeowners who were facing foreclosures. The House had passed its version of the bill in September, and the Bush administration had supported Congress’s efforts to overhaul the FHA. [See pp. 846D2, 608G1] The Senate bill would lower the down payment that the FHA required of low- to middle-income home buyers to at least 1.5% of the home’s total value, from 3%; increase the size of the loans the FHA could insure for first-time and low-income home buyers to $417,000; and allow some homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages, loans that switched to higher interest rates after a certain period of time, to obtain FHA-backed loans. The bill was expected to help some 200,000 people who were struggling to make their payments. Lawmakers described it as the first in a series of bills that would address an ongoing housing market slump. [See pp. 803E3, 783D3] „ House Passes Arsonist Registry Bill. The House Dec. 5 passed, by a voice vote, a bill that would establish a national registry of convicted arsonists. The bill was sponsored by California Reps. Adam Schiff (D) and Mary Bono (R); arson had been blamed for a 2006 fire in Bono’s congressional district that killed five firefighters. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), arson had killed 305 people and caused $755 million in damages during 2006. [See p. 696A2] The bill, which was passed by the House Judiciary Committee Nov. 7, would require convicted arsonists to register their name, address and other data in areas where they lived, worked or attended school. Arsonists who failed to do so could be sentenced to a year in prison. Registered arsonists’ data would be compiled in a searchable national database, run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and accessible to law enforcement officials. „

National Politics Senate Panel Cites Bush Aides for Contempt.

The Senate Judiciary Committee Dec. 13 voted, 12–7, to cite White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and President George W. Bush’s former chief political adviser, Karl Rove, for contempt of Congress. Rove and Bolten had refused to comply with the committee’s subpoenas demanding that they testify and turn over documents on the dismissal of several federal prosecutors in 2006. [See p. 477A1] The firings had drawn scrutiny from Congress, due to concerns that the Bush administration might have violated the traditional independence of the Justice Department from partisan politics. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had resigned in September after several months of controversy over the issue. FACTS ON FILE

Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa) were the only two members of the Republican minority on the panel to vote Dec. 13 to approve the contempt citations, along with all 10 Democrats. In July, the House Judiciary Committee had voted to cite Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for contempt, also for refusing to comply with subpoenas issued in the congressional inquiry into the firing of the U.S. attorneys. However, the full House had yet to vote on the citations. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) said he would “take a look at” the matter in January 2008. The White House had argued that the president’s aides should not have to comply with such subpoenas, invoking executive privilege, a legal doctrine that said the president was entitled to confidential advice. White House press secretary Dana Perino Dec. 13 said, “The constitutional prerogatives of the president would make it a futile effort for Congress to refer contempt citations to U.S. attorneys” for criminal prosecution, which would be the next step if either chamber of Congress approved the citations. She said the Justice Department would refuse to prosecute the case. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Nov. 29 had made a formal ruling that the White House’s executive privilege claims were “overbroad, unsubstantiated and not legally valid.” „ Contractor Guilty of Bribing Cunningham.

A jury in U.S. District Court in San Diego. Calif., Nov. 5 convicted defense contractor Brent Wilkes of giving former Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham (R, Calif.) more than $700,000 in bribes in exchange for his help with obtaining federal contracts. Wilkes was convicted on 13 felony counts and faced up to 20 years in prison. His sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 28, 2008. [See p. 258F3] Cunningham had pleaded guilty in 2005 to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from Wilkes and other contractors, and was currently serving an eight-year prison sentence. In February 2006, another military contractor, Mitchell Wade, had pleaded guilty to bribing Cunningham. Wade testified against Wilkes. He had not yet been sentenced. Prosecutors alleged that Wilkes had given Cunningham $500,000 for mortgage payments and $100,000 to buy a yacht, as well as other gifts, including hiring two prostitutes for a sojourn in Hawaii. In return, the prosecutors said, Cunningham used his clout as a member of the House Armed Services Committee to steer more than $100 million in government contracts to Wilkes, mainly for digitizing Defense Department documents. Wilkes also faced charges in a separate case involving a former high-ranking Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official, Kyle (Dusty) Foggo. Wilkes’s defense lawyer, Mark Geragos, argued that Wilkes had merely been doing “business as usual in Washington.” He said they planned to appeal the conviction. „ December 20, 2007

Abramoff Associate Federici Sentenced.

Judge Ellen Huvelle of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Dec. 14 sentenced Italia Federici, an associate of corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, to 60 days in a halfway house and ordered her to pay $77,243 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Federici had pleaded guilty in June to charges of tax evasion and obstructing a 2005 Senate investigation into Abramoff’s dealings with Native American tribes. [See p. 432F2; 2006, p. 2E1] Federici had been the president of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, a lobbying group. In that role, she had acted as a go-between for Abramoff and her boyfriend, Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles, who provided Abramoff with information and advice about matters before the Interior Department that concerned his clients, such as casino permits for Indian tribes. Griles had been sentenced to 10 months in prison in July, after pleading guilty to lying about his ties with Abramoff during his service as deputy secretary from 2001 to 2004. Abramoff had pleaded guilty in January 2006 to conspiracy to bribe public officials. He was serving a prison sentence in an unrelated fraud case while cooperating with the ongoing investigation into his influence-peddling scheme. „

Bush Administration Bush Holds Year’s Final News Conference.

President George W. Bush Dec. 20 held a year-end news conference at the White House, criticizing the Democratic-controlled Congress for adding thousands of pet projects to an overdue spending bill for the fiscal year 2008, which had begun Oct. 1. “When Congress wastes so much time and leaves its work to the final days before Christmas, it’s not a responsible way to run this government,” Bush said. [See p. 842F1] Bush was asked about revelations that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had destroyed videotapes of interrogations of terrorism suspects. He declined to say whether he thought the destruction of the tapes was justified, and insisted that he had not learned of the action until earlier in the month. [See p. 840A2] Asked about Time magazine’s announcement that it had named Russian President Vladimir V. Putin as its man of the year, Bush said, “I presume they put him on there because he was a consequential leader. And the fundamental question is, consequential to what end? What will the country look like 10 years from now? My hope, of course, is that Russia is a country that understands there needs to be checks and balances.” Putin had recently named his preferred successor and said he would agree to serve as prime minister after his second presidential term ended in 2008. [See pp. 856G1, 852A2] Bush also said he was concerned that some North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies might be planning to pull their troops out of Afghanistan. Some of those European allies restricted the extent to which their troops could engage in combat opera-

tions. Bush said, “Our objective is to help people meet a mission that they’re comfortable with achieving.” [See p. 814A1] Bush acknowledged that there had been little progress in political reconciliation in Iraq, but still struck a positive note, saying, “Are we satisfied with progress in Baghdad? No,” but added, “There is a functioning government.” [See p. 800A3] „

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Environment EPA Rejects States’ Emissions Regulations.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Dec. 19 denied a request by 17 states, including California, for a waiver that would allow them to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles. The decision marked continued opposition by the administration of President George W. Bush to the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions linked to global climate change. The decision had come on the heels of recent court decisions upholding states’ rights to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles. [See below, pp. 837A1, 752G1, 592B3] California in 2002 had passed a law requiring automakers to start producing vehicles with better fuel economy by the 2009 model year, with the goal of lowering emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The state in 2004 had issued rules under the law requiring that vehicle emissions be reduced by 30% of 1990 levels by 2016. Twelve other states had also adopted California’s law, with the governors of an additional four states indicating they would back approval of the regulations. Under the federal Clean Air Act, California had been granted the power to institute more stringent air pollution regulations than those imposed by the federal government. However, the state required a waiver from the EPA in order to implement such regulations. The EPA in the past had issued California more than 50 such waivers, and had never denied a request for a waiver from the state. California had made the waiver request that was now at issue in 2005, and in November had filed suit against the EPA to force it to issue a decision in the matter. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said the agency had denied California’s waiver request because Bush Dec. 19 had signed a comprehensive energy bill including a provision to raise the industry-wide average fuel economy of SUVs, light trucks and cars to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. He said the legislation presented a “better approach” than the California law, which he described as a “confusing patchwork of state rules.” Johnson said the California law would result in a fuel economy standard of 33.8 miles per gallon by 2016, falling short of the standard outlined in the energy bill. However, California officials disputed that figure, saying the law would result in a fuel economy standard of at least 36 miles per gallon by 2016. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said the states would appeal the EPA’s ruling in federal court. He said the 845

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federal government was “ignoring the will of tens of millions of people across the nation.” He added, “California sued to compel the agency to act on our waiver, and now we will sue to overturn today’s decision and allow Californians to protect our environment.” The EPA decision was criticized by governors, federal and state legislators, and environmentalists. Several alleged that the EPA had bowed to pressure from the automobile industry to deny the waiver. Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Calif.), chairman of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, said he would lead a committee investigation into the EPA’s decision. EPA technical and legal staff had recommended that Johnson approve the waiver, the Washington Post reported Dec. 20. The agency’s legal staff also said the EPA was likely to win a lawsuit brought by the automobile industry challenging an approved waiver, and unlikely to win a lawsuit filed by California and other states denying the waiver. The EPA decision was lauded by automakers. David McCurdy, president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers trade group, said, “A patchwork quilt of inconsistent and competing fuel economy programs at the state level would only have created confusion, inefficiency and uncertainty for automakers and consumers.” Court Upholds California Law— Judge Anthony Ishii of U.S. District Court in Fresno, Calif., Dec. 12 ruled that California had the authority to regulate the emissions of greenhouse gases generated by motor vehicles, dismissing a lawsuit against the state filed by automakers. The decision was the latest in a series of defeats for the automobile industry, which had fought efforts by states to regulate tailpipe emissions. An automobile industry group, the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, had challenged the law, arguing that only the federal government had the authority to regulate fuel economy standards. Ishii in his ruling found that California was able to enact its own emissions standards, separate from federal standards, under the Clean Air Act. A judge in U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vt., in September had also upheld the California standards law, which had been adopted by Vermont in November 2005. „ Western States Form Water-Sharing Pact.

Seven Western states and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne Dec. 13 signed an agreement over the distribution of water from the Colorado River. The states that joined the agreement, which addressed disputed water access rights, were New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona and California. The agreement affected some 30 million people. [See p. 144D3] The pact established rules governing the Colorado River’s two primary reservoirs: Lake Mead, straddling the border of Nevada and Arizona, and Lake Powell, straddling the border of Utah and Arizona. It also set protocols for how California, Arizona and Nevada, which were located far846

ther down the Colorado River, would share drought risks. Western states had endured eight years of drought. „

CIA Leak Investigation Libby Ends Appeal Effort. A lawyer for I.

Lewis (Scooter) Libby announced Dec. 10 that Libby was dropping an appeal of his June conviction for lying to federal investigators, citing legal and financial reasons. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, had been convicted in June on charges that he lied to federal investigators looking into the leak of a CIA agent’s identity, and had been sentenced to serve 30 months in prison, pay a $250,000 fine and undergo two years of supervised release. His prison sentence was commuted by President George W. Bush in July. [See p. 446G3] Libby’s attorney, Theodore Wells Jr., said that while “we remain firmly convinced of Mr. Libby’s innocence,” the financial and legal burdens “of continuing to pursue his complete vindication” were too much for Libby and his family. If Libby had won his appeal, he would likely have faced a new trial that could have resulted in a new prison sentence. Bush had not ruled out pardoning Libby, but did not include him in his year-end pardons Dec. 11. „

Mortgage and Credit Crisis Federal Reserve Revises Mortgage Rules.

The Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank, Dec. 18 proposed new regulations for mortgage lenders in an effort to rein in deceptive lending practices and limit the number of high-risk mortgages that had proliferated in recent years, resulting in a wave of defaults and foreclosures as housing prices fell. Democratic lawmakers criticized the new regulations, saying they did not go far enough in curbing abusive lending, and would not help homeowners currently on the verge of defaulting. [See pp. 844A3, 803E3, 783D3] The new rules would prohibit lenders from making high-interest loans “in a pattern or practice” that ignored a borrower’s ability to pay back the loan “from sources other than the home’s value.” Before housing prices fell, borrowers had been able to refinance their loans based on the home’s rising value. Lenders had relaxed their standards, and issued a far greater number of loans to people with poor credit, called subprime, who were now defaulting on their loans with greater frequency. The rules would also bar lenders from making high-interest-rate loans without verifying the borrower’s income or assets. The rules would require that prepayment penalties expire at least 60 days before the interest rate on an adjustable-rate mortgage reset to a higher level. Prepayment penalties discouraged borrowers from refinancing their adjustable-rate mortgages before their rates went up. Lenders would be required to create escrow accounts to ensure payment of high-interest mortgage borrowers’ property taxes and insurance.

The rules would also require lenders to make clear to borrowers all the fees and payments tied to any type of loan, including bonuses for brokers; advertise an adjustable-rate loan’s introductory rate and higher rate with equal prominence; and make it easier for borrowers, as well as state and federal authorities, to sue lenders if they violated any of the new rules. The rules would apply to all lenders, and would go into effect after a 90-day period, during which the public could comment on them. Congressional Democrats vowed to push through legislation that would place tougher restrictions on lenders. The House had passed a bill in November that would eliminate prepayment penalties altogether, among other stricter regulations. Critics also said the Fed’s rules had loopholes that lenders could exploit. Mortgage industry groups praised some aspects of the Fed’s plan, but warned that the more demanding provisions would make it more difficult for some borrowers to buy a home. „ Morgan Stanley Reports Write-down. Investment bank Morgan Stanley Dec. 19 announced that it would record a $9.4 billion fourth-quarter write-down, becoming the latest in a string of Wall Street banks to report a major devaluation of assets because of investments in mortgage-backed securities. The bank reported a net loss of $3.6 billion for the fourth quarter, its first-ever quarterly loss. Morgan Stanley also announced that it would receive a $5 billion investment from China Investment Corp., a sovereign wealth fund controlled by the Chinese government. [See pp. 825E2, 807E1, 447C3] Morgan Stanley said the bulk of the write-down, $7.8 billion, came from a single bet to buy highly rated mortgagebacked securities. That bet was intended to hedge against the bank’s position that riskier mortgage-backed securities would fall in value. However, those highly rated assets lost their value after it was revealed that riskier mortgages—many of them subprime, or given to people with poor credit—could have been bundled together with safer mortgages before they were cut up and sold to investors. Morgan Stanley in November had announced it would record a $3.7 billion write-down for the months of September and October. The deal with China Investment would give the sovereign wealth fund a 9.9% stake in the company. Citigroup Inc. and Swiss bank UBS AG had also recently reached out to sovereign wealth funds, from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore, respectively, to make up for capital lost on mortgage-backed securities. Analysts said the subprime mortgage crisis had opened the door for foreign sovereign wealth funds to gain a stake in coveted U.S. and European banks. China Investment had bought a 9.9% stake in private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP in May. The Morgan Stanley deal was the latest example of the Chinese government using its growing foreign reserves, FACTS ON FILE

the world’s largest, to invest in U.S. companies. Bear Stearns Reports Quarterly Loss—

Investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. Dec. 20 announced that it would record a $1.9 billion fourth-quarter write-down because of a devaluation of its mortgage-backed assets, and that it had lost $854 million, its first-ever quarterly net loss. Bear Stearns in October had announced that it and Chinese bank Citic Securities Co. were investing $1 billion in each other. [See p. 807F1] „

Economy 3rd Quarter GDP Growth Reported at 4.9%.

The Commerce Department Dec. 20 reported that, according to its third and final estimate, gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter of 2007 had grown at a 4.9% annual rate. That rate was the same as its most recent prior estimate, and higher than its advance estimate of 3.9%. GDP was a measure of the output of goods and services produced within a nation’s borders. [See p. 804F2] The final rate was the highest recorded in four years, despite a slumping housing market that the Commerce Department said reduced it by 1.08 percentage points. „ Trade Deficit Rose to $57.8 Billion. The Commerce Department Dec. 12 reported that the seasonally adjustTrade Deficit ed U.S. trade defi(in billions) cit in goods and October 2007 $57.82 services for Octo- Previous Month $57.12 $58.17 ber was $57.8 bil- Year Earlier lion, up from a revised $57.1 billion in September. [See p. 749E2] Exports increased $1.3 billion in October, to $141.7 billion, led by capital goods and so-called other goods. Imports increased $2.0 billion in October, to $199.5 billion, most notably in the areas of industrial supplies and materials, and consumer goods. October Bilateral Trade Data Reported—

The Commerce Department Dec. 12 also reported bilateral trade data for October. The numbers were not seasonally adjusted and contained merchandise-trade data only, with no revisions for the previous month except to the data for Canada. The October merchandise-trade deficit with China rose to $25.9 billion, from $23.8 billion the previous month. The defMERCHANDISE TRADE DATA Country/ Region

Deficit/Surplus* October September 2007 2007

China Japan Canada European Union Mexico NICs†

-25.93 -7.96 -5.23 -11.90 -7.47 -0.15

-23.77 -6.19 -4.93 -6.43 -6.30 -0.12

*Bilateral trade figures in billions of dollars unadjusted for seasonal variations. The data—except figures given for Canada—do not include revisions of month-earlier figures. †Newly industrialized countries—Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

December 20, 2007

icit with Canada rose to $5.2 billion, from a revised $4.9 billion in September. The gap with the European Union increased to $11.9 billion in October, from $6.4 billion the previous month. The gap with Japan also increased, to $8.0 billion, from $6.2 billion in September. „ Current Account Deficit Fell in 3rd Quarter.

The Commerce Department Dec. 17 reported that the U.S. current account deficit fell to $178.5 billion in the third quarter of 2007, from a revised $188.9 billion in the second quarter. The current account, the broadest measure of trade with other nations, included investment income and foreign aid as well as trade in goods and services. [See p. 611G3] „ Consumer Prices up 0.8% in November.

The Labor Department Dec. 14 reported that its consumer Inflation (CPI) price index (CPI), November 2007 0.8% which tracked Previous Month 0.3% prices paid for 12-Month Increase 4.3% consumer goods by all urban consumers, rose 0.8% in November after adjustment for seasonal variation. It was the largest monthly rise in consumer prices since September 2005. “Core” consumer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food costs, grew by 0.3% in November, after rising 0.2% in October. For the 12-month period through November, the overall unadjusted inflation rate was 4.3%. [See pp. 824E3, 766E2] Unadjusted for seasonal variation, the CPI for all urban consumers stood at 210.18% of its 1982–84 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982–84 would have cost $210.18 in October. „ Producer Prices Rose 3.2% in November.

Producer prices in November increased 3.2% after seasonal adjustment, according to the Labor Department’s producer price index (PPI), released Dec. 13. The index tracked prices charged by manufacturers and producers of finished goods. “Core” producer prices, which excluded volatile energy and food prices, rose 0.4% in November, after neither rising or falling in October. Energy prices increased 14.1% in November, after falling 0.8% the previous month. [See p. 766C3] The finished goods index, before seasonal adjustment, stood at 171.3% of its 1982 base average. That meant that a basket of goods that had cost $100 in 1982 would have cost $171.30 in November. Prices for intermediate—or partially processed—goods increased 3.7% in November, and prices for crude goods were up 8.7%. „ Housing Starts Fell 3.7% in November.

The Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Dec. 18 reported jointly that the rate of housing starts in November was 1.19 million units, annualized and adjusted for seasonal variation. That was 3.7% below the revised rate for October of 1.23 million units, and the lowest monthly number of housing starts since April 1991. [See pp. 846D2, 784E3] Building permits were issued in November at a seasonally adjusted annual rate

of 1.15 million units, 1.5% below October’s revised rate of 1.17 million. „ Retail Sales Increased 1.2% in November.

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The Commerce Department Dec. 13 reported the value of retail sales in November at $385.8 billion, after seasonal adjustment. That was 1.2% above the revised figure for October. [See p. 766G2] „ November Industrial Production up 0.3%.

The Federal Reserve Dec. 14 reported that its industrial production index rose 0.3% in November. Based on revised data, the Fed found that industrial production had fallen 0.7% in October. The overall index now stood at 113.9% of its 2002 base average, up from its revised level of 113.6% the previous month. [See p. 766B3] Manufacturing increased 0.4% in November. The output of utilities decreased 1.6%, and mining output dropped 1.3%. U.S. factories, mines and utilities operated at 81.5% of their total capacity. „ October Business Inventories up 0.1%.

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The Commerce Department Dec. 13 reported that the value of business inventories at the end of October was $1.43 trillion after seasonal adjustment, up 0.1% from the revised value at the end of September. The ratio of inventories to sales—a measure of how long it would take businesses to unload their inventories at the current sales pace—was 1.26. [See p. 766A3] „

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Richard Zannino, chief executive officer (CEO) of Dow Jones & Co., owner of the

Wall Street Journal, Dec. 6 announced his resignation, saying he would leave the company once a $5 billion acquisition by media conglomerate News Corp. was completed. The deal had been announced in July and as completed Dec. 13 when Dow Jones shareholders voted to approve it. Zannino would be replaced by Leslie Hinton, the executive chairman of Londonbased News International, which controlled News Corp.’s British newspapers, including the Times of London, News of the World and the London Sun. Gordon Crovitz, the Journal’s publisher, Dec. 7 announced his resignation; he was to be replaced by Times of London editor Robert Thomson. [See p. 493A1] James Murdoch, son of News Corp. CEO and chairman Rupert Murdoch, Dec. 6 was named head of the company’s European and Asian operations. James Murdoch,who turned 35 on Dec. 13, would step down from his current position as CEO of News Corp.’s satellite television company British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC (BSkyB). The promotion would give the younger Murdoch the third-highest spot in the company and a seat on the board. Analysts said he was in a position to succeed his father as the head of the company. [See 2005, p. 555B2] Coca-Cola Co., the world’s largest softdrink maker, Dec. 6 announced that Muhtar Kent, its president and chief operating officer (COO), would succeed E. Neville Isdell as CEO in July 2008. Isdell would stay on as chairman until April 2009, and Kent would retain his title as president. The announce847

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ment had been long expected. Isdell was credited with successfully addressing troubled areas in Coca-Cola’s business after he became CEO in 2004. [See 2006, p. 1007G1] Investment bank Lazard Ltd. Dec. 4 announced that it had hired Rodrigo de Rato, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as a senior managing director. De Rato, of Spain, had left the IMF in October, after abruptly announcing his resignation in June. De Rato was expected to give Lazard access to the political and financial connections he had made during his time as IMF chief, and as economic minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. Analysts said his experience at the IMF tackling macroeconomic issues would also be valuable to Lazard’s clients. [See p. 443E2] Brokerage company Merrill Lynch & Co. Dec. 3 named Nelson Chai, chief financial officer (CFO) at stock exchange NYSE Euronext, as its new executive vice president and CFO. In going to Merrill, Chai followed John Thain, the former NYSE Euronext CEO who had been named Merrill’s CEO in November. Chai, 42, would replace Jeffrey Edwards, who was expected to remain at Merrill in a position that had yet to be determined. [See p. 749D2] Financial company Morgan Stanley Nov. 29 announced that Zoe Cruz, its copresident, would retire, effective immediately. Cruz, one of the highest-ranking women on Wall Street, was the latest financial executive to be ousted since companies began revealing major losses due to investments in bad mortgages. Morgan Stanley in November had announced that it had lost $3.7 billion in the first two months of the fourth quarter and said in December that it would record a $9.4 billion fourth-quarter write-down. Analysts also attributed her ouster to her management style, which had chafed other executives. Cruz and Morgan’s other co-president, Bob Scully, who would remain at the company, were replaced at their positions by Walid Chammah and James Gorman. [See pp. 846C3, 749G1; 2005, p. 457D1] Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore Nov. 12 announced that he would become a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venture-capitalist firm that had taken to investing in “clean” technologies, or those that facilitated environmentally friendly initiatives. As part of the deal, Kleiner partner John Doerr would join the board of Generation Investment Management, a company set up in 2004 by Gore and former Wall Street executive David Blood that invested in companies considered environmentally and socially responsible. Gore in October had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for increasing awareness of climate change. [See p. 796D1; 2004, p. 1010A2] Media giant Time Warner Inc. Nov. 5 announced that Jeffrey Bewkes, 55, its president and COO, would succeed Richard Parsons as CEO when Parsons stepped down from the position Jan. 1, 2008. Parsons, 59, was credited with stabilizing the company after Time Warner’s 2000 merger with Internet services provider AOL Inc. led to massive losses. He would remain as 848

the company’s chairman for an indefinite period of time. [See 2006, p. 129A3; 2001, p. 1032F1] Gary Forsee, chairman and CEO of Sprint Nextel Corp., the U.S.’s third-largest wireless telephone carrier, Oct. 8 resigned from his positions, after the Wall Street Journal Oct. 5 reported that the company was searching for a replacement for him. Forsee had come under heavy criticism as Sprint continued to lose subscribers and failed to meet financial targets. Sprint Oct. 8 announced that CFO Paul Saleh had been named acting CEO, and James Hance Jr., a Sprint board member, acting chairman, until the company could find a replacement for Forsee. [See 2006, p. 1007E1] Shareholders of Swiss-based Nestle SA, the world’s largest foods company, Sept. 20 chose Paul Bulcke to succeed Peter Brabeck as the company’s CEO. The change would be effective April 2008. Bulcke, of Belgium, had led Nestle’s North and Latin American operations, which had been the company’s most profitable areas in the past three years. [See 2003, p. 753D3] Terry Semel, CEO of Yahoo Inc., a provider of Internet applications, June 18 resigned from his position. Semel was replaced by Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang. Semel had been criticized by shareholders because Yahoo’s performance had beenovershadowed by rival Google Inc. Additionally, many investors believed Semel’s salary—estimated at $71 million in 2006— was exorbitant considering the company’s performance. [See p. 757B3] AT&T Inc., the U.S.’s largest telecommunications company, April 27 announced that COO Randall Stephenson would replace CEO Edward Whitacre at his position when Whitacre retired in June. Whitacre had served at the company for 44 years, and was widely credited with expanding SBC Communications Inc. into a telecommunications giant. SBC had bought AT&T in 2005, and assumed its name. The company most recently acquired BellSouth Corp. for $68 billion in 2006. Whitacre left with a retirement package of $158.5 million, one of the largest corporate payouts in history. [See 2006, p. 167D2; 2005, p. 102A3] „

Crime Four Slain in Pair of Colorado Shootings.

A gunman Dec. 9 carried out two separate shootings at Colorado religious institutions, killing four people and wounding five others. Between the two shootings, which were carried out 12 hours apart, the assailant, Matthew Murray, posted a threatening message on an Internet forum that began with the words “you christians [sic] brought this on yourselves.” Murray, who had reportedly been raised in a strongly religious household, had prior links to one of the institutions, but his motivation for the rampage was unknown. [See p. 808B2] The initial shooting took place at a Youth With a Mission missionary training center in Arvada, Colo., shortly after midnight Dec. 9. Murray, 24, had been involved with the facility in 2002 but had been expelled from Youth With a Mission;

he had reportedly sent the organization hate mail following his expulsion. He opened fire inside the building after staff members told him he could not spend the night there, killing two employees and injuring two more. The second shooting took place at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., about 70 miles (110 km) south of Arvada. The New Life Church, a so-called megachurch with a congregation of more than 10,000, was founded by disgraced evangelical leader Rev. Ted Haggard. Murray shot and killed two sisters following the church’s 11 a.m. service and wounded three other people. He then fatally shot himself after being shot and wounded by a security guard. [See 2006, p. 864F2] „ Bush Pardons 29 Convicts. President George W. Bush Dec. 11 issued presidential pardons to 29 convicted criminals and commuted one prison sentence, bringing the total number of pardons and commutations during his presidency to 142 and five, respectively. Those pardoned on Dec. 11 included drug dealers, a man convicted of gambling offenses related to the 1997 Super Bowl and a convicted moonshiner. Absent was I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, whose prison sentence Bush had commuted in July, and whom he had not ruled out pardoning. [See p. 846A2; 2006, p. 1010D3] „ Former Militants Charged in 1971 Murder.

San Francisco, Calif., Deputy Police Chief Morris Tabak Jan. 23 announced that eight former members of the Black Liberation Army, a militant group active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, had been arrested in connection with the 1971 murder of a San Francisco police officer. The defendants were expected to enter pleas on Jan. 10, 2008. [See 1971, p. 697A1] Of the eight men arrested, seven—Richard Brown, 65, Francisco (Cisco) Torres, 58, Ray Boudreaux, 64, Henry Watson Jones, 71, Harold Taylor, 58, Herman Bell, 69, and Anthony Bottom, 55—were charged with killing police Sgt. John V. Young as well as conspiracy to murder police officers related to a series of bombings, attempted bombings, attempted murders and bank robberies carried out between 1968 and 1973. An eighth defendant, Richard O’Neal, 57, was charged was conspiracy to murder police officers but was not implicated in Young’s murder; a ninth suspect, Ronald Bridgeforth, was believed to have fled the country. Both Bottom and Bell were already imprisoned in New York for the 1971 killing of two police officers there. Taylor had been arrested in New Orleans, La., in 1973 along with two others: John Bowman, who was now dead, and Ruben Scott, who was not among those charged Jan. 23. They had been charged with the killing in 1975 but were released after it was discovered that in extracting confessions from the men, police interrogators had scalded them with boiling water, beaten them and used electric prods on their genitals. The case had been reopened in 1999 but no charges were issued as a result. „ FACTS ON FILE

AFRICA

South Africa Divided ANC Elects Zuma as New President.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party Dec. 18 elected Jacob Zuma, the country’s former deputy president, as its new president. Zuma defeated the incumbent, South African President Thabo Mbeki, 2,329–1,505, in a vote of delegates at the party’s annual conference in Polokwane. The conference was held Dec. 16–20. [See pp. 670B3, 530F2; 2006, p. 415F2] The election victory was seen as yet another step in the political comeback of Zuma, who had been fired by Mbeki as South Africa’s deputy president in June 2005 in the wake of the conviction of Zuma’s former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, on bribery charges. Zuma was subsequently charged with accepting bribes— funneled through Shaik—from a French weapons manufacturer. The charges against Zuma were dismissed on a technicality in September 2006. [See 2006, p. 881A2] However, Mokotedi Mpshe, the acting head of South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority, Dec. 20 told Johannesburg’s Talk Radio 702 that a decision on whether to file new corruption charges against Zuma in the same case was “imminent.” Mpshe added, “The investigation, with the evidence we have now, points to a case that can be taken to court.” If Zuma was convicted, he could be barred from becoming the nation’s president. The president of the ANC, the dominant party in the country, was virtually assured of becoming the new South African president in 2009. (The president was elected by parliament after a general election.) However, some analysts said the anticipated new corruption charges against Zuma could hamper his ascension to the presidency. Mbeki was constitutionally barred from seeking a third term. But if he had held on to the ANC presidency, he would have wielded influence over the ANC’s choice of presidential candidate. Separately, Zuma had been acquitted of rape charges in May 2006, but not before the widespread publication of embarrassing testimony, including quotes of him saying that he had showered after having sexual intercourse with the accuser, who was HIV-positive, in order to avoid catching the AIDS virus. [See 2006, p. 378A1] Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who had been a leading figure in the anti-apartheid struggle but was not a member of the ANC, in an interview published Dec. 14 in South Africa’s Mail and Guardian newspaper had urged ANC delegates not to “choose someone of whom most of us would be ashamed,” referring to Zuma. Tutu added, “Although he is very likeable, we have to ask ourselves: ‘What is happening in the ANC?’” Candidates’ Differences Highlighted—

Both Zuma, 65, and Mbeki, 65, were heroes of the ANC’s struggle against apartDecember 20, 2007

heid, but had very different personalities. Zuma, an ethnic Zulu, was a charismatic populist. He had no formal schooling, and joined the military wing of the ANC as a teenager. He was imprisoned in 1963 at the age of 21 by the apartheid government. After his release in 1973, he went into exile, returning to South Africa in 1990 as apartheid was breaking down. Mbeki selected him as his deputy president in 1999, but the two fell out soon after. Zuma’s followers had alleged that the corruption and rape charges were trumped up by Mbeki and his allies to undermine Zuma’s political career. Mbeki, an ethnic Xhosa, was a Britisheducated technocrat whose personality was described as dour and distant. During his presidency, he had alienated many of the ANC’s leftist and labor union supporters with his pro-market economic policies, and had been criticized as being out of touch with the rank and file. His opponents claimed that the gap between rich and poor in South Africa had widened since he took office in 1999, and that he had done little to help the poor. [See p. 435D2] Zuma’s supporters also won elections for the five other top positions in the ANC. Kgalema Motlanthe, the current secretary general, was elected deputy president. In a Dec. 20 victory speech, Zuma struck a conciliatory note, saying, “We need to heal the ANC. We must also work with government and other sectors to build a caring society.” He referred to Mbeki as “comrade, friend and brother.” Zuma also sought to reassure foreign investors, who had feared that his alliance with the Communist Party and trade unions would cause him to reverse Mbeki’s economic policies. Zuma said there was “no reason why the domestic and international business community, or any other sector, should be uneasy.” He added, “We have to strengthen the relationships with organized business so that we can continue growing the South African economy.” After the speech, in a move that was characteristic of his campaign style, Zuma sang “Bring Me My Machine Gun,” an anti-apartheid anthem, while his supporters danced and sang along. Zuma’s supporters had also jeered Mbeki during the conference. Party Split Noted—Some observers saw the power struggle within the ANC as damaging to the party. Its previous leadership change had been less divisive, when, in 1997, then-President Nelson Mandela handed control of the ANC to Mbeki. Mbeki succeeded Mandela as South African president in 1999, after the ANC won the national election by a landslide. [See 1999, p. 443F1; 1997, p. 962A1] Mandela, in a message delivered to delegates Dec. 16, said he was saddened by “the nature of the differences currently in the organization.” Mandela, 89, did not attend the conference due to ill health. Others said the current turmoil in the party represented a natural shift as the ANC evolved from an anti-apartheid movement to an institutionalized political party.

Winnie Mandela Elected to Executive—

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela, Dec. 20 was the top vote-getter in an election for the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), held at the conclusion of the party congress. The 80-member NEC was the ANC’s main policy-making body. Madikizela-Mandela had not been an active member of the ANC since 2003, when she was convicted of fraud. She garnered 2,845 of 3,605 votes cast by delegates. Under a new ANC rule, half of the NEC members had to be women. [See 2004, p. 1084D2] Others voted onto the NEC or retaining their seats included former Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, who had been fired by Mbeki in August; her former boss, controversial Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang; Tony Yengeni, the ANC’s former chief whip who had been convicted of fraud in 2003; and veteran ANC activists-turned-businessmen Tokyo Sexwale and Cyril Ramaphosa. Meanwhile, eight of Mbeki’s cabinet ministers were ousted, including Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and Minister of the Presidency Essop Pahad. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel retained his post. [See p. 530A2; 2003, p. 802A2] „

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Bermuda Ruling Party Holds Parliament. The ruling Progressive Labour Party (PLP) headed by

Prime Minister Ewart Brown Dec. 18 won 24 seats in the 36-seat House of Assembly in nationwide elections held in Bermuda. The opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) won the remaining seats. Michael Dunkley, leader of the UBP, failed to win the parliamentary seat he ran for, a result that forced him to resign as party leader. At dissolution the PLP had held 22 seats, to the UBP’s 14. [See 1998, p. 952B3] The PLP had risen to power in 1998, after campaigning on a platform promising improvement for the treatment of Bermuda’s black population, which constituted about 60% of residents. PLP officials in the recent campaign had promised free public transportation and day care. The UBP had accused Brown of corruption, and said the PLP had failed to provide affordable housing. Bermuda, a British island territory about 620 miles (1,000 km) east of the U.S. state of North Carolina, had a population of about 66,000. It enjoyed one of the highest per capita incomes in the world due to its strong economy, based on the reinsurance and tourism industries. „

Bolivia Four Provinces Seek Greater Autonomy.

The governments of four provinces of Bolivia Dec. 15 began efforts to seek greater autonomy from the federal government headed by President Evo Morales Aima. Leaders in the provinces of Santa Cruz, 849

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Tarija, Beni and Pando began collecting signatures to hold a public referendum on “autonomy statutes” that would transfer powers to the provincial governments. However, the provincial governments’ actions stopped short of declaring full independence from Bolivia. [See p. 827C2] The provincial autonomy movement had been sparked by the approval earlier in December of a new draft constitution by a constituent assembly allied with Morales. The assembly had been boycotted by most of the country’s political opposition. The document would increase the federal government’s control over the country’s resources, and give the country’s poor, indigenous majority, which was concentrated in Bolivia’s western highlands, greater representation in the government. Opposition to Morales’s reform efforts was concentrated in the wealthy, mixedrace provinces in the east. The four provinces that took action Dec. 15 were considered the wealthiest in Bolivia. The autonomy statutes would give provincial governments more power over police forces, agricultural governance, land titles and royalties accrued through the sale of natural resources such as natural gas. “We want the central government to hear our message of nonviolent autonomy,” said Roly Aguilera, the secretary general of Santa Cruz province. Hundreds of supporters of the autonomy movement Dec. 15 rallied in the four provincial capitals. Backers of the president also demonstrated that day in La Paz, Bolivia’s capital, a stronghold of Morales support. Government supporters alleged that the opposition effort was fueled by racism against Bolivia’s indigenous population. Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera Dec. 14 said the rich residents of Santa Cruz had expressed “separatist and racist attitudes.” Morales Dec. 19 described the autonomy movement as illegal, but said he believed the situation could be resolved without the use of military force or the declaration of a state of emergency. However, the Financial Times Dec. 20 reported that Linera had said, “If they try to take one millimeter of the Bolivian state, the government will not allow this to happen,” though he played down the chance of violent confrontation. „

Canada Mulroney Disputes Payment Allegations.

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Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, of the defunct Progressive Conservative party, at a Dec. 13 House of Commons Ethics Committee hearing admitted to taking large cash payments in 1993 and 1994 from Canadian-German arms dealer and lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber. However, he rejected accusations that he had received the payments while still prime minister. Mulroney also denied that the payments had been linked to Air Canada’s 1988 purchase of several Airbus planes while the airline was still under government control. [See p. 756C2] 850

Schreiber, who was wanted in Germany on charges of tax evasion and bribery, in court documents filed in November had claimed that he had given Mulroney multiple cash payments totaling C$300,000 (US$240,000) between 1993 and 1994. Mulroney in his testimony said he had received only C$225,000 in cash payments from Schreiber beginning in August 1993, after he had resigned as prime minister in June of that year, but while he was still a member of Parliament. Mulroney said his receipt of the payments, made in envelopes filled with C$1,000 dollar bills, was a “serious error in judgment,” but denied they were illegal or given as kickbacks for the Airbus plane purchases. Mulroney said the payments were a retainer for him to serve as “international representation” for the German industrial company Thyssen AG, now known as ThyssenKrupp AG. However, he had not reported them as income or paid taxes on them until 1999, when Schreiber was charged in Germany. „ Serial Killer Pickton Convicted, Sentenced. A jury in British Columbia Supreme Court in New Westminster, a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, Dec. 9 convicted pig farmer Robert (Willie) Pickton of six counts of second-degree murder. Justice James William Dec. 11 sentenced him to life in prison, with a possibility of parole after 25 years. [See p. 66C3] Pickton, 58, had been charged with 26 counts of murder in connection with the disappearance of almost 70 women, many drug-addicted prostitutes, who had disappeared between the 1980s and 2001 from the impoverished Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver. The charges had been split up into two trials. Pickton was convicted of six murders in the first trial; he would face a second trial for the remaining 20 murder charges. Pickton had used money and drugs to lure his victims to his farm in the suburb of Port Coquitlam. There he had killed them, cut up their bodies, and then disposed of their remains in a rendering plant or by feeding them to pigs. He had been arrested in February 2002 and charged with the murder of two of the missing women; subsequent charges were later added after human remains were found at his farm. Lynn Ellingsen, a boarder and employee of Pickton’s, June 25 had testified that she had aided Pickton in bringing a Vancouver prostitute to his farm. She said later that evening, after smoking crack cocaine, she had entered Pickton’s slaughterhouse and seen him butchering what appeared to be human remains. „ High Court Denies U.S. Deserter Hearings.

Canada’s Supreme Court, the country’s highest court, Nov. 15 said it would decline to hear the cases of former U.S. Army soldiers Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, both of whom in 2004 had deserted the military and sought refugee status in Canada based on their opposition to the Iraq war. The Supreme Court did not provide a reason for refusing to hear the case. [See 2005, p. 214A2]

Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board in 2005 had denied the two men’s refugee status claims, finding that they would not be at risk of “cruel and unusual treatment or punishment” if sent back to the U.S. Hughey and Hinzman had argued that the U.S.’s war in Iraq contravened international law, and cited their moral opposition to military action there. The Supreme Court decision increased the likelihood that Hughey and Hinzman would be sent back to the U.S., where they would likely be court-martialed. Jeffrey House, the men’s lawyer, said the high court’s decision imperiled similar claims made by 40 other U.S. military deserters in Canada whom he represented. House estimated that as many as 300 other U.S. deserters were hiding in Canada. „ Markets Announce Merger Proposal. The TSX Group, operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange, Dec. 10 announced a C$1.31 billion (US$1.3 billion) cash and stock bid to take over Montreal Exchange Inc., owner of the eponymous futures exchange. Under the terms of the deal, TSX would pay C$13.95 (US$13.84) and one-half of a TSX share for each Montreal Exchange share. [See p. 651E1; 2002, p. 897F3] The new company would be named TMX Group Inc., and would be headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty had reportedly backed the merger of the two entities in order to help protect Canadian financial markets from foreign takeover attempts. „

Cuba Castro Hints at Relinquishing Power. Ail-

ing Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz said in a letter read Dec. 17 on state-run television that he would not hold onto power in Cuba indefinitely. Castro had led Cuba since the 1959 revolution that ousted Gen. Fulgencio Batista’s military dictatorship. In July 2006, Castro, suffering from a gastrointestinal ailment, had temporarily ceded day-to-day governing powers to his younger brother, Gen. Raul Castro Ruz. He had not appeared publicly since then. [See p. 702F3] In his letter, which focused on global climate change, Castro wrote, “My elemental duty is not to cling to positions, or even less to obstruct the path of younger people.” The remarks were the first time that Castro, 81, indicated that he might not reassume the full powers of the presidency of Cuba’s Council of State; that post made him the head of Cuba’s government. But the vague nature of the statement appeared to leave open a wide range of options for Castro’s future role. Castro Dec. 2 had been nominated as a candidate in elections for the Communist Party–controlled National Assembly, Cuba’s legislature, scheduled for Jan. 20, 2008. The National Assembly was scheduled to meet in March 2008 to select the members of the Council of State, which in turn would then select its president. Castro’s nomination allowed for the possibility that he would maintain his role as president of Council of State. [See p. 788C1] FACTS ON FILE

It was widely assumed that Raul Castro, 76, would assume the Council of State presidency in the event of his brother’s death. The two people considered the most likely immediate subordinates to Raul Castro were Vice President Carlos Lage, 56, and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, 42. U.N. Votes Against U.S. Embargo—The United Nations General Assembly Oct. 30 voted, 184–4 with one abstention, to recommend that the U.S. end its 46-year-old trade embargo against Cuba. It was the 16th consecutive year in which the U.N. had cast such a vote. The U.S. was joined by Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands in voting against the nonbinding resolution, with Micronesia registering its abstention. [See 1998, p. 989C3] U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the trade embargo would remain in place even if power in Cuba was transferred from Fidel Castro to Raul Castro, the Financial Times reported Dec. 3. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Dec. 19 released a report finding that U.S. Customs inspectors had focused too much on inspecting travelers coming from Cuba, at the expense of remaining vigilant against terrorism and other threats. The report found that 20% of passengers arriving at Miami International Airport, in Florida, on charter flights from Cuba were being searched, compared with 3% on other international flights. “Secondary inspections of Cuba arrivals at the airport may strain U.S. Customs and Border Protection to carry out its mission of keeping terrorists, criminals and other inadmissable aliens from entering the country,” the report said. It recommended that the Treasury Department refocus trade sanction enforcement efforts on freezing terrorist assets, instead of on Cuban embargo cases. „

Guatemala Congress Passes Adoption Reform Bill.

Guatemala’s Congress Dec. 11 passed a bill requiring more stringent regulation of adoptions. The law brought Guatemala into line with The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, an international treaty designed to reduce the number of adopted children who were stolen to be sold to foreigners. Guatemalan President Oscar Berger Perdomo was expected to sign the bill into law. [See p. 376D3] The bill included a provision that would exclude about 3,700 children in the midst of the adoption process from the new regulations. The measure would establish a federal agency to oversee and regulate adoptions, and make illegal the practice of paying birth parents for their children. Previously, a largely unregulated network of attorneys and private notaries had orchestrated adoptions in Guatemala. The government estimated the cost of adoptions would drop to $500–$750 per child, from around $30,000 per child under the current system. „ December 20, 2007

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Australia Child Gang-Rape Verdict Sparks Outrage.

Rulings by a judge in Australian District Court in Queensland had allowed a group of nine men and boys to avoid jail following their involvement in the 2006 gang rape of a 10-year-old girl, Australian news sources reported Dec. 10. News of the sentences incited outrage in Australia and prompted inquiries into the conduct of the trial judge and the prosecutor in the case, who had also appeared to minimize the crime. [See p. 467D3] In October and November, Judge Sarah Bradley had sentenced the six defendants under the age of 16, Australia’s age of majority, to 12 months of probation, after which their convictions would be expunged. She gave six-month suspended sentences to the three adult defendants, including one who had a previous child sex crime conviction. She also said at the sentencing that the victim had “probably agreed” to have sex with the defendants. The Australian newspaper reported Dec. 14 that a police report into the gang rape found that the rape took place between May 1 and June 12, 2006, in the largely Aboriginal area of Aurukun; both the victim and the defendants were Aborigines. In addition, the report said that the girl had been raped as many as six additional times by individual defendants during that period. The girl had previously been abused at age seven and had been sent to foster care with a non-Aboriginal family. The gang rape occurred after her release from foster care. The victim, who suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome, had reportedly been returned to foster care following the rape. Child abuse in areas heavily populated by Aborigines had been described as epidemic in a June 2007 report. The report had prompted the country’s government, then controlled by recently unseated Prime Minister John Howard, to ban alcohol and pornography within Aboriginal communities in the country’s Northern Territory, among other measures. [See p. 811B3] Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Dec. 13 said he would consider adding indigenous issues to the agenda for his government’s first conference with state premiers on Dec. 20. Jenny Macklin, Rudd’s minister of indigenous affairs, Dec. 12 said Australia’s “child protection system certainly let this little girl down and now we all need to work as hard as possible to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh Dec. 10 announced a review of all sex offense sentences issued in the province during the previous two years. Attorney General Kerry Shine reportedly planned to appeal the sentences granted by Bradley. Shine Dec. 11 announced that Steve Carter, who had prosecuted the case, would step down from his post as chief legal officer of the Cape York district of Queensland to allow for an investigation into his conduct in the case. In court, Carter had described the rape as sexual experimentation

among children, despite the presence of a 26-year-old defendant. He also told the court that the sex had been prearranged between the victim and the defendants and that the defendants had not used force against the victim. „

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Kazakhstan 2010 OSCE Chairmanship Awarded. Kaza-

khstan Nov. 30 was awarded the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for 2010, one year later than Kazakh leaders had sought. The OSCE was a regional security organization whose responsibilities included the monitoring of human rights and elections. Kazakhstan was the first former Soviet republic to hold the post. The decision was made at the OSCE’s yearly summit, held in Madrid, Spain’s capital. [See pp. 772C1, 563F1; 2006, p. 936A2] Elections in Kazakhstan had never been judged free and fair by the OSCE, including the most recent parliamentary elections in August. Kazakhstan’s parliament was composed entirely of one pro-government party, and President Nursultan Nazarbayev was exempt from term limits under a constitutional amendment passed in May. However, the OSCE did recognize an “increased ability of political parties to convey their message to voters” in those elections. At the OSCE summit, the U.S. reportedly won from Kazakhstan a pledge to protect the organization’s election-monitoring arm, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), when it held the chairmanship. Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch, Nov. 30 said in a statement, “Kazakhstan doesn’t observe OSCE commitments at home. Entrusting in Kazakhstan the leadership to uphold the organization’s human rights commitment is a singularly bad idea.” Kazakhstan had expressed interest in chairing the organization in 2005 and 2006, but had been turned down due to its human rights record, according to Human Rights Watch. Finland would take over the chairmanship from Spain in 2008, followed by Greece in 2009, and Lithuania in 2011. „

Philippines Convictions in ’01 Tourist Abduction Trial.

The trial of a group of Islamic militants accused of kidnapping 20 people, including three U.S. citizens, from a Philippine resort in 2001 concluded Dec. 6 with the conviction of 14 defendants and the acquittal of four. All of the convicted defendants were sentenced the same day to life in prison. [See 2004, p. 282B3] The abductions, carried out by members of Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic separatist militia, had spurred a large-scale military response by the Philippine government, assisted by specialized antiterrorist training by the U.S. government. Though some hostages escaped, two of the three Americans were killed. One, Guillermo Sobero, 851

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South Korea Conservative Lee Wins Presidential Election.

Lee Myung Bak of South Korea’s conservative opposition Grand National Party 852

(GNP) won the country’s Dec. 19 presidential election, defeating Chung Dong Young of the United New Democratic Party (UNDP), 48.6%–26.2%. The UNDP was allied with incumbent President Roh Moo Hyun, who was limited by the constitution to a single five-year term. Independent candidate Lee Hoi Chang, another conservative, won 15.1%. [See p. 770G1; 2002, p. 994D3; for facts on Lee, see box, p. 852E2] Lee, who turned 66 on Dec. 19, was a former executive of Hyundai Group, one of the large conglomerates that dominated South Korea’s economy, and a former mayor of Seoul, the capital. His campaign focused on pledges to revive the economy, and highlighted his business career, which paralleled South Korea’s rise from impoverishment after World War II to become a major industrial and technological power. Lee’s victory gave the GNP the presidency for the first time in 10 years. His margin of victory was the largest since democratic presidential elections were instituted in 1987. However, he failed in his stated goal of becoming the first candidate since then to win an outright majority of the vote. Turnout was a record low 63%, down from 71% in 2002, and from 81% in 1997. Lee was scheduled to take office Feb. 25, 2008. Overcomes Taint of Corruption Probe—

Lee had held a consistent lead in opinion polls throughout the campaign amid widespread dissatisfaction with Roh. He defeated Chung resoundingly despite the opening Dec. 17, two days before the election, of a new independent investigation of corruption allegations against him. Prosecutors Dec. 5 had cleared him of allegations of stock manipulation in connection with a company called BBK, which Lee insisted he had no connection to. However, a video recording was made public Dec. 16 of a university lecture in which Lee claimed to have founded BBK, prompting the new investigation.

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was beheaded, while Martin Burnham was killed during the 2002 military rescue that freed his wife, Gracia Burnham, from their kidnappers. Prosecutors had initially indicted 85 members of Abu Sayyaf, but only 23 of the suspects were captured by police. Of those, four were killed in an escape attempt and one had previously been acquitted. „ Secret Killings Protested. More than 1,000 people marched Dec. 10 in Manila, the capital, to protest widespread abductions and killings that two recent reports had linked to members of the Philippine military. Those reports, by human rights group Karapatan and United Nations human rights official Philip Alston, placed the number of secret killings during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the hundreds. [See p. 812B2] The protest, which took place on International Human Rights Day, included relatives of those abducted or murdered and members of the country’s leftist Bayan political coalition. The march was stopped from approaching the presidential palace by a group of at least 100 police officers in riot gear. Protesters peacefully dispersed and there were no reports of violence or injuries. Karapatan Dec. 3 issued its 2007 Human Rights Report, which found that a total of 887 people had been victims of extrajudicial killings between January 2001, when Arroyo took office, and October 2007, including 68 people killed since the beginning of 2007. It also found that 185 people were missing following forcible abductions linked to the military during Arroyo’s presidency, including 26 who had disappeared in 2007. The 2007 numbers were markedly below those for 2006, an improvement that the report credited to increased international scrutiny of the Philippine military. Alston Nov. 26 reported his conclusion that many of the hundreds of reported deaths and disappearances were “the result of deliberate targeting by the military as part of counterinsurgency operations against communist rebels.” While Alston also found that rebel groups and militias were involved in some of the killings, he placed special emphasis on the military’s alleged role, saying that “a founding U.N. member state like the Philippines and a signatory to the U.N. Human Rights Convention” should be held to a higher standard. He called on Arroyo to “take concrete steps” to end the military killings and kidnappings. The military disputed Alston’s findings and suggested that his “socialist” political sympathies had led him to blame the military for the deaths, the Pacific News Center reported Nov. 28. The Philippine government maintained that most murdered leftwing activists were killed by their fellow communists during internal purges. „

South Korean President-elect Lee Myung Bak, addressing supporters Dec. 19 after his presidential election victory that day.

Lee Dec. 17 said he had made “incorrect statements” in the taped lecture, and insisted that he was innocent of the allegations. A former business partner of his, Kim Kyung Joon, had been extradited from the U.S. Nov. 15 and charged Dec. 5 with manipulating stock prices and forging documents at BBK. The independent probe was required to report its findings within 40 days, which would come before Lee’s inauguration. Campaign Centered on Economy— Lee in his campaign set out an array of targets for increased economic prosperity, including an increase in annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 7%, from the 4.5% annual average under Roh, and an increase of per capita income, currently about $18,000, to $30,000 in five years, and $40,000 in 10 years. Lee said that reducing corporate taxes and regulations would encourage growth,

FACTS ON LEE

Lee Myung Bak was born in Osaka, Japan, on Dec. 19, 1941, during Japanese colonial rule over Korea. His family returned to Korea after the end of World War II and Japanese occupation in 1945, and he grew up in the southeastern city of Pohang. One of seven children in a poor family, he supported himself while attending Korea University in Seoul, the capital, by working as a garbage collector, graduating with a business degree in 1965. As a student, Kim was involved in activism against the military regime that then ruled South Korea, and was imprisoned for several months for participating in a demonstration against the country’s normalization of ties with Japan. Blacklisted from employment, he protested in a letter to military President Park Chung Hee. In 1965, he was hired by Hyundai Construction and Engineering Co. A protege of Hyundai founder Chung Ju Yung, he rose to become president at 36 in 1977, and chief executive in 1988. By the time he stepped

down in 1992, the company had grown more than a thousandfold since he joined it. He gained the nickname “the Bulldozer” at Hyundai for his driving style and pursuit of major infrastructural projects. Lee entered politics in 1992, becoming a conservative member of the National Assembly (parliament) until 1998. He served as mayor of Seoul, the capital, from 2002 to 2006. [See 2004, p. 763F2] The conservative Grand National Party in August had nominated Lee as its presidential candidate in the election to succeed Roh Moo Hyun. He was elected president Dec. 19, defeating Chung Dong Young of the United New Democratic Party (UNDP). He was scheduled to take office Feb. 25, 2008. [See pp. 852G1, 770G1] After the emergence of new evidence, Parliament Dec. 17 had voted to establish a new independent investigation of corruption allegations that Lee had recently been cleared of. Lee and his wife, Kim Yoon Ok, had one son and three daughters. FACTS ON FILE

and that he would promote the financial sector by privatizing government-controlled banks and eliminating a rule that forbade the conglomerates, or chaebol, from operating banks. N. Korea Overshadowed as an Issue—

Policy toward North Korea, often a top contentious political issue in the past, was overshadowed by economic concerns in the campaign. Bilateral tensions had risen when North Korea tested a nuclear weapon in 2006. But progress in international efforts to persuade it to abandon its nuclear programs, and Roh’s continued pursuit of warmer relations, appeared to have reduced South Korean voters’ anxiety over the threat posed by North Korea. [See p. 829A2] The president-elect broadly supported continuing the policy of active engagement with North Korea. He emphasized increasing trade and investment projects in North Korea, with a goal of increasing North Koreans’ per capita income to $3,000 in 10 years. However, Lee said he would demand more concessions on the nuclear issue from North Korea in return for aid and trade benefits. He said Dec. 20 at a news conference after his victory that Roh’s government had gone out of its way “to avoid criticizing North Korea.” He vowed to be more forthright in pointing out North Korea’s “shortcomings” in respecting human rights, but “with affection.” A greater insistence on North Korean concessions would put Lee more in line than Roh with the North Korea policy of the U.S., South Korea’s major ally. „

EUROPE

UNITED STATES

Poland News in Brief. The Polish government Dec.

18 formally requested that Polish President Lech Kaczynski approve a plan for the

withdrawal of the approximately 900 Polish troops stationed in Iraq by Oct. 31, 2008.

Their current mission expired on Dec. 31 of the current year, and the October 2008 deadline had been presented as a compromise between the conservative Kaczynski and Poland’s new, more liberal prime minister, Donald Tusk. Tusk said if the president did not approve the plan, Polish troops would need to leave Iraq immediately after the end of the year—an operation that would present significant logistical hurdles. [See p. 771B3] Russia and Poland Dec. 18 indicated that they would hold talks on a proposed U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe, which would be partially based in Poland. Sergei Yastrzhembsky, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, said the previous Polish administration of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s twin brother, had refused to discuss the shield—which Russia opposed—with Russian officials. The first of the talks would take place in Warsaw, Poland’s capital, in early 2008. [See p. 705A1] „ December 20, 2007

Russia

Serbia

Putin Would Accept Prime Minister Post.

U.N. Pulls Out of Kosovo Negotiations.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Dec. 17 said he had accepted deputy prime minister and presidential candidate Dmitri A. Medvedev’s offer to make him Russia’s prime minister, in the event that Medvedev won Russia’s upcoming presidential election. Putin had tapped Medvedev as his successor a week earlier. There was little doubt that Medvedev, 42, with the backing of the enormously popular Putin and his United Russia party, would win that election, scheduled for March 2008. Putin announced his decision at a United Russia meeting. “All of this is Vladimir Putin’s strategy…I will be guided by this strategy,” Medvedev said at the meeting. [See p. 830A3] Putin and Medvedev, who had begun working together in the 1990s in St. Petersburg, had yet to offer any details on how their power-sharing strategy would work. However, in Russia, the power of the president traditionally trumped that of the prime minister. Analysts did not expect Putin to accept a subordinate position to Medvedev, a lawyer who had never held elected office. Most predicted that Putin would remain the de facto leader of Russia. Some suggested a new model of government would emerge in 2008, and others speculated that Medvedev would not complete his term, resulting in a special presidential election in which Putin would be eligible to run. Other News—In other Russian news: † The Communist Party Dec. 15 nominated Gennady Zyuganov, its leader, to run in the 2008 presidential election. The Communist Party was the only opposition party that held seats in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, following elections earlier in December. Zyuganov had unsuccessfully run for president against former Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin in 1996, and against Putin in 2000. [See p. 800A1; 2000, p. 205A1; 1996, p. 106C2] † Several hundred people Dec. 16 gathered in Moscow to nominate Vladimir Bukovsky, a Soviet-era dissident who had brought to light Soviet practices of forced psychiatric treatment of political opponents, as an independent presidential candidate. However, since Bukovsky was currently a British citizen, it was unlikely he would be allowed to run. [See 1976, p. 955D2] † A Russian court had ordered the release of Andrei Novikov, a journalist who had been confined to a psychiatric hospital for nine months, the French-based press-freedom monitoring group Reporters Without Borders said Dec. 6. Novikov had been employed by Chechenpress, a news service with links to Chechen separatists’ self-proclaimed government, when he was convicted in December 2006 of sedition and inciting violence. [See p. 799E2] „

The United Nations Security Council, after a closed-door meeting Dec. 19 with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Kosovar President Fatmin Sejdiu, released a statement saying that two years of efforts by the council to resolve the crisis in the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo had failed, and that a solution would have to come from outside the U.N. [See p. 831A1] John Sawers, the British ambassador to the U.N., that day said the European Union would proceed with a plan for “supervised independence” laid out in March by the U.N.’s envoy to Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari. Under that plan, Kosovo would initially be overseen by international agencies, which would ensure that Kosovo and Albania did not merge (Kosovo was 90% ethnic Albanian), and that sections of Kosovo mainly populated by Serbs would not break off and join Serbia. The international oversight would also encourage eventual membership for Kosovo in the U.N. [See p. 211G3] However, Russia and Serbia, which was offering Kosovo the same autonomy it had had under the former Yugoslavia but vehemently opposed independence, said a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo was illegal because it violated U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244. That resolution had been passed after North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces ejected Serbian forces from Kosovo in 1999. Sawers, however, Dec. 19 said the same resolution provided “a sufficient legal base to move forward to a final settlement and to establish the necessary authorities needed to achieve that.” Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema, who had presided over the Dec. 19 Security Council meeting, suggested that the involvement of Russia and the U.S. had exacerbated the stalemate between the two sides. He said Serbian President Boris Tadic had told him, “I can’t let the Russians be more Serbian than me,” and the Kosovar leadership felt similarly about the U.S. EU Pledges Aid to Kosovo—Leaders of the EU Dec. 14 said they would send up to 1,800 police officers, judges, prosecutors and customs officials to Kosovo in preparation for a declaration of independence. Kosovo also asked NATO forces to secure a reservoir in the north of the province, for fear that Serbs in the region would cut off water and electricity supplies to southern Kosovo, which was populated by ethnic Albanians. The lake provided drinking water, as well as water to cool Kosovo’s power plant. Serb leaders said the mission would be illegal unless the EU first obtained a new resolution from the U.N. Security Council. However, since Russia was a permanent member of the council and wielded veto power, such a resolution was unlikely to be passed. The EU had also said Serbian compliance on Kosovo could expedite Serbia’s 853

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entry into the EU. Kostunica Dec. 14 said the offer was “insulting.” Estimates on when Kosovo would declare independence ranged from January to May 2008. U.N. Deputy Chief Steps Down—The deputy chief of the U.N. administration in Kosovo, retired U.S. Army Gen. Steven Schook, had left his post, after U.N. investigations found that he had improper ties with Kosovar Albanian leaders, Britain’s Financial Times reported Dec. 20. Among his contacts was former prime minister and commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrilla group Ramush Haradinaj, who was being tried at the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the Netherlands, for war crimes. [See p. 212A2] „

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Ukrainian parliament Dec. 18 confirmed Yulia Tymoshenko as the country’s new prime minister. Tymoshenko won a razorthin majority of 226 in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada, or parliament, elected in snap elections in September. The proRussian opposition, headed by former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, boycotted the Dec. 18 vote. [See pp. 813B3, 721C2; for facts on Tymoshenko, see p. 854E1] The show-of-hands vote was the second attempt to confirm Tymoshenko as prime minister. On Dec. 11, she had fallen one vote short of confirmation, and the same day claimed that the machine used to count the votes had been tampered with. However, no evidence supporting that claim was found.

Yulia Tymoshenko, elected prime minister of Ukraine for the second time Dec. 18.

Tymoshenko’s coalition was composed of her own Yulia Tymoshenko bloc, which held 156 seats in parliament, and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine faction, which held 72 seats. Some analysts said Tymoshenko’s tenure as prime minister could be cut short, in the event she used the position to garner support for a run against Yushchenko in Ukraine’s next presidential election, to be held in late 2008. Tymoshenko had been Yushchenko’s prime minister for seven months after Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” in 2004, but he had fired her after their coalition became crippled by infighting. „

FACTS ON TYMOSHENKO

Yulia Tymoshenko was born Nov. 27, 1960, in Dnipropetrovsk, an industrial town in the Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine. She graduated from Dnipropetrovsk State University in 1984 with a degree in economics, and that year began working as an economy engineer at a machinery plant. In 1988, Tymoshenko and her husband opened a video rental cooperative, and from 1989–91, she ran an arcade and youth center in Dnipropetrovsk. In 1991, Tymoshenko became the managing director of the Ukrainian Oil Corporation, which later became United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU), a company that managed Russian gas supplies to Ukraine. Tymoshenko was made president of the company in 1995. In December 1996, Tymoshenko was elected to parliament, under the pro-business Gromada party. She remained in the parliament, where she worked on the budget committee, until 1999, when she became Ukraine’s energy minister under Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko. The same year she received a Ph.D. in economics from Kiev National University. In 2001, Tymoshenko was arrested on charges of corruption and spent 42 days in prison. However, the charges against her were eventually dropped. In 2002, her party, the 854

Yulia Tymoshenko bloc, won 21 seats in parliament. In 2004, she and Yushchenko led the “Orange Revolution” in response to alleged vote falsification that had favored Russianbacked Viktor Yanukovich. That election was overturned, a subsequent election was held, and Yushchenko was elected president. [See 2005, p. 51A3; 2004, p. 937A1; 2001, p. 107F2] In 2005, Yushchenko named Tymoshenko his prime minister, but fired her after seven months in office. Her party emerged with 129 seats in parliament after elections in March 2006, and 156 seats in September elections. In October, Tymoshenko and Yushchenko reestablished their coalition, and together they held 228 seats in Ukraine’s 450-seat parliament. [See p. 721C2; 2006, p. 248A3; 2005, p. 630C2] Tymoshenko Dec. 18 was elected prime minister for the second time in a 226–0 parliamentary vote. The opposition, led by Yanukovich’s party, boycotted the vote. [See p. 854C1] She married Oleksandr Tymoshenko in 1979, and in 1980 gave birth to a daughter, Eugenia. Tymoshenko, sometimes referred to in Ukraine as “the gas princess” due to wealth she amassed in the energy business, was known for her fiery speeches and her trademark hairstyle, a traditional Ukrainian peasant’s braid.

Other European News Central Bank Pumps Money Into Markets.

The European Central Bank Dec. 18 pumped 349 billion euros ($502 billion) into capital markets, in the form of twoweek loans to commercial banks. The emergency move—the ECB’s largest cash injection ever—was intended to ease a credit squeeze linked to a crisis in the U.S. mortgage market. [See pp. 846B3, 818B2] The ECB offered the loans at an interest rate of 4.21%, well below the market rate. The market rate on loans between banks responded positively to the ECB move. The two-week London interbank offered rate (Libor) dropped sharply to 4.40%, down more than half a percentage point from the previous day. The Bank of England, the British central bank, Dec. 18 auctioned £10 billion ($20 billion) in three-month loans at an interest rate of 5.36%, lower than it had previously charged. The Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, the previous week had announced a plan to inject $64 billion into international markets in a coordinated action with the ECB and other Western central banks. An increasing rate of defaults in U.S. mortgages had hit the balance sheets of banks around the world that held securities linked to the mortgages. Commercial banks had become reluctant to lend to each other in the crisis. Many of them were holding onto cash in order to shore up their balances for year-end reports, adding to the credit squeeze. „

SOUTH ASIA

Pakistan Musharraf Lifts State of Emergency. Paki-

stani President Pervez Musharraf Dec. 15 lifted a six-week state of emergency and restored the country’s constitution, saying in a televised address to the nation that the emergency rule had saved the government from an unidentified “conspiracy” against Pakistani democracy. However, critics said Musharraf had undermined the country’s democratic institutions by curbing the media’s independence and replacing members of the Supreme Court with his allies. Musharraf a day earlier had also issued several decrees and constitutional amendments to secure his position as president and protect him from legal challenges to the emergency order. [See p. 832C2] Musharraf Dec. 14 issued an executive order that said the actions he had taken during emergency rule “shall not be called in question by or before any court.” He also decreed that courts could not hear challenges to any future presidential order related to the emergency rule. According to Pakistani law, presidential orders issued during emergency rule did not need parliamentary approval to become law. Musharraf Dec. 14 also enacted several constitutional amendments. One amendment made the president exempt from a law which stated that civil servants and FACTS ON FILE

army officers had to retire for a minimum of two years before running for political office. Musharraf’s opponents had challenged his presidential reelection in October on those grounds, since Musharraf had run for office while holding the office of army chief of staff. Musharraf had resigned from the army in November. [See p. 774G3] Another constitutional change made Dec. 14 affirmed that the Supreme Court judges Musharraf had fired in early November, soon after declaring the state of emergency, could not return to their positions or challenge their dismissals. Five of the ousted judges were still under house arrest, including former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. Musharraf Dec. 15 swore in 14 new Supreme Court judges. Musharraf Dec. 14 had also signed an ordinance which placed him in charge of protecting Pakistan’s nuclear materials and facilities. A military spokesman said the move was a formal confirmation of a chain of control established five years previously. [See p. 773D3] Ending emergency rule had been a central demand of the U.S., a Pakistani ally, and other European countries. Musharraf had also bowed to pressure from the U.S. and his domestic critics to resign from the army and set up parliamentary elections, scheduled for January 8, 2008. However, opposition politicians claimed that the elections would be rigged, and would not be fair unless the government lifted curbs on the media and employed an independent commission to oversee the elections. A poll published Dec. 13 by the International Republican Institute, a U.S.-based think tank connected to the U.S. Republican Party, and conducted Nov. 19–28, found that 67% of Pakistanis wanted Musharraf to resign as president. That figure stood in contrast to the broad support he had received before he attempted to oust Chaudhry in March, prompting monthslong demonstrations across the country. Analysts said the emergency rule had only deepened Musharraf’s unpopularity. [See p. 167B2] Suicide Attacks Continue— A suicide bomber Dec. 17 killed at least 10 Pakistani soldiers in the town of Kohat, where troops were stationed. The bombing was the latest in a spate of suicide attacks in recent months that had targeted army personnel, and the first since Musharraf had lifted the emergency decree. Musharraf had claimed that rising extremism in the country was one of the principal reasons for imposing emergency rule. [See p. 832B3] No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, but it occurred close to the country’s northwestern region, a stronghold for Islamic extremists. The army had recently claimed victory over militants in the Swat valley region, which bordered the northwestern provinces. A suicide bomber Dec. 15 had killed three civilians and two army members in the northwestern town of Nowshera. Two suicide bombers Dec. 13 had killed five soldiers in the southwestern town of Quetta. „ December 20, 2007

Airline Bomb Plot Suspect Escapes. Rashid Rauf, who had been accused of involvement in a 2006 plot to blow up planes flying from Britain to the U.S., Dec. 15 escaped from police custody shortly after appearing at a court in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, to challenge Britain’s request for his extradition. Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Dec. 18 said five people, including two police officers, had been arrested on suspicions that they had helped Rauf escape. Police Dec. 17 had said Rauf had escaped by leaving through the back door of a mosque, after he convinced his police escort to allow him to say prayers there. [See 2006, pp. 985G2, 659A3] Rauf, a dual Pakistani and British citizen, had been captured in Pakistan in August 2006, and was held on terrorism charges. The charges were dismissed in December 2006, and he was cleared of charges of forgery and possessing forged documents in November. Rauf was still wanted in Britain for allegedly killing his uncle, Mohammed Saeed, in April 2002. It was reported that Britain also wanted to question him in connection with the 2006 plot. Rauf was also associated with the banned Islamist group Jaish-e-Muhammad. The group reportedly had been involved in a siege at Islamabad’s Red Mosque in July, during which more than 100 Islamic militants were killed by security forces, and in recent fighting between the army and militants in the country’s Swat valley. [See pp. 832B3, 442F2] The incident was seen as an embarrassment for the government of President Pervez Musharraf, which was a close U.S. ally in its worldwide fight against terrorism. Musharraf Dec. 15 had lifted a state of emergency that had been imposed in November, which Musharraf had said was necessary to stem rising Islamic extremism in the country. [See p. 854E3] „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Horse Racing Curlin Wins Breeders’ Cup Classic. Curlin,

ridden by Robby Albarado, Oct. 27 won the 24th Breeders’ Cup Classic at Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, N.J. The Breeders’ Cup races were for the first time held over two days, Oct. 26–27. It marked the debut of three new races—the Filly and Mare Sprint, the Juvenile Turf and the Dirt Mile. [See 2006, p. 903A2] In the 1¼-mile Classic, for three-yearolds and up, Curlin, winner of the Preakness Stakes in May, chased down Hard Spun, with Mario Pino aboard, on the home stretch to win by 4½ lengths. Hard Spun claimed second, and Awesome Gem, ridden by David Flores, was third. Curlin, trained by Steve Asmussen, finished the race in two minutes, 0.59 seconds. The colt paid $10.80 on a $2 bet, and earned his owners, a syndicate that included Stonestreet Stables, Padua Stables and money manager George Bolton, $2.7 million. [See p. 339C3]

Four-year-old Irish-bred horse George Washington, the 2006 winner of the prestigious 2,000 Guineas, had to be euthanized after breaking his right front leg during the stretch run on the muddy dirt track. [See 2006, p. 384F2] Other Results—In other Breeders’ Cup results: † Maryfield, with Elvis Trujillo aboard, Oct. 26 won the six-furlong Filly and Mare Sprint, for three-year-olds and up. † Nownownow, ridden by Julien Leparoux, Oct. 26 won the one-mile Juvenile Turf, for two-year-olds. † Corinthian, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, Oct. 26 won the Dirt Mile, for three-year-olds and up. † Indian Blessing, ridden by Garrett Gomez, Oct. 27 won the one-and-one-sixteenth-mile Juvenile Fillies, for two-yearolds. † War Pass, with Cornelio Velasquez aboard, Oct. 27 won the one-and-one-sixteenth-mile Juvenile, for two-year-old colts and geldings. † Lahudood, with Alan Garcia aboard, Oct. 27 won the one-and-three-eighthsmile Filly and Mare Turf, for three-yearolds and up. † Midnight Lute, ridden by Gomez, Oct. 27 won the six-furlong Sprint, for threeyear-olds and up. † Kip Deville, ridden by Velasquez, Oct. 27 won the turf Mile, for three-year-olds and up. † Ginger Punch, ridden by Rafael Bejarano, Oct. 27 won the one-and-oneeighth-mile Distaff, for fillies and mares three years old and up. † English Channel, ridden by John Velazquez, Oct. 27 won the 1½-mile Turf, for three-year-olds and up. Melbourne Cup Held Despite Flu Scare—

Efficient, with Michael Rodd aboard, Nov. 6 won the 147th running of the two-mile Melbourne Cup, Australia’s richest horse race, at Flemington racecourse in Melbourne. Purple Moon was second, followed by Mahler. [See 2006, p. 903C3] The race, which featured the top horses from Europe, Asia and Oceania, went ahead despite an outbreak of equine influenza in Australia that had begun in late August. The highly contagious virus had resulted in the quarantine of hundreds of horses, and temporarily halted racing in New South Wales state. The Australian government had given A$4 million (US$3.3 million) to aid the racing industry, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reported Sept. 5. However, the flu was not diagnosed in the state of Victoria, where Melbourne was located. Dylan Thomas Wins French Race—Dylan Thomas, ridden by Kieren Fallon, Oct. 7 won the 86th running of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, continental Europe’s most prestigious horse race, at Longchamp in Paris. Youmzain was second, followed by Sagara. [See 2006, p. 903E3] „ 855

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Pan American Games U.S. Tops Medals Table. More than 5,500

athletes from 42 countries and dependencies July 12–29 competed in the 15th quadrennial Pan American Games, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The country spent more than $1.5 billion in preparation for the games, much of it on new facilities that it hoped would help advance its bid to host the Summer Olympic Games in 2016. [See 2003, p. 1102B3] The final medal standings at the conclusion of the games had the U.S. in first place overall, with 237 (97 gold, 88 silver, 52 bronze); Brazil in second, with 161 (54 gold, 40 silver, 67 bronze); Canada in third, with 137 (39 gold, 43 silver, 55 bronze); Cuba in fourth, with 135 (59 gold, 35 silver, 41 bronze); and Mexico in fifth, with 73 (18 gold, 24 silver, 31 bronze). Among the highlights of the games: † Brazilian swimmer Thiago Pereira July 21 broke the record for gold medals at the games when he won the men’s 200meter breaststroke. The record had been held for 40 years by Mark Spitz of the U.S. Pereira won a total of six golds, a silver and a bronze at the games. † Cuba July 20 defeated the U.S., 3–1, to win gold in men’s baseball for the 10th time in a row. † The U.S. women’s team July 24 won its first basketball gold at the games since 1987, defeating Brazil, 79–66. † Games officials July 28 awarded the U.S., which had a 4–0 record, the softball gold medal after heavy rains prevented a final day of competition in that sport. Cuban Boxers Disappear—Cuban boxers Guillermo Rigondeaux, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Erislandy Lara July 23 failed to show up for their weighins and went missing for 11 days. They were arrested Aug. 2 in the resort city of Cabo Frio, and deported to Cuba Aug. 5. The boxers claimed that after eating and drinking too much, they had fled in fear of the consequences of weight gain. Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz had said the two athletes would not receive harsh punishment, it was reported Aug. 5. However, it was reported Aug. 30 that Castro had said they would not box again for Cuba. The Cuban Boxing Federation Aug. 29 said Cuba, known as a boxing powerhouse, would not compete in the amateur World Boxing Championships, held in the U.S. city of Chicago Oct. 17–Nov. 1, due to fears that its boxers would defect. The Chicago event was one of three qualifying tournaments for the 2008 Summer Olympics. „

ARTS & SCIENCES

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People The editors of Time magazine Dec. 19 revealed that they had selected Russian President Vladimir V. Putin as the magazine’s person of the year. The revelation came two days before the magazine’s year-end issue, 856

dated Dec. 31, hit newsstands. Putin, 55, who was to step down as president after March 2008 elections, was chosen for having “performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it,” thus bringing Russia “back to the table of world power.” Putin’s selection came nine days after he endorsed Dmitri A. Medvedev, one of Russia’s two first deputy prime ministers, as his successor, and eight days after Medvedev said that, if elected, he would appoint Putin prime minister. [See p. 853A2; 2006, p. 988A1] French-Canadian pop diva Celine Dion, 39, Dec. 15 ended her nearly five-year run as the star of a theatrical extravaganza at the Caesars Palace resort in Las Vegas, Nev. Presented since March 2003, the show had grossed more than $400 million and, having routinely sold out, had been seen by more than three million people. [See 2003, p. 280F2] Attorney David Rubenstein, a founder of Carlyle Group LP, a private-equity firm based in Washington, D.C., Dec. 18 paid $21.3 million for the only copy of the Magna Carta in the U.S., and one of only 17 copies known to exist. Rubenstein, 58, bought the 13th-century document, which limited the powers of the British monarch and affirmed individual rights, at a New York City auction conducted by Sotheby’s Holdings PLC. The Magna Carta copy had been sold by a foundation controlled by Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, who bought the document in 1984, for $1.5 million. Perot’s foundation had then loaned it to Washington’s National Archives, where it had been exhibited until recently. Rubenstein Dec. 19 said he would have the document moved from Sotheby’s back to the National Archives, where it would remain on permanent loan. [See 1984, p. 977E2] A handwritten volume of five fairy tales by J.K. Rowling, the creator of the Harry Potter series of children’s novels, Dec. 13 fetched £1.95 million (US$3.97 million) at auction at Sotheby’s in London. It was only one of seven copies of the collection, called The Tales of Beedle the Bard; the other six had been given to people closely tied to the Potter series. The price paid for it, according to Sotheby’s, was “the highest price ever achieved at auction for a modern literary manuscript.” The buyer Dec. 14 was revealed to be online bookseller Amazon.com. Proceeds of the sale would benefit Children’s Voice, a charity Rowling, 42, helped found. [See p. 488A3] „

O B I T UA R I E S ANDERSON, Robert Orville, 90, oilman who engineered the 1966 merger that gave birth to AtlanticRichfield Co. (Arco), which became the U.S.’s seventh-largest oil company; he headed Arco until January 1986, when he retired amid a corporate restructuring spurred by low gas prices; he was instrumental in Arco’s 1968 discovery of the Prudhoe Bay oilfield in Alaska, the largest North American oilfield discovery to date; his decision to move Arco’s headquarters from New York City to Los Angeles in 1972 fueled the development of downtown Los Angeles as a business center; he was also one of the U.S.’s larg-

est private landowners, a philanthropist known for his support of cultural enterprises and environmental causes, and the rescuer of two floundering publications, the British newspaper the Observer in 1977, and the U.S’s Harper’s magazine in 1980; born April 13, 1917, in Chicago; died Dec. 2 at his home in Roswell, N.M., from complications of a fall. [See 2001, p. 992D3; 1985, pp. 968F2, 398G2; Indexes 1982, 1969–70, 1965] CARSON, Julia May (born Julia May Porter), 69, Indiana Democrat who had been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1997, representing a district that included most of Indianapolis; only the second black congresswoman from Indiana, she championed a variety of liberal causes and was strongly against the U.S. military campaign in Iraq; born July 8, 1938, in Louisville, Ky.; died Dec. 15 at her Indianapolis home, after a recurrence of lung cancer; she had also battled asthma, high blood pressure and diabetes; she had announced in late November that she had terminal cancer and would not be seeking a seventh term in 2008. [See 2006, p. 855G4; 2004, p. 865G4; Indexes 2002, 2000, 1996–98] FOGELBERG, Dan(iel Grayling), 56, singer-songwriter who was a leading figure in the West Coast– based soft-rock movement of the 1970s and early 1980s; among his best-known songs were “The Power of Gold” (1978), “Same Old Lang Syne” (1980) and “Leader of the Band” (1981); born Aug. 13, 1951, in Peoria, Ill.; died Dec. 16 at his home on the coast of Maine, after battling prostate cancer. [See 1980, pp. 200E3, F3, 120G3; 1975, p. 676B2] HUXLEY, Laura (born Laura Archera), 96, classical violinist, filmmaker, author, lay psychotherapist, and the wife of British novelist Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World (1932), from 1956 until his death in 1963; her own books included This Timeless Moment: A Personal View of Aldous Huxley (1968) and several self-help works; born Nov. 2, 1911, in Turin, Italy; died Dec. 13 at her home in Los Angeles, of cancer. [See 1963, p. 427F3; 1956, p. 96G3] ORTOLI, Francois-Xavier, 82, French politician who held several cabinet posts before becoming the first French president of the European Commission, a post he held from 1973 through 1976; he stayed on at the commission as its vice-president for economic and financial affairs until 1984, when he became chairman of oil company Total-Compagnie Francaise des Petroles, holding that post until 1990; born Feb. 16, 1925, in Ajaccio, the capital of the French island region of Corsica; died Nov. 29 in Paris. [See 1977, p. 74D2; 1975, pp. 84D1, 17F1; Indexes 1967–74] REID, Sir Norman (Robert), 91, director of London’s Tate Gallery, 1964–79, who oversaw a major expansion of the museum’s modern art collection (which would get its own home with the opening of a vast new gallery in 2000); unlike his immediate predecessor and successors, he was an artist himself, albeit one with a modest opinion of his own work; he was knighted in 1970; born Dec. 27, 1915, in Edinburgh, Scotland; died Dec. 17 in London. [See 2000, p. 532B1] RULE, Jane Vance, 76, Canadian author of largely lesbian-themed fiction; her first novel, Desert of the Heart (1964), inspired the film Desert Hearts (1985), one of the first mainstream movies depicting a lesbian relationship in positive terms; born March 28, 1931, in Plainfield, N.J.; died Nov. 27 at her home on Galiano Island, British Columbia, from complications of liver cancer. [See 1986, p. 284E1] STEFFY, J(ohn) Richard, 83, self-taught nautical archaeologist who pioneered the reconstruction of ancient shipwrecked vessels, notably a vessel recovered off the coast of Cyprus in the early 1970s; despite his lack of academic credentials, he became a full professor at Texas A&M University; born May 1, 1924, in Lancaster, Pa.; died Nov. 29 at a nursing home in Bryan, Texas, of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. [See 1974, p. 1072A3] STRUGNELL, John, 77, British-born biblical scholar who taught for many years at Harvard Divinity School and who from 1984 through 1990 was editor in chief of the project to translate the Dead Sea Scrolls; he was fired from that post, though, after making statements that Israeli officials regarded as anti-Semitic; born May 25, 1930, in Barnet, England; died Nov. 30 at a hospital in Cambridge, Mass., while being treated for a cancer-related infection. [See 1993, p. 364A3; 1990, p. 956F2] ZIFFREN, Lester, 101, foreign correspondent for United Press in the 1930s, who, as the wire service’s bureau chief in Madrid, Spain, alerted the world to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 in a coded message to his editors in London; born April 30, 1906, in Rock Island, Ill.; died Nov. 12 at his home in New York City, of congestive heart failure. „

December 20, 2007

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Assassinated Country Convulsed in Run-Up to Parliamentary Elections Bhutto Had Returned to Oppose Musharraf.

AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Dec. 27 was assassinated at a political rally in Rawalpindi, a garrison town near Islamabad, the country’s capital. Bhutto, 54, was the leader of the country’s largest political party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and her death, coming less than two weeks before planned parliamentary elections, plunged the country into turmoil and left its political future uncertain. [See pp. 896E2, 854E3, 745A1, 677A1] Witnesses reported that a gunman fired at Bhutto as she waved to supporters from atop a bulletproof car, and that moments later a suicide bomber detonated his explosives next to the vehicle, killing more than 20 other people. Some reports said the gunman and the bomber were the same person. Bhutto was taken to Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly after her arrival. Upon news of her death, violent protests erupted across the country. Many of the protesters, as well as members of the PPP and other opposition parties, blamed elements of President Pervez Musharraf’s government for being complicit in the assassination or failing to provide adequate security at the rally. The Interior Ministry reported that as many as 10 people died that day in incidents related to the protests. Musharraf in a televised address to the nation that day blamed the assassination on Islamic extremists, who had carried out a spate of suicide attacks in recent months, and were firmly established in the semiautonomous northwestern regions of the country. Musharraf said, “The nation faces

the greatest threats from these terrorists.” He called for three days of national mourning. [See pp. 855E1, 832B3] Bhutto had returned to Pakistan Oct. 18, after eight years of self-imposed exile, seeking to lead her party to victory in parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8, 2008. A suicide bomber that night attacked her procession as it left the airport, killing more than 140 people. Since then, Bhutto had said another attempt on her life was likely, and claimed that members of Musharraf’s government, as well as members of the army, which Musharraf used to head, were allied with extremists and conspiring to prevent her from earning a third term as prime minister. (At a PPP rally in the town of Peshawar Dec. 26, police stopped a potential bomber who had explosives hanging from his neck.) Bhutto’s return had been backed by the U.S. government, which wanted Bhutto, a secular moderate and vocal opponent of Islamic extremism, to share power with Musharraf, whom it considered a valuable ally in its fight against Islamist terrorism. The U.S. hoped that free and fair parliamentary elections would lend legitimacy to Musharraf’s government, which had become increasingly unpopular in the past year. His unpopularity deepened after he declared a state of emergency in November, suspended the constitution, replaced members of the Supreme Court with his allies, and maneuvered to secure for himself a second fiveyear presidential term. [See p. 777B3] Veteran of Country’s Political Turmoil—

Bhutto was the daughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a secular reformer and founder of the PPP. After he was executed by the military regime of Gen. Zia ul-Haq in 1979, she followed in his footsteps to become head of the PPP. [See 1979, p. 247A1] Bhutto became the first woman to lead a predominantly Muslim nation when she was elected prime minister in 1988. She served as prime minister until 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996, but was ousted both times amid accusations of corruption and incompetence. After a 1999 conviction on corruption charges, she lived in exile until her October return to Pakistan. [See 1996, p. 829F3; 1993, p. 815A1; 1990, p. 586A3; 1988, p. 886C3] Bhutto throughout her career declared herself devoted to establishing democratic rule in Pakistan and to the causes of the poor. Educated at the U.S.’s Harvard and Britain’s Oxford universities, she was respected by Western leaders, who viewed her as the inheritor of her father’s reform agenda. Her admirers also favorably compared her family, whose memFormer Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at a Dec. 27 political rally in Rawalpindi. Bhutto was assassinated as she bers were inspirational leaders as well as victims of violence, to dynaswas leaving the rally.

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Volume 67, No. 3498* December 31, 2007

B tic political clans like the Kennedys in the U.S. and the Nehru-Gandhis in India. However, Bhutto was unable to wield influence over the country’s powerful army, rendering her somewhat ineffective during her two terms as prime minister. Her democratic credentials were also tainted by the accusations of corruption, many of which were tied to her husband, Asif Ali Zardari. Additionally, critics said she was an autocrat within her own party, naming herself its “chairwoman for life” and discouraging the emergence of other leaders. Bhutto Dec. 28 was buried at her ancestral home in Larkana, in Sindh province, next to her father, in a ceremony that drew tens of thousands of her supporters. Reactions—Leaders within Pakistan and from around the world Dec. 27 condemned the assassination. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a longtime rival of Bhutto and head of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League party (PML-N), described it as the

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MAJOR STORIES IN THIS ISSUE Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto assassinated; country convulsed in run-up to parliamentary vote. PAGE 857

Kibaki declared winner of Kenyan presidential election; fraud alleged, more than 100 die in clashes.

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U.S. Gen. Petraeus claims drop in Iraq attacks. PAGE 860

U.S. presidential candidates battle down Iowa homestretch. PAGE 864

9/11 commission chairman says CIA withheld terrorist interrogation tapes. PAGE 869

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Corruption charges filed against Zuma in South Africa. PAGE 879

China delays Hong Kong direct elections. PAGE 883

North Korea misses nuclear deadline. PAGE 886

Uzbek President Karimov wins 3rd term. PAGE 887

Patriots go undefeated in NFL season; first since 1972 Dolphins. PAGE 896 *First of two sections Section Two is an interim index. REFERENCES in brackets give location of background information in this & preceding volumes.

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Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (right), the son of assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and his father, Asif Ali Zardari, at a press conference Dec. 30 in Naudero, Pakistan, at which Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was named his mother’s successor as chairman of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

“saddest day in the history of this country.” He added that Musharraf was “responsible and accountable” for the assassination. (Earlier that day, a sniper fired on a PMLN rally in Islamabad, killing four people.) U.S. President George W. Bush said the assassination was a “cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan’s democracy.” Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who had met with Bhutto hours before the attack, said he was “deeply sorry” that “this brave sister of ours, brave daughter of the Muslim world is no longer with us.” [See p. 896E2] British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was “a tragic hour for Pakistan.” The United Nations Security Council also condemned what it called a “terrorist suicide attack by extremists.” Bhutto’s assassination raised concerns that extremist elements in Pakistan had extended their reach, were actively working to destabilize the country, and could further destabilize neighboring Afghanistan. Critics of the Bush administration, which had funneled some $11 billion into Pakistan since 2001, said its alliance with Musharraf had failed to stamp out Islamist terrorists who took safe haven in the country’s northwestern regions, and that Bhutto’s death would make it more difficult to establish a moderate center in Pakistani politics. Violence Intensifies After Killing—Government security forces Dec. 28 were called in to pacify rioters in various cities across Pakistan, resulting in clashes that killed 23 people. The government also shut down much of the country’s transportation, including train services, domestic airplane flights and roads. It was reported that by Dec. 29 a total of more than 40 people had died in violent incidents since the assassination. As many as 200 banks were reportedly looted, and the cost of property damage was in the millions of dollars.

Al Qaeda Associate Blamed—Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Dec. 28 blamed the assassination on Baitullah Mehsud, a warlord from the northwestern tribal region of South Waziristan. Mehsud reportedly had ties to Al Qaeda, the international terrorist network, and the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group waging an insurgency against the government in neighboring Afghanistan. [See pp. 727B1, 599A1] Cheema at a press conference told reporters that the government had intercepted a communication in which Mehsud congratulated his subordinates for carrying out the attack. Mehsud had been blamed for a string of suicide attacks that had rocked Pakistan in recent months. He was known to operate militant training camps in the northwest, and was blamed for sending suicide bombers into Afghanistan to attack U.S.and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)–led forces, who had invaded the country in 2001 to topple the Taliban from power. Since 2001, many Al Qaeda members who had formerly operated in Afghanistan had regrouped in Pakistan’s northwest, including possibly the group’s leader, Osama bin Laden. [See p. 657D2] Mehsud had declared jihad, or holy war, on Musharraf’s government, after commandos in July stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad, killing more than 100 militants. Mehsud’s forces in August kidnapped nearly 300 Pakistani soldiers and in November released them in exchange for approximately 25 jailed militants. [See p. 442F2] However, Mehsud Dec. 29 denied any involvement in Bhutto’s assassination. Cheema’s claims did not placate PPP supporters, who continued to accuse Musharraf’s government of involvement, and called for an international, independent investigation. Government officials at first rejected calls for outside help, but later altered their position. [See below] Assassination

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Disputed—

Cheema Dec. 28 also claimed that Bhutto had died by fracturing her skull against a lever on the sunroof of her car, after she ducked down to avoid the gunfire and the bomb exploded. He said she had not been struck by the gunfire. Witnesses who were with Bhutto in the car or at the hospital insisted that she had suffered bullet wounds to the neck and chest. Observers said the government’s case—that Bhutto had died solely as a result of the blast—would help it play down accusations that the security at the rally was inadequate, because a suicide bombing was harder to prevent than a shooting. Pakistani newspapers Dec. 30 displayed photographs from the rally that showed a man apparently aiming his gun at her. Other images published by the domestic press showed two men who were reportedly her killers: one in Western-style clothing, who was thought to be the shooter, and another with a shawl traditionally worn in the northwestern regions of the country, who was thought to be the suicide bomber.

Complicating the investigation was the fact that the scene of the assassination was hosed down before forensic evidence could be collected. Additionally, Bhutto had not undergone an autopsy before burial. Cheema said that Zardari, who had arrived in Pakistan Dec. 27 from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), had refused a request for an autopsy. Zardari Dec. 30 said he had denied an autopsy request because he could not trust the results of a government autopsy report. The New York Times Dec. 31 reported that it had received Bhutto’s medical report and a letter from a board member of the Rawalpindi hospital, Athar Minallah, which said no conclusion could be made about the cause of Bhutto’s death, including the government’s version, without an autopsy. Minallah claimed that Rawalpindi’s police chief had rejected doctors’ request for an autopsy. The Washington Post on its Web site Dec. 31 said that doctors at the hospital had been pressured by authorities not to reveal details about Bhutto’s condition. Bhutto Son Appointed PPP Chairman—

The PPP Dec. 30 announced that Bhutto’s 19-year-old son, Bilawal Zardari, would become the party’s chairman. The announcement came after Bilawal Zardari read Bhutto’s will, in which she named him as her successor, to the party’s executive committee. His father would be the party’s interim chairman until he was able to complete his studies at Oxford, where he was enrolled, which would take some three years. Bhutto’s son that day changed his name to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. The party also announced that it would participate in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. Analysts said the country’s widespread sympathy over Bhutto’s death

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could translate into a large show of support for the PPP at the polls. Sharif’s PML-N Dec. 30 also said it would participate, even though Sharif Dec. 27 had originally announced that his party would boycott them. However, government officials suggested that the elections would be delayed so that the country could respond to the chaos that followed Bhutto’s assassination, which led to the destruction of election offices and electoral rolls. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at a news conference Dec. 30 said, “The party’s long and historic struggle will continue with renewed vigor.” He added, “My mother always said democracy is the best revenge.” Asif Ali Zardari told reporters that he would not run in the elections, and that he would not become prime minister if the PPP won a plurality of seats. He said senior party leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim was the party’s candidate for prime minister. Analysts said Asif Ali Zardari was a divisive figure in PPP circles who might have trouble keeping the party’s factions in line. However, they said the appointment of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as chairman would allow the party to rally around the Bhutto name and legacy, as it had done in the past. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had spent most of his life outside Pakistan, in Dubai and London. Government Agrees to Outside Help—

Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., Mahmud Ali Durrani, Dec. 31 said his government would welcome foreign expertise in investigating Bhutto’s death. However, Durrani said the government would not allow an investigation modeled after the U.N. inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which had been suggested by PPP officials. [See p. 353F1] The announcement came in response to domestic and international pressure for Musharraf to open up the investigation. U.S. officials reportedly recommended including an international team in the investigation, because it would discourage accusations that the government was covering up involvement in the attack. Sharif Calls on Musharraf to Resign—

Sharif at a news conference Dec. 31 called on Musharraf to resign immediately, so that the country could form a government of national consensus. Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz Sharif, at the same event said a consensus government would be responsible for preparing free and fair elections; could better investigate the events surrounding Bhutto’s death; and prevent protests from becoming chaotic. Analysts said the PML-N believed it could take advantage of public anger against Musharraf’s government to perform well during the elections. „

Kibaki Declared Winner of Kenyan Presidential Election Fraud Alleged; More Than 100 Die in Clashes.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki of the Party of National Unity (PNU) coalition Dec. 30 was declared the winner of a disputed Dec. 27 presidential election, setting off December 31, 2007

violence across the country. According to the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), Kibaki defeated Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party, 46.7%–44.3%, in the closest presidential election since Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963. [See 2006, p. 1012F1; 2002, p. 1057E2] Kibaki, 76, was sworn in to a second five-year term in office about one hour after the ECK announcement. However, Odinga, 62, alleged that the vote had been rigged—a claim backed up by foreign election observers—and called for a recount. Supporters of Odinga erupted in violent protests in the slums of Nairobi, the capital, and other parts of the country. As of Dec. 31, more than 100 people had been killed in fighting between Odinga’s supporters and security forces, as well as in ethnic clashes among Odinga’s Luo tribe, Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe (the nation’s largest) and other groups. Many observers expressed fears of an ethnic war. [See below] Odinga was a veteran politician and son of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenya’s first vice president. He had been imprisoned in the 1980s, accused of plotting a coup against then-President Daniel arap Moi. Known as a wealthy populist with a colorful image, he had been allied with Kibaki when the latter was elected in 2002, and had been a minister in his cabinet. However, he split with Kibaki and joined the opposition over a controversial 2005 constitutional referendum. [See below; 2005, p. 881B1; 1994, p. 76D3] The outbreak of violence in Kenya, known as one of Africa’s most stable and economically successful nations, surprised foreign observers and Kenyans alike. Many expressed shock at the fierce ethnic fighting. There was little history of such violence; nevertheless, tensions between the various groups had long simmered. There were more than 40 ethnic groups among Kenya’s 34.5 million people, with the Kikuyu comprising about 22% and mainly concentrated around Nairobi. The other main groups were the Luhya (14%), Luo (13%), Kalenjin (12%), Kamba (11%), Kisii (6%) and Meru (6%). Kibaki had been elected in 2002 on a platform of change, after the country had been ruled for 24 years by Moi, a Kalenjin. Kibaki had pledged to stamp out corruption. However, several scandals during his tenure had shown that graft continued to flourish. Some analysts saw the roots of the ethnic tension in the preferential treatment—such as jobs in the civil service— received by Kikuyus. Non-Kikuyus reportedly saw a continuation of Kibaki’s rule as further preventing them from sharing in Kenya’s economic growth. [See 2006, p. 261A1] Along with the Kikuyu population, Kibaki was generally supported by the business community, which praised him for strengthening the economy during his first term. Odinga had pledged to work to stamp out corruption, as well as to reduce unemployment and improve the nation’s infrastructure. However, observers said

tribalism was the main factor in the election. Tension Builds As Count Is Delayed—

The Dec. 27 polls were conducted in a generally peaceful manner. However, the runup to election day had been marred by allegations of voter bribery, poll rigging and other types of electoral fraud leveled by Odinga’s party against Kibaki. There were also sporadic outbreaks of violence, including an incident Dec. 26 in which three police officers were killed and 10 others were wounded in western Nyanza province by a mob who believed the officers were planning to help rig the election. Prior to the official announcement of the results, it was widely reported that Odinga was in the lead, based on pre-election polls and early returns. International observers Dec. 27 called the vote generally free and fair. The ODM Dec. 29 declared Odinga the winner, and called on Kibaki to concede defeat. According to preliminary returns, Odinga had been leading by about one million votes the day before, but his lead dwindled overnight to about 100,000 votes. The ECK’s delay in declaring a winner in the presidential race—official results had been expected within one or two days of the election—served to heighten suspicions of vote-rigging and increase tension across the country. Protests and riots began Dec. 29, and ethnic tensions flared. Police violently suppressed demonstrations in Kibera, a sprawling slum in Nairobi that was part of Odinga’s home district. In Mathare, another large slum in Nairobi, Luo gangs reportedly attacked Kikuyu residents, and Kikuyus responded by forming vigilante groups, arming themselves with machetes and makeshift weapons. Clashes among opposition supporters, ethnic groups and security forces were also reported in several other towns across the country, including the western towns of Kisumu and Eldoret. Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, chief of the European Union observer mission, Dec. 29 criticized the delay, citing reports that “some of the returns officers appeared to have disappeared with the results.” ECK Chairman Samuel Kivuitu said some election officers had turned off their cellular phones and had “gone underground.” The opposition alleged that the government was exerting pressure on the ECK to delay the result. However, the electoral commission said the results were delayed by the large turnout and logistical problems. By the evening of Dec. 29, Odinga’s lead had narrowed to just 38,000 votes. The New York Times Dec. 30 reported that the ECK had said there had been unusually high voter turnouts in three of Kibaki’s strongholds in central Kenya, including one area where Kibaki received 105,000 votes from just 70,000 registered voters. Odinga Dec. 30, before the results were announced, said, “Kenyans will not accept the results of a rigged election. No force will stop Kenyans from attaining what they want.” The government accused Odinga of 859

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inciting violence, and later banned all live media broadcasts. In official results announced Dec. 30, Kibaki’s vote tally was 4,584,721, while Odinga received 4,352,993 votes. A third candidate, Kalonzo Musyoka, a former foreign minister who represented the ODM splinter party ODM-Kenya, took 879,903 votes. About 98% of Kikuyus, who were concentrated in Central province, voted for Kibaki; most Luo and other ethnic groups supported Odinga. [See below] Odinga Dec. 30 demanded a recount, saying the ECK “cannot possibly address the multiple levels of fraud administered by this administration.” Lambsdorff that day said the ECK had “not succeeded in establishing the credibility of the tallying process to the satisfaction of all parties and candidates. We regret that it has not been possible to address irregularities about which both [EU observers] and the ECK have evidence.” Clashes Erupt After Result Announced—

Almost immediately after the ECK declared Kibaki the winner Dec. 30, rioting erupted in Nairobi’s slums. Luo gangs reportedly burned as many as 100 Kikuyu homes in Mathare, and Kikuyu families fled Kibera. The violence was brutally suppressed by the security forces, which, for the time being, remained loyal to Kibaki. Meanwhile, ethnic clashes were reported in Kisumu, in western Nyanza province, which was a Luo and Kisii stronghold. Violence was also reported in the eastern coastal city of Mombasa, a popular tourist spot, where six Kikuyus were hacked to death. In western Rift Valley province, Kalenjin gangs reportedly attacked Kikuyus. The New York Times Dec. 31 reported that ethnic gangs searched houses for members of rival groups, killing those they could find. U.S. ambassador Michael Ranneberger said it was a “sad day for Kenya,” adding, “My biggest worry now is violence, which, let’s be honest, will be along tribal lines.” Kibaki in a Dec. 31 New Year’s message to the country called for “healing and reconciliation.” However, he also warned that the security forces would “deal decisively with those who breach the peace.” Opposition Dominates Parliament Vote—

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Parliamentary and municipal elections were also held Dec. 27. According to preliminary results reported on the Web site of Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper Dec. 31, Kibaki’s party was trounced in the parliamentary vote, with the ODM taking 100 of the 210 seats being contested in the unicameral National Assembly. (Twelve members were nominated to the 222-seat body by the parties, on a proportional representation basis.) Kibaki’s PNU won just 35 seats. ODM-Kenya took 16 seats, and the former ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) party won 11 seats. Many Kibaki allies lost their seats, including 12 of his 32 cabinet ministers. Also ousted from parliament were Vice President Moody Awori and environmentalist and human rights activist Wangari Maathai, who had won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Under 860

the constitution, the president had to pick his cabinet from National Assembly members. [See 2004, p. 807A1] Opposition Chooses Odinga—The ODM Sept. 1 selected Odinga as its presidential candidate. He defeated two other contenders in a vote that was held after the ODM Aug. 15 had split into two factions—the ODM and ODM-Kenya—after a longtime feud between Odinga and Musyoka. The ODM had been officially registered as a political party in the wake of its successful opposition to the 2005 constitutional referendum, proposed by Kibaki, under which the presidency would have received greater powers. [See 2005, p. 880C3] Meanwhile, Uhuru Kenyatta, leader of KANU, had switched allegiances and decided to support Kibaki in the election, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reported Sept. 17. The BBC also reported that Moi would back Kibaki. „

Iraq War U.S. Gen. Petraeus Claims Drop In Attacks.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Dec. 29 said attacks by militants in the country had dropped over the second half of 2007, in an end-of-year press briefing in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. However, Petraeus warned that the Sunni Muslim extremist group Al Qaeda in Iraq remained the biggest threat to the country. While Iraq had been brought back from “the brink of civil war,” he said, U.S. and Iraqi commanders “clearly have more work to do in certain areas in the weeks and months ahead.” [See p. 837F2] Petraeus said attacks had decreased by about 60% since June, to about 500 per week. “The level of attacks for about the last 11 weeks or so has been one not seen consistently since the late spring and summer of 2005,” he said. Petraeus also said casualties among the U.S.-led coalition had dropped “substantially,” and that civilian casualties had also fallen “dramatically.” However, he said suicide car and vest bombings had risen in the last three months. “The positive security trends and the factors that produced them are changing the context in many parts of Iraq,” Petraeus said. He added that success “will emerge slowly and fitfully, with reverses as well as advances, accumulating fewer bad days and gradually more good days. There will inevitably be more tough fighting.” Petraeus attributed the drops in violence to a surge in U.S. troop levels that had begun in February; a truce called by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for his Mahdi Army militia; and alliances by mainly-Sunni tribesmen with U.S. forces against Sunni extremist groups. He said other factors included decisions by Syria and other neighboring countries to stem the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq, and a decrease in the use of weapons that the U.S. had linked to Iran. Petraeus said Al Qaeda in Iraq was “the enemy that carries out the most horrific attacks, that causes the greatest damage to infrastructure and that seems most intent on reigniting ethno-sectarian violence.” He

said U.S. operations and the rise of U.S.-allied Sunni volunteers was hurting Al Qaeda in Iraq, and that the extremist group was directing attacks against them. Petraeus also said Al Qaeda in Iraq had moved its operations into the north of the country due to U.S. and Iraqi pressure in Baghdad and Anbar province, and that attacks in the northern Nineveh province had risen. In a separate briefing Dec. 29 in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the Iraqi interior ministry spokesman, claimed that 75% of Al Qaeda in Iraq’s networks and safe havens had been destroyed. He also attributed the drop in violence mainly to the rise of the U.S.-allied Sunni volunteers, a rare endorsement from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite-dominated government. Khalaf said there had been 18,000 violent deaths in Iraq in 2007, but that insurgent attacks in Baghdad had declined from 25 per day in February to as few as one per day in December. He did not say how those statistics were determined. Curbs Urged for Sunni Groups—Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), Iraq’s most powerful Shiite political bloc, Dec. 21 called for tighter Iraqi government controls on the U.S.-allied Sunni groups of armed volunteers, known as Awakening Councils. Hakim’s comments, made at his Baghdad compound, were seen as another indication of discomfort among Shiite leaders at the growing role of the Sunni volunteers. Hakim said, “We emphasize that these awakenings must be an arm of the Iraqi government and not a substitute for it.” He added, “Weapons should be within the hands of the government only.” Hakim said the councils should be temporary and should be used only in the worst areas as auxiliaries to regular Iraqi forces. He also said their makeup should be proportional to the numbers of each sect in mixed areas. Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassim Dec. 22 further warned against the Sunni groups’ growing power. “We reject that the awakening groups turn into a military organization. We have only two unified military organizations, that is the interior and the defense” ministries, Jassim said. IRAQ CASUALTIES

Following are tallies of casualties in Iraq since the beginning of a U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, as they stood Dec. 31 [See p. 860C2]: U.S. military casualties:

Deaths Wounded

3,901 28,773

Allied military deaths: 307 Iraqi security forces deaths: 7,766 Iraqi civilian deaths: 81,174–88,585

(Range based on news reports of deaths)

Sources: U.S. and allies, Iraqi security: U.S. Defense Department, www.icasualties.org. Iraqi civilians— www.iraqbodycount.org.

FACTS ON FILE

Sunni volunteers in the Ghazaliyah neighborhood of Baghdad Dec. 22 threatened to break off their partnership with the U.S. and fight Shiite militias independently, after a bombing in Ghazaliyah earlier that day reportedly killed four volunteers. They said the blast had occurred near an Iraqi army post, but a U.S. military spokesman said there had not been any reports of a bombing that day. Leaders of other Sunni volunteer groups distanced themselves from the Ghazaliyah group, and said that group was loyal to the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni political bloc, rather than to the Iraqi government or the larger Awakening Council grouping. Osama bin Laden, the leader of the international Al Qaeda terrorist organization, in an audiotape released Dec. 29 warned that Sunni tribal leaders and tribesmen who had joined the U.S.-allied groups had “betrayed the nation and brought disgrace and shame to their people. They will suffer in life and the afterlife.” Other News—In other Iraqi news: † Hundreds of Iraqis Dec. 30 visited the tomb of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, on the first anniversary of his execution. There was no reported violence associated with the anniversary, as had been feared. [See 2006, p. 989A1] † Maliki Dec. 29 flew to London for what he said was a routine medical checkup, but an aide said that he would be treated for mild exhaustion. Maliki’s office the next day said the results were “reassuring.” † The Iraqi oil ministry Dec. 28 threatened to cut off South Korean access to Iraqi oil. The state-owned Korean National Oil Corp. Nov. 12 had entered into an oil contract with the government of the autonomous Kurdistan region, one of several contracts Kurdish officials had awarded to foreign countries. The Iraqi federal government had prohibited Kurdistan from independently negotiating contracts, but a federal oil revenue-sharing draft law remained stalled in parliament. [See p. 801D2] † A car bomb Dec. 28 killed at least seven Iraqis in a street market in the mostlyShiite Tayaran Square, in Baghdad. † U.S. forces Dec. 27 killed 11 members of a Mahdi Army splinter group during an operation in the southern city of Kut. Mahdi Army officials condemned the deaths but said the cease-fire would remain intact. † The Iraqi cabinet Dec. 26 approved a draft law that would offer amnesty to thousands of prisoners in Iraqi and U.S. custody, in an effort to promote sectarian reconciliation. Iraqi officials said the law would not apply to prisoners who had committed certain serious crimes, such as acts of terrorism or corruption. The bill would have to be approved by the Iraqi parliament, where many bills considered vital to reconciliation were currently deadlocked. [See p. 747C3] † A suicide truck bombing Dec. 26 killed at least 22 people in the northern city of Baiji. Victims, many of whom had been December 31, 2007

waiting on a line for cooking gas near a checkpoint, included Iraqi security forces and members of U.S.-allied volunteer groups. Baiji, about 150 miles (250 km) north of Baghdad, had the largest oil refinery in northern Iraq and was a key transfer point for crude oil exports. † U.S. Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Dec. 26 said U.S. troops Nov. 8 had killed a senior leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Muhammad Sulayman Shunaythir al-Zubai. † U.S. forces Dec. 26 killed 12 suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents and freed a hostage in Muqdadiya, a town north of Baquba, the capital of Diyala province. † The U.S. military Dec. 26 said they had captured two more suspects in the May kidnapping of three U.S. soldiers. [See p. 728C1] † Four U.S.-allied Iraqi volunteers Dec. 26 were killed north of Baquba when the house they were searching exploded. It was the latest in a series of attacks on U.S.-allied groups. † The U.S. military Dec. 25 said U.S. troops the previous day in Baqubah had shot and killed two Iraqi men, one of them a member of a U.S.-backed Sunni volunteer group, after one of the men had fired at them, and then the other tried to pick up his weapon. However, residents claimed that the U.S. troops had captured and then executed the men, and the incident threatened relations between the U.S. and the volunteer groups in the area. A suicide bombing at the men’s funeral later Dec. 25 killed at least four protesters. † The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Dec. 21 released a report detailing the condition of Iraqi children. The report said two million children suffered from poor nutrition, disease and a lack of education, with hundreds killed or injured in the civil strife and about 1,350 having been detained by the police and the Iraqi and U.S. military. It said 75,000 children were living in camps or shelters, and that 25,000 children a month were displaced by “violence or intimidation.” [See 2003, p. 571B3] † Australia’s new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, Dec. 21 made an unannounced visit to Maliki in Baghdad. [See p. 779G2] „ Turkey Continues Bombing Kurds in Iraq.

The Turkish military Dec. 26 said its warplanes had bombed alleged bases of Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq for the second time that week. Turkey had launched several cross-border attacks over the past 10 days against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), confirming three air strikes and one ground incursion. The PKK had waged a separatist war against Turkey since the 1980s, leaving more than 30,000 people dead. The group sought an autonomous Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey. It had an estimated 3,500 fighters based in northern Iraq. [See p. 839F3] The Turkish military Dec. 26 said it had killed more than 150 PKK fighters in the recent attacks, including air raids on Dec. 16 and Dec. 22. But PKK leaders reported only

a few casualties, including some civilians. The government of the Iraqi Kurdish region said the Turkish strikes had hit longabandoned villages near the border. The U.S. had provided Turkey with intelligence for the cross-border strikes, while also urging Turkey to avoid civilian casualties and any measures that might destabilize northern Iraq, a largely Kurdish region. Turkish President Abdullah Gul Dec. 26 praised the U.S. cooperation, saying, “Both of us are satisfied. This is how it should be. We should have come to this point earlier.” Turkey had previously complained that the U.S. and Iraq had not done enough to crack „ down on the PKK.

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World Stock Markets Emerging Markets Outpace U.S. Stock mar-

kets in Latin American and Asia posted double-digit percentage gains in the year through Dec. 31, while U.S. markets were hampered by a slumping housing market, an ongoing credit crunch, the falling value of the U.S. dollar and the threat of economic recession in 2008. The best performers were in emerging markets, maintaining a trend of recent years, with indexes in India, Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia climbing by more than 40%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rising 97%. The Dow Jones World Stock Index gained 12% in 2007, representing a surge of continued global economic growth. [See pp. 862A2, 818B2, 803E3, 522A3; 2006, pp. 1003E3, 994B3; box, p. 862A1] The U.S.’s Dow Jones Industrial Average on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ended the year at 13,264.82, up 6.4% for the year. Standard & Poor’s 500stock index finished at 1468.36, a more modest 3.5% gain. Both indexes grew less than the average annual gain of 9% recorded by the two indexes since the end of World War II. The Nasdaq Composite Index did slightly better, rising to 2652.28, a 9.8% gain, because of its preponderance of technology stocks, which remained relatively unaffected by problems in the housing and credit markets. The company on the Dow with the biggest stock price percentage gain was industrial conglomerate Honeywell International, which rose 36%. Citigroup Inc., the country’s largest banking company, was the Dow’s worst performer, as its stock price fell 47%, largely due to mortgage-related investments, which had plummeted in value as U.S. housing prices fell. [See p. 731D1] Problems in the U.S. economy also affected markets in Europe, since European banks and funds had also been exposed to U.S. mortgage-backed assets and the squeeze in available credit resulting from those problems. While Germany’s Frankfurt Xetra DAX, Europe’s best performer, rose 22% for the year, Britain’s Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100 gained only 3.8% and France’s CAC 40 was up a mere 1.3%. [See pp. 854A3, 616D1] Fueled by booming economic growth, as well as speculation by Chinese citizens largely restricted to domestic investments, the Shanghai Composite Index posted the best performance of the year. India also con861

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Year-End World Financial Update (For U.S. financial data, see p. 869A2)

(Close of trading Dec. 31 unless otherwise indicated)

Stocks Frankfurt (Germany) stock exchange

8067.32

Paris Bourse

5614.08

Sydney (Australia) stock exchange

6339.80

London Stock Exchange

6456.90

(Xetra DAX index) (Dec. 28) (CAC 40)

(S&P/ASX 200)

(Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100)

Tokyo Stock Exchange

15,307.78

Toronto Stock Exchange

13,833.06

(Nikkei 225 index) (Dec. 28)

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(S&P/TSX Composite Index)

Currencies (late New York trading) Argentina (peso) (in U.S. dollars) Australia (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) Brazil (real) (in U.S. dollars) Britain (pound) (in U.S. dollars) Canada (dollar) (in U.S. dollars) European Union (euro) (in U.S. dollars) Hong Kong (dollar) (per U.S. dollar) Japan (yen) (per U.S. dollar) Mexico (peso) (per U.S. dollar) South Africa (rand) (in U.S. dollars) South Korea (won) (per U.S. dollar) Sweden (krona) (per U.S. dollar) Switzerland (franc) (in U.S. dollars) Taiwan (dollar) (per U.S. dollar)

$0.3175 $0.8770 $0.5616 $1.9851 $1.0069 $1.4603 7.7979 111.40 10.9143 $0.1457 936.33 6.4641 $0.8823 32.43

tinued its charge, with the Bombay Sensex index jumping 47%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also finished strongly, up 39%, after the Chinese government Aug. 20 indicated that it would give Chinese investors access to Hong Kong stocks. [See p. 884G2] Pakistan’s Karachi 100 index grew 40%, despite a year that was politically volatile, marked by the instability of President Pervez Musharraf’s government, and increased violence caused by Islamic extremists. [See p. 857A1] Analysts said problems in the U.S. economy had had little impact on Asian markets. The exception was Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average, which fell 11% for the year, its first down year since 2002. Analysts attributed the decline to investors’ worries that U.S. economic growth would slow, as well as concerns over Japan’s own lagging economy. Latin American markets also performed well on the back of strong commodities exports, such as metals and food. Brazil’s Sao Paulo Bovespa index led the way, increasing by 72% for the year in U.S. dollar terms, while Peru’s General Index of the Lima Stock Exchange gained 45%. Venezuela’s Caracas General Stock index fell 27%, after its government began to nationalize various industries. Argentina’s benchmark index was more or less flat, despite strong economic growth. Analysts said investors were wary of the government’s price controls, and suspected that inflation was higher in the country than what the government had reported. [See pp. 827E1, 351E3, 283F3] Canada’s S&P/TSX grew 7.2%, held back slightly by investor concerns about the U.S. economy. However, the Canadian dollar had dramatically risen in value against the U.S. dollar; the S&P/TSX rose approximately 26% in U.S. dollar terms. [See p. 748D3] „ 862

Currency Markets Dollar Fell Against Most Currencies. The

U.S. dollar fell in value against other major currencies in the year ending Dec. 31, mostly due to concerns that U.S. economic growth would slow and that the economy could enter a recession. Overall, the U.S. dollar lost 7.5% of its value against a trade-weighted index of 26 currencies tracked by the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank. [See p. 748A2; 2006, p. 995D1; box, p. 862A1] Most notably, the U.S. dollar ended the year down 9.6% against the European euro, which Dec. 31 was valued at $1.4598; down 1.5% against the British pound, valued at $1.9870; down 6.4% against the Japanese yen, with the U.S. dollar buying 111.45 yen; and down 14.8% against the Canadian dollar, with the U.S. dollar buying C$0.9937. The U.S. dollar in November had fallen to a record low against the euro, and a 26year low against the British pound. The U.S. dollar in October had fallen to a 130year low against the Canadian dollar. In a sign of flagging confidence in the U.S. dollar, oil-rich Persian Gulf countries, many of which pegged their currencies to the dollar, considered ending that strategy, but six Persian Gulf countries held off changing the arrangement in December. Kuwait had stopped pegging its currency to the dollar in May. [See p. 764D1] Analysts said the weakened dollar did benefit some sectors of the U.S. economy, including multinational companies that earned profits in other currencies, and exporters who found it cheaper to sell their goods overseas. China’s currency, the yuan (also known as renminbi), rose 6.9% against the U.S. dollar over the year, ending at 7.3 to $1. The U.S. and other trading partners persistently criticized China, which controlled the yuan’s value against the dollar, for keeping it at a level that they said was artificially low, in order to make its exports more competitive. [See p. 884B1] „

United Nations New Budget Passes Despite U.S. Opposition.

The United Nations General Assembly Dec. 22 passed, 142–1, a budget covering non-peacekeeping expenses for 2008 and 2009. The budget, which totaled $4.17 billion, up from the $3.8 billion budgeted for 2006 and 2007, was slightly smaller than the $4.2 billion budget requested in November by Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. [See 2005, p. 924G3] The U.S. was the only country to vote against the budget, which traditionally had been passed by consensus. U.S. opposition to the budget was based on a provision that would fund a follow-up to the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, an event that U.S. officials criticized as fostering hostility to Israel, the New York Times reported Dec. 23. The conference provision was backed by the so-called Group of 77, a coalition of 130 developing nations. While the U.S. failed to remove the provision funding the new racism conference, it

did succeed in protecting the budget of a special task force investigating fraud within the U.N. An earlier draft of the U.N. budget would have suspended the program for six months, effectively ending all current investigations. The final version of budget restored funding but mandated an audit of the task force’s activities. Analysts suggested that the audit was intended to pacify complaints from Singapore, which had previously objected to the task force’s investigation of a U.N. official from Singapore. „ Death Penalty Moratorium Urged. The United Nations General Assembly Dec. 18 passed, 104–54 (with 29 abstentions), a nonbinding resolution calling on member nations to institute a moratorium on capital punishment. The resolution was supported by the entirety of the European Union as well as Turkey, Israel and most Latin American nations. The U.S. opposed the resolution and was joined by nations including North Korea, Iran, China, Sudan and Syria. Attempts by Italy in 1994 and the EU in 1999 to pass similar resolutions had failed. [See pp. 872G2, 841C2] The New York Times reported Dec. 22 that the bulk of the effort to block the resolution had taken place in the U.N.’s Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, where nations opposed to the resolution had attempted to stall the proposal by attaching controversial amendments, including an amendment by Egypt, eventually defeated, that would have extended the moratorium to include abortion. „ Oil-For-Food Trader Avoids Jail Time.

A judge in U.S. District Court in New York City Dec. 13 sentenced a man convicted on charges relating to improprieties in the United Nations’ oil-for-food program to two years’ probation and fined him $5,000. The defendant, Bulgarian-born oil trader Ludmil Dionissiev, had pleaded guilty Aug. 17 to charges that he arranged for the sale of Iraqi oil despite being aware that bribes were being paid to the Iraqi government as part of the deal. He apologized before being sentenced Dec. 13 and said his actions had been his life’s “biggest mistake.” In handing down a lenient sentence to Dionissiev, Judge Denny Chin described him as the “least culpable” person involved in the scandal. [See p. 808C2; 2005, p. 261C3] „

Global Health Human Bird Flu Case Found in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s health ministry Dec. 15 confirmed that a man in its North-West Frontier Province had died Nov. 28 from the H5N1 strain of avian influenza (bird flu), becoming that country’s first fatality from the illness. Five other men had also contracted the disease, but had fully recovered from it. The men had been culling infected birds. [See p. 556B2] Since its reemergence in 2003 the H5N1 bird flu strain had spread from Southeast Asia to several dozen countries and territories in Europe, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Global health experts had expressed concern that the disease could mutate into a form easily transmissible beFACTS ON FILE

tween humans, sparking a global pandemic that could kill millions. The World Health Organization (WHO) Dec. 28 said it had ruled out the possibility that the virus detected in the dead Pakistani man had mutated into a more dangerous form, though it could not rule out that the Pakistani incidents were cases of humanto-human transmission. Also, the WHO Dec. 14 confirmed the first human case of H5N1 bird flu in Myanmar, in a seven-year-old girl in the northeastern area of the country. The girl had been hospitalized on Nov. 27, but released in good health on Dec. 12 after responding to treatment. As of Dec. 31, the WHO had reported a total of 348 human cases of H5N1 bird flu in 14 countries, with 215 cases becoming fatal. In 2007 alone, the WHO had confirmed 85 cases of the disease and 57 fatalities. „ News in Brief. A team of scientists working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Sept. 27 reported that 69 cases of polio-induced paralysis in Nigeria were caused by live, weakened ver-

sions of the polio virus used in vaccines. Rumors that the vaccine caused sterility or AIDS had led to the halt of polio vaccinations in the northern Nigerian state of Kano in 2003. Health officials feared the discovery would further impede vaccination efforts in the country. Vaccine-caused polio outbreaks were more common in areas where vaccine administration was low. People who received the vaccination sometimes excreted a mutated live virus, which could then infect unvaccinated people. [See 2005, p. 751C3] Researchers reported in the Oct. 18 issue of the Lancet, a British journal, that a new malaria vaccine was effective in protecting infants younger than one year. The research relied on a relatively small clinical trial of 214 infants, but found that a threecourse administration of the vaccine had reduced the risk of contracting malaria by 65%. GlaxoSmithKline PLC of Britain, the maker of the vaccine, known as Mosquirix, could be ready as soon as 2012 if it was found safe in larger trials. [See p. 556C3] The Measles Initiative, a coalition of international health agencies, Nov. 29 reported that improved measles prevention efforts had led to a 91% decline in cases of the disease in Africa since 2000. The group reported that the number of worldwide measles cases had fallen 68% over the same period, to 242,000 cases in 2006, from 757,000 cases in 2000. The group credited the decline to increased immunization efforts and the distribution of vitamin A capsules, which had been shown to decrease measles deaths in the developing world. [See p. 59D2] „

Abortion Bans Seen Not to Reduce Rates. Research-

ers reported in the Oct. 12 issue of the British journal Lancet that the legality of abortion in a country seemed to have little effect on the rates at which the procedure was performed. Scientists involved in the study said that abortions performed in countries where they were outlawed were more likeDecember 31, 2007

ly to be dangerous than those performed legally. They also said abortion rates were similar in both poor and rich countries, and that an estimated half of all abortions were unsafe, accounting for 13% of deaths of mothers during pregnancy and childbirth. The study found that worldwide, there were 31 abortions for every 100 live births. [See 2003, p. 170D1] For countries where abortion was legal and procedures were documented, the scientists used data from the countries themselves. It relied on World Health Organization (WHO) estimates for abortion rates in countries where the procedure was outlawed. WHO scientists used hospital data on complications common to abortions to estimate the rates. Abortion opponents questioned the accuracy of that methodology. The researchers said making abortion illegal did little to control abortion rates, and instead suggested that the widespread dissemination of birth control would have a greater impact on lowering the rates. The research was conducted by scientists at the WHO, based in Geneva, Switzerland, and scientists with the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit reproductive health group, in the U.S. „

Global Environment Farming Found to Threaten Wild Salmon. A team of researchers reported Dec. 13 on the Web site of the journal Science that parasites known as sea lice commonly found in salmon farms were threatening to devastate Canadian wild salmon populations. Although salmon farms were long thought to be linked to the recent abrupt decline of wild salmon populations, the study was the first to document the link with data. [See p. 465A1] Wild adult salmon left the ocean to spawn in the inland streams and rivers in which they were born. Months later, infant fish, or fry, emerged from eggs and headed downstream. Juvenile fish then went through a period of development in estuaries before entering deeper water where they would naturally encounter sea lice they were able to withstand. The scientists found that the presence of fish farms in which sea lice were endemic in estuary areas had exposed wild fish to sea lice at a vulnerable early age, killing many of them. The researchers said the infestations could render extinct within eight years some local wild populations of fish in the spawning areas around British Columbia, Canada. The researchers examined data dating to 1970 on the number of adult salmon returning to spawning grounds in British Columbia, from the ocean. They found that wild fish populations in areas where aquaculture was prevalent had declined, while wild populations not near fish farms had remained unchanged. They also discovered that in areas where fish farms had been closed, wild fish populations had rebounded and sea lice infestations had declined. The research had been led by Martin Krkosek, a fisheries ecologist at the University of Alberta in Canada. „ Japan Delays Humpback Whale Hunt. Japan’s foreign ministry Dec. 21 announced

that it would delay a planned hunt for humpback whales in the waters near Antarctica. Though Japan was a signatory to a 1986 international treaty banning commercial whaling, it killed a growing number of whales of varying species under the claim the hunting was done for scientific purposes. However, the practice was criticized by other countries, environmentalists and biologists who said most of the whale meat ended up sold to consumers who ate it. [See p. 141A3] Japan had reportedly been strongly lobbied by the U.S. and Australia to implement the delay. Australian officials had pledged to track the Japanese whaling fleet with boats and aircraft. Separately, the 76-nation International Whaling Commission, the body that oversaw whaling practices, May 29 voted to renew a five-year whaling quota granted to Native Americans in the U.S. state of Alaska. The quota allowed Native Americans in 10 villages to hunt up to 260 bowhead whales during a period ending in 2012. „ News in Brief. Japan’s fisheries agency Jan. 31 announced that it would reduce its Atlantic bluefin tuna catch by 23% by 2010 to aid efforts to save the endangered fish. Under an agreement brokered by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, Japan would reduce its annual bluefin tuna haul to 2,175 tons (1,970 metric tons) in 2010, from 2,830 tons in 2006. The European Union also agreed to reduce its harvest, to 14,500 tons in 2010, from 18,300 tons in 2006. [See 2006, p. 996A3] Chinese state-run news media Aug. 29 reported that a man had videotaped an animal believed to be a Chinese river dolphin, also known as a baiji, swimming in the Yangtze River. An international group of scientists in December 2006 had declared the baiji extinct, after failing to find a single example of the species during a six-week search in the Yangtze River. [See 2006, p. 971E3] The World Conservation Union, known formally as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Sept. 12 released its 2007 “Red List” report, described as the most comprehensive scientific assessment of the state of the world’s plants and animals. The report listed 16,306 species as threatened with extinction, a rise from the 16,118 listed in 2006. The report noted that Africa’s Western gorilla population had moved from “endangered” to “critically endangered,” reflecting threats posed by hunting and disease. [See 2000, p. 984B3] A group of researchers reported in the Oct. 11 issue of the journal Nature that the amount of moisture in the air near the Earth’s surface had increased by 2.2% between 1973 and 2002. The scientists ran computer models attributing the rise in humidity to man-made greenhouse gas emissions. The research was led by Nathan Gillett of the University of East Anglia in Britain, and Katharine Willett of Yale University in the U.S. The U.S.-based think tank Center for Global Development Nov. 14 released an analysis of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. The report found that the U.S. was the world’s leader in 863

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carbon dioxide emissions generated by power plants, releasing 2.79 billion tons (2.53 billion metric tons) annually. It was followed by China (2.68 billion tons), Russia (661 million tons), India (583 million tons) and Japan (400 million tons). However, the group noted that China was set to overtake the U.S. for the number one spot, as it planned to build or expand 199 coal-fueled plants over the next 10 years, compared with 83 planned in the U.S. during the same time period. [See pp. 701B1, 366D1] „

Space News in Brief. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Dec. 27 announced the latest in a series of postponements of a space shuttle mission to

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the International Space Station. The launch of the orbiter Atlantis, originally scheduled for Dec. 6, was delayed by problems with a faulty gauge on its external fuel tank. NASA Dec. 13 had set a new target launch date of Jan. 10, 2008, but Dec. 27 said it was not clear how long it would take to resolve the problem. Atlantis was to carry a Europeanbuilt scientific laboratory module called Columbus to the station. [See p. 728B2] U.S. astronaut Daniel Tani, a member of the space station’s current crew, Dec. 19 was informed that his mother had been killed in an accident earlier that day. NASA officials said they believed it was the first time an astronaut on a mission in space had had an immediate relative die. Tani’s 90-year-old mother, Rose Tani, was killed when a train struck her car near Chicago. Tani had been aboard the station since October and was scheduled to return with Atlantis. The Orlando Sentinel April 15 reported that NASA had made settlement payments totaling $26.6 million to the families of the seven astronauts killed in the 2003 destruction of the space shuttle Columbia. [See 2003, p. 57A1; 1988, p. 167C2] NASA Jan. 29 said that the main camera aboard the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) was no longer fully functioning, and its operation was unlikely to be completely restored. Officials said that other instruments on the telescope would continue to be used for observations, but scientists lamented the loss of the ACS, which had been primarily responsible for the stunning images of faraway galaxies that Hubble had furnished. A space shuttle mission to make repairs to the telescope was scheduled for September 2008, but was not expected to fix ACS. [See 2006, p. 879C3] NASA in a report to the U.S. Congress May 9 said that it did not have sufficient funding to complete a catalog of small asteroids that could collide with the Earth by 2020, as ordered by Congress in a 2005 law authorizing funding for the agency. The agency suggested that instead of seeking to identify and track every such “near Earth object,” it should focus on singling out those that were most likely to pose a threat. However, it said that would still cost $1 billion more than was available to the agency. [See 2005, p. 959E2] „ 864

Atlantic Hurricane Season 2007 Sees Average Storm Season. The 2007

Atlantic hurricane season ended Nov. 30, in a year analysts characterized as having an average number of storms. A total of 14 named storms formed in the 2007 season, six of which became hurricanes. For the first time since records began in 1851, two hurricanes rating Category 5 on the SaffirSampson scale of intensity—Dean in August and Felix in September—made landfall in the same season. [See pp. 793B2, 382D2] The U.S. was spared major damage, with only Hurricane Humberto Sept. 13 making landfall in southern Texas and Louisiana. The storm, which became a Category 1 hurricane before weakening to a tropical storm later that day, killed at least one person and left about 113,000 people without power. For the second year since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, storm activity fell below what weather forecasters had predicted. „

Other International News Report Says 64 Journalists Killed in 2007.

At least 64 journalists were killed as a result of their profession during 2007, according to a report released Dec. 18 by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York City–based nonprofit advocacy group. The number was the highest reported by the CPJ since 1994, when 66 reporters were killed. The 2007 count, which covered the period between Jan. 1 and Dec. 17, did not include 22 in which it was unclear if the deaths were related to journalism work. [See p. 711F2] In 2007, 31 journalists were killed in Iraq, making it the most dangerous country for reporters for the fifth consecutive year. At least 124 journalists and 49 support staffers had been killed in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion. The CPJ reported that 12 people employed as support staff for journalists were also killed in the line of duty in 2007. „ Steroid Bust Snares 124. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials Sept. 23 announced the successful execution of what they described as the largest antisteroid operation ever carried out by law enforcement agencies. The raids, which took place over 18 months, beginning in December 2005, resulted in the arrest of 124 people in 27 states, and the seizure of $6.5 million, 242 kilograms (532 lb.) of steroid powder and 71 weapons. Officials estimated that 99% of the steroids and steroid components originated from China. [See p. 832C3] The massive investigation, known as Operation Raw Deal, followed a largescale December 2005 prosecution of Mexican steroid firms that allowed Chinese companies to move into the U.S. illegal steroid market. Raw Deal involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the National Drug Intelligence Center, as well as agencies in Sweden, Canada, Denmark, Thailand, Australia, Mexico, Belgium and Germany.

The Chinese government also cooperated with the investigation after a February meeting with DEA agents, but analysts questioned whether China’s assistance would continue after the conclusion of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China’s capital. The Washington Post reported Dec. 5 that new, clearer Chinese standards regarding the illegality of exporting steroids appeared to have diminished the number of businesses funneling the drugs overseas. DEA officials Sept. 24 said the U.S. government would work to identify the steroid purchasers by sifting through e-mails and other Internet messages linked to dealers. Although no high-profile athletes were arrested in conjunction with the busts, officials for both the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) said Sept. 24 that they intended to request any information U.S. the government possessed regarding steroid purchases by their players. [See p. 898C3] „

U N I T ESTATES D S TAT E S UNITED

2008 Presidential Campaign Candidates Battle Down Iowa Homestretch.

Presidential candidates Dec. 31 headed into the homestretch leading up to the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, 2008, the first contest in any state for the Republican and Democratic nominations. The New Hampshire primaries, the other traditional early test, would follow on Jan. 8. Both the Iowa and New Hampshire contests were scheduled earlier than ever before. Both states had moved up in the calendar to keep their first-in-the-nation status amid a trend of other states choosing earlier dates as well. An unprecedented slate of more than 20 states would hold primaries on Feb. 5. [See p. 841G2] The Democratic race featured a threeway battle in Iowa, with Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) at the top of the polls, trailed by several other contenders. Polling results published Dec. 31 by the Des Moines Register, Iowa’s biggest newspaper, showed Obama leading the Democrats with the support of 32% of likely Iowa caucus-goers, trailed by Clinton with 25% and Edwards with 24%. Among Republicans, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee had surged into the lead in Iowa in recent weeks, overtaking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, had rallied the support of Christian conservatives, a major Republican voting bloc in Iowa. But Romney, much better financed than Huckabee, unleashed a barrage of negative advertising in the run-up to the caucuses, attacking Huckabee’s record. At the same time, Romney was also trying to head off a resurgence by Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in New Hampshire. The Register poll showed Huckabee ahead in Iowa with 32%, Romney with 26% and McCain, who had spent much less time campaigning in the state, in third with 13%. Meanwhile, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who retained a FACTS ON FILE

narrow lead atop the Republican field in national polls, was pursuing an unorthodox strategy of spending less time and money in Iowa and New Hampshire. Instead, he was campaigning in Florida, which had scheduled its primary for Jan.29. Huckabee, Romney Clash—Huckabee in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Dec. 30 called Romney’s attacks on him “very desperate” and “dishonest.” He asked, “If you aren’t being honest in obtaining a job, can we trust you to be honest if you get the job?” Romney’s ads had criticized Huckabee’s record as governor, noting that he had supported college tuition aid for children of illegal immigrants and had pardoned more than 1,000 convicted criminals, including some murderers. Huckabee Dec. 28–29 had stepped up his own attacks on Romney in speeches in Iowa. “I know that Mr. Romney has said that he was pro-life, but that’s a new position for him,” Huckabee said Dec. 28 in Ottumwa. Romney had supported abortion rights earlier in his political career. Huckabee Dec. 31 held a news conference to announce that he had decided not to air an attack ad against Romney. But he showed the ad to reporters at the event, ensuring that the message got media coverage anyway. The ad portrayed Romney’s Massachusetts record as far from conservative, saying he had raised taxes, left a budget deficit, approved no executions, backed gun control and provided coverage for abortion in his health insurance plan. Bill Clinton Stumps for Wife—Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, campaigned for her throughout Iowa, and Dec. 29 touted her experience in a speech in Nashua, N.H. He said, “You have to have a leader who is strong and commanding and convincing enough…to deal with the unexpected.” Meanwhile, Obama and Edwards clashed over which of them was most determined to bring change to the political establishment in Washington, D.C. Edwards, sharpening his populist message, in a speech in Dubuque, Iowa, Dec. 28 said he was the only candidate tough enough to fight for the middle class. He asked, “Why on earth would we expect the corporate powers and their lobbyists—who make billions by selling out the middle class—to just give up their power because we ask them nicely?” Obama, in Newton, Iowa, Dec. 30 said, “I do not believe that change will come with more angry rhetoric of turning up the heat on Republicans. We don’t need more heat in Washington, we need more light.” Sen. Clinton, in Keokuk, Iowa, Dec. 31 boasted of experience fighting special interests. “I’ve taken on the drug companies. I’ve taken on the health insurance companies; I’ve taken on the oil companies, and I intend to keep doing it,” she said. Pakistan Events Test Candidates—The Dec. 27 assassination in Pakistan of opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto drew reactions from the December 31, 2007

presidential candidates, in a test of their grasp of foreign policy. [See p. 857A1] Huckabee Dec. 28 said, “In light of what happened in Pakistan yesterday, it’s interesting that there were more Pakistanis who illegally crossed the border than of any other nationality except for those immediately south of our border.” However, U.S. statistics showed that Pakistan ranked further down the list as a source of illegal immigrants from outside Latin America. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democratic candidate who had served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Dec. 28 called on Musharraf to resign, and urged a cutoff of U.S. aid to Pakistan. He criticized U.S. President George W. Bush for supporting Musharraf, whom he called a “dictator.” Clinton and McCain Dec. 28 both stressed their experience in dealing with Pakistan. Clinton urged an independent investigation into the assassination. McCain said he knew Musharraf personally and called him a “scrupulously honest man,” although Musharraf faced widespread suspicion that his government might have been involved in Bhutto’s death. McCain Dec. 27 made a late trip to Iowa, where he touted his foreign policy experience, saying that he was the only candidate prepared to handle such international crises. Giuliani Briefly Hospitalized— Giuliani Dec. 19–20 spent more than 14 hours in Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo. His campaign said he had begun to feel ill during a campaign trip in Missouri, and was flying back to New York when a severe headache and other “flu-like symptoms” caused him to turn his airplane around and seek immediate treatment. Giuliani Dec. 20 walked out of the hospital. „ California Electoral Vote Initiative Fails.

Republican organizers of an effort to pass a California ballot initiative that would apportion the state’s Electoral College votes based on presidential election results in each congressional district, instead of the existing “winner take all” system, Dec. 7 said they had failed to collect the signatures needed to place the initiative on a June 2008 ballot, in time for the November 2008 election. Dave Gilliard, campaign manager for California Counts, the group leading the effort, said it would continue trying to place the initiative on future ballots. [See p. 174B1] Democrats had fought the initiative, which would be likely to hurt the Democratic presidential candidate, since California, which had 55 electoral votes, the most of any state, had been won by the Democrat in the last four elections. Under the proposed apportionment system, the Republican candidate would be likely to win at least 20 of the state’s electoral votes from reliably Republican districts. „ Obama, Cheney Said to Be Cousins.

Lynne Cheney Oct. 16 said she had found evidence of ancestral ties between her husband, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.), which made them eighth cousins. She said they were descendants of a 17th-century French Huguenot immigrant to Maryland, Mareen Duvall. The Chicago Sun-Times Sept. 9

had reported that Obama and Cheney were 9th cousins once removed—and that Obama and President George W. Bush were 11th cousins, both descended from a couple in 17th-century Massachusetts, Samuel Hinckley and Sarah Soole Hinckley. [See p. 864E3] „

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2007 Congressional Session Bush, GOP Slow Democratic Majorities.

The 110th Congress Dec. 21 adjourned for its holiday recess after a session in which the new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate accomplished some of their top priorities for their first year back in control of both chambers since 1994. However, President George W. Bush’s veto power, together with united opposition from the Republican congressional minorities, prevented the Democrats from delivering on other key promises, most notably their pledge to bring an end to the Iraq war. Polls showed public approval for Congress at historic lows. [See p. 866E2; for a legislative scorecard of the 2007 congressional session, see p. 866A1] In its last vote of the year, the House cleared a $555 billion spending bill to fund most government agencies for fiscal year 2008, after a months-long standoff between Bush and the Democrats over funds for the Iraq war. The Democrats had vowed not to approve any more war funds unless Bush agreed to a deadline to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. But Bush rejected any deadlines, and warned that he would veto the spending bill unless it included the war funds. He prevailed in the end: the final bill provided $70 billion for war costs in Iraq and Afghanistan. [See p. 842F1] Earlier in the year, Republican support had sustained Bush’s veto of a previous Democratic attempt to attach withdrawal deadlines to a war funding bill. [See pp. 764D3, 327A2, 273A1] Democrats also failed to override Bush’s vetoes of an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP or CHIP) and a measure that would permit federal funding for new stem cell research. [See pp. 823F1, 397G2] Bush and the Republicans overcame Democratic opposition to an antiterrorist domestic surveillance program in August, when Congress passed a temporary authorization of the program. In November, the House passed a permanent measure that would increase congressional and judicial oversight of such wiretapping, but the bill did not come to a vote in the Senate. [See pp. 842F3, 506A3] In another setback for Democratic leaders at the end of the year, both houses passed a $50 billion measure to prevent the further expansion of the alternative minimum tax (AMT), without adding any offsetting tax increases. That was a breach of “pay-as-yougo” budget rules that the Democrats had passed earlier in the year with the aim of reducing the budget deficit. [See p. 844A1] In June, an immigration reform bill, backed by both the Democrats and Bush, stalled due to conservative opposition. It would have granted many illegal immi865

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2007 CONGRESSIONAL SESSION

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Legislation Passed Afghanistan War Funds—President

George W. Bush Dec. 26 signed an omnibus spending bill that included $70 billion in unrestricted funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Democrats had failed in a series of attempts during the year to force Bush to accept a deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq as a condition for further war funds. [See pp. 868D1, 764D3, 327A2, 273A1] Appropriations—Bush Dec. 26 signed a $555 billion omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2008, covering most federal agencies and including the $70 billion in war funds. However, Bush criticized Congress for finishing the annual appropriations process late (the fiscal year had begun Oct. 1) and for including thousands of earmarks, or requests by individual lawmakers for spending on pet projects. [See above, p. 868D1] Taxes—Bush Dec. 26 signed a $50 billion measure to prevent the further expansion of the alternative minimum tax. [See p. 867D3] Energy—Bush Dec. 19 signed an energy bill that mandated both an increase in fuel economy standards and an expansion of biofuel supplies. [See p. 843C3] Minimum Wage Increase—Bush May 25 signed a war funding bill that included an increase in the minimum wage, which would rise to $7.25 an hour over the next two years, from $5.15. It was the first minimum wage increase in a decade. [See p. 481B1] Gun Control—Congress Dec. 19 cleared a bill to require stricter mental-health background checks for gun buyers, in response to an April massacre by a student at Virginia Tech university. It would be the first federal gun control law since 1996. [See pp. 866E3, 237A1] Homeland Security—Bush Aug. 3 signed a bill that would put into effect recommendations for domestic security improvements

grants a path to legal status and eventual citizenship. [See p. 413A1] Democratic Successes—The Democrats scored some successes earlier in the year, including an increase in the minimum wage, which would rise to $7.25 an hour over the next two years, from $5.15. Bush signed the measure in May. It was the first minimum wage increase in a decade. [See p. 481B1] At the end of the year, the House cleared, and Bush signed, another Democratic priority: an energy bill that mandated both an increase in fuel economy standards— the first since 1975—and an expansion of biofuel supplies. [See p. 843C3] In another major step at the end of the session, Congress cleared a bill to require stricter background checks for gun buyers, in response to an April massacre by a student at Virginia Tech university. It would be the first major new control law since 1994. [See p. 237A1] In August, the Senate cleared an ethics and lobbying reform bill to address corruption scandals that had tainted the previous, Republican-controlled Congress. The measure required increased disclosure of earmarks—funding requests by individual lawmakers for pet projects. [See p. 494A3] 866

made by an independent commission, known as the 9/11 commission, which had investigated Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. [See p. 507D3] Congressional Ethics Reform—Bush Sept. 14 signed an ethics reform bill that would tighten the rules for members of Congress in their use of federal money for pet projects, their dealings with lobbyists and other potential conflicts of interest. [See p. 494A3] Student Financial Aid—Bush Sept. 27 signed a bill that would reduce subsidies to banks that provided student loans, while increasing the maximum federal Pell grant, which went to the neediest students, to $5,400 a year by 2012. [See p. 648E1] Legislation Not Passed Immigration Reform—Senate supporters of a

controversial immigration reform bill June 28 failed to bring the measure to a final vote on the floor. The measure would have provided many of the U.S.’s 12 million illegal immigrants a means of gaining legal status and eventual citizenship through a new visa system, while also creating a temporary worker program. [See p. 413A1] Children’s Health Insurance—Bush Dec. 12 vetoed for the second time legislation that would have increased funding for the state Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP or CHIP). Bush in October had vetoed an earlier version of the bill. [See p. 823F1] Stem Cell Research—President George W. Bush June 20 vetoed for the second time a bill that would have provided federal funding for new embryonic stem cell research. [See p. 397G2] Domestic Surveillance—Bush Aug. 5 signed a bill legalizing and expanding a warrantless wiretapping program operated by the National Security Agency (NSA). The authorization would expire after six months. The House Nov. 15 passed a permanent measure that would increase congressional and judicial oversight of the program, but it did not

come to a vote in the Senate by the end of the year. [See p. 842F3] Other Events Democrats’ Return to Power—The congres-

sional session began Jan. 4 with Democratic majorities taking control of both the House and Senate for the first time since 1994, following the Democratic victories in the 2006 midterm elections. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) became the first woman to preside as speaker of the House. [See p. 1B1] Gen. Petraeus’s Iraq Progress Report—Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Sept. 10–11 testified before House and Senate committees, giving a progress report on a “surge” in U.S. troop levels in Iraq. Petraeus said the surge had brought enough stability to Iraq to allow the 30,000 troops it had added to U.S. forces since January to be withdrawn by the summer of 2008, but warned against larger and hastier withdrawals. [See p. 585A1] Gonzales No-Confidence Motion—Senate Republicans June 11 blocked a bid by Democrats to pass a a motion of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He had faced congressional investigations and calls for his resignation from members of both parties in a controversy over the dismissal of several federal prosecutors in 2006 and accusations of political bias in Justice Department hiring. Gonzales resigned Aug. 27. [See pp. 553A1, 378D2] Mukasey Hearings, Confirmation—Retired federal Judge Michael Mukasey, Bush’s nominee to replace Gonzales as attorney general, Oct. 17–18 appeared for confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The most contentious point proved to be Mukasey’s refusal to say whether he believed that the practice of waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulated drowning, constituted illegal torture. Despite criticism from Democrats over his response, the Senate Nov. 8 voted, 53–40, to confirm Mukasey. [See p. 730A2]

However, the omnibus spending bill passed at the end of the term and a defense spending bill passed in November still included a combined total of some 11,000 earmarks, near the record of 13,000 set in 2005. [See p. 845D2] „

use harsh interrogation techniques. Reid and other Democrats said those techniques amounted to torture. [See p. 664A1] „

Senate Democrats Block Bush Appointments.

Gun

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) Dec. 20 said Democrats would keep the Senate technically in session during the Christmas recess, in order to prevent President George W. Bush from using an adjournment to directly appoint nominees who would otherwise require Senate confirmation. Recess appointments would last until the end of the current Congress, or nearly till the end of Bush’s term. Democratic senators took turns convening pro forma sessions through Dec. 31, gaveling them closed after just a few seconds each day. [See pp. 865A3, 223G3] Reid said he was most concerned that Bush would appoint Steven Bradbury, his nominee to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, as an assistant attorney general. Bradbury currently held the post on an “acting” basis. He had signed opinions in 2005 that said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) could

The House and Senate Dec. 19 each passed, by voice vote, a final version of a bill that would assist states in ensuring that people with serious mental illnesses were prevented from buying firearms. The bill had been proposed following an April shooting rampage at Virginia Tech University carried out by a mentally ill gunman. [See p. 377D3] The bill, which was the first gun control bill passed by Congress since 1996, specified which mental health records needed to be provided to the government’s National Instant Crime Background Check System (NICS) system, which was used by gun sellers to conduct background checks. It also funded a set of incentives and penalties designed to induce states to keep mental health records up to date in the system. [See 1996, p. 737F2] An earlier version of the bill was passed by the House in June, but languished for months in the Senate after Sen. Tom Coburn (R, Okla.) placed a hold on it due

Legislation Background-Check

Bill

Cleared.

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to concerns about how the law might affect the gun rights of veterans. Coburn dropped his hold in December after Senate Democrats agreed to add an amendment that would require the government to notify veterans who were affected by the new law, and mandated government reimbursement of court costs for veterans who successfully appealed their status. Following Senate passage, the House passed the revised version. President George W. Bush was not expected to veto it. „ Defense Authorization Bill Cleared. The House Dec. 12 adopted, 370–49, the final version of a bill authorizing $696.4 billion for the Defense Department for fiscal 2008, which had begun Oct. 1, and the Senate Dec. 14 cleared the bill, 90–3. The House in May and the Senate in October had passed their own versions of the bill. The White House Dec. 28 said President George W. Bush would veto the final bill. [See below, pp. 868E1, 842F1, 647D3] The bill authorized $189.5 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, although it did not itself furnish the funds. An omnibus appropriations bill cleared Dec. 19 by the House had provided $70 billion in funding for the military operations. The bill would expand the the Army by 13,000 soldiers, to a total of 525,400, and the Marine Corps by 9,000 soldiers, to a total of 189,000. It also authorized an acrossthe-board 3.5% pay raise for military personnel, which Bush opposed as too high, and included measures enhancing the status of the National Guard within the Defense Department. The legislation included a number of socalled wounded warrior provisions that expanded health services for veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also blocked out-of-pocket cost increases for participants in the Tricare health network that had been proposed by the Bush administration, and allowed the most severely disabled veterans to receive both their disability and their retirement pay. The bill barred funds from being spent on building a controversial antimissile network in Europe until specified conditions were met, and also restricted the Defense Department’s ability to retire certain aircraft. The legislation authorized funding for many weapons programs, including $17.6 billion for vehicles armored against roadside bombs, which caused the majority of U.S. casualties in Iraq. The legislation included changes to Bush administration personnel reforms affecting 700,000 Defense Department civilian employees. The changes included exempting blue-collar workers from the reforms and affirming employees’ rights to collective bargaining. The legislation also reformed the Defense Department’s purchasing process, restricting contracts that gave companies, instead of the government, oversight responsibilities; giving whistleblowers new protections; requiring the Pentagon to prove weapons’ effectiveness before they could be purchased; creating a commission to monitor wartime wasteful spending; and compelling the Bush administration to create rules December 31, 2007

governing private security contractors in war zones. Veto Threatened Over Iraq Measure—

The Bush administration veto threat came over a provision allowing Iraqi assets to be frozen in lawsuits brought by U.S. residents against the Iraqi government for acts carried out by the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the provision would “allow plaintiffs’ lawyers immediately to freeze Iraqi funds and would expose Iraq to massive liability,” hampering reconstruction efforts in that country. Bush said he would work with congressional leaders to fix the bill “as soon as possible upon Congress’s return in January.” Bush aides said the veto was only targeted at the lawsuit measure, rather than other provisions in the bill that he had opposed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.), released a statement criticizing Bush for not registering his objections earlier. They said, “the president is bowing to the demands of the Iraqi government, which is threatening to withdraw billions of dollars invested in U.S. banks if this bill is signed.” „ Bush Signs Mortgage Aid Bill. President George W. Bush Dec. 20 signed the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which temporarily changed tax law so that debt forgiven on home mortgages would not be counted as taxable income. The law was intended to help homeowners whose mortgage debt exceeded the value of their homes, which occurred when housing prices fell. Before the act was passed, a homeowner who sold or foreclosed on a devalued home was forgiven the remaining debt, but that debt counted as income that could be taxed. The act would provide tax relief on mortgage debt forgiven from 2007 to 2009. [See pp. 844A3, 803E3] The Senate had passed the final bill Dec. 14, and the House cleared it Dec. 18, both by voice vote. The House had passed an earlier version Oct. 4. „ Bush Signs Terror Insurance Extension.

President George W. Bush Dec. 26 signed a seven-year extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) after threatening to veto an earlier version of the bill. Following Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S., TRIA was passed in 2002 to provide federal terrorism insurance guarantees in order to make sure that major insurers continued to offer terrorism insurance. The current law was scheduled to expire Dec. 31. [See p. 844G1] The new extension expanded coverage to attacks plotted by U.S. citizens. (The original bill had covered only terrorist attacks plotted by foreign nationals.) It paid for the increased costs by allowing the federal government to raise premiums before the end of the previous bill’s two-year window in order to recoup its losses more quickly. Bush had threatened to veto an earlier version of the bill passed by the House, which had contained a 15-year extension, arguing that the program should be phased out to minimize government involvement in the insurance market. „

Children’s Insurance Funds Cleared, Signed.

President George W. Bush Dec. 29 signed into law a measure that would extend funding for the state Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP or CHIP) through March 31, 2009, at its current levels. Bush in October and again in December had vetoed two versions of a bill that would have significantly expanded the program, which provided health insurance to children in families too poor to afford private insurance, but who earned too much income to qualify for Medicaid. [See p. 823F1] The Senate Dec. 18 had passed the bill by voice vote. The House Dec. 19 had voted, 411–3, to pass the measure. The bill also postponed a 10% cut in Medicare payments to doctors scheduled to take place Jan. 1, 2008. Instead, physicians would receive a 0.5% increase in Medicare reimbursements for six months. „ Freedom of Information Bill Cleared. The House Dec. 18 gave final approval, by voice vote, to a bill intended to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), increasing penalties against federal agencies that failed to to meet FOIA’s 20-day deadline for responding to requests for documents from the public. The Senate Dec. 14 had passed the bill, known as the Open Government Act, by voice vote. The bill would also make more information available to the public, including records of government contracts. President George W. Bush signed the bill Dec. 31. [See p. 175C1] „ Congressional Ethics Bill Signed. President George W. Bush Sept. 14 signed an ethics reform bill that would tighten the rules for members of Congress in their use of federal money for pet projects, their dealings with lobbyists and other potential conflicts of interest. [See p. 494A3] „

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Alternative Minimum Tax Bill Signed.

President George W. Bush Dec. 26 signed a $50 billion measure to prevent the alternative minimum tax (AMT) from applying to about 20 million more taxpayers on their 2007 returns. [See p. 844A1] „

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House Passes Product Safety Expansion.

The House Dec. 19 voted, 407–0, to pass a measure that would expand the regulatory powers and funding of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The measure would allocate $80 million in funds for the CPSC in fiscal year 2009, $90 million in fiscal 2010 and $100 million in fiscal 2011. (A separate omnibus spending measure passed by Congress Dec. 18 appropriated $80 million for the CPSC in fiscal 2008, an increase of $17 million over the previous year.) [See pp. 868D1, 842F1, 752D2] The bill also would require a reduction in the allowable amount of lead in toys, more strenuous testing of toys for lead contamination and for manufacturers to attach tracking labels to their products to ease any recalls. The measure would also grant the CPSC more power to stop the distribution of products that could cause severe injury or death. The bill came in the wake of several instances in which toys, food products and other goods produced in China had been found unsafe or faulty. „ 867

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House Passes Mine Reform Bill. The House Nov. 1 voted, 244–166, to pass a bill that would reform laws governing the regulation of uranium, gold, silver, copper and other materials known as “hardrock” minerals. The measure, known as the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act, would prohibit the sale of federal lands to mining companies, and require that they pay royalties of 8% to the government on any materials from new mines, and 4% on materials from any existing mines. [See 1993, p. 895F1] Under the existing 1872 law dating to the U.S.’s frontier era, companies were able to purchase federal land for mining use for between $2 and $5 per acre, although since 1995 Congress had barred such sales annually. Mining companies also did not pay any royalties on mined materials under the current law. Royalties collected under the proposed legislation would go toward cleaning up contaminated abandoned mines. „ House Passes Civil Rights Probe Funds.

The House June 20 voted, 422–2, to pass a bill that would authorize $10 million annually from fiscal 2008 through fiscal 2017 for investigations by the Justice Department of civil rights–era killings. The bill would allow the department to appoint a supervisory Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent to oversee investigations into unsolved civil rights killings that happened before 1970. [See p. 193B1] „

Fiscal 2008 Spending Bills Bush Signs $555 Billion Omnibus Bill.

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President George W. Bush Dec. 26 signed a $555 billion omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2008, which had begun Oct. 1. The bill would fund most federal agencies, and also provided $70 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush issued a statement reiterating his criticism of lawmakers for including nearly 10,000 earmarks, or provisions setting aside funds for pet projects, which he said totaled about $10 billion. [See p. 842F1] The war funds included in the bill were only a portion of the $196 billion that Bush had requested, and were expected to last into the spring of 2008. Defense Funding Bill Signed—Bush Nov. 13 signed an appropriations bill providing $459.6 billion in funding to the Defense Department for fiscal 2008, which began Oct. 1. [See p. 649F3] „

Bush Administration Peake Confirmed as VA Secretary. The Sen-

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ate Dec. 14 confirmed by voice vote retired Army Lt. Gen. James Peake to serve as Veterans Affairs (VA) secretary. The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee the previous day had approved his nomination, 15– 0. Peake, a thoracic surgeon who had served as an infantry officer during the Vietnam War and as Army surgeon general from 2000 to 2004, would be the first general and the first doctor to lead the Veterans Affairs Department. Lawmakers said they expected Peake to take immediate action to 868

correct the scandals over veterans’ health care that had beset the department over the past year. [See p. 731A1] „

Supreme Court Justices Stay Alabama Execution. The Su-

preme Court Dec. 5 blocked the execution of Thomas Arthur, who had been scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Dec. 6 in Alabama. The court said the stay would last until it was able to consider a request by Arthur to review his challenge to the lethal-injection procedure. The stay was the latest in a series of reprieves the court had issued since September, when it agreed to hear Baze v. Rees, a case focusing on whether certain drugs and procedures used in lethal injection constituted cruel and unusual punishment. [See p. 765G3]„

Court Declines McDermott Wiretap Case.

The Supreme Court Dec. 3 declined to hear an appeal brought by Rep. Jim McDermott (D, Wash.), letting stand a lower court’s ruling that he pay a $60,000 fine and the legal fees of Rep. John Boehner (R, Ohio) for leaking an illegally taped telephone call between Republican House leaders in 1996. Boehner had sued McDermott for giving reporters the recording of a conference call, in which the participants discussed an ethics inquiry into then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R, Ga.), who took part in the call. Boehner in May told McDermott that the legal fees amounted to $880,000, though the actual amount McDermott had to pay was being settled in a separate case. [See p. 348F2] „

Mortgage and Credit Crisis Bank Rescue Fund Abandoned. Bond man-

ager BlackRock Inc. Dec. 21 announced that plans to set up a fund to rescue struggling “structured investment vehicles” or SIVs, had been dropped, because the fund was “not needed at this time.” The U.S. Treasury Department had championed the fund as one of its main initiatives to ease an ongoing credit squeeze and stabilize volatile financial markets. Plans to create the fund were first announced in October by three of the country’s largest banks, Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp.; BlackRock was later named to oversee the fund. [See pp. 818B2, 683A2] The proposed fund collapsed after the group failed to find enough banks to sponsor the fund. Banks also began transferring their SIV assets onto their own balance sheets, reducing the threat that the SIVs would sell those assets at too low prices, which could distort the assets’ market value and cause huge losses for the banks. The SIVs had been created by banks, but were largely independent from them, operating off the banks’ balance sheets. SIVs invested in long-term assets, and issued short-term debt instruments, known as commercial paper, to investors to fund most of their activities. When the credit squeeze hit, SIVs struggled to sell commercial paper, prompting concerns that they would have to sell their long-term assets at

depressed prices. The rescue fund was supposed to buy the assets from the SIVs and issue commercial paper to investors. The scrapping of the plan was seen as a setback for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Bush administration, which had thus far failed to alleviate problems in the credit market. A spokesperson for the Treasury Department Dec. 21 said the fund could be revived if needed, and that it had always considered the fund “a complement to other market solutions.” „ Fed Auctions Loans. The Federal Reserve Dec. 20 auctioned $20 billion worth of 35day loans to financial institutions at an interest rate of 4.67%, part of a plan announced earlier in the month to encourage interbank lending. The Fed Dec. 17 had auctioned off $20 billion worth of 28-day loans at an interest rate of 4.65%. The auction Dec. 20 attracted 73 institutions that made $57.7 billion worth of bids, while the Dec. 17 auction attracted 93 institutions that submitted $61.6 billion in bids. Analysts said the high number of bidders showed that the Fed’s plan had attracted strong interest. [See p. 818B2] The Fed’s plan came in response to a freeze in interbank lending that took hold after many banks and financial institutions revealed they were exposed to investments backed by bad mortgages. Those mortgages had fallen dramatically in value as mortgage defaults rose, causing banks to report major losses. As a result, banks became wary of lending to each other, out of concerns that borrowers were using mortgagebacked assets as collateral or would be unable to pay the loans back. The credit squeeze drove interest rates up and made borrowing harder for businesses and consumers, prompting the Fed to auction off loans at a rate lower than its discount interest rate of 4.75%. [See p. 824E3] The Fed allowed bidders to remain anonymous, enabling them to avoid investor suspicions that their operations were in trouble. The Fed was scheduled to hold two more such auctions, on Jan. 14 and Jan. 28, 2008, though the amount to be loaned remained undetermined. „ Fannie Mae to Sell Preferred Stock. Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored mortgage company, Dec. 4 announced that in an attempt to raise capital, it would seek to sell $7 billion worth of preferred stock, and that it would cut its common stock dividend in the first quarter of 2008 to 35 cents a share, from 50 cents. The announcement came a month after Fannie Mae reported that it would post a $1.5 billion third-quarter loss due to a rising number of foreclosures. Freddie Mac, another government-sponsored mortgage company, in November had also said it would sell stock to raise capital. [See p. 784B2] The ongoing problems in the housing market had made financial institutions reluctant to invest in mortgage-backed assets, putting pressure on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to finance more home loans, even as the companies struggled with rising foreclosures. The stock sale was intended to raise the capital Fannie Mae needed to purchase and guarantee loans. „ FACTS ON FILE

Year-End Financial Update

Economy

(For world financial data, see p. 862A1)

Existing Home Sales Rose in November.

(Close of trading Dec. 31 except where indicated)

The National Association of Realtors Dec. 31 reported that sales of existing homes rose 0.4% in November, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.00 million units. The upwardly revised rate for October was 4.98 million units. The median sale price for existing homes in November was $210,200, down 3.3% from the $217,300 reported a year earlier. [See p. 804G3] „

Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index Nasdaq Composite Index U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note (yield) U.S. 6-Month Treasury Bill (yield)

1468.36 2652.28 4.03% 3.51%

Commodities Gold (per troy oz.)

$834.90

New Home Sales Fell 9.0% in November.

Silver (per troy oz.)

$14.76

Oil (per barrel)

$95.98

The Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Dec. 28 reported jointly that sales of new singlefamily homes fell 9.0% in November when compared with the previous month. The new seasonally adjusted annual rate was 647,000 units, down from the revised October rate of 711,000. It was the lowest recorded rate since April 1995, fueling concerns that economic growth would slow down significantly in the fourth quarter. The median price of a new single-family home sold in November was $239,100. [See pp. 847B1, 804E3; 1995, p. 391B2] „ Durable Goods Orders Rose in November.

The Commerce Department Dec. 27 reported that the value of durable goods orders in November rose by 0.1%, compared with the previous month, to $214.7 billion. Durable goods were so-called big-ticket items designed to last three years or more. [See p. 805B1] „ Consumer Confidence Rose in December.

The Conference Board Dec. 27 reported that its index of consumer confidence rose to 88.6 in December, from a revised 87.8 in November. The index’s base level of 100 reflected consumer confidence in 1985. Until December, the index had declined steadily since the summer, when problems in the housing market surfaced in the country’s credit and financial markets. [See p. 805A1] „ Dow Jones Industrial Average Trading on the New York Stock Exchange

Dec. 3

4

5 6 7 10 11 12 13 14 17 18 19 20 21 24 25 26 27 28 31

Closing

Volume (in millions of shares)

13,314.57 13,248.73 13,444.96 13,619.89 13,625.58 13,727.03 13,432.77 13,473.90 13,517.96 13,339.85 13,167.20 13,232.47 13,207.27 13,245.64 13,450.65 13,549.33 Holiday 13,551.69 13,359.61 13,365.87 13,264.82

1,327.2 1,327.3 1,427.4 1,367.8 1,201.4 1,171.3 1,542.3 1,721.5 1,459.4 1,303.0 1,435.4 1,489.9 1,350.0 1,356.8 2,238.3 536.3 — 837.6 982.9 1,025.5 1,131.2

December 31, 2007

Stocks and Bonds Dow Jones Industrial Average (see box, p. 1004A1)

(N.Y. Comex spot price) (London fixing spot price) (Nymex crude future)

Gasoline (per gallon)

(nationwide weighted average price at the pump; Lundberg survey released Dec. 23)

Wheat (No. 2 hard, per bushel) (Kansas City market)

13,264.82

$2.97 $9.115

Recent U.S. Data Inflation

4.3%

Unemployment rate

4.7%

Gross domestic product growth

4.9%

(consumer price index 12-month increase through November; see p. 847B2) (November; see p. 825E1)

(annualized third-quarter rate, final report; see p. 847B1)

Prime rate

7.25%

November Leading Indicators Fell 0.4%.

The Conference Board business research organization Dec. 20 reported that its composite index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of future economic activity, fell by 0.4% in November, to 136.3. It had decreased a revised 0.5% in October, the board reported. The index’s base level of 100 reflected conditions in 1996. Three of the 10 indicators in November were “positive” contributors, led by vendor performance and average weekly manufacturing hours. Seven indicators—led by stock prices and average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance—were “negative.” [See p. 784G3] „

Terrorism Tapes Withheld From 9/11 Commission. The New York Times Dec. 22 reported that former Sept. 11 Commission Executive Director Philip Zelikow had prepared a memo finding that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had knowingly withheld videotapes showing the interrogation of terrorism suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim alNashiri from the commission. The tapes were destroyed in 2005 but their existence was not made public until early December. The memorandum was prepared after that revelation. [See pp. 840A2, 817C2] The seven-page memorandum found that the commission, formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, had not specifically asked for the tapes, which it had not known existed. However, following specific requests for documents and information on detainees, including Zubaydah and al-Nashiri, the commission had been assured by CIA officials that all relevant documents had been handed over. The memorandum also said that “none of the

officials involved in these exchanges disclosed the existence of recordings that might have contained facts material to the Commission’s questions.” While the memorandum did not say that the CIA’s failure to turn over the tapes was illegal, it said that more investigation into possible criminal activity was required. CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield Dec. 22 called suggestions that the agency had obstructed the Commission’s investigation “plain wrong” and said that “CIA cooperation and assistance is what enabled the 9/11 Commission to reconstruct the [terrorist] plot in their very comprehensive report.” Zelikow Dec. 22 said, “We went out of our way to explain the reach of our requests” to the CIA and said that the memorandum “speaks for itself.”

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Destruction Motivated By Publicity Fear—

The Times Dec. 30 reported that both the 2002 decision by the CIA to make tapes of the Zubaydah interrogations and the 2005 decision to destroy the tapes were largely motivated by concern about the potential legal and political ramifications of the agency’s interrogations, according to interviews with current and former intelligence employees. According to the Times, the videotaping was motivated in part by fears that Zubaydah, who had been wounded during his capture, would die during interrogation, thereby requiring the tapes to prove that he had not been killed by interrogators. In addition, the creation of the tapes allowed for the additional scrutiny of the detainees’ testimony by others in the agency, including Al Qaeda specialists and psychologists. However, following the deaths of detainees in U.S. custody in November and December 2002, senior CIA officials ordered its interrogators to cease filming questionings; instead, written summaries of the detainees’ testimony were used. In 2003, CIA Inspector General John Helgerson began an investigation into the CIA’s secret prisons that raised concerns among CIA employees that they could potentially face criminal charges for their use of harsh interrogation techniques. Helgerson in April 2004 filed a still secret report which, according to sources interviewed by the Times, found that the CIA was using techniques that seemed to violate the international Convention Against Torture, but did not explicitly describe the techniques as torture. Although Helgerson’s investigation did not lead to criminal charges, its description of the CIA techniques as cruel, inhuman and degrading appeared to have motivated CIA Clandestine Service head Jose Rodriguez Jr. to authorize the destruction of the tapes after Congress began debating a bill in November 2005 that would have explicitly outlawed such conduct. Rodriguez’s boss, then–CIA Director Porter Goss, had advised Rodriguez against destroying the tapes, but had failed to order Rodriguez not to do so, according to the Times. The article also said that President George W. Bush had decided not to be informed of the location of the CIA’s secret prisons. „ Testimony on Military Commissions Blocked.

Col. Morris Davis, former head prosecutor at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo

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Bay, Cuba, was blocked by the Defense Department from testifying before a Senate subcommittee, the Wall Street Journal reported Dec. 8. Davis, who had resigned in October after clashing with Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, his superior, over the conduct of Guantanamo’s military commission trials, had been ordered by the Defense Department not to attend a Dec. 11 hearing held by the Senate Judiciary terrorism subcomittee. He was replaced at the hearing by Hartmann on the orders of the Defense Department. [See p. 753A3] According to a draft of Davis’s testimony obtained by the Journal, Davis had intended to testify regarding his belief that information gathered using waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulated drowning, was not reliable enough to be used in military commissions. While he was chief prosecutor, Davis had barred the use of such testimony in the upcoming commissions, a decision that was reversed by his superiors. Davis’s planned testimony also included his previously published contention that the restructuring of the military commissions hierarchy had politicized the trial by placing a Bush administration political appointee, Defense Department General Counsel William Haynes 2nd, at the top of the commissions’ chain of command. Hartmann Dec. 11 testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security that evidence obtained through the use of waterboarding would not be excluded from military commissions. He also declined to comment on the legality of waterboarding as an interrogation technique. Hartmann, Davis Write Dueling Op-Eds—

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Davis Dec. 10 published an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times in which he laid out his objections to the current military commissions system, which he described as “deeply politicized.” Davis criticized Convening Authority Susan Crawford, who oversaw the system,accusing her of carrying out her office in a manner biased in favor of prosecutors. Davis also attacked the commissions’ decision to make use of closed trials and classified evidence, writing that “telling the world, ‘Trust me, you would have been impressed if only you could have seen what we did in the courtroom’ will not bolster our standing as defenders of justice.” He called for changes in the commissions’ chain of command, including the removal of political appointees like Crawford and Haynes from their positions. Hartmann Dec. 19 rebutted Davis’s arguments in an opinion piece also published in the Los Angeles Times. In it, he argued that the process had not been politicized and that Davis had knowingly been subordinate to Haynes for months without objecting. Hartmann also said that the military would “conduct trials with the dignity, fairness and respect for law that defines American military justice.” „ U.S. Releases Three British Detainees.

The U.S. government Dec. 19 released three terrorism suspects who had been detained at the military prison in Guantanamo 870

Bay, Cuba, into British custody. Two of the men, Jamil el-Banna and Omar Deghayes, were arrested shortly after their arrival, on Spanish-issued warrants for their arrest on 2003 terrorism charges. The third former detainee, Abdennour Sameur, was interrogated by British police before being released from custody. All three men had been held for more than four years without charge at Guantanamo. [See p. 506E1] Both Banna, 45, and Deghayes, 38, were named as members of the Islamic Alliance, a Spanish cell of the Al Qaeda international terrorist network, in a 2003 indictment issued by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon. Banna appeared briefly at a Dec. 20 court hearing in London regarding his possible extradition to Spain to face charges and was granted a supervised release until a hearing scheduled for Jan. 9, 2008. His bail was set at £50,000 ($100,000), half of which was paid by actress Vanessa Redgrave and half by other unidentified supporters. Deghayes was also released Dec. 20 on £50,000 bail. Analysts suggested that the extradition requests were likely to succeed, given that both Britain and Spain were members of the European Union. Both Deghayes and Banna faced 15 years in prison if convicted on the Spanish charges. An attorney for Banna had expressed surprise at the charges, Reuters reported Dec. 20, saying that the evidence against Banna was thin and that 2005 discussions with representatives of the Spanish government had created the impression that the government was not especially interested in extraditing any of the British detainees. The former detainees were longtime British residents but were not citizens, something that the government of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had cited in refusing to call for their release. In August, David Miliband, foreign secretary under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Blair’s successor, sent a letter to the U.S. requesting that all five remaining British permanent residents at Guantanamo be released into British custody, a move that experts believed directly contributed to Banna, Deghayes and Sameur’s release. Ex-Detainees Tried in France—A court in Paris Dec. 19 convicted five former Guantanamo detainees on terrorism charges and acquitted one other. The six men, French citizens of Middle Eastern descent, had been captured in 2001 by the U.S. in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo until they were returned to France in 2004 and 2005. The five found guilty were convicted of associating with terrorists and sentenced to four- and five-year prison terms; they were given credit for a year of their time in Guantanamo and had the rest of their sentences suspended. U.S. Releases 10 Saudi Detainees—The Defense Department Dec. 28 announced that it had released 10 detainees into Saudi Arabian custody, reducing the number of Saudi prisoners at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to 13. The former detainees arrived in Saudi Arabia Dec. 29; their names were not released.

Approximately 136 Saudi detainees had been held at Guantanamo since 2002, the second-largest group within the prison after detainees from Afghanistan. [See p. 753C3] „ Al Qaeda Driver’s Combatant Status Upheld.

A military judge Dec. 19 ruled that a detainee who was accused of working as the bodyguard and driver to Al Qaeda terrorist network head Osama bin Laden, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, was correctly classified as an unlawful enemy combatant and could be tried by military commissions set up by the U.S. government. The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, two days earlier found that some Guantanamo detainees could be entitled to be classified as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. Hamdan was charged with conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists; if convicted, he would face life imprisonment. [See p. 716D1] Because the conditions in Guantanamo failed to meet the requirement of the Geneva Convention for treatment of prisoners of war, such a classification could have caused Hamdan, 37, to be transferred out of Guantanamo and given him access to the rights granted to prisoners of war. Lt. Brian Mizer, Hamdan’s military lawyer, Dec. 20 expressed disappointment with Allred’s decision to uphold Hamdan’s classification but said the decision that some detainees could be reclassified as prisoners of war “may well have a substantial impact at Guantanamo.” According to Mizer, Allred had found that “Taliban and certain other participants captured during armed conflict in Afghanistan, including Al Qaeda fighters supporting Taliban forces, may be deemed lawful combatants” and therefore were covered by the Geneva Convention. Lawyers for Hamdan had maintained that his employment with Al Qaeda did not involve the organization’s violent activities, and argued that he should be classified as a prisoner of war. To support their claims, Hamdan’s attorneys asked Allred to allow testimony from senior Al Qaeda officials Khalid Skeikh Mohammed, Abu Faraj al-Libbi and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, all held in Guantanamo; Brian Glyn Williams, a professor of Islamic Studies; fellow Guantanamo detainee Al Hajj Abdu Ali Sharqawi, known as “Riyadh the facilitator”; as well as Hamdan’s wife, brother-inlaw and another, Yemeni witness. Allred ruled that only Riyadh and Williams would be allowed to testify, citing the difficulty of getting access to the high-level prisoners and arranging the transportation of the Yemeni witnesses within the time allotted to the hearing. Another Detainee Charged—The convening authority of the Office of Military Commissions Dec. 21 said that detainee Ahmed Muhammed Haza al-Darbi, 32, had been charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. The Defense Department said Darbi was the brother in law of Khalid al-Mihdhar, an Al Qaeda member who hijacked a passenger plane as part of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S. „ FACTS ON FILE

Mistrials, Acquittal in Sears Tower Case.

A jury in U.S. District Court in Miami, Fla., Dec. 13 acquitted one man, and failed to reach a verdict on six others, accused of plotting to collaborate with the Al Qaeda international terrorist network to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago, along with other structures. One defendant, Lyglenson Lemorin, was acquitted of all charges, but the jury was unable to come to a verdict regarding the other six defendants after 10 days of deliberations and four votes. Judge Joan Leonard Dec. 13 declared a mistrial in the prosecution of the six defendants and maintained a gag order that barred attorneys and Lemorin from discussing the case. [See 2006, p. 529D3] The defendants had all been members of an obscure religious organization called the Moorish Science Temple, which combined aspects of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. The sect leader, defendant Narseal Batiste, had approached a Miami store owner of Middle Eastern descent and asked to be put in contact with people from “back home,” a phrase the store owner interpreted to mean Al Qaeda. The store owner contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who sent an informant posing as a member of Al Qaeda to meet with the group. During those meetings, Batiste proposed destroying the Sears Tower, which he claimed would create a tidal wave in Lake Michigan that would strike Chicago. The informant also led the defendants in swearing a loyalty oath to Al Qaeda. Defense lawyer Ana Jhones had argued that the informant’s role in the case could constitute entrapment and depicted the alleged plot as “a script written, produced and directed by the government.” During testimony, Batiste claimed that he had sought only to cheat Al Qaeda out of $50,000 and had never had any intention of carrying out attacks. Prosecutors agreed that the men did not possess the ability to carry out the alleged attacks at the time of the arrests, but argued that the government had prevented attacks by making arrests before the defendants could strike. The seven defendants were charged with conspiracy to wage war against the U.S., conspiracy to provide material support for the destruction of federal buildings, conspiracy to destroy federal buildings and conspiracy to provide material support to Al Qaeda. If convicted on all charges, each defendant would have faced up to 70 years’ imprisonment. The jury foreman Dec. 13 told reporters that the jury’s decision to acquit Lemorin had been motivated by his decision to distance himself from the group before he was arrested; Lemorin had been arrested in Atlanta, Ga., where he had moved after breaking with Batiste’s group. Jury selection for the retrial of the six defendants was scheduled to begin Jan. 7, 2008. All seven defendants remained in custody, including Lemorin, a Haitian who was subject to an immigration hold issued by the federal government. „ Award Against Muslim Charities Overturned.

A $156 million ruling against two now-defunct Islamic charities was overturned Dec. December 31, 2007

28 by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The appeals court ruled that a lower-court judge had failed to require the plaintiffs, a couple whose son had been killed by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in 1996, to prove a link between the charities’ fund-raising and the death of the plaintiffs’ son. The ruling, by Judge Ilana Diamond Rovner, sent the case back to U.S. District Court in Chicago, possibly for a new trial. [See p. 697B1] In 2004, District Judge Arlander Keys ruled that the plaintiffs, Stanley and Joyce Boims, did not have to prove that the defendants—Mohammed Saleh and charities the American Muslim Society/Islamic Association for Palestine and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development—had assisted in or known about the West Bank attack that killed their 17-year-old son, David. Instead, they were asked to show that the defendants had been “involved in an agreement to accomplish an unlawful act.” Rovner found that Keys had fundamentally erred in his ruling, writing in her Dec. 28 decision that “belief, assumption, and speculation are no substitutes for evidence in a court of law.” „

Armed Forces Courts-Martial Set in Iraq Slayings. Marine

Corps officials Dec. 31 announced that a marine squad leader, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, would be tried by court-martial in the slayings of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in November 2005. Two of the other marines involved in the slayings, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani and Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, Oct. 19 were ordered to face courtsmartial. They were the first of eight initial defendants to face court-martial in the case, which had sparked international outrage. [See p. 522F1; 2006, p. 1031A1] Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, the commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command, charged Wuterich, who was accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians at Haditha, with voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, dereliction of duty and obstruction of justice. However, Helland dismissed charges of unpremeditated murder, a more serious offense, as well as charges of soliciting another to commit an offense and making a false official statement. Helland’s charges overruled a recommendation made Oct. 4 by a Marine investigator, Lt. Col. Paul Ware, to charge Wuterich only with negligent homicide. Helland Dec. 31 also ordered Marine Lt. Andrew Grayson to face court-martial for trying to cover up photographs of the slayings’ aftermath. Lt. Gen. James Mattis Oct. 19 decided to pursue charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault against Tatum, an enlisted man accused of killing six Iraqi civilians, but dismissed murder charges against him. Ware Aug. 23 had recommended that the charges against Tatum be dropped. Mattis Oct. 19 also upheld charges of dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order against Chessani for failing to accu-

rately report the Haditha slayings. Chessani was the most senior U.S. officer since the Vietnam War to face a court-martial for actions or decisions made in combat. Navy Secretary Donald Winter Sept. 5 issued administrative letters of censure to three senior marine officers for failing to thoroughly investigate the slayings. The officers were Maj. Gen. Richard Huck, then the commander of the Second Marine Division; Col. Robert Gray Sokolsky, Huck’s chief of staff and legal adviser and the division’s lawyer; and Col. Stephen Davis, the former commander of Regimental Combat Team 2, which was in charge of the battalion involved in the slayings. Marine Corps officials dismissed two counts of dereliction of duty against Capt. Lucas McConnell for not investigating and reporting the killings, in a Sept. 12 decision. „ Marine Convicted in 2006 Iraq Stabbing. A military jury at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Dec. 13 convicted a Marine reservist, Lance Corp. Delano Holmes, of negligent homicide and making a false official statement in the December 2006 stabbing death of an Iraqi policeman whom he had patrolled with in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, but acquitted him of the more serious charge of unpremeditated homicide. Holmes was reduced in rank to private and given a bad conduct discharge. He had claimed that the killing was in self-defense after the policeman had reached for his gun during a struggle, but prosecutors charged that he had killed the policeman and then made up the story. [See p. 871C2] U.S. officials Dec. 19 said they were investigating allegations that an unidentified U.S. marine Dec. 17 had stabbed to death another Iraqi policeman during a struggle at a joint U.S.-Iraqi base in Iraq’s Anbar province. „

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Sniper Leader Cleared of Murdering Iraqis.

A military jury at Camp Liberty, a U.S. military base west of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, Nov. 8 acquitted the leader of an Army sniper team, Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley, of murder charges connected with the deaths of three Iraqi men. Prosecutors had charged that in separate incidents in April and May near Iskandariyah, a predominantly Sunni city 30 miles (50 km) south of Baghdad, Hensley had murdered an Iraqi he said was laying wire for a bomb, and that his sniper team members had murdered other Iraqis. [See p. 685E1] Hensley was found guilty of planting a weapon on one of the Iraqis’ bodies and of showing disrespect for a superior officer, and Nov. 9 was sentenced to time served in an Army prison cell. He had served 138 days. A member of Hensley’s team involved in the incidents, Spec. Jorge Sandoval Jr., Sept. 28 had been cleared of murder charges, and another, Sgt. Evan Vela, was awaiting trial. „ Officer Cleared of Aiding Enemy. U.S. military judge Lt. Col. Timothy Grammel at Camp Liberty, a U.S. military base west of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, Oct. 19 acquitted a former Army reserve military police commander, Lt. Col. William Steele, of aiding the enemy, a charge that carried a life sen871

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tence. However, Steele was convicted of unauthorized possession of classified documents; behavior unbecoming an officer for an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter; and failing to obey an order. He was sentenced to two years in prison and would be dismissed from the Army. [See p. 254B3] The charge of aiding the enemy stemmed from allegations that while Steele was commander of the Camp Cropper detention facility in Baghdad, he had allowed imprisoned former members of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime and a member of the Al Qaeda international terrorist network to make unmonitored calls on his cellular phone. Steele’s lawyer said that he was doing his job by treating the prisoners humanely, and that he had not allowed them to have unmonitored conversations. „ Court Backs Church on Funeral Protests.

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A three-judge panel of the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in Kansas City, Mo., Dec. 6 ruled that U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. had erred when he had refused to grant a preliminary injunction in 2006 to a Kansas religious group while considering the constitutionality of two Missouri laws barring protests at funerals. The group, the Westboro Baptist Church, regularly conducted anti-gay protests outside of military funerals. Judge Kermit Bye, writing for the appeals court panel, said the church should have been granted an injunction allowing it to conduct protests, because it had a “fair” chance of overturning the laws. [See 2006, p. 573D2] Judget Richard Bennet of U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Md., Oct. 31 had ordered that Westboro Baptist Church pay $10.9 million in damages for mental distress and invasion of privacy to Albert Snyder. Snyder had sued the church’s founder, Rev. Fred Phelps, and Phelps’s daughters, after the church picketed the March funeral of his son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder. The church said it did not have the money and would appeal the ruling. „ Officers Fired in Nuclear Flight Error. Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard Newton 3rd Oct. 19 said four Air Force colonels had been removed from their commands and more than 65 lower-ranking officers had been disciplined after an August incident in which six cruise missiles armed with nuclear weapons had been mistakenly flown across the central U.S. Newton, reporting the results of a six-week probe, said the ground crew at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota was using an outdated schedule and had accidentally loaded a B-52H Stratofortress bomber with cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads rather than dummy warheads. In addition, crews had failed to check the bomber’s munitions at several points. [See p. 651G3] „

Law Enforcement White House–Justice Contact Limited. Attorney General Michael Mukasey Dec. 19 issued new guidelines restricting contact between Justice Department officials and representatives of the Bush administration. The rules were Mukasey’s first official re872

forms of Justice Department policy since becoming attorney general in November. [See p. 840C3] The new guidelines prohibited any Justice Department officials except for the attorney general and the deputy attorney general from discussing active criminal investigations with White House officials, and then only with the White House counsel and deputy White House counsel. Under the guidelines, active civil cases could also be discussed by the associate attorney general, the third-in-command at the Justice Department. Separately, discussion of national security issues between the department and the White House was not restricted but would require notification of the attorney general, deputy attorney general or associate attorney general. Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) Dec. 19 praised the new guidelines, saying that Mukasey’s action had restored “safeguards against political interference at the Department of Justice.” Whitehouse estimated that the number of Justice officials authorized to discuss pending criminal cases had grown from approximately seven under the administration of Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush’s predecessor, to more than 900 during the tenure of Alberto Gonzales, Mukasey’s predecessor as attorney general. „ FBI Proposed Mass Arrests in 1950. The State Department Dec. 21 declassified papers relating to a plan proposed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in which 12,000 people, mostly U.S. citizens, would have been detained during the early days of the 1950–53 Korean War. The plan was passed to an aide of President Harry Truman, but there was no evidence that it was ever put into place. [See p. 803C2] Under the plan, which was proposed in 1950 by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, habeas corpus, the legal right to challenge unlawful detention, would have been suspended by executive order. According to the Constitution, the president was authorized to suspend habeas corpus only when the U.S. was subject to invasion or internal rebellion; under Hoover’s plan, the suspension of the right would have been triggered by threatened invasions or attacks on foreign territories occupied by U.S. forces. The detainees, whose names were included on an FBI list of potential national security threats, would have been held on military bases, due to Hoover’s concerns that arrests in California and New York State in particular would exceed the capacity of those states’ prisons. The prisoners would have been tried by hearing boards made up of two private citizens and a judge. According to the plan, the hearings would not have allowed for the same legal protections of defendants that were found within the U.S. legal system. „

Capital Punishment Executions Decline to 13-Year Low. A total

of 42 prisoners were executed in 2007 by 10 states in the U.S., according to a report issued Dec. 18 by the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti–capital punishment

group. That was 11 fewer than in 2006 and the smallest number since 31 prisoners were executed in 1994. The report found that executions had declined a total of 57% since 1999, when 98 prisoners were killed. [See p. 841C2; 2006, p. 973G1] Of the 42 executions, 26 were in Texas, three apiece were in Oklahoma and Alabama, two each were in Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio. South Dakota, Georgia, Arizona and South Carolina each executed one prisoner. The center projected that 110 death sentences would be handed down in 2007, which would be the smallest number of death sentences since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. The number of executions had been slowed in part by a de facto moratorium on executions following a September decision by the Supreme Court to hear a case on the constitutionality of lethal injection, the most common U.S. execution method; 41 of the 42 executions in 2007 used lethal injection. In addition, the state of New Jersey had abolished the death penalty in December, reducing the number of states where the death penalty was legal to 36. Experts suggested that media coverage of the exoneration of some death row inmates, which suggested flaws in the legal system, as well as a 2005 ruling by the Supreme Court that barred states from executing those who were minors at the time of their offenses, also contributed to the decline in executions. „

Crime Former Priest Gets 10 Years in Abuse Case.

Former Roman Catholic priest Michael Baker, 59, Dec. 3 was sentenced in Los Angeles County Superior Court to 10 years and four months in prison for sexually molesting two boys. He was also ordered to pay one victim $20,000, and was required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. [See p. 786B1; 2006, p. 297G2] Baker, 59, had been called one of the most prolific child molesters in the Los Angeles archdiocese. In 1986 he confessed to Cardinal Roger Mahony that he had abused more than 20 children. In response, Mahony sent him to a treatment center in New Mexico and later reassigned him to nine other parishes, where he allegedly continued to molest children. Mahony, who at the time of Baker’s confession had been a bishop, apologized in 2004 for his handling of the incident. „ News in Brief. A 14-year-old Pennsylvania boy convicted of plotting an attack against a local high school was sentenced Dec. 19

to seven years at a juvenile detention center. The defendant, Dillon Cossey, had pleaded guilty Oct. 26 to possession of an instrument of crime, criminal solicitation and risking a catastrophe following his October arrest. His mother, Michelle Cossey, was awaiting trial on charges that she illegally purchased weapons, including a semiautomatic rifle, for her son. Officials said they did not believe the boy had been close to carrying out his attack, citing his lack of ammunition. [See p. 702D1] FACTS ON FILE

New York City and Chicago posted their lowest annual number of homicides since the 1960s, as of Dec. 31. In 2007, New York had reported 494 killings, the lowest number recorded by the city since such records began to kept in 1963, and 102 fewer than in 2006. Chicago had reported 442 homicides, down six from 2006, and the least since 1965, when 395 people were killed. [See 2006, p. 1010G2] Albuquerque, N.M. Dec. 6 and Dec. 25 suffered its first attacks against abortion clinics since a fire was set at an area clinic in 1999. The same clinic, operated by Planned Parenthood of New Mexico, an affiliate of the national Planned Parenthood nonprofit family-planning organization, Dec. 25 had one of its surgery centers damaged by arson and the windows of a separate building 12 blocks away were broken, according to local police and fire department officials. The incidents followed a Dec. 6 arson attack that destroyed an abortion clinic that had operated in the area since 1972. Two men were arrested Dec. 26 in connection to the Dec. 6 fire; it was unclear if it was linked to the later attacks against the Planned Parenthood clinic. [See 2001, p. 608E2] „

Civil Rights News in Brief. The Justice Department’s

Bureau of Justice Statistics April 29 released a study which found that black and Hispanic drivers pulled over by police during traffic stops were significantly more likely to be searched and arrested than white drivers. The study found that blacks, whites and Hispanics were pulled over at similar rates, but that 9.5% of blacks were searched by police, compared with 8.8% of Hispanics and 3.6% of whites. Also, 4.5% of blacks who had been pulled over were arrested, compared with 3.1% of Hispanics and 2.1% of whites. The study relied on data gathered by the Census Bureau regarding police contacts in 2005. [See 2000, p. 764A1; 1999, p. 437A1] Judge Leonard Sand of U.S. District Court in New York City May 1 approved a settlement reached between the city of Yonkers, N.Y., and a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) over a 1980 lawsuit charging that the city had segregated its public housing by race. Sand in 1985 had ordered the city to construct 200 units of public housing, and make available 600 units of housing for low-income minorities in the mostly white eastern section of the city. [See 2001, p. 956F1] The NAACP June 7 announced that it would reduce its 119-member national staff by 40% and temporarily close its seven regional offices. Dennis Hayes, the civil rights organization’s interim president and chief executive officer (CEO), said the reorganization was necessitated by three years of budget shortfalls. [See p. 144F2] A federal jury in Jackson, Miss., June 14 convicted reputed Klu Klux Klan member James Ford Seale of the 1964 abduction of two black teenagers who were later killed. Seale, 72, Aug. 24 was sentenced to three December 31, 2007

life terms in prison for his role in the kidnapping and murder of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. [See p. 381B2] „

Environment

treat water and naturally occurring bromate. Officials said the chemical presented a health risk only with long-term regular consumption. The announcement came in the midst of a drought affecting the Los Angeles area. „

Midwestern States Reach Emissions Pact.

Political Slant Alleged in Owl Conservation.

The governors of several Midwestern states and the premier of the Canadian province of Manitoba Nov. 15 agreed to two pacts, one aimed at limiting the release of greenhouse gases and the other establishing a regional carbon cap-and-trade system. [See p. 126G2; 2006, p. 345C1] One of the pacts called for 30% of the area’s electricity to be generated by renewable fuels by 2030. Also, low-carbon fuels, including biofuels produced in the Midwest, would constitute 50% of all transportation energy needs by 2025 under the agreement. The pact was agreed to in its entirety by Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. Several other states agreed to various parts of the pact. The other agreement called for the development within one year of a cap-andtrade system that would be fully implemented by 2010. Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin all agreed to participate in that deal, with Indiana, Ohio and South Dakota signing on as observers. Two other groups of states, one in the West and one in the Northeast, had already established similar pacts. „

A group of 113 independent scientists Oct. 2 sent a letter to the Interior Department alleging that political pressure had weakened efforts to protect the northern spotted owl, considered a “threatened” species. The scientists said a recently revised recovery plan for the bird did not adequately protect old-growth forests that were the species’ preferred habitat. The scientists alleged that the Bush administration had weakened forest protections so that the logging industry could more easily harvest timber. The owl had been listed as threatened since 1990. [See p. 785F1; 2005, p. 837C3] „

Intelligence Head Backs Climate Analysis.

Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell in a letter dated May 9 recommended that the effects of global climate change be considered in a future National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). McConnell had made the recommendation in a letter sent to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. [See p. 767A3] “I believe it is entirely appropriate for the National Intelligence Council (NIC) to prepare an assessment on the geopolitical and security implications of global climate change,” McConnell wrote in the letter. Republicans on the committee had fiercely opposed such action, arguing that it would detract from intelligence efforts focused on terrorism and the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Intelligence officials had recently begun to examine how phenomena caused by climate change, like famine and rising sea levels, could impact the U.S.’s security. „ L.A. Water Reservoirs Contaminated. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Dec. 14 said two water reservoirs that supplied drinking water to parts of the city had been shut down after a carcinogen was detected in them. The officials said an unforeseen chemical reaction had created the carcinogen, bromate, in the water supply, and that 600 million gallons (2.3 billion liters) of contaminated water would have to be discarded. [See p. 846F1] The officials said the elevated bromate levels had been found between June and October. The high levels had resulted from a combination of sunlight, chlorine used to

Controversial Pesticide Use Approved.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Oct. 5 approved the use for one year of methyl iodide, a highly toxic pesticide used mainly to treat strawberry crops. Methyl iodide had been developed to replace another pesticide, methyl bromide, which had been banned by a 2005 international treaty, the Montreal Protocol, due to its deleterious effect on the Earth’s ozone layer. [See 2004, p. 1004C2] The approval of the chemical had engendered fierce opposition from environmentalists, who argued that it was a dangerous carcinogen. A group of 54 scientists, including six Nobel Prize winners, in September had lobbied the EPA to deny approval for methyl iodide use. The group of scientists said that “pregnant women and the fetus, children, the elderly, farmworkers and other people living near application sites would be at serious risk.” The EPA said it had set “highly restrictive provisions governing” the chemical’s use. „

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Kansas Rejects Power Plant Over Emissions.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment Oct. 18 rejected a permit for two proposed coal-fueled power plants to be built in Holcomb, in the western part of the state. The department cited the large amounts of greenhouse gases the plants would emit as a threat to the environment and the health of residents. Environmental activists said it was the first time that a regulatory agency had rejected a permit request based solely on that rationale. The two plants would have produced an estimated 11 million tons (10 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide annually. [See p. 701B1] Roderick Bremby, the secretary of the department, said in a statement, “I believe it would be irresponsible to ignore emerging information about the contribution of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to climate change and the potential harm to our environment and health if we do nothing.” Bremby also cited an April Supreme Court decision which ruled that carbon dioxide was a pollutant subject to regulation by the federal government. „ 873

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Labor Report Criticizes Mine Safety Agency. A

report released Nov. 16 by the Labor Department inspector general said the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in 2006 had failed to conduct required inspections at 107 of the country’s 731 subterranean coal mines. Elliot Lewis, an assistant inspector general, said in the report that about 7,500 workers were employed at the mines that were not properly inspected. The report claimed that the trend of inadequate mine inspections was caused by financial constraints that had led to a decrease in mine inspectors, and a lack of emphasis on worker safety by the Bush administration. [See pp. 668E3, 541D3, 449A1, 315F1] Richard Stickler, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, Nov. 16 said in response to the report that mine inspectors should use their time “identifying and abating hazards as a result of inspections rather than documentation and paperwork.” Stickler also said 70% of the mines that had not been inspected properly were “non-producing, inactive, intermittent or abandoned” during the inspection period. Stickler said the agency had hired more than 273 enforcement officers and 257 trainees since July 2006. Mines were required by federal law to be inspected four times a year. According to the MSHA, there were 32 fatalities to date in U.S. coal mines in 2007, compared with 47 in 2006. „

Medicine and Health California Assembly Passes Health Care Bill.

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California’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly, the lower house of the state legislature, Dec. 17 voted, 46–31, to pass a bill that would significantly expand health care coverage to uninsured state residents. The bill was backed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), who had negotiated its provisions with Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D) over the course of the legislative session. [See p. 15E2] The bill’s health care plan, which if enacted would take effect in 2010, was modeled after one adopted in Massachusetts in 2006. It mandated that residents obtain basic health insurance, while providing substantial subsidies to those who could not otherwise afford it. Those people who could not afford insurance, but earned too much income to qualify for the subsidies, would be exempted from the mandate. The plan also required health care insurers to offer policies to state residents regardless of their health. [See below] The proposed plan would allow an estimated 70% of the 5.1 million California residents who consistently lacked health insurance to obtain some kind of care. It was estimated to cost around $14.4 billion. Nunez and Schwarzenegger had proposed paying for the plan with federal financing, and an increase on taxes levied on tobacco products and hospitals. Though the state legislature could pass a bill establishing the plan’s mechanisms, the tax increases 874

would require approval by public referendum. Illegal immigrants would not qualify for the program, although their children would be able to receive coverage. California Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D) had refrained from explicitly endorsing the plan, asking that the impact of its costs on the state government’s deficit first be assessed. Though Schwarzenegger, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) in the first quarter of 2007 had all proposed universal health care coverage for their state’s residents, none had been able to implement their plans by the end of the year. All had faced strong opposition from a range of business and insurance lobbying groups. Massachusetts Plan Takes Effect—A universal health care coverage plan July 1 took effect in Massachusetts. The plan required all 6.5 million state residents to obtain some form of health insurance, and was expected to significantly reduce the state’s estimated 400,000 uninsured. Residents had until Dec. 31 to get insurance, or otherwise face a tax penalty of $219. The penalty would increase in later years. State officials said an estimated 130,000 formerly uninsured residents had received coverage under the plan. [See 2006, p. 279E1] „ Rule Allows Health Benefit Reductions at 65.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Dec. 26 issued a rule allowing employers to reduce or eliminate health insurance benefits for retired employees when they turned 65, the age at which they qualified for Medicare. The rule codified a long-standing practice by employers to structure voluntary health benefits packages offered to retirees to account for Medicare qualification. The regulation would exempt employers offering a “two-tier” benefit system to retirees from age discrimination laws. More than 10 million retirees were estimated to use employer-provided health insurance as their primary means of receiving health care, or as a supplement to their Medicare benefits. The senior citizens’ advocacy and lobbying group AARP criticized the new rule, saying it contravened protections in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and would force some seniors to pay for coverage to supplement Medicare. The EEOC said the rule would help employers to continue providing retirees with benefits, because some companies said that if they had to maintain all benefits for retirees over 65, they would be forced to eliminate coverage for all retirees regardless of age. Federal law generally did not require employers to provide health benefits to either retired or active employees. „ News in Brief. Research firm Mathematica Policy Research Inc. April 13 released a federally mandated study which found that abstinence-only sex education classes did not deter teenagers from having sex or affect the likelihood they would use condoms during sex. Researchers had followed 2,000 teenagers from either elementary or middle

school through high school. A little more than half the children had received education instructing them to wait until marriage to have sex, with the remainder either receiving no sex education, or education that included the use of contraceptives. The researchers found that, on average, children from all groups began having sex around age 15. The Bush administration strongly backed abstinence-only education programs. [See 2006, p. 302G1; 2004, p. 1036G1] The Institute of Medicine (IOM), a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, April 25 released a report recommending that food products high in sugar, fat and sodium, such as soft drinks and potato chips, be banned from sale at public schools. The IOM recommended that the unhealthy foods be replaced by fruits and vegetables, or products containing whole grains or low-fat dairy. The IOM said the proliferation of junk foods at schools was contributing to an obesity epidemic among children in the U.S. [See 2006, p. 412E1] Daniel Levinson, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) inspector general, Sept. 28 released a report concluding that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) failed to adequately monitor clinical trials of unapproved drugs and medical devices. Levinson found that fewer than 1% of sites where trials were held had been inspected by the FDA. The report also stated that inspectors recommendations of regulatory action were frequently downgraded by the agency. Levinson concluded that the lack of oversight threatened the safety of patients enrolled in the trials. [See p. 806E2] The National Health Center for Statistics Dec. 5 reported that the birth rate among girls aged 15–19 had increased by 3% between 2005 and 2006, the first rise in the teen birth rate in 14 years. Experts said it was unknown if the data were an aberration in a continuing long-term downward trend, or if they reflected a reversal of the trend. [See 2004, p. 1036F2] The U.S.’s two largest cloning companies, ViaGen Inc. and Trans Ova Genetics, Dec. 19 announced a voluntary plan to begin tracking cloned food products. Under the plan, cloned animals would be implanted with a tracking tag that could be used to differentiate cloned animals from those bred by traditional means. Several companies and farmers expected the FDA to approve the sale of cloned animals and their offspring for consumption by people. The FDA in December 2006 had issued a report finding the animals safe to eat. [See 2006, p. 1002G3] New Jersey acting Gov. Richard J. Codey (D) Dec. 26 signed into law a bill that made testing mothers for HIV, the AIDS virus, a routine part of prenatal care. (Gov. Jon Corzine [D] was traveling outside the U.S.) The law was hailed by AIDS activists as a means of helping control the mother-tochild transmission of HIV. The law would allow mothers to opt out of the testing, but in those cases the newborn would be tested. Opponents said the law deprived mothers of the right to make decisions about their own medical care. [See 2001, p. 1011A2] „ FACTS ON FILE

Medicare and Medicaid GAO Probes Provider Tax Fraud. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) Nov.

13 released a report describing what it called the widespread phenomenon of health care providers who continued to receive payments from Medicaid but had failed to pay their federal taxes. [See 2005, p. 507C1; 2002, p. 988C2] The GAO examined Medicaid providers in seven states, finding that about 5% of those who had received Medicaid payments owed the federal government a total of more than $1 billion in taxes as of September 2006. The report stated that many of the providers had withheld Social Security, Medicare and personal income taxes from payrolls, but had not passed the funds on to the government. The GAO estimated that an effective system designed to withhold Medicaid payments from tax shirkers would have allowed the government to recover $70– $160 million in fiscal year 2006. The GAO March 19 had released a separate report finding that more than 21,000 health care providers, largely physicians, who received Medicare payments owed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) some $1.3 billion dollars as of September 2006. Fraud Arrests Made—Officials of the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) May 10 announced the arrest of 38 people charged with defrauding the federal government of about $140 million in Medicare payments. Several of the defendants had allegedly stolen or bought Medicare identification numbers, then used them to bill the government for unnecessary or nonexistent prescription drugs and medical devices. The investigation had been carried out by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a partnership between the HHS and Justice departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt said the cost of investigating and prosecuting cases of Medicare fraud would be about $20 million per year, but could save the program as much as $2.5 billion annually. „ News in Brief. President George W. Bush May 3 announced his intention to nominate Kerry Weems as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Weems was a 24-year veteran of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), most recently serving as deputy chief of staff to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt. Weems would replace Mark McClellan, who had departed as CMS head in October 2006. Leslie Norwalk had served as acting CMS administrator during the interim. As of Dec. 31, Weems, who replaced Norwalk as acting administrator, had not been confirmed by the Senate. [See 2006, p. 695C2] The Government Accountability Office (GAO) July 24 reported that the number of people on Medicaid rolls had declined since the July 1, 2006, implementation of new documentation requirements imposed on those applying for benefits. The new rules December 31, 2007

were intended to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid benefits. The GAO reported that most of the enrollment decline had occurred among people who were legally eligible for benefits, but unable to provide adequate documentation. The report also stated that the administrative costs incurred by the new rules would likely exceed any savings generated by a lower Medicaid enrollment. [See p. 177F1] „

Consumer Affairs TJX Personal Data Theft Reported. TJX Cos.,

the parent company of discount clothing retailers T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, Jan. 17 said a computer database used to store the personal information of customers had been accessed by hackers. The breached system had contained information on credit and debit cards, personal checks and driver’s license numbers. TJX March 29 in regulatory filings said at least 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen by the hackers between July 2005 and December 2006, making the violation the largest known personal data theft to date. [See 2006, p. 631A3; 2005, p. 506E2] The company in January said customers who had shopped at its HomeGoods and A.J. Wright stores in the U.S. and its HomeSense and Winners stores in Canada, in addition to its main chains, might have had their personal data stolen. TJX said the data breach had first been noticed in midDecember 2006, but that law enforcement officials had requested they refrain from announcing the discovery until January. In its March filings, TJX said thieves had accessed the driver’s license numbers of some 455,000 customers who had returned merchandise without a receipt. The company also said the thieves had managed to obtain the encryption software used to safeguard data, complicating efforts to determine exactly how many customers had been affected. A group of banks that had filed a lawsuit against TJX over the data breach Oct. 23 filed court documents claiming that more than 94 million credit and debit card accounts had been affected by the theft. „ News in Brief. Judge Judith Bartnoff of Superior Court in Washington, D.C., June 25 ruled in favor of a couple operating a dry cleaning business who had been sued for $54 million by a judge alleging that they

had lost his suit pants and tried to substitute another, cheaper pair. The plaintiff, Washington, D.C., administrative law Judge Roy Pearson, was ordered to pay the court costs incurred by Soo and Jin Chung, the couple who owned and operated Custom Cleaners. Bartnoff said Pearson had been unable to prove that the cleaners had failed to return his pants. The case had attracted worldwide media attention. Wayzata, Minn.–based packaged meat producer Cargill Inc. Nov. 3 announced that it was recalling more than one million pounds (450,000 kg) of ground beef potentially contaminated with the Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacterium. The recalled meat had been produced Oct. 8–11 at a plant in

Wyalusing, Pa., and distributed nationwide through several grocery store chains. [See p. 667F2] „

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Accidents and Disasters Tiger Escapes Zoo Enclosure, Killing One.

A Siberian tiger Dec. 25 escaped its open-air enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo in California, killing one visitor and injuring two others before police arrived and shot it dead. It was unclear how the tiger had escaped, but the zoo director, Manuel Mollinedo, Dec. 27 said the walls of its enclosure had been 12 feet 5 inches (3.8 m) tall, rather than the recommended 16 feet 4 inches. The tiger in December 2006 had attacked and seriously injured a keeper. [See 2003, p. 804C2] Jaguar Kills Keeper in Denver Zoo—A jaguar Feb. 24 killed a zookeeper inside its enclosure at the Denver Zoo in Colorado. The jaguar was subsequently shot dead by armed emergency response workers. Zoo authorities said it was unclear why the keeper was in the enclosure with the jaguar present, a violation of zoo policy. „

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Aviation NASA Report Draws Criticism. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Dec. 31 released approximately 16,000 pages of data from a survey of about 29,000 pilots. The data was released after NASA, in October, had faced criticism from Congress because it withheld the results of the survey from the Associated Press (AP), which had requested them under the Freedom of Information Act. [See pp. 728B2, 670E1] The report, which had been designed to help pinpoint safety problems and prevent aviation accidents, had been denied to the AP on the basis that the data could diminish public confidence in the aviation industry, the AP reported Oct. 22. NASA quickly came under scrutiny from Congress, which ultimately forced the data’s release. The study, which had cost more than $11 million, again faced criticism when it was finally released in a cumbersome format with no instructions on how to read sections of the data that were coded. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin Dec. 31 claimed that the goal of the study had been to test methods of information gathering, and said the study would not be subject to further analysis. While testifying before Congress Oct. 31, Griffin had also brought the validity of the data into question, saying it had not been peer-reviewed or authenticated by independent experts. According to an article published Oct. 23 in the New York Times, two individuals who had gathered information for the study said the data indicated that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had underestimated the number of safety-related incidents. The survey, which was titled the National Aviation Operations Monitoring System, had initially been recommended by a White House panel on aviation safety in 1997. Interviews and surveys of pilots began in 2001 and had continued until 2004. „ 875

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N.Y. State Passengers’ Rights Upheld. A federal judge in Albany, N.Y., Dec. 20 upheld the so-called Airline Passenger’s Bill of Rights law, paving the way for other states to pass similar legislation. The law, which was opposed by an industry group, the Air Transport Association, required airlines to provide fresh water, food, power and working restrooms to airline passengers who became stranded on the tarmac for more than three houre while waiting for an airplane to take off. Starting in 2008, airlines could be fined up to $1,000 per passenger if those services were unavailable. [See p. 127B2] „

Google Sees Internet System for Phones.

Internet technology company Google Inc. Nov. 5 announced that, in partnership with more than 30 wireless telecommunications companies, it would develop and make freely available a software system for mobile phones intended to ease Internet access and use from them. Unlike Apple Inc.’s iPhone system, introduced June 29, the Google system would not be tied to a specific device. The move marked Google’s entrance into the wireless industry. [See p. 513A2] „

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Telecommunications FCC Adopts Ownership, Cable Changes.

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Dec. 18 relaxed a 1975 rule restricting cross-ownership of newspapers and television or radio stations. In a 3-2 vote, with Republican commissioners in favor and Democrats opposed, the FCC decided to allow media companies to own both a newspaper and a television or radio station in any of the country’s 20 largest media markets, as long as the television station was not one of the market’s four largest, and provided that there were at least eight media outlets serving the market. Waivers from the existing rule would be available in smaller markets to media companies that showed that their cross-ownership would serve the public interest. [See 2003, p. 732C1] Consumer groups opposed to the new rule said it would allow further consolidation of media companies to the detrimetnt of the public. The rule change aided the buyout of Chicago-based media company Tribune Co. by real estate magnate Samuel Zell. That deal had won FCC approval in November after the commission granted Tribune, which owned both newspapers and television stations, a temporary waiver from the existing rule. [See p. 807B2] The FCC also Dec. 18 approved, 3-2, a limit on the percentage of cable customers who could be subscribers to any one cable company. The new cap, set at 30%, reportedly posed little threat in the short term to any cable company except Comcast Corp., which predicted that the new cap would be struck down in federal court. The FCC Oct. 31 adopted rules banning exclusive provider contracts between apartment buildings or condominiums and individual cable companies. The contracts had compelled cable recipients living in the apartments to purchase their service from a particular provider. The move made way for other cable companies and telephonebased multichannel service providers to compete for business in those locations. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D, Mich.) had ordered an investigation into FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s leadership of the commission, it was reported Dec. 3. Martin had been accused of trying to rig the approval process to favor policies he supported by withholding data and draft items from other commissioners and failing to make proposed rules available to the public for comment. „ 876

Burundi Rebel Factions Clash, Jeopardizing Peace.

Clashes broke out Sept. 4 between factions of the National Liberation Forces (FNL), an ethnic Hutu rebel group, in a northern suburb of Bujumbura, Burundi’s capital, killing at least 26 people and forcing hundreds to flee their homes. In September 2006, Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza and Agathon Rwasa, leader of the FNL, had signed what was hailed as a permanent cease-fire. However, the group split in late August. [See 2006, p. 713A2] Some 300,000 people had been killed in a civil war between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis. The Tutsis had been dominant since Burundi gained independence from Belgium in 1962. The fighting had been sparked by the 1993 assassination of Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu who was the country’s first democratically elected president. Most of the rebel groups had signed a peace deal that led to democratic elections in 2005 in which Nkurunziza, a former Hutu rebel leader, was elected president. The FNL was the only rebel group that had not yet signed a lasting peace deal. Burundi’s defense minister, Germain Niyoyankana, Sept. 4 called the clashes a “violation of the cease-fire.” Rwasa and other FNL leaders had twice walked out of talks brokered by a South African truce monitoring team, accusing the government of failing to withdraw its troops from rebel-controlled areas. The rebels also reportedly wanted to clarify terms under which its fighters would be integrated into the national army and police. The mediators had set a Dec. 31 deadline for the implementation of a final peace deal, but that date passed with no deal in place. The United Nations Security Council Dec. 19 voted to extend the mission of the U.N. Integrated Office in Burundi (BINUB) until Dec. 31, 2008. The council emphasized the need for the international community to continue to support the peace process. „

Chad Aid Workers Convicted of Kidnapping. Six

French volunteers with the humanitarian aid group Zoe’s Ark Dec. 26 were convicted by a Chadian court of attempted abduction of 103 Chadian children. The volunteers each received sentences of eight years of hard labor. They were also ordered to

pay a total of about $9 million. A Chadian and a Sudanese, both working as intermediaries for the French group, were also sentenced to four years in prison. [See p. 754A3] The workers had tried to fly the children, who they claimed were orphaned refugees from the war-torn Darfur region of neighboring Sudan, on a chartered flight to Europe, where they were to be cared for by foster families. However, United Nations officials found that most of the children came from Chadian villages on the border with Sudan, and had been living with at least one parent. Some of the parents had said they were tricked into giving up their children with promises that they would receive schooling in other areas of Chad. At the trial, the Sudanese defendant said he had deliberately misled the aid group about the children’s nationalities and status as orphans. The French workers Dec. 28 were flown to France under a 1976 judicial cooperation agreement, a day after France had formally requested their extradition. It was left to a French court to determine commensurate prison sentences for the convicts, since the country disallowed hard labor as punishment for crimes. The episode strained relations between the nations just as French troops belonging to a European Union peacekeeping force prepared to enter eastern Chad to protect Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians. [See p. 879G3] „ President’s Son Found Dead in Paris. Brahim Deby, 27, the eldest son of Chadian President Idriss Deby, July 2 was found dead by asphyxiation in the underground parking lot beneath his west Paris residence. A surveillance camera had captured hooded men attacking Deby that morning, according to French newspaper Le Monde July 3. His death was being investigated as a murder. [See p. 808B3] „

Democratic Republic of the Congo Peace Summit Scheduled. The Congolese

government Dec. 17 announced that it would hold a nine-day peace summit beginning Dec. 27 in Goma, the capital of eastern North Kivu province, to put an end to months-long fighting there between government forces and a rebel army led by Laurent Nkunda, a former Congolese general of Tutsi ethnicity. The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) Dec. 24 reported that Nkunda had called a unilateral cease-fire to facilitate the peace process. Nkunda had also indicated that he would attend the summit. Government officials Dec. 27 said the summit would be postponed until Jan. 6, 2008, to allow more time for preparation. [See p. 755A2] The summit announcement came after the government Dec. 2 had launched a major offensive against Nkunda’s forces in North Kivu, part of a strategy adopted in October by Congo’s President Joseph Kabila to disarm Nkunda’s forces by force. Government troops at first took back territory from Nkunda’s army, only to be routed in a counterattack later that month. It was FACTS ON FILE

reported that the 18,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force in the region was the sole force Dec. 11 preventing Nkunda’s army from taking the town of Sake and advancing further into government-controlled territory, since the government’s army scattered during its retreat. The U.N. estimated that approximately 60,000 people in North Kivu were displaced by the most recent fighting. As many as 800,000 people had fled the area since the beginning of 2007. Nkunda had refused to disarm his army or merge it with government forces, saying it was needed to protect Tutsis in North Kivu from a Hutu militia, known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The FDLR was composed of Hutus who had escaped neighboring Rwanda in 1994, after a Rwandan Tutsi group deposed a Hutu regime that had perpetrated a genocide against the Tutsis, killing some 800,000 people. The Congolese government in November had entered an agreement with the Rwandan government, now led by Tutsi President Paul Kagame, to help disarm the FDLR. Congo had united with the FDLR during part of a 1998–2003 civil war, and had been accused of recently providing it with weapons and recruits to fight Nkunda’s army. Congo denied those accusations. Foreign diplomats, including Tim Shortley, a special envoy of the U.S. State Department, Dec. 16 met in Goma, and agreed to create an international task force that would help implement the November agreement, which also required that Rwanda close its borders to prevent more Rwandans from joining Nkunda’s army.

1998–2003 civil war would begin March 31, 2008. Lubanga, of Hema ethnicity, had been accused of forcing children under the age of 15 to kill members of the Lendu ethnic group in the northeastern Ituri region. Lubanga would be the first person tried by the court for crimes related to the conflict. Lubanga denied the charges. The ICC Oct. 22 had held a preliminary hearing in the war crimes trial of former Congolese general Germain Katanga. Katanga, a Lendu, was accused of multiple crimes stemming from a 2003 massacre of the predominantly Hema village of Bogoro in Ituri, including murder, rape, conscripting boy soldiers and holding sex slaves. The court had yet to rule on whether Katanga would be formally charged. Katanga Oct. 16 had been brought to The Hague from Congo. [See p. 82F2; 2003, p. 382A2] The World Health Organization (WHO) Sept. 25 announced it had confirmed that eight more people in central Congo had contracted the Ebola virus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 17 since reports surfaced in April that people were displaying symptoms of the virus. A total of 170 people were suspected to have died from the virus, and more than 400 had become sick. The WHO, international medical aid organization Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were in Congo attempting to contain the virus, which killed 50%–80% of its victims and was highly contagious. The last Ebola outbreak in Congo, in 2003, had killed an estimated 128 people. [See 2003, p. 946F3] „

U.N. Peacekeeping Force Renewed—

U.N. Probes Alleged Abuses in Ogaden. A United Nations fact-finding team probing alleged human rights abuses Aug. 30–Sept. 6 visited Ethiopia’s eastern Ogaden region, on the Somali border. The Ethiopian military in June had launched a crackdown in the region after the separatist rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) raided a Chinese-run oil field in Abole in April, killing 74 people. The ONLF had formed in 1984, and was fighting for autonomy for the mainly Muslim, Somali-speaking region. [See pp. 879E1, 297A1] A report released July 4 by U.S.-based watchdog Human Rights Watch had accused the army of burning down homes in the Ogaden, displacing thousands of people, and of blocking humanitarian aid to the impoverished region. Similarly, the New York Times, quoting Western diplomats and aid workers, July 22 reported that the army had been blockading the region, preventing emergency humanitarian assistance as well as normal trade from reaching the area, and putting the hundreds of thousands of people living in the Ogaden at risk of famine. The government reportedly claimed that it was only blocking rebel supply routes. Ethiopia July 24 expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross from the region, accusing its workers of spying for the rebels. Sporadic skirmishes between ONLF fighters and the military had been reported

The U.N. Security Council Dec. 21 voted to renew for another year the deployment of its peacekeeping force to the region. The force was the U.N.’s largest, and had come under criticism from the Congolese government for failing to support its operations wholeheartedly. During Congo’s latest offensive, the U.N. force helped plan the mission, and transported men and ammunition, but did not participate in the fighting until Nkunda’s forces threatened to take Sake.„ News in Brief. News outlets Aug. 11 published the contents of an internal United Nations report, which said a group of Pakistani peacekeeping officers in the eastern Congolese mining town of Mongbwalu had

provided food and armed escorts for illegal gold smugglers from India. U.S.-based

watchdog group Human Rights Watch had first raised concerns about the smuggling ring in 2005. Witnesses had said the Pakistani officers had traded weapons for gold with the militant group Front of Nationalists and Integrationists (FNI), which the U.N. report did not confirm. The U.N. July 13 had concluded that only one Pakistani officer was involved in the smuggling, prompting criticism from Human Rights Watch. [See 2006, p. 1012D1] The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands, Nov. 13 announced that the trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for crimes committed during Congo’s December 31, 2007

Ethiopia

in the Ogaden since July. The defense ministry Aug. 7 said 200 rebel fighters had been killed by government forces in the previous month, and hundreds more had been captured. The ONLF Sept. 2 declared a temporary cease-fire while the U.N. team was in the region. In a Sept. 19 report, which was not released to the public, the U.N. team reportedly found that there were severe shortages of medicine and food in the Ogaden, confirming the accounts of blockades by the Ethiopian military. “Humanitarian conditions within the conflict areas have deteriorated substantially over the past several months,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement. It added, “The nutritional status of the population will rapidly worsen within two or three months if only limited quantities of food continue to be available.” Some observers said the mission’s conclusions were incomplete because it had been escorted throughout its visit by the Ethiopian military. The U.N. Oct. 18 said the Ethiopian government had agreed to work with the organization on facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Ogaden. The OCHA Nov. 6 said it would open an office in the region the next day. Continued Fighting Reported—The ONLF Nov. 19 accused the military of using helicopter gunships to target civilians in the Ogaden in recent days, a claim the government denied. The ONLF alleged that the attacks, on nomads at a watering hole, were retribution for a recent ambush by the rebels that had killed several soldiers. However, the Times Nov. 20 quoted Col. Yasaf Adankegn, a military spokesman, as having said, “The ONLF has repeatedly misinformed the international community.…There is no fighting. The rebels have been eradicated.” The Times Dec. 15 reported that the Ethiopian government had been forcing civilians in the region to fight the rebels. The government denied those allegations, as well as the claims of an imminent humanitarian crisis in the region. “Many media and international organizations have been exaggerating the problems,” the Times quoted government spokesman Nur Abdi Mohammed as saying. He added, “There is no food aid problem. There is no malnutrition problem.…What is happening is that the local tribes are forming to fight against the ONLF.” U.S. Support Questioned— The U.S. House Oct. 2 passed by voice vote a bill, called the Ethiopian Democracy and Accountability Act, that would make U.S. aid to Ethiopia—which totaled at least $300 million per year—contingent on the government of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi improving its human rights record. The U.S. saw Ethiopia’s Christian-controlled government as a key ally in its war on Islamic terrorists in the Horn of Africa. However, there had been increasing unease among some in the Bush administration and in the U.S. Congress about the human rights record of the Meles government. The bill, however, never reached the full Senate for consideration. [See pp. 483A1, 128A3] „ 877

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Ivory Coast Government, Rebels Begin Disarmament.

Ivory Coast government soldiers and rebel fighters Dec. 22 began withdrawing from a buffer zone that had separated the government-controlled south and rebel-held north since a brief civil war that ended in 2003. The withdrawals were part of a peace agreement reached between the two sides in March. [See p. 210A2] President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, the former leader of the rebels, known as the New Forces, Dec. 22 presided over disarmament ceremonies on both sides of the buffer zone. Gbagbo said, “Starting today…there is no more front line in Ivory Coast.” Under the peace deal, the two sides also pledged to implement a program to register voters for long-delayed national elections. One main cause of the civil war had been the exclusion of many northerners—descendants of immigrants—from the voting process. Soro’s Plane Attacked in North—A plane carrying Soro to Bouake, Ivory Coast’s second-largest city and the nominal capital of the north, June 29 was hit by a rocket attack as it was landing at the city’s airport. Three people were killed, but Soro was unharmed. The perpetrators of the attack remained unknown; it was speculated that they were either disgruntled former rebels or pro-Gbagbo militants. U.N. Peacekeepers Accused of Sex Abuse—

The United Nations July 21 said it had suspended a Moroccan peacekeeping unit based in Ivory Coast due to allegations of sexual abuse. U.N. officials the previous day had said they were probing claims that the Moroccan soldiers had had sex with numerous underage girls near Bouake. Members of U.N. peacekeeping units were prohibited from having sex with local people. However, U.N. peacekeepers had also been accused of sexual misconduct in countries including Liberia, Haiti, East Timor and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [See p. 83C1] „

Mozambique Ex-President Wins Leadership Incentive Prize.

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Former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano Oct. 22 received the inaugural Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. The prize was worth $5 million over the first 10 years, plus $200,000 for each subsequent year. It was established and paid for by Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born telecommunications mogul, and awarded by a selection committee that included former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and former Irish President Mary Robinson. [See p. 282D3; 2005, p. 73E2] Annan, announcing the prize in London, said Chissano, 68, had helped bring peace, reconciliation, stable democracy and economic progress to Mozambique. The award, widely seen as an incentive for African leaders to hand over power as Chissano did when he left office voluntarily in 2005, had been criticized as condescending and wasteful. 878

Son Dies Awaiting Trial—Nyimpine Chissano, Joaquim Chissano’s eldest son, Nov. 19 died in Maputo, the capital, while awaiting trial for alleged involvement in the 2000 murder of a journalist. The reporter had been investigating a banking scandal. The younger Chissano was 37. „

Niger Tuareg Rebels, Army Battle in Northwest.

At least 49 Niger government security personnel had been killed in attacks in the country’s remote northwest Agadez region by the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ), an ethnic Tuareg rebel group, since February, it was reported Dec. 24. Dozens more had been kidnapped, bringing reprisals by the military against both the rebels and civilians in the region. [See p. 365B2; 1995, p. 973E2; 1991, p. 650D1] The Tuaregs were nomads, descended from the Berbers of North Africa, who had run trading caravans across the Sahara desert, in a region known as the Sahel, for hundreds of years. With the end of colonialism, their traditional lands were divided between northwestern Niger and northeastern Mali, as well as parts of Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso. The mainly Muslim, light-skinned Tuaregs spoke the Tamasheq language. After several years of clashes, they had signed peace treaties with Niger and Mali in 1995. [See below] The MNJ had been formed in February in Niger due to allegations of continued neglect and marginalization of the Tuaregs by the central government, which was dominated by black Africans. The Tuaregs also claimed that uranium mining in the region was damaging their lands. In response, the government had dispatched as many as 4,000 soldiers to the region, military sources said June 30. Nigerien President Mamadou Tandja Aug. 24 declared a state of alert in Agadez, giving the soldiers greater freedom to crush the rebellion. Under the state of alert, foreign journalists were banned from the region, making it difficult to obtain accurate reports of the situation there. The MNJ mainly targeted government troops by planting landmines on the region’s isolated desert highways. The government, meanwhile, had refused to recognize it as a political rebellion, instead referring to its members as “bandits” and smugglers. Tandja Dec. 17 called on the MNJ to lay down its weapons. Separate reports released by watchdog groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch Dec. 19 alleged that the army had committed atrocities against civilians in the region, in revenge for attacks by the MNJ. Amnesty alleged “extrajudicial executions of civilians by the army,” which had led to “displacement of both the settled and nomadic population.” Human Rights Watch accused both sides of violations, citing the army for “extrajudicial killing, rape, and the destruction of livestock,” and the MNJ for “the indiscriminate use of antivehicular landmines and the taking of personal property from non-Tuareg civilians.”

Niger’s government, based in Niamey, in the southwest, Dec. 21 denied the allegations against the army. French Journalists Arrested—Two French journalists Dec. 24 were arrested for traveling to the Sahel region to film rebels there, in violation of the ban on journalists. They had originally received permission from Niger’s government to film a report on cases of bird flu in the southern city of Maradi for European television network ARTE. The journalists, Thomas Dandois and Pierre Creisson, reportedly had been charged with colluding with the rebels, and faced the death penalty if convicted. Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders Dec. 24 called for their release. Conflict Spreads to Mali— Malian authorities Sept. 13 said Tuareg rebels had fired on a U.S. Air Force transport plane bringing supplies to soldiers at a garrison in Tin-Zaouatene, in the country’s isolated northeast region near the Algerian border. The aircraft returned safely to Mali’s capital, Bamako, the U.S. embassy said. That incident sparked clashes between the two sides, and the army Sept. 16 said it had killed at least 12 Tuareg rebels in three days of fighting. [See p. 297G1] The U.S. provided support and training to the Malian military as part of a regional counterterrorism effort. Clashes between the Malian army and Tuareg rebels led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga had begun in late August, with the rebels attacking army convoys, targeting them with landmines and kidnapping soldiers. The MNJ had reportedly denied that it was formally allied with the Malian rebels. The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) Sept. 18 reported that the army had sent reinforcements to the conflict area. However, Ag Bahanga the next day proclaimed a ceasefire beginning Sept. 25. The Malian army Sept. 19 confirmed the cease-fire agreement. In response to the unrest, Mali’s prime minister, Modibo Sidibe, Oct. 3 replaced Defense Minister Mamadou Clazie Cissouma with Natie Plea, an ally of President Amadou Toumani Toure. Like Niger, Mali’s government was based in the south and controlled by dark-skinned Africans. Toure Sept. 28 had appointed Sidibe prime minister, replacing Ousmane Issoufi Maiga. The government Dec. 30 said the rebels the previous day had released 16 soldiers who had been held hostage for several months. The release was reportedly brokered by Algerian officials. The rebels continued to hold 19 Malian soldiers. „

Nigeria Anticorruption Investigator Removed. Mike

Okiro, Nigeria’s highest-ranking police official, Dec. 27 announced that Nigeria’s top anticorruption official, Nuhu Ribadu, would be sent to attend a yearlong policy and strategic studies course at a training facility in a remote area of central Nigeria. Since Ribadu had been appointed chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2003, he had investigated many of the country’s goverFACTS ON FILE

nors and other top officials on allegations of corruption. He had been appointed by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. [See p. 350A3] The announcement sparked outrage among many in Nigeria, which had been ranked by watchdog group Transparency International as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Ribadu had estimated that various governments since Nigeria’s independence in 1960 had drained approximately $380 billion from the country’s treasury, which was largely supported by oil profits. Notably, Ribadu had spearheaded the investigation of powerful politician James Ibori, former governor of the oil-rich Delta State. He was subsequently arrested Dec. 12. Ibori had financed a significant chunk of the election campaign of President Umaru Yar’Adua, who had succeeded Obasanjo in May. Ibori had been accused of stealing government funds during his eight-year tenure as governor of Delta State. [See 2005, p. 982D1] Ribadu’s investigations also resulted in charges against five state governors who had left office in May. They included Celestine Omehia, governor of the turbulent River State. He had been removed Oct. 25 and was charged with 103 counts of corruption. Ribadu’s investigations also led to the Oct. 30 resignation of parliament speaker Patricia Ettah, who had been found guilty of spending $5 million of government money. “It’s a clear message to everybody that we are damn serious about fighting corruption,” Ribadu told British newspaper the Financial Times in a Dec. 13 interview regarding his investigation of Ibori. Okiro Dec. 27 told reporters that he did not see anything unusual about Ribadu’s yearlong assignment. Separately, courts were currently hearing challenges to hundreds of results from April’s election, and the victories of five governors had been annulled, the Financial Times reported Dec. 6. A case challengingYar’Adua’s win was to be heard in 2008. „

Somalia Mogadishu Death Toll Tops 6,500 in 2007.

A Somali human rights group, the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization, Dec. 31 said 6,501 civilians had been killed as a result of fighting in Mogadishu, the capital, in 2007, and 8,516 others had been wounded. [See p. 809C3] The group also said as many as 1.5 million people had been forced to flee their homes in the city during the year, which had begun with the overthrow of an Islamist movement by transitional government forces backed by Ethiopian troops. The Islamists, after being driven from the capital, had re-formed as an insurgency, and the two sides had been battling throughout the year, with civilians caught in the cross-fire. Both the African Union (AU) and the United Nations had called the situation in Somalia one of Africa’s worst humanitarian crises. The chairman of the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization, Sudan Ali December 31, 2007

Ahmed, blamed Ethiopian forces for many of the civilian casualties. “The international community must intervene in Somali affairs to force the Ethiopians to get out. At the same time they must bring a joint international peacekeeping force to secure the country,” he said. An 8,000-member AU peacekeeping mission had been planned to replace the Ethiopian forces. About 1,600 Ugandan troops had been in Somalia for several months, and nearly 200 Burundian troops were deployed Dec. 23–24. Burundi reportedly planned to have 1,700 troops on the ground in Somalia by early January 2008. Other News—In related news: † Two employees of aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)—Spanish doctor Mercedes Garcia and Argentine nurse Pilar Bouza—Dec. 26 were kidnapped near the northern port of Bosasso, in the semi-autonomous Puntland region. The kidnappers reportedly demanded a $250,000 ransom. Hostage-taking was reportedly on the rise in the region; a French journalist, Gwen Le Gouil, Dec. 24 had been freed, after being kidnapped Dec. 16. † A U.S. military spokesman Dec. 12 said Somali pirates who had hijacked a Japanese-owned chemical tanker Oct. 28 off Somalia’s coast had released it without incident. The tanker, which had 22 crew members, had reportedly been cornered by U.S. and German navy ships. [See p. 781D3] „

South Africa Corruption Charges Filed Against Zuma.

Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s former deputy president and the newly elected leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, Dec. 28 was charged with corruption, fraud, racketeering and money laundering. The charges were filed a week after he defeated the incumbent, South African President Thabo Mbeki, to become president of the ANC. [See p. 849A1] The charges were linked to an arms deal with French company, in which Schabir Shaik, Zuma’s former financial adviser, in 2005 had been convicted of funneling about $180,000 in bribes to Zuma in exchange for assistance in winning a military contract. Sheik was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 15 years in jail. Similar charges against Zuma in 2006 had been dismissed on a technicality; however, Mbeki had fired him from his position of deputy president in the scandal’s fallout. Zuma had also faced rape charges in 2006, but was acquitted. [See 2006, pp. 881A2, 378A1; 2005, p. 410F1] Zuma, as a result of his victory in the ANC election, had been viewed as a likely winner of South Africa’s next presidential election, to be held in 2009. However, if convicted of the charges, he would be constitutionally barred from holding office. His lawyers maintained that they would appeal the charges to the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country. The trial was scheduled to begin Aug.14, 2008. „ News in Brief. The South African Police Service Dec. 6 reported that violent crime had dropped between April 1 and Sept. 30,

from the same period a year earlier. The murder rate fell 6.6%, to 18.7 per 100,000 people—still more than double the U.S. rate. The rape rate fell 3.6%. However, the new statistics also showed that the rate of home robberies had risen 7%, and robberies of business, 29%. South Africa had one of the world’s highest crime rates, and the government had stepped up anticrime efforts in preparation to host the 2010 soccer World Cup. [See pp. 737A2, 530G3] Nearly 250,000 mine workers staged a one-day strike Dec. 4 in protest of poor safety in South Africa’s gold, platinum and coal mines. The strike was the biggest in the country’s mining sector in 20 years. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) called for more stringent safety rules to stop a “genocide” in the country’s mines, some of which were among the deepest in the world. About 200 miners had died in accidents thus far in 2007; 199 had been killed in 2006, and 202 in 2005. Safety issues had gained prominence in October, when 3,200 workers had to be rescued after becoming trapped in Harmony Gold Mining Co.’s Elandsrand mine. [See p. 670C3] Virginia Mokgobo, a dormitory matron

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for Girls, Nov. 1 was arrested and charged with 13 counts of assault, after reports emerged that some students at the school had been sexually abused. The school, which provided free tuition and board to 450 girls from poor backgrounds, had been opened in January by U.S. daytime television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. [See p. 24D3] Sasol Ltd., the world’s largest producer of oil from coal, Sept. 10 announced its intention to sell 10% of the company’s equity, worth about $2.4 billion (17.9 billion rand), to black South Africans. The deal, which shareholders would be required to approve, was brokered in response to criticism that the company had been slow to act on the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) program, which had been part of President Thabo Mbeki’s platform of broadening black ownership of the South African economy after apartheid. [See p. 98E1; 2005, p. 984F2–G2] The Sunday Times, a South African newspaper, Aug. 19 reported that the liver

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transplant Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had received earlier in the year

had been necessitated by liver cirrhosis from a long-term drinking problem, and that she continued to drink following the surgery. The report also stated that TshabalalaMsimang had been expelled from Botswana for 10 years in the late 1970s, after it was discovered that she had stolen items belonging to hospital patients under anaesthesia. Mbeki Aug. 31 called Tshabalala-Msimang’s critics “wild animals” and said that he would investigate only if proof was brought forward. [See p. 530D2] „

Sudan U.N. Forces Join AU Peacekeepers in Darfur.

The African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in the war-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur Dec. 31 handed over its 879

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command to a joint United Nations–AU force. The handover was seen as largely symbolic, however, since the U.N. had few personnel and little equipment on the ground in Darfur. At full strength, the joint force was expected to comprise 26,000 members (20,000 soldiers and 6,000 police), making it the largest U.N. peacekeeping operation in the world. [See p. 709A1] Only about one-third of the 26,000 personnel had been deployed, and many of those were AU troops already in Darfur who would transfer from AU to U.N. command. The deployment of the U.N. force had been hampered by various obstacles put forth by the Sudanese government—including an objection to the inclusion of non-African personnel in the force. Additionally, U.N. member states had been slow to provide the necessary equipment for the force, such as transport and attack helicopters. Bush Signs Sudan Divestment Bill—

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U.S. President George W. Bush Dec. 31 signed a bill, the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act, that would allow state and local governments and private investors to sever investment ties with companies that did business in Sudan. However, Bush also issued a signing statement with the bill that said he had the authority to overrule a decision to divest by a state or local government if it interfered with U.S. foreign policy. [See p. 66B1] In a related development, Andrew Natsios, Bush’s special envoy to Sudan, Dec. 21 resigned. He would be replaced by longtime diplomat Richard Williamson. [See 2004, p. 333B1] „ Former Southern Rebels Rejoin Government.

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Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir Dec. 27 swore in a new cabinet that included 16 members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), a party of southernbased former rebels. The SPLM in October had suspended its participation in a national unity government, alleging that Bashir’s northern-based regime was not fulfilling its part of a 2005 peace agreement that had ended a 20-year civil war. [See p. 702A2] The SPLM and Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP) reportedly reached agreement on all disputed issues except for the status of the oil-rich Abyei region, which was on the north-south border. Presidential spokesman Mahjoub Fadul said, “The presidency will deal with the Abyei issue…working with the commission of Abyei and the border commission.” Among the new SPLM ministers was Deng Alor—a native of the Abyei region—who replaced Lam Akol as foreign minister. The 2005 peace agreement had set up the Abyei Boundaries Commission to demarcate the border between north and south, as well as the Abyei Referendum Commission to work with residents on a 2011 referendum on the region’s status. „

Uganda LRA Leader Said to Execute Deputy. Joseph Kony, the reclusive leader of northern Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army 880

(LRA), had ordered the execution of the group’s deputy leader, Vincent Otti, according to statements made Nov. 30 by a group of seven LRA deserters. One of the deserters, Sunday Otto, a former LRA commander, said Otti had been killed Oct. 2, but refused to comment on the reasons behind his murder. [See p. 282D3; 2006, p. 911D2] Rumors had been circulating in the Ugandan media since October that Kony, known for his erratic behavior, had ordered the killing of Otti, but the deserters were the first to confirm that information. However, the LRA Nov. 9 had said through a mediator that Otti, who had been the public face of peace negotiations with the Ugandan government, had been arrested by Kony on suspicion of spying, but had not been executed. The fate of Otti had yet to be conclusively determined as of Dec. 31. Kony remained in hiding, and was believed to be living in the jungles of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kony and three of his top deputies, including Otti, had been indicted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands, in October 2005. They had refused to appear at peace talks being held in south Sudan until the ICC dropped the charges. LRA representatives June 30 had signed an agreement saying their leaders would be willing to face trial in Ugandan courts. Museveni, LRA Representatives Meet—

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni Nov. 3 met with LRA representatives for the first time on Ugandan soil. Government negotiator Henry Okello Oryem said the meeting, held in the north of the country, “went very well,” and that Museveni had “encouraged them to come home and gave guarantees for their security.” However, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) Dec. 20 reported that Museveni had given the LRA a Jan. 31, 2008, deadline to reach a peace deal. As part of their visit to Uganda, the LRA representatives, at a meeting Nov. 6 in the town of Gulu, begged for forgiveness from civilians in the north of the country, whom the group had terrorized throughout its 20year-long insurgency. „

Zimbabwe Ruling Party Picks Mugabe as Its Candidate.

The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party Dec. 13 endorsed Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as its candidate in presidential elections scheduled for March 2008. Mugabe, 83, had led Zimbabwe since it won independence from Britain in 1980, first as its prime minister and, since 1987, as president. [See pp. 820B3, 561A3] The nomination of Mugabe was seen as an example of his success in retaining power, despite the collapse of the economy and the brutal repression of political dissent in the country in the previous seven years. It was also said to demonstrate the weakness both of dissident groups within the ZANU-PF and of the opposition Move-

ment for Democratic Change (MDC), which in recent years had split into rival factions. In addition, neighboring southern African nations, especially regional powerhouse South Africa, had chosen not to publicly intervene in the increasingly desperate situation in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate was currently running at nearly 15,000%, the highest in the world. Among the other economic problems facing the Zimbabwean people were an estimated 80% unemployment rate; dwindling supplies of food, fuel, electricity and other necessities; and collapsing health-care and school systems. The MDC Dec. 27 said it would unite behind founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai for the 2008 election. Mugabe had defeated Tsvangirai in a disputed 2002 presidential vote, and the ZANU-PF also beat the MDC in 2005 parliamentary elections. Takeover of Foreign Firms Approved—

Zimbabwe’s parliament Sept. 26 passed legislation that would transfer majority control of foreign-owned firms, including mines and banks, to black Zimbabweans. MDC legislators walked out of the vote in protest. The government said the bill was a way to empower the country’s poor black majority. However, it was expected that the bill would plunge the economy further into crisis by discouraging the few foreign investors who had remained. In 2000, the government had begun seizing large whiteowned farms and giving them to poor blacks, a move cited by many observers as a major cause of the country’s economic collapse. [See 2000, p. 895B2] U.S. Imposes New Sanctions—The U.S. Dec. 3 unveiled new sanctions against Zimbabwe, after previously imposing restrictions in 2003 and 2005. The new sanctions included travel bans and financial restrictions on a further 38 government officials and their families. The U.S. had already imposed similar sanctions on more than 130 people linked to the Mugabe regime. [See 2005, p. 862E2] Mugabe Opponent Ncube Resigns—

Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, a prominent opponent of Mugabe, Sept. 11 resigned as archbishop of Bulawayo. In July, Ncube had been accused in a lawsuit of having a two-year adulterous affair with a church secretary, and videotapes purportedly showing the archbishop having sex with the woman were broadcast on staterun television. Ncube, 60, said the Vatican had accepted his resignation, and that he was stepping down “to spare my fellow bishops and the body of the Church any further attacks.” He also alleged that he had been the victim of “a state-driven, vicious attack not just on myself, but by proxy on the Catholic Church.” [See p. 563F1] Ncube would remain a bishop, and his supporters said they expected him to continue to be active among the opposition to Mugabe. Some of them criticized the Roman Catholic Church for so readily accepting Ncube’s resignation while having rarely spoken out against the abuses of the Mugabe regime. „ FACTS ON FILE

Africa News in Brief Angola: Election Date Set. Angolan Presi-

dent Jose Eduardo dos Santos Dec. 27 announced that parliamentary elections would be held Sept. 5–6, 2008. A presidential election was tentatively set for 2009; dos Santos, who had ruled since 1979, was expected to be a candidate. The country had not held any elections since 1992; a 27year-long civil war had ended in 2002. [See 2006, p. 1014G3] „ Kenya: Police Implicated in Killings. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Nov. 5 released a report that implicated police in the killings of more than 450 men, all of whom were ethnic Kikuyus. The killings came during a crackdown on the violent Mungiki gang. Most of the victims had been shot in the back of the head, and their bodies deposited at mortuaries in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. Police Chief Hussein Ali denied responsibility, and suggested the men had been killed in gang violence. Ali promised to provide information gleaned from investigations of the murders, but as of Dec. 31 had not produced any further information. [See p. 435A2] „ Kenya: Suspects Freed in Root Murder Case.

A Kenyan judge Aug. 10 acquitted four men accused of murdering British wildlife filmmaker Joan Root, after saying the murder investigation had been “poorly done.” The men had been in police custody for more than a year. Root, who was shot in her home in January 2006, had made several popular films about wildlife in Africa. [See 2006, p. 1012G2] „ Liberia: Former Leader Arrested. The former head of Liberia’s transitional government, Gyude Bryant, Dec. 7 was arrested on charges of embezzling $1.4 million while he was in office from 2003–05. He was being held in the central prison of Monrovia, Liberia’s capital. Bryant had been charged in February after an audit revealed irregularities. [See 2006, p. 146F1] „ Libya: Joint Italian Migrant Patrols Set.

The Libyan and Italian governments Dec. 29 agreed that six Italian police boats, with crews of both Italians and Libyans, would patrol the Libyan coastline in an effort to curb illegal migration and human trafficking. Illegal migration from Africa to Europe by poor Africans traveling in makeshift boats had become a major problem in recent years, and hundreds of migrants had died making the journey. The route from Libya to Italy was just one of several taken by the migrants; others sought to reach Europe by traveling from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands. Britain’s Guardian newspaper Dec. 31 reported that about 16,500 African migrants had traveled from Libya to Italy in 2007. [See 2006, p. 907A1] „ Mauritania: 3 Soldiers Killed by Militants.

Three soldiers Dec. 27 were killed by gunmen in northern Mauritania, in an attack that a North African affiliate of terrorist network Al Qaeda claimed credit for. In a separate incident Dec. 24, four French tourists had been killed and one was wounded near the town of Aleg, in the south. The government December 31, 2007

Dec. 26 said two of the suspects in that murder were associated with Algerian terrorist camps run by the North African Al Qaeda affiliate, Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. However, security sources Dec. 31 told Reuters news service that they were unsure if the group was to blame for the attacks. [See pp. 826A2, 194A1] „ Senegal: Muslim Leader Mbacke Dies at 92.

Serigne Saliou Mbacke, 92, leader of Senegal’s powerful Mouride Muslim brotherhood, died Dec. 28. Mbacke had been one of Senegal’s most revered spiritual leaders, and was credited with transforming the town of Touba from a rural outpost to a city of more than one million, which was sometimes referred to as “little Mecca.” [See p. 365D2]„

abuses committed during military rule. [See 2004, p. 902F1; 1995, p. 860B1] Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva the same day called for a deadline to be set to discover what had happened to citizens who had disappeared during the era. However, he said no members of the dictatorship would face prosecution, noting the amnesty law. He also declined to open to the public secret military archives from the era; family members of the missing said they believed the records contained clues to the whereabouts of their relatives’ remains. „

Chavez Hostage Release Efforts Falter.

25 years for human rights abuses carried out during the country’s 1976–83 “dirty war” waged against leftists. Among those sentenced was former army commander Cristino Nicolaides. Federal prosecutors had argued that the officers had overseen the 1980 torture and execution of at least five leftist guerrillas fighting against the era’s military dictatorship. About 13,000 people were officially acknowledged to have been killed or “disappeared” by the government during the dirty war. [See p. 686A3; 1999, p. 63F2] U.S. authorities Oct. 30 said they had deported Ernesto Guillermo Barreiro to Argentina to face charges of human rights abuses carried out during the dirty war. U.S. immigration officials in April had arrested Barreiro on visa-fraud charges. He was accused of overseeing the notorious La Perla prison and torture camp from 1976 to 1979. [See p. 228A3] Argentina’s Supreme Court July 13 voted, 4–2, to throw out a 1989 presidential pardon granted to Gen. Santiago Omar Riveros, who had been accused of numerous human rights abuses committed during the dirty war. The ruling was considered significant as it opened the door to the reconsideration of dozens of pardons issued to military and government officials after the dirty war. [See 2000, p. 1032F1] „

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News in Brief. Prosecutors in Veracruz state May 7 said forensic tests performed on a dead 73-year-old indigenous woman

Argentina News in Brief. A judge in an Argentine federal court Dec. 19 sentenced eight army officers to prison terms ranging from 20 to

The Brazilian government Aug. 29 released a report detailing instances of kidnapping, rape, torture and other human rights abuses carried out by the government during the country’s 1964–85 military dictatorship. The unprecedented report, called “The Right to Memory and Truth,” catalogued 475 cases of people killed or “disappeared” by the government. It had been prepared over 11 years and was released on the 28th anniversary of a 1979 amnesty law sparing military and civilian government officials from prosecution for human rights

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Colombia Leftist guerrilla rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Dec. 31 canceled plans to hand over three hostages to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias. Chavez, who had been negotiating the hostage release with the rebels, that day read a FARC statement in which the rebels alleged that military activity by the government had raised security concerns that forced them to abandon the hostage handover plan. Chavez blamed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez, saying he sought to “dynamite” the release. [See p. 811D2] FARC rebels Dec. 18 had said they would transfer to Chavez former Congress member Consuelo Gonzalez; Clara Rojas, a former vice presidential candidate; and her son Emmanuel, who was thought to be three or four years old, fathered by a guerrilla and born in captivity. Chavez in August had begun mediation efforts for hostage releases with FARC, but had lost Uribe’s support in November for allegedly violating diplomatic protocols. The Dec. 18 announcement did not mention other prominent hostages who had been the subject of the talks: Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate, and three U.S. military contractors. Uribe Dec. 31 alleged that FARC had lied about holding Emmanuel, suggesting that the boy was in the care of social workers in Bogota, the capital. “The FARC terrorist group have fooled Colombia and now they want to fool the international community,” he said. Chavez, representatives from seven countries, and the U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone had waited for several days near a rebel-held jungle area awaiting word on where to pick up the hostages. „

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showed that she had not been raped, as they had originally claimed. The officials in February had claimed that the woman had been raped and beaten by federal soldiers, sparking nationwide outrage at human rights abuses by troops and police forces. The prosecutors’ finding that the woman had died of complications of a digestive disorder had been backed by the National Commission on Human Rights, which had performed its own investigation. 881

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Police in Mexico City, Mexico’s capital, Oct. 8 arrested a 38-year-old aspiring horror novelist, Jose Luis Calva, after discovering the remains of his dead girlfriend in his apartment. Police said Calva had admitted killing his girlfriend and said he had cooked some of his girlfriend’s flesh, but denied eating it. Calva nonetheless had been dubbed “the cannibal” in media reports. Police Dec. 11 found Calva dead of an apparent suicide in his Mexico City jail cell. More than 1,000 police officers Oct. 12 removed some 15,000 street vendors from Mexico City in an attempt to reduce congestion. Police cleared 87 streets in the historic center area of the city for the first time in more than 10 years. Many of the vendors said they would eventually return. [See 2006, p. 1018D1] The body of Sergio Gomez, lead singer of Mexico’s popular music group K-Paz de la Sierra, Dec. 3 was found bearing signs of torture, a day after he was kidnapped. Gomez was the latest in a series of musicians killed during 2007. The grupero style of music played by Gomez’s group was popular in areas where drug cartels were powerful. Performers often wrote songs, called narcocorridos, about cartel heads and other drug smuggling figures. It was believed that smugglers sometimes used revenue generated by popular musicians’ concerts to launder their money. [See p. 738A1] Police in the southern state of Chiapas Dec. 22 rearrested paramilitary fighter Antonio Santiz for his role in the December 1997 massacre of 45 Tzotzil Indians in the village of Acteal. Santiz in 2000 had been arrested and charged with involvement in the massacre, but the charges were dismissed in 2001. [See 2000, p. 159C2] „

that he had allowed six Chinese immigrants to illegally enter the country in 2006. Bolanos, whose term lasted from 2002 to 2006, could face a five-year prison term if convicted. [See 2003, p. 989D3] „

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dance with a decree by President Hugo Chavez Frias, putting the nation a half-hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time. With the change, Venezuela joined a handful of other countries that were a half-hour removed from the international standard, Coordinated Universal Time. Chavez Aug. 19 had announced the decree, saying it would allow residents of the country to gain more exposure to sunlight, thereby improving their metabolism. Many criticized the plan as unnecessary and strange. [See p. 67C1] Chavez Sept. 17 threatened govern-

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Nicaraguan appeals court Dec. 17 overturned the murder conviction of Eric Volz, a U.S. national accused of killing his Nicaraguan ex-girlfriend, and ordered his immediate release. Prosecutors Dec. 19 filed an appeal requiring Volz, 28, to remain in custody, but he was released Dec. 21. Volz had dated Nicaraguan national Doris Ivania Jimenez, but had broken up with her before she was found raped and strangled to death in November 2006 in Rivas, south of Managua, Nicaragua’s capital. Volz had maintained that he was in Managua at the time of the murder, but Feb. 21 was convicted of killing Jimenez and sentenced to a 30-year prison term. His conviction was based largely on the testimony of a former suspect in the case given immunity. The appeals court upheld the conviction of Julio Martin Chamorro, a Nicaraguan codefendant also sentenced in February. „ Ex-President Faces Charges. Officials in Nicaragua June 19 filed charges against former President Enrique Bolanos Geyer over allegations he sought to cover up human trafficking by his administration. Bolanos was charged for failing to take punitive action against immigration director Fausto Carcabelos after reports surfaced 882

Uruguay News in Brief. Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez Nov. 8 authorized the start-up of a wood-pulp plant in the town of Fray Bentos,

located on the river border of Uruguay and Argentina, despite a long-running dispute between the two countries over the project. Plans for the mill had sparked fierce protests by Argentines, who said they would suffer the ill effects of pollution created by the mill. A nearby border crossing was shut down on news of the mill’s start-up due to violent clashes. [See 2006, p. 582G1] Former military ruler Gregorio Alvarez Dec. 17 was charged with the forced disappearance of some 40 political prisoners

during his 1982–85 tenure. (Uruguay had been ruled by a military dictatorship between 1973 and 1985.) Alvarez was taken into custody the same day. [See 1985, p. 147F2] Vazquez Dec. 27 signed into law a bill that granted marriage rights to couples of any gender who had been living together for more than five years. Uruguay’s Congress Dec. 18 had cleared the bill. It extended the social benefits of marriage, such as hereditary and property rights, to couples “of any sex, identity, orientation or sexual option.” [See p. 403C2] „

Venezuela News in Brief. Venezuelans Dec. 9 turned their clocks back one half-hour in accor-

ment takeover of any privately run schools

in Venezuela that refused to accede to the authority of the government on educational issues. Critics said they feared a new “socialist” curriculum imposed by the government would focus only on leftist ideology and eliminate a diversity of viewpoints. „

Other Americas News U.S. Indicts Five in Election Fund Allegations.

A U.S. grand jury in Miami, Fla., Dec. 20 indicted a Uruguayan and four Venezuelans on charges of secretly operating in the U.S. as agents of the Venezuelan government. U.S. prosecutors alleged that the men worked for the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias, and

had been involved in a scheme to cover up the illegal funneling of some $800,000 from the Venezuelan government to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s election campaign in August. (Fernandez de Kirchner won the presidential election in October, and took office in early December.) [See p. 827C1] Argentine customs officials in August had stopped U.S.-Venezuelan dual citizen Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson at an airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, with a suitcase filled with about $800,000 in cash. Antonini Wilson, a businessman based in southern Florida, had arrived from Venezuela on board a plane chartered by Argentina’s state oil company. He had also been accompanied by several Venezuelan energy officials. Antonini Wilson was allowed to return to the U.S., where he cooperated with investigators with the U.S.’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and agreed to secretly wear a microphone during meetings with the indicted men. According to U.S. investigators, the five indicted men had ordered Antonini Wilson to remain quiet regarding the source and intended destination of the funds. They had also threatened Antonini Wilson and his family, and had offered him $2 million as hush money, according to the investigators. Three Venezuelans and the Uruguayan remained in custody in the U.S., while another Venezuelan remained at large. If convicted, the men faced prison sentences of up to 10 years, and a fine of up to $250,000. Two of the men, Uruguayan Rodolfe Waseele Paciello and Venezuelan Franklin Duran, both 40, Dec. 28 pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Miami. The allegations had strained ties between the U.S., a staunch critic of Chavez, and Argentina. Fernandez de Kirchner strongly denied the allegations, and defended Venezuela as an Argentine ally. Argentina’s Congress Dec. 19 had passed a resolution criticizing the allegations laid out by the U.S. prosecutors. Also, the Argentine government Dec. 18 had called in the U.S. ambassador for a formal explanation of the investigation. „ Seven Countries Found Development Bank.

The presidents of Venezuela, Paraguay, Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina, and a representative from Uruguay, Dec. 9 signed an agreement founding a development bank, the Bank of the South (Banco del Sur), intended as an alternative to existing international lending bodies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The signing ceremony was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital. The bank had an estimated $7 billion in start-up capital, with the majority of those funds coming from Venezuela and Brazil. [See p. 712E2; 2005, p. 535D3] Officials said the bank would fund a range of projects, such as those building infrastructure and combating poverty, at interest rates comparable to those of other lenders. It would be headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, with satellite ofFACTS ON FILE

fices in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, and Buenos Aires. The IMF, the World Bank and the IDB were U.S.-backed international lending institutions that had provided loans to several Latin American countries. The IMF provided funds to countries with failing economies, while the World Bank and the IDB gave out development loans. The institutions were highly unpopular in some countries for imposing strict regulations on loan receivers. Many critics said the institutions’ policies had, in practice, exacerbated their country’s economic ills. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias, a staunch opponent of the U.S., had developed the idea for the bank. Some economists and analysts said the bank was a way for Chavez to use Venezuela’s oil revenue to expand his influence in Latin America, and counter U.S. efforts to do the same. „

Americas News in Brief Costa Rica: Ex-President Charged. Feder-

al prosecutors in Costa Rica Aug. 1 filed bribery charges against former President Miguel Angel Rodriguez. Law enforcement officials alleged that Rodriguez in 2001 had accepted $230,000 in bribes from the Latin American branch of the French telecommunications company Alcatel SA in exchange for granting it a government cellular-phone contract. Rodriguez had served as president from 1998 to 2002. Alcatel in 2006 had merged with Lucent Technologies Inc. of the U.S. to form Alcatel-Lucent. [See 1998, p. 74D2] „ Grenada: Coup Leaders Freed. A Supreme Court judge June 27 ordered the immediate release from prison of three participants in a 1983 coup d’etat in which then-Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several others were killed. Ten other participants in the plot remained in jail, but their sentences were reduced, leaving them to serve less than two years. The 13 people in 1986 had been sentenced to death for their role in the coup, which had led to a U.S. invasion of the country. The Privy Council Feb. 1 had struck down the death sentences. [See 1986, p. 910D2] „ Trinidad and Tobago: Conviction Reversed.

The Trinidad and Tobago Appeals Court March 20 overturned the April 2006 conviction of former Prime Minister Baseo Panday for failing to declare a foreign bank account. The court ordered a retrial, which was later scheduled to take place in 2008. [See 2006, p. 493C3] „

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Australia Ex-Detainee Hicks Released. David Hicks, a former detainee at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was released from custody Dec. 29 after serving nine months of an otherwise suspended sevenyear sentence in Australia. Hicks was the only person to date sentenced under the military commissions set up by the U.S. December 31, 2007

government to try terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo. [See p. 379D3] Hicks had been captured in Afghanistan by U.S. forces in 2001 and held for over five years in Guantanamo before pleading guilty in March to charges that he provided support to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. As part of Hicks’s plea agreement, he had been repatriated to Australia to serve his sentence, but was barred from speaking with the media for three months after his release. In addition, Hicks, 32, was subject to a so-called control order issued under Australian antiterrorism laws. The control order limited him to a single e-mail account, a single cellular telephone number and a single land phone number, and required him to register all three with the government. He was also subject to a midnight– 6:00 a.m. curfew and required to check in at a police station three times a week. „ AWB Executives Face ‘Oil-for-Food’ Charges.

The Australian Security and Investments Commission (ASIC) Dec. 19 announced that it would file civil charges against six former executives of wheat exporter AWB Ltd. related to allegations that the company had paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to members of the Iraqi government in violation of the rules of the United Nations’ socalled oil-for-food program. [See 2006, p. 1019C3] A November 2006 probe had found that AWB had paid almost A$300 million ($257 million) to high-ranking officials in the government of then–Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to secure contracts to supply wheat to the country under the program. The report had called for the criminal prosecution of 11 AWB employees, but no criminal charges had been filed. The ASIC accused Michael Long, Peter Geary, Charles Stott, Paul Ingleby, Trevor Flugge and Andrew Lindberg of violating sections of Australia’s Corporations Act which required them to operate in good faith and act with due diligence. The ASIC was seeking A$200,000 per person per breach. It had not ruled out criminal charges in the case. „

China Hong Kong Direct Vote Ruled Out for 2012.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, Dec. 30 announced that direct elections for the Hong Kong chief executive would not occur before 2017, or for the territory’s legislature before 2020. Democracy advocates in Hong Kong had pressed for the introduction of direct elections, with universal suffrage, by the 2012 chief executive election. Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the constitution adopted upon its reversion to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, called for the eventual introduction of democratic elections but did not specify when. [See p. 812C1] Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang Dec. 12 had asked the central government to settle the question of when democratic elections would be introduced, without making recommendations of his own. However, he noted that opinion polls

indicated that a majority of Hong Kong residents supported universal suffrage by 2012, and said that “should be taken seriously.” Other News—In other China news: † Disgraced Shanghai real estate magnate Zhou Zhengyi Nov. 30 was convicted on charges including bribery, falsifying tax records and misappropriating funds, and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Zhou’s case was part of a wide-ranging assault on corruption in the powerful business and political circles of Shanghai. Zhou in 2006 had been released from prison after serving a three-year sentence for financial crimes. [See 2004, p. 531D3] † China’s state-sponsored Catholic church Nov. 30 named a new bishop in Hubei province, Lu Shouwang, and Dec. 4 consecrated a new bishop of Guangzhou, Gan Junqui. Both new bishops reportedly had the approval of the Vatican, in a sign of improving relations between it and the official Chinese church, which did not recognize the authority of the pope. China had named a number of bishops without Vatican approval in 2006, straining their ties. [See p. 672A1] † China’s Supreme Court Sept. 14 said it had ordered lower courts to issue death sentences more sparingly, to only “an extremely small number of serious offenders.” The court June 8 had said that the number of death sentences issued nationwide had begun to decline after a law took effect at the beginning of the year requiring the high court to review and approve all such sentences, although it did not provide statistics. China was believed to carry out more executions, for a wide range of offenses, than all the other countries of the world combined. [See 2006, p. 883G1] † Police Dec. 27 detained human rights advocate Hu Jia, 34, on suspicion of “subverting state authority.” Hu had been detained numerous times for his activism on a range of issues, such as the treatment of AIDS patients. [See 2006, p. 1021B1] † A gas explosion in a coal mine in the northern province of Shanxi Dec. 5 killed 105 miners, in the latest large disaster to strike China’s notoriously unsafe mining industry. It had the worst accident rate in the world, with about 5,000 deaths a year. [See p. 687G1] † State news media June 28 reported that Hou Zhenrun, the chief of a mine near Datong, in Shanxi province, had been convicted of ordering a fatal attack on a reporter investigating safety failures at the mine, and sentenced to life in prison. [See p. 195D3] † China Oct. 5 agreed at a meeting of the World Medical Association in Copenhagen, Denmark, to permit the transplantation of organs from prisoners only to their immediate relatives. China had long been subjected to criticism for its practice of removing executed prisoners’ organs; critics said that the prisoners could not be considered truly free to grant or withhold 883

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their consent for such procedures. China May 1 and July 3 introduced new restrictions on transplant operations intended to discourage the illegal sale of organs, particularly to foreigners visiting the country for the purpose. [See 2001, p. 635E3] † The foreign ministry Nov. 23 condemned remarks by the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, suggesting that his successor might be chosen not by the traditional identification of his reincarnation, but by election or appointment before his own death. The ministry said those ideas “clearly violate religious rituals and historical customs” of Tibet. In September, China’s government, which was officially atheist, had declared that any reincarnations proclaimed without its consent would be illegal, the Financial Times reported Nov. 24. [See p. 679C1] „ U.S., China Hold Latest Economic Talks.

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The U.S. and China in Beijing, China’s capital, Dec. 11–13 held the latest round of talks in the Strategic Economic Dialogue framework initiated in 2006. The talks resulted in cooperation agreements on product safety, energy and the environment, but less progress than the U.S. had sought on opening Chinese markets to U.S. companies and on allowing China’s currency, the yuan, to float freely and appreciate in value against the U.S. dollar. [See p. 344F2] China at the talks agreed to let foreign companies issue yuan-denominated stocks and bonds in China. However, critics said that China was acting slowly to implement a promise it had made at the previous round of talks, in May, to allow foreign securities companies to invest more in Chinese joint ventures. Prior to the talks, China Nov. 29 had agreed to eliminate an array of subsidies and tax breaks that favored its own makers of an array of products over foreign imports, in a settlement of a World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint over the subsidies brought by the U.S. The subsidized industries included steel, wood products and computers. China Agrees to U.S. Export Inspections—

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The U.S. and China during the talks Dec. 11 signed an agreement that would allow U.S. inspection officials greater access to Chinese sites where food and medicine were produced for export to the U.S. The agreement was made in the wake of several instances in 2007 in which Chinese-produced consumer goods and food products had been found unsafe. [See p. 752D2] Under the accord, Chinese food, animal feed, drug and medical-device exporters would face a new inspection and registration regime covering specific products. Not all products sought by the U.S. for increased inspection were included in the agreement, but U.S. officials said the plan could be expanded if the initial steps proved effective. U.S. inspectors would also be able to track shipments exported from China through the registration program. Exporters would face annual inspections by Chi884

nese regulators, reporting those that failed to meet standards to U.S. authorities. U.S. Declines Currency Penalty—The U.S. Treasury Department in a Dec. 19 semiannual report to Congress repeated complaints about China’s failure to let the yuan appreciate further, but again declined to formally designate China a “currency manipulator,” an action that would authorize retaliatory action against China. [See 2006, p. 982C2] The Treasury in its previous report June 13 had also not named China a currency manipulator. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators who said the administration should put greater pressure on China over its currency that day introduced a bill that would order the Treasury to take stronger action. However, the legislation did not reach a vote by the end of the year. The yuan rose about 7% against the dollar over the year, ending up Dec. 31 at 7.3 yuan to the dollar. [See p. 862A2] EU, China Hold Talks—Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Nov. 28 reiterated China’s stated intention of gradually making the yuan a freely convertible currency, at the conclusion of three days of talks with European Union leaders in Beijing. The two sides also agreed to establish a formal structure for regular bilateral economic and trade talks, to begin in March 2008. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chinese President Hu Jintao Nov. 26 had signed a series of large business agreements between the two countries. Among them was a $12 billion deal in which Areva SA of France would provide two nuclear reactors to China Guangdong Nuclear Power Co., uranium to fuel them for at least 14 years, and additional uranium for other Chinese power plants. It was reportedly the largest nuclear-power contract ever concluded. Other News—In other Chinese economic and business news: † The government Dec. 10 said consumer prices had risen 6.9% in November, the highest monthly inflation rate in 11 years. The country’s central bank had raised interest rates and sought to restrict lending over the year, in an effort to moderate economic growth and rein in inflation. The November increase was driven by food prices, which rose 18.2% from a year earlier. Three people died and 31 were injured in a stampede Nov. 10 at a store in Chongqing advertising a half-price sale on cooking oil. [See 2005, p. 89A1] † China Aug. 20 announced that mainland citizens would soon be able to invest in the Hong Kong stock market, removing a key barrier to domestic investors’ access to international markets. The news led to a steep rise in Hong Kong stock prices in subsequent months, in anticipation of the expected demand from Chinese investors. However, the plan was not implemented by the end of the year. [See p. 739E2] „ Dam Environmental Problems Addressed.

China’s state news media Nov. 20 reported that the country’s cabinet, the State Council, was adopting “seven projects” to ad-

dress environmental complications arising from the Three Gorges Dam and reservoir in the Yangtze River. Among them were plans to enforce antidumping rules for municipalities and industries along the river, guarantee safe drinking water for people resettled as a result of the dam, and create a system to monitor and warn of landslides around the 400-mile- (640-km-) long reservoir. [See p. 687C2] In September, officials had warned of the potential for catastrophe unless the government addressed the buildup of pollution and silt behind the dam, as well as more frequent landslides apparently caused by increased pressure on the steep slopes containing the reservoir and swollen river. They noted that the reservoir shoreline had already collapsed in 91 places. The Xinhua news agency Nov. 23 reported that a Nov. 20 landslide along the shoreline in Badong county in Hubei province had killed more than 30 people. To ensure the “environmental safety” of the dam, the government planned to encourage up to four million more people from areas near the shore to resettle in suburban Chongqing by 2020, Xinhua reported Oct. 11. Construction of the dam had already required some 1.4 million people to relocate. The water level in the reservoir, currently about 500 feet (150 meters) deep, would be slowly allowed to rise another 75 feet by 2009. The director of the project committee overseeing the dam, Wang Xiofeng, Nov. 15 said the dam’s environmental impact was no worse than expected, and that the project’s “benefits still outweigh its drawbacks.” Wang Nov. 27 said concerns about the implications of the dam were overblown, explaining that the area had always been prone to “geological disasters.” State-run news April 15 had reported that researchers affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences had found about onetenth of the length of the Yangtze to be in critical environmental condition, with some 30% of its main tributaries and the Three Gorges reservoir itself seriously polluted. Lake Pollution Critic Jailed—Wu Lihong, a prominent environmental activist who had campaigned against the dumping of toxic waste in Lake Tai, northwest of Shanghai, Aug. 10 was convicted of fraud and extortion and sentenced to three years in prison. His supporters said the case was fabricated in order to suppress his activism. A court in Wuxi Nov. 2 upheld the verdict. The government Oct. 25 unveiled a $14 billion plan to clean up Lake Tai, China’s third-largest freshwater lake, where pollution had led to the flourishing of a bright green algae bloom earlier in the year. „

Indonesia Landslides and Flooding Kill 48. Indonesian

officials Dec. 27 confirmed the deaths of at least 48 people following a series of landslides and floods that struck the Indonesian island of Java after days of torrential rain, and said that thousands of people had been FACTS ON FILE

left homeless in the aftermath. More than 70 additional people were believed to be dead or missing in Java, including at least 40 people on a bridge that collapsed Dec. 26 due to flooding in the province of East Java. Indonesia’s National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Management said that the country had suffered more than 500 landslides in the last 10 years, and suggested that deforestation caused by overlogging had played a part, the New York Times reported Dec. 28. A complete count of the deaths was complicated by poor road conditions near the landslide sites, causing delays in getting rescuers and medical equipment to those affected by the disasters. [See p. 789A1] „ Newmont Wins Civil Suit Over Pollution. A judge in South Jakarta District Court Dec. 18 cleared the Indonesian division of U.S.– based Newmont Mining Corp. of polluting a water source near one of its mines, in a lawsuit filed by an environmental group. The ruling was the second legal win for Newmont in 2007, after criminal charges against the company were dismissed in April. [See p. 299A1] The environmental group, Walhi, had alleged that the company’s failure to correctly dispose of mining filings had endangered the health of people near its now-defunct gold mine in the province of North Sulawesi. Pollution tests of the area were inconclusive and Judge Ketut Manika ruled that Walhi had failed to “prove that Newmont polluted the environment, sickening fish and damaging coral reefs.” Newmont in 2006 had paid to settle a civil case brought by the government over the pollution. „

Japan Textbooks to Include Okinawa Suicides.

Japan’s education ministry Dec. 26 said that the country’s standard high school textbooks would refer to the Japanese military’s “involvement” in mass suicides by civilians on the island of Okinawa in World War II. The ministry in March had ordered the removal of textbook passages that described the military as having “forced” the mass suicides as U.S. forces advanced in 1945. That decision prompted protest rallies by Okinawans, and official demands for a reversal from the region’s government. [See p. 299B3] The ministry said it ordered the mention only of the armed forces’ “involvement” because there was insufficient documentary evidence that the military had coerced the suicides. Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima criticized the indirect formula, but called the result “acceptable.” A nationalist group that pressed for the removal of references to wartime atrocities committed by Japan, the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, denounced the new wording as “one-sided” and a cave-in to political pressure. China, South Korea and other Asian countries had often accused Japan of downplaying wartime atrocities committed December 31, 2007

by its forces in its officially approved textbooks. The March order had been issued under then–Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had drawn criticism for downplaying Japanese forces’ role in forced prostitution. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who had succeeded Abe in October, had reportedly favored revisiting the textbook decision in search of a compromise. [See p. 526C3] PM Visits China—Fukuda Dec. 27–30 made his first visit to China as prime minister, in an effort to improve bilateral relations that had suffered due to disputes over World War II issues under Abe and his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi. Fukuda, meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, reportedly discussed the two countries’ dispute over rights to a gas field in the East China Sea, but the two sides reportedly did not make substantial progress toward resolving it. [See p. 241A3] „ News in Brief. Japanese and U.S. military officials Dec. 17 said Japan had successfully conducted a test of a ship-based missile interceptor, shooting down a mediumrange ballistic missile launched from the U.S. state of Hawaii. It was the first test of a missile interceptor by a foreign partner of the U.S.’s Missile Defense Agency. Japan said its sea- and land-based antimissile systems were intended to defend the country from a missile fired by North Korea. [See p. 335C2] The Japanese Geographical Survey Institute June 20 agreed to change the officially recognized name of Iwo Jima island, famed for a fierce World War II battle there, to Iwo To, by which it had been known before the war. The two names were written similarly in Japanese, and the Iwo Jima name was believed to have originated in a mispronunciation of Iwo To by visiting Japanese naval officers during the war. Former residents had pressed for the reversion to the original name. Civilian inhabitants had not been allowed to return after the war to the island, which became a U.S. and then a Japanese military installation. [See 2005, p. 234C3] Prosecutors in Japan Nov. 28 arrested former Vice Minister of Defense Takemasa Moriya on suspicion of accepting millions

of dollars in bribes for fixing air force equipment contracts. The prosecutors the next day raided the ministry in search of evidence. Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga was reportedly also implicated in the scandal. [See 2002, p. 507D3] Japan Nov. 20 reinstituted mandatory

fingerprinting and photographing of all visitors to, and foreign residents of, the coun-

try upon entry. Japan had abandoned a similar fingerprinting rule in 2000 on civil liberties grounds. The policy was being revived in response to similar U.S. immigration procedures. [See 2004, p. 20A3; 1999, p. 882F1] „

Kyrgyzstan Ruling Party Wins Disputed Elections. Ak

Zhol, the party of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, won 71 of 90 possible

seats in Kyrgyz parliamentary elections held Dec. 16. Two parties allied with Ak Zhol, the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party, won 11 and eight seats, respectively. The socialist opposition party Ata Meken (Fatherland) did not receive any seats in parliament, despite winning 8.3% of the popular vote. [See p. 812F1] As of Dec. 18, preliminary voting results indicated that, under Kyrgyzstan’s complex electoral regulations, only Ak Zhol had met the requirements to sit in parliament. A new constitution, passed by national referendum in October, required members of parliament to be elected by a party-list system. Parties were required to win both 5% of the total vote, and 0.5% of the vote in each of Kyrgyzstan’s nine electoral regions, in order to hold seats in the parliament.

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Supreme Court Ruling Clouds Results—

It was widely reported that the Kyrgyz supreme court Dec. 18 had struck down the 0.5% requirement on an appeal by Ak Zhol. However, Kyrgyz election officials Dec. 20 said Ata Meken had not received enough votes to cross the 0.5% threshold in the southern city of Osh, and therefore was barred from sitting in parliament. Ata Meken leaders said they had received the required number of votes in Osh and would appeal the results in court. Both the British Broadcasting Corp. and the New York Times Dec. 21 reported that the court had only eased regional vote requirements. Other media reports were unclear on what specific action the court had taken. The Times the same day reported that the Central Election Commission had announced that the Communist and Social Democratic parties would receive seats in parliament, despite the fact that with 95% of the votes counted, both parties had failed to cross the 5% national threshold.

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Igor Chudinov, an ethnic Russian, was born Aug. 21, 1961. In 1983, he graduated from Kyrgyz State University with a degree in mathematics. He then worked until 1987 as a senior engineer programmer at a computer plant in Frunze, now known as Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital. He also participated in Komsomol, a Soviet-era youth Communist league, where he held the position of first secretary in the Oktyabr district from 1988 to 1990. In 1991, he was promoted to second secretary of the central committee of the league. In the early 1990s, he became involved in various business ventures, and remained in that sector until 2005, when he was appointed as the managing director of Kyrgyzstan’s state gas company, Kyrgyzgaz. In February 2007, he was appointed to the position of minister of industry, gas and fuel resources. Chudinov Dec. 23 was nominated to be the new prime minister by the ruling Ak Zhol party, and was confirmed by the parliament the next day. Some Kyrgyztanis expressed dismay that he was appointed to such a high position, despite not speaking the country’s national language, Kyrgyz. [See p. 886A1] Chudinov had one son, Rodion. 885

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Igor Chudinov, formerly Kyrgyzstan’s energy and industry minister, Dec. 24 was confirmed by the new parliament as Kyrgyzstan’s prime minister. His nomination had been put forward by the Ak Zhol party. [For facts on Chudinov, see p. 885E3] Some analysts suggested that he had been appointed because he was unable to challenge Bakiyev, who had been a polarizing figure in Kyrgyz politics since he took office in 2005. The constitution required the president to speak Kyrgyz; Chudinov, an ethnic Russian, did not. Monitors Say Election Was Flawed—

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The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had sent 270 observers to oversee the election. Markus Mueller, the head of the OSCE’s center in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Dec. 24 said the election “failed to meet” OSCE standards, and that “the exclusion of the party that came in second clearly contradicts the democratic principle of inclusiveness and the respect of people’s choice.” [See p. 851A3] The U.S. Dec. 20 also criticized the election. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack that day called for greater transparency and adherence to election laws in Kyrgyzstan. Both the U.S. and Russia had military bases in Kyrgyzstan. „

Nauru

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Scotty Government Toppled. President Ludwig Scotty Dec. 19 was forced from power in Nauru after losing a no-confidence vote organized by an opposition group headed by former Health Minister Kieren Keke. A representative of the opposition said that the vote of no-confidence in the 18member parliament came after Keke and other lawmakers accused Scotty of failing to take action on unspecified corruption allegations against Foreign Minister David Adeang, the Associated Press reported Dec. 19. [See 2004, p. 848F3] Following Scotty’s removal from office, the parliament Dec. 19 elected former Olympic weightlifter Marcus Stephen as Nauru’s next president. Stephen Dec. 20 announced his cabinet. Stephen named himself minister for home affairs, public service and the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust, and named Keke as foreign minister, transport minister and minister for telecommunications. Frederic Pitcher was named minister for finance and economic planning, Roland Kun was named justice minister, education minister and minister of fisheries, Fabian Ribauw became commerce minister, resources minister and minister of industry. Keke promised that the new government would focus on transparency and 886

good government, Radio New Zealand International reported Dec. 21 on its Web site. „

North Korea Nuclear Deadlines Missed. North Korea failed to meet a Dec. 31 deadline for it to give a full accounting of its nuclear weapons programs, as it had pledged to do in six-nation talks on ending those programs in return for aid and other incentives. North Korea also missed a Dec. 31 deadline to “disable” its nuclear facilities in preparation for their full dismantling, although that process was under way, and the failure to meet the deadline was attributed to technical obstacles. North Korea’s counterparts in the talks expressed disappointment in the missed deadlines, although they had been widely anticipated, and indicated that the failure would not by itself derail the process. [See p. 829A2] Diplomats said the sticking point in North Korea’s declaration was over the U.S.’s demand that North Korea explain evidence that it had conducted a clandestine uranium-based nuclear program, in addition to its widely known plutonium program. North Korea denied the allegation, and had handed over samples of aluminum tubes it had imported that the U.S. said might have been used to enrich uranium. Unidentified U.S. and other officials had said that tests detected traces of enriched uranium on the tubes, possibly indicating that North Korea had used them for that purpose, the Washington Post reported Dec. 21. However, it remained a possibility that they had been contaminated through contact with other imported equipment. North Korea Dec. 14 had begun removing fuel rods from the reactor at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, described as a major step forward in the dismantling. However, that process was expected to take months, and the Post Dec. 15 reported that completion of the checklist of disabling tasks was also slowed by the discovery of contamination of the water used to cool the rods. A North Korean foreign ministry official Dec. 26 had said that North Korea would slow work on disabling its main Yongbyon nuclear complex because of delays in the delivery of promised international energy aid. However, U.S. officials said fuel shipments were on track and would remain so. Bush’s Letter Answered—North Korea’s delegation to the United Nations Dec. 14 delivered to the U.S. State Department a reply to a letter sent earlier in the month to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il by U.S. President George W. Bush. The letter had urged North Korea to adhere to its commitments on abandoning and declaring its nuclear activities, including nuclear expertise and equipment it might have received from, or provided to, other countries. The reply, according to U.S. officials, said that North Korea would do so as long as the U.S. fulfilled its pledges under the deal. Bush Dec. 14 said of Kim, “I got his attention with a letter, and he can get my

attention by fully disclosing his programs” and “proliferation activities.” „ News in Brief. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in a June 28 letter to the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Zalmay Khalilzad, rebutted U.S. allegations that it had made payments to North Korea that the North Korean government had diverted to improper uses. The letter said that “sample” evidence supplied by the U.S., and purporting to originate in UNDP documents, did not match agency records, and that the amounts of the alleged payments far exceeded the agency’s total spending in North Korea. The agency asked Khalilzad to provide more evidence to back up its claims. [See p. 404A2] North Korean and South Korean military officials Dec. 14 concluded talks on a proposed shared fishing zone of the western coast of the Korean Peninsula, without reaching an agreement on where to establish it. The zone was one of a series of proposals for reducing bilateral tensions to come out of recent high-level talks between the two countries. Their defense ministers had also sought to conclude a fishing waters agreement in talks Nov. 27– 29. [See p. 770E1] „

Solomon Islands Sogavare Government Falls, Sikua Sworn In.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare Dec. 13 was ousted after losing a no-confidence vote, 25–22, initiated by member of Parliament Dr. Derek Sikua, who had served as Sogavare’s minister of education under a previous Solomon Islands government. Sogavare’s tenure had been controversial due to his sheltering of Australian fugitive Julian Moti, whom he had named attorney general, and Sogavare’s increasingly combative relationship with the Australian government. Nine members of parliament affiliated with Sogavare’s government had defected to the parliamentary opposition prior to the no-confidence vote, including Sikua. [See p. 730C1] Sikua Dec. 20 defeated Patteson Oti to become prime minister. At a press conference afterwards, Sikua pledged to seek closer ties with Australia and other member nations of the Pacific Islands Forum and to work closely with the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), an Australian-headed peacekeeping force. On Dec. 21, Governor General Sir Nathaniel Waena swore in 13 of the Sikua cabinet’s 24 ministers, including James Tora as minister of home affairs. Tora had alleged Dec. 18 that he had been offered a bribe of about $35,000 by a representative of Sogavare’s government in exchange for leaving the opposition in the run-up to the no-confidence vote. Facts on Sikua—Sikua was born in the Solomon Islands’ Guadalcanal province on Sept. 10, 1959. He received his diploma in education from the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, in 1981, and a bachelor’s degree in education from Australia’s University of South Queensland in 1985. FACTS ON FILE

He joined the Solomon Islands ministry of education and human resources in 1986 and, after receiving a master’s degree in educational policy and administration from Australia’s Monash University in 1992, was appointed undersecretary of the ministry. He served as permanent secretary of the ministry from 1994 to 1997, when he became permanent secretary of the ministry of forests, environment and conservation, a post he held until 1998. He received a Ph.D. in educational decentralization from New Zealand’s Waikato University in 2003. Sikua was permanent secretary of the education ministry from 2003 until the end of 2005, when he resigned in order to run for parliament. He was elected to represent the constituency of North East Guadalcanal in 2006 and served as education minister from 2006 until Nov. 10, when he joined the opposition in order to press for Sogavare’s removal. Moti Deported to Australia, Arraigned—

Moti, a Fiji-born Australian citizen, Dec. 27 was arrested in Honiara, the capital, and deported to Australia after the High Court of the Solomon Islands twice ruled against his attempts to prevent extradition. The charges against Moti stemmed from accusations that he had raped a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu in 1997. Moti had twice been named attorney general of the Solomon Islands, in September 2006 and then in July 2007, and had been shielded from extradition by Sogavare, who was a close friend. [See p. 688C2] Moti had been fired as attorney general after the High Court found that his right to stay in the Solomon Islands despite the Australian extradition order depended not on his individual rights but on his government position, Radio Australia reported Dec. 24 on its Web site. A second request for an injunction before the court, filed Dec. 25, was rejected. Authorities in Brisbane, Australia, Dec. 28 charged Moti with engaging in sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 under Australia’s Child Sex Tourism Act. If convicted, he faced a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison. „

Taiwan News in Brief. Taiwan’s High Court, the

country’s highest court, Dec. 28 rejected prosecutors’ appeal of a lower court’s acquittal of Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou of corruption charges. The ruling cleared the way for Ma to continue his candidacy in the March 2008 election. The candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Frank Hsieh, Sept. 21 was cleared of wrongdoing in a separate corruption investigation that did yield indictments that day of Vice President Annette Lu and other DPP officials. [See p. 615C3] The International Olympic Committee Sept. 20 said that the route of the Olympic torch relay leading up to the 2008 summer games in Beijing, China, would not pass through Taiwan. Taiwan was removed from the relay after the two sides failed to December 31, 2007

resolve disputes over symbolic aspects of how the relay would be conducted. [See p. 615A3] „

Thailand Pro-Thaksin Party Wins Plurality in Elections. Members of the People Power Party (PPP)

Dec. 23 won 233 of the 480 seats in the Thai parliament in the first legislative elections held since a bloodless military coup forced then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from power in 2006, according to preliminary results released Dec. 25. Analysts suggested that the strong showing by the PPP, a party dominated by former members of Thaksin’s banned Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party, indicated both Thaksin’s continuing popularity in rural Thailand and the country’s dissatisfaction with rule under the military-installed interim government. The Associated Press (AP) reported Dec. 24 that an estimated 60% of Thailand’s 45 million eligible voters had participated in the election. [See pp. 688B3, 547B3] The PPP appealed to former Thaksin voters by suggesting that the exiled prime minister could return to Thailand following a PPP victory, and by running on a platform that promised to continue his populist policies of debt forgiveness and accessible credit for the poor. The party was especially successful in former Thaksin strongholds in northern and northeastern Thailand. Many of those areas were still under military administration, which allowed the government to ban political events and censor media reports. Following the election, PPP leader Samak Sundravej, a former mayor of Bangkok, the capital, Dec. 23 invited smaller parties to join in a coalition with PPP in order to muster the 241 seats needed to form a government. In addition to the PPP and the military-supported Democrat Party, which won 165 seats, five other parties won seats in the election, including former Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa’s Chart Thai Party, which won 37 seats. A PPP spokesman Dec. 26 announced that the party had put together a coalition controlling 254 seats, but said that the specifics of the arrangements would not be announced until after the release of official election results on Jan. 3, 2008. Thaksin Return Mulled—Samak Dec. 23 said that if PPP succeeded in forming a new government, he believed that Thaksin would return to Thailand, where he faced prosecution on corruption charges. He also raised the possibility that a PPP–controlled government could abolish the Asset Examination Committee that had pressed charges against Thaksin, or even grant Thaksin amnesty from prosecution, the New York Times reported Dec. 26. Analysts suggested that such a move could stir unrest among the Bangkok-based political elites who rose up against Thaksin in 2006. At a press conference in Hong Kong, China, Thaksin Dec. 25 told reporters that he expected to return to Thailand by April 2008 and said he expected to beat the corruption case against him because “all the

allegations are empty.” He said he would not accept any political position in a PPP government, but suggested that he would be willing to share his ideas with the party “free of charge.” Three PPP Victories Overturned— The military-controlled Election Commission had ruled that three of the legislative victories by members of the PPP were invalid, the AP reported Dec. 31, potentially complicating Samak’s attempts to build a coalition government. Before the elections, analysts had suggested that the military could use its control of election monitors to keep the PPP from taking power. The ruling, which found that the three candidates had been involved in vote-buying, had to be approved by legal advisers in the interim government before it could go into effect.

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Government Passes Harsh Security Act—

The military-controlled National Legislative Assembly Dec. 20 passed, 105–8, a controversial bill that granted the military almost limitless powers to act against any persons or organizations that the military deemed threats to national security. Under the law, the military would be allowed to tap telephones and enter dwellings without permits, break up public meetings, impose curfews, and hold suspects without charges for six months. It also granted the military the ability to override decisions made by other government bodies, including the legislature. „

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Uzbekistan Karimov Wins Third Presidential Term.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov, 69, Dec. 23 was elected to a third term in an election that Western monitors said did not meet democratic standards. Official results showed Karimov had won 88.1% of votes, with a voter turnout of 90.6%. Karimov’s three opponents in the election had all endorsed the incumbent. [See p. 790B2; for facts on Karimov, see p. 888A1] Karimov was technically barred by the Uzbek constitution from seeking a third consecutive presidential term. However, the constitutional restriction was circumvented by Uzbek election officials, who claimed that Karimov’s first presidential term began in 2000. Karimov was first elected to the position of President of Uzbekistan in 1991, in what U.S.-based watchdog group Human Rights Watch had called a “seriously marred” poll. The Dec. 23 poll was similarly criticized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which sent only 26 observers to monitor the election after saying the lack of a political plurality would have rendered a larger mission pointless. In a statement, the OSCE said “the hardly visible election campaign was characterized by the absence of any real competition of ideas and political views.” The organization also raised questions about the “unusually high” reports of voter turnout. Uzbekistan, a landlocked but strategically important country, was one of the world’s largest producers of cotton, and possessed significant natural gas and min887

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Islam Abduganievich Karimov was born Jan. 30, 1938, in Samarkand and was raised in a Soviet orphanage. He attended the Central Asian Polytechnic Institute, where he received a degree in engineering, and the Tashkent Economic Institute, where he received a degree in economics. Beginning in 1960, he worked as an aircraft engineer and as an economic planner. In 1966, Karimov became the First Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee of Uzbekistan, then a Soviet republic. In 1983, he became the republic’s minister of finance, and from 1986 to 1989, he was employed as the First Secretary of the Party Committee in the southeastern region of Kashkadarya. In 1989 he became the first secretary of the Communist Party, and was elected president of the newly independent Uzbekistan in December 1991. In 1995, he extended his term for five years through a referendum. [See 1995, p. 974E2; 1991, p. 641A1] Karimov was reelected in 2000 in a vote that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said was “neither free nor fair.” His term was again extended by referendum in 2002. Karimov was elected to a third term as president in a Dec. 23 election pitting him against opponents who endorsed his continued rule. Uzbekistan’s constitution stated that a president could only serve two terms, but the government of Uzbekistan said in Karimov’s official biography that prior elections had been “based on alternative basis.” [See p. 887D3; 2002, p. 99F1] Karimov was married to Tatyana Akbarovna Karimova, an economist and scientist. They had two daughters and three grandchildren.

eral resources. However, widespread unemployment had plagued the nation since the fall of communism, and the standard of living there remained very low. Independent media outlets were banned in Uzbekistan, and Karimov’s regime violently repressed any opposition. „

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Asia-Pacifc News in Brief Mongolia: Prime Minister Replaced. Mon-

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golian Prime Minister Mieagombo Enkhbold resigned Nov. 8, after his Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) Oct. 26 voted to remove him as its chairman and replace him with Sanj Bayar. Mongolia’s parliament Nov. 22 voted Bayar in as prime minister. Enkhbold had become prime minister in January 2006, leading a coalition government that included the MPRP. [See 2006, p. 117D3] „ Myanmar: India Halts Arms Sales. The Washington Post Dec. 30 reported that India had agreed to cease all sales and transfers of weaponry and military technology to Myanmar, which had conducted a violent military crackdown on nonviolent protesters in September. The decision was not announced by the Indian government, but was privately confirmed by unidentified U.S. government officials cited by the Post. The U.S. had called for nations to repudiate the junta, and analysts said the move could put pressure on China, another ally of Myanmar, to loosen its ties with that nation’s military government. U.S. First Lady Laura Bush, a critic of the ruling junta’s repression of opposition 888

voices, Dec. 10 had mentioned India’s decision in a little-seen teleconference video released on International Human Rights Day. [See p. 829E1] „ Singapore: Ministers’ Pay Jumps. Singapore’s government April 9 said it would increase cabinet ministers’ salaries by 60%, raising their average pay to 1.9 million Singaporean dollars (US$1.3 million) a year, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s annual pay to US$2.1 million. Amid widespread criticism of the raise, Lee April 11 said he would donate the increase to charity for the next five years. However, he defended the country’s salary system, designed to help the government compete with the private sector by guaranteeing pay to high-level employees in proportion to what they could make elsewhere. Separately, Lee, who since 2001 had also been finance minister, Nov. 29 ceded that portfolio to Tharman Shanmugaratnam. [See 2006, p. 395F1] „ South Korea: Worst Oil Spill. A loose barge Dec. 7 hit the Hong Kong-registered oil tanker Hebei Spirit off South Korea’s west coast, causing the country’s worst oil spill to date. By Dec. 9, the tanker had leaked some 2.8 million gallons of crude oil, contaminating more than 10 miles (16 km) of coastline about 95 miles southwest of Seoul, the capital. The government declared a state of emergency and thousands of people were dispatched to clean up the slick. Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Kang Moo Hyun Dec. 9 said the cleanup effort would take at least two months. Neither vessel in the collision sank and no one was injured. Samsung Heavy Industries Co. operated the barge, which had come loose from a tugboat. The tug’s and barge’s captains were arrested Dec. 24 on suspicion of negligence. [See p. 773G1] „

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European Union Nine Member States Join Open-Border Zone.

Nine member nations of the European Union Dec. 20 joined the EU’s open-border zone, the so-called Schengen area, which allowed travel without passports between participating countries. The new countries— Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Malta—had all joined the EU in 2004. [See 2005, p. 392E2] The EU border-free area had begun in 1985, with Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg as the first members of the Schengen accord. With the latest expansion, the zone included 22 of the 27 EU member nations and two countries that did not belong to the EU, Norway and Iceland. „ Auto Emissions Limits Proposed. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, Dec. 19 unveiled proposed legislation intended to cut emissions of carbon dioxide from automobiles by 25% by 2012. The legislation would impose heavy fines on carmakers that failed to bring their vehicles in line with the new

limit on emissions, which would drop to 120 grams per kilometer (192 grams per mile), from the current average of 160 grams. [See p. 164A2] The measure, which would apply to all new cars sold in the EU market, required approval by the 27 EU member nations and the European Parliament. Carmakers had lobbied against the legislation and said they would continue to do so, warning that the proposed rules would cause higher costs for consumers. „

Belgium Interim Government Formed After Deadlock.

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt Dec. 19 formed an interim government that was expected to stay in office until March 2008 in order to end a political stalemate that had lasted for six months, since parliamentary elections in June. The elections had led to deepened divisions between the Dutch-speaking northern half of Belgium, Flanders, and the French-speaking southern half, Wallonia, raising fears that the nation might split in two. [See p. 385A3] The head of state, King Albert II, Dec. 17 asked Verhofstadt to form an interim government. The Belgian parliament Dec. 23 approved Verhofstadt’s cabinet. Yves Leterme had led the Flemish Christian Democratic Party to victory in the elections, defeating Verhofstadt’s center-right Liberal Party. But Leterme had been unable to form a governing coalition. Meanwhile, Verhofstadt had stayed on as a caretaker prime minister after the elections, but had lacked powers to set new policies or draft a budget. His new interim government did have such powers. „ 14 Held, Released in Prison Break Plot.

Belgian police Dec. 21 arrested 14 suspects who had allegedly plotted an armed raid on a prison to free a supporter of the international terrorist network Al Qaeda, former professional soccer player Nizar Trabelsi. However, a judge Dec. 22 ordered the release of the suspects, ruling that there was not enough evidence against them. In 2003, Trabelsi, a native of Tunisia, had been convicted of planning an attack on a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air base in Belgium. [See 2003, p. 945C2] „

France DNA Immigration Testing Approved. The

French parliament Oct. 23 approved legislation that would allow authorities to use DNA testing to verify the claims of would-be immigrants who said they had family members living in France, seeking special family-reunification visas. That measure, an amendment to a broader immigration reform bill, drew widespread criticism from opponents who said it would violate privacy and family laws and recalled the Nazi laws of the German occupation during World War II. French President Nicolas Sarkozy had defended the amendment, saying that the tests would be voluntary. [See p. 791D3] The immigration law would also require immigrants to show French lanFACTS ON FILE

guage proficiency, and would introduce the collection of official statistics on race and ethnicity. The government had not previously taken such censuses, which had been viewed as contrary to the French concept of republican citizenship without individual distinctions. Following an appeal by the opposition Socialist Party, France’s highest legal authority, the Constitutional Council, Nov. 15 upheld the use of DNA testing as a last resort, but ruled that the collection of ethnic statistics was unconstitutional. Several other European countries, as well as the U.S. and Canada, used DNA testing for similar immigration purposes. „ Parcel Bomb Kills Woman at Paris Office.

A bomb inside a package delivered to a Paris law office exploded Dec. 6, killing a 74-yearold legal secretary who opened the package, and seriously wounding an attorney to whom it was addressed. Police Dec. 7 said they had arrested a 45-year-old architect as a suspect in the attack. The woman who headed the law firm had filed a harassment complaint against him two years earlier. However, the man was released without charge the next day. [See 2004, p. 1063B2] „ Bus Accident in Alps Kills 26. A bus carrying Polish Roman Catholic pilgrims from a shrine in the French Alps July 22 missed a sharp turn on a steep road near the southeastern city of Grenoble and crashed, then burst into flames, leaving 26 people dead. [See 1982, p. 689G2] „

Georgia Candidate Withdraws, Citing Plot. Georgian billionaire businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili Dec. 27 said he would withdraw from Georgia’s Jan. 5, 2008, presidential election, after claiming days earlier that he had been alerted to an alleged assassination plot. Britain’s Guardian newspaper Dec. 24 reported that Patarkatsishvili, who was regarded as the wealthiest man in Georgia, claimed he had heard a taped conversation between a Chechen warlord and a Georgian interior ministry official, in which they plotted to make Patarkatsishvili and his bodyguards “disappear.” However, as of Dec. 31, he had not officially withdrawn his candidacy. He had since fled to London, and a copy of the taped conversation was turned over to London’s Metropolitan Police Service. [See p. 812E3] The Georgian government Dec. 25 accused Patarkatsishvili of offering a $100 million bribe to interior ministry official Erekle Kodoua. Explanations of the purpose of the bribe varied, with varying reports suggesting that it was meant to persuade Kodoua either to claim that the government had stuffed ballot boxes, not to intervene with upcoming protests, or to assassinate a government official. A videotape of the conversation reportedly existed. Patarkatsishvili did not dispute the bribery allegations, but claimed, according to a Dec. 28 article in The Wall Street Journal, that he “was paying so that people would not be shot.” „ December 31, 2007

Germany Volkswagen Takeover Barrier Overturned.

The European Court of Justice Oct. 23 struck down a German law that protected automaker Volkswagen AG (VW) from hostile takeover bids. The law dated to 1960, and was intended to safeguard the influence of Lower Saxony state, which held a 20% stake in VW. The ruling by the European Union court was expected to lead to a takeover bid by another German automaker, Porsche AG, which already held a 31% stake in VW. The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, had brought the case against Germany in 2004, arguing that the VW law blocked the free flow of investment in the EU. [See 2004, p. 1064F1] „ Siemens Settles Bribery Probe. A court in Munich Oct. 4 ordered German engineering company Siemens AG to pay 201 million euros ($284 million) in fines to settle a bribery investigation focused on its telecommunications equipment unit. Siemens said it had also agreed to pay 179 million euros in unpaid taxes on 450 million euros in suspicious transactions. Siemens still faced ongoing bribery probes by prosecutors in Germany, the U.S. and other countries. [See 2006, p. 1026A2] Siemens Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld April 25 had resigned over the bribery scandal. The company May 20 named Peter Loescher, the second-ranking executive at U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co., to replace Kleinfeld. „ Red Army Terrorist Freed. A German court Aug. 17 said it had ordered the release on parole of Eva Haule, a former member of the Red Army Faction, a left-wing terrorist group. She had served 21 years of a life sentence since being convicted of the murder of a U.S. soldier and the bombing of a U.S. base in the 1980s. Brigitte Mohnhaupt, another ex-member of the group, had been paroled in February. [See p. 112F1] German President Horst Koehler May 7 had rejected an appeal for a pardon by another former member of the Red Army Faction, Christian Klar, who had served 24 years of a life sentence for the murder of a German prosecutor and two prominent businessmen in 1977. „ East German Border Shooting Order Found.

Researchers at a regional German archive in the eastern city of Magdeburg Aug. 12 said they had found the first written document proving that the East German security service, the Stasi, had ordered border guards to shoot to kill anyone who tried to escape into West Germany. The order, dated Oct. 1, 1973, said, “Do not hesitate to use your firearm, not even when the border is breached in the company of women and children, which is a tactic the traitors have often used.” [See 2000, p. 891F2] East German guards had killed between 270 and 780 people trying to escape to the West, according to the Center for Contemporary Historical Research in Potsdam.

But former East German officials had denied that such a shoot-to-kill order had existed. Germany had reunified in 1990. „

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Great Britain Man Cleared in ’98 Northern Ireland Bombing.

A judge in Belfast, the capital of the British province of Northern Ireland, Dec. 20 acquitted electrician Sean Hoey, 38, of murder and other charges in connection with a 1998 car bombing in the town of Omagh, which killed 29 people and wounded more than 200. The attack had been the deadliest in three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. [See 2005, p. 407E1] Justice Reginald Weir criticized police investigators for “slapdash” forensic work and said the prosecution had been based on “deliberate and calculated deception.” Prosecutors had accused Hoey of being the main bombmaker in the Omagh attack. The trial had been held without a jury, and adjourned in January. The only other person to have been charged in connection with the attack, Hoey’s uncle Colm Murphy, had been convicted of conspiracy in Ireland in 2002, but the conviction was overturned in 2005 when a judge ruled that police had lied about the evidence against him. Murphy awaited a retrial. [See 2005, p. 194E1] „ Liberal Democrats Elect Clegg Leader.

The Liberal Democrats, Britain’s thirdlargest political party, Dec. 18 elected Nick Clegg as their leader. Clegg, 40, narrowly beat Chris Huhne, 53. Both were former members of the European Parliament, the legislative branch of the European Union. Clegg, a member since 2005 of the House of Commons, the lower chamber of the British Parliament, became the party’s third leader in two years. He replaced Sir Menzies Campbell, who had resigned in October. [See p. 704E1] „

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Police Probe Labour Party Donations.

British police Nov. 30 said they were opening an investigation into allegations that real estate developer David Abrahams had made more than £650,000 ($1.3 million) in illegal contributions to the ruling Labour Party under the names of other people. Prime Minister Gordon Brown Nov. 27 said the donations were “completely unacceptable” and pledged that Labour would return the money, but he claimed to have had “no knowledge” of the arrangement. Brown’s predecessor as prime minister and Labour leader, Tony Blair, had faced police questioning earlier in the year over campaign finances. [See p. 500A3] „

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Government Loses Personal Data of Millions.

The British government Nov. 20 said it had lost the personal and financial data of some 25 million citizens who claimed child benefit, a tax-free monthly payment that went to anyone with children. That amounted to about 40% of the British population. It was reportedly the biggest loss of such data in Europe. Paul Gray, head of the Revenue and Customs office, Nov. 20

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resigned over the loss. Prime Minister Gordon Brown Nov. 21 apologized to the nation. [See 2006, p. 530A2] „

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Veltroni Elected Leader of Left. Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni Oct. 14 was elected leader of the new Democratic Party, created in a merger of Italy’s two biggest center-left parties, the centrist Christian Democrats and the former-Communist Democrats of the Left. Veltroni, 52, became the party’s likely candidate for prime minister in the next general election. Prime Minister Romano Prodi, 68, led a fragile center-left coalition government, but had said he would not seek another term. [See p. 131B3] Berlusconi Plans New Party— Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Nov. 19 announced that he planned to start a new center-right party, the People of Freedom, to lead the opposition against Prodi’s government. Berlusconi, 71, had previously formed another party, Forza Italia, and led it to election victories in 1994 and 2001. „ Police Killing of Soccer Fan Sparks Riots.

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A police officer in Rome Nov. 11 shot and killed a soccer fan, Gabriele Sandri, 26, during a brawl between rival groups of fans, setting off violent riots across the country. Prosecutors Nov. 15 said they planned to charge the officer with murder. [See p. 103E1] „ Suspected Mafia Boss Arrested. Italian police Nov. 5 arrested suspected Sicilian Mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo near Palermo, Sicily. According to police, Lo Piccolo, 65, had taken over the leadership of the Mafia after the arrest of his predecessor, Bernardo Provenzano, in April 2006. Lo Piccolo had been a fugitive since he was convicted of murder in 1983. [See 2006, p. 286E2] Organized Crime Called Top Sector—A report issued Oct. 22 by Confesercenti, an Italian small business association, asserted that organized crime amounted to the biggest sector of the Italian economy, with more than $127 billion in annual revenue, or about 7% of gross domestic product. „ 5 Acquitted in Banker Calvi’s 1982 Death.

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A court in Rome June 6 acquitted five defendants accused of conspiring to murder Italian banker Roberto Calvi, who had been found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982. Calvi had been chief of Banco Ambrosiano and a financial adviser to the Vatican, and was known as “God’s banker.” His death had initially been ruled a suicide, but the case was reopened as a murder in 2003. [See 1998, p. 983A2] „

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New Coalition Government Approved. The Latvian parliament Dec. 20 voted, 54–43, to approve a new center-right coalition government, composed of representatives from four parties and led by a new prime minister, Ivars Godmanis. Latvian President Valdis Zatlers Dec. 14 had tapped Godmanis to head the government. Godmanis, 56, had served as the country’s first post-Soviet 890

FACTS ON GODMANIS

Ivars Godmanis was born Nov. 27, 1951, in Riga, Latvia’s capital. He graduated from the University of Latvia in 1974 with degrees in physics and mathematics. He worked at the institute of solid-state physics until the late 1980s, when he entered politics. In 1988, he became the deputy chairman of the Latvian Popular Front, a movement that worked toward independence from the Soviet Union. He held that position until 1990, when he became Latvia’s first postSoviet prime minister, a post he held until 1993. [See 1990, p. 346A1] In 1992, Godmanis received a Ph.D. in physics. During the 1990s, he held several executive positions at newly privatized Latvian firms, including banks and a shipping company. In 1998, he was elected to parliament and became finance minister, a position he held until 1999. In 2003, Godmanis began hosting a rock music program on Latvian radio. In 2004, he was elected the chairman of the Latvia’s Way Party, which later merged with Latvia’s First Party to become First Party–Latvia’s Way (LPP–LC). Godmanis held the position of cochairman of the merged party. In 2006, he became Latvia’s interior minister. Godmanis Dec. 20 was approved by parliament to again become Latvia’s prime minister. The government two weeks before had resigned due to very low public approval, after the previous prime minister, Aigars Kalvitis, had fired a popular anticorruption official and Latvian citizens had staged mass protests. [See p. 890G1] Godmanis was married with three children.

prime minister from 1990–93, and had served as the interior minister in the previous government. It was the 14th government in Latvia in 16 years. [See 2006, p. 805C1; for facts on Godmanis, see p. 890A2] The four-party coalition government was composed of the People’s Party, the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS), First Party–Latvia’s Way (LPP–LC), and For Fatherland and Freedom–Latvian National Independence Movement (TB–LNNK). The previous government, headed by Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis of the People’s Party, had been forced to quit after Kalvitis Sept. 24 fired a popular anticorruption official, Aleksejs Loskutovs. His firing had resulted in large-scale protests in Riga, the capital, on Oct. 24 and Nov. 4, and calls for the government’s resignation. Ultimately, Kalvitis and his government resigned Dec. 5, and Loskutivs was reinstated. However, of the 19 cabinet ministers who resigned, 15 returned to their posts in the new government under Godmanis. Godmanis, according to a Dec. 20 Reuters report, said his goals were to restore public confidence in the Latvian government, and to protect Latvia’s rapidly expanding economy from a sudden economic downturn, in the face of rising inflation. „

Russia Opposition Presidential Candidates Drop Out.

Boris Nemtsov, a candidate for the liberal Union of Right Forces party in a March 2008 presidential election, Dec. 26

dropped out of the race, saying that both the upcoming election and December’s parliamentary elections were a “farce.” Nemtsov called for the remaining two candidates running against Dmitri Medvedev, the candidate of the ruling United Russia party—Gennady Zyuganov of the Communist party and Mikhail Kasyanov of the Russian People’s Democratic Union—to withdraw from the presidential race unless they received guarantees from the government that they would have equal access to the media, and that their campaigns would not be impeded. [See pp. 799E1, 792F2] Former chess champion and opposition leader Garry Kasparov Dec. 13 had said he would withdraw from the presidential race. Kasparov, who was affiliated with the liberal Other Russia coalition, said state obstruction was so severe that it had rendered his campaign efforts pointless. Kasparov claimed that in all of Moscow, he had been unable to secure a meeting hall where his supporters could form a nominating convention, a requirement to announce a presidential run. [See p. 655B1] „ News in Brief. Russian forensics experts had concluded based on DNA and other evidence that the remains of two bodies found in July near Yekaterinburg belonged to two children of Czar Nicholas II, it was

reported Sept. 28. They identified the children as the czar’s son and heir to the throne, Alexei, who had been 13 at the time of his death, and eldest daughter, Maria,19. The czar and his family had been executed in 1918 during the Russian Revolution. The bodies of Nicholas, his wife and three of their daughters had been exhumed near Yekaterinburg in 1991 and later reburied in St. Petersburg, but the remains of another daughter and Alexei had not been located. Archaeologist Sergei Pogorelov Aug. 23 had announced the July discovery of charred bones he believed to be those of the missing son and daughter, not far from where the rest of the Romanovs had been found. Russian prosecutors the next day had reopened an investigation into the family’s murder. [See 2006, p. 884F2] Russia’s military Dec. 25 successfully tested an RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile and one submarine-launched hybrid ballistic missile, the RSM-54, which

converted to a cruise missile in its final stage. The Russian military said the RS-24 had the capability to penetrate missile-defense systems. The test of the RSM-54 took place near the Kamchatka peninsula on Russia’s Pacific coast, and the RS-24 was launched from the Plesetsk range in northern Russia. [See pp. 812G3, 617D1] Russian President Vladimir V. Putin Dec. 23 ordered Russia’s constitutional court to relocate to St. Petersburg by May 2008. Putin told reporters that St. Petersburg, his hometown, “does not have a single function of a national capital.” St. Petersburg was often referred to as Russia’s “second capital,” and had been the capital of czarist Russia. The U.S.-based Bloomberg news agency Dec. 27 reported that the Russian defense ministry in November had said it planned to move the navy headquarters to St. Petersburg as well. [See p. 830B3] FACTS ON FILE

The British Council, an organization that promoted British culture abroad, Dec. 12 was told that all offices in Russia out-

side of Moscow must close as of Jan. 1.

The Russian foreign ministry alleged that the organization had not properly registered its regional offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, and said those branches must remain closed until properly registered. The British foreign ministry said Russia’s actions violated international law, and that all Russian branches of the council would remain open. [See p. 799F2] Russian Agriculture Minister Aleksei Gordeyev Dec. 12 announced that Russia would lift a ban on Polish meat imports.

The ban had been in place since November 2005, due to what Russia said were inadequate food safety standards in Poland. Poland, then under a conservative-nationalist government, had maintained that the ban was politically motivated. A ban on chicken would remain in place due to a recent outbreak of avian influenza in central Poland. [See p. 337C1] „

Serbia Warning Resolution on Kosovo Passed.

The Serbian parliament, with the support of both President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, Dec. 26 voted 220–14, with three abstentions, to pass a resolution strongly opposing independence for Kosovo, a breakway Serbian province. [See p. 853A3] The resolution accused the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of supporting Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority, and threatened to “reconsider” diplomatic relations with countries that recognized an independent Kosovo. The resolution also rejected the idea of a European Union mission to Kosovo before the province’s permanent status was resolved. The EU Dec. 14 had pledged to send 1,800 civil servants, including judges, customs officials and police officers, to the region. Tadic Dec. 26 said “the Serbian army is ready” to protect Kosovo’s Serbian minority, if NATO forces failed to protect them. Kostunica instructed Kosovo Serbs to “ignore a declaration of independence as an illegal act.” Kostunica also said the U.S. supported an independent Kosovo “for its own military and security interest.” EU Membership on the Line—Kostunica Dec. 26 said Serbia would not join the EU if the organization recognized an independent Kosovo. Serbia and the EU Nov. 7 had initialed a Stabilization and Association Agreement, and had planned to sign the agreement in January 2008. The agreement was a preliminary step to becoming a candidate for EU membership. [See p. 386A1] Serbia’s entrance to the EU had also been hindered by its failure to extradite war criminals to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the Netherlands. Carla del Ponte, the outgoing chief United Nations war crimes prosecutor, Dec. 10 said Serbia had deliberately failed to produce Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, and urged EU December 31, 2007

states not to accept Serbia as a member until it fully cooperated with U.N. investigations. [See pp. 830E2, 705D2] „

Switzerland Far-right Leader Ousted From Cabinet.

The Swiss parliament Dec. 12 ousted Christoph Blocher, the leader of the farright Swiss People’s Party (SVP), from his cabinet seat, electing another member of his party who was seen as more moderate, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, to take his place. Blocher, a billionaire industrialist who had served as justice minister, Dec. 13 retaliated by saying that the SVP would leave the governing coalition and go into opposition. That would be a break with a Swiss tradition of coalition governments based on a broad consensus between parties. [See p. 705C3] The SVP had won 29% of the vote in October parliamentary elections, giving it the most seats of any party, after campaigning with a strident anti-immigration message that critics had called racist. „

European News in Brief Austria: Arrests in U.S. Embassy Plot.

Austrian police Oct. 1 arrested a Bosnian man who had attempted to enter the U.S. embassy in Vienna, the Austrian capital, carrying a backpack filled with explosives. Police Oct. 2 arrested a second Bosnian man in connection with the suspected bomb plot. [See 2005, p. 193B1] „ Denmark: Bomb Plot Convictions. A court in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, Nov. 23 sentenced two Danish Muslims and an Iraqi Kurd to prison terms of up to 11 years for plotting bombings in the city. A fourth defendant was acquitted. The men had been arrested in the city of Odense in 2006. [See 2006, p. 700D1] „ Turkey: Armenian Editor Murder Trial Opens.

The trial of 18 men accused in the January murder of prominent Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink opened July 2 at a court in Istanbul. A 17-year-old defendant, Ogun Samast, Oct. 1 testified that he had shot Dink. Samast expressed remorse and said he had committed the murder while under the influence of the drug Ecstasy. The judge adjourned the trial until February 2008. [See p. 52B2] „

European Business News Italy Backs Air France Bid for Alitalia. The Italian government Dec. 28 approved French–Dutch airline Air France–KLM SA’s bid to enter exclusive merger talks with Alitalia SpA, the Italian airline in which the government held a 49.9% stake. A smaller Italian rival, Air One SpA, had also made a bid, backed by unions and Italian politicians who called for keeping Alitalia under Italian ownership. Alitalia had recorded a net loss of 626 million euros ($920 million) in 2006. Air France and KLM had completed their merger in 2004, becoming the world’s largest airline by revenue. [See 2004, p. 1066G1; 2003, p. 835F1]

Other News—In other European deals:

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PLC (BA) and U.S. private equity group TPG

Nov. 26 dropped a proposed bid to acquire Spanish airline Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA for 3.4 billion euros, facing opposition from Spanish bank Caja Madrid, a major shareholder. The bank was owned by the Madrid regional government, which sought to prevent a foreign takeover of Iberia. BA, which owned 10% of Iberia, said it would not buy the stakes of two other big shareholders. That allowed Caja Madrid to buy those stakes and become the biggest Iberia shareholder, with 23.9%. [See p. 891F2] † Australian mining company BHP Billiton Nov. 8 made a £67 billion ($140 billion) takeover offer for its London-based British– Australian rival, Rio Tinto, which rejected the bid immediately, calling it too low. The proposed deal was one of the biggest in corporate history. If the two companies merged, they would control a third of the world’s iron ore market and be the world’s biggest producer of copper and aluminum. BHP Billiton Nov. 12 urged Rio Tinto shareholders to back its offer. [See p. 577E2] † Dutch chemicals maker Akzo Nobel NV Aug. 13 agreed to acquire British rival Imperial Chemical Industries PLC (ICI) for £8 billion. ICI had rejected two previous bids by Akzo as too low. † Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica SA—joined by two Italian banks, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Mediobanco SpA, and Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali SpA—April 29 agreed to acquire an 18% controlling stake in Italian phone company Telecom Italia SA. The deal was structured to preserve Italian majority ownership of Telecom Italia. † Swiss-based Nestle SA, the world’s biggest foodmaker, April 12 agreed to buy the Gerber baby food brand from Swiss drugmaker Novartis SA for $5.5 billion. „

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Egypt Police Officers Convicted of Torture. A court

in Cairo, Egypt’s capital, Nov. 5 convicted two police officers of the January 2006 torture of a bus driver, whom they had detained after he intervened in a fight between his cousin and a police officer. The officers, Islam Nabih and Reda Fathi, were sentenced to three years in prison. The case had gained widespread notoriety in Egypt after a video, captured on a cellular phone video camera by police officers and showing the defendants sodomizing the victim with a wooden stick, was released on the Internet. Human rights groups said Egyptian police commonly tortured detainees. [See 2004, p. 1076E3] „

Iran Russia Delivers Fuel for Nuclear Plant.

The Russian government Dec. 17 announced that it had delivered an initial shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran, for use in 891

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a nuclear power plant at the southwestern Iranian port of Bushehr. U.S. President George W. Bush praised the move, saying it removed Iran’s need to enrich uranium. However, some officials said it was a blow to efforts by the U.S. and its allies to halt Iran’s controversial nuclear program. [See pp. 820G2, 797A1] The Russian foreign ministry said Iran had pledged that the fuel would only be used at the Bushehr plant. The ministry also said the fuel would be under the control of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the chief of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said Iran would continue to produce nuclear fuel for a second nuclear power plant he said was being built at Darkhovin, a city north of Bushehr. “The fuel for this plant needs to be produced by Natanz enrichment plant,” he said, referring to another Iranian nuclear site. A spokeswoman for Atomstroiexport, the Russian state-owned contractor that was building the Bushehr plant, said it would complete the delivery of 82 tons of nuclear fuel by February 2008. She said the plant would be ready for operation no sooner than six months after the the fuel delivery was completed. Bush endorsed the fuel delivery, saying, “If the Russians are willing to do that— which I support—then the Iranians do not need to learn how to enrich. If the Iranians accept that uranium for a civilian nuclear power plant, then there’s no need for them to learn how to enrich.” However, Bush warned that he still considered Iran “a threat to peace,” and said, “They’re heading down a path of isolation right now and economic sanctions. We passed two resolutions out of the U.N. and Condi Rice [U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice] is working on a third,” referring to U.N. Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran. The push for more sanctions had been dealt a setback by a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released earlier in December, which asserted that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Unnamed U.S. and European officials said the new move by the Russian government would further encourage Iran to ignore international pressure on its nuclear program. Unnamed U.S. officials said Russia had told the Bush administration two weeks earlier that the fuel shipments would proceed. They said the U.S. had persuaded Russia to include safeguards in its deal with Iran allowing expanded international inspections at the Bushehr plant. Other News—In related news: † Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar Dec. 26 announced that Russia had signed a contract to provide Iran with a powerful new S-300 antiaircraft missile defense system that would greatly enhance its ability to repel attacks by aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. Russian officials would not comment on the air defense system; they had previous denied that they were selling the system to Iran. 892

† Gregory Schulte, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA, Dec. 21 said that despite the findings of the NIE, U.S. intelligence agencies believed that Iran could restart its nuclear weapons program without international knowledge, due to curbs placed on U.N. inspections in the country. „ U.S.-Iranian Detainees Released. The Iranian Student News Agency Sept. 25 reported that Ali Shakeri, a 59-year-old Iranian American businessman and peace advocate who in May had been arrested by the Iranian government on security-related charges, the previous day had been released on bail valued at one billion rials (US$107,000) from the notorious Evin prison. He was the last of four dual U.S.-Iranian citizens held by Iran to be released. He returned to the U.S. Oct. 9. [See p. 565E3] A spokeswoman for the Open Society Institute of billionaire philanthropist George Soros Sept. 19 said Kian Tajbakhsh, a U.S.-Iranian urban planner with ties to the institute, had been released on bail valued at one billion rials from Evin prison. However, Tajbakhsh was reportedly not allowed to leave Iran. He had been arrested in May on security-related charges. Radio Farda, a U.S.-financed Persianlanguage station, Sept. 4 reported that Parnaz Azima, a U.S.-Iranian correspondent for the station, had been given permission to leave Iran. Azima’s passport had been confiscated in January when she entered Iran. She left the country for the U.S. Sept. 18. Haleh Esfandiari, 67, a U.S.-Iranian academic who in August had been released on bail from Evin prison, Sept. 2 left Iran for Austria. She had been arrested in May on security-related charges, accused of fomenting revolution. Tajbakhsh had been working as a consultant for Iranian government agencies, while the other three detainees had gone to Iran to visit their ill mothers. Search for Ex-FBI Agent Fruitless— Susan Levinson, the wife of a former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who had disappeared in March while in Iran, Dec. 22 said at a press conference in Tehran, the Iranian capital, that she had not been able to find any clues about what had happened to her husband. Levinson had been in Iran Dec. 17–23 to search for her husband, Robert Levinson. Robert Levinson, 59, had been working as a private investigator looking into cigarette counterfeiting, and had last gone to the southern resort island of Kish, which was part of Iran but which did not require a visa to enter. The Iranian government said it had no information about the case. Other News—In other related news: † An Iranian judiciary spokesman Nov. 27 said Iran’s Supreme Court had ordered that a new investigation be opened into the 2003 death of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi while she was being held in Evin prison. The spokesman said the Supreme Court had objected to the 2004 acquittal of an Iranian intelligence agent for her murder, and had sent the investigation to another court. Kazemi’s

death had led to strained relations between Iran and Canada. [See 2005, p. 977E3] † Iranian authorities Oct. 14 arrested Emadeddin Baghi, a journalist and prominent human rights activist, in Tehran, and jailed him under a previously suspended one-year sentence on security-related charges. Baghi had reportedly angered the government by speaking out against the death penalty. He was transferred Dec. 26 to a hospital from Evin prison, according to his wife. [See 2000, p. 575C1] † Judge Royce Lamberth of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Sept. 7 ordered Iran to pay $2.65 billion to about 1,000 family members of victims, and several survivors, of a 1983 suicide bombing that killed 241 U.S. marines and sailors in Beirut, the Lebanese capital. The bombing was attributed to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, but Lamberth in a 2003 ruling had found that senior Iranian officials had approved and financed the attack. The Iranian government had not contested the charges, and it was not expected that the U.S. would be able to force it to pay the award. [See 2003, p. 1085G1] „

Israel Olmert Investigated in Real Estate Deal.

The Israeli justice ministry Sept. 24 announced that it had ordered police to open a criminal investigation into Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The investigation concerned whether Olmert had received a “significant discount” on a 2004 purchase of an apartment in Jerusalem for $1.2 million, reportedly $325,000 below its market value, in return for expediting building permits for a development company. Olmert denied the charges. He had been Israel’s trade and industry minister at the time of the purchase. The real estate allegation was one of several corruption scandals dogging Olmert’s administration. [See pp. 437E2, 303A1, 269D1] Police Recommend Closing Bank Case—

Separately, police Nov. 29 said they were recommending that the another corruption case against Olmert be closed for lack of evidence. The justice ministry in January had announced an investigation of Olmert for allegedly attempting, as finance minister, to influence the 2005 sale of the Israeli government’s ownership stake in Bank Leumi in favor of a friend, Australian shopping mall magnate Frank Lowy. (Lowy in the end did not bid for the bank.) [See p. 37B3] Other News—In other news on Olmert: † Olmert Oct. 29 announced that he had early-stage prostate cancer, but said it was not life-threatening and would not affect his work as prime minister. The 62-year-old prime minister said the tumor would be removed surgically, and that he would not be required to undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment. [See 2006, p. 638G2] † The director of the Israeli Shin Bet domestic security service, Yuval Diskin, Oct. 21 said that Israeli intelligence officials had foiled a plot, still in its early stages, by Palestinian gunmen to assassinate Olmert during a June trip to the West Bank city of FACTS ON FILE

Jericho to meet with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. He said two of the Palestinians had been captured by Israeli authorities and three by the Palestinian government, but that the gunmen in Palestinian custody had been released in September. The men had reportedly been members of Abbas’s Fatah movement. „ Arrests Made in Yom Kippur Bomb Plot.

Israeli police Sept. 22 announced that they had arrested four people and seized a belt bomb in Tel Aviv in connection with an alleged suicide bombing attack plot planned for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur that day. The police said the attack had been planned by two Palestinians—including Nihad Shkirat, a senior commander of the militant Islamist group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement)—who had been captured by Israeli forces during a Sept. 18–21 operation in the Ein Beit Ilma Palestinian refugee camp, in the West Bank city of Nablus. [See p. 894E1] „ Eight Charged in Neo-Nazi Attacks. Israeli police officials Sept. 9 announced that eight men had been charged in a string of attacks on Orthodox Jews, homosexuals, drug users and foreigners, as well as for painting swastikas on two synagogues. The police said the men had been arrested between July 23 and Sept. 6 after a year-long investigation. The men had allegedly belonged to a neo-Nazi cell centered in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv. A police spokesman said it was the first such cell to be discovered in Israel. [See p. 548F3] The men, ages 16–21, had immigrated to Israel from former Soviet republics, under an Israeli law allowing anyone with one Jewish grandparent to claim citizenship. The arrests provoked debate over whether such immigration regulations should be tightened. „ Netanyahu Maintains Likud Leadership. Benjamin Netanyahu Aug. 14 was re-elected as leader of the right-wing Likud party, Israel’s main opposition political party. Netanyahu won 73% of the vote, while his closest opponent, religious ultranationalist Moshe Feiglin, won 23%. [See 2005, p. 909B3] „ Sudanese Migrants Expelled. An Israeli government spokesman, David Baker, Aug. 19 said that Israeli authorities the previous night had expelled 48 Sudanese migrants, many of whom had reportedly come from the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur and had fled through Egypt. However, Baker said the estimated 500 Darfuris remaining in Israel would be reclassified as refugees, allowing them to remain in the country. [See p. 879G3; 2005, p. 975A3] Israeli Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit Sept. 5 announced that some Darfuri refugees already in the country would be granted Israeli citizenship. Many in Israel had argued that that country had a responsibility to accept refugees fleeing what the U.S. had termed a genocide in Darfur, in light of Israel’s own founding by survivors of the Holocaust. However, the government had previously said that the Darfuris had escaped the danger by fleeing to Egypt, and were motivated to cross the Israeli border for economic reasons. December 31, 2007

Sudanese refugees in Egypt faced unemployment and discrimination, and at least 20 Sudanese migrants had died in clashes with Egyptian police in 2005. Egyptian police reportedly routinely used deadly force against migrants trying to cross the Sinai Desert into Israel. Egyptian authorities had said they would return migrants expelled from Israel to Sudan. Sudanese officials in turn had said such migrants would be tried for treason, as Sudanconsidered Israel an enemy state. „

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Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri Dece. 28 postponed a vote to elect the nation’s president scheduled for the next day, to Jan. 12, 2008, the 11th such delay. A previous vote scheduled for Dec. 17 had been put off due to a boycott by the parliamentary opposition. Lebanon had been without a head of state since President Emile Lahoud stepped down in November. The anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and the opposition Shiite militant movement Hezbollah—which was supported by Syria and Iran—had reportedly agreed to back Gen. Michel Suleiman, the army chief, but disagreed over powersharing. [See p. 831C3] French President Nicolas Sarkozy Dec. 30 said France would cut off diplomatic contact with Syria until it let Lebanon elect a president. The Syrian government denied interfering in the electoral process. „ Men Convicted in 2006 German Train Plot.

A court in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, Dec. 18 convicted two Lebanese men of launching a failed suitcase bomb attack on German commuter trains in July 2006. One of the men, Jihad Hamad, was sentenced to 12 years in prison with hard labor. The other, Youssef Mohammed el-Hajdib, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison with hard labor; he had been held in German custody since being arrested there in August 2006, and his trial in Düsseldorf, Germany, in connection with the train plot opened Dec. 18. [See 2006, p. 670A1] Three other men were acquitted of lesser charges by the Beirut court. Prosecutors said that Hamad and Hajdib had not been connected with a larger terrorist group, but rather were angry over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper in September 2005. Defense lawyers had argued that the men had intentionally rigged the bombs to fail to detonate, and were only trying to “send a message.” „ New Hariri Investigator Named. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Nov. 13 named Daniel Bellemare, a former Canadian prosecutor, to take over the international investigation of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri when the term of the current head of the investigation, Serge Brammertz, ended Dec. 30. Ban said Bellemare would have prosecutorial powers in addition to his investigative mandate, in contrast to his predecessors. [See p. 517F3] „

Saudi Arabia Rape Victim Pardoned After Public Outcry.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah pardoned a gang-rape victim who had been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison for being in the same car as an unrelated man, it was reported Dec. 17. She had originally been sentenced to 90 lashes in 2006, but a court Nov. 13 had increased the punishment after she appealed, reportedly because her lawyer had publicly criticized the original ruling. The sentence drew strong international condemnation, and prompted a rare public debate within Saudi Arabia on the need for judicial reform. [See pp. 894B1, 251C2] The unidentified victim in October 2006 had reportedly met a former boyfriend in private—a crime under Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation of Islamic legal code—when a group of seven men seized them from the car and raped them both at knifepoint. She was convicted of her crime after pressing charges against the seven men. Her rapists were also convicted, receiving sentences ranging from 10 months to five years in prison, and 80–1,000 lashes; after the appeal, in which her lawyer had argued that their sentences were too light, the rapists’ jail time was increased to two to nine years. “Because of the barbaric crime committed against the woman, and because erring in pardon is better than erring in punishment…we have decided to pardon her,” Abdullah said in a royal decree. The pardon was seen as a way for Abdullah to appease international and domestic criticism without confronting Saudi Arabia’s conservative religious establishment. „

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208 Arrested in Suspected Terrorist Plots.

Saudi authorities Nov. 28 announced that they had arrested 208 people they said were linked to the international terrorist network Al Qaeda and involved in terrorist plots. The suspects, who had reportedly been arrested over the past several months, allegedly comprised six cells, each of which had a different objective, including attacking oil facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia, killing religious and security officials, and smuggling Saudis to Iraq and Afghanistan to train for future attacks against Saudi Arabia. [See p. 286E1] The interior ministry Dec. 24 released a statement saying Saudi authorities had arrested 28 men suspected of plotting to attack Muslim holy sites near the cities of Mecca and Medina during the Dec. 18–21 hajj, the Muslim annual pilgrimage to Mecca. They said 27 of the men were Saudi citizens, and indicated that they were linked to Al Qaeda. „

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Syria Raid Site Identified as Nuclear Reactor. The

New York Times Oct. 14 reported that, according to U.S. and Israeli analysts, an air strike conducted on Syria by Israeli warplanes in September had targeted a partially built nuclear reactor. The analysts said the reactor appeared to be modeled on one used by North Korea to produce nuclear 893

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weapons fuel. Israeli and U.S. officials had remained silent on the attacks, although Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Oct. 28, in his first comments on the bombing raid, said Israeli warplanes might have flown over neighboring Turkey, and that he had apologized to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan “for any affront caused.” [See pp. 886A2, 674B1] The Washington Post Oct. 24 reported that independent nuclear security experts believed they had located the site of the Israeli bombing, using satellite photographs taken before the raid. The experts said the site was near the village of At Tibnah on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, 90 miles (145 km) from the Iraqi border. They said the isolated building in the photographs, measuring about 150 feet (45 m) square, could be a reactor capable of producing enough nuclear material for one bomb a year. News reports Oct. 26 said independent analysts had used new commercial satellite photographs to determine that the isolated building had been cleared away from the site, which would hamper international investigations. „

United Arab Emirates Men Convicted in Rape of European Youth.

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A court in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Dec. 12 convicted two Emirati men of raping a French-Swiss teenager in July, and sentenced them each to 15 years in prison. A third defendant was being tried separately in juvenile court. The victim, Alexandre Robert, 15, and his mother had spoken out publicly after authorities had allegedly discouraged him from pressing charges, threatened to charge him with criminal homosexual activity and failed to inform him that one of his rapists was HIVpositive. The case had attracted attention to the alleged unfairness of the UAE’s legal system regarding homosexuality and the treatment of foreigners. [See p. 893E2] „

West Bank and Gaza Strip Two Israeli Settlers Killed, Raising Tensions.

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Palestinian gunmen Dec. 28 killed two Israeli settlers in a drive-by shooting near Hebron in the West Bank. The settlers, who were off-duty Israeli soldiers and were carrying their army-issued weapons, returned fire and killed two of their attackers. The incident further inflamed tensions between the Israelis and the Palestinians and imperiled the peace process, which had been restarted by U.S.-backed talks held in Annapolis, Md., in November. [See p. 839D1] Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Dec. 29 expressed condolences to the Israeli victims’ families, and said a number of suspects had been arrested in the killings. Fayyad also said the victims’ weapons, which had been taken by the attackers, had been returned to the Israeli government. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Dec. 30 said Israel would be “unable to carry out any changes on the ground” as 894

part of the peace process as long as the PA “does not take the necessary measures, with the necessary strength, to act against the terrorist organizations.” Israeli legislators from right-wing religious parties said Israel should break off the peace process because of the killings. The armed wing of militant Islamist group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement)—which controlled the Gaza Strip— and the militant group Islamic Jihad Dec. 30 jointly claimed responsibility for the attack. The same day, Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility in conjunction with the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group aligned with PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, which opposed Hamas. The PA security commander in Hebron, Samih al-Sayfi, Dec. 30 said the killings’ motivation was criminal, not political. He also said two suspects in custody were not members of militant groups. The Israeli government Dec. 31 said those suspects were linked to Fatah; one had reportedly been “in contact” with the Palestinian General Intelligence service, while the other belonged to Abbas’s national security force. The killings came as Israeli forces stepped up attacks on members of militant groups involved in rocket attacks on Israel. Israeli forces and air strikes Dec. 20–30 reportedly killed at least 28 Palestinians in Gaza, many of them members of Islamic Jihad. Olmert, Abbas Meet Ahead of Bush Visit—

Olmert and Abbas Dec. 27 met at Olmert’s residence in Jerusalem, in an attempt to move the peace process along ahead of a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to Israel and the West Bank planned for early January 2008. It was the first meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders since the Annapolis talks. A spokesman for Olmert said the two sides had reiterated their commitment to make progress on “all the difficult and sensitive issues” and abide by the obligations set out in the “road map,” a 2003 peace plan laid out by the U.S., Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. The lead Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qurei, said the two sides had agreed that “the Americans should take their responsibility as a judge of the obligations under the road map, and Israel will take some procedures to remove the obstacles.” The Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams Dec. 24 had previously met in Jerusalem, their second such meeting since the Annapolis talks. The teams reportedly had not made any progress, but had set the meeting between Olmert and Abbas, and had also set another meeting between the negotiating teams for early January, before Bush’s visit. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, said the Palestinians had demanded that Israel cease expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank before the peace talks could continue. The Israeli negotiators called on the Palestinians to stop attacks by militant groups against Israelis. Olmert Dec. 23 rejected a truce offer extended earlier that week by Ismail Haniya, a former PA prime minister and current leader of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip.

Olmert said Israel had “no interest in negotiating with elements” that did not recognize Israel and renounce violence. He also described the fighting in Gaza as “a true war” against “terrorist elements.” However, Defense Minister Ehud Barak indicated that a lull in fighting was possible if Hamas stopped rocket attacks on Israel, saying, “If they stop firing, we won’t be opposed to quiet.” But a Hamas spokesman responded that “the Palestinian people have a right to continue resistance.” Israeli officials Dec. 23 said an Israeli housing and construction ministry budget included plans to construct 500 apartments in the Jewish Har Homa neighborhood in East Jerusalem, which Israel had captured in the 1967 Six Day War, and 240 apartments in Maale Adumim, Israel’s largest West Bank settlement block. The reports sparked protest from the Palestinians, and Israeli officials downplayed the decision. Olmert Dec. 30 sent a letter to Barak, Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Ze’ev Boim and Israeli Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon saying that further settlement construction or expansion in the West Bank would require his and the defense minister’s authorization. [See p. 832C1] Fatah, Hamas Clash on Anniversary—

Clashes between Fatah and Hamas members beginning Dec. 31 and lasting into the next morning left seven Palestinians dead and 40 wounded in Gaza, after Hamas banned large celebrations of the 43rd anniversary of Fatah’s founding. Hamas said Fatah members had started the fighting by attacking people leaving a mosque, killing two, including a local Hamas leader. Fatah supporters said Hamas members in recent days had arrested Fatah members and kidnapped a Fatah leader. Abbas Dec. 31 in a speech for the Fatah anniversary asked Hamas leaders to open a new dialogue on Palestinian unity, and also called for early elections. Barak, Mubarak Meet in Egypt—Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Barak Dec. 26 met in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt. The meeting came amid tensions between the two countries over Israeli allegations that Egypt was not doing enough to stop weapons smuggling into Gaza across the Egyptian border. „

Other Middle East News Group Faults Both Sides in ’06 Lebanon War.

The U.S.-based watchdog group Human Rights Watch Aug. 29 released a report accusing the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant movement Hezbollah of deliberately targeting Israeli civilians during Israel’s 2006 war with the militant movement. Hezbollah and Lebanese politicians, including Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, rejected the report, and Human Rights Watch was forced to cancel a planned news conference in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, due to fears of protests. [See pp. 406E2, 275B1] Human Rights Watch Sept. 6 released another report rejecting Israel’s claims that Hezbollah had routinely used civilians as human shields, and saying most of FACTS ON FILE

the Lebanese civilian casualties in the war had been caused by “indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes.” An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman disputed the findings, and said the government had proof that Hezbollah had stored arms in schools and houses. The New York Times Dec. 5 reported that the Israeli military had declassified new photographs and videotapes that it said proved that Hezbollah had taken refuge in civilian neighborhoods. They included several videotapes of what the Israelis said were Hezbollah forces firing rockets from the cover of civilian buildings, and videotaped interrogations of what they said were three Hezbollah prisoners. Prisoner, Bodies Exchanged— The Israeli government Oct. 15 turned over to Hezbollah a member of the movement captured in 2006 and the bodies of two Lebanese men killed in the 2006 war, in exchange for the body of an Israeli fisherman who had drowned in the Mediterranean Sea and whose body had washed up in Lebanon in 2005. The exchange was the first of its kind since the 2006 war. „

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan News in Brief. The Associated Press (AP) Dec. 31 reported that more than 6,500 people had died in 2007 in violence related to

the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan between Taliban insurgents and the Afghan government, which was backed by U.S.and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led forces. The AP reported that 110 U.S. troops had died, the highest level since 2001, when the U.S. and NATO invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban’s fundamentalist Islamic regime from power. The report said approximately 4,500 militants tied to the Taliban had died, as well as 925 Afghan policemen, 41 British soldiers, 30 Canadian soldiers, and 40 soldiers from other nations in the coalition force. A record 140 suicide bombing attacks had occurred, more than any in any other year since the invasion. [See p. 814A1] The Afghan government Dec. 26 expelled two European diplomats for allegedly holding talks with Taliban members in Musa Qala, a town in the southern province of Helmand that had recently been taken from the insurgents. Michael Semple, an Irish official representing the European Union, and Mervyn Patterson, a British United Nations official, Dec. 27 left the country. The government said the talks were a breach of national security; the diplomats denied the allegations. Officials within President Hamid Karzai’s government, as well as NATO leaders, had disagreed over whether it should open discussions with the Taliban. In a reversal of long-standing policy, William Wood, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Dec. 27 said such talks were possible for Taliban fighters who accepted the government’s authority, and who were not connected to Al Qaeda, the international terrorist network. [See below] December 31, 2007

Afghan and NATO forces Dec. 10 announced that they had taken back control of Musa Qala from insurgents, in a large operation that began Dec. 7. As many as 22 Taliban fighters, as well as two children, were killed in the campaign. Musa Qala was the last major town under Taliban control. Musa Qala had been controlled by British forces as recently as late 2006. The British forces had left after transferring security responsibilities to village elders, but the town in February came under the control of the Taliban, which used it as a base. Approximately 7,000 British troops were deployed in Helmand, the largest opium-producing region in the country. [See pp. 742E3, 566A3] South Korea Dec. 14 withdrew its deployment of 195 army medics and engineers from the U.S.- and NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, ending its five-year presence in the country. South Korea in August had reaffirmed its pledge to withdraw its noncombatant troops, made to Taliban members who had kidnapped 23 South Korean aid workers. The Taliban freed 21 hostages, after killing the two others. [See p. 566F3] U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Dec. 21 said the U.S. was considering sending more troops to Afghanistan to combat a resurgent Taliban. Gates said the coalition would need 7,500 more troops to fight the insurgency and train the Afghan Army. The U.S. currently had 26,000 troops in the country, while NATO countries contributed most of the other 28,000 foreign members of the coalition force. Gates had publicly pressured NATO countries to provide more troops and resources to the Afghan conflict, but Dec. 21 said he recognized that it would be a political struggle for some countries to do so. The Afghan conflict was a particularly divisive issue within many European countries. [See p. 814A1] The Afghan government Oct. 9 shut down two Afghan-owned private security firms, the start of a crackdown on the high-

ly unregulated industry. Britain’s Financial Times newspaper Nov. 2 reported that a total of eight private security companies, including British-owned Olympus Security Group, were shut down. Government officials claimed that the crackdown was necessary because the guards hired by the companies failed to work with local authorities, intimidated citizens and were unaccountable for their actions. However, critics said the crackdown also allowed corrupt politicians to stake a claim in the multimillion-dollar industry. Private guards were used by foreign embassies, businesses and aid groups that did not trust the abilities of government forces to provide security. [See p. 710F1] Jonathan (Jack) Idema, a U.S. citizen and former Green Beret, June 2 was released from Policharki prison in Afghanistan and left the country, the prison’s warden said June 13. Idema had been sentenced to 10 years in prison in September 2004 for making illegal arrests and keeping captives in a private jail he had established, among other charges. Idema was pardoned by Karzai in March. [See 2006, p. 772A3] „

Bhutan First Parliamentary Elections Held. Bhu-

tan Dec. 31 held its first elections, continuing its transition from an absolute monarchy to a parliamentary democracy. An estimated 300,000 people voted on 15 of 25 seats in the country’s upper house of parliament. Bhutanese citizens would vote on five more of the seats in January 2008, and the remaining five were to be appointed by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. Elections for the parliament’s lower house were to be held by March 2008. [See p. 389C1] The king would occupy a largely ceremonial role after parliament was formed. The transition to democracy had been championed by the king’s father, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who abdicated the throne to his son in 2006, and decreed that Bhutan would become a democracy. „

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India News in Brief. Police in the eastern Indian

state of Orissa Dec. 27 shot and killed at least three people in a Hindu mob that had set fire to a police station, bringing the death total to four after violence between Hindus and Christians in the region began Dec. 24. The Christians claimed that the violence was started by Hindus who had objected to their Christmas celebrations. However, the Hindus accused Christians of attacking a local leader who opposed Christian proselytizing. Since then, approximately 19 churches had been burned down or vandalized, and three Hindu temples were damaged. The central government Dec. 27 said it was sending 300 troops to the area to pacify it. Like the overall population of India, Orissa was predominantly Hindu. [See 2003, p. 838F1] The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Dec. 23 was declared the winner of elections in western Gujarat state, which had begun Dec. 11. The BJP won 117 of the 182 seats in the state legislature, while the Congress party, which ruled the country’s federal government, came in second, with 59 seats. The BJP’s leader, incumbent chief minister Narendra Modi, ran a campaign that focused on Gujarat’s dramatic economic growth. However, analysts said voters were also attracted to Modi’s brand of Hindu nationalism. Modi had been accused of encouraging or doing little to stop Hindu riots against the state’s Muslims in 2002, which had killed some 1,000 people. [See 2005, p. 252G3] Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Dec. 20 at a conference on internal security in New Delhi, the capital, called on states to establish special police forces to combat communist rebels operating in the country’s central and eastern regions. Singh said the rebels, known as Naxalites, posed the largest threat to India’s security, and were preventing those regions from developing economically. The Naxalites had a presence in 13 of India’s 28 states, and had become better armed and organized in the past year. As recently as Dec. 16, Naxalites 895

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had freed 300 prisoners from a jail in the central state of Chhattisgarh, one of the country’s poorest states and the conflict’s central battleground. [See p. 183F3] A string of nearly simultaneous bomb blasts in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, Nov. 23 left at least 13 people dead and 60 wounded. The blasts occurred just outside courthouses in Lucknow, the state capital; Varanasi, a Hindu holy city; and Faizabad. Many of the victims were lawyers, prompting speculation that they had been targeted because Uttar Pradesh lawyers earlier in the year had decided they would not represent a group of terrorism suspects. It was unclear who carried out the attack. The federal government claimed that the attackers sought to stoke animosity between religious groups. [See p. 567G1] Communist parties in India’s governing coalition Nov. 16 allowed the government to begin talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a first step in gain-

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ing international approval for a nuclear cooperation pact between India and the U.S. The communists had opposed the pact, saying it would give the U.S. too much influence over India’s policy. They reportedly reconsidered their opposition after the largest communist party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), ran into domestic trouble for mishandling a peasant rebellion in West Bengal, where it controlled the government. The pact would enable the countries to trade nuclear reactors, technology and fuel. [See p. 706D1] The Indian government Nov. 28 vowed

to protect Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen from Islamic groups who claimed that

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she had insulted Islam in her books. Nasreen Nov. 22 had been moved by the government from Kolkota (formerly known as Calcutta) in West Bengal state, after thousands of Muslims protested against her presence in the country, leading to riots. Hindu nationalist groups had accused the government of attempting to expel her from the country in acquiescence to the Muslim minority’s demands, an accusation it denied. Nasreen was moved to an undisclosed location in New Delhi. [See 1999, p. 100C3] The Congress party Sept. 24 announced that Rahul Gandhi, son of party leader Sonia Gandhi and slain former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, had been promoted to secretary general of the party. Rahul Gandhi, 37, was a member of Parliament and considered a contender to lead the party in national elections that were scheduled to be held by 2009. Analysts said his promotion to the upper echelons of the party was an indication that the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in Congress party politics would continue. Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother, Indira Gandhi, and great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, had also served as prime ministers. [See p. 339F1; 2004, p. 356B1] An Indian antiterrorism court July 27 sentenced Yakub Memon to death for several crimes linked to 1993 bombings in Mumbai, the worst in the country’s history. Memon was the 12th and last person to receive the death penalty in connection with the bombings; the court had issued its first 896

death sentence July 18. [See 1993, pp. 296D3, 216F3] India’s Central Statistical Organization May 31 reported that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a rate of 9.4% in the previous fiscal year, which had ended March 31. That was the fastest annual rise in 18 years, and the second-fastest since the country gained independence in 1947, signaling India’s rapid ascension as an economic power in Asia. Analysts said recent interest-rate hikes had brought inflation down, but that the economy was still growing at an unsustainable rate. GDP was a measure of the output of goods and services produced within a nation’s borders. [See 2006, p. 831A1] „

Nepal Monarchy to Be Abolished. The country’s

parliament Dec. 28 voted to abolish Nepal’s 240-year-old monarchy at the first meeting of a constituent assembly that was responsible for writing a new constitution. The assembly could only approve parliament’s decision, and did not have the authority to amend or reject it. The vote came after former Maoist rebels Dec. 23 agreed to return to the government and participate in elections for the assembly, in return for the abolition of the monarchy. The assembly would be elected before April 12, 2008. [See p. 656B3] The Maoists had resigned from the government in September, demanding that the government dissolve the monarchy before the elections were held. The move threatened to derail a peace process that had begun in 2006, after the government and the rebels agreed to end a decade-long civil war. „

Pakistan News in Brief. Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Dec. 26 in Islamabad, Pakistan’s

capital, in what was viewed as an indication that the two leaders were cooperating more fully in dealing with Islamic militants operating on their shared border. Karzai had accused Musharraf in the past of not doing enough to prevent militants from entering Afghanistan, but this time said cross-border militant raids had decreased in recent months. “Unfortunately, there is an increased activity now on the Pakistani side,” Karzai said, referring to a spate of recent suicide attacks in Pakistan, and fighting between militants and the Pakistani army in the Swat valley region. Karzai was scheduled to meet former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on the next and final day of his trip to Pakistan, but she was assassinated that day. [See pp. 857A1, 832B3, 534A1] A suicide bomber Dec. 21 detonated his charge at a mosque in the small northwestern town of Sherpao, killing as many as 50 people and wounding at least 100. The bomber’s apparent intended target was Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, a former interior minister and a parliamentary candidate for elections scheduled for January 2008.

Sherpao was unhurt, but one of his sons was injured. Sherpao as interior minister had conducted military operations against Islamic militants and members of Al Qaeda, the international terrorist network, that operated in the country’s northwestern regions. He had been the target of a previous suicide attack in April. Sherpao was in the mosque with more than 1,000 people celebrating the holy day of Eid al-Adha when the bomb went off. [See p. 707E1] Aitzaz Ahsan, head of a lawyers’ movement opposed to Musharraf, was released from house arrest Dec. 21, only to be rearrested later that day, after he threatened to organize protests against Musharraf. Ahsan had been a leading figure in nationwide pro-democracy protests that began after Musharraf in March attempted to oust Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry over alleged abuses of his office. Ahsan was placed under house arrest in November, when Musharraf declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution, and replaced many Supreme Court justices with his allies. [See p. 778E2] „

SPORTS

UNITED STATES

Patriots Go Undefeated in NFL Season; First Since ’72 Dolphins Brady, Moss Set Touchdown Marks. The New England Patriots Dec. 29 defeated the New York Giants, 38–35, in East Rutherford, N.J., to become the first team in National Football League (NFL) history to end the regular season with 16 wins and no losses. The last team to go undefeated in the regular season had been the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who went 14–0 (at that time, there had been only 14 games in the NFL season) and went on to win the Super Bowl in 1973. [See p. 692D1; 1973, p. 68C3] The 1934 and 1942 Chicago Bears had also finished the regular season undefeated, but then lost in the NFL title game. [See 1942, p. 402E] In the Dec. 29 game, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes to wide receiver Randy Moss. Those were Brady’s 49th and 50th touchdown passes of the season, allowing him to tie and then break the record set by Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning in 2004. Also, with the two catches, Moss tied and eclipsed the mark of 22 touchdown receptions in a season, set by Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers in 1987. The record-setting completion came in the fourth quarter, on a spectacular 65-yard pass from Brady to Moss, one play after Moss dropped the ball on nearly the exact same route. [See 2004, p. 1089E2; 1987, p. 1008D3] With that touchdown, the Patriots took a 31–28 lead, after trailing the Giants by as many as 12 points in the third quarter. Running back Laurence Maroney also scored two touchdowns in the second half in the Patriots’ comeback. The Patriots, coached by Bill Belichick, also set a record for most points scored in a FACTS ON FILE

PATRIOTS’ UNDEFEATED SEASON

Following are the scores and opponents in the New England Patriots’ 2007 unbeaten (16–0) season [See p. 896D3]: † Sept. 9: New York Jets, 38–14 † Sept. 16: San Diego Chargers, 38–14 † Sept. 23: Buffalo Bills, 38–7 † Oct. 1: Cincinnati Bengals, 34–13 † Oct. 7: Cleveland Browns, 34–17 † Oct. 14: Dallas Cowboys, 48–27 † Oct. 21: Miami Dolphins, 49–28 † Oct. 28: Washington Redskins, 52–7 † Nov. 4: Indianapolis Colts, 24–20 † Nov. 18: Buffalo Bills, 56–10 † Nov. 25: Philadelphia Eagles, 31–28 † Dec. 3: Baltimore Ravens, 27–24 † Dec. 9: Pittsburgh Steelers, 34–13 † Dec. 16: Jets, 20–10 † Dec. 23: Dolphins, 28–7 † Dec. 29: New York Giants, 38–35

season (589), breaking the record of 556 points set by the Minnesota Vikings in 1998. (Moss had also played on that team.) After the Dec. 29 win, Belichick and the Patriots players said their goal remained to win the Super Bowl; New England had won the NFL title three times since 2002. They ended the season as the top seed in the American Football Conference (AFC), meaning they would have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and a bye in the first round. The Giants (10–6), who had already clinched a wild-card berth in the National Football Conference (NFC), scored the most points of any Patriots opponent in the 2007 season. Prior to the game, some observers had speculated that the Giants would rest their best players in preparation for their first playoff game. However, coach Tom Coughlin sent his strongest lineup out to try to prevent the Patriots from breaking the record, and often erratic quarterback Eli Manning threw four touchdown passes. The NFL had originally scheduled the game to be shown nationwide on the NFL Network, a channel that was available to only about 40% of U.S. households with televisions and that some cable providers had refused to offer. (It would also have been shown on local networks in the New York and New England markets.) However, following pressure by fans and members of Congress, the NFL Dec. 26 agreed to simulcast the historic game on the CBS and NBC television networks. As a result, the game was viewed by an average of 34.5 million viewers, the highest number of viewers for a nonplayoff game in more than 12 years. [See 2006, p. 1035C3] Elsewhere in the AFC, the Colts (13–3) topped the South division, claiming the second seed and a bye in the first round of the playoffs. The San Diego Chargers (11– 5) won the West and took the third seed, and the Pittsburgh Steelers (10–6) won the North and claimed the fourth seed. The two December 31, 2007

wild-card berths went to the Jacksonville Jaguars (11–5) and the Tennessee Titans (10–6). Cowboys Take Top NFC Seed—The Dallas Cowboys Dec. 30 finished the regular season with a 13–3 record, winning the East division and claiming the top seed in the NFC, home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and a first-round bye. The Green Bay Packers (13–3) topped the North and took the second seed, earning a first-round bye. The Seattle Seahawks (10–6) won the West division and the third seed in the NFC, while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9–7) took the South and the fourth seed. The Giants and the Washington Redskins (9–7) took the wild-card berths. Other News—In other NFL news: † The Baltimore Ravens Dec. 31 fired coach Brian Billick, after the team finished the season with a record of 5–11. † Former Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy, 82, Dec. 31 resigned as the team’s general manager. [See 2006, p. 4F3] † Devin Hester of the Bears Dec. 30 returned a kick for a touchdown for the sixth time in the season, breaking the record of five that he had set in 2006. † Veteran quarterback Vinny Testaverde, who had played for six teams in his 21year career and was currently a member of the Carolina Panthers, retired Dec. 30. Testaverde, 44, had been Tampa Bay’s first pick in the 1987 draft. [See 2004, p. 742E2; 1987, p. 321F1] † Redskins safety Sean Taylor, who had died in November after being shot in a robbery at his home, Dec. 17 was voted posthumously as a starter in the Pro Bowl. [See p. 835C1] † The Dolphins Dec. 16 won their first game of the season, defeating the Ravens, 22–16, in overtime in Miami, Fla., and thereby avoiding becoming the first team to complete a season without a victory. They finished with a record of 1–15. Miami Dec. 20 signed Bill Parcells, a former coach known for turning teams around, to a fouryear contract as the team’s executive vice president of football operations. Parcells, 66, in January had resigned as coach of the Cowboys and said he was retiring from coaching. [See p. 56F1] † Packers quarterback Brett Favre Dec. 16 eclipsed former Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino to become the all-time NFL leader in passing yards, with 61,405. Marino had finished his career in 1999 with 61,361 yards. Earlier in the season, Favre, 38, had become the all-time leader in quarterback wins, touchdown passes and interceptions. [See p. 692A3] † Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), the players’ union, Dec. 11 said the union and the league had agreed to implement changes to the process by which retired players could collect disability payments. The NFL and the NFLPA had been criticized for providing inadequate benefits to retired players, especially those with disabilities. Separately,

NFL 2007 Final Standings AMERICAN FOOTBALL CONFERENCE East Division

W

L

New England Buffalo N.Y. Jets Miami

16† 0 7 9 4 12 1 15

Indianapolis *Jacksonville *Tennessee Houston

13 11 10 8

Pittsburgh Cleveland Cincinnati Baltimore

10 10 7 5

San Diego Denver Kansas City Oakland

11 7 4 4

T

Pct.

0 1.000 589† 0 .438 252 0 .250 268 0 .063 267

South Division

3 5 6 8

0 0 0 0

.813 .688 .625 .500

North Division

6 6 9 11

0 0 0 0

.625 .625 .438 .313

West Division

5 9 12 12

0 0 0 0

.688 .438 .250 .250

A

Points For Agt.

274 354 355 437

450 411 301 379

262 304 297 384

393 402 380 275

269 382 385 384

412 320 226 283

284 409 335 398

B

NATIONAL FOOTBALL CONFERENCE East Division

Dallas *N.Y. Giants *Washington Philadelphia Tampa Bay Carolina New Orleans Atlanta

W

13 10 9 8

L

3 6 7 8

T

0 0 0 0

Points Pct. For Agt.

.813 .625 .563 .500

South Division

9 7 7 4

7 9 9 12

0 0 0 0

.563 .438 .438 .250

North Division

Green Bay Minnesota Detroit Chicago

13 8 7 7

Seattle Arizona San Francisco St. Louis

10 8 5 3

3 8 9 9

0 0 0 0

.813 .500 .438 .438

West Division

6 8 11 13

0 0 0 0

.625 .500 .313 .188

455 373 334 336

325 351 310 300

334 267 379 259

270 347 388 414

435 365 346 334

291 311 444 348

393 404 219 263

291 399 364 438

C

D

*Clinched wild-card †NFL record

Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Kyle Turley in 2006 had set up the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, a nonprofit organization that collected funds for retired players in need of financial assistance. The fund Dec. 11 asked all current NFL players to donate a portion of their paychecks for games played Dec. 23. [See p. 692G2] † Chiefs running back Priest Holmes, who in 2003 had set a then-record for the most rushing touchdowns in a season, Nov. 21 retired. Holmes, 34, ended an attempted comeback after sustaining serious head and neck injuries in an October 2005 game that had sidelined him for 22 months. [See 2006, p. 4D3] † The NFL Nov. 16 agreed to reinstate Dolphins running back Ricky Williams, who had been suspended for the entire 2006 season for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy for a fourth time. Williams, in his first game back, Nov. 26 tore a muscle in his chest and missed the rest of the season. [See p. 323D1] † Vikings rookie running back Adrian Peterson Nov. 4 rushed for 296 yards in a 35–17 home victory over the Chargers, setting a new record for the most rushing yards 897

E

F

G

National Football League 2007 Statistical Leaders**

A

American Football Conference PASSING

Brady, New England Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Garrard, Jacksonville Manning, Indianapolis Cutler, Denver

(minimum of 14 attempts per team’s games played) Att. Comp. Pct. Yards Avg. Yd. TD Pct. Comp. Gained Gained Pass TD

Int.

Pct. Int.

Rating

578 404 325 515 467

8 11 3 14 14

1.4 2.7 0.9 2.7 3.0

117.2 104.1 102.2 98.0 88.1

398 264 208 337 297

68.9 65.3 64.0 65.4 63.6

4806 3154 2509 4040 3497

8.3 7.8 7.7 7.9 7.5

50* 32 18 31 20

SCORING—TOUCHDOWNS

B

Moss, New England Tomlinson, San Diego Edwards, Cleveland Addai, Indianapolis Houshmandzadeh, Cin.

0 15 0 12 0

23* 3 16 3 12

0 0 0 0 0

138 108 96 92 72

RECEIVING

112 112 104 103 102

1143 1175 1510 1087 1325

10.2 12 10.5 8 14.5 10 10.6 5 13.0 7

INTERCEPTIONS

10 7 6 6 6

144 130 75 172 89

70 32 26 66 42

1 0 0 2 1

KICKOFF RETURNS

D

59 1809 30.7 32 968 30.3 47 1291 27.5 37 1008 27.2 31 811 26.2

2 3 3 1 1

Pts.

137 133 130 120 118 118

Att. Yds. Avg. TDs

315 321 298 294 223

1474 1326 1304 1207 1202

4.7 4.1 4.4 4.1 5.4

15 2 9 7 5

PUNTING

No. Yds. Long Avg.

Lechler, Oakland Sauerbrun, Denver Scifres, San Diego Colquitt, Kansas City Koch, Baltimore

73 47 81 95 78

3585 2200 3735 4322 3397

70 65 70 81 64

49.1 46.8 46.1 45.5 43.6

PUNT RETURNS

No. Yds. Avg. TDs

Cribbs, Cleveland Davis, Houston Washington, N.Y. Jets Sproles, San Diego Jones-Drew, Jac.

FG–FGA 21–24 35–39 31–34 26–30 23–29 24–27

RUSHING

Tomlinson, San Diego Parker, Pittsburgh Lewis, Cleveland McGahee, Baltimore Taylor, Jacksonville

No. Yds. Long TDs

Cromartie, San Diego Reed, Baltimore Bodden, Cleveland Howard, Oakland Samuel, New England

XP–XPA 74–74* 28–28 37–37 42–43 49–51 46–46

Gostkowski, N.E. Bironas, Tennessee Graham, Cincinnati Dawson, Cleveland Kaeding, San Diego Vinatieri, Indianapolis

No. Yds. Avg. TDs

Houshmandzadeh, Cin. Welker, New England Wayne, Indianapolis Mason, Baltimore Marshall, Denver

C

SCORING—KICKING

Tot. Rush Rec. Ret. Pts.

23 18 16 16 12

8.7 7.9 5.5 6.0 4.3

No. Yds. Avg. TDs

Parrish, Buffalo Cribbs, Cleveland Welker, New England Ginn Jr., Miami Three tied at 9.5

27 30 25 24

440 405 249 230

16.3 13.5 10.0 9.6

1 1 0 1

SACKS: Allen, Kansas City (15.5); Williams, Houston (14.0); Dumervil, Denver (12.5); Merriman, San Diego (12.5); Vrabel, New England (12.5)

National Football Conference PASSING

E

Romo, Dallas Favre, Green Bay Garcia, Tampa Hasselbeck, Seattle McNabb, Philadelphia

(minimum of 14 attempts per team’s games played) Comp. Pct. Yards Avg. Yd. TD Pct. Att. Comp. Gained Gained Pass TD

Int.

Pct. Int.

Rating

520 535 327 562 473

19 15 4 12 7

3.7 2.8 1.2 2.1 1.5

97.4 95.7 94.6 91.4 89.9

335 356 209 352 291

64.4 66.5 63.9 62.6 61.5

4211 4155 2440 3966 3324

SCORING—TOUCHDOWNS

Tot. Rush Rec. Ret. Pts.

Owens, Dallas Peterson, Minnesota Barber, Dallas Burress, N.Y. Giants Jennings, Green Bay Westbrook, Phil.

15 13 12 12 12 12

0 12 10 0 0 7

15 1 2 12 12 5

0 0 0 0 0 0

90 78 72 72 72 72

RECEIVING

F

Fitzgerald, Arizona Colston, New Orleans Witten, Dallas Engram, Seattle Holt, St. Louis

No. Yds. Avg. TDs

100 98 96 94 93

1409 1202 1145 1147 1189

14.1 10 12.3 11 11.9 7 12.2 6 12.8 7

INTERCEPTIONS

Atogwe, St. Louis Trufant, Seattle Henry, Dallas Seven tied at five

No. Yds. Long TDs

8 7 6

125 52 150 84 81 28

1 1 1

KICKOFF RETURNS

G

Allison, Minnesota Cartwright, Wash. Austin, Dallas Stanley, St. Louis Norwood, Atlanta

No. Yds. Avg. TDs

20 528 28.7 52 546 25.8 24 753 25.5 20 1428 25.5 52 643 25.3

1 0 0 0 0

8.1 7.8 7.5 7.1 7.0

36 28 13 28 19

6.9 5.2 4.0 5.0 4.0

SCORING—KICKING XP–XPA 48–48 53–53 43–43 33–33 35–36

Crosby, Green Bay Folk, Dallas Brown, Seattle Gould, Chicago Hanson, Detroit

FG–FGA 31–39 26–31 28–34 31–36 29–35

RUSHING

Peterson, Minnesota Westbrook, Philadelphia Portis, Washington James, Arizona Gore, San Francisco

Att. Yds. Avg. TDs

238 278 325 324 260

1341 1333 1262 1222 1102

5.6 4.8 3.9 3.8 4.2

898

12 7 11 7 5

PUNTING

Lee, San Francisco Jones, St. Louis McBriar, Dallas Kluwe, Minnesota Ryan, Green Bay

No. Yds. Long Avg.

105 78 63 81 60

4968 3684 2970 3621 2664

74 80 64 70 72

47.3 47.2 47.1 44.7 44.4

PUNT RETURNS

Hester, Chicago Burleson, Seattle Breaston, Arizona Moore, New Orleans Crayton, Dallas

No. Yds. Avg. TDs

42 58 42 20 22

651 658 395 185 201

15.5 11.3 9.4 9.3 9.1

SACKS: Kerney, Seattle (14.5); Ware, Dallas (14.0); Umenyiora, N.Y. Giants (13.0); Cole, Philadelphia (12.5); Ellis, Dallas (12.5)

*NFL record **The complete names of the players are found in the index.

Pts.

141 131 127 126 122

4 1 1 0 0

in a game. The previous record of 295 yards had been set by Jamal Lewis of the Ravens in 2003. [See 2003, p. 1096A1] † The NFL Oct. 28 played its first regular-season game outside North America, when the Giants defeated the Dolphins, 13–10, before 81,176 fans at Wembley Stadium in London, England. † Titans kicker Rob Bironas Oct. 21 set a new NFL record by kicking eight field goals in one game. His kicks helped the Titans defeat the hometown Houston Texans, 38–36. The previous record of seven field goals had been held by Billy Cundiff, Chris Boniol, Rich Karlis and Jim Bakken. [See 1996, p. 967D1] „

Baseball League, Union to Discuss Mitchell Report. Major League Baseball (MLB) Commis-

sioner Bud Selig and Donald Fehr, president of players’ union MLB Players Association (MLBPA), had agreed to discuss recommendations made in a report by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell (D, Maine) on the use of performance-enhancing drugs by baseball players, the New York Times reported Dec. 19. Selig Dec. 14 had sent a letter proposing discussion of the recommendations to Fehr, who responded Dec. 17, according to the Times. Under the contract between MLB and the MLBPA, several of the recommendations required approval by the players’ union before they could be implemented, possibly requiring a revision of the players’ collective bargaining agreement. [See p. 832D3] Mitchell’s report had concluded that performance-enhancing drugs, such as steroids and human growth hormone (HGH), were in widespread use by players, and that MLB had been slow and ineffective to respond to the problem. The report, issued after a 20-month investigation, included some 20 recommendations, and implicated about 90 players in the use or possession of performance-enhancing drugs. In the wake of the report’s release, several players named as drug users had confirmed the allegations against them, while others strongly rejected the claims. Mitchell Dec. 14, one day after releasing the report, had said he had included the names of players for whom he had “credible” evidence of drug use. He said the report had been produced for a private entity, MLB, and noted that the burden of proof needed to prove drug use in legal proceedings was different. A number of players, coaches, analysts and observers had questioned Mitchell’s inclusion of many of the players named in the report, arguing that the evidence against them was scant and could cause irreparable damage to their reputations. Several noted that much of the evidence included in the report had relied on uncorroborated testimony provided by a single person, Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse employee who in April had pleaded guilty to distributing performance-enhancing drugs to MLB players. He had agreed to cooperate with FACTS ON FILE

Mitchell’s investigation as part of his plea agreement, and was scheduled to be sentenced in 2008. Brian McNamee, a former Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees strength trainer, had also supplied information to Mitchell during interviews. McNamee’s lawyer, Earl Ward, Dec. 17 said his client in the summer of 2006 had signed an agreement with Justice Department officials. The agreement barred prosecutors from using any testimony supplied by McNamee to Mitchell’s investigation against him in a drug distribution case. McNamee had told investigators that he had injected seventime Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens and another pitcher, Andy Pettitte, with performance-enhancing drugs. Players React to Claims—Pettitte Dec. 15 admitted that the had taken HGH twice in 2002, claiming that he did so to recover more quickly from an elbow injury. His admission corroborated information supplied by McNamee. Separately, Pettitte’s agent Dec. 3 had confirmed his client’s intention to accept a one-year, $16 million deal from the Yankees. A formal agreement on the deal was finalized Dec. 12. Clemens Dec. 18, in a statement issued through his agent, said he had not used banned performance-enhancing drugs “at any time in my baseball career or, in fact, my entire life.” He released a video Dec. 23 in which he again rejected McNamee’s claims. Retired player David Justice Dec. 14 rejected Mitchell report allegations that he had purchased HGH kits from Radomski. Another former player, Gary Bennett, that day admitted that in 2003, had purchased HGH from Radomski, corroborating an account included in the Mitchell report, and saying he had done so to aid his recovery form injury. Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts in a statement issued Dec. 18 said he had used steroids once in 2003. Also, retired first baseman David Segui Dec. 10 admitted that he had used steroids purchased from Radomski. The Orioles Dec. 17 became the first team to criticize the Mitchell report and its inclusion of players’ names on the basis of what it called “unsubstantiated allegations.” Unsealed Affidavits Implicate Others—

U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Voss Dec. 20 unsealed an affidavit written by investigators in order to secure a search warrant for the home of former pitcher Jason Grimsley. The affidavit, written in May 2006 by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) special agent Jeffrey Novitzky, alleged that four former or current baseball players not named in the Mitchell report might have used the drugs. Those named in the affidavit, but not in the report, were Sammy Sosa, Pete Incaviglia, Geronimo Berroa and Allen Watson. Separately, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Boyle Dec. 20 unsealed a December 2005 affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for Radomski’s home. The affidavit linked four players not mentioned in the Mitchell report to Radomski, including December 31, 2007

Pete Rose Jr. and former pitcher Sid Fernandez. Other News—In other MLB news: † Former Mets pitcher Tom Glavine Nov. 19 signed a one-year, $8 million contract to play for the Atlanta Braves. [See p. 519C3] † Former Minnesota Twins center fielder Torii Hunter Nov. 22 signed a five-year, $90 million contract to play for the Los Angeles Angels. † Former MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, former managers Dick Williams and Billy Southworth (who died in 1969), and early-20th-century Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss Dec. 3 were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. [See p. 150E1] † The Detroit Tigers and the Florida Marlins Dec. 4 reached a tentative eightplayer trade agreement. Under the agreement, the Marlins would send third baseman Miguel Cabrera and pitcher Dontrelle Willis to the Tigers in exchange for center fielder Cameron Maybin, pitcher Andrew Miller, catcher Mike Rabelo, and three pitching prospects. Willis Dec. 20 agreed to a threeyear, $29 million contract with the Tigers. † Former New York Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca Dec. 10 signed a one-year contract reportedly worth $5 million to play for the Washington Nationals. † The Baltimore Orioles Dec. 12 traded shortstop Miguel Tejada to the Houston Astros for outfielder Luke Scott; pitchers Troy Patton, Matt Albers and Dennis Sarfate; and third baseman Michael Costanzo. † Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez Dec. 13 finalized a 10-year, $275 million contract to continue playing for the Yankees. It was the richest in baseball history. Rodriguez in October had opted out of the remaining three years of a 10-year, $252 million contract with the Yankees (originally signed with the Texas Rangers in 2000) on the advice of his agent, Scott Boras, and became a free agent. However, he later entered talks with Yankees ownership to secure a new deal. [See p. 775B3] † The Arizona Diamondbacks Dec. 14 traded closer Jose Valverde to the Houston Astros in exchange for reliever Chad Qualls, infielder Chris Burke and pitcher Juan Gutierrez. In a separate trade, the Diamondbacks the same day received pitchers Dan Haren and Connor Robertson from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for pitchers Brett Anderson, Dana Eveland and Greg Smith; infielder Chris Carter; and outfielders Aaron Cunningham and Carlos Gonzalez. † Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome and the Chicago Cubs Dec. 19 finalized a four-year, $48 million contract for Fukudome to play right field. He had most recently played for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan. † Former Cubs pitcher Mark Prior Dec. 26 signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the San Diego Padres. Prior had sat out the 2007 season after undergoing shoulder surgery in April. „

College Football Ky. Tops Depleted Fla. St. in Music City Bowl.

The University of Kentucky Wildcats Dec. 31 defeated the Florida State University Seminoles, 35–28, in the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn. Florida State, coached by Bobby Bowden, was missing 23 players, including seven starters, many of whom had been barred from playing in the game Dec. 22 after it was discovered that they had cheated on an exam. Kentucky had also won the bowl in 2006. [See 2006, p. 1036A2] Other Results—In results of other bowl games played through Dec. 31: † Armed Forces Bowl, Dec. 31 in Fort Worth, Texas: California 42, Air Force 36. † Humanitarian Bowl, Dec. 31 in Boise, Idaho: Fresno State 40, Georgia Tech 28. † Sun Bowl, Dec. 31 in El Paso, Texas: Oregon 56, South Florida 21. † Insight Bowl, Dec. 31 in Tempe, Ariz.: Oklahoma State 49, Indiana 33. † Chick Fil-A Bowl, Dec. 31 in Atlanta, Ga.: Auburn 23, Clemson 20 (OT). † Independence Bowl, Dec. 30 in Shreveport, La.: Alabama 30, Colorado 24. † Alamo Bowl, Dec. 29 in San Antonio, Texas: Penn State 24, Texas A&M 17. † Meineke Car Care Bowl, Dec. 29 in Charlotte, N.C.: Wake Forest 24, Connecticut 10. † Liberty Bowl, Dec. 29 in Memphis, Tenn.: Mississippi State 10, University of Central Florida 3. † Emerald Bowl, Dec. 28 in San Francisco, Calif.: Oregon State 21, Maryland 14. † Texas Bowl, Dec. 28 in Houston, Texas: Texas Christian University 20, Houston 13. † Champs Sports Bowl, Dec. 28 in Orlando, Fla.: Boston College 24, Michigan State 21. † Holiday Bowl, Dec. 27 in San Diego, Calif.: Texas 52, Arizona State 34. † Motor City Bowl, Dec. 26 in Detroit, Mich.: Purdue 51, Central Michigan 48. † Hawaii Bowl, Dec. 23 in Honolulu, Hawaii: East Carolina 41, Boise State 38. † Las Vegas Bowl, Dec. 22 in Las Vegas, Nev.: Brigham Young 17, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) 16. † New Mexico Bowl, Dec. 22 in Albuquerque, N.M.: New Mexico 23, Nevada 0. † Papajohns.com Bowl, Dec. 22 in Birmingham, Ala.: Cincinnati 31, Southern Mississippi 21. † New Orleans Bowl, Dec. 21 in New Orleans, La.: Florida Atlantic 44, Memphis 27. † Poinsettia Bowl, Dec. 20 in San Diego, Calif.: Utah 35, Navy 32. Other News—In other college football news: † UCLA Dec. 29 hired Rick Neuheisel as its new head coach. Neuheisel, who had been an assistant coach for the National Football League’s Baltimore Ravens, re899

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

A

B

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placed Karl Dorrell, who had been fired Dec. 3. Neuheisel had played quarterback for UCLA and had been named most valuable player of the team’s victory in the Rose Bowl in 1984. [See 2003, p. 683C2; 1984, p. 8D3] † The University of Michigan Dec. 17 introduced University of West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez as the replacement for longtime coach Lloyd Carr, who would retire after coaching Michigan in the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1, 2008. Michigan reportedly had to pay West Virginia $4 million to release him from his contract. Rodriguez would stay on to coach West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl Jan. 2. [See p. 834E3] † The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) July 11 ruled that the University of Oklahoma must forfeit all its wins from the 2005 season, and that it would lose two scholarships for the 2008– 09 and 2009–10 school years. The penalties stemmed from the NCAA’s finding that two Oklahoma players, starting quarterback Rhett Bomar and offensive lineman J.D. Quinn, had been paid for work they did not perform at a Norman, Okla., car dealership. The NCAA penalized Oklahoma based on its “failure to monitor” the employment of its players. Bomar and Quinn had been dismissed from the team in August 2006. Oklahoma that day said it would appeal the “failure to monitor” portion of the ruling. „

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defeated defending champion Russia to win the Davis Cup, three matches to none, in Portland, Ore. The U.S. had taken the cup 31 previous times, but had not won since 1995. [See 2006, p. 940C2] On the final day of competition, the world’s top-ranked men’s doubles team, twin brothers Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan, clinched the cup with a 7–6, 6–4, 6–2 victory over Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Andreev. U.S. singles players Nov. 30 had swept the opening day of the event, giving the team a 2–0 lead. Andy Roddick had defeated Dmitry Tursunov, 6–4, 6–4, 6–2, and James Blake had beaten Mikhail Youzhny, 6–3, 7–6, 6–7, 7–6. In the semifinals, the U.S. Sept. 23 defeated Sweden, four matches to one, in Goteborg, Sweden. Russia that day bested Germany, three matches to two, in Moscow, Russia’s capital. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) Nov. 7 said it had opened an investigation into claims that Tommy Haas of Germany had been poisoned during the semifinals in Russia. The German tennis federation had said blood tests showed no evidence of poisoning, it was reported Nov. 18. „ Federer Repeats at Masters Cup. Roger Federer of Switzerland Nov. 18 claimed the Masters Cup, the year-end event on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour, in Shanghai, China, for the fourth time in five years. Top-ranked Federer beat 900

Spain’s David Ferrer, 6–2, 6–3, 6–2, in the final. [See 2006, p. 940E2] A day earlier, Federer had reached the final by defeating second-ranked Rafael Nadal of Spain, 6–4, 6–1. Ferrer that day had won his semifinal match against Andy Roddick of the U.S., 6–1, 6–3. With the $1.2 million tournament win and a $1.5 million bonus from the ATP, Federer became the first player in tennis history to collect more than $10 million in prize money in one season. On Nov. 26, he passed his 200th consecutive week ranked number one in the world. Other News—In other men’s tennis news: † Argentine David Nalbandian Oct. 21 beat Federer, 1–6, 6–3, 6–3, to win the Madrid Masters in the Spanish capital. [See 2006, p. 940G2] † Nalbandian Nov. 4 defeated Nadal, 6– 4, 6–0, in the finals of the BNP Paribas Masters tournament in Paris. [See 2006, p. 940G2] † The ATP Oct. 26 fined Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko $2,000 for “lack of best effort” during a match he lost at the St. Petersburg Open in Russia Oct. 25. The association Nov. 13 rescinded the fine after Davydenko appealed. Davydenko remained under investigation by the ATP for match-fixing. [See p. 599C3] † The ATP, relying on new anticorruption rules, Nov. 10 suspended Italy’s Alessio di Mauro from the game for nine months and fined him $60,000 for betting on matches. „ Henin Wins Year-End Women’s Event.

Justine Henin of Belgium Nov. 11 defeated Russia’s Maria Sharapova, 5–7, 7–5, 6–3, to win the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid, Spain’s capital, for a second year in a row. It was her 10th tournament title of the season. Her $1 million prize made her the first woman player to earn more than $5 million in a season. [See 2006, p. 940B3] Other News—In other women’s tennis news: † Former top-ranked player Martina Hingis of Switzerland Nov. 1 disclosed that she had tested positive for traces of cocaine in July at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club at Wimbledon, England. She said she was “100 percent innocent,” but announced her immediate retirement from the sport, citing separate health problems and a desire to avoid a long legal fight over the drug accusation. [See 2006, p. 499C2] † Henin Oct. 21 beat Tatiana Golovin of France, 6–4, 6–4, in the final of the Zurich Open in Switzerland. „

Soccer Kaka, Marta Named Top Players. The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), world soccer’s governing body, Dec. 17 named Brazilian midfielder Kaka, who played for Italian club AC Milan, the men’s world player of the year. Brazilian midfielder Marta was named the women’s

world player of the year for the second time in a row. [See below, p. 901B1; 2006, p. 986A2] Other News—In other international soccer news: † Italian Fabio Capello Dec. 14 was named the new coach of England’s national team. He succeeded Steve McClaren, an Englishman, who had been fired Nov. 22, one day after England had lost to Croatia, 3–2, and failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championship. [See 2006, p. 422D2] † FIFA Oct. 30 awarded five-time winner Brazil the rights to host the 2014 World Cup. † Controversial Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho, who had led English Premier League team Chelsea to success but had also clashed with billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich, resigned Sept. 19. The team’s director of football, Avram Grant, an Israeli, Sept. 20 was named Mourinho’s replacement. [See p. 150E2; 2006, p. 422D1; 2004, p. 413F2] † Brazil July 15 beat Argentina, 3–0, in Maracaibo, Venezuela, to win the Copa America, the championship of South American soccer. Brazil won for the second straight time and the eighth time in the tournament’s history, despite the absence of many high-profile star players. [See 2004, p. 1039D1] † The U.S. June 24 won the Gold Cup, the championship of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), defeating Mexico, 2–1, in Chicago. [See 2005, p. 531D2] † Real Madrid June 17 won the Spanish Primera Liga title with a 3–1 victory over Mallorca in Madrid. [See 2006, p. 422C1] † AC Milan May 23 defeated Liverpool, 2–1, to win the Champions League, the most prestigious club competition in Europe, in Athens, Greece. [See 2006, p. 421B3] † Chelsea May 19 won England’s Football Association (FA) Cup at the refurbished Wembley Stadium in London, defeating Manchester United, 1–0. Didier Drogba scored the game-winning goal in extra time. [See 2006, p. 422F2] † VfB Stuttgart May 19 won Germany’s Bundesliga title for the first time in 15 years. It clinched the title when it defeated Energie Cottbus, 2–1. [See 2006, p. 422B1] † The U.S. national team May 16 removed the “interim” tag from coach Bob Bradley’s title. [See 2006, p. 967B2] † Spanish club Sevilla May 16 won the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Cup, beating Spanish rival Espanyol, 3–1, on penalties, after the two teams played to a 2–2 draw in regulation and extra time in Glasgow, Scotland. [See 2006, p. 422A1] † Manchester United May 6 clinched the English Premier League title when second-place Chelsea tied Arsenal, 1–1. Manchester United the previous day had FACTS ON FILE

defeated Manchester City, 1–0. [See 2006, p. 422D1] † Inter Milan April 22 clinched Italy’s Serie A title when it defeated Siena, 2–1. The season ended May 27. [See 2006, p. 421E3] „ Germany Wins Women’s World Cup. Germany Sept. 30 defeated Brazil, 2–0, in the final of the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament at Hongkou Football Stadium in Shanghai, China. The Germans became the first women’s team to successfully defend a major soccer title, having won the 2003 World Cup. They did not give up a single goal in the tournament. [See 2003, p. 881A2] Birgit Prinz and Simone Laudehr scored for Germany in the final’s second half. In the 64th minute, Brazil’s Marta, named the tournament’s most valuable player, had a penalty kick stopped by German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer. [See p. 900G2] The U.S. Sept. 30 had taken third place in the World Cup by defeating Norway, 4–1, in Hongkou stadium. Abby Wambach scored twice, and Lori Chalupny and Heather O’Reilly each scored once. Ragnhild Gulbrandsen scored for Norway in the 63rd minute. Germany Sept. 26 in Tianjin, China, had reached the finals with a 3–0 victory over Norway. The U.S. Sept. 27 had suffered its worst defeat in World Cup competition when it lost to Brazil, 4–0, in its semifinal match in Hangzhou. Shortly before the match, U.S. coach Greg Ryan had replaced starting goalkeeper Hope Solo with veteran Briana Scurry. Afterward, in comments to the press, Solo criticized Ryan’s decision, and the conflict prevented her from playing in the thirdplace match. U.S. Coach Replaced—The U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) Oct. 22 announced that Ryan’s coaching contract with the U.S. national team would not be renewed. The USSF Nov. 13 named Pia Sundhage of Sweden, who had coached in the U.S. in the now-defunct Women’s United Soccer Association, to lead the team through the 2008 Olympic Games. „ Houston Repeats as MLS Champions. The Houston Dynamo Nov. 18 defeated the New England Revolution, 2–1, at Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C., to win the MLS Cup, the championship of Major League Soccer (MLS). The Dynamo claimed their second consecutive MLS Cup, while the Revolution lost their third straight title match. [See 2006, p. 941E3] The league had ended its regular season Oct. 21 with D.C. United (16 wins, seven losses and seven ties) and Chivas USA (15– 7–8) atop the Eastern and Western conferences, respectively. New England (14–8– 8) and Houston (15–7–8) both finished second in their conference standings. New England Nov. 8 beat the Chicago Fire, 1–0, to win the Eastern Conference championship, while Houston Nov. 10 beat the Kansas City Wizards, 2–0, in the Western Conference final. In the championship game, Houston forward Brian Ching, the MLS Cup’s most December 31, 2007

valuable player (MVP) in 2006, was sidelined due to a calf injury he suffered in the match against Kansas City. New England took the lead early in the contest with a goal from forward Taylor Twellman, his third of the postseason. The Dynamo pulled even when Dwayne De Rosario’s cross pass to Joseph Ngwenya led to a score in the 61st minute. Later in the second half, De Rosario used his head to power the ball past the Revolution keeper, Matt Reis. The goal put Houston ahead of New England, 2–1, for the remainder of the match. De Rosario was named MLS Cup most valuable player. He had scored the gamewinning goal in the 2001 MLS Cup for the San Jose Earthquakes, making him the first player in league history to accomplish that feat twice. [See 2001, p. 991G1] D.C.’s Emilio Named League MVP—

D.C. United forward Luciano Emilio Nov. 15 was named the league’s MVP for 2007. Emilio, a Brazilian national, scored 20 goals during his first season in the league. Two days later, he also won the newcomer of the year award. In other MLS honors: † Chivas USA’s Brad Guzan Oct. 31 was named MLS goalkeeper of the year. His team allowed only 28 goals in the 2007 season, the second-lowest season total in league history. † New England’s Michael Pakhurst Nov. 5 captured the league’s defender of the year award. † Midfielder Maurice Edu of Toronto FC Nov. 7 was chosen MLS rookie of the year. He scored four goals on a team that finished with the league’s worst record. † Chivas’s Preki Nov. 7 was named MLS coach of the year. He had replaced Bob Bradley, who won the award in 2006, when Bradley left to coach the U.S. national team. Chivas finished the season just two points behind league-leading D.C. United. [See p. 900F3] Beckham Injury Ends Debut Season—

English star midfielder David Beckham, who had signed a record deal in January, July 13 joined the Los Angeles Galaxy. The much-hyped arrival of Beckham was marred by a nagging ankle injury that forced him to miss seven of his first games. [See p. 391G1] The Galaxy Aug. 29 faced Pachua of Mexico in the SuperLiga title match, a competition that included both Mexican and MLS teams. During the first half, Beckham was involved in a collision that injured his right knee. A day later, he was diagnosed with a sprain that would end his season. After the Galaxy failed to earn even a playoff spot, Frank Yallop Nov. 5 stepped down as their head coach. The team Nov. 8 hired Ruud Gullit, a 45-year-old Dutchman, as his replacement. [See below] League to Expand in Next Two Years— The San Jose Earthquakes, a MLS returning

franchise, Nov. 21 selected 10 players in the league’s expansion draft. The Earthquakes had moved to Houston, Texas, as the Dynamo, in 2005, but would come back

into existence in 2008 as one of seven clubs in the Western conference. The team Nov. 5 had named Yallop as its head coach. [See 2006, p. 159C2] MLS Commissioner Don Garber Nov. 13 announced that Paul Allen, a cofounder of software giant Microsoft Corp., had been awarded an expansion franchise in Seattle, Wash., for the 2009 season. Allen already owned the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League and the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. The team would play at Qwest Field, home of the Seahawks. Red Bulls Hire New Coach—The New York Red Bulls Dec. 19 hired Juan Carlos Osorio as their new head coach. He had resigned from the same position at the Chicago Fire just nine days earlier. Osorio replaced former U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena, who Nov. 5 had stepped down as the Red Bulls’ coach and sporting director after the team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the second consecutive year. [See 2006, p. 588D1] „ Wake Forest, USC Win NCAA Titles. The Wake Forest Demon Deacons Dec. 16 won the College Cup, the championship of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s soccer, in Cary, N.C., defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes, 2–1. It was Wake Forest’s first men’s soccer title. Zack Schilawski scored the winning goal in the 77th minute. [See 2006, p. 942C2] In the semifinals, Wake Forest Dec. 14 had defeated Virginia Tech, 2–0, and Ohio State that day beat the University of Massachusetts, 1–0. Trojans Capture Women’s Title—The University of Southern California (USC) Trojans Dec. 9 defeated the Florida State Seminoles, 2–0, in College Station, Texas, to win the women’s College Cup. Marihelen Tomer and Janessa Currier scored for the Trojans to propel them to their first NCAA women’s title. USC Dec. 7 had defeated the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), 2–1, to advance to the final. Florida State that day beat Notre Dame, 3–2. „

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Track and Field IOC Strips Jones of Medals. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Dec. 12

stripped U.S. sprinter Marion Jones of the five medals—three golds and two bronzes—that she had won in the 2000 Summer Olympics, and removed her name from the record books. Jones in October had admitted in court that she made false statements to federal agents when she denied taking performance-enhancing drugs. She later voluntarily relinquished her medals. [See p. 675A3] The IOC also barred Jones from attending in any capacity the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The IOC had yet to make a decision on if and how it would redistribute her medals. Jones had won a gold and a bronze in relay races; the IOC postponed a decision on whether to strip her relay teammates of their medals.

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The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the sport’s governing body, Nov. 23 had recommended that the teammates be disqualified. The IOC was also grappling with whether to award Jones’s gold medal in the 100 meters to Ekaterini Thanou of Greece, who had placed second. Thanou in December 2006 had finished serving a two-year ban for missing three drug tests prior to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. IOC officials Nov. 15 had said that the gold-medal spot could be left vacant. The IAAF Nov. 23 had annulled Jones’s results in all competitions dating from September 2000. The governing body also asked Jones to return some $700,000 in prize money. Other News—In other track and field news: † A three-member arbitration panel Dec. 14 ruled in favor of sprinter LaTasha Jenkins, whom the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) had sought to ban for testing positive for the steroid nandrolone in 2006. The panel ruled that the European laboratories that had handled her samples had violated international testing standards. It was the first time the USADA lost an arbitration case. † The British Olympic Association Nov. 27 said an arbitration panel had cleared sprinter Christine Ohuruogu to compete in the Beijing Olympics, lifting a lifetime Olympic ban. In August, Ohuruogu had won the women’s 400 meters at the IAAF World Track & Field Championships, soon after returning from a one-year ban for missing three out-of-competition drug tests. [See p. 583B1] „

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NHL Season Opens in London. The National Hockey League (NHL) season opened Sept. 29, with the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks losing to the Los Angeles Kings, 4–1, in London’s O2 Arena (which was owned by Kings owner Philip Anschutz). It was the first time the NHL had opened its season in Europe, and the fourth time outside of North America (it had opened in Japan in 1997, 1998 and 2000). In the second game of the two-game series in London, Anaheim Sept. 30 beat Los Angeles, 4–1. Both games were sellouts. The rest of the league’s teams opened their seasons Oct. 3–5. [See pp. 503F1, 371B2; 2000, p. 814A2] Other News—In other NHL news: † The NHL Dec. 19 suspended New York Islanders forward Chris Simon for 30 games. The punishment—the longest ever for an on-ice incident—was for a confrontation in a Dec. 15 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in which he tripped forward Jarkko Ruutu and then stepped on his foot. The Islanders Dec. 17 had placed him on an indefinite leave of absence. Simon had previously been suspended seven times in his career for violent on-ice incidents, most recently in March, when he was banned for 25 games. Islanders owner 902

Charles Wang Dec. 17 said Simon would undergo counseling. [See p. 271B1] † The Philadelphia Flyers Dec. 13 agreed to a 12-year, $69 million contract extension with center Mike Richards, one of the longest deals in league history. [See 2006, p. 807A3] † The NHL board of governors Nov. 29 approved the purchase of the Nashville Predators by a Nashville, Tenn.–based group led by David Freeman. Former owner Craig Leipold had agreed to sell the team for $193 million. † The Washington Capitals Nov. 22 fired coach Glen Hanlon, after the team opened the season with a 6–14–1 record, the worst in the NHL. Bruce Boudreau, a former coach of the team’s minor-league affiliate, took over as interim coach. The Capitals Dec. 26 made Boudreau their fulltime head coach. [See 2003, p. 1099E2] † Center Eric Lindros, the most valuable player (MVP) of the 1994–95 season, Nov. 8 announced his retirement. Lindros, 34, played for four teams in his 13-year career, but was forced to retire after failing to recover from a series of concussions. [See 2004, p. 194B3] † NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman Nov. 1 extended a ban on Rick Tocchet, a former assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes, until Feb. 7, 2008. Tocchet Aug. 17 had received two years’ probation for his role in a sports gambling ring. He had been on an indefinite leave of absence from the league since the ring was discovered in February 2006. [See 2006, p. 671F3] † The Atlanta Thrashers Oct. 17 fired coach Bob Hartley, after the team started the season with an 0–6 record. General manager Don Waddell assumed the coaching duties. [See 2003, p. 318G2] † The NHL Players’ Association (NHLPA), the players’ union, Oct. 15 confirmed Paul Kelly, a Boston-based lawyer, as its new executive director. He replaced Ted Saskin, who had been fired in May for secretly accessing players’ private e-mail accounts. The NHLPA Oct. 30 ratified a new constitution, which altered the way the union was governed. It abolished the union’s seven-member executive committee, and replaced it with a committee of player representatives from each of the league’s 30 teams. The union Nov. 11 named Lindros as its inaugural ombudsman. [See p. 503E3] † A group of investors led by former Florida Panthers coach Doug MacLean and business partner Jeff Sherrin Aug. 7 reached a deal to purchase the Tampa Bay Lightning for a reported $206 million from Palace Sports and Entertainment, a group led by Bill Davidson, who also owned the National Basketball Association’s Detroit Pistons. [See 2004, p. 450E2] „

Women’s Basketball Mercury Wins WNBA Title. The Phoenix Mercury Sept. 16 defeated the defending champion Detroit Shock, 108–92, in Au-

burn Hills, Mich., to win its first Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) title. The Mercury won the best-of-five finals series, three games to two. The Mercury, coached by Paul Westhead, was the first team to win the title from the road. [See 2006, p. 831E2] Phoenix guard Cappie Pondexter, who scored 26 points in the final game, was named the most valuable player (MVP) of the series. Detroit Sept. 5 took the first game of the series, played in Auburn Hills, 108–100. Phoenix Sept. 8 won the second game, 98– 70. Detroit Sept. 11 came back to take the third game, 88–83, in Phoenix, Ariz., but the Mercury Sept. 13 forced a deciding game with a 77–76 victory. The WNBA had begun its 11th season May 19. The Shock that day won its first game, against the Sacramento Monarchs, 75–68. Conference Finals Results—The Shock Sept. 3 defeated the Indiana Fever, 81–65, in Auburn Hills to win the best-of-three Eastern Conference Finals, two games to one. Detroit’s Deanna Nolan scored a franchise playoff-record 30 points. The Fever Aug. 31 had claimed the first game, 75–65, in Indianapolis, Ind. Detroit Sept. 2 evened the series with a 77–63 win at home. The Mercury Sept. 1 beat the San Antonio Silver Stars, 98–92, at home in the second and decisive game of the Western Conference Finals. The Mercury Aug. 30 had won the first game, 102–100, in San Antonio, Texas. Jackson Named MVP—Forward Lauren Jackson of the Seattle Storm Sept. 5 won the league’s MVP award for the second time in her career. Jackson led the league in both scoring (23.8 points per game) and rebounds (9.7 per game). In other WNBA awards, Chicago Sky guard Armintie Price Sept. 8 was named the league’s rookie of the year, and San Antonio’s Dan Hughes was named coach of the year. Other News—In other WNBA news: † The Eastern Conference July 15 won the WNBA All-Star Game for the second straight year, beating the Western Conference, 103–99, in Washington, D.C. Shock forward Cheryl Ford took home the game’s MVP award for the East, with 16 points, 13 rebounds and five assists. [See 2006, p. 831D3] † Marynell Meadors, one of the WNBA’s eight original coaches, Nov. 28 was named coach and general manager of a new, as-yet unnamed new franchise in Atlanta, Ga. † Six-time WNBA All-Star Chamique Holdsclaw of the Los Angeles Sparks June 11 announced her retirement. [See 2004, p. 920A1] † Washington Mystics coach Richie Adubato June 1 resigned. † In the league’s draft , held April 4, the Mercury chose former Duke University point guard Lindsey Harding as the first pick but immediately traded her to the Minnesota Lynx for forward Tangela Smith. „ FACTS ON FILE

Boxing Mayweather Retains WBC Belt. Floyd May-

weather Jr. of the U.S. Dec. 8 defeated Britain’s Ricky Hatton to retain his World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight title in Las Vegas, Nev. Referee Joe Cortez stopped the fight in the 10th round after Mayweather knocked down Hatton with a crushing left hook. The win in the battle of undefeated boxers improved Mayweather’s record to 39 wins and no losses and furthered his claim as the best pound-forpound fighter in the world. [See p. 355G3] Hatton, in his second bout as a welterweight, appeased the thousands of British fans in attendance by landing some early big punches. Mayweather, 30, gained control of the fight in the sixth round after Hatton was deducted a point for a blow to the back of the neck. Mayweather continued to land a high percentage of punches before knocking Hatton down twice in the 10th round. Mayweather led on all the judges’ scorecards when the fight was stopped. Hatton, 29, had emerged as a potential challenger to Mayweather earlier in the year with a pair of impressive victories in high-profile Las Vegas bouts. On Jan. 20, he had defeated International Boxing Federation (IBF) light-welterweight champion Juan Urango of Colombia on points to regain the title. Hatton June 23 retained his International Boxing Organization (IBO) junior welterweight title with a fourthround knockout of Jose Luis Castillo of Mexico. Other News—In other boxing news: † Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico Nov. 10 won a unanimous decision over the U.S.’s Shane Mosley to retain his World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight title at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Cotto June 9 had defeated Zab Judah when the fight was stopped in the 11th round. Cotto, who now touted a record of 30–0, might challenge Mayweather next. † World Boxing Organization (WBO) super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe of Wales Nov. 3 defeated Mikkel Kessler of Denmark by a unanimous decision to capture the WBA and WBC titles in Cardiff, Wales. The undefeated Calzaghe Nov. 5 challenged Bernard Hopkins to a match in the light-heavyweight division. The 42-year-old Hopkins July 21 had scored a unanimous decision victory over Winky Wright in Las Vegas. [See 2006, p. 358C3] † Sultan Ibragimov of Russia, 32, Oct. 13 won a unanimous decision over the U.S.’s Evander Holyfield to retain his WBO heavyweight title in Moscow. Holyfield, who had sought his fifth heavyweight title, six days later turned 45 years old. [See 2006, p. 1038C1] † Mosley Sept. 28 denied allegations that he had used designer steroids linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), a Northern California nutritional supplement company. Jeff Novitzky, a lead investigator in the BALCO scandal, claimed that Mosley used the performance-enhancDecember 31, 2007

ing drugs while training for his 2003 fight with Oscar De La Hoya, Sports Illustrated reported on its Web site. [See p. 833E3; 2004, p. 130F3] † Wladimir Klitschko of Ukraine July 7 retained his IBF and IBO heavyweight titles with a win over Lamon Brewster in Cologne, Germany. Klitschko’s trainer the next day reported that he broke the middle finger on his left hand during the fight. Klitschko March 10 had stopped Ray Austin in the second round. [See 2006, p. 358F2] † Tommy Morrison Feb. 22 returned to the ring with a win over John Castle in Chester, W.Va. Morrison, 38, had ended his career in 1996 after he tested positive for HIV, the virus that caused AIDS. The New York Times July 22 reported that the former WBO heavyweight champion had taken two blood tests earlier in the year to back his claim that the original diagnosis was incorrect. [See 1996, p. 111C3] „

Auto Racing Raikkonen Wins Formula One Title. Kimi Raikkonen of Finland Oct. 21 clinched the Formula One automobile racing title when he won the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo. Raikkonen, who drove for Ferrari, had begun the race in third place in the drivers’ standings, but vaulted past the top two drivers, McLaren Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton of Britain and Fernando Alonso of Spain, the defending champion. Alonso placed third in the race, and Hamilton placed seventh. Raikkonen finished the season with 110 points in the drivers’ standings, one point ahead of both Hamilton and Alonso. [See below; 2006, p. 831D1] McLaren Penalized for Spying—The McLaren Mercedes team Sept. 13 was fined $100 million and barred for the current season’s race for the constructor’s title after being found guilty of spying on rival Ferrari. The penalties, imposed by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and its World Motor Sport Council (WMSC), the sport’s governing body, were the largest in the history of Formula One. However, neither of McLaren’s two drivers, Hamilton and Alonso, were penalized. McLaren Dec. 13 apologized for its actions. „

Horse Racing Fallon, Others Cleared of Race-Fixing.

A British judge Dec. 7 cleared Irish champion jockey Kieren Fallon and five others of conspiring to throw horse races, leaving him free to resume his career after 17 months of suspension from British competition. [See p. 855G3; 2006, p. 687B3] Fallon and his codefendants had gone on trial Oct. 8 for conspiring to defraud customers of an Internet gambling agency, following a long investigation costing upward of $6 million. The judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence before they were called to testify. Expert racing steward Ray Murrihy, an Australian who was the prosecution’s main witness, during the trial admitted ignorance of British racing

rules and culture. The City of London Police, which brought the charges, Dec. 13 said it would launch an internal review of the investigation and trial. Along with Fallon, the defendants were jockeys Fergal Lynch and Darren Williams; Lynch’s brother Shaun Lynch; barman Philip Sherkle; and professional gambler Miles Rodgers. It was reported Dec. 8 in British newspapers that Fallon had tested positive for a metabolite of cocaine at an Aug. 19 race in Deauville, France. Results of a test on the jockey’s alternate, or “B,” sample Dec. 18 confirmed the finding, subjecting him to an investigation by French authorities that could ban him from the sport once again. In July, he had finished serving a six-month ban for a similar infraction. „

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Other Sports News News in Brief. The Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Dec. 24 fired coach Scott Skiles, after the

team started the season with a record of nine wins and 16 losses. Assistant Pete Myers took over as head coach on an interim basis. Madison Square Garden (MSG), which owned the NBA’s New York Knicks, and Knicks coach Isiah Thomas Dec. 10 agreed to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former senior executive Anucha Browne Sanders. A federal jury in New York City in October had ordered MSG and its chairman James Dolan to pay Browne Sanders $11.6 million in punitive damages. The settlement, under which MSG reportedly agreed to pay Browne Sanders $11.5 million—including $4 million in legal fees—came days before the parties were scheduled to appear in front of U.S. District Judge Gerard Lynch in New York City, who was set to rule on compensatory damages. The settlement avoided the possibility that MSG would have to pay millions more in such damages, as well as the potential reduction of Browne Sanders’s award by the judge. [See p. 815G2] Kazakhstan’s cycling federation Dec. 6 banned cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov, 34, from the sport for one year for testing positive for blood doping at the Tour de France in July. The former star rider the next day said he was retiring from cycling. In a related development, T-Mobile, which was owned by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG, Nov. 27 had ended its team sponsorship after 16 years due to the sport’s drug problems. [See pp. 568F1, 501D3] Sri Lankan spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan, 35, Dec. 3 claimed the 709th Test wicket of his career, surpassing the record set by Australia’s Shane Warne, who had retired in January. Muralitharan set the record by bowling England’s Paul Collingwood in the first Test in Kandy, Sri Lanka. [See p. 39E3; 2004, p. 1094B1] The Saskatchewan Roughriders Nov. 25 defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 23– 19, to win the 95th Grey Cup, the championship of the Canadian Football League

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(CFL), in Toronto. It was just the third CFL title for Saskatchewan. Roughriders defensive back James Johnson, who had a record three interceptions in the game, was named the most valuable player (MVP). [See 2006, p. 1038G2] America’s Cup Management, the organizers of the America’s Cup, the world’s premier yacht race, Nov. 22 announced that the next edition, set for 2009 in Valencia, Spain, would be postponed. Swiss yacht Alinghi in July had successfully defended its title in Valencia. Soon after its victory, the winners issued a new set of rules, including naming Spain’s Desafio Espanol as the official challenger—a move that angered most other potential challengers. One of those challengers, BMW Oracle Racing, had filed a lawsuit in a New York City state court through the Golden Gate Yacht Club, the club it represented, against Alinghi’s club, Switzerland’s Societe Nautique de Geneve. On Nov. 27, Judge Herman Cahn ruled in favor of Golden Gate, allowing it to become the challenger of record and to negotiate the rules of the next America’s Cup with Alinghi. [See p. 471G1] Australian lawyer and former politician James Fahey Nov. 17 was elected to succeed Canada’s Dick Pound as chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), an independent agency charged with combating the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports worldwide. Pound’s term expired Dec. 31; he had led the organization since its founding in 1999. [See 2003, p. 226B2] The International Swimming Federation (FINA) had cleared retired Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe of allegations of doping, it was reported Nov. 8. A French newspaper in March had reported that Thorpe had been found to have “abnormal levels” of two naturally occurring substances—testosterone and leutenizing hormone—in his system in tests conducted in May 2006. Australian doping authorities had also concluded that there was not a case against Thorpe. [See p. 340B2] Croatian alpine skier Janica Kostelic, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, April 19 announced her retirement at the age of 25. Kostelic said she had “suffered so many injuries and pain” and did not “want to go through this again.” [See 2006, p. 251E2] Paralympic

swimmer

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April 11 won the 77th Sullivan Award as the U.S.’s top amateur athlete of 2006. Long, 15, had won nine gold medals at the 2006 International Paralympic Committee Swimming World Championships in Durban, South Africa. She also held the world record in 12 events. Long was the first paralympian to win the award. [See 2006, p. 335G3] University of Texas freshman guard Kevin Durant April 7 won the men’s John R. Wooden Award as the top player in college basketball. He was the first freshman to win the award. University of Tennessee sophomore forward Candace Parker, who had helped her team win the Naitonal Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) title 904

earlier in April, that day won the women’s Wooden Award. [See p. 214A3; 2006, p. 335F3] „

ARTS & SCIENCES

UNITED STATES

Arts NYC, Tokyo Get New Museums. New York City’s New Museum of Contemporary Art Dec. 1 opened in a new home, a seven-story building that resembled a pile of blocks stacked dangerously on top of each other. It was designed by two Japanese architects, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, and was built for a relatively modest $50 million. A new Tokyo facility, the $290 million National Arts Center, had opened Jan. 21. It was designed by Kisho Kurokawa and had a striking facade of waves of glass based on computer-rendered imagery of natural vistas. Unlike Japan’s older national art museums, it had no permanent collection of its own; most of its space would be rented by Japanese arts groups to showcase their members’ work. „ Seattle Arts Park Opened. The Olympic Sculpture Park, a new public-art space linking downtown Seattle, Wash., to its waterfront, opened Jan. 20. The $85 million park, run by the Seattle Art Museum, was designed by architects Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi. The museum May 5 unveiled an $86 million renovation and expansion of its 1991 building, designed by architect Brad Cloepfil. „ Detroit Museum Expansion Opens. The Detroit Institute of Arts, in downtown Detroit, Mich., Nov. 23 reopened after the completion of a six-year, $158 million expansion and renovation project by architect Michael Graves. Although gallery space was increased by 30%, the expansion was mainly intended to make the museum more navigable, and to add new educational facilities for visitors. Other Expansions and Renovations—In other news about expansions and renovations of arts facilities: † A show of rarely seen 19th-century Spanish art inaugurated the $219 million expansion of Madrid, Spain’s Prado art museum, unveiled Oct. 31. Designed by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, the expansion added considerable space to the rear of the building, as well as underground. Its brick, glass and stone exterior had an austere feel to it. † London’s Royal Festival Hall, the home of four orchestras—the London Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment—reopened to the public June 11 after a two-year, £111 million ($220 million) renovation. The reopening was marked by a gala concert featuring all four of the hall’s orchestras. † Kansas City, Mo.’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art June 9 unveiled the Bloch Building, a $196 million addition to its 1933 main building. The new structure, designed by architect Steven Holl, consisted

of five glass blocks, illuminated by highefficiency fluorescent bulbs and sunken into the eastern edge of the lawn sloping down from the museum’s south entrance. † New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art April 20 unveiled 30,000 square feet (2,700 sq m) of new space in a $220 million expansion of its galleries of ancient Greek and Roman art that more than doubled the size of those galleries. „ Sculpture Fetches $57.2 Million. A tiny limestone figurine from ancient Mesopotamia, known as the Guennol Lioness and believed to be at least 5,000 years old, Dec. 5 at Sotheby’s Holding Inc. in New York City fetched $57.2 million, the most ever paid for a sculpture at auction; the previous record had been for Pablo Picasso’s Tete de Femme (Head of a Woman) (1941), a bust of his mistress Dora Maar, which Nov. 7 fetched $29.1 million at Sotheby’s in New York. The price for the lioness was also the most ever paid for an antiquity at auction, eclipsing the $28.6 million paid June 7 at Sotheby’s in New York for an ancient Roman bronze sculpture of the goddess Artemis. Bought by an unidentified Briton, the Guennol Lioness had belonged to Alastair Martin and his wife, Edith Martin, and had been on loan to New York City’s Brooklyn Museum of Art since 1948. Other Auction News—In other auction news: † British artist Damien Hirst, 42, set a new auction record for a living artist June 21, when his Lullaby Spring (2002), a stainless-steel cabinet filled with more than 6,000 painted, bronze cast pills, sold for £9.6 million ($19.3 million) at Sotheby’s in London. That record was tied Nov. 13 when 75-year-old British artist Lucian Freud’s Ib and Her Husband, a 1992 portrait, fetched $19.3 million at a Christie’s International PLC auction in New York. The old record had been the $17.4 million paid for Jasper Johns’s 1959 painting Figure 4 May 16. [See 1988, p. 924B1] † A new auction record for a work of contemporary art was set May 15 at Sotheby’s in New York when Mark Rothko’s painting White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) (1950) fetched $72.8 million. That was nearly equaled the following night at Christie’s in New York, when Andy Warhol’s Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) (1963), one of a series of disaster paintings, was bought for $71.7 million. † German photographer Andreas Gursky’s 99 cent II, Diptych (2001) Feb. 7 at Sotheby’s in London fetched £1.7 million ($3.3 million), breaking the $3 million auction-price barrier for a photographer. An Edward Steichen image that fetched $2.9 million in February 2006 had been the previous highest-priced photograph at auction. [See 2006, p. 1040B1] „ Hirst Skull Fetches £50 Million. A diamondencrusted platinum cast of a human skull by British artist Damien Hirst had been sold to an investment group for £50 million ($100 million), a spokesperson for White Cube, the London gallery representing Hirst, said FACTS ON FILE

Aug. 30. The work, which the gallery had unveiled June 1, was called For the Love of God. It was later reported that Hirst himself had been part of the investment group that bought the skull, and that the group planned to resell the work. „ Italy, Getty Museum in Antiquities Pact.

The Italian Culture Ministry and Los Angeles’s J. Paul Getty Museum Sept. 25 in Rome signed an agreement that resolved a long-standing dispute over antiquities in the Getty collection that the Italian government claimed had been looted from Italy. The agreement had been reached Aug. 1. Under the deal, the Getty agreed to return 40 of 46 disputed antiquities, including a statue of Aphrodite that was the signature piece at the villa that housed the Getty’s ancient art collection. By mid-December, 39 of the pieces had been returned; the Aphrodite statue would remain at the Getty until 2010. [See 2006, p. 1040C1] On Dec. 14, Italian authorities formally dropped civil charges against Marion True, 58, a former curator of antiquities at the Getty, regarding the 40 artifacts that the Getty had agreed to return. Civil claims remained in effect with respect to several other artifacts. True, 58, and U.S. antiquities dealer Robert E. Hecht Jr., 88, were still on trial in Rome on criminal charges of conspiracy to acquire looted artifacts. [See 2005, p. 995B1] Meanwhile, the Greek government Nov. 27 had dismissed criminal charges against True, who had been accused of illegally acquiring an ancient gold wreath. The wreath had been returned to Greece in March by the Getty, in accordance with the terms of a December 2006 pact. „ Yale to Return Peruvian Artifacts. Yale University officials and delegates from Peru Sept. 14 in New Haven, Conn., signed an agreement that would return to Peru more than 350 artifacts deemed to be of museum quality, as well as several thousand objects of lesser value. The artifacts had been moved to Yale after being excavated from the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu by a team led by archaeologist and Yale University professor Hiram Bingham 3rd, credited with rediscovering Machu Picchu in 1911. Under the agreement, Peru would build a museum and research center in the city of Cuzco, where many of the artifacts would be housed—some would remain at Yale—after touring internationally. Yale would serve as an adviser for the museum, scheduled to open in 2011. [See 1997, p. 672C2; 1956, p. 195B3] Other Arts News—In other arts news: † The Art Institute of Chicago Dec. 11 said The Faun, a stoneware sculpture of a half-man, half-goat figure attributed to 19th-century French artist Paul Gauguin that it had bought in 1997, had been created in the 1990s by convicted British art forger Shaun Greenhalgh. After pleading guilty to fraud, Greenhalgh, 47, Nov. 16 in Bolton, England, had been sentenced to nearly five years in prison. His mother, Olive Greenhalgh, 83, that same day received a suspended 12-month sentence for conspiracy to defraud; sentencing was deferred, pendDecember 31, 2007

ing a medical evaluation, for his wheelchair-bound father, George Greenhalgh, 84. † The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Dec. 12 said it had been promised a gift of 130 works by major, mostly modern artists, including 20 by Pablo Picasso. The donors were Henri Lazarof, a Bulgarian-born composer and longtime Los Angeles resident, and his wife, Janice Lazarof. For tax purposes, the Lazarofs would transfer ownership of the pieces to LACMA in stages. † The historic Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany, reopened to the public Oct. 24 after extensive restorations, following a 2004 fire that destroyed about 50,000 books. [See 2004, p. 1096D2] † A small painting by Leonardo da Vinci stolen from a Scottish castle in 2003 had been recovered by Scottish detectives, it was announced Oct. 4. The painting was known as Madonna of the Yarnwinder. [See 2003, p. 1106A1] † The Library of Congress July 26 officially took possession of a Culpeper, Va., facility that would house all four million pieces of its film, television and sound collection. The new facility, the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, had been financed by an $82 million congressional appropriation, supplemented by a $155 million gift from David Woodley Packard, whose father cofounded electronics and computer giant Hewlett-Packard Co., and the Packard Humanities Institute. [See 1996, p. 212F3] † The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art had purchased the iconic medical painting Portrait of Professor Benjamin S. Rand (1874), by U.S. painter Thomas Eakins, from Philadelphia, Pa., medical school Thomas Jefferson University, it was reported April 12. The Arkansas museum, founded by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. heiress Alice Walton, reportedly paid $20 million for the painting. The museum in 2006 had unsuccessfully attempted to buy another Eakins painting, The Gross Clinic. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, one of two museums on behalf of which The Gross Clinic had been bought by the city of Philadelphia, Jan. 31 had announced that it had sold The Cello Player, an 1896 Eakins painting it had owned since 1897, to help pay for The Gross Clinic. „ British Pianist’s Widower Admits Fraud.

Sound engineer William Barrington-Coupe, the widower of British pianist Joyce Hatto, who died in 2006 at age 77, had admitted that he had plagiarized recordings by other pianists before issuing them under his wife’s name, it was reported Feb. 26. After illness forced Hatto to retire from the concert stage in 1976, she eventually released more than 100 compact discs on Concert Artist, a small label owned by her husband. After her death, on the strength of those recordings, she had been hailed as a major artist who should have been much better known in her lifetime. [See 2006, p. 656A3] Barrington-Coupe, 76, admitted to fraud in a letter to BIS Records posted Feb. 26 on

the Web site of Gramophone, a British music magazine. He had used his sound-technology expertise to subtly alter recorded performances by other artists. His fraud was unmasked after U.S. financial analyst Brian Ventura loaded Hatto’s version of Franz Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes into his computer, only to have it identified by an online database as a 1987 recording of that work by Hungarian pianist Laszlo Simon. Ventura notified Gramophone of his find, and the magazine was able to confirm that plagiarism had been committed. Barrington-Coupe insisted that Hatto had never known of his fraud. (Some music experts doubted that claim.) Experts concluded that Hatto’s last genuine recording had probably been released in 1971. „

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N.J. Orchestra Sells Rare Instruments.

The Newark, N.J.–based New Jersey Symphony Orchestra had agreed to sell, for $20 million, a collection of 30 rare violins and other stringed instruments that the orchestra had acquired for $18 million in 2003, it was reported Nov. 23. The instruments would be sold to an investment group headed by twin financiers Seth and Brook Taube. Questions about the true value of the collection, whose purchase had mired the orchestra in debt, had later been raised, and the man the orchestra had bought it from, musical philanthropist Herbert Axelrod, had gone to prison in 2005 on unrelated tax-fraud charges. [See 2005, p. 272C3] Under the terms of the deal, the Taube group would pay $20 million up front, as well as a share of the profits from future sales of the instruments. Also, the orchestra would retain playing rights to 28 of the instruments for at least five years. The sale reportedly left the orchestra debt-free. „

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Glass’s Civil War Opera Premieres in S.F.

The world premiere of composer Philip Glass’s opera Appomattox, about the close and aftermath of the U.S. Civil War, was staged Oct. 6 by the San Francisco Opera; the libretto was by British playwright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton. The U.S. premiere of Glass’s opera Waiting for the Barbarians, based on a novel by 2003 Nobel literature laureate J.M. Coetzee as adapted by Hampton, had been presented Jan. 19 in Austin, Texas, by the Austin Lyric Opera. The latter work had its world premiere in 2005 in Erfurt, Germany. [See 2003, p. 819G1] Other News—In other opera news: † The world premiere of The Refuge, a dramatic oratorio about the ordeals faced by recent immigrants to Houston, Texas, was presented Nov. 10 by the Houston Grand Opera. The work was composed by Christopher Theofanidis; its libretto was by Leah Lax. It was the 36th world premiere by the company, and marked the 20th anniversary of its Wortham Theater Center. † Phaedra, the most recent opera by German composer Hans Werner Henze, 81, had its world premiere Sept. 6 at Berlin, Germany’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden, one of four arts organizations that had commissioned the work, based on classical 905

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Greek mythology. Its librettist was German poet Christian Lehnert. † Poet Li Bai, an opera about one of China’s greatest poets by Chinese composer Guo Wenjing, with libretto by Diana Liao and Xu Ying, debuted July 7 at the Central City Opera House in Central City, Colo. † Le Temps des Gitans (The Time of the Gypsies), an opera based on a 1988 film by Serbian director Emir Kusturica, premiered June 26 at the Bastille Opera in Paris. The work was sung in the Roma language; its score melded Gypsy folk music with hard rock. The music was by Dejan Sparavalo, Nenad Jankovic and Stribor Kusturica, the director’s son; Jankovic wrote the libretto. [See 1995, p. 420E1] † The Florida Grand Opera April 28 concluded its first season at Miami, Fla.’s Carnival Center, a lavish arts facility that opened in 2006, with the world premiere of Anna Karenina, an opera by David Carlson based on Leo Tolstoy’s classic Russian novel of doomed love. The libretto was by British-born opera director and librettist Colin Graham, who died three weeks before the work’s premiere. [See p. 272B2] † Nebraska’s Opera Omaha March 7 staged the world premiere of Anthony Davis’s Wakonda’s Dream, about contemporary Native Americans still suffering the effects of their ancestors’ brief, though traumatic, removal from Nebraska in the late 1870s. The libretto was by awardwinning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, who, like Davis, was black. [See 2001, p. 468F1] † An opera based on John Steinbeck’s classic 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, about a Dust Bowl family displaced from Oklahoma and winding up in California, was premiered Feb. 10 by the Minnesota Opera at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. The music was by Ricky Ian Gordon; the librettist was Michael Korie. [See 1968, p. 602E3] „

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1. Spider-Man 3, Sony ($336.5 million) 2. Shrek the Third, Paramount/DreamWorks ($321.0 million) 3. Transformers, Paramount/DreamWorks ($319.1 million) 4. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Walt Disney ($309.4 million) 5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Warner Bros. ($292.0 million) 6. The Bourne Ultimatum, Universal ($227.5 million) 906

7. 300, Warner Bros. ($210.6 million) 8. Ratatouille, Disney ($206.4 million) 9. I Am Legend, Warner Bros. ($206.1 million)* 10. The Simpsons Movie, 20th Century Fox ($183.1 million) „

Theater Openings August: Osage County. Sprawling drama about a dys-

functional Oklahoma family, recently mounted in Chicago, comes to Broadway with most of its cast intact. By Tracy Letts. Directed by Anna D. Shapiro. With Deanna Dunagan, Amy Morton, Mariann Mayberry, Sally Murphy, Jeff Perry, Kimberly Guerrero and Dennis Letts. In New York City, at the Imperial Theater. Dec. 4. [See p. 600F1] Beckett Shorts. Set of four one-act plays by Samuel Beckett, two of them wordless, and all of them featuring dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. Directed by JoAnne Akalaitis; incidental music by Philip Glass. With Baryshnikov, David Neumann, Bill Camp and Karen Kandel. In New York City, at the New York Theater Workshop. Dec. 18. [See 2000, pp. 1057F1, 980E1] Cymbeline. First Broadway production since 1923 of a late-period play by William Shakespeare whose titular character is a British king who, after his daughter secretly marries her lover, banishes the lover from Britain. Directed by Mark Lamos. With John Cullum, Martha Plimpton, Michael Cerveris and Phylicia Rashad. In New York City, at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater. Dec. 2. The Farnsworth Invention. Historical drama whose two main characters are both key figures in the birth of the medium of television, inventor Philo T. Farnsworth and broadcasting pioneer David Sarnoff. By Aaron Sorkin. Directed by Des McAnuff. With Jimmi Simpson, Hank Azaria, Alexandra Wilson and Nadia Bowers. In New York City, at the Music Box Theater. Dec. 3. [See 1971, p. 1039D2] The Glorious Ones. Musical about a a troupe of touring comedians in 16th-century Italy. Music by Stephen Flaherty; book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; based on the novel by Francine Prose. Directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele. With Marc Kudisch, Erin Davie, Jeremy Webb and Natalie Venetia Belcon. In New York City, at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Nov. 5. The Homecoming. Broadway revival of a play about a professor who returns with his wife to a tormented, allmale English household headed by his father. By Harold Pinter. Directed by Daniel Sullivan. With James Frain, Eve Best, Ian McShane, Raul Esparza, Michael McKean and Gareth Saxe. In New York City, at the Cort Theater. Dec. 16. [See 1967, p. 320E3] Is He Dead? Broadway premiere of an 1898 farce by Mark Twain, unproduced during the author’s lifetime and not rediscovered until 2002, about an artist who fakes his own death to drive up the price of his paintings. Adapted by David Ives. Directed by Michael Blakemore. With Norbert Leo Butz, Byron Jennings, John McMartin, Jenn Gambatese, David Pittu, Michael McGrath, Tom Alan Robbins and Jeremy Bobb. In New York City, at the Lyceum Theater. Dec. 9. Ode to the Man Who Kneels. Musical about a western town called Grid where cowboys vie for the affections of women. Written, composed and directed by Richard Maxwell. With Greg Mehrten, Jim Fletcher, Anna Kohler, Emily Cass McDonnell and Brian Mendes. In New York City, at the Performing Garage. Nov. 1. Peter and Jerry. Double bill of plays by Edward Albee, written many years apart but linked by a character named Peter; the first of these plays, Homelife (2001), is a prequel to the second, The Zoo Story (1958), Albee’s most frequently performed play; in Homelife, a character named Peter interacts with his wife, Ann, before his Zoo Story encounter with a derelict named Jerry. Directed by Pam MacKinnon. With Bill Pullman, Johanna Day and Dallas Roberts. In New York City, at the Second Stage Theater. Nov. 10. Pumpgirl. Interweaving series of monologues by three residents of a provincial Irish town: a female gas-station attendant, an amateur race car driver with whom she has had an affair, and the latter’s long-suffering wife. By Abbie Spallen. Directed by Carolyn Cantor. With Hannah Cabell, Paul Sparks and Geraldine Hughes. In New York City, at the Manhattan Theater Club’s City Center Stage II. Dec. 4. The Seafarer. An Irish play about a Christmas Eve card game, first seen in London in 2006, comes to Broadway. Written and directed by Conor McPherson. With Jim Norton, Conleth Hill, David Morse, Sean

Mahon and Ciaran Hinds. In New York City, at the Booth Theater. Dec. 6. [See 2006, p. 968F1] Trumpery. Drama about evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin in the years leading up to the 1859 publication of his epochal work The Origin of Species. By Peter Parnell. Directed by David Esbjornson. With Michael Cristofer, Manoel Felciano and Bianca Amato. In New York City, at the Atlantic Theater Co.’s Linda Gross Theater. Dec. 5. Tamburlaine. Revival of a seldom-produced 16th-century drama about a rapacious warrior bent on conquering the world. By Christopher Marlowe. Adapted and directed by Michael Kahn. With Avery Brooks, Mia Tagano and Floyd King. In Washington, D.C., at the Shakespeare Theater Co.’s Sidney Harman Hall. Nov. 7. (Harman Hall was the Shakespeare Theater Co.’s new $89 million facility, with 775 seats, and Tamburlaine was its inaugural production. The facility was located near the Shakespeare Theater’s Lansburgh Theater, where the company would continue to present smaller productions.) [See 2006, p. 987A3] Young Frankenstein. Musical based on Mel Brooks’s 1974 cinematic spoof of the monster movie genre. Book by Brooks and Thomas Meehan; music and lyrics by Brooks; based on the story and screenplay by Gene Wilder and Brooks and on the original motion picture by special arrangement with 20th Century Fox. Directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman. With Roger Bart, Megan Mullaly, Sutton Foster, Christopher Fitzgerald, Shuler Hensley and Andrea Martin. In New York City, at the Hilton Theater. Nov. 8. [See 1974, p. 1104C2] „

People After more than 30 years in prison, wouldbe presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore, 77, Dec. 31 was paroled from a low-security federal prison in Dublin, Calif., near San Francisco. Moore had been sentenced to life in prison for a 1975 attempt, in downtown San Francisco, to kill then-President Gerald R. Ford (R). Her attempt had been foiled by a bystander, retired Marine Oliver Sipple, who grabbed her arm as she fired a pistol at Ford, causing the bullet to sail over his head. Her attempt came 17 days after a failed attempt on Ford by another woman, Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme, who remained jailed. Ford died in December 2006. (Sipple died in 1989.) [See 2006, p. 998A3] Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair Dec. 21 formally converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, a long-expected move. Blair was received into the Catholic Church during a mass conducted by the head of the church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, at the cardinal’s London residence. Blair’s wife, Cherie Blair, was a lifelong Catholic, and the couple’s four children had all been brought up as Catholics. [See p. 422G1] Striving to boost its modern photography collection, New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art had acquired the complete archives of New York–based photographer Diane Arbus, it was reported Dec. 18. Arbus, known largely for her images of freaks and social outcasts, had acquired a legendary reputation since her 1971 suicide at age 48. The museum in 1994 had acquired the archives of a somewhat older major U.S. photographer, Walker Evans, who died in 1975. [See p. 520E3; 1975, p. 268C3] The three surviving members of the British rock quartet Led Zeppelin Dec. 10 in London’s O2 Arena reunited for their first full-length performance since the 1980 death of the group’s drummer, John Bonham, at age 32. The concert, which was attended by about 20,000 people from around the world, was billed as a tribute to FACTS ON FILE

Atlantic Records cofounder Ahmet Ertegun, who died in 2006. The concert reunited lead singer Robert Plant, 59, guitarist Jimmy Page, 63, and bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, 61; filling in on drums was Bonham’s son, Jason Bonham, 40. [See 2006, p. 988D3; 1980, p. 755C2] Figurative painter R.B. Kitaj, who in October had been found dead at his Los Angeles home a week before his 75th birthday, had committed suicide by suffocating himself with a plastic bag, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Dec. 4. Kitaj, an American, had risen to fame in Britain, where he lived for decades. [See p. 708C3] The memoirs of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, (D, Mass.), 75, the youngest and last surviving brother of the Kennedy political clan, had been acquired by an imprint of Hachette Book Group USA for what publishing industry insiders said was more than $8 million, it was reported Nov. 27. The book was tentatively set to be published in 2010. [See 2006, p. 740G3] Museum official Lisa Dennison, 54, July 30 abruptly resigned as director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s flagship art museum in New York City, after less than two years on the job and 29 years with the museum. She quit in order to join a team of senior executives focusing on international business development at auction house Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. She began her new job in September. [See 2005, p. 828G1] Singer Melanie Brown, 32, who had performed as “Scary Spice” in the British pop music group the Spice Girls, June 21 announced that genetic testing performed June 11 had confirmed that comedian and actor Eddie Murphy was the father of Angel Iris Murphy Brown, the baby daughter she had given birth to on April 3. Murphy, 46, had briefly dated Brown in 2006. [See pp. 135D1, 39A1] The marriage of pop singer Whitney Houston and rhythm and blues singer Bobby Brown April 24 officially ended in divorce, six months after Houston, 43, had filed for divorce in Orange County, Calif., citing irreconcilable differences. She and Brown, 38, had been married since 1992. The judge in the case awarded Houston custody of the couple’s teenage daughter. [See 2004, p. 1098F2] „

O B I T UA R I E S BHUTTO, Benazir, 54, Pakistani opposition leader and twice-serving prime minister, having held the post from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996; born June 21, 1953, in Karachi, Pakistan; her father was Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was executed in 1979; assassinated Dec. 27 at a political rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. [See p. 857A1; 2004, p. 1082G2–A3; Indexes 1984–2003, 1977–81] BOLIN, Bert Richard Johannes, 82, Swedish climatologist who cofounded the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988 and served as its first chairman until 1998; the group shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore; born May 15, 1925, in Nykoping, Sweden; died Dec. 30 at a hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, of stomach cancer. [See p. 690B2, G2] BRACEWELL, Ronald Newbold, 86, Australianborn radio astronomer, mathematician and physicist who taught at Stanford University for many years; he developed mathematical techniques for producing im-

December 31, 2007

ages with radio telescopes that contributed to the development of such medical diagnostic techniques as computerized axial tomography (CAT) scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); born July 22, 1921, in Sydney; died Aug. 12 at his home in Stanford, Calif., of a heart attack. CORBITT, Ted (Theodore), 88, distance runner who pioneered ultramarathon running (races exceeding the 26-mile (42 km) length of the marathon) in the U.S. and was one of the few elite African American distance runners of his era; born Jan. 31, 1919, in Dunbarton, S.C.; died Dec. 12 at a hospital in Houston, Texas, of respiratory complications; he had been battling cancer in recent years. [See 1955, p. 284E1; 1954, p. 168D2] CRISP, Mary Dent, 83, cochair of the Republican National Committee, 1977–80, whose support for women’s rights and abortion rights led to her losing her job in 1980, just before the party nominated Ronald Reagan as its presidential candidate; she continued to support abortion rights as a founding member of the Republican National Coalition for Choice; born Nov. 5, 1923, in Allentown, Pa.; died March 24 at her home in Phoenix, Ariz. [See 1992, pp. 586F2, 424D3; 1980, pp. 549F2, 506E2, 480D3] DENT Sr., Harry Shuler, 77, Republican political operative who formulated the “Southern strategy” that not only allowed Richard Nixon to win the 1968 presidential election but also set the stage for the South becoming a Republican, and no longer a Democratic, stronghold; before teaming up with Nixon, he was a longtime aide to Sen. Strom Thurmond (S.C.), who switched parties to become a Republican in 1964; during Nixon’s first term, he served as special White House counsel to the president; after Nixon’s 1972 reelection, he was named general counsel to the Republican National Committee; he was never implicated in the Watergate scandal that drove Nixon out of office in 1974, but pleaded guilty in late 1974 to a misdemeanor for his role in a 1970 Nixon fund-rasing operation that preceded Watergate, and was put on one month’s unsupervised probation; born Feb. 21, 1930, in St. Matthews, S.C.; died Sept. 28 at his home in Columbia, S.C., from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. [See 1977, p. 577C3; 1974, pp. 1044A2, 144A3; Indexes 1973, 1970] FIELDS, Freddie (born Fred Feldman), 84, powerful Hollywood talent agent during the 1960s and 1970s, as founder (1960), with David Begelman, of Creative Management Associates (CMA); their clients included such stars as Judy Garland, Barbara Streisand, Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Steve McQueen; in 1975, CMA merged with the International Famous Agency to form International Creative Management (ICM), one of the leading talent agencies in the world; Fields later headed production at MGM and United Artists studios; from 1957 to 1975, he was married to actress Polly Bergen; born July 12, 1923, in Ferndale, N.Y.; died Dec. 11 at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., of lung cancer. [See 1995, p. 588G2; 1984, p. 585D3; Indexes 1983, 1981, 1956] GRACQ, Julien (born Louis Poirier), 97, reclusive French novelist, essayist and playwright; opposed in principle to literary prizes, he turned down France’s prestigious Goncourt Prize in 1951, after it was awarded to him for his novel Le rivage des Syrtes (translated into English as The Opposing Shore); born July 27, 1910, in St.-Florent-le-Vieil, France; died Dec. 22 in Angers, France, apparently from complications of internal bleeding. [See 1951, p. 399F] KIDD, Michael (born Milton Greenwald), 92, theater and film choreographer, and occasional stage and film director; after a promising start as a ballet dancer, he had immediate success as a Broadway choreographer with the musical Finian’s Rainbow (1947), which that year brought him the first of his five Tony Awards; the others were for Guys and Dolls (awarded in 1951), Can-Can (1954), Li’l Abner (1957) and Destry Rides Again (1960); he also choreographed such Hollywood musicals as The Band Wagon (1953) and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and in 1997 won an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement; born Aug. 12, 1915, in New York City; died Dec. 23 at his home in Los Angeles, of cancer. [See 1997, p. 220C2; 1993, p. 455F2; Indexes 1980, 1973, 1970, 1963–64, 1955–60, 1953, 1950, 1948] KING, Dame Thea, 81, British clarinetist and music educator; she did much to promote 20th-century British music, but also recorded a substantial number of lesser-known 18th- and 19th-century works; she was named a dame of the British Empire in 2001; born Dec. 26, 1925, in Hitchin, England; died June 26 in London; no cause of death was reported. KIRKWOOD, Pat(ricia), 86, British actress known for her work in musical theater; one of the highlights of her career, whose heyday was in the 1950s, was her

starring role in Noel Coward’s show Ace of Clubs (1950), written especially for her; in 1954, she became the first actress to star in her own British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) television series; she denied persistent rumors of an affair with Prince Philip in the 1940s; born Feb. 24, 1921, in Manchester, England; died Dec. 25 in Ilkley, England; she had been battling Alzheimer’s disease and had contracted a chest infection.

A

LACERDA, (Carlos) Alberto (Portugal Correia) de, 78, reclusive Portuguese poet who lived in Lon-

don for many years, although he never became a British citizen; his highly idiosyncratic work ranged from classical sonnets to surrealist and minimalist verse; it appeared in a dozen volumes between 1951 and 2001; born Sept. 20, 1928, in Lourenco Marques, in what was then the Portuguese African colony of Mozambique; found dead Aug. 27 in his London apartment; he apparently died of a heart attack or a stroke.

B

LORSCHEIDER, Cardinal Aloisio Leo Arlindo,

83, Brazilian Roman Catholic prelate, made a cardinal in 1976, who was a major figure in the Catholic Church’s resistance to the 1964–85 Brazilian military regime and a leading defender of human rights; in 1994, he was one of 13 human-rights monitors held hostage for 20 hours by prisoners trying to escape from a jail in Fortaleza, Brazil, whose archbishop he was at the time; born Oct. 8, 1924, in Porto Alegre, Brazil; died Dec. 23 at a Porto Alegre hospital where he was being treated for a heart ailment. [See 1994, p. 288E1; 1976, p. 336C2; Indexes 1973–75] MENDOZA, Lydia, 91, early and longtime star of Tejano (Mexican American) music who came to be known as the “lark of the border”; she was honored with a National Medal of Arts in 1999; born May 21, 1916, in Houston, Texas; died Dec. 20 at a hospital in San Antonio, Texas. from complications of a fall; she had suffered a series of strokes since the late 1980s. [See 1999, p. 716G1]

C

MIDDLEBROOK, Diane Wood (born Helen Diane

Wood), 68, literary scholar who taught at Stanford University for many years and chronicled the turbulent life of Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Anne Sexton, a 1974 suicide, in Anne Sexton: A Biography (1991); the book, which became a best-seller, stirred controversy because it drew upon hundreds of hours of audiotapes of Sexton’s sessions with a psychiatrist; Middlebrook, who was a poet herself, also examined the troubled relationship of poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath in her 2003 book Her Husband: Hughes and Plath—A Marriage; since 1985, she had been married to chemist Carl Djerassi, who synthesized the first oral contraceptive; born April 16, 1939, in Pocatello, Idaho; died Dec. 15 at a hospital in San Francisco, Calif., of cancer. [See 1998, p. 804G2; 1974, p. 884D3] MORGAN, Frank, 73, jazz saxophonist known for his mastery of the bebop style; a protege of saxophonist Charlie Parker, he recorded his first album in 1955, the year Parker died; like Parker, he became a heroin addict, and spent many years in prison, serving time for robbery as well as drug possession; his second album as a leader, Easy Living, did not come out until 1985, after he got out of prison for good; it was the first of seven albums he was to record for the California jazz label Contemporary; born Dec. 23, 1933, in Minneapolis, Minn.; died Dec. 14 in Minneapolis, of colon cancer; in recent years, he had also suffered a stroke and had battled kidney failure. [See 1955, p. 87D3]

D

E

MORRISSEAU, Norval (born Jean-Baptiste Norman Henry Morrisseau), 75, Canadian painter, of

Ojibwa ancestry, who was one of the first aboriginal artists to achieve mainstream recognition; also known as Copper Thunderbird, he originated a style of painting with X-ray-like features, in which skeletal elements and internal organs were visible in images of both animals and people; in 2006, he became the first native artist to have a solo show at the National Gallery of Canada; born March 14, 1932, near Beardmore, Ontario; died Dec. 4 at a hospital in Toronto, Ontario, from complications of Parkinson’s disease. NASHER, Raymond D., 85, Dallas, Texas–based banker and real estate developer who, with his wife, amassed a world-class collection of modern and contemporary sculpture and built a Dallas museum to house it, the Nasher Sculpture Center, which opened in 2003; born Oct. 26, 1921, in Boston, Mass.; died March 16 in a Dallas hospital, after taking sick on an airplane on his way home from a business trip. [See 2003, p. 1105E2] PETERSON, Oscar Emmanuel, 82, Canadian jazz pianist known for his technical brilliance and improvisational skills; after making a noteworthy U.S. debut at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in 1949, he pursued an international career but kept living in Canada; a prolific recording artist, he won a total of eight Grammy Awards; his preferred format was the trio; perhaps his

907

F

G

BEST SELLER LISTS

A

Books

Television

Publishers Weekly Dec. 31 listed the following hardback and paperback best sellers [See p. 816A1]:

Top-Rated Programs. The following were the most-watched prime-time nation-

Fiction Hardback 1. Double Cross, by James Patterson (Little, Brown) 2. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) 3. For One More Day, by Mitch Albom (Hyperion) 4. T Is for Trespass, by Sue Grafton (Putnam) 5. The Darkest Evening of the Year, by Dean Koontz (Bantam)

B

C

General Hardback 1. I Am America (And So Can You!), by Stephen Colbert (Grand Central) 2. The Dangerous Book for Boys, by Conn and Hal Iggulden (Collins) 3. The Daring Book for Girls, by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz (Collins) 4. You: Staying Young: The Owner’s Manual to Extending Your Warranty, by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. (Free Press) 5. Boom! Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the ’60s and Today, by Tom Brokaw (Random House) Mass Market Paperback 1. The Innocent Man, by John Grisham (Dell) 2. Blood Brothers, by Nora Roberts (Jove) 3. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson (Tor) 4. Next, by Michael Crichton (Harper) 5. Cross, by James Patterson (Grand Central)

Music Best-Selling Singles and Albums. Billboard magazine in its Dec. 22 issue list-

ed the five most popular singles (as determined by air play and sales) and the five best-selling albums in the U.S. as the following [See p. 816C1]:

D

Singles 1. “No One,” Alicia Keys (MBK/J/RMG) 2. “Low,” Flo Rida featuring T-Pain (Poe Boy/Atlantic) 3. “Apologize,” Timbaland featuring OneRepublic (Mosley/Blackground/ Interscope) 4. “Kiss Kiss,” Chris Brown featuring T-Pain (Jive/Zomba) 5. “Clumsy,” Fergie (will.i.am/A&M/Interscope) Albums

E

F

G

1. Noel, Josh Groban (143/Reprise/Warner Bros.) 2. As I Am, Alicia Keys (MBK/J/RMG) 3. Long Road Out of Eden, Eagles (ERC) 4. Now 26, Various Artists (EMI/Sony BMG Strategic Marketing Group/Universal/Zomba/Capitol) 5. Christmas Song, Mannheim Steamroller (American Gramaphone) best-known such group, which lasted from 1953 to 1958, included guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist Ray Brown; they reunited in 1990 for a two-date gig at New York’s Blue Note club, which gave rise to four recordings; in 1993, while performing at the Blue Note, he suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, although he resumed performing in 1995; in 2005, he became the first living Canadian to be depicted on a Canadian postage stamp; born Aug. 15, 1925, in Montreal, Quebec; died Dec. 23 at his home in Mississauga, Ontario, outside Toronto, of kidney failure. [See 2002, p. 512F1; 1994, p. 420F3; Indexes 1978–80, 1975] RADKE-Yarrow, Marian, 89, child psychologist who did a pioneering longitudinal study (1979–2002) of children whose mothers suffered from various forms of depression; she was chief of the developmental psychology laboratory at the National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health, from 1974 to 1995; born March 2, 1918, in Horicon, Wis.; died May 19 at her home in Bethesda, Md., of leukemia. REESE, Chip (David Edward), 56, three-time World Series of Poker champion, most recently in 2006; he was estimated to have won $50 million in private, high-stakes poker games, besides his official tournament earnings of about $3 million; born March 28, 1951, in Centerville, Ohio; died Dec. 4 at his home in Las Vegas, Nev., of an apparent heart attack after having been diagnosed with pneumonia. SOTTSASS, Ettore, 90, Italian industrial designer; while working as a design consultant for Olivetti

908

al television shows Dec. 3–31 as determined by A.C. Nielsen Co. (Series marked with an asterisk * had at least one other episode during the period that outranked some of the other programs listed.) Figures in parentheses are rating points; each point represents 1% of the 110.2 million television households in the U.S. [See p. 816A2]:

1. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS), Dec. 13 (12.5)* 2. “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC), Dec. 6 (11.6) 3. “60 Minutes” (CBS), Dec. 9 (10.6) 4. “Without a Trace” (CBS), Dec. 13 (10.0) 5. “Sunday Night Football” (NBC), Dec. 30 (9.7)

Films Top-Grossing Films. The following were the top-grossing films in the U.S. for the week of Dec. 21–27 according to Variety. Figures in parentheses were each film’s cumulative domestic box-office total and number of weeks in release to date. Information on cast and director is included when a film first appears on the list. [See p. 816B2]:

1. National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Walt Disney ($88.4 million, 1) Directed by Jon Turteltaub. With Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Ed Harris, Helen Mirren and Justin Bartha. 2. I Am Legend, Warner Bros. ($167.1 million, 2) Directed by Francis Lawrence. With Will Smith, Alice Braga, Dash Mihok, Salli Richardson-Whitfield and Charlie Tahan. 3. Alvin and the Chipmunks, 20th Century Fox ($112.4 million, 2) Directed by Tim Hill. With Jason Lee, Cameron Richardson, Jane Lynch, David Cross and Justin Long. 4. Charlie Wilson’s War, Universal ($22.7 million, 1) Directed by Mike Nichols. With Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Shiri Appleby. 5. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, DreamWorks/Paramount ($18.7 million, 1) Directed by Tim Burton. With Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall. 6. P.S. I Love You, Warner Bros. ($14.3 million, 1) Directed by Richard LaGravenese. With Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Lisa Kudrow, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Gina Gershon. 7. Juno, Fox Searchlight ($15.4 million, 3) Directed by Jason Reitman. With Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Olivia Thirlby, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. 8. Enchanted, Walt Disney ($104.1 million, 5) [See p. 816B2] 9. The Golden Compass, New Line ($54.1 million, 3) Directed by Chris Weitz. With Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott and Ian McShane. 10. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Sony ($8.6 million, 1) Directed by Jake Kasdan. With John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Kristen Wiig, Tim Meadows and Raymond J. Barry.

SpA, he created that company’s iconic red typewriter, introduced in 1969; in the 1980s, he was the leading figure of the Milan, Italy–based Memphis Group, which pioneered postmodernism in design, with colorful furniture and other spirited objects; born Sept. 14, 1917, in Innsbruck, Austria; died Dec. 31 at his Milan home, after contracting influenza. STRAUSS, Bill (William Arthur), 60, one of the founders (1981) of the Washington, D.C.–based singing satirical group the Capital Steps, known for its skewering of politicians to the tunes of popular songs; he wrote many of the group’s lyrics himself; born Feb. 5, 1947, in Chicago; died Dec. 18 at his home in McLean, Va., after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. [See 1993, p. 228C3] VALDES, Carlos, 81, Cuban conga drummer, resident in the U.S. since the early 1950s, who performed and recorded with some of the leading figures in jazz and Latin music; known as “Patato” (Cuban slang for someone very short), he was behind such innovations as playing four or more drums at a time to achieve a wider tonal range and using a key to tune the drums instead of heating their skins with a flame; born Nov. 4, 1926, in Havana; died Dec. 4 at a hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, of respiratory failure; he had become ill on his way back home to New York City after having performed at a San Francisco, Calif., jazz festival. WHEELIS, Allen, 91, psychiatrist, specializing in psychoanalysis and long based in San Francisco, Calif., who was also a novelist and memoirist; among his novels was The Doctor of Desire (1987), which ex-

plored the psychodynamics of intimate relationships; his memoirs included The Listener: A Psychoanalyst Examines His Life (1999); born Oct. 23, 1915, in Marion, La.; died June 14 in a San Francisco hospital, after back surgery. WITHERS, Ernest Columbus, 85, photographer who documented more than six decades of African American history in hundreds of thousands of images; many of them reflected the turbulence of the civil rights era, but he also captured the liveliness of Memphis, Tenn.’s blues music scene and the waning years of Negro League baseball; born Aug. 7, 1922, in Memphis; died Oct. 15 at a Memphis hospital, from complications of a stroke. WOLFSON, Louis Elwood, 95, industrialist, financier and race horse owner; his business career thrived from the 1940s to the early 1960s, but in the late 1960s he served nine months in prison for selling unregistered stocks—an event linked to the 1969 resignation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, who had accepted payments from Wolfson and became the only Supreme Court justice in modern times to have quit under public pressure; one of his horses, Affirmed, won U.S. thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown in 1978, the last horse to do so; born Jan. 28, 1912, in St., Louis, Mo.; died Dec. 30 at his home in Bal Harbour, Fla.; he had been battling Alzheimer’s disease and colon cancer. [See 1979, p. 876B3; 1978, pp. 538G3–539A2; Indexes 1972, 1966–70, 1963–64, 1954–58] „

December 31, 2007